The Wolf And The Demon (V)

The mystery girl had been observing the fight from the other side of the room. The initial tremors from the explosion had sent her flying backwards into a wall. She had hit her head hard in the process leaving her vision blurry. However, thanks to the Guardian boy keeping the Enigma busy, she had enough time to gather her bearings and focus on the situation at hand.

She placed her right hand onto the broken floor and stood up to assess what damage had been done before jumping into action. She had no major injuries except for a small scratch on her hand. She had yet to notice the small cut on her cheek which she might have gotten when she was roughly thrown against the wall.

A warm, salty drop of liquid trailed down her cheek and dribbled into her slightly open mouth. She tensed as she realized what it was; the iron tasting liquid filling her mouth. Then she grew annoyed.

“Tch… blood,” she mumbled to herself, distaste evident in her tone.

She hated it. Blood was the one thing she hated the most in the world. It reminded her of a past she had always wanted to forget. But no matter how hard she tried, it always came back to haunt her. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down.

“It’s alright,” she quietly murmured to herself. “Don’t lose your cool. Calm your temper… Oh, but it’d be nice to see its blood spill across the granite!”

She had lost her temper once before.

Once when an Enigma chose the wrong day to mess with her and spill her blood. She still remembered the feeling of embedding her dagger into the disgusting creature’s gut and the stickiness of its monstrous blood after on her hands and face. She could easily break the Enigma’s exterior bone armour in a heartbeat. But would this new Enigma fare better than her last prey? Contemplating the potential outcomes, she grinned at the creature with a sadistic edge to her expression.

The smell of ozone filled the room, more intense than ever. Every Astarte particle within a hundred metre radius was crackling with electricity. It rushed through them gathering at the Enigma. The mystery girl’s eyes widened in shock when she saw the mere Guardian boy leap towards the Enigma with a shout of what sounded like rage.

She frantically ran towards the boy to stop him but she was just a moment too late. Before she knew it, the boy had already missed his intended target and crashed into the wall.

“Don’t lose focus, boy or he’ll eat you!” she called out to him, worry evident in her speech. But her warning came out too late because Aiden had already closed his eyes, passed out cold.

The Enigma ignored the boy and turned around to look at the Jaeger. Its demonic smirk imminent on his face as his dark eyes stared into hers.

“Jaeger,” it addressed her. “I have been waiting so long to eat another like you!” It gushed proudly. The monster could not contain its excitement anymore. Its food was only a few meters away from it. It could already imagine the Jaeger’s rich flesh in its mouth.

Unfortunately, the girl had no intention of becoming fodder to a lowly creature like that of an Enigma. She had better things to do. She stared at the monster, unfazed by its underlying, dark promise and said, “I don’t have time to entertain creatures like you. So, I’ll finish this quickly.”

She called upon her power as her senses sharpened. She closed her eyes and gathered all the Astarte particles around her, preparing herself for performing the Illinois Art to bring the creature down. Her breaths came out heavy as the temperature around her began to drop. A silvery blue hue started to take over her usual olive green eyes. The symbol of a howling wolf manifested on the back of her right hand and silvery blue fog trickled out of her mouth.

She glared at her nemesis like an alpha wolf that glares at its prey, preparing its fangs to shred the fragile creature apart ruthlessly. Her bloodlust kicked in as her tongue darted out to lick her lips, prepared to attack the Enigma.

All of it happened in fraction of seconds. She crouched down, pulled out her daggers that were hidden in her cloak and sprinted towards her enemy.
She could already feel the moment when her blade would slice through the Enigma, ending its miserable existence; for in the blink of an eye, her dagger would leave her hand and begin its journey as it cuts through the air at an immeasurable speed towards that creature’s neck. At that instance, she and the dagger would be one and nothing would matter anymore. Not even her mission. Her existence itself would become irrelevant. Because for her the act of killing would be enough in itself.

She knew that it was better than the sweetest pleasure in the world because in that moment she would slash her dagger through it as everything would become meaningless. In that moment, she will become the Goddess of Death.

****

The Enigma stood still, eyes plastered to the speeding figure of the Jaeger, not yet trying to dodge her. It was as if it was waiting for her to come near him. Because he knew that in her excitement to reign death on it, she would forget about the other human that was still hidden behind it.

The monster smiled sadistically, in victory, as the Jaeger approached it with an intention to kill.

****

Aiden blinked rapidly as he came to consciousness. It was a dark night (wherever he was), the moon absent from the sky and strangely enough, no stars visible either. A blanket of dark clouds covered the sky, preventing anything from shining through and spreading their light upon the world below. However, there was one small spark in the darkness – a soft, warm golden glow in the distance.

He walked over the uneven terrain as he made his way towards the source of light, feeling the dewy grass underneath his feet and tickling the tips of his toes. As he drew closer, he saw that the light was streaming through the broken windows of an old, rundown house. He could’ve sworn he knew the building from some place.

Recognition settled in him as he approached the door to the house. He saw a young boy sitting at the porch with his chin resting on his knees as the kid kept his gaze fixed on the dark fields.

“Welcome back,” the boy said, not sparing him even a glance.

Aiden was startled by the sudden greeting. “Why am I back here?” he asked bewildered.

“Why, you ask,” the boy stated slowly in a slightly haunting voice.

“Because it’s your- nope, our home.”

Aiden wanted to deny it but he couldn’t because it really was his home –not at the moment but long ago, when he was still a happy teenager back on Earth and was living a happy life with his family.

“What do you want from me?” Aiden asked, panic and suspicion coloring his voice. He was replied with unsettling silence.
The boy, ignoring his question, kept on staring at the fields. The top half of his face was covered with a shadow like a mask, making it hard for Aiden to have a look at his face.
The Guardian swore he had met this kid before but he couldn’t recall as his memories were rather hazy at the moment and he could not remember the details of when and where required for this situation.

“Hey,” the boy spoke in a rather eerie manner that grasped Aiden’s attention back on him. His head slowly turned towards where Aiden was standing.
Aiden’s brows furrowed as he finally saw the boy’s face, released from the shade of his hair that covered his forehead. Now, he knew why the boy was familiar…

“It can’t be,” the young Guardian’s voice trembled with fear as he backed away from the boy. “No way – it’s impossible!” Dread, more intense than ever, began to pool in Aiden’s stomach.

“Why do you look so scared, Aiden?” the boy asked, feigning innocence. “After all, I am you… Just a few years younger. Or have you forgotten?”

“Stay away!” Aiden said in haste, stepping away from the younger version of himself. “There’s no way that this could be real. I’m dreaming. Yes, totally and surely dreaming!”

Younger him got up from where he was perched on the porch and smirked at older Aiden. “Don’t worry. I will not hurt you, Aiden,” he said. “I am you, after all.”

“Go away!” the Guardian yelled, closing his eyes shut to block his view of everything that lay before him. “Don’t come near me!”

Aiden tried to push the boy back to stop him from getting too close to him. But his hands passed right through his younger self as if he were made of mist.

“It’s nice, isn’t it? To leave everything behind and start a new life?” The younger Aiden asked, his voice raising with every sentence. “It’s nice to escape the law, isn’t it? You murderer!”

“I didn’t do it!” grown-up Aiden screamed back in protest.

The younger’s expression changed from accusation to that of fear as he raised his hand to point to the house behind him. Only problem? There wasn’t a house there anymore. In place of it there was a large crowd standing there, sounds of protest coming out of their mouths.

“Why are they calling me the ‘Devil murderer’?” younger him questioned. “Why do these people hate me? They have a scary look in their eyes. I’m scared. Please, don’t leave me alone.”

“Please, save me,” he begged the grown-up Aiden. But the other was powerless. He stood there fixated at his spot staring at the haunting group of people that had killed his younger-self ages ago with just words.

“You’re a murderer!”

“Why are you even alive?”

“You good for nothing, just die!”

The sounds of protest became clear. Their words cut him deeper than any knife and painfully plucked at the strings of his heart. He wanted to run away from them and to hide. He did not want any more pain, he couldn’t bear it anymore. He hated it.

“Pain is not your enemy,” a voice sounded as it cut through that of the crowd, dissipating everything that was present in the landscape except him. “Make it your ally. Embrace it and your true path will open in front of you.”

“I am not you!” Aiden yelled back in defiance, his head snapping from place to place in search of the source of the voice. His body started shaking as he felt fear creep up his spine abruptly, his past catching up to him; the past he wanted to erase from its existence.

The dark fields surrounding him dissolved into darkness, no spec of light visible. Wherever his eyes dared to look, only darkness reigned. Until a giant eye opened up in, what he could only assume to be, the sky – covering the never ending plain of abyss with luminescent red light.

His skin tingled with pain as soon as it was exposed to the cursed light. And then the owner of the eye spoke which made all life drain out of the dark-haired boy.

“Then what are you?”

What am I?

Aiden’s eyes widened as he felt his consciousness in slip away from this realm; his mind growing blank with each passing second. The only thing that anchored him to this world was the hope of hearing someone’s voice. Someone to remind him who he was.

“What are you?” the Demonic voice questioned, echoing through his veins resulting in a throbbing pain to take residence in his skull.

“My n-name i-is…” Aiden tried futilely.

What is my name? Who am I?

He could almost feel the demonic voice win until –

“Guardian boy, I need your help!”

Everything crumbled away before Aiden and then his senses slowly came back to him. He could smell the fumes and smoke that still hung around in the air. His eyes fluttered open and he saw dust particles move around in the air rather slowly. For a second it felt as if everything had stopped and then the sudden gushing of the winds was heard as it roared in his ears. Aiden’s focus snapped to reality.

He blinked a few times to make sure that he was back and what was happening, was really happening. He was falling down, the ground approaching him at an unstoppable speed.

‘That’s bad,’ he thought. Next he noticed that a slender body was wrapped safely in his arms. His face was really close to Kudelia’s. It was the first time he had ever been this close to the aforementioned woman and this gave him a chance to study her face up close (also the first time). Her face was pale, her long hair was blown back from the force of the wind and a shining hairpin which was carved from Astarte crystal – which resembled a crescent moon – held the small hair from falling onto her face. His eyes widened as the memories before the fall rushed to the forefront of his mind.

‘Shit, I messed up! I’m going to die,’ he thought. ‘Unless…’

“Aurum Mercurous Vincula!” a sharp voice cut through the vicious roaring of the winds accompanied with a loud roaring of something getting crystallized.

With just a few metres away from their death, Aiden’s body along with that of Kudelia’s came into contact of a smooth, slippery and cold surface that cushioned his fall and slid them down to solid ground so that they were not smashed instead.

*

Right after the Jaeger was flung out of the classroom, the Enigma let go of Kudelia and jumped out – leaving behind rubble of a classroom – onto the Garden. Due to the shockwaves produced by the movement of the creature, the entire room crumbled further and Aiden and Kudelia were thrown out too. That’s when the Jaeger saw them and called out to them.

*

“Guardian boy, don’t lose focus! This Enigma is stronger than I thought. I would need your help!”

Aiden was about to scream at the girl and give her a piece of his mind but when he looked up and his eyes found her, he understood why. This wasn’t a game anymore.

**********************************

Hey guys here you go. The new chapter is online. We are finally reaching the climax of the first arc!!!!

Happy Reading.