Komo-Doubutsu

Chapter 8: The Truth - Part 2

By: Midori Ushi Law

Two of the figures jumped down to where Lipagron was. One was an overweight man with a thick beard. The other was a beautiful woman wearing many long necklaces. They both had silver hair. The two individuals walked toward Lipagron and reached down to lift him.

"Liar..."

Immediately the man and woman stopped and leapt back up to the others.

"H-He's alive," a strong female voice said.

"I.. am not.. a liar... The Light Beast.. has me," Lipagron said softly with his body still face-down and motionless. Arrows stuck out of his body like he was a pincushion.

"How is this possible?" the round shadowed figure asked.

Lipagron continued, "You set up the.. entrances around.. the city. You purposely put an entrance.. where there are hungry homeless people. Yet inside the lobby, you fill the left side with more food than the few, who paid for a ticket, could possibly eat! You profit off of their poverty, yet you call me the liar!"

The figure with the deep voice yelled, "Silence!"

"YOU SILENCE! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!"

Most of the figures gasped at Lipagron's retaliation. They started to whisper amongst themselves.

Chapter 8: The Truth - Part 2

"Child, I am life and death for you. Do not push me further. Prepare Red Horse!" yelled the deep-voiced figure.

A large burning lump of clay fell to the ground in front of Lipagron's body. It wiggled and quickly formed it's shape to look identical to the young man. It was red all over with flames emitting from its outline. It walked towards Lipagron and kicked him hard on his right side. He let out a loud groan.

"The Red Horse makes an ignited clay doppelganger of your target. The clone has the ability to use whatever powers the target has," the deep-voiced figure explained as the fiery clone tried to lift Lipagron up by the back of his shirt collar. The top of his shirt caught on fire and ripped from the clone's hand. Lipagron shrieked, when the fire touched his back. "Unfortunately, since you have no powers, even your flaming twin is weak."

The clone grabbed one of the arrows pierced inside the boy and pulled it out quickly, ripping skin and muscle.

Sharp screams of agony spouted from Lipagron as it continued ripping arrows from his body.

"He didn't dodge any arrows, and now he's not even attempting to resist the Red Horse," said a figure with a shaky, high-pitched voice.

The tallest figure replied, "This should not be hard to watch, but it is for some reason."

Once all the arrows were out of Lipagron's writhing, bloody body, the clone rolled him onto his back, sat on his chest, and put his flaming hands around the teenager's neck. Lipagron struggled to breath as he screamed. He looked his clone in its lifeless eyes as the skin on his neck burned. He tried to reach for the clone's hands, but the flames made his hands flinch back.

A few of the figures turned away to avoid watching the helpless child suffer. It was the first time most of them had to watch someone so young get killed during the Preliminary Trials; let alone watch a child with no powers whatsoever lose his life because of their decisions. The deep-voiced figure stood strong, though. He watched every second of the torture until the boy stopped screaming and his burnt body remained motionless. The clay clone stood up and walked away from Lipagron its blaze dwindled down to a flicker. It became a lump of formless clay once again.