I ran and ran and ran... until my breath was cut short, and my lungs burned. Finally... we exited the borders of the burning forest. We reached a rocky, rugged area near the dry riverbed. Finally... we are safe from the violet fire that eats existence.
I looked behind me. The forest... my home... my paradise... had burned. With everything in it, and all my short and beautiful memories within it. It turned into ash scattered by the wind, and columns of smoke rising to the sky like tortured souls.
Then... from under the ground, the earth split and a faint green light appeared. The warrior Foxes (the survivors) emerged from it. They were panting, their faces blackened. I looked among them eagerly. Maru was with them. He was kneeling on the ground, looking down, shocked, his eyes shedding silent tears that carved lines into the soot on his face. I went to him directly and hugged him tightly, feeling his body to make sure he was real: "Thank you, Kina... thank you that you are alive."
I began looking around in confusion and worry. "Where is Mother?" I searched for Kinami among the tired faces. "Where is she?" I looked at Maru. He didn't answer. He was trembling. I held his face in my hands and lifted it: "Please... don't tell me." He closed his eyes, and burst into crying, a muffled, painful weeping sound. My heart dropped into my stomach. She died. Mother died.
I looked at the remaining Foxes. There was no one but those who didn't know how to fight, some frightened children clinging to their mothers' tails, and a few injured and broken warriors. What will we do now? Where will we go? The barrier has fallen. The forest has burned. The Samurai army is chasing us, and the smell of their blood is approaching. What place will protect us from them?
"We must get out of Nippon!" I said in a trembling voice. I shook Maru violently: "Maru! Where is there a ship? Do you know? We must escape across the sea!" He didn't answer. He was drowning in his grief. I screamed: "Maru!!" He screamed in my face suddenly, his eyes red: "Kage! What exactly are you fighting for?! There is no chance! A ship? No one in Nippon builds ships capable of crossing the ocean! And no one knows how! We are trapped on an island! Trapped for slaughter!"
I froze. I looked at Yuta who was shivering from the cold, looking at us with wide, terrified eyes. No... they shouldn't die. No... I raised my head to the sky, and began calling with my heart: O-Ma... O-Ma... O-Ma... (Oh Ling Guo)... But... I feel nothing. There is not that usual cold sensation. I am alone. O-Ma once again... O-Ma please my God... please answer me. I will do anything. No reply. Nothing. Absolute silence.
Yes... my God will come soon. Yes... He told us He will come in two years. How much time is left? I calculated the days in my feverish mind. Nine months. How will we live all this time? Nine months hunted like animals? Without food, without shelter? Will He help me if I come to Him? I betrayed Him... cut my connection with Him... the tattoo disappeared. No... think, Kage... think. Where will we go? Who will protect us?
Then... it began to rain. Black rain. Water droplets mixed with the ash of the Holy Forest filling the sky, falling like sticky black tears. It covered our faces, polluted our clothes, and dyed the ground a depressing black. Harsh, cold rain, smelling like wet charcoal.
And from the midst of this black rain, and from the direction of the burning forest... The silhouette of a man appeared. He was staggering as he walked... a heavy step... and another step. He cut through the fog and ash. Morito.
He was carrying something in his arms... A girl. A girl beautiful as a princess, her hair silver shining even in the dark, and her body seemed light in his huge hands. He was walking heavily. In that moment... amidst the despair, the black rain, and the smell of death... He looked like the only hope remaining. Or perhaps... the Angel of Death coming to take us.
Perspective: XXX
The battle ended... but the "Slaughter" did not. The violet fire ate the forest, leaving behind a barren land reeking of nothingness. But there are still rats that survived hell. Foxes hiding in the shadows, and they must die.
I was standing in the middle of the burning square, in my true form... Oni. Long horns touching the sky, gray skin like rock, and blood covering me and drying on my skin like a second layer. The Samurai around me were looking at me with wonder and terror. Their swords in their hands trembling. Do they attack the monster? Or respect the Shogun's ally?
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Shogun Ieyasu looked at me calmly then looked at his hesitant army, and screamed in a voice that shook the burning earth: "Dio the Angel!" "From today... you will be given a holy mission!"
I knelt on one knee in the hot ash that stung my knee, and bowed my head with a hidden smile, tasting the blood in my mouth: "Yes, my lord." Ieyasu continued in a voice every soldier could hear, a voice cutting the silence of death: "Your mission is to hunt all the escaping demons! And hunt the son of the Demon Lord (Maru)! I want you to bring him alive to see the end of his race!"
Then he raised his black sword and screamed: "The war is not over! The Angel will continue the fight!" He looked with his violet eyes at the doubtful drummers, a cold look that froze the blood in their veins. Quickly... the drums began to beat. Doom! Doom! Doom! A rhythm mimicking racing heartbeats. And the screaming began to rise, hesitant at first then roaring like a sweeping torrent: "Dio the Angel! Dio the Angel! Dio the Angel!"
Yes... scream more. A new name... a new title... a new taste of power. I am the Angel who will bring you death. I stood, and looked at the crowds with burning eyes: "I swear to you I will achieve what you do not want... and I will bring his head!"
Immediately... I started running. I launched like an arrow, my feet smashing the burning ground, toward the depth of the dead forest. I asked 404: "Where are the Foxes? Where did they go?" 404 replied with a distorted voice:
I looked around. Everything is dead. Trees turned into charcoal statues crumbling at a touch. Roses became black ash flying in the air and getting into my eyes. The smell of death... overwhelming, mixed with a strange "metallic" smell left by Ieyasu's strike. After walking for a while, 404 said:
I walked a little... until I reached what seemed to be the original "Kina Village." The houses that were hanging on trees... destroyed, dangling like abandoned nests. Remnants of burnt Fox hair, broken children's toys... still there. It was truly a beautiful sight. A painting of annihilation. I began walking and contemplating the destruction with euphoria. What a pity... the corpse of the whore (Clara) is not here as I expected. The violet fire didn't leave a piece of meat of her. I wanted to stomp on her face.
I walked a little... until I reached the Holy Tree. Extremely huge... the biggest tree my eyes had ever seen, its trunk broad as a palace. Now... it is lying on the ground. Burnt, broken, and dead.
But... There was one thing still clean in this hell. In a hollow inside the burnt tree trunk... lay a woman. A woman incredibly beautiful, as if time stopped at her. A Fox... her long silver hair shining like moonlight in a dark night, her eyes closed peacefully, and her skin white as pure snow. She was a corpse... but a corpse preserved by a holy aura refusing the fire.
And there was another person there. A man... sitting on the ground in front of the corpse, his back to me. Holding a worn-out sake bottle, and looking at the woman with endless longing... a silent, heavy pain squeezing the air around him. I walked toward the man slowly, my heavy steps crushing the ash. Crunch... crunch.
I asked 404: "Is this (Kina)?" 404 replied:
I approached closer, until I passed the man. And reached a close distance to the corpse... I felt an Aura. It was an aura of cold, dense, sticky anger, making the air around me freeze and become heavy as water. My lungs found difficulty breathing. I looked at the corpse? No... the aura is coming from him.
Morito stood up very slowly, as if carrying the world on his shoulders. He didn't draw his sword. He walked and walked toward me slowly... step... step. He raised his head... and looked directly into my eyes. His eyes were empty of life, absolute blackness, but full of inevitable death. He said in a calm, hoarse, and terrifying voice: "A dog... to a dog... to another dog I pitied."
I froze. The words pierced my pride like an arrow. He continued, screaming suddenly, a scream that shook the remains of the tree and made the ash fly: "The next time I see you trying to touch her... I will kill you!"
Every instinct inside me, and every red warning from 404 was screaming:
I didn't hear the sound of air splitting. All that happened was the perspective changed. Suddenly, the sky became at the bottom, and the muddy ground at the top. The world spinning... spinning with mad speed. I felt a wet and strong impact on my face. The taste of mud and ash filled my mouth. I opened my eyes... I saw a headless body standing there in front of me, blood gushing from its neck like a fountain coloring the black rain. Wait... is this my body? I rolled... and rolled... and rolled... My sight stopped finally at Morito's feet covered in wooden sandals. He was looking at me from above coldly, as if looking at an insect he crushed by mistake.
I wondered slowly while the coldness crept into my consciousness: Why am I closing my eyes? Then... the light went out.