Chapter 60 Wei versus Kagome
"What's an atlas?"
"What do you mean, you need to get to Nanking? What happened to your face?"
"Wei happened. An atlas is a book of maps and I need to get to Nanking because that is the only way to end this madness." Sesshoumaru answered with infuriating calm. After reviving Shippou, Sesshoumaru immediately announced he needed an Atlas so he could get to Nanking as fast as possible.
"What do you mean? And where is Wei?" Kagome asked. She bounded after Sesshoumaru into her house. Absolute confusion rolled off her in an irritated wave.
"He's gone." Rin piped up "He-"
"Good, that simplifies things." Sesshoumaru said before Rin could finish her sentence.
"As I explained, Wei is already dead and just a fusion of raging souls seeking vengeance. His link to the physical world is an unnatural tree in Nanking. The only way to destroy Wei is to sever his link to this world," Sesshoumaru answered while looking through the titles on the bookshelves. Cooking, lots of books on history and folklore, damnation...never the book you want when you need it. "Kagome, I could use your help finding an Atlas."
Something was pressed into his hands.
"Is this it, Lord Sesshoumaru?" Rin asked "We were looking at it earlier to see other lands."
Seshoumaru took a moment to look at the book's index and saw China and a map of provinces listed in it. "This will do, thank you Rin."
"Listen," Sesshomaru said over his shoulder to Kagome and Kouga as he strode to the front door "I can get to Nanking in under an hour. I needed the map to help judge distances and get my bearings. I have to move at my top speed though which means, no passengers.
He turned to face his lover and the wolf prince. "Kagome take everyone to the other side of the well. Kouga stay with Kagome and protect her. The only way this can end is in Nanking."
Sesshoumaru's form then contracted into a dazzling sphere of blue light and shot upwards into the western sky.
So sudden was Sesshoumaru's bizarre demand and explanation for it that Kagome's mind took a moment before she realized who was missing.
"Rin," Kagome said, her voice limned with blackest fear. "Where are Souta and Kohaku?"
Wei, lost to all reason or thought and being little more than an engine of annihilation, tore his way through Tokyo with no direction or purpose.
Buildings were leveled instantly, vehicles were turned to glowing slag, shrines were vaporized. Entire city blocks vanished in minutes.
So consumed was Wei by his psychosis, he didn't even hear the scream of metal or the rumble of concrete behind him, as Kouga tore a lamppost from the ground and swung at Wei with all his strength. When it connected with Wei, the force of impact from the three-ton pole was enough to send him flying a hundred feet to crash into the wrecked garage of an Autoshop. Caught off guard, Wei had just enough time to look up to see the green metal base and the craggy grey remains of concrete the pole was torn from, as Kouga swung the it down on his head. There was a sound like metallic thunder as Wei's head and upper torso burst and Kouga made contact with the ground beneath the lunatic. Not giving Wei a moment of respite, Kouga heaved his makeshift club upwards and brought it down on Wei again and again, causing the ground to give way and a crater to form beneath him.
The sheer savagery of Kouga's attacks gave Wei pause, but only momentarily.
Rolling to the side and further into the wreckage of the autoshop, while Kouga was on the upswing, Wei grabbed the Shining Hate and sent a cone of fire out to consume him. It missed of course; Kouga spun out of the way, but it allowed Wei the second he needed to get upright. Kouga, continuing his spin, brought the pole around in a horizontal arc aiming for Wei's flank, but never made contact, as his opponent neatly sliced his blade upward and through the pole. The half Kouga still held went by harmlessly and the other part Wei seized from mid air before it could fall to the ground. Hurling it at Kouga's left side, Wei expected the wolf prince to shift to the right and aimed the Shining Hate accordingly. Kouga did just as Wei anticipated and for a moment, Kouga's eyes widened in fear as he realized his mistake.
Wei smiled victoriously as fire jetted out and slammed into Kouga, who howled over the roar of damnation. It lasted only a moment though.
A flash of white and the Shining Hate shivered as a soul arrow threw it off aim. The flames stopped abruptly and Wei turned with a surprised expression on his face, as Kouga sank to the ground; his skin black and cracking.
Kagome stood ready with another soul arrow; her form glowed with celestial power and angelic wings swept outward from her back. Radiance poured out from her, pushing back the shadows and giving her an unearthly beauty that would have inspired wonder and awe in almost all. To Wei though, she was just another example of Japanese arrogance. A foolish creature trying to impress with displays of power and daring to imitate the divine.
"AS THOUGH YOU COULD EVER BE A MAIDEN OF HEAVEN!" Wei shouted, as he leveled the Shining Hate at her and sent out a blazing cone of fire to engulf Kagome. "YOU'RE JAPANESE!"
Wei frowned, realizing that since he had just killed Kagome, he would be incapable of raping her. He wondered if he had acted a bit hastily, since she potentially could have been a useful means of entertaining himself...
Before he could consider the matter further, Wei felt the flow of his power shifting like it was being diverted in two different directions. A puzzled expression appeared on his face, which graduated into shock as a hand shot out of the conflagration and grabbed his. Wei's eyes widened in surprise, as the flames parted like a curtain and Kagome emerged unharmed and in saturated by divine power. Her eyes glowed white hot and stared directly into his. A thrill of ice went through Wei's stomach as he saw the gift of Heaven contained within her. A pulse of power shattered his hand and sent his blade clattering to the ground.
"You made a mistake Wei," Kagome calmly intoned in a voice that seemed to echo not just in his ears, but in the deepest depths of his being as well. "Your flames are not natural; they are spiritual in origin. They come from the land of the dead. I can excise the dead."
And with that, Kagome's power ramped up beyond its already awesome level and dragged Wei's essence into the astral plane to engage it there. The night around them exploded soundlessly in waves of pink-white light as Kagome, like an angel of mercy and purity, faced off against Wei, the vengeful spirit of the dead and embodiment of their undying wrath. Neither moved, neither uttered a sound, but their faces were masks of intense and total concentration as wind kicked up around them, forming a swirling vortex with them at its center.
The psychic turbulence was enough to rouse Kouga from his unconscious state and prop himself up with his arm. Seeing Kagome and Wei enveloped in blinding light, Kouga was forced to hold his forearm in front of his eyes and not stare directly at the two. Although he was not the most spiritually attuned person, Kouga knew instantly that Kagome and Wei were going all out against each other on a higher plane and that what had awoken him was equivalent to the din of battle between the two.
The light between them grew more intense and forks of lightning began to rain out in random directions, causing soundless explosions wherever they landed. A wave of pressure from the center of the clash forced dust and small rocks into Kouga's chest, face, and arm, scoring light cuts across unprotected skin. The pressure increased and Kouga heard the scraping of larger pieces of debris moving across the ground. Gathering his legs beneath him, Kouga felt the skin across his body scream in protest and realized the majority of his body was suffering from severe burns.
Good thing I'm not human Kouga thought even as his body healed. Wounds like these would be killer then.
As it was, the burns, while requiring hospitalization for a human, only proved an inconvenience for Kouga as he pushed through the pain to escape the pressure wave. The sound of concrete splintering emerged and Kouga felt his footing become less certain as jagged cracks exploded beneath him. The earth groaned and the wolf prince felt it sag, as invisible waves of force shifted the earth and altered the ground to an incline.
Leaping clear, Kouga turned his head slightly and saw with his peripheral vision that what had once been a level street surface was now concave and had a star raging at its center.
Landing at the outskirts of the pressure waves with eyes turned away from the searing light, Kouga felt a thread of fear wind itself through his abdomen.
Her body can't hold up forever...
Indeed, the human body wasn't meant to channel the amount of energy flowing through Kagome's. Her cells were burning themselves out as she pushed herself beyond any limits and the force she marshaled swirled like a ferocious fire within her; no longer controlled or even directed, it simply burst forth from her like an impossible flood.
The light grew even more intense and even turned completely away from it, with his eyelids pressed shut and forearm over his eyes, Kouga was still unable to protect his sight from the unearthly display. Something, two of them actually, black and curved, appeared in his vision and it took him a moment to realize he was seeing the bones of his forearm silhouetted out by the light shining forth.
Everything went black.
Terror seized him a moment as Kouga thought he was blind. Then splotches of red and green appeared in the darkness and he realized that it was no longer necessary to hold his eyes shut. The pressure wave was gone and so was the light.
Turning around, Kouga saw that he was on the edge of the concavity -now a full crater- that he had glimpsed earlier. At least 10 meters in diameter and equally deep, Kouga thought it looked like a dry lake.
Excepting those pipes and other things, Kouga amended, as he started down the slope of the concavity and noticed the now exposed veins of the city. Still on the way down Kouga saw a shape move in the darkness. The scrape of its weight against the concrete was too heavy to be Kagome.
