Black Stained Winter: Chapter 18 - "Not Tentacles"

*tap* *tap* *tap*

Sounds of footsteps can be heard echoing inside the corridor. The sounds come from two pair of feet walking in the building. One of them is the blonde swordswoman, Lyon. She’s still wearing his black suit and trousers and look tidy. Behind her follows a man with glasses decorating his face. His black short hair is brushed tidily and evenly to the side of his head. Similar to Lyon, he’s wearing a black suit and black trouser. He’s also wearing a black long coat to protect him from the winter wind outside.

They are walking down a long corridor. On their left side are walls. Every few meters there will be a brown wooden door to enter the room behind it. On their right side is an array of big window that spread from the floor to the ceiling and from the far back way to the front. The cool blue winter sky can be seen clearly through the window. The height of the floor they’re in provides an unhindered view of the city with its skyscrapers soaring toward the sky here and there.

“This way,” Lyon stops and open the only double doored room in that floor. When the door opened, one can see the room is dark, heavily contrasted with the bright sky from the window across the room. Lyon enter the dark room with the man following behind her.

“Aleister Hart is here,” Lyon speaks into the dark as if there’s somebody there.

“Thanks Lyon, I’m fine from here,” Aleister taps Lyon on her shoulder. Lyon stares at Aleister with a slightly annoyed look on her face before turns away, “Suits yourself.” She walks out of the room and close the door behind her, removing any external source of light available in the dark room.

When there’s no light from outside, the eyes soon become accustomed with the darkness in the room. The room actually is not really that dark. There are standing lamps along the wall lit dimly providing a soft light to the room. The room itself is quite big. It looks like an office of an important person. Bookshelves filled with all size of books are covering one side of the wall. A big wooden desk sit nicely on one end of the room facing the double door. Behind it is a big window similar to the one found in the corridor. In the middle of the room are three couches circling a table. What really weird about the room is the fact that although the sun shouldn’t be set yet as evident from the sun rays in the corridor, there’s no light coming in from the window other than the silvery moonlight.

“It’s been awhile since the last time I’m inside this mesmerizing room,” Aleister removes his coat as he walks towards one of the coach and sit.

“Indeed you are, Al,” a woman standing near the window replies while still watching what looks like the night view of the city without any artificial lights. Her voice sounds mature and has alluring feels to it. Her long black hair sways behind her as she walks away from the window and heading to the wooden desk with an almost empty glass of wine on her hand. She’s wearing a white long sleeved shirt tucked in messily into her white trousers. “Wine?” She holds a bottle of wine and offers it to Aleister.

“If it’s not a bother, I don’t see why not,” Aleister smiles.

Black Stained Winter: Chapter 17 - "Beware, Demons"

Red color is staining Rick’s hand. He stands looking down at a demon with bloody head lying still. Tama and Usami watch from afar, still. Both of their eyes are open wide from shock and disbelief. Usami covers her gaping mouth with both hands still surprised by what just happened.

Tama knows Rick hates demon from deep within his heart. But, this? She didn’t expect Rick to attack a passing Raygn, a demon with reason and conscience, swiftly without hesitation. And obviously she wasn’t expecting for him to attack an unarmed and harmless demon like this.

Rick’s eyes are locked to the body in front of him, watching and prepared to strike at first sign of life. If the demon is still alive, he’s ready to deliver a final strike. And then, a cough. The dying demon coughing out blood. His breath is heavy and looks like in pain. But, he still unconscious.

Rick raises his hand and prepare his favourite palm strike. A full power strike to the head will finish him off, he thinks. Swiftly, he uses full power on his palm and move it down toward the helpless demon’s head.

BAM!

Black Stained Winter: Chapter 16 - "Foreign"

“Ignis, is that you?” Ren asks the man in black suit and armor in front of him. He recognizes his voice even though it’s slightly muffled by the mask.

“Yeah,” the mask opens in the middle of the face and slides sideway revealing Ignis’s face, “It’s me.”

“What’s with the suit?”

“New stuff from Gerogom. Ah,” Ignis leans sideway a bit and tries to look pass Ren. Ren turns and see Lyon already walks away.

“Keep on talking, go on. Those trespassers will wait for us,” says Lyon without even stopping. “Useless bunch,” the words whispered just before she dashes away and soon gone from the view. The two man on the rooftop are left alone together by the blonde swordswoman.

“So, who’s that?” Ignis frowns curiously as he turns to Ren.

“Lyon, a girl I met several minutes ago,” Ren reaches to his pocket and, like always, pull out a pack of toothpicks and take one out and bite it.

“That’s not helping.”

“Well, can’t help more than that. She’s strong, I give you that. This, “ Ren points to a dead white beast with his thumb, “was her doing.”

“Not half bad.”

“Not at all. But her attitude needs some help though.”

Ignis chuckles, “You got that right.”

The two man look around from the high rooftop and see the vast city lays before them to the horizon. “We can’t cover this much area,” Ren mumbles. There’s only a handful of them while the city is too big.

“Hey, how many do you think are there people like us and that woman?” Ignis asks suddenly.

Black Stained Winter: Chapter 15 - "The Black Hunt Begins"

The sun is high in the sky, but the air is still cold. It’s winter after all. Even with the cold air, the city is bustling with life. People fill the road unhindered with the cold. It is not unusual though. The people in this city are busy and a simple cold weather is not enough to stop them from doing their activity.

Among them are Rick, Ren, and Tama making their way amidst the sea of people. Their heads are looking around uneasy, looking for something. Since arriving at the city, they’ve been looking for signs. Signs that there’ve been disturbance in the normally peaceful day. Scream, whispers, gossips, running people; any signs will do. Signs that can direct them to the position of any uninvited guest from other realms.

“Ah!” A young woman who walked pass Tama startles. She looks down and around, looking for something.

“What’s wrong?” Her friend asks her as they stop moving.

“No, it’s just… Something seems like brushing my leg.”

“You’re dreaming in the middle of the day? There’s nothing there!”

“But, I’m sure!” The two girls then continue walking into the crowds and soon out from view.

Ren grabs Tama’s arm and speaks to her ear, “Was that you?”

“Ah, yeah. My tail brushed her leg I guess.”

“We need to avoid that kind of thing. Can’t you do anything about it?”

“I don’t think I can. I can only put illusion on it to make it invisible, but I can’t make it truly disappear.”

“Hmm, then we can’t stay in the crowds like this. We need to avoid commotions.”

“I guess so. Mr hobo!” Tama waves to Rick who’s walking ahead of them. He looks back and see Tama and Ren gesture to him to follow them. The three of them get away from the crowded street into a deserted alley.

“What’s wrong?” Rick asks as they enter the alley. He looks around and thinks of how quiet it is in here compared to the street even when only several meters away from it.

“We need to stay away from the crowds,” Ren looks around the alley and looks up.

“My tail keeps brushing on passing people,” Tama adds.

“Tail? What tail? Aren’t you already hid it?”

“It’s only invisible. My tail is still here,” Tama spins in front of Rick and he can feel something soft brushes him.

“So, what’s wrong with that?” Rick seems to not having a problem with it.

“Why can’t you understand something so simple, Mr Hobo?” Tama looks a little bit annoyed. “We need to not attracting people's attention. If people keep bumping with my invisible tail, sooner or later they will be suspicious.”

“Well, I guess you’re right,” Rick scratches his head.

“How high can you all jump?” Ren asks without letting his sight away from the sky.

“Quite high. Why?” Rick asks.

Black Stained Winter: Chapter 14 - "Prelude to Black Part 2"

Gerogom is raising one of his eyebrows and frowning when he sees Ren inside his laboratory. He points at Ren and faces Ignis, “What’s he doing here?”

“Does it really matter?” Ren asks.

“Not really. I’m just not expecting that at all. Then again,” Gerogom turns to all of his guests, “what are all of you doing here? I don’t remember asking anyone to come today.”

“You have something on the black mist?” Ren goes straight to the point.

“What? Black mist? Sure I have something on it. What do you think I’ve been doing here?”

“Oh hey, everyone’s here,” Rick comes in. It seems that whatever stuff he was attending is now finished.

“Another one? What are you doing here?” Gerogom waves his hand toward Rick.

“Hm? Don’t you already found something about the black mist?” Rick asks as he walk towards the group of Gerogom’s guests. He’s welcomed cheerfully by Tama.

“Another question about black mist,” Gerogoms rolls his eyes, “How do you know I’ve found something about it?”

“A bird chirps to us,” Ren remarks.

“A bird?” Gerogom frowns for a second before he realizes something, “ Ah, that bird you mention doesn’t chirp; he caws.” Gerogom turns and walks away from his guests and towards one of the myriad panels in the room. “If that annoying crow told you to come here, I guess I have to show it to you then.” He presses some button on the panel and a big screen on one side light up. It shows the black mist floating freely inside some kind of canister.

“Is that the same mist you saw?” Ren asks Aqua.

“Well,” Aqua tilts her head slightly to the side, “It is black…”

“What you see here is the Black Mist you all already seen. This has a weird property to create an unstable connection to other realms randomly when there’s enough amount of it clumped together. The ‘way’ it created can be closed at any moment without notice.

“What intrigue me is its other property,” Gerogom presses something on the panel. Several pictures appear on the screen. The demons Rick and Ren fought are pictured on the screen. Other than those demons, there’s also photo of the assassin who was rampaging with the black mist seeping out of him.