Chapter Fifty Nine: Battle of the Heroes! Rairin: Tenshi
"Huh...? Where... am I?" I asked as the darkness faded. I was standing in the middle of a busy city street. Cars whizzed around, and people were scurrying about the sidewalks.
Car horns blared at me. I finally got my senses back after the awe of being in a real city, and was forced to dart through traffic to a sidewalk. I gasped, still exhausted, and saw my breath.
"Where am I?" I asked again.
"Hey! Watch out!" someone shouted. Apparently, I'd gotten in the way of sidewalk traffic. I was forced to dodge that, too, until I sidled up against a wall on the far side of the sidewalk. There I finally got a good view of the skyline. There was a huge skyscraper, but it was ironically small; no wider than a single story. The top was spiked... there were other things, too, but...
"I'm in... Seattle?" I asked myself.
"Yeah, and don't forget it!" a passerby said with a funny accent.
"So... what am I doing here?" I asked myself, stepping into the sidewalk traffic.
I thought I restored the True Light... maybe I did, maybe I didn't... but either way, where do I go now? Something's odd... I don't think I can pull off any of my transformations.
I passed a newspaper vending machine, stopping for a second to check it. The date said it was six... no, five years ago. The day everything had begun.
"This is... impossible! Have I been time traveling again?" I asked myself aloud. "I... what's going on?"
I stared at the Space Needle again.
That must be where I'm supposed to go... I guess I better get going.
I went the distance, being stopped by cops a couple of times. I just blew them off, saying I was carrying only a sheath. Luckily, they bought it, and I kept on my way, being a little stealthier because I did NOT want to be caught by the fuzz again.
I made it to the Space Needle without any more incidents, and rode a slightly crowded elevator to the top floor. I busted out onto the roof through a repair tunnel. I looked around as a gale force wind blew past, making my eyes water. I finally saw someone wearing a black cloak...
"Amy..." I said slowly, walking forward slowly.
"Hmph. So, you've come," Amy said. She didn't turn around. "You've almost succedded in restoring the True Light. But you've got one last obstacle."
A fragment of darkness appeared just above Amy's hand.
"If you succeed, it ends here. If not..." she said quietly, "If you fail, the light will fade... forever."
Amy jumped off the Space Needle, clutching the fragment of darkness to her chest. I jumped off after her, despite the obvious danger. I had my Judgment Blade poised to cleave her in two yet again, but Amy somehow landed smoothly on the ground, pulling out her katana to block my blow. She looked up at me with that sinister look... and a demon's red eyes...
"Nice to see you, Roy," Amy said, pausing between the last two words. My eyes darted from side to side, barely managing to withstand her bloodlusted stare.
This is...
Amy knocked me upwards with her katana, and I dropped the memento sakaboto. I managed to land on the roof of the Space Needle, crouching a little as Amy jumped up. She landed on the very top of the needle.
"Your darkness is gone?" Amy asked. I held my sword ready. "What a shame."
"Amy, it's over. What do you want?!" I asked her angrily.
"The last fading fragments of the darkness," she said, staring off into the bright sky. "Those shards will corrupt the True Light... corroding it, destroying it."
Amy flicked her wrist at the sky, which got dark and cloudy, except for a tiny ray of light.
"What I want, Roy, is to erase all the worlds from existence using the darkness, just as Senka tried to, long ago. Then one day the light will return, but I'll be there to erase it again," Amy said.
"What about my friends?" I asked angrily.
"Well... that's up to you, Roy," Amy said, slowly and softly. She lowered her arm, charging toward me. I mirrored the move, clashing our blades and sending out sparks of our auras.
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Our blades clashed loudly on top of the Space Needle, sending out shockwaves of forced that cracked the top of the Needle. I attacked her feet, parried a blow to my chest, attacked her arm, parried another blow, and then knocked Amy off of the Space Needle.
"I know it's not that easy..."
I staggered as the ground beneath me began to fall.
Did she... slice off the top?!
I dashed forward to avoid being impaled on the tower, which was ramming up through the center of the top. I saw volcanoes exploding in the distance as I jumped off, even though I wasn't sure how I'd survive. I pivoted during my jump, turning around to see the tower falling apart. I felt snow begin to sting my eyes.
She's not dead... where'd she go?
I looked around while drifting through the air... left, up, down... right?!
Amy came flying thorough the air, knocking me into an office building. People screamed as I staggered to my feet just in time to parry an attack from Amy. We began dashing through the building as a fierce blizzard began chilling my bones. That, in conjunction with the exploding volcanoes, really scared me... these disasters scared me as much as Amy's fighting ability.
After dashing around, Amy and I clashed blades a couple of times, sending out sparks of our auras.
"Oh...? Where did you find this strength?" Amy asked, pushing forward a little.
"Why the hell would I tell you?!" I shouted, shoving Amy out of the building. I jumped out of the hole Amy had been blasted through, feeling ripping winds and icy snow stinging my eyes. I heard banging behind me just in time to jump over a piece of falling rubble, the end of which was covered in ice.
I landed just in time to parry another blow from Amy's katana, which shot out a little fire on its downward arc. We launched into a firece set of attacks and parries, neither of us managing to land a blow. I made a high jump stroke, but before my blow landed, Amy had disappeared. I jumped back in reaction to a chunk of building that was flying toward me, and Amy followed me through the air.
We clashed blades a few times on another building, eventually stopping for a moment to get our hand positions right. Amy jumped off, and I followed, finally realizing just how high up I was.
"I've thought of the perfect thing to give you for all your effort," Amy taunted, cutting off a chunk of a building, the end of which was lit on fire.
"Don't be so generous!" I shouted, chopping the rubble in half.
"Shall I give you... death?" she asked, knocking me into a building. I used my sword on the way down to dig into the building, barely managing to hang onto the handle. I kicked a little, trying to get up onto the blade, but to no avail.
I looked up at Amy, who was perched atop the building. She had a sinister... evil, even for her, look in her eyes.
"Give it up, 'hero,'" Amy taunted. "No matter what you do, you can never atone for your sins."
I looked on as chunks of the skyscraper we were on began falling, massive pieces headed right for me.
I've only got one shot at this...
Just as the rubble began to reach me, I put my feet to the skyscraper's wall and pulled on my sword with all of my might, dislodging the blade. I hopped off of the building, rebounding onto chunks of rubble. I moved as fast as possible to jump up, dicing any piece of rubble that got in my way.
A cross of fire and ice... in the middle, steam... appeared on a chunk of rubble over me. Amy came diving through the steam, using both of her swords. I blocked her blows, then landed on a piece of rubble. We both moved into a moves of extreme speed, jumping across falling pieces of debris, while each of our subsequent attacks and parries released sparks of our auras: mine red, Amy's black.
I knew we weren't close to the ground, but there was an odd glow. I jumped off, slicing a piece of rubble in half, to jump up to the collapsed skyscraper.
"Crap!" I shouted. There was no way I could jump that high... I turned around as I started falling back to the hunks of rubble. Now I saw what was odd... the lava from the volcanoes had flooded the streets of Seattle, with very little left standing.
Amy had warped above me, and knocked me down toward the lava. I managed to land on one of the pieces of rubble, albeit somewhat roughly.
Damn, it's hot...
Amy landed on the opposite side of the rubble.
"What do you mean, I can never atone for my sins?" I asked her, even though I was sweating buckets and starting to tire.
"Your soul is too tainted with blood and darkness to ever be redeemed," Amy said to me. "Even I, a master of the dark arts, have a cleaner soul. You're just the waste of the world; someone meant to save everything at the cost of his self: his heart, his body, and his soul!"
"I might be some sort of savior, but I have no intention of becoming a martyr!" I shouted back.
"It's already been decided," Amy told me. "The only way you can avoid death is to pull the Chains of Destiny again, and we both know you don't have that kind of strength right now."
"I'll make you eat those words!" I shouted, charging forward. We attacked and parried each other's blows at invisible speeds, but I began to doubt how much longer I could keep this up. After several moments, we stalled for a second, whirling our blades behind our backs and clashing with another release of our auras.
I jumped back onto another piece of rubble to avoid drowning in lava, which had nearly engulfed the platform we were on. Amy followed, and we clashed blades dozens of times while hopping across tiny pieces of rubble. We managed to land on another piece suitable for battle.
"I refuese to die," I told Amy. "I don't care what you or anyone else says! I've refused Death his prize in the past, and I can do it again!"
"That's just it, Roy," Amy said coldly. "We're in the past... before we even drew swords against the Order of Light. You don't have any of your powers or abilities from back then... frankly, I'm surprised you still have that Judgment Blade."
"It doesn't matter to me one way or the other," I told her. "I've fought this hard... come this far... suffered this much! I won't let anything stop me now!"
"Brave words... but I see the truth in your heart," Amy sneered. "You can't bear to kill me because I represent your greatest failure: your inability to protect those dear to you."
"Sh... shut up!" I shouted, charging forward. She parried my blow, sneering at me from across our clashed steel.
"You see...? You don't have it in you."
"I'm not giving up."
We jumped back.
"You could never win at this level."
"What makes you so sure of that?"
To be honest, I had to agree with her now.
We dashed forward, flying into a fierce set of strikes and parries. We clashed again, and Amy began to push me back toward the lava. I jumped off, dashing across tiny pieces of rubble. I faltered for a moment, gasped, and stood back up to face Amy, who was riding down the lava flow on a tiny piece of debris.
We clashed our blades together as Amy jumped off of her piece of debris onto my platform. After another lightning fast set of parries and blows, we clashed our blades together. I pushed forward with all I had, but to no avail. Amy held steady, and I could tell she wasn't trying at all.
I jumped back.
"Why did you go down this road?" I asked her. "It's true Senka corrupted you... but I killed her. You should have come back to your true self, or at least become purified over time!"
"I don't think I'm corrupt," Amy told me. "I simply realized the truth."
"And what truth is that?"
"That all life is meaningless: it exists only to die."
"That's not true."
"Say what you will."
We launched forward again, attacking at mach speed now, but I faltered once or twice, taking a couple of nicks in the arm for it. I saw a chance to jump onto a building, and I took it.
I hopped through the stories to the roof, staggering for a moment.
I can't keep this up... even wearing Oryx's armor wasn't this hard!
I managed to get back on my feet as Amy came attacking through the blizzard and gale-force winds. I could barely move enough to parry her blows, and it really showed: she was kicking and punching me in addition to picking me up so she could attack me again. She knocked me against the side of the roof, pinning me to it as an icy cold chill ran through my left shoulder and to my spine. I could barely see Amy through the snow and wind.
"Tell me who you care most about," Amy said, barely audible through the ripping winds.
I gasped and grunted, straining to put my hand on her sword that was stuck in my shoulder.
It was ice cold.
"When I'm done with you, they're the next person I'll kill."
I had a flashback to everything I'd experienced over my time off of Earth: from the defeat of Charon, to Senka's appearance, to donning the Oryx's armor... but most importantly, to my and Amy's moment on the beach at Kitty Hawk... and finally remembered my promise...
I felt an otherworldly power flow into me... not the darkness of a demon, but a warm light...
I grabbed the frozen blade and threw it out of my shoulder, slashing on the way up and causing Amy to jump back.
"You're so blind," I told her. "Even after all this time, you still don't see it!"
Amy simply chuckled as she hopped toward me, slashing. I countered the blow, causing her to jump back and off of the building. I followed.
"YOU are the person I care most about!!!"
I slung my sword behind me, throwing it out and splitting it into its six components. I followed with a six-bladed Grand Cross, followed by a Grand Trine, followed by a straight dive through her: my complete Judgment Crest.
I landed smoothly on the ground, and Amy landed too...
"How are you still standing?" I asked.
"Don't... count me out... so soon..." Amy gasped, breathing haggardly. "I have too... too much darkness... too much power."
"Very well, then..." I said quietly, readying my blade. "I'll end this for good. Into this one blow I put my pain, my anger, and all of my sorrow!"
My Judgment Blade shone with a white light.
I dashed forward, jumping Braver-style, before imparting a few last words to Amy.
"Farewell, my love," I said to her, though she couldn't hear it because of the razor winds.
"DIVINE JUDGMENT CREST!!!"
Just before the moment of impact, using my new otherworldly power, I split the Judgment Blade into its six components, dealing six simultaneous blows that ripped Amy into pieces. She staggered back as I held my only sword left: the Masamune. The others, including my Keyblade, had shattered upon impact.
Amy floated up to the clearing sky, dripping blood the entire way.
"Fade away like you should have," I said to her, "so many years ago."
"I will never fade away," Amy said, disappearing in a wisp of black smoke against the bright sky.
ROY'S ULTIMATE TECHNIQUE - 'DIVINE JUDGMENT CREST'
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An enhanced version of Roy's original Judgment Crest, like the normal Judgment Crest, it starts with a Grand Cross technique (this time with six swords), followd by a Grand Trine technique, but instead of simply diving through his opponent with his reformed sword, he splits it on impact, causing the technique to be much more devestating. The instance in which he used it is the first and only time he will do so, as his lacks his demonic powers in this battle. This is because of his time-traveling: when warped back to the date his journey started, Roy lost almost all of his superhuman abilities (save for his Judgment Blade) and he was forced to call upon the power of light in this battle, having lost his darkness and thus his ability to transform into the Holy Demon - in this fight, he transformed into a full angel.
ROY'S 'ANGEL FORM'
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A purified version of Roy's celestial powers. Having accepted his light, Roy is able to transform into an angel (notable by the aura wings he grows). The form is based on defensive abilities, but still possesses the unlimited aura and the doubled energy release limit of his (One-Winged) Demon Form.