Lucky Souls
Chapter 17: The Temple Beyond The Sky
"The flowers are all gone." A tone of gross disbelief overtook her shuddering voice, averting her gaze from the depressing sight was all she could do to maintain her composure.
Her childhood wonderland was a sickly rendition of its former self, the glorious temples devoted to the arcane arts and gracious deities were destroyed and forgotten, melting into the stuffy mountainsides with passing age.
Too high for consuming clouds to skewer the azure skies glory, the sky was now a dreary watercolor painting of varying shades of dry grey, the land below its majesty was deathly ill, rotten trees and browning plant life littered the area, struggling to ascertain any miniscule amount of nourishment they could in such a time of strife.
Yet what struck her most was not the absence of her peers, the decay of the structures nor the haunting sky that beget fluttering ash seemingly from nowhere from the cloudless expanse. It was the flowers, numerous and alluring, vast fields dotting everywhere they could find the means to sprout forth. In the halcyon days, they would jut from buildings; invade homes through the wooden floors and walls, seas of the dainty plants exploding in your vision wherever you ventured within the shadowed lands.
And now the beautiful parasite that created the very life essence of these mountains were no more, and all that remained were the scorched and sundered badlands of Boletaria, grey and lifeless, their beauty was lost.
"This was…the court yard. I…I recall my mother and I standing right here, she told me this was an institute for people like me." Miyuki breathed out reminiscently, holding a shivering palm to her chest and shielding her eyes from the horrors before her.
At her nostalgic musings the sorceress couldn't help but carelessly intrude upon some slumbering demon's rest, her allies cautiously called out to her but their cries held no weight in her ears. Glazing her eyes towards the monster, she saw it to be a reanimated skeleton, neglected of its fleshly coating or any clothing, and yet she knew the monstrosity could only be a far gone disciple of the shadowed temple, his mind lost to the madness that was the Old One's taint, his soul lost to the hunger that was the Old One's insatiable greed.
She cradled her aching heart but for a moment before she effortlessly rid the shambling bones of its demonic existence with a crushing fireball, the heated explosion reflecting her defunct home away from home in her glossy eyes.
"Yuki-Chan, are you alright?" She recognized the amiable voice as her dear friend Tsukasa, but the gentleness of it only sounded in her ears as another soul. Her mind slowly dissipated as she allowed herself to remember a time where their world was bewitching, a time when the flowers did bloom.
"Miyuki, are you alright?" The loving voice requested only her happiness, fostering concern in her offspring's moment of uncertainty.
The young Miyuki could only shakily nod, hiding her innocently embarrassed face upon her mother's warm body, seeking comfort of any measure, she didn't wish to become a mage, she coveted only to remain by her loving mother's side.
An angelic laugh trembled from her mother at the child's wariness, she knew her daughter was cautious of the exotic temples now, but she would come to accept it as her home away from home in no time at all, this she knew for certain.
The alluring mother knelt to her diminutive daughter's eye level, cresting a gentle hand underneath the young girl's shuddering chin. "Now, now, child...you must be strong. These hallowed walls beckon to you, without you they cannot find rest, they are not whole. They want you to grow, and to engross yourself with all that life has to offer. It is a place for people like us, a womb to nourish our very special gifts." Her dear mother recited almost poetically, grasping the child's tiny hand once more and steadily pulling her forward towards her new life.
The memory was gone as completely as the flowers, and at Tsukasa's incessant probing the sorceress nodded her head affirmatively, hugging her eyes shut tightly to stay the aggressive dampness around them.
"I'm sorry everyone, I need to be more alert to danger. It's just…this place is very nostalgic to me, is all. I apologize if I'm not at my finest." Miyuki pardoned emotionally, and yet the sunny demeanor her friends were so accustomed to seemed to not be present, there was an emptiness about her voice, a dry sadness.
"Apologizing doesn't always cut it." An affronted tone sounded, its bearer the perpetually amiable archer Patty, her face contorted into one of sheer disgust, and all of it aimed directly at Miyuki.
Konata recognized the ugliness of her companion's words and couldn't help but step in. "Hey now Patty, she said she was sorry, no need to get nasty." The blunette tried softly to explain, but her words fell on deaf ears, the markswoman only diverted her gaze and silently trotted off ahead of the group, nose to the ground glumly.
The silence was broken as Misao moaned awkwardly, approaching the speechless Miyuki and clasping a lanky arm around her neck covertly. "I don't mean to intrude upon personal matters, but that kid's been on your case ever since you two first met. I don't know what her deal is, and frankly I don't care, but I can't have her throwing an emotional tantrum every time you open your mouth, talk to her please, lest our group morale sink any lower." While her words were blunt, Miyuki saw the truth behind their sting.
"Patty-Chan, wait!" She called out to the detached woman, practically feeling the undeserving anger pouring from the downtrodden figure as she lifelessly shoveled on at a snail's pace, deaf to the mage's apologetic whims, and angered by them exponentially, she knew all her mustered self control wouldn't last for long, she would explode if she didn't expunge even a fraction of all of her excess anger.
Turning to her approaching comrade, Patty bit her lip confusedly, lacquering her eyes with darkness as she attempted to understand why she felt such seething hate for this poor woman. It couldn't have been the witch who burrowed like a disease into her fractured thoughts, the resemblance was uncanny but the two were nothing alike.
The witch was absolute in her fury, cold and chaotic, so unlike the young Miyuki in every aspect. And yet every time she saw the mage smile, that careless curl of the lip which shown only tenderness, only one word came to mind, unfair.
Patty's arms fell helplessly to her sides, she was beside herself with uncertainty, she didn't want to hate someone she didn't even know, it wasn't in her to hate any soul no matter how damned, but as her muddied rage subsided, all the markswoman could do was grip her blade, the Dragon God's sword, within her steady hands.
The hum of power that surged within her as she glided a hand across its stone surface, it truly was a mystical relic, a sword of wishes, how could such a divine prospect be so startlingly bereft of any heart by contrast to its name, a blade of desires that beget nothing but grief.
"You know this sword is supposed to be able to grant wishes, any wish no matter what…it's an unspoken contract, the blade supposedly delves into your heart and whatever lies within is granted." Patty recited knowingly, having told the tale literally thousands of times throughout the years; she almost considered it her life story at this point.
Miyuki studied the blade carefully, while aesthetically it presented itself as a blade, she sensed a powerful force radiating from its stony workings. Mages were more attuned to the world, sensing the unnatural came naturally to them, and this blade, this sword of the Dragon God surely was no mere token of appreciation wrought in the arch-fiend's name.
She hesitated before responding, bending her bleak frown into a content smile before even meeting the drifter's gaze once more. "I see, that's truly fascinating…did you seek the sword to have your wishes granted?" The mage's comment surely wasn't humorous in nature, but it didn't seem to stop Patty from breaking down into a most unnerving fit of laughter, a trembling hand collapsed over her bloodshot eyes.
"Something like that I guess, but it seems I'm more of a fool than I thought. This is the second time my pleas have been ignored." Patty mumbled despairingly as she brushed a threatening tear from her eye, she couldn't have guessed that after all this time simple memories could still have such an effect on her, she thought herself completely desensitized, but apparently this wasn't the case.
"The second time?" Miyuki's admiring whisper was clouded distinctly by the uninvited squeal of some unseen force, wretched and ear-splitting, at the apex of its overbearing call a violent convulsion of the earth shook beneath the duo's feet.
Miyuki could hear the cautious hollering of her approaching companions at her back, and yet she was far more concerned about what steeled its otherworldly gaze in her direction. Patricia had yet to notice the dangerous foe, its portly form shrouded in a hellish miasma, and with a expert crack of the wrist the sorceress wordlessly propelled her ally out of the hazard zone with her telekinetic grip, losing her footing with the grace of a novice at the crushing gallop of the beast that made its presence known within her quaking vision.
"You have got to be frickin' kidding me." A voice sounded behind the stumbling mage, the bearer an all too eager Konata bearing her lengthy blade from her stunted frame. "Tsukasa, Miyuki, this is the big bastard we first saw when we came to Boletaria! This screwball is the one that killed me! Or…kind of killed me, I keep forgetting, are we alive or dead? Stupid Monumental makin' everything confusing." The azure knight's incessant babbling was curtailed by an aggressive stomp from the grayish demon, as much as she remembered its glossy sulfur-hued eyes; the mindless beast equally seemed to remember the dainty opponent in kind.
The beast looked no different, human-esque in body, albeit fat and bulbous, its head riddled with fluttery tentacles like a squid, leaving its face nigh featureless sans the glowing yellow eyes. Its tough grey hide was wrinkled and aged like an elephant, its tree-trunk legs even resembling the exotic creatures in some way.
In a manner beyond childish, Konata erupted into a fit of almost evilly tinged laughter, she couldn't contain herself, what luck! The brute that had single-handedly thrown their early tenured adventure into complete disarray dared to rear its ugly face into their affairs once more? She wouldn't give it the satisfaction of victory again; she would show it the bitter feeling of complete defeat.
A valiant finger extended to the heavens, a cocky smile loftily written across the young warrior's face, her emerald eyes shown only the beasts defeat within, she would be the demon's event horizon, its escape was impossible, its destruction was assured.
"Hey Miyuki, I want you to do something for me." Konata asked with a chuckling nudge, brazenly steering her blade downward with a cheek-tearing smile, she had the upmost confidence in herself it seemed. "My blade, is there any way you can give it more backbone? This measly spine won't do against chubs here." At the wily warrior's suggestion Miyuki faltered in confusion for but a passing moment before she caught on.
Her soft hand clasped sternly around the compact make of the steel, it dug into her hand slightly, sharp enough to draw her blood pitilessly. The crimson essence seeped onto the burnished metal, forming a taught mold-like sleeve around it effortlessly. Konata wondered at the spectacle with a knowing smile, watching as a gelatinous aura, a ghostly extension of her blade, grew parasitically from the tip of the weapon.
To test it, the haughty knight swung her extended blade downward, and with a magical strike it cleanly dug a deepening crevice into the earth far past the sword's normal length. The smoldering crack through the solid stone only helped to solidify her courage, victory was absolute.
Konata lay her eyes upon the fallen abnormality, its golden eyes cutting holes of doubt into her steeled form, but she could not be swayed now. A furrow of the brow, a tenacious and unforgiving curl of her pouted lips, a magically induced blade gripped tightly in her sweaty palms, every aspect of herself seemed to shudder to a deathly silent halt as the gray demon beset upon her in a thrashing rage.
A downward swing of a goliath fist crested the earth cleanly, but a lightning quick dodge by Konata put the effort to vain. It was an instant replay of the first time she had encountered the beast, callously she dived under its lumbering tree trunks of legs, and without a doubt in her mind she knew what would come next.
A vicious horse kick zooming backwards at the demon's unseen foe, but this time she knew the pattern, she ducked briskly, clenching her eyes harshly at the exploding waves of howling dust that burned her eyes. The demon followed up with another vicious stomp to crunch it laying foe into the dust, a roll expertly displaced her from the danger zone, and it was at this crucial moment she saw her single opening.
Vertically and with expunging power she collapsed the blade onto the ground, and the fizzling magical fire that erupted from the swords tip extended itself to the grotesque form of the monster, cleanly separating it at the shoulder and carving the lumbering monstrosity in two.
The ensanguined halves of the whole collapsed in divided paths, spilling the nameless bits of fleshy guts of the fiend in every foreseeable direction, lathering the ground below in a pulpy mess.
A one-hit wonder for the ages, the azure knight grinned as she gripped her magically fueled sword, relishing in the scraping sound of a blade returning to its arabesque red sheathe, the buttoned clicking of the sealing, it was the sound of a battle well fought.
"I've grown; paper tigers like you are no match for me now." Konata boisterously proclaimed, raising a victorious pointer to the all but shocked gods once more to unsettle their very immortality, big news to all who deigned to tread with the title demon, there was a new hero on the block, and all would fall before her blade.
Miyuki couldn't place find the amount of energy required for exact emphasis regarding her friend's flawless victory, she could only flutter out a contented laugh, which spread like a virus through her allies.
"Kona-Chan…" Tsukasa spoke from the silence, eagerly pressing a hand to her friends shoulder amicably. "That was incredible, where did you learn to do that?" At her inquiry the unusually humble woman could only casually shrug.
"I don't know...the movements felt natural, as if I'd done them before. Surprising, considering I never was very good with the blade, better at makeshift plans with the ol' noggin'." Konata scoffed with a thumping tap to her gearing brain, a vivacious heckle from the crowd of women at her back came in no time at all, as somewhat expected.
Gingerly an arm collapsed around Konata's sinking shoulder, connected to a sneering listless-eyed Misao. "Yeah I'll bet, you gonna have us believe you can dress yourself in the morning too?" The slave playfully prodded, Konata's only response was to craft her face childishly into a deformed mess of pulled eye sockets and jutting tongues.
Absconding from the warm laughter permeating throughout the group, Miyuki generously placed her attention towards the approaching Patricia, a bit dirtied from the sudden hurling, but altogether intact. The sorceress graciously bowed her head in amends, hoping any action, even one as seemingly minor as saving one's life in a perpetually dangerous land, would improve her standing with the archer.
"Are you alright?" Miyuki began as softly as possible, attempting to brush away the clingy dust upon the woman's torso only to have it rudely slapped away. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to do that so suddenly, I had to think quickly." Her words were as kind as ever, warm and caring without a single thought to anyone but herself, Patty couldn't help but feel terrible for the way she treated this woman.
The markswoman turned to face the sorceress, to gaze as deeply into her face as she could, in every physical way the woman before her resembled her tormentor. The vibrant curly pink locks cascading down her back, the tender and innocent stare, the extremely docile tone of a woman who had never scorned another no matter how much they had harmed her, in all these ways she resembled the witch.
"Takara-San." The archer announced plainly, waiting a moment to stay the quivering afflicting her lips as she garnered her failing courage once more. "I'm sorry for the way I've treated you up until this point…but…I can't shake this weird feeling, I feel like I know you." Patty's hushed voice dimmed slightly; she could practically hear her thumping heart routinely snapping within her ears as she spoke.
Miyuki's head cocked slightly at the revelation, while some of her earlier memories of life were indeed obscured by the passing of time, in her short period of life she couldn't ever remember this young woman's face, this fiery warrior so full of passion, so resolute and sure of what she wanted in life and how she would obtain it. Her personality reminded her of a certain bluenette, but beyond this aspect, the face was unknown to her, the life lived was unknown to her.
"But that's impossible…" Patty began again, her determination wavering as she became increasingly hesitant towards interrogation. "Because well I…you're just not the same, as I remember you I mean. If it were you in my memories, you wouldn't be this…this kind, or sweet, or anything like you are now." Emotionally Patty finished, her jittering eyes searching Miyuki's for some semblance of an understanding, for some concrete knowledge of what she spoke of.
Miyuki opened her mouth to usher what little feedback she could scrounge up, but her explanation was stifled before her tongue even curled by the hearty laugh of Konata at her back, tapping her blissfully as her commendation for the assistance in the immaculate battle, without the sorceress' magic after all, the knight might've not had the edge she needed to fell the beast so easily.
"And it's all thanks to Miyuki, her power is amazing!" The words of praise left Konata, but they entered the mage's ears as another, a voice from her shadowed past, a soul that would change her own forever.
"Her power is amazing, Takara-San. Your daughter has not only passed the novice trails, but the advanced ones as well! Normally if our students pass the advanced set, if at all actually, it isn't until they are in adulthood. But your child, at the age of seven no less, has managed to effortlessly pass every trial we have placed before her! This is unheard of in all of mage-kind!" The ecstatic and to the young Miyuki, faceless voice of one of the many overseers spoke to her mother, who nodded pleasantly at each passing compliment.
Bashfully Miyuki hid her face from the woman, pouting childishly and earning a steady laughter from the two towering figures above her, always finding humor in situations she could not.
"Little one, the nice overseer has just given you a colorful array of compliments, have you nothing to say?" Her mother urged with a warm smile, prying the hiding face of the young Miyuki from her bundled dress and turning her quivering form towards the daunting overseer.
"T-Thank you." The young girl's meager thanks were spent and bashfully she returned to her coddled hiding spot, shielding her vision from the talkative adults.
"No, young mistress, the thanks are all mine." The overseer spoke even more humbly than she, bowing his head to the child in a loving praise. "Takara-San, I don't normally do this, not even for our master students. But I believe your young Miyuki may be ready for training in the soul arts." At the overseer's suggestion even the stoic mother Takara was momentarily taken aback, her mouth fell slightly agape, the master sensed her apprehension.
To the innocent Miyuki however, the gravity of what the adults around her spoke of made little sense, she heard her name, knew it concerned her, but beyond that didn't have the perception to fully understand or even care. All it sounded like to her was more work, more tests and trials, more rigorous training to become a mage, which she didn't even want to be in the first place.
The heavy tones in the air quickly melted between the two adults, who we once again laughing mindlessly and chattering away about some nameless person Miyuki didn't care about, how was it adults were able to switch between highly contrasting emotions so quickly? To forget the sad times and simply laugh about them? It was times like these Miyuki wished she had some friends of her own age to play with, somebody she could understand, somebody she could laugh with and even get sad with.
"We should keep going, that fat bastard probably alerted every able bodied demon in the area, and un-able bodied ones too." Misao's cautious tone returned the thoughtful mage from her memory-induced daydream, to which the group of adventurer's did not protest.
It seems even the cloudy smog that secluded the mountain temple wasn't enough to keep the colorless fog from breeching its barrier, to poison the world with its insipid ways and sway every living creature with its demonic influence.
Miyuki lingered a moment behind the departing group, she disquietly admired the enrapturing view of the valleys far below the cragged and jagged mountains at her feet. They rose above the very clouds, piercing the heavens themselves inexorably, claiming themselves king among the highest reaches of the world. The golden aura of the sun tore through the dainty clouds, adding what little beauty it could to the desolate world of Boletaria far below, vainly attempting to recreate what could once be considered, a thriving beauteous countryside.
An unsettling screech diffused throughout the sunny expanse, and Miyuki beheld a wondrous sight, a pack of young storm beasts, offspring of the great Storm King, one of the archfiends of the Old One. The creatures while young, floated tightly upon a wingspan of nearly twelve feet across, and in body shape somewhat resembled manta rays of the great oceans.
A long mouse-like tail jutted from the beast's posteriors, and the grayish skin was scaly like a reptiles, yet with the fuzzy membrane of a woodland mammal. The underbelly was a delicate shade of pink, and patterned and lined like a snake's slithering stomach, and the head of these creatures, if it could be called that, was nearly non-existent. A diminutive expanse of flesh in the shape of an orb near the gaping neck, the sides of the creature were dotted with gaping gills akin to a fish, with beady little soulless eyes on the tips of two lanky stalks.
The flock of fluttery air rays passed by quickly, fading into the blinding sunlight partially blocked by the never-ending series of shadowed temples covering every snow-tipped mountain. They were likely returning to their parent, their progenitor, the master of storms and a force of nature itself, the Storm King. This was their target as commanded by the Monumental; the beast of the storms must be eradicated, just another day for these unfortunate souls it seemed, just another fleeting moment of the chaos that was Boletaria.
"You know doors have knobs for a reason." The assassin's companion moaned at the brutish nature of the woman, who had just effortlessly crushed a defenseless door into fractions of cycling dust in the air, and all sarcasm from the strange little mage Hiyori aside, there was no time to waste on trivialities.
"Cut the crap, I'm not paying you to be snarky, I need results." Kuroi's attitude was as seemingly calm as ever, despite the heated atmosphere between the two, and the overbearingly dangerous location they found themselves in.
"You're not paying me at all!" To stay the mage's moaning came a rough push from behind into the waiting darkness within their target location, a building that by exterior, somewhat resembled an observatory, it wasted no expense in mimicking the appearance of one at any rate, but the duo knew what lay within was no mere telescopic device to study the stars.
"Nonsense, I'm paying you with your life. If that's not valuable enough…" At the admonishing suggestion Hiyori couldn't help but laugh nervously, she certainly did value her life, a payment of mercy would have to be enough for her services, and in all honesty the assassin did free her from her long imprisonment, and that was more than payment enough.
Kuroi surveyed the great machine before her, a technological advancement the likes of which she had never seen, the beast of science somewhat resembled a bulky furnace but with prong-like protrusions towering upon the scalp of its metal hide. "So what exactly is this? And how will it help us track down Allant?" She asked the mage as she fiddled with the machinery, gliding a leather-bound hand across its metal surface and rubbing the darkened soot that clung to her searching fingers.
A few flicks of some dusty switches and the cranks and twists of some knobs was all it took for the slumbering device to spurt to life suddenly, the eruption of clanking gears and turbines motoring effortlessly suddenly rung throughout the area, the mechanical wonder even fumed out a hazy gas.
"Back when I considered myself part of the mage community, I stopped by the temples here and now again. The overseers weren't exactly ecstatic to have my meddling ways butting into every affair of theirs, so they…" An interrupting gargle from the assassin notified the reminiscing Hiyori that a full recap was not needed, best to aim for abridged version in these types of situations anyway. "Well, long story short, this device allowed the mages of the shadowed temples to gain the power of celestial sight, boundless vision in other words. They could in theory, view any individual at any time or anywhere throughout history for cataloguing, study, or just plain meddling like I said." At the mage's detailed explanation Kuroi couldn't help but deviously remember that final aspect, meddling certainly had its uses after all.
"How?" The hit-woman asked plainly, almost as if she wasn't entirely impressed with the godlike machine of magical wonder.
"Well, a very long time ago before mankind itself there existed these beings, they were called the Monumentals. They possessed the power of foresight, they could see things that anteceded or preceded events beyond their current timeline, basically they could see into the future or the past." Hiyori explained as she jammed the final glaring button upon the machine, watching knowingly as it fluttered fully to life, exploding into an aura of golden hues which formed the shape of their planet between the metallic holdings.
The globe shaped vision was completely ethereal as Kuroi noticed, poking a prodding finger into nothing but fizzling color around her form, it seemed like some type of illusion, magical in nature, the mages of the world were truly frightening creatures when it came to the advanced knowledge of just about everything. Thinking about it, the assassin hypothesized that in their prime they probably could've ruled the entire world, had they wished it, and yet they let all that power they possessed lay dormant, seemingly to waste.
"The Monumentals used to be mages, in fact they were the ancient rulers of this land, before it became the mages sanctuary, and long before Allant ever sought to colonize this seemingly empty country." Hiyori continued, and at the mention of Allant, the assassin couldn't help but notice a tinge of uneasiness in her voice, it was probably nothing. "At any rate, they channeled the power of demons souls to allow them the power of foresight. Demons as you know are spawn of the Old One, a being that has existed before time itself. Ironic isn't it? The very beast the Monumentals wanted to destroy…they had no choice but to use its own power to seal it away." At her studied explanation Kuroi seemingly grasped hold of what they would be using the device for; she couldn't help but laugh utterly in joy.
"Not bad Tamura, not bad at all. You know I was gonna kill you after we were done here? I've decided not to though…that was my original mission after all, until you had to yuck it up and get me trapped in that abysmal prison." Kuroi's voice of appreciation descended into the condescending, but Hiyori shrugged it off, but at the notion of having a bounty on her life she couldn't help but nervously twitch.
"There's a price on my head?" Hiyori apprehensively questioned, and the unsympathetic laughter she received in response was all the confirmation she really needed, but knew the assassin would have to rub it into her already salted wounds.
"Are you absolutely kidding me?" Kuroi snickered coldly, retrieving a moldy and crinkled wanted sheet from her pocket and clearing her throat mockingly before digging into it. "Hiyori Tamura, age unknown, personality described as amorous, foolish, childish, yet somehow maintains an elusive nature. Wanted for crimes against humanity, crimes against state, including but not limited to murder in nth degree, acquisition of stolen property of the state, high treason against the monarchy that rules this land…and oh, the juiciest bit, aiding in the destruction of Bol-" The assassin's ceaselessly cruel commentary was cut short by the grinding of the heated machine, almost on purpose she noticed, to which she could only muddle to herself placidly that she had set the magician in her place, perhaps now the incessant whining and perverted antics would stop.
Mulling over the cankerous list of her crimes, Hiyori couldn't help but choke up dismally at her sins. She didn't need to be reminded of them, she knew what she had done and she knew she could never hope to correct the mistakes of the past, and yet she tried every day, grain by grain she would rebuild her shattered world until it was whole again, until Boletaria was whole again.
The floating orb suddenly halted, having finally ascertained the location of the individual the machine interminably searched for, the good king of Boletaria, Allant the twelfth. The twirling mechanisms below the globe halted, and the machine's holographic projection of their planet lifelessly fizzled out of existence, the machine stopped its feverish workings and shut down on queue.
Kuroi confusedly surveyed the dead device, giving it a childish kick before she turned to the silent magician. "Hey, what gives? This thing outta juice or something?" The assassin inquired angrily, her patience was only tested further when the usually chirpy woman refused to give her a clear answer beyond a few mindless whispers seemingly to herself.
"Allant is beyond your reach, Nanako." Hiyori mysteriously answered, pressing her glassy frames upon the bridge of her nose and hopping down from the extended platform with a light thud, Kuroi softly laughed at the assurance.
"I'll be the judge of that, now where is the good king?" Kuroi hastily commanded, slightly unnerved by the sober tone of voice the peppy magician had suddenly taken.
Hiyori waited a moment before she eyed the door behind her tormentor; her downtrodden pout suddenly crafted itself into a barmy grin, a set of glossy teeth baring themselves in a buffoonish nature. "The better question might be, where isn't he?" Abstruse in essence, the mage's odd comment was bereft of any solid answers, nor did she wish to grant an explanation, she had distracted the foolish assassin long enough.
A fiery pair of lightning bolts too quick to follow with mere human eyes suddenly exploded from Hiyori's scorched palms, crushing themselves into the assassin's torso and sending the addled woman soaring into the rusty remains of the machine, effectively incapacitating her captor and destroying her only lead to the missing king.
"Agh! Tamura!" The assassin hollered out in pain as she tore herself from the shattered remains of the foresight machine, helplessly clinging to her bloodied breast and fuming in anger as the mage escaped with a haughty laugh, she was certainly the most interesting target the hit-woman had ever gotten, this could be certain.
"M'lady." The knight alerted her saint regrettably from the gentle hold of slumber, lifting the dreary woman to her feet and pointing to the distance where an obscured collection of passing dots moved inwardly into the temple grounds.
"They have arrived." The kind saint whispered knowingly, holding her hands together solemnly for a facile prayer before weakly turning to her knight with curved eyes. "Come, let us waste no time." Muttered the priest once more, her usually angelic voice was crushed by a joyless despair, the knight knew her lady took no pleasure in her job as the observer, but the ordained destiny of the clan Izumi was easily understood, the destruction of the Old One.
The pair knew they could not allow Izumi to succeed, to rest the eternal god to its endless slumber once more, they knew what must be done, though it was critical to their kind natures in contrast, they knew regrettably that Izumi had to die.
Author's Note: Ohey guys, another somewhat short chapter, sorry about that. I'd like to say that I'm not doing it on purpose but I sort of am…I find that if I limit the average chapter length to 5-7K words, chapters are done within about 3-5 days. If I aim for an 8-10K average like I attempted to do for the first part of the story, chapters took about 7-10 days by contrast. Would people rather wait longer for longer chapters, or have shorter chapters in a shorter time? I don't know, but I'll mix it up between longer and shorter chapters depending on where the plot is, which is about to get very character driven for awhile, so excuse me if I seemingly ignore this world I'm trying to create in favor of a little heavy character development. Hasta la bye bye! Since I'm seemingly so inspired lately, I'm sure the next chapter will be out in a jiffy.