Chapter 34
In the far distance, the sun slowly lowered beyond the horizon causing the colour of the sky to transform from blue to orange. Shadows began growing in the twilight hour creating a silhouette effect. The sleepy town inn that Sou had called home for the past few days looked picturesque under the golden rays of the setting sun. Gentle breezes blanketed the town as night set in.
Sou carefully climbed out his window as he prepared to escape the inn. Going out the door would alert his siblings and he didn't want that. Carefully he held onto a drain pipe and climbed down from the second floor of the inn.
He had figured that leaving through this back way would be safe but he was wrong. When he reached the bottom and tried to leave he discovered that his actions had already been anticipated.
"I told you he'd run away like a coward. You owe me a thousand jewels." Soushi scoffed.
"Sou, why?" Serena mumbled not looking directly at Sou.
"Guys, you have to understand. This isn't right." Sou protested. "Zaheer wanted to send the world into chaos and I'm not going to allow that."
The hairs on the back off Sou's neck began to stand as the temperature dropped several degrees. It felt as if the embodiment of indifference and callousness had appeared just behind him.
"I knew it." Zaheer's cold voice rang out.
Sou spun on his heels this time whipping his hand out and unleashing a wave of shadows. The shadow's passed through Zaheer causing the thought projection to temporarily flicker before regaining stability.
"I knew it the first time I met you. You didn't have the spine to do what was needed." Zaheer spat. "You are weak, just like the ones before you."
"Ones before me?" Sou gulped.
"You were not the first devil slayer who I asked this task off and you will not be the last. You will share the fate of those who have denied me in the past, death." Zaheer threatened with full malice.
"I won't go down without a fight." Sou promised raising his fists in defiance.
"I wonder if you'd be able to have the same conviction when fighting your siblings." Zaheer taunted. "Kill him and then we can retrieve the fire devil slayer that I chased through Azalea. A new lead on his whereabouts has surfaced."
Zaheer's thought projection disappeared leaving behind the apprehensive Tsubaki siblings. Sou turned to Serena and Soushi who stared at him with disappointment and anger.
"He must be out of his mind to think that you guys would kill me." Sou laughed nervously.
"No, you're the one who is out of his mind. We gave you another chance and you betray us again!" Soushi screamed as Serena slinked back silently.
"I never betrayed you." Sou retorted.
"We got four years! Four years in Fiore's worst prisons!" Soushi shouted. "And you got one year in minimum security. We all committed the same crime and you got off easy. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what happened."
"It was because I was a kid, that's why." Sou tried to explain.
"No, it was because you ratted on us. You cut a deal and saved your skin!" Soushi accused. "I was willing to forgive and forget because Serena begged me to but you've taken this second chance and just spat in our faces."
"I never cut a deal! I would never betray you two. I love you guys." Sou responded. "Serena, talk some sense into him."
"Sou, I just wanted us to be a family. Even in a world full of chaos we could have been together." Serena replied still not making eye contact.
"Please guys, I don't want to fight you." Sou pleaded.
"Good because this won't be much of a fight. Just stand there and take it like a man." Soushi scoffed.
Sou gulped as he couldn't believe what was happening.
"Ice-Make: Arrows." Soushi yelled as he formed a dozen arrows from between both of his hands and fired them at high speed towards Sou.
Sou tried avoiding the attack as best as he could without reverting to shadow form because he still wanted to try talking things over with his siblings. This proved to be a mistake as his siblings had no intention of talking.
The ice arrows were a feint so that Serena could launch her own attack and catch Sou off guard. She created two columns of water, which rotated around each other and formed into a helix that smashed into Sou with restrained force.
"Water Nebula!" Serena called out as she still continued not to look directly at Sou.
Soaked and coughing up the water that had crept into his lungs Sou gingerly tried to get up while maintain his stance of nonviolence towards his siblings.
"Please…" Sou coughed.
"The time for please is over." Soushi scoffed. "Ice Make: Halberd."
Soushi created a light blue magic circle and fired a large spear with a jagged but razor-sharp head at Sou. The attack made of ice flew straight at the devil slayer and would have skewered him had a bolt of living lightning not shattered it metres from its target.
"Merric?!" Sou exclaimed as the lightning returned to human form.
"You're lucky that I've been improving my lightning boost." Merric retorted as he stood over the shards of ice.
"What are you doing here?" Sou demanded to know.
"Don't blame me; Jinx was the one who was all amped up to find you." Merric revealed. "Eclipse was also antsy about finding you."
"They're here? Team Shadow came for me." Sou smiled. "Where are they?"
"We split up to search the city for you." Merric replied.
Soushi watched bitterly as Merric now stood between him and Sou, to the ice user it didn't matter. All Merric was to him was just another person to kill.
"You must be one of Howling Winds people? You're wasting your time saving someone like Sou. He'll just turn around and betray you the first chance he gets." Soushi spat.
"You shouldn't interfere with family matters." Serena muttered trying to glare at Merric but failed to hide the relieved look on her face.
"We are his family!"Jinx shouted running towards the fray.
"We saw your signal Merric." Eclipse acknowledged as she followed.
"Guys…" Sou smirked. "I…"
Sou was cut off by Jinx punching him in the gut.
"That's for just running away and leaving us. Whatever problem you had we could have solved it as a team." Jinx berated.
"I'm sorry, it was family and it was complicated." Sou apologized.
"Family can be complicated." Merric nodded.
"Well we better make things uncomplicated." Eclipse shouted as she tackled Sou and Jinx out of the way as a volley of ice arrows came at them.
"Don't you know you're supposed to let the heroes enjoy their reunion before attacking?" Eclipse moaned as she rolled of Jinx and Sou.
"He curved the arrows around me… Dynamic ice make…" Merric noted.
"Zaheer!" Sou screamed from the ground.
"What?" Jinx asked.
"Zaheer." Sou pointed at the aforementioned man who was standing atop the inn roof watching proceedings. "He is the cause of all this."
"I'll get him. Eclipse, Jinx, as Sou's new team. I'll leave these guys to you." Merric activated his lightning boost and leapt up onto the roof.
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Merric landed on the roof with the grace of a bull, almost slipping of the slick tiles as soon as he made contact. Merric flailed around trying to keep his balance as Zaheer on the other hand calmly requiped to his red samurai battle armour.
"Are you scared?" Zaheer asked still unarmed.
"No, are you?" Merric retorted.
"Good, I would take no pleasure in killing a man who is too scared to fight me with everything he had." Zaheer held out his arm. "Requip: Ivy."
In a quick flash, a katana that had a rectangular bronze tsuba with a jagged design, and a red handle appeared in Zaheer's waiting hand. The blade was splits into six segments.
"I've always wanted to cut a lightning bolt in two, I guess slicing you in half will have to do." Zaheer swung the sword in Merric's direction.
The segments then extended as Zaheer wielded the sword like a whip. Merric barely avoided the sharp end of the whip sword as he side stepped while trying to keep his balance.
Merric stumbled and held his hands out creating a yellow magic circle that fired small lightning orbs at Zaheer. "Lightning Barrage!"
The off kilter rapid fire attack was easy for Zaheer to dodge as he ran at Merric and swung Ivy again. Merric slammed his fists together creating his spark shield hoping to send lightning along the blade to electrocute Zaheer but the segment extensions were insulated and prevented lightning from reaching Zaheer.
"What do you want with Sou?" Merric questioned.
"Chaos is the only acceptable world order; he is a means to an end." Zaheer replied stepping back before attacking.
This time the blade missed Merric by a bit but Zaheer flicked his wrist and the blade changed direction as he retracted it so that it ended up cutting Merric on his arm.
"Damn it." Merric cursed as he clutched at the shallow wound.
"Instinct is a lie told by a fearful body, hoping to be wrong." Zaheer taunted as he prepared to attack again.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Merric scoffed as he dodged.
"It means that when you base your expectations only on what you see, you blind yourself to the possibilities of a new reality." Zaheer explained as he once again cut Merric with the same trick leaving a slightly deeper cut.
Merric tried to counter by using Lightning boost to dodge but he was draining his magic and not able to get any offense going. When the lightning faded away Merric took four more shallow cuts.
"Your blade retracts faster than it extends…" Merric exclaimed as he finally thought he figured out the move.
"Let us see if that is true." Zaheer attacked again this time whipping out the blade with speed that Merric had not seen.
Merric was barely able to activate his lightning boost but Ivy slashed his leg just above his knee as he tried to avoid the attack. The pain shot through Merric's body as his enhanced speed put pressure on the wound causing him to lose his lightning and lose his footing and go over the edge of the roof.
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"Run away, don't make this fight yours." Sou warned as he tried to get in front of Jinx and Eclipse.
"No!" Eclipse and Jinx exclaimed loudly shoving Sou back.
"You don't have what it takes to fight them with 100%." Jinx warned
"We got this." Eclipse nodded.
Soushi wasn't impressed by the resilient stance taking by the female members of Team Shadow. "Children Sou, you're getting children to fight your battles for you."
"Soushi, we don't have to do this." Serena muttered.
"No, we have to do this. This is our revenge. We're not going to let the world push us around anymore. With Zaheer we'll be the ones in charge." Soushi declared. "Ice-Make: Eagle!"
Soushi created two frozen eagles that flew towards the girls with mal-intent.
"Oblivion, Teacht Amach" Eclipse reached into her own shadow and pulled out a massive scythe that was larger than her.
"Demons Claws!" Jinx created raking claws that extended from her knuckles.
Eclipse swung at the first eagle, shattering it with her scythe. Jinx tried swing at the second but it pulled away at the last minute and redirected its aim at Eclipse.
Eclipse didn't see it coming as Jinx didn't have time to warn her. The ice eagle smashed into Eclipse's side as she looked forward at Soushi. The force of the impact into her ribs knocked the air out of her lungs causing her to drop the scythe.
"Eclipse!" Jinx shouted rushing towards her friend.
"Don't take your eyes of Serena!" Sou screamed.
"Water Beam!" Serena placed both of her hands together and fired jets a high-pressured of water at Jinx as she ran.
Sou used to his shadow form to get in front of Jinx and take the attack with his body to shield Jinx but this was part of Serena and Soushi's plan. With Sou in front of Jinx her view of Soushi was obstructed.
A dozen dragonfly's made of ice flew around Sou and caught Jinx off guard. She swiped and slashed but there were too many, the ice creation smashed into her dropping her to her knees.
"Jinx are you…" Sou groaned wanting to check up on Jinx but then he caught a glimpse of a bloodied Merric falling of the roof.
Sou forced his body to react as he tried to rush and catch Merric. He was hurt but his legs somehow managed to carry him forward.
"Ice-Make: Snow Dragon!" Soushi created a massive ice Dragon that rushed towards Eclipse and Jinx with the sole purpose of crushing them.
Sou skidded as he tried to turn; he was stuck in the middle caught in two minds. Catch Merric or push the girls out harm's way. His indecision proved to be his undoing as he was trapped unable to save anyone. There was no way he could get to both of them and the decision of who to save left him frozen unable to save anyone.