Woo! Final chapter of The Crimson Tower, which concluded Ablaze Part I. Thank you to those who supported me and gave me advice in the reviews and to those who followed and Favorited. Enjoy!
Ablaze: The Crimson Tower
Chapter 4; Burn
"Oh, Hey Ayano. Didn't see you there." The wind user teased. Ayano let out a weak laugh, feeling weak herself as all her muscles unwound and relaxed. She didn't realise how tensed she was.
"Did you really have to knock down half of the building?" Ayano sarcastically moaned, in almost a whisper, still recovering from the tackle of relief.
"Hey! Don't complain when I come and rescue you." Kazuma snapped back, giving her that heart-throbbing smile that always made her blush. Today was no different. Hidden under that heart-breaker face, she could see the same relief she had felt, rushing over him.
"Fine. Whatever. Just hurry up and- KAZUMA!" Ayano yelled. To Kazuma's surprise, his arms were dragged behind him and black iron cuffs clasped onto his wrist in almost a split-second. A slender man with sharp glasses and long, ice-blond hair tied back in a pony tail, stood behind the ex-Kannagi. "What the- Where the hell did you come from?" Kazuma exclaimed, jingling his wrists and glaring at them with distaste. " ." he sneered with annoyance, laced with a tiresome undertone.
"Not just any cuffs." Ayano groaned. "Magic blocking cuffs." she exclaimed with sarcastic and obviously fake enthusiasm.
"What?" Kazuma scowled, looking back at his wrists.
"Yup. Thanks for rescuing me, Kazuma." Ayano replied.
"Shut up. Why the hell did you end up in this mess anyway?" Kazuma retorted.
"Hey! It wasn't my fault I ended up here!" Ayano snapped, on the defensive.
"Yeah, I know. You were kidnapped!" Kazuma sighed, with an awkward pout on his lips that made him seem kind of cute.
"Don't say it like that!" Ayano snapped, her voice showed her offence, as well as her eyes showing the shock and turning into a long, hard glare.
"Like what?" Kazuma replied irritably, now it was his turn on the defence.
"Like it's my fault."
"I didn't say it was!" Kazuma tried, and was falling to defend himself at Ayano.
"Kazuma!" Ayano snapped.
"Ayano!" Kazuma replied in the same, frustrated tone.
"Shut up!" Hiro exclaimed. Soundlessly, the mysterious man, unsheathed a long, golden-hilted kitana concealed on his belt. The back of the sword swung down and clubbed Kazuma on the back of his head. Kazuma dropped to his knee's, then onto the floor, his head hit with a loud bang making Ayano wince.
"KAZUMA!" Ayano exclaimed in shock.
"Urgh!, Damn that hurt!" The wind user grumbled, moving his body, inches at a time in jerky movements.
Swiftly the mysterious man, took the chained links to Kazuma's cuffs and connected them to a small metal pole, sticking randomly up from the ground in the corner of the room, far out of Ayano's reach.
"You really are a nuisance." Hiro scoffed, bearing his teeth at the wind mage, cornered and even further out of his reach than Ayano.
"Tsk." The ex-Kannagi scowled. A long, exaggerated and dramatic sigh escaped the old man's lips.
"Now..." he glanced around, his glare lingering on Kazuma."Where were we?"
"That's something I'd like to know." Ayano muttered accidentally. Kazuma let out a small scoff of laughter and Ayano felt her smile twitch.
"Now I remember." He snarled. The man with the blonde ponytail, and glasses held out a long, cylinder tube filled with what looked like, translucent, clear water, than almost sparkled as the morning sun skimmed it's surface. The man placed in down next to the Konishi head with ease though it looked like it weighed a lot more than it seemed. "This, is fro the holy lake of the Konishi's. It was where the original Konishi head made a contract with the water spirit." It has...special magical properties." Hiro gleamed, as he he lowered the silver tip of the blade into the still surface of the water. It didn't even ripple, which Ayano found especially weird. But it did ripple, except, it wasn't the water that did. The ripple she spoke of, travelled up the sword, distorting the dragon engraving as it moved up towards the hilt where it died.
Suddenly, the water began to move, crawling up the face of the blade, coating it in a sheath of icy water. Frighteningly, the dragon began to shift, stretching and curling, causing Ayano to let out a startled squeal. Ayano watched the dragon absorb the water in to it's skin. Fidgeting and coiling, the dragon edged with anxiousness up the blade and closer, to her. A crooked smile on the old man's lips gave Ayano the last push and the fear overwhelmed her in seconds. She felt her whole body shake, her eyes bulge and her mouth dry as her heart raced inside her, pounding around the cold blood through her veins.
"What the hell is that?" Kazuma growled, watching it with the most threatening glare he could.
"This...is the sacred Konishi sword." Twirling the sword in his hand, his eyes gazed over it with a disturbing admiration. "This sword will assist in the end of the Kannagi lines." Kazuma eyes didn't flinch, but his stomach knotted in shock. His cold eyes glanced back and forth between the sword and the restrained Kannagi girl. Then it hit him. His eyes lingered on her, watching the girl's body shake the chains. He must have already told her about his plans because she didn't seem shocked, in fact, she didn't seem much of anything. Kazuma would of assumed she was in shock, but, in her deep golden eyes, a sadness wallow, letting silent tears roll endlessly down her colour-drained cheeks. There was one thing that Kazuma thought he would never see, and that, was Ayano's tears. Even though her face showed indifference, the tears didn't stop falling. That was when Kazuma realised that she wasn't in shock, instead, she was being strong. She trying her best to act as tough as she could, even though you could hear the small sound of her heart cracking. Golden eyes swung forward in a sharp, cold glare and held it as the head Konishi approached.
"Now, child, you will be the first of many to die for the Konishi cause, as many did for the Kannagi." Hiro proclaimed, letting the cool edge of the sword grazed across Ayano's neck.
"No. Ayano!" Kazuma bellowed, struggling against his chains in panic.
"There's no use in struggling Kazuma; It's futile." Ayano's voice barely raised above a whisper. Slowly, the sword departed from her neck and rose high over the old man's grey head. In a disturbing illusion, the dragon looked like it towered taller than any being, jittering with excitement. Not relinquishing her stare yet, the young, red-head girl, stare stilled on the man's scornful eyes, blinded by resentment. The sword plummeted through the air, effortlessly. Golden, beautiful eyes fell shut for the last time as the metal swung down on her neck. She didn't even flinch.
"AYANO!" Kazuma screamed at the top of his lungs. Scrunching his eyes closed in grimace, Kazuma felt his body collapse to the floor in shock as silence warped over the room.
'She's dead. dead. dead. She's dead.' muttered repetitively, over and over again in Kazuma's mind as his blank face fell into his palms. Darkness blinded his sight from his closed lids as the world rocked back and forth, left and right, making his balance go AWOL.
Suddenly, something startled him, dragging him back out of his wallowing despair. Shooting open, his eyes jumped to the floor in front of him. The sword rattled as it clattered against the wooden floor, piercing through the thick skin of silence. Charcoal black burns ran up through the dragon, staining its every scale a menacing, crisp black, creeping further up the sword.
Kazuma's deep brown eyes, cautiously rolled up to the hanging, limp body from the wall. Ayano was...fine? Her eyes were closed and hidden behind a veil of hot red hair, and her cheeks were still stained with tear tracks, but she was okay. What happened? Kazuma watched the calm girl intensely, almost burning holes straight through her.
His body wound up so tense, that he flinched as her body twitched, quietly rattling the chains. "Ayano." Kazuma whispered, attempting to scramble closer, but was jerked to a stop by the chains behind him. Kazuma ignored them and lent his body closer, trying to see past her curtain of red.
Suddenly, her eyes snapped open, her body twisting up tensely and stiff. Her golden eyes had shifted into a burning red that glowed like a dying star. Red flames began to rise from the ground, whipping around her in a circle, slowly engulfing her. It burst upwards, disintegrating anything in its way, into a tower of red fire. As the fire flickered, Kazuma saw the chains crumble like they were delicate and fragile things, into a pile of black ash that was carried up and up, into the rising tower that drove up, past the sight of his eyes.
In a desperate attempt to flee, the Konishi head spun of his heals and ran, his face slowly slipping out of colour into a pastel white. The house began to corrode and burn as the crimson flames ate away at the rest of the wood and frame of the house. As Kazuma looked around, the mysterious glasses figure had made himself disappear without a sound. Burning blue flames, hinted with pink ignited around Kazuma's wrists, gnawing away at the chains that bound him. The chains began to bend and disfigure, as the flame rose in temperature. Steel chains turned into a thick, black liquid as it ran from Kazuma's thick wrists, dripping into a amber, bubbling pool, burning through the floor. No heat had touched or burned him as the flames died. There was no mistaking it. It was the God's flame. But only his father had mastered it. Ayano certainly hadn't.
The sky rumbled with thunder and sparked with lightening as dark clouds clotted around the towering flames, tinting red in it's radiance. Kazuma's eyes focused back on the burning flames coiling around Ayano. It wasn't just the crimson flame, there were others. Blue, black, green, white, yellow, orange, all colours swirling magnificently around her, tinting the shade of red that burned the brightest, almost masking the other flames. Kazuma watch in awe. Ayano was so strong, so powerful, exploding with magic he had never seen before. A cold, chilling feeling rose up through his spine, making him feel nauseous inside at the sight of her before him. Maybe awe wasn't the only emotion he was feeling. But, the worst thing he felt, was the aching feeling of his heart when he looked, truly looked, at Ayano's eyes. They didn't look hard and mean, when she glared at her enemy, they didn't look stupendous and embarrassed like when he teased her, and they didn't look soft and gentle as when she spoke. They were empty, vacant, distant, as if she was looking into an abyss of nothing. Indifferent, and emotionless was how her expression remained, as she watched the flames burn and destroy. The flames had burnt the world around her to a crisp, and remained to do so as they didn't show any mercy, chasing men and burning the fallen ones. It was getting out of hand. Ayano wouldn't do that, she was on the break of murder, and she remained still, just watching the building come down in flames.
"AYANO!" Kazuma called over the crackling rumble of the fire. "AYANO!" He bellowed again. It was like he wasn't there. She didn't flinch, budge or even glance his way. It was impossible and she wasn't listening to him. Kazuma quickly gathered up a charge of wind and tried to die out the fire. It didn't work. The flames were acting like a vacuum, pulling the air out in a suffocating pull, up into the tornado of flames. The flames combusted and glowed a little bright, sparking out in every direction. Kazuma covered his face with his arm as a stray black flame shot towards him. It snaked through the air and missed him, then whirled back and joined in with the column of fire. "AYANO!" Kazuma tried to scream louder. Nothing. "Ayano." he muttered, feeling his ache and pine for her to just turn and look at him with her normal, bright eyes. Kazuma took in a deep breath and closed his eyes.
After a few seconds, they snapped open, glowing a vibrant, shimmering blue, marking himself as the contractor. "STOP!" he bellowed, summoning a gale of wind, swirling around his body, and let it lash forwards and collide against the Ayano's tunnel of flames.
Suddenly, Ayano's face snapped towards him, glaring at his desperate expression.
"Kazuma." her voice whispered, her eyes flickering and fading back to their normal golden yellow.
With in seconds, the tower of flames began to falter, and dispersed into the heated atmosphere. Slowly, a charred, burnt and almost completely ruined, wreckage of what was a house, was left over. Ayano's body swayed as her eyes flickered opened and closed.
"Ayano?" the wind user muttered softly, taking a step towards her and feeling the weak, burnt floor moan underneath him.
Legs buckling, Ayano fell to the floor, her red hair sailing through the air behind her. A quick gust of gentle wind swept underneath her, as Kazuma rushed to her side. The wind settled her softly onto the ground, sweeping aside the piles of ash and debris. He slipped a hand under her knees and around her back, pulling her up and into his arms. She had fallen unconscious. It was predictable after exerting that mass of power.
The sky roared and realised a instant down pour of rain, sending black clouds of smoke high into the atmosphere.
Kazuma readjusted Ayano's body so her head laid against the nape of her neck, and her breath was gentle and slow, brushing against his collar bone. Across her neck, the contractor noticed a long, deep gash ran from the side of her neck, and reached down to her collar bone. Red washed away with the rain over her wet clothes and down into the puddles at the wind user's feet."Idiot." he huffed, brushing his chin over her smooth, red hair as he walked through the dead garden, burnt to a crisp and flooding with puddles.
Kannagi's filed in the front street, with big black cars, and what seemed like an army. Kazuma had the common sense to alert Jugo whilst on his pursuit. Luckily, the ex-Kannagi had ignored the head's suggestion to wait for all the family before going in, or else Ayano might have been killed, not that he staged much of a rescue. Besides, he hated large groups.
Kazuma, holding the limp Ayano, was greeted by Jugo and Ren. They both gasped as they caught sight of the girl in his arms, clothes covered in diluted red stains. "It's okay; She's alive." Kazuma reassured them before they could spit-fire any questions at him. Even though blood still ran from her wound, he could still feel her weak pulse against the skin of his neck touching hers.
Two Kannagi's dressed in blue jump suits and white lab coats leapt forward, stealing the girl from his arms, laying her on a stretcher and rushing her into the back of a black van, before it rushed away down the street.
"The Kannagi doctors will look after her now." Jugo sounded exhausted, as his eyes watched the van disappear out of sight with a hard, set expression before he turned back to Kazuma.
"Jugo-" Kazuma began before the head cut him off quickly.
"We can talk later, at home." Jugo stopped him, sending him a sharp warning glare.
The wind user nodded, and turned to see Ren with his jaw almost touching the floor. Wet, blonde hair glued to his face as he gawked at the house in ruins, puffing up smoke like a train. Some parts of the building were beginning to collapse in on itself because of its instability.
"It's been completely incinerated!" Ren exclaimed. "Was it that massive beam of red light? It looked like the divine flame. You could see it from the other side of town, what was it?" Ren asked, now turned to Kazuma with burning curiosity.
"I'm not sure. There was an explosion and then that light suddenly appeared." Kazuma vaguely lied, knowing that even if he tried, he wouldn't be able to explain what had happen, not yet anyway.
"Wow." Ren sighed, turning back to look over it again.
"Let's go, Ren. Leave the other to deal with it." Kazuma suggested, leading the boy away with his hand on his shoulder as other Kannagi's, dressed in black and looking very suspicious, began to file onto the land with black briefcases.
Later that day, the sun had ended and the moon shone brightly in the dark sky. Kazuma had finished giving the very detailed, verbal and top-secret report on today's events.
"Magic blocking." Jugo pondered.
"They use water magic somehow." the wind mage added.
"Those Konishi might be a problem, even the sword surprised me. I know of the Konishi family's power, but to get their hands on the water dragon sword is quite the feat." Jugo perplexed, pacing up and down the room which was strange thing for Kazuma to see.
"I don't think we've seen the end of the Konishi's. They seemed very intent on killing you lot off, starting with Ayano." Kazuma growled, readjusting his posture against the wall, arms folded against his chest and his jaw set in a hard expression of discontent.
"Yes." Jugo answered absent mindedly, then began reciting something that sounded like it was out of a book. "In history, families would destroy other rivalled families, always starting with the heir to the head and so on."
"Great." Kazuma huffed sarcastically, big brown eyes staring solemnly out of the doorway.
"Ayano has always been special." Jugo randomly stated allowed. He had changed subject when Kazuma tried to get to a deeper meaning and had given up asking about an hour ago, so the Kannagi's statement surprised him. "When she was born, she had a high level of magic. We knew about that, of course. But to see it progress this far concerns me." Jugo stopped pacing and sat down tiredly on his seat in front of the Kannagi banner.
"She's able to use the divine flame, but not consciously." Kazuma added, taking up a seat near him.
"Yes, that's true." Jugo agreed, obviously in deep thought as he looked at his aged, and lined hands.
"But, the fire in there was different. It wasn't just the divine flame -yes it overpowered them- but there were all type of flames blended in with it; the purification, the god's flame, the divine flame, even some I'd never seen or heard of before; Black, green, white, orange flames. She was even able to completely control the God's flame. Those magic chains didn't even work on her, when I couldn't even use my contractor magic!" Kazuma ranted, throwing small but sharp and frustrated gestures. "But," Kazuma's body softened and his hands dropped down onto his lap. "Her face was empty, she just...watched as the flames burned like she didn't even care." Kazuma's fist balled into a fist on his knee and he watched as his knuckles turned white before he stiffly and forcefully open it up again.
"I see." Jugo muttered, stroking a finger against his jaw line, as he often did when he picked at an idea.
"What is it?" Kazuma snapped eagerly, ignoring his hand.
"Once, there was a Kannagi with such power. Only one." Jugo spoke softly, contemplating his words as he spoke them.
"Who?" Kazuma probed.
"The Original." Jugo bluntly answered. Kazuma's brain paused for a moment, considering what he said before he slowly began to infer.
"As in, the first Kannagi. the one who possessed the magic of the fire spirit, the first contractor, the reason why you all have your power." Kazuma replied, trying to pick out what he remembered from his old Kannagi lessons from years ago.
"Yes, but even he was unable to control all the different flames he was given."
"So, What does that mean for Ayano?" Kazuma added, feeling a little hesitant that he should have asked.
Jugo spoke in barely a whisper, as if he was unable to comprehend the words as he spoke them. "Ayano has the pure power of the fire spirit."
Kazuma gasped. "What?"
So, Ayano has the power of the fire spirit that only the first Kannagi ever possessed. Why does Ayano have it? How will she use it? And who else wants it? -Find out in Ablaze II
Well that's the end for the Crimson Tower. I decided to separate this story into sequels as the plot continues to develop. So look out for part 2 of Ablaze. I hoped you liked part one. I had fun writing it. :)
If you liked Ablaze: The Crimson Tower try checking out some of my other stories.
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-A-ccentric