"Aaliyah… have you found your sun to help you bloom?"-Sachiko
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As soon as the squad stepped through the bright white temporary gateway which brought them just a bit out from the jaws of hell, the bald priest Benjiro was the first to notice something as his eyes befell Hell's jagged ground.
He slowly walked toward an unconscious white haired woman, whose skin was as pale as a ghost. Her figure was thin, and she had black eye shadow.
There was no doubt in his mind that the woman was indeed alive, but what was she doing in hell?
Benjiro bent his knees and sat in front of the white haired woman. Suddenly, he closed his eyes and clasped his hands, and begun to recite a prayer while speaking backwards.
The prayer beads around his neck and hands begun to glow a bright white color with blue outlines.
"Benjiro… we don't have time to waste on this woman who's probably dead"
The half masked secondary lieutenant raiser spoke out, but Benjiro continued. After a few more seconds, strings of ghostly white light had enveloped the unconscious woman's body.
And in an instant, Benjiro found himself inside a pitch black space. He looked around and took a few steps out, until he heard the crunching sound of fallen flower petals and leaves beneath his feet.
"Aaliyah…"
The soft voice came from the space around him, and he suddenly saw a white haired pale girl around fourteen years old who sat against a tree with white leaves on its branches.
The girl's white eyes were fixed on the girl who stood tall in front of her. The other girl was looking out into the distance, her black hair with white strands flowed with a sudden gust of wind.
The priest remained focused on the white haired girl, whose knees were brought to her chest as she fiddled with her fingers.
"Shes so beautiful… and strong"
The voice continued to sound around the black space. There was no doubt in Benjiro's mind that what he was seeing was not only a memory of the white haired woman, but it seemed as though the white haired woman from the present was currently inside of the memory as herself from her younger days.
"Aaliyah… I miss you… I miss Selene"
The young white haired girl suddenly began crying. Hot tears raced down her pale face, as her shoulder shook.
"It's so lonely in here…"
Benjiro lowered his eyebrows, and suddenly a giant gust of wind swept hundreds of flower petals up into the air, and he was back in the physical world of hell.
"Hey! Priest!"
Benjiro unclasped his hands, the prayer beads around his neck and hands had returned to their black color as he turned to face the supreme war generals and the black lotus division.
"This woman is alive… and in a state of suspended animation between life and death"
Benjiro picked the pale and unconscious woman up, and carried her in his arms.
The graceful supreme general of the western tribe, Kojiro had gave the priest a distasteful scorn.
"We're here for Malum's vessel, and to kill the seven in order to stop their nefarious plans… not to save bystanders"
Benjiro gave a glare to the graceful general, but there was no malice behind it.
"Forgive me if I come off as disrespectful, general, but it would be in all of our best interest for you to focus on your own mission, while I do what it is a priest does"
Benjiro's reply to as enough to make the arrogant general silence himself and pout like a child. Then after a few moments of silence, the black lotus division's lieutenant Sidra perked up and looked over her shoulder and saw a horde of mindless demons marching toward them.
Just as Sidra readied herself for battle, she felt general Asami's hand grip her shoulder, and in a raspy voice she spoke in a low tone:
"You and Tougetsu will accompany me and the other generals to search for Malum's vessel… raiser will deal with them"
Sidra knew better than to argue against general Asami's words, so she gave a glance to her friend Hinari and went with them in the south direction of hell, toward the land of the damned.
Raiser had reached for the mask that covered the lower half of his face, and tight as the marching demons began to sprint toward him he had fully removed his mask.
The lower half of his now uncovered face had no skin, there was nothing but his bones which looked as if they had been burned with small red fissures left by fire.
Once the first demon had reached raiser, raiser had suddenly opened his mouth and in an instant he had swallowed the demon whole.
Just as he finished devouring the demon, raiser's eyes burned crimson. His muscles beneath the thin fibers of his clothes had grew as he then got down on all fours like a feral beast.
His fingers sank into the ground and in an instant his body was cloaked in hellfire. The remaining demons had continued to sprint toward raiser.
but the man had then planted his fist into the head of one of the demons, and completely destroyed it, causing the demon to explode into hundreds of tiny red particles of residual chaos energy.
Raiser then slowly stood up and ferociously beat down the other demons. And once he had finished, his clothes and face were soaked in the crimson blood of the demons.
While he was catching his breath, a few moments of silence befell the area. Suddenly, raiser felt the tiny hairs around his body stand up as a malevolent energy creep its way up behind him.
He immediately looked over his shoulder and saw a demon walking up to him. The demon had its ribcage exposed through his thick red skin, and he wore black loincloth around his waist held in place by a red wool sash.
Raiser's eyes slightly squinted when he heard the demon's rock hard hooves screech on hell's solid jagged ground.
The demon repeatedly mumbled in a hushed tone: "Aaliyah… I'll… kill you"
Once he heard the incoherent rambling of the demon, raiser's memory traveled back to a time when he alongside his now deceased senior lieutenant miller had been assigned by General Asami and the grand elder to hunt down a man who had gone rogue from the grand elder's own black ops unit.
Come to think of it, he had also just now began to remember giving a report to the supreme generals that Cain had been killed by Aaliyah herself during the incident which had involved the nefarious sorcerer ashe.
It was no surprise to raiser to see that Cain had now been reborn in hell as a mindless demon, giving the life of sinful acts he had lived.
But right now, he had no time to reminisce about pointless things. All that mattered now was that he had a mission to complete, slaughter all demons who attempted to pursue the supreme generals.
From raiser's forearms, there were black inkings of chains marked on each of his forearms. And slowly, the chains slid down and manifested in his hands.
From one end of the chains, there was a sharp end which he had threw in Cain's direction. "Get over here!"
The sharp end of the black chain had pierced through cain's chest, and with all his strength raiser had yanked at the chain, pulling Cain toward himself.
Just before Cain had reached raiser, Cain had suddenly gripped the chain and planted his hooves firmly onto the ground. And in an instant, the chains were destroyed.
'What the hell?!'
Cain had then brought his eyes which were red with black scleras up to meet raiser's now trembling stare.
Black smoke had now began to seep out from Cain's exposed ribcage. Black lightning crackled at the tips of his claws while he just stared indifferently at raiser.
Just as raiser was about to muster up more magic, he found that a giant black smoke cloud with white sparks had formed at his back, and in an instant it sucked him in.
Cain remained in place, but extended his arm to his right side. And after a few more seconds, another black Smokey cloud formed and spat raiser right out and into cain's grip.
"I know who you are…"
Each second, Cain's grip around raiser's neck tightened. Raiser felt as though his eyes were about to pop out of his head, and his consciousness slowly slipped away.
***
Meanwhile just inside the maze-like prison of Hell, the supreme generals all scattered around in search of Jason and the seven sins.
Benjiro who was still carrying the unconscious white haired woman over his shoulder, was accompanied by the youthful general of the southern tribe, Kaida Masayoshi.
"What's the matter, Miss masayoshi? You seem distracted?"
Kaida had clutched her older sister's katana in her hand, her shoulders seemed stiff as she looked around the place.
"I'm just worried about everyone's safety… I know they can handle themselves, but with these threats that have invaded our world it just frightens me, thinking of what could happen to everyone I hold dear to me."
The priest had patted young girl on her shoulder, and gave her a reassuring smile.
"Don't you go losing faith… you're a general of your people in the southern tribe now. If you lose faith, then you'll lose the faith needed to protect those whose safety you fear for."
Before taking the time to think about the priest's words, Kaida had looked ahead and noticed countless red pods on each side of a wide hallway.
In a few of the pods, she had noticed the unconscious forms of Aaliyah, Selene, Kai, Jason, Athena and Asura.
She jogged up to the one particularly holding Jason's unconscious form, it had now been at least six hours since he'd been knocked unconscious by the patch faced tengu.
She placed her palm on the surface of the rippling red pod, but couldn't break through it.
"Mr. Priest! I've found them."
Benjiro walked to stand beside Kaida, and silently observed the pods. Just after a few silently passing seconds, he noticed that Aria specifically wasn't inside of one of the pods.
'One problem after another…'
***
Elsewhere inside of the what seemed to be, infinitely expanded maze, general Asami who was accompanied by her personal unit's newly appointed lieutenant Sidra, and the unit's timid cadet officer Hinari.
The group had walked in silence, while general Asami kept a grim gaze in her dark eyes.
Just as they had turned one of the corners, her eyes befell the demonic Cain who now had blood that didn't belong to him, dripping down his exposed ribcage.
The timid cadet officer hinari's breath caught in her throat as she felt her heart skip a beat. She had immediately thought of her cohort's secondary lieutenant raiser who general asami specifically ordered to stay behind and slaughter any demon that might pursue them.
While her general wasted no time and unsheathed her long black, blood coated blade and took an unorthodox stance. While Cain just slowly approached them.
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Back at Hell's crimson pods, both Benjiro and Kaida had began thinking of how it was that they were going to free everyone from the pods.
While no working strategy came to either of the two minds, the pale woman who Benjiro held over his shoulder began breathing raggedly.
The priest took notice of this, and felt her fingers twitch as if she was for some reason beginning to wake up.
After some silent observing, Benjiro suddenly moved the woman closer to the pod which held Aaliyah and Selene both.
For some reason, this caused the woman to twitch more. Her incoherent words became more clear:
"Aaliyah… Selene…"
Inside the woman's mind, the child version of herself who remained sitting beneath a white leaved tree in a field of flowers beneath a bright moon had suddenly reached out to the blacked out forms of Selene and Aaliyah who were both extending their hands out toward her.
After moments of slowly moving toward them, the girl had finally grasped both of their hands and heard their voices call out to her.
The first voice came from Aaliyah:
"Sachiko… please, come back to me"
The second from Selene:
"Auntie… I need you"
Hearing the voices of Those two girls, the white haired woman began to shed tears, and in a mere passing moment…
In front of the pod which held Aaliyah and Selene, the woman finally opened her eyes after being trapped in hell for seven whole years.
Her white eyes met the unconscious forms of her niece and Aaliyah, and in a raspy voice, she only had enough strength to speak out one name.
"Aaliyah…"
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Continued in chapter 97: Phantoms
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