Xilanada - Pursuit Of Regretted Truths/Part 12

Two Hardened Killers prowled the dark corridor of the Six Poses of Lightning School. In a flash, Sen swept upon them, fire ripping over everything in his path. Crimson Laughter slashed one's head clean from his shoulders before it spun back to snap the parrying blade of the other. All the defending Killer had earned himself was a slower death as Sen's knife gutted him instead of getting a clean heart shot. And Tepet Sen had too much to do to pause for mercy-killing, even if his Anima was likely burning the student to death even now.

"Come on," he whispered behind him. The small crowd of thirty students edged close, as close to his Anima as they could for light and yet be safe. Sen knew he looked strikingly heroic at the moment. That was fine. If it gave them hope, it was more than he could offer them otherwise.

The darkness was as thick as drapes and it both muffled and amplified sound. He'd discovered that the first time he'd heard screams and now the steady cacophony of pain and fear could only numb his heart. Sen led the way through the darkness to pantries, one of the few places that could be secured and defended against the other Hardened Killers prowling about.

As they hurried, Sen tried not to brood about his monumental failure. He'd been so busy doing his Father's will that he'd never questioned Malias' reasons. Some of the students were already dead, the stray body he crossed attested to that, but thankfully the other teachers had the presence of mind to start gathering up the children when the darkness fell. If Hesiesh was with them, most of the students might make this out of it alive.

In the shadows, a horn blew a sonorously long somber note. The belling toll of the horn swept the corridor and shot across Sen's skin, sparking a long-forgotten memory of surviving an icestorm in the North 30 years ago. Pain suddenly shot across his body and it felt like...burning? Sen rubbed at the sensation and it passed. Its full consequences had not, though.

Behind him, Sen heard the students scream as the sound passed through them. A dozen brushed at their skin as he had and seemed no worse the wear for it. Most of another dozen suddenly flung themselves away from his position, crying out about the light burning them. And, by Hesiesh, what was happening with those two over there?

Even as he watched, the two afflicted students writhed, tore at their clothes and something else burst from their skin. Horribly, tall black reptilian-like things emerged from their bodies, apparently larger than the students had been and wearing tatters of their skin like a snake in the process of molting. Red rage rose in their eyes and they screamed their hate at the world.

Sen didn't hesitate, didn't consider if the two children could be saved. He had a duty to do and he would do it, damn the consequences. Shouting "get away!" to the others, Sen vaulted the entire distance, coming down to plunge Crimson Laughter double-handed through one's chest. Black ichors spewed from the wound, hissing on the floor where they fell, and Sen yanked his knife free as he jerked his head to the side, avoiding a clawed paw from the second one. Four fast jabs and a spinning slash across the throat ended the threat of the other.

"Quickly now, all of you follow me. We have to get to safety before anything else happens in this..." Sen stopped, biting off the rest of the sentence. Telling the students he had no idea what was happening was not what their tear-streaked faces needed to hear. "What happened to the others?"

"We're out here," called one from the darkness. "I'm fine, so's Tojo but...the light from you burns, Professor. Not the flame, the light. What's...what's happened to us?"

"Something terrible," Sen answered grimly. "But nothing that can't be undone. Can you still see me?"

"Well enough," the same voice said. "Any closer and it hurts."

"Then just follow me too. We'll take care of you, okay? Just...let's get to the pantries where the others are."

They traveled through the gloom of a School-turned-hostile. Sen was exhausted, could feel his Essence flagging from the other dozen trips just like this one he'd taken. But they were almost there and the night was still young.

At the door of the pantries, the old cleaning servant met him with a smile, even as she kept her distance from his flame.

"Professor, good to see you. You brought more? Good, they'll be safe in here." Passion Blue Stirred had been here ever since the School had opened and Sen was glad she was here, lending a hand to help the others. "Be warned, Professor. A few in there can't abide the light anymore. Don't know why."

"I have an idea," Sen lied, honestly having no clue what had happened. Appearances had to be kept, though. "Keep them together. Those who are unaffected in one group, those who can't stand the light in another. They'll probably prefer separate rooms anyway, since they're light sensitive. We'll look into curing them as soon as we can, but we have to deal with all of this first."

"Professor...if you'll pardon me overstepping my place...what happened? What's going on here?" Passion looked concerned but hardly frightened. Perhaps at her age, little could. Sen smirked, mentally remarking that he was a couple of years older than she and he was still very much terrified at what was happening.

"Black Sorcery and demons," Sen answered with a sigh. "I'm going to deal with it, though. Is Seya still in there?"

"I'm here, Sen," said the Headmistress of the Six Poses of Lightning, emerging from the doorway. His sister looked as tired as he did, though the white-diamonds of her Anima hadn't yet shown. Sen embraced her briefly and pulled away.

"Keep an eye on them. Not that I need to tell you that. I have to go, though. I think that's all the survivors now but there's still assassin students out there. And worse."

"Sen...don't go," Seya whispered urgently. "I have a very bad feeling about this. Something evil is happening here, something...that feels familiar, though I can't imagine why. You could die out there and I won't be able to help you."

"Sis...I'll be fine," he grinned. "I just hope this isn't Xilanada's work. I really pray it isn't. Because I don't think I'm capable of killing her. Pray for me, Seya."

"I will pray," Seya said and she kissed him softly. "For what it's worth...even after what you told me, I don't think this is her doing, nor do I think she means us any harm. Did you know that the School is her home?" Sen blinked in surprise, then slowly shook his head.

"What's more, you and I are both close to her," she continued. "And this is where her loyalty is. Whatever she might be, whatever devil is working through her, I don't think she'll act against us." Seya looked out into the darkness. "In fact...would you think me faithless to wish that she were here?" The reserved Earth-Aspect, the elder sister he'd always respected, looked vulnerable for the first time Sen had ever seen. He kissed her fingers and folded his across hers.

"We'll be fine, one way or the other. I have to go. You watch all the kids, alright? If our family has failed us, let's not fail them."

"They'll be fine, Sen," Seya said with a bit of her old sparkle. "Pasiap bless you."

"I'll take whatever I can get," he grinned before he vanished back into the darkness.

Sen sprinted through the emptying corridors of the School, passing signs of battle everywhere. Little nightmarish scenes danced inside his eyes for the fraction of second he saw them as he ran by, his Anima illuminating pools of blood and savaged bodies before he was gone. He didn't have time for horror.

A hideous increase of clamor ahead alerted him that something was going on. Sen slowed, moved to the side of the corridor and went on as carefully as he could. Stealth was mostly impossible while his Anima continued to rage out of control but, for once, this infernal Sorcery was working to his advantage. Even with the flames dancing over his skin, he wasn't as obvious as he'd usually be.

The sounds kept amplifying, seeming to come from dozens of feet away to miles distant, but Sen had gotten used to the distorting this spell did. Whatever was going on, though, was big. A very big battle was being fought here, with considerably more numbers than just the teaching faculty fighting those death cult kids.

Sen stepped up his pace as he neared the Hall of Audience. Maybe the Council of Entities had noticed what was happening and had sent in a mercenary company. No mere soldiers could possibly stand against Tepet Malias, though. Sen knew he was needed and he raced into the chamber to join the fighting.

As fast as he entered, he stopped.

Milling about in a hellish spectacle, demons of all recognizable kinds and shapes, and many who weren't recognizable, were joined in pitched battle against...Spirits. A whole army of Elementals had broken through the doors of the School and were now engaging the demons directly. Sure enough, Sen could dimly see the far end of the hall, toward the Founder's wing, where the demons were being reinforced.

Strange and spectral colors filled the murky darkness as demons and gods fought tooth and nail for an inch of space. The slaughter was ferocious and Sen could only fall back. Against numbers like these, there was little he could add. More Elementals poured in from the doors, even the windows to engage the never-ending stream of infernal monsters trying to hold the School.

Was this the Army of Heaven? Sen gawked to see it, a blessed miracle from the Elemental Dragons themselves. Hesiesh had heard his prayers!

Then, Sen saw something that completely turned his universe upside down.

Amongst the Army of Heaven, a well-remembered golden glow moved through the crowd. It made it to the center and, though Sen couldn't see her, he knew for a certainty who it was. The edge of a impossibly long dress train billowed out behind the glow, snapping in the air like the standard of Heaven. The way the Elementals rallied about it, it might as well have been.

Which was outright impossible. Heaven rally behind an Anathema? Even a Deceiver couldn't deceive Heaven, could one? But...what did that make Xilanada?

A sudden mass of spinning runes shot out from the glow, ripping through the air and tearing at something there. It looked like...it looked like Countermagic but not Emerald, not anything he'd ever seen before. The runes seemed to stick to something solid in Hall's openness, one by one, and then...the darkness failed.

Sen's eyes stung as light returned in full measure. It was still quite dark outside, for there was no moon tonight, but the magical powers unleashed were flooding the large Hall of Audience with brilliance. And hanging above the battle burned the Book of Death, the mark of the Destroyer of Grayfalls...the sign of the woman he loved.

Abruptly, the crowds of Elementals parted and then Xilanada came forth. The golden sword in her hand seemed out of place on the quiet, shy schoolteacher he'd courted but she wielded it with undeniable, unbelievable skill. Her face was a mask of righteous fury and she shattered the demon's formations in a single charge.

The ranks fell against her for everything that didn't run perished. The slender oricalcum daiklave caught dozens of infernal weapons and claws before they could reach her, rent armor, and clove twisted bodies with equal ease. She spun with inhuman grace, her dress flaring protectively about her, and those her blade didn't cut were knocked yards into the air from the power of her blows.

Somewhere inside of him, Sen felt a flicker of doubt he hadn't known existed die. It was true. She really was Final Starry Night. Now that he saw her in battle, she could be no one else. But Heaven fought with her. If the Gods could find her worth forgiving for her sins...couldn't he?

Another demon push and the Army of Heaven staggered. Again, Xilanada charged forward, driving the ranks of the enemy. The children of the Yozi's turned against her en masse and she was obscured for a minute beneath the churning ocean of her attackers. Only her golden glow told him she still lived...the glow and the blazing sword that suddenly tore through a section of demons, then another.

From his vantage point, Sen saw something else, something he hadn't noticed before and he had to blink a few times to believe his eyes. It was Piiro? Piiro, in a mesh of dark grayish armor with a great hat and bearing a wicked-looking knife of the same substance as his mail. It might be soulsteel. But what did that make the man wielding it?

And by his side...Rainblown Joybringer. Both were flanking the center of the fighting but they had entered from the demon side. So, Tepet Malias had co-conspirators. To think that he'd talked to Rainblown about Xilanada! Sen felt even more the fool, to have missed another Akuma in his own School! But he had trusted Father. If he hadn't seen the signs of the Infernal in Malias, perhaps it wasn't surprising that he had failed to see these.

Piiro was maneuvering, angling for a clear throw with that knife of his, Sen guessed. Then...Sen realized who his target had to be. Xilanada! In that instant, his anger and fear faded before the need to succeed where he had always failed before. Sen bolted forward even as Piiro swung his arm back.

Fire exploded about him as Sen vaulted into the ranks of the demon army. Light as smoke, he ran across their heads, their shoulders, even across a sword, unable to slow for fear he'd be too late. He leaped dozens of feet high into the air and descended down on the woman he loved as Piiro let loose with a Charm that made his soulsteel knife howl across the Hall.

She was a blur of motion, killing six Blood Apes as fast as he could count them. As he fell to arms reach, she blurred again with impossible speed, her daiklave snapping up to a perfectly executed guard position against him. Her face was tight with focus, her eyes fierce with determination, and she looked in that moment every inch the implacable Anathema he'd always heard of. Then, recognition widened that stern gaze and she twisted her sword to the side just in time to avoid skewering him.

Sen fell against her and pushed off, throwing her away and arching his back as he flipped to avoid the oncoming attack. The soulsteel knife grazed his pants, slicing the fabric open with its keen edge, before sinking into an Elemental. The Huraka cried out, batted the knife from its wound, and then crumpled to the ground to die, its Essence returning to the stone of the School. Hesiesh, what was that knife?

Xilanada was on her feet as fast as he was and her eyes were fixed on his, even as she brushed a handful of Needlers aside with a casual swing of her sword. Crimson Laughter came up as they stared at each other...and Sen shook his head, pointing instead to Piiro and Rainblown. Her eyes followed his gesture. The soulsteel knife whizzed back to Piiro's hand and he actually did a small, little pout. Xilanada's beautifully porcelain face darkened.

"Abyssal!" she cried out, over the din of the battle. "Sen, to me!"

He didn't need to be asked twice. Sen dashed forward, diving acrobatically around the monsters fighting with Heaven's Army, and he came up at her side. Xilanada gave him an ironic grin and, for the first time, seemed like her old self.

"Your turn this time," she laughed and she held out her left hand. Sen took it with his, keeping both of their weapon arms free...and then he whooped in astonishment as she jumped straight up, and up, and up until the reached the very ceiling. She flipped upside down at the crest of her arc and landed on the ceiling. Sen hung from her free hand and he marveled that such a small woman could handle his weight. Or stand upside down, come to think of it.

"So I'm not a demon?" Xilanada asked.

"What can I say? You've got good credentials," Sen replied, gesturing at the Army of Heaven still spilling into the Hall of Audience.

"I'm glad, Sen. Now...there's two of them and two of us," Xilanada said, a reckless light dancing in her eyes. "Which one do you want?" That blazing dress of sunlight spread upwards to flow across the ceiling, as if he was the one standing on his head and playing the trick on gravity.

"I'll take Rainblown," he said at once. "I have a little something to talk over with him."

"Fine by me," Xilanada chuckled. "You want a throw or a drop?"

"I'll take a throw," Sen grinned. "Ready?"

"In a second. You look a little peaked and I have Essence to spare. Here, let me." Suddenly, a surge of power roared down his hand from where it was clasped in hers. Sen almost swooned at the tidal wave of Essence sweeping through him, wiping away fatigue and empowering him. In moments, he felt like he'd had a good night's sleep and his Essence brimmed with vitality.

"Good luck!" she shouted and she abruptly lifted him up, spun him once and threw him directly toward the God-Blooded Professor.