Chapter 8: How bad became worse



He stood there. Although it didn’t quite look like him, she knew it was him; there was no denying that fact. For a moment she forgot how to breathe as she stared into his cold glare. It was cold, but she couldn’t feel. She was in danger, but she didn’t care. Voices were calling her to come back, but she couldn’t hear; all her senses were set to him. She took a step closer, then another. The man warned her not to come closer, but she wasn’t listening.

“Please tell me…that this is all some sort of bad dream. Please tell me that what is going on isn’t real. Please tell me…that this is all a lie… Please…please…please…”

The man chuckled darkly, “Wouldn’t it be nice…if it were all just some dream. It must be nice…to live in a world of endless naivety.”

Tears started trickling down her face. Or was it rain? Maybe it was both. A shiver ran through her being as the words reached her. That voice…that voice wasn’t his. That wasn’t him…but at the same time, it was. She took another step forward.

“No, this can’t be true, this can’t be happening! Please tell me that this isn’t true, it just can’t be!”

The man walked closer to her and tilted her chin up to stare at him. The girl started feeling nauseous as she looked into that one lifeless eye. What happened to the friend she made but a year ago? Was all the time they spent together for naught? Was it all going to end like this, without giving her a fair chance to defend herself?

A sharp pain suddenly started spreading from her stomach through her whole body as she collapsed onto the floor, clenching her abdomen painfully. She looked up once more at the retreating figure, tears refusing to desist.

“No, come back! Please come back!”

He just continued walking away, not sparing a second glance back at her. She heard snickering and suddenly saw a Ghostly with his mask on next to the other man, grinning widely at the pained girl.

Was he the one taking him away from her?

Suddenly a large black sphere appeared from underneath both of them and small hands came out of it, pulling both the males into it. Out of her sight, out of her life.

“No, come back! Don’t leave me here, please! Come back…MYT!”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Miyuka woke up with a start. It was still dark, the sky starless. Miyuka clenched her sleeping bag and looked around her frantically. Her eyes landed on the sleeping figure of Myt, holding his sword protectively to his chest. When she saw him she let out a breath of relief.

But…what did that dream mean?

She was having dreams similar to that more frequently now. Ever since what happened at Veta Lake she worried more and more about Myt. She got out of her sleeping bag, unable to fall asleep after her dream, and started walking around.

They were in The Darkside for almost two weeks already and everyday had been one fight for their life after the other. They had even spent a whole night fighting once, the enemies not letting up until the early dawn. Where all of these creatures were suddenly coming from Miyuka did not know; she never knew that Subeta could be this dangerous.

She walked for a bit, the wind toying with her hair a little as she wandered across the land. After a few minutes of walking she found a rock and went to sit on it.

She looked up at the pitch black sky and started thinking back to before she started this journey with Myt. It had started off as wanting to repay Myt for saving her life. When did it become something so…dark?

Or was it always this dark and was just now that she started noticing that?

She didn’t like fighting too much, but she had no other choice. She didn’t want Myt to constantly protect her, she wanted to be able to defend herself too, but it was all becoming too much for her.

She was startled out of her little daydream when she heard a crack. She turned around and was ready to attack whatever it was that tried to sneak up on her, when she noticed that it was just Myt. She relaxed and tried to smile at him, although she failed miserably.

“Why are you awake?” Myt’s deep, calm voice echoed through the night. It was both soothing yet sent a chill down Miyuka’s spine.

“I…I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to take a walk.” Miyuka wasn’t sure if she should tell Myt about her dream. It could be just that, a dream. But what if the dream came to fruition?

“You’ve been waking up in the middle of the night almost everyday for the past two weeks. Do you really expect me to believe that you simply couldn’t sleep? You’re almost as bad at lying as Sierrs.” Myt mocked. Although he answered like that, deep inside he was really wondering what was going on with the young girl. Could it be that all the fighting was taking its toll on her? No, that couldn’t be it. She started this ritual ever since they put foot in this land, so it had to be something else.

Miyuka started playing with the end of her short dress. Myt was perspective. “I had…a bad dream.”

“What was it about?”

She really had hoped that Myt wouldn’t ask her that question. How should she answer that? How could she answer that? There was also this constant nagging at the back of her head telling her to not tell him, but should she listen? If she listened to that voice, would everything go back to the way it was? Or would her dream come true? She didn’t know what to do anymore.

“If you don’t want to tell me, then that’s fine. I wasn’t expecting you to tell me anything either. I was just wondering what you were up to.” And with that being said, Myt took his leave.

Miyuka stared at the retreating form of Myt. She wanted to call him back, but she could not speak. Something told her to just leave him alone, but she didn’t want to listen. Suddenly a chill coursed through her body. Imagines of her dream flooded her mind; this situation being quite similar to the one she saw in her vision. Without knowing how or why herself she jolted off the rock she was sitting on and ran towards Myt, hugging him from behind. She felt the burn that came from touching Myt’s right arm, but as quickly as she felt it, the feeling dissipated.

Neither of them moved.

“…let go of me…”

Myt’s voice held a threatening tone in it, which caused Miyuka to shiver. She was scared. She knew that Myt wouldn’t hesitate to hurt her, and she knew that if they were to fight that she wouldn’t stand a chance, but even while knowing that…

“…no.”

She didn’t want to let go. Miyuka’s grip around Myt tightened and her shoulders started trembling. If she let go…would Myt disappear? Would she never see him again? She couldn’t bear the thought of Myt leaving. Without noticing it herself the tears that she was holding started spilling from her eyes.

The wind started picking up.

Myt looked up at the starless night, then lowered his head to look at the trembling hands which were clenching his shirt tightly. His gaze softened and he raised his hand to touch hers lightly. The moment he heard the hissing sound he pulled back.

He couldn’t afford to screw up this far. He was already running out of time…

Myt forcefully pushed Miyuka away from him and glared at her.

“When I tell you to let go of me I expect you to do just that, not hold onto me tighter.” He narrowed his eyes as he looked at her tear streaked face. It was a heartbreaking sight, seeing Miyuka so sad… But he couldn’t afford to screw up now. “You’re lucky I don’t have my sword with me…” With that said Myt walked away.

Miyuka didn’t intervene. Instead she sank to the ground and watched him walk away. Wasn’t there anything she could do? Was she really so useless?

Wasn’t there any way she could help?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

A sharp pain in her side was what awakened Miyuka. When she looked up to see what the source of the pain was she saw the glaring face of Myt.

“Are you planning on sleeping the whole day away? We’ve got places to go.”

Miyuka got up groggily while clutching her side painfully. Ninitiek and Kuren were already up and ready to go. Apparently she was the last to get up. This was so much like the first time she and Myt traveled together… Back then she also woke up late, which caused an agitated Myt and a painful awakening.

While getting out of her sleeping bag she asked, “Why so early? We usually don’t start moving till sunrise. It’s still dark.”

“That’s none of your business. Get up already so we can start moving already. You’re holding us up.”

Miyuka flinched at the coldness in Myt’s tone, but obeyed nonetheless. What was going on? They never got up this early, and Myt was never this mean to her. At least…not anymore.

After finally having packed up everything the group continued moving towards their destination. Everyone was unusually quiet today…or was it still yesterday? It didn’t matter. Miyuka was still exhausted and to top it all off her side hurt. Ninitiek looked at her with a worried expression etched on her face.

“M-Miyuka…are you okay?”

The sudden disturbance of silence startled Miyuka. After recovering she turned to Ninitiek and smiled friendly.

“Don’t worry about me. I’m fine. Feeling a little sore from where Myt kicked me, but for the rest I’m fine. I’ve had worse.”

The answer only cause Ninitiek’s brow to furrow more. “You’ve had…worse?”

“Ah! You know, with all the weird creatures we’ve been fighting recently. It’s hard not to get injured.” Miyuka said while smiling. She didn’t really feel like smiling. More like, she wanted to start crying.

It was terrifying having to fight so often. It was terrifying never knowing when or where you would get attacked. It was terrifying seeing people so close to you getting injured by strange creatures. But she didn’t want to seem scared. Miyuka always took a deep breath and braced herself for whatever may come her way.

It might have been terrifying, but the idea of one of them dying was even more so.

It seemed like Ninitiek was about to say something again, but before she could the group was stopped dead in their tracks by some creature. In a matter of seconds Myt had his sword out and dashed towards the monster, fully intending on killing it.

Miyuka froze up a bit, the creature’s sudden appearance a complete shock to her. She didn’t stay in that state for long, though. She heard screeching and looked up. Her eyes widened when she saw a flying creature heading right for her. She wanted to run, dodge, attack, block, anything. But she couldn’t. She closed her eyes, waiting for the monster to injure her. Instead of pain Miyuka heard a pained yell. Her eyes shot open, recognizing that voice. In front of her was Ninitiek, the monster’s sharp claws piercing her shoulder.

“N-Nini…”

Ninitiek turned her head to look at Miyuka, pain clearly etched on her face. “Run, Miyuka. I’m fine.” Ninitiek’s voice cracked a little as she said that. Suddenly she let out another pained yell as the monster dug its claws deeper into her skin. Miyuka had to cover her mouth to not let out a yell of her own.

Why wasn’t she doing anything? Why was she just standing there, watching Ninitiek suffer like that? She wanted to grab one of her wands to attack the monster, but she found out that she had somehow lost the ability to move her limbs. One look at the monster’s glowing red eyes and she knew why. Moisture gathered around her eyes before sliding down her face. She felt horribly useless.

Miyuka’s eyes widened when the monster’s head suddenly came flying off, blood squirting out like a fountain, drenching both her and Ninitiek. The monster’s hold on Ninitiek’s shoulder didn’t weaken, though. On the contrary, it actually became stronger.

“Miyuka, just what do you think you’re doing? Do something!” Myt’s angry command snapped Miyuka out of whatever daze she was.

She wiped some of the blood that was still being squirted on her face off before reaching for a wand. She took a deep breath, remembering what Ninitiek had thought her. She spun the wand around a little, creating a miniature tornado. With her other hand she made a few motions in the air. Suddenly she thrust both hands in front of her, multiple tiny white wind arrows flying towards the still struggling monster, all of them drilling small holes into the monster.

At first nothing seemed to happen. Miyuka’s hands, however, never stopped moving after she thrust them forward. The faster she moved her hands the more arrows came forth, each and every one of them boring holes into the monster. Something that was noteworthy, though, was the fact that the arrows bore holes into the monster, but none of them came out of it.

Miyuka’s eyes shot open, the hands she was making motions with suddenly clenching into a tight fist, as well as the one holding the wand. She furrowed her brows and spread her arms. She struggled a little with doing that, though. It was as if some invisible force was trying to stop her from doing that, but she fought on. The monster suddenly started bloating. After a couple of seconds it looked as if it were about ready to explode. Miyuka’s body started shaking with effort, only to relax later. She sighed and unclenched the fist that wasn’t holding the wand. She opened her eyes and smirked a little.

“Bye-bye, birdie.” The head that Myt so kindly sliced off the monster’s body suddenly screeched in pain, its body that was clutching Ninitiek’s shoulder exploding, bits and pieces of internal organs flying all over the place. The screeching was suddenly replaced by a loud cracking sound. Miyuka turned around to see what that sound was. It was Myt.

“Shut the hell up.” He said, glaring angrily at the spot where the head used to be, now littered with blood and, what appeared to be, more internal organs. Miyuka quickly dropped her wand, covering her mouth and clutching her stomach, trying to keep her nonexistent lunch in. She quickly turned her attention from the crushed bird monster’s head to Ninitiek.

Ninitiek was panting fast and there was a heavy stream of blood pouring from her wound. Miyuka quickly kneeled next to her and held her hands over the wound. Her hands started glowing a little, a healing aura emitting from them. She didn’t need a wand to heal properly anymore. She was good enough without.

The bleeding slowed down, but she couldn’t seem to make it stop completely. Miyuka was starting to panic. Ninitiek just wouldn’t stop bleeding no matter what she did, and it was starting to freak her out. Actually, freaking out was an understatement. Miyuka was starting to become downright hysterical. She was on the verge of breaking out in tears and a hysterical fit of laughter when something suddenly bumped into her. She looked up and she saw Myt, ears flat against his head, glaring at whatever and growling. Miyuka looked around her and noticed they were completely surrounded by monsters.

“Myt, do it now.” A voice said. It sounded vaguely like Kuren, but Miyuka couldn’t see him anywhere.

“That’s suicide. I can handle this without…”

“I said do it now!” The voice was much sterner now.

Myt growled a little, “Fine. Have it your way.” Myt straightened up and sighed. He closed his eyes and held his right hand out. Swirls and wisps of dark aura covered his arm. Suddenly Myt’s entire right side was covered in the same dark aura, his scarf blowing a bit in an unidentifiable breeze. The breeze became stronger and suddenly Myt’s scarf blew away. Miyuka was behind Myt, so she couldn’t see his face. It was probably for the better, though. At the same time a purple aura started covering Myt’s sword, it edges slowly becoming jagged.

Seeing all this happening she unconsciously hugged Ninitiek, not caring that she was getting blood all over herself from Ninitiek’s wound. She was started to feel a little scared, but she couldn’t quite tell why. She was starting to feel scared, yet she felt safe all the same.

Myt’s eyes suddenly shot open. He lifted his sword up into the sky before slamming it into the ground moments after, making shockwaves with a wide radius. He wiped almost all of the monsters out with that one blow. He then turned around to attack the monsters that were behind him. That was when Miyuka got a better look of Myt. This was the first time she saw him with his scarf off, and she couldn’t help but gasp loudly.

Miyuka couldn’t tear her gaze off of Myt’s one scarred golden yellow eye. Just looking at it like this sent chills up her spine. She couldn’t begin to imagine what it would be like if his gaze was directed to her. Myt crouched a little, preparing to run. Miyuka barely got the chance to blink before he suddenly disappeared. She quickly turned around to see where he disappeared to and immediately wished she hadn’t. She closed her eyes, but what has been seen can not be unseen.

With his cursed right hand practically ripped the monsters limb from limb. He even plunged his hand into one of the monster’s chest and pretty much pulled their heart out, crushing it in the progress. Whatever he wasn’t brutally murdering with his right hand he was mutilating with his sword. Body parts and organs were flying all over the place, and only one person was causing all this damage. When it seemed that Myt was in danger of getting surrounded he crouched and dug his right hand into the ground. His arm then pulsated, sending the vibrations into the ground and creating shockwaves around him.

Everything seemed to be going okay. It was probably the scariest thing Miyuka had ever seen, but Myt seemed to be winning. That is, until something went horribly wrong. Myt suddenly stopped moving, clutching his right eye and let out something akin to a pained yell. He dropped his sword and started grasping at his chest. The monsters saw this as the perfect opportunity to ambush him.

“Myt!” Miyuka screeched when a wave of monsters suddenly ambushed him. She quickly stood up and started running towards Myt, but she didn’t get very far. A monster suddenly jumped in front of her, causing her to lose her to fall back. She looked at the monster, fear etched all over her face. Myt was being ambushed, Ninitiek was bleeding to death, Kuren was nowhere to be seen and she was now alone. She closed her eye, waiting for the pain that was certain to come. It never came, though.

Suddenly all the monsters started screaming simultaneously. Miyuka covered her ears, trying to block out the horrible sound. She looked around her, trying to pinpoint whatever was causing the monster’s to act like this. Her eyes landed on the floating form of Ninitiek. Her eyes widened when she noticed that her injury was now completely gone. Her attention didn’t remain on the now gone injury of Ninitiek, though. The crystals adorning her body all glowed brightly, along with her eyes. She was also surrounded in this white aura.

Ninitiek held a hand in front of her, her lips suddenly moving extremely fast. Even if she could here what she was saying she probably wouldn’t be able to understand. Suddenly the ground started shaking. Miyuka let out a yelp and fell over once again. The monsters all started disappearing one by one. The more monsters started disappearing the faster the ground started shaking. Suddenly the ground started cracking and splitting. Miyuka yelped again and quickly moved. Any slower and she would’ve probably ended up between the rift and probably squished. Monsters that fell into such rifts immediately got squished, the blood that spurted out enough evidence to that statement.

This was probably good for them, but Miyuka couldn’t help but be terrified with everything that was going on. A chocked gasp suddenly caught her attention and she turned around, just barely missing falling into a rift. Her eyes widened when she saw the cause for that gasp. Myt was being lifted into the air, holding onto his throat rather painfully. He seemed to be having a hard time breathing. Myt let out another chocked gasp and Miyuka’s eyes widened further when she saw blood slowly starting to seep from his neck. She quickly turned around to face Ninitiek and started running towards her. Once in front of her she started yelling at her.

“Ninitiek, stop this! Please, you’re hurting Myt!”

“He is an impure soul. Impure souls must be erased.” Was all Ninitiek said, never looking down at Miyuka.

“I don’t care! You can’t kill him!”

“He is an impure soul. He has killed many, therefore he must be erased.” Ninitiek’s voice echoed.

“You killing him won’t make things better! So what if he killed? He killed to protect not just himself, but also you and me! Doesn’t that mean something?” Miyuka was crying now. While she was talking she kept hearing the chocking noises Myt made.

“No one has the right to end another’s life. No matter how putrid.”

“You’re killing him now! That makes you just as bad as him! He has a life! Don’t kill him! Please, Ninitiek!”

“This being has no life.” Ninitiek’s fingers started closing slowly and Miyuka couldn’t help but reach for her own throat. She could practically feel those fingers around her own throat as well.

“W-What do you mean with that? Myt is a living being, isn’t he?” Miyuka was starting to have a significantly harder time breathing. It felt like someone was chocking her. Was Myt feeling like this, too? “N-Ninitiek…please…” She took a troubled breath, “Please…don’t k-kill him.” She dropped to her knees, clutching her own neck painfully.

“This has gone on long enough.” Suddenly, out of the nothing Kuren materialized, a frown etched onto his face. He held his hand out, reaching for one of the Dark Matter’s floating around him. Out of that Dark Matter a double edged scythe appeared. He then held his other hand out and his mask materialized out of nothing. He put the mask on, the frown never leaving his face. “I don’t care who you are or what your goal is. I can’t have you killing them. Not now, not ever. These people…” He looked at the semi-conscious Myt and the struggling Miyuka, then back at Ninitiek, “These people…mean a lot to me.”

Ninitiek chuckled, “Really now? This coming from…” Ninitiek never got to finish her sentence. Her eyes widened and she suddenly started falling out of the sky, landing rather painfully. The same time Ninitiek went unconscious Myt also dropped out of the sky. He was unconscious, but alive. Miyuka had also passed out from all the shock.

Kuren slowly drifted to the ground and looked around him sadly. He took his mask off and looked at it. The crack that had been forming in it had worsened. That was bad. It was bad, but necessary to save everyone. With a sigh he put the mask back on. He then held his scythe in the air and slashed horizontally in the air. The surrounding area started getting blurry, changing. Kuren cast a glance at the starless sky and smiled sadly to himself.

“…this never happened.”