InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Time Soul Exodus ❯ Chapter 9: =Priests and Demons - Part 1= ( Chapter 9 )

Written by: Zelix

A/N: Now we get to see something interesting… at least I hope you find it interesting.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that's related to Inuyasha, I do own Arc though and if someone intends to copy him without my permission I'll F*** you up!

"Talking"

`Thinking'

[Check the bottom for details]

*Flashback/Switch in Time or place*

=Used when mentioning a technique, attack or something important=

If this was a TV series:

Opening: Chihiro Yonekura - Butterfly kiss

Ending: Hikaru no go - Bokura no boken

Time Soul Exodus

Chapter 9: =Priests and Demons=

*Unknown location*

The man known as Heitaro (From previous chapter) was walking through a very weird looking corridor… the corridor seemed completely out of place because this was the warring states period and the corridor looked like those of the 21st century high tech laboratories!

Heitaro had entered through a large, double steel door into a chamber that's size rivalled a small town in size… there were runes and magical symbols everywhere on the ground in almost every possible colour imaginable, the roof was so far up and the room itself was so dark that you could not see it, not even with Youkai's enhanced vision… there were no furniture or objects anywhere, only those symbols… and they were pulsing, like the entire room was alive, the pulses penetrated Heitaro's practically flawless looking body and he could feel them echoing throughout his entire being, all the way to his core… he could never get used to this room, never, not only did the pulsing feel unnerving but the aura that pulsed in the centre of this enormous chamber was making his sweat slightly, he had never felt such malicious, cold and cruel aura like this one or smelled a scent so evil and corrupt like this one, ever.

Yet, this was the chamber where the one he served resided, the chamber in the heart of this impenetrable, mysterious and creepy fortress. As he arrived at the centre of the chamber, which had been about a ten minute walk, he saw the thing he could never get used to be seen: The weird, enormous crystal like tube surrounded by machinery he could never understand that housed the one who he served… he had never seen his master in the flesh, the weird crystal tube about the size of a tree and the wideness of a large hut was covered in weird, blue and dark green colour liquid and shielded his appearance from him… yet he could feel his enormous power radiating from it, it made him tremble slightly each time he felt it… he was a proud warrior, a Youkai with almost no equal and his pride hurt for being forced to kneel before this formless being who could destroy him within a heartbeat if it so pleased.

As he kneeled down in front of it, he could feel it's voice in his head, it penetrated his mind like it was butter and it's voice was the hot knife that went through it: {[ =Heitaro… you have returned, report.= ]} He shuddered inwardly, that voice was like that of someone beyond the twilight of hell, the place where eternity ends and nothingness begins… it made his soul run cold, the words were it spoke where not words or thoughts but more like an echo from beyond death itself that could make your soul bleed with cold blood, yet he composed himself to answer: "Yes, my lord… it seems like I have had too much fate in Kedaru, he still has not completed his task. I am beginning to wonder if recruiting a brainless brute like him was indeed a waste of time…"

Then it spoke again: {[ =Heitaro, that idiot may be a brute but he is still above that of an average soldier, even if he fails to complete this task it makes no difference, it just means more fun for the others who are more capable of performing his task. I trust that you have given him the warning?= ]} Heitaro nodded and swallowed before answering: "Yes, he has 4 days left until I will be forced to `punish' him for his incompetence… yet something troubles me, from what I learned so far, a new player has appeared on the field, we have no information concerning him except he took out almost a dozen insect warriors and made it to the village intact."

It spoke after a moment of thinking: {[ =A new player you say? Interesting… a new player has appeared without my knowledge… hmm, Heitaro, return to the forest of Inuyasha and observe this new player. My plan is almost at it's final stage and the fact that a new player has appeared without my knowledge troubles me, find out if this stranger could become a threat and if so, dispose of him, understood?= ]} Heitaro nodded and slowly rose, then said: "I will do what you have ordered my lord, I too am intrigued by this stranger… yet I doubt he will of any match to either me or Kedaru." With that, he walked away, releasing a breath he didn't know he had been holding while thinking: `Damn formless freak… one of these days I'll make sure to send you to hell for making me your lackey.'

The being was now alone, thinking to itself: {[ =Hmm, this new player appeared out of the forest of Inuyasha? How did he manage to sneak in there without my knowledge? Hmm, no matter, whoever he is I need not be concerned about it.= ]}

*Back at the village*

Both Sumira and Arc had arrived at the hut where both Chizu and her mother, Renko (Odd name, I couldn't come with anything else so bite me) whose name Sumira had told him during their run to the hut, which was slightly outside the village.

Many people had began to follow them purely out of curiosity about what was happening, since this new stranger intrigued them.

The hut where Chizu lived looked like… well, shit, to be accurate… or to be more precise it looked something the devil had shit out of his ass and forgotten to flush it down the toilet and left it there for about 3 months, giving it plenty of time to mutate into something… disgusting.

Well, from what little scraps of information he had he knew that for some reason Renko was thought to be cursed and her daughter had two different eye colours so they naturally wanted her to stay away and so they both lived in this shitty hut.

When they entered, Arcs nose was immediately hit with some of the most disgusting scents he could imagine… the scent of sickness and partial death was something he could never get used to, which was why he never wanted to into a hospital back at home, he feared that if he did then he would pass out from the overwhelming scents of death and sickness, not to mention medicines.

The sight that greeted him was least to say, heartbreaking for him, there on a small, torn and tattered futon laid a woman, barely 30 years old , her hair was rich, chest nut brown but her skin was pale like an old woman's who was close to death and her scent was slowly become filled with death… this must be Renko, Chizu's mother and then next to her, was Chizu herself, crying over her trying to wake her up but she would not respond, only shiver or gasp for air, this wasn't good, not good at all.

Chizu then heard the two of them enter and as she saw Arc standing there, she didn't waste a second before with speed that made even Arc's eyes widen in surprise she launched herself onto him and kept saying in broken sentences in between sobs and hiccups: "Arc-sama…! (He frowned, she truly was in-curable) My mother… she… she's… help her! Please!" He was looking at Sumira with pleading eyes silently asking that `Could you please tell me already what's going on?'

As Sumira watched Arc trying to calm Chizu down, she couldn't help but think how… natural it looked for him, trying to calm down a distressed child, it was unnerving. Yet, she composed herself and answered while walking next to Renko and trying her forehead: "I would explain but there is no time left, her body is already growing cold… if we can't do something soon, she will-" Sumira was cut off by Chizu saying loudly: "NO!! Mother will not die! Arc can help her, right? You can help her can't you, Arc-sama?"

The look in her eyes, even though both her eyes were of different colour they still looked so… they looked at him like he was some great hero of legends or something… he then looked between Renko and Chizu, the pain that emitted from Renko was overwhelming, from the feel of it he could tell she had been in pain for a quite a while now, perhaps months… then the look of Chizu's eyes, pleading him to help her was the last straw, for some reason he suddenly felt that loneliness again, the loneliness he felt when he found out about his Youkai heritage and the knowledge of not being able to belong anywhere, that you would forever be alone.

Imagining that feeling taking over someone was something the didn't want anyone to feel, ever, so with that his resolve hardened, he may be an amateur when it comes to using his holy powers or healing someone but he did know a lot of things about first aid and diseases, because her mother was a Miko after all and she had herself studied those things because she did go to the past a lot and there weren't any modern medical things there, so she had during those four months of survival training and even before that training taught him a lot about diseases and ways to treat them.

So with that, he said to Chizu with a serious expression: "Yes, I can but you need to do something for me first: go to the lake and bring a bucket of cold water, we may need it soon… do that for me, okay?" He knew that it might not be true but what was he supposed to say to her? She was only a child whose mother was dying…

Chizu just nodded before wiping away her tears, as she took with her a small wooden bucket Arc said to her just before she left: "Listen, it is alright to cry for someone dear to you but right now, right now you need to be strong, your mother needs you to be brave now, understood?" She then nodded again and smiled at him before leaving the hut. Arc then moved next to Sumira and put her arm on Renko's forehead, he then let his holy powers lightly come out, not enough for anyone to notice and used it to see what was wrong with her body.

It all took less than five seconds but to him it felt like minutes, he could literally see what parts of her body were still healthy and what were sick or dying, most of her body was still only at the sick level but he could feel that there were critical areas that were already lethally sick, yet, what he felt did not make sense, where was this sickness coming from? It seemed to have a source but he couldn't find it! It took him a moment to realise then, this was no sickness, this was a curse… someone had inflicted it one her, which would explain why the source was not known to him. Yet, who would do something like this? This curse was not of Youkai origin, if it was then it would feel much more malicious and evil, this one felt cold and precise, like an assassination trick.

It was getting more and more confusing, all curses according to his mother had to have a cataclysm somewhere, a object or incantation that keeps it up, yet he couldn't feel that cataclysm or source anywhere inside of her! This was pointless, he didn't know enough yet so he stopped his holy powers, after returning to his senses he looked at Sumira and asked: "Tell me, when did she begin to feel like this?" Sumira was a little taken back by the seriousness of his tone but answered: "It began about 2 months after the insects went aggressive, Renko had been out in the woods…" Arc looked at her and asked: "She went into the woods? Why, weren't they dangerous?"

Sumira shook her head and said: "She went into the woods to get these berries you brought, since many people were suffering from the insect poisoning after their previous attack here so she took it upon herself to help them, since she lost her husband at a battle that took place when Chizu was 4 years old, so we could say she didn't want anyone else to lose someone dear to them…" Arc nodded and thought: `Just like my own mother, she would help someone despite what happened to her…' Sumira then continued: "Chizu at that time was told to stay home but… even with that she followed her mother into the woods because she was worried about her, we tried to stop her but she managed to get out of the village anyway…"

"We immediately organised a search party to go after her but by the time we found the both of them, Renko was being attacked by a group of three `scout' insects and was wounded, not badly but enough so she was poisoned, she was holding Chizu to her chest while laying there on her knees, protecting her from them. We managed to drive the insects away and get out of the forest before more of them could come, though when we returned to the village we were terrified about what we saw: Chizu had somehow gotten two different eye colours…"

"We couldn't understand how it had happened and the worst parts were that Chizu herself does not remember and Renko did not see what had happened, we got her to us that after we used some of the berries to get rid of the poison, she told us that she had been collecting these berries before hearing Chizu scream at something, when she had gotten there, her daughter had been laying unconscious on the ground and by the time she managed to pick her up, those insects had attacked… though strangely they were after Chizu…"

Arc remembered the time he arrived here, he had also found Chizu on the ground and insects were attacking her… hmm, maybe the insects weren't attacking this village at random at all, since what point would it serve? Even insects aren't stupid enough to start attacking people at random these days, well maybe some that were loners but these were swarms! Which meant they had a nest somewhere and that nest was run by a queen, who would clearly be the only one capable of higher level of thinking which would mean that she would know NOT to attack humans, especially now when Youkai were this close to extinction… so why? Why break a peace that lasted for about one and half a year all of a sudden?

Arc after nodding and digesting the information asked: "Alright, so you cleared the poison out of her, which means this is not an insect poisoning… hmm, what I can tell this is a curse without a doubt, but this curse is not of Youkai origin, it is too cold and precise to be one." Sumira's eyes widened, how the hell did he…? She too had reached that conclusion after her own examinations of it but couldn't tell who or what had placed it… but it had taken her days to figure that out and he had done it in less than a few seconds! What the hell was he?

He saw her widened eyes and berated himself, this wasn't good… he might make her suspicious at this rate… then his mind clicked again and said: "I too have holy powers, my mother was a very powerful Miko while my father was a strong warrior, you could say my mother hammered her knowledge about powers and curses into my head at a very early age, so…" That wasn't a lie either.

Sumira accepted the answer but still was rather suspicious about this guy… she then nodded and said: "Yes, that's why I tried to use the berries since they had the ability to cancel most curses but… they didn't seem to work on this one, it's too advanced and strong, even for me."

Arc nodded and frowned, he might be able to do something about it but… he didn't know if that would be good or bad in the end, since his control about his holy powers was sub conscionable at best, not to mention just healing Chizu's wounds in the forest drained him so what would happen if he tackled on with an advanced curse like this one? He might kill Renko if he wasn't careful!

He then asked: "So… these =Moon Priests= were right about her being cursed, yet, why would they say she brought this on herself? From what you said, she was a kind individual so why…?" Sumira looked down and said after a small silence: "…Well, after Renko recovered from the poisoning, we were worried about Chizu because of her eyes… yet, Renko did not care about that, she was her daughter and nothing would change that and because of all she had done for us already, the villagers accepted them, though they were vary of both of them."

"But after that, the insect attacks started to become more frequent and intense, we lost villagers at each attack but strangely, during the previous attacks they were after our children and new born ones, yet this time… they seemed to be focused on Chizu alone, as if they were after her and only her. This went on for a month until the situation became so desperate we had to call for help, help from the Moon Priests."

"It took the priests half a month to arrive here, yet only three came… which was unusual because they usually send only one or two… they placed the barrier around the village to keep the insects out, then they began to search the village and interrogate the villagers, they were trying to find out if the reason for the insects sudden attacks were among us… and much to my own shame, the villagers all told about the fact the insects were after Chizu, the moon priests then saw her two different eye colours and started to demand her mother to hand her daughter over to them for `purification' since they were now certain she was the reason the insects were attacking."

Arc then grimaced, then his mind clicked again, he could see a pattern forming here… yet he needed to be sure first, so he finished for her: "Naturally, she refused, which angered both the priests and the villagers, they drove her to live here and the suddenly she was inflicted with this curse, the priests came for Chizu again but… someone interfered with that, correct?" He looked at Sumira suggestively and she nodded while looking down, then answered: "Yes, it was me… I interfered and told them that as the village Miko they were my responsibility and that I would help her heal from this curse and until I would fail they could not touch the child."

He smiled and said: "Even after everyone else turned their backs on her, despite all she had done for them, you did not abandon them… I can't blame the villagers though…" Sumira sighed and answered: "Yes, it is not in me to abandon people, I am a Miko, the previous Miko of this village, Kaede raised and taught me all I know now during the time the Youkai war ravaged this land… yet, when a wounded individual, Youkai or human alike came here, she would help them. I do not intend to dishonour her memory, so I will keep her memory alive even if it means to be damned by everyone else."

Her voice was firm, resolute and determined… it made him smile, it seems like there was still someone here in this dying village who held the spirit from the old days, the days when his father and mother were here.

This also made Arc feel more at ease, if someone like her would without hesitation stand up to someone who could make the entire village become a pack of covering cowards, obedient little sheep… though he couldn't blame them, they had been through hell and just needed someone to blame… yet, her words and spirit made him feel inferior at that moment, she was weaker than he himself was but she would gladly stand up to the giants while others would not, this made himself a bit more confident about himself too.

Yet, this also made his own suspicions become more and more firm (What those are, you'll soon see) about what was going on here… for now though, he needed to get started, even if me might not be able to break this curse he would at least try to make the pains easier and perhaps buy them a bit more time to find a way to break it for good.

At that moment, Chizu returned to the hut with a small bucket full of cold water from the lake, her first question after putting it down next to Arc was: "Arc-sama? Mother…?" Arc first put his arm on her shoulder and said with a reassuring smile: "Chizu, your mother is very sick right now, I might not be able to cure her but I can make her pains go away for now… I will save her though, I promise you that, I just need a bit more time to find a cure for this disease, I need your help too at that, while I will find a cure for this you must be here for you mother, you must give her the strength to recover and keep fighting until then, can you do that?"

Chizu only nodded firmly and Arc turned to Sumira and asked: "Sumira, I will need your help now… while my powers may be great I cannot control them properly, so I will need you to guide me." Sumira was a bit puzzled… what did he mean? He saw this but before answering to her he said to Chizu: "Listen, what I'm about to do may hurt your mother a bit, it may give her a fever as well so I will need you to keep her calm Chizu and make sure you dampen a cloth with that water to keep her fever from getting too high, understood?" She was a bit hesitant at first but she trusted Arc completely and nodded again, she then took a piece of cloth and dampened it with the water while Arc turned to Sumira.

Arc then answered the unspoken question with a low voice so Chizu wouldn't hear, since he didn't want to worry her: "Sumira, I am going to use my powers to destroy this curse, or at least weaken it… but in order to do that, I will need your help to keep my powers from going into her too rapidly or fast, so you will be my eyes, when her pulse begins to move too rapidly you must tell me so I won't accidentally kill her… I know this is risky but we are out of time, unless I slow this curse down now she won't last until nightfall." Sumira looked at Arc like he was crazy, this curse wasn't some amateur level thing, destroying or yet alone weakening it would be extremely difficult… yet, he had a point, if they didn't try it she would not make it until nightfall… so she only said after a deep breath: "Alright, but please be careful…"

He only nodded and then moved next to Renko and looked at Chizu, who nodded and said: "Arc-sama, I know you can do it." He smiled at her and said: "Don't worry, soon you will together again." He added a thought right after: `I hope at least… I seriously do.' Arc then placed both of hands on Renko, one above her heart and the other on her womb, his mother had taught that when healing a curse you must place your hands above the two vital energy points of a human body, since heart is where it begins and the stomach is the point where it is recycled and sent forward.

Curses tended to attack these two points and cause abnormalities within ones life force, hence causing different effects varying from being taken over to terminating it.

So Arc closed his eyes and concentrated on his powers, now, it was all or nothing… if he failed, Renko would die… as he felt his power slowly starting to flow out of his body, his vision also changed, his eyes were closed yet he could see what his powers were doing, or to be more accurate, he had become that power, he was moving inside Renko's [vital energy lines], searching for the places that were infected by the curse, his own aura was the colour of light blue, green and purple, the colours of all the [three forms of Holy powers].

Sumira and Chizu looked in awe at Arc… they could see and feel the aura he was emitting and least to say, even if it was small it looked so, mesmerizing and gentle, it held so much power in it yet it was so warm and beautiful, not a tint of coldness or anything similar was in it, it was like a warm fire that surrounded his entire body, coiling and caressing his entire body with simply liquid like smooth motions… this was no beginners aura, this was something else entirely, which made Sumira think: `Dear kami, if this is what aura is like when he can barely control it… I can't imagine what it would be like if he ever learned to control it… he is doing all this sub-consciously…? It's almost too hard to believe, just who are you, Arcerdo?' But at that exact moment, Renko suddenly opened her eyes and screamed loudly, the pains had began, since getting rid of a curse the hard way like this was always painful, the easier way would be to find the source but since the source was unknown they had to do it this way. As she screamed, Sumira told Arc to slow down, since he was in a trance like state he would not hear her screams but Sumira was also a Miko so she used her own powers to communicate with Arc without words.

Chizu heard her mother scream and saw her head thrashing around, she wanted to tell Arc to stop because she was hurting but this is what he had warned would happen… that it would hurt her so she tried to calm down and instead felt her forehead to find it starting to burn up, so she immediately put the wet cloth onto her forehead and while holding her arm she silently prayed for the gods to help her mother…

Outside the hut though, many people had gathered to see what was going on, they had seen `that' child going to the lake for some reason and shortly after returning to the hut they had heard loud screams coming out of there… they wanted to go in and see what was happening but when they saw that fire like light coming out of the hut and felt the intensely powerful aura emitting from there, they stopped and didn't dare to move in there, instead one of them was told to get the moon priests here.

Inside the hut, the following minutes were probably the most intense ones so far that Arc had ever experienced… he was sweating like crazy as he kept his powers focused on eliminating as many of the cursed spots as he could, he had already cleared two of the three vital points but by the time the third one came up he could feel himself growing worn out, he just had to hold on a few more moments, just a little longer…

Then, much to his big relief, the final vital point was cleared… the worst was over now… yet, the curse was not destroyed, only delayed since it was far too advanced and far too widely spread to be destroyed like this. It had taken all he had to stop it from devouring her vital points and it was only a matter of time before they would be re-infected but at least now, now they had a breather for at least two weeks at minimum.

When his senses returned, he found himself on his back and staring at the roof of the hut with Sumira wiping his forehead with a damp, cold cloth… his head felt like it was made out of jelly and his eye sight was a bit blurry for a moment.

The first thing that came out of his mouth was: "How long was I knocked out…?" Sumira smiled and said: "A few minutes, you just suddenly went limp and fell onto your back, you must have over exerted yourself." Arc just chuckled and said: "Yeah, I'm known to be doing that a lot lately…"

Then he suddenly bolted up to sit, only feel his heat give a painful throb which made a tear come into his eye, before Sumira could say anything he asked: "What about Renko? What happened…?" He was gritting his teeth, willing the pain to go away and it was slowly doing so already.

Sumira first smiled, then as she saw his eyes opening up she motioned to look forward and as he did, the sight made him sight with relief… there, at the futon, sat the same woman who had just a few minutes ago been at deaths door with a skin pale like that of a Yurei (Ghost in Japanese) and instead now her skin held a healthy colour that was slowly making it's way back to her, not to mention her scent was a lot healthier now as well and her eyes were open… her eyes were dark green like a forest.

There at Renko's lap was Chizu, crying and sobbing while saying `mother' over and over again… it warmed his heart to see this, though her scent still held a tint of that curse it was not so bad at the moment, sure she wouldn't able to walk without help but at least she would be awake now and they would be together until he could figure out a way to get rid of the curse for good.

Sumira the tapped onto this shoulder and whispered to him: "I don't know what magic you worked there, but the curse was significantly weakened, you almost got rid of it! Too bad you haven't fully trained those powers of yours… but… Arc, be honest with me, just who or what are you? The way your aura moved around you and the way it felt was not normal, no human could make it move so smoothly or make it so strong, especially since you said it was only sub-conscionable…"

Arc swallowed hard… shit… this was it huh? There was no excuse he could make up now, his mother and father had warned him that his aura was not normal when using holy powers… since somehow his Youkai side made it more stable than that of a normal human and if overexerted it might make him let out some of his demonic energy as well, he had been lucky enough that didn't happen but it didn't change the fact he was at a dead end, so what should he say?

Their little moment of tension was cut off when Arc smelled and sensed something changing in the air, Sumira seemed to pick up the change in the air as well… three of them, approaching fast, strong and… followed by fear of the people outside, they both reached the same conclusion: Moon priests had arrived.

Arc quickly with a serious tone told Sumira: "Stay here with these two, I don't like this one bit…" And with that, he got up, still feeling slightly light headed but nothing to be concerned about. Then Sumira quickly told him: "Listen, these Moon priests are merciless, so be very careful about what you say to them." Arc nodded and then turned to both Sumira and Renko, of which Renko seemed to be looking at Arc with rather surprised and confused eyes for some reason… Chizu though was just holding onto her mother and her fear was coming out in waves, both of them knew who were approaching as well.

He then smiled at them and said: "Don't worry, I promised your daughter that I would help the two of you and I don't intend to back down from a promise… no matter who I'm a up against." With that, he checked his swords on his back and straightened his hair a bit before taking a deep breath while walking outside to face these mysterious Moon priests, who he knew practically nothing about except just about everyone in his town feared them.

As he left the hut, Sumira went to both Chizu and Renko to try and make them feel at ease… even though she didn't know Arcerdo that well, it seemed like Chizu trusted him completely and even obeyed his orders without question… she had never done that with anyone except her mother and father before, so she also trusted in him, anyone who could attain Chizu's trust had to be a good person.

Yet before she could say anything, Renko asked her with slightly burrowed eyebrows: "Tell me, Sumira… just how is that man?" Sumira didn't really know how to answer, since she wasn't sure herself either but Chizu beat her to the punch and it seemed like whenever someone mentioned her `hero' Arc she would brighten up immediately, so she said with a smile and a happy voice: "Arc-sama is a hero dog!" They both looked at her with a WTF (What The Fuck) kind of a look, Chizu of course didn't know just how serious her next words were since well, she was a child after all: "Arc-sama fought the insects to protect me like a big guardian dog and he sniffed his way to the village like a dog! It was so funny!"

Sumira's and Renko's eyes widened in shock, realisation and horror, sniffed his way? Fought like a guardian dog…? Guardian dog… could she mean… Demon dog…? Then it was Renko who said: "So… it's true, I thought I was seeing things…"

Chizu wondered what the serious atmosphere was all about, had she said something wrong?

Sumira then asked Renko: "What were you seeing…?" She took a moment to answer, then said with a bit uncertain voice: "I… when I unconscious, I saw… something so… so… beautiful I can't put it into words, I could see my own soul being devoured by this curse and just when it was getting hopeless this… silvery, purple, white, red and blue colour mixed formless thing appeared out of nowhere and attacked the curse with ferociousness I have never seen before, it was as if trying to devour the curse itself from my soul, yet, when it devoured most of it, it lost it's strength and instead it turned to me. When it looked at me, it took a form, a giant, dog like form, the colours where the same as before but it looked so… so… mesmerizing, yet powerful and gentle at the same time, it was beckoning me to touch it, I hesitated at first but then it said: `Are you going to make your daughter cry again…?' And with that I just grabbed into it and the next thing I know, I'm wide awake here and feeling more better than before…"

Sumira was ready to black out… Arc had… devoured the curse?! She would have understood if he had either weakened or damaged it but he had devoured most of the curse?! She knew there were some very experienced Houshi, Miko or otherwise spiritually talented people who could do something like that, when one devours a curse it is not only effective but it also acts like a tracker, which means that now Arc has tasted the curse so sooner or later he will be able to `feel' the source of it, like a hound sniffing after a certain scent.

Yet, this devouring had side effects, the biggest one being that once a curse is devoured it zaps the strength from the one who devoured it for at least 3 days, not to mention it might even kill the user… yet, Arcerdo had just gotten up like it had been nothing!

That fact coupled with what Renko told and Chizu said… could it be that Arcerdo was… an Inu-Youkai (Dog Demon)? That couldn't be, Inu-Youkai didn't exist anymore! Not to mention he had no You-ki (Demonic energy) or demonic traits and lastly he could use Holy powers! There never has been a single case where a Youkai, half or less could use Holy powers… so… just what the hell was Arcerdo?!

To Be Continued…

"So they have come, the Moon Priests…

This might get ugly, even though this is my first time meeting them…

… I somehow already knew, that I would never like them." - Arcerdo Higurashi (Tell me, is this a good idea for a preview or is it bad?)

Next Chapter:

=Priests and Demons - Part 2=

A/N: Okay, sorry I stopped there but otherwise this chapter would take too long to become complete, give me reviews and I'll post the second part within two days, promise!

- Zelix, see ya again!

[Vital energy lines]: Simply put, the life force of an individual, the thing that keeps us alive and determines our health and life span.

[Three holy powers]: I'm not sure if I've explained this already, yet here goes. There are three different colours of holy power auras, the green is healing, blue is defending and purple is attacking, like when Kagome shoots her arrows it becomes in-gulfed with pink and purple, meaning it's attacking. The other two colours are something I made up, blue is used to creating barriers and confinement fields while green is used to healing wounds and curses, though when healing curses it works in junction with the other two colours, since the green heals the damaged parts, blue protects the other two colours from being affected by the curse and the purple destroys the cursed parts, simple huh?