Chapter 16

The pink ethereal blade stuck out of the Apostles chest as blood poured from the wound. The Apostle trembled on his knees trying to grasp at the manifestation in his chest to no avail. The blade then started to move, sawing up and down before flying out of the Apostles chest. It whizzed by me, and I watched as it returned to it’s origin; the hand of a pink-haired girl. She grabbed the sword out of the air, did a pirouette, and struck a dramatic pose, crossing the sword with another one just like it that she held in her other hand.

“Tsuki? You have can create two manifestations?” I asked with my eyes wide.

“Of course, you mean you can’t conjure two?” Then she looked at my hand, and she let out a noise that I couldn’t really describe. “Is your manifestation a gun?! That’s so bad ass!”

“Uh, yeah. Where’s Marie?”

“What do you mean? She’s right-”

Just then, the sound of a bullet echoed through the mall. The bullet sliced through the air past Tsuki and me, colliding with the Apostle still collapsed onto his knees, piercing through the hole made by Tsuki’s sword, obliterating the Apostles chest cavity. The Apostle slammed backward onto the ground from the force of the bullet, finally dying. The robes he wore dissolved into a green glow, before vanishing. What lay on the ground now was the corpse of an unknown mage in standard civilian clothing, with a large hole in his chest.

“Apologies for the delay. We got held up with some mages. We dispatched them easily. Tsuki is quite powerful.” Marie said, running up next to us.

“No worries, glad you guys are fine. But, where were you keeping that rifle?” I said, pointing to the antimaterial rifle Marie was wielding.

“It was in my bag. I had to assemble it.”

“She did it so fast too! It was like 5 seconds!” Tsuki said nodding profusely.

“It was 4.56 seconds, actually.” Marie said with an air of pride.

“Impressive, but we still have the other Apostle to deal with.” I said with urgency.

“There’s another?” Marie said, pulling the charging handle on her rifle, freeing an empty casing.

As if answering her, the mist cloud was dispersed with a powerful force of wind magic, nullifying the electricity that was still crackling within it. In the now-clear hallway stood the other Apostle. He held out his hand and pointed at us, specifically at Tsuki.

“Target spotted. Reinforcements needed.” The Apostle spoke in a distorted voice.

At that moment, several other crests on the ground started to form and glow. More Apostles were on the way. Marie took cover behind a marble planter, taking aim with her rifle. Tsuki cackled out in joy and gave a toothy smile.

“More targets to kill!” She screamed out.

I felt like I could see her killing intent in an aura around her as she leapt into the air toward the illuminating crests on the ground. The moment one of the Apostles teleported in, Tsuki crossed her blades at his neck and sliced them, decapitating him easily, despite the intense mana shield that the Apostles wielded. She then pirouetted around the headless corpse and slid across the ground, slicing at another Apostles legs, cutting them and again slicing through the mana shield easily. Two Apostles raised their hands and fired out large ice arrows at Tsuki. She easily dodged them and launched herself at them like a spinning top, slicing through their abdomens. The Apostle whose legs were cut reached his hand up, lightning crackling in his fingertips. But just as he went to cast his spell, a pink katana sliced its way through his palm, then his forearm, and impaling him in the neck with a spray of blood, killing him.

“Now, this is fun! How many more are left!?” Tsuki yelled in a bloodlust craze.

“She really is a demon...” I whispered to myself.

Tsuki recalled her blade to her and continued her rampage, dodging every spell thrown at her, deflecting ones she couldn’t, and cutting through each Apostle. Before long, she had sliced down and killed the dozen Apostles that had ambushed us. The bodies, cut up beyond reason, lay on the ground covered in pools of blood. Tsuki stood there, covered in blood, breathing heavily, and basking in pure joy.

“That was amazing! Where are the rest?” Tsuki said, spinning her katanas around in her hands, ready for more. I watched in amazed horror as she looked like a bloody war goddess standing on a mountain of corpses.

“Uh... you killed them all. Good work.”

“You mean there’s no more? Awh...” Tsuki said in a dejected tone, dispersing her manifestations.

“We had better get out of here. I’ll go grab Ich-” That moment, I saw one of the corpses move in an irregular way. It was writhing on the ground, wriggling from side to side. For a moment I wondered if one of the Apostles had survived, but this specific corpse had no head. I was expecting the robes to vanish like the first Apostle, but the magic of this corpse didn’t vanish. Instead, the corpse rose to its feet in an unnatural way, like a monster out of a horror film. It stood there like a lifeless doll being propped up before starting to shamble forward. Then another corpse rose in the same way. Then another. And soon, all except the two original Apostles were all shambling toward us like a horde of zombies.

“Uwahh! Zombies?!” Tsuki cried out, grabbing hold of me tightly. “I never liked horror movies!”

“What in the world is going on? I never knew the Secular used necromatic magic.” I took aim with my manifestation and fired several rounds into the shambling Apostles. The bullets hit them all center mass and they all slumped over, as if dying again. But after a moment, they all stood back up and continued shambling forward. Then, several loud consecutive shots rang out with thunderous bangs as large holes exploded in the chests of several of the corpses, knocking them to the ground. But, just as before, the corpses rose up and continued forward.

“Why won’t they stay down! I don’t like this! Ryuki, do something! Eek!” Tsuki cried out, clinging ever tighter to me.

“I also am confused. I do not understand.” Marie said over the earpiece.

“Oh. This is strange. I never thought they would have used that.” Ichiro said, also over the earpiece.

“Used what? Do you know what this is, Ichiro?” I asked in a more panicked voice than I intended.

“Yes.”

I sighed. “Explain, please.”

“It’s a spell I made that infuses mana into a mages body to release once they die. It then animates those corpses based on their last order the brain gave it. In this case, I think it’s hunting you guys. But I was told that the Secular didn’t use necromatic magic. So this is very strange.”

“I guess stealing Tsuki made them rethink their morals. As if they had any. How do we kill them?” I said, still shooting at the shambling horde.

“You still have that spell I gave you? That should work.”

“Somehow I feel like you expected this.”

“I didn’t. But it does make me look prophetical, so I’ll let you believe it.”

I pulled out the spell that Ichiro had given me earlier and read it over. Tsuki must have done the same because she let out a shriek that pierced my eardrum.

“He really came up with a spell that does that?!”