The Codex of the Knights of Day - 9. Chapter 8: Twisted Bloodlines

Chapter 8: Twisted Bloodlines
People who have been abused all have a certain thing that will trigger us to go into a relapse, no matter how brief the relapse is. We relive everything wrenched thing that has happen to us in painfully slow seconds. It takes everything to break out of the state of mind. Kneeling at Carlisle’s feet did that to me. Memories that I thought long forgotten, surged to the front of my mind with cold vengeance, paralyzing me where I was.

I don’t know how long it to me to remember the pain, imagines, and feelings were just memories and nothing more. All the old emotions left me except for clear cold fury filled my palms in the form of the healing white light. I sent out a wave of brief light, watching Carlisle scream and sizzle as if I threw acid on his face.

“Why?” I barked. “They never did anything to you, and you slaughtered them like cattle!”

My blood began to sing as I threw a barrage of light at him, creating bigger and bigger orbs of light with each toss. I poured more of my chaotic thoughts into my power, crushing Carlisle of the might of my magic. I sent him flying with another flick of my wrist, but he regained his senses faster than I expected.

He made a simple warding motion and I felt something hit me hard in the gut, exploding air from my chest as I slid back into the ashes of the house. He started making his way to leave but such hate filled my mind, I don’t think it was just mine. It wasn’t, these flashes of memories were not mine, but belonged to my mother, her stories of the horrid life she spent with Carlisle began to spin to life in my mind’s eye. The memory of Alison’s death appeared so sharp in my mind. My mother’s hands flying to her stomach, clenching in pain as her child died inside of her. He needed to suffer for it.

I held my hand out, “No, you won’t get away now. You shall pay for all the crimes against my family!” I felt a ripple of my will roll out of me as an unseen force forcing everyone to their knees.

Light began to pour out of my whole being as I dove deeper into the Champagne power to kill him. His shrieks of terror and pain were music to my ears, but why wasn’t he dying? Maybe the light can’t kill him, but Hellion could. I tried to will the Light to stop but my Fury had taken over. “No! I can’t stop!”

A darker voice whispered in my mind, “And you won’t until his blood empties into the street.”

I didn’t know it was possible, but more light shot out of me like an exploding star and it hurt like hell. It was the same thing my papa had just done and now, I was going to die. No! “Close your eyes!” I shouted. “Close your eyes!”

As I felt my light begin to flicker only to return to out shine itself, I felt suddenly tired as if the Sandman was dragging me to sleep. I began to fight it off until I saw Dancer singing again, clenching his chest as a purple mist began to smother my light. Part of me wanted to fight it off, but I surrendered myself to sleep, welcoming the reprieve from such destructive rage.

My hearing came back first. Even the rain was much different here than in Arkansas, almost soothing without its thunder to frighten me. Next, feeling came back to my body. Wherever I was, they had situated me in an odd position with my head and feet raised. I heard someone talking but it was grabbled like it had been through series of pipes that stretched the sound into awkward noises.

Someone sighed heavily fidgeting a bit. “I’m guessing you guys have some questions.” Dancer breathed out quietly.

A quiet female voice answered, “Yeah, if you don’t mind explaining what just happened back there.” Sandra’s tone was a bit sarcastic.

Dancer shifted my head from one leg to another, and settled something on my chest. “You just saw two very old enemies having a fight.” He said in a matter-of-fact tone.

This voice was deep but calm if I was describing it right. “Carlisle and Aiden?” Jensen said like it wasn’t possible. “They’re too young for anything that big to drive one of them to kill the other’s family.

I imagined Dancer shaking his head, “What? No, Carlisle isn’t Aiden’s age. He’s 43; it’s just the demon in him that made him young again. Besides, there’s enough bad blood between the two of them to fill the Atlantic Ocean.”

“Then who is Carlisle?” Casey asked.

A small shiver ran through Dancer’s body as I felt him grip my hand. “Carlisle,” He sighed, being overly dramatic as usually, “Is Aiden’s father.”

A silence rolled over the truck but Sandra broke with, “What? Wait, why was Carlisle trying to kill Aiden, and why did he kill his own family?”

“Well, for starters, that wasn’t Carlisle’s family, it was Alice’s, and there have always been hostilities between the Innocent and Rakis.” He said. “The Rakis,” He continued, “are beings that powers come from the Taint. It’s not as evil as it sounds because it has no personal view of morality but its users are usually demons and such. The Innocent use the white light that you saw Aiden using; it is also called Innocence but has nothing to do with one’s virtue. The substances are poisonous to each other like a vampire bite is poisonous to a werewolf and vice versa.”

“Okay?” Jensen drawled out like a southern. “You didn’t answer the question.”

“Yes, I did.” He replied.

Jensen’s voice turned cold almost threatening, “You didn’t tell us why Carlisle attack Aiden’s family.”

Dancer tensed under me, seemingly able to read my distress on the subject. He let out a long and low sigh and spoke quietly, “I’m afraid that’s none of your business.” I relaxed when I heard say that. The last thing I needed was a pity party.

Someone scoffed, “Huh, it damn well is our business.” Jensen remarked. “We’re all traveling together, putting our lives on the line to protect this world and him, especially. The least you can do is telling us what we’re up against.”

I heard Dancer grinding his teeth and his hand kept tensing and relaxing. “You’re right, you deserve to know but it’s not my place to tell you Aiden’s life.”

“I know Aiden was abused as a child.” Jensen said and Dancer didn’t answer, he just snorted. “He told me about it.”

“Oh really,” Dancer snarled. “You think you know what happened to him?” he challenged. “Then tell me why his left eyebrow is thicker and lower than the right one.” He paused, waiting. I felt like straggling him, Dancer had fell into Jensen’s trap. “Hmph, you can’t, can you? When Aiden was, about eleven got a brush burn on his eyebrow from an older kid at summer camp and while he was crying, his father decided to punch him in the face to make him stop crying and knock the rest of it off. Did you know about the scar on Aiden’s back from the time Carlisle threw him through a window? Or the time he held Aiden at knife point while kicking him in the stomach? So please tell me what Aiden told you about Carlisle.” He panted as if he had run a marathon.

God, shut up, Dancer! I could imagine everyone pitiful stars fell upon my left eye and the scar that lightly danced above my eyebrow. They were probably staring at me like the children did at school when I was forced to go to school. Or when I showed up with random bruises across my body and face. The scar of my back suddenly burned with vengeance that made me whimper loudly. Dammit! I didn’t want their apologies or they pity thoughts. How Dancer…wait, I never told Dancer about me being held at knife point. I never told anyone, not even Caleb or my mother.

I sat up quickly, feeling my head swimming but I held myself up, glaring at Dancer with murder in my eyes. “How?” I asked, gritting my teeth. “How did you know that? I never told you any of that.” Dancer gave me a shamed look and put his head down, mumbling to himself. “What did you say?”

Dancer looked up at me, hardening his eyes. “Because it’s my job to keep tabs on you.”

I couldn’t but feel betrayed and violated. “What?”

Dancer huffed again. “I was assigned to watch over you, to see how your life progressed, to see if you were an Innocent. That’s why my side of the family has stayed to close to the main branch. As Sirens, we are the recorders of history. We’re assigned at the age of four to a cousin of the main branch to see if the child will become an Innocent.”

“So what, our whole friendship is a sham?” I asked. I felt like I was being told that he only hung out with me because my mom paid him to.

Dancer shook his head furiously, “No, no, don’t ever think that. Even after I reported that you weren’t going to become an Innocent, I fought with my father to stay at your side. You mean much more to me than friend or just a cousin. You stopped all the other kids from picking on me; you didn’t get mad when I told you I was gay; you fought the majority of my battles even when I told you to butt out of it. So don’t you dare say that I only stayed because I thought you were an Innocent.”

I felt a smile curl the corner of my lips. I didn’t want to smile but I couldn’t help. I pulled him into a hug, apologizing for accusing him of something like that. He was one of only people I could call family.

I pulled away and a thought hit me. “Wait, but I am an Innocent, at least partially. You were wrong.”

Dancer rolled his eyes, aggravated. “You didn’t show any signs of an Innocent except when you were a baby.”

“Signs?”

He shrugged with one part of his face smiling in an apologetic look. “Innocents normally have a deadly sickness that doesn’t kill them but comes close to it. In addition, they go through such hardships that you would think they would kill themselves.” He had just explained my mother to me. God knows the hell she went through as a child made mine look like tiff at the playground, and the Lupus along with the heart issues and Fibromyalgia. “As a baby, you were sickly enough for everyone to think that you were going to dying. Alice said that you went in the hospital so much that the Doctors had a room reserved for you, but eventually you overcame it. But the hardship would be Carlisle I assume, but I had ever right in saying you weren’t an Innocent because technically, you’re not.”

My face wrinkled immediately. He was confusing me now. “So I’m…not an Innocent?”

He shook his head, smiling with some otherworldly gleam in his eyes. The expression on his face was hard to describe, pride with a healthy touch of fear and concern. “You are Knight ex Innocenti. The Innocent Knight said to bring balance back to the dying world and stop the Blood Demons.”

I paused to take all of this in. My mother and her family are an ancient race of beings called the Innocent, while my father and his people are Knight and Carlisle is a Knight and a demon and my half brother, Kendall is supposedly a Knight or a demon or both like his father. My cousin is a being I only heard on from fairytales called a Siren that was ordered to watch my life to see if I would become an Innocent but stayed because of friendship. And I am the savoir of the world born of two warring beings because one thinks it’s better than the other.

I rubbed my face, feeling how tense and tired it felt, but one question stood out in my mind the most. “How can Carlisle be a Knight and a demon?”

Dancer looked at me like I asked the stupidest question in the world but he refrained from rolling his eyes. “Because, he’s a Rakis first then a Knight, they both draw power from the Taint. That was mostly why the Innocent regard them as they do, because a Knight ex Rakis is terribly powerful.”

Sandra was looking down but looked back up with tears about to burst from her eyes. “Can-.” She choked on her words a bit, before continuing. “Can Jensen, Aiden and I become demons then?”

“Yes, no, yes. Jensen and you can become demons but Aiden can’t. His Innocence would destroy him before the Taint could completely take over. It’s really the only way to kill an Innocent is to infect them with the Taint. I mean useless they sustain such a heavy blow like decapitation or their heart explodes in seconds, or you can drown them, but they heal so quickly.” He informed. It kinda bothered me on how he knew how I could be killed.

“Wait,” Jensen began, looking at us through the rearview mirror. His eyes were pretty, sparkling almost with a certain intensity that I just realized. “Aiden already has that Taint in him since he’s the Innocent Knight. Why can’t he become one?”

Dancer shooed his words as word like one does insects. “Because he can’t. I don’t know why so stop asking. It’s just the rules, deal with it.” He folded his arms with a flourish, pouting like a child annoyed.

I nodded silently, trying to get the attention off myself. “So,” I said a bit too energetically, “What is a Siren?”

“Oh.” He said like he just remembered that he was one. “We’re child of Midas.”

That name sounded familiar but I couldn’t place where I knew it.

Casey frowned deeply, confused, “You mean the King of the golden touch.” Oh, yeah, the King cursed for his greed.

Dancer nodded, smiling. “When Midas was cursed or gifted, whichever way you wish to see it, he sought a way to rid himself of the power. Bacchus told him to bathe in the river of the city and the power would be washed away but it wasn’t.”

“But that’s how the legend goes.” Casey said.

“Yes, but there’s when the truth became of myth. Midas only turned his body gold when he touched the river, so he fled to the forest where he ran into Pan and his minstrels.” He paused, thinking and then continued, “Pan was so awestruck seeing a golden human, he demand that the minstrels sing to Midas majesty, but since becoming Golden, Midas standards had become much higher. Midas told Pan that his songs were lacking and this infuriated Pan and so, he retreated deeper into the forest to train his singers.

“After spring and summer passed, Pan and his minstrels came back to sing for Midas who had returned to his kingdom as his people now worshipped him as a god. The minstrels appeared before Midas but before they began to sing, Midas made sure that there was no instrumental accompaniment that Pan might have used his powers to enhance the singers. So as the singer began, phantom music began play on the air as the singer poured themselves into the song, the blue water turned red and sky colored itself black and Midas returned to flesh as did everything he turned gold. Thus is the birth of Sirens with Midas as our patron.”

“Patron?” I questioned.

“In a sense, he is a demi-god given the fact that without followers, he wouldn’t have any power to give to us.” He explained.

“How do you know so much?” Sandra asked after calming herself down.

Dancer’s eyes flickered to her eyes then back outside. “It’s my job. I’m a historian and scholar of sorts when it comes to things like the Rakis and the Innocent.”

My head snapped to him so hard, I thought I had broken my own neck, smooth. “You knew this would happen?” I tried not to sneer but some of it escaped.

Dancer nodded nonchalantly scratching his neck. “We didn’t think it was going to happen this early. We were supposed to have another century or so to get ready.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Jensen stole the words right out of my mouths.

Dancer folded his arms and scoffed at us openly, “Like you would’ve believed the one true voice among the millions that people deem crazy? No. We took things into our own hands; it’s just that the demons beat us to the punch.” Dancer must’ve sensed another rain of questions coming because he said, “I guess it’s like an old war on a new front. This has happened at four times before with the demons winning two and Knights winning the other two.”

“It sounds like whoever gets to three first wins.” I mused.

Dancer said it was exactly like that. “Except that even if we saved the world 300 times, they only need to win one more time.”

God, this is starting to sound more pointless than I thought. “What are the demons after?”

“Father,” he replied. “He’s the father of the demons but he disappeared quite some time ago and they want to track him down and kill him, I guess.” He explained. “This has been going on for years, the demons traveling from one world to another in search of Knight ex Innocenti.”

“What would they do with me if they caught me?” I asked.

Dancer shrugged, letting me in the eyes. “All I know is that both times, the Innocenti was dragged off and the demons went to a new world.”

I nodded and pushed these swirling thoughts to the back of my mind for later. “Dancer, do you know who Walter is?”

My cousin looked up thoughtfully, completely quiet. “If I’m correct, he’s my cousin’s, Xavier, charge but I don’t know where he or Xavier is, or “where stars collide”.”

Oh, joy. I told Jensen to set off for the Dunn’s residence in Algiers right under the bridge going across the river since we didn’t have anywhere else to go. We would go to the Florence’s last, because we knew what they were and I was hoping that they would be gone by the time I got there. I’m not saying that I wouldn’t love to kill Carlisle like the demon he is, literally, but I only caught him off guard. He’s much more dangerous than you think.

Carlisle, the Snake, Florence was a 3^rd degree black belt with mixed martial arts training, and the temper of an agitated snake. Mentally, he’s unstable. He was “Honorably Discharged” from th Marines after they found him sitting on top of his commanding officer with in the man’s face because he thought the man was a secret agent or something. His rage coupled with his low self-esteem made him dangerous to the point when I called him ugly when I was nine; he broke my arm while crying at the same time. And his parents thinks he can do no wrong, allowing him to do whatever he wanted to me. The last time I was with them, I barely got Carlisle off me to escape but now, he’s a Knight and a demon. Moreover, Kendall was at his side.

I grew up thinking that boy was my play cousin and her mother acted like my aunt, but it was nothing but some sick game to her and Carlisle, who let my mother befriend her and her bastard child. He grew up beside me, supposedly unaware that we shared the same father and that my sister was dead due to the fact of his birth. Eventually, he either found out or was told that Carlisle was his father too, and decided to be just like him, but there was a flaw in Kendall. He, like his half-brother, is gay, but last I heard, he was fighting it, which had to be draining. But that didn’t stop him from MMA training with boxing and some form of Karate.

Even with my own irrational rage, I was red belt at most when dealing with Karate, but my own secondary form of training was called Gentle Fist. I can’t remember what its true name was, Ba Wa-something or other. The style focused on quickness, dedication, and anticipation. It allowed its user to paralyze any and all body parts with a few light taps but it was very complex in the fact that one must apply the right amount of pressure in the right combination with sure and quick hands because if you hesitated and your touch was too light or too hard, the paralysis would fail or you paralyze too much and you just killed the person.

I remembered enough Gentle Fist to be able to give you a very blue and purple bruise but nothing that would paralyze maybe numb you a little but that’s it. And Kendall and Carlisle have their own Sword and Shield while I only have a Sword. I’m outclassed by myself, but with Dancer, Sandra, and Jensen, we may have a fighting chance.

As Jensen pulled into the driveway of my great aunt’s house, I realized my vision had changed from the poorly colored night vision to seeing the world like it was under a constant thunderstorm with no rain. It seems the deeper I go into my powers, the more adept I become in fighting. I just hope my Innocence and Sword are enough to kill Carlisle.

We got out the car, silently, staring at the house. It was a fairly large house on the corner of the block. Before the hurricane, the last movie I remember being shot here was Last Holiday with Queen Latifah with her house on the next block over. My aunt’s house was a one story red brick house with four or five bedrooms with a large den, a sunroom, kitchen to die for, a wide porch with pristine white columns, an old playground with a giant playhouse that I used to play in with my little cousin Natalie, and hug back and front yard.

It had lost its beauty when my aunt, Madeline, died in early 2000, give or take a couple of years. The grass was unevenly cut and the house was always a mess, but that had been years since I last stepped foot into the place. Now, the grass was cut but had gouges of ground missing and scorched earth and shattered walls. We were already late, but I hope we could still save someone.

Jensen told us to form up around him, “Okay, we’re going to split up for this one. Sandra, Dancer and I from the east and Casey, Hellion, and Aiden on the west and we meet in the middle.”

“Uh,” I mumbled, trying to call Hellion but it felt like I was grasping nothing but air. Usually, Hellion had some solid form in my mind, but yet, I couldn’t seem to find him. “I can’t summon Hell.” Fuck, now, all I have is my Innocence and that won’t kill Carlisle.

Dancer came over patting my shoulder, “Jensen, I’ll stay with Aiden and Casey since you have Sandra and the Spartan to cover you.”

Jensen looked as though he wanted to refuse but his just tightened his jaw, Spartacus spun to life next to Sandra, and they headed off to the other side, leaving Casey, Dancer and I for the front door.

I looked at Dancer, feeling a twinge of helplessness in me. “What’s going on with me?”

“You’ve buried yourself in your Innocence when you fought Carlisle. Hellion is of the Taint, so you must learn how to balance your powers again.” He said.

Casey squeezed my shoulder, offering a comforting grin. “Don’t worry; I’ve got your back.”

I was about to say thank you before I caught a strange look on Dancer’s face, “Thanks, Case.”

He winked at me and strolled off to the gate in front of the house. Dancer stared at him for a moment before following and beckoned me forward. Casey offered Dancer a gun, but Dancer waved it off, pulling a wireless ear bud into his ear.

Techno music danced heavily on the air with random entrance of drums and other sounds. I didn’t realize it was Dancer until I saw a faint light coming off his skin. “Leaves, please be my light filter. Shine, make me a shelter to hide, Cos love makes you lose your sight.”

I felt a certain shift in the air as something felt like it was clinging. “Now the search party’s on its way and the floodlight’s on my face.” He sang lowly as dancing lights appeared like small fairies around him. “All the shadows that I walk in are just my volatile second skin.” Shadows wrapped themselves tightly around us, but they weren’t threatening at all. Jesus, Dancer was something else. “My reflections are protections. They will keep me from destruction. My directions are distractions, when you’re ready come into the light.”

And it was done. One second, I was looking at one Dancer but then my vision doubled or he did, but the illusion seemed literally shimmer around not just him but Casey and myself too. It was a mirage made to protect us.

The music died down but didn’t go completely away. “My galdyr will be able to protect you, but you must stay within ten feet of me because my concentration will falter and you’ll be sliced into bloody confetti.”

Casey smiled fiercely at me then at Dancer, who looked down, concentrating on the music. We entered the house as quietly as possible, which meant the door had to be stuck and I blasted it off the hinges with Innocence.

Of course, the house was dead quiet like a great and clichéd horror movie as Casey and I tried to cover all the hallways while Dancer walked carefully behind us. The large den, which was wrecked, was directly across from the front door but the hallway that led to the bedrooms to the left and the kitchen to the right. Jensen’s group would have entered the house in the laundry room and come into the sunroom, which was next to the den.

I motioned for Casey to follow me into the bedrooms, but he pointed at Dancer who was almost ten feet away. Casey pulled him along, but Dancer opened his eyes, startled and Casey gasped. I looked to see what scared him and found that Dancer’s eyes had a dead vacant look to them but I still…felt him in the air. The concentration must take so much of him that his body was on autopilot.

We continued, coming across the master bedroom first. My stomach lurched and Innocence began to jump from my skin like currents of electricity. I opened the door and Casey ran through, checking his immediate corners, but nothing. We swept the room but found nothing, no bodies, no blood, nothing but ruined clothes and smashed linoleum.

Back down the hall, my stomach squelched again, but it was definitely stronger in Natalie’s room, which was small to me when I was little, so it had to puny now. I settled myself as Casey flung open the door and I readied an Innocence ball but nothing was there either. This was really starting to piss me off.

We rushed through the other two bedrooms to find them all empty.

“Ahh!” Sandra screamed and a explosion rocked the house.

Casey was already sprinting back to the den and Dancer was shaking, trying to hold onto the illusions. We were heartbeats behind Casey as we ran across the den.

I saw it then, a long armed, flabby black body complete with gleaming claws and yellowed teeth charging after Sandra while Jensen and Sparky were busy with the other three. As Casey was within ten feet of his sister and I was right behind him. I felt a crushing pressure behind my eyes, forcing me to look up to see another demon hanging from the ceiling ready to pounce.

Dancer still followed us slowly as he kept his power going, the demon dropped down to kill him. I screamed a warning, but Dancer didn’t hear it. Innocence sizzled on my fingertips before finally conforming into jolts of lightning like Innocence, slamming into the demon’s black rubbery belly as it screamed against Dancer’s shadow shield. I heard a gasp and saw Dancer come back to his senses and the shield cracked and shattered like glass but the power Dancer had behind it, reacted violently as real lightning ripped through the house. Spartacus’ shield came down in front of me as Jensen slammed me to the ground with impressive force.

I tried to rise up to see the wreckage but this stinging pain lanced through my insides with a fury, but I forced the pain back down, rushing to Dancer. The demon had landed on top of him dead, not hurting Dancer but his face was drained of all color as his lips trembled.

“What’s the matter?” Dancer said nothing, but pointed a finger to the demon carcass.

The Innocence mixed with Dancer’s shield cracking had very much killed the demon. Its rubbery skin still boiled and bubbled from the sheer heat of the attack, but that’s not what Dancer was pointing to. From his line of sight, the demon’s arm was what he was so frightened about. Around its wrist was a mangled silver band with tiny pieces of metal and the stones in it was crushed. It was a bangle.

I looked at it closer, but nothing seemed special about it. “It’s just a bracelet.”

“No, it isn’t.” Rhys shivered, slipping into his docile his voice much softer than Dancer’s voice as too were his eyes. “It’s hers.”

The word hers triggered my memories to flood my mind in seconds. The bangle was the first piece of jewelry I made. It was originally for my mother but I had made the wrist length too small and I decided to give it to Natalie for her birthday after I switched out the photo of my mother and me to Aunt Madeline holding her last child in her arms. She died maybe when Natalie was five or six while I was eleven or twelve. Her father reacted badly and removed all photos of Madeline in the house, so I gave her the only one he couldn’t get to. Natalie has-

Had, she had. My mind already reminded me. She no longer had a claim to this world. Her body was not but an empty shell now. She was different then the little girl that grew up with me. We had lost touch after I moved to Arkansas, and I didn’t realize how much I missed her. She didn’t deserve this. She probably didn’t know what was going on when she turned. She must’ve felt so alone.

I dropped to my knees, trying to pull my numb mask back together. I had already lost control once, and I nearly killed everyone and myself. It wasn’t easy quieting the building storm inside of me, but I wouldn’t have to hold on for much longer. We left the house without me telling them where we were going. It was understood. Carlisle must die.

The wheels screeched in protest as I slammed on the brakes, skirting the truck to hit a sharp left and stop abruptly. The noise had drawn the demons to us like moth to a flame. I felt my rage tickle along my mask, itching and whispering for me to let it out and I would.

I didn’t wait for the beasts to come to us, they didn’t deserve the extra second. I raised both hands, flooding my power with my emotions, and my skin felt like it was on fire as I snarled, “Innocence Shine!” Light exploded 20 feet in front of me, wiping out dozens of midnight’s creatures. I expected to feel some fatigue, but there was no recoil like the last time. I kept moving, sending off rivers of light

“Aiden, wait!” I couldn’t, it felt like I would die if I didn’t keep moving.

Demons surrounded the house in its entirety, staring at me from the street corners, the roof, and the front yard. The house they surrounded was a two story, four bedrooms and 2 ½ bathrooms, decorated in the colors of light blue, creams, and beiges. A twinge of fear tugged at my heart, but it was soon gone with the other emotions, losing its defining character as I concentrated on this attack.

My skin prickled all over as I felt like I was being stabbed by hundreds of tiny needles. My head started to boom with malice as I tried to pull more power out of myself. Light began to swirl around me, lifting me off the ground as I channeled all my rage into my magic. Demons started howling at me with fear as if a newly born god had come to show his power. I looked up at the clouded sun, almost able to make out where the sun was, almost feeling its warm rays on my back like the warmth of Innocence.

The globe of Innocence around me glowed brighter like star as I fought to control the intensity of the coming blast. It burned. I felt the Taint inside me, quivering with fear of being killed but I bit back the pain, screaming, “False gods!” I wasn’t my voice, but it felt powerful, too powerful to be mortal. “Usurpers of Life! Destroyers of Worlds, Love, and Families. For your crimes against humanity, against all life, now will you answer! Your time has ended!” The entity boomed with my voice, aiming my hands at them. “Innocence Shine!”