I'm gonna respond to the reviews at the end because I feel that there are a bit of spoilers in some of them. So enjoy this new chapter!

So enjoy this new chapter!

Chapter 10

Luka's POV

"Shit. Things weren't going as well as I thought it would."

After commanding my minions of guards to burn down the castle, I sat back down, watching as the almighty palace fell to the grounds for a second time. I wondered how long it was going to stay down this time. Maybe forever.

I remember my brief time living here as a child, as a royal. It was weird realizing that I was one of them. I had that special kind of blood, the kind that gave me the powers to control fire. I remember being some kind of young prodigy but not using these abilities made me rusty.

In the first few minutes, the castle was completely engulfed in flames and smoke. Screams of terror and fear rang were like music to my ears. I enjoyed this more than I usually would but I was caught up in the moment.

The king and prince tried to fight fire with fire. Though they had the right idea, it was futile. My fire was bigger and stronger than theirs. Al was doing his best to knock down the guards while at the same time trying to protect the royals. It was a bit amusing seeing him hit the guards across the courtyard like a sack of rice.

On the other hand, Miku had tried to manipulate the water from the fountain. I didn't think she could use her powers under such pressure. Last time, she used her powers in quite a dangerous way, but she wasn't in control. She was angry.

Miku seemed nervous now but once she got a ball of water in the air, that idiot prince fell on top of her. The water splattered everything, stunning the nearby guards, but I could hardly care any less about that. I stared at Luki on top of Miku, gritting my teeth. It was like they were like that forever. I just wanted to get down there and rip his throat out.

But I stopped myself because in due time, I will permanently take care of him. Brother or not, I needed someone to hate right now and he gives me plenty of reasons. He had everything that should've been mine. The only thing he can truly call as his own is Miku. I knew I could never have her but deep within me I wished otherwise.

Finally Luki got off of Miku. After the blushing died down, the next thing I remembered was Miku holding a huge sphere of water over her head. As intimidating as it was, the fire reflected off the surface of the water, making it an amazing sight to behold. I would never think Miku as the type to kill but the looming red water hinted otherwise.

After Miku had done the unexpected by releasing the guards from my control instead of killing them, I leaned back into my chair and sighed. Now there was a whole bunch of useless guards unconscious on the ground. I didn't feel like summoning the other ones that were somewhere out around the castle and possibly the town outside.

I closed my eyes then reopened them. I had appeared on the ground in front of the four. They all jumped back a little in surprise. They thought they had some time before facing me but I won't let them have that opportunity.

"Well, well, well," I said, slowly clapping. "I didn't you had it in you, princess." Miku stiffen when we made eye contact. I turned away and got a better look at the scenery. Everything was either burned or broken. Some both.

"What are you guys going to do now?" I continued. "You're all too tired from those puny guards and the princess doesn't have the energy to play with water anymore."

Everyone was panting and sweating. Well the sweating was a given considering how the building around them was on fire. Miku seemed especially drained. The side effects are probably hitting her about now.

Seeing how I wasn't going to get an answer, I started walking towards them, but Al stepped forward. "Don't come any closer, demon!" he yelled, putting up his hammer right at my face, blocking my view of everyone.

"Aw, don't be like that," I playfully whined, slouching back a bit. "You guys are getting tired and I'm getting bored so why don't we just finish this and I give you all a quick death?" I offered.

I heard a scoff from Luki. "As if. You should be asking us to give you a quick death. We have still have strength in numbers."

I tilted to the side, facing Luki's overconfident face. "Have you learned nothing, brother?" I asked with raised brow. "Look around you." I pushed Al's hammer to the side and walked towards Luki. I saw Al swing his weapon back in the corner of my eye. "Numbers mean nothing in this fight." I ducked from Al's attack, not missing a beat and kept talking. "And if you hadn't notice, your castle is on fire and your guards are either under my control or dead."

"They're not dead," Miku stated quietly, looking at the ground.

I put my hand up. "Well they're all going to be dead soon enough."

"Why are you doing this?" the king spoke up for the first time. I almost forgot he was here.

"Because my whole life has been stolen from me." I retorted. "I grew up without knowing where I came from or who I was except my name. Do know what it was like as a 4-year-old with no memories in the woods in the middle of the night? Why didn't you try to find me?" My voice grew louder with each word.

"We did. We searched all day, everyday," he explained with a convincing tone. "We lost a lot of people that night and the kingdom mourned for days. But eventually we caught word about an infamous pink-haired ninja named Luka. So we sent troops to each clan to find you."

"Oh, I remember that!" I exclaimed at the memory of that event. "That was ten years later and your troops did more than to just search for me. They wiped out most of the clans. Only a few managed to survive, including mine. My comrades thought I had betrayed them when I was just as clueless as they were! They banished me! They were the closest to a family and home I had. And you had to destroy that too!" I was screaming while I was recalling the past.

"Luka," he said sadly. "I'm sorry but I didn't-"

"Enough!" I yelled, covering my ears and closing my eyes. "I don't want to hear any of your excuses. I'm just going to annihilate this kingdom and everyone in it. This place is the root of all of my problems!"

I jumped a few feet back. A ring of fire swirled around my feet, picking up speed. The fire rose into the air, still spinning, making it look like a red tornado. I fell to my knees as anger built up in me. My back was getting extremely hot in two certain areas that happened to be where my two scars were. The fire around me started to disperse-no, they were being sucked into somewhere. They were directing themselves behind me. The pain died down and left me with a feeling of power.

Soon I was exposed and the look of their faces was priceless. Though I didn't know exactly why they looked that way, it was still amusing. I followed their eyes and turned my head around.

A pair of fire burning wings made its place on my back. They stretched maybe as long as 10 feet to each side. I tried to flap the wings, which sent a small gust to my four spectators. The motion took more energy than I thought but I let anger take care of that.

I decided to try out this newfound power. I looked at Al who stiffened when I looked at him and held his hammer up in defense. But it was too easy. I saw everything differently. I saw everyone's weak points and where to instantly kill them.

I was instantly in front of Al, piercing my bare arm through his armor and chest then out his back. He gasped in horror as I pulled my arm out and he fell to the ground. So I was stronger and faster. In this state, I doubt some water could hurt me.

I stared at the blood on my arm and at the pool of blood forming around Al's dead body. The sight of it all excited me. With each kill came a pleasant burst of adrenaline. I felt more alive. I wanted to kill more but guards were boring and weak. I wanted someone stronger.

I smiled evilly. "Like a royal."

I looked over at the three who also happened to be royals themselves. They had already taken several steps back away from me. I could tell they were trying very hard to summon up the courage to protect each other.

I was about to pounce on them when a shadowy figure caught my eye behind them. I narrowed my eyes on it, trying to make out its identity. Then they walked into the light of the fire. I felt my blood boil and my wings burn stronger.

It was the queen.

I charged at her with fire licking my arms. The king and prince held up their weapons, attacking the air. They were too slow and I easily slid between them. As I got closer to the queen, I was charging up a fireball in my hand. She just looked at me with smirk. She didn't move or look scared.

Just as I was about to make contact with her face, the queen literally fell downwards. She melted into the shadows below her and disappeared. I was moving so fast to immediately stop so I crashed into the castle wall, making a small explosion.

I got up and brushed all of the debris off of me. I saw that had made a huge hole in the side of the building. I could see the floor above, which was threatening to fall. I shrugged. At least the castle was falling apart faster.

I looked back to where I had came from and saw the queen standing in the exact same spot as she was before. Her arms were crossed and then she brought up a hand to her mouth. "I see you've regained your memories since you tried to attack me so boldly," she laughed.

"Shut up!" I growled. I ran towards her again and tackled her but hit air as she dropped into the shadows again. I fell on the ground and managed to do a couple of flips before landing on my feet. I didn't see Miku and the others but I didn't care at the moment. They would just be in the way. I turned around and saw the queen was in the same spot again.

"Is that all you got?" she asked, sounding disappointed and shaking her head. "Even as a dual user, you are no match for a single user like me."

"Dual user?" I asked, furrowing my eyebrows. "What's a dual user? You mean dual blades?" I summoned two katanas out of fire.

"Oh whoops," the queen covered her mouth and chuckled. "It seems you didn't remember that part. Just forget I said anything."

"No! Tell me!" I screamed. I threw the flaming katanas at the queen who just waved her hand out in front of her. Two dark holes appeared in midair. The katanas went into the two portals of darkness instead of into the queen's body.

I groaned in frustration. She was making things really difficult with her powers of shadow. Apparently with light comes darkness. Seeing how fire was burning all around us, shadows danced where the fire wasn't. And that was a large chunk of space. Plus the dark clouds in the sky didn't help.

I bent down and dug my hands into the concrete ground. I shot fire out my palms and into the ground. I directed the fire towards the queen, aiming for her sides. Two red lines could be seen breaking through the surface of the ground as it approached its target. When it got close to her, fire burst out of the ground continuously, aiming at the person in the middle.

The queen lifted her arms in the air, summoning two dark walls from the ground. The fire was blocked by the walls, causing it to splash in all directions. I figured she was going to block my attack but I hoped she didn't notice the tiny red line coming at her down the middle. Soon she would be barraged from three sides.

When my third attack shot from the ground, the queen plunged downward into the shadows. Her walls that protected her also disappeared. So now I had three streams of fire colliding with each other.

I stopped fueling the fire and stood up and facepalmed. With shadows everywhere, the queen could basically teleported wherever she wants. Or she could just stay in the shadows and never come out. That would be good too. But that was never going to happen because soon I heard her voice.

"That was pretty good but now it's my turn."

I whipped around and saw the queen in punching distance. So I went to go punch her but I couldn't move my legs. I looked down and saw that my feet were literally in the shadows. Dark strips extended from shadows up around my legs.

"What the heck is this?!" I yelled as I blasted fire at the shadows, which were now up to my waists.

"Well when I attack you, I don't want you moving around so much," she explained.

By this time, the shadow strips had wrapped my arms to the side of my body and stopped at my neck. Even my wings were tied up. I tried lighting myself on fire to break free from this shadowy hold but to no avail. It actually tighten its grip on me.

"It's useless," the queen said as she watched me fail. "I'm far stronger than you, child. Nothing you do will ever change that."

I felt myself being lifted off of the ground and the shadows around me morphed into a giant hand, grabbing a hold of me. It squeezed on my wings, causing me to wince in pain.

"Let's see how strong your stamina is," she declared, taking some steps backwards.

I went higher into the air and the hand turned into an arm. I gulped. I had a bed feeling about this. So I braced myself for the worst.

The queen made a fist and waved her arm to the side. The shadow arm mirrored her movements, crashing into the side of the castle. I took a lot more damage than I thought I would. I thought having this hand around me would protect me from most of the hit but for some reason, it now decides to act like a shadow. So everything went right though it and came straight at me.

I knew the queen moved her arm in the opposite direction because I moved through the air then smashed into the opposite wall. Thankfully the walls were already about to crumble so hitting them wasn't as bad but hitting the ground hurt.

This continued for quite a bit. The queen was moving her arms all over the place. It was like she was conducting some kind of crazy orchestra. She would throw her arm back, making me hit a brick tower, or down, making me land into a thorny bush.

Finally she stopped and the shadow hand was lower down in front of her. I was out of breath and sore from head to toe. I had a feeling I wouldn't be able stand steadily on my two feet when all this would be over, if this would be over. It took all of my strength to lift my head and see the smug look on the queen's face.

"You lasted longer than most," she said. "At least I had some fun before you had to die."

I spat at her face with a mouthful of blood. If I had to die, then I was glad I did that. But I refused to die so spitting on her was fun for me. Why should she have all the fun? The look on her face turned into a deathly glare.

She flicked her hand to the side and the shadow had mimicked her. I was tossed at a waterless fountain. I broke the tuna statue in the middle and laid uncomfortably on the broken concrete. At least now I was free from the queen's hold. I slowly got up on my feet. My head felt dizzy and my legs almost turned into jelly. I leaned to the side of the fountain for support. I stretched my wings and felt a little better.

The queen was already getting ready to attack again. There were now two shadow arms, one on either side of her. She had one arm out in front of her and moved it from one side to the other. The corresponding shadow arm did the same, hitting the ground and sliding across the surface. It was heading towards me with unexpected speed and I barely managed to jump over.

I fell on my back. The queen made a patting motion down at the ground. I saw a dark hand way above me and then it gradually got bigger. I finally realized what was happening and immediately rolled to the side. The large hand had slammed into the spot where I had rolled away from, barely missing me and leaving a giant handprint in the ground.

I rolled to my feet and watched as the two shadow arms returned to their owner's side. I felt I was at a slight disadvantage. So I decided to make my own pair of fire arms. I focused and used the fire from the castle to forge a pair of huge arms beside me. Two large circles of fire formed on my sides and then took its shape like the queen's. I even took it a step further and made a body for the arms. It was only the upper body but still intimating. I made the fire giant take form as a ninja like me with its own scarf swaying in the wind.

I smirked at her. "Now this makes things more even."

The queen just rolled her eyes. "As if. This only makes things more fun before the inevitable happens." She did the same, making her own shadow giant. It took the form as a standard guard with a helmet over its head. It looked like an evil being since it was all shadowy and dark.

"Yeah?" I growled, pounding my fists together. "We'll see about that!"

I sprinted towards the queen with my two arms of fire right behind me. We locked hands, trying to push the other back. My arms were burning with flames, giving me more power. The queen's arms were covered in darkness. Our giants mirrored our movements, having their own battle of strength. Two battles of fire and shadow fought for dominance.

The queen was stronger than she looked. She had put up a good fight but I had an idea. I tilted my head back a bit. Her eyes widen as she realized what I was going to do. She tried to release her grip but I just tighten it and pulled her closer to me, smashing our foreheads together.

I let go of her and we both staggered backwards. Both of our foreheads were bleeding, hers more so than mine. The queen held her head with her hand and glared at me. It looked kind of weird seeing how her giant did the same.

I just smiled triumphantly. I looked up at my fire ninja and gave it a thumbs-up. Unfortunately it literally did the same, giving a thumbs-up at the sky. I facepalmed.

"Right. It's only going to copy what I do. Next time I should mak-Urgh!"

My thoughts were interrupted as I felt a sharp pain jabbing into my stomach. It sent me flying backwards through my fire giant, making it disappear into tiny flames, and into the castle once again.

Well at least I thought I was going to hit the castle. After some time moving backwards, I opened my eyes and saw nothing. I was surrounded in darkness. I didn't know where I was but I kept moving backwards. Then my mind started playing tricks on me. I was moving backwards but then it didn't feel like backwards at all. It was more like I was…falling downwards?

Suddenly that feeling became very real and I was literally falling downwards. I fell out of that dark world and into a much brighter one. I saw the blue sky, the bright sun, and the black hole that dropped me. The dark portal shrank until it was completely gone.

I faced down at the ground but saw a mass of dark clouds instead. I frowned as I fell through the clouds and saw the burning kingdom.

"It's still midday? I could've sworn it was midnight or something. Wait was that cloud on fire?"

I had felt a faint burning sensation when falling through the clouds. But it didn't hurt me. It actually felt good and gave me more energy.

I noticed I was gradually falling down faster. I decided to test out my wings and got into flying position. But I wasn't flying. I just kept on falling. I looked back and saw no wings whatsoever.

I grabbed my head with both my hands. "Where the fuck they go?!"

I spun around in the air a bunch of times, hopefully to see the hiding wings. But nope. They were gone and I had no idea how.

"Aww, did someone lose a pair of wings?"

I looked up and saw two portals floating above me, following me as I fell. Two heads and part of their shoulders poked out of the hole. One of the girls had a long, red ponytail. The other girl had lighter red hair, which was up in short pigtails in the shape as drills. Both had deep red eyes.

"Who the hell are yo-wait, I know you!" I yelled, pointing at the one of the girls. "You're the drills-for-hair torturer. Teto, right?"

At first she look taken back but then she glared at me with intense hatred. The other girl lowered her head, trying to hold back a laugh.

"Of all the things you could've said, you just had to say," the girl with the ponytail said with a snicker.

Teto took her arm out of the hole and stabbed my stomach with a dagger. I grimaced in pain, trying to remove the weapon from my abdomen. But I couldn't! I couldn't even grab a hold of it. My hands just moved across the handle as if it wasn't real. But the pain was very real!

"I fucking hate this element! One moment it acts like a solid and the next it acts like the shadow it is. And on the rare occasions, it drops people out of the SKY!"

"Ahaha, she can't get it out," the other girl burst out laughing.

"Serves her right, calling me such a name," Teto huffed.

"Ugh, whatever," I groaned, still in pain. "Who are you?" I pointed to the unknown girl, who was wiping away a tear. "And how are you guys shadow users?"

"Save the questions for later. You got bigger things to worry about," Teto said, disappearing into the dark portal, followed by the other girl.

I furrowed my brows and looked down at the closely approaching castle roof. I covered my head with arms as I fell through the roof and four floors.

I opened my eyes and sat up, making a pile of debris slide off of me. I was surprised that I had survived that fall without any broken bones. But the shadow dagger was still in me and moving made it hurt more.

"Man, this chick just won't die."

"I know, Cul, but I guess we'll have to show her what death it like."

"Ahh, yes like that time before."

I stood and saw the two girls standing down the hallway, no longer in any kind of hole. They were wearing the same thing. They wore a long, black collared coat that wasn't zipped up with a red underside. They had black shorts and a white shirt with red down the middle.

"First introductions," Teto announced. "You already know who I am."

"And I'm Cul." She wasn't besides Teto. She was behind me. I turned around and received a fist to the face. "Now, time for the beating!"

I stumbled backwards, cupping my cheek. I recovered quickly and kicked at Cul's legs, causing her to fall down. But a dark portal appeared beneath her and she fell into it. I raised a brow and looked down at where she disappeared. Then I felt an elbow plummeted on my neck. I was forced to ground with the person on top of me.

"Ha, you're never going to predict what shadow users will do next." It was Cul. "Especially in a nice, dark place like this."

Since they used all the shadows to their advantage, I'll use all the fire to mine. A shot of fire hurled towards Cul, making her jump off of me and creating some distance. I hopped to my feet and faced the two girls.

Two flamethrowers came out of the wall beside them. Teto put both her hands to the side. The shadows at her feet stretched up to her hands, sucking in the fire from one side and throwing it back out the other side. Cul just ducked so I curved the flames, burning the side of Cul's arm.

Cul hissed and glared at me. She kicked the ground in a dark spot. Her foot appeared at the side of my head. I barely ducked in time and her foot reappeared back on her leg.

Teto put her hand in front of her and dark, pointy sticks shot out of the ground, coming towards me. I ran up and on the wall to avoid them but it still followed me. I jump off and at Cul, knowing Teto would hold off her attack.

I kicked at Cul, half expecting her to disappear again. But instead she grabbed my foot and threw me onto the ground. I kicked at her legs again but before she hit the ground from the falling, I tackled her. I gripped her collar tightly so she wouldn't be able to escape and punched across her face. It felt really good when I made contact to her face.

I was going in for a second punch when something held my hand back. It grabbed my other hand and pulled me away from Cul. I looked up and saw the shadows extending its reach to and around my wrists. I was lifted off the ground and the shadows wrapped around my ankles.

"What…is…this?" I asked as I struggled to break away. I set my wrists and ankles on fire but it didn't do anything.

"The queen says we're taking too long," Teto informed as she helped Cul up.

Cul spat out some blood to the side. "Okay fine, let's finish this."

"Finish what?" I asked. "They wouldn't kill me. The queen wanted to do that personally so what are they talking about?"

I was answered by a smirk from the two before they backed into separate dark corners, falling into the darkness. Then I felt two hands on my back.

"Eh? What are you do-" I cringed at the sudden pain. The hands felt like weren't on my back but at the same time, I knew they were still there. It felt as though they were reaching inside me. It became difficult to breath and move. It hurt to do either of those. It hurt to stay still. It even hurt to think.

"I can't...die…yet…still need…to…"

My breathing hitched and everything went dark.

This chapter did not go exactly as planned. There's stuff I wanted to put in the story but keep having to push it back because I couldn't find the right time for it to appear. Sorry if things sounded repetitive. Describing the fights became a lot harder than I thought. Plus I couldn't find the right words for certain moves -_-

I also got the horizontal lines to work in the beginning of this and last chapter :D For some reason, it always worked at the end. I had to do a bunch of copying and pasting and in the end, I still don't understand what I did XD I might make an author's note in the beginning and go straight into the story. That would save me a lot of work...

Review Time!

To catlovers: I'm sorry there was not a fight between fire and water. I hope the fight between fire and shadow satisfies you for now. As for throwing the tuna, I honestly have no idea what to say XD

To GooBall: Lol at least you got email alerts. I've had this account for half a year and never once got an email alert until like a week ago. The settings were all correct and I didn't change a thing and then I suddenly got those alerts -_- We all know who the real villain and as for Luka, things are complicated with her but I hoped you liked the wings. :D

To YoshiYoshinon: Thanks! I hope they continue to meet your standards of awesomeness XD

To JustSomeFanGirl: Yes I changed the rating. I would've never thought about changing it. So thanks :)

To Wolf-sama: Thanks! And I shall do my best!

To One-x-Three: Well...we don't see much of Miku's reactions in this chapter. So sorrys. Hopefully I can get that in the next chapter...

To Guest: Thank you! It's nice to know I'm doing good :)

To Yamsassi: Lol if it makes you feel any better, I wasn't expecting most of that either XD Ah yes the names. I suck at coming up with names so I took the first (or last, I don't understand japanese names XD) names of their voice providers. I'm slack like that :P It seems I made Ruko a really hateable character. Oh well too late to change that now...or is it XD That would be comedic lol but who knows, some things just happen. XD

Yay more guests are reviewing :D It makes me happy to know there are other people out there besides the one with accounts that read my story XD

Forgive me for any mistakes.