Chapter 51: Afternoon

In the instant the dome fell away, Reality was lost.

Fueled by the connection they had to Anton, Fiona and Kianna spared no thought to conserving their power as they unleashed the full might of their combined auras out into the world around them.

Ila and Nokko both froze where they stood as existence itself was bathed in a cold, unnatural darkness.

Nokko’s eyes went wide as the sky above began to dim down into a sickening ashy blackness, and the sun, sitting over the horizon behind the dark elves, suddenly shifted into a sinister, blood red orb that now hung menacingly above the darkening world.

Taking a step back, the kiochi’s breath became caught in her throat as the air all around her fell flat and grew heavy. Her unblinking eyes began to strain in their sockets as she watched, horrified, while the edges of the world appeared to tilt inwards. This effect caused the horizons to rise in such a way that the land itself seemed to have been transformed into a massive, inescapable maw, which now threatened to close in above and seal away all the unlucky souls that found themselves trapped within its expanse.

Reality had truly been lost, stripped away by the wills of monstrous beings, and in its place was left a dire landscape filled with nothing but darkness and dread.

“Hm ... Well now...” mused Anton as he gazed up at the darkened sky before glancing about at the now twisted terrain “This is certainly impressive ... So this is what happens when they work together ... I do hope that this is just an illusion of some sort, and they’re not actually ripping apart the world ... Because that is going to be pretty unfortunate if they are...”

Instinctively reaching for her weapons, Nokko stopped short as her eyes fell back on the dark elves. Although they were already naturally taller than herself, the sisters had somehow seemed to be to have become much larger than they were even mere moments before. With the red orb that was once the sun hanging in the sky between and just above them, the now towering dark elves remained completely silent as the features of their faces and bodies began to fade behind a thick, enveloping darkness that seemed to encase their entire beings, and left them as solid black, living silhouettes.

Nokko made a small sound in the back of her throat as she watched, mesmerized, as the eyes of the two dark elves lit up and began to blaze with an angry, fiery red glow that shined out brightly against the blackness around them.

The kiochi’s chest tightened as a bone-chilling, nonexistent wind carried by the dark elves auras, rolled straight through to her core as it spread outwards and saturated the very landscape itself with not only a message of their power, but their wordless promise of impending entrapment, despair and pain.

Frozen where she stood, Nokko did nothing as her mother’s tail wrapped itself tightly around her middle and jerked her backwards. Snapped free from her trance, she grunted and blinked in surprise as a series of pink and green glowing rings winked into existence in the spot she had been standing in less than a second before. In the next instant, a tangle of pink and green chains erupted out of the rings and began to angrily rip at each other as they searched for their intended prey.

Furious now, Nokko pulled her gun from its holster and went to level it at one of the dark elves.

Though she had regained her senses, she was disheartened to find that her movements and reactions were being heavily hampered by not only the feeling of intense dread that permeated her being, but by the very environment itself. The air around her had become so dense that moving through it in anyway was no longer an easy task. It literally felt as though she was now deep underwater or more accurately, had been buried in sand, and this not only worked to break her focus, but caused her limbs to feel so weighted that even lifting her feet off the ground was now a struggle.

Though she was no where near as experienced in combat as her parents were, Nokko was still savvy enough to know that this hindrance could easily cost her the fight against the still quickly moving dark elves. This notion was immediately illustrated when in the moment before she could even pull the trigger of her gun, a pink bubble winked into existence around the dark elf she was aiming at, and the end of a glowing, neon green whip sliced through the air and wrapped itself around her weapon.

Unable to react fast enough to make any meaningful difference, Nokko could do nothing but cry out as her weapon was ripped away from her and sent sailing into the hand of the attacking dark elf.

Turning to her assailant, she stopped short when she found the barrel of her own gun was being aimed right back at her. She couldn’t help but to grin when a click sound rang out and indicated it had failed to fire.

“Heh! Bitch!” she sneered as she watched the dark elf’s glowing eyes tighten in annoyance as she looked down at the gun in her hand “It’s not synced to you, you idiot!”

Turning back to her, the dark elf narrowed her eyes even further as she took in Nokko’s mocking expression. The gleeful light in the kiochi’s eyes quickly died when in the next instant, three thin, tentacle-like glowing green chains snaked out of the dark elf’s palm, wrapped themselves around the gun and commenced to violently rip it apart.

“ ... You! Bitch!” breathed Nokko as she watched the pieces of her former weapon fall to the ground “You stupid bitch!”

Fiona didn’t respond as her attention was taken up by Ila suddenly disappearing from behind her daughter. Summoning her own shield out of caution proved to be the right move when Ila reappeared in the air over Fiona’s head and went to strike her from above. The elder kiochi’s swords bounced harmlessly off the side of the aura field and using this momentum, she flipped herself backwards so as to land on her feet in front of Fiona and fall into a fighters stance with her weapons at the ready.

Focused on her Mother’s antics, Nokko came back to her senses when several pink rings suddenly winked into existence around her. Startled into reacting, she immediately teleported herself up into the air and out of the rings reach.

Enraged at the effort made to entrap her, the kiochi pulled a set of daggers from a pair of sheaths strapped to her thighs and curling her tail up and over her head, dove down at the waiting dark elf. Slamming onto the top of her bubble, Nokko preceded to furiously strike at the exact same spot over and over with both her bladed spade as well as her twin daggers.

Circling slowly around Fiona, Ila jumped back in surprise when the dark elf suddenly dropped her shield and stuck at her with her whip. Feinting a forward strike, the kiochi froze when a set of green rings appeared around her. Rather than teleport away as her daughter had, Ila instead tucked her swords and tail in close to her sides and hopped into the air. As she dropped back down from her little jump, the kiochi failed to land back on the ground, as instead, she sank down into her own shadow.

Fiona’s glowing eyes tightened in question as she watched Ila disappear, and they became annoyed when the shadow the kiochi had disappeared into began to quickly move about across the ground and out from under her rings.

Brandishing her whip, Fiona struck at the shadow as it zipped back and forth around her and in anticipation of Ila resurfacing, she kept summoning more rings into existence whenever the shadow would stop moving.

Sunk down into her shadow, Ila found the effects of the dark elves auras had been lessened quite a bit for her, unfortunately she wouldn’t be able to maintain for too much longer without air and would need to resurface at some point soon.

“These stupid bubbles!” growled Nokko as she worked to both keep chipping away at the bubble and ignore the glowing red eyes that were staring up at her “If it wasn’t for this shit you and that bastard over there would both be dead already!”

Kianna’s eyes widened in fury before narrowing down into thin slits. Reestablishing her composure, she took a step back and out from under the kiochi.

Preoccupied as she was, Nokko failed to notice the dark elf as she pointed a finger up at her. And the next sequence of events happened far too quickly for the hindered shinoccubi to react in time, as all at once the bubble she was sitting on disappeared while at the same moment a thin, glowing pink chain shot out from Kianna’s fingertip and almost instantly latched onto the now free falling kiochi’s tail.

Unable to teleport now and too surprised to fully register what was happening, Nokko did nothing as she fell to land in a heap on the ground.

Struggling to get back on her feet amid a torrent of curses, she stopped short while on her hands and knees as an icy chill ran its way throughout her entire body. Flipping herself over to land on her butt and see what was happening behind her, the kiochi’s eyes went wide as she immediately realized what was wrong.

The dark elf was now holding onto her tail.

“Uh, no!” croaked Nokko as every muscle in her entire body went stiff and froze up as a flood of raw, soul crushing fear washed its way into her being. Her jaws clenched themselves shut as the dark elf’s glowing eyes bored into her own, and unable to move in any real way, she could do nothing but struggle to scramble away backwards as Kianna lifted up her free hand and began to slowly approach her. Nokko’s chest tightened in alarm as she watched a long, pink rod take shape and float in the air above Kianna’s open palm. Freezing up, her heartbeat began to ring in her ears when the dark elf took hold of the rod and with a flash of light, it instantly reformed into a glowing pink replica of her Father’s sword. Her heart then skipped a beat completely when Kianna raised said sword up high into the air above her head.

Staring up at the looming, solid black monstrosity that was now posed and ready to end her life, Nokko went to scream, but as she opened her mouth to do so, the frantic, desperate cry that suddenly filled the air, didn’t come from her.

Both Kianna and Fiona couldn’t help but to pause for a moment before they each turned to stare directly at Mica.

The terrified looking kiochi was still in the same place she had been this whole time, though now her tear stricken face was twisted into a look of pained horror that was clearly brought on by the sight of her sister’s impending execution.

In the stillness that followed, Ila sprung up out of her shadow and with a flying somersault landed on her feet facing Kianna. With a blazing fury in her eyes, she brandished her swords and dove into a headlong run at the dark elf.

Turning to defend herself, Kianna was caught off guard when the charging shinoccubus suddenly made a hard left just before reaching her. Her surprise quickly shifted to anger when Nokko’s tail was subsequently ripped free from her hand.

Having successfully snagged Nokko with her own tail, Ila wasted no time in putting some distance between them and the two dark elves. Racing back towards where their portal was located while towing the weight of her daughter through the air behind her was no easy feat though. And when the effort became too much to bare, she dropped down into one of trenches that Anton had cut into the ground and quickly pulled Nokko in next to her.

“Run!” cried Ila as she gave Nokko a frantic shake “You have to run with me!”

Making a small, fearful noise in the back of her throat, Nokko nodded in understanding.

Springing out of the trench, the two kiochis made one teleporting jump after another until they both reached the area just in front of their portal.

Turning and brandishing her weapons, Ila made a visual effort to recompose herself as she and her daughter both tried to shake off the effects of the dark elves auras.

Fiona and Kianna remained just as foreboding as they stood motionless on the other side of the field.

Staring at them for a moment, Nokko groaned in misery before doubling over at the waist. Tearing her mask away from her face, the suffering kiochi dropped down to her hands and knees as she began to violently retch.

After another moment of stillness, the two dark elves both turned in unison and gazed down at the still kneeling Mica.

Realizing she was now under their scrutiny, the trembling kiochi stared forward at nothing as she worked to avoid looking up at them. She flinched when a much smaller version of the dark elves pink and green dome appeared and not only encased her in its protective cover, but trapped her in the very spot she sat in.

“ ... Oh no.” whispered Ila as the two pairs of glowing eyes slowly turned and fell on her.

“Fascinating, aren’t they...” mused Anton as he gazed at the now advancing dark elves “Such capable beings ... And to think, these two still don’t even know about everything they can do yet...”

“Anton!” cried Ila as she teleported to the very edge of the crushed grass “Please! Call them off!”

Anton’s thoughtful expression shifted to one of mock confusion as he turned to her.

“Now why in the world would I do that?” he asked as he arched an eyebrow “As far as I’m concerned, they’re not the one’s who have done anything wrong ... You are.”

Steeling her jaw, Ila quickly looked from Anton to the slowly approaching dark elves and back. She went to speak but stopped short as Anton leveled his arm out to his side and dangled the kunai over a downed Leopold’s chest.

“We had an agreement, Ila.” said Anton as his eyes hardened “And you broke that agreement.”

“ ... Anton.” breathed Ila as she stared at the kunai and shook her head “Wait! Just wait!”

“No.” said Anton as he dropped the kunai.

Gasping in fear, Ila breathed a sigh of relief as the apparent clone dissolved back into shadow.

“This would have been over. But you chose to make a very poor decision...” said Anton as he pulled the kunai back up into his hand “One that I’m going to make sure that you and Leopold both come to regret...”

Testing the quantum break field with her tail, Ila grunted as her spade was immediately forced to the ground. Dragging her weighted spade back out of the field, she hopped into the air and fell back into her own shadow.

“ ... Now what do you hope to accomplish with this?” mumbled Anton as he watched the living shadow slip into the field and begin to zip from one Leopold to another “Aside from showing me where the real Leopold is?”

After making a quick pass between all the Leopold’s, the Ila-shadow made a beeline for the edge of the crushed grass but was instantly stopped in its tracks when it slammed into the wall of an orange-colored aura field.

“I take it you found the real one then.” reasoned Anton as he narrowed his eyes at the shadow “So why don’t you come out of there and tell me which one it is.”

The Ila-shadow paused for a moment before going back into the side of the aura field. After seemingly probing the edge for a way out, it rushed over to Anton and began to rapidly zip back and forth in front of him.

“ ... Can you not get out of there?” questioned Anton as the shadows movements became more frantic “Hm, I take it the pressure won’t allow you to slip back out then? Well, that is certainly unfortunate for you...”

Pausing at his words, the shadow flew across the ground and slammed itself back into the side of the orange bubble where it slunk back and forth along its edge as it desperately tried to find a way out.

Sighing in annoyance, Anton shook his head as he dropped the aura field away.

Ila reappeared the instant her shadow crossed the line of crushed grass, and falling to her hands and knees, the choking kiochi desperately gulped down lungfuls of air in between each fit of frantic coughing.

“ ... Hm, that gives me an idea.” mused Anton as he turned back to the Leopold’s “There’s only one of you that actually needs to breathe...”

“Alright! Anton, you win this!” exclaimed Ila as she tentatively got to her feet and turned back to him “I was wrong. I shouldn’t have attacked Mica like that. I broke our agreement, and it was a mistake. It was, was ... What are you doing?”

Having crossed his arms over his chest, Anton had taken a position back in the center of all the remaining Leopold’s.

“ ... Ila, have you ever seen images or video footage of whales that have become stranded on beaches? It’s such an awful, tragic sight...” said Anton in a somber tone as he gazed down at the Leopold’s and slowly shook his head “The poor creatures. They suffer such a long and grueling death ... I have this friend, named Rembraunt, and he can’t stand the very idea of it ... He’ll drop everything, and do all that he can to help them, but sometimes ... He’s just gets there too late...”

“ ... Anton? What are you talking about?” questioned Ila as she shifted her attention between him and still approaching dark elves.

“Many people believe that what’s happening is that the whales are like fish, and that they die because they’re out of the water for too long ... But that isn’t really the case...” said Anton as he turned only his head and locked eyes with Ila “What actually happens, is that the weight of their own bodies, slowly suffocates them...”

Staring back at him, Ila couldn’t help but to ease herself away as a sense of unnerving dread began to fill the air.

“You see, when in the water, a whale’s great bulk is rendered nearly weightless. And they can move about rather easily, even considering how heavy they really are. But when on land, without the buoyancy that the water gives them, they’re forced to carry all that weight all on their own ... And this just isn’t something that they can do for very long...” said Anton as he kept his eyes locked to Ila’s “Can you imagine how horrifying it would be, to suddenly find yourself in a position were you are forced to lift the weight of the entire world ... Just to take a single breath...”

Ila’s eyes went wide in horror as she understood the direction this conversation was taking.

“And with each herculean effort that you take ... Your strength is slowly ebbed away, bit by bit, with each and every breath...” continued Anton as he began to slowly shift the intensity of the gravity around him “Until, finally, you have nothing left, and with your mind filled with panic, you breathe your very last breath, and slip into blackness...”

As they both stayed focused on each other, the kiogahs around them began to shift about in discomfort before finally starting to struggle in earnest.

Ila balled her hands into fists as one of the Leopold’s let out a choking gasp a split second before the rest followed in imitation.

“There you are...” said Anton as a thin grin spread across his face “Finally found you...”

Tearing her now panic filled eyes away from Anton, Ila locked gazes with her husband, who was laying a few paces behind Anton and was laid out on his stomach with the side of his face pressed down against the ground.

“You win, Anton. You win!” she cried as she turned back to him and showed her open palms “Please! We’ll leave like you asked! This is over!”

“No...” said Anton as he turned away from her and eyed the real Leopold “I’m afraid this isn’t over yet...”

“Stop! Anton! Please!” cried Ila as she shifted into motion “Don’t! Stay away from him!”

Giving up on any pretenses of remaining anonymous, Leopold let an angry scowl spread across his face as he struggled to breathe.

“Anton! Don’t you dare touch him!” exclaimed Ila as her tail stretched upwards to its max length and began to wave about angrily over her head “Get away from him!”

Stopping to stand next to Leopold, Anton had a stoic expression on his face as he turned to Ila.

“Tell me, just how permanent is your oath of loyalty?” he asked.

“ ... Wha, what!?” stammered Ila “ ... What are you talking about!?”

“That oath of loyalty ability that you invoke whenever you officially join a clan.” stated Anton “How permanent is that?”

Clearly taken aback, Ila hesitated for a moment before narrowing her eyes.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” she said in a dry manner.

“I see.” said Anton as he angled the kunai out over Leopold’s left leg and then let it drop.

Both Nokko and the dark elves all turned at once to the sounds of Leopold’s gargled cry and Ila’s ear-shattering scream.

“Now, now, Leopold ... You shouldn’t waste your breath being dramatic like that...” said Anton as he pulled the bloodied kunai back up to his hand “You know you don’t have the air left to spare for such theatrics...”

“Stop! Anton! Please!” cried Ila as she dropped to her knees “You win! You win! We’ll leave! Please! Just let us leave!”

Anton’s face was emotionless as he dropped the kunai onto Leopold’s other leg.

Expelling his breath out through his clenched teeth the shinoccubus began to claw feebly at the ground as he tried to keep from crying out in agony.

All around Anton the rest of the clones began to dissolve away into nothing.

“It’s permanent!” screamed Ila “It’s completely permanent! Forever! Lifetime! Nothing can break it!”

“Not even your Makieve?” questioned Anton as he yanked the kunai free of Leopold’s leg.

“ ... No!” whined Ila as she clearly struggled to answer “ ... Nothing, can!”

“I see. Well that’s good to know ... A bit unsettling as well...” nodded Anton as he turned to face her “If it really is as permanent as you say, then it’s thankful it’s something that can only be willingly invoked.”

Ila gazed back at him for a moment before letting her eyes fall to the ground in front of her.

“That, isn’t always true...” she mumbled softly as she shook her head “It, isn’t always a choice. It can be forced...”

“ ... What!?” exclaimed Anton.

“ ... A demon, or a devil ... They can force it to invoke.” explained Ila in the same soft tone.

“ ... Are you serious?” questioned Anton.

Ila said nothing more as she nodded her head.

“ ... So does that mean that any demon or devil could do it?” asked Anton.

Again, Ila silently nodded her head.

Anton went still for a moment as he stared at her.

“ ... I swear, of all the neglect you’ve shown your daughter, this has to be the cruelest thing you could have ever done to her!” seethed Anton “You’ve left her to grow up believing that she was legitimately a fully free and independent person. When at anytime, one random encounter, one single event, and all that could be taken away from her! Forever! She could be gone in the blink of an eye! And not only did you fail to prepare her to defend herself from this danger, but you’ve given her no warning of it at all! Is this some kind of sick, terrible joke to you!?”

“You don’t understand what you’re talking about!” cried Ila as she began to tremble “She’s not part of our clan! We can’t just explain any of this to her!”

“Then you should have found someone who can!” shouted Anton “There is no excuse for this! You both should have done better! You two risk everything for the chance to give your girls a life of freedom, and yet instead of seeing this through to the end you went and brought your own brand of oppression with you by not giving them the information they desperately need to stay safe! Why!? Why when every year there are more and more cubi fleeing the demon realms for the freedom of Terra! How many of your own kind have already done the same!? And yet you couldn’t have asked a single one of them to help you!? To help your children! What is wrong with you two!?”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about!” exclaimed Ila as she frantically shook her head “You have no idea! It’s not that easy!”

“Yes it is!” countered Anton.

“No, it’s not!” cried Ila “You don’t understand!”

“And what do you think is so difficult to understand!? Hm!? Do you think I don’t know that everything with you has to be a secret!? That everything you say and do has to go through a filter that’s been ingrained into your very minds from birth! Do you think I don’t know what you are!? Because I do! I know exactly what you are...” declared Anton as he slowly shook his head “I know, that you were never meant to be free ... I know, that despite whatever dedication you may have to your clans. They were never meant to be yours ... They were always meant to belong to someone else. And by extension, so were you and every one of your kind ... This was the purpose that you were born and bred for. To blindly follow the orders of your betters. Those that sit above your clans. The one’s who rule them, command them, and ultimately own them, as well as they do you ... And I know, that no matter how far you run, what lies you tell yourselves, or how badly you may want to rise above this fate ... Deep down, you will always feel their hold on you ... And any doubt of this is shattered immediately by the fact that you’ve come here today, with your armor and your weapons, ready and willing to kill your own child. And all so that you can play lip service to calls, customs and traditions that you don’t even want to believe in, but can never escape from...”

Everything remained still for a moment before Anton spoke again.

“Don’t try to tell me that I can’t understand you. When I understand you completely.” said Anton as his face softened “I know exactly how you work. And I know that you can’t just reveal everything about yourselves, even if you want to ... I also know how far you’ve come ... And I know how hard it’s been for you ... But unfortunately, that’s still no excuse for not making sure that your girls were prepared. That they had the knowledge they needed ... If Mica wasn’t left as clueless as she was, then none of this would have happened.”

“We didn’t want this to happen, Anton.” breathed Ila “We never wanted any of this to happen.”

“I know you didn’t...” sighed Anton “And for what it’s worth, I didn’t want any of this to happen either...”

Glancing down at Leopold, Anton found the kiogah had his eyes shut and was taking in one quick, shallow breath after another. Surprisingly, his expression was no longer angry, though clearly still in pain, his face gave the impression of exhaustion more than anything.

“ ... Leopold.” said Anton in a soft tone “Are you done?”

Opening his eyes, Leopold looked up at Anton and merely gazed at him. Though silent, the confirmation in his eyes was still clear. Nodding in acknowledgment, Anton turned back to Ila.

“Ila.” he called as he tilted his head to the side in an effort to crack his neck “I think this day has been long enough ... And I’d like to see it end now. So if you’ll bring me that stuffed frog you were carrying earlier, I’ll trade you your husband for it.”

The kiochi looked up at him in confusion for a moment before suddenly disappearing.

Reappearing on the other side of the now arriving dark elves, she gave them a wide berth as she quickly searched the field for the stuffed frog.

“Alright girls.” said Anton as he addressed the dark elves “This is over. You two can let up on the theatrics now.”

The two dark elves tightened their eyes in annoyance as with a poof of blackness they both suddenly appeared normal again.

The world around them immediately returned to its original state as they each dropped their auras.

“W-w-w-what the hell!” exclaimed Nokko as she looked around at the once again blue sky before glaring hatefully at the dark elves.

Reappearing at the edge of the crushed grass, Ila met Anton’s gaze as she held up the recovered frog.

Nodding, Anton snapped his fingers and dispelled the intensified gravity.

Coughing loudly, Leopold lifted himself up on to his elbows as Ila rushed over to them and stopped in front of Anton.

“Thank you.” said Anton as he took the stuffed frog she held out to him “Nokko! Come and help your Mother collect your Father.”

The younger kiochi turned from were she was brandishing her weapons at the glaring dark elves and immediately disappeared only to reappear next to her mother.

“I didn’t hit any bones, or arteries. So it should be a simple matter to heal him...” said Anton as he looked over the stuffed animal in his hands “If you need a potion, I can have one brought here.”

“We’re fine!” snapped Nokko as she helped Leopold sit upright while Ila popped open a thin tube and handed it to him.

Taking the offered potion, Leopold downed it in one go and then went still as he let it get to work on repairing his legs.

As her husband let out a soft sigh of relief, Ila let her eyes wander back to Anton and she watched silently as he began to brush away debris from the plush toy.

“ ... Anton.” said Ila as she eyed the stuffed frog “You know we don’t need that frog to find Mica. We have plenty of other items we can use. So why do you want to keep it?”