Tears of Blood

DanMachi: The Dragon's Return

Hey, everyone! I hope all of you are well. Thank you for the reviews. Please enjoy next chapter!

Musical inspiration from Date A Live's "Hanten Tohka."

Chapter 16

Tears of Blood

…

The fire cracked between the silent Hestia, Haruhime, and Tiona while Mikoto and Tione slept. Haruhime kept her eyes on the flames as images passed through her mind too fast for her to quite grasp the tales they spun as a spider interictally spins its web. Tiona, however, kept her eyes on Hestia and the far off look the goddess had on her face. Tiona's hand went to her belly instinctively.

"Does Enyo have the Brahmastra?" the young amazon asked, trying to hide the fear in her tone.

"I don't know," Hestia shook her head. "Though I imagine that if she had a weapon with the power to end all life in the world, she would have used it long ago. No, I don't believe she has it, if the smith gods she lied to succeeded in its making, but I cannot fully trust in such a hope."

"How would anyone make such a thing?" Tiona questioned again.

"I'm a goddess of hearth," Hestia's eyes moved from the flames to Tiona. "I know as much about a smith's art as you know of deep magic. But, it was supposed that Brahma could make the weapon through meditation. The magic involved required complete inner peace and spiritual righteousness rarely found in even the gods that only the Titans and Seraphim could achieve. It had no purpose other than to be a display of Brahma's power, though Brahma claimed it was ever only meant to be the final weapon against evil. Perhaps Enyo, being a Titan, discovered a secret to make the weapon through other means despite her corruption, and used smithy gods to recreate it. If she did succeed in its making, it was only after the captains of the Titans bound her to Sheol, in the deepest pits of the Dungeon."

Haruhime's eyes had become dark and foggy under the light of the flames. She saw three smith gods wield ancient fires and travel to a darkness beneath the earth beyond the abysmal dark of the Dungeon. She then saw a beautiful woman before her staring back at the Renard, and sphere of blue and green behind the woman. Upon the woman's left breast was a gash that poured blood as a fountain, and the sphere of blue and green behind her began to slowly burn as the smith gods ripped a crimson crystal from her left breast. The gods took the crystal and dipped it into the fires they wielded and pulled an arrow back out of the flames colored gray as ash. But the woman turned upon the gods in wrath and took each of their spirits to devour. The Renard watched in horror as those gods' spirits were torn to shreds, and even those shreds ripped asunder and cast into a bottomless pit. From the pit, the Renard watched millions of monsters rise, and she trembled in fear as she watched those monsters drag mortals into the pit to tear their souls to pieces in the same manner just as new monsters arose as well.

"We're the monsters," the Renard spoke slowly, tears streaming down her face.

Hestia's mouth dropped open for a moment and her eyes widened. In that moment, an arrow bolted past Hestia's face and struck the ground before Mikoto. Hestia's scream woke Tione and Mikoto woke from their slumbers as Tiona quickly grabbed her Urga.

"We're under attack," the younger amazon twin shouted. "Protect lady Hestia!"

Mikoto and Tione leapt to action as quickly as Tiona's words left her mouth. Twenty figures surrounded the group of women, each bearing red armor that reflected the light of the moon with a crimson face. Tiona and Tione both struck moved as quickly as their bodies could allow, causing gusts of wind to swirl around them in their movements. The amazon twins held the advantage in their speed, but both became increasingly aware that their movements were being slowed by magic bit by bit.

"Mikoto, find their mages!" Hestia ordered, coming to the same realization as the twins. Mikoto nodded jumped and disappeared into the shadow of the night, but Haruhime's eyes widened as she another vision came to her mind.

"N-no," the Renard fell to her knees, terror filling her heart in her mind. She saw another beautiful woman this time, of dark hair and grey eyes. She then stepped back into darkness and her eyes glowed red in the darkness until she grew into a dragon of six heads. Each of those heads devoured mortals and laughed as blood and un-swallowed flesh poured from those mouths. Haruhime then became aware of another dragon, black and as terrible as the dragon of six heads before two females of golden hair and golden eyes.

"Kill the woman, and bring the girl to me," the six-headed dragon whispered to the black dragon. "Bring her to me so I might devour the son she will bear."

"NO!" Haruhime screamed once more as she saw the woman taken, defiled, and brutally killed by the black dragon. The visions assailed her mind, and the Renard curled into a fetal position with every new horror she saw.

"Haruhime!" Hestia cried. "Haruhime, we need your magic! Wake up!"

The amazon twins hacked away at the armored knights, and blood spewed upon them and soiled the ground. But still, their movements got slower. And when the last knight was slain, both amazons fell to their knees. A laugh was heard, and another knight stepped into the light of the fire with another ten knights behind him. He smirked fiendishly under his helmet at the four immobilized women.

"I was hoping to simply capture you and sell you off to some whore house or a local lord," he laughed again. "I wasn't expecting such a challenge. Consider me thoroughly amused."

His eyes turned to Hestia, who was cradling the shaken Haruhime. The Renard muttered strange things to herself as tears streamed down her face. Hestia merely glared at the man along with the twins. His smirk grew all the larger.

"And even more amused now," he shouted at the heavens before bringing his eyes back to Hestia. "My lord shall surely reward me for bringing him your head, goddess Hestia."

"Your master can shove your reward up his ass!" Hestia spat angrily.

"You are in no position to make such threats, I fear," his eyes filled with pleasure as he drew his blade. In a flash, the sword pierced the left breast and heart of Tione, whose eyes widened as she gasped.

"No," Tiona's eyes widened as she felt her heart shatter and the weight of her body increase. Tione gasped once more and reached out a hand to her sister before she collapsed to the ground. Blood pooled around her body as Tiona and Hestia watched in horror. "No. No. No! No! NO, NO, NO, NOOOO!"

Tiona cried again and again, hate filling every inch of her body. The knight merely laughed and brought the blood-stained sword closer to his face. He eyed Tiona closely, taking ecstasy in the sound of her screams, and slowly licked the blood from his sword. Suddenly, the amazon felt the magic wearing her body down start to dissipate, and she launched herself at the knight. But the knight was quicker and kicked Tiona down before holding the edge of his blade to her throat.

"Well now that won't do," the knight frowned. "It appears the magic of my mages is dwindling."

"Kill them all, Mikoto!" Hestia screamed.

"Take four and deal with the other girl," the knight snarled at the knight on his right. When the five knights retreated back into the knight, the other five that remained drew their swords and surrounded Tiona. The commander smiled maliciously.

"Now, I take it you surrender?" he chuckled.

"I'll kill every one of you bastards," the goddess growled through the tears that streamed down her face.

"My lord, Mars was right about you," the knight smirked. "You truly are a fiery spirit at heart."

"Mars," Hestia muttered angrily. "You can tell your pathetic excuse for a god that he won't be having my head. I swear by the High God, I will send Mars' spirit straight to hell, and you're going right there with him!"

"Hell?" the knight laughed. "There is no hell, lady Hestia. I'm certain you gods lied about there even being a heaven."

The knight raised his sword above him, ready to bring it crashing down upon Tiona, who merely looked at the lifeless eyes of her sister. The fire Tiona had long seen and admired in the eyes of Tione was long gone. There was no light in Tione's eyes. There was only a dark coldness now left behind. Suddenly, Haruhime stood up, and a blue fire surrounded her.

"Get down on the ground, demi-human bitch!" the knight shouted, but he was only met by a cold stare that replaced Haruhime's warm gaze. Her green eyes became blue like the flames that surrounded her, and her one tail became nine. She lifted her hands to the heavens and cast her eyes upon the moon and stars, and their light began to fade before her.

One of the knights rose his sword against her, but the blade quickly began to rust and turned to dust in his hands. Quickly after that knight's blade turned to dust, so too did the blades of the others. The only light that remained was the blue flame that clothed Haruhime. She then brought her eyes from the heavens to the knights before her, her stare was cold as ice.

"Wh-what sorcery is this?!" the commander shouted as he and the knights trembled before Haruhime.

Suddenly, the Renard was lifted above them, and she stretched her arms outwards to her sides. A magic circle appeared behind her, bearing twelve stars around her. On her right hand was the image of the sun, and the crescent moon was on her left. Her cold eyes landed once more upon the knights.

"Darkness take you," she spoke with a voice that was not her own, even and filled with authority that Hestia had never even heard from Michael. "Darkness take you, and your spirits be made to wander the earth as what you truly are."

Screams went up from the knights, who eyes were filled with a blinding light. One by one, they dropped to the ground, dead. In the distance were similar screams and balls of light rose from their corpses before being blown north-west towards Orario in a great wind. When the lights had vanished, Haruhime came back to the ground, her flames and the magic circle disappeared. Light had come back to the moon and the stars above the women.

"I-I can't see," the Renard collapsed on the ground, her green eyes now made cloudy. Tears streamed down her cheeks, filled with blood. "I can't see!"

Tiona crawled to her sister and gathered Tione into her arms. The young amazon trembled violently and buried her face into the cold body of her sister, screaming her name again and again. When Mikoto had finally returned to her comrades, she too collapsed and wept bitterly. None of them slept again that night, and no sound passed between them other than the sounds of cries.

…

Some distance away, the archer clad in a grey cloak watched the women she had been observing. Her eyes wandered to the heavens and she sighed softly. She fixed her eyes back upon Haruhime, whose blind eyes for a brief moment locked with hers. The archer smiled sadly and tore her eyes away to allow the Renard to return to her mourning.

…

When the morning light came, Tiona buried her sister. The others offered to help, but the young amazon refused, claiming that she needed this moment alone. The amazon found a lone hill with a small tree upon it. Even as the sun rose, the moon still clung to the sky. (1)

Tiona took a moment to admire the moon that desperately clung to the sky as if it had something to say to the sun at simply seemed to cause the moon to fade more and more. Tears formed once more in the eyes of the young amazon and she collapsed to her knees before grabbing onto the body of her sister and kissing Tione's forehead. She wept bitterly, not wanting to let go of the one person who had been her constant her entire life.

"I'll name her after you," Tiona whispered through her tears. "And she'll outshine us both. I swear it. She'll make you proud. I'll make you proud!"

When Tiona had finished burying her sister, she returned to the others. They took their turns paying their respects, though Mikoto and Haruhime went together so the Renard would not stumble due to the loss of her sight. Hestia paid her respects last and prayed long over Tione's resting place. When the goddess returned to the others, Tione was helping Haruhime onto Mikoto's horse. The amazon looked to the goddess sadly.

"What happened to her eyes?" the amazon mumbled.

"She used the power I expressly warned her against," Hestia answered softly. "She got off lucky. I don't know what will happen if she uses it again. All the same, between her and Mikoto, our lives were saved."

"Can her eyes be healed?" Mikoto asked.

"Only if a divine power of equal or greater strength intervenes," Hestia frowned and wrapped her arms around Tiona while also taking Haruhime's hand. She burst into tears. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry!"

Tiona returned Hestia's hug and Haruhime squeezed Hestia's hand. When they broke apart, after some time, and Hestia mounted her horse, they girls continued their journey south-east. Before the lone tree was lost from their sight, Tiona stopped her horse and looked back.

"I won't forget my promise," the young amazon whispered and placed a hand on her belly. "She will outshine us."

With that, the young amazon chased after her friends.

…

1. In Sword Oratoria, volume 6 of the light novel, volume 13 of the manga, there is a curious comparison of Tione and Tiona being like the sun and the moon. They compliment each other, yet are completely different. Tione, in a sense, acknowledges Tiona as the stronger twin even though most would Tione as the strongest. At the end of their contemplating their pasts, Tione is the one to point out that Tiona is the sun of the comparison metaphor. There does seem to be a death flag that never happens in that particular scene, but the foreshadowing seems almost too obvious for it to happen in that exact moment.

…

Hey, everyone! This chapter was a little hard to write emotionally, but it was necessary. I wept thinking of how this would play out. But it was either going to be this way or during the fight with the Kalif sisters. I chose this chapter due to the fact that Haruhime is changing rapidly. The power she has is something that Hestia knows to fear even if she had Arcanum at her disposal. However, Haruhime needs to learn to control the power she has. This chapter was intended to reinforce to Hestia of Haruhime's need to learn, but it also serves as a catalyst of drama to come. You can bet other gods sensed the power Haruhime unleashed the moment it was used, and will likely lust after Haruhime and her power as a result. Of course, that includes Enyo Eris.

Anyway, please leave your reviews. After next chapter, we will move to a Bell arch. I hope everyone has a great day and please stay healthy and safe!