Chapter 6 – Choices are finite; it's eat or be eaten
I was standing outside the ramen shop, waiting for the off-brand werewolf to return from the restroom, while my other two classmates continued to bicker at each other like an old married couple.
"He's slow." Our demonic compatriot groaned.
The self-proclaimed school reporter, who happened to also be a firearm aficionado and frighteningly reckless driver, fixed his glasses and replied: "Yeah, well, you try eating five bowls of ramen and not scramble for the nearest toilet afterwards."
Kiba rolled his eyes, then asked. "What was his train of thought, thinking that eating so much was a good idea?"
"He's a dog," Motohama shrugged, "literally."
"Right…"
"Oh, don't act all weirded out. You're a devil, I'm… an alchemist, and he's a host for a sacred gear." He responded and pointed right at me. "Plenty of weird to go around."
"Hey, don't lump me in with the rest of you." I chuckled.
Kiba seemed like he wanted to say something, but the vibration of his phone caught his attention. "Excuse me, one moment." He spoke, before answering.
"Yo, yo, yo!" The shouting came from Matsuda, finally out of the restroom, his arms raised like a soccer player having just triumphantly scored a winning goal.
Motohama spun around, raising a finger threateningly. "Not a word, you freak!"
"But," he whimpered, "it was awesome! I nearly broke the toilet!"
"What are you, five?!"
I elbowed Motohama, then smiled. "He's a dog, remember?"
"You called me a dog, dude?" Matsuda frowned, hurt.
Motohama stammered. "Well, I didn't mean it like that, exactly."
"Guys." Kiba cut in, his expression surprisingly stern; enough so to get Motohama to pause and listen. "We've just received orders. The Archduke has put in a request for a hunt. And the President wants you three to come along."
I swallowed, afraid to ask what that even meant.
Motohama glanced our way, then asked Kiba: "As much as I'd like to complain, what is a hunt? And secondly, what are we even hunting?"
"Nothing good," our classmate sighed, "because there's already been a victim."
There's nothing quite like a dead body to make you feel, well, removed. Ever since yesterday, I've been around enough craziness and violence that it's become quite commonplace, the mechanics of death. There's a religion worthy of this rite of passage, of taking that final step from being a vertical creature to a horizontal one. Yesterday you were just some nobody, today you're the honored dead surrounded by a group of strangers.
When we arrived, the leader of the Occult Research Club was already examining the victim, alongside her second-in-command. "It was not a kind death," Rias spoke.
There's a kind of conceited attitude that overtakes anyone in the presence of the dearly departed, a you're-dead-and-I'm-not kind of perspective. There's something about a carcass of an animal like oneself, the post-shuffled, mortal coil that brings out the worst in us.
Motohama flashed a light over the corpse.
"I've seen Tonkatsu treated with more ethics," he whistled.
"Your crude humor isn't appreciated."
"Bummer," he looked at Rias and smirked, "I thought I was pleasant company."
She didn't respond.
Before I could say anything, he laughed. "For a species of supernatural entities known famously for the consumption of human souls, you're an awfully sentimental bunch."
"You wish to test me?" She sharply responded, the crimson of her hair and the blue of her eyes suddenly flashing with a frightful, vermillion aura. "Unlike others, I pride myself on my kindness. You do not wish to see me cruel."
For the first time since I met him, Motohama promptly shut his mouth.
"Right…" He feigned a cough. "Sorry…"
Rias's second-in-command, Akeno, held out a hand, summoning a rotating sigil out of thin air. I watched in awe as the magical spectacle pulsated, suddenly manifesting itself into the physical shapes of a bloodied license and wallet.
"These were among the victim's belongings." Akeno spoke as we looked over the materials. "Both say his name was Michael Samson Pritchard, international studies."
"Kuoh University's college abroad program?" Kiba asked, glancing at her.
"The monster who took his life goes by the name Viser." Akeno responded. "She's a demon; grotesque and repulsive even by those standards."
"A demon?" I frowned, suddenly feeling a little awkward. "Look, I hate to ask, but…"
"What's the difference between devils and demons?" Kiba spoke, as if reading my mind. "Demons, or stray devils, start out as devil servants, like me."
"So, even you could become a demon?" I frowned, looking back at the corpse.
Kiba shook his head. "Well, I'm not exactly planning on it. Occasionally a servant's feelings will darken, causing them to rebel and kill their master to gain freedom. That is how demons, such as Viser, are born."
"Tonight's job shouldn't be too hard," Akeno nodded. "But remain wary. Reports indicate that Viser is crafty, and especially proficient in the art of illusion magic."
"Oh, wonderful." Sighed Motohama.
"You're such a loser." The voice came from right beside him.
"Woah, what the—!" He shouted, surprised by the girl's sudden appearance.
"Koneko." Rias, seemingly unfazed by the devil's incredible stealth, addressed our underclassman. "Have you successfully tracked down Viser?"
The silver-haired girl nodded. "I found her, President."
"Good. Akeno, transport us there."
"Yes, President." Adhering to Rias's command, Akeno lifted her hands and began enchanting in a foreign tongue. I watched in amazement as our surroundings began to glow and a summoning sigil was suddenly spawned from right underneath us. I frantically looked around, just as everything went white. In the blink of an eye, we'd teleported to an entirely different place.
"We're here."
I turned to look where Rias was, only to lock eyes with the darkness up ahead.
A house, decrepit from years of abandonment, loomed over a few feet from where we stood. Just from looking at the haunting structure, a hint of fear began working its way into my stomach, as I had no clue as to what horror resided inside. Not a rational fear, like getting hit by a car, but something childlike, you could even say dream-like.
"Issei." Motohama handed me his flashlight. "Unlike the others, we can't see in the dark." He explained, pulling out a spare for himself. Before I could say anything, he whispered: "Look, I still don't trust these guys. Especially since they brought us to the middle of nowhere. So, you, me, and Matsuda have got to watch each other's back, alright?"
"Okay." I replied, nodding.
Even from where we stood, the house seemed to lean toward us, as if it were sentient and had been awaiting our arrival. I refused to look too closely at what my flashlight might reveal in the overgrown foliage that was once a backyard.
A house was a house—boards, hinges, and nails. There was no reason, genuinely none, to feel that each splintered crack was exhaling its own chalky aroma of evil. That deep below the cursed foundations, grasping for freedom, lies the sediment that embodies true darkness. To the average person, that would just be ludicrous and over the top.
We approached the bulkhead leading to the house cellar. The rusted doors stood open, and in the glow of the flashlights, the shallow steps seemed to lead down into hell itself.
There was a brief period of silence. What if everything went according to plan? What if we encountered the demon and Rias just destroyed it with a big fireball? That was the best and most likely case scenario, but you could never be too sure.
"Issei?" The President's voice brought me back to reality. "Are you familiar with chess?"
I swallowed, suddenly imagining my former doctor's face. "Used to play a lot, yeah." I tried smiling, but my muscles went cold. "I lost every time."
Rias nodded but remained focused on the house. "As the master, I'm the king. My empress is the queen. My cavalier, my knight. My tank, the rook. My clergymen, the bishop. And, of course, my foot soldier, the pawn. Devils with titles of nobility grant the characteristics of these pieces to each one of their servants." One look at her peerage and you could start to see what she was getting at.
"We have a special name for them. We call them our Evil Pieces."
As she spoke, Koneko walked ahead of the group and down the cellar steps. Suddenly there was a loud bang, almost like a tank firing off a round, and Rias and Akeno began walking towards the basement themselves.
"I want you to watch and learn, Issei." She called back to me. "As a temporary member of my Familia, pay close attention to my devils as they do battle tonight. The same goes for you two." The rest of her orders were suddenly caught off by the heavy rumble of distant thunder.
"Man, I don't dig this at all," Motohama spoke and tried smiling, but even that slowly gave way to a grimace.
Kiba glanced at him and Matsuda, then me. "These monsters are pure evil, guys. They don't care about anything outside of their own desires, and that always ends in ugliness."
Motohama purposely let out a disgruntled sigh in response to the devil's warning, lowering his flashlight for a moment and reaching for something in his back pocket. It was a short piece of parchment, a talisman marked with streaks of blue and white.
I glanced at the item from under the wan of the moonlight, realizing that it was beginning to glow. Motohama, suddenly, crushed the paper with his hand, causing the gradual light of the talisman to momentously illuminate, before exploding into a puff of dark smoke.
"Woah!" I couldn't help but exclaim.
He noticed my surprise, raising his hand to reveal he was now holding a firearm, the very same he'd used to both threaten and save my life.
"So, you weren't kidding about the alchemist title, were you?" Kiba smiled.
Motohama shrugged. "I try not to."
We were the last to venture down the cellar steps, Kiba taking point, followed by me, then Motohama and Matsuda. The basement doors were completely smashed open, as if struck by a cannonball. I swallowed, realizing that this must have been the handiwork of Koneko, the first year. After clearing the overhanging roof, I shined the light across the visible cellar, which took a turn a few feet further up. I watched as the devils began scoping out the unkept space, each classmate of mine visibly focused and prepared for what was to come.
As I looked around, my flashlight beam picked out a table with a dusty checked tablecloth on it. A rat sat on the counter, a huge one, and it refused to budge when my beam of light struck it. It sat up on its plump haunches and almost seemed to grin.
"Gross." Matsuda shivered, looking in my direction.
"What?" I replied. "Me or the rat?"
"Huh?" He blinked. "No, sorry, not you, man. It's this place… it doesn't smell right."
Motohama jokingly pointed his barrel at the rodent, but the oversized pest jumped down and trotted off past Rias and toward the elbow-bend further up. My hand was still, and the flashlight beam moved from place to place, now picking out a collection of dusty bookshelves, what looked to be a decades-old office desk, a stack of old newspapers, and—
I jerked the flashlight beam back toward the newspapers and sucked in breath as the light fell on something to the left side of them.
"What? What is it?" Motohama asked, noticing something had caught my attention.
I wasn't sure either. It was bundled up like an old rag. A thing that looked like…
Something snapped behind me.
I spun around, shining the light over by where the basement entrance should have been, only to stare, in disbelief, at a brick wall that hadn't been there a minute ago.
"How the—" The bulb in my flashlight suddenly went out. I re-clicked the trigger, but the thing was completely dead.
"Issei, the hell are you doing?" Motohama shouted, just as his own light followed suit, trapping us in total darkness. "Never mind…" He growled, before cocking his firearm.
"Calm down, you two." Rias spoke, as a crimson light expelled the blackness, revealing the entirety of the shadowy room. She turned to us, levitating above her hand the source of the illumination: a cerise-violet fireball. "We've got company."
I glanced around, my muscles tensing up as I realized there was movement in every corner of the basement, all around us.
""If it isn't sweet, little Rias and her tiny, little friends…""
Several hoarse, gargled voices spoke in unison.
Rias and her peerage moved back, forming a wall around us. Motohama readied his gun. Matsuda growled, perhaps as a general warning of the fight to come.
And I stared at it.
Awkwardly forcing what looked to be a human hand into its mouth, the creature's fleshy lips curled back into a gruesome smile. Though shaped like a human, it was nothing more than an amalgamation of flesh and bone, charred black in certain places, while foamy, loose walls of unripe, yellow flesh hung from its body like long-forgotten curtains.
""Come to play…?""
Another garbled merger of flesh sluggishly appeared besides the monstrosity, then another. Soon, we were surrounded.
"Ghouls." Akeno spoke with hostility.
"Viser," Rias commanded, showing no fear. "You betrayed your master to fulfill an imprudent dream, one consumed with lust and desire. You've been frenzied by such wishes and have consumed innocents along the way. Your sins are worthy of a thousand hells."
The monsters drew closer, but Rias refused to back down. "In the name of the House of Gremory, I sentence you to death."
Letting out a series of roars, three of the creatures immediately rushed her, their mouths agape like a pack of mindless piranhas. That's when Kiba broke formation, walking past Rias and Akeno, coming straight toward the ghouls.
"The hell is he doing?" Shouted Motohama.
Kiba raised his hand above his right shoulder, drawing a literal sword out of thin air; the blade traced a glistening arc above his head. Walking slowly, he made his way toward the ravenous, awakened corpses. I shot a look at Motohama, but he too was just as stunned.
Despite the ominous display, the ghouls leapt for their new target.
"Watch out!" I tried to yell, but immediately lost sight of the swordsman.
There was a flash and one of the ghoul's heads flew upwards with a fleshy heft, spinning in the air with a trail of red until it clattered against the bookshelves and tumbled into a pile of brickwork. Jumping over the decapitated body, Kiba began circling the other ghouls in a tightening spiral.
The two monsters simultaneously attacked the blurred shape rushing towards them, mistimed their attack and collided with each other as Kiba slashed a ghoul across the chest and the other in the temple, leaving one abomination to stagger, head down, at Rias's feet, and the other to spin in place and fall to its knees.
A cascade of blood erupted from the creature's injury, which it awkwardly tried to plug in with one of its decrepit fingers.
Kiba walked up to the ghoul, his knuckles tightening around the grip of his sword till they were white. "That's not your blood."
In a horrific display, the monster tore into its side and ripped out a jagged piece of its rib to use as a make-shift knife.
"Neither is that…"
The ghoul spun its arm, but it wasn't fast enough. It bore a thrust through the stomach, prepared to attack, and was struck again in the neck, just below what looked to be the ear. It took four unsteady steps and collapsed into a table.
It grew quiet.
All at once, the remaining ghouls let out a series of vile screams, before charging.
"Go." Rias ordered.
Another pair of ghouls attacked from behind but were caught by Koneko. One leapt aside and tripped, catching itself against a wall as the other warded off a punch so powerful it threw the creature backwards to its knees. Before it could stand, however, Koneko leapt into the air, somersaulting into a bicycle kick that took the creature's head clean off.
Roaring, the other ghoul bounced off the wall, jumping over its fallen comrade, missed gashing the small devil and jumped away. That's when Kiba flew by like a bullet. The thrust was so sharp, so precise, the creature didn't feel it; its legs only gave way when it tried to attack again. The ghoul collapsed to its knees and shook its head, trying and failing to rise. Its head dropped; the body stilled in the center of a growing red puddle.
"Thanks." Koneko turned and nodded.
Kiba nodded back, resting the sword on his shoulder. "Don't mention it."
"Fu, fu, fu." Akeno chuckled, as traces of light began to emit from her hands. "I can't afford to look bad in front of my cute underclassmen now, can I?"
An incredible blaze painted the room yellow, as golden electricity sparked and exploded from her fingertips, surging from her hands like a devastating tangled web. Taking aim at the last of the monsters, Akeno smiled. "Oh dear, such stubbornness cannot stand. So, how about this, then?" Erupting with sadistic laughter, she raised her hands, directing the vicious surge of magic high above her head.
Suddenly, there was a brilliant flash as lighting shot forward, guiding itself into a jagged bolt. The electricity struck one ghoul with a deafening crack, shackling the other monsters in a chain reaction that instantly began melting each of them from the inside out. Smoke began to fill the air as the creatures were cooked alive to the sound of bubbling flesh and sizzling voltage.
Motohama lowered his weapon, having not fired it once. "Jesus…" He muttered.
"Akeno excels at offensive magic." Rias spoke, watching the carnage attentively. "Though usually quite kindhearted, once she allows herself to get caught up in the heat of battle, no one can stop her until she has had her fill, reaching maximum satisfaction."
"That's… um," I glanced at the charred remains and swallowed. "Horrifying."
"There's no need to be afraid of her, Issei. She can be sweet and caring when it comes to her friends. I even heard her call you cute once. You should let her pamper you. I'm sure she would be more than happy to embrace you."
"Yeah, sure." Motohama snorted. "Just as likely she'll put you in a coffin."
Rias ignored him and continued talking with me. "Akeno is a Queen. Next to me, she is the strongest piece, complete with all the attributes of a Pawn, Knight, Bishop, and Rook combined. Kiba, being a master swordsman, is a Knight. And Koneko, with her unbelievable strength, is my trusted Rook."
I nodded, then said. "So, that would make you the King."
She smiled. "Indeed—"
""Little whore!"" A blurred figure soared out of the shadows, screaming. It was ghoul, severely burnt and missing half its face.
"Woah, watch out!" Matsuda yelled.
The creature, having somehow survived Akeno's brutal onslaught, brandished a jagged piece of bone akin to that of a crude blade, then dove at me and Rias.
Suddenly, to my surprise, the beautiful devil leapt ahead of me, extending an arm as if she meant to touch the incoming creature. Like the night before, a gigantic mass of crimson darkness emerged from her hand, engulfing the monster. When the conflagration of demonic energy dispelled, the ghoul was completely gone, seemingly erased from existence.
I was left speechless.
"Issei," she turned around. "Are you okay?"
Before I could answer, more screams sounded from deep within the basement.
"Sounds like more are on the way." Kiba scowled and readied his sword. "How many victims does she have?"
"Could be one of Viser's many tricks. Perhaps, some of these ghouls were never real to begin with." Rias looked around. "Be ready for anything."
""Anything?""
I froze. The voice came from right above me. In the blink of an eye, something long and scaly dove out and tightly secured itself around my neck, and I watched the looks of shock and horror on my classmates' faces as I was dragged with little effort somewhere into the darkness overhead.
"Issei!" I heard the president scream, as she and the others disappeared from my sight.
The darkness overwhelmed me as I was dragged away. Before I could claw at whatever had gotten ahold of me, it suddenly let go. Although I couldn't see anything, I felt my body fall forward before tumbling sideways and crashing headfirst into what felt like a pile of rubble.
"AGHH!" I practically cried, clutching at whatever was left of my nose.
"Aww," a feminine voice chuckled, "did I hurt Rias's new toy?"
I halted, suddenly realizing I couldn't see.
"Here, sweetie, let me help."
Something rolled across the floor, stopping by my hand. I swallowed, recognizing it was my flashlight. I grabbed it, then pushed myself to quickly stand up, shaking my head. Finding the switch, I turned to where her voice was coming from, then flashed on the beam.
"Hi."
"Howdy…" I slowly replied.
The demon laughed, her face only inches from mine. She was young and beautiful, with short white hair. "You're the first human to greet me." She replied, revealing a mouth of serrated, saw-like teeth. "Is that why she likes you?"
"Who?"
"Don't play dumb, boy." Suddenly, her whole body rose above me, revealing that she was well over eleven feet tall. I took a step back, shocked. Though her upper half seemed relatively normal, everything below was colossal and inhuman, a beastly figure with four legs, each equipped with massive, obsidian claws. As she moved towards me, a massive serpent revealed itself from her backside, hissing at me.
"Listen, uh, thanks again for the flashlight." I awkwardly laughed.
From what little of the environment I could make out, we were either in another part of the basement or somewhere even deeper. Trash was littered everywhere, and the floorboards we stood on felt like they weren't capable of lasting much longer.
"I'll ask again," the demon hissed. "What is it about you that's so special?"
I slowly began to back up, keeping my light trained on her with one hand, while scrambling with the other to find a weapon.
She threw her head back and crackled boisterously, grinning down at me with a horrifying, maniacal appearance. "Guess I'll just have to dissect you and find out for myself!"
My fingers finally latched onto something I could use.
"Maybe even reshape you into a ghoul of my own!" She screamed, stomping her hind legs into the ground. "How would you like that?!"
I shut off the light.
"Huh?"
Now was the time to act; and I needed to explode. Yanking free a pipe, I dug my feet in and charged for the towering demon. Fire and bolts of electricity engulfed my body, bathing me in an enflamed hue like some sort of demonic firefly, as my right hand transformed into the gauntlet, and I drastically picked up in speed.
"What?!" She screamed and tried crushing me with her monstrous legs.
I dodged the swipe, dropping into a slide that sent me flying right underneath her. Meeting me on the other side, her tail coiled and bared its fangs, the snake-like appendage suddenly raising its head in preparation for a strike. But I was quicker, jumping to snatch the snake's neck with my gauntlet. Predictably, the creature panicked that I had it, and tried to pull itself away, launching me upwards and airborne. The snake escaped my grasp, but I was now exactly where I wanted to be.
"GAHH!" The demon shrieked as I landed on her back, wrapping my legs around her from behind. "Get off—GAK—!"
I locked the pipe around her throat, forcing her into a chokehold. The demon's head was forced back, as I pulled the pipe towards me, feeling it crush the cartilage shielding her airway. I could never beat a monster like this in a fair fight, so targeting whatever seemed to slightly resemble the human anatomy was my only shot as surviving. The demon spun to shake me off but stumbled and collapsed forward onto the wooden floor. Clenching the steel pipe with everything left in my grip, my legs planted into the floor, and I yanked upwards as hard as possible.
"Hiss…!"
Only to forget about the tail. Angry and desperate to save its owner, the snake struck my shoulder; its teeth shredding my trapezius like a buzzsaw. I tried to ignore the pain, but it was just enough for her to recognize an opening and effortlessly throw me off. The pipe flew out of my hand as I crashed.
Before I could even move, the monster was instantly upon me. Using each of her massive legs to pin me to the wooden floor, she spat a bucket of blood over my face.
"I'll skin you alive!" She gurgled. "But first, let me return the favor!"
With her hands coiled around my neck, she started to choke me.
"ACK!" I barely managed to cry out, as I began losing sight. Last time someone was trying to kill me this way, Matsuda was there to save me. Now, I was alone; and even when I strained my muscles to budge, the demon had me completely locked down. And all I could hear was her cruel laughter, as everything went fuzzy.
Laughter.
She was laughing.
—!
Something was wrong. I wasn't scared anymore.
I was just angry. Downright Hateful.
There was a noise, something unnatural. The hazy void had suddenly become a painful blue, a bright, blinding azure. Oxygen rushed back into my lungs, and I felt myself coughing violently to the sharp smell of smoke, which filled my nose and mouth.
Slowly, my vision began to clear. My eyes widened.
The demon looked down at me, equally shocked. Half of her head was gone, burnt to ash, alongside both of her arms, now nothing but a pair of black, charcoaled stumps. I gasped and squirmed out from under her grasp, just before her body collapsed, completely lifeless.
I fell on my butt, gasping for air.
Creak—!
The wooden boards suddenly gave away and I fell backward, bouncing off the rocks and flipping forward into an outcropping before tumbling sideways and finally sliding to a stop in the rubble at the bottom. I lay there for a moment to catch my breath and then pushed up onto all fours, shaking my head. I stretched my jaw and felt it pop before reaching up and feeling the wet at the back of my head.
I looked around and pulled out my flashlight, luckily still operating. I flashed the beam on my hand and was surprised by the amount of blood. I started to stand but the effort caused me to fall backward again, and I felt as if I might black out, so I just sat there for a moment getting my bearings.
"Partner?"
I signed and couldn't help but chuckle. "It's good to hear you, Mr. Dragon. Your timing was impeccable back there."
There was nothing else for a moment, but suddenly he spoke again.
"That wasn't me…"
I stopped smiling.
"Be ready, Partner. Grave danger approaches."
"Danger?" I blinked, responding: "The demon's been taken care of—"
"That creature couldn't have been a threat, even if it tried." The dragon responded, his tone concerning. "You, indeed, called upon my power… but I'm afraid… it has come this. Listen, and listen well. The real danger, the only one who should concern you, has awakened."
"Awakened? Who's awakened?" I asked but got no response. I tried to straighten up, only to feel like I was going to black out again. Finally giving up, I panned the flashlight to get an idea of my surroundings before carefully standing. As the light cast over the floor, my eyes widened.
There were a few stunted pines about chest height, obviously affected by the lack of sunlight in the cave, but it was still strange finding them, even stranger being there among them like a giant in some magical, if undersized, forest.
Thinking I might have heard something from above, I aimed the flashlight, but there was nothing except the rocky edge. I hadn't moved for a moment and then my left thumb did something I didn't tell it to do—switched off the light.
In the darkness, the cave transformed, and I could see more than I would have thought possible. Shadows scrawled across the rock sides of the cliffs like a living thing, seemingly moving twice as fast as they were, like a time lapse.
I glanced back at the edge above and tried to get a read on this phenomenon but then figured it had to be something to do with my head wound. I turned back to the darkness and, as I did, felt something in my chest, almost like there was a tide pulling me forward. As I tried moving to my right to catch my balance, the tiny trees around me danced, and I was assaulted by the harsh, combined smell of salt water and smoldering fumes.
I coughed and tried to turn, but now my feet wouldn't move so I raised my hand for what good that would do. I was almost able to reactivate my sacred gear and rearm myself with the crimson gauntlet when, in the dead of silence, I heard something that was barely audible, a sad song that seemed to be echoing inside my head.
"Dragon, hey, are you still there?" I asked in the darkness.
I turned just a bit to listen to the unknown melody. It was in a foreign language, but I had a feeling I had heard the song before and understood.
"Dvarapala… RauUpala…"
I watched the trees sway to the rhythm, gaining an energy that enabled them to crawl across the rocks like cracks in glass, transforming from white to red. Almost forming what looked to be a strange set of prehistoric dorsal plates…
"Prithvi, Akash, Kirana hi kirana, Agni, Utkarsh…"
There was something in the darkness ahead, almost like swaddling cloth, that seemed to unfold like a flower that bloomed until the light red gave way to a crimson darkness, and the flower became a twister of red sand that suddenly extended towards me.
"Ra-Prani, Kana, Mrityu Doota, Mounam dha mounam, phalu isha…"
I stretched my fingers and felt the sand-like material grab my hand. There was a shock that ran through me like a lightning strike and ended in my other hand, causing my fingers to involuntarily shudder and spasm and contract.
"When the tides stain with blood…"
My body erupted on fire, the gauntlet reappearing as if to ward off whatever was happening to me. Suddenly, the song became like that of a dream, a flash of images. The viewpoints of two, to be exact. One of a man, while the other was that of a terrible beast, a catastrophe.
"Apocalyptic and unstoppable, a monster emerges from the red and bitter sea…"
Clad in crimson armor, he charged, flying straight into the brilliant, blue light.
"Unheard of, even in the age of gods…"
There was a petrifying roar, a rumble like that of a thousand crying voices.
"The waters are dyed scarlet, filled with the dead…"
A great sea of flames.
"If your high praise is all we got, let us not be without you…"
And a crimson-haired girl with tears in her eyes, screaming with despair, as she reached out with her hand.
"Hail, to the King of the Monsters."
