Testament - Vol 1. RE:BiRTH

ReBirth

Stimulation.

Blood violently rushed through the creature's body, taken over by a maelstrom of sensations: memories, desires, pain, knowledge... Life. The blood dared to boil through its skin like built pressure waiting to burst, yet in a single moment, it all stopped.

Breath.

Footsteps echoed through the crimson wasteland, through the moist heat and storms of sand swirling around as a sickly boy with white hair wandered through the wasteland. The creature took on another form.

It took in sounds that many took years to grow accustomed to, like musical hums. The sharp chime of blades, the oppressive thunder of explosions, even the sound of bones snapping, echoed all around it. With every stride it took, it found more and more bodies.

A familiar sensation called to it.

The sensation to feed upon the elixir.

To live.

A single body, just like the one it was presented with by its creator. The creature's starving gaze fell upon it, the body of a student with the mark of a boot engraved in their neck. The crimson elixir leaked from within, and in turn, the creature continued to feast.

Yet, it wasn't enough.

When would it be enough?

More and more, the creature continued wandering the endless wasteland. Sounds and voices filled its mind, more and more memories. Its form evolved and, in turn, so did its knowledge of such.

Curse Series.

Anima.

Reiju.

Battle.

Life.

It knew it all.

With fangs like a lion and a body closer to what some called a dragon, the creature feasted on bodies, ever plentiful as the oppressive grey sky above found itself, victim to the crimson rays of the sun.

Heat.

A familiar feeling radiated through the creature as it kept evolving, with the minds and hearts of those it devoured. With each meal, the sensation grew. A growing pain. A burning pain. Like a boiling river that had no end, the creature shuttered from the pain. Its vision grew faint in the sun. The sensation was familiar. Was this what the one who made him feel like before.

As the thought entered his mind, and its breath had come to a halt.

Like a grenade with its pin released.

The creature burst.

"So, looks like Prota set a bit of a trap for us and the others, I'm guessing?"

Akihiko looked towards Tara with an intrigued expression on his face. His voice was warm like midday in spring as it reached Tara's ears. Tara gave him a nod, letting her hand rest atop her mask. Like crystalline scales of light, the mask that rested over the face of Tara. Their hair slowly beginning to shorten behind the frame of the cloak and armor they wore.

"I would say that I warned you, Akihiko, but instead, I think it's best to emphasize the fact that I am usually right," Tara said.

Despite the critical hypnotic tone of his boyish voice, Akihiko couldn't help but hear the warmth laced between Tara's words punctuated by the satisfying click of wire filled the air and ceased as quickly as it came.

"I'm thinking... I might play along for a bit," Akihiko said, continuing to walk forward, keeping his hands behind his head in confidence that nothing would come if only for the fact nothing had passed them since landing.

Tara raised a brow at Akihiko's words; his gaze moved to dust swirling in the distance. A battle that Akihiko appeared to have ignored.

"You want to test them?"

Akihiko turned to Tara, changing the look on his face to imitate something oh so familiar to himself. "I do consider myself a teacher, Tara," he followed his words up with a chuckle.

"More like a teacher of how to run blindly into danger for people who don't matter in the grand scheme of things... I'll give you points for that impression of those Superbian tutors we had at least."

A smile like the sun above fell upon Akihiko's face despite the wording. He turned to keep walking, feeling a tremor in the distance.

"As a prince, it's only natural I'd care. We've had enough Sins who barely care for their people as is right, Tara."

"Perhaps," Tara replied.

The dust finally settled as sweat dripped from Nabi's face. Bodies laid all around her as she fell back onto the rocky earth without a flinch. Her gaze flickered back to the one behind her that she managed to find through her carnage.

Nabi let out a sigh as she looked up at the crimson sun above before the thought hit her. Unable to move, for the time being, she looked back behind her to check the one that she had been fighting for so long to protect.

The black tattoo that made its home along his face had vanished, and the scar on his face was fully healed. For a single instant under the hot sun, a smile rested on Nabi Itami's face before resetting back to before when she remembered the sight of him.

Bright golden eyes enveloped with black sclera and, of all things—A horn.

"It's begun... and there's nothing I can do anymore...Sorry, Guisei," a name that had never left her lips in his presence came from within her. Nabi slammed her arm into the crimson earth in frustration, cracking it.