The air was heavy when we saw two things that night, first we watched as a multitude of lycans were closing in on us, then an explosion in the distance. Once that explosion took over the air, the lycans seemed confused, the Rusian army used that moment to charge.
"Kill every single one of those damned beast." A soldier shouted.
The army roared in agreement.
Gunshots mixed with growling cries of anguish and courage.
If this was what war was I think I'd rather not see it anymore, my fist and body was covered in Sin Jayeon if these Lycans caught me or if I touched them, it was certain death. Each time I made contact; another one would convulse in agony and turn into that black ooze. Chris and Aria were busy themselves, the flames were a good distraction while Aria was tossing them one after the other, either away or into the burning inferno.
We were running towards the explosion and clearing a path for the Rusian soldiers, soon the smoke was closer and so was the smell of burning wood and other materials. People were flooding out of Brigaden, once they were gone more Lycans arrived.
"Hey!" Aria called out. "All soldiers in the area get going to Yuri he's waiting near the destroyed castle. We'll handle the lycans out here.
"Charrrrgeeee."
A wave of huddled men rushed forth mouths agape releasing a battle cry.
A few lycans ran after some and caught a few to deliver deadly blows. Giving an instant fatal blow.
My eyes widened a bit taking in the full view of many wounded men.
"...Help them..." A small voice called out from beside me.
Next to me was a young soldier. His stomach trailing a straight line of red towards me. I gave him a queasy nod the air was heavy in blood and breathing was getting difficult without revulsion.
Aria wasn't affected by it at all she just went ahead to try and diverge the chasing lycans. All I can do was the same thing.
Creighton's gaze was fully on the destroyed castle that once stood at unclimbable heights.
"Your Majesty!" He shouted, with one leap he closed the distance between him and the castle was demolished.
"That must mean they started." Joshua sighed.
"Mary Ann!" Japheth shouted his feet began following Creighton.
"What are you doing!?" Joshua stepped in the way. "That monster is that way, why are you following it!?"
Japheth began pushing through Joshua.
"What's with you today?" Joshua pushed back.
The two kept at this until holes appeared in the ground where their feet were.
"Who the hell planted bombs in the castle!" Japheth shouted. "I didn't know about this?!"
Joshua pushed back.
"What!"
The two paused.
"Yuri didn't tell you?" Joshua turned to Misery, she gave him a shrug and looked at Japheth.
"Out of my way damnit." Japheth leapt over Joshua and dashed towards the ruined castle.
"I'm going after him." Joshua ran ahead.
Misery was going to follow but, pulled out a headset first.
"I'll need an evacuation copter." She spoke into it looking at Evelyn.
I ran through more buildings that seemed like they were caught in the cross fire. From the corners I saw someone carrying another person in their arms.
"A civilian?" Chris raised an eyebrow.
One of the Brigaden civilians was alive in his arms however was a body with a hole through the head and chest.
"Are you one of those bastards?!" His eyes yellowed and body stretched upwards. He was a lycan. He placed the body down and closed the distance between us with a single leap.
"The lycans are people?" I gasped
Instinctively I leapt back and readied for a counter. Moving his two oncoming claws aside I sent a strong jab into it's chest.
Chris flaming fist followed and placed the beast in a cage of flames.
A burning smell filled the air, along with the howls of this lycan. He tossed about agonizing in pain and finally melted away.
"We were killing people." I shook my head. Guilty destroying my fragile mind. "Damn it, Samuel what did you get us into?"
Mary Ann looked up her shock was gone now. She took a deep breath.
"Creighton..." She said softly.
"Yes your Majesty?" He asked solemnly.
"The people?" Mary Ann asked. "Have they survived this terrorism."
"Only a small few." Creighton bowed. "Your orders?"
"Every Rusian on our homeland shall be hunted down tonight." Mary Ann's body contorted and grew. Below her torso was the form of a horse, while the top remained the same. From her side a large blue claymore emerged coated in a blue flame.
"Mary Ann." Japheth called out. He stopped and gazed in awe at her new image.
"Your Majesty." Creighton glared at Japheth. "This one is also on the Rusian's side shall I take care of this."
The caring eyes Japheth knew were lost in a look of complete betrayal, Mary Ann's cold gaze only glanced at him and she gave her order.
"Do as you see fit." With a great leap Mary Ann was before the army of now bewildered soldiers. "I will execute all of you."
Joshua caught up to Japheth.
"Dude why are you..." He looked at Creighton. "You wanted to fight him this badly?!" He screamed.
"This won't be a fight." Creighton stated boldly. "This is your execution."
Creighton dashed forward sending slashes at speeds Joshua and Japheth could barely keep up with. Japheth soon lost his footing and before him was an oncoming claw.
Joshua sent a wind torrent into the ground pushing the three from each other.
"Clever." Creighton snarled. His body lurched upwards readying another barrage of attacks.
Japheth hardened his fist with rocks that magnetized towards his arm from the rubble.
He dashed forward what looked like a punch. As he got closer to Creighton the rocks grew into three times Japheth size. He swung it upwards carrying the beast into the night sky.
When Creighton looked up Joshua was above him. He delivered a devastating kick to the chest causing sending him to the ground.
An Unsettling chill drifted between those two as they saw how ineffective their efforts were. Creighton simply dusted his dirtied fur in irritation.
"I hope that wasn't your best attempt at staying alive." Creighton chuckled.
He looked at them and suddenly vanished as soon as they blinked. Japheth's peripheral caught something he moved more to his right fearing the oncoming kick. After blinking again Creighton was completely gone from that area and now behind him.
The punch was devastating it felt like his whole body had been shot through. Japheth flew into a pile of debris with a loud crash.
"Japheth!" Joshua called out.
"Worry about yourself." Creighton was now beside him.
Even with some of the wind pushing the power of that fist, he still felt his ribs crack a bit. Creighton's clothesline sent Joshua into the ground.
Creighton howled and started walking towards Japheth. He lifted him up by the neck and raised him to eye level.
"You Rusian's are gonna learn why your brothers never came back." He hissed. "It wasn't only us who were on the hunt for you all. Her Majesty's hobby is chasing hares such as yourself and nothing was more satisfying than ridding ourselves of you all."
"No way." Japheth's eyes widened. "She's a nice person and..."
The hand around his neck tighten.
"You only see her like that when she has interest." Creighton snickered. "Eventually she'll grow tired of you and continue her duties as Queen of Brigaden. Have you not seen the eyes you were unfamiliar with."
Japheth got a short reminder of her stare.
"I am familiar with that look. That is the look of this kingdoms monarch. You'll all die tonight but I wanna end you myself..."
Creighton suddenly lost feeling in his arm. It fell to the ground releasing Japheth from his grips.
Joshua clutched his chest in pain after sending gust of wind that sped towards Creighton and removed his arm. Japheth bit his lower lip and stomped sending a multitude of rocks into the air as his hand went through Creighton's chest.
"Even if you can regenerate, I know this hurts like hell!" Joshua spat.
Creighton stepped back holding his wounded area.
"Annoyance." The hole was gone and Creighton's arm grew back. "You really think you can kill me with these measly tactics of yours. We have been watching this kingdom for many decades and I will be damned if I let some children undo our history."
"Why isn't anything working?" Japheth panted.
"I think it's because he's a lycan." Joshua felt his chest about to explode.
"Damn." The intensity stopped once he ceased the wind usage.
"I upped the speed and sharpness too high for that attack." He took deep breaths. "But thanks to that it means I hit another limit." Joshua shook away most of the rubble from his clothing.
He recalled Cleondra's theory of the crystals.
---
"Each time you hit a limit it seems your crystals need a cool down." She looked at the tired group.
I told Cleondra of how we gained these crystals from my father before his death. On my birthday he gave us four crystals. I took the blue one, Joshua the green, Chris the red and Japheth the brown.
Cleondra asked for the whereabouts of the crystals, but we couldn't say.
After that night, those crystals disappeared. She gave Samuel our statements and he suggested a X-ray exam.
Within our hearts were diamond shaped objects. Mines darker than the rest.
"By the looks of it you've absorbed those crystals." Theorized Samuel. "It seems that they've bonded with you. How do you all control it?"
To answer for all of us, Joshua stepped forward first.
"It took something traumatizing for us to call upon that power." He recalled.
"Seeing that monster made me wanna bash it's face in!" Japheth punched his hand.
"We would remember that moment to make our powers work." Chris summoned flames to his hand without an ignition.
"It became apart of us at that point." I looked at the oozing abyss that twisted in my hands.
---
Joshua felt the after effect kicking in at full throttle. He fell and gritted his teeth enduring for a bit. Finally it slowed for a minute giving him time to breath.
"Japheth." Joshua exhaled. "Can you give me a minute to breathe.
"Damn." Japheth groaned. "Kind of the wrong time to..."
He caught a glimpse of Creighton's claw coming downward on him.
"He's fast!" He ducked and sent an uppercut into Creighton's jaw, but before it can reach Creighton's head twisted sideways and with this new position he caught Japheth's arms in his mouth. Luckily he had his arm covered with his rock abilities.
"Smart child." Creighton kicked Japheth a good distance from him. "Had your hand not been stone I would've had it."
"Let me tell you the difference between my underlings and I." Creighton's body grew larger. Until three heads emerged from his shoulders. His arms and legs changed into an animal's paws.
Six eyes peered downward from the now crushing height.
"I was to serve and protect my master so was the contract between them and I." Creighton snarled.
"What the hell is that." Japheth walked back the pressure was unnerving.
"Cerberus." Joshua felt the urge of doing anything vanished. His willpower seeping slowly.
Whatever aura the thing that was Creighton gave off it was unreal.
Creighton's left head swooped downward mouth agape revealing a fiery abyss, from it Japheth heard screams of thousands.
"Get down!" Chris flew down and pushed Japheth's body away from the flaming maw.
As soon as he was out harm's way, Japheth saw Chris being consumed by Creighton.
"Chris!" Japheth shouted.
Creighton snarled and stepped back.
"You've taken a good look at the hell's fire I have within." He snickered. "By the look on your face I guess he was a friend of yours."
"Bastard!" Japheth screamed, he thrust his hands into the ground and started to lift up the ground below Creighton taking the beast off balance.
"I'll bury you!" Japheth threw the slab on top of Creighton and began pushing it on him. The crushing weight soon was being pushed back.
"As if I'll let you escape!" Japheth began punching the rock, each hit forcing Creighton into the ground. Finally he was buried beneath the boulder.
"Chris was eaten by that bastard." Japheth felt his stomach flip. "Chris he can't be..."
"I can't let my guard down can I?"
A black paw came from below, the three heads took shape on three of the huge paws, it morphed slowly as the rest of Creighton emerged from the crack he had made within the ground.
"I am Cerberus, watcher of the dead." His body fully regained it's size as if nothing happened. "You think some petty attack from you mortals were gonna harm me. The Age of Power has long passed you humans have weakened."
Joshua forced himself up but fell again, he saw those flames that swallowed Chris. They loomed before Japheth in a blazing fashion, designing screams of terror, but something was off about the flames, they were mixing about until they changed color.
Creighton groaned and walked back.
"What is this?!" He howled. "Why does my body feel this way?!"
Inside of those unbridled flames that lashed against him, Chris felt himself giving in as the searing heat instantly clung to him. He didn't know what to do he pushed his flames about his body hoping he can protect himself but instead he started absorbing the ones surrounding him.
He kept pulling the inferno into his body and felt his chest caving in from the extreme pressure that came from no where. He kept reminding himself constantly that he can get through this, through his will he wasn't going mad from the pain.
It finally subsided...
Chris watched as his body mingled in the flames about him. They clung to his body as if it was his own.
"These flames why do they feel like they belong to me." Chris traced his finger about and the obeying fire. "It is mines. Then... Let's get the hell out of here!"
As he pushed forward and collected the seemingly endless flames, the color began to change to a softer azure.
Creighton's heads turned upwards, his mouth grew wide spewing forth a mass of blue flames.
As he did his size decreased slowly until he was the size of a normal puppy.
Chris flew high in the night sky taking in the sights of the starry picture before him. He soon descended and released the blue flames from about him.