Kuro: A Land in Eternal Night

Chapter 14.4: The Village

It had been the work of the boy all along, the demon in hiding, who sought to enslave the village. It had succeeded in doing so, but then it got greedy. It started going beyond its original purpose. It started preying upon priestesses of Talthys.

I exited the village hall and found myself outside. The rain increased in intensity, a gentle crescendo culminating in a stormy climax. The village was bathed in rain, washing away all evidence of its former existence. It did little now to hide the evil forces that were present.

I was running out of time, and I could hear Searra following closely behind. She did not voice it, but I knew she was greatly disappointed in my incompetence. Ever the clear-headed and calm thinker, Searra very rarely let her emotions get the best of her.

I stopped in the middle of the path I had taken. A winding road led from the village hall into the hills beyond. I had surmised that the demon had no desire to continue to stay in the village now that its lie had been exposed. It feared for its life now and was trying to get away from its would-be exterminators.

We continued to pursue our quarry. Behind us, the facade continued to collapse, like blueprints from a master builder being burnt at the fire, the knowledge becoming lost forever.

It was too late to save the denizens of the village. At this point, the village needed purification. The poor souls that had fallen victim to the demon's manipulation needed to be exorcised and freed from the power that had enslaved them for all eternity.

I had a limited window of time in which to right the wrong that I had brought upon myself. My foolishness had brought this difficulty upon my sister and me. My mind was racing. At some point, the demon had come and had lured the villagers in with promises of a better life, of endless feasts and good times. Like fools, the villagers accepted and took the bait. They scarcely had time to regret their folly. By then it was too late, and the demon had exerted its power over them.

We increased our pace. The path up into the hills beyond the village was surer than the unstable earth from earlier. The temperature had stabilized as well. It was cold, but not overly so now. We lit torches, since there was no need to hide our presence anymore. The rain had abated to a slight drizzle. The hilly region beyond was not difficult to surmount. In times long gone, this village would have been a pleasant one to live in, reminiscent of my own childhood growing up in the valley.

Searra and I unleashed tracking seals, latching on to energies that were of opposite polarity to the Goddess Essence. A bright bluish light emanated from our seals, the blue increasing in intensity the farther up we went. We were closing in on our quarry.

About a hundred steps further on, Searra stopped.

The boy stood before us. By torchlight, the demon hardly looked threatening. Kenta started crying. I steeled myself this time.

This was the beginning of what would later be known as my 'Justice'. Humans were often prey to their emotions. While sometimes useful, such things as mercy or sympathy oftentimes cloud our judgement, as they had mine just hours earlier. My Justice wouldn't be blinded by such things. I vowed then and there to always take everything into account. Not just emotion, or right and wrong.

We readied ourselves for battle. The demon, sensing we were not going to fall for its guiles, abandoned all pretense and shifted to its real form. Few people in Kuro ever get to see what the forces of the Yami look like up close. They take on many forms. People who have seen them tell stories and the stories give rise to tales of monsters. In the end, that is what the Yami is; monsters, the stuff of nightmares, the forces of darkness that grew in power when Amaterasu abandoned the world. Kuro was cursed the moment its benevolent Goddess left.