Monsters

Magic flowed unhindered throughout Ley's body waking up her fading consciousness. With her life-threatening wounds, it shouldn't have been possible for her to be able to move but to Landon's surprise, she stood up out of his arms as if nothing was wrong with her. Power granted by her blood gave her the strength needed to finish her goal at this moment. She was able to move but she was still half-dazed due to her in between state.

'What do you want?'

An amused voice unheard by others echoed inside her, bringing out all her desires out in the open until she was lost in it. It resonated within her as she was assaulted by the tumultuous force rampaging within her. She was powerless to resist. Soon after, she was drunk with power and drowned by disappointments. She was slowly losing her rationality, left only with the thirst to kill the enemies in front of her until she embraced the magic that seemed to fuel her endlessly.

'What do I want?'

She asked herself and got a blinding headache in return. It was as if something broke inside her that yearned for release. She forgot her initial objectives as she was swept along by an uncontrollable force.

"Acting like monsters? I'll give you one" Ley let out a deranged laugh that drew out a piercing chill to the onlookers. 

Her unfocused eyes became bloody red, her upper canine elongated and peeked out of her mouth. She stood there in the middle like a mad apparition with her hair floating eerily on its own due to the ripples of her magic. The laughter all of a sudden stopped and silence reigned in the clearing. Her eyes refocused and those pale but alluring lips shaped a devil smile as she glanced interestedly around. That's when 9 tails burst out of her back in undulating motion like it had a life of its own. They were white as snow but the tips were gleaming red as if the blood caused by the attack on her back stuck with it. She looked like the Fox Demoness often written by the humans in their legends. Entrancing, yet evil.

Time seemed to stop as everyone unbelievingly stared at her. She stretched out her hands at her sides, which emphasized her razor sharp nails, and started to siphon power like a vacuum. 

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. 

She'll let them taste exactly what they did. She was drawing out so much energy that suffocation started to engulf everyone but her. It left her feeling so exhilarated that she was already numb to her surroundings. Spinning spheres formed from the elements behind her as it grew in power by the minute. A sea of horrific reactions looked at her and it took her even higher.

However, there's a nagging noise in the background that seemed to repeatedly call her. Irritably, she looked back and saw Landon as if seeing him for the first time. His brows furrowed in alarm and yelled something she didn't understand but somehow she knew. Deep inside her was a fervent wish to not let him see her like this. 

Only him.

In the blink of an eye, she was yanked back to reality where the stabbing pain at her back almost made her faint again.

She hopelessly smiled at Landon before taking advantage of his stunned state to knock him out by swiftly sending out a hand chop to his neck. It was better that he knew nothing of what's going to happen next. She didn't want to leave  a bad memory or cause him to hate her. She laid him gently to the ground with his subordinates and turned around to assess the tableau in front of her. Unlike before, they were disorganized now since Tristan and Gale weren't idle at all and have been providing distraction ever since she got incapacitated.

She took a long glance at the faces they would soon kill. Their eyes were all on her as if she was some volatile animal they needed to be careful with. All their attention was on her ever since her magic outburst earlier but they weren't intimidated at all. It was as if they were only here to do mundane things. She had to know their intentions first.

She stepped forward lightly and the nearest man in front launched himself like a bullet intending to tackle her but she swiftly moved out of the way. Gale and Tristan cut the ones who were going to assist him, simultaneously dealing with 2-3 people at the same time. She couldn't help them as her opponent rebounded back immediately. He quickly backtracked and swung a fist at her. Her hair whipped up by the force it generated when she dodged it in time. They were both using magic to augment their physical capabilities even more so their movements became even more ferocious as time passed by. 

The fight was taking too much time that she couldn't afford so she waved her hands discreetly while aiming a punch to his face. As expected, he avoided her punch but wind spikes treacherously followed up her attack. It only grazed his face as he evaded at the last second but it gave her a split second window to incapacitate him. She yanked his left arm against his back with the other and pushed him to the ground. She couldn't use magic to immobilize him since her magic was unstable and could only resort to this.

"Who are you?! Why are you opposing us?" The guy grunted and struggled to no avail.

She put her knee against his back harder and demanded, "That's supposed to be my question. Who are you?"

She didn't get any response at all from the stubborn fool. In the meantime, Ley checked out the others and saw Gale and Tristan who shifted to his panther form fending off attacks. They were on the defensive but the enemies were not able to fully overwhelm them.  At the corner of her eye, she noticed a small movement. 

She snorted at the sneaky tricks the woman was trying to attempt and shouted, "Don't even think about it!"

Wind spikes materialized into thin air that Ley intended to fling but the enemy with her eye still on Tristan never got to play the ocarina in her hands. She was frozen in place like a statue with her eyes betraying the panicked expression that she couldn't show. Looks like they haven't realized yet that she wasn't the only taboo present and the ocarina was completely useless. Ley cracked a smile at the sight while moving her gaze far behind to see the trio who went around and finally got here.

Merda had her hand raised up as she mentally restricted the movement of the woman and Sera conjured coiling bonds around her that continuously flashed with white light.

Sera pointed in her direction and her captive was bound in no time so she took her hands off him and ran forward to help the guys. With their teamwork, they managed to easily outmaneuvered them.

When everything was finally clear, she went back to the man who was shooting his mouth off earlier and asked again.

"Who sent you here to attack them?"

"Just kill me if you want. They deserved to die. We will kill everyone who blocked our cause and launch the new era," he shouted with fanaticism in his eyes that disgusted Ley and made her blood boil. 

She slit his neck without hesitation and intoned while looking at them with a fierce stare, "Do you all have the same answer?"

They looked back with the same baleful visage while attempting to shake off their bonds and Ley knew that they were hopeless cases. Their belief was rock-solid to what she guessed was some kind of cult judging by their abnormal behaviors. 

"Leave one and kill the rest. I know someone who has a bone to pick with them," she coldly ordered.

A high keening sound interrupted them when suddenly the eyes of their captives bulged grotesquely and blood oozed out from all their orifices. Within seconds, all that was left were dried out corpses. She felt like punching someone out of frustration.

She glanced at Tristan and he immediately bounded away to look for the sound. All they've got was dead bodies again.  In just a short time, they've had corpses from the three races.

"What do you want us to do?" Siri asked, waving her lollipop to the direction of Landon and the rest.

She was lost in thought for a moment before facing Merda.

"Erase what happened from Landon's memory. It's better that he doesn't remember. Can you do that?"

Merda was stilled for a minute then said, "I could do it but it's not foolproof. His memory might get triggered if you saw each other again."

"Don't worry about it. There's no reason to see each other again," she smiled mirthlessly even though she was shrinking inside. It was better to avoid him and work on this case alone.

"Are you alright? You look really pale. We need to get you healed," Gale tapped her shoulder.

Come to think of it, she couldn't feel any pain at all from her body so she can afford to wait a bit.

"I'm fi-," she started to say before the earth disappeared under her feet.

***

He slowly walked through the hall with trepidation. It was pitch dark but his eyes can still see clearly even without the light. The atmosphere was gloomy but what made him even more anxious was that he brought bad news. 

It was all because of that girl. He should have killed her when he still got the chance back then at the base if he only knew that she would foil his plans again and again.

He reached the salon where the master frequently stayed. Lanterns on the wall gave off a weak light but it felt even somber than before. The master had his back to him and he bowed lowly.

"Forgive us, Master. The operation was a failure," he shamefully reported.

"Was it?" a quiet but dignified voice replied.

Sparks flew and the fireplace lit up brightly but it didn't touch his body.  He felt even colder than before as if one wrong move would forfeit his life.

"We failed to control Landon but we managed to discover something much more important, didn't we?" The master continued in a surprisingly good mood.

"But the cost was too high this time," he said, thinking about his painstaking efforts to train them only to get them killed.

"Such is the price we pay for our cause," the master sighed regretfully as he hummed a cheery tune contrasting his words.

He finally sighed in relief as the master wasn't too angry with what happened and seemed to be in a good mood however his thoughts got interrupted suddenly.

"But. . ."

His heart stuttered in alarm as he felt the killing intent saturating the room. He struggled to stop his body from assuming a defensive posture to the threat.

"I don't want it to happen again. You understand what would happen, do you?" The master spoke softly but it terrified him even more.

"Yes, Master," he hurriedly responded as sweat dotted his forehead at the words.