"Kahal… the name of the damned that brings about an ill omen"
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Kahal.
The sound of that name once it left the mouths of those who witnessed the long lasting blood war was believed to bring about an ill omen.
Once the damned man had returned to the battlefield in the aftermath of selling his soul to form a blood contract with Hell's Queen, flowers began to bloom across entire nations.
The aura which the flowers radiated left entire continents a mere desolate landscape once the war met its end.
On the battlefield from which the final battle against Hell's king had took place, flowers sprouted about and even grew from the bodies of the damned man's own allies.
And from that point on, the dark age of the earth had ended.
The supreme generals and the very few survivors of the war had covered up most of the true events from the war, and the true nature of the dark era of sorcerers.
Even the man which had been the key factor in ending the war was locked away deep underground in a solid room of complete darkness.
Isolated from mankind until the supreme generals could conduct a full-scale investigation on the terms of the soul bound contract the man had made with Hell's Queen.
And from what the textbooks and sealed scrolls had told, during the day from which the man had heroically sealed himself in the heart of Hell's universe in order to protect his daughter in her very first minute.
And years afterwards, simply speaking his name was strictly forbidden even amongst his own kin.
***
Clutching his head as he yelped in agony, Jason dropped to both of his knees and hit the stone ground.
Once he did, he began to cough up blood. Aria immediately dropped her guard against the damned man who stood before them, clutching the shoulder and chest of Jason, she asked:
"Jason?!… what's the matter with you?!"
Her voice was filled with panic. Right after she asked that, she began to notice that his body began trembling slightly.
Her eyes then turned a bright blue color as she gazed into Jason's body, and saw his six red shattered soul fragments. And around them were at least three or four black seeds.
'What the hell?…'
In the next moment, Jason's yelp turned into a frantic shout as roots began to sprout violently through his body. Attached to the roots were blood stained flowers.
Kaida was quick to grab Aria and jump across the room. And as the two girls landed right next to the soul sapping tree, they both set their sights back onto Jason who's eyes had then suddenly began to flicker the same color as the damned man's own eyes.
His breaths were heavy while his eyes flickered black and red.
It was then that the damned man had started to take a few steps toward the boy.
Each of his footsteps left withering flowers in his trail. And once he reached Jason, Jason had slowly tilted his head back and looked fearfully into the eyes of the man.
He couldn't see a single emotion or thought behind the hollow husk in front of him.
Before Jason could even relieve himself from his agonized state, the man placed a firm grip on Jason's throat and lifted him up off the ground.
The cursed seals of hell reacted and sprouted across Jason's body. Though it was futile once the damned man had tightened his hold on Jason's neck.
To everyone's surprise, the man had begun to speak. His voice was raspy and broken, and the first words that left his mouth in over thirty eight years were:
"…who are you?…"
***
Once Jason and Kaida had split from the cohort earlier in search for Aria, General Asami had sent both her Lieutenant Sidra and cadet officer Hinari to go hold off raiser.
The two women had walked through the wide dark halls of hell. Often times Hinari had clutched her long staff tighter for each corner they had turned.
Sidra had glanced back at the timid Hinari. Her eyes dropped slightly before she brought her gaze back to the darkness in front of them.
Just as she did, a sudden echo from Hinari's voice sounded through the hall.
"Hey Sidra?… umm, when we find senior raiser, h-how are we going to save him?"
Sidra couldn't help but grit her teeth. A part of her wanted to shout at her naive friend, but her desire to give the timid girl a sense of hope overshadowed all of that.
The corner of her lips turned up, slightly shaken and her eyes squeezed shut as she turned to face her friend and said:
"We'll figure that out when we find him… but I need you to keep your guard up. Right now, those weird flowers are possessing raiser, so he's still dangerous…"
"And hinari… I hate to ask this of you, I truly do… but for now, I need you to put aside your personal feelings, and focus on the task at hand. I'm not ordering you as your lieutenant, but asking you as your friend."
Hinari's grip on her staff grew firmer.
Her lips moved but no words left. She wanted to argue against all reasoning, but simply remained quiet, and adjusted her glasses.
The two girls continued to walk through the darkness of Hell's halls for at least another fifteen minutes, and once they turned a corner, they stopped in their tracks.
Sidra put her arm in front of Hinari, silently urging her to stay where she was. While in the reflection of hinari's glasses, she saw the half masked raiser sitting on the ground with his legs crossed.
His back was turned to them while flowers remained sprouted from his body. Around him was a small circle of dead flowers, and they suddenly heard crunching noises.
Sidra dropped to one knee, and held up one of her hands to perform a hand seal as she said firmly:
"Lieutenant raiser. Stop what it is you're doing and turn around slowly… please don't make me kill you."
A small gasp left Hinari's lips. Though she quickly regained her composure once raiser had slowly turned to face the two.
Just as he turned, his mask was down. And the lower half of his skeletal exposed face had blood spilling from the narrow space between his teeth.
In his hands were the remains of a mindless demon. The sight made Hinari recoil, while beneath sidra's free hand on the ground, a giant black lotus marking had manifested.
'Seal'
After a few more moments of still quietness, raiser had raised himself to his feet. And slowly began walking toward the two girls.
Sidra groaned. She felt her heart pounding against her chest as the silent man drew closer to them.
"Hinari… you have to kill him."
Hinari's face froze. She violently trembled and remained in place with her staff still in hand.
Her lips shook while horror took over her eyes. Suddenly, the silent raiser began to sprint toward them.
"Hinari!"
Sidra shouted, but her effort in snapping the timid cadet officer out of her fear was futile.
"Tch, goddammit Hinari!"
Without wasting another precious second, Sidra snatched the long staff out of hinari's grip, while raiser leaped straight toward the two girls.
Luckily, Sidra was quick enough to react and held the staff out and blocked raiser's feral claw.
The force exerted from raiser's forearm was enough to make Sidra slide back a few centimeters.
With a pained grunt, a black lotus inking had formed over one side of sidra's face. And in an instant, she swung the staff and knocked raiser through one of the thick walls.
She then had clutched her head and let out heavy breaths. Feeling the flaw of her magic taking effect, she knew she didn't have much time before her mind would be subsumed by her own spell.
Hinari backed herself against one of the intact walls. As she witnessed her friend using such a risky spell, her breaths came in and out more rapidly.
'Sidra… no… no,no,no…'
Once her back hit the wall, Sidra glanced back at the timid girl and simply sighed in disappointment.
But there was no time to waste on Hinari. Once Sidra quickly returned her focus on the possessed raiser, he had already lunged forward.
Before she could react this time, she felt a thumping pain in her head as raiser planted his leg right into the side of her face and knocked her back.
While she tried to stand up, raiser had then set his sights on the timid Hinari who continued to back away while her whole body trembled.
"M-mister raiser… please…"
Once the man had almost closed the short distance between him and Hinari, Sidra cursed under her breath as her frustration toward Hinari grew further.
In this moment, her brain was throbbing from the use of her technique. But in this moment, that pain didn't matter.
Her job as lieutenant of the black lotus division came before all else. Once she steadied herself, she reactivated her technique which made the black lotus inking on her face spread even more.
And before the secondary lieutenant raiser's hand pierced through the chest of the timid cadet, the man felt a warm and thick liquid coat his hand.
Hinari's eyes fluttered, once. Then twice.
She fell to her bottom and watched in horror as she witnessed raiser's hand fly right through sidra's solar plexus.
Blood spilled from her twitched mouth while she stubbornly held the grip on the staff.
Sidra weakly tried to bring the staff up, but her effort was futile once raiser had yanked his hand out from the girl's body while she fell against the remains of destroyed wall.
With her waning magic, her wound reluctantly began to close. But raiser was already towering over her, ready to deliver the final blow.
Sidra struggled to take her breaths, which in this moment seemed pointless.
Once raiser had swung his hand. Sidra squeezed her eyes closed.
Her final thought in that moment was nothing other than the uncertain future for her younger brother who was still in their universe in the northern tribe.
A tear spilled from her eye as she recalled the last thing her younger brother had said before their parting.
'don't expect me to sit around and cry because you're doing the same thing that got our mother killed.'
A sad smile made its way onto sidra's paling face. However, her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the feeling of warm small drops of liquid which sprinkled down onto her face.
A few silent moments had passed before she opened her eyes. And once her purple eyes fluttered open, raiser was down on both of his knees.
Once she brought her eyes up a few centimeters, she saw that raiser's head had been severed clean off of his neck.
And standing behind him was the timid cadet officer Hinari, who had grasped her long black staff which now had a blade sprouted from one end.
"Hinari…"
Hot tears streamed down the young girl's paled face.
She bit her lip which drew a bit of blood. In that moment, she could only hear a loud ringing noise in her ears while her hands trembled and gripped the center of her staff.
Just like that. Her once bright eyes were now pitch black.
As her clean hands were now stained with the blood of her comrade.
Hinari for the first time in her eighteen years, had taken a life.
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To be continued in chapter 102: delusions of grandeur
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