[Sunday| September 2, 2012| 2:00 AM]
[Eyes of Zetsumu Tenha]
[Damn that kick hurt…] I lay on the ground staring at the red sky as my expiry time is way past what Darokan said. "What the hell was that for?!" I hold my chin still painful from Amagawa-san's kick. "You really are a hard headed eejit16 aren't you… give me a good reason why would I kill you when you would not even kill me ? That's the lowest thing a person could do." She has a point and besides even if she won there is no guarantee that her boyfriend would be revived.
"Amagawa-san listen to me clearly and calmly…" I get up and walk closer to her as she took a deep breath and nodded. "The moment I killed Darokan I learned many things about this place. I also learned that there is no way to revive the dead. Your contractor lied to you…" I explain to her that I got Darokan's memories, or rather part of his memories as there are some things I try to remember but can't recall no matter what. "You cannot bring people back to life… then what about you? Aren't you already dead?" I close my eyes at her question and try to remember that night when Darokan found me.
"Technically I am dead. But he found me when I was dying, took my soul, patched up my body, returned my soul to it, and used necromancy to make me live again. All this happened in less than a minute when he saw me. Therefore I am a zombie." She heaves a heavy sigh as she shook her head, indeed all this information would be hard to digest all at once. "You can think about this later, there is another thing I need to explain to you." With a nod she picked up her scythe and stare at it as the red light is reflected on the black blade.
"Vechkra and Darokan are not the only ones in this war. There are others but I cannot remember who and where they are… listen if you're not going to end me here I suggest you go back now. Vechkra's still out there and who knows how many are left." I put my sword in the 'sheathe' and turn towards where Amagawa-san's contractor, Vechkra, was last seen. [I can't be too far off… just a few minutes of walking-] I stop walking as I feel Amagawa-san's hand on my shoulder. "What is it- GUH!" she hits me with the back end of her scythe as I turned around. [This is getting repetitive…]
"Oh, Zetsumu-kun…sorry, my hand slipped." her tone of voice returned to the one I am familiar to hearing at school. [Is she acting cold again because of what I said?] "What was that hit for this time?!" even though she hit me with the blunt end of her shaft it still hurts and the force she used even made me lose my balance. "You tell me to go home yet there is no way back. Tell me Zetsumu-kun, how do we get back?" "Like hell I'm supposed to know that! I'm going to fight Vechkra to find out how." I stand up and dust myself off but before I could take another step something didn't feel quite right to me…
"Amagawa-san get down!" I push her back making her lose her balance and draw my sword, plunge it into the ground and erect a wall of swords in front of us. "Stay down for now." Though her voice may be calm her face shows her surprised in my actions, after a while a strong shock wave hits the wall I made. "Vechkra… why is she attacking us now?" I bring down the wall of swords and position them in front of us, "She's attacking because she knows we're working together now. Zetsumu-kun I think the reason why you're still alive now is because you absorbed the one supplying your life force. In other words you have become the new Progenitor of War." She picks up her scythe and dusts herself off and all I can do is grin at her statement.
"Progenitor of War eh… Amagawa-san, by any chance… would you be interested in forming a contract with me?" "That depends on what the contract is about." I rearrange the swords to form another wall in front of us as I think of conditions that will benefit us both. "I watch your back and you watch mine. This contract is effective until we get out of here." I write down the conditions on the ground with my sword and she signs it using her blood from her finger. "Now then… let's go, Hime!" With the new contract made 'official' in terms of the Underworld we run towards Vechkra for another fight.
Using my newfound knowledge from Darokan I can now control and summon swords even without having to 'pull' them from behind me. "Darokan may be a fool for falling into your plans but I have seen you move you cannot fool me!" Vechkra unleashes her magical energy like Darokan she also fires beams from her hands but… "You could be resistant to Amagawa-san's fire but can you handle getting impaled from all sides?"
I surround her with swords I now control. "Where are you watching, Vechkra?" she looks above her upon hearing Amagawa-san's voice but she was only a distraction as I order the swords to pierce the Underworld's Progenitor of Lust from all directions. As the swords go through her body all that can be heard now are the deafening screams along the sound of steel hitting the cement. When the storm of swords had finished Amagawa-san headed straight for the kill, severing Vechkra's torso from her lower body without a single word.
A ring of fire now surrounds Amagawa-san, as I had expected she also gained a progenitor's essence. The fire around her intensifies as the ring grows bigger and strong gusts of wind blow around us similar to when I also adsorbed Darokan. [This is a little too much compared to mine.] Her flames were starting to sear through the wall I again made to protect myself, as the heat around me becomes unbearable I immediately retreat at a safer distance until a strong wind brings me face down on the ground.
I look back as the flames start to die down and see that Amagawa-san has indeed became one like me. Her black dress now has red engravings along the sleeves and the back where wing-like structures form, the dress itself seems to have gotten longer and the wings seem to be made out of fire. [The Princess of the Ice Fortress now controls fire… quite a shocking development we have here…] "Amazing… this is what it feels like to be…" she says as she sends a torrent of fire from her hand towards the sky.
"You two have outdone yourselves. I am amused how humans always find a way to get what they want." An unknown voice echoes around us as the red sky starts to crack like glass. "We would like to welcome you to the war as the new progenitors." As the sky above us 'break' figures emerge from the ruined city Amagawa-san destroyed earlier. One sits on a throne with a conceited look on his face, one stands beside the throne, one is standing on one of the demolished buildings, and two are sitting in front of the throne.
"Amagawa-san…" "I know but if they all gang up on us we're done for." She says as I signal her to get ready. "They won't gang up on us… they never worked together since the war started so we've got the advantage." She nods as I explain to her memories that she got from Vechkra. "Aren't you here to fight us? Come and show us the power of the new Progenitors!" we look at each other and nod, without another word I run towards our enemies.
"Rise fallen warriors! Rise and fight in the battlefield once more!" the farthest one standing summons an army of soldiers in front of me. "No matter how many you bring me… I'll cut them down!" I charge at the summoned soldiers ahead. As I swing my sword down on the first one I meet it is then followed by thousands of bladed weapons raining down from the sky that clears nearly half of the soldiers. I raise my sword and point it towards the remaining soldiers as do the other swords follow. But before I can order them to pierce, Amagawa-san flies overhead leaving behind a wide trail of fire burning down the remaining soldiers leaving only the two progenitors sitting on the two sides of the throne.
As I near them, the one on the left immediately jump towards me. I throw a spear but what happened next exceeded what I had expected. "You ate the spear?!" he opened his mouth and took in a two and a half meter long spear in one gulp. "Then let's see how you fare against this…" I pull out other bladed weapons and hurl them towards my enemy but to no avail. "Hime-san!" I signal her to bring down a torrent from the sky but instead she unleashes a firestorm in the shape of a phoenix headed straight for the progenitor in front of me. As he opens his mouth and consumes the fire I throw another spear, this time towards the stomach. He bursts into flames as the spear pierces through him reducing him to ashes.
I wave at Amagawa-san and point toward the farthest one from us while I take care of the other one beside the throne she places seals all over the area and flies towards the one on the ruined building. As I near my next opponent, like the one before him he too jumps towards me. I swing my broadsword upward as he meets it with his fist, [Damn he's strong.] his strength was absurd as it made the cement under me to crack and my feet trembling as our attacks connect.
I push him away but he charges at me again, [he's strong but not fast… in that case…] I erect walls of swords in front of me but as expected he breaks through all of them then stops at my sword after the very last wall. "Strength is not everything in a fight… but I do like to overpower you here… you… go!" I step aside and loosen my sword plunged in the ground making him lose his balance and topple over. With his guard lowered I rain down swords on him and after the last sword hit he also turn into ash.
With two of them gone I then aim my swords at the one who summoned the army and give the command to pierce. As multiple blades fly through the air Amagawa-san flies down avoiding the swords. [So close… I have to do something about those guys.] I click my tongue and move through the rubble of the city as his soldiers block my swords.
With Amagawa-san still airborne and spraying fire above, I quickly set my swords and take out any remaining soldiers around. And when I get behind the 'necromancer' he summons more soldiers surrounding us. "What's the matter? Can't use your little fire now that your friend's here?" he says while I gesture towards her, two circles in the air and followed by a fist. She nods and leaves me along with the necromancer.
"An army, a necromancer, and then there's me… we got ourselves in quite a mess." I mutter to myself as the necromancer orders his soldiers to charge at me. "I am… A ONE MAN ARMY!" multiple swords appear around me as I scream and each one of them pierces through all the soldiers around me. "There is no escape…" I point my broadsword towards the fleeing necromancer and send it spinning as he is cut diagonally at the torso and turns to ash as well.
I then run toward the throne where the one standing beside was blocking Amagawa-san's scythe with his hand. She swings, spins, twirls her scythe yet each of her attacks doesn't seem to cut through the armor. I throw a spear to his head only to be caught by his other arm, "Good, I'll give you that. But I'm better." He chuckles, and I grin as he pushes Amagawa-san aside and faces me delivering a straight punch to my sword.
I then raise two spears from the ground impaling both his arms and two more down his shoulders from above. As he tries to kick me Amagawa-san rushes in and cuts his head clean off and turns into ash like the others. With one last opponent against us we turn to him as he stands from the throne.
He quickly disappears and reaches out to her. "Like damn you'd reach her!" I bring down my sword and sever his arm as she brings her scythe around and cut his head off, but, as we look around us there were so many of the same progenitor surrounding us. "Zetsumu-kun, stay close to me." I nod as we put our backs against each other and she conjures up a flaming tornado around us. "Allow me to help…" I in turn summon multiple swords and move them along the flames around us.
As the flames die down there was only one enemy left. He was impaled into the ground by my swords in all places except the head and the chest. Struggling to break free Amagawa-san approaches him and sever his torso from his lower body, as he slowly turns into ash we both breathe a sigh of relief and fall to the ground on our rear.
With the both of us breathing heavily we do nothing but stare at the blood red sky above us. "That is something I hope we do not again." I say as I lay down on the ground completely exhausted. "Well it seems we finished them all, Zetsumu-kun. But our problem now will be how to get back?" she asks as I close my eyes and try to remember how Darokan brought us to this place…
"I think I know how…" I stand up, close my eyes, and raise my hand in the open area ahead of us and concentrate on the image of our town. As I feel a strong wind blowing in front of me I open my eyes and see that a passage back home has indeed appeared with which we can go back home… "Shall we, Hime-san?" I look over to her as she nods and the passage sucks both of us in it. As I open my eyes I realize that we are indeed back to our town however everything is a mess. The bestial monsters we have been fighting are now all over the place and everywhere I look everything is red like that from the Underworld. With all these things happening around us I can only ask myself one question…
"Are we really back home?"