Anniversary Chapter Part 2
The next morning
Kaito's and Noire's room
7am
Pov (Kaito)
After waking up from a night of passion and consummating our wedding; Noire and I quickly showered, got dressed, and made our way to the kitchen to make breakfast.
"Do you think we woke anyone up last night?" Noire asked me on our way to the kitchen.
"With how loud you got last night; we might've." I laughed jokingly, "Who would have thought you could be so dominating in bed, and liked being on top."
"Could you keep quiet about that?" She quietly hissed at me as we arrived at the kitchen, "It was our first time! We have to experiment to find out what we're comfortable with."
"I was planning on it. I'm the only one who gets to know that side of you." I told her seriously before we started cooking, "Before I forget; my father told me to meet with him today at the ABXYLR Grasslands around 10 so he can explain something about his side of my family tree."
"You can go, but don't take too long though."She said after some time, "Take Karin with you when go."
ABXYLR Grasslands
9:50am
Pov (Kaito)
"Well you're a little early." Rex said after I had hopped off Karins back, "This fenrir looks like she could do some damage."
"She can." I said scratching behind Karins ear after she lowered her head, "Her names Karin. I first found her as an injured pup around 16 years ago."
"I take it that she imprinted on you after that?" He asked getting a nod from me as an answer, "How bad was she injured; if I may ask?"
"It looked like she had been mauled and left to die." I responded shivering slightly as i recalled that day, "What did you want to tell me about your side of the family? Karin you can go play while we talk."
"Let's walk and talk. First off, I'm not originally from this dimension. Second our family's fate all began with your great great great grandfather, Leonhardt. That fate started when he betrayed his country and died, and I do mean died, to protect a little girl from the same fate. He was brought back to life by a woman named Dyshana, but she turned him and all of his descendents into spirit vessels.
"Being a spirit vessel is more of a curse than a blessing. In Agarest, where I'm originally from, a spirit vessel had the duty of giving up their souls in order to seal away gods on all five continents. We all fulfilled our destinies, but instead of dying we ended up in a different dimension with our spouses; fortunately I wasn't married when I sealed the god of my continent, so I ended up in the dimension that had my soul mate." Rex paused here to catch his breath as we crossed a river, "Any questions?"
"Does that make me a 'spirit vessel' to." I asked, "What about me being a god?"
"To answer your first question; in a sense yes. For your second answer; your godly power erased any trace of power left from our family line, so I was and am the last vessel." He answered truthfully as we enter a lightly forested area, "We actually have diverse genes in our family. Leonhardts wife, Fyuria, was a Syrium; Ladius, Leonhardts son, married was a fox neocollom named Sherufanir; Thoma, your great grandfather, married a dark elf named Lavinia; Duran, my father, married a harpuria named Sylvi."
"What's a Syrium and a Harpuia?" I asked scratching my head, "Not to mention a neocollom?"
"A Syrium is like an elf in appearance with pointed ears, but their skin is a pale grey, their hair is usually a pale purple, and unlike elves who use magic for most offensive needs; a Syrium is more melee oriented. Syrium were the subject of much prejudice in Agarest" Rex answered, "A Harpuia is more like an angel in a sense, but I've seen their wings vary from black to white to yellow. A Harpuia's wings indicated their status with black being the lowest and white being the highest. Finally a neocollom is a person that has the features of an animal like a fox or a rabbit for example; it's hard to explain exactly what they are. It's like they were an animal given human form by the gods of Agarest."
"Why would a Harpuia's wing color affect their status?" I asked him as we entered a small clearing that had a small cliff, "If you ask me that just makes no sense."
"I said the very same thing when Murmina, a black winged Harpuia, told me what her wings meant." Rex answered, "Here's good enough. Now how about a spar? I'm sure I can take whatever you can dish out."
"Don't complain to me when you get hurt then, and I'll give you this back." I said summoning Oathsworn, "I found it like you suggested but have no need of it; because I have my own sword that I prefer."
"Well then, I'll reclaim Oathsworn." my father said taking the sword from me, "Come at me like you mean it, or else you'll be in the dirt faster than you can blink."
"Alright then. I'll take you up on that and transform." I said as a bright light surrounded me before it faded revealing me in my transformed state while surrounded in a transparent rainbow aura, "In case you didn't know; in this form I'm known as Obsidian Player."
"I guess I'll step my game up a bit." He said as a flaming golden aura surrounded him, "Let's get this started."
"Whenever you're ready old man." I said calmly before dodging to the left of a vertical slash, "C'MON ERYN!"
"So that's your sword then?" Rex asked me as his sword made contact before disengaging, "It looks very well made."
"Thanks. I made it out of Ancient Dragon bones that had been mixed with a nearly indestructible metal." I responded before secretly charging a Share Explosion before clashing with him again.
After a couple more clashes Rex said, "I can tell that you're holding back. Come at me like you mean it!" After he said that he delivered a devastating slash that knocked me back a good 10 feet.
"You don't understand why I'm not going all out!" I yelled before rushing at him and delivering a flurry of slashes, "Unless certain conditions are met my power is limited to about 30% at all times!" I stopped speaking here as the palm of my non sword hand made contact with his chest, "Share Explosion!" I yelled as an explosion shook the clearing and blasting Rex backwards through four trees.
"Now that's what I'm talking about!" Rex said excitedly as he slowly got up, "You know Noire's to good for you right?"
"Don't go there old man. You have no idea of the door you're trying to open." I said quietly as my aura spiked.
"You know i'm right though." He said as he got back to the clearing, his shirt half gone revealing minor burns on his chest.
"Stop. NOW!" I yelled furiously not having moved and with my aura now burning wildly around me.
"You entering her life had to have been the worst thing that ev-" he was cut off before he could finish by my aura catering the ground.
"You have no idea the monster you have just unleashed upon yourself." I said coldly before looking up at him slowly, my eyes glowing brightly, "Don't say I didn't warn you."
Any other words were lost as I dashed at him quicker than he could react and delivered a devastating left hook to his jaw and sent him back out of the clearing through the same way he re-entered. Chasing after him I delivered a powerful slash that he just barely blocked, but cratered the ground around his feet.
"Keep it up! I want to see you at your full power." Rex yelled as his aura grew and he started pushing me back.
"You want my full power? FINE!" I yelled as my aura faded as a column of white light surrounded me before it slowly turned black.
Pov (Rex)
"What is this power I'm feeling right now? Why does it feel so oppressive?" I asked myself as the light around me started to fade, 'What did I just unleash?' I thought feeling a sudden sense of dread in the air.
"I swore I wouldn't use this form unless absolutely necessary, but I'll make an exception for you." Kaito said sounding Cocky as the light completely faded revealing me in a different form. Currently he's wearing skin tight black pants with white and silver stitching, black mid calf length combat boots with metal plating over the toes, black clawed gloves that left his palms exposed, no shirt or coat, and a gold locket around his neck. Appearance wise the only thing that changed was his hair turning from a mid back length black to a medium length spiky black with heavy silver and white highlights. "In this form you can call me Shadow Player." As he said this a transparent black aura with red lightning sparking every so often.
"What is that form?" I asked shocked at the amount of power I was exerting.
"I've decided to call this transformation; Inversion. This is my Chaos Form. While in this form I'm empowered by both Anti-energy and Negative energy; hence the black aura and red lightning." he told me before walking towards me, "Now! Get! Ready!"
As our swords met I got pushed back by the amount of force he had put in his strike. "How can a simple transformation cause such a difference in power?!" I yelled as I slid to a stop, 'What have I done to my own son? I have to calm him down somehow.' "Kaito! Don't fall prey to your anger! I didn't mean anything I said!"
"I warned you so many times about what you were trying to do old man!" he said angrily as he appeared in front of me and caught my sword in a deadlock with his, "You kept pushing me to this point!"
"Because I was testing you to see if you could protect your new family!" I yelled struggling to push him back, and succeeding slightly, "Let's end this with the next strike."
"Whatever you say old man." he said dismissively as he fell back to the other side of clearing.
"FINAL RESTORATION!" I yelled as my sword was surrounded in a white light and extended to 10 feet long and my aura spiked to its highest yet.
"RED SHADOW BURST!" He yelled as his sword, Eryn I think he called it, was surrounded by both shadows and red lightning as we dashed at each other and the clash resulted in an explosion that could be both seen and heard in the capital city of Lastation.
Lastation Basilicom
Noire's office
11am
Pov (Noire)
'Its been a about an hour since he left. What's taking him so long?' I thought to myself while doing some paperwork.
"Hey sis; do you feel that? It feels like an. oppressive feeling's hanging in the air." Uni asked me.
"Now that you mention it I d-" I started to say before we both heard and felt the shockwaves of a massive explosion. Running to the balcony I said, "We need to go check that out now!"
"Let's go!" Uni said as we transformed and took off towards the source of the explosion.
ABXYLR Grasslands
Pov (Noire)
15 minutes later
"What in the true goddess's name happened here?" I asked myself upon arriving at the destroyed forested plains.
"How could this have happened?" Uni asked as she arrived shortly after me, "It's like two great opposing forces went at each other with everything they had. Didn't you say that big brother was meeting his father around here."
"You're right! We need to search around here." I told her, "You go look for Karin. I'll go look for Kaito and Rex."
After Uni flew off to look for Karin; I decided to look for the epicenter of the explosion; thinking that they would most likely be there. After searching for what felt like an hour to me, but was actually around 10 minutes I found what I believed to be the origin of the explosion. "Kaito!" I yelled worriedly fearing the worst after reverting to my human form, "Where are you!"
"I'm 'cough' over here." he coughed out weakly before I rushed to his side.
"What happened here?" I asked him as I got on my knees next to him, and pulled his head, despite him bleeding, onto my lap.
"My dad tried to draw out 'cough' my full power, and caused me to inverse." He said weakly, "How he did it was by saying that 'cough' you were only settling for me, that I would only do you more harm 'cough' than anything, and that me entering 'cough' your life would only cause you pain."
"You know that none of that is true." I said stroking his hair, "You know you leveled this entire forest; right?"
"What do you mean?" He asked me.
"This entire forest is gone." I informed him, "Where's Rex at?"
"I think that he 'cough' was blasted backwards about a hundred or 'cough' so feet that way." He answered before pointing behind me, barely able to lift his arm, "He's stronger than I thought."
Looking behind me I saw a figure a good distance away laying on its back. "Trying to explain this disaster to our citizens is going to be a major problem." I said groaning.
"How big was the 'cough' explosion?" He asked me, "Where's Karin at?"
"Big enough to be heard, seen, and felt at the Basilicom." I answered truthfully, "Uni's looking for Karin right now. We need to get the two of you to hospital."
"I found her!" Uni said excitedly as she found us.
"Good timing Uni! Can you get rex? He's back that way." I asked her pointing to where Rex was laying, "I'll get Kaito."
"No problem, but what happened here?" She asked me as she passed.
"It's a long story." Kaito said from my lap, "Your sister will tell you 'cough' after you get us checked into the hospital."
Hospital Room
2 days later
8am
Pov (Rex)
Currently I'm laying in a hospital bed, having just woken up from the fight, next to the window with my right arm and left leg in casts, bandages covering most of my chest, and gauze over my left eye. I was left alone with my thoughts until Chian spoke up from the left side of my bed.
"Why did you try fighting our son?" Chian asked me angrily.
"I wanted to test his limits to see if he was strong enough to protect his new family." I answered truthfully while looking out the window, "I didn't mean to push him that far."
"The two of you destroyed one of the few forests Lastation has left!" She yelled at me, "If you had that kind of power why didn't you use it all those years ago to protect our son!"
"Because I couldn't!" I yelled back before quieting down and shamefully continuing, "I didn't use my power back then because I couldn't; I can only use my full strength when I have Oathsworn."
"At least the two of you are alright." She said after taking a few minutes to calm down, "Just don't provoke him like that again. I couldn't take losing either of you again."
"I promise I won't unless absolutely necessary." I promised her resolutely.
Lastation Basilicom
Noire's and Kaito's room
Same time as segment before
Pov (Kaito)
As I laid in the bed staring up at the dark blue ceiling still too weak to do much; Noire asked from the other side of the room while brushing her hair, "How are you feeling? Any better?"
"A lot better in fact." I said barely sitting up, "Still a bit drained from using so much energy in one attack."
"You're also not used to your Chaos Form." She said sternly yet gently, "Why would you even let him get to you like that?"
Thinking for a minute I said, "I have no idea how or why I let him get to me, and you know that I can't control Shadow; he's his own entity and not just another personality."
"I know. His first appearance is still fresh in my mind." She said shivering slightly, "You did what you had to do to save Planeptune back then, but you still scared everyone when that happened."
"I know." I said laying back down before attempting to change the subject, "When I get my strength back let's go on our honeymoon. I asked Vert if we could have a private island for two weeks and she agreed."
"I'd like that." She said laying down next to me, "Uni can handle Lastation for at least that long."
"Uni's grown a lot since I came back." I said wrapping an arm around her, "She has a lot more confidence in herself than she did before I was unsealed. Thank you for taking care of me these past two days."
"It's my duty as your wife." She responded, "I vowed to be a bastion for when you need me, and you needed me after that fight. Now just rest up and get better quick; I'm looking forward to our honeymoon."
A/N: So did you guys like the two part Anniversary chapter? I've never been good at writing fight scenes, so I'd appreciate some feedback about that part if any of you are willing. These chapters are meant to be after the main story is over. I apologize for not mentioning that in the last chapter.