Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Sacrifice ❯ Serenande's Dark Secrets ( Chapter 42 )

XxXxXxXx

Sacrifice

Chapter 42 : Serenande's Dark Secrets

By: Melissa Norvell

XxXxXxXx

As Serenande used up more of her powers, Hiroshima could feel the power source weaken and then strengthen back up. As he felt the magic surging around him, he had found it in his favor to attack while it was low so he could free Ko from the soul-sucking spell. He glared towards the princess. 'I can't stand back any longer.'

As soon as the pulse died, he threw both hands out towards everyone else and called out the words 'Kuroi Ryu! Soul Disperse!' He called fourth the giant black dragon to abide by his wishes and break the spell around Ko. The mighty fog-like being shot fourth and collided with the golden threads that wound themselves around the singer's body, the threads then broke off into many souls and dispersed throughout the room. Ko's form came tumbling down from its suspended place about three feet off of the ground.

Zangetsu then ran up and caught the girl a she fell into his strong, exposed arms. His grip was tight and secure around her body as her senses slowly came back to her. His dark blue eyes gazed upon her form with concern. "Are you alright?" He asked in a tone that was far from false. She told him that she was and he thanked her for saving him with kind eyes and a gentle smile.

"Guess you'll feed me to your princess now, won't you?" Ko replied weakly.

"Who's Princess? She isn't mine," he turned his head away; the longer strands of hair fell to the right as he averted his eyes and frowned. He was silent for a few moments, as if it were painful to admit that he too had disowned Serenande.

"Silence!" The evil princesses' sharp voice cut through their conversation as she pointed her staff at him. He felt sharp pains sweep through his body. They were so intense that he doubled over as the sharp pains gouged at his bones and caused him to drop Ko and clutch at his head in agony.

He let out a scream as he wandered in circles with steps of uncertainty and ache. Zangetsu thrashed around a few times as the princess watched in amusement.

"Now, let me work my magic," Serenande told him. 'I'll turn you into something a little more compliant.' She thought wickedly as she called out the words 'Bird Curse'.

Zangetsu's eyes widened as he knelt down over Ko and covered her with his right arm protectively. 'What?' He thought in surprise as he then shoved Ko out of the way of the spell.

"Out of the way!" He warned as his arm was hit with three streams of mint green magic. They wrapped around his limb and transformed it into a large, snow white bird wing.

"His arm!" Azmy shouted in surprise.

Serenande smiled. He was at least disabled even though the spell didn't completely work on him.

Hiroshima phrased through the weakening field. "Now is my chance," he spun around with a stream of white, fog-like magic that followed his hand and created a whip-like projection. He then faced the princess and called out the name 'Phantom Corkscrew' as the whip-like projection turned into a type of ghost-like beam with a spiraling piece around it as it homed in on the depraved princess.

"What?" Serenande attempted to throw up an attack but the two attacks collided and exploded on contact. The princesses' red eyes widened in shock, until now, nothing had been able to touch her paranormal attacks. Why did this one actually affect the powers of her staff?

"Why did it not go through your attack?" She asked in an irritated manner.

"Did you honestly think that you were the only one with such an attack?" Hiroshima threw his hands above his head and brought them down forcefully as he called out 'Chains of Death' as several black chains shot up from the ground all around him. The force of the chains caused them to break the chains that bound him and then shot over to Serenande who attempted to conjure her call of the dead.

A bright vaporous light smoldered from the prism on the tip of her staff. "I'll send you to hell!" The princess threatened.

"I'll just come back," Hiroshima smirked through his maze of moving black chains.

"Die!" Serenande called out but her attack failed. The chains pierced her ghost magic and came towards her, attempting to imprison her. She drew back in shock and horror.

"What? How is this possible?!" The long-haired woman took off running in a futile attempt to outrun the chains. They shot forward at amazing speed and managed to wrap around her form tightly and suspended her in the air. Her eyes widened in trepidation.

"I don't understand…How did things happen like this? You're not supposed to be able to get through any attacks. They were impregnable!" Serenande shouted in disbelief.

"I am an angel, and as such I deal directly with the soul which is made from ectoplasm and ghost particles. Your attacks break down the soul and blast another with those components. My chains are especially made to withstand such things. They are designed to pull souls down to hell," the angel informed.

'What?' Keiji knew that Hiroshima was strong but he didn't know quite to what extent.

"He can do what!?" Chiciri exclaimed. "How freaky!"

"I think I won't try to actually make him mad in the future," Ko commented to herself.

'I wonder who exactly you are, Hiro-sama. Not just any angel can have that power…usually it's the higher powers and archangels who possess such a skill.' Fife heard two gun shots fired. His head snapped into the direction they were fired in and saw that Serenande was bleeding profusely from two fatal gunshot wounds to the stomach.

"What are you doing?" Ko looked to the source of the shots.

It was Azmy.

"Making sure that she doesn't live. I don't want her to do anything like that ever again," the girl said in a angry tone as tears clung to the corners of her eyes, reluctant to fall. "You shouldn't mess with the souls of people, let alone stop their existence completely."

The purple-haired princesses' head was lowered as her eyes began to fade from vibrant red to a dull purple. She paused, as if she had snapped out of some sort of spell and blinked a couple of times as she looked around herself to see her enemies standing before her.

"What? Where?" She slowly looked around. Her eyes took on a much more blameless and wounded look. She then looked at Zangetsu's wing with sympathy and worry. "Oh no…" It was as if she suddenly realized the consequences of her actions.

"You're just cruel," Azmy continued on her tangent. "I can't forgive you for what you've done. It wouldn't have been that bad if you just killed them but now they can't even come back to life," the girl cried.

"Zangetsu…" The princess uttered in a weak and poignant voice before her features turned into those of deep mourning. "What have I done?" Her voice was shaken.

"Serenande-hime?" The ninja wasn't quite sure of what was going on but he knew that Serenande was somehow different now. He felt a small pain in his chest and deep within his being, he felt sorry for the wounded princess, who now wept silently in front of him.

"What? Why are you crying now?" Ko asked out of anger and irritation. It didn't make any sense for her to feel sorry for everything now.

"I must have been possessed again," Serenande lamented.

"Possessed?" Chichiri was confused beyond all recognition. What was going on?

"I'm under her spell and she always possesses me to do her bidding," the princess' gaze was cast to the ground in both shame and regret as she watched the red essence drip from her form onto the ground in a sadistic, artistic brilliance.

"What are you talking about?" Ko asked.

Serenande coughed a bit before she spoke as a single tail of crimson ran down her face. "A sorceress named Soel," she looked at Hiroshima with half-lidded eyes. "The Winged Boy…I'd know you anywhere…"

"Who are you?" Hiroshima asked.

"You should explain yourself," Keiji spoke up.

"I lived on the outskirts of Saesugawa," the princess explained. "When I was little, the Winged Boy legend was going around and I was about seven at the time."

"How old are you now?" Tsurugi asked.

"I'm seventeen," she replied.

"That would have made me thirteen," Hiroshima figured it up in his head.

"You killed my fiancée," Serenande began to tell her tale. "You also killed my grandfather but I forgot about it. Enough people hated you already and I thought that there might have been a reason that you killed like that. When my Aunt died, I was appointed to rule this village and shortly after, a sorceress named Soel approached me about the scepter that had been passed down as an heirloom through my family. I wanted it to be buried with my aunt's corpse but was advised that I should use it. When I tried to use it to defend my village, something happened. I began to have these urges that I've never possessed before. I wanted to kill and kept gaining more and more power. I'd go through spells and at first I thought I might have had seizures because when I snapped out of it. I never remembered what I've done. Zangetsu who was my best friend always tried to help me. I never knew what was wrong so I could never tell him. I knew that I could power for this sorceress and that every time I tried to tell someone about her, I as silenced. I could hear myself talk but everyone else looked at me with such strange gazes. They could never hear me and my words were lost to her magic. This sorceress is also after the Winged Boy. Zangetsu always stuck by my side…even though I know that I treated him badly. I don't even want to remember what I put him through!" The purple-haired woman yelled in agony as she thrashed around in the hellish chains. "My actions are unforgivable and all I've done was make people suffer and wipe out their existence. I don't expect to live after this."

"That can't be possible even if you wanted to; these chains are destined to drag you to hell," Hiroshima informed lowly. There was no other way. This was destiny. The attack was unbreakable and she was destined to go to hell, whether or not she died right here and right now.

"I belong in hell, so let them," Serenande looked at him with understanding. "I await Lucifer with open arms."

"Then let's begin your descent," the winged legend slowly lowered his hand as the chains began to pull her downward. The purple-eyed woman smiled in peace as her head tilted back and she could see her purple tresses flow around her and her pink, gold and lavender robes flow upward as she fell to the underworld.

'Thank you…Winged Boy…you are truly a saint in disguise…' She thought as a few white feathers shone through the black wings on his left side.

"Well, damn…" Chichiri looked down at the floor where Serenande had once been.

"Hey, are you alright?" Ko looked to Zangetsu with worry.

"What do I do now?" The black-haired ninja looked to Ko in question and slight sorrow. He was sad that it had to come to this, but nothing could be done. As long as Serenande was alive then she would eternally be tortured by Soel and she could not be trusted. "I've been in this position since her Aunt's latter part of her rule. This castle is my home."

"Why don't you be the ruler?" Chichiri asked. After all, he was the only living member of the royal court left.

"These people don't need that," Zangetsu stepped down from his position. Azmy looked at him with sympathy. He'd been through so much. It must have been hard for him to make a decision like that. "They would hate to be under rule again and they'd never trust anyone who did rule."

"Well, no one will worry with her anymore," Tsurugi told him comfortingly. "The people are free to make their own delusions."

Hiroshima stood behind everyone and listened to what they said as souls began to appear around his form. They were small orbs of fluorescent particles and were visible by everyone's eyes. He looked to them with a stoic and harsh expression, as if he were attempting to communicate with them.

Chichiri and Azmy looked at the scepter on the ground with curious, yet nervous expressions. The blonde then looked to her in question.

"Want to touch it?"

"No, you touch it," Azmy didn't want her soul sucked out of her body. Watching it nearly happen to Ko was scary enough.

"Uh-uh, I'm not getting sucked in there!" Chichiri too, had thought the same thing. As soon as that sentence escaped his mouth, Undine casually walked over to the scepter and picked it up as if it were no threat at all. This caused Chichiri and Azmy to scream in horror.

"It's fine. It won't suck you in," Undine assured as a whirlwind of fire appeared. It swirled around in a large circle wildly, then it disappeared to reveal Vespa, who was dressed in a white and red Chinese outfit. The room around them darkened to a pitch black as everyone's eyes went to the sorceress.

"Vespa!" She heard her name shouted in surprise by the blonde angel.

"Hello everyone," the sorceress greeted casually, "I'll be taking this," she grabbed the staff out of Undine's arms and held it to her chest. "This is stolen property of Zameln. It needs to be returned."

"What's going on?" Ko wanted to get to the bottom of all of this Soel business.

"I'm confused…and who is this Soel person that Serenande was talking about?" Chichiri too, wanted to understand what exactly was going on.

'…Soel…' Undine thought.

"I have all of the answers you seek, perhaps it's about time I told you the real reason I summoned you all here," Vespa told them with a stoic expression. There was indeed a reason that they had all been assembled and it was time to reveal to them the truth behind their journey.

To Be Continued…