Disclaimer: I do not own HunterxHunter, nor do I profit commercially from these writings.
Lucian's Story Part 8
THE SACRIFICE
Red.
The colour of the setting sun. The colour of fire. The colour of Scarlet eyes. The colour of blood.
The explosion that had destroyed the safe house had also covered Meta and his little siblings in their own blood as sharp debris assaulted them. Small little cuts covered every inch of exposed and covered skin. Soot and dusts covered them from head to toe, giving them a bloodied ashen makeover.
Meta stood among the rubbles of what had been their safe house above the ground. He was pretty sure the subterranean part of the safe house was still intact, but there was nothing left of the structure wherein he was standing. The roof was gone. The walls were barely standing.
"What was that?" Sarai whined as she tried to get up from where she was sprawled on the floor, blood streaming down her face from a cut somewhere on her head.
"I only remember the light…" Noah moaned as he pushed a huge chunk of wooden furniture off his slight body. He only suffered minor cuts and scrapes here and there, nothing serious.
Solomonarii and their cloud dragons. Bast hissed where she stood by Meta's side, while shaking fine pieces of debris off her fur.
"Cloud dragons…?" Meta questioned absentmindedly as he glued his eyes to the figure floating a few metres of the ground, holding his sister in her arms.
Cloud dragons control weather, and they are always up in the sky among the clouds. Solomonar witches and wizards have strong influence over them. This particular one apparently has mastery over thunders and lightning.
Meta honestly didn't care. He didn't care whether the Solomonarii were capable of shattering the earth or not. What he cared about was his sister being held hostage by that strange woman who had just destroyed the house.
"Give me back my sister!" He shouted at the women clad in black and purple, her robe and sari billowing in the wind like ominous wings.
Meta almost flinched when the woman who called herself Madame Sforza stared him down with her cold, cold eyes.
"I have no business with you." She said flatly. "Go play with something else."
Meta didn't even have time to respond as a humongous magic pentagram appeared before Madame Sforza and practically spitted out a dragon unto them. It was a red dragon; red the colour of blood, red the colour of fire. It landed on the ground with an earth-shaking roar, and immediately proceeded to unleash its breath of fire unto Meta.
It took all that Meta and his siblings had just to avoid the fire breath and the dragon's whipping tail. Meta didn't know much about dragons, but he wasn't going to doubt Bast when she identified the overgrown lizard hell-bent on either flattening them into pancakes or frying them into crisps as 'combat dragon.' Meta had fought some dragons before, but according to Bast they were minor wild dragons that normally wouldn't pose much threat. This one, though…
You'd be a lucky bastard if you survive this encounter without a missing limb or two, Bast said as she avoided yet another whipping tail.
"Not helping!" Meta shouted as he ducked behind a wall to avoid another stream of fire. "Sarai! Noah! Get Mom and Dad!"
"The door is blocked!" Noah shouted from across the battlefield, somewhere beyond the haze of the smoke that the dragon spewed from its fiery breath.
"Break it!"
"We—" Noah's words were cut off as he suddenly broke into a jarring coughing fit.
Meta! Bast shouted at him in the tone that indicated that she had just noticed something very belatedly. The smoke is toxic!
Meta let out a string of foul curses in five languages, before he tried summoning another daemon to assist his little siblings. Before he could do so, however, the dragon's tail whipped him clean against his side; the barbed tail puncturing his flesh and the sheer strength of the force breaking his ribs and sending him crashing into a pile of stone debris.
META! Bast made to lunge to the boy's direction, but another stream of fire breath blocked her path.
Meta staggered painfully to his feet and stumbled back into the battlefield, a hand trying to somehow appease the pain jarring his side. At least his broken ribs hadn't punctured his lungs. He would only last for twenty pitiful minutes at most if that had happened. The toxic smoke was starting to get into his eyes and lungs. He could barely breathe, too overwhelmed by the combination of pain and toxic fume.
"Brother!" Sarai's muffled voice reached him through the haze that clouded his senses.
Through teary eyes he saw Sarai running towards him, Noah's favourite black scarf wrapped tightly around her nose and mouth to block out the smoke. It was soggy wet; where they had found the water Meta had no idea. He was about to ask his little sister about Noah's whereabout when suddenly the little girl burst into a surprising speed and tackled him to the ground, avoiding the dragon's barbed tail viciously sweeping a few inches above their heads.
"Oow!" Meta yelped when they hit the ground, the impact aggravating the wound on his side.
"Oops. Sorry." Sarai said sheepishly and a tad too cheerfully for someone who was almost shish-kabobed by a rampaging dragon and whose hair was singed from the fire breath.
"Noah...?" Meta managed to ground out when he managed to sit up painfully.
Sarai was about to answer when Noah made himself known.
"HEY, UGLY!"
Meta looked up from where that uncharacteristic yell came from, and almost fainted when he saw Noah lunging toward the head of the dragon with his bisento brandished. Just as the dragon turned to him, Noah swung the oversized bisento with all his might and plunged it deep into the dragon's yellow eye.
The dragon made a deafening roar as it recoiled in pain. In its pain, the dragon trashed around wildly; his tail in particular smashing everything within its whipping distance. As it was, Meta and Sarai were in its destructive radius. Sarai tried hauling Meta out of the way but her brother was almost twice her size. She only succeeded in tumbling themselves around into a heap of tangled limbs on the dusty floor.
Meanwhile, little Noah was dangling precariously for dear life from his bisento that was still stuck in the dragon's eye. Noah was horrifyingly strong for a child his age, but even his strength was pale in comparison to the strength of the bat-shit crazy mad combat dragon as it shook its head around violently in its attempt to dislodge the annoying thing that was piercing his eye. By the third shake of its head, Noah and his bisento were successfully flung off the dragon's head and were free-diving to the concrete floor. The red dragon, vindictive as it was, decided that swallowing the boy whole was a good payback.
It happened simultaneously; the barbed tail descending on the tangled mess that was Sarai and Meta, and the gaping maw closing in on the helplessly airborne Noah.
CRASH!
The tail never hit its target, because its trajectory was deflected sharply to the side by a Nen-powered punch delivered by one livid Kurapika Kuruta. And the dragon never had its snack, because a lethally poisonous Benz Knife was embedded even deeper than Noah's bisento into the dragon's yellow eye by one equally furious Kuroro Lucifer.
The dragon made a violent lurch backward as it recoiled from the intense burning that was practically melting its eye. Kuroro made to grab Noah as Kurapika grabbed Meta and Sarai, evacuating the children to a safer ground further away from the reach of the dragon's tail and the toxic smoke at the very least. The moment they were on safe ground, Kurapika immediately used her Healing Chain to heal the children simultaneously while Kuroro stood facing the rampaging dragon with another Benz Knife in hand.
"Dad…" Meta whimpered pitifully as he limped towards his father. His injuries might be healed, but Healing Chain did not cure poison and fatigue.
"What happened?" Kuroro's voice was curt and sharp.
"That woman came, demanding to take Bia with her. We tried to fight her, but she demolished the house with her thunders and then sicced that dragon on us… And took Bia…" Meta's voice trailed off as his father's Nen started to flare out in his anger. He didn't see his father getting angry often, but when it did happen it was always a terrifying sight to see.
Kuroro's Nen rose like an angry flame as he digested Meta's words. He waited for the smoke to clear up a bit, until the silhouette of Madame Sforza on air was visible. And there she was, floating on air as if she was standing on solid ground, a pale silhouette clad in billowing fabric the same shade as the falling twilight. He then took some long strides toward her, Nen hissing and snapping like angry snake.
"What is the meaning of this?" He hissed as he glared maliciously at Madame Sforza.
To his disgust, the woman was stroking Bia's cheek oh so tenderly with motherly affection. She was cleaning the soot and dust off the girl's pale cheeks and swiping stray hair off her face. She barely acknowledged Kuroro's presence, keeping her attention to the dying girl in her arms.
"You failed. So I decided to take matters into my own hands."
"By trying to kill my children?!" Kuroro snarled.
"Oh they will live, if they indeed inherit your blood." Madame Sforza said dismissively.
"What do you want with Bia?!"
Madame Sforza finally turned to give Kuroro a calculating gaze.
"Drastic time calls for drastic measures." She intoned as she raised a hand. "This girl is partially the reason why Lucian is in such state, amongst other factors. At the same time, she is in this state because of Lucian. It is only fitting that they be sacrifice for each other, no?"
"What—"
Kuroro didn't have time to finish his sentence because Madame Sforza's hand had lit up with her 'magic' and suddenly the fallen dragon rose again. There was a glowing pentagram around the dragon's eye and Kuroro watched with morbid fascination as his Benz knife melted off the dragon's eye and the yellow orb of eye was whole as new without any trace of the knife's debilitating poison. Kuroro also observed that her so-called 'magic' was Nen-based, as he could see the tendrils of Nen connecting her glowing hand and the pentagram around the dragon's eye. He vaguely wondered if all Solomonarii magic was actually Nen-based.
With his eye restored, the dragon gave an ear-splitting roar before its head dove down to bite the floor off. With one powerful movement of its jaw, the dragon crushed the concrete floor into smithereens and thus exposing the maze of subterranean chambers hidden below.
And in one of the chambers was Lucian; tied down to the bed with Heen's paralyzing Nen.
"Little Magician, you know Lucian well. The reason why you have sat idle is because of the promise you made to him, yes?"
Kuroro didn't know how she knew, but at the moment he didn't care. His priority was to retrieve Bia. With a burst of speed that could only be described as demonic, Kuroro catapulted himself towards Madam Sforza; arms extended to grab Bia and legs ready to kick the life out of her.
He didn't expect her to be able to evade him. She just vanished before him, the same way as when he teleported using one of his stolen Nen skill. His kick only made contact with her afterimage.
"And I assume you are aware that the only way to save him without sacrificing hundreds of humans is by giving him a tovarăş."
The voice came from below there, behind him. Kuroro spun around as he descended toward the ground. He quickly spotted Madame Sforza standing on top of the red dragon's head; graceful yet lethal. The dragon hovered near the hole on the floor, near Lucian's chamber. At her sudden presence, Lucian had started thrashing again; eyes wilder, snarls more inhumane, and visage more demonic. It didn't occur to Kuroro that the sudden 'life' in Lucian might be due to the close proximity with Bia who was in Madame Sforza's arms.
From such vantage point, however, Kuroro suddenly saw the big picture. Why Madame Sforza took Bia with her, why she stood there, why she was saying what she was saying. He knew what she was planning to do. By the time Kuroro finally landed on the ground, he couldn't help feeling slightly relieved. He hadn't known how to conduct a tovarăş ritual, but Madame Sforza might know.
So Kuroro assumed a slightly neutral gait and regarded Madame Sforza with cool eyes.
"We intend to give her to him." He told her calmly, hoping that he hadn't misread her intention regarding Bia.
At his words, Madame Sforza cocked an amused eyebrow.
"Do you? Is this an executive decision on your side or is your woman a participant in this decision?" Madame Sforza had asked instead of sneering at him like Kuroro had expected. It took him by surprise, because her tone was genuinely curious.
"I said 'we'. That should tell you plenty." Kuroro scoffed.
"Indeed." She gave a wicked grin that would have scared any lesser man, but behind that grin there was a note of approval.
Kuroro had noticed it, but dismissed it as irrelevant almost immediately. There were other more pressing matters to attend to.
"But tell me, Little Magician." Madame Sforza continued, tone now aggravatingly patronizing. "What exactly do you know about the tovarăş ritual?"
"Very little to none." He admitted bluntly. "But I do know that an exchange of blood is merely the prelude to the tovarăş ritual."
Again, a look approval in her eyes. Was the damn woman testing him?
"Correct. Tovarăş is not just a matter of blood exchange. It is as complicated and meaningful as the Nen bond that you share with your woman."
At those words, Madame Sforza repositioned Bia in her arms so that Bia's neck was slightly exposed. The tendrils of purplish blue veins were painfully visible on her ashen white skin, but what caught Kuroro's eyes were not those.
It was the glowing 'magic' inscription surrounding Bia's neck like a collar.
"You should also know this, Little Magician. Normal tovarăş ritual will not work."
As she spoke, she raised a glowing hand and another 'magic circle' sprung into existence. This time, it was a massive circle surrounding Lucian's bed.
"He will reject her. He will reject everyone." Madame Sforza continued with a graceful twist of her hand.
Suddenly, a kind of translucent wall sprung from the outline of the magic circle that grew to form a dome of barrier. At the same moment when the barrier was complete, the Nen-encased bed that restrained Lucian broke and crumbled, effectively freeing the bloodthirsty vampire.
"If there is anything that he and his demon agree on, it is their refusal to acquire a tovarăş."
Kuroro didn't refute her words. It was true. He had once met Lucian's alter ego when he was in his bloodthirsty vampire state. It was literally his inner demon. It was Lucian in his most basic primal instinct. Lucian in his most honest feeling and sentiment. It had been a rather strange yet enlightening conversation.
"That is why..." Madame Sforza slipped a hand into the fold of her robe to retrieve a dagger. "...I decided to interfere."
One glance at the dagger, and Kurapika felt the blood drained from her. The dagger wasn't exactly remarkable. It did not have any glittering crystals lining it, nor was it inlaid with any precious gems. It was a ceramic dagger, plain and simple at first glance. It was the rune inscription engraved along the blade and the hilt as well as the shape of the blade that filled Kurapika with unease and dread.
It was a sacrificial blade.
"Kuroro..." She whispered to him in horror as she took a step forward to stand by his side. "What is she going to do...?"
It was a stupid question. She knew what the woman was going to do to Bia. She just didn't want to admit—
"Blood for blood, life for life." Madame Sforza cried out as she swiftly raised the gleaming dagger. "For the blood is the life."
The dagger fell with a flash...
"NO!"
...and cut through Bia's throat with ease.
Author's Note: CLIFF-HANGEEEEEER! And early update! Rejoice, my friends! So... who screamed "no!" in the last bit there? XD Madame Sforza is a bit extreme, aye? Who hate Madame Sforza now? =P The last scene is inspired from the scene in the manga X-Clamp by CLAMP when Kotori died.