To the Darkest of Nights We Go

~Dystopian AU ~

Chapter 83

Written By: RinoaDestiny

King of Fighters, Chizuru Kagura, Kyo Kusanagi, Iori Yagami, Terry Bogard, Andy Bogard, Mai Shiranui, Blue Mary, Rock Howard, and Joe Higashi all belong to SNK


Goenitz's boot hard against his throat, crushing the air out of him.

The world shimmering – consciousness slipping – tunneling into darkness. Coldness settling into his chest, blood still flowing. Rock Howard's screams – Terry Bogard was dead or dying – and Orochi…. Orochi had returned. Revived.

Orochi had returned and if he…

Goenitz turned above him, boot easing off for a second.

It was all the time Kyo needed.

A quick mental shaping of thought – of the choice that lay before him. You were right, Yagami. We're all going to die to end this. Three treasures, bestowing a temporary godhood before the consequence of death. Orochi was here – a chance he could not squander. His will surged past pain or fear, the thought instantaneous. Sword, magatama, mirror – Grant me the power of the gods!

The first sensation he felt was warmth, driving away cold.

The second was the united rhythm of the treasures – no longer disparate, no longer linked one after the other. A complete harmony, rising like the purest note he'd ever heard. It was within him like a second heart, full of purpose and courage.

"What?"

Goenitz's shocked exclamation above him. The flames on the battlefield had changed to crimson and orange; Kyo realized it without seeing them, knowing what'd happened. The darkness was gone, for his world was now gold, as if suffused with it.

"Goenitz! It's Kusanagi!" Orochi realizing too late what'd occurred.

Goenitz looked down; Kyo was ready.

With his newly given strength, he seized Goenitz's leg, hurling the man aside. Arose and stood, watching the scene before him. Mary Ryan and Rock Howard stared at him with astonishment. Two soldiers off to the side, retreating when his gaze fell on them. Goenitz rising to his feet, red-faced and disbelieving. Terry Bogard lying slain among the rubble, life no longer present in the legendary fighter. Orochi – Kyo bent his gaze upon the other god – who quailed, backing away while levitated.

Kyo spoke. It wasn't just his voice.

"Orochi! Your end has come!" [Orochi, oh foul serpent! Your end is nigh!]

He was a god and yet, there was someone else speaking through his voice. It reverberated like a booming echo, strong and masculine and ancient. One of the gods, he realized, and one he was familiar with.

Orochi shrieked, voice mentally resounding in his expanded consciousness. [Impossible! How can you…] Silence like a sliver of time discovered and abruptly used. [Susanoo! You cannot be –]

"There are enough dead. It is over, Orochi. You lost." [The dead are innumerable. Your days are over, Orochi. Defeat awaits you.]

"Goenitz!" Orochi thundered in a tone of command. "Destroy him!"

[You were slain before, accursed one. How, then, shall you slay the brother of Amaterasu Ōmikami, the one whose sword saw fit to your end? The vessel here in whom carries the sword from your corpse?]

"Goenitz!"

The O.R.O.C.H.I. wind general vanished from sight, but Kyo (who he was now) saw his passage in between space and time, breaths and flickering images in between a second and the next. When Goenitz appeared before him, hand extended to strike, Kyo anticipated it. With a solid blow, his fist – or what appeared to be a shining straight-edged sword – smashed directly into Goenitz's chest, crumpling the man to the ground. Orochi shrieked again (one of the heads decapitated) and made a skyward gesture with both arms.

At that moment, Kyo felt his mortality burning away.

Immediately threw a shield around Mary Ryan and Rock Howard, protecting them from Orochi's widespread assault. The sky was white like sunlight on first snow, beautiful yet deceptive and harmful. Once, he would've needed to block against it. Now, sheathed in godhood, it no longer affected him.

His time in mortal flesh, though, was ending and soon.

There was still one task left to him.

Kyo advanced.

A dark circular projectile flew at him, relentless and swift. Orochi hovered away, seeking retreat but Kyo wasn't about to give him respite. With a quick sweep of his arm – the shining sword blade flashing out – the projectile disappeared as if it'd never been. A second and third followed in close succession – Orochi trying to catch him off guard in between – but two deft cutting blows rendered them impotent.

Kyo advanced.

If a god could be said to panic, Orochi did. A second futile attempt at the light attack – sacrilege to his (Susanoo) sister's identity as sun goddess – followed by a rapid upward kick. Without fear of physical harm, Kyo pressed forward, straight into Orochi's inner range.

He saw Orochi's arms pull back, felt the tug on his being, and let it happen.

For Orochi, in a last-ditch attempt, sought to destroy his soul.

His mortal body was dying anyway. He'd been shot, was bleeding out, and godhood frayed the thinning strands of his existence. There'd be no soul left once his task was done. Once this final sacrifice was given to put a stop to this great evil from ancient days.

For now, at the end of his time, Kyo saw the symmetry at play. At how it all, destiny or not, fell into place. He saw it with a god's eyes – with divine knowledge – and wondered that he never guessed at it before. Just as the Orochi New Faces Team needed to sacrifice themselves to revive Orochi, so too did the Sacred Treasures Team to finally destroy Orochi. Three deaths to bring about a dark god; therefore, three deaths to bring about a bright one.

He was a god and yet, Susanoo was with him in a last poetic twist.

Orochi drew him close, arm raised to withdraw his soul and Kyo sprang at the chance, seizing his immortal enemy with his left hand. His right arm, in unintentional mimicry, raised high. The Kusanagi sword, divine and like the finest polished bronze, gleamed in full glory.

Orochi screamed. "No!" [This cannot be!]

His father. His mother. Shingo. Daimon.

Kyo punched his right fist – the sword piercing Orochi – clean through his hated enemy and uttered his last words, a reverse invocation. "We banish you, Orochi. We banish you, all your heads and those who follow you. We dispel your influence from the Earth and anywhere you wish to take root." [You are hereforth banished, Orochi, serpent of yore! All your heads are severed, all your evils ended. May you never set foot in this world or any other until the end of time!]

A terrible shriek – monstrous hissing – burst from Orochi.

Yuki. Kagura-san. Yagami.

Orochi screamed and screamed, and then was gone.

Blood, red on mortal hands disappearing, turning to nothing. Gold still in his sight, painting the world he knew – was leaving – like an artisan's lost masterpiece. They'd done it and it was finally, at long last, over.

Kyo smiled.

Then, he too, was gone.