Hi everyone, it's been sometime since I posted. It is getting tough for me as I have to juggle between long hours of work, this, and social life. This is a long chapter. Big shout outs to HOD Antoine29 for helping me in giving ideas and feedbacks. I hope you all enjoy! =)
Chapter 6: Unleashed
"Shido… What's wrong with you?"
"..."
Tohka is having her breakfast and she sees Shido in deep trance, something is troubling him deeply.
"Shido…"
The two of them walks to school with Shido in silence.
Raizen High School Class 2-4
The class started with Shido still in guilt of what have happened. Yuki's seat is empty, it causes others to think that she had fell sick. Okamine Tamae sensei entered the classroom
"Students, due to some family issues, Aokaze Yuki has transferred out from school."
"What? That's fast!"
To Shido, it is obviously a lie by Ratatoskr for cover up of what he have caused.
"She's dead..."
Class 2-3
"Aokaze Arashi has transferred out of school due to family issues."
"What? Arashi said that he has lost his parents…" Kaguya thought.
Onboard Fraxinus
"Nanaya still exists?" Mr Woodman asked.
"It appears to be, it is the first time we encountered a male spirit. Not to mention that he claims to be Nanaya."
"Whatever he maybe, a Nanaya's knowledge on spirits is immense. Kotori, try to convince Assailant or Nanaya Arashi to join our side. He is knowledge may be very valuable to us. I already asked Mana to return to Fraxinus. This is now no longer a normal sealing of a spirit. Protect your brother from AST and DEM. Humanity's fate may lies within that Nanaya and our hands."
"I understand."
The communication between Kotori and Mr Woodman has cut off.
Mana just return from her search for Kurumi. She asked Kotori about the situation.
"What we facing now, is something very dangerous. Assailant is a very dangerous spirit as he will not hesitate to kill anyone in his way."
"I understand that, he turned many of the wizards in DEM crazy and unable to return for combat due to unstable mental conditions. And now, to think that he is the infamous Nanaya member, Shido lands himself into quite some trouble isn't it?"
Suddenly, Reine comes in.
"Commander, Nightmare was found to be… somehow sealed."
"WHAT?" the two of them exclaimed.
The trio rushed to the hospital where Kurumi was at, her life is in danger, and her spirit waves are virtually non-existence. She is in a deep coma as life support equipments are hook up onto her.
"Must be work of Assailant, but why?" Kotori asked in doubt
"Kurumi tried to kill him?" Mana answered.
"Probably. He is even more dangerous than I thought, to be able to defeat Kurumi."
Osaka
Nanaya Arashi is walking on the street, towards the house where he used to live when he was younger. He don his hood, his face is partially hidden from view.
"Hey, you, the guy in black hood, stop!"
"Anon… is there anything, officer?"
Arashi is stopped by 2 officers.
"What the hell are you doing out here? You got no school? And dressed like a fugitive."
"Gimme your identity card."
Arashi feign taking out his wallet, he look into the officer's' eyes.
"Let me go…"
The officers are suddenly in a trance, and they let him go.
"Sorry!" the officers apologized.
He continued to walk towards a mansion. The mansion is big with overgrown, unattended garden. It is abandoned as the paint starts to chip away and roots of plants start to climb the walls. He remembers it as his own home along with many of his family members. Walking along the courtyard, images of him training along with cousins flashes. Those are the peaceful times before the massacre happened.
"The home… which I loved… and hated…"
He entered the mansion and started looking for something.
"The oracle vault… Where is it?"
He remembers clearly of a shrine where an oracle for upcoming important battle will be revealed and it answers to any Nanaya members' questions may have. But in the ruined mansion, it is hard to find anything.
"Arashi… Satsujinki Arashi…"
He can hear some ghostly voice calling for him. Calling a name which he does not wish to remember at all.
"That is what they called that out of control, soul corrupted me… That dark me who enjoys in killing people thanks to Nanoka's blessing..." he loathed.
He followed the voices and located a secret room. The room is dark, when he enter it, something resonated, his eyes are activated, he didn't see any lines or points.
"Eyes of Souls… it is resonating, it's the vault"
He walks towards the glowing light coming from a pedestal. When he stepped into that light, images are formed within his head.
The image
He sees his lifeless body surrounded by the killers who killed his family.
"He's still breathing. Finish him off with the soulstone."
A man took out a ruby like gemstone
"FOR LORD AMON!"
The man embeds the soulstone deep within Arashi's chest.
"Lord Amon will give back our powers! Let's wait for Lord Amon to possess his soul."
The killers left the house, but suddenly, a figure covered in mosaic appears. The scene suddenly shifts to a realm of endless infernal. The realm has countless ridge of mountains with fire burning heavily on them. There are countless of volcanoes within the realm, it is the burning hell.
The burning hell
He sees his soul being dragged by being with heavily twisted beings with red skin known to him as demons of hell. Out of nowhere, a being with bright blue wings of streaming tendrils of light clad in shiny black armor appears. He is covered by hood and without a face. Another vaporus figure with wispy like tendril wings and clad in dull grey armor with a helmet appears with him, the angels have appeared. Together, they draw their swords which are easily recognised by Arashi.
They swing their blades at the broken being. The demons are swiftly slain by the two angels without any chance of retaliation.
"This boy, Nanaya Arashi, the chosen avatar of Amon. His souls is partially corrupted. There is still hope to save him."
The vaporous angel approaches the unconscious soul of Arashi. But suddenly, a dark blast knocks the angel back.
"ABADDON!" the other angel shouted.
"Hahahaha… Azrael, your efforts in defending mortal realm will be futile once I got the eyes."
A gigantic demonic being appears, he looked menacing with a complex structure of horns and strong looking body. His ribs, his mouth are glowing as fire burns in them.
"AMON! I WON'T LET YOU ACQUIRE THE EYES!" Azrael shouted.
"THEN WE SHALL SEE!" Amon shouted back.
Amon draws his burning blade and clashes with Azrael and Abaddon. The three of them are trying to reach the soul of Arashi. Abaddon blasts his dark powers and Azrael uses the dead souls to knock Amon off his feet. The angels are now desperate, they rushes up towards Arashi.
"PAY WITH YOUR LIVES IN PROTECTING HIM, ANGEL OF DEATH AND DARKNESS!"
Amon unleashes the infernal from the realm and blast towards Abaddon. Azrael defends Abaddon and Arashi with his blade and his wings, forming a barrier. But the power of the hell is too strong for Azrael to handle alone as the barrier cracks and shatters. The angel of death is slowly being torched. Abaddon watches in horror as Azrael's wings and armor being burned.
"AZRAEL!"
"Abaddon, make... Nanaya Yuki into your avatar. Tell the heavens that Azrael has fallen into Nevermore…" Azrael said.
"May the heaven cry for your sacrifice…" Abaddon said bitterly and disappears from the realm.
The infernal engulfs Azrael, all seems to be lost for the angel of death. All in a sudden, a light comes out so bright that it knocks the devil back. The angel has turned into a being of shadowy skeleton fiend with a blue fire that burns brightly from his chest.
"You are now a fallen angel, Nevermore the shadow fiend. The high heaven will never allow you to return."
"I may be one, but I pledge my allegiance to the heaven!"
The shadow fiend turns vaporous and enters Arashi's soul, taking him away from the realm.
"Azrael! I'll take you out in the mortal realm!"
Amon turns vaporous and enters the soul before it disappears from the realm. The scene shifts back to the house where Arashi got killed, the mosaic figure hands out 2 crystals. One is blue and one is shifting blue and red. The figure plunges the color shifting crystal into Arashi's chest next to the soulstone. Later, the blue crystal is plunged into Yuki's chest. The two are resurrected days after their funeral with Arashi killing the killers at their hideout and he lost control to the devil inside him.
The image fades
He pieces out everything in his mind, he realized that he has turned into a fallen spirit. Devastated, he collapses on his knees.
"My soul… It is a vessel for Amon to destroy our realm and claim the eyes. Azrael has fallen and Amon's soul stone is within me, I'm now… a fallen spirit... Just what am I now? A friend or an enemy of spirits?"
He can hear even more ghostly voices at the vault.
"The devil… Satsujinki… Bring it down in 2 weeks from now at the first spacequake…"
"The oracle… I guess it is up to me alone…Even if it is to die..."
Spacequake alarm is sounded, and Arashi is far from any shelter. Believing that a spirit is going to manifest, he decided to stay behind to protect the spirit.
"To all the spectres of Nanaya who still guards this place, I've already avenged you. Rest in peace."
He steps out of the ran down mansion, and to his surprise. There are already many wizards waiting for him.
"No way… Assailant... Is he really Nanaya?"
"So you guys are waiting for me? Even the male commando units are dispatched." he muttered.
He let out a devilish smile, his sight of wizards reminds him of Yuki's murder. With his volatile emotional state, his mind is filled with nothing but rage.
"Kill them all… Kill them all…" The ghostly voices keep echoing in his head as he succumbs to the other him who wants to be bathed in blood known as Satsujinki.
"So much souls for harvest..." he muttered as he burns in a crimson aura.
His blue eyes glow, in his vision he sees the lines on their body.
"It is not fun if they don't die slowly and painfully… Unholy Astral Raiment, Abysm!"
He burns in dark flames. His shirt changed to a T-shirt with the visage of shadow fiend on his chests and shoulders. His pants changed to a pair of dark long pants with a pair of black sneakers. As a result of his reawakening, the clan insignia of Nanaya which is a blue crescent moon is now imprinted onto his back.
A chilling wind blows and it sends chills down to their spine, the wizards are somehow petrified of his sudden change of demeanor.
"ARRRGH…"
Without any warning, he traces the line on the arm of the wizards effortlessly as they are not moving in his vision. Their arms are severed and bleed profusely, they try to concentrate their territory to stop the bleeding.
"What? The bleeding won't stop!"
But it is futile as the severed wound is dead the moment Arashi traced it.
"More…"
He throws his blade back at the wizards and jumps back into them. Time seems to stop and he traces the line on their remaining arm.
What the wizards see is just a flash of a silver light that run through their side along with a dark shadow it leaves behind. In just an instant, all their arms are ripped off.
"AARRGGHHH…" They scream as blood shoots out and their arm amputated.
"Shadow is a reflection of a soul… I see nothing but death in you all…"
He swings his blade at the shadows of the wizards. The wizards' bodies are immediately split in half, blood smeared onto Arashi's face.
"Fuel my powers… Weaklings…"
His body burns in a bright red aura as their shadows join him as one. Different from his usual blue, Satsujinki smiles coldly at the wizards on air. Many of them are crippled in fear.
"No way… He regains mana by killing?"
"Tell your higher ups to send all of the wizards it the country to fight me. Nanaya is BACK!"
Vortex of darkness are formed with a pair of blades with edge that burning brightly in blue. Arashi manifest his shadowy wings and charges at the wizards with both of his blades drawn.
"GET BACK! DON'T FIGHT HIM UP CLOSE!" A wizard shouted.
The rest of them flies backwards and shooting him at the same time.
"It's useless… My blades can reach you."
His swing the dark blades at such a rapid succession where many shadow arcs are formed and sent towards the wizards in air, each aiming at the lines on their territory. In an instant, their territory and their CR-Units are severed to pieces. The wizards clash land on the ground with Arashi slowly approaching them.
"Damn Nanaya… Snipers shoot him!"
20 AST wizards uses their sniper rifles to fire a volley of rounds at Arashi, they are using the exact same sniper rifle that Origami used when she attempted to kill Tohka. Their force is so strong that each blast a hole on the ground smoking.
"Did they hit him?"
"Requiem-Seeker Fangs!"
Arashi's left hand engulfs in shadow, he swings the hand and tiny blades of shadow are formed. The blades of shadow seek the location of all snipers at high speed.
"ARGHH!"
They are so fast that before the snipers can react, the blades is already at their side. They are all killed with the blades sticking at their chests. The smokes start to clear with Arashi still standing without a scratch to the wizards' horror.
"What the…"
"That name you have been calling… I would prefer to be called as Ripper... Want to know how I got it? Hehehahahaha…"
The wizards are petrified on the thoughts of what the Assailant turned Ripper can do.
"Now, feel your soul being ripped to shreds, Requiem Storm!"
Nevermore appears and unleash the souls. Arashi attaches the ends of his blades to form a dual end blade. He twists his blades along with the souls and shadows so hard and fast it creates a dark tornado that cuts through everything towards the downed wizards.
The wizards are caught within the tornado, it is like a blender that blends the flesh, blood and bones of wizards. They cry as their flesh and bone being severed and ruptured by the darkness. They are sliced and diced until only the blood remains and they rain down on Arashi. Unfazed by the carnage, he don't feel empty, but happy.
"Hahahaha…. As weak as before… the warm up is over. Now… Who's ready to be ripped?"
Other wizards looked shocked as they relive the forbidden legend of Nanaya.
"He's… He's a monster…"
"Shoot him! Don't get close to him or on the ground at all!"
The wizards fire at Arashi, prompting him to prepare his retaliation.
"LET'S LET ER RIP!"
Arashi again, swings his blade repeatedly and forms the arcs of shadow that can send the wizards to their end. The wizards are shooting and dodging the arcs of shadows that are sent towards them. Suddenly, a group of wizard charges in.
"You're hurting my pride as AST's top swordsman!"
They draw their laser blade trying to reach Arashi. Arashi unsheathes his switchblade, the leading wizard smiles as he sees this.
"Are you kidding me? Using a normal knife?" he taunts.
He smiles as he sheathed his blade
"Hehehe… You're right in my trap!"
At a flick of his fingers, dark vortex of shadows burst out from the ground and blasted the wizards. The wizards are caught within the blast that weakens their soul. He ran on the walls and performs his acrobatic move of being upside down in mid air into the group of wizards.
Arashi feels really happy as he imagines on what he is going to do next. A pair of shadow blades are formed and he pierces the point on the invisible field and runs his blades on the lines that exist on their CR-Unit. In just 1 second, the group of wizards are immediately stripped off their CR-Unit and they fall to the ground.
The remaining wizards called for back-up and tries to shoot the Nanaya, but fear strikes them so hard that their trigger finger are limp, unable to generate the strength to pull the trigger. Their minds are blanked and they stare blankly at their downed comrades, as if they have lost their senses.
Arashi throws his shadow blades swiftly onto the wizards, killing them but leaving one. The male wizard who was in lead of the charge draws his laser blade while Arashi unsheathe his switchblade once again as he slowly walks to the male wizards.
The male wizard laughs as Arashi walks closer to him.
"GET HIM!"
A pair of Bandersnatch appears from the back but they are immediately sliced and diced as Arashi traces their lines.
"DIE WILL YOU?"
He throws a black block at Arashi, when it gets close, he squeeze a button and the black block explodes, it creates a lot of smoke as it goes off. He pray that his explosive had killed the ruthless ripper, but all his hopes are in despair.
"What…?"
A shadowy skeletal figure appears from the smoke breathing out blue fire. It shrouds the Nanaya like a protective shield, he appears unscathed and smiling devilishly at the wizards. The skeletal figure disappears again.
"Is that all? Of all of you can do? Even from DEM? It's better for you to just strap yourself with that and blow up to pieces… Nah… That is not fun for me, I want blood, lots of blood… I'll just cut you and cut you to pieces until you beg that you didn't live!"
The young man said as he raised the blade dangling on his hand and with a slight flash in the air the person in front of him who was covered with fear was quickly amputated of his arm.
"More…"
He runs his blade on the remaining arm of the wizard, the arm is ripped off effortlessly as its line is traced, large amount of blood is gush out from the stump.
"Arhhh!"
The wizard screamed in pain, but his cry does not stop the ripper who is determined to be the reaper that sends him to death.
"MORE!"
He deactivate his eyes and swings his blade on the wizard's chest. He aims precisely as his blade is in the flesh but not deep enough for it to be fatal. The quickly runs the blade down and break all of the wizard's ribs.
The young Nanaya lowers his body and traces the lines on the armless wizard's legs. His legs are immediately sliced clean off. All of it remains is the helpless wizard who is limbless in air.
"You think you are going to have peace when you die? I THINK NOT!"
The ripper's arm engulfs in shadows and penetrates into the wizard's chest, he runs his arm up and a ghostly figure is in his arm.
"Your soul… is damned to fuel my powers… You're neither going heaven… or hell..."
He crushes the soul in his hand and looks at the remaining wizards on the air and laughs maniacally.
"Hehehehahaha… Let today, be the day of the death of AST."
Arashi declares as his crimson aura burns even heavier as he prepares for combat.
Raizen High School
"I'm called for emergency deployment?" Origami answers her phone in the toilet.
"Yes, Assailant is wrecking havoc at Osaka and Ministry of Defence has ordered wizards from the whole country to fight Assailant. And according to them, there is something absurd that spirit, they claim that the spirit is Nanaya."
"I understand."
Origami sneaks out of the school and heads to rendezvous point with other wizards for deployment.
"Nanaya… A ghost story like tale during my training."
"If we are not alert, Nanaya will just kill us without even being captured by security cameras like a murder ghost." the instructor has always said.
Class 2-4
"Itsuka, something happened at your home, and you're dismissed. Same goes for Yatogami."
"Huh?"
Shido left the school along with Tohka and Yamai twins.
"What? You two are dismissed as well?"
The 4 of them are teleported to Fraxinus. Shido is surprised that Yoshino and Miku are also on board of Fraxinus.
"Onii-chan!"
"Darling!"
"Shi… Shido-san"
"Kotori! What's the meaning of this? All the spirits are gathered."
"Shido, we are not dealing with a normal spirit, it is a spirit who is crucial in the upcoming events. So sealing is out of question, instead, convince the spirit to join our side."
On the screen, a blotted out figure is fighting the wizards, but fights are obscure leaving only pool of blood.
"Even the male commando units are deployed… We have to be quick before he destroys all wizards in the country." Mana said
Shido is not accepting his task fully. He believe that Nanaya will just be tools to Ratatoskr
"Ratatoskr is going to make use of Nanaya, isn't it?"
"He'll be useful to us in many ways, we also need him for more information. Now stop asking, the upcoming events and even the lives of spirit depends on both you and him."
"Shido, who is Nanaya?"
"..."
Shido remains silent.
"I'm sending all of you a short distance away from Assailant. Don't do anything stupid, the spirit's emotion is very volatile right now."
Shido, Mana and the 5 spirits are teleported a street away from where Arashi is.
"Let's go, we are meeting a friend…" Shido said
The girls are puzzled at his words.
"I'm closing in on Assailant!" Origami reported.
"Be careful! Do not engage with swords and try not to generate shadows on ground."
"Roger."
"To get me back to deployment, this must be a very powerful spirit."
They have the line of sight on the young man, in a push of a button. Volleys of missiles are launched and targeting him. Nevermore appears again and unleashes the souls. They souls act like a wall as missiles explodes when they hit the souls. In the midst of the explosion, many arcs of shadows are unleashed and they slices through territory and wizards. Origami is shocked to see that as their territory is permanently destroyed easily, only her remains unscathed.
Enraged, she draws her laser blade and charges at Arashi's back. However, he parries the blade. To her surprise, it is her school mate.
"Aokaze Arashi! No way, you're Assailant."
"Tobiichi Origami of 2-4, fancy meeting you here. It's not Aokaze, it is Nanaya Arashi."
"Then, Nanaya Yuki is Reverser. Nanaya… they really exists."
"Of course we do, it's just that I'm merely asleep for 8 years. Your comrades have died, why not you just run?"
"Like hell I will!"
The two of them clashed blades, but Origami's CR-Unit is shattered instantaneously as Arashi swiftly pierces the point on her territory and CR-Unit, knocking her out. Arashi grabs her neck.
"You know my identity, you'll have to die..."
His free hand starts to cover in a shadow demonic arm. Origami starts to struggle, trying to break free of the murderer's grip.
"Stop… Arashi. Wake up… You're not that Satsujinki…"
"Yuki… No… You're already dead…"
"Stop… Arashi… They don't have to die."
"Amon? You're trying to hallucinate me?"
Pain strikes Arashi's head as he hears the ghostly voices of Yuki. He tries to thrust his arm to rip out Origami's soul, but Yuki's voice has rendered him unable to do so.
"What… What's going on?" he whispered as he regain his senses. He looked around him, the carnage that he has caused.
"Satsujinki… Amon must have loved that me…"
"Stop. Don't kill her!"
Arashi stops his move and lets go of Origami who is out of consciousness.
"Itsuka…"
Tohka, Kaguya and Yuzuru are shocked to see who Assailant is.
"Aokaze… You're…"
"Arashi… You're a spirit?"
He looked at Shido and the spirits with his bright blue eyes. To his surprise, he sees the shimmering blue divine souls of them. He also sees the flow of spirit mana within Shido, the distorted flow within Tohka tells him that she has inverted once.
"Avatar of Sandalphon, Zadkiel, Raphael and Gabriel, you all are spirits. Itsuka, you're with Ratatoskr aren't you? I can hardly believe that you're that salvation that Phantom was talking about."
Arashi's knowledge of them surprises them.
"I'll kill them… Nanaya Arashi…"
"I won't let you…"
He can feel the disturbance within his soul, the demonic soul is trying to take over.
"I must protect them… I must end this quick… I can't let them get close or know too much… "
"So what if we are?" Tohka asked.
He let out a sigh, as if something is very wrong. All this is to act that he is a friend of theirs.
"Ratatoskr, those idiots, if peaceful ways can work, we the Nanaya wouldn't even need to exist to protect spirits."
"Why are you saying they are idiots? Look at the spirits that were saved! Why can't we join forces?" Mana asked.
"That's right. We can help you, you don't have to face the AST." Miku added
"Hehahaha…"
"What's so funny about?"
"Avatar of Gabriel, I hope you realized that the whole AST has just been killed. I am a Nanaya, and I kill wizards as my job and hobby."
"What?" Miku is shocked.
"Shido… he's not joking… He single handedly destroyed AST…"
"What in the world…"
"Ratatoskr thinks they know everything about the spirits, ask them, why are the spirits here? Can they answer? By sealing the 5 spirits into 1 human, Ratatoskr already has an unstable weapon that can turn against them, just like what Wescott wants. Yatogami already inverted once!"
Shido and Tohka are surprised that he knows about the inverse. But Shido, full of resolve in trying to convince Arashi.
"Then killing can solve everything? And what weapon you're talking about?"
"The world's government are merely puppets of DEM, to something even bigger, DEM is doing what they want. When we were around… is there many wizards? A new wizard will not survive for 1 month when we were still around."
"You're getting your hands dirty… That's not what Yuki wanted!"
The word Yuki sends shockwave to Arashi, making him a bit agitated.
"As you have witnessed, Yuki already died… It is not what we two wanted. But as a Nanaya, if it means to protect spirits, I wouldn't even mind my hands to be dirty at all…"
His words makes Shido feel a bit of despair.
"Do you think the spirits want Nanaya to protect them by killing wizards?"
"This is taking way too long…" He thought.
"I don't care. As long as they are protected through whatever means. Now… Get out of my way… I will not hesitate to cut you down…"
Arashi draws his blade, causing the girls to be tensed.
"You can cut at me, I'll just heal and let you cut again."
"…My power is not to injure."
He unsheathe his switchblade.
"This is what I meant." he threw his switchblade.
Shido tries to dodge the blade, but to everyone's surprise, Arashi runs up and runs his blade across Shido's chest and returns to his position. Shido is immediately cut down.
He thought he could regenerate, but he can't, blood keeps rush out of his chest.
"SHIDO… you're bleeding!"
"I can't regenerate anymore. Why?"
"This is my true power, the power of Nanaya is death itself. I traced a line on your chest, that wound is death itself, you won't heal, it won't stop bleeding until you die. If I trace it fully, you're already in half."
He looked at the girls, seeing their blue soul shimmers even brighter, a sign of their powers' return. He tries to make them leave him alone by taunting.
"See? You all are in rage aren't you? Your powers have returned. This is what that Isaac Ray Peram Wescott wants. It is also what they want. So, I can't let you seal me yet, let alone join forces… I might just kill you all."
Kaguya can't believe on how the Aokaze Arashi she knew has changed so much.
"Do you still have a heart? Aokaze Arashi! We are trying to help you here!"
"A heart? Aokaze Arashi is dead, I'm now Nanaya Arashi, a dead man walking. I got no heart, kill me, if you can…"
His taunt works, the spirits has summoned their angels. Arashi sees that the spirits are going to fight him, snaps his fingers, a dark vortex blasts out right in front of them and run away. Shido's wound is set on flames and heals. Mana and the spirits give chase.
"Kotori!"
"Calm the spirits down! Assailant is known to be able to kill a spirit."
"What? A Nanaya that kills spirit?"
"Probably due to inversion, your teleportation device is also dead after his attacks. Be careful!"
The spirits have split up to look for Arashi.
Mana flies with her CR-Unit and sees Arashi running. Arashi sees her and taunts.
"You won't feel angry when all of your friends are killed by the hands of me?"
"OF COURSE I DO, BUT NOT AS MUCH WHEN YOU TRY TO KILL MY BROTHER!"
Mana charges her cannon and blasts at the street. The roads started to cave in as the blast hits. The debris are sent flying, but to her surprised, Arashi is already running on walls of a tall building. He starts to focus, and throws his blade at her. In a puff of black smoke, Arashi appears from above the sky, his adrenaline rushes as time seems to stop, he grabs the blade and pierces the point on Mana's territory. The territory is immediate shattered and Mana is knocked out.
"Mana!"
Mana crash lands on the road. Arashi skillfully jumps in between the debris to reach the other side of the road and runs again.
"See ya..."
As he continues to run, ice starts to form right in front of him and he stops.
"Na-Nanaya-san, please stop running from us."
"Zadkiel… If you won't stop me from running, I wouldn't have to violate my creed."
"But, you hurting Shido-san, I won't forgive that." Yoshinon declared
Zadkiel let out an ice breath, trying to freeze Arashi. With his agility, he runs on walls, Zadkiel can merely keep up with his speed. He sees an opening for his attacks.
"Here it goes…"
He throw his switchblade at Yoshino. And with his speed, he "teleports" right underneath Zadkiel. The docile spirit instinctively aims the ice breath at the switchblade, unaware of the Nanaya's location. He manifest a shadow blade and sets his sight on the red point on the angel. He pierces the angel like a hot knife through butter. Cracks are formed on the angel and it crumbles into light particles. Due to the disappearance of large amount of spirit mana in such a short period of time. Yoshino is immediately knocked unconscious. Arashi retrieves his switchblade.
"Sorry… This is the only way to protect you all." he muttered.
"YOSHINO!"
Shido arrives the scene and found her unconscious.
"NANAYA!"
"Find your own way, Itsuka…"
Arashi blast a shadow right in front of Shido and cuts out a deep ditch using his shadow powers.
Arashi continues his run from Ratatoskr. After running for a few streets, he turns into a corner. A large projectile has hit onto the road, nearly hits him.
"Disappointed. We didn't hit him."
Arashi readies his switchblade and lowers his centre of gravity, completely ready in combat position.
"Arashi!"
"Don't get close…"
"Question. Just where is the bonds of Kaguya and you?"
Yuzuru's question sends Arashi into a deep thought. He remembers his oath.
"Do you accept the eyes? Nanaya Arashi."
"Yes, I do. I, as a Nanaya, declare that I pledge my allegiance to Angel of Death, Azrael and the high heavens. I will be the shadow that protects the spirits and the world. With these eyes, I'm to be bound by blood and soul to this creed. I will forsake my love, friendship, morality, pride to protect the light of spirits as a shadow that they creates."
"I have to forsake… It is my curse to bear…"
"Why? Arashi? Why have you turn into such a state?"
"I have no obligations on telling you why…"
"Is it because you're a Nanaya? I don't want to be protected that way!"
"Protect… it is just a by product of my action…"
He suppresses his sadness as he tries to protect them with his own action. His reasons sends Kaguya to despair. He further hurts her heart by saying more.
"I, Nanaya Arashi is a monster, a monster that has to be tamed by killing wizards. I won't stop killing until all the wizards in the world die. Now… Get out of my way…"
"I'm sorry, I have to stop you."
"..."
The twins shoot another arrow with Arashi dodging them again.
"I have to break them up…"
Arashi summons his burning dark blades and swing one of them upwards. A shadow arc is created and rushes towards the sisters. The twins instinctively splits up with their weapons drawn.
The twins surrounds Nanaya Arashi swiftly which surprises him.
"That speed... expected no less from avatars of Raphael..."
Nevermore appears from a vortex and shrouds Arashi as he lowers down his body.
"Shadow Requiem!"
The savaged souls of Nevermore are unleashed towards the twins who are closing in. But the twins are unharmed as their speed is so fast making the souls unable to catch up. Seizing the chance He tries to breakout of the tight situation. But Yamai twins who are equally as fast as Arashi, surrounds him once again.
"Tsch… I have no choice left…"
Yuzuru whips her El Nahash towards Arashi but he dodged it with the pendulum shallowly cuts his chest.
"Focus or not… It doesn't matter. As long as I can grab your tempo, you're finished…"
He tries to heal his wound as black flame starts to lit up. With his sharp instinct, he senses Kaguya is going to attack with her El Reem. He blasts a shadow close to him from the ground defensively and slips away from the gigantic lance.
As he slips away, another whip from El Nahash lands near him.
As the twins clashes with the Nanaya, strong winds are created around Arashi, restricting his movements.
"Arashi! STOP! JOIN US! WE CAN HELP YOU"
"No… You don't know what you're up against, and what I'm trying to protect you all from…" he muttered.
Arashi closes his eyes as the strong winds irritates his eyes, the echoing of the wind is lingering in his ears. He can hear it, the disturbance within the wind, the emotion, the resolve, the feelings.
"It's here…"
With all his precision, he move his dark blades and clashes onto the gigantic lance El Reem.
"What?"
"Surprised, he can block that."
Instinctively, he dashes to another position. He once again listen to the wind, the disturbance in the wind is very audible to him as it comes in an arc.
"That's it!"
He dashes diagonally up and listens to the wind at the same time, he dissipates his dark blades and unsheath his switchblade. He bites the handle of the blade and raises his hand to his left.
"5… 4… 3… 2… 1!"
He takes the hit from the chain of El Nahash, with both of his hands grabbing the chain. With his knowledge on the twin's attack pattern he opens his eyes once more, his blazing blue eyes sees the fine red line on the chain. With twice as much of his focus, the time in his senses has been slowed down as his adrenaline rushes, he can see Kaguya is on the air with lance pointing at him at the same time, the point of the lance's death is visible to him.
He lowers his head and the blade runs through the chain. He let go his right hand and takes the switchblade from his mouth and takes the pendulum apart with his left, with a few swings, he throws at the point on the lance and throws the blade towards Yuzuru on the ground. The pendulum connects the lance as he sprints to catch his blade. He breaks his focus, as he knows that it is over.
In Kaguya's vision, he merely teleported to the back of Yuzuru. She felt the pain, so hard that it fades her vision as El Re'em shatters into millions of tiny light particles.
"Arashi… Why…"
Yuzuru is in shock as the tip of her pendulum is severed and El Reem being shattered with Arashi nowhere to be seen.
"Shocked. What happened… Argh…"
She felt something heavy hits the back of her head and her vision fades into darkness. He realizes that Kaguya is still in the air free falling, he manifests his dark wings and flies towards her. He catches her in his arms and lands on the ground as the wings disappear to thin air. He feels neither happy nor empty, but sad. He puts her down beside Yuzuru.
"I'm sorry… I want to protect all of you before losing my own soul…" he said to her as he sheds some tears.
He watches as Kaguya slowly closing her eyes, the sudden loss of mana renders her unconscious. He can feel the disturbance within his soul is even stronger as he starts to hear voices that he doesn't want to hear, the damned souls claimed by his unwanted selves start to haunt his sense of hearing.
He sprints, knowing that using his skills more will result in disastrous outcome.
Focus on Shido
Shido arrives at the scene where they fought, and it is shocked to see the twins unconscious.
"YUZURU! KAGUYA! WAKE UP!"
Yuzuru opens her eyes and sees Shido, she looks around and realize Kaguya is beside her unconscious.
"You okay?"
"Thanks. Yuzuru is fine. Request. Catch up with Nanaya Arashi. We'll follow you behind."
"Take care then…"
Shido continues to give chase.
Focus on Arashi
"I already broke the rule, all I did is to keep her alive…"
"STOP!"
He looks up and sees the shimmering blue soul of Izayoi Miku, the spirit known as Diva.
"Listen, you may hurt Darling but he is trying to help you."
"Help me? Someone who tried to kill him? He can't even protect himself from being targeted."
Miku is getting annoyed by Arashi's attitude.
"I command you to join us!"
Arashi can tell that Miku is a celebrity as her tone is straight give away. He decides to annoy her even further.
"Do I have to obey? Even if it is from a star, do I look like I freaking care? Idiotic miss..."
Miku is at her breaking point as she is really angry at Arashi.
"YOU! GABRIEL!"
The organ of Gabriel manifests around Miku.
"RONDO!"
A sound barrier manifests and charges towards Arashi, he rushes his adrenaline again and with twice the sharpness of his focus, he slows the time down in his vision. With his precision, a swing of his switchblade on the redline vanishes the sound barrier into thin air.
"Impossible! RONDO!"
Miku is surprised that Rondo did not even slow him down as he effortlessly killed the barrier. But much to her shock, Rondo does not create a sound barrier anymore.
"What's going on?"
"I see, you can't restructure your mana… I just killed the structure of your skill. Now… let me go, or else I'll take you down…"
"No… I must win Darling's heart no matter what!" Miku thought to herself.
"Then take this, SOLO!"
The song which Miku brainwashed many of her fans before her sealing is played and Miku chants as she prepares to brainwash the young man.
"Come with us!"
"ARRGH!"
Arashi stops moving and kneels down in pain as if something piled into his head.
"STOP! YOU'LL GET EVERYONE KILLED! STOP!" he shouted.
Against his wish, Nevermore manifests and let out the savaged souls and roars at the song.
"MmmmmmmRAHHHHH…."
Holy against unholy, it is a fight between mental strength. But the sight and the roar from the souls and Nevermore himself has fissured Miku's heart. She looked into the eyes of Nevermore, she sees nothing but darkness and it engulfs her vision.
"AHHHHHHHHH! LET ME GO…. LET ME GO…." she screams
Gabriel disappears, Miku loses all her senses as she is petrified to see the dark being. Arashi takes the chance to slowly staggers away.
"Miku!"
Shido arrives and sees Miku squatting down and gibbering by herself, she seems to have lost her mind.
"Let me go… let me go…"
"Miku, wake up!"
"uh…. DARLING! I'm so scared!"
Miku hugs Shido tightly and cries hard, it must be very tough for her as the fallen angel is a being of pure darkness which reflects terrors.
"Kotori, does his strength has no end?" Shido asked in worry.
"I doubt so, look at Miku, she is the only one still conscious while others are not. Also, his movement speed has been decreased significantly."
"Then… Tohka might be able to stall him."
"Be careful, who knows what tricks he has up in his sleeves, it is Nanaya we are dealing with."
"Got it."
He looks at Miku once again.
"Let's go Miku, we'll catch him soon." Shido pulls her up and increase his pace.
Miku stops crying and starts to follow Shido
Back on Arashi
"Arrgh…"
He runs as he holds his head battling the pain within. He can tell that the disturbance is close to its peak.
"I must avoid combat no matter what, be it the ripper or me…"
"NANAYA!"
A dark purple energy arc blasts towards Arashi which nearly hits him. He can see where it is coming from. It is from the dark plum coloured hair girl.
"Yatogami-san…"
Tohka is armed with her broadsword and she points it at Arashi.
"Why you hurt Shido?"
"..."
His silence enraged Tohka which causes her to charge at him. In no shape to fight, he can't even draw his dark blades.
Tohka with all her rage, swings Sandalphon at Arashi, but the speedy Nanaya dodges it. But Tohka in turn uses the blunt side of the sword and hits Arashi, who can't even focus.
"The lines… My spiritual strength is too low…"
He muttered as his glowing blue eyes fades into his normal sapphire blues. He is panting heavily as the effort to suppress is too much after the beautiful yet deadly melody.
"We asked you to join us, we want to save you. And yet, you hurt Shido…"
"...He can't save me… I am different from you all… In fact… I can't even imagine of what I have became..."
"Tohka!"
"Shido!"
Shido arrives with Miku. He sees the young man in a really bad shape as he is sitting down on the floor and panting.
"Damn your song! I could have just taken her out easily…" he curses at Miku.
"Nobody gets away hurting darling!" Miku counters him playfully
"Shido!"
Yamai twins arrive along with Mana and Yoshino. The girls are all around Shido as they managed to subdue Arashi. But, the victory is short lived as a group of wizards in white and blue suddenly appear in high speeds
"Kill them all! Target Ripper first!"
"Shit. DEM!"
The group are oblivious to the wizards as they appears from their back, a flash of light shines into Arashi's eyes and he realizes an enemy is imminent afar from a tall building.
"They… are targeting Shido."
He does not hesitate, or even bother to focus to slow things down. All he wants is to protect his friends.
"Abyssal Requiem!"
The dark blades are formed and he snaps a finger and a tall dark shadow vortex blasts out from the building. He can tell that she is killed as her soul is being burned by darkness.
"GET DOWN!" he shouted.
The group gets down as he stands up and raises his dark blades. With all of his remaining strength, he focuses once more on the group of wizards. Lines are visible to him once again.
The time seems to stop, things are working at his favor. With his mind completely blank but to kill the wizards to protect them. He swings his blades multiple times. But no arcs are formed.
Arashi looked at his hands, his blades are gone as he enters a trance.
"My blades… They are… gone… My mana is now… empty…" he thought.
Suddenly, he can't move, all he feel is pain deep within his head.
"Muhahahaha… your efforts are futile, the avatars themselves are fools. Now… it is my turn…"
He hear the voices of something he most dreaded.
"The devil, is taking over… ARRRRRGHHHHH…..."
"Arashi!" Kaguya shouted in worry.
With all his remaining conscious. He shouted at the group.
"SHIDO! RUN! GET THEM OUTTA HERE!"
Shido is worried about Arashi, completely oblivious to the peril situation.
"What's going on?"
"RUUUUUN!"
"Shido get outta there! He is going to invert. DEM is also there."
"What?"
"Ripper is down! Kill him!"
The wizards all swarm towards the downed fallen spirit, ignoring Shido and the girls.
"RUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNN..."
The man screams as his pain tolerance reaches his limits. He blasts a large arc of shadow that knocks everyone back a distance. Infernal shrouds him as he burns in the darkness as it engulfs the wizards. They are unscathed as their territory protects them.
But what they see froze them as a gigantic demon in black, his head has a complex structure of horns. His shoulders are protruding with two large blade horns. It appears to be muscular and yet skeletal. The fire burns within his chests and his eyes. His demonic arm runs through a wizard and a ghostly figure come out at his fingers.
"WRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
The demon roared like a beast released from his chains as he mercilessly ripped out the souls of the people around his vicinity. Fears struck the hearts of the people as they saw him near them, fear that removed the sense of movement and time which explained why they just stared at him in a daze.
Shido and the spirits are stunned by the young man's transformation. One by one, the souls of the victim are sucked into the burning mouth of the demon. What left behind of his victims is just charred skeletons.
The demon look at Shido and the spirits. It disappears and reveals the Nanaya that was shrouded. His astral suit has changed, his shirt's front is the visage of the demon which its eyes and mouth are glowing. His shoulders, his gloves are imprinted with the visage and his arms are covered with curse marks. His eyes is hidden from view, his devilish smile ooze out a dangerous aura.
"Nanaya!" Shido shouted
"Nanaya? You're calling that rebellious avatar of mine?"
"You're Nevermore?" Shido asked in worry.
"Nevermore? That fallen angel? I am the true master of this body, Lord of Wrath, Amon!"
Kotori is shocked as a spirit manifests a devil is virtually non existent.
"What!?"
His eyes has turned from blue to blood red. They are glowing brightly as if the Eyes of Death are active.
"Nanaya Arashi is my host. His sole purpose of existence is to kill spirits. The power which Nanaya so treasured is now mine as I consume his soul. Now, feel the true power of a fallen spirit. Amon, El Diablo!"
A pair of dark blade manifests from the shadows. The blade appears hellish as the devil's visage is on the handle of the sword. The blade is covered in words that are undecipherable to humans and spirits alike.
They are all tensed as they re-manifest their angels. The devil possessed young man's body, it possesses his speed, his agility, his senses. He engages the group so fast that his speed are demonic. The devil can see the souls and the death through his host's eyes.
"I see. The mortal boy has all the souls of the avatars… He dies, it's all over with hell victorious…"
The devil immediately charges at Shido.
Yamai twins who can read the devil's speed. immediately joins up.
"Yuzuru!"
"Request. Kaguya!"
"Let's do it!"
The twins immediately join their hands and with Kaguya's right wing and Yuzuru left wing join together and a bow is formed with Yuzuru's pendulum as bowstring and Kaguya's lance as an arrow. The two of them pull the bowstring to full, aiming at their devil possessed friend. They focus and the things in their vision slow down.
"RAPHAEL-ELL KANAPH!"
They release the bowstring with strong winds blowing at the young man, the winds is strong enough that the devil actually stops moving as the arrow is flying at him. Without a dose of faltering, he joins up his twin blades into a dual end blade, anticipating the arrow.
"Hehehahahaha, the power to kill everything is just too good…"
Lord of Wrath lowers his body and raises his dual blade, the blade runs through the gigantic lance as the blade sinks into the line on the lance. The winds stopped as the lance is split in half and it disappears into particles of light.
The twins' vision fade into darkness as their angels were joint, the sudden loss of mana are shared between them, they are knocked out. The devil separates his dual blade with him biting one. In just a blink of an eye, the devil is in close proximity to them before they even fall to the ground.
"I shall send the Nanaya's soul into deep despair as he witnesses his love's soul being consumed by me!"
The devil declared as one of his arm turned demonic, preparing to rip out Kaguya's soul. The devil runs his hand into the chests and the ghostly figure of his victim comes out at his hand. But to his surprise, the soul in his hand is a mortal soul.
"What?"
He looks around, and realize that the soul of the orange hair girl is still intact and her body has been shifted away. In front of him, is the body of a blue hair girl in wiring suit. She is Mana and she expanded her territory to push away the twin's bodies in time from the clutches of Amon.
He does not careless as he crushes the soul to absorb it, after all, it fuels both his and Nanaya Arashi's powers.
"MANA!"
Shido shouts in horror as his sister is being killed by the devil.
"Join her, IN THE ABYSS OF SOULS!"
The devil throws his blade at Shido, it is so fast that not only Tohka, Yoshino and Miku cannot react, the blade tip is right at Shido's face. The devil is in upside down in air at Shido's back.
"It's all over… mortal…"
His arms turned demonic, preparing to rip out Shido's soul which contain the souls of angels.
"Shido!"
Tohka shouted and with all her strength, she pushed Shido out of the way. The devil's arm enters Tohka's body as his dark blades disappears, her soul is ripped out.
"TOHKA!"
Shido runs towards Tohka, who is on his lap.
"Shido… I… Love… You…"
Tohka's eyes shut after saying out her last words to Shido.
"Tohka…"
Tears roll of Shido's cheeks as Tohka shuts her eyes. Amon is surprised, as he expected something else, he still smiles afterwards.
"Soul of Sandalphon… MINE! Hehehehahahaha..."
The devil crushes the soul as he laughs maniacally.
"This is taking too long… I shall kill all of you at once!"
A pair of dark wings are formed and Amon flies into the sky.
Onboard Fraxinus
The sensors detect a disturbance in the area, a spacequake is going to hit.
"A SPACEQUAKE IS GOING TO HIT" Reine shouted
"EXPAND DEFENSIVE TERRITORY! KANNAZUKI!" Kotori commands
"GOT IT!"
Kyouhei takes it seriously as the life of spirits, Shido and Mana are in danger. He hooks himself up to the 7 realizers on board of Fraxinus. Expanding the realizers to protect everyone from the spacequake. But different from a spacequake, a blasts of a large sphere of dark fire unleashes as it engulf Osaka.
On Ground
The quake of dark fire that burns through everything is stopped by an invisible piece of wall. Shido and the rest of them watches in horror, the intense heat starts to melt them even Yoshino can't keep them cool. One by one, their vision fades into darkness as they can't stand the heat.
After 10 seconds, the dark fire disappears, leaving behind ruins of the city.
Back on Fraxinus
"We did it!" the crew shouted as they successfully pull off the dangerous operation.
"Nice work Kannazuki"
Kyouhei is covered in sweat and panting heavily.
"Hehehe… Thanks commander, the power of devil is still… too powerful…"
Kyouhei fall onto the floor passing out from the exhaustion.
"KANNAZUKI! MEDIC! SOMEONE GET ALL OF THEM TO HOSPITAL!" Kotori commanded.
Back in air
"The forces of hell is coming soon, I shall just start to ravage everything in this world."
He muttered as he successfully taken the power of Sandalphon. But he is immediately met with resistance from within.
"WHAT? AFTER ALL THAT? NANAYA!"
The wings disappears as Arashi regains control and he falls onto a hill. The impact has broke his arm, all he remembers is that he asked them to run. He endures the pain and reaches at the end of a cliff. He sees the ruined city of Osaka, the rain starts to fall as he can feel an angelic powers within him. He closes his eyes to feel it, he flies into despair and rage.
"WHY? I TOLD YOU ALL TO RUN! WHY CAN'T YOU ALL LEAVE ME ALONE TO BEAR THIS CURSE?"
He shouted as the rain gets heavier and lightning arcs across the sky. His vision starts to fade as exhaustion catches up with him. His legs are limp, and he leans forward. He falls off the cliff as his eyes shut with tears falling off.
And there goes the chapter. With Chinese New Year around the corner, I wish all Chinese readers Happy Chinese New Year! Feedbacks are welcomed.