Chapter 9- The Witch, the monster and the corpse of the angel

“My love is conviction, pure resolution resonating through my soul reaching you...Your love is warmth, like the warm sun under the breeze of the calm serene spring....and our love..”, sang Alcetis with a serene, calm yet passionate song. The audience in the festival were going all swoon over this diva. Old, young, women, men of any race or religion were swooning over this song. Most of them had their cell phones out and were raising their hands and waving them back and forth in slow and calm motion.

Our very obvious protagonist from the start is also doing the same thing as part of the audience. Maira and Enkidu too. This festival was a while back, it was like a state fair. The director of the fair asked Alcetis to be one of the many singers in the festival after he heard her sing in the park. Alcetis always has gotten offers like this in the past and always refuses them all. She and Daedalus have tried to not gather too much attention to themselves, but this time she accepts. It's hard to not use one’s talents. They are there ready to explode. Whether you cultivate them or not, they will always be there itching at you to use them. Her whole life before Daedalus took her away, was just to practice her final song. She has been singing her whole life. There were moments where she did it with joy, moments of duty, moments of hate for this talent, and moments where she practiced so much yet no motivation or passion to be found, but she still did it. And now she was singing songs because she was happy, using her talent however she pleases.

-” Now I won’t get to hear her sing again”, said a depressed young man with eyes sad it feels like someone is beating and kicking his heart. He is next to a corpse, blood is spreading on the floor. The corpse looks like an insect put on display like how an over-imaginative elementary schooler plays with its body to examine. The young man has wounds all over, and especially bloody from his right hand, like blood exploding from the pressure. But it was not his blood that did that but the pressure when he crashed the heart of the wolf with his hand.

Everything is awkwardly silent and the mood feels so heavily sad. There is no reason to be cheery, no reason to be impressed, no reason to be so energetic yet a beautiful crimson witch does not read the cues. She descends as she hums happily and touches the ground and strikes a pose full of motivation. The bunny and the swordsman are stupefied and are lost as why in the world she is so cheery. She keeps humming and skipping away with her agile feet like an enthusiastic elementary schooler on a field trip. They tried to stop her since she was reaching him, but they were so exhausted they could barely just sit where they were laying. Their throats were also dry. She approaches him.

-” That was awesome! You surprise me, you were such an underdog or more like pretended to be one so badly, you trick me! You had such a big death flag on you and yet this happened?:, said so cheery like discussing their favorite subjects and they just encountered something majestic.

-”Oh, by flags, is not that I actually see flags just after witnessing so many stories before my eyes. I kind of somehow based on someone's actions predict some hints and cues as to what their story will be!”, so cheery without a care in the world she said yet she was not picking up the atmosphere here or more like did not care. But she was not the only one, Icaros also was ignoring everything as he just was glancing at the sky with a pale face that has given up on everything, but even so, she was so curious so she kept asking questions.

-”So you are an E soldier with so many peculiar traits, ha?”, No response from him.

-”Hmmm? Maybe you do not know? Well let me tell you! That way I may decipher how you did it while explaining to you something so basic”, still no response.

-'' You see songstresses like Alcetis in our ‘world’ so to say are called Arias. I called it our ‘world’ but it's better maybe yes it is another world. You see, before the age of the gods ended, the major dragon kings decided that humanity might either perish in a war with what humanity called the supernatural or their civilization may rise to wipe out the ‘supernatural’. So they with some deities decided to make a shadow so to say to this world and they created...well pretty much another world out of a shadow, and so countries developed in there. All the fantasy that you guys so arrogantly as non-existent move up there, and well the ‘civilization’ of humanity stays here. But it's kind of dumb to call your world ‘civilization’, such a dumb name, after all in the shadow there are countries, cultures, traditions, languages, and technology! We are more versed in magic than you guys as you guys are more versed in technology, which is quite fascinating really!”, still no response.

-” Anyway Arias are priestesses that practice their whole life to make songs, songs so strong when sung are so powerful! But their ultimate goal is their last song which gives rise to...what you guys were calling it? An E soldier? Well, many countries have different names for them, but why confuse you and change it, let's go with that. So these soldiers can battle and defeat dragons! Even dragon kings! The keyword being ‘can’, there have not been on record soldiers that have been able to defeat a dragon king well with the exception of one but he was an ultra genius of a bloodline of gifted people, so he had the possibility. Anyways it's called the last song, since well they die after they sing it. They are basically forcing a reincarnation in a better body with a lot of desirable traits, a reincarnation that is basically a new life. And those types of spells usually follow the alchemist's main core philosophy of equivalent exchange, ‘trading something of equivalent value”, a life for a life!”, she exclaimed as she saw a small tear coming from his eyes. Even she knew she had been mean but at the same time, she did not think there would be no response at all.

-” So these soldiers have three main cores. Magic core, physical core, and soul core. Others called the soul core, the heart core. There is also the mind core but that is a bit of debate and whatnot some scholars are always really strict about what it is and what it is not, well according to their perspective. So if I had to guess your magic core is alchemy and blacksmithing, right? The way you made those nails that keep penetrating the wolf hyde? And then the small explosion? You made the nails sharper and heavier. The explosion enhances it until the nail could not take it anymore and explodes on its own. Your physical core, one will be very bewildered as to what it is if they did not see you before she gave you her last song. You were already a very capable warrior, have you served in a war perhaps?” She tried to grasp an opening but none, he did not care.

-” No, not a war. You are too young and you do not seem like you are from any countries that have wars or guerrillas. Well not right now at least with so many changes to you, jejejeje.”, She laughed gleefully.

-”You say you were Hispanic, so maybe a guerrilla? But your moves were not of soldiers of today that learn how to fight with firearms but more...bestial? Like a monster? Hmm, I cannot put my finger on it, but it felt like every move was accustomed to desperately trying to survive...well it doesn't matter. If it was no combat, and seeing how well your regeneration was fending against those claws, I will say is super regeneration. Well, songstress cannot make you soldiers immortal but I guess being able to regenerate super fast is a great perk! Hmmm...from the song I’m a bit confused as to what it is your heart core....not giving up? Like you are resilient...like in body or mind or both? Who knows...Oh well, I bet it would be very hard to guess your mind core. But...how did I do, was I able to guess your magic and physical core?’, she said, like awaiting test results for a very important test, but there was no response.

-”Oh well, I at least try...no getting anything more out of you, so I guess I gotta move on. I have to return home. Talking about wars, ‘she’ would make a great present”, she says nonchalantly while looking at Alcestis corpse. Both Enkidu and Maira were shocked at this. They were so exhausted physically, emotionally and so weary that their eyes seemed like they just worked a 10-hour shift where it was a full rush the whole time. They tried to move but they felt so lethargic. Miss Witch on the other hand was gracefully skipping by with each foot until she arrived at her destination and grabbed Alcetis’ hand.

That is when our beautiful witch contorted her face in terror. The hairs behind the back of her neck stood up and felt goosebumps all over her body as she was shivering. She felt so cold, her mouth was shivering, and she felt weak like she was giving a blood transfusion. Her eyes began to cry but tears were not streaming like slow waterfalls in her eyes because of sadness but of fear. She could tell something terrifying was behind her. Her heart was beating like she was running a 10 km marathon and her head was pounding. But it was not just these abnormal alarms but she saw her faces that were also in panic, that belong to her classmates. The sword master that was holding Alcetis, who had never let go of his sword, had let it go and breathed abnormally. The bunny girl was shaking like a poor bunny about to be eaten by something much more terrible than a wolf. She knew by looking at their faces that whatever she felt behind was real. She wanted to look. She desires to look. It was human curiosity that will make her meet her maker. But at the same time, warning bells were pounding in her head, ‘DON’T DO IT!’. But it was like magnets with polar sides attracting each other. They were about to click yet she was doing her very best not to. She wonders if Edith, Lot’s Wife, even when the angel’s warning about not looking back at the city of Sodom, felt the same way. ‘I think a pillar of salt will be quite merciful compared to what is behind me’, she thought as she tried to be brave and put on a smile, but she quickly gave it up when she felt a cold breath down her neck.

-”Tell....me....what....were....you... thinking?”, said a voice with worry, a voice with curiosity, a voice full of wrath and malice. She jolted a bit like she was thrown cold water on her neck.

-’I-I-I was, um...ha....um...ha”, she was trying to get some words out as she was inhaling and exhaling. But soon it was really hard to breathe because she felt like a snake just coiled around her body. Wrapping around her, binding her harder to give a powerful declaration. There is no escape, you will die here, accept it.

-”I say...tell me what were you.....doing?”, declared the voice slowly, low, and patient yet if you could hear the emotion behind the tone it would have been intolerant, grating, and hateful. He said this as he slowly grabbed her chin and turned her face towards him. Then she finally found out what it was. Unfortunately, she will not become a pillar of salt out of pure fear but instead, that fear was so immense that it was actually keeping her conscious. There was no snake, it was just her dear Jack in the box apprehending her with a hug. It should be her classmate yet it felt like a monster. If the wolf was a stray animal, this was really what humans' fear of monsters is about. Unlike the werewolf, he looks human. Surely he looks better than before. His skin is a bit darker and all the little scars he had around his visible face and upper body were gone. Surely there were some huge binding marks around his neck and wrists but he always had them covered before so no one with the exception of Alcetis could say. Also, his hair is now completely black instead of white. His hair was so white, many thought it was genetic albino disorder but his skin was slightly darker to be Albino, so that was out of the question. No one wanted to think that a child in high school suffered stress so badly that his whole hair became white. Also, his eyes were incredibly beautifully yellow, they were so inviting. So instead of inspiring fear, people should be charmed around him but yet they could only feel weakness in their knees and feel complete fear. She had encountered so many dangerous moments in her life, not only that her next trip was going to be a warzone. Surely she felt a bit afraid but not really despair-inducing not unlike now. All she could feel is that her world has become those beautiful eyes of her executioner. She felt like after gazing at the Abyss enough the Abyss. Is this perhaps what the Wolf felt?

“ I will....repeat.....entertain me....after all...they are your last words”, he stated, giving an ultimatum and a deadline. She would be killed by this monster. Her only escape from such fate was to entertain him until he got bored. She was thinking her very best to buy her extra 10 more minutes. Her life depended on it, but not just her life, but many like her little sister. She could not die now, after being so irresponsible specifically in the current situation for her little sister. She thought of everything that could give her an advantage. She really thought hard but only ALcetis could quell this foreboding beast, and unfortunately, she is dead. But then it clicked! She made a triumphant smile from ear to ear. Like there was some hope, some light at the end of the tunnel. But even so her world had become the gaze, that interaction between them. Between the gaze of someone obsessed with curiosity and the Abyss.

-” Part--i--icipate in a war that I’m going to, you will be rewarded handsomely with something you will surely be looking for.”, said the young red-haired girl with bravado yet shaking and shivering. This was her trump car, had she played it well?

-”Ah”, said the monster in human flesh. Disappointed and about to end her for good.

-” So you do not want the treasure?”, said the girl while panting.

-” You...have chosen those.....as your last words, then?”, said with so much indifference it felt like they were in the continent of Antarctica.

-” I see so that is how much you love Alcetis?”, said the beautiful girl with so much resolution and a mocking tone. Enkidu and Maira hyperventilated.

-”yOu DaRe!?” screamed in fury, with so much hate yet so much grief all wrapped with authority that shocked everybody’s core. Miss Witch who was recovering and adapting from this became a kitten that shrank back in front not of lion or dragon but cruelty itself without stopping gazing at each other in their worlds of theirs.

-” I do, because I know a way where this war meets your greatest desire”, spoke so triumphantly yet with a poker face that was about to break apart, which everybody knew. But she got the curiosity of the monster. “If you allow me to explain”.

-” Speak...”, said the monster with a less terrifying chilling voice.

-” You can think of it as an alternative world, it doesn't matter what it matters is this particular war. All the countries in the world are raising their militaries, some invading others and waging wars, some do not care and try to look from afar. One of the greatest empires, the empire of the red dragon, the great and old fire dragon king, is on the expanding their territory agenda. They are attacking a small kingdom that is located in a mountain range that is primarily snowing mountains. Their winter season is three seasons long. There is no greater merit in invading than a just small tactic point and trade route. There are so many better points to conquer but at the same time because it is a small kingdom most countries may be able to take it down faster. I want you to participate in this war, and take that small kingdom’s side.”, said with an expository yet cherry tone our young witch. But Enkidu and the bunny girl were perplexed at this offer at this situation where Icaros is just gonna kill her at any moment. Icaros was just silent waiting until the point to get bored and execute her.

-” Choosing to participate right here and now grants you a chance to revive Alcestis”, said so confident miss-everyone turns their head when she passes.

-” What!? There is no way!”, screamed exasperated Maira.

-”Eh?...Ah? ....Can it?” a confuse Enkidu was making noises.

-” Can it be done? ”said the young boy peeling his monster façade bit by bit with a bit of grief but at the same time hidden new anger to be awakened if she said such a thing just to prolong her life.

-” The Empire is one of the biggest countries with the most numerous races of them all! You name them! Mermaids, werewolves, vampires, centaurs, lamias, dragonkin! And so much more! And especially phoenixes.”, she sounded like a car salesman but remarked the word phoenixes like the main hook of her pitch.

“Oh..”, Maira left a small sound like she is getting what Miss Witch is thinking. The plan that when death is knocking at her she was able to devise in her favor and about to enlist Icaros in a far more crueler fate, is what she was thinking. But the way he fought screamed at survival many times over forcing death and life conflicts. Like he was accustomed to being forced to fight ridiculous opponents since childhood, but in this side, unlike the reverse world, no child of man would have to have experienced such fate, she thought.

-“I see, phoenixes....but why should I fight this empire? Why can I just join them or just take and run?”, say a quizzical Icaros. A bit more humane yet so very cold.

-”You see phoenixes plumes can work to heal people near death, but they cannot revive the dead, only themselves can do such a feat. But sometimes they drop special feathers when they ‘die’ and hibernate to revive again. The son of the dragon is a phoenix that is hibernating and drop one of those plumes. His granddaughter is probably going to participate in the war because she is really strong and they need some insurance even with the overwhelming advantages. That is why they are bringing the plume. Young phoenixes do not know very well how to ‘revive’, it takes them decades to know very well, so they can die for good. But the plumes only work when the body is in good condition, more than 2 days for the dead body is too much.”, said the witch about to snare Icaros in her trap.

-”I see and you are about to tell me why I have to side with the small kingdom that is an overwhelming disadvantage, right?”, very curiously ask Icaros.

-”As expected of dear Jack-in-the-box! Yes, I am”, she said with a strange happiness, she surprised herself she cared so much that this boy still had the motivation to continue on living. “24-72 hours after death — the internal organs decompose. 3-5 days after death — the body starts to bloat and blood-containing foam leaks from the mouth and nose. 8-10 days after death — the body turns from green to red as the blood decomposes and the organs in the abdomen accumulate gas. Your dear princess cannot wait a long time. It will be better if less than a day happens. That is why the small kingdom is needed. You see there are kings and rulers and what not but the main boss of each country is their guardian.”

-”And the guardian of the small kingdom is important?”, said Enkidu listteling with interest.

-”Yes and no. That guardian is very old kicking his last legs. But sometimes they have disciples that can inherit some of their arts. Luckily that crown princess of that country is so incredibly talented and a perfect match for the guardian. You see guardians, are seen either as deities, ture kings, sages or the very foundation of the nation. Likeso their traditions match for their guardian. And so does their military. The dragon is the fire dragon king, so pure brute force, and fire are more dominant or more like force in their country. And that old coot of the snowy mountains is ice. We need to preserve the body, to have it ready when you have obtain the plume.”, she said so confidently as everyone gasps. But of course in this whole conversation both Miss Witch and her dear Jack in the box have not stopped gazing at one another. After all the boy has become more boyish once again but he has not yet released her from their gaze, they still share a world as prey and hunter. For that very reason, once again everybody tense up, when the monster stops pretending to be a boy.

-” Fine, I accept, but if you are lying, you know your fate”, she had no problem living in the cold, yet this chill was beyond anything she knew once he said that. Everybody started shaking slightly like someone turned the AC in the night silently.

-” Do not worry my dear Jack, it is up to you in the end to wake your sleeping princess. I hope you do entertain me with the greatest story ever”, she said so excited yet with so much fear. She could not stop gazing at him, they were still in this world of theirs, and she could not handle it anymore. So she decided to do something that most males will break away instantly. She kissed him.

-”Ah..”, let Maira small words while still afraid.

-”...”, Enkidu kind of knew why, and he taught well at least that she could rest.

But to the other three's surprise, the spell did not break. Most men will blush or faint at the kiss of this woman that turns men into lunatics and howls at the moon, for she was that beautiful. But Icaros eyes just slightly got smaller and then bigger. There was a change but that was all, as they kissed they still gaze at each other. When the kiss finished, she was so surprised, the hunter was still treating her like prey. This was the first time ever, a man had not fallen completely madly with her. She was more afraid, aroused, curious, and angry but more perplexed than anything.

-” Alright, let's go”, said calmly but with authority the hunter. At that order, both Enkidu and Maira stood up, while Enkidu still was holding onto Alcetis. Miss Redhead could only nod. She may be afraid but finally, she was about to see a story that will get her so much after being bored for so long. Also, she kind of needed some sort of trump card against the dragon since she was assisting the small nation.