Chapter 35
"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 an 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.
Time seemed to stand still for Sou and so did everything happening around him. For a minute he began to think he was losing his mind. Merric had stopped falling inches above the ground and the ice dragon was motionless above Eclipse and Jinx.
"This is why I didn't want you guys running off like that." Katherine's voice rang out as she walked into view with her arms extended. "I knew about Sou's past and I was coming up with a plan."
Katherine gently motioned with her right hand and Merric touched down softly onto the pavement. She twisted violently with her left hand breaking the dragon in two and hurling the pieces at Soushi and Serena knocking them down. Serena surprisingly had allowed the ice to hit rather than turning to water.
"Katherine…" Sou muttered relieved.
"You should have asked for help instead of running into a dangerous situation like this." Katherine scolded. "But don't worry; I'll save your punishment for when we get back to the guild."
"You're much stronger than these riffraff." Zaheer commented as he leapt from the roof and landed gracefully on the ground.
"I take it you're the cause of all this trouble." Katherine glared.
"Your assumption would be correct milady." Zaheer nodded.
Zaheer didn't wait for any invitation and attacked with Ivy. The sword extended towards Katherine but before it could reach her the blade stopped, trembling under the force of her telekinesis.
"Impressive, the speed of your telekinesis shows how sharp your mind is." Zaheer laughed.
"Compliments will get you nowhere." Katherine flicked her wrist snapping the extensions between the blade segments causing the pieces of Ivy to fall to the ground.
"Requip: Hime." Zaheer dropped Ivy's now useless hilt and summoned a new sleek, medium-sized sword with black-decorative wrapping around the hilt's grip.
Zaheer swung the blade in Katherine's direction unleashing a wave of red energy in the motion of his stroke. The attacked missed Katherine and show its true nature when it struck a nearby wall and exploded.
"You can teleport as well? Let's see you dodge when you don't know where the attack is coming from." Zaheer taunted.
Zaheer began to cast thought projections all around him and then move amongst them trying to confuse Katherine as to where the real Zaheer was. Katherine countered with a similar tactic, she began disappearing and reappearing across the battle field using teleport so rapidly it made her seem as if she was everywhere.
"After images? I've only ever heard of this teleportation technique." Zaheer marvelled.
Zaheer astonishment ended when he saw the afterimages fade away and the remnants of Ivy being telekinetically manipulated into cutting down the thought projections until on he was left.
With quick feet and even faster hands Zaheer skipped back and deflected the segments of Ivy away harmlessly. Katherine then appeared in front of him and made a reaching motion with her hands and pulled Hime away from Zaheer.
"Let's see how well you dodge." Katherine swung the blade at Zaheer unleashing a wild burst of red energy that he easily dodged.
"Requip: Nameless." Zaheer summoned his next weapon as soon as he saw Katherine preparing to take another swing.
The weapon was custom made as evident by the guard, which was in the shape of a four-pointed silver-coloured star. Its hilt was light blue and contrasted its dark blue sheath.
As Katherine swung Zaheer unsheathed Nameless and Hime lost all power.
"What the?" Katherine muttered as nothing happened when she swung.
"Nameless was created to neutralise other sword magic in case someone steals one of my swords." Zaheer revealed. "It will also protect me from your telekinesis."
"I guess this will be settled in an old fashion sword fight." Katherine stood at attention and held Hime upright like a rapier.
"I've waited a long time to cross swords with someone worthy." Zaheer took up a more hunched samurai stance.
Zaheer launched at Katherine and sliced at her trying to get a surprise attack in. Zaheer watched in horror as he only sliced through an after image left behind by Katherine's blinding teleportation speed.
"I guess nameless doesn't affect your teleportation but this just makes things more interesting." Zaheer commented.
He didn't get the chance to continue any running commentary as Katherine charged at him with Hime, going through with a fore swing and following it with a backswing.
"You talk too much." Katherine noted as she swung.
Zaheer dodged the first slash and met the second with nameless. Despite the magic neutralising power pulsing through the custom blade, Katherine was able to push Zaheer back by concentrating her telekinesis on her own hands because nameless cancelled out her telekinesis on Hime.
"Your swords fail in its presence and any other form of magic that touches nameless will be neutralised." Katherine pieced together.
"Clever girl." Zaheer muttered.
Zaheer lunged forward with an arcing lash out that sliced the fabric of Katherine's skirt close to her upper thigh. It missed the flesh behind it by perhaps a centimetre.
"I really liked this." Katherine said the tone of her voice changing.
"So close to drawing blood." Zaheer smirked. "This is so much more interesting than bleeding your lightning friend."
The exchange became frenzied as they both stopped playing defensive and went on full offensive charging with violent swings intent on ending the fight in one stroke.
Swing for swing, stroke for stroke, they parried and deflected each other's best shots. Zaheer's superior swordsmanship was negated by the telekinetic strength added to Katherine's attacks.
"It's been a long time since I was in a fight like this." Zaheer acknowledged.
"I guess I can say the same." Katherine nodded.
Katherine had been drawing the fight out and moving it closer and closer towards a stirring Merric hoping that he could somehow break the stalemate in her favour. As if on cue Merric sat up and whipped a bolt of lightning at Zaheer who dodged. The lightning ended up directed at Hime with the resulting shock causing Katherine to drop it.
"Sorry…" Merric apologized sheepishly.
"You're really a screw u…" Zaheer didn't get to finish his sentence as the hilt of Ivy crashed into the back of his head knocking him out.
Katherine had used the fact that Zaheer's attention shifted to Merric temporarily to fling the sword part at Zaheer with her telekinesis.
Zaheer was down, Katherine had defeated the anarchist but Soushi and Serena would not yield. They were fuelled by what they believed was a betrayal from their younger brother.
"Sou, I'm coming." Katherine yelled.
"NO! Stay out of this. This is my fight. This is a Tsubaki family matter." Sou refused defiantly. "Check on the others."
Katherine nodded as she moved to treat Jinx, Eclipse and Merric.
"Zaheer is beaten; you don't have to keep doing this." Sou tried to reason.
"This is not about Zaheer anymore; this is about you betraying your family twice in a lifetime." Soushi shouted slamming his fist over his palm taking aim at Sou. "Ice Make: Ape!"
A large gorilla made of ice appeared from a magic circle created by Soushi. The enraged beast rampaged its way toward Sou smashing its fists against the ground as it charged.
"Shadow Devil's Silk!" Sou released a series of needle-like shadows from his own that sped along the ground piercing through the legs of the ice ape shattering them and causing the rest of the beast to fall to the ground.
"Stop this! This will get us nowhere!" Serena screamed but her brothers were ignoring her.
Soushi slammed his hands on the ground creating a magic circle. "Ice-Make: Floor!" Ice travelled from it the causing the ground underneath Sou to freeze solid trapping his feet.
"You can't trap a shadow like this!" Sou shouted.
"But I can crush one! Ice-Make: Block!" Soushi shouted creating a massive block of ice that he launched across the frozen ground at Sou.
"Shadow Devil's Rage!" Sou didn't flinch and took a long, deep breath before unleashing his pent frustration as shadows out of his mouth in the shape of a tornado.
The shadows crashed against the ice shattering it. It was Sou's hope that the display of power and lack of fear would convince Soushi the fight was pointless.
"Ice-Make: Arrows." Soushi yelled as he formed multiple arrows from both his hands and fired them at high speed towards Sou.
Sou ducked and weaved avoiding most of the arrows as he remained trapped but one was able to graze his face and cut his cheek. Sou realised that standing in one place was not going to work so he changed to shadow form and escaped the ice trapping his feet. In his shadow form he moved towards Soushi.
"Ice-Make: Ice Geyser." Soushi called out as he back tracked and aimed his magic at the ground.
Several spike erupted from the ground trying to stab Sou but he snaked between them in his shadow form.
Sou reverted to human form and fired another Shadow Devil's Rage. Soushi created a wall of ice to shield himself but the attack was too powerful and blew through his wall easily.
"Ice-Make: Ice Cannon." Soushi created a large, long-barrelled cannon made of ice which he used to fire cannonballs, also made of ice.
Sou dodged the ice cannonballs in his shadow form and sped up till he was under Soushi's feet.
"Shadow Devil's Devour!"
Shadows surrounded Soushi causing him to lose sight of Sou and everything. He was blind in the ball made of shadows that Sou had created. Sou then began attacking Soushi from all sides inside the shadow wearing him down.
When the attack faded away, Soushi was on his knees in pain as Sou prepared to continue fighting.
"Stop this! It's over. You won. This is enough." Serena ran and pushed Sou away from Soushi.
She continued to push him until there was some distance between the brothers.
"Serena…" Sou mumbled.
"It's over, there's no need to fight." Serena cried.
"I don't want to fight." Sou nodded.
"This fight will never end. You betrayed us!" Soushi screamed. "CASKET OF ETERNAL WINTER!"
Soushi sprung to his feet with one last burst of rage. He crossed his arms to make an "X" sign, with the right arm above the left arm and his right palm facing down while the left palm was facing up. A spark of blue magic formed between his hands and was fired at Sou
Sou stood frozen in his tracks, unable to move or turn into a shadow. The spell cast by Soushi had locked Sou in a trance once the younger Tsubaki had gazed upon it.
"Freeze traitor!" Soushi screamed as the attack closed in.
To Soushi and Sou's horror, the spark of blue magic never made it to Sou. The attack was stopped by Serena who flung herself in front of Sou using her back as the shield. Serena fell over as her body began to freeze from where she was struck.
"Why? Your water body should have let the attack pass through you?" Sou questioned as he knelt down to hold Serena.
"Then it would have hit you." Serena chuckled as more of her body turned to ice. "I thought I could survive this but this forbidden magic is too much for my water magic."
"Why did you save me?" Sou whispered. "You think I'm a traitor."
"You're not a traitor. You were never a traitor. I was the one who struck the deal to make sure you got only a year. We were too sullied by the world but you still had a chance to make something of yourself. I was a coward and never took responsibility and let Soushi believe it was you." Serena confessed as tears rolled down her face. "I know it's too late to apologize but I'm sorry."
"Hey, come on. It's not too late. You're going to have plenty of chances to apologize in the future. Come on, fight this!" Sou shouted clutching her as the ice continued to spread.
Serena just smiled as the last part of her, her lips, turned to ice. Once she was fully frozen over the ice shattered into dust like particles that blew away in the wind.
"Serena…" Soushi screamed as he tried to clutch at the ice dust.
Sou looked at his trembling brother who now had a sword made of ice in his hand. Sou didn't think he could fight Soushi in this state but the look on Soushi's face made Sou realize that his brother didn't want to fight.
Sou tried to get up and rush towards his brother but it was too late. Soushi's hands moved faster than Sou's feet. The eldest Tsubaki sibling drove the ice blade into his own heart. It didn't take long before Soushi's lifeless body fell to the floor.
Sou could barely contain his feelings as he was 'victorious' over his siblings. He fell to his knees as tears streamed down his face; he had lost the last of his family. They were gone. The tears flowed harder as he looked to the dust of Serena's frozen on his right; she sacrificed herself to save him from Soushi. He then looked to Soushi on his left; his controlling older brother killed himself after he killed Serena.
Pained screams left his mouth as he pounded the ground till his fists bled.
Katherine attended to Jinx as she watched Sou break down emotionally. She knew that he would need his team to help him through this.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Zaheer get up and charge Sou. Zaheer was wielding the magic nullifying sword 'nameless', her telekinesis wouldn't be able to stop him. At the speed Zaheer was moving Katherine only had one option.
"All that effort framing your siblings and breaking them out to get to you, wasted." Zaheer scoffed.
Zaheer lunged at Sou determined to slash his sword into the devil slayers neck and decapitate him but the blade never reached its target. Instead the blade sliced through Katherine's gut as she put herself between Sou and Zaheer.
The spray of blood caught Zaheer in his eye and caused him to stumble away. Katherine was now lying on the ground as Sou remained petrified; his mind was fractured as a second person had sacrificed themselves to save him.
Zaheer raised his sword as he prepared to deliver the finishing blow Katherine.
Zaheer's grip on nameless loosened and he dropped the blade. The anarchist could feel searing steel in his back; he glanced over his shoulder to see a barely conscious and lightning enhanced Merric jamming the broken segment of Ivy into his lower back.