Dark Chocolate, White Diamonds

By Dixxy

Chapter Eighteen: The Showdown

(Kento)

Seeing that Keisha's role in the Age of Legends had to do with telekinesis, she was using the new powers, sending different members of the clan in different directions while Evan fought it out with the High Priest, the two struggling over the wooden staff. That left me and Talpa unoccupied.

I wasn't looking forward to that fight.

Talpa turned to me, marching his way over to me. He was more solid than he had been, which must have meant that he was starting to fully revive himself. Where he was getting the power I wasn't sure, but all I had to do was make sure he didn't complete the ritual. If he did. . . we were all screwed.

"So, Kento of the Hardrock, looks like's just you and me," Talpa stated.

I clenched my fist. Relax, Kento- this isn't like it was last time. You've gotten more powerful and it doesn't look like Talpa's at full power if he's relying on these goons to do his dirty work- you can handle this. "I MAY be alone, but I'm not helpless," I said. "Watch yourself, Talpa. I'm tougher than I look."

Talpa seemed to think this was funny and started to laugh, his eyes glowing yet again as that was pretty much the only way he could change expressions- what do you expect from a guy who's face is a mask? "Pathetic little Ronin Warrior, didn't you learn your lesson when I had you, Halo, and Torrent captured? You certainly remember the pain from it, don't you?"
I growled, knowing very well what he was talking about. That DID result in a lot of pain, but it had done a few good things in the process. "Dynasty historians have called your capture of me, Sage, and Cye the Great Error. You have no idea what you did, do you?" I said.

"What do you speak of, Hardrock? What error did I make?" he asked skeptically.

"Only this," I said, sending a tremor Talpa's way. Talpa seemed surprise at the magic I was using. It didn't affect him (Talpa had a high defense against elemental magic), but it did startle him. "You broke the barriers. Sage, Cye, and I can use the magic the Ronin Senshi can use, and our respective Senshi can use our sure kills."

Talpa stayed oddly silent at this comment.

I continued on, taking a step forward as I tightened my fist. "It only gets better. You should've paid closer attention to what your Warlords were doing and who they were sleeping with, because guess what? The Child of Destiny has been born. Welcome to the Age of Legends," I said.

"The WHAT?" Talpa screeched, his eyes glowing red in response. "Impossible!"

"Oh, yes, it's possible," I said. I grinned. My ego getting the better of me, I decided to play a rather dangerous game of Bluff. "And only I know what my role in the Age of Legends is. You don't know that, Talpa. For all you know I could be the Child of Destiny, or maybe even something else you don't want to think about."

The former Dynasty emperor was getting nervous. He had no idea I was actually just a seer. My power was probably the least dangerous of all the other roles- they didn't always work when I wanted them to work and me having a prophecy left me vulnerable. Sage was the one who could fly and use the wild Flitteree magic. Cye was the one who used the deadly combo magic made from his own powers and those he'd inherited from Anubis. We still had no idea what Ryo or Rowen could do. However, what Talpa didn't know couldn't hurt me.

I clenched my fist as I stared Talpa down. He was getting nervous in the very least, though I don't know if I would have called him "scared" or "concerned". I grinned. "I may have something powerful enough to kill you, Talpa. You could be dead in five minutes," I said.

"You are bluffing!" Talpa accused.

"No, I'm not. Lord Termini knows the power of the Child of Destiny. He's been destroyed. The Jewel of Death has been transformed into a Jewel of Hope. Anubis is alive again. Both the Inferno AND the Inferna have bearers. The Armor of the Soul has been awakened. Cara left Trulpa's services has laid her obedience to the Senshi of Wildfire. You shouldn't have bothered trying to come back, Talpa. It's not going to work. There's too much going against you right now."

My old adversary growled. I grinned, knowing I was beginning to get to him, and that was a good thing. "But you stand alone, boy. No other Ronin is here. You honestly think that those strange, dark skinned humans are going to do anything to save you from my clan now? Hardly," said Talpa.

Hmm, he did have a point there. Keisha was a Senshi (which Talpa didn't seem to know about, or if he did know, he was lying about not knowing), and Evan was with us, too, but how much could we do alone? Keisha didn't have a very good idea at what she would be going against and Evan was virtually powerless. We were outnumbered, and I wasn't sure what we could do.

I closed my eyes, trying to figure out what would be most useful that I had on me. Thanks to the storage abilities of my crystal ball, I had both it and my spell book on hand. Still, I didn't see how my crystal ball or the spell book would be much use- I needed something that would give me a quick answer, and neither device did that.

Talpa's eyes began to glow red (again) as his hair began to blow. He was preparing a spell. I threw up a shield, very glad that I had learned a decent amount of defensive spells. Yes, attack spells are nice, but defensive spells are the spells that help you actually live through a battle. I struggled to hold the shield up as the attack hit. I had to find a way to hold out until someone got a signal on us. Then we could get some much needed backup.

I let the shield down to conserve my energy once the attack was finished. Talpa was laughing. Uh oh. That can't be good. "You're a very good bluffer, Hardrock. A very good bluffer. I'm surprised that someone like you, a Hardrock, is a seer. Your little game will be your undoing."

How the hell did he figure that out?

"Uh oh," was about all I could say. I needed help that I wasn't going to get. What to do, what to do, what to do? I racked my brain, trying to come up with an idea. Unfortunately, Talpa kept me preoccupied with avoiding his attacks and/or shielding against them, making it extra hard to concentrate.

"Kento!" I looked up to see Keisha running over to me. "Let me help!"

"Keisha, no!" I screamed. Now getting more angry than infatuated with my girlfriend, Talpa tried to throw an attack at her. Reacting, I ran towards her, wrapped my arms around her, and dove out of the way. Keisha screamed as I landed a little roughly on her. She looked up at me, looking frightened. "Don't do that again!"

Keisha's bottom lip quivered. "But Kento, don't you see that he's going to- KENTO LOOK OUT!" she screamed. I threw up another shield, blocking his latest bombardment of attack. Keisha clung to me, getting scared. I dropped the shield, beginning to loose strength.

I sat up, trying to stand. I closed my eyes, trying to concentrate on Sage and Cye for help. I needed their help. I reached out through the armors, trying to get to them. I felt myself just barely touch their links when I felt someone knock me aside. Keisha screamed and I saw Talpa standing over me.

"Too bad you have to die like this, Ronin Whelp. I would've preferred killing all of you at once, though I suppose this will extend the pleasure," said Talpa, crossing his arms and mocking me. I stared back at him with defeated eyes. Was this really it? Was I going to die there? His eyes began to glow, preparing to finish me off.

BOOM!

Talpa flew away from me, Keisha's arms pointed at him from where I'd left her. Obviously, she'd used her newfound telekinesis to give Talpa some impromptu flying lesson. And she also looked pretty pissed off. "You coward!" she screamed. "If you want a decent fight, then fight me!"

"Keisha, don't!" I yelled.

My adversary stood, his eyes glowing in rage. Keisha. . . you have no idea what you're getting yourself into. . . this freak is DANGEROUS! "I have no fight with you, girl. Once I get rid of your lover boy, then you're mine," said Talpa. "Why would I want to ruin my own play toy?"

My eyes grew with anger. My temper was refueling my strength, letting me get up. I stared him down, breathing heavily. I wiped away some liquid dripping from the corner of my mouth. Looking at my hand, I saw blood. My subarmor had a few scrapes and dents as well, some shallow cuts on my face. I was beat up. I was exhausted. But I was NOT giving up.

That was when a miracle happened.

The air before me began to glow. Every head in the facility turned to see what it was, curious. I held my hands out as something solid fell into my hands, but it was too bright for me to see what it was. Once the glowing faded, I saw a large, chainsaw sword. Daala's sword. I smiled. Cye and Sage must have felt my despair and sent their powers to me so I could use the Armor of the Soul!

Gripping the hilt of the sword, I held it out in front of me. The energy of the sword began to recharge me, giving me a second wind. Talpa was looking at the sword, seeing that another of his plans was about to explode in his face for the second time. "Impossible!" he said. "That sword. . . I thought it had been destroyed when Wildfire he defeated Daala!"

"I think not," I said, making a few slashes in the air. As I did, I surrounded by bright lights of orange, green, blue, and yellow as I felt the Armor of the Soul piece itself onto me. Slowly, as the armor formed, I felt myself fill with Sage and Cye's powers, the doubled power from Cye nearly knocking the wind out of me. The power he welded was phenomenal! Sage's power was strange too, the wild Flitteree magic not agreeing with my human system too easily at first.

Once the armor formation was complete, I discovered that Cye and Sage's minds hadn't come along with their powers. I was worried about that briefly, wondering first off WHERE their minds were and second that I was facing Talpa alone. The last time we'd used it, the three of us had shared Sage's body, all of us working as one unit to blow Trulpa away. But where were they?

The sword glinted in my hand, almost saying that I wasn't alone.

I WAS, after all, wearing the Armor of the Soul.

"So it has been revived, big deal," said Talpa. "I'll still destroy you."

I growled, preparing my attack. "Says you!" I said. I raised the sword above my head, concentrating on the high amounts of energy flowing through my body. If I could pull off the sure-kill, then I could get Keisha and Evan out the complex before either of them got hurt.

I dropped the sword downward, aiming the blade at Talpa. Magic began to concentrate itself in my hands to point where they felt bloated, "SOUL STRIKE FORCE!" I screamed, watching as the multi-colored beam of energy shot straight towards Talpa.

Talpa screamed as the energy hit him, causing the spirit to explode. I whooped with joy, thinking it was over. Sadly, there was too MUCH energy in the Soul Strike Force and it smashed into the opposite wall and several supports. The building began to shake and everyone stopped, only Evan and the High Priest still fighting. Debris began to fall from the ceiling and a rumbling could be heard in the background. "The building's going to collapse!" someone cried.

Keisha ran to me, clutching my shoulder. I looked down at her, wondering what she wanted. "We have to get out of here!" she screamed. She turned to her brother, who was STILL fighting with the High Priest. "Evan! Come on, the building's falling down! Get out of here!" Evan sent his sister a nod, and the two of us began to make our escape.

The two of us ran and ran, holding hands as we darted through the crumbling and self-destructing facility. The Dark Wing weren't making much progress, all screaming in agony on the floor. When they had joined the Dark Wing, their lives had been tied to Talpa's powers. The loss of Talpa was draining their life forces away. Without Talpa, any powers they had were gone. Without that power, they couldn't live anymore. They were all going to die.

Keisha's grandmother, the Elder, was close to the exit, her form completely lifeless, one hand reaching towards the door. Keisha stopped to look at her grandmother, her body frozen. I could sense no life force coming from the body and realized that the woman's older body wasn't able to last as long as some of the younger clan members.

She was, beyond a shadow of a doubt, dead.

Keisha stopped, bending down to look her grandmother older. My heart sunk. She had spoken very highly of the woman before the whole mess with her parents' murder and the Dark Wing. This was her grandmother, after all, and now, one of the only people that she had left from her family. With this woman gone, all she had was Evan.

Aw, Keish. I wish you could stay here and take all the time you wanted to mourn, but this building is about to fall down on top of us and I don't think it's going to tickle. "Keisha, we have to go!" I said. I grabbed her hand and dragged her behind me as I headed off at full force.

I brought her out of the building, eventually collapsing as the Armor of the Soul and my subarmor faded away. I stood up with help from Keisha, the two of us turning to the building. My partner in arms looked around, obviously in search of her brother. "Where's Evan?" asked Keisha, her eyes widening in panic. "He hasn't come out yet!"

"He'll be out in a second," I said. I looked over at Keisha, evaluating her. Or, more specifically, the outfit the clan had given her. It was certainly revealing, and it definitely looked good on her, but, considering the time of year, she would've come down with something if she stayed in the cold too long without anything else protecting her. I took off the orange and red flannel shirt I was wearing, handing it to Keisha. "You'll catch a cold if you don't put something on."

Keisha smiled weakly at me. "Thank you for caring about the very least of our problems," she said, slipping it on. She buttoned up the top and began to tug and pull at the sleeves, trying to get it to fit better. Once she was happy with it, she looked back towards the building. "Evan, where are you- EVAN!"

My eyes widened in shock and horror as the building suddenly exploded. The two of us stared in a stunned silence, a giant mushroom cloud forming over where the old warehouse had once been. No. . . I thought to myself. There's just no way. . . I placed a hand on her shoulder, squeezing it. I turned to see her bottom lip quivering, her eyes watering.

She'd just lost the last of her family. Evan was gone.

I hugged Keisha tightly as she began to sob hysterically over the loss of her brother. I felt my own tears coming on. Evan had been my friend. He was my girlfriend's older brother. He'd wanted to try and save his sister from a horrible fate. He'd died trying to save out lives. Evan didn't deserve the death he got.

"It's. . . not. . . over. . . yet. . ."

The two of us looked up to see the High Priest standing before us, his robes torn and tattered, his lip busted, and a very determined look on his face. I watched as his eyes began to glow red, alerting me that something was seriously wrong. "What the. . ." I said, wondering how he was even ALIVE.

"Ronin. . . Warrior. . ." he said. "Give. . . me. . . the armor. . ."

"Oh shit," I said.

"Kento?" asked Keisha.

"Talpa possessed the High Priest."