Alec decided that after much consideration that Yuri was a lunatic. Stark raving mad. He had to be. Only a lunatic would actually enjoy bush bashing. He scowled darkly as yet another branch flicked into his face, opening a scratch across the bridge of his nose. He suspected that his face resembled a chess board, his hair kept falling into his eyes and….was Yuri whistling? Alec gritted his teeth and contemplated murder.
Unlike Alec, Yuri was enjoying the bush bashing. For some reason, he was in a good mood, and indulging his hidden desire for wanton destruction of unsuspecting foliage was strangely therapeutic.
"Let me guess, the next time you're angry, we're going to mutilate poor innocent trees?" Death Emperor commented. "If we're ever short for money you could work as a clearer or lumberjack or even an engineer."
"Why an engineer?" Yuri asked aloud. He waved one of his claws at an offending knot of vines, untangling it as if it was the Gordian Knot. He grinned at the destruction and turned his head to see if Alec appreciated it. Alec was scowling at him, blood dripping off his nose like tinted rain.
"Because you like demolishing things. And explosions. And other forms of destruction. Why not an engineer?" Death Emperor replied innocently, oblivious to Alec's bad mood.
"You…are a madman!" Alec exploded. "How can you possibly enjoy this?" He gestured with his arm to encompass the whole experience. Yuri shrugged.
"I suspect it's the whole destruction thing. It relieves stress you know," Yuri replied. Alec rolled his eyes.
"That does say a lot about you, you know. That's not a good thing, by the way," Alec replied.
"Why? What's wrong with a bit of mass destruction? Always kept the followers in line," Death Emperor replied.
"Followers? You?" Yuri replied incredulously. Alec frowned in confusion, then his face cleared.
"Your fusion soul, I assume?" he asked. Yuri nodded absently.
"Of course I had followers! I was a god!" Death Emperor replied indignantly. Yuri smiled a slow, lazy smile and crossed his arms.
"Evidently gods are dependent on followers," he mused. "So, why don't we keep running into ex-gods? Surely there should be heaps of them running around." Death Emperor spluttered.
"Maybe you have to have an affinity toward them?" Alec suggested. "Like with elemental magic. Someone with say, Greek blood might be able to call upon the Greek pantheon. You..um…where were your parents born again?"
"I'm a half-blood. Half Russian, half Japanese. I know, I know, it's a strange combination. To cut a long story short, Dad was on a mission, met Mum and took her home," Yuri replied a manner that suggested that he had been asked that question many times in his life. "The eye colour though, I have no idea." Alec waved away the last comment.
"Okay, you probably could call on Slavic and Japanese gods. Maybe some others, I don't know. This is just a theory, mind you. For all I know, it could have nothing to do with that at all," Alec replied, laughing.
"Actually, he's eerily close. Nice to know that someone around here uses the intelligence that God gave them," Death Emperor said, sounding vaguely disquieted.
"Ah, Death Emperor," Yuri asked, tone innocent and finger pointed in the air as if to point out the inconsistency. "I know for a fact that you aren't an omnipotent being, cause if you were, we wouldn't get into as much trouble. So how can a god give intelligence to anyone?"
"There are gods and there are gods. Must I spell everything out to you?" Death Emperor fumed. Yuri grinned, a baring of teeth that demonstrated that Yuri knew exactly how much he was annoying Death Emperor and didn't care. Alec looked at that expression and winced in sympathy for Death Emperor. In fact, Alec was surprised that Yuri hadn't hunted down someone to perform an exorcism. Surely someone with the Demon Eyes wasn't that rare. Or, failing that, simple Spectral vision would suffice.
"Actually, considering that you're my parental figure…" Yuri's voice trailed off. Death Emperor had decided that he had had enough and was currently trying to grab hold of his wellspring. Yuri's face twisted as he realised what Death Emperor was trying to do. He closed his eyes against the pain and prepared to fight Death Emperor off.
"For Christ's sake!" Alec snapped. The pain stopped and Yuri got a distinct feeling of apprehension from Death Emperor. He opened his eyes, half dreading what he would see.
Alec glared at him, hanks of blond hair tumbling into his eyes and masking some of the cuts. Hands on his hips and feet spread apart, he didn't look particularly happy.
"He hasn't lost it. Thank you Lady Luck," Death Emperor whispered fervently.
"Hasn't lost what?" Yuri demanded. "And what the hell was that for?" He rubbed his head and pouted. Alec, still fuming, gritted his teeth.
"That was because you were being an evil little troll," Death Emperor replied angrily. "Genetic drift has a lot to answer for."
"Someone in my family was a troll? Isn't that not only physically impossible, but really..eewy," Yuri asked, face twisted in distaste.
"Would certainly explain a lot," Alec said shortly. He appeared to be calmer, which Yuri took as a good sign. He still had no idea what was making Death Emperor so edgy around Alec, and had no wish to find out in the immediate future.
"It's possible. Just really disgusting," Death Emperor commented. Yuri grimaced in disgust.
"That is so gross. I can't even think of words to describe how gross that is," Yuri moaned. "Anyway, shouldn't we keep going? I think Alec wants to get to the next village before the end of the world."
"I'm reasonably confident that we can accommodate that. How about you lift one leg into the air and place it onto the ground a small distance from your body. Repeat for the other leg. That's called walking, something that you're in control of here," Death Emperor replied snidely.
"We only stopped so that you could taunt your fusion soul. Which I think is remarkably immature," Alec said. "Anytime you like." He gestured mockingly at the maze of green arms, tipped with vicious claws. Yuri brandished his claws and started to cut his way through the foliage. Alec sighed and followed in his wake.
*
"Alec?" Yuri asked. He heard Alec sigh wearily.
"Yes?" he replied heavily.
"How did they know you were a …whatsitcalled class?" Yuri's voice, while light, had an undertone of urgency to it. If it was a birthmark, or something equally obvious, then Yuri felt that he needed to know about it.
"A chimera class? I used too much magic in a small period of time. People with different affinities got to talking and realised that I had used more then one element. Hence the witch-hunt," Alec's voice was flat, as if he was trying to suppress his emotions.
"But, hadn't you lived there for years? Why now?" Yuri was genuinely confused. It seemed to be a common emotion for him recently.
"It doesn't matter," Alec voice brooked no further discussion into the matter. Yuri closed his mouth with a snap.
"He was trying to save you. Sacrificed his life to save yours. Don't you feel special now?" Death Emperor mocked.
"Shut up Death Emperor," Yuri muttered wearily. He ran his claws through his hair (disentangling the knots rather effectively), winced as a trailing edge cut into his scalp, shook his hair out of his eyes (and dislodging the shorn ends of his hair onto the ground) and continued hacking through the undergrowth.
"Look, Yuri. I'm sorry," Alec called to his retreating back. Yuri stopped and turned around.
"What for?" Yuri asked, puzzled look on his face.
"For being so short tempered. I don't know why I've been like that lately. Frankly, it's starting to disturb me," Alec said apologetically. Yuri shrugged.
"Nah, don't worry about it. I've put up with Death Emperor for years, I think I can handle one little chimera class," Yuri answered easily.
"I've got nothing on him," Death Emperor said ominously. Yuri frowned, stored it into his 'what Death Emperor has to say about Alec' area and didn't comment. He was starting to get an idea that whatever a chimera class was, it could kick Death Emperor's ass. Yuri mentally grinned at the mental image of Alec forcibly shoving his foot into Death Emperor's buttocks. Maybe if Alec was a bit more…physically imposing, then Yuri wouldn't find it so amusing. It's a bit hard to take someone seriously as a threat if they barely topped five foot. Yuri, from his height of 5'8, was hardly intimidated by someone as delicately built as Alec.
"I'm not little!" Alec said vehemently. "I just haven't started my growth spurt yet!" Yuri raised one eyebrow and deigned to comment. He personally thought that Alec had reached his adult height and should just accept it. After all, children's clothing is much cheaper then adult sizes. Yuri thought that this had to be an up side to being so incredibly short, and said so. Alec's death glare was priceless and beyond description.
"You know, he won't go into the village," Death Emperor said abruptly. "He can't."
"Huh?" Yuri whispered.
"Ask him if something whispers in the back of his mind, telling him that he has to be somewhere, do something," Death Emperor said cryptically. Yuri shrugged, rolled his eyes and called out to Alec.
"Hey, Death Emperor wants to know if something, and this is a direct quote by the way, whispers in the back of your mind, telling you stuff," Yuri yelled out.
"No," Alec said too quickly. Death Emperor snarled.
"He's lying!" Death Emperor pounced on Yuri's wellspring and started the fusion. Yuri, too startled to respond, cried out in shock. Alec turned around at the noise and stopped, eyes growing impossibly wide. Death Emperor leaped and landed on Alec, knocking him into the dirt.
"Now, Alec Kerry," Death Emperor rasped. "Tell me the truth. What does the voice tell you to do?" Alec whimpered in fear and closed his eyes. Galvanised by Alec's fear, Yuri fought off Death Emperor and reversed the fusion.
"Alec?" he asked hesitantly. No response. "Alec?" he asked louder.
"Ragnorok!" Alec yelled, his hands moving like terrified birds. Yuri, not recognising the spell, pushed himself off Alec and ran for cover. A convenient rock loomed and Yuri dived behind it. He would prefer something more substantial, like a fort; however those were in short supply.
The resulting fireworks display was very pretty, if you're into mass destruction things. If that doesn't excite you, it was rather terrifying. The sound effects added to the atmosphere. Once the noise and magic aura disappeared, Yuri tentatively poked his head from behind the rock.
"Alec? You know, that's what we call overkill. I know that Death Emperor's a little lacking in the people skills and all, but killing him, and me for that matter, is not the way to go about correcting his behaviour," Yuri called, trying to add levity to the situation.
Alec made an incoherent noise. Yuri looked over to Alec and his eyes widened. Alec was sitting in a largish crater with a charred tree being the only thing remaining relatively intact. As Yuri watched, the tree crumbled into dust.
"That's cool," Yuri said in awe. Alec's head turned slowly to Yuri's direction. Face pale and blank, blue eyes staring blindly at nothing, Alec barely registered Yuri.
"What?" Alec asked vaguely. He gestured feebly at the lifeless crater, as if trying to magic it back. Yuri moved fluidly toward him. While he didn't think it was likely that Alec could perform necromancy, why take the chance? His fears were unfounded, as Alec's eyes, still unfocused, rolled up into his head and he went limp.
"Damn," Yuri said with feeling. A feeling called "I'm sure freaking glad that's not me"
"And that's why chimera classes never live long," Death Emperor whispered. "They get Called to do something, or find something and most of the time they ignore the Call, or can't follow. Their powers get out of control and eventually they immolate themselves in their own magic if they don't answer the Call. I suspect that Master Kerry here has been ignoring the Call, thinking that he's going insane."
"That's horrible," Yuri whispered, afraid to wake Alec. "So, what's he searching for?"
If Death Emperor could shrug, he would have.
"Search me," he replied. Yuri winced at the bad pun. "Try asking him when he wakes up. I have a sneaking suspicion that we might be involved. We always are."
Authors Note: I'M BACK! And hiding from Maclaurin Polynomials (the CIA of the Mathematics world). Aenea (who also refers to herself as The God of Adding Bits Here and There, because The Ruler of the Fanfiction Universe title was already taken) has kindly offered her services as beta reader (actually what happens is that she steals the keyboard and adds stuff. Beta reader is shorter)
Bush bashing is Aussie slang for, well, bashing your way through the bush, scrub, forest, whatever you lot call it. I don't know if there is an equivalent outside of Australia, but feel free to correct me.
The Gordian Knot is a part of Greek mythology. It was a stupendously intricate knot, and the person to disentangle it would become king. Some Greek dude (I studied this myth four years ago, so I think I can forget small details) cut the thing in half and became king because he was a smart-ass. Back in those days, you were rewarded for being a smart ass. Pity that's not the case now…
The Ragnorok is the Norse Apocalypse, where everyone in Valhalla will come down and try to open a can of whup ass on the residents in Hell. This is all done to Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries, otherwise known as The Tank Song. (And yes, the minute I buy my tank, I'm driving to the nearest CD shop to buy a Wagner CD. What's a tank without the tank song?)
Thanks for the last chapter go to Greyfriers (may your stories never have a problem with formatting) and Kim (may your computer save often and without errors). Other people to thank for other chapters are Nat (is that short for anything?), Gutterfiend, Aenea, martius248, Natasha, Annael and aegis.
Next Chapter: Alec wakes up (and does not catch on fire, much to Aenea's dismay), an Italian swords mistress makes an appearance and the village is given up as a bad idea.