Yu giggled as the wilted Tarukan became smaller and smaller until nothing but a very small spec of a seed was left in it's place giving off heavy death energy, "Little hope, that's your name now."
Yu let it land on her palm before it began floating around her like a moon orbiting a planet, she looked at the little orbiting seed with bright eyes, "Little Hope... are you sure?"
Sure about what? What are they talking about...?
Huh? That noise...
I turned around my sabers unsheathed and muscles taut.
Shion looked slightly confused but quickly stood beside me with her rapier prepared, the tip shined against the rays of sunlight from between the tree leaves.
Countless Tarukan's began to appear through the woods all around us, in the woods far away I can feel the intense fire fight occurring between the Tarukan's and the Fairies.
It appears that the fairies were prepared for the assault and didn't tell us anything of it.
Seeing the near hundred blind and shambling Tarukan's I tensed slightly.
I've never fought so many without the support of my army.
Even on that bloody day at the gates, I had the supporting archer fire and it wasn't for a long time holding that front gate.
But this... is on all sides.
It's going to become very dangerous, very fast.
The Scarlet Qi in my veins moved gently through my body circulating as though an untouched stream with a storm above, prepared for the heavy rains.
Shion was much the same, albeit her qi being Scarlet Qi, was different from mine though not necessarily weaker.
It was a difference of the experiences we had had which shaped it differently from one another.
Carved in the depths of her eyes was a crimson horizon.
I smiled involuntarily my lips tugging upwards as I spoke, "So... about all of this?"
Yu who had been preoccupied talking to Little Hope, looked up and finally noticed the hundred and gathering Tarukan's all around them in their silent stance.
"More siblings!" Yu's little heart pounded and her smile lit up the clearing like lanterns on a pitch-black night, "Come!"
The Tarukan's began coming forward, Shion and I remained still with our weapons free making them stop just a little ways away.
"You're scaring them!" Yu flew over and sat on the edge of my saber looking straight into my eyes, "They are like me, but born of nature!"
Like me but born of nature? These are... Darklings? Or death fairies? What's a good name... Darklings sounds good, but this is the form before they properly become Darklings, Tarukans.
I put down my sabers, after all, the Scarlet Qi is emphasized by its ability to act at the drop of a hat, so simply putting them down is no issue.
Shion lowered her rapier and quietly looked around, her eyes darting through the crowd of Tarukan's like searchlights.
The fighting got closer, the Tarukan's rushed forward.
Yu giggled and passed by the Tarukan's giving them head pats or brushing by them, each time she touched one, they would begin to wither and wilt away leaving only a floating seed that would fly to her side.
She gave them all names which I couldn't hear for the life of me since I was looking and focusing forward towards the sounds of battle.
It must be a brutal fight for it to be like this, and explosions?
Explosions... can fairies make things explode?
Ah...
"I'll be right back." I said lightly and sped off leaving Shion to keep Yu safe in case the Tarukan's got violent.
Passing by the tree's like wind through leaves I arrived at the outskirts of the Thousand Wing Gulf's village, unlike normal villages, this wasn't in a clearing.
The small fairy homes were stuck to the tree's or even within them, this place had been forbidden before but now it is the place where the explosions are centered.
Without hesitation I passed through the charms they have up, burning them with my Scarlet Qi and revealing the inner sanctum of the Thousand Wing Gulf.
///
What... is this?
"Get out! The forest... it's going to go berserk! An unnatural elemental is being born!" An older fairy yelled as she herded the newborns out of the inner sanctum, her face pale and wings glittering like moonlight erecting a staunch barrier against the waves of unnatural energies rising from the pool at the center.
Hm... I glanced around at the newborn fairies terrified faces and sighed.
...the decisions of their elder's shouldn't be placed on their shoulders.
Ah... my life.
"Dratan."
"Oh? A Death Elemental? Rare, very rare. Elementals are born from the gathering of extreme energies like death. To create such a strong Elemental... well, even I was never the cause for such a thing." Dratan stood on my head peering over the pool where tendrils of black mist rose and spun, a figure briefly visible within, "Twenty-five? Maybe thirty..."
Twenty-Five maybe thirty what? Hundred? Thousand?
As though reading my mind Dratan scowled, "Million. This forest... the beings rising from this pool is likely the accumulation of deaths over the centuries. What the hell are the fairies doing allowing it to build up so far?!"
What?!
"Uoooooo!!!!" A deep, threatening shout pervaded over the inner sanctum and the remaining charms shattered, the tree's withering at breakneck speed.
From the pool a hand reached through, clawed and rotting.
That...
"...Amiya..." My mouth moved before my mind, I shivered.
My eyes flickered violently, finding that it wasn't Amiya, the eyes are not the same, the hands are different and even the hair is not the real color to mention... she would be nothing but bone by now.
She killed me after death, there is no way she could... she could...
Ah.
Damn.
The creature stepped out of the now festering pool of disgusting juices, bubbles forming and popping creating a disgusting black mist that immediately turned the ground black like an infestation.
Dratan's eyes narrowed, "Elementals are both calamities and boons. These Empires all have elementals at the center of their militaries alongside their Grand Masters, this one is... it's feral."
I took a half step forward, red trails appeared in front of me as Dratan released his Scarlet Qi creating a thick barrier that seemed to be slowly melting.
Boom!
My head flicked back that noise... it's in the direction of Shion and Yu!
In the sky above dark clouds of terrifying mist had begun to gather forming a tornado which had no pull on the material world, but was destroying the natural energies and killing everything around it.
The fairies had by now pulled away and I could feel the beginnings of some sort of formation using the connected life forces of the forest coming to life beneath my feet.
A terrible sense of danger arose.
They're going to sacrifice everyone left here...?
Damn it.
Glancing back once at the creature as it's bones crackled and it's mouth hung open spewing the toxic mist I frowned and sped away.
For now, that thing can be left to the side.
"Shion! Yu! What's going on?!" I crashed through the forest arriving at the small clearing.
Countless dots of pure black swirled around Yu, dark powers coiled around Shion, her entire body enveloped into a familiar barrier.
"Get away! Yu is... evolving!" Shion shouted back in Yu's place.
Before going under, Yu had told her and then spoke no more.
With the appearance of the Death Elemental her situation had begun to spiral as the intense Death Energy rising from the forest increased severalfold.
At this very moment, it was like Yu and the Death Elemental were fighting for dominance over the recourse called 'Death'.
Behind me, there was a familiar crunch.
I moved without turning back and a hand with sharp claws cut the space where my heart was just a moment before.
Had I been slow, I would have died.
The ground began to light up with green light.
"Uoooo!!!" The Death Elemental threw it's head back and screamed sending me sprawling, the intense power of death rolled off it in waves suppressing my Scarlet Qi which is even now trying to burn away the Death Qi and push it out, it is far stronger than anything I've ever fought!
This...
Its head lowered and a guttural growl rang through the clearing, the Tarukan's rose from the forest floor like the sludge of a tar pit.
Their bodies looked heavy and uncoordinated, eyes lit up by lantern-like lights peered through the sludge focusing on me.
The Death Qi stuck to my body was being burned away extremely quickly lest I be overrun by it and melt away like ice cream in a desert, so in their eyes, I likely look like some sort of a torch in a vast dark.
...I'm boned.
Raising the two sabers, my scarlet qi roared violently clashing with the death qi trying to invade into my body and melt my organs.
Dratan raised his head and howled causing a quake to spread like a wave of purifying fire which culled the Death Qi.
He growled, his lips curled back and his eyes like slits, "Some little elemental dares... to go against the scourge of the exiled court? The one who defies the deities? You dare... harm my kin?"
At that moment, Dratan seemed to grow several feet turning into something akin to half his previous size, his fur tantalizing.
The Death Elemental screamed.
Tarukan's charged forward, though they were slow, unbearably so, their legs seemingly stuck to the ground as they passed over the infested land.
"Yu!" My eyes swiveled and found Shion holding Yu, but it was not the same small Yu.
She was about twice as large, maybe three apples tall.
Her clothing has changed as she wore a bright white dress like a small goddess.
The storm of death energy around her had turned white as her dress akin to bones whilst the Death Elemental was akin to the abyss.
As I looked back, Dratan was fighting fiercely against the Death Elemental holding his own but if one looked closely, his form was slowly becoming smaller.
Trails of mist dragged off the ends of his fur.
'Hey! Don't just stand there like an idiot! Subjugate this thing!' Dratan's voice came to life in my head as his Soul Heart around my neck vibrated, 'Don't hesitate! As long as my Soul Heart is in tact, I'll come back! Now go! Make it yield while it's weak!'
The sabers in my hands lit up with Scarlet Qi like the flames off the end of a terrible heaven devouring fire.
I made my move.
My sabers twisted through the air cutting a path through the Tarukan's which were trying to touch me with their slow hands and heavily toxic death energies.
What the-!
Yu flew past me at breakneck speeds, her body becoming like a white phantom as she burrowed directly into the Death Elementals side.
Strange, unfamiliar energy exploded to life within the Death Elemental at that moment.
It let out a bloodcurdling scream sending Dratan sprawling back.
Kicking hard against the infested earth I arrived just in time to catch him though were were both thrown to ground by the overpowering waves of this strange energy which felt like it would steal away ones breath at a touch.
"Curse! It's a bloody curse fairy! You lucky dog!" Dratan roared as his eyes threatened to fall out of his eyes.
Curse Fairy? What are you-!
The energy of death began to condense into a single point, the wound where Yu had burrowed in from.
Without a second thought, I charged forward.
If she gets stuck inside such a place, even if she is a Death Fairy, she is still a living being and will suffer within.
My sabers erupted with Scarlet Qi exactly half a breath before reaching the Death Elemental.
Sliiiit...
The Death Elementals body opened as it's top and bottom half was cut apart.
Precisely at the moment, I saw Shion standing behind the screaming Death Elemental, her rapier burned with Scarlet Qi as she pierced straight through all of it's vitals in only a single breathe, completely cutting any logical chances of survival before it had even hit the ground.
Yu stood covered in pitch-black blood with a small ball, like the seeds of the Tarukan's but slightly larger, in her hand.
She opened her mouth.
My eyes widened, "Don't put that in your mouth-!"
Crap.
Anddd.... there it goes.
Yu's face brightened and she rubbed her stomach.
The ground beneath us gave off violent natural energy and the green light erupted from the roots and into the tree's leaves making them shine beautifully, yet the abundance of nature qi wasn't painful and Yu seemed to even feel comfortable.