Chapter 21 - The cult of Klein

discord.gg/EmDXCjB

_____________

Wisp pov.

'Well, charging at a bear twice your size was a mistake.' I thought to myself.

I spat out the dirt in my mouth while stumbling back up, turns out even when using Bankai this particular ghostly bear is stronger than I am. Looking around I saw the few villagers holding back the robed men, the two quincies were holding a wraith and I had to deal with the bear and most of the wraiths alone.

I wasn't complaining though because apart from the bear, the rest was easy too with.

I heard a roar and the sound of stomping behind me, I whirled around and braced myself to block the bears charge. The bear was running full speed towards me, each step blowing holes into the cold hard ground, the bear lunged at me and I caught its front legs before the very sharp claws could reach me. My muscled strain with the force of impact, my bones ġrȯȧnėd under the mass of that enormous war-bear.

I headbutted it into the ċhėst, making it stumbled back somewhat. Even then it was all the opportunity I needed to claw at him with the metal protuberation on my finger tips.

"Claws wisp, they are claws." Ken chimed in from inside my head, 'I know they are but it's still weird to be able to feel like I can feel with normal skin.'

Having a conversation in the middle of battle probably isn't the brightest idea I can have but when you tend to be borderline unkillable, you get pretty reckless. A prime example of that is me currently trying to pry my arm out of the bears jaws, I repetitively punched it in the head before I brought my thumb inside its eye making it let go. Unfortunately, it claws and fangs are dripping with liquid corruption making healing myself a bitch.

I sidestepped a sword strike from a wraith and ducked under another one, I jumped back and had to immediately dodge a volley of corrupted arrows. Another wraith came to me with an overhead strike but left itself opened which allowed me to punch it in the ċhėst completely obliterating it in a shower of purple grim and gore, I heard the bear shake off the pain from his eye and lock his eyes onto me and I probably didn't need my senses to know that.

Suddenly, a human approached me, the man looked perfectly normal apart from the crazed look on his face though I couldn't see much else because of the caped robe he wore, akin to the rest of the attackers. He was an enemy, the robe he wore was dark with purple outlines and golden lines which covered the stitches who were also purple, he had a purple symbol of a smoky mask surrounded by unknown rune or symbols.

The man took an object and yelled "FOR KEIN!", the man glowed white and so did the devise, by reflex I hit the man in the ċhėst caving his ċhėst in on itself and exploding at the back but the damage was already done as the devise while in the air exploded with an extremely loud sound and light. I yelled in surprise while taking my hand to my eyes, having taken most of the damage, the devise was a flashbang. 'How do they have flashbangs?!' I yelled angrily in my mind but this is a question for later.

My earring was coming back slowly but everything wasn't clear, my eyesight was fuċkėd and my sense of smell was covered by the blood and smoke in the air.

I was practically blind... or was I?

I opened my eyes who now took a cloudy white sheen, and saw the energies of everything. The sensory load was extreme as I didn't have my other senses to aid me filter, meaning I had to process all the information in my head at the same time, no problem. I stood up and looked around, I had already been stabbed through by a couple of sword in the time I adapted but it didn't matter, I clawed around me and caught two unfortunate wraith in my grasp. I looked at the increasingly big mass of viscous pile of energy heading towards me and realised this was the bear and it was mad, I threw the two unlucky wraith at the beast but I didn't seem to have any effect on the War beast albeit it did slow it down and kill the wraiths.

I "saw" it swipe towards me but misjudged the distance and got caught in the shoulder, I flew back into the ground with a dislocated shoulder, I felt an incoming flock of small corruption energy headed towards me from above so I rolled to the side and dodged the arrows, I grabbed a rock and threw while enhancing myself with Primal Energy, I nailed the archer in the head making its head explode dumping its content onto the ground, the only left was the bear now.

I stepped back and sat down on a flat boulder, pushing the poison out of my body with some healing and energy.

I let go off my bankai and gasped for breath, 'Ken really wasn't kidding when he had said that our bankai takes a lot stamina, you would think I would have been used to it already.'

"Well, it is our bankai. You're lucky your body is strong or else you wouldn't be able to handle the toll on your body." Ken said in my head, this made me wonder what exactly would be the toll on my body if I wasn't strong enough? "Simple, your limbs would have popped off of you or you would have exploded." Ken answered my unspoken question.

I looked over the remains of the bear, it was bigger than the last one but it was a bear once again, it seemed like they only sent bears on the battle field, probably due to the fact they were incredibly strong compared to other animals. His bones were not dissolving but they were free of any corruption, what shocked me was how it had been transformed by the corruption, it's bones were covered in a metal like material and it now had spikes here and there randomly.

I observed the young quincies And noticed that Olivias friend had dealt with his Wraith fairly swiftly albeit a bit roughed up. Olivias was still fighting his, he used everything at his disposal to vanquish this evil, it was obvious they were used to fighting these for a long time.

This also applies to most men and women fighting the waves of fanatics, they were all experienced in their own right and some of them would even give shinigamis a run for their money, at least in terms of technique.  Soon enough the wave was pushed back and the robed attackers fell back into the forest while carrying the corpses of their allies back with them, I got up and headed towards the village where Olivias was waiting for me.

The other quincy was already doing damage control so I didn't get the chance to talk to him but I had other things to tend to anyways.

"Good job on the field there kid, you handled that wraith like a champ." I praised the young man, he scoffed "it's not like I'm used to it, you seem to handle yourself pretty good as well." He turned around and walked off with me following him, "It was a good thing you were here though, I don't know how we would have dealt with the bear."

I chuckled and responded, "Well I'm going to need to ask you some questions about what happened here." Olivias didn't answer back and just led me to what looked like a hall, from its size it could fit at least half the village.

Someone cleared their throat next to me and I saw the old man, he bowed down at waist level, "Thank ya fer protecting this village and it's people, I have misjudged ya and I am sorry." He looked, "Please help us get rid of these monsters."

I put a hand on his shoulder, bending down because of the size difference, "You didn't even have to ask, anyways could you explain the situation now?" I urged while looking at Olivias.

The response didn't come from the young Quincy but from the old chief in front of me, "We have ta wait until some people come, then I'll explain everything." I sighed in slight irritation but complied anyways, I grabbed a chair and slouched on it in the corner of the hall.

Soon enough people began to trickle in.

I lazily opened my eyes and identified those who came in, there was two identical black men who were happily chatting from their seats, the other Quincy who turned out to be a woman around the same age as Olivias, and a mean looking guy.

They all sat down around a table, the chief was at the end of the table and his grandson next to him. "Can you finally explain to me what the hell is happening ?" I asked, the chief nodded, "I take it ye know what those things are ?" I nodded.

"To start things off, it began when the newly established cult of Klein came to us requesting we join them, the members are the robed individuals that were attacking alongside the "wraiths" as you call them, they didn't inspire us as good people so we refused. They didn't take it well." I said gravely.

"They attacked you, right ?" I guessed, "Exactly, the moment their messenger stepped out of the village we were ȧssaulted by a group of wraiths, they striked fast and were it hurts. Our numbers fell quickly and we had to fall back here."

"How did you escape ? Surely they didn't let you go like that ?" I frowned.

"They didn't. My son, who was the chief at the time, stayed behind and held them back long enough so that we were able to retreat here. He didn't make it." He paused to collect himself, "Soon after we settled here, the attacks resumed and each day they are stronger and stronger, the wraiths evolve through time. All of our strongest fighters were killed and transformed into those abomination."

"Did you try to find their base of action or even take back the city ?" I asked, the mean looking man who had been silent like the rest of the people seated at the table suddenly sprung up and hit the table, "Of course we did! What do you think we've been doing huh?!" One of the twins spoke up next, "Excuse me, who is that guy again?" He asked to the chief, next was everyone's turn to talk and the room quickly become filled with sound.

"I'm the guy who's going to save your ȧsses, so for the love of god. Sit your ȧss down!" I growled at the people in the room, I forced them back into their chairs with a "force push" of sorts. When I saw no one uttered a word I looked at the old chief and gestured for him to continue.

The old man sighed "We did sent a scout team who found their hidding place, we soon prepared an ȧssault. We were able to push them back somehow and make it to the cathedrals doors but an unexpected enemy blocked the way. A corrupted Quincy, my son." I winced as he uttered those words.

"We tried to reason but it didn't work, fortunately we were able no one was hurt while trying, then we tried to put him to rest but the plague had seeped deep into his being, he decimated us the moment he got serious."

"What do you mean by that? Are you saying he has a consciousness?" I questioned, hoping that I didn't have to face a second Reinhardt.

"It's as ye said, he can talk and still is the same but he is evil. He's not my son anymore." The atmosphere was dark and thick, these people wanted nothing more than to live in peace.

I loomed over the table, "What did you encounter, except your son's wraith and the war-beasts?" The old Quincy thought for a moment before answering, "Yes, two wraiths passed by here a week ago. One carried what looked like very powerful guns and the other was shrouded in purple mist." Hearing this my blood boiled and a sadistic grin deformed my face. Found you.

The hunt was back on track.

"All right, what exactly is this "cult of Klein" ?" I asked after I got control of my emotions. "The cult of Klein is a sect that worships the entity of war and the apocalypse, they are mad men who are ready to do anything to spread the corruption."

"Have... have you met the leader of the wraiths?" I asked hesitantly, "No we have not but we heard about them talking about the war-wielder and the curator of war will clash soon, aside from that we're in the dark."

"Chief sir! They're beginning to wake up!" He said hastily.

The chief grabbed his cane and hurried outside, his son and the quincy girl followed after him so I decided to do so as well.

I followed them to an isolated hut outside the village, I saw the old man go in but the two young quincies stayed out. When I was about to go in two men barred entry but I walked through anyways, not like they could stop me.

Inside was a robbed individual, he was taunting the old man already and taunting him with his son no less, the man was pale and his sclera was cloudy purple. I grabbed the old man's shoulder and put him behind me, the fanatic eyes widened and he gasped "The curator..."

I stopped and looked at him weirdly but continued nonetheless, I punched his socket out of its socket making him scream in pain and told Him, "You had better tell me where your little friends are or I'm going to go around dislocating your whole body." He hatefully glared at me and spat on the ground, "I'm never going to tell you anything Curator, you're never going to beat our saviour. He will bring his holy grace upon us, for the Wielder!" He screamed before beginning to convulse violently on his chair, I stepped back on reflex because it honestly surprised me, and before I could do anything lilac light glowed from inside his heart and head and he swelled like a balloon at said places.

I noticed the energy there going haywire with corruption before finally the dam broke and the rapidly corrupted man exploded in a disgustingly gore tendrils of sticky dry flesh which stuck on the wall making a web of flesh, bone and horror. I noticed the abomination was writhing and pulsing as it spread to each corner of the room.

Me and the chief quickly got out of the hut and the guards outside set fire to the hut, burning the thing inside.

"Did you know this was going to happen?" I asked the chief, "Yes, it always happens like that, that's why we burn afterwards. Anyways, my grandson will show you the way to your room." He gestured towards the Olivias and walked away, I looked towards Olivias and saw him chatting with the young girl, I walked up to them and asked where my room was, Olivias pointed out the house I was supposed to go at, "Thanks kid, you two better get some sleep because tomorrow is going to be a rough day alright, Olivias and uh-?"

"Right, my name is Evae." The now named Evae informed.

"Right, well then see you two later." I walked over to the house for a needed rest.

TO BE CONTINUED.