Speech = ``…..´´
Thoughts = … ...
ºº
...The devil is in the details...
ºº
Iris red hair swirled behind her as she dashed through the capital as fast as her legs could take her…the wind brushing and slapping her roughly on the face as the winds howled loudly above her head, her body and clothes drenched beyond measure by the raging storm.
Silk and hair sticking to her body as drops of water slid down her glistening skin and disappeared under her collarbone. The coolness of their texture barely able to quell down the heat of the quickening beats of her heart pushed by the sweet taste of adrenaline that was coursing through her veins.
Soaked fingers brushing aside the loose strands of hair that threatened to block her sight, lips left as stiff thin lines, hiding the way she was grinding her teeth under the soft texture of her lips.
She would be lucky she did not get sick after she was done here...
Yet none of that mattered to her as she continued on dashing forward.., paying those details little heed as they were pushed at the back of her mind by years of lectures and tests meant to steel her resolve.
Her crimson eyes focused more on the moving shapes of the people running away from danger or either taking notice of the chaos outside and deciding to leave their own homes and join the fleeing tide of bodies in search of a more safe location while the heat coming out from the smouldering ruins from some of the buildings that had fallen down around her slapped her senses with the taste of ashes and cinders.
And blood….
So much blood….
She found herself having to bite down her tongue if only to stop something else to slip by, she was not stranger to it.., she had perhaps seen more blood than someone of her age should have.
But the red stains were all around…
In the walls, the shattered windows and rubble from those structures that had cave in on their own...perhaps there was even under her feet..
The water and poor light on the streets hiding it from view.
And even though she had saw it from afar, even if she was now walking through the devastation she had witnessed and heard, she was still in half disbelief of what she had witnessed so far.
How could the streets she had walked the day before in a routine patrol look so alien to her...?
It felt like she had woken up into a nightmare...
Her subordinates kept receiving reports after reports. Each one of them worse than the one that came before.
Attacks, ambushes and chaos had taken by storm the capital almost simultaneously. She was not religious, yet if she were it all felt as if the gods themselves had decided to host a game which everyone was privy off and threw the dice over her cities fate.
The results given clearly speaking poorly of what the game entailed for them.
She shook her head.
...Enough, I need to focus...!...
She ordered herself, annoyed at how her mind had wondered off about matters such as fanciful theories about the end of the world instead of the matter at hand.
This was not a tale of divine retribution, this could be explain with logic and common sense.
And yet...a part of her struggled with that notion.
For even though it didn't take long for her to reach the conclusion that this was not just a bunch of thugs flexing muscle. It felt...that it was more, much more than she was thinking off.
All because she had saw a building cleave in half so neatly that it had looked like it had always been like that.
It had been cut….
IN HALF!
Not a man.., not a vendors post, but a full, bloody building of at least four stories..
What could have done that!? What sort of magic would have left such clean cuts...!? Who-!
She shook her head again, grimacing this time as she did as her resolve faltered if only for a brief moment.
This was bad..
No, this was worse than she had even previously thought it could be, much to her surprise.
But she would fix it, she knew she would.
She had to…for no one would be able to destroy her kingdom as long as she was still standing.
That thought alleviate her a little more, it still did not answer why the attacks were taking place in the first place though.
In fact, there was nothing logical about the strikes themselves…: Warehouses, restaurants, films.., private homes of nobles...
The attacks were premeditate, there was no other way around...the thought that they were mere the product of spontaneous results due to sickening causality had not even crossed her mind.
After all, that would be insanity….
No, her foes were obviously well trained, well versed and powerful enough to not fear suppression from the local authorities. A genius that knew that this very moment in time their locations were too far away from each other to do anything of use to stop them in their tracks..
Speaking of which, a large number of Knights were already on the ground, trying to lead the people away from the chaos with different grades of success.
Though she would have preferred if they were at least paying more attention to the common folk instead of placing most of their efforts in catering the whining of the nobles around them.
It was then when a series of screams reached her ears. They aren't too far away...
``We are under attack..!´´
``Contacts..! We are engaged with the enemy...!´´
``Prepare yourself knights...!´´
Before she even knew it she had already changed the direction she was going.
Quickly moving through one of the empty alleyways that connected her street with another as she followed the sound to its origin.
When she turned around the corner with a sharp turn she was met with the reason behind the worry in her knights voices.
All over the destroyed street, under the shades coming out by the flames digging their teeth into the structures were her knights being pushed back, if not downright cut down by a myriad of black hooded men.
Blood staining their robes, holding their swords up, moving through the bodies of their own as they pressed their attack.
She clenched her teeth, anger flaring inside her while not very charming intentions started to swell in her ample chest.
So this were the bastards that were attacking her home...!?
Did they really thought they would get away with it...!?
``Your villainy is over..´´
She muttered softly, her words unheard by most as the wind carried them away with a sudden gush of air before she dashed forward. Almost creating a shock-wave in the process..
``Stand back...!´´
She ordered out loud to the knights as she surged through the air.
With one quick and fluid movement, her unsheathed blade glimmered in the darkness that had shrouded the capital as it sliced through her peoples foes with brutal abandon yet timely precision.
Completely bisecting them with one swell swoop, the embers of her slashes lighting up the clothes of those that were a bit further back…
They faltered, their advance halted and now broken as they started fighting individually rather than as a group.
Good, she pressed on..
The numbers they brought to bare nothing against her might, if they were tides waves of the ocean she was the unmoving shores where they broke into nothingness..
``Who the hell is that...!?
``Dammit! No one told me the Princess would be here!´´
``Oh god, how can only one push us like this? We outnumber her for fucks sake!´´
``Hey! You are attacking the wrong side you red haired wh-ARGH..!´´
The last man words would be cut short as her sword cleaved him from his left shoulder to his right hip.
``Silence you wretches, you have been allowed to ran free for far too long. Now CEASE!´´
And with that his upper half fell to the ground with a loud splash. Joining the rest of his fellow kin in deaths embrace.
…
Now that she took notice of it she almost slapped her face, cursing internally at the impulse that had taken hold of her.
They knew nothing of the enemy, who they were, their intentions apart from what appeared obvious and their leaders. She had wanted to capture some if only one of them to clear such things out.
Perhaps she would not have time to interrogate them now, but soon enough, under the safety and comfort of the castles cells they could make them talk.
And yet she did not….
Killing each and every last one of them that had been here.
She was spared any further self scrutiny when the voices of the living called out for her.
``Princess Iris! You saved us…!´´
``That is our Princes! She tore through them like butter…´´
``Yeah, screw those arseholes...´´
She turned around, meeting the enthusiastic and grateful glares of her men. The knights were mostly unharmed, those who had survived at least…
Her red-wine eyes tremble briefly with sorrow as they fall on the ghastly corpses of those who had been alive not even an hour ago.
Their faces stuck in expressions of shock and agony, laying in pools of their own blood, staining the small like river they were standing over with segments of crimson...
She could only feel a pang of frustration flare inside her chest.
If she had moved faster they would still be here..
She should have been better.
``Are you ok...?´´
She asked out loud to those who could hear her, though she knew the answer. It would still grants her a few more seconds as she tries to regain her composure.
One of them, older than her for a few years stepped forward, his armour and clothes drenched in water and blood, though not his own.
He appeared tired, or perhaps the bags under his eyes were nothing but an effect of the lightnings coursing through the air from time to time.
``We are fine, more than we would have been had you not arrive on time´´
She perked at the way the man spoke, rough and a bit sharp around the edges. This was the one in charge she deduced.
The darkness around her and the rain blasting them from back to front was making it hard for her to see their identification badges, but she knew a figure of authority when she saw one
Or in this case, heard them...
``You are the captain of this squadron? Where is the rest of your men?´´
As she did her eyes darted to the sides, looking for more enemies to come from the shadows, none came but that did not dissuade her from doing so.
``The bastards killed twelve of my men, six before we could even realize what was going on, the rest…you saw for yourself´´
She clenched her hand.
Those were not bad news..
They were terrible…
Black knights may have a variety in their quality once they graduate, but most of them were sub-par fighters compared with the baseline warrior or thug.
To lose that many to this filth..? It was inconceivable...
But today were going on a few things that had no explanations, did they not..?
``Almost half of your platoon.., gone.., just like that..?´´
``Just like that..´´
The man parroted bitterly, even more than her...
She took a step forward, forcing him to look back at her..
``How..?´´
The man grimaced even further, lines forming around his face as his eyes looked at the corpses of his fellow men..
``We mistook them for civilians my liege...and this rainstorm is not making it easy to tell friend from foe before they started ramming their blades into our guts., crying blood hell while they did it...´´
``What did they say...?´´
``I don't know..., I was not really paying much attention I am afraid my liege..´´
He then knelt into the ground, his hair covering his face as water trailed down through the drenched strands..
`` I am ready to take responsibility for this mess..´´
She felt once more another pang of emotion to course through her as her scarlet hued eyes bared down and look upon the captains own ones.
Empathy…. and respect.
There was nothing she could do for the fallen, and perhaps she would have taken action in a rather more aggressive manner had the man appeared to be meek of heart like those who were nominated for black knights because of their connections rather than efforts
But not this time…
It took a lot of courage to try to bear one owns mistakes...
She shook her head, putting a hand over his shoulder and forcing to rise a moment later. The captain looked dumbfounded for a moment, or at least she thought he did, her vision was rather poor with all this rainstorm.
``You are not to blame, no one knew how they looked like..´´
She spoke out loud, hoping to make herself hear through the noise that had submerged them, and yet..., though her words had been meant to calm and ease the matters of the mind troubling his heart they appeared to have the opposite effect.
``I know...! Still, I could have-...´´
She did not allow him time to continue as she turned around, not sure whether he would be able to hear her as she prepared herself to move forward., from here she could hear the sound of more fighting down the road.
They were needed…
She could not delay this any longer...
``There is nothing to forgive, they were craven at heart to have abused your goodwill...your a blade of this kingdom, captain. Don't let them dull your edge through your grief..´´
Through a side glance she took notice the way the man nodded at her, bitterness still in his eyes, but he appeared that he was not going to be blaming himself for it.
It was not much..
But it would be a good start, now..she had places to be. People to save and villains to punish.
``I will be vigilant to avoid making the same mistake.., my liege´´
``I know you wont, now follow me..we have more people to save´´
And with that she and those that had made it through the attack dashed through the streets, or at least tried to keep up with her. The still raging fires casting shadows on their paths, hiding in plain sight a pair of crimson dull eyes of things that were perched on the rooftops.
Staring at them…
Slowly, more and more joined the first one as they followed not the living breathing down the street, but rather the scarlet mane of a certain princess.
A guttural growl echoed in the air as they started to descend into the streets...
ºº
He was close, he knew it. The dark presence was everywhere, it was as if it was bleeding all over him or laying underneath his feet.
Unfortunately, such was the smell of the scent that it was no longer easy to locate. All the passages around him contained the same amount.
It also didn't help that he had reached a sort of inner room that served more as a nexus, a square where at least a dozen corridors connected. Each possibly pointing in a direction
At a first glance he appeared to be alone….
He shook his head with one loud exhalations, his psyche wielding arm fell to his side.
There was nothing in the ample room but himself the stream of air currents to wander around and the thick threads of mana festering from above and below...
But he could still hear the weak and soft exhalations of breath around him.
He looked at the pathway that was in front of him…, the pitch black darkness that covered it not allowing but a mere few meters of sight inside it.
``You think the darkness is your ally..? You merely adopted it while I was born in it...´´
His voice was calm, but the authority behind it revealed his annoyance. The mask merely made it sound like an animalistic booming growl.
It took a few seconds before his command was followed. From all around, cultist started to move away from the shadows of the pathways an into the room. They proceeded to close in, slowly approaching and making their way before stopping a few meters away from him.
They were at least a hundred of them…, most looking the same as the rest he had come across. But his attention was focused on the two leading them.
One old, the other young…, black and white, solemn and prideful their bearings could not have been more different
But the one thing they shared was their confidence, their bodies trembled yes, but not out of fear...not completely.…
So they decided to stand in his path instead of running away to save their own skin..?
Brave, but foolish...
``So….you dare approach me? Instead of running away you lot are coming right at me..?´´
``We can not kill you with out doing that…´´
Bristled the younger of the two with contained amusement though his eyes spoke how much he wanted to lunge his sword through him.
A mockery of a smile wrapped around his lips as he extended both arms to the sides, as if he was attempting to embrace them. The chains wrapping themselves even more tightly around his arm as they appeared to take notice of the flesh parading before him.
``Then approach as much as you would like..´´
``Prideful one, aren't you..? But I don't see what the big thing is about you. Lady luck must hate you to put you in the path of us.
``….´´
``You may have had some fun toying with our grunts...but the game is over now. I, Jean the Dark smile and my fellow Black Spider here are gonna stop you for good..´´
Said the young looking man, a playful smirk across his lips as they eyed him with nothing but evil.
A stark contrast with the solemn, almost uncaring glare his elder showed.
``Indeed. Your impertinence and bad timing have made a mess of things.., make no mistake., you will pay with your life for your transgressions against the cult..´´
``Whatever the old man said…, though if I am honest I am a bit disappointed. I was expecting a bit shot to be behind this onslaught, but who are you suppose to be again?´´
``….´´
Really? That was it..?
He almost scoffed at the simplicity of their approach.
They seemed to be far more important than the rest of the common grunts he had been dispatching all morning, and yet they spoke like simple thugs…
Did they really thought they could scare a fool with that?
Pathetic...
``Is this what the cult has to offer me? The pitiful barking of dogs and the whimper of cowards? Is that it...?´´
``Why y-!´´
The young blond man started to say, ready to move forward with the blade he held under his grasp before an arm stopped him. The aged old man taking a step forward a second later.
``There are good deaths and there are bad deaths, if you surrender and tell us everything you know; who you serve, where are your goals then we will grant you a swift death..´´
``Old man.., you cant be serious..´´
``I believe that our master would be very interested in having to hear what he has to say…, there is no way he can fight us, let alone beat us..´´
``….´´
``…..´´
A strange, guttural sound started to fill the room. It was like knifes scratching the air, like blood boiling through a rotten windpipe. The gurgling sound of teeth been chewed and swallow up...
Cold, cruel...and devoid of anything that should have made it human.
They thought they had him..?
They believed he was at their mercy…?
It took him a little to realize that he was laughing.
By all that it was dark….how long had it been?
How long had his body shivered and trembled against his wishes not out of rage, but rather sheer amusement?
Too long…..
``What is so funny, freak..?´´
While everyone was glaring at him with different degrees of discomfort or fear, creped out by the maniacal laughter that had escaped from him... he was busy trying to sober up.
``The weak have no claim over the strong.., nor they can bend the tallest of mountains or snuff out the brightest of stars...so how could you face something that is beyond your primitive and short-sighed imagination´´
The sound of blades being pulled out from their scabbards echoed all around, the way the men started grasping their handles for tightly.
``We have an army...´´
``I am death...´´
The old man smirked even though he attempted not to. The tugs at the edge of his lips betraying him...
``So that is your choice? Brave, but foolish...it clear shows that you are too young to understand the difference between status and power between us, sadly today you will met your end..´´
He ignored him, his eyes darting towards the rest of souls around him…
Studying their fear…
Their scents as their blood started to pump faster in their veins.
``The first that tells me the location of your master will be the one that I will spare from my wrath.´´
He was met with silence from the rest, some of them looked at each other, but nothing more.
``Really..? What makes you think that any of us would ever do something so stupid as that..?´´
``It shows how little you know of the cult, butcher... None of us would ever betray it..´´
He growled with satisfaction, the grasp of clawed talons along the psyche growing tighter. Chains of steel lighting up like candles, fervently as the promise of untold violence was about to come to light.
``Good, I only need one...the rest shall be discarded´´
``Now those are fighting words for a soon to be dead man.., you will be soon begging for mercy..!´´
``Come at me then, children of nothing…´´
ºº
``Please, have mercy…have mercy on m-!´´
The man started to say only to end up howling bloody murder as his left feet blew up in a puff of blood and bone as a piece of steel tore through metal, cloth and flesh like a wet paper before tearing a chunk of the ground below.
The heat of the detonation peeling off the skin around his leg and melding it to whatever piece of cloth remained around, blood gushing now freely from the open wound into the ground like a cheap flask that had been pierced on the side.
His wails were not able to elicit any surge of empathy from him as he towered above him, raising once again the heated barrels over his left arm and pressing them against his botched and battered face.
One that he had taken glee to ruin beyond measure…
The rest of the cultist that had companied the man in question now laid around them silent.
All in different layers of mutilation and decay as even now their bodies continued to rot, cells inside their now dead flesh tearing and bursting within. Peeling of their flesh, but allowing their empty husks to be ready for the energy that they were leeching out from the threads of darkness bleeding out from him.
He was too close to them, his nature was starting to call them back.
A leak having take place during the brief confrontation, and though he tried to quell it now...the damage had been done.
More undead would rise in a moments notice…
He sighed, the exasperation of such wordless sign making its way out through metal filters. Coming out more like a hungering growl than the tiredness that was hanging over his shoulders if only for a second.
Looking around he could not avoid to take on the sight of guts and limbs littering the ground.., almost obscenely in their amount.
Their bodies either shattered against any cool surface in the room or laying in pools of minced meat that could not be identified it belonged to a sentient being any-more, the slick shade of their blood stained him completely..
Replacing most of the blackness he carried with him as-well as tarnishing the pale shade of his bald skull with still trailing bloody tears that dripped from his hood.
He appeared to be as red as the scarlet hue of his eyes...
Ironically the big ones were the ones that had suffered the least. One of them had merely been cut in half, one of its arms used to scoop the head of the other like a massive spoon.
But such had not been by mistake but rather design, they...like many of those who were the lesser of all this hooded fools were more akin to machines made of flesh than humans. Their minds having been lobotomised and chipped, placing a set of orders and commands within what was left.
A crude work if he had seen one, but that mattered little at the end.
They were muscle, nothing else….
And so, even as he was carving through it and the muscles of its neck were torn down one by one in a matter of seconds there had not been no scream of pain or call for aid. They fell to the ground the same way they had attacked him.
In silence…
A fact that the worm under his feet did not share...
The man shrieked, the flesh burning out as he pressed the steel against him reminded him of a piece of ham under a steak.
The sound of the skin and muscle below cooking up and then falling off into the ground only lesser in their magnitude to the raging sound of his vocal cords until they too stopped momentarily as he slammed the back side of the mounted gun to the side of his head.
A large gash tore through his head and scalp. Teeth flew out from his mouth, becoming like bloodied pearls over the ground, but even before he could hit the ground a clawed hand graved him by the throat and pull him back into place.
The old man had died in a flash, the first of them in fact. With him having punched through his chest and put him between him and the swing of his younger counterpart, cleaving him in half before they continued the fight, ignoring the now two discarded pieces of flesh that was of the man as he drew his last breaths.
None of his men caring in the slightest for him as they were more worried about their own lives.
Bloodshot eyes broke out in tears, biting his broken lip yet failing to stop his whimpering as he tried to look away from him.
He did not let him..
His grip over his throat softening.., freeing it for a second only for him to grab the man's jaws and clenched them tightly under his grip, forcing the cultist to hear the sound of his muscles slowly snapping by the pressure..
One at a time…
Yet that appeared to do less harm that the close proximity between him and the cultist.
``W-what do you want? P-power..? Fame? M-money..? I can give it to you-..´´
He gasped in pain when five sharp talons dug into his chest, not too deep...but enough for the first phalanges of the fingers to disappear inside.
``Where... is he…´´
``What are you talking ab-...´´
He dug deeper, now more than half his fingers were inside his chest, scratching the sternum and ribs.., first slowly before he started chipping them away.
``Where... is he...´´
``I-I will tell you everything, please just don't kill m-...´´
He tore through, the finger holes becoming a fist size cavity as he cut through the flesh bone and reached out even more deeper, brushing the lungs and heart with interest..
But his objective was a little more... different..
``Where... is he...´´
``At the academy! H-he is at the academy..´´
The man rasped out between breaths, his voice a shadow of its former glory as he tried to stop the agony coursing through his veins like molten iron
His eyes darting from one place to the other, widened at the untold promise of pain that each and every time he spoke followed
But this time it would not come.
``Yes, yes..he is there...the most valuable possession of the cult... in the Midgar kingdom… is in the Black Knights academy…he is there´´
He leaned closer, the red hue of the flames burning in his eye sockets baring down on the pale, colourless skin of the man.
He would have tried to worm his way out if he could…, but with most of his limbs broken it was a bit hard to do. Let alone with a quarter of a limb digging inside him at the moment...
``How many..´´
He rasped out.
``He…, he is..alone, only a few are allowed…. to know the location and what... lays within the premises and y-you killed most of them anyway..´´
``Name..´´
``Na-F-fenris! His name is Fenris..!´´
He sputtered when much to his horror he felt an arm sinking a little more, sharp talons pushing aside the flesh and muscles before they started to grasp his spine.
``Fenris...?´´
He parroted slowly, the confusion in his voice hidden behind steel and bone...
For some reason...it felt like he had heard it before…, but that could not be right, right?
No, it probably was not. His mind was still fuzzy at time…, clearly trying to delude him though the reason why did manage to escape from his grasp.
He was not paying attention at the different shades of white the man under his grasp was slowly turning into. Because even though he was distracted, the only thing the cultist could see was the bloodstained, merciless and blank stare of a god of death that had not said a word for as long as he was starting at him.
``Y-yes. Fenris, his name... is Fenris..He is a human with white hair and…. pale skin, known as the deadliest killer in Midgar. I pr-omise that is the truth..!´´
Hmm...he sensed no deceit from him, he did believe what he was saying..
``How do I reach him...´´
``You have only to go….. down the left and you will find a-FUCK!´´
He screamed at the verge of madness as a foreign object grasped and tugged his spine hard from its place. The sound of vertebrae creaking under an iron grip, echoing inside the man.
`Dont. Lie...To...Me...´´
``To..to the right, go...fuck..! To the right…, all straight.. up, there are a set of... stairs, that will lead you.. to the academy's secret floors. You are cl-close…!.´´
He barely babbled out through his clenched teeth, before a moment of eerie silence trenched between the two. The beating throbs of his heart quickening more and more, threatening to burst through his chest if nothing put a stop to it.
``You did well...´´
``Y-yes...you say that you w-would spare me, r-right?´´
He did not answer, merely cocking his head to the side. The flames of his eyes disappearing, leaving nothing but darkness behind in those empty sockets of bone as the seconds passed by…, the air becoming frosty.
A hand gripped the man's shoulder…, the man looked at it then at him. A look of confusing dawning out in that broken face..
Like a toddler that had been told something that they could not truly understand.
Then he pulled out just as terror flared in the depths of those eyes. Realizing too late his own folly...
The sound of flesh, bone and muscle being torn up filling the entire room with its sickening song in just a few seconds as his very own spine ruptured through anything that had been between it and its original place as a pair of clawed talons continued to pull it out.
A second later a massive, vertical cut had been carved out from inside out the cultist flesh, his body slumping down, though still twitching here and there as death had yet to dawn on the fried nerves, especially since the man's head still rested over the edge off his spine, the very same one he was holding.
His eyes flared back to life as they looked at the now dimming one of the head he held.
A gush of air seemed to spill out from the breather, the tubes connected to it as he shook his head with the smallest glimmer of amusement he could even muster as he dropped the useless thing into the ground. Its mouth opening once or twice slowly yet no sound would come out from it as his vocal cords had been torn up in the process.
His eyes became misty and duller before he stomped the head a moment before, leaving nothing but a no small crater and trample mush of redden flesh behind.
``I lied...´´