Chapter Thirteen – Tears Bled Forever
As the colossal wave of crescent energy sailed into the distance, the Scions of Uranus and Neptune came to opposite positions around Kage after their nimble escape. So far, they had both been perfectly entertained by the fact that they were given their chance to escape their clandestine hell. Being sealed in the putrid, metallic brown realm was something that had disillusioned them both with the fact that they had betrayed their own kind in order to gain the power they had; a power that had yet been untested in this place void of anything but the damned. It was only in the embrace of a lover that either one was able to avoid the madness that was existent in solitude, yet now their saving grace had come. Once, before Anubis stopped coming to them in their hell, the fallen god had told them of the only penance for their betrayal and attainment of power. One day, sometime after all hope had faded from them and their souls were just beginning to wane, their powers would reach their peak. This would be a sign. A woman would come to them, a woman that bore Anubis's power inside. This woman would ask the one thing of them that would set them free. After they did this, freedom and all of the power they had gained would be granted and they could leave their hell together. When that happened, they were promised any world they touched would be theirs. This was the level of their power. This was the level of their desires.
"He seems much smaller than before, Mi-chan. However, he is very passionate about killing us, hm?" said Shimano Roka, the first of the Legendary Scion. He always was a kind soul, with a gentle smile and a dedication to the arts. With the power of Neptune, he was a Scion that embodied beauty and fluid grace in the powers his planet had granted him. With beautiful long hair and a very feminine posture, he had always portrayed himself as someone who ruled the world with his emotions and was sensitive to all manner of pain and suffering around him. Until that moment where Kage had been destroyed, no one had ever thought of him in an unkind way.
Hiramoto Michio, the second of the Legendary Scion, was easily the antithesis of companion. Brash, brazen and possessing a temper that rivaled that of Kage's, it was hard to see how he had become the lover of Roka. The two seemed so different, yet it was when Michio was with Roka that his softer side would be revealed and the fiercely competitive man would melt away in favor of a softer, more malleable person. Like Roka, Michio was someone that, despite his presence, held himself in valiant light and served his role as a Scion with honor. He was a motorbike racing champion and a fantastic idol yet he also performed the monstrous deed that turned Kage into the raging beast that stood before them. Though both appeared the same as when Kage had called them friends, they both now existed to him only as vicious villains that deserved every ounce of pain he would deliver to them.
It was his promise over the broken body of his sister.
Michio snorted heavily, brushing his curly blonde hair from his brow while looking down at Kage with the utmost scorn. "I've been waiting an eternity to try out my new powers in a rematch against you, Kage. Now that you're here, I find that not even that pitiful sword you have can bridge the gap between us. Look at you," he snarled, looking over the heaving hulk of Kage's worn body. "You're just a rampaging beast now. That Ryushuuken style that I so admired once is completely gone now. You're just a fool swinging a big sword now."
Kage was nearly at his end, panting in his exhaustion and staring in disbelief at the moment he had been waiting for. Every moment of chaotic thought since that day had been dedicated to the desire of killing the two that stood before him. It had driven him mad, caused him to kill the innocent and even discard the heart of a beautiful person. As much as he cursed himself for being as weak as he was, nothing still existed in his mind but the purpose of revenge. Sweating, heaving and weakened, Kage fell short of himself. As the two still taunted him, Kage's muscles tightened as he gripped his sword tightly. No matter how much he tried, no matter how many attacks he sent at them, nothing he tried was working. Every slash of the sword was held with the hope of tearing flesh or screams of agony, yet each time he would merely stumble off balance and see his target linger just outside of his reach. Kage was becoming frustrated with his performance, yet their taunted caused him to lunge out once more at Michio, howling in rage as he sent the razor-sharp blade at his foe's form.
Suddenly, there was a metallic taste in his mouth. He could feel it creeping from the back of his throat and across his tongue, gagging him with crimson coughing that sprayed a mist of red droplets onto his arm. Michio stood to his side, his fist burrowed into Kage's stomach. The utter disgust on his face was enough to make Roka look away, yet he still spit upon Kage as if the sin of defeat was far worse than the sin of murder. "You're pathetic. I can't even stand to be near you," he snarled, stepping back from Kage. A flick of his hand was easily enough to send Kage's sword sliding across the plain of nothing they were standing on, leaving Kage to wrap both arms around his stomach and fall to his knees, coughing and spitting blood. Kage felt just how powerful the punch was, for there was also a small amount of blood on his arms where they cradled his broken flesh.
Michio, feeling denied the battle he had been waiting for, reached out and grabbed Kage's hair, jerking his head back and staring into the green eyes that had once so desperately interested him. "To think once I was in love with you. You were beautiful then, as if you were cut from the curtain around Heaven. Now you're filth. I can see it in your eyes," he said, leaning down to Kage's face almost close enough to taste the bloody lips. "You're broken inside. Not even your beloved sister could look at you now."
That thought caused Kage's eyes to pale. He had loved Mika so dearly that her death had turned him into something that would have frightened her, even tried to harm her. The monsters that Kage swore to protect her from were now given a face. It was the very face that Kage saw when he looked into the reflection in puddles of blood or the gleam in an innocent eye as he broke them. Kage had become that monster and there was no better person to show him than Michio. Kage screamed, straining his foul body with all of his might to reach out for Michio's throat; to have one moment of sanity where he could hear the snap of bone and the drowning of breath in blood. Michio, taken by surprise by the quick lunge, had only enough to lean back and see that spark of life in Kage's eyes once more – to see the beauty in his soul again.
There was a snap of bone, but it was not from the place Kage thought it would be. Kage's left arm was broken in three places as Michio avoided his attack, sending a massive jolt of pain through his arm and causing him to howl out once more. Falling to the ground, Kage lost any grace as he grasped his broken appendage, screaming out and writhing in utter pain.
Roka, moving up alongside Michio and placing his arm around his lover's waist, looked almost sad as he saw what Kage had become. Like Michio, he had adored Kage in earlier times, yet also like Michio, he had turned against him. That reason was something they never spoke of, but they both felt it ringing in their ears as they stared down at he who caused them to both to betray their kind. "This is too much, Mi-chan. I can't look at him like this. End it. Please," he said, burying his face into the nape of Michio's neck. Michio, undaunted by the gesture, stared down at Kage with an entire new level of contempt.
"He deserves this pain," he whispered. "It doesn't even come close to retribution of heartbreak." Though staring with eyes afire, Roka's soft embrace caused his candor to soften and he turned his head slightly, taking a moment of no regard in order to pay his lover the proper attention. "You have always been too kind. For you, I will end it and earn our freedom." Roka looked up, obviously appeased by the words, but soon both of them were stricken by a growling voice coming from Kage.
They both looked to find him struggling to his feet, his broken arm left dangling at his side like a useless instrument. His head was hanging, with blood and bile dripping from his chin, yet he spoke through bubbles of blood and torn vocal chords with such ferocity that both Scion had to pay him a moment of awe. "I won't accept pity from you two pieces of shit. Nothing that has ever been can save you from the hell I will send you to. Until this body moves no more, I will come and come again until my last breath spits my soul at you," he groaned.
Kage's eyes rose to them, their peat green hues glowing with the endless energy he seemed to possess in order to finish his task of revenge. In truth, Kage could barely stand any longer and his vision was becoming very blurry. As desperately as he wanted to fall asleep, there was a word in his mind that kept repeating over and over. Soon, Kage began to say that word, repeating along with the echo in his mind. Only after a moment of watching his lips move did Michio and Roka hear it.
"Mika…Mika….Mika."
With the building rage filling him, Kage felt his some perverse feeling of strength stabilizing him. He was sure it was the power he needed to kill them both – the power of hatred and revenge. Just as the name was causing Kage to truly feel his hatred, Michio found his blood boiling as well. The name, spoken over and over, brought back the madness to him and he jerked his arm away from Roka in a fit of rage. "Can't you think of anything besides that bitch of a sister!" he roared and brutally began pounding Kage, kicking and thrashing his body every which way but down – so that he could beat this devotion out of him. Roka was silent and stared as Michio tore through Kage like an origami crane, the pain still vivid in his voice.
By the time Kage was allowed to fall down, all of his anger had been replaced by sheer delusion. Whatever energy he had felt before had been nothing in comparison to the strength and speed of Michio. The power that he had gained in this place was more than enough to effortlessly defeat Acrolyth Kage, even if he had become blunt and graceless. While Michio stood over him, heaving with the strain of beating Kage so badly, the bloody Scion lay on the ground not moving, his eyes barely open and his mouth pried open by labored breathing. He was defeated without even landing a punch. Had he been coherent, Kage might have felt an intense shame at failing in his quest for revenge. However, the only thing existent to Kage was the shadows that were moving in and out of his vision. Nothing was focused, but he distinctly saw shades of gray across his eyes through the red haze that fouled his left eye.
There was nothing that Roka could do. Kage could not return from such a beating and Michio was devoid of any mercy to him. All he could do was watch his lover brood over the fallen Scion. All he could do was watch.
"Mi…ka…" Kage moaned as the last bit of his strength was used to mourn her. Michio was beyond fighting him anymore, so he just stood above him, snarling as the last moments of Kage's consciousness were spent in the arms of his beloved sister. It would be the end he would offer to her memory instead; a moment of hollowing regret and shame. As Kage felt the tears of his failing burning in his eyes, he suddenly saw something that widened them.
One of the shadows he was seeing moved differently than the others, moving slowly at first but then soon growing in size, as if to approach him. His breath caught in his throat, Kage stared forward at the approaching shadow, the fear of dying now very real in his trembling body. Michio and Roka both quivered themselves as they watched him squirm on the ground and breath through groaning gasps. However, this shadow stopped once it got before him, pausing as if curious about this broken soldier before it. Then, a voice so clear and beautiful pierced his ears that Kage could barely dismiss it as the idle drone of death approaching.
"Ne, nii-chan. You look so silly lying like that. You need to stand up," the voice said in utmost childishness, causing Kage to groan even more and pool his energy into reaching a bloodied hand out. As his hand created yet another shadow in his vision, his heart began to race in the light that was forming around the shadow that had approached. Soon, it was a glowing vision of a young girl, crouching down in front of him and smiling with a smile that Kage had lost to memory. With the name moaned out once more, the young girl smiled even more and tilted her head to the side. "Could you imagine what people would think if they saw you in such a position? Everybody knows that no one can beat my nii-chan, ne?"
By now, Kage was crying, mumbling incoherently through bloodied lips. His hand, no matter how hard he reached, could not reach the image of his sister and he violently despised himself for not being strong enough. "Mika…forgive me. I can't avenge you. Please…don't go," he wept, trying to push himself along the ground to get closer but feeling the intense pain in his broken arm when he tried. It was a pathetic scene indeed. This would be the atonement for all Kage had done; this was because of his arrogance and abandonment of his heart.
Yet, Mika continued to smile and remain just out of his reach. "I know how much you love me, nii-chan. But, I'd rather see you happy again than have you avenge me. You've already suffered too much because of me and I hope you forgive me for making you sad all the time," she said.
That idea made Kage feel even more shamed and he clenched his fist, burying his face into the ground and trying to scream out. Ultimately, he only groaned deeply, his face being soiled by the tears and blood. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please, forgive me! Please, Makoto!"
At the admission of the name, the two on looking Scion were slightly shocked, yet Mika clapped her hands together silently and leaned forward onto her knees to Kage, her ghostly hand moving across Kage's head. "There, see? You do love her." Although Mika was cheerful for being dead, the aspect of her brother being love made her soul fly. While Kage remained motionless on the ground before her, she continued to comfort him and speak in her cheerful voice. "The person before me now has to die, nii-chan. There is no place here for the Scion. But if you are able to use the same power as the one you love, you'll become something so much greater than this dark soldier," Mika said, touching Kage's cheek as he lifted his head to look at her. To his utter defeat, she was still smiling. "Because you are my nii-chan, I know that you can do it. All you have to do is close your eyes and see the power that you have. The love for me and the love for her…is the key to your destiny."
The ghostly image of Mika leaned forward, placing a kiss on Kage's forehead. At the same time, the last of Kage's strength disappeared and his body went limp, his peat green eyes closing for the last. However, for Michio and Roka, they both watching in horror as a blinding light spread from Kage's forehead and engulfed his body, blinding them both the birth that happened right in front of them.
Like the Scion before him, Acrolyth Kage was no more.