chapter V- Guessing game

"Akuma, why do you want to be strong, what is your reason for the strength that you have yet to possess?" A deep booming voice with a gravelly tone spoke with interest, it sounded so familiar to the male, but Akuma couldn't put his finger on it yet, the voice's breath smelled even worse than the priest but highly intoxicating. Akuma opened his eyes to a black void, as far as the eye could see everything was black, nothing in sight. Akuma was currently wearing nothing but the blue pair of jeans that were slightly sagging down while he was being held by his left arm where the mark resided and something with six fingers was holding Akuma's body up by his right shoulder, this was similar to the time when he was close to death with Elizabeth, but why was Akuma back here, and why was the voice asking such an odd question? But something felt off about this, for some reason whoever was holding Akumas forearm didn't feel similar to the last time he was here, it felt the same as whoever had their fingers in his back.

"I want to be able to kick the ass of anyone who tries to kill me, I want to be the last one standing, even if I'm on the verge of death, I'll keep fighting, I'll come back from the brink of death just to fight, once I win then I'll die. Even if it means to destroy my body, I'll do anything to win," Akuma spoke somewhat truthfully, he had always wanted to be the strongest, so no one could kill him, or anything that would threaten the way that he enjoyed to live, and Akuma never wanted to taste what it's like to lose; he never planned to lose until death.

"That's good to hear, but what will you do when there's no one left to fight when you are the strongest?" The voice asked, he knew this voice; this was the voice of whoever of the two had spoken the last time he was here.

"Then my dream will be complete, there won't be a need for me to fight anymore, I'll be at my limit, but even then I still won't know what I would want to do after that. My body says that the only important thing is to fight, but my mind says that there's something to fight for, but I don't know what that is," Akuma responded quickly but was his answer true, he was currently as powerful as he thought, Akuma felt as if he was in a hole that he couldn't get out from, but Akuma wanted to get out, but the only question was how?

"Where's the other voice from last time, and would the two of you, be able to give me more power?" Akuma asked since he didn't know if there were two of them and maybe the second voice was just silently watching, or if there had always only been one.

"He's sleeping, when you went to the church he passed out" The voice spoke, but when he finished his sentence he began to chuckle a little.

"Before I send you back, just know that we can give you the power to rival even the strongest around, no matter if it seems like they would be the one to win, but be wary of when we have our chance to take over your body, we will, and we'll destroy everything in our way, no matter if it's someone you care about or if they're your enemy, but we're not the only things that can give you more power, from the rings of sin to the weapon Kōhai no Ikari(荒廃の怒り)," the voice spoke as Akuma had felt the hands that held him by his left arm and right shoulder let him go before he began to fall into a black pit. When Akuma was about to speak his back had hit whatever kind of ground was at the end of this so-called void.

"Like hell, you will. And the rings of sin; What's that supposed to mean?" He spoke as he got back to his feet, curious about what he was supposed to do now.

"Where do I go from here?" But as he thought out loud to himself, he began to feel cold hands wrap around his legs. Looking down there were spirits from those body parts missing, grabbing onto his body, begging for life, asking why they couldn't be saved by him. None of them looked familiar, but they began pulling him into the ground. He struggled to break free of their hands and pull away but nothing was working. He was at his neck clawing at the ground with his right arm trying to pull himself out from the ground, but their clutches were too powerful, pulling the rest of his body inside.

It was currently ten o'clock in the morning, the sun was up and the sound of rain, roaring thunder, and lightning that was almost tented red surrounding everywhere the eye could see. But the noise of the rain hitting the ground, and the roaring thunder nearby was interrupted by multiple trees hitting the ground with Akuma jumping thirteen feet into the air with black flames coming out from his hands as his scream had echoed. The black flames had burned off the base of the trees. And began dissipating as Akuma was flying upwards towards the air, but was now quickly falling towards the ground. Akuma placed his arms directly down and under his feet, with his hands being completely open and flat palms, beginning to blast out a solid black substance out from his hands when the solid black substance had hit the ground the substance spread across the ground, covering a circumference of ten feet all around with the substance coming upwards towards the sky, almost resembling flames. Akuma closed his hands, stopping the black substance from coming out anymore, and began to slide down into the bowl he had created, spinning around as he slid in the bowl going upwards, towards where the bowl ended. Now quickly beginning to slide back down Akuma had opened his right hand piercing his fingers into the solid substance, it felt like ice from hell; it was freezing, but that freezing feeling began to feel hotter than melting steel as Akumas body stopped abruptly, almost dislocating his arm. Placing his feet flat on the black ice, he took his fingers out from the ice, and when the air had hit his fingers that had no skin and his fingernails were only an inch from falling off, almost being able to pull each of them off. His fingers had begun to be wrapped in skin and the fingernails that looked as if they were hanging by a thread began reattaching themselves to his fingertips. The bowl had begun to evaporate with smoke steaming off as the bowl quickly began to disappear. Akuma had gone to the base of the quickly disappearing bowl, with Akuma hidden in the smoke as he sat down, his heart beating fast as he took a deep breath in and a deep breath out, looking down to his lap and sat his hands on his knees.

"What was that dream, and who were those people, and what did he mean by the powers that aren't from them?" Akuma spoke to himself with more questions than he could process in his head as he heard the noise of footsteps from his right, the noise was as clear as a bell. Looking towards his right he saw a shadow in the smoke but as the shadowy figure had become clearer to make out, and once he heard their voice, he knew that the shadowy figure could not be mistaken for anyone else.

"The hell was all that?" Sada asked as she stood only two feet from Akuma's side as the smoke had disappeared, and revealed that Sada had a basket that was held with both her hands on the bottom of the basket. filled to its brim with assorted fruits, from apples to bananas and what even smelled like cooked meat to Akumas nose.

"A nightmare, I guess," Akuma spoke with a bit of confusion and fear towards the end of his sentence, keeping his eyes towards the basket, his stomach growling while he brought his hands upwards towards the basket while Sada took a seat down next to Akuma while the basket had left her hands with Akuma ripped the top off beginning to grab the fruits left and right, shoving the fruits into his mouth with his right hand, taking big bites, scarfing down anything that touched his mouth, meanwhile his left hand was trying to look for the delectable meat scent that his nose picked up.

"What do you mean, was it or not?" Sada asked a bit confused as to why Akuma may just guess it could be a nightmare instead of being much more, Akuma stopped stuffing his mouth with fruits as his left hand had found a piece of a cooked hamburger patty that was five inches thick, big enough for Akuma to hold with both hands, but before Akuma was to bite into the patty he had answered Sada's question.

"If I had to choose, then yes; it was a nightmare. But I have a question, do you know what the rings of sin are, and Kōhai no Ikari(荒廃の怒り)?" Akuma asked curiously with a bit of a demanding tone to see if Sada would ever answer an actual question for him, the look on Sadas face made her seem like she was terrified to hear, that she could answer his question, but the answer she gave made it seem as if she was hiding much more than what she told, but Akuma hadn't noticed Sada's facial expression since as soon as she was about to speak Akuma brought his attention to the patty that was currently residing in his left hand as he began to quickly devour the meat.

"I only know bits and pieces about the rings, but not enough to give you a straight answer, but I've never heard about Kōhai no Ikari(荒廃の怒り). Where did you hear about those anyway?"Sada asked curiously while she had darted her eyes toward the sky, trying to avoid eye contact with Akuma.

"As far as my knowledge on the rings goes; no one knows how to obtain them, but most people believed they were hidden throughout the world, and will reveal themselves to only the chosen ones. Most believe that there are only seven rings that align with the seven sins, but there are myths and tales that speak of three more rings, more mysterious and dangerous rings. But myths say no one can wear them all, for if someone does, they will suffer more than the deepest parts of hell destroying their soul completely... Though if you are lucky enough, and you are strong enough, it is rumored that a living person can obtain the power of the rings," Sada spoke waiting for any kind of response from Akuma, but by the time Sada had finished talking, Akuma already scarfed down the food and was standing next to her looking quite interested in this newfound knowledge tucking his hands inside his jean pockets.

"So people like Yano, right?"Akuma asked, keeping his eyes in front of him, squinting towards the mountain where the monster supposedly resides. The hole that led inside the cave was still dimly lit, but something had caught Akuma's eyes. A small shadowy figure appeared inside the cave, but it was strange, the shadowy form did not appear to be that of a monster, but of another being... a human. Akuma was confused, he was unaware of any supernatural beast that could appear in the form of a human. Even those of shapeshifters and other humanoid type creatures have always had distinct features on them that are easily noticeable, but the shadow looked bare and their movements looked as if there was thought put into them, it wasn't stumbling around like a brainless monster.

"Yes, even Yano could wield the power of the rings to their full potential, but he wouldn't think of using them. He believes they would make him impure."

Akuma shifted his eyes to the church, lost in thought. Why would Sada believe what the priest said straight out of the gate? Akuma never put blind faith into anyone and something about this priest had felt off-putting to him, from the smell of the metallic breath of the priest to the curious amount of knowledge.

"Did you find out anything while you were gone in town? It seems like the villagers are frightened by this so-called beast. And why do you trust what the priest says? Something about him just makes me feel uneasy," Akuma questioned deeper, slowly taking a step forward to the church.

"Because we don't have any other information we can either trust the priest, for now and find out what powerful beast lurks in the cave; or we can wait until the beast attacks again. The only problem is we don't have time to wait. We need you to be as strong as possible, as soon as possible to defend against Yano. Besides, I had asked around town to see if I could find anything about the beast, but no one has ever seen it much less know anything about it, although; one of the sellers said it could possibly be a shapeshifter," Sada replied, taking a step forward with him, placing her hand on his shoulder as she forcibly turned his upper body towards hers, meeting eye to eye.

One with beautifully bewitching eyes who's confident on the path she chose and caring to the one she's with; while the other, a set of stern and powerful eyes, beaming downward seemingly indestructible but lost, only focusing on himself. The two sets of eyes are polar opposites, but still, they are hypnotized by each other's gaze.

"We should split up for now. I'm gonna go talk with the priest while you go to the cave if you want, and see what's going on in there. Once we are finished, meet in the center of the village by the thorned fountain," Akuma directed as he turned away from Sada.

"Shapeshifter, huh?" Akuma mumbled to himself as he turned away from Sada, continuing on the path towards the church. As he got in front of the church he raised his hand with a clenched fist, extending his index, middle, and thumb straight out creating the shape of a gun. Holding the gun shape now in an upside-down position, moving his hand to touch his temple as he nods goodbye to Sada knowing that he has decided to split from her; not taking the risk of trusting the priest.

-----------------Chapter Five-complete-------------