Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Sacrifice ❯ Fife's Magic ( Chapter 46 )

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Sacrifice

Chapter 46: Fife's Magic

By: Melissa Norvell

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Fife quickly drew a pentagram with his finger and wrote the kanji symbol for protection. "Protect us from this disease," he spread his arms out to either side.

"What about Koryuu?" Eagle turned his head swiftly to the others as a look of panic crossed his face.

"She's already infected," Tsurugi replied apologetically. There was nothing they could do about her situation.

"Can't you save her?" Eagle clutched the front of Tsurugi's shirt with a beseeching look in his lone eye. He wanted so much for Koryuu to live but there was nothing that the dark angel could do for her.

"It would be wise if you stayed back here," Hiroshima knew that Eagle may have acted rashly if he wanted to try and save Koryuu. He could tell by the look on the sickly man's face that he was chomping at the bit to jump into the fight and save his companion.

"I will not run into this blindly," Eagle looked down in dismay. He knew that he too, would die quicker if he did not listen to the angel's words.

'Oh no…' Koryuu began to cough uncontrollably.

"Such a stubborn girl, never listening to reason," Ceres commented with a wicked smirk as she watched the woman become more and more susceptible to the disease around her. "You grabbed the false gem and now you won't only just kill yourself, you'll kill everyone here."

'Looks like it's the end of me…' Koryuu looked up at the red-clad seductress; her lone blue eye was barely able to concentrate and seemed to dart slightly from right to left as the sickness quickly overcame her, "that doesn't mean that I'll give up."

She wanted to continue to fight on until she no longer could. The purple-haired woman charged at Ceres but only managed to get half way there before the sickness took over her body. She screamed with both hands on either side of her head and thrashed around. The stoic woman then picked up the sword, which had tumbled out of her hands and thrusted it through her chest. Then, the woman fell over and blood poured from her chest, her valuable essence leaked out as her life faded.

"Koryuu…" Eagle looked saddened and as if he would nearly cry. His head tipped down in sorrow and respect for his fallen comrade.

"Ea…gle…" The woman spoke her last word to the world.

A moment of silence passed before Ceres laughed in triumph at the defeat of her enemy. "Serves you right for thinking that you ever could defeat me."

Eagle's look of sorrow turned into one of hatred as a low growl escaped his throat.

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"I never knew that you knew magic, Fife," Keiji stated. Fife knew that this statement was inevitable. He knew that Keiji would be the one to tear down his façade once more.

"I do…Somewhat." He responded.

"Are you a magician?" The drummer asked.

"Something like that," Fife seemed distant.

"Why didn't you say anything about it? Why did you act so weak before if you knew magic," Keiji pressed. The whole time Fife could have saved them and made things a lot less hard but he chose to hide his ability. This made the green-haired boy slightly irritated with him.

"I'm not a magician, Keiji-kun. I only know a few spells," Fife replied with his usual cheery smile.

"You lied to me…again."

"Keiji-kun…you shouldn't believe everything that you hear," Fife replied warmly as he struggled to keep the smile on his face. He knew that he had hidden that from him and he knew what a bad rap he would get about it.

"How dare you hide that," Keiji seethed.

"The pot can't call the kettle black, especially when it's the same shade," the navy-haired boy commented.

"What?" The green-haired boy looked a little taken aback by his statement. It seemed that Fife had a defense to his tearing down.

"You hide things too."

"I don't lie to people," Keiji defended himself.

"Isn't not saying anything just as bad as lying?" After all, the green-haired boy had brought him down about hiding things, so shouldn't it have gone two ways in that respect?

"You bastard," Keiji looked angry, although his voice kept its usual stoicism.

'Yes, Keiji-kun…hate me, because that's how it's supposed to be…' Fife continued to smile, even though he was in pain.

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"I don't know how to break this spell," Hiroshima noted. It was a foreign magic, even to someone like him, who had known so many spells.

"Know any protections against it?" Tsurugi asked. If they didn't do something, then they would all die and they had no way to fight against Ceres. They were clearly halted on being able to do anything in battle. They could not defeat Ceres this way.

"Other than the one Fife is using, no," the spiky-haired angel looked to Eagle. "You want to fight, Eagle?"

"I'd rather go down in glory then in vain," Eagle spoke as Hiroshima then touched his forehead as a small Japanese symbol for protection appeared on his forehead. "What's this?" The sickly man asked.

"A protection spell, you won't be affected by the disease this way. If you run past Fife's defense, you can get to her," the angel replied.

"You'd do this, even though you know that I may die?" Eagle asked. He was amazed by this angel's show of compassion. Hiroshima was unlike other angels and his compassion was not forward but hidden. One had to really read into his lines to get that he was actually kind in many ways.

"Don't deny a dying man his last wish," Hiroshima said with a slight smile. "Isn't that what they say?"

The dark-haired man's lone eye widened a little before his look softened. "Thank you," he ran ahead, past the kids and past Fife as he headed on to Ceres, who smiled arrogantly at him. "I will kill you. You won't get away with what you've done to Koryuu."

"You'll simply go down as she did," Ceres looked to her dead body.

"I don't like staying out of this," Ko told the other members of her group.

Zangetsu kneeled beside of Chichiri and lightly patted his face, so that he could get back into consciousness. It took a couple of pats as Zangetsu repetitively called his name. The blonde soon came into consciousness and slowly opened his blue eyes to meet the darker ones of the former Nighthawk Ninja. Shortly thereafter, Ko kneeled down with an angry look on her face. He knew what that meant. He was going to get it now.

"What are you thinking, going in there like that?" Ko asked.

"I just wanted to help."

"Don't make me worry like that!" The white-haired girl cried out as she lunged forward and hugged him tightly.

"Ko…" Chichiri uttered as he slowly hugged her back.

Zangetsu was silent and simply watched as Ceres and Eagle's weapons clashed over and over again as they continued their fight.

"You never give up, do you?" Ceres remarked on the one-eyed man's stubbornness.

"Not until I'm dead."

"Well, I can definitely change that." In a flash, the woman was close to Eagle's face. She smiled slyly as a look of lust glimmered in her red eyes. "Not before I claim my prize, however." She replied lowly as she planted her lips on his and captured his lips.

This only angered Eagle even more. Not only was he ill and in battle but his enemy had just taken advantage of him. The man thrusted forth his staff and attempted to blast the sorceress but she had disappeared too soon to be hit. She then reappeared behind him and attempted to kick him in the back of the head but he managed to block her foot. She used his blade as leverage and flipped off of it, landing a short distance from him.

"Ring of Fire!" She then called out as a circle of fire instantly went into a blaze around him. He quickly glanced around himself to find that he was completely surrounded by fire. In an instant, before he could even figure out what to do, he was struck on all side by incoming fireballs.

"Eagle…" Zangetsu looked a little worried for his ally.

"We have to help him!" Ko insisted as she ran out to towards the fight. As soon as she tried to get by Fife, she was grabbed by the arm. "Let go Fife!" The girl yelled at him as she whirled around to give him a piece of her mind. What did he think that he was doing? Eagle would die out there if he had to keep facing off against Ceres all alone.

"You stupid girl, do you want to die?" Fife leveled her with a serious and even slightly angry look.

"Fife…" Keiji said from a short distance behind him.

"What?" Ko asked.

"Why don't you think before you go running in there like that? If you catch this illness, you'll die just as quickly as Koryuu," Fife informed.

"It feels wrong to stay here and watch," the white-haired girl looked down. She couldn't stand just sitting there anymore. She felt as if she had to do something. Ko didn't like feeling so helpless in a situation like this.

"We have no choice," Tsurugi knew that it was hard to take but Ko had to understand the circumstances of their predicament. Surely even she knew that there was no way to help them if they could not go outside of the protective shield.

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Eagle was panting heavily as he looked towards Ceres, who seemed as if she hadn't even fought at all. She asked him why he wouldn't give up and simply be her slave. It was futile and he knew that he couldn't win the situation so why not make things easier on himself?

"Why do you think?" The black-haired pointed his staff at her and called out the words 'Spirit Phoenix' as a giant, fog-like phoenix-like bird shot from the end of his staff and flew towards her. She held her hand out and cast a similar spell called 'Flaming Phoenix' as a giant firebird flew towards the white opposing one. They clashed in the midst of them and quickly dissipated into dense smog.

'She matches my moves…even my most powerful ones, and she's not even tired…How can this be?' Eagle was beginning to be at a loss for words.

"Hmpf!" Ceres frowned as she knocked him backwards with her staff and they began fighting once more. Their blades clashed more than ever, each person was fueled by their desire to win and conquer the other side. Although Eagle's strikes were powerful, he had grown weary and barely managed to keep himself concentrated on the fight. The disease had taken a turn for the worst and he knew that his immune defenses must have been lowered significantly over time. He could not keep fighting on as he was, even though he had been giving it his all.

They both spun around and attempted to strike each other in close range. Eagle's eye went wide as he completed his turn, as did his enemies'. They stopped, as if someone had frozen them in suspended animation. Ceres had a sword with a blade made of ice sticking through her left shoulder and Eagle was bleeding severely from his chest, although it looked as if Ceres' weapon never touched him. From a certain angle in the sunlight, a sickle-like blade was apparent. It looked as though it was made of thin glass. It had been the cause of Eagle's murder.

The man slowly fell to the ground in defeat, a trail of blood flowed behind him as he struggled to keep himself from succumbing to death. Half-lidded, his final thoughts fled through his head upon his descent. 'I failed…forgive me…Hikari Country. I'll see all of you soon…in that destined place…'

"That little bastard got a hit in on me," Ceres fumed to herself as she pulled the ice sword from her shoulder and chunked it on the ground.

Crystalline tears adorned Ko's blue eyes, which glimmered brilliantly in sorrow. The girl tried to keep from crying as she stared at the dead man on the ground. Both Eagle and Koryuu, the last remaining survivors of the devastation of Hikari Country- had fallen in battle. Now, no one in the entire village was alive.

"This isn't fair," she muttered as she clenched her fists to her sides. "We could have saved him…We could have at least helped him!" Ko jerked her head over to Hiroshima "You knew, didn't you? You knew he was going to die and you let him go out there! Why? Why did you do that!?" She cried as she yelled at the legend, which turned his face away.

"He was going to die anyway," Hiroshima stated informatively.

"What? You heartless asshole!" Ko was enraged at his display of heartlessness.

"He had a disease that currently has no cure," Hiroshima turned back around and leveled her with a stern look. It was hard on him as well but he could not interfere with other's lives and if Eagle wanted to fight, he could have never have stopped him. It was simply fates course…no matter how much he wanted to help him. "It's a powerful and newly-developed spell. Death is eminent. It's better that he died like this."

"Why?"

"His soul would be unrested if he did not fulfill his wish."

"Ceres is gone," Tsurugi looked out over the field in which they had just fought in. Aside from the dead bodies, there was no sign of the sorceress.

"So, her staff had a Phantom Blade, Interesting…" Fife thought aloud to himself as she stared at the inflictions on Eagle's body.

"Phantom Blade?" Keiji asked as he looked towards him.

"A blade that can make itself invisible at any time," the long-haired boy explained.

"So, her staff is a weapon just like a sword?"

"Yes."

"Oh, my face," Chichiri rubbed his cheek in agony. He still felt the effects of Ceres' axe-handle move.

"Are you alright?" Zangetsu asked, still concerned for Chichiri's health.

"Yeah, I just feel like a pig-nosed dog," the blonde complained.

"Let's get out of here. The longer we stay the higher risk we have of catching that disease," Hiroshima informed as he tore his gaze from the dead bodies all around him. This place had brought back too many horror-filled memories of the past for him and the sooner they all left, the better.

'Please…Please don't go to Sumeria just yet…' Fife looked a little worried.

"What's your problem?" Keiji noticed the look on the feminine boy's face.

"What problem?" Fife covered his nervous gaze up with a smile. "I don't have a problem."

Keiji called him a liar and the navy-haired boy turned away with a sad smile and replied 'I know' as everyone began to head out of Hikari Country and on to the outskirts.

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"Where are we?" Ko asked as the group walked around what seemed to be half-demolished houses. It looked like the village outside of Hikari Country had been destroyed as well. It looked very similar to Saesugawa, except it was bigger and much more densely populated.

"The outskirts of Hikari Country, you can see Sumeria from here," Hiroshima informed.

"Did you used to live here, Fife?" Keiji had remembered the long-haired boy mentioning something about it before. He wasn't trying to bring him down or cause him to become paranoid, he simply wanted an answer.

"Yes, I did…" Fife tried to keep from looking in shock as he barely maintained his calm façade. Inside, his heart was slamming against the wall of his chest, threatening to break out and thoughts of paranoia rushed through his head at lightening fast speeds as he pondered on what to do about the things he had kept hidden about this place.

Ko walked into the doorway of what used to be a large, extravagant home that was now reduced to a hull with a caved in ceiling. "Wow, this place is the pits." She remarked as she peered into the house. Everything had been up turned and gone through. The whole place looked in shambles.

"We should just go straight to Sumeria," Fife looked a little freaked out that Ko had chosen that house, out of all of the houses in that town, she had chose that house.

"Dude, why are you being so paranoid? You trying to hide something?" Chichiri noticed the expression on Fife's face.

Ko walked into the house cautiously as she looked around. When she had passed by the door, a name plank had fallen off and hit the ground by her feet. She bent down and picked up the plate as she read the name engraved in tarnished brass. "Amaterasu Residence…Isn't that Fife's last name?"

She slowly gazed up as she noticed what looked like a skeleton's hand close beside of her. "Huh?" Ko asked herself as she followed the hand, which had been connected to an arm and eventually led up to a body. Ko then let out a scream of horror upon her finding which caused Chichiri, Zangetsu and Azmy to rush into the house after her. They were concerned and had wondered what she had found.

"There's a skeleton of a child in here!" Fife and Hiroshima heard her exclaim from outside of the house.

"You can't keep lying to them," Hiroshima slowly looked over to Fife.

"Well, I have to tell them now. They've already found the skeleton in my closet."

To Be Continued…