Really sorry about not updating sooner, but work is piling up around my ears and I'm getting none of it done. As for the chapter, clunky action and way too many paragraph breaks will follow, but hopefully it's not too bad. The soundtrack I had in mind for most of it was from Moonspell's Night Eternal album, mostly the title track and Moon in Mercury. Some nice fine blackened gothic symphonic metal with death/doom influences. Metal bands do love their subgenres.
A few notes: I'm using akuma as a loan word, so its singular and plural forms are the same, and I'm capitalizing the Innocence names because while it looks weird and pretentious it just differentiates them.
Anyhow, thanks very much to the reviewers, without which this would have been abandoned months ago. Hope you enjoy!
"Geez," panted Daisya, "How many of these guys are there?"
He skidded around a tree, and kicked the Charity Bell up to make it ricochet off the tree ahead and fly backwards into the akuma chasing him. It wouldn't be enough to finish it off — he wasn't too good at that — but it would give him some time to catch his breath.
Kanda swept in beside him, only just breathing heavily. Some people got all the luck.
"Akuma don't need to eat or sleep," he snapped, "If the Earl wanted, he could fill the houses with akuma."
Around the western outskirts of the town, there was a thin copse of trees littered in a wide circle around a farmstead. It wasn't much. A few young oaks, a few elm, and some bushes stretching between them with spindly branches. It was further back that it thickened into a real forest, but for now they stayed around the fence. Mostly Marie had thought it better to have some cover that none. Daisya didn't care to admit that, as usual, he had a point.
Speaking of which, the shifting chords of the Organum were coming from somewhere behind them. It was difficult to stay together — if you waited for too long in one spot, you were dead in the water. Or in the forest. Or on the plains.
Now the trees were getting thicker as they started to retreat, with Marie ahead of them. Daisya stayed next to Kanda, playing long range under Kanda's cover. The system worked pretty well, so long as you could avoid the bullets, but Marie had made sure the akuma were nearly paralyzed.
Back pressed up against a tree trunk, Daisya listened for the ringing to stop. There was no need to watch Kanda, so it was best if he tried to defend himself. His eyes were only just beginning to adjust to the blackness. In the evening, everything's coloured blue and purple with a bit of gold, and in the morning it's mostly pink, but this midnight darkness was without any hint of colour. The grey-looking leaves were like ashes underfoot and massing clouds overhead, reflecting the faint glow of the battle.
The faint sound of wind whistling made Daisya jump out, facing the akuma as the Charity Bell flew at him. He immediately caught it on his foot, driving it into the approaching crowd. The akuma moved pretty slowly, and they looked pretty stupid doing it.
He turned and ran, finding an older-looking chestnut to hide behind before repeating the same movements, watching Kanda leap in after him. The kid seemed to know his way around a fight.
...
Now it was getting hard to see straight.
It was only about ten minutes later, but it makes a difference when you're running for your life. Around Daisya, the trees and bushes were forming an enclosure. There was a small clearing, then a path between trees and under branches back to where Marie was only just ahead of them, but not much to run to. As it was they were both backed up against a beech, catching breath before the next wave arrived.
Let's see...the plan was to get somewhere Marie could make a nice net. That should be about here. Then just finish them off. That's a bit easier said tha-
A bullet buried itself in the bark between his head and Kanda's, and his heart jumped into his throat. His eyes slid sideways, glancing at the splintered wood then back to the front.
The forest was closing in on him where the akuma weren't.
It was funny. He could feel his blood pounding in his ears from the fear, and he could taste metal in his throat from the exhaustion. Even Kanda was starting to slow down. But this came more easily than anything.
All this in a fraction of a second. His reflexes jerked into action, pulling him around the other side of the tree at the same time as Kanda. The akuma were still too far away to properly attack, so he darted forwards through the trees, only just managing not to trip over the nest of roots. Those things were damn annoying-
He stumbled into an elm-studded clearing, just barely stepping aside as Kanda barreled through.
Marie had finally stopped to lay the trap. Before Daisya could think further, Kanda immediately leapt away to rip into an akuma behind them.
Keep Marie safe for a few minutes, that was it. The plan. Kanda was already holding the gaps in the trees, blades flashing like a whirlwind. Now there were things there, attacking the akuma along side the sword. Tiedoll had mentioned something about calamities, but that was at the back of Daisya's mind.
There was something up with Kanda. He was impossibly good, but he was on edge. Daisya couldn't fathom it, but he seemed to think this was a chore.
He slashed sideways, missed, and rolled, avoiding stream of bullets before coming up in a stab.
It was beautiful, as was the blood-red harvest moon. It hung like an eye boiled in blood.
Marie had recovered his breath.
"So, are we going to stay here?" Daisya, still watching Kanda's show. Another akuma was approaching them.
"Yes. If I tie together some of the trees as well, I can incapacitate them all. You and Kanda can finish them off."
"Great, okay. So we're going to do that now?"
"As soon as possible. Is Kanda nearly done?"
"Just finishing."
Kanda killed the second akuma with a fluid series of blows before running back. As his footsteps approached, Marie tied a string to the current tree, then started to dart between the trees with an unexpected lightness of foot, attaching a network of seemingly infinite threads to the trunks and branches.
...
Daisya gave an airy wave as Kanda skidded to a halt. Kanda looked him up and down. If he was this lax he was either dangerous or planning something.
"Marie's just building us a little cage, so it looks like we'll have to do even more fighting."
Despite the tone of mock complaint, Daisya's eyes had lit up with something Kanda had noticed on a couple of occasions.
He couldn't profess to feeling the same way.
About what…?
He cut himself off, and Daisya seemed to notice something behind him.
"Mind if I take this one?" he asked, staring fixedly at a point about two inches above Kanda's shoulder.
"Go ahead."
Kanda's voice was clipped, but it didn't hold any malice.
...
Daisya leapt back, nudged the Bell to the side, then took a run forwards, zigzagging to avoid getting hit. The akuma was still a couple hundred metres away. Before Kanda realized what he was doing, he crossed over, forming a right angle to his previous line of movement, and ran hard. He'd kicked the Bell straight through the akuma before it had a chance to turn.
He doubled back behind a group of spruces, and listened to the Bell do its work. It seemed to be working better as the fight wore on.
There was an odd sound, and he remembered to run back to Kanda.
"I can't believe you managed to make Innocence into a soccer ball," muttered Kanda as Daisya skidded to a halt beside him.
"Hey, I just do what I'm good at."
The glint of moonlight off of wire or the barest glimpse of a line was all that betrayed the web woven around them. Marie seemed to be covering quite an area while the akuma were finding them. The clearing wasn't so much a clearing as lighter forest, and it gradually faded into thicker trees over a few tens of metres. Marie was smarter than he hinted.
Daisya let his breathing catch up with him, while Kanda stood straight, watching for more akuma. The grey lines of tree trunks against the black of night made the clearing look like wallpaper, without the depth afforded by light. Grey and black and grey that hinted at green and black that hinted at brown but grey and black nonetheless. Monochrome, with the terrible harshness of iron or steel. This night was dead. Hopefully none of them would follow.
...
After a while, Marie reappeared. The exorcist was moving quickly and quietly, zigzagging seemingly at random through the maze of wire.
"They will be here soon. I will not be able to kill them, but I can make it easier for you two to do that. It'll be for the best," he said awkwardly. He was never that good at talking.
"Got it."
Kanda was silent, but he nodded.
Then they waited. Not for long.