Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Sacrifice ❯ Bitter ( Chapter 98 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

By: MellyN

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Sacrifice

Chapter 98: Bitter

By: Melissa Norvell

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Both Charles and Azmy watched with great intent as their chess pieces battled intently on the field below. Both sides continued to advance towards the other as the pieces battled their way across the board.

Fife wrote out a spell, fluorescent, green symbols floated through the air in streams as they surrounded a neon, sky blue circle. The edges of the circle began to glow a brighter blue. Eclipse summoned her Vector attack as the familiar black, rotating sphere swallowed the ring and threw it back into the group. Everyone jumped out of the way, evading the attack as it crashed into the ground, tearing up the black and white tile and blasting pieces of it into the air.

"Oh dear, nothing seems to be working," Fife uttered in that same, carefree voice he had always possessed.

Keiji landed on the ground nearby and leveled him with a serious visage. "She's stronger than I thought."

"Yami no Death!" Zell's voice rang through the air as he launched his attack at the eye patch wearing girl. She evaded the move quickly, nearly able to get out of the way as the shinigami wrapped his arms around himself tightly and swayed dramatically from side to side. "There's nothing more spine-tingling than a woman in pain."

"You," Keiji's eyes narrowed.

"Hello! Nice of you to help us," Fife smiled at the shinigami. The more the merrier that was for sure.

"I simply couldn't let something with such beautiful blue hair just die," Zell ran his fingers through his long, dark grey hair, then placed the back of his hand to his forehead overdramatically. "It would simply be a waste."

"Damned shinigami," Eclipse cursed and narrowed her visible eye. If it wasn't for him, she would have been able to obliterate that vampire easily.

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Chichiri's form crashed into the ground, his weapon slipped from his hands and spun around in circles on the floor. A black, high-heeled shoe was placed on the back of his head as Soel leaned over him. She looked down at him with blue, void eyes. "Your precious Red Witch cannot help you now. Due to my spell, you'll be permanently disabled. This will be a sign to them of what will be coming their way if they choose to keep their resistance up. I hope that my spy is going their work. I'm counting on them to lead everyone to my selected destination."

She then squeezed her hands together and a bright flash illuminated the spot she was standing in, bathing everything in white light. Chichiri let out an ear piercing scream as his form was engulfed.

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Zangetsu turned his head and peered into the darkness as the faint sound of his comrade's scream caught his ears. "I heard someone scream."

"Phantom Corkscrew!" Hiroshima summoned his attack, the spiraling beam headed straight for his opponent. Eclipse countered with an attack called Dark Barrage, which looked just like Hiroshima's Phantom Corkscrew but black in coloration. Zangetsu swung his kusarigama at the woman, only to have it deflected with barrier magic and called pitiful. Hiroshima then pointed to the woman, causing the ground to explode around her. Debris flew into the air, filling it with smoke, dirt and rock.

"Go and see who that was. They'll need your help more than I will," Hiroshima looked to the darkly clad ninja, who stood a few feet behind him.

Worried, Zangetsu's dark blue eyes glanced to the angel. "But, you're the one they want-"

He was cut off by a scowl. "I'll be fine. Just go."

Nodding, the winged man ventured off into the darkness in search of the source of the scream.

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Eclipse performed a hand spring and flipped into the air, landing on her feet. She pivoted on her foot and turned to look at her opponent, blue eye shining coldly as a twisted smirk etched itself on her features. "You're pretty clever to let your friend leave."

"I don't need allies to beat someone like you." It was plain and simple that he didn't see her as a threat. Hiroshima could beat her alone. There was no need for more than one person to be on his side. That and the angel believe in fighting an honorable fight, to have any allies would merely make him seem weak.

"Is that so?" Eclipse was amused at his answer. He underestimated her, and now she would prove it. Almost immediately after her words, a black beam shot from the ground in the blink of an eye and smacked Hiroshima in the chest, knocking him backwards onto the ground. The angel groaned and closed one eye as pain resonated in his chest, burning from the effects of the black magic.

"You're not going to escape now," Eclipse's eye narrowed as she shot forward and held out her sword. Her body jolted in place as a force hit her in the stomach, it was so painful that she nearly doubled over and coughed up fluids that had forced themselves back up her throat. Her half-cape fluttered around her and everything seemed to play in slow motion.

Hiroshima had kicked her in the gut. "I'd never let a lowlife like you get a hold of me." When were these people going to get the hint? Angels did not belong to anyone, and he would be damned if he would be subjected to a life of servitude beneath Soel or any of her minions.

"Really? We'll see how long that lasts when you're begging at my feet," Eclipse replied, clutching her stomach.

"I'd rather commit suicide than be Soel's slave."

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Zangetsu made his way across the chess board, past the battles taking place and the carnage that littered the black and white squares around him. He couldn't shake the sound of that petrified scream. His features hardened. 'That sounded like Chichiri. I hope he's alright.'

Then, he saw something out of the corner of his eye, half way concealed in darkness. Zangetsu stopped in his tracks and gazed at the male. "Huh? Chichiri!" He shouted at the figure, holding up his axe.

Chichiri stood in front of the white-haired woman who had once held his affections. Holding his head, the images flooded his mind. Ko lay before him, slaughtered and chopped up, those dead, blue eyes stared up at him, void of life and blood littered the floor in streams and pools. He trembled and a sickness rose in his gut.

"Chichiri!" Zangetsu's calls cut through him as his head snapped over to the ninja, who ran up to him, then stopped a few feet away. "Chichiri, are you alright?" His friend didn't look so good and he was as pale as a sheet of paper. It was as if Chichiri had seen a ghost.

"I saw her..." the blonde's voice quaked from his lips, laced in pure fear.

"What? Saw who? Did you see the queen?" This was serious. If Chichiri had seen the queen, then what did she do to him? What happened between the two of them? Zangetsu was a little shocked that he had said something like that.

Then, Chichiri gave him information even more horrifying than the last piece he had divulged. "I saw Soel. She's here."

Zangetsu's heart skipped a beat and his eyes widened. Soel was there? They weren't ready to face her, nor were they strong enough to fare against her in battle. "What?"

"Yeah, I ran into her when I was out here. Oh man, I just don't know." This was all too hard for Chichiri to process. He could barely think about it much, since his brain was scrambled from the effects of the magic that was placed on him.

Zangetsu became worried. No wonder he was despondent and hid int he darkness. There was no one around but the two of them, and with that realization, the ninja had the feeling that they two of them met in the confines of the darkness. Leveling him with a stern expression, he wanted answers. "Did she do anything to you?"

"I don't want to talk about it right now. Let's just go and save Ko." That was the only thing Chichiri was worried about. Despite his visions of her being slaughtered, he wanted to believe that it was just a hallucination cast on him by Soel. Talking about it might trigger more of the magic and cause him to go into a debilitated state again. Chichiri didn't want them to know that the magic was affecting him like it was.

Zangetsu blinked a little. His gut feeling told him that something was wrong, but at the same time, he didn't want to question it further. There was something about Chichiri, something about his stance and that look in his eyes that said he was going through mental torture. "Uh...right, which direction is the white queen in?"

Before he could give the ninja reason to think he was acting out of the ordinary, Chichiri took off into the lighter side of the chess board, instructing him to follow him off. Zangetsu ran close behind, making sure not to lose the blonde through the darkness. He hoped that everyone could make it. They were still fighting against the queen's henchmen.

Charles' eye narrowed as he spied two figures running through the darkness and around all of the central action. Propping his head up with his knuckles, the black king was very amused at their tactic. A small smile crept to his young features. "What's this?"

'It seems that those two are going around the chaos. Well, that's a good idea. How inventive. I wonder if they'll actually make it to the white queen.' If they did, Charles' would definitely have the upper hand when it came to the shogi battle.

It seems the tables were about to turn.

Out of the corner of her visible eye, Eclipse caught glimpse of something moving around in the darkness. Her eye narrowed. It was them. They were going around the battles in order to get to the queen. Hiroshima's blade came down and made contact with her own. Her arm recoiled, and her muscles tightened as stepped forward and shoved him out of her way.

"Your majesty!" She ran around the angel, who whirled around and watched her form shrink as she put distance between the two. She had to get to the white queen before they did.

"There's no way in hell that I'm letting you get them," Hiroshima's words cut through the air as he flew into the sky. The view would be better there and he could gain distance faster using his wings opposed to his feet.

However, in the sky, Zangeif had also caught sight of the group that was heading towards the queen. He turned, his voice carried through the air. "The queen!"

Just then, Tsurugi appeared before him. Zangeif jolted back and his face lit up in shock. "What the hell?!"

"I'm afraid that I can't allow you to help her," the dark angel held out his hand as winds quickly gathered into the form of a ball. His clothes flapped against his body as the gales picked up. Summoning his Tornadic Winds, the spell released and they violently blew the metal angel around. His body swayed and darted back and forth haphazardly as he tried to regain his stability. Tsurugi then teleported and appeared before the white queen. He stood before the girl as she gasped and drew back.

"Tsurugi!" Ko called out from her confines, kept in the human cage. Her hands gripped the bars until her knuckles turned white.

The angel gazed down at the girl with a dead gaze. His voice was calm, as if the situation posed no threat to him at all. "Hello, your majesty. It has been a while, hasn't it? Too bad this meeting is a little different than usual."

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"Foooouuuunnnd it!" Zell sang out as she held up a magnificent silver key with intricate engraving around the top of it, looped in a rose-pink piece of ribbon. It was a great triumph and it deserved an equally great triumphant pose by the gray-haired shinigami.

"Good, get down there and help the others," Charles gave him a command and the shinigami stood erect and bowed before his king, informing him that the deed would be done.

His sensitive ears pricked, picking up a violent outburst a few meters away. He glanced over his shoulder to see one of the soldiers, clad in white and pointing at him with a finger of malice and a face twisted in anger. "Get him! He has the key!"

His voice carried across the chess board, collecting other soldiers, who all charged towards the shinigami with their various weapons drawn. The group closed in on him, their feet sounded like thunder against the tile and their battle cries filled the air, each one determined to take Zell out and retrieve the key for the sake of their magnificent, white queen.

"Hmm, you all want to bleed for me? How sweet of you. I promise that I'll make it great fun for the both of us,” Zell commented as he cast them bed room eye and placed a finger to his lips, striking a pose most notable of a cute school girl rather than a terrifying shinigami.

One of the men called out and held up his sword, ready to strike the shinigami, who jumped out of the way and swung his scythe, knocking the sword to the ground as the man uttered 'damn it' and looked disappointed in his attempt to capture the key. Zell simply turned around and blew him a kiss in mid air, his charcoal-colored locks flowed around him, amplifying his beauty.

"Good-bye!" Zell said with excitement as he drew back his scythe again and easily cut through the man's neck, slicing his head clean off of his body. The shinigami landed on the ground daintily and held the key up to his lips, giving it a small kiss. He glanced around at the other soldiers, who stood at a distance, their eyes on the strange man. "Anyone else want this baby?" The shinigami's voice dropped to a dark octave, promising pain to anyone who dared to persist from that point onward. More soldiers charged at him, clearly not getting the message. Zell's smile widened, revealing his triangular teeth. "Let's have a little fun, shall we?"

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"Ko! Don't worry! We'll get you free!" Zangetsu came in view of the girl and the white queen, who were accompanied by the dark angel.

"Zangetsu, everyone! You've got to help me! Azmy, she's-" Ko tried to warn her friends but before she could get another word in edgewise, her cage was hit by a powerful gust of wind. The broken bodies of several soldiers flew past her as she placed her hands over her head to shield herself from flying debris.

Through the smoke, Zell appeared with a hand on his hip, holding up the key with a devious smile. "Nothing like making a grand entrance," he looked over to see the ninja and his friend arriving on the scene and tossed the key over towards Zangetsu. "Here you go. Now you can save your little friend," he winked.

"Hm?" The ninja blinked in shocked and confusion as he caught the key.

"Why did you give it to him?" Chichiri's question was low as blue eyes glared at the ninja. Didn't they all know that he was more important? He was the one who loved that girl, so he should have been the one to free her. He clenched his fists tightly, his blonde hair shaded his eyes and his frown deepened, bearing his teeth with the bitterness he felt. "All of you just think I'm weak. Well, I'll show you."

Lurching forward, he grabbed the ninja's hands, trying to pry the key out of them. The two struggled back and forth. Zangetsu desperately tried to keep a hold of the key, but his small hands were weakening under the rock star's death grip. Chichiri had arms of steel, arms that were physically powerful whereas Zangtetsu was more made for speed. The fact that one of his arms had been turned into a wing by Serenande didn't help him much, either.

"What are you doing? We're supposed to be working together," Zangetsu didn't understand why it was so important who freed Ko. The objective was the same. Who cared who did it the result would be the same.

The blonde looked at him, his face marred with hatred and that little wink Zell gave pushed him over the edge. "I'm sick of everyone thinking I'm weak. I'm going to do this myself."

"Why does it matter who saves her? As long as she's safe," he didn't understand why Chichiri was so adamant about obtaining the key from her and being the one to unlock her cage. It made no sense for two allies to be fighting over something so trite.

"I'm not going to let you steal my glory. You think you're so much better than I am because you can fight and you have special powers, well you aren't!" Chichiro shouted at him as he continued to struggle against him.

Fife and Chichiri ran up, showing up before the queen and the conglomerate of their friends. Then, they noticed Fife and Chichiri playing tug of war with the key.

"My, looks like drama," Fife noted, not seeming too bothered with it. In fact, he was more amused than anything. It was pretty stupid for them to both be fighting over the key, but what did he know? He was simply a bystander.

"What are you guys doing?" Keiji was irritated with them, however. What were their problems?

"Ko only likes you because she felt sorry for you and she felt bad about what happened to your arm when we were at Serenande's place," Chichiri continued to deliver blows to the ninja, one by one. It wasn't fair that Ko showed any kind of kindness to this guy. At one point in time, they were enemies!

"I don't understand what you're talking about," Zangetsu protested and extended his wing, knocking the blonde off of him. "You're being simple-minded. This isn't about gaining glory or someone's affections; it's about defeating the white queen. Stop being so selfish. You'll only die if you go up against Azmy."

Chichiri whirled around, his blonde hair whipping around his face. "You could never understand how I feel. I love her and you won't stop that!" He shouted as he held his head. Those images sure did pick a bad time to start coming back. The pain sure picked the worst time to heighten to the point of driving him mad.

Fife folded his arms across his chest. "So, that's what this is all about?"

Keiji was taken aback by Chichiri's sudden confession. "What? Does he think Zangetsu loves Ko?"

"Ooh, it's a love triangle," the vampire teased with his usual smile.

Green eyes narrowed as he shot him the death glare, "shut up." Now wasn't the time to be too concerned with some sort of bullshit teenage drama.

Fife frowned. He was enjoying the comparison to his friend's emotional strife to that of a drama show. It was rather cute how the two of them fought to free the caged bird.

Ko watched the two, pupils trembling as she clutched the bars of the cage. Chichiri's words touched her to the point of flushing at those words that the blonde uttered. She had always known that Chichiri had been close to her, and it was true that she liked him as well, but she also was fond of the ninja as well. How did she get herself into these situations? 'What? Chichiri...likes me? Then...what does Zangetsu think?'

Azmy stood up and extended her hands outward. All around her, the background began to distort and swirl. Colors blurred into each other as the whole thing warped in a haunting howl. This act caused Chichiri to grab the sides of his hair even more, yelling in anguish as an incredible pain ripped through his senses.

Zangetsu turned to the blonde, who sunk to his knees, screaming. "Chichiri! What's wrong?"

"Even if you love her, there's nothing that you can do about it now. After I get that las key, this world will belong to me," Azmy's words were calm, despite the chaos going on around her as everyone frantically moved their heads around, gazing at the disfigured sky.

"It's beginning," Eclipse's face hardened as she glanced up at the warping and the colors churned and waved, blurring into each other at certain points.

Hiroshima teleported.

"Huh? Where did he go?" The woman questioned as she whirled around to see remnants of streaks of color where he once stood.

The angel appeared in front of Azmy, standing beside of Tsurugi with the Crimson drawn. He couldn't allow another warp in time to happen. Hiroshima had to stop Azmy's power somehow. "I won't let you do this!" He called out and attempted to charge her, but the girl waved her hand and his body propelled itself backwards, being belted by a burst of unseen energy. Ko screamed his name before his body crashed to the ground in a flurry of feathers.

"I will not allow you to stop me, Winged Boy," Azmy looked down at the fallen angel, who pulled himself from the ground, resting on his forearms.

"You may be in Azmy's body," Hiroshima grunted as he pulled himself completely up and stood erect, "but you are not her. You're just a puppet made by Soel."

Azmy showed minimal reaction to the angel's words, she simply frowned slightly and held up her hand. The thunderous sound of pieces of earth unhinging themselves from the ground filled the air with a rumble. They floated around the group in a massive display of tile and earth before they gravitated towards a swirling piece of sky. In the center of the swirl, a black light exploded forth and took on the shape of a typhoon. Instantly, the earth and tile were sucked into the massive, black vortex that had now shown itself. Gales rushed at the ground, attempting to pull them into the swirling presence. Each person tried their best to stand their ground as their clothes beat against their bodies.

"You're wrong. I'm much more than that. I have the power to distort time."

A silver eyebrow arched. "So, that's how she does it. Her kingdom is made of nothing but purgatory and lies. The time has come to show my true power," Charles removed his eye patch, sliding it down his face. He then opened his eyes and all of Azmy's minions slumped over instantly. Their bodies fell to the ground in crumpled heaps as Zangeif and Eclipse glanced around them to see their armies falling.

Above the field, Tsurugi flew and gazed around at the battlefield below. His eyes widened and he could feel it around him. It was powerful and the pressure around him was crushing. 'This power...This power is...'

"What the hell? They're all dead," Hiroshima's ice blue eyes darted around to all of the soldiers both black and white that laid across the field in disarray.

"What...What's going on?" Ko trembled. The feeling around her was nauseating and it took all of the gusto she had to keep from puking. It was the most horrible thing she's ever felt.

Soel appeared beside of her two minions, her face unchanging with the same void expression. However, her tone was serious and stern. "Zangeif, Eclipse, follow me. If we stick around, we too will succumb to his spell." As much as she hated to retreat, it was her only option. 'Even someone like myself cannot battle Prince Charles Grey's power.' Holding out her hand, she summoned a large, purple vortex that sucked all of them inside in a blur of color, vanishing them from Domina.

Chichiri was still knelt on the ground, screaming as unspeakable pain reeled through his brain, spreading throughout his body as he trembled. Zangetsu stood in front him, gripping his shoulders as he tried to desperately tried to snap him out of his spell. "Come on, snap out of it! What's wrong with you?"

"I can't...I can't do this anymore..." Chichiri whined.

The ninja was concerned. He gazed at his friend with worried eyes and his voice reflected those feelings. "What? What can't you do anymore?"

The blonde's voice was laced with fright as he continued to tremble below him. "I don't want to go through this hell anymore. I don't want to help Vespa."

Zangetsu gasped and nearly stumbled back, withdrawing his hands from the other male quickly. "What?"

"Make it stop. Make it stop!" Chichiri shouted, thrashing around as he continued to hold his head in his hands. Soel's magic was assaulting him, crushing him with pain and guilt.

Just then, he heard a voice shouting at him, telling him to shut up as Chichiri felt a chop to the point where his neck connected to his shoulder. This rendered the blond unconscious. Chichiri slumped over and laid on the ground, unmoving as Hiroshima stood above him. Cold, blue eyes stared down at his team mate. 'Soel did this to you. I'll make szure that she pays for this.'

"Why did you do that?" Zangetsu's eyes narrowed at the angel. He didn't have to knock him out so crassly.

"Something happened to him. Its better if he stays passed out. He'll just get himself killed," Chichiri was definitely unstable; to let him go on like that was asinine. In the end Hiroshima knew that it would only hurt him.

"It seems that Prince Charles used his special power," Zell's smile widened and his voice was tainted with amusement. Things could only get better from here.

"Charles' special power is to commit genocide?" Eve wondered aloud, casting a glance to the shinigami in question.

"Yes, actually. We have a very special job here."

Eve's tone darkened, "no one said that we were going to kill everyone in this world. I thought that you simply wanted to rule it. If I had known this, then I wouldn't have helped you." If there was one thing that the dark angel disliked, it was being used.

"You have it all wrong. We aren't the bad ones here," the shinigami's frown deepened. He didn't want any bad blood here. There were things that happened behind the scenes that she was unaware of.

"It is my job, and my job alone to take you all out," Azmy's voice cut through their conversation as she levitated off of the ground. She then glanced to the angel with black and white wings that stood before her. The girl's smile softened. "Hiroshima, my sweet angel, you'll soon be going back to your destined place." Turning her hand up with her palm facing the sky, she summoned her powers once more, causing the sky to spiral violently above them.

Hiroshima's facial features hardened. "The hell I will. My destined place is nowhere near you."

Zangetsu dashed towards Ko with a look of steely determination. Now was his time to act. 'Sorry Chichiri, I'm going to have to steal your glory for this one. You're not in the mental state to free her. For your sake, I'll set Ko free of her chains.' As he dashed to the cage, Azmy's eyes drifted to his form.

"I don't think so," the girl summoned a vortex second in front of him. Zangetsu ran into the magic and was dropped beside of Hiroshima, landing with a thud on the ground.

Blinking, the stunned ninja sat on the ground with his knees bent and his hands propping him up. "What happened?"

"She distorts time, didn't you hear her? She can make rips, vortexes and portals. She just used a vortex to send you right back here," Hiroshima knew the girl's game. He knew exactly what she was aiming for.

The ninja looked up at his angelic companion. "Then, how do we defeat her?"

"Let me try something," the angel stepped in front of his fallen comrade and launched his Phantom Corkscrew attack. The beam with a spiral around it headed towards the girl, who only placed her hand in front of her and commanded another vortex, which sucked the attack into it. Another vortex opened up beside of Zell, who screamed in a high-pitched manner and evaded the attack by dodging to the side. He barely escaped in time as the white beam as it shot past him. His eyes narrowed. "That's what I thought."

Zell clenched his fists up to his face, offended that his darling would manipulate him in such a way. "Don't use me as a guinea pig!"

'There's got to be a way around those vortexes.' Charles thought to himself from the sidelines as he watched the events unfold before him.

"This is bad," Zangetsu stood up.

"I can null her vortexes with my own, but where she makes them appear is sporadic." It was the one thing that Fife couldn't get about her magic. There was no way to truly predict her unpredictable powers and in that aspect, he wouldn't be effective at combating it.

"I also can't read her mind because she's dead. I can see into her soul but I can't process her thoughts," Hiroshima couldn't even attempt to get a grasp on her powers either. She was an anomaly of mystery and unpredictability.

"I could get her for you then," Zell stepped up with his hand on his scythe. The shinigami launched himself into the air, heading towards the girl. "Prepare to face me! You know that you can't get away."

"Stay back!" Azmy commanded, holding her hand up and creating more vortexes. However, the shinigami just phased through them as if they were nothing. Her magic had no effect on him. Her eyes widened slightly. She was certain that she could have sucked him into them. "What? How can you-"

Zell's visage turned deviantly, amused. "It's simple my dear, I'm a shinigami," the man landed on her throne, and the levitating girl was pushed back into her plush chair. The shinigami's feet landed on the arm rests. The shinigami swung his scythe down but the girl ducked between his legs and quickly crawled away as the blade dug into the cushions. The girl picked up her dress and quickly ran over towards Ko's cage, where the girl was still confined. Azmy nearly made her way over to the cage, but accidentally stepped on one of the many layers of petticoat that lay beneath her dress. Stumbling, the girl's tiny form crashed to the floor in a bundle of ruffles, lace and layers at the caged girl's feet.

Zangetsu managed to open the door and was attempting to pry the shackles from the girl's feet. Then, Zangetsu took Ko's hand and told her that they had to get out of there. The white-haired prisoner climbed on the winged-ninja's back.

"I thought you'd never get me out of that birdcage," Ko's words reached his ear as he performed replacement and disappeared as all of the dead bodies flew past them, being sucked into the giant vortex in the sky. The bodies tumbled like rag dolls being tossed to the side carelessly as they were lifted into the spiraling magic and pulled into the black and purple abyss, never to return.

Zangetsu appeared beside of Eve, who seemed unaffected by the vortex or any of the chaos going on around her. Despite it all, she was very serene. He cast her a knowledgeable gaze and nodded. "Ko's safe now."

Charles smiled slightly, "how wonderful." Just then the key that Ko had been wearing around her neck dissolved into a mere patch of sparkles. The girl's eyes widened as the ribbon that once held it felt slack around her neck.

"My key!" Ko's eyes darted over to the other girls who's eyes vanished in a similar fashion.

It was now time to act. Zell jumped down and landed in front of Ko. "Don't worry; the key went to a good place." He was sure to reassure her of that.

"Huh? Do you work for the Black King?" Ko asked.

The shinigami's smile widened. "Yes, I do. My name is Zell and I am King Charles personal knight."

"King Charles?" The white-haired girl cocked her head.

Suddenly, Azmy let out an ear-piercing scream that caused everyone's attention to be directed towards the small girl. There, against the high back of the throne, the girl was pinned with a scythe inserted into her heart. Blood flowed from her chest, staining the pristine white of her royal dress. On the other end of the blade was none other than King Charles who was perched on the seat of her throne.

"Why? I don't...understand..." Azmy said weakly as blood trickled down the side of her mouth.

"It's my job. That's what Vespa wanted me to do, and now I shall destroy Domina."

...To Be Continued