Disclaimer: Black Clover is owned by Yūki Tabata, Studio Pierrot, and Shonen Jump.
Saga 46: Devil in Your Heart Part 1
Medical Wing, Magic Knight Headquarters, Clover Kingdom, Night
"... You know, when I was waking up, I thought that it'll be my fellow Black Bulls greeting me," Yuno remarked as Titania sat next to his laid head, the two other Inquisitors sitting next to his cot. "Never in my mind that I would wake up finding the two people who were claiming to take my life."
"Situation has changed," Dragunov explained, "as long you remain in exile of Spade Kingdom, we won't have to put you down."
"Peh, I ain't going anywhere," Yuno stated. "Does it look like I can?"
"Try anything funny, I dare you," threatened Kalashnikov.
"Oh yeah!?" Titania interjected, "hurt Yuno, you're gonna have to answer to me, sister!"
"... You're [Sylph], aren't you?" Kalashnikov pointed out as she leaned in closer to the Wind Spirit. "... Looking at you closer, you must be of the Fae."
"... A Fae-" Titania stopped herself as she suddenly clutched her head in pain. "... Wha-what's going on!? Why is my head starting to hurt from that word alone?"
"... Niko, that's enough," Dragunov ordered. "... Hate to say it, but he may be the key."
".. The key?" both Yuno and Kalashnikov stated in unison.
"... What do you mean, Yuno's the 'key'?" Titania parroted.
Dragunov then gets up from his stool and walks towards the exit of the medical wing.
"You're in no shape to hear of our words right now," Dragunov remarked. "Niko, we're leaving. The so-called 'caffeine' is starting to irritate me and you're legs have been shaking this whole time."
"Wait, what?" Kalashnikov remarked before she looked down at her legs, which were indeed trembling beneath her notice.
"... We will meet again, Grinberryall," Dragunov stated as Kalashnikov stumbled out the door, "right now, we need to run laps around the capital to burn off this 'caffeine' lest we get attacked by Night Terrors."
The two Inquisitors then awkwardly walk out of the medical wing like a pair of drunks. Yuno simply giving the duo a blank stare as they left.
"Yuno," Titania remarked, "... I don't like them."
"And, I nap," he remarked before he fell back asleep.
As far he wasn't concerned, they weren't his current problem. Regaining strength for the day after is.
Libratium, Spade Kingdom, Night
"Sign here, sign here, sign here," the customs official went on and on as Lotus, Violet, Fanzell, Dominante, and Heracles signed forms of their immigration registry papers, roughly taking since the prior evening, only stopping for dinner for their family before resuming with the endless process of bureaucracy imposed before them inside the walls surrounding the Libratium borders.
The papers themselves ranged from basic identification forms to so much life insurance policies that it would be a fraudster's dream come true for it to exploit.
The kids meanwhile, all watched over by Mariella, were all fast asleep in the ex-assassin's embrace, who's also asleep with them. Fana, meanwhile, was outside, listlessly watching over the scene of other Chevaliers cleaning up after the dead Chimeras bodies below the night sky.
"Hey," Dune's voice remarked as he approached Fana from behind before sitting next to him, "... you know that there are better places to sit and look out to the distance, you know."
He spotted a disembodied head encased in a large crystal wrapped around her whole body like a security blanket.
"... Friend of yours?" Dune asked Fana, the latter nodding. "Do you miss him?"
Fana wordlessly nods.
"... I'm glad that you do," Dune remarked, "but someday, the pain will null itself out."
Fana continued to stare listlessly into the distance.
"... I am horrible at this," Dune self-deprecated, "... just remember, the others you're with are with you all the way, okay?"
Fana faintly nods.
"... Come back in soon," said Dune as he walked back to the customs building inside the border walls, "steppe gets really cold during nighttime, and you're not getting paid anything should you do so, unlike those guys out there, still trying to break down the bodies of Chimeras and collecting field samples for later analysis. Not the greatest place to be, since well..."
From a distance, a pus of blood and organs exploded onto a Chevalier's face, the latter recoiling from the blast of gore.
"FUCK!" the Chevalier cursed. "I JUST GOT MY UNIFORM OUT OF THE DRY-CLEANER ABOUT HOUR AGO!"
"The insurance will cover that, just make sure to put it in your weekly expense report," another Chevalier wearing an iron mask replied as he began breaking down the corpse, hacking through the meat and bone with a giant hand saw.
"... Some of them might be still alive," Dune remarked. "... Just don't stay out here too long, ya hear?"
As Dune walks back into the border customs office, Fana herself then retreats back into the depths of her mind while her eyes locked in place, gazing out into the corpse-ridden plains.
Again, she found her other, elven-half sitting by the bonfire, her eyes glazed across the blaze as Human!Fana sat down from across her.
"You're late," the elf remarked. "At least we can breath easy for now."
Human!Fana simply remains silent.
"... You know that giving me the silent treatment won't work on me, right?" Elf!Fana pointed out. "I saw everything, from the monstrosities that you humans have created that have rampaged throughout the plains we were on, and yet, they still claim that this place is the safest out of all the places on this continent. Honestly, I'm having my doubts."
"... This is nothing new to me," Human!Fana listlessly replied, "this was my life before and after. I don't care what happens to me, but as long as the people who aren't involved with me, or at the very least, decent, innocent people who don't deserved it gets involved with me, I'll be fine even wondering into the depths of Hell itself."
Human!Fana then stands back up to her feet and confronts her other half.
"So if you have a problem with me, suit yourself," said Human!Fana, "go ahead, kill everyone I know and love. You won't feel anything afterwards, ever again-"
"YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW!?" Elf!Fana screeched back as she sprang up to her feet, then kicking aside the bonfire in front of her, scattering the smoldering logs and tinder into embers. "HATRED IS ALL I HAVE LEFT FROM MY OWN FAMILY! WE'RE BOTH EMPTY, I KNOW, YOU KNOW, SO QUIT USING THAT AS AN EXCUSE TO GIVE UP ON LIFE, BECAUSE IT MAKES ME SICK JUST WATCHING YOU WALLOW IN YOUR OWN SELF-PITY!"
"Says the bitch who's also wallowing in her own self-pity..." Human!Fana muttered to herself.
"At least I'm trying to do something about me in spite of there being no left on my side, but you have other people that love and care for you, yet you do nothing for their sake," pointed out Elf!Fana. "How ungrateful are you of them and your own life?"
"I'm just a worthless burden to them," sobbed Human!Fana, "they're better off not worrying about me!"
"So why did Mars die for you?" Elf!Fana shot back.
"... I..." her human half trembled out, "... I... I-I, I DON'T KNOW!"
"OI KID! GET OUT OF THE WAY!" a voice from the outside cut in, followed up by the sound of hooves drumming across the earth finally snapping Fana back into reality, and in front of her, a half-mangled visage of a lion's snarling maws bared down towards her.
Oh, thought Human!Fana as she saw her way out, that came faster than I thought-
MOVE YOUR FUCKING LEGS, YOU WHORE-
"[Shoji: Sakata no Kintoki] (所持: 坂田 金時/[Possession: Kintoki Sakata])," a soft voice whispered out as a brush of gale swept across between Fana and the beast's fang.
Then, a flash of lightning blinded Fana's sight.
"[Kaminari Kokyū: Ichi-Kata, Denkō] ([Thunder Breathing: First Form, Lightning]."
[雷呼吸: 一形, 電光]
Ow ow ow owww... bemoaned Elf!Fana in Human!Fana's head as both of them reeled at the flash of light searing their eyes, ... my eyes, my poor eyes...
"They're my eyes, you bitch..." Human!Fana groaned out as her eyes readjusted back to normal, only to find the lion's head separated from its bovine body.
"Mattaku... (Goodness...)" a foreigner's voice remarked behind Fana, revealing to be Mari, both her white sailor dress and blue armor plates covering the former now splattered in red, her eyes now glowing in a bright topaz hue, and her mouth now speaking in a man's growling and snarling voice as Mari's body hunched down towards Fana. "Kissama ni wa shi no negai ga arimasu!? Aho ka!? (Are you stupid!? Do you have a death wish!?)"
"... I don't speak your language, Mari," Fana remarked awkwardly at the steaming foreign Chevalier.
Then a faint glow envelops Mari's whole body, causing her feet to float off a few inches off of the earth before landing back into a slight hunch forth.
"... Sorry," Mari spoke with her female voice as she rubbed her index and thumb between one of her four colored amulets, "Lord Kintoki can get a little riled up when people's lives are in danger..."
... Waitaminute, Elf!Fana pointed out as she felt four different presences emitting from Mari's amulets, signals similar to hers, but each of them being suffocatingly powerful compared to her own, is that girl the same as us?
You are correct, stray spirit.
Elf!Fana recoils in Human!Fana's mind upon hearing Mari's voice directly communicating with her.
Do not be alarmed, Mari's voice reassured the elf, I will not exorcize you until you are proven to be a malignant spirit. I will hear you out, but first, I must deal with your host first.
"... Um, what was that?" asked Fana as the other Chevaliers moved the corpse out of the way. "... It felt like something was... possessing you?"
"That is my magic, or at least, how these lands interpret my clan's esoteric arts," Mari explained as she pulled Fana back up to her trembling feet. "This is no place to talk, more Chimera might be playing dead around us, so let us be on our way and let the professionals take it from here."
In a reflex, she brandishes her sword out of her sheathe in one clean motion, the ghostly-blue blade cleaving through a giant chicken's body housing a head of an elephant on its stomach before sheathing itself back to its scabbard.
"... First of all," Fana spoke as she tried to bear with the rancid blood staining her clothes, "... what are the Chimera exactly, and what are their purpose?"
"Failures from attempts to create Siths, or mass-produced magical familiars for our Libratium's populace," Mari explained, "they're meant to replace Relics that once replaced grimoires that the other kingdoms still use. My [Shien] ([死炎]/Death Flame) is classified as a Relic, Libratium's current magical conduits."
"Why go through all that effort just to replace grimoires?" asked Fana as her eyes glossed over a half-dead avian Chimera being cut down by Akane's violet-hued blade, its corpse decaying upon post-rigor mortis. "I mean, they work just fine for us."
"Can easily be stolen without repercussion, prone to erosion upon strenuous exposures to extreme heat or dampness, their unpredictable nature of simply creating new spells on the fly at random moments, and the fact that Demons love to manifest themselves into it are all the factors why Libratium, and to a lesser extent, the majority of the Spade Kingdom have transitioned out of using grimoires and onto Relics, or so I have been told by the Magical Application R&D Department," explained Mari as she waved her hand towards a passing by fellow Chevalier. "I tried to use a grimoire once, but it was too slow for my liking, so I just stuck to my kamitsurugi through thick and thin. Sure as hell kills things faster than any mage can finish its incantation before the latter is cut in two. To wit, 'just fine' in Libratium, isn't good enough, hence, our endless pursuit for innovation for our arcane applications. Again, as I'm told"
"... I see," remarked Fana as she ducked her head underneath a giant ribcage belonging to a dead giant centipede of all things. "... What about your magic?"
"In these parts, my spirit medium attributes have been classified as [Possession Magic]," explained Mari as she signed her name onto a sheet of paper labeled "Check-In" sitting on a post watched by an attentive guard. "I carry the spirits of four great warriors of Hanafuda, know as the Four Heavenly Kings, or in my language, the Shitennō (四天王). The Mitsurugi Clan has safeguarded their souls for the past generations with each family head inheriting the responsibility of shouldering their legacy, and should anyone unworthy dare invoke their powers, their very souls will be torn apart by the wrath of the four warriors for the insult."
"... And you're the next head?" asked Fana as she followed Mari back into the border customs office.
"Correct, but we were sent here in the first place with a party of 45 until a storm caused our ship to be wrecked along the coast," spoke Mari as she led the pink-haired girl down the lanturn-lit hallway. "That's all I will say of myself, so now, onto you."
"... Me?" pointed out Fana before her elven counterpart spoke to her in her mind, She knows of my presence in you, Elf!Fana stated in her mind, tread lightly.
"... I've heard stories of people being possessed by spirits, both here and back at Hanafuda," Mari remarked as she looked closer into Fana's eyes, her own staring into both of the human and elven counterparts simultaneously, "but never I've witnessed such harmony yet such discord coming from between host and guest, doubly so when the two of them happen to be the same person. Tell me, the two of you, how did it come to this?"
Both Fanas refuse to answer her, both too bitter at each other to even disclose their circumstances towards this stranger.
"... Well, in any case, until I get both of your consents, I can't intervene," remarked Mari as she placed her hand on her temple in frustration, "but word from the wise: I suggest you two get your collective craps together, otherwise, a fate worse than death awaits for the two of you."
"... Like what?" Elf!Fana venomously replied with a noticeable sneer, taking over as the dominant personality. "What can be worse than being stuck with her, of all people!?"
Mari's hand then flies past Fana's cheek, the palm striking the wall behind her leaving behind a huge dent from its impact. No [Mana Skin] was felt by the elven spirit, both of their brains simply registered it as pure, raw strength as they both saw veins pulsating through the skin of her slight and thin, yet muscular arms.
"... The two of you will turn into an ayakashi, or in accordance of these land's laws, both of your souls will merge into a single Demon."
[Mammon]'s Solitary Holding Cell, Yama's Underground Laboratory, (Former) Diamond Kingdom, Night
In the isolated room deep underground, bound by unbreakable chains and leather straps in all directions, completely closed off from all light and life, completely suspended in the air, was a Demon.
Once known as Morris, now a Demon with the name of [Mammon], bearer of the sin of [Selfishness], was sitting completely still, its thoughts now completely exposed to his captor, Yama, a Prince bearing the sin of [Misanthropy], doing whatever it takes for him to wring whatever usefulness he'd left behind from his human memories, where even he was dabbling into becoming a Contractor from his "benefactors" from the Grinberryall territory.
For now, not much he can to but watch. Not that he minds, since upon becoming a Demon, the formerly-blind scientist was now able to see, and honestly, it was nothing special.
Meh, nothing I didn't expect already, dirt, rock, dirt, rock, dirt, dirt, dirt... thought Mammon as his thoughts were exposed to Yama, the latter ignoring it due to its insignificance, in hindsight, I think being born blind might've been a blessing in disguise. At least in the darkness, I'm always anticipating something else different. That, and well, I actually had to work for my station, which made it all the rewarding, even though it came from that doddering imbecile of a king...
The Demon lets out an audible sigh as he squirmed around his binding for a bit.
"... Might as well watch as the world around me burn," Mammon muttered to himself before he spoke to the guards beyond the doors of his cell, "way better than anything I can come up with, am I right, mister guards!?"
Outside, the two remain stone-faced as possible, ignoring the Demon's ravings.
"... Bah, humbug."
Coastline Campsite, Clover Island, No Man's Waves, Late Night
The moonlit sky was now completely darkened by the clouds above. As the Fallen Angels surveyed the abandoned Clover Island, going from ruined building to ruined building, trying to destroy anything that might be valuable. Mainly old grimoires that are being gutted of its worn and torn pages to be turned into [Anti-Magic] tags, and anything sharp and hard enough to kill a man with.
"Claudius..." Astaroth groaned out as the Prince dug through the room containing a pile of random junk, the door labeled as "waste", "... is anything here even remotely useful? I don't even know what kind of these things in here even used to do!"
"What do they even look like?" asked Claudius as he came into the room with a crate of random mishmash around his arms, "I found one that looks like a hand attached to chains holding onto a pen," the Fallen Angel remarked as he held out the said hand awkwardly, "... I have no idea what this is meant for."
"Neither do I!" Astaroth remarked as he tossed a broken handle over his shoulder. "... Ugh, old scrolls with writing that looks like chicken scratches, grimoire covers without their pages, a broken hammerhead, shattered pots with dead plants... ARGGHHH! I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE! IS THERE ANYTHING THAT IS REMOTELY USEFUL IN HERE!?"
"To be fair, if Leviathan's testimony is to be believed, he sunk this island before nature took its course," Claudius pointed out. "We're already pushing our luck on trying to settle down here as our new base."
"I guess..." sighed the Prince of War, "... still though, you gotta admit, it's kinda impressive that Clover Kingdom started from this piece of rock that we're on."
"Personally, I see this as a consequence of leaving creation unregulated," Claudius pointed out, "I get evicted from my job from that upstart Sephira, and overnight, I see self-driving carts that fly in the air way ahead of schedule before I BURNED THEIR CIVILIZATION TO BEDROCK!"
"... You know, when you put it like that, the people you hate so much remind me of me back before I turned into a Demon," replied Astaroth.
"I admired you tenacity on self-improvement and discipline, and not their impudent desire to do less work!" ranted the Fallen Angel. "Around year 600, they were already making plans to land on the FUCKING MOON!"
"Wait, landing on the moon was possible?" Astaroth remarked in surprise, "I thought the moon was some kind of fireball floating in the sky or something!"
"You're better off not thinking anything beyond that," Claudius remarked dismissively, "it's a waste of time, that not even Demons have a future up there."
"Right..." remarked the Prince as he picked up a monstrous-looking helmet, only for its fanged jaw to fall off its hinges, "... Aw man, this one looked kinda cool to keep."
"I will not judge, for the mere thought is beneath me," cited Claudius.
In the darkness as the rest Fallen Angels continue to comb the area, a short, gaunt-looking hooded figure sneaks up on the camp, her sole, glossy eye looking towards the sleeping Dark Elves, feeling their faint traces of magic spill out between their gaps formed in their skin not covered in Bloodshroom spores.
Hypocrites, all of those literal filth, the figure thought as she reached her hand inside her sleeve, you can hide your true selves, but once you're freed, you will turn back onto your vows and simply take revenge on those who you've blame for your plight.
From her sleeve, she pulls out her Big Iron, its rear hammer already cocked back. Her other hand reached towards behind her back, pulling out a noose.
As the last, true human left, I will kill these motherfuckers at all costs and take back this world! she thought as she steadily snuck her way towards one of the sleeping Dark Elves, the ones who have their very souls poisoned by the accursed mana must be purged from this world! Hide your true natures all you want! A beast will remain a beast until its death!
Her barrel then aims towards a dark-skinned boy's head. Upon steading her swaying arm and stabilizing her breathing, she then squeezes the trigger with her index finger.
A loud crack echoed throughout the whole island, with all of the Fallen Angels stopping what they were doing, including Astaroth and Claudius who were just about to break into the old grimoire tower at the center of Clover Island.
"... Milord," remarked Claudius.
"That wasn't one of ours, isn't it?" pointed out Astaroth.
The two then immediately all fly towards the coastline where the sound echoed from, and upon landing, all of them find Tyr's head bleeding out a freshly-carved out hole running through his temple, and next to the boy's corpse, a streak of sand was drawn from where his flatmate slept next to Tyr.
"... Bad time to ask, but who was sleeping next to Tyr?" asked Astaroth as Claudius closed the dead boy's eyes.
Thor then looked around the panicked campsite, counting down who's present and who's missing.
"... Where's Baldr?"
Hidden deep in the groves and underneath the trees, the cloaked figure was holding Baldr as her hostage, the noose constricted around the young Dark Elf's mouth and his temple being pressed against the cold iron barrel of Big Iron.
"Don'av avrausan anyavhaumn ukavupid (Don't try anything stupid)," spoke the hooded figure in Daemontongue, "Ni move, ukee whaav happenuk (One move, see what happens)."
"Wha-what's going to happen?" Baldr asked fearfully through the rope digging around his mouth, trying to assess the situation of his hostage by attempting to sense any mana coming from the figure like he was taught when hunting humans, only to find nothing coming from the figure, its signals being akin to the Fallen Angels that were with him prior. "You're anything but human, aren't you?"
"JIAK KIJ IJ SHARA (I AM A HUMAN)!" hissed the figure as she drilled Big Iron's barrel tip into the Dark Elf's temple, "Jiak have no name, uko jiak kij julukpoilun. Jiak have no mana, uko mausan ukoul iuk clean. Jiak kij avhe laukav avrue shara lefav par avhiuk world, agh don'av lat ukaausan oavherwiuke (I have no name, so I am unspoiled. I have no mana, so my soul is clean. I am the last true human left on this world, and don't you say otherwise)."
"... I don't get it," Baldr mumbled in his mouth-bindings, "how's not having mana make you more human than the humans we saw back on mainland?"
"Does it make sense for mere man to conjure fire from its hands?" remarked the figure, continuing to converse in fluent Daemontongue, "Does playing god unto others makes a man? Mana is no blessing, it's poison, and while you may deny them flowing in your veins, alfling, a beast will always be a beast. You are no friend of mine, simple as that."
"Then why don't you kill me right now?" asked Baldr. "Either way, you know that they won't let you get away with this."
"... Tch, that's how someone who has something to live for thinks," remarked the nameless figure, "my life's work is done, I'm willing to make this night as my exit, and upon my passing, the whole world will be returned to the seas below."
The nameless figure than drags Baldr out of the tree's roots and through the forests, keeping her weapon pressed against the boy's head as the whole island went into a panicked frenzy to search for the missing boy. Whenever a Dark Elf or a Fallen Angel were approaching, she would hide with the hostage in one of her many pre-dugout murder holes.
"Shit, where the fuck is Baldr!?" one of the Dark Elves remarked.
"This place is super-thin on Mana, so I can't even get an outline on the blank spot, let alone discern if that person in question has mana in the first place!" a female Fallen Angel cried out from the air. "Whoever made that noise knows the place inside-out, so keep your eyes for anything funny!"
Baldr, upon hearing that notion, tries to scratch off the dark skin off of his arms to let out some mana for his brethren to detect, but upon attempt, the cold iron barrel presses harder against his temple, causing him to cease his attempt.
The pattern continues, evading each search party that were approaching them, threatening to keep the boy in line with her Big Iron pressed against his body, the repetition repeated until the two arrive at the area where Leviathan was resting on.
Contractor, what's your business? asked Leviathan telepathically.
Don't worry, I'll get you back in water as soon as I make em run circles ragged, replied the nameless contractor with Big Iron, until then, open your mouth, we need to hide in there until the right time comes.
The beached Leviathan opens its mouth to let the two in.
"Sup."
Only for her and Baldr to be greeted by Astaroth, who then proceeds to tackle her down to the ground, allowing Baldr to run away.
"GOT YOU NOW!" Astaroth loudly boasted, only for his mouth to be shoved in by an iron barrel.
"THEN CHOKE ON IT!"
She squeezes the trigger, firing Big Iron into Astaroth's throat, the blast causing his physical body's neck to be severed off of his shoulder, allowing the nameless contractor to escape as Astaroth was left disoriented upon seeing his own headless body upon decapitation.
She then tackles down Baldr back to the ground, and just as Astaroth finally readjusted to his predicament and reattached his head back onto his body, the figure, whose hood was now unveiled to reveal a young female with wine-red colored hair styled in pigtails with a crude cloth eyepatch, reclaiming Baldr as her hostage.
"MILORD!" Claudius cried out as he and the others arrived where Levithan was beached at, only to find his liege trying to adjust his head back onto his body, and an eyepatched female stranger taking the Dark Elf boy to be under dire straits.
"Nobody, fucking, move," remarked the eyepatched female as she cocked the hammer of her Big Iron back with her thumb as she pressed the weapon against Baldr's head as she reclaimed the boy, "or the little twink here gets it."
Black Bulls Base, Commoner Realm, Clover Kingdom, Night
Everyone else was out on their own missions taking up to late at night, leaving the whole base empty of its inhabitants. Most of them were assigned to watch the Spade/Clover and Clover/Diamond Kingdom borders, the few still remaining in medical suspension, and that one still having not yet returned from his mission, leaving only nary a few mice and men to wander the alleys of this building.
In the moonlit halls of the deserted base, a gaunt and ragged looking figure with messy bluish-silver hair reaching all the way down to his waist stumbles around, listlessly looking around while wondering.
"... Whhhheeeeerrrreee ddddiiiiidddd eeevvveeerrrvvvyyyooonnneee gggooo?" moaned out the gaunt man as he walked down the empty halls.
He then walks to the door, the gaps around it dimly lit around it, indicating that someone was inside.
With his magic, he undoes the door's lock, opening it on its own, revealing Captain Yami sleeping on his study desk, surrounded by paperwork and an empty cup of coffee.
... He's been working hard, like everyone else, the man thought, my body is still frail, but I feel like I'm strong enough to at least walk on my own for a bit.
He rolls up his night shirt, looking down upon a black-colored mark embroidered on his lower-right navel section that seemed to have shrunk a few sizes since a few years prior, its malignant aura fading away slowly.
My curse has gradually weakened up to this point, but I'm still wary, he thought, I still need to siphon mana off of others in order to survive due to my constitution, so I can't do much, but with everyone else working so hard...
He then looks at the two sheets of paper, reading Noel Silvia and Luck Voltia, each labeled as "KIA" and "MIA" respectively.
... It's dangerous work, but knowing that doesn't make the pain of losing family hurt less, he thought as he then used his magic to rearrange the building to transfer him a bedsheet that he then covers the sleeping Captain with.
"Dooonnn't... caaatttch a coooldd," he mumbled as he left the study, shutting the door behind him with his magic.
Clover/Diamond Kingdoms Borders, Neutral Territory, Night
"Aahh-ACHOO!" sneezed out Vanessa as she shivered in the cold night, "... it's friggin' early of May, so why is this place so cold?"
"Dunno, maybe because you're wearing so little?" remarked Sol, who herself wasn't wearing much in comparison, and predictably freezing in her boots.
"They said that nights in the desert can get a little cold..." mumbled Gordon as he rubbed his hands together, with no one hearing what he said.
He could've used the bullhorn to let the others know what he said, but he himself was also freezing, and rubbing his hands together to keep himself warm in the arid and frigid evenings in the wastelands was his main priority right now.
In a next moment, [Highway Star] rolls over, Jericho carrying thick cloaks and fire supplies in his burly arms.
"Sorry for the wait," apologized Jericho to the others, "had jump through hoops just to procure even the basics."
"Took you long enough!" Sol reprimanded, "I'm freezing my tits off out here!"
"Maybe you've should checked the mirror, missy," snarked back Vanessa, trying to take whatever solace she'd left in her mission of border patrol.
Normally, such missions would be taken care of my other Magic Knights like the Crimson Lion Kings and the Golden Dawn, the former being a den of battle-happy men and women, but due to Clover Kingdom suffering back-to-back attacks on both the Capital and one of the major castle towns resulting way too many Magic Knight casualties, it's safe to say that the Magic Knights as a whole were being stretched thin.
"Put these on," said Jericho as handed the cloaks to the other three before he begun digging a hole into the ground with his [Stardust Gauntlets].
"What are you doing?" asked Sol as she wrapped herself around her cloak, "digging out a shitter?"
"Pit fire," answered Jericho as he then placed the tinder and firewood inside the hole, "nights around these part tend to get extra-windy, so the flames will be put out by the winds before they can light up. The hole will regulate excess air flow from petering out the embers."
He then began striking the flints together, causing sparks to fly and hit the tinder below the logs, causing it to catch light and start flowing with embers. After a few gentle blows, the spark then ignites into a small fire, and soon enough, everyone was warmed by the heat.
"... Okay, I admit it," pouted Sol as she and the others crouched around the fire pit, "... for a guy, you're pretty good."
"I've been meaning to ask, Miss Marron," stated Jericho, "but what is your source of aversion towards the male gender?"
"... The hell did he say?" Sol asked. "You're using big words again."
"I think he's asking you why you hate guys," Vanessa cleared up, "although personally, I don't find that behavior healthy, given that you're still young."
"It's not that I hate guys, but I happen to like strong girls over gutless male degenerates," said Sol as she slightly puffed her cheeks in a pout, "got a problem with that?"
"Sorry for asking, for I am no one to judge anyone's preferences of infatuation," apologized Jericho.
"Why do you keep using big words?" asked Sol.
"Force of habit," answered Jericho. "My father's an scholar, my mother an astrologist, and my adopted brother an avid student of all wisdom. As you can infer, my family are that of seekers of knowledge."
"Oh, that's the same with mine," mumbled Gordon, himself now being close enough proximity for others to understand what he's saying, "... we don't talk often."
"Apologizes," stated Jericho, "and what of you, Miss Enoteca? Anything of your family?"
"... I don't want to talk about it," the witch bitterly remarked as she took out a flask and tossed her 30-day sobriety pin into the blaze before she took a quick swig. "... There's a reason why I started drinking like a fish when I was 15 to 16. Point is, I am not coming back if I could help it."
"Way to go, Jericho Platnia..." he muttered to himself as he shook his head in self-disapproval, causing Gordon to pat his back in reassurance.
"... We're family," said Gordon, "and family forgives."
"Bleh, spare me that sweet crap," groaned Sol. "I'm just here because I can finally get away from Cole..."
"I just hope Finral comes soon..." Gordon mumbled to himself, "... cold nights like these are often ideal for being around with more people."
Agartha, Mimo Amazon, Clover/Heart Kingdom Borderlands, Night
"... Urgaahhh, I can't sleep with these idiots snoring," Angra groaned out as she squirmed out of her own bedsheets amidst the tangle of limbs from her new so-called friends of "Illuminati" suddenly deciding to crash into her own room due to their being cluttered with their own shit (corpses and butcher tools for Rades, science shit for Sally, a whole library for Valtos, and Alister's own room allegedly collapsing under him, miraculously avoiding to get crushed into paste).
She looks at Rades, who himself was sleeping like a drunkard passed out on the streets that she saw every night she'd left for home. Sally herself was nude and her buttocks and breasts pressed against Valtos's face and Rades's arm respectively, Alister was still as a tumbled-over statue, and Helena herself curled atop his chest like a plush toy in a child's arms.
"... At least Rades doesn't smell like rancid milk." Angra remarked.
"Nah, ya stink to high heaven, girly," Mainyu pointed out, "guess you're finally used to it to not even notice it."
Letting out a low grumble to herself, Angra walks out of the room and out into the lit hallways, where she finds the beaked doctor, Orme Corovan, walking about with the lantern carrying a soul of a certain mage named Nikolas in it.
"... I'd advise you go back to sleep," the doctor with the beaked mask ordered. "If it's because of snoring, I have earplugs on my person."
"Why don't you sleep?" asked Angra, "I mean, you're a doctor and all, but even I heard that they need breaks."
Orme goes silent for a brief moment before replying.
"... Because someone's got to," Orme remarked. "I mean, I'm no stranger to staying up a bit late."
"And aside from these lines glowing around us, I myself make a good source of light," Nikolas remarked.
"... Right," remarked Angra as she blankly stared at the two luminaries, trying to find something else to talk about just to make the silence less awkward. "... So, you guys joined before me, right? So why did you guys come out here for other than ripping the Clover Kingdom a new one?"
Orme lets out a low grumble as he held his head in slight discomfort.
"... I think him being okay with the fact that I'm a sentient blob of plasma trapped in my own nightlight is enough of an indication that we both have serious baggage," Nikolas remarked. "Contrary to popular belief, not all douchebag classists aren't born that way, they're simply raised to be that way."
"... So why join the group that wants to destroy a kingdom full of people who don't know what they're getting into?" asked Angra.
"... Even so, they willingly took my body away without a second thought," replied Nikolas. "They're beyond saving now. All I have left are my memories and a good friend that I can't directly help."
"... It's alright," said Orme, his voice now sounding slightly strained, "as long as I can hear you... I'll be okay."
"... Yeah," Angra thought as she then begun to think about Magna and her family back home. "... I guess."
You do realize that you're way beyond the point of return, right? Mainyu mocked much to Angra's dismay, You and I are two halves of the same whole, ergo, what I want, is for your own good, sweetie.
Angra bites her tongue hard as she could just to keep her own mouth shut. She could taste her own blood seeping out from her cut. All she can do now was keep going, and hope that one day, the Demon's [Ambition] clinging onto her soul would be satiated.
Leviathan's Beached Zone, Clover Island, No Man's Waves, Late Night
"What do you want from us?" Astaroth asked, his head finally reattached back into its proper place. "More importantly, who the hell are you?"
"What I am, I am a nobody," the nameless female replied back as she kept her Big Iron fixed next to the boy's temple, "what I want, is for Leviathan to return to the sea."
"For what?" asked Claudius, "you own that giant lug of blubber that was created by the creation's most schizophrenic bitch?"
"He's my purpose!" the anonymous hostile barked out, "I don't care what happens to me, but you sure as hell care what happens this little brat if I pull the trigger, huh!?"
"There's no mana coming from her..." Thor remarked, "... I know that humans don't have as much mana as us, but not having any at all?" he continued to speak as he continued to look at the woman, noticing her borderline-emaciated frame, bones sticking though her skin, her chapped lips, and her sole eye's whites being slightly yellow, all three being symptoms of malnutrition. How in the actual hell is she still alive looking like that? he though.
"Please, don't hurt Baldr!" Sinmara cried out. "He's only a child!"
"And I already killed one," the nameless one replied with a sneer, "unless you let Leviathan back into the waters, I won't hesitate, bitch!"
Their options were scarce. On one hand, they can simply rush in onto her and kill her on the spot at the cost of losing another at their volition, and the fact that the nameless woman might have something else up her sleeves that she hasn't played yet, and there was her weapon, which not only can kill any living being with one shot like the Tanegashima that they've used back at the dungeon, but judging by how she was able to fire two consecutive shots without reloading, it can be inferred that her intellect was something greater than they can anticipate compared to other mages back at the mainland, indicating her unpredictability and especially temper, putting Baldr's life in further potential peril. And should Baldr die, a schism will be formed between the Fallen Angels and the Dark Elves, and Astaroth, no matter what, would do in his utmost behavior to not repeat Leif's fate unto another.
On the other hand, simply returning Leviathan to the sea as to her demand might save Baldr, but said unpredictability from the nameless hostile might end up being a case of "out of the frying pan, and into the fire", but unlike last time, they have no ship to escape with should she command Leviathan to flood the island back underneath the sea, likely due to how little she cares of her own life, not helping matters being her seemingly-deranged psychosis exacerbating her unpredictability. Unlike other fights that Astaroth had, this wasn't about a contest of strength, but rather, a matter of delicate precision.
In short, they find themselves in a no-win situation, where either probability will result in most of them dying, with the nameless one benefitting regardless of outcome.
"... Claudius, what do we do?" asked Astaroth, "we can take her, but it'll mean nothing if we can't save Baldr."
"I'm thinking, so that I won't let her win," Claudius gritted through his teeth.
Claudius had to be punctual when dealing with this kind of crisis, but his sin of [Pride] was now being contested against the hostile's lack of her own. If there's no way for reasoning with her...
"So, I must ask you..."
... Then he'll simply stall for time. Or at least, until a new escape plan comes along.
"... How did you end up here?"
To Be Continued...
Author's Notes: My current college semester is just fucking weird.
On and off classes, schedules being shifted around sporadically, assignments being done on the drop of a hat, and everything else going on outside and at home now moved in by my mom's friend is really too much to keep up just in one single week.
That aside, brought a few older characters back, started replaying Fire Emblem Three Houses, and life goes on.
That said, when writing Baldr's hostage situation, I admittedly wrote myself into a no-win situation, so I'm going to need some time to think of a way out for that. Otherwise, this is technically a prelude.
Also, the title, [Devil in Your Heart] is a SiM single, and unlike my other titles referencing western music, this title is Japanese, and not because of I ran out of ideas.
So, what do you guys think of this Saga?
Please leave a comment or a review, for I'd like to know what my audience are thinking!