Suikoden VI

Chapter Nine: Part Eight

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Part Eight

The sun in the sky had been obstructed by dark storm clouds, but no rain had come. It was early afternoon, but the darkness made it look like it was almost the middle of the night. That, combined with the unnatural and deafening silence, added to the ominous and horrifying atmosphere of Winter Hill.

Corpses from both the Holy and Liberation Armies covered the ground and stretched outwards for meters. There were so many dead bodies that it was impossible to see the ground even to the horizon. The few who survived the battle on both sides wandered the battlefield aimlessly, or simply stood in place with expressions frozen in horror. No one made a sound. When an enemy was spotted, no one made a move to attack.

The desire to fight was long dead.

Oboro had hurried to the battlefield with the rest of the Liberation Army when Sanji had retreated to HQ, telling Chinmaya that the Holy Army had "become mad" and had been attacking the Liberation Army like rabid monsters. Chinmaya quickly utilized the forces that had remained at HQ to hurry to Winter Hill to assist their allies. Anyone who had a family or loved one who had marched with the main Army was ordered to stay put at HQ. Oboro had been told to stay behind, but he insisted to Chinmaya on coming and he ultimately won her over.

They had moved as fast as they could...but they had arrived too late.

"Oboro."

Oboro gasped out a sigh of relief when he saw Shou approaching Oboro and the other detectives approach him. The younger man looked heavily disheveled but he was otherwise uninjured. "I am so happy to see you," Oboro said quietly. "I would never be able to face your parents if you had died..."

He saw that Shou was alone though, and that Masaru and Umeko were not around. He didn't ask where they were, nor did he ask if Shou was all right. He could see from Shou's expression that he was in no mood to talk.

Oboro noticed something out of the corner of his eye. He frowned as he knelt down beside the bodies of two soldiers—one Liberation Army and one Holy Army. The Holy Army soldier was covered in blood and the Liberation Army soldier's throat had been ripped out. Judging by the blood around the Holy Army soldier's mouth, Oboro knew that he'd caused the other soldier's fatal injury. Then Oboro saw the deep scratch marks in the Holy Army soldier's neck. He'd clawed at his own throat before he'd died.

But he focused on what had grabbed his attention; a small vial lying next to the Holy Army soldier. Oboro picked up the vial and sniffed it. The familiar scent swept a chill straight down his body, and he shuddered violently.

"I'm guessing whatever was in that vial caused the...manic behavior in the Holy Army soldiers?" Shou asked. Despite the horrors he had undoubtedly witnessed firsthand, his tone was calm.

"Raging Nostrum," Oboro said. He raised the vial as he stood up. "As you are aware, it's a Nether Gate specialty. The gift of inhuman strength and stamina, but also the curse of uncontrolled, homicidal rage."

"That explains why the Holy Army soldiers attacked so viciously," another detective spoke up in a soft voice. "It looks like they even attacked each other."

"But we know ingesting Raging Nostrum is fatal," Oboro said grimly. "Doctors in Falena have created an antidote to it, but obviously the...Holy Army did not seem fit to give it to their own soldiers."