The Oracle

Chapter 1: Against All Orders

AKARI

"Akari!" Kaito yells through my earpiece. "You've got more nightmare wolves coming up ahead from your left!"

"Understood," I communicate back to him as I race through the trees, my feet easily dodging and avoiding all of the brush as I hop back and forth while I add more bullets to the chamber in my green and silver scythe that also acts as a gun.

My blonde ponytail sways back and forth as I leap around and my blue eyes quickly glance off to the left after I leap over a log and I throw my body to the side as I pull back the trigger on my weapon, shooting multiple explosive bullets into the bodies of the snarling nightmare wolves that leap out of the trees, black energy radiating off of them as their eyes glow bright red and they show their fangs.

Upon landing back on my feet, I whirl to the left and swing my scythe through another wolf that appears before I propel myself upwards off of its body and into the air. I swing my scythe around so that it hooks around a tree branch and I swing myself upwards so that I'm standing on the branch of the tree once I land. I then reload my weapon and take aim at more wolves that come running on the ground.

"Gotcha now," I grin as I spy another wolf in my sights and I pull the trigger, smoke coming out of the barrel as the projectile pierces directly into the heart of the wolf and it falls over almost immediately.

"Nice job," Kaito's voice comes through my earpiece. "Now get your ass over here."

"On it," I reply as I leap down from the tree and start running in his direction.

I race towards Kaito and I know that I'm close whenever I can see the red and orange energy radiating from his armblades as he slashes through multiple wolves.

"Took you long enough," he snorts as I slide up next to him and take down a wolf on his right with my scythe.

"Oh, I'm sorry," I glance pointedly over at the brunette with fierce red eyes, "some of us were being productive."

"Tsk," Kaito snorts as he whirls around with a lunge to the left and slashes three wolves in half with his blades. "Sure thing, Hana. Just try not to get yourself killed."

"When have you known me to ever be that reckless?" I grin as I do a backflip to land on a wolf's back before I twirl and slash through it. "Besides, where's Darius?"

"Sorry!" Darius shouts as multiple silver bullets fly into our area from the trees before suddenly he comes into sight as he leaps down from one of them. "I was a bit cornered."

"At least you're here now," Kaito sighs as Darius throws up his silver bow that can also act as a gun in order to transform it back into its bow form before he quickly grabs three arrows from his quiver and shoots down three wolves.

Seventeen year olds Kaito Kamekawa and Darius Mikhailov are two of the members of the academy I attend and they're two of my good friends. Even though I'm only one year younger than them, they still somewhat treat me like I'm their little sister. I've been a member of Aria Academy since I was five years old and one of the members found me in my ruined home while on a mission. My house was attacked by nightmare creatures, along with the rest of my village, and I was one of the few survivors left by the time Aria members came. The academy is primarily ran by the seven deadly sins and the seven heavenly virtues, but a few of them have gone missing throughout the years. As of now, only eleven of the original fourteen are left at the academy. Kaito and Darius happen to both be members of those original fourteen with Kaito being Envy and Darius being Humility.

Kaito is able to sap the life and the power out of others with his abilities and Darius is able to shift himself around by projecting his spirit into multiple different places. Kaito and Darius also have much more natural power than I do due to me just being human and the two of them also have energy that comes off of them when they fight. However, I use special armor and weapons to allow me to have abilities to help fight the nightmare creatures and I've become quite accustomed to it over the years, actually becoming one of the top members of the academy.

"Of course," Darius beams as he releases more arrows and slides onto his knees, his brown eyes cheerful and his sandy brown hair slightly messy from fighting, "I could never back down from a fight, especially when my friends are involved."

As the three of us fight alongside each other, an explosion comes from the middle of the jungle and I exchange a glance with the others before they wave me off and I nod. I take down a few more wolves before I run towards the explosion and I knock my silver gauntlets together in order to form green bands of energy around them. The energy spins around my gauntlets and turns into glowing green runes that spin around my gauntlets. Then, the underside of my scythe lights up bright green with energy and green flames begin to burn off of it as I run towards the source of the explosion.

I rush by smoking trees and vines as I make my way to the center of the jungle and I sigh as it begins to rain, unhappy that I'm about to get soaked. Don't get me wrong, I love the rain, but sometimes it's not fun to be soaking wet, especially in a fight. I furrow my eyebrows and I stop to a halt whenever I notice the rain is glowing a sort of mint color and I hold out one of my hands to catch the rain. I watch as the strangely colored water lands in my hands and simply runs off before I look up at the sky, water droplets hitting my face as I stare at the storm clouds overhead. I shake it off before I continue heading towards the center of the forest, deciding I can worry about the rain later.

I push back a few giant fern leaves as I make my way through the forest and suddenly I'm able to see a faint light coming from up ahead. My breath hitches and my feet come to a stop whenever I find myself staring at an unconscious male who's lying on the jungle floor, his mint colored hair becoming soaked as rain pours down on him from above and runs down his porcelain face, his black jacket torn and his white shirt lifted sideways and revealing part of his stomach while his black slacks also have tears all throughout them. However, the most intriguing thing about him is probably the fact that bright green flames are faintly burning on and around him, the trees around him smoking from the previous explosion.

"What the hell..." I breathe out, unsure what or who exactly I'm looking at, but I do know one thing for sure.

"If you ever see a child of Wrath, you are to immediately exterminate them, you hear?" Carmin instructed, his brown eyes resolute.

"But why?" I frowned towards Carmin during one of my first courses at the academy, having only been eleven at the time.

"Because Wrath caused all this. Wrath caused this entire mess with the nightmare creatures and then once it was found out he just fled. He left everyone behind without a care. Anyone with the blood of Wrath is too dangerous to survive. That is why," Carmin scowled, "that is why any child born from Wrath must die."

"But how would I know?" I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Anyone with the blood of Wrath will be destructive, impulsive, and deadly. They will be easily identifiable by their bright mint colored energy that nobody else can obtain. Ultimately, they will destroy everything and everyone around them, so show no mercy. Got it?" Carmin instructed.

"Got it," I nodded as I took down notes and smiled, happy to be learning the ropes.

"Ah, hell," I sigh as I continue to stare at the helpless boy before I swing around my scythe and turn it into its compact form before I place it in the holder against my back and then walk over to the boy. "What am I doing?"

I lean down and maneuver his unconscious body as the flames die away from his unconscious state and the rain before I throw one of his arms over my shoulder and begin to drag him back to the others. As I'm taking him with me, I sneak a glance over at his sleeping face and I wonder how someone so destructive could look so peaceful, and I also wonder why I've decided to go against direct orders from Pride himself.

"You're going to cause me a lot of trouble, you know that," I sigh quietly as my eyes flicker across his face before I go back to watching the path ahead of us.

But, somehow, it feels worth it.