Kuro: A Land in Eternal Night

Chapter 26.4: Fated Meeting

There was a slow spark, and the high-pitched, crackling sound of electricity in the air. Mina could feel the tingling on her skin, a sharp stinging sensation as the air around her became electrified. Voices filled her mind, whispering things she had never thought to herself before, a hundred suggestions, all enticing, all inviting, beckoning to her, demanding she surrender herself and abandon her friends.

Mina realized Vannah was staring right at her. "Do not heed your mind, little one. It cannot be trusted right now."

"Wh-what do you mean?" she stammered clumsily, feeling rather slow and stupid.

"It is a psychic attack." The Dark Priestess' eyes were slits again. "She aims to overthrow your mind. She is firing thought impulse after thought impulse, seeking to overwhelm our minds, in order to control us.

Mina looked over to see Mykall with his eyes closed, his hands clasped together as if praying. The warrior was meditating, casting out the evil thoughts that assailed him. The electrically charged air was causing their hair to sway wildly, as if a fierce wind was blowing.

"Do not fear." It was Vannah's voice again, her hands suddenly at her sides, the leather pouch she had by her side suddenly open. Inside, Mina could see tiny little slips of white parchment, the seals that Vannah had spoken about. The Dark Priestess was about to unleash her own abilities.

"She will not harm you, child. She needs you alive. You stay back and let us handle this." Vannah unleashed two seals, which disappeared promptly into the darkness. Without warning, two gigantic metal rods dropped from the sky, burying themselves into the earth beside the Dark Priestess.

Felicia smiled. "A worthy adversary, the Dark Priestess. You waste no time exploiting any weaknesses. Planting lightning rods to draw my powers out is a good strategy." A shadow moved just then, a white blur that was moving so fast it could barely be seen. When the dust had settled, Searra had moved to close in, an attempt to end the battle swiftly, her right arm reverting back to demon form, the purplish hue of her skin evident in the battlefield now illuminated by lightning.

A dark figure, moved in to stop the advance. "I am Famine. Thou shalt experience what true hunger is today. Hunger you shall experience, yes." The demon had reverted to its true form, blobs of fat from every side. It was tall, the purple hue of the skin similar to Searra's arm. A tiny head sat atop the mass of flesh, almost comical in appearance.

Mykall, sensing an opportunity, tried to attack Felicia, only to be stymied as one of the demons brandished a giant broadsword, and effortlessly parried the warrior's attack. "I am War, one of the four horsemen and great demon of the Yami. I shall be your opponent, Light Knight."

Vannah sent several seals into the air at once, the seals dissipating almost instantly, fizzling.

Felicia's high pitched laugh filled the darkness. "Seals of Command will not work on them, I am afraid. My hold over the demons is absolute. It is too bad the Seal of Tsukuyomi can only be invoked once per lifetime."

The third demon stepped in to join the fight. This demon was frail, the shortest of the four. Bones peered out from a sickly body, decaying as if it embodied sickness. Its skin was covered in a mucous-like substance. Mina wanted to throw up in revulsion. "I am Pestilence, demon of Plague and Disease." The demon raised its hand into the air, and with the sound of the sound of tiny wings, a swarm of locusts descended upon them.

Vannah's lips moved swiftly, her eyes closed, as she let two more seals loose, unleashing Kamikaze, the divine wind. The lashing air cut the locusts and they fell to the ground in pieces, hundreds of them littering the port town of Umi.

Vannah closed her eyes. Her mouth was uttering a soft incantation. Felicia's eyes widened.

"Go,now! She is unleashing Enma Dai- Ō! We must stop her before his true form can be released!"

It was too late. A dark force emerged from Searra's body, her cloak was torn to shreds, her naked body visible for a brief instant. Her slender body slowly changed, the soft supple skin hardening, tightening, the muscles ballooning in size, the limbs elongating, her beautiful face transforming behind the Seal of Tsukuyomi. When the metamorphosis was over, the massive The great Demon Lord Enma stood in her place.

Mina looked upon the dread demon and shuddered. It had not been long since she had last laid eyes upon it. Enma towered over even the four horsemen, though the demons stood seven feet tall. There was a grin on the demon's face, visible behind the Seal of Tsukuyomi. Mina was thankful for the veil. Vannah sat atop Enma's massive right shoulder like a dark princess. It might have been the darkness, or the effect of seeing Vannah so tied to the nature of the demon for the first time, but Mina found her strangely abhorrent. Still, she was even more beautiful in the darkness and in contrast to the demon – an endlessly shifting paradox of light and darkness, good and evil. Mina hated that even more.

"You bring me to such troublesome matters, whorelet. It appears I am faced with four arch-demons. This will be quite the battle."

The final demon stepped forward and revealed its nature. It was a figure wearing black robes, its face an empty skull that looked out with eyeless sockets. Behind it, a small army of similar figures slowly appeared.

"We are Shinigami, angels of Death, and we fight as one. We do not wish to hinder you, Dark Lord. We of the Yami swear to you our undying allegiance. We rise up against our will." The skulls spoke from lipless mouths, unmoving, but everyone heard the words in their minds.

"This battle must happen." Enma grinned as he looked on from behind the Seal of Tsukuyomi. "Like you, I am bound to obey by this infernal seal"

"Death comes to all mortals, sometimes even to gods and demons. For mortals, we know when the hour comes, but the end is hazy for all of you. Such is expected of the Dark Priestess and yourself, but even the Light Knight's final hours are shrouded in mist to us. And the destiny of the Vessel is yet to be determined. The power of the Sun Goddess hinders our sight."

"Enough talk!" Felicia moved to attack, lightning crackling from her fingertips. The psychic onslaught also continued, the whispering of hundreds of voices in their heads.

Mina looked around helplessly. She knew that she needed to help, but Vannah had told her to repress her nature. It was then that she heard a voice in her head.

"Use the power, child." She heard it so loudly, she whipped around suddenly trying to determine the source of the voice, but realized no one else had heard it but her. Was she imagining things in the heat of battle? More trickery from the Silver Witch?

"You are the Vessel. Use the power." The words were insistent. She heard them very clearly enunciated, in her mind. Mina's mind was a haze. She tried very hard to think. The psychic assault continued, a buzzing swarm of nagging thoughts, but this other voice rose above the din, with an urgency that was difficult to ignore.

"And if I don't?" she asked the question in her mind.

"The choice is always, has ever been, yours to make."

The answer puzzled Mina. "And should I choose to act?"

"Then your actions will alter the course of events." The answer was simple, but not so simple.

"And who am I that such a power be given me?"

"That is simple. You are the Vessel."