Welcome, dear readers, to chapter 15! thank you all for your continued support, and once again, I'm sorry about this chapter. It's rushed and features a very very very very overpowered character. Yep. Plot armour, yay.
Sometimes there's no time to think in the midst of battle. Sometimes thoughts are questionable during a battle. Sometimes there's just no other choice.
D Gray-man belongs to Hoshino Katsura~
Broken Moonlight
Chapter 15: Wither
Within the Black Ark of the Noah, the Earl stared at his messenger, who stood silently before him, awaiting a response. His gaze, hidden behind thick glasses characteristic of his burlesque caricature glinted with disbelief.
"Neah - my Neah has gone mad? My Neah?" he repeated his gaze fixed on the thirteenth disciple of Noah, who merely nodded in silent response.
"Why? Why is he doing this? Why is he turning against me again?" the Earl rambled, his voice no longer directed towards the representative of Noah's ability, but towards himself as he chanted the 14th's name, a hint of madness present in his voice.
"My Neah, My Neah is leaving again - I won't let my Neah leave, My Neah… Mana's Neah!" The Earl keened, bursting from the doors of his room, Lero forgotten and tossed to the striped-bodysuit wearing Noah.
"Mana's Neah!" the Earl howled once again, anger clear in his normally comical, sinister pleasant voice. "Mana's Neah," he rasped, storming down the hall and setting a hand on one of the many doors lining it. "Curse you, Mana! It's because of you this happened!"
Mightra's head lowered to face the pink parasol in his grip, who shook in what seemed to be fear.
"He's gone mad, Lero! Why'd you have to say that, Lero?"
Silently, the Noah tossed the parasol against the wall and followed the Earl out of the room, leaning against the doorpost of the exit that the Earl had opted to leave from and watching the scene below without a word.
As the clouded sky crackled with dark matter, the body of the 14th had become swallowed by the substance. It swarmed over his body and remained intact like a baleful exoskeleton, preventing any and all from seeing the body of the white-haired boy that was beneath it.
Taking no form but that of a vaguely human shape, the dark matter remained fluid, yet maintained its configuration. Where the eyes would have been remained black eye sockets, and replacing the mouth was a terrifying, gaping grin that exuded menace.
As the atmosphere grew inexplicably heavier, the creature glanced up at the sky, its grin widening at the sight of the Millennium Earl. Immediately, the Noah that had not been mutilated, murdered, or both cleared the vanguard as the Earl alighted on the ground.
"Adam," the monstrosity rasped, its voice having transitioned into a painful gravelly tone that ached the auditory perception of those who heard it. "Adam, father of our father, Noah, and our creator - your time is over."
The eyes of the Millennium Earl narrowed derangedly as the sight of the fallen Noah littering the ground, paying no heed to the corpses of the exorcists that were more in number and brutality. His amber gaze narrowed as they began to shine prominently with a malicious glow. His hands gathered masses of the dark matter to them as he stood facing the 14th, anger clear in everything from his permanent grin to his stance.
"My family! What have you done to my family, Mana's Neah?" he howled. "Curse you!"
Rationality disappearing from his figure, he drew back one of the spheres of the dark energy in his hand and threw it towards the dark purple figure.
In response to the sloppy attack, the monstrosity merely allowed it to strike and be absorbed by the matter that swirled around his body. His toothless grin widened as his eye sockets narrowed at the enraged figure of the Earl.
"The patriarch can't fight fire with fire, Forefather Adam. Our abilities are vastly different, but our source is from the same dark matter."
In response, the Earl let out a cry of seething rage and blatantly threw himself upon the dark matter-encased 14th, wresting him to the ground with inhuman strength. Even the personification of destruction could not fight the sheer power that radiated from the Earl's grip as it circled around the neck of the beast.
As the Earl moved to crush the creature's neck, it's form morphed and grew malleable within his grip. The frightening grin printed upon the deformed face was enough to induce nightmares. "Forefather Adam~" the monster chuckled raspily. "You are Creation. I am Destruction. You will never beat me."
With his words, the dark matter that surrounded the 14th's body began to seep into the ground, seeming endless in quantity as the creature merely laughed distortedly in the face of the smoldering Earl. The sky, already darkened with night grew darker as purple energy crackled above the remaining lives below.
"I am Destruction itself," the mutation grated out harshly. "I am omnipresent and indomitable. Even those that don't know me have experienced my work for my father, Noah. I destroyed the earth seven thousand years ago, and I have come to eradicate all upon it again."
With those words followed the irrepressible shaking of the ground beneath them. A jagged crack flared through the island, crackling with the purple hue of dark matter as the land itself was bisected, cracking into two halves. The clouds began to swirl violently as the purple of tempest shone from within them, sparking with the familiar dark substance.
"You will die along with your beloved family, Adam." the monstrosity laughed harshly, slipping from the Earl's loosening grip. "That is the will of our Father, Noah.
The deranged grin spread wider upon the purple head, spreading to the point where it nearly seemed to split the face of the creature into two. Pulling back a fist, it hurled the clenched hand towards the Earl. Immediately, the Noah dodged with a surprising speed for someone of such great girth, and once again advanced upon the Earl, disregarding all forms of dark matter as that had proven to be useless against the monster.
Relying on his brute strength, the Adam of the Noah forcefully dug his gloves hands into the exoskeleton of the 14th, his grip empowered by the sheer anger that glittered vindictively in his features, contorted by utter fury at the beast.
The dark matter gave way under his grip, spreading over his arms and taunting him with gravelly laughter that seemed to emit from not only its gaping mouth, but anywhere where the viscous matter had spread.
"If I have to die with my family then I'll take you with me, Mana's Neah!" the Earl cried remorselessly. The mocking laugh echoed through the air around them, but no words were spoken.
The waters surrounding the island had riled up by reason of dark matter, and now crashed mercilessly against the cliff sides of the two halves of the island. Rising monstrously, the dark waters engulfed the Northern half of the island, completely devouring it in a destructive movement and dragging it down to the depths of the sea with ease.
The sky itself sang a cacophonous melody with lightning that struck downwards haphazardly. The powerful forks of electricity struck the exorcists' Headquarters, breaking through weak window and striking fabric curtain. Within a matter of minutes, the building was engulfed with flames.
Flimsy shadow signalled the escape of a minority of the exorcists out onto the open sea as the laugh of the creature resounded through all the devastation that was occurring at every side of him while slipping easily out of the Earl's grasp, reducing his stamina drastically.
Standing a small distance away from the Earl, the monstrosity tilted its head at him. "Forefather Adam, you must be losing your touch," he mocked. As a large, dark broadsword materialized itself within the Earl's hand, the shell of dark matter cackled manically, running towards him. "You aren't even an obstacle for me - you are a puppet dancing to my strings, Adam."
The silence of the Earl as he flew at the overpowered creature, swinging the oversized weapon at him. The mass of dark matter ducked sharply, diving towards the Earl and wrapping around his weaponless arm, twining dark matter around it like a serpent about to strike.
Allowing his momentum to swing him around, the Earl forced a collision between his sword at the body of dark matter, which merely hardened at the contact, causing him to exert unneeded force upon the blade in attempts to crack the shell.
"I have no weaknesses, Adam. You are merely a toy for me until I destroy you."
The Noah drew back his sword, his eyes fixated murderously upon the figure composed of dark matter as he internally cursed Mana for turning Neah into this monster. If it weren't for Mana, Neah would have been his. But Neah was Mana's Neah, and that had fabricated this creature.
"And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die," the creature sneered in disdain. "That destruction was the divine will. I am the divine will."
The serpent of dark matter slithered around the Earl's neck, tightening viciously. The monstrosity chuckled at the Earl's attempts to free himself, dark matter easily manipulated by his fingers yet still refusing to relinquish its grip.
"Curse you, Mana!" the Earl hissed, abruptly pulling his sword to the side and forcefully ramming it into the body of dark matter, the surprise causing the creature to release him as it stumbled back and near fell onto the ground which was beginning to crumble in itself.
Forcing the concentration of his weight into his foot, he pinned the shell down onto the ground and plunged the oversized blade downwards with a brute strength aided by vengeance and wrath. The movement forced even the seemingly impenetrable exoskeleton back, penetrating the armour of dark matter and piercing through the unconscious body of the 14th itself.
"Mana's Neah will die!" the Earl hollered hoarsely, His gaze blank with rage-induced madness as he drew his sword from the monstrosity's body only to lower it once again in a brutal movement with no remorse nor hesitation. "That is his sanction!"
Grabbing Timcanpy by the tail, Kanda dangled the golem before his face staring at it. "Go ahead and see what's going on. Come back and let me know."
Baring his teeth at the ill-mannered exorcist, the spherical creature snapped at his hand before pulling out of his grip and speedily dashing off before Kanda could catch him and inflict some other irritated insolence against him.
"You certainly have a way with words," Wisely drawled lazily, his voice dripping with sarcasm. The exorcist glared back at him.
"I have no time for formalities now, Noah," he snapped.
"I can see," the white-haired Noah responded, his eyes narrowing up at the crackling sky. "It's begun."
"What?"
"Look." The Noah motioned for the purplish sky as lightning illuminated the clouds for a brief moment. The sight was followed by the shaking of the earth, and Kanda swiftly shifted as the crack ran through the forest before splitting apart entirely. His eyes drifted over to Wisely, who seemed just as collected as ever, save the slight tension of his stance.
"What is this?" he hissed, vaguely alarmed by the sudden changes in the atmosphere and the surrounding land. With the thick foliage blocking his vision from whatever else was transpiring, he could only listen to the desolation that reigned upon the island.
"It is the final work of Noah's destruction," the white-haired male responded simply, his voice barely betraying the apprehension he felt. However, even that slight transition did not skip the notice of the second exorcist.
Kanda stared at him in vague disbelief. What that Noah was expecting him to accept was the fact that the moyashi was the cause of all this carnage? His gaze narrowed. To think that he had once assumed the beansprout to be a resolute person - he could not even stop himself.
How on earth did Alma expect him to put a stop to this? He had not allowed himself much negative thought in the presence of the brunet, but now that he had his mind to himself, the realization fell upon him: he could not take on the title of saviour. He was not a saviour - merely a destroyer. That was what he had been created for, after all.
"You seem to have tangled yourself up in an interesting predicament," Wisely stated almost monotonously.
Kanda had also momentarily allowed the fact that the Noah of wisdom could read minds to slip his memory. He scowled at the white-haired male. "I never told you," he barked.
The Noah shrugged passively and leaned back against the trunk of the tree, his head bowed slightly and his eyes closed. "If you aren't going to figure out what you have to do and do it, then we're all going to die so I'll just enjoy myself by irritating you until then," he stated in a frank tone.
A tick of annoyance appeared upon Kanda's forehead as he drew Mugen from its sheath. "Don't make me let you die earlier than anticipated," he snarled irritably.
"Calm down," the Noah advised, lifting a hand up in a placating movement.
"Che."
Kanda frowned. He hadn't the slightest idea what exactly the situation was like, other than the fact that Allen was the cause of all this ruination. If he didn't know, then no one could expect him to formulate a plan that didn't involve haphazardly leaping into the fray in a manner that could cost him his life.
Not that he wouldn't do that regardless of the knowledge of the full situation or not. After all, sometimes he had little choice but to put everything on the line in a precarious gamble that determined whether he or another would live or die.
"Ah…we may need to run soon," Wisely stated, one golden eye revealing itself to stare up at the dark sky.
Following his gaze, Kanda's eyes widened at the sight of the clouds parting, only for fist-sized drops of vibrant orange began to rain down from the heavens. He cast a glance at the surrounding forest, his eyes narrowing.
Thoughtlessly, he hooked his fingers into the arm of the white-haired Noah, dragging him from the clearing before the fire fell upon the grass.
Within seconds, the clearing itself was incinerated, the flames licking up at the surrounding trees. Flicking greedily from branch to branch, it began to ignite the forest itself, causing Kanda's pace to grow faster in his desperation to flee the dense foliage before they were burnt alive.
"Ow..!" Wisely complained, allowing the exorcist to drag him along. "What are you doing? That hurt, you know."
"Do you want to die?" Kanda hissed back, sidestepping abruptly to the right as a burning branch fell down onto the ground where he had stood a few seconds earlier.
"Does it really matter?" the white-haired male droned, still following a little behind the long-haired exorcist. "I'm a Noah so you'll probably try to kill me anyway, and even if you don't, you definitely don't have a plan or anything, so we'll all die in the end."
"If you have nothing of use to say, then shut up," Kanda snapped, yanking the Noah out of harm's way just as another blazing tree limb crashed down where Wisely has been.
Fleeing from the flames, Kanda hauled the Noah behind him until they reached the forest's edge. Breaking through the shielding of undergrowth and brush, he dropped the Noah upon the ground, resulting in a petulant groan eliciting from the passive male's lips.
Mere metres behind them, the entirety of the forest burst into violent flames that reached avariciously for the sparking purple sky that continued to shower down the destructive fire upon the barren land.
Almost promptly upon his stop at the edge of the field, his eyes widened in well-disguised horror at the sight of exorcists and Noah alike littering the bloodstained ground. His gaze narrowed as he bit the inside of his cheek to swallow the urge to retch that was clambering mercilessly up his throat.
"So this is what he's done," Wisely muttered, wiping his eyes which had begun to tear up once again. The motion was once again proven fruitless as the water created small rivulets upon either cheek as the uncontrollable tears made themselves known upon his otherwise detached features.
Kanda's eyes drifted over to the centre of the field where two figures were engaged in combat. One, he recognized as the Millennium Earl, but the other, he could not say he had seen before. The figure seemed less human than the grotesque Earl himself, being nothing but a human-shaped mass of dark matter.
The two were locked in some sort of combat with their weapons, the force that was exuded by both surprising Kanda despite the fact that it should not have. His eyes narrowed.
At the sensation of being struck by something, he glanced down to sight Timcanpy flying around his body. Clucking his tongue in impatience, he grabbed the tail of the golem, stilling it. "What is this?" he questioned abruptly, his voice terse.
Timcanpy's mouth immediately opened to reveal the projections that he had captured. With each statement and new revelation that was unveiled, Kanda felt his muscles growing more tense until he was wondering just when they would cramp.
"That… That thing is the moyashi?" he inquired incredulously.
The nod that was the response he received from the golem seemed eminently sad to the point where Kanda felt the compulsion to try and console the creature somehow. Reaching forward, he briefly rubbed the head of the spherical golem before taking him and setting him upon Wisely's leg.
"Take care of him," he stated, his gaze drifting back to stare at the Earl and at the monster that was Allen Walker. Whether his statement was directed towards the Noah or to the golem, neither were certain, but both nodded anyway.
"You still don't have a plan, exorcist. You're not going to stand there for long without one."
"I'll think of one once I get there," Kanda responded stiffly, turning his back to the Noah just as whatever patches of grass littered the crimson-washed field burst into flames.
Slowly he strode for the skirmishing pair, making no move to draw Mugen, even as another stone of fire fell down behind him, barely missing his hair and blowing it violently to the side. He closed his eyes as he continued to walk, his thoughts drifting the Alma's smiling face.
The brunet had said that he needed resolve for this. It was only clear that without it, he could not be able to complete his task. He needed to save the moyashi who, for all of his bravado, could not save himself despite being able to save others.
It was the one time where his existence would take on a new meaning, he realized, the hellish scenery around him not perturbing his meditations as he proceeded for the two, his hand drifting up to Mugen's hilt. For once, he had no choice but to abandon the title of destroyer and allow himself to be crowned with the designation of saviour.
"Baka moyashi," he whispered, a faint smirk curling onto his pale lips as he drew Mugen, stopping within a few feet of the two. Such an honorific did not suit him at all. It was a title that was meant for Allen - not him. Ironically, he was left with it, albeit he didn't wish for it to be so.
Neither of the two figures seemed to pay him any heed, he realized, as he drew Mugen. Drawing his fingers along the flat of the blade, he invoked his innocence with a resolute murmur. As Mugen began to shine, he caught sight of the two gazes, one of amber and the other of dark black, turn to stare at him.
"Exorcist!" the creature grated out, dark matter slipping from its shell and sliding towards the long-haired male's direction.
Kanda stared almost blankly at the purplish form of dark matter before his gaze drifted towards the Earl, for all his strength and power seeming as weak as any other, and half beaten to death. He lifted his silver blade to point it at the figure of the Earl.
"Back down," he stated, his voice menacingly calm. "I refuse to let you touch him."
"Interesting," the body of dark matter cackled, a snake of dark matter oozing from its body to easily penetrate through the Earl's skull and fling him away with a shocking ease. Kanda almost stopped short in shock, but managed to keep his composure upon the realization that this thing had no humanity within it.
He stood still, attempting to formulate some sort of plan, even as the tendrils of dark matter began to wrap around his legs, trailing up his body. He frowned deeply. Even if this monster was all he could sense on the outside, Allen was in there, he knew.
Opening his eyes, he fixed his dark gaze upon the wickedly grinning figure before taking a step closer to it. This seemed to deter the dark matter somewhat, as it was madness for anyone to draw closer to it without the intention of harming it.
For once, Kanda did not brandish his weapon before the face of his enemy, but instead kept it lowered passively as he continued to step forward and until he was mere inches away from the body of dark matter that had caused the destruction around him.
The fire had begun to fall precariously close to them, entrapping them within a ring of fire and preventing him from escaping - not that he intended to in the first place. He could feel the malicious dark matter crawling up his torso now, threatening to consume and corrupt him.
Quietly, he murmured under his breath, Mugen beginning to glow in his grasp. His gaze remained unmoved upon the grotesque figure before him.
Lifting his arms, he wrapped one around the body of dark matter, pulling it close to his own as his gaze barely softened. His right arm, grasping his sword, penetrated sharply through the body of dark matter and pierced through his own chest, protruding from his back with a mixture of malevolent purple and crimson. Sliding the sword hilt deep into the body and his own, he allowed his eyes to slide shut.
"Moyashi… Allen - come back to me…"
Amidst the ruins of the Headquarters, the last pale pink petals of what had once been a perfect bloom shriveled.
Oh no...what does all of this mean?