Banquet of the Count

Chapter 13: Aftermath

'This traitor among us must be found soon..... If not-'

While Eli and the Semi Hunters were still blinded by the weird light of the Netherwalker's jewels, a voice full of pain and regret sounded. The sentence that he'd spoken was cut off immediately by a distorted cough, and the splattering of liquid could be heard right after.

'No one knows...... When we're going to face our complete end......'

Eli forced himself to shake his head and claw at the side of his face. The pain from his actions finally caused his weird blindness to dissipate, though the world was tinted with a sickening shade of green in his eyes.

The Netherwalker had long disappeared from the Manor, the light of the very little crystals that were left behind being outshines by the rising fiery sun in the horizon. The abnormal sunlight that pierced through the clouds after countless hours of the chaotic night illuminated the dark hall instantly.

Jack's chest had a bloody gash from where he'd been wounded. His clothes had reverted back to original though stained with the blood from his wound, his eyes shining with pain instead of malice through his broken mask.

Eli helped the long-clawed murderer to stand up.

'That's what the Count said... Right?' The Ripper croaked in a weak voice. 'A Survivor here in the Manor had been helping the Abyss without our knowledge-' He coughed yet again. '-and the stupid vampire said that they'd disappeared from the area immediately. A headcount would soon bring us the results, but I doubt that it'll be that easy to find them......'

Eli could only nod his head in agreement. He turned around to look at his fellow Semi Hunters.

Emma and Emily had decided to rest for a while, the light making it obvious that they've phased out of their monstrous forms. Fiona seemed to be stuck in her thoughts as she stood where she originally was, her eyes shut as if she were trying to commence a risky ritual.

As for Aesop and the Count's "followers"......

The once-evil beings were now just like statues, their forms frozen in stern-looking formation. Aesop looked into the dull, glassy eyes of the beings and murmured a few words and curses under his breath. His scythe trembled in his grasp as his silvery eyes tried to trace something that Eli had yet to understand and see, the spiky bones that protruded his back threatening to cause blood to erupt from the unmoving figures' flesh.

'See their souls, Eli?'

The Dark Owl was surprised by Aesop's sudden question. 'P-Pardon?'

'Their souls, Eli,' Aesop's voice repeated in a dull yet annoyed tone. 'Can you find them? Are they still locked in their forms? Or have the controllers of their bodies long vanished from the realm of the living?'

Eli focuses hard, fighting against his urge to back away from Aesop due to his sudden fear of the dark Embalmer. He squeezed his eyes shut and forced himself to sense the aura of every living thing within the entire realm; an action of which he'd never done before.

The pain that shot through him as he did so was nearing the point of being fatal, yet Eli continued to search for the auras of the "followers". Here he found the souls of the dying, there he found the souls of darkness, yet......

'Can't- can't find them,' Eli panted as he brought himself back to the real world. 'Probably- probably dead- probably invisible-'

'Locked,' Aesop snarled under his breath. 'Their all just flipping locked! For the love of the lords down below-'

The Spectre's words soon turned into unintelligible growls as he looked directly at one of the "followers" - Mary, it turned out to be - in the eyes. He carefully held Mary's right hand in his two hands, then, not dropping his gaze at all, he began to chant over and over again in a language Eli didn't even know existed. Sweat could be seen forming on Aesop's face as his chants became faster and much more indecipherable......

'...... Arise!'

The last word echoed through the hall. Aesop finally stepped away from Mary, his grey eyes still not willing to give up the blood-chilling gaze. He held his scythe in his hands as though to expect the worst.

Eli didn't understand a single thing about what was happening. Mary just stood where she'd always been, her grasp on the glass shard that was her weapon still fixed as ever.

And that was when her glassy eyes blinked. Once. Then twice.

The weapon in the Bloody Queen's grasp fell to the ground and shattered into a thousand pieces yet again.

______

A few days later......

'Yo, Eli!' Naib waved over at the Seer as he rushed off from the platform and recorded his battle in the log. 'Check this out! Just in the match earlier Martha and I pulled a double save while Yidhra had-'

'Silence, Subedar!' Eli hollered in anger, his pen nearly blotting out the entire page with ink as he stabbed it angrily where he wrote his name. 'Let me finish this log! My next match's at sundown in 3 hours-'

'You must calm down for a while, man!' Naib shouted at the perplexed Seer. 'Your birthday's just passed and-'

It was as though Naib knew that he'd spoken of the wrong word, for he instantly silenced himself as Eli, Aesop and Fiona, who was just passing by, glared angry daggers at him.

'Whoa, chill guys!' Naib tried to keep things calm. 'What's with the monster-like-'

'Screw the third Call of The Abyss!' Fiona's voice sounded, cutting off Naib's sentence. 'Not even Yog-Sothoth knows who the traitor is!'

'It is most definitely a bone-rattling, blood-curdling thing, the event,' Aesop spoke in his ever-so-dull voice, yet beneath the icy surface Eli could sense a surging fire of fury and frustration.

'And my birthday was most definitely not a day any of us would like to remember. For this particular year, in the very least.'

The Mercenary whimpered like a wounded kitten at the sudden sentences of the three.

'Whoa, whoa, chill for a moment!' William soon joined the argument-like discussion. 'Naib there wasn't wrong about what he'd said. You guys surely have to calm down! Besides, those kids who're Phantom Thieves - from the game Persona 5, I think? - they're coming to visit us again. Heard that even Emma and Tracy are going to get skins.'

'I've no reason to think that Reznik would feel any happiness or fun from the event,' Aesop shot yet another icy arrow of words. 'Just like Fiona, Eli and I, along with Kevin and a few of the others, Tracy would be participating in the COA.'

William found himself trying to slap his own face for what he'd brought up.

'Are you guys mad?!' Emma's voice suddenly sounded. 'Guys! There's a completely-empty 8v2 slot right now! Go and take up the spots, for the sake of belladonna!'

Eli sighed. Perhaps a small, usual match would indeed help relieve him of his cluttered thoughts. He sensed that Fiona and Aesop had too thought of the same thing.

'I'm in,' The Seer forced a smile as he beckoned Diamond to land on his shoulder, who screeched a small greeting as a reply.

There was, however, a moving clone within their numbers. The clone ran off into "their" room and rummaged through "their" things. An evil, nerve-tingling smile formed on their face.

'The "Vile Blossom" is no other than I......'

THE END