(Third Person POV)
Crystalin stopped moving completely and her arms went limp, though her grip on her maces remained intact. Her gray eyes were void of all consciousness and entirely glazed over as she stared at the monster that stood not even three feet away from her.
"Crys, what are you doing?! Attack that thing before it attacks you!" Ryoko screeched from his weapon form.
The dazed meister didn't respond to her weapon's words. She seemed to be entranced, lost in the haunting eyes of the evil creature that stood before her. He chuckled darkly and advanced towards her, sliding a slender, grayish finger under her chin and tilting her head up to meet his gaze.
"You're quite the beauty, might I say. Vulnerable without your true form, as expected, but a pretty little thing nonetheless," the creature snickered.
"CRYS, SNAP OUT OF IT!" Mieko shouted.
"CRYSTALIN!" Ryoko added only a few seconds later.
The creature backed away from the young meister, drawing up to his full height and crossing his arms over his broad chest. He narrowed his crimson eyes at her, studying not just her appearance, but her soul as well. A murderous attack plan was clear in his sinister thoughts, but he had promised his master that he would bring her back alive.
He drew his tongue over his lips as he studied her soul more closely. All he wanted was to take that soul as his own – to be alive again. Living soullessly in the world was a torture set out to only those who did the most evil deeds in their lifetime. Unfortunately for him, he was doomed to live out that miserable fate.
In those few moments he spent staring into her soul, he decided he didn't care what his master had to say. He was going to kill this girl.
Black claws extended from his sickly pale fingertips, elongating and sharpening until they could be used as deadly weapons. He grinned deviously and snapped his head up to stare at the meister before him. She was still paralyzed, her mind still gone. He darted towards her and shot out a clawed hand to rip out her heart and take her soul while he still had the golden opportunity.
The mace in her left hand was engulfed in a garnet light and the monster found his claws ripping into flesh that was not that of his intended victim.
Ryoko's scream ripped through the air in agony. He clutched his stomach where the creature's claws had torn through his skin quite deeply. The monster snarled angrily and tossed him aside like a ragdoll. His body flopped to the ground, but not before his head was slammed into a conveyor belt on the factory machinery, and he was rendered unconscious.
Mieko transformed from his weapon form and stood in front of Crystalin protectively. His blue eyes nervously darted between his unconscious brother that lie on the floor only a few feet away and the monster standing right in front of him.
"L-Look...you're clearly not a kishin egg, and I don't know what you want, but–" he started.
"I want your precious meister's soul. And I will rip you to shreds if you don't get out of my way and let me have what I want," the creature snarled.
Mieko clenched his teeth and stood up straight while leaning a bit towards his opponent, attempting to mimic Crystalin's fighting stance before she attacks. His entire body was quivering with nerves. He was never much of a fighter, and between him and his brother, he was the physically weaker of the two. He would never be able to protect Crystalin on his own, but he could try.
"If you want her, you'll have to get through me first," he said, trying to keep his voice steady. By the annoyed look plastered on his features, Mieko could tell that the monster before him fortunately couldn't sense his evident fear.
"You're a pest, you know that?" muttered the creature, "You know what happens to pests like you? They DIE."
The creature crouched low to the ground in a position that told Mieko he was getting ready to pounce. Just as he leapt forwards, a black and red crescent hooked around his neck and pulled him back forcefully. With chilling effortlessness, the scythe blade sliced cleanly through the monster's throat, beheading him and ending his life without even so much as a gurgle of resistance.
The monster's body whipped up into the air in black ribbons, however no floating orb was left behind to reward the team for their efforts. Maka furrowed her blonde eyebrows and placed her hands on her hips, staring hard at the ground where the monster had just disappeared from. She was immensely confused as to why there wasn't a soul left behind from that kishin egg.
The black and red scythe in her hands was encased in a glowing light as Soul transformed. He hurried over to and crouched down beside Crystalin, who had sunk to the floor with her back pressed against the wall.
"Crystal, are you okay?" he asked softly. He brushed his thumb along her cheek and tilted her head up so she was looking him in the eyes.
"Yeah, I'm fine. What happened?" she replied quietly, scratching her head and bringing herself to her feet.
"Is she conscious yet?" Mieko asked from behind Soul.
"Yeah, she is," Soul answered, glancing over his shoulder. He spotted his own meister standing completely still, staring blankly at the wooden floorboards, and his brow creased in concern. Turning back to Crystalin, he said, "Ryoko got hurt badly from what it seems. Go check on him, he's with Mieko."
At that news, Crystalin's eyes immediately filled with worry. She bolted over to her weapon partners and her breath hitched in her throat when she saw Ryoko's condition. She crumpled to the floor and leaned over him, pressing her ear to his chest to see if she could hear a heartbeat. Thankfully, she could, though it was faint.
"He's bleeding really badly. We have to stop the blood," she panicked, glancing around frantically in search for some kind of cloth to press to his wound, "What happened? How'd he get like this? I don't remember anything."
"I think that monster took over your mind and was planning on killing you, but Ryoko took the blow instead. He saved your life, Crys," Mieko responded softly.
She gnawed on her bottom lip and tears collected in her stormy eyes as she stared down at her unconscious weapon partner. She choked on a sob and leaned down to Ryoko, caging his large upper body with her slender arms as she buried her face in his chest. She clenched her teeth to somewhat suppress the sobs that racked her body.
"I can't believe I let this happen to you. I'm such a fucking idiot, I should've been able to do something," she mumbled into his shirt, "Please, Ryo. Please wake up."
Maka scurried down the cobblestone road, trying to shield her head from the rain with her skinny arms. The eerie gray stitched house that she was searching for soon came into her view. She picked up her pace to a jog, looking forward to getting out of the pouring rain. Once she was under the house's overhang outside the front door, she halted and studied the door before her. It was late, but she would never be able to sleep if she didn't figure out the mystery that was stirring around in her thoughts. She raised her fist and tentatively knocked at the door.
The door was flung open too quickly for Maka's jittery nerves, causing her to flinch and take a step back with wide eyes. Marie Mjolinir stood in the doorway in a black nightgown, her golden-blonde hair frazzled and her left eye closed, where her eye patch would normally sit during the hours of the day.
"Maka? Are you alright? What brings you here so late?" she asked, concern laced into her words.
"Um, yes, I'm fine, Miss Marie. I just got back from an assignment with Crystalin, you know the new girl on my team, and something...weird happened," Maka replied hesitantly. She doubted the ditzy teacher she was talking to would know anything about the topic that was troubling her, but she had to give it a try.
"Come in, sweetie, I'll make some tea if you'd like," Marie said. She took a step back and gestured for Maka to join her inside the creepy home of her professor.
Marie led her into the living room and told her to have a seat while she made some tea. Maka politely declined the offer and said she'd rather just talk about what was bothering her. The pair sat down on opposite sides of the coffee table in between the two sofas.
"It was something about the opponent that we had to fight. He was...weird," Maka explained.
Marie furrowed her brows and cocked her head to the side. "How so?" she questioned, interlacing her fingers together and leaning her chin on her hands.
"He injured Ryoko pretty badly, then I came up to help fight him off. But when I killed him, he left behind no soul," Maka responded.
Marie pursed her lips and stood up suddenly. "I don't know anything about this kinda thing. I'll go get Stein, he's not asleep, I'm sure," she said. She disappeared down the hallway, leaving Maka alone in the living room. It was slightly less disturbing than she expected from her ultra-freak professor, but she figured that was probably due to Miss Marie's influence.
A little more than five minutes later, Marie reappeared in the doorway dragging Stein behind her. Despite her reassurance, he looked like he had just been woken up. He wore stitched gray clothes that, oddly enough, matched his entire house and he lacked his usual white lab coat and glasses. He narrowed his green eyes at Maka, running a hand through his gray hair as he took a seat on the sofa across from her and beside Marie.
"You fought a soulless kishin egg from what Marie's telling me?" he inquired, fighting back the yawn that he felt coming on. Despite his exhaustion, there was a tinge of slight worry in his absinthian eyes.
"Yeah. Crystalin was paralyzed or something. She wasn't fighting the...thing, and Ryoko obviously protected her and got knocked out. Soul and I killed it, but it left behind no soul or anything. How is that even possible?" Maka asked.
Stein sat up straight in his seat and twisted the bolt in his head, cracking his neck as he did so. Maka inwardly shivered at his actions and averted her eyes, but tried her hardest not to show her discomfort.
"That most certainly was not a kishin egg, it was a demon. While kishins are demons, the word doesn't encompass the whole species. There are two other branches of evil that you kids learn nothing of because, normally, they stay off the radar of the Academy – husks and wraiths.
"The more common of the two is the husk. A husk is a human that has died and has been turned into a being of evil due to bad deeds committed in their lives. Their soul is destroyed for the rest of eternity, leaving them in eternal suffering for the rest of their existence. A wraith is one that is born demonic; they have a tainted soul that is very vulnerable to the madness wavelength. They are much more dangerous than husks or even kishins.
"Wraiths are extremely powerful creatures that can be even more fearsome than witches in some cases. They can control the minds of anything they please, trapping one in a paradoxical nightmare world that he or she can't escape from. Husks are much weaker and are easily killable, and therefore, often serve as the minions of wraiths. You kids most likely encountered a husk since you were able to kill it without much trouble.
"Most demons want nothing to do with the DWMA, since we are demon hunters by nature; though, we deal with a different type of demon that you kids know as a kishin. Husks have no chance at ever defeating an Academy student, which baffles me as to why one would pretend to be a kishin to lure our students to it," Stein explained.
"That explains the lack of a soul, but what about Crystalin? Was she paralyzed from just shock, or...?" Maka questioned.
Stein exchanged glances with Marie before settling his gaze back on the curious meister before him. "Husks are strong hosts of madness. Some people are just more vulnerable to the madness than others. You're lucky she didn't go on a rampage and start attacking you," he responded curtly, "Anyway, you should start getting home now. It's late and you have class tomorrow."
Maka stood up from her seat on the sofa and thanked her professor for the information. Marie gently took her by the upper arm and led her out of the house, bidding her goodnight and shutting the door softly behind her.
(Unknown POV)
"DID YOU NOT CAPTURE HER?!"
One of the two black-winged men before me swallowed nervously and averted his garnet eyes from my furious gaze. He twisted his pale fingers together, his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed nervously.
"We, um...C-Christophe, uh–" he stammered.
"Spit it out or I will choke you with your own tongue," I snarled threateningly.
The second man silenced the first man with a warning look. He seemed to be a lot more calm and collected than the first. He held his head high and his gaze was unwavering as it met mine. "Christophe went rogue, Lady Nimah. He–" he started.
"He went rogue?! What do you mean he wentrogue?!" I screeched.
"He went into the fight with the intent to kill Crystalin," he answered calmly.
Rage bubbled up in my chest and I bit down on the inside of my cheek so hard I tasted blood. My long claws dug into my palms as I clenched my fists to keep myself from lashing out at the two useless minions before me. I closed my eyes and gripped the edge of my desk until my knuckles turned white.
If he killed her, I will castrate every single male in the vicinity.
An angry snarl ripped from my vocal cords as I flipped my desk, its contents flying into the men's faces. "I GAVE YOU SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS TO BRING HER BACK ALIVE, DID I NOT?!" I screamed. I took a deep breath and bared my fangs in a fake smile to mask my anger. "She isn't dead, is she?"
"N-no, Master, she's very much alive," replied the more timid of the two minions, "Christophe was killed, though."
"Killed by who? Those damned students at the Academy?" I growled.
"Yes. She was accompanied by another weapon and meister pair, who were clearly more experienced than her. They killed Christophe," the second man said.
"GOD FUCKING DAMN THAT BASTARD AND HIS STUDENTS!" I screamed, kicking an empty picture frame that was at my feet. It flew across the room and hit the wall, shattering into countless shards of glass.
I whipped my head up to meet the gazes of the two men who were now surrounded by clutter from my thrown desk. Fear was evident in both of their eyes at the raging fire ignited in mine and the crazed grin plastered on my lips.
"I will destroy that damned school, and if I can't trust any of you incompetent twits to assist me, I'll do it on my own," I snarled, "Now get out of my sight before I rip out your organs and feed them to the dogs."
