the fate of the fool
The Sword
Ruro, alongside the rest of the Librarians, had agreed that moment to try and take it upon themselves to investigate the incident of the shadows that emerged from that tear in the sky. They had seen the clash of dark and bright lights occur at the clearing in the forest far away, and then Polaris made a rather melancholic sigh as she noted what had happened at the time. Soon, the forest itself started changing, the trees' verdure and green was slowly being corrupted, into something barren, something dead. Polaris looked with an expression of horror in her face as she led the rest of the Squad to the forest, and by the time they had reached the expanse of dead trees, the forest had been fully corrupted. The leaves had withered away leaving only the bareness of the branches that held them. The former clearing had now become a house in clear sight of the Librarian Squad. It seemed that it wasn't all that far away after all, considering that the forest had pretty much been killed that instant.
"This is terrible!" Ruro sighed, looking around her surroundings, and seeing virtually nothing but deadness. "How could such a thing have happened so quickly? If we don't do something, the entire place will become this sorry state."
Chaore had already faded into non-existence at this time, and it seemed that only Sakana noticed. "I don't think Chaore's very happy to see this place. She's not around anymore. She probably phased out..." she sighed, and looked up at the sky. It was still a bleak grey, and things didn't look like they would change. Night and day seemed to be completely destroyed in this new form. "Anyway, we have more problems at the moment... That house, I'd pass by it occasionally, it didn't originally look like that..." she noted, pointing ahead.
The house itself was by no means small, even housing a compartment of stone, it had become a makeform blacksmith's corner for some reason. It seemed to be constructed of magickal hardwood, but right now it had been plastered with magical charms and papers all over its walls. Ruro tilted her head curiously and suddenly her eyes widened, something was up for sure. "Those magic charms, I know those! I read about them. They are supposedly for warding away bad things, but I don't know if they are working! I can hear sounds from all the way here! We need to go there fast."
"But who knows what lurks?" Roukan sighed. "Even if there are many of us, the shadows were tough. Who knows what's going to be in the house? If the hermit is even alive right now?"
"I trust her enough to live. Definitely won't get out there unscathed, but she'll be alright, I reckon..."
Everyone had made it to the house by now, there wasn't much in the way of obstruction by now since the forest had pretty much been killed. Ruro approached the locked door, and peered below, and saw a trail of brown blood. Apparently, a fight had been going on, and the trail of blood had coagulated. It's been quite a long time since it started. Esi yawned and tapped the lock with her staff, causing the door to open on its own. Roukan looked visibly terrified, with good reason. She had seen the trail of blood, and was quick to recognize that the only blood shed here would have come from whoever lived in here. Ruro opened the door, and heard screams and the sound of steel against flesh. Roukan looked inside frantically, the room was dark. Eventually, she eyed the figure of a body heaved against the wall. "Hey!!" Roukan screamed.
"Quiet, quiet!" Ruro said. "You might call the attention of whatever creature lurks here. Let's go quickly to the sword princess and monitor her condition. We won't be having anyone fade on us!" she continued as she ran to the body heaved against the wall.
"Don't go alone!" Roukan said, trying to catch up, but soon fell over. Something tripped her up. "Hey, who did that!" she said, as the other Librarians shrugged. They were very far away from her at this rate, none of them could have done it. "...Are you telling me..."
Ruro made her way to the person sat against the wall, and soon to her surprise, saw Hime sitting against the wall, coughing, and looking very weakened. Several deep cuts have been made all over her body, and her clothing is ripped and torn. Fortunately, her crown was in a decent enough condition to still allow her to fight. However, she was in no condition herself to get up. "What happened?!" Ruro asked. She kept her hands on the hilt of her blades in case something tried to get on her from behind.
"Ah..." Hime wheezed. "I was caught off-guard. It was some sort of shadow being... Some sort of land kra-- Hey, look out...!" she spat, weakly pointing to behind Ruro. The Librarian looked shocked, quickly turned around, but whatever Hime was pointing at was faster. A dark, shadowy tentacle struck Ruro and knocked her over a ways away.
"No!"
Ruro hit the wall but didn't seem too injured, more shocked if anything. She saw the tentacle inch closer to Hime, who now looked visibly terrified. It was her greatest weakness, after all. She was trying to get over it, but now was a bit much! Suddenly, a sparkle from a ways away could be seen, and Sakana's tuna struck the tentacle and sliced it off cleanly. She made her own entry and retrieved it. Hime was desperately trying to crawl away to safety. As she slithered across the ground, a trail of blue blood was being left behind.
"No, you can't move," Sakana said. "You're going to faint from blood loss. I read about your kind. You know you can't die, but you're going to exhaust yourself."
"..."
"Let us handle this."
"C, can't... m, must... kill... it myself." Hime coughed out a little bit of blood.
"Huh?"
"Nightmare Horror... Only can be killed by those... who fear it in reality... S, Sakana... Behind you...!"
Sakana looked down and smacked a dark tentacle that attempted to slither in secret. Hime was now wielding her trusty Fenris, an icy scimitar, with simple design, but trusty and quite reliable in most situations. "You don't seriously consider fighting that thing in your current state, do you?" Chaore said all of a sudden, shifting into existence next to Hime. "Let us handle it, as Sakana said."
"...Your funeral..."
The land kraken Hime had alluded to was hiding in the opposite corner of the room. Ruro was already up and about, trying to slice off the various tentacles that attempted to strike. However, for every appendage that was torn off, a new one grew. And so, it would be an endless battle. This was no hydra for which you could stem the growth of its heads, there seemed to be a trick to it. Polaris and Esifex were at Hime's side, trying to tend to her wounds. They noted that the cuts seemed to be of an otherworldly source, not at all mortal, and this nature affected a Dragon like Hime quite greatly. Hime winced at the pain and looked at the land kraken angrily. "Weakness... head." Hime groaned, pointing Fenris in the direction of the kraken's large head.
Sakana and Chaore ran over to Ruro to assist her in battle while Esi and Polaris were hard at work trying to restore the wounds afflicted on the blade princess. "Wow, these are pretty rough. A normal person would probably be dead after these." Polaris noted. "You should be grateful we could help." Hime merely nodded weakly and watched the battle from a safe distance. Chaore was pelting the kraken with many lasers, however, the monster was able to block most of them with its tentacles. Sakana grumbled as she assisted Ruro in slicing down the tentacles the monster was using to block Chaore's attacks. "It doesn't seem like the monster is faltering," Chaore said. "It will manage to tire us out if we don't do something about it."
Hime then groaned and stood up, her legs were shaking. Polaris attempted to get her to sit down again, but to no avail. "You're not fully recovered! Get back here." Polaris yelled, but Hime ignored the warning, stumbling forward and holding Fenris. "You three... It's useless to fight that way." she said, coughing.
"You're in no condition to fight!"
"Try me."
"..."
"Fine." Ruro said reluctantly, heaving her blade forward. "Don't blame me if you run out of breath half way, though! Haha."
Hime sighed and slumped forward a bit, obvious that she's still a little weakened. However, her senses had mostly returned to her, and she was able to recover her sluggish movements easily. She focused some of her inner energies a little, causing Ryuujintou Gram, a thinner, blazing dao, and the Wyvern Caliburn, a plain, non-descript, but obsidian broadsword, to float around Hime as if they were sword familiars.
"You couldn't do that before," Ruro said. "What happened?"
"Regaining my abilities."
"I see!"
Hime charged forward, definitely, her fleetfooted-ness had faded away in injury, but Gram and Caliburn danced around, aiming for the head of the kraken. "Now, you must aim your attacks at the head. I will seal the limbs from regenerating." Hime said.
"How can you do that?!" Ruro said. "You're terrified of the things."
That's right, I am."Uh... I'll think of something."
Can I really do this? I don't even know. But I've gotta try. I got them involved in this. I wonder if I had just passed out there, you know?"So just strike at it!"
Hime stood still before the land kraken as Ruro, Chaore, and Sakana leapt forward at the head. The tentacles swarmed around the trio of Librarians, but soon ignored them and rushed towards Hime. "No!" Ruro called out, but Hime shook her head as she stood firmly, holding Fenris with her two hands, and Gram and Caliburn were at her sides, ready to attack. Ruro could see that Hime was crying. "You didn't have to do this!!!" she said, and soon aimed her frustrations at the shadow monster, raising both Tizona and Colada at once. Chaore started shooting lasers at the defenseless kraken, who, in a fit of pain, struck Hime on instinct with a loose tentacle right across her face, causing another cut. However, in response, the sword maiden cut down the tentacle and froze it with Fenris, so it would no longer regenerate. Gram and Caliburn began to work on slicing the tentacles, so they could be easily frozen by Fenris. However, the team effort was quite dangerous. For every time the Librarians tried to penerate through the being of the kraken, it would respond by slashing at Hime with its sharp tentacles.
Hime screamed in pain as she started getting overpowered by the tentacles. Gram and Caliburn were returned to their places as she fell backwards, and tried to defend herself by cutting down and freezing the appendages that lunged at her, but there was too many. Eventually, some of them wrapped themselves around Hime's arms and legs, the dark energies proving very powerful as they started sinking into Hime's skin, it was enough to cause her to drop Fenris in her hand. "Aaaah...!"
Ruro turned her head around and saw Hime's entire being slowly turning dark. "Hey, that's not good! Is this the effect the darkness has on people?! Better stop it!" she said, as she drove Tizona and Colada in the kraken's eyes, causing some dark energies to leak out of its pierced eyes. She eyed Fenris on the floor and grabbed it. "I'm going to borrow this and get you out of there! Sakana, Chaore, don't stop weakening it!" Hime felt weaker with each passing moment, and her vision started blurring, she swore she could feel the tentacles grope around a bit. Soon, a flash of blue light rushed past, soon, the tentacles were all cut down and frozen. Hime passed out.
"Sigh. Polaris, Esi, she didn't listen to you, did she?"
Polaris nodded, smiling. "Well, let's go fix her up."
Ruro eyed the Fenris in her hand. "I've never used a sword like this before, at least, not seriously. It'll be an interesting experience. I've only read about them." she mused aloud, before returning to the main target at hand. Tizona and Colada were still embedded in the shadow monster's eyes, and it was clear that it was going to go down soon. Chaore shot lasers at it, and Sakana drove her tuna into the kraken's upper jaw, and caused it to roar loudly in pain. Hime's arms and legs were black with the darkness, but it had not taken over her body completely. Suddenly, Fenris, from Ruro's hands, released itself from her grasp and drove itself into the kraken's mouth, causing it to freeze up and then shatter completely. The swords and the tuna then fell to the ground as the kraken shook and melted into nothingness.
The room became bright once more. Outside, Esi could see the trees still mostly dead, but some leaves could be seen growing on them. The kraken seemed to be holding some form of influence over the barrenness of the area, and its elimination caused the area to slowly recover again. Hime was still very much unconscious, as Polaris was busy treating her wounds and amplifying the recovery process as the darkness infecting her body was slowly being purged, almost as if through some sort of detoxification. A few moments later, Hime was already able to open her eyes. "...Thanks."
Ruro saluted. "It's not an issue. We needed to figure out the problem anyway," she said, whilst sheathing Tizona and Colada as well as returning Fenris to Hime. "It seems that there are many shadowy entities taking the form of terrors out there. You mentioned the name 'Nightmare Terror.' Do you know anything about it? Does it have anything to do with those charms you plastered out the door?"
Hime sighed. "I took trips to the Library on occasion. I would read the occult section. I read a particular book detailing Apocrypha. This thing about Nightmare Terrors came up. It fit this exact description."
"Huh..."
"An entity of purest darkness, one that takes the form of fear or doubt in the victim's heart. It is said that only the victim has the power to vanquish a Terror for real. Others are only a helping force."
"I see."
"I had no idea they actually existed," Hime continued. "If that tear in the sky has anything to do with it, I don't know. But they have insane powers of corruption. I fear what would have happened to me if it had managed to grab me longer than it did." she shook her limbs around a bit.
Ruro sighed. "We must do something about this, right?"
"Well, yeah. I think there are other places being attacked by these forces. Sadly, I have no idea where to start looking..."
"The Library is in danger," Ruro said. "Some of us should stay behind."
"I'll volunteer." Chaore said. "I have some things I need to check in the Library, anyway."
Roukan also agreed to join Chaore.
"So, I suppose everyone else comes with me?"
Esi nodded with approval, her staff whirring and buzzing around the place. Polaris cleared her throat. "If I may make a suggestion, dears, I think we should probably go to the village," she said matter-of-factly. "Villages tend to be the places where evil forces strike most, so it'd make sense that the town would be a good place for us to head to next. Hopefully we aren't too late."
Ruro nodded. "That's a good idea! We should get going now."
Hime managed to stand up properly and look around. "Please let me come with you. You saved my life, pretty much. All of you."
The words "saved my life" rang hard in Ruro's ears.
Matsuri... I haven't seen her in ages! Where could she be? I hope she's safe. I certainly hope nothing has happened to her, too... So, the Librarian Squad and their honorary recruit were to make their way to the unnamed village. Nobody knew what to expect there, especially with the introduction of these Nightmare Horrors. However, they had no choice. They wanted to enjoy living in their world, not with these rank forces of darkness spoiling their fun!
Methinks, by most, 'twill be confess'd
That Death is never quite a welcome guest.