The Red Hand

Chapter 279 –  Do it Again!

"You... I remember you." Amakusa locked eyes with Shinlua, recalling the not so epic battle that had taken place just outside the Spirit's Capital City.

{So, you're still alive.} (Amakusa)

"I should hope so." Shinlua sighed. "You brought me quite close to death. The least you could do is remember my face." She was quite angry on the inside, but unlike Mizumi was able to hold it in much better.

Amakusa clicked her tongue in irritation. "I suppose that's the second time Dancing Pedals let me down." She'd so far failed to kill two important targets with what was suppose to be her most powerful attack, and that was two times to many for her.

"Really? That's what you have to say?" Mizumi growled, anger visible on her face. "Not I'm sorry? Whatever, its not like I'd forgive you either way, but I'd still like to hear it."

{How dare this bitch just act all free-spirited!} (Mizumi)

"What point would there be in asking for forgiveness?" Amakusa replied. "I'm well aware that I've participated in something horrific, and I'm not going to sit here and prostrate myself like a fool." She figured it was fateacompli at this point and had no desire to get into it with the Water Spirits.

{Father was right. I did end up causing misery with my power... I should've listened to him when he told me to ensure that I used what I was born with responsibly.} (Amakusa)

"Well, you will if I tell you too, but that's neither here nor there." Akagi snickered.

"Punishment or whatever you plan on doing with this one can come later." Halifax interjected, wanting to stop the conversation from getting derailed. "Our primary goal should be to stop the Gods' plan before it's too late. You can abuse Amakusa as much as you want afterward."

{I like how she just doesn't give a fuck what I do to the pet. Such a good friend!} (Akagi)

"Plan?" Amakusa didn't understand what she was talking about. "What plan? You've already thwarted their plan by beating us."

{What other plan needs thwarting?} (Amakusa)

"Oh you know, nothing special. Just tinsy-tiny thing called THE PLAN TO KILL EVERYONE ON ENORIS!" Mizumi answered sarcastically.

“Its not that important, I assure you.” Akagi laughed.

"What?!?" Amakusa nearly choked on her own spit. "Hold on! We were just going to kill the..." She paused, choosing not to finish her statement, seeing that Mizumi was about to smack her upside the head.

"If that was true, then things would be done with Akagi sending you packing, but sadly, it's not." Halifax shook her head. "Elariel tipped me off to their real plans, and it goes far beyond just finishing off Mizumi and her people."

"Real plans? And wait! You spoke with Elariel?!?" Amakusa was surprised. Almost nobody could just speak to a Goddess, and even the Heroes, save Hitomi, couldn't count on regular contact with them.

{Who the hell is this girl?!?} (Amakusa)

"I did. Elariel contacted me via an intermediary, and she explained..." Halifax told Amakusa everything that she'd learned, and by the end of it, Amakusa had become white as a sheet.

"No... No... No..." Amakusa went into shock. "They... No..."

{NO!} (Amakusa)

"Yes!" Akagi nodded. "Those Gods only ever saw you lot as pawns to save their own skin. Once their plan of killing the Spirits for their energy failed, they resorted to plan Save Our Assess."

{Though the irony is that by trying so hard to save themselves they ended up unleashing something that would guarantee their destruction. What's that called in writing? A self fulfilling prophecy or something?} (Akagi)

"And we... we just... we went along with... FUCK!" Amakusa gripped the bed sheets tightly between her fingers, her knuckles turning white. "We were used... We... We did such horrible things..." She looked to Mizumi. "We thought we were saving the world! We thought we'd be Heroes!"

{We were suppose to be helping people!} (Amakusa)

"Well, ya weren't." Mizumi practically spat at her. "Instead of being the big Heroes that saved the world, you instead killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people during your genocidal crusade!" She scoffed. “Good fucking job, Hero! Ya really knocked that one out of the park!”

{I want to string this girl up right now!} (Mizumi)

"In all fairness, and as dark as this may sound, if the death of your people would've actually saved the world, then I can understand their decision from a utilitarian point of view." Akagi's comment drew a death glare from the water Spirit. "Come on. You know I'm right, Mizumi."

"Right or wrong, killing that many people..." Shinlua shook her head. "I don't even want to think about it." She understood Akagi's point, but it didn't sit well with her.

{It's not something the average person could stomach, but the cold logic is that if Enoris could've actually been saved with the death of a few hundred thousand people, that would've been the right decision.} (Akagi)

"I wish I could've done something to stop it." Halifax's fist tightened in irritation. She'd been forced to watch from the sidelines and was deeply regretting not doing something to stop the madness. "I'm sorry, Mizumi..."

"You couldn't do anything about it, so please stop with the apologies." Mizumi sighed, not wanting Halifax to shoulder unwarranted blame. "What matters now is how we bring those bastards to justice." She turned to Akagi. "So what's the plan? You've got one of the Heroes right here, and I wouldn't mind doing some expedited justice on her myself."

{We might not like torture or other such things, but I've learned a bit about painful deaths by watching Akagi and there are a few things I'm EAGER to try out on this girl.} (Mizumi)

"For now, she's mine." Akagi refused to hand Amakusa over. "She's my new pet and will remain so until I'm done with her."

"You can't be serious." Mizumi deadpanned. "She needs to pay for what she's done!"

{LET ME AT LEAST TORTURE HER A BIT!} (Mizumi)

"She's get what's coming to her in due time, but until then, I want to play with her." Akagi smiled. "I think you'll approve of me keeping her once you see what I've done."

"No!" Amakusa protested, sensing danger from Akagi's smile. "Please take me away!"

{I DON'T WANT TO BE THE DEMON LORD'S PET!} (Amakusa)

"Akagi..." Halifax glared at the Demon. "What did you do?"

"I told you! I found a new pet!" Akagi went over and stuck her hand out to Amakusa. "Shake!"

"Woof!" Amakusa woofed as she put her hand in Akagi's palm. "No! I'm not a dog!" She tried to resist as Akagi forced her to do tricks on the bed, but it was futile.

"That's fucked..." Halifax shook her head in disapproval. "But... Considering what she's done... I'll consider it appropriate punishment."

{Forcing her to become a subconsciously loyal slave is horrifying... I really hope she doesn't start doing that to more people... But darn if I don't think this will be funny!} (Halifax)

"Whose' a good pet?" Akagi asked as she pet Amakusa on the head.

"Not me! I'm a very bad pet!" Amakusa cringed internally as she was forced to speak these words.

"You know what, I'm ok with this!" Mizumi burst out laughing as she watched Amakusa struggle to not say cringe things. "If you keep her like this for the rest of her life, then I'll consider this to be fine!"

{SUCK IT, PET!} (Mizumi)

"PLEASE KILL ME!" Amakusa pleaded for death, but it wasn't happening.

{I love it when they beg to die.} (Akagi)

"The pet is not allowed to die unless I say so, sorry." Akagi wagged her finger. “And I probably won't be signing off on that for some time, so too bad.”

{NOOOOOOOOOO!} (Amakusa)

"Are you going to do this to the rest of them?" Halifax asked about the Demon's intentions toward the other Heroes.

"Hmmmm, nah." Akagi shook her head. "I only need one pet, and it would be boring to do the same thing to the rest of those idiots." She figured that Muichiro would likely be tossed in the same hell as Armalthy after what he did to the Spirits, but as for the other two she had no clue what the appropriate punishment should be. "That reminds me, what happened to the rest of the Heroes anyway? I assumed they returned to Enoris, but do you know where they went specifically?"

"We were told that breaking the crystal would scatter us at random around Enoris, so I can't tell you where they went." Amakusa shook her head. "But I do know that a quick return like this is going to spark concern from the Gods, and the moment they realize what happened they'll begin preparations to deal with you." She figured that they would already be freaking out.

"Let them try and stop the inevitable. I already used my power to put memory blockers on your little friends, so they won't know anything about me." Akagi shrugged.

“When did you do that?!?” Halifax asked.

“When I first descended in all my kitty glory.” Akagi snickered.

{Had that idiot not run his mouth, I was going to attack with MEWS, but then I got angry and things just went sideways from there. Oh well, I'll just do that later.} (Akagi)

“Ah... Yeah... Right...” Halifax rolled her eyes.

"Are you really a Demon Lord?" Amakusa asked. "The stories about Vikes said that he was an insane creature that just killed and destroyed for fun, but you just seem like an ordinary psychopath."

"Akagi is absolutely a Demon Lord." Halifax answered her question. "I found and killed Vikes all those years ago so I can guarantee that's what she is, and any subconscious doubts about her identity vanished the moment I heard her use the same tongue as that monster."

{I'd never forget that evil voice, and how horrifying that tongue is.} (Halifax)

"Wait! You fought and killed Vikes?!?" Amakua looked between Akagi and Halifax. "Then why aren't you DOING IT AGAIN?!?" She pointed rapidly at Akagi. "Demon Lord, right there! Vanquish it!"

{Take that sword and kill the evil!} (Amakusa)

"Yeah, Halifax, why don't you vanquish me?" Akagi nudged her in the arm. "I'm standing right here. Go on, you know you want to use that blade to end my existence."

{You're such a... I'm going to demand kitty time later for all the stupidity that you put me through today!} (Halifax)

"To answer your question, I won't do something like that because not only is that not possible for me, but it's also unneeded." Halifax sighed, ignoring Akagi's laughter. "I think it should be obvious, but our resident pain in the ass isn't the same as Vikes. For one, she doesn't just murder indiscriminately, and my distaste for her kind aside, even if I could kill her, I wouldn't." She shook her head. "To kill her just because she's a Demon Lord and for no other reason would go against my morals."

{That would be no different than some of the asshats I've dealt with that hated one race just because what a few of them did. Though I suppose that most people would be forgiven for having a kill on sight policy for Demon Lords.} (Halifax)

"But it's mostly because she can't." Akagi snickered, dodging Halifax's attempt to swipe at her.

“Quiet you!” Halifax hissed.

"I'd rather Akagi not get destroyed anyway. We need this idiot to help rebuild our entire society." Mizumi commented. "As loath as I am to admit it, having a Demon Lord to back our people up was probably the best thing we could've asked for."

{At least this way we've got the biggest bully in the school yard backing us up.} (Mizumi)

"Aww, she's being tsundere." Akagi laughed. "She's so cute! I could just pinch her widdle cheeks!"

“You already do that...” Mizumi sighed.

"Wait!" Amakusa started looking around the room rapidly. "Where is she?!?"

"She?" Akagi didn't know who she was referring to.

"Inori!" Amakusa started to panic as she looked around for her trusty partner. "I remember attacking you with her and-" She paused, recalling what happened to the sword. "She broke..." Her hands started to tremble. "You... You broke Inori..."

{She's gone... My... Inori... Dad...} (Amakusa)

"What's so important about a sword?" Mizumi asked.

"Ahem..." Halifax coughed.

"Again, what's so important about a sword?" Mizumi asked with a nasty smirk on her lips.

*SMACK*

At her second comment, Halifax cracked her on the back of the head.

{Asshole.} (Halifax)

"Owchi!" Mizumi cried out in pain.

{Worth it!} (Mizumi)

"You know well that a warrior's weapon is everything to them." Halifax sighed, understanding why Amakusa was upset. "Losing one that you've bonded to is never pleasant, and from what I know about Amakusa she and her blade were close."

{She's apparently attached to it to such an extent that some thought her crazy. I heard that she even talks to it, though she's far from the first to do so.} (Halifax)

"If it's your blade that you're looking for..." Akagi reached into her inventory and pulled out the snapped sword, tossing the pieces on the bed in front of Amakusa. "I grabbed them after I knocked you out. I was going to inspect it later and see if it had any neat properties."

"Inori..." Amakusa slowly picked up the pieces, clinging to them. "I'm so sorry... This is my fault..." Tears welled in her eyes.

{Well damn, now I feel bad... Well... Kinda but not really. More for the sword than her honestly...} (Akagi)

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