Chapter 28: Steadfast Determination
Jr. reaches inside his pockets and throws out all of his coins into the air. The jingles and jangles of them rang into the air and Jr. prepared for one of his favorite techniques. "Try this one on for size!"
Ace shrugged his shoulders. "I honesty don't know what my size is. My mom gets me my clothes and other accessories."
Jr. hesitates for a second before using his attack. (Geez, this guy pisses me off!) He aims his guns in different directions of the coin storm and fires. The bullets ricochet off the coins and start bouncing all around. "Storm Waltz!" Jr. continues firing bullets and soon, a rain of bullets starts falling on Ace, which catches him by surprise. Bullets start hitting him from every direction, causing him to fall down on one knee.
Jr. lands on the ground and looks at Ace triumphantly. Ace is still breathing and it looks like the bullet wounds aren't affecting him greatly. Jr. tightens his grip on his Vaquero guns, waiting for Ace to attack. (He's still alive? But how?)
"That was a pretty good gun trick, gunslinger." Ace stands up and smiles at Jr. "Let me show you one of my mine." He pulls out two imaginary guns with his fingers and aims it up. He fires in succession in the shape of an arc and then aims both guns at Jr. cross hand style. "Hailstorm."
Jr. suddenly feels immense pain all over his body; it felt like a million bullets had hit him from every direction. He falls forward and makes a rough landing. (Damnit…not like this…that…was nothing…) He struggles for a little while but manages to slowly pull himself up from the ground and sit cross-legged.
"You've got a pretty strong will. I admire that in a gunslinger." He starts walking towards Jr. slowly, swinging his imaginary guns around. "In my opinion, that's what separates all of us gunslingers from one another, the will to live. Bullets can end a person's life in a split second. If gunslingers don't lay their lives on the line, it just proves that they're nothing but pathetic imitations." He does the Hailstorm attack again and aims his guns at Jr. "Nice knowing ya. It was fun though." He fires the finishing shot but the mind bullets stop before hitting Jr. (What? He stopped them? Impossible!)
A fiery crimson aura envelops Jr. as he slowly stands up. "Red Dragon mode…" His eyes glow a bright red and the flame surrounding him grows colossal, almost engulfing the entire room. "You'd better run!"
Ace tries to fire mind bullets at Jr. only to have them instantly destroyed as soon as they touched the fiery flame. Jr. grins and then starts spinning his guns rapidly while charging at Ace. "This is the end for you!"
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MOMO takes a look around with her bow ready to fire. The darkness seemed to cover every move that Echo took. She tried to focus her ears on sounds but nothing was coming up. It was as if all sound in the room had been silenced. Her sensors weren't working properly either. Half of the time it showed up with multiple enemies and the other half none. This completely threw her into disarray. (Just how is he manipulating my sensors? The only way I can think of is that he's emitting some kind of electronic jamming device…but I didn't see one on him.)
"Forgive me for doing this." A burst of air shoots out in front of MOMO and knocks her down. It wasn't enough to kill her but it hurt her quite a bit.
(What kind of attack was that? Is he a wind user? Maybe he's flying around slowly to mute his movements.) MOMO gets up and looks around cautiously. (No, that can't be it…I know something's off…if he was flying around, wouldn't the wind used to create the wind carpet not be heard…? Wait! That's it!)
MOMO closes her eyes and raises her bow. She starts focusing on where Echo would strike next. (C'mon…I'm ready for you anytime.)
"Supersonic!" A powerful burst of energy erupts from behind MOMO. She easily sidesteps to dodge the attack and then fires an arrow to her right. The arrow hits home. "Agh!"
"Found you!" MOMO quickly readies another arrow and fires it. Unfortunately, it hits the wall and echoes throughout the room.
"So, it seems that you've figured out my game."
"You're using sound frequencies to manipulate the very fabric of sound, making you seem invisible to my ears as well as distorting my sensors. I didn't know that you could actually pull off such an incredible feat…but I know now how to counter it."
Echo laughs. "Pretty sharp, Realian girl. But do you really think you can hit me again?"
MOMO readies her bow. "You can't escape my sight."
Echo starts moving rapidly about the room unknown to MOMO. The sounds around her were still muted by Echo's power. MOMO waits patiently for Echo to attack. This reminded her of a snake and its target. A split second would decide this match.
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Jin rolls to the side to dodge Elli's Icicle Blade and then jumps up into the air to dodge his Icicle Fist. Elli jumps up and reveals a lightning blade shaped in a thunderbolt in his hands. He surges forward with godlike speed and appears right behind Jin.
(That sword must make him like lightning!) Jin quickly spins around and blocks Elli's attack from behind. He spins around again like a tornado with his blade to keep Elli from attacking while at the same time charging for his special ice ether attack.
"Dancing Flames!" Fireballs appear around Jin and circle around him like embers from an open fire. "Burn!" The fireballs fly in from every direction around Jin. As soon as they hit though, a flash sweeps all around Jin and they vanish instantly. "You hit all of them?"
"Dragon Dance!" Jin then points his left arm at Elli. "Frost Nova!" He fires a blue ray of ice at Elli which sends him flying back. Jin slides on the ground and stops himself by stabbing his sword into the ground.
Elli slowly gets up and wipes mouth. He licks his lips in excitement. "Pretty good…" His arm starts shaking in excitement. "You're a lot more fun than I thought. I'm actually starting to enjoy this." He materializes two elemental swords: a white blade and a black blade.
(Light and dark I presume…) Jin goes into a defensive stance and waits for Elli to strike. Elli charges forward and starts swinging his swords. Jin dodges left and right and blocks a few to stay out of harm's way. He jumps back and then starts preparing to use Frost Nova.
"Not this time!" Elli clangs his two blades together and it unleashes a spiral beam attack of white and black light at Jin. Jin swings his sword vertically and splits the beam.
(Close…) Jin readies his sword and charges forward. Elli's white sword glows brightly and blinds Jin. Jin shields his eyes and jumps back. He blocks an attack from behind and then jumps and rolls sideways. He slices a part of Elli's clothes and then lands on one hand. He swings his legs around and blocks sword attacks from all sides with his shoes. He then quickly uses a Frost Nova to send him up into the air. He opens his eyes a little and quickly discovers that the light is gone.
"Lightning and Water!" Elli conjures up his elemental blades and jumps towards Jin. The water blade dissipates and flies towards Jin, getting him wet. The lightning blade strikes Jin's blade and causes a powerful electrical surge to flow throughout his entire body, causing a split second paralysis. Elli takes advantage of this and kicks Jin down to the ground.
Jin grunts when he slams into the ground with brute force. He quickly rolls to the side and barely dodges Elli's lightning fast sky dive attack. Jin slowly gets up and eyes his opponent.
(At this rate, I'm going to die…I can't find any weak point to this person…all of his elemental blades strengths are matched to each other's weakness to create a perfect offense as well as defense…) Jin suddenly sees a streak of lightning fly towards him. He jumps to the side and misses it but it curves around and starts flying back towards him. Jin notices water on the ground and quickly jumps into the air. (There's water all over the floor! If I stay down there, most likely the lightning will paralyze me again…)
"Pretty sharp, my good sir." Elli materializes the last of his elemental blades: wind and earth. He slams his earth blade onto the ground and rock spikes erupt all over the room. Jin takes advantage of this by jump onto them as they appear. He jumps over a rock spike which was about to impale him from the side and then jumps towards Elli to strike. Elli swings his wind blade and unleashes a ferocious gust which sends Jin back. Jin rolls over a stalagmite and then lands on another.
Elli flies up using the power of his wind blade and then surges forward towards Jin. Jin jumps back and dodges a wind blade which carves the stalagmite he was on in two. He rolls to the side to dodge another and then blocks the earth blade coming onto his head. He kicks Elli back a little and then attacks him with a Dragon Dance which connects and sends him flying towards a stalagmite. Elli crashes into it but then stops when he's about to crash into another one.
Jin moves two fingers above his blade and starts moving them up the blade. The blade begins to glow with power and Jin's muscles begin to bulge a little. He moves forward and jumps a long distance to reach Elli. Elli swings his earth blade upward causing a stalagmite to erupt in front of him, using it as a defensive measure. Jin swings his sword and it cleanly slices the stalagmite. Elli flies forward through the cut piece of the stalagmite and swings both of his swords horizontally.
Jin uses the forward momentum and rolls backwards, narrowly dodging the blades by a mere fraction of an inch and nailing Elli in the chin. Jin lands on the cut piece of the stalagmite he had just carved and leaps after Elli. "Gale Strike!" He swings his sword down and nails Elli on the top of the head with the bottom part of the hilt. Elli falls down and crashes down into a stalagmite. He rolls down the stalagmite and crashes onto the floor below.
Jin lands on a stalagmite breathing heavily. (Did that do it?)
Time seemed to slow down as Jin waited for Elli to get up. Elli doesn't make a move. Jin begins to sheath his sword when he starts to see movement in Elli's arm. Elli slowly pushes himself up with his arms and coughs up purple goo, most likely blood. He turns to Jin and grins.
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"Let go of me!" Allen struggles against Kevin's grip on his head but to no avail.
"Kevin! Stop this!" Shion aims her M.W.S. to fire one of her best attacks at Kevin but she was afraid that the explosion might affect Allen as well. She couldn't afford that risk of losing someone important to her again even though that important person who she had thought had died was standing right before her.
Kevin completes his action of grabbing Allen from another dimension and seals off the fluctuating space rift. He holds Allen in front of him to Shion and strengthens his grip. Allen struggles but is as helpless as a worm on a hook. He tries to kick Kevin but his barrier was blocking each blow.
Kevin looks into Shion's eyes with compassion as well as a hint of anger. He knew in his heart that it was a dirty trick but he had to make Shion understand that he would do anything for her. "Shion. Will you give up now?"
Shion's M.W.S. falls to the ground and she falls on her knees, crying. "Yes…but, please...don't hurt Allen…"
"I knew you'd see it my way." He throws Allen aside like a rag doll and walks to Shion with his arms wide open. "Come. You will find…"
Kung POW!
Kevin falls over unconscious and Shion slowly looks at what just happened. Allen has the M.W.S. over his head and is breathing heavily.
Allen tosses the M.W.S. aside and it makes a huge clang on the ground. "Stupid son of a bitch! Just leave Shion alone!" He holds his arms in pain and starts shaking them. "Sheesh, Shion! How much does this thing weigh? Are you trying to lose weight or something?"
Shion slaps him for a weight comment and laughs a little. She wipes the tears from her eyes and then hugs Allen. "Thanks for saving me."
Allen starts freaking out and scratching his head. He slowly wraps his arms around Shion's waist trying to go with the moment. "Uh…no problem! I'm just glad he let down his guard."
"We should probably get going before he gets up." Shion grabs her M.W.S. and puts it away in her case that Miyuki had invented for it. Shion grabs Allen's hands and starts leading him through the next door.
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"Die chaos, die!" Arsenic keeps swinging his claws wildly trying to make contact with chaos. chaos easily dodges his attacks but can't pull any of his own due to Arsenic's constant attacking.
(All I can do is try and find an opening to blast him with divine power…) chaos ducks and then kicks Arsenic back. "Euro Lumens!" He unleashes a blast of divine light at Arsenic who easily knocks it aside.
"Do you really think that weak attack could purify me? You're too soft, chaos!"
chaos jumps back from Arsenic's attack and then fires another Euro Lumens attack at Arsenic's arm. It severs it a little but not enough to blow it off. Arsenic holds his left arm in pain and then rips it off. More poison starts to erupt from Arsenic's body making the air more dangerous than before.
chaos is taken back by this. "What are you doing?"
"Increasing the poison in the air! I told you before, didn't I? My entire body is poisonous! My insides are filled with my most toxic poison so I thought I would sweeten the air with more!" He laughs crazily. "I wonder how long you can keep up your divine power? It's slowly waning because of your protection field! Plus every single attack you use, you suck it up even more! It's only a matter of time…!"
Arsenic charges forward and slams his right arm into the ground before chaos. His attack creates a smokescreen throwing chaos off. He tries to jump back but gets clawed from behind. He rolls in the air and onto the ground across the dead flowers. Arsenic jumps into the air and raises his arm to strike.
chaos' body starts to glow entirely in white and blows away all of the poisonous vapors away.
"What? You're…!"
A bright light erupts from the white dome surrounding chaos. It instantly decimates Arsenic into small particles and purifies his toxic powers. The white light continues to surge forward and breaks through the structure of Rennes-le-Chateau lighting its path as it flies into the dark crevasses of space.
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Ziggy slammed his fist into the ground and created a shockwave which flew towards Voyager. Voyager easily flies over it only to have him hit by Ziggy's bazooka. Ziggy throws it into the air and charges towards Voyager who had just crashed into a pile of rubble.
He does a sweeping low kick which unleashes his Road Rage Attack from beneath the pile of rubble. Voyager gets knocked upward. Ziggy jumps after him and starts beating him with a brutal assault with his fists. Ziggy kicks Voyager away and reaches behind him. His bazooka that he had thrown earlier lands in his hands and he aims it at Voyager. He fires several consecutive shots and nails Voyager every time.
Voyager is sent flying with incredible speed towards the Archon's outer wall. He crashes into it and creates a giant hole. Ziggy lands on his feet and looks up at the hole. Voyager doesn't seem to be making a move. Ziggy starts looking around for an exit until he hears sounds coming from the hole.
Huge rocks suddenly rain down on Ziggy from out of the hole. Ziggy quickly raises his bazooka and fires successive shots eliminating each huge boulder thrown at him by Voyager. Voyager slowly floats out of the hole without a scratch on him.
"There's no hope for you, Jan. No matter how many times you think you can harm me, I'll just keep coming back for more."
Ziggy clenches his fists in anger. (Hard to say it, but he's right. Unless I can think of a way to create a huge attack that will break through his barrier, I'm finished for sure.)
Voyager lands in front of Ziggy and raises both of his arms to the side. They both become monstrous claws that looked like it could cleave anything to pieces in seconds. "Are you scared of death, Jan?" He starts walking towards Ziggy. "No…a captain need not fear death."
"Erich!" Ziggy charges forward with his bazooka. He starts firing shots which are blocked by Voyager's claws. Voyager blows Ziggy back by swinging his hands in a quick circle, creating a gust. Voyager flies after Ziggy and gets under him. Ziggy fires several shots in front of him, making him fly faster and dodging Voyager's impaling thrust. Ziggy then quickly throws his bazooka backwards into the wall of the Cathedral. As soon as he's about to hit the wall, he grabs the bazooka and uses it as a vault to swing his body right side up. He notices Voyager charging for him and grins.
Voyager is a little surprised but keeps charging forward. Ziggy materializes his missile launcher and his arm blade and stands steady on his bazooka. Voyager swings both of his claws at Ziggy from both directions. Ziggy gets caught in the claw's hold and starts struggling. Voyager flies closer to Ziggy to issue a few last words.
"This is the end for you, Jan Sauer. I hope you enjoy your death…again."
Ziggy suddenly uses his missile launcher to blow away one of the claws. This catches Voyager by surprise long enough for Ziggy to stab him with his arm blade. Ziggy swings his arm blade and slams Voyager into the wall.
"What do you think you can do?" Voyager laughs.
"This." Ziggy slams Voyager further into the wall and then slams his foot down, causing the bazooka to bend back at an angle so that the launcher was in Voyager's face.
"You wouldn't!"
Ziggy fires the bazooka and his missile launcher at the same time creating a huge explosion which destroys half of the Cathedral's walls.
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T-elos is in the air getting ready to attack. "KOS-MOS!!!"
KOS-MOS easily backflips and knocks T-elos aside. T-elos slides across the floor and quickly gets up. She charges forward and pulls out her pistol. KOS-MOS materializes her R-Blade and also pulls out her pistol. Both KOS-MOS and T-elos start firing shots at the other. They both block using their blades until they clash their weapons together, creating a shockwave which seemed to blow all of the small rocks around them into the pit below.
They both raise their pistols and fire it at each other. The shots knock each other's pistols out of their respective hands with the opposite going to the other. KOS-MOS and T-elos both jump back and grab their counterpart's pistol and then try to fire them at each other but can't figure out how the pistols work. They both walk towards each other and hand the pistol to the other. Then they start to fight again.
KOS-MOS and T-elos are moving all around, using their swords for close range and their pistols in long range. However; at their current rate, their power cores were diminishing rapidly. Their pistols were starting to run out of power so they quickly put them up, saving the last shot to use for later when the time arrived and proceeded to just use their blades to decide the match.
A misjudged blow could mean the end of either one of them. They both made their attacks with blinding precision and powerful strikes. KOS-MOS got knocked back by T-elos and almost got stabbed right in the core had she not grabbed it with her left hand. KOS-MOS jumps in the air and does an aerial kick to T-elos' face. She lands on her and then throws her with the hand that still had the sword. T-elos easily rerights herself and faces KOS-MOS with vengeance.
T-elos charges forward and starts swinging her sword wildly. KOS-MOS quickly dodges the first few and blocks the last attack. T-elos knocks away KOS-MOS' blade and quickly does a low kick followed by a gun shot to the face to blind KOS-MOS. She follows with a powerful kick square in the gut and sends KOS-MOS flying off the edge towards the pit.
T-elos walks towards the edge and looks over it carefully. KOS-MOS is nowhere to be seen. T-elos looks down a little longer and then grins. "Now to take my rightful place." T-elos turns to leave but she is startled as she stares in front of her. KOS-MOS is in her activated Tertiary Weapons System and is powering up to fire a Phase Transfer blast.
T-elos quickly activates her U-Teneritas attack and also powers up to max power. Both entities unleash their full potential at the other and let fate decide the course. The two blasts clash into each other and start trying to overpower the other. However, it's obvious that the two energies are even. Both KOS-MOS and T-elos charge forward into the calamities of their attack and decide to finish this with one single blow. Whoever could withstand the brutal force of their attacks, the will to survive would come into play.
Both of them raise their arms to attack and swing their fists forward. They crash into each other and cause their attacks energies to explode, engulfing the entire room with a powerful light which seems to shake the very foundation of Rennes-le-Chateau.