Part 57: Exorcism X And X Sacrifice

Manisty suddenly jumped at me with her heavy body, trying to attack me with her arm blades. I dodged it by sprinting back into the other side of the room, while I was still struggling from my arm that was growing rapidly.

'Kill. Kill.'

The whispers started to take over my mind again. Every word they spoke gave pain and ache in my brain that I couldn't even focus on what's in front of me. The female mantis jumped towards me again, with a maniacal laugh in every step she takes. But again, I dodged it with no sweat, assuming that she couldn't be able to think properly right now. Now, she looks like a mindless killing machine.

"Come here!"

All I can do right now was to dodge her every blind attack and couldn't be able to use any of my techniques, since my arm is growing out of my control, absorbing all of my energy forces. Soon enough, it will absorb all of the energy as well, including my vision and hearing.

Then, she attempted to strike me again with her powerful arms, and just like before, I sprinted my way to avoid the blow. But this time, she caught me off guard and used her other arm to attack me on my blind spot, causing my face to take a large wound from her blades and threw me on the walls of the room.

This caused a crack in the wall, and for my back to feel the ache because of the unsafe land. Now my whole body was ruined; my arm started to go wild, my face was being deeply scratched, and the rest was giving me pain and misery.

That Chimera Ant won't be defeated that easily. She is not just a monster that was killing everyone in her way, but she can also see through my movements. If I have to fight her, I have to fight with the same strength and power like hers. That means I have to let it loose... let it control my body...

'Kill. Kill.'

As I heard those whispers, I shook my head, trying to remove it from my mind, as well as the forbidden plan that I was thinking. No. I don't want to do it. I don't want to go with that plan. It was too risky.

'Kill. Kill.'

The whispers tried to manipulate my mind, as that idea was stuck in my head, causing my sight to go blurry, and my hearing to only accept echoes coming from the environment, which was only Manisty's laughter.

Because of my blurry vision, I couldn't see her clearly marching towards me, catching me off guard again. I cried in pain as one of her blades are stabbing my shoulder on my cursed arm, causing blood to rush quickly from it. But the worst part is she didn't remove it at all, like she was enjoying it, and stabbed it more into it, making me cry more.

"Come on! You wanted to remove your arm, right? I'll help you!" She said with a voice like that of a psychopath, completely different from the sweet talker earlier. After she was finished with her torture on my shoulder, she kicked me with her giant sharp legs to the other side of the wall, causing me to feel more pain with my new wound, and the bad landing.

"Secco!" I can still hear Pisacco's voice clearly as he called my name, but it started to fade out at the end. I could feel the warm tears falling on my cheeks as I couldn't be able to take continuous pain anymore. I couldn't. I couldn't do it anymore. It hurts. Everything around my body hurts. It's like I wanted to die.

'Kill. Kill.'

The whispers visited me again, even louder than before. Even though my whole body was becoming weak because of blood loss, I insisted on grabbing my hands to cover my ears. Shut up. Shut up. I'm in pain, yet these voices are still trying to get me.

"If you let it loose during the fight, all will fail and everything will be in chaos."

Yes. If I let it loose, everything will be in chaos. So I couldn't let it go wild. I don't want to be a burden to my friends. I don't want to. I just have to deny everything right now.

But... It looks like... I don't have a choice...

I am now crying because of the pain I was feeling, and I didn't even put a fight to that monster. I was useless, weak, and couldn't be able to think of a great strategy to bring it down. I was still a burden, just as Killua said before back in the Hunter Exam.

I smiled tiredly as the nostalgia hit me like a hammer. It's been about two years since that happened. It was my first meeting with my friends and Killua who was always insulting me because I was just a nuisance. I didn't realize that I can reminisce like this about those moments. I was just having fun with my friends, getting to conflicts about my flaws, and fighting alongside them.

I want to feel those times again. I want to have fun with my life again and treasure every moment of it. I just want to go back. And in order to do that, I want my arm to be removed. But the monster in front was stopping me...

So I have to kill it.

My arm suddenly burst, releasing all of the power it had got and darker aura can be felt, sent chills down into my spine. It was completely different from before. It grew larger and continued to grow again. The mouth that was lying on the back of my palm became bigger, with a million sharp teeth sticking out of it along with a longer tongue than any of my tongue nails. The nails became sharper and faster and more eyes are popping out of it.

After seeing the enormous monster that I have ever seen in my life, my sweat started to drop rapidly, thinking of what I have woken up just now. I thought this will be like any other transformations, but it looks like it went to the maximum level.

Manisty, who was standing on the other side of the room, stared at the demon she was facing right now. Her eyes widened, now filled with fear and anxiety, having doubts if she wanted to fight it or not. But she didn't let her scared self take over her, and her face was back at being angry and crazy.

"No! I won't let you–"

Before she could finish her sentence, the arm immediately made a blow at her. The longest tongue among them reached for her chest at instant speed, and instead of crawling through the mouth to get it, it just directly stabbed through the bones that protected her heart, like a sharp sword. The tongue passed through her body on the back, causing her to spit blood and made a puddle under her. Blood started to shower and sprinkle in every direction, but it ended quickly. The tongue let go of her body, making her drop into the messy floor, lifeless.

***

NARRATION

"Manisty..." Pisacco said as he was just standing on his position.

Long silence greeted them two, the only survivors of the fight. They couldn't help but stare at the result of the mess they made. Blood of different types was scattered in every part of the space, and cracked walls are being made. Everything was over... or so they thought.

"Kill...Kill..."

The whispers still continued to talk to Secco, but this time, it wasn't coming from her head anymore. She turned around to look for the source of the whisper until she realized that it was already in front of her. The large mouth started to speak despite its long teeth.

"Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!"

It repeatedly shouted in its static and distorted voice like that of a demon. Secco's eyes widened by its voice and desire to kill more people. They thought that one opponent will do the job, but it wanted more victims to kill.

"Kill!!!"

It yelled in the loudest and high-pitched voice that could destroy anyone's eardrums. Pisacco also covered both of his ears to keep them away. Then, all of a sudden, the tongue, followed by the tongue nails, destroyed the ceiling above us, making a gigantic hole on the top and the remains to fall on the ground with loud bangs. It tried to get out of the room and repeatedly destroying what's in its way to reach the top of the castle. It looks like it was attracted by something that everyone was unsure of what it is.

"Secco!" Pisacco called at her with worry, slowly walking towards his troubled companion. She saw him and aggressively shook her head, trying to stop him from coming over in her position.

"Pisacco, don't come here! You'll die!" She shouted, wasn't bothered by the monster in front of her, as her first priority was other people as always.

"Don't mind me! Look at yourself!" He replied, pointing at the distorted arm that was still trying to get out of the basement. "I have a question to ask you!"

He caught the attention of the girl, so she turned her head around and listened to what he was about to say.

"Are you willing to sacrifice everything... to remove your arm?!"

That was the question that was now stuck in her mind. She was completely speechless of what he heard, couldn't be able to know how to react to the question. But after a short time of getting back to reality, she finally had an answer.

"Yes! Yes, I'm willing!" She yelled as she smiled, with her eyes full of desperation and desire to get rid of the arm that had been clinging on her in all of her life. Right here, right now, the arm will be removed, and it's time for her to set herself free.

Pisacco nodded as a confirmation and grabbed something inside the shell that he was carrying all of this time as a turtle would do with his hard house. It was a small dagger that fought the cruelty of time as the blades started to become rusty, as well as the metal holder that was sticking at the lower part of the blade.

This was one of his exorcist techniques that he forbade himself to use at all because of the risk and restrictions it contained. But he didn't even care anymore, as this time was very important.

I swore to put myself first before anyone, to not save anyone from misery, to not protect those who need protecting, and to not take care of everything I treasure... or else, I will die and vanish in this world.

After taking the forbidden oath himself, the carved letters attached to the dagger glowed for confirmation, telling him that he was ready to go and faced the monster of chaos and grief.

He ran in front of it, as it was busy reaching for the top of the place they're at. He took this opportunity to jump at it and stabbed the whole existence of the arm using the dagger he was holding on the bottom of the giant mouth.

The monster cried in pain with its high-pitched voice, trying to remove the never-ending ache it was feeling at the bottom, but to no avail. It was slowly burning as it screeched and destroyed some parts of the room to relieve itself. It couldn't stop it. It was exorcism and it couldn't stop it. It was now over. She was now over with it.

After a long time of watching the monster died slowly, the whole room became a home of silence again, as both of them didn't move on their place, tired and exhausted after taking care of all that's happening in front of their eyes.

"Thank you, Secco," Pisacco said, wearing a sincerely warm smile on his face, as both of his hands, holding the small dagger on one of them, slowly turning into ashes as it flew away with the wind inside the room. "For showing me... what I should take care of."

The girl didn't see the farewell of his friend, since she was staring at nowhere, thinking about the things that he faced and the conclusion that she tried to accept. It was over. It was finally over.

She forced a smile on her face, even though all of her muscles were tired to move because of the loss of blood. But she didn't care, as the only thing that she could think right now was happiness and satisfaction with everything. It was finally over.

After a long silence, her eyes became heavy until they couldn't be able to take the exhaustion anymore, and let her face into complete darkness.