When Hikari opened her eyes, she could feel someone’s gaze upon her. She surveyed around, and saw David’s glare, “Good morning, David~”
“Good morning,” David replied. “Did you have a good sleep?”
“Yeah, thanks. Wait did you stand guard all night? I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay…”
“I’m seriously sorry. I think we were talking.. and then I fell asleep. Uwahhh.”
“It’s okay, its not like I was on guard duty all night either. It’s just been around 4 or 5 hours since I switched with Lux. But shouldn’t you be a little bit more quiet so the two of them can rest properly? They did go search the parameters for any signs of danger, so they deserve the rest,” David said. He wasn’t naive enough to believe that Lux and Guang had actually gone off for so long solely to search the parameters. More likely, the main purpose was to set a trap for him to see whether he was hostile towards them or not. If he was in their shoes, he would do the same thing. He completely understood that he came off as a rather suspicious person to them, but there was no helping it. If he was to reveal that he was Lucifer’s host… They would turn into enemies, and that would slow him down on finding Helaine.
“Was there anything during your guard duty?”
“Nothing. It was rather peaceful,” replied David. It was only peaceful on the outside. David’s mind was in chaos right now, he was still struggling to come to terms with everything Lucifer had told him. He didn’t want to believe it. Yet he sensed that Lucifer wasn’t lying.
“Yay, isn’t that great?” Hikari cheered and proceeded to sit down on the boulder beside David, who merely stared into the horizon, thinking about what he could do for Helaine.
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Merzula ran across the fields, it was her and Mazul’s 4th birthday today, so they were allowed to go out of the village to play in the fields outside. The weather was great and the temperature wasn’t too hot, there was also a small breeze, causing the day to be ideal for children to play out doors.
“Mazzy come here and see this! Isn’t this flower pretty?” Merzula stopped in front of a small white flower. It was a delicate little flower in the middle of the wilderness, making it stand out. Its five petals where white as snow, the bright yellow stigma stood out from the whiteness, decorating it with a hint of brightness.
Mazul ran over and bent down to admired the flower next to Merzula. It was rare for such exquisite flower to grow at such a place. It was truly something wonderful.
“Mazzy, can we take it home and grow it in a pot?” Merzula asked Mazul, looking at him with eyes fun of expectation.
“Of course! Go and get a flower pot from home. I’ll stay here and make sure nothing tramples it,” he replied. Being the older twin, he decided to stay here. Although it seemed like a calm day, there may always be demonic beasts nearby that may accidentally or intentionally trample such a small flower. These demonic beasts were dangerous, so there was no way he was going to let Merzula stay and watch over it.
“Okie,” Merzula replied, running off towards the town.
Marzul sat down onto the floor, next to the flower as he watched Merzula hurry back to the village. It was very amazing that it wasn’t running today as opposed to the previous. The sky was clear of any clouds, showing the blood red sky.
He was very excited for later today. He had saw his parents preparing a cake for his sister and him, although they made him promise not to tell his sister, he was looking forward to the cake. It was quite rare for them to have a cake these days due to the decrease in the frequency of merchants coming. His parents had gone into the nearest town to buy the ingredients used to make the cake.
He saw Merzula turn around to wave at him again. He waved back and shoo’d her to go back to the village to get the pot faster, but instead he saw he standing there trying to shout something to her. Since he was so far away he couldn’t hear what she was saying, so he asked loudly, “Mer, what are you saying?”
She pointed towards him. Or rather to something behind him with a look of sheer terror that suddenly appeared on her face.
Marzul turned around to take a look at what she was pointing to, surely it couldn’t be anything truly terrifying right?
He was mistaken. What he saw was…
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When Lux and Guang awoke form their slumber, they decided to share the little amount of food they had between all four of them. Although it was a small amount, the food entering their empty stomach was definitely better than nothing.
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Having decided on the direction they were going to go, they continued to travel down the dusty road. Guang and Lux continued to walk in the front like they had the previous day, while discussing something, while David and Hikari stayed behind them.
For several hours, there was only awkward silence between Hikari and David, at least looking at it form Hikari’s perspective. David didn’t walk much and he brooded a lot, often answering Hikari’s attempt to start a conversation with a one-word answer.
From David’s perspective, he wasn’t being anti-social at all. It’s just that he wanted more time to think and ponder about what the future lies. He had a complete goal in mind, but he needed to figure out the paths to it. He could follow Lucifer’s sense to find Helaine. But what then? Right now, he has no method of actually defeating that Emmet demon for sure. He could either ask the exorcists or use them to do so, but it wasn’t a good idea. He can’t completely trust someone he just met.
As he continued to wonder what his next steps would be, his thoughts were interrupted by a loud roar. Hearing it, Lux and Hikari unsheathed their weapons. A estoc for Lux, a rapier for Hikari, while Guang summoned out a broadsword. David didn’t conjure up his blades, but he stays on alert. Unless he was forced to, he wanted to conceal as much about himself as possible.
Just after they took out their weapons, a scream could be heard from not far away. With look at each other, the three exorcist sprung towards the source of the scream. Having no choice, David followed as well.
It appeared that the source of the scream was young girl. However, she wasn’t human, at least she possessed features that distinguished her from normal humans. Her skin was a light shade of purple and a small horn pointed out form her forehead. She also had a pair of small wings on her back that was flapping furiously, trying to speed her up even a little.
She was being chased by a large Barghest, a large demonic beast that appeared like a black dog. It’s bright yellow eyes were focused on the small girl like she was food. Large droplets of drool were dripping down from its open mouth that revealed its insanely sharp teeth.
Seemingly tired, the young girl’s speed started to slow down. As if sensing its prey’s weakness, the Barghest crouched down and prepared to pounce onto the girl, and rip her to pieces. Having noticed this small detail, Hikari ran forward and grabbed the young girl.
She was just in time, as moments after she grabbed the young girl in her arms and leaped away, the Barghest jumped into the air. Instead of allowing it to pounce on Hikari and the girl after it lands, Lux leaped up and slashed down her estoc toward the Brashest’s head.
Blood spurted out from the wound inflicted by the estoc that Lux had imbued with light magic. The Brashest howled in pain as it fall back onto the floor. Lux landed gracefully directly in front of the beast and pointed her estoc at it, provoking it with her hands.
Having noticed something a little distance away, Hikari something to Guang. Upon hearing it, he immediately ran off.
The Barghest and Lux continued to glare at each other, neither willing to make their first move. As if it was impatient, the beast howled towards the sky. At the same time, Lux ran forward as she couldn’t wait any longer, stabbing her estoc out in front of her as she ran. It pierced into one of the Barghest’s eyes, once again causing it to howl in pain.
David watched the situation in front of him unfold in silence. It didn’t look like the exorcists needed any help with the demonic beast.
But that thought was like a jinx. Not long after the thought popped up in his head, a horde of Barghest could be seen coming in from a distance, chasing after Guang who was holding a limp figure in his hands.
As if noticing its comrades, the Barghest tried to back off. But it was the wrong decision. Lux’s estoc flashed out and pierced its sides, and before it could recover, she kicked its right hind leg, causing it to collapse onto the floor. Then using this opportunity, she beheaded the demonic beast.
HIkari, Lux and David looked towards the distance. The horde of Barghest chasing Guang was soon going to be upon them. They had only several crucial seconds to decide upon what to do.