Chapter 2: Nether Coils
Kirin felt that she was floating. It was as if she had fallen underneath the surface of deep waters and become totally submerged. There was no light. She couldn't open her eyes. She did still have eyes, didn't she? Perhaps she felt as Gunvolt had when Moebius had spirited him away. Perhaps she was merely feeling what spirits felt. She was dead, of that much she was sure.
Wasn't her life supposed to flash before her eyes? Had she died too quickly to even take a final glimpse at her existence? Another question entered what remained of her consciousness. Could it be that that was her life, that darkness? She had only been a child when she became part of Shadow Yakumo. That was how it had to be. A child's mind was still open to the world of the hidden and the supernatural in which they operated. Before them, she had no past. It might have sufficed to say she was born in the shadows, and for so long, they were where she had lived. She had moved in the dark. She had worked for peace and stability. Though unseen, she had been a proud warrior. But now, she didn't care about any of that. What she had done in the shadows would die in the shadows, and so would she.
But what is shadow without light? Or light without shadow? These things could not be. She had found her light deep beneath the Sumeragi Futures Institute, buried by a sprawling graveyard of glaives. The first person she knew she had rescued, her first partner, the first primal dragon: Gunvolt. That light had shown upon more and more as she saved the other dragons from their demons. That was the work that mattered to her. They were the people she cared about, and she didn't want to leave them.
Maybe, she didn't have to. Maybe, she would just be waiting for them like she had been for GV. Maybe, she would become a part of them like GV had become to her. Maybe, she was going to him at that very moment. She saw a light: lapis lazuli trailing through space. She began to reach for it. Maybe, she could accept it. An amethyst light flooded her vision.
Kirin snapped awake as if snatched by a hand. Breathing rapidly, she looked around. A fog still lingered, but the streetlights shone on the land of the living. Distant sirens still whirred, warning citizens to take shelter. She felt the hard grit of the pavement under her. It had worked; she was alive. She was not the only one who had hit the ground, however. To her left, she saw G. She scrambled to her feet and rushed to him. Given that his body was still in one piece, he must have been revived as well. Kneeling over him, Kirin checked his vitals. He was breathing, and his heart still beat. Moreover, Kirin could feel the spirit within him. He was alive too but still affected by dragon radiation. She just needed to seal him. Then, she could….
"Wh-where am I?"
When Kirin turned to the source of the small voice, it was as if she had been struck by a sudden nightmare. Her eyes shot wide, and her blood ran cold. Elise: in snake's skin, iridescent with purpled corruption. She was still standing there. No, she wasn't still there; she was there. The form Kirin observed was no image pulse. An image pulse created a short-lived presence with mass, but it was not flesh. More importantly, with the exception of Lumen, an image pulse had no spirit. Yet, even at a distance, as Elise stood hunched over with cloudy eyes and shriveled posture, Kirin could sense the spiritual energy in her. Even it was like no other spirit she had perceived. A spirit had a certain shape, a certain aura, but Elise's seemed to be squirming and pulsing like an animal caught in a sack or a rat writhing in a snake's stomach. She was the real Elise: the chimera made manifest, the nightmare, alive, right in front of Kirin.
It shouldn't have been possible. An image pulse was only a flash of memory given form. It was not a being. It had no will, no desires, no agency. It could not have planned, could not have decided to revive itself, but with a septima that altered death, anything was possible. Kirin had, after all, called on that power, and the memory of Elise's Resurrection ability was, first and foremost, of Elise reviving herself. It was an accident then. The Elise who stood before Kirin was just as confused about her re-existence. Furthermore, she seemed to be the original Elise, the non aggressive one. She may not have remembered.
Kirin rose slowly to her feet. She clutched her staff tightly in one hand and carefully raised the other with an open palm.
"Elise?" she said hesitantly.
Elise, with quivering eyes, looked straight at Kirin. As the sirens still wailed, Kirin shuddered. An operative of Shadow Yakumo knew what a demon looked like. Kirin was making eye contact with one. She swallowed.
"Who are you?" Elise asked.
There was death in her voice. It was only the voice of a frightened girl. There was no threat in it, no malice, but it was there. Death was just a fact of her existence; like venom in her mouth, she breathed it.
"Listen to me, Elise," Kirin said. "I need you to stay calm."
Carefully, Kirin stepped forward. Elise stepped back. Her stance lowered. In essence, she coiled.
"It's ok," Kirin said, "I'm just coming over there to help you. To help you, ok?"
Kirin took another step.
"To h-help me?" Elise echoed.
"Yes, to help you," Kirin repeated. "You're safe. You're safe, Elise. Just, let me help you."
Slowly, Kirin kept moving forward. She clutched her staff tightly. She wasn't exactly sure what she was going to do when she got to Elise. Perhaps, if she played things just right, Kirin could seal Elise's power without a fight. Any tremble in her voice was like rocks falling off a narrow ledge. Her steps were on a tightrope. Hellfire burned beneath.
"My name is Kirin. I'm a priestess. This is my staff. See?"
Kirin presented the sheathed blade. Its guard was in fact the ring of a priestly staff.
"Why are y-you here?" Elise asked. "Where is here?"
"You just need a little guidance," Kirin, inching closer, said. "It'll all make sense soon. Don't worry. Just…let me–"
A siren blared much closer as a set of Sumeragi squad cars rocketed in and came to a screeching halt. Elise's gaze was transfixed on the strobing lights. She saw the Sumeragi crest on the side of the door. She winced as if something had hit her and drew her hands to her head. She stepped further back.
"It's ok, Elise," Kirin said rather desperately. "Don't panic. Just stay–"
Elise stumbled back and fell over her tail. Her eyes were gaping with terror. She scrambled back to her feet and turned to run.
"Get away from me!" she cried.
"No!" Kirin said.
Elise ran a few strides before stretching her arm like a snake to snag a nearby lamppost and swing away. Kirin pursued immediately. She knew the fire was already starting. Her steps hammered the pavement. Her heart pounded as she stayed after Elise. She feared the worst, but the burning in her chest was not merely fear of the danger, grave as it was. It was the sting of guilt. If anything happened, she would bear the blame of opening the way for it.
"Shiron," she said into her communicator, "this is Kirin. Respond."
"Oh my god, Kirin!" Shiron said. "We were afraid that you…. How did you–"
"Sorry, but no time," Kirin said. "In pursuit of a priority target. Need backup to intercept."
"Priority target?" Shiron said. "You mean G?"
In the face of oncoming personnel carriers, Elise made a sharp turn into the back alleys.
"No," Kirin said. "I can't even start to explain how screwed we are if this one eludes us."
"Well, dang," Shiron said. "We're on it!"
Kirin dashed into the alley just in time to see Elise scramble from the fire escape onto the roof of one of the buildings. Luckily, there were chain lamps present. Kirin zipped through them and slung herself onto the roof. Elise quickly looked back at her before running and jumping to the next rooftop. Kirin followed her onto a rooftop with several large AC units and a lot of ductwork. Elise dove and slithered under some of the ducts while Kirin hopped over them and performed a quick wall run along the unit. However, when Kirin rolled out of her run, she found herself staring at a snake that had transformed from a knife Elise planted. Kirin swatted it away with her staff and kept running.
A wire from which several skull decorations hung ran between the buildings and over the highway. Elise jumped onto it and spiraled around it like a gliding serpent. Kirin also jumped onto it and ran along the rope like a ninja, but Elise, upon reaching the other side, created more snakes which wriggled back along the line toward Kirin. To avoid them, Kirin jumped off the rope and caught the ledge of the building. Pulling herself up, Kirin saw Elise clamber up some stairs onto a higher section of the building. Kirin built up her speed and leapt to grab hold of the railing where the stairway leveled out before changing direction. She pulled herself up to perch on top of the railing and sprung from it to immediately reach the top of the flight. Elise vaulted over a tall fence and crashed through a side entrance into another connected, taller building. Kirin repeated her steps and followed her inside.
"This is bad," Kirin thought. "She's getting closer to civilians."
Kirin chased Elise down the hallways of the apartment building until she heard an elevator ding. When an unwary tenant stepped into the hall, Elise grabbed him and held a knife to his throat. Kirin stopped in her tracks.
"Elise," she said, "you don't want to do this."
"I know," Elise said, "but I'm not going back."
She drew her hostage into the elevator with her before hitting one of the buttons, shoving him back out, and throwing the knife at his feet. The knife turned into a snake and prepared to strike him as the doors shut, but Kirin sprung forward and pinned the cobra to the floor with her sword.
"You ok?" she said.
"Yeah," he said as he touched his neck to make sure it wasn't bleeding. "Yeah, I'm good."
"Get somewhere safe."
Kirin pried the elevator open with her staff and looked out into the open elevator shaft. The elevator Elise was on was already out of reach, but an elevator was on its way up on the other side.
"So are you, like, a ninja or–" the guy started to ask before Kirin launched herself on top of the rising elevator. "Whoa!"
Kirin hopped from her current perch onto a higher rising elevator when she saw Elise climb out the top hatch of hers. Elise glanced at her spitefully before she began slithering up the cable. Kirin held her staff in her mouth and started climbing up her own cable. Elise, however, started throwing knives at Kirin. The knives came too close to the cable, beginning to fray it. If the cable snapped, more lives were in danger. Though at an awkward angle, Kirin prepared talismans and threw them at Elise. When one hit, Kirin, still holding her staff in her mouth, arc chained to Elise and grabbed hold of her leg. Elise kicked her off, and Kirin fell back on top of the elevator. Ensuring that there were no passengers in the elevator, Kirin snatched the sword out of the sheath which she still held in her teeth, grabbed the ascending cable, and cut it from underneath. The elevator dropped, and Kirin and Elise both went flying upwards. The cable halted at its apex by the roof exit. Elise stretched her arm to latch onto it as Kirin resheathed her blade and kept climbing the cable. Elise, balancing on the threshold, pried the doors open just enough that she could squeeze through the crack. Kirin, reaching sufficient height, threw a talisman and performed an arc chain to slice straight through the doors.
On the other side, Elise stumbled to a halt at the ledge of the building while Kirin rolled out of her attack and sheathed her blade.
"Elise," Kirin, out of breath, called as she held out her hand again, "you can stop this. I know what happened. It doesn't have to be this way again."
Elise looked at the ground for a moment before turning to lunge at Kirin with a knife. Kirin partly unsheathed her blade to block the attack and held her position in deadlock with Elise. Elise eyed the glimmering steel of Kirin's sword.
"You're just like them," Elise said mournfully. "They said they would help me, b-but really they…."
Elise pushed away and kept running to the other side of the rooftop.
"I don't want your help!" she cried.
"Dammit!" Kirin said.
Elise ran and jumped over the highway. She stretched her arm to grab the streetlights in the center of the divided highway and swung to the other side. Kirin couldn't have crossed the gap on her own, but there was a wire device on the rooftop. Kirin hit it, and it launched a wire across the road. Her path prepared, Kirin put her staff over the wire, gripped it with both hands, and rushed forward to zipline across the gap. The scraping of her staff against the cable was as loud as the wind in her ears as Kirin rocketed forward, but a harsher sound reached her ears: the ping of the cable breaking under Elise's knife. Kirin had made it across the road when the cable went limp, but she wouldn't reach the rooftop. She hit the side of the building and clung to it the best she could. As she slid down, Kirin managed to catch a birdlike gargoyle as a foothold.
On either side of Kirin's new perch, two vertical billboards, one taller than the other, hung from the building. They were her way up. Kirin kicked off the wall and bounced back off the taller sign to reach the top of the lower sign. From this perch, she pounced and stepped off another gargoyle to land on top of the taller sign. From there, she sprung onto a balcony and hopped from its railing to the top of the roof.
Elise, gasping for air, stood on the opposite side of the building. Seeing Kirin still after her, Elise slid her two visors over her eyes and glared at Kirin. Understanding the paralyzing nature of this attack, Kirin covered her eyes and looked away. Keeping her focus on Kirin, Elise stepped back slowly before vaulting over the edge. She caught hold of a long drainage pipe and slid down it.
"Guys," Kirin said as she pushed forward, "I need that intercept, and I need it now!"
"You'll have it," Shiron said. "They're almost in position."
Kirin slid down the pipe as well, but Elise started planting knives in the wall. The knives became snakes which wrapped around the pipe and prepared to strike Kirin. Kirin drew her sword from between her teeth once more and cut through the snakes as she came to them. When they reached the ground, Kirin pursued Elise out of the alley and back onto the street. Elise swung away again, but a wall of debris crashed down in front of her, blocking her path. Apollo, purple armored, dropped down in front of it.
"Right on time," he said.
Elise turned toward an alleyway on her right, but BB flew over and dropped green ghost flames along the path.
"I don't think so!" he said.
Back to Elise's left, Cayman crashed to the ground with a fiery blast of his own.
"No escape!" he said.
As Kirin blocked off the way Elise came, Sumeragi squad cars rushed in behind her and sniper squads fast roped from their flying transports onto the rooftops on either side of the street. They trained their lasers on Elise as SWAT teams took firing positions around the cars. Knowing she was trapped, Elise looked around in a panic.
"Elise," Kirin said as she approached, "it doesn't have to end this way. I am begging you to just surrender. Things are different now. We can help you. I can help you, for real this time. I promise you, it won't be like before."
Elise looked down and sniffled before she looked with teary eyes back up at Kirin.
"I don't believe you," she whimpered.
Elise clasped her hands to her bosom where they began to emit a violet light.
"Life," she said, "return to life…"
"No!" Kirin screamed and rushed forward.
"Break the cycle…"
Kirin remembered exactly what she had felt in that nightmare, exactly what Gunvolt had felt. The hopelessness, the oppressive sense of failure, empty and deep as the echoing darkness from which he couldn't save Elise.
"Return this soul…"
Though she was afraid, Kirin wanted to make things right. When GV returned, she wanted to be able to show him that his efforts, his empathy, and his sacrifices weren't for nothing, but it seemed she could do no better than he. She hadn't known what she would do for Elise when she reached her. Now, she gripped her sword.
"From nether c–"
Fate was already sealed. Mercy was all that remained.
"Pale Mist," Kirin whispered.
Kirin had already passed cleanly through Elise before Elise could perceive the severity of her wound. With a gush of purple blood, her side ripped open as if she had simply been unzipped. She coiled over her wound and collapsed as she cried out. From the hard ground, she looked up at Kirin whose back was still turned.
"I was right," Elise gasped, "about you."
Kirin clenched her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut. Those words cut straight to her heart. Elise's expression went blank, and she fell limp on the ground. All looked on but Kirin as Elise's body faded into a purple mist.
"Forgive me," Kirin whispered.
She sheathed her blade slowly and regretfully. She had now shared one of Gunvolt's worst experiences in more than just memory. There was a solemn finality to the click of the guard against the sheath.
"Forgive me?" a mocking voice echoed. "You sound just like her."
Kirin's eyes shot open as a flash of violet light cast a long shadow in front of her.
"Behind you, Kirin!" Shiron shouted.
Kirin sprung away with a twist and threw a talisman in the voice's direction. Like her shadow, the specter behind her mirrored this action. As the talisman and the knife clashed, Kirin locked eyes with Elise, but they were not the eyes she had seen just a moment ago. These violet eyes, poised above a fanged smirk, were confident, venomous, and hungry. It was the other Elise. The flight instinct had been extinguished, and the fight was about to begin.
Kirin landed directly into a combat stance, but Elise stood up straight and stretched her arms upward. Earlier, the cobra hood around Elise's head had served to conceal her face, to hide her fear, but now, it was the crown of a queen cobra, a venomous snake ready to assert her dominance.
"My, my," she said with a yawn. "How long has it been? And still, you Sumeragi puppet masters think you can control us."
"Hold up, did she just–" BB started to say.
Without hesitation, Kirin rushed her, but the new Elise thrust her elongated arm with a knife in hand like the tip of a spear. Kirin bent back and slid under the attack on her knees, but as she raised back up, Elise leapt toward her with a kick. Kirin partly unsheathed her blade to block. Elise caught the blade between the heel and sole of her boot, but before she pushed away, she snagged the ring of the guard with her tail and left Kirin with only the sheath. Elise landed and held up the sword to inspect it.
"Awfully naughty for a priestess," she said as she twirled the weapon. "You must love giving last rites."
"Contain her, now!" Kirin said.
Cayman stepped forward and flexed to activate his Duelist septima, beginning to drag Elise toward him.
"You and me, snake!" he said.
"Well, well," Elise said, "another magnetic musclehead."
Elise flipped back and latched onto a light pole. BB flew in to strike with his scythe.
"Looking to dance?" he said.
Elise blocked his attack with Kirin's sword.
"Look, but no touch," she taunted.
Elise pushed him away and spiraled further up the pole.
"Tear down her position," Kirin said.
"I'm on it," Apollo responded.
He slung a cluster of debris from his barricade to knock down the light pole. Seeing his intent, Elise coiled and sprung from her post just in time to dodge a storm of gunfire. She hopped off Apollo's projectile and threw Kirin's sword back at her. Kirin caught the blade in her sheath and slid back from the impact. As soon as Elise's feet hit the ground, she was engulfed by Cayman's containment field.
"You won't get out of this one," he said.
The snipers opened fire, but Elise twisted and twirled between their shots. While Elise was occupied, Kirin pounced in for a flying stab. Elise looked at her and smiled. The tip of the sword plunged straight into Elise's belly. She winced and clenched her fangs but remained standing. While Kirin was shocked that her attack had worked so easily, Elise grabbed the blade in her hands.
"Try as you have to erase us…"
She pulled the sword further into her, so that its tip poked out her back. She gasped as her blood ran onto the steel but smiled again.
"We will never be a memory."
Elise raised her hand with violet light before she burst and dissipated. Kirin looked around frantically to see what she had done. At that moment, a light flashed behind the Sumeragi troops on the street.
"I'm sorry," Elise said as she rose behind them.
The gunmen turned in surprise, and Elise threw a cluster of knives which killed or wounded them all. She flashed with purple again, and the dead soldiers contorted and transformed into monstrous corpses which immediately dove upon their wounded friends. At the same time, the other Elise rose behind one of the sniper duos and viciously cut open one's throat before charging the knife with energy and tossing it straight through the other one's heart. When the snipers on the other building heard his death cry, they turned and targeted the second Elise, but she casually propped her head on her hands and winked before her visors slid over her eyes. The snipers were paralyzed. She took her time aiming the knife that pierced one sniper's skull, and his petrified squadmate could only watch him rise as a zombie and go for his throat.
During these deadly maneuvers, the zombies came rushing at the Dragon Saviors.
"Kirin, what the hell is happening?" Shiron said. "Are those actually zombies?"
Cayman stepped to the front with Kirin.
"Living or dead," he said, "they won't break our line!"
Kirin nodded, and they rushed to meet the wave of undead. Cayman opened with an explosive divekick that stalled their momentum. His devastating punches pulverized their putrid flesh while Kirin's slashes sent them back to their final rest in pieces. Kirin's rapid breaths burned in her chest while the blood trickled down her blade. It was already happening. People were dying, all because of her. Laughter echoed from the rooftops. The alternate Elise was sitting on the ledge with her legs crossed while the original stood behind.
"That look on your face!" the sitting one giggled. "Oh, it's good to be back. I know, Elise," she said to the other, "let's take our rebirth party somewhere more festive."
They rose and leapt away. The Dragon Saviors pursued. Kirin ran in the lead. She fought to control her breathing as the air burned her throat and panic seeped into her lungs. She chased Elise to a cemetery in the middle of which stood a chapel. The sky was overcast, but the sun had risen high enough over the dawn for its light to glint off the granite and marble headstones which rose above the grass. Sensing danger, Kirin sidestepped an energized knife, and it crashed through one of the headstones. Both Elises were standing on either side of the chapel steeple. A greater darkness seemed to surround them than the rest of the graveyard.
"Hey, watch the headstones!" BB said. "I've got enough angry spirits to deal with."
"Don't worry," the alter Elise said with a wicked grin. "They won't be needing those anymore."
The other Elise clasped her hands as in prayer and flashed. A zombified hand immediately thrust out of the dirt and grasped Kirin's leg. When the screeching skull arose, Apollo quickly caved it in with an axe kick. The grass all over the graveyard was uprooted as the corpses buried there crawled like worms out of the soil.
"Orders, Kirin?" Apollo said as he shuffled his blades like a stack of cards.
"Those two can revive each other," Kirin said. "We'll need to take them both down at once. Apollo, Cayman, hold your ground. BB, time for an exorcism."
"Leave it to the reaper," BB said. "Let's do it!"
The wave of undead came screaming around them, but BB summoned a procession of his own vengeful spirits against them. With their mantis-like blades and cloaks of burning wrath, the geists tore and scorched through the corpses. During this assault, Kirin zipped like lightning through the zombies, cutting a path to the chapel. As she flew toward her targets, the more aggressive Elise lunged at her with a knife in each hand. They clashed in the air and pushed off each other. However, before either hit the ground, BB dashed in and swung Kirin around to throw her back at Elise. Kirin and Elise crashed through a stained glass window depicting a bronze serpent on a pole while BB engaged the other Elise above.
Kirin and her target tumbled into the sanctuary and rolled apart. They stood next to the red-carpeted altar steps, the aisle between them. Kirin kept her sword drawn and held its tip ready for a thrust while Elise poised like a dancer with a backhanded grip on two knives.
"Well, priestess," Elise said, "want to try snake handling?"
"Sorry," Kirin said, "but this is more of a funeral church."
"Speaking of," Elise said. "Did I read those banners right, or have we been dead for thirty years? I guess everyone forgot about us, everyone but you, Kirin."
"I don't have time for this," Kirin said.
She lunged at Elise and feinted right before attacking left. Elise, however, danced around the attack and countered. They clashed blades with several rapid attacks and close dodges when Elise began to move up the steps. Kirin went for a thrust attack, but taking advantage of the higher ground, Elise hopped over the point and stepped on the blade. She slapped Kirin in the face with her tail, but as she followed up for a critical strike, Kirin swept her leg with the sheath and knocked her to a sitting position. Kirin followed this move with a heavy cut across Elise's cheek. Elise cried out and rolled back, but before Kirin could make another move, a zombie crashed through the nearest window and tackled Kirin off the steps. Now on top of her, the zombie snapped at Kirin's throat but chomped into her sheath instead. She shoved her sword through its neck and pushed it off.
Elise, now back on her feet, threw a barrage of knives at Kirin. Kirin deflected them all with her sword and sheath, but as they fell to the floor, the knives morphed into snakes at her feet. She hopped on top of the pews to avoid their strikes and slashed them from higher ground. While Kirin was busy with the snakes, Elise aimed a set of charged knives at her, but before she could throw them, a handlike wisp of phantasmal energy burst through the ceiling. Elise sidestepped it, but more ghost hands came reaching for her.
"Need a hand?" BB called through the hole in the roof.
"Do you?" Kirin responded.
"No way," he said, but his Elise jumped on him from behind. "Ok, maybe–"
BB held one of his scythes backhanded and struck Elise on his back. Weakening her grip, he threw her off.
"Nah, I got it," he said.
Trusting BB to handle himself, Kirin went back after her opponent. She tossed three talismans and arc chained straight to Elise. Her sword drew blood, but Elise retaliated with a vicious flurry of knife swings. The flashing blades flickered like fireflies in and out of Kirin's vision. She lost track of them. One stung her in the gut. Kirin winced but struck back. Her retaliation was less effective, however. Her sword only caught Elise's hood as Elise went low and swept Kirin's legs. While Kirin was on the ground, Elise straddled her and plunged a knife at her heart. Kirin dropped her sheath to grab Elise's hand. She felt a sharp pain as the tip of the knife punctured her skin, but she kept it from digging any deeper. However, as she raised her sword to run it through Elise's side, Elise's visors snapped down. Kirin's muscles tensed and locked in place; she was paralyzed.
Elise let pressure off the knife and pulled its point out of Kirin. She raised up and sighed as she slipped the sword out of Kirin's hand. More zombies, hungry to rip Kirin apart, flooded into the chapel, but Elise raised her hand. They suddenly halted their aggression.
"So," Elise said, "Day of the Dead, huh? What better occasion for the grand return of the queens of death?"
She twirled her knives and stuck them both into the carpet where they became serpents. Elise pushed Kirin's arms down, and the serpents wrapped around her to tie her arms to her sides.
"On a day like this, even dead souls feel the grief of the living," Elise said, "but who would have guessed that yours would be the gate to bring me back? But don't worry…"
Just as Kirin recovered from her paralysis, Elise wrapped her hands around Kirin's neck.
"I'll take you right to the ones you lost," Elise said. "There won't be any need for a priestess to guide souls now. They'll be my domain."
Kirin struggled, but she was totally restrained. Elise's thumbs were crushing her windpipe like a constrictor, and she had no way to fight it.
"I can feel spirits too," Elise continued, "better than you ever could. Hm… yours is slipping. Just let it go. Accept it."
Elise's sadistic purple eyes stood out more as Kirin's vision blurred and darkened. Kirin's lungs were screaming, but she felt none of the panic she had experienced earlier that morning. The only emotion flooding her veins was sheer burning rage. There was no "if" in her mind. What was happening simply could not be allowed to happen, and no matter how helpless she was, she would fight it with everything to the bitter end. Without oxygen, that bitter end was right at the threshold.
At that moment, part of the roof collapsed as the steeple came falling through it in two pieces. Its impact squashed some of the zombies like insects as BB and the original Elise came falling behind it. She flipped back to the opposite end of the chapel while BB glanced behind him.
"Kirin!" he said and whooshed to save her.
The alter Elise tried to hit him with her Gorgon Gaze too, but BB flew forward and knocked her off Kirin with a palm strike from his skeletal arm. Elise crashed against the back wall, and it began to collapse. Seeing the threat, BB scooped up Kirin and flew her back outside. While he lay Kirin in the grass, a zombie pounced at him, but Apollo pinned it to the ground with his needles and finished it with a dive kick. Cayman joined their defense around Kirin while the Elises landed by a particularly tall tombstone.
"Catch your breath, Kirin," Cayman said and pounded his fists together. "We can handle this."
"BB," Kirin gasped, "why didn't her gaze freeze you? Is it your Geist septima?"
"Maybe," BB, scratching his head, said, "but I probably wasn't looking at her eyes if you catch my drift."
"How profesional of you," Apollo sighed.
Meanwhile, the remaining zombies formed up around their mistresses.
"Do we have to keep fighting?" the original Elise said to the other.
"These burial grounds may be empty," the other said, "but there's no shortage of the dead to call upon. This country is practically built on top of them. Can't you feel them? All their sorrow…"
Kirin felt a change come over the air. As she struggled to her feet, she focused her spiritual perception on Elise. An aura was spreading like a crawling flame over her.
"Their despair," Elise continued with a twitch.
"Oh, god," Kirin said, "she's irradiated!"
The dragon radiation must have spread to her from G. She had been right next to him before Kirin was able to seal him. Unstable as her mind already was, she would have been highly susceptible.
"Their rage. Rage that you could ever forget them. That you would dare go and live happy lives after what happened to them. That you would bury their misery! But I hear them."
The light began to shine in her hands. Knowing what the light signified, the Dragon Saviors rushed at her together.
"Stay back!" the first Elise said.
Snakes formed from violet energy exploded from the ground and twisted around the Elises position, blowing back the Dragon Saviors.
"All you forgotten," the second Elise said while slowly raising her hands, "all you buried, drowned, and burned; your queens have returned. Our day has come, the dawn of sweet death. Rise."
She spread her arms, and a pulse went out from her. It shook the land well beyond the Dragon Saviors' range of perception. As the alter Elise cackled maniacally, the remaining zombies burst into purple goop and smoke. Both Elises disappeared.
"Shiron," Kirin said, "tell me she didn't do what I think she did."
"Kirin," Shiron said, "I think she did. Oh, hell no. Zombies are crawling out of every graveyard in the city. Wh-what do we do about this?"
Kirin's arms hung limp. Her face was deathly pale.
"This is my fault," she said. "I used her image pulse to cheat death, and it let her out. Now, she's spreading it to everyone, the death that was supposed to be mine."
"Steady yourself, Kirin," Cayman said.
"Yeah, don't talk like that," BB said.
"Kirin," Apollo said, "you never blamed GV for the primal dragons; you can't blame yourself for this. He didn't know what his power would do, and neither did you."
"Yeah, Kirin," Shiron said. "We need you right now."
Kirin brought her hand to her heart and took a deep breath.
"I did cause this," she said, "so it's up to me to fix it. We start with evacuations. Split up, and get civilians to safe zones. Call for help if you need it, and rendezvous at HQ when we've done what we can. Agreed?"
"Yes, ma'am," the others said.
. . . . . . . . . .
From the helipad atop a tall building, Elise overlooked the chaos spreading through the city. Smoke rose from several locations toward the clouds. The sun remained ominously red as its light dispersed through the cloud cover, much of which carried the threat of a coming storm. Distant sirens and blasts mingled with thunder to fill the air. One Elise smiled with pride at her handiwork.
"Did we really have to do this?" the original Elise said. "To hurt all these people?"
"Of course we did," the other said. "How else were we going to make them understand? This way, they'll know helplessness and fear. They'll realize what it's like to have everything taken from them."
"But, they're not all Sumeragi," the first said. "They weren't the ones who hurt us."
"They let it happen," the other said, "and they deserve to pay for their ignorance if not their apathy."
"I don't like all this killing," the first said.
"I told you," the other said, "it's different for us. It's not really killing if we bring them back. Death is only a door, and we hold the keys. Besides, we needed a show of force to establish ourselves as rulers."
"What if they all hate us?" the first said.
The second Elise sighed.
"Are you lonely, Elise?" the second said. "What am I saying? Of course you are. You are talking to the voices in your head after all. Here, I'll get you some friends, people who will be glad to serve you."
The second Elise raised her hand, and several figures emerged from the purple light. They gathered in a circle around the helipad like a mock round table bowing before their demon queens.