"We're almost at the end of our journey," Tsuru murmured, watching as Hina and Tsuki
concentrated on opening the gate. "I'm going to need your help once we get to the center of
the pit."
Krystal shook her head. "I'm not going to help you." The blonde looked over at Tsuru,
who was now wielding two swords once again.
"I'll give it back to you," Tsuru said. "If you stop struggling against me." The Demon
Lord put her hand on the hilt of Krystal's sword. It was now serving as Tsuru's left hand
blade.
"We've already had this conversation," Krystal said, looking ahead. The gate was now
open and Hoshi was shuffling her sisters inside.
"Do you know what exists down there?" Tsuru continued, dragging Krystal along. "I may
be the Lord of Demons, but the seed of true darkness is contained here. It was... like a
pearl. It started with one horrible, evil soul and then another and then even more.
Eventually, tarnished souls became trapped here and continue to be trapped."
Krystal looked up at her. "And you intend to release these souls? Even though they're
nothing more than evil entities?"
"Of course - I plan to free them," Tsuru murmured, following after her servants. "They
will shape the whole world and I will be the one to reign over them. And you too, of
course."
Krystal remained silent as Tsuru led her down the path. "Hina, Tsuki." The two girls
turned around at the sound of their master. "Stay in this chamber since Krystal's friends
will be coming." The two girls nodded.
Hoshi turned around with a smile. "Then what will I do, master?"
Tsuru continued walking. "We are going to go to the deepest part... well, almost. I
will be preparing to release the souls while you guard Krystal. I will come to get her when
I require her help."
Krystal grounded her teeth. "I already told you - you're not getting any of my help!"
Tsuru ignored her and kept walking. She let go of Krystal's wrist and the moment the
blonde was free, Hoshi had grabbed her.
"Master, your bride is so uncooperative. Let me punish her? I promise she will be good
afterwards." Krystal shuddered at the smile Hoshi was giving her.
Tsuru let out a sigh. "Wouldn't you want to save that energy for Hina and Tsuki? Once
the world is changed, you can do whatever you want with them."
Hoshi's face softened. "I know... you are such a kind master for giving them to me..."
Krystal tried to struggle away, hoping they were distracted, but Hoshi's grip only
tightened. Tsuru just stared at the blonde before saying, "Hoshi - if she does try to escape
or pull any tricks, you can do whatever you want with Krystal."
The exorcist tensed up. "Wh-what?! But you said... if you love me then why would you
put me in such danger?"
Tsuru laughed. "Danger? You're the only one putting yourself in danger. If you try
anything, then Hoshi has every right to play with you. It's not my fault if my Bride is so
stubborn."
Hoshi just held Krystal closer. "Don't be afraid to disobey, Krystal. I will very much
enjoy taming you."
"Like what you do with Hina and Tsuki?!" Hoshi didn't react to her outburst. "I know
you keep touching them in order to force them to do things they don't want to - you're the
one who's brainwashing them, aren't you? You're turning them into-"
"Shut up!" Hoshi slammed Krystal into the wall.
Tsuru, who had continued walking, now whirled around. "Hoshi!"
The silver haired woman loosened her grip on Krystal's shoulders as her master walked
over. "Hoshi..."
"I... I'm sorry master," the silver haired woman replied, pulling Krystal away from
the wall. The blonde winced at the pain, but at least now Hoshi was handling her more
delicately.
They walked in silence for a long ways, though Krystal could feel the anger and
loathing coming off Hoshi in waves.
Tsuru looked back them before stopping. "Hoshi?"
The young woman looked up, her previous cheerful demeanor now replaced by a more
sober, contemplative stature.
"When we get to our destination, you can have Krystal in whatever way you please."
A smile began to curl on Hoshi's face as she wrapped an arm around the girl's waist
and started to pull her along.
"No!" Krystal shouted, struggling to run the other way. "You can't! I don't want it-"
"Oh, but you will," Hoshi said, her voice now husky. "We'll have plenty of time, so
I'll make sure you want it before the fun really begins."
Tsuru just continued walking, not even bothering to turn around.
*****
"Please tell me we don't have to do anything extreme," Eveon murmured, standing at one
end of the gate. Mina was on the other side, glaring at Carmilla. It hadn't taken her long
to figure out what had happened to her girlfriend...
Josh nodded. "Yeah, if you stand correctly like that, then the gate should open... if
you're opposites..."
Mina turned her attention back to her girlfriend. "But what if we're not?"
Eveon shrugged. "Let's hope we are so we can save Krystal."
The two girls were startled when a light started to shine beneath them and the gate
opened. Mina frowned. "That's it? We can't just go home now?"
Josh let out a sigh as everyone started going inside. "No, you need to chill around
here so we can get out. The gate is going to shut behind us."
Seth set down his bag of books down and leaned against a wall. "Well, looks like we're
going to be staying here."
Eveon plopped down on the ground as Mina wished luck for everyone else. Abby, however,
wasn't too happy about the arrangements. "Be careful," the blonde whispered to Sakura.
"I know... I know it's not just my life at stake."
Abby frowned. "That's not what... I don't care what happens to me, I just want you to
be okay."
The angel smiled and gave her a kiss. "I will be fine. If worse comes to worse, we'll
retreat."
The blonde scoffed. "Yeah, right. By retreat you mean being at the end of the line and
stalling for everyone else. You and I both know you're too much of a martyr for that."
It was then that Sakura whispered something in her ear. "When I come back, we can..."
Abby soon flushed a bright red upon hearing what her lover had planned.
"You've... you've been hanging out with Faye too much," she whispered out even though
she didn't seem to mind the suggestion.
They kissed again and Sakura gave Tycara pat on the forehead. "Make sure to take care
of your mommy and sister, okay?"
Tycara nodded vigorously as Sakura walked off. Eveon let out a sigh and hugged her
knees to her chest. "I hope everything will be okay..."
Seth nodded. "I'm sure it will be fine - the only one I'm worried about is Isaka..."
*****
"Uh... since when do you use a sword...?" Carmilla had been first to notice the
ephemeral katana Isaka had in her belt. Everyone paused, except for Erin.
"Because I wanted one!" Isaka could tell that answer didn't sit well with her
companions. "Look, Tsuru's got a huge, badass sword and I can't take it on with my bear
hands."
Bakra nodded. "Okay... so you're compensating?"
"No, I'm not! Jeez... it's a fusion of the metal of Tsuru's shattered swords. I
figured it would be better than nothing."
Faye looked at it before looking over at Erin. "Oh, my sweet little snake is so good
at forging!"
Erin flushed a bright red. "N-no, Tycara helped too. Seth knew how to imbue it with
magic so we made it a holy blade with, hopefully, the ability to negate dark magic."
Josh just gave her a doubtful look. "Hopefully? As in you tried to make a magic sword
out of exorcist relics? Why didn't you come get me?"
Bakra gave a slight cough and Sakura gave the blonde a worried look. "But you and
Bakra were sword fighting, remember?"
A grin crept on the blonde's face. "Right. Sword fighting." He winked at Bakra.
Isaka leaned over to whisper to Carmilla, "Are we that bad?"
The vampire shrugged, "Unfortunately... I think so..."
"Regardless," Erin said. "The sword should do its job if Isaka channels her energy."
Before the argument could continue, different symbols began to light up in the room.
"Here we go again," Bakra moaned out.
"Do you really think you're getting past here?" Tsuki's voice came out of the
darkness.
"We aren't just going to let you through," Hina said, following up.
Carmilla cracked her knuckles. "Oh, yes... I can't wait for some revenge!"
Josh exchanged looks with Erin and the snake goddess immediately summoned her golem.
"Come on," the blonde said, yanking Isaka with him. They jumped on top of the snake as it
led them past the sisters. Sakura as well hitched a ride as Tsuki tried to stop it with
seals. At the last moment, Carmilla's dragon intercepted the blow.
"Stand behind me," Faye whispered to Erin. Her lover still didn't have enough power to
summon more than one golem so she was completely vulnerable.
Tsuki looked over at the escaping snake in annoyance. "Hina, we need to finish up here
so we can go catch them."
"Right," her younger sister replied, preparing her weapons. "We're not going to fall
for any of their tricks."
Bakra sighed as he got in a fighting stance. "I hate fighting long range fighters..."
Carmilla just gave him a scowl. "Tell me about it... they practically killed me when
we last fought."
With that, Hina threw out her weapons and Tsuki enacted her arts. The group dodged,
with Bakra scrambling away, Carmilla riding safely atop a beast and Faye pulling Erin along.
"Something's off about them," Erin said, looking over at Faye. "Last time, they were
different."
"It's as I thought. Something's been controlling them this whole time. Before I could
sense their love for one another but now their feelings are being masked by some unknown
presence," Faye replied.
Bakra interrupted their musings by saying, "Look - that doesn't matter right now.
They're both great at long range so unless we get close and personal, we're done for. I say
we split up and take them down separately."
Faye and Erin exchanged glance. "Since Tsuki can purify you two, we'll take her down,"
the love goddess said.
Carmilla nodded and looked down at Bakra. "Well, let's just hope we don't become swiss
cheese."
"Very funny," he murmured before barely dodging a dagger.
"Hey! We're over here!" Hina shouted, waving at them.
"If you aren't ready to fight, then maybe we should just leave," Tsuki commented.
It was then that the four split up, hoping to take down the pair of sisters.
*****
"You can't do this!" Krystal figured she should stop by now because shouting didn't
seem to be helping her. She was tied up by spiritual threads for the umpteenth time and
Tsuru had already disappeared into the deepest chamber to release the malignant souls.
She was feeling too good, especially with Hoshi taking off her outer robe and placing
it on the ground. "I would have preferred a bed, but this will have to do." She set down her
staff and shoved Krystal to the floor.
"See, if you'd just listened to our master, everything would have been fine."
"You're a sick, sick freak."
Hoshi gave her a small smile. "But I'm no different than you - you can't deny that you
take part in lewd activities with other women, knowing that many cultures frown upon it."
"There's a huge difference between love and abuse," Krystal replied, growing more
nervous as Hoshi kneeled down next to her. "What you're doing is wrong because of the
reasons."
Krystal swallowed audibly as the other woman was now straddling her. If she could
just... "Like I said before, I'll be sure to make this pleasurable for the both of us."
Now she felt like she was stuck in a horrible porno. Krystal let out a muffled scream
as Hoshi kissed her, trying to struggle out of the threads biting into her skin. It was then
that her hand came loose and without any regrets, Krystal punched Hoshi's abdomen as hard as
she could.
The silver haired woman let out a strangled gasp before rolling off of Krystal, trying
to recover. The threads came loose and Krystal ran to the door, only to find it locked. She
tried pulling on the handle, then pushing, until she heard the jingling sound behind her.
"You're such a naughty girl Krystal..."
Crap. So much for escape... Krystal looked around before her eyes landed on a piece of
discarded wood. It was apparently part of a long forgotten, broken spear but it was shaped
perfectly like a-
"I really wish you would stop saying things like that," Krystal replied, holding her
newfound weapon like a sword.
Hoshi stared at it and began to laugh. "Oh... you are too cute... do you really think
you can beat me with that?" She held her staff as if in challenge and Krystal charged.
The silver haired woman easily blocked it, but she almost lost her footing. "A weapon
is merely an extension of a person. It doesn't matter what I use," Krystal said, her wooden
makeshift sword now glowing with holy energy.
"How... I though our master sapped you of your energy?"
"Some of it came back and you told me before, didn't you? That I had great potential?
If I tap into it, then I can beat you," Krystal said, pushing Hoshi back even more.
After her initial surprise wore off, Hoshi began to giggle. "I don't believe you can."
With that, she grabbed the top of her staff and Krystal could only watch as the other woman
pulled on it. In an instant, she could see her own reflection.
Then, she was staggering back, a nasty cut on her shoulder. Hoshi laughed as it was
Krystal's turn to be surprised. "Many people believe that this is some holy staff, when all
it really is... well," Hoshi flicked some of the blood off of her sword.
"It's a concealed sword..." Krystal murmured, suddenly not liking her odds. With the
way Hoshi was standing then... Her staff was really the sheath to a holy sword this whole
time and if she could react that fast with such a long blade, then...
"Do you understand, now? You can't beat me - even my two little sisters can't."
Krystal took a deep breath. "That doesn't mean I can't try!" She charged as Hoshi who
only parried her blows with ease, a smile on her face. She stepped out of the way of
Krystal's slash and everything went white for a moment when something collided with the
blonde's head.
Krystal fell straight to the ground before trying to get back up, her head throbbing.
She could hear Hoshi laughing at her... when she finally stood up, she saw the silver haired
woman confidently holding the sheath in her left hand.
"It's a rather unorthodox sword style to make use of the sheath... but it packs a
punch doesn't it? And it can keep me from cutting your lovely skin."
This... wasn't going to be easy...
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