Essence of Blood

He had met girls throughout his life but never had he met a woman as unique as her. Not only did she defy him in an erratic way but her blood held an essence that differed from everyone else. Her blood was special... her blood made her, his.

Chapter Thirty-eight
Essence of Forever

.xx.

-Sakura-

Dateless – Timeless

Hikaru had made a list of all people who could accompany this mission with me and, as Eriol said, I knew when the line-up of men stood before me how I could tap into their soul and see their destiny. As I initially predicted, Eriol and Takashi were pure enough to undergo this mission along with many others—the ones who had a chance of not returning were told to keep the base protected and to continue to seek out the traitor among us.

I stood in front of my warriors. In order to transport to the Land of the Damned, I had to request from God to grant us the ability to go where no living human has gone before. Honestly, I had no idea what I was doing; I just followed my gut. Before I knew it, me and the boys were transported out of the living room and placed a fair distance away from the rusting iron gates that led to the endless depths of hell… the Underworld.

In front of the gates was Cerberus, its guardian. The gates kept the mouth of a cave firmly shut, not allowing the damned to sneak their way out to the Land of the Damned. This cave, from what I could see, was on the middle of a single island which was surrounded by a moat of bleak water (the River Styx, if my Greek Mythology served right) which had ghost canoes paddling the unfortunate to their ultimate destiny.

Honestly, it was eerie as fuck.

"Shall we go?" Eriol placed a hand on my shoulder. I looked over at him and noted that all of our attires had changed. The boys were dressed in the similar garb that Xiao Lang used to wear when we ruled Eden; form-fitting trousers, a type of chemise that, to me, seemed to be more than what met the eyes, capes, holsters for guns and each of the boys had a sword sheathed securely in their respective scabbards.

As for me? I was surprised to see that I was wearing the dress I wore so often in Eden. My palms burned with a fiery sensation and I knew that the power of God was coursing through my veins—

This was it.

Akuma was going down.

"We need to get past Cerberus." Jin called from somewhere behind me. I nodded but I didn't look back at him. My eyes were trained on the lying figure of the three-headed beast that guarded the depths of hell. What could we possibly do to get past him?

"We could always try music." Mika suggested and that was when I turned around. I gave him a dubious look—really?! Do we look like we're on set of the freakin' Harry Potter movie? I shook my head, didn't comment, and turned back to look at Cerberus. A gust of dusty air blew from somewhere behind us and it sent shivers up my spine.

Reality sucked.

Atashi stepped forward so that he was right beside me. "Let's create a diversion. Me and one of the other boys will distract him away from the gates, you open it and enter."

I looked over at Atashi. "And you?"

He couldn't catch my eye. "We'll rush in, if we make it."

Reality really did suck. There was actually a possibility that some of the boys won't return back to earth with me. I mean, I knew that possibility always existed but it was so real now that it tore me up. I wrapped an arm around Atashi's shoulder and kissed his cheek. No more words were needed.

"I'll distract with Tash." Jin volunteered. "I always hated learning about how that mother fucker was defeated in Greek Mythology."

Takashi snorted. "You had to learn Greek Mythology?"

"It was an elective in college, okay?" Jin defended himself. "At least I didn't take dance."

"I was surrounded by girls in leotards." Takashi snickered. "You were surrounded by… girls in not-leotards!"

I was amused; the boys were actually having this conversation. They never ceased to amaze me, and that was a good thing. The moment of comic relief was much needed, though, because we were at the lip of embarking on the deadliest mission the Bloodhounds had ever been on. This was destiny.

Inhaling deeply, I nodded. "Okay. Jin and Atashi, you two distract Cerberus. Eriol?" I turned and looked at the ancient warrior that helped protect me with Xiao Lang. "You help me bring down the gates. Time is of the essence."

All of us turned to face each other and shared a brief moment of silence. We were prepared to take this task on—and to be truthful, I was appreciative of the boys who didn't know about our magical history; they were taking the news pretty damn well.

Atashi pulled his guns out and began charging at Cerberus and Jin followed close behind. I stood back and raised a hand to stop the other boys from proceeding further. This had to be timed right. I closed my eyes and counted to ten and, by the end of my chant, a felt an ethereal energy flow through me. When I opened my eyes I felt my entire soul focus on the gates.

"Now."

My voice was hardly audible, below the tone of a whisper, but it was enough to send a shockwave hurtling towards the gates. All the while, Jin was climbing onto Cerberus and Atashi was shooting bullets, trying to get the beast in the eyes. But we didn't have time to wait and watch.

We had to push forward.

All of us began running towards the gates and, when we were a certain distance away with Cerberus distracted, Eriol and I both shouted simultaneously: "OPEN!"

It was as if the hand of Akuma pushed the gates open for us; it creaked as it revealed the fiery pathway that everybody dreaded seeing. Who knew that I would see hell before my time?

…

Who knew I would see hell at all after learning who I really am and the blood that I possess?

As the group of us passed through the gates we heard Atashi scream and a sickening crunch. We couldn't stop though, even though we knew what happened. I had to grab Hikaru's arm as he paused briefly.

"Keep going." I commanded and took a moment to look over my shoulder. I saw the gates closing and the silhouette of one man running after us. I couldn't tell if it was Jin or Atashi, but I knew only one made it out alive. My heart cried for them, but I knew that this mission wasn't going to allow all of us to leave alive.

And this was a decision that the boys made when the agreed to join on this mission. All I know is that their soul would enter the Gates of Heaven with open arms and I would see them again, one day.

"HOLY DEMON!"

Clow's outburst caused Ryu to pull his guns out and shoot at an impish looking creature. Before anybody could compute what had just happened, the impish grotesque demon disintegrated into a puff of smoke. I was awestricken, to say the least—I'm sure our guns and swords had holy powers imbedded into it because no way in hell (haha, I cracked a hell joke) could mortal weapons be able to incinerate a demon the way Ryu's guns just did.

"This is going to be a fucking blast." Ryu hissed as he holstered his weapon and continued our slow trek into the deep cavernous depths of hell. I chose to remain silent. Jin managed to catch up to us (and that could only mean that Atashi was the one that was crushed by Cerberus); but he remained silent. I didn't blame him, the man just saw one of his buddies get crushed to death by a giant three headed dog.

I'd be pretty fucking scarred myself.

"Is it just me, or is it getting hotter in here?" Takashi growled, sounding highly annoyed. He pulled out his collar, probably trying to cool off his body. It was getting hotter, but that was probably because we were getting closer to the flames of eternal damnation.

Ugh, the concept was so effed up. God's descendant and her warriors storming into hell to save her guardian? It seemed so farfetched that I almost didn't believe what was happening. But, if this is what we were meant to do, it would happen regardless. Everybody knew that it was the final showdown; Akuma was going down.

And staying there.

"It is getting hot." Eriol whispered. "But don't let it bug you, Takashi."

Takashi muttered something incoherent but he probably said something along the lines of: that's kind of hard.

With a sudden flash of energy I felt the auras of several demonic creatures creeping up on us. My eyes narrows and I slowed to a halt, allowing my aura to reach out as far as possible to sense which direction these beasts were coming from. Sensing my alertness, the boys drew their weapons: Takashi pulled out his guns, Eriol, Jin, and Clow pulled out their swords, Ryu (as he was right handed) wielded his sword with his right hand and his gun with his left hand, and Ceroberus and Hikaru had their fists raised.

We were ready.

I closed my eyes and I was able to vividly picture the grotesque creatures crawling up on us. There was one somewhere behind Eriol, but far enough. Takashi was just out of the path of an oncoming spidery thing, and the other guys were staggered between the pathways of the many other demons. I channeled my energy further.

I had to see them all.

Snapping my eyes open, I whirled around and held my right hand out, facing my palm to the openness of the hellish air.

"No you don't!"

A blast of white energy exploded from the palm and shot just past Eriol to incinerate an oncoming hell dweller. Just as the first monster exploded, the others charged forward and the boys began shooting the creatures. None of the beasts could make it to me as my warriors were ensuring that they were forming a tight circle around me. I looked left, then right, and decided it was pointless to watch the battle unfold.

I grabbed Eriol's arm to signal him to follow me and managed to tag Takashi as Eriol and I broke through the circle. Ryu roared loudly as he swung his sword to behead a demon getting ready to leap at me. The creatures were bald and impish; actually, they kind of looked like that thing from the Lord of the Rings movie.

But scarier.

And real.

"Keep going!" Takashi roared. He caught my upper arm and yanked me out of the way of a charging scorpion-esque demon. Eriol roared and used his sword to stab the creature as it hurtled past us. I didn't even have time to stop and recover, we had to keep charging.

We had to make it to Syaoran.

Xiao Lang.

We had to make it to him.

The three of us continued running towards the hellish fire that was hell. I could faintly sense the aura that represented the light radiating from Xiao Lang. We were so close I could feel him.

"SAKURA!"

I looked up and was surprised to see the floating transparent figure of the cousin. I staggered; Takashi caught my arm before I tripped and fell. How the hell is she up there?

"Tell me you see Tomoyo right now!"

Takashi and Eriol looked up but, from their reaction, I knew they couldn't see anything. "… no…" Eriol murmured, slowly, and I knew his tone of voice; he thought I was crazy but was slightly disappointed that, if I did actually see Tomoyo, he wasn't able to.

"I swear that—"

"I see Xiao Lang ahead!" Tomoyo called to me and my eyes widened.

Okay, so I totally wasn't hallucinating because we were in hell; my cousin really was flying several feet in the air, looking like a fucking ghost.

Great, as if things already weren't weird.

"They're up ahead." I reiterated and Takashi looked at me strangely.

"How can you tell?"

I spared him a glance but returned my focus to the treacherous pathway ahead of us.

"Apart from the fact I can sense them? Tomoyo."

I knew by the change in their auras that Takashi and Eriol were very much confused but I had no time to explain. How the hell was I supposed to tell them that I could see the ghostly image of my cousin floating in the air telling me that Xiao Lang and Akuma were just a ways ahead? I mean, it sounded obscure and that was saying something. We were running through hell.

"Reality" reality was sure strange.

Eriol, who was on my left, look towards me. "Ready?"

Takashi, on my right, turned to look at me as well. "I am. Sakura?"

I could only stare ahead at the pathway laid before us and nod once. "Ready."

.xx.