Chapter 28: Border of Life III: Border of Death
One second. One second in time was all it took for Shina to feel as though she'd been flung into a fierce tempest of confusion. Alex had been standing next to her, filled with rage. Yet before she could blink he had transformed and thrown herself to her aid.
It was such a sharp whiplash of behaviors that it hurt her brain trying to comprehend it. Meanwhile, Alex stood still in front of her, refusing to budge an inch.
His own heart was racing, she could hear that clearly from here. What puzzled her most of all though was that she felt a second presence covering Alex from the front for just a little while. It was once alive, and must wielded the power of nature.
"Could this have been related to those souls everyone talked about?" Shina wondered. It certainly appeared so, but this was the first time she'd witnessed Alex use this power. And something told her he didn't call this strength on his own. Even dead, these souls held onto a dim spark of consciousness.
Alex himself felt paralyzed after coming to Shina's rescue. What ever time leaping voodoo the Gaia Temporis pulled on him didn't let him completely evade the consequences of dying. The haunting winter chill of death's hand was grasping his heart, wishing to drag his soul back to his time of death. Omnipotent though Death may be, however, its power is only such towards those without the will to live.
And Alex's will, was a fire to dwarf the sun.
Tragically, Death slunk away and left his soul free...for now. With his body feeling freed, Alex turned his full attention towards Yuyuko. The ghost had stood with her body turned aside and her fan swung up to protect a painfully forced expression of innocence.
He wanted to attack, get payback for the spirit's attempt on Shina's life. But he felt the moment he went to strike, something would happen to Shina again. He glanced back, and felt Ran lying in wait somewhere a few feet away. And also, shina didn't look ready to move anytime soon.
Fortunately, or perhaps Unfortunately, Shina doesn't get to see the things he does. To have the image of failure burned into her heart would've broken it.
"So what now?" Yuyuko spoke the first words after the last grueling minute of silence, and did so with an obvious, oblivious smile.
Alex grit his teeth to the point of trembling. If she wouldn't get to feel the rage in his fists, then she'd damned well hear the rage of his words, "You tried to kill us both...!"
"Did I? What makes you think that?" She spoke softly.
"I SAW you do it!" He snapped viciously.
"Oh? And when was this?" Yuyuko blissfully fanned herself off, "Was it...in the future?"
She slowly opened her eyes with a pale gleam, "Or maybe...from another timeline you just escaped from?"
Alex's eyes widened and shook, "H-How do you...?"
This revelation led to Shina opening her mouth to let out a coarse gasp, "Alex...You...You jumped through time again?"
He squeezed his eyes tight, unable to find a fitting response. Even HE didn't know what had happened. So he turned his gaze back onto Yuyuko and growled, "Did Yukari tell you that?"
"A little birdie told me..." Yuyuko giggled.
"Well they ought to keep their beak shut," Alex buckled his fists by his hips and slowly raised one towards her, "But you're not getting a second chance to pull that stunt now, you bitch!"
"There'll be no need for that. You're exactly where we want you to be." Yuyuko murmured with a faintly grim tone.
"...What?" Him and Shina dully responsed.
Yuyuko held her fan high above her head and asked, "But before I explain, would you like the enjoy the cherry blossoms with me?"
Alex snarled "Give me a break" only for Shina to jolt one arm skyward and exclaim, "Alex! Look!"
He did, and noticed that the mighty tree had fully bloomed. His eyes widened, completely baffled, "No way...How could this be? This tree..."
"Requires the power of spring to bloom?" Yuyuko finished his thoughts with startling accuracy. Once Alex set his sights on her she folded her fan and laid it upon her hand, "Yes. The deadly Saigyou Ayakashi was once a tree that'd bloom every spring, and take the lives of whoever slept at its roots."
"But then a young maiden's corpse was used a seal, taming its power. Now it requires a lot, lot more energy to awaken once again." Yuyuko pressed her folded fan against her lips and remained utterly still as she spoke stoically, "But...what is the power of spring if not another form of elemental energy?"
Alex bit his teeth as the realization of what he'd accidentally done rammed him like a bullet train. Fighting Youmu, dueling Yuyuko and Ran, it was all to get him to expend energy to feed the Ayakashi a full-course buffet of elements.
Once she felt the weight of his revelation had run its course, Yuyuko poked her fan out from her face and remarked, "And now it'll awaken to a banquet of eighteen lovely souls."
Alex looked down at his feet. Sneakier than a snake through grass, some roots had snuck past his Soul Shields and begun to attach to his shoes. He spun around and quickly snapped the roots off by leaping and ramming Shina away from the tree's base.
But as he landed and did a quick count, the number of souls came up one short, "Wait...who's the eighteenth?"
"Lady Yuyuko!" Youmu's panic filled in the blanks, showing Alex that the princess counted herself as one of, if not the now sole, victim of the Ayakashi's hunger.
Youmu reached for her blades, only to be knocked out via a single chop to the neck by Ran. The kitsune let the gardener fall upon her arm and then hauled her up like she was a pillow, then turned her head back towards Yuyuko.
The tree's roots had grappled all the way up to her thighs and held on tight, but she looked no worse for the wear. She smiled and nodded, and Ran nodded back. The next second, Yuyuko was tugged straight under the tree's trunk, where its bark crunched and creaked as though chewing its meal.
Alex and Shina stood up and watched the event pass in horror, even after all that Yuyuko had troubled them with. But then, the tree underwent a slight transformation. Its frontal bark splintered open with groans louder than bending metal, revealing a smooth wooden effigy of a woman with pink hair made of bright neon leaves. Her bare parts were obscured precisely by roots crawling up the tree, and her eyes were serene and shut.
"What the hell...?" Could only begin to express Alex's confusion, "She fused with the tree?"
"But of course!" Ran exclaimed with an attention seeking boastfulness, "It is her corpse buried under the tree, after all!"
The kitsune sneered his way while forming an eight-pointed glyph underfoot, "And now that the Ayakashi has tasted your powers it'll stop at nothing until you lie drained under its roots!"
"And with Yuyuko's power, its touch of death is even stronger..." Alex deduced and glared at the ghost's effigy, his prior pity overshadowed once more by rage as it appeared to smile. He then looked back at Ran as she cowered behind a barrier, but he saw it a waste to try and break it.
The Ayakashi spread its branches across the sky, stretching its power for the first time in centuries. From its canopy of petals emerged dozens of pink and purple butterflies, each one haunting the Netherworld with the instantaneous touch of death.
This. This was Yuyuko's endgame all alone. To meet the Phoenix of Destruction in this form, and pose to him a single, ultimate question: "How long can you protect the one you love...Before you die yourself?"
SPIRIT OF THE AYAKASHI ~ The Bewitching, Hungering Tree
He didn't know. Hell, was it even possible to defeat this supernatural being? Alex though, in some cruel, humorous, cosmic sort of way, it was fitting that one who once longed to die now had to defeat Death. So he clutched his fists and spread his gold crested wings, kneeling down while yelling, "Stay back Shina! I'll burn this tree to ash!"
He took flight with his hands cupped back, burning with golden flames. He got front and center with Yuyuko's face and swung his arms out, funneling the flames into a super hot beam no bigger than his head. The flames splashed across the trunk, and chipped away at the bark.
"Shoot!" He growled with nail-biting teeth, "Well, at least its not absorbing anymore energy, but..."
Having focused too hard on attacking, he was quickly surrounded in butterflies. His shields would protect him, certainly, but its not as though they were infinite. Suddenly, an energy he didn't want to feel rose behind him, and he quickly spun back and yelled, "You idiot! Don't-"
"Hi-YAH!" Shina, clad in the divine armor of a Valkyrie with hair glistening like sapphires, swung a broadsword as big as her in one bright, wide swathe through every butterfly in her path. She then held it before her waist in both hands and firmly nodded her head.
Alex immediately startled her with a yell, "I told you to stay back! You can't-"
The glitter sprinkled from the butterflies' remains caught Alex's attention fast, "You...can defend yourself?"
More butterflies flew straight for them, and Shina took up arms to take them down with quick slashes. As her blade glowed with her finest aura, slicing them to ribbons, Alex replayed this moment to try and deduce what was happening. But it was easy to see what she did. He'd witnessed this aspect of aura before.
"Aura doesn't just help attacks and bolster defenses...It has healed wounds, and released stress...A power like that..." He swung his arms out and yelled, "Shina, your aura! Its the power of-"
"I know, I know! Its the power of Life! Geez Alex, that's elementary stuff!" She joyously proclaimed as she finished slicing the initial swarm and spun around, looking quite flustered, "So where do ya get off holding me back? Do I LOOK like Princess friggin' Peach?!"
Alex shook his head while Shina resumed combatting the butterflies, feeling quite ashamed of himself, "Ok...Ok, fine. I'm sorry..."
He rushed ahead of her and flung an explosive blast at the tree while declaring, "Just keep your guard up! And don't get close to it!"
"Don't worry! I got your back!" She declared with her sword raised high.
Shina floated away from the tree while Alex edged closer to it with sword drawn. Shina kept looking up at all times, but was awe-struck to find the sky was almost completely filled with butterflies. With her bright blade of aura she flung large energy waves towards the swarm, clearing dozens of them out at a time.
Meanwhile, Alex attacked Yuyuko's effigy directly with lightning fast slashes, carving fire into the sky. The effigy didn't appear to take damage, but Alex felt assured that he was targeting the right spot. After repeated slicing and dicing he blasted the effigy's face with flames and dashed back.
The minute he ddid a flash of pink filled his upper vision, and he was blasted by a laser. A blue shield protected him from harm, but not the attack's force. He ended up on the ground, his knees half-bent for a few seconds. Once his shield disappeared, another laser tried to hit him. He zipped back ten feet then leapt towards the second laser that came, speeding along over it.
Alex noticed that death did not accompany these lasers, meaning they were simply a distraction to waste time. Thus, he swung around and looked for Shina, finding that she was valiantly fending off butterflies while constantly on the move. But soon a laser found itself striking her hard in the back, pushing her aside and creating a brief but crucial opening. The butterflies flew in with a ravenous appetite, her forfeited life offering the perfect satiation.
Alex bit his teeth and plunged his body into the butterflies' path, using a grey shield as a ramming tool to blow them away. Shina recovered and turned around, attacking a laser with a swift strike. But this one had a more spherical tip, which broke upon meeting her blade.
Eight curved lasers shot out from it and rounded her to go for Alex, battering him repeatedly to distance him from Shina. He struck back against the last two with a hard, vicious slash, firing a large wave of flames at the tree too.
Shina sent a couple of her own waves out in a broad pearl-white cross. The tree swept the air and ground with a prolonged beam, cutting down all the attacks and causing Alex and Shina to split.
Alex quickly wanted to get back to her. Yuyuko had other plans. He was quickly bombarded with frontal lasers, setting off his yellow shield. He braced himself in the air, making progress instead of losing it. He watched Shina flip and spin around, carving a way through the butterflies with swift, weightless slashes. She must have been feeling invincible, an arrogant mindset in any other scenario.
She was able to throw in the occasional attack on the tree, but it didn't seem to do much either. EVEN STILL, Alex didn't lose faith that they were hurting the Ayakashi, The certainty of its desperation assured him of such.
Shina looked to be getting overwhelmed, especially from behind. Personally, Alex found he was getting annoyed being pinned down by these lasers. So he reached for the Gaia Temporis and froze time, then barreled straight to Shina's aid. He wreathed his body in flames and drilled through the butterflies behind her, still using the yellow shield as protection.
Then time resumed as he rose and flew towards the tree's branches, still spinning. He burned through many of the petals then broke out with his wings spread and hands covered in a bright, sub-zero frost. Sporting a confident smile, he thrust his hands down and flash froze the tree's whole canopy.
The butterflies still phased through, but with the lasers stalled he was free to assault the tree directly. He descended after catching his breath, blasting through the butterflies with the help of his wings and a brown shield.
He pounded the effigy's face while upside-down, then spun around and smashed it with a double backhand. But his punches felt somewhat heavier. He saw his hands had been given thick aura gauntlets, a gift that Shina gave with the quickest wink as she alternated between attacking the butterflies and the tree.
Alex smiled with a "Heh!" before spinning around and battering the tree like a wild top. After fifty punches he slowed down and thrust his palms in deep against the effigy's chest, shattering the gauntlets.
He wished to add a little more to his assault, but the ice he made was giving in to some immense pressure. He backed away as the glacier shattered, hailing the lights of armageddon to rain upon the entire battlefield. Alex and Shina were quickly grounded by this vast assortment of lasers, which quaked the Netherworld and uprooted the ground for yards around.
Alex was saved by his icy-blue shield, but could only dread rather than thank it presence. He had but one shield left to spare in this set, after all. The pressure of the lasers held him down with surprising effectiveness, even as he pushed against it with all his might. Shina couldn't have been faring much better, even with her aura. But it was hard to tell, the amount of lasers filled his vision with pale pink light, while its close proximity drowned his eardrums with a deafening screech.
The butterflies kept on coming, unimpeded by the chaos. Alex focused all his strength into his left arm, wreathing it in flames as hot as a volcano's magma. The heat remained contained to this single point, leaving the ground untouched. He swung his arm back, fighting against the pressure even as it sprained his elbow.
It was a wild guess, one whose failure would be catastrophic for his sanity. But these days it seemed that cheating death was just a part of his arsenal, even going so far as to cheat others out of it. So he squeezed his eyes shut, put all his trust in his crappy luck to not screw him over, and fired a massive, massive beam of fire.
The lasers were burned straight through, clearing the way for Shina to escape. She breathed a heavy sigh and slipped away in a flash the moment after. Then she followed the trail of fire to its obvious destination and gathered aura into her blade until its thickness was tripled.
From there she slashed down the same path Alex's flames had traveled, creating a wide enough umbrella to free him up as well. But he didn't leave right away. No, he was hungry for some payback now. While his shield still remained up he took the freedom he had regained to clutch his fists and expand the power he had just exerted out to the rest of his body.
He levitated off the ground, which split wide open in seconds, and once enough energy had built up he rocketed straight through Shina's guard and punctured through the laser that had once troubled him. He escaped the beam halfway through and rammed the tree with his bare forehead. Even with protection, the recoil of this attack stung like the worst headache imaginable.
A second after a shockwave spread out and wiped away every last laser and butterfly in the immediate vicinity. Even Shina had to fall down and pin her sword to the ground just to not be blown away. At the tree's trunk a loud creaking began to occur, with the roots being ripped up. Even just forcing the whole Ayakashi to lean back an inch was a feat worthy of praise!
But it was far from over. The Ayakashi was just getting starting. Its sprang its roots forth from its ajar trunk and lashed them towards Alex. He had presumed a shield would come to his protection, but it did not. Thus the roots quickly acclimated to his body, ensnaring his legs, arms and wings like he'd been caught in a spider's web.
He deduced that the reason for his shield's failure to activate was because they only activated in the face of a threat. And because the tree had absorbed so much of his elemental energy, it was able to mimic a familiarity the souls wouldn't bat an idea towards. Truly, this was only possible for Yuyuko because Yukari said so.
But roots are roots, and are easily burned. Alex flexed his muscles, but could only muster half the effort necessary before an intoxicating spell was cast over him. The roots crept into his ears, their thimble, nimble hairs connecting with his eardrums and whispering a seductive moan using a deep mock-up of Yuyuko's voice, "Go to sleep...Aren't you tired? Go to sleep..."
The spark of life in his eyes flickered off, but were you to see the world through his eyes you'd still be able to see the tree. The roots quietly drained his vitality for itself, a bold act that Shina would not let go unpunished.
"Alex!" She stalled in the middle of her fight her skin painted pale with fright. She then tugged her sword down by her hip and her hair flared up. The butterflies surrounded her, allured by her determination.
But they'd soon find it was not just the boy whose will to live shone hot like a sun. Shina blazed a trail forward, enveloped in an impenetrable shell. Death threw itself in droves, only to die itself.
She drew her sword out and screamed "I won't let you have him!" then tore the roots asunder with a single cut. The moment they were separated, the ones attached to Alex cracked and dried, becoming ash as he angrily set his body ablaze.
Shina didn't stop there and spun her blade back, primarily grasped in her left hand. She dug the sword's whole edge into Yuyuko's effigy and raised it until at the head. Her aura was unleashed in a wave that resembling a surfacing torpedo, and exploded like one upon breeching the canopy. The tree bore a scar in the wake of this attack, even if it was only surface deep.,
Shina's fist pump of victory got cut short by Alex grabbing her by the waist and making a run for it. He rammed through the butterflies with a red shield at his back, stopping only once fifty feet away. Once he let go and started panting, Shina spun back and gazed upon him with concern.
"How much did it drain you?!"
"N-Not much..." He wheezed with a face that looked positively haunted, biting his teeth down before he continued, "But...I need you to defend me for...a minute. Ok?"
"Of course! But...why?" She asked while turning back around.
"I burned through my first set of shields. Until the second's ready I can't do jack shit about those butterflies." Alex squeezed his eyes shut and couldn't believe had had to say that seriously.
But that Shina chuckled at that showed her strength of spirit wasn't wavering. She faced the encroaching horde of deadly butterflies, no longer holding a blade of steel, but both their lives in her hands. She raised it up high then swung it right back down, making nary a sound. Her arms were pushed to their limits as she swung and swung without stopping.
Her biceps started becoming numb, her body sweated profusely from head-to-toe, but her defense had no weakness. If a butterfly seemed prepared to slip by, she adjusted the angle of attack or sent out a projectile to intercept it.
The Ayakashi used its snack from Alex to start firing more lasers, aiming for Shina's wrists. Having fended off the attacks valiantly for thirty seconds, these lasers managed to expose the first signs of faltering in her defenses. A few butterflies slipped by, and went straight for Alex.
Twenty-five seconds remained, all to be spent evading the approaching death. Alex bit his teeth and initiated a sweeping gale to throw the butterflies far off-course. Some of them flew around it, making him retreat with haste.
But with retreat came a cost. There was no one to protect Shina's back, and the butterflies sought to take advantage of that. A couple broke off and made a beeline for her. Fifteen seconds remained. Too long to throw his body in the way.
Alex dropped to the ground and pounded it like he wanted to atomize a skyscraper. Multiple pillars of stone then erupted between him and Shina. Though it couldn't stop the butterflies, it would take time for them to phase through.
Ten painfully long seconds were left, and the obstacles still came without end. Now the lasers curved around Shina to decimate his pillars. Yet because of that, Alex saw an opportunity to deal with the butterflies attacking Shina. He broke one of his pillar with a thought and turned the pebbles to glass, then threw them in one of the laser's paths. Its course was split and diverted until they burning right through the two butterflies.
Five seconds...Some butterflies were inches from his face. Death was cold and unwelcome as usual, freezing Alex's feet to the ground. His heart, however, remained burning with the vigor of life, and flowed through into his blood. His right arm bolted down and touched the Gaia Temporis, freezing time with two seconds remaining. The butterflies were within breathing distance, too close for comfort...
He used this respite to come up with a plan of attack, a decisive blow strong enough to topple even the Ayakashi. But it would require Shina's undivided attention, so after walking around the butterflies he resumed time and let the last two seconds pass. The butterflies flew back into a second green shield and were destroyed, with him not throwing a glance back their way. He then flew past Shina and used the shield to destroy the swarm that hounded her, relieving her of that harrowing post.
She hung her arms low and after some wheezing joked, "My arms are gonna be ripped after this is over!"
Alex flew in front of her and swung his wings back to cover her, then begun to explain his plan, "Shina, I need you to surround the whole tree in a sphere of aura, but leave a hole big enough for me to slip through."
"Oh...sure...no problem..." She gasped with a sweat drenched face.
"When I give the word, you'll then need to close it up and compress it around the entire tree. Got it?"
"I said I got yer back, didn't I?" She ignited her blade and braved on ahead, gently brushing Alex's cheek as she turned back and said, "But this time, why don't you cover mine?"
"...Heh, no argument here." He responded with a shrug.
Shina headed off first and drag her sword across the air, cutting a curved trail of compressed aura along the way. Alex kept pace and threw his body around her, using the second blue shield to decimate any butterflies that came after. And for any lasers, he just punched them away with equal force.
After completing one full circle around the Ayakashi, they moved to make another on the other side. The lasers and butterflies grew more frequent and desperate, but Alex kept up with a firm defiance of the laws of physics due to how snappy his movements were.
With two complete rings, Shina turned her blade to the side and the energies contained the rings within spread out to encase the Ayakashi in a sphere, leaving a perfect sized whole for Alex to fly through. Alex thanked her with a nod, then threw his arms out and set them on fire.
He charged for the hole, but the Ayakashi funneled all its lasers and butterflies through it to create an impenetrable plug. It was a geyser of unimaginable power, and Alex was slowly feeling his body being forced back. He grit his teeth, his whole body surrounded with golden flames whose intensity shone brighter the more he pressed on.
He swung his head forward and screamed, the golden flames exploding to become white. Shina closed her eyes and backed away, swinging her arm up to feed Alex some of her aura. With their strengths combined, Alex's white flames turned a pale blue and allowed him to make progress through the onslaught.
He had to act fast, the energies within the sphere were threatening to shatter it. Yuyuko's effigy was in his sights, and the faster he flew the more his fists burned. He pressed his fists together, combining their power until one single hammer of flames. He smashed into the effigy's chest and at that VERY moment, brought one hand down to the Gaia Temporis and yelled "NOW SHINA!" as time was stopped.
He bolted out of the sphere in a few seconds and resumed time, dazed from the overuse of the stone's power. But Shina did her duty, and did it well. She started to collapse the sphere as the onslaught of energy from the Ayakashi stopped, replaced instead by an out-of-control inferno. Shina concentrated deeply, struggling to hold back Alex's incredible power. It felt like she was holding back the expansion of a newborn sun.
Yuyuko's effigy, consumed by the undying flames, started to stir. Her eyes trembled, and her lips began to frown. Her thoughts then drifted just a little bit into the past...
"Its almost time, isn't it?" She spoke while sitting atop a patio of a fancy abode.
"Are you ready, Yuyuko?" A woman with long golden locks and a simple purple dress inquired.
"...You are positive this will put an end to the Phoenix of Destruction?"
"..." The woman stood up and walked with a white parasol in hand, "...There is a chance your life will end, this time forever. So I ask of you again, old friend...Are you ready?"
"So is that a yes, or a no?"
"..."
Yuyuko rose to her feet and floated around to look her friend in the face with a smile, "You'll do it. I know you will. So does it matter if I die? I've already had quite an enjoyable afterlife anyways, tee-hee."
"..."
The last thing Yuyuko remembered seeing was a single tear down her friend's cheek, which glistened like a diamond. She smiled, letting the flames continue to swallow her whole, as the one tear she shed was turned to mist in a nanosecond.
After ten seconds of this Alex swung his right arm and exclaimed, "That's enough! Break it off!"
Shina shattered the sphere to shards and let out one final gasp, looking on the verge of collapse. Alex propped her up by the abodomen, and she smiled in thanks. They then looked to the Ayakashi. It was as black as the sky, even its petals, with the only thing untouched being Yuyuko's effigy, which was already showing signs of cracking.
It split open all at once, and Yuyuko's ghastly body dropped out onto the ground with a soft thud. She was still breathing, but didn't have the energy to kneel or stand. And once more, the deadly Saigyou Ayakashi wilted into hibernation...
Alex stared down for a bit, then gently pushed Shina away and floated down to Yuyuko. Shina didn't exactly feel a 'friendly' vibe coming from him and quickly followed after him. He dropped his Phoenix Form and summoned his sword, standing a couple feet away from the princess' head.
She would no longer be able to use her power of death against them. Not until she recovered. But she needed to be awake NOW, so he could force Yukari's location out of her.
...Or did he?
He clutched his sword tightly and held it up between his face and Yuyuko. His mind was going down a dark road, and Shina quickly had to yell at him not to, "Alex! I know what you're thinking, but don't do it!"
She stared at him fiercely, but he didn't comply and yelled at her back, "She tried to kill us Shina! This isn't something we can just overlook!"
"I-I know she tried to kill us! But its not like she's a threat to anyone else! Once we deal with Yukari and leave Gensokyo-"
"Whose to say Yukari hasn't had Yuyuko use her power to kill other people?!" Alex scrounged up the most pitiful of justifications, and Shina wasn't about to let that slide.
"Listen to yourself Alex! This isn't you! Its your other self talking!" Her desperate plea reached his ears and made him grimace.
But then he swung his head away and bitterly grit his teeth while staring down at Yuyuko.
"What else am I supposed to do?" He asked himself while reviewing his options, "Yuyuko's the one thing Yukari cares about...I-If I don't do this, how the hell else am I going to find her?!"
Thoughts of killing someone's most precious person straggled in his mind, weighed down by sheer hypocrisy. But they couldn't force his blade to drop, and in fact he began to raise it overhead. He moved too fast for Shina to stop, but he didn't WANT anything to stop him now.
Yukari had done enough to harm him. Done enough to harm Shina. In his eyes, it was time to make that arrogant bitch bleed back.
...Very well then, Phoenix of Destruction.
Shina swung her arm out and screamed Alex's name, beginning to cry. But it was too late. His blade came down, and a second later...His whole body was swallowed up in a gap filled with eyes. Shina saw the eyes, gasped, and knew exactly what this meant.
Staggering back with both hands planted on her mouth, she looked around. It was futile. Alex had been snatched up by Yukari, and she had been left behind. What she saw before his departure stuck in her head and refused to leave. There was no hesitation in his swing. Yuyuko would've been dead had Yukari been a second later.
She didn't want to believe that what she saw was real. And yet, it was as real as it could get. Not even her words were able to stave his fury this time. And if this was how he was feeling now...There was no telling how badly things would escalate when he was in Yukari's presence.
"No...No no no!" The devilish howls of the boy's second personality scared her into facing the docile Ran with tearful eyes of fury. The kitsune had dropped her barrier and walked out with a stride of confidence, and a smile as smug as could be.
"How does it feel? To have believed in a person's good nature...Only for them to spit in your face?" Ran gently brushed her claw out from her sleeve and squinted her eyes partway shut, "But...I suppose the Phoenix of Destruction never qualified as a person, now did he?"
Ran had to throw her hand up to defend herself against Shina's blade, which came down with the strength of an axe. She pressed hard, causing the kitsune's knees to start bending, much to her shock. Ran threw Shina's blade a little aside then leapt back, letting the ground be smashed where she stood.
Shina raised her blade with tears flowing without end and growled with a deeper tone, "...Take me to her."
Ran raised her chin and smirked, "Oh?"
"Take me to Yukari, damn it!" Shina roared in rage as her power flared like a wildfire.
"And why should I?" The kitsune said while brushing the bottom of her chin, "Even if I could, I wouldn't."
Shina hung her head, covering her face with the shadow of her bangs while murmuring in melancholy, "You...You caused Alex to act like this."
She threw a terrible scowl towards the heartless kitsune and screamed at the top of her lungs, "You just couldn't stop hounding him, could you?! Even though he did nothing wrong to any of you!"
"You're right. He didn't do anything to us. His mere existence is a crime in of itself," Ran leaned her head forward as a bloodthirsty glimmer shone from the corner of her eye, "Though to say that he ever really 'existed' would be somewhat of a lie."
"Shut up!" Shina was having none of it, "You're going to take me to Yukari or so help me...!"
Ran swung her claws out and bore her fangs, shredding the thick tension in the air as her beastial nature took root upon the lands, "You'll kill me? This isn't a fight you want, Aurian...Not when you're so close to your goal, no?"
Shina froze up for a bit, but then held her sword tighter near her waist. Ran scoffed, shaking her head with a dismissive nonchalance, "You know what? Forget it...That 'boy' you loved is never coming back."
Shina lost the will to breathe as Ran swung her right claws up and growled with a cutthroat attitude, "So I shall just put you out of your misery myself..."
"Y-You won't succeed! I don't care what you say!" Shina took up arms, fighting with a firm belief in the good of Alex's heart, even after just seeing him at his worst. Ran was disgusted by her undying faith, believing it was worth spitting upon. But she had her own faith to rely upon...The faith that her master would swiftly put an end to the Phoenix of Destruction's legacy.
...But little does she know, it'll not go as easily as she expects it to.
Next Time: The Mastermind's Story
