AN: MariamTiarko asked me the following: What happened to Aion and is he fighting with DeFaux? The answer: Not yet. DeFaux declared war on them, yes, but that does NOT mean that the fight starts immediately. It takes time to collect and mobilize the army. So the Southern county will join the war on the human's side.
So, all of you have been good girls and reviewed quickly, so you get already the next chapter.
Chapter 37:
Rosette followed her new instincts. The red double axe flew through the air and beheaded a faked demon. The blonde was surprised by her own strength and powers. She had never really fought before, but now it seemed that she knew exactly what to do. It felt good. This power felt good. But her mind told her that she wasn't allowed to let it take over the entire control. She didn't know what would happen if this part of her was taking over anything. Rosette didn't want to lose herself. She had to take some breaks. Mostly she did that when she ran along the corridor with the others.
They were out of the dead end now. The monsters still kept attacking them. The amount of them rose, but it was decimated by the blood axe. It wouldn't take a long time until she had beaten all of them.
But Rosette was also worried about Chrno. He stayed away too long. What was wrong with him? Actually the fight shouldn't take him too long. What was wrong with him?
Fck! What was wrong with that damn guy? Couldn't he just die? By now Chrno had tried nearly anything to kill him! He had stabbed him, he had cut his throat, he had even tried to cut his legs and arms off, but they grew again within a second! And Jack's other wounds were healing extremely fast. It had no use to hurt him!
And meanwhile Chrno was covered with scratches, bruises and little cuts. Plus he had the feeling that now his left wrist was even sprained. Crap, it was just the hand he held the sword with. He threw the sword in his other hand and let it swirl around the hand one time.
Jack smirked. "My my… and I haven't even begun yet. And now look at you." He did a faked worried face. "And there I thought it would be different with you. I thought you were stronger because I smelled a demon. But I guess I was wrong."
His sharp claw was blocked by Chrno's word. Fortunately the sword was made of a special demonic material or else it would have broken a long time ago. The purple head pushed him away and jumped back. Jack attacked with his other claw.
Chrno dodged. He aimed and hit directly into his stomach. Jack moaned and beat him away with the right arm.
Chrno hit the ground hard. Now he knelt on the floor leaning on one hand. With the other hand he clutched the deep cut over his chest. He had lost his sword too. It was still sticking in the monster's stomach. Jack laughed loudly and drew it out. The faked devil held the sword up and looked at it. "How nice. That sword is quite good, I must say… Let's see what it can do."
"Bastard." Chrno snarled threatening. He bared his fangs and his instincts screamed to him to shift into his demon form, but he wasn't allowed to! He didn't have much astral left! He needed ten times more astral in his demon form than in his human form. The astral that was enough for one day human form was only enough for five perhaps ten minutes!
Jack lifted his arm with the weapon to strike.
Rosette sighed and brushed the sweat on her forehead away with her sleeve.
"Phew. That seemed to be the last one for now." She said relieved. There were no traces, no sounds and nothing else of a monster. For now Rosette could rest a little. And perhaps they would find the exit too.
But it was too early to be happy. Loud footsteps were heard in the corridor to their left. Rosette stood in front of the other's again. She couldn't see anyone though. The corridor went around a corner. The only thing she saw was a black shadow on the wall.
"Chrno?" She called hopefully. It was time for him to return, damnit!
Mad laughter came from behind the corner. Jack stepped into the corridor. "Nearly. Take a second guess, my dear." He smirked disgustingly.
"Jack." She whispered in shock.
"This time you're right, Magdalene." The smirk grew wider. "I hope you're more fun than your little friend."
Rosette gasped and stared at him. In one hand he held Chrno's blood covered sword. His arm was covered with blood too. The clothes were ribbed on some parts, but he had no wounds. The blood on his hands wasn't his.
"No! What did you do to him?" Rosette shrieked, but the answer was obvious.
Jack snorted and licked one of the blooded hands. "Let's play, Magdalene." He stretched out his claws and jumped to them. Rosette dodged it with her axe and motioned something to Sathella.
The redhead's eyes widened and she took her sister and the apostles to bring them to a safer place. It was looking like a big fat fight would start now and she didn't want them to be in the middle of it.
Jack attacked Rosette again. Why was he so damn strong? And why hadn't Chrno used his demonic powers to defeat him? Oh yeah right… too less astral. Rosette took a quick glance on the pocket watch. It was still ticking. That meant that he was still alive, didn't it? But it nearly showed 12 o'clock. Soon his entire astral would be empty.
Jack attacked again. This time even harder than last time.
The girl fell backwards. Before she hit the ground she felt a pain shooting through her left side and screamed loudly. Jack had hit her there. The punch threw her far away directly into the wall. The blonde collided with it and fell on the ground.
ba-dom
Ba-Dom
Ba-DOM
Chrno felt how his heart hammered against his chest. Blood was pumped rapidly into his muscles. He leaned against the wall. The poor boy wasn't even able to clutch his wounds. He did not now where they ended or where new ones began. There was already a big puddle of blood around him. Jack had left him here to die a slow and painful death.
Chrno took a deep breath. He just had to rest some minutes. Then anything would be okay again, wasn't it? He shifted in his position and winced as the pain shot through him again. No, it wouldn't be okay. Not without astral.
Suddenly his muscles strained. His ears pricked up and then he heard her scream. No, he couldn't wait anymore. Even if it meant his death, he would try to save Rosette.
He concentrated and drew new astral so he was able to change. To his surprise it felt different now. It felt as if he had enough astral now. Where did it come from? He didn't mind now. He wanted to rescue her.
"No! Rosette!" Joshua screamed, but he was held back by Sathella.
"We'll take care of him. We are not allowed to lose the princess and the prince on only one day." Florette said and prepared to fight.
Jack was coming closer to the unconscious Rosette. Suddenly the blonde girl screamed loudly. A big black-redish pentagram appeared around her. Jack jumped back and landed on hands and feet. He hissed at her. That was an unexpected situation to him. He snarled and came closer again.
Sathella and Florette were just about to set their jewel creatures as they heard a loud growl. It was deep and threatening.
It gave Sathella the creep.
A black winged creature jumped out of the corridor jack had come from. It jumped on jack's back and dug its claws into him.
Jack screamed and tried to pull him down. The one with the dark wings let go of him and jumped next to him. With an aimed kick he kicked Jack directly into the face breaking his jaw. Jack stumbled and fell.
Meanwhile the new one was already next to Rosette and picked her up. Before they were hit by Jack's next attack they were already gone. Suddenly they appeared again next to Joshua. He handed Rosette to her brother.
"Take good care of her." Chrno growled and turned to Jack again. "And you shut up." He said coldly and shot an energy ball at him. It hit its target, plus it destroyed the wall. The hole in the wall formed a way outside. Dim morning light was falling through it.
"You'll wait outside." Chrno commanded. He was still really pissed. "I'll go and take care of the last monsters. They're not allowed to get outta here."
"B-but Rosette killed all." Azmaria winced.
"No there are more. I can sense them." He bared his fangs and snarled. His demon blood was taking over fully. Was that good or bad? Well, in a situation like this it was good. It saved him and the others from dying. But therefore the others had to stay away from him. In this other mode he would kill everyone standing in his way. He could not guarantee that he would not kill one of them. It was safer for them to stay outside.
Frightened the apostles and the Harvenheit sisters looked at him. The only one who didn't look afraid was Sheda. She looked at him with big eyes and admired the huge wings and the bone tail.
Joshua got the control over himself again. "Let's go then." He said and walked out. The others followed. Phew. They were out of way now. Chrno closed his eyes. As he opened them again they had changed. He bared his fangs. It nearly looked like a smirk. Then he went to hunt.
Rosette woke up after ten minutes. She asked what happened and how they had gotten out of the temple. The others explained it to her.
"He must have been infected with this curse!" Sathella suggested and crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"What?" Rosette asked weary. "No. He IS a demon and he has ever been one." She replied.
Joshua nodded confirming. "She says the truth."
"What?" The others except for Azmaria and Sheda (who knew it) screamed.
Rosette got on her feet. Her wounds didn't hurt so much anymore. They still hurt, but not as much as at the beginning. "Listen. I'll go inside again to help him. He's right. There are lots of more demons and I can feel them too. I should help him."
The others wanted to stop her, but her brain switched to stubborn again. She entered the temple through the hole in the wall and followed her feeling. It would lead her to the place where Chrno was. She was now deep within the temple again. Suddenly there was one more earthquake. The floor cracked up. Liquid lava streamed out of it. Rosette shrieked. There was a volcano underneath! Rosette ran away from the gaps in the floor. She took another way. The blonde had to do that more often because there were lots of these gaps. Finally she found Chrno and the rest of the faked devils.
Rosette's body went numb. Like frozen she stopped midstep. The girl couldn't believe what she had seen… She had seen Chrno kill the monsters. Well, most of them were already dead as she came, but nevertheless she had seen Chrno tearing at least four of them apart. Now the dead bodies lay on the floor. Everything was covered with blood and guts. The scenario looked terrible. One wall was destroyed as well. The floor one whole big mess of blood, guts, brains, muscles and bones. And in the middle of this mess Chrno. Never ever before Rosette had really been scared of him. He had always been gentle and nice to her. So there was no reason to fear him. Why should she? But now… now anything had changed… Was this the change the clairvoyante had told her about?
Terrified the blonde looked at the devil. His wings spread out to full size – some parts of them were even ribbed -, blood on his razor sharp claws and bone tail. Wounds and scratches covered his body as well. The girl couldn't tell anymore what his blood was and what wasn't. But all that, all the all that blood and demonic features, all that was nothing compared to his eyes. These eyes scared her the most. These eyes weren't Chrno's anymore. These ones were full of hatred, rage and… the desire to kill more… to take more lives.
With the fear written in her face Rosette backed away from him as he turned towards her. She backed away until she felt the cold hard bricks of the fall. Oh no, she was caught in a corner.
With more fear rising in her she saw that he was coming closer and closer – still with this look in his eyes. Then he was only one arm length away from her. He lifted his clawed hands.
Rosette closed her eyes tightly as he stroke. She felt blood hitting her face and her shoulder. To her relief it wasn't her own. The girl opened her eyes and realized that he had hit the last monster in this room. Like a bat it hung from the ceiling, just two head lengths away from her.
Chrno drew his claws out of it. At the same time he threw it to the other end of the hall. There was a smacking noise.
Rosette couldn't hold it back anymore. Warm tear began to roll down her cheek.
Shocked he widened his eyes. Rosette stood right in front of him and cried. Why did she cry? He didn't want her to… Who had made her to? Chrno wanted to touch her shoulder, wanted to comfort her. But as he reached out with his hand to do so, the poor girl screamed and beat his hand away.
"Don't touch me!" She shrieked while doing so.
Surprised Chrno drew his hand back.
"What's wrong with you?" he wanted to ask her, but the words never left his mouth.
Now she even began to cry harder. She clutched her shoulders and slid down at the wall. "Don't… don't touch me… please… don't... don't…" She winced.
Chrno wanted to touch her shoulder again, but she screamed one more time.
Then the devil realized the blood on his hand. As he looked around his heart seemed to stop. Was he responsible for this? Was this mess his fault? He couldn't remember… Why couldn't he remember? But no, no, he couldn't believe. Like Rosette before Chrno backed off and brought some distance between them. There he sunk to his knees. He put his hands on his head and pulled on his hair like he wanted to rib it off. Then he let out a terrible scream.
Rosette winced again to the time she heard that. She was sitting in the corner with her legs pulled up to her chest and her face was buried in her arms.
Chrno tried to clean himself up a bit. He brushed the blood away and crept to Rosette.
"Rozetto." He said weary. "I'm… I'm sorry. I didn't want you to see that. Please… I… I didn't want to scare you! Please believe me!" He wailed.
Rosette glared over the sleeve of her shirt with watery eyes. The look in Chrno's eyes normalized, so she decided to speak.
"But you did." She said between the sobs which escaped her lips from time to time. "I thought you'd kill me."
Shocked Chrno widened his eyes again. "Rozetto… I would never harm you… you or someone who's precious to you. And you know that!" He said with trembling lips. "Please! Believe me!" He cried.
"And how shall I trust you after seeing this? After seeing that you're a monster?" Her head shot up and she glared furiously at him.
Her words hurt him badly. They hurt him more than every physical wound had every done.
The devil took her in his arms and pressed her tightly to his chest. His skin burned where the blood from the stigmata touched him. It didn't matter. Even though Rosette protested hard and tried to push him away, Chrno held her tight and buried his face into her left shoulder.
"Rozetta… I… I'm sorry that you had to see this. But neither can I deny what I am. And I am a devil." He paused shortly. "But no one ever asked me if I wanted to be one… But Rozetto… The fact is that I could never harm you because I…" His voice was shaking. "Because I love you." He whispered in her ear and gave her gentle kiss on her lips.
Suddenly he picked her in his arms and jumped backwards. Just in time. There was another earthquake and a big stone fell at the place where they had been just seconds ago. A part of the ceiling had crashed down. A hole appeared in the ground and lava came out of it.
Rosette tried to struggle free. Chrno didn't let her go. He flew through the whole in the ceiling outside. There he landed in a little distance to the apostles and the jewel witches. Rosette jumped out of his arms and ran to her brother.
"What's wrong with you?" Joshua asked worried. He saw that something was not right with his sister.
"I DON'T WANNA TALK ABOUT IT NOW!" His sister yelled. "AND I DON'T WANT TO SEE HIM AGAIN!"
AN: Woahoooo, pretty long chapter ^^ I wrote the last part (the part begins with Rosette finding Chrno in the temple) at 2am. For an unknown reason all chapters I write late in the night are relatively good… so, tell me what you're thinking. Review please!^^