The Darkened War

Ch.41

   Ash had left a day ago leaving Cerberus to take care of the rest of the dirty work. It wasn't that Ash didn't like killing, or that the sound of thick red liquid pooling on the ground disgusted him—he was simply just growing tired of it, the smell of death. In all honesty, the job of destroying Rayland was boring. Cerberus was a child, eager one moment and bored and whining the next—where Ash simply questioned himself. Why they'd spent such time destroying the entirety of Rayland, rather than just what was necessary. At least it was over; finally they would move on.

Shortly after Akuma had taken Antinanco's land, they had also located their new territory. It was no secret that hitting Effulgence next would kill two birds with one stone. How perfectly ironic, Ash thought, that Cerberus had promised Aaron he would destroy Effulgence—and yet, that would be what knocked down Antinanco too—and perhaps the other light cults as well. A smile crept onto the Akuma leader's face, what a beautiful picture that would be. Of course, he would never deny them the option of joining Akuma instead of losing their lives: anything to grow his cult. Cerberus might be playing his games, but Ash was fighting for strength, and killing for power. If things went as planned, even Yami would be helpless against him. However, that did not make the other dark cult useless in the meantime. So as he watched Cerberus grow closer, finally returning and crossing the Yami borderline, he smiled. If Yami agreed, it would certainly speed things up.

Ash followed Cerberus—who, like an annoying child, was prancing about and humming softly ahead of him—the closeness of Antinaco's destruction putting him in a state of bliss. When Cerberus spun on his heels facing Ash, he could have sworn there was a twinkle in the kid's eye–and a smirk matching it–as he ran his eyes along the tents of theYami village. All of them were entirely black in material, some with red symbols, others with violet—the same color as Cerberus's eyes. He couldn't read them—the Yami symbols were entirely different from anything he had seen in either Antinanco or Akuma, but he guessed they were some sort of protection spell. Ash didn't bother thinking too hard about it, he only smiled slyly as he felt a cold hand grip his shoulder—the claws digging in. Ash's black eyes flickered back to see a pair of red ones piercing through him. The boy they belonged to was the same age as Cerberus, handsome, with wavy blond hair.

Ash breathed out the words with a half laugh as he said, "Now, now, it seems you still have no trust."

He only received a cold glare from the boy before he responded harshly, "When you give me something to trust I'll consider it. Maybe once you explain what members of Akuma are doing on Yami territory. You had better give me a good answer, or," he purred, and then in the blink of an eye had his claws at Ash's throat before continuing, "You won't have vocal cords left to plead your case."

Ash chuckled, and said, "We came to bargain, not fight. Though, that's not to say we're leaving fighting out of the equation entirely. We do plan on fighting a cult, but not yours, rather we're seeking your help—an alliance."

The boy released him, taking a step back with a scowl,"What reason would Yami have to align ourselves with you?"

Ash only smiled back in his direction, before saying,"I think, Achmetha, we should go inside and sit down. It's quite the interesting story if you ask me."

Achmetha only frowned in his direction before nodding, and leading them back to his tent and sitting down across from them, lazily leaning against the back of a chair. Then his red eyes flickered to Cerberus. "Who is this tagging along with you?"

Ash's smile didn't fade as he watched Cerberus shift away from him, and choked down a chuckle. Cerberus rarely got unnerved, but Yami was still a mystery to the young cult leader, and it was rather amusing the way he stared with wide eyes. Returning Achmetha'sgaze, Ash said,"He is now a leader of the Akuma cult, ever since Adam's death."