God Eater: Shattered Dawn

Chapter 24: Poison of darkness

To Ellen, who also shares Cloud's birthday. It's just an excuse for me to talk about Cloud and CloudxTifa.

I uh drew this pic of Aria whilst I was away this holiday. And yeah, her hand is tiny. I'm rubbish at drawing.

Music is Hurry up and save me. I originally heard it in a final fantasy video, but alas, I lost it. It is a good song for any ship and, in nightcore, good battle music.

Lupa's POV

We had a long telling off from Tsubaki when we got back. Lindow's sister was not happy we had gone out trouble making when we were needed at the Den.

Lindow seemed to find it hilarious, teasing his sister whenever possible. I just wanted to die in shame.

Lindow was an idiot. Not that it was anything new, really.

When we were finally allowed to leave, ears ringing from her voice, I had another mission.

I headed over to the mission desk to see what needed doing. Ri was also stood, and smiled, giving a twinkly wave. I ignored her.

"Hey Hibari." I greeted. She gave a genuine smile, and looked up the missions for me.

"So, you spend the day with your boyfriend?" I stiffened. "It makes sense, from a monster who couldn't even save her brother."

"Why do you hate me so much?" I said softly. I was just too tired to argue.

"Hm. Let me see. You don't remember, do you?" Ri tilted her head.

"Remember what?" We were interrupted by a cough from Hibari, to which I apologised quickly.

Hibari looked far more apologetic. "You have a mission now...with Ri." What?! We stared at her, mouths hanging open in shock.

Then Ri smirked, and turned her black eyes onto me. "What are you waiting for, monster?"

I bit back a remark and followed her to the helicopter. I had a feeling I was in for another long mission. I ignored Ri's existence on the journey, listening to my ipod and blocking out the world.

I remembered her words. What was I forgetting?

Ri was playing on her phone, making the music annoyingly loud to get on my nerves. But under her eyes were huge rings. She must have had nightmares last night too.

Her face slipped from its arrogant state as she concentrated. I felt like I remembered that face...

"You ever going to stop staring?" Ri remarked mildly, raising her eyebrow. I quickly looked away and checked the mission.

"Find the group of new aragami and eliminate them." It seemed simple, but we had no idea what we would be facing.

"Apparently they are pretty powerful. They've wiped the area clean of other monsters." Ri grinned. "You scared?"

I rolled my eyes. "Let's just get this over with."

"I'll take that as a yes." I watched her leave the helicopter in front of me. She held a blue blast gun.

We had landed in an area that was hot. Boiling hot. The air shimmered from the heat that rose through cracks in the parched earth.

Ri was suitably dressed, in a black vest top and grey kilt. She wore thin patterned black tights and black pixie boots.

I wore my trademark skater skirt outfit, and was struggling with the heat.

We were on a very dangerous site. One near an active volcano by the looks of things. I sidestepped a spurt of boiling air that burst through a crack.

With a quick exchange between us two, we slowly began making our way through the area.

"Did you remember yet?" I frowned, ignoring her. The steam was a wierd black.

"You're going to love this." she laughed. Seriously, what was with this steam?

"When you remember how you messed up my life-" the steam was leading us round in a circle, almost as though...

I realised too late. We were surrounded.

From the ground, hundreds of miniscule creatures were emerging. The black beetles crawled towards us, steam rolling off their backs.

Ri's eyes widened and she screamed. I took out my silver bow and shot an arrow into the air. More arrows rained down, crushing the beetles.

Ri took a wilder approach, stamping on the beetles. Between us, the mini aragami were meeting a satisfactory end.

I swiped my face, the steam was still rising up. Ri crushed the last bug with a loud crunch. "That was too easy."

"Seriously, those were what we had to kill?" I agreed, sighing out as I placed a hand on my hip.

The floor began to shake. I struggled to stand as a huge horn tore up the ground before us, a giant beetle rising through the earth.

A second beetle broke through the ground behind us. They both lowered their heads, ready to charge. I grabbed Ri and teleported in the nick of time. The horns clashed together, the two giants caught in a headlock.

They had black armour plates covering them, except for their six legs and backsides. I took the legs, while Ri fired at the back of the second beetle.

They finally broke away from each other, and charged at each of us. Ri rolled out the way and continued her assualt.

I waited till the last second before dropping to the floor, beneath its legs. As I had predicted, the tummy was bare. I stabbed my blade into its stomach, allowing the bugs momentum to slice the blade all the way along it.

It screached, kicking with its back legs to get me off. I retreated, firing lasers at another weak point. Its eyes.

It backed away, steam poring out from its back.

"A little help would be great if you're not busy." Ri squeaked from under her beetle's foot. I raised my hand, and concentrated on my light soul chains. Time slowed down around me.

I held my god arc out behind me and began to run. To Ri, it probably looked like a blur, as I ran between each leg, slicing through it. On the last one, I pulled Ri out of the way.

Time returned to normal. The beetle gave a dying screach as it toppled to the ground, legs cut clean off. "Cover me." I instructed as I stepped forward to extract the core.

As I did so, the steam coming from the aragami increased, and I was unable to avoid inhaling the dark fumes. It burned my throat, and I quickly covered my nose with my hoodie fabric. Damn. Should have been more careful.

Once I was done, I walked out of the poisonous haze to fight the last beetle. Ri had downed the beetle, and I finished it quickly. The world began to spin as the burning sensation increased.

"Ri, move." I instructed calmly. "It's going to emit a dark poisonous gas."

She stepped back, watching as I pulled up a shield round myself and took the core. I stumbled as the world tilted further.

"Are you okay?" Ri asked. She sounded genuinely worried for once.

I nodded, then shook my head. The ground rose up to meet me, soft as a pillow. Her voice became muffled out as my vision tinted black.