Disclaimer: "The Sorcerer Hunters are not slaves! They cannot be owned by any mortals seeking to exploit their ultimate power and uber coolness, it cannot be allowed! But then again, Akahori and Omishi aren't really standard mortals are they? No! They are Gods of manga! So they are the only ones that may own the great and mighty Sorcerer Hunters!" Carrie pauses for breath before smiling happily, "But anyway, on with the long awaited finale of The Necromancer's Marque!" She waits for applause, and slowly her smile fades as the silence continues, "Well screw you too then!"
Fun With Names Part 6:
Carrot Carrot Fo Farrot, Banana Fana Fo Farrot, Me Mi Mo Marrot, Carrot.
Carrie glares, "Gimme a break, I'm running out of useful information here..."
Sorcerer Hunters:
The Necromancer's Marque
by
C M Forde
Before Marron could react Rice 's voice ceased and he knew that she was gone. He craned his head away from the unfolding battle below him to see if he could perchance see the young sister leave, but it was too late, all that stood before him was Mama, her eyes soaked with tears. He swallowed once, regretting the question he was about to ask, but knowing that it had to be done. Yet even as he opened his mouth to speak Mama shook her head, mumbling almost to herself, but loud enough for Marron to hear easily. "Sacher Torte...after all that you have put the world through, it is a bitter irony that your greatest sin will be our saving grace."
Daughter spun, "Mama, what are you talking about? What's going to happen to Rice?" Her voice quivered in the night air, as if the fire's heat were distorting it as well as the air.
"See for yourself, she's right there." The woman raised a hand and Marron turned back to the battle to see Rice standing amidst the flames like an orphaned scion of some fallen god. Marron tried to call out to her, but his voice died in his throat as pain ripped through him. A piece of his soul had been stolen scant moments before, and he was still recovering from the wound. The battle raged all around the girl, but she seemed oblivious to it, not seeing the fevered duel between Gateau and Vue, Tira and Senti, Chocolat and Entendu. As the Sorcerer Hunters wrested the attention of the lesser Necromancers, the Haz Knights fought a desperate battle with the combined might of Espirit and The God of Destruction. From the outset it was a losing battle, with The God of Destruction behind them, the Necromancers' powers were unimaginable, it was only a matter of time before the city fell beneath their might. And there, untouched by the chaos and war around her, stood a sister of the Stella Chruch, quiet and unassuming, as if she were watching a sunset instead of an apocalypse.
"Mama, what's going on? Why is Rice down there?!" Daughter's voice had become more than quivering, it was the desperate plea for the young nun's life. "She shouldn't be there, it's not safe!"
"You're wrong daughter, she is the only one that should be there." Mama's tone was cold stone, as sad and eternal as granite. Marron didn't try to look at her, his eyes were transfixed upon the visage of the young woman standing amidst the fighting. He wanted to run out to her, to take her away from the danger, to protect her; but somehow he knew that it would be a horrible folly. Even had he been able to do more, Marron knew that he would have sat and watched as he did now, this was not his fight.
"Stop!" Rice's voice rung like a thousand church bells over the dim of battle, and for a moment, everyone did, en the great God of Destruction himself was left immobile. Only the fire was left untouched by her commanding word, continuing to burn away the city that they all called home. Espirit turned to face the girl, his arms outstretched in a mocking gesture, the sword containing Yaksha still clenched within his fist. The necromancer watched the girl for what may have been seconds, or an hour, Marron could not be sure in the deafening silence that had followed Rice's one spoken word. Then, a smile crept across his face and he exploded into a fit of maniacal laughter that seemed to encompass the whole area. A flick of his wrist brought the tip of his sword to point at Rice, and the great creature at his command opened its jaws to accomidate its master. It was too sudden, none of the Haz Knights could react in time to save her. Rice, the girl that had stumbled onto Marron at the beach, the girl he had sacrificed his soul to protect, the girl who had given him his first kiss, was obliterated by a ball of fire spat uncerimoniously by one of the many heads of The God of Destruction.
Marron heard screaming, and knew distantly that one voice in the chorus surronding him was in fact his own. Daughter's scream was perhaps the worst, it was a scream of lost innocence, like a fragile vace being scattered across the floor. Tears stung Marron's eyes, though wether they were from the smoke, the pain, or Rice's death he couldn't be sure, he hoped desperately it was the latter. Carrot had done it, he had committed foul murder on the very doorstep of sanctuary, had killed a blessed sister of The Stella Church, Marron knew that his brother's soul was lost forever.
Then, the smoke and heat died away for a moment, and Marron was silenced by what he saw. Where Rice had stood, the street was a heat warped destruction, its fine wrought stone shattered and melted by the inhuman flame of his brother's creation. What was left of the girl's clothes smoked sickeningly from where it lay, blackened to ash and fused with the stone it lay upon. And standing amidst it all was Rice herself, seemingly untouched by the flames that had destroyed what was around her. The young woman was nude, though it didn't seem like it; this was the first time Marron had seen her not covered from head to toe in her wimpled habit, and the sight struck him like an arrow to the chest. Crawling upon her skin like a thousand black serpents was a miriad of tattoos, at least it seemed like quite a number, when he looked closely Marron found that in actuality it was but one tattoo spread across her body in a latticwork of black vines. No inch of skin not on her face was left uncovered by this artistry of ink, and Marron could not bring himself to look away until one phrase broke the silence of the battlefield, three words that sprung from Espirit's lips like a curse. "The Necromancer's Marque!"
"That's impossible!" The words came from Senti, "The Marque can't be completed, it's impossible! It has to be some trick!" The beautiful necromancer glared at Rice and snarled, "Explain yourself girl!"
Rice smiled, a smile that Marron had never seen on her face before, a smile not unlike one that Chocolat would give to a defeated enemy. "Though he may be dead, the legacy of Sacher Torte lives on. He found a way to circumvent the problems behind the spell. You see, necromancers are selfish and think only of their own personal gain, so they could never understand the key to utilizing the marque." She laughed as the necromancer was taken aback by the use of Sacher's name, "One who wears the spell cannot use magic, so you considered it a weakness, but I am a parsoner, who could not use magic to begin with. I ask you, where is the weakness then?"
"Then how did you defeat the divine gaurdians? A parsoner could never do hope to stand up to their might!" The blonde was almost raving now, but she seemed to be the only one with the strength to do so. Espirit and the rest were shocked to the core by seeing a legend come to life, a dream made into a nightmarish reality.
Rice just shrugged, "I was just a girl then, I couldn't have defeated the gaurdians, but I didn't have to. I was fostered by Sacher Torte, the one closest to God. The creatures he defeated," with one finger Rice traced the lines of the tattoo across her breast, "I absorbed.He planned to use me as his tool, to bring about a new world using my power. Thankfully, he was stopped, and I was raised here in the chruch. A secret to be kept in the shadows until I was needed, an ace in the hole if you will. You cannot imagine the torment I went through recieving these, the agony that was bestowed upon me as a child, all for the sake of power. People like you, people that seek only power are the scum of the earth, and I will make sure that you don't succeed."
It was Vue who moved first, trying to outflank the girl in the same maneuver he had used to take Gateau's god. This time, the giant took but one step before he was gone. Marron could not explain what happened, it was like watching a statue of sand blow away in a breeze, one moment Vue was there, and the next he was wisked away to mingle with the smoke choked air that surrounded them. That the man was dead, Marron was sure, but Rice hadn't moved a finger, hadn't even looked in his direction. Entendu ran, he sprinted back towards the fre, and just as Vue before him, the tiny man was blown peacefully away, never to be seen again. Marron swallowed, he had never seen that much power before, but it felt like nothing. For all he could tell, it had been some natural wind that had dissolved the two necromancers, there were no reverberations of power at all.
Espirit shrieked, "No, this can't be happening! Get her, get her now!" The God of Destruction wailed in what at first seemed like rage, but within moments Marron could tell that it was not anger that stirred the beast, but fear. Fear of the young woman who stood before it, naked and powerful, clad only in tattoos that should never have existed. Another great blast of fire shot forth from its gaping maw, but it too was whisked away like a leaf caught in the wind. Then, Rice began to do something, something that caused the complex tattoo across her body to writhe in agony or pleasure, and Marron knew what was going to happen. The God of Destruction could not be so easily dispatched as a necromancer, the divine gaurdians would have to be released from the confinement in order to kill the beast. Rice screamed in pain and torment as she dropped to her knees, the black marque on her body shifting colors, rearranging the spectrum as the gaurdians prepared to take form once again, and Marron knew, that this process would kill Rice. He wanted to scream, to yell and cry out to her, to tell her that she didn't have to make this sacrifice, but he couldn't bring his voice to his lips. Somewhere, deep in his severed soul, he knew that he was wrong, that she did have to follow through with this. His brother and Rice would both die this night, but for the true greater good of humanity.
Then, Chocolat broke the spell. Tears pouring from her eyes, she ran towards Rice screaming at the top of her lungs, "No!" It was the only word that the red head could pull from the depths of her mind, the situation was too intense for anything else. No thought ruled her actions, only emotion, emotions that Marron knew all too well, though he tried to hide it. Love, commitment, and regret. Denial was the only thing she could bring to her lips, the only thought that any of them, Mama, Tira, even the Haz Knights, could muster. And it worked, for Rice hesitated long enough to let the ambitions of the necromancers decide the fate of that night.
With another scream echoing Chocolat's, Senti buried a dagger to the hilt in Espirit's neck. "This is your fault! It's all your fault!" Blood scattered through the air as Senti buried the blade again and again into Espirit's body, staining her hands to the elbows with crimson. "I'm not going to die for you!" When the man died, so did his hold on the magic that imprisoned the four gods, and so did his control of The God of Destruction. With a sound like a shattering dream, Carrot was once again himself, lying before the Haz Knights and the Sorcerer Hunters, innocent as a newborn child.
As the smoke cleared Rice was given Tira's cloak to cover herself with, while Carrot had to make do with Gateau's jacket wrapped around his waist. There were no serious injuries in the fight, and within a few hours Marron was feeling fine. Senti had disappeared after her deathblow to her leader, and Marron hoped that he would never see the woman again. The Haz Knights mad quick work of the fire, and most of the city was left unscathed by the destruction. As most of the gang went off back towards their beds and a well deserved sleep, Marron was pulled aside by the young nun. "I'm glad that you're alright." She said, eyes of deppest sable gazing up at him.
"It isn't me you should have been worried about, you were in more danger than I was." Marron felt a flush rush to his cheeks and he tried to hide it by rubbing his nose.
She smiled and leaned up to kiss him quickly on the lips, "I'll be seeing you around handsome. Don't be a stranger."
He nodded, "Goodbye."
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Author's Note: And there, it's finally finished. Are all of you fans happy now? I know this one's longer than the rest, but there was just so much that needed to be said. I might one day write a sequel to this, but for now I think I'll leave it as it is. Either way, I hope that you've enjoyed this exeedingly cheesily romantic style fic, and that you've endured the slim possibility that Marron might actually like girls. Don't forget to tell me how wonderful or awful you think this story is, and I do accept e-mails. Hasta.
Love Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me.
-Carrie Michelle Forde