Beelzebub adventures chapter 11
Fighting the extreme dizziness, Kunieda managed to avoid falling from the bed. After the blur in front of her eyes finally dissolved, she looked around her, feeling an insane energy rush inside of her. Noticing no immediate danger, she tried to wake up Oga. "Hey Oga, wake up. Please…" After failing to get any reaction from him, her hands wandered to his chest and neck in order to check his breathing and pulse.
After struggling to feel anything, Kunieda had to retort to her extra sensorial awareness in order to finally verify the boy still had a small spark of life inside of him. Looking for whatever object she could use as a weapon, she could not find a single tool or prop object she could use to fight her way out. ''Well, let's hope I don't have to fight someone with Hilda's eyes.''
Suddenly, Kunieda felt a strong presence after evocating the image of the bombshell in her mind. A less than a hundred feet away, the blond girl was fighting for her life against creatures who looked like gargoyles and puppets. Near her, she could see her Red Tail friends, along as her male colleagues in an all out brawl against hordes of imps she could finally identify as alive Opera Costumes. She lifted him in a fireman carry and proceeded to take him out of the Opera stage they were trapped in. Blushing as ever before after being the physically closest to him in all their years as friends, she retained her composure.
After feeling no enemy presences on her way, Kunieda took one of the side corridors and found a door. "Finally, a door." She opens the door and it leads to the other side of the stage. Going back, she only came out to the other side to the stage again ''An interdimensional loop? Not now!''
The doors of the auditorium were violently shaken again, with screams following. Thinking fast, Kunieda remembered her newly found sensorial ability and the things her captors had told her.
''You're becoming one with the presence trapped in this place.''
Concentrating on her entire surroundings, Kunieda could soon start to feel a life stream running through the building, a disruption taking place in the back of the stage and the side corridors. Focusing on that place, she managed to reconnect both doors, destroying the loop. "Yes! Now we can get out of here."
Just when she was about to exit, a calm and sweet, yet sinister voice called her from the ceiling. ''My dear! Your progress doesn't stop to amaze me! Why do you want to leave so soon, Kunieda? ''
It only took her a few seconds to remember who that voice belonged to. Calming herself down, Kunieda answered in the firmest tone she could pull out. ''I never came by my will.''
''Are you sure about that? Because that's not what I can see inside your mind…''
''You only see what you want to see.'' Kunieda says.
''You're only lying to yourself, Kunieda. We both know that. Had you decided to come on your own earlier, none of this would have happened.''
''You were planning to kill Oga and Beel!'' Kunieda angrily howled.
''No, only Beel.''
''And do you really think he would have agreed to that?! And if he did, he would not have been the same after that. He would have been relegated to be a passenger inside his own body, like me!'' Aoi growled, no longer able to hold her emotions under control.
''Are you sure you were that much of a passenger?'' The talking presence finally started to materialize in front of her. White rose petals started to fall from the ceiling of the auditorium to the center pass between the main rows of seats, slowly forming a humanoid shape. The creature started to approach the stage, while Aoi carefully placed Oga back on the bed again, getting ready for the worst.
''I'm sure.'' Kunieda says.
''So sad you love to lie to yourself so much. I know you're an adult, my dear, but I'll have to teach you like a child and force you to face reality as it is.'' The humanoid being floated up and placed itself a feet in front of her. It's outer appearance finally consolidated itself as that of a tall, young man, almost completely white in appearance, short and curly blonde hair on his head, golden sad eyes glowing on his face. Dressed in a white suite of modern fashion, he looked like a mannequin taken from a shopping mall suit store. His calm face only reflected sadness.
''You've already taught me enough, Apollion.'' Kunieda answered, gathering her energy on the palms of her hands.
As Kunieda expected, the attack came from behind her. Ducking under the swing of the cane, she responded with her own arm swing to the abdomen of her attacker, who had used a decoy mannequin to fool her from her front. The man parried her attack with his free arm and backpedalled. Throwing a ranged energy swing to his face, Kunieda attacked immediately after with another swing to his lower body. Apollion was forced to block the first and jump to the ceiling to barely avoid the latter, which wounded him on his calf. The mannequin broke into pieces and fell around the bed.
''You were able to see through my deception, despite me hiding my energy signal, to later react faster than me. With this power you could easily beat Hilda, do you realize that?" Apollion pointed out.
Kunieda didn't answer, struggling to fight the miserly thoughts from her mind.
''Do you realize that she might as well end up being the one Oga eventually bonds with only to later the blessed half-blood offspring that will take over the world? You could at least decide not to do it if you get him first." Apollion says.
''Since when do you care about him!?'' Throwing a spinning kick to her left side, Kunieda sent another mannequin flying in pieces with an energy swing. She knew she had to end the fight fast before Apollion confused her even more. ''But I do care about HER. And I'm not talking about the wet nurse.''
Kunieda remembered the person he was referring to. The mannequin attacks ceased for a few seconds. Without lowering her guard, she started to focus on his voice, trying to locate his hiding place. The thoughts of the little girl he had evocated, however, threatened to take away her attention.
Apollion continued. ''You know very well you will let her die if you don't consummate your union with him. You know very well what that would imply to the existence of the entire universe. You can't erase that even if you don't want to remember it. Kunieda, I'm giving you a last chance to comply. Will you compromise all those lives just because you want to respect the childish wishes of Oga? You know very well he can't think like an adult. You can save him. You MUST save him.''
For a fraction of a second her thoughts nearly made him let her guard down. Kunieda realized it too late. Knowing the inevitable, she prepared her body for the impact. On the last second, the cane hit the place where her head was supposed to be on that second. The female mannequin that replaced her was shattered to pieces while she fell underneath it through the wooden floor of the stage.
Amazed at the trick, Apollion was frozen for a few instants. Seeing that the hole she used to escape on the wood was closed, he already knew it was too late for him to avoid the incoming attack this time. Feeling relieved that the body he was using on the Opera Hall was only an apparition and that his life was not in real danger, he nonetheless braced for impact, hoping the damage would not be enough not to give him at least a last chance for success. Two metal reinforcements from the stage flew towards him from opposite directions. Deflecting one with his cane, he has barely able to avoid the second, only to be impaled by a third one that was flying behind the first one. Detecting Kunieda behind him, he used his backward impulse to his cane backwards. This time, she fell for the feint, barely being able to block with her forearms his attack of flying white locusts, which still threw her to the ground with a very violent impact. Apollion was thrown all the way to the wall at the back of the auditorium, being held to it by the iron rod. Knowing his apparition body had reached its limit, he hurried to say his lasts words to Kunieda before his body started to disintegrate into white petals again.
''Think on my words, Kunieda. Think carefully. You know very well you wanted this. You have the final call here.'' Apollion says.
There was no answer nor movement after the debris cloud cleared out. Looking at his work, he realized he had blown away almost the entirety of the seat section. Fearing for a few seconds of having killed her, he was relieved when Kunieda, wounded, but rising from the debris and destroyed seats, looked at him. The anger on her eyes had turned into something more similar to worry than to anger.
Apollion continued. ''You know very well Eve was not Adam's first wife. You know very well that Adam was too ungrateful to his first one…The world is what it is…because of that. You can fix it. Remember it.'' His head finally disintegrated into petals, his eyes looking at her with compassion, his mouth turned in a weak smile.
Wiping the dirt and debris from her body and ripping a piece of cloth from her skirt in order to the falling top of her damaged dress, Kunieda endured the pain and walked back to the stage. Behind her, the door stopped shaking after a few seconds, screams of victory following up. Concentrating, she found her friends again, smiling at the sight of their victory over the demonic minions.
Kunieda jumped over the stage and lifted Oga over her shoulders again. His body was already starting to get cold, and she could no longer feel his breath. She repressed her tears and anguish and walked towards the entrance of the auditorium, at the same time the doors were finally torn down. The light from the lobby's ceiling, which had collapsed, flooded the semi darkness around her and nearly blinded her. The dark silhouettes ran towards her, asking her questions she could barely understand, being distracted by her thoughts. They offered themselves to carry Oga, but she refused until some strong arms finally separated them. The last thing she remembered before falling unconscious was the image of Oga being carried away from her, his paling face turning away from her.