CHAPTER 3: A NIGHT IN XIN AND THE MYSTERIES OF THE SOUTH

Karin and Yu were led through the castle compound by the advisor of the king's second-in-command and were guided through the vast castle to the king's throne room. The petite man with blond hair knocked on the doors and a rough voice called from the other side granting them permission to enter. 

The advisor opened the doors and walked in front of the throne of the king, he knelt down. "My king, the members of the DAWNING STAR are here." 

A man standing at a height that was not for a normal human glared at them, his Gingerbread bushy beard moving with his lips as his piercing dark eyes roamed up and down Karin almost undressing her with just his eyes. He coughed into his hand and cleared his throat. "Welcome, I'm sorry to have inconvenienced you lot with my request but your help is greatly needed." 

Karin although put off by the stare from the king bowed her head. "It's not much of an inconvenience… we would be glad to help Your Majesty with the demon purging at any time. Say, Your Majesty, if you don't mind me asking when did the attacks start?" 

The king placed a hand on his chin and rubbed his beard. " A month ago, when the counselor of the Left fell ill, the south district of Xin got swamped by demons but the church managed to repel them but we don't know for how long." 

Yu's eyes fixated on the king, he could not shake their overwhelming feeling that the man sitting before them was not telling the truth. Even the way his eyes briefly danced around or when their light dimmed in that split second. Something was rather off, he thought it might be his imagination as he had just only gotten there a day ago. 

Karin picked up on the gestures as well. She placed her hand on her chin and made the king's words the centrifugal of her thoughts. If it was a month ago, why did they suddenly ask for their help now? Shouldn't the king be more concerned about his people? Also aside from a few trained mages deployed from the cathedral at the capital to guard the Monasteries along the kingdom, the church shouldn't have been able to fend off a swarm of demons not to mention the counselor of the Left falling ill. All seemed to align to be coincidental events. 

"If it's not much problem Your Majesty, I'd like me and my partner here to look into the southern breach." Karin addressed, she figured if she could find the source, the questions in her head would make a bit of sense to her. 

The king snorted. " Go on ahead." 

"Thank you, your majesty." Karin expressed her gratitude and got up. She and Yu left the throne room leaving the king and the advisor alone.

The king's eyes changed to look more demonic, bright red in pigment and he gritted his teeth. With the razor-sharp fangs showing from behind his lips, someone had managed to reach out to the dawning star even though he made it impossible for any message to leave. But who? Who could have sent out the message? So far people of Xin thought he was the king and the counselor of the Left was the one who was sick but with the involvement of the Dawning Star, his harvesting of the souls of the people in Xin would go to waste. 

He slammed his hand on the armrest, potent nether seeped from his body in waves covering the room subjugation the demons hiding in the shadows under its will while killing those who could not withstand its unbridled fury. "Matou, make sure those two die! I don't care what you have to do just make sure they die." 

Matou nodded his head. "Affirmed master," His body dissolved into shadows and he crept away to plot the downfall of number four and Number eight. 

Karin and Yu walked in silence, they left the castle a few minutes ago and were now crossing the small kennels running through the town separating the south wing from the capital. 

"I'm sure you noticed it too right?" Karin broke the silence between them. 

Yu nodded. The odd behavior of the king could be missed by normal people but they were not normal. "Yeah, he was acting oddly strange as if he did not want to let us come here which on its own is a bit weird don't you think?" 

"I have a bad feeling about all of this." 

Yu had to agree with Karin, the unease he felt was similar to the unease he felt a month ago before he and Amaterasu were attacked. The sensation was almost the same, drowning despair-like feeling that made it hard to breathe. The sun blade shuddered and Yu felt it, he placed a hand on the sword calming it down. 

Upon arrival to the southern wing, Yu and Karin saw the devastation the demons had done to the place, unlike the front gate everything here was in ruin. Houses were cut in half, bodies of civilians on the ground, some half eaten others decomposing. The stench of death made Yu want to gag, the king knew this carnage but did nothing to give peace to the deceased? That was messed up in his opinion. 

"What is this?" Yu looked at Karin and saw the woman was barely holding onto her anger. 

Although afraid of her wrath, Yu placed his hand on her shoulder despite his better judgment calming the woman down. "Let's look around, then we might be able to give the corpses a resting place." 

Karin nodded. 

They split up and searched the area but none of them had expected to see what they saw next. On the wall, a few meters from the south gate was a gigantic hole but instead of them seeing through the hole, they only saw a living mass of darkness. 

Yu jumped onto one of the still-standing buildings and used that to jump onto the walls, he wanted to get a good look at what he had seen through the hole. Arriving at the top of the wall, his eyes widened. The darkness stretched for as far as he could see, squirming around, and in its body were hordes of demonic creatures resting. 

"That's as far as you will go." A voice caught Yu off-guard and before he could react a claw struck him across the chest sending him flying from the wall and onto the buildings below. 

Karin saw his body fly through the air and into the buildings, she raised her head to look up and saw a dark figure standing on the wall. The figure vanished as soon as she saw it. 

She kept her senses open, her trace of the combination of aether and nether accentuated her perception of the supernatural. For a couple of seconds, there was nothing but stillness. Even the wind was still. 

"You are perceptive but not good enough." A voice called out from behind Karin. 

As she was about to turn around, a foot hit her on the back sending her flying into the wall. 

Yu groggily got up from the rubble, the bastard caught him off guard but now he had his scent. He could track him down, he saw Karin crash into the wall and looked at where she was standing. The same figure that had attacked him stood there with its leg raised. 

Yu breathed in deeply, gathering every ounce of oxygen his lungs could hold. His heartbeat slowed down and his eyes lost their shine turning into a void of nothingness. His hand fell on the Sun blade's handle on his hip and his thumb pushed the blade slightly out of its sheath. Breathing out, a layer of mist formed around his mouth, and in a blink, he was gone. The area around where he was standing collapsed into nothingness as the wind from his movement destroyed the ground and buildings. 

The figure could only react to the flashing glint of a blade but it was too late. 

Yu appeared behind the being with his hand outstretched, the sun blade raised to the side, horizontal to the ground. The tip of the blade dripped drops of blood on the ground. 

The attack happened so fast, that the being in darkness could not process it until his arm fell off and a shriek of pain followed after. The shriek acted as a signal, which caused the darkness that was not moving to sporadically make movements and expel a shadow from its body which covered the entirety of the south of Xin turning day into night. 

The creatures resting on its body shot into the sky like ghosts before rapidly descending into the corpses, making them rise again. 

The being glared at Yu, his blood-red eyes glowing in the dark as tendrils wiggled from his stamp hand and started to create a new one. "That hurt you bastard. But now it's time for you to die!" 

He let out a peal of maniacal laughter as the creatures started to close in on Yu and Karin.