My Other Half - A story of Love and Revenge: Chapter 10

Haru

Akari and I are currently hugging each other in the middle of a field. She wasn’t sure of the radius of her tool that allows us to cross worlds. We decided to be as safe as possible for the trip, so there’s no chance either of us will get separated.

“Haru, are you ready?” Akari asked with a bit of nervousness written on her face.

“About as much as I can be. How was it for you the first time?” The idea of crossing worlds terrified me as I took a deep breath.

“There is a really bright light, and then the next thing I knew, I had already crossed into your world. “ She looked at me and said, “Alright, I’m going to activate the tool.”

I nodded my head to Akari. There was a bright light that came from the object, instantly blinding my vision. The only thing that gave me comfort was I still felt Akari holding my midsection. The feeling of weightlessness hit me, lasting for about three seconds, and then my feet touched back down on something hard.

The first thing I saw was Akari’s face, and she was giving a reaction I had never seen from her. There was utter horror in her eyes, and my body started to feel intense shaking. Akari was trembling from seeing something and was extremely disturbed. I started to scan my surroundings and noticed the sky. It was completely covered in dark purple clouds with lightning flowing through them. Every few minutes you would hear the rumble of thunder followed by a lightning strike.

Those clouds don’t look like something natural and possibly created by an enemy. I studied where we’re currently standing, and it looks like the remains of a bedroom. The only thing I could think of with how Akari is reacting is this could possibly be her room. Everything was broken or completely shattered into pieces. Every wall was destroyed, and you could see the whole size of the structure. Debris as far as you can see, and whatever this used to be was massive.

Akari fell to her knees and started crying. Without much thought, I dropped down and started hugging the top of her body.

“How could this happen? Where is my family?” She said while trying hard to fight back the tears accumulating in her eyes.

“Akari, please talk to me. What’s going on?” I asked not to understand the situation.

“This…” With all her emotions bubbling to the surface, she was having a hard time saying anything. So I just sat there with her in my embrace until she was ready to talk. I noticed a portrait in the corner of the room knocked to the floor and saw Akari with two other people.

The male in the photo was most likely her father, who had silver fur very reminiscent of what Akari currently looks like. With glowing red eyes that portray a feeling of dominance just from staring at him. He looks like a pretty intense guy, but from what I heard, he was extremely soft with Akari.

The other one in the picture was female; who I’m assuming is Akari’s mother. She had pink fur with those piercing blue eyes, which I’m very familiar with. They both had ears and tails with crowns on each of their heads. Akari was sitting in between them with a very cute smile. I would assume this was when she was around ten years old. She looks pretty young in that portrait.

“Haru, where could they have all gone?” She asked, looking up at me with tears running down her face.

“Was this your home?” I asked.

“Yes, this was my room. My first trip to your world was taken from leaving here in hopes this is where I would return to.

“I don’t really know what to say, Akari. Besides whom or what could have done this? Also, what’s up with the sky? Is that something normal?” I pointed up.

“It’s the demon territory. That’s the sky when you enter their land. They don’t have any sunshine, just those clouds as far as you can see. Did they invade when I was gone? But how could all of this happen in such a short amount of time?” Akari got up and started looking around.

“Are you sure it’s only been a few weeks? This looks like it happened awhile back.” Everything looked really worn out. The weather must have had its way with it for a while, having no protection from the environment to protect its quality.

“You might be right, Haru, but that doesn’t make any sense.” Akari took the thinking pose, trying to understand what in the world happened.

As we were looking around the room trying to find answers, there was a shrill, deafening shriek from below our current location. Akari and I instantly both looked at each other with our eyes wide open as it sounded way more than just one. We both run to where we can get a good view of what was possibly coming. There were thousands of weird creatures coming our way.

“What the fuck is that?” I yelled.

Akari looked at me in shock. “It’s the vanguard of the demon army.”

“Were in big trouble, right?” We both looked into the distance at the thousands of demons making their way towards us.

“Yes, Haru, we should get out of here now! Let’s run to the other side.” She grabbed my arm and started to run, pulling me along.

As we reached the other side, there were another thousand creatures making their way in our direction. We’re pretty much surrounded on all sides with nowhere to go. Well shit, don’t tell me my life with Akari won’t even last a week. My luck sure is shit, and why the hell were all these things just standing here?

“I’m sorry, Haru; I got you into something terrible.” Akari said as she was breaking down with everything that was happening.

“Don’t worry, Akari, we will figure something out. There has to be a way out of this.” With the odds stacked so far against us, we’re going to need a miracle. I could always just pick up Akari and try to use my speed to run out of here.

I looked at Akari in pure panic, not knowing what to do and feeling responsible for putting me in danger. The mentality of Akari should be my first priority before we figure a way out of this. I go over, take her face with my hands, and place my lips on hers. She suddenly comes to herself and starts licking back at my tongue that was currently massaging hers. The life in her eyes was starting to come back, and I could tell she didn’t want to give up just yet.

“Akari, we have to find a way out of this. We just started our life together, and I refuse to end it this early.” That kiss and rubbing her back have seemed to kick her back into gear.

“I’m ok now, Haru, thanks.” She said with a shy smile. Wow, I had no idea she could even be shy; under the circumstances, I'm grateful I got to see a very cute side of Akari.

“Our best strategy is for you to blow up an opening in their formation for us to run through. I will carry you as I push my lightning as fast as I can go to bypass the horde. What do you think?” I said with optimism.

“Sounds good to me.” Akari started to power up by going into her full nine tails mode. “Alright, Haru, you ready?”

“Yes, let’s do this!” I gave a reassuring smile, and she nodded back.

Akari’s whole body started to glow crimson as she created a huge sphere of fire above her head. I could feel the intense heat coming off the spell and couldn’t help but sigh at what the aftermath is going to look like. After about ten seconds of building it up, she looked at me and threw the massive blast into the creatures. She jumped at me, and I caught her in a princess carry.

She put her arms tightly around my neck and also used all nine of her tails to fasten herself to my body. As we were ready to move, I saw the massive blast penetrate the demon horde and destroy thousands of those freaky-looking creatures. At this time, I pushed all the lightning I could control into my legs and got ready to run the second the blast was done exploding.

Honestly speaking, with how much firepower Akari has, we could probably put up a pretty decent fight against these guys. But the numbers are a bit scary to put that into practice. I also haven’t had enough experience using my element to want to try it in a life-and-death scenario. She’s also mentally distressed at the likelihood of losing both her parents.

BOOM

I waited for the explosion to dissipate. Feeling the intense pressure of the vibration of the blast hit me; I couldn’t help but get a little excited. What a fate, having to face a horde of demonic creatures only seconds after entering this world? The future is sure going to be one hell of a ride. As long as I have Akari with me, everything should be fine, I hope.

As I saw a gap in the smoke, I took that as my cue to run like hell. The ground erupted as I pushed my feet into it and accelerated in the direction of freedom. It only took a matter of a few seconds to blast through the remains of the horde from Akari’s explosion. After about thirty seconds of running, we’re easily miles away from our previous location. My footing was starting to become difficult because of the marsh-like terrain that was around us.

Slowing down my speed a bit to come to a complete stop, my foot had entered a deep puddle of water, and I lost my balance. I felt my body flip over in midair, losing control. Shifting myself under Akari, I used my back to land violently on the ground. We slid a good fifty to a hundred feet before coming to a complete stop. Luckily it was marshland, but it still hurt like hell.

Feeling the burning sensation on my back was an extremely painful experience. I could only imagine how bad my injuries looked from the speed I was traveling. Akari was panicking even more now than before; I couldn’t help but smile and be happy she was alright.

“Haru, are you alright?” She asked in a panicked voice, almost screaming it.

“If you minus the extreme pain my body is currently in right now, I’m alright.” I said with a light chuckle.

“Since you have the ability to laugh right now, I guess you’re fine.” She said with a sigh.

“I’m just happy we both got out of there in one piece.” I took Akari’s hand in mine and kissed it.

Akari opened up space from her ring and pulled out a blanket to lie on. She put it next to us and pulled me on top of it. I felt her head being placed on my chest as she started to tremble.

“We should be alright for a little while. Your healing should kick in soon and get you back to a hundred percent in about an hour. One of the perks of having as much mana as we do is our self-healing gets multiplied.” Akari said, as she was rubbing my chest, while holding my hand with the other.

***

Akari

I looked up at Haru’s face that is now sleeping after taking a hard fall. We have been here for about half an hour, and I don’t see any threats in the area. Even after putting Haru in such a bad position, he still gave up his body just to protect mine.

My feelings grow stronger every day I'm with you, Haru. Now with the possibility of my family no longer living, you’re all I have. Why did this have to happen? Couldn’t I just find my mate and have a happily ever after end to our story?

What in the world can we do now? It looks like my whole kingdom was taken over by the demon army. I didn’t hear anything about them possibly attacking us from father or mother. We always thought the biggest threat would come from humans or elves. But the demons were the ones to make the first move? Usually the demons are more at odds with the humans than the Beast Kingdom. The first step is trying to find someone to explain to me what happened.

While I was contemplating future actions, I heard a loud screeching sound above me. I looked up. There was a big flying object coming straight at us. Looking at it more closely, it had orange and yellow feathers all over. It gave off the effect of the creature's body being on fire. I couldn’t help but put a huge grin on my face. The big bird currently flying in my direction was a phoenix and the one who sent me to Haru’s world.

As I watched her land, she transformed into a half-bird, half-human form. She had orange and yellow hair with feathers along her arms. With a cute little tail and big towering orange wings on her back. She had a one-piece orange and yellow dress to complete her human-like appearance.

“I’m happy to see you back, Akari.” She gave a warm smile.

“Aurora, what in the world happened?” I said with a solemn expression.

“Calm down, Akari; there is a lot of stuff I must explain to you, and it would be better if Haru was also awake to hear it.”

“So you already knew the identity of my mate?” I wonder if she foresaw this event and knew we were coming.

“That’s right, Akari, everything is happening as I saw it and must happen this way. “

“But where are my parents?”

“Before I tell you that, I want to share one important detail.” She paused for a few seconds, looking me straight in the eyes. “It’s been fifteen years since you left to find Haru.”