Chapter 195 - 195 Not Quite Over
Chapter 195 – 195 Not Quite Over
"Ah… what" said Kat slowly releasing Minor "Shouldn't this be over"
Minor shook her head, while the rest of her body shivered "Not quite. This is where Major lost consciousness… or I guess she was still Shizuru back then. Because we see the attack and her…. Ah, resurrection? Healing? Whatever, as one even it is stored as sort of one memory"
Kat inclined her head "Right, but why has it all stopped"
"Because time must pass" said Minor with a wavering voice
Kat looked down at her shaking companion "Hey, it's ok. It's already over. It's ok" Kat bent down and hugged Minor against her face. The shivering didn't entirely stop, but it subsided slightly. Kat ramped up her calming aura further really hoping it wasn't about to put Minor to sleep.
As Minor's shaking started to subside the room started to shift form. The walls pushed themselves out and became circular with clearly defined pillars, the beds melted into the ground and spread out into two separate large sigils.
The light of the moon shone down into the centre with two figures. They had so much detail now, that even without context Kat would have been able to pick them out as Minor and Major respectively. They still had their tell-tale ice or firey form.
Enuko was running around using a small pointed shard of ice to scrape runes into the floor. She had split into three, however, each copy only seemed to have two tails. The rest seemed to be see-through and glowed slightly, with one of the copies having three instead, presumably the original.
As Enuko's blurred movement continued, the runes still shone brighter and brighter as more and more were added. The moon started to shine through the gap in the ceiling which once Kat looked up at, was revealed to be a circular hole cut through the ceiling rather than a window as Kat had originally presumed.
The moonlight started to line up with the centre of the circle and shine down on the two small frames. The firey one was breathing heavily and seemed to have one broken arm based on the way it was held to the side.
The other twin, the one of ice, was hardly moving at all. Only the fact that the hair from the firey one had blown in front of ice one's form. The ice one, Shizuru, hardly moved and didn't so much as twitch even when the light started to reach greater intensities.
The Enuko copies all looked up at the ceiling as one, scowling, before splitting again. The Enuko presumed to be the original split twice, and with the one in the centre releasing a hacking cough once it was done, blood leaking out of her mouth as she did so.
When the blood hit the rune she had just been working on, the whole room transformed. Blood red light now shone from the runes even as seven Enuko's worked desperately to complete the sigil. From the corner of this however, a figure started to rise up.
Kat turned when she heard Minor gasp. Out of the drops of blood a large figure rose up. They seemed to have a mixed mask of red and purple and were twice as tall as the Enuko's easily looming over the whole thing.
Kat felt a mounting sense of dread as she watched the whole thing "This isn't supposed to happen right"
Minor shook her head "Nightmare" the word was barely whispered but Kat felt the weight it seemed to convey. Kat pushed Minor back behind her. The Enuko's seemed to not even notice the figure as it strode towards the twins.
"What is going on" asked Kat
"I think… I think the nightmare is trying to stop us advancing" said Minor barely above a whisper.
"How?" asked Kat more than confused, as she watched the figure stride forward with confidence.
"If ah… if it can break the memory, twist the sequence maybe we can't progress. I don't know… I ah, never really had this issue before" said Minor
Kat nodded and strode forward. *So things have gotten a little more complicated. That's fine I just need to stop this blood guy from interfering.* Kat tried to project confidence she wasn't feeling as she walked away from Minor and felt her aura's range fail to stay encompassing Minor.
*I really hope this doesn't cause issues for Minor. I was laying it on pretty thick before, or at least, rather strong compared to the first time I met her…* I think. The figure stopped its careful walk towards the twin's stand ins and turned to Kat.
She could now see it in its full glory. It's was still wrapped all in black, but its clothes were tinged with what looked to be dried blood. The figure was easily three metres tall and loomed menacingly with little effort. The mask split into a grin seeing Kat's approach, the strange wood substance it was made of shifting to reveal rows of sharp teeth that leaked a red mist when they smiled.
Kat started pumping demonic energy around her body, ready for anything it might throw at her. Kat let her wings spread out, and while she was careful to avoid the rapidly moving Enuko's, they were at the edges of the sigil now so it was an easy task.
*I wish I had my fans… I didn't exactly plan to need them when I went to rank up today. I might not know how to use them but they'd still be at least a little threatening. Plus I'm not sure I want to actually touch this thing.*
Kat pushed her aura forward trying to feel out the strange thing before her, but when her aura reached the figure in question it was as if nothing was there. *Ah… what does that even mean? I know my aura isn't gone it still works on Minor, even if the range is a bit shorter. This shouldn't be happening I don't think…*
Kat stopped just out of arms reach for the demon, which was luckily just barely within tail distance for Kat. She kept that hidden behind her back though, letting it lazily swish around as if it wasn't her best combat option in the situation.
*I don't feel some sort of overwhelming terror. And I really don't want to glance back at Minor to tell if she does or not because I can't take my eyes off this thing.* Kat pursed her lips and pressed some demonic energy into her voice box and mouth so that she could let out low growl.
The figure reacted subtly when Kat let out her growl. Only because she was watching for the slightest movement did she catch it. The figure shifted slightly to its back foot and Kat barely noticed the flash of light as something shiny dropped into the back of its hand.
Kat eyed off with the figure, not making any more movements, trying to keep everything except for her tail as still as possible. *As long as this thing doesn't move, I'm in the clear. I just need to keep it distracted until the scene changes. Hopefully it can't easily follow us.*
Kat kept her breathing steady, and her energy primed. The figure, matched her, still as a statue, with only the slight breeze from the opening in the ceiling ruffling the tattered edges of its wrapping to indicate it was still alive.
*How long do I have to keep it busy like this?* Kat managed to supress the need to glance at the Enuko's still moving rapidly and covering the floor of the room in runes, presumably to complete some sigil of sorts.
Kat didn't let her attention waver for a second, so when the figure lunged, she was ready. A good thing too, because instead of lunging at her it lunged to the right, towards one of the Enuko clones.
Kat was ready to intercept though and lashed her tail out at the arm she knew to contain whatever weapon it had on it. Kat's tail slammed into the arm knocking it away, blowing the arm backwards as if it had no bones.
Kat went to follow up the attack but paused, bringing her tail up passed her eyes, as she watched the figure stumble and recover eyeing her once again. Kat could see the end of the tail was bent now. Just slightly, but it had been fixed in that position.
Kat let more energy flow to her tail and found it quickly righting itself, but burning through much more energy than the minimal amount healing would normally take. *That isn't what I wanted to see.* Kat checked her reserves and found she'd lost around an eighth over her full capacity.
*That's really bad.* Just as Kat was about to strike again, there was a large clap, as the Enuko clones all reformed into one figure again. Kat tried not to let her eyes wandered, and luckily could watch Enuko with her slightly expanded vision.
Enuko said something, but Kat couldn't understand it, then slammed her hands down onto the sigil.