The wolf and the fortune teller…

"What the hell do you think it is....?" Christian groaned and batted his eyelids lazily.
"Anyway, we've ain't got much time. I'm not that cool in Czech, but I'll give it a shot..."

*After approximately 20 minutes of underwater translation*

"...The wolf howls for the dead...
...the dead dies but is not yet dead...
...the third...(I can't read this part...)...incognito...
...He who seeks past long gone will discover...
...seek the big(...or great, i suppose) east, and thy shalt find...
...what you once knew in times behind."

"...Frankly, I have no idea what it means. What about you?" Christian turned towards
Trevor, shooting him a quizzical look.

******

It was close. There was a Voice in Its head, telling It so. It knew. It saw. It believed.

It was close. It had friends, writhing, insectlike fiends that would strip flesh from bone
faster than a shoal of piranhas. It had spies, black crows in the skies that saw thorugh
maggoty eyes. It had power, demonic trees swaying to Its accord, their branches stretching
out like ripping claws.

It was close.

“Well I don’t truly understand the whole idea, but, first it say something about living dead, and later it say something about a place named the big (…or great) east, I can’t truly find the shape in it.”

Trevor repeated the prophecy in his mind searching for something he could have missed, “The great East?” he thought, “East…. It could be a country, Great… what’s the biggest east country…. ¿China? Well let’s leave that for other time”

“Chris, I’m worried about the part of the living dead, I think it could be the way the Earl creates akumas, but ¿what if it’s not that?, ¿do you know about another way a dead could return from death?”

"...I think it refers to several different prophecies." Christian Nightwish stated matter-of-factly. "If the
old geezer knew he was gonna pop, he may have written down as many things as possible and hid them
around here....for us to find, maybe? It's possible he foresaw our coming..."

"China, huh? You said you were looking for something? Well, the mysterious Orient would be as good a
place to start searching as any. Though its big, though..."

Christian's eyes narrowed as he heard Trevor's point about the living dead.

“Chris, I’m worried about the part of the living dead, I think it could be the way the Earl creates akumas,
but ¿what if it’s not that?, ¿do you know about another way a dead could return from death?”

"...Several, and none of them too appealing for my tastes." the boy made a face. "Earl's ain't the only
player around in the 'sorceror' category. There are others...some allied with the Earl like the Noah Clan,
some just content to watch from afar, and some...whom not even I nor the Earl can fathom..."

"And sometimes," Christian said as his red eyes darted to a disturbance in the west, "Undead are just
child's play of what lies under..."

"Not a great time to hang around. There's evil afoot in the air...let's scram."

Quickly, he made for shore.

Trevor sighted and followed Chris; at least now he knew where to start searching, He made to shore and watched into the forest, they needed to get out of there and soon.

“Well Chris, I got what I came for, I expect you too; if you still need something or need any help I’ll be more than glad to help you…”

Trevor opened his eyes wide a second before a black shadow jumped from behind him taking Trevor into the cold water, for some seconds there was not movement in the water where Trevor and his attacker had fell, a couple of bubbles surfaced, then again the water kept still.

"Sure, Trev...Trev? Trev~"

Christian turned around to see that Trev had disappeared. "...A-re? He's...gone?"

Chris turned towards the shore, groaning,"Hell, Trev, what a time to disappear on me..."
He climbed ashore and walked a few foot through the forest. The atmosphere was sullen,
heavy- and something was just not right. Warily, Chris kept an eye out for anything out
of the odinary.

A crunch below his feet brought his attention to the ground. "Eew, a bug." He grumbled,
looking at a crushed, centipede-like insect crushed below his feet. A LARGE centipede, one
that was easily 20 cm long. Looking around, Chris noticed several-no, can that, make it a
hundred or so- same bugs crawling towards him, their insectoid beady eyes gleaming with
buglike hunger. "Eew x100. Not good." Chris grimaced, activating his Noah. As soon as his
wrist spat out blood from a newly opened stigmata, the buglike creatures wriggled towards
him with renewed vigor, frenzied by the scent of sweet blood...

Trevor struggled against his aggressor while been driven to the bottom of the lake, he could not see what that thing was but it was at least double the size of Trevor and moved really quickly, Trevor felt something like a tentacle squishing him and he could barely maintain air in his lungs, Trevor needed to act quickly.

Trevor tried to release himself with bare strength but it was useless, then stigmata opened in Trevor’s flesh and the plasmid formed around Trevor’s skin and then crawled to his hand, and the plasmid started to pile and took a sword like form, in an instant it hardened.

“It doesn’t matter if its strong since its still flesh” He thought, then with all his strength he stabbed the tentacle, the thing released Trevor and started swimming away, Trevor swum for the surface, he was almost there but another tentacle took him by the leg, he quickly used his sword and cut the flesh spreading blood trough the water, then he surfaced and took a deep breath, but he was not ready for the next thing he saw.

((YOu're back!!! nice to cya again!!!))

Trevor saw CHristian standing among the woods. The ground around him was littered with
insects, dead, body parts here and there. "Hey Trev. was wondering if you had left on me."

Then he noticed something thrashing within the water. <Aqua Control>

Erin stretched out a palm, willing the waters against the monster. "Trev, up quick, before that
thing goes wild."

Overhead, crows blotted out the sun, maggots and filthy blood dropping from their flock. They cried
out eeriely, their caws chilling to the bone.

Trevor walked out of the lake and approached Chris.

“I don’t know what’s happening, but I have what I came for so I’m getting out of this place, unless you need something else”

Trevor was soaked in water and mud but he didn’t care much, the thing in the lake had pissed him off and he just wanted to beat the crap out off someone or something so he was waiting that something else happened before he went to china.

"Uhh...somehow I don't think that's likely to happen anytime soon, Trev. Look over there."

Erin nodded in one direction. There, the girl from the house stood, face partially obscurred
by the trees. She was silent for a minute, and shadows seemed to pull itself towards her,
drawing closer... eyes glinted from the eternal darkness behind her, many eyes...

And finally It let out a gurgle, nothing a human could possibly imitate, a sound alien and
intimately terrifying to the subconcious of all living things.

The flock of Maggot Crows swarmed down,, cawing sinisterly, flying straight towards Christian
and Trevor with their beaks ready to puncture flesh and talons ready to slash...

Trevor covered his face with his arms when a group of crows attacked him, Trevor tried to get them off him but they just fluttered around tearing his flesh, then he walked backward and slipped with the mud in the floor, the crows surrounded him in a black darkness.

Then the girl gurgled again, slowly the gurgle became something like a laugh, Trevor still inside the darkness just felt pain, but he wasn’t going to give up, he could not see what had happened to Chris so he decided to take this seriously, that was the moment to fight back.

Stigmata opened in his body and he took the first crow with his left hand, the crow screeched while it eyes got out of their sockets and his bones broke in tiny pieces, Trevor started to exude black viscous plasmid that crawled to Trevor’s hands, there it hardened and became a long and thin sword.

With a swift movement of his arm Trevor cut in half around 10 crows, they seemed to be very weak, then he lifted from the ground and moving the sword from left to right in very swift and quick slashes he dispatched the rest of the birds, he stood up in silence for some seconds and looked around to spot his enemy.

"Oh man...what a drag..."

Christian groaned, drawing a thick blade made of liquid from the water he controlled. 'Umi'

Moving quickly, he flung of the crows' raid. He saw Trevor disappear behind the crows, but knew
that he would be more than able to take care of himself. Moving swiftly, he darted forward and
plunged his blade into the girl.

He might as well had been making holes in a sponge. It dedin't react, just looked at him and blinked
blankly, a darkness more potent than evil itself swirling in Its eyes. Suddenly Christian jerked and
a shudder ran through his whole body. "When did..." His back had torn open, and a dozen deep,
flesh-red lacerations ran across his back. "Shit-" He managed to gasp before a claw from the
darkness appeared and walloped him ten feet away. He managed to glimpse the owner of the claw-
an angry beast, unlike anything he had seen before. It was evidently a mountain lion, a cougar-but
now manlike, with oversized fangs and scimitar claws, bones stretching the flesh at at odd angles. It
was reared up on two legs and roared, taking its position before It.

The first thing Trevor saw was the cougar, it was an abomination, and then he saw Chris, he seemed to be wounded but that was no time for worrying, Trevor analyzed the situation, it seemed Chris was already involved with the girl so there was no need to him to worry about anything else so Trevor decided to give make time for Chris.

He charged against the cougar before it could attack Chris again.

“Chris find a way of killing that thing, I’ll make you time and space”

Trevor punched the cougar on the jaw before the animal could react, it propelled backward onto it hit a big tree, for a normal animal it would be a death blow but it was no normal anymore so the cougar just stood grinning at Trevor and showing his yellow fangs at him.

The big cougar charged at Trevor with his claws first, Trevor changed the shape of the sword to a big double handed sword and guarded from the attack, the cougar pushed with his inhuman strength but Trevor had more strength and pushed the animal back, the cougar landed on its feet and rounded Trevor waiting the moment to attack.

Then Trevor sensed another treat, it was smaller than the cougar but till as lethal, a flurry silhouette appeared from the woods at his left and charged at him, Trevor dodged at the last moment and jumped to his right, the silhouette stood beside the cougar with his red eyes staring at Trevor, the dim light of the moon then illuminated the little fox, it was half the size of the cougar but seemed to be twice as fast, his pointed teeth were as lethal as the cougar’s fangs.

“This is going to be hard, now I cant make my sword stay in just one shape” Trevor thought, “Well I’ll just have to make time until Chris kills that monster, let’s prey that there aren’t other monsters in the forest”

"Guarrrgh!!!" Chris coughed up more blood as a strike heaveier than a sledgehammer came from nowhere,
slamming into his chest. He fell back, stunned for a moment, before reverting to his battle stance, shaking
off a daze.

With Umi, he charged forth at It, whose hair was now alive like a million snakes of the Pit. In response, a
dozen creatures from the forest lumbered out, baring their elongated fangs and attacking him. Undaunted,
Chris sent his blade slashing in a wide arc that spread twice as far and thrice as wide. The monsters were
ripped into half by the sheer cutting edge of Umi.

Dancing preacriously low to avoid another invincible assault of energy, Christian slashed towards the sky,
aiming for the girl.

***********

The mountain cougar growled and lunged for Trevor, pulling him close and headbutting him with its iron skull,
and the fox summoned two more companions with just a shake of its tail. All of their eyes were blackened and
inhuman...no, it was even unanimalistic, something unworldly...

It grinned and one thick tendril of hair reached out, wrapping itself around Umi, and her eyes glinted with a color
blacker than black. Chris was suddenly alight with a hundred wisps of ghostly blue flames.