Cloud - Chapter 49: Chapter 49

"You owe me a lot, Luffy. I hope that you know this. If I get killed tonight-"
"You won't get killed, none of us will die."
"How can you be so sure of it? We are just a group of idiots who are trying to take down a man that everyone is scared of."
"If you consider yourself an idiot, Storm, it's your problem but I know what I'm doing," I told the little demon and he huffed, rolling his eyes.
"Guys, what's the plan again?" Estella asked as she followed behind us. The three of us were currently walking through the forest in the direction of Vance. We should arrive soon.
"Oh, it's simple, we are going to walk straight up to Vance to get his attention," Storm replied in a dramatic way, "At that moment, Alexandro will try to reason his father but no one actually thinks that it will work so while Vance sends his minions to kill us, our hidden army will emerge from the forest and attack. Next, the guardian will make his entrance. If he succeeds to provoke a fight with his brother, they will change into their guardian form and create enough light to kill the witches or even maybe kill us. Then among this chaos, Luffy will try to kill Vance."
"We are going to get killed," Estella concluded and I rolled my eyes.
I went in hell, literally. I needed to find Storm because I knew that only him could help us. It was not so easy to find him and hell wasn't really as I expected it to be but I succeeded to find my way to the demon. He had his own office and I was more than surprised to see Nova and Estella with him. Nova was badly hurt, I needed to admit and Estella was taking care of her. Apparently, it was during the fight at Cloud's house that she got hurt and Estella had to take her away.
Well, Storm was more than willing to help me when he understood the degree of the situation and Nova wanted to come too but she was too hurt for this so only Estella and Storm came. Though, the demon had more to offer than simply his own abilities, he happened to have his own army of soldiers, an army of dead skeletons to be more precise. That army was not one that I dreamed of as those skeletons were not only scary but they also seemed like they could break with one single punch. Storm assured me though that they would be helpful so I was not going to complain.
Nicolas decided to go his own way. Nike and him were still connected, something that I kind of completely forgotten, but Nicolas made sure to remind me of it. He decided on his own that he was going to take down Nike and I had no choice but to let him go. He went ahead of us while we made our plan.
Like Storm said, it was simple.
Our army was going to surround the place where Vance and his men were but before the skeletons could attack, we needed to make sure that Vance wouldn't notice their presence so Storm, Estella and I were going to act as baits. I was guessing that Vance was going to double his vigilance as I was sure that he knew that I was coming. Alexandro wanted to try to reason him. I was going to let him try but I made sure to tell him that I was going to kill Vance no matter what.
He couldn't do anything against that.
"What about Cloud and Eldon?" Storm asked me as we continued our walk, "Are they still alive?"
"They have to be," I replied in a hard tone. That topic was kind of sensitive for me right now, "I don't feel any power coming to me yet so I'm guessing that Eldon is still alive...Cloud, he must be alright too."
Or at least, I hoped so. I already lost Frederick, I couldn't lose him too. I refused to let him die. I didn't want to be alone and I still needed to tell him about how I felt about him. One thing for sure, after all that crap with the Vins would be over, I would need him to prevent me from breaking entirely.
"Do you think that you can truly kill Vance?" Estella asked me then, "You're still a newbie with this whole power thing. Vance has experience and he must surely know your weaknesses."
I stopped dead in my track and turned around to face her. She backed away in surprise.
"I'm going to kill Vance," I made it clear to her, "I don't care how powerful he is or how big his army is, I'm going to be the one who will take his life. There's nothing in the world that can stop me so instead of bitching about my abilities, shut up and worry about your damn self. You're used to that."
I continued my advance in the forest without another word. My words shut her up for sure. Storm had to contain his laugh and Estella glared at him. I was kind of angry at her actually. She left me in that bar to go feed, true I was kind of bothering her but I ended up getting kidnapped! Maybe if that did not happen, Frederick would have been saved in time. Then, during the attack at the house, she did not get hurt, like Nova, and she did not get captured like the others. I wondered if she did something at all.
Gradually, the opened space came into view and we hid behind trees. There seemed to be more people there than before and what caught my attention was the large wolves walking around. They were bigger than me and seemed ready to kill. I couldn't find Nike so I concluded that Nicolas must have already called him for a talk. My eyes found Calius though and I did not know if it was bad or not.
I continued to examine the place and found Eldon still chained to the ground with the circle of flames surrounding him. His attention was focused on something going on a few meters away. My eyes followed the direction of his eyes and they fell on Cloud. My heart skipped a beat. He was tied to a tree trunk which was clearly not there before and his head was inclined down, his eyes closed.
What the hell did those guys do to him?
Vance was standing in front of him, a sword directed at his throat. He was saying something but he was too far for me to understand what he was saying.
"We need to act now," I declared, ready to let my presence be known by the enemy but Storm stopped me.
"Wait," he said, "Let's see what happens first."
"Are you crazy? Cloud is in danger," I informed him as he seemed to have not noticed it, "I'm not going to stand here and wait for him to die."
He sighed, "You're really bossy tonight."
"You tell me about it," Estella grumbled quietly and I ignored both of them before stepping out of the forest.
Those big scary wolves were the first ones to notice us, maybe because of our scent, and they immediately came into our direction. I prepared myself to attack but Storm stepped forward and touched the ground. Unexpectedly, all the wolves that were closed to us were soon burning into flames. The others immediately stepped away and groaned angrily as their friends screamed in pain.
"The next ones who come closer will have a taste of the flames of hell," Storm stated and that was enough to keep our enemies away from us.
"Ah, Luffy, I was waiting for your arrival," Vance said, not even surprised when he saw us, "I see that you have regained the control of your body. I would have never thought that my dad would run to hide in front of me. I'm flattered." He pulled the sword away from Cloud and for a brief second, I was relieved. "Now, one question remains. Why are you here? Why didn't you run away too?"
"To kill you, of course," I replied to him and he laughed as well as some of his little minions.
"You really think that you and your pathetic friends can take me?" he questioned me, stepping in my direction, "Boy, I waited for my moment of glory for a very, very long time. There's no one and nothing that is going to take that away from me. You should have ran away while you could. Now you're all going to die."
Vance was about to give the signal for his men to attack but just then Alexandro stepped out of the forest and he got everyone's attention. I sure hoped that he already did the job that I gave him before coming here. He was instructed to guide the whole army through the forest as he was the only one who knew that place properly.
"Alex, you got out of your cell too it seems," Vance stated, not so pleased. "Son, I will advise you to go back to the house before you really regret it."
"You need to stop this, dad," Alexandro ignored his dad's words, "Forget about the power and everything. You don't have to take revenge on everyone. You are the one who told me times and again that having a family that loves you and cares for you is all that matters at the end of the day. You already have Calius and I, you don't need more."
"I think that I was not clear enough with you," Vance said and Alexandro looked desperate, "Go away before I decide to eliminate you too, you disobeying brat."
"You can't do this. You're better than this," his son told him and he let out a sigh of frustration, "Please, for me, stop."
Vance stared at Alexandro before giving a little signal to one of his men, then he said, "Kill him."
That was one way of shocking everyone.
The little puppet of Vance advanced towards Alexandro, ready to kill him, but Calius intervened; he bit the man in the neck. The vampire was extremely brutal and I saw his eyes turn completely black. Blood spread everywhere as he tore the skin of his victim using his teeth and in one single movement, he ripped off the head of the guard whose headless' body fell down seconds later. Calius stated the following:
"No one is going to touch my little brother."
And just after his words, he was gone along with Alexandro. Vance's nostrils opened wide in anger and he let out a scream of rage. His people took that as an order to attack us.
"Storm now!" I shouted and he nodded before giving the signal. It did not take long for our own army of skeletons to run out of all side of the forest, swords in hands.
The final battle began then.
My main priority was Vance so I went straight for him. Though, before I could even reach him, I got attacked and I was forced to step back and counterattack. It was wild and there was too many people around me for me to count them all. Balls of fire were sent my way and I avoided them just in time. I heard screams around me as I ripped heads off and hearts.
Blood spread on my clothes and hands. I paralyzed the enemies that came to me and used theirs own weapons against them. My way to Vance quickly got clear but before I could go to him, an horrible headache hit me and I grabbed my head in pain. I immediately realized that it was those damn witches that were attacking me. My eyes searched for them and I saw them approaching me while chanting.
I tried to not listen to what they were saying and simply attacked them by letting out my powers but they only chanted louder and I felt my own powers being forced back to me. My eyes widened as I went flying in the air. I guessed that magic would not work efficiently against them. I decided to use physical strength but the outcome was not the greatest.
To make themselves stronger, they removed their bandannas and their powers seemed to amplify. I fell to my knees and grabbed my head once again in pain.
Nicolas, wherever you are, you need to act now, I thought and fortunately for me, my guardian seemed to have heard my prayers.
A blinding light was seen. It was so shining and powerful. I immediately hid my eyes but our little witches did not get the same chance. I heard screams but I could not see anything. When the light finally dissipated, I removed my hands in front of my eyes and looked around. There was no trace of any witch anywhere and bodies of men who died were on the ground.
In the middle of all of this, I found Nicolas and Nike. I saw their shining armors and I remembered those armors from seeing Nicolas' true form for the first time. They both had theirs swords in hand.
"Nike!" Vance shouted angrily at that moment. "What the hell were you doing?! Eldon got away! Kill them all already! I want all of them dead!"
My eyes scanned my surrounding and true enough, Eldon was nowhere to be seen. When did he get away? I raised to my feet and looked at Vance. He did not seem pleased at all. His gaze met with mine and an evil idea seemed to pass through his eyes. Some part of me immediately guessed what he was about to do when I saw him step towards Cloud.
Oh, no.
I immediately teleport and found myself in front of Cloud. I could not act quick enough though and Vance forced his sword through my flesh. I gasped as he dig the sword all the way in. It hurt, of course, it did but I needed to focus. Before Vance could say or do something, I placed my hand on his and teleport once again, this time taking him along with me. We needed to be alone for what was to come.
I took both of us to the world of the dead.
The original inspired me again for this.
Vance was taken by surprise and I pushed him away from me. Slowly, I grabbed the sword and hissed in pain as I removed it from my chest. My blood spread out but I kept hold of my body. I was not going to weaken now.
"It ends here," I told Vance who glared at me, "Only one of us will get out of this place alive."
He snickered.
"You think that you are strong just because you have powers but you can't understand anything," he told me, letting out a laugh, "Even if you succeed to kill me, the reapers will never let you go. The one who you hold is too dangerous."
"I don't care about the reapers," I made it clear to him, "I only care about you."
I lunged forward and attacked with the sword. Vance easily dodged my attack and he materialized another sword in his hand. It was blade against blade then. He was quick and precised with each blow and he obviously was stronger than me. I felt it each time his blade would hit with mine and I would get pushed a little bit backwards.
Everything was going quick and unexpectedly, he disappeared from my sight and reappeared just beside me. His sword succeeded to touch my skin and I immediately teleport away from him. He laughed as I touched my cheek which had been cut. I was feeling a little bit dizzy.
"You shouldn't have taken me here," he told me, "This place is where the dead live. You can't heal here and each wound that you get will bring you closer to death."
I hated to admit it but he was right. I was still losing blood from the wound on my chest and I knew that I could lose consciousness at any moment. Though, I needed to be stronger and resist. I could die only after Vance had been killed.
"Why are you doing this?" I asked him, swallowing hard, "Are those powers really worth it?"
"You can't understand. No one can understand me," he replied, "My mom was the only one who understood. She was the only one who cared for me. I did everything in my power to prevent her from having her last vision. She was the only one I had. I searched for my dad desperately, I thought that he could help me save her. I called for him multiple times but he never came and eventually, she died and I ended up alone. I started to hate him then, I started to hate heaven and I decided to take my revenge on both side."
He made one ball of fire with his hand and threw it at me. I quickly dodged it but he appeared in front of me and swung his weapon in the air. I raised my blade just in time to block the attack but he did not stop here. He forced his blade on mine and I tried to push him away but it was harder than I thought.
"When I became old enough," he continued at that moment and really, it was not the best time for him to narrate his life story, "I continued to search for the reaper that abandoned me but reapers are really hard to catch. Only the dead can actually see them long enough and that made me get an idea. I couldn't use my oracle powers because of my reaper side so I took advantage of that dark side of myself. I started to bring the dead back to life to question them and they gave me some pretty good information under torture."
He jumped back and swung his sword again, hitting it with my blade with force and too bad for me, my weapon went flying in the air, leaving me defenseless. He quickly pointed his sword to my throat. I looked down at the blade and gulped.
"I quickly discovered that Axel, my dad, was imprisoned and, really, that news did not please me at all," he told me, "I needed to know more and I found out more. I got my hands on his precious journals and read about every one of his experiments. He was sure intelligent and from his own knowledge, I made my plan. I was going to kill all of the reapers, including him, and then heaven will be my next stop."
The pointy end of the sword touched my skin and I felt it cut me. Blood dripped out and I grabbed the blade, pulling it away from me. He looked at me in surprise as I pushed his sword away, even though, it was cutting my hand. He stepped away and smirked, looking at me in amusement.
Damn it, I was losing my strength. It was harder for me to remain on my feet and I was sure that he had already guessed it.
He thrust his sword into my stomach and I spat out blood. He turned the sword around inside of me but somehow I was unable to scream. My feet felt weak and I fell to my knees. I thought that it was the end for me then but suddenly, another presence was felt and Vance was pushed away from me. The sword was removed and I fell on the ground. I placed my hands on my new wound and tried to hold the blood in.
Though, it was useless.
"Cloud," I whispered.
He was there.
I was sure that it was him, well partially him. A shadow was floating a few meters away from me. It was a dark form with red eyes. It stood there in front of me, facing Vance. I remembered seeing that shadow when Eden showed me his memory.
"Seems like the drug finally left your system," Vance guessed as he looked at the shadow, "And now you seem ready to fight, Cloud."
Vance smirked and his appearance suddenly changed. Dark rays left his body and he turned into the same creature as Cloud, except that he seemed to be bigger and the amount of dark energy that was coming out of him seemed to be more powerful. I started hearing small whispers at that moment but I could not understand what the voices were saying.
Vance and Cloud fought without wasting another second.
All I could see was shadows moving but I could not really understand what was happening. I could not even tell who was winning and who was losing. They were both the same basically. I threatened to fall unconscious but I kept my eyes open. I needed to help Cloud, even though it was already hard for me to help myself.
I needed to do something, damn it!
You need to kill him, I heard the original's voice in my head all of a sudden.
I want to kill him but how?
Use my scythe and pierce it through Vance's heart.
But I don't even know where your scythe is.
Just call for it, Luffy, and it will come to you.
To call for his scythe? That seemed to be easier said than done but I was going to see if I could do it or not. I remembered how the weapon was. It was broken but when Axel used it, I could feel his strength. The scythe seemed to have an emotion on its own. It wanted something. I could feel it. It wanted souls.
Let's see if Vance's soul interested it.
At that moment, I felt it. The scythe appeared in my hands. I grabbed it tightly and somehow, I could hear it talk to me. I raised to my feet, leaning on the weapon to hold myself, and I did stumble a little bit but I succeeded to keep my balance. Cloud and Vance were still fighting and it was hard for me to tell which shadow I should attack.
"Cloud, get out of the way!" I exclaimed and one of the shadows disappeared. I thought that Cloud listened to me but the shadow appeared back in front of me and grabbed me by my throat. He raised me in the air and I accidentally let go of the scythe.
"I should have killed you sooner," I heard Vance whisper and he buried what seemed like his hand through my chest. I felt him grab my heart and crush it slowly. My eyes widened and I tried vainly to push him away. Somehow, I could hear the beating of my heart as it slowed down. It was harder for it to beat. My eyes closed and I heard the voice of Vance telling me to die.
That was really the end for me.
Or so I thought.
Vance's grip around my heart loosened and I felt him leave my body. I fell down hard and my eyes peered opened just in time to see Cloud burying the scythe through Vance's heart. The latter screamed out loud, making the ground tremble, and he returned to his original appearance. I couldn't keep my eyes off him. His eyes met mine and I froze.
"Y-you-w-will-" he couldn't finish. His eyes closed and his head inclined down. He turned into dust in front of my very eyes and I never felt so relief in my life. My eyes closed and I felt life living me slowly.
I was still going to die, it seemed.
"Luffy," I heard Cloud say and he came by my side but I couldn't reopen my eyes. He took me into his arms and laid my head against his chest. "It's okay. You're going to be okay, darling. Everything is over now."
It was really over for me.