The path to a chained heart (EDITING)

Master of the Past - 31

"Hey! Asahi! Himari!" Homare screamed, hearing his voice echo throughout the tunnels with no end.

"I can hear you Homare!" He heard Himari's voice echo out to him.

"Yeah, I can hear you too Himari! Where are we?" Asahi's voice could be heard from the opposite direction.

"Follow my voice!" Homare yelled, hoping that they knew which way to go, and not try to get lost.

It took a while, putting Homare on edge, but they came, looking at each other from separate directions. Homare and Himari both took time to investigate the splotch of scarlet on Asahi's right eye.

"Asahi, what the HELL happened to you?" Himari and Homare panicked, running over to check what happened.

"Nothing much except that bastard took one of my friends and made him go against me." Asahi somehow managed to keep him cooled state. [I have a refusal to make them swear any further than this in the story. Even though I want to swear at the daemons myself.]

"Who?" Himari questioned with concern.

"Don't you remember? The innocent, poor creature we found in the desert?" Asahi responded with another question.

"Oh."

"He wasn't exactly innocent, but I don't think it's a good idea to mention that." Homare thought... out loud. Luckily, he didn't say it loud enough for Asahi to hear, but he did get a terrifying glare from him. Himari continued examining the dry blood, feeling sick at how cruel the daemon could be. She waved her hand in front of the eye, but Asahi didn't even flinch. Himari cleaned the blood up, once again using her cloak as the solution, as a rag, wetting it with a small spell to see if there were any other injuries inflicted on Asahi.

"I'm 'fraid I don't know how to heal that, Asahi." She informed him, while scrubbing of the blood from around his eye.

"Ow. Ow. OW! Himari do you have to be so cruel?!" Asahi groaned, getting a blank it-is-dry-blood-so-I-have-to-do-this-face, silencing him. Asahi frowned in annoyance. After cleaning it, Himari couldn't see anything else, telling him that he'd have to be careful - and more vigilant. If he could only see with one eye and the daemons found out, it could be a huge problem for him. A very huge problem.

Asahi had described losing half his vision as having one side of his face missing, it wasn't, but it was like someone had painted over everything to the right a dark black. It had stopped hurting ages ago, but deep inside, he felt scared. Darkness was unsettling as always, and it didn't help that half his vision had gone dark, too.

He'd always look chilled and calm at the moment, but he never really was. He though that if he told them, it would make his friends worry, but Asahi didn't want that. Secretly, he did care and was bothered by the fact that they were alone with foul creatures in a place they had no idea where they were. They've always felt lost. But being down there made it worse.

"Yeah... so Himari, if you've already inspected me and stuff, I'm pretty sure you can stop looking at my eye right now. I can tell you're doing it since you're right in my face, and it's annoying." Himari instantly took several steps away from him, with the same hollow, unreadable expression painted on her face. She had no clue how to react to Asahi's calm acting. Well, she couldn't tell that he was acting - it was far too high a wall to see past. Himari was also rather flustered after his remark.

However, it unnerved her, as she had a slight feeling that his reaction wasn't normal. But the serious and unwavering expression didn't disappear, and any thoughts about the subject instantly evaporated... but she was still slightly curious.

Homare wasn't fazed by his reaction, as they'd seen it plenty of times with their encounters. The only time Homare actually seemed frightened out of his wits was when Himari went beserk, killing the chimaera (which, in all honesty, Asahi was mortally terrified too).

There were many pathways, all in a circle, but they mentally crossed out by the ones they had already entered.

"So... which one do we go through?" Homare had intentionally asked.

"Pick random!" Himari responded cheerfully. Homare paled. Her blind luck was going to get them in a lot of trouble someday, but he took his chances, as he didn't have any ideas.

"So... how do we pick?" Homare asked, yet again, trying to get a less unexplained answer.

"Eeny, meeny, miny, moe!" Himari seemed dreadfully happy about that choice, a clear change in emotion. Homare continued to question her sanity... and all of their's for that matter. Asahi and Homare decided to let Himari 'pick' as it would be pointless to go further. She chose the second route they could see, after countless tries at the game, saying 'It was an unlucky turn.'

One day, they would seriously die as a result of this the two thought.

For a while, it had been awfully quiet, and Asahi had a tingling sensation that the dratted daemon was toying with them. Himari gave a fleeting glance of worry at his failing stone-cold expression, but Asahi realised quick enough and hid it, making Himari once again wonder why Asahi had been so strange lately.

It was extremely hard to hide how angry he was at the daemon - toying with him as if it were just a game. That look of constant disgust and anger on her face... didn't seem like Mizuki-nee at all. If those were one of her darker personalities, it had never really been shown. The daemons definitely were powerful if they were able to bring out these personalities to their most extreme. That look of disgust infuriated him. He was not going to let them beat him and his friends.

Like the forgotten kingdom, the temperatures became hotter and hotter, but Asahi's strong emotion made the spell powerful enough to repel it. It was brimming with his determination. His readiness to not lose. There were times when you could lose and learn from those mistakes - but it wasn't now because losing meant death. [I swear undertale fans like me, determination is a word that does not kill anyone.]

The rocks became red, showing magma trying to rise to its top. Asahi instantly recognised this place. Mount Kazeno. The very first time his sister had successfully kept them safe from several fire-breathing axolotls (which were surprisingly enormous in size), who harnessed powerful poisons and toxins. The only time he'd ever seen her so angry was then.

"Hello... welcome to die, puny children." The daemon cackled, making it echo for ages and ages and ages.

"So eager to die? I was waiting to spare you a little longer... it was absolutely hilarious and delightful watching you run around like mice. But I'm ready to sharpen my claws and finally kill you."

I hate leaving notes at the top, just in case I spoil anything, so is there any feedback on the villains/daemon characters so far? Do they seem too cliché? Because I wanted them to be a little on the masochistic and sadistic side... but I'm not sure how to do that without making me, the author, sound insane and deranged. I went probably too far and made them sound, completely, full-on evil and I messed up B.A.D on that one.

"It's impossible to save everyone, otherwise you'll risk losing them all," ~ Asahi Katsumoto