Chapter 3

With the hole in the sky complete things began to emerge and fall towards the city. Yuha had a hard time seeing what exactly was coming out of the hole but they looked Like balls of flesh and bone. As the flesh balls collided with the seemingly endless feathers they let out horrible grating sounds as they were annihilated. Before the next wave of flesh creatures could barrage the array hundreds of massive birds flew into the sky to Intercept the flesh balls.

"Rhui, take your sister and return to the palace," Their mother ordered with a stern tone. Before Rhui could respond her mother and father flew into the sky towards the massive hole. Rhui turned around to take Yuha back only to find Yuha gone. This damn brat! She cursed to herself.

Yuha was running through the city as the people were preparing for battle. One could see a bloody battle in the sky above as different monstrosity were emerging from the hole in the sky. Yuha arrived at the city square and quickly climbed onto the statue in the center of the square. Looking around she saw that the people were calmly grouping up and preparing for battle. As she was looking around a voice called out.

"Princess! What are you doing here?" A guard yelled up towards Yuha.

"I'm going to help with the defense of the city," Yuha replied causing the guard to break out into a cold sweat.

"Your highness I don’t think that's a good idea!" The guard yelled feeling nervous.

"Nonsense it's in my blood to be a great warrior! Plus if the city falls I'll have to fight anyways," Yuha stated as she jumped off the statue. The guard was beginning to panic at the rashness of the princess.

"Princess please return to the palace! You will only cause everyone to worry," the guard said trying to convince Yuha. Seeing the guards grim face Yuha also became serious.

"Fine, I'll return," Yuha said understanding the severity of the situation. The guard let out a sigh of relief as he hurried off to his post. As Yuha was making her way back to the palace the battle in the sky was becoming increasingly intense. Yuha frowned as the array was still being bombarded despite the cities defender’s best efforts. Before Yuha could reach the palace she was thrown to the ground by a sudden shock wave. Quickly picking herself up she looked into the sky.

The array had been breached! Yuha became grim as the situation had taken a turn for the worse. The massive flesh balls began crashing down into the city. Rushing towards the palace she heard the sounds of pandemonium engulf the city. Yuha galvanized her blood causing her speed to skyrocket. Suddenly a screech filled the air as a monstrous creature charged at Yuha.

"Die!" Yuha yelled as a silver fiendish aura engulfed her hand. The aura solidified into a claw that she swung towards the creature. The creature thrust out a long boney claw that dripped with a vicious looking liquid. The two claws collided causing a loud explosion. The result was that Yuha was thrown back obviously overpowered. Before Yuha could react the beast was already upon her slashing with its wicked claws. Drawing power from her blood Yuha performed a fiend art.

Opening her mouth a stream of starlight erupted out smashing into the beast forcing it back. Yuha retreated as she caught her breath obviously exhausted. Yuha looked at the beast and frowned as what little damage was done was healing at a visible rate. Feeling her strength waning she figured that she only had enough blood energy for one more fiend art.

The beast now fully recovered leaped at Yuha with its maw opened wide. Yuha focused as she prepared to unleash her fiend art but before she could a streak of golden flame slammed into the beast throwing it into a building. Seeing were they flame had come from caused Yuha to became excited.

"Sister!"

Rhui landed next to Yuha and looked her over in concern. "Yuha things are bad we need to retreat to the palace."

Yuha looked down before responding meekly. "Yes, sister."

As they turned to leave the beast emerged from the rubble of the building perfectly intact. Before the beast could react Rhui hurled a flaming spear impaling the beast. Howling in pain the beast thrashed around before being incinerated into ash.

With the monster dead Rhui and Yuha began making their way back to the palace. They were lucky in that no other creatures had landed near them. As they reached the palace gate a person was standing in front of the gate. Ad they got closer the recognized thr person as their mother.

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Seeing the two approach their mother began to speak. "We are going to lose. You must take Yuha to the ancestor’s temple. Our bloodline must live on you know what to do," after speaking she handed something to Rhui and faded away.

Taking the item Rhui turned to Yuha. "You heard the message mother left we have to go to the temple."

"What did she give you and why did she mention me carrying on the bloodline?"

"We don't have time, we have to go," Rhui said as she grabbed Yuha and began rushing towards the temple. As the approached the temples a pressure descended causing Rhui to stop. Space twisted as a small hole opened up in front of them. A being emerged from the portal in a hurried pace. It looked similar to a man in size but was a grotesque mockery of a human being. Its limbs were elongated with bulging squirming muscles. Its hands were much larger than a human with razor looking claws. Its spine extended out and split into three lashing tails. The most disturbing of all was the head. Its head seemed to be made of wax as tentacles made of flesh moved all-around with a single black eye that stared unthinkingly at the two girls.

"Join us. We welcome. Become us. Transform. Become superior," the words entered straight into the sister’s head causing them to recoil in horror.

Yuha looked horrified as she looked at Rhui. "Sister, did you also hear it?" Rhui nodded her head not taking her eyes off the creature.

Dense golden flames surrounded Rhui as she prepared for battle. "Yuha, stay back you can't handle this creature," Rhui said as she rushed the creature. Rhui thrust out a palm causing a swarm of flaming birds to form. The swarm of birds flew at the creature. With little effort, the creature dodged the birds with inhuman movements.

"So weak. Join. Become strong."

"Get out of my head," Rhui roared as translucent golden wing sprouted from her back. Soaring into the sky she spread her wing wide. "Fiend art- Seven sun fall,"

Seven golden orbs formed around Ruhi. With a flick of her wrist the golden orbs flew towards the beast. As they got closer the orbs began to expand and become unstable. Unable to dodge the growing orbs the creature was swallowed. Once all the orbs had reached the limit they all exploded causing a pillar of flame to rise into the sky.

"So weak. Must become us. Only path."

Seeing the monster unscathed Rhui looked grim before becoming calm and letting out a small smile. "Weak huh? We will see about that." As she spoke her aura underwent a dramatic transformation. Two long feathers grew from her head reaching down her back.

Yuha looked in shock at the transformation. "Royal plumage!"

"You can go die now," Rhui said before vanishing. She appeared in front of the creature and threw a simple punch but at speeds far exceeding her previous ability. The creature unable to dodge was struck causing half of its body to disintegrate.

"Futile. Pathetic. Join." Echoed in their head as the creature regenerated in the blink of an eye. Rhui frowned seeing the creature unharmed. The creature then leaped towards Rhui. Seeing the creature rushing at her Rhui smirked and raised her hand. With a flick of her wrist, a torrent of flame shot out engulfing the creature. Faster than a blink of an eye the beast was gone with not even ash remaining.

Rhui returned to her normal form with a breath of relief. "If it could regenerate I had to destroy it so nothing remained," Rhui explained to Yuha.

"I can't believe you kept your royal plumage a secret! Here I was thinking I was catching up to you!" Yuha said with a pout. Rolling her eyes Rhui grabbed Yuha and continued racing towards the palace. As they approached the palace they noticed a figure standing in front of the gate.

"Mother!" Both Rhui and Yuha shouted as they came to a stop.

"This is just a projected message as I am still engaged in battle. My daughters, we are losing this battle. Once the array fully breaks we will not be able to hold on. Rhui we must preserve our bloodline. Take your sister to the ancestor’s temple and activate the ancient array. This will ensure that a seed will remain. If we are not fated to meet again know that I love you, my precious daughters," Their mother spoke before fading away with tears glistening in her eyes.

"Mother! What does she mean? I didn't understand half of what she was saying!" Yuha said turning to Rhui.

Rhui grabbed Yuha and began dragging her into the palace. "Answer me!" Yuha yelled while being drug deeper into the palace.

Rhui looked grim and sad as she looked at Yuha before speaking. "We are running away."

"What do you mean by that? How can we escape and why should we? We should be fighting alongside father and mother!" Yuha said while trying to pull away.

"Stop acting like a spoiled brat!" Rhui growled as she continued dragging Yuha deeper into the palace. They finally reached the ancestor’s temple located deep underground. The temple was imposing with a tyrannical aura emanating from it. They walked up to the stone doors that were sealed shut.

"How do we open it? Do we use our blood?" Yuha asked. This caused Rhui to roll her eyes.

"So our enemy could capture one of us or use a corpse to gain access? Remember this Yuha. While we may have strong bodies and a potent bloodline our soul is the true root of our strength as our ancestors started out as soul beasts that gained physical bodies later on. So the only way to open the temple is to inject your soul essence into the temple," Rhui said as she placed her hand on the stone door. The large stone doors silently slid to the side revealing the interior.

Inside was a floating black and silver feather. Below the feather was a complicated engraving that seemed to be engraved with powdered gemstones. Before they could enter the temple a crack in space appeared in front of them. Out of the crack stepped a humanoid figure that had been grotesquely warped. It had one eye that swam around its clay-like skin and a mouth that was simply a black hole. In its clawed hand, it held a jagged bone sword that was covered in dried ancient blood.

"You think you can escape from the inevitable? How foolish. We knew of your escape route for so long. Now you fall into the trap," the hideous monster hissed. Rhui became shrouded in golden light as the royal plumage appeared.

"Yuha get to that feather once I attack," Rhui transmitted using her fiend essence. Yuha shook her head as silver starlight wrapped around her as she prepared for battle. The warped man began emitting a disgusting aura that seemed unnatural. Yuha felt her blood boil as she felt endless rage overtake her. The silver light turned grey and ghastly. A similar transformation was happening to Rhui as her golden light became grey and more violent.

"Yes, you are the ones that must become one of use. Once you feel the oneness you will kneel," the disgusting man screeched. Rhui seeing Yuha becoming overwhelmed by her rage grabbed her and threw her towards the black and silver feather while simultaneously sending a grey flame rushing towards the man.

The deformed man decided to block the flame as he felt the shadow of death approach from those ghastly grey flames. As he defended himself Yuha Yuha collided with the feather causing the array on the ground to activate. A barrier formed around the array cutting her from the outside world. "Sister!" she screamed as she charged into the barrier.

Yuha pounded on the barrier as she saw Rhui engage in battle with the twisted man. The array began to fully activate warping the space around Yuha.

Rhui looked at her sister and smiled "Live well, Yuha," Rhui said as the array fully activated causing space to completely warp causing Yuha to teleport to somewhere far away.