"The beauty in death lies in the sight of the light fading from the vessel of the human soul… but only in their moments before death, do you get to witness their true self which was kept hidden throughout all their life"- Azura
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The white haired woman's beautiful white eyes fluttered open. At first she squinted due to the brightness of the hellish world before her, and slowly focused her eyes on the crimson pod in front of her.
After a few moments of planning how to get the prison's captives out, Benjiro and Kaida noticed the pale woman's trembling fingers touching the pod which contained both Aaliyah and Selene.
The priest had then gently sat the woman down against the wall, and crouched down alongside Kaida in front of her.
"Ah, so you're awake now Miss?"
The white haired woman simply fluttered her eyes as she focused them on the suspicious looking priest and the young girl next to him.
Kaida glanced at the woman, and then said to Benjiro:
"Mr priest. This woman… I remember miss Aaliyah looking at a picture of a woman resembling this woman in front of us."
Once Aaliyah's name left the lips of the young general, the white haired woman let out a small gasp and brought her eyes toward Kaida.
After a few seconds of struggling to speak, the white haired woman asked Kaida:
"Little girl… you know Aaliyah?"
There was a sudden stutter in Kaida's words as she replied:
"Yes ma'am. She's in the pod behind you."
The woman struggled to focus her vision on the crimson pod just above the wall she had leaned on, and once she saw Aaliyah and Selene's unconscious state's her breath caught in her throat.
"Aaliyah… Selene… oh my god"
Hot tears streamed down her cold pale face. Kaida looked over to the bearded priest, who waited a moment to ask the woman:
"If I may ask… what is your name?"
She sobbed for another moment, and then finally met the eyes of the bearded priest and replied:
"My name… I think, my name is… Sachiko"
"Well Miss Sachiko, my name is Benjiro… and this young woman is Kaida Masayoshi."
The priest and Kaida had then used what little time they had to explain to Sachiko everything that had transpired in the past two days, from the seven invading their universe to them bringing everyone to hell.
As soon as they finished explaining, the priest stood up and looked at the crimson pods.
"These pods are infused with a type of magic I've never seen before… though I am certain I can nullify it with my own spirit energy, it'll take too much time that we unfortunately do not have."
Kaida then took a step toward the priest and said:
"Please, just do it mister priest. While we may not have time, even if there's a slim chance that we can delay the seven's plan by a few minutes, that's a miracle we need in order to save everyone."
The priest chuckled and patted the young girl on the head, and then replied:
"Oh relax Miss Kaida, I was already intending on going with my plan… there's no need to worry."
While the priest stood at the center of the black halls, Kaida had gotten down on one knee and fixed her hair.
Once the young girl sat close to the white haired woman who silently focused her white eyes toward the praying priest, Benjiro had clasped his hands together and inhaled deeply.
Closing his eyes, he had begun to recite a prayer while speaking backwards. The sound of his voice echoed throughout the black halls of Hell's prison.
As he spoke further his voice grew deeper and sounded almost as if it was being overlapped by another voice.
'What kind of sorcery is this?'
Just as the priest's continued with his prayer, the giant prayer beads around his neck and two clasped hands had begun to glow a bright white color with blue outlines.
Kaida watched as the crimson pods began to flicker, and tiny rocks from the black walls had begun to fall, leaving trails of dust in the air. While she was also suddenly alerted by a distant sound of two people clashing in the distance.
"What the hell?"
***
In another section of the hall of hell, the black lotus division watched from the sides as General Asami had swung her long blade into the exposed ribcage of Cain.
The thickness of cain's exposed ribcage caused Asami's blade to recoil and land on the ground. Asami had had staggered back, feeling a stinging pain in both of her palms due to the redirected force of her attack.
Just as Asami was about to hit the ground, her eyes went wide and blood spurted from her mouth. When she looked down, she saw a thick white bone piercing through her abdomen.
'Damn!'
The black lotus division's lieutenant sidra cursed under her breath right as she sprinted toward her general. Once she reached Asami, Sidra had picked Asami's blood soaked long blade up and slid the blade through her hand.
Just as she did that, red rose markings manifested on the smooth parts of the blade.
"Hinari! You're up!"
The timid cadet officer of the black lotus division had ran toward her cohort and held her hand out, calling for Sidra to throw the blade In her direction.
'Hinari's best suited with weapons for assassination, but…'
Once the timid girl caught the blade she sprinted on the walls right toward Cain, who had suddenly planted both of his hands into the ground.
Hinari felt her body freeze. Suddenly looking down at the wall she had been sprinting on, multiple bones forming a ribcage sprouted from around her.
Feeling sweat race down her forehead, Hinari's fogged glasses covered her hesitant eyes as she swung the katana with one arm, and managed to cut right through the bones.
"Argh!"
Hinari immediately felt a vibrating sensation in her arm after she swung the blade. Cain didn't fail to notice this and immediately moved like a streak of light toward Hinari.
'Shit!'
Once Cain reached Hinari, he brought his knee up into her abdomen. She went wide eyed while she spat up blood and fell back toward General Asami.
Asami grunted and simply flew past the girl and wielded her blade once more.
"General! It's ready, I can hold it for a few more minutes!"
General Asami's eyes remained pitch black, when her hair outstretched toward Cain and completely enveloped his body.
And in an instant, the world before Cain's eyes changed.
In the blink of an eye, he all four of his limbs were all paralyzed by long black hair which stretched out from each direction.
In the sky there was a towering ghostly figure with no face staring down at him.
Cain indifferently looked up at the towering figure and yanked at the hair that kept him in place. With ease, he freed himself from Asami's grasp.
General Asami simply said indifferently:
"Foolish man… do you really think you stand a chance against me in my domain?"
Cain remained silent and stood face to face with the general. And in a mere moment, the two exchanged blows.
***
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the halls of Hell generals Yaku and Kojiro walked around the spacious maze like area for a while before they stumbled on twin doors.
The elegant General Kojiro was the one to open the doors and was met by a room with nothing but a thick brown tree, with aria's unconscious body floating inside of it.
'So there's the girl…'
The two walked around and suddenly saw six of the seven sin demons all hooked up around the tree with their eyes closed as if they were each unconscious.
While Tengu himself, he was directly at the heart of Hell itself. The pride insignia on his forehead glowed an intense grey hue as he touched hell's heart.
"The eleventh hour draws near… mother."
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Continued in chapter 98: Spirit of vengeance
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