When hell strikes like a bolt of lightning, there is hardly any time to think of the sins that might have brought about its wrath. All one can think of is pain, pain and the suffocating need to dull it.
With the capital of Ignatia under attack from an unknown enemy, the black knights launched a full scale attack on the chaotic undead while glaives gathered in the throne room to protect the royal family.
Armed with dual short swords and blade edged shields, they mercilessly decapitated every last one of them to protect the people retreating behind the castle wall.
They ran on rooftops and through the streets, tossing their shields that spun like disc shaped halos and struck true with their bladed edges. Their blades were sharp and slashed fast. Coupled with their speed, they were invincible.
Over the castle wall stood Johnathan White, the acting commander of the black knights. He watched with an anxious face, the panicked crowd down below. Unorganized, no one could pass through fast enough. Then he looked to his knights in the city, fighting the undead and lice straight from the devil's head. They were dropping fast, too fast. Bugs were difficult to strike with a blade. A knight dropped behind him from a black pegasus, their most trusted companions.
"Have you found the princess?" Johnathan asked.
"No sir! we've searched all over the capital , she's nowhere to be found!".
"What about the castle!? Have you searched every room?"
"We have a team searching again as we spea-"
Before the knight could finish, a part of the castle below suddenly blew apart, raising a cloud of smoke and shaking the wall.
"What the hell was that!? send a team over there right now, eliminate any threats within the castle. This is our final line of defense. " Johnathan commanded as he pointed at the site of the explosion.
" Sir, with all due respect, I think THAT should take priority!" The knight pointed instead at a floating dark figure looming over the center of the city.
The figure the knight pointed at was Ernid, Grey's little sister. Her hair was pitch black, eyes and chest glowing golden, with black chains rising from her skin and a menacing aura around her that brought out her angered eyes. Johnathan had not noticed her, no one had, not until she let out a loud screech so loud it shook both the knights and the undead. They paused in anticipation. Friend or foe?
Everyone could see her burning aura, from the royal family watching speechless through the window, to the panicked citizens and warring knights below. It was dark but a visible shade, waving like fire yet seemed cold as ice. She was bleeding with a hole in the neck, perhaps that was why her head tilted slightly to the left.
"Merlin?" Marcos called as he placed his hand on the window, almost speechless, "Is it possible? Could that be another heart?"
"No, your majesty," Merlin replied,"That is something else entirely,"
He sounded both fascinated and afraid.
"Well...shit!" Johnathan exclaimed. He felt hopeless. One nightmare at a time would have been nice, he thought.
Ernid descended, so fast that to the untrained eye it looked as if she had simply vanished. She shot towards the undead and started killing them one after another. Her long claw like nails cutting through them with ease and her spiked chains piercing them like spears as she made her way to the castle.
"Sir! She's heading this way! permission to shoot!" The knight panicked as he grabbed a rifle and aimed.
Johnathan felt conflicted, confused. She hadn't touched a single knight but the castle was where the royal family was and he had sworn to protect them at any cost.
Before Johnathan could speak ,there was another explosion below the castle. This time it was followed by a chain of three others that rose from the base all the way up to the king and queen's bedroom.
From the last explosion, the bedroom window shattered and Grey and Emberle came flying out over Johnathan from the flames.
As they descended, with Emberle covered in Grey's arms, they passed Ernid midair shooting straight for Tiyanak who was coming fast behind the them.
" ...Ernid?"
She grabbed him by the face, crashing Tiyanak back through the castle and past, to a cliff side pond in the trees behind the wall. Having seen the princess, Johnathan wasted no time.
"Get the princess!"
Emberle's aura overflowed and covered both her and Grey as they crashed through the rooftop of one of the houses. The impact caused it to collapse on itself, burying them in the rubble. When the dust had nearly dicipated they finally managed to break through. It took a few minutes to collect their thoughts and catch their breaths. What was before them though, made Emberle's lenses dance in her eyes.
Her home, her kingdom, the city she had grown up in. Everything was beyond recognition.
"Wh- what the hell?" her voice shook when she tried to speak, though Grey seemed rather unfazed.
"Ah, looks like it finally happened," He said as he dusted his clothes and helped her out the pile of broken bricks.
The whole city was in flames, children were crying, men were screaming and there were more corpses than one could count. The knights tried desperately to protect the people behind the castle wall but many of them had turned as well. What would happen if the swarm reached the castle?
One could hear the shouts and screams echo in the wind from miles away. Emberle's eyes burned with anger as the black color at the tips of her hair suddenly grew to cover her originally red head.
The purple flame once again sparked.
Before she could say a word, Grey was already dashing towards Ernid and Tiyanak's direction, following the distant echoes of their clash. A louder bang was heard and she came crashing back from the other side of the castle and landed just a few buildings away.
She rose from the dust and let out her loud screech once again. Grey hardly recognized her. Tiyanak came dashing towards her and the two clashed like projectiles in the middle of the city.
They tore through streets, buildings and destroyed half the architect. Ernid was desperately trying to restrain Tiyanak with her chains and attacks while Tiyanak avoided the chains, chasing the kill. All that could be seen though, were trails of their [malice/dark aura] as they shot like bullets on the ground, raising dust and ash all at once.
While Grey watched in disbelief, Emberle dashed to join the fight. She broke through both of them and caught Tiyanak off guard, laying a punch on his right cheek from above that threw him to the ground. They then took it to him at break neck speed, both attacking the grounded Tiyanak in turns faster than anyone could follow with Tiyanak doing his best to avoid most of them.
Emberle came in from the left with a speeding kick and Ernid from the right with a fist, then the other way around. It was like a Left Right combo from the two simultaneously attacking all his openings without stopping for a second to let him think or breathe.
Until he decided to go on the offensive with an irritated growl. He caught Emberle's incoming fist, dislocated her shoulder and threw her in Ernid's direction. As Ernid's attack was delayed because of having to avoid Emberle, it was easy to dodge and wrap his own chain around her neck and pull it to his hand, the chain rising from his skin like Ernids.
As Emberle struggled to stay composed and get up with a dislocated shoulder, he went to grab her the same way in an instant.
He held both of them up furiously by the neck as they struggled to break free.
"Enough! Give me the heart!" He screamed as his grip on the two girls tightened and they could do nothing but start kicking.
Emberle tried to engulf his arm in the [hell spawn blaze] but it had no effect.
"Which...one ..has ..heart!?" Tiyanak asked, but instead of an answer he got a pitchfork.
It pierced his chest from the back and drew from him a cry of agony. While he was distracted, Grey had pounced on him.
"Do us all a favor and learn proper fucking English!"
Tiyanak dropped Emberle to swing his arm at Grey but he pulled the pitchfork out and bent to avoid the attack. He then launched his own to the left arm he had left wide open and broke it with the edge of the fork, setting Ernid free.
Furious ,Tiyanak threw a powerful punch at Grey which he blocked with the pitchfork, holding it horizontally to meet the fist and cover his body. Though the impact bent it and sent him flying hard into a pile of rubble.
"Dammit, I was starting to like this thing," He said as he forced his body to stand against the back pain the crash had caused him, "Guuh, bloody hell"
Ernid made her way next to Grey, breathing hard and angry with steam rising from her body.
Grey looked at her, trying to find his sister in this monster, "I don't know what you are in there and I don't care, but if so much as a single hair on her head goes missing, I swear I'll find you. In this world or another"
She shrugged him, but the look in his eyes rold her he was not joking. With all three of them on their feet, Tiyanak knew he was at a disadvantage but nothing was going to stop him from getting the heart he desired.
His malice grew ever more destructive. Ernid charged and clashed with him one on one once more. Grey and Emberle took the moment to strategize.
"You got a plan?" Emberle stepped beside him, relocating her shoulder, "AAARG!"
" yeah *cough* don't die" Grey said jokingly with a smirk as he wiped the blood running down his chin.
"Ha ,you seem halfway there already." Emberle smirked back, "Any chance there's a plan B? I can't keep this up for long."
"haha ,funny *cough* I'm not dying." he said, "Plan B is improvise. Demons have three hearts. I already destroyed two of his with the pitch fork, we just need to strike the last one beneath the two."
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure he has trust issues now. He's not gonna let us get close"
"Which is why I was hoping you had some sort of crazy overpowered spell that could kind of take him out in one shot,"
"You can't be serious," She deadpanned.
"Sadly I am. This is what you get from a plan pulled from the deepest recesses of a dying man's ass" Grey laughed, trying very hard to not feel the cracks in his ribs. "Okay ,here we go,"
He picked up two bricks in both his hands from the rubble and charged at Tiyanak.
"Take it or leave it, princess! It's do or die."
"Uggghh! fine! but you're paying the price with me!" She shouted, "How come I always get the morons?"
"*Oh ,this is rare?*" Eve whispered.
Ernid landed an uppercut from beneath Tiyanak that raised his head. Grey jumped over her and landed the brick so hard on his face that he staggered a few steps and glared at him.
"what, you thought I was afraid of you?" Grey mocked with a grin.
This sent Tiyanak in a rage and he charged towards him with murderous eyes. His glare more hateful.
"Ernid! Restrain!"
Grey screamed, hoping she could hear him
While desperately trying to evade Tiyanak's superhuman attacks and blocking with the bricks, he kept him distracted from noticing Ernid.
As he tried to throw another right hook towards Grey ,a chain wrapped around his arm and pulled it back, another one wrapped around his left and pulled, leaving his chest sticking out.
Ernid had stuck her feet into the ground with her malice burning like fire, bending Tiyanak's back to expose his chest with her usual screech, but he still fought to go after Grey.
He forced his malice to ignite and his legs to move. This was now a battle of strength. As his furious face got closer to him, Grey whistled and casually raised his middle finger with a devilish grin. Then said quietly, "Mistletoe."
When Tiyanak raised his head, he saw her, beneath an ocean of stars and a bleeding red moon.
Emberle aimed gracefully with a black spear and her beautiful golden eyes shining brighter with divided lenses.
"[Perfect end]"
With that she shot the spear which fell like a bolt of lightning, striking the terrified Tiyanak who was about to scream as it made contact, resulting in an explosion of dark purple malice.
It swallowed and devoured everything it touched and rot it to dust, including some of the houses around that area, leaving a pitch black clear space in the shape of a perfect circle.
No one could believe what had just happened ,not the spectating knights nor the spellbound king watching through the window of his throne room. For a moment, it was as though the entire world had gone silent.
Emberle then came falling onto the black field she had created. A few seconds after, Johnathan and the knights arrived , taking the chance to finally get close.
"Your highness!" Johnathan shouted, already cutting his hand to prepare for Emberle.
As her body started to recover, only one of her eyes went back to normal. Trembling, She pushed the knights that swarmed around her aside and struggled to Grey who was having a hard time regaining his sense of sight and hearing.
Everything was a blur and his ears kept ringing. The commotion of the knights sounded like a distant echo.
Barely able to hold together, Emberle crawled her way to him until she could stagger on her weak shaking legs. Eve was now fighting for control. Her whispers drugging Emberle's mind.
"*You're tired ,I know you are.*" she said, "*This was the first time you used so much of my power. Just take a nap for a minute, I promise I'll take care of you. You know you want to.*"
These words echoed in her head until she dropped to her knees at Grey's feet and started coughing uncontrollably, as though something had gotten in her throat. Then a bleeding wrist touched her lips and once again, she sunk her fangs.
"Well...I did promise to pay it with you."