The hulking youkai and Rumia looked at each other. Rumia felt dwarfed by the youkai, and the piercing glare she had instilled the fear that prey would feel. She was the apex predator.
"You are not human." She said. "I have no quarrel with you. I only want to kill humans for killing my pack."
"You don't have much of a choice sadly. Seiga will force you to follow her commands, and if you go after Marisa, I'll stop you. It's been almost two million years since you died; humans and youkai are no longer enemies. They have overcome the hatred instilled in all of them, carried by your energy."
"So that is why I cannot attack the human behind me. My body will not listen." She said.
"It's kind of sad really that we have to meet like this. If I could, I'd show you what the humans have become. I'm sure your grudge wouldn't be so deep-seated that you can slaughter those two million years worth of generations away from the ones responsible."
"If it wasn't for the Yamas, they would not be alive to begin with." The Matriach said, before without warning, she dashed towards Marisa, who had her back turned.
"Damn she's fast!" Rumia shouted, flying after her, but she was faster... faster than she had even seen Aya move before.
But she wasn't faster than light, a Moonlight Ray blasted past her, making her stop in confusion at the sight of the magical blast, something she did not recognise.
"If you are the first, and strongest youkai ever, the apex predator of your time on Earth, you shouldn't turn your back to Makai's apex predator." Rumia said, flaring her energy to try and make the youkai take notice of her.
The youkai turned, and snarled. "Do not get in my way, I have no quarrel with you."
"Aye aye aye, you're like a youkai Rika." Rumia said, holding her hands above her head. "What's it gonna take for you to take me seriously?"
The Matriach ignored Rumia, and flew past her towards Elis, who was slowly recovering, but clearly struggling and in no position to fight back. She had not even picked up her wand again yet.
This time, however, Rumia predicted her movement, forming a barrier of Dark Energy between Elis and the Matriarch, which the latter attempted to simply fly through, causing her to be thrown back by an explosion. Unscathed.
Rumia was in pursuit, and delivered a Chi-punch to the small of the Matriach's back. Her skin and muscle was tougher than even Yuugi's, Rumia felt like she was hurting her own hand more than the Matriach's back.
But she heard a grunt, a reaction. Then she had to change into her Shadow Form to prevent being ripped in two by a slash as the beast twisted around.
"If you have a deathwish, then fine!" she roared. Rumia felt uneasy as the claw passed through her in her Shadow Form, but she wasn't damaged.
"Just as I thought, she can only overpower the abilities of youkai." Rumia thought. "As long as I'm fast enough I'm safe!"
Rumia extended her Shadow Form for about half a second longer than needed to evade the attack to prepare her energy, charging dark energy across her arms, before discharging a bolt of dark energy at close range at the smilodon, the energy arcing along her body, blasting her back a few feet in the air, and leaving a small burn.
"Is that all you have?" she asked, before slashing the air with her claws hard enough that it sent out a shockwave through the air, a cutting shockwave which sliced into Rumia's skin.
"This is nothing compared to Elly's Peeler attack!" Rumia taunted, not even wasting her energy on healing the cuts she gained.
But the attack was not with intent to kill, it was to force Rumia to instinctively close her eyes to protect them. Capitalising on instinct, the apex predator made her next move, slamming into the ground, feet-first, with so much force that a chunk of earth dislodged, the ground splintering around her, which was then headbutted towards Rumia.
Rumia only just opened her eyes from the slicing air in time to swear before she was slammed by a huge chunk of rock and earth, too little time to turn into shadow, not that Rumia was even sure it would have helped, as the shadow would just fall on the chunk anyway.
But the apex predator wasn't done yet, chasing the chunk, she punched it, redirecting it so that the part Rumia was slammed into crashed into the rest of the ground.
The youkai looked down at the lump of earth for a few seconds, before she heard a voice.
"Owch..." Rumia said, before a rainbow pulse shattered the clump, and Rumia rose out, looking very battered, her right side clearly suffering multiple broken bones, which were quickly healing. Even her wings were buckled.
"Your healing is annoying." She said, as Rumia finished healing, and breathed out heavily. "But from the fact that you did not heal your minor cuts, and that exhale, I can tell it takes your energy.
"You're strong, you're really strong." Rumia admitted. "I guess I really can't hold back at all."
Rumia started to have shadows rise around from her feet, surrounding her like spectral wisps. The wisps then began to crackle, the shadows themselves being charged with dark energy. Rumia then formed another set, and these ones started to glow with a rainbow light, before turning almost white, with a black core, charged with Chi.
"I hoped to keep this one up my sleeve for a rainy day, but you're strong enough to force my hand. I've learnt how to infuse the shadows themselves with my inner power and the Dark Energy. And I can manipulate the shadows far more freely than my energy. For example..." Rumia said, before one of the white shades stretched towards the Matriach, the front taking a fist shape as it punched her in the cheek, turning her face with a small, rainbow ripple of light on impact.
"Usually I cannot use my Chi as a ranged attack, but carrying it in the shadows lets me use it as a ranged attack."
The Matriach rushed towards Rumia, claw ready, but the dark energy shadows stretched and joined together, forming a wall which stretched, but held, as the Matriach got shocked, before she was thrown back as the energy which filled her caused an explosion between the wall and her.
"And Dark Energy is a lot less volatile when paired with my shadows, and more under my control, even moreso than when I fused it with my Chi." Rumia said. "I just decided to go back to my basics... manipulation of darkness. I just put stuff inside the darkness."
The Matriach was dazed by the blast, and Rumia flew in, the shades behind her, hand outreached.
"Of course, when I need raw destructive power, it's a lot better to let the energy run wild: Dark Votrex!" Rumia cried, before bolts of dark energy collated to a central point in Rumia's curled palm, the bolts literally charging through the Matriach, but before the attack finished, Rumia was sent flying from a kick, a kick which felt like it completely shattered all of her ribs at once, and most of her spine.
"Overconfident..." she said, with a grimace, regenrateing the damage at a quick pace, sending the Chi Shadows to slow down the youkai, who was charging in to follow-up. All of them punched her at once, stopping her advance, before she pushed them back, but needed to accelerate again, buying Rumia the time she needed.
"Phalanx!" she cried, as the Dark-Energy Shadows, turned into thin lances, her wings even splitting and joining in. The Matriach stopped, but the Chi-carrying shadows slammed into her back as Rumia launched the shadow-spikes, causing them to pierce her thick skin, although not that far, before they discharged.
"Let's try this again; Dark Vortex!" Rumia cried, as the dark energy collected into her hand, into a singular point, arcing through the Matriach as it did so.
She raised her claw, but it was too late.
"Dark Storm!" Rumia said calmly, before the entire collected amount of Dark Energy erupted into multiple wildly arcing bolts, flying right through the Matriach, who gave a cry of pain.
Rumia panted heavily, as the Matriach floated before her, unmoving, and unconscious, smoldering. The tag on her head on fire. She looked at her right side, the pain sinking in as she noticed her arm missing as well as a large chunk of her right chest. Her head had only just escaped the slash, a large cut from the edge of the claw.
"Damnit..." Rumia said, falling to the ground, and focusing everything on healing. Recovering damage this severe, this fatal, would take a lot out of her. The first thing she did was stop the bleeding, before she started to repair her lung.
Just as her lung was restored, and Rumia took the chance to start panting from being tired, the Matriach twitched.
"Oh you have got to be kidding me..." Rumia said, as the ancient youkai began to move, the light returning to her eyes.
Rumia readied herself, knowing that in her current state, with a regerateing arm and low energy, she would have no chance. She had even had to dispel her shadows, which took a lot of concentration, to focus on healing.
But the youkai turned around slowly. "You, human, are worse than any other human. You disrupted my eternal sleep... for your own personal gains. You had the nerve to make me your slave! I shall look at the new world as this strong one wishes me to, as respect for her, but one human dies today, you!"
The Matriach roared, and flew towards Seiga.
Seiga's face for the first time showed concern, as she noticed the tag on the forehead of the youkai was gone. Without it, she had no control at all over her. Most Jiang-Shis only used them as default instructions when they were not being directly commanded, but this one's power was so great it needed the tag just to remain under Seiga's control.
And Seiga didn't know if her power would work on a hermit or not.
Suddenly, Yoshika jerked still, and her tag vanished. Her skin became more human-like, and dust began to fall off her.
"Nyang-Nyang?" she said. Marisa and Yumeko noticed something off, and stopped fighting Yoshika.
Seiga held out both hands to the Matriach, and she stopped moving.
"I can't..." she said, trying to move foward.
"I can restrain you... if I put all of my focus into it... I'll sacrifice Yoshika and make you my only slave, you don't have the consumption Yoshika does, but you'll do nicely."
"Nyang Nyang?" Yoshika said weakly.
Rumia clenched her fist.
"You're just going to kill Yoshika?! After all she's done for you!" Rumia shouted.
"By Shinki..." Yumeko said.
Marisa tipped her hat over her head.
"Yoshika..." she said. "What does Seiga releasing her spell on you mean?"
"I'm not her Jiang-Shi anymore... I'm dying... I don't want to die... not again..." Yoshika said. "I didn't want to do evil things either... but I didn't want to die even more..."
"So that means you don't have to do as she says, right?" Marisa asked.
"I guess..." Yoshika said weakly.
"Free Alice!" Marisa commanded "You need to free Alice from your curse now or Seiga will kill all of us!"
"But I don't want to betray..."
"If Seiga gets her way, it won't be good for Kogasa either!" Rumia shouted, having a thought. "And if you help us stop her, you might not have to die. If you want to live enough Yoshika, you can live! Shinki might be able to help you! Kogasa will be sad if you die..."
"Ko...ga...sa..." Yoshika said weakly, her eyes closing, a tear rolling down her face, as the Matriach turned, a tag on her head.
Alice stopped casting, and looked around, confused.
"Where am I... Sariel?! Am I in VINA?! I get it... I'm dreaming." Alice said.
As soon as the torrent of Alice's spells stopped, the biggest Master Spark Rumia had ever seen engulfed Seiga and The Matriach completely. Rumia heard Marisa roar something, but it was impossible to make out over the roar of the spark.
The spark died down, and Seiga floated there, badly burnt. The Matriach was hurt too, the tag gone again, and she turned and slashed Seiga, cutting her at the waist.
Seiga was alive, clearly, as she kept floating, not bleeding or anything.
"OK, so your power dosen't work on Her..."
A pulse of white light engulfed Seiga, this time, from Sariel. This too, did not hurt Seiga. Rumia, having recovered, angrily flew up to Seiga, after Marisa fired a second, smaller spark, and pummelled her.
"How dare you use Alice!" she shouted. "How dare you let Yoshika die for your own greed!" she yelled, landing a particularly satisfying punch to Seiga's face. "How dare you use the Matriach as a puppet like that!"
Rumia paused, and punched Seiga again.
"That's for manipulating Miko all those years ago!"
Another punch.
"That one's for causing trouble in Gensokyo!"
Another.
"That's for beating up Komachi and the other Shinigami to extend your wicked life!"
Rumia wound up another punch, the hardest, this one sending Seiga into the ground.
"And that one's for using me. Don't think I didn't figure it out after I learnt that Hermits can only die by a Shinigami. You'd have never died if you broke our agreement... you were probably double-crossing me the entire time."
Seiga groaned, before holding up a hand. "I never broke my promise to you. I know you won't trust me on that, but I never broke my promise to you back then."
Then, in a flash of light, the Matriach, Marisa, Seiga, Rumia, Yumeko and Alice appeared back in Pandemonium, in front of Shinki.
"I wish I could have teleported you there in the first place, but I belived that would class as interference and hurt Alice." Shinki said, walking over to Yoshika's body, which was now little but a heavily rotted corpse and skeleton, the Matriach, who was looking angrily at Seiga, and the half of Seiga.
The first thing Shinki did was look at Yoshika.
"I can feel her spirit. It's still bound to her body... it doesn't want to die. The same resolve as Yumeko. Very well. She doesn't deserve this fate... so I shall give her a new body." Shinki said, as a body identical to the Jiang-Shi Yoshika, except with slightly more normal skin tone appeared, and Shinki moved a glowing light from the corpse to the doll. The doll's eyes lit up, and Yoshika got up.
"I'm alllllive?!" she said, in a mixture of confusion and happiness.
"Well, your soul is in a doll. You're not really alive, but it's close enough. I draw the line at outright resurrecting the dead but I'm not against moving a soul to a jar if they wish that with their whole being." Shinki said.
Yoshika wiggled her limbs, looking surprised that her arms moved correctly and were not stuck in front of her like her previous body.
"T-thank you..." Yoshika said.
Seiga smiled on the ground, and Shinki looked at her.
"You realise, that a Hermit can only be killed by a Shinigami or a Yama..." Seiga said weakly.
"There is only one god here. And I am also the god of death." Shinki said, before she fired a small, red beam through Seiga's heart; her face suddenly showing great fear as she realised Shinki could kill her.
Seiga lay still. Shinki exacted her wrath for using Alice in the simplest way. Seiga had only feared death, and Shinki gave it to her.
Everyone was quiet for a few moments, before Shinki turned to the nameless youkai.
"What do you want?" she asked.
"Can you show me humanity? Where this being is telling me about?" the youkai asked, indicateing Rumia.
Shinki nodded, and opened a portal, before looking concerned.
"There too... it's happening there too..." Shinki said.
"I'm sorry, if you want to see humanity, it would have to be... about a week in that dimension's past." Shinki said.
"Then show me." The youkai said.
"Wait, what's happening?!" Rumia shouted.
"I'll tell you afterwards." Shinki said. "It will be hard to stomach. Your world has changed... all the worlds have changed. I can even feel it creeping in through Vina."
The goddess opened a portal, which the youkai looked through. About two minuites later, she looked away.
"Humanity are no longer savages... I see no justice in punishing them." She said, as she started to decay, Seiga being dead, the spell unravelling. "Let me die... I wish to return to my slumber, with my grudge no longer being just."
"Very well." Shinki said, as the Matriach turned to dust.
"I'm gonna miss having someone that strong to fight with." Rumia said, before Shinki opened a portal in front of Marisa and Rumia.
"It has been eight days in Gensokyo since you left." She said.
Rumia looked at what was not the Gensokyo she knew. She knew immediately who must be responsible. Only one being could do this to Gensokyo in the 8 days Shinki claimed they were gone due to the dimensional time fluxes.
"Yuuka..." Marisa said.
"No. Titania." Rumia corrected.
Author Notes: Arc 7 really suffered the most in the decline of the RP, I shortned it heavily because I wanted to get to Arc 8 before it died. So I decided to not try and increase it too much lest I make it seem bloated. Arc 8; the final arc; is longer, and when I said before it starts 'Immediately after Arc 7' I wasn't lying.
Originally, Seiga did not die, but I actually changed my mind, because Seiga dying shows the shift in tone. Arc 8, the stakes are high. I feel the transition is better with Seiga dying, and honestly, what Shinki did to her before might be seen as worse than death. [Trapping her inside her own mind until she realised the gravity of the sins she had committed, watching her entire life over and over.] Also, this gives Yoshika a way to 'survive' without being trapped in Makai due to her eliance on Seiga. Yoshika doesn't deserve that. Yoshika is a good zombie, it's just Seiga makes her do bad things.