" Elizabeth Godstone" Cheza whispered while crouching down next to one of the many tombstones around her.
Close by, Kurama examined a tombstone that stood out among the rest, for this one had a grotesque looking statue towering over it. The statue gave Cheza the creeps, it appeared to be a gargoyle. The large stone wings, devil like horns and talon like claws were a dead giveaway.
The text engraved in the tombstone was in a strange language, a language Kurama had not heard in so long he could only remember a few words. The fox was able to come up with the words; "stone", "guardian" and "enemies". His remembrance of the language was so jumbled up with another similar language he wasn't even sure he had deciphered the words right.
Cheza began to walk towards him when she tripped, landing flat on her face. She turned, expecting the culprit to be a root. Her eyes widened and she screamed as she noticed a pale green hand sticking out from the earth. It latched onto her ankle, Kurama unleashed his rose whip and turned to assist her when a red clawed hand appeared from the ground and grabbed his ankle. The ground the fox stood on began to split down the middle. Cheza watched Kurama with frightened eyes as fire began to spout from the grave he stood on, it appeared as if this thing was coming straight from the pits of hell!
Turning her attention to the hand wrapped around her ankle she kicked and kicked until it released its grasp on her. She scrambled to her feet as the earth began to split from this tombstone as well. The first creature to emerge was a pale green color, he looked human besides the sickly color of his skin. Was this…a zombie!? Cheza turned, wild eyes meeting with a creature that was clearly not human. The beast looked like the devil himself. A huge pair of horns adorned its head, a pair of wings lay crumpled up against its back, torn and covered in dirt. The beast was a pale red color, its eyes as black as night. Kurama turned his gaze from the creature to Cheza, "rose whip!" Cheza ducked as the whip like vine suddenly lashed out straight for her. A moan filled the night air, Cheza turned to see Kurama's rose whip coiled around the zombie look alike's torso, effectively pinning his arms to his sides. Green liquid began to seep out from the wounds inflicted by the thorns located on nearly every square inch of the vine. Smoke began to engulf Kurama as he began his transformation into the infamous king of thieves.
The pale green creature broke free from his bindings and charged at Cheza while the fox was in the process of transforming, leaving Cheza to fend for herself. Cheza did the only thing she could, she ran. The devil looking creature appeared in front of her mid run causing her to bump into its chest and fall. She turned hoping Kurama was done transforming, but as far as she could tell he was not. Turning her attention back to the beast before her she quickly covered her head and braced for impact as a clawed hand came right for her.
Nothing happened….
Slowly her eyes fluttered open. She expected Kurama had saved her, but that was not the case. The crimson colored beast had stopped on its own and was now looking at something behind her. Hesitantly she turned, her eyes fell upon the statue of the gargoyle that still stood perfectly intact above the grave the creature had come from. The gargoyle's eyes were no longer stone, a red glow was now emitting from them. Stone began to fall off the statue, almost as if the statue was shedding its "skin". Pale grey colored flesh took the place where the stone once had. The now alive statue shook back and forth like a wet dog, removing any stone that still was attached. Its wings spread out and without warning the gargoyle took to the skies. The gargoyle flew in a circle around the two, before heading straight towards them. The red winged devil growled in fury and turned to face the gargoyle, to Cheza's surprise the gargoyle attacked the red beast instead of her. A loud popping noise caused Cheza to jump, she turned just in time to see a binding ring fall to the ground. Kurama had taken out one of the creatures, one more….or maybe to more to go.
Yoko joined Cheza's side soon after gathering up the fourth binding ring.
"It appears these two are enemies, that explains the few words I was able to decipher on its tombstone."
The couple watched onward as the two wings creatures fought. The gargoyle lashed out and with one swift movement the creepy devil looking beast exploded in a poof of red smoke. three binding rings appeared in its place. Youko moved in front of Cheza and got into a fighting stance as the gargoyle's gaze fell upon the two.
Once again the creature took to the skies, but this time it vanished from sight and did not come back. Youko gathered up the three binding rings and added them to the collection. "We have seven of those now right?"
Youko nodded, "Come on we need to find a way out of here kitten."
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
"Kurama…." The fox joined Cheza's side and examined the twin headstones she currently stood in front of. "Our…our names are on these tombstones…". The pale moonlight that exposed enough light for them to read the headstones vanished. The two looked up at the night sky, expecting to see the moon covered by clouds. What the saw was not a moon, but a familiar giant yellow eyeball. "No..thats.."ITS" here!"
An ear piercing shriek filled the air causing Cheza and Youko to fall to their knees. The two covered their ears as best they could, but Cheza's ears were now ringing after "IT" had gone silent. Cheza turned to see blood coming out of Youko's ears, clearly he was in even more pain than her.
Cheza placed a hand on his shoulder, "Kurama! are you o.."
Youko pushed her to the ground as a ball of black energy zoomed right past her head and collided with the pair of tombstones in front of them. Youko yanked her to her feet, she turned catching site of a creature that sent shivers down her spine. "Kitten, get behind me."
Cheza remained where she was, too scared to move or do anything for that matter. Youko moved in front of her after handing her the binding rings.
"It" was the most terrifying creature Cheza had ever seen. Its head was a mere skull with one yellow eyeball hanging out of its left socket. A flap of flesh barely clung to its left cheek, the only flesh left on its head.
Its torso was majority flesh, but a few bony ribs could be seen when it breathed in and out. The horrific looking creatures body had patches of short white hair which appeared to not be solid, but rather ghostly like and translucent. Its torso took on a humanoid quality, but one could tell this thing was clearly not human in any way. "Don't move" Youko commented to Cheza. Another ear piercing shriek flooded the night air, but this one did not come from "IT". A giant purple plant emerged from the ground. The plant lunged at "IT" and swallowed the creature up. No..it cant be that easy, Cheza thought. She was right…the plant split in two, sending purple goo in every direction. Soon, six more plants emerged, each of different species. A flickering blue light caught the corner of Cheza's eye. She turned to see a portal growing in size. Blue swirls taunted her from a distance, this was their way out..it had to be! But she couldn't move or the plants would attack her and she certainly could not leave Kurama here to fight this thing by himself anyways…even though she would not be much help. Glancing down at the binding rings, Cheza's heart began to race. Each plant met the same fate as the first one that had attacked. Youko lashed out with a rose whip she had never seen before. The vine was black and covered in thick 8 inch long thorns that were covered in poison.
"IT" hissed in pain as the decaying flesh that still remained intact on its torso began to melt from the poison on the thorns. Eventually Youko managed to entangle the creature in the whip. He was thrown back unexpectedly as the creature somehow caused the vine to explode.
"It" grinned and turned its attention to Cheza. She moved backwards as the creature moved forward. In a black blur "IT" appeared in front of her. Too scared to move, she was helpless to stop "IT" from reaching out and touching her. She screamed in agony as the creature made contact, her flesh felt as if it was being burned. Youko stumbled to his feet, panting heavily. A surge of anger came over him after hearing Cheza scream in pain, in a matter of seconds he made it to her side sending "IT" flying into a nearby tombstone. The fox had not attempted to use physical attacks out of fear that touching "IT" would cause instant death. Now that he was aware he would not die from making contact he was free to use more moves. Youko examined Cheza, finding her laying unconscious on the ground. He could feel her pulse still much to his relief.
His golden irises flickered in the direction of the portal, it was getting smaller and smaller by the minute. "It" got back to its feet and began to hover towards the fox. "IT" appeared to be immune to all the attacks the fox had used. Kurama was running out of ideas and time, soon the portal would close and who knows what would happen then.
Suddenly the creature shrieked in pain while looking up at the sky. Kurama followed its gaze to find the gargoyle from earlier attacking the giant yellow eyeball still in the sky. That was it…the eyeball!
"DEATHRAY!" The beam of energy shot forward straight towards the eyeball, in a matter of seconds it exploded. "It"screeched even louder than before causing Youko to cringe. He continued the task at hand and gathered up the binding rings that lay scattered on the ground around Cheza. Glancing at the portal, Youko knew time was of the essence. He had to move quick if he wanted to get out of here.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
"Whats taking them so long!" Kuwabara yelled while clinching his fist and glancing at the swirly blue portal in front of them. "Oh, Cheza please be okay" Yukina whispered with pleading eyes. Kuronue said nothing, his purple gaze remaining on the portal. A loud boom filled the air and soon the ground began to shake violently."Whats going on! An earthquake!" Kuwabara commented while pulling Yukina in front of him to protect her. After a few minutes the ground became still, once more and the gang turned to look at the portal, but it was no longer there. Kuwabara dropped his head, "No..they…they didn't make it…"
A soft "clink" hit the wooden floorboards the three were standing on, Kuwabara looked up to see a tear gem roll and disappear through a crack in one of the boards.
" Yukina…" Kuwabara whispered. Kuronue clinched his fist in anger and attempted to punch the wooden wall in front of him, but someone caught his fist. "Mr. Hiei!" Yukina exclaimed with teary eyes. " Follow me" The three exchanged glances before falling Hiei into Genkai's temple.
Silently they followed behind Hiei until they came upon Cheza and Kurama's room. Sprawled out on the bed lay an unconscious Cheza, Trouble sleeping peacefully on her chest. Beside her, Kurama who lay passed out from exhaustion. "How...I didn't see..when did they.." Kuwabara stuttered.
A contagious smile spread across Yukina's face, "They're okay!" she exclaimed. A faint smile fell upon Hiei's features, seeing that his one and only sister was no longer sad. Kuronue and Kuwabara were grinning ear to ear, "They did it!"