Chapter 25: Sinking Darkness

With Lenalee fighting against the Level Three Akuma, the staff and the remaining Exorcists are shock that the boat starts to sink into the ocean.

"THE SHIP..." Lavi shouts. "IT'S SINKING!"

"Why...!?" Miranda qustions. "The Recovery should still be functioning normally...!?" Miranda then sees chains coiling around her Innocence. "What... is this?" When she touches the chain, she feels electricity through the chain. "Ow!" Miranda exclaims and she widens her eyes. "Can this possibly be... don't tell me...!?"

In the middle of the ocean

Lenalee slowly sinks down into the water.

"...Tch. What...!?" Lenalee says.

'I'm certain my Dark Boot haven't broken down…' Lenalee thought. 'So it must mean…'

"Your ship is sinking." The Akuma Eshi points out as he looks at the boat and Lenalee looks up. "A ton of people are being swallowed up by the sea." The female Excorcist looks at the same direction as the Akuma. "It's impossible for you to see that far with your meager human sight, eh...?" The Akuma looks at her. "But you will return to them soon enough." It then points at the ocean. "In the darkness below." Suddenly, the chains appear around Lenalee. "Eshi's Dark Matter... has the ability to 'manipulate gravity'. Those who are recipients of Eshi's attack... not only suffer damage but feel the effects of gravity influenced by Dark Matter. You can no longer move swiftly as before. This is the end."

Lenalee grabs the chain and start pulling it. "GUH...!" She grunts as she feels the electricity. "A―H!"

Akuma Eshi starts to charge towards her. "You can no longer escape."

It then starts to attack the girl as she is not able to dodge its attacks anymore.

'My body feels so heavy, I've lost my speed and agility...!' Lenalee thought.

Akuma Eshi then grabs Lenalee by the head and drags her straight into the ocean.

"Title:" Akuma Eshi says and punches her before it comes out of the ocean. "'A Holy Woman Fallen into Darkness.'"

As Lenalee sinks into the ocean, Akuma Eshi grabs its head and opens all of his eyes that is all over his head.

"EXCITEMENT! I can hear... That woman's heartbeat is getting weaker... The heartbeat that gets weaker from the water pressure... Even though Eshi reached... Level 3... Eshi still can't reach the bottom of the sea... Eshi wanted to see... Eshi wanted to see the completion of Eshi's work... However, Eshi shall enjoy your friends' dead body...!"


Black Order: Asia Branch

Allen's Cursed Eye activates and Allen wakes up from the pain of it.

"UH!" Allen grunts and he sits up. "Again..."

Allen stares at his Cursed Eye.

"It's like a starving demon seeking its prey..." Allen describes. "Is it reacting to Akuma that's somewhere far away...? Ever since it's rebirth at Krory's castle, this evolving left eye sometimes hurt me like this in the middle of the night. As it doesn't allow me to sleep. As it wants to send me to Akuma. A scream of a great amount of souls that I wasn't supposed to hear wanders around my body through my left eye."

Allen gets up and leans on the wall for support.

"Tonight is..." Allen trails off. "Very... strong..."

Allen then trips on the ground.

"OUCH!" Allen exclaims. "...Please wait for me. I can't go yet. Please calm down, I beg of you. This... I don't like this kind of shape...!"

As Allen tries to calm his left eye, Alice's body slowly starts to glow in her room.

"Al... len... Le... nalee..." Alice mutters.

Allen manage to hear Alice's voice and he looks up.

"Alice...?" Allen calls.


In the town

Alice and Lenalee look for Allen and they found in a separate room.

"Allen?" Alice calls.

Allen looks back and covers his left eye terrified.

"You were here..." Lenalee says.

"A... Alice? Le... Lenalee?" Allen calls. "W–what are you two doing at this hour? Eating in secret?" He asks.

"Don't be stupid! We're not like you!" Alice yells and Lenalee notices that Allen is covering his left eye.

"Your left eye... what's wrong?" Lenalee asks.

"I'm all right!" Allen reassures as he walks backwards to the dark part of the room. "It's nothing. Please go to bed."

Lenalee notices Allen is walking into the darkness.

"Wa..." She starts. "Wait!" Lenalee grabs Allen's hand to stop him.

"Lenalee?" Alice calls.

"If... if you don't want to show it... I won't look at it, so... don't go any farther into darkness." Lenalee starts to tremble. "Please don't go away into the darkness!"

Allen widens his eyes at her words.

"Is something wrong, Lenalee?" Allen asks. "You haven't looked so well since we've gotten together at Krory's castle. Something happened... didn't it? Did you have a nightmare?"

Lenalee then remembers of the dream where there are ruins everywhere and a body floating on the black sea. Tears start to form on her eyes, surprising Allen.

"Uh..." She mutters and she then hugs Allen. "UWA–H!" Lenalee cries.

"WHA!?" Allen exclaims.

"LENALEE?!" Alice calls out

~Later~

Lenalee tells Allen and Alice the nightmare she had.

"A dream of the end of the world?" Allen asks as he covers Timcanpy's eyes so that a certain chief won't see it. "That's a scary dream..."

"I've been having that dream over and over again." Lenalee says. "It's like I'm actually there. You were gone when I woke up."

"Lenalee woke me up to help her finding you because she had a bad feeling. But I'm glad that you're all right." Alice says.

"That's over protection." Allen points out.

"I'm sorry."

Lenalee let go of Allen and Alice looks at her.

"Lenalee, why do you care so much about us?" Alice asks. "It seems like you're fighting only to protect us."

"When you close your eyes and think of 'the world'... what do you see...?" Lenalee asks.

"Eh?" Both Allen and Alice say.

"Well... I don't see 'the world' like a map. I've been in war for a long time. What I see are the faces of companions under a fence of 'Black Order'." Lenalee explains. "I'm a bad girl, huh? My friends are more important to me than the real world. To me, the death of one companion... is like a piece of 'the world' gets destroyed. If there's nobody left, even if the real world is saved, I will be destroyed... so please don't die. Please don't go away anymore... For that, I... I..."


In the ocean

When Alice opens her eyes, she notice that this time it isn't in her dream but somewhere else.

'Where am I?' She thought and looks around until she looks up to see the shining ripples above her. 'Am I in the water, no, the ocean?' She then looks at her hands and notices that her body is glowing and she is simply floating in the water. When Alice looks down, she sees Lenalee is sinking deeper into the sea. 'Lenalee!' The Silver user floats/swims down towards her friend to reach her.

Lenalee then looks up to see Alice's form reaching out towards her as she remembers what she said to Allen and Alice at the night of the town and she holds onto Alice's hand.

Above the ocean

Akuma Eshi hears Lenalee continues to struggle.

"AHH? Are you still struggling?" Akuma Eshi asks when the ocean starts to turn into a whirlpool. "Ah... good girl. Come on up. I'll sink you deeper this time."

In the ocean

After she grabs Lenalee's hand, Alice sends some of her power to Lenalee and her Dark Boots starts to change.

'INNOCENCE ACTIVATING MAXIMUM POWER! RELEASE!' Lenalee commands in her head and the chains are spread out still surrounding her. 'I did it. Eshi's Dark Matter had the power to control gravity. Once caught, there is no escape.' Lenalee then starts going up towards the surface. 'But since Dark Matter and Innocence are polar opposites; by releasing my Innocence, I should be able to temporarily cancel his ability out.' However, Lenalee starts to cough up blood as she continues to swim. 'Allen, I'm scared... For Suman's sake, you forcibly release your Innocence too right? My Synchro rating is 86%. We aren't supposed to do this without a synchro rating of 100%...' She breaks out from the water with a hurricane.

"Welcome back!" Akuma Eshi greets.

'My Innocence isn't a part of my body like yours is.' Lenalee inhales. 'But even so, for the sake of my world…'

"I will..." Lenalee begins. "Take you out here and now!"


On the ship

As Lavi and Krory are hanging on the rope, Krory is like a ghost.

"Aaaaa~" Krory moans.

"Why're you so out of it, Kuro-chan?" Lavi asks.

"Need... Akuma... blood… Losing... strength..."

"Snap out of it! There's no time to be tired!"

"I see her... Eliade..."

"GET A GRIP!"

Then the Akuma the sky start to shoot again. Lavi jumps up and lands on the mast.

"Damn! They just keep shooti—" Lavi didn't finish as he slips off the mast. "ACK!" Then one of the beams hit Lavi's shoulder. "GAH!" He gasps and Krory widens his eyes.

"LAVI!" Krory call out as Lavi falls into the ocean and Krory follows him.

In the ocean, pentacles starts to spread in Lavi's body as he falls, but Krory holds Lavi's arm and goes towards his neck before he starts sucking all the poison from the Akuma. After that, Krory then jumps out of the ocean with Lavi and lands on the mast, dropping Lavi next to him and Lavi starts to cough out the salt water.

"Huh? Didn't I just got shot...?" Lavi asks.

"Phew! You're alive." Krory says in relief.

"What?" Lavi says and he sees his blood tricking down.

"Looks like I managed to suck out the poison before it spread all over your body." Krory says. "Thanks for the meal." Lavi is in shock that he got bitten by Krory. "Oh, and I think I drank some of your blood too by accident." Krory says and chuckles.

"YOU RETARDS! HOW LONG DO YOU PLAN TO SITTING THERE?!" Bookman yells. "GET YOUR BUTTS IN GEAR AND FIGHT! YOU SLACKER!"

"How dare he talk to ME like that..." Krory says.

'I was bitten…' Lavi thought.

"WHY AREN'T YOU USING THE 'WOOD SEAL'? LAVI?!" Bookman question at his grandson.

"Oh yea, I forgot I had that move... I'm so stupid." Lavi admits.

"YOU IDIOT!"

"Stop shouting, Panda. Kuro-chan, c'mere for a sec." Lavi asks as he pulls Krory's ear and starts whispering. "OK?"

"Hmm? I see. But our footing isn't too steady." Krory says.

"But if we don't do this, we're goners."

"You're right. A death like this is unbefitting for one such as me! Plus it would suck if Lenalee got back and the ship was gone."

"This is where we stand."

In the middle of the ocean

Lenalee and Akuma Eshi are continuing their fight. Akuma Eshi then grabs Lenalee's arm.

"It's over girl. While cancelling my abilities, you can barely even move." Akuma Eshi says. "Eshi's body has now evolved into a close combat type. You cannot damage it."

"'Close combat type'. There are different types of Level 3 Akuma...?" Lenalee asks, hanging by the arm that the Akuma is holding.

Instead of answering Akuma Eshi laughs aloud at the question.

"I see... so your just one of the more stubborn types." Lenalee understands. "I get it now."

As the Akuma holds Lenalee, signs of using the Innocence to maximum power are showing on her body.

'Lavi, when I get back to the ship, I was going to apologize.' Lenalee thought. 'Alice, even though you lost your memory as a child, I hope you make precious memories with everyone. Allen, you suffered so much. Yet you're always looking out for me, thank you. I shouldn't have borrowed this. Anita's hair-tie…' She then remembers Allen and Alice smiling at her. 'Allen, Alice, I... know you two will come back to us, that's what I decided to believe in.'

"So Eshi is the stubborn type. Is that what you said...?" Akuma Eshi questions.

"Who knows?" Lenalee replies as the signs start to spread even further and Akuma Eshi notices it.

"What are you doing?"

Lenalee says nothing and looks down. 'So these are the consequences… They're showing up sooner than I expected.'

"I'm..." Lenalee speaks. "Breaking..."

"You mustn't despair. Killing is more fun when they're still squirming."

Lenalee then looks up at Akuma Eshi. "That... won't happen. Because YOU will be the one to die first." She declares.

Then the Akuma Eshi starts punching Lenalee as he laughs. "What's wrong, Exorcist? Squirm, squirm, squirm, squirm, squirm, squirm, SQUIRM!"

Akuma Eshi let go Leenalee and she begins to fall.

"Enbu..." Lenalee says. "Kirikaze!" She makes a destructive tornado at the Akuma. However, it cuts the tornado in half and looks around.

"Up..." Akuma Eshi says as he looks up.

"Shittsui no Tougi. Tetsukaze." Leenalee is in the air and her Dark Boots turned into morass of blade around them.

"Pitiful… Eshi cannot be damaged by the likes of you."

"You're wrong." She disagrees and looks down at Akuma Eshi. "Because you've just... given me the ability to do so." Lenalee then closes her eyes.

'She suppressing her Innocence's power...!?' Akuma Eshi thought.

The chains suddenly fly towards Lenalee's body.

'This is it.' Lenalee thought. 'This is my final attack.'

The chains are then surrounding Lenalee's body and starts wrapping around her. She watches her body getting wrapped us and she closes her eyes. Akuma Eshi realizes what Leenalee is going to do.

"Don't tell me… She's gonna use the gravity chains to..."


Meanwhile

The boat suddenly rises up from the ocean and resurfaces.

"Huh?" Lavi says. "What the-...? The ship..."

"Resurfaced!?" Krory finishes.

'How?' Lavi thought.

"The tides have been turned." Krory says as he smiles.

"LAVI! NOW!" Bookman calls. "SHOW THEM WHO'S BOSS!"


Lenalee is dropping like a meteor towards Akuma Eshi. Once Lenalee is near it, Akuma Eshi holds her back.

'Just now that girl put over 40,000 tons of weights into this...!' Akuma Eshi thought. 'So that's why she didn't dodge Eshi's attacks…' "UWAWAWAWAWAWA!" Akuma Eshi shouts and it starts to resist the fall. "How dare you do this to Eshi... How dare you...!" 'This is relentless the speed... the power... It's like a meteorite! How much can Eshi's body take!? Are you planning on take us both out, girl? Your body is going to burn from the air friction.' "But is Eshi can endure this...! Then Eshi wins. You're the only one who is going to die..." Akuma Eshi concludes. "You think you can destroy Eshi...? YOU'RE OUT OF YOU'RE MIND!"

As Akuma Eshi holds Lenalee back, her hair starts to burn up, letting the hair-tie that she borrowed from Anita to come out.

'A... Anita's hair-tie…' Lenalee thought and she reach towards it. 'Stop... Must not let it burn. It's important to her.' She then feels Akuma Eshi is resisting her even more. 'Eshi... is still alive...!? I will not let you survive. You and I are going to disintegrate here and now. Die! DIE!'

Lenalee pushes the Akuma Eshi and its hands starts to disintegrate as he holds her back.

"T... Ti... Title." Akuma Eshi says and it gets stab by Lenalee's Dark Boots.

Lenalee goes through Akuma Eshi's body and straight into the ocean. Akuma Eshi's body starts to disintegrate and destroys. Then a pillar of light shoots out and slowly gets smaller as the chains that surrounds the girl starts to disintegrate.


Bookman orders Lavi to take the Akuma from the say. Lavi then activates Iron Hammer Second Opening and the seals appear surrounding him.

"Yes sir!" Lavi replies and hits the seal with . "Seal Marumoko." Lavi slams Iron Hammer on the deck and the wood seal is on it. "Tenchi Pankai!" He says as he points up and the wood seal goes up into the sky.

'The 'wood' seal is not an offensive sea.' Bookman thought. 'It is something unique to his Innocence. It is the seal that operates the exertion of the influence of all things in nature.'

"Hey, you clouds..." Lavi calls. "...Recede!"

Once the seal touches the clouds, lightning appears and the clouds start to disperse. Krory sees three Akuma are in the sky.

'There they are!' Krory thought.

Krory then jumps up and Lavi follows him as he about to launch Krory to where the Akuma are. "4 o'clock." He tells Lavi.

"OK!" Lavi replies. "Go get'em, Kuro-chan!" He launches Krory to where the Akuma are.

In the sky

Three Akuma are shooting the ship and one of them notices the clouds are cleared up.

"Wha–t!?" Akuma A says. "The clouds just cleared up! Why the hell!? Ah. But as if their human eyes can see us, when we're this high."

Krory steps on Akuma A and he disappears when Akuma A turns around.

"Huh? What was that just now..." It asks.

"What's wrong?" Akuma B asks. "While you are slacking off, I won't end up getting more kills?"

"Didn't something come just now?" Akuma A asks.

"Haaa?" Akuma B says as Krory steps on it as well, but he quickly goes to the last Akuma. "Well... that something hasn't visited that Level 2 over there."

"Hmm?" Akuma C says. "What do you mean, 'something'?"

The three Akuma then notices that Krory is standing on Akuma C.

"An E-Exorcist!" Akuma C exclaims.

"If it were only the three then..." Krory trails off.

Then the Akuma's body starts to get infected.

"Wha... What?" Akuma B says. "My body feels funny..."

"I injected my blood into you." Krory says. "I really want to drink you blood dry like it was a party... But you bastards killed too many of my travelling companions. The price for that is atoning for it with an equal death."

The three Akuma's bodies start to corrode by Krory's blood.

"My blood has been laced with Innocence. To you guys that might as well be poison." Krory continues. "Die with pain!"


On the ship

Miranda sees red snow falling from the sky to the ship.

"Red... snow?" Miranda says as she reaches the snow.

Suddenly, Krory drops down in front of Miranda, shocking her.

"Crimson..." Krory says. "Blood that reeks of blood... isn't it good?" He then falls face-plant to the deck.

"KYA―!" Miranda screams. "KRORY-SAN!"

"MASTER!" The Crew calls.

"You're t-t-turning ghastly pale!" Miranda exclaims. "Didn't you suck the Akuma's blood!?"

"Sh-shut up..." Krory mutters

"Hey what's that!"

"Did something happened?" Miranda asks.

"The light over in the sea! It looks like it came from an explosion..."

One of the crew men points at the light.

"Look!" He says and the light starts to disappear. "Aww, it disappeared."

Miranda then looks at the chains that are on her Time Record as the chains starts to glow.

"What are these chains...!?" Miranda says.

"That direction..." Lavi says. "Lenalee..."

The pillar of light then disappears.

"The light... disappeared."

Then the chains start to break apart and both Miranda and Lavi widen their eyes.

~Later~

"We're adjusting course to Japan! Each man to his own position! Roll call! There might be ones that fell overboard!"

"Roll ca—ll!"

As the crews are gathering, Lavi is sitting on the board with his hands together against his face and thinking about Leenalee.

'Lenalee...' Lavi thought. 'Why haven't you come back...'