With everyone staring at her, Maka wasted no time. She tilted her head back, closed her eyes, opened wide, and dropped the sprite in. She swallowed quickly. It felt… warm in the pit of her stomach. Basking in the warmth of the bonfire, tasting it felt… pleasurable. It tingled the inside of her ribs before spreading further out to her extremities. A short chuckle escaped her as she grinned at the feeling of being made whole. And suddenly, it was gone. She almost felt empty inside, before reminding herself of the madness that overtook the hollows who kept consuming. It was surely what drove them to it, seeking the feeling of being made whole again. She opened her eyes to her friends gathered around gawking at her. Patty looked comically astonished, while her sister simply looked relieved. Black Star was grinning like a maniac as usual. Tsubaki looked relieved. Kid had a curious gaze on his face. And Soul? He had the biggest sharky grin she'd seen in a while. She looked down at her legs, sprawled beneath her. They were as they normally were, healthy and lean. She touched hand to her face and felt comforting smoothness, not the withered, stretched skin of recent.
"Excellent!" Solaire broke the silence. "It appears you took well to it, Maka. I feared that you might go mad, as some have, but you seem to have a resilient constitution." He really thought she'd go mad that easily?
"Gee, thanks, Solaire," Maka retorted with just a hint of sarcasm.
"Now, my companions, we are not far from the Church of Fina," Solaire continued as though he missed her tone completely. He walked back to the doorway of the tower and pointed straight ahead in the distance. "If memory serves correct, we simply must follow this path down through a short residential district to reach that next tower rising up. We simply follow that down to a short bridge which will lead us directly into the church's burg."
"What's so important about this church, Solaire?" Kid asked. "You mentioned a bell, but nothing more."
"The first bell of awakening is housed at the church. I seek Anor Londo, the god's capital. It is there I hope to discover the Sunlight King's location. It may only be accessed through Sen's fortress, which itself is protected by a great gatekeeper. The gods trained him to only open the gates should the bells be rung, to keep unruly mortals from entering."
"So we just need to ring a dumb bell?" Black Star asked. "Pff. Let's get moving, I'll have this over before any of you know what happened!"
"Well said, Black Star!" Solaire said jovially, chuckling a small amount. "Let us make haste, the capital awaits!"
The group set off from the warmth of the bonfire, down a pathway from the tower leading into a district dotted with houses on each side. It was an eerie sight. Wooden doors rotted away, the houses and apartment complexes all long abandoned. Occasionally a human carcass could be spotted on the pavement, being picked apart by crows. Eventually, the group reached a fork in the path. Solaire paused for a moment, mumbling quietly to himself.
"Ah yes. Of course. This way," he said, determinedly marching down the left-winding path. The meisters and weapons looked at each other a bit nervously, but, lacking any better ideas, followed the local. Their "faith" if it could be called so much, was rewarded as Solaire came upon the base of the immense tower. He kicked open the rotting, wooden door, and looked up at the spiral staircase. The group looked at him again, curious at this second pause.
"Something wrong, Solaire?" Tsubaki asked, concern lacing her voice.
"No... I… possibly, my lady. We should be on guard." The knight withdrew his sword from the sheath at his side before marching upwards. Upon reaching the second floor of the tower, a clearly felt shake alerted the rest of the group. Something had definitely shaken the tower. Tsubaki, Soul, Liz, and Patty didn't need ordering to arm their meisters, and immediately transformed. Black Star immediately began bounding up the staircase leaps at a time, Tsubaki's chain rattling behind him.
"Dammit, he's going to get himself killed… whatever that means," Maka growled in irritation. The rest chased after their brave compatriot, only to find him standing at the top floor, looking baffled by a white mist occupying a doorway that completely obscured whatever was behind it.
"As I feared," Solaire boomed, causing Black Star to jump slightly in surprise. "There is a demon about. These gates are used by them to trap the unsuspecting. Once one has gone through, it is impossible to pass back so long as the demon lives. However," he continued, giving a sweeping gaze at Kid, Maka, and Black Star. "With a young God, a redoubtable soul, and an unstoppable, valorous spirit, we should have no difficulties, as long as we work together!"
Black Star grinned. "So, a demon, huh? What're we waiting for?!"
"Wait, Bl-" Tsubaki cried out as Black Star powered through the mist, her voice muting as he passed through.
Maka could barely yell at the idiot for going in alone before Solaire was marching in through the mist as well. With a sigh of frustration, she gave Kid an exasperated look.
"Yeah, c'mon Kid, we're not letting them do it alone, right?" Patty cheered.
"No, of course not, Patty," Kid responded evenly. "Ready, Maka?" She nodded, and the two stepped up to the mist. It was surprisingly solid, and took a conscious effort to pass through it. Once outside, they joined the others, who were standing idly atop the curtain wall. It was completely silent, not even the omni-present cawing of crows.
"You sure about there being a demon, Solaire?" Black Star asked, scratching his head with a free hand. The mist gate was indeed still behind them. He looked up at the rest of the tower they exited from. It was only about twenty feet to the battlement.
"Absolutely. It may have sensed us passing through the gate, and intentionally laying quiet.
"I will scout," Kid spoke up, conjuring Beelzebub once more. He kicked off the ground and rose up, intending to scout the battlement. The group watched from below as he cleared the top of the battlement. And gasped as he was smashed in mid-air and sent flying into the top of the curtain wall, closer to the next battlement over than to them. A tremendous roar echoed, blasting the silence away, and the tower quaked once more. A huge, bipedal beast, at least thirty feet tall, landed in front of the group. It spun immediately, swinging a massive iron sledge. Huge curved horns seemed like an extension of its bony face.
"Kid!" Maka screamed. The demon was in no mood for semantics, however, and brought down the sledge in an overhand arc into the group. Maka and Black Star instinctively dodged backwards, hitting the mist barrier. Solaire, however, stood his ground, iron shield raised. The sledge, at least as long as the demon was tall, smashed into the knight. Improbably, the force, which cratered the pavement below, merely sent Solaire sliding back a foot or two, completely unharmed. The demon roared in fury again, raising the sledge high and trying to smash it down again. Black Star and Maka immediately sprinted forward. Maka took a slice at the demon's leg as she sprinted past, while Black Star went airborne and sliced at its waist. The cuts did little more than aggravate it as it turned the overhand smash into a wild horizontal swing to account for their actions, completely missing all three combatants.
"Hah! He might be big, but he's never going to catch me!" Black Star bellowed. "Maka, check Kid!" Maka was already on her way, running down the pavement to investigate the reaper's condition. Liz and Patty had transformed back and were knelt at his side.
"Is he alright?" Maka asked, pulling up. Liz bit her lip, but Patty laughed at the question.
"He's Kid, of course he's fine!" Sure enough, a groan escaped Kid's mouth as he stirred. "Now, c'mon, Kid, GET YOUR ASS IN GEAR!" With a startle, Kid rocketed upright.
"I still don't get why that works…" Liz grumbled as the two transformed, landing in Kid's outstretched hands. For having just taken a thirty foot sucker punch, Kid looked no worse for the wear. Grinning, Maka turned back to find Black Star having somehow wrangled himself onto the back of the demon's neck, and was hacking away with Tsubaki's scythe point without much success other than enraging the beast as it tried to simultaneously handle Solaire's sword strikes upon its shins.
"Solaire, Maka!" Kid bellowed. "Keep clear! Black Star, keep it occupied and then GET OUT!" A blue energy began to swirl around Kid, streaking with monstrous black faces.
"RESONANCE OF THE SOULS!"
Patty and Liz both surged with Kid's soul wavelength, and became their ultimate forms, the Death Cannons. The blue aura disappeared with a snap, replaced by a much thinner, black one, creating an ominous shadow about Kid. The demon whipped around at the burst of light coming from Kid and gave one last buck and roared once more before lowering its head, Black Star still attached, and charged.
"I need time!" Kid yelled out, as Patty and Liz began storing his soul wavelength for the blast.
"Tsubaki, demon blade, we need to stop it!" Black Star yelled out from his bucking perch.
"Right!" In a flash, she was the enchanted black katana. She knew what he needed. She reached out the tendrils of the shadow puppet, and grappled it onto the demon's legs. The two black tendrils reached from her hilt, snaking around its body and down its legs and embracing each other. With a guttural bellow, the demon tripped on the tendrils, bracing itself with the sledge. Still roaring, it gave a great spasm, and the tendrils snapped apart.
"Noise at 1.1%, Kid," Liz informed the Reaper of their efficiency. Ready to fire in 3..."
"2!" Patty chirped.
"1," Liz continued.
Kid slammed the two together, their respective barrels aimed at the Demon climbing to its feet, glaring defiantly with yellow eyes. Black Star gave a thumbs up and leaped off, landing next to Solaire, who was observing the engagement with caution.
"Death Cannon," Kid commanded with a grim tone. The twin cannons fired off, the force of the blast forcing Kid back a few inches. Brilliant light exploded forth, streaking at the demon, which had halted, confused. The light struck the demon true, creating a huge blast radius. When the light faded, a huge cloud of smoke obscured the demon. The group waited on tenterhooks for it to clear. Finally, the results could be seen. All that remained of the demon from the Death Cannon was its upper torso, head, and right arm, the rest having been vaporized in the attack.
With a sigh, Kid sat back down, letting the twins retake their human form. Patty gave a cheer while Liz crouched down next to her meister. He was grimacing and closed his eyes.
"Hey, c'mon. It's over, we did it," she reassured, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. When he didn't give a response, she frowned. "You're alright, aren't you? I know it was a nasty blow, but you're the son of Lord Death!" she chirped, giving him a cheery bump on the shoulder.
"It's not that," Kid responded darkly. "It's… it's just that… I DESTROYED IT WITHOUT DIGNITY OR GRACE! LOOK AT IT, IT'S NOT REMOTELY SYMMETRICAL, JUST A MONSTROUS, HAPHAZARD CORPSE!"
Liz sighed, pulling Kid just a bit tighter. "You did great, Kid. I'm sure it was simply part of the demon's nature! Yeah, it's not your fault it fell apart asymmetrically! Besides," she continued. "I still think you're pretty perfect." She gave him a tender kiss on the cheek.
"NO, I'M GARBAGE. I CAN'T EVEN VANQUISH AN INSIGNIFICANT DEMON WITHOUT STYLE OR GRACE. I'M WORTHLESS!" Kid cried out, slumping backwards.
"Can we not spend an hour sitting here while you get over your symmetry problems, Kid," Soul asked, as the rest made their way down the curtain wall. "It's not very cool to just sit here out in the open where anything can see us."
"Don't worry, I got it!" Patty beamed. With a quick move, she separated her sister from meister and snatched the back of his collar with her hand. With a tremendous yank, she hauled the shinigami up to his feet.
"PATTY! WHAT IF YOU HAD STRETCHED OUT THIS SHIRT! IS THE COLLAR FINE? WHAT-"his rant was silenced by a quick arc of Patty's fist to his jaw. Naturally, the shinigami was utterly unhurt, but the gesture seemed to knock a bit of sense back into him. "Of course," Kid said, shaking his head shortly. "Let us move on. It would not be proper for me to let my issues stall us. Thank you, once again, Patty."
"No problem!" she chirped back. "It's pretty fun knocking you around once in a while.
"Well, I must say, young god, you lived up to your heritage magnificently!" Solaire piped up, apparently finished observing. He walked up to Kid and knelt briefly. "That was a magnificent display of power. It's been quite some time since I've seen such a command on the battlefield. You have my sincere gratitude." He rose up and gave Kid a great slap on the shoulder. Black Star gave a grumble of discontent at having been apparently showed up in front of their guest. "Now," he continued, gazing to the east. Below them, an enormous bridge stretched to an enormous, opened gatehouse. "We simply descend this next tower to reach the bridge, cross over, and we shall have nearly reached the Church of Fina."
The descent down the next tower was comparatively uneventful. Solaire, still taking the lead, opened the rotting door at the base, and the group stepped out in front of the bridge. It was at wide enough that five people could comfortably lie down in a chain across it, and at least five times as long. There was a very faint breeze, with no sound to speak of.
"Something isn't right here," Maka said, looking to her friends. "Anyone else have a bad feeling about this?"
"It's too quiet. Even the town wasn't this quiet," Tsubaki spoke quietly.
"Oh please, what's the worst that can happen?" Black Star scoffed. "Come on, time's wasting!" And with that, the ninja took the bridge at a bound…
A/N: Hiya hiya. Sorry for the delay. Took a few tries before I was satisfied with the chapter. Anyways, as always, comments and critique are welcome. Next chapter will be up within a week or so, potentially a few days depending on a few things.
As always, Soul Eater nor Dark Souls are mine. I don't own jack.