Kuro: A Land in Eternal Night

Chapter 26.3: Fated Meeting

Mykall looked around. "I do not like this. The dark presence has become stronger."

Vannah nodded. "Aye, they have stopped trying to hide themselves. They mean to engage us."

The demon Enma offered no response to that. Only the eerie smile on Searra's lips betrayed the cruel pleasure it was taking in all this.

The warrior was up instantly, taking Mina by the hand and leading her out of the Izakaya. The two priestesses followed behind, Vannah with her unsteady half-limping gait, leaning on her staff, Searra following meekly behind, head bowed, like a steady shadow, her hand holding on to Vannah's arm affectionately, like a sister would. The demon knew how to be cruel. The arm-holding was an especially painful touch. It was only when she walked that Vannah appeared fragile, unsure, and weak. Beyond the physical, there was nothing that remotely resembled weakness in the Dark Priestess's demeanor.

As they stepped outside the door, Mykall hastily whispered, "Can we avoid a confrontation? Many innocents will be harmed."

Vannah looked behind her and then back at the warrior. "I do not think that is up to us. If we can lose our pursuers, we must find Ellie back here again." She turned to Mina. "Whatever happens, do not reveal your true nature unless absolutely necessary. It will be far easier for you to escape unnoticed should they succeed in taking us."

They were walking swiftly now, moving away from the danger at the Izakaya. The streets were starting to empty. The Light Spires in many of the homes were slowly going out. The Slumber was approaching. They were about thirty steps away when a group of figures emerged from the Izakaya as well. Mina glanced behind, fast enough to catch a glimpse of silver. Silver hair! It was the same woman she had seen briefly, back when she was captive to the Marauders. The leader cast her hood off, revealing a beautiful face, with intense silver eyes. She looked like a goddess, a stunning vision in the low-light darkness of Umi.

"Brace yourselves, here it comes!" Vannah hissed.

The woman with the silver hair slowly pointed at the swiftly fleeing group. A bolt of what looked like pure lightning shot from her fingertips, closing the distance between them instantly. Searra moved swiftly, far swifter than even the warrior could. The demon put itself protectively between the bolt and Vannah, absorbing the bolt of light, dissipating it, or perhaps assimilating it, Mina could not really tell. Searra's cloak was burnt where the bolt struck, but the demon was otherwise unharmed.

Then Mina heard a curious sound in the darkness: a rich, hearty laugh from the leader of their pursuers. "So the stories are true, after all. All my life I had wondered if my memories lied to me that dreadful day. It has taken me a lifetime to find you again."

"Who are you?" Vannah asked, her pale countenance almost luminescent in the darkness. Her eyes were slits again, a sign that the Dark Priestess was displeased.

"Do you not remember, Dark Priestess? Do you not recall, the lives you snuffed out, the childhood you stole from me?"

"Many lives I have taken, but those with the curse of the silver hair, aye, I do remember. The Silverstaths were a danger to everyone. I regret that I missed a childing and let it survive this long."

"Yes. Thanks to you, I am the last of my kind. I, Felicia Silverstath, will show you how I came to be known as the Silver Witch."

More bolts of lightning shot from Felicia's hands this time.

Vannah turned to the group. "Brace yourselves. This is not going to be like the other battles we have had. We face demons this time." The wind howled in the air as the bits of earth swirled around them in response to Felicia's power.

"The Silverstaths have a special ability, "Vannah continued. "They can take their neurons, spark the synapses, and create mental storms of manifested psychic energy, virtually limitless and un-reliant upon the Goddess Essence."

The electricity lit up everything around them as Felicia manifested her energies.

Vannah smiled, unfazed at the show of power. "A century ago, for reasons unexplained, the Silverstath clan pledged their allegiance to the Yami. Your clan tasted the tainted blood. As a Silverstath, Yami blood courses through your veins. You are a Demonblood, same as I."

Felicia's silver eyes glittered like a fox's, her lips twisted in a cruel smile. "Is that why you hunted us down? For doing the same thing you have done? That is quite the hypocrisy."

It was not the same thing, child!" Vannah snarled. "Had I a choice back then, I would not have chosen the fate that has befallen me. Furthermore, your mother was... special." Vannah paused. "The seventh child of the seventh child of the Mother-Witch. It had been prophesied that such a child, were it to taint further with the Yami, would produce an abomination so great it would bring the land to its knees."

Felicia shook her head, tears forming, the cruel eyes showing weakness for the first time. "My mother rebelled against the prophecy! She refused to take part in the ritual that would have created the ultimate being, the one with the power of both light and shadow." She paused, visibly upset. "She had wanted to live a normal life."

"It matters not child!" Vannah hissed. "It was a threat I could not let pass. Not with the Yami growing as strong as it was."

"It was murder!"

"It was my justice child," Vannah said, calmly and coldly and Mina's blood froze and boiled at the same time.

A long silence passed as the two parties reached a stalemate. At this time Mina was not sure she was on the good side, and the far simpler sense of justice that had been instilled in her by Joab was suddenly put to the test. Who was the evildoer in this scenario? Was it the pursuer, who had no doubt done evil deeds herself, who represented a government that had taken countless innocent lives? Or perhaps it was the fugitive that stood alongside her, a tantalizing enigma of both light and dark – a priestess who fought in the name of light, but whose cursed nature and ambiguous morals led her to take the lives of the innocent, perpetuating a cycle of hate that spanned generations. Mina hated Vannah at that very moment.

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It's the Final Battle, and the Stakes are High! Demonblood vs Demonblood, Demon vs Demon, Demon vs Light Knight, and Demon vs The Maiden.

Who will win? ;)