So then…how are ya guys? I'm fine, thanks for asking even though you didn't. I have several requests from the great beyond by the characters, and I am working on it. Thus, here we go.
December 29 2013
The magical power Witches possess is a vast reserve of almost limitless energy. In the end, powerful energy always leads to one thing...destruction. Destruction is the pull of magic. Witches are dominated by that instinct.
-Soul Eater Book 13
Hazel's POV:
Akuma had stumbled in a few hours after breakfast, and now DK was sitting next to me, arms folded. Akuma was pacing back and forth, cell phone held to his ear. "So…is anyone gonna tell me what's going on?" I asked hopefully, and DK started and looked up. "Huh? Oh yeah, you don't know the standard procedure. Well, we managed to find several possible bases and after Akuma leaves a message for Kid about Kage we're gonna shadow-walk there and kick some ass." he explained smugly, doing a fistpump as Akuma straightened, muttering rapidly into the phone as he walked into the kitchen. "So…who do you think it was that took Kage?" I asked, and he shrugged silently. "I dunno. For the eight Great Old Ones, we have Asura, Lord Death, Kage, myself, Vajra, and Eibon. Madness through Madness, Order, Fear, Rage, and whatever Vajra possessed. I can never remember what the other two were, although I vaguely remember Excalibur might have been one of them." he said as he picked at his nails, and I blinked at him. "What do the Great Old Ones have to do with it?"
He gave me a weary look from under his bangs. "Because only a Great Old One or a creature as powerful as a Great Old One could possibly hold Kage for any length of time, and even then they'd have to struggle for it." he barked, and I swallowed hard. "W-what happens if it's something that can hold her easily?" I stammered, and he paled slightly, doing a subtle movement I recognized as a cross, only backwards, on his chest. "Stake me to a wall, I don't want to know. We better hope there isn't even such thing as something that strong." he whispered, and I swallowed and nodded, even mimicking the movement in my worry as Akuma exited the kitchen, pocketing the phone. "C'mon guys. Let's go." he muttered, and I gritted my teeth, allowing DK pull me into the soft vacuum of darkness with him.
***Time Skip***
"Alright Hazel, here's how we do this. Akuma busts in, and we destroy anything in our path until we find Kage. If she isn't here, we move somewhere else. So on and so forth. If there are other hostages, they can fend for themselves. This is Search, Destroy, and Rescue. No prisoners, no mercy. You do NOT mess with Nightstalker." DK told me softly, shifting slightly beside me on the tree as I watched Akuma slowly walk up to the box-shaped building. "But-" His black-red eyes shifted to me, and I saw the dangerous gleam of bloodlust shining within them. "No buts. Lock and load kid." he said with a grin, and I stifled a squeak as a shadow jabbed me sharply in the pressure point he had discovered, fluidly shifting as I felt myself lengthen and narrow, scooped up with a long-nailed hand as DK fell from the tree, whipping in and out of shadow as he zoomed into the building, the confusion of light and dark making my stomach churn.
DK's POV:
I whooshed into being, seeing several doctors in uniforms fleeing down the hallway, hauling the protesting Hazel to my shoulder and squeezing off four rapid bursts, twisting out of being before they connected and dropping down the side of an elevator shaft, landing on the boxy construction itself and aiming downward, firing again as Hazel squeaked, the metal roof giving out below us. I dropped gently, walking forward quickly and shadow-shifting through the doors, preferring not to let her see the bloody, gorey floor we had left behind, the unlucky person (or persons, since there were no remaining, whole parts to tell) who had been using the elevator having been thoroughly silenced. I grinned at the platoon of soldiers, pulling Hazel up again and firing, her protests mercifully stopped.
DK…why are we killing everyone? She finally asked, her voice timid, and I mentally sighed, even as I bounced and refracted off a wall and blew off a marauding soldier's head with a well-placed shot. Come with the sales territory kid. Nightstalker ideals and morals are infinitely more flexible than a normal person's; survival of the fittest and honor amongst thieves is a primary example. These people wanted to hit us, so we hit them back even harder. Nightstalker lived through several hundred years where every last meister, Kishin, and witch had a bone to pick with us and we were hunted like rats. Our methods now reflect the fact that we don't want that to ever happen again. Got it? I asked, running along the wall and rapid-firing as the wall in front of me was painted red, shadow-flipping through some locked doors as I began shooting some huddled scientists, my expression blank.
Yeah but why does killing everyone- I sighed in exasperation, shaking my head as I paused and flipped her up against my shoulder. Killing everyone shows that even attempting to hurt us, kill us, or capture us is tantamount to suicide. Once you're found, we come and exterminate you like cats on mice. Kage and Akuma ma not truly be part of the clan, and I may just a demon, but we hold by Nightstalker ways. We've survived off of them long enough; it's a tried and true method. I told her mentally, turning as Akuma caught up. "Yo. What's the scoop?" I asked, watching him pant a few moments before answering. "All the other levels have been taken care of. There's only this one and the next and then we're out of here." he wheezed, and I narrowed my eyes, blanketing the area in a fog of Rage as Akuma swore and clutched at his forehead, wincing. "Yatte! DK DO YOU HAVE TO DO THAT?!" he bellowed, and I grinned, making a calming motion with my free hand.
"Calm yourself oh master of your temper. I'm just looking for Kage." I admitted cheerfully, finding nothing on this level, but powerful magic below. Well, let's see what's what. I thought wickedly, withdrawing the Rage wavelength as Akuma rubbed his temples, growling. "Are you okay?" Hazel asked worriedly from the stock of her gun, and I made a dismissive motion as Akuma weakly smiled. "Yeah. He's just more susceptible to my madness-drawing wavelength then most because he was my host, and as such extremely vulnerable to Rage." I reassured her, and he nodded rapidly before summoning shadows to use as swords, watching me aim her for the floor. "Knock knock." I muttered, squeezing the trigger as a huge BOOM of sound filled the air, coughing a little as dust rose. I tossed Hazel back up against my shoulder, grinning at the large hole as Akuma jumped in soundless. "Down, down, to goblin town, down, down, to goblin town…" I muttered dryly, pinching my nose and hopping into the blackness as Hazel squeaked in fear.
I landed neatly, my eyes glowing a little in the pitch blackness as Akuma coughed softly, a light showing as he shook a flashlight he had stored in his pocket. "Demon's Log, deathdate 329. We have been dropped into a strange, alien world full of dark stuff." I swung a flashlight of my own down at my feet, seeing a skull and some femurs. "Inhabitants seem to be of the deceased variety." Hazel was shaking on my shoulder, and I could feel her fear waver through our connection. "The crew is nervous and uneasy. I suspect rebellion…possible mutiny…" Akuma bonked me over the head with a moldy tibia. "Quit monologuing Star Trek and start finding Kage genius." I pouted at him, rubbing my head as I snapped my fingers, dull red lights flaring up all over us. "Happy? I was seriously getting in the mood…" I grumbled, folding my arm and shifting Hazel a little indignantly as Akuma rolled his eyes and curtly beckoned, stalking away.
The red lights followed us, bathing the area in a lurid crimson glare as Hazel rubbed her eyes, flashing into view on the barrel of her weapon. "Can you change the color or something? These lights are like bad neon signs…they make my eyes water." she complained, and I sighed, switching her to my other shoulder. "If you want another color, get yourself a person who isn't a demon. I can do red and I can do black and in a pinch sullen orange, none of which is really better than the others." I said with a scowl, dancing over a swath of spiky flooring as Akuma walked sourly down a wall, avoiding the same. "Sorry." she apologized sheepishly, and I shrugged, casually shadow-walking my way through a wall of flames. "It does grate on the retinas after a while doesn't it?" I mused aloud, stuffing her into shadows and then nimbly backflipping through a maze of spikes, swords, and crushing pillars as Akuma flashed through the obstacles ahead of me, half in shadow and half in the real world.
I withdrew her once we reached a blue-painted door, Akuma readying his shadows once more. "One…two…" I mouthed, and he nodded fiercely. "Three!" I turned and kicked the door open, letting Akuma flip over my head, shadows at the ready, before sliding in after him. The entire room was covered in blue ceramic tiles, a pentagram marked out on the floor beneath a limp body."Yo yo, Kage are ya there?" I asked, tilting Hazel against my shoulder as the figure weakly stirred, her wrists bound together with a strange blue metal and the cuffs hooked onto a pulley system, her feet inches above the floor. "Ngh…guys?" I waved happily, silently gritting my teeth as I saw the bloody pool beneath her, a vicious bite mark on her neck and her pants torn to shreds below the knees, blood staining her otherwise unmarked skin. "You seriously had a number did on you, didn't ya?" She shrugged sheepishly, leaning her neck a little to give me a better view of the bite.
"Nasty little blood-sucking Kishin got me. I think he had a poison on his fangs though, you guys are incredibly blurry and I keep getting dizzy." she admitted, and I winced, looking at the wound and the dark blood crusted around it. Her fuzzy green eyes suddenly sharpened as Akuma approached, and I whipped around, seeing a flash of black before warm pain stung my forehead, staggering away with a snarl of pain as Hazel cried out in fear, my heart hammering. It's okay it's okay I'm not dead it's okay it's okay, calm down and get the heck away- I hissed again, blurring as I jumped backward, feeling another nasty sting of pain under my collarbone, probably intended to take off my head. My blood was covering my face, so I couldn't see a thing, and I blindly dodged again, Hazel's incessant shrieking stopping me from fully shifting to shadow, and I hissed in pain as I felt something stab into my chest.
"DK!"
Kage's POV:
I watched in horror as DK collapsed, Hazel clattering away as Arro smirked, his right side nothing but grainy, flickering blackness that snapped and wavered as he brought his left hand back, slowly licking his fingers clean of DK's blood. "Demonic blood. I haven't tasted that in years." he mused, looking down at what I desperately hoped was only an unconscious DK as Hazel began to glow, obviously trying to shift back to human form. He glanced up to us, smirking as the right side of his face slowly formed out of the dark matter, stepping away as it slowly coalesced into his human form, the blackness vanishing without a trace. "What in the hell are you? I didn't even sense any magic…" Akuma snarled, and Arro smirked wider, bringing his still bloody hand up. "Who am I?" he purred, bringing the hand slowly to his chest and touching it to his heart as he grinned viciously at us.
"I am the Fragment of the Black Mass."
*As previously discussed, Yatte is a naughty demon word.
Ooh, does anyone know what that means? I have plans to include the manga in the sequel, so I hope I can wrangle it. *fingers crossed* For those of you who don't know what I'm hinting at and haven't just cheated by Googling it or whatever, the Black Mass is…something. What that something is, I ain't gonna tell ya. But be reassured, it is something, and it is a Soul Eater something. It shall be made known to you at a future date, but if you've read the manga, you already kinda know what I'm talking about! (Or if you read the wiki page, which I strongly do not advise) That said, please Review, Request, Rcomment, Auf Wedersien!
8.54 PM, USA Central Time