Through the Haze 2

-unknown-

"This is fascinating! To not only be able to change your voice but also your presence while under my aura's effects? I can see why gram died at your hands!" I said with glee. It's been too long since I've seen ranika, but seeing his growth made me truly happy.

'I knew I could trust him with her.' I thought to myself as he began to speak.

"I'm only going to ask one more time. Who the hell are you?" His voice had that odd hollow ring to it, almost as though I was speaking to a deity rather than a fellow demon-kin.

"Do I need to answer? You already know who I am, ranika, so really, answering your question seems redundant." I quipped.

"Then at least show yourself so I know with whom I am fighting. Because frankly, I don't recognize your voice or aura." He replied deadpan.

"What do I get in return?" I replied joyfully. It's not that I'm scared of him finding out who I am. I hope he figures it out. It's just more fun to watch the disappointment of the night-blade clan lose his temper. 'The once thrown-away heir of that clan now has the power to change this ridiculous society, and I'll be the one to guide that potential. One way or another.' I thought to myself with a wide grin.

"You'll either receive a quick death or a short conversation. The choice remains yours." As he spoke, his stance had changed instead of keeping up the nonchalant form he had previously. He was now in full guard as the purple lightning swirled around him in branching arks, like snakes ready to devour anything near him. 'That's not all....what's with the mist around his feet?' After taking notice of the strange mist, my curiosity had gotten the better of me, making me want to investigate it.

Moving through the thick haze built from my aura, I came closer to the man paying careful attention to the mist. 'Is that his original ice aura? But how I know he possesses lightning now, so how can he manifest his ice still?' As I thought this to myself, an abrupt torrent of mist lashed out at me without so much as a flinch from ranika. The mist suddenly swirled around my incorporeal body and started to freeze the very molecules that made up my aura, forcing me to retreat quickly or risk being frozen in place with nowhere to go.

"To keep up a defense and illusion like this, I'm sure it requires a large amount of essence. So, shall we play a battle of attrition?" He asked, his hollow voice full of what seemed to be confidence.

"Fine, you're no fun anyway, just like usual," I replied. After releasing my aura manipulation, my body was forced to take an actual shape, one of my choosing of course. 'In a battle of attrition, he could easily wait me out... even I'm not that stupid. Especially if he utilized his ice aura to its previous glory.'

-Ranika night-blade-

Breathing a sigh of relief at the haze dissipating, I released the lightning around me, but I maintained my ice aura. 'Thankfully, my ice does seem to be effective against attacks like these... It also helps that it doesn't require nearly as much essence as my lightning.'

"Ra-ra? Are you ok?" Sophie asked, her eyes glued to my leg, which was still flowing with a steady stream of blood. Summoning the icy aura to my hand, I placed it over the gash and froze the opening, halting the blood flow for now.

"Uh.. yeah, I'll be fine. How are you holding up, sophie?" Looking at her, she seemed a mess. Her hair was tousled, and her attire, including the robe I'd gotten for her, was torn asunder. It doesn't appear as though whoever attacked us was aiming to kill, though, which just left me more stupefied.

"I'm ok, just a bit confused is all..."

"Confused by what?"

"It's just..why did you kill that sergeant? They were of no real threat to you, and yet, you killed them without mercy anyway.."

'Why did I do that? I remember another voice or will inside of me urging me to strike, along with one urging me to stop...'

"That would be my fault!" A small yet chipper voice shouted out. Looking in the direction of the main door, I saw a tall and burly woman gazing at us. Looking closely, she resembled the barmaid that first took our order, and yet... she seemed different as well.

"Nice to see you face to face again ranika, it's been a long time, hasn't it?" She asked, her small voice betraying her appearance. "Also, might I ask, where is eclipse? Or should I say luna?"

"How do you know that name!" Sophie said, irritation evident in her voice. Not that I blamed her for it, I was also curious and upset at the sudden mention of luna.

"Calm down. I'll answer that question as soon as I get an answer to mine. So I'll ask again where luna is?" She replied, a calm smile plastered on her ambiguous face.

"Luna is safe at sophie's residence. She is also doing much better speech-wise. Now, care to explain yourself?" My deadpan expression must've caught the woman off guard considering her shocked expression at my lack of care.

"Very well, I suppose I should start by showing my real face, shouldn't I?"

After speaking, a light that was similar to the soft glow of a summer's evening enveloped the entire tavern. It wasn't painful to look at. If anything, it was oddly comforting to be around. After the light faded, I was struck with a very familiar face that I never expected to see yet again. 'I swear, the next ghost to appear from my past I'm fucking killing just on principle.'

"Su..?" I asked hesitantly.

"You know I hate it when you shorten my name ranika!" She replied with a childish pout written on her face.

"Ra-ra...who is this?" Sophie asked confused. I couldn't blame her because even I was lost, standing in front of us was luna's twin sister. I say twin but the two couldn't be more different when it came to their distinct features.

Whereas luna held pure white hair resembling a full moon on a clear night sunna's hair was as yellow as the sun. Her eyes were also different from luna's, they looked similar to a yellow topaz giving her a bright and welcoming appearance, that made most just feel comfortable around her.

"This is Sunna Rose or in my terms su..she's luna's sister....she's supposed to be dead."

"I...don't understand? This isn't like what caleb does, so how can she be here?"

"That's what I'd like to know, but first. Why did you try and have gram kill me sunna?"

"Ranika..I'm not the only demon-kin from that time who survived the genocide of our race. Some, if not all of them want you gone. One in particular is willing to do whatever it takes to see your life ended. For a while, I felt the same as him too..."

"By awhile, you mean you wanted me dead until you realized your version of light aura was useless against me so you changed your allegiance?" I asked, with pure anger in my voice.

"That's one way to put it." She replied jovially.

"So, are you going to tell me who this mysterious enemy is? Or do I have to hunt him down as well?"

"You know him well...it's Taven night-blade...your father."

After hearing my father's name my auras went completely unchecked, within an instant all my anger and killing intent became a physical force of ice, lightning, vines and more, like a chaotic tornado that was only happening in a small area. Every single aura I had at my disposal was on display for sophie and sunna to see. Around the chaotic auras was one that seemed to make sunna move toward me with reckless abandon, and I knew exactly which one she was drawn to.

"How do you have my sister's aura...I'd know that pale light anywhere, explain yourself!"

"Ra-ra is what the night-blade clan calls a devourer, sunna." Sophie explained for me. Taking a deep breath I calmed my mind before sophie continued to speak.

"His body is capable of housing multiple cores, granting him their auras and abilities, no matter how rare or complicated they may be."

"Is that how you've managed to stay alive all this time ranika? By stealing cores? Is that what you did to luna...?" Sunna asked, her tone had become more sullen and distraught as she spoke.

"No. That's not why I'm still alive, that's a story for another time and I have my father to thank for two of your questions. As for luna...I didn't steal her core, she gave it to me on her death bed along with her secondary core as well." Taking another long breath I continued.

"Luna's consciousness is still plenty alive and active, I'm willing to even let you speak to her. However, first I want to know how you played with my mind." Just the image of me killing that poor boy made my entire being shudder.

"Well, as you may have figured out luna and I share similar abilities in terms of our auras. However, mine is capable of doing more than just basic light illusions and manifestations...by heating the moisture in the air I'm able to create a haze as I'm sure you saw, and after that, once someone enters the haze I can refract the light that hits their eyes causing what you could call a fake world to some degree." She paused for a moment as I looked at her with a curious glare.

"After that, I just trick my opponent's senses until they either do what I want or go mad..."

"Holy fuck...that's scary as hell," Sophie said with a hand over her mouth.

"It's not something I expected out of a light aura that's for sure." With a glance over at sophie I addressed the both of them about what we were doing next.

"Both of you follow me. We need to replenish our essence first off, then I need to gather my weapons and convene with the commander. After that sunna will tell us where I can find my father."

'And when I do find him...there will be more than just hell to pay.' I added to myself.

After the incident at the tavern we were once again back at sophies apartment, the blood and destruction outside was even more horrific to see in the daylight. Thankfully, gwen had called in the military police to close off the area and also remove gram's corpse from public view. The short battle was still fresh in my mind, 'it's only been three days since my last revival and now I'm just lost. How can others from that period still be alive?' I thought as we walked inside the apartment.

"Ranika! How did things go at the tavern? Did you find out who sent gram to attack us?" Gwenavere asked as she was rushing to greet us at the door. Her approach fell short however when she spotted sunna walking closely behind me like a scared puppy.

"Things went fine...for the most part, as for who sent gram. Yes, I have them with me right now in fact." I replied, with a heavy sigh escaping from my lips. 'I seem to be doing this far more often than I used to...'

"Gwen, meet sunna. She's yet another blast from my past and she's the one responsible for gram's attack on us."

"Why isn't she fucking dead then?" Gwen said, the hatred and anger more than clear in her voice.

"Because she's useful to me, when that ceases to be the case I will kill her myself or I'll let you do it," I stated matter-of-factly. With a dismissive grunt, gwen turned on her heel and went back to the living room where tatiana still lay. Olvia had gotten out of the guest bedroom and seemed to be doing much better as she rushed around the small home cleaning up the mess from the short battle we all had gone through.

Sophie moved past me and took a seat in the recliner that was situated next to the couch and began to rest her eyes, I couldn't blame her of course. It's been a long day already and there was still so much to do. "Where is my sister ranika?" Sunna asked quietly from behind me.

"Follow me."

She followed me into the guest room, before shutting the door behind me I turned to gwen and olivia who had stopped what they were doing. "I'll only be a few minutes, after that, we have a lot to go over ok?"

"Of course sir ranika, take your time."

"Just be somewhat quick, I still have to go to headquarters and explain the situation to the rest of the commanders."

With a nod to both of them, I shut the door behind me, then I was assaulted by not just luna's voice but also midnight's.

"Ra-ranika...I am g-glad you are o-okay!" Lunas soft voice spoke out.

"So, you're still somehow alive? What a fucking shame." Midnight said with disappointment.

"Luna? Is that you?" Sunna asked while approaching the beautiful moonlight-colored blade that was positioned in the corner of the room.

"S-sunna..? How are y-you here?" Luna asked with a slight tremble in her voice.