Chapter 7 – Confrontation
Templar
Zed raced out of the committee chamber, sprinting toward the infirmary. "Almost there," he breathed, when a voice brought him to a halt. "Going somewhere, kid?" Zed whirled around, his eyes fixing on the speaker's crimson mask. I've seen that somewhere…
"I don't have time for you or anyone else," Zed answered. "I need to see my friend." The man chuckled quietly, then pulled out his sword with a flourish. "Oh, but I disagree…"
Noa anxiously watched Zed from afar, leaning heavily on a nearby tree trunk. Sagiri stirred beside him uncertainly. "What's wrong?"
"That man," she whispered worriedly. "He's a bad, bad man…"
Zed crossed swords with the masked man. "Who the hell are you?!" he snarled. His opponent merely laughed and answered, "Call me…Jimu." Zed's eyes narrowed. "Jimu, huh? Last I saw he was incinerated by Pumamis."
"Oh? Is that so? How unfortunate."
Zed parried the stab and slashed just as his adversary brought his own blade up and blocked the blow. The two swords crashed together with a piercing clang. "Just who the hell are you?!" Zed snapped.
Jimu's one revealed eye narrowed in cruel amusement. "Jimu is the name you only need to know," he answered, chuckling.
"Then you survived?" Zed said, his sword slicing down. Jimu evaded the move easily. "It would seem like it."
"Huh. That's something I'll have to fix, then!"
"Don't get so cocky about it, kid!"
Zed parried and feinted to the right, then lashed out with his fist, catching Jimu on the jaw. He charged, only to get shoved back by a flash of lightning, as the yellow shards detonated vigorously. Jimu coughed, then spat blood on to the grass.
"This is pointless," he snarled. "But then…"
He laughed, maniacally, and then slashed at Zed with wild abandon.
"What's so damn funny?" Zed retorted, then ducked as the blade whistled in the air where his head had been a second before. Summoning a fire shard to his hand, he slammed it into Jimu's chest, and watched in grim satisfaction as it ignited and rammed him away with a burst of flame.
Jimu simply stood and laughed. "What's so funny? You, kid, and your death!" He summoned a spirit shard to his hand; a dark spirit shard, streaked with the red of blood.
Zed's eyes widened. "That's…"
Jimu laughed again. "Come forth…Thanatos!"
The shard shot up into the sky, then expanded into a wide summoning circle. A monstrous figure stepped out.
Jimu pointed at Zed. "Kill him," he said gleefully.
Zed swore as a slicing arm slammed into the ground, barely able to evade death. No…not an arm…a scythe!
He stared at spirit in escalading horror. Thanatos peered back at him with a merciless eye, an eye with just a hint of true sentience. This spirit…it thinks?
Raven black and enormous, Thanatos loomed before him in all its unholy majesty. Hoisting a double-bladed scythe before it, its crimson eyes, embedded in a hooded, pale skull, gleamed with wrathful vengeance. A cloak shrouded its body, but where there should have been feet, there was, in its stead, a crude and spiny stump entwined with sallow, spindly tapers.
This…this is a spirit?!
Gritting his teeth, Zed yelled, "Let's go, Amil Gaoul!"
White, shimmering wings erupted from his back, and he charged at Thanatos, brandishing his sword.
Jimu laughed. "Divide them, Thanatos!"
The spirit's eyes flared, and dark flames licked at the tapers and seared up to its skull, until it was ablaze with black fire. Thanatos slashed, and this time, its aim was true.
Zed felt a torturous, scorching pain, and he writhed as a paroxysm of agony washed over him. He could not fight unconsciousness; he could not fight the anguish…
Then he was blinded by white. Am I…dead?
He saw Amil Gaoul, flying away. "What?! No! Amil Gaoul! Don't leave me!"
Zed reached out, futilely, then reality came crashing in. He collapsed, subdued, and his body burned, but there was no blood. Amil Gaoul's spirit shard rolled out on to the grass, before his eyes.
And then he understood.
"Divide them, Thanatos!"
No…
Jimu walked up to him and picked up Amil Gaoul's spirit shard. "I'll be taking this," he said, smirking.
Impossible…
"What's this? No smart-ass comment for me? How disappointing."
Zed was still in shock.
That spirit…somehow it split me, us, apart…but how?!
Jimu spat, but Zed barely registered the action even though the saliva hit his face.
"Zed!" Noa rushed up, then doubled over as pain wracked his body. Jimu started, then a malevolent grin spread across his face. As Noa struggled to stand, he was suddenly, viciously punched in the stomach. He crumpled again, winded, unable to react as Jimu hoisted his body over his shoulder.
"Thanatos!"
The spirit heeded his call and descended, allowing Jimu to clamber up on to its shoulder. He smirked one last time at Zed.
"We'll meet again, kid!"
Zed's eyes watched blindly as Jimu fled. It can't…be…
Then darkness, like a curtain, descended.
Somewhere
There was a dark mist. A mist woven with…what? Fear? Tangible fear? "Ahhh, yes, fear…"
He started and looked around wildly. "What? Who's there?!"
The mist thickened and enfolded his arms, caressing his face with queasy, clammy fingers. He shrank back, wide-eyed and unfeeling with panic.
No. He did feel something. He felt…cold.
And then Zed was beside him, and there was warmth.
"Zed!"
He reached out for him, for his friend, for his only salvation. Zed only smiled and walked away, turning his back to him.
"What?! Zed! Don't you recognize me?!"
There was no answer. The mist enveloped his body, and he was alone again.
Terrified, he spun around and ran for his life.
"You can run…but you cannot hide…"
"Go away!" he shouted.
Again the maddening voice. "You can run…but you cannot hide…!"
And then he fell—tripped by what?—and darkness, an evil, sickening darkness, devoured him.
He screamed…
Noa awoke, sweating and panting hard. Where…where am ? The view before him was hazy and dimly lighted, as if in a tunnel. No…this is a tunnel…
"Morning, sunshine," a callous voice drawled.
"Who's there?"
"Oh? So you don't recognize me?"
There was a spark of light, and then a cruel, crimson mask materialized before him.
Noa feebly groped for a name. "Jimu!"
A sardonic chuckle echoed within the tunnel. "You really don't get it, do you?" Then a hand pulled away the mask, revealing the face behind.
Noa's eyes widened. "You!"
Again came the laughter. "I have something for you." He held up a spirit shard to Noa's eyes—a spirit shard that was achingly familiar.
Noa inhaled sharply. "Sachira…"