The Patriarch of the Zao Sect walked around Hana. "Let us clear this quickly, raise your aura." He stopped while in front of her, there was no malice in her actions but her aura said otherwise.
"This disciple would like Patriarch to would allow me to set up an isolation formation." Hana kept looking forward, unafraid.
"Oh? Okay then." Waving his hand, a barrier came up. "Go on then."
Hana smiled and unclenched.
Concentrating, she brought her aura to its limit. It was like 20k Kilos were slamming down, the dust bounced instead of wafting. The air was clear and a nearby chair crumbled. "Good good. Good. You can stop whenever you're sure you've gone to your peak."
Hana pulled out a small jar and a drop of blood came out. It was one of the first bottles concentrated with the light elemental essence. When it opened, the Patriarch reached out and covered the top with his hand. "No need child. Please. Release your aura and calm down. I mean you no harm." With his hand on her shoulder, she paused and extinguished the raging aura. The tyrannical pressure that was crushing the room faded like it was a lie but Hana's Aura was still giving off large amounts of murderous intent. "Hmm, Child. You are one of the Core Disciples. I saw you in your exhibition matches at the Disciple Selection Tournament. Your power was not at this level, what has happened to you in these last few weeks?"
"Disciple has come to the Elders, after being stopped at the gate. I was attacked earlier, beasts devoured my attacker." She brought out the body parts and laid them on a mat. "I have missed my classes today. I hope that the Patriarch can explain this to my Teacher, sparing this Disciple."
'Cunning young ones, this keeps happening, they keep getting younger.' Patriarch Ooran stroked his beard while he looked at the mangled remains. 'Are those Teeth marks? So many.' Coughing to break the tension, he collected them into his storage. "You have done well to survive an attacker, how did you escape the Beasts?"
"The Beasts didn't seem to show interest in me, perhaps he angered them?" Hana responded with a half question, she continued. "This is not the first attacker, the first time, it was a Minotaur."
"You say this has happened more than once, you get attackers often?" He didn't leave much pause between his words. Patriarch Ooran dismissed the barrier and called out, "Guzhe, Come out and escort this disciple to the situation room. Wait for me there." A small device came out of his storage, he pressed a button and a projection of a spell circle fell to the ground in front of him. He threw several charged crystals into the formation and stepped into it, vanishing.
A Shadow wrapped around Hana, it was black for a moment and she could feel something strange moving her. When the black disappeared, she was rising from the floor in a different section of the Castle. There were stealth soldiers undergoing a debrief, she sat down and listened.
"..the dead, its possible that our reports have gotten confused but its also highly unlikely. The Demon Queen Vira aims to keep her position and throne, she doesn't advance because of the Emperor. I think its time we seek out allies, maybe we can end this war." A lieutenant spoke with authority over his area, his co captains agreed. A flash appeared on a platform to the side. Formations charged and a few crystals were consumed.
Everyone in the room stood up. "Patriarch!" Standing at attention, all of the soldiers did their best to keep composure. It was a big deal to them, normally reserving himself for matters of state, the appearance of the Patriarch showed exactly how big of a problem it was.
"Silence." with a quick command, the patriarch stopped their chatter. There was much to be said and it was important that they all listen with their best ears. "I have brought you all here, and come personally to make sure that you get an understanding of what is at stake. Fifteen Disciples have gone missing. All of them have a similar trait, all of them were inner core disciples that were children of the Espers." The patriarch pointed at Hana in the back and motioned for her to come up. "This child, this disciple has killed two of her attackers. We will hear what she has to say on the matter."
"Ehh?? Me?" 'Why, what the hell?' her face showed her unease, she rubbed her arm a bit. "The first one was a Minotaur, the second.." She looked to the Patriarch and he pulled out the remains. "I was lucky with the second attacker, he was torn apart by beasts. They didn't seem interested in attacking me and I was able to leave." She thought about it some more. "Both of them kept muttering, twitching and seemed like they had lost their minds. One of them spoke about Blood, he pursued me all night."
"You mean you evaded his attacks for an entire night? Why didn't you come back to the Sect?" Elder Gosthan had questions, he interrupted Hana with a question.
Hana nodded, It wasn't like she was lying. Guilt free, she pulled out the blood soaked shard of the Minotaur Ax. "The first attacker actually killed himself, when I captured him fro questioning, he stabbed himself in the throat. With this." She tossed it onto the floor. "I keep becoming the target, perhaps I meet a higher part of their criteria."
"You believe it is a they?" a voice came from the back.
"I killed two of them, of course there is a they. Just who are they? Do any of you have answers about who they might be? Speculation even." Hana knew she was pressing buttons she probably shouldn't, the looks on the Elder's faces and the Stealth team left her little to guess. "I'm going to assume I'm right." She crossed her arms and stood next to the Patriarch, her demeanor confused the group a little.
Patriarch Ooran told her to sit down and started to explain. "The first child to be abducted was the Princess of the Sect, Xue. Her Twin Sister Xi was killed during the Act. We never caught her killer but we caught up with Xue before her death." The recount made him grimace and mince his words. "Darkwing."
When he said the word, the other Elders hung their heads somewhat ashamed of their loss.
"We have never stopped searching for him, he hides among the Qilin to the south. There are many wild beasts and the Qilin tribes. We can't even approach." Patriarch Ooran was walking toward Hana, he touched her wings and something came over him.
His eyes grew watery.
"Child, You are a Core Disciple. It is not your duty to matter with such things. However, as their intended target, at least twice already, you have a chance none of us do. You have wings and an incredible aura, one I suspect is quite oppressive to beasts."
He was speaking, everyone was listening intently for the next word when an oppressive and radiating aura, different altogether, broke through the barrier. It caught everyone's attention. The Patriarch stepped onto another pad and called the room to follow.
Hana stepped onto the pad.
They disappeared and appeared on the roof. A bright pillar of red swung into the air, at its base, a large red creature was being attacked. Hana knew exactly what was going on, her wing's spread and she flew off the Castle toward the gate.
"CAOIMHE!" Hana's words arrived a few moments before she did. The student's that were surrounding the large red beast were grappling it with a net. Hana started kicking them down and after she had kicked enough of them Caoimhe broke free. A thick blood aura spread out and everyone except for Hana fell to the floor. The guards that approached were unable to lift their hands from the ground, weighted and drained of strength.
Wild Red Heart was circulating without her intervention. Hana could feel the blood in her body pulse and her eyes were red with anger. Some of the students that were attacking Caoimhe were the same that Hana had just rescued. "HOW DARE YOU!" Hana's rage was uncontrollable, her wings burst into flames and blood circulated around her.
Caoimhe's Aura burst alongside Hana and the City gates blew off their hinges, flying toward the Castle and lodging themselves in the wall hundreds of meters away. The pillar of red grew into the sky and the clouds cleared. Sunlight fell down, a dense heat began to bake the surroundings and Hana took a step forward, inching herself toward the leader of the group that had attacked her friend. The meeting beforehand had taught her a tragic past, her cousins were killed and she had only just learned about it. Tears filled her eyes and ran down her face, clearing the blood from her cheeks.
"I WILL NEVER FORGIVE.." Hana's aura soared and then her head began to ring, it felt exactly like the backlash she suffered earlier... "No.. Not now... Not... NOW!" Hana spread her arms out and burst fifteen bottles of blood around her. There was a scent in the air and her energy began to stabilize. Huffing in place, a spike of crystal formed in front of her to a razors edge. It flew toward the student and created a thunderclap in its wake, breaking the sound barrier and kicking up dust.
He was only a dozen meters away, in that instant, he was sure he was dead. As he blinked, the Patriarch stood in front of him and bore the brunt of Hana's attack.
"WHY!!" Hana's aura soared and she knelt down crying while her Aura rose. "WHY. ARE. YOU. PROTECTING. HIM!" Her words were broken by her sobbing, Caoimhe brought her head toward Hana and wrapped itself around her. Throwing a death stare at the Patriarch, even he felt terror.
Patriarch Ooran motioned to the others to move back. The Stealth Corp Commander, Guzhe, flashed and appeared next to him. "Orders?"
"Get everyone else out of here, Do not interfere with this creature again or I will let her kill all of you." Patriarch Ooran seemed to grasp Hana's situation. "NOW!" He turned and yelled at them all. A device came out of his storage, he clicked a few buttons and projected another formation to the ground. There was enough energy to keep it running just hanging in the air but he didn't have the proper formation flags for that, He threw out a pool of elemental essence and a bright opaque barrier surrounded them.
He sat down on the ground on the edge of the space alone with Hana and Caoimhe. "Child, we are alone. No one will harm you. Please hear the sound of my voice and calm down."
"HOW. CAN. I. CA. CALM DOWN." She was struggling to keep herself from crying out loud.
"One breath at a time. There really is no other way. So this creature is your friend?" He stayed where he was and chose his words wisely. There was a real threat in front of him, Caoimhe's presence complicated a lot of things.
"Ye-shes but that's not why.." Her voice got smaller and her aura slowed its uptake a bit. The Patriarch could feel the pressure lessening as moments passed. He waited and she spoke again. "That's not why. I'm sorry.." Her crying fit continued but the tone had changed.
"Whatever it is, we can get through it together. Just take a few slow breaths and tell me about it. Okay." He held his position and stood up.
Caoimhe was taking her cues from Hana, the death glare feigned slightly and the pressure from her aura lowered.
"That's a very good friend you have, both of you. Truly, it is rare to see such a bond. No harm will come to you. This I can promise. Please, tell this Old man all about it." There was an innocence to the Core Disciple in front of him that he just couldn't walk away from, it was important to keep her in a good state of mind, grief turns to terror very quickly.
"Xue. Xi. They were the first.." Her sobs revealed a hidden question and the Patriarch's heart sank for a moment when he heard their names.
֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍