Kuro: A Land in Eternal Night

Chapter 18.3: Answers

Mina looked back at Vannah. Over the course of their journey, Vannah had been a comfort. True, the priestess often had an odd side that she glimpsed from time to time, but at least she had been sure Vannah was a force for good. Now Mina did not quite know who to trust. Even Mykall, the gentle warrior, had a past she did not know much about. Who was he, after all?

"You remember nothing?" It was Enma's rumbling voice again.

"I have flashes of memory, nothing that ties anything together." The warrior's reply was calm, steady, unfazed now by the towering demon.

"Time is running out, for us." Vannah's voice cut into the conversation.

"Aye," Enma immediately agreed. "It is already too late, whorelet." The demon turned his head about in different directions, the paper seal bearing the characters of Tsukuyomi's name forming a mold over his face. "Already I can feel their presence. Shakryss in great numbers, far greater than I have seen, even in my time. You feel it too, yes. As one of us."

Vannah nodded grimly. "Feel it I do, and something else."

A low rumbling chuckle came from the demon, his mirth echoing throughout the cave.

"Yes. My brother, he is here. I sense his presence. Mikaboshi lives. That Amaterasu lives matters not, Mikaboshi's presence is stronger." The demon turned to Vannah.

"How will you respond to this, Dark Priestess? Your folly will cost you. Kuro will fall this time," Enma's deep booming laughter resounded through the caves.

Vannah turned to Mina. "He is right. Already I can feel the voices calling out to me. I may fight for the light, but in the end, I am darkness. I cannot win." The Dark Priestess looked down, her slit eyes, normally cold and calculating, turning sad again.

"Our hope lies with you, little one..." Vannah's voice was soft as a whisper. "You must find Amaterasu. Surely she calls out to you. Surely you hear her voice, as surely as I hear the dark voices of my brethren."

Mina shook her head. "I don't know. I've suppressed this part of myself for too long. Maybe long ago, as a child, I may have heard her, heard a voice that stirred in my heart. Sadly, I can no longer hear that voice."

"Where else should we look, Dark Lord?" Vannah asked Enma.

"Where else?" The demon chuckled. "You know the answer to that already. But in five hundred years, you have never ventured forth into that land. As a Demonblood, you share our fear now of the sea. You will not cross it willingly. But that land possesses something that allows it to survive without the Goddess Essence. That means they have something else."

"A God, a Vessel, or both." Vannah was now deep in thought. She turned to Mykall and Mina.

"Mystika is a land of secrets. It has closed itself off from the rest of Kuro. I do not know if the force that watches over it is Dark or Light. But we must take the risk. We must travel to the Island Kingdom. It may be possible to find an ally there."

"How do we cross the sea?" It was Mykall's turn to ask the questions. "Does Umi have seafaring folk? Could a sailor be persuaded to travel to Mystika?"

Mina shook her head. "None will venture out to the Great Darkness to get to the Island Nation; that much even I know. No human in Taiyou will want to leave the safety of the Boundary of Light."

Mykall looked puzzled, so Vannah explained further. "On the ocean, at the edge of Taiyou, exists a natural barrier made from the Goddess Essence. The Boundary of Light is the farthest point the Goddess' benevolence reaches. Sailors do not venture past it. Trade and travel between the nations is done only through the air, aboard the flying Kite units, inventions of Diskarma Corporation."