Chapter 5 : Hoodied Woman

"H-Hey, are you okay?!"

"I'm fine." The boy answered with a slight smile, looking tired as hell. Kaya understood that because he was currently making a forcefield, pinning down the Ignis and stopping its tentacles from skewering the both of them like barbequed pork. "This usually happens when I overuse my powers."

Kaya wanted to help him, she really did but she was one hundred percent human and didn't have any magical powers. The only thing different about her was her silver hair.

"You said something about a bomb shelter, didn't you?"

Kaya nodded as he gritted his teeth and solidified the mist around the Ignis as well, causing it to scream in pain.

"Fine, if you do believe then look for a survivor. If you do find one, run to the bomb shelter. I'll take care of the Ignis." Kaya didn't question him, especially because his black nails were now long and sharp talons. She gulped and nodded, after she caught the determined expression on his face.

"Be careful."

There was a moment of silence before he replied,

"Just go."

As she ran, he released the Ignis's tentacles, barely dodging one, which scratched his left cheek. He clicked his tongue as he jumped and dodged some more tentacles which came from under him. He cleanly landed on the thickest tentacle and started running on it. The Ignis roared and breathed out fire but he used his forcefields to deflect the flames, aiming them towards the already burning dormitory. With a swift flip, he landed on the Ignis's nape. He was still pinning it to the ground, so it couldn't run or fly. However, there was one problem, he didn't know it's weakness.

Kaya was running around the burning building, coughing because of the thick smoke from the flames, in hopes of finding someone alive. She already found a few people but if they weren't a corpse, they would be a burning one. She already ran out of tears when she cried because of Mia this morning, so seeing a ton of dead bodies didn't affect her as much as it was supposed to. Sure, she felt sad but not to point of bursting into tears.

When the end of the hallway was in her line of sight, she fell on her knees, ignoring the flames that were surrounding her. She was already starting to lose hope and was willing to accept the fact that everyone was dead. Then, as if on cue, she heard it. A child's cry.

...*****...

The Ignis was starting to break through his binds but the boy still couldn't figure out what the monster's weakness was. He's been riding on it for the past few minutes, trying to analyze its features to hopefully find it's weak spot. Logic stated that a hybrid would inherit the weak points of whatever was in it's mixture but in this case, it was different. He already tried tearing off his wings or slicing it's nape but it didn't even faze the Ignis. The worst part was that every now and then, it's tentacles would attack him, which was strange because it was blind.

"Blind..." He mumbled as he swung under the Ignis's legs with one of it's tentacles. He, then glanced at the monster's head and smirked, an idea forming in his head. "Got you."

...*****...

The cries were coming from a burning room, the door being locked, it's handle smoking hot because of the flames. Kaya stared at her fingers, which were burnt before she fell in the pit earlier and gritted her teeth. She screamed as she opened the door, burning her palm in the process.

The first thing she saw in the room was little girl with blonde hair, cowering in the corner of the room, surrounded by dead children. She immediately made her way to her, avoiding the burning furniture and dead bodies.

"Hey now, you'll be okay. I'll get you out."

The little girl wailed, tears flowing down her little face. Her small white dress was stained with burned marks and blood, making Kaya flinch.

"S-Something's crawling on my back."

Kaya frowned, wondering why that was the first thing the little girl said after finally seeing someone alive. Still, she thought that it wasn't a big deal and maybe it was the reason why she was leaning on the wall.

"Let me see."

...*****...

"What the...?"

The boy said as he sat on top of the Ignis's head, staring at the hole just a few inches from where he was. It was similar to a whale's blowhole but it was bigger, as if something would come out if it. Although seeing it made him nauseous, he stepped over it made his way to the Ignis's face. After swinging under it, he discovered that it was wearing some kind of bone mask to cover its eyes.

That only meant one thing, its eyes were its weak point. While dodging the tentacles, he slid to the Ignis's nose and grabbed it's eye mask, causing it to shriek and shoot out flames everywhere. He had let his nails grow into talons once again, the purple mist assisting him to tug off the mask.

Suddenly, there was a whoosh sound, like something had shot out into the air. Then, something landed on his face. He lost his grip and fell on the ground, panicking at the giant bug that was crawling on his body. It was heading towards his back, giving him an idea of what this creature was. He rolled and took off his hoodie, his eyes widening at the giant cockroach like insect that he was staring at. The thing pounced on him but he was able to trap it in a purple energy ball. He gritted his teeth as he put pressure in it, to the point of it exploding into a pile of guts and blood.

Knowing that these insects were probably all around the place, he suddenly remembered that Kaya was inside the building.. looking for survivors.

"Damn it... Kaya!"

...*****...

Kaya stared at the giant insect on the little girl's back, wondering what the heck it was and how she was supposed to get it off of her. She didn't want to touch it, that was a fact, especially because it's legs were digging into the girl's skin.

"P-Please get it off me." The little girl cried and Kaya swore that the thing was moving.

"Uhm, wait..."

"Don't touch it, Kaya!"

Kaya was tackled to the ground before her fingers could touch the insect. She saw a purple vortex fade away at the corner of her eye and noticed that the boy was, once again, on top of her.

"Where the hell did you come from?!"

"Kaya, listen to me." He said while grabbing her shoulders and staring into her eyes, his purple irises burning into her soul. "That thing on the girl's back. It's an insect that can mutate any living creature into a monster, much worse than an Ignis."

Kaya's head was starting to spin because of what was going on and she couldn't really think straight. "Then we have to get it off of her!"

"We can't." He said with a straight face. "Touching it will mutate us too."

"N-No, we need to save her! We have to!"

"Kaya, We can't!"

"Get off me!" Kaya pushed him off and ran towards the girl, who started to squirm on the ground.

"Kaya, NO!"

Right before, Kaya could reach the little girl, there was yet another explosion, the impact so strong that everything in the room flew. He managed to catch Kaya with the purple mist and make a force field around the two of them before she hit the ground. He stood in front of her as the debris bounced off the force field and the only thing Kaya could do was scream.

Suddenly, there was a loud ringing in her ears, making her fall on her knees and clutch her head. She felt like someone was pounding her brain.

"Fire. Water. Earth. Air. Thunder. Light. Darkness"

"Find and gather them"

"For, they are The Seven Wonders. "

"And, You, The Guardian."

For a split second, Kaya saw a vision of the woman in the hood, the same one in her dream, staring right back at her, with the same purple eyes he had. Then, she felt light-headed. She fell on the ground, slowly losing consciousness.