Epilogue I

She stood frozen.

She had watched Nanoka be devoured alive.

Her eyes were frozen, but also trembling. Locked on the space where her friend had been.

Then, when the creature's red eye closed, like it accepted the offering. When all the sky quaked and shuddered. Water rose and dripping bile fell from the maw of the monster. Truly, that was the moment to rejoice.

"Rejoice!" one shouted. "The Sufferer has reclaimed what was lost!"

"Rejoice!"

And rejoice they did, not a solemn one but loud. Rippling through the crowd, they went grinning gleefully, as the altar turned into a storm of genuine, breaking joy.

Ichiha hadn't understood the reason, she had nothing left to break.

Nozomi watched, with scythe on her side. Finger straining for oxygen. Shimizu with practiced silence, her mouth was open like it ought to say something, a prayer. But not a sound came from it.

Not enough had Ichiha endured. Robed figures started dripping from the perimeter toward the altar. Then by the seconds, their guttural inside spewed forth, exploding outright into Ichiha own catatonic face. It dripped from her short hair to her left cheek; then to her chin; then to her bow tie.

Then came the second one, splashing the other side of her face. Which successfully transformed her school uniform into bloody red. A liver placed placidly on her shoulder. A heart, ripped out of its artery yet beating, hung on her small hand.

Then third.

And by the fourth, it stopped rolling. Her face was fully drenched in human's gut. It was bloody to say the least, each piece of bile was clinging and writhing to each pore of her skin. Intestines slid past the lower leg and pinched between. Blood and diluted smog rose to flame and reached to her butt despite her legs tucked behind, feet curled straight to the ground and sitting on its heel — in kiza position.

To make out, it was quite a visceral display.

A pink light originated from her. Face truly begone from hers, sucked dry of any emotions whatsoever. Not a blank one, but absent, as if her soul had evacuated. She was overrun by tiny seizure but it might as well be paralysis.

The cultists' jubilant cries droned on.

Those same light turned hot. A fire rose and scorched just about everything in vicinity. Incinerated the blood and lacerated the altar stone. Conflagration so bright, so pink, eyes off the razor they were. Blinded by it truly.

Then it collapsed.

She stood.

Simply stood. Her double-breated blazer gone, her shirt, her culettes, her sock, her loaf all gone too. Her uniform was scorched to dust, bare naked.

She's not the same girl who'd frozen watching her mother die. Something else. Her eyes were open but empty.

Then, her finger curled, her face strained hard. She took a step and vanished mere instant.

A severed head fell from the knot of robed figures. Then another as joy turn to fear. A bramble of it growing from. She vanished then get behind someone else, long enough head gone severed, skeet, like a cutter.

And again, it dropped. Twice more, no, thrice.

Then she teleported behind the gilded Apostle. Wanting, but she fell on her back before doing it. Laying unconscious within the wet ground of the room.

"My, my, she went out of control." The Saintess speak, Her hand clasped with crimson red light coming from it.

Then Her arm wake open, flared to between Her hip, as the light turn to fire, still blazingly red. Soon those people who had their heads chopped off regenerate them back.

"But…" shimizu started but stopped midway.

The Saintess coughed blood. She had siphoned too much blood out of her body to revive pretty much all her believers who died.

Some cried their joy to see the Saintess reviving their brethren, ensuring proper martyrdom is due for them.

To extents beyond belief.

She collapsed, Her form turning smaller, more fragile and petite.

Vampire can regenerate, but they require blood. Blood is the cell — the substance, whose Vampire can bend into part of their body, the flesh and bone that made theirs.

She coughed those.

"Saintess stop!" the apostle shouted.

She did not. Her regenerative power even spread more. Pushed outward to the outside of the room they were in, to the lying body of those two.

"Stop!" the apostle ran to Her body, which growing smaller. Her face was at great distressed, tending to the Saintess who's body becoming small. She regressed herself younger, her fabric still wrapped her tightly, running small, cause that too is part of her body.

"Please don't!"

The joy ceased, as they watched their saints shrunk inward. Coughing blood and an even pallish skin more than she usually is.

"Stop, stop, stop!" Shimizu cried, tears streaming down her face as she cradled the shrinking Saintess. "Please stop!"

The Saintess's breathing grew shallow, Her form now that of a young girl, still regressing.

"Stop!" Shimizu's voice cracked.

Without hesitation, she thrust her hand between the Saintess's fangs, pressing her wrist against those sacred teeth. "Drink! Please drink!"

The Saintess's eyes fluttered, then Her fangs sank in, reaching toward the artery. Shimizu flinched slightly, but continued on her stance's as she watched blood drawn from the bite but ultimately sucked.

Shimizu's face continued to contort and not from pain, but from rage. She whipped her head toward the gathered robed figures, her eyes blazing.

"Useless! All of you!" she screamed, her boot clacked with itself. "You stand there watching while the Saintess fades? She gave everything to bring you back, and you do nothing!"

The believers flinched at her fury.

Shimizu plan would came in ruin if the Saintess of all people fall.

The need for Saintess wellbeing is much pronounced on hers. She continued to drink, but it wasn't enough. Her form was still too small, too fragile.

One robed figure stepped forward, then another. They knelt beside Shimizu, pulling back their sleeves.

"For the Saintess," one whispered, offering their wrist.

"For the Sufferer," another said, doing the same.

Soon more came, forming a circle around their saint. One by one, they offered their blood — a reversal of the sacrifice, flowing back into the one who had given them life.

---§---

This place, blissfully empty. Just lay two bodies, Ohto and Yuuki. They woke up in now frozen altar, empty from anyone. Somehow their body were intact, like it had been regenerated fully.

"Keep making the stone," had etched into one of the stone.

Right

Stone.

Arcane-filled stone.

A monster made of pure arcane.

Ishikawa Yuuki. Takahashi Toru. Kirigiri Harutaka.

They do their part in this story. The stone, the one they made, it glowed brightly.

No, it shone like its own sun, an anchor in this red-shifted world. Its mauve colour gave way for more pure saturated, superheated steam of blue shine.

That same blue, bled out, turning the red into purple and indigo. Then reverted into their original colour, as if lit properly by the sun they came to know. The science lab, is now dimly lit in alice grey. The same goes for the school. The pale sand reverted back, the granite, the andesite of the building also reverted to their original colour. The sky above them turned oranges.

The monster, upon reaching the boundary, evaporated into bubbles. Like they had been violated of their reverence. The altar too, vaporized, surrounding water rushing in. Thankfully Ohto deployed magic making them float above the water.

What was once bile of humans turned back, like someone had waxed them into proper shape. Not moulded, more like added in a big clump.

Evidently, Yuuki and Ohto weren''t put back in place. He looked toward the directionn of the school. Only Sakuya who looked confused when both Toru and Ichiha had vanished before him.

So Ichiha still with the cult…

"We need to go back to the school… " Yuuki said, his voice tight with worry.

"Thankfully it's autumn season," Yuuki continued, he then started walking back. "The beach is closed, but we still can't run to the school with your magic."

"I understand sir." The glasses-decked student glanced toward the land, where human resumed their trade like nothing happened. Minding their own business where it concerned. The red sky, the fight and the fact they had had been reduced to mere viscous liquid did not bother them. Maybe because they in fact did not notice it.

Yuuki looked down at the stone still glowing faintly in his palm. The blue light pulsed like a heartbeat, steady and reassuring. Around them, the world continued to right itself. Their colours bleeding back into existence, the oppressive red atmosphere dissolving like a bad dream.

"The stone's still active," he murmured. "That means the boundary is holding."

"For now." Ohto's expression was grim as he turned it toward him. "But we don't know how long. And if Ichiha's still with them…"

He doesn't speak the word aloud. They must still have a use for her. Whatever the cult have done to her, will come biting back to them.

Yuuki closed his fist around the stone, resolute rushing in. "Then. We move fast."

Ohto nodded. His fogged wellingtons had stood the test of time. He adjusted the floating magic, lowering them below just beneath water's surface so humans wouldn't notice them gliding above the sea. Five hundred meters or so from the beach meant they had been at this for quite a while. Running would have left a noticeable trail where water rushing in.

Then they emerged quickly onto the shore. A breeze from the sea caressed their backs. They took a step into the sand that was finally the right colour again. Pale grey, not that sickly overromanticised gold.

They looked back toward where the altar should have been. But only waves remained, lapping hungrily from where the structure had stood moments before. To be reduced to nothing just when before it stretched upward scraping the sky. Only for theirs to glanced toward the wall that separate the small beach to the outside city.

"Let's go," Yuuki said.

A belated end where the sun setting properly now. Orange and pink they came to know painted the sky. They walked or rather trespassed across the closed down beach and snuck out quietly. Their destination would be the school just before the sky bled bile.

---§---

Sakuya suddenly lost her footing when her knees gave out. She fell onto the rough dirt of the school yard within the pinch of her cheek. She looked up, flinching as the bruise on her arm throbbed.

"Eh?" voiced her. Stretching across the horizon, from the school gate, the building and the fence that separate the school from the train track.

"Where are everyone?"

Nothing.

"Hello?"

They all are gone. That sly janitor and the student president — she was sure she'd been running toward them, but they're gone now, nowhere to be found.

"What are you doing this late in the hour?"

She turned back toward the school gate, there stood girl donned in uniform whom she remembered as one of Ichiha's friend

Her shyness disallowed her to speak, but also her general cluelessness to what actually happened. An explanation of that would have helped her too.

"I'm going home," she answered her own question upon met with silence, slinging back the oversized (or rather normal-sized) backpack onto her shoulder. "You should too, it's almost night." She said, walking carefully. Each of her steps was full of intents, like she needed to memorised where to go.

"You too, Watanabe," she turned toward Haruka who had just emerged from the building, rubbing her eyes. "I don't know why you decided to be bedridden for the entire day without anyone to pick you up, or why you thought sleeping on laboratory was better than in the nurse's room."

"Oh, please, Azusawa, stop pestering me!" Haruka shouted, voice wavering as she tried to cordon off sleepiness from oversleep.

"Stop calling me by that name, you hear?" Azusawa Hana said. "I really have to go home now." She turned toward the western school gate and waved to Sakuya and Haruka who had just run to Sakuya's side.

Both waved back at her diminishing figure. After it is far enough, Haruka spoke first, repeating what Hana just said, "why are you here?"

"Watanabe… did you see Momiji?" Sakuya asked instead. "I swear she was here a moment ago and just gone in a blink."

Haruka turned her head and heels, putting serious thought into the question. Eventually landed empty-handed as she shrugged. She leaves no chances as she overturned the conversation, "where's your home?"

"Makuharinishi, why?"

"Oh that's near I'll also be off on Makuharihongo, can we go together? Maybe talk a little more…" she paused, waving her arm to get the point across. "A girls' talk yes!" she continued in conviction, hand fisting the other palm.

Upon met with the uninvited friendliness made Sakuya uneasy. She couldn't speak in the slightest, no words came out of her mouth. But she really wanted to, so in the end she muttered something that passed as a 'yes'.

A yes it was.

"Alright, let's go!" Haruka resolved, grabbing by her wrists. Which was meet with Sakuya silent protest, but also followed obediently. Thankfully her backpack is already within her shoulder, so there's nothing she left.

They exited south, leaving the school to the night-shift workers or teacher who had to stay a little longer.

"They really forgot quickly about it," Yuuki hummed, landing on the soft patch of gravel among the concrete walls.

"That wouldn't suffice as explanation." Ohto replied, as dusting off his hand. "Watanabe just got invited by miss Hakura, from the looks of it."

"How do you know?"

"We passed them before," Ohto said, like it's obvious but Yuuki hadn't remembered ever doing so.

"Well, if that's the case then I'll be doing my night shift, it's good thing I am still Toru from the looks of it."

"A sly janitor groomed a young boy at the dead of night."

"Since when you're making a joke like that?"

"Just now… do you like it?"

"Not really…?"

---§---

Once aboard the train, Sakuya and Haruka relieved some of their stress by talking to each other, warming themselves through small talk.

It was an E231 series serving the Chūō–Sōbu Line, its interior lined with cyan accents. The car was about twenty percent full, most of the passengers dressed men and women heading home from work. Students like them were few—mostly those who had boarded at earlier stations.

"Sakuya," Haruka said, glancing upward toward the many advertisements plastered above. "You know… I've been thinking about it." she stopped trying to put into words. "Not possible? Maybe you're just forgetting things, there is no way they'd all just gone like that, right?"

"I don't know…" Sakuya responded, just before she had talk in length while walking down the station regarding her friend's situation, not knowing that friend was to the real danger.

"Here's the thing Sakuya, right." Hakura prodded gently, placing her hand on Sakuya's small shoulder as the yellow light washed over them from above. "When I am faced with something impossible like that, I just… not gonna care about it."

"In the slightest?"

"In the slightest."

Sakuya looked down at the small hand resting against her, that trembled faintly. "But how am I going to face her after this? I mean you can see her glum all day right? I just felt maybe I should do something about it?"

The truth was, she had tried. Using her phone to get useful tips or guide, to hook up her friends who seem at great distress. Sometimes she sends messages through line. Though just looking at her sad face, she found herself unable to look away, or to speak clearly.

"I don't know," Haruka said, turning her attention to the announcement blaring overhead. "I don't really see her that much since I'm not the same class as her," she stated as matter of fact.

Then Haruka turned back to her, smiling: "honestly, the simplest is to listen to her and just be someone who's there for her."

"I guess."

"Look, there's not much you can do," Haruka continued, waving her hand. "The only way to fix her is herself. As long as you're there for her I think that's enough." She nodded to her own statement.

The train departed, picking up more passengers and filling the car with movement and noise. The acceleration nudged their shoulders together.

"Is there more, other than that?" Sakuya asked, trying to put into words what she wanted to say but unable to do so.

"Give her a big hug." Haruka smiled.

"Eh?"

"Like this," Haruka said, professing a wide arm ready to take her in.

Sakuya at first hesitate, drawing her body inward slowly. Only for Haruka to quickly took her in without warning. Hugged her deeply with arm wrapping around her back and locked tightly. Haruka pressed her face toward the chest area where dark steel-blue bow tie was fixed. The warmth of her hair stood out sharply against the cool air of the car.

A ticklish feeling throughout her body when a small millilitre of what looked like cry penetrate her hem.

Sakuya giggled softly, seeing Haruka's clingy behaviour. Her arm were pinned, but she was the least bend just enough to rub Haruka back. Smiling as she did.

Once Haruka loosened her arms, the smile within Haruka finally leaked through. They both gazed each other for a moment — wordless, almost sheepish — like a puppies caught staring.

"That's how you do it." Haruka sighed happily, like humming a tune. "How do you feel?"

"I guess, at ease." Sakuya searched for the right word, then nodded in resolution.

"Yes"

She hadn't noticed it until now, but the tightness around her chest had somehow lifted. Her shoulders felt lighter, as if she had set something down without remembering when she'd picked it up in the first place.

Maybe Haruka is right