RAGNAROK ONLINE Dark Symphony series
a series of ragnarok online short stories by Zanyuki, author of "Virtual-On Sword-Dance Concerto"
Episode One
"CRI DE COEUR CRY OF THE HEART"
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"Beyond that, Yuki, lies the Emperium," said his companion. "That is what we've come for. Do not lose."
He smiled and nodded. His silver hair and his earring dangled as he bobbed his head, and he breathed deeply as he closed his eyes. "We can't avoid it now, can we?"
"I'm afraid not." The sniper beside him, Dai, looked around cautiously. "Hurry, Yuki. Aoikaze and the others may have diverted the others, but its doesn't mean the enemy army won't look around here too. This is the Emperium Hallway, you know. This is one of the most heavily-guarded areas of this castle, if what the information from our client is true."
"Yes." The Lord Knight fingered the hilt of his Muramasa, the long, single-edged slender blade tucked into its scabbard, swaying as it slung snugly on his hips. His other sword, the Zweihander, its over five-foot, foot-wide blade exposed, was fitted on a harness on his back. He had gone away with the cape of a knight, instead using a skirt-like garment that was open on the front but covering the sides and back of his legs, reaching almost to his heels. He only had two shoulder caps, leather foreguards (a kind of a steel-backed gauntlet reaching to the elbow) and a close-fitting leather armor that bore the crossing straps of his harness at the front. He had no defensive capability, save for his skill with Parrying, and the Zweihander's wide blade to block physical assaults. Zanyuki wasn't one to don a headgear too, Dai noted. Himself a veteran of the mercenary Gai, of which they were members of, in battles like this, you would need all the defense you could get.
Not that the Lord Knight needed it. Zanyuki had been an assassin before repenting of his sins, when he killed a Magician who turned out to be his elder sister. He became a wanderer then, before being found by Aoikaze himself, the famed guildmaster of the Gai mercenaries. They weren't exactly cheap, Aoikaze was telling them every now and then, because they were the best, and they take pride in what they do. They do missions, and accomplish it, not for love, hatred, or revenge. It was purely business. The assassin side of Zanyuki, Dai thought, must know that. He was one of the fastest of the three in their guild, and his way with swords, like he had been born clutching it from his birth, made sure that not even the fastest could keep up. He was both agile and dexterous. Dai hoped those traits will aid him in completing this mission; Aoikaze relied on him.
"Well then, shall I go?" he asked.
Dai was startled from his reverie. The green-haired sniper, a ladies' man, grinned and readied his Arbalest. He had little crossbows custom-made for him, like pistols, but his weapon of choice was stuck somewhere at a Kafra warehouse. Oh, there was no chance of a break-in or thievery. Nobody messes around with the Gai. "I will stay here and fend off any who would dare try to barge in while you shatter that Emperium. Do it quickly, Yuki."
He winked and gestured with his fingers, one of the languages spoken by the Gai. Hand-signals. Yuki flashed something that read as "don't worry" and "money". "We will have each have a million zennies after this, Dai. Leave it to me."
"You got it." He turned serious. "Go! Silent as a shadow, undying as the darkness; the embrace of the Mother of Shadows protect and keep you, Gai."
He flashed the appropriate salute. "As with you, Gai." Yuki made another nod and strode towards the door, staring at the gigantic handles and the ornate carvings on the metal panels. With one last look at his comrade, he pushed it open with both hands. The opening of the rusty portal generated a hair-raising metallic screech and a groan of long-abandoned hinges, but without preamble, he entered, ready for the signs of hostile intent directed at him.
Dazzling golden light greeted him, and he narrowed his eyes as he walked into the gigantic Emperium Chamber. His footsteps echoed on the marble floor as he felt the door slowly shut behind him. "Be careful, Dai," he whispered. He had to do this. The honor of the Warriors of the Shadow rests on him, for they have been hired to destroy the Emperium of the guild castle that had reigned over the archer city of Payon for centuries. The populace had turned out all their money for their service, and personally, even if there was no money involved, he'd do it with a single look on the starving, oppressed people of the eastern city. It was time to put an end to the Ciela's reign of tyranny, and he will end it today. By destroying the Emperium, the energies that bind the castle together will cease to be, and they have about five minutes to flee the area before it crumbles on them.
There, Yuki finally saw it. The golden stone of the Emperium, nestled on a floating stone high up at the center of the cavernous room. It had floating torches surrounding the platform, identical to the same ones dotted around the circular chamber, about a quarter mile in diameter. "There it is," he whispered half to himself. There were no defenders. Well, so much the better. A single, concentrated Aura Blade would destroy the stone to pieces--
"Well, well, if not for the Shadow Dragon himself," a woman's deep voice echoed throughout the stone walls of the room. "I did not expect you."
He knew that voice. His head snapped around, trying to look where it came from. One gauntleted hand was on the foot-long handle of his Zweihander, ready to unsheath it at a second's notice.
"Here, here, Yuki." The voice suddenly became focused. He whirled around, let his eyes climb, and saw a Champion sitting on the edge of the floating platform, one leg drawn to her body, the other swinging on air. Her long, flowing jet-black hair, tied in a high-ponytail fashion, moved restlessly as if by some unseen wind. He could still see the ribbon she had used to tie her hair, identical to the one on his, that signified their undying friendship.
"Miyu," he said breathlessly, almost reeling from thinking as to why Miyu was here. Could it be...? Was she... was she the legendary Mistress of Pain he had been hearing about? The one who had decimated entire bands of Pronteran soldiers and killed an entire guild? Was she...
"I'm glad you still remember, Yuki." The Champion stood and leaped to the floor below, a drop of more than a hundred feet, but she landed as light as a feather, a gloved fist on the floor, down to one knee, the same skirt-like garment like his, but colored white and embroidered with gold flapping down behind her. Her ponytailed hair settled on her shoulders as she stood up, her dark eyes fixed on him. "So we meet again."
He walked closer, tentatively. "What are you doing here, Miyu...?"
She just stood there, a hand clasping her other arm in front of her. Her fitting short trousers, colored black, only reached to her mid-thighs, and she had mean-looking boots on her. But it was not the high-heeled variety. Rugged, and bone-breaking.
"Miyu?"
"Why, of course, Yuki, I need to survive," she replied softly. "When we parted together to meditate on becoming a Champion... I met lots of people. And they taught me how to survive. I was not the easy-going Wizard you've known when you were an assassin, Yuki. My experiences had forced me to be strong, and to live in this world of men. I needed to defend myself so I won't be hurt, because you weren't there anymore to protect me, and because I couldn't reach you. I learned how to live on my own. I learned how to kill people--as you did, to protect myself."
"What are you saying?"
"I haven't forgotten you, Yuki. I've always dreamed about you, yearned to be by your side. For the first two years we've been apart, I was always crying whenever I wake up without you sleeping on the floor beside my bed. But not now. People grow out of their shells, Yuki. I don't need the protection of a man anymore."
"Miyu, this isn't the time for this. We've just met, and--"
"This is the perfect time," she interrupted, and held her hand up. The tight-fitting gauntlets covered only the roots of her fingers, and he could see her slender fingers. But then they contracted and turned into a hard fist. "I was a victim of an animal lust, Yuki." Her eyes were dead, expressionless. "All because you weren't there when I needed you. Where were you, when that animal was engorging himself on my body? Where were you when I was crying myself to sleep, trying to forget the stigma of what had happened? You weren't there. You were busy repenting for your sins, when those sins were the only ones that might have protected me!"
"Miyu..." His fingers tightened. Miyu was raped...? Oh my God... no...
"Now I've become stronger. No man would violate me ever again." Her raised fist glowed bright blue. "I was hired by this guild to protect their Emperium. It is so nice of Fate to bring you here. This is where it ends, Yuki, where you will die by my hand, of dying as an oathbreaker! Yuki...! Look! LOOK AT WHAT I'VE BECOME!!!"
Without warning she crashed her glowing fist onto the floor in front of her, and as a deafening sound ensued, the ground cracked, faultlines spreading out in a spiderweb pattern around her fist. A ring of light suddenly erupted from her arm and the floor itself exploded in a shower of stones and marble shards. But it didn't end there. The shockwave traveled from her fist across the floor, a snaking fissure that moved at lightning's speed direct for him. But for Yuki, evading it was as easy as dodging a child's punches. He leaped onto the air, surveying the amount of damage Miyu could do with a single strike of her fist. He saw her looking up at him, in slow-motion, and--
He didn't see what happened afterwards. Miyu moved in mind-numbing speed that Yuki saw her watching him, still on the ground, and the next instant she wasn't there. A blur of images materialized themselves to form Miyu on her leap apex just in front of him, still in the air, and his eyes widened at the improbable speed of his enemy.
"DODGE THIS, YUKI!" she snarled. She made a spin while on-air, but when she turned to face him again, one of her fists was blazing with blue fire, and she directed it right at the Lord Knight. Her fist cut through air at a speed rivalling a crossbow bolt, and it actually whistled as it came for him.
But Zanyuki didn't become the Shadow Dragon for nothing. The Shadow Dragon, his moniker, was actually derived from the tales of drunkards at inns who had witnessed his gruesome slaying of figures that his clients had paid him to take out. The Shadow Dragon was one of the feared assassins of Rune-Midgard, rising after the cataclysmic war on Glast Heim that left people starving, poor, and desperate, and the armies of the world scattered and reduced to less than five percent of their former strength. The world had thus turned on independent armies for hire, called mercenaries, to keep order on the world. Zanyuki somersaulted to dodge the attack, landed on Miyu's shoulder, and used her as a leverage to leap out away again, far behind her.
The two combatants landed, separated by about fifty feet of space split apart by a fissure on the ground, and their backs turned to each other. Yuki heard her sneering voice far behind him, echoing on the hall. "You've grown faster than ever, Shadow Dragon. But you cannot surpass me in skill, Yuki. That is the truth."
"I do not wish to fight you, Miyu. This is senseless fighting!" he insisted. "I will destroy that Emperium whatever it takes. Do not stand in my way, Miyu."
"And what if I do stand in your way, Yuki? Would you kill me, then?"
"This isn't necessary. Please let me be on my way to complete my job, and I will leave you to continue your revenge against me afterwards. But do not bar my way, or my code shall require me to cut you down."
"Do try, Shadow Dragon."
"You are wasting my time, Miyu." He unsheathed his giant Zweihander, a sword without a cross-guard, and the blade gleaming in the light from the torches and the Emperium itself. He cast it sideways with both hands, in a horizontal position beside him, and crouched. "We will talk later." He jumped straight for the Emperium, a halo of bright light emanating from his feet on the ground as they left the floor.
Miyu just shook her head. At a blink of an eye she was hurtling for Yuki's fleeting form, and in the next she was already in front of him. But she had used this before, and knew what to expect; though, this time around, she was faster. She didn't waste time on charging her fist up, but instead used her momentum to execute a perfect spin. This move terminated on her making a roundhouse kick mid-air, but Yuki covered himself with the wide blade of his sword to intercept her foot coming in contact with his exposed body, which would prove fatal. But the power of the attack was too much for his expectations. The force of the kick on his Zweihander brought him rocketing towards the ground, and he dropped from his leap, lancing through the air like some shooting star.
He gnashed his teeth as he landed, and even then, he didn't expect that that much force was imparted through his body. His feet buried through the hard marble floor, gouging through the hard, polished stones like some gigantic hammer had smashed onto it, and he looked up in time to see Miyu casting a spell, right before reaching her leap apex.
"Dammit!" She's fast, he thought grimly. Even her spellcasting was.
"Fire Ball!!" A total of ten fire balls spurted out from her outstretched hand, and rained down on Yuki. Or rather, on his position. Realizing before that he was the spell's target, he immediately darted away from the area, right as the balls of explosive fire utterly scorched where he was stuck a moment ago. Fountains of pulverized and burned marble shot up from where the Fire Ball spell impacted, and Zanyuki was already running quickly towards her landing point.
I just have to disable her, he thought. And he was right. Miyu landed just as he reached optimal slashing range, and he swung his humongous weapon at a furious sideswiping blow. But she was as quick as him. As the Zweihander made a menacing arc of white energy on the air she ducked under it and pirouetted while crouched, intending to clip him on his leg with a ferocious circular kick. But he all knew about that tactic. Knowing that he had been evaded from, he launched himself into the air and prepared for a blitzkrieg move.
His knees drawn to his body, he shot out the Zweihander, on one hand now, to one side as his other hand found the Muramasa still on its scabbard. There wasn't any time to lose, and to hesitate. He drew it out, flipped it so he held it as he would a stabbing knife, and descended much like a sweeping falcon, both swords extended: the curved edge of the Muramasa held down below him, the tip pointed sideways, the Zweihander trailing behind him for a follow-up attack.
Miyu narrowly evaded the downward slash from the Muramasa, jumping a step back as its plowed right onto the floor with a thunderous crash, sending fragments of stones right between them. It was just what he needed. Before his knees could absorb the sudden landing he flailed his other arm with the Zweihander right in an oblique slash in front of him. Its over five feet of mithril blade would surely reach Miyu through all that shower of stones.
And it did, and her eyes widened as the unexpected blade of the Zweihander shot out from the still fountaining explosion of shattered marble tiles. Yuki was faster than anyone she had ever seen. He truly deserved the title of the Shadow Dragon, and that time, there wasn't any doubt left any more in her that he really was that cold-blooded killer.
"Steel Body!!" It was in the nick of time. The Zweihander rang against her forearm, the colossal blade finding its match. Her skin was as hard as steel now, and the clash of the mithril blade against her without her arm being cut off provided a testimonial to her skill.
"Aaahh..." However, it wasn't that simple to block a Zweihander, as she found out. Its weight, coupled with its momentum, would surely throw anyone off-balance even guarding against it. She was flung sideways, and would really bounce and flounder on the ground if not for her discipline. She rolled on the ground as she fought for friction to halt being thrown back too far, and finally rolled sideways and stopped half-crouched, her leg stretched obliquely on her side, the other half-kneeling, and one fist on the floor again. Dissipating clouds of dust were billowing right where she had been thrown on the ground, and her head slowly looked up to watch him.
Zanyuki straightened and turned his head at her, both of his swords held at knife-stabbing stance. "I told you to get out of my way, Miyu. Why should I fight you? This isn't what I've been hoping to do when we meet..."
She stood up herself, brushing dust from her garments. "It seems I have to take you seriously this time, Shadow Dragon. You have improved tremendously, I must admit."
He shook his head. "Shadow Dragon, Shadow Dragon. Don't call me that!" He was both sad and angry. "I'm not that person anymore. I don't kill if it isn't necessary, Miyu. And I will not kill you most of all. I..."
"Well, I will kill you, Yuki. Don't go thinking that because you cannot kill me, I won't too." She crouched on full battle stance. "Aren't we gonna continue this fight, Shadow Dragon? I'm beginning to enjoy this."
"Stop it Miyu."
"I won't stop until I can taste your blood, Yuki." She closed her eyes as if savoring the air. "Now you will die."
"Miyu, I don't want to do this."
"Then DIE!" A white aura blasted away from her as her jet-black hair flapped against her power, and it seemed she was glowing with her own energy. Her clothes were being blown by that energy, and her eyes were burning like ice. "I've never fought against you, Yuki, but if I had, I could've easily killed you even back then! Now... taste the wrath of--STORM GUST!!"
Yuki shielded himself from the sudden onslaught of cold, as Miyu twirled on one foot once, then extended a palm right at him. Two concentric rings of light exploded outward from her hand as a visible, white wind erupted from it, biting and freezing with the cold, complete with razor-sharp icicles all racing for him. Yuki tsked. Storm Gust, one of the three most powerful spells of the wizard, would do him in a blink of an eye once that freezing wind reaches him. He had to break away, or he had to prevent it from touching it. But how... how--
That's it! He raised his Zweihander with the tip down, and glowed with his own power. This is the only way. The Storm Gust was exploding parabolically outward from Miyu at such dazing speed, and he needed a few moments more to successfully evade such powerful spell. Irrelevantly, he thought that nobody had ever dodged that spell before, and he would try to break that record.
The sword seethed bright yellow, like burnished gold, as a lazily-rotating glyph appeared perpendicular to the blade right at its center. "MAGNUM... BREAK!!" Yuki forced it down on the ground in front of him with no small force, driving it down on the marble floor.
A whirwind of fire emanated from the sword itself, building upwards like a column of fire, then spread outwards in a spiralling motion. Or rather, tried to. Storm Gust devoured the fire, trying to penetrate the pillar of fire, but all it did was to isolate Yuki in a teardrop-shaped shield of fire, the point trailing behind him, Yuki's clothes, hair, and even his entire being fluttering against the cold winds that not even the searing heat of Magnum Break couldn't keep out.
"You are a fool to trust a swordsman's skill against the fury of the blizzard, Yuki! You are even a larger fool than I had expected!"
I trust no one, he thought. I trust nothing. As the Zweihander vibrated with obvious force as it fought the spellcasting effects of Storm Gust, he proceeded to steady his hands on the shoulders of the blade as it stuck down on the ground, and with one heave, used it as leverage to propel himself to the air. His feet left the ground quickly, visible winds from the Magnum Break skill trailing below him like fiery threads made of embers.
"What?" Miyu mouthed.
Zanyuki was leaping straight as an arrow, right above the consternation of Storm Gust versus Magnum Break, the latter slowly losing, and his hand was on the hilt of his Muramasa, drawn and steady beside him. His trajectory was diagonal, meaning he was about to land in a short while and finish her off on the ground, but she wasn't going to let him. Teleporting right near him would be fatal, since his sword was already out and it was considerably faster than the heavy Zweihander, so she needed to strike at him at a range.
She crouched and leaped backwards, cutting off her support for Storm Gust that instantly dissipated yet left shattered icicles falling on the ground, her left fist drawn up behind her. Before she landed this fist snapped to Zanyuki's direction on mid-air, and white light seethed around it again.
"Soul Strike!!"
Yuki saw it. White comets of energy were driving themselves towards him with a speed like that of an arrow released. But he was ready. He brought out his sword and slashed at the first; the comet was sliced into two just like any flesh, and he brandished his Muramasa to encounter the next wave.
"Impossible..." Miyu said. Yuki was dodging all Soul Strike projectiles, or else sweeping his sword at those too fast to be evaded from. How is he able to perform precise, demanding maneuvers without using any solid support, while in mid-air? she asked herself. "Incredible..." His lower garment was waving against his movement, and he was like executing perfect dancing motions up while defending himself. No assassin could do that, she believed. No one could evade magic, she knew, much less slash at it with a blade, however finely forged it had been.
Then it was time for reality back again. As Yuki slashed the last one with a perfect downward stroke, he landed on one foot, the springing motion of his leg and on tiptoes absorbing the shock of the high descent. And he wasted no time on positioning himself; he was already in position. Inclining his entire upper body forward, almost parallel to the ground, he made a blitz assault run, his left arm held up in front of him as a shield, the other holding his Muramasa in anticipation of a glancing slash from the side. His speed was like lightning, and his passage rent the air in front of him, straight for the last few meters separating him from the Champion.
This is so good! she thought grimly. The Mistress of Pain had never been able to fight a battle like this one before, and it was so ironic that the worthy adversary she had been hoping for had always been her closest friend. But her closest friend no more--only her most dangerous enemy. She sprang from her position with the grace and swiftness of foot like a cat, sprinting as fast as Yuki himself, straight to his attacking form. Their speed of closure was extremely fast, and the ground in their wake groaned and cracked under the pressure of their fleeting run.
"AURA BLADE!!"
What the hell? she thought. At the last moment, as the Muramasa was enveloped in blue-white flames that traced across the sword's slice path like a translucent blue field, she increased her speed to strike at Yuki before he could swipe at her. That thing on his sword looks like trouble, she judged. I have to hit him--!
Yuki slashed, from the side slicing up his sword up front ending in him pointing it tip forward.
Miyu struck. Her fist nearer Yuki darting from behind to the front, shooting out as fast as a crossbow bolt.
Their momentum was too great, their speed too extreme that they passed through each other, frozen at the last instant they've done, with scores of feet separating their backs. Silence ensued.
Yuki's silver hair fell down on his shoulders all of a sudden, as the blue ribbon he was using to tie it fell on to his leg, cut to three. The aura from his Muramasa died out, as he bent to clutch the ribbon in his free hand, silent, his back turned to the Champion.
"You must know that I surpass you both in skill and power, Yuki," Miyu said, straightening up and turning to face him. "You can never defeat--"
The sash that held her cloak together around her waist fell down to the ground, severed into smaller pieces as if by a tailor, the red cloth in disarray. Her cloak revealed her frontguard, a Monk's armor that covered her breasts and stomach, and nothing at all. Her loose belt was slung on one side of her hip. She looked down her front, surprised, and slowly watched Yuki rising from the floor, the ribbon in his hand, the Muramasa at the other. His long silver hair fell into a straight pattern around his shoulders and down to his back, a bit choppy at the edges, but through all that, Miyu felt a change in him.
"Miyu, do you really want to end our friendship that much?" he asked her quietly.
"There was no friendship, Yuki. If I only knew, you were just waiting for the right opportunity to do the same to me as that who had first deflowered me. Isn't that right? You men are all the same."
He turned. Miyu saw with shock as tears on his cheeks, glistening against the golden light. And realized with shock that it was hurting her. "Do you... do you really believe that, Miyu? Do you... think that of me...?"
She was silent, her emotions battling for control.
"I didn't know... Miyu. If only I had... if only I've been stronger I could've... I could've protected you. But I didn't know... do you know how much that... pains me?" He bobbed his head sharply, his hands tightening on the hilt of his sword, his teardrops splattering on the floor beneath him, catching the golden light as they fell. "I was so weak, then. I needed to travel across nations to finally become what I am. If I hadn't... I might have prevented what had happened. I am so sorry, Miyu, that I sought power... but I did that only because of you."
She bit her lip. "This is nonsense, Yuki. Let's fight."
"Miyu, I would gladly offer my life for you. I will, even now. I've never thought of you as that. I've been killing, can you remember, because when I found you, I was impoverished myself. I had nothing to feed you so I killed for money..."
"Fight me, Shadow Dragon!" she screamed. "Fight me--"
"I am sorry, Miyu, for what happened." He sobbed, his entire body wracked with it, his eyes shut tight as if to stop himself but couldn't. "I wasn't there when you needed me. I... am a worthless weakling..."
"Curse you, Shadow Dragon," she whispered. A teardrop fell from her eye. Then another. Her eyes widened as she touched her wet cheeks. Crying...? I am... crying...?
He held up the ribbon. "This is the last remembrance I had of you, Miyu, and you've destroyed it." He opened his eyes, shiny with tears. "I cannot forget you, Miyu... I will... never... forget... you."
Her heart was about to explode from the constriction it felt inside her chest. She felt that she couldn't breathe properly.
"If this will be the end of the friendship between us, Miyu," he said, "then let's finish it quickly."
"Yuki..."
Golden energy flashed out from him in all directions, and he gleamed like the afternoon sun. Stray rocks and uprooted stones were tossed away from him as his hair and clothes beat against him as if a strong wind was blowing underneath his feet. His face was downcast, the sword held in a knife-stabbing stance, the other hand holding the ribbon.
"Let's end this, Miyu. This is the end for both of us..."
"YUKI!!" She flared bright blue herself, a vortex of energies swirling around her. The floor cracked like glass below her feet, and her hair and garment did the same as those of Yuki's. She was exerting tremendous pressure on the ground, and an aura of blue-white light were swirling around her body. "I will not hesitate... I will not hesitate... I WILL KILL YOU!!"
Five blue, flaming spheres emerged around her, circling about her like spirit attendants, and their presence just increased her overall power potential. Entire slabs of marble cracked, raised, and disintegrated into fine powder all around her, as her power bore down to the ground, creating a shallow crater of spiderwebbing faultlines.
"Take this!"
She used the skill Body Relocation to teleport herself right in front of Yuki, who was still looking down at the ground, unable to meet her eyes. As her image materialized like scanlines coalescing together to form a coherent figure of a woman, the spirit spheres fused together on her raised fist, and it burned like the noonday sun, blazing hot and fiery.
"ASURA... STRIKE...!!"
Her fist descended down on him like a meteor, that even the air itself burned through the transit of the Champion's ultimate attack, her final move that destroyed an entire battalion of soldiers in a single strike. What speed the Lord Knight demonstrated before, though, paled in comparison to what he had done as the Asura Strike came for him. He was so fast Miyu thought he had Body-Relocated himself; he simply wasn't there in an instant, gone before even the speed of her ultimate move could destroy his entire body.
She couldn't control it. Her fist landed on the ground... and exploded the floor in a move much more suited for the spectacular spellcasting power of a wizard. Within a split-second, a flash of white light radiated from her fist outward until it covered a circular area of about fifty meters in diameter. And then the affected ground, marked by the light, swelled upwards, and erupted. A shower of broken rocks, stones, jagged fragments of marble and steel scaffolding fountained into the air as her fist drove down, and down, and down, outward and outward until she herself floated amidst the crater she had created, among the flying debris and the column of energy issuing out from the crater itself. It was pure destruction, and she gritted her teeth. It's taking too much time! she thought, a split-second past from her hitting the ground. He is somewhere--
And she felt him. He was somewhere above her, and closing fast. Forcing her to land on the bottom of the crater, three-quarters of a second past with the destroyed fragments of the floor still raining upwards, she looked up, and saw Zanyuki darting amongst the jet of stones littering the sky of the room--and straight downward to her. She snarled. Yuki was coming closer, and fast. He was very quick. She only had a microsecond to react. She had to do it--NOW!
She launched herself into the air as the way for both combatants was cleared of debris and obstacles. Now only air stood between them; Yuki was whirling, spiralling downward in a perfect diving slash, the Muramasa held behind him below his shoulder, while the Champion herself was in a likewise perfect oblique rising leap, one fist held outward from her.
This ends today, Yuki, she thought ruefully. If only you've known. If only you haven't gone away... I had so much to tell you. I was about to tell you how I feel when you went away... Oh Yuki... you didn't know that I've loved you...
Miyu... now your pain will end, he thought sadly. Their range was rocketing downward. I wanted to be strong to protect you, so you will never be ashamed of me. I've always thought of myself as your guardian and protector, and though I went for that training... my heart had always been with you.
Now rest, both of them told each other through their minds, though neither heard it. Rest, and earn a respite from the horrors of humanity and the world.
And I love you.
FLASH. And at long last, they met each other in a clash of metal. Their hearts had been finally...
... reunited.
"Yuki!"
Dai and the others raced into the Emperium room, their hearts beating wildly inside their ribcages. Aoikaze, the most powerful of the Gai and a Lord Knight also, looked concerned himself as he strode into the chamber, the other Warriors of the Shadow scattering behind him and spilling into the room to secure the area. "Yuki!" Dai called.
He was at the center of the chamber, right beneath the floating platform that held the Emperium. Or what was once the Emperium. The remains of the golden stone were littered all over the room, now having a color of pale, sickly yellow. Once shattered from the energies that bind the castle together, the stone will gradually turn into any other ordinary rock. But since it still had its color, it meant that they still have time.
Dai slowly walked to his kneeling form, his back turned to the others, but Aoikaze's gauntleted hand rested on his shoulder. Dai turned his gaze to his leader, who slowly shook his head and pointed.
Yuki rose, but not without someone on his arms. Raven-black hair fell down from his arms, a stark contrast to his silver hair that apparently had its ribbon cut off. And then he faced them, a look of utter sadness and grief on his face that almost broke their hearts.
"This..." Yuki swallowed. "She... was the one I... I told you the reason for... entering your guild." He looked down on the dead woman's body he cradled in his arms. "She was the only one I ever loved." A fresh teardrop fell on the woman's seemingly sleeping face.
Aoikaze nodded meaningfully.
"But I suppose... that I cannot turn my back to you any longer... can I?" He tried a brave smile. "For I killed my heart for you. Is this a test, Aoikaze? Is this... a test to see my loyalty to the Warriors of the Shadow?"
"Everything that happens in life has a reason," Aoikaze replied sagely. "And thus, everything that happens to us mortals is a test sent by the gods."
He looked at her fondly, then turned back to face them. "Then I have passed the test," he said.
Aoikaze nodded. "You are a true Gai, Zanyuki. Tai' shar Gai," he commended, meaning the "a true blood of the Warrior". It was the line told to a fighter upon induction to the guild, and the highest form of praise among them. "You are truly one of us now, and our blood will bond us."
He nodded. "Then it is time," he said simply, and stepped forward. Then another. Then two. The Gai ran to meet him with tears rimming their eyes, as Aoikaze smiled and nodded at him approvingly.
Zanyuki had passed the test, eventhough his heart had cried and wept, of killing the only ever love he had ever known.Zanyuki is Gai.