WITCH OF THE END

Luna carefully chose what to say next because the pilot looked unwell.“What is wrong with the reactors, Kang?” she asked, calmly. Everyone was now looking at him.

The pilot heaved out a sigh and faced his captain. “The two reactors have stopped working. After a few investigations, I discovered why….” he paused to choose his next words. The number of gazes locked on him made him somehow nervous. However, his eyes never left Luna’s.

“The cores lost the zenshi stored in them. It leaked out…” his voice was tinged with fear. “You see, captain…captains. Reactors have special barriers around them, mystical advanced ones designed solely to keep the power from leaking and continue using it as an endless energy source. The barriers are supposed to be close to unbreakable. But while I was checking the reactors, I noticed that both barriers were shattered completely. And to make matters worse, the damage can’t be undone.”

After a brief silence, Lena asked, her tone balanced. “How old does the damage look to be?”

Kang was silent at first then replied in front of the several souls waiting for his answer. “Three days. Whatever damaged the reactor’s barrier did it three days ago. That’s how long it takes for that much zenshi to be lost completely. There were still traces of the energy left behind, but that's it.”

Lena gritted her teeth in silence. Losing two arachnids at once was not good at all. She had thirty-plus men and women to feed. Food and water were important, especially to the mundane soldiers who couldn’t go long without the two. Drinkable water was important in a desert like this one where the sun was unpredictable. Both ascenders and mundane humans needed water. How much water could they carry with two machines? Arachnids were also armed machines meant to assist the mundane soldiers, so losing two meant they looked a good amount of their offense. But who in their right mind would break the reactor, let alone who had the strength to break a barrier?

She had a few ascenders in mind. But no. Her men were trustworthy comrades who wanted to fight for humanity. None of them would do such a thing....

'Wait...could it be...'

"Is it back?" she murmured to herself.

Luna heard her sister murmur out something. She was slightly paler than usual as she thought deeply about the situation. She knew something, Luna noticed. But chose to remain quiet. If Len had something to say, she would say it on her own time.

After giving it some thought, Len regained her composure--no one noticed she had lost it--and said, professionally:

“Thank you for the report, Kang. Work with the other pilots and restore the remaining machines. I want them at top-shelf performance, even if it means tearing down the other two and using their parts.”

Kang’s expression changed into a confused one after Lena’s statement. He frowned a little.

“What is it, Kang?”

“I haven’t met any of the other three pilots since I got here, my Lady…I mean captain,” he replied to Lena.

Once she heard that, Lena’s face suddenly turned white as her suspicions turned into facts. Her eyes darted across the room as if searching for something. Then, in an urgent tone let out a command that made the air colder than it was:

“Every soldier should quickly get into battle positions. There is no reason for us to search for the other pilots, the Wraith is back for us.”

The soldiers in the tent tensed upon hearing the mention of the Wraith. Immediately, they turned on their communication devices and rushed out of the tent without saying anything else.

Lena quickly summoned her enchanted blade and activated her nanoskin armor. In moments, a beautiful silver armor materialized over the tunic she was already wearing. For a brief moment, she looked like a comic book character considering how well her silver armor matched her hair.

Just when she was about to follow the others out of the tent, Luna stopped her by grabbing her hand, tightly. She opened her mouth to demand answers, but her older sister beat her to it as she gave her a summarized explanation.

“A few days ago we encountered a Wraith-type creature, a Cursed General, to be exact. It possessed the ability to manipulate minds and gain information from those minds it took over, meaning it could speak like us and hide within us. It took a while to figure out it had taken over some of our soldiers. To make matters worse, it possessed the powers of whoever it took over with its mind powers. All those Twelve men died at the hands of their comrades....and later we had to run away to avoid its range."

“Mind manipulation...” Luna slightly quivered. This was her first time hearing of a creature with that ability, which wasn’t surprising because there were so many cursed creatures out there. Some hadn’t even crossed to the mortal realm yet.

However, she was well aware of how dangerous mind manipulation was. Heck…she was currently battling a mind-related curse.

Len nodded. “Mind attacks are hard to counter, especially if your enemy can become intangible.” She growled and looked at her hand. “That bastard managed to touch me in my incorporable form and tried to control me.”

“My blade can harm it. It has the enchantment to cut through anything.”

“But that’s only possible if you believe you can. How sure are you that you can cut through a ghost?”

Luna gave her sister a deadpan look and then turned to her soldiers. They were standing in the corner, listening and waiting for her orders.

She faced her sister and smiled. “I thought you knew me well, dear sister. Now…hand over my sword.”

***

As the night stretched on, the desert remained motionless under the crimson light of the moon. The air was still cold, the wind blew silently across the red desert, forcing the sand to move a few times.

At the campsite, the entire unit of tense soldiers had gathered in the middle with their weapons drawn as they waited for their adversary.

“Over there!” one of the soldiers, a scrawny ascender pointed at something entering the camp’s territory.

Everyone’s expressions turned grim when they noticed three smiling men, walking to the center of the campsite. Each of them was holding a completely black sword. Their faces were filled with terrible bleeding scratches that made them almost unrecognizable.

Lena stepped forward first and looked at the men. Her eyes widened and her grip on her glass-like longsword tightened. She instantly recognized these men. They were her pilots.

Seeing them like this broke her heart.

When they stopped moving, the tallest of the controlled men stepped forward and spoke, his voice was broken and ancient as if two people were talking within him.

“…immortal…cursed…gods…death.”

Avoiding his pointless mumblings, Lena didn’t hesitate to attack. Her ice sword flashed into a powerful swing that the man blocked with his black blade that seemed to be stripped from the shadows. But that wasn’t the end of her strike. Ice spread from her weapon and ate up the cursed man’s weapon till it was nothing but something made from ice.

It instantly shattered like glass under the weight of Len’s weapon.

“Immortal…” the man responded fast and punched her right in the chest with the strength of a cursed general.

Lena found herself stumbling back before coughing out some blood. She was much tougher than she looked, so she was impressed he managed to draw blood.

The remaining two smiling men looked at her and charged towards the group of ascenders waiting for them. They were mundane humans before the mind wraith took over. Now, each one of the pilots had the strength and powers of a cursed creature.

Because of that, no one was allowed to hold back against them.

Soon, the campsite became another battlefield as the ascenders activated their abilities and attacked.

***

Cyrus was the first to make contact with one of the possessed men. He grunted as he stared at his former friend, who looked like a messy corpse. His blond hair had been ripped out from his head, revealing fleshy parts of flesh and bone. He was covered in blood, but he couldn’t care less.

His lifeless eyes were fixed on him.

Dodging the black sword, the ascender let out a desperate yelp in the hope that his friend could snap out of the curse.

“Duncan! Please come back to us. You have a freaking wife waiting for you back at home!”

The possessed man didn’t react to his words. Instead, he swung his dark sword more viciously. Cyrus dodged each attack, refusing to strike back.

The man had a wife, he couldn’t be the one to end him.

“Duncan…please…”

Before he opened his second gate, something flashed past him and his former friend’s body was suddenly motionless.

Motionless because it had lost its head to a beautiful obsidian katana.