Chapter VIII- Stench of Death

Clouds with red lightning were beginning to form around the village, thunder beginning to fill the air. The being that has taken over Akumas body brought their left hand up next to their head as a pole made of lightning had appeared, as three blades had formed around the front of the lightning pole, two on the sides resembling spear blades, and on top of the pole that resembled a katana's blade. The being reeled back their left hand, taking a step forward with their right, proceeding to throw the lightning spear straight to Malca, causing the sound of thunder to fill the silence between them. The spear had barely missed, the spear had given Malca a cut on his right leg. Burrowing into the mountain as the spear exploded with a lightning bolt coming down to strike it with flame, as tall as Jagos mountain. The flames had come towards the church but stopped when they consumed the whole village.  The flames had turned solid before it could burn the village to ash.

    "Damn, we missed," the two voiced spoke, looking to the left. Clicking their tongue to the roof of their mouth. They began to stretch their arms and legs about, meanwhile, Malca had appeared from behind them, his leg was healed but he seemed to have a limp when he began to walk towards them. Once Malca had got two feet away from Akumas body, Akumas body looked at Malca.

    "What do you happen to be?"The two voices asked

    "I-I-I'm an angel sent down from heaven by our god Yano himself," Malca replied, nervously while the two voices laughed.

    "Oh really? Well that's bullshit, let's do a reality check mr.Angel. You're just a lowly peasant who was given a small bit of power. And now, you don't even know your place in this world, so allow us to show you. As demons, and we'll even let you throw the first punch," the voices spoke, beginning to stop laughing, waiting for Malca to attack them. Malcas movements were shaky.

    "And what do you think you're going to do?" the voices asked, as Malca had hit Akumas head on both sides, gunshots had gone off. But his brass knuckles had multiple cracks in them.

    "Seems like you're beginning to understand you're weak, a fly under our feet. so why don't you run away, vermin," The voices spoke, using the back of their right hand to slap Malca upwards. Sending Malca to the sky.

    "No, this can't be, how could they have come out," Malca spoke as his body began falling straight down from three hundred feet in the air. Meanwhile. Akumas body had pointed his hands towards the sky where they saw Malca, making a handgun gesture. Lighting bolts revolving around his two fingers.

    "Die," The two voices spoke out, multiple lightning bolts shooting out from the fingertips. The lightning bolts sped through the air, several of them hitting Malca everywhere under the neck. Once crashing to the ground Malcas wounds from the lightning began to slowly heal, when Malca was back to the ground his brass knuckles began to disappear into the winds. 

    "No, this can't be, I'm supposed to win, for him; for my savior," Malca said, more vines began to come out from the crown, covering him entirely from the neck down. The vines gave him excessively muscular armor of vines. The feet resembled those of Trex feet. Malcas arms and legs were huge with muscles. His hands resembled gorilla hands with claws. The crown was digging itself into Malcas head, his head beginning to cover itself in blood. Malca got back to his feet, meanwhile, Akumas body only watched with a devilish grin.

    "Damn, he's still alive, how should we finish him?"The voices asked. Looking to the right, then went to the left to grab the scythe. Walking to the hole that overlooked Malca. Akumas body stopped when their feet were at the edge where the hole met the floor.

    "Let's give him a real hit, we've only given him love taps," the voices spoke once again, laughing a little. Akumas body jumped forward, his wings flapping once. They entered the clouds as his entire body was covered in lightning and his arms wholly engulfed in flames. The flames made their way to the scythe blades. Twisting the staff, the scythe chain came spilling out, going seven feet down. They let go of the left side of the scythe. When they began to fall straight down, they positioned their body diagonally downwards and used the black flames to boost themselves forward. They began spinning their body, the chain scythe making a circle of flames and lightning.

    "Kill Akuma, kill Akuma, kill Akuma" Malca spoke robotically, repeatedly. Showing no face or emotion. Malca looked to the sky. Malca saw Akuma's body coming down towards him. The vines dug into the ground, making a wall that was ten feet thick. Vines began shooting out from the wall, finding their way to Akumas body but Akumas body threw the chained scythe. The scythe burnt the onrushing vines, the flames beginning to make their way to the wall. Part of the scythe blade had pierced the wall, setting the wall ablaze as the other wrapped around and pierced the back of the wall. The scythe on the front side of the wall came out from the wall to the other side, piercing Malca in the middle of his chest. The part of the scythe that was still stuck to the wall came off, wrapping itself around Malca and piercing itself to the ground.

    "It's time for your demise," The two voices spoke as they went through the ash-filled wall, landing directly behind malca as they tighten both of their fists, striking Malca directly in the back. Black flames burst out from Malcas torso, the flames fanned out to be as big as the wall. Malca screamed in pain, red lightning struck Malca on top of his head. They removed their hands to their sides, all the flames disappearing while Malcas body fell to the ground going limp. When they noticed that the crown was trying to fix Malcas body to continue. Grabbing Malca by his hair, they ripped the crown from his head and tossed him to the side.

    "So this is the crown of thorns, they say that it can boost someone's physical attributes. It can also help you control someone's body, like a doll. But if you begin to doubt yourself, then the crown takes over, making you a doll of its own," The two voices spoke while they began placing the crown atop their head.

    "It's also told that it can help to show you memories of anyone that's worn it, so if what we saw is correct, we can see him using it and maybe figure out who we truly are," The two spoke, closing their eyes while the crown was on top of their head. The crown began to dig into their skull, meanwhile, they waited.

    "Hm, why has nothing happened yet?" The voices spoke confused and looked to the left. why they haven't seen any of the memories of the past users yet.

    "Maybe we have to free our minds from everything," The voices spoke again looking to the right

    "Or maybe we need to access Akumas mind. Force his mind open so the crown can truly be used," The voices spoke, looking to the left. Their eyes began to roll back into their brain. 

    "No, we can't access his brain. Something is stopping us" The voices spoke once more, the right eye going back to place.

    "Why, what's stopping us?" the voices replied looking to the left.

    "Maybe it's a spell or a lock that Akuma placed on himself. The easiest case would be amnesia from all the deaths he's suffered. The worst case is a curse someone put on Akuma when this all began. But if any of those are true, then why?" The voices spoke, looking to the right.

    "Well if it's the first three, then only Akuma can break it. But, if it's the last option. Then we have to search for whoever gave us the curse and then kill them. Not unless someone else can take the curse away. But for someone to remove a curse, they have to sacrifice something of equal value," the voices spoke, looking to the left. They took the crown off, burning it to a crisp. They grabbed the scythe by the chains, reverting it to its original form. Placing the cylinder inside their left pocket.

"Now, let's search for her. Our time is fleeting, so let's not waste it," The voices spoke, beginning to walk forward to the cave, but they didn't have to travel far before they heard footsteps from their left. Looking to the left towards the treeline was Sada and Jago. Flapping their wings once, they covered the distance in an instance between them and Sada. Jago had fallen to the ground from the gust of wind, while Sada took a few steps back.

"So, you're Sada. Tell us, who are we?" The voices asked, Jago, getting up from the ground.

"I don't know who you are," Sada spoke, with Jago speaking up as well.

"A-A-Akuma, do you k-know w-where he is?" Jago spoke up but was met with a fist in the chest. This sent Jago backward to a tree.

"Last time I checked, I wasn't talking to you weakling. So stay quiet, unless you want to die. But Akuma is right here, inside us, you vermin," The two voices replied, Looking to and down to Jagos direction.

"You know more than what you like to lead our little prince to believe. But don't worry, he's sleeping for now, so why don't you start telling us the truth?" The two voices spoke, waiting for Sada to give them the answer they wanted to hear. Sada didn't answer them, she turned her back to them while she went to help Jago back up to his feet.

"Tell us, now," The two demanded, walking towards Sada. Approaching Sada quickly, their feet stopped. Their left hand grabbing under the right side of their chin. The black liquid began to revert from the left hand back into the symbols.

"Hey you dirty, good for nothing assholes, you stole my body. Now give it back," Akumas voice spoke out. Beginning to rip the mask from his face was like pulling the skin off. Strains of black lines trying to stay on Akumas face. The left side began to become completely solid and the two voices began to speak.

"Your body isn't done healing yet. If we switch now you may not survive, you only have two liters of blood left. You'll be decommissioned for who knows how long, maybe even dead. You need us Akuma," The voices were quick to speak, but it was too late. Akuma ripped the mask off from his face, his eyes went back to normal. Akumas cheek muscles became unhinged, all his bones began to break and began to fall.

    "Seems they were right," Akuma spoke, quickly passing out as his body hit the ground. With Jago back to his feet Sada went to Akumas body. Sada grabbed Akuma by his hands, pulling his body up, and laid him over his back.

    "S-so now what h-happens?" Jago asked, Sada began to walk past him

    "First we let the villagers go, and then we make our way to find someone who can help Akuma. Akuma may be able to regenerate but it hasn't developed fully yet," Sada replied, placing her hands on Akumas wrist to see if she could feel a heartbeat. She felt nothing for almost two minutes straight. 

    "But is Akuma still alive?" Jago asked, directing his eyes to Akumas beaten and bruised body. Akuma showed no signs of life. The only thing that now showed any sign was his slowly starting heartbeat that Sada was feeling against her fingers.

    "Yeah, I can feel his heartbeat, it may be slow. But he has to be alive," Sada replied as she began walking towards the ice over town with Jago following suit.

    "But where are we going to find someone who can fix him? Is there anyone in this country that can even save someone whose life is hanging by a fingertip? And what if Akumas body can't hold out long enough to be healed, where are we going to bury him?" Jago began asking question after question.

    "Stop asking questions, we'll do something about it. There has to be away, but we can't stay in this part of the nation. We need to move to the next nation over, Akuma is wanted here. So the next nation that we're closest to would be Hozanashi," Sada spoke, glancing to the sky.

.-----------------Chapter VIII-complete------------