Chapter 14.
The Night of the Dragon.
With the same agitation that injustice generates, the anger that comes from knowing that behind an atrocious act there is no legitimate justification, with the pain of seeing the future lost, destroyed and sent to oblivion, Chung-Hee opened his eyes that morning.
The pain was still there, the physical pain was relatively new, and while it didn't deprive him of the use of his mental, physical or magical faculties, the spiritual pain was overwhelming him. The injuries from his last encounter with the sorceress had made him rethink his strategy, mainly because he was very close to dying, and after getting some sleep upon his return from the confrontation, he thought more clearly: he, like his children, was the repository of a monstrous amount of Gi, which meant that if he had died, all that accumulated energy could have destroyed everything in a very, very large area... maybe not all of Edo, but without a doubt, Tomoeda would have disappeared from the face of the Earth.
He spent several nights thinking about this scenario. It had been over a hundred years since he began his search and grasp of Gi of everything around him, he contained it within himself, thinking at the beginning of his journey that he had unlimited potential. After that night he understood that everything has a limit to which he was getting dangerously close, this aggravated because it must have returned to earth a long time ago, there only seemed to be a logical inference to conclude the whole thing.
"If you seek revenge, you'll have to dig two graves."
The premise of the proverb was clear: the possibility of returning after destroying Edo was nonexistent. It would be the last campaign, besides that, he was at a point where his body would not tolerate one more defeat. His chances of success were extremely high: on the one hand, he still had enough power to directly confront his enemies and defeat them, and even if he was not able to defeat them, he just had to be there and die to destroy everything.
He would take advantage of that situation. He would become the "divine wind", the herald of justice that would finally balance the world after all the mistakes made by Nihon in the past, no one else would suffer because of them.
The sun was near the zenith when he came to that wisdom, he came out of the cavern equipped with a simple cotton satchel, and with a conciliatory glance bade his children follow him. They walked for a few hundred yards along the shore until they came to a river delta, shaded by trees with heavy foliage and laden with fruit. As they walked upstream they met dozens of children fishing in the fords, shepherds watering their flocks, and mothers busily washing on the rocks beside the tributary.
He barely even glanced at all those people. He didn't mind them in the least, but he was beginning to find it hard to ignore the fact that the dragon kids looked with apprehension, almost with longing at all those carefree and happy children who watched them walk with curiosity given the uncommonness of their attire and the exoticness of their race.
They finally reached a region sheltered among the foliage of huge ceiba trees, there, a dozen children jumped into the water between games while a couple of women were doing laundry, the women greeted politely while the old man undressed and immersed himself in the water, taking care of his children.
The right half of the wizard's body was blackened, the skin had shriveled, and on his arm, shoulder, leg, and part of his abdomen the skin followed the contours of bone. These baths managed to ease the aches and pains he still felt, and restored his concentration.
That afternoon, as the minutes passed, his reasoning about the imminent final attack on Edo was gaining pressure, almost urgency. His death was near, he knew it, he could feel it in his bones, the unspoken agreement he had with death without knowing it had already paid with many lives for his permanence in the world, but he felt that this condition would not last much longer. The time had come to say goodbye to the world, but he would do so by fulfilling the ultimate goal to which he had offered the whole of the last century.
Dal was the quietest, and at the same time the most analytical. She constantly spent time observing her surroundings and the few people she had contact with, in some cases even engaging them in conversation. However, it had been in the last few months that her contact with people had become closer and more constant, and although most of the time she was indifferent to what people had to say to her, she had recently developed something of a "scientific interest" in people's behavior.
As like with Teayang, her memories went back to her own birth, in the midst of a burning city in the twilight of the sixteenth century, inheriting the talents of her father, the only living person in the middle of a devastated street, in front of a burnt-out house and surrounded by withered corpses.
He had said that they needed to prepare, that they were the instrument of justice, and that when they completed that goal, they would be free at last.
It was a convincing speech, and in fact she didn't think much about it for several decades, she just followed the orders that the old man gave her. She talked a little with her brother, but being that they shared the same nature, it was like talking in front of a mirror... Yes, he and she were different, but they were the only people besides her father with whom they lived for many years. That created different personalities in them, so while he occasionally looked with curiosity and even longing for contact with other people, she pretended not to care, especially since it was hard to kill them or steal their life energy if she had any interest in them.
For many years she had had the idea that people were good or bad based on their place of origin, Chung-Hee had instructed them that everyone from the Asian peninsula was worthy of protection just for being born there, and had demonized everyone born in the Nihon archipelago. The twins, though naive, were not fools, the differences were not really that great between the two beyond language, and the people in either place strove to live as well as possible, she had seen that in both places there were bad men capable of horrendous things to the detriment of their fellows. Of late, Chung-Hee had fallen in many ways into the latter group.
What was really worth studying, according to the dragon girl's perspective, were people's motives. There were a couple of impulses that, from her very personal point of view, could turn a person into someone deplorable: power, in any of its forms, be it economic, political or magical; and revenge...
Her father was a carrier of both.
Thinking back and sharing memories with her brother, she came to the conclusion that she never really knew what the reason for her birth had been. She knew as an inherited knowledge that both she and Teayang were human only in appearance, that their appearance in the world had not been in the same way as it was with normal people, that they had not grown up biologically as a human would, though there remained in their minds certain reminiscences of thought coming from somewhere before their appearance in their father's care. That missing piece of information could unsettle them at times, as if something very much missed tried to come to the surface when they witnessed scenes of affection... especially between parents and children.
Teayang had felt a warmth that felt strangely familiar after the gaijin had pummeled him so enthusiastically, when he was left in the hands of that old woman who with her last energies gave him back enough lucidity, not only did he realize that the woman was doing something good for him altruistically, but he could recognize her magical signature... it was the same one that several decades ago had protected that very village. In the brief interaction they had, their energies combined and many of the feelings of that old sorceress passed through him. He did not see images or hear speeches, but he could feel the pain of a crushing loss, a commitment and a selfless love that he had not the capacity to even imagine. Regardless of context or geography, this woman did not profess those counter-values his father had taught him to detest about the Japanese, there was no anger, ambition or thirst for revenge, even though he was sure he had lost much in their one encounter in the past. And then there was the young sorceress and her lover... the boy was practically undead by the time they confronted them and despite that, he protected her beyond his broken mind and near-collapsed heart... and she, even in the face of certain death at Chung-Hee's hands, did not abandon him to his fate. All things considered, something definitely didn't add up in the rhetoric of the sorcerer they'd been calling father for over a century.
The real dilemma of the moment was: if their father's cause was not just... was there really a just cause? If Chung-Hee was abandoned, what was after, was there an after in the first place? Just as their appearance in the world was an eventuality, a mere accident that brought together the lust for revenge with the pain of loss, what was the ultimate fate they would have when it was all over? Just as their father had said, they all had to die, when that day came for the wizard, would they follow?
Sitting on a rock, a few feet above the water, Dal shared a glance with her brother, who like her was guarding the old man's bath from the opposite shore, on a summer afternoon with a weather and luminosity capable of putting anyone in a good mood. She knew that the boy shared her reflections, she could see it in the never-ending gesture of doubt that he had been unable to remove from his face for several days.
There was some hubbub a short distance from them, the children looked frightened as did the women, and after a few minutes, several samurai on horseback and a large wagon passed within a short distance of the dragon trio. One of the warriors dismounted and walked up to them, leaving behind him nearly half a hundred men, women and children who were being carried in the cart amidst a great uproar.
"Good morning." The soldier greeted, serious but not impolite, standing a bit away from the shore. "We're in the middle of an evacuation, and we're taking everyone in the area to safe camps in the mountains. If you want to take advantage of the wagon, we can wait for you to dress."
Chung-Hee looked at the soldier barely able to conceal his disdain, but then ignored him as he swam in the opposite direction. It was Dal who answered from the rock:
"Our grandfather can no longer hear, but we will give him the message, he needs to stay in the water longer as a treatment for his illness. We will catch up with you later."
"All right. Please avoid going near any urban centers tonight."
The man bowed and a few moments later his caravan moved on.
"They are evacuating the cities, father," Teayang reiterated.
"It doesn't matter. Once we finish tonight, they'll be like a chicken running around without a head. They can try to leave the country if they want, but their fate is already sealed."
The old man came out of the water, walking a few steps, indifferent to the decaying shape of his body, now withered in half, evidencing his condition. He stopped when he felt the warmth of the sunlight hitting his body. With the knowledge of the imminent end of his life, every sensation in the midst of that summer afternoon became more intense and vivid: the song of the birds, the sound of the cicadas, the current of the river, the distant waves of the coast, the wind passing through the bower, the subtle caress of the summer breeze, the drops of water that were victims of gravity descending on his skin, and the disrespectful blow of the sun in his eyes.
He closed his eyes and for a sublime moment his memories took him to the green meadows around the palace in his native Joseon in the twilight of the 16th century.
Everything was simple then, a widower for some years, having had a prosperous and successful life in a peaceful country, endowed with a good but not opulent economic position, which allowed him to make a small fortune and which at that time allowed him to give himself and his family everything they needed.
The anecdotes of the wars always came from distant places, from countries with the misfortune of being conquered like India or some Chinese province, or the endless conflicts in the West, and the always greedy proceeding of the Europeans to try to get a piece of the relatively newly discovered American continent, which from their very personal perspective made them look like a pack of dogs fighting to get a piece of the prey that still refused to die.
He thought in those days that he was fortunate. His time in the world was drawing to a close, and he had ensured the financial well-being, education, and prosperity of his offspring, and he watched his grandchildren run with laughter. Next summer the twins would be fifteen, and unlike him, they did not have to carry the curse of magic, they had given no indication of being users and had not been educated about it, they would be free and could live as they wished, eventually they would start their own families and continue the cycle of life when it was his turn to leave.
Only once did he consult oracles about them, and he attained the knowledge that his lineage would serve humanity in ways that would transcend time. They would be his legacy to the world.
Then Nihon, trying to reach China, invaded his country. It destroyed his city, burned down his house, killed his children and grandchildren, with such bad luck that they couldn't even kill him and end his pain. His lineage ended, his heritage was cut short, leaving him with a handful of oblivion.
Or so he thought at the critical point in his story.
In his desperation he created his "children", naming them after those he loved, but unknowingly taking their souls and forcing them to remain among the living, ignorant of all the love and happiness they enjoyed in the past, and nurturing for himself the idea that this would be the transcendent inheritance he was told about.
The pain of the previous life lost to war, and his desire to steal everything Nihon had taken from him in the first place, became a stirring in his stomach that pushed at his diaphragm violently, at a sensation anyone who had been a victim of injustice, jealousy, or anger knows all too well. It was the moment for which he had been building up so much power, the anteroom to the end of the road he had set out on so many years ago.
It was his night. The Night of the Dragon.
Without knowing why, a tremendous and irrepressible urge to scream came over him, as if the Gi sheltered in his body was finally crying out to escape, he hunched over feeling a very intense shiver running up his back, while the ground and the body of water near him vibrated, rustling the rocks and forcing the birds to fly away in fright.
His sons looked at him uneasily, not knowing whether they should help him or not, but sensing that something was definitely about to change. Teayang walked over to him to lend him a hand, but stopped dead stiffly a few moments later. His body was stiff, and it was beginning to cause him pain. Dal was going through such a trance, and only a few seconds later, the rock beneath her feet began to melt and the water to evaporate.
The time has come, my children. I know I have not told you everything that happened when you were born, but you are ready to know the whole truth. It will be hard, but it is only with that knowledge that you will be able to use the power contained within you to do justice.
Both kids, seized by a pain unknown to them, fell unconscious, immersing themselves in the memories of the doctor and sorcerer, both seeing through his eyes the infamies of which he had been the victim so long ago, while their will and common sense were slowly devoured by a bloodlust that would not let them think.
The old memories soon gave way to the last battles, where the kekkai and the owner of Tomoeda Village, as well as the sorceress and her lover were the main obstacles to accomplish the task that destiny had marked for them. Somehow it was more than clear that if Tomoeda fell, the other fiefdoms, Edo, and Nihon itself would receive their just punishment. They had to fight and finish them off, and even if they failed, much of Edo would be destroyed by their very presence. That fate dealt them those cards spoke volumes about the legitimacy of their mission. Or at least that's what Chung-Hee thought and passed on to his children.
The magical brainwashing lasted a few hours. When the twins were able to open their eyes again, it was only a few minutes before sunset.
They literally felt as if their bodies were being controlled by someone else, with the strangeness that despite that, they felt more powerful than before, apparently the Gi they were only carriers of was now flowing through them in the form of force or magical power. They were unable to speak or even think clearly, but still, they both stood up and walked towards their father, now dressed in a purple hanbok, leaving aside the Japanese clothes he had worn since his infiltration of the country.
"Everything is ready." He said, looking at the march of the sun through the mountains. "This is the very sunset for this nation. Soon Nihon will be but a memory. It is ironic that the name means 'Land of the Rising Sun,' considering this morning's was the last. There is no tomorrow. Neither for them nor for us."
Dal felt in her gut that this was not fair. Teayang felt fear of death. None of them could open their mouths or resist the old man's will, they were like puppets, like victims of locked-in syndrome, led mercilessly like lambs to the slaughter.
The Dragon's takeoff blew up an area of several hundred meters, more than starting a fire, reducing the vegetation in the area to ashes. The Dragon itself was larger, almost twice its original size, reaching at least half a hundred meters. From its height, the old wizard was able to see Tomoeda. That, rather than being his first destination, was the only one he could think of. He could not deny to himself that he came to feel a deep curiosity and legitimate interest in that pair of youngsters, so common and yet so unique, as powerful and wise as epic heroes, and masters of the immense contrast to which so great a mutual love subjected them: for that love had made them weak, and at the same time had endowed them with the strength to achieve the unimaginable. It was a pity that they were unwilling to listen to his reasons, they would have been great allies. But it no longer mattered, they would die that night.
He got close enough to the village to make out the temple, where they would surely be waiting for him to start the fight, as the afternoon light disappeared completely.
Seen from the ground, the east, now completely darkened, was timidly illuminated by the viperous figure of the Dragon, flying toward Tomoeda as predicted, seeking to exact his revenge, not knowing what he might provoke in his eagerness. He paused several miles above the ground, as the wizard made a visual sweep with his heightened senses to locate each fiefdom, and having done so, he gave the mental command to his children to begin the attack.
The Dragon roared at the zenith, launching a flare from its snout that set the night ablaze. Sakura watched as the flare spread across the sky, first forming a massive ring of whitish fire that would have been a spectacle of unparalleled beauty were it not the very harbinger of destruction. Seven tongues of flame sprang from the ring, making their way through the night to the temples of the other six fiefdoms and one more to Chiyoda Castle, seat of the imperial government of all Nihon. Even though the fire was several thousand feet above the ground, its heat could be felt on the ground, causing the neighing of horses, howling of wolves, and a general uneasiness in every living thing in the vicinity of the capital.
Once the first fires started, the Dragon headed for the Tsukimine temple at supersonic speed.
Their landing would be given in seconds, Sakura was the first one in giving a step to the front where she calculated that her adversary would fall, releasing the scepter of the star, while Tomoyo made with her hands the posture to create her barrier and to limit the combat to the temple, part of the town and the nearest hill, Xiao-Lang opened some steps to the left behind them, while Kurogane and Arashi did another so much in opposite direction.
A strange but gratifying shiver ran down everyone's spine. This was undoubtedly the decisive battle, a moment where everyone involved could say without qualms that they were privileged, the future of the country, probably the continent was at stake, and that was no small thing.
The dragon spat out a wave of fire that covered the entire visible area of the heroes' sky. Sakura, now aware that the shape of the cards was only an interpretation of her inner power in reality, pointed her scepter at the dragon, summoning Gale.
The resulting Gale slammed into the flames and continued its march until it impacted with the dragon's head, dissolving its incandescent armor, dropping the dragon trio onto the temple grounds as a result.
In the distance, from the hills, Junichiro watched the dragon's descent with his mouth open, ready to start writing. He made Tomoyo swear with a hand on his heart that he would leave it inside the barrier: he would document everything or die trying.
From a hill on the opposite side of the village from where the scribe's apprentice stood, General Issa, in armor and on horseback with his men, watched the immense fire rise as it was repelled by the sorceress, illuminating the night and barely perceptible raising the temperature of the valley, to disappear completely an instant later, leaving only the natural night noise: the chirping of frogs and crickets.
"The priestess has raised her barrier." He announced quietly to his battalion, his comment followed by a nervous silence from the contingent of nearly five hundred soldiers behind him.
"What should we do, General?"
The old man pulled his pipe out of his armor along with a flint, and after a few rubs exhaled a thick cloud of tobacco smoke.
"Wait and hope."
Dal unsheathed as soon as her feet touched the ground. She had no time to look for an opponent, Arashi's blade collided with hers and immediately with Kurogane's, with such force that the girl could not keep her feet on the ground, being thrown towards the nearest rooftop, where the two samurai caught up with her to continue the contest. Both the priestess' chief escort and the village owner could notice the change in the dragon girl: there was a dark aura and an uncharacteristic silence about her... it wasn't as if she had been particularly talkative in the past, but she always had a flippant comment to make. On the other hand, her expertise and concentration were also superior, as was her strength - there had always been a demon inside her, and apparently, someone had released it.
Teayang looked for Sakura and Tomoyo with his eyes, and as soon as they were located, he moved his hands, burning the trees and structures that separated him from them, trying to break the newly placed barrier. His flare crashed halfway into a several ton chunk of ground that had been ripped up with all and sod, the rock melted, but the resulting fiery material was thrown back at the dragon boy, who could barely avoid being buried by the counterattack. He looked around for the culprit, finding Xiao-Lang in armor, getting used to the new elemental abilities Wu Xing gave him, the wolf crouched down only to be catapulted by a patch of earth at his feet to meet an even more dexterous and powerful pyromancer. The irony was that this time it was he who seemed to be out of his mind.
Finally the partially disfigured old wizard could see Sakura face to face. He had already witnessed the extent of her power, and he would not make the mistake of underestimating her again. From a distant point behind him he uprooted a tree with a mental command, hurling it as a projectile at the sorceresses. Sakura only had to reach out her hand to intercept the attack, turning the tree into a pile of petals that continued the trajectory completely harmlessly.
When the floral storm fell in its entirety to the ground, Chung-Hee was no longer in front of Sakura. The girl's intuition made her search the sky, where the old man, wrapped in flames, was preparing to return to the charge.
"Keep the barrier up, Tomoyo. And try to stay hidden and safe. I'll take care of him." Sakura said without turning to look at the priestess, but pointing the scepter over her shoulder at her. Lucid.
Having put invisibility on her relative, Flight appeared on her back, launching her into the sky. And so, at great speed it reached the altitude of her opponent, and flew around him. Chung-Hee, besieged, began to shoot flares, trying to shoot her down.
"I don't know what my people have done to you, but I beg you to stop this madness... if there is anything we can do to make amends, I promise you that we will." Sakura cried, trying to negotiate with the old man.
"Oh, there's one thing you can do to make amends: DIE AT ONCE!"
With that exclamation, the old man made a three hundred and sixty degree turn, forming a circular flame that lit up like the sun, and in seconds it hit the boundaries of the barrier. The card mistress barely escaped by falling a few meters, but on the ground, hidden from human eyes, Tomoyo felt a terrible burning in her chest.
No sooner had Sakura recovered from the somersaults than she was grabbed by the lapels, carried by the old man's withered hands plummeting to the ground. She tried to free herself from the grip for long seconds, feeling the ground getting closer and closer. She regained her concentration just a few feet from crashing into the Torii arch, firmly grasping the star scepter and slamming its lower end into the mage's stomach, distracting him momentarily, and summoning Reversal. The effect was as desired, the shift in the paradigm of space was such that they began to fall upwards, where she was finally able to disengage herself from the old man's hands by wrapping Spiral around herself.
Chung-Hee grew the flames around him, making himself a smaller version of the Dragon, at the same time as Sakura released Aqua and was submerged inside her, flying into each other, their collision resulting in a very loud aerial explosion that launched a huge cloud of steam towards the top of the barrier.
Down below, on the ground, the three swordsmen were drenched by the sudden torrential downpour that the clash of the wizards caused overhead. Dal went sprawling backwards into a large olive tree pushed by Arashi, sliding into the ground just an instant before the Silver Dragon in Kurogane's hands cut through almost the entire diameter of the trunk without resistance, which defeated by its own weight fell noisily a few seconds later.
Despite the talent and expertise of Tomoeda's samurai leaders, Dal still had the advantage, she was superhumanly strong and fast, and was not subject to the fatigue factor in the fray. She had no recovery time between attacks, so she could easily engage one samurai in combat and immediately move on to the other, however, given the last power her father had imposed on the twins, the Gi seemed to be sweated through her skin, preventing her wounds from healing as quickly as she had previously boasted. By this point she had been struck by Kurogane's blade a couple of times, a graze to the arm and one more to the abdomen, and neither wound had begun to heal.
At a safe, camouflaged distance, Tomoyo watched the swordsmen, hoping she wouldn't have to use her healing powers on her best friend or the only man she ever loved.
On the roof of the temple, a bolt of lightning reduced the highest part of the building to splinters, hurling tiles and other debris into the surrounding area, Teayang barely evading the attack launched by Hogo Okami, now a master of the elements. The flames launched by the pyromancer were redirected, extinguished in water or blocked by the earth beneath the contenders' feet, though it was difficult to tell if the scales were really tipping on either side of the boys.
Feeling very sorry for the fish that lived in the pond, Xiao-Lang manipulated the pond's water to take advantage of a small distraction in Teayang, extinguishing one of his attacks, and immediately commanding the roots of nearby trees to imprison his opponent. The thick rhizomes ripped the ground beneath the dragon boy's feet, tangling around his wrists, ankles, and neck, forcing him to his knees, immobilized (1). Li ran until he reached him, however, given the kind nature even with adversaries that he had learned from Sakura, he did not take advantage of what would undoubtedly be a unique opportunity to finish him off, Teayang saw him approaching and took a breath to release an exhalation of fire, but at a wave of his captor's hand, the roots shot up his head, disabling him from opening his mouth.
The wolf noticed Teayang's abnormal condition as well, just as with his sister, his expressions were muffled, and any gestures were non-existent, as if someone had taken his spirit and locked it deep inside his body, unable to come out.
To say that in the hands of a sorcerer a Wu Xing sword like Li's would be "deadly" was a sad caricature of the true extent of its power. It was literally a demon slayer. Xiao-Lang approached serenely, as if dealing with a wild colt, watching as the boy shook himself trying to break free from his prison. He tried to search his eyes for any little hint that would give him an excuse to give him a reprieve, but all he received was the boy's indifferent gaze and quarrelsome attitude. Li gripped the handle of the sword, having the first moral conflict of his life in matters of life and death.
He remembered that as part of his training, Wey had made him practice calligraphy.
"The brush and the sword are not so different, Mr. Xiao-Lang. The stroke, the word, or the steel, once made, said, or executed, cannot be corrected. There will be times in your life when a single one of these actions will determine not only your fate, but the fate of those around you. Thus, keeping silent or sparing a life may be your most important acts of greatness".
Xiao-Lang relaxed his guard as he thought about it, looking down, embarrassed, unable to tell if he was being kind or cowardly. He took another look at the pyromancer's face, and then everything changed.
Teayang was still struggling to break free, he had generated flames that slowly burned his prison, but hurt him at the same time, but the real detail was on his face. The boy's indifferent gesture was not at all consistent with the thick tears falling from his eyes. The little boy was in pain, and not just from the injuries... Xiao-Lang knew that look, it was terror. The same one that someone who knows they are close to death and can't help it would experience.
"He's like a puppet..." Tomoyo said right behind Xiao-Lang, eliciting a startled exclamation from her, mainly because she was staying invisible.
"Ms. Amamiya?"
"I've seen this before... not in this form, but in Europe it's a more or less common curse despite how horrible it is... does that old man's cruelty know no bounds…?"
"I see... so it's a version of the Imp...?"
Her musing was interrupted when Teayang broke the roots. Li jumped to his right hoping the priestess had done so in the opposite direction as soon as the dragon boy launched a flare towards them. Now he had one problem too many: his opponent was a prisoner, he could not treat him as a real opponent, and that put him at a terrible disadvantage.
The speed at which the swords of Arashi, Kurogane and Dal moved was simply mesmerizing. The young girl fought with such skill that even the two samurai ended up clashing swords with each other, and there was literally no object besides the swords that did not resent the fury of her rapier: the ground, the trees, or the buildings that made up the temple complex. She leapt and pirouetted, and without hesitation sought to connect lethal blows to the head, neck, or limbs of her adversaries. The owner of the village thought it had been a great idea not to involve other soldiers in the battle, anyone just a little less skilled than them would have been dead from the start of the fight, not to mention that there were no swords other than theirs that could withstand the girl's sword without damage.
Despite that, Arashi, having a saber that was sustained by her own life energy, began to show signs of exhaustion and a trickle of blood, seemingly without natural cause, began to fall from her right ear. The trance that prevented the dragon girl's emotions from flowing, didn't seem to interfere with her ability to analyze and strategize, so noticing the first weakness in the duo, she began to pick a fight exclusively with Arashi, knowing that each blockage would make her more and more vulnerable.
Having repelled Kurogane with a kick, Dal delivered half a dozen consecutive vertical blows to Arashi's sword, forcing her to her knees, realizing that she would eventually break her guard. Drawing on her learning in faraway Okinawa, Arashi retracted her sword and launched a headbutt straight at the swordswoman's jaw, taking her completely by surprise; while the samurai was no great bare-handed martial artist, she managed to connect several blows on the girl, successfully distracting her until she fell backwards.
Holding the enemy at her feet, Arashi summoned her own rapier again, and without giving her time to recover, she buried it in the ground through Dal's arm, successfully seeking for the blade to slip between her radius and ulna, disabling her from getting up.
Seeing the opportunity at last, Kurogane prepared to reach for the girl's neck with his sword, leaving them with one less problem to solve.
Sakura emerged from the cloud of vapor, leaving a trail behind her. She held her trajectory until she saw the edge of the barrier, and began to search for Chung-Hee in the haze resulting from their last collision, flying in a downward spiral. She found him on the opposite side of Tomoeda's airspace, making a turn to ram her again as the steam floating around him quickly condensed in his wake, turning into sharp slivers of ice that he hurled at Sakura. The card mistress made a sideways flight to evade the attack, until a pair of projectiles hit her, one tearing her suit at shoulder height and the other piercing one of Flight's flyers.
Sensing that at any moment she would be unable to dodge all the ice chunks, she made a staff motion summoning Hail, getting his magic to nullify the old man's makeshift weapons one by one, throwing a gentle drizzle of tiny icy diamonds to the ground.
Virtually any attempt to talk to him was fruitless, he seemed to have no interest in changing his mind or receiving any tribute in return, he was blinded, the sarcastic and mocking nature of the last encounter was gone as well, leaving only rage and that creepy homicidal thirst he seemed to have no control over.
The fire returned to the menu of the sorcerer, creating new bursts, each time more powerful and destructive, as if it wanted to finish in that single night with all the magical power that remained to him, forcing Sakura to fly in zigzag while she thought of some way to appease his anger or to incapacitate him to fight.
It is worth mentioning that the idea of killing him would never even accidentally cross her mind, even though she knew she had the capacity to do it, inside her there was the hope of making him change somehow, of finding in his withered heart at least the minimum of humanity or any other kind of powerful thought that would make him recede in his eagerness. But for that, she needed to talk to him, there had to be some way to stop him, immobilize him at least, make him stop for a few minutes... that idea was strongly rooted in her head at the same time that she noticed that she was finding it harder and harder to evade his gunshots. The first step was to create a distraction.
Hoping with all her heart that her next strategy would work, she summoned Mirage. A fake Sakura flew parallel to the card mistress, deviating a few degrees in trajectory, and she duplicated herself in the same manner as the real Sakura. In just a few seconds there were more than a hundred mirages occupying the entire visible field of Tomoeda's sky. Chung-Hee made countless flames trying to reach any of them, succeeding each time, but without being able to find the real one, remaining in a very short time immersed in a sphere that was really altering him.
Concentrating all the energy that was possible to him, he created a combustion in all the air around him, the ball of fire seemed a star that slowly got rid of all the illusions, finding right in the zenith from the perspective of the doctor to the real Sakura.
The fire was very close to reach her, she could feel its unbearable heat increasing the temperature of her clothes and taking away for a second the ability to breathe, but getting the strategy to work.
Sakura threw from her scepter a tiny sphere that crossed the fire and was located at the feet of the dragon without him noticing it, so, when he wanted to concentrate his attack in the card mistress, the sphere went towards the floor with clatter, dragging him. Gravitation tugged at the wizard, pulling him irreparably to the ground, and preventing his last attack from reaching the girl.
The crawling speed increased each time, until finally Chung Hee hit the cobblestones in the main courtyard of the temple, forming a crater with the fall.
"I need you to pin him down again, Li," Tomoyo said, seeing that the fight between the wolf and the dragon boy was resuming.
Li confirmed the order without knowing where the voice of the priestess was coming from, assuming that his position would be revealed once the order was fulfilled, landing after performing a rather elaborate acrobatics with which he dodged a flame, turning the blade of the sword in his hand so that any blow that hit him with it would not be lethal. Like a parkour practitioner, the wolf ran to meet Teayang, dodging his attacks between jumps and structures that he created by manipulating all the elements within his reach. He had to get a safe distance to immobilize him and give the sorceress a chance to do something... although he didn't know what.
Leaning on a branch, Li leapt toward Teayang, the pyromancer fired an open flare from which an ordinary opponent could not evade. But he wasn't facing just any opponent.
Xiao-Lang hurled Wu Xing into the flames, the sword slicing through the barrier of fire unopposed, reaching the ground behind Teayang and opening up enough space to not be hit by them. As the metal made contact with the earth, the few roots that remained beneath it stretched out and once again reached the dragon boy, imprisoning him completely this time from the start, leaving only the part of his face where his eyes were.
"Mrs. Amamiya!"
Tomoyo finally uncovered herself, and with hurried steps approached the prisoner. She asked Li to force the boy to kneel and when he did, she positioned herself in front of him, placing her left thumb on his chest and her right thumb in the center of his forehead, making her magic seal appear under his feet.
"You may not like this, boy, but I'm trying to help you." Tomoyo said, concentrating.
A moment later, Teayang went stiff as a board, as his eyes filled with tears again, he had to go through that trance for about a minute until he stopped struggling and producing fire, and his body relaxed almost to flaccidity, closing his eyes. A small burst of dark energy gushed out of him, pushing the priestess and the gaijin a step back.
Tomoyo shared a cautious glance with Xiao-Lang, and with a nod asked her to release the boy's head, thereby checking to see if he was able to speak.
"My sister!" Exclaimed the boy, apparently very dazed, but definitely very worried.
Arashi leaned all her weight on the handle of her sword, thus preventing Dal from getting free, but obviously the dragon girl wasn't going to make it all that easy for her. She threw several punches at the samurai's ribs, trying to subdue her, however, Arashi remained unperturbed.
Kurogane didn't hesitate for an instant, he ran as fast as his feet would allow, swinging the saber over his right shoulder, ready to throw a single, devastating blow that would undoubtedly claim the dragon girl's life in a single slash. At the sight, Arashi curled into a ball, leaving Dal's head fully exposed, making it easy for Kurogane to finish the job.
The village's master leapt up, taking as much momentum as possible, ready to deliver the most powerful blow he had ever attempted before. He wasn't a big fan of killing, in fact, he had never killed anything remotely human... yes, he had hunted, he had also executed the rabid fox that infected the gaijin, he had fought demons or evil spirits... but nothing remotely like a little girl like the one he was about to condemn.
"STOP, HAGANEMARU!"
The samurai had struck the blow, those watching the scene thought it was too late, but to everyone's surprise, Tomoyo's command stopped him a couple of millimeters away from reaching the girl's skin.
The priestess ordered, and at once, Kurogane and Arashi stepped back, leaving Dal free.
Her freedom, however, was short-lived. As soon as the fencers stepped aside, Teayang on one side and Xiao-Lang on the other grabbed the young girl by the shoulders, pulling her away from her sword.
"What the hell is going on here?" The village leader asked, confused, seeing that the dragon boy was cooperating with them.
"That crazy old man has them bewitched... he released all their potential, but in return he deprived them totally of will or free will..." Tomoyo explained, while the other two young men struggled with the girl. "I was able to wake up the boy, but I don't think I could repeat the process on the girl, I would faint and the barrier would fall... besides, according to what Teayang just explained to me, both of them and the old man have a great concentration of Gi in their bodies, if any of them were to die, the last thing we would see would be an overwhelming light show and then all of Tomoeda, maybe all of Edo would fly through the air... and the Great Serpent would wake up irremediably."
"So what can we do?"
"Trying to wake her up by other means…"
"I know you can hear me, Dal...! Our father is just using us, these people…" The little boy thought very well the words to exclaim to his sister's ear while he struggled with her. "I really don't think they are the villains of this story... please, wake up, they haven't only decided to forgive us in spite of the things we have done to them, they are willing to help us... you must come back, we can save ourselves, we could even try to save our father…"
The speech could not continue. Only a few steps away from them, the fall of Chung-Hee, provoked by Gravitation threw everyone into the air, Sakura, from the heights saw her friends and Xiao-Lang remain at the mercy of the sorcerer, who had just recovered, and made a dive to reach them.
The damage sustained by that last fall revealed the precarious condition of the old man's body, which in its half burned in the previous fight now let out a dark flame tending to purple, as if evidencing a leakage of energy from within, Gi, without a doubt, ready to cause an accident that would destroy everything around him.
Tomoyo opened her eyes barely, forcing herself not to go unconscious, the survival of the people outside depended on her, but when she woke up, the sight was the most terrifying possible.
Chung-Hee, or what was left of him, with hesitant steps approached her, a few steps closer, Dal, still in a trance, picked up her sword from the rubble, and fixed her gaze on the priestess.
"She's dead. With her death, the fief will have no protection." The wizard said in a cavernous voice. Dal set off, quickly closing the distance to Tomoyo.
As she stood in front of her, she raised her sword above her head, ready to execute the old man's command.
Teayang, newly recovered, ran between his sister and Tomoyo, opening his arms protectively.
"I beg you, sister... this is wrong."
Dal, however, grabbed the boy by the collar of his suit and tried to throw him aside, but to no avail. The girl could not speak, but it could be seen in her eyes that she was imploring her brother to get out of the way, manifested in the tears that began to slide down her cheeks.
"Do it at once, damn it! We don't have time," Chung-Hee pressed.
The fencer raised her saber once more, staring into her brother's eyes, standing completely rigid for long seconds. Out of nowhere, she began to make a guttural sound, which slowly increased in volume until it became a scream. The small explosion that Teayang had emitted came out of her as well, forcing everyone nearby to cover their faces.
"I can't do it... forgive me father…"
A heavy, tense silence fell between them all, as the dragon girl lowered her sword. Tomoyo could see Sakura descending towards them at full speed, and given the current juncture, perhaps a negotiation would end up not being nonsensical...
"It seems I must finish it all by myself." Chung-Hee said in a low, solemn voice.
In the blink of an eye, the sorcerer had snatched his daughter's sword, thrusting it at Teayang and Tomoyo, preparing to deliver a single thrust that would cut through all three of them, to Sakura's terrified gaze, still a considerable distance away from them.
The blow was struck, but it missed its target.
Xiao-Lang managed to get in his way, barely managing to deflect the path of the attacking blade with Wu Xing, though not cleanly: the wizard's blade cut deep into the gaijin's left eyebrow, causing him to bleed shockingly, though not severely.
At the same time, Arashi leapt towards the twins and the priestess knocking them down and momentarily bringing them to safety with it.
The fury in Chung-Hee's expression at the frustration of his last attack soon turned to surprise and pain.
Unbelievingly, he saw the razor-sharp blade of the Silver Dragon emerge from his chest. Behind his back Kurogane had pierced his torso, a single precise and forceful thrust to his heart that would have undoubtedly killed a normal person immediately, and despite the specialness of the wound, the blow had definitely left him in agony.
Unfortunately, as he drew the sword, a tidal wave of Gi escaped through the wound, striking the samurai full force, with such force that Kurogane could do no more than take a step back and then fall flat on his face, completely knocked out.
Sakura landed a few inches away from Xiao-Lang, dismayed by the blood dripping from her forehead, thinking that was the most serious thing they would have to deal with, but ignoring the true extent of her main problem. Then she noticed the terrified look on the faces of the rest of the people present, realizing that something incredibly wrong was happening.
"Tomoyo... we have to take care of all the wounded, even him..." Said the card mistress innocently, seeing Chung-Hee fall on his knees, with his hands on his chest.
"We are doomed..." Interrupted the priestess, noticing that all the Gi contained in the wizard was emanating with more and more strength.
The dragon children were also seized by a sharp pain in the chest. It seemed their lives were linked to the old man's. No explanation was necessary, Sakura immediately interpreted what was going on. Whatever resulted from the old man's death would take them all, the whole city, probably the whole capital. Without thinking twice, she walked to the old man, making a great effort since the energy that escaped from him pushed her and began to form a whirlpool around her.
"How can I help you?"
"You can't help me, child... apparently no one could all this time. The hour of judgment has come for all of us."
"There must be a way, everything has a solution."
"Why do you insist on helping me? Why don't you reproach me for what I have done to you? We just had a fight and I wouldn't have hesitated for a moment to kill you; I came close to taking the life of someone you love in the most painful and slow way possible, why do you, after all that, insist on not letting me die?"
"I think we all deserve second chances... I don't want to be rude, but could we save this talk for later…?"
"There is no "later," this is the end. I've spent over a century amassing as much Gi as possible, thinking I would have an adversary who would make me use it all, who would fight back and seek my death as much as I would seek his... and in the end, all I got was a girl whose power is matched only by her naivety... I wish I could see the world through your eyes again, but in the end I am satisfied... I will die, but I will make this place of murderers and ravenous conquerors disappear, and my legacy will be…"
Without anyone expecting it, not even the old man, Sakura had gently taken his head, hugging him as one would hug a grandfather. Needless to say, he hadn't received a token of affection since more than a century ago, and such behavior disturbed him greatly... not only because of such a dissonant action in the face of recent events, but because of the sincerity of the embrace... part of Sakura's energy was transmitted to him, he could feel her heart, without any kind of hatred or anger. He had never met someone whose soul was so cleansed of negative feelings.
Sakura, for her part, was also able to know, even if only sensorially, part of the sorcerer's soul. The lump that formed in her throat when she perceived all the losses and injustices of which that man was a victim threatened to strangle her... but as she already knew... there was indeed some hope inside her.
"I know what they did to you was horrible, Grandpa... and I know I can't make up for the mistakes my ancestors made, any more than I can forgive you for the mistakes you made in return. All I can do is offer you hope for the future."
Chung-Hee twisted his face as he felt his chest weaken, inexorably nearing the end.
"Are you stupid, child? There is no hope, no future! In a few minutes we will all be dead, and the only legacy I can leave is one of destruction! I wish there was something else, but that's all…."
"You're wrong." Sakura answered with confidence and optimism. "The most important things are sometimes next to us and we don't realize it until it's too late. I may not be able to save you, but I will give my life to give a new chance to every person in this country, or any other... and if you allow me, I will try to save your true legacy as well."
"What the hell are you talking about? There's nothing of mine that you can preserve!"
"Of course there is... and I'm not talking about something, but someone... two people actually." As soon as Sakura finished that sentence, he looked at the dragon children, increasingly weakened, being precariously assisted by Tomoyo and Xiao-Lang, finally understanding the card mistress' words. "They are not the tool of your vengeance nor the result of your anger... they are actually your inheritance, the legacy you will leave to mankind of your existence, and although you may not have been able to see it that way, they are the testimony of an immense love that went beyond death."
Everything became clear to him then. All along, his inheritance for humanity was safe, in fact, it was now, in his own hands, that it was truly being threatened.
That same feeling of guilt that buried itself in his chest over a hundred years ago returned to him. In his plans, he never contemplated that the materialization of his power into magical beings could be a goal in itself, and not just a path to reach a goal.
He watched his children suffer agony like his own, and hated himself even more.
"I can't judge you for the things you've done, and even if I wanted to I don't think I have the power to stop what's happening to you. But I can try to save them."
"After I die, all the Gi inside me will escape from my body," the old man began to explain, serene, "the vital energy without channeling will become any other form of energy, that kind of escape almost always results in a violent reaction, like gunpowder... with what is in me, in Dal and Teayang would be enough to revive a volcano, nothing in many kilometers would survive... For my ancestors... what did I do…?" Those last words were followed by a tightness in his chest that foreshadowed the outcome, and he shared a pleading look with his little ones, and the following prayer was dedicated to them with his last effort: "I hope... I hope they can forgive me…"
"Go in peace, grandfather... I will take care of them from now on."
Chung-Hee grabbed Sakura by the shoulder and pushed her away from him, while he was the victim of something like a convulsion, and a few moments later, several small continuous bursts of energy gushed out of him, deforming his body gradually, giving him after a few seconds a grotesque appearance, until finally his skin gave way. An energy and heat such as they had never felt before permeated the atmosphere as what was left of the old man's body turned to ashes, and a turbulent tornado of colors imprisoned them within.
It was the critical moment. With Chung-Hee dead, the dragon twins would be next. Maybe Sakura couldn't save them, but she would definitely help them die with dignity and peace of mind... or failing that, she would correct their loneliness at the final moment.
"We can still save everyone outside the barrier, Tomoyo." The card mistress said calmly. "If I can focus this energy and contain it for a few moments, you can close the barrier and prevent the damage from passing into the real world."
"And leave you here alone? No way! We're in this together!"
"It only takes one wizard to do it, and Tomoeda will need your guidance when it's all over."
"But Sakura…"
"I know... I told you everything would be all right, didn't I?" She came closer and put her hands on her shoulders. "Thank you for everything, you taught me so much…"
Sakura stepped back, and Tomoyo felt a barely perceptible tug on the obi of her ceremonial suit... she instinctively looked back, seeing a tiny sphere moving away towards one end of the barrier. She had seen it only minutes before, being used by Sakura as a weapon.
"Did you put a spell on me without me noticing?" She asked in fright, feeling the gravitational pull growing stronger and stronger.
"Two actually... it's the same as sending a girl off alone into the woods or fainting in an evocation... I learned from the best."
"Don't do this to me, Sakura!"
"Goodbye, Tomoyo."
The priestess and Arashi were pulled violently by the waist towards an undetermined point of the barrier, far away from the epicenter of the energy concentration, and having moved far enough away, Gravitation gave way to Snooze, making Tomoyo a victim of withering exhaustion. She knew what that meant, she would pass out irreparably, she resisted the dream as best she could, but it was Sakura's spell, she knew she had no chance of overcoming it... her barrier would irreparably close. Still, she struggled to avoid it until the darkness devoured her consciousness.
"You should go too." Hoshinomegami said with the same tone of resignation to her eternal companion.
Hogo Okami came up behind her back, and tenderly hugged her around the waist, resting his nose and mouth on her collarbone.
"Never. My place is with you."
The ground beneath their feet began to shake, forcing them to kneel. Sakura looked at Dal and Teayang, both overwhelmed by the pain, but calm and moved by the mercy shown by the children before them. Sakura extended her hand to them, and both took her hand, waiting for the end.
It wasn't until the light of the first rays of sunlight hurt her eyes that Tomoyo was able to come to her senses. After a fleeting confusion, she jumped up from the bushes she had landed in, several hundred meters away from the temple.
That was her first thought: The Temple, it still existed! Though as far as she could see from her position, the courtyard was smoking.
Clumsily she began to run toward the temple hill, meeting Arashi on her way, who shared with her the urgency to return to the sacred hill of Tomoeda. In a few minutes they covered the distance, both of them racing past the Torii arch, coincidentally passing several hundred villagers and perplexed soldiers who seemed to be searching the surrounding area.
Arriving at the central courtyard, Issa looked with apprehension at the crater that had been left in the middle of the site, the only obvious damage to the building.
"The priestess Amamiya," Junichiro announced as he saw her arrive, alerting the general.
"You survived!" the old man exclaimed in turn, looking relieved and beckoning a small group to meet the women.
"What happened, General?"
"I was hoping you guys would tell me... a few hours ago we saw a gigantic explosion and the ground vibrated... for a moment we thought Kinomoto's prophecy had been fulfilled... and only seconds later, your barrier was lifted, taking with it any sign of the explosion or its damage."
"Then she did it..." Tomoyo whispered, covering her face with her hands. "What about the other fiefdoms?"
"The fires have been brought under control, and as with us, an inspection is being done to confirm that it is safe for people to return to their homes."
"And have they found Sakura yet?"
Issa hesitated to continue.
"I've got half a hundred soldiers searching the surrounding area and dredging the river for their corpses, you're the first to show up... fortunately for all of us, alive."
The color in Tomoyo's face was completely gone, as were her expressions. Issa bowed and quietly stepped away, appealing that there was still much to do. Tomoyo reflected: they had found two survivors of the battle... They were looking for three corpses.
She could imagine the result, every magic user leaves a trail that lingers even after their death for a brief period, she knew how that felt, she had experienced it in the death of Kurogane's mother and grandmother Miu... and there was in the air a trail very similar to Sakura's and Xiao-Lang's. The priestess walked distractedly towards the crater, until a glaring reflection caused her to look into the bottom of said cavity. She slid to the bottom of the hollow followed closely by Arashi, searching for the object that had cast the sunlight in her eyes.
She stirred the earth a bit, finding a small, perfectly rectangular object that seemed to be carved from some precious crystal. Surprise took her breath away for a moment as she recognized what was undoubtedly a Transparent Card, and she stared at it in rapt attention for a few seconds.
She began to whimper loudly and loudly, crying hard enough to make it hard to breathe, wailing long and deep, falling to her knees and still looking at the object. Arashi went over to comfort her, imagining the conclusion the priestess came to with the find.
Chapter 14.
The end.
NdeA1: For the Chinese tradition, there were five elements, three of the classical ones: Water, Earth and Fire, and Metal and Wood were also considered elements.
My thanks to Luf5, for her amazing translation work.