"It can seem at first glance an innocent and helpless creature, causing anyone who sees it to feel compassion for it and approach it without the slightest idea that the gates of hell itself will open in front of him" - His lips trembled, the Pupils of his eyes were dilated like those of a cat who sees the streetlight of an approaching car, the sweat ran down his back as he struggled to hold on to the table while his legs wanted to collapse. Hanabi had lost all her composure, the strength she inspired in front of everyone who faced her had vanished in a second, there was only one woman left in a panic as she did not take her eyes off the orb while whispering pleadingly that Yukino could escape from that beast .
What kind of terrors could be harbored in that fragile childlike figure, so that the proud woman who hated young Yukino so much would beg for her to escape from her.
"Who are you? Why are you in this place? Are you one of the tricks that Hanabi had prepared for me in this place?" - Approaching calmly, Yukino squatted down to place her hands on that girl's cheeks. Her eyes seemed to radiate a peaceful aura and her gentle smile elicited an indescribable warmth within her being.
"Sleep and sweet life, sleep as the sun will depart, sleep among clouds in the sky, next to mother's heart" - As if something had been broken in his heart, Adam's conscience was manifested with great pain when listening to that girl sing that lullaby. Not only because it was the same lullaby that he sang to her daughter every night before she went to sleep, but that voice was none other than Judith's own.
"How do you know those lyrics !? Are you your Judith?" - Having disturbed the peace of her soul, that creature emitted a dismal laugh while a thick mist began to obstruct Yukino's field of vision.
When he could reconsider a bit, Yukino realized that this ether dimension had completely disappeared. But this foggy place was not something she felt she was familiar with.
Trying to find a way out she began to walk aimlessly, feeling as if the ground beneath her feet was mud and a subtle scent of gardenias, tuberose and jasmine saturated her nostrils. Soon the fog began to thin out, giving blurry images of an abundant grove of oaks and oaks. Interspersed by strange stone monoliths that were barely distinguishable.
"Adam, come here" - A woman's voice caused a great start to Yukino, more so when he felt a pair of ice cold fingers touch his shoulder and when he turned around he didn't see anyone around him. Turning around frantically trying to find the origin of that voice that she constantly repeated, she managed to make out a graceful silhouette of a brunette woman.
Dancing among the monoliths, this woman wore a white linen dress with gold embroidery that sparkled with every movement she made. Her long, wavy brown hair that reached down to her waist, swayed with each turn as if it were the spectacle of the flight of many birds.
Completely dominated by the consciousness of Adam, called by instinct and the desire of a distant dream, she hurried to run until she could catch up with her, stumbling more than once until they were finally facing each other.
"Rachel? Are you really Rachel?" - With a shy posture as she lowered her gaze, she that woman nodded her head to the questions. His wife, his beloved wife, was right within her grasp after twelve long years of martyrdom. The emotion of the moment completely took over her reason, causing her to hug her tightly by her waist while she rested her head on her shoulder, breaking into tears.
The night of their confession of love on the park bench in the old plaza in Tampico, the moonlight bathing the waters of the lagoon while together they contemplated the night sky on the first date, the nuptial dance and the first night of spouses. where they gave themselves to each other.
Each of those moments were completely visible to Hanabi and Kaoru who could only watch helplessly as Adam's soul was skinned part by part, memory by memory.
"Will you be with me even if I stop being beautiful? Even if my character changes? Even when I get old and wrinkled?" - The words sounded loudly in Adam's mind, to which he could only answer in the same way he did the first time he heard those questions from Raquel's lips.
Fully blinded by her passion and yearning once more to feel her lips, he could not contain himself from kissing her once more as if seeking to make up for each of the years that they kept distance between them.
As he passed her hand through Raquel's hair, Adan felt something strange in her; As he removed his hand from her, a bundle of hair had come out along with her fingers. Her lips began to taste garish and amber fluid dripped between them.
When he focused his gaze on him, he saw that his wife's face was dry and battered; her eye sockets showed a darkened halo around her eyes and her eyelid skin was sunken.
In a panic, he walked away, taking steps backwards, while Raquel followed him slowly as that white dress was degraded, revealing the percussion of the wet earth and body fluids, as well as the marks of a series of crude sutures on the chest of she.
"What is it Adam? Was everything you told me a lie perhaps? Look at me, I am Raquel your beloved wife. What is a little cancer? Something decomposed my flesh? I do not look pretty? Come with me, until death will unite us again "- Knocked down on the floor, Yukino began to crawl without ceasing to observe that sinister creature that threatened her without hesitation. Until her back collided with one of her monoliths, making her turn around, squatting, resting her hands on the ground.
"In memory of Adam Petrenko, beloved husband and good father." - The strong impression of colliding with reality made her lower her guard in the face of the threat she had to face. So much so that she couldn't react when a pair of woman's hands came out of the ground, trapping her arms, preventing her from getting up. Little by little, from her grave, the back of Raquel emerged, completely corrupted by her decomposition, causing Yukino to scream in anguish as she desperately struggled to free herself from her.
"Adam, it's very cold here. I'm afraid Adam, let me hug you to give us warmth" - Just when he said that, an uncontrolled fire began to cover Yukino's body making her scream in extreme pain as she felt her skin burn .
The shock of that moment was so strong that she made him lose track of where she was, until the sound of a bell made him react. Looking from side to side, old buildings similar to New Orleans stood on that stage in front of an iron gate painted white.
The sound of the voices of hundreds of children could be heard until the street where she was standing in disbelief of what was happening. As if she had traveled back in time, she was there right in front of the elementary school where Judith was studying. Parents parked near the entrance preparing to pick up their children after school.
When she tried to move, her feet seemed to be stuck to the floor completely; trying to make a sound, she saw that her lips did not part at all. It was there that she saw her come out of her, her adored child who was looking from one place to another for her father.
"Judith, I'm here!" - In a futile attempt to be heard, the sound drowned in her throat without being able to release it in a scream. Then she started walking in her direction, trying to hold her with her arms just passing as if she were an invisible object.
Immovable, completely inert, she in desperation forced herself to move to the point that she began to tear the skin from the soles of her feet. The pain was agonizing, with every step she took on the asphalt surface she felt her skin scorch her raw. The blood that flowed from her injuries caused him to slip and crash to the ground.
"Heh heh heh, interesting toy I have here. If I dig deeper into his subconscious I can find more and more delicious bonds to destroy. It is an ecstasy, almost an orgasm for my senses. It does not seem the same to you my dear Hanabi "- In a challenging way, that sinister creature challenged Hanabi who was observing along with Kaoru that psychological torture.
It all reminded him of her own nightmare the first time she faced him, when she was an inexperienced Loa Guardian. It was a night in December 1953, the cold was so cold to the bone in the dynamic capital city of Japan.
A young woman in a purple coat and the bearing of an actress was lighting a cigarette near the edge of the subway station platform. Without any prior preparation for combat, Hanabi made up for that defect with her intelligence and tenacity. Freyja had put her in charge of one of the cities with the most surveillance work at that time, since due to the death of the war the flow of life became unstable generating appearances of the entities known as voids.
A report had reached her ears regarding a girl wandering the subway tracks after midnight; some witnesses claimed that the people who met her ended up in episodes of schizophrenia and insanity. Always surrounded by spiders that disappeared as soon as they were found babbling on the ground. More than a sighting it sounded like a yokai urban legend from jorogumo, with the exception that the victims were not physically eaten.
"Onee-san, I can't find my mom, could you help me find her?" - A girl with long black hair and dressed in ruffles was pulling one end of Hanabi's coat, who did not feel any threat when noticing her presence. Feeling sympathy for her, he carried her on her back to help her search for her mother.
A few minutes passed and that girl asked him to take her to the bathroom because she wanted to go, to which Hanabi did not protest because her back was beginning to feel the ravages of having carried her while they walked around the station.
Just as they walked through the bathroom door, the lights began to fail and the scent of jasmine, gardenias, and tuberose suddenly hit her nostrils. The sound of the door latch closing alerted Hanabi, who desperately tried to open it without success.
"Onee-san, do you want to play with me for a bit? Or has Freyja not given you permission yet?" - Knowing she was mocked, she threw her back against the wall trying to crush that mysterious creature. Only receiving the damage in her own body when she realized that that sinister being was right in front of her.
Yukino's heartrending screams brought Hanabi out of her trance, who watched as that nefarious being threw countless threads of silk at the head of the vulnerable girl, so many that soon her entire head was wrapped as if it were the bandages of an Egyptian mummy. .
Holding them firmly with her left hand while she softened her sharp claws with her right, she directly challenged Hanabi to let her out of that dimension.
"You know very well what will happen if I cut all these threads at once, redhead, if this little butterfly is lucky it will end up as hollow as you, or maybe it will be like the many unfortunates that I feed on in the past" - Making a cut in one From the threads, a scream tore from Yukino's body in agony. That network of silk fabric represented the connections with each of the memories found in Adam's memory; as each thread was cut, the ties that bound the memory were completely extinguished. Leaving only memories without emotions or value for the individual.
"You can play tough girl with me, but you know that if I cut all these threads at once I'll get all the energy I need to escape this dimension by myself. But I want to give you and your little friends a chance to save my skin, now You know from the good memories that you and I have ... well, my memories "- Hanabi clenched her fists causing injuries with her own nails, impotence took hold of her because she knew what would happen to Yukino if all the threads were cut.
She had gone through that experience that had it not been for Freyja's help, it had been her first and last mission.
Surprisingly, Yukino got up from the floor, holding firmly that bundle of silk threads with great force. The tension that she generated on them, she made them vibrate as they would the thread of a web cradled by her prey trying to escape from her. That act of rebellion caused a smile of satisfaction on the face of that girl, who was carefully observing Yukino's movements. Only to be surprised by what would happen next.
"When I merged with Apolion not only did I acquire his powers and abilities, damn bitch, but also his memories of many things were granted to me and among them was a Loa who in his time was a prodigy manipulating the flow of life. But due to his Gluttony for new knowledge became emotionally useless and used to consume innocent children to occupy their bodies like husks to deceive adults. But this time there will be no second chances for you Iblis "- Raising his right arm, he projects his spiritual energy to shaping a sword of light with which he let all his fury fall on the silk threads.
Hanabi felt a lump rise in her throat, because she knew the price she had to pay for an act as reckless as the one she did at her time. With the difference that she did it in a panic, while Yukino executed it with firm resolution even knowing the consequences of her actions.
A sizzling amount of energy flashed at the breaking point of her threads, just as Iblis had said all that energy was absorbed by her granting him enough power to acquire her true combat form.
When the blindfolds fell from her eyes, Yukino could appreciate the imposing enemy that rose in front of her with an indescribable thirst for blood: a three-meter-tall arachnid theriomorph with the naked back of a delicate girl, but the enormous body of a tarantula.
Even with that immense pain blazing in her mind, Yukino once again materialized Apollion's mythical armor and an energy sword that she christened lumenfang. The battle turned into a fierce struggle of powers, barely balanced by the fact that Iblis was not in his full form.
Each blow of the lumenfang made deep cuts on the surface of the arachnid half's skin, but these were immediately healed as Iblis used the same method that Yukino used to seal the fissure of the orb.
A battle of exhaustion, where Yukino had the situation against due to how unstable his mind was after losing the ties of the memories of him. She could barely maintain the shape of her armor and the lumenfang, making healing impossible.
In one carelessness, she tripped and fell to the ground, being completely exposed at the mercy of Iblis. Who without wasting that opening of hers, nailed her fangs into the neck of the seemingly defenseless Yukino, holding her head while sucking her spiritual force while inoculating her venom. Making moans of pleasure at such a delicious bite that she was tasting.
"You know, there is something I would like to whisper to you before being consumed" - In an attempt to gain her attention, Yukino goes to her adversary seeking to establish a dialogue. Who trusted in her position; she agreed to give that last wish to her dying prey, bringing her ear close to her lips to hear that faint whisper of her: "Apolion also showed me your weak point"
Concentrating all the remnant of his spiritual energy, Yukino concentrated the entire charge at the height of his chest, shooting it in a single direct shot at the heart of Iblis who gave a piercing scream as he desperately tried to heal his wound with the flow of the ether of the dimension. . Thus generating a series of cracks that made it unstable to the point of its collapse.
The entire dimension was losing its shape and composition as it was sucked into itself. To which Yukino could only contemplate that spectacle because she had been completely exhausted on the brink of death.
About to be absorbed by that emptiness, a huge force took her out of that pandemonium at once. Projecting it directly onto her body that lay on the sofa in Hanabi's office, whom she could observe holding the orb with all her power as it imploded from the core of her.
She couldn't hear anything that was happening, she could only watch as Hanabi yelled some things at Kaoru and pointed in her direction. As her eyelids were overcome by the weight of great fatigue, the last thing she could see was the tear-stained face of her faithful companion.
Everything was silent, while the darkness completely clouded Yukino's gaze.