To A Thief - Chapter 38: It's Not Over

Hope is fading fast. Evil is extending to both sides. Could this be the end?

Upper Jeuno

"Gazo here," the galkan swordsman spoke into his dark pendant as he watched Stiff, who seemed to be lowering himself onto the ground in a crouched manner, shoving his palm into the cold stone floor. His large gash of a sinister smile stretched wider in an almost inhumane manner. Both the blackness of his eyes and his mouth, along with the paleness of his skin gave his face a very skull-like look.

"Go on," The Descent leader listened in. 

"Both of the catalysts have submitted to the emptiness. However, while the one known as Draven ran the emptiness through his body seamlessly, the other one is acting rather oddly. He is very unstable. I don't think- hm? What is this?" Gazo began until he was disgruntled by what he saw. 

Stiff's hand against the ground was pouring large amounts of darkness from the aura around his body into the ground, forming a large pool of black around himself. The entire time his face remained in that twisted, hollow smile of his. There was visibly no trace of the boy known as Stiff in that expression. Whatever it was had a mind of its own.

After a few seconds, five pointed tendrils arose from the floor slowly, almost pulling out as if it were climbing. The more it pulled itself out of the ground, the more one would see that this was in fact a large, clawed hand similar to the one the darkness-infused Warlord Jagodek had used before. Only this one was much larger. 

"A... A hand?" Gazo muttered to himself, unintentionally into the pendant. 

The Descent leader couldn't help but raise a brow as he listened in from the pendant. "Gazo, report." 

Stiff closed one eye tightly, so tight in fact, that more of that black, tar-like fluid streamed down the corner of his shut eye. There was the sound of pulling, and then after that, a large eye similar to Stiff's blinked open from the palm of the giant hand of darkness. The boy snarled as the giant eye narrowed, fixing its gaze at Gazo before the hand went flying incredibly fast at him. 

"What the-!?" Gazo was about to pull back, but hardly even had a chance to move before the hand had risen up like a big wave and crashed down on him. Everything had gone black. He could still see himself clearly, but everything around him was nothing but darkness. It was as if that large hand had risen out of hell itself and dragged him down to some alternate, dark reality. 

The feed coming from the dark pendant had cut off. The Descent leader was no longer getting any readings. "Hmm," he thought to himself. "That is odd. How intriguing..."

It wasn't long before that large eye appeared once more before Gazo. It loomed over him, watching him amid the darkness. Then, another eye appeared. A pair of eyes staring him down, widening as their malice grew. The next thing to appear was that large, gash-like smiling mouth, followed by heavy breathing. 

Gazo swallowed hard, unable to anticipate any sort of attack or threat that might be coming for him. He could just stand there with his great katana held forward. 

There was the sound of laughter. It sounded happy at first- jolly, almost. It was the sound of a young man laughing. It sounded sort of like Stiff. But soon after, it was accompanied by the crying of a child. It sounded like the voice of a little boy. Then there was the pained groan of a woman's voice, like one who had been suffering for a time. The crying of an infant... followed by the angry scream of a man. 

All of these voices rang loud and clear in every direction as this large face, plastered into this darkness as if it were just another part of it continued to stare at Gazo. They would eventually begin lowering in tone, going lower and lower until they were just a single disgruntled and slightly demonic murmur. The murmur then grew high in pitch, turning into a noise that sounded a lot like nocturnal wild life; much like the sound of crickets, frogs, and birds of the night. 

The sounds were very loud, and made Gazo's ears ring. He began to see a shape forming in front of the large malevolent face. At first, it was just a big lump of darkness, but it soon turned into the silhouette of a woman. A mithran woman. As the dark womanly shape became as clear as Gazo and those floating eyes and mouth were in this darkness, he became surprised by what he saw. 

It was that Kahlee woman, one of the Descent members whom had fought Stiff when the emptiness made him go berserk.

"Is that you, Kahlee?" Gazo called out to her, but stopped as he saw that she looked nothing like her usual stuck up self. Her head hung to the side, limp on her shoulders with the most deadest of expressions on her face. Gazo couldn't even tell if she was breathing or not. Her eyes weren't looking directly at him either, they just stuck upward in an aimless fashion. It was like she was just a walking corpse being manipulated by something. 

"This is impossible..." Gazo felt the sweat trickling off the side of his forehead. "This can't be her. She had came back to base after her fight with the runt. The boss had put her out of her misery himself, so how the f**k is she here? No... this can't be her. None of this can be real. I'm stuck in some illusion." 

The woman's mouth parted as she began to speak in a voice that definitely didn't belong to her. It was a demonic murmur, much like the one that all of those voices had turned into shortly before becoming this loud chirpy sound. He could hardly understand it, but it sounded something like:

"Ereht si reh'tona nos'aer ot l'lif ru'oy treah ht'iw der'tah.

Ti'tsum eb si'ht yaw.

Si'ht si eht'dne..."

With her head remaining limp in that way, she suddenly charged at him without warning. Her arms dangled just as loosely as her head, but they clutched her usual dual axes. She ravaged him with unpredictably abnormal swings. The fact that her body moved so limply, like some zombie or a puppet being manipulated by strings made it hard to tell how she was going to attack. 

"S**t," Gazo grunted as he tried to deflect a blow with his sword but was grazed by the axe on his wrist. "There is no muscle contraction or realistic movement coming from her. It's hard to tell what angle she will strike next..."

The large face in the darkness snarled as it brought its slithery tongue out, almost as if to mock the Descent swordsman. 

Gazo clutched the handle of his sword tighter with one hand, keeping his shattered wrist to his abdomen as he grew frustrated. Moving in after seeing a sudden opening, he sprinted forward and cut across the manipulated Kahlee's mid-section as if he were cutting through cloth. "Enough of this!" 

For a second, Kahlee's body had been cut in two by the swift slice, but immediately after the darkness melted away from her severed halves and conjoined itself together, making her whole again. She turned to him afterwards with that same dead look on her face. 

"Wh-What the hell!?" Gazo felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. But without another moment's waste, he decided to go at her again with a chain of Weapon Skills, much like he had done to Stiff before he released the emptiness. Slice upon slice, cut after cut, stab to stab and the occasional elemental slash. He had practically turned the woman into shreds. But there was no blood or severed sections of mithran limbs or flesh. All there was, was darkness. Darkness that made Kahlee's body whole again regardless of where or how many times Gazo had cut. 

Kahlee's head suddenly turned up right, no longer off to the side in a limp manner like before. Her eyes, much like Stiff's and the giant, grinning face's, were all black now save for the colors of her irises. She took on that signature twisted smile of darkness and widened her eyes at him, saying in an even louder- almost booming voice than before:

"SI'HT SI EHT'DNE!"

Upon saying those words, two more dark shapes seemingly divided from Kahlee's body, stopping at her sides. The one on the left began to form the shape of a slender woman with long hair wielding a sword and a shield. The one on the right was forming a much smaller shape, but surely a person wielding a club of sorts. As the darkness began to clear, the new womanly shape's weapons appeared to come together in her hands and form a long stave. 

Gazo's eyes went wide as he nearly stumbled back in surprise. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. "It... It can't be! How is this possible!? You're... you're-," he took a few buckling steps back. "... Eri!?" He couldn't understand why he was so terrified. A man like him, a ruthless and highly-skilled swordsman who lead countless slaughters of men, women, and children in his time, terrified of these three people that now stood before him. Especially Eri.

Indeed, the one whom stood before the horrified Gazo was Sister Eri. Only she didn't look like the sweet, caring and sisterly woman that everyone was so familiar with back then. Like Kahlee, like the large face that hovered in the darkness above, she held those evil darkened eyes. Only she didn't have that wicked grin of theirs, she simply stared at him with nothing but pure retribution; like the goddess herself who was to reign divine punishment upon those that have sinned against her children.

The person on the right was revealed to be a young tarutaru male whom Gazo did not recognize. But he felt the malice piercing through his chest, scorching through his eyes like hell fire within that widened glare it was giving him.

"You monster... just what the hell have we made you?" Gazo couldn't help but chuckle at his own situation. F**k it. There was no better ascendance than descending into the deepest pits of hell. Sure as hell couldn't be worse than this place.

Ru'Lude Gardens

It appeared as though every demon that had remained in the other sections of Jeuno had now made their move towards the palace. It was inevitable. That's where most of all of Jeuno now took shelter. 

And what of the defenses? Nothing but a sorry excuse of a barricade with ducal guards; proud knights and bodyguards to the Archduke, cowering in fear behind the closed doors. 

But in all honesty, who could blame them? These weren't some kind of petty beastman armies like orcs that they were up against. They were demons. Demons being led by an enigmatic and highly skilled group of assassins, killers, and murderers. In just over an hour they had ravaged the safe haven that was once Jeuno. The Grand Duchy of Jeuno, a place seen as respite from the dead hills of Batallia that spanned above the graves of Eldieme Necropolis, what with its large walls and mighty Brigade and Ducal Guards.

All hope was gone in the eyes of the ducal guards. Many refused to pick up their swords. They refused to end up like their friends and comrades who fought to no gain. 

"This is horrible..." Flint looked across the turned over gardens of Ru'Lude and the demons swarming about like ants. He lost count of how many rounds he had fired off, and continued to do so. "I really hope the others are okay."

"Me too," Mel pursed her lips as she threw off what spells she could beside Flint. Both of them stood on the main balcony of the palace, attacking from afar. "Moku is going after Stiff, but... I haven't hearrrd of Drrraven or Vero at all."

"I never expected... to see bloodshed such as this," Captain Wolfgang's gaze swept the battle. Much of his armor was chipped and broken, with drying stains of blood painted along his face coming from a wound on his forehead. "In all my years as Captain of the Ducal Guard, I have never seen slaughter such as this. Not since my childhood. Not since then. We just weren't prepared for this."

Okina, Annie, Bear, Nanaa, and some of the other Brigadiers were at the front line as part of the first barricade with a few more ducal guards who fought, desperately trying to keep the demons away from the door. They were barely keeping from harm, what with their main back up consisting of Mel, Flint, and a few rangers whom were making sure no demons attacking from a ranged distance could let off any spells or arrows. This didn't always prove to be effective, however.

The demons in particular were an astonishing foe. It became apparent that unless you severed their heads, exploded, or crushed them, they would not die. Limbs and body parts that were lost would simply be restored by some form of darkness. Obviously the demons knew this themselves, so they didn't exactly stand there and take it to the head. This made them all the more difficult to defeat.

The ducal guards were growing more and more frightened and restless. "We can't keep going on like this!" They would say. "They never stop coming!"

"Damn it all," Wolfgang clenched his fists and slammed them hard against the main balcony's railing. "We cannot hope to defeat such a force! Look at us, we're pathetic!" 

"What are you prattling on about?" A woman's voice called out from the doorway leading to the main balcony. "For a captain to talk in such a manner before his men... it's a disgrace. Stand tall, Captain Wolfgang of the Ducal Guard- lest your soldiers give up hope with you altogether." 

Flint turned at the familiar voice and nearly jumped back in surprise. "Claire!" 

"So you made it. Thank the goddess... we thought you had given up, Clairrre," Mel sighed in relief. Claire was, after all, next in line to lead the Brigade, being the commander that she was. 

"Then what would you have me do!?" Wolfgang threw his arms up in frustration as he turned to her. "What the hell can we do!?"

Claire stood there with no visible worry or concern, contrary to the disarray surrounding her. Like a true leader, she remained calm and maintained a firm stature. That demeanor made her look more... mature, in a way. Her eyes alone were enough to intimidate one. It was all very invigorating. 

"Call your men back into the palace, Captain Wolfgang," was all she told him, more so as a command than a suggestion. 

"What!? Why would I do that?" Wolfgang tilted his head and looked at her as if she were crazy. "The barricade would be taken down without effort! Those damn demons would be waltzing straight into the palace!"

Claire gave a light smirk, unchanged by his words. "Exactly. Follow me, if you would be so kind," she said, turning to the others. "Flint, Mel, everyone, with me."

Making their way into the palace lobby with all the other guards and civilians, they called back those fighting at the barricade outside and had them await further orders. Just like Wolfgang had said, the demons laid waist to the palace double doors. It wasn't long before their integrity would break apart and allow the creatures to "waltz" in. 

They charged in, weapons and claws ready, only to stop in their tracks at the last unexpected line of defense. Everything went silent.

"So you've made it," Claire spoke to the demons with a light smirk. "Welcome."

The last line of defense? Gun barrels, crossbows, arrows, elemental staves, grenades, smart bombs; a wall of ducal guards, brigadiers, civilian men and women, all armed to the teeth with all of this in a well-organized formation within the palace lobby- all courtesy of the Ducal Palace Garrison. It was what one may call, a Jeunoan Barrage. 

An otherwise reckless tactic but in this situation, was simply too perfect to pass up. Claire sat on the lobby staircase in the center of it all, holding up her hand.

With the snap of her fingers, the whole of Jeuno retaliated against this menace together in one unstoppable wave of hell, without so much as having to take one step. It was the perfect defense against them, you see. With such a narrow pathway to have to go through in order to get into the palace itself, the pushing and shoving over which handful of demons get to go in first, and the doorway itself made for a clear tunnel full of targets for everyone to unload on. 

The demons were much too crowded to go anywhere, and they wouldn't be able to fire off anything without screwing themselves over. And of course, it was pretty safe to say that every demon was accounted for. What kind of malevolent beings would they have been if they hadn't charged for the door with the hopes of slaughtering everyone inside? 

"You lose," was all Claire finished with as the barrage came to a close when all that remained of their demon foes were black lumps and chunks along the outer narrow pathway. 

Once again, there was an utter silence in the lobby. Everyone appeared to be at a loss for words at that sudden end. But among the crowd, a slow chuckle then turned into a laugh full of glee. It was Flint. 

"That... was... AWESOME!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, which eventually spurred the cheers of everybody else in the room. He had a love for such firepower what with all his guns, so it was no surprise that he was so pumped about that last barrage of bullet hell. 

Just moments ago, people had been crying and cowering. Now, they cheered. They were finally beginning to grasp the concept of what it was to not "give in". 

******

"Master," Kyrie spoke into her dark pendant. She stood in the Archduke's room, having turned Ru'Lude Gardens and the palace itself inside out trying to find clues as to where Vincent's coffin had been moved to. "There seems to be no information whatsoever here regarding the location of Vincent's body. As I feared, the tarutaru mage known as Moku has most likely warped it to a secluded location." 

"That is unfortunate, but it makes sense," The Descent leader replied to her. "Then I guess, the only way to know for sure, would be to ask the little mage himself. Anyway, how are things going there, Kyrie?"

"Well, much of Jeuno and its residents have been laid to waste, master. But it sounds like they have taken out all of your demons. I believe they are going to start sweeping the area soon of those remaining," she replied calmly.

"Very well," he responded. "I need you to head back to base. There are some rather interesting things going on." 

"Yes, master," she bowed her head lowering herself on one knee and clutching her pendant, momentarily disappearing into a vortex of shadow.

Port Jeuno

".. Let me.. look at you," Daan grinned wide as he rubbed his hands together and admired the emptiness-induced catalyst standing before him. Standing there, willingly accepting the darkness and making use of its power like a natural, the boy certainly made a fine specimen. 

Draven stood there without saying a word, keeping those death-defying black eyes on Daan. 

".. Well then.. now that we've got you up and running.. Let's take you to see the master," Daan said, tilting his head to the side, motioning for the catalyst to follow him like some puppet. 

Draven began to follow behind him, each step he took leaving a misty, black footprint on the stone floor that would momentarily disperse. However, he began walking towards Daan and not just following him. In fact, he had a whole other intent in mind. 

"..Hm..?" Daan could feel a shift in the air. He didn't stop walking, but eventually threw his leg into the air and spun his body around hard, trying to sweep the catalyst's head as he crept up behind him. If he wouldn't oblige, he would have to take him in unconscious. 

Unfortunately for him, the leg sweep didn't connect. Draven had ducked so fast, Daan hardly caught note of his movements. Just as fast, Draven returned the leg sweep to Daan's knee, the impact being so hard that it broke the man's leg and bent his knee in the opposite direction. Another kick to the gut by Draven sent the man flying into the wall, chipping off much of the brick. 

"..S.. Such power..!" Daan laughed in agony as he attempted to push himself back up on his reversely bent leg. It would just break and bend back more and more with each ounce of weight he would apply to it. ".. Even under the control of my darkness.. You are reluctant to heed my orders," he breathed heavily. 

Draven looked at his own hands and couldn't help but grin. This power felt so right. So perfect for him. It felt like a large weight had been lifted from his shoulders, and now he was truly beginning to grasp his life. Ignoring himself for now, he continued to approach Daan. 

Daan gave a clenched smile and threw himself forward despite the pain of his messed up leg. He came at Draven with two of his most obliterating punches. 

But to his utter amazement and admiration, Draven not only caught the first fist in his palm, but the second one as well in the exact same manner. 

"..Oh?" Daan rose a brow. 

Draven crossed the man's arms together for a split second, then pried them apart in a circular motion, causing Daan to spin out of control in mid air. Right after, with a single thrust of his arm, Draven impaled him right through the chest and ground with nothing but his hand. 

Daan laid there, struck through the chest like that and gurgling as his wicked smile only grew even bigger, although his eyes were wide and defined what appeared to be unbearable pain. ".. Agh! This... This hurts so good," he choked out. ".. This catalyst.. this is the one!" He gurgled, slowly reaching for his pendant as he looked up at Draven's firm face and spoke into it, ".. Urgh.. Draven.. the little boy.. Draven.. he is the ideal catalyst! .. He shall be the one that sets the new world in motion!" He finished, choking out large amounts of blood after those last words and practically drowning in it. ".. The punishment of he; my reaper.. Is just.." were the last words playing through his mind as his eye faded from silver to gray.

Draven pulled his hand out of the dead man's chest and clenched it into a fist once more. Grinning to himself like before, he turned away from the corpse and looked to the sky. "I did it..." He whispered to himself. "I killed him." 

He didn't know what exactly came over him at that moment, but he began chuckling to himself. It went from a small chuckle, to a laugh. Then, as he threw his hands up in the air, he began to laugh the hardest he had ever laughed since the death of his past. His laughing was like that of a child full of joy, despite what he had just done.

Upper Jeuno

"Bah, where could he have gone?" Moku thought out loud as he ran across the streets of Upper Jeuno, looking frantic as he searched for Stiff. Both him and Gazo had ran off so fast using the roof tops, so it had taken him a while to get here himself. "Huh? What's that?"

He spotted a building with a rather large hole in it. Upon closer inspection, he could see people in there, cowering. Among them, he saw the familiar faces of Stiff's three friends that he occasionally hung out with. "You three!" He called to them. "Jakky, Horis, Salnar, if I'm not mistaken?" 

"Mrow!" Jakky suddenly jumped behind Horis, thinking someone had come to hurt them again. But she felt relieved after poking her head out and seeing Moku's familiar face. "O-Oh... it's you." 

"Moku," Horis nodded at the taru. "Good to see you are safe." 

Salnar was being patched up by them after sustaining what appeared to be injuries from a certain wall. He just mumbled in response with the nod of his head. He wasn't used to being thrown straight through buildings. 

"Have any of you seen Stiff go through here!?" Moku asked them breathlessly. 

"H-He's out there," Jakky pointed back out the way Moku had come. "But he's different... he's.. evil," she pouted sadly. "He tried to hurt Salnar..."

"'Tried to'?" Salnar scrunched his face up grumpily. 

"No..." Moku bit his lower lip, looking to the floor in disarray before quickly turning back and heading back out towards the streets. Sure enough, after a bit of running, he found Stiff. 

The young thief was knelt down on the floor, swallowed up by an aura of darkness as he seemingly kept his hand in through the stone floor, as if he was some ghost. Seeing that wicked and malevolent expression in those black eyes made Moku's heart sink. 

"Stiff!" He called out to him, quickly running over to the boy. But he was stopped short in his tracks as his feet began to sink through the floor via the emptiness surrounding Stiff. "What!?"

Upon hearing the sound of Moku's voice, Stiff snarled and turned around, keeping his hand through the floor. Seeing Moku stuck there a few feet away in the darkness, his crazed grin grew even wider. Holding out his free hand towards the tarutaru, he shot out a long tendril of darkness that formed a hand similar to the one before at the end and clamped it around Moku's throat, threatening to crush it.

"Guh!" Moku's little body sprung up as he felt the force of the grasp. "S-Stop it, Stiff!" He choked out. "It's me! It's... Moku!" 

But he would only snarl or grin in response, tightening the grasp around the small neck. 

"Gah!" Moku choked out another gasp. "Fight... it... Stiff! Listen to... me!" He continued his struggle. "You don't need it...! The emptiness just... wants to use you! It's trying... to take your body from you! Don't you understand!?" 

Stiff's grin faded a bit. 

"It's not for the darkness to decide... what you do. You need to confide in your own ability! Not this cursed emptiness!" Moku squirmed, but could feel Stiff's grasp weakening if only a little bit. 

"Stiff! Would you entrust Okina... to this darkness! Your friends!?" Moku continued. 

Stiff began to growl in response, his grasp loosening, then tightening, then loosening once more. 

"Don't be a damned coward!" Moku shouted. "If you rely on the darkness, you'll end up becoming just like them! You'll be doing exactly what they want you to..."

Stiff gritted his teeth hard, eyes widening and rapidly moving in all directions. 

"You're not a monster! You're one of us!"

Stiff finally had the hand of darkness release Moku, dropping him on the ground and dispersing it. He pulled out his other hand from the pool of darkness around him and grasped his head with both of them, roaring to himself as the young thief inside of him appeared to be fighting back desperately for control over his own body. 

With the release of his grasp on the darkness for now, a familiar foe began to climb quickly out of the pool. It was Gazo, and he looked damn well like he had seen a ghost. Seeing Stiff squirm about and roaring like that, he decided to take the chance and make a run for it. Within a few seconds he was already hopping from roof to roof until he was out of sight and most likely out of the city. His pendant had been destroyed, so he couldn't do that annoying warp thing the Descent just loved to do. 

I could see all of those images as I fought the darkness for my body back. What Moku was saying was true. 

I had been relying on this darkness since the day I started training. 

When Sister Eri died...

My fight against Warchief Vatgit. 

Back at Valkurm when the goblins had overwhelmed us. 

My first encounter with Gazo and Daan. 

The time those Descent got the jump on me during the fight with Warlord Jagodek and I got sent to that weird place with the creepy monsters. 

My fight against Kahlee...

Every single time the darkness came to me and offered me its power, I accepted it. 

But that's all going to change now... I'm done being a monster. This time, I'll fight as a man!

By this time, Stiff had pretty much regained full control over his body once again. He remained there, crouched over with his hands pushing him up off the ground and breathing heavily. 

"He... he actually resisted the darkness!?" Moku blinked hard, rubbing his eyes and trying to decide whether or not what he was seeing was real. "Stiff? Stiff!" He hurried on over to him. 

Stiff reached for his dagger and held it firmly in his hand, pushing himself off the floor and sitting up on his knees. "It's not over," he grunted, looking off into the direction that his foe had ran off in. "It's not over, Gazo!" 

And with that, he activated his 'Flee' ability and sped off in suit of the galkan swordsman. 

"Stop right there, Stiff!" Moku called after him. 

"Sorry, no can do, Moku!" He turned and saluted his friend. "I'm going to take him out on my own this time. I'm done with this darkness!" 

And with that, he was gone.

___________________________________________________________________________________ 

Continued in Chapter 39: Stiff vs Gazo

Reviews

[okina]

wow this chapter gave me goosebumps in a good way >:D
It was really fun decoding Kahlee's message too.
nice job on this chapter! I can't wait to read the next