Hana flew closer and started to cough, there was a thick cloud of smoke in the air as she approached. "Fire?" Hana swooped down and saw the littered bodies of the townsfolk. 'Its not a fire!' Scanning the area, she found the source of the fires.
There was a group of mercenaries at the edge of town, they were shooting flaming arrows and blanketing the town from outside. 'A Siege?' Hana's curiosity got the better of her and she maintained distance in the air. The group hadn't taken notice of her arrival and she flew overhead.
'Despicable bastards' Hana flipped through the contents of her storage ring and found several substances to mix together. 'This should be enough.' Hana used her ability to combine the materials and then dropped them from on high.
The powdery concoction drifted below her and puddles were the only preparations the mercenaries could make before their agonizing deaths. A strong wind carried the toxins away and Hana landed to search the spoils. The townsfolk were all dead, those that had tried to escape, except for the boy, had been executed immediately.
A flash appeared next to Hana and she instinctively swung her hammer. Dissait put up a shield and saved his life, he shouted. "It is me!"
"Oh." Hana reeled the hammer back and put it away.
"I have checked the perimeter to look for others, there are no survivors." He was positive and confident in his ability to track.
Hana didn't question it and gathered anything that looked useful. Raiding the houses that hadn't burned down, Hana found several books on their history that didn't look well written. "The Elder probably took care of everything here regarding history." Hana searched the largest tent, it was likely the chief's home.
There was a box underneath a body with an arrow in its face. She moved it and opened the box, there were five scrolls. 'Dying for a scroll? What a waste!' Hana took them and the body away.
"Dissait, how easily can you dig a pit?" Hana didn't want to leave the bodies to rot in the suns, even though she had avenged their deaths, to leave a corpse in the sun was akin to creating a spiteful or angry ghost in the future.
He looked around and roughly counted the bodies. "This many dead, it will take me an hour if I use my hands."
"Never mind, gather all the bodies and help me stack them together, I will burn the bodies." Hana gave an order and Dissait followed. In a matter of minutes the bodies of the villagers had all been laid together in a neat pile. "Please stand back."
Hand readied herself, flew into the air and started to collect the fire from her wings into a massive fireball in front of her. Black flames mixed with the white, giving it a tumbling and visual effect.
A prayer left her lips, one her mother had taught her. 'No longer, lost but not forgotten, I shall walk for you in the future. Rest, be at ease and be free. I bring you light, and send you on your way..'
'Exorcism?' Dissait watched Hana perform a ritual typically reserved by the Onmyoji. Some speculation about Hana's real identity started spinning around in his head but none of that mattered, the mission was simple enough, protect her at all costs.
There was a bright flash on the pile of bodies and then Hana released the fireball from her hands.
It drifted slowly like a falling star onto the corpses, a great pyre of fire rose into the sky and the village saw its last flickers of life disappear when Hana and Dissait chose to leave.
The boy was still resting when they returned, Caoimhe hadn't moved an inch.
Sitting by the fire, Hana pulled out the scroll and read the brief history of their tribe. 'Suarez, The Striker Clan.' A nomadic tribe of Poocha, they settled in the region more than a decade ago when they met Suarez. Hana presumed that Suarez was an Esper, given the contents of the scroll. Suarez brought knowledge and prosperity to their tribe, even becoming one of them and eventually their leader.
Hana looked at the picture that was drawn on another of the scrolls, it was a picture of Suarez. He held a black and white ball that looked sewn together. There were children illustrated on the parchment but their faces were not drawn in. "It seems like they were in the process of completing this picture, they seemed rather happy." Hana put the scrolls away and looked at the boy.
He didn't look like the Chief, and she didn't know what his attitude or personality were like, the Wild Poocha from the Tower Library records spoke of them like they were wild vicious animals, only cowering themselves for food or advantage. Poocha were like dogs, wild and free spirited. The Espers who took on the Poocha bloodlines, were much stronger than the natives and had a different appearance.
The scrolls were put away and Hana went through some of the spoils from the Vault. Holding the orange ball, she pressed a few panels on its exterior. They popped out, when she pressed them back in, another one popped out. A sequence had started, Hana looked at the orange ball. 'Another puzzle-box?' She considered cutting it open like the Vault had been but then she realized that cutting it might destroy the contents and abandoned all ideas of forced entry.
She spent the night pressing panels, rotating them and even threw the puzzle-ball into the fire once out of frustration. When the fire pushed itself away from the box, Hana was surprised and happy at the sight. 'Whatever is inside must be important and very powerful. To make the flames of nature fear it.'
Caoimhe nudged the side of Hana while she was nodding by the fire and Hana laid down next to her.
In the morning, She woke up as her head hit the floor. Caoimhe was standing above her, corralling the child and keeping him in the campsite. 'Uhhh.' Hana opened her eyes and saw the interactions going on beside her. "Is breakfast ready?"
There was no one to answer, Dissait was following orders and didn't come out. He also wouldn't volunteer his cooking skills, they were quite below average.
A rumbling came from the child's belly and he dropped to his knees in defeat. The boy seemed really sad, Hana prepared some mystery meat and watched him gobble it down. When he was done, he politely bowed and introduced himself. "I am Kuleon." Raising his head, he stared at Hana. "You.. you're an Esper."
"Sure, you could say that." Hana didn't hide anything from the boy but she didn't reveal anything either. She saw him getting up to head toward the village and stopped him. Shaking her head Hana explained, "There is no one left, I have already avenged them. You won't want to go back there."
The words struck the child like a truck and he fell down in pain.
Hana didn't want to watch him roil.
She packed her belongings then grabbed his wrist. "For now, you're coming with me. I will leave you anywhere you like, except for here." Mounting Caoimhe, Hana called for Dissait. "I don't have the energy to argue with you, get on and keep an eye out for more Poocha Villages." She spoke to both of them at the same time and they nodded.
'She's really getting bossy.' Dissait smiled and didn't say anything.
The Gomstone was still far away, Hana kept her vigilance and scanned the region while they flew. The Eagles Eyes Pierces rock technique made searching mostly easy during the daytime and at night a village would likely have a central fire.
When darkness fell, the temperature dropped again. They were headed north and were forced to land. The clouds overhead signaled rain, before the first drops had fallen all three of them were inside of a cave.
Hana stayed reading while Dissait watched the kid. Caoimhe was off hunting and it was quiet inside the cave.
A booming sound interrupted Dissait's conversation with the boy, he looked over and saw a blood funnel swirling above Hana's position. She was unconscious, delving into her own mind and spiritual senses.
Circulating her energies, the life of the forest around her was filled with a mysterious red fog. It swirled and crept toward the cave. The blood funnel above Hana exploded and showered the inside of the cave with Blood. She opened her eyes and noticed the dripping red that crossed her vision. The red light in her eyes flickered and then she vanished from the cave.
Dissait didn't see her leave, just her sitting and then the next moment she was gone. There was a small waft of dust where she had been.
When Hana was able to see again, she was standing in front of the Far Island in the Dimension plane, the blood pools had been feeding the bloodfalls without end. Using her vision to the best of her ability, Hana noticed that three portals had been opened. There was a frightening energy on the other side. Hana's pores opened up and her body reacted to the zone. She felt herself grow calm and relaxed. Walking slowly toward the portals, she could feel anguish, hatred, deceit and disdain seeping through the narrow pass in the void between planes.
Inspecting the three portals took some time, but Hana recorded all four of the dimensional door formations with the device. One of the new portals had been identified by the device and Hana nearly dropped it. She looked at the device readout, 'Hell Portal, third level.' Cringing from the thought of Hell, Hana hoped for the best. 'Why is this one recognized?'
Then, she started to freak out a little bit. 'Wait. How do I get out of here?'
Hana searched the first portal, the one that led to the outside world of Shiyan. The energy conduits had been altered to power the new portals. Hana grabbed a sharp crystal and cut the transmission lines, a few moments later, the three portals started to fade and flicker. When they had dissipated, the energy rerouted itself after it condensed. There was a buildup of power at the portal gate and it glowed over time. Hana collected the Mottled Bloodgrass ball in its entirety. When she was done refilling all of her supplies, she thought about collecting the elemental essence tubs.
'If I take these, the Bloodgrass and this environment will change back to the lifeless plane.' Hana couldn't stand the thought and with the portal about to reactivate, she was able to reclaim the space. Rather than leaving a portal to hell completed, Hana destroyed it and the others. 'Now nothing can come through.'
The main portal had yet to activate, it seemed like it was at full power but something was missing.
Hana pressed her hand against it and felt the connection to the outside world. 'I guess I just have to open it.' She pushed, nothing happened, she kicked, her foot ached. 'How Do I activate this?" She spent a few hours chasing dead ends and finally pulled out the formation device.
Recalling the portal door formation on the device, she had it projected onto the floor instead. Tossing out a few crystals that were laying around her into its spellwork, the formation glowed a fine silver. Hana stepped into it and the formation collapsed behind her.
She outside of the door, right were the portal door would have sent her but the Portal had yet to activate. She placed her hand on the exterior face of the passage, there was no reaction. 'What is going on?' Hana pulled out the token and tried again, instantly passing through the portal. She felt stupid for a moment then activated the barrier Grandmaster Lu Sha had left behind. 'Uggh... its such a long flight.' Hana shrugged and started to retrace her steps.