7 Ghosts (Claymore X Worm AU crossover)

[Cheerio]

Chapter 13: A Bad Influence

When we stopped, Ophelia put me down and crowed with delight.

"Hahaha! That was a rush. It's too bad Nimue's power wasn't very strong, but we shouldn't have to worry about pursuers any time soon."

What? "Ophelia, did you intend for us to get killed?" I demanded.

"Not killed. Just suffer a confusing defeat. Wendy wasn't part of my plans. A perfect victory would have seen her knocked out like Eliza." She said eyeing me.

"Anyway, perfection isn't always within the reach of my power, but I can usually get close to it, so we probably weren't going to be wiped out."

"That's not reassuring." I said. "Why didn't you fight to win? Are you trying to get demoted?" I thought of another possibility, but then discarded it. Not even she could be so depraved.

"Relax. We don't have to worry about demotions anymore because from now on we're deserters."

"..." Ophelia's smile went from wide and slick to a bit more nervous.

"This is actually a really well thought out plan, you know. Right now is the perfect time to desert because they're still dealing with breaking in the new number one, while they've just lost four warriors and a bunch of agents in that raid. They'll be scrambling trying to recover or track them, so investigating our disappearance given the memory tampering or erasing power Nimue used will be low priority. Since I let Nimue escape they'll probably just think Nimue won and took us with her."

"Wait, Nimue's the Awakened Being right?"

"Yup, former number #12 I think. Not actually that thought to fight, since her power just made you forget what you had been doing. You still were fighting back during the blackout periods."

The fight was starting to make more sense. After I blurted out her weakness Nimue started throwing her power around. It didn't actually make our hits or attacks any less effective since we just forgot the blows we'd exchanged previously, but it would have disrupted and destroyed any hopes of formulating a long-term strategy or tactics to exploit her weakness.

"You don't just desert the Organization, Ophelia. Maybe if it was one warrior number 40 they would barely make much of an effort to slap us down, but you're a single digit. If Eva tips them off they'll have a team made-up of just single-digits put together to execute you." I cried out.

"Okay, calm down. First, it's big sis, not Ophelia. Secondly, did you forget my extensive knowledge of suppressants. I'll give you a tip. Those diluted suppressants I gave you should have had the same effect as a full suppressant if you were knocked unconscious. I can brew some more of them if we run out, and the Organization right now doesn't have anyone with a power that could be used for tracking, except maybe Eva. We just need to avoid being their number one priority."

I felt overwhelmed. A part of me whispered this was a good thing. The Organization wasn't a necessary evil. It was just evil. If we stayed we would just be used up and killed one day. I'd probably never even live to be 15.

"How long have you been planning this?"

"That's not what I expected you to ask?" She said with a cough. "Well, about a year. I was never going to take out the enemies I've sworn to kill by staying in their ranks. I'm also beginning to feel my limits. I need freedom to grow." She took a step back and twirled. It should have looked ridiculous but for Ophelia it was the least ridiculous thing going on.

There was just one problem. For me being away from the Organization and their high ranking warriors was going to cripple my growth. I needed their memories and experience to continue to figure out ways to stretch my mediocre abilities.

"I'm still not sure about this, Op-big sis. This isn't just you wanting to drag me out to fight an Awakened. You want me to throw away my entire life and live as a what? A bandit? Or will we be mercenaries?"

"We can be whatever we want. The Organization has already peaked. The strength of other parties has been growing much faster than theirs recently."

"Couldn't you have asked me first? I'm not your doll to drag around!"

She approached me. Staring me down. Then spread her arms and gave me a bear hug before lifting me off my feet. "Oh, Clare, you're so cute. You're far too cute to be a doll. I couldn't ask you. You might have said no. You might even have tipped off the handlers about my plan."

"I wouldn't have done that." I protested. She put me back on my feet and then I saw her eyes. They were gleeful and excited, but also scared. But their shape were black slits floating on golden pools.

I felt a strange sensation. A buzzy lightheadedness and in a snap decision I copied her memories. I hadn't tried to do it since she'd refused my handshake all those months ago. Ever since she'd begun training me it had felt like too big of an invasion of privacy.

"Ahem." I said clearing my throat. "Are you absolutely sure we won't be caught?"

"Of course, I am. I'll tell you a secret. My power let's me get better outcomes to events. It kind of red flags whether I'm getting hotter or colder to realizing the ideal outcome for myself.

Her memories confirmed this and showed she'd been using it the entire time. Hot and cold were actually a good analogy for how it felt. I noticed then how she was gripping her sword.

"All powers have blind spots." I retorted.

"And so do organizations."

I decided it didn't matter. I never really had a choice and I could still grow stronger like this.

"Alright. Where do you want to go with this?"

"Hah, simple picture this." She said grabbing me and straightening my bent back. When did I start hunching? "We'll head to the central region of Toulouse. We want to avoid the Abyssals to the West and North, and given what happened to Priscilla in the South let's stay away from there too."

I looked to the South. The wall of briars was no more than a thick bar against the horizon. "Fine. How many suppressants have we got?"

"Plenty. About a one month supply for the two of us. If we can't find some of the venoms in Toulouse, though, we'll have to go out and get it ourselves. I think the biggest obstacle will be that Toulouse is the most heavily populated area."

"So we need to avoid being noticed and setting off rumors." I finished.

"Also here." She said presenting me the severed arm she'd been carrying.

"Uh, it's an arm." It was still dripping too.

"Not that. I got it for you from Nimue. I've been getting better at ambushing Awakened Beings before they can get it up. Now chop, chop. Let's stick it on while it's still fresh." Said Ophelia as she teasingly raised her sword.

"Wait, wait! You want to cut off my right arm and slap hers on. Here! Right now."

"Yes, little sis, this is for your own good. Nimue may not have been a single digit, but she was still probably quite a bit stronger than you. After all, she was a former number 12 before awakening."

"How do you know all that?"

"I've been keeping track of Awakened Beings with powers that might have been useful. This was a little underwhelming compared to my more optimistic estimates, but it was useful for a going away battle. We're lucky actually that it turned out to be Nimue. I was worried it might also have been James the "Absolver," who got kicked out of the saints a while back. He could modify memories so you forgot close attachments, but I figured at worse he became a bandit not a phantom serial killer."

That made sense. Another thing we were losing was access to the Organization's files on nearly every warrior who was known or suspected to have awakened as well as their powers or reported powers.

"I...I'm still not sure. Have they experimented with multiple transplants from different awakened beings?"

Ophelia just rolled up her sleeves and showed me her scars. One on each side at the shoulder or high on the bicep.

"Both were strong single digits. The one on the left I got first. It was slow but strong. The one on the right was trickier, though, to harvest. I actually let her escape after our first fight, because I screwed up and she transformed before I could snag it. I cut it off in time the second time. That warrior was very quick and her arm shows it." She said taking a practice swing that I couldn't follow. She even did a backswing in the same motion so her arm was back in the same position.

Suddenly, I realized what this was. It was a consolation prize. I was too weak to get one like Ophelia so she was just giving to me her cast off. I felt a bit of shame.

"Alright, let's do this." I said. I refused Ophelia's offer this time. It was awkward but I managed to cut off my right arm by swinging my sword with my left one. Then I focused on attaching it.

"Hurry it up too. I don't sense anyone nearby, but you're not being very subtle here." Ophelia said before she started humming and cleaning her own blade.

It was easier this time, or maybe I was just more experienced.

"Oh yes, before I forget." Ophelia took out a small pouch of suppressants, and took two. They must have each been half doses.

As I surrendered another bit of my humanity in exchange for power, I watched her transition. Her youki was the first to change. Growing subtler and ephemeral like gossamer before completely fading out.

Ten seconds later her eyes began to darken. The light from within it extinguished or perhaps just smothered by a humane, dirty brown that spread out from the pupil until it covered her whole iris.

It was horrifying and yet beautiful. To see a half-monster clothed with humanity. Beneath it all, though, she was still the slightest bit feral. A monster whose own memories betrayed that she would have killed me if I had refused to defect with her. This was my sister, Ophelia.

***

Spoiler: Author's Note

I hope this Ophelia still feels like she's based off the Canon one. Some changes are inevitable because Priscilla did not kill her family while rampaging like in the original series. She's still very much a psychopath who loves the thrill of fighting and will do many things to obtain revenge. Her hatred of Awakened Beings, however, doesn't exist, since it wasn't Priscilla who destroyed her family.

 

[Cheerio]

Interlude: Isley

"Still no response from Riful?"

"Yes, Laeticia is still reporting back, so she hasn't been killed, but she faces daily attacks. Most just appear interested in testing her strength."

"That's fine. As a single digit from Riful's generation, she's a master of survival. At worst, her partner Diana should be able pull her out in time."

"Sir, the troops are growing more and more restless. You may have solved the food supply issue in the north but population estimates have been falling everywhere else. The Yoma only look like they're under control because so many have moved to the South. This is the perfect time-"

"Rigardo, if any of the troops are dissatisfied with my leadership you may tell them to take it up with me personally. I will handle things at my own pace."

"I see."

"Leaving that aside, who have you picked for the next scouting group."

"Xavier, Sonata and Cassie."

"Two awakened and a stealth expert. Strong, but I don't know how much useful information they will get. Isn't there a young boy from the new citizens, who can number the people around him in order of how dangerous they are? Tell them to take him along and protect him."

"His family might object."

"Promise them more compensation, and that the others will do their best to keep him safe. If they absolutely refuse, do that growling thing you do, but don't hurt them."

"I do not growl, but if they still cling to their son I'm just sending the three of them."

"Alright, is there anything else?"

"Just some details about the crop and info on a new drug to suppress awakening that one of the subjects was being used for."

"Share it with Kathy in our research group then."

As soon as the door shut a spider web of cracks appeared in the corner. Shortly after a woman walked through it.

"So grumpy. Does he really think we don't know?"

"Don't underestimate him like you did the church, Agatha. I won't save you again."

"Oh please, you weren't just helping me. You were helping yourself." She said sitting on his lap putting a hand behind his neck.

"Better women than you have tried."

"So cold. What's with your fascination with this new Biodoctor. You didn't even tell Rigardo that you've already read all of her reports, or have classified one of her projects."

"She was wasted in the Farm."

"Oh, I don't disagree. Who cares about allowing Claymores to exceed their limits, or finding the most compatible pairs. That new drug of hers is far more interesting. What are you going to call it?"

"She suggested 'Extremis.' It has more positive connotations than your suggestions."

"Oh posh. You know you love the thought of calling it 'Tears of the Abyss.'"

"We want to distribute it broadly, not get our distributors hunted down by the church or the Organization. Even Riful would sit up and pay attention at a name like that."

"Really, it's not you going soft on her."

"I'm plenty hard thank you very much. They should really have called you 'Bloody, Green-Eyed Monster.'"

"I'm just curious. Besides no one has nicknames like that. We all lived in like nuns in an all-girls school. Those perverts probably liked the idea of all male handlers around sexually frustrated teens even if they found out stigmata too disgusting to contemplate touching us."

"I confess I never thought of it like that. For me it just felt like being in the army again among other faceless soldiers. The numbers were a nice touch. Boil down our identity to mere numbers, and then pit us against one another."

"But it didn't work."

"It did for Rigardo."

"Only because he's a workaholic ass, whose best idea is to recruit and March an army south."

"He's a military man at heart. Your own short-coming is you don't know the value of loyalty and a shared vision or dream for the future?"

"Is that so, Silver King? Then tell me what do you dream of when this whole land is ours?"

"When I was young you couldn't go father than ten leagues before stumbling across a village. Even the north was covered in towns and Pieta was a trading outpost for areas farther north rather than the peak of the known world. I had a nightmare one day that I walked through a baron world with just me, Riful, and the Abyssal of the South glaring at each other. Until one day we devoured one another. Then the winner was all alone."

"..."

"But we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves, Agatha. We still need to know more about the South and Riful seems to still consider us Herbivores."

"She is living in the past. We're the future."

"No, we're also relics of the past. Look out there. Those people are the future. Or rather they will be after Extremis has finished its work."

 

[Cheerio]

Chapter 14: Plebeian Window Shoppers

"Goat or rabbit on a stick!" Shouted a man beside a food cart.

Me and Ophelia weaved our way around the manure in the streets. We were in the free city of Rabona. Once it had been part of a kingdom that stretched across Lautrec and Toulouse. Mucha and Alphonse were separate territories, with their own lords, but existed in the shadow of the central kingdom.

Now days it was a shadow of its former glory.

Hints of new prosperity poked out here and there. The windmills on captain's hill, the dark red alloy weapons and crisp uniforms of the cathedral and city guards, or the way almost no orphans remained on the street corners and alleys.

Still, it stank. It reminded me of the smell of a corpse and a manure pile mixed together and left to rot for months.

"We should have gone to Saintshold." Bemoaned Ophelia.

"This is suicidal enough." I protested. We were criminals just for entering this city. The high walls, the "God-touched" stationed here, and our claymores being carefully hidden outside of town were all making me nervous. I rubbed the stolen sword strapped to my side that had once been the property of some foolhardy thief.

Then there was the other thing. I felt a fifth Yoma to my left about three houses down and on a second floor. We had been checking the local rumors and there didn't appear to be panic about missing people or people being killed. Either they were on a diet, are the people nobody was going to miss, or found some alternative form of nutrition.

Whatever it was, we were going to ignore it. A few of the towns on our way here I'd discreetly taken care of the problem while Ophelia cleaned out the Yoma's home as compensation, but we needed to keep our head down here.

"Let's check for rumors at a bar." I suggested. Getting this over with and getting out of here was high on my to do list.

"Oh Clare. No one with a real job is at the bars right now. Let's see the sites until this evening."

After a bit of back and forth we settled for visiting the Oldest Branch of the Scholar's Guild instead of the Main Cathedral of Rabona. When we asked for directions, we were directed back out of town. In the middle of an empty field was a row of newly erected houses with one large wooden tower in the middle. Apparently after the last explosion and fire they had been exiled outside of the city despite their own work having prevented the fire from harming any properties that weren't directly adjacent. Of course, the fumes also resulted in a fifth of the city being high for six hours.

After a little searching we found a shop with a sword and shield emblem above it. Inside the shelves and wall were surprisingly bare with only a desk and some chairs for furniture.

"We're interested in purchasing some handheld weapons for a cross-country expedition." Ophelia claimed.

"If this is the right place." I added.

"You got the right place." The shop clerk reached under the desk and pulled out a packet of papers. He passed them to me.

"Sorry, Mr., but we can't read." I said. I actually had plenty of memories of reading and understanding everything that I saw, but neither me nor Ophelia had ever actually been educated and taught to read. Each warrior was actually given an emblem, usually some variation of a sword one, for communication such as with black cards or pictographic warning messages.

"It's John. John Gramme. Most nobles or wealthy merchants don't send illiterate servants to make orders." He said suspiciously.

We looked at each other. The clientele of this wooden, ramshackle looking store was much wealthier than I expected.

"Our employer is actually not looking to make any purchases right now. He wishes for us to evaluate the merchandise and report back on what we've seen." Ophelia said smoothly with a charming smile.

John scowled at that. "If he thinks he's too good to do his own window shopping then you can go back and tell him we're sold out and too busy fulfilling other people's orders."

I guess that wasn't the right tactic to take.

"Alright. We can report that." I said. "But since we've come all this way, would it be possible for us to window shop ourselves for personal purchases."

He tapped his chin. "Fine. But you ladies don't look like you could afford anything beyond the low end merchant's catalogue. That paper on the top of the stack you really ought to read, but I can summarize it for you. Everything you can see in this shop is guaranteed to work for two weeks or your money back. After that reliability can get spotty with some gear insured in a case by case basis further to a month or even half a year, depending upon the material and intricacy involved. All sales are final, and returns if it failed before the guarantee ran out require you to submit the entire piece. Thus, any consumables or single-use items are not insured because you can't bring it back and show us what broke."

"Wait, what happens if it fails in the field. Then we bring it back and it starts working just fine the next day."

"Tough luck. You need to prove we made a mistake. Honestly, only one or two percent of our customers ever even run into problems that qualify. Half the time it's their own fault too, such as the boy who bought a skybird kite from us and then flew it in a 46 knot winds. We still gave him his damn money back, but thanks to him the contracts for airborne devices now have extra caveats. Usually something breaks after the guaranteed period and they'll come back wanting to negotiate for repairs or servicing. That price can sometimes be worked out ahead of time, but some artificers also just hate doing repairs and set sky high prices for it."

He plopped down a new stack of papers. It was much smaller than the previous stack, which he took back. "These are novice creations, experimental models that still need some more testers, or low end devices that will only be a modest improvement over those available elsewhere. Most you can probably get a good price on maintenance because they'd like to see how it could break down, but the rest generally is not worth paying the cost to get it fixed."

Most of the papers in this stack came with pictures or diagrams. Although I couldn't read I was still familiar enough with my letters to sound-out the titles to some of these. The first one had a picture of a block of what looked like ice. "Har-den-ded Gl-asse" I puzzled out.

"What is this used for?" Asked Ophelia curiously.

"Ahh, it's one of the improved raw materials our glass artificer and geology artificer helped us develop. It's exactly what it sounds like--hardened, reinforced glass, which is several times stronger than traditional glass but a tad heavier as well by about 10 or 20%."

"Is that only good for 2 weeks?"

"Of course not." Said John. "All of the raw materials shouldn't have any requirements for regular maintenance. A few will have stringent storage conditions, though."

The next sheet was of a bottle filled with pills. "Grot-h form-ul-la"

"That's for farmers or cattlehands. Too expensive for most crops, but it can promote growth in even full size plants or animals. Some noble wanted a giant cat, and this was one of the by-products of that research. Unlike the official formula, though, this one seems to make the subject's flesh mildly toxic. It's not meant for livestock or agricultural goods, but for sheepdogs, perimeter plants, or maybe flower growers."

We kept on browsing and discarding items. Fast drying adhesives. Fine metal ropes, and booby trapped safes. Honestly, that last one I couldn't fathom a reason for it even being listed. Who needed a safe that was guaranteed to work only for a month.

"Where are all the weapons or armor?" Demanded Ophelia impatiently.

With a sigh John told us. "Weapons and armor tend to be among the most heavily desired items for purchase. We also don't want a bunch of weapons and armor leaking out and being picked up by the Red Hand after they murder our customers. Consequently, they tend to be on the very high end, with most who purchase it already having access to private guards as a first line of defense."

Then he picked up the remaining papers and dug through them to pull out three sheets. "These, however, are available and may be in your price range. They're all single-use weapons, which shouldn't surprise you, and they all have the same maker. He creates them in large quantities with the condition that whoever purchases it please use it to destroy Yoma whenever possible."

We examined took the selected sheets eagerly and found two types of bombs and a throwing needle. The first bomb appeared to be some sort of smoke-bomb similar to what Wendy had used in our last battle. The second one was packed with powdered chilis and wouldn't be all that special except it came with an antidote that could be pre-applied to yourself so you wouldn't be affected by it.

"Why is the throwing needle single use?" I asked.

"It has a potent poison applied to it and is designed to break off after it penetrates inside to make it harder to fully remove. The poison is actually a concoction of multiple lethal strains that should hamper even a Yoma's regeneration. It is even potent enough that you can apply it to yourself, and then if you're eaten it can affect your attacker. We're calling it 'Viper Sting.'"

I looked at the price and received a bit of sticker shock. We had received a decent education on numbers from the organization to avoid being cheated if our handlers were temporarily unavailable and to be able to give more accurate oral reports. Consequently I recognized the price tag as one and a half times our current budget even after what we'd raided from thieves and yoma.

"500 Bera!"

"Yes, it can give some sticker shock. I should add it comes with a tiny crossbow to aid in firing, and also if you're not dealing with Yoma you can probably still reuse it after resharpening it, and it'll be potent enough to kill."

The smokebomb and pepperbomb+antidote were 160 bera and 300 bera respectively. I was suddenly feeling very poor.

We discussed it and decided to purchase a smokebomb. It wouldn't break, only begin to decrease in effectiveness starting from a couple months from now. It also claimed to even be able confuse a yoma's sense of smell.

I was beginning to regret not having thought to take Wendy's remaining armaments before we fled. On the other hand, it might have backfired if using them was too complicated, and it may have made the scene look more suspicious.

In any case, John appeared to take some amusement at our reaction to the prices. With about half the budget we'd walked in with we left the store. John had actually issued us a ticket and given us directions to a house several down and off to the side. There we redeemed out ticket and were given our bomb along with extensive instructions about range, the speed and duration of the visibility obstruction, and, of course, cautions about not trying to store it too long.

Unfortunately, we had not been able to learn what we'd originally intended to from this trip. We wanted to gather info about possible devices that enemies may deploy against us. We'd heard rumors of razor-sharp blades that were unbreakable, fire sticks that could spew lightning, and traps that could quickly tear a battalion of people apart if they struggled. None of those had been held by the red hand of the two times Ophelia had encountered them. But my own encounter with them, and the non-standard crossbows they'd deployed to exploit the shadow-user's mobility, possibly suggests they're eager to combine mundane equipment with powers.

Not to mention we were also criminals. Rabona "welcomed" us back through the gates with her stinky embrace. It was time to hit a few bars to gather info before we tried to find a guide or caravan to join.

Fortunately, the city guards were not as numerous as they normally would be. The militant faction (also known as the Crusader faction) of the Rabonian church had finally managed to mobilize their forces together with the Saints to launch a new campaign. This campaign was targeted to the South. To breaching the briar wall, and re-establishing a land bound connection with our Southern neighbors.

As I entered a bar, I couldn't help wondering who was crazier. Ophelia, or the militant faction of the Church of Rabona.

***​

Spoiler: Author's Note about currency

This is what a Bera looks like

It is a gold cylinder that is used for currency. Judging by how Clare quotes a price once in the series of 10 million Bera for a statue, which is perceived as outrageously expensive, I'm going to assume that in Claymore a Bera is supposed to be about 1 yen. Thus, 100 bera would be approximately equals $1. That said, I think the thought that a golden cylinder is equal to a penny is a bit outrageous, so let's suppose each bera is worth about $0.50. That would mean Clare had priced her statue at $5 million.

By the way, the militant faction is the polite term for the group of Rabonian elders and other influential leaders in the holy city, who wish to go on the offensive against the powerful Voracious Yoma throughout the land. Whereas, in Fel's interlude they're called the Crusader faction, which has more negative connotations and is slightly more derogatory.

 

[Cheerio]

Chapter 15: Erinyes Gale

Acquiring gossip is not hard. Even though our espionage classes had focused more on disguises, tailing and information gathering on enemies in the field, I had no problem getting reams of juicy gossip.

Unfortunately, much of it contradicted each other, sounded like outlandish exaggerations or seemed like offshoots of propaganda. In one evening I'd heard that the army was marching for Daering, that the army was getting on fishing boats and being ferried past the wall along the western coast, and that the army was gathering at Saintshold while they moved parts of a device that would help the Saints burn a whole through the wall.

As future camp followers (or would it be stalkers), it would be troublesome if we couldn't even figure out where the army was ultimately heading to.

There were also differing rumors about the Head of the army, Father Vincent, and his right hand man, Ricardo, captain of the Crusader Knights. To some they were tolerant and not openly hostile to Claymores or unaffiliated rogue "God-touched" mercenaries. According to others they were hardline purists with sympathies for the Cleansing Hand.

Frustratingly, neither of our powers were suitable to sifting through rumors or identifying obvious propaganda.

The biggest success of the night was learning about the Valkyries, a group of mercenaries who were in negotiations with the Church to reinforce the army.

Ophelia and I needed to get access to the south, and a large company or army that we could abandon if we were attacked by an Abyssal or group of Awakened was optimal. A fight with a weak or average awakened being may be possible for us, but it would still require us to flare our youki and would immediately out us as warriors to anyone nearby.

"I guess we'll just after check with the Valkyries in the morning," I said as we settled down to sleep in our inn room.

"Yup, this is not quite as adventurous as I'd pictured." Ophelia commented as she started at our jar of suppressants. It was half full.

We had two weeks to get the necessary venoms for the formula, but they were only available from some carnivorous lizards and spiders to the South. The Organization kept a small population in captivity, but with trade cut off our only choice was to go South ourselves or run back to the Organization and try to make up for our mistake.

"Valkyrie. The name makes me think of female Saints. I wonder what sort of capabilities they have?"

***

In the morning, we tracked down the place the Valkyrie company had been staying at. It was a far more upscale inn near the glassworkers and perfume district.

"You want to join us?"

"Yes. We're saints with enhanced speed and strength. We can also do some tracking. We can definitely pull our own weight." I said.

"Plus, Carla here makes a wonderful pillow." Chimed in Ophelia glancing at me. "And has achieved a grandmaster level in removing stains from clothing. Heh."

"We'll have to see when the boss gets back but I wouldn't get your hopes up. We've been negotiating for a four days on the basis of them getting a twelve man band with five 'God-touched.' If we're suddenly dealing with seven that would require renegotiation and we're already falling behind the Main army."

The woman speaking to us was named Heather and wore a short-sleeve dress. In battle, though, she was apparently a potent brawler wielding a large morning star. It was according to rumor made from lightweight artificer materials, but other than that it was purely normal. But in her hands it did more damage than any weapon of its size and weight should do. However, her power worked I was pretty sure she could give even me a serious trouble in close combat, so I wasn't surprised their group was thinking of saying no.

"How about we have a practice match until your boss gets back? It would give him something to base his decision on." Ophelia suggested.

She agreed. The inn had a back garden, but we were worried about tearing it up, so after picking up her equipment we relocated to a practice yard. Three other members of the company came to watch. A tall man, a stout man and an older woman with a pet cat. Using my power I couldn't see any weakness in terms of durability to her weapon. It appeared to be as sturdy as a Claymore. My power just suggested disarming her. Useless.

"Let's do this to first blood or the first clean blow that hits the torso or head." Heather suggested.

"Do you really think a clean blow by either of you too isn't going to draw blood?" I said.

"What are you talking about Carla? I'm not fighting her. You are." Said Ophelia.

"Wait, what?" Ophelia had been skipping here and grinning like a loon. Why would she give up a fight to me?

"You can begin anytime you want Heather. I suggest now since my partner has carelessly not drawn her sword yet."

"I too thought I'd be facing you. As for the advantage, I don't need it. Prepare yourself Carla."

Our first clash of weapons chipped my blade despite my attempts to merely parry the blow and then grasp her weapon with my left-hand.

Her reflexes were fast, though, and her light weapon let her withdraw just in time.

"You're fast, but your weapon can't seem to hold up to our strength."

"I agree." I said as I sheathed it and then tossed it and the sheath aside. I berated myself for forgetting my own weakness--my weapon. It was more for show and to explain my fighting ability if we needed to deal with any troublemakers while in town.

I settled into a new unarmed stance. Lower to the ground with bent knees, elbows tucked in and upraised arms.

"You can come any time." I invited with a gesture.

Her weakness was her stance or rather her weight. Her powers enhanced her own speed and strength, and the reach and momentum from her weapon only made her more dangerous. But like all warriors her biggest enemy was her lack of mass. Compared to a claymore her morning star only added a third as much mass to her body. She'd also never trained to specifically to compensate for her high strength to mass/traction ratio.

The dirt terrain also stuck out to me as being bad for both of us, since it had been trampled so much and then given loose dusting of topsoil that wouldn't give either us firm footing for power blows. On the other hand, this also meant we would be deciding this based on skill not simply enhanced muscle.

She went for an overhead blow. It was too big and telegraphed of a motion, but what I really wanted to do was get inside her guard. She gave me no opportunities to do so. As soon as the blow hit the ground it rebounded and she used that to take another swipe at me. I backpedaled and weaved. Without a weapon or armor I was the faster of us, and as soon as she saw that she drew her weapon back to a more defensive position.

We watched each other as I circled her. Then the dance began again. After dozen whiffed misses she had me on the run, but irritatingly she was showing no sign of slowing down or giving me an opening. The peanut gallery began making cracks.

"Careful Heather, the spitfire's light on her feet and is reading your moves like you're a milk maid."

"Can I revise my bet?"

"No way, I gave you fair odds before and you went with the safe beefcake."

"BEEFCAKE." Roared Heather who suddenly began swinging with extra enthusiasm.

Sadly, I didn't have any momentum as I was already drifting backwards to evade and she compacted her stance and weight before I could counter. To break this stalemate I would have to either start using more of my youki, talk her into a fury (which might not help us with our actual goal) or take some risks. I seriously wanted to just begin taunting her, but I suspect Ophelia wanted to see more of what I could do. I would show her what she expected and no more.

I started unveiling openings, no, imperfections. Little things repeated over and over. She didn't go for them at first. False openings tend to work better when you haven't been dodging her blows for a minute, but I kept showing them in different places while picking up the pace. She stopped chasing me to just fend me off and throw a few counters, while I waited.

Eventually, she took my bait. An arm just a few centimeters too high combined with a foot too far back and my balance off by a few degrees. When I went for an extra large swing, she adjusted and aimed low towards my thigh, no, my kneecap. Even a glancing blow would have thrown me away--normally. The footing was gravelly here not just dirt. Her last minute shift had wasted too much of her power. I slide my foot a hand span to the left and then lifted it up. A spike on the corner took out a sliver of flesh, but when her weapon impacted the ground my foot slammed down on top of it.

I met her eyes and saw a hint of fear.

To a casual observer I had neutralized her weapon. But I wanted her disarmed not just trapped. I snapped my wrist forward, but she instantly released both hands from it to take a half step back. Then she pulled a knife from her left bracer.

I should have dodged back, but that may have let her recover her weapon. As the slash neared me I lifted a palm and grabbed the hand holding the knife. The knife sank deep into my palm but my fingers closed around the knife-wielding hand. I pulled with that hand while my other fist swung a fast right cross that she couldn't pull back or evade.

It landed on her chin and rocked her whole head back. The other arm that had been raised a second too late to block fell to her side. She didn't quite slump to her knees, but I definitely figured one more blow would have had her on her back or held up by the knife hand piercing my palm.

"Shit, Heather."

I heard more whistling and grumbling. I didn't go for another blow, and swiftly pulled my hand off her knife. It hurt, but not as much as it had going in.

"It appears this is my loss." I said without regret. I had avoided showing off the true principal behind my technique, even if she saw what it was capable of when assisted by my power.

I glanced at Ophelia who looked satisfied and a bit proud. She noticed my look and said, "good job. I'll buy you a new sword, Sis, to replace that broken one."
I frowned at that gesture. Her money was my money since we shared the same money bag.

I turned back to Heather. "We were fighting to first blood, and you unquestionably got it." I said as I sent a trickle of youki to stop the bleeding.

"By the way, do any of you have something to bandage this with?" I could heal it quickly and loudly with youki or slowly throughout the day, but it was best to cover it up since it would noticeably shrink and fade over time.

The stout watcher took out a roll of bandages and tore off a short piece to toss to me. It was not the most aerodynamic toss, so I might have missed it as it tumbled far short of me except Heather stepped forward and grabbed it before offering it to me.

"Why don't we call this a draw to be charitable to me?" She said with an abashed look.

Later that morning, their leader, Grisha, came back from meeting with the church's representative. He and only one other mercenary company had sealed a deal with the church. He was not thrilled to see us even with Heather's endorsement given the poor timing. He'd just spent days negotiating with the church. He explained to us that if he had to renegotiate, the church would probably just expand their order to the Scholars guild rather than risk us arriving too late to reinforce them.

"Look, we're not expecting a big cut from this job. Why don't we work this mission for free. You can treat it like a trial mission, and then when you see what we're worth we'll expect an even bigger cut next time. Besides, they aren't going to reject more power users if they're free. We'll only make everything safer." Offered Ophelia.

I think it was exactly the wrong thing to say.

"I can see now you girls don't have much experience in the mercenary business. A bit of advice I'll offer you is this--no one works for free. People don't just pay us gold to risk our lives. They pay us gold because we are dangerous people and they want to secure our loyalties. There are plenty of berserkers out there who will work for cheaper than the Valkyrie Company and offer just as much firepower. The reason people choose us is because they can trust us to follow orders and to have their back. If I take you with us as volunteers you may just cause a lot of chaos and ruin our reputation." In other words, he found our motives suspect and we'd exposed our inexperience.

From their we received a lot of offers to train with various members later on and to check them out after this mission. I found out the stout man who offered me the bandage was named Jeager and was a leaf manipulator. He could even sharpen and harden the leaves he spun and moved about. He refused to tell me how many he could control or from how far away, but I could see plenty of uses in a support capacity to such a power.

We left them to complete their preparations at noon, with directions to a good smith that would get me the best blade possible for someone who couldn't afford the Scholar Guild's prices.

"Well, that didn't go as well as I expected." Said Ophelia with a frown.

"Actually, I thought it went quite well myself." I said with a grin.

"What are you talking about?"

"I know where the army is heading and when they plan to breach the briar wall." I said while watching Ophelia closely. Her eyes lit up and a smile spread across her face.

"That's my sister. How did you do it?"

"My knowledge bearer power. It can also deal with memories and I was able to dip into Grisha's memories from his meeting this morning." I confessed.

"Perfect."

Ophelia and I took off at a fast trot out of Rabona to pick up our Claymores.

"Wait. WAIT! Guys from the Valkyrie Company wait." Screamed someone behind us.

I turned back and several houses behind us came running up a teenage girl. She was wearing simple, brown leather armor with a broad-axe strapped to her back. Her most distinctive feature, though, was a streak of white off to the side in her hair.

"Thanks for waiting."

"I think you must have misheard or been confused about something. We're not in the Valkyrie Company. We were turned down for the time being."

"Oh, I know. They're already set to go on their mission, and didn't want to add two new members to their company. That's why I wanted to talk to you. I'm an experienced Mercenary who used to be part of the Valkyrie Company. My name is Erinyes, or Erin for short."

"..."

"Anyway," continued Erinyes awkwardly. "I wanted to invite you to join me and make a new mercenary group. With my experience and your raw power we might even be able to handle some of the missions the Valkyries and others normally handle while they're out of town." She spoke the last quickly with plucky optimism.

"Uh, look..." I began hoping to let her down easy. For now we were headed South after the army, and I had a feeling such a dangerous task for no pay was not what she'd bargained for. Plus, we'd have to continue to conceal being Claymores or trust her with our secret.

"What did you say your full name was?" Cut in Ophelia.

"Erinyes Gale. But you can just call me Erin. Oh yes, and I've got this awesome power too."

"Generation of a pocket dimension." Said Ophelia. "Oh that is useful."

She walked up to Erinyes and began looking her up and down and then twirling her around to look at her from another angle.

Ophelia must have used her power again. It required a person's full name to be known. If it is, one aspect of it is she can receive a vision of the subject's potential, specifically in use to herself. It was a very optimistic view, which missed anything about the downsides, weaknesses or pitfalls. That worried me in this case.

Of course the other thing I was concerned about was something I'd stumbled upon while going through her memory the day we defected. Her power had identified my own powers as two separate ones: "Beta Tester" and "Shard Parasite."

At last, Ophelia turned to me with a mischievous smile. "Isn't she cute?"

***

Spoiler: Meaning of the name Carla

Clare is seen in this chapter going by the Pseudonym Carla. It's a feminization of the male names Carl or Charles, which are English. Incidentally, Clare itself is a feminization of the English name Clair or Clarus (which is Latin) and means clear or bright.

Anyway, Carla means "free man."

Spoiler: Author's Note:

Heather's power is a brute package (no flight) that extends to anything she wields. Thus, even though her weapon should crumple under the force of her blows it's made unnaturally durable and sturdy while she's wielding it. It's important also for it to be light since another member of their party has a mover power with a limitation on how much weight she can carry. Plus, it makes her blows faster.

"Beta Tester" actually isn't a gaming reference so much as about the fact that there's multiple different levels and stages to testing powers. Alright fine, it is a gaming reference, but it's not like Ophelia's shard is familiar with the gaming reference and picked it based on that.

By the way, Grisha's name is a homage to Attack on Titan so I'm imagining him looking kind of like Eren's dad. Erinyes' last name "Gale" is a homage to the last name of Dorothy from Wizard of Oz. Erinyes powers are going to be kind of similar to Cozen's.

 

[Cheerio]

Chapter 16: Might of the Weak

Ophelia immediately took Erin with us outside the city to perform a test. First, we picked up our blades and Ophelia explained to Erin that we were Claymores.

Erin seemed to take that fine, which relieved me.

"What? Oh, I guess it makes sense. I'm sorry. I mean...nevermind."

If she hadn't taken it well, I would have had to step in to try to defend her.

Next Ophelia demanded Erin tell us why she had a faint youki aura. Embarrassingly I hadn't noticed. It was vague like a mouthful of cotton candy. Not the sort of thing you'd even notice from five meters away, but I'd been within that distance for half an hour.

"Youki aura? I'm not sure. I can assure you I'm not a yoma, though." She blurted out. We settled for watching her scarf down some vegetables and checking if she digested it fine. I didn't have any concerns myself. No Yoma I'd met or even heard of could mask or weaken their aura to the extent that I felt from Erin.

Finally, the practical trial was to withstand Ophelia's blade for two minutes while she steadily upped the speed and power.

We found an empty forest clearing half ringed by bushes and half by trees to test her out in. Right as the match began Erin blinked out of view. Ophelia looked for her taking weak empty swings with the broad side of her blade. After two minutes of combing the clearing we had found for the match, she faded back into view. It was like a reverse of her disappearing act.

I wholeheartedly endorsed her just for the expression she put on Ophelia's face. Good job.

Still, I did tap her to copy her memories to check her out. I paid close attention to earlier in the day scanning with a cursory eye for signs that she intentionally approached in order to betray us. Fortunately, she was clean.

Unfortunately, it was at this point that we realized we had a much more serious problem. Our supply of money and the vial of youki suppressants that we needed to conceal ourselves was missing.

***

"We should go back. Turn the inn, the Valkyrie's practice ground, and meeting room upside down." I said in a very mild panic.

"No, face it we didn't just drop it." I think she meant 'she didn't drop it. "It was pick-pocketed. The thief probably doesn't even know what he grabbed. They could have fenced all of them or just thrown them away by now. We'll never find it."

"What types of pill are they? Maybe you can find some replacements." Proposed Erin.

"These are designed to suppress a youki aura. It's something all yoma and hybrids carry that can be picked up by other warriors of the Organization. Replacing them requires items from Mucha. Highly venomous compounds of the South that would likely be fatal to a human." Said Ophelia unhappily.

"Oh." She said fidgeting. "Could you steal some from other Claymores?"

"Not enough for it to be worth the loss of security. We want them to be less noticeable, and at best they'd have a week's supply for a single person."

"What about someone in the city with a power that could help track down stolen goods?" I suggested. We both turned to look at Erin.

"I-I don't know if there's someone like that. There may be but even if they exist they probably would be expensive or would want you to swear loyalty to a faction like the church or scholar's guild."

"Fine, then let's deal with what we can handle. We could go south faster alone. We just have to hope we don't run into any of the top three warriors or top tier awakened beings. We could also just try to go to ground in some loosely populated area and try to keep out of range of any warrior's senses."

"Um, I'm very sympathetic with you having lost your drugs, but this sounds like crazy talk." Cut in Erin before we could go further. "I'm not volunteering to go exploring the South with just the two of you. You just lost most of your money too, and we have no client. This sounds like high risk, no reward. If you're that afraid of the Organization then you two should seek asylum in Saintshold. "

"Saintshold is just us backing up into a corner. They'd have no reason to protect us and risk a war with the organization" I guessed.

I stared at Erin. She had no stake in this. We had just met today. If she went with us what would she have to gain? I also remembered what Grisha had said. No one wanted a free mercenary because no money meant no loyalty.

"Hmm, what about this? We'll provide training and help with the new powers you're developing." Said Ophelia.

"What?" Squeaked Erin.

"You've been getting faster, stronger and recovering swifter without any training. It's crossing into superhuman recently. If you want to learn to use that axe and fight at the pace of yoma and brawlers then you need proper training."

"I don't know if that really meshes well with my fighting style."

"You don't have a fighting style." I cut in seeing where Ophelia wanted to go with this. "You hide whenever a fight happens and rely on others to clear out the enemies for you. That's why you need partners. Your power is a useful support type, but it could be more."

"Not really. I can't see what's going on here when I enter my 'Other Room.' Plus it's not very large. While I can move around a little in there and then re-enter a body length to the left or right in compared to where I entered, I can't move very far. Also, if I stock it full of supplies, I can't move in it and have to come back here exactly where I left."

"So it's not really helpful for getaways. What about taking someone forcibly into it? It could function as a prison."

"I can't leave people in there." She said loudly while curling inwards. "It doesn't exist when I'm not in there."

Erin whispered, "I tried once with someone. It was a big mistake."

"So it kills people. That's even better." Said Ophelia, who tapped my shoulder.

"But I have to take people into it first, and then leave my Other Room alone. That's not so easy given I need to maintain contact when I enter it, and I need no contact when I'm leaving it. If I lose concentration I also suffer backlash. Finally, they might not die."

"Hey, they're either dead or they're not. How does your power maybe kill people?"

I too was curious. At first, I'd hoped she could carry us to hide our youki signatures at crucial moments. It would be a problem if she was killed, though, and now it was sounding like we "maybe" couldn't stay inside while she moved around out here.

"Look, I just don't want to talk about it. I can take you in there for a little while, but it's for things not people."

I didn't think we had much to offer her, and our goals were too different. I was prepared to go our separate ways as long as we could confirm her discretion by having her swear it. After I could check Teresa's power what she'd felt in her memory of the moment.

"That's wrong, sister. Powers were made for people not people for powers. If your power has a bad interaction with people figure out how to use that. You can't run from yourself. I won't let you." Said Ophelia as she grasped her shoulders and met her eyes.

"I don't care where you came from or where you're going. We're not leaving you behind, and the Valkyries loss is going to be our gain. You're not just a mobile caravan. As your new leader, repeat after me. 'You're an unbreakable fortress.'"

"Huh?"

"Say it." Demanded Ophelia. No she commanded it as if she could command the wind or the sky and expect it to move.

"I'm an impenetrable fortress."

"'I'm a scrapper not scrap.'"

"This isn't going to work. Ouch. Fine. I'm a scrapper not scrap."

"And...we're a team. We watch each other's back, and back each other up."

"We're a team. We watch each other's back, and back each other up."

I just watched them. Although Erin didn't seem to want to play along at first, she dutifully repeated after her.

"Now. Tell me what you meant about being sympathetic about our 'drugs.'"

"Now. Tell me-oh. Oh!" She fell into an uncomfortable silence.

"You were kicked out of the Valkyrie company for a reason."

"Not kicked out. Just needed to leave." She muttered.

I thought I caught Ophelia looking at me, but she wasn't when I looked closer a second later.

"Um, I think it's fine, Ophelia, if she doesn't want to talk about it." I defended. "Let's just have a clean start."

"No, it would be fine if you had just killed someone or stolen from someone too important or influential."

"Wait, what type of person do you take me for?"

"But Erin here has a long term problem that we ought to address right now."

"Look it's not even that bad. I just started taking Might. It's a performance steroid to help me keep up with the others. Then one day I woke up with this lock of hair. Heather and Grisha freaked out, but some of the others thought it looked cool. It's not like I'm an addict or it's an unbearable expense."

Lies.

"I decided to resign when I started feeling a little stronger and faster even when I was off the drug. I thought I'd find slower work with a group that takes less dangerous jobs so I could avoid taking as much Might."

"Why take it given you said you're not a combat specialist? If you sit in the back of battles and, say help evacuate and treat the injured, then you shouldn't need it."

"I didn't want to be a support member. If you'd seen Heather and Chloe smashing a yoma nest, or Grisha towering over our enemies with Jeager raining down death from his tree house you'd get frustrated too. But I can't do it even with Might. It just made me faster at running away or healing from my mistakes."

She turned her face to gaze at the sky. The sky was too overcast. Like a blanket of gray splattered with bright droplets.

"I heard people on Might were as strong and fast as the wind, while they could shrug off anything short of disembowlment or dismemberment in a day or two. It's true, but a mouse is a mouse even with a mallet. I saw a bit of your match with Heather." She said turning to me. "Me and my axe wouldn't last even two seconds against that and you were fighting barehanded."

"It would probably help if you didn't use an axe. They're great offensive weapons, but you have to be fully committed to attacking first and putting your enemy on the defensive."

"It's not the weapon."

"You're right. It's not the weapon. It's the wielder, so come with us. I can fix this." Said Ophelia with absolute confidence.

"Plus," I added, "now you're starting to feel like you have a trace of yoma energy within you. If you don't come with us and it continues to get stronger you could start attracting trouble." I avoided looking at Ophelia, and decided not to mention that she'd already started to attract trouble.

"Where did that drug come from anyway?" I wondered.

"It came from the East."

***

Spoiler: Author's Note

Erin's power has two parts. When it is actively being used by Erin it is not Manton Limited (i.e. the power only works on either organics or inorganics), but the passive ability to sustain things in her personal dimension when she leave it is manton limited. The issue with using it on organic things, though, is a secret.

Ophelia is also showing a bit of charisma. Part of it is her power that she's drawing upon to get Erin to stay with them, but I also always thought Ophelia had potential to be quite charismatic if she wasn't so freaking crazy. She does pull off killing humans quite often precisely because she knows how to manipulate the system and astutely catches on that Clare is half-awakened.

By the way, Might is what Extremis (which was mentioned by Isley) is based on. One of the worst aspects to the Organization of human power users is they're undetectable by their long-range youki sensers. Might users may be hard to detect for Clare but they're going to be picked up and feel distinctive to a powerful specialist in youki sensing.

Spoiler: Hypothetical PRT rating

Also, for the worm fans, this is my hypothetical PRT Ratings for a mid-rank Claymore using the Earth Bet system:

Brute 5
Thinker 5 for youki sensing
Mover 2 for enhanced speed and jumping ability
(Changer 7 if she awakens)

If they are properly supplied with suppressants and, given Clare in canon demonstrated the ability to manipulate her vocal cords to drop her voice to sound like a man, they could merit a very low stranger rating.

 

[Cheerio]

Interlude: Father Vincent

The supply caravans were finally cresting the hills surrounding our camp. The clinking of the guards armor and the rattling of the wagons would soon be heard even from where I stood near the center of our makeshift city.

It was easy to forget behind the high walls of Rabona and within the comfort of the grand cathedral, what the world was truly like.

I picked up another report. Three-quarters of a page of terse updates on the number of days the remaining four mercenary companies were behind us. The Division from Saintshold had also failed to leave yet, but their mode of transportation would probably see them here within a single day and night.

I hated it. This war, these expenses at the cost of our people, the weapons and obvious signs of wealthy patronage adorning different guard companies. Man's nature is warlike, and we the church should be suppressing it. We have always maintained the peace and prevented violent outbreaks between cities.

Today is different.

We camp in the shadow of the Briar Wall. It is at least fifty heads tall. It is thicker than a house, and our attempts to burn it with fire have only caused it to grow back thicker and with longer thorns. Our fliers can see beyond it, but I don't dare send them out again into the South without back-up. The last time one never came back.

Man's natural enemy is nature. We have sought to tame and conquer it. Long before Yoma roamed this earth we first needed to contend with the beasts of the land and skies. Those that would not submit to us we hunted to extinction.

According to some demographers of the church we are now being hunted to extinction by the various types of Yoma. The saints are merely a stopgap. They cannot find our enemy, and far too many selfishly use their own gifts to sow further chaos or merely enrich themselves.

Before I left with the army Father Damien came up to me. He asked me one question. "Can you submit?"

It would be so easy to. The Emperor of the North only asks us to only give up our humanity. The Princess of the West desires amusement and adoration as a mother. The vile thieves and defilers of the East demand merely our silence and continued perseverance.

"No."

Is this what the shaggy bison of the northern plains thought when we rode out on the final hunt for them. When we sank our spears into the last of his brethren from atop our horses. As he stated into the eyes of our tamed mounts.

It hardly matters, but I wish to know. Am I making mountains of molehills? I want them to live. No, I want them to thrive in freedom and safety and with dignity.

Living is easy. Merely living is lie.

But those are my values. Not everyone agrees.

If what lies beyond this wall is simply the Destroyer, a pestilence or horde of starving Awakened then I could be inviting destruction upon us all. Those gifted with knowledge have been wrong before, especially in places where many of their gifts crisscross about one another.

I sometimes wish to take a dirty loincloth and stuff it into the mouths of my advisors. "God-touched" they may be but their words invite only further questions and are usually as useless as the seers of myth and legend.

Yes, I am a horrible priest. I cannot stop thinking about throttling them as they prophecy our doom and then promise me the moon if I will dance with extinction.

I sometimes think I should throw off these robes of office. Don myself in sackcloth and ashes to tell everyone what sort of fool leads them. I sometimes think back to the day I first was called to serve. I had all my books prepared and had trained for years to secure the invitation to apprentice with a respected doctor.

Then the call came and I answered it.

Last month we sent out another call, a different call. To assemble and prepare to fight. Humanity answered. I work amidst the grandest army humanity has ever fielded. It far eclipses the power and equipment fielded by all the ancient kings combined even with our diminished population.

I'm supposed to gamble it all upon a faint hope. It's even more foolish then the call that led me to office. Yet today I sit here just outside my tent handling paperwork, order forms, and intelligence reports that quite honestly make me feel like a clerk back in Rabona not a general in the field.

Fate is fickle and this world is mad. No, the law of this world is madness, and only the dreamers or possessed can prosper.

I wonder where I would be if I'd ignored that call. Proceeded on and become a doctor. Wealthier, with a family, and fewer gray hairs. Well, maybe not, being a doctor is stressful.

The doctors in our camp, by the way, number 120 give or take a dozen. We expect that number to reach 150 before we leave. It's not enough if we have to deal with another red dust storm that flays the skin from a man and leaves his wounds poisoned with heavy minerals.

Why am I here, Rabona? You promised me that only I could do what would need to be done. Why? Do you have no other diseased, infected men? Or is it my common sense that screams out for me to stop as the crusaders urge me forward that made you bring me here?

I cannot even honestly testify about the day my fate was sealed. I tell those who would listen about the day that I left behind my life, a sacrifice that too many praise me for, and yet I lie with every testimony I give.

I never tell them that Rabona's hair was white as snow or her eyes as silver as a witch's.

It hurts me sometimes when I hear the calls at assembly for more to be done against the East's dogs. They do not see victims or daughters whom they've abandoned. Merely agents of the enemy and banned from society for selling their humanity. The price of power was a curse upon their heads and within their souls.

That last I can't disagree with, but we are all cursed.

"Sir," points out one of the guards.

Three members of the supply caravans approaches. One is clothed in black with two escorts a step behind. Her hair is covered with a headscarf, and a blindfold covers her eyes. Yet, her steps are firm and sure. I have seen only one person walk like that. Temple guards step up to block their passage but a white card is shown and they give way.

"Hello, Father Vincent."

"Hello again, Blind Sentinel. It's been too long. Or would you rather I call you Rafaela?"

"Call me whatever you want, Father. Neither name was picked by me."

"I will go with Rafaela then. Did you know it means 'healing god?'"

"Is that what you're after in the South? Healing before it is too late?" She says sharply.

"No, I know there is no cure for me. I am merely seeking another option. I guess I am seeking the promised hope that lies at the end of the rainbow."

"You should turn back. Take these people back home and pray. The monster that lies beyond this wall is not your hope."

"I know. This group has broken nine vases out of ten, is the color purple and bears a hundred thousand pounds worth of suffering."

"..."

"But we also are following a bright light sufficient to fill the entire city of Rabona. Next year the color down here will be black and the weight if we go in any other direction is a million pounds. The only one that may be lighter is to remain at home." I stared straight at her covered scars and said with all the confidence I could muster, "We need to be here."

She watches me. What do I look like to her senses? A monster or a dying man? Then she turns to the men around me. Not the crusaders hungry for blood and justice, but temple guards who know the value of life. They were hand-picked by me so no man among them has a family.

"Then let me and these two girls join you." She says at last with an air of resignation.

"You know we don't accept just anyone." I said looking at the two beside her. One has a slightly sadistic smile while the other is as cold and guarded as steel. Neither feel like unblooded novices, though.

"They aren't good but they also aren't bad girls. I will watch them." She says as if that is the answer to everything. There is a burden on her but I have no right to inquire deeper. She is the Blind Sentinel and she knows better than me what foolishness this is and yet has chosen to come.

"Alright. Thank you for coming along."

"No, thank you. This will mean a lot to me personally. Mucha was once my home too."

"And mine" said the girl with a now sorrowful smile.

I gave them a private tent and added one private request. She accepted it with merely a look and a nod of respect.

As they leave I wonder how many of them once had hair that looked as if it was spun from moonlight and ashes. Certainly, at least, Rafaela given her headdress.

If this were Rabona they would be cast out of the city. In Saintshold they would face inflated prices and superstitious stares. They would do all this thinking they were dealing with a tamed dog. They would be wrong. Rafaela, at least, has proven to be a wolf.

Did we ever give them a choice? How many were stolen from their homes after their powers emerged? How many are daughters born into slavery?

I hate myself for my silence.

I hate myself for my weakness.

I hate myself for being human.

Yet, I am not even that anymore, am I? I turn to my hands and can picture what it could be. The nails could be pointed claws. The skin could darken to a chestnut brown. Then my vision snaps back like a mirage or a reflection in a pool disturbed by a stone. It is merely a human hand.

I may win the war, but this is one battle I am slowly losing. Did Rabona really desire a champion like me? How long before the flesh of animals can no longer sustain my hunger and thirst? I pray I fall in this campaign before that happens. But if not there is always Rafaela's blade.

***

Spoiler: Author's note on Rafaela

Rafaela in Canon was a former #2 that was so harass the organization, which at the time was badly weakened, decided to just exile her rather than deal with trying to execute her. I'm assuming as long as she stayed away in rural areas her yoma hunting wouldn't have attracted too much heat from the Organization since those Yoma were unlikely to have merited an expensive request for extermination.

One clue about her identity was really the blindfold. Her youki field technique in canon would have made it easy to navigate without sight and the disaster with her sister cost her one eye, so relying upon sight to fight would have made her vulnerable. It also made it easier to hide her silver eyes.

Spoiler: A depiction of the Goddess Rabona

I didn't realize this until I started researching things, but of the four gods mentioned in Claymore all are women (Teresa, Clare, Rabonian God and God from the Runoa period that Clare had a statue of). By the way, in this fic the Rabonian religion is monotheistic and these other Gods are considered pagan.

 

[Cheerio]

Chapter 17: Night Messenger

Before me were two children. They moved in synch. They fought as a single entity. Even their breaths were synchronized and fell with an even staccato. It crescendo until at least they fell to their knees. The droplets upon their chin hit the earth, but they were not in synch.

"You look and feel like you are fighting together, but I can feel in your youki. There is too much hesitation." I said looking at Elda. "And too much fury in you." I turned to face Hilda. Her youki jumped like lightning dancing between states.

"I don't think these two can go any further." I said. I did not comment on their ambition, but relished in their disappointment.

"That matches our own analysis."

***

Don't find me. Don't find me. Don't find me.

I closed my eyes. Seeing the darkness around me just made me more afraid, even though it looked the same with my eyes closed.

"Come out trainee Raphtel. Your punishment for harming your prospective handler will only get worse the longer it takes to find you."

....

My heartbeat soars. My ears become deafened. My soul deadens.

"Get the old number 10 in here already. This is getting ridiculous."

Why aren't they searching this closet? It's right here isn't it. I wait, and wait. I hear another girl--older and colder than me.

"All I can hear is a cloud of static. She's somewhere nearby but I can't tell where. It's...odd."

Don't find me. Don't find me. Don't find me.

***

"What was I like?"

"You danced in the sky with as much elegance as you frolic on the earth. But your wings were just silly ornaments. You tore them off, and then pulled yourself up into the sky with a hundred spider legs."

"How grotesque. Even as a beast I would not become so inelegant. Perhaps what you see truly is a reflection with everything flipped."

"It is merely one possibility and it diverged a long time ago. But there is one thing to take away. Your speed was unmatched even by the strongest warrior of that time. Yet, you were defeated."

"I can see why you are not more popular, Ysildre. Are your predictions always this dreadful?"

"Not always, but I've also seen worse. I once met a wanderer, who I saw fusing with another and dying. Then being reborn as an avatar of destruction."

"No spider legs?"

"No spider legs."

"Is there anything I can fuse with?"

"I believe I will take my leave. See you later number 1."

***

Her blade was a mere shadow. I couldn't see it. Only perceive it through the movements I felt my hand taking.

It was curious that I couldn't sense it. Where was the youki going, or what was it becoming?

The youma became diced into pieces. The spiked rib it wielded fell to the ground without ever drawing a drop of blood. The awakened still did not move.

"Do you still not see how futile this is? Even if you kill every Yoma everywhere the people will simply choose another monster to unite against. You will go from necessary evil to the final evil. You will be repaid in castigation and ostracization. The Organization has no use for Hunters without prey and you will be disposed of as the tools that you are." She extended her hand to me. A completely human hand. A gesture of openness and vulnerability.

"Shut up. You don't know me and you don't know jack." Like we'll ever kill all the yoma.

"You want to run, don't you. They always want to run."

She turns towards her man. I need to go now. She might seal my exit. I just need to figure out how to extend the move that only surrounds my sword arm over the rest of my body. My speed is laughable compared to hers, but if I can get my technique's stealth function to conceal my youki signature for just two or three minutes at a time I can lose her in the forest.

"I don't care. You're the worst monster of all. I'm human. Until the day I die." I give myself to it. Not 30% or 50% but 80%. Every fiber of my being dancing upon that cusp. The knife edge is bright and gleaming and seductively promises me eternity and rest. I stay standing upon the blade.

"What is she doing?"

Control it and mold it. The sword is my flesh and my flesh is the sword. The youki is my flesh and the flesh is my sword. My sword is my flesh and my sword is my youki. It moves. I don't.

I leap for the hole in the wall our fighting opened up a second ago. The exit is too far away. She watches me leave with amusement. Bitch. I vanish and enter the darkness.

***

I awoke. It the morning sun peaking through a canopy of leaves paints a shadowy pattern upon everything before me. It reminds me of my state of mind. Half Clare and half the unnamed Claymore from that memory Teresa copied.

"Slap."

"Come on wake up, Clare."

"I'm up. I'm up." I declare. Rising and finding my feet are full of pins and needles.

We had entered a meditative trance to conserve oxygen inside Erin's Other Room. Judging from my surroundings she had taken us out of it and I did a quick scan. I couldn't detect the youki source that had been in the distance when we first began.

"So it worked."

"Like a charm. Good job, Erin."

I finished processing the memories I'd recalled. My own attempts to comb through for techniques or gifted Claymores who were adept at hiding their youki had not really born fruit. There were just too few examples and I didn't really understand the mechanics of how they did what they did. Worse yet, I had no memories from Priscilla, so I also couldn't guess how she was so skilled at concealing her youki.

I turned to look at the town just below us again. We had been traveling south for several days making good time by having Ophelia carry Erin. We tried to suppress our own aura and avoid roads and towns, but we needed to restock before we tackled the wall. We took a chance and entered this town to buy supplies. It was possibly the last place we could do so in Toulouse. As we were leaving Ophelia had felt a vague presence at the very end of her detection range.

As planned, Erin opened her room and brought us both in, and we'd tried to reduce our oxygen consumption by meditating and reducing our heartbeat. Still, there were three of us and Erin needed to stay awake and conscious.

Periodically Erin popped us back into the real world to reset her room and the oxygen in it. She did this repeatedly for an hour before waking Ophelia to check if the presence was still around. Fortunately, it had passed out of range for her. We kept it up for another half hour hoping that if she did return the vague presence would be dismissed.

"Erin, do you need a break?" Asked Ophelia.

"No, besides you'll be carrying me." She said with an odd emphasis while looking away.

Ophelia scooped her up and we took off lightly jogging once more.

We reached the wall a little before sunset. Neither of us wanted to climb it in the dark, but we decided it would be safer to make camp on the other side of it. We were still a little spooked by what had happened earlier.

Erin clung to Ophelia's back as I followed them up. I reassured Erin I'd catch her if she fell off. It helped that she was no longer carrying that big axe. We had convinced her to sell it and buy a halberd instead. It had taken a chunk out of our bandit slush fund and yoma spoils of war, but we have been replenishing that as we go.

Our climb was a lot like scaling a dangerous tree. I was bloody from thorns I'd missed in the twilight when I made it to the top. Halfway up I had started just sinking my sword into it periodically and using it as a hand hold to pull myself up.

"What a view." Whispered Erin. Compared to the Awakened I'd seen the wall was more than twice as tall as all of them. Only Isley might have reached half the height of the wall.

"What do you think it's like over there?"

"I don't know. They've spent over a year without any support from the Organization or the Saints Order. They could have been overrun by Yoma, or they could have been massacred in the fight that between Abyssal Ones. We certainly never had Red Dust Storms in the south before it got cut off."

Below us for hundreds of kilometers stretched green fertile grasslands, but I could also see nearby signs of forests that had been knocked over or picked bald by the fierce storms that occasionally raged. In the distance rose the Slovanská Mountains. What I didn't see, however, were orderly planted fields or moving caravans.

"Their army looks like ants." Said Ophelia as she looked down at the activity going on in the distance to the East. They'd breached the wall by building an array of reflectors. With the concentrated sun they'd somehow burned their way through with a flash that even we'd seen from around 10 km away. What we didn't know was how they were inhibiting it from regrowing.

"And ants can lift several times their weight. Plus they work collectively to solve their problems."

"I just wish they'd go faster. I don't like how long it's taking them to funnel through their hole."

I agreed. Even when we got down we might need to find a good vantage point and then just wait for them to move deeper into the territory before we tried to make our run to harvest the venoms we needed. We needed quills from the Crocodile Monitor and venom sacs from any subspecies of the Hobo Spider. It would be even better if we could harvest acid from the Green Tree Ant, but that was the lowest priority.

"Let's review our plan." Said Ophelia. "When we get down there we need to find someplace to watch them from and then after they move out and have attracted most of the attention of the predators in this region we can try to scurry in and out as discreetly as possible. If we're unlucky and meet anything we can't handle we split up and try to lure it to the humans."

"Aren't you being a little overcautious. I mean sure we know something terrible exists down here that has been wiping out all the scouts, but what are the chances we'll run into it, and, yes, I know I'm tempting fate here but I think there's no need to be so cautious." Said Erin when I rolled my eyes at her.

"That's the thing. I don't think we'll run into it, but that'll be more because we don't present an appealing target then that they can't find us. You shouldn't ever underestimate an Abyssal One. Not even in terms of their youki sensing."

"An Abyssal what?"

"Abyssal Ones are the nicknames the Organization gives to most dangerous three Yoma in the world." Cut in Ophelia with glance at me. "They're in a different league from the rest of us. I once looked up the information on Riful of the West. Did you know she can even regenerate from half of our head? Our only hope is to rely on the fact that Warriors and other youki beings just aren't appealing meals. I fully expect Luciela, Priscilla or even damn Elda to be able to detect us and it's only a question of whether they want to go after us or the buffet in front of them."

"Elda's the one you said the cleansing hand had been hunting, right? I don't think that should be a problem. If they could put up a wall like this what are the chances it's not dead."

"Why are you so certain the Cleansing Hand is the one who erected this wall. It could have been the Awakened Being."

"If there's one thing I know better than you I think it's the capability of the 'god-touched.' This is beyond any one of them. This could only have been a group working. No way did this monster Elda do this even if she was the best barrier builder in the world."

"By the way," I asked. "How do you Rabonians reconcile that some yoma and awakened beings can carry powers?"

"I think they see it as the monsters possessing 'god-touched' and stealing their gifts." She said uncomfortably. "I don't pray as often as I'm supposed to, but they say if you're faithful enough then even if they can possess your flesh they won't be able to use your gifts."

We looked at each other. I wasn't sure how true it was for Yoma, but I wanted to at least explain the truth about what Awakened Beings were. Still, I'd trust Ophelia's power in handling this.

"Given that us warriors can awaken powers even after turning into half-human half-yoma hybrids I'm not so sure that it's them possessing powers so much as them actually awakening it. That said, even the Organization never had a good theory for how powers appeared and come about, so it might very well be divine intervention."

"That's an interesting point of view. I never really thought of my ability as a blessing given how I received it. It always seemed more like compensation from the heavens. I suppose you Claymores would have even more to be compensated for than us."

I turned back to Mucha. It was awe inspiring, but also intimidating. Unless she'd moved on, Priscilla was wandering somewhere within this land. If I met her I didn't think I could control myself well enough to not try to kill her. Try despite the utter hopelessness of it all. I had just enough strength to see how feeble I was. I drew my sword again. Then leapt from the wall swinging on branches on my way down.

"Taking the quick route, eh." Proclaimed a crouching Ophelia.

"NOOOO."

***

That evening I helped train Erin with her new polearm. I had a theory that Erin's power, which required touch, could be extended to anything that her blade touched just like Jacklyn's power did. Unfortunately, we couldn't seem to get it to work. Regardless, she was getting better at fending me off, or leveraging extra reach for more powerful blows. If she could find a Yoma she probably could even give it a fair fight.

Ophelia sat down to the side meditating. She was working on increasing her sensory range as much as possible. It was one of the harder areas for a warrior to improve in, but it was going to be critical to our future survival. I kept half of my attention outwards, though, checking with my own senses for anything.

"Why do you fight like that?" Asked Erin as she collapsed in exhaustion.

"Like what?"

"You're constantly rotating styles. I didn't realize it when I first saw you fight Heather, but you're kind of a jack of all trades fighter aren't you?"

"No, or at least I'm not aiming to be one." I said as I recalled using everything from my pommel to my fists and feet to beat her reach advantage. I had thrown her onto her back countless times and never the same way twice.

"Part of it is that I need to hold back in our matches since I don't actually want to hurt you, so it gives me a lot more options than I'd use in an actual fight." I said. She didn't need to know the primary reason my fighting style was a patchwork of a dozen or more styles of combat. I glanced at Ophelia, but she still seemed to be meditating.

"Great." Said Erin sarcastically.

"Don't be so discouraged." I said. "We were all tadpoles once."

"Some of us still are." Joked Ophelia. "Whoever you are. Reveal yourself."

What? I don't sense anything.

With a woosh a figure appeared on one of the tree branches in front of us. She was a tall with a blindfold covering her eyes. I could feel no aura, but the blade in her hand announced her identity nonetheless.

"Hello, welcome to our camp. I'm Ophelia Victoria. What is your name, surprise guest?" Ophelia asked.

The figure above us paused. "The Blind Sentinel," she said at last.

It wasn't enough for her power. Pseudonyms didn't count or we'd have plenty of intel on the saints. "In that case, what are you doing out here?" Ophelia asked.

"Investigating. Why are you here?" She responded. Her dress wasn't the armor of a warrior. If only I could see the symbol on her sword. It might help identify her, but it was dark and she was too far away.

"We're just preparing for a trip to the south. We have some things to pick up."

"The Organization wouldn't have sent you. Are you seeking to hide?"

"Yes, but first we want to get some suppressants."

Ophelia was sharing a lot, but we weren't getting nearly as much in exchange. I focused on our guest. Her stance was confident, her movements earlier hinted that she was at least a good deal faster and agile than me. I felt that if I was to face her my only hope would be to defend and hope she had some visibility problems if I brought her into harrier terrain. No, I don't think she'll have any problems with visibility regardless of terrain. Psychology. She's only mentally vulnerable, and it's only for a limited time.

"If you're willing to come with us we can share with you a cut." Invited Ophelia.

"No."

"Don't move." Ophelia yelled at Erin. She had been preparing something. Was it the smoke bomb we'd given her? It would have been a waste to use it here against this opponent.Whether for a throw or to charge I couldn't guess. She froze, however, at Ophelia's shout. "I'm sorry, but if that's the case is there anything else we can do for you."

"Move farther away. You're too close." She nodded in the direction of the army.

Huh?

Ophelia winced. "We can suppress our aura further if we move carefully."

"No. If you have no suppressants just leave." Her face and body then paled. Within seconds she'd collapsed into a pile of ash that was lifted away by a breeze.

"Damn."

"What was that?" I asked Ophelia. Erin behind me collapsed in shock.

"A first class warrior and power-user. She was announcing with her final move that we weren't even worth her time to recruit. She just wants us to leave before we can attract trouble to them, or lead trouble back to them. I need time to think."
"You said you were first class?" Asked Erin without giving her any pause.

"Yes, but even without using any youki I could tell I would have lost if I fought her. What did you pick up Clare?"

"Nothing. Maybe her power was interferring, but all I got was that she could be manipulated with mind games. I have no clue how that would work, though."
"Fine. Then we'll have to take her advice." She said bitterly.

We packed up and left within fifteen minutes. As we were leaving we felt something entering the very edges of our sensory range. It was three awakened beings. We ran as fast as we could. Had she sensed them? Is that why she came to our camp?

***

Spoiler: Author's Note

By the way, in case you didn't know Elda (mentioned in volume 4) and Hilda (mentioned by Ophelia and appears in an special extra chapter) may be the same character. I've heard the reason they were spelled differently is because of a translation error (Elda is literal translation of エルダ while Hilda is supposedly the European name that was romanized into Japanese as Elda).

In honor of this Easter egg, I've made Elda and Hilda twins in this fic who are research subjects in the soul link project after Luciela and Rafaela (where they just used sisters) and before Alicia and Beth (where they used twins and broke down their individual identities starting from when they were babies).

Also, Erin's new weapon is a Halberd. I actually considered giving her a bardiche (long handled axe basically) or a glaive, but I like the idea of having three weapons in one (axe, point to stab, and hook/thorn on the back to pull mounted enemies towards you).

Spoiler: Current Known Ranked Warriors

1. Priscilla (unknown epithet)
2. Kujira of the Nothingness
4. God-eye Galatea
6. Heat Haze Hilda
7. Older Sister Ophelia/The Voracious Cannibal
13. Eva
19. Eliza
29. Jacklyn
30. Wendy
32. Clare

Note: These rankings are the last known rankings of these warriors. Its possible they have gotten a lower number as lower warriors died or been pushed up if new high rank warriors joined the ranks like Alicia and Beth.

***


Omake: A History of the Cleansing Hand Part I

The grandfather of the Cleansing Hand was a man named Neptune Verilius. He was a doctor by trade and styled himself a scientist when time permitted him to exercise his hobby. He was a believer in the elder gods, but argued mankind should not simply accept soft-minded explanations that things are the way they are due to divine intervention.

He believed everything could be traced back to natural causes and sought to establish them for everything. His favorite had to do with the difficulty to produce dyes the same color as the sky. He believed blue was the most difficult color to produce artificially because it was the highest of colors and, thus, the most suitable for the floor of the Heavens.

However, the theory he was most notorious for had to do with the contagious nature of the Yoma infection. Through experiments he identified that Yoma could be "created" through introducing Yoma flesh and blood into cattle. He found their intellect inferior to natural Yoma, but they possessed the same instincts to hide their true nature while hunting and feeding on their brethren.

He crossed the line and was declared a heretic when he treated a dying man with yoma flesh and blood. The man made a full recovery and then lost the ability to stomach anything but raw meat. The subject was killed by Neptune when he discovered the man whose life he saved having killed his own son and wife. The only member of his family he managed to save was his daughter.

Still, Neptune was driven out, and his own daughter was taken away by the Organization. For a time it is said that he even worked within the Organization. What he did, however, is not known.

It was years later that he reemerged with a new wildly controversial and dangerous thesis--Yoma were not shapeshifting monsters but a disease. It may even be possible to cure it. His main emphasis, however, was on preventing transmission. He believed clean disposal and quarantines could help fight and eventually exterminate the plague.

He took his results to the Holy City of Rabona, to the council of nobles in Lille, to the merchant princes of the Mucha's Grand Mines. They all refused to back or support any of his changes. Several of them such as the cremation of remains and keeping working men isolated and testing them for signs of infection were just not acceptable.

He eventually found a sympathetic patron in the North, but before even a village to village incentivized roll-out could begin he was assassinated. His plans and research forgotten with his death.

It was resurrected by the founder of the Cleansing hand two years after the first "God-touched," Naomi of the Wild Winds, appeared. The founder was one of the early partners of Naomi and was consumed with an obsession about destroying the Yoma. He actually came into contact with Neptune's research in Lille where he sought a poison that would interfere with yoma regeneration.

The effect of the founder presenting Neptune's research and proposals was wildly different then the effect of Neptune presenting it. His words had weight and earned the ear of many with power and influence. Within a year towns all over began the practice of cremating the body parts and victims of yoma murders with the church's blessing, and all implements that had contact with it were either buried or washed and then stored for a year.

Of course, not all of Neptune's ideal code of conduct were implemented. Many found his demand for working men to be segregated and kept away from the crops and livestock for weeks until they could be completely tested too onerous.

Still, decades after Neptune's research had finally borne fruit. It is truly regrettable that the Heretic, who resurrected and spread his teachings far and wide, could not be satisfied with this.

***

Author's Note: I plan to tell the history of the Cleansing Hand in three parts: the start of the movement, its radicalization, and the split of it into the Cleansing Hand and the Red Hand.

 

[Cheerio]

Chapter 18: The One Clothed in Dust and Ash

Our flight lasts well into the night. They are relentless. We stay under the densest forest cover we can find, which is nowhere near as dense as we'd like. When we pull up to rest Erin takes out a paper packet and adds it to water before downing it.

"What was that? It smelt strongly of blood." I said.

"Uhh, no-nothing."

"Don't tell me that was nothing when it's in your hand. They can probably smell that from three fields away. Come on, breaks over thanks to Erin." Said Ophelia.

I felt a bit of pity for Erin, but agonized over how to express it. Before I could make up my mind though I was overtaken by a fierce stab of fear. They were back. It wasn't just three anymore, though. It was just two.

Ophelia froze. "Two, we might be able to take two." She muttered.

"Let's keep moving." I whispered. "We can stop whenever we want, but we should keep our options open."

We might be able to take two weak ones, but depending upon how far away the third was this could easily turn very ugly. We had been studying them all night just as they had been studying us. I was fairly sure these were not former single-digits based upon how slowly they had been chasing us and how they would take breaks.

"I dislike all this running and hiding. We can take these two." She firmly declared while putting down Erin. "Erin, I want you to enter your room here, and don't come back for an hour. We'll swing by to pick you up an hour from now."

"Break a leg, not an arm, you two." Said Erin.

"Sure, wait what?"

"Uh, it just means 'good luck.' Nevermind, I'm sorry." She finished awkwardly.

"Thanks Erin. Stay safe." I said.

"I'll make my own luck." Ophelia pronounced brashly before she taking off with me hot on her heels.

I felt a heavy fear. This would be my second Awakened Being fight, and this time it was 2 vs 2. Of course, the last time I realized Ophelia had been holding back a lot. "Her record, after all, wasn't just for show," I thought as I tried to reassure myself.

"You're nervous, right, sister? Relax. I'll take them both down, but I may need you to draw some fire in the beginning. My power won't work on them unless I know their names, but it does work on you. If you were about to die I should have gotten a sensed that. Just don't get too close and fight defensively. If you see a weakness don't just shout it out. The Awakened Being last time was stronger than either of these two, but it also turned and targeted you when you blurted out its weakness."

"Then how can I share it with you?"

"We'll speak in code. Don't just blurt out his weakness. Say a lot of things throughout the battle and when you want to point out a weakness say 'Victoria' and then attach a 'not' in front of it."

"Got it. Make it a negation."

"And Clare. Don't go above 55%."

We both entered battle ten seconds later. From a long distance air spears began flattening branches and bushes around us. They weren't hard enough to kill us, but they were aiming to knock us down and separate us. We weaved. Never separating too far.

"Is that the best you can do? My grandmama blows harder on her soup than this." Shouted Ophelia who picked up a large stone and heaved it at the closer of the two. It looked like a spiny hedgehog with slightly longer legs whose joints were also heavily spiked and defended. The other one had three heads joined together atop a giant hairy body. His arms were oversized and thicker than three tree trunks tied together. At first, I'd thought he was using some aerokinesis power, but he was shooting the blasts of air from only his arms that seemed to have some sort pistons on the back. It might just have been an aspect of his biology.

Whatever it was he paused for a second when Ophelia nailed the hedgehog in the side of the head. It did only superficial damage, but afterwards he concentrated all his firepower on Ophelia.

"Warriors, if you wish to leave these lands we'll permit you to withdraw. Don't be fools. You have no idea what you're interfering with." Said the Hedgehog being with cold fury.

"Why are you even chasing after us?" I asked. "Normally don't you leave us alone unless we attack you on a hunt."

"Fools. Do you think we don't know what you're down here to do? This was a hunt the minute you marched down here, and we're more than capable of turning the tables on you."

Ophelia reached the nearest one, and tried to keep it between her and the shooter. He stopped shooting and turned his attention to me. I suppose given how much farther ahead Ophelia was he'd accomplished his objective of splitting us apart. As he charged at me, Ophelia began dancing through the female Hedgehog's forest of spines.

"Victoria, those don't detach. Only long range." I said. Then focused on my own opponent.

With a leap I tried taking off to the side while focusing more of my youki into my legs and my right arm. If I couldn't be at Ophelia's side I at least wanted him nearby with his back facing Ophelia.

"Then we're both fools." I tried to dodge into the air as he fired again, but he somehow released a wide blanket blast of air that hit me mid-jump and knocked me high into the air. He didn't seem to chain his moves well, though, since he didn't try to hit me again until I had already landed on the ground.

I dodged his fist and then tried to cut the back of his forearm open as I sprinted past him. The cut was shallow. Barely ten centimeters deep.

It would be concerning if I wanted to win. Still, he turned faster than I wanted him to. I suddenly realized how I should have fought him. I needed to not let him get close and have him rely on his arm air blasts. They wouldn't do a ton of damage, but if they hit they would force me back buying me time to recover.

It was too late, though. He was already in close. I danced back from several blows, and then sank my sword into the soil to vault over his last punch. I landed on his fat arms and sprinted up with a small youki burst. The main principals of fighting an Awakened Being were still the same as for fighting a human. The fighter with the longer range weapon generally had the advantage. Unless the warrior had an Archer power this was probably the Awakened Being, but once you closed to inside the range of their physical attacks the advantage could flip. If you were close enough to them it could become difficult for them to hit you. You also had a much smaller range of motion necessary to swing your weapon, so their speed advantage broke down.

Unfortunately, my opponent was no fool. Before I could reach his face he blasted a large gust out of both arms. This threw us both back, but it was worse for me. I fell off his body, and tumbled my way to my feet again.

In front of me and a little to my right, I could hear screaming. The female, hedgehog being had been seriously injured. Suddenly I also felt a third youki source. It would be here in thirty seconds.

"You may have been stalling, but so were we." My enemy declared as he stood up and pointed his arms at me. But he did not attempt to attack me. He was waiting for their third partner to arrive. A cowardly move since he had the advantage, but I too froze and stared at my opponent. More details were coming up. His arms were probably tiring and their output had fallen since the beginning of the match. He also seemed to have an easier time just expelling large quantities of air compared to compacting and sending more concentrated and directed blasts. If I wanted to win this I needed to keep the pressure up and exhaust him more since he seemed overly reliant on this trick. Instead I continued to wait and watch.

"She actually did it." Pronounced my enemy in shock. Ophelia had beheaded the hedgehog using the lapse in concentration it had when it detected its third comrade.

It's body language now began to fill with fear and doubt.

"I think things are back to being 2 on 2. Care to imagine how this will play out?"

"Stop." A flying being landed between me and Ophelia. It looked like a rhinoceros beetle but instead of two wings it had four. It had clearly rushed here, and exceeded my estimates of 30 seconds by cutting that time almost in half.

"I have a proposition for you that will see us both leave without further casualties." It said with a stately confidence as it took in the battlefield.

"Oh, Ms. Nameless, and what if I just want to keep going and see if I can't turn my victory into a spree?" Said Ophelia with a sadistic smile.

I felt their youki turn more violent and further fine tuned my youki distribution. Ophelia had not ordered me to go cap my youki usage at 55% arbitrarily. If we used too much we might attract even more attention to this area, but 55% was just enough to use a new trick I'd learned recently. If I focused it in my arm that had once been an awakened being's then I could pull off techniques that would normally require 75% to do slowly. The one I prepared myself to do right now was to elongate my arm in a sharp burst.

"No. You may be able to kill one of us with time, but I won't fight you. We'll both target your friend over here and she can barely handle fighting the weakest of us. Together we crush her before both turning on you."

"Tell us, did a one-eyed warrior come with you in the human's entourage?"

"I don't know. I sensed no warrior's youki from within the army." I said.

"You wouldn't have sensed her youki. She has spent years suppressing it to infinitesimal levels."

"There was one warrior I know for certain that is in that group with no detectable aura. She wears a blindfold, but she could have one eye."

"Fine. Close enough. If you wish us to withdraw you must be our messengers to that party. Tell them, especially any Claymore there that we will hold a service to honor he Empress of the South in two days. If she wishes to take part then come under truce with any she wishes to invite."

Could these Awakened be trying to invite a warrior to a ceremony for an Abyssal? Madness.

"Okay. We can do that, but we'd like a favor as well." Argued Ophelia.

"After you killed Carmilla I don't see why we owe you anything. We may not have been drawn together by anything except necessity, but she was still our ally."

"An ally? Don't you mean your meatshield." She said, giving a nod to the one I'd been fighting. "Hey, I'm not asking for much here. Just tell us what your objective is."

The newcomer tensed but I could see new flaws become exposed. He was confident in his strength and durable exoskeleton, but Ophelia hadn't just cut the enemy. She had torn off limbs with her bare hands. She could do the same with his head or wings if he wasn't in the air. Their teamwork was also lackluster, especially since his partner was preparing to cut and run.

"Are you even sure it would be 2 vs 1? While you could kill me, fighting here would also surely cost this fellow his life." I said gesturing to the enemy I'd been fighting. "Why would he throw himself into that when you're not very close and he could retreat instead."

"Okay. A favor for a favor. You haven't been here long enough to observe the true threat in this land. The dust storm just hides its form. If you enter it then you can see the devourer herself. She consumes everything--humans, yoma and Awakened Beings. The most terrifying aspect is that she's growing stronger. For every youki user she eats her own aura grows deeper and darker. She has turned almost everything of south of the Slovanská Mountains and north of the Raptor's Bay into wastelands."

"So how does grouping up let you fight her? If all three of you are still in the same league as us you might as well just run and hide." I said.

"Don't act like a fool. We're not in the same league as you, whereas that one," it said glaring at Ophelia, "is a true monster."

"Guilty as charged."

"We all work together because we don't want any of us consumed by her and making her even stronger. We can't fight her but we can evade her. Now will you carry our message or not." It declared while priming pointed barbs that emerged from the joints in its exoskeleton.

We took their offer and withdrew. As we took off to pick up Erin they split up the corpse of Carmilla and carried if off.

"Friendly fellows aren't they. It's too bad I never caught their names, but lets just try not to run into them again."

"Sure." I said. There was a lot to take in, but I concentrated on what I could fix--my bone fracture. I was not going to let Erin see me with it. I refused to consider who their Devourer may be, or how much stronger she could have grown since being born...

***

After Clare and Ophelia left and after the two Awakened Beings marched off in another direction, a boulder that was not a boulder stirred. It rippled like watery clay and, as if molded by some divine hand, shook until it emerged as large wild cat. With one last shake of its coat a dusting of gray flakes was sent flying to reveal glistening fur midway between auburn and gold.

In a single lope it left the clearing and began making inhumanely fast strides towards the East.

«***»​

Omake: The History of the Cleansing Hand Part II

The Heretic is the founder and father of the Cleansing Hand. Some say he was Saint Henry before losing his sanity fighting yoma. Others say he killed Saint Henry and even attacked Saint Naomi before being driven off and sent scurrying into hiding. The truth has likely been suppressed, but whoever he was he wielded impressive powers over wood.

What is known and verifiable is that he almost instantly came under heavy opposition from the nascent Saint's Order and church of Rabona. At the time, though, they had little in the way of direct power outside of the Holy City itself. They were satisfied with attempting to blackball him from major markets, ruin his social and political standing, and ban him from many of the most influential cities of the time. It is even claimed that one town he entered in a religious fervor greeted him by pelting him with feces and dung.

None of this truly mattered. The core of the Cleansing Hand was not the merchants, hedge nobles or city lords. It was always in the little people at the end of the road who had lost so much they had little left to live for.

It is not surprising that a man who preached sacrifice for the sake of future salvation would attract a coterie of followers with little to nothing to lose. One of the first initiation rights into the Cleansing Hand that survived even when others were watered down was to swear upon the graves of your forefathers to execute their code unto everyone. Even if it should strike within their own household they will follow the rules unto their mother, unto their father, unto themselves, and even unto their children.

It is said that the Cleansing Hand was nearly destroyed in the second year after it became active because a yoma managed to infiltrate inside their own headquarters. They followed the rule of segregation and the rule of half, and after dividing their members and finding symptoms in a few eople in one of the two groups that half was annihilated. Rumor and folklore would have you believe that the Heretic himself executed his own wife to follow the code. It is possible, however, that this was merely a rumor spread among the masses to improve recruitment and retention. After all, there were a lot of new openings to fill.

Overtime their fame and notoriety spread until every town, village and hamlet lived in fear and hope that they would succeed, but purely by acting elsewhere. The lengths they went to cemented in the populace's mind that Neptune had been right and such grave sacrifice must mean there is something of grave importance to it. Their beliefs were also likely strengthened by traditional victim-blaming practices that had led many villages to cast out the close family of whoever the Yoma took the face of. Now, instead of throwing them out of the village many villages used the even older custom of stoning to take care of the "future Yoma." In cities the more civilized approach of exiling them became enshrined into law, although, quite a few did not make it very far once outside the city walls.

It was at this point that the church began to be appalled at the savagery and took it upon themselves to enact more drastic measures to curb the new deadly practices. Raphael and Father Damien implemented the Code of Safe Passage guaranteeing the rights of the family of the bereaved safety until they could reach a refugee camp that was to be closely guarded by the Saints Order.

Despite initial fears that it would become a breeding ground of new Yoma, the refugee camp became a town, Saintshold, without being subjected to an attack by the Cleansing Hand. They likely allowed it to go unmolested for three reasons: the extent of the security, the need to not antagonize or distract the Saints, who did more and more yoma extermination work, and the idea that these high-risk carriers would be better off consolidated in a single place under the eyes of the Saints than spread across the continent.

With time the refugee camp, grew into a city that was said to be half the work of Artisans and half the work of Rabona herself. It even began to attract non-refugee migrants.

A more severe problem than the refugee camps was facing the Cleansing Hand. Over time the popularity of the Cleansing Hand had begun to wane as more of their work became enshrined into law or custom. Moreover, the sight of many of the populace's favorite saints being divinely touched while fleeing from the Cleansing Hand was taken by some as a call to stop. Finally, victims of the Cleansing Hand, especially those who became saints, fought fiercely against the Cleansing Hand and weakened the group.

The desire to scale back efforts, the questioning of whether there was a need for their efforts with the creation of Saintshol, and finally the rise of more saints with the capability to detect yoma all led to schisms within the organization. They would bring about an even more hate filled and reviled movement.

***

Spoiler: Author's Note

For those not familiar with Claymore male Awakened Beings would be very rare if all awakened beings were former warriors, since the Organization has taken to transforming just girls into hybrids because they can resist awakening longer. The Organization also creates male hybrids for another purpose that hasn't been revealed yet.

 

[Cheerio]

Chapter 19: The Assassin

We argued and eventually decided to go through with delivering the message. It made a decent excuse to be visiting their camp, and if we had to stay away we at least wanted to try to exchange some information with them before we were driven off again.

Still, we found a safe place and rested before approaching them in the morning.

We received a cold reception when we arrived at the army's camp. It had three general color tents. The gray tents of the Rabona church that most of the soldiers, transport and service personnel, medics, and engineers slept in. A far smaller number of green tents that I saw saints take flight from to approach us, and multicolored tents pushed off to the side that I could only assume held sellswords and mercs.

We were delayed by the camp watch until someone could arrive to verify our identity. Basically to check that we weren't yoma in disguise. This gave me plenty of time to stew in regret that I hadn't copied the memories of the Awakened Being I had fought.

While we were waiting and as the level of boredom, especially around Ophelia, reached dangerous levels rumors and curiosity raced ahead of us. Fliers arrived to check out the commotion including a man who I recognized from the Valkyrie Company.

"Erinyes, what are you doing here?"

Erin helped but then turned to face him. I hadn't noticed but she had tried to keep us between her and them.

"Hello, Tom. I've joined a new mercenary band, so you don't have to worry about me anymore."

"Worry? The hell. How do you expect us to stop worrying. You're supposed to be halfway home by now."

"I am. I'm taking the scenic route. Tell the others there's no need to worry. These two are incredible. They beat a voracious yoma all by themselves last night."

"So you want to poach our 'Gatekeeper Erinyes.' Impossible. Even if you could offer her the moon she's already got way better partners." Declared Ophelia.

"Pshht. What would she need the moon for? Besides, she's rich enough she could buy it herself anyway."

"Oh."

That...

"Why aren't you decked from head to toe in the best gear available, in that case?" I asked as my mouth raced ahead of my brain.

"The steward of the estate doesn't actually know or approve of what I'm doing out here." She said while rubbing her head.

Ophelia still looked shocked. It must be twice as surprising for her if she didn't realize her power wasn't going to tell her about potential worldly resources regardless of how substantial they might be.

"Look it doesn't matter. What matters in this world is personal power. You can't just pay people to fully protect you. You can only use your wealth to have yourself avenged. We're south of the wall anyway, so it's too late to go back alone. I might as well stay where I am."

"You wouldn't happen to be connected to the Goldenrod family would you?" Asked Ophelia.

"No, I'm from the Gale family. I haven't heard of the Goldenrods in a long time."

"Sister," yelled Ophelia as she tackled Erin in a hug.

"Wait, you never said you had a sister." Said Tom in confusion.

"Just ignore them. Ophelia's speaking nonsense." I shared.

At that point our verifier arrived. Just like last time she was clothed in black with a blindfold concealing her eyes. But I looked closer this time, and thought I saw the edges of a scar poking out from just above and below her left eye.

"Hello, we came this time bearing a message for you. I hope you won't mind our intrusion." I said with a bow.

"Very well. These aren't yoma." She told the guards. Towards a girl behind her she instructed, "figure out what these three are before they arrive at the Captain's tent."

"Aren't we going to take them to Father Vincent?"

"No."

She began walking off then and with a confused look to the guard we figured out we were to follow her. While we walked Ophelia chatted with the girl shadowing Rafaela. Her name was Lyta Trevor, and she was a recent "god-touched" and a second gen saint. Apparently, most of the children of the older saints were also being touched and gaining power. She wouldn't tell us about her mother, but they hoped that with enough training she'd be able to spot yoma in disguise just like her mother.

The gray tent we arrived at was several times the size of its neighbors and each entrance had a few guards on each side.

"Halt."

"Messengers from the South. I have confirmed they aren't yoma." The Blind Sentinel turned to Lyta.

"They're two in front are too cold to be human. They seem to fit the range for Claymores. The and a human god-touched who has used Might." She said with distaste. "They have told no lies except that one about her vow of sisterhood. I need to ask you three something else, though, before we can proceed. Are you concealing any further weapons upon your person? If so, you must surrender them."

We looked at each other. Erin's 'Other Room' held our blades and her polearm.

"Me and Clare don't carry any weapons. Since we're the only ones who received the message we'll report it. Erin, sorry, but can you wait outside with these gentlemen."

"Partially true. You don't carry any weapons, but you are weapons." She noted.

"Ms." One of the guards said to our escort. "Do you mind waiting for Saint Knights Roland and Kay? They should be here to meet Captain Ricardo in five or so minutes."

"Fine."

After chilling our heels, the two knights in armor (that was not quite as shiny as I pictured), appeared and we were escorted in. I rather felt it was a bit much considering our message itself was little more than the dust storm's a monster, the Awakened Beings or as they know them the "Voracious Eaters" are working together to avoid the dust storm monster, and an invitation for a warrior I was pretty sure had been beside us the entire time.

"Yo, Ricardo. We bring greetings and ill tidings." With her theatrical nature Ophelia strode in without a care in the world.

"Captain Ricardo."

"At ease, men. First, what are you warriors doing here in the first place?" said Ricardo.
"We're trying to harvest some animal parts. If you can get them for us we'll be willing to make it worth your while."

"We can talk about that later. What is this message you said you had."

"Please. Let's first observe introductions. So many people I've never met. My name is Ophelia Victoria. She's Clare, and my companion outside is Erinyes Gale. Who might you fellows be?"

"Captain Ricardo of the 1st Crusader Infantry Unit. He's Saint Roland and Sir Kay. Finally, behind me is my Vice-Captain. You don't need to know his name." He finished with an air of finality.

Ophelia sighed at the laconic descriptions. "There are two parts. We have a message we were told to deliver, and we have information to trade."

"The message is free?"

"Yes, we were attacked and a condition to let us go was that we deliver a message." She frowned. "It is private and frankly I doubt you'd find it of any use, so it would hardly be fair to trade it. I plan to pass it on to the Sentinel here, and then let her see who else she thinks it should be passed to. Suffice to say that it shouldn't affect the army since it is not information on an attack, enemy or plot."

"I didn't come here to hear you yammer on about private messages. If you have information to deliver than deliver it." Bristled Kay.

"First, what I'd like is either supplies or information on what you've scouted, especially threats or major surviving population centers."

***

After some negotiation we three things. The South had people but most appeared to have hidden themselves in mine shafts, so there were certainly no markets or massive movements of people.

The Awakened Beings were not harassing or attacking the army. Neither were the yoma. If they wanted to eat they found some isolated survivors, but mostly they were lying low too.

Lastly, the red dust storm was nowhere in sight to the east, or west as far as their scouts had found.

In exchange we shared with them what we'd learned about the storm's true nature, and the response by the south's former apex predators. We were met with silence and then disbelief. Our source was untrustworthy, after all.

While the outrage and planning reached a fever pitch we were forgotten momentarily. I turned over a few choice memories from Lyta that I had copied earlier. Her introduction to Father Damien and Captain Ricardo along with a dozen and a half other saints confirmed my guess. She knew next to nothing about their plans and had only recently awakened her powers. She didn't even have extensive memories of how the saints trained their God-touched. Given her ability to sense body temperatures and lock-in/maintain temperatures around her, I suspected she might just be their least useful yoma sensor.

I looked around the room. I wanted to get a copy of someone else's memories, especially one of the head saints who would know a lot about their training.

My ploys, however, failed. They were not interested in handshakes, nor did they appreciate me approaching any of the leaders in that room. Worse, because of their armor I would basically have to kiss them to get anything.

Unfortunately, we were not invited for the next part of their meeting. It sounded like they arguing over how many more high altitude patrols to do, and stepped up evacuation plans.

"If you see them again tell those fiends a common enemy has not made us allies so long as they continue feasting on humans. Now, please leave."

"Alright. We have no intention of meeting them again, though."

I couldn't help feeling as if we'd slightly misplayed our hand. They wouldn't be going very far South since there seemed to be pressure to prioritize the evacuation of the mine refugees they'd discovered.

We took our leave with our blindfolded guard shadowing us. Together with Erin we made our way out of camp. Before we left Tom offered us another pack loaded with more supplies that he claimed was the least he could do if she was going to be as stubborn as a rock. She hugged him before pushing him away when he tried to return the hug.

Finally when we had left the sentries behind us we turned to the other former warrior there.

"Can you tell us if you wear that blindfold to conceal silver eyes, or a ghastly scar?" I reached for it. She avoided me.

It was a risk, but one Ophelia had encouraged me to take. I saw the wisdom. She was unlikely to cut us down before she heard our message.

"That's no concern of yours."

"Fine." Ophelia said more courteously than I'd ever heard her before. "But this message was meant for a one-eyed warrior. It would be a shame if we delivered it to the wrong person."

"Will you at least draw your sword and please allow us to see it?" I begged.

She waited a second and then shrugged. With a flourish her blade appeared before us. Two bowed out wings with three lines stretching up above it. The center one longest of all. It was not one I recognized, which meant something. She was old. Even older than Teresa or Hysteria.

"The message they wished us to pass is an invitation to any warrior who wishes to join them in two days for a service to honor Luciela. They say it will be held under truce, which will even extend to guests you bring. What they did not say was where it would be held, though. A strange omission." I said.

"Not necessarily." Cut in Ophelia. "This is an empress, which has fallen. I imagine whatever they have in mind will be flashy enough for us all to recognize. I'm more curious about why they're holding it now."

Erin glanced between us. The tension in the air obvious even to her. "Do you plan to go?" She at last couldn't resist asking towards our guest.

I felt it then. It thickened in the air. It didn't feel like youki, but whatever it was felt real. Heavier than air and more dangerous than killing intent.

"The Claymore you brought an invitation for is dead. There will not be any attendees from this camp."

Before we could I could process what she'd said and respond, I felt the pressure vanish. The spot where she had been was empty.

Erin was the first to fill the silence. "Sh-should we give the message to some others. Since it wasn't her perhaps we didn't give it to the right Claymore."

Ophelia shook her head. "If there are any others it doesn't matter anyway. She was the only one who'd dare to attend such a gathering anyway. Do you really think we can trust their claims of a truce? She'd probably be fine either way, though, given her power."

"Plus, we gave it to the right warrior." I hesitantly offered. "When I went for her blindfold I moved from a spot that would've been a blind spot if she had been blinded in the left eye."

"But she dodged you."

"Yes, but she dodged me too quickly. She moved the exact instant I started moving. She had her attention on me at that time. To be specific, she had her attention on the person in her blind spot." I locked eyes with Erin and Ophelia before continuing.

"I think she trained to overcome a past weakness. She had a shortcoming when she lost that eye and drilled herself into eliminating it. The blindfold isn't about hiding her silver eyes or a distinctive scar. It's part of training for a technique she's nearly mastered."

One she has spent a long time working on. I realized suddenly what she was. She had become the perfect assassin. Her youki's utter silence, her ability to operate in complete darkness, and even her disposable clones all melded into a power set that let her hit way above her weight class--a weight class I already knew was in the very low single-digit territory. If I wanted to kill Priscilla I would have to become a warrior like her.

***

Spoiler: Author's Note:

Lyta Trevor's power is like a better version of Uiharu's Thermal Hand (from A Certain Scientific Railgun) which means if she activates her power near a campfire the camp fire's heat will neither decrease nor increase. What happens to the extra heat it is generating from burning? Well, her power first of all prevents the energized molecules from radiating heat outwards and thus letting it escape, and then also stores or suppresses the fire from generating additional heat that would push the temperature above what it had been when she activated her power. Likewise if you had a freezer full of frozen food, her power would preserve everything and keep it from defrosting. Thus, her thinker power is more of an accessory, but works because yoma, Claymores and humans naturally keep different normal body temperatures.

 

[Cheerio]

Interlude: The Devourer

Hunger. It had once been insatiable. Then it had become a bearable ever-present ache. Now, it was driven by something else entirely. A fear as fathomless as the abyss, and as unreadable as the tides or the moon.

At night when I remember that being I witnessed all I can do is shout my fury and hatred at the stars. This land, my land no longer feels like my own. I am simply a traveler on it once again. As I was long ago when we two were one and I was powerless to protect my sister.

Its not enough. Never enough. But I hate to feast and eat knowing the faces and feeling the thoughts slide past me each time. My sister would never forgive me. She hated it when she saw me long ago.

Should I have taken her too? Carried her off whether she wanted to or not? I sometimes wonder what I'm doing here? How can what was broken ever be fixed?

For a long time I thought I just needed to wait for her to awaken. She was no longer in their ranks so when the time came she would have no one to send a black card to except me. When she came before me I would awaken her forcibly. That's what Sheila was for, and she had become quite an expert at that.

Instead, she eschewed all usage of youki. Her aura diminished until it was no larger than a dust mote. Had she rejected me?

It doesn't matter, now. I never had the strength to protect her. She never needed to be protected. She had hidden and become invisible, while I had arrogantly roared from the heights of the Slovanská's peaks to the edges of marsh locked edges of Mucha lost to time and even insulated from Yoma--but not from me.

I was so blind.

The wind denies me even my tears. It rips everything from me and offers me a hollow promise. I can feel the gap between us closing--by mere dust motes. Even if I gobble down all of Mucha it will take decades to get anywhere close to her might.

My only hope is to devour Riful and Isley. But the Lord's of the West and North are no fools. Whoever I don't attack will crush me from behind after we both tire ourselves fighting. That doesn't even include the other danger. What happens if they awaken again? If their powers are anything like mine they could turn the tide in an instant. There is no way to predict the victor.

I hate my powers. They remind me of my defeat. Of my lowest moment. That I am no more than the sand beneath her feet or the dust upon her cloths. Beneath her sight or concern.

No, I don't hate my powers. I hate that they're connected to her.

I am tired.

Were we ever meant to live centuries. Isley once wandered through decades ago and challenged me to debate about it. Splendid times those were back when the world made sense.

His claims that we are in defiance of nature and the order of our world seemed like spiritual nonsense. How could I be unnatural when I feel so alive and vibrant with a ribcage snapping in my mouths. Does he think we ought to become herbivores? Not even warriors can manage that. We are the apex predator.

I understand what he means now. She wasn't of this world. She defied all sense.

Decades wouldn't cut it. They would put us on the same level but something tells me she won't remain at her level. She'll continue to grow more powerful.

If the moon was jealous of the sun should itself to devour the stars? If the stars weren't enough should it seek to devour the dawn.

I'm a fool. A fool who even knows she's a fool.

It is time to dine. Hate me. Fight me. Kill me.

I am not truly alive if Isley is right. Why then should I fear death? I'm sorry sister. I am still the failed experiment. I will probably not be able to become your shield or your sanctuary. But I will try. If I fail then I will finally be able to find out which of us were right, Isley.

***​

Omake: The History of the Cleansing Hand Part III

Rig Verilius was a nephew of Neptune Verilius, which granted him a certain cachet of legitimacy within the Cleansing Hand. However, he was a very different man from his uncle.

In 52 FFF, the Heretic sought to moderate their rules to accompany new forensic discoveries from saints and scholars guild members, who had taken Neptune's research seriously and devised chemical treatments to better tackle the problem. He was met with stiffer opposition than he expected.

In some, rejecting chemical solutions was natural considering what it may have meant. The murders, their sacrifices, everything they'd fought to do could have been done with some miracle liquid or gas from these artisans. It made them criminals and murderers instead of saviors if the problem could tackled so easily.

For many others it had ceased or never was about possible yoma contagions. The violence, fire and pain were a purpose unto themselves.

The Heretic was defeated by Rig Verilius and chose to leave the organization. At the helm of the New Cleansing Hand his first order of business was moving them closer to Saintshold, which had become a major center for commerce.

He then began to add pillaging from the half who they exterminated to their usual practices. When that brought greater heat from saints he also declared that their opposition was no more than expected. He argued that the source of the powers of the "God-touched" was a mutation from of yoma plague. He argued they were the "god-cursed" not the "God-touched" and the miracle treatments they tried to foist onto the Heretic were no more than their attempts to weaken and divide the Hand. With heir new revenue source he promised to expand their operations and bring in more men with better arms.

The one mistake he failed to account for was the effect of this new doctrine on the remaining God-touched within his ranks. They strongly rejected this and split from the group taking many of the oldest members.

Rig without the benefit of God-touched to counter the saints or the church were tracked down and suffered a series of humiliating defeats. Eventually the remaining members of the Cleansing Hand broke apart into many smaller gangs and villagers who became tougher to harass by merit of being so decentralized.

Although some would continue to call them The Cleansing Hand another nickname became even more popular for these gangs--The Red Hand. The most infamous groups were led by "God-cursed," who seemed to relish in their infamy.

Meanwhile, the separatist members of the Cleansing Hand claimed that they were the only ones following Neptune and the Heretic's true vision. Ironically, instead of continuing to slaughter their way through villages hit by yoma according to the Heretic's rules they began a campaign targeting voracious eater yoma groups and the Organization in the East. They too apparently became victims of ideological drift until their infamous battle at the end of year 53 FFF. Their tactics interestingly enough would not have been possible in the old Cleansing Hand that had been 99% humans without any powers. They invented a new style of combat that concentrated on employing a team of God-touched with enough mobility to drag their battle over 100 km of rugged jungle.

This battle with a monstrous giant yoma ultimately resulted in the creation of the Briar Wall, and a cessation of communications with the South. Whether they were the victors or losers was never confirmed, but their members have claimed it was not a wall built for retreat but a wall to imprison.

Nevertheless, to many within Toulouse this became the last straw. The Crusaders spent a time searching and attempting to eradicate the remaining Cleansing Hand members. This campaign was far from successful. It is said, that for every member of the Cleansing Hand they caught they strung up to homeless vagrants beside him to appear to be winning their war. Pressure only eased as worries increased over the difficulties of communicating or taking down the infamous wall.

The Cleansing Hand, which had struck fear into the hearts of countless had forever changed the world, but to most its greatest days of glory were behind it. Ironically, despite the Saints fierce hatred of them, they were greatly shaped by their policies and the consequences. By some estimates the Cleansing Hand had even been the traumatic catalyst for 25% of the God-touched receiving their powers.

The man Rig, or Rigaldo Verilius, was reportedly stabbed through the heart and left for dead a few years after the separatist faction split off. In some towns on the outskirts of Toulouse the day of his death came to be celebrated as a holiday. Such was their hatred of the Cleansing Hand and especially of the founder of the Red Hand.

***

Author's Note: Rig's ties to the Verilius family were confirmed by the Verilius family's patron--the man who had first sponsored Neptune's work.