"Excuse me, your royal highness! It's dark already, please let's call it a day. Ernid's going to kill me, she still isn't over the whole 'disappearing in the middle of the night' thing. "
"Shut uuuup, you're the most annoying glaive I've ever had!"
"Then fire me so I can leave! I never even wanted this job."
"Well sadly ,only my father can do the firing but I'll be sure to put in a good word for you when we get back."
"I'll owe you one."
"You can repay me right now by shutting the heck up. Aww, why did Aiz have to kill himself!? Now I'm stuck with you."
"Wait ,your former glaive committed suicide? how much of a handful are you?"
"It wasn't my fault! Nobody told me why ,okay? They just found him dead in his room last night."
"*Doubt you had nothing to do with it though*"
"I can still hear y-"
Emberle cut her sentence short and suddenly stopped walking. Her breath escaped as she stared ahead.
"what's wrong?"
"I found it."
She looked at her map and back at the lone tree growing at the edge of a cliff. The other trees circled around it, and from where they stood to where it was, grew beautiful green tall grass that looked as though it glowed under the moonlight thanks to the glow worms that had made the patch of grass their home.
"... It's...real."
"...Shit."
She slowly walked towards it and placed her hand on the bulk of the tree. Pieces of the dream started flashing in her mind. Where they sat, how she felt, the innocent teasing and the peaceful smiles. little by little, it was piecing together.
*"Stop trying to remember!!"*
Eve screamed in her head from her slumber. Her blazing darkness erasing the memory to become the only thing Emberle could see behind her closed eyes. She tightened her eyes and tried to suppress the sharp pain that spiked with Eve's awakening in her head.
"Why won't you let me see?"
*"You'll kill us both! What part of that do you not understand!?"*
"They're my memories! I want them back!"
*"Shame. That's not how this works."*
The pain grew, forcing Emberle to her knees against the tree. Eve was trying desperately to keep Emberle from recalling anything else.
"No! Eve, let me in."
*"LEAVE!"*
"Emberl-"
As soon as Grey tried to get close, the ground beneath Emberle suddenly blew apart. Ella flew out of the risen dust to grab Emberle by the neck with her legs dangling in the air.
"Found...you." She smiled.
***
The knights were still left unsure of what to do against the demonic children. Attacking wasn't an option, as per Johnathan's orders and if they tried to capture them, the demon could spring out of nowhere to help.
Fleeing was the only option left, but no matter how fast they tried to run, most of them were caught and killed in the hellish ocean of trees.
"Where's daddy? why did you come without him!? Bring him now! I want daddy! I want daddy! I want daddy! I want daddy!"
They kept attacking from the shadows ,faster and stronger than the knights as they shouted over each other. Their numbers were dropping little by little yet there was nothing they could do about it..
When they broke out of the trees, they found themselves near a small shallow pond surrounded by trees and a cliff, leaving them trapped. Although the water was only knee high.
The children walked out of the trees one after another, surrounding the panicking knights. "You...came...too far."
"Permission to attack! On your order, sir!" inquired one of the knights.
"Denied! We're not killing these children!" Johnathan replied.
"With all due respect, sir, it's either them or us!"
"Then we lay down our lives and die for their futures! I will not fall victim to the same sin at will!"
Behind them, Ella walked out of the cave in the cliff. She stepped on the water surrounding the cave with lifeless red eyes and blood on her hands.
Johnathan's eyes burned with hatred as he watched her lick her fingers without paying any mind to them. "what the hell are you?"
With her fingers clean, she finally stopped to respond. "The result of your sins."
"Sir, what do we do?"
He didn't recognize her ,then again ,why would he? She was just one in over four hundred people.
"...Capture and tie up the children. With the mastermind in the open, no more surprises are expected. The rest of you...kill the devil." Johnathan responded, unsheathing his blades as the knights follow his lead.
The knights rush into the shallow water, led by Johnathan who led with a barrage of slashes that Ella blocked with her chains rising from her skin. Like those of Ernid.
She threw a fist to his left cheek that turned him around, then kicked him to the other side of the pond.
She then proceeded to target the remaining frightened knights. "The blood on your hands...can never be washed away."
They're slowly reminded of the day of the cleansing as they listen to her.
"You took from me ,my mother, my future and my life...for that...you shall pay with your lives. I don't want to hear you breath ,not today ,not ever again...But my father comes first...give him to me and your deaths will be swift."
She advances slowly towards them while picking up speed until she went full throttle. The knights clench their teeth and rush to the inferno.
Her speed was nothing they could ever dreamed of. She used her fingers like swords and it was enough to cut the knights clean. They were all charging to their deaths and not a single one was able to so much as craze her.
Then all of a sudden ,she stopped moving, with the head of a knight in her hand.
"It's here. The heart , it's here. I can smell it."
She hears Emberle's scream from the top of the cliff. "EVE! LET ME IN!"
"give me controll."* whispers Tiyanak.
Ella drops the head, bends over backwards and shoots straight for her in the blink of an eye.
***
Holding her over the tree, Ella ogles her from the top of her head to the tip of her toes. "Finally...I found you again."
"Emberle!!"
"I still can't understand it. Why would the first prince of hell choose such a feeble minded thing like you to keep his heart? You don't even know what kind of power you hold, give it back."
She tightens her grip. Emberle's hair turns black and eyes gold again, but before she could do anything. Ella place her palm on her forehead.
"[Revoke]"
At her word ,Emberle releases an agonizing scream as her hair turns back to normal. Ella was trying to forcefully pull her soul out of her.
"AAAAH!"
A blade suddenly comes spinning towards Ella's head. She lets go of Emberle's forehead and blocks it with her wrist.
As she tilts her head to avoid the tip, Grey had leaped off the top of the tree and slashed her hand, then passed with Emberle in his arms.
"What the hell ,princess!? Am I gonna have to fight a demon everytime I'm with you?"
"Thought you weren't interested in keeping this job."
"if I go back without you, Marcos is gonna have my head and oh my god we're about to die!"
Grey and Emberle descend the very top of the cliff as Ella pulls the sword out of her wrist and throws it away. She flies down towards them screaming. "YOUUU!"
The blood from her severed arm and the stump stretch out and connect to pull the arm back and mend it.
"Princess! your friend's coming back and we're falling to our deaths! A little magic would be nice right about now!"
Emberle's hair and eyes turn again and she holds out her hand towards the fast coming Ella.
"[Pellere!]"
The spell repels both of them in different directions. It pushes her and Grey faster towards the ground while Ella went over the cliff.
As they come closer to hitting the water ,Emberle holds Grey tight, aims her arm over the water and says the spell again. [Pellere!]
It repels them both upwards at a safer distance to fall from and blows the water apart. They splash in the pond as the water recollects, both wheezing and coughing as they struggle to get up.
"Is this going to be an everyday thing with you? Demons coming out of nowhere? Because I don't think I can handle it. I thought we were going to die and I'm pretty sure my heart stopped at some point." Says Grey, panting with a hand on his chest.
"What can I say, I'm kind of a walking curse."
As they adjust to their surroundings ,they see the knights struggling to restrain the kids. They also notice the number of bodies laying in the pond.
"Well this is terrifying."
"Come on ,we have to help them!"
"Yeah ,I didn't hear them ask for it. This is their job anyway, let's just get out of here before that thing comes back." He says , grabbing her hand.
"What's wrong with you!?" Emberle furiously pulls away, "You're just gonna let them d-"
Before she finished, they heard the sound of crackling chains coming from above. "Too late."
Ella lands between them with an explosion of malice that blows them apart with a huge splash.
"I will have that heart!"
Grey had crashed against the cliff and Emberle was on the other end of the pond.
"Emberle? Run!" shouts Johnathan from behind. But she cannot hear him.
She rises and stands up straight. Grey picks up the blade of one of the dead knights at his feet.
"...Hey ,princess! If I die here I just want you to know," Grey shouts, "That you're the most difficult person I've ever had the pleasure of working with!"
"Believe me, the feeling is mutual!"
They both splash in the water at the same time and charge at Ella in the middle. Grey slides down and slides his blade on water surface , aiming for the legs as Emberle throws a fist at her head.
Ella does a flip between the two and avoids them both as they pass. When Grey comes back around ,Ella blocks his sword and breaks his arm.
"AAH!"
Emberle's fist comes back with a massive blow that throws her at a distance.
She gets up quick and charges back with her pointed chains shooting at them . Grey throws the sword to his other hand and goes to block them as he advances closer.
With the distance between them now closed, Ella raises her fist over him. At that time ,Emberle was overhead with a black scythe ready to behead her.
*"Your control over my creation is getting frightening."*
Grey had cleared the path for her. She slashed her head off before Ella could even react but her head didn't reach the ground. She cought it and plugged it back on ,almost as instantly as it was removed, then punched Emberle's side so hard that she was thrown into the trees.
Grey was now left alone. He was able to avoid most of her attacks ,but the second he tried to throw his own, his remaining arm went flying.
Ella kicks him back at the cliff so hard that he sticks and chokes on his blood.
"Aaaggh! I knew this wouldn't end well."
She was quick to grab his hair and force his eyes on her. "I owe you for my hearts. The ones you destroyed."
Grey opens his tired eyes slowly as he coughs ,"H- *cough* hold on...T-Tiya...nak?. You actually learned to speak?" He laughs, "But you're a...girl now. Well ,you can't have them all I guess."
"GRAAAAH!"
This infuriates him, causing his malice to rage out of control, mocked by a human at the brink of death! How dare he. Ella tightens her grip on his head, clearly wanting to crush his skull.
"LET HIM GO!"
Emberle comes running from behind, she conjures two knives in her hands and tosses them at her.
Feeling them behind her, Ella smirks and turns her body into curling smoke that clears the way for the merciless knives. One hits a bull's-eye on Grey's forehead ,as the other pierces his chest.
She then flies towards the shocked Emberle , swallowing her in the dark mist and grabs her by the neck once more.
"Good job ,devil princess. Way to show your true colors."
Emberle heard the sound of shattering glass in her chest that shook her sanity while grabbed her forehead like before and says the spell ,"[Revoke]"
She cries out in her hands as tears follow. Johnathan dashes to her aid as he couldn't bear that heartbreaking scream.
"EMBERLEEE!!"
She desperately raises her shaking hands that felt as heavy as boulders at this point, and places her thumbs on Ella's eyes.
"What are you doing!?"
"you want Eve? You can have her."
"*Emberle! Don't you dare even think about it! I swear I'll kill you!!*"
She presses hard on her eye lids and screams
,"[GAZE!!]"
There was a deafening ring in the air as a sphere of purple malice exploded around them. Ella is blown away and lifelessly tumbles on the water surface until she reaches a splashing stop.
As the malice disappeared, Emberle came falling into Johnathan's arms. Her eyes were closed shut and neither her nor Ella showed any signs of moving or even breathing.
Her body lying cold in his hands, Johnathan sat in the water trying desperately to bring her back with tears forming in his eyes.
"No no no, Emberle. Wake up, open your eyes, come on!" He cried while gently tapping her cheeks. "EMBERLEEE!"
Ella's eyes opened wide as the scream reached her ears and she stands from the water, like a corpse rising from the grave. But Tiyanak no longer inhibited her.