"Let your tears wipe away the blood of the family you stole from us"
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During the time period in which the world had begun recovering from the devastating events of the hundred year blood war, certain war veterans whom deserted their positions in the factions of the military went into hiding.
Ones who went unnoticed by the supreme generals, used their deeper knowledge of the war to illustrate and write in textbooks and scrolls which would later be outlawed by the supreme generals.
However, certain exceptions would be made for those who had earned the trust of the supreme generals, and even earned a place onto the personal black ops units who worked directly for their tribe's supreme general.
Sidra and Hinari, who were the third and fourth additions to the northern tribe's black lotus division's fifth generation, were at the beginning of their lives as general Asami's personal officers, required to fill their heads with the true knowledge of the foreigners.
The outlawed versions of the textbooks and scrolls contained information such as the behavior of the war's enemies, the way they dressed, as well as the supernatural powers they used which was described as something beyond the realm of sorcery or demon arts.
And now. Now, the younger generation of sorcerers were about to see these foreigners in person, and they dreaded just what they were about to see…
***
Sidra felt her heart skip a beat. She was finally going to see whether or not these foreigners were as bloodthirsty as history made them out to be.
With a silent hand gesture, she told everyone to stay back while she and Hinari moved closer to the edge of the large crater.
Hinari's grip on her staff tightened. Her dull eyes darted below, somehow calm despite what she saw.
At the bottom of the crater, countless human sized figures which were all clad in white and black ceremonial robes were scattered around. Sitting in over seven rows, each of them had blank expressions.
One thing Sidra and Hinari noticed was both the black cracks branching out from their deathly pale faces to their torsos and arms…
The other thing was the hundreds of thin sheeted scriptures pinned to the thin black ropes holding their uneven robes together.
Hinari whispered over to Sidra.
"I remember the illustrations showing something like those scriptures. They're written in old English."
Sidra gritted her teeth, feeling a sense of frustration building up, which made her head throb.
Old English was a language which had been outlawed by the supreme generals, which now that Sidra thought about it could've been due to their fear of humans learning of the culture of foreigners.
It was understandable, but still frustrating. Now, it was much more difficult to determine a smoother approach to dealing with the foreigners.
'No. This is may be for the best'
Sidra looked over her shoulder and gestured for everyone to come closer. Once they did, she spoke directly to Jason and said:
"There's no doubt in my mind. Those people down there are foreigners."
Suddenly Jason felt a chill run up his spine, and his mouth went dry once he laid eyes on them. Not knowing what he expected to see in the first place, he gripped the hilt of his katana.
But Sidra quickly placed her hand firmly over his, and spoke as though to a child.
"Are you fucking crazy? What are we actually going to do if we just jumped in there? I know you're not an idiot, so use your damn head."
For a moment, Jason seemed confused at her words and said back:
"Our plan was to come here and just kill them all, and that's what I intend to do. it's unfortunate, yes. But we're running out of time, and my sister and ma could die if we waste time trying to play hero."
Sidra pinched the bridge of her nose. Fighting the urge to slap him, until Aria spoke up.
"I get it Jason, but your grandfather, Kaida, and the other supreme generals are also out trying to save your mom and Selene. And going in, getting ourselves killed wouldn't help…"
"Have faith in them, and be a little more rational. Because right now, we don't know what kind of crazy shit they could whip out to kill all of us."
There was then a moment of silence before Jason gave in, and calmed his overworked nerves.
Glancing over at Kai, everyone noticed a look of familiarity in his eyes which were locked on the scriptures latched onto the foreigners robes, as they swayed in the breezing hot wind.
Aria whispered to him in a hushed tone, asking if he could understand what the inscriptions on the thin sheets meant.
Kai thought back to his time in Shizuka village, and remembered the robes each of the priests wore. As well as the ceremonial robes master Benjiro wore.
All that, and the language master benjiro spoke in whenever he used sorcery had suddenly sparked a feeling of understanding that kai never questioned before.
Slowly, he answered.
"Those scriptures… I can't completely read what they say, but the characters in the writing, I think it says something like…"
"Dead gods, give us strength and in turn you all shall make a new home."
"We kill our souls, now take refuge in our preserved vessels?"
Kai's words didn't surprise Hinari or Sidra, especially given what they already knew from the outlawed textbooks explaining the powers these foreigners possessed.
And now that Kai had provided a little more context on what the scriptures said, Sidra went silent. And her sudden silence filled everyone else with a deeper feeling of dread.
A few seconds too long into the dreadful silence, Sidra looked over to Jason and Aria and said:
"We should regroup… wait until we learn more about these people before we make our move."
As much as Jason wanted to, he didn't argue with Sidra's words. No one did, so they followed her lead.
***
Back inside of the somewhat safe room of the catacombs, the supreme generals along with the humble priest gathered round.
For a while, Kahal shared a little more knowledge he gained from his time in hell just after the blood war. Both that along with the large sum of new information about hell's workings, they began to make a plan that could get rid of both the assimilation and the seven Hell lords.
Of course, to get rid of the assimilation they'd have to destroy both the seven circles along with the hell lords that governed each circle, but it wasn't that simple.
For one, they had to take into consideration the red sun that seemed to affect anyone caught by it's gaze during the day, and how much it seemed to have had some sort of sentience as it acted.
The other thing they had to think about was how many of the foreigners have already been assimilated if they already have been. In which case that raised a question that Kaida asked.
"If we take into account the seven Hell lords that already exist, and the mass number of foreigners they've captured, how many hell lords exist now that we haven't seen yet?"
Kahal thought deeply of this question. Naturally, he'd think that over a few hundred foreigners would've been assimilated by now, but there wasn't a clear count on exactly how much of them were here in hell.
"There's no telling. But it's safe to consider both of the worst outcomes."
The humble priest stood in the corner of the room With a somber expression on his face.
Kojiro looked over to him with his arms crossed. Sensing a faint trace of a strong emotion.
"Something the matter with you?"
Benjiro shook his head, but didn't bring his eyes up to see Kojiro slowly approaching him. But flinched as the graceful general raised his voice slightly with a hint of controlled contempt.
"I've noticed that you seem especially tense when it comes to these foreigners. Feeling bad?"
Suddenly, the priest slammed his fist against the skull filled wall. And turned to face the general as he spoke.
"Do not use that term around me! We are not the foreigners!"
Everyone in the room stopped to look up at the priest. Kahal's hooded, scarlet eyes slowly rolled over to look at the fury on the priest's face.
Asami stepped forward and asked:
"What did you just say?… what's this about we?"
Her grip on her katana tightened. Sweat raced down Kaida's paled face, as she took a step back and waited for the priest's answer.
But he remained silent. As he seemed to have been Shaken by his own outburst, he looked down at his mangled hand and sighed in an attempt to calm himself.
"He's one of the few dozen foreigners who escaped caelirach's camps."
Asami slowly removed her hand from the handle of her blade and sighed.
"You were aware of this fact, Kahal?"
Kahal nodded and snorted.
"Who'm I to out him, so long's he's not harming anyone?"
Kaida then stepped forward.
Standing between the priest and the graceful general, and looked Kojiro in his eyes as she spoke with a stutter.
"Mister Benjiro isn't a bad guy. He's our ally, and he's helped me more times than I can count… so don't accuse him of being the way you all described the others to be."
Touched by the young general's words, the priest put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a grateful nod.
"Thank you, little dragon. And I apologize for my outburst, but…"
Kahal cut him off.
"Don't apologize. But I'd appreciate it if you could confirm something for me, now that your… I guess secret is out."
Everyone turned to Kahal, who looked deep in thought for a moment. Thinking to himself about the supernatural powers and way of living the foreigners had, and then asking the priest:
"Earlier, I noticed that the red sun was affecting everybody but you. Not only that, but your sorcery seems to be different from the foreigners… so how can your people negate the assimilation process?"
Looking down at the prayer beads around his neck and wrists, the priest gave an answer that didn't much surprise anyone besides Kaida.
One that maybe even just damned the situation more than it already had been.
***
After agreeing to sidra's plan to retreat until they learned more about these foreigners, the group of young sorcerers backed away from the edge of the crater.
Not noticing one particularly blank faced foreigner glance up at their retreating figures.
The irises in his dull eyes wide, and seemingly thoughtful.
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Continued in chapter 122: Requiem
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