Seven Deadly Jewels

Chapter 28

Li and the demon Yukiso dashed towards each other, both with their weapons drawn, ready to cover their blades in each other's blood. Li quickly blocked a side slash from one of Yukiso's axes, and dodged the other one as he jumped back. Just as he was about launch an offence, two gray blurs made their way towards at an alarming rate. The chestnut haired boy swiftly flipped backwards, and landed with grace only to be met with a barrage of axe attacks. The movements of their weapons were nothing blurs as they engaged deeper in their battle. Li quickly blocked two axe attacks, and countered with a hard left hook across Yukiso's face, making him pull back. The demon protector smirked as he held his cheek.

"I must say you are good for a human. You won't be so easy to kill after all."

"Told you."

"So I guess I should take you more seriously." Li raised an eyebrow at this.

"What do you mean?" Yukiso quietly chuckled.

"You'll see." The chestnut haired fighter raised his guard and readied himself for the worst.

'I can feel his aura increasing, but it's no where close to the two aura's I'm sensing inside this void thing. I'd better finish this fast to see what the hell is going on in there.' Yukiso suddenly dashed towards the young man with his axes ready for another round. Once he was close enough, Li attacked with a fast horizontal strike, but his attack passed through a transparent image of Yukiso.

"Too slow!" The demon said from the air. As he came down with a double axe attack, Li jumped back, barely avoiding the attack. But as soon as Yukiso hit the ground he dashed towards the chestnut haired fighter with another round of fast attacks. Li quickly blocked a strike to his neck, and jumped back to avoid a swing to his stomach.

"Element Fire!" As the fire shot towards Yukiso, the demon protector raised his axes and sliced the fire attack in half. "No way!" Li exclaimed. Yukiso just smirked.

"Now allow me to show you an attack of mine." He raised his axes and his dark aura flowed towards them. "Darkness Blades!" Her swung his axes firing two long blade-like blasts. Li dodged them with ease, but another set shot towards and another one behind that as well. The young man tired to dodge, but the attacks kept coming.

"Element Wind!" The attacks bounced against the shield, and the attacks were stopped.

"Nice trick, but that won't help you at all," Yukiso chuckled, and leaped into the air adding more of his dark aura to his axes. "Now take this!" As he came down, he slashed Li's shield dispelling it, and slashed the young man across his chest. Li jumped back and looked over his fresh new wound. He suddenly fell to one knee when he felt the wound burn, and ache.

"It wasn't even a deep slash, so why does it hurt like this?" he groaned as he clutched it. Yukiso just chuckled.

"Because I have a dark aura, and you have a green aura."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Li asked with a groan.

"When two aura's mix and they don't go together, one slowly destroys the other. Right now my dark aura is stronger than your green aura so it is slowly destroying your body. And the more I slash you the more of my dark aura enters your body. Slowly killing you from inside out," Yukiso explained with a chuckle. Li growled, and got his feet.

"Well then, looks like I just have to avoid your attacks then," he said with a smirk.

"Easier said than done."

"We'll see about that." Yukiso scoffed and sprinted towards the young fighter. The demon protector attacked with a double axe swing towards Li's neck, but the chestnut haired fighter quickly back flipped to avoid it, and connected a kick to Yukiso's chin as he flipped back.

"Not bad," the demon chuckled and spat out a tooth. Yukiso attacked again, but this time Li was ready. He quickly dodged his downward attack, and used his sheath to hit him against his stomach. Yukiso growled, and attacked again, but Li blocked with his sword and the hard wood of his sheath connected with the right side of the demon's face. As Yukiso slowly got to his feet, he suddenly threw one of his axes, which was covered in his dark aura.

"You have to be kidding," Li smirked, and easily dodged. Yukiso spun around and threw his other axe, which Li easily dodged again. "You didn't really expect those to hit me did you? But not only that, but now that you don't have your weapons this fight is over."

"Oh really?" Yukiso said and formed two new axes out of his aura. "I beg to differ!"

"Shit!" Li growled as the demon rushed towards him. Axes met with sword as the two fought across the village outskirts. As Li blocked another attack he heard something behind him. He kicked Yukiso back to see what was coming. When he turned around he saw two dark disc like objects speeding towards him. He swiftly jumped out of the way, but the objects turned around and slashed him in his back. Yukiso laughed as he watched Li go down to his knees in pain.

"Fool! Did you really think you would just dodge that attack and that would be the end of it? That attack follows my will."

"So you threw them just to get them out there, and then while I was fighting you, you brought them back."

"Exactly. And now you body is filled with some much dark aura you can barely move," Yukiso chuckled.

'Damn, he right! I can barely move my fingers, let alone my body! Damn it!' Yukiso raised his axes, and covered them in his dark aura while the first set circled around him.

"Now you die!" he shouted as he hurled his axes at the weakened fighter. Li could only watch helplessly as the axes shot towards him.

"Shit!"

OOOOO

Loud CLANGS echoed throughout the entire void as two auras collided with each other. One was pure white and added light to the dark place, while the other was pure darkness. Both auras moved at speeds that not even the most trained person could see. The only way one could tell there was a battle occurring would the constant shockwaves that shook the silent void. There was a brief burst of light as the two auras collided again, reveling the sight of two young women locked in a fierce battle to the death. The two aura separated and ran along side each other before colliding yet again.

Staff met with swords as Sakura and Risuba continued their ferocious battle. The dark priestess pushed Sakura back and fired two dark blasts from her swords. The younger girl jumped to the side and countered with a windblast that blew Risuba back a few steps. Said priestess leaped into the air and fired countless small dark darts. Sakura jumped back and deflected them by twirling her staff. Risuba came down with a powerful downward strike with her two swords. Sakura quickly brought up her staff and the two weapons met with a loud but brief CLANG!

Pink met with red for second before Risuba back flipped off of Sakura's staff, and double kicked her to the ground. Sakura rolled out of the way as the dark priestess's swords came down, and jab her in the stomach with a butt end of her staff. When Risuba hunched over, Sakura's staff connected with her chin sending her into the air. As Risuba tried to regain her stability, Sakura appeared above her and sent her into the ground with another hard blow from her staff.

Sakura landed with a grace few have ever seen before and waited for the dark priestess to emerge from the ground. When she didn't come out the young girl raised an eyebrow and looked around her. Unknown to her the dark priestess was slowly emerging from the dark ground behind her. Risuba smirked at her confusion, and slashed the young girl's back. Sakura yelped at the sudden pain, but managed to pivot behind her and slash Risuba in her stomach. The two women jumped back for a quick break. Both were panting hard at the intensity of the battle, but neither of their auras were wavering. Risuba smirked as she stared at Sakura who was giving her a deep glare.

'This just like my battle with Nadeshiko. Like Mother like daughter I guess. Even though their motives for fighting are different.'

'Tomoyo, Kero, don't worry I won't let your deaths be in vain,' Sakura thought as she glared Risuba down. The minute the two women's breath returned, their auras flared, but neither moved. Risuba raised an eyebrow.

"What's the matter? Are you hesitant all of a sudden?"

"No," Sakura said calmly, but coldly. "I must know, what was the name of the one my mother loved before my father?" Risuba just chuckled.

"If you have to ask you'll never know."

"Fine then." With that Sakura fired a powerful windblast, but Risuba easily evaded by melting into the darkness. The amber haired girl quickly looked around her trying to catch her before she used another sneak attack. The dark priestess emerged above the younger girl and came down with strong downward strike. Sakura quickly put up her staff and the weapons met again with another loud CLANG! The two women struggled as both of them tried to gain the upper hand. Risuba smirked when she saw Sakura fall to a knee, and her arms slowly giving way to the weight of her swords. The younger girl slowly slipped one hand off of her staff, and onto Risuba's stomach. As soon as she felt it she fired a powerful windblast that sent the dark priestess flying into the dark walls of the void.

Before Risuba had a chance to even breathe, Sakura was on the attack. The dark priestess panicked slightly when she saw the sight of Sakura dashing towards her. Thinking quickly, she slammed her hand on the ground that unleashed a dark shadow that slowly crept towards the dashing Sakura. The minute she stepped on it, the shadow exploded with countless tentacles thrashing around, and wrapping Sakura up in their tight grip. The young girl tried to breakaway, but the tentacles were too strong.

"Don't bother trying to struggle. These tentacles are as tight as I say, so unless you get me to let you go, you'll be trapped there forever!" Risuba laughed.

"How did you do this? And how are you able to disappear into the ground?" Sakura asked coldly.

"I'm one with the darkness girl. Here my powers are at their strongest. I have yet to use my strongest spells though, but I won't have to now." Sakura just chuckled softly. "What's so funny?"

"Don't be so sure of yourself. You haven't won yet." Risuba just scoffed.

"Give me a break, there's no way anyone could escape from those tentacles. I bet not even mother would be able to escape. What makes you think you can?" Sakura answered by closing her eyes and flaring up her pure white aura. The darkness of the void became non-existent as the light from Sakura's aura lit the entire void. Risuba shield her eyes from the intense light, and stepped back trying to get away, but there was no escape the illumination.

The grip the tentacles had on Sakura loosened from the intense light, and the young girl snapped away. Once she was free, her aura died down until the darkness returned, but Risuba was still temporarily blinded. Noticing this, Sakura took her chance and went on the offensive. A split second later, Risuba was on the ground nursing her cheek with Sakura standing over with her fist outstretched. The dark priestess instantly jumped to her feet and attacked Sakura with wild, but powerful attacks.

Brief flashes of light could be seen around the void as the two women's weapons met with constant clangs. Sakura quickly blocked a swing to her head, and countered with a fast jab to Risuba's face with the front of her staff. The dark priestess swiftly dodged a downward strike and slashed Sakura across her stomach. When she saw the younger girl jump back, she blew her back with a dark blast. Sakura hit the wall of the void, and cried out in pain when electricity suddenly entered her body. Risuba chuckled when she saw Sakura fall to her knees.

"That electricity, in case your wondering, is to make sure no one escapes until the one who summoned it says so. Burns doesn't it?" the dark priestess asked when she noticed the smoke rising from Sakura's back. The amber haired girl groaned as she slowly got to her feet.

"This battle isn't over yet," she said, and fired a strong windblast. Risuba chuckled when she saw it coming, and fired one of her dark blasts. When the two blasts collided they cancelled each other out with a great explosion that sent their senders flying into the walls of the void. When the two women recovered, they flared up their aura, and fired their blasts again. But instead of the two blasts hitting each other, they bypassed each other and went straight for their targets, who had no time to dodge or block.

Both Sakura and Risuba cried out in pain when they hit the walls of the void. Smoke rose from their backs as they glared at each other. Their auras were weakening, and both were out of breath. Their pants were the only sound to be heard in the silence. Both women gripped their weapons before they dashed towards each other again. Sakura blocked a series of swings, and attacked with a fast overhead swing. The dark priestess quickly ducked under Sakura's arm, and went for a stab to her back. The amber haired girl spotted this immediately, and back flipped behind her. Before Risuba could attack Sakura raised her staff and sliced off her right arm. But what threw Sakura off guard was that instead of howling in pain, Risuba was laughing.

When the amber haired girl turned around a look of shock crossed her normally emotionless face. (In this form anyway.) Instead of blood, there was an intense dark aura spewing from the wound she had just inflected. The dark aura came together to form another arm, but this arm was different from the last one. Rather than flesh, it was made out of pure darkness. It was longer than her left arm, and had long demonic claws.

"It's been a while since I used this arm. How about you help me break it in!" Risuba laughed manically as she charged. Sakura jumped back in time to dodge a swing from the dark arm, but the arm suddenly stretched like rubber, and grabbed her.

"What!" Sakura exclaimed as the arm started to retract, pulling her towards Risuba's waiting sword.

"It's too bad you'll have to die here, I have to admit you were a good opponent. But this where it ends, but don't worry you'll be with your friends!" A brief expression of anger crossed her face as she looked down her bangs over her eyes. When Risuba was about to deliver the final blow, Sakura brought up her legs and double kick the dark priestess to the ground, which freed her from the dark arm's grasp. As Risuba got up, Sakura dashed towards her, and threw a punch that sent the dark priestess flying into the barrier of the void. Risuba got to her feet with smoke rising from the left side of her face. Her flesh fell to the ground like pieces of hard clay. Sakura's eyes widened when Risuba turned around. Her skin was falling off as if it was pieces of a mask, and behind the mask was some kind of monster. She still had the same red eyes, but the entire left side of her face was made out of pure darkness like her arm. The left side of her jaw was twice as long as the right, and inside her mouth were sharp fangs. And on her forehead was a long horn that turned upwards towards the tip.

'What is she?'

OOOOO

Li struggled to get to his feet, but dark aura inside of him was taking its toll on his body, and the axes were only getting closer. With strength of will alone, Li reached into his cloak, and pulled out a talisman.

"Element Wind!" The wind spell quickly took effect and made a shield around him. The axes bounced off course and hit the trees in the forest. Yukiso growled slightly.

"You got lucky that time," he said as he made another set of axes. Li struggled to his feet as Yukiso charged. The young man could barely move, Yukiso was right, he did just get lucky a few seconds ago.

'But what the hell am I supposed to do? The dark aura inside my body is like poison, it's slowly spreading through my body. Maybe I can isolate it so that only a few parts of my body are affected rather than the whole thing. But I need time,' Li thought as Yukiso charged, but when an idea came to him, he suddenly smirked. 'I know.'

"Get ready to die!" the demon protector shouted as he raised his axes.

"Element Lighting!" Yukiso quickly spun his axes, deflecting the lighting attack.

"I told you, such attacks have no effect on me!" he laughed, but he stopped when he noticed Li was gone. "So you decided to run away eh? You won't get far just so you know!" Meanwhile, Li watched him closely from the branch of a tree.

'Good he has no idea where I am for now. That'll give me some time,' he thought as he started to close his eyes. 'If I channel my aura to where the dark aura is that will isolate it to that one spot so that only that area of my body will be affected.' His green aura flared up, but it didn't give away where he was because it blended in with the green of the trees.

Yukiso wandered through the forest looking for Li, but to no avail. The demon protector growled as he looked around.

"Damn him! How could he have escaped! Risuba will have my head for this!" Yukiso suddenly turned around, and smirked. "Or maybe not."

Li concentrated hard, using his green aura to suppress the dark aura inside of his body. 'Damn, this is taking longer than I thought. This would be easier if I had those other two traveling with me. Maybe it was a mistake to leave them behind when I left,' he thought with a look of regret and a hint of sadness on his face, but he shook it off. 'I can't think of that now! I have to finish this!'

"Concentrating hard?" a voice said from behind him. Li turned around and saw Yukiso. His eyes widened in shock, and confusion.

"How did you find me?" he asked quickly getting to his feet. The demon protector just chuckled.

"Did you really believe that I couldn't track down my own aura? You did a good job of suppressing it, but my aura could be halfway across the world, and I'd still be able to sense it. That's how high my senses are."

"Damn it!" Li muttered. 'But at least I suppressed it enough so that I'd be able to move freely.'

"Now shall we finish what we started?" Yukiso asked as he readied his axes. Li drew his sword, and went into a stance.

"Yeah, let's." With that the two leaped from their tree branches and collided.

OOOOO

Sakura stared intensely at the creature in front of her. On one side she was Risuba the dark priestess that her mother battled years ago, but on the other side she was something else. A monster perhaps, but it defiantly wasn't human. Sakura looked over to the bodies of Tomoyo and Kero, and gripped her staff tighter. It didn't matter who or what she was, she killed her friends, and she was going to pay.

With no words spoken, the two women dashed towards each other. Sakura quickly blocked a strike from the dark priestess's sword, and dodged a swing from her dark arm. Risuba fired a blast from her sword, which Sakura managed to dodge, but the minute the amber haired girl touched the ground, Risuba fired her dark needles. Sakura swiftly managed to dodge the needles, and use a windblast that blew Risuba into the barrier again.

As she rushed towards the older woman something struck her side that made her fly off to the side. When she looked at her opponent she saw something new had sprouted from her lower back. It was a long spiked tail. Risuba chuckled deeply as she made her way towards the amber haired girl. Sakura got to her feet, and fired another windblast from her staff, but Risuba slapped it away with her dark hand. A split second later a blast of darkness knocked Sakura off her feet.

Sakura quickly rolled out of the way when Risuba's tail was about to slam into her body. The pink-eyed girl slashed the woman across her stomach, only to be blown away by a powerful dark blast. When she got her feet a sharp pain suddenly enter her body, the young girl looked down and saw Risuba with her horn jabbed in the side of her stomach. Sakura knocked her away when her staff met the older woman's face. As Risuba recovered, Sakura fired a strong windblast, but the dark priestess slapped it away with her sword fired her needles with her dark arm.

Sakura quickly put up her shield to defend, but the needles somehow penetrated her shield and needles filled her body. Risuba just laughed.

"That just proves that aura is weak, while mine is only getting stronger!" Sakura groaned as she struggled to get to her feet.

"This battle isn't over yet!" she declared, but the older woman just chuckled.

"Don't even bother trying to bluff, I can feel your aura slowly slipping. I'll tell what let's finish this now with one final blast. What do you say?"

"Very well," Sakura agreed, and flared up the last of her aura, while Risuba did the same. "But I must know, who was my mother's former lover? Before she met my father?"

"Well if you must know before you die, his name was Xia Lang!"

"Xia Lang," Sakura repeated to herself.

"Now I hope you can die happy!" Risuba and fired an intense blast of darkness.

"Sorry I can't die yet!" Sakura shouted, and fired a just as intense blast of light. Fierce sparks flew as the two blasts collided with neither side gaining the upper hand at first. But then the darkness started to overcome Sakura's light. The amber haired girl started to slide back from the intensity of the darkness. Flaring up more of her aura she managed to give her blast enough power so it wouldn't be pushed back, but Risuba kept adding more and more power into the blast. It was as though she had an unlimited supply of power.

"I can feel the power of your aura depleting! It's only a matter of time!" Risuba laughed as she added more power to her blast. Sakura eyes widened when she felt her light aura slowly going back to pink. She could also feel herself going back to her young girl form. She groaned softly and flared up the very last of her aura.

"Darkness will always succumb to the light! Just as long as one remembers where the light is!" With the last of her strength, older Sakura used the last of her aura to increase the power of her blast. Risuba's eyes widened when her blast was over powered.

"No! How is this possible!" she screamed as she was engulfed in the blast. The blast of light made a large hole in the void, making the empty space slowly vanish into thin air. Sakura fell to her knees as her older form slowly vanished, and she became normal Sakura.

"Did I…. do all of this?" she asked herself as she looked around. Her eyes fell on Tomoyo and Kero, and her heart sank. "I'm sorry guys, I couldn't protect you." Her eyes went to Risuba's body.

'You got what you deserved,' Sakura thought harshly. She got to her feet, and decided to go find the Father. The least she could do was to give her friends a proper burial. She stopped when she suddenly heard a cracking sound. She turned around and saw Risuba's flesh cracking as if it was an egg. When her body was filled with cracks, an intense dark aura, in the form of smoke rose into the air. Sakura could feel nothing emptiness and evil the smoke.

"But…. what the heck is it?" she asked herself.

OOOOO

Li quickly blocked a swing from one of Yukiso's axes, and kicked the demon protector out of the trees. Yukiso threw one his axes at the young man, but Li easily avoided it, and stabbed the demon in his leg as he came down from the trees. As the demon cried out in pain, Li was about to deliver the final blow when he sensed something.

"What the hell is that?" he whispered as he stepped back. "I've never sensed anything so evil! It's as though it's made of nothing but darkness." Yukiso just laughed.

"That would be my mistress. She's tired so hard to suppress, but the monster was just too strong this time!" Li grabbed him by the throat.

"What do you mean?"

"Inside of my mistress is, rather, was a powerful monster, no not a demon, but a monster. It was slowly eating away at her heart until she died. And now that she's dead the monster has been released! There's no escape! This world is doomed to be covered in an never-ending darkness!" Li growled, and sliced off the demon's head. He then rushed to where the void used to be.

"Some how I just know that stupid girl is involved in this one way or another!" he muttered to himself as he ran.

OOOOO

Sakura hid behind a tree as the dark smoke started to take shape. First two long arms formed, along with a large chest with countless muscles, and scars. Legs sprouted from the body with long sharp talons on the foot. A long thick tail sprouted from the large body, and finally the head sprouted. Its mouth was the same shape as a dog or a horse, but its teeth were filled with fangs that could rival a shark or a crocodile. It had enough power in its claws to take down an entire valley of mountains at once. It was the biggest thing Sakura had ever seen in her life.

'Mom sealed this monster inside of someone? But I thought it was supposed to be forever! What's going on?' But Sakura was snapped out of her thoughts when the monster let out an earth-shaking roar. Fire suddenly blasted from its mouth, and the monster aimed the fire at the forest around it. Sakura was too stunned to notice the fire was heading her way.

"Stupid! Get down!" she heard a voice shout. The next thing Sakura knew, Li was on top of her with his back ablaze.

"Li!" Sakura cried, when she noticed his back.

"This is nothing, really. So just what the hell is going on?"

"I was fighting this dark priestess Risuba, and she…. And she… She killed Tomoyo and Kero!"

"What?"

"She killed them! And I was so angry, I think I must have passed out, but when I woke up Risuba was on the ground dead. But her body started to crack like an egg, and all this smoke came out. Then, that monster formed." Li got up and looked at the monster closely, his eyes suddenly widened.

"That's no monster," he whispered.

"Then what is it?" Sakura wondered as she got up.

"It's a devil!" Li exclaimed as the devil burned down another forest.

"What's the difference between a devil and a demon?"

"A demon is no where as powerful as a devil. Devils are the most powerful evil sprits in the world. No normal human can ever hope to defeat one! And that thing is one of the most power devils ever known!"

"What do you mean?" Li growled, and gripped his sword tightly.

"It doesn't matter we have to get out of here now!"

"But Li, that devil will destroy homes, kill innocent people! I don't want to see anymore people die!"

"You're going to see yourself die if we don't escape now! We don't stand a chance against that devil!" Sakura shook her head, and formed her staff out of a stick.

"I'm at least going to try. No one deserves to die at the hands of such a creature," Sakura said sternly as her pink aura started to slowly form around her. When Li looked into her eyes he couldn't help but feel optimistic, which was a big deal for him. He sighed, and gave her a slight smile.

"All right have it your way." The young man drew his sword and stood beside Sakura, who smiled at him.

"Thanks Li," she whispered.

"Let's go!" they both shouted as they rushed the devil.

AN: Can Li and Sakura stop this devil? What does Li know about it? How was it able to escape the spell Nadeshiko put on it? Who is Xia Lang? You'll just have to read the next chapter of Seven Deadly Jewels to find out. Oh and sorry for the delay. I just couldn't bring myself to get started. I couldn't get into this chapter or this Risuba arc until around the middle. But anyway, See ya!