Zero No Tsukaima Fan Fiction ❯ Zero no Tsukaima: Descension ❯ Chapter 2

The Tide

 

Seth opens up the windows to his house to let in some of the nice early morning air into his house. His son has already woken up and has gone out side to play, while Seth checks on the supplies and amount of fire wood that he has left for cooking, eating, bathing, and pretty much everything else. He frowns when he looks at the pile of wood his has left outside in a triangular pile beside his house.

His son runs up to him and raps his arms around Seth's leg, “Dad are you going to get fire wood today?”

Seth smiles and ruffles his son's hair, “Yup, looks like it.” Seth picks up the axe that is resting against the house and rests it on his shoulder and grabs the handle to the cart he uses to carry the wood, “You wanna come with me?” The boy shakes his head and runs back in the house, “Alright then I'll be back in about an hour, you stay outta of trouble.” Seth turns and walk out into the forest leaving his son to play. After about ten minutes of walking Seth stops and removes the leather cover on the axe and lightly cuts a slit in the tree so he can aim. He brings the axe back like a baseball bat and his arm begins to glow from under his tee-shirt. With a mighty swing Seth cuts half way into the tree, “Shit.” He spits on the ground and looks at his axe handle sticking out of the tree trunk. Two years ago he'd have cleaved the tree in two with one swing. Seth draws his fist back and his about to swing forward when he hears his son screaming.

Seth sprints back his house leaving the axe in the tree and the cart. Seth skids to a stop in front of his house four men are standing defiantly before him. All of them are dressed similarly each of them are wearing skin tight black sleeveless shirts and black pants. Each of them have different accessories showing their 'skills'.

The first man is easily seven feet tall and his crimson mohawk stands out against the blue sky. His arms are almost as big as the tree Seth just tried to cut through. Tucked under his belt are what appear to be brass knuckles but the outer part of the knuckles at tipped like a knife.

The man beside him has four horizontal scars running from his left check to the right side of his nose. His brown hair is spike to the side like he had slept on it. He is wearing a glove on his right hand that has four retracted blades on top of the middle of his hand. He is smirking.

The third man is hunched over and his face is wrinkled and worn from age and apparently fighting. His hair is mostly gone except the wiry white beard on his face. He is holding a walking stick that Seth can only speculate is either a magic wand or a concealed weapon.

The fourth man has short black hair that has been pushed back and a few pieces rest slightly up off his head. His eyes are narrow and a red triangular tattoo runs from his jaw to the middle of his left cheek. Strapped to his back is a broad sword that has apparently been cut off since instead of coming to a point, the weapon abruptly ends and is squared off. Out of all the men Seth is the most worried about him.

The old man coughs a few times and then clears his throat, “Hello Seth.”

“Who are you, where is my son?”

The man smiles and looks Seth over, “He is safe for now, and as for who we are, well that isn't very important right now.”

“Tell me who you are now!”

The old man starts gagging and coughing again and the narrow eyed man walks over to him and puts his hand on the old man's shoulder signaling for him to step back. “We are called the Tide.”

Seth can't remember ever hearing about a group called the Tide, “I've never heard of you, you must be pretty new.”

The man runs his hand through his hair and flattens out a few hair while some other take the place of the flattened ones, “Don't fool yourself into believing you know anything about the Tide. We have been around since the beginning of this world. Working in the shadows allowing things to happen, not allowing things to happen.....causing things to happen. Now the Tide has decided to come out of the shadows and cause something new to happen.”

“So you are just like all those other evil people that I've stopped before. You are just looking to take control of the world.”

Seth lowers into a fighting stance but the big man shakes his head and picks up a chuck of wood, “If you are thinking about getting frisky maybe you should think about what a house falling in on you would feel like.”

The narrow eyed man smiles and looks over at his large friend, “I think you made him angry Toro.”

The big man lets out a bellowing laugh, “Kiza maybe you should finish telling him who we are so he'd understand the situation he is in.”

The narrow eyed man, Kiza, looks back at Seth and crosses his arms, “The Tide is interested in you, the left arm of God.”

Seth stands up straight and glares at Kiza, “I don't think you understand who I am.”

“You are the leader of the Holy Knights, the leader of the Queen of Tristain's Secret Service. You are from the plant Earth in a different dimension and you poses the power of the left arm of God.” Kiza raises an eyebrow, “Anything I missed?”

Seth glares back at him, “I have stopped five groups claiming they were going to destroy the world in the seven plus years I have been in this world.”

“Ah yes, the Prism Gang was the first to fall because you couldn't keep you nose out of other people's business. You interfered and they burned down Strine Village killing many people including the leader of the village, your late wife's brother.” Kiza walks over to a stump and sicks down on it and looks up at Seth, “The Tide forgave you for that digression though we became increasingly annoyed with you when you killed Prism himself.”

“Your group got mad at me for killing an evil man?”

“Under the leadership of Prism and his minions the country of Tristain would have entered a new stage of evolution. The crown would become nothing and a powerful new government run by a group of people would have brought Tristain into a new age of prosperity.”

“Are you saying that once Prism destroyed the Kingdom of Tristain he'd simply would have allowed the country to be ruled by a governing body of many people? I fought that man and I've seen what he could and would do, he was a mad man and the world is better without him.”

Kiza lets his head fall and he begins to laugh, “You don't seem to listen very well. Once Prism defeated the royalty of Tristain the Tide would have taken care of him and pulled the strings behind the scene to get the right people in power. Just like the death of Prince Wales, he wasn't ideal for Albion and he had to be taken care of.”

Seth closes his fists tight, “You are the ones that cause the Prince to be killed.”

“Not directly.....”

Seth can't believe what this man is saying to him, “You group are just a bunch of opportunists for evil. You would have allowed Prism to take over Tristain and you took part in the scheme to kill the future king of Albion.”

“Well if you'd have just minded your own business. The Tide watched you from a distance when you started to defeat Prism's men, but when you formed the Holy Knights with the other warriors of God we became very interested. We even gave that foolish would be king the resources to form his own dark army and you defeated him. Completely ruining everything.”

“Are you saying that you have been there the whole time I have been fighting to protect this world, you have been the reason for all the wars I had to fight. What good would it have been if we lost against the dark army all those years ago!?”

“With an evolving threat in the north Tristain, Albion, Romalia, and Gallia would have joined forces and decimated the dark army. With their leaders all together they would have realized that as separate countries they are weak. This would cause them to begin peace talks and eventually would have the same effect as Prism taking over Tristain only on a large scale. Because you and your friends defeated the dark army once again the world's evolution was stopped dead in it's tracks.” Kiza stands up and cracks his neck, “The Tide began to watch you very closely after that.” He walks halfway to Seth and stops, holding out his hand, “The Tide would like you to join us as we step out of the shadows to force this world to enter the age of prosperity that we have all hoped for.”

Seth looks at all the men, they truly believe in what Kiza had said, “I won't join you.”

Kiza turns his back to Seth, “I see. Well there are other ways to bring out the demon.”

The man with the scars across his face sprints at Seth. Seth swings at the man and just as his fist is about to connect with the man's jaw he dodges the attack at cuts into Seth's cheek with his claws. Seth puts his hand up to his face only one cut, the man chuckles as he lifts his hand revealing that he only had one of the claws out. Seth didn't dodge anything he with struck dead on. The scared man points behind Seth and he turns just as Toro slams the club like chunk of wood he had picked up into Seth's side lifting him off the ground and crashing down to the ground. Seth tries to sit up but a sharp pain in his side stops him as he looks at his side as his shirt begins to turn red from the wound that has begun to bleed. He grits his teeth and stands up but the man with the scars sprints behind him and cuts him multiple times with different claw combinations, each cut is slightly different from the one before it because he is using a different claw or he is using them at a different length. Seth falls to the ground his back is bleeding profusely but a majority of the cuts are shallow and as a whole not life threatening with proper treatment. Seth looks up as the old man comes out of his house with Seth's song draped over his shoulder unconscious. Seth almost gets to his feet but the man with the claw glove cuts open the back of his leg and it folds under him.

The old man, Toro, and the man with the claw glove walk away as Kiza kneels down in front of Seth, “We'll be in touch.” Kiza stands back up and walks away following the other three men.

Rain begins to fall as Seth slips into unconsciousness.