Chapter twelve: It Lights up the Night sky

"My dear-sweet-Reina, haven't you ever heard of a lie?"

She just stands there in shock as the sun finally decides to hide beneath the horizon completely. I can barely hear the words slip past her mostly shut lips, "A-lie?..."

I place my hand on her shoulder with worry. "Reina?"

Another disturbing chortle comes from Vensen and recaptures my attention as he smiles at her with his callous grin. "Now she gets it." He then turns back to the crowd and unleashes a breath of orange flames onto the first row of people.

The others scream and run away from the scene. Some hide away into their homes as a barricade while others scurry hurriedly over to the village walls for an escape. I see mothers grabbing their children and carrying them off into the dark of night as a way to protect them from this grey mad-man. The old and weary are guided away from the flames as well while some are even carried by strong young men. The ones who are engulfed in the fire cry out in agony as the orange inferno eats away at their flesh with sizzlings and snaps of cackles.

Ruus is quick to stand up with a dagger in hand. "You vile fiend!" He steps onto the stump with speed and thrusts the dagger towards Vensen's jugular.

Vensen easily stops the blade by grabbing Ruus's wrist. The tip pierces his skin at the gullet just enough to allow a small creek of red blood trickle down. His black smile stays plastered on his bony face as he responds in his sickening way, "What's the matter, don't you like the color of hell? I think it's a lovely shade."

I then hear the sound of bones being crushed from where they're standing as Ruus bellows in agony and loses his grip on the weapon.

Vensen shoves his elbow into Ruus's chest and forces him off the base once again, letting him crash to the ground.

Ruus cringes in pain as he clings to his arm.

Reina and I quickly tend to him as Vensen uses his distraction to step down from the stub and walk towards the fleeting mass.

As I stand over Ruus, the burning light behind me illuminates the night sky. This is all happening too fast. When I kneel down close to him he pulls me in closer with his good hand. "Please, do whatever you can to stop him. I'll find Mueimma and get something from the shrine."

"You have a shrine here?" I ask him

"Go!"

I stand back up to my feet and address my response to Reina, "You go and help him, it wouldn't be good for him to be alone."

"Then what about you, Vila?" She replies.

"No, the both of you need to stall him, I can manage," Ruus says as he sits up while looking to the village. "Now go."

Reina helps him to his feet before the two of us head into the village and go after Vensen.

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The warm breeze produced by the wind mixing in with the flames catches the hems of his dark robe and long hair as his bare feet take their time walking through the village. A black and devilish grin is snug on his grey skin as his dark hair drapes down his back and fades in with the night while riding upon the fiery gust. Vensen projects his sweet phrase with a disturbingly smooth sway to his voice, "Why do you shy from me little sheep? I only wish for us to be friends!" His lips pucker up to blow out another burst of flames onto one of the houses and sends the village into a deeper inferno.

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Some of the residents manage to stampede their way over to the west entrance of Erekinxon only to be trapped by a jammed gateway.

"What's going on?!" One of the guards exclaims. "The lever won't budge!"

Another guard answers him as he stares at the flames that scatter across the sub-city, "I'll go see what's jamming the system, you go and evacuate-" the soldier turns to see a tall man thrust his flattened hand to his comrade's throat and leaving a bloody gash. He pulls out his two-handed sword and lunges at the intruder with the tip closing in towards Vensen.

The forged iron quickly and easily pierces Vensen's gut, but the blood seeping out of him wraps around the soldier and begins to tear through his flesh like teeth. The blood consumes him until it is satisfied with the top half of the man and then recedes back into Vensen, allowing the lower half to fall limply onto the ground with the corresponding armor that's left.

Vensen turns to face the new group of soldiers who rushed over with their weapons ready and closing in on him. His grin widens a little from their trembling forms. "Such good men, standing your ground until your untimely demise." Without a blink from them, he moves swiftly like a lightning bolt across the mass.

The men fall back to the stone floor like rag-dolls as their heads fall behind with a slash in their throats from decapitation. Red and rich liquid spills all over the stone wall from the soldiers like little creeks down the walkway from the first man all the way towards where Vensen stands with disembodied heads scattered around. Now there are only a few men who quake at his sight before him. In a panic the remaining turn and start running away from Vensen as an attempt to escape from him.

He makes another quick dash towards them and slices their achille tendons to impede them.

All three of the men fall on their faces, two make one last attempt by crawling, and the other is able to stand. He hops a few feet before attempting to climb over the bricked railing, falling to his death. Not too far in does an unknown force pierce into his backside through his armor like a pair of claws and slams him into the wall.

This captures the attention of the people as the man shouts and squirms in fright.

Vensen casually walks to the two other men crawling away and raises both hands to form dark blades. He holds them properly and throws both into the backs of the soldiers to kill them. He then goes over to the exact spot where the last man jumped and continues with mutilating him. The invisible force from Vensen scrapes him upwards with his feet pointing towards the sky and then lifts him from the semi-sturdy bulwark. The man is raised higher into the air and is rammed into the wall again with a force strong enough to leave a crack in it and damage his armor.

A very small amount of life is left in the man while he's being dragged up the wall again upside down and is met with Vensen face to face before his head is pulled downwards. The force on his head eventually causes the skin around his neck to tear and splits open with the spine tailing out in a bloody shower.

Vensen allows the pieces of the body to fall directly from where it was hanging and looks over the igneous landscape. In a calm manner, he says to himself, "I wonder what's taking her so long."

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Euna and Hiroko run through the house as a continuation of their game from earlier in laughter. Hiroko dashes away from Euna and closely passes Kakashin while he reads from the fresh papers in his hands in the hallway.

He manages to dodge the two weasels and calls to them, "You two shouldn't be running around in such a small space."

The children immediately run up to him with their unhappy faces.

"How about a, 'Hi, I'm back' huh?" Euna states bluntly.

Kakashin raises an eyebrow to her notion.

Hiroko accounts, "You missed dinner tonight, Yamato wasn't very happy about it."

The two cross their arms and give him disciplinary faces.

His blank and sullen stare overcomes them as he replies, "Ah, that." Kakashin turns towards a window as he continues his next line, "He knew I wouldn't be there for supper so he-" a bright orange light in the distance from the window disrupts his attention.

The children look to see it as well and run up to the window for a better view.

"Hey sis, what do you think that is?" Hiroko asks her as the two are fixated on the immense glow.

"I don't know," She responds.

"That children," Kakashin starts as he walks up to the window and looks over them, "Is the sight of a great fire at night."

The children suspire in awe with unity.

"It kinda lights up the night sky," Hiroko mentions supposedly to himself.

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