An: thanks for reading, I'd appreciate a like if you have time.
Chapter five: The Past and Future
Ram laid flat on the frozen ground, completely worn out due to mana exhaustion and blood loss, her face completely immersed itself into the frigid plains of ice that surrounded her. The blizzard that had already been razing the wintry forests of Gusteko became much greater over time; In fact, the snow almost completely submerged her body in a blistering blanket, hiding Ram and her trail of destruction as hours went by.
Her fight with the Archbishop of Envy had destroyed almost everything within the path she flew from; trees and several mountains had been shattered to dust just from the impact of his kick. Needless to say, Ram lost that fight, her rage won her over and she released the curse of the Oni God. If she hadn't done that, Ram would've won easily; she'd trained her whole life to fight against even stronger opponents, and some boy who didn't know how to use his mana couldn't possibly have challenged her.
"Ugh…" she grunted in her sleep from the pain. The entire left side of her body had been rendered completely useless and burnt vigorously in a pink flame that even the ice-cold snow couldn't put out. If her curse kept burning its way through her body at this rate, she wouldn't survive; even the world's greatest healer couldn't save her at that point. This "Oni God curse" had bound her for almost her entire life, keeping her from using her true abilities and constantly burning her insides, it truly destroyed her. She could almost remember clearly the day she gained it...
"Rem… REMM!" a short, pink-haired girl's voice screamed as blood spurted through the air. In front of her fell a gruesomely sliced corpse, and pools of fresh red blood rapidly rushed onto the ground in front of her. A feeling of dread crept onto the girl's face as she looked upon this dire ][
scene; it was almost as if she'd watched herself die entirely. Rem threw herself in front of a cultist's blade aiming for the pink-haired girl's horn. It was clear Ram instantly knew what had happened; her petrified face spoke for itself.
The small village in the background of the two girls had burnt to ash; almost every building had been engulfed in the sea of red flames. Within the streets, mangled bodies of the oni race had laid dead; most of their faces had become unrecognizable by this point and had been burned without a trace of evidence but bones. The Witch-Cult had done this… their infamous black and red striped cloaks that garbed them head to toe confirmed the many rumors of their existence; many other villages had suffered the same fate as this one already.
"Rem… Why?" The pink-haired girl cried as she bent down to hold her sister's already deceased body. *Drip, drip, drip…* blood fell off the weapon of the cultist that had murdered Rem, the many that surrounded Ram were all dead silent; even they couldn't believe what just happened.
"I said that you didn't have to worry about anything anymore. So why would you..." she weepingly whispered as she softly put down Rem's body. Closing her sister's dead eyes, she began to silently cry. Ram didn't want this; how could she have been so weak to need to be protected? She thought she could at least protect her sister. If anything it should have been easy. Right? After acquiring this much power she should have been able to protect Rem from anything; that's why she promised to do everything for Rem. her naivety laughed at her face and caused this scene of a disaster. Her parents, Her friends, and anyone she saw her entire life were covered with stains of blood. Her power had meant almost nothing in the face of this terror; even now, she could vividly still hear their screams in her mind.
"I WON'T ACCEPT THIS!" she let out an anguished scream; anger had completely taken over her already worn-out body. The cultist's guts turned to hear a child scream like this, it was almost like she had been possessed by some kind of demon. "AL FULA!" the girl screamed at the top of her lungs as huge wind blades cut through the air and cleaved the cultists that surrounded her into pieces. The cultists were bewildered; this pink-haired demon girl was already strong enough to overwhelm them before how could she have acquired even more power? "AL FULA!" Another powerful blast of wind mana manifested itself and took her enemies' lives; multitudes of the many witch cultists were killed within a single blow. Ram's demonic horn had matured and grew four inches; she was slowly evolving into a true Oni God.
A maniacal laugh rose from out of the smoke after the terrifying wind attack. The pink-haired child with a large single pink horn stood there almost completely alone, a large grin on her face as she lifted her hands in preparation for the next attack; this time she wouldn't let a single one of these cultists leave. Many ran, many tried to attack, some even dropped their weapons and surrendered; either way, none of them would escape the devastation about to occur. "FULA CYCLONE!" a completely new technique that she had been training to use for years, with her power before it would have been dangerous to attempt; however, Ram could absorb so much mana now it wouldn't have mattered if she used it even six times without stopping. Thousands of the already terrifying wind blades she used before spiralled in a tornado-like circular motion out of the palms of her hands, obliterating anything in their pathway and killing the remaining cultists like little helpless animals on a farm. It was a terrible spectacle; guts, blood, and various other human organs scattered everywhere as if they were ground to pieces. The small village the oni clan had resided in and lived in for generations was completely reduced to stone and rubble, not to mention the deep aperture in what used to be the village's waterfall.
The small pink-haired girl laughed at the catastrophe she caused, standing next to her sister's corpse, bathing herself in the blood of her enemies as it rained on her. Even after unleashing an attack of this scale, Ram still felt herself becoming even stronger as time went on; however, as her power increased her horn rapidly ate away at her sanity even more so than before.
"AHAHAHAHAHAA!" the child laughed hysterically as she formed another Fula Cyclone in her palms once more, firing it at the lifeless lacerated cultist's corpses. Again and again, the corpses were thrown through the air like ragdolls, limbs, organs, and blood scattered everywhere. Such carnage caused the land to shake tremendously, it was as if an enraged dragon had taken its anger out on this small village.
"Child, what is the purpose of this?" a soft female voice spoke to Ram, a soft hand touching her shoulder as well. "Why not run? Your family is already gone. Doing this won't change that." This strange woman's mesmerizing voice caused Ram's rage to stop for a second. The demonic horn's power stopped her from comprehending her question, however, even with her brain not functioning properly she could tell the woman's words had power. She couldn't tell what exactly the power was, but something was off about her.
Breaking out of her strange trance, Ram turned around and killed the woman who spoke to her immediately. It was a clean wind slash to the chest, the woman couldn't even react to her, she was killed instantly. "HAHAHAHHAH!" The pink-haired child laughed insanely at her demise, not caring even a little if she lived or died because to her, it was like killing a rabbit in the forest.
"So your mind has disappeared? A dull answer. However, meeting a child with your power wasn't expected." The woman spoke once more in front of Ram for the first time; even after death she still sounded as carefree as before. The woman was beautiful, it was like God sculpted her himself and created something so beautiful that even he would feel the urge to avert his eyes if she turned to face him. Platinum-like hair stretched to her waist only accompanied by a single blue ribbon holding a lock of her hair down; it sparkled and flew through the wind of the night almost like a female character in a fairytale book. She wore a white sheet dress that barely covered her at all; however, it was almost natural how much it fit her. It was a bizarre sight to see someone so abnormally dressed and with such godlike beauty casually find the oni-clans village because it was located in the middle of a great forest with many predators and wild animals, it was very strange to see a foreigner here.
"Wh- who are-" Ram struggled to speak to the strange platinum-haired woman; her mind slowly began to grow weaker and weaker by the second. "AHGHHH!" she suddenly screamed at the top of her lungs as a large pink flame burnt through the clothing of the left portion of her neck. The pink flame burned more strongly than actual fire, causing the small body of the pink-haired girl to suddenly fall over in pain. As the fire spread, black markings appeared and stretched themselves across Ram's body reading "Death". "I-It hurts!" the child screamed as the flames began to slowly burn through her skin; writhing in agonizing pain, bawling at the top of her lungs for help.
The strange woman stood in front of Ram, completely unsurprised and uncaring about Ram's condition, watching her scream in pain as if it was normal to her; it was almost like she anticipated all of this to happen from the beginning. "The curse of the Oni-God? How unfortunate it is for you to only have been born with one horn… " the platinum-haired woman turned away from Ram and began to walk away, leaving the child to her demise… that was what she was going to do, but she almost stepped on someone along the way. The strange woman had a noticeable blush on her face as she stopped in front of the corpse, it was like she had a revelation of some sort. "Child… I'll save you. However, you must love me like your own sister... You must protect me as if I were your own family! You must avenge me if I were ever to die! I wish to receive the same love and treatment as this girl, whom you killed so many for!" The strange woman spoke in an euphoric way towards Ram as she pressed her hands against her face, her cheeks burning in red color as dark as a rose.
The woman's words embedded themselves inside of Ram like commands; words circulating through her body like it was completely normal for it to be there, churning her mind around the woman's wishes. "AHHHRRG!" the child screamed viciously in pain from the stress being put on her body; if this continued any further, not only would she die, but she would be sure to break entirely.
"Was that too much for you to handle?" the goddess-like woman bent down in front of the child, getting a closer look at her condition. Speaking underneath her breath, the woman used her strange power once again: "This child was born with two horns, never suffering from the curse of the Oni God." Almost instantly, the woman fell to her knees and vomited blood; surprised, her eyes widened, looking at the pool of blood that came from her body. She quickly realized she couldn't stand, it seemed as if her lower body had completely collapsed from the backlash of whatever power she used to heal the small child's body. "How-" convulsing blood from her body once more, she passed out.
Completely healed from her injuries, the child stood up after grovelling in pain on the ground for so long. It was an instantaneous process, the moment the platinum-haired woman gave that strange order the pain subsided and she was given another horn. Everything had turned out just as the woman said in her command…
"Save her…"
The midst of this strange silence, an unknown voice whispered to Ram. Looking to her left, she found the platinum-haired woman unconscious; the voices continuously prompting her to go near her, almost pulling her body along like a magnet.
"save her… save her… save her… save her… save her… save her… save her… save her… save her…save her… save her… save her… save her… save her… save her… save her… save her… save her… save her… save her… save her… save her… save her…"
The child grabbed her head and fell to the ground, struggling to keep her sanity. Ram finally realized it, her mind was rebelling against her; whatever power that woman used almost completely changed her mind's construction. Why must she go through so much pain? Who sent those masked men to kill her family? Why did Rem have to die?
"Rem…"
Soon after, Ram passed out as well…
"Is she over here?"
Waking up from her endless nightmare, Ram heard a familiar voice. However, the sound was very muffled underneath this unfathomable amount of snow, so she couldn't exactly tell who it was. Only one thing was apparent to her, it was a male's voice, and if it was whom she thought it was she'd rather fall asleep again. It wasn't like she had any sort of grudge against the archbishop of Envy, after all, her sister was still very interested in him. Ram just couldn't see a reason to act friendly towards someone who "killed" her sister right in front of her. Plus, Pandora would most likely make her apologize for attacking him, which definitely wasn't something she wanted to do at all.
More than six hours had passed, her curse had considerably calmed down by this point, and she somehow managed to avoid death through her sleep; unfortunately, she still wasn't able to move any of her limbs so she could finally get from beneath all this bitter snow. She still felt intense pain everywhere on the left side of her body, but she was rather experienced at handling all types of pain so it was fairly manageable to a degree.
"The snow covered up everything!" the man said frustrated as he unknowingly began to wildly dig around Ram's tomb of snow. Noticing some of her long pink hair peering out of the mound, he began to dig faster. "Pandora! She's over here!" The platinum haired woman came running, as the man uncovered Ram's face. Moving her right arm from beneath the snow, Ram pointed the palm of her hand directly at the silver-haired man. "Eh?"
"El Goa." The long, pink-haired woman whispered as fire manifested out of thin air and shot out an illicit blast at the man's face, causing him to fly straight into the trees behind him.
"Ouch! Ow! Ow! Ow!" he screamed, patting down his clothing to make sure the flames didn't spread.
"Tsk. Even that didn't hurt him? It's like my mana is being nullified the moment it touches his skin." Ram thought, slightly perturbed at his abilities. She couldn't help but attack him out of frustration for losing and failing to protect her sister from him; of course, she wouldn't tell him that, but her pride was slightly damaged nevertheless.
"Hey you-"
"I'm satisfied. That should be enough to punish you for putting your hideous, bony hands on Onee-sama."
"Maybe I should just leave you inside that snow…"
"Subaru-kun, you're supposed to heal Ram, remember?" Pandora walked towards Ram's tomb of snow and began to knock off the snow surrounding her left arm. "Here, use the ability I showed you." She held Ram's unhealable burnt arm up to Subaru.
"Onee-sama, it's fine… I don't need his help."
"Ram. I already know you can't walk with these cursed burns all over your body."
With an aggrieved look on Ram's face, she averted her eyes away from her sister letting Pandora have her way. Although she had no other choice, she felt her stomach turn just thinking about having someone like Subaru heal her, it would be an absolute disgrace having her enemy pity her.
Approaching Ram and Pandora, Subaru grabbed the pink-haired girl's left arm and closed his eyes; almost immediately, the cursed burns started to reverse themselves back into regular skin. After a few minutes there was little to no signs of Ram's injuries at all, however, the cursed mark of "death" still remained on her neck.
"His authority… it's almost like he's reversing time…" Ram assessed, watching this miracle being used on her arm. "Could he do the same to Onee-sama's wound as well?"
"That should make us even… S-sorry for kicking you… Ram."
Getting up out of her grave of snow, Ram dusted off her heavy coat and pants; her clothes were still mangled and bloody from her fight with Subaru, but most of the snow and dirt were gone now. Turning to her right, she looked at the long haired boy uncaringly almost like he didn't matter at all. "...You expect me to say 'it's okay', and pretend as if nothing happened? How arrogant."
"Maybe you could at least acknowledge that I attempted to apologize…?" Subaru said, looking dejected from her response.
"Ram, start a fire, it's too dark to find our way back to the village now. We have much to discuss after all!" with a slight smile, the pale woman commanded Ram in an enraptured tone.
TO BE CONTINUED
AN: hmmm I'm not sure what questions yall would have about this chapter so ask in the comments and I'll answer if it's not a spoiler to the rest of the story. If your reading this on I'll tell you in a PM (private message).
