(A/N) This chapter was meant to come out sooner, but then I started to get back into Honkai. I didn't even realize how much I miss Honkai Impact, and Honkai: Star Rail is surprisingly fun. Ah– actually, I won't take anyone's time with this, I got a story to tell.
Reviews and criticism are appreciated!
Chapter 4
Motionless in Red (Pt 1)
The finger bearer roared. Cursed flames spewed from its hands as it reached for its target. This was its domain! This was its world! No human can ever hope to beat it!
It has devoured one of the fingers belonging to the King of Curses!
Sheer power dwelled in it's being now. This area should have been controlled by it. Everything should have been prey to it.
However, that didn't happen, all thanks to the two humans currently fighting it. Sorcerers– No, rather it would be safer to call them Curse Users. A priest and a bandaged young man. It should have been easy pickings for the finger bearer. The curse swiped the finger right from them, and devoured it not a second after. This was supposed to be its moment.
But the priest spoke something into the cross he held in his hand, and suddenly, the world that it controlled started to shrink, or so the curse thought.
In truth, the Innate Domain had been covered by a special type of Curtain. Available to only exorcists of the Catholic Church and its variants.
Not only this, but to mock the curse even more, only one was fighting it! One of the curse users was just standing to the side, yawning to himself. An exorcist with short white hair and piercing red eyes.
"Hm?"
The stray priest looked towards his cross with a perplexed expression. The cross rumbled in his hand for a split second.
Although not as well known, the Church has some of the best items in regards to helping with Barrier techniques. Nothing as great as creating an impenetrable barrier (though it's believed that something like that does exist) but rather, creating a curtain that's nearly invisible to the rest of the world.
The main thing holding the curtain up is the cross that the exorcist–the one casting the barrier– holds.
When the cross rumbles then it means one of two things, either someone left the curtain or someone entered the curtain.
The stray exorcist looked up at the two beings fighting. This barrier was set up with the knowledge that it would only be those three (including the exorcist) in it.
And since all three of them were in one place, that could only mean one thing.
"Oi." The stray exorcist called out.
The one fighting the finger bearer– a young man with unkempt black hair and sharp golden eyes– gave his fellow curse user a side-glance.
The finger bearer roared again, and charged at the young man, but the black-haired young man felt it coming. Blue flames erupted from his arm–underneath a layer of bandages– and engulfed the entire area in front of him. A scream erupted from the curse.
"We got company." The exorcist continued.
The black-haired young man took a second to give the stray exorcist an unamused glare. "Then go deal with it." His voice was hoarse, almost as if merely speaking was a struggle.
"You sure? I can wait, it looks like you're almost done." There was a subtle tone to the exorcist's voice that the young man caught onto.
The young-man swiped his arm again, letting another blast of blue flame burn the finger bearer. With an annoyed grunt he called out to the exorcist. "Isn't it your job to deal with pests interfering?"
"Yeah, but like I said," The exorcist held up his hands with a cocky smile. "I can wait."
The finger bearer roared as it tried to blitz the young man. It appeared right behind him, but before it could attack the young man already countered. From the young man's other hand, his palm aimed behind him. Another blast of blue flame setting the curse ablaze.
"Just go."
"Alright alright, if you're fine with it…" The priest gleefully drawled, he knew that the young man understood what he was insinuating.
And in response, the young man swung his arm towards the exorcist.
"Woah!" The lunatic exorcist jumped out of the way, dodging a large ball of blue flames.
"Don't play with your food this time, if you take too long then I'll kill both of you." The young man growled, before he moved his gaze back to the curse.
"Fine… killjoy." The exorcist huffed.
But as the stray exorcist walked away, a mischievous and vile smile appeared on his face. He was getting bored anyway, and while he could have helped with the finger bearer, two factors stopped him: The one fighting the curse didn't need help, and hunting humans is a lot more fun than fighting curses.
At the end of the day, killing is what made Freed Sellzen truly alive.
The sky darkened. The orange evening faded away, being replaced with a dark purple sky.
"W-woah!"
The sudden change of atmosphere caused Issei to lose balance, falling forward from his bike. He broke his fall using his elbows, which scraped against the concrete. He groaned when he finally recovered, looking at the damage.
It wasn't anything too bad, his elbows were definitely red and a few scrapes could be seen.
His mom had told him to wear his biking gear, but he's been biking for years, he didn't need any protection! Or so he thought.
"Maybe I should have listened to her." He hissed, feeling a slight pain when he touched one of his elbows.
He stood up with a groan. Taking a few seconds to stabilize himself before he wiped off any dust or dirt that got onto his pants and shirt.
It was now that he finally noticed just how wrong things were.
He stared up into the darkened sky, it was late but it shouldn't have been this late.
He looked towards the direction that he intended to originally go, but he noticed a large wall blocking his path.
In fact, there were a lot of walls in places that blocked all of his paths.
"What the hell happened?" He asked despite knowing that he wasn't going to get an answer.
He looked back towards the direction he came from– the bridge. Staring down at the spot that he tripped on. He took a step towards it, hoping that maybe he could leave from the same place he came from.
He stood at that exact spot, but nothing happened.
Perhaps most people would have let curiosity get the better of them. Most people would have decided to explore this darkened area.
Issei thought that he would have been one of those people too; however, certain instincts were screaming at him.
Were these his own instincts? He couldn't tell, but at that current moment that didn't matter. What did matter was that it's dangerous here.
He had to get out of here.
He looked across the bridge, only now noticing another large wall blocking his path right in the middle of the bridge. Then he looked to his left and right, seeing that there were more walls to his sides.
He was completely boxed in.
"Am I trapped?" He panicked. He looked around for something. An opening of some kind, or a crack in the wall that will allow him to climb it.
But there was nothing.
He's trapped. However, instead of completely panicking, another thought entered his mind.
"How does something like this even happen?" He thought to himself, not noticing that he spoke out loud.
Something in the back of his mind whispered– his own thoughts.
Could whatever Rika is, be connected to this somehow?
Rika's existence proves that something unnatural does exist in this world. He wasn't (that) dumb, he knew that much.
Not only that, but he remembered the strange creatures that he would see in the corner of his vision every now and then. They were rare but sometimes he was able to see them from a distance. They only appeared within the corner of his vision whenever they got closer to him, and would disappear every time he blinked.
And now… curiosity finally began to settle in.
He looked back–away from the bridge. He looked down to see an uncovered manhole.
Two choices laid in front of him.
He could attempt to run and escape… or he could find the answers for something that's been in the back of his mind for years– only recently plaguing his mind because of Rika.
He's seen enough horror films to know where the second one would lead him, but…
The walls surrounding him were tall, there was no possible way for him to leave, unless he waited for someone to come for him.
Wait, why was he hesitating? He thought. Remembering that he had a phone. He could call for help!
He pulled his phone out of his pocket, mentally berating himself with a scoff while he turned his phone on. How could he be so foolish—
And there's no service.
"Fuck."
He groaned, he should have expected it. In his annoyance, he walked towards the uncovered manhole and stared into it. A deep abyss stared back.
He placed his foot on the ladder, and with a hesitant gulp he proceeded to climb down.
"Here goes nothing."
"Gah!"
Issei's legs crashed into the ground, feet first. He decided to use the old firefighter trick– which was to glide down the ladder instead of gliding down.
The crash didn't hurt as much as he thought it would. He had been gliding (honestly, it was more like falling) down that ladder for a minute straight.
As he got up and wiped the dirt off his pants, a horrid stench reached his nose.
"Jeez, that's horrible." He used his shirt to shield his nose from the smell and proceeded to walk down the tunnel. The walls were cracked, as if they could fall at any moment.
He continued walking, taking small breaths to avoid the smell. He walked in that tunnel for a minute before he found something. A light entered his vision, and he quickly walked towards it.
The tunnel stopped, showing a large room with a single light on the ceiling, yet that single light was able to illuminate the entire room.
Actually, calling it a room a disservice, the size of it was easily larger than his house. Was something like this always in the sewers?
Actually, speaking of sewers, Issei noticed just how different these sewers looked compared to what he would assume it looked like. The tunnel was only small enough to fit a few people, and there was no liquid substance anywhere. Was this truly a sewer?
Then what was that smell? When he entered he assumed that it was just the sewage water, but there was no sewage to be found.
He shook his head, focusing on what's currently happening.
The large room was weird, but even weirder were the open doorways across the room. Did he really want to do this?
All he had to do was turn around, nothing was stopping him from doing so(or at least, that's what he thought).
"Fuck it."
He entered the first doorway he saw, the furthest one to the left.
He was too far deep into this to just back out now.
A few minutes after Issei entered that manhole, another one opened. This one laid on the sidewalk underneath the bridge, but still in the area that's boxed in.
A young man with white hair and piercing crimson eyes climbed out.
"So this is what that curse did." He spoke to himself while walking up the hill.
"So someone did enter." He stopped. His eyes took note of the fallen bike. He walked towards it, observing it. It was an ordinary bike, nothing special about it, but that meant…
"A bystander got in?" He asked. Looking towards the walls that surrounded the area. "How?"
A wall was blocking the bridge right in the middle, so someone couldn't have just passed through it, right?
Didn't matter anyways, he had a job to do.
If it was truly an innocent bystander that was in the wrong place at the right time, then that's good news for him.
It means that this hunt will be a lot easier.