Daeva: Black Diamond Chrysalis - Danielle Bolger (essential reading txt) 📗

limbs reached through, arms upon legs they came out as if that was what the body was entirely made up of. All skinny for the big wide one had seemed to settle back in with the imbroglio. Then, with a strange shift, the mass pushed something out through the distant top and a couple of moments later the whole thing had emerged.

As if cold on its entry of this world the thing shivered and limbs jumped in and out. And just as it appeared that the massive house-thing was about to sink, the limbs around its bottom flattened and expanded, creating a type of raft from its own body. Then appendages out in front of it receded back in so that it was left with just twenty skinny arms reaching out as if to feel its surroundings. Arms were still splayed around its top, like those busy hands were searching for a scalp that did not exist. However, when it realised there was none they delved inside itself and pushed up into their place the head they had just found. But its features, whether or not it had any, could not be seen for a white mask was frozen onto its face depicting an emotion that was either surprise or curiosity.

"What... what the hell is that!?" I stammered, blade in my hands shaking.

"I have no idea..." Pearl breathed.

"My guess," Rebecca analysed, "is that it is some kind of meshing of shades, but formed into one being. Its strength and thought processing likely only added together with every shade that was sacrificed in its creation."

"That's right, girls!" Raziel declared excitedly. "This is a Noe that was born through the fusion of hundreds of shades, but it isn't like them anymore, it is far greater for it has ascended higher. This Noe is called an asura, the first of many to soon grace this world!"

"Well, like I said," Lara quipped unperturbed by the behemoth in front of her. "Throw a hundred shades at us and we'll create pebbles out of them."

"Then enjoy your new challenge. Oh, and for a bit of incentive, since this one is so much more powerful than normal, killing it will alleviate any and all crystals you may have, regardless on how matured you are for a daeva, but fail to do so and any flowers blossom that much greater. So then, let's get the game started!"

The asura turned its head in front and only when it failed to sight anything at its own eye level it turned down to behold the five nervous daevas by the river bank. With raised eyebrows it shot out two new arms as thick as the one that barraged Vanessa and made to grasp Rebecca. Fortunately the girl was quick and dashed backwards to evade it. The hands, missing their target, collided atop the dirt where Rebecca chose to counter, whirling her blades around her. First slashing through one arm, then her free sword through the other and as they broke apart they shattered into crystals before dissolving away.

The aura's head was suddenly swallowed by its neck and as it returned a moment later the mask was replaced with one bestowing sorrow.

"Pearl, take the front and blind-sight it, I'll go in around the back!" Lara called as she ran around the perimeter.

Pearl did as commanded and shot a flurry of feathers aiming up towards its white mask, stabbing the being hundreds of times. The asura retaliated with arms erecting near its head, flapping about as if swatting flies but also appearing to concern them as little a nuisance.

Lara meanwhile ran into the river, water at her calves, and fired her strings to pierce into many of those arms and with a sideways flick cut them away. "Bethanie, go, straight ahead!"

Screaming as I ran I trailed my heavy blade behind me and with a roar sliced a new mouth into its black belly. It opened up there, teeth formed by the crystalline break.

Then Rebecca came in behind me and leaping off the ground landed a foot onto that bottom lip. She made to lift off it, seemingly in attempt to attack higher up but her shoe seemed stuck to the rocky surface. Almost about to fall back she hooked a blade down into its gut, reclaiming her balance but also leaving her wide open.

The asura sunk its head back beneath its shoulders and sprouted out one wearing a white mask of anger.

I struck across again, attempting to hit just under my last attack and thereby loosening its hold on Rebecca. But because I had very little accuracy I aimed lower and sliced a whole meter below, doing nothing of what I had intended. I tried to strike again, this one vertically to the side of the mouth, but right for where I targeted another foot wide arm reached out and punched me straight in the torso. As I flew my grasp slipped off my blade and then skidded across the bank's wet grass.

With an exhausted gasp I tried to prop myself up but merely managed to raise my head and no more. In my position I could see everything that transpired, that same enlarged arm reach and grip onto Rebecca tightly, but could do nothing to help.

"Damn it!" Lara cried. "Pearl, go for the arm!"

"Got it!" Pearl responded as feathers soared and struck into the foot-wide limb. From within it Rebecca moaned.

Then strings shot through, wrapped around the black appendage snugly before contracting and severing it completely. Rebecca fell amidst black hail gasping for air on all fours.

Then Pearl, wasting no time, commanded her feathers up towards the head, blind-sighting it once more. But the asura, its face of anger, reacted differently this time. Here it shot out dozens of arms and one for every feather its hands grasped the gold before any made their mark. With multiple clenched fists metallic dust filled the air.

The asura had begun to move down towards the winded black-haired daeva and with a raised fist, this time three feet in diameter, hovered right above her.

Rebecca saw this but as she scrambled to hurry away horror was heavy in her eyes for she realised there was no way she would be able to dodge in time.

Lara ran across and as soon as she was in position expelled ten strings from her fingertips and as the giant limb fell down it collided with the lined roof above Rebecca's head.

Quickly Rebecca clambered from that place and staggered back onto grassy, more distant floor. Within seconds of her scrambled departure the solid hand snapped the wires apart and smashed into slushy dirt.

The asura retracted its head once again and projected a new face, this one another white face but bore no emotion. This was different for another reason though and that was for the colour that marked it. Red, colour exact to dried blood, was painted first to well up in its lower lids then trickle in agony down its cheeks. And it was with these tortured eyes that it turned its empty gaze on Lara.

The asura leaned forward but in a staggered, disjointed motion reflexed back. Forward and back it lunged its body until finally, from the crystal mouth I had created, spilled forth a shade. Then, as it lurched again, another shade emerged. It lurched again, another shade, again, another shade and so on, but quickly, until twenty shades spilled from the belly of the beast. But the asura remained no different in girth for that towering house was not going to move for the world, not even after regurgitating its contents.

The shades, all acting with one mind, circled around Lara. There they held hands and conjoined into a semi-fused black ring.

I could scarcely see Lara, but through the breaks between shade bodies I saw Lara stand tall and flick her wrists from lateral to central. She sliced new gaps in her foes but, unlike with regular shades, they were not defeated with a mere severed body. No, these held together by their counterparts before swiftly rejoining as soon as the insult had ceased.

Lara tried again, this time to stab her way through with pointed fingers and the points of impact this time did shatter and dissolve, but then the team-mates soon gave their own bodies for support and refilled the lost areas. And all the while the shade-circle kept enclosing tighter and tighter around her.

Lara tried again, slicing, more fervently this time, but what was lost was quickly compensated by the communal shades. And to make things harder new shades kept spilling from the asura every second, each ready to jump in and sacrifice itself towards Lara's destruction.

The circle was growing very tight now, between the circling gaps I saw arms reach out to grab her and, in such close confines, Lara was beginning to fail at keeping them at bay with her strings.

Then gold shone from above and within the chaos Pearl drifted down. Blazing she shone feathers all about them so that a gap could no longer be seen and the girls inside were completely protected. Though the black ring kept trying to tighten it appeared to fail against the domed barrier.

"No!" Rebecca screamed as she slayed her blades deep into the open mouth of the asura. She slashed left and right multiple times before the head delved back inside and returned to one of joy, this time fixated on Rebecca. There it seemed to call back its circle of shades and with a heavy arm thrashed down at the black-haired girl, but this time she was only too ready and easily side-stepped the earth-quaking strike.

The asura, leaning its head down with the last attack was left open for only a split second, but one the daeva put to good use. With it in range she threw a sword high into the air that spun for a dozen revolutions before landing deep into the joyful mask.

The asura gave a low rumble that made the small stones atop the ground patter as it raised two broad hands up to its face. Instantly it turned and with a speed beguiling to its sluggish design, sprinted across the surface of the river and sank deep into the forest on the other side.

Panting I raised myself onto my elbows with a smile. "We won, we beat it!"

Rebecca glared green accusing on me but spoke no word.

"Pearl! No... No... Not yet! Pearl!" From behind a fall of golden feathers Lara's strangled cry rang through.

I struggled onto my hands and feet wearily but directed myself in the direction of the falling gold.

"No!" Lara screamed. "It's not time yet - not yet! It's too soon! Noo!"

Walking there was difficult due to my lack of energy, that made seeing clearly challenging also. But when I approached about halfway there was something my eyes seemed to be telling me, but something that made no sense whatsoever. For ahead, beneath the hold of a brunette Golden Heights senior was the most glorious ebony statue. It was one of an angel, one where her hands were outstretched as if to shield the world of its woes. This angel appeared young, a girl of about seventeen with soft features despite the hard black crystal she was composed of. And there was something else about her, something so sad and yet so beautiful. It was a tear, suspended on her smooth cheek, one that appeared frozen there amidst some great tragedy.

"Lara..." I murmured as I approached closer. "What's happening, where's Pearl?"

Lara was still hugging the statue but then turned her deep brown eyes to me. She looked like she was about to say something but as she opened her mouth the stone in her hands shattered. Black crystal flew through the air gently, lingering for long moments as if happy to retain there before some coarse elements of nature reached them and began to eat at all the fragments' edges. In seconds that once perfect replica of an angel transmuted into no more than dust.

I gulped. "Lara, where is