Chapter 6
"It has been such a long time since we have parted Chrono. How many decades has it been?" Aion's voice asked. "Chrono, is that bird really talking?" Rosette asked petrified. "That's no bird. It's Aion. He's also a demon." Chrono revealed bitterly. "You act as if we're strangers but in fact we're brothers. Not to mention we're both still Sinners, aren't we?" Aion asked as he was astounded that Chrono was now acting hostile towards him. "Not anymore! I want nothing to do with you!" Chrono shouted at Aion. "Not even if I promise to return your horns? There's no way that you have forgotten our dream, is it? I would like to proceed to the next step as quickly as possible!" Aion said with a monotone yet creepy tone of voice. "By the way, thank you for awakening him from his slumber young lady! As for that, let me tell you a little secret. The horns are the source of a demon's powers, storing our Astral energy. Didn't Chrono tell you that I broke his horns? Since then, he has been an outcast and became so weak that he has been rendered useless." Aion explained to Rosette as her face froze in surprise as she didn't recall Chrono telling her anything about his horns. "Come with me Chrono and I will give you back your horns! Why don't we just forget about the past and start putting our long awaited dream into motion! I want to bring back the terror of Pandemonium! Chrono, the Sinner who slaughtered 100 of our own kind!" Aion tried to convince Chrono to come back to his side. "No! I have found something here, something that I could never see from the skies. If I ever followed you again, everything that I have accomplished would have been for nothing!" Chrono said as he rejected Aion's offer. "So, what shall I do with your horns?" Aion asked Chrono. "You can keep them." Chrono said seriously. "I thought you were going to say that. No matter, I've already given them to someone else. Someone far more important who will appreciate them more than you do!" Aion said. "Who would that be?" Chrono asked. "It would be a boy who is a key to fulfilling my long awaited victory. I think you both know him, especially your friend, right here!" Aion said while laughing sinisterly as Rosette, all white in the face, looked paralyzed and couldn't move.
A little while before, Joshua was in his room sleeping. "What an unfortunate boy you are." Aion's voice said as Joshua woke up and wondered who was talking to him. "Over here!" Aion called out to Joshua and he then looked out of the window. "Thanks to you, there are so many perfectly healthy people running around. Yet you live in constant fear of your next fit, never knowing when it might come." Aion said as he pretended to sympathize with Joshua. Joshua uncovered himself from the bed and continued to look out the window, as if he was mesmerized. "Do you wish to be stronger and more powerful? Don't you wish that this unbearable pain of yours would go away?!" Aion's voice was tempting Joshua. Aion then appeared in front of him and showed him Chrono's horns. "I have a solution to your problem. These are the horns of a demon who murdered 100 of his own kind. If you want, you can possess all of the powers that they hold! With this power, you will no longer have to endure lifelong pain and suffering! Nor will your older sister and everyone else have to take the burden of caring for you!" Aion kept tempting him. Joshua looked as if he was hypnotized. He couldn't resist the demon's offer and took the horns in his hands which then mysteriously disappeared.
"What have you done to him?" Rosette furiously asked. "You wouldn't dare! He's just a child!" Chrono said angrily at Aion. "Your little friend is so interesting. With such a potent gift, I'm sure he will be a great asset to my legions!" Aion said. "Answer me. What did you do to Joshua?" Rosette shouted as Aion laughed sinisterly. "Why don't you find out for yourself?" Aion mockingly asked. "No, wait!" Rosette shouted. "Come with me Rosette!" Chrono said and at that moment, he transformed into his demonic form, grabbed Rosette and started flying towards the orphanage in full speed. The bald eagle then returned to its master Aion who was looking at the bright light that was coming from Chrono as he was flying. "The two siblings are quite an interesting pair. I wonder what might you be plotting Chrono." Aion said to himself as he wasn't sure what Chrono was thinking of doing. As Chrono was flying high up in the sky, Rosette was feeling very tense due to not being so high up in the sky before. "What you are seeing is my true demonic form. The form that you have seen up until now was created to conserve my Astral energy." Chrono explained. "We have got to hurry. Your brother Joshua is in danger!" Chrono said and continued to fly even faster. Back at the orphanage after Joshua took possession of the horns, he began to feel excruciating pain in his head and the veins around the head got bigger. When the pain in his head had intensified even more and as his veins expanded, he began screaming uncontrollably from the pain. As Joshua continued to scream in pain, the horns started protruding out of his head. The blood was splurging out of his head and sprayed the walls of his room. Once the horns had completely formed on his head, Joshua's pajamas were all covered in blood. He placed his hands on his head but as the pain became more and more unbearable, he continued screaming. Joshua's screaming woke up everyone and the head caretaker of the orphanage, Ms. Jean knocked on the door. "Joshua, is something wrong? Open this door!" Ms. Jean said in a worried yet stern tone of voice. "Yeah Joshua, open this door at once!" Billy demanded. There was no answer while everyone was waiting in the hallways to see what was going on. The screaming suddenly stopped and Joshua opened the door. He walked out while holding his head and saw everyone looking at him. Everyone at the orphanage was terrified at what they were seeing as Joshua was walking out of his room and kneeled down at the floor while starting to scream out of pain again. Joshua then looked at all of the children around him across the hallway. "I have always looked straight at the sky because when I looked down, I couldn't stand all the happiness that I was seeing. I knew deep down that they must have resented having to be kind to me, having to hide their pity towards me. I couldn't stand that look in their eyes. I want to be strong so that no one needs to take the burden of having to take care of me!" Joshua thought to himself as he recalled all of the times he was bed ridden. He thought that no one aside from Rosette genuinely cared about him and were only masking their resentment. "Are you feeling alright Joshua?" Billy asked. Joshua looked up at the boy and could hear his thoughts in his head. "He is so disgusting. Why are there horns on his head? Is this some kind of a disease?" Billy thought to himself as he was terrified of him. Joshua started screaming again and with the horns powers, summoned some kind of powerful wind energy that pushed the boy onto the wall. "You're so mean Billy. I don't have these fits because I enjoy them." Joshua said in a deranged, sinister tone of voice. "What's that in your eyes?" Joshua said in an intimidating tone as he was walking towards the frightened boy. Billy began to run away from Joshua across the halls while yelling out of fright. Joshua began to scream again as he was listening to what Billy was thinking to himself. "What's wrong with him? Is he some kind of monster? He's going to kill me. I've got to run as fast as I can!" Billy thought to himself as he continued running. "Stop it, stop the noise! Stop it now! Get out of my head!" Joshua yelled out and he released some powerful wind energy from his body which turned the frightened boy's body into stone. "The noise, it's gone! Now I see. Ending this torture is simple! All I have to do is make it stop!" Joshua said to himself as everyone panicked and ran outside away from him. At that moment while Father Remington was driving to the orphanage, he stopped his car and noticed some bright light high up in the sky that was moving like a shooting star. The minister was curious as to what that light was as he was sure that he must have seen it somewhere before. Just then, Chrono and Rosette arrived at the front of the orphanage and Chrono put Rosette down onto the ground. "Joshua!" Rosette yelled out as she started running towards the orphanage. "Rosette, wait." Chrono called out to her and suddenly felt weak. "Just that little use of my energy drains me." Chrono said in his head as he was feeling slight pain. As Rosette was running towards the orphanage, she saw everyone running for their dear lives. "Sarah, Nelly." Rosette called out as she saw one little girl and one of the caretakers holding a baby as they were running away from Joshua. "Rosette, where have you been?" Sarah asked. "What in the world is going on here? Where is Joshua?" Rosette asked the caretaker. "Joshua's gone completely crazy!" Sarah said. "What are you talking about, where is he?" Rosette asked. "Don't go!" Chrono called out to Rosette as he warned her. Just then, Joshua again released his powers which wrecked the orphanage building and everyone that was running away was turned into stone. Rosette and Chrono were both shocked to see that the orphanage was now all damaged and everyone frozen in stone. "What happened? Why are you all standing so still? Please Sarah, speak to me. What's happening here?" Rosette asked in desperation as she walked over to the young caretaker who was now frozen in stone like everyone else. Joshua then walked out of the destroyed orphanage and came towards Rosette. "Joshua, is that you?" Rosette asked terrified. "Hi big sister!" Joshua said as he looked at her with a deranged smile on his face. Rosette then saw the horns on her brother's head and the blood on him. "Joshua, what is this? Why is no one moving? What happened to them?" Rosette asked her brother in shock as she couldn't believe that he was the reason behind all of the destruction. He looked at Rosette and said with a creepy tone of voice "It's alright Rosette, I just stopped them! All the noise that was coming from everyone was just unbearable! So I had to stop them! Once I did, I felt much better! To be honest, I've never felt better in my life! I never thought that my body could feel this good! When I stopped everyone, I could feel this amazing power! All the pain is now finally gone! You don't have to worry about becoming a doctor anymore Rosette!" Rosette was horrified when she saw the horns on his head and seeing the people who he just turned into stone. "Stop it, this isn't right. You're not the Joshua I know anymore!" She yelled out of desperation. Joshua briefly regained his sanity and a tear drop came down on his face. "What did I just say?" Joshua asked his sister in a sad tone and saw that tears were also falling down on her face. Rosette came closer to her brother and touched his bloody hands. Once Rosette touched his hands, Joshua's horns however overwhelmed him and he pushed himself away from his sister. "Stop the noise, stop it please. Stop the screaming in my head." Joshua yelled as he felt that voices were overwhelming his head. Rosette walked towards him to try and comfort him but he pushed her away. "You've got to get away from me. Run, before I stop you." Joshua yelled as he warned Rosette. Joshua began screaming again and then released a powerful energy. The energy around him started getting stronger and stronger to the point that it created a twister like funnel which started to destroy more of the already wrecked orphanage. In the last minute, Chrono grabbed Rosette and used some of his powers to try to weaken the funnel but the funnel was so strong that it repelled both Chrono and Rosette. "Chrono, what's happening to everything around us? The people, the trees, everything! It's as if they are all freezing." Rosette stated in a weak tone as Joshua turned everything around him into stone, including the trees. "It's a barrier, they're frozen in time. Unless we find a way to stop him, not even Joshua himself will be spared." Chrono explained. "No, put me down! I've got to save Joshua!" Rosette yelled out of desperation. "You can't do that!" Chrono told her sternly. "Then you've got to stop him. Those are your horns, there's got to be something that you can do!" Rosette yelled. She then noticed some energy coming out of Chrono's body and realized that he was getting weaker. "Unfortunately, my energy reserves are so low that I can't even heal my own wounds. For those of my kind, running out of Astral energy means death." Chrono explained and pulled her to safety as he knew what was going to happen. He did not want her to end up like the other unfortunate people at the orphanage.
Chrono took Rosette back to the forest and they helplessly watched towards the place where the orphanage used to be as the funnel kept on going. "So, what should we do? What can we do?" Rosette cried out as she leaned on Chrono. "I don't know. Without my horns or a human contractor, all of my powers are gone." Chrono explained. "A contractor?" Rosette asked out of curiosity. "If you had a contractor, you can save him, right?" Rosette asked with a spark of hope. "Yes, that's correct." Chrono answered. "Then tell me! Please you've got to tell me!" Rosette desperately begged. Chrono at first hesitated to tell her but seeing that she was dying to know more about the conditions of a contractor, he decided to tell her. "A contract is an invocation that compels a demon to answer the summoning of its demon master. However instead of depending on the power of his horns, the demon can channel energy directly through his contractor." Chrono began to explain. "The human's cost is paid in terms of time to dwell on this world. With every task the life gets shortened. There has to be another way Rosette." Chrono continued explaining while it was obvious that he didn't want Rosette to go through with the contract. "What do you mean there has to be another way? If that's what it takes to getting Joshua back, I'll gladly accept it!" Rosette said with determination. "It would mean an existence of pain and loss. A life unwinding twice as that of everyone you loved." Chrono said in an extremely stern tone of voice as he explained the consequences of the contract. "Is this what you really want Rosette?" Chrono asked in doubt as he knew how hard it would have been for her if she agreed to the contract. Rosette thought about all of the people at the orphanage who were now turned into stone and her brother Joshua who was now mentally damaged from Chrono's horns. "You know how I feel about all of this Chrono. I've sworn to protect Joshua with my life. Even though I didn't know everything what that meant, I won't break that promise!" Rosette said determinedly as she remembered what Joshua said to her about not having to be a doctor. "My brother hated being the object of pain and I can't let anything end this way. That's why I have to face him and to remind him of everything what we said we'll do. Of the promises that we have made, about becoming explorers and seeing things that no one has ever seen! I will do everything that I can to make those dreams come true!" Rosette said emotionally while sobbing. "If the price of doing this means sacrificing my life then I'll do it. However, I know I can't do this alone. I need you Chrono! I need your wisdom and strength. So please help me Chrono, for the dream that me and my brother had shared." Rosette pleaded desperately with Chrono. Chrono looked at Rosette and seeing how determined and heartbroken she was, he kneeled down in front of her. "I understand. I shall make a contract with you Rosette Christopher!" Chrono finally agreed and showed Rosette a unique kind of watch that he has been carrying around his neck. "This is the symbol of that contract. However, when the seal watch turns off, your life will end." Chrono explained as he gave the seal watch to Rosette. From that day on Chrono and Rosette were bound by a contract and they were inseparable. They created a close bond and couldn't imagine a life without each other.
Back at the present, Rosette was looking at the seal watch while she was sitting on what was a wooden fence. "The clock is still ticking off my life span." Rosette said as she realized that her life span was getting shortened. Rosette then got up, looked around at what used to be of the orphanage and walked towards the stone turned statue of a caretaker. "I've often wondered, what would have become of us if Father Remington hadn't showed up in his car that night? If it weren't for him, we would never have been able to get as far as we have. My hours on the clock might have also already run out." Rosette stated as she touched the stone turned caretaker. "Even so, the time that remains is still quite short. I've always wondered if this was really for the best." Chrono said as he doubted that the contract must have been an only option. "Of course this was for the best! Second guessing ourselves won't make any difference and even if it would bring back Joshua and restore everyone, I would still be willing to sacrifice myself if it means to save them!" Rosette said strongly. "You mustn't Rosette! Just because you think the sacrifice might be worth it, please don't throw your life away. Even if it is your fate, I can't bear the thought of you dying!" Azmaria said emotionally as she was deeply moved by their history. "As sad as it may be, what choice do I have? I myself fear the thought of dying, but one day we are all going to die eventually. None of us knows when is that going to happen. Everything depends on how many times Chrono will use his powers and for how long he will be in his demonic form. If it will help me get my brother back then I must do whatever I can to accomplish that. We all have our fate but we don't know what that fate is." Rosette explained as she walked towards Azmaria. "You're right Rosette. You are really brave and selfless. I wish that I can be as brave as you!" Azmaria said softly. "I think it's time for us to go now. It will be a long way back to the Order." Chrono reminded them and after taking one long look at the orphanage, they started their drive back. Meanwhile, a boy that just so happened to be Joshua was sitting on the beach that was located by the house that he was now currently residing in which was in San Francisco. A young female caretaker of his, dressed in maid clothing came out walking to the beach towards him. "Lord Joshua." His young caretaker called out and he turned his head and saw her. "Hello Fiore!" Joshua responded back cheerfully. "Lord Aion had left you a message just now! He said he would call again later." Fiore said. "You could have called me you know." Joshua said as he got himself up from the sand. Suddenly, Fiore abruptly dodged Joshua from an axe attack. The axe came from a group of Pursuers who were targeting the Sinners. The Pursuer, who threw the axe, was a huge, muscular, gray skinned demon with small black wings, blood red eyes and teeth as sharp as knives. The other Pursuers that were present were groups of small winged demons that looked like miniature versions of the huge one. "Where is Sinner Aion? I, the Viscount Borzo was sent here to kill him. I shall smash him with my righteous blow!" The Pursuer said as he introduced himself and demanded to know where Aion was. "You should go Lord Joshua." Fiore instructed Joshua as they looked at the enormous demon. "Let me handle this Fiore!" Joshua said as he placed his arm in front of her. "Lord Joshua!" Fiore said in a surprised tone. "Why don't you go back inside and make me some coffee! I'll deal with everything from here!" Joshua suggested. "Very well, as you wish Lord Joshua!" Fiore said agreeing and walked back inside the house. "Why you little brat!" Borzo said angrily and began to charge towards Joshua while he smirked sinisterly. Once Fiore had finished preparing Joshua's coffee, she went back outside and saw that Joshua had tore off Borzo's body in half and massacred all of the other Pursuers. The beach was soaked with enormous amounts of blood as the demon's dead bodies were lying on the beach. She also saw the horns on Joshua's head which were the reason why he was able to kill off the demons with ease. "This can't be! How can this boy have so much power?" Borzo said weakly as he was dying. "Have you injured yourself Lord Joshua?" Fiore asked Joshua monotonously. "Don't worry about it, it's just a little cut!" Joshua said cheerfully as he showed her the bloody cut on his hand from his battle with the Pursuers Viscount. Fiore then took Joshua's hand and licked the wound while Joshua began drinking his coffee as he looked towards the sunny sky.