The Wilting Ballad

26

Jlyn had thought the process of ecdysis only applied to animals. To see it transpiring in front of him in the sense of a woman, who looked to be human was nauseating, to say the least.

He gazed in utter horror, flabbergasted. What looked to be the image of the pale lady draped in mucous emerges, like a snake shedding its skin out her throat.

"TO ME!" The greasy version of Kaionira shrieked, arising, elevating. Her prior skin folding, withering, disintegrating.

"Wait!" Neania shouted to no avail.

Clutching the three Ballad leaves given to him by Neania, Jlyn forms vaporized orbs of hurricane on both his hands. Cradling its raw energy within, aiming for Kaionira. He drowned her, basking her in the light of his chains. Chains for the Gods.

Kaionira winced, feeling her bones tightening with every beating her synthetic heart has to offer. She grunted, tasting the rain, letting it washed her panting naked body. "You aren't nearly strong enough, BOY!" Struggling through Jlyn's ghostly chains, she tugged at him in return. Hauling him up from the ground, still, he manages to persevere.

Once more, she felt her bones tightening, this time the grip on her was solid and she knew. She rotated her head and saw a girl kneeling beside Jejtsu with brimming ginger hair, using the chains for the Gods on her as well. Two chains, eh? Where are those fools? Inquiring thoughts wandered to her fellow saboteur. It was only moments ago Shick was jeering with joy. What could have happened... she wondered, her eyes fixed on the one who has her bound and yet at the same time, heals Jejtsu. She couldn't think of a more infuriating thing than not pay attention to enemies.

Her spirit beamed with pride in seeing a silver robe rushing at an unnaturally fast pace up from the bottom of the slanting hill. She forced a chuckle for the sorry lives of the Shīza and Leafsingers, "Any moment from this time forth could be the last time you draw breath, I suggest you savor..."

"Any moment from the time we were born could be the last time we draw breath, but there is never time to savor it, do you know why that is?" Berick asked, eyes level and locked with Kaionira. Her hopeful pride had been answered with anger and vengefulness. "Because we assumed it was free. Because we are nothing if not selfish."

She watched not the man circled by blue mist but the silver robe-wearing man he hanged by the neck. Berick gripped in his bloody fist the handle of Shick's whip, thorns were nailed in at the cruel man's neck, his face was beyond recognition.

I've been deceived. How could I have believed it? Kaionira found herself asking, grasping the reality set before her, she concluded, but was at loss for action. Her eyes followed Berick's hand let go of Shick's carcass, he fell thumping on the muddy ashes and charred wood the drizzle had created with a slosh.

"I couldn't care less what you demons are, and why you'd like to take Jejtsu with you to whomever it is you serve." Said Berick, staring down at Kaionira as he rose to the purple sky. Clouds of blue are present at his feet. Exchanging all his presence with steams from the whole oceans of Hedreary itself. His eyes seemed restless, hurt. He hid his face behind the mist circling him, "But you killed four of ours..." The words sounded bitter in his lungs.

"Four?" Jejtsu asked worriedly, her face more recognizable than before.

"Four. Iuftas' dead, and now you..."

A coiling serpent in the shape of shadow sprang, grabbing Berick by the face. His steam shatters like breaking glass, he grunted still, although muffled. "You bastard! You almost end me!" Tentoria's voice rang like morning church bells.

She loomed from the depths, clawing her way with her new eight limbs of deception. She drove Berick plummeting beside Shick's body. She felt the breakings of his bones, she felt his body shaking, coughing, choking on his blood.