Chapter Twenty-Three: The Black Snake Prophecy

High in the Mountains of Wrath, in the world of Makai, a black and swirling vortex opened in midair. Three figures appeared, first illuminated in the Pseudospace, then coming into view. Yusuke Urameshi, Kazuma Kuwabara, and the demon Hiei appeared from the dark abyss of Pseudospace. The vortex was gone as soon as it had come, leaving them alone in this horrific place.

An immediate shiver ran through Kuwabara's body as he looked around the rocky terrain they had appeared in. Between the jagged rocks he could see in the distance, the dark gray spires standing up from the mountain, and the nasty, brown color of the jagged land beneath their feet, this was hardly the most welcoming place he could enter.

Yusuke yawned, stretching his arms up for a few seconds, before he reached his right hand down to scratch his side. "Man, that was a long ride. Remind me to bug Koenma about finding us a faster route. That felt like it took forever."

Hiei nodded his head, taking a few steps forward as he did. "We can't afford to spend that long in pseudospace; an entire chapter went by without us so much as making an appearance."

"Uh...what?" Yusuke and Kuwabara exchanged blank looks, then both focused their eyes on Hiei. Confusion was evident on their faces.

Hiei's eyes turned back to Yusuke and Kuwabara, and for a moment they were locked in a staredown. "What?" he asked, with a menacing glare in his voice.

"Nothing," Yusuke shrugged. "So, Three Eyes, care to tell us where we are?" The barren landscape leading down into the foothills was already beginning to grate at his eyes. Between the gloomy red sky with lightning flashing through it and the dark, gray spires he could see farther down the mountain, the only recognizable feature Yusuke could identify was a blackened, dead stick of a tree sticking up forty feet to his left.

Hiei didn't even hesitate to speak, as he walked ahead on the path leading down the mountain. "Judging by the view, I would say we are at the beginnings of the Mountains of Wrath. The Forest of Lost Souls is at the bottom, from which begins the Forbidden Swamp. If the fool I beat information out of the last time we were here is to be believed, then the enemy's lair rests in the Plains of Regret, on the opposite end of the forest as the swamp."

Kuwabara shuddered, following after Hiei. "You guys aren't real big on attractive sounding names, are you? I think I'd rather go after the Forbidden Swamp after hearing all those names."

"The reason it's forbidden," Hiei snarled, "is that idiots and fools like yourself that wander into the swamp are devoured by demons of a magnitude you couldn't even imagine." He stopped looking back at Yusuke and Kuwabara, trying to express to them exactly what it was they were walking into this time. "If you think that this will be like Maze Castle, you can relieve yourself of such self-important delusions. Maze Castle was surrounded by a barrier wall erected by the Reikai government; the idiots and fools who made their home there were the only demons that could get in. This is Makai, home to creatures of such power that they even the mighty Toguro Brothers would have been outclassed in the darker realms.

Your world is lucky, detective; Reikai has walls and barriers in place to ensure that only the smallest and weakest of demons can make it through their defenses. Such fortune is not present here." Hiei turned back, looking down the mountains at the forest below, and the spires standing up from it. A hint of reminiscence was evident in his voice, and he almost sounded happy to be back. "This is Makai, the demon world, at its most furious. Do not let your guard down in this place, ever, or it will be the last thing you ever do." With those words, he walked on, leaving Yusuke and Kuwabara with his words of warning.

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CRACK

The tree splintered the moment Chuu's back was smashed against it. Standing above him was a powerful demon, the one that had spoken the moment before. Still encloaked in his brown robe, he lifted Chuu by the fur collar of his jacket, opening his jaws wide to bite.

Frost blew in from behind the demon, freezing up his robe and forcing him to stumble. This attack from behind, by the ice master Touya, managed to free Chuu enough to let him grasp the demon's robe and hoist him overhead. "Was a fine ride," Chuu grinned, "now le' me retun th' favor!" Without another word, he bashed the crocodile's head into the tree to his right, smashing him down against the ground.

Jin whisked past overhead, with three of the brown robes in his pursuit. Whipping around in midair, he looked back towards them while flying flat on his back, closing one eye and sticking out his tongue to provoke them. He couldn't see the tree behind him, and as the concealed creatures closed in on him, he drew closer and closer to it until, at the last second, he disappeared completely.

The lead brown robe smashed headfirst into the tree, while Jin reappeared above the other two, his speed carrying him faster than their eyes could register as he twirled with each in hand, spinning them bodily around himself and letting go to send them flying down into the dirt and wood below.

The battle had raged for almost twenty minutes now, and Touya could feel it starting to wear on him. These freakish robed guys just KEPT COMING, every time he took out one, he could swear that two more appeared to replace it. "ENOUGH!" He yelled at the top of his lungs, already frustrated by this army of demons. Frost emanated from his body, smothering the grass and trees and completely covering the meadow where Nightmare's grave lay.

Jin stopped in midair, wrapping his hands over his arms and shivering. "Mind warnin' a bloke a'fore's you do that, next time?"

Robes froze into ice from the blast of ice, freezing nearly all of the demon horde in their places. Chuu guarded himself by grabbing a tree branch above him, and Rinku was already well off the ground, held up by one of his yo-yos. "Touya!" Rinku whined. "Don't cut it so close!"

Touya smirked, watching the frozen demons struggling to move. The crocodile was the first to break free, which neither Touya nor Chuu was surprised about. He was clearly the leader, they had gotten that impression just from talking to him. Touya curled his hand, using his mastery over cold to freeze the air within his palm. As the air froze, it moved outwards, creating a blade of solid ice in his hand. "Chuu, if we rush him together, we should be able to at least take him down."

Chuu nodded his head, wiping blood from his mouth before letting his feet carry him to the side a bit. Getting his stagger going again, he knew he had to do this quick. More would be coming, of course, the stream seemed endless. They needed to get out of here and the needed to do it now. "Jin, grab Rinku and get outta 'ere. We'll follow when we can."

Lowering his sword to strike, Touya lunged forward towards the crocodile. However, before he could get so much as four steps forward, a powerful surge of energy struck him from behind. He heard a noise, a horrible shrieking noise attacking his ears and forcing him to his knees. The noise drove on, shattering several of the weaker demons as they stood frozen on the battlefield, and sending Chuu offguard.

Jin rose higher into the sky to escape the noise. His height gave him an advantage; he could see what was attacking the others on the ground, and it wasn't pretty. Or, to be more specific, it was pretty, but it definitely wasn't good. A woman, dressed in a black kimono similar to those worn by the Grim Reapers of Reikai, stood with her right hand facing the battlefield. A snarling mouth was evident on her palm, something she definitely hadn't been born with. The mouth was creating the horrible shriek that was debilitating ally and enemy alike.

Jin knew he had to strike. Swirling his right arm in circles to build up a good whirlwind for his Tornado Fist technique, a move that creates a force of wind so powerful around the arm that it forms a tornado to add more power to his physical attack, he dropped from the sky and flew straight for the woman.

"Le'ggo of my friends, you squawkin' ol' crow!" Jin yelled through the air as he flew, though his voice was muffled by the horrible shriek. Drawing closer, the woman didn't even see him before he smashed his Tornado Fist straight into the left side of her face. Pouring the full force of the tornado into her, the woman was sent flying until her head smashed against the tree behind her. Shaking off his fist, Jin didn't need the silence of her shriek's absence to know she was down and out. She was definitely unconscious after a blow like that. For all he knew, she might even be dead.

"GUYS!" Before Jin had too much time to flatter himself over the shot that saved the team, Rinku's voice was heard yelling through the tree. With his throat clutched in the left claw of the crocodile demon, Rinku was now at the mercy of the enemy.

"Rinku!" Chuu snarled, pulling himself from the kneel he had been put in by the woman's shriek. "You 'arm him, scaley, and ah'll make mah'self some new boots outta yer hide." He was now regretting not bringing one of his stronger drinks with him. He hadn't expected to be ambushed by the weird robed brigade.

Rinku slipped one of his yo-yo's from his pocket, trying to finger it, but to no avail. The croc ripped the yo-yo from his grasp, crushing it in the palm of his right claw before letting the dust and pieces fall to the ground. "This is our territory," the crocodile snarled. "You are not invited here, and there is nothing you can do to stop the prophecy."

"What the blimey hell are you blabberin' about!" Chuu yelled in frustration. "You attacked us!"

"You will come with us," the beast snarled, "or I will break this child in half. If you make me ask again, I will break you all in half."

Rinku struggled in the beast's grip. Trying to speak, he found himself slightly strangled by its powerful, brutish claw. "G...gu...h...lp..." He could see Chuu's eyes, knew his old friend was trying to find a way to help him, but he knew the beast would crush him without a moment's hesitation. However, what scared him the most was the cold look in Touya's eyes. Fear welled up within him when he saw that; he knew what it meant. Touya had already marked him off as dead.

Touya backed towards Chuu, and Jin slowly dropped towards Touya. "Gale?" Jin whispered, though he knew the answer without having to ask.

"Gale," Touya whispered back. This was his favorite technique, one he had spent ages practicing with Jin to master. Channeling his energy to match Jin's, he prepared his part of the technique, the ice.

Chuu was still trying to think of a way to get Rinku away from the crocodile when they struck. Jin and Touya, channeling both of their energies into the same space to create a powerful whirlwind of ice. "FROZEN GALE!" they yelled at once, their energies fusing together to create a powerful vortex in the center of the meadow, drawing in air from all around and sending out a powerful burst of frozen energy in all directions.

Rinku's eyes widened as he saw the technique, before he felt the ice beginning to cover his body. The crocodile backed away quickly, bounding away from the gale with Rinku in tow, more an afterthought than a hostage, as Rinku's head and body smacked against the rocks as the demon took off, held loosely in one of his claws.

Finally, the crocodile released his grip on Rinku entirely when he bounded after the woman that lay unconscious against the tree. Put down by one of Jin's powerful Tornado Fists after having very little training save for what she had taught herself in the service of Koenma, the croc knew that his masters would be very displeased if he left her for dead. So instead, he released his grip on Rinku to grab the woman up in his arms and carry her away. He hated to retreat like this, but that Frozen Gale technique was simply too much for him to face right now; he had no desire to have his scales frozen solid. "Come on, Megumi," he snarled to the unconscious thing as he carried her in her arms. "You shouldn't have even gotten involved."

Rinku struggled his way back towards the others, but the Frozen Gale was in his path. As it threw off more ice, it started to move as a tornado, wavering through the trees and whipping frost in all directions. Rather than uproot the forest as an ordinary tornado would, the Frozen Gale instead settled for icing everything it ran over, leaving frost and cold in its wake.

"C'mon, let's get you up and outta 'ere," Rinku heard Jin's voice from above. Before he could respond, he felt Jin lifting him up by the back collar of his shirt, and he yelped from the return to the position.

"Oh, NOT FUNNY, guys!" Rinku yelled as Jin carried him up and over the forest. He could've been killed and he knew it. "Don't attack when I'm in the line of fire, idiots!" Down below, Touya and Chuu had already disappeared. Rinku could only guess they had headed back towards the edge of the woods, and the safety that lay on the other side.

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"Then you failed?" A woman dressed in a black robe glared down at the crocodile on the ground. "Lord Tsarakino left you with one order, Tarvus. You were to ensure that no one who witnesses the Queen's grave leaves alive. And you couldn't even do THAT right."

Tarvus knelt on the cold, stone floor of the abandoned place of worship. Candles placed along the walls dimly lit the surroundings, with a tattered and shredded red carpet leading from the door to the pedestal. Two steps lead up to the pedestal where the woman in the black robe stood behind a wooden podium. A parchment rested on the podium, one that every member of their order would fight to the death to protect.

The woman snarled, looking down at the parchment. "We need to keep those Reikai fools running after Fjerin's slack-jawed operation for just a little longer. You know that. Why do you think we've gone to so much trouble, Tarvus? We need just a little more time to prepare. All the pieces are in place now, but we can't strike until the opportunity presents itself."

Tarvus closed his eyes, unwilling to speak out against the woman that was swiftly becoming Lord Tsarakino's right hand. "Yes, master," was all he said.

"Good," the woman smiled, pulling back the hood of her black robes. Her silver hair, released from the hood of the robe, shimmered lightly against her demonic, red flesh. Two horns rose from her head, curling together to create a V shape over her forehead. And covering her ears, there were two black nubs, from which a black, glass visor came out and ran across her eyes, concealing them from view. Lady Kitrone had gained much respect from her work with Lord Tsarakino recently. In this place, she was practically his right hand.

Smiling, she turned her attention back down to the parchment on the podium. "It's almost time, Tarvus. Can you feel it? Lord Tsarakino's plans are finally coming into fruition; it's almost time. He's really going to pull it off."

Drawing in a deep breath, she began to read from the prophecy, reading the words of the parchment that their secret order had dedicated their lives to. Just a single passage for now, to remind them of what they were doing here. She hoped it would remind Tarvus of what they were trying to accomplish, to ensure that he kept his mind on the goal.

The Flesh, formed of a vessel of innocence, shall be Her hand and guide Her back.

The Eye, echoing its shadows of demonic power, shall open the way and carve the passage for Her.

The Blood, the pure, sanctified blood of a human psychic, shall lubricate Her entrance and sanctify the Flesh for Her return.

And the Heart, torn from the Queen herself, shall join with the Body, the Eye, and the Blood, and make them Hers.

Flesh, Eye, Blood, Heart, Flesh, Eye, Blood, Heart, Flesh, Eye, Blood, Heart

The Four will become One, and the vessel shall be made ready. And the rivers shall run red with blood, for none will be spared the wrath of the Demon Queen.