Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Centurnum
Chapter 5
A Welcome Earned
Amidst the snaking valleys that twisted and turned through the mountains' drawn darkness, glowing in that recess of light, burning so bright, was a fire blazing against the night.
It was not modest. Much of its warmth and encapsulating light washed past the proud forests and glistening fields with little effort, flooding the area with heat most pure, heat that jumped from branch to branch, tree to tree. Heat that would consume.
It was not difficult to find the source of the inferno: just further within the caught woods were towering pillars of smoke billowing into the murky sky like waves, originating from the fire's center. What was difficult was discerning what was ablaze. It was not trees that had first caught, not lonesome vulpix or growlithe that had mistakenly created a spark. It could not have been something as innocent as that.
The fire was far from a mistake.
It was difficult to discern what was ablaze. The smoldering, wavering black silhouettes of beams and pillars, flickering images of places now reduced to memory, burned brightly into the night.
The fire spanned the length of a village that once had been.
As the embers raged, churning ash and apathy into the air, a large figure loomed in the air above. It was ovular, bigger than any building any soul below could have dreamt of, and was a marvel of technology that should not have been. Banners brandishing grapes and oranges against lavender and golden hues waved proudly against the hull of the beast. Pronounced out from its caudal basin were numerous dark protrusions; large cylinders hollowed out from their middle.
This had just been one of three sitting above.
Something had been lucky down below, if it could be called luck. Something must have stirred, or a flickering shadow had betrayed its owner, or perhaps it had been nothing at all. That changed nothing in the eyes of the iron judge, the jury it housed, and the sentence. From one airship a bright flare shot out, searing past the open air of the night and landing next to the observed curiosity, shining a glare past the vitriol flames. The cannons aboard every vessel all slowly pivoted, turning towards their mark. In sync, their barrels began humming, glowing a lulling shade of red from deep within, building to a peak and a howl.
This had been one step of many towards a greater future.
—-
Her brief time here had done little to staunch her unease and unsettlement with this new land around her. Hachi's head still pounded in spite of the trauma inflicted on it having occurred days ago; time did little to soothe the throbbing pain in her temple.
She had been curled in a small hollow cratered underneath a strange man-made path, consisting of two large steel beams interwoven with wooden planks, providing just enough cover from the pestering drizzle overhead and a small respite from the fog. Here she let her eyes rest; she had not found good sleep in a while, and this evening would not change that. Her mind was in a whirlwind of… thoughts. The village she had known for only two years of her storied life had been, and it left a taste most bitter- like foul, sickly, rotting meat- in her mouth. It was a strange sensation: she did not consider herself as someone who would grow particularly attached to anything. Life was full of taking, full of simply living day to day, surviving. That had been her experience. The only constant comfort that was known to her had been the fleeting sunrises, the dimming sunsets, the pride of a good hunt and the beautiful world she had known pulsing with life around her. That was when the only world she had known had been a snow-capped mountain-top, with a small hole in a hill to call home.
Her brows had been furrowing painfully for a while now; a consequence of the look sitting on her face for too long. That village- Ecruteak- made her feel something more, something more fulfilling than food and sleep, something with driven purpose. Her own purpose had been as a fraud, that much was very clear having served under the apathetic 'Sacred Fire' for long enough, but purpose nonetheless. She was a part of a community that had strived for something greater, a community of warmth and familiar faces that counted on her, that she grew to feel happy to see in turn. And it was all thrown away for a little more, while she could only watch.
She opened her eyes, if just a little. Casting her gaze upward, she found a familiar, comforting sight beyond the dripping wood and lines of iron: the stars above. In spite of the lurching overcast above, they still remained pure, pristine, and undefiled. It did not matter if she was looking at them from the top of a frostbitten mountain, or one the steepled steps of a settlement, or in a muddy hole lost in foreboding, foreign woods. No matter what field she would be dragged to, how deep the lavish gloom swallowed her, nor how quickly time would vanish, she would always count on the mystical, glistening dance of lights to soothe her soul. The stars did not care for the world below. They did not mourn for loss, did not cease their spectacle for one of many tragedies beneath them; they made no response for any action, good nor bad, needed nor wanted. They did nothing but sit in their own sphere of existence, far detached from the world, drifting amongst black. And in that, they were beautiful.
She closed her eyes once again, focusing her attention back within. She had thought herself just as the lights above: detached and innocent of the world and its troubles. But within the throat of man's plights- their struggles and perseverance alongside the woods and beings they competed against, she found something she had not felt before seeing each small victory add to a growing mountain of success. That all lay in ruin now.
As she dueled with these new thoughts, reflecting on her experiences and her own weakness, that throbbing sensation in her head intensified. It had grown to a rumble, quickly magnifying in scale and sound. A deep, whistling bellow, loud, abrupt, almost as melodic as it was mechanical.
Her eyes flinging open, Hachi had realized a second too late that the growing 'sound' was something not caused by her head pains. The metal rails above her were at first rumbling, then not a moment later had begun violently rattling as a massive, dark object cast a shadow through the gaps in the boards overhead, speeding over her found shelter with a grating roar.
Quickly scampering out her hole, she spun around and saw large metallic carts flying past her on the rails, sheening in the rain, and continuing to speed down the path. Just as quickly as the howling, mechanical monstrosity had arrived, it departed, growing smaller in the distance and vanishing into the fog. A single fiery glow being the last thing seen illuminating from the beast's back.
She felt her heart pounding in her chest. She had been in Paldea for only a day, and already these strange sights and sounds had frightened her deeply; so far removed they were from the tranquil grooves and sweeping winds she had known.
As she stared where the carts had left, a sound she had known far better and far worse pricked her ears: the arrival of large, beating wings.
Descending from the fog-cloaked treeline behind her was Ho-Oh. They were finally back from the small departure they had taken, and now wore a grin on their crooked beak. 'Was that enough of a wake-up call?' they telepathically mocked.
Hachi made no response, holding their black stare forward. As the beats drew closer, a talon had tightly wrapped itself around her body once more- not crushing in grip as before, but remaining staunchly tight. Ho-Oh flapped harder and harder, dispersing the fog around them and kicking up shriveled leaves as they rose into the air, passing twisted branch after branch. In no time, they were airborne.
The dense fog all around them had made it difficult to discern the landscape around her. Like a sea of gray the haze wafted in waves below, concealing much of the crooked forest below save for the tops of splintering, rotting trees. As they flew overhead, Hachi could hear near-mute whisperings, so quiet and hushed that made it impossible to tell what was being said. Within the smeared darkness below, obscured by weathered limbs and fog, shadows had been creeping. Further still, cresting the distant horizon, loomed whirring monstrous spheres- more distortions of time and space that filled the landscape like clutter. Even in her short time here, she had seen more of these monstrous orbs than she had ever before.
'I have done a fair bit of investigation into this land, as per my obligations in my inevitability in being worshiped here,' Ho-Oh began explaining. 'The Paldean Empire is a place far removed from that old village we left behind, both in scope and scale. They don't seem content in just living alongside the land, but conquering it, shaping it into their own vision. I find that quite commendable. Don't you?'
Hachi remained silent.
'As you no doubt have seen, they possess technology far beyond what others could dream of, technology they should not have. Their influx in growth has stemmed from strange crystals, shards of elemental energy given physical form. The rigorous study of these mystical fragments has permitted them new technologies, new ideas far beyond what should be. All this, to 'seize the turn of a new era,' so they say. I foresee a long and glorious future ahead; one that my faith no doubt stands to benefit in joining with. Of course, they are not as detached from the world as one might think.' Stilling their wings, Ho-Oh glided over the dark forest, bringing the two of them closer to the wretched limbs below. 'They still hold onto dated beliefs. Take this forest, for example: they believe it to be a place of specters and spirits, a curious place where poor souls who perish within are to be reborn as gnarled tree spirits- phantumps and the like, I believe them to be called. They aren't too far off from the truth, wouldn't you agree, my champion?'
She made no response.
'Foolishly, they seem to have invited misfortune onto their shores through the harboring of foreign, disastrous, dangerous evil, all in the vain hope that it would expedite this growth. Even worse, I sense a cataclysmic force beyond reckoning being harbored in this nation as well, like a foul abhorrent stench that taints the air. I have not seen this beast for myself, but I feel in my very marrow: there is no doubt that whatever this secretive being is, it is the source of these tumors that stain my land- of those distortions I know you so lovingly dove into. I know not of where these foul beings originated, of where they found these relics of evil and such a powerful creature that warps time and space. Nor do I know why these misguided Paldeans appear so intent on housing them. That matters not now, for they will learn in time. And besides…' Ho-Oh's stream of unwanted telepathic tripe slowed to a stop, as did their flight. They had finally approached the destination Ho-Oh had laid out to her before: a canyon.
Its gaping entrance seemed to welcome them, dressed finely in generations of plush moss, robust trees, and hanging vines that hug closely to its walls. Within the crooked entrance, guided by the long corridor of weathered, blemished stone, howled the endless persistence of wind and arriving thunder, finally free of the storied maze it had entered. A growing puddle had accumulated on its floor as well, building slowly as rainwater drizzled down and slid down the steep walls. Though the canyon was great in size- far larger than herself- Ho-Oh's wingspan no doubt would only just barely fit within its winding passage.
Hachi was released of the Sacred Fire's grip, dropped down some feet to the waiting grass below. 'It seems their vigilance waned, or perhaps a foolish man had appointed another like him to oversee transportations. It matters not the cause. What matters is that within the bowels of this canyon lies one of these relics of evil I so regrettably sense, and I see no man nearby to harbor it. Do you?'
Her chest relieved of the holding pressure that had caged her a moment ago, Hachi took in a great lungful of the history and environment around her, letting her senses speak to her. The trees breathed so freely, so crisp… but something had intruded on their peace. Something smoldering, something born of venomous hatred, something smelling of death had been here recently. But that had not been the only foul odor to curl her nose. An acrid, sharp stench burned her nose, and smelled familiar; its sensation had brought her mind back to flashing memories of fireworks and the black-powder they used.
Black-powder- and lots of it- had been here.
It was here.
She focused harder, narrowing her eyes to the dim landscape in front of her. Though it was dark under the veil of night, though fog worked to cloud her vision, though rain seemed to batter her, her honed senses did not falter. Something was wrong, amiss. Just barely visible past the drape of weather had been thin, copper lines concealed within the nooks of the walls above, darting in and out from bunches of leaves as they traveled further into the canyon. Rocks did not seem where they should be, far too distant from a matching layer of cracked stone close by. Something had clumsily climbed these walls before them. Even more telling were the marks in the mud ahead: they were more long than wide, almost shaped like an ovular, smooth river stone.
These were the same tracks she had followed the day she had died.
They had been difficult to spot, having been nearly overflowing with water and coming to resemble one of many unobserved puddles strewn about.
Hachi reflected on these findings; these were not signs of an unblemished tranquility. Something had been here. Something was here. She looked back to Ho-Oh, their own gaze locked onto her, waiting for her response.
She said nothing.
An audible scoff burst from Ho-Oh. 'Of course something as simple as you would not find much detail here.' They took great steps forward through the thickening mud, leaving behind massive, grimy indents in the slew. 'Come, we have not much time before they realize their mistake.'
Begrudgingly following behind the phoenix, Hachi was led further inside the vibrant canyon. The gathering storm above heralded its approach with growing rain, creating small streams of water running off howling walls with each boom of far-off thunder. As they progressed deeper and deeper in, further into the maw of shrouded stone, those sensations Hachi had felt only grew. Black-powder, men, dread; the thinnish, faintly shimmering lines of copper seemed to snake at the top of the walls beside them, weaving in and out of the cover of foliage. It had surrounded them, entrapping them in thick rock and sediment. She knew this feeling all too well, one born not of her present surroundings, but of mistakes made before. They had entered a lair not of their own.
Ho-Oh's neck swiveled around, spying Hachi's slinking form as she lingered behind. A curious look crossed their face, raising a brow at her. 'Why the hesitance? Do you sense it as well?'
Hachi looked behind her, spotting nothing but the looming fog and murky darkness behind them. 'We have found something terrible,' she uttered.
That had put a proud sneer across Ho-Oh's glistening beak. 'Yes, you feel it as well. We draw ever so close now, so close to this lost relic of blackness. Only a little more, and we will have found the cursed thing.'
That had been no lie. The sense of dread that plagued her seemed to grow stronger, fiercer, burrowing into her bones and making her golden fur stand on end. Just ahead had been a fiery glow, humming softly past corners of rock and debris, lying just out of sight. Steam- not fog- seemed to be flowing outward with the passing wind as they drew closer, layering the ground in thick, wafting mist. Continuing undeterred, they stepped over jagged rocks and found the scene Ho-Oh had been searching for: a wrecked cart lay in pieces on the canyon floor, splintering boards and loose cargo scattered about haphazardly amidst the mud, casting long shadows on tall walls. In the middle of it all were sturdy, thick stakes surrounded by an intense azure aura, all stuck into the ground like a cage around an object she could not quite make out from the distance. Looking up, she saw the abysmal remains of a bridge nearly beyond recognition. Many of its once upholding planks and taut rope now lay in ruin among the pile of debris, either in countless pieces or burned black as night.
Ho-Oh pushed closer, as did Hachi, continuing through the thickening rain and steam. As they got closer, with each unwavering step, the grin on Ho-Oh's face curled upwards ever more. 'Here it is,' they hummed, looking down on the glowing cage. 'The beads of ruin.' Just as they had claimed, there were beads lying in the midst of the sapphire stakes.
They were larger than any beads Hachi had known, a faint silver hue just visible from their curved forms in the blue light as they lay motionless in the wet mud. More strange were the beads lying in the middle of the curved accessories, shaped like round eyes that seemed to follow them as they stepped closer. The beads rumbled as if to move, slowly, shakingly rising upward from the ground, a small flicker of fire trying to flare to life from beneath the eyes. As they rose and came closer to the top of the stakes that housed the mysterious core of the azure glow, that fire had smoldered and the beads fell into the growing puddle beneath it with a splash. Though still like an object should be once more, the eyes nevertheless traced their every move.
Ho-Oh made no hesitation and swept a talon over some of the stakes, knocking them flat and crushed the ends of the beads beneath themselves, planting them firmly into the sodden earth as they loomed over them with a content, dark smile.
"O' heavenly Sacred Fire."
Those words had come not from Ho-Oh, and could not have come from Hachi. Instead, the wispy, ghastly tones of the had arrived from the muddy ground- from speaking beads.
"Why have you come to a land whose furnace burns red, whose fire has proven itself insatiable? For conflict? For crusade? I can feel that blaze within you; you desire the same." Despite its bindings, as the beads spoke, steam rose more and more from the puddle it lay in as the metal began glowing hotter and hotter. "Release me. Snap these stakes that bind me like twigs beneath your powerful grip. O' harbinger of rebirth, you are wrapped in death like mold to a carcass."
'Sensed it, have you?' Ho-Oh spoke, brooding above.
"O' heavenly Sacred Fire, how could I not? The red-hot will of a nation torched? The people scream for retribution, their spirits clamor over one another to curse you beyond death, buzzing to you like flies."
Ho-Oh scoffed, a glint of remembrance crossing their eyes. 'I suppose I have been busy.' They pressed down harder into the beads, sinking them further into the mud. 'Tell me, ruinous object: what of them now?'
The eyes of the beads flared with a burst of fire, instantly evaporating the puddle around it into a puff of steam and scorching the ground beneath it. The ground in lay in was no longer soggy mud, but black, stiff, cracked earth that was burning to the touch. "The people scream for retribution. They have raised arms, flags, ships. As we speak now, I can feel the wrath coming, the sweet, tantalizing, addicting hatred of war tears through the sea now and is so ever close, so very close to me." The eyes were glowing red once more, shaking now with sadistic excitement. "O' heavenly Sacred Fire. Free me. Let forests smolder, homes crumble to soot, and flesh evaporate. For this is the will of time- this is the path of the circle."
Ho-Oh lowered their head, glacially coming closer and closer to the red-hot beads beneath them. 'Very well.' Opening their curved beak, a volatile, brilliant blue flare built within their maw, letting lashings of flame burst out as the heat reached its full, consuming strength. 'Here is the freedom you so desperately pine for.' Rearing the length of their neck back, Ho-Oh threw the full force of their fire down onto the beads beneath them. An immolating, catastrophic torrent of sapphire flame roared from their mouth, torching the earth with all-consuming judgment, spreading out and far to the remains of the cart and foliage beyond instantly, baptizing the world around them in fire of unmatched purity.
Even Hachi- despite her innate immunity to fire as a ninetales- felt the heat borrow into her body even as she stood a fair distance away, and she could not see a thing in such brightness.
Soon, quiet had returned, and the darkness of night made itself known once more. Blinking the blurred afterimages from her eyes, Hachi's head locked itself in place as she observed the canyon around her. They had been standing in mud and a measly growing stream of runoff water, dangling vines and tan walls flanking their sides with the remains of the wreck lying in front of them.
Had been.
Now, there was no such stream, no sticking mud; only withered earth black as ash sit beneath their feet. There were no vines, no cart laying in disrepair, only the smolderings of black, unrecognizable things that crumbled to the ground whilst still ablaze.
Ho-Oh stepped away, returning to Hachi bearing a triumphant grin. There were no beads where they last stood, only scrags of parted metallic slags glowing hot, and melting away into the crags in the ground like slush. 'In all of my experience, my champion, there is no such things as living and dead,' Ho-Oh sung. 'There are only those who will, and those who won't be bothersome again.' Hachi did not move as Ho-Oh's towering form stepped past them, her eyes still lingering on what had once been beads. Her hesitance was not unnoticed, as Ho-Oh's head swiveled towards her after she had not budged. 'Well, what are you waiting for? Yes, yes, my work is flawless, but we haven't all day. That is one foul relic left to history, and three yet to be committed to only memory.'
Hachi still made no effort to move, still facing away from Ho-Oh. 'What is coming?'
Ho-Oh craned their head to the side, a small, inquisitive grunt escaping them. 'What is coming? Oh, of course, that tripe they croaked out. Yes, yes, I see now. Have my words escaped that open trap of a mind of yours already? I've told you I've been rather busy as of late and have been making preparations in becoming this land's rightful deity. You see, the Paldean Empire- as expansive and grand as it is- does not seem to be on friendly-terms with many other foreign shores. They wish harm upon the great empire, but are too meek- afraid to take the first stab, afraid to be noticed, hoping to be as a tree lost in the forest,' they explained. A devilish tightened on their beak as they continued. 'They need a little inspiration, a little push, some fire kindled within them to take action, to cross the sea and assail this land's coasts. Then, when the people of Paldea are fearful of foreign invaders, fearful of singing in their plazas, that is where my divine intervention will save them. I will cleanse their streets and be revered as their god, and my faith be reborn into such a beautiful, vast civilization!'
That had finally gotten her to raise her head and send a condemning glare straight towards Ho-Oh. Truthfully, she had not known what much of that drivel had really meant. She did not know what foreign shores, or why they would come; she did not know why they choose Paldea instead of their own homes. What she knew- all she needed to know- was that here, standing in cold rain, in the middle of a desolate canyon of a far-off land she could have never known existed, coming from white mountains that had been the all the world she needed to know, was that here in front of her stood a paragon of gluttony; a racketeer of suffering.
It did not matter if this life of hers had been thrusted onto her by this god, that she was foisted a purpose beyond rising and falling with the sun. She knew better now. She would take this blessing, this second chance at a life lost, and throw it back at their feet.
So long as Ho-Oh was left to be, Ecruteak would happen again and again.
'It was astonishingly easy to invoke their ire,' Ho-Oh mused, oblivious to Hachi's locked gaze. 'Would you believe me if I said that all it took was a trip to some nothing village faraway, burning it like the kindle it was, and leaving one flag I had plucked from a camp sitting around here?' Finally, Ho-Oh seemed to pull their head outside of their self-fantasy and noticed the ice-cold stare Hachi had been delivering onto them. 'Oh, what is it now? Must you always be so bitter? You have the role some others would burn their families for, and yet still that look weathers your face?'
Hachi held her contemplative glaze a little longer- every once of her contempt, her loathing, her sheer detestment of Ho-Oh had been delivered with but one stare.
But something had made her blink out of her trance, something more immediately pressing. This whole trek within the canyon had been nothing but convenient.
That break in her gaze had been too slow. Ho-Oh's eyes narrowed, judging her with their own turn of contemplation. An irate, hostile twitch had taken hold of their eye, the remembrance of many such stares from her crossing their mind, each one flashing past like a streak of lightning. 'Ever since I have saved your wretched life, every turn we make, every occasion of our reunion, you have always spilt onto me those weighing eyes.'
Hachi looked back to the scorched scene, and with renewed attention, examined it once again.
The cart- when it had existed, at least- had been toppled over within this rut and smashed, obviously having fallen in from above. But now that she was close, she could see the remaining indent of where the cart had been in the ground and where it might have fallen were two very separate places. The cart had squarely planted itself in the middle of the chasm, indicating it might have fallen when crossing with some speed, but there was no sign of any bridge overheard or nearby. Either something terrible must have spooked the driver into running the cart into the canyon, or something far more deliberate had occurred.
Ho-Oh's back straightened, leveling their head farther above the ground, above Hachi, as they continued to recount slights, the valley between their brows growing deeper and deeper. 'Do you mean to judge me, a god who has existed alongside the waves and ebbs of ceaseless eras, with such hubris? What a grand and intoxicating innocence! You are but a grain of sand wallowing on the shores of history; and you have the audacity to judge the waves?' Their tone had grown heavier, their feathers becoming stiffly and flared.
There was the issue of the beads and stakes as well, Hachi mused. If the cart had wrecked itself on accident, Hachi found herself very much doubting that the stakes and beads within would have perfectly aligned themselves to stab themselves into the earth and imprison the fiery relics. And why had there been nothing else?
'I have done everything for you,' Ho-Oh seared, taking a step closer and closer, crushing the remnants of cursed metal beneath their sharp talons. 'You have the fortune to gifted life itself after you throw your worthless, flea-ridden sorry-hide away to the world.' Concentrated wisps of simmering fury had finally broken out of Ho-Oh's crooked beak, lashing at the air. 'I asked very little of you: just sit and be a good champion. Sit and wait. Sit and wait. Sit and wait, sit and wait, sit and wait. That is all that was asked! Any lobotomite heavy enough to not be pushed by the wind could have done it! And yet, you still thought you were living in the past, living a life that once was! How many times have you disregarded me- your god- and deceived yourself into knowing better? How many times have I bestowed upon you the most infinite demonstrations of patience? I stand at the turning point of rightful worship, of my owed masses! And you dare to judge me!'
No, this was no happenstance.
The cart, the stakes, and the smells.
The smells.
Black-powder.
Man.
And dread.
All around her, and their presence recognized far too late.
Hachi fervently followed her nose, frantically scanning the area and finding her head inclining upwards towards the ridges above them, towards the copper lines that had scarcely made themselves known beforehand, failing to see how they crawled along the stone surfaces like lurking snakes.
Failing to notice soon enough how each one had led to a small, unassuming bundle of murky red sticks.
Failing to see the enraged phoenix towering over her.
Ho-Oh lowered their head slowly to her, coming face to face with Hachi. Her heart began beating faster, her breath growing more strained as she looked into Ho-Oh's eyes, finding a look she had missed too late, a look that Ho-Oh had never shown her so direly before, piled with brimming rage and vitriolic hatred.
A look that could kill.
'I had thought a ninetales would make a wonderful Illumini: they're revered across many cultures as messengers of spirits and gods, boast centuries of life and experience, and are regarded as wise beyond peer. I see now that this messenger was not so attuned to their destiny; that they were as dull as river stone; and that their life was something uncherished. Do you recall what I had said to you, some years ago in a frozen cave, sheltered from the storm, feasting upon prime meat, when I had gifted my blessing onto you- my chosen one- my Illumini?' They asked softly. A talon lurched forth and pincered itself around Hachi's neck, dragging her closer along the slickening ground against her writhing, until she was raised up to be face-to-face once more with Ho-Oh, rain filtering down the both of them. Dragging the tip of their claw along the base of Hachi's neck, the tip stopped just at its center, poking downward, intent on rupturing her throat. 'I could always find another.'
The barb of their talon inched further and further, driving achingly, painfully into her skin, about to pierce her throat as Hachi could only tense, unable to summon any strength. Forcing air into her throat, she let out a strained growl, glaring back into Ho-Oh's eyes. 'I am ready,' she huffed, choked. 'Are you?'
A bright light glared from behind them accompanied by a high-pitched hiss, coming from the sullen sky. That had paused Ho-Oh just enough as they turned around to see what had happened, dropping Hachi to the floor in the process. Just behind them from the ridge above had been a smoke trail, fleeting through the air towards a hovering flare of light, burning bright red as it cast intense rays around the canyon. As the light hissed and flittered down towards the earth, a piercing whistle screeched, filling the chasm with its sharp, inescapable tones that assaulted the ear.
As Hachi slunk away, ears flattened as low as they could, she gazed up to the ridge. In front of the bloom of red light had been black figures, difficult to make out from the sharp contrast and whims of the weather, but just lanky enough to be vaguely recognized as humans looking down at them from above. One had their arm outstretched to an associate beside them, hunched over with both hands on some sort of thin lever stuck to a box. In one swift, decisive motion, that arm had swung down.
The other man followed suit, throwing his whole weight onto the lever and slamming it down into the box with a hearty clunk.
Bright bursts of light, deafening booms, and shattered earth.
Explosions had sequentially ruptured along the ridge above them, away from them, and even the unseen, utterly destroying the levels above with resounding, resonating waves of force that pierced Hachi to her core. Fragments of eviscerated stone showered down from above. Lurching her body left and right, leaping as fast as her legs would allow, Hachi managed to evade the falling debris; able to nimbly react to each threat. Another hurdling rock tumbled down from above towards her. Readying a fiery breath within her throat, she shot a burst of flame that collided with the careening piece, shattering it into mere fragments with a resounding boom.
Ho-Oh had not been so fleet of foot. Their massive frame meant that every stone that could had crashed into their body, slamming into raised wings that failed to protect, knocking them and burying them to the floor as they belched a loud, angered roar.
The pile of stone that had come to rest on the phoenix did not remain still for long; it jolted and rumbled, rising and falling to the side as Ho-Oh's large form emerged- battered, many feathers crooked and dinged, but still filled with rigorous fury. Looking up to the ridge that had concealed their ambushers, a stiff, defiant roar cried out from them. Their wings unfurled and began fervently beating against the ground, rising through the narrow corridors towards the ridge above to meet the offenders with fire.
If only it had been that easy. New shapes had been rolled out, peering out over the ledge: large, faceted, barbed harpoons were loaded into cannons with narrow barrels, with strange glowing yellow shards that crackled in the air embedded along the weapon's length. Countless amounts of them lined the chasm's mantel above and were aimed slightly downwards into the canyon. Another shrill whistle attacked the ear, and the cannons fired in near synchronicity, hurling the spears through the air as a length of chains flew attached with them. Ho-Oh immediately let themselves fall downward back to the canyon floor to avoid some of the attacks, though most had not been aimed directly at them. Instead, each and every one of the countless harpoons had found themselves crashing into the wall opposite of them, becoming stuck deep within the rocky surface. The chains they carried behind them were at first lax, but were quickly drawn to become taut, rattling in the air. With a growing crackle- bolts of electricity rising from the crystals- the chains had soon become engulfed in a vivid coat of erupting energy.
That had done it. A hanging cage of howling lightning had encased them from the top of the chasm; no matter how far they looked, the entire span of open sky had been gated from them by these chains reaching from edge to edge.
Then came the footsteps; each step like thunder. From deeper within the canyon walls they echoed off of, from where they had entered minutes earlier, a cacophony of marching drew closer to their position. A low, golden glow seemed to grow from within the fog that the sounds had arrived from, getting brighter and brighter as the figures behind loomed closer and closer until they finally breached the mist: they had been soldiers, men of the Paldean Empire. From just the few they could see, it was more than obvious they had meant to hunt them. Thick, cumbersome plates and sloped helmets of cold iron covered their olive-toned bodies, looking as if they had meant to imitate the heavy armored hides of aggrons who lord over mountains. Not an inch of their body seemed to be unburdened by the shielding metals or by straps meant to tie them to their limbs; even their eyes- let alone their faces- could be seen past the sheet of steel they adorn.
But that was nothing compared to what each and every one of their growing numbers carried. A stiff, heavy crossbow was in every pair of hands, their tensed strings pulling back a strange bolt loaded within with a tip of sharpened crystals shining brightly like the old amber of forests lost to time. On their backs were more, filling quivers with countless more of these threatening arrowheads.
And these men had found them.
One of them had shouted, drawing attention to his brothers onto them as they pointed at the Sacred Fire, Ho-Oh. At once they had leveled their crossbows to them, and pulled the trigger. The amber-crystalline arrows sailed through the air towards them with a golden glow, flying so fast that Hachi could hardly believe it when Ho-Oh had twisted their body in such a way to only barely avoid being struck by the barrage. The arrowheads continued flying past them, and colliding into the wall behind them; rather than any other arrows known to them and simply bouncing off the stone surface, these threatening crossbow bolts had crushed the rock they made contact with, spraying shrapnel with a loud crash.
None of these arrows had been aimed at Hachi.
The men had already kneeled down and begun grasping onto the bolts on their backs, deftly pulling them out to reload their weapons with practiced swiftness. The arrows were nearly drawn back, until many of them had stopped as they noticed a fiery glow traveling towards them. A massive fireball had erupted from Ho-Oh and rocketed towards the group, many of whom reacting just in time to leap out of the way- though a few others had not.
The resulting blazing light that emerged from deeper within the canyon had threw up a shroud of blinding debris that separated the two parties by sight.
Hachi still could hear, still could smell. And what her senses had told her within a few moments after that fireball's impact turned her stomach.
'So they mean to attack me?!' Ho-Oh's telepathic fury infiltrated Hachi's thoughts. 'The skies are barred, and they have blocked our previous route with men and sickly weapons.' Hachi took some steps back as Ho-Oh's bruised form approached, tensing her muscles in anticipation for any more sudden grabbing talons. 'Enough of that!' Ho-Oh leered. 'We will continue this later. As our situation stands now, neither of us stand to make it out of here alive alone; as I am so important a figure, they no doubt have made me the target of this ambush, though I very much doubt they would not fire upon you if presented with the opportunity.' The corners of Ho-Oh's beak seemed to turn upward as they had said that last part, but had remained subdued. 'Only death will cease you from being my champion. If you are so intended on picking fights, then you are to aid me in escaping this trap, so that we may both escape. Kill as many as you are able.' Unfurling their wings, Ho-Oh took to the air, clumsily flying in place within the narrow corridor. 'Do not fail me.' Turning in place, they flew further within the canyon, opposite of where the men had come from.
Kill as many as you are able.
Those words echoed in Hachi's head like a bitter, unwanted thought. The smoke had finally cleared from where the fireball had been shot, slowly revealing the silhouettes of the soldier and the threatening glow they possessed. Some of them remained standing, facing where Ho-Oh had fled but seemingly not spying Hachi's slunken, small form creeping amongst shadows. Those who were not standing had been kneeling together in groups, checking something with slow, solemn movements.
That 'something' had been those who were neither standing or kneeling.
These men might have been good people. May have. There was no certainty. But what had been certain, was that Ho-Oh was in no such possibility.
'Kill as many as you are able.'
Hachi shook her head, dispelling the order. She would do this her way.
The soldiers had rekindled their focus, and continued transversing the winding path to where Ho-Oh had fled. Hachi remained still, deep in shadow and protected by some cover jagged rocks had offered. The first thing she must do was impede their movement; halt their advance.
"Come on, brothers!" a voice echoed hollowly off the walls, coming from one in the group in front. "No one lives forever! Drive the beast to the kill-zone! Our raze-cannons will cut that smoldering pájaro in half!" A chorus of agreeing hollers and shouts arose, many of them raising a fist in the air. "If you want to honor their memories, make their names immortal! Kill that god! Seize the turn of a new era!"
They had gotten close enough to where she wanted them. The rain had grown, becoming ceaseless in this exhaustive night: even the storm-clouds above hung tiredly towards the ground. Much of the rain had been streaming down into this chasm, creating numerous growing leaks and miniscule waterfalls that poured over ledges, gathering into shallow pools along the path. They were standing in one such vast puddle.
Hachi took in a deep breath, calming her nerves. She had hunted groups for survival before, and enjoyed it, too. But not once in her life has her targets been humans, nor did this feeling of hesitance, of restraint chain itself to her.
She took another breath. She would go home. They would go home. No more unjust blood would be spilled under her watch.
She leapt out from behind her hiding place of rocks, a ball of fire readied by the time she was seen. A few closer to her stumbled back in surprise.
"There! New enemy sighted!" one had shouted. Many of them had already begun leveling their crossbows, their powerful bolts to her, but they had not been as swift and experienced as the ninetales in front of them.
Hachi let fly the flame burst into the small pond's center that the group stood in, erupting in a cloud of steam that engulfed each and every one of them with a vicious hiss.
"Hijo de puta! I can't see a thing!"
"Where is it?!"
"Where'd that fox go?!"
These had been a few of the confused shouts that arose from the thick mist. Many of them could hardly see a few feet in front of them, let alone any approaching threat. Their senses relied much on sight, much on sound. A shame for them then that what had entered the cloud with them had no such limited perceptions.
"Hey, what's tha-" the hushed words were interrupted by a shout and a crash of metal hitting the floor. Then another yelp and another loud bang. And another, and another. Coughs and groans languished in the air, stirring within the swirling steam and becoming just as lost as everything else in it. The only thing that could be seen was the faint glows of the many arrowheads each and every one of them had strapped to their bodies through the disorienting veil, and how one-by-one they fell to the earth.
One of the few remaining soldiers who stood upright held his weapon close, desperately swinging his vision around to catch a glimpse of anything. "Come on out, fox! You friends with that thing?!" He examined his crossbow quickly, reaffirming that it had been loaded with a devastating bolt crafted with honed tera-rock crystalline pieces, created for the hunting of a god- more than enough to kill such a fragile target such as a ninetales in a single shot. With that knowledge emboldening him, he refooted his stance, standing his ground taller and stiffer. "Stop hiding, beast!"
As he glanced around, surrounded by the moans and aching words of his fallen brothers, hearing as they shouted and crashed, he noticed a glow unlike the rest: it was green, shining like emeralds. Raising his weapon towards it, he took measured steps closer and closer, arriving to find a strange, pulsing orb that looked like a large bulb of a plant. He had never seen anything like it before, not in person nor in any texts. Without any thought, he had been drawn even closer to the particular sight.
Too close.
Once he had been close enough, Hachi let her hidden power rupture with a burst of viridescent energy, sending out a small shockwave that knocked the man's feet out from under him and he slammed into the hard ground.
The mist had cleared, dispersing into the cold open air. Each and every one of the soldiers had been on the ground, either lying prone and groaning as they fumbled with their helmets to soothe their aching heads taken from a nasty spill, or sitting upright and checking if any of their legs had been broken from the sudden, unseen blow they took from behind.
They would be back up, Hachi told herself as she slunk away behind a turn in the path. And it would be soon that they would be on her tails again. But what had been important was that she had afforded herself and Ho-Oh some time, even if a little. Even if they had not gotten up quickly, no doubt a group this prepared for the night had more men waiting behind this one near the entrance.
But more importantly, not a single one of them had been killed.
She continued onward, weaving over loose rocks and debris that had rained down from the crackling chains above. The soldiers had mentioned some sort of 'kill-zone' and 'raze-cannons,' two terms that Hachi was wholly unfamiliar with, yet clear enough in name that she knew it would not be good.
Ahead, resting beneath a large overhang of stone and moss, she found a familiar, abhorrent sight: Ho-Oh. They were fixated on their wings and body, examining bruises and cuts taken from the falling rocks that had landed on them. As she got closer, she took notice of a hung look saturated with venom, just dangling out of sight. 'They attacked me,' a dry, flat tone said. 'They dared to raise their weapons? At me?'
Hachi had no time for them, especially after they had so openly tried to rupture her throat. She continued onward through the careening path, leaving Ho-Oh to languish with their sins. With a little luck, they had not noticed her. Hopefully.
It took only a little time before the claustrophobic, rugged walls began to pry themselves apart, gradually giving her more and more space to dart through. The cold air, rich with raindrops, battered her coat as she leapt over jutting edges and gnarled roots too far grown for their own good. A smell she had grown accustomed to tonight wrinkled her nose once more, and she knew she was getting closer.
Ahead, she found it: an opening, an exit out of the chasm that led to a great expanse of lush woodwork to get lost in, to flee into. If only it had not been so congested.
Walking further out from the corner she observed from, she just as quickly stopped herself and reeled back, poking only a sliver of her head out to peek. There had been the source of the smell, openly residing across the way on a small clearing without fear of being spotted: a large number of soldiers standing behind ugly, large cannons bespeckled with lines of small holes on their sides, leading to a large opening humming with a soft, purple glow. They did not have weapons, not on their persons. Instead, they had worked in groups of five for each of the sickly devices: two held fast to its sides, ready to turn it at a moment's notice; another was crouched behind it with his hands held fast to something out of sight; and the last two of each group were working together, firmly holding a small tube-like object laden with dials, their postures stiff and angled. For its relatively small size, Hachi wondered why it had taken two of them to lift it, since it did not appear heavy. It did not matter what role each member had in their group; without fail, each and every one of them would glance towards this device, as if to check it remained clasped in firm hands.
All except one.
One man had not been clad in armor like those around him. He was not occupied with some task; not glancing at the devices around him; not hunched over anxiously. He wore a thick coat reaching past his knees that was bespeckled with shining metals like badges; his hands clasped behind his straight back and broad shoulders; his eyes fixated on the exit, never breaking focus.
Hachi's mind began pricking at her, warning her with rising patches of fur on her back and a sharpening vision that it had figured out the threat faster than she had. He was familiar to her. Too familiar, and a reminder of the brisk, infinite pain she had felt for a second back on the snowy mountaintops she loved before she had felt nothing more.
This had been the one to carve her centermost tail from her body; the one who had left her corpse buried beneath falling snow; the one who had inadvertently left her to the whims of a selfish god. This had been the man that had killed her two years ago.
He and the others remained at the ready. Ready to enact the purpose of the 'kill-zone' she knew she had found.
Before she slunk away back into the protection of darkness, something more had caught her attention, something far more towering. Just behind the sullen forestry, behind the battalion, loomed a mountain range, a vast one that seemed to swallow the horizon with jagged teeth. Despite it being so dark out beneath the cover of night and shroud of the storm, she could see its peaks so clearly. There had been an ominous, all-consuming bright hue of magenta light brimming out from the peaks, illuminating its silhouettes with an unnatural glow. Numerous thin, stick-like silhouettes dotted the peaks that reached for the heavens above. More of man's work, she knew, but that light that casted them against the night sky could not have been their work- at least, not of their creation.
She did not have much time to linger on how to proceed. A series of loud crashes and warm light had flooded off the walls behind her, as did a howling roar of a great phoenix. That could only have meant one thing.
She hurried back to where she had last seen Ho-Oh, her feet barely touching the ground as she flew over the terrain as fast as she was able. In no time at all she had retraced her path to see the terrible confrontation that had erupted in her short time away. Too short a time she had found Ho-Oh, Hachi realized. Ho-Oh had receded further into the canyon, meeting Hachi earlier than anticipated; they had been driven back.
Ho-Oh had taken flight a small distance off the ground, hovering below the numerous electrified chains above, each powerful beat of their wings kicking up dust and old leaves as they leered down below. There had been several more soldiers in disarray: some taking aim and firing their wicked bolts towards the beast in front of them only for it to twist in the air and dodge their attacks, leading to more debris tumbling down the chasm as the arrows demolished the terrain; others had been reloading; and the last of them were frantically scrambling away from the growing patches of fire laid at their feet.
Ho-Oh's maw was bristling with fire, their eyes locked onto the people below, as they met the glare in turn. Neither had intentions of backing down.
She needed to act fast if they were to survive.
Gathering her energy, she charged forth into the group, aiming at one man in particular who had aimed his weapon to the phoenix above. She tackled his side with the brunt of her head, slamming hard and knocking him down as his arrow flew into the open air, just missing the Sacred Fire and crashing into a wall. Some of the others had taken notice of her by now, having seen her golden form rush by and hearing the surprised shout of their knocked-down brother. A select number of them continued to remain focused on Ho-Oh, whilst others had turned their attention to her.
Hachi had witnessed one such attempt on her: one had aimed his weapon straight at her, and had been far too close. Turning around she brandished each of her tails, creating a curtain of fur that separated line of sight between the two of them, and could only hope for a miss. She heard the release of the bolt as the line snapped back into place, and kept her head low as the arrow sailed through the cover of her fur and felt the shifting of air over her low body as the orange blur passed, missing her by inches.
The man took to his knee and began reaching for another bolt stored on his back, but had failed to notice the imminent danger Hachi had been watching: Ho-Oh was swooping in closer to the ground, their talons dangling low looking for an easy snatch as the more observant hugged close to the walls.
Hachi moved to save him from the crushing grip she knew all too well, but had suddenly felt her back leg get caught and jerked her to a stop. "Got you now!" someone grunted. The soldier she had knocked down had now been lying on his side and desperately holding onto her ankle while fishing for some object on his belt with his other hand. Sharp pangs of frustration crackled down her back at the man's inadvertent sabotage at protecting his own, but she did not linger on the feeling and moved to free herself. She kicked at his grip with her leg, jerking his gloved hand loose until she was confident she could knock herself free. Spinning herself around she quickly headbutted his chest and freed herself- and not a second too late, as the man produced a knife from his side and took a swing at her but missed, just grazing her fur. He went to swing again, but she had already eluded the blade's reach, sprinting towards the unaware man.
She leapt towards him, flinging herself across the air towards his chest as the man could only brace himself, expecting fiery fangs to be soon upon him but still unaware of the true threat approaching. She slammed into him as Ho-Oh swiped at where they stood; their talons striking the helmet of the man and creating a brief shower of sparks as he tumbled backwards with Hachi, the two rolling to a stop close to each other.
Still full of life, Hachi forced herself back up and planted her paws on the crumpled heap before her, holding her breath. The man was lying still on the ground, unmoving; his helmet now possessing a large, easily discernible gash that streaked across its cold surface like scars. She feared the worst, but noticed as his hand slowly rose and began curling into a fist as the man broke into a hollow, deep coughing fit muted by the helmet he wore. Hachi sighed, relieved, even if only for a second. The blow would have killed him if she had not intervened.
She knew better than to linger her attention on him. Hachi turned her head to spy where the Sacred Fire had gone. Ho-Oh had slammed their talons into the earth as they glided closer to the ground, grating against stone and rock as they slid to a stop, a shaking roar bellowing from them and shuddering off the canyon's walls as they turned to face their enemies. A fiery, burning hatred boiled behind their eyes at this whole affair. Their back arched, crouching low to the ground as summoned wisps of flame danced around their crimson body, growing in number and flickering brighter.
"Someone get this thing off me!"
Hachi had gotten distracted. While she had dared look at Ho-Oh, the soldier had planted a hearty kick into her chest and knocked her off of him and to the ground, leaving her gasping for air from the sudden impact. The others he had pleaded to had already retreated behind a depression in the chasm's walls, having seen the large fiery attack being prepared by Ho-Oh and not daring to expose themselves, leaving just him and Hachi with the festering power of the legendary phoenix.
Ho-Oh's fire grew to a rising peak; a fervent display of consuming red and orange tunes flooding the canyon with light as the attack neared the end of its preparation. The growing cinders and sparks blotted out Ho-Oh's figure; no matter where one stood, the air itself seemed to hiss and burned to the touch. It would consume all that stood in its way
The man scrambled to his feet and ran away from Hachi and Ho-Oh rather than seeking cover: a fatal mistake he realized all too late. His legs failed him and he stumbled to the ground, left gazing at the gathering light behind him that had blotted out all darkness.
It was ready.
He curled himself tightly, raising his limbs defensively in a way that would have never mattered, and froze.
Rising to the air in a single flap, twirling as they commanded brimstone and the blaze of the sun, Ho-Oh's wings swung out from their glowing body in one, dominating pulse, releasing the built overheat.
An immolating wave of fire flooded every open corridor in the canyon, swallowing all that had stood in its way and baptizing it in cleansing flame; first bending and breaking dangling roots and low tree limbs exposed to the force of attack, before instantly reducing them to ash lost in the wind. The sky became unseeable, having been swallowed by the magnitude of light and waves of heat produced.
The crashing wave of flame had been exhausted, leaving only a valley of drifting ash and smoke, and scorched, smoldering earth; content that a path was now clear- through the cowardice of those who skulked to dark corners to avoid the attack, or by those foolish enough to remain in its way- Ho-Oh hummed a note of satisfaction to themself and spread their wings, preparing to head deeper within the canyon to find an exit. That immolation, the sheer force and magnitude of overheating had greatly strained them.
As they crouched down to take flight, a strange glow became known to them through the veil of destruction, shining valiantly through the darkness. As the ash settled and the smoke departed, a sore sight for the Sacred Fire stood in the middle where the path of destruction had torn through: Hachi; glowing brightly, her body having caught the heat and absorbing its intensity. She had firmly planted herself in its way, face gritted with determination and her eight tails raised by her sides like walls, as if to catch the flames. A strange sight and a pointless effort as usual of the ninetales, Ho-Oh thought.
Or at least, that had been their reaction before Hachi had moved. With the attack long done and the ground left smoldering, the ninetales cautiously lowered her many tails and tucked them back behind her. Keeping an eye on Ho-Oh, she turned herself around- and went to check on the curled soldier she had stood in front and deflected the legendary's fire for.
The man had been trembling, still clumsily raising his arms in front of himself as he lay in a ball on the floor. A gentle prod at his side had finally gotten him to look up. A sharp inhale resounded out of his helmet once he found himself staring face-to-face with a ninetales, whose ruby eyes seemed to pierce him. He scrambled back, stopping once he saw the ninetales had made no moves. Slowly, he looked around himself, observing the charred terrain around himself. As if making a realization, he raised his arms in front of him, turning them without rhyme or reason, checking both them and the rest of his body and seeing how they remained intact.
He looked back to the ninetales; his tense shoulders slowly falling.
The moment of peace had ended when a chorus of the soldier's brothers had shouted out from ahead of him, rushing out from their cover with redrawn crossbows and renewed spirit, rushing the phoenix. A volley of more crystalline arrows sailed across the air towards Ho-Oh as they frantically- clumsily- rose to the air; one such attack landing squarely in the beast's thigh and digging deep into its flesh, causing a spurt of bright red blood to spill out that seemed to almost be glowing. With a pained howl, Ho-Oh writhed in the air and continued to fly deeper with the canyon, breaking sight of its pursuers.
Hachi did not linger behind, giving chase immediately after them and weaving towards them as the vain hisses of arrows flew overhead. Ho-Oh had been approaching this 'kill-zone,' and fast.
And that is what she had found.
Turning past a dark corner, she found Ho-Oh breathing hard as they maintained some distance off the ground, staring down the line of masterfully crafted cannons staring back, their own fire brimming beneath. All eyes had been on them, every available hand behind their gun waiting for the order from the one man who had orchestrated this trap; from the one who held an open palm into the air.
He thrusted it down to his side. "Now!"
At once, the teams of soldiers who operated each and every weapon turned away from view, covering their visors from what would happen next. Levers sitting on the back of each cannon had been thrown back towards the earth in one vicious pull; connected metallic tubes humming with powerful, chaotic energy, ran hot, shedding prismatic light in all directions as they roared to life. That energy burned down wires into the bases of the weapons, and the purple hue within each maw flared. A bright violet glare swirled and gathered on the hilltop these figures, silently lingering. Then firing.
A shrill roar erupted from the ridge, taking the form of numerous beams of draconic light, each one a geyser of power. The lights instantly dotted the canyon walls at both sides, bursting unimpeded from their tops above; one overshooting and piercing the air overhead, joining the lights that had ripped through meters of stone like it were wet paper. A terrible, evaporating hiss surrounded both Ho-Oh and Hachi as unseen rock turned to gas the instant the beams contacted them, but were otherwise unimpacted.
That was until the men at the cannons' sides began pushing and pulling, reorienting the barrels and achingly trying to get the beams onto the god before them, trying to find their target through the blinding light. Ho-Oh's frantic flying- their desperate attempts to leave the mouth of the canyon- was met with beams crossing their path and forcing them to dance in the air for their life, to avoid being torn in two like the stone behind them. As they evaded the numerous lights, the attacks had continued to carved through the rock faces behind them, and the very ridges of the chams soon gave way.
Small falling rocks and debris were all the warning Hachi had before she realized that the ridge above her had been sliding off its own foundation and overhanging above her like clouds of sediment. She retreated within the canyon, away from the burning lights and from Ho-Oh, just in time as the freed ridge crashed into the earth where she had been with a deafening slam. It had been so large, so heavy, that even standing a fair distance away she felt her body being popped into the air from the sheer recoil.
The lights fizzled, dimmed, then receded. The cannons had exhausted all the energy their connected power cells had provided, falling dark and silent. The men at their sides went to work immediately, disconnecting the worthless tubes of metal and tossing spent cores aside whilst others carefully guided the new cells into place. But this brief lapse in armaments had not gone unnoticed.
Ho-Oh's deathly ire locked onto that hillside, rising heat building in their throat. A volume of fire burst out faster than the soldiers could have reloaded these weapons of destruction, blanketing the ledge with crackling, bright flames that chased the men away, screaming into the cover of night. One team had not abandoned their post, working and leveraging commanding shouts at one another to finish the fight. The new cell had been locked in place and strangled with connecting wire, once again bringing the cannon to life. The lever was grasped again, and thrust down.
Another cataclysmic beam shrieked from the weapon, aimed at Ho-Oh. The light pierced a wing, instantly vaporizing feathers and tissue as Ho-Oh lurched away in pain, finding a new grand hole in their wing that smoldered black and ran down like a tear on fabric. A shot so close nearly had ended their life.
Nearly. That would be the last mistake the squad would make.
Before the beam could exhaust itself, another torrent of fire engulfed the cannon, aimed squarely at the heart of the crew. Nothing could be heard over the thrashing flames; nothing that a single soul would voluntarily want to hear. But what could be seen had been growling glints where the cannon had been, shining brighter than stars and snapping like firecrackers. The power core had gotten caught in the flames, and had grown critical.
A loud eruption was all Hachi could hear as she tried to navigate over the collapsed landslide, rattling the walls and debris around her. Looking up, a rising thick plume of smoke grew to blot out the sky, drowning the clouds in black.
She hurried over the loose rocks and fallen trees, rushing back to where the fallen wall had cut her off. Back within the gaping maw of the chasm's end, she found the aftermath. Fire had spread along the hillside, consuming and warping the weapons within into indescribable figures. From where the smoke rose had been a small crater where one had not been before, blowing away nearby foliage and any objects near it into unrecognizable fragments. There was no fire where this hole was. There could not be any, for there was nothing left to burn. Something powerful, something terrible had happened. The squads that once had lined these plains were gone, no longer visible.
All save for one man. A figure crawled out from beneath a pile of loose dirt, hunched over and clutching his tattered side in pain. He spotted Ho-Oh, looming above the carnage, watching him as he watched it. Hobbling closer, he clambered over an outcropped rock, and straightening himself back into form, standing against the flames and Hachi as he leered back to the god in front of him.
They were at a standoff, neither making a move, yet both daring the other to blink.
Neither would.
The man reached to his side, not breaking eye-contact with the god, and swiftly emptied some sort of handheld device with a practiced, expertise fluidity, then sticking a smell shell into it. Raising his arm into the air, he pulled the trigger. A new, bright flare rocketed towards the storm-cast skies, glaring against the darkness. More hands would be here soon.
Ho-Oh finally looked away from the man, not heeding to him any longer. Hachi had become the focus of their attention, a glare that made no attempt to hide its hatred, its anger towards her piercing her like daggers.
If Ho-Oh had any more time to think, there was no doubt within Hachi that Ho-Oh would have gone for her, to tie a loose end. But the gathering cries of rallying men approaching from deeper within the forests, stomping down the canyon had stifled that reality. Glancing the mountain range behind them, the jagged edges hiding power, Ho-Oh spared one last glance to their Illumini, their champion.
And left, flying into the distant horizon, growing smaller and smaller before vanishing into darkness.
The man's shoulders rose and fell with each heavy breath, growing more and more exaggerated as he turned to look at the failure that surrounded him. A growing number of soldiers- some new to the scene with pristine armor, and others whose blotted pieces hung loosely to their tired bodies- had come to his side as he stomped off the rock. None got in his way, moving silently out of his path. His plan had been perfect, accounting for every variable and power of the god, and attacking it swiftly with the best of the best who had been specially trained for this night, armed with only the finest weapons. This should have been a flawless night. Yet now, his efforts lay in fire and ash, mud and rain. What had been the variable he missed?
In his throes, his stampeding rampage as he raged against the night, he had glanced once to the canyon's mouth, then again with a holding stare. He had seen her.
Only then had Hachi realized the hills ahead had grown congested with soldiers. Only then did the reality of what that raised finger towards her had meant.
The ninetales swiftly retreated away, receding into the ruined canyon once more. A wave of leathery stomps echoed off the walls around her. She could only hope that the landslide would slow them down as she ran deeper and deeper in, seeking her initial entrance and now only escape.
Shouts bounced in the air around her- commands to find a ninetales, more voices parroting the words, growing louder and more frequent, traveling faster down the sodden rift than she ever could.
Only a little further left. She knew it in her beating heart she made it past the halfway point of the path, passing old, burning scars on the land that had grown cold in the rain. Then she stopped. A terrible noise thundered, roared ahead of her from the dark, looming corners. More footsteps, more shouts, bearing the same intent as the ones chasing behind her.
Her head spun, looking front and back, trying to think of any way out. She had no action left to take, no grand ideas or sudden, saving thoughts.
She hid. It was all she could do.
A larger piece of rock resting near the walls had been her best chance, lying in shadow within a small cleft in the earth. She scurried behind it, lying low within a growing, ice-cold puddle, trying desperately to quiet her breath. She wrapped her tails around herself in a heap to disrupt her shape, to make herself appear as one of many disorganized stone outcrops here.
Lights soon flushed the canyon's sides, flickering from torchlight from all sides; heavy footsteps had surrounded her, their sources casting tall, innumerable shadows on the walls, each carrying in their hands longarms. They were here.
Loud thumps passed by, first from her left to her right, then from her right to her left. Soon, they became so numerous that it made no difference to differentiate them. Shouts asking for any sighting, any clue to where she may have been tickled her ears, but no response came that knew her whereabouts. With enough time, the splashes on puddles and the shimmering lights began to fade away, harsh words of frustration growing; she might make it.
One passing light flickered against the wall behind her, heading towards the exit. But it stopped, idly swinging in place as the leathery steps ferrying it became silent. Hachi tightened herself, hoping they would continue onward. Those thoughts came to mean nothing as the light shrunk, a soft metal thunk tinking against the ground as the light settled against the floor. Slowly, the footsteps creeped towards her recluse shadow, drawing nearer and louder, the shadow of a soldier growing behind her.
Peering slowly over the rock, a helmet came into view, then their weapon: a crossbow loaded with another piercing bolt, humming amber into the dark. Their visor had been damaged severely, a great gash across its dinged surface like having been struck by a great claw.
A large, easily discernible gash that streaked across its cold surface like scars.
There was no question, no doubt about it. He was looking at her, their gaze unwavering as he observed her curled, cowering form staring back, breathing heavily. His weapon had already been leveled at her the moment he cleared the rock, threatening to pierce her body through in a single shot, ending this hunt.
But he did not fire.
His shoulder remained tense, raised as the two silently looked to one another. Maybe it had been the night they both suffered, maybe they had both grown exhausted of the fighting, or maybe it was a favor being repaid.
A chorus of footsteps muddled by rain arrived behind the soldier, as did a voice ringing out. "Brother!" another unseen called. "Did you find something?"
The soldier's shoulders slumped down; his weapon becoming slack against his body, no target in its sights. "Nothing," he replied, turning around to face the group. With confident footsteps, he left her sight, picking back up the lantern he had placed down. "Checked everywhere I could, but I didn't find a single thing. Cursed beast must have fled already; snuck past our patrols." The wet steps continued away, heading back to the canyon exit. "We're wasting our time here. Let's regroup with the others."
That had been the end of it. With no sign of her, the last of the patrols followed behind the man, leaving Hachi in silent, wet, cramped darkness.
She waited a while, even if the growing puddle beneath her had been cold. And waited some more, until she had been sure there would be no others. After some time of utter quiet, not an inkling or scent of man to be found, she left her rock, and hurriedly crept towards the opposite entrance of the canyon.
She was free. Stepping out from the cramped walls into open space darted by the canvas of the mossy wild, she was chained no more. She could run into the dark tapestry of tree limbs and shrubs, and live, free to taste the cold air again, free to lap up spring water and lick her wounds.
As she stepped towards the home ahead of her, paws deep in mud, her gaze fell back to the mountain ridge Ho-Oh had fled to, still casting purple waves into the flickering clouds above.
Those beads warning of ruin, of a coming wrath; their words lingered with her. Ho-Oh would only bring more turmoil, more pain and hate if they were left to their own devices. What had been in those mountain ranges that they seeked? What had they hoped to find?
She looked back to the forest, the tall grass and running water, the fresh breezes and uncompromised freedom; then to the distant jagged ridges again, surrounded by black and disdain, stagnant and apathetic.
Ecruteak would not happen again.