Chapter 14: Cannot Move On

The clash between the Phoenix of Hope and Shina formed waves of pressurized energy that slowly shoved the weakened Planetary Aurians away. Gabriel and Jupiter accepted that but Saturn was a bit more stubborn about walking against it while tapping away at her keyboard.

"No! I still got a lot of data to input!"

The Sage swayed his right arms out and boldly declared, "You're not fit to face the Goddess, you fused disgrace! Get out of our sight!"

With his seemingly encouraging words Shina started shoving Hope back into a neutral position. Hope grit his teeth and muttered in disbelief, "Are you seriously not hearing any of this?!"

Shina slanted her eyes and Hope sighed, "I'll take that as a no..."

He squeezed his hands around the handles and his knuckles cracked. With a thrust open of his eyes a wind of light and dark unfurled form his body and he budged one inch forward, bending Shina back at the waist.

Despite being the closest to the clash Joe Dark held on the hardest. He looked to Hope with narrowed eyes and wondered impatiently, "So does this mean we're done following the 'plan'?"

Hope couldn't take his eyes off Shina while he tried responding with "Ummm". Joe Dark squinted and muttered, "Good..."

A thick fog of darkness covered all but his head, cladding him in the ebony armor of the Dark King and turning his dagger into a sword. He stood tall and still against the pressure the two fighters exuded and raised his blade to Hope's back.

"Cause I was getting sick of being the punching bag!" With a vigorous roar Joe Dark hopped over Hope and tried pounding Shina with a column of darkness.

Shina broke away a good twenty feet to the left. Joe Dark landed and immediately leaped the distance towards Shina with sword drawn as far behind as physically possible.

Shina flinched and that gave Joe Dark the opening to slash her across the gut. The might of his swing formed a scar wide enough to almost nip Gabriel, who visibly widened his eyes for a brief, rare moment.

Joe Dark then thrust his other hand out to assault her with a fifty-foot tall cone of explosive pure black darkness. Shina slid out of the attack with lingering traces of darkness on her crossed limbs.

She tried to pull her arms out only for Hope to speed behind her and blitz her in the back with his right shoulder. Her back arched and he attempted to swing his right foot straight up into the back of her skull.

She gracefully flipped behind and dipped her fingertips into his back, sharpening them with aura so she could slice his sides when she swung them out.

A pair of light cuts hardly made him bleed and thus Hope proceeded to clock her in the nose hard with his right elbow.

She stumbled back and Hope spun around, slicing her a couple times with his blades. He then whipped the blades around the other way and cut her again.

After giving the blades a couple twirls with a flick of the wrists he raised them overhead for a downward swing. Shina held them back on her palms, pulled them aside, using them to move in closer.

Hope stayed confident even as Shina swung her hands down and blasted him with a plethora of crystallized energy. He was STILL confident even though this made him let go of his swords.

Shina floated closer and then twirled in place like a ballerina, whipping around slicing waves of energy. Hope hardened his arms with light and crossed them up, saving most of his body from harm.

Shina instantly broke out of her dance and axe-kicked Hope under his arms. She then crossed her arms at the wrists and surrounded Hope with dozens of body-sized spears.

Before she made the call to fire a large orb of darkness smashed her in the face and started knocking her over. She pulled upright in a flash only to find Joe Dark charging her down, winding up in breathing distance a millisecond later.

The moment Joe Dark collided it was like a bull facing a boulder. He stubbornly pushed forward, but could not make his target break. Joe Dark exploded with darkness and kicked up his feet, burning through the ground and air.

Shina's expression slowly went from confident to worrying as Joe Dark smashed her through multiple fake houses and nearly hit the edge of the city.

Shina released a burst of aura to repel Joe Dark off, putting her toes at the very edge of the city. Joe Dark pulled his arm back and dragged the darkness around him into a howling sphere.

He flung it straight out and it began to scream louder as it grew. Shina swerved to the left at the last moment and left a few spears behind. As they hurtled into Joe Dark's chest he pulled his hand back and dragged the darkness straight towards Shina.

Shina's wings suddenly wrapped around the dark sphere like a pair of hand and infused it with blue electricity. She then took her wings and tried to smash the sphere upon Joe Dark.

A light arrow with a dark spiral on its outside suddenly pierced the center of the orb and nearly hit Shina's stomach. She pulled away and the arrow broke apart the ground she once stood on for many feet around.

The arrow's true form was the Phoenix of Hope's two swords, which were recalled into his hands as he dove down at her. His eyes were on fire as he held the swords back by his shoulders and then slashed forth with all his might.

Thin lines filled the air around and near Shina, giving her brief moments to flip up and twist her body between the gaps. The lines then grew into slashes of light and darkness.

Shina tilted her head right and called her wings back, ensnaring Hope along the way in a tight cocoon of aura woven between the bits. Hope struggled and his efforts cracked his cage, but not fast enough.

Shina gently turned and laid her right palm down to grab Hope by the face. Then, as her wings returned they shone with a magnificent azure flame that hurtled them both below the city.

After moving a couple thousand feet down Hope's back finally collided with the surface of an almost ethereal sea. Shina floated off and crossed her hands, summoning five spears over her head.

Hope fought the pain in his back and struggled a bit to stand. But as the spears went flying his swords were quick on the draw to slice them up. But one slipped by and cut him down the cheek.

He sprung right up after that and immediately charged Shina. She floated to the left and sent a few more spears flying in her wake.

Hope cut them down with a 360 degree slash wide enough to also strike her, stunning her long enough for him to get in with a shoulder charge to the gut.

He followed that through by rising and kneeing her in the chin. Trying to go further along with a twin downward slash resulted in him being open, and she sped behind him to wrap her arms around his waist.

She pulled him behind while rapidly descending towards the sea, and smashed him head first into it. Hope tumbled along the surface while she remained free to attack however she pleased.

Suddenly, the sea around her was drenched in an abnormal shadow, causing her to look up and watch as a massive sphere of darkness fell towards her. It was so big and unrestrained in its power, that many tinier spheres rained out from its sides.

The Sage muttered, "What a meddlesome pest..."

"I can handle this!" Shina proclaimed as she commanded her wings to rise up and form into the shape of a big drill. The excess aura twirled out from the bottom as twinkly strands, the frequency of them doubling once it started drilling into the bottom of the darkness.

The remaining spheres splashed upon the sea and created noticeable blasts. But none of them ever got close to Shina. Confidently deciding that the big problem was dealt with, she turned her attention back to the Phoenix of Hope only to find he was gone.

She quickly turned around at the slightest sense of his movement and saw the blurry shape of his body vanishing from sight. She tried turning around again, only to find the sharp edge of one of his blades grazing the left side of her face and cutting a few hairs off.

She turned around again in a panic and another blade zipped past the right side of her face. This time she ducked out of the way and started looking over her shoulder. Both blades were caught in Hope's hands a few feet behind her.

The Sage cringed and bent his arms up near his body as the Phoenix's blades were being driven towards him. Shina turned around, concealing the Sage behind her while holding her hands together between the blades.

At the same time Hope struck her shoulders she thrust her own blades out from her hands. He pulled his head back and got a cut on his forehead for his troubles. He then pulled away and sliced his blades down by the hips, sending waves of dark out.

Shina crossed her arms in defense but that was exactly as Hope planned it. He smirked and guided the darkness around Shina with a wiggle of the fingers.

The Sage was put into panic mode once more. Shina ducked by spreading her legs out and putting one hand to the ground for support, and the darkness faded upon colliding with each other.

She then sped forward, using her body to crash into Hope's legs and trip him up. He quickly turned around in mid-air and slashed at Shina, but she zipped around to the right and fired a few spears into her foe.

He crossed his swords in defense and fired back with an "X" shaped slash of light. Shina stood upright and cut through the center of it with her bare hand.

Hope then smirked and his eyes subtly looked up, "You sure you should be focusing on us this much?"

Shina paused to look up. Her drill had cracked most of the bottom of the dark sphere but ultimately it seemed like the darkness was prevailing.

Above the sphere Joe Dark was pushing against it with all his might. Darkness was exploding out of his body and burned behind him like a comet's trail.

"BEGONE!" He exclaimed as with one final thrust, he forced the darkness to consume the drill and speed the rest of the way down to the sea.

Hope slid into a dark rift and Shina stood there, frozen stiff, as the darkness smashed down upon her. The sphere contorted and spread down upon the sea for a while before exploding in a black flame pillar that could be seen back up in the fake city.

Black flames lingered on the sea in the aftermath and Shina was left hunched over, her wings looking extremely battered upon return. Joe Dark landed a few feet away and the Phoenix of Hope emerged beside him.

Joe Dark had his teeth in a scowl and raised his sword towards her. Hope crossed his arms and glanced at him with a mild look of annoyance.

"Can you PLEASE stop trying to kill her?" He asked very, VERY nicely.

"Maybe you haven't noticed but she's trying to kill US!" Joe Dark barked back.

"Look if you just focus your attacks on bug man over there," Hope flicked a solo finger up at the frazzled spirit, "I'm sure it'll break whatever hold he has over her."

"You're an idiot," Joe Dark grumbled before resuming his glare towards Shina, "She's doing this all on her own."

The Sage hissed in anger towards the two of them, "My Goddess! What have you infidels done to her?!"

Hope pulled his arms out and pointed on sword at the Sage, "Looks like your Cosmos Drive isn't as omnipotent as you believed it was!"

"Silence! You have not even begun to see what true power is!" The Sage boasted, making Hope roll his eyes.

"That's what you all say..." He responded with a smirk.

Shina began to stir. With a slight tremble she raised her head and her majestic eyes looked like they were watering.

"Why...?" Shina turned her gaze towards the Phoenix and proclaimed, "What did I do to deserve being tormented like this?!"

She pointed at him and said, "Your body! Your face! You're just a fake! You don't deserve to exist!"

Joe Dark forced Hope's sword down and stepped in-between the two gritting his teeth and rearing his head back with a scowl, "You stupid girl...Talking about fakes..."

He widened his eyes in utter fury and yelled, "This entire phantasmagoria of yours is what's fake here! Its so pathetic that it makes me sick!"

"Shut up!" Shina swung her hand out then laid it upon her chest, "I feel everyone and everything here! I-I can hold my sister in my arms and feel her pulse. Her body is warm, her cheeks turned red when I hug her...!"

When she widened her eyes a twinkling tear drop was shed from them, "You don't know what its like because you've never been loved, you heartless beast!"

Joe Dark bit his teeth down harder and was in a seething fit. Hope was concerned that he would recklessly charge in at that very moment.

"If your world is as real as you say it is..." Joe Dark thrust his blade out and sent pressure her way, "Then where is Whiter?"

Shina froze up and Joe Dark continued without giving her a chance to answer, "You created this world and 'brought' everyone here. So why isn't he here?"

"H-He's dead!" Shina exclaimed with a furious swing of her arm.

"Why would that matter?!" Joe Dark bit back with more fury than hers, "If your Cosmos Drive is soooo powerful it should be easy to bring him back!"

"I-I-I can do it!" Shina was trying and failing to make a strong argument for herself.

"Bull SHIT!" Joe Dark yelled, "If you could have you would have already!"

He narrowed his eyes and muttered, "Assuming you actually ever loved him to begin with..."

Shina's eyes widened in a frozen stiff, emotionless glare towards Joe Dark, who by this point might be going a bit too far.

"Uhhh, Joe..." Hope tried to intervene with a firm grip on Joe Dark's shoulder but he was unstoppable with his anger and disbelief at this point.

"You delusional girl...What did Whiter ever see in you?"

"SHUT UP!" Shina's eyes exploded with fury and turned a shade redder than before. Her wings started to gain more bits to them, extending them to ten times their normal width. And with a single flap of them she took off hundreds of feed off the ground and blew Joe Dark and the Phoenix of Hope away.

"YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT HIM...OR ME!" A massive vortex formed in the endless azure sea beneath her, forcing Joe Dark and Hope into the air before the pull made them lose balance.

"STOP TRYING TO TRICK ME!" Shina's booming voice shook the cage and she squeezed her fists by her hips, filling the space around her wings with spears, "THIS IS REAL! AND YOU WON'T TAKE IT AWAY FROM ME!"

As the spears went flying everywhere Hope and Joe Dark parted ways to avoid impalement. Hope furiously swung his swords around to strength his defenses while edging closer to Shina. Joe Dark simply combined the Phoenix's methods by using pure offensive blasts as his defense while speeding towards Shina.

When he got there first Shina immediately put up a massive barrier and fired it out as a projectile to repel him back. The barrier burned white hot when it eventually passed through his body. The darkness kept his body relatively intact, however.

Shina launched more of those barriers in wider bursts to hit the Phoenix of Hope too. He used his blades to cut open gaps to pass through and started firing hefty waves of energy at Shina.

Shina summoned spears to pierce through the waves. The Phoenix batted them aside and charged through the center. Right as he was about to strike she let loose a barrier and he was forced to set up his own to reduce the damage.

He started over halfway back and suddenly was struck with inspiration. He pulled his right sword back like a javelin and flung it straight through the barriers. Shina waved her hand up and caught it on the palm, then started squeezing in an attempt to break the blade.

Though the blade trembled violently, it was far too resilient to get even a single crack. The Phoenix smirked and held his hand out. Instead of summoning the blade back, he summoned himself to where the blade was and quickly kicked Shina in the gut with both feet.

He grabbed his blade and twirled around until light and dark radiated out from him like a tornado. Shina's wings nailed her to the air but were already starting to be pressured back.

Joe Dark managed to push through the barriers and cleaved down the right wing, weakening her enough for his partner to drag her down to the sea.

She crashed against the northern edge of the vortex and skipped a few times along the surface. The Phoenix landed where she crashed and slashed his blades down, sending a towering wave of light and darkness towards her other wing to cleave through it.

Shina floated upright and started speeding away, zipping to-and-fro so fast that it left afterimages in her wake. Hope hunched forward and sped after her.

The very moment before he crossed the first afterimage it started to twinkle. He slowly turned his head to the left and pulled away to the right as the afterimage bloomed into a deadly, flowery array of crystals.

The very tips of the bloom cut into his left arm and pushed him towards another afterimage. Hope grimaced and backed away in time, continuing to press onward in pursuit of Shina.

A faded shadow grew darker overhead. He looked up and saw Shina's broken wings curling into round fists and driving straight towards them, the air pressure building up and setting the fists on fire.

Hope rolled to the left a few times and sped ahead at double speed. The fists' impact ignited the sky in crimson and made it a little harder to see the remaining afterimages.

Large blasts of darkness started erupting from the ground, destroying the afterimages before their deadly bloom could get in the Phoenix's path. He looked up and saw Joe Dark as a black streak speeding faster after Shina. He shook his head and sighed at his misplaced enthusiasm.

Shina swerved to the right all of a sudden and rounded behind her pursuers. She unfurled her fists and reattached them as wings, then levitated a little off the ground.

She waved her hands around to gather in aura from the cage then flung them into the ground. Hope spun around and glided along the sea, paying close attention to the activity down below.

The surface bubbled and hefty geysers of hot aura erupted near the Phoenix's face. He backed away and stood directly over another geyser.

He braced himself with a barrier and used the geyser to launch into the air. He floated in place for a moment and watched as Shina slanted her wings towards him, and a sharp crystal emerged from each individual bit.

Hope wiggled his lips in a smirk and drew his swords beside his right hip. As the various crystals were expunged in a seemingly unavoidable storm he dashed forth as a bolt of light. Time slowed to a crawl as he bounced off the surface of the crystals to arrive next to Shina in mere nanoseconds.

He drilled forward as a light tornado to get through her, then reversed his flight and rose upward in pursuit as a dark tornado. He then became a larger, light and dark tornado and pursued through her one more time. He then emerged in his solid state and dragged out his slashes against her back until Joe Dark got into position down below.

When she was knocked down he slammed the blunt edge of his sword into her gut and left her gasping arched over the blade. Joe Dark pulled his blade away and stabbed the ground to consume her with a dark flame pillar.

With a wobbly body she nevertheless warped behind him and impaled a pair of swords through the back of his gut. Blood dripped from his mouth and he steeled his body against her attempting to cut up through his body.

The Phoenix of Hope had started to descend for the attack but hesitated now that his partner was in the way. Joe Dark grit his teeth and glared up with a ferocity that screamed "DO IT!", dispelling the Phoenix's doubts.

He continued his descent and brought both his swords down Joe Dark's body, snapping Shina's blades off of him. More blood leaked out of the Dark King's body and mouth but he bit down harder to fight the pain.

Hope aligned his gaze with the ethereal Sage and then pushed forward. Shina grabbed onto Joe Dark's body and dragged it back as a shield. Hope widened his eyes and stabbed his blades forward and diagonally into the Dark King's shoulders.

Joe Dark's gritted teeth trembled and he widened his eyes with a fury. Shina was left motionless with shock as Hope absorbed some of the darkness out of his partner's body to power-up his blades. The tips of the blades sped right past the sides of her face and narrowed in on the heart of her possessive specter.

"H-HELP!" His plea for aid rung in her ears and made her pull away not a moment too soon, for the blades had begun to pierce the Sage's abdomen.

Shina flew away a fair distance and trembled from head-to-toe as her enemies turned to face her, looking barely worse for the wear.

"What are these DEVILS?!" The Sage stuttered in fear.

Hope flipped his swords around and pointed them at the sea, "I'll get him on the next one."

"Fine, but I won't let you stab me again." Joe Dark grunted as he cricked his neck.

They took one step forward and Joe Dark swung his sword up, raising the Phoenix's sword before he took off running.

The Phoenix warped out of sight with his incredible speed and Shina turned to her side as both her foes prepared to hit her with their hardest pincer attack.

"Quit toying with them! You know what you must do..." The Sage forewarned.

Shina's eyes lit up and she pulled back with a single flap of her wings. Her enemies stopped themselves from hitting each other and veered straight towards her.

She then thrust her hands out and widened her eyes to their full extent. The Phoenix of Hope and Joe Dark suddenly stalled mid-air with their auras flaring up brightly.

"Tch...!" They both grunted and tried to force their way through, but simply could not.

"Gotcha, you horrible duo!" Shina swung her hands out and the next thing her victims knew, their massive supply of aura was ripped out of their bodies and erased down to the atom.

The two stuttered, and a second later the Phoenix of Hope split back into Mew and Riku, while Joe Dark lost the Dark King's armor.

They all fell flat to the ground and had visible creases under their eyes. Mew struggled to lift his head, let alone speak, "Ummm...e-excuse me?"

Even Joe Dark, the most tenacious of the bunch, couldn't curl his fist against the ground, "What did you DO you slimy bastard?!"

"She is the Goddess of Aura, feeble blasphemer..." The Sage cruelly reminded his defeated lot, "You were so arrogant to think you could mar such divine power without facing retribution. She has wiped clean the aura you hold dear...And without aura, there is no power. No 'you'."

Holding his raunchy head up high the Sage wrapped himself in his robe and chuckled, "Which makes you...less than nothing."

Shina held her hand out and wrapped the three in her own aura, pulling them up level with her face. Mew grit his teeth and grumbled, "C-Come on! That's cheating!"

"Whine about it in the afterlife..." The Sage smiled with glee, "There shall be no one to offer your corrupt soul salvation..."

With a gentle flick of the wrist Shina launched the three into the air and through the bottom of the fake city. Without their powers at hand crashing through all that rock nearly killed them by the time they got up top. Right after they reached the surface the three were quickly slammed upon the ground and spit up blood.

Shina then warped up in front of them and spread her wings, which had returned to normal size, and filled them with an immense radiance.

"W-Well...this...isn't good..." Mew murmured with a mouth full of blood.

"If...we're going to die here..." Joe Dark closed his eyes and swallowed deep, then grit his teeth tensely for a long while.

"S-Shina...STOOOOP!" Kairi screamed from far away, but her voice could not reach.

At the pinnacle of tension, when all eyes were on the inevitable demise of those three, no one could have expected who'd show up next.

"HALT!" A commanding voice rung out and broke the tension instantly.

All eyes were then set upon the sight of Aurian Pluto, as he stood tall a few feet away atop a mound of debris. His twin swords planted at his feet, resting below his palms.

"I wish to bargain with you, Great Sage." He said with a mild degree of respect.

Shina turned aside and muttered, "Who's this guy now?"

"The ninth soul I tested my power on," The Sage chuckled with mild interest and rubbed his chin, "What could your disgraced soul possibly offer me, elven king?"

"A more worthy vessel," Pluto nudged his eyes up and gestured a hand out, "Your choice is...questionable at best."

Shina raised her hand up and asked, "Sooo he's another of Gravitus' thugs? I can kill him then?"

The Sage waved his hands down and chuckled, "No no, lets humor him for a bit."

Pluto sneered and cracked a smile, "I am merely stating facts. In terms of worthiness there is no comparison between a king and a delusional sow barely fit to be a wet nurse."

Shina slanted her eyes and grumbled in irritation. Pluto kept pressing on, "Out of the trillions of lives you could have picked you saw the potential in me. And how could you not? My magical capabilities far exceed any man or beast alike. I was attuned to immortality before you reached me. And my wisdom far, far surpasses that of a girl who didn't even finish high school..."

Pluto held his arms out and exclaimed, "I am the perfect candidate to wield the Cosmos Drive's power! It is my calling, NAY, my divine right as King!"

"...You do raise good points," The Sage didn't take long to start chuckling in mockery of the king, "A pity you were not born a girl then. Only a Goddess is worthy."

Pluto grimaced then bit his teeth down for a scowl. He closed his eyes and breathed a hard sigh, "I see..."

The sound of metal clacking could be heard behind him as chains rose into view. He opened his eyes with a calm, stern glare and remarked, "I had presumed you wise. But you are merely a bug clinging to deluded ideals."

He picked up one sword and extended it out from behind his shoulder, putting the tip of the blade squarely at the neck of the chained up, younger Kairi.

"S-Sis! H-Help...!" She pleaded with a pale look in her eyes.

"K-K-Kairi...?!" Shina stumbled on her words and her voice was fraught with panic.

The real Kairi clasped her hands over her mouth and felt a chilling sense of deja vu watching this unfold. Pluto coldly twisted his blade into the young Kairi's nape and glared down at Shina.

Shina waved her hand out and all sense of majesty in her form was shed away to reveal a vulnerable, desperate girl.

"P-Please! Let her go I'll do anything! Anything!"

"See that, oh wise Sage?" Pluto leered at the specter and scoffed, "Your vessel is chained to human emotion..."

"Don't listen to him! Kill him NOW!" The Sage yelled in anger.

"Its time you paid for the folly of attempting to make a lab rat out of me," Pluto turned his head towards the younger Kairi with an emotionless gaze, "And understand...how unworthy your 'Goddess' truly is."

Without a second's pause Pluto cut the young Kairi clean across the neck, flushing the life from her eyes as the chains unfurled from her body.

As the blood spilled from her other's neck, the real Kairi closed her eyes and dropped to her knees at the same time Shina did. Her younger self fell to the ground like a limp doll.

Pluto waved his hand towards Shina and snapped his fingers. Chains emerged to envelop her body and drag her trembling, weeping body off the ground.

"My point has been made. And now...I will rob you of your power, 'Goddess'."

A red aura surrounded Shina's body and instantly the chains were atomized. Pluto grimaced, a chill creeping down his spine, and sweat forming on his face.

Shina thrust her head up and stretched her mouth, a pale screech ripping her throat. She swung her hands up, snaring Pluto's aura and tearing it right off him before he could blink. As he gasped for air and began to fall to his knees, she rocketed over and dragged him to the dirt by the neck.

She pinned his gut down beneath her knees and started throttling him hard enough to break the ground. Her voice was little more than a beastly series of screams as she started wailing on the King's face with her bare fists. Each impact sounded like a grenade going off.

The only thing that could break through, was the faint whisper of the young Kairi's voice, "S-S-Shina..."

She stopped immediately, leaving Pluto with a mangled, blue-blooded face, but still breathing. She flew on over to the young Kairi's body and picked her up. She was bleeding profusely and her eyes were foggy.

Without a second thought she used the Cosmos Drive to heal the wound and restore the purity to her appearance. She then wrapped her in a tight, warm hug.

Pluto coughed up blood and turned his head slightly to the right, hearing the faintest movement from the dirt in the ground.

"...T-Took you long enough, witch..." He said before wheezing up a good chunk of blood.

Shina turned her head to the right and hid the young Kairi behind as a figure drew closer. Mew and Riku had barely registered shock on their faces while Joe Dark scowled and muttered, "About...damn...time..."

Gabriel propped himself up on his sword and started straight ahead with a look of worry. Kairi peeled her hands away and through her watery eyes felt a familiar presence approaching.

"M-Mom...?"

Her doubt was understandable. Approaching the battlefield was a maiden warrior clad in shiny, silver armor. Her face was hidden behind a round helm with four black slits to see through, and a smooth mouth guard. Her neck was protected by an abundance of small chains that extended down to her chest plate, which wore the symbol of a runic sword stabbed through a table that seated ten, and radiated with light like a miniature sun. The arm and legs grieves were lithe but looked sturdy enough. There was a slit in the waist so the bottom half of the maiden's robe could fit through. Her shoulders were bare.

In one hand was a round shield with runes on the outer circle and a diamond heart in the center. In her other hand was a short sword with a diamond blade and a ruby colored tassel dangling off the back.

The lady looked not at Shina, but the Sage behind her and raised her sword. Her voice sounded a little more powerful, and divine, but was almost unmistakably recognizable as Auris'.

"I shall say this only once..." She stiffened the sword firmly at the Sage's neck, and the specter flinched, "If you value what life you have left, you shall let my daughter go."

Next Time: Guilt of Two-Thousand Years