---Em---
Comma give up her treasured compass doohickey? Unlikely. We'll be lucky if this doesn't break out into another brawl. I sigh; I'm going to have to intervene, aren't I?
The sun still hangs overhead, its rays soaked up by the tips of the bone trees, which provide ample shade. The same warmth radiates at the bases of the trees at night when it gets cold, making these woods a perfect spot to camp out.
"Well?" Melody drums her fingers on her lap impatiently, leaning forwards.
The thick soup of fog that usually ripples along the ground has cleared out by this time of day. The smell of strix meat still lingers in the air, and I start to salivate again. But I'll have to endure—who knows when we'll find another food source?
"No deal," says Comma. Like we didn't see that one coming.
Crawford groans, and out of the corners of my eyes I catch Jun shaking his head. I have half a mind to tell them off for their silent protests—the other half got tired of this crap and took a nap.
It's Edgar, of all people, who decides to open up his big fat mouth. "What's the big deal, anyway?" he asks, tracing his fingers in the dirt. "Our main objective is getting to this Ganeden place, no? And to get there, we need a guide." He glares at Rex.
The demon shrugs it off. "Got you lot here, didn't I? How about a little bloody gratitude?" Rex would sooner suck all the cerebral fluid out of our brains than spend another day travelling with us. If he hasn't told us where exactly we can rip through to paradise, then he probably doesn't know.
Edgar nods at Colby. "Mophead can get us there." Colby's left eyebrow twitches. "But only if Crazy Eyes can erase the seal on his magic. Which she won't, unless Slice Happy here gives up this so-called phorophyx."
"I'll show you slice-happy," Comma mutters under her breath.
"Am I missing something?" Edgar stares at her in disbelief.
Comma narrows her eyes. "You will be."
Okay, time to intervene. "Look, maybe you should just give it to her. It's not like we've..." Got any use for it. That's what I was going to say. But that'd be awfully hypocritical of me, wouldn't it?
After all, it's not just Selina that Comma's hoping to track down, I remind myself. There's that group of hers—the one that'd probably reject half of us on account of how picky they are when it comes to fresh blood. Bottom line, they were her friends. Giving up the phorophyx means giving up on ever seeing them again.
Aren't we here because of me? Because I couldn't let go? How could I ask her to? Something warm stirs up in my gut, and my hands tremble slightly. I stare at Colby and it really starts to sink in; he's here. In front of me. I found him. And Olivia's just around the corner. A figurative corner populated by literal hell, most likely, but a corner nonetheless.
"Last chance," says Melody. "You want those runes removed, hand over the phorophyx."
Comma grits her teeth. "Over my dead body."
Melody shrugs, reaching for the hilt of her beam sword. "Sure. Seeing as that was the original plan, anyway."
Edgar jumps up, his hands igniting with purple flames.
Melody holds out her hands in front of her. "I was only kidding."
"Yeah? Well I'm not." He clenches his flaming fists. "You're going to remove those runes."
"Edgar..." Mya stares up at him, not looking all too impressed with his hot-headedness.
"You don't frighten me," says Melody, getting right up in his face. "Besides..." She grabs her Q-blip and holds it up over her head. "Try anything funny, and I'll smash this."
Now Comma's up on her feet. "You wouldn't do that. You need it."
Melody smirks. "It's useless to me without a phorophyx."
"Listen guys," I say before this can escalate any further. "Let's be reasonable about..."
My voice trails off as I watch Eloise get up and walk to a nearby bone tree, her head tilted back to stare up at the sky. She freezes there for a moment before a wide grin spreads across her face.
"Can you hear the little birdies?" she asks, flapping her arms.
A dark cloud blots out the sun. The writhing mass of blackness rapidly approaches out patch of the woods. After a few seconds, it dips down, vanishing below the treeline. A cacophony of beating wings flood the woods.
Melody staggers back. "Strixes," she says, going pale. "Run!"
Comma scoffs. "Why? They're no match for..." She doesn't finish that thought; we're swallowed up by a flurry of feathers as dozens of strixes swarm us all at once. I try to bat them away, but their talons rend my flesh. Amidst the rapid beating of their wings, I hear the buzz of Melody's beam sword slicing through strix flesh. There's a scream, and then another, and then the whole area goes up in flames. I feel heat, but the flames don't burn my skin. Selective targeting. Must be Edgar's fire magic.
The strixes take to the skies, allowing me a quick look around. Everyone's all scratched up and covered in blood. Comma hobbles over to me, still gripping her chakram. She tries to say something, but I can't hear her over the ringing in my ears.
Mya wipes the blood off her katana while Rex spits out a mouthful of feathers. I try to catch my breath, but I can barely even manage that.
Colby slaps me on the shoulder. "We have to move," he says, his voice booming over the ringing noise. Blood trickles down from his forehead. "They'll be back."
I glance up at the flock of strixes circling above the trees, like a black whirlpool in the sky. My limbs feel as though they're locked into place. A screech thunders across the heavens, and then one of the strixes swoops down. It starts to peck at Jewel, but Jun pushes her out of the way. Two more strixes descend. They each grab one of Jun's arms and then shoot back up into the sky with their catch. Jewel cries as Jun is swallowed up by the flock. Comma takes my hand, but my legs won't budge.
"Now!" Colby shrieks, and at that same moment, something comes plummeting down through the branches. Jun slams into the ground, his neck snapped. The strixes have eaten his torso clean; sunlight glints off of his exposed ribcage. One eye dangles out of its socket; the other has been pecked right out.
I can't look any longer—I turn around and run so fast I forget to breathe. I spot Comma somewhere in the mess of chalky white, but everything else is a blur. The beating of the strixes' wings closes in on us as they give chase. I weave through the trees, leaping over exposed bone roots and clusters of brambles that tear at my legs.
And then suddenly I'm falling. Tumbling down the side of a hill. I twist my body to the left to avoid crashing into a bone tree. Then I roll some more, bashing my head against something hard.
I finally come to a stop at the bottom of a ditch. The sun beats down against the clay that surround me—the rusty red fills my vision. I squint, trying to make out something, anything, in the haze of red. Funnels of copper dust form out of nowhere, and I'm pelted by the particles.
I climb up the side of the ditch and into another red wasteland, this one utterly desolate. Just a sea of crimson. Glancing back over my shoulder, I notice two more figures stumble down into the ditch.
Melody and Colby.
I slide back down into the ditch, stirring up another dust funnel.
Melody hovers over Colby, ready to strike with her beam sword.
"Wait!" I scream, my heart sputtering out.
She glares at me with her glowing eyes, one of them electric purple and the other neon green. With a flick of her wrist, I go hurtling backwards. I slam into the side of the ditch. The beam of her sword brightens until it's pure white, its radiance so immense that I'm unable to stare at it directly. She plunges the blade through Colby's chest. He screams as the blade eats through his flesh. It's only a few seconds, but it seems to last an eternity.
Then the blade retracts into the sword, and Melody collapses. Her grip slackens and the deactivated weapon rolls along the dusty bed beneath us.
Colby jerks violently and then gasps as if surfacing for air. He glances down at his chest. I don't notice any wound; the flesh is raw and reddened, but there's no blood. The runic symbol that adorns his chest is now broken—a scar from Melody's blade trails right along the centre.
"Are you all right?" I ask, rushing up to him. I feel a pull, forcing my gaze back to the woods, but I fight it off. Whether or not the others made it... No. Can't think about that right now. Not yet.
Colby cracks his knuckles. "Never better."
As if they've decided we've had enough of a reprieve, five strixes come hurtling out of the woods. Mya emerges right behind them, leaping onto the back of one of them. She plunges her katana through its back, and it crashes into the side of the ditch—a cloud of dust explodes around them. The other four strixes zoom past us, out into the wastelands.
"Em..." Melody's fingers brush against my leg. "The sword..."
Two of the remaining strixes circle back. Understood. I grab the hilt and spin it around in my hands, frantically looking for the power button. But there's nothing—just a cylindrical metal tube with strange etchings on it.
Melody coughs and spits out a mouthful of blood. "Not... a laser sword," she rasps. "Your... soul..."
My soul? I don't understand. Does she mean...? I stare down the end of the hilt. That blade of multi-coloured radiance... Could that have been...?
I close my eyes. The hilt pulses in my hands. I feel a tugging, like I do whenever there's a rip nearby. I use the same sort of abstract motion as I do when opening up a rip, only instead of pulling, I push.
A beam erupts from the hilt just as one of the strixes slams right into me. I grip the sword, and as we both go flying backwards, I slash at the strix. As the blade cuts through it, spraying me with warm blood, I feel a hollowness open up inside me; I wonder if this is what it feels like to be devoured from the inside out by a glowdark. The blade flickers and then dies out as I skid along the bottom of the ditch.
The other strix throws its head back, opens up its beak, and screeches. Calling back its two pals, no doubt. I'm spent; I try to activate the sword again, but nothing happens.
Colby steps in front of me, the veins in his forehead looking like they're about to burst. He glances at me over his shoulder with bloodshot eyes. The edge of his lips curls up into a smile, and he winks at me.
The strix dives towards us, but freezes when Colby holds out his hand in front of him. The strix struggles against an invisible force but is unable to budge. Colby forms a claw with his hand, gradually curling his fingers in. The strix hoots in agony; its brethren hover above us, watching the scene.
Panting, Colby continues to stare down the strix. Then he closes his fist, and the strix's head explodes, brain matter raining down on us. The headless carcass drops to the ground. The pair of strixes up above cry out and then retreat.
I stare at Colby, unable to process what just happened. A chunk of strix brain lies splattered across my cheek. All of this—the strix swarm, the soul beam, the brains exploding... It's too much.
I close my eyes and lose consciousness.
And in the darkness, Olivia speaks to me.
Author's Note:
Looks like Jun is our first casualty of the arc. I'd originally planned to do a lot more with his character during the previous story-line, but I never really wound up having the opportunity. Now that we're nearing the end of the first volume, it's a little too late for that. Poor Jewel—she's had to watch her friends get killed off one by one. You'll have to tune in next week to find out what happened to the others.
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