Angel or Demon?
( Still Kim's POV )
"Kim, we are not suppose to pursue Ire, we are strictly here to learn about Corona's magic," Tezca fretted as I laced up my boots the next morning.
I had all my anger and goals kept on going down to the delta just to find Ire and nothing else. I wanted to decapitate her and throw her body to the dogs, just to be satisfied with myself. I glanced at Corona. She seemed a bit uneasy, I can't blame her Ire had already made Corona vulnerable to the madness by almost having it consume her, the last thing she wants to do is see her again.
"We? I was just planning of going by myself with my katana," I said, slinging the strap of my katana holder over my shoulder.
"You can't protect yourself with a katana against a witch Kim," Tezca said.
"If have forgotten I'm a witch too, so I would say it's an even battle."
"I'm the adult in charge here so I say no."
"But your not in charge of me, that's where your wrong," I said, flinging open the window in the room and climbing over the window sill. My feet clacked against the roof tiles as I ran down the side of the roof and jumped off the ledge landing on the dry ground.
"Next time use the door!" Tezca called out from the window.
( Down stream )
The motor ran loudly and the sound nearly giraffe my ear drums. Getting a local to lend you his motor boat for fifty dollars was the easy part of my plan, using said motor boat was not. Why? Because I couldn't find the crank used to start it up. So here I was, cruising down the Amazon River, this being my first time using a motor boat, in search for Ire, when suddenly a black shadow jumped out from the land and hit down in front of me onto the boat. I got up from my seat and leaned over the wheel to see what had jumped onto the boat.
It was Jacqueline.
"Hey, what the hell are you doing, you could of fell in the river," I scolded my friend who was now recovering from her great jump on a fold up chair.
"But it was pretty bad ass right?" Jacqueline ask grinning.
"Idiot," I ruffled her hair.
I knew that Jacqueline would join me eventually, it's how we work as friends and Meister and Weapon, we find each other to back up one another. The river seemed to start getting wider and up ahead was the sound of millions of splashes.
"Get ready, were about to reach the delta," I warned as we neared the turn.
Once around the turn our breaths stopped. Silver tails of fish splashed out everywhere, seagulls perched around the water edge looking down at them. The river was split down into a delta a mile ahead and there was less trees and more like a clear field on both sides of the river. I shut off the motor and we now slowly drifted down the river.
Then n a blink of an eye she was there, on the tip of the bow of the boat, barefoot in her pastel dress and light blue hair blown wildly with the wind. But her eyes were closed like she was in a pleasant sleep. When she opened her eyes we gasped. Those were not regular eyes. Stained as the most darkest red that they looked black and maddening.
"Tick..." she whispered and all the fish tails ceased.
"Tock..." Ire took a step forward, dropping down from the bow.
"Goes the clock..." she moved slowly towards us.
"Only I know when time stops..." she waved her hand out in a slicing motion and a black wave was hurdled in our direction like a black blade.
We jumped off the boat in time and luckily skidded over to the left side of land making the seagulls squawk and fly off. I got up and grabbed Jacqueline's hand quickly going into a battle stance while Jacqueline's body glowed and dissolved into her Weapon form. I pulled out the extension handle with one hand and the other gripping the handle at the end of the lantern. My eyes darted everywhere, but found no Ire, until I heard something breath in my ear. I let go of the handle and swung Jacqueline with the extension handle behind me, with a turning motion of my feet, feeling something hit. I had hit Ire in the head, but it's not gonna be so easy, so I pulled in the extension handle and pulled on the other handle, letting the flap of the lantern go up and orange flames burst from that end and at Ire. When the flap pulled down Jacqueline's face glinted on the clear part of the lantern.
"Did we get her?" she asked.
I didn't answer, instead I just scooped out the area. The atmosphere was at a dangerous point between madness and chaos. But I could still feel her soul, it was black, staining the purple of a regular witches' soul, and slithering on the underbelly of the underworld.
"No she's still here Jackie," I replied.
Suddenly I felt something. It was like a pin struck my back it felt evil and dirty. I wanted to run, but I was paralyzed and my feet felt so heavy, that I fell forward on my stomach. I had dropped Jacqueline somewhere on the ground by me. With my still working arms and hands, I pulled myself up to turn and face the intruder who had struck me, and who would of thought, it was Ire.
"Hahahahahahahahahahaha! Everyones an idiot!" Ire bellowed insanely, her laughter echoing.
"Bitch, what did you do to me!" I demanded.
"Oh nothing really, I just paralyzed your soul and when your soul is paralyzed your body is paralyzed, so is your partner, because when I paralyzed your soul, it was in soul residence with hers," she said beaming at me with those evil red eyes.
"You want to know the glorious part of this all!" she yelled.
"I know where Corona is," she whispered.
"She'll be so consumed in the madness I will give her that she won't even recognize you or her friends, madness will rise again!" she laughed, her laughter was the definition of what was evil and messed up in the world.
She swung her arm in my direction letting another slicing shadow in my direction while saying: "But first I will kill you!"
I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath, just waiting. And waiting and waiting... And waiting? Nothing came, and I thought it was some kind of joke, all of it, the Kishin hunting, the witches, the magic research all of it was just a big dream. But this was no dream, thats for sure. I opened my eyes only to see a dreaded and surprising scene. Tezca laid out on the ground with a slash across his body, but it was not bleeding, it was glowing. Then his body disappeared like a computer being shut off during a sudden blackout. I was able to move my toes now. That's when I noticed that there wasn't just the once Tezca that had disappeared, there were ten others, possibly more,spread out over the field.
So this must be the power of this Death Scythe.
"Ah, so its the bear head man, I'v heard of you, but which one is which?" Ire said, veering her attention towards the Tezca's.
"Over here!"
"No, me, me, me, me, me, me!"
"Come get me!"
"You can't get me!"
"This way!"
"We're the real Tezca!"
This seemed to be what all the Tezca's were saying at Ire, trying to trip her up.
"So this is what its like to face someone who can do the same cloning as me, but you use a trick of the light," Ire said, and all of a sudden another copy of her slid off her skin, except she looked like the original Ire I first saw dressed in black with normal yellow eyes, like a frog. "Let's see, two divided by twenty is ten, let's see how it goes then," Ire said.
Both Ire's got down low and ran into the crowed of Tezca's and spread out their arms like wings, slicing through the legs of all the Tezca's, making them disappear like the first one. Until there were no Tezca's left to slaughter off and both Ire's looked around furiously. I can feel my legs again.
Then it happened. It was so fast. The duplicate Ire went back the the original. During that time a faint shadow leapt from a nearby tree with a dagger. Right when this faint shadow was about to strike on it's journey down, Ire turned her body at the person as if knowing they were there. When things slowed down it was Tezca kneeled on the ground and Ire doubled over on her feet. I reached out and grabbed Jacqueline by the handle for support. Then in a blink of an eye Tezca fell onto the ground and Ire only had a scratch on her cheek. The blood from her wound looked like she was crying out the color of her eyes. Jacqueline transformed back and ran over to Tezca crying out his name. I slowly got up as if things were in slow motion. Each step that I took towards Tezca felt like I was walking on thin ice, waiting for the answer.
My feet were mere inches from Jacqueline, my throat was dry, and I was afraid to ask.
"Jacqueline, is Tezca..." I trailed off, not wanting to say it.
Jacqueline nodded, her back was to me as she pressed a hand down where blood spouted from Tezca.
"He's dead."