As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
The scent of the dead is as of earth as the scent of life is of the rains of the sky.
They had come to the place of the north, which was the winter tomb of Easley and the she thing Priscilla. Even white snow and ice could not mask the scent of death which permeated the land which only grew colder and more frozen, since the Organization had first penetrated the idea of the Claymores.
The Organization liked fiction in their stories of the Claymore's were sent out to kill the Voracious Easters and the Yoma, but no one ever contemplated long that the Organization created the Claymores not of fight the Yoma and protect the people, but that the Yoma were the changelings of the Claymore, who were created for the Organization to extort money from the people, as the ultimate tax collector warriors the people could not refuse in this protection racket.
It all went wrong though as the human emotions turned these hybrids into monsters, and then it was a matter of commerce in the Yoma murdered the people to fear, and the people in fear paid huge sums to the Organization to have the Claymore come and kill the Yoma.
This was the story in the north which Clare was moving to, for the death of the Voracious Easely and the Awakened Priscilla.
The boy was there too following as the boy always did, and then there was Teresa of the Faint Smile and that Healer, a Claymore with is potions of Christ which changed the regenerative Claymores to more human in ending of the possession of the monsters inside.
Easely knew they were coming, as did that simpering evil of Priscilla. They all knew what was coming and they all knew that they would win, but in winning, there would be a loser and an end, and neither side contemplated they would be the loser and meeting their end.
It was all rather non descript really in their meeting and what would be the battlefied. It was an old pear orchard, the round golden brown orbs still frozen to the branches, as spring never appeared since Easely had made this land his abode.
Easely was sitting upon an ice sculpture of himself, petting Priscilla as she flashed from the simpering little girl to the insane awakened creature she was. The world seemed to blur in this place in realities merged and faded into a fog of a shroud of what was not and what would not be.
"You have come", Easely said to Clare, as the others sat down beside her, the boy of course hanging back and standing again wide eyed, as his gaze was fixed upon Priscilla.
"Poor boy", Teresa of the Faint Smile said as she looked upon the scene, "He can not decide which is the greater affection, that of loyality to his sister protector Clare or the lust for his Priscilla, so he is infected with both, awakening the voracious eater inside of him."
"I am not a boy!", Rocky shouted out to no one listening or caring, as Priscilla paused to cry the little girl and snarl as the Awakened Being.
"Of course you are, Boy," the Healer said in mocking him, "Of course you are."
"I suppose we are going to have to do this," Priscilla said coldly, "Your lovely Claymore forms will be roasting on the Yoma fires to feed my pets."
The iciness of the scene frosted in jagged edges all the more as the mists of Priscilla's vapours filled the land.
"I suppose so," the Healer replied, his own vapours freezing in the atmosphere and tinkling softly as they hunt upon the trees, "but first," he continued, "I have a gift for you Easely."
This puzzled all in what the Healer was presenting as a gift, when with a motion of his hand a snow curtain appeared before Easely, and as it began to fall, there appeared the most beautiful of women before him."
"This is Keah," the Healer said, "The most beautiful Claymore ever".
"What rank is she?," Clare inquired.
"Beauty has no rank," Teresa of the Faint Smile answered, "and by the looks of Easely and the Boy, they struggle now for a place in them as Keah supplants Priscilla of their lusts."
"I will kill her!," Priscilla screamed, as she Awakened, but Easely stepped between them.
"No Priscilla don't!", Rocky cried out, "Hasn't there been enough bloodshed and death!! Can we not end all of this and return to being human!!! You could change them back Healer, with your Holy things."
"Boy," the Healer taught, "Humans change. Claymores have not given themselves over as regeneratives to life. Yoma are the living dead. Voracious Eaters are the immortal dead, and Awakened Beings are eternally dead. That which brings life can not heal that which is perpetually dead."
"Then let us all join in death," Easely said.
"Easely," the Healer challenged, "We are men, let us have the women decide this in battle, Clare and Priscilla, and the outcome of that conflict, we will abide by in death. We will enjoy as masters and the boy, well he can be a stool for Teresa to prop her feet upon."
Easely laughed, and glared at the boy, savoring the humiliation, and quietly spoke, "Agreed."
"Come then Priscilla," the Healer taunted her, "Step toward us with your sword, kill Clare and then feast upon the beauty of Keah for your desert."
Priscilla screamed in rage. She screamed out, "I will kill you Healer last of all and make your manhood a hook upon which to hang my sword!!!", and then she took a step toward the Claymores, but only her left half came one short step as the right remained, as Priscilla was divided in two.
She fell to the ground with a dull double thud. The right half falling lighter than the left.
Easely was stunned. His pet was dead before his feet, divided and there was not any explanation.
"I will explain, "the Healer started, "It is that Keah. Her beauty is more than disarming Easely. Her beauty transfixes in the wink of an eye, and in that hesitation, her sword cut your little pet in two as you sat admiring your distraction."
"No!, "the Boy screamed out, looking aghast as the blood pooled from the division of Priscilla.
"No what," Teresa chided, "No let her live to kill Clare? No let her live to kill all of us?"
"No matter," Easely growled in rage, "I will kill all of you for this ruse."
With that Easely moved to Awaken and his form became intense, but it stopped at his head, as his arms fell away, then his legs, as the stump of him thudded to the ground.
"Now you see Easely," the Healer educated the Awakened Being, "You have been dead since Keah appeared, for her sword divided and conquered you too, but I wanted you to see Priscilla dead, to educate you that there is nothing inside of you human, and to reveal the wonder of watching yourself die.
Look Easely, at your reflection in the ice you have sculpted. Behold you are dead".
And with that Easely's head fell to the frost in a slight plume of ice, and blinked his last.
"How could you do this!!!", the Boy was still being emotional in thinking death could live and exist among life.
Keah now approached them, and leaned upon her sword, beautifully annointed with Awakened and Voracious blood. "You do not know boy, because the question is how could you do this? The "this" is little Boy, that you wanted your Clare and your Priscilla too.
Today would have settled nothing, except for your going to Priscilla's wounds and Easely grooming you, as you abandoned Clare again. There in your passions, Easely would have awakened to you, a union with that she devil, and together, you would have been incarnate to produce an awakened race where nothing would have lived and all would have died.
We should have killed you, but killing those two was more logical, as leaving you with the wound of what you are, and burden of what you would have become in all of your boyish foolishness.
Now go be a footstool or some other object which you are qualified for."
"Clare are you going to let them talk to me like that!", the Boy stammered, "I would have never done that to you Clare!"
"I told you when this started that I would not keep you from being beaten when you deserved it, and who was it that cowered by the wall when I was in need, and who was it that pled for Priscilla's life in your fantasy of making good of evil.
The visions of the future are true and you would have become the worst of all the awakened in being joined to Priscilla, but now you have been saved from destroying the world, and can return to what you are qualified for in being our cook."
"Cook this," the Healer threw something at his feet and explained, "A new group of life is forming. I decided that I did not appreciate the Organization giving orders, so I cut their tongues out.
There is not going to be any more human fools protecting evil in their hearts, and no more Organization to exploit humans in the devils they create, to extort money from those peoples in Claymore slaves killing Yoma."
"We are going to free the people to goodness," Teresa with the faint smile added.
"We are going to Angels of our better nature," Keah said.
"We are going to end the Yoma evil of this world," Clare added.
"and we are going to invite them all to their last meal, so get cooking Boy, we all have the part we are qualified for," the Healer ordered, as he struck his sword to make fire, and the great north began to warm to a spring.
agtG
