A/C - I was going to cut this chapter in two separate parts and make it soo much more dramatic. BUUUT it's 2020 and we don't need anymore drama in our lives again! Please don't forget to rate, review and enjoy!

Chapter 32 - Broken Shards of Glass

^.^

Time within the Lasser Glass did not seem to exist. An ancient wind swirled around me and I stood on the cusp of worlds, unsure of how many hours or days I had been within the mirror.

The Iron Gates were before me and I felt safe knowing that I was somewhere familiar. However unlike most times I saw them, they were open and revealed what lay beyond.

Most times, I was dragged within the gate upon someone's ultimate death. This time, there was no black shadow hands, there was no screaming. It felt surreal, like walking through a door of ancient times. On the other side, I stood on a land that seemed very far away from my own. I was outside, in a wooded and bogged area. Water slouched from under my feet as I roved through the wetland.

From within these woods, I saw a mountain tower over this world that seemed to pulse in energy. I moved towards it, not entirely sure where I needed to go but my feet took me anyway. Closer and closer I got to that mountain until I was standing at what looked like a staircase through into the interior of the stone.

When I stepped onto the first stair, the stone seemed to groan, as if it were alive and real. I felt it in my pores that this ancient world was, indeed, very much alive and living. Trying to settle the nerves within me I took another step, and then another.

The passage was long and dark for most of my journey and I found that the darkness no longer affected my vision. I saw in clarity.

I continued until the stairs stopped and I was standing at the very top of the mountain. In front of me, I stepped out of a red colored Shinto gate which felt oddly placed in such a world. It was unlike anything I had ever seen. Miles and miles of wood and wetland surrounded me, and I was standing on the only mountain in the entire area for as far as the eye could see. A grayish-black mist seemed to cling to this world like a cloud, laying low over the land. The sky was a spectacle of colors, ranging from purple to orange and it swirled lazily from high above me. There were two moons in this sky, hanging low and touching the very far end of the horizon.

I noticed the moons, together like that, looked like a pair of eyeballs peering down at me.

Recognition of the land suddenly jarred through me: Kitzune once spoke of a Death God who had fallen from the sky onto earth and he slept within the Lasser Glass.

This was the Death God's world.

Materializing from the darkness in front of me, I was not expecting to see the grace and beauty of a woman. She wore old, traditional Shinto styled clothing, and her hair was luxuriously long. It seemed to envelope her like an aura of blackness.

Her face was heavenly and beautiful.

"A-are you the death god?" I stammered, suddenly feeling the overwhelming power she possessed.

"My name is Izanami."

I swayed slightly. Izumani was not just a death god, she was known as the Queen of the Underworld, Yomi-no-kuni. I looked around the world again, the shadowy land and the eyes in the sky.

I was standing on the land of the dead.

"Do not fear, your soul is already tied to this land. I cannot hurt you." Her voice was regal and it imitated a power that seemed to awaken my own slumbering power. She lifted her finger and pointed to me

I looked down at myself and noticed my arm, gasping at the sight there. My arm, the one that was marked all that time ago, was rotted away. It was grotesque how it looked. The three cuts were now gaping holes in my arm, revealing bone and muscle. Inside, there had been maggots eating away at the rotting, black flesh.

How could I not notice this? How could it have been so bad?

"I thought it was better," I panicked and looked back up at Izanami. "I-I've never noticed it this bad before."

"The soul never forgets what happens and in this world one can truly see what lies beyond."

What lies beyond.

I watched as Izanami tilted her head and took me in one more time, assessing me. "It is time for you to accept your true being - now shift."

It felt like she was speaking to my soul suddenly, and I felt an inward pull at her command. Shift.

I felt a sharp pain in my spine that caused me to yelp. That thing I had felt lurking under my skin, the endless pit of blackness, began to swell.

This skin felt wrong, this form was foreign to me. There was a sudden shift beneath my skin, a surge of heat bubbled under my veins. In my stomach was an endless well that formed and it was quickly filled with a relentless fire. The power that came from being the anchor, which always lingered under my skin, suddenly snapped away. It wasn't gone, not permanently. Instead it was being replaced with a new power that lingered beneath, bubbling up from within me.

My vision jumped between human dullness and clarity. With this new vision I was able to see that the dark mist below was not a mist at all - it was thousands of translucent human forms that seemed to flow throughout the land. My jaw began to ache as my teeth throbbed from inside my mouth. I put a hand to my gums and found fangs punched through, sharp and long. Talons, black as the shadows in this land, ripped through my now leathery, grey hands. My spine elongated, lengthening as a new pain began to rip out of my back, the muscles there began to shudder at the release, threatening to snap.

I cried out at the shift, digging my heels into the dirt and arching my back into the change. I was breathing heavily when the transformation was finished.

I had shifted. Had shifted into something not human, but into the beast behind the Lasser Glass. I shifted into the ancient form that was now awakened from within me.

Slowly, my thoughts began to shut down as the thoughts of the Pishacha took over. I tried to fight it so I wouldn't lose myself completely. I was afraid that I would lose myself completely.

Izanami saw me struggle to accept this new form and she said, "again."

New thoughts devoured me, from a voice that was not my own.

Do not resist, the demon spoke in my head. Do what you need to in order to become strong.

I struggled to fight the voice, but it felt like I was drowning in a deep and dark ocean. I tried to scream but no sound came out of my mouth.

When the sweet power clamped down on me, I stopped fighting.

I allowed myself to be swept away into the black sea.

^.^

NARU

"It could be a trap," Lin said when they arrived at the turn to the prison. Naru had been routinely subjecting the necklace of Mai's to psychometry to see if there was any lapse of consciousness. He had a good read, a brief read, that she was awake and in a prison cell.

There was only one of those around this area.

"It's not," Naru said. "From what I saw, Izanagi was not there. We can get in, get Mai, and get out."

"It's too easy," Sara said. "It's possible that he could be waiting for you."

The unspoken words remained. 'It's possible she could already be dead.'

"So be it." Naru declared. "Send your Shiki in first, they should be able to sense his presence."

Lin nodded. They continued to drive down the beaten path towards the prison until Lin pulled over and stopped. He chanted the incantation and Naru felt the dark, suffocating presence of the Shiki before it disappeared upon Lin's whistle.

Sara shivered, "I hope I never see one of those again for a long time."

Silently, Naru knew Gene agreed. The Shiki was a nerve racking entity. It felt safe and harmless but there was an inner darkness that made it feel menacing and vile.

"Wait," Sara said, then suddenly started yanking on the door handle. "Wait, let me out!"

Lin did and Sara opened the door, running outside. She only went a couple feet before she looked back and forth, as if lost. Or looking for something.

Gene climbed out of the car next, "What is it?"

Sara turned back around, her eyes were dark.

"Mai is dead."

^.^

NARU

The news tore through him like a quake. Rage, blistering cold rage, shuttered within, gripping Naru.

"I swear I saw the Pishacha, which could only be possible if Mai has crossed over."

Mai was dead.

He shut down the emotional side that threatened to take over. It took a massive amount of will power that he molded with his PK energy. They needed to be sure, since they were relying on the fact that Sara saw the Pishacha, which none of them had seen.

It enraged him even more when Sara took off into the woods and neither Gene, Naru, or Lin could catch her. For all he knew she off to Izanagi. She was untrustworthy and a proven flight-risk.

"Naru," Lin warned. The Chinese man could sense that Naru was keeping himself from falling apart by dipping into that deep well of power he held temporarily. "Calm yourself down."

Stupidly, Lin had made the mistake of walking towards Naru. Naru knew that, in his current state, Lin wouldn't allow him to do what Naru needed to do in order to end Izanagi. Or hurt him. Naru needed to be able to use his PK and right now the older man was a threat to that.

And Naru wanted to hurt Izanagi really, really, bad.

Red tinged Naru's vision, turning it hazy.

Once Lin walked up to him, Naru made his move to neutralize the threat Lin posed.

Naru moved quickly, turning and gripping Lin's head in between his biceps. It was a sloppy headlock and had Lin anticipated the move he could have threw Naru down on his back.

Lin was not expecting Naru to attack him.

"Na - ru," Lin gargled and Naru tightened his grip even more, like a python squeezing the breath out of his prey. He felt Lin's hands feebly try and pry at his arms but it was useless. Naru's hold was tight, and only getting tighter each time Lin struggled.

"What the hell, Noll!" Gene yelled.

"Stay back!" Naru hadn't noticed, in his moment of lost control, he threw up a bust of energy that sent his brother flying backwards and landing on the ground ten feet away.

Naru had to brace himself against the taller and heavier opponent as Lin, in a last attempt to escape, used his body weight to throw Naru off. Naru weathered it and then he felt Lin still from under him.

"Sorry about this, Lin," Naru loosened his grip, allowing Lin to slump in his arms as Naru gently guided his friend down onto the ground, before dragging him back to the car and placing him sloppily into the car. He then walked around to the other side of the car, taking out the keys and locking the door. Naru set the keys under the wheel well of the car before he started making his way towards the prison on foot.

"Noll!" Gene followed his brother out of the car. "You can't take him on by yourself!"

"Lin doesn't need to die in this. It's better for all of us if he stays here." Naru said as he started to walk towards the prison. It was maybe one hundred yards away. Then Naru said, "besides, I'm not by myself."

Naru gave Gene a pointed look. The latter sighed, "for a smart scientist you actually do some dumb things. I assume you have a plan?"

There was only thing on Naru's mind in this moment: he was going to kill Izanagi.

Naru didn't answer him. He kept plugging along. He knew what the twins had to do in order to destroy Izanagi. It would take their entire power, and now that Gene had a foothold in this world - maybe it was possible.

Naru was going to have to test that theory out.

They walked up to the prison, entered the large doors and searched every cell on the first level. It was eerily quiet, but Naru was not scared.

When the first level was clear, they went down to one of the basement levels. Instantly, Naru and Gene could tell that Izanagi was waiting for them, had made a path of candles to the very back of the corridor.

When they entered, Izanagi was alone.

"Where is she?" Naru growled, knowing this sadistic man was waiting for him.

"Didn't you hear?" Izanagi grinned. "She's passed on."

"Bullshit," Naru hissed. "You knew we would come, now use us instead."

"I have no need to lie to you. She took it upon herself to look into the Lasser Glass and met her unfortunate end." Izanagi said, "besides, I suppose I enjoy the symmetry of a woman being the anchor for the curse."

Gene glared at the dark man, "You're going to hell for what you've done."

"Did you come here to kill me?" Izanagi said. "That is ill-advised. Mai is dead. She's now my servant and off to fetch the souls needed to reverse this God-awful aging."

The world seemed to tilt a little more for Naru and the tether of control that he exerted upon himself at all times slipped completely. He lashed out with a blinding flash of light, from the power he and Gene controlled. It struck Izanagi, hard, and he cried out. Izanagi fell to his knees. Scars formed across the skin on his arms and began to bleed, as if invisible shards of glass began to whip around him.

That's exactly what Naru had done and in a burst of activity, Gene fell to his knees too. The energy was taking a sudden toll on Gene's temporary body.

Normally, Naru would stop because he knew the toll could cause Gene and himself to collapse.

Naru was no longer in control.

He was half there, half...somewhere else. His hands glued into fists as he thought about the possibility of Mai truly being dead. More power hurtled out of Naru, and the sound of bones cracking splintered through the air, followed by screaming.

Izanagi laughed after a moment of agony, it was a hoarse and guttural sound. Blood had started running from his nose and into his mouth. His body was bloodied from the invisible flying glass shards

It wasn't enough blood. It would never be enough blood.

Izanagi grinned up at Naru. "Will you land the killing blow, Oliver Davis?"

Naru stared at Izanagi, who shaking with laughter.

Blood spat from his mouth, "Did you think I didn't know who you were this entire time? You stupid boy, I was the founder of SPR! What better way scout twins with phenomenal psychic powers than to be behind the research that discovers twins with phenomenal powers!"

"Y-You're on the Board of Directors," Gene said, making the instant connection. "This whole time, you knew about Noll and I. You gave Noll information on that case in Kamikawa because it meant you would have us here, together."

Izanagi gave him bloodied smile. "I am always three steps ahead, and you are foolish to think you can destroy me. I am truly immortal."

Naru pressed hard on that power and Izanagi cried out again. Another crack rang through the room and Izanagi's arm was now twisted in an odd way, it satisfied something deep within Naru.

Gene whimpered on the ground behind him as Naru kept digging into that power. He knew it wasn't infinite, but if he could at least hurt Izanagi enough… maybe that would smooth what had broken deep within him.

Naru was so consumed by that rage he hadn't seen the gun hiding in Izanagi's other hand. He hadn't seen him press down on the trigger. The bullet flew in a loud 'pop' sound and hit Naru in the chest.

Pain surged through him as he fell back, blood leaking down his arm and his shirt. Darkness spotted his vision, he saw Izanagi had pulled himself up and was now standing above Naru.

Naru was going to pass out. He could feel the world slipping from under him.

Izanagi steadied the gun. Another shot, at this close range, and it would be over.

His options were limited. The connection between himself and their connected power was shattered. Naru had promised that he would never delve into Eris's power. Laying on the ground in a pool of his own blood, Naru no longer cared. Izanagi was hurt, there could still be a chance Naru could kill him.

From his blurred vision, Naru saw Gene in his peripheral. He knew releasing this power, unleashing himself fully and unrestrained, would cost his life.

Without a second thought, Naru unleashed that dangerous magic on Izanagi.

^.^

MAI

I was on that shadowy land, once again in my own body. I was on the ground, panting and sweating and naked.

Izanami had made me shift to and from forms countless times already. It had felt like an eternity had gone by. It probably could have, since time within the Lasser Glass was skewed.

Magic gripped me once again and I tensed my body for another shift into that ancient beast. To shift meant my bones had to, literally, be broken over and over and over again. It was an agony I wouldn't wish upon anyone.

But, when the shift did not happen I tried to push myself up with my last strength. It did not work and the best I could manage was to shift my head upwards to look at Izanami.

She lowered herself, and gently stroked my sweat laden hair.

"Am I dead?" I asked in a raw voice.

"This is an important part of ending this curse." Izanami said.

She wanted me to end the curse? It was useless. If Izanagi hadn't killed me already in the living world, then I was still in that damned cell.

"What?" My words were thin and brittle, just like I felt as I lay naked and broken on the ground.

"You must destroy the Lasser Glass. It will set everything right."

I remembered that my soul was connected to the Lasser Glass. Had remembered, and knew, this was the ultimate end to the curse.

I had to die.

My heart betrayed me and stammered in my chest.

Izanami said, "The anchor does not belong bound to a soul. Once released, the anchor will be returned to its natural state."

I closed my eyes, imagining a world rid of someone suffering from being cursed to the anchor. I imagined a world of never being able to see those I loved again.

A tear escaped down my face as I thought about never seeing Naru again.

"How do I break the Lasser Glass?"

And so Izanami told me exactly what I needed to do to end this curse.

^.^

I had returned to the world of the living, yet I was not able to completely shift from that form. I had little memory of how much wandering I had done. I recalled I was sent back here with orders from Izanami, but those orders...could I pull them off? I didn't know if I was strong enough to do what was needed of me.

I was about to find out.

"Look at what you've become," a feminine and familiar voice said. I spun around, growling.

It was Sara, standing in the woods. The moment felt oddly reminiscent of how we first met. She looked precisely the same, devastatingly beautiful in a youthful glow that concealed the darkness within her.

Words eluded me, however the monster remembered her. Seemed to even yearn to be near her. Sara's twin sister, Hana, once used to roam in this form.

Perhaps Sara could still understand those silent words, reading the message in the eyes of the creature I had found myself in. "I thought that if you had taken on the form on the Pishacha then you must have died. I see that I was wrong."

Indeed, I had not only taken the form - the Pishacha lived within me. It was the core of this curse.

"I want him dead." Sara growled. "And I want to be the one who does it."

The request would free her soul, and maybe she could pass on. If anything, she could be the one who delivered the final blow.

Slowly, so slowly, I nodded. Sara stepped closer.

"I'll tell you where he is. Tell me what I need to do."

I didn't need her to explain who 'he' was.

^.^

After the quick meeting with Sara, a scent quickly filled my nostrils and I felt that the predator shiver with delight at the smell. Blood.

I moved fast towards the scent, following it. My longer limbs moved like fluid. I trusted this body, trusted it knew how to move through the woods and let the Pishacha fly through the trees like an ancient, tumbling wind.

Loose soil flew around me and I breathed in deeply, wafting in the woody scent with a strong blood-filled one. I immediately recognized where I was when I saw the prison ahead. As the scent got closer, I realized this was human blood. Two humans, to be exact. There was another scent mixed in. It was similar to one before, not a human but something else...

A soul. And, where Naru was I knew Gene would be with him.

There were only two foolish twins, a human and ghost, in this entire world that would know how to follow me here. Or that would try at all.

I forced myself to move faster, my lethal body worked hard and I felt the sweet pull of all my muscles as they moved. I halted just before the entrance of the prison when I heard voices, then I lowered myself to the ground as I followed the scent deeper inside the prison.

The movement was not human, but purely predator. Like an animal stalking its prey.

Magic burnt at my nostrils as I continued down to the next level, the scent got stronger and stronger. I watched from the shadows at the scene before me, my predator instincts refused to move and simply stayed hidden in the darkness.

A blinding white light shot for Izanagi as Naru lunged himself forward. He took on Izanagi, who laughed and even seemed willing to engage in the slaughter.

I felt Naru and Gene's power shutter around them. Naru lifted his hands, steady as stone and that power only seemed to thrash and roil in the air.

Naru's eyes, his skin… uncut power. I saw Naru move his gaze from Izanagi momentarily before Gene joined him. The twins joined hands.

"I'm going to kill you," Naru said quietly.

"Really?" Izanagi mocked, lifting himself onto his elbows. "It seems as if you are at the end of your abilities."

Izanagi laughed as Naru and Gene remained silent. "There is no need for you both to die here as well. Foolish boys, you cannot kill me now that the anchor is dead!"

I stepped out of the shadows, towards the twins. Like a hound at their side. I did not look to see a reaction from Naru, my focus was solely on Izanagi. To make sure he would not escape. I would not allow him to escape.

It was impossible for this creature that I now controlled to be standing on this realm. The Pishacha only belongs on the Dark Lands - Izanagi seemed to understand that. Seemed to understand that there was something very wrong with the balance of this curse.

Gene said as he walked towards Naru, "It's over."

Then, a power, uncut and pure, burst out of them. All that power, in such a small space, blasted straight through the stone wall and created a large hole to the outside.

When the blinding light ceased to exist, Izanagi was distracted enough that he didn't see Sara leap in from the now open wall. She was holding the lost shard of the Lasser Glass, the one I was instructed to retrieve upon my return, which I had given to Sara.

Sara stepped out of the shadows behind Izanagi and rammed the broken shard of glass through the back of his neck.

She purred into his ear, "This is for an eternity of hell."

^.^

Power flowed through me, from the curse and from the Lasser Glass.

I became a conduit in those brief moments, it was why I was allowed to return. Izanami wanted this to end and I was the way to do it. Izanami had summoned an ancient spell that would allow us the power to kill Izanagi for good. It fused the power of the Lasser Glass, using the energy as a weapon. All I needed to do was find the shard in the Xipherian Amulet and kill Izanagi with it.

It helped that when I returned to this earth, in the form of the Pishacha, Sara was already there. Sara lead us to the cabin, to the Xipherian Amulet.

How could I deny her the opportunity at peace?

Sara took the amulet, and I found my way to Naru.

In the midst of the chaos, Naru grasped his chest and fell to the ground. I immediately shifted from that second skin, and a tremor ran deliciously smooth through my body. It felt like slipping into a warm, cradling bath of water after being out in the cold. A delightful shutter raced down my spine as I arched into the transformation that would allow me to hold Naru in my arms.

In front of us, Izanagi's lifeless body turned into ashes, and as the wind picked up, it was scattered away.

"Naru!" I held him in my arms. He was grasping at his chest that I suddenly realized was covered in blood.

While this was all playing out, Kitzune appeared in his fox-form. He swaggered in, grinning. This was just great, not what I needed.

"I do believe we have a bargain to uphold." Kitzune said.

"Please," I breathed, voice breaking. "Please, help him."

Naru grunted in pain, probably in protest, as he lifted his bloodied hands to cup my face. Surprised, I lowered my hands to his. There was so much blood, I didn't know where the wound was.

Kitzune did not answer my plea, he knew how mortally wounded Naru was.

"I should have been there for you," Naru said and with every word his voice shook. "I regret all that has happened between us."

"Don't say that," I sobbed. "It's not over."

Naru groaned, "I.. always loved you."

He leaned up and kissed me softly. It was devastatingly soft. Naru was too weak to hold himself up and he fell back down.

"No!" I snapped my head back to Kitzune, holding Naru. I realized that with or without a deal with Kitzune there was no saving him. I still tried. "Kitzune, please help him!"

"He is beyond help."

I tried to argue, tried to tell him that Naru was fine but then Naru reached up and touched my face as tears fell. "In the next world, we will have time. I promise."

Kitzune watched silently. Knowingly.

Then, Naru stilled from under my hold and I knew he was gone. His chest was not moving, and his final breath was dedicated to that single promise. Naru's eyes were dull, not shades of deep blue and violet that I always loved and admired.

Naru was dead.

There was an emptiness in my chest and soul. It was silent, completely silent until I started screaming and screaming. I pressed Naru closer to myself, covering his body with my own as a violent sob ripped through me and I shook from my very core.

"NARU!"

Countless memories and moments flashed through my mind. The moment I had first laid eyes on Naru when he busted my friends and I ghost hunting. Back when it all began.

I came back to myself in pieces. Slowly.

Somewhere far away, I heard someone talking to me. I did not hear the words, but I heard voices. I didn't move from where I held Naru's lifeless body close to me.

Thoughts of Naru being dead whirled through me. I closed my eyes and remembered what I had to do: what Izanami instructed me to do when she allowed me to return to this world. I had to break the Lasser Glass, and to do so would break my soul.

A life for a life - the only way to truly untether myself from this curse.

In the chaos that ensued before me, I lifted my suddenly heavy eyes to see Kitzune. He was grinning from ear to ear, looking at the Lasser Glass.

"I've finally found it." Kitzune cooed in front of it, admiring its smooth surface. Perhaps he had wanted to go where I did, to the Land of the Dead.

As Kizune was gazing at the mirror, I used that energy within me to summon dark, misty hands from the ground. They reached for the shard of glass, now covered in blood and left on the ground once Izanagi's body had disappeared.

Slowly, the hands brought it towards me and I felt the kernel of power in my palm. It resembled a long, jagged dagger.

I knew what I had to do with such a thing.

Kitzune was enthralled by the Lasser Glass however I saw his golden eyes stop on me from his reflection in the shadows before he whirled around.

"NO!" He hissed, it was sounded as if it were something not entirely human.

My hands grasped the glass, cutting into my flesh as I angled the shard and pressed the length of it to my throat.

Strong hands grasped at my wrists, trying to stop them. It was already too late, I did not hesitate as I plunged the dagger deep into my neck and then my ears hollowed out.

Someone was screaming.

I slumped over Naru, blood pouring from my body. In my final thoughts, I wondered if Naru and Gene could be reunited in the afterlife, if I would get to see him again too.

The world blurred. Someone was leaning over me, shaking me. I couldn't hear anything, couldn't see anything. My eyes became heavy and I felt like I was drowning. I welcomed the pain, welcomed the freedom that came with no longer being the anchor.

I allowed myself to imagine Naru standing before me. I imagined him and recalled every detail about him: his pale skin, black hair and such beautiful indigo eyes… so full of knowledge and curiosity. I imagined a world of never being able to touch his skin - to kiss him.

"In the next world, we will have that time. I promise."

I was finally going to be free, and maybe Naru was right. Maybe we would have the afterlife together.

^.^