Chapter 4 (part 2)

The fight continues

They removed their murky gold strands of hair that punctured my body, leaving only the hair that was wrapped tightly around my wrists and ankles. I felt relief wash over me like a wave, even though each of the seemingly thousands of holes began to bleed out. But after that relief I felt dread, I was about to die, become part of their hideous form. 

I tried to struggle free but the sudden loss of blood had left me surprisingly weak, I could barely move, I was even finding it hard to breath.

They held me over their mouth, letting the blood, my blood, fall into it. 

I heard the main voice laugh. "Such power!" She said gleefully, almost singing with excitement. "Imagine the power we'll have when you join us!"

"But not too fast...

"...too fast that we..."

"...that we can't enjoy..."

"...enjoy this moment..."

"...longer." 

Both of the echoed voices said the last word together, I could even hear their anger in that last word. 

They wanted revenge, all of them did. 

The main face had a sinister grin plastered on her face. "Don't worry girls," She said a playful manner. "I'll never let that happen!" 

They lowered me down to their open mouth slowly, prolonging my torture. My body was completely stiff aside from a couple twitching limbs. I closed my eyes as I waited for the inevitable...

I was filled with hopelessness, my eyes shut tight so I didn't have to watch my own demise. I couldn't do anything, my magic had let me down, either I had used too much of it before or it was ignoring me, Astrid and Tinu must be too busy with the horde to notice my predicament. 

Why did I rush in for the kill? How could I have underestimated my abilities so much? I suppose this is to be my punishment, for pretending to be strong, for possessing magic I can't control, for thinking I could save everyone, the survivors deserve better than what I can give, they deserve better than me. 

"Delia!" I heard Tinu and Astrid yell, causing me to open my eyes. 

I instantly wished I kept them them shut. 

I was now so close to their main face that I could see saliva dripping from their fangs, and the smell coming from their mouth was putrid, it was worse than the smell of the rotting zombie horde. 

I turned just in time to see Tinu leaping towards me, he swung his sword in a downward arc and cut the murky gold hair that restrained me, causing me to fall face down, I watched as the cut hair shrivelled rapidly, detaching themselves from my wrists and ankles and allowing my blood to leak out, though slower than I imagined. 

I was turned over to my back where I saw Astrid checking my injuries. 

"You f*****g idiot!" She yelled through gritted teeth as she checked my wrists. "What made you think you could take it on your own?" She asked angrily. 

She ripped open my shirt to examine the puncture wounds on my chest and stomach. I could feel it as she touched some of them with her fingers before covering me back up with my cloak. 

"I'm sorry..., Astrid," I said weakly, almost inaudibly. "I just... wanted... to end it." I breathed heavily whilst I spoke, almost gasping for air. 

She said nothing for a moment as she examined my thighs and ankles. 

She sighed heavily. "You're lucky," She returned to my top half so she was kneeling beside my shoulder. "You're already healing." 

My magic must have been focussing on keeping me alive, that explains why I couldn't use it while the demon b*****s had hold of me, but not why I couldn't use it before I got caught. 

"Go and help Tinu..., I'll be... fine." 

"Tinu's fine, he can handle himself," She looked at me with a half hearted grin. "I better stay with you, just in case you have something else stupid planned." I could tell she was still angry at me but she tried to hide it, kind of proves that she's not just a cold blooded warrior. 

I heard a scream and turned my head to see Tinu with his entire left arm covered in the murky gold hair, he swung his sword in an attempt to cut the hair but different strands forced it out of his hands then proceeded to envelop his right arm up to his elbow. 

As he struggled Astrid ran wordlessly towards them, multiple strands of hair rose up and tried to strike her but they were easily deflected by her shield, allowing her sword to cut them down. 

"Astrid, look out!" I warned her, forcing my voice to shout. 

But she still didn't hear me, she was attacked from behind, stabbed inbetween her shoulder blades. 

The demonised girls forced her to ground face down before turning to face me again. They cackled as they levitated towards me and I was helpless to do anything but lay there. 

"Poor little orphan," They cooed. "So weak, so helpless," They swayed as they floated before me. "Can you guess what I'm doing to your friends?" She asked with a wicked grin on her face. When she saw that I wasn't able to reply she laughed, along with the two other voices adding a creepy echo. They wrapped their hair around my wrists again and pulled me up into the air so I was upright and off of the ground. "It's the same thing you did to us before you murdered us!" They spoke at the same time, yelling in my ear and tightening their grip on my wrists, even filling my body with the same electrical pain as before except this time it was stronger. 

And as I screamed out I realised what was going on. 

They laughed as the pain subsided. "I can see why you did it," They said in a satisfied whisper. "Absorbing the strength of others, it's such a rush!" 

"Now we'll use...

"...use their strength to..."

"...to kill you all!"

The echoed voices of the inferior girls added in a happy whisper. 

The main face grinned. "Yes, with the strength we've gained from the three of you and the strength of the students and teachers, we'll be unstoppable!" 

My eyes widened and, just like before, my magic erupted. Pure white fire flared from my hands, causing them to release and drop me. I floated down to the ground and I saw fear grow upon each of their faces. This time they were speechless and moved away from me as I summoned my scythe, which levitated in front of me, but they didn't get far.

"You want power?" I asked them as I also began to levitate and grabbed my scythe, spinning it like a baton before holding it behind me in my right hand. "Then I'll show you a power you could never hope to match!" 

I flew towards them, holding my weapon in both hands with its blade behind me. Moving faster than they could keep up with I cut the hair that held Astrid and Tinu, the hair shrivelled up like before, allowing Tinu to carry Astrid back to a safe distance as her injuries were worse than his. 

When they were safe I proceeded to cut the three red cords that joined and tethered their hips, and bodies, together, slicing all three of them in three swift cuts as I circled around them. They screamed instantly and stopped levitating, almost collapsing when they reached the ground. 

While they yelled out in pain I returned to Tinu who was kneeling beside Astrid who, in turn, was lying on the ground facing upwards. 

"How is she, Tinu?" I asked, my voice sounded like I was speaking with two voices but it didn't seem important right now. 

"She's breathing," He replied, sounding exhausted. "Her wound looks deep though, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried." 

I noticed his arms and they looked like they didn't belong to him anymore, they had aged significantly, it was the same with Astrid, she looked like an old woman and her hair was completely white. 

Tinu grunted in frustration as he looked at his hands. 

"We underestimated their power," He sighed heavily. "We should've guessed she took the horde's energy!" 

"Just look after Astrid," I said, turning back to the, now wailing, Hive demon. "I'm going to fix everything!" 

"I hope you know what you're doing." He said breathlessly. 

I simply smiled. "Ye of little faith." 

I flew forward once more, coating the blade of my scythe in white fire as I did. I wanted to split them up completely before ending it for good. Their hair shot forward as they attempted to stop me, but I didn't stop, instead instinct took over, like before, and I created two copies of my scythe, which flew independently either side of me but still under my control, the two copies began to spin, resembling saw blades, and intercepted the strands of hair, cutting them to shreds. 

I continued forward until I was within striking distance and, along with the two copied weapons, I separated them again by cutting through the joining of their ankles and elbows. 

They collapsed to their knees, but they managed to hold themselves up, their murky gold hair fell lifeless, continuously shrivelling while still attached to their conjoined heads. I levitated in front of the main head while the two cloned sickles moved over the less dominant heads. While the other two voices cried out in pain the main face looked up at me with her empty sockets, and even in her disfigured face I could see the fear within it. 

"Those glowing white eyes," The main voice said softly. "The eyes of our murderer, wasn't killing us once enough for you?" She sounded sad, pleading for their new lives, like everything they had done as demons was my fault. 

I felt my anger grow as I looked at their grovelling form, the flames on each scythe blade grew larger, like they were enraged along with me. 

"You dare to plea for your life, after what you've done!" In my rage I set the demonic trio on fire, the white flames causing them more pain than any they had received so far. Their scream seemed like music to my ears, a small grin even appeared on my face. 

"The three of you will pay for what you've done, killing you was a mistake, something I couldn't control, something I regretted, I felt so bad that I actually cried for you all, but what you did, all the people you've killed, you did that willingly," I tightened the grip in my scythe. "I had nothing to do with that!" I yelled, extinguishing the flames on their body. 

"And who are you to judge us?" She asked weakly. 

"I am one of the Reaper's chosen," I replied with a small smirk, putting a look of horror on the main head's face. "And I'm going to reap you to pieces!" 

Before they could even scream in protest I brought my scythe down upon them, along with the two other scythes mimicking the movements of the original, splitting the three of them vertically down the middle of their bodies. 

They split open like a piece of fruit, the only thing that kept them together was a small part of their heads that was still fused. The two copies of my scythe faded away as their blood leaked out onto the grass whilst white fire consumed their bodies entirely like a forest fire. 

A dirty yellow ball emerged from their dead demon flesh, it resembled the souls I had seen dancing in the skies of Limbo, except it looked like three of them stuck together, barely managing to keep themselves whole. 

The yellow blob didn't ascend like the souls from the zombie horde, it started crumble and dissolve before vanishing into nothingness. 

I returned to Tinu and Astrid, magic still flowing through me, filling me with a warm and gentle sensation. Without a word I lowered myself to ground beside Astrid and knelt down, I flattened out my hands, causing the white flames covering them to simmer down to light glow. 

"What are you doing?" Tinu asked, slightly panicked. 

"Like I said before," I replied without taking my eyes off of Astrid. 

I moved my glowing hands over her, so they were hovering close to her body, but not touching, the glow of my hands shone brighter and Astrid's body began to change, reverting back to its original young appearance. 

If I wasn't still following my instincts I never would have been able to do this.

My glowing hands dimmed when she had fully reverted back and I finally turned to Tinu. 

"I'm fixing everything."

Wordlessly, I did the same to Tinu's arms, I didn't even have to ask him to hold them out. When I had finished healing him the glowing in my hands stopped and I collapsed onto my side. 

Tinu rushed to my side and rested my head on his knee. I looked up into his cloudy storm-clad eyes and smiled, he looked worried, I hoped my smile would ease him somehow. 

"See?" I asked, my exhaustion showing in my voice. "I fixed everything, just like I said I would." I sighed tiredly. 

To my relief Tinu smiled back at me. "You're incredible, you know that?" 

I laughed softly as I smiled up at him. "I had a feeling." 

I heard him laugh a little before I blacked out. It was nice to hear... 

especially after all that had happened here...