United Against Hate: Chapter 34

Come on. It’s time for you to wake up. You’re not dead yet and it’s not time for you to be reborn. The fights not over.

Cancer groaned. His head pounded. He didn’t want to get up. The ground was wet and cold and honestly very comfortable. But the more he internally thought about it, the more the rest of the world started to come back into focus. The pain in his chest, the fact that he could barely feel one of his arms, the smell of smoke, and the screeching in the distance.

He felt pressure on his arm and then sudden pain and his eyes jerked open. Snatching his arm back he stumbled, hitting the wall and gasped. He looked at his surroundings trying to clear the cloudiness from his head. It was a lot darker than he remembered but he realized that was because he was in a tunnel.  One side had light pouring down and the other was filled to the brim with broken stone and debris.

Coughing for a second, he looked at his side and saw Silva there. Her eyes had bled to black and part of a mask had formed over her forehead, like a crown. She looked at him and then back to his arm and nodded quickly. “Good. Your arm seems to be okay.”

“What happened?” he mumbled getting to his feet.

Silva shook her head and stood, “What didn’t happen?”

“That great huh?”

“What do you remember?”

“You starting your crazy spell and then a bright light.”

She nodded, “That’s about right. That light was a blast of magic the big demon fired at us. It destroyed the front gate and a good chunk of the city. The area we were in collapsed. We were going to drag you along but decided to fix your arm first.”

“Right. Thanks.” He reached toward his neck and the necklaces were still there ag. Sighing softly, he looked up and down the tunnel and he could still feel the ground shake.  “The big demon is near us.”

“Yeah no kidding,” Titanya said through Silva’s mouth. If he wasn’t so used to it, it would have been off putting.

“Where’s Badou and the others?”

“We don’t know,” Silva shook her head. “We’ve been more concerned with you. Now that you can walk on your own, we can get out of here.”

“What’s the plan once we’re top side?”

“Observe how bad things are then regroup with Badou and the others.”

Cancer nodded quickly. “Let’s go.”

He followed her lead as they followed the tunnel. The hole above them had also collapsed down but unlike the entrance, they could see the streets. They stopped quickly as they heard the echo of screeching. The nil were here which meant they had fully invaded the city. Cancer started to ready his katar when she put a hand in front of him.

“Let’s do this stealthily,” she held a finger to her mouth. With her other hand she waved it and light shimmered around them. It made Cancer shudder but when he looked at her, he didn’t think anything had changed. “Come on.”

“What did you do?” he asked but she was already climbing out.

Cancer scowled and climbed after her getting onto the street level. He didn’t know what he expected but it wasn’t this. Half the homes were collapsed and the ones that weren’t collapsed were on fire. Nil filled the streets and the ground was littered with the bodies of the citizens and soldiers of Noria alike.

Silva and he both paused and let themselves feel the pain and wretch at the sight.  He felt Silva’s hand at his wrist and he ended up squeezing her hand hard. Despite everything, they were still kids in a warzone.

A trio of nil scurried past them, low to the ground and Cancer tensed but Silva tightened her grip on his hand and shook her head. He looked at her but then he turned to look at them. “We’re being stealthy remember? Watch.”

He looked at her confused but watched as the nil passed them, skulking along like some sort of insects. They walked remarkably close to them but they didn’t look at or even acknowledge them. Raising his eyebrow, he frowned. “They can’t see us? Is that the spell you cast?”

“More or less,” she nodded. “The citadel is likely where they’ve retreated to for now.”

“Do we need to be touching for your spell to work?”

She looked at their hands and blushed, “No but it is more potent this way.”

“Hm. Okay. I’ve got an idea now. Zodiac Cancer.”

The stars filtered through his eyes and around the rest of his body. Doing it the second time was a little bit easier than the first and came like second nature. The presence of all the previous people of his namesake filtered through him and he felt their confidence.

Turning he moved quickly and swept her up in his arms. Before she could protest, he jumped landing in the ruins of one of the buildings then jumped again. She let out a shout of surprise and then held onto him tightly. “You could have warned us! We can fly you know!”

“It’s faster this way!” he said smirking.

Leaving the buildings, he ran and started stepping on small platforms of ice using them as a path above the city. Looking down he could see the thriving horde of nil and shook his head. They broke into homes, tearing through anyone who was still out in the streets. But they were going to the citadel which was a fortress within a fortress.

Silva looked over his shoulder and looked from where they had come. The wreckage of the wall, but more importantly the demon that had destroyed the wall. It was kneeling now, head bent, and almost pressed against the ground. Was it tired? Did it need to recover after what it did? She didn’t know. All she knew was that they had time.

Assuming they even had a fighting chance.

“Hey Silva, it looks like we’ve got some trouble coming.”

She looked down at first and only saw the throng of nil that weren’t paying them any mind. “Look up.”

Following the advice of her other half she jerked her head up and saw it coming their way. A winged nil floated toward them and it didn’t seem to focus on them specifically but it was definitely following their path.

She sat up slightly and grunted, “We should have thought this through sooner. It’s sensing whatever power you’re letting out.”

“What? But the others haven’t been reacting to me.”

“And not all of them have learned to fly either. The nil evolve and learn,” she said narrowing her eyes. Its red eyes glowed and then it flapped its wings and flew right at them.

“Should I get it?”

“No. We can handle it. Just get us to the citadel!”

“Got it!”

She sat up in his arms as he continued to run along the ice on the air. Raising one of her hands, the mask formed around her forehead and dipped to cover her eyes. The wind picked up and Silva pointed right at the nil. It flapped once or twice and then its wings were ripped to shreds and its face was torn asunder.

The elemental coasted on the air, a whirling mass marred slightly by smoke. It continued to float and then flew with them as they got to the citadel. It was a much smaller fortress and thus was surrounded by the nil. They were struggling even harder to break down these walls than they were the outer ones. Scaling them however, was proving to be fruitful.

As Cancer landed on the walls, they slid forward startling the soldiers, and got several weapons pointed toward them. But they recognized the two and turned toward the danger. Cancer turned quickly as a pair of nil leaped over the palisades. They snarled, sprinting at them as more nil climbed over the sides.

He conjured his weapons, a katar in one hand and both chakrams in the other. He threw them both slicing off the limbs of the demons. He turned and fired bullets redirecting them back into the back of one of the nil. The other sprinted at him angrily but claws ripped straight through its chest.

Heine spun around fully masked and leaped forward, kicking another off the edge of the palisade. They looked over the edge and saw more of the nil quickly climbing up. “Soldiers! Get the oil!”

They didn’t have to wait long as a group of four soldiers came rushing over, each dumping oil over the edge of the wall. Some of the oil hit the nil and made them slide back to the ground, others hissing in response and continuing the climb. A second pair came forward and thrust their hands down sending flames down the wall igniting the oil.

Heine watched them burn but saw that the majority of the horde was still moving. Just cautious now. Heine turned slowly going toward Cancer and Silva and the mask faded away. Roxanne looked at them her eyes wide and ears raising. “You two aren’t dead. Good.”

She leaned back and let out a sound like a mreow. It didn’t take long for a ripple to appear beside her and for Badou to slide out. He looked worse for wear but his eyes widened. “Roxie! You good? What’s the danger?” he said quickly looking at her.

But she shook her head and pointed. The king of Noria’s shoulders sagged as he looked at them. He rushed over and hugged them both, “You didn’t die. Man that takes a load off our heart.”

“We didn’t know you cared this much,” Silva said.

“It’s hard to kill us,” Cancer added.

“What’s the situation up here?” Silva asked and he took a step back. Badou gave a quick order to the soldiers to gather more oil while Roxanne took point.

“Shit,” Roxanne shook her head as she looked toward the other side of the citadel. “After the beam tore through the front gate, we had to full on retreat. Too much damage was done and we were overrun. The citadel is easier to defend but it’s our last defense. If that thing fires again, we don’t know if we can survive. We don’t even know where the others are. Not even Frost.”

“We can try the spell that we were going to use before,” Silva said quickly.

“Hopefully it doesn’t laser you again,” Cancer said shaking his head.

“If it does happen we’ll have you to protect us again,” she replied.

Before he could respond to that the wall shook. “Your majesty! You’ll want to see this!”

“Oh what fresh hell,” Badou mumbled as the four of them ran to the edge of the wall. They could see the nil gathering together but then they could see them breaking off and making groups. Groups where the nil looked like they were fighting each other.

“Are they infighting?” Cancer asked.

“That’s good news for us right?” Roxanne asked.

Silva’s eyes widened as she shook her head, “They’re not fighting.”

“They’re eating each other,” Badou whispered. And as he watched them, he could see a single mass starting to form. There were multiple of these groups occurring. One by one and they all came to the same conclusion together. “They’re growing. They’re going to create a demon as large as the one that broke down the gate.”

Weiss crouched looking closer at the demons and they snarled. “They’re moving fast. To think they would have learned how to do this. Or rather this is Daze’s doing. Motivating them.”

“Well that’s just great for us isn’t it,” Heine scowled behind the mask. “We’re cornered rats waiting to die.”

“We refuse to accept that,” Titanya looked at the other two demons. “There has to be something we can do.”

“You can all die. That would be simple enough.”

They froze at the deeply warped voice and turned slowly as the portal closed behind him. He was quick to move his sword, swinging right at Roxanne. Badou was quick to move, his black armor covering his skin and meeting the sword. He winced hard under the weapon but stood his ground.

“You’ve got a lot of nerve coming back here,” Badou growled his eye blazing brightly.

“And you’ve got a lot of nerve believing your power can stop me,” he shoved with the sword and sent him sliding across the rampart. Daze turned slowly and raised his sword quickly as Cancer attacked with both his katars. “So they weren’t all in the Sanctum then. A pity.”

“Yeah we didn’t need all of us to stop your demon army,” he almost boasted as he pressed harder.

“Is that what you believe? Maybe you should tell that to the burning corpses that I left behind.”

“What?”

Daze punched him hard lifting him off the ground and turned grabbing his face in his palm. He slammed him into the ground and shook his head. “I paid a visit to the Sanctum and made sure to raze it to the ground. They may or may not have been in the wreckage.”

The constellation burned around Cancer as he fired a solid line of water at his chest. The water pressure hit home but Daze just laughed as Cancer screamed, “You’re lying!”

“The Zodiac as you know them are dead,” he raised his hand and Cancer’s eyes widened as he suddenly couldn’t move. Daze raised his sword high and the black light manifested around him. He turned the blade around and shoved it deep into Cancer’s chest with a jolt of magic shaking the ground. “And now they’re all gone.”

“You’re going to die for that!” Roxanne said rushing forward and jumping at him.

He turned in a blur of speed and suddenly Roxanne hit the ground, her torso hitting the ground first and then her lower half hitting the ground second. “And who says you get to have a say in this?” Daze asked lowering the now blood soaked sword.

Badou stared at her body on the ground frozen in place. The power that wafted off him suddenly was enough to startle Silva. Before Badou could act, Weiss took over immediately, covering his face with the black material of the mask. Weiss sprinted at him and jumped forward kneeing him in the head.

Weiss’s claws swung fast and hard tearing through Daze’s armor, keeping him on the defensive. But Daze was laughing as one of Weiss’s claws sliced across the white aura that manifested around him. “Your claws won’t reach me Weiss. Did you forget who brought you into this world?”

“We may have been brought by you but our claws will make you leave it.”

Daze finally got his footing and then struck back even harder. He caught one of Weiss’s fists and black magic raced along their arm shredding it like blades. Turning Daze swung the demon into the ground and raised his hand to the sky. Lightning cracked and came down like the heated bolt of plasma it was.

It struck them in the chest and they jerked as the light flashed, covering Daze’s entire face. Weiss screamed and eventually it ceased. The mask shattered and Badou fell against the ground very still. The sword dug itself free of Cancer’s chest and flew into Daze’s waiting palm as he pointed at Silva.

“And then there was one.”

Silva took a step back and tripped falling over. Daze walked toward her slowly, crafting a second sword in his other hand. “First the Sanctum and then Noria. Eradicating this country is almost over. And you. A foreigner who has no understanding of what goes on here. You will die far away as a casual bystander.”

Silva’s mask formed over her face for a second and a spear of black light left their hand. Daze swatted it away like it was nothing. Turning both swords in his hands, he raised them when he froze. No freeze was wrong. It was more like he was moving in incredibly slow motion. So slow he might as well be moving still.

“What the hell?” Titanya mumbled as the mask came half of.

“Come now Silva. What did I teach you about illusions long ago?”

The mask faded away entirely as Silva’s eyes went huge, “They’re just a change in perception.”

“That’s right.” She looked to her side and he appeared like a wipe of a rag over a misty piece of glass. His tucked in black shirt, brown pants, and boots. His curly black hair was smoothed back and the inquisitive smile rested on his face though his black eyes were cold. “Are you alright Silva?”

“Uncle Alastor?” she said standing slowly. She looked around her and saw that Badou, Cancer, and the rest all disappeared into nothing. “What? How?”

“I managed to fool Daze with one of my illusions. Your friends are safe. As for how, my sister sent an SOS. And we latched onto your magic earlier and now we’re here.”

“We?”

Thunder clapped above their heads and lightning came down from the sky but instead of striking Daze, it stopped in front of him. And then it reformed into a man, blue hair electrified and his fist flying out. It collided with Daze’s face and sent him flying into the tower. Daze flipped, landing properly on his feet and flew back at his new assailant.

He brought his sword down and it collided with a trio of floating glass swords. Each one kept him back and Light turned back into his namesake, racing after him and unleashing lightning on him. Daze flipped his sword around taking the brunt of the blast and sliding backwards. He swung quickly and shattered the glass swords.

“Who are you two?” Daze asked carefully.

“Three actually,” A woman came down with a long ponytail, trinkets around her neck, and a few braided into her hair. “And who are we to introduce ourselves to you when we can leave it to them?”

“Thank you, Susan,” a portal opened behind them bathing them in white light. Slowly they both stepped out dressed in long white dresses and robes with similar silver and gold trimmings along the sleeve and length. Both their eyes were cold, almost ice blue as they stared at Daze. Madeline stared at him and shook her head, “But we will not be sharing any notion of pleasantries with this man.”

“Oh. And to what do I owe the pleasure of the faerie queens’ presence in my country.”

“I believe my wife was very clear,” Olivier said as white light appeared under Daze’s feet and formed a tight cage around him. She clasped her hands together and bars of light appeared within the cage pinning his arms against the walls to keep him from moving.

One of the orbs of the sword glowed and the light shattered as Daze raised an eyebrow. He glared at them and swept his sword back and forth slowly leaving a soft keening noise behind. “So that’s proper faerie magic. Interesting.”

Daze swung the sword and a wave of black magic washed over them. White light burst through, a shield erected by the faerie queens. Light jumped out of the sphere of magic and threw a hard punch at Daze. Daze blocked with the flat of his sword and Daze struck back with a swipe of his hand. But instead of striking him, it passed through the shimmer of air.

“Watch your back,” Light said elbowing him in the back and lightning exploded from the impact. Gritting his teeth together he whirled around to strike him when his sword arm was pinned down by white beams of light. He shattered them and turned back to the faeries sending a wave of black magic at them.

Madeline raised her hand and split it in half. Light appeared in front of him again and scored a solid punch under his jaw with a massive clap of thunder. Daze grit his teeth together and threw his arm to the side. The Light in front of him disappeared and he instead grabbed the real one by the throat.

“I’m growing tired of this game,” he growled.

Silva jumped forward, her arm already cocked back and scaled over with her full draconic form, “Who said this was a game!”

She brought her claws down hard and the white aura immediately covered his arm. But for whatever reason it disappeared as her hand came closer. Silva’s claws dug deep into his arm nearly severing it. He snarled dropping the spellcaster and jerking away from her.

He looked at his arm shocked, then back to her as she pressed her hands together and flames appeared at her fingers. She thrust her hands forward as the elemental reappeared and lunged at him. Daze gripped the sword with both hands ready to cut it down, but again the bars of light manifested around his arms slowing him down. It took all he had to raise his arm up and use the sword as a shield.

The fist collided with the flat of the sword and flames exploded behind it. When Daze slid backward, he nearly dropped the weapon. But in that lapse of concentration, a beam of white light slammed into the sword and threw Daze off his feet. He landed down on his knees hard. He looked at his sword and saw a hairline crack splitting the lower half of the sword and the top.

His eyes widened sharply and suddenly he broke into a fit of coughing grinding his teeth together. He looked at the assorted spellcasters around him as they approached. He could hear fighting beyond the walls and flashes of bright lights. His army of nil was being attacked by another, and by the sounds of the screeching, they weren’t winning. “You will not win Daze,” Madeline told him. “If you surrender, we may contemplate mercy.”

“But don’t bank on it,” Olivier added snarling and sending more bars of light his way.

Daze looked at each of them quickly and then the sword. He could hear a dark growl rumbling in his mind and coughed once more. “It seems you’ve pushed my back to a wall. But no matter. The Sanctum is finished. Noria is finished. I just need a bit more power.” He replied and opened a portal behind him. He stepped through it and it closed just as quickly as it opened.

Silva stepped forward and growled, “No! He escaped!” she turned quickly to Madeleine and Olivier. “Q’unas! We have to chase after him!”

“Relax o’lela,” Olivier said going to her and squeezing one of her hands. “We have our job here to defend this kingdom. He may have run but he’s a wounded animal. Shina will see that he falls.”