Chapter 19: Nothing Left to Lose
The wind blew through his hair; across his face, stinging his eyes, drying the tears that had formed in their depths. His mind was blank as the memory flashed in his mind; the black haired warrior's grin, the blued haired soldier's shining smile. And the instant that took both of them away forever.
"SHIRO!" Tenshi roared as his eyes widened, his battle aura exploding to life, its magnitude far beyond his normal limits, the sword in his hand seemingly shaking as its own aura mixed in with the Knight's.
Shiro smiled as the aura washed over him, blowing away the remains of his concrete armor and whipping his hair back. "That's it, Angel," Shiro said, his smile widening, "that's how you should be when you fight! That bloodlust, anger, pure murderous intent! That is how one must fight-!" Shiro fell silent as a sharp pressure brushed across his face, quickly followed by the warm feeling of flowing blood. Focusing his eyes on Tenshi, Shiro saw the knight pointing his sword towards him, the blade shimmering as energy flowed through the gap running through the center of the blade.
"Stuff it, Caerentus," Tenshi growled as his grip on Kameharu increased, the energy flowing through the blade radiating off of it, casting an eerie glow on the knight's face, "I have no need for your words. All I need is for your existence to end!" Tenshi's voice filled the rooftop as he whipped the sword around, cutting the air between himself and Shiro in an upward swipe, releasing a dark blue arc of energy towards Shiro.
"Again with the ranged attacks?" Shiro sighed as he lifted his hand to deflect the attack. When the energy did not slow or change course, his eyes widened in shock. Lifting his other hand, Shiro poured all of his focus into stopping the flaming blue arc of energy. Realizing that the energy was unaffected by his powers Shiro dove out of the arc's path, rolling across the ground and spinning, sliding backwards across the concrete on the balls of his feet, watching the energy pass by harmlessly. Continuing backwards, Shiro felt his left side warm slightly; looking to the side, his eyes snapped wide just as a second arc slammed into him, the energy freezing cold to the point that it burned worse than any fire Shiro had ever felt. Screaming in pain Shiro leapt out of the blazing blue flames, locking his eyes onto Tenshi as the knight launched a half dozen more energy arcs towards him. "The Hell is going on?" Shiro muttered as he ran across the rooftop, narrowly avoiding the blasts as they screamed across the ground, scorching the cement as they passed. Stopping and turning to face Tenshi, Shiro took a deep breath, smiling weakly as he watched the blonde man's aura continue to intensify. "Of all the Rangers hunting me, I never expected to have to use these against you," he said, crouching down and touching the ground. From the point where his hand touched glowing red lines began to spread around him, covering the surrounding area. "Nine Blades of the Kali!" he commanded as the lines ceased to spread, now forming nine rune filled circles across the roof. From within each circle then rose the gem encrusted handles of nine Great Swords, each one slowly lifting out of the ground, slowly hovering around Shiro as he rose to his feet, his eyes glowing as his smile spread. "Now let's see how well you fare, Sky Ranger."
Tenshi watched unfazed as the swords circled around Shiro, each blade nearly as large as Kameharu's normal form, their edge's gleaming in the light. Tenshi moved his arm across his body, Kameharu pointing backwards as the energy radiated off of its blade. "Arctic Blaze!" he muttered, slashing the air and releasing a new arc of energy towards Shiro. One of the swords jumped to life and slashed through the energy, dissipating it. "I see," Tenshi muttered, holding the saber at his side and slowly stepping towards the young teen, his eyes tracking the swords as they circled their master. Focusing his strength into the ball of his foot, Tenshi launched himself towards Shiro, Kameharu beside him, its edge glowing with a light blue energy. As he approached the hovering swords all jumped to life; three of them immediately swinging at Tenshi while the rest hovered close behind, tracking the knight's movements. Tenshi leapt above the first three blades, hardly taking notice as they clashed against each other while two more jumped towards him, angling themselves to slash him. Twisting his body and throwing his head back, Tenshi spun between the two swords, their blades narrowly missing his arms and legs as he passed by them. Righting himself the knight flipped forward, landing on the flat of the sixth sword as it attempted to skewer him. Racing across its length he rolled under the slash from the seventh sword, rising to his feet and leaping off of the sword, deflecting the eighth sword as it slashed at his side. Grinding across the blade's length with Kameharu, Tenshi pushed away from the Great Sword and fell towards the ninth, tucking and spinning past it as the sword swung at him, passing harmlessly by. Taking Kameharu in both hands, Tenshi lifted the sword across his right shoulder as the blade burst into dark blue flames. "Arctic Blaze!" Tenshi shouted as he slashed down at Shiro, who lifted his arms in defense. Two of the sword flew in front of their master, blocking the blade of Tenshi's attack, the energy exploding around Tenshi as the swords were thrown out of the way, though their place was quickly filled with three more of the swords.
Shiro smiled up at Tenshi, locking eyes with the knight while looking past him to where a sword unseen by Tenshi was rocketing towards his back.
"You're mine now," he said with a wicked grin.
Sailor Jupiter struggled to her feet, blood dripping from her side where Shiro's attack had slammed into her, looking around she noticed that there was no sign of Koaru, though Tenshi's energy had skyrocketed to the point that the air felt heavy to her. Turning her head to watch the knight battling Shiro, she watched as eight massive sword circled around the dark haired teen as Tenshi continuously flew down at the, slashing them and being thrown back into the air. A movement above Tenshi caught her eyes and she looked up, her eyes widening as she saw a ninth sword tracking the man's movement, its tip pointing towards him. Dropping her eyes to the ground she saw the golden handle of Tenshi's sword lying a few yards in front of her. Forcing herself to move, Lita ran towards the sword, her body screaming in protest as her feet pounded across the roof, nearing the rapier.
"Tenshi! Incoming!" she yelled as her foot connected with the guard of the sword, sending it flying towards its owner, its silver blade gleaming in the light.
Tenshi heard the voice call his name, his ears instinctively perking up as he heard the familiar song of Santiago's blade cutting through the air. transferring Kameharu to his non-dominant hand, he leapt backwards and spun, extending his hand and gracefully catching his sword. Turning his eyes to the silver blade, he saw the reflection of the ninth Great Sword behind him, its tip homing in on his exposed back. Pouring energy into both swords, Tenshi spun and slashed backwards with Santiago, the rapier blocking the massive blade and halting its advancement. Leading his second slash with a thunderous battle cry, Tenshi slammed Kameharu into the flat of the Great Sword, the saber's blade bursting into blue flames as it connected, shattering the blade of the Great Sword, its pieces fading away as the blue flames licked at the remains of the weapon. Turning back to face Shiro and the remaining eight swords, Tenshi flew down towards his nemesis, both swords screaming through the air as the eight Great Swords turned and flew up towards the knight. Tenshi brought the swords forward as he entered the fray of blades, the air around him becoming filled with the screams of steel and the light of showering sparks as he fought his way through the swords, ignoring the sharp pains of the cuts that began to open across his body. Crossing his swords across his body and charging his powers into their blades, Tenshi looked to the small opening in the flurry of swords around him as his energy overflowed and mixed with Kameharu's aura, his right eye glowing blue as his left one burned red.
"Infernal Blizzard!" he yelled as he cross slashed the swords in front of him, the output of energy from the attack shattering the remaining swords around him and opening a path straight to Shiro, who was looking up at Tenshi with a wide, maniacal smile, both hands pointing up at the knight, glowing with overcharged energy.
"Game Over!" the young teen shouted as he released the energy into an off guard Tenshi, slamming him backwards through the air, blood trailing along his flight path until he crashed into the massive sphere of steel and cement that was stained with Koaru and Amy's blood; the force of the crash causing Tenshi to hack, blood spurting from his mouth as he seemed to hang in the air for a moment before falling to the ground, Kameharu slipping from his grip and clattering across the rooftop as Tenshi crashed face first into the ground, Santiago lightly resting in his hand.
Locking his eyes onto Koaru's sword, Tenshi felt tears well in his eyes as his vision began to blur, fighting to remain conscious. "I... will not... fall..." he stammered, trying to lift himself from the ground,"... I will... avenge them... I will not... die here..."
"Wonderful idea!" echoed a voice across the rooftop, causing Tenshi to freeze, his eyes snapping wide open. Forcing himself to look back over his shoulder, Tenshi felt the tears roll down his cheeks as deep fissures began to creep along the entirety of the concrete sphere, a black light shining through the cracks. "Only thing I would like to know is who you're avenging!"
The sphere shattered, throwing chunks of cement and steel across the rooftop as every eye locked onto the spot where the sphere had been. A billowing dark blue under cloak, black and white leather body armor gold fastenings and a six foot, gleaming black steel crescent shaped blade on his back, hair whipping freely in the air behind him. koaru smiled down on the scene below him, his left arm around Sailor Mercury as she hung onto him, a light smile on her face, though her eyes displayed her discomfort of how high in the air they were.
Looking down at Tenshi, Koaru grinned as he and Amy dropped to the rooftop, lightly landing beside the Knight.
"Honey," Koaru called for all to hear as he let Sailor mercury go, who rushed to Tenshi's side, checking his wounds. "I'm home!" Koaru finished, raising his voice as loud as he could before reaching up to his back and grabbing the handle of the crescent blade, whipping it off of his back and slashing it down to his side, the ground beside him slicing open from the mere wind created from the motion. "Rest a bit, Tenshi," Koaru said, his voice no longer light and carefree; the tone was now filed with the calm rage of the hurricane inside the Guardian. "I'll take it from here."