A/N: Well, here’s another chapter! Most likely the last rapid update I will ever have. -- Anyway, thanks for your kind comments, Reda. XP Hope you all enjoy this chapter – not sure if it’s that good, but yeah.

The Night Creatures’ Song:

Chapter 8

Before the Alna themselves had existed, before the universe had even begun to grow, magnificent, beautiful beings called Angels dominated. Together they lived in peace.

That is, until the demons.

An Angel had broken the perfect world, had created a corrupted being beyond the ability to be saved. And then he made more of them until they nearly burst within the world they were confined in.

The others had found out, and, angry, they slaughtered the Angel who had created these monsters. However, the monsters themselves were still alive.

Many years later, the demons found their way to the Angels and attacked unexpectedly. A great war waged between the two races and the demons won, leaving few of the supposedly pure beings alive. The tale of the slaughtered Angel was passed down until it was obscured.

Angels became the Forbidden wherever they went, creatures that had posed as good but truly evil, slaughtering their own kind. Eventually they fled to Earth, hiding amongst its clouds.

Occasionally, one would fall from their hiding places and be captured and killed.

However, the remaining Angels used their power together and created a separate Plane for the demons, a separate world. Most of the remaining ones died in the process.

Demons simply became legends on Earth, fading from reality and history as if nothing more than a passing thought.

Many, many years later, a race called the Ni Skurn a Iren found out the whereabouts of the remaining Angels and created a race made specifically to kill them, for they also believed the Angels to be corrupted. A race similar to demons yet slightly different, a race with no other purpose than to destroy, was created.

A race called the night creatures.

-----------------

They moved swiftly, testing their limits as they went, reaching out to the life around them and feeling its reaction.

None noticed they were there.

And so they went peacefully, without sound and without any limits.

Freedom coursed through their vague beings and the terrible ice and the terrible place that they always wished to be free from. Freedom coursed through their veins as they made their way into First Plane and all of the freed souls stopped.

They were no longer beings of flesh and bone and thus they were able to see things no ordinary person could see; they could see the chaos in the Plane entangling itself around unsuspecting lives, lives that had done nothing. They could see the pain and terror and confusion and the souls felt pity.

Pity, perhaps, but one of the causes of the chaos had freed them.

And so they went peacefully.

-----------------

‘Whispers like the wind danced in his ears, whispers of a time far away and a time not yet seen, or perhaps a time that had already been seen. He was unsure of which was which but he did not want to find out.

The whispers called to him in longing and he chased after them, as if one trying to catch a single leaf in a hurricane.

He ran and he ran through the blinding darkness and ran until he could no longer feel himself until he heard the whispers clearer.

Mortified but unable to resist, he drew nearer and saw a group of vague shapes.

Had they been separate, he might have been able to tell them apart; together the humans, the night creatures, the demons, the Dreams and the Nightmares, and the Ni Skurn a Iren stood. Their shoulders were hunched with the effort of all of them fitting.

But when he tried to see them more clearly, their forms became more blurred.

“Leave,” a voice hissed from all directions above the whispers, but he shook his head and drew closer.

The whispers became clearer although the visions become less clear; soon the whispers became notes, and the notes became something so utterly terrifying that he could not think.

And, in a sudden moment, as he reached out to touch one of the blurry forms, they all exploded.’

Gasping, he awoke suddenly, drenched in sweat. He reached up to wipe it off only to find out that he could not.

He flexed his hands to find that they were bound, rope cutting harshly into his skin. He twitched his legs and found them unable to move. A rough material dug into his back and he hesitantly opened his eyes.

He was tied to a wooden pole at least twenty feet high, hands and feet bound around it.

A moving mass of all types of people milled angrily at the base of the pole, occasionally ramming into it and shaking it. Splinters were plentiful as they did so and he groaned softly.

Eyes full of hatred stared up at him as one and he shuddered, a rain drop splattering on his cheek.

He knew why he was bound, he knew why it was they hated him so.

But he did not like knowing.

-----------------

She sighed mentally as the man across from her droned on about something or other, lazily watching the steam from the hot drink float up past her face.

“Reth, are you listening to me?”

His voice mingled for a moment with the rain and she nodded absently.

Her cloak was hung in front of a behemoth of a fire that roared about its kindle, drying. A bandage had been tied around the stub of her right arm.

After fleeing from the bar, she had run to the one place she felt safe at.

A hand waved in front of her face and she blinked, looking at her brother with mild interest. He raised his head heavenward and gave a reluctant shrug as if he were giving up on something.

“What’s wrong with you, anyway?” he asked, looking at her intently. “First you show up on my doorstep unannounced and now you’ve got a dazed look on your face. And what exactly happened to your hand?”

Reth gave a noncommittal shrug and her brother gave a sound of annoyance.

“Well, in any case, whether you care or not, it appears that a neighboring city has found an Angel- “

At the word her head snapped up abruptly.

“ –and they’ve bound him already. An angry mob’s already begun forming.”

“An Angel?” she asked in a whispered voice.

He gave a nod. “Strange,” he continued. “I mean, since...you know...”

Abruptly he trailed off, leaving a sentence dangling in the air. Reth was shaking and then drained her drink in one gulp, standing.

“Wait, where are you going?” Ernath asked, putting a hand on her shoulder. “It’s been so long since we’ve last seen each other.” He got no reply and sighed. “Well, at least borrow my cloak. It hasn’t let up at all yet.”

She nodded and allowed up to put it around her shoulders.

Then, she left.

Ernath stared at her retreating form before he closed the door, leaning against its back.

“So,” a voice said from a dark corner, “this brings interesting developments. You know what you must do now.”

“I know,” he said, smoothing the troubled look from his face. He did not want to do it.

He could not.

“I will.”

And everything only continued to crumble.

-----------------

The two demons were sitting idly on a high cliff, gazing out at an immense ocean. They were in their human forms.

Hakaisha gave a great sigh and poked at a flower, watching in vague amusement as it withered to the ground. Beside him, Tre gave a grunt of annoyance and the Warrior Demon stuck out his see-through tongue in impudence.

“You realize that materializing yourself just briefly enough to touch that flower could corrupt this whole planet’s ground,” Trehnyiman Yeane stated.

“Yup!” Hakaisha proceeded to kill off every blade of grass near him.

He sighed and shook his head, not continuing on the subject.

“Besides,” the Warrior demon remarked, reaching out for a bug and squashing it, “isn’t that what the night creatures wanted? For Earth to be destroyed, I mean. It does seem to be, after all, the collision of everything in this universe.”

Tre said nothing for a while, gazing out at the sun.

“Oh, don’t tell me you’ve grown a soft spot for this ugly blue and green ball!”

The First Class demon looked intensely at Hakaisha. “It was us who started this entanglement of Planes. Earth itself may be moronic and naïve, but its people have done nothing.”

Hakaisha rolled his eyes in exasperation before his form began to flicker. “Oh,” he muttered, “it seems that my human counterpart is waking up. Must go!”

For a long time Trehnyiman Yeane sat before materializing and touching the withered flower, face impassive as it exploded into ash. Looking at his hands, he barely twitched as he realized he was covered in it.

He dematerialized and the dust became ingrained into his being, and he did not mind.

It would remind him of what he was.

-----------------

Ergnol looked out across the mass of night creatures, smiling to himself as the notes rang out. It itself did not join in it for he had important matters to attend to on Earth.

Each note still rang within it as it called upon the magic to take it to where it wanted to go.

It turned its head, feeling eyes looking at it. A lower class night creature perched on four legs was staring at it, watching with an intelligence that it should not have had.

Or perhaps it was just paranoid.

Ergnol disappeared hurriedly, black form blending in with its surroundings.

It reappeared in a tree, feet balanced on a branch and left hand steadying it. Sniffing through the two slits in its face, it knew it had found the right place.

“A night creature?” a voice asked blandly.

Nearly startled, Ergnol spun around and looked at a form covered in a cloak dripping with water. The form stood perfectly balanced next to it, green eyes piercing from underneath the edge of the hood.

“I suspect,” the person continued, and the night creature recognized the voice as a woman’s, “that you are here to see the Angel as well?”

The night creature leader did not reply, suspicion creeping up its spine.

This was definitely not a human.

She gave a derisive snort and remarked, “I also suppose you’re here to kill it. That’s what night creatures were made for, wasn’t it? Killing Angels?”

Its burnt lips curled back in a snarl, but it could not argue her point.

“Angry? You shouldn’t be. A creation of a race is noble, something to be proud of. The Angels themselves were created to be destroyed, were they not?”

Ergnol simply stared, snorted, and turned away, focusing on an essence not too far away and disappearing once again. It had no wish to continue talking to the figure which disturbed it. It was not used to doubting.

Throwing back her head, Reth gave a short bark of triumphant laughter. “It seems even night creatures can doubt!”

With that she lithely jumped to another branch, then another, a shadow moving about in the rain and leaves. The night creature amused her, however, she was nervous; whenever she landed her legs trembled and she had to steady herself.

An Angel. She had wanted to see one for so long, and now she could.

She was not worried that the night creature could kill the Angel; that would be impossible due to Myn becoming cursed, something she had witnessed herself in her travels. However...

Reth paused a moment, watching the dark skies with her cold, bright eyes.

...What would it think of her?

She shook herself and continued on her way, head bowed as she tried not to think about it.

The Angel would need saving itself.

-----------------

Reoj was gasping, holding a trembling hand over her furiously beating heart. Ino shook, groans of pain escaping her mouth.

In the chaos, Uri had been thrown backwards and nearly a hundred yards away from the others by a force he could not see. A song that he did not know floated on the wind and he unknowingly joined it.

“Healer,” the Keeper managed in between gulps of air, “it is the song. His special connections with the night creatures are hurting him; you must save him before he is lost completely.”

Ino wondered vaguely at Reoj’s bland voice, seemingly uncaring even as she seemed to never have enough air, before she nodded, weakly climbing to her hands and knees.

Laughing bitterly at herself, she climbed to her feet and walked forward towards the Iyoian, feeling as if a strong wind was attempting to lift her up and blow her away.

Her eyes watered as the dry wind blew against them, getting stronger as she approached.

As she neared him, she reached out her hand to touch him but was thrown backwards, a shock jolting through her arm. Gritting her teeth, she got up again and placed her hand on his mouth, tears streaming down her face as a constant flow of shocks ran through the blood in her arm.

She lifted her left hand over the one covering his mouth, closing her eyes and concentrating.

“Tyan,” she began before faltering at the pain while trying to keep herself from blowing away, “han piun kire!”

At first nothing happened so she concentrated further even as the wind began to blow stronger and she saw spots dancing in front of her eyes. “Tyan han piun kire!”

A bright light erupted from her hands and the shocks stopped, leaving her arm tingling painfully. Eventually the notes faded away with the dying wind and she lifted her hands away.

Vaguely, as she stumbled to her feet, Ino noticed that her hands were covered in blood and her arm was beginning to turn numb.

Reoj rushed to her aid but she shook her head, pointing at Uri who lay motionless on the ground. The Keeper looked at her hesitantly before slowly walking over.

His hair was a mess, sticking up everywhere. His eyes were closed but his eyelids were fluttering slightly.

“He’s alive,” she said blankly, peering closely at him. “I think he’ll be fine.”

Ino let out a relieved sigh and fell over backwards. “I am glad,” she whispered, staring at the night sky slowly receding.

Saying nothing, the black-haired Keeper sat down and reinforced the illusion around them.

It would be a while before Uri awoke and the Healer eventually fell into a much needed rest.

-----------------

He stood uncomfortably in the mob of angry people, a spare cloak that had holes in it drawn over his form. His green eyes watched and waited for his sister.

No, he could not perform what was asked of him by their father, would not perform what was asked of him, but he must.

It was not his duty to kill her, but perhaps what he had to do was worse than dying.

Shaking his head, he reached his essence out and searched, unsurprised as it came in contact with Ergnol. Its essence jumped and latched onto Ernath’s as if they were two hands grasping each other.

The Angel is here, he thought. I ask you not to do anything until I give the word.

Doubts overtook him as he sent the message and a faint acknowledgment was received, but he shook them off. Reth would never be able to understand what he was doing, never be able to understand that they had to redeem themselves after being born of two races which should never mix.

He sent another thread of his soul out, weaving through all the human ones. It sought blindly, feeling as it went, before it found the Angel’s.

Ernath paused as he hesitantly probed the Angel, wondering at its strange essence. It felt as if...as if the essence had once been another’s but changed. His eyes narrowed and he shook the feeling away, reaching out and just barely attaching his thread to it so that it would not notice him.

Only one more left, he mentally said, reaching out another sliver to a soul so much like his own.

He found the troubled essence of Reth not too far away, moving at a steady speed towards where he was standing. He was able to delve deeper into her soul as his was so much alike to hers.

The corners of his face drew up as if to smile sadly and he waited.

-----------------

“The First Alna is in trouble,” she remarked, staring down at the tiny scene.

The man next to her shook his head. “It is not our place to interfere. He is not truly an Angel.”

Looking at him strangely, she replied, “You of all people should know that that is his true form. He may have given up being one of us to watch over humans but- “

“It is not our place to interfere,” he repeated. “We have not saved the others that have been killed. It is his own fault for being captured and an Angel foolish enough to submit to the human life long enough to be captured is a worthless one.”

She felt anger creep its way up her throat but she beat it down. “The Alna have already lost two of their own. They cannot afford to lose a third, much less the First Alna who is required.”

He said nothing for a while, staring down at the scene, before murmuring, “The Legends have always said that the ‘one who watches over the Earthlings will perish as a magnificent creature and Earth will erupt into chaos.’”

The female Angel gave a cry of exasperation. “The Legends were made up by humans on Earth who only had a vague idea of what truly went on in the universe!”

“But the Legends have been right so far,” he said quietly, looking meaningfully at her. “’The one who watches over the creatures of night will bow to his own greed and perish in his own darkness, blinded by it. Together the creatures of night will sing a song of chaos and the universe will be thrown into confusion.’

“Perhaps we overestimate the obliviousness of the humans.”

“The Legends don’t have to be right! We can at least try to stop them,” she said in despair after a long pause.

“Don’t you see?” he asked, his voice rising. “They have already begun!” He looked at her, then quieted. “You are letting your emotions for Ranunn get in the way of your judgment.”

She said nothing, running her fingers through the clouds that had been created in memory of Urion, the Angels’ former world before it was taken over by demons, then humans.

Suddenly, her head snapped up and she said, “Your right,” and stood up abruptly. “But I know one way to fix this all. You can come if you wish to.”

With that she did the unthinkable and dove head first off the cloud, wings folded behind her back.

She willingly entangled herself in human affairs.

He paused, looked around, and dived off after her, muttering under his breath.

-----------------

As Reth looked at him, the Angel, she felt impure.

It was difficult to make out any definite features of him; he seemed blurred and nearly smudged by the bright light that emitted from him. His great wings seemed to have been stretched painful around the pole and strung together.

She didn’t know if she could walk further towards him from the branch she stood on, crouched beneath the cover that the leaves offered from the rain.

However, she wanted to touch another Angel one last time, and this was her mistake.

She threw off her brother’s cloak and jumped out from the tree that was level with the top of the pole and landed on it. The mob looked up at her in shock before screams of, “Monster!” echoed.

Ignoring them, she dug the sharpened ends of her fingers into the wood and hung down it, staring at the confused Angel.

“Hello,” she said.

He just looked at her, blurred mouth slightly agape.

She shifted her stubbed arm uncomfortably. “Do you wish me to free you?”

For a moment, he didn’t move before he slowly nodded.

“All right. I’ll be back soon, although it might take a while to free you” she remarked, raising her handless right arm to emphasize her point.

With that, she hauled her shadowed body up to the top of the pole and began calling upon the Nightmare magic.

-----------------

Ernath jumped as he saw his sister leap out from the trees and hurriedly sent a frantic “NOW!” to Ergnol. The night creature responded almost immediately, remarking that it only had a couple hundred yards to go.

He watched as his sister hung from the pole and watched as the Angel stared at her in shock. A few words seem to pass between them before she jumped on top of the pole.

Pulling on the thread that he’d connected to her, he felt her gathering the Nightmare magic they’d both inherited and he felt a shock go up his back.

When had she learned to control it?

I am here. Shall I kill the Angel now, or the Nightmare?

Ergnol’s accented voice cut through his thoughts.

The Angel, he replied, staring at the pole where his sister was. But please, he continued, if the Nightmare so wishes to be, kill her.

A somewhat confused acknowledgment came from Ergnol, but the night creature did not ask questions. It was not created to ask questions, only destroy.

Suddenly it flew out from the tree, rocketing through the air as if a bullet. More cries came from the crowd and their already frantic dash to get away became more of a mob of panicking humans.

Ernath stood strongly among the pandemonium, watching as Ergnol knocked his sister off the pole first and then proceeded to raise its hands. Although he was a good distance away, the half Nightmare, half human knew what it was doing.

The deadly, poisonous claws of the night creature were emerging through the skin on its fingertips.

-----------------

She spread her wings out to slow her descent, flapping them as she paused to look around the dead forest.

Eyebrows scrunching together, she lowered herself a little, her companion following her movements. Suddenly, she gave a start.

“There!” the Angel shouted, flying down as fast as she could to a pile of black ash.

He watched her in confusion as she dug through the mountain that used to be a tree desperately before shrugging and kneeling down next to her. Thrusting his hands in, he looked at her in confusion.

“We’re looking for a single leaf,” she replied hastily.

He paused and stared at her. “The entire tree burnt down,” he said slowly. “There’s nothing left.”

She stopped and rolled her eyes at him. “This willow had a single enchanted leaf which kept it alive far past its date for death. Even when it would die, which was when Ranunn would come back to it a second time, the leaf would be left in case he did something foolish and we needed to rescue him. No one except a few Angels knew of the leaf.”

Shifting, the male Angel shrugged and dug his hands into the ash, searching around for anything solid.

He felt slightly bitter, knowing that she was still in love with Ranunn even after the former Angel left to watch over First Plane. He felt slightly bitter because he loved her himself.

And so, here he was, on his knees searching through a bunch of ash to look for a single leaf. It may as well have been a needle in a haystack, he thought wryly, using the old Earthly saying. All of this he was doing so that she might be happy.

He found something and gave a cry of surprise, wrapping his hand around it and pulling it out, dumping a large amount of ash on himself.

Shaking his head but otherwise not noticing, he looked at the leaf in surprise.

It was beautiful; it was green and sparkled with life even though its tree had perished. He held it delicately as he wiped the ash off and staining his robes, his companion eagerly watching over his shoulder.

Her breath caught in her throat as he handed it gently to her and she cupped it in her hands, staring at its mesmerizing surface.

He was smiling sadly at her and her eyes softened. “Thank you,” she murmured, knowing that he was doing this for her and not Ranunn.

Smile vanishing and a troubled look replacing it, he looked towards the sky. “I think we should go to him now,” he said lowly, standing and spreading his magnificent wings.

She had always felt slightly jealous about those wings as her own were smaller and not quite as bright. At the moment, however, she was thinking about how beautiful they were as the vague sunlight from behind the clouds passed through his feathers.

Shaking the thoughts from her head, she spread her wings with him and the rose up into the sky together, up near the clouds, and flew off to the former Angel.

-----------------

She was suddenly knocked off the pole and falling, her body suddenly feeling as if it weighed three hundred pounds. The edges of her face drawing downwards angrily, she tugged just a little bit more on her Nightmare magic and suddenly it exploded inside her as if one had released a flood.

Abruptly, she paused in midair, eyes just a few inches from the ground. She gave a snort of annoyance and hurriedly bounced off the ground, flying up towards the Angel.

Her eyes stared in horror as the night creature readied its claws, reaching them out towards the Angel who seemed to have accepted his fate. She ripped the bandages off her right arm and pointed the stub upwards at the night creature, focusing.

“Nenu meh tyu!” she shouted and a burst of black light shot forward, hitting the night creature in the chest.

It screamed a terrible scream and suddenly there was nothing left of it.

-----------------

Get out of there, now! he shouted through his link with Ergnol. She can control Nightmare magic far better than I can. It’s too powerful, you’ll never survive!

Stop worrying, it replied. I have dealt with Nightmare magic before.

Ergnol-

Abruptly it cut off its link with him and his thread snapped back almost painfully. He watched in horror as his sister stopped just inches from the ground and shot back up, and watched in horror as she undid her bandages and aimed her stub at the night creature.

Oh no, no, no, no, he thought in despair, not recognizing the sacrifice of one’s right hand for Nightmare magic until that moment.

He could only cringe as the night creature disappeared with a shrieking scream.

What will Father say? What will happen to me?

-----------------

She paused in front of the Angel, panting slightly, then looked at him sheepishly.

He just gazed at her in shock and had she been entirely human she might have blushed. Shrugging her right shoulder uncomfortably, she climbed on top of the pole and aimed her right arm at the ties that bound his feet, hands, and wings.

“Nenu jii nu.”

A black beam came from her wrist and she ran it over the ropes of his wings first, then his hands and finally his feet.

He stretched his wings and she stared in awe as he did so. They were much larger than they had appeared bound and glistened in the rain.

Suddenly he whipped around, a grin on his face.

“Thank you,” he said and she shifted again, shrugging.

“I’ve been saved by an Angel before,” she replied, the edges of her face rising in a smile. “I figured I’d return the favor.”

She stiffened abruptly, then relaxed. “It seems a couple of friends of yours are coming.”

“What do you mean?” he asked in confusion, stretching his arms.

She raised her arm with the black beam coming out of it and pointed it towards two specs in the distant sky. It expanded towards them.

“Angels,” she remarked hurriedly. “I’m sorry, it is not my place to interfere with your kind, especially with what I am. I should be going.” The sentence was said in a rush and she turned back to the forest to leave but a warm hand on her shoulder stopped her.

“No, I know who they are. They won’t mind,” he said, smiling, albeit he did seem nervous.

She shrugged uncomfortably again but reluctantly agreed.

-----------------

The night creatures suddenly stopped singing, feeling the loss of someone important. Each stretched out their being to one another until a giant web of essence was formed.

Their leader was dead.

Screaming in rage, they tore out of Fourth Plane angrily with no limits. Myn was dead; there was no one to stop them.

They poured out of their confines and exploded upon the universe, angry and terrible as they attacked everything in their sights. The demons felt their anger and knew they had to fulfill their side of the deal and joined the night creatures.

“Help us destroy,” the night creatures had said for their deal, and the demons had wanted the remains of Urion destroyed so much they had agreed

A great fury descended upon all the planes and every world, and what would follow would either destroy time or lengthen it.