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Chapter 22
The tiger god smiled wearily at the girl now before him. He was greatly worried for her, her injuries were severe after all, but a part of him was simply glad she remembered him. "You stood strong Lily," he said softly before reaching out and brushing a stray hair from her face, "thank you."
Fenrir's blood was beyond the boiling point. "You think she did you any good!" he roared. "I locked you away once before! I can do it again!"
The unseen person with the harsh voice laughed, "You took us all out one by one. How are you going to deal with all four of us fighting at once?"
"Don't underestimate him Seiryuu," the other unknown voice, aside from the one murmuring in Lily's ear, said quickly. "We can't take any chances with this one."
Fenrir snickered at this comment, "That's right you pathetic dragon. You've forgotten that you would have been easily subdued had your cat not shown up."
Those worry filled eyes gazing upon Lily suddenly narrowed dangerously as Byakko god glared at Fenrir from the corners of his eyes. Though he made no comment he knew Fenrir could feel his fury. He was hardly anyone's cat and he sorely disliked being referred to as if he were nothing but a kitten. Kittens, after all, did not have the ability to gouge out one's voice box, which was precisely what the tiger god felt like doing at the moment.
"Byakko," Lily coughed, causing the god to turn his full attention back to her. "Genrou and the others…"
"There's nothing we can do for them now," he softly, almost sadly replied. The arms around Lily tightened once more, causing her to cringe in pain. Unlike last time however the person instantly loosened.
Fenrir laughed in his usual shiver-sending manner. "The only way to save those human children is to defeat me."
Within an instant Byakko was on his feet, all attention now directed at the subject of his distaste. "And that is precisely what we will do!"
"Calm yourself Byakko," the one who had silenced Seiryuu moments before said flatly.
The would-be wolf god smirked in the darkness of his own castle. Even with this unexpected twist things could easily stay within his favor. The gods were being weary of him, even if they spoke out rashly, which meant they had a very strong weakness they wished to protect.
A weakness he was going to exploit.
Quickly and without warning Fenrir brought his hand up. The air was buzzing with the power emitting from the would-be god, a power the gods instantly recognized and placed themselves on the defensive to combat. The gods knew far too well that Fenrir had several aces up his sleeve, aces that could become a trump card in the bat of an eye if any one of them made a mistake.
"How did you fools ever become gods," Fenrir chuckled.
Byakko was about to rebuke when he felt something fly past his face, whipping his silvery locks about as if a twister had just blown by him. Not a second later there was yelp and the sound of smashing stone not far behind him.
"Lily!"
"She's alright," came the voice of the one who had yet to make an outright statement for all to hear, but was the one behind the murmuring in Lily's ear. The voice was farther away from Byakko than it had been moments before, concluding that it had bolted to get away from the shadowy assault.
Without turning his attention from his enemy the one last unnamed god asked his question, "You alright Suzaku?"
"Just earned myself a scratch Genbu," the phoenix god responded, as he moved back towards his allies carrying Lily bridal style, "nothing serious."
A maniacal laugh threatened to erupt from within Fenrir's throat as he watched the gods before him. "So I was right," he smirked, "you four are still bound to that girl's assistance. If she should die now, all of you would be locked back away without my hand having to do it for me."
This statement neither baffled nor frightened the gods, but the same could not be said for Lily. She was in the middle of a brawl that could rightfully be called a Battle of the Titans and she was still the key player. She could hardly move, even with all that Suzaku had majestically done to help her for the last several minutes. What on Earth, or whatever they wished to call their own world, could she do to help them any more than she had already?
"I suggest you leave Lily out of this battle Fenrir," Seiryuu said in a calm but strong voice. "It'll only mean your downfall if you don't."
"I would hardly call taking your job a downfall," the wolf snickered.
Lily clenched her jaw and squeezed her eyes shut as she felt her injuries in full force once more. Whatever Suzaku had been doing to ease her pain moments ago was quickly fading now that he had stopped and she was sure his quick movements to prevent her from being killed had not helped with her already ailing body.
"Seiryuu, Genbu, Byakko," the phoenix god began, "let us first remove ourselves from this dark abyss of a castle before we show Fenrir exactly what we are capable of."
Seiryuu smirked, "fine by me. I'm already feeling cramped in here."
'What are they planning?' Lily wondered through her pained mind.
No sooner had she finished the thought Suzaku gave her a friendly piece of advise, "count to three, then close your eyes and hold your breath."
There was no knowing what he and his fellow gods had planned, but she knew it was not advisable to ignore his words. The only trick was going to be holding her breath for any length of time, but she would have to do her best, even if it meant forcing her mind to deal with yet another dilemma concerning her body.
"Start counting," he whispered.
'One.'
"So what's the plan exactly?" Byakko asked as took his place in front of Suzaku to guard both him and Lily against any further assault.
Seiryuu cracked his knuckles with a smirk, "I thought it would be obvious. First we're going to rid ourselves of this sorry excuse for a castle. Then we're going to break Fenrir right through to his spirit."
"Do you honestly think you can defeat me, much less escape this place?" Fenrir questioned evilly. "You are in my domain. I am the only one who can allow you to leave."
'Two'
"Correction Fenrir, you are in our domain. You've simply built this castle of yours on top of our grounds," this was voiced by none other than the calm Genbu.
"You've invaded our home long enough," Suzaku added, "it is high time we removed you from it."
'Three.'
Right before her closed her eyes Lily witnessed the emergence of four distinct colors within the chamber. What they were she could only guess, but judging that the one color, red in shade had been emitted from right beside her, it had something to do with the gods.
Taking in a deep breath she could taste something that resembled dust. What would have turned dust up all of a sudden? As if to answer her question a low rumbling began to over take her sense of hearing. It was as if the entire castle was shaking, yet she felt none of it for some reason.
Part of her wanted to open her eyes and try to find out what was going on, but the other half of her mind gave the reminder of Suzaku's words. So instead she clenched her eyelids shut even more and grasped a part of Suzaku's shirt as if frightened he would let her go.
The only response she got from the god to which she clung was the tightening of his strong arm around her to give reassurance as the rumbling increased ten fold and sharp cracking began to fill the air around them.
Fenrir – "Stop putting cracks in my castle!"
XD Couldn't resist. Pirate's of the Caribbean is just to funny to not make fun of here.
So Lily's still important to the god's survival eh? What is it that she has left to do to fully free them from Fenrir and get them back to the way they were before the wolf's arrival?
Find out in the next action packed chapter of Cry of the Gods... (suddenly I feel like an announcer O.o)
Please Review (Era likey reviews …. O.o I've been reverted to a baby o.O Oh my XD)
Thank you!
