Chapter 36:
The cloaked shape shifter pulled on the rope and the gates opened. Suddenly he disappeared and only the dark cloak stayed back. It fell softly on the ground.
"Wait!" Joshua yelled after him. "And how are we now supposed to get out of here? I mean-"
He was cut off by a loud noise. It came out of the dark door ways. At first a muzzle with sharp fangs appeared out of the shadows. The head and the rest followed. It looked like an animal. But no one of the apostles, the Harvenheit sisters and Chrno had ever seen such an animal. It was a beast on four paws. It had short fur as well and a short tail. The legs were extremely thin and long. The creature snarled. By doing so it called its companions.
Other monsters stepped out of the dark door ways. Every one looked different. Some of them had some remaining human features.
Some of the girls gasped.
"And what shall we do now? Fight them all?" Sathella asked and held up three jewels between her fingers.
"I don't know if that would be such a smart idea…" Chrno shook his head and narrowed his eyes. "Does anyone of you know how to fight?" He addressed on the apostles.
Only Jack and Joshua had some little experiences with weapons. The other ones were either too young or they hadn't had any lessons which showed them how to defend themselves.
"Alright." Chrno nodded. "Sathella, Florette? Can you give us a little lead? We need to bring those who can't defend themselves to a safe place."
The first one attacked and Chrno jumped quickly aside. He rammed his word in the monster's shoulder and it let out a scream. It wasn't dead though.
The jewel witches nodded and summoned their strongest creatures. Sathella's was a knight in white armour. Florette's was a female, as well with armour. Together they tried to keep the distance between the faked devils and the apostles.
"Good. Now come!" Rosette hissed to the teenager and kids next to her. Immediately they left the big hall through the door they had used to come in. The apostles ran through the corridor. Only Jack and Chrno remained at the door. They called the two sisters and closed the door directly after the two women were out of the room with the monsters. All four together blocked the door as the monsters tried to jump against it. They managed to lock it up and Florette built a barrier above the door. But that wouldn't hold long. They had to hurry up.
After the door was safe they headed to the others again.
Panting they came to stop.
Nobody spoke. They all knew that they had to find a way out. But the temple was as big as a labyrinth. And well, full of dangerous monsters well.
Just like on command one of the creatures turned around a corner.
The teenagers noticed it too late. It jumped towards Rosette. Fortunately she dodged away just in time. Instead of her it was Jack who was hit. The poor boy screamed as he felt the pain which was cause by the monster's claws.
One strike with Sathella's jewel knight and it let go of him. It was thrown against the wall. Then it winced because it was hurt and fled away.
"Oh, shit." Chrno cursed and let out some various other curses in his own language. He hurried over to Jack who was now surrounded by all.
The monster's claws had hit him directly at the chest. Four deep furrows marked the points where the claws had landed. Warm red blood was coming out of them. The metallic scent of blood hit Chrno's sensitive nose hard. It smelled disgusting.
"Hurry up! Get something to bandage him!" Rosette called loudly. "Press your hands on the wounds and stop the bleeding, damnit!" Now she nearly cried. She had never felt as bad as now. Jack was wounded badly and that only because of her. Only because she had dodged, he was hurt now. It even looked like he wouldn't survive that…
Jack moaned and winced.
"I don't wanna die…" He wailed croakily.
"Shhh. You're not gonna die…" Rosette said softly and stroke over his hair.
"You… that's all because of you!" He began to yell angrily. "Only because of you I'm hurt now!" The boy sat straight up and caught her hand. He turned it around and glared at the stigmata. "You're blood is telling me… You're scent is telling me everything." He hissed to her and beat Azmaria away as she tried to push him down again. "You're my enemy."
"ROZETTO! GO AWAY FROM HIM!" Chrno shouted. He took her with his arm around her waist and pulled her away before Jack's now clawed hand could scratch her. The others screamed and backed away.
Jack repeated again that she was his enemy and stood on his feet. His blood was dripping down. The eyes were empty. Suddenly his mouth shifted into a crooked smirk. He bared his now long fangs.
"Oh no! The guy from earlier was right! Everyone who gets hurt by these monsters will transform into a monster as well! Get away!" Sathella yelled and let her knight point on him. Meanwhile Joshua and Chrno dragged the other away from Jack in a safe distance.
The hurt boy roared in laughter for some unknown reason. Then his head fell down on his chest and he screamed. Two dark red wings came out of his back. The same happened with two horns on each side of his head. The claws and fangs grew longer.
"He can't be saved anymore!" Sathella shouted and gave the command to kill him to the knight. The knight lifted his jewel sword, but suddenly he exploded. The same happened to Florette.
Shocked Sathella's eyes widened in fear. "Oh no. Why is it just now that the power is empty?" She shrieked spun around and joined the other group. "Sorry. We have to recover first. We can't use the jewels until then." Florette apologized.
Chrno starred at the Jack-monster. Something was different here. He was stronger than all other faked devils. His aura told him. Perhaps it was because he had been an apostle? In any case, one attack of him could be deadly for the others.
"Go." He hissed to the people behind him and stepped forward.
"What?" Rosette burst out. "Do you wanna fight him alone?"
"Alone I have a better chance to win. And if I do, well then you have at least more time." He looked over his shoulder and smiled sadly. "Don't worry. I know exactly what I am doing."
"Fine. If you wanna sacrifice yourself." Sathella shrugged her shoulders and turned around to leave.
Hesitating the others followed. They started running through the corridors. Joshua and Azmaria had to drag Rosette with them because she refused to leave Chrno alone.
"How could you just leave him there?" She screamed at Sathella as she calmed down a little. Well, if you can call that 'calm down'…
"I don't know. But for some reason I trust him. I think he'll find a way to survive it. I have no doubts." She answered her honestly.
Chrno waited until the others were out of sight. He turned around to face his enemy. Jack was just examining his new body. He was taller now and more muscular.
He lifted his head and smirked madly. "It feels good. This power feels good." He whispered. His eyes glowed and she grumbled at Chrno. He took a deep breath. "You are not what you pretend to be." He snarled. "I can sense it… I can sense the demon in you. I'd like to fight with you. But not now. At first I'm killing this Magdalene bitch who did this to me." He let out a terrible sound and spread his wings to full size.
'Holy hell! He's lost his entire mind!' Chrno thought. "You will not get her without killing me." The purple head said sternly. Again he cursed this damn human form. He wondered how many astral he had left… Perhaps it would be enough to change? No, that was too dangerous. If he ran out of astral during the fight, the creature would have free way to kill Rosette. Willy-nilly he had to stay in his weak human form.
A loud CLING was heard as claws hit the sword.
Silently the Harvenheit sisters and the six remaining apostles followed the various corridors. Suddenly there was again an earthquake. Gaps appeared in the stones which built the floor and the walls. One crack in the wall was really big and dust fell from its contours. Two claws widened the gap.
The monsters which had been locked in the hall had been able to escape. Now they were looking for the humans. This was one of the monsters. It crawled trough the new gate to the corridor.
Startled the group of people starred at it.
"Oh no! Why just now!" Sathella shrieked. "We still don't have enough power to summon the jewels!"
They turned around and ran away in the direction they had come from. Shocked they had to realize that the temple was teeming with faked devils. They were everywhere and soon they were all after the apostles and the others.
Suddenly they caught in a dead end. Fortunately it would take some minutes until the monsters had found them. Protectively Sathella and Florette stood in front of the others.
"I really haven't expected this to be that dangerous!" Sathella complained to the others.
Shaking Rosette put her right hand on Sathella's shoulder.
"I'm sorry." The blonde whispered. "I convinced you to come here. And it's me these monsters want." She didn't look in the redhead's face. She kept her eyes on the floor. "Like always I'm the bad luck magnet." The girl chuckled sadly. "I can no longer stand that burden. You fought for me while I did nothing. It's time to change that." She withdrew her hand away from the older one's shoulder and took a deep breath.
"Rosette? What do you mean by that?" Joshua asked worried and pulled on his sister's arm to turn her around. The look in her eyes was creepily calm. "What are you up to?" He looked at her and narrowed his eyes.
"Life is not always lucky. Sometimes you have to fight to reach your goal. Running away is not the solution." Rosette smiled sadly and walked away from them.
The first monsters had found them. They growled loudly ran towards Rosette. The one which was the closest to her jumped towards her.
There was only a flash of white and red. Rosette swirled around. Two streams of blood from the stigmata hit the demon. It jumped back and screamed as it was burned.
"As I thought." Rosette took some steps back. "The stigmata blood is burning them." She smirked. A power in her was rising. It felt strange, but it felt good. It was simply overwhelming. She didn't know what she was doing as she lifted her arms. Two streams of blood poured down from her wrists. In the air the two streams united. It transformed into a weapon. A long staff was the handle. On one end there was a big double-axe. It was decorated with some different signs and symbols. Additional it looked like it was made of red metal. To the others the axe looked heavy. They probably wondered how Rosette was even able to lift it with only one hand. But to Rosette it was as light as a feather. With no problems she swung it at the next monster and it. It was a clean cut through its middle.
The blonde let her body do what it wanted. She had no control. The only thing she could do was stopping it, but then she would surely be killed. So she obeyed the power which led her.
Chrno stopped startled. What was going on there? Just one second ago everything had been normal… well, if you could call these circumstances normal… But suddenly anything had changed. What had happened there?
A hard punch hit him and he stumbled back. Crap. He should have paid attention to his enemy who just grinned at him widely.
"You're getting disturbed too easily. Does she really mean so much to you?" The devil Jack smirked. "Magdalene won't survive that anyways. And your almost dead too."
Chrno growled threatening. "Don't dare to hurt her. And we'll see who's almost dead here."
He tightened the grip around the handle of his sword and swung it.
AN: AH, I had so many problems writing the damn fight ." and it's still going on! But Rosette has now a blood red double-axe XD How do you think about that? I thought it would be a good idea. That brings a little change.