The Last Elementalist

Part 19

Dark figures came into view and surrounded the village, surrounded the you child. They came closer, one man stepped out of the crowd and approached the young boy. Yuri sensed their presence, before the saw or even heard them. He didn't move. The man was ready to strike, tanto in hand. Yuri heard the man's heart beat and held up his hand and clenched it into a fist. "Baaaka" Yuri said while standing up, teeth clenched and tears still leaking down his face. The man stopped moving and started chocking. The young boy turned around slowly, tears still streaming as he looked at the man with anger in his eyes. "P- please, h-have m-mercy" the man chocked out, blood streaming out of his mouth. Yuri starts laughing manically. "Baaaka" he said again and squeezed his fist. The heart was crushed, blood sprayed everywhere and guts fell to the floor. 

He looked towards the crowd that caused the massacre of his family, his clan, his village. Anger and hatred flowed through his veins. Thunder boomed loudly over their heads, clouds gathered dangerously, the wind picked up around them. Lighting struck. Darkness spread from his hands and held the retreating crowd in their place, they were completely paralyzed. They yelled out in fright, begged for their lives. Blood. Blood. Blood. Lifeless eyes. Guts. Headless bodies. Bodyless heads. Ryo. Yuka. Mai. Keiji and Kazuki. Baba. Jiji.... Mama. All of that and more was burned into his brain. He angrily clenched his teeth as tears stream down his face once more. Immense power surged through his entire being. The thunder became louder, the flashes of lightning more aggressive, the wind blew madly all around them and then all at once the lightning struck every single one of them. Leaving nothing but ashes in its wake. Not even their souls.

Yuri fell to his knees again. Tears flowed like a river, he couldn't stop. The boy crawled over to his mother's body. He puts her arm around him and crawls into her side, crying into his mother's chest. Yuri cried for hours on end, just laying in his dead mother's arms. He fell asleep like that, plagued by the events that had just taken place. By everything he had witnessed, everything he had seen. Rain was still pooling all around him, washing away the blood.... but not the sorrow or the pain. 

When he woke back up, half an hour later, he thought about how he was going to transfer their souls to the tree of life.... That was seemingly impossible, there was no way he would be able to drag them all over there. So he'd create his own, almost like a memorial for his lost family. He lets out a big sigh and starts dragging every single body to the center of the village where his mother was laying. It was hard, very heavy too. The boy was out of breath after dragging only two and there were many many more still to be done. It took a lot out of him, but he had to move through it. They deserved to be honored in the same way their ancestors had always been. So he went through, only resting when truly necessary. He was determined to do this, although he would love nothing more than to go far far away from there. 

After hours and hours of dragging bodies, they were finally all in the center of the village. He kneeled down to the ground and out sprouted the biggest tree ever, without any leaves. Yuri than concentrated on the transference of the souls. He closed his eyes and breathed in. Breathed out and pulled the souls from the bodies, all at once. It took everything he had, nearly drained him completely. With his last bit of chakra he put them in the tree. For every soul, a leaf appeared on the tree. It was magical. The boy was on the verge of collapse, didn't have any chakra left, but for what he was about to do he didn't need any. He twisted his palm onto the ground. Roots of the tree he had just created shot out, wrapped around the bodies and dragging them down into the earth. With every body that was dragged down, their face appeared on the bast of the tree. Sweat had formed on the boy's forehead. The child collapsed from exhaustion only seconds after the last body had merged with the tree.

Still alive, albeit barely. Yuri layed there for three days before finally waking again. He went home and put his white cloak on, he was in mourning after all. Yuri also went to get his stuffed rabbit. He went by the tree one more time, taking one last look at it, before turning around and walking away. There was nothing left for him here, not anymore. One day he would come back to visit his family, his village, his clan and to absorb the knowledge from each tree.