Chapter Forty-Two
Become the Beast
I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The prosperous town I had seen running itself beneath Reveille, the Court of Miracles, was now aflame and burning in bright scarlet and orange. Before I could even say anything, my body lurched forward trying to get over to help. But just when I was to jump off the ledge of the sewer tunnel, someone caught my wrist.
I turned with a vicious glare to face Arbel. "Let me go," I growl under my breath.
"You can't just jump in recklessly like that. You'll end up killing yourself!" he countered with a high-pitched whisper.
"What am I supposed to do!?" I hiss back, swaying my arm out to show him what we all saw. "Just stay back and watch them be killed?" My glare intensified, "I'm their King and I will fight with and for them."
"But the curator isn't an offensively doted Chain," Galen called out trying to knock some nonexistent sense in me. "You can't fight."
"I'll fight, Chain or no Chain," were my last words before I yanked my wrist away and jumped off the edge towards the city.
Claire landed on the edge of the burning city and dodged the people that were using the various secret entrances as emergency exits now. She went ahead and saw Envier, Derek, and Talis ahead of her directing the townspeople towards their nearby exits.
"Envy!" she exclaimed and hurried towards the redhead that turned at hearing her name.
"Claire! W-What are you doing here? I thought that the Baskervilles—"
"Arbel and Galen bailed me out," I panted and motioned my head towards the burning edifices. "What the hell's going on?"
"Exactly that, hell." The unamusing pun didn't lighten either of their moods. "Six weirdos in red cloaks came out of nowhere and claimed a new reign for the Corvus and that they would see to the return of the Court of Crows. They began attacking innocents and burning everything. They're crazy!"
"Where are they now?"
"Angele's keeping them busy while we evacuate. Ah, Grand Pabbie!" Claire pivoted to see that Arbel and Galen had followed after her.
"Good thing you're here," Claire said turning back to Envier. "Envy said Angele's fighting Kein and the rest by himself. We need to evacuate everyone."
"He's what?!" Arbel snarled menacingly and this surprised Claire. She'd never before seen Arbel so livid. She could have sworn that his cobalt eyes were starting to rim a bright red. "You guys deal with the people, I'm going after the bastards he's fighting."
"W-Wait, Arbel!" But she was too late. The Water Lord had ran off towards Angele. "Shit." She turned to the amount of people being led out and thought better. Arbel and Angele would definitely need a hand. All she had to fight with was Radiant Dawn and frankly that was all she needed.
Summoning it, she turned to Galen. "Stay here and help evacuate everyone."
"Are you insane?!" he gnarled. "I'm not letting you go out there unarmed!"
"I am armed," she clarified bringing the saber up to his view. She shook her head vigorously. "There's no time to argue. This is an order: Angele, Arbel, and I will keep Kein and her group at bay while you evacuate the civilians. Once you're done, head our way and help us."
Before either of them could argue, Claire slipped off and headed towards the center of town were most explosions were coming from. She stopped in the middle of the street when she spots a big crowd trying to find their way out.
She clicks her tongue and turns towards them while waving her saber around to get their attention. Once they saw her, she pointed out towards where Envier and Galen had been. "Hurry! The other Lords are waiting ahead to lead you all out!" They didn't hesitate about her word and instead followed in a frenzy.
Just when she was about to get back on course, Claire suddenly heard something inside her head. It wasn't like with Chronos, Lacrimosa, or Lachesis. This was something else.
"...help..."
Then she heard it. It sounded like...a baby crying. Without really knowing why, something compelled her to pursue the cry for help that ended up guiding Claire to a nearby edifice. It was tall and burning up in flames that licked everywhere. But she couldn't be wrong, the cries where coming from inside of it.
Without missing a heartbeat, Claire ran through the door and into the burning building. She couldn't very well understand why she was doing it and why she was following a cry for help that she heard in her head. But regardless of those details, she pressed forth trying not to let the fire get to her and breathing through her sleeves.
Straining her ears, she tried hearing past the cackling of the flames that surrounded her but everywhere she looked, she only found more fire.
C'mon, she thought while trying to breath as little as possible. Where are you?!
That's when something akin to an electric charge went down her body. Everything turned dark and almost monochrome as her eyes adjusted. She couldn't hear or feel anything. All she felt was the thumping of a heart and the soft cries of the babe. At pinpointing them, her head snapped upwards where she felt the waves come from.
"There you are..." she muttered and went towards the stairs in shambles to climb them. They started cracking on her way up, making her leap out of their way. Claire didn't bother turning back to know that the stairs weren't a leeway back outside anymore. But nonetheless she had to find this baby.
Getting to the only room in the second floor, she went straight towards the closet from where the cries were distinctly coming from. She slammed the door opened to find the baby covered well enough with its blanket to cover the smoke. Taking the babe that was about her arm's length into her arms, she turned about but found no exit nearby. She went out trying to find another but the floor beneath her kept collapsing, nearing her feet.
Now what?!
"Trust your instincts, mia Dominia. They will always be there to help you."
Even when she didn't have the time to listen to Lachesis's philosophical babble, she closed her eyes and tried to concentrate. Just like before her senses dulled and all she saw was gray. But before she could find out a plausible exit, the roof above her head collapsed.
"Damn it!" Galen growled getting to the building just as it collapsed into itself. He tried calling for Callisto before but missed the opportunity to salvage anything from the burning edifice. In the end, he was only able to watch as the building came down in flames. Running up to it, he saw as the embers of the building began to die and managed to catch the glimpse of something in those ruins.
A sphere of white was embedded in the dying embers and debris of the fallen edifice. At a closer glance, Galen realized that it wasn't any sphere, it was made of feathers. Unfurling from the sphere, a set of white wings forcefully unraveled and extinguished the remaining flames so that it could release what it protected inside safely on the ground.
Galen watched mesmerized as Lachesis gently released Claire from her arms, the former barely opening her eyes and mouth to catch a well needed breath. The Chain gently placed her on the clearing she had made from the shield's area and stepped back to let her breath.
"Claire!" Galen jumped over smoldering pieces of wood and debris before getting to the girl that sat, sprawled before him. It wasn't until he was a few feet away from her that she saw how tightly Claire was holding something onto her chest. And by the sound of wailing, it wasn't just any 'something'.
"Mia Dominia, are you both—"
"Y-yeah," she coughed out raggedly while trying to stand back up without the help of her arms. When her legs started buckling, Galen quickly grabbed her shoulders to steady her. "I-I'm fine, Gale. Just a bit winded."
"Is that a..."
Claire followed Galen's line of sight to the bundle that she protectively held in her arms. Unwrapping the blanket from its face, she revealed the pale babe that she held crying from the terror they had just faced.
"It was in trouble. It was crying for help," Claire babbled on incoherently trying to put what had happened together. But even when Galen told her to slow down it was hard to think what exactly had happened. She heard a voice, yes, and it had led her to the building where the child was but...why? And who had been calling her—the baby?
The sudden screams and screeches from the citizens of the Court made her snap out of her train of thought. Now wasn't the time to stop and think about stuff like that.
"Take her." Without even waiting for an answer, Claire deposited the baby in Galen's unexpected arms. He struggled at first but cradled the baby carefully before turning to look at her.
"What are you—"
"Continue the evacuation. My orders still stand. Finish and then come help." Without another word, Claire left running towards where she could see Cerberus causing havoc.
"Mia Dominia, that child—"
"I don't know what happened back there," Claire proclaimed running as fast as she could towards Kein and her Chain. "Or who that kid was but that can be dealt with later. Right now, we have our priorities set out. We need to stop Kein and the others. We can't let the Court down!"
But even she knew— all the while she watched yet another building collapse beside her—that that was going to be a task easier said than done.
Explosions.
That's all that Arbel heard every other second. The woman that he kept fighting against, Reina Joule, was an Exploiter from the Land of Fire. He knew as much because of the woman's ability that she kept spamming annoyingly.
The beams that she could conjure out of her right hand created kinetic explosions with anything it came into contact. It was a miracle that with the amount that he had avoided that had hit the cavern's walls that the place hadn't collapsed on itself. But that was the least of his worries.
When he left Claire in such a hurry it was to find Angele and help him out. But on his way there these two had blocked his way. Reina, a girl with short hair except for the long bangs on her left side and the cat-like hazel eyes, was a dangerous foe. And although Arbel knew this, he was more worried about the little girl that stood in the sidelines behind Reina. The stoic look, the dark blonde hair and those lost eyes of amber.
The people that came from Derek's land were the worst to deal with if they possessed powers. And worst of all because it was a little girl—those people always presented their powers at a young age.
"Running won't do you any good, Lord of Water!" Reina bellowed in an ecstatic rage as she kept firing at Arbel. For him it was easy to avoid her attacks when he could turn into water and quickly avoid the beam. But the more he avoided them the more the city suffered.
He couldn't let their hopes collapse into nothing.
"Reina." When the girl spoke, it took both their attentions from the fight.
"What is it, Avery?"
"The shadows." The girl pointed at what she meant to say and both turned to see the distinct shadows that came from the debris and the buildings still standing. They were fluctuating. Soon they separated from the object they were attached to and began to gather towards one single direction.
"That's—"
Reversal. Arbel could recognize that technique anywhere. Angele was calling upon shadows to form an army. But that technique itself warranted a great toll from the caster. Angele only used it as a last resort.
"No." Without even caring if he left his back vulnerable, he followed after the shadows that beckoned to Angele's call.
Reina stood in position with her hand aloft and ready to attack. "Don't."
"Why did you point the shadows out? Now he's going to go help the Lord of the Dead."
"Arbel Artemisia, the Lord of Water; he's more alike to us than we would like to admit," Avery told her all the while walking amidst the destruction towards the direction Arbel had left to.
"What'd you mean?"
"He's a Corvus, Reina. A pure-blood."
At hearing these news, a smirk grew on Reina's lips. "Now that's just splendid."
"Yes, and now that he has gone to aid Lord Angele he will leave himself more vulnerable than he thinks," Avery explain. Out of the blue, her stoic expression changed into a maniacal one. "Spirit Possession becomes way easier when a heart leaves itself open."
"Angele, please, be careful. You're already heavily inju—"
"Be—quiet." Angele couldn't help but pant when he bellowed at Willow. Barely holding his sword up, he managed to catch the brunette man when he attacked with a rapier of his own. But it wasn't just any normal weapon, it was one made of ice. Angele was pretty agile with his skills and quickly disarmed him for the tenth time breaking the sturdy ice weapon.
"You've got skills, I'll give you that," the man complimented with a grin of his own. He didn't seemed even one bit fazed about what Angele had accomplished yet again. "But you are an old man and you'll eventually tire out."
"I've finished my analysis." Willow was a good researcher and information always let Angele be a step ahead.
"Let me guess," Angele said in a quiet voice. "Ice manipulation."
"A subcategory of the powers from the Land of Water. His name is Marcus Lotto and he was a member of Lord Arbel's private corps until not long ago. An attack washed away and killed the whole unit. No bodies were found."
This time, though, her information wasn't much that he hadn't already suspected. "He must've survived." It explained why he was so well trained in combat and how he had barely broken a sweat during their long battle. He had been trained his whole life for times like these.
Marcus, not really listening to their private conversation, simply conjured another sword of pure ice, this one though was a large broadsword with a flick of his wrist. Holding it over his shoulder for support, Marcus made a slight whistling sound.
Angele was confused at what was happening until his whole body was pulled down onto the earth. His arms and legs felt like wet wool and his head was hurting from the pressure that pinned him down in place. "W-What—?!"
"Two against one." Even if he wanted to, the augmented gravity around him didn't allow Angele to turn around to face the woman who had spoken. "And an old man at that. Do your dishonorable actions never end, Lotto?"
"Shut it, Mei Tao." Marcus gave Mei Tao and pointed look as she walked right by Angele in his immobile form. The woman that crossed Angele's path had bobbed black hair with some strands long that she held behind her in a low ponytail. Her gray eyes glanced over at Angele who struggled to keep standing. "Weren't you suppose to deal with the Lord of Fire?"
"Can't." All the while she spoke, her eyes never left the heavily injured Angele. "The late Lord's with her. Envier by herself isn't a threat but that man is something I can't handle alone."
"Old folks are a bore, Mei. The Lord of the Dead isn't an exception, as you can see." Marcus languidly spoke and showed her how Angele stood. "So feeble and weak. They think the years they have give them experience but they don't know pain."
"Not like ours," Mei agreed sullenly out of boredom. "Shall we end him too?"
"You must run!"
"I know!" Angele bellowed and used some of his magic to break the constrictions that tied him down in place. Mei and Marcus stood a few feet away from where he stood exhausted. This wasn't a place where he wanted to use his magic. It may be strong but it greatly debilitated his body and in the state it was in it wouldn't last long if he used it. "What's the prognosis?"
"You can use Reversal but to summon only a few. Too many would damage your body. My apologies that I am not fit to fight, Master."
"We're not giving up yet." Angele's resolve grew and he stabbed his rapier on the floor to begin conjuring Reversal.
"Master—"
"Create 500."
"That's too many! If you create that many you'll damage—"
"Do as your told!" he bellowed enraged. This quieted Willow and she only agreed. The shadows around town began to react and began to take a form of their own. After a few seconds, shadow soldiers rose from the darkness and stood ready to fight. "Go." Without a second thought, the soldiers charged on against Marcus and Mei but they were rampaged against like nothing. But Angele knew they wouldn't have a problem against them, at least the sheer number would give him time to think. And time for the villagers to escape. If they could evacuate the city before any more lives were lost then...he would buy them the time even if it cost him all.
"ANGELE!"
The bellow from that such familiar voice took him by surprise. At turning his whole body, Angele caught the sight of Arbel running towards him. Both witnessed just how tattered each other was and knew that out of the two Angele had suffered the most injuries.
But he didn't care, he didn't want Arbel involved. He knew that if something were to happen—specially to him—he might as well kill himself. Because if Arbel were to die then Angele—
"Angie! Watch out!"
Feeling the disturbance that had prompted Arbel's shout, Arbel looked over his shoulder just in time to see Marcus charging at him with a spear of ice. Everything after that happened in a few seconds and without much warning.
Arbel was closer than Angele had thought. The much taller man that was Arbel reached just in time to cover Angele of the injury and push themselves out of the way as the shadows from Reversal took over and began to attack Marcus.
Angele cringed at the fall and at the weight that was Arbel's who was still atop of him. The latter managed to raise himself arms length letting Angele breath. "Arb—" but his words halted quick when he felt a warm liquid trickle onto his face. His eyes caught the terrifying sight of what had actually transpired when Arbel pushed him out of the way. The ice spear that had been meant for him was now lodged all the way through Arbel's left shoulder very much close to his heart. The blood from the wound trickled down the tip falling onto Angele's face.
"Arby?" Angele's faint whisper made the panting man on top of him turn his gaze up. The eyes that stared back to him were what terrified him now. Those once beautiful oceanic eyes were now rimmed in red.
Before any of them could do anything, the gravity on them augmented at the same time that the spear lodged on Arbel's body crushed into tiny pieces. Even when injured, he was still trying to keep himself away from Angele and was trying really hard to control that which had surfaced after being injured so badly.
"This is just perfect."
Angele watched as over them stood Marcus who promptly reached out for Arbel's collar and pulled him out of the magnetic field that Mei Tao had created before tossing him over. Angele strained, already drained from Reversal, to see where they had thrown him.
Arbel remained where they had thrown him simply because his injuries were too much to protest against. No, Angele thought feeling a dread he hadn't felt in many years. It wasn't his injuries that kept him from standing up. Angele was quick to figure this when he saw how Arbel began to groan and yell in protest by himself. Something in him was hurting him and it wanted liberation. Arbel didn't want to let that happen.
And frankly, neither did Angele. They both knew what it was and the dread only doubled at knowing.
"You shouldn't fight it." Angele gazed up to see Avery stand right before Arbel as he thrashed in pain. "It'll only hurt you to negate what you are. Suppressing it will do nothing. With so many injuries, it will take over you and follow the one instinct it has: survival."
"I-I...won't—let...it!" Arbel growled out to the girl. Angele flinched at hearing his voice. It no longer had any lilt or playful tone to it like he remembered. It was simply...animalistic.
"Such a shame that you won't embrace such gift," Avery pouted and squatted down before Arbel's form. "But I see you need help in recognizing its greatness." Her tiny hands reached out and grabbed Arbel's head by the sides and brought it up so that their foreheads touched. "Let me help you." The instant she said that the place where they were at contact began to glow a bright orange and the silence was replaced by Arbel's yells of anguish.
"L-Let him go!" Angele stood up quickly with the intention to stop whatever the girl was doing but was stopped when Mei Tao forced the magnetic field upon him again.
"Move, and I'll blast you to pieces." Angele couldn't fight against both Mei Tao and Reina, much less get through Marcus and to Avery in time. But none of that matter because in the span of seconds the little girl was done.
She stood up and away from Arbel who had stopped screaming but was still breathing heavily. When seconds passed and nothing happened, it was Reina who spoke above them.
"Such a farce. He's no pure-blo—" Before she could even finish that sentence a long string of water wrapped itself around her throat. All eyes turned to Arbel who had stood up quicker than anybody could see to get a hold of Reina.
But what horrified Angele the most was that his eyes were no longer blue. They were black and rimmed in red. His skin, too, had began to change in hue from its warm colors to a gelid black. As his skin changed cracks kept opening in his skin as if it were dry but the cracks filled with a blue color that shone in neon. Soon his whole body had changed into a monstrosity that Angele recognized too well.
Astounding was also that none of the other Corvus had moved an inch to help Reina who now struggled to breath. "H-He..-lp," he croaked while her eyes began to water.
"Pure-bloods are animals, Reina," Avery called with a triumphant smirk. "And if you insult the alpha male of a whole pack—" Reina could feel as the string of water on her throat began to get lose but not for the best. Instead of letting go, more water traveled onto Reina this time to cover her whole head in a sphere of water as it began to suction the water out of her body. Reina's skin slowly pruned and began to lose color. In a few seconds, she moved no more and stood limply simply held by the sphere of water. Arbel retracted his hand from her and let her body fall dead on the ground. "You'll get eaten."
"Scary," Mei Tao whispered while hiding behind Marcus. "You lived through this?"
"Not without a good reminder," Marcus hissed feeling at his chest for the nasty scar that ran along his body. "The day the whole corps disappeared wasn't because we got washed away. When Arbel got severely injured, he became this thing. Lost all sense of self and began killing us. Humanity shouldn't fear us. This...is what they should fear. They should be petrified."
"But his mind is weak," Avery told them and walked up to stand beside the pure-blood. "And because of it, I can control this monster with my Spirit Possession." Turning towards Angele, she instructed Mei Tao to lift the field around him. Able to stand, Angele couldn't move an inch from where he stood in fear that Arbel would react negatively to his sudden movements. "Now, how about a little fight? Let's see who's stronger. The Lord of the Dead or the beast known as Demon of Aquarius."
It has been way too long. And a lot of people have been put this story in their favorites have followed and even reviewed. But it's been such a long time that I can't even remember who so I'll give a general thank you to all.
I have good news and bad news. The good is that I have the whole plot written for this story. I know how this is going to end and I know what I want to write, it's just a matter of writing it. The bad news is that I have summer school for four more weeks so I won't be uploading anytime soon after this.
Hopefully, I'll get to it when I can. So reviews if you can, I'll like to get this to 100 reviews before I'm done, and hoped you enjoyed and stayed tuned for what comes up next!
