Path of the Cambion: Kurou's Rising, Chapter 13

Kurou's POV

There was nothing but complete darkness as I lay in the cold dirt of the forest, trying to remember what happened to me moments before. All I could remember was me rushing at that yellow demon hunter, but anything after that was a blur. I looked at Edakura, who was still lying across the ground, unconscious, damn demon hunter, he must have did something, they'll do anything to get their way.

I ran toward her and tried to think of doing something, there was one thing I could try, healing her, it would sap quite a bit of my energy, but I might as well have tried, I put my hand above her body, then began to focus demonic energy into the palm of my hand. A light green orb of demonic energy would emerge from it, floating down towards her until her body absorbed it. Her body glowed with an emerald green hue before she was restored back to full health, any wounds or scratches she had disappearing.

Edakura would wake up slowly, her eyes fluttering as she held her stomach in pain, she would turn towards me before giving me what looked like a blazing glare and would stand up, walking off. As much as I wanted to say something, I had a feeling that saying anything would only make things worse. So I simply kept my mouth shut, despite having no idea why she was so angry.

She would stop, pointing in the opposite direction and would say "Your home is back there. I assume you came from Kagura village. Now go." she said sternly, continuing to glare at me. She then turned away and started walking into the forest. I can't help but feel like I was missing out on something, and I didn't like it. I wasn't sure what to do though: Chase after her? Or return to the village like I was told. The aura around her was powerful, and I remembered earlier when she shut me up with just that.

A determined expression crossed my face, that kind of power was what I needed, otherwise, trying to invade Hellzone Corps would be nothing but a farce. I tried running after her, however, she didn't even need to look back to summon the demoness known as Vizas on me, who was now holding her black energy spear to my neck. I grit my teeth "Look, I'm sorry for whatever I did… but I need your help!" I called out to Edakura with persistence in my voice, I couldn't leave, not when me avenging my village was at stake.

"My help? You are asking the wrong person then, child," she said to me, stopping in her place once again. At least she was listening to me and responding; that made me feel like I had some sort of chance. "Go back to your village. It is much safer there than with me. I will end up killing you like the others," she told me, looking back at me. "I am the one that killed the other cambions." She didn't say anything else to me as she walked away, and I was too shocked to follow.

Soon, I began to feel tears begin to run down my cheeks, I couldn't trust anyone, not even another cambion, it just tore me up on the inside. So much emotion began to well up inside me, I screamed out in rage and smashed my fist into the ground, creating a gigantic crater where I stood. Tears were falling down my cheeks nonstop as I fell to my knees, there was no one left to trust but Kagura Village, the only real link to family I had left, I began to turn around and walk off, the tears streaming down my cheeks still clear to see even with my back to the wind.

"Is hurting children the only thing you can do, Edakura?" Vizas asked, I overheard the question, but didn't bother to say anything, teleporting directly to Kagura Village as soon as I sensed it.

I had no idea how, but it seemed that for some reason, rather than being transported to Kagura Village, for some reason, I was in a place that had stunk of burnt blood, my former home, Kumara Village. I stood up and began to walk throughout the now barren area, this couldn't have been the work of Edakura, the reason why I was here, could it? And the strangest part was, I could've sworn I felt some strange magic for a split second right as I was about to teleport to Kagura Village, but I shrugged this off, dismissing it as a lack of mastery in my teleportation abilities and kept walking.

Sadly, I had no time to contemplate my thoughts as suddenly, what seemed to be a demon mutant appeared above me, smashing it's bladed arm into the ground where I stood, thankfully, I managed to jump back out of the way. I glared at the slimy creature, I thought I had already taken care of these things, however, it seemed I was wrong, I was grateful that this one seemed to be the last one left. On instinct, I summoned forth my spirit weapon, but as soon as I did, a blue bolt of energy seemed to pierce a hole through its chest, and as soon as it fell to the ground, I saw Edakura afar from it "Edakura…?" I asked in confusion.

"Hmph. Here I thought it was that necromancer, but it is only an amateur's work," Edakura said to the demoness beside her as I watched the two of them interact. I was confused as to why she was there, or how she even knew where this village was located. She looked over at me, anger clear in her eyes, as well as annoyance. With nothing to say, all I could do was stand there and glare back at her. There was a flash of weakness in her eyes that caught my attention.

"Why are you even here, in my old village?" I asked Edakura aggressively, at the moment I couldn't care less for her annoyance of me, destroyed or not, she was still treading in my village, and whatever her reasons were for that was my business to know.

"My reasons are for me to know. I told you to go back home, boy," Edakura said to me with hostility. But so far, I wasn't having it

"Well it's nice to see you too," I replied sarcastically "But let me correct you, this is my home, my destroyed home, I have every right to know what you're doing here, especially if there's some clue that you're defiling it." I said with slowly growing rage in my voice "So I'll ask again. What. Are. You. Doing here!?" I yelled out, hellfire bursting around my body in reaction to my rage.

She seemed unfazed by the flames, even approaching my hellfire like it was nothing. I continued to watch her angrily, watching her stay completely silent while coming towards me and then passing by me, walking through the flames unharmed. "Your flames will not stop me," she told me, stopping right beside me. "They are powerful, but not enough. Grow stronger if you want answers."

I looked at Edakura like she was a fool, maybe flames weren't gonna do anything, but I knew for a fact I had a weapon that might, pissed off, I jumped back from her and began to chant "Freeze everything, Xhanaru!!" I yelled out, and ice cold blue flames began to ignite around my body, freezing the surrounding area. As soon as they stopped, Xhanaru, in his Tsurugi spear form had come out, my irises now black and my pupils blue, while the rest of my clothes and hair had become an azure shade of blue as well. "You're going to give me answers, even if I have to force them out of you." I said in a forceful tone, I pointed my tsurugi at her and shot forth an ice cold inferno.

"Flames are meant to burn everything. They consume all that is in their way and burn it to ashes," Edakura told me, pointing her staff at me and the inferno heading towards her. I watched as her crimson flames shot out, consuming the ice cold inferno, making the crimson flames grow bigger. And with a wave of her hand, the flames disappeared before they could hit me. I was shocked. "Is that shock? You have much to learn if your flames cannot perform their duty, boy."

The shock still remained on my face until I snapped out of it and desummoned Xhanaru, "Then teach me if I have so much to learn. I'll be clear, I am going to destroy Hellzone Corps, they destroyed my village as you can see, killed the people I loved, destroyed everything I've come to care about, I won't just back down just because you think I'm weak." I said in a determined voice. While it was true that I was inexperienced, I'd managed to come this far on my own, and I'd already been through so much on my way to Kagura Village. To give up now would be the equivalent to forfeiting my own life, I wouldn't stand for it, I refused, and I let that show in my expression.

"..." she was silent as she looked at me, as if she was assessing me or something, which seemed to be the thing that she was doing. "I will not teach you to help with your revenge," she told me, her eyes seemingly glowing as we both glared at each other. I was itching to argue, but instead listened so I didn't drive her away again. She sighed loudly, enough for me to hear. "Fine. I will teach you the basics. Nothing more. I have my own goals and do not have all the time in the world to be teaching you," Edakura said, agreeing to teach me. I didn't know why, but I was feeling a bit giddy on the inside; excited to be taught.

I wanted to smirk, but didn't let it show and crossed my arms "Alright then, so what's the first step then?" I asked her. I'd already had fairly good mastery of hellfire and have already killed a fair amount of threats with it. Whatever she had in store couldn't have been too hard.

Edakura pointed her staff at me, then… she set me on fire. I grit my teeth for just a moment as the flames burned all around me, however, as soon as I began to relax, the pain from the flames slowly began to ease up, and soon, I felt completely calm "They… don't hurt…" I said, honestly surprised. I wondered if it was because of my affinity for flames, it would have been that I had somewhat of an immunity to them compared to most, still, I kept on guard, it couldn't have been as simple as this.

"Hmph," Edakura huffed, the flames soon dispersing from around my body. I looked at her in confusion, waiting for an explanation as to why she did what she did. "Come back here tomorrow. You have passed this part," she told me, walking away into the forest. I started to go after her; I didn't believe it was this simple. "Go home and rest. You have fought enough today. ...and thank you for protecting me." She disappeared into the dark forest.

I was sitting in the pavilion of Kagura Village, alone, I just couldn't get my mind off of what happened yesterday, just how was it as simple as that? The flames didn't hurt me at all, and it drove me mad wondering whether she willed them to or not, perhaps it was my affinity, but I couldn't be sure, it all just confused me. I decided to try an experiment, hence was why I had… 15 candles all around me.

I began to gather flames around my body before levitating it all in front of me, and slowly molding them all into 15 small fireballs all around me. With a will, I commanded them all to move forward toward the candles, carefully controlling their movements as I did. However, for some damn reason, one of them suddenly began to wobble before shooting right toward a candle, exploding against it and destroying 3 candles at the sides of it.

I cursed myself, how could controlling a damn fireball be that hard? I tried to direct the rest toward the candles, however, it seemed trying to control them all at once caused the balls of flame to go out of control and they began to fly everywhere, annihilating every last damn candle. I began to curse countless profanities from inside the pavilion, I could kill a demon with a fireball, but I couldn't light a damn candle!?

Thankfully, the pavilion had already started to repair itself, something I was thankful for, or else old man Daigen would've had my head mounted on his wall by now. I sat back down, thinking back to why Edakura set me on fire, back then, it only hurt for a little, until I began feeling no pain, it confused me, was it my affinity for fire, or something else entirely? I decided to test my own flames for myself, letting my emerald green burst around my body, I immediately began to feel hot, sweating like a pig from within the flames, I tried to will them to stop hurting me, but I just barely managed to lessen the heat.

Unsheathing my sword, I quickly slashed through the flames, the green hellfire dissipating, I didn't understand, why were they burning me? I suddenly heard the door open and turned to see Daigen walking inside the pavilion "Kurou my boy, I see you've been working hard here." said Daigen, it wasn't hard to tell that his eyes easily noticed the burn marks throughout the pavilion. I sheathed my sword, crossing my arms "Yes I have, but sadly, my results with my hellfire haven't exactly been successful." I admitted, sitting cross legged, I began to notice Daigen looking at my burn marks and his eyes narrowed as he let out a sigh.

"Flames are a tricky element Kurou, those with proper control of their mind can bend it to their will with ease. Those who do not suffer to control them, or are destroyed by the flames themselves." said Daigen as he made small constructs above the palm of his hand, interpreting exactly what he meant. I looked down, "In other words, if I can't control them, I'll be consumed by them." I confirmed for him, Daigen nodded gravely at me "Yes… but if I may offer a suggestion, while you can't use your own, let me show you flames that could be suited to this training of yours." he said, standing up and walking to a corner of the pavilion.

I would stand up and follow Daigen, and in the corner, there would be what seemed to be a narrow hole, Daigen would slowly unsheath his sword, and would proceed to stab it into the hole. A blue light would slice a rectangle shape through the wall of the pavilion, and it would fall over to reveal a fairly long stone pathway. We would both begin to walk down the pathway, and upon reaching the end, what could be seen was a blue scroll from afar.

Daigen would push me forward to the scroll, I would grab the scroll and would slowly open it, and inside, there would be a demonstration of a man, using what looked to be a silver flames, "There you are Kurou, these flames are called, the Sangrin Flames, they are our most powerful flames, I dare say they are close to the heat of hellfire, yet at the same time, they are not quite that far yet." explained Daigen. "In order to be used to the heat of my flames, I must experience the heat of others, I'm guessing that's why you're giving me this, Daigen?" I asked him, I received a nod "Indeed Kurou, if you can master control over these flames, you can certainly control your hellfire." he said with encouragement in his eyes. I grinned at Daigen, when I thought about it, he was a lot like Kaira, wise, very powerful, and at the same time, both could be very scary when they wanted to be.

Right now, I was sitting inside the pavilion alone, with the shining silver Sangrin Flames all around my body, the most I did was flinch a bit as they burned and swirled around me, but overall, I was fine. The old man wasn't kidding, these flames really were nearly as hot as hellfire, so far I had atleast been surrounded by the Sangrin Flames for 5 hours, and in 3 hours I had already managed to control 65 percent of the heat coming from them. At this point, I had managed to be able to control 80 percent of the heat coming from them, I was very close to controlling their full heat, however, it was like trying to pull chains connected to two very large boulders, atleast, that was how it felt in my mind.

The moment I broke those chains, was the moment I could control my hellfire, the last step was just testing it on something, then someone else I could find, with a will, the grey flames dispersed instantly from around my body, and I began to look at a large statue of what looked like a demon dog in the left corner of the pavilion. I took a deep breath, the Sangrin flames gathering and forming a fireball in the palm of my hand, I slowly reared my hand back, looking at the statue determinedly, and like a baseball, I threw it forth. It exploded into an inferno of silver flames upon impact, but I let a smirk cross my face when I saw that the statue wasn't destroyed, there wasn't even any signs of melted rock or even burn marks. I smirked, glad to see that I had done it, however, now all that was left to do was see if I could test it out on someone, without hurting them, I walked off in search of someone, hoping I had enough control now to succeed.