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After many edits…this has now become chapter 7
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"Next, is our wonderful beast tamer, Bidelia!" Cosmo announced, the audience applauded as Bidelia stepped up to the stage. She waved at the audience, her coil of whip in hand. "Today she will be performing with our best tiger, captured and brought in from India, Kugar!"
Mony and Chase rushed over to the ramp going to the stage. They hauled on a rope next to the cage containing a ferocious tiger. The metal bars at the entrance of the ramp lifted.
Mony then climbed above the cage with a ladder, locating a metal hook dangling in the air and hooked it on the top bar of the mobile side of the cage.
After several more ropes were pulled, the tiger had a clear path from its cage, through the ramp and onto the stage. It paced cautiously onto the ramp. Chase then slowly released the rope he was holding and the door at the bottom of the ramp closed.
As Kugar slowly paced onto the stage, the audience cheered. Bidelia stretched out her whip and cracked it, catching the trained tiger's attention. Knowing exactly what to do, the tiger sat down obediently beside its trainer. The audience cheered again, this time, for Bidelia. The woman in black leather raised her hand and the tiger rose to its feet. She began walking and the tiger followed. She paced the circumference of the circle, granting the audience a closer view of the beast.
When Kugar passed, several children and ladies in the front row let out little squeals. Most men leaned forward and opened their eyes wide in amazement. Several gentlemen pulled out their monocles.
Bidelia led Kugar to the center of the stage when it finished its tour. She discreetly chucked it a piece of raw meat that she picked up while touring the stage from the little bucket on the side. Some backstage worker rolled two hoops onto the stage. Bidelia skilfully caught them and lifted them up to the air. A small unnoticeable hook dangled from the ceiling. Bidelia hooked one of the hoops onto the hook and it hung in mid-air. She then led Kugar to a red rounded stand with yellow stars on it. The tiger hopped onto the stand and waited patiently.
Bidelia lifted the other hoop in her hand in between Kugar and the hanging hoop and cracked her whip. The tiger perked up, it braced itself on its hind legs and leaped off the stand, its powerful hind legs propelling it forward. It leaped through the first and the second hoops and landed gracefully and soundlessly on the other side. The audience cheered and clapped loudly. Bidelia bowed to the audience while slipping another piece of meat to Kugar.
The tiger bounded back and sat on the stand, waiting for further instructions.
Bidelia's performance was brilliant, Mony and Chase watched the entire duration of her part of the performance through the bars of the ramps. The audience cheered and clapped like crazy, Bidelia definitely got the loudest applause out of everyone else that performed that night.
The time soon came when Kugar needed to return to its cage. Mony and Chase wheeled the empty cage from one ramp to another. They first hauled a rope on the other side of the ramp, the barred gate of the 'exit' ramp lifted open. Bidelia prompted Kugar to get into the gate from the stage. Once Kugar was in, the two released the rope and the gate closed behind the tiger.
After a similar process to before, hauling many ropes and hooking many hooks, the tiger returned back to its cage.
The rest of the performance didn't require the two to do much, other than Cosmo's own equestrian performance which required 'Prince', Cosmo's beloved horse. It was not the best part of the performance, and yet the ringleader insisted on 'saving the best for last', so therefore performing his show last and ending the day with it.
After performing each night, what follows was always dinner. The Masters (main performers) were seated at the long table in the middle of the dinning tent. Each side seated about four performers with the ringleader, Cosmo, at the head of the table. The rest of the staff were seated at small benches at the side. Despite being family members to one of the Masters, Chase and Mony still had to be seated on the side.
The two errand boys served everyone their dinner. One of them was the one who went to retrieve Jugo's hat for him earlier.
Chase and Mony sat next to each other in the corner. The two errand boys ran in and out of the tent, getting food from the cook's tent and brought them to the Masters.
Mony swung her legs back and forth, her feet barely touched the ground. Chase folded his arms above his head and clasped his hands behind to support his head. "Ah! So hungry! I wonder what's for dinner tonight!" he said care-freely.
Mony sniffed the air and replied, "Probably steak."
"Pft." Chase rolled his eyes and smacked Mony playfully on the head. "Stop dreaming girl! They would never give us steak!"
Mony rubbed the back of her head and gave a childish pout. Just as she was about to hit the male back on his head, a shadow loomed over the girl and the light of the candles sitting on the main table was blocked from her view. She looked up to see the new errand boy with spiky brown hair. He had in his hands two plates of food. He looked down on Mony with half-closed eyes, seemingly bored and uninterested. The pout and his down-turned lips never disappeared. The errand boy let out an impatient breath from the corner of his mouth and held out his left arm roughly, literally shoving the plate of food under Mony's nose. That was the first time Mony realized that his left hand was red, bright red, like blood, and he seemed to be unable to move the fingers properly.
Mony's head drew back and she blinked in surprised at the plate. She then realized that the boy was giving her her dinner. She took the plate from him and he still had a fork and a knife remaining in his left hand. She hesitantly took the metal knife and fork from him, "Thank you." She muttered. The boy replied with some sort of a grunt.
The errand boy passed Chase his share of food in his right hand and the cutlery and walked away. Mony stared after him, lost in her curiosity and imagination. She was brought back to reality by tugs on the plate she was holding. She looked down to see Chase trying to take the plate away from her. Instinctively, she lightly slapped Chase's hand. "Hey! Don't touch! It's my dinner, you've got yours!"
Chase lifted his hands in front of him in defence. "No, no, no. You've got it wrong. That boy, he gave you your dinner with his left hand, right? Well, rumour is, his left hand is cursed. You saw that blood red colour, it's not normal." Chase took the chance when Mony had her guard down and took her plate. "Just in case it's true, give me that plate and you can have mine." The older boy did a swap of the two plates. Mony stared in confusion.
Suddenly, Chase took out a strand of garlic, a wooden cross and a weird necklace of wooden beads. The boy put the strand of garlic on his dinner, held the cross in his right and the beads in his left, chanting some incomprehensible words.
"What are you doing?" Mony asked with her brows furrowed.
"I'm lifting the curse." Chase said with a very serious expression. In her head, Mony thougth he sounded more like he was practicing a satanic ritual.
When he was done chanting, he dug into his food like he hadn't eaten anything for a month. Mony stared, still recovering from the confusion. She looked down her plate and was about to start eating when Chase seemed to have remembered something. He straightened up from his previous bent over position over his food, pulled Mony's cutlery out from her hand and shoved his own used ones into her empty hand. He started chanting and then devouring his food again.
Mony held up the cutlery and looked at Chase in disbelief. He lifted his head temporarily as he felt her stare. "Eat." He stated bluntly and nodded to her food. She reluctantly obeyed. Dinner was plain pasta, broccoli, carrots and a myriad of unrecognizable things chucked into a soup.
Desdemona stretched, holding her arms high above her head as if wanting to touch the sky. Birds flied overhead, heading towards their homes. The setting sunlight reflected off the clouds, tinting the sky orange, red, pink and in some places, purple.
The Eurasian exorcist bent down and picked up her small suitcase at her feet.
They were in Moscow, after the long train ride they finally arrived. Sol seemed to be enjoying it, returning to his home country, that is. When the train passed through the fields and the countryside, he would tell many tales about the scenery and the villages nearby. Tina always told him to shut up, to which he never listens.
Night was falling; the three exorcists and a finder went to find an inn to stay for the night before catching another train tomorrow morning. They exited the station to find an empty street. The blinds were drawn on every single window. There were definitely people in those houses, the slight rustling of the blinds and the movements from behind the curtains are evident. As the team of four walked down the street, people peeked through the blinds cautiously and stared at the incomers.
The elongated shadows of trees, buildings and birds landed across the floor. Fallen leaves skidded across the ground as a cold breeze blew past.
A building with the sign 'Inn' stood at the end of the street. The exorcists and finder went into the building. A thin old woman sat behind a desk in the lobby. She looked up nervously from behind thick-frames glasses and rose from her chair. "Um…How may I help you?" She asked timidly in Russian.
"Four rooms please." Sol replied fluently.
The old woman took four keys from a panel of keys on hooks behind the desk. She took with her also a candle from the desk and walked up the stairs to the right. The four followed. Sol decided to strike up a conversation, "Why is there no one about at this time of the night?"
The old lady looked nervously back at the tall Russian man, "Dear guests, haven't you heard? Monsters had been appearing at night quite frequently these past few days. They have destroyed many homes and even killed a few. Those who were killed didn't even have a corpse. Witnesses say the victims just broke down to dust. No one dares going out at night any more. Even within the safety of our homes, we cannot feel safe as those monsters can easily take down rows of houses."
Sol looked back at his team, the others seemed to have understood and exchanged messages with their eyes. Desdemona quizzically looked at Sol. Even though she travelled all around Europe, her talent with languages was nil. Other than English (her birth language) she only knew the basics of other more frequently visited European countries. Russian was a language she had no knowledge about.
The Russian man noticed the young girl's blank looks and explained, "Akuma attacks."
Desdemona nodded.
They were given their rooms and the keys. The Inn Owner was kind enough to provide dinner. She said that it was too dangerous for anyone to go outside at this time so she'll prepare them dinner to spare them the need to go to another restaurant. Over dinner, the exorcists argued whether or not to go out and exterminate the akumas for the townspeople.
"They will live in fear if we don't do something!" Sol exclaimed, he was very passionate about his home country and its residents.
"There is the possibility that those akumas don't even know Master Klaud is in Russia! If they find out that three exorcists are here together they'll become suspicious!" An equally passionate Tina refuted.
"But these people! Aren't we exorcists supposed to help people? Aren't we exorcists supposed to destroy akumas?" Sol asked back.
"Keep in sight of what is important, Sol! If they found out Master is in Russia their force will get to Master before we do. Akumas are everywhere, Sol, but exorcists aren't everywhere! If we lose our Generals, the Order will be like a headless fly!"
"I believe Master will not be defeated by those mere akumas. There's no way she'll just be defeated like that. Why would the akumas suddenly start attacking and coincidentally, happen to be in Russia and also around the same time as we arrive? Isn't that a bit too coincidental? They already know, so we do not need to hold back. We should help these people and destroy those akumas!"
"If they really knew Master was in Russia, then we mustn't dwell here, we must get to Master without any delays!"
The redhead female and the Russian male glared at each other. It was the older Frenchwoman that made the final decision.
"Alright, you guys, stop fighting." All eyes turned to Gwen, "What about this. We will stay here until tomorrow morning when we will catch the next train. During this time, if there are any akuma attacks, we will help the people fend those akumas off. If the akumas don't attack then we must get going by morning. We will not stay here just to help these people." Gwen scanned the faces of the people present. Dissatisfaction showed clearly on the faces of the previously arguing two. Gwen raised an eyebrow, "Is everyone fine with that?"
"Yes." Sol agreed unwillingly.
"Tch." Tina rolled her eyes. Sol glared at her and she glared back.
Gwen noticed this and sighed at the two sitting opposite her. She turned to the younger girl sitting next to her. "And you?"
The girl who was concentrating on her food looked up innocently and pointed at herself as if to say, "Me?" Gwen nodded. The girl blinked several times before answering with a shrug, "Anything's fine."
Gwen, satisfied with the answers nodded and smiled to herself.
After dinner, Chase and Mony had to clean up along with the errand boys and the kitchen staff. Plate after plate, cutlery after cutlery they washed and wiped. Only Mony and Chase talked as the other two were both not the social type.
When the dishes were nearly done, Mony went to the dinning tent to clean up and wipe down the main table and sweep the floor.
While she was doing all that in the empty dinning tent, a man stepped out from the shadows and quietly entered the tent, approaching the girl who was facing her back to him.
Mony suddenly felt a large shadow blocking the light. She turned around, broom in hand, to see a large round man. Cosmo the ringleader stood behind her. He had dirty blond hair cut carefully into shape. The man's cloudy blue eyes stared coldly down at the little girl. He still had on his costume: a dress shirt, a colorful tie, black tail coat, black pants and a top hat. Under the shadow of the brim of his top hat, his eyes looked colder, more piercing and seemed to glow.
"Desdemona." He pronounced the name slowly, adding a sharp edge to every single syllable. Mony flinched. He was the only one to call her by her full name. She didn't like it. "May I ask why Prince was not properly groomed for today's show?"
"Sir," Mony replied, "Chase and I had taken extra care in grooming and feeding Prince. May I ask what was wrong with it?"
"What was wrong with IT? Scums like you aren't fitted to call my Prince 'it'! To you, it's 'he' and 'he' only. No one within this world may look down upon him with 'it'!" Cosmo angrily spat.
"Yes Sir." Mony agreed obediently.
"And I'll tell you what was wrong with HIM! Everything's wrong about him! And all because of you and your scum of a brother the audience did not applaud for me much as I'd liked!"
Something in Cosmo's words struck a nerve in Mony. A flash of sudden murderous intent appeared in her eyes, but it disappeared as fast as they had come. She stood there, head lowered and stared at the floor, the broom still in her hand.
"Yeah? Not saying anything now, are we?" Cosmo smirked, "Well, I see that you admit to not taking good care of my Prince." A sneer appeared on his face.
"Mony." The two people from within the tent turned their face towards the entrance. A smile of relief adorned the girl's face while the man wore a scowl.
Bidelia looked into the tent with a feigned innocent expression. Everyone knew Cosmo was abusive to the younger ones. He gets jealous of performers who were better than him. The jealousy became anger, and the anger was released with the pleasure of hurting others. Bidelia knew well that Chase and Mony often gets picked on when she's not around. All she could really do was to try to be by their sides as much as possible.
Cosmo subtly moved away from the little girl. He cleared his throat and held his head up high while he walked out from the tent.
Bidelia stared after the man warily, when he was out of sight, she quickly walked over to the young girl. She knelt down on one knee in front of her face her at the same level.
The girl was still holding the broom in her hand while smiling up at the older woman. Bidelia smiled back and brushed a piece of stray hair behind the girl's ear. "Are you alright?"
Mony nodded.
Bidelia sighed in relief.
The girl beamed optimistically, "Don't worry, Bidelia. We can look after ourselves and we are not afraid of Cosmo! Haha! Look at him running away with his tail between his legs just then!" She flashed a big smile.
Bidelia smiled and stood up, gesturing the girl to follow her out of the tent.
Mony followed behind cheerily. "Bidelia! Bidelia! Remember that new errand boy? Chase said his left arm is cursed! At dinner he started chanting weird things and said he was lifting the curse on his food!" The girl said with exaggerated hand gestures.
Bidelia laughed. Her daughter is very cute.
"Bidelia, do you remember what the name of that new errand boy was again?"
"Which one?"
"The one I just talked about!"
"Um…" Bidelia thought for a while before looking up and replied with uncertainty. "Was it…Red?"
Thora. Activate to Level 2. Power type.
She jumped, an effortless leap that took her far into the sky. The weightlessness was quite hard to get used to.
Thora, when activated at Level 1, acquires great speed, flexibility and accuracy. It can extend and contract to will. However, it only causes minimum damage. At Level 2, the leather becomes thicker; small spikes appear; the agility, speed and accuracy decrease but with an increase in damage.
Since the speed and agility decreases, Desdemona herself had to compensate for what's lost. That's why every time Level 2 is activated, she dumps her heels. Plus, being fast also gives her advantages in battle.
She flipped in mid-air, head down and feet up. She twisted her body and arms in an anti-clockwise direction before thrusting out Thora and her arms in the other direction, making herself spin at a high speed. Using the momentum of the spinning motion and gravity, she fell towards the ground as a small hurricane. The one strike took out 5 or so Level 1 akumas. She landed back on ground with a greatly disturbed sense of balance.
The akumas did attack tonight after all. Sol was quite eager to get into battle. To minimize the casualties, the exorcists had moved the battlegrounds to the forest outside of the town rather than within the town itself.
Gwen was on a roll, taking out 10 or more Level 1s with each strike, scorching them with her fire. Tina had changed her bullet, it was now able to pierce through several akumas with only one bullet. So convenient. Sol was somewhere unseen. Being a defensive type, he preferred not to be near combat. His powers were close though, the invisible barrier that reflected all the attacks from the akumas.
The amount of enemies were appalling, since when were there so many akumas? Thora strikes again, taking out another 5.
The battle seemed to go on into eternity; the akumas just kept on coming in an endless flow.
After nearly all the Level 1s were taken out, three Level 2s appeared. Tina fired an explosive bullet and took one out before anyone got a good look at it. The other two laughed maniacally. "You can't help the General now, can you? Hehehehe!"
One smirked sarcastically, "Oh, what a shame. You are so close too! Ahahaha!"
Gwen frowned. The akumas already knew the General's whereabouts? She sent two fire balls at the remaining Level 1s, taking out about 5 with 3 left. Desdemona took out one of the remaining three and Tina finished the last two. That only leaves the two remaining Level 2s to take care of.
One of the Level 2 was wrapped from head to toe with bandages. Its face was covered by what seemed like a gas mask. On its chest, a face full of agony protruded out from the bandage, it was the same 'Level 1 face' all akumas had somewhere on their body. The other one was in shiny golden armour.
The sound of leaking gas came from the masked one, a thin white fog flowed out from within its mask. The whiteness soon took over the exorcists' vision, making it impossible to see. Desdemona tensed, she looked around to see if she could at least see the vague shapes of the enemies but all she could see was white. Seemed like sight was useless, she had to rely on her hearing.
Suddenly, her golem started to vibrate. It struggled out from her uniform and flew next to her head. Tina's voice crackled, "I can't see anything. Are you and Gwen OK?"
"I'm fine. I can't see Gwen." Desdemona replied, "Have the fog affected you too?"
"No, I am far enough for the fog to not reach me, but the enemy concealed themselves within it. I can't just shoot randomly into the fog, it might hit you or Gwen and then the bullets will come back and hit me."
The golem crackled again as Gwen and Sol joined into the conversation. "Dem, where are you?" Gwen's worried voice said.
"There's no way of describing my location to you. I don't even know where you are." The girl answered.
"Did you move from the spot you were before the fog came?" Gwen continued to question.
"No."
"Ok, then I think I have a vague idea of where you are. Stay there, don't move!" Footsteps were then heard as Gwen manoeuvred blindly in the fog.
"Gwen! You shouldn't move. We have no idea where the enemy is!" Tina said.
"Guys," Sol interrupted, heavy breaths were audible over the golems, "I'm sorry, this is not the best time to say this but…" Sol managed out through heavy breaths. "I think I can't keep the Reflective up for long, I think I need to downgrade it to the Physical Barrier."
" Sol! Gwen and Dem are in the mist, we can't see them and we have no idea where the enemy is and you are complaining about how you can't keep the Reflective up?" Tina accused.
"I already said! I'm sorry! It takes a lot out of me, alright? I've been wanting to switch since a while ago and lasting until now was already a great effort!" Sol retorted, still panting, "and plus, if anyone was to complain it would be Gwen and Dem, not you Tina!"
"It's fine." Desdemona said. "Just a Physical barrier now is fine."
"Dem…" Sol breathed.
"She's right," Gwen agreed, "You only put up the Reflective so that more akuma can get taken out back then right? But it's unnecessary now, there are only two of them. We can manage with just the Physical Barrier. Plus, then Tina could start shooting randomly into the mist."
"But…" Sol started.
"No, that's not what I was talking about!" Tina cut in, "When he downgrades-"
"Tina! Let me finish!" Sol shouted, frustrated, "Listen, you two. You need to think carefully about this. When I downgrade my barrier, there'll be a ten second time span when you will not have any barrier to protect you. Are you sure about this?"
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Ten seconds is short enough." Desdemona said.
Gwen sighed and chose to ignore the girl, "Sol, quickly change the barrier now. We can't afford to lose time."
"Yes."
Desdemona looked around her, the thin, invisible but rainbow coloured layer disappeared.
10…
Paranoia suddenly kicked in. The young exorcist seemed to hear noises from behind her. She spun around quickly to see nothing.
9…
Footsteps, she can hear footsteps from the left. She stretched out Thora in both hands, ready to strike.
8…
A ghostly silhouette appeared from the fog. Desdemona took a small step backwards. The silhouette had its arms outstretched in front of it, as if trying to find something.
7…
It's coming closer and closer. The girl decides to strike before whatever it is does. She charged.
6…
Dang. Thora made contact with something hard. Desdemona squinted to try and figure out what it is. The familiar smell of burnt metal hit her nose before she realized the hard thing that Thora made contact with was Gwen's pan.
5…
Desdemona lowered Thora, Gwen lowered her pan. "Gwe-"
"Shh."
4…
They stood back to back, guarding each other's blind spot.
3…
No sign from the enemies, it's getting suspicious. Why haven't the enemy attacked yet?
2…
Desdemona felt something shift behind her. She turned her head and tried to see what going on, "Gwen…"
1…
A sharp stab of pain shot up from the left side of her rib cage, she let out a small scream. She instinctively thrashed Thora out behind her, missing the enemy completely.
0
The enemy was sprung away by the Physical Barrier that was now in place. Desdemona clutched a hand to the left side of her ribs, warm liquid gushed out from her wound. There was a deep gash just above the last rib bone and more blood poured out for every breath she took.
"Dem!" Sol and Tina said in unison. "Are you hurt?" Sol added.
"I'm fine."
"That's good." Came Tina's relieved voice.
"Wait, what? What's wrong?" Gwen asked, confused. "Dem, you are just behind me, right?"
Desdemona's eyes widened. "Becareful!"
Through the golems, the team heard the sound of metal against metal. "Who are you?" Gwen said to the attacker.
"Hehehehe." The laugh of the akuma was as ear-piercing as ever, even through the golem. "This is my partner's ability." Gwen watched as who she thought was Desdemona morphed into the armoured Level 2 from before. With the blink of an eye, it was gone again.
"Phew, that was close." Gwen said, slightly relieved.
"Sol! How come the akuma managed to get so close to Gwen?" Desdemona asked.
"Er… didn't I tell you guys?" Sol sounded nervous, "I can only downgrade one barrier at a time. I did your one first, and I only started Gwen's just then. So it'll be done in about 3…2…1…Done!"
"YOU DIDN'T TELL THEM YOU IDIOT!" Tina's raging voice rang out from the golem. Desdemona had to jerk her head away to prevent Tina's voice from doing permanent damage to her ears.
"Gyahahaha! You have underestimated my ability!" A voice which must belong to the bandaged akuma came through the thick fog. Desdemona turned her head to the voice, it must indicate the enemy's location. She whipped Thora in the direction where the voice came and it hit nothing other than the ground.
"Gyahahaha! It's no use! You can't find me!" The akuma taunted. This time the voice came from the exact opposite direction from the previous time. "This is my ability! You are not going to get out from my mist alive! Gyahahaha!"
"My partner's ability is such a handy one to have!" the akuma that attacked both Desdemona and Gwen said, a bit enviously. "As long as you are in his mist, you will continue to be fooled by the illusions within it. These illusions appear, disappear and change according to my partner's will! You will never be able to tell the truth from the illusion!"
"Hey! You just revealed my ability!" the bandaged akuma said.
"Who cares! They won't be alive to tell other people anyway."
"True, but that is only if you do your part correctly."
"Yes, partner!"
"Everyone, listen." Gwen said. " The bandaged akuma has the ability to cast illusions. The other akuma, I suppose is in charge of the offense. The illusion combined with the physical form of the armoured one makes it hard to distinguish. Sol, even when you can feel two barriers coming close enough to merge into one, do not merge them."
"Yes." Sol replied.
"Dem, do not trust anything you see, just attack everything even if it's me. With the barrier there, your attacks won't reach me."
"…"
"Dem?"
"Yes, yes. I'm fine. I understand." Desdemona hurriedly replied.
"Oh, and Tina?" Gwen added, "You can start shooting randomly into the mist."
"Understood." The sound of a musket being loaded came as soon as Tina finished her word.
Desdemona stood up from her kneeling position. Dizziness came over her and her eyes temporarily blacked out. She kept her right hand over the gash but she was losing more and more blood. She needed to end this quickly. Huh, and she was the one who said ten seconds were short.
The mist was able to create illusions, which means you can't trust even your own senses. Directional sense being one of them. There was no hope of getting out of the mist by walking in one direction since you wouldn't even know if you are actually walking in only one direction. Digging down below was also an option. Desdemona suddenly recalled that the gas which came out from the akuma's mouth descended onto the ground rather than floating upwards, which meant that it was heavier than air. If she digs downwards, the gas will also follow her down, messing with her sensory organs. That leaves only one way to get out. Up. Since the gas falls to the ground, there must be a certain height above ground that it stops.
"One more thing," Desdemona added, "Tina, or Sol, can someone tell me how far above ground does the mist reach?"
"Same height as the trees." Tina answered.
As high as the tree…Desdemona did a small calculation in her head. Would she be able to jump that high? Worth a try anyway. She crouched down, slowly to avoid more dizziness. She took a deep breath and pushed off the ground with all the strength her legs could manage. She sailed up through the mist, her eyes blacked out again.
When she regained her vision, she was able to see a bit of the trees through the thinner mist. Nearly there. Just a bit more.
A second later, the mist cleared from her vision and she was looking down at a large white spherical shape amongst the green trees. It was sunrise already, the forest was more of an orange tint than green. Without knowing, they've been fighting for half the night already.
Her ears perked up as they caught metallic sounds coming from above her. She snapped her head up. The armoured akuma charged at her with gravity by its side. In its hands, it held a large sword with a giant ornate hilt. On the blade, there was fresh blood.
The akuma lifted the sword above its head and slashed down at Desdemona. The barrier stopped the blade from reaching her but it cancelled out the momentum from her jump and she started to fall down again.
Just before the mist blocked out her vision, she saw a rain of glowing dots approaching the akuma at a high speed. Tina's bullets. Milliseconds later, a bright orange flashed from where the akuma was and it exploded into bits. Well, that was what it sounded like anyway. Desdemona hit the ground, another wave of sharp pain came from her left side and more blood trickled out from between her fingers.
It was bad, really bad. She had been pushing her stamina to its limits, and now this.
"Oh! Stupid! Who told him to get killed so easily?" the bandaged akuma complained. There was no remorse or sadness in its voice; instead, there was only annoyance. "You, girly!"
For some reason, Desdemona knew the akuma was talking to her.
"Quite troublesome, aren't you? Even with a cut like that. Hm…seems like my stupid dead partner didn't cut you deep enough. Gyahahaha!" the akuma laughed again.
"Dem! You're injured?" Gwen exclaimed.
"I'm fine." The girl replied.
"Stop saying you're fine! You've been saying these exact words over and over now!" Gwen accused.
"I wouldn't say that's fine, girly. That gash is flooding out some great amount of blood." The akuma said with feigned concern.
Desdemona examined her wound. There was already a small pool of blood on the ground beneath her. She quickly rolled up her uniform sleeve and tore off part of the sleeve of her white shirt. She then tore it in such a fashion so that it turns out like a long strip of bandage. She hastily wrapped it around her ribs to stop the bleeding.
"Well, what am I going to do now?" the akuma said to itself, "I don't like physical combat..."
Something dark stood out from the whiteness from the corner of Desdemona's eye. She turned her head and saw many sickly green tendrils of gas flowing between the white gas. She quickly moved away from the unknown green gas.
The akuma laughed, "What about some poison now? I don't think that barrier of yours is going to block gas."
She looked back over her shoulder, the green tendrils were advancing from behind too. More and more green replaced the white, surrounding the exorcist from all directions. The girl watched as the green gas penetrated the barrier, she hurriedly lifted an arm and covered her lower face with it.
"Aahahahaha! You can't escape now! Ahaha! You're gonna die! Aha! Ha! HAhaha!" The akuma laughed maniacally, enjoying the scene before it. "I shouldn't tell you this, but you're going to die here anyway. The Earl's force has already headed for Primorsky, they will arrive there shortly. In fact, they are approaching the city right now as we speak. You can't save your Master now, can you?" the akuma cracked up again, as if their despair was greatly amusing.
"They are already heading there?" Tina said angrily.
"Tina," Gwen was calmer, "How high above ground does the mist reach now?"
"Still at the height of the trees," Tina answered.
"Ok, Dem, listen," Gwen said, "I want you to try what you did before again. Now that the other akuma is gone and the remaining one hates confrontation, there shouldn't be anyone blocking your way."
Desdemona listened and considered the option. There may not be anyone to block her way but she herself may not be able to jump that high again. As the dizziness from the lack of blood gradually increased in intensity, she continued to hold her breath which only made it worse. "I'll try."
Desdemona crouched down to prepare for the jump. She looked up to the seemingly endless mist. Whatever Gwen's planning, Desdemona didn't know. The only thing she does know was that she can't fail them now. She already got herself injured which will cause a great deal of trouble for the others.
She jumped, and just like the time before, she shot out from the top of the mist. At the top of her ascent, she quickly surveyed the area around her and spotted a tree slightly taller than the others. Its top branch stuck above the mist. Desdemona thrust out Thora at Level 1, it wrapped around the branch and contracted just as Desdemona started to fall. Thora pulled her towards the tree and she landed unsteadily upon the branch. She took a deep breath of relief.
"Gwen, I'm out." She said to the golem.
"You guys head to Primorsky now. I'll catch up later." Gwen replied.
"What? But Gwen..." Desdemona started.
"I'll stay with you." Sol offered.
"No, you guys go! The akumas are already heading there! You have to get there before they do! Hurry! Sol, there's not much use for you to stay anyway. Your barriers aren't useful against the gas. Guys, go! Go now." Gwen urged.
"Let's go. A mere Level 2 is no match for Gwen." Tina decided. "Gwen! Take care!
Desdemona heard the rustling of tree leaves through the golem, signalling Tina and Sol's departures. She then followed Tina and Sol, jumping from branch to branch to head towards the town.
Gwen looked up. Now that the kid stopping her from using that was gone, she could easily scatter the gas. She closed her eyes, holding her Innocence out in front of her. A small, spherical shape, shinning red appeared at the centre of the pan. It gradually grew in size until it filled the entire capacity of the weapon. Slowly, the ball of burning energy rose out from the pan and floated upwards until it stopped a few meters above Gwen.
"RELEASE!" Gwen yelled, opening her eyes. Beams of light shot out from the floating sphere as if the energy within was gushing out from the cracks in its container. Then it exploded, lighting the surrounding air up in fire. The explosion was large, large enough that the heat waves from the explosion drove away the heavy poisonous gas.
Gwen stood where she was, unharmed. She could have used this move before, but it could have also fried the kid. She looked around, finally able to see her surroundings clearly. Most of the poison was scattered but there were still patches of thin gas here and there. The akuma was lying, slightly burnt, on the ground several metres in front of Gwen.
"Gyahahaha! Damn you exorcists!" The akuma laughed. Gwen stared. "You think you can still hurry and save your Master? The Lord is coming! You can't stand up against a Noah! Gyahahaha!"
Gwen brought her weapon down on the akuma, it became dust. As she pondered on the akuma's last words, she turned to the direction of the town and planned to chase after them. She only took three steps before she was stopped by the sudden appearance of a glowing irregular polygonal panel in front of her. The panel was soon joined by another one, and another one, and another one. It grew until there was about five or six panels. They were not connected to each other but was placed that there was only a space of about 5cm between their edges. It was arranged so it stood vertically from the ground.
Suddenly, an elbow protruded from the top panel. Gwen took a step backwards in shock. Gradually, the elbow extended out and the upper half body of a young man appeared. The man held up his left hand to stabilize his top hat. Curly black hair framed his dark face and a row of pointy crosses were located at his forehead. Slowly, he walked out from the glowing panels and they disappeared without a trace.
"My, my. Russia now, are we?" the man took off his hat and ran a gloved hand through his hair. He then placed the hat back onto his head.
"Who are you?" Gwen questioned.
The man tilted his head towards Gwen, as if he just noticed her existence. "Oh? Another exorcist? What's your name?" He reached into his pocket and took out a playing card.
"Who are you?" Gwen said again. She reached behind her back and took out her frying pan, activating it in the process.
"Lord Tyki Mikk," the man answered. He lowered the brim of his hat and peered at the exorcist, "of the Noah clan."
Gwen charged. She swung her weapon at Tyki. Tyki dodged to the side. "Exorcist, this is your last chance. What is your name?"
Gwen twisted around and sent a fireball at the Noah. The fire went straight through Tyki. Gwen stood wide-eyed.
Tyki sighed impatiently. "Exorcist, since you won't tell me your name..." he took out three blood-stained silver pocket watches from his pocket. He dangled it on his index finger and smiled down at them. Gwen recognized the Order's silver pocket watches that were assigned to each exorcist with their names engraved at the back. This man...
Tyki looked up at the Frenchwomen with a sickly smile. "It leaves me with no choice."
"Ka...k-ka..chhh.." Tina, Sol and Desdemona sat at the train station, waiting for the train that will take them to Primorsky, where their Master is. The three of them sat silently, listening to the black golem.
They had been trying to contact Gwen for a whole hour now, but all they could ever hear were static noises.
The three pondered over what they should do. The train comes in 30 minutes. If they miss this one, the next one is not until two days later. By then, it would be too late; the akumas would almost certainly have arrived at Primorsky. The chance of Gwen showing up within 30 minutes was quite small and the chance of trying to contact her via her golem was even smaller. The only thing left to do was to head back and look for her themselves, but who knows if another round of akuma attack would hold them back and cause them to miss the train?
Sol suddenly leant forward and rested his elbows on his knees with his head in between his hands. He let out a frustrated sigh and madly scratched at his head. He then quickly and forcefully stood up and faced the other two exorcists. "It is entirely my fault. I shouldn't have made you help the town. I'll go find Gwen by myself. If I don't come back before the train arrives, you two go ahead to Master. Gwen and I will come later." The rash male turned and ran back to the forest.
Tina instantly stood up, trying to go after Sol, only to be stopped by Desdemona suddenly grabbing in her coat. She turned around.
"I'll come with you." Desdemona offered.
Tina shook her head. "I'll go by myself. Someone needs to stay here. If we don't make it back, you head over by yourself."
"Then you stay."
"That won't work. Sol and I studied under Master for a long time together. We went on countless missions together too. We know each other's combat style well. That's an advantage in itself. I better go." Tina started walking towards the direction Sol just went, but as if she just remembered something, she turned back to Desdemona, "Plus, if something happened to Sol, I won't be able to live." Suddenly the woman smiled. Desdemona blinked. Tina smiled. It was a warm and gentle smile. She never imagined Tina could smile like that.
Unable to understand the true meaning behind Tina's words and the peculiar smile, Desdemona blinked more as she watched Tina run after Sol screaming, "IDIOT! WAIT FOR ME!"
After several seconds, Desdemona concluded that Tina will feel guilty if Sol died because she could have been there to save him…But why? Oh! Because they've been together for a long time. But wait, doesn't she hate him?
?
?
Desdemona watched them until their forms disappeared into the green foliage. She turned back around to find her golem right in front of her nose. "Ka...chh..ch-ch" For a few seconds Desdemona listened to the rustling sounds emitted from her golem. She bent her head forwards and let out a sigh before disconnecting the golem. The bat-like device flew back to her, snuggled against her neck and dove back into her uniform via the collar.
Half an hour more and then the train would come. Desdemona hoped that the other three would have returned by then.
To those who knows K.O. One or X-family, you may recognize Gwen's weapon. Lolz, pan pulled out from back, lol. If you know what I'm talking about, tell me that you know what I'm talking about in the review or PM. Seriously, I need to know I'm not the only one finding it funny.
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