"Alameda!?"
Ota's bloodlust filled the air, feeling all too akin to the heat of a bonfire. With each audible step the Pegasus took, her will to kill grew. So much so that the water and blood around her feet began to simmer.
"Cease your fire little Oni, your heart is cracked"
"She killed my family!"
Despite her warning, Grim could not dissuade my companion from her burning desire to annihilate, for what other price could she place on her family's destruction?
That 'Heart of Defense' may have saved her life, but the Empire's crossbow bolt was purpose built to kill far stronger opponents. If Grim said it was cracked, then death would surely follow if she was not careful, for that is what the Motte knows best.
Motherly, not out of love, but understanding. A characteristic all the women that had taken care of me showed in their own way. Too often that was through tough love.
It was not just a possibility, but an inevitability, so I had to hold her back, even if she hated me for it. 'Marge' had already let one of her party members die and fought over it in mud, blood, sweat and tears. I had to make sure there was no other course to take.
"Do we stand a chance?"
"Alameda is the best hope you have at establishing a defense against Devils. Making an enemy of her would be unwise"
That wasn't a yes or no, and you know it
The Motte decided to restrain the three remaining scouts while their minds remained scattered, quickly tying up each of their hands in front of them. She took special care to ensure the officer's sabers remained at her side, and that the commander carried the scout I knocked out.
Because of this, they still held onto hope, yet how she knew what each meant to the other... It was unsettling.
"You reek of death, name yourself Motte"
"DIEEEE!"
Ota screeched out her intentions and charged at her. Trying to push her back when she passed me was all I could do, jumping right in front of her path and grabbing her pauldrons.
"Move!"
"Not if it'll get you killed!"
My new form was an even match against the raging Oni's strength driven by revenge. A 'powerful emotion' was certainly one way to describe it.
And yet, the armor surrounding Ota grew thicker and stronger with her desire. In forsaking control and focus, blood spilled out the tiny hole in the center of her breastplate.
"That's not your choice to make!"
She swung her Halberd from under my feet to trip me, leaving me with no choice but to pull her forward while jumping up, still holding on to her shoulders. This caught her off guard and she tripped.
Using the opening to its fullest, I quickly jumped on top of her and grabbed one of her arms, twisting it behind her back.
"Don't you get it? Nothing in this fucking world is simple! You think she wandered right into the city and killed your clan!? YOU WHERE THERE! WAS SHE!?"
"GET OFF ME!"
"That's enough Touji, Ota has a right to wish me dead after all I did. Let her stand"
"I won't let her-"
"ARRRGH!"
Ota slammed her fist to the ground, cracking the cobblestone highway and pushing herself up before crashing down on her back. Dashes of flame crackled in the air around her as my own technique was challenged, the winner was brute strength.
I had failed.
Hold back and I fail.
Try too hard and I fail.
What the hell was I supposed to do?
Like a wild monster, Ota picked herself up and charged, shouting at the top of her lungs. She demanded blood for what she had lost and the pain she had endured.
Her murderous intent was met with a wall of golden light, whacking her sideways, right into Riders old workshop. The force alone propelled her through broken beams and shattered glass.
Seconds later the entire building was brought down on top of her.
"OTA!"
With a simple flick of Alameda's free wrist, she disposed of the Oni threat.
The woman responsible for creating the most feared trio of holy warriors was not weak, nor did she hold back.
"I do not enjoy being ignored. Shall we restart from the top?"
"Ota... You BITCH!"
There was no sense of malice in her cold dead yellow eyes, only pity... and annoyance.
"Oni are rabid dogs that refuse to learn without a lesson being beaten into them. Consider each time I spare her life as repaying one of her family members deaths"
"You're sick in the head!"
"In five minutes you'll be apologizing for your ignorance. Motte, state your name or be crushed"
"Now now Meda, is that any way to speak to your elders?"
Grim spoke up and immediately caught the self-proclaimed goddesses attention with a single word. A nickname only one other has used to address her.
"Santa Muerte? Only you could weave together such a stupid quip. Last time we spoke you were a monster"
"Afraid of giving too much away I see. Nobody gets to choose the body they are born into, nor the family they bond with, only the path they take. Right now, you lead yourself to an early grave, although I must commend the effort. Do you still not see me as a monster?"
Santa Muerte was probably one of the many names Death had been called, alongside the Grim Reaper, so I paid no attention to it. Reading in-between the lines made it clear these two shared a history from an age ago.
The nature of that relationship I would come to find out soon enough.
As Alameda talked, Grim shoved thread in the Scouts ears while poking her fingers in them to make certain our conversation remained private.
"Hmph. Touji, you know my name and how others see me, but did they tell you that I delivered you from your mothers womb? That I nursed you from my own bosom for six months? That I pleaded with Cyra to spare your life after she chose your brother?"
"Don't lie to me!"
To mention cats or dogs and how they would be treated was something only a person with that experience would say.
Our world had neither, as both evolved into different races of Beast-Kin and left their old names behind thousands of years ago. Enda made absolutely certain that I recognized words and phrases commonly used by them, just in case one showed up some day.
Unsure, she turned back to Death, who returned her concern with a shake of her head.
"Cyra agreed to leave you behind on the vague hope that if something went wrong you could eventually step up, despite being a runt that showed no traits. That's the truth, that's why you were abandoned. Muerte..."
"She's telling the truth, Touji. Cyra gave birth to triplets, one was stillborn, whose spirit I guided past death's veil. Your brother was half Dragon, with small lumps on his forehead, a tiny tail, and limbs ready to grow scales. That's why I called you 'one of Cyra's sons'"
"Do you see? I am your friend, your guardian. I've been watching you grow, slowly becoming a man, even with filth at your side. Please, come with me"
"Filth?"
To be so righteous yet so shitty made me sick to my stomach. There was nothing of this woman I could see as worthy of admiration or respect, no, that was all washed away when she hurt Ota.
"That cockroach sex pest will only lead you astr-"
A winged arrow came within a meter of the beautiful woman before swapping directions mid-flight and beheading her winged mount, a twist faster than either of us could react. Alameda fell on her back as the Pegasus slowly tumbled on its side.
Her reaction was not of a warrior or a fighter, in fact, it was nothing at all.
She kept my Relic in her holy prison above her hand despite the fall, but I noticed that she kept her free hand open and pointed towards me, as if she was preparing to slap me at a distance.
Scraps of a plan began to formulate in my mind on how to beat her, but I would need help.
Attached to the arrow was a message Grim walked over to read after moving her prisoners of war to the cobblestone bridge.
Neither of us said a word until it was read out loud.
"'I warned you, again and again, yet in your infinite wisdom, choose to do the single thing that would lead to your grave. Touji is my apprentice, he may refuse the mantle, but he will not refuse the duty to himself'"
Crackling, like wood from a campfire, echoed amongst the rubble of an old workshop. An Oni's heart had been set ablaze once more. No longer the flicker of a candle, but the kindling of a wildfire.
"Muerte? What does she mean by that?!"
"Death and Destruction, Judgement and Justice, War and Ruin. Each inescapable outcome ever-present within all that possesses a soul. This boy did not fall off the path you saw before him many years ago, Sage. Not until your golden spear pierced Enda's heart and a Kitsune shrouded his future in mystery. Now, you face a young man who walks side by side with Conquest, now, you will experience what follows such a force"
There were questions, yet none of them mattered as my ragged companion limped ever closer, picking up the scarlet stained silver bolt she hand only recently discarded, each step more normal then the last as her wounds sealed and I saw scars burn away.
Most of her broken conjured armor had fallen off as she walked, leaving naught but the clanging of metal on stone in its wake. Despite the insane damage she had taken, her hand never let go of her weapon, until now.
As she handed me the Halberd, I sensed a level of understanding we had both reached, despite practically betraying her to get to said unity.
Half of her plumed armet remained, the feather on top burning like an ember, with only her eyes hiding from view. Blood had been splattered across her face and body, yet the markings earned from years of fights and mistakes had vanished to flawless light coral skin.
Ota did not care, she wanted bloodshed, no more, no less. Everything else was an afterthought only serving to get in her way, and so it was ignored.
"I fixed it"
The Oni murmured under her breath, loud enough to catch my attention. Her hand hovered over her slightly luminated chest. Relic's could break, but forcing mana to flow through them could heal any dents, cuts or cracks, even so, she lied.
At best, she might have regenerated everything around it and realized it would take more time, something we didn't have.
Do I ignore her deception and prioritize her safety or listen to her heart and try to take revenge?
What if the Devil's message was one last trick to a girl that refused to feed him?
Knowing what would follow, Grim walked away, abstaining from any further conflict and ensuring her prisoners safety.
Far back in the distance, beyond Alameda, I saw a hooded figure clad in black, red and white, leaning against the crumbling stone gate, scabbard matching her outfit in her left hand, a shiny red fruit in her right.
Normally someone so small at that range would be a blur, yet these new draconic eyes could make out exactly who it was, and the company she kept in shackles.
Arisu, Justice, and more than just a partner to Judgement, looked over at me through the narrow slits through her dark hood and nodded before taking a bite out of the fruit. I caught a glimpse of what lay under that new outfit.
Eyes that glowed ruby red, eyes that perceived fate itself.
This was all I needed to know what course I should take.
"We need my Relic"
"Then?"
"Let's find out why that 'Anti-Paladin' bolt can do"
Earlier this very day a thought had crossed my mind; 'Does Rider have a partner, like Red?'
I guess I got my answer.
It would be me.