The whisper of an unsheathed blade howls through the air, sourcing from Trixy's bent knife. While her left hand bears it, her right slithers to her jester's cap, which turns out to be a vantage point during this ambush, and retrieves the onyx feathers from its top.
Her movements, however fluid, are struggling to contain the boiling rage overflowing in her veins. "You dirty pest. After all you've done to everyone, you still dare to display your face here."
Raiden's arm is about to calm her when a snarl leaves her mouth, and she pounces away from him. Okay, that's a wrong technique to soothe the beast.
"And that doesn't stop you from being a coward, does it? Look at the army behind you."
"My business here is to attend Raiden and not to serve a lowly, vengeful villager like you." Ece steps forward, her onyx glinting like it originates from hell. "Step aside, and let me finish what I should've done before."
"No more innocents shall fall victim to your wicked schemes." Trixy's sentence jerks at the end. The swift contacts between her knife's blade and the feathers' sharp tips erupt tingling sparks like onyx fireworks.
Heavy grits of the bookcases squeeze the available ears with a demonic amplitude. An opening is formed between a bookcase and another as they swerve sideways, making an entrance for those yet to come. Instead of living creatures, black presences like the night skies appear, resembling an endless void of nothingness.
And that's when Raiden grasps the original reason of the shut curtains. Trixy's trying to hide her secret traps from either strangers or newcomers of her settlement.
But what can these voids do? They barely move. Seeming to be nothing but black walls separating each bookcase from its neighbor. What do they contain within?
Ece, on the other hand, lacks reactions. Her faceless creatures seem to be more expressive, with their frequent growls and anxious scratches on their exposed skin, which aren't uncovered by their poor attire.
Amidst this brewing noon-mare, Raiden's dread mountains higher than before. His legs' muscles are readied to dash once chaos ensues, but his heart won't ever be ready.
Trixy seems like she's ready to sacrifice herself for his safety, like those side characters in the movies. Being a coconut-head she is, she'll force him to abandon 'ship' once she dominates the battle.
Can he prevent her selflessness from saving him and harming herself?
"Seek cover once this all begins."
Raiden's yet to respond when Ece's men flood forward, like a horde of hungry cannibals. Fists raised in the air, their footsteps collide like an earthquake, dropping scrolls to the floor and deafening every existing ears.
Like a dark plague, they advance with their misfortunes dodging every obstacle.
Raiden's instincts yank him back to the tent, cowering behind the sofa with hands covering his ears. The rumbles of the men's footsteps even ruffle the tent's flaps.
But it doesn't seem to affect the retired jester, who remains rooted on her station.
Peeking from the fluttering flaps, Raiden glances at Ece's whereabouts amidst the ocean of refugees. She treads along with them. An onyx shield protects her from her men's lurching wrath, and her onyx now blooms into a false amethyst.
Stacks of bundles and books even meet their ends under their tramples.
It doesn't take an intake of breath before the tinkling metals resound again, this time shriller. It also drones longer than the first.
There's a brief pause in the men's movements.
But shortly, merciless onyx webs stretch out of the voids, grasping them like fingers and yank them into their blank selves. Cries of panic clash against their rippling footsteps again; but this time, farther away from those gaps.
Once one of them is swallowed, a growl will replace their pair of footsteps.
The mass' quantity lessens as time drags further. Their thickness recede, and the crowd that targets Trixy are now manageable for her weapons.
Raiden swallows a weighty chunk of saliva as Trixy's savageness unfolds in front of him.
He averts his attention for a while to Ece, who's trying to locate the tent as her neck tilts around. The hunger and dedication burning in her eyes are slightly dimmer than before. The onyx shield trapping her within also loses its previous radiance, now nearly transparent.
And by then, bodies, either wounded or fainted ones, are beginning to pile near his temporary hideout. One's got a slashed thigh and a new ripped-jeans. The young girl lying next to him earns bruises on her mandible and a bloody shoulder, which equals an off-shoulder look. The elder woman clutching her stomach coughs blood.
Though the scent of violence wafts around his nostrils, he tries to remain calm as he examines a victim from afar, watching the weak rises of their chests, or fervent exhales through their lips.
Both Trixy and him will bear the guilt for their entire lifetime if someone ever dies. Even though they're trying to guard themselves from these men's unconscious harm...
"There you are." Raiden's yet to glance when a force cracks across his stomach, disposing him to the solid pole supporting the tent. Blood seeps through his teeth. A pain fiercer than several cactus punctures gnaws on his cheek from the inside.
Steadying his haphazard angle, Raiden whimpers at the sight of Ece's onyx hair.
"I've looked all over this place for you, brother."
"Stop it, Ece. This is not you." His elbow aches as he uses it to support his seating position. Hopefully, it isn't a fracture. "This is a heartless monster, and you're not her."
Her eyes never leave his most prominent injuries as she shambles forward. Trying to possess an elegant stride, but hasn't been able to. Typical show-off Ece. "Let's get this done with."
"I'm your brother." He tries to transfer his longing for her through his gaze. "Look at me here. I've been raising a rebellious sister for twelve years, not an onyx-colored demon."
She braces her knuckles instead of heeding his remarks. How those slender fingers are adequate enough to stem demise into several innocent souls with a single command sourcing from her brain.
There aren't any choices, or options, besides preventing her multi-abilities to evolve.
"Do you know..." the lesser their distance is, the wilder his heart protests, "how does it feel to have your goals stolen from you when you're a step away from it?"
The paralyzed, motionless faces of Palchuk and Hadassah haunt his subconsciousness.
"I never have goals." He admits ruefully, not daring to meet Ece's mind-ransacking glare. His existing injuries have lost their calm, and demand an immediate rest.
"That, brother, is a reason in my shortlist of why I can't survive together with you. You've never had a long-term objective. Always thinking of our parents' debts, drowning while trying to clear their sins. If I were you, I'd just run away, never to be seen again."
This girl really seeks a trial at the court with white-wigged judges and a brash prosecutor.
"That, little sister, is why you still classify as a teenager. You haven't understood the world at all."
"Come on, we're only two years apart. You're a teenager yourself, gàn!"
"A teenager with more responsibilities than yours! Kào béi!"
In any other circumstances, both of them would laugh it off as they exchange these Chinese and Taiwanese mild insults. But this isn't any circumstances.
Within seconds, Ece's palm hovers slightly ahead of Raiden's face, and foreign words dash out of her lips like an engine. Her eyelids flutter repeatedly as she mutters it under her breath, while evading Raiden's sudden tackles to her knees.
"What are you doing?" She exhales breathily, fanning exhaustion to his face. Removing her legs farther from Raiden, she sends him utmost annoyance, flashing through her widen pupils.
A throaty scream, however, gains their entire attention before neither of them moves.
Cradled by smothering arms is Trixy's useless defense. Her features are barely visible as those arms muffle her senses and lower her offense. She breathes like she's entrapped underwater.
"What's your command to those mutts?" Raiden thrusts his arm forward, attempting to tackle Ece when he loses his balance and kisses the dusty floor. His muscles ache at his clumsiness, and Ece's silence adds the burden constricting his thoughts.
"To get her off my way. So I can do this sooner." Shades of magenta gather around the onyx's amethyst guise, vibrantly blinding his nearby eyes as Ece begins her incantation.
Ece's worn-out. Doesn't this onyx consume her energy the more she use it to obey her?
With his own power seeping out of him, Raiden aims another kick to Ece's shins. Trixy's pants in the distance whips him more. She nearly topples to the sofa, shortly before he trembles her unsteady legs and force her to collide against the floor.
"Stop it!" She kicks him back, but it misses. Her claws scratch his forehead as the amethyst nears itself, and Ece repeats the same incantation Raiden has now memorized.
He tries to stand but her feet stilled him.
"There's no use to wipe my memories if the whole city knows how dangerous you are!"
"The next cities don't. I'll be the hero I am. With you and your lost memories, it'll ease my future prospects."
"You're insane!" His sob cracks like a shell, and it stops too late. Emotions swivel inside his middle, twisting like a bundled fabric and weighs heavy. "You're psychopathic!"
A pained gurgle, followed by a crack, haunts their hearings. One of the men is on the ground, his neck gushing blood and exposes his larynx. With pupils now invisible.
The first fallen victim, and hopefully, the last for our lifetime.
"Look what you've done!" He breaths out, hoping for Ece's sympathy to win in the battle against other heartless emotions. "One man dies in vain because of your plan."
Ece remains silent, the onyx forgotten on her palm as she stares at the motionless figure on their opposite, frozen like a mummy. Blank is her face, but her emotion isn't.
"Let's do a quick count, shall we?" Clutching on the sofa's plush, he drags himself up. He's lost track of his wounds at this opportunity. "Of the lives you've taken. Approximately hundreds of refugees. Then those CSI men; six. At least ten of unrecognized individuals trapped by the web. This man. And soon, Trixy."
Raiden's grateful for the tears showering his eyes. He can't fathom Ece's inner thoughts.
"Hundreds of lives for merely...how many, at least dozens of others?"
Ece's grateful for the minimum sounds she causes. She can't alert Raiden of her realization of things.
"All to accomplish your greed of luxury and notoriety. You may pursue them, but without risking anyone's souls. You're blinded by the pleasure this onyx provides you."
"Don't try to lecture me." She grits her teeth, though not trying to defend herself.
"You find yourself as an antihero, saving lives with the cost of others'. That isn't the way humanity survives. Be your own version of antihero without...killing anyone in the process."
"I said stop your lecture."
He steps forward, approaching her back. "You can't do this for an eternity, I know that. You have no choice but to muffle me, also several others, because you fear your now polluted name."
"I said stop it, Raiden." She hardens her intonation, not facing him even once.
"Time for redemption. The society will forgive your sins once you stop committing them. I...Think over it, Ece. A life pursued by men? Hated by thousands? Well, maybe that's how Deadpool is, but—"
"Raiden—"
"Stop this madness now. Start a new beginning, Ece. Far from this commotion." His words almost touch her shoulders, and when she glances back, he assists her with a tight-lipped smile.
Indeed, she says no more. Even when she aims a pout to his face and allows her onyx to return into its inactive state. Also when Raiden circles a hesitant arm around her shoulders, which she tentatively rejects.
The howls of the crowd soon silence themselves, resembling a cricket's whistle. However, as soon as the arms remove themselves, a figure lays unconscious on the floor. Her features bruised and blooded. The weapons are knocked off her grips.
Raiden's hasty approaches towards her rumble against the floor. He tries to locate a pulse on her powerless wrist. His sobs resume louder as his efforts turn to no avail.
By then, the onyx-bearer has slipped out of the room, carrying with her a heap of words and emotions she can't depict, or actually decipher.
She needs time to stabilize her thoughts. Until she understands her responsibility, like Raiden often emphasizes.
Her nails attempt to remove the onyx buried deep in her palm though she knows that she's stuck with it for her remaining years as a human.
How deep has the onyx dictated her heart and consciousness so far?
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A/N: Last chapter for now. It's nearly midnight here when I finish this, and though I have an idea for one last chapter, I think pending it will be a better idea than forcing myself to write such an exhausting chapter. I'm beat just by writing 3k+ words today.
Let me guys know what do you think. And I'll be deeply thankful if you spend your time to proceed to the next chapter. I promise you it won't be a waste of time.
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Final count: 24072 words