Chapter 26: War
"Where is he?" Katna muttered to herself, looking around a sort of hilltop. "My lady…" A soldier said walking up to her. "Yes, what is it?" She asked, putting her hands on her hips. "We need to proceed with the execution as scheduled or else some of the rebels will act foolish and think this would be a good time to save the prisoner. " The soldier said firmly. "Fine…" Katna said with a sigh as she closed her eyes, "He said he would be here, where the heck did you run off to Onmyō?" She thought. "Bring Mato Kurio out." She commanded the guard before walking to the edge of the hilltop and looked down to see her army down below, all armed and cheering when they saw her.
"Ahem… Ladies and gentlemen of my esteemed army!" Katna shouted, her voice booming as the crowd silenced. "Several months ago a young human girl killed a very close member of mine, she was captured and put under the death sentence, which you should all know by now. The girls name is Mato Kurio, she was originally supposed to be killed 3 months ago, but do to some… sudden events, she has been lucky enough to be postponed this long, but that changes today…" Katna said looking behind her to see Mato with her arms bound behind her back before being placed right next to Katna.
"Do you remember this view? It might be different now without all the trees and buildings on the side, but this was that place you visited every day before school. We just removed the trees and hand rail and added a few buildings, so it won't look like it was before…" Katna whispered in Mato's ear, though she gave no expression as her eyes looked empty, as if accepting her fate.
"Well… we are going to do this the old fashioned way…" Katna said before making Mato kneel and place her head and neck on a wooden block on the edge of the hill. "I'm going to cut your head off and we all watch as it tumbles down the hill, wonder if you'll spaz like a chicken without the head on…" Katna said before blue flames appeared from her hand and rose up straight before forming a sort of stick before dispersing to show her holding black blade similar to Rock's. "And just for irony…" She said as she lifted the blade up with one hand and paused, looking around to see that Onmyō was still nowhere to be seen.
Katna swung the blade down, and time seemed to slow down to almost a stopping point. The blade slowly neared Mato's head, making it seem like it would go right through the middle of her neck the closer it got. As it was only half a foot away, Mato's eyes opened, life pouring back into them as a sign she wasn't ready to die, but it was going to be late to say or do anything about that.
"Oh…" Katna said, time had returned back to normal, the blade's very tip was gently pressing Mato's neck. "I forgot… do you have a last request or last few words you would like to say?" Katna said, resting the katana on the back of her shoulders. "W-wha?" Mato asked, confused as she looked up at Katna who had a bored expression. "Well this is your moment, so you do have anything you want to do before dying or want to say something? Though saying, "I don't want to die" is out of the question…" Katna said putting a hand on her hip.
"I-I…" Mato thought as she tried to think of something, but only the desire of her wanting to be with her family for the rest of her life was the only thing that came to mind. "I don't have anything to request, but I wanna say I'm sorry…" Mato said, a few tears running down her cheeks as she tried to hold them back. "Don't know who you're saying sorry to, but ok…" Katna said as she lifted the katana over her head and then brought it down with a strong swing, only to hear the soft thunk as the blade sunk into wood.
"What the?!" Katna said as she looked at the block and saw Mato was gone, no head, no blood, no body; nothing. "Where did she… there! Wait… is that?" Katna said looking down to see someone sliding down the hill with Mato under their arm. "…Onmyō?" Katna said in confusion.
Onmyō reached the bottom of the hill and was face to face with Katna's army, all of them from Otherselves, no humans were there, but some had close resemblance to them.
"It's just you against all of us! Do you really think you can get away alive?" Someone shouted in the army. "Pretty much expecting it…" Onmyō said before leaping into the air and landed on the head of one of the soldiers before running his way over them by running on their head.
He looked down and saw someone try and thrust their sword at him, only to make Onmyō jump high in the air and then softly land several hundred yards away from the whole army, to be standing next to Pāpuru, Black Gold Saw, Mato's mother and Mato's friend's Otherselves, including Black Matagi.
Onmyō handed Mato to her mother who ran up to her with tears in her eyes as she held her child once more.
"I knocked her out just in case she tried to struggle or something when I grabbed her." Onmyō said looking down at the sleeping Mato. "Chariot!" He shouted and Chariot puts two fingers in her mouth before whistling and Mary came running towards the group. Stopping next to Chariot as if trained to. "Take Mato and her mother away from here… war is about to begin…" Onmyō said turning to face Katna and her army.
"So this was just to take back Mato and try to overthrow me? I should have slit your throat when I had the chance…" Katna spoke, her voice reaching all the way towards Onmyō and the others. "You knew?" Onmyō asked. "I had my theories… Orenji…." Katna said. "Yes my lord?" Orenji asked. "Kill them and retrieve Mato…" Katna said snapping her finger before Orenji shot forward, past Katna and down the hill before running towards her targets, the army splitting itself in two in order to let Orenji to pass without slowing her down or being killed by her.
"Pāpuru… my sword…" Onmyō said holding out his hand before Pāpuru walked up to him and put a gray colored, sheathed sword in his hand. "You think you'll kill me?! You even said it yourself to Katna, me and the others that you haven't killed since you sealed Katna away! You won't kill me or anyone!" Orenji shouted before leaping into the air and flew towards Onmyō with a pulled back fist.
Onmyō held the swords sheath in his left hand and the handle in his right before spreading his legs with one in front of the other, readying for a strike. He flenched and suddenly hesitated before Orenji punched him right in the face and sent him flying backwards as Orenji landed right where Onmyō was standing. Onmyō suddenly landed on his feet as he was still moving backwards and slid to a stop before looking up at Orenji and then stood up straight. By now Mato, her mother, and Chariot were all on Mary and were getting away.
"You should be dead, that punch was strong enough to decapitate you…" Orenji said with a slight look of annoyance in her eyes. "You can't kill me… only slow me down…" Onmyō said before holding his sheathed sword in front of him and grabbed the handle of the sword with his right hand and pulled, slowly unsheathing the sword. "Well see about that!" Orenji shouted before leaping forward like before at Onmyō, faster this time though. "Get ready to taste blood again…" Onmyō said taking the same stance as before.
Orenji sent her punch forward as soon as she was close enough, though Onmyō moved his head to the side and swung his sword, though it seemed to not have made contact with Orenji. Onmyō then walked past Orenji who landed behind him and then quickly turned, ready to attack from behind as he walked away. Orenji leapt into the air and seemed to have slowed down greatly as Onmyō walked farther and farther away from her, though at the same pace as he started.
"How does it taste? The taste of a royal bloodline?" Onmyō asked someone, though it seemed as if he was talking to his sword, which was now covered in orange blood. "It feels good to hold you once more… Wasure…" Onmyō said before time for Orenji returned to normal, and she shortened the gap between them very quickly.
Onmyō suddenly turned around and thrust his sword right into Orenji's chest, she herself slid down the length of the blade and came to a stop once she hit the hand guard. Orenji tried to grab the blade and break it, but she couldn't and her eyes widened as she learned this.
"Wasure is my weapon, a weapon of many forms and can never be broken, Wasure is the perfect weapon… and with my permission, can turn into any biological creature such as a human or a cat…" Onmyō said before there was the sound of something ripping apart and something wet yet solid hitting the ground. Orenji looked down at herself and saw her lower half on the floor, her blood bleeding out from both halfs and the wound with her chest.
"Oh… that's surprising…" Katna said to see Orenji struggle to stay alive before her body went limp. "I didn't know you had it in you!" Katna shouted to Onmyō. "Well…" Onmyō muttered before angling Wasure downward and Orenji's upper half slid off before Onmyō flicked his blade and the blood came off with that one movement. "Killing is second nature to me if not first nature…" Onmyō said before slowly turning to face Katna and her army with his head down, the brim of his black fedora blocking his eyes, even though his face had a sorta frown on it.
Then, Onmyō gave a grin and a slight chuckle before he raised his head, his eyes had a sort of strange confidence and sadistic look in them. "But…" He started before he looked Wasure in her weapon form and saw his reflection in the blade. "It feels good to kill after so long…" Onmyō calmly said before licking his lips and ran straight towards Katna's army with a insanely happy looking smile.
Onmyō ran up to the first soldier in front of him and swung the sheath of his sword and made contact with the soldier's groin, making the soldier scream in a high pitch before Onmyō slashed half of his torso off with a diagonal slash, green blood spilling out like a fountain.
"Bring in the troops…" Pāpuru said into a headset with a microphone.
Within a matter of minutes foot soldiers, tanks, helicopters, every form of ground military moved behind Pāpuru and everyone else, it was there own army.
"WE AREN'T READY JUST YET!" Onmyō shouted as he sliced up another Otherself soldier.
He shot his head towards Katna and suddenly bolted towards her running as fast as he could, slicing through all the soldiers tried to stop. He stopped and jumped into the air and rose above Katna on top of the hill. He shot down and Katna readied her katana and blocked Onmyō's attack. Onmyō gave an insane smile that made Katna raise an eyebrow before her eyes widened.
Onmyō dropped his weapon and pulled an arm back before it turned into a flaming silver arm. Katna took the opportunity and thrust her sword right into Onmyō's heart, but he seemed to have not been affected by the attack and as soon as his feet hit the ground, he launched his arm forward and right into Katna's chest who coughed up some spit with wide eyes. Onmyō clamped down on something and pulled and Katna clenched down her teeth before Onmyō had his entire arm out of her.
He jumped back and Katna looked at her chest to see no wound or anything.
"What did you do? That was the first time I've felt pain…" Katna asked before her eyes widened to see what was in Onmyō's hand.
In Onmyō's hand was a purple orb made of the same colored fire. He let go of the orb and it floated upwards before it shot off in one direction and out of sight. And in a matter of seconds there was a tower of purple light that brought forth a strong gust of wind and the shake of the ground in the same direction the orb went off in.
"What I did…" Onmyō said before his silver flaming arm went back to normal and he grinned, "Was bring back what belonged to Rock…" He stated before chuckling. "You took her soul from me?! YOU TOOK WHAT I WANTED SO LONG AGO?!" Katna shouted in what seemed like rage.
"Stop your acting Katna, I know you really didn't care for her soul anymore..." Onmyō said calmly, his smile and sadistic look fading away. "Well I at least know you were paying somewhat attention to me the three months we've been together. But where did you learn to do that thing you just did?" Katna asked, her rage disappearing and was replaced with a bored look.
"I've always been able to do that, I'm just so damn rusty I'm unable to do it for a long time." Onmyō said before the earth started to shake. "So then I guess that means..." Katna started.
Before she could get far in her sentence, a building next to Katna's army was suddenly leveled to the ground as Insane Black a Rock Shooter came running out before it leveled. She ran straight up to one of Katna's soldier's and swung her Lance Cannon and sliced the soldier in half before swinging it again, digging into the next soldier.
At that, it signaled the soldiers behind Pāpuru to attack and they charged towards the enemy, including Pāpuru and everyone else after the two armies had clashed.
Katna sighed, "Figures... I honestly wonder what made you think you could beat me..." She said running a hand through her hair while she had her eyes closed. "I didn't think I could beat you, I know I will beat you…" Onmyō said before he stabbed his weapon's blade into the ground.
Right after he planted the sword in the ground, Redo ran towards Onmyō before leaping towards him with a pulled back leg that had chainsaw teeth sticking out. He sent a kick forward as the teeth revved up around his leg right at Onmyō. There was a bright grey light and when it died Wasure stood between Onmyō and Redo's leg, blocking the attack with her forearm as sparks were sent flying. Redo landed and then jumped back with a surprised look on his face.
"He's all yours…" Onmyō said before Wasure nodded her head before the cement beneath her feet cracked and she ran at a fast speed towards Redo. "SHIT!" Redo shouted as he barely had time to block a punch Wasure sent forward with his arms, stopping it from hitting his face.
Redo was pushed back as his feet slid on the ground and made him gain some distance from Wasure.
"Who is that?" Katna asked looking at Wasure. "My weapon… my third and strongest weapon…" Onmyō said before a black like mist circled his left hand and a white mist circled his right hand.
The mists suddenly extended outwards, still surrounding Onmyō's hands, but now growing in length before the black mist gave a low demonic moan while the white mist let of an angelic sound.
"Oh… you're gonna fight me with those weapons?" Katna said, but Onmyō didn't respond and just simply swung one arm at a time for the mist to blow away to show the demonic broadsword in his left hand, and the katana in his right hand. "Well then… come at me…" Katna said taking a stance with her weapon.
Onmyō suddenly shot off towards Katna, swinging his katana right at Katna's neck, only for her to block the attack with her own katana. Onmyō then swung his broadsword and Katna managed to move her katana while still blocking the first attack, and blocked the broadsword.
Onmyō swung his left leg around and Katna lifted up her right knee and blocked the kick. She then wrapped her leg around his leg and sent him off balance, making him land on his back as Katna sat down on his hip, holding him down on the ground.
"For someone that thought that they could beat me… you sure aren't doing that great…" Katna said before summoning a second blue katana and deflected the attack Onmyō tried to do, failing to decapitate her head.
At that moment, Katna flipped her blades around and stabbed both of them into Onmyō's forearms, all the way down to the hilt and made it impossible for him to move his arms.
"We could have had so much fun in this position and so many others, but…" Katna said before she put her hands on his neck and started to squeeze. "Traitors must be dealt with…" She finished before squeezing harder.
Wasure deflected an attack from Redo, before jumping back to gain some distance. Though she felt something go through her body and she turned to see Katna choking Onmyō. Wasure had lost all interest in Redo and her fight with him for a moment.
"What's the matter you whore?! You should keep your eyes on your opponent!" Redo shouted as he ran up to Wasure.
Wasure's eyes widened and her head snapped to look at Redo who was just sending a kick towards her neck, only about a few inches from cutting into her flesh. Redo's chainsaw teeth suddenly came to a stop and his leg would not move.
"What did you just call me?" Wasure said, sounding a bit agitated. "What?" Redo said before looking at his leg and saw Wasure holding his leg, stopping the kick and the chainsaw teeth without a single finger missing or even a scratch on her. "Hey! Let go of me you fat ugly whore!" Redo shouted as he tried to move his leg free, but nothing worked.
Wasure's eyes suddenly filled with rage before her hand gripped Redo's leg tighter, the sound of crunching filled the air around them before Wasure let out a loud scream in rage. She lifted up Redo off the ground and slammed him back down to the ground like a ragdoll, creating a small crater in the ground as Redo landed on his back. Wasure let go of his leg and Redo opened his eyes from the sudden pain to see Wasure screaming as she sent a punch straight into his face before his head exploded as it made contact with her fist, deepening the crater greatly with that single punch as red mist filled the area around the crater.
Wasure let out a deep breath as she calmed down and looked at her fist to see it covered in red blood. She looked down at her body, seeing her skin tight combat suit against her body. She pulled out a mirror in a little pouch on her belt and looked at her face before fixing her hair, now tied in a ponytail.
She put the mirror away and walked away from Redo's dead and twitching corpse, "I am not fat or ugly… or a whore…" She mumbled under breath before she turned and watched as Katna choked Onmyō while sitting on him.
"You sure can hold your breath…" Katna said while Onmyō struggled against her grip. "That's because I have no need to breath…" Onmyō said suddenly stopping his struggling and looked at Katna right in the eyes.
Katna tilted her head and raised an eyebrow as Onmyō suddenly closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He suddenly lifted his legs up in the air and managed to pulled them close enough to him that they past Katna's head. He wrapped his legs around Katna's neck and flung her off him like a catapult, but only a few yards as she landed on her feet with a soft thud. Onmyō then lifted up almost his whole body while his shoulders, arms, and hands were still on the ground, balancing the upper half. He lowered his feet and grabbed one of the sword's handles and pulled it out before using his now free arm to pull out the other one and threw it aside.
"Have you ever heard the saying if it bleeds, we can kill it?" Onmyō said as he got up and rubbed the wounds on his arms. "You're saying you can't bleed huh?" Katna said before Onmyō pulled down the right sleeve of his black suit and revealed the wound, but no blood or anything leaked out. "I see… well that's not really a surprise I guess…" Katna said putting her hands behind her head and crossed her feet before tilting her torso left and right as her back started to make a popping sound.
"What did you think you would accomplish by merging these two worlds together anyways?" Onmyō asked. "Well… my first intent was to be one with both worlds… back when you went by Gin that is. I still wanted to even after I was released from that damn book… though I guess you could say I wanted to see you again…" Katna said smiling with a chuckle as she stopped popping her back and put a finger to her chin.
"What bullshit… you are the mother of the Otherworld, you are its creator and you just wanted to become the mother or ruler for the human world." Onmyō said as the wounds on his arms slowly healed. "Perhaps, but that was at first, when I was with you for that short time we were together, back when there was still a thing called an Order inside the Otherworld… I felt something inside you that made you different than any of the Colors. I did have some sort of attachment to you, but I found you more of toy for me to play with, more than anything…" Katna said grinning.
"But… when I learned you were attached to Rock…" Katna paused for a moment. "You wanted Rock's power, her bloodline, yet you could not have that if you wanted me." Onmyō finished for her. "Correct, I wasn't as powerful back then considering those who can create a flame are my flesh and blood. So I wanted as much power as I could get once I was brought back by you after you killed the Order." Katna said.
"But… because of you wanting Rock for her power, we fought…" Onmyō stated. "And with that… came the connection between humans and Otherselves…" Katna finished. "That explosion or whiplash after you sealed me in the book caused that… I'm guessing you were the first to be connected like that. Is that how you have two beings? Because you were so close to the explosion that it caused your own being to split into one human and another as an Otherself?" Katna said before chuckling.
"Well…" Katna said before her clothes changed, her top became a white tube top as her pants became long black leather pants with a matching pair of black high heels. "You were crap when we fought back then, constantly clutching your heart as we fought… so I'm guessing that won't get in the way…" Katna said extending her left arm out before a flash of magenta appeared in front of her hand and when the light dimmed down, Katna held a lance with a serrated blade at the end.
Onmyō suddenly ran towards Katna. She thrust her lance forward and Onmyō suddenly did a side step and dodged the thrust before swinging his broadsword, though Katna jumped back and got a cut on her cheek. She ran her thumb against her wound and looked at her thumb to see multi-color changing blood on her thumb. She looked at Onmyō before licking the blood off her thumb.
"You're slower than before!" Katna shouted before she tossed her lance up and then grabbed the bottom half of it before throwing it at Onmyō who didn't react in time and the lance went through his stomach.
Onmyō struggled to stand up and fell onto one knee as he clutched the lance.
"I may be slow… but that just means it's time to go to my second form…" Onmyō said with a grin on his face. "Second form?" Katna said with a raised eyebrow.
Onmyō grabbed the lance and drove it further inside himself before he looked up at Katna and chuckled.
Just then, the air went cold, a shiver went down everyone's spine. Even those in the middle of the battle between the army, making everyone stop and pause at this sudden chill in the air. Onmyō let out a moan before it slowly got longer and louder, slowly turning into a yell as the earth shook around him and the ground cracked around him.
All of a sudden, he shouted, "AMATERASU!" Before a pillar of grey flames surrounded him and reached to the grey sky.
The pillar suddenly clashed with the grey sky and split the grey sky in two before it revealed the blue sky and the shining sun, making everyone have to shield their eyes from the bright light, even Rock who also was standing still from the chill. Then the grey sky was consumed by the blue sky in an instant and the pillar of grey flames suddenly dispersed and there stood Onmyō in a silver suit, the same suit that he wore when he went by Gin. The lace was gone and no wounds were seen.
"Well… are you gonna start having heart troubles now?" Katna said now getting used to the sun's rays.
Onmyō didn't say anything and all of a sudden, his shoulders caught on fire with grey flames. The flames grew and went down his back but not his arms or anything else. Soon, the flames flapped in the wind, the flames had turned into a trench coat of silver flames, resting on his shoulders.
Onmyō suddenly disappeared and Katna's eyes widened and she looked around for him and suddenly turned and saw his foot slam straight into her face and she was sent flying.
She landed on her feet as her hand held onto her face and slid to a stop.
"What… just happened?" She asked herself, but the only response she got was a soft breeze from the wind.