"Yuma of the Great East Sun, and Sarah of God's Tears...or, should I say of Blasphemous Blood."
Djinn can tell he hit a nerve by the way Sarah immediately stands in front of her Guild Master, daring to close the distance between herself and possibly one of the most dangerous mages of her generation, due to his statement.
"Don't bring that name up, you scum. You're worse than the people who gave me that title."
After this passionate affront, the Master stands beside her to amplify the emotion.
"Djinn, you should be the last to pick upon changed reputations. You should know the pain by now."
Djinn sighs, and let his fingertips light themselves with black embers.
"Unfortunately, you are right. But, unlike your subordinate, I have come to grow into this new skin...to embrace the truth that the darkness has enlightened me to. Really, your lot did me a favor by abandoning me."
His detached gaze falls coldly upon Sarah once more.
"I'll have you re-adopt that old name of yours, and show you the reality of it."
"Over my dead body, fiend!"
"Whatever it takes."
"Hemorrhage Heart; Angel's Weep!" Sarah's eyes begin to spill blood from them, trails of gore flowing down her cheeks. At the same time, ethernano builds up around her body immensely, making her shimmer within a heavenly, crimson light. A pattern of red and gold overtake her body.
Djinn looks upon her theatrics without a change in his neutral demeanor.
Sarah's body accelerates exponentially, though she did not travel on her two legs; no, she is a rocketing streak of blood through the air, a flying red river which reforms to make a mage's kick.
Djinn catches this kick by the ankle, applies black fire, and slams Sarah against the ground wholesale like a hated doll. This completely knocks her out of her divine form and leaves her terribly dazed.
"FIST OF THE FLAMING SUN!" Exclaims the Guild Master attempting to catch Djinn vulnerable.
In response to the searing heat of the strike which came much too quick to dodge, the dark mage casts a shroud of fire to resist the solar flame. Yuma does not relent, however, and his punch slowly begins to degrade Djinn's defense. Frustrated, he decides to use the subordinate as a weapon, and swings her body into her own leader to send them both tumbling away.
Yuma and Sarah tumble away violently, and stop at the border between the forest and a dirt path. They groan in recovery, but Sarah smiles. A bloody trail had accumulated from her body's trip across the path courtesy of Djinn's rough treatment. Her hand sticks out to manipulate that blood, those splotches quickly transforming into needles, spikes, and stones surrounding her adversary.
Djinn glances at the weapons around him dismissively. They are unexpected, but, are of no concern.
"You'd do best to surrender now, Friend-Wearer. You so much as twitch a finger, and I'll skewer you like a kebab."
"Are you sure you want to do that to me?"
Sarah is confused by this response, and shocked by the sudden urge she feels. At first, her body is frozen due to her personal resistance, but that would not last long.
"Sarah. Sarah, are you alright? You bastard, what are you doing to her!?" Yuma demands of Djinn, looking frantically from friend to foe.
"You should worry more about what she'll do to you." Djinn says as Sarah's eyes become stained a deep black, startling Yuma. Her blood weapons turn their trajectories toward the Guild Master, and he witnesses this betrayal with defenseless fright.
Klaus, Kira, and Yuma regroup into a circle surrounded by their enemies, but, this time, they are bound and gagged by magic. They kneel, and are now completely subject to the whims of the Friend-Wearer and his recruits.
"United you stood, divided you fall. At least in the end, you will feel both the suffering and release of separation all at once." As Djinn says this, executors took their places: Havana before Klaus, Zura in front of Kira, and Sarah staring down at Yuma.
"Insecurity does not exist in solitude, for it is from the outside that cracks form within."
Havana kneels and kisses Klaus, forcing his mouth open with her split tongue and allowing a gush of insects to invade his mouth from hers. He is eaten from the inside out by these parasites, his flesh serving as great nutrition for them, and so they eat voraciously until he is little more than white bones.
"Pessimism is a noble trait, but only if it is self-developed, and not formed as a helpful counter to optimism."
Zura holds gun fingers to Kira's forehead, then blasts his brain matter across Klaus' remains using a black beam. The young man falls dead from where he kneeled.
"Faith in oneself is the one true faith. And, if one is to preach faith for and from others, then it is best to be unanimous and impartial lest you suffer the fate of hypocrites and fools."
Sarah puts her hands on either side of Yura's head, and his face begins to take an increasingly black hue. It swells like a balloon until his cranium bursts like a geyser, black blood spewing out like a fountain and bathing the executioner. His head is freed, and he too joins the blood pool of comrades.
"You three have served me well..."
Djinn begins as the girls turn toward their master, standing at obedient attention expressionless.
"Alas, your conversion was too late and too forced for continued employment. Burn in the glory of knowledge, knowing you helped some realize the true futility of friendship."
Djinn releases his control on the three, their bodies immediately catching flame. Despite this, they stand still and endure their burning, adhering to the philosophy with stern respect until the tips of their hairs were nothing but dust, as the rest of their bodies had become...
As their bonds had become.
