Chapter 89 - Paris Catacombs And Black Nightmare.
When Kurayami and Raynare looked at the city of Paris is was quite a sight, but Raynare was still annoyed her original date was interrupted. She realized that she was quite a violent person a long time ago, but the longer she went on the more violent she became.
She looked at Kurayami oddly. "Have I gotten more violent? I normally ask questions first instead of immediately kill. Vritra, is this because of you?"
The dragon king once again coiled around her and nodded. "I am an evil dragon so it is expected for you to become more violent. Although you do not need to worry that you will be unable to control yourself. You just need to get used to it."
She nodded. "Well, that is good. I rather not become a mindless machine that strives for the next kill." .
Kurayami nodded. "Let's hope you don't. Well, we can always ask your grandfather to help you train as he did say in his youth he had a nearly endless craving for murder. I bet God did not think twice when he made the angel of death."
She smiled as she looked up to her grandfather. He was not a god, a dragon, a mythical beast and he still managed to become one of the strongest beings in this world. He earned his enmity and she wanted to gain one that surpassed his by defeating Indra.
Call it hubris, but why live if you can't dream big. She looked at Kurayami and squinted her eyes at him. Kurayami looked at her and grinned.
"Are you going to try to surpass me as well? Best of luck to you, but first try to get into the superclass. You got the bloodline, the sacred gear, and the talent."
She shook her head. "Nah, I don't stand a chance against you. I may get in the top ten one day, but you are simply monstrous. Anyway, let's go find a restaurant or something."
He nodded and she took his arm again while they began to explore Paris. As Kurayami walked he noticed the catacombs below Paris filled to the brim with millions of skeletons. Raynare was even worse as she was the granddaughter of the Angel of Death.
She felt the amount of death was so much than she had seen, but it still was nothing compared to the Great War battlefield she went to as a kid to get her familiar Kane. She really wanted to go down there and she looked at Kurayami and had a cheeky smile.
"Hey, want to go down into hell itself?"
Kurayami smiled. "Last I checked we just came from hell."
"Let's go. If we get lost we can just blast our way out."
"Fine, not my fault if you get scared. I will comfort you all you want when you cry."
They both went to the entrance of the catacombs and they looked at the group that was going to go explore the Catacombs with them. Kurayami gazed below as he felt that the souls of the unfortunate people who died to the Black Death were being drawn to Raynare.
Even if Azrael was no longer the one who brought the souls of the believers of God to Heaven the souls still felt that Raynare his granddaughter could give them the rest they sought from an improper burial. Raynare squinted her eyes and the souls fled from her.
Kurayami looked at her odd. "Hey, should we still go? They are drawn to you."
She nodded. "Why would a few souls scare me? I got you the big bad Angel of the Abyss as my lover."
He sighed. "Well let's make the most of this and see what we find."
The rest of the group that was going to go in looked at both of them who in no way looked scared and were even flirting with each other. The tour guide looked at them all and got ready to start her tour.
"Well is everyone ready to go down? Please don't touch the bones and stay together. Everyone went down including Kurayami and Raynare who the deeper they went the more souls crowded around them. Kurayami felt there was a creature hiding down their feeding on souls.
He did not know what it was, but he wanted it. Whatever it was he was going to find it and Raynare also noticed that creature. They did not see it, but they knew it was there. It was dormant and still feeding to grow in power and it would probably not stop until it devoured every single soul in the catacombs.
Raynare pulled on his hoodie and whispered in his ear.
"I bet you can feel that. It seems it is a type of spirit that has grown over this time by feeding on the souls of the people, but it feels it is deeply dormant. I think the souls are around us as they are afraid of being devoured."
A soul wandered too close to Kurayami as it was drawn to his cross as it was the soul of a catholic and when it touched the stygian iron it was devoured by the cross. The rest of the soul's all rushed away as they felt that both of these two were dangerous and not out to help them.
Raynare smiled. "Well forget the tour. Let's see what it is."
Both of them sneaked away and started to go down the countless tunnels to find what this creature was. As they passed the walls of stacked bones the creepier the place felt. Shin came out of Kurayami's shadow.
The moment Incinerate Anthem around Shin's neck was seen by the souls they all floated to it and wanted to get near it. The blood of christ touched that cross and the devout ones were drawn to it however Kurayami waved his hand and used his aura to keep them away.
He found that the number of souls did not match the number of bones. Over 6 million people were buried here and it seemed there were only a few hundreds of thousands of them. Kurayami grabbed a soul and he fed it with mana.
The nearly see though soul reformed in the form of a young man no older than 17 and he looked dazed. However, Kurayami fed him with more magic until the soul's mind was semi repaired and the young man looked around in shock seeing what was around him.
"Hey, you. Look at me. I need you to tell me what you know."
The kid looked at him and he was terrified of the cross around Kurayami;'s neck. He knew that was no holy item and would devour him if he touched it. The cross was not alive like Rebellion, but it had been in contact with Kurayami for years and it had become a great treasure.
The guy looked at him with fear of being devoured. He felt he might be destroyed even if he was already dead.
Raynare looked at him and used her death magic to get him to tell her everything. Not only was it good to kill it also gave her the ability to control the souls of the dead.
"Why are there so few souls, did the creature eat them all or what."
He looked much calmer talking to her and he bowed.
"Yes, my lady. I don't remember much, but ever since the beginning, that thing came here and began to eat souls by the thousand. Now, it is not far from being done and when it awakens I feel even the living will not be spared its hunger."
She looked at Kurayami and was excited. Anything that fed on souls had to be strong and she saw the feral smile that Kurayami had on his face. One of the things that would never make him not excited was finding a new creature.
He looked at the kid with interest. "What is your name? Tell me more about this creature."
"My name was Raphael, I just know that I died to the plague years ago. That thing was once a simple wraith or ghost. It was never one of the souls of the ones buried here. It began to eat the souls in the early days of the 1820s I think."
Kurayami thought about it and whatever this thing was it either began to eat the souls for a reason or it found great power in the souls. Just from the power, he could feel from it it was easily in the late stages of the Satan Class.
He felt that if this thing woke up on its own it might even be as strong as Serafall from the millions of souls that it had eaten. Raynare looked at Raphael with more interest.
"So it has been here all this time eating souls. Any idea what it looks like?"
He shook his head. "Not at all. It was awake for the first 40 years it was here, but it went dormant after and it began to eat the souls nearly instinctively. It has not moved in over two hundred years, but at the rate, it is going it just needs 20 more to be done with us all. Please, my lady, you are related to the lord are you not. Save us."
Raynare looked at him and her smile went from being calm and friendly to having a smoking smile. She served no god and would never fall to being a mere servant to anyone.
"Me? Related to God? That is a good one Rapahel because last I checked I am a fallen angel. I do not serve any god and I feel insulted by the insinuation."
She showed off her 12 black wings and when Raphel saw them he felt he might have made a mistake. Fallen Angels meant they went against God and that was something he could not abide by. He was devout before his death and he was taught the word of God.
He was going to pray to God, but Raynare shut him up.
"I don't care what you say, but I think we are going to take the thing with us. It will be perfect as a familiar don't you think so Kurayami?"
He nodded. "It has fed on one of the greatest sources of food for dark-related creatures and it will be a great familiar for either of us. Who will get it is the question?"
Raynare forgot about that and she really wanted it for herself. They forgot about Raphele and focused on who would get it. Kurayamu smiled and he explained why he should get it.
"My aura will be a great food for it and I felt it first, So finder keepers."
She frowned. "You have plenty of Familiars I only have one. This one is unique beyond compare and where else will we get one like this. Also, you wouldn't even know about it if I didn't kill that guy and brought it here."
Kurayami flinched as they were good points, but he never lost out on a cool familiar. He got a good idea and he looked at her. He looked behind her and pointed.
"Hey what is that?"
She looked behind her and looked back and saw nothing and she looked back to where Kurayami was and only saw Shin. She blinked a few times and looked at the dog.
"Where is he?"
Shin pointed down with his paw and she got ticks marks all over her face.
"That asshole let's go dog. Before he gets my familiar."
Shin's eyes went wide as he did not expect to be dragged into this. As for Kurayami, he was already outside of the lair of the creature and he saw a pair of huge steel doors that did not look like they were made by people.
They had countless engravings on them of satanic design or what the people thought of the devil. He opened the doors like they weighed nothing and he saw the creature on a black throne.
It looked to be made of pure black fire just as black as his own flames and it looked to be in the form of a warrior with a massive flame sword next to its throne. Around it was many skeletons and from time to time souls were dragged down by the power of the creature and absorbed by it.
Every soul it ate rose its power little by little and Kurayami looked behind him when Raynare made it. When she saw the creature she wanted it even more and she looked at Kurayami with squinted eyes as he pulled a fast one on her.
"Raynare, let's give our friend here a wake up shall we?"
She nodded and they both raised their hands and focused on the souls that were left in the catacombs which were still around 800,000 souls and all of them were dragged here against their will.
They sent the souls into the sleeping creature which it began to devour and the more souls that it devoured the flames on it burned even more fiercely and with more wrath.. Even the soul of Raphele was not spared and in no time all of them were gone.
People who were exploring felt the catacombs felt much lighter with no souls around and they felt it was odd. Kurayami and Raynare focused on the creature and they began to feed it with their power.
Kurayami gave it his control over his holy flames and his darkness and Raynare sent Vritra's fire and her death magic. The more it absorbed the stronger it became and suddenly they knew it could not take up much and they stopped.
Kurayami looked at it and now it was up to fate if it would survive. If it did they just created a monster and if it died they could only blame their impatience. It was shaking like crazy and parts of its body burst and fell apart to be reformed over and over, but it did not look like it was getting weaker.
Raynare pulled out her scythe Sephtis and the scythe knew this was going to be strong. Behind her, the silhouette of a Vritra coiled and he looked at the creature with interest.
"Raynare I know what this is. It is a creature called a Nightmare, they start as ghosts and grow by feeding on the souls of places of mass death like a plague, war, or massacres. This is the first I see one having fed on so many souls."
Kurayami brought of Rebellion and he wishes she was here awake to see this. He was not used to having her be so silent as in battle she was his partner like Shin.
"Well If it is a nightmare let's call it a Black Nightmare. Who gets it Raynare?"
"Fine, keep it. As compensation, you better give me one of the evil dragons.."
He sighed and nodded. "That is fair. I was going to go look for the grave of Grendel anyway. Now we just have to wait for our friend here to wake up. How long Vritra?"
"A few hours. I believe this thing may or may not be as strong as you Raynare. If you fought this thing before you got my soul fragments you may have lost."
She nodded. "Well, now we just wait."
They both relaxed and sat down to wait for it to wake up. They may have just created a monster and they were excited to see it in its full glory."