The Red Hand

Chapter 232 – The Elf Returns.

With the glitter chaos completed, Akagi rode the elevator down to the lowest level of the RRT Headquarters. There were plenty of security guards along the hallway and around the door leading up to the holding cells, but she simply walked straight past them with no problem.

{I'm so tempted to use up these other glitter bombs, but I'll restrain myself in this instance.} (Akagi)

"Wow, we've got all kinds of familiar faces in here." Akagi said as she walked past the holding cells. "Salamandra's here, Ketoki too, and even Remiru. I haven't seen them for a long time. Maybe I should pop in for a visit sometime?" There had been minimal issue from the ex-Libra prisoners and most had resigned themselves to their fate, with only a few putting up sparse resistance. “Alright, so where's the Elf? I'd imagine that she wants out of this little nightmare ASAP.” She laughed as she continued down the hallway to where Elna was housed.

"D-Dark... Bad... N-No..." Elna was sitting on her bed rocking back and forth, something that was normal by this point. "The eyes... the darkness... the light..." As Akagi phased through her cell and appeared in front of her, the Elf was muttering like a madwoman

"Hello there." Akagi smiled as Elna looked up at her.

The moment that she laid eyes upon the Demon Elna went to scream but found that, no matter how hard she tried, no noise came out. Akagi was preventing any sound from escaping her throat so that nobody could hear her scream.

"Not that anyone would hear you, but I really don't need you doing that to me." Akagi shook her head. She was using illusion magic to make it seem as if nothing was amiss within the cell, and from the outside Elna, was continuing her usual routine of madness.

"So, first of all." Akagi reached out and put her hand on Elna's head, which the weak and afraid Elf tried and failed to avoid. "Let's get rid of some of that madness. You've been a good test subject so far, so your reward will be a return to 'sanity.'" During her destruction and consumption of Libra at their base, Akagi implanted a bit of dark energy within Elna's mind with her single punch. The Demon was curious about what would happen to mortals whose soul was exposed to the substance that made up her very being, and she'd been keeping a close eye on Elna to see the results.

After a few seconds of having Akagi root around within her body, Elna began to writhe and turn as a black substance oozed out from her mouth and eyes before flowing into Akagi's hand. It was an inky black, nearly liquid substance that seemed to absorb all light that touched it and Akagi figured others would describe it as nightmare fuel.

"There we go." Akagi smiled as she took her hand off Elna, who slumped onto her bed. "How's that? Any better?" She laughed as she poked the Elf in the cheek.

"I... What... Where..." Elna slowly sat up on the bed, confused and disoriented. "Ow, my head..." She held onto the side of her head as she teetered back and forth. It was pounding and it was as if she had the worst migraine imaginable. "Where am I?" She seemed to barely understand what was going on and her mind was fuzzy.

"Aww, don't tell me you don't remember the last few months of fun." Akagi snickered. "That would be quite unfortunate."

{Though not surprising.} (Akagi)

"You... I..." Elna slowly looked up at Akagi. "A-Akagi..." Her eyes went wide and her body started trembling as she recalled what had happened to her. "You... You were..." She backed away from Akagi. "You were in my... my..."

"Your mind." Akagi finished for her. "For a lack of a better term, yes." She nodded. "Do you remember everything?"

"B-Bits and pieces, yes." Elna answered while shivering. "T-The screams... the darkness... the fear..."

{It was hell... I was... I was both dead and alive... I felt as if I was both everywhere and no where... and there... there was nothing...} (Elna)

"Ah, good." Akagi nodded. "Then things worked out in the end. It would've defeated the point of everything if you ended up purging it from your memory."

"W-What did you do to me?" Elna asked. "It was... everywhere... the darkness... There was nothing... no one..." She seemed to be on the verge of tears.

"The simple answer my dear, is that you got a very rare glimpse at something neat." Akagi laughed as she leaned in closer to Elna's face. "You got to see me."

{A rare treat I assure you, and one that most better hope they never end up getting.} (Akagi)

"Y-You?" Elna squeaked out her question.

{That hell... It was you?} (Elna)

"Indeed.”Akagi nodded. “Putting it simply I placed a part of my being within you. I was curious to see the effects on the mortal mind." She smiled. "And as it turns out, you guys can't handle seeing what my true nature is, and your mind ends up breaking as a result. Quite neat, huh?"

{Armalthy is getting a similar glimpse, though I'm not giving him the reprieve of madness.} (Akagi)

"N-Nothing about that was neat." Elna retorted. "It was... horrifying."

"Oh, I bet it was. I'm a being made of pure darkness, the kind of darkness which doesn't really exist within normal reality. Thus a mortal's mind is probably not going to take well to being touched by even a fraction of it." Akagi shrugged. "I'm actually surprised you didn't just die from it, since it could've easily just fried your very soul. So good on you for keeping alive!" She gave a thumbs up.

"I-I think I'd've rather died than stay like that." Elna replied. “That was a fate worse than death.”

"Fair." Akagi laughed. "It was probably quite unpleasant to be thrown into the closest thing to hell that exists in this world." Elna would've seen not just darkness but felt an unimaginably crushing force on her very soul. It wasn't easy to describe said feeling, and it was something that the mind couldn't really understand, thus it broke.

"Why are you h-here anyway?" Elna asked as she looked around the room. "Are you here to k-kill me?" She couldn't imagine that Akagi released her from that hell from the kindness of her heart.

"My experiment was over, so I figured it was time to undo some of the damage to your mind." Akagi shrugged. "Surprisingly, I'm not actually here to kill you. I don't really need to do that, and there are plenty of others who are ahead of me in that line." She figured the Japanese and American governments would love the fact that Elna was now sane enough for trial.

"A-All you've done is condemn me to d-death anyway." Elna commented. "T-They want me d-dead and will just k-kill me now that I'm b-better." She could remember a few of the conversations with American and Japanese military lawyers with a few bits from her 'discussions' with Superbia that told her what they wanted her fate to be.

"True, true." Akagi nodded. "However, that's where the second reason I came here comes into play." She smirked. "How would you like a new lease on life, my little Elf friend?" Her words seemed seductive as they came across her lips, and Elna could already hear the little voice in the back of her head telling her to disregard the Demon's words.

"N-New lease?" Elna asked. "W-What do you mean?”

"Well, you see, while your use an experimental guinea pig, has for this first test, ended I have something else that I require a test subject for." Akagi continued. "If you agree to swear eternal fealty to me, and allow me to bind your soul to my will, then I'll get you out of here and help you start fresh. Though of course, that will include a few modifications to your soul and body since I want to see what happens if I do more than just surface-level experiments."

{Not to mention, I'll need to hide her for at least a century so that people eventually forget about who she is.} (Akagi)

"Y-You want to enslave me?" Elna asked.

"You will effectively be my slave, yes." Akagi nodded. "Though most of my slaves tend to live quite normal and free lives, so there are significantly worse fates one can have." She laughed. At this point the clansmen who were technically her slaves weren't really treated as such anymore and were just another part of the family. "You could be Armalthy. He gets to enjoy the rest of eternity witnessing what you did, only HE doesn't get to go insane." Her comment caused Elna to shiver violently. “So yeah... You could have it worse, I assure you that.”

"W-Why me?" Elna asked while shivering. "C-Couldn't you just g-get someone e-else? W-Won't taking me c-cause p-problems?" She figured Akagi was doing things the hard way by offering to save her.

"Problems? I suppose. Though at the end of the day, the opinions of the rest of the world mean little to me." Akagi shrugged. "If the Americans pitch a fit over this, then that sounds like a them problem." She laughed as she poked Elna on the nose. "Besides, I'll give you a disguise for the near future, and in a few hundred years, nobody will even know who you are anymore, so who cares?" There would be records of the attack and who was responsible, but humanity would have collectively pushed the Yokosuka incident out of its mind by that point.

"D-Do I even have a choice?" Elna asked. She figured it was basically an ultimatum at this point since it was either this or certain death.

"You always have a choice my little Elf." Akagi nodded. "However, sometimes the choices before you delineate a clear right answer."

{Think of this as an ultimatum. Either you surrender yourself to me, or you end up dead by a military tribunal. Being my pawn isn't what most people want, but very few people crave death.} (Akagi)

Elna thought about Akagi's offer for a moment. She knew that declining would see her paraded in front of cameras and executed, which was something she really didn't want. Akagi's offer basically meant she was selling her soul to the proverbial devil, but if it kept her alive, then she figured it was worth it.

"I-I C-Can we agree... no more darkness?" Elna wanted to add a condition. "I-I don't want to see that again." She was hoping for a small concession.

{Please... No more...} (Elna)

"Fine." Akagi shrugged, not really caring about such a condition. "I don't really need you for that anyway, so I'll agree never to subject you to such things again. Though that doesn't mean I won't take you within my shadow for testing or other purposes." Her word was binding, and unless given a damn good reason she wouldn't go back on it, so Elna knew she could trust Akagi on this.

"F-Fine." Elna nodded. "T-Then I agree."

"I agree?" Akagi rolled her hand indicating that she wanted her to say something else.

"I-I agree... Master." Elna cringed inside as she called Akagi her master, and the Demon laughed as she wrapped the Elf in her shadow, the two of them vanishing without a trace.

_____________________________________________________________________________

<Imp POV>

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN ELNA VANISHED?!?" Aoi screamed at Imp, Mixu, and Shimari. They'd come to her office after being contacted by security, still covered in glitter. "HOW COULD SHE JUST VANISH LIKE THAT?!?"

{AND WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING IN THE BREAKROOM THAT ITS COVERED IN GLITTER AND WATER?!?} (Aoi)

"Please calm down, Aoi. Screaming won't do anything to get her back." Mixu sighed. "We have no idea what happened to her, and the camera footage just shows that Elna was there one minute and gone the next." She was in no mood for this nonsense and was desperate to get a shower to remove the glitter.

"No magic-spells used. Nothing on scanners-detectors." Imp had looked over the footage and used her tools to check for any kind of interference or other ways that the Elf could've disappeared. "No idea how Elf-thing vanished-disappeared." She shrugged.

{Though, I have idea-guess...} (Imp)

"There aren't many people who could do something like this." Mixu sighed. "And combining this with our glitter bomb incident, I'd bet that Akagi was the one who sprung her."

{But why?!? Wait, I know why... Just to fuck with us...} (Mixu)

"Eh? But why?!?" Shimari was surprised. "She fought Libra and took them down. Why would she want to take Elna?" She thought it would be strange for Akagi to take Elna after all that.

"Who knows, Akagi does all kinds of strange things." Mixu's eyes slowly moved to Imp. "Now, you wouldn't happen to know what's going on, do you?" She was suspicious of Imp since she spent time with Akagi and involved herself in the Demon's crazy plans.

{At this point, you're more Dumetorian than Japanese, you crazy little juice box.} (Mixu)

"Not this time." Imp crossed her arms in an X. "Akagi not mention-tell jailbreak of Elf-thing. I is innocent-not guilty in this instance."

{Still find it funny-amusing though.} (Imp)

"Why me?" Aoi groaned as she slammed her head on her desk. "I'm going to get a massive ass chewing... Elna was our number one prisoner, and she got out on my watch."

{I need a vacation...} (Aoi)

"If it was Akagi, then you're not really at fault." Mixu shrugged. "Stopping her isn't really possible." She figured it best to just wash their hands of Elna, and move on.

{Though Superbia and Excel are gonna be pissed if she really did take her...} (Mixu)

Over the next few days, Aoi was bombarded with messages from both the Japanese and American governments, demanding to know what happened to Elna. She couldn't tell them anything other than the fact that the Elf just vanished, and when queried about the whole ordeal, Akagi told both nations that she had nothing to do with any vanishing Elf and that another player might have sprung her. With no proof of her involvement, and an unwillingness to upset the Demon Lord with accusations, the Americans and Japanese quietly shuffled the disappearance under the rug and pretended that nothing ever happened. While at the same time, and by total coincidence, Black Company got a fifth member, who proved to be exceptionally skilled in martial arts.