Chapter Twenty-Seven: The energy of Ulaz's blood.

As the man continues to bite down the shoulder of his wife, attends to devour her.

"No, Stop!" Shiro shouted as he sprinted forward and pushed the man away from her. Keith then followed up and tackled the man onto the ground, pulling the man behind his back.

Haggar's eyes narrowed as she saw Shiro's Nichirin Blade, the one that he got from the swamp, then looked towards Keith with a surprising look.

"No, sweetheart" the woman looked on in horror but concern for her husband nonetheless as Shiro and Keith push the man back, the one that bitten her as Shiro yelled out, "Ma'am!, You need to worry about yourself! Please take a cloth and press down pressure on the wound!"

The crowd started talking under their breath. Various voices sounded out around them.

"What's this?"

"What's going on?"

"I-Is that blood?"

Haggar started to turn around and walked with the family, "Are you all right?, Don't look, It's dangerous here, Sango. Let's move over there" She said to the woman.

"It's going to be all right. This man hasn't killed anyone! Just a second ago, this man was just walking down the street!" Shiro thought as he was clenched his fists as he looked on. There were too many civilians around him and Keith to do anything, one wrong move, and Haggar could infect more damage in one day.

Keith turned and yelled off, "which, I'm not letting No matter where you go!" Haggar's face turned into a scowl hearing those words, "you're not getting away! I'll follow you to the ends of the netherworld, and I swear I'll slice off

your head with my blade! I will never forgive you what you've done" ignoring them and continued walking.

"Keith now's not the time," Lance said, walking up to him.

"What the hell are you doing?" Three galra soldiers yelled out as they ran over. "Another drunk person?"

"Hey kids, stay away from him," the soldier said.

"We can't! Bring some restraints please!" Shiro cried out.

"Shut up and step away," the police officer yelled, reached out to grab Shiro and Keith.

Lance stepped up and blocked the officer before he could get close. "Listen, this man is obviously dangerous to the people, you need some restraints or else is going to get much worse".

"Get out of the way kid or do you really want it to be arrested!" The trooper yelled.

Lance yelled out, "no of course not, we cannot let go of this person just for one moment, we don't want him to kill any more people".

"Well, that's too bad, If you're going to keep resisting..." The soldier shouted as launch his weapon at Lance angrily while Shiro and Keith close their eyes. Preparing for any encounter.

"Scent of Illusory Blood: Visual Dream"

the next moment, the area started to fill with beautiful flower patterns surrounding them. "What the heck is this?" One of the Galra soldiers shouted.

"What's this energy and patterns? What are they, could they mean trouble!" Shiro thought as he looked to the side and saw a mysterious figure walking up to them with two others in tow.

"You still use...the term "person"... Even if that person is now Daemon, a dark one in fact," the figure said with his arms were in fact bleeding from being forcefully scratched by his nails to activate the blood art.

Keith looked up, both in anxiousness and surprise from the sight of the blood the man gave off.

"Wait I know you" Shiro spoke up first.

"So you do remember me, so allow me to give you a hand", the man answered, healing his wounds at the same time.

"What? Shiro, how do I know him?" Keith asked after hearing Shiro's response earlier. "But he's..."

"I know, he's a Galra. Don't worry, he's different from the others." Shiro said, reassuring Keith and Lance. Turning to The man, he continued.

"We would appreciate the help, can you take this man somewhere?" Shiro said.

"Yes, Hazar please take that man", the man before Hazar walked forward and knocked the man out by hitting a pressure point.

"What about these people?" Shiro said as he looked around.

"No need to worry, they have been put under an illusion and will forget everything that happened here," the man responded. Shiro nodded his head before saying, "We'll see you around, we need to get back"

Lance's eyes widened as he spoke out, "Ah!, We forgot about dinner!"

Elsewhere in another area in Arcadia, "Aren't you coming, nanny?" The son said to Haggar

"Now I need to be going to my next client, and besides I need to checked on the disturbance, I'm just worried about what this happened," Haggar said, setting in the most polite way possible, pretending to be someone babysitter was no easy feat. But what choice does she have, being Zarkon's right-hand woman isn't what you want to say to a parent?

"Don't worry. I'm only going to speak with the soldiers" Haggar said, "Now, get in." She answered as Sango and her son, getting them into their carriage.

"Say hello to Renton for me," the boy said.

"Of course, now run along, take them back to the house."

With that said the Carriage took the Sango and his son, back to their home. While Haggar heading towards a secluded alley rather than finding the soldiers.

Walking around, Haggar started to a certain location, just in, three people start to walk in the alleyway.

"Big Bro, let's hit one more bar!" One of the group said, obviously drunk.

"Are you sure, you look like our uncle" the big one said.

"I'm fine! I'm fine! I'm not even drunk yet" The man said, but besides that, accidentally bumps to the worst person ever.

"What the hell, you old lady!"

"I'm terribly sorry, I'm in a hurry," Haggar said, trying to be polite as possible again.

"Hey, come back here! You and your ugly face, you look like you are already dead" The man answered but that soon becomes his biggest mistake when infuriated Haggar to the point, that he gets murdered by her, immediately with one movement of his arm and his lifeless body is slammed headfirst against a wall.

Angered, the large one approaches but suffered the same fate when she hit him with lightning in the air with such force that electric him to death with just ferocity.

The woman looked on in horror as her brothers were getting killed by this Witch of a person. "So are you here to bug me anymore"

"Of course not"

"But what about my reflection, does it bother you so much"

"No, your reflection very very nice then I might add"

"Good," Haggar said, suddenly grabs the girl's wrist. "What do you think will happen if I keep training you of your energy?"

With all that being said, The girl screams in agony as her energy is drained and falls to the ground, dead. 

With her deed completed, Haggar contacted Zarkon on her communicator. "Inform your men… I've found the samurai".

Snapping her fingers, two Daemons immediately appeared and crouched down behind her.

"Bring me the head of the samurai". Turning back slightly, under her sharp golden gaze, she continued, "got that?"

"As you wish," the two Daemons said simultaneously before disappearing from their spot.

After receiving the order from Haggar, a deep killing intent leaked of Zarkon as the face of a man with white hair, and a white full beard appeared in his mind.

"Alfor"

"I will never let you have the quintessence Crystal"

Running back to the udon stand, the girl little, the one that they saved earlier, was seen still sitting her closed. Walking up to her, Shiro patted her head and turned to look at the bald man before expressing his gratitude.

The bald man turned to Keith and shouted out, "now, you listen to me! All right, there is nothing to do with money." The man yelled at Keith, with a vein bulging on his bald head.

"That's not the problem here, I just cannot believe you would waste a valuable bowl of udon" the man continued yelling with his eyes closed.

Shiro and Lance ignored this as they started playing with Stats.

"I'm sorry! Please serve me another bowl!" Keith said bowing.

"Ok!" The man said, "So, you're gonna eat it?"

"Absolutely"

"Okay!"

With all that being said now, Keith profusely ate his portion of udon, eating in record time. It was were genuinely delicious, which certainly made it go down easier for him.

Finishing his bowl, he yelled out. "Thank you very much for the meal!"

"All right, well I'm glad you liked it," the bald man said. "Come back again"

The three friends then walked away with the little girl. "Sorry about that, I'm sorry I haven't gotten your name," Shiro said to the little girl, politely asking.

"Oh, it is Cassia, and this is my daemon, Hazel"

"Well, Cassia, we're sorry we have to leave you behind like that"

"That's okay, I-" Cassia said, before noticing something in the shadows, "who is that".

"Who's there" Shiro demanded, his wariness soon to be of a man at the end of the street. The same man that the  rather was with, "So, you've been waiting for us?" Shiro asked him.

"Because I was told to bring you to see him." The man said.

"I could've tracked you by his energy," Keith said, questioning him.

"he's in a place that's a cloak, separate by space and time, No way could you find it."

"Separate from space and time". Shiro said

"Yes, after all, you are a dim-witted person," the man said, spectacularly unimpressed as he heading off into the night again before Shiro and the others could do anything else.

Shiro had a tight hold on Cassia's hand as they followed the Galra down the alley and into the city once again.

"Why does this man have so much faith in me," Shiro thought "and besides this person is out of his mind I'm not dim-witted"

Half an hour later, they arrived in the suburbs outside of the city. Walking down an empty secluded street, they stop in front of a wall.

"What now?" Lance asked, looking around.

The Galra man looked around for a bit before walking the wall. Surprising the group.

"Hurry up, before someone sees us," Shiro said sticking his head out.

Keith, Shiro, and Lance, with their hands resting on their weapons, followed and walked through the illusion. The moment they stepped in, they could see a junkyard-like house in the middle of a clearing surrounded by metal scrap. "How?" Shiro asked.

"Like I said Mass illusion," The man said from in front of the house. Just before They stepped in, the man whispered to them.

"Listen. Make sure you don't offend

that person in any way. Personally, I couldn't care less about what happens to you, But I brought you here because she insisted!" The man threatened.

Shiro and the others looked the man the eye, shrugging his shoulders, "R-Right, of course."

"Hmph!" The man grunted, before walking into the house. As Shiro, Keith, Lance, Stats, and Cassia walked in he noticed that the room was decorated as a doctor's office, with various depictions of anatomy and medicine laying around.

"Welcome", the Galra man, turning toward Shiro as he waited for the group.

"Where's the man from earlier?" Shiro asked. "I'm sorry that I left you to take care of things just now".

"I don't mind at all but unfortunately I have to keep him restrained in the basement", the man responded before standing up with his white apron on.

"by the way we haven't been properly introduced before," Shiro said.

"I suppose you're right, my name is Ulaz I told you beforehand, that boy there is Hazar, I hope that you'll be his friend". Ulaz said as Hazar looked down on the ground, containing his frustration at Ulaz's last remark.

"Pfft, that seems unlikely" Lance off to the side was covering his mouth looking around, trying to contact his laughter, before heading to the other direction.

Walking into a side room, Ulaz beckoned them, "please just this way, it's time you know", Taking off his apron.

Walking into the living room lit by candlelight, Cassia immediately laid down flat onto the tatami covered floor.  "Mmm, this builds nicely" She muttered satisfactorily.

"Hey! Cassia, that's bad manners!" Shiro said.

"It's alright, please try to make yourself at home," Ulaz said.

Seated on the ground, Ulaz started, "as you already know, the Galra empire is planning something, something that involves people with daemons, people's like Cassia and the people that you met on your travels"

Shiro tenses on that, in the swamp, in Alderaan, and all the places that he went into, all of them have been involved humans with Daemons being captured.

"What do they want with them," Shiro said.

"I don't know," Ulaz said, looking at Shiro, "but it has something to do with a theory?"

Thinking for a bit, Shiro relented and said, "theory, I don't understand"

"As you know the story of how daemons and humans discover one another and resulted in the first human being one with a daemon?" Ulaz said to Shiro and the others.

"Yeah, we know about the story, but what does this have to do with the empire". Keith recounted.

Both Ulaz and Hazar's eyes widen hearing what Keith said. "A lot more than you know, after the first human was discovered, others begin to sort out power for themselves, planning to use other humans as weapons of war, that's what I believed what the empire is doing"

The moment Shiro and Keith heard this,  their eyes started to shake in anger. "Crack", gripping his hands as hard as could out of resentment. "Zarkon...was the who caused all this?" Shiro thought, spat out.

"First Allura and now this," Keith thought, gripping his hands-on anger, all the same.

"Zarkon was the one that started the war after learning about the quintessence Crystal," Ulaz said.

"The quintessence Crystal," Shiro said, pulling out the Crystal from his neck, "is it really that powerful"

"More powerful than you ever know" Ulaz added.

"Where can I find Zarkon?" Keith said.

"Keith," Shiro said, surprised to hear Keith said that.

"You can't, not at your level yet. You aren't ready to face Zarkon, he's too powerful for you or anyone in that matter" Ulaz responded.

"He's right, I hate to admit it but he's right". Shiro said, putting his hand on Keith's shoulder.

Upon hearing that, Keith calmed down his breathing and cleared his mind. "Fine, but what can be done, we don't know anything about the quintessence Crystal," Keith asked. Feeling tense up.

"Actually" Lance answered straightforwardly. "I might know someone who does, but he lives far away and sometimes travel a lot, you think he might know about the crystal"

Relaxing, Keith then asked. "If that's the truth, then what are we supposed to do"

"I don't know but we have to figure out before more damage is done," Shiro said, looking a bit sad.

Elsewhere in the nighttime, silhouettes of two individuals walking down the street, the same street between them and Shiro and crew.

"See anything?" A female said, playing with a Temari ball.

"I can see footprints." A male said, with eyes on his hands who begins to track set footprints on the floor. "Making a huge turn over there".

"There are five of them and one's carrying a blade, a blade of pure light."

"I see, I wonder how should we kill them, I can feel it, the power of the witch, the flow of power coursing through my veins".

"Of course we're going to slay them vindictively"

"Learning information on the Crystal, I know a little bit much about it but if your informant could tell more, I see no harm in it" Ulaz responded, Listening to Lance's words, Shiro and Keith both perked up.

"When you released me, you also mentioned that there were others working with you," Shiro said, thinking about his escape from Sendak's Base.

"Yes. We are called the Blade of Marmora."

"We, don't you mean others, Lance said "are there here with us"

"Lance, seriously, you're answering a question like that"

"Hazar and I are the only ones here, Ulaz added, "With your permission, I like to study your blood"

"Blood," Shiro asked, confused by the statement.

"Yes, your Blood" Ulaz said. "During your time at Sendak's base, you were giving a daemon arm".

Shiro shockingly stares at his arm, he's forgotten that this arm was now a part of him. He treated like a regular limb until now, when he saw the swirls on his arm.

"I was wondering that was involved with the projects between humans and daemons and what I stated recently" Ulaz concluded.

"If that's really the case," Shiro said, "if we could figure out a way to stop this, a lot of people will be saved, all right we'll do it, we'll figure out a way to stop this" looking up at Ulaz and smiling.

Ulaz was stunned by his answer, he has never seen a person to be up to the task this is this, "very well but I never have seen how you answer" Ulaz responded, looking at Keith.

"Well normally I don't care, but if this is the only way to get revenge on Zarkon, I'm sure what the heck," Keith asked Ulaz.

Shiro smiled at his friend's words. "Still showing off his good side even if he doesn't want to admit it," Shiro thought, ruffling Keith's head.

"Grrrr" Keith started growing feeling blush, in the next moment, Ulaz eyes widened in surprise as the surrounding area was being torn apart from the inside by the force.

"Get down!" He yelled out rushing to cover Hazar's body. Shiro quickly reacted and dove to the ground, pulling  Cassia with him. While Keith reacted without thinking, lurching over them.

"BOOM, Crack and Smash" two Temari balls crashed through the wall of the house and started bouncing around the room destroyed the furniture. The balls were recalled by outside, as Two Daemons stood looking at the collapsed wall.

"Hahaha," the female Daemon chuckled.

"Did you decide how to kill them?" The male daemon asked her

"Ruthlessly, of course," the Daemon holding the Temari balls said, before throwing them again "Hahaha"

Temari flew around them like a wind tunnel had been unleashed inside the house, and for a moment Shiro and Keith wondered how are they going to get out of this mess, away from these daemons, things have gotten a lot harder than before.