Chapter thirty-one: Disease is Among us

“Hahooo!” The mad woman leaps into the air for the clouds as they grace her with moisture and the water slides down her face. “I’m finally out of that shit-hole!” The fog from the void embraces her like a small tornado as she reaches for the sky and reconstructs her attire with its gust. She comes out of the living brume with new clothing. The breeze disappears to reveal her outfit of a black and red jumpsuit with a laced opening to expose her belly.

Intrigued by this woman’s control over the coliginosity, Dad approaches her with his inquiries, “I’m sorry, who are you exactly?”

Her massive blue hair turns with her in a great swoosh and sends a squirt of water off as she stares back to our group with a hunched back like a frightened rodent. “Shit, how long have I been in there?” She comes up to Father again and extends her hand for a greeting. “The name is Ari Stuki, wife of the amazing Star-Maker Roukuu.”

Uncle Roukuu’s a star maker!?

Father is taken aback from her words. “A-Ari, the Lady Ari, Goddess of War? You disappeared after the fall of the Hengengnadr Era! So I’ve heard, at least.”

Ari straightens herself in confusion. “Era?” The two stand there in silence with the sky tearing up to fill the gap, but not to dissolve their puzzlement. Suddenly, she grabs him by the coat and pulls him in very close to her face. “How long have I been in there!?”

Dad stutters to answer her question. “Uh-well, you missed all of the Crenhis Era, and the first two thousand years or so of this era, the Fupum Era.”

As I watch the two explain things to each other, my vision suddenly shows me the field distancing itself from me. Not too long after, I feel the ever-unbearable pain of my back crashing into a large rock that’s hiding in the trees. Not comprehending what just happened, I try to sit up from the wreckage, but the pain impedes me. It causing me to upchuck some blood from my mouth.

Uncle Kakashin leans over me and relays a few words, “Vila, my party was sent to dispose of Sommi and his gang then bring you back.” He opens one side of his cloak to grab something and pulls out my sheathed sword then hands it to me. “We have to fight, so make it look real.”

Still unsure of what’s happening, I take back my weapon and watch Uncle raise a great scythe over his head.

With his body overshadowing mine, he prepares a deadly over-head strike and warns me, “Block.”

With no pause to process this, he charges the blade down upon me and I manage to block the staff part with my scabbard. I can feel the blade barely dig into my scalp as it pierces into the pillar.

My eyes open from the surprise and I look at him with fear. “I thought this was gonna be fake!”

“Fatal wounds won’t kill you.” Uncle keeps his gloom personality. “Roll.”

I do as he says and lose my position on the broken boulder to roll and land on one bended knee. “I’ll have you know then, my experience with fighting is poor.”

Uncle focuses a dark prowess into the large blade of his sickle and cuts through the rock like paper. The blade swings in a circular motion for the staff part to lean on his shoulder as he puts his statement bluntly, “I can tell.”

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Back with the others

Zaru blocks a heavy punch from the man who carries and great belly. “Where did these guys come from!?” He does his best to keep his distance from the beast despite the loosening gravel beneath him.

“These are the jerks who wanted Oumi!” Haru gains some feet from her animal-lady-nemesis.

A massive blade juts out of the large man’s belly from behind. After pulling it out and letting the body fall, Ari reveals her enormous buster sword with its articulate blade and edges. “Why are you people so useless!?”

“We don’t exactly have our weapons anymore, genius!” Caru explodes in her anger before knocking out the pale one with her fist.

Ari calms her nerves and replies nonchalantly, “Fair enough.” She raises her sword over her head and thrusts it down to behead the mammoth man. “Now stay dead.”

“Brother Kan, no!” Hiroko bursts forth from the trees and charges Ari with his small dagger. A battle cry screams from his enlarged mouth as he attempts to revenge the death of a comrade.

Euna follows behind him with a knife in hand as well.

Ari turns her head with a glare of pure hatred towards the hallowing children and makes them stop in their tracks. Her look causes them to step back in fear and eventually run in the other direction back to the hiding spot in the bushes.

Zaru, however, decides to take his chances with the woman who’s been giving Haru trouble and manages to tackle her from behind. He wraps his arms around her neck as she squirms and snaps it easily.

Tetei’s body splashes into a formed puddle from the rain.

“Let’s keep that guy and the kids alive.” Pick points to the pale man that Caru took care of in a matter of minutes. “He might know what’s going on.”

The said prisoner quickly kicks Caru in the back and causes her to fall over. He then forms a black spear in his hands and readies to stab Caru with it. His faded grey eyes stair at Zaru with hatred as he spits out his words, “I’m gonna make you regret killing my brother!” Several black shards suddenly penetrate his torso and he grunts with pain.

Sommi stands in the back of the group with the same black shards hovering behind him in a circular formation. His green eyes glow in the misty and moist air with the look of serious intent to kill the man. With a calm and hostile voice he speaks, “You must be a part of the orphan project I’ve been hearing about.” He raises a hand towards the pale man and makes the shards in him push him farther away from Caru. The shards hide within the man’s body and then puff out through him like little balls of gas. Despite his agonizing screams, Sommi refuses to cease his glare of content and commands the dark spheres to tear his body apart viciously.

Zaru stomps his way over to Sommi and catches his attention with a forceful tap on the shoulder. “Hey, don’t you think that was a bit excessive?”

“Do you know what a holin is?” Sommi’s obverse remains serious.

Zaru becomes baffled from his question. “What; yeah, I grew up in Catherr. They’re dark shadowy creatures who feast on-“

“No,” Sommi’s tenor becomes sterner, “Do you know what they actually are, where they come from?” His gaze strains from Zaru to accompany the mud beneath them. “It’s like-a disease-that they contracted from ingesting blood from a Stuki.”

Everyone gathers in silence around him.

“What are you talking about?” Pick tries to get the information out of him.

Sommi lets the raindrops continue their journey from the heavens to refrain from answering.

Zaru loses his patience again and snatches him by his coat to bring the man close to his face. “Stop stalling! What the hell are you talking about!?”

The man’s eyes look to the pale man to give some sort of sign. “They’re infected with the same disease that creates holins. They’re in the early stages.”

Caru breathes out the word from her wet lips quietly, “What?”

Sommi can feel the grip on his cloak loosen a bit. “All of these people that we fought-are currently going through the stages of becoming a holin.” He looks back to Zaru with the intent to get the message through. “This is the real reason that the Blood War of 903 started.” His voice slightly crumbles as he advances with his line, “And it’s all my fault.” Harsh crackling echoes from the woods and an army of holins emerge. “Looks like the littles ones called for back-up.” The words come from Sommi’s lips dryly.

The mob starts charging after the Duahe group with teeth bared and screeches of blood-lust exploding from them.

They do their best to ward off the sickly creatures with what little that they have, but Ari and Sommi have most of the fighting done.

Tetei, the cat woman, comes back from the dead and continues her brawl with Haru. She thrusts her claws to Haru and screams out her vengeance, “Now you’re gonna die!”

The army is becoming too much for everyone to handle and the sky pours out a greater storm to unleash its furry.

“Zaru!” Sommi calls out with the sky darkening and the holins gaining the better hand.

Zaru responds and manages to find him in the thick with his shards blasting through the shadowy figures.

As soon as Zaru gets close enough, Sommi pulls him in by the shirt and gives him a morose glare. “You find my daughter, and you protect her with your life; understand!?”

“I already made a promise to her.” Zaru removes Sommi’s hand and socks a punch to an intruding holin.

Sommi gathers a multitude of black shards and makes a small path through the mob. “Now go find her! I don’t know who she’s dealing with!”

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Over in the distance with Vila

While keeping on the defense against my fake battle with my favorite uncle, I hear the sounds of unholy monsters wailing far off to where I think the others are.

“Keep your focus,” Uncle captures my attention again. “You’re the one we need alive.”

“That’s a little heartless; don’t you think, Uncle?” I try to make some cool action and swing a few kicks at him. My shirt and pants are all torn up now from all of this animation and they’re now practically useless for covering my body.

He simply blocks them with the staff of his scythe like my hits mean nothing. “We have to fake your death as well, so that you can be off the radar for a while.” He kicks me harshly in the gut and sends me flying backwards.

My body doesn’t want to move anymore from all the not-so-nice blows he’s given me so far. “Okay, fine. How are we gonna do that?”

I hear Uncle’s boots plop their way over to me in the mud as he relays the plan to me, “I’ll send your consciousness to a friend of mine, he’s somewhere in the void, you should be safe with him.” He stands over me again with the clouds above, chanting to him by pouring more rain on us. His billhook swings to the back of his head like before and readies another deadly strike. “Don’t worry, this won’t kill you.”

I see the blade coming down and my instincts don’t wait to react. My hands come up to block and obscures my vision.

Just in time, someone jumps in and shields me with their body over mine.

I take my arms away from my face to see who saved me without thinking about the blade going through them and piercing into my ribcage slightly.

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A distance away in Erekin

The hospital of Erekin humbly towers over the city and allows Tethalia to shine over it. A room on the first floor at the end of a hallway stays closed off from the rest of the building. On the propped-up bed lays the defeated Ruus who’s stripped of his mobility. His head slowly turns to the glass of water that sits complacently on the lamp desk near his bed. His great thirst beats away the logic of it being so far and commands his arm to rise. The limb sends pain throughout his body as it stretches out to reach the quencher of his dry mouth. No matter, his will forces him to solve the dehydration.

Before Ruus can make it halfway to the water, a grey hand forms out of the shadows that hide from the light of the window from his right side. It takes the glass away and Vensen maneuverers his way into the visible spectrum from the window around the bed with the glass close to his core. “Hello there determined one.” The smoothness of his tone comes back as a slithering snake with its hypnotic hiss. His bare feet swiftly stride along the tiles around the mattress further into the light for Ruus to witness him fully. “It’s a shame to see you so-humiliated. If only there was a way I could end your suffering.”

“Away from me demon!” Ruus spits out his words while steadily keeping his head’s movements to follow Vensen.

The shadowy creature approaches the foot of the bed. Vensen tilts his head in amusement with an easy smile. The words ooze out from his dark lips with the taste of honey for the quiet to slip into the atmosphere, “Oh Ruus…” His body comes closer to the bed, covering Ruus’s numb legs as his hands press into the mattress on either side of his torso firmly. Vensen’s grin grows intensely and the glow in his eyes illuminate with passion. “If only you knew what I was capable of.”

“Nurse!” Ruus calls out for his rescuer to relieve him of his intruder, “Nurse! Nurse!”

The beloved nurse cracks open the door with an attitude of annoyance. “Yes, I have your pai-“ She jumps irregularly to the sight of Vensen leaning over her patient and gasps.

Without removing his gaze from the young man, Vensen raises a hand and motions his fingers upwards lazily.

The nurse’s head tears off of her body with ease. Her blood gushes out from the opening of where her main organ used to be and her lifeless frame plops to the floor like an abandoned doll. Once her body falls, the door closes shut with her inside the room and clicks to indicate that it’s been locked.

“Ruus,” Vensen’s deep and captivating voice causes Ruus to dart his eyes to dart back to the antagonist of his life. “I need you to do something for me.”