Chapter 13: From Humble Beginnings
Tens of millions of years ago, when the universe had finally coalesced into its whole, we the Aurians were given an unlucky lot in life. Stuck to the dirt, crawling across a barren land. No sun. No sky. Our homes laid in mounds of mud, and our bodies endured the harsh cold of space.
We were simply trash left to satiate the hunger of the cruelest hunters and the wandering predators. What was our purpose? We were too brainless to think of such things. Our race wasn't even lucky enough to have a name.
I scarcely recall my early years from the egg to the pupa, only that life was simple...Oh, how I do loathe those days.
But everything changed for our race one fateful, unforgettable day. Wreathed in light, with hair like an angel's wings, a Goddess greeted us. She was blessed with beauty divine and a caring heart bigger than our planet. She looked upon our feeble forms and played with us, teaching us the ways of her power of aura.
Through careful observation our minds clicked with inspiration. The Goddess spent only a couple days with us, but forever imparted us with her knowledge. And then, she vanished, leaving behind a statue to forever remember her by.
Many days, many months, many years passed. We molded the power of aura to our bodies and gained the ability to defend ourselves, though nowhere near as well as our Goddess. But daily life was barely the same. The same monotonous routines. The same planet. The same stars. Praying to the statue of our Goddess truly breathed life into those dullard days...And may very well have saved us from a terrible, terrible fate.
The stars grew dark. Far, far away a terrifying darkness grew to consume all in its path. It was the first time we as a species learned to fear...and to cherish life. It seemed in its ever-growing appetite we were to be the darkness' final meal.
Many crawled beneath the dirt. But there were six of us who stood in reverence to the Goddess, praying to her desperately for our survival. And our faith...was rewarded.
The darkness froze mere thousands of miles from our world, going dead silent for many days. We six stood and waited, eyeing the darkness until our eyes were dry. Then, suddenly, six lights shot forth from the darkness and fell before us like tiny stars. They glimmered with an allure not unlike a rainbow, and drew us in closer, closer, until our thimble limbs touched their glorious forms.
Power surged through our bodies, imbuing us with sights and sensations we had never known before. The six of us were forever transformed into something far beyond our peers...
I, Lepido, was granted the power of Wisdom. Anything I wished to learn, I learned instantly. And that knowledge would never be forgotten. I used this power to guide the others, teaching them to read and learn.
Ficklewick, the Spider, was granted the power of Master. With it he could master anything he set his mind to. He was the weaver of seams, and granted us species the first clothes and homes, along with a more appropriate shrine for our divine Goddess.
Aegisan, the Beetle, was blessed with the power of Valor. We no longer needed to hide in the shadows, for he stood alone against any enemy who dared try to devour us. He was an imposing warrior, and could craft and manifest any weapon he desired.
Stingle, the Wasp, had the most peculiar power out of us. His ability of Final allowed him to crystallize his thoughts into pure power. With the help of Ficklewick, they created the Drives that ours and future generations of Aurians would utilize in their daily lives. All other spares were stowed away in a vault.
Tellis, the Praying Mantis, was given the power of Limit. And though it wasn't obvious at first, his would be the power that would drive us towards a rapid decline in prosperity...
And then there was Devimoth. He was not so blessed as the rest of us. He got the Anti Drive, which molded him to the darkness of space. And that darkness drove him insane.
He started babbling on about curses, creatures beyond a static veil, and a beast that could devour all. We pitied him, but knew he could not be saved.
When he begun lashing out against his own people, cutting the blood from his flesh and enjoying the pain that came with it, we had no choice but to exile him to the darkness that spawned his power. And there he lived for millions of years.
While he toiled in solitude, we remaining Sages brought our race to new heights. For the next couple millions of years we used the Goddess' blessings to our fullest. We expanded our reach to the stars above, crafting entire worlds catered to each of our species. The dark depths of space were now full of life, and nearly as radiant as our Goddess' eyes.
None of it felt like enough. Not for someone as great, kind and selfless as her. We were her most loyal servants, her most trusted confidants. So close, that it made it easier for one of us to stab her in the back...
As our prosperity seemed at its peak, I caught eye of some frightening changes amongst our species. They were growing taller, their abdomen elongating to handle the added weight. Their arms and legs looked more...human.
A curse had been inflicted upon us and in my infinite wisdom I knew EXACTLY who to blame. I was seething with just rage at Tellis, who had exerted his power of the Limit Drive over our race.
His smug, calm demeanor represented his views as just. Cornered by my rage, he had no choice but to reveal his secrets. He had believed that we Aurians were stagnant in our evolution, and thus used his power to break through our limits and evolve into, what he called, a "superior" race.
He affirmed that it would be slow, but also that it would be inevitable.
I could not even BEGIN to describe my outrage at his betrayal. He had been my most loyal friend. Our servitude to the Goddess was supposed to be ever-lasting. And yet...he would go against her wishes and turn us into something we were not? HUMANS nonetheless?! Those rotten, spoiled children whose crimes ushered in the age of Sin?!
"Why? WHY?!" I screamed until my vision was torn. I attempted to punish that traitor to the full extent of my power...But was restrained by the other Sages.
Madness. Madness was the illness that inflicted my once faithful friends, and now tarnished our Goddess' gifts. I was truly the only sane one left. I had to flee, before the madness took me as well.
I vacated our home, never to return...
Through the whispers of knowledge I learned how my people fell. Millions of years later, our race had become half-human, half-insect, and the worlds we had toiled to make for our beloved Goddess were now poison to our bodies.
That traitor Tellis guided our people to a new world, Genestasia, and created the city of Sancturia. Then, leaving behind a son to lead a group known as the Ten Sages towards the further "prosperity" of our race, that traitor and the others vanished to the far corners of the universe.
I could only stew in my outrage, alone in the cavernous maw of a dark world abandoned by our Goddess' light. Something HAD to be done. But what? And how? Even with my infinite wisdom, I felt like I had reached a wall...
It was only after years of thinking that inspiration broke through. For the first time in millions of years, my Goddess approached me, shrouded in her purest bathe of light and whispered to me...
"Fix it."
It was so simple, yet perfect. I would fix it. Everything. EVERYTHING that had been wronged would be made right. My Goddess said it, so I knew my cause would be truly just, and not that of the traitor's...
Indeed. One more glimpse into the "progress" of this...Sancturia showed the hubris of that traitor. Long since had the Aurians abandoned our Goddess and turned to these..."Ten Sages" as their idols. Their forms were barely recognizable as the dirt-crawlers I once adored. Now they stood upright, clasping their flesh paws in false prayer.
I could not bear to wait any longer. I needed to fix this. And now that I knew I had to, my wisdom learned HOW.
It would require great power that I did not have. Mine was merely part of a great whole, after all. I hunted down the traitors one-by-one and consumed them whole, saving Tellis for last.
He was the hardest to find for merely one reason...I could not recognize him. Not content with his blasphemy, he had turned his Limit Drive upon himself. The only thing I recognized was the unique shape of his mandibles on the sides of an otherwise human mouth.
He had this lofty dream of mortality amongst his sinful creations. He feigned kindness in offering me a chance to experience humanity at his side.
I could take his terrible words only to a point.
When he insinuated that our Goddess was a figment of the imagination I...I...!
NO! Our Goddess WAS real! I felt her touch! I partook in her scent! She was real! And he was a heathen for suggesting otherwise! He had angered me for the final time. No years of friendship could ever overturn his blasphemous heart.
He was a lost cause...Merely living to be fuel for me. I devoured him without any further hesitation. But in his last breath, he inflicted me with his curse at an accelerated rate.
Humanity was inflicted upon me. I would become a sinful monster were I not to hurry. My Goddess' will still needed to be done...
Wisdom, Valor, Master, Final, Limit...I didn't need the taint of Devimoth's power. With those five alone my Cosmos Drive was complete. I needed to run a few tests, and do so with haste.
I cherrypicked nine particular individuals across the universe to see the limits of my Cosmos Drive's power. And my expectations exceeded all that I could have possibly imagined. I knew then for sure that my just cause would see its way through to the end. And that my Goddess would be pleased...
But no change comes without opposition. The Ten Sages of the time caught wind of my existence and moved to oppose me. Alone, they stood no chance, I knew that to be true.
Little did I know they were poised to commit blasphemy one final time. They created the "Neo Drive", the antithesis of our Goddess' power, and with it defied their destiny and beat me. And then, not content with proving their superiority one way, they then destroyed my body and sealed me away in my Cosmos Drive...
And until recently, my consciousness was frozen in a state of nothingness, where I could not even scream...
Having reached the tail-end of his story at long last, the Sage clicked his many tongues and murmured, "Do you feel enlightened now?"
Mew's eyes were constantly fluttering as he expanded his mouth to silently go "Whoa". He looked left and right and saw that his comrades' reactions ranged from disturbed to uncaring...Well, ok, Joe Dark was the only one doing the latter.
Mew then snapped back towards Shina and extended a hand out towards the Sage, "I feel something right now..."
He firmed out a pointer finger and remarked, "You didn't tell us why you're inhabiting Shina though."
"There is no replacement for our divine Goddess but...this girl is very, very markedly similar to her appearance-wise. She makes a worthy vessel to carry out the Goddess' will." The Sage then began smiling.
Mew stood upright, tapped his foot on the ground and waved his hand out towards Shina herself this time, "Are you hearing all that?"
Shina's brows slanted towards the ground and then gave a brief nod. She then turned her head to the Sage and remarked with genuine sympathy, "That's...that's horrible. I never knew any of that."
"Uhhh, excuse me?" Mew murmured.
"S-Shina?" Kairi stuttered in fright behind him.
Shina then turned to face the others and Mew took one step forward, thrusting his pointer finger at Shina's face, "Hello! Sancturia to Shina? Ya might want to pay attention."
He then leaned back towards Kairi and whispered with a shrug, "Was she normally like this?"
Kairi hesitated to shake her head. Mew faced Shina again and narrowed his eyes as the Sage floated precariously behind her, "Is he...filtering out what she's hearing?"
The Sage chuckled somewhat. Shina waved her hands out and boldly proclaimed, "Oh I AM listening. Mr. Sage is right."
She waved her hand to the right and said, "Aurians had lost their way. Serving false idols is EXACTLY what allowed that monster Gravitus to be born!"
She clutched and swung her fist up before her chest full of determination, "But I now have the means and the power to help my people start over fresh away from his and the Ten Sages' influence! And if y'all got a problem with that, then you can take it up with me!"
A wide breath of chilling power soaked into the ground at the group's feet. Mew's teeth grit and trembled on their own, and his fists nearly lost their tightness. He forced himself to stare Shina in the eyes.
But when he heard a whimper he turned his head and saw Kairi trembling from head-to-toe. Her eyes watered trying to look her sister in the eyes while she mustered up the courage to say something.
Mew closed his eyes then opened them flashing a smile. He turned to Shina while holding a hand back, grabbing Kairi's attention.
"Sorry Kairi, fighting your sister's unavoidable. The rest of us will try our best to snap her out of it but..." Mew clenched his fist and gave it a hefty swing out before his chest, "In the end, you're the one who's going to have to sock her one in the face."
He swept his body to the side and ignited his hands and feet full of black flames. Everyone else drew their weapons sans Saturn, who gave her glasses a gentle nudge and then crossed her arms before her chest.
"You hear that Shina?! Your sister's upset that you aren't paying attention to her!" Mew exclaimed with a grin.
"I already have my sister!" Shina's eyes flared open and she waved a hand towards the ground, where that younger version of Kairi was currently hiding for safety behind cover.
As her radiant wings spread Shina rose further off the ground and proclaimed, "And I ain't letting a faker and his merry band of traitors steal her away!"
Mew's eyes widened at the sight of the younger Kairi and his jaw dropped, rendering him speechless. Joe Dark walked up beside him and mumbled sarcastically, "She's delusional. I can see why Alex loved her..."
"Joe, just...focus on the fight please." Mew groaned. He then tightened his fists and glared fiercely up at Shina while Joe Dark swung his dagger by his side.
"You may wield the power of an Ancient Sage..." The Sage spread the wings of his robe far and wide and raised his many arms to the sky, "But my Goddess' power eclipses all! Shina Aurora...ELIMINATE THESE PESTS!"
"You got it Mr. Sage!" Shina hunched forward and the air tensed up.
"Here she-!" Mew watched Shina appear directly in front of him already halfway towards spinning her right leg towards his head.
"C-Comes?" Mew was slammed in the head faster than his emotions shifted to shock. His body slammed upon its side on the ground and went hurtling through dozens of the fake houses.
But in the same second she kicked him, Shina glided around, then thrust her leg into Joe Dark's hip, leaving him to suffer the same fate as Mew. Then she glided to the left and struck Jupiter in the jaw with a two-legged axe kick that left a slicing azure crescent in the air.
Gabriel and Riku flinched and in their shock-driven haste swung their swords at Shina only to hit her afterimages.
Jupiter grit her teeth into a wild expression as the air pressure compressed around her body like a bullet. The moment she started looking down Shina pulled her head right back and then appeared inches away from the amazon.
"Bad move babe!" Jupiter proclaimed as she clutched her fists and hammered her forehead into Shina's. A large shockwave rocked through the cage and affected parts of the ground, killing both fighter's momentum.
Jupiter stared Shina deep in her eyes and chuckled...Up until the point she saw her blood trickling down her nose.
"...Huh." Was her attempt at sounding surprised.
Shina suddenly had her hands around Jupiter's waist and whipped her around faster than the fastest tornado, ending by using all her strength into throwing her back to the ground.
Jupiter had just enough time to flip her feet towards the ground and get caught by a bouncy square pad of aura. Saturn stood by, sticking the tip of her tongue out while whipping her fingers along her keyboard in a frenzy.
"There's so much data to collect here! Hey Jupes!" Saturn briefly whisked her hand up towards the air and proclaimed, "Try and hit her with your best shot!"
Jupiter twirled her arm around as the aura contained the energy from her landing, "You got it! One meaty punch coming RIGHT UP!"
Saturn unleashed the built-up energy to launch Jupiter straight back at Shina. Before she got a chance to throw her punch Shina blitzed right past, leaving her twirling in the air as she continued to go flying.
"Oooo, you're a fast one ain'tcha?" Saturn grinned from cheek-to-cheek even as Shina landed in front of her with a fully-charged palm held up.
Saturn swiped her arm to the right and tried summoning a barrier, only for it to get halfway there before a crystallized cone smashed through. Saturn swerved to her left and let the momentum from her barrier breaking push her to safety.
She hunched over slightly and wiggled her fingers by her pockets, "C'mon! Show me what else ya got!"
Shina moved those few feet forward in an instant then started glancing left and right as two mighty darkness blasts smashed into her sides simultaneously.
Mew and Joe Dark hopped out of the rubble nearby and Mew had a big ol' grin on his face calling out to Joe Dark, "Look at that, we're already synchronizing our attacks!"
"Ghhh...!" Joe Dark growled, slowly widening his eyes as his hand was pushed back against, same with Mew's.
Blue electricity filled the darkness as Shina appeared to be gently pushing them aside. She rose into the air, aimed the darkness down at their senders and proclaimed, "Hey! Anyone here lose their darkness?!"
She launched them back without a punchline. Mew and Joe Dark caught the darkness in their hands and tried to swallow it back up, only for that electricity to start snapping up to their shoulders and then proceeded to slam their bodies to the ground.
While Shina was distracted Gabriel flew in and sliced horizontally across her stomach. She didn't flinch and quickly turned her wide, fury filled eyes upon him.
Gabriel cautiously held his sword upright and felt sweat form on his cheeks, but kept his stare firmly on her.
"OUT OF THE WAY GABRIEL!" Jupiter roared from up-high. Gabriel hopped ten feet away while Shina cocked her head back around.
In the blink of an eye there was a massive plume of dirt where Shina stood as Jupiter drove her through the bottom of the false city. Mew was only just starting to get back up when the ground broke apart and rose beneath him.
Shina had her hand lightly held around Jupiter's fist and stood in the relatively same pose as the ground shattered around her.
Once they breached the city's underside a shockwave from Shina's feet stopped them completely in place. She then finished looking up at Jupiter, and shook her head.
"I looked up to you guys...You were supposed to be our biggest heroes!" Shina slanted her eyes and her voice turned outright vicious, "But you're just Gravitus' thugs!"
Jupiter grit her teeth and thrust her other fist out at Shina's face. It seemed to connect, only for her to find it caught upon Shina's other palm. Shina tightened all her fingers and crunched the amazon's bones, the effects reaching up to her arms.
Shina let go and floated Jupiter a few inches away, then thrust a high-pressure blast to send her hurtling through back up through the hole. All the separate bits of her wings detached and pursued their target.
Jupiter jerked back and firmly crossed her arms as the bits repeatedly stabbed into her skin. Blood was drawn and mixed with her sweat.
"Heh, this is a tough fight! I'm getting excited now!"
She was launched through the hole and into the center of a series of warped azure spears growing out of the ground. Jupiter had a brief laugh that slowly lost energy as the spears fired at her.
Saturn appeared before Jupiter and dramatically whipped her hand out to protect them with a round barrier. The spear tips rippled the aura on impact.
"Hahaha!" Saturn pressed a finger on the bridge of her glasses and turned sideways, "You're facing the greatest superheroine in the universe, nay, the COSMOS! And I-"
The spears started phasing through the barrier and Saturn sucked her lips in, a mild "Eep!" slipping through. Her eyes then darted around the battlefield and she proclaimed, "What are y'all standing around for?! Do something!"
Mew pulled himself up off the ground and looked around. Shina was floating back up. Joe Dark and Gabriel were on the other side of her, Riku was to the left of him, and Kairi was on her butt trembling at Shina. But at least she was a safe distance away.
Riku and Gabriel got the same idea and went after the spears. Mew glared at Shina but only got to for a millisecond before she was off in the air, grabbing the two warriors by the back of their heads and slamming them together.
Mew tried looking at her again and this time, focused on the Sage's spectral form. He then looked at the black flames in his hand and curled a fist.
He turned up and shouted, "HEY SHINA!"
After she effortlessly tossed Riku and Gabriel aside like trash she turned to Mew with a contempt filled glare. Mew punched upward and launched a black flaming missile towards her.
She swerved to the left like a frame-by-frame shot and the missile struck Saturn's barrier, covering the outside with explosive black flames.
Mew heard a bunch of shattering noises and saw fragments of the spears fall down.
"Heh!" Mew smiled. Shina glanced back and then down at Mew. She held her hand out and reformed the spears, having them aimed at Mew.
Mew's eyes widened and he veered to the right out of their way, stretching his arm left to rip one up and, with a quick flick of the wrist, toss it right back.
She moved forward past the spear and then with two faster movements got right before Mew with her face planted inches from his. Mew kept his courage strong and tried uppercutting her in the jaw.
It was his bones that felt the pain instead, right down to the elbow. Mew cockily smirked but inside was going "OW OW OW!"
Shina dug her chin into his knuckles and shoved his arm down. But while she was doing that Mew had snuck his other fist into the darkness. There he absorbed the darkness to increase his fist's mass until it was the size of Shina's body.
"GOTCHA!" He proclaimed at the very moment his fist fired out of the darkness beside her. He dragged her along his knuckles for a good many feet.
"Tch...!" Shina grunted with surprise, "Uh uh! No way buster!"
She suddenly stalled in place and sliced through the darkness with a whip of her hand. Mew pulled his hand out before he got cut and then sprinted after Shina.
He reeled his fist back and Shina widened her eyes, preparing to counterattack. Mew grinned and then opened a dark rift in his way while hastily proclaiming, "LATER GUYS!"
Shina fluttered her eyes as Mew disappeared into the darkness. She turned her head around and wondered aloud, "Alright ya fake, whaddya up to?!"
The Sage snarled his slimy mouth and muttered, "Do not lose focus...he could be anywhere."
Joe Dark leaped out from the shadows with his dagger dangerously close to the back of Shina's head, "He's not the one you should fear, bug."
Joe Dark got a sharp cut on her skull and she turned around with a furious look in her eyes. She began raising her right hand only for shadow-y tendrils to wrap around and pull them down.
Riku was behind her in Dark Form, pulling as hard as one arm would allow. Joe Dark gathered darkness in his dagger and sliced Shina straight up the center of her body, leaving a brief but vibrant black scar.
"Your brother's irritating but that works to our advantage here!" Joe Dark prepared more darkness for a stabbing attack only for Shina to clasp her hands up against the blade and fizzle the darkness out.
She ripped her arms down and threw Joe Dark to the floor. Her earlier motion pulled Riku in closer and snapped the tendrils off her arms. Right as Joe Dark began to rise so too did her legs, smashing them both in their heads with a mountain-splitting kick. And yet, for how hard she hit, her motions were as graceful as a ballerina.
The two shot through the air so far that they were basically out of the action for now. Shina then turned her attention towards Gabriel, who stood his ground firmly and stuck to his same defensive stance.
Before Shina could utilize her unnatural speed she found herself trapped inside of a tetrahedron with a familiar color. Then another layer shaped like a diamond formed over it, followed by a three-dimensional sphere, and then a cube.
Saturn haughtily nudged her glasses up while thrusting her palm down, "I got her this time Jupes! Let 'er have it!"
"With pleasure!" Jupiter smashed her fists together and then dove straight down. She enlarged her right fist to four times its normal size, blood sputtering from her wounds. She tightened her grit and wasted no time smashing her fist into the side of the outermost barrier.
Shina crouched down and laughed, "Ha! I can take it!"
But the barrier did not break. Instead, the whole cage trembled with a massive ripple. Saturn curled her lips like a cat's smile and proclaimed, "Oh YEAH?!"
A massive quake shook the ground as a thick bubble of pure force emerged from the other side of the spot Jupiter punched and hit the next barrier in line.
The barrier absorbed it and a greater quake rocked the ground. Saturn let the shaking air blow her coat up for dramatic effect as she crossed her arms and explained, "The power of my Containment Drive doesn't just contain all manners of force, it can also store it!"
She then punched her fist out and Jupiter mimicked the same motion, throwing more force into the barrier to start the process over.
"And by layering the barrier out precisely enough, I can AMPLIFY its strength!"
The physical force kept smashing its way through towards Shina, who stood her ground in the same pose with her eyes wide-open.
Saturn pulled her head back as far as it'd go and burst into laughter, "This ain't our first rodeo with cosmic forces!"
She rose with a mighty smile bursting with confidence, "But with the power of our teamwork, we can rise to meet the Gods at their level!"
At the final stretched the force of Jupiter's two punches combined together into a bullet of un-calculable power and bore down Shina's unflinching resolve. Jupiter backed away with a couple hops and braced herself as the barrier split wide-open. A violent glass shattering noise filled the entire cage and toppled most of this fake city over.
The air was vibrating so much that one could see the individual molecules that made it up. It was a rare sight that only these warriors could've handled. And when it was over, it did manage to have an effect on Shina too.
She trembled slightly after her body was launched roughly fifty feet back. She planted her left foot in the ground, swung her head up, then waved her hands towards her chest.
"I can take it." She declared in a rough-'n-tumble type of voice.
Jupiter scowled and hung her fists towards the ground, "Ah come on, that was our best shot."
Saturn meanwhile was tapping away at her keyboard with a manic gleam in her eyes, "Oh but this data is great! Its a victory no matter how it went down!"
"Cat I can't believe I'm telling ya this but...maybe this ain't the best time?" Jupiter said with a head-hung sigh.
As Shina rose back up the Sage was in a giggling fit, "Wonderful! Splendid! And this is but a taste of what the Cosmos Drive can do you heathens!"
The Sage eyed the nervous looks of his enemies and began to smile. But then he felt something he hadn't in forever: The cold.
Mew slowly emerged from the darkness behind him with his claw half-drawn and a murderous look in his eyes.
"N-NO!" The Sage spun and in turn so did Shina. But Mew shot his claw forth at just the right moment and slashed a couple of the Sage's arms right off.
A bright blue mist spewed out of his limbs as he screeched in terror. Shina turned her head back with a shocked expression while Mew reeled his claw back for a second go.
"Hold still Shina, you got a bug on your back." His tone was half-joking.
His second attempt ended with Shina grabbing him by the wrist tightly enough to break the darkness around it. She slowly pulled him in and locked onto his eyes. She was staring into his soul, he was looking into an endless abyss of stars...
The Sage covered his wounds and started hissing and screaming, "HERETIC! BLASPHEMER! SLAY HIM NOW!"
Shina's eyes started to tremble and her voice cracked as she whispered, "You look too much like him..."
"Shina, listen-" Mew was pulled up to be more level with Shina's face as she screamed, "NO! YOU LISTEN!"
"How dare you exist..." Shina squeezed her fist and even with all his strength Mew was feeling his bones break, "Why does Gravitus have to keep tormenting me and MY family?! What did we ever do to him?!"
She spun back and tossed Mew against the broken ground. Mew hastily dug his claws into the stone to slow down, but the weakened wrist hurt his efforts.
Shina appeared before him and swung her foot into his chin, then quickly planted her heel on his face to slam him down, cracking the ground around the impact zone.
"If that coward can't fight like a man then I'll just keep breaking his toys until he does!"
Shina flinched and turned around, shifting sideways to avoid the clean swing of Gabriel's blade. He immediately moved to slice at her legs not to hurt her, but to make her retreat. Shina's eyes trembled with rage and she clenched her fists at the sight of him.
Gabriel locked eyes with her and raised his body in defense. Saturn and Jupiter began to move but Gabriel subtly nudged his head to stop them.
"...You've changed Shina. I can tell from the look in your eyes." He spoke softly as his eyes slanted in a mournful manner.
"Yeah, that's right. I'm not the same little girl you tricked into leaving her home." Shina slanted her glare but Gabriel responded by closing his eyes and remaining quiet.
"...Sis and I trusted you. But you were just another of Gravitus' loyal lap dogs. None of it was real! Your love was fake!" Shina swung her arm out and declared, "You just wanted me out of the way so Gravitus could get to Kairi!"
"You and Auris both used me," Shina tightened her fists and Gabriel opened his eyes with a firm stare, "But you're here and she's not. I'm not surprised. That drunkard's sitting at home doing nothing like she always does..."
"Judge me however you wish. I deserve it," Gabriel slanted his eyes and spoke with a firm, fatherly tone, "But you do not get to talk that way about your mother."
Shina suddenly appeared directly before Gabriel with her hand planted on his chest and her eyes burning like a hundred suns.
"She is NOT my mother..." Shina shattered Gabriel's chest plate and then forced the metal shards through his body, taking careful care to avoid his organs.
Saturn and Jupiter tried a pincer attack but Shina ducked down and started breakdancing, whipping the two up in a tornado that launched them skyward.
Shina rose and stabbed her hands up, summoning a spear for each foe. Saturn helped herself with a barrier but Jupiter took a piercing strike to the abdomen. Shina swung her hands to her hips and slammed the two far away onto the ground, turning back to Gabriel without breaking her stride.
"I saved Kairi! I DID!" She planted her hand on her chest and widened her eyes all the way, "And you won't take me away from her again!"
She curled her fist and muttered in a confident, grizzled tone, "You can't take me away from her again..."
Blood trickled out of Gabriel's mouth but he remained the same stalwart warrior as always, "This isn't real Shina. You must know that."
"It IS real. You can't trick me. I am DONE playing the fool!" Shina raised her hand and three spears appeared overhead, poised to strike Gabriel.
Gabriel's grip on his katana remained firm as the shaking of the spears signaled their descent. He tried to swing ahead of time but the spears curved their forms to round his blade and impale his sides and arms. The spears vanished into the ether upon impact to be replaced by more.
Gabriel stood still and moved his blade around, failing to even nick one of the spears. Shina kept targeting different parts of his body. She wanted him to feel pain, to know even a fraction of what she felt.
Gabriel slowly held his blade out horizontally and summoned a shield with a glyph on it. When the spears came in contact with it time stopped momentarily.
The black expanse summoned forth was then slashed in half by the swing of Shina's hand along with Gabriel's barrier. She then dashed forth and pulled Gabriel off the ground with such force that it tore him off the rest of his armor.
The Sage loomed behind Shina with a dull-pitched laugh, "The first of many blasphemers shall now fall..."
Shina's hand trembled as it rose to grab hold of Gabriel's neck. Her fingertips stayed on the skin and couldn't grip any tighter.
"Do it." The Sage whispered.
Suddenly, some darkness lashed around underneath Shina's armpits multiple times and dragged her down.
"Hey! Don't forget about me!" Mew proclaimed after pulling her in close and holding her extra tight. He forced her arms out and in turn, freed Gabriel.
Shina glanced over her shoulder with a mix of surprise and irritation.
"Really? A Full Nelson?" She murmured.
"Yeah, good luck getting out of this!" Mew proclaimed as he turned to the right and looked straight ahead at Joe Dark, who had finally made his way back to the battlefield.
"Here you go bro, free shot!"
Joe Dark's brow twitching could be seen aaaaall the way out there. He raised his darkness infused dagger below the chin and grumbled, "Don't move or I might hit you too."
He began charging forward, pounding away at Shina's body with a flurry of dark spheres until he was close enough to use his dagger. He wound it back and thrust it forth with all his might.
Shina seemed to roll her eyes and suddenly her body started breaking down to the atomic level. Mew was left staring blankly ahead and going "Huh?" right as Joe Dark stabbed him right below the chest.
Joe Dark's eyes widened. Mew coughed up blood and murmured, "W-Well, you got what you wanted finally..."
Shina reformed behind Mew with her hands raised and then fired a crystallized cone of energy at them. Joe Dark ducked down and used Mew as a shield to shove him away and then casually tossed him aside off his dagger.
He then charged Shina once more and stabbed towards her chest. She caught it in the center of her palm and a brief ripple of darkness emerged. She then rose up and used the elevation to push Joe Dark towards his knees.
"You're the one who was always trying to kill Alex..." She said with disdain. Joe Dark narrowed his eyes as Shina continued prodding him, "Why are you working with Gravitus?!"
"Oh get over yourself you batshit crazy bitch," Joe Dark's eyes flared wide-open as he exclaimed in a baffled tone, "Why the HELL would I work for him?!"
Mew laid a hand over his wound and sat upright with a groan, then a sigh, "...We really got to work on his tact."
He then casually glanced over to his right and saw Riku standing off in the distance. Curious, Mew left Joe Dark to tussle with an angered Shina and floated over to see his brother.
"I was wondering where you got off to." He said in a chipper tone.
Riku raised his head and followed his brother's descent by his side, then hid his shaking hand behind his hip and faced the battlefield.
Saturn and Jupiter joined back in but even with all three powerful warriors working together they were just getting tossed around like ragdolls.
"I think we overestimated our odds here brother..." Riku loathed to admit.
Mew sighed and rubbed the back of his head, "A lot of us have thrown out our best stuff and haven't even made her budge."
He had a shaky smile as he glance out the side of his face towards Shina, who floored Joe Dark with a punch and then tried to impale him with a set of spears. He barely escaped into the darkness in time.
"Now MIGHT be a good time to whip out that Genesis Form Riku, otherwise we're not going to last long enough for Kairi to get her act together..."
"If we can even rely on her..." Riku murmured.
Mew looked at him and murmured back "Riku" and he quickly said with a stern look, "Put yourself in her shoes brother. She has no reason to fight her sister, unlike you and Alex did."
"...Well shit," Mew bit his lower lip and faced the battlefield feeling tense, "Then what do we do? With the Cosmos Drive Shina is stronger than Justek was."
"...Then we'll have to face her the same way we did him." Riku started to face Mew with his hand extended out and Mew pulled away with a look of surprise.
"Whoa you can't seriously be suggesting we try that again are you?"
"We know it works."
"But we don't know WHY it did," Mew raised his hand out and shook his head, "No. I can rough it out for a bit longer. We got to have faith in Kai-"
"Brother," Riku raised his voice slightly, with a firm touch to get his attention, "Gabriel's down and Saturn and Jupiter don't stand a chance. Joe Dark is tenacious...but even he has his limits."
Riku gestured his hand out some more and glared with determination, "I can't do much like this. If we're going to survive, you have to do this."
Mew stared at his brother's hand for a few seconds and when he looked up, he saw something resembling a smile.
"We'll make it through this again. I know it."
"...Aaaah! When you put it like that how can I say no?" Mew pulled his hand back and then firmly grasped his brother's, "Put 'er there brother!"
An immense light started to envelop the two whole...
Meanwhile, Shina floated in the center of the battlefield with Gabriel, Saturn and Jupiter barely standing and Joe Dark's right arm broken at the elbow. Yet through sheer willpower he kept a firm grip on his dagger and edged towards Shina.
The Sage hovered over Shina and raised his arms to the sky, "The power of the Goddess is absolute! Dark Kings...Elemental Overlords...? Bah! You false idols shall grovel at the feet of a true deity!"
"None can challenge my Goddess..."
Shina's head started turning a little to the left...To meet with a bare-knuckle fist that crunched her cheekbones and sent her hurtling off her feet.
She went tumbling and smashing through the uprooted ground for a quarter mile before swinging her arms out to suspend herself upright. The Sage hissed with rage and rose high over Shina to squeal, "Who DARES?!"
Shina slowly raised her fingers to her cheek, where a faint but fresh bruise marred her stellar skin. She then thrust her glare at her assailant, a black and white garment wearing warrior with slightly longer hair than Mew's, only silver.
This warrior put up their dukes and summoned a sword in each hand, crossing them so he'd still be able to see his foe beyond them.
"I dare!" He proclaimed with utter confidence.
Shina curled her fingers into a fist and spread her wings, levitating off the ground with a fury in her eyes the likes of which had yet to be seen.
"Just cause ya two fakes fused together doesn't make you a real boy!"
"But it does make us...the Phoenix of Hope!" The warrior spread his wings and slanted his eyebrows with contempt towards the Sage, "Come, 'Goddess', and face us! We'll beat some sense back into you!"
"Its time to stop playing games. Show this fool what the Cosmos Drive is really capable of!" The Sage commanded with intense bile.
"Yeah! I earned this happiness..." Shina's body exploded with the radiance of a galaxy's outer rim and she approached Hope face-to-face with a distorted blade drawn off each wrist.
"And you won't take it away!"
Hope and Shina collided blades but it was Hope that quickly started pressing the advantage over her.
"Please...I'm the one trying to give it back!" He proclaimed.
VESSEL OF THE COSMOS: SHINA AURORA
Next Time: Eyes of Delusion