Graveyard

Graveyard

(Chapter 25)

**

[<<]

She grabs his ankle and swings him around haphazardly. She hits 1, 2,3… She puts him down. Now that they're cover's blown, they emerge from their stealth one by one. The darkness is illuminated by the endless stream of red eyes about them.

"…Tina, did we strike some enemy multiplier on our way out because this is the first time I've gotten so much attention."

"…"

"{Elmus. Her heart's pounding.}"

"{She scared?}"

"{I can't really tell.}"

"We…we're gonna have to kill all of them. We can't afford to let any of them escape."

"Then we're gonna have to move faster than their reflexes. Go!" They lunge out in opposite directions. "{Zombies and ghosts... We're in a Graveyard.}"

[>]

Tina must rely on her strength to move faster than they can phase, and Elmus needs to move fast enough to hit them with Amitha. On, the other hand, he's feeling drained and all beat up from the fight with the Elder. This time, he only sets Amitha ablaze near the moment of impact, searing their flesh before contact.

Valentina uses the bullet technique that she obtained from the Elder. In fact, she already had a similar technique but the Elder helped her to refine it into a form most suitable for their immediate environment. They down a few.

It comes to an end. Elmus' flames get smaller and smaller each time he sets her ablaze and Tina's preoccupied with all of the Spectres swarming around her. In a matter of minutes, he can't even make a spark and switches to evasive maneuvers.

"{Amitha! What's going on?}"

"{Roll left! You're out of mana. If you push yourself, you're gonna drop dead-slide!}"

"{Don't you have mana?}"

"{Already tried-parry to your rear! You have to find a way to get out of here or you're gonna die.}"

[/]

"{Darn it! They're catching on to my movements; I have to go faster.}" She bullets between the trees, slashing at whatever's in her way, but in pushing herself to go faster, she slips up. She's forced to evade the tree that she's heading for in order to avert damage, and arrives at Elmus' yard in time to save him from a fatal slash. They're back to back now, with the Spectres clawing at them viciously.

"What happened? *slash* Where are your flames?"

"I'm out. *slash* We've gotta get out of here."

"No. We can't let them go."

"You listening to yourself? *savage slash*"

"We're completely surrounded right now. The only place to go is up."

"No. *slash* As soon as you throw me up they'll wipe you out."

"…They're backing off. Why?"

"{Elmus!}"

All of them contribute mana toward charging up a spell directly above them. Looks like a ball of razor wind.

"Let's tackle them. They wouldn't shoot themselves."

"No. There's a rear guard waiting for us. Amitha, can we devour it?"

"{It's not your element—get ready to devour! 12 o'clock!}"

"What—?"

A horizontal torrent of fire rips through the Spectres in front of Valentina, about to incinerate her to ashes. Elmus pulls her around him and devours the flames. It's too much for him to consume all at once and it launches them back into the Spectres behind. One second later and she woulda been French fries. Tina capitalizes on the opportunity to slash at a few and toss Elmus up to one of the lowest branches.

"Tina! Are you sure you killed the Elder?!"

"100 percent positive. Even took it's crystal."

"Don't tell me there's another. Tina! Hurry up and get up here—!"

"{No Elmus; It's a human!}"

"What?"

"{It's Solaris.}"

[Succubus]

"Nothing so far; Everything seems to be going smoothly," Axel remarks.

"Sir Arthur, when'll we sleep?"

"During the day. We can't afford to sleep at night. You'll never know when the Spectre arrived even after you reach the afterlife."

"*yawn* I already feel kinda sleepy here."

"But you haven't engaged any Emerged today, have you?"

"Nope."

"So how'd you expend all your energy?"

Axel clears his throat. "She saved me from being swept away."

"Just that? Must've been something else; Anaemia?"

"No. She's perfectly health—"

Angelica's arm goes into a spasm. It's really fierce. Arthur grasps her hand and she grips it tightly. They put her down.

"Is she conscious?"

"No." He puts her hand on one of his eyes. "…the enemy has found us."

"Spectres or Zombies?"

"BRAINZ!"

"Axel, you're with me! Emily with Daara!"

"*gasp* That'd mean."

"Yes. We're dealing with both. Here they come."

Once the light of the torch finds the Zombies, Axel and Emily rocket at them and swiftly relieve them of their heads. Arthur and Daara follow up behind them and strike the INVISIBLE Spectres down with their blades.

[Bigfoot]

He almost catches up to sleep. He's probably a second away when his ears pick up the echo of turmoil. It's quite loud for it to have woken him. He eventually gives in to rage.

"These villagers… Why are they making so much of a ruckus? Some sort of festivity? Just when I thought I could get some shut-eye!"

The girl from earlier comes screaming 'Bigfoot! Bigfoot!' He can't even see anything down below, but she scampers up the log pile. There's snarling and all. "Please help me!"

"What's that putred smell? Depart from me!"

"Can't you see what's going on?!?"

"No, it's dark out. If you people don't do away with the commotion, I WILL STRIKE."

"That's really great because we're ALREADY.UNDER.ATTACK. *scream*" The Zombie gets the tail of her dress and pulls her. She holds onto him but her grip slips. No need to worry; he takes her by the hand and raises her up toward the moon. He sees the silhouette of the corpse hanging onto her. He's identified the source of the stench. He flicks it far over the trees but keeps her hanging up there.

"Under attack? Why should I care?"

"Could you please help? The village is being—"

"Well maybe you shouldn't have tried to poison me."

"Poison you? Are you always this skeptical? I brought you a gift in good will! Please!"

"Humans remain the same. A gift today in exchange for help tomorrow. Who knew you would've come to cash in so soon. Well I never ate it so you can have your 'whatever' and leave me alone."

"…I never had any ill intention…Far away from friends and family…I imagined how it'd be to be so lonesome so I—I just wanted to do something nice for you. Once I descended, these—UNDEAD were already waiting for me."

"You hadn't anticipated this?"

"It's only natural for you to think that way after all but…people have different hearts. You could easily swat them away if you wanted to. If you don't help me, all my people are gonna die. Please!"

"I've witnessed the Evil of the human heart with my very own eyes. Why should I betray victims?"

"Look… I don't know what has happened but we have nothing to do with this war. Innocent lives are dying. I can hear your heart beating inside. No matter what race you are… Even if you ARE several feet taller, what matters is what the heart can offer. Is it Evil or Love?"

"…"

[>]

The Bigfoot hops down from the highland in one bound and takes the side road to the village. The Zombies are attacking people, reducing everything to rubble. Huts are on fire and all, the men trying to protect the women and children and others running helter-skelter. She's on his shoulder. He dabs all of them with the back of the Axe's handle. They keep on coming for a while but their numbers dwindle and dissipate. He blows out the fire on all the huts with a frosty breath. That's it. There's no illumination apart from the moon. The giant tower gets down on a knee and lets Nepherimet down.

"Thank you!"

"DO.NOT.THANK-ME HUMANS. I only needed to swat the fly buzzing by my ear. This is a caution. If you ever wake me from my slumber again—one more village will be wiped off the map."

"…Thank you either way."

"…"

He turns aside and bulks his muscles up, getting ready. He leaps over half of the Rice Plantation to the side road and leaps back to the entrance to the woods. One more bound and he's out of sight.

[Boundless]

"What?"

"{It's Solaris.}"

Elmus doesn't even think about it. He leaps, crashing down on a Spectre. To have unleashed an attack of that magnitude, she must have pushed herself past her limit and he realized that almost instantly.

"Amitha!"

"BURN ME!"

He sets her ablaze and rips through the Spectres like a chainsaw.

[<<]

Eris finds corpses of the undead and then Lancentaurus'. That's confirmation that Boundless must be nearby. She analyzes all of their body heat and the Elder packs the most. Tracing the line between the closest Cover and the Elder, she has a clue of the direction in which they went. She scuttles along as fast as she can with her crutches and catches a glimpse of fire flashing in the distance.

"{Could that be Elmus?}"

She gets close enough without being detected. Both of them were supposed to be I.M.Us, so she had her doubts. She spots Tina bouncing between the trees but…

"{Where's Elmus? He—he has to be here. Am I too late?}"

Tina regroups with Elmus. She notices that she's moving back to back with a certain somebody. "That's him, I'm sure of it. They're *gasp*" The Spectres begin to charge up the razor wind. "No! I won't allow it!"

Eris stands against a tree to numb recoil and stretches her arm out and braces it with the other. Within a period of 3 seconds, she charges up everything she has to offer and blasts out a huge torrent of fire. It crushes her against the tree instead and her right hand itself is set ablaze.

She is only able to shake it off after it burns her fingers. In the pain of the moment, she forgets all about the Spectres that she just attacked. A blast of that magnitude only made her the number one on their blacklist. They close in on her and she cowers and screams.

[>]

"*scream*"

"{Elmus! They're about to get her!}"

"NO THEY WON'T!"

He charges through them whirling his flaming blade around and severs the one before her in half with a backhand slash. He stands before her, partially illuminated by Amitha's flames. They're still blazing, and his eyes… They're those throbbing black eyes from before.

"*gasp* Is that you?"

It's definitely his visage but…those eyes. She's not sure. It's like a fluctuating black hole. The pupils enlarge past the line of the Irises and contract to the rim of the irises in accordance with his pulse, as if they were also beating. Is it rage in his eyes?

"{Elmus! Let's go!}"

It's just like the night that he went up against Blood-Eye. He's seeing the positions that every Spectre will be in the future exactly at the point when his blade draws lethal blood. He lunges straight at these transparent bubble-like silhouettes and slashes them in the exact same spot. This is what Amitha was talking about.

"{SYNCHRONIZED,}" both of them declare, anytime they successfully execute a target. Each time he slays one, he gets faster and faster at capitalizing on the silhouettes. There comes a point in time that she can barely track his movements; he's like a living whirlwind. It's a fiery waltz of death.

Even Valentina's astonished by the drastic turn of events. She can't even keep up with his agility herself. He eradicates almost every last one of them. There are a few strays and he goes after them but his mana runs out on the last one and his flame dies out. Since he doesn't have any mana, there's no way he can kill it. Master and blade call out "DEATH AVERTED," and his eyes return to normal. Eris covers him. She shoots a concentrated beam of fire, a laser in it's center, and it drops dead. A whole horde of Spectres was wiped out in a time that could put a gold rank to shame. Elmus returns to them.

"Harmonie!"

"Solaris!" He hugs her tight but she pushes him back a little and takes a good look at his eyes. They're normal?

"Something the matter?" he asks, with his hands to her cheeks.

"…Maybe I was just seeing things. Thank God you're alright!"

"Why the heck did you come out here like this?!" He takes her by the hand. It's singed, although it's not so bad. He takes a gourd of water, salt and honey out. He rinses it, pours on a lot of salt and honey, then bandages it. "This is more than reckless."

"Well what SHOULD I have done? We detected a horde of Spectres coming your way and I should've just sat there? If I hadn't arrived when I did, you would've died!"

"Thanks for your help but think about yourself sometimes. You can't even walk without aid, remember?"

"It's just a minor setback."

"Umm. I'd hate to interrupt but this is the time we should capitalize on to get her out of harm's way."

"No way! I'm not gonna leave after what I just witnessed!"

"And what DID you just witness? All the Spectres were just wiped out…although it wasn't by my hand, the person you were trying to protect is much better off at the moment."

"I'd have to agree with her Solaris."

"But I gave you my mana. I don't know what has changed; I don't understand how you're using magic, but I somehow lended you my mana. I can do it again."

"Look at your hand! This is NOT up for discussion. You saved my life so it's my turn to save yours." He princess carries her.

"Wow. Your arms healed up PRE-TTY FAST," she teases.

"Not now Tina."

[Succubus]

The job isn't as easy because sticking close to Gelica is a requirement. The Spectres capitalize on that to pool their mana and fire balls of razor wind from the distance. Daara fends off the attacks with his void sweeping blade, but guarding all 360 degrees is a hassle. The Raid Unit Panthera comes to the rescue. They go by the codenames: Liger and Cheetah, a male and female duo just like Shadow. The male's the tall and beefy type with white hair while the female's a slim redhead. The Liger wears a heavy armored suit while the female's just managing a black leather suit enforced with a few ingraining metal streaks, typical of a cheetah.

"Looks like we arrived just in time," Cheetah starts.

"Yeah, to talk about being saved by the bell; How'd you find us?"

"We were engaged in battle but our targets all started to migrate towards your direction. There was a chain of "BRAINZ," and they hadn't locked onto us. Only natural to think that someone else is out here."

"Splendid deduction I must say. We'll be taking the lead milady."

"Wait a second. What should we do? Need help?"

"Are there still bogeys in the area?"

"Most likely."

"Then I'm gonna have to ask you to carry on with suppression. It'd be a shame if they invaded the hinterlands because we called in all the man power."

"You've got a point but the Zombies have already invaded mainland. Make sure you make it back. Anika's worried sick."

"Alright, Fare well!"

[Boundless]

They arrive at Banlieue's Eastern Gates. Rex is already sitting watch outside. He wields two large blades that must weigh tons by the looks of them. Erin takes her to him.

"So she actually survived. Hm, that's great."

"Why do I get the feeling that you aren't so thrilled? Why did you let her go? What would Erin say?"

"You're getting things wrong. SHE attacked US and fled. Why should I have stopped her?"

"…"

"You can't impose your will on others. That's why everybody has a mind of their own. She can make her own decisions."

"Just make sure it doesn't happen again."

He takes her inside and puts her down. She doesn't look happy about it, but he's made up his mind. She wishes to throw a tantrum.

"HARMONIE. Look at what I just did for you and look at what you're doing to me."

"There's a task at hand. You'd best operate from here. There's a chance that other units might need info on Emerged in the area. If you agree to relay that to Rex, you could probably save lives without putting yourself in danger."

She's upset now and she turns aside. "I'm only a year younger than you and you're treating me like a little girl."

"I can't afford to waste time on this right now. I promise that I'll find some time so we can talk about this later, when we're alone. Thanks again. I'll be fine."

He begins to walk away. She's not satisfied with his response and it's really not helping. She'll have to take the repercussions for her actions head on, but HE's going off with Tina again.

"{I don't get it. I just saved your life. I've known you for how long and yet you'd listen to her over me in a heartbeat. What's your business with her anyway? Why'd you form a Raid Unit with her instead? Where are you two running off to with her dressed like that—that you don't want me to tag along. What's she doing to your head Harmonie? You always say that we're gonna talk but it never happens. You just—you make me feel like it's not meant to be.}"

A tear trickles down her face but he doesn't see it. HOW could he have when he didn't even turn around to wave good bye? She hopes that he would just turn around and say something even if it's just the smallest, meaningless thing, but he rather turns to Tina instead. Does she have competition?

-------End of Chapter 25-------

Chapter 26 Teaser

The State of Emergency has been held up for a day. There's danger nearby. The big question is will Arthur choose the people over Gelica?

To be continued…