CALAMITY CORE : FREE THE WORLD

CH.36 'AN APEX PREDATOR'

Andrei and Saionji walked with the whole of the Inu Clan behind them. Rough-edged bandits and warriors all around, even they grew hesitant as the smell of smoke wafted through the woods which should have led to the village, Kochi. Night had fallen, their trip having lasted far longer without the rush of Saiji's grappling blade or Andrei's chimeric strength. As the air in the woods grew harsher on their lungs, only Andrei, who had been accustomed to cinder, stayed the course without regret. "What's this? The fog is..."

Saionji knelt down for a moment, then gasped. "Smoke... did something happen?" She rose back to her feet as she questioned mostly herself, catching back up to Andrei and increasing the pace with which they moved. "Hmph. I don't like the smell of this." He said as she fell in line with him once more.

The night sky, something that had comforted them with its calm blacks, blues, and spotted stars, became violent and less defined with plumes of smoke as they pressed onwards. Okuri and the brothers Inoshi and Hattori made their way up to the head of the war band alongside Andrei and Saionji, and they all trekked in silence until it was Okuri who had broken it. "Kochi... I hope nothing bad has happened to my home. Not before I am to see it even one last time." Though his face remained solemn, his voice betrayed his genuine concern.

"If anything has, we'll be sure to pay it back in double! Right, bro 'Drei?" Inoshishi said with a hopeful, something his brother tried his best to share. Andrei nodded, his eyes closed as to block out the painful stinging of the smoke. "Yeah. Nobody should have to see their home destroyed as their last memory." He said, once more the quiet, blunt kid that he usually was.

The encouragement was good for Okuri, even Andrei's cold tone helped him remain temperate in the now pressing heat of the woods. Unfortunately, it didn't last for very long. His wolfish yellow eyes dilated and shot open wide as they broke the treeline, and the unfortunate truth revealed itself to the whole of the Inu Clan not long after. "What...?"

From the sky, the village Kochi rained cinder and ash from plumes of hot flame and smoke. The black night sky was stained red with the blood of what would've been innocent people. Even the blood lust of Ra was staved off when the sight of the ruins came into their full view, and Andrei couldn't help but double-take at the sight of it all. Saionji felt a chill run down her back, and she twitched, though she couldn't help but stand still... Shimoda was there! But... there was all gone...

"... What happened..." Okuri muttered, taking a knee after his heart practically skipped a beat. He dipped his head, and his wolfish snout twitched as he bared his fangs. A pit that had been filled by the wholeness of his meeting with Andrei tore itself open once more, becoming a fully fledged sinkhole which ate away at his very soul.

'Home.' Okuri thought. Something primal about it all. 'Home is there.' It echoed in his mind almost a dozen times, and he flinched as a hot breeze caught his flattened ears against his head. His muscles were tense, as though he wanted to lash out and tear apart whoever it was that did this, but deep down... he knew that he wasn't strong enough to do it. "What has happened... My home! Where..." Okuri the Blue threw up his head in anguish. "WHERE IS MY HOME!" He howled to the partially obstructed moon as the ash rained down still. The cry was something which reverberated throughout the whole of the ruin, and the souls of those close to him.

Saionji's eyelids twitched, and her lip quivered as Okuri's howl pierced the choking smoke and night fog. A pair of tears built up in her eyes, and she felt like screaming... but everything she had been taught, everything she was raised to be, it told her to keep it in. For Inoshishi, Hattori... and Andrei, she had to remain a pillar for which they could ground themselves. Even still, her thoughts chipped away at her stalwart refusal to budge. "Little brother..." She murmured, all she needed for the base of her pillar to crack. 'Mother... her child!' she had thought, '... Phanes.' The names raced through her mind.