Bloody Moon

Chapter 6: The Survivors

  "Athena, why?" Maki couldn't believe she would betray him. Sure, he only knew her for a day, but to be killed again by the one who saved him felt like a knife through his stomach. Thanks to Luna, he knew how that felt, and he might feel that again.

"Forgive me, but you have to d-i-i-e-" Athena faltered as her body started steaming, alarming Maki as frantically tried to decide whether to help her or not.

Suddenly, she was hit with ice, her body cooling down as frost formed on her body. She shuddered, and collapsed on the boulder. A figure appeared from the smoke and fog.

"Carol?" Her eyes were black now as she leaned down and flicked her wrist, the frost melting. She turned to face him.

"You must not tell anyone about this."

"And what about Athena?" Maki was worried about her, even if she did try to kill him. But he had to believe it was something else.

Carol looked at Athena, her eyes turning silver like before as her expression hardened, then suddenly gasped softly as her eyes turned black. She put her hand on Athena's forehead, her eyes closed as she scrunched her face in concentration, and relaxed it, keeping it blank.

Moments passed as Carol remained in the same position, her ear occasionally twitching.

"Carol?"

She snapped her eyes open, and glared at him.

"You ruined the concentration!"

"Pardon?"

"Nothing." she suddenly said, removing her hand from her forehead. She stood up and dragged Athena upward, wrapping the chains of the orbs around them so she could support her while leaving her hands free for more battles. Carol's eyes turned eye blinding white, and gestured behind Maki. As he turned around, he saw a row of phantoms standing in front of them, ghosts rising from the corpses in their hands with frightened expressions. They were cornered.

. . .

Raven let go of the connection. Most of the hosts she tried to possess died as she overexerted them. She was forced to kill Maki, but she didn't want to kill anyone else in the process. She searched for anyone else close to Maki. The chained girl was unconscious, the elf was too strong for her to possess, and possessing Maki would be difficult now that he was resurrected.

Raven scanned the ghosts. None of them had any Lunalice weapons, but the phantoms... she would have to experiment.

She skimmed through the levels she saw, searching for the one with abilities similar to her Blooden Celesis. Her eyes landed on Diabolos, a half phantom half demon with blood poisoning abilities. She willed her mind to travel inside his, coaxing his body to give up to her. He was a strong one, but years of being the daughter of Bloodmate made her stronger. She transmitted her order to his mind, and he instantly agreed. Just for a few minutes... and nobody else would need to get hurt.

. . .

Maki swung the orb again, and let it fly from his hand. He focused his eyes on the phantoms the ghosts were circling, every shot miraculously performing the task he wanted it to do, returning back to his hand. Carol shot wind currents from her left hand, creating a minor tornado strong enough to barricade the phantoms, then freeze the tornado while she swung the two orbs in her other hand, massacring groups of phantoms. Murmurs and wails from the ghosts surrounded Maki, distracting him as a phantom occasionally scarred him, broke his bones, and even cut off his limbs, constantly being healed by the chains on the orb as Carol substituted for him.

They repeated the process until they faced only three phantoms, their faces still grinning even as their fallen comrades surrounded them. One of them had glowing yellow eyes unlike the other phantoms with red eyes. It curled it's claws as it stared at him, most likely trying to figure out the best way to kill them.