The Blemish

'My mirelings have finally grown strong enough to conquer the Forest in my name.'

'As they continue growing, they will be able to kill stronger and stronger beasts, each with more potent spirits. Eventually, I will recover enough power to control my body once again. When that time comes, the Kings will feel the fullness of my wrath.'

'To think the fleshlings would grow so bold as to come to my home. Common sense has eluded them so effectively, that they do not question the fact that their predecessors never once attempted to set foot on my land. This generation will surely be remembered as the fleshlings' most shameful. They will pay the price of disturbing my sleep, just as the First Kings did.'

'As for the piece of my claw that was stolen...'

'I think destroying a few countries in return seems fair.'

|Thoughts Of The Beast As It Rests, Unable To Truly Wake|

"Do you think it's gone?" Sylvia asked; constantly being on edge and tense was driving her quickly toward exhaustion.

"Thinking like that puts us at risk," Marshall remarked, somber. He held his sword in one hand, in such a position that he was ready to thrust it into a stab at a moment's notice.

Gilgamesh agreed with his words, but he also understood. Marshall and him were also bordering on exhaustion, but they did not have a choice. "We'll have to try something. We can't keep this up."

"Yeah," Marshall added, "I'm wasting spiritual energy like this. If only I could sense it."

The trio slowly rotated, unsure of what their next action should be until Gilgamesh released a sigh.

"If the enemy is impossible to sense, then there's nothing we can do."

Sylvia gave him a puzzled look, while Marshall's eyes narrowed. Gilgamesh caught his breath and spoke in as loud a voice as he could muster in his tired state.

"We can't exhaust ourselves for no reason. It's likely that whatever it is stalking us is too scared to attack anyway."

There was a glint in Marshall's eyes; when he looked over to Sylvia, he could see that she also understood what Gilgamesh was doing.

"He's right, sis. This is a waste of time."

"It's even possible that it ran away."

Sylvia and Marshall played their parts perfectly, and Gilgamesh praised their adaptability in the situation.

Gilgamesh returned Samael to his back, and the siblings put their weapons away.

Then, almost in unison, they turned around and started walking away.

However, as they 'walked away' with their backs turned to whatever was behind them, their spiritual eyes were secretly directed at their backs.

They pretended to walk back home, while keeping an eye out for any kind of noticeable movement at their rear.

A few minutes passed, but there was no activity. Eventually, they decided to slow the exhaustion of their energy by using their enhanced perception in short burts.

Before long, it started to seem like the invisible stalker was truly gone.

"Well that was quite an experience," Marshall sighed.

"I know, right." Sylvia finally allowed herself to relax.

Gilgamaesh's eyes darted about until he saw the very thing he had expected to see.

Thought it was almost pitch black, his spirit allowed him to catch a vague glimpse of an object gliding through the space behind him.

He drew Samael with the utmost precision, putting his expertise on display and stabbing out at the object with haste.

All he saw was a sudden, almost panicked movement, and finally he could hear the sound of grass being crushed beneath the invisible creature's feet.

It seemed as though it was unable to properly silence itself after being startled by Gilgamesh, but it quickly rectified that error.

Unfortunately, Gilgamesh had now found it.

He would not let it out of his sight.

Dashing forward and lunging with Samael, Gilgamesh forced the invisible creature to stagger backwards until it fell onto the grass.

"He got it!" Sylvia rushed over, this time withdrawing a pair of shortswords. Marshall was close behind, with his sword at the ready.

"Rely only on your eyes! Its ability will evade your spirit the second you lose sight of it!"

There was a grunting sound, almost sounding like a frustrated groan; it seemed the creature understood that it had been found out.

Following a sparkly sheen of light appearing and vanishing, the invisible creature revealed itself to them. It had been amazed that Gilgamesh remained locked onto it, but after a while it understood that it would never be able to escape him again.

His senses alone were terrifying.

Standing before them now, the trio saw a tall and slendor, greenish monster, towering over them. Two enormous fangs ran from its upper jaw to its neck, and its eyes were almost entirely black save for two cyan colored pupils.

Its elongated limbs were like thin tree branches, but seemingly even more fragile. Yet, as it moved and bent them, they echoed with a kind of terrifying strength that betrayed that fragility. At the end of those limbs were deadly claws covered in meaty veins, pulsating with greenish blood.

"What the hell..." Marshall huffed, involuntarily stepping back with recognition in the eyes.

"You recognize it?" Sylvia asked, half out of incredulity.

Gilgamesh took the vanguard while listening out for Marshall's answer. The creature merely stood there and kept its eyes open wide. It would only move its arms around, as if it were stirring the air.

"You mean you don't? That's a Mireling."

Sylvia gasped; the creature's wide eyes narrowed.

"A Mireling... from the paintings?"

"Paintings?" Gilgamesh asked, though his eyes never once looked away from the mireling.

"Historical records of a time before the Five Nations' Coalition. Paintings of creatures that look just like this one, wreaking havoc across the Five Nations. It was because of them, and their mysterious master, that the Five Nations formed a temporary alliance."

Marshall rattled the facts off the top of his head, aiding even his sister in remembering. Gilgamesh furrowed his brows as he stared at the mireling, but all he could see in its eyes were confusion.

Gilgamesh took a step forward, and the creature's head snapped to him.

"You are a mireling, are you not?"

The creature nodded.

"Then, is what the boy said the truth? Were you and your kind responsible for almost ruining five human nations?"

To this question, it seemed unsure of how to respond. However, as it seemingly thought about the question and how to answer it, its cyan colored pupils narrowed into slits while becoming purple.

"The newborns aren't yet capable of complex thought, so allow me to speak for this one."

Hearing a voice suddenly coming out of the mireling's mouth shocked them all, and the siblings adjusted their position until they were almost directly behind Gilgamesh.

"This new generation of mirelings has never left their home. Their older siblings, on the other hand, are the ones you spoke of. Yes, I was listening."

Marshall gulped.

"Then it's true. I'm guessing you are the 'mysterious master' that the boy mentioned."

"Heh, heh. Are you not a boy yourself?"

Gilgamesh smirked.

"I am the mireling's master, as you say. Who are you three? I know you are not descendants of the First Kings, but I also do not understand how you came to be here, in my home."

"Your home?" Gilgamesh took another step forward.

"Yes, my home. Now tell me who you are while I still have patience."

"The minute I arrived here, you lost whatever illusion of control you believed you had. So, before my patience runs out, you will answer my questions," Gilgamesh's silver eyes sparkled with purple glitter, and the creature, as well as Marshall and Sylvia, were speechless.

Then, it started laughing.

"You fleshlings are all the same."

The purple slits in the mirelings eyes reverted to cyan pupils, and it regained its own consciousness.

Simultaneously, that same voice spoke from every corner of the land, coming from everything, everywhere, all at the exact same moment.

"Mirelings. Kill them."

"Mirelings!?" Before Marshall could properly look around, he heard Sylvia shriek.

Gilgamesh's head and body swiveled, and he avoided a claw strike from the one mireling that they had been focused on.

Two other mirelings attacked the siblings, revealing themselves in the process. Marshall barely managed to evade one of them, and he retaliated with a yell.

With a single stroke of his sword, he sliced open the back of the mireling he had dodged, then saw his sister being pulled away by her hair.

With Samael in hand, Gilgamesh created a minor connection with the spirit within. Having made that connection, he followed with a horizontal slash.

As his eyes followed the blade of the sword, he saw it cut into the mireling's body. However, there was no actual damage being done to the mireling's body.

Instead, as the sword cut through the mireling's torso and came out the other end, he saw spiritual residue on the blade that was slowly being assimilated by the sword.

Instantly, the mireling dropped dead; its spirit had been reaped.

Gilgamesh was about to rush to the siblings' aid, but his intuition shouted at him to move out of the way. He made a hasty leap backward, and saw a transparent figure slowly become visible.

"You can't maintain your stealth when you're attacking, huh?"

Taking advantage once more, Gilgamesh sent Samael downward, cutting straight through yet another mireling and reaping its spirit.

After that, Gilgamesh knew that there were no other mirelings coming for him. He turned and ran toward Marshall, who was fighting to free his sister from two mirelings.

His sword cut arcs through the air, separating a few limbs from their bodies. By the time he had freed Sylvia, they were both covered in splashes of green blood.

"Don't drop your guard!" Marshall shouted this to his sister, then gasped as he felt more movement nearby.

Without thinking, he pushed his sister out of the way of an invisible attack. Yet, as the mireling became visible before his eyes, he saw that the claws that would have stabbed into his sister were headed straight for his shoulder.

Gilgamesh arrived at that same moment, and stabbed into the mireling from behind. This was the last of them, but as it fell to the floor he saw Marshall clutching his right shoulder. Blood ran down his arm and dripped from the tip of his sword, tinged with a greenish hue.

As he knelt there and bled, his breath rapid, his eyes slowly closed and he fell over onto his back.

"Marshall!" Sylvia rushed to his side and inspected the wound, while Gilgamesh frowned.

"What the hell happened to you!?"

His frustration was directed toward Sylvia, who froze up when she heard him yell at her. Marshall was barely conscious, so he couldn't speak up on her behalf even if he wanted to.

"Is that all it takes to rattle you? The creatures blindsided you and all of a sudden you forget how to fight?"

Sylvia knew that Gilgamesh was right; she could say nothing.

"Your brother could have died-- he may die yet."

Their eyes all turned toward the bloody wound that Marshall was still trying to cover with his hand. They could see the ominous green substance mixed with his blood.

Gilgamesh wasted no time in walking over to a mireling corpse and grabbing it by the neck. With a thought, he placed it into his inventory, then went to Marshall's aid. He tore a piece of his own clothes off and wrapped it around the wound.

Sylvia was unsure of what to do; she felt like anything she could do would only make Gilgamesh more mad.

"Come on. There's still a chance that we can save him."

They both lifted him from the ground, and started on their way back home.

As they walked, all Sylvia could think was that she had failed. She had gotten scared, and Marshall had to protect her, something that very well might have cost him his life.

Gilgamesh's words resounded in her head a number of times. By the time they returned to the house, she would have them memorized.