Author's note: For those who are curious Wei's theme song would be Takedown by Blue Stahli, Sesshoumaru's would be Invincible by Two Steps from Hell, and Kagome's would be This is Gonna Hurt by Sixx AM.

Chapter 40 Marching towards Destruction

There were times at which Kagome could almost remember what it was like to be normal. Before creatures out of nightmares were trying to kill or eat her, before a well acted as a gateway to the impossible, before the past and the present became so intermingled that she couldn't tell where she belonged.

At times, she missed those days, which were relatively carefree.

But those days are gone and we have to face the truth of the days that lie before us.

As part of a column of mostly wolf youkai heading roughly east and following Wei's trail of destruction, Kagome rode on Sesshoumaru's back as he used his gravity defying abilities to keep pace with the fast moving column.

A ways to the front, Kouga ran ahead of her, howling at semi-regular intervals and receiving answering howls back, which were clearly being used as some sort of improvised command system.

Just like drums, bells, and whistles have been since God knows when.

Kagome had to admit Kouga's followers were far more orderly than she might have expected. Rather than running in a swarm as she anticipated, they lined up into four militarily precise files, each numbering three hundred, and proceeded under Kouga's direction. Hakkaku and Ginta led the outermost, files which Kagome suspected contained the more veteran wolves judging by the scars. Kouga, placing himself in the middle, headed up the two inner most files of which Kagome found herself in the far right one.

Traveling with her, one running on each of her flanks, were Kouga's subordinates from his newly conquered territories: Isamu from the south and Akihiro from the west. Kagome had accepted the task of filling them in and answering questions since she could immediately sense Sesshoumaru did not relish the prospect of engaging in conversation with them. While she could sense a certain level of surprise and grudging admiration for the assembled wolves through their bond, her boyfriend was not of a verbose nature and tolerating the wolf youkai grated on his nerves.

I'll bet he also would find it impossible to keep condescension out of his voice. Kagome thought ruefully.

The organization Kouga had forced on his expanded pack struck Kagome as being brutally efficient but exactly what she might have expected. After subjugating the western and southern wolf tribes, the wolf prince had demanded their heirs be sent to the north where Ayame and her clan could hold them as hostages to ensure the good behavior.

Wonder if he took that idea from observing human daimyos...

With their children in his possession Kouga had then married some of his tribe into theirs to keep tabs on them and lock them more tightly into an alliance. The former leaders of the southern and western tribes, Isamu and Akihiro, were allowed nominal control over their territory as long as they complied with Kouga's rules, the most important of which was a prohibition against eating humans.

It was something they reluctantly accepted, but which was a lingering cause of resentment among some of the wolves assembled. She noted that a few of them looked at her hungrily and she did not need a spiritual bond with Sesshoumaru to know it was setting him on edge.

"He does this simply because we were born here? That is his sole reason?" Isamu asked breaking into Kagome's thoughts. She nodded reluctantly. If the concept of nationalism struck him as unusual, a bitter blood feud between nations that had not even formed yet must seem downright bizarre.

Isamu's face turned contemplative as he tried to take in the future Kagome had sketched out and all the implications it held.

Looking at him, Kagome decided that Isamu looked like a more refined version of Kouga. His appearance overall was one of greater elegance; his attire consisted of a set of gleaming crimson armor whose plated scales ran the length of his thighs and provided a protective skirt for his waist and groin. The irises of his eyes were a red-orange that, when they caught the rays of the sun at the right angle, flashed like fire. His obsidian hair, styled in a high topknot, fell down to the nape of his neck like ebon silk.

"When Kouga forced me, forced the south, into submission," Isamu continued, "he demanded that we of the south no longer feast on humans. I thought it was an absurd requirement and was aghast at it. Wolves are not meant to be shepherds caring for human sheep. I've grown used to it, but never accepted it."

Kagome was uncertain whether she felt Sesshoumaru growl or heard it.

"That slaughter though...it was what Kouga was trying to make me understand, to make us all understand. We are wolves and predators, but we are not beasts of the field. We kill what we need, we control ourselves and there is no need to kill humans. Wei is the opposite, completely out of control, gorging on violence and fear. A horrific example of all we should strive not to be."

Akihiro grunted his agreement. ""At that human town, we saw what was in his heart; it is only the need for blood and vengeance against us."

In contrast to Isamu, Akihiro looked like a rougher, piratical version of Hakkaku. He was completely bald, missing one eye and wore sturdy black armor trimmed with gold that bore scars of battles past. "What is our crime exactly? We were born here? We speak our language? Piss on that. The future isn't what I dreamed it to be, but I can see that we, all of us, human and youkai alike, will have to stand as one or be like leaves in a fire, burning one by one."

Kagome felt a warm sense of approval roll through Sesshoumaru's mind. Careful now, you might actually grow fond of them.

Akihiro turned his head so that Kagome could see his remaining emerald eye. "You said he could create copies of himself. Hakkaku and Ginta said they saw thousands of the bastard. But armies of him are not flooding the land."

Sesshoumaru broke his long silence to answer the implied question. "Logically, Wei must have an upper limit to the number of bodies he can create or indeed the land would be flooded with him. The tracks he has left behind look like he has created about two thousand of himself. If he can create more, he deliberately isn't doing so."

A thought suddenly struck Sesshoumaru.

"Kagome, do you realize that Wei could not have obtained that seal on his own?" Sesshoumaru asked suddenly. His voice left no doubt where he was going with this question.

Kagome thought for a moment before speaking, "A God or Goddess gave it to him? But why now? That doesn't add up; there isn't a reason to give the seal now as opposed to months or years ago. Could he have stolen it instead?"

"It does seem unlikely that it was freely given. I don't think he could have stolen it, but another God or Goddess might have obtained it for him," Sesshoumaru said.

"For what purpose?" Isamu asked "Could not a God travel through this well that links the eras without such elaborate measures? Why would a God need the services of Wei if they wanted to change the past?"

For a brief moment Kagome had the eerie sense that they were no more than puppets in a shadow play, twisting and dancing insanely in a production spanning centuries and set against the backdrop of history between China and Japan. Their unseen puppeteer, smiling in the shadows behind the screen, forced his unwilling puppets towards an apocalyptic denouement for an incomprehensible reason.

Sesshoumaru picked up on the melancholy turn of Kagome's thoughts, but did his best to project calm in his response. "Whoever is behind Wei obviously resides in our era. Whatever their goals, they aren't confronting us directly which allows us to focus on the immediate threat, Wei."

Kagome might have responded but, as if to punctuate the truth of Sesshoumaru's words, existence shrieked in horror as an impossible hatred impaled it on a spear of tainted spiritual power. Kagome tried to shut it out, tried to block it from overwhelming her but discovered it was already lessening and fading away.

As it receded, it was obvious Japan's spiritual landscape had just been horrifically altered. Although not visible to any eyes, Kagome's vision showed her what could only be described as a pillar of malignant purple light rising from a nearby mountain.

Sesshoumaru, whose perception of the spiritual realm was much more limited, experienced what might be equated with a sudden and loud burst of static over their connection. "Kagome?"

"There," Kagome answered in a pained daze while pointing at a mountain jutting up from the ground directly ahead of them. The light of an unnatural star suddenly punctured the blue, velvet canopy of the night hanging over the mountain. In a perhaps the most disturbingly ominous sight any had ever seen, the hideous light of the false star began to thread its way across the sky like it was a wound slicing open the heavens.

"It's Wei," Kagome said in a hollow voice. "He started the summoning."