Chapter 7.7 - Mei - Blood Dyed Flowers

Hours has passed since the last incident happened. Well, a lot of things have happened. Where do I start...Okay...

Zenith was still recovering when it happened. Not a moment to rest after the kidnapping of Azreal as well as the murder of Shiro, another similar event happened the following day. This time, Lala was kidnapped by the Twin Chaos Champions, Zing and Zang. I thought that Zing and Zang was supposed to be annihilated already. We did defeat them. I just don't know how were they able to recover that fast. Yin and Hosuke dealt a Fusion Reactor on them. Putting that aside, how was the enemy able to kidnap Lala easily? Lala had already tired herself out of after she tried to ram in her Guardian Spirit, Dymenshne to break the mirage walls that was blocking Nova's Fortress.

We also have another death coming in during the kidnapping. Zero was killed after several snakes that came from the enemy had poisoned him. We lost another live in a blink of an eye. Just last night, I accompanied Blanc at Zero's funeral. Nobody else was there because Zero wasn't a very sociable person. The only other thing beside Blanc and me were the grave next to him which belonged to Shiro. I honestly expected Blanc to go insane and unleash her monster instinct back then but the only thing I noticed about her throughout last night was tears. While Shiro may be an unknown for almost everyone, to Blanc, I think she was a lot more different than any of them.

While those two may have crossed their blades against each other throats in the past, I'm sure both of them have some form of mutual respect. If that's not the case then I can assume it's more of a familial responsibility. Kinda like how you wanted to take care of your younger relative. I'm not sure if its love but I can tell that it has its own significance. The complicated relationship between those two...

Here I am now inside the resting room with Zenith contemplating on what's our best move against Nova. I feel like the most likely thing that will happen after this would be either Zenith or I got kidnapped by them. That's as far as I can see for now. Why they need all of us Dragon Incarnations probably has a dark meaning to it. I have to make sure that won't happen.

"I think I've had enough of resting." Zenith suddenly told me as she got up from her bed.

I checked her Infinitum Energy and told her what I got, "You're not a 100% yet, Zenith. You still need to rest."

"I don't think being 100% would gain any kind of differences." She remained to be stubborn.

I sighed, "I know you've been keeping a lot of anger within yourself, but I don't think unleashing that anger would be advantageous. Anger just brings in hatred. And hatred is bad."

"But..." Zenith replied, "Hatred...is power."

"Who teaches you that..." I gently reprimand her.

She shakes her head, "I don't know. I don't remember who told me that. It could be just a dream..." she continues to shakes her head in confusion.

I took a moment to consider and finally told her, "Well...I guess you're not that badly injured..."

"Awesome!" she jumped out of her bed.

I sighed and said, "Don't you think you shouldn't be jumping up and down after days of being bedridden?"

She excitingly responded, "I'm totally fine, Mei. No need to worry!" she gave me a thumbs up.

Her smile was also too convincing that I felt sorry for holding her back. I ended up smiling back at her.

She then added, "And besides, today Rose is supposed to finally come back from her hometown. She told me to that she'll bring along that Creamy Chocolate Cake we promised. But..."

Zenith suddenly shifted her mood after she mentioned about the cake.

"But Yumiko..." she felt miserable thinking about Yumiko's betrayal.

I looked at her sudden change of emotion and began to remember back someone else who also had that expression. He was able to bounce back his emotion just by thinking on the bright side of things.

And so I assured her, "It's no big deal, Zenith. You can get through this, I'm sure."

Zenith slowly nodded, "You're right. Even White would do something like that. I have to keep an example and not let him down." she promised.

"Good." I happily smiled at her impulsive mood shifts.

Just as good things had come for all of us, we heard a knocking from the door of the resting room. I opened the door and Rose was standing behind it. She was carrying a big box. From the shape of the box, I could tell that it was a cake. It was definitely the cake that Zenith mentioned about.

"Zenith! You're getting better now!" Rose joyfully shouted. "I want to hug you but..." she showed the box. "This thing is right here."

""I've been waiting for this!" Zenith was jumping around like a little kid.

But then Rose suddenly mentioned, "Hey, we gotta get Yumiko first, right? We promised, remember?"

The mood suddenly shifted once again as a string of awkwardness fills the room. But before everyone was able to react, we heard screaming from the outside. Zenith and I nodded as we looked at each other and we quickly made our way outside to see what was going on.

We got out and we witness something truly horrifying. It has horrific, it almost felt like fever dream but this was reality. To make it worse, I felt like I've seen all of these before...A student crushed by the leg of a beast. The beast looked like it had two horn and wings on their backs. They come in multiple different colour and they were all over the campus.

"What the hell is going on?!" yelled Zenith.

I quietly responded, "Hell..."

They were demons. Demons from hell. Hell incarnate itself into the living world. These demons are diabolical creatures. They eat anything living and breathing. Even their own kin. They are lawless monster that attack and consume everything they see still moving. They all come in different shapes and sizes but a particular feature all of them have was their chaotic instinct. It's much more dangerous then just another monster. These things are sentient and they can think.

To even provide a horrific demonstration, the demon that has crushed a student with its leg was one. The demon grab the student's head and in just a second later, 'pop' goes the crunchy bone on the neck. The student's head had been ripped apart from their body. The demon proceed to consume the head with full delight. Once the head was all done, it continued to munch on the other parts of the body. Pools of blood splattered all over the place as the dinner was served.

"We need to get out of here, now!" I shouted as I made my way to the outside of the campus.

"Hey wait for me!" Rose can be heard in the background still carrying the cake box.

We've finally reached the campus gate but there were already hundreds of student standing and waiting.

"What's all the commotion about?" I anxiously asked.

A random student replied, "It looks like the exit are blocked."

"No...It can't be..." my fear was coming back full force.

Demons suddenly appeared, exits are blocked...this is almost exactly the same as when 'that' happened. Yes. It happened a long time ago, they called it The Seven Month War. Long story short, it was a horrific mess that took about 7 straight months before the demons have finally cleared themselves out. The only big differences we have right now was that there's no such thing as a mirage wall like the one Nova was using. What's blocking right now are just students in a hurry trying to get out. This large amount of human standing around in a single place...It does not bode well.

"WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE!" I yelled as I grabbed Zenith's arm and make a run for it.

"H-HEY, HOLD ON!" Rose tries her best to catch up to us.

Just as we finally escaped from the masses of students and lecturers at the gate, several demons started to surround the gate area. Screaming ensues as everyone tries to fight back with their magic. But it was to no avail as some of them would lose their life.

"Zen! Rose! Don't look back!" I ordered them to keep their heads away from what was about to happen.

I told them that, but I was the one who ended up looking back at the gate area. Words couldn't describe what kind of horrors I have witnessed. The demons began munching and ravaging the people there. Slaughtering every living thing they see in front of them. It wasn't a massacre, it was a feast. A human buffet.

We continued to run away until we finally reached somewhere we think was safe in the campus. We took a moment to breath but didn't last long as one huge demon with a single eyeball suddenly smashed the wall next to us. Zenith and I were crushed by the rubble. Rose finally made it but she witness what was going on and began to startle.

Zenith cried as loud as she could, "No!"

Bang! A gunshot noise echoes the scene.

The large one eyed demon has stopped moving. It's eyeball have already been pierced by whoever does that. The demon then dropped down and died there. Rose lets out a sigh of relief as she kneels down together with the cake box.

We all looked at where the gunshot came from and then we saw, Yumiko, still in her black dress standing not too far from us.

"Yumiko!" Zenith shouted.

"Oh Thank The Great Will, you are finally here, Yumiko!" Rose happily cried as she got up and ran toward Yumiko, "Look, Yumiko! I've brought something special for all of us to share together. Let's eat together!"

While Rose seemed to be glad and excited, I saw that Yumiko's eyes were filled with nothing but void. It lacks any sort of compassion. What it has was...chaos. Or maybe...regret...

Bang! Another gunshot echoes the scene.

From Yumiko's perspective, a hole can be seen. A hole right at the cake box. It penetrated the box and sinks right into Rose's flesh.

"Yu...Yumi...Yumi...ko. We promised....together..." She falls down to her back as the box of cake was thrown up to the air and crashed down to the ground near Yumiko.

Zenith's eyes begins to fill with void as well as she quietly murmured, "...Yumiko..."

Having seeing all of that has transpired, Yumiko immediately steps and crushed the box of cake with her foot. The sweet smell of chocolate was no longer there as the only thing we can all smell was the smell of blood and death.

Yumiko suddenly was a bit different than her usual self, she wasn't smiling menacingly as we all witnessed the terrifying scene. With not much time to waste, I quickly got up from the rubble and grabbed Zenith. I dragged her away from Yumiko as soon as possible.

Zen quietly said, "...Rose...we promised..."

And just like that, Yumiko loudly announced to us, "Yes! It was me all along! I did it! I did the same thing years ago, Mei Xue! This is my power. The Dragon of Hell!"

I felt very horrible for doing this but Yumiko was not chasing after us and this could only be the opportunity for us to stay away from her. And so, I immediately began to look for somewhere secluded, somewhere safe, where no one else could disturb the two of us against this crazy commotion. We hid in there, rested, and waited. Waited for what? We don't know. Perhaps the inevitability of our kidnapping...It was a hopeless situation. One where I hope a miracle can happen.

And that miracle happens to come quick. Just like a flashing storm.

TO BE CONTINUED