บท 15: Father's Misdemeanours
Mazoku stood, determined, in front of them, looming over them and clenched his fist.
"This bastard will die, then no one else will. This will be it. Our victory." He commanded as he turned ready to walk out.
Akio stopped him saying, "I understand that you must have seen something that changed your decision but that does not mean you can act irrationally due to it."
"Irrationally? They're all dead! Eaten by a monstrous creature and now we wait for him to eat other birds that might be in there!"
"Just like you said: This beast is too strong. He's too dangerous for us to attack immediately and to attack blindly."
"He's right," Added Akari, "We can't rush into battle but we can plan out an ambush. Especially on his weakness..."
"He has none. He is the king of the caves." The bird interrupted, "Many have risen to attack him and fallen in defeat. Except for one person who could've killed him until Altzumal escaped to the lowest of caves and hide..."
"Who was it!?" Aldrif and Mazoku asked in unison then they looked at each other angrily.
"I do not truly recognise who they were but I heard him mutter the name many times in his anger. Like some kind of curse, he says with a burning hatred. I believe it is: 'Akari'."
Elliot turned to Rei shocked, "You've already fought him!? Why are you so afraid of fighting him then? Why was it difficult for you to fight against a young manticore? Also if that demon boy is like your equal how come you and him can't just kill the manticore?" He questioned him rapidly.
"Well, I don't know. Battling an enormous and mature manticore is something I usually forget since I do it so much in my life!" He shouted in Elliot's face, "Idiot. It's probably my father..."
"So you're Haruto's son then?" Akio posed, "I presumed as much from your name and the fighting style. The elemental powers were also a given. The Akari band-"
"I won't hear anything of them. Especially from a demon that was hunted by the very man that you were describing. Also, that band of samurai's would probably kill you in a minute if they caught a whiff of you on their land," lectured Akari to him.
"Luckily, I would probably never set foot there but tell me little bird do you have any recall of what happened between Haruto and Altuzumal?"
The bird nodded as it flew over to another miniature cave built-in. It was not as horrifying the last morgue of a cave but it had an eerie feel to it as they stared at the crimson shapes drawn on the cave walls.
"Where did you guys get that paint? It looks good, I must say." Elliot commented to himself. "How did you make it?"
"That is not paint," Daichi stated grimly, trying to look away from a hidden heap in the corner.
"Another one... Why are they alone?" Mazoku whispered with a pale face.
"He wasn't killed by the manticore but he chose that fate himself." The bird uttered.
"W- why has he done that?"
"He was the one before me. I am an Emissary, meant to be his messenger until I died or if he grew hungry and tired of me. An Emissary was told more by Altuzmal than any other bird. Some could say it's trust but it's merely just for his ego; he wanted to be a god and every god needs a prophet. The first and latest prophet was that bird. I see Altuzmal learnt from his mistakes and didn't repeat them with me because whatever madness that was told to the first Emissary, it caused him unimaginable fear. His last words to me were to, after an hour from him leaving the cave, to read the message for me that was written with his blood ..." Explained Emissary.
They looked up to see faint writing with blood. 'I have ended my life, not as an order for Alutzumal but because of a tale he told me. The monstrosities I have heard were too much to bear. I am a coward and I fear what monster will come to you all one day. Your new name now is Emissary and you will take my space. Good luck with what comes. You will need it sadly.'
"That wasn't the only thing he left." Akio pointed out, signifying to sketches on the wall. "They seem to be a description of the tale told to him by the manticore. Seems that it may have been a way of coping."
"The insanity... I must have been lucky to not know what happened..." Emissary explained.
The sketches were sullied and were made hastily. It was all misconfigured shapes drawn out with blood. It was all convoluted shapes stuck with feathers and claws stuck on it. There were disordered drawings across it all and cavities on the ceiling and hollow holes created by continued and abrupt pecking on them.
'The drawings told a tale', Mazoku thought to himself. 'This could show what the weakness of that Manticore is. I merely just need to understand this.'
He placed his palm on the drawings thinking to himself. He then felt a shock go into him as he felt the blood on the cave. He smelt the blood and his face went pale.
He sensed a bolt in his fingers as he saw from the eyes of something else. He saw blood dripping down a cave as his gaze moved across to the crater hole where many feathers laid down in the floor with ripped apart bodies. He then without control looked up as he saw his claws latch onto the cave walls, ready to get into the tunnel.
"The bird did not make this just with his own blood," He muttered dully, "He told you that Alutzumal told him a tale?"
The Emissary nodded confused at him.
"He lied. Whatever happened, it wasn't a tale. I think it was a journey. They've met something so dangerous, so crazy that it nearly killed him. That was the monster he spoke of. This is some beast that'll kill us all..."
"Could it be him...?" Akio thought to himself, "This is getting worse and worse... Very, very dangerous..."
"We still have our main problem... The manticore..." Interrupted Akari rage filling his face.
"He's coming. He found the tunnel and he's going to come for us..." Mazoku uttered to himself as everyone looking shocked at each other.
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Alutzumal began to climb up the cave thinking to himself. 'It is mostly assumed that the Emissary has done this... He has been quite hesitant and mysterious towards him. The latest Emissary was but he was trustworthy.' He remembered the death of him and once he had that news he knew their journey was the root of that.
That was a dark day he had to intake. The Emissary has told him that an intruder may have been near the forest. One so dangerous the bears have seemingly perished from a single attack made by him. He found a hair that came of him in the forest after the attack which demolished and handed it to a shocked Alutzumal. He had to see what kind of powerful maniac could have had such power like that. A possible threat to his throne he could be. This threat needs to be vanquished in a quick shot.
They flew for a great distance as they went on for hours while he tried to get a scent of him. They had already passed the forest and began getting to the landscape and the fields. Hours passed in their journey to find him yet sadly the battle did not equate the same amount of time.
"Hello..." Haruto stated as soon as he saw them. "You're a demon..."
"No..." Alutzumal stated, "I am A KING!"
He leapt over to him to try and make an attack but he was returned with a slash to his neck by Akari.
"Y-you think that'll defeat me you utter fool..." He muttered until he felt an electrical shock hit him as he laid down paralytic. He tried to sting him with his stinger and tried striking him in the back.
Sadly, he was returned with a block of his blade and then with a twisting attack of multiple blades on his body dropping him bleeding.
"Demons like you do not deserve to live... I'll kill all of you! ALL OF YOU!" He exclaimed with madness and malice in his tone.
The Emissary squawked angrily and then tried to peck at Akari who in anger grabbed it by the neck as it struggled in pain.
"You're not a real bird... I can sense your darkness. You are a demonic hybrid... I will find your kind and I will kill you all. I will never stop until the demons are dead! ALL OF THEM!"
Akari was then ambushed with a kick to the back by a sangria-coloured demon covered in spikes.
"HARUTO AKARI! You conquistador has come to guide you to your grave!" He screeched as he looked down on him.
"My lord we must flee while we have the time..." Pleaded the Emissary, "He will come for your people. My children!"
"Verily... He will not come for them... The monster Haruto Akari will not harm them but I must grow stronger..."
They flew off to their caves and soon the Emissary killed himself of fear of being there once the monster arrives. Those words weren't long but they shot like blades in him that he ended it but assigned a new Emissary to help him.
Alutzumal was blinded with fear of Haruto coming to destroy everything that he began to break down his caves lower in a way to hide and to grow in power at the birds he worked on to protect before. He became the predator to protect himself from the apex predator. One who will soon arrive...
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Haruto stood over one of the final trees and he then dashed out finding one of the birds who managed to escape from the chaos: new life, new beginnings. Finally, freedom...
Haruto split the bird in half as he spat on the floor.
"No more demons. You and your kind will learn that." He muttered looking at small skin on a branch belonging to Akio's demonic form.
"So will the demons who survived me. Akio... and..." His eyes filled with hatred as he saw another demon's skin.
"...Mazoku."
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