Hollows Eve

Chapter 15

.: HOLLOWS EVE CHAPTER 15 :.

The evil that tainted the blood red sky was suddenly disrupted by the loud sound of a *s***h* that hit the cyclops right in its own eye, causing the pupil to be split in half. The cyclops demon roared out in massive pain as it gripped its singular face, backing away from who might possibly have impaired its vision.

Kaila was at the mercy of the giant one-eyed beast, as it was preparing to eviscerate her with its massive ocular blast, possibly wiping out the entirety of the dark forest that seemed even darker than the hollow forest outside the kingdom of nightmare. But….. She stopped cowering once she saw that the light from the cyclops demon's eye had finally faded, confused as to what happened to it in the first place.

"Wait….what just happened?" She said as she saw the cyclops bleeding from its eye.

As we saw before, the image of a sword swishing through the air and going back into its sheath came straight into view. Kaila heard the sound of a sword sheathing and then turned around slowly…. Only to find out that quite possibly the best, and WORST person had come to save her just in the nick of time.

"What…? But how….? When….when did you get here?!... TOMOMI?!"

Tomomi stood up in plain view with his sword withdrawn and his hand on the hilt of his sword. He had followed Kaila and finally made his move. He also had his eyes closed, but he re-opened them and walked forward. Kaila was taken aback by this, figuring out that he was going to take down the cyclops demon himself.

"Tomomi?! Tomomi what are you doing here?!" Kaila asked him as he walked right past her. Tomomi ignored Kaila at first, but then stopped right in front of her as the cyclops demon's eye had healed up completely. It roared an extremely angry roar as it was prepared to completely crush Tomomi's bones into nothing.

"So…..what's the score?" Tomomi asked, questioning Kaila about the situation at hand, wondering what's up with the cyclops demon itself.

"….That demon can regenerate its limbs and body parts, almost like its immortal…." Kaila said, getting on her knees in order to alert Tomomi of the situation at hand.

"I see…..stand back. I've got this midnight." Tomomi began to walk forward, but Kaila protested against him fighting the giant beast.

"Wait….your seriously not going to fight that thing yourself are you?! Tomomi!" Kaila said to him, but Tomomi stopped in his tracks for a quick second.

"Oh…..and when I'm done…You are in a WHOLE lot of trouble." He said as he looked back at her for a split second with his baby blue eyes, causing Kaila to blink twice and then look down. He NOW knows the real truth as to where she's been, and that she's been lying to him the entire time.

Regardless, Tomomi had an enemy to defeat, and he planned to do exactly that as he withdrew his sword and brought it down to his side. "Zakurein sword….come forth." He brought the sword forward and began to radiate with a red-orange spiritual power, the power was so great that it made the ground shake and burn up! Almost like a volcanic eruption.

Kaila couldn't believe her eyes, since when was Tomomi this strong?! Tomomi's aura changed to that of a dragon and took form in the sky as the dragon's power exploded! Was this the power of the spirit dragon sword Zakurein?!

Tomomi closed his eyes and then re-opened them, as they changed color to a bright, fiery red. The cyclops then roared at Tomomi, daring him to come charging at it. And so charge at it he did! He began to run at the cyclops with his sword positioned downward much to Kaila's protest.

"Tomomi no! Wait!" Kaila said as she reached out to him in order to get him to stop running at the beast.

"Alright it regenerates its wounds…..so I'm gonna have to take it all down at once if I have a chance. Let's do this." Tomomi said to himself, as the cyclops demon raised its enormous fist and threw a gigantic punch at Tomomi.

"ZAKUREIN!" Red-Orange flames enveloped Tomomi's sword as he slashed upwards and released a gigantic stream of spiritual flames that completely enveloped the cyclops demon, forcing it to fall backwards as it was burned significantly by the sheer power of the fire that Zakurein had blown in its face.

Kaila couldn't believe it, Tomomi was actually taking the cyclops down. Was this real, or is she literally in a dream right now? All she could do was watch and see if Tomomi had it in him to truly slay the cyclops demon.

The demon got up again, even angrier than before and started to charge at Tomomi like a line-backer, bringing its fist down on him to crush the ground below him. But Tomomi jumped onto its arm and intercepted said attack, plunging his sword into the cyclops demon's arm and cleaving his way through its arm up to the side of its head and releasing another wave of spiritual flames. This caused the cyclops demon's head to explode all at once, making it topple over like a large city skyscraper falling to the ground.

Tomomi jumped in the air and was somehow floating on it as well, which made Kaila wonder how Tomomi was accomplishing all of this by himself with just a simple sword. However, the sword had a spiritual presence to it….. "What's with that sword…..?" Kaila said to herself. She decided to close her eyes and re-open them, turning on her "Mortis" eyes. With her blood red vision, she could officially see the spirit of a large red-orange dragon roaring down at the one-eyed monster. She was frightened, yet amazed at the same time. She's seen that kind of sword before, but she had no idea that it contained the spirit of a dragon!

Tomomi continued the fight by dashing down at the foul beast, gripping his sword tightly. "This last attack should do it….." He said beginning his final assault on the beast. The cyclops demon got up from Tomomi's attack completely healed, while the entire forest was set ablaze in the midst of their intense battle. It then roared and blasted a laser from its eye, blasting Tomomi as he got caught in the laser itself…. But this wasn't the end of him for sure. Not yet!

"*gasp* TOMOMI! …. Huh?" The Laser was somehow split in half! Tomomi was slicing through it! He then used the power of the blade itself to somehow disperse the laser in one swing, and dive-bombed the beast. The cyclops demon raised its fists and clashed with Tomomi several times, creating shockwaves. But it caught Tomomi off-guard with a swift right hook into a few trees.

"GAHH!" Tomomi grunted as he was sent crashing through several trees. "NO! TOMOMI!" Kaila said, she didn't want to go through this again. So she looked at the beast and glared intensely, not willing to just sit by while her friend is getting pummeled as the tides of the battle turn. "No…NOT AGAIN!" She got up and ran at the beast with her scythe in hand.

This successfully distracted the cyclops demon, as it turned its attention towards Kaila for a split second and then prepared another laser form its eye. But just as it was about to attack *BOOM!*

It roared in pain as it was struck in the back seemingly out of nowhere! Kaila stopped in her tracks and was confused, but it seems Tomomi had come back from his dirt nap, ready to take down the giant beast once and for all. "HEY MIDNIGHT! YOU MIGHT WANNA GET DOWN FOR THIS!" Tomomi yelled out telling Kaila to take cover.

Kaila did as Tomomi wanted her too and took cover behind a tree, as Tomomi raised his sword in the air. That's when Kaila noticed something very odd about the Cyclops, Tomomi was using a sword to strike its back, but there seemed to be no cuts in the center of its back! Was Tomomi swinging the blade hard enough to strike the beast with just the air pressure? Or was it the spirit inside of the sword doing the striking?

Either way, Tomomi raised his sword high in the air, as it gathered a massive amount of spiritual fire on it and transformed, somehow changing into a purely red sword with a white center in the middle of the blade outlined in black. A golden dragon wrapped around the hilt of the sword as well. Tomomi raised it high as a massive swirling inferno gathered on its bladed edge. "ZAKUREIN!" Tomomi yelled as he swung the sword and unleashed a gigantic blaze of dazzling draconic flames that seemed to resemble his spiritual energy, completely annihilating the cyclops demon all at once.

Kaila took cover and curled up as the blast spread the flames far & wide across the forest and caused a massive tremor blowing Kaila's hair back. Once all of the flames stopped spreading, Tomomi simply waved his sword and the flames dispersed. He had won the fight against the cyclops!

Kaila came out of hiding to find that everything seemed normal, except for the trees. They were completely burned up, but no one got hurt essentially, which is surprising considering how intense the fight was. Tomomi had his back to Kaila, who ran up to him somewhat happy that he was okay! In fact she was so happy…she forgot about what he said regarding the fact that…she lied to him.

"Tomomi, that was amazing! I can't believe that your able to do such amazing stuff with that little sword of your-" Tomomi stopped her in her tracks by putting his hand up. He then turned his head slightly, glaring at her with a very annoyed look on his face.

This obviously disheartened Kaila, who looked nervous with a beat of sweat to accompany her nervousness. "Ummmm…" Kaila said as she blinked three times.

Tomomi turned to her and got in her face, looming over her and tapping his feet, as if to say "WHAT. THE HELL?" Kaila put her hands up and nervously tried to utter a laugh to calm the situation down.

"Eheheh…I uhhh….suppose you're not exactly happy with where I am right now are you? But listen I can explain!" She said nervously and frantically.

"I'm listening…" Tomomi said, still looming over her with a disapproving face.

"Well….Ok I wasn't actually sleepwalking….I was…..HERE. The entire time." She said while looking down.

"YOU LIED TO ME?!" Tomomi said with an angry anime face.

"I WAS FORCED TOO! IT'S NOT MY FAULT!" Kaila said while crying anime tears. "Besides….I didn't want you to come and endanger yourself! It's dangerous here as you can PLAINLY see." She said while twiddling her fingers.

"I can handle myself thank you very much! I can't believe you'd lie to me! I'm your best friend!" He said, clearly upset about Kaila's lying.

"I'm sorry! I had no choice!" She said as the two of them started to argue, but before things got a bit heavy, A voice broke the ice.

"Hold on there! A HUMAN?!" That familiar voice had a slight hint of insanity to it. It could only be Stein's voice. Steinman came up from behind and grabbed Tomomi's neck and chin.

"HAHAHAHA! Such amazing, living texture! And you are quite the strong one! I wonder what would happen if I experimented on YOU?!" Tomomi could only grimace, weirded out by the stuff that was happening right in front of him…..Or behind him rather.

"HEY! Don't touch him Stein!" Kaila roared at him to get off of her friend, but the next thing that happened is Steinman taking quite a fall. *BAM!*

Wolfie also came back and knocked Steinman on the head. "Crazy, mad scientist freak….." Wolfie said as his claw had bashed into Steinman's skull who at the time was seeing stars.

"*phew* thanks Wolf. " Kaila said. "Holy s**t an actual werewolf?! And….does that guy look like Frankenstein?! Kaila where are we?!" Tomomi said in amazement and wonder, as well as a slight confusion.

"YOU JUST GOT HERE AND YOUR ASKING THAT QUESTION NOW?!" Kaila asked with comedic anger.

"Oi! Lay off of the silly bloke! He's got curiosity. But y'know what they say…." That was Jack's voice, the Australian accent never lies. Kaila and co. turned around to find that Jack & Amuki had also re-bounded from their previous swatting by the hand of the cyclops demon, as they were flung into the air and several inches away by the monster's thunderclap.

"Jack… Amuki! YOU'RE BACK!" Kaila jumped for joy and hugged her friend. Amuki simply cried a waterfall of tears at seeing that her friend was ok. "OH I'M SO GLAD YOUR ALRIGHT! I was so worried about you, we got here as fast as we could!" Amuki said as she hugged her friend tightly, earning a sneer from Jack. "Egh…."

Kaila decided that now was the time to introduce everyone to her friend Tomomi. "Well I was almost defeated by that enormous cyclops demon. He was strong, but thankfully…." Kaila motioned to her friend on the left. "I was saved by this guy. He's my best friend Tomomi Takuro." Kaila said introducing Tomomi.

Tomomi put up a peace sign with his left hand while holding his sword right. "Hey! What's goin' on?" He said with a bright smile communicating confidence.

"Ooooohhh he's cute. You thinking what I'm thinking midnight?" Amuki said suggesting something rather flirtatious and amorous about her and Tomomi's relationship. Kaila made a surprised face and then her expression changed to comedic anger. "WHA- NO!"

"Wait a second, you mean to tell me this buggar killed that stupid cyclops demon?" Jack questioned.

"Yep! Obliterated the one-eyed tub o' lard in one shot! It's all because of this baby!" Tomomi proudly held up his sword in the air. "The Zakurein sword! The sword of the spirit dragon!" He said.

"Hmmmm…..a human in the afterlife with such spiritual power as his is rather dangerous…if it wasn't for him bein' a friend o' midnight's, I'd kill 'im on the spot. But….I guess he can't do any harm right now. So there's no need." Jack said to himself as his eyes narrowed at Tomomi. He then folded his arms and closed his eyes. "Hmph. Good on ya' mate, though I could've taken down that cyclops demon me'self." Jack says to everyone re-asserting his confidence.

"OH BECAUSE IT WOULD BE SO EASY FOR YOU!" Kaila said with a hint of sarcasm and comedic anger.

"Anyway, we gotta get goin' so let's get back on the carriage and-" Jack looked to see where the carriage was, but couldn't find it. "Wait a bloody minute….where the hell's the carriage?!" Jack looked all over to try and find it, but it was nowhere to be found.

"Uhhhhh…..Jacky…." Amuki said, pointing to a place amongst the forest of demented trees. She had finally found the carriage…in a massive burnt up mess of scattered wood pieces. "Great… guess we're hoofin' it from here on out. The castle isn't' that far away anyways. Let's get goin'." Jack said as the journey to the castle of nightmares started once again.

Amuki, Steinman & Wolfie followed, Kaila started too, but Tomomi grabbed her hand before she went off. "OHHHHH No. You're not going anywhere without me! You still haven't told me why you lied!" Kaila turned back to face him. "Wha?! But Tomomi I already told you! I was-"

Jack interrupted Kaila's sentence. "OI! Human boy. It was me who forced her into silence. Got a problem with that?" Jack said folding his arms and staring Tomomi down. "You forced her to keep quiet…..? Why?" Tomomi said giving Jack a slight glare.

"'Cause we don't need no humans crawlin' 'round our space gettin' into trouble. Now scram, we've got a job to do." Jack turned around and started to walk away. "On the contrary pumpkinhead, I'm not going anywhere." Jack stopped in his tracks and turned to Tomomi with a scary look on his face. "What did you just say…..?" He said with a fearsome tone of voice. This scared Amuki who felt tension building between them. "Uhhhhh….Jack-"

"You heard me. I'm not going anywhere. Kaila's my friend, and I gotta look out for her, so whether you like it or not I'm not gonna leave. Besides I…..Kind of can't. I uh…don't know how to get back to the real world from here. Heheh…" He said while putting his hand behind his head and scratching nervously.

Just like with Kaila, anyone that talks back to Jack gets one of his humongous pistols in their face. "Say that again ya' damn, dirty human…..say it again and I'll blow your goddamn head off." He said while his spiritual pressure radiated.

"WHOA MAN! Those things are huge! What's even in those giant guns?! Grenades?!" Tomomi said, somewhat surprised at the sheer size of Jack's pumpkin pistols.

"Yeah….and you'll get a chock full of 'em if ya' don't scurry off ya' bloke." He said with great intensity.

"I'm not going anywhere!" Tomomi then challenged him by getting in his face, showing that he is not afraid of him in any way, shape or form.

"WHOA! Ok guys let's calm down here. Jack there's no need for this!" Wolfie said, trying to be the mediator here.

"If you don't like it, then you can lump it! Because I'm not leaving my friend here to die! If there's even a slight chance that she won't come back from this hellish landscape then dammit it's my duty to protect her! So go ahead and make a move, but I don't back down from nobody! Especially not some pumpkin-headed freak like you!" Tomomi gripped his sword, ready to throw down if Jack pushes him any farther. Jack & Tomomi stared each other down as Jack started to c**k his pistols, but hesitated to fire. Kaila was even more scared than usual thinking that things might turn ugly between them.

But…surprisingly Jack smiled, and then began to laugh. "Hehehehe….HAHAHAHAH! Now I see where ya' get it from Midnight! Looks like Lord Death was right!" Jack finally backed off. "Alright fine, I guess we've got no choice then. Just don't get in our way ya' bloody human. Now let's roll out." Jack said as he turned away from Tomomi and started walking.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at this, as they all started to follow Jack without a single complaint. "Sheesh, what a jerk." Tomomi said, as Kaila ran up and hugged him. "D'aggh?!" Tomomi almost stumbled because she hugged him so hard.

"You i***t…..That was scary….don't ever do that again!" She said, looking up at him visibly worried. Tomomi however didn't give her a look of sympathy, he was still visible upset that she lied to him. Once Kaila noticed, she blinked twice. "You've got A LOT of explaining to do Kai." Tomomi began to say.

**************************

The night within the sky was still a dark shade of red, as the evil glow of hell's presence began to become even more apparent throughout the atmosphere. Our heroes managed to make their way outside of the forest and onto a stone path, as the corpses of dead hollows scattered all throughout the forest surrounded them, creating a pungent stench that reeked of death and decay.

"UGH! ….Goodness gracious it smells horrible….." Amuki said, going up the stone pathway along a set of two gates on opposite sides. The gates barred up a path to the castle itself, looks like they were getting closer.

Kaila was so wrapped up in the situation, and the apparent new arrival of her best friend, that she forgot her terrifying this world can be. She saw all of the dead, decaying corpses of the hollowed creatures with the red dust & glow from the moonshine making their dead bodies look even creepier. She looked away from the corpses and closed her eyes, still virtually terrified of the world around her. But Tomomi comforted her by putting an arm around her shoulder.

"Don't worry midnight…they're dead. That's not gonna be you, or any of us." Tomomi said as they continued walking. Kaila looked at Tomomi and smiled a bit, comforted by his words. She'd need all the comfort she can get if she wishes to prevail this time around.

"Thanks….I hope you're not still mad at me for…lying to you. I'm sorry Tomomi….but I had no choice. Jack forced me to keep quiet, and I didn't want you to be here. I'd rather risk my own life than put you in danger…..Why did you come?" She said looking at him.

"Hey! That's what friends do. I came because I was worried about you. You'd rather risk your own life for me, I'd rather be in danger than never know if you were or not, and then never hear from you again." Tomomi said while the two of them continued to follow the others.

Kaila looked down, feeling rather selfish for her actions. "But hey….I understand why you did it. So…there's no hard feelings huh?" Tomomi bumped Kaila playfully, reassuring her that they were still tight. "Hmhmhmh. Thank you. You're the best." She then wrapped her arms around her best friend and hugged him tightly, causing Tomomi to blush.

After she let go, Tomomi had another question about the current situation at hand. "So uh….mind also updating me on where we're going and what's going on here? 'Cause I have NO idea where we are. I mean, I know we're in the afterlife, but where are we going?" He said to her.

"Well…right now we're headed to this place called the "Black Castle" or something. We're going there to take down this demon witch named Princess Blood Rose. She's committed some grave sins, and as the Grim Reaper it's my job to bring her to judgement by my blade. Oh and did I mention that uhhhhhh…..the physical embodiment of death is apparently my dad?"

Tomomi's eyes went blank in surprise, he was absolutely dumbfounded. He did not expect so much information to be thrown at him in such a crazy way.

"ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" Tomomi asked completely flabbergasted.

"I know…it's hard for me to believe myself. I'll explain later, just know that we've got an evil demon witch to take down." Kaila said while walking side by side with her best friend.

"Ok." Tomomi said, as he put his hands behind his head, completely relaxed. "But now I want to know something Tomomi." Kaila said, as Tomomi turned his head to look at her with his hands still behind it.

"How on earth did you get here?" Kaila said, while looking back at him.

"Ehhhhhh….." A beat of sweat dropped down his head. "I uh…. Kinda followed you and that pumpkin-headed guy through the portal he created in your room." Tomomi revealed all at once.

"YOU STALKED ME?!" Kaila said with a comically angry look on her face.

Tomomi put his hands up and held them up in defense. "Hey, in my defense I was only looking out for you!" Kaila sighed and figured there wasn't that much harm done anyway.

"*sigh* …..alright fine. You did save my life anyway….Thank you Tomomi." She grabbed his hand as Tomomi looked down to notice their fingers were entwined, causing him to look away from her and blush, while Kaila gave him a comforting smile. Tomomi looked back and returned the smile without turning his head towards her.

"Oi! Midnight! You and you' boyfriend catch up will ya'!" Jack called out, telling them to hurry up.

"HE'S NOT MY BOYFRIEND!" Kaila pointed to Tomomi and angrily shouted out, forcing her to let go of his hand. "Just hurry the hell up! We're almost there!" Jack said. Tomomi & Kaila complied, as the two of them picked up the pace and ran towards the crew.

Our heroes had stopped at a large, haunting gate concealing the entryway into the castle. In the distance lied a gothic looking castle that was surprisingly even bigger than the castle of nightmares itself. If you thought that place looked creepy, this is even worse.

The castle had a gate that stretched all across the roadway, with two gargoyle-like statues guarding the front of the gate. The castle itself was indeed black, like the legend had said. It was also covered in this spiritual evil that was unlike anything our heroes had felt before. The castle itself was designed to mirror that of a haunted church-like mansion, with a stone/glass mural in the front wall. There were also several large towers and even more murals painted and stained into the glass windows, all of them containing devilish symbolism. Devils and demons are represented by pentagram stars, as the entire castle had an abundance of them.

"Alright! Let's get in there and do this thing!" Tomomi said, visibly excited, he rushed in and drew his sword ready to knock the gate down, but Jack put his hand in front of Tomomi's chest, stopping him in his tracks.

"What the hell dude?! What's the deal?" Tomomi said, looking at Jack. "Don't charge in there ya' bloody i***t. You can't just charge in guns blazin'." Jack said while looking back at him without turning his head.

"Why not?! The gate looks pretty thin & flimsy. I could bust that thing open in one swing!" Tomomi said. "Yeah ya' could…but somethin' tells me it's a lot more difficult than that. Midnight!" Jack called out to Kaila. This caused her to look up at him. "Uhhh…Yes?" Kaila said.

"Turn on those Mortis eyes o' yours." Jack demanded. She did as she was told, as she closed her eyes and re-opened them, turning them blood red once again. However what she saw caused her to step back and tremble in fear. "AAAH!" Tomomi ran over and caught her in the nick of time, keeping her from falling on her back. "I…I see demonic spirits!" In Kaila's vision, a bunch of malevolent, demonic spirits were swarming the gate, clearly invisible to the un-trained eye.

"Ohhhh…" Tomomi said out loud. "Yeah…If ya' had rushed on in like a bloody i***t those demons would've torn you apart. Leave this to the pros human." Tomomi scoffed at Jack's rather belligerent words.

Jack simply stepped forward. "Stein. Let's go." Steinman also stepped forward and both of them brought their hands up and focused their spiritual energies on the gate. Both of them started chanting a strange chant…. "EXORCIZAMUS TE…OMNIS IMMUNDUS SPIRITUS….OMNIS SATANICA POTESTA, OMNIS INCURSIO INFERNALIS ADVERSII….." They continually chanted, as the demonic spirits that plagued the gate started to screech loudly. Their spirits were being removed from the gate, as both Stein & Jack's spiritual pressures flooded the gateway in order to cause disintegration to the evil spirits.

"OMNIS CONGREGATIO ET SECTA DIABOLIC, ERGO, DRACO MALEDICTE, ECCLESIAM TUAM. SECURA TIBI FACIAS LIBERATE SERVIRE, TE ROGAMUS!" The two of them split their arms apart and the spirits had either ran away or disintegrated completely, as the gate blew open with a blast of wind blowing in everyone's face.

Tomomi covered Kaila by wrapping his arms around her in order to keep her steady, while Amuki's witch hat almost blew right off. "The gates are opened. NOW we can go through." Steinman said, as he walked forward with Jack following suit.

"Did he just perform an exorcism?" Tomomi said.

"I think….they both did." Kaila commented.

"THAT WAS AWESOME!" Tomomi said, clearly excited by what's going to happen next. Which earned a beat of nervous sweat from Kaila herself.

"Awwww… you guys are so adorable. I didn't know your friend was so much fun to be around Kaila." Amuki smiled and commented on their relationship.

"What do you mean Amuki?" Kaila questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Weeeeellll I'm just saying you guys seem closer than I thought. You SURE your just friends?" Amuki commented, making a slick Kitty face. Before long, Kaila & Tomomi realized they were holding onto each other. They looked at each other's arms, and then into each other's eyes, but quickly peeled away in embarrassment as both of them turned away and folded their arms while blushing profusely.

"OI! C'mon then! Let's not dilly-dally ya' mucks!" Jack called out from afar. Thusly, the crew continued onward.

"Right….." Amuki pounded her fist into her hand, eager to get her hands on the rozen witch who nearly ended her life. "It's time I showed that two faced flower b***h what for…..I'm coming for you!" Amuki ran inside and followed Jack, ready to confront Blood Rose once and for all.

"You certainly have an eccentric group of friends here." Tomomi said while standing side by side with Kaila.

"They are NOT my friends. Amuki is the only exception; everyone else is either a freak, a jerk, a monster, or a combination of all three. Let's just do this already…. Amuki's not the only one who wants to get her hands on that demonic witch." Kaila said while glaring forward with great intensity. She hasn't forgotten what Amuki told her.

"Damn….you mind telling me what this demon witch did that has everyone on edge?" Tomomi asked her.

"Sorry Tomomi but that's a secret that Amuki made me promise not to tell. It's personal." Tomomi nodded in agreement. "Alright fair enough. I understand….with that being said, let's do this." The two of them walked forward, as the night clouds began circling in the sky and our heroes pressed onward in order to find and stop Blood Rose's malevolent plans once and for all. Little did they know though…

"It seems our guests have finally arrived….." The image of our heroes walking towards the black castle started to glow completely red, as the screen pans outside of a large crystal ball with the demon princess herself, shrouded in one of her red robes, watching them tightly.

"Looks like they've come for a nice visit….let's give them a warm welcome then shall we?" Princess Blood Rose said, as she looked back at Dracula. Who then bowed before his mistress. "What shall you have me do my mistress?" Dracula said.

"This is indeed your castle is it not Dracula? I am not the one making up the rules here…..YOU ARE. So how about we send them a little greeting? What shall YOU do…?" She asks while watching them approach the doors of the castle.

Dracula leaned upwards and smirks devilishly. "Mistress….surely you jest. This might be my domain…..but it is YOUR plan we are going with. I live to serve the one that gave me eternal life…." He continued to bow before her.

"Alright then….if that is what the king wants….then that is what the king gets. Go forth. Once they enter the castle, it is time to re-enact the 2nd phase of my plan. For now I want you to specifically watch the reaper gi-" Blood Rose stopped talking, as she noticed someone else was with Kaila, walking right next to her. "Hello?...Who's this?..." She said, as she noticed Kaila's best friend Tomomi.

"What is it my mistress?" Dracula said, walking right next to Princess Blood Rose. "Ahhhhh…..It appears fresh meat has arrived…It's a living, breathing human. This is quite peculiar….what could a human from the world of the living be doing here?" Blood Rose asked.

"I do not know mistress. What shall you have me do with him?" Dracula asked. "Eat him for all I care…..but I want you to watch the reaper girl specifically….bring her to me alive. And…..amke sure she's ripe and well done when you do. Make her see the blackness that is inside her heart so that it will come alive. She'll find out that there is MORE to fear than just death itself….Hmhmhmhm….Now go." Blood Roses said right before stroking underneath Dracula's chin. Dracula bowed to his glorious mistress.

"As you wish my princess." And with that, Dracula disappeared into a bellow of bats, as the bats flew throughout the haunted halls of the black castle. "I guess it's time to take my newest experiment for a test drive." With that being said, Blood Rose walked over to what seemed like several different pods made out of some kind of sticky black demon nectar as well as her signature rose vines.

The demented princess raised her hand and opened the pod as the sticky, gooey nectar from the pods caused smoke to come out of the inside. "Arise my great creation….Arise and serve your king and princess….." after the smoke faded, what was inside looked to be a small demonic creature. An imp if you will, it had a mask on with red demonic skin, gothic tattoos, spikes on its arms and legs, as well as its shoulders, and a long devil's tail. It also had a headband covering its eyes that still radiated and glow with intense evil. The Imp demon crawled out of its pod, but stood up on two feet.

"Ready to have some fun….? Little Ronove?" The Imp demon smiled for his mistress, ready to cause all kinds of mischief….as he was bound to serve his master. And this was only the first…..the first of many.

.: TO BE CONTINUED :.