A Cold Cold Path

[Kuzuru]

The demon scowled. His stomach burned and his chest felt tight. It felt like he had swallowed one of those smoke bomb fireworks. A red orb of chalk smoldering in his gut releasing its payload into his abdomen. Every time his thoughts drifted back towards Ballad another smoke bomb was added to his swelling gut. That soul, known as Agern, was quite unlike anything he had consumed before. It held purpose and individuality whereas its peers were subsumed and turned to nothing more than batteries for Kuzuru. Although he’d never admit it, he was frightened by the smoking ball of vitriol that he had swallowed. It was like a grenade, packed tight with hatred. There was no longer a choice for the demon he had to kill Ballad, he had to become the engine for someone else’s vengeance. That thought made him sick.


While the group waited for the blizzard to pass Kuzuru passed the time by rewatching Ballad’s fight in the colosseum. The combatants danced around the screen of his phone and his eyes followed. At the same time countless conflicts echoed through the demon’s cranium. Millions of iterations, every possible permutation of bloodshed all so very crystal clear in his mind. Memories, not originally his, but memories nonetheless. He grinned. Ballad moved well. So far almost every omniversian warrior had impressed his with their skill. First the green-skinned demon Retane, then the impeccable swordplay of Chad Millwell, and finally Cinder Salt’s savage strength. Now however Ballad’s fighting style was on display for the demon’s eyes to gobble up. Every half step, every little momentum shift, and split-second decision, all of them were absorbed, compiled, and digested by Kuzuru’s brain.


“Soooo, are we going to get going or what?” Gaige’s voice grabbed Kuzuru’s attention. 


His smile faded and he paused the video. With clawed fingers the demon slicked back his hair and scratched at the nape of his neck. Doing his best to hide the swelling excitement in his heart he spoke, “sure, he’s not far from here, and the blizzard seems to be dying down.”


“Just how do you know where he’s at?” Dawn asked.


Kuzuru tried not to belch up a plume of smoke. He paused before answering, looking like he had ate something awful. Finally he said, “let’s just say I’ve got a man on the inside.” Choosing not to pursue this, strange, line of questioning Dawn simply nodded as if she understood.


The Ashen Blades left Amber’s fortress and strode into the blistering wastes. For the most part the blizzard had died down, although wind occasionally sent whips of frost against their backsides. Kuzuru trudge along, no longer blinded by snow and pulled by an infernal force. It was as if there was a chain attached to his ribcage, and every step towards Ballad pulled this chain tighter. Agern’s soul was like a dog pulling at its post, hoping to tear the throat out of the mailman. The others spoke little, choosing to steel themselves for the coming conflict. Before long they came to a cave entrance, barely visible underneath tall snowdrifts. Kuzuru stopped and pointed into the cavern, “he’s in there, he probably dipped in there when the blizzard started. We’ll rest for a moment before going inside.” The group made a makeshift camp, and checked their gear. Kuzuru thumbed the little red pill that Renji had earned from a creature in Ambrosia. He smiled, pocketed the pill, and set to work crafting an object from omnillium. After several minutes they packed up and headed into the cave system.


They traveled through winding caves carved from ice before entering the entrance to a large atrium. At the center of said atrium stood several figures, each of them more unsavory than the last. However the one that caught Kuzuru’s eye was a man that looked suspiciously like a green-skinned lumberjack. The demon grinned and announced his presence, not with words, but with an obnoxious strum of the electric guitar which now hung around his neck. This was the object that he crafted from hard-earned omnilium, a guitar without an amp. Dawn sighed softly as her tone-deaf leader once again strummed the instrument. Once all eyes were on him the demon held up a pair of devil horns with one hand and shouted, “good evening jackasses!”


“What the fuck?” Ballad uttered, placing a hand upon his gun.


“What the fuck indeed,” Kuzuru removed the guitar and threw it into a nearby snowbank. He carried a smile and sauntered towards the group, “name’s Kuzuru and these are my bandmates, we’re the Ashen Blades, we moonlight as bounty hunters and it just so happens that green fellow over there has got a pretty sizeable one on his head, and--” The demon stuttered, choking on the words. His eyes sparked and quite literally caught flame. He held out a finger towards Ballad and in Agern’s booming voice he declared, “I’ve come to slay you murderer.” With a hiss his eyes turned back to normal and the demon let out a belch of smoke. “Sorry,” he giggled, “must’ve ate something spicy, but he does have a point. What kind of douchebag goes around throwing bombs into innocent crowds? Hmmm Ballad? Just what kind of man are you?”