Rated: PG-13
Language: English
Categories: Humour/Adventure
Title: RoChronicles
Summary: Life was good for Zira, Shujiri, Swift, and Eos where they lived in the division of Rune Midgard known as Void. Then one day, a dark cloud fell over the land and everything they knew fell apart. Will they ever be able to pick up the pieces? More importantly, can they remember who they were along the way?
Author's Note: Okay, so, just to be clear - I've rarely fought Hibram; he was usually dead by the time I got to the abbey, and believe me, I stalked that bastard enough to know. So I don't remember much about what some of his skills do nor what skills have the best effect on him. I'm sorry if the chapter is "somewhat" off for it. Also, I'm not familiar with the story behind Hibram, so I, of course, invented one. xD Don't kill me for it later down the road when it gets revealed. All will make sense eventually!...Sort of! Lastly, I haven't done enough research on Norse mythology to know if they had a similar thought of demons as "modern" religions, but since Priests can have skills called "Gloria" and "Angelus" and be decked out with crosses, they can be trained in Catholic/Christian demons and exorcisms (in itself another spell name, looky there.) ...Besides; Zira carries a scythe. That's as Priest-like as cussing like a sailor (-cough-Hughes-cough-), ignoring Duo Maxwell. So there ye go. Anyhow, on with the show. I don't know a really good theme here so let's just go with "Cursed Monastery" again, ehn? Three guesses where it's from...
RoChronicles
Chapter Forty: The Cursed Abbey (Part 2)
Hibram's laughter finally died down to a low, rumbling chuckle as he took a step in their direction. His gait faltered slightly and he stumbled. He recovered quickly enough, staggering a few paces before correcting his direction and heading straight towards Shujiri and Zira as his speed kicked up to something just under a drunken sprint.
The two immediately tensed up, preparing to attack or defend based on whatever was necessary, but didn't make a move to retreat back to the safety of the group. They logically knew an attack was coming, although they couldn't see any particular pattern in his behaviour to indicate one was coming. Other than being manipulated by the demon spirit that stayed latched onto him, of course.
When the man finally got close enough to them, he slowed down to the pace of a near crawl. His giggling came back, though this time it was softer and much quieter, as if he'd seen something funny. His footsteps were still clumsy, but he remained at that pace as he crept closer to the party of friends. His eyes zipped across every face present, darting around without purpose, then he sighed when they landed back to the center again.
"What's his problem?" Sahari nervously inquired, edging closer to Dmitri and Jackel. "He sounds crazy!"
"I think it's the influence of whatever that thing is that has him." Ghebriel replied, his expression curious and thoughtful. "But what is it, is a better question."
Lady Lana drew the sign of the cross against her chess in silence as Shujiri spoke up. "That thing isn't just a monster. I know that much; whatever those Banshees are doing there, they aren't attacking him. It's not because he's one of them, but because that thing is like them - it's evil."
"So they're on the same side, then."
"More or less. 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend,' right, Dmitri?"
The Stalker smirked at the Assassin's words and gave him an approving nod. "One of my favourite mottos."
"That don't answer what's wrong with 'um, pardner. It don't tell us what that thing is, neither." Jackel reminded the two men with a frown.
"Easy," Shujiri assured him.
Zira, watching as the fallen bishop slowly stopped moving towards them altogether in favour of just staring at them, answered for his closest friend. "He's possessed, and that thing is a real, live demon."
Lana moved closer to Shujiri, her nerves getting the better of her. "What in Rune-Midgard could have possibly caused it to come here, though?"
"I'm not sure, but look at this place; it's crawling with demon and undead types. It's not too much of a stretch to think that something happened when the monsters started cropping up on this island that lured it here. There must have been some kind of impurity on the grounds that it could take advantage of and enlarge in order for it to still be able to stay here."
Shujiri agreed, nodding his head as he placed a reassuring hand on the small of the Priestess's back. "When we first got here, did ye notice how much darker the place seemed, even in the light?" he asked. "I think that demon's evil tainted the abbey and bled into the walls."
Alex gave his affirmative to this. "That thing might have even lured the monsters here, instead of the other way around."
All conversation halted as Hibram's wavering voice floated across to them from the few feet away he stood. His lips were turned up in a twisted mixture of a hopeful smile and a frown, his hands trembling at his sides. "Ah...Come to play, have you..? Haha..Haha...Lovely, lovely! Still so..so lovely...Still so sinful, so pure and.."
With each word that fell from his lips Sahari became more terrified. She pressed herself as close to Dmitri and Jackel as she could, clutching their arms tightly in her small hands. "Gawd, someone, make him shut up! Make him stop! That's so creepy!"
Hibram slowly moved towards them again. His hand outstretched, he shakily reached out as if he meant to try to touch someone. The motion was slow and shaky, almost like one would do to approach a frightened animal. His dark eyes shone brightly, standing out in stark contrast to the dark circles under his eyes from who knew how long of crying and the lack of sleep the demon spirit's torment incurred.
The dark sandy-brown-haired bishop's words continued to tumble from his lips, sometimes slurred and at other times perfectly crisp and easy to understand. It was his final words that truly made the fighters nervous, not because they made sense to them in any way, but because of the dark undertone that they carried. "Blasphemous words...Such unholy words from unholy lips.."
Hibram stepped closer, his arm outstretched as if he meant to touch someone. The shaky limb drew closer as he moved forward, his eyes staring through each of the men and women until their nerves could no longer permit such closeness from such a dangerous opponent. The man, himself, was harmless enough; the demon latched onto him, however, was not.
Shujiri didn't allow him the chance to move any further; he struck out with his katar, slicing the air between himself and the possessed man. It caused Hibram to stagger back a bit, putting distance between them again, and the energy behind the movement slashed a long gash across the taller, wide-eyed man's arm.
Hibram stared at the wound, his eyes reflecting only curiosity in place of pain. The arm twisted a bit this way and that as he surveyed the damage and noted the blood dripping from his body to the ground at his feet. One long finger ran up the length of the cut, swiping a bit of the red liquid off, then brought it up to his face. At the sight of it, Hibram's expression of wonderment transformed into a wild grin and he looked up to the group ahead of him, closing his fingers into a loose fist and thus smearing the blood across his palm.
The Banshees hovering around Hibram seemed to be broken from their silent reverie at the sight of the blood and they lunged forward, slashing wildly at the fighters with ragged claws. They paid no heed to Hibram or his actions; their screams drowned out the beginning rise of his laughter.
Hibram jumped forward and joined in the assault as well, using the talents taught to him in his days as an Acolyte, back before he'd advanced to the rank of Bishop, to deal damage to his new-found opponents.
Meanwhile, Shujiri's mind reeled from the sudden change in the man. He'd gone from sorrowful, to laughing, to insane, to attacking with seemingly no trigger for either display; he was going on impulses - ones sent to him from the demon clinging to him. He wasn't sure attacking full-force was the right thing to do, but he didn't want to leave it up to chance that the evil spirit controlling Hibram might or might not hold back. From experience he knew the likelihood of that was slim. Hibram was still a human, despite the possession; he was susceptible to pain and emotions. The demon was not
The Assassin Cross could not reach a real conclusion on how to approach the situation so he simply let his instinct take over, his arms and legs moving of their own accord and nimbly avoiding most of the attacks thrown at him by the Banshees. He cut through a few of them only to see more spawning from the remains of those he vanquished.
Jeliel held his hand out, a bright glow beginning to hover over it. When he felt he had summoned enough fuel into the spell to keep it strong, he released it towards Hibram and one of the Banshees closest to him, shouting, "Fire Ball!"
Easily avoiding the spell, the Banshee twisted back around to face Jeliel. Her scream made him flinch, and that pause was just enough to give her room to sink her wispy, sharp claws through his skin and rake them down. Bleeding, angry welts were left behind in their wake. A flow of ethereal toxins dipped into the High Wizard's blood stream, slowly paralyzing his movements until moving at all became more of a chore than hard labour.
Casting her eyes to the top hat-wearing High Wizard Lana was quick to recognize the symptoms. There had been times, rare though they were, that someone who had been to the island would be returned to their town only to be shipped off to Rachel or Prontera, whichever was nearest, for professional healing; the scratches Banshees gave could leave the person paralyzed for hours - sometimes days. During that time, they weakened slowly; the wounds would take a long time to stop their slow bleed. She'd studied how to remedy such a problem, but hadn't had the opportunity to put her work to practice. Now was as good a time as any
"Blessing!" Lana shouted, focusing her connection to the gods over Jeliel. Her face lit up with a smile when the toxin began to wear off. A grin of thanks was given from Jeliel before they resumed their attacks.
"Everybody see that?" Shujiri called out to his comrades, ducking under one of Hibram's swinging fists. "Don't let the Banshees scratch you!"
"Yeah, ow; don't let them yell in your ear, either!" Sahari confirmed, twirling a long, slim finger in her ear for emphasis as she leaned away from one of the Banshees closest to her. The young Assassin Cross stuck out at her with her katar, finishing the work Dmitri had started.
Alex motioned towards Hibram, who had just erected a Safety Wall for himself. "Zira, Lana, do you think one of you can try to get that demon off his back? Maybe we can help him if it's gone!"
The two exchanged a nervous look. Turning his eyes back to Alex, Zira replied, "I'm not sure it works like that; we don't really have the right training for that kind of exorcism.."
"Can't hurt to try," Lana sighed. "I'm almost out of blue gemstones, though.."
"Me too; we'll have to get some when we leave, but for now, I can try."
Lana nodded. "Go ahead."
The blue-eyed man sneaked slightly closer to Hibram, drawing a blue gemstone out of his pocket. He flicked it into the air, eyes closing as he concentrated on the flow of holy energy through his veins and on shifting it outward. When the light formed at Hibram's feet, he held his breath in hopes that it worked.
Hibram seemed to shudder for a moment, then simply stepped forward out of the light and continued his assault. His wild eyes turned to Zira, recognizing where the spell had come from, and the demon on his back grinned maliciously. "Unrepentant sinners! Black-blooded innocents! Haha..! Grand Cross!"
Holy magic, far stronger than anything either of the blondes had ever tapped into before, coursed from Hibram to the ground, enveloping Zira, Shujiri, and Alex. The sheer force of the holy power backing Hibram's spell, even in his possessed state, was strong enough to make Shujiri stagger back, drag Alex into a kneeling position, and pull Zira to his knees.
The light of the spell waned and although the magic finally untangled itself from their bodies, the level of the holy magic such a deranged man had used was still so immense that it lingered for several moments.
"Eye for an eye, eh?" Pharin tweeted, watching the fight from above. He eyed Hibram and the demon latched onto him, studying the way the dark entity used the human. It seemed to be leeching his life force away slowly, draining him of his energy and in turn pumping its power through him to sustain him until its feeding was complete. The Filir could only guess what the demon had planned for the unfortunate Bishop once it was through.
"I can't believe that didn't work..." Dmitri murmured as he helped Alex back to his feet. "If he's possessed, that should have purified him. Then, failing that, his own attack definitely should have!"
Shujiri, having recovered first, bent down to Zira and gently placed one hand on his back, the other hoisting him up by the arm. "I'm not surprised they didn't, though; not really. Hibram's a Bishop - one of the holiest people under Freya. He's probably too strong for most of our spells to really work on him, and that demon, although it should be hurt by them, is probably so deeply rooted into him now that it won't be bothered much, either."
"Spells aren't doing very much, no," Falcone conceded with a shake of his head, "But what if we stick to physical attacks?" He leaned away from the Soul Strike of Darkness Hibram sent out at him, then continued, "Theoretically, if Holy magic works primarily on a spiritual plane, then a physical attack with a Holy property may hit both places at once and give it that extra 'oomph' to hurt them."
Hibram all but cackled at Falcone's reasoning. "Lost sheep alone in the dark..So dark..So cold..Cold-hearted follower of madness, ohh, aye, I knew it when you first came here - when the sins of the father bled into the son, hahaha, bled all over the walls..So lonely, are you lost still?"
Growling, Sahari lunged forward and drove her katar into Hibram's chest, just missing his right lung. As he limped away from her, after she tugged it back out, she screamed, "Shut up! Oh my gawd, all you do is babble creepy stuff!"
As if only just seeing her for the first time, Hibram's brown eyes widened. His stare of surprise broke into a semi-smile. "Little lady, a girl, a little girl..You're new..Are you lost? Lost like them? Like me? I knew once, I knew - I knew! Then Niflheim swept in, beautiful death, crimson destruction...!"
Whimpering, Sahari stepped back until she was at Dmitri's side and clung to his arm.
Ghebriel squeezed the girl's shoulder reassuringly. When the madman moved to attack her, he threw two of his last few bottles of acid and explosives at his feet. The resulting explosion badly burned Hibram's feet and, from the resulting shards flung up into the air, glass buried itself deeply into his arms. He pulled Sahari away, pushing her towards Lana who had just finished working on Alex, Shujiri, and Zira completely.
The Priestess took the charge, nodding to show that she understood why the girl had been given to her. Keep her safe.
At a loss for what they could do that would help against the Bishop aside from the non-stop duties of assisting by keeping their friends healthy, Zira and Lana exchanged a nervous look. Each debated momentarily on the use of Holy Light, but remembering the depressingly small effect Magnus Exorcismus, a Priest's greatest spell, had had on him earlier, they decided their best chances were to resume their supportive roles. Well, first thing was first...
Zira turned to the others, inspecting for a moment their weapons of choice as the battle continued around him. Jackel's bullets were doing relatively well, as were Shujiri's katar and Dmitri's arrows; these,he realized, were imbued with Holy powers from the gods. The others were not. Time to fix that...
The blonde Priest looked to lady Lana and nodded his signal.
"Aspersio!" both cried out in unison, each one sending the spell in a different direction. With Sahari's katar and Jeliel's staff blessed with the Holy gift, they turned to Falcone, Alex, Ghebriel, and Yuuki and repeated the process.
The results were instantaneous. What had looked to be a losing battle's tides visibly turned in their favour. Hibram was not the only one who seemed to be straining under the barrage of attacks, now; the demon looked angry and with every new attack it seemed more and more weary and desperate.
"Gloria!"
"Angelus!"
"Magnificat!"
"Kyrie Eleison!"
"Blessing!"
"Increase Agility!"
By this point, the demon attached to Hibram's back had had more than enough of the fight; its eyes were darkening with age, and its howls of hatred nearly muted Hibram's mindless ramblings. It latched onto the man's biceps and hissed something in his ear. Hibram's eyes widened and he began glancing around as if searching for something. Then, when he seemed to have found it, he grinned and shouted, "Wide Silence!"
Almost complete silence rolled over the group. Those who had been fighting stopped, momentarily confused. A few tried to speak, wanting to ask what had happened, but no word came out.
"What in Rune-Midgard-" Dmitri began, blinking. "Hey! I can still talk!" His wide eyes looked to Shujiri.
"Aye, me too." The Assassin Cross had a feeling he knew what Hibram's spell had just done.
"Why ain't we affected none?" Jackel inquired as he watched the ladies, Zira, Jeliel, Falcone, and Ghebriel try to speak.
"He silenced them," Alex concluded, grateful to still have the use of his own voice.
Swatting away a Banshee, Jeliel pointed his staff at Zira and laughed soundlessly. Zira took it, hit him with it, and then gave it back to him.
Realizing the situation, Shujiri shouted to the others, "Keep everything away from Zira, Lana, Jeliel, and Falcone! Ghebriel, Sahari, switch to pure physical! Give the spell time to wear off; if something happens, we'll be in trouble until those two can talk to use their spells!"
The demon wasn't going to let this happen. The attacks redoubled in effort doing anything and everything possible to destroy the humans in its presence, but it was more than aware that it was beginning to weaken. Rather, its host was getting weaker, and that left it in the middle of an ocean with no life raft. Its spells and physical strikes were beginning to verge on desperacy as the Bishop's body slowly was shutting down.
Unable to do much without magic, most of those silenced could only watch the battle progress. It wasn't a fact that sat well with any of them - especially Zira, and only when a Zombie Slaughter came up behind him; he'd screamed silently and lashed out at it with his scythe, and then screamed and attacked again when its decapitated head rolled to a stop at his feet. They were getting restless.
"No hope! Haha, no hope! No hope, no salvation - hateful bright light so far out of reach; if I could..could just touch it...HahahaHAHAHA! Touch it, devour it - leave nothing but darkness! Hahaha! Let it all turn to black!"
Even as his movements became sluggish and his attacks slowed, the insane man's frightening banter continued. It was beginning to verge on terrifying for Sahari; even Shujiri was starting to feel more uneasy about it. What he said made no sense, and he seemed torn between sorrowful and unending rage. It wasn't hard to figure out which one was stemming from what entity.
At length, Hibram's sporadic movements and bursts of power and speed wore down entirely until he was just barely on his feet, slumped as he was, a few more paces from the group of people who he'd silenced. His eyes stared holes through them, his chest heaving.
Shujiri wasn't happy about having driven him so close to the others, but the spell was wearing off; he could almost feel the magic as it wove its way back into them like tendrils of life force being stranded together in a natural, easy pattern. Hibram looked to be so close to passing out that he was hardly a threat. Looking at him now, it was hard to believe he ever even had been one to begin with. The demon at his back seemed frantic, trying desperately to force its host to move and to claw its way free. It was out of luck; it had wound its essence so tightly within the human that it was stuck. Two very angry healers stared back at it.
Hibram's gaze became hazy as he felt his eyelids drooping slightly. The cries of the Banshees had stopped with the death of the last one hovering near him. A small part of him, he wasn't sure if it was himself or the demon, thought idly that this couldn't be the way it ended - this wasn't what he wanted, and he wasn't ready to die. The other part of him, or the demon, or whichever it was, told the first part to shut up.
The mad Bishop's lips twisted up in a woeful grin. He chuckled breathlessly. "Sinners, sinners, all in sin...Reborn pure..to sin again...H- haha..hahaha..."
Lana clutched Zira's arm tightly as Hibram trudged forward a single pace, his breathing more laboured from the expenditure of the energy it had taken to move. She felt his muscles tense under her touch and glanced down to see his knuckles had gone white from the grip he had on his scythe. Her lips parted to speak and her words died just short of her tongue. Almost there...
Hibram took another step and Shujiri fell into a battle-ready position, while Zira pushed the woman behind him to join the others. He was ready to fight to defend them if the demon or its host attacked, although he was almost certain it wouldn't come to that. He was somewhat alarmed to note that, based on Zira's actions, the nigh-defenseless Priest was, too. The blue-eyed man had to admit: he was concerned, but he was also rather proud; the impulse to flee must have been strong, but the only things betraying the fear were his small frown and furrowed brows.
Now an arm's length away, Hibram went no further. His beaten and badly injured body bled heavily and puddles of the red essence pooled at his feet. To anyone who looked, he appeared to be a man resigned to his fate.
One shaky hand was raised from his side slowly as glazed eyes focused on the blonde male in front of him. Hibram let out a wispy laugh, short in essence and choppy. "Silence...Haha...Such lonely sinners...Soulless, dark, evil beauty..H- hahaha..." The hand drew closer until it was just inches away from the skin of Zira's face, shaking with effort as both he and the people around him seemed almost transfixed by the eerie scene. When his fingers were a hair's breadth away from the other man's cheek, his eyes fell shut slightly and he whispered breathless and hoarse, "Filthy, beautiful, crimson sin..."
Just like that, the spell of the bizarre moment was broken. Jeliel rushed up to the blonde's side and, with a protective arm around his waist, thrust the staff out towards Hibram's arm. It connected, throwing his arm out of their proximity and in the process seeming to break the taller man's trance.
As he stood there, stunned, Shujiri wasted no time. He ran forward, his katar and daggers at the ready, and ripped into the Bishop. The Holy enchanted blades tore through his flesh as well as the demon attached to him, drawing out an angry cry of fear and agony from both beings.
Jackel, Sahari, Dmitri and Alex quickly followed suit of their friend. The Gunslinger drew his second revolver, unleashing a hail of bullets into the man and the demon even as Dmitri's arrows rained down over his target, sticking with a squelching plunk into flesh and muscle and spreading their Holy property through him. Sahari and Alex were both equally as fierce in their attacks, one's axe ripping into and rending muscle mass where the other's daggers and knives tore deep into the demon's mass.
When the onslaught was over, the Bishop fell to his knees, weaker and bleeding now more than ever before. He swayed uneasily for a moment, then fell to his back, eyes wide open as he faced the ceiling. The entity feeding from him withered, and with a gentle, warm breeze that shouldn't have been possible, it turned to dust and was blown away.
The others shuddered slightly at the mysterious wind, but no one said a word as they instead watched the dying man at their feet, wary of further surprise.
Hibram's chest heaved in the effort to breathe even as his lungs began to fill with blood and his muscles refused to cooperate so he could reach for anything or anyone. His eyes slowly lowered onto the faces surrounding him and fell shut for a moment. He knew what had happened and he knew what they had done was for the greater good's interest; he could find none of his earlier rage and sorrow to latch onto through this. Only peace and acceptance.
With a weak smile, he turned his face back up to the ceiling. Something there had caught his eye.
Tears began to fall, streaking down his face and to the floor. He was vaguely aware of the women and one or two men silently weeping for him, but their sympathy wasn't necessary; he had gotten himself into this mess, and he knew they weren't to blame for what was done to fix it. His breathing grew more and more shallow, turning wet and raspy from the blood in his lungs and throat, and he smiled despite this. The light of the abbey was back, and it was warm to his cold skin as it enveloped him.
Hibram's voice crackled and broke as he tried to voice the thoughts in his mind until, finally, he settled simply on one small phrase of two words. "The..light..."
Dark eyes fell closed, never to open again, as his chest ceased its laboured undulation. Yuuki, even from where he stood near Jackel and Alex, could practically feel his heart as it thudded sluggishly to a stop and gave up.
The friends stood in silence for a few minutes, allowing the quiet to settle over them as both a time to get their nerves back under control and to serve as a time of respectful reflecting over the fallen man. No one felt comfortable enough to raise their eyes to anyone else's yet, and that was fine; they all felt the need to store this moment in their memories for later reflection, perhaps out of some morbid sense of awe or out of respect for the life lost tonight.
At length, Lady Lana wiped her eyes and cleared her throat. When she felt strong enough to begin without her voice cracking, she launched into a prayer in honour of the man who rested at their feet. They had no way to bury him with the monsters around the grounds; this was all that they could offer him.
"Freya, Odin, and all the gods above, we send one of your followers home to you to walk the paths of eternity in your footsteps. We ask humbly that this Fallen Bishop, Hibram, of the abbey on the nameless island, be accepted and forgiven of whatever transgression brought the demon upon him. By your grace, and the mercy bestowed upon warriors and followers of your names,..."
Everyone silently recited the maiden's prayer, solemn and somewhat numb sensations in their hearts. Although they all spoke the words the Priestess said internally, some couldn't stop themselves from surrendering to the impulse to turn their eyes, heads still bowed, onto the shaking, scythe-wielding man at Jeliel's side.
The nagging sensation that perhaps, in an unusual way, Hibram had been warning them of something was beginning to eat at them. They just weren't quite sure what.
What did Hibram see?
To Be Continued...
