Faith is time

The church was quiet, but Kirin's pounding feet were not as he sprinted as fast as he possibly could to the church, time was against him and the tiger that saved his life long ago. Quickly racing through the church doors, Kirin's gaze whipped around the room for the circle of faith, his breaths came in hard panting as he looked for the circle of faith.

"Hello! Is anyone here!" Kirin yelled out into the church, hoping for a voice to come to him, but no such luck occured to him, he had to search deeper into the church if he would want any hope of finding the circle of faith.

Krystal stood within the crowd of cornerians in worry at the central part of the city, the massive crowd gatheredaround a large stage, the tiger stood in silence as his body was bound to a pole for all to witness his death, the punishment had been changed to being shot, the venomian looked out into the crowd, searching for Kirin, but after noticing that only Krystal was the only one there to support him, he sighed heavily and dropped his head as he mentally prayed to god for safe passage into heaven.

"I can't let this happen…but there's nothing I can do." Krystal thought hopelessly as she watched the tiger be prepared for death, there was indeed nothing she could do for her families savior, if she tried to interfere, she would be considered an accomplise of the venomian. "Oh god, please hurry Kirin, time's almost out!"

Kirin slowly crouched down to a notice on the desk of the preacher, slowly taking it within his paws and reading down the sentences printed into the white paper, his eyes slowly looking at the words left to right, traveling down more and more. Then the note fell from his paws in shock, his jaw shuddered in surprise, a tear rolled down his face.

"…this…can't be happening…The circle…was killed during an assault…on the church a couple days ago…this…can't be right." Kirin thought and lowered his head, he gripped it within his fingers and let out a sorrowful groan, knowing that he was going to fail to save the one venomian that could have been different from all the rest.

Slowly he got down on his knees and let out a heavy sigh from his muzzle, time was running out too quickly, and he had no other option left but to accept the flow of time, to accept destiny and the fate of the tiger.

"I'm sorry…my friend…I couldn't do anything to save you." Kirin spoke into the air with sorrow, slowly a tear began to build at his eye, but quickly he stopped, remembering the tigers words: Don't shed one tear for me. Then a light struck him from a window, slowly he could see what had happened when the circle of faith was still alive.

A hymn played over the church interior, a small circle of praying cornerians knelt side by side in a circle, showing their faith towards god as they laid out offerings in the center, Kirin's soul watched all of them, he wondered why he was there and what he was going to witness, he looked at the circle and kept a close eye on them.

"What's going to happen to these people?" Kirin thought as he sat on air, his eyes fixed in a cycle on the door then onto the circle.

The doors then blew open and many cloaked figures with blasters fired rapidly, Kirin gasped at such a large group to attack them, the circle of faith did their best to dodge the blasts and quickly retreated into the lower area of the church as they ran downstairs into the cellars, quickly followed by their assassins, a figure slowly walked after them, two long katana's at his side, Kirin kept those two katana's in his mind for future searching, then he quickly followed the event into the cellars.

"Why are they doing this? What are they hoping to gain from this!" Kirin though with worry, he was becoming desperate to find out why this was all happening.

The circle of faith was trapped in a corner, some already gunned down, only three had remained now of the circle, then the figure with the two katana's walked out in front of the large assault group, his paws fixed upon his two katana's.

"Now tell me, if you want to keep your lives, where can we find the soul edge descendent, Kirin Mccloud?" He asked the remaining three coldly, slowly unsheathing the two long katana's.

"We won't tell you anything about him, we shall gladly give our lives to prevent your twisted prophecy!" The head leader of the circle barked at him, rejoining his companions in the corner.

"Very well, then defying the great spirit serpent Oka is a great crime towards our religion, you shall be executed!" The figure roared and whipped out the katana's fully.

Kirin gasped as he watched the remaining circle of faith be executed, he now understood why they were killed, not because the tiger would be killed, but that these strange figures had came for information on Kirin Mccloud, and what was worse: They were associated with Oka, the spirit that the first descendent mentioned to Kirin.

The light then faded off of Kirin and vanished from the window, leaving the kneeling Kirin in shock of the new found information, he now had something to lead towards the reason why Oka was such an important spirit to be messing with.

Krystal slowly cried silently as soldiers began to line up for a rifleman, slowly walking up a couple steps to the stage, the rifleman was slowly fixing up a blaster rifle; Kirin soon joined Krystal's company and watched the inevitable event, the tiger looked at him and slowly opened his muzzle, knowing that everyone hear his words.

"You're the one he wants Kirin, the great spirit serpent doesn't want to kill you…he wants to control you! He's after you and your power over soul edge, as long as your spirit is pure and free, he cannot take one soul from the great spirit plane! Remember my words, young vulpine and remember them well, keep your distance from Oka and stay away from his kin! Remember them well, Kirin Mccloud!" The tiger spoke out to Kirin and then turned to the rifleman with a heavy sigh, he took in a breath and stood up straight, slowly closing his eyes. "…I'm ready…to receive and accept my fate."

And there It happened, right in front of Krystal's and Kirin's eyes, their eyes had fixed on the trigger of the gun as it was pulled, what Kirin tried to prevent but was a couple days to late: A laser shot that shattered the sound around central of corneria and a lifeless friend.