Chirijiraden - Vanishing Memories Chapter 7
Born of Brimstone
By CD
The sky raged in fiery chaos as utter pandemonium danced across blackened horizons. Tue Sho awoke to find himself nailed to a crucifix, his palms bleeding without signs of reprieve. Pain ran through his body like a thirsting flame drinking of his flesh. Blood seeped from every pore, pain from every fiber. His body and clothes were ragged and scorched. His mind burned as flames ran through is eyes. He looked down and surveyed the endless reaches of purgatory. Half dead, half alive creatures wandered aimlessly throughout the wastes in an endless search for something they couldn’t see or hear. The sky belched fire and the earth returned it’s call, spilling a burning river that flowed lazily into the sky. This place exhaled sadness and hate, thriving on every impulse that he demanded of his body. Without cause or notice a demon appeared before him, hovering on black wings that stretched the span of a large tree. Tue Sho shouted at the top of his lungs questions and demands, but naught made even the lightest sound. In one hand he held a wicked dagger whose blade curved and shone black in the abyss. In the other he held Aeris, hanging above the pit by her hair, writhing in anguish and pain. The warrior looked on helplessly as he drew the dagger across her throat, spilling her blood over her bare flesh, across her breasts and down her stomach on past her legs, clothing her in crimson. Tue Sho screamed in rage, only to be lost in the silence.
His eyes eased open, his vision blurry and indistinguishable. As his sight focused he saw that he was staring a fallen soldier in his lifeless eyes, cold and pale. He commanded himself to his feet but his body rebelled in it’s pain, choosing instead to remain lying in the cold, comfortable mud. His mouth uttered sound though the voice was not his own. This foreign speech was cracked, dry, and haggard. Another unfamiliar voice sounded in his ears, this one soft and feminine.
“By the gods... alive?” Tue Sho tried his best to turn his head but his attempts brought naught save more pain. “Don’t try to move, let me help you.” Tue Sho struggled against his body, but it was a losing battle. He couldn’t move a muscle or anything else beyond inaudible moans expressing his discomfort. “Here, drink this.” His lips felt frigid as a bottle passed into sight and touched his mouth, pouring a soothing liquid into his body. Slowly his body returned to him. Feeling in his torso restored his strength and sluggishly spread to the rest of his body from there.
“Ugh... Aer... is... Aeris...?” His neck was stiff and sore as he managed to twist around and view the strange woman. She stood a little shorter than Tue Sho and dressed somewhat morbid and melancholic. Her hair was cut short and molded into short twisted spikes jutting from her scalp. A broad sword rested on her back, a rod at her side. Her face was comely and pleasant to view, with a small red triangle tattooed below her left eye, point down.
“God, you look like shit.” She grabbed his armored hand and pulled him to his feet.
“What... happened...?” Tue Sho rose to his feet with the aid of this unknown soul and surveyed the destruction. The fields once green with life had become a wasteland wrought with the corpses of cold dead soldiers. Blood covered every inch of the desolate badlands. Not a soul save the samurai and his companion stirred the unnatural silence. The stench of burning flesh filled the air, forever embedding itself into Tue Sho’s mind until the sun would set on his life. The sight wrenched in his throat making speech an impossibility.
“I got here when you and this other guy started going off. He transformed into some sort of beast and then you said something before a blue flame consumed the battlefield. Just look around, you can see the ash. It’s everywhere.” Tue Sho’s face twisted in pain as his mind strained for a glimpse of memory.
“My blade. Where’s my--” his voice fell flat as he spotted his katana blade hanging in her hand, a faint blue gleam reflected in an outcast ray of light.
“This was in your hand. You have a grip like a bear.” She sheathed the silvery blade in it’s scabbard and tossed it to its owner. He fastened it to his belt and looked out across the destruction.
“Who are you? You don’t look like a soldier of either nation.”
“Correct in that assumption. I am one who will feed when the world has been torn apart by those who wish to rule it.” She held up a gleaming green stone, the zodiacal symbol ‘Capricorn’ carved into it’s surface. “My name is Sivitri Scarzam, seeker of power. You can call me Siva.”
“Tue Sho Chirijiraden.” The samurai focused his weary eyes on the stone as it emanated a fluorescent impulse. “That man. He used that stone to turn into the demon.” Siva smiled wryly as she pocketed the holy stone.
“That’s right. The holder of the stone is said to be able to form contracts with the underworld, but I’ve no interest in that. My job is to aid Ajora and keep me own ass outta the fire in the process.”
“Ajora? Ajora Glabados? He’s the power behind this revolution isn’t he? The cause of this war.”
“It’s no concern of mine, just as long as I get paid.” Tue Sho shook his head in disgust. “Think what you will, but only those out for themselves will ever rise above the filth. You nobles never understand.” The ronin looked bleak and morose as he forced his legs to carry him onward. It was a long way from Lesalia, and whether he liked it or not it seemed he now had company.