40 My Cherished Item....

"Grandson! Are you okay?" Chief rushes over to Khi's side, as does Ichina and Azuka.

Khi coughs up blood, he looks down to his wound which had opened up again from Damien's kick. "Khi, you're bleeding," Azuka said in concern of him. "Don't worry about me, Damien is on his way," Khi says coughing in between most words.

Azuka stands up facing the direction Khi had come from. He walks up to it and could see glimpses of Damien's red eyes approaching. He gulps and ignites the hand that wasn't holding Emily's photo.

He centers his mana in the middle of his palm. The flames on his hand started to contract and attract to where he centered his mana. "AZUKA! If you go through with what you are doing, you will damage the buildings," Chief says. Azuka holds his flames in place, "We have to get this guy right? What's a few houses for the future of the village."

"You fool, there are people in there," Ichina interjects. Azuka completely stops the flow of mana and extinguishes his flame. "I won't kill anyone," Azuka says closing his eyes, thinking back to Junbar.

"YOU WON'T KILL ANYONE, BUT I WILL!"

Everyone is shocked by the sudden appearance of Damien who rushes at Azuka with his slightly dulled blade. It barely pierces through Azuka, but it is enough for Azuka to fall to the ground in pain. Azuka's godly regeneration and durability is enough for him to not feel as much pain as Khi felt. "Cauterize the wound! Azuka," Khi yells out in desperation. "Burn the wound," he repeats.

Azuka covers his wound with both of his hand, he ignites them both and heats them to a temperature that will actually burn his skin. After cauterizing the wound he realizes that Emily's photo was no longer in his hand. He searches all around him for it, crawling all over the ground to find it. Only for Damien to crouch down and wiggle it in his face.

"Are you looking for this," Damien asks, laughing hysterically. "Does this bring you happiness? Is this what you live for? This beautiful lady, if I do say so myself." Damien laughs again even harder this time.

Can I truly not do anything at this moment, Ichina thinks to herself. I should go and help him, but what if Khi or Chief needs my help. Do I leave them for Azuka, or do I leave Azuka for them?

"Ichina darling, can you use fire magic," Chief asks. Ichina nods, "But only to a certain degree, I can't-"

"Perfect, bring Khi to the doctor and cauterize his wound," Chief demands.

"What grandpa, I'm perfectly fine-" Khi coughs up blood and presses down on his wound harder.

I still feel a strange pain around the wound, could pieces of his dull blade get inside me, or did he poison me? "On second thought bring me to the doctor," Khi says feeling defeated.

Khi causterizes his own wound with the help of Ichina's fire ball. Ichina picks up Khi with difficulty as her arms and leg began glowing, "Body enhancement magic," she says, "Double!"

She is able to run at double her usual speed, as well as easily carry Khi. She centers her mana from just her limbs to her whole body to further the efficiency.

I can hold this up for about five minutes, hopefully I can get there in time. I haven't distributed my mana throughout my whole body like this before, but I can do this.

Damien pays no attention to Ichina and continues tormenting Azuka. "Should I rip this apart, will you cry if I do," Azuka lunges up, but he is stopped by Damien pinning him down with his coat blades. "I guess, you really care about this woman, How precious is she to you?"

"GIVE IT BACK!"

"Really, you want this back? What if I give it a little tear?" Damien rips a little bit of the photo in half.

"STOP IT. IF YOU RIP THAT, I'LL KILL YOU"

Damien unleashes a thunderous laugh, "You are a hypocrite. What happened to that I won't kill anyone attitude?"

"Shut up... Please, just give it back."

Damien frowns, waving the photo around, he stands up, sighing. "I don't like you begging, it pisses me even more off than I already am. The old man begging is music to my ears, but I want you to feel true despair. Hmmmm. Let us see here. You don't want anyone to die and you want this photo." Damien walks around Azuka who keeps a close eye on Damien.

Damien grips his left hand, "Stop staring at me like that, its annoying. Oh! I got it. I'll have you choose Azuka. I will give back your photo unharmed, but everyone in this village dies. Or everyone lives and you get your photo back."

"Damien! That is absurd! Just give back the boy's photo and we can carry on with our negotiations," Chief yells, furiously pointing his cane at Damien. "No, no this is perfect. The answer should be obvious, your village will be saved fo-" Damien holds the back of his head as he slightly becomes dizzy.

Damn it, he thinks, that warrior did a lot more damage to me than I thought. "Hurry up choose! The photo or the people!" Come on kid, I don't have all day, I wasn't even supposed to come back here on back to back days.

Damien continued his efforts of getting Azuka to choose. As he did Azuka stayed silent with his head faced down on the ground. With all the screaming Damien did, the people of the village began walking out of their homes. "This is a back to back day, why is Damien still here," the villagers would whisper to each other. Damien had become extremely light headed, he was prepared to give up and go back to the underworld.

"The photo..."

"Excuse me? Speak louder!"

Azuka lifted his head, with tears in his eyes, "I SAID GIVE ME BACK THE PHOTO! KILL THESE PEOPLE I DON'T CARE!"

Damien unleashes a forced thunderous laugh. The people of the village became fearful, some growing in anger towards Azuka. "What is your name," Damien asks Azuka.

"Azuka."

"Well Azuka, have your photo back."

Damien let's go of the photo, it floats down gently, but it does not reach the ground. In one piece that is, Damien uses the other side of his coat to rip the photo in shreds. Followed by that he breaks off the blade pinning Azuka down and forces it into him more.

"NO! What about the deal!"

"You took too long to answer. I was getting sick of this." Damien begins walking back to the altar.

"Damien! I'll kill you for destroying her photo!"

Damien continued walking, he made it into the portal and it disappeared instantly. The blade pinning down Azuka dissolves into the air.

Tears, blood, and despair surrounded Azuka, as the crowd of villagers grew hateful.