Chapter VI- Charlatan of Sin

"Why does Akuma have to be so stubborn when I try to tell him anything that's a different solution than what he envisions," Sada spoke frustratingly to herself as she was currently walking inside the woods that separate the cave from the church. Sada had her hands inside her pockets, balled up in a fist with her fingernails almost digging into her skin, she tried to keep herself level headed and calm but Akuma's outlook on everything had made it hard for her to try to be as helpful and friendly as she could be towards him, with anger leaking out through her body ever since Akuma had parted ways with her. This Akuma felt so different to her, from his uncaring demeanor towards everyone, and how he only wants to go with a plan if it goes with his benefit. As the forest was filled with her footsteps and her head was filled with her thoughts about how she was debating with herself if the real Akuma would ever make a return and if there was any way to try and bring him back, there was what sounded like another set of footsteps fast approaching and sounds of trees beginning to fall as whatever or whoever it was coming maybe fighting the beast already, or on a rampage. 

    "What could that be?" Sada whispered to herself, in hope that whatever was making all that noise wouldn't make its way towards her but in the back of her mind, she knew what she had to do. Sada began making her way towards the noise that filled her ears and what seemed as if the ground began to make her feel uneasy about what she would have to fight. She was reaching the end where all the noise was located. After walking for what felt about ten minutes she had yet to see what was creating all the ruckus but Sada knew it was close, as she kept following the noise she saw tree after tree falling in its tracks, but when Sada had finally caught up to the mysterious noise. She had hidden inside the closest tree that had fallen, quickly walking inside the bush of tree leaves and she laid on her belly, making herself unnoticeable to the human eye. The noise became clear from what it came from, a deer. But the deer was currently squatting down forward on its two hind legs, with its front legs covering its head while lines of unknown symbols, the same kind of symbols that were on Akumas arm but in a different order and continually changing shape as the symbols were spiraling around the deer's chest, with the chest expanding outwards until it seemed as if it could pop, and shrink until you could see the deers ribs through the fur, The deer's eyes were completely black with blood dripping down from the eyelids, with the deers teeth beginning to fall out from its mouth with blood staining the grass red with blood. The deer's front hooves began changing their shape to a palm while fingers began to grow, the deer's back hooves began to change as well, this deer was beginning to change into a humanoid abomination. Sada slowly got back to her feet, making sure not to make a noise, or else she was afraid that she may get the transforming deer's attention. Sada began to walk forward, moving her eyes from the ground back to the deer, making sure she didn't step on anything besides the grass, as she placed her right hand inside her right boot. Pulling out a pocket knife, the hilt was colored pink and the blade was unsheathed from its hilt, with the blade almost seven inches long, there was writing that was beginning to glow teal with Sada beginning to whisper the text that was on her blade.

"Come to the assistance of men whom God has created to His likeness and whom he has redeemed at a great price from the tyranny of the devil," Sada spoke as she tightened her grip around the hilt of the pocket knife. But before she could even get close to the deer, the deer had exploded, its blood covering everything around it and its guts flying everywhere, the deer guts were now hanging off of trees and Sada had enough blood on her clothes to make her look as if she had killed the deer. The deer's bones stood in a pile while a cloud that was black as night was in the air, the cloud circling itself with the same changing symbols, colored in white was wrapped around the black cloud as a voice that was a bit high pitched yet raspy. 

    "That body didn't work, I thought it wouldn't work considering it wasn't a human body, but it's always fun to try, even if it's just to kill time while I wait for him to bring me a new body," The voice spoke out, it was the black cloud. The black cloud began to take its leave, coming towards Sada, Sada kept her grip so tight around the hilt of the pocket knife that her nails were beginning to dig into her skin while she waited for her opening to strike. As the black cloud got closer to her reach Sada began taking steps closer to the edge of the fallen tree line. Sada was only five feet away, the tip of her leather high heeled boots was out in the open to see but Sada hadn't noticed as her attention was hyper-focused on the black cloud, she had seen them before long ago, back when everything was normal when the only worry for her was directed to the one she loved. When the cloud was directly in front of her, her eyes looked directly to the cloud, and that moment had faded away as her eyes had caught whatever was hidden inside the body of the black cloud, faces of random strangers silently yelling out in what was painted on their face, pain, and terror. What exactly was this, Sada's eyes knew exactly what it was and spoke silently as she drilled her pocket knife towards her left, piercing the black cloud directly into the middle. The black cloud dispersed around Sada, making the air black as the voices of people started to fill Sada's ears but Sada tried to show no emotions to what she heard, from people asking where and who they were. But they slowly began to go silent with the black air disappearing as Sada wanted to ask the cloud questions but she knew that it wouldn't answer her questions with candor, she knew these creatures far too well to know that they can't tell the truth when it benefits someone else instead of them.

    "Why was it out in the open, especially out in the sun. If that one was able to be out in the sun then that can only mean there's a more powerful one nearby that can allow an invisible coat of protection. but if the so-called beast can do that, then we are not fighting a beast, but a terrifying monster," Sada spoke anxiously while there was a thought lodged in the back of her mind that had always been in the back in her mind, even when she used to live what she could call a normal life, but it always came to surface when she wished it would never come, but she asked it aloud to get the question out of her mind and off her chest for as long as she could

    "Can Akuma defeat this enemy, or is this all meaningless?" Sada asked herself, thoughts began to run through her mind, from if this monster was too powerful for Akuma to take, to if she would have to see Akuma die once again. Every time she had lost Akuma, half of the time his death wasn't even to Yano, but seeing Akuma die, over and over always gave her a horrible feeling, and that feeling of her losing Akuma was beginning to creep up upon her mind. Sada went back to continuing her walk to the cave, trying to not pay attention to her thoughts, only trying to pay attention to where she's going. After fifteen minutes of footsteps, Sada had finally arrived at the entrance of the cave. There were torches at both sides of the entrance and ones that were at least six feet apart from each other. Sada thought this was strange that a monster would have torches in the cave, why might the monster that Sada knew so much about need torches, the light would have made the monster just as weak as the sun and they had night vision, so what was the need? There were no leftover footprints left, nor was there a scent of the monster either. So if the monster wasn't what Sada had originally thought it could be, then what could this monster be?

    "What's going on?" Sada asked herself curiously with confusion her mind as she began to walk into the cave while looking down at the line of torches that lead down the cave that transformed into a tunnel while she brought the pocket knife back out, unsheathing the blade from the hilt, keeping a firm and tight grip on the pink hilt. As she got deeper inside she could hear the faint noise of someone talking to themself, added with the unfamiliar noise of glasses clinking against each other, liquids falling on top of each other, and a jumble of other noises. But as Sada was now inches away from seeing what was inside this cave, she saw the shadow, not that of a monster, or even a beast. But that of a human, a male playing around with some kind of item, but looking at the shadows to what he was messing around with was hard to tell. The male had seemed to be shorter than her, probably around five foot two, with long hair that was in a ponytail that went all the way down to his ankles. But before she could take another step forward a small explosion had gone off and the shadow figure of the male had seemed to fall back and had landed directly in front of Sada, Sadas and the strange male's eyes had made contact. The male's eyes were colored in dirt brown, his hair was almost the same color as the sky, and his skin was on its way to being as pale as paper. The male was currently wearing a yellowish robe that was made from straws, with a rope tied around his waist that was keeping the robe from just falling while he also wore excessively baggy pants that seemed to be made out of a condensed amount of grass. The silence in the air was becoming thicker as the two both hadn't moved with Sada's knife pointed straight towards the strange male as the male didn't know what to do or what to say besides to begin to move backward on the ground slowly as Sada had been lost in her thoughts, ranging from who this male may be to that maybe that Akuma was right that the priest had lied to them.

    "W-Who are you, are you another one of those t-things?" The male asked with a bit of a high voice and it had a voice crack in between his sentences. Sada had a confused look on her face, what did this boy; who had to be less than eighteen considering his voice sounded as if he was going through puberty, mean by "things"

    "If you mean someone that's not human, then no; I'm not one of those things you're talking about, and who might you be?" Sada spoke with a bit of a blunt tone as she squatted down to make direct eye contact instead of making it seem like she was looking down on the young male. Sada had flashed a small yet warming smile as she began to speak again.

    "My name is Sada Haincov, and I came here with a friend, but he's more like an accomplice, and we came here to fight a monster," Sada spoke again, trying to act friendly towards the young male who seemed more afraid and nervous than he should be, but Sada couldn't understand why, how could she?

    "Where's your friend, and a monster? My name isn't important for now, and the monster is near, but at least nowhere near this cave…" The young male spoke before becoming quiet as he tried to continue to speak but it had seemed like something had caught his tongue. The male looked towards the ground, getting back to his feet. Sada took a step forward to the young male and the male took a few steps back, he was keeping his distance but Sada found it a bit strange that he would want to stay about ten feet away from Sada. But Sada had no problem wanting to stay as far away from her since she was so used to being considered an outcast to humans.

    "My friend should be here any minute, he had something to take care of in the village nearby," Sada spoke, sealing the blade of the pocket knife back into the hilt as she placed the pocket knife back inside her right boot while the young male began to walk back towards a desk that was located directly in the middle of the room that was circular and was thirty feet all the way around, with a blanket made from sheep's wool and under the wool was a twin mattress that was made out of straw, and on top of the mattress and wool was a standard pillow that seemed excessively beaten and used, this was all directly in front of the desk right against the wall. That was filled with beakers, paper, vibrant colored liquids, and materials. The male began to move his hands through the objects, gripping onto five items, two with his left hand, and in his left hand were three items, the first two being what seemed to be cloth wrap you would see boxers use before putting on their gloves. The wraps were colored white. The third item, a somewhat strange-looking book, the book was thick with pages. The book seemed to be made out of brown cow skin, with a blue gem in the middle of the book while a plus sign was in the middle of the book that went all the way to the edges. There was no writing on the books covering and the pages were colored black but the number of pages had to be well over three hundred pages while he began placing the book under his robe, Sadas eyes had shifted over towards his left hand and what she had saw interested her more than the book did at the moment. The canisters were two skinny canisters with a sphere-like ending on the bottom halves of the canisters that were about six inches long, with the top half curving together and then going straight up, twisting together to form a spike that had a three-inch pin that should be on a grenade in the middle of the neck of the canisters. Both of the canisters had a letter on them, one had a G, and the second had an F. The letters were positioned directly in the middle of the canisters. The young male had placed the four items in between the rope and his robe.

    "What are you doing?" Sada asked a bit confused as to why he may need that while they were talking, were the canisters weapons, or was he preparing to leave for somewhere?

    "Oh, I was going to head out to test something out, " The young male asked as he moved his body away from his desk and towards Sada, while he had a bit of a smile on his face, could it be because he was meeting a new person, or maybe there was a different reason for a small smile that felt much more than just being kind.

    "Sure, but what were the things that you picked up?" Sada asked, still confused as to what he was planning to do with those three items and what they could truly be, were they weapons, or maybe some kind of medical item. Sada still didn't know who this young male was, could he be a doctor or was he a scientist, questions were still swelling in her head, but with all the questions in her head coming together, She tried to keep her mind calm, Sada had always been curious about everything, her mind always came up with questions whenever she became interested and that was one of her biggest downfalls with her weakened mind.

    "They're all essentially different kinds of explosives, and cloth wrap, but made a bit better," The young male spoke, Sada felt a bit surprised that someone would be making bombs, but what kind if they're not like the standard bombs.

"Oh, what's unique about them?" Sada asked curiously about how there could be different kinds besides how big and how much more damage than they normally could do. 

"Well the canister with a G on it is a grenade, but I use more gunpowder and explosive materials that allow it to give a bigger explosive radius, if my calculations are correct, it can destroy this whole cave, and the one with an F on it is a flashbang, but this could make you blind and deaf for the rest of your life since it's six times louder and brighter than a standard flashbang, but unlike the standard explosive that give you about six seconds, these explode in three seconds, and the cloth wraps are used to give extra strength behind the punch, the cloth has metal woven into the fabric," The young male spoke as Sada began to walk towards his desk which made the young male begin to back away from her, as he tried to move towards the right side in a circular motion, keeping himself ten feet away the whole time.

"So what do you plan to do with them?" Sada questioned while she had arrived at the desk as she began to move her hands through the desk, but only through the papers, looking at each scanning them to see if there was anything important or if there was anything to who the monster could truly be. Every page she had found so far was equations, blueprints for weapons and accessories to help in a fight, plus notes about what he may be able to modify to make his weaponry and accessories superior. Nothing about whoever the real monster was.

"I plan to use them to defeat the monster, but you could call it more of a devil. They hide within the village,"  The young male spoke, but the young male seemed to be hiding more than he was truly telling.

"Do you know who the monster is?" Sada asked, beginning to truly understand what kind of monster they were truly faced up against, and Sada's hunch was right, they were facing off against a demon.

"Yeah, but why should I tell you, you could be in cahoots with that devil," The young male spoke, but Sada was debating in her mind on how she may be able to get the truth from him, so she planned to just give him a bit more of her truth, and if plan A didn't work, she planned to force it out from him.

"My friend you were asking about earlier, his name is Akuma Zero, and I believe is the only hope you'll have for winning if you want the monster you're so eager to face off against to die because if you go try and fight it, you will most likely die regular humans, they are not built to fight monsters like the one currently hiding, and if you don't tell us where the monster is, my partner Akuma won't have any problems with forcing others to talk to give him answers, even if it means to kill them," Sada spoke with so much bluntness you could use her words as a club a baby seal to death. Her eyes showed no lies and no emotion towards what the boy would pick next, hoping that this could make the boy tell her the truth, the young male seemed good-spirited but they didn't have time to waste on trying to become friends. Sada placed the papers back down to the table, turning away to begin walking towards the exit.

"Don't get the village involved, they haven't done anything. Besides, they won't be able to give you answers anyway," The young male spoke with a shaky voice while he stopped in his tracks to try and make his way from the exit as he looked down to the ground, seeming a bit embarrassed for some unknown reason.

"I'm sure we can find someone, from a random person on the streets on the town or to the priest. If you cant help us find the true evil then we'll find another way to figure out, even if it means to burn down the village, surely there can be someone, the priest may have to be our first option to ask," Sada spoke as a dark chill had gone down the young male's spine as he quickly looked up towards Sada taking a step that was full of nervousness as he spoke with a shaky voice that could only mean something terrible.

"W-W'Why father Malca, don't go near him if you guys don't try to go anywhere near him; I'll tell you anything!" The young male spoke out abruptly with a bit of fear in his tone when he spoke the true name of the priest.

"Because my friend had felt something wrong with the priest, or as you call him; father Malca. He would be the first one we need to question," Sada spoke, still being blunt as she turned her head to the young male's direction as she stopped in her tracks as she then began to think of how the priest could be connected to the monster they could be facing unless he was the monster.

"But, if you wanted to tell us everything you know, then I guess I could tell Akuma to leave the church and village alone, but you better start talking," Sada spoke while she rolled her eyes a little and turned around towards the young male who had tears almost flowing down from his eyes and had a shaky voice. But Sada made herself seem as if she was interested in the first half of what he was trying to say, but the more he talked, the more interest that grew in Sada's head. Sada had a bit of a cracked smile to how much information she was being given.

"M-My name is J-J-Jago, and I'm sixteen. I've been living in this c-cave ever since I was t-ten. the village down there kicked me out after they had started a hunt to get me out of the village after I found out who the real monster was, he had everyone attack me because he had his control over them, telling them I was a witch that would bring them a great misfortune, and they all believed it because his words to them were demanding and whip them of all thoughts with that c-crown. But if you were to ask any of them now, they would never remember the events. Now I've been trying diligently to try and save everyone in that village, because, even though they treated me like a monster and tried to kill me…" The young male now known as Jago had spoken and Sada had listened to every word, confused what he meant by a crown that the monster had. But she was still waiting for Jago to speak the monster's name, but Sadas' brain was already putting the pieces to who the real monster truly was. Jago had fallen to his knees as the tears began falling to the floor while he placed his hands on the ground as bent his upper chest down and his head touched the ground as he had almost begun shouting out in a desperate cry for help. For whoever could help this young man defeat the monster in this village, and whoever could show him a bit of the saving light that was awaiting his arrival.

"I want to save them all, SO PLEASE, help me, I'll make whatever you want I'll even sacrifice myself if that's what it means to save everyone, I don't want the village to all to disappear because of father Malca, he's the devil, he's the one who kills the parents and takes the children to sell them off later" Jago spoke while his voice was cracking in between his begging. Sada had walked towards Jago as she bent down, bringing her left hand out and grabbed Jago by his left arm as she brought him back to his feet, making eye contact with Jago and she used her right hand to slap him across the face. Jago was confused as he had a red hand mark on his cheek as the tears had begun to dry up.

"Sorry, but I'm not the one you should be on your knees begging for help, I'm not the one who is supposed to fight the monster. I told you who was going to fight the monster, did I not? It's Akuma if he isn't able to defeat Malca though, then no one will be able to win," Sada spoke, but then Jago brought up the question that had been going through Sada's mind ever since the beginning, ever since she first saw him in a fight.

"But how do you know he can win?" Jago asked curiously with a disheartened tone, wondering how could she have so much faith within one person? Sada kept her eyes directed to Jago, not taking them off and no hesitation in her voice, her eyes reflected that she had to put all her trust in Akuma, because if she didn't then who would she have to believe in next to rise and defeat Yano?

"Because he is my savior, Akuma will be the winner in this outcome, I have to put my trust in the man who will defeat god, in the man who will take his position as king of this world and the man who will protect this world from whatever threat may come down. No matter if he's blind or deaf, no matter if all his limbs are taken, and no matter if he's only a head. Akuma is a warrior, he will keep fighting until there isn't anything left of him, that's the man that will save everyone here and more." Sada spoke with confidence in her voice, there was no shadow of doubt in her mind that she knew that Akuma could win because she didn't know how much longer he had, so even if this could be the battle he lost. The least that she can do is give at least one person confidence that there is a person who can win, that there's someone in this world who can defeat whatever the enemy could be. Sada had let go of Jago and began to walk to the exit of the cave as she looked back at Jago

"Are you coming? We have to go tell Akuma who the enemy is, plus you have to ask him to help this village," Sada said while she continued to walk disappearing in the tunnel that led to the outside as Jago ran a bit to quickly catch up to Sada and then began to walk when he was walking behind her keeping the distance by three feet.

"So, where is this Akuma?" Jago asked curiously, as their skin had touched the sun's light and Sada continued to walk as Jago was concerned that they should be going faster when she told him the answer.

"He's currently inside the church, talking with the priest," Sada spoke calmly as Jago then quickly spoke

"Then shouldn't we rush over there to try and save Akuma that way we can make a battle plan?" Jago spoke nervously as he began to quickly walk, almost walking past Sada but she grabbed him by the shoulder, keeping him still and pushing him a bit behind her that way she could keep her leadership over him.

"No, he'll be fine, Akuma would try to fight Malca if right then and there if he figured out he was the enemy, but I doubt that Malca would try to attack Akuma, considering if he knows who Akuma is he would be too afraid to try and attack Akuma, but it wouldn't make any sense for Malca to attack Akuma considering at least from what I could tell is that he doesn't have any suspicion on Akuma for attacking him, why to fight an enemy who you could make into your ally?"Sada spoke, but Jago was confused by one part of Sada's words.

"Why would Malca be afraid of Akuma, Did Akuma do something dangerous in front of Malca?" Jago asked curiously as they began to walk into the woods towards the church, to the enemy's base to plot their attack against Malca on the way.

"Long ago, when Akuma was known throughout the land, he was known as the strongest man to live, until someone very close to him turned against him," Sada spoke looking down as she gritted her teeth at the thought of what had happened so long ago, the memories of everything that came crashing down could never leave her mind.

Turning the clock back and over to the church where Akuma was idling waiting for someone to open the door while he had turned his head to watch as Sada had disappeared into the forest as he heard the door creaking open but this time that sent his nose had picked up wasn't there anymore, he wasn't feeling overwhelmed by his senses anymore, so what was it he smelled last night that made everything go wrong for him?

"Hello, I see your back again, did you need something traveler?" The voice asked curiously with a bit of a friendly tone when Akuma looked to see who the voice was from it was the man from last night, the priest.

"Yeah, I was wondering if I could come in for a bit, and I wanted to ask you a few questions, like do you have any clean clothes I could borrow and maybe a shower?" Akuma asked curiously, but still being as blunt. The priest had stepped towards the right, using his right foot to keep the door open while he waited for Akuma to enter. After Akuma entered the priest had shut the door and answered Akumas's reply.

"Why of course, I'll show you to the showers, and I'll leave you fresh clothes while you shower. Do you want me to take your jacket for you?" The priest asked while Akuma stepped inside and saw to the right that everyone's shoes were next to the door, so Akuma had taken his boots off, leaving them next to all of the other various sizes, colors, and appearances of the shoes. Most of the shoes seemed like they were for children considering how small they were, but there were a few pairs that seemed they belonged to adults, and the biggest size in the pack was Akuma, he didn't have very big feet, he was eleven and a half in shoe size. After taking his shoes off Akuma took off his jacket as well and handed it off to the priest and the priest noticed his arms were wrapped in bandages going past Akumas sleeves.

"How did you get the bandages?" The priest asked as he placed the jacket on one of the many racks that were on the door. 

"I got into a bit of a fight and hurt my arms in the process awhile back, I just haven't taken them off since I've had a good chance to. Oh, before I forget to ask, what's your name? Mine is Akuma" Akuma had said, glaring down to his arms for just a minute as he remembered the feeling of how his arms broke and how he lost to Elizabeth, but he didn't plan to lose any time after that. 

"People tend to call me father, priest, or something else that has to do with the church. But for you, you can call me Malca," The man who was now known as Malca spoke to Akuma still giving off a friendly tone to the man who could care less for being treated nicely. Akuma followed the priest through the church that was filled with children and all he heard was the children speaking, laughing, and everything else in between. But there was a silence in the air between him and the priest, mainly because Akuma was glancing at certain parts of Malcas body, from his bigger than normal hands to his more than a normal muscular body that seemed as if Malca had been working out for years and was still doing so, Akuma decided to ask the priest something that wasn't about Malcas body, but instead about something more interesting to Akuma

"Why are there so many kids running around, did all the parents  not want them?" Akuma asked while his eyes had glanced to every child that had passed them while he took rights and left waiting for an answer from the priest he had placed his hands into his pocket while he gripped onto his cylinder weapon with his right hand, while he kept his thumb on the pin, in case he needed to attack, but there had been no reason but the aura Akuma had felt off from Malca felt strange, it didn't feel anything like what he normally got from a human or a supernatural, it felt more like the aura that came from Elizabeth when her eyes were glowing white and she was talking about some god, but when Akumas memories brought that conversation back up, he began to think for only a second of what she could have meant, but he wondered, did she mean Yano?

"No, most of the kids that are in here parents died from the monster that attacks us, but just a few are left off at my doorstep, or if I go into one of the bigger villages, or even more rare, the capital of this nation. I'll find a few kids with no parents, with no one to look after them so I give them a place to live, I try to give them a better place to live than the harsh outside world. But we make it through fine," The priest spoke as he had stopped at a dead-end of the hall as there was a door directly in front of them that was made out of oak wood, and a silver doorknob, this whole church seemed to be made from wood, and a bit of metal that kept the church in place, but it was a lot nicer than any that Akuma had ever visited in the city.

"And this is our stop, for now, I'll grab you some clothes if you want to start to clean up now, I'll leave them in front of the door, and there's towels, washcloths, and everything else you'll need to clean up if you need to remove your bandages just leave them in a pile and I'll throw them away for you," The priest said as he had turned his back away from the door as he began walking away, soon disappearing from Akumas view. Akuma used his right hand to open the door and walked inside, keeping his hand on the door while he brought it shut. He saw a small room, that had two sliding doors in front of him. On each wall to the sides were bookshelves that went all the way to the ceiling of the room that was almost ten feet tall. On the right side of the room, the baskets were all empty, but they had names, and the only name on there that Akuma noticed was Malcas. And to the left were baskets filled with towels, washcloths, toothbrushes, and all other kinds of hygienic accessories. Akuma walked towards the left, grabbing a towel, washcloth, shampoo, and a bar of soap. Then proceeding to walk over to the right side of baskets that were all empty, he took off every bit of clothing, plus his cylinder weapon. Placing his clothing at the very top middle of the five shelves of baskets that had ten on every shelf, he didn't plan on taking them since he had no use for them anymore, Akuma kept the cylinder weapon in his hand. After sliding the right door open, Akuma walked inside without closing the sliding door behind him. The room was twenty feet long but ten feet wide, it was narrow, from left and right walls separated every shower head, at least twelve from what Akuma could see, and in the middle, it was about three feet wide from the walls that separated the shower walls. As Akuma began walking towards the end of the room, there was no one there, the only noise made was Akuma's footsteps. As Akuma got to the end he walked inside the confined space that didn't give him much room to move about, it was four feet bet from left to right, but the walls were five foot five big, covering up to Akumas upper chest. Akuma had placed everything he had brought with him on top of the small wall to his left as he began to unwrap the bandages that covered him from the neck down. It took him a bit but after getting all the bandages and putting them in the right corner next to the exit of his shower. Akuma looked down to his body, to every scar on his body that he didn't even know how they were on his body, only that he had them since he had awakened. Akumas body was riddled with scars on his muscular yet slim build. From the legs two scars went zigzag up to his knees, his knees had X shaped scars on his knee caps, but no scars on his upper thighs.  On his chest, he had a scar almost as big as his chest. The scar almost looked like a star, the tip of the scar had reached the upper middle of his chest while the bottom point touched his waist, there were eight points in total, with each of the side points hitting his sides, there were multiple small scars as well on his upper chest that seemed to be from gunshots and swords. But no scars on his back or arms. On his front right shoulder seemed to be a burn mark that was colored a dark tinted red. But there were no more scars to be seen, the strange symbols on his left forearm and his back right shoulder blade were still there, if anything they seemed more like a brand now than a tattoo. Minutes had passed of Akuma cleaning himself. Once finished and turning off the water, he had dried himself off but had no comb to straighten his hair, making him half-blind with all the hair that was in his face and every direction. Akuma wrapped the towel around his waist and left the cloth wash on the left side of the wall where he had originally placed it as he grabbed his cylinder weapon and walked out from the shower room into the middle, keeping a tight grip with his left hand where the towel ends met. Akumas legs were still dripping with water as he left a trail of water drops as he made his way out of the shower room and to the exit that would lead to the hallway as he opened the door to a group of children and a nun with them as they all looked at Akuma with confusion.

"What the hell are y'all looking at?" Akuma asked with a bit of an angered tone. Showing an angered look, Akuma looked down to find the new clothing that the priest had left for him. The clothing was a big pair of grey denim jeans, a black belt that seemed to be made from leather, a blue t-shirt, and white socks. Akuma picked the clothing up and walked back inside, closing the door behind him. removing the towel from his body, giving himself one more quick rub around to get any extra water off of him, and tossed the towel to the side as he began to put his new clothes on. The jeans were a bit baggy, covering his feet, making him cuff the bottom hems of his jeans. the belt was wrapped as tight as it could be, with a few inches out of the belt loop. His blue shirt was a bit small, stopping at his waist. Akuma had used his left hand to slide his hair backward back to its original form. Putting his weapon into his right pocket Akuma walked to the exit and open the door once again, the group of children and nun were still there as Akuma had begun to walk past them, but as he walked past the nun and children, something felt odd, one of the presence there felt off, with the nun looking almost mortified but kept her composer calm when her eyes glanced to Akuma. The presence Akuma felt wasn't that of a human, but instead in the presence of a supernatural being, but Akuma had brushed that feeling aside for now. Akuma began to walk through the church, trying to find Malca, Akuma kept feeling the same presence when passing by more groups. Akuma kept pushing back the feeling but something inside of him told him that something wasn't right. having no luck trying to find the priest he had become lost. Now Akuma's new plan was to find a way out to see if Malca could be outside or if Akuma could just stumble into Malca. Akuma had spent minutes trying to find Malca, and every time he had run into a dead end.

"For a church, there's a hell lotta space," Akuma spoke tiredly while he kept looking for wherever Malca could be, continuing his search he had come across a hallway that smelled just like last night, it had clogged Akumas nose making him quickly cover his nose with his right hand as he breathed through his mouth that made whatever the smell was a bit more bearable. 

"There it is again," Akuma spoke as he moved forward into the hallway that gave off the same putrid smell again. With every step closer to the end of the hallway the smell became stronger, when the end of the hallway was in Akumas sight that was when the smell was its strongest, the smell was coming to his left to a door, the doors had all looked the same but the only difference was this door had a silver nameplate at the top of the door, and the name on that plate was Malca's name colored in black. Akuma used his left hand to grip onto the handle as he tried to knock on the door as he spoke

"Malca are you in there, I'm ready to talk with you," Akuma had received no answer. He began to try and twist the doorknob but the door was locked, the scent had begun to become too strong even for Akumas mouth., but Akumas mind was running wild about what that smell could be, as Akuma began to pull backward and forward, trying to open the door by force, Malca had appeared from Akumas right.

"Me too, follow me then mister Akuma," Malca spoke, passing Akuma while Akuma had taken his hand off of the doorknob and begun to follow Malca, once leaving the hallway the smell quickly disappeared. The more they walked away from the hallway the more Akuma wanted to go back and see what was inside Malca's room.

"What was that room back there with your name on it?" Akuma asked curiously as they had entered the front living room that was directly in between the entrance, their backyard, and the kitchen. The living room had a couch that was big enough for five people that was colored grey and on both sides were two wooden chairs that all stood a few feet from the wall that had a medium-sized tube tv that sat atop of a wooden cabinet that was about six feet long and colored white with three small drawers on both sides with two big drawers in the middle Malca had sat down in the wooden chair to the right while Akuma had walked towards the other side of the couch and grabbed the chair by its top rail, dragging the chair over so he could sit directly in front of Malca.

"That was my bedroom, why were you trying to get in there?" Malca spoke, with Akuma quick to answer Malcas question before sitting down in the chair

"I thought you might be inside, but when I heard no answer I thought maybe you were in trouble, but who's this almighty Y person?" Akuma said bluntly while keeping his eyes directed at Malca. 

"I don't know whoever this Y person, and I don't know how this village came upon the religion, but in this town, he's viewed as a god as you may put it, I haven't seen any of the major cities practice this fate, but on rare occasions, I see a few small villages like ours practice the word of Y, with this religion was a bible that had many stories, no one knows who made it. Would you want to hear one of them?" Malca spoke straightening his posture while Akuma had leaned forward in his chair, placing his arms on top of his knees into his chair. 

"What is that tattoo on your forearm, Is there a secret meaning behind it or just a drunk night?" Malca spoke with a bit of laughter while Akuma didn't laugh at Malcas comment

"I don't know, it just showed up one day and it won't disappear and about your stories, maybe in a bit, I have something that's been bugging me for a bit," Akuma spoke, glancing down to his left forearm before asking another question, remembering what he had seen.

"You said that there was a beast in the cave near this village, I can see far enough to know that I saw a shadow at the entrance of the cave, but not a beast's shadow, a human. Mind telling me what the beast you're talking about is?" Akuma was quick to speak again as Malca had wrapped his fingers together as he laid his arms on his chest.

"The beast takes many forms, no one knows what it truly is, or what its true form is even though it's been here for almost four years. Considering all of the information we have, we think that it could be a shapeshifter," Malca answered

"So I've heard around. It's just strange that something like that would be attacking such a small village," Akuma spoke, going back on his memory on what shapeshifter's habits were; they usually went after cities with a big population so they can hide in the crowd. no one would notice when they went after someone they stalked for the month, that way when the shapeshifter went after their prey and killed them, they would change themselves into their prey and pretend to be them until they became hungry again. For a shapeshifter to be going after such a small village, and in the four years that it's been around, the village shouldn't be around.

    "If you don't believe us you can always check on it for yourself," Malca said, with a bit of a demeaning tone that made Akuma roll his eyes

"No shit, I've dealt with so many of these kinds of monsters my mind is going through what else it could be besides a shapeshifter. But nothing adds up, so it may be something new all things considered," Akuma spoke acting as if that he was thinking about what it could be when reality his mind was trying to figure out what that smell was coming from behind Malcas room, what the feeling he had every time he passed by the nuns. Everything just seemed so off but Akuma couldn't put his finger on it.

"It's said in life that everything is always evolving, even if it doesn't seem so, it just takes time until something or someone evolves," Malca replied quickly to Akuma's comment.

"Is that so well I'm still waiting for my evolution to become stronger, but it feels like I have no more room to evolve," Akuma spoke, a bit lower for himself to hear as he chuckled to himself.

"Do you want to hear a story now? It may not have to do with evolution, but it may be something you want to hear if you want to hear about strength," Malca asked

"Sure, It's not like I have anything else to be doing," Akuma spoke, rolling his eyes a bit waiting for the story Malca has waiting for him

"In the bible about our almighty Y, there are two men; they had no names to say, they're names were Galo and Aleko. both were known to be incredibly strong, and they had been best friends, they could have been brothers with how close they were, but from what they enjoyed, all the way to their ideas were completely different. No one knew how they were friends, but they always made it through the days," Malca spoke, laughing a little at his story while Akuma was a bit confused at what this could be leading to.

"One day they had begun to fight, for multiple days because they wanted to prove a point about how powerful one could become, and how they can become even more powerful when they feel like they hit a ledge. Galo believed that there was a set bar for everyone, some could pass the bar but not by anything advanced, that no matter how much they try to train, that would never break the bar that was set for them. but when he thought about gods, he believed that gods had limits as well, but their limits were so meager that it seemed like they were limitless," Malca spoke, getting up from his chair as he began to walk around the room they had enveloped while Akuma only listened shut his eyes as he began to imagine these figures that Malca had spoken about.

"But Aleko; Aleko believed that no one had a limit, that their only limit was when they thought they stopped, only when one believes that they can be even stronger can they surpass their limits. Aleko thought of training as just a way to bring oneself closer to evolving past who they were, but as the two of them fought, seeing if either of them would come to a limit of how much strength they could use, to see if either would hit their limit, rain began to pour down, but the rain was not kind of rain you're accustomed to, instead this rain would zap all of your strength, and any kind of power you had. Galo and Aleko kept fighting, the rain didn't matter to them, but after the rain had dissipated there was only one standing, it was Aleko since Galo was so closed-minded he believed he couldn't keep fighting so you could say that the rain is what defeated Galo, but with Aleko; he kept pushing himself and wouldn't stop with him believing that he could still bring out more of his power and strength. The bible says that the rain did not affect him in the end. I believe it did but Aleko kept pushing out more power than the rain could handle," Malca spoke, Akuma opened his eyes and brought his body up out from the chair, standing tall as he glanced at Malca.

"I think it's time for me to head out," Akuma said, stretching his arms legs a little, Malca had walked out from the front living room towards the front door with Akuma three feet from behind. Once they arrived at the door Akuma had put his boots on and his trench coat. Malca opened the door, letting the bright light from the sun peer inside as Akuma made his first step for the outside

"Just to warn you, Malca," Akuma spoke in a bit of a more severe and menacing tone instead of his standard blunt and uncaring tone, his eyes glowed them as his and Malcas eyes had met, with Akumas eyes showing that what was behind Akumas words were true Meanwhile, behind Malcas showed fake confusion that to Akuma was seen as real.

"If I figure out that you're behind this or that you're helping this beast in any way, I promise that I'll come back to kick your ass to purgatory and onto hell," Akuma spoke with nothing in his voice that showed any kind of hesitation or timidness.

"Why might you say that Akuma?" Malca asked confused by Akumas comment about what he may find later

"I don't trust you completely, something about you doesn't sit right with me, just hope its a passing feeling, cause if we fight each other, I promise you I'll win," Akuma spoke with a bit of confidence while he began his walk descending the hill as he tucked his hands into his pocket, as he heard the door close from behind him with no comment from Malca.

"Now, time to wait for Sada at the waiting point," Akuma said as he began to make his arrival to the middle of the town as he began to try and locate the fountain that stood in the dead middle of this