DEMON HUNT

Chapter 50: Behold the great push II

The Inazuma fortress. Location unknown.

Mari is taking a sweet nap in one of the fortress's buildings. The fortress is clearly on a highland. Only way to get there being through a mechanically operated makeshift elevator. The fortress truly feels impenetrable and unfindable. Mari's nap continues as he smiles in his sleep. He hasn't slept this peacefully since his visions started. However, he soon begins to hear a female voice in his sleep. The voice sounds familiar, even though he's never heard it in reality before. His brain relays the message, tagging it as his mother, Elaine's voice.

Elaine: The nap is indeed enjoyable, but, it's time for you to wake up.

Mari begins to roll from side to side on his bed, showing his discomfort as the urging continues. Her soft voice and gentle tone goes on.

Elaine: My sweet boy, you have to wake up. Wake up, Mari. Wake up. Wake...up.

The last sentence came as a whisper, but was what surprisingly got Mari to sit up. His eyes portray he's still sleepy. He's wrapped around in a thick blanket to fight against the cold. He steps out of his bed, wearing a pair of flip-flops as he heads outside to get some more natural light, hoping it'd startup his sleepy system.

Mari swings the door right open, opening his heavy eye lids; his pupils adjusting to accommodate the change in light intensity. His mouth soon follows his eyes in opening as he gasps. His eyes become wide open and shaky as he struggles with words. The sight is not pleasant.

The area in front of him is covered in patches, by blood. He begins to see bodies scattered around. Most of them missing varying parts, which are also scattered across the view. As Mari struggles to make sense of the sight, his eyes are suddenly brought to focus on Mark, who's slitting someone's throat slowly, from end to end. He's a distance off, so it's a bit difficult for Mari to see who it is, owing to the winter weather. On taking a closer look, Mari finds out that it's actually Mikhayla, Mark tossing her lifeless body to the side in a totally carefree manner. As he approaches the building casually, his eyes suddenly fall on Mari, shocking the life out of him as he sighs, lamenting.

Mark: 'He won't wake up' he said. 'Don't worry' he said...'Krager is an expert'. How hard can it be to make someone go to sleep?

Mari subconsciously tilts his head to the left, disbelief etched on his face. Mark just stands still, seemingly unsure of what to do. Mari's eyes become glaring, immeasurable anger building inside of him. He yells at the top of his voice, saliva accompanying his emotion driven exclamation. His shoulders rising at intervals, his blood boiling.

Mari: Every time...every single time I'm having a messed up day, I see your face. That face...that face!

The sky cries out as a lightening bolt rushes down in a split second, making a thunderous impact on the ground. The space surrounding the bolt's landing area becomes smoky, making it difficult to see clearly. As the smoke clears up, several individuals wearing Ocean eyes robes appear a small distance away, to Mari's grave surprise. Their hoods are lowered, consequently revealing their faces. Mari runs a quick scan, stopping his count at fifteen, seeing no reason to continue further. The snowy weather contributes to the visibility problems caused by the smoke.

As the smoke clears up, Mari begins to get a better view of things. He can feel that his sense have been dulled; probably a side effect of Krager's somnokinetic capabilities. Mari sees Mark, the only casually dressed aggressor, seated on the floor, indicating he wasn't hit. The smoke clears completely, giving a clear picture of what happened. Someone pushed Mark out of the way and took the hit. A hooded figure, dressed in ocean eyes attire, is standing right on the point of impact. His outstretch hand, an effort to block the strike, is clearly disfigured. He doesn't move, the potency of the strike apparently taking him out. Mark rushes to his feet as he yells.