Chapter 40: The Sacrificial Trial
Karo and Shisuta were lying together, Still intertwined with each other.
Karo traced his hand up and down her back, staring peacefully into her eyes. He gave her a soft and lingering kiss.
She smiled. "I have always liked your lips... They're very soft."
He winked. "All the better to kiss you with my dear..."
She rolled her eyes and laughed. "You are so strange sometimes!"
He leaned in, brushing his lips against her neck.
He nipped her ear. "But you know you like it..." He whispered.
She grinned. "Maybe a little..."
She slid her hands up his back, and tickled under his wings.
He jumped, and let out a laugh.
"Are we doing this?" He asked playfully.
His hands sliding up her waist. Her head tilted back as he trailed kisses on her skin.
He poked under her ribs.
She let out a laugh, then a snort.
She turned red.
"You made me... Do... That was a cheap move!"
He laughed. "Don't be so embarrassed! I think it's adorable!"
She rolled her eyes, but her face was still red.
"It's not that adorable..."
He kissed her softly, running his hands down her waist.
"Yeah it is..." He said softly.
She sighed happily. "You always have this way of making all of my troubles seem smaller..."
She looked down. "Well, almost all of them."
Karo sighed. "Still worried about the next trial dream?"
She nodded. "That, and Shinjitsu. He will be back, and he wants the children alive, because of those dreams. This is the last one, and I have a bad feeling..."
...
Eiji and Hiro were outside again.
Hiro was weeding, and Eiji was helping her.
Hiro shook her head. "How can you enjoy this? It's so tedious... Won't your parents get mad at you for helping me? You're supposed to be writing sentences."
Eiji sighed. "Yeah, but that's so useless! At least I'm accomplishing something out here..."
She laughed. "If you say so."
They finished up their weeding, and it was still early afternoon.
Hiro smiled. "Well, we have some time to kill"
Eiji smiled. "Okay, I found this neat looking pond. We should check it out! The sky looks really clear from over there..."
She nodded. "Then let's go."
They walked over to where the pond was. It was past multiple rose hedges, and some old pens...
The pond was really beautiful, and it looked like the sun would set right in front of it.
Hiro breathed a sigh of happiness.
"Wow... This is nice."
"It IS a lovely day..." Said a voice.
They spun around, and saw Shinjitsu standing there.
"Didn't you learn anything the last time!?" Eiji yelled, stepping closer to Hiro.
Shinjitsu held up his hands.
"We don't have to fight about this, I come with an offer."
Hiro eyed him suspiciously. "What do you want?"
He grinned. "The dreamstone. The last trial is tonight, and you will obtain it. If you agree to give it to me, you'll find the outcome quite... Civil. You could be kings and queens in the new world, highly respected and named."
"And if we don't?" Eiji asked.
Shinjitsu melted, and appeared behind him, pressing a dagger to Eiji's throat.
"I don't think you want to know."
Eiji spun around, and shot out his threads...
He was gone.
Hiro was frozen in fear.
"Eiji... Shinjitsu's the real deal. He's tough... What do we do?"
He sighed. "Well, we can't let him have it. That's for sure..."
"You may want to rethink that." His voice echoed.
"Oh, and one word of this to anyone? I will kill you. You'll be dead before you can blink."
He was gone. Again.
Hiro let out a heavy breath. "Shit... What do we do Eiji!?"
He looked down. "I don't know, let me think for a while..."
They went back to the Warrior's, because it was getting dark.
Chihiro was standing at the entrance when they got back.
"So Eiji? I take it you can finish five hundred sentences faster than I thought..."
She looked mad.
"Yeah..." He said, looking down nervously.
"So I can... Well I... I finished them, can I not be in trouble?"
"Nope, you're in trouble." She said flatly.
"When you wake up tomorrow, you will be writing 5000 sentences."
Eiji gaped. "That is WAY too much!"
She sighed. "Just do it."
She walked away.
Eiji looked down. "I will."
They felt their minds go dull... Falling into the last trial.
The trial of loss.
...
We awoke in a room with black walls. Everyone was there except Boh and No-Face.
Hiro stood. "Something feels a little more real here..." She said.
"I don't feel like I'm sleeping."
Linn nodded. "Yeah, something's really off."
Eiji looked ahead, and saw a door.
"Should we move forward?" He asked.
Haku nodded. "We might as well."
Junichi sighed. "Alright, but we need to be prepared for the worst. It's called the trial of loss for a reason..."
Shisuta nodded. "I'm ready."
Kuhn stepped closer to Hiro. "Stay by me." He said.
"Is everyone ready?" I asked.
They nodded.
I stood. "Then let's move."
We walked out of the black door, and were met with a hallway.
Max shivered. "Something is very wrong with this place..."
Chihiro nodded. "I have a bad feeling, I mean... It's really bad."
I looked around, and the halls had no enemies. No one was openly trying to kill us, and there were no stealth fighters or traps as far as I could tell.
"Which way then?" I asked.
She pointed forward. "Straight ahead. But I warn you, keep your guard up. No option seems good here.
We walked straight forward.
Eiji tensed as we were about to enter a room.
"Wait!" He exclaimed. "Don't go in-!"
Too late, we had already entered. The room glowed red, and started filling with water. There was a lever. I walked up to it.
I pulled it and a gate opened to a safe path. Once I let go, the gate closed.
My eyes widened. "No..."
"What is it brother!?" Kuhn yelled.
"We need to figure this out fast, or we'll all drown."
I clenched my fists, tears began to fall.
"One of us has to stay." I said.
"What!?" Hiro exclaimed. "NO! That's NOT happening! We'll all make it through this, right Dad!?"
She looked at him. His face was solemn. The water was up to her chest now.
Max ran to the lever. He pulled it, but he didn't have a good handle on it.
Kuhn pushed him aside, and pulled the lever.
"Go! NOW!" He yelled.
"The water won't flood out forever, it will fill the other room if you don't hurry!"
My heart stopped.
"What!? No!" Hiro yelled.
"You can't just... NO! NOO! COME HERE, YOU CAN MAKE IT!"
"Go RIGHT NOW!" He yelled.
Junichi grabbed her and Linn, and we all escaped.
The gate closed. It was over for now.
I stood in silence. I couldn't react right now, because there was nothing I could do. All I could manage was to keep the others safe.
My brother was drowning to death in there.
I bit back my tears.
Hiro fell to her knees. "No... NO! That's my Dad in there! You can't just LET HIM DIE!"
She sobbed. "He's my hero... Please... No, he won't die. He can't... HE CAN'T DIE!"
Linn sobbed, and held Hiro. "I'm sorry! There's no lever on this side!"
She wailed. "DAD! COME ON! No... No, this isn't... DAMMIT!"
She wailed into Linn.
Linn was crying, but continued to hold Hiro.
Eiji was frozen.
We all were.
Eiji sobbed. "What now? Do we just move forward? How many more of us have to die!?"
Haku and Chihiro hugged him.
"I don't know." Said Haku.
"Let's just try not to lose anyone else..."
...
Kuhn had heard Hiro screaming before water filled up the room.
He was still holding his breath. Max had already drowned.
He felt his eyes sting as tears flowed out of them.
I'm sorry Hiro...
I'm sorry Linn...
I promised I would never let you die. I didn't...
I guess that means in a way... I was a good father.
Linn, I hope you have triplets to give you all of the company that I won't be able to...
I'm sure they'll all be girls, because I asked for a boy...
Oh well, I would have loved them the same.
I love you... Stay safe.
...
Boh and No-Face had returned from patrolling the grounds. They walked in, and saw no one was home.
"Where is everyone?" Boh asked.
"They seem to be in the trial of loss." Said a voice.
Boh turned to face Shinjitsu.
"What are you doing here." He said.
Shinjitsu laughed. "You're a larger one. Well you know what they say... The bigger they are-"
Boh kicked him into a tree. "Don't even finish that sentence."
Shinjitsu melted, and slid over to him. "The harder they fall."
He blasted Boh into the same tree, and slid over to him.
Boh readied his axe and hammer. He swung at Shinjitsu as he slithered toward him.
He parted where the axe struck, and came up with a spear.
Boh wouldn't have been able to block that, and No-Face knew it.
He tackled Shinjitsu, and swallowed him.
His spear plunged out of No face. He had eaten Shinjitsu, and had stolen his voice.
"Goodbye... Friend." He said.
Shinjitsu came bursting out of No-Face... And he faded.
All that remained was his white mask. Shinjitsu stepped on it, and it shattered.
Boh smacked Shinjitsu with his hammer. It hit.
Shinjitsu went flying into the stone wall, He stood, and Boh was coming at him with a swing of his axe. He barely dodged it.
Boh swung down with his hammer, and he managed to roll away by the skin on his teeth.
Shinjitsu attempted sprinting away, but Boh jumped in front of him.
"You're going to find out what happens to people who piss me off. Ever imagined that you'd see your intestines decorate a tree!?"
Shinjitsu smirked. "No, and I don't want to."
He disappeared in a puff of smoke. Boh swung at the cloud, but it was too late...
He had escaped.
Boh walked over to No-Face's broken mask. He picked up the pieces, and large tears fell to the ground.
"You did good." He said softly.
"Thank you, No-Face. You had more courage than me old friend... I'll miss you."
...
We entered the next room. There was a lever, but nothing was happening.
Eiji shifted uncomfortably. "Oh no... Not this again."
Hiro shook her her head, she sniffed.
"Not again! No one's dying again!"
I looked around. "Nothing has happened yet... Maybe we can pull the lever, and everyone can get out."
Karo nodded. "Sounds like a plan."
Haruka looked at him. "What if it's a trap? Maybe we shouldn't pull it yet."
Shisuta sighed. "I'm getting the same feeling, but we can't just stay here."
I walked over. "Stay on your guard." I said.
"It may well be a trap."
I pulled the lever...
The ground opened.
Eiji shot out his threads, holding his left hand threads to the ceiling, the right hand ones holding up the others.
"Let go of it!" He exclaimed.
I did, and the floor closed.
I was shaken. "What do we do then!?" I exclaimed.
Karo sighed. "Well, I can fly... Maybe I'll hold the lever."
"No!" Shisuta yelled. "You are NOT going to do that. Your flying is poor at best! No."
Eiji nodded. "If you got stuck out there, not even my threads could save you..."
A thought occurred to him.
"But... They could save me."
"Absolutely NOT!" Haku yelled.
"You're not risking that!" Chihiro exclaimed.
"Well WHAT THEN!?" He yelled.
"If not me, then someone has to DIE! I HAVE THE BEST CHANCE!"
"No." Said Haku. "It's not happening."
Eiji looked at him. "Sorry Dad, it is."
He wrapped his threads around us, and pulled the lever.
He threw us...
We were back in the resort!
Eiji was still holding on to the lever. We all ran to the portal entrance.
Eiji's threads were trying to claw onto the floor. Haku grabbed them.
"Eiji, REACH!" He yelled.
Eiji reached out his hand... But his other on the lever was slipping.
Hiro and Chihiro reached out.
"Eiji!" They yelled.
He was reaching... He almost had them...
The lever threw him off, and the portal closed.