Author's Note: Yuuki~desu! How are you guys? Still silent, I see. Special thanks to VIVI for being the first reviewer on this story!This chappie is for you! :)

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"Characters Talking"

Main character thinking

Stressing something or time skips announcements

"Main character's spirit talking"

Chapter 6: Tao En

The staircase itself seemed to go on forever and the landing it led to was no exception. It was a wide, hostile-looking area, what with the skulls and human bones littering the floor. Absence of furniture certainly wasn't helping any either.

"Ugh... It still hurts..." whined the now-conscious Horohoro. "Crap! I'm hearing a ringing noise in my head."

"Are you okay?" asked concerned Yoh.

Ryu, listening in to the conversation decided to make Horohoro feel better with his sympathetic words. "After taking such a beating, I am not surprised."

He then went back to observing his surroundings warily. "What really creeps me out is being in this kind of place. I get a bad feeling in here. All of these corpses scattered on the floor... I never realized such crazy people existed!" he said, looking utterly disgusted.

Jun and Ren stopped in their tracks, hanging their heads low in what seemed to be shame.

Manta, noticing this, discreetly scolded Ryu who realized his mistake only too late.

"Manta. No need to worry about it. I understand." said the younger Tao. "But because of our situation we have to be careful. We will soon meet the one who rules this place. Tao En." His face hardened, making him look absolutely determined and merciless. "I'm going to say this just one more time. This is my battle. Those who fear death can leave."

Stunned silence ensued, everyone staring at the battered form of the short boy before them.

"Ren..."

Whatever Yoh was about to say was completely forgotten when they heard the evil laughter.

"To hear you utter such caring words... It is most amazing. It has only been a little while since you left, and yet you have become so soft, Ren." said the thundering voice, making hair on my arms stand up.

It's him. The shadows around me pulsed violently, reacting to my agitation.

Out of nowhere, a giant form of a moustached man with the Tao tattoo on his abdomen, sitting on an intricately carved robust throne, appeared before the group.

They all cried out in fright as the man landed before them.

"Who's that?!" asked Horohoro. "It looked like he fell from the sky in his chair!"

Yoh, equally astonished, shouted: "Eh? Did everyone see where he came from?! And that's a weird moustache!"

"No way! Can it be?!" questioned Ryu. "That's Ren's father?! Tao En?!"

Peering at the group from behind his eyelashes, the giant man spoke again. "I welcome you all. I know you have been taking good care of my son. But that..." he lifted his gaze, immediately setting off alarms in my head.

"... Is of no relevance to me."

He abruptly lifted his muscled arm, pointing his index finger in our direction, intent on moving it forward and jabbing it where we stood.

Jun, seeing through his actions warned everyone. "Get down!"

The attack crushed the stone tiles, clouds of smoke rising from our earlier location.

"What a bastard!" snarled Ryu, activating his oversoul just as Horohoro did the same.

"If he wants a fight, Then we just have to give it to him!" hollered the Inu tribe shaman, attacking.

He managed to freeze En's right shoulder, making his arm fall off, while Ryu mirrored his action by cutting the other arm right above the elbow.

"Those idiots!" I cursed. "Treating him like you would a human opponent!"

With faces full of dread, they both stared at the result of their attacks. "What the...? His arm just fell off!"

"It's not possible! That was way too easy!" agreed Ryu, gritting his teeth.

That's when fully regenerated En appeared behind them, mockingly scratching his chin. "You are much too young. And that... Makes you fear the killing of another person."

The two offenders were then pushed by En's two outstretched fingers, making them fly across the whole room.

"Ryu! Horohoro!" cried out Ren, catching En's attention.

"Here you are." said the giant man, lunging at his own son from behind. "Wasting your time worrying about your friends... When did you become so emotional?"

The younger Tao turned around just in time, swinging his arm back in order to bring his kwan dao down on his father's from with more power. "You monster!" he growled, looking as if he was possessed by a demon.

"Too late. You're already open for my attack." announced the older man victoriously, but before his strike could land on its target, Bailong appeared out of nowhere, kicking his head with full force.

Unnoticed, Jun moved to stand behind the head of the Tao family. "En."she pronounced gravely. "I do not want you as my father. You are not even human." Gripping her fist tightly, she then came to her own conclusion. "That head of yours... I will not regret taking it off."

Looking bored, En turned his head sideways to stare at her. "Jun. If you must kill, then don't just talk about it. Do don't have time to talk. Haven't you learned anything?" Gripping Bailong by his torso, he threw him into the nearest wall.

"Wh-Who is this moustache guy?" whispered Manta, beyond himself with fear. "He can grow his arm back and even a kick to his head is nothing to him. En... Is immortal?!"

Ren spoke my thoughts exactly as he activated his oversoul and ran to En. "There is no such thing as immortality! There must some way to beat him!"

Use your eyes, Ren. That is the key to beating him.

Shifting his position once again, En now was back on his throne, right behind Ren. Resting his chin in his palm, he looked extremely uninterested in the group's desperate attempts to defeat him.

"Do you believe I have some secret to my power?" he chuckled to himself ruffly. "Even if that was so, you cannot discover it. You have left the path I have made and have become weak."

Unperturbed by the young shaman's maddened expression, he continued, "Those who have fallen from the right path can never find their way back."

"Tao." hissed the golden-eyed teenager.

"Everyone has a path they must follow. Only the weak lose their way."

Ren lost his patience, opting to use his father's speech to his advantage and charged at the giant. "Talk all you want while I attack!"

To the shock of all present, Ren flew right through his enemy, shattering the throne with his oversoul.

En's tattered and now obviously incorporeal body stood up, lips of his unattached head forming sentences as if nothing was wrong. "If you left the path, you will never return. Do you really believe friendship is the best path? Everyone follows the path given to them. Humans are unable to get along. As my son, if you leave the path, you leave my path also."

Now fully realizing the direness of his father's words, Ren had no way of dodging what was to come as he was still in midair.

"If you do not take my words, then you must die, Ren." said the head coldly, his cut-off arm flying in the said shaman's direction.

Oh fuck.

Catching the movement from the corner of my eye, I saw Yoh rushing to Ren's help.

Time to taste blood.

Making my split-second decision, I jumped out of Yoh's shadow, using the boost my crossing between two realms gave me, and stood before the two boys, blocking the attack with my already oversouled deerhorn knives.

Roaring, I pushed the arm back, throwing it back at En. He, in turn stared at me, his eyes darkening.

"Yin." he snarled.

"En." I bit back with all the hate I felt for the man.

"If you've decided to return and beg for forgiveness, you are too late." he said smugly.

Knowing he was trying to get rise out of me, I remained calm, even managed to appear nonchalant. "Oh really? That's good then. I might have to reconsider my revenge if you showed you actually had enough human emotions to know what 'forgiveness' is."

En was obviously about to yell something in response but was interrupted by a very confused-sounding Ren. "Who the hell are you?!"