B e y ond The M y t h
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Author's Note: The end is near. –dumdumduuum-
Disclaimer: I do not own Shaman King. Really.
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Everyone froze and turned around to watch Akantha.
Her body was floating a couple of inches above the bed to which she was previously chained. Her back started bending forward as if she were sitting up. But strangely she hadn't moved.
It took a couple of blinks and eye-rubs for everyone to finally realize that it was her spirit.
Another collective gasp was heard.
Manta edged towards her. She was now completely detached from her body, floating away from it, looking very disoriented.
"Akantha?" he asked quietly.
"Manta…" she replied. Her voice seemed more distant, hollower.
"Are you—are you dead?" he asked, trembling.
"I don't think so…" she said, pointing towards her solid form, which had now dropped back down onto the bed. "Look"
Everyone turned to look. Sure enough, Akantha's body was definitely alive, the chest rising and falling in shallow breaths.
The ghost Akantha uttered a tiny scream, causing all heads to snap back towards her.
She was being pulled backwards. She whirled around and found her self face to face with the shrine. Melia frantically leapt forward, trying to pull her back, but all her attempts were in vain; the force of the pull was too strong.
A yell of triumph sounded through the suite. Demitri began glowing, just as Akantha did before her spirit was ejected from her body. He began cackling like crazy, causing Horo to nudge Ren and whisper, "Dude, is he for real?"
Demitri abruptly stopped laughing and thrust his hand forward, sending shockwaves of energy through room, causing everyone to fall down.
"DO NOT MOCK ME!" he roared, his eyes flashing with an odd blue light. All of a sudden, Akantha slipped through Melia's grasp and accelerated towards the shrine. She screamed one last time, and was sucked into the shrine, her ghostly shriek echoing in the ears of everyone.
The phantom of her scream, however, was lost, as Demitri began to emit a strange light. Still laughing wickedly, he flexed his fingers in front of his eyes, a euphoric expression plastered across his face.
"What did you do to her?" yelled Manta indignantly. "Bring her back!"
Demitri rounded on him, snickering at his valiance. He raised his arm and sliced it through the air, causing a deep gash to appear across the side of Manta's face. Ignoring Yoh's cry of "Manta!", he turned towards Lyserg and pushed both arms in front of him, knocking Lyserg off his feet and causing him to sail through the air and hit his head on the opposite wall. He slid down, unconscious, a trickle of blood running from his mouth.
"You've gone too far!" bellowed Horo, proceeding to oversoul Kororo into his headband. He fired a blast of ice at Demitri, who in turn simply flicked his wrist, causing the block of ice to shatter.
Yoh stepped forward. His eyes weren't soft anymore.
"Enough is enough. You've hurt my friends and you've robbed an innocent shaman of her powers. I don't want to fight you. But I will if you refuse to stop what you are doing."
Realization flitted across Demitri's face, and he threw his head back and laughed.
"I knew I'd seen you before! You are the brother of that nuisance. I've heard stories about you Asakura."
Yoh drew Harusame.
"Very well then. Amidamaru! Oversoul!"
The silver-haired samurai materialized beside him.
"Hai, Yoh-dono!"
Yoh's furyoku poured into his sword. His eyes were closed in deep concentration.
"Yoh!" Anna yelled. Yoh's eyes snapped open just in time to hold a shield up to protect himself from Demitri's blast of energy.
"Listen to me, Yoh" said Anna. "He's not using a spirit medium"
"I know" said Yoh, dodging the attack after Demitri effortlessly deflected it.
"Where have you seen this before? Think, Yoh"
Yoh shielded his eyes from the bright glow Demitri was emitting.
"In the Shaman Fights!" yelled Ren, who had oversouled Bason into his Kwan-Dao and leapt beside Yoh.
"Team Enceous!" shouted Horo, who had landed on Yoh's other side.
Yoh dodged another attack. "He's—he's channeling his furyoku—"
"Into himself, yes" said Anna calmly.
"Smart girl" said Demitri. "You must be the itako." He paused, letting his eyes travel across the length of the body. "Not much when it comes to presentation, now are you?" he sneered.
"Oh dude!" said Horo, openmouthed. "You shouldn't have—"
But it was too late. Anna gave a resentful shriek and raised her itako beads. But instead of hurling them at Demitri she flung them at Iris, who was fluttering helplessly in Lyserg's homing pendulum's wire.
She gave a tiny shriek as her delicate, feathery wings were crushed and she was propelled into Anna's open hand.
"Iris!" yelled Demitri, letting his guard down in shock, earning him a hit in the face from a block of ice.
"You don't need her now" she snarled at him. "Just as Akantha never really needed Melia, as you found out earlier tonight"
"Shut up, you stupid bitch!" growled Demitri.
"Of course," she continued. "You meant to find out beforehand. Which is why you lured her to Tokyo, over which the Pleiades would be aligned exactly. You didn't expect her to fight so poorly against that shaman you had hired to attack her. But to your sheer dumb luck she decided to seek vengeance. And her sisters appeared to help her, as doves, the form Zeus turned them into before turning them into the stars"
"I was wrong" he said through gritted teeth. "You've done a good job researching, itako"
"It was you!" said Yoh accusingly. "You set that gang on Akantha?"
"Good job, Sherlock" said Demitri mockingly, firing another blast of energy at Yoh.
"Yoh!" yelled Ren. "Quick, channel your furyoku through him, he won't be able to control it!"
But before either had a chance to carry on this plan, they were distracted by a shuddering sound. All four whisked their heads around, only to see the statue of Poseidon trembling.
And then it exploded.
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Author's Note: BOOM! Explody! Ahaha, yes, ahem. Anyways, this was another explain-everything chapter so that not everything would appear to be totally random. And did I mention that this is the chapter before last? Yes, 'tis true.
Oh well!
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