White Fire

White Fire

Chapter 9: The Great Southern War

Sesshyo's world spun, his vision was doubled and blurry, and his head felt like splitting.

He was faintly aware of the blood-demons at the base of the wall keeling over with laughter. Though he was barely conscious, his fierce pride swelled inside him like a explosion. With a savage snarl he leapt up from the ground and leaned over the wall, hurling a knife down toward the laughing demons. "Shut UP!!" he screamed. Flashing his hand around he brought his poison whip snaking down amongst the blood-demon troops. They quieted almost instantly; looking up with stunned, confused faces. The troop commander stared open mouthed at the Dog demon. Sesshyo glared at them, panting heavily. Sia glanced over at the demon lord. His usually bright gold eyes were a pale shade of sickly-looking yellow and were unusually wide. He was panting so hard now Sia was afraid he was going to hyper ventilate. He shuddered, and stepped back from the wall; raising a shaky hand, and running it through his sweat soaked bangs.

"What is wrong with me?" he muttered; turning to the huge wolf-demon. "I-I think I need to go sit down..." he said to Sia.

He began to work his way to the ladder leading down from the wall. Sia watched him for a moment, before turning back to the blood-demons, who were beginning to fall back into formation. "Those accursed humans better get here now."

*****

Sesshyo sat alone on the table in the Great Hall, shaking with fury. His mouth curled into a snarl, and he let out a great 'yowl' noise as he reached across the table and grabbed a glass vase and hurled it across the room, where it shattered against the opposite wall. He commenced with this until every item formerly on the table were in splinters against the walls. He rested his face in his hands,muttering softly to himself. He started, upon hearing a noise of soft footfalls against the stone floor. Looking up, his eyes rested on Katsumi, who was giving him a rather eerie stare. "Not feeling very well, are we?" she purred.

"No, as a matter of fact, I'm not; what would you know about it... anyway?" he finished slowly, looking up incrediously at the girl.

Katsumi simply laughed, twirling a small dagger idly with her right hand. "I know a lot more than you think I do. I'm not stupid."

Sesshyo stared at her for a minute, glaring at her suspiciously. "You're a..." he began; sliding of the table and walking toward her.

"A..." he stammered, reaching his pale hand out toward the child's face.

******

The humans had arrived; and with the Imperial Army one side, and the Southern forces on the other, Sia began to think that maybe they were making some headway with this. Until more blood-demons arrived on the back side of the Imperial forces. Trapped between the two, the human army was slowly being slaughtered. Sia cursed, his teeth flashing trough more enemies; where was that brat, Sesshyo?

******

Sesshyo's hand passed cleanly through the girls 'face'. "...a demon." he finished. She stared icily up at him.

"Yes." she stated simply. "How observant of you." She laughed. "Its been so amusing, watching you run around the castle 'Who did it? They have a spy here, I know it! Maybe its that brainless Sark! Oh, no; maybe it's Sia! Maybe it's Sesshyo himself!' You never thought of looking right under your nose. You almost had the poison beat back in the human village; I had to slip you some more while that old hag wasn't looking. Oh, isn't this perfect! I'll finally be rid of the mortal fool who calls himself my father; the Imperial forces will be crushed; the Southern empire will fall; and you won't even live long enough to witness their defeat. I'll have this entire land to myself; without a worthless fool like you to contest it. This land belonged to my family; then your stupid mongrel father stole it from them! This land is mine! How dare you waltz around here, allowing yourself to even believe you have the power to rule it!"

"Oh, yes; and I suppose a ten year-old can?" Sesshyo snapped weakly; his head was groggy, and Katsumi's rapid-fire speech was making his head spin.

"You really are stupid, aren't you? I'm as much a ten year-old as you are a pureblood. You have a soft spot for children; thus presents the perfect opportunity to regain my family's legacy."

"And your father and sister?"

"In your letter to the General, you simply stated you had his two daughters, you didn't inform him of our age. And my 'sister' is a foolish coward. It was simple enough task to silence her."

"This is all rather hard to take seriously, when spoken by a four foot-tall, ten year-old brat." the demon lord hissed.

"You have no right to call me a brat, you childish, mixed-breed puppy dog. I'm surprised your parents consider you old enough to be let out of the house for fear of you being eaten; oh, yes, I forgot. you don't have any parents, do you?" she laughed cruelly, choking mid-laugh as Sesshyo lunged at her, bring his claws down inches from her face.

"You little baka puppy; how dare you try to strike your master?! We should call the pound on this naughty puppy!" she snarled; springing back a few steps from the Dog demon, and swiftly changing from the form of the small child to her true form of a silver and black haired young woman. she would have been pretty, if not for the cold expression on her face.

"A chameleon. How quaint." Sesshyo snapped, walking slowly around the female demon. Her violently blue eyes followed him; watching him carefully. She smiled evilly. "I know what you're thinking, Sesshyo; you couldn't kill me on your best of days. Trying now will just kill you faster. Of, course... being as you have nothing to lose... you life is ruined; your friends will all die, and your rein has been shredded into a thousand tiny pieces... what would your father think?"

"Shut up, wench."

"You can attack me if that is what you wish," she continued without missing a beat. "If it will make you death any less painful, which, I can assure you, it will not."

"Pain or no, I'll live just to spite you,...Katsumi? Or what really is your name?"

"Being as you're not going to live anyway, it's Dialis."

"Good, I didn't want to not be able to put a name on your tombstone."

******

Sesshyo flashed Hyokama down in an arc, barely missing Dialis's head.

"Here kitty, kitty!" she teased, swinging her hand around and throwing some kind of dart-like blades of ice toward the young demon; they were sharper than knives, and cut easily through Sesshyo's shirt, and digging into his chest and side. One grazed the side of his face, blood streamed from the cut, and Sesshyo furiously wiped his face with his sleeve as the blood was running into his eye.

Dialis laughed at the demons half-red, half-white face; and commenced to hurling more ice blades. Sesshyo ducked under the next round, then muttered a chant, and ran his hand up the side of Hyokama's blade, cutting into his palm. "You seem to like dishing out poison to others, lets see how you like it yourself." he purred.