Chapter Thirteen - The Forest of Illusion

"Da-is... oh, Da-is... come out, come out, wherever you are... olly- olly oxenfree... damn it! Come on out, you Dynasty chicken, so I can bash you two ways from Tuesday!" a very impatient Kento bellowed, echoing throughout the forestry, obviously frustrated that there was no found sign of the Warlord of Illusion.

"Kento, would you keep it down! Consider ourselves fortunate that we have the element of surprise," Sai scolded in a whisper.

"Oh, come on, man, it's not like we'll be able to find him here in deadwood forest," Kento replied, not even bothering to lower his voice. Sai just shook his head and continued to keep up stealthily.

The forest was getting thicker and thicker, the sky was hardly viewable between the trees, and it was becoming a task to take a step; this was riding on Kento's last nerve. "Man, I hate this! Why doesn't he just come out; he's driving me nuts!" the impatient warrior hollered, pounding on a nearby tree.

"Hey, take it easy, I'm nervous about the time this is taking too, but there's no use in wasting our energy to..." Sai suddenly cut himself off.

"Yo, dude, what's up? You see something?"

"Kento armor up and blast everything you see," Sai stated quickly.

Kento beamed with the biggest smile he could muster; his eyes grew as wide as a child's as he started to fidget wildly. "Not that I'm complaining, dude, and I will do it too, but can I ask why?" Sai just smiled and nodded his head in a way that would tell Kento to go at it. Kento shrugged and giggled like a schoolgirl. "Armor of Hardrock! Dao Gi!"

Sai watched as the armor wisped around Kento and just grinned as it seemed that there was a smile on Kento's face the entire time. "Beware the battle-hungry... they could be useful," he whispered, remembering his trip to the ocean.

"Okay, buddy, here I go! Watch me burn!" the fully armored Kento proclaimed, ready to wreak unimaginable damage to the forestry. "Iron... Rock... Crush-er!" Within an instant the land was ravaged. Trees and roots were upturned, the ground was pulled apart and as soon as the Warrior of Justice halted his tremendous flow of energy, everything that wasn't crushed into molecules fell to the ground. Kento dusted off his hands very proud of himself and smiled with his naginata staff under his arm. "So buddy, was that to your liking?" he grinned.

Sai just folded his arms and looked over the area. He suddenly called out, "We saw past your little illusion and we know you got to be hurting right now, so you might as well show yourself so we can get this over with!"

Kento looked over the area and saw nothing then returned his stare to Sai, who seemed to be looking directly at something that wasn't there. "Um, dude, there's nothing there," he said shyly. Sai just continued to look.

"As a matter of fact, it was rather refreshing," a voice echoed. Kento looked around, surprised at the unknown bodiless sound. In a static- like shock, Dais appeared fully armored, arms crossed and it seemed covered in dirt. "Next time I shall have to bring my umbrella," he cackled, making sure Kento noted that his attack had little effect.

"Just how long were you planning on keeping us running around in your little forest maze, you coward?" Sai asked with a look of determination in his eyes.

Dais just chuckled as it echoed under his mask plate. "Long enough..." the Warlord of Illusion commented as he reached for the nunchucks attached to his gauntlet. With a forceful thrust, the chain extended launching the stinging metal towards the unarmored face of Sai. Jumping out of the way skillfully, Sai straight away began to call for his armor, only to be stopped mid-way by having all the air knocked out of him by Dais's mace jamming into his stomach.

As the Warrior of Trust plummeted to the earth, Kento immediately bull-rushed Dais, sending him skidding across the ground. The Demon of Deception, however, rolled into it and got to his feet leaping into the air. Kento watched the warlord soar and reach for his morning star weapon only to be denied as a trident at once closed its fangs around it.

"Way to go, Sai!" Kento cheered as his companion skillfully tossed his opponent overhead in mid-air no less. Dais came crashing to the ground raising a lot of dust. Sai landed close by and seemingly was preparing for anything while waiting for the dust to settle. Kento also stood ready but was inching closer to the scene. The dust eventually did fall to the ground and as expected, Dais stood amidst. His one eye glowing evilly, his glare was directed squarely at Sai.

"That... hurt!" he yelled, launching the scythes of his weapon. Sai had no choice but to leap into the air. The blades ricocheted off the ground bending in an angle, striking Sai and driving him into the charging Kento. As the pile of armor collided with a tree that had managed to escape the Iron Rock Crusher, Dais quickly moved into the forestry that was out of reach of the awesome attack.

"Now I see the cleverness of the move, Sai of the Torrent, but as you can see, your powers have your limits. I, on the other hand, have power that can grow beyond your wildest imaginations. Can you afford to wait me out again?" Dais finished with an evil cackle echoing throughout the forest.

"Damn it! Hey, Sai, want me to blast it again?" Kento asked, trying to keep his temper in check.

"No, that's what he wants you to do, waste your energy," Sai replied, trying to get his bearings.

"Man, I screwed up, I didn't remember what the Ancient taught me. I can't hold back for tomorrow, I got to get all of it now."

"Hey, Kento, you all right?" Sai asked worriedly.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine, just thinkin', that's all," Kento replied, returning an icy stare to the forest.

"Well, I'd hate to interrupt a rarity like that, but we got a warlord to crush," Sai stated with a small smile. Kento laughed lightly, knowing Sai was trying to make him feel better. They stood up and carefully edged their way into the forestry.

The woods were as thick as ever, obviously work of Dais keeping them busy, trying to get them frustrated again. "Not this time, bucket-head," Kento smirked to himself. Just then, something caught Kento's eye. Moving quietly through the forestry, and he eventually found what grabbed his attention earlier. Dais was moving carefully across the shrubbery.

With a wicked smile Kento looked around for his partner, who was miraculously close by in a tree looking over the area from above. He poked at Sai's foot with his naginata staff and pointed out the slinking Warlord trying to carefully move around the thickness of the forest. Sai smiled deviously as he quietly motioned for Kento to advance on Dais. He did so and the path luckily enough was clear for him.

Kento's mind snapped. Wait a minute, if half this forest is an illusion, why would Dais have to move so oddly? And it does seem a little weird, Sai up in a tree and all... oh, God I hope I'm doing the right thing, he thought to himself. Hardrock aimed right for the Warlord still gingerly moving around the forest. Sai in the treetop was watching eagerly. At the last moment, Kento instantaneously swung his staff around, slicing off the branch that Sai was standing on making him plummet to the ground with a loud clang.

"Kento, just what the hell do you think your doing?!" Sai protested.

"Don't make this any harder for me, scumbag!" Kento replied and forcefully stabbed at the blue armor laying lifelessly on the ground.

Kento opened his eyes to find an empty suit of armor with a stab hole in its chest. Kento let out a sigh of relief, realizing that it in fact was an illusion, but immediately grew in anger as he also realized that he missed Dais.

"Perhaps you are not as stupid as you once were, Kento of Hardrock, but don't worry, I have plenty more fun for the two of you."

Kento quickly ran to where Sai was trying to make his way through. There they stood back to back. "No matter who he turns into, we know we're right behind each other, got it?" Sai stated worriedly.

Kento would have responded positively if he wasn't dumbstruck by the surrounding armors of illusion. "I know that only one of them is real, but he may have us done in by the time we figure it out!" Kento shouted angrily. That's when Kento thought back to his week of training. He remembered the boulder chasing after him on the groove he had made. None of this would have happened if I just got the whole thing, his mind echoed in memory. "Sai, stay very close and whatever you do, don't move!" he whispered harshly. Sai looked over his shoulder but did as directed.

The Warrior of Hardrock immediately focused as he had done before and compiled all the energy he could possibly hold from the earth beneath his feet. With one large effort, he forced out the entire collection of energy all around him in a devastating energy earthquake. Kento refused to stop, however; he was going to make sure nothing was left, that he got the whole thing this time. Sai was starting to get a little worried, he still continued to stay close as not to be caught in the tremendous blast.

An echoed scream of agony filled the light, however not even hindering Kento's concentration of energy. "You got him, Kento, that's enough, you can stop now!" Sai shouted over the deafening sounds of the earth shattering around them.

"No... not yet, Sai, that's what he wants us to think... Sai, when I'm done there will be nothing but dessert for miles... don't let him fool you with that forest trick!" Kento ached in reply.

"When you're done you'll be dead! It's enough now, stop it before you kill yourself!" Sai pleaded. The energy did not halt a moment even at the urging of his best friend. He wasn't going to stop until there was nothing left to give and the Warrior of Torrent knew it, he had to think of something quick.

Sai remembered what he had learned from his trip to the ocean. Show them that they have nothing to gain, he reminded himself. He raised his trident high in the air and immediately set himself for the Super Wave Smasher. Kento seemed to get a little confused at what Sai could possibly doing behind him but if he let his thoughts go for longer than a second he would lose his strong beam.

"Super Wave Smasher!" Sai hollered as quickly as he could. His energy shot into Kento's energy field disrupting its flow and caused a powerful explosion. They were thrown quite a distance into the desert that the power of the Ronin armor had made of the once-thick forest.

"Ugh... what the hell did you do that for, man?" Kento asked tiredly as he pulled his head out of the sand.

"I couldn't let you kill yourself for Dais... it just isn't worth it," Sai replied weakly.

"You okay, dude?" Kento asked, rising to his knees.

"Yeah, I'm fine," was the reply... but there were two of them. The Ronin of Justice almost went into shock as he saw two Armors of Torrent rising from the sand.

They in turn looked surprisingly at him. "Kento! You look like... me!"

Kento looked himself over and indeed he looked like Sai. At the sight of this he let out an echoing war cry of Dais's name and slammed his hands into the sand below. "I have had enough of your tricks, you miserable demon spawn! Show yourself and fight me like a man!"

The two Sais looked at each other crossly as they raised their spears. After that dramatic outburst, it was obvious which one was Kento. "Give up the charade, you imposter! I know that blast must have hurt you bad and you need to hide yourself so we don't finish you off! We know what you're trying to pull, so give it up!" one Sai said.

"Hah! How would you know that if you weren't Dais? Stop pretending and show us your true self, you coward!"

"That's enough!" Kento screamed, separating them. "Sai is hurt, Dais is hurt, and when I find out which one of you really is Dais, I will make sure you are hurting a whole lot more!" he went on.

"I'm Sai, Kento! I can't believe you can't tell it's me after all these years together," one of the Sais complained.

"Liar! Kento, it's me, the real Sai, your best friend!" the other insisted.

Kento was getting largely confused and let out another roar, but not as loud as the previous. "All right, I'm going to settle this right now!" he stated irritably.

Kento stood upright and folded his arms, he looked like he was going to try sense who the real Sai was. Suddenly Kento's eyes opened and looked directly at one of them and asked, "How many times have you kissed your girl?"

The two Sais' faces were stunned. "Kento, you can't ask that! He could have overheard us!" the Sai on the left said.

"You would say that because you don't know!" the Sai on the right said.

"All right, Sai, then answer me, how many times have you kissed Mina?" Kento asked again.

The Sai on the left seemed to get a little confused while the Sai on the right got quiet a moment and seemed to almost blush. "I told you Kento, I lost count..." the Sai said humbly.

"Oh, really? Well, maybe I should hand you over to Ryo instead, because knowing that, he would do a lot worse to you than I ever could!" Kento said happily.

The Sai on the left was chuckling a little as the Sai on the right looked at the two a little surprised. The Sai on the left pointed the man- grabber end of his trident and grabbed the false Sai around the waist. "Her name is Lucia!" he said triumphantly.

Kento raised his naginata staff one more time and aimed it directly at Dais, who now showed his true form. He struggled futilely in the clasp on Sai's trident, as it was obvious that he had been torn up a bit in Kento's original blast. "Don't overdo it now, Kento," Sai said cautiously.

"Don't worry, you're backing me up here so I know what's enough," Kento replied with a smirk.

"Super... Wave... Smash-er!"

"Iron... Rock... Crush-er!"

The area exploded into a large dome of light engulfing the earth and sky alike. The land would be destroyed if it hadn't been already. The light faded slowly into the sky and dissipated. On the ground amidst the dust and sandstorm blowing violently there is a crater of sand. In that crater lay three warriors in tarnished and burned subarmors. Painful grunts and moans could be heard as the warriors started to stir.

Dais, on his stomach, started to crawl as his legs still had no feeling in them. He eventually came to a very drained, very tired Kento, laying out on the ground, half buried in the upturned earth breathing heavily and closing his eyes tightly. Slumping across him and resting his head on his stomach, he tried to speak in his strained voice.

"That indeed was... a clever trick...but you still... have the hardest head... of anyone I've ever known..." Dais ached.

Kento started to chuckle in his prone position. "You shouldn't fret about his head... it's his stomach you should worry about..." an ailing Sai joked from his half-buried corner.

The three just laughed, not because something funny was said, as it truly wasn't all that humorous, but they just laughed simply because they could. All three of them had overcome one of the harshest battles in their lives. They had a right to be happy.