Infernum

Chapter 2

Getting into the castle was an easy task for Subaru, as he knew that the people who would only reinforce walls and build no defences were the least credible people when it came to security inside the premises.

Raijin came to stand beside Subaru's horse, neighing loudly as both of them kicked off simultaneously, Ayato already panting with anticipation. Subaru spared a glance at his half-brother, and as excited he was for this whole charade, he didn't understand the reason why Ayato had launched this sudden attack in the middle of their expedition.

"Keep your eyes ahead," Ayato warned him as they both stormed into the Garden of Eden, the Tree of the World shining even in the dim moonlight with an ethereal glow. Subaru halted his horse while Ayato kept on racing towards the castle, possessed by some unknown force, maybe it was his obsessive tendency. Subaru felt a shockwave rip through his chest as he looked back at the Tree, golden fruits hanging down from its branches, slowly rotting away, the leaves falling and rolling up in the dirt.

"What on earth is happening?"

***

The moment that inevitable blast resounded throughout the castle, Yui sealed up her doors, with her most trusted maiden of the shrine inside her chambers, both of them trembling with horror while the army marched in.

Miro was a chirpy girl of nineteen, a few years senior to the Eve, but she was utterly devoted to her duties, and spent most of her time engaging in discourses with the Eve. On ordinary days, they would be discussing about the little experiments they did in the garden, with sweet peas and magnolias, cross hatching them with one another, the yellow and round peas starting to raise different theories about the way the plants inherited their parents' features. They had already spent an odd nine years on this little exercise, and passion was now an understated word for their interest.

But this was no ordinary day. Miro's face was already streaked with tears, as she latched up the last of the seventeen locks in the door. The advantage of staying in Yui's chambers was that the doors were pretty thick. Even if the army broke down the doors, Yui had a slight sliver of hope that by that time, reinforcements would reach from the king, saving them. It bothered her that nobody else was allowed to enter her room, but that was the way it was. She was Eve, and there was no way they would let her get polluted by someone else's touch. Even at this moment, her life was being valued over everyone else's.

"I heard Abbot Marcus saying that the army lost at dusk, which is why they came here." Miro was running in circles, her habit to pace around overcoming her during stress.

"This isn't true," Yui said, her voice hitched inside her throat.

"I swear, this time they really lost!" Miro sat down on the floor, not wanting to stain the Eve's bed with her presence. Yui didn't bother telling her to sit back on the bed because it would kick off another argument.

"But why are... these people attacking us? In Eden, of all places?" Yui enunciated, knowing well that attacking a religious place wasn't going to be the most profitable idea for whoever decided on it.

Miro looked at her, unsure whether she would go too far indulging her. "I shouldn't tell you this because you aren't allowed to know this, but..."

Yui crawled up beside the maiden, her hands splayed upon the stone floor, her body aching to feel some relief against Miro's warm embrace, but she held back. She had been touched maybe twice by someone else in the short life she could remember, once by the piercer who poked holes into her earlobes, and once by the physician to determine whether she was sick. She wasn't sure why, but she held back her desire for human touch at the moment of distress, and stayed in her place, kneeling on the floor beside Miro.