Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Sacrifice ❯ Journey To Cloud Kingdom ( Chapter 19 )

Sacrifice

By: Melissa Norvell

Chapter 19: Journey to Cloud Kingdom

Ko slowly awoke, shifting slightly and cracking one eye open.

"Where am I?"

The sky was a bright blue and lightly dotted with white clouds. The land around her was barren and her team mates were all scattered about from the Selece attack from Ceres. The singer sat up slowly, her vision adjusting to see that her allies were not moving and showed no signs of life whatsoever.

Blue eyes scanned over the bodies, hoping that someone, anyone was alive. Chichiri wasn't too far away from her. He was sprawled out on his back; the hammer had slipped out of his hand. He held no vital signs and even looked a little pale. A sense of panic ran through Ko's form. He couldn't be dead! At least, she prayed that he wasn't. She crawled over to him as fast as she could, ignoring the sharp pains from the rocks below her knees. Grabbing a hold on both of his shoulders, she shook him violently.

"Chichiri! Chichiri, wake up! Please!" She shouted emotionally, and then Azmy's body caught her sights. "Azmy!" She yelled, but it was all in vain. She got no response. Looking around, she spied her other team mate's bodies, all in the same condition.

"Keiji! Fife!"

Silence.

"Why isn't anyone responding?" She was worried beyond all belief as her thoughts raced with all of the possibilities. "They aren't even moving…It's almost like…" She trailed as her form became petrified with fear. "They're dead…Then why did I live? How did I live? I was blasted just like everyone else."

A few feet away, a sound of rubble falling caught her ears. Turning her head, she saw that Undine was sitting on her knees by Tsurugi's fallen form. The slate-haired girl was slumped over but alive, as Ko was. Out of all of the people, the girl she seemed to detest the most had lived.

"You. Why are you alive? You were hit more than anyone else!" The white-haired singer spat venomously. Her words caught Undine's ears and she slowly turned her head to glance over her shoulder, her large, hollow eyes staring blankly at her.

"Answer me!" Ko demanded.

"Ko…Are you alright?" Undine was unphased by the singer's harsh words.

"That's not the answer to my-"She began to yell, but felt her form being lightly shaken as she opened her eyes to see Undine's face hanging slightly over hers. Long, silky strands of slate blue cascading over one shoulder. "Question…" She finished the sentence awkwardly, not sure what was happening. Her dream felt so real. Had she woke up? Or was she having a strange dream that she kept waking up in different dreams? She looked around wildly, disregarding Undine to see that everyone was awake and standing around holding conversation about what had happened. "What happened?" Ko asked, not sure what to make of anything just yet.

"What do you think happened?" A cold and arrogant voice was projected above her form. Looking up, she could see that Hiroshima was standing beside of her.

"We were saved somehow," Chichiri said from a few feet to his left.

"Huh?" Azmy's sights were elsewhere. She had remembered that Fable had tried to save them all, but the shy girl was worried that she might have been blasted. Looking to the place in which she stood, the sorceress was nowhere to be found. "Fable's gone…"

"So she is," Tsurugi rested a hand on her shoulder. "She's the mysterious one, yes?"

"You saved us," Keiji looked at Hiroshima. "But how?"

"I prayed."

"Prayed?"

"Yes," Tsurugi walked up to the two males. "As angels, we can save people's lives with the power of prayer. We pray to whom we serve and grant their wishes. Mind you, we can only pray for certain things."

"Why didn't you help us?" Keiji was irritated at the two angels. They could have prayed earlier and the whole fight may have been avoided. He felt that Hiroshima and Tsurugi just put them through a great deal of unnecessary grief.

"Because we wanted to know you all could fight without us," Tsurugi replied, "like Chichiri said before, you all are just normal humans. If we're all going to travel together, then if something should happen where Hiro-kun and I aren't around to save you we need to know you can stay alive on your own."

"You think we're weak?" Chichiri asked.

"Yes," Hiroshima was quick to respond and condescend.

"What!?!" Ko fumed. "Look, just because we don't-" she started to gripe at Hiroshima, but was cut short.

"But, you're just entering the battle field," Hiroshima interrupted, not really caring what the singer had to say.

Ko was about to let the legend have an ear full when a staff was handed to her. It was bright blue and as tall as she was. It was a long blue rod with a microphone on the end. Around the device, there were large, plastic stars.

"Here," Tsurugi replied with his usual placid smile.

"What?" Ko blinked at him in question. What was this strange object for? Why was he giving it to her?

"This can be your temporary weapon for a while. All you have to do is sing or speak into it and you can destroy things within a 5 mile radius. Plus, it will keep your voice in tune for singing gigs," Tsurugi informed.

"I have a weapon," Chichiri beamed, holding up his hammer.

"Crude, but it oddly fits you," Tsurugi attempted to hand Keiji a sword but the green-haired drummer held his hand up to stop him. The dark angel looked a little confused at the boy's actions.

"I don't need a weapon. I prefer hand-to-hand combat," he told the angel simply.

"That's good and well when you're battling humans and small beasts, but for things like these plants you need something that will deliver a larger amount of damage unless you want to use secret pressure techniques," Hiroshima advised.

"I've heard of those. They are a secret style of martial arts that allows someone to hit their enemy lightly and kill them, because while the touch looked gentle, inside the enemy was annihilated by the force of your real attack," Keiji stated.

"So you could just touch someone and they'd fall over dead?" Chichiri found the concept interesting yet creepy in nature.

"It's about pressure and force. You have to direct your force through your hand into their body," the legend told him.

"That's awesome!" The blonde beamed. "I thought it only existed on T.V. shows!"

"T.V.?" Hiroshima asked, having no clue what this 'TV.' was or what the letters stood for.

"Oh yeah, you don't know what appliances are."

"Fuck off will you?" The legend yelled, not irritated with the playful comment.

The sword was then handed to Fife. Navy blue eyes looked to the smiling angel's face, "I know you'd like to use Keiji's sword." Tsurugi replied kindly as the feminine one took the sword, hugging the bare blade with his arms crossed delicately over it.

"Yes…" Fife looked to the blade. "We are the same aren't we?"

"What?" Tsurugi didn't see the similarity.

"We've both been thrown away by Keiji-kun."

A few feet away, green eyes were lowered as the drummer felt an inward stab. A mix of emotions hit him all at once: hurt, sadness and anger. 'Why? Why do I feel bad?' He thought to himself, bearing his teeth and clenching his fist, which had been trembling with his emotions. As the anger took over his form, her whirled around, his long, rope-like ponytail streaming behind him as Fife was in his sights. "Look," he started his voice cold and calm. "I just saved you from that woman and you go and make that remark like that?" Keiji seethed.

"You think you're the only one who feels torn like this? We're all suffering, Keiji-kun…" Fife's voice was warm and distant as he looked to Tsurugi, but that was not the object of concentration. It was the being who stood behind him, a few feet away that Fife had been eyeing. The one who stood tall and proud with his arms folded over his strong chest. The one who had not once shed a tear or went hysterical with grief- it was the legend himself, Hiroshima. "Even those who don't show it," Fife directed the last part of that sentence at him.

"He's right. This has been hard on everyone," Ko agreed with Fife.

"Now isn't the time," Hiroshima's tone was stern. "We need to head toward that forest before anyone else gets hurt."

"But, we don't know where she is." The singer replied as Hiroshima reached into his pocket, pulling out the red gem and holding it between two fingers, the sunlight catching it and reflecting off of its many sides causing it to sparkle with radiance against the sunlight.

"That's when we need this," The legend stated.

"Excellent idea!" The black angel said in joy.

"You're going to call Vespa," the white haired girl told him.

"We need help and no one knows where Flora is. Being a Master Mage there is no doubt that she can communicate with divine beings. She probably knows a few as well," Hiroshima said as a small beam shot from the stone, spreading out on the ground before them. At the end of this beam was a hologram of Vespa in actual size.

"Well, that may be true," the witch caused everyone's attention to be drawn to her. "But I can't tell you for myself. My magic is restricted on these types of things."

"So you're not going to help us either?" The drummer asked, sighing. What good was she if she couldn't help them out of a situation like this?

"Oh, I can help you, just not in the way you have in mind," Vespa replied. "First, I'll send you to Cloud Kingdom."

"Cloud Kingdom?" Tsurugi could barely breathe out the words as every inch of his form trembled with fear. Despite this, his voice only managed to come out a little shaky. "But, I can't go there. It's a part of heaven's realm and I've been banished from that realm by God."

"You will have permission- this time. I'll do the explaining beforehand," the red-haired witch told the worried angel.

"But why will we be going there?" Ko asked.

"This is the realm of the Wind Caverns."

"Wind Caverns?"

"Yes," Vespa smiled. "The Wind Caverns are the messengers of the winds. They are wind itself and deliver subliminal messages through it. If you listen closely, the winds speak to you."

"Beings that fly know this all too well," Hiroshima told everyone.

"Yes, especially angels, we are given our tasks through the Wind Caverns," Tsurugi informed. "But how is obtaining a Wind Cavern going to be of any help to us?"

"The Wind Caverns will show you what needs to be done in order to both journey to and defeat Flora."

"Wait!" Chichiri shouted. "We have to fight her!?!"

Vespa slowly looked to the blonde, her demeanor still as calm as ever. It was very hard to break her composure. "If there is no other means, yes."

"Are you on crack? We'll lose!"

"But, you've got to try," the witch told him, ignoring his shattering composure. "There is no other way around this, I'm afraid. Flora is a stubborn goddess and tough in attitude. It won't be easy to convince her."

"Flora is as powerful and hostile as any war goddess as well," Tsurugi informed them of her nature.

"She's not just going to call off those plants," Hiroshima stated. "She's defending something she believes is just and as long as she fights that fiercely, we may not win."

"Vespa?" Undine asked.

"Yes?" The witch looked to her.

"Can you tell us anything about a sorcerer named Fable?"

"Fable?"

"We encountered her earlier," Undine told her. "First when we arrived then during a battle. Since you're a master mage and informant I thought you might know her."

"I know no such sorcerer," Vespa replied, much to the girl's shock.

"How odd," the slate-haired girl looked contemplative. "I thought for sure that you would know." This was strange. Vespa knew of every sorcerer who had been in and out of commission. As an informant of Zameln, all spell-casters and magic users were kept record of. How could Fable not be noted, especially with capabilities such as hers?

No doubt she was strong.

"While I don't know apprentices or neophyte wizards, I do know the master mages, sages and those who have been famed as well as the uprising talent. I know of no such being named Fable," she assured.

"Is that within the land or within the world?" Tsurugi wanted to make sure that Vespa wasn't over looking anything.

"The world," Vespa explained. "In Zamlen, every magic user around the world is put into a database so we know of everyone who has the ability to control it. That and through magic, we can easily find all living things that are magical."

"Hmm…" Hiroshima looked as if he were thinking for a few seconds, before a question arose. "What about reanimated objects or magic sources - like things brought to life by use of a spell?"

"There are far too many for us in Zameln to keep track of," the witch stated. "Anything is possible. There are far too many loopholes in that theory to be certain."

"I have a question," Azmy spoke up.

"Yes, Azmy?"

"How do we get out of Cloud Kingdom when we're done with the next mission?"

"The Wind Cavern will tell you the next step. His name is Musashi. He will be notified by me that you will be arriving. There is also a dragon up there who rules in Cloud Kingdom. Her name is Maori but you may not necessarily deal with her. However, there is another who looks like her. His name is Raiki and you'll have to state your purpose. He should let you in, but if not then contact me and I'll inform him of the situation," Vespa informed.

"So…" The legend smirked with sadistic excitement. "We're going to heaven."

"Yes…" Tsurugi frowned, his blonde locks shading his eyes.

"Nervous?" Hiroshima looked to the other angel.

"I've not had to deal with anything from the heavens after I was cast out…Showing my face in a heavenly place like this may be cause for a war between heaven and hell," Tsurugi noted.

"Then that means…"

"Would we be enemies?" Tsurugi looked to his boyfriend, wondering this to himself since Hiroshima originated in hell. It was an interesting question to try and decipher.

"I'm not sure…You weren't cast to hell, you just descended to earth," the legend noted, not for certain whose side that made Tsurugi on.

"I'll side with you if that happens."

"Let's not worry about it unless the time arises."

"Indeed."

"Now, I bid you farewell," Vespa's last words clung into the air as the hologram soon faded, turning into light-snakes that shot from her fading form and wrapped themselves around the group as a whirlwind of air blew around them. The snakes turned into a white mini-cyclone of sorts before it diminished and disappeared, transporting the group to their next destination, despite Tsurugi's protests.

He just had a gut feeling that something ominous was about to happen to him.

To Be Continued…