Extra Stage Chapter 3: Winged Revelation

"Save you!" "Kill you!" "Save you!" "Kill you!"

There were two voices scraping repetitively throughout Alex's fragile mind, both in direct conflict with one another. Nothing about the way they screamed suggested they were fake. Their passion was equally real. But it couldn't make sense for there to be two.

There was only one Shina Aurora. He was fighting her now.

"Get out of my head...!" He gripped the side of his scalp and felt like he was literally crushing the second voice to pieces. He then sluggishly dragged his arm away and threw it down by his hip, drawing his sword to battle once more.

The memories of his past continued to haunt him even as they burned away. They were still twisting his mind, telling him things that were no longer true. The girl he loved was an illusion. The person he helped and shared deep, personal feelings with was a farce.

And it only made the pain he suffered in the past all the more empty. He had seen her die in another timeline. He had cradled her body in his arms as her heart literally bled out all over him. He could even remember her last words as though they were spoken yesterday.

"Please...save her...save...Kai...ri..."

In her final moments, she didn't care for herself. All she wanted was for sister to be...

"...Saved?" He grumbled with great pain. A sharp twinge cut along the front of his brain, as though a knife was splitting it wide open.

"No..." Why...? Why did she say that?

"Why...did she say that?!" He repeated that question rapidly with an agonized echo, but couldn't come up with an answer. She had no life left to live at that point. Her mission was to kill him, why then would she have him save her sister in her stead?

The facts in his head weren't lining up with the reality before him. His mind literally twisted and turned like a sponge being wrung dry, and made his head lurch up while he hollered a long winded scream. His mouth slobbered with saliva, his eyes turned bloodshot, and with many hot gasps of air in a row his body retaliated against the pain by wiping those memories clean.

Then, there'd be no need to think of that question anymore.

"Right...Right..." His path was clear and concise. That woman had activated her Valkyrie Drive. She was going to use everything she had to take him down.

"...But you'll fail." He growled with the utmost certainty as he clutched his blade tight and swung it back. His golden crested wings spread wide and basked the sublime depths of space in flames. His body twitched in a frenzy of anticipation, as he held his blade to the point of digging his skin into the indentations of the handle, and set loose a torrent of flames from within...

Pulses of energy loosened from Alex's body like solar flares. Each of them carried an immeasurible pain that hurt Shina every moment that she felt them. Her confidence wavered just a bit, as her eyes trembled with gentle tears. She grabbed her large sword in both hands and held it before her waist.

She could cleanly envision her blade clashing with Alex's. It was a sight so real, it was as though she could see the future. It wasn't going to be an easy fight...But she didn't need clairvoyance to tell that much.

Her hands firmly wrapped around the blade and while her eyes focused on Alex. Their eyes were locked together in perfect alignment, even with this wide chasm between them. Her vision was watery, but she brushed those tears aside by taking a deep breath and holding her head up high.

With the quiet beat of their hearts their only companions, they charged at each other with one decisive burst of speed. Their streaks of energy carved into the sky, and their clash of steel and amber rung across the entirety of this bizarre void.

Their blades locked together with their heads pressed against the back. Alex pushed his blade in harder, making Shina's back bend and shoving her away. She held on with all her might, persisting against these seemingly impossible odds with a true grit to her scowl.

With one vigorous shove she pushed Alex back an inch, which he took as a challenge to his predatory might. He parted his blade from the vicious struggle and swung at the opening that was Shina's face. She leaned her head back in the blink of an eye, her heart racing like a flock of winged birds.

The sight of heated amber burned her eyes as it passed her by, forcing them shut before they'd be incinerated completely. She relied on her aura to guide her actions, and weaved her massive broadsword through a cleaving arc towards Alex's right hip.

His second Soul Shield came to his aid, fending off the furious blow with ease. Shina pulled back and took advantage of the recoil to spin herself around, smashing into the shield multiple times as her body became a whirlwind.

All she succeeded in doing was throwing embers to the winds, and pissing Alex off more. He retaliated with thoughtless care for his body by pushing his right hand past the lethal whirlwind and coming within range of Shina's face.

He opened his hands up wide and blasted her with a scorching plume of fire. Her body was flung back, with bits of her face turning bright red from the intense heat. Sweat built up around her skin and slowly expunged the heat, while her stance showed no signs of faltering.

She reeled her blade back beside her left hip and waited for an opportunity to strike. Aura coalesced with the brazen steel of her blade, giving it an ethereal, azure glow. Alex came at her swing his sword like a blunt instrument, smashing away at the shield she had formed before her body.

The aura held up under intense scrutiny, but the heat he unleashed still grazed her from the sides. Shina squinted her eyes, seeking the opening she so heavily desired. The foggy blue shield parted from sight, and it was at that very moment that Shina slashed straight through her own barrier and attacked the third shield head-on.

Breaking her barrier scattered bright light around Alex, scathing his eyes shut with their beautiful radiance. Shina spun around and rapidly counted down the milliseconds she had remaining before he'd strike back.

"Four three two one...!" At that last juncture she turned her blade ethereal with aura and attacked Alex in the exact same manner as before.

Her arms almost gave in to the incredible pressure Alex's aura contained. It was almost as though all the fire in the universe was contained within this one body, each ember working together to actively repel her. She squeezed her hands tight and grit her teeth, pushing through to the center of Alex's aura.

His eyes flared open like a beast awakened from slumber. Without a second's thought he raised his blade up high and swung for Shina's head. She kept concentrating hard on her goal and pushed her blade through to the other side right as his sword was two inches from her head.

She spun and pulled her body to the right, losing only her left shoulder plate to Alex's slice in the process. But now her back was exposed, something she hastily remedied with a thicket of aura.

But Alex then smashed through his with fist and grabbed onto the back of her hair, tugging her smack down onto a spiked bed of diamonds. The spikes sharply penetrated around the less heavily armored parts of her body, making her gasp as her heart momentarily froze.

He stabbed his blade down at her chest, cutting through the thick atmosphere like butter. She poured aura into the wounds on her back to repel herself off the spike, then hastily held her blade against her body to defend herself. Alex stabbed from different angles, only for her to swerve to meet them every time.

His tiredness at this farce of an impasse became evident when he punted her in the back of the head with an electrified foot. Sparks blasted across the atmosphere like cosmic fireworks, hurtling Shina forward at hundreds of miles per second.

She crash landed on a planet covered in jewels, cushioning herself at the last possible second with a chrysallis around her body. It shattered upon impact and sent her bounding along the surface, then rolling a few feet before stopping. She pushed herself up with her sword as a makeshift cane, and immediately looked up at the sky.

But she should have been looking towards the ground, for the rubies around her feet were swiftly stretched to scrape at her legs and ankles. The wounds cut deep, the bristling pain digging up from her legs to her brain in a second.

She stabbed the ground and smashed the spikes with a circular burst of aura, then quickly took the skies before more could come at her. Alex dove down and grabbed onto her face with an unbreakable vice, slamming her down and using her body to tear through miles of the surface with ease.

Her focus dwindled upon every obstacle they smashed through, until soon she lost the grip on her sword. Widening her eyes, she fought against the friction and pushed her palms together against Alex's face. She released a blinding flash, but he closed his eyes and smirked at her failure.

But she had thought a step ahead, and used that flash to obscure the fact that she was gathering aura into a hefty spiral orb between her hands. The moment Alex saw it, she fired it off, activating his fourth shield. Though it'd do no harm, the continuous rotation of the aura would increase its momentum and thus the force necessary to carry Alex away and give her a breather.

She panted as she forced herself up, where her body swayed around. Then she looked to the horizon and saw that her sword was a mile away. A deafening boom rocked the planet, and upon looking up she immediately had to leap far back before her now flaming aura spiral tore her to shreds.

The spiral ripped upon a massive gyre in the ground. It had to have been at least two hundred feet around, and thousands of feet deep. And the energy just kept going, burrowing deeper into the planetoid without any end in sight.

Alex threw fireballs as large as skyscrapers down to the surface, keeping Shina on the run from her sword. She constantly refreshed the aura around her body while looking for cover. But there was no such place. Anywhere she ran, Alex would be able to sense it.

So in deciding between fight or flight, Shina chose to fight. She dug her heels into the ground and ran towards her sword, swinging her arms while swerving past the descending rain of hellfire. Alex lit up the sky with crimson clouds, bombarding the surface with meteors of differing sizes.

One crashed dangerously close to Shina, sending her tumbling further back. But she kicked up on her feet and kept up her momentum. Alex swung his arms across one another and heaved the ground up like the mouth of a foul beast ready to imprison its prey between its teeth.

Shina encapsulated her body in aura and doubled her speed. Her leg muscles became enflared trying to keep up with a pace her body wasn't meant to handle. The darkness surrounded her, leaving her the lone speck of light to prevail.

Alex pulled down hard with both hands, intending to bury her alive. But she smashed through the perimeter of the jewels like a living bullet and rocketed straight for her sword. Her head was sore, naturally, but not enough to slow her down yet.

Alex grit his teeth with unfathomable ire and chose to take matters into his own hands. He dove straight after her, outmatching her speed in the blink of an eye. He tore up the ground as he landed and spun around, slicing down with his right hand covered in electricity.

Shina's solution wasn't to run, but to get in close. She ducked under his pale streaks of lightning and rammed him with her right shoulder. She caused the fifth shield to activate and budged him back a bit. But this was not without consequence, for her shoulder felt numb afterwards.

She gasped hazily with grunts and shook her arm back to life. In the meantime, Alex attacked with a relentless flurry of kicks and punches. She cobbled together a haphazard defense with her aura, and swayed her body to evade anything she could.

He was attacking full force, but that meant he was not putting any effort into aiming his blows. All Shina had to do was close her eyes, and she could easily predict where to move. After a few seconds of futility, Alex made a short leap and brought both his fists crashing down at her feet.

A plume of magma erupted beneath the surface and swept her up into the air, peppering her with molten jewels. Her body burned hot all around, especially as a couple of them wedged into her skin and fried her nerves entirely.

She fought through the pain and swung her arms out, firing a multitude of shining lasers to ricochet off the jewels around them. Many of them bounced into Alex's body, activating his sixth shield and pinning him into place. Shina landed and forced the jewels free with a hefty breath in and out, sweating profusely all the while.

Alex was distracted. This was her chance. Her feet were trembling, but she forced them to run like the dickens for her sword. Alex swung his right arm out and attempted to flay her with lightning, but she slid underneath it and got back up without losing her pace.

He tried attacking again, but with a hop and spin she used her hand to guide the remaining lasers to pile on top of Alex's arm and force it down. His attack smashed apart the ground and peppered her with chunks of jewels, but they were but minute distractions at this point.

She dropped down and swept her sword off the ground, using its edge to grind to a halt. She then laid it evenly with her hip and thrust her whole body forward in a single second. As the tip of her blade connected with Alex's shield, she began rising off the ground while twirling her blade around and around, alternating which hand it was in for maximum effect.

On the final swing she clung on the blade with both hands and used its ethereal form to dig into Alex's aura from the bottom. It was easier to do so this time, but still a momentous struggle. Once her cut had reached through, Alex pounded her stomach with a tight bullet of air.

Then he tugged that same hand back, pulling her in with another gale. He switched to his other hand to pound her with another bullet of air, and repeated the processes four times. Shina coughed up a bit of blood, and constantly being jerked around like that made it difficult to fight back.

Alex ended his onslaught by throwing a left hook into her chest to bring her crashing to the ground. He dropped immediately before where she landed and reeled his right fist back, throwing a heavy punch only after his knuckles cracked.

His fist dug into her abdomen and split the ground left and right beneath where she'd been suspended. Her body went hurtling across the ground, with Alex following her with quick bursts of speed and even stronger punches. He soon knocked her off the surface and back into space, where she was able to spread her arms out and halt any further movement.

She grabbed her blade in both hands and swung it down as Alex rocketed after her. He swung his own blade up to meet her, stabbing a hot sword of fire past her defenses to overwhelm her with heat. She sweated, and her vision blurred, but she pressed against Alex's assault and much to her surprise was able to keep him at bay.

Shina broke the stalemate by turning her blade ethereal and attempting to cut more of Alex's aura down. He pulled away, a reaction even he showed brief shock towards, then threw his left palm up to sweep up Shina in a spiraling tunnel of fire.

She held her ground and slashed through the flames with a sparkling saber, which unleashed its energy upon Alex in a wave to force his seventh shield to the surface. He reeled his sword back and pushed a few feet away, and Shina floated in place to slowly catch her breath.

The two were silent and alone in this colorful, mysterious void of space. They looked each other in the eyes, their thoughts gravitating towards a single, unified memory.

"I WANT TO LIVE!"

Alex had screamed that to her with all his heart. For the first time in his life, he had decided that there was a reason to stay alive. To her, it didn't make a lick of difference what other people saw in him. She'd seen Alex's true character. He wasn't someone who'd willingly harm her, or anyone else innocent.

It was deplorable, simply deplorable, that Yukari and that mysterious man Justek would try and turn the two against each other with such a flagrant disrespect towards Alex's individuality. That's why, for as much pain as she would have to inflict upon the one she'd love, she'd endure a much greater pain upon herself for as long as physically possible until she had freed him from their captivity.

Alex felt his energy whittling away, his very essence carved into with that grotesque butcher's knife she called a sword. Being on the receiving end of the Valkyrie Drive's power had made him feel almost sympathetic towards those who had faced it beforehand. It was almost surreal how it functioned.

Though, this wasn't the first time he'd seen this power in action. Especially on him...But circumstances were different back then. Back then, he had been led astray into believing that she had his best interests in mind. That she was there to be a shoulder to lean on, a person that he could entrust with his darkest secrets...But everything was a lie. And she had ensnared him with the five words he had once spoken to her.

"Don't run away...DON'T RUN AWAY FROM LIVING!"

…

"H...uh?" He grabbed onto the side of his head and found himself in incredible pain. This memory wouldn't go away like the rest. It clung on. It fought back. He couldn't destroy it. It was as powerful a memory as the person it was connected to.

"She...saved me..." It didn't add up. Her goal was to kill him. Why would she save him? Mutual benefit would be the most obvious reason, but she never admitted to that even when it'd be easy to rub salt in the wound. Could it be that...

Alex stared wide-eyed at Shina, and saw her unpleasant smirk. But then the image of her became wavy, and he could see her looking at him with an adamant mix of concern and determination. His mind was ripped through, pulling him back towards the sight of her vile smirk while he let out a quiet, scratchy moan.

With rings under his tired eyes, he lifted his head up and pointed his sword straight up, caressing her body with a brief, hot gale. He spread his regal wings far and wide and looked to her with an intense glare plastered onto his face.

In the time it took the two of them to gather all their thoughts, the last of his first set of shields faded away. And so, he made a bold declaration.

"I don't need these shields...I'll end this in a minute!"

Shina firmly nodded her head and agreed with her pride and her people on the line, "So will I!"

One last time, their eyes locked together. With a subtle blink, they leapt from their spots at each other with swords burning bright and collided hard enough to make space tremble in fear.

Their energies burst apart in all directions, their clash of blades occuring valiantly in the center of this intertwining madness. Shina and Alex attacked with equal strength and speed, meeting every strike dead center with each other.

Shina raised her right leg up, coating the grieves in aura to amplify the kick. Alex grabbed her by the ankles and crushed the aura with fire, then with one mighty tug he swung her behind him, hurtling her many feet away. She stalled her body with an outward burst of energy and charged back at Alex.

She thrust her blade at his chest, cutting lightly across it as he swerved away. Dispelling his sword, he raised his fists up high and smashed her back, using his knee as a prop to make the pain hurt more. She coughed up blood, but concentrated deep within her body to unleash another powerful burst to stagger him back.

She then clutched her blade and attacked his aura with its ethereal form. Two mighty swings cleaved his hefty energy through entirely, but that was all she could muster before Alex blasted her face with a combustible fireball.

With her eyes shut tight and her face feeling red hot, Shina rubbed it over with aura to ease the pain, while using her free hand to parry Alex's attacks. She curved and swung to match every blow, which pounded her with the force of a twelve ton hammer. Her wrist began to buckle down, but she would NOT.

She spun her blade around in one hand, moving so quick that a hurricane would falter to its speed. Alex slashed faster and faster, but found his attacks and himself repelled no matter how hard he tried. So he swung his hand into the whirling vortex, and snagged it at its source. His arm jerked up, his elbow snapping like a twig, as he held tightly onto the edge of the blade and ripped it from her grasp.

Her defenses were open. He targeted her chest with a fatal stab, only for her to swerve aside and receive but a minor cut to the body of her sternum. She shoved forward along the dull edge of his blade and hit hard and true with both her palms. A shockwave erupted from his backside, expunging even more aura.

He gasped and shook violently, like the lightning he flayed the skies with had now ripped his body asunder. He sparked uncontrollably with electricity and let it burst forth from his body like the raging thunderstorm, throwing Shina a fair distance away.

She protected herself valiantly with aura and stretched her arm out to catch her fallen blade, slashing twice in an "X" with aura to volley projectiles at Alex. He cut them down in fell swing of his bare hand, glaring forward with burning eyes.

He lashed his palms out, squeezing them so tightly together that the skin began to split. From there he unleashed a massive beam of fire, forcing Shina on the defensive. The heat set her hair flying back, the pressure riding against her skin and forcing her eyes wide open, even with her aura protecting her.

Alex punctured her defenses with electrified vines as the fires died, reeling her back to him with millions of volts surging through her body. He punched her a few times in a row, treating her body like the body of a yo-yo while the vines behaved like its string.

Shina mustered the strength to cut the vines to ribbons, but her right eye was weakly beginning to close. She charged straight for Alex and dug the tip of her blade into his abdomen, being careful to evade any vital organs. Blood hotter than magma expunged from his body and splashed against the aura around her face, burning holes straight through it.

She reeled back and sought to confuse him with speed, only for her moves to have been predicted steps in advance, for Alex now bound her legs in place with shackles of rugged chrome. He held on tight with one hand, and swung the other back with an inferno condensing before his palm.

Shina grunted, channeling all the energy she could muster into her legs. With Alex so focused on incinerating her, he couldn't maintain a perfect restraint. Her strength prevailed, and she swung both legs up as hard as she could into his chest and chin. The shackles shattered, his swirling flames thrown far into the distance, where its light would be said to still be visible a thousand years later.

Shina pounded his chest with a flurry of kicks until he had enough, and struck back by grappling his arms around her waist and piledriving her straight towards a new planetoid.

This place, flourishing with strange blue and red flowers, would soon have its peace disturbed by a meteor impact. A ring of fire spread for miles and left only the soil beneath it untouched. After dragging Shina through a mile of dirt, Alex planted his knees on her stomach and swung his fists at her face. Two punches was all it took to draw blood from her nose and bruise her cheeks.

She dropped her sword and used both her hands to grab onto Alex's fist. She then threw him overhead and slammed him against the ground, where she rammed into him and caused the two to start tumbling across the ground. Dirt then dug into their wounds and caused incredible pain.

They both stopped flat on their stomachs. Alex planted his hands down first, and dug his fingernails underneath the soil. He pulled the ground apart beneath Shina, and she plummeted into the chasm. He tried to slam it shut, but she blasted the walls with powerful bursts of aura to make her escape.

The dirt flew into Alex's eyes. He reeled his head back and screamed loudly, scraping at his eyes to get it out. Shina dove down and threw a punch into the back of his head to knock him to the floor. He slammed his hands down and immediately performed a brushing kick, tripping Shina up.

As she went flying up she grappled her legs around Alex's neck and pulled him up, twisting him around so he'd be slammed onto his back after she fell. He held his breath and his face turned red, but allowed him to freely slam his elbows into the ground to upheave the dirt in a pillar to clobber Shina in the gut.

Forced to let go, she was knocked up over Alex, who vaulted off the ground and wrapped his arms around her waist. Then he put his legs around hers and power bombed her into the surface of the planetoid, cracking the ground for miles.

Her whole body quaked, and her muscles started to feel a bit like gelatin. She grabbed her hands around Alex's head and pulled it in, biting her teeth as their foreheads smashed together and drew blood. The two untangled themselves as they fell onto their backs and started panting heavily.

Blood leaked from the sides of their mouth as they slowly pulled themselves up. Shina was sniffling, tears flowing down her cheeks, while Alex's nostrils flared and his eyes were bloodshot and dry.

Alex hunched over and sliced the air with his arm, cutting down Shina's chest from shoulder to hip with a lightspeed blade of wind. He tried it again, but this time Shina applied a quick burst of speed to ram him to the ground with her shoulder. Her shoulder then locked up, inflicting excrutiating pain down her entire arm.

She turned to the left and hustled for her sword, with Alex rising and chasing in hot pursuit. He got ahead of her and flicked the sword aside with his foot, then threw a left and right hook into her body in quick succession. She bit her teeth down and grabbed onto the sides of his head, bringing it down upon her rising knee.

Blood sprayed from his nose and mouth as she then grappled underneath his shoulders and suplexed him behind her. His head was now piledriven into the ground, giving Shina a second to run for her sword. Once she picked it up, she turned around and countered Alex attacking with a fervent downward slash.

He kept his blade locked in and charged forth, dragging her feet through the ground. He then forced her blade down, trying to get his sword in the perfect position to dislodge it from her grasp. But instead she matched his movements and triumphed when it came to speed, causing her to dislodge his blade.

He was getting desperate. He reached down for his right pocket to claw the Gaia Temporis free, but she intercepted his wrist with a firm grip from her left hand and forced it up. Drawing her body in closer, she could see his teeth and eyes trembling with fear. It hurt to watch him suffer like this. She couldn't even begin to imagine how he felt.

But that distraction of the conscience meant little to Alex, who grabbed his falling sword in the other hand and attempted to cleave her arm off. She backed away with a long, floaty leap, and held her sword tightly in both hands upon landing.

Alex grabbed his sword in both hands and swung it down. Flames coerced together into a deadly spiral that penetrated the surface of the planetoid diagonally to the other side. His power was going out of control, and the glimmer of his wings were beginning to fade. He could barely hold on to his scowl, but the penetrating hatred it showed was as strong as ever.

Shina gathered most of her remaining aura into her sword, making it shine brighter than an azure star. Her knees were weak, her feet as light as paper. Were she to move, she'd have a more likely chance of collapsing on her stomach.

But she could feel Alex's strength wavering. If she put everything she got into one final attack, she could cut down the remainder of his aura and incapcitate him without killing him. But would she survive the aftermath was the bigger question, and one she was not certain of...

Her heart raced, visions of her family and people, along with all the people she met along the way, rushed past her in an instance. Alex stood at the end of it, reflecting his saner self in her eyes with a subdued smile. She slowly started to cry, while the rest of her body firmed up to prepare for the final strike.

He didn't want to die. Not like this. Not to anyone.

Memories meant nothing. His past meant nothing. He just wanted to live to spite the universe for causing him so much undue harm. And the first step towards that end was...

"Because...I know that...through thick and thin...we'll still love each other...E-Even if we don't succeed..."

His heart went stiff and cold. Shina's words from that one tempting night of passion ached his very soul. His skin gained a pale tint, and the flames around him flew into a wild frenzy. He saw both Shinas staring back at him, unable to deduce which one was real.

With a long, agonizing grunt, he closed his eyes and trusted only himself to see this battle through.

Drowning out even her own thoughts, Shina took in a deep breath and swung her blade up high. Taking upon an ethereal form, the aura exploded into a feathery, bright blue wing high in the sky. As Alex raised his blade, his fire raged like a malicious wildfire and created a jagged wing.

The two charged at each other and swung their blades down, going in for the final blow. The flames overcame the aura and cut halfway down the planetoid.

Everything went silent. There was nothing. Not even an ember remained.

...Then a flash of crimson burst wide-open around where they two had clashed. Shina stood behind Alex with her blade drawn down, and a scar burned into the planet that clearly showed that Alex's attack had missed its mark completely.

The boy froze stiff in an upright position, his wings burning into golden ash that spread to the four winds. He collapsed onto his back, looking as mortal as any other human.

Shina planted her sword on the ground and panted heavily. The last few seconds, nay, the last minute of her life was a complete and utter blur. She wasn't even certain she had succeeded until she turned around and saw Alex on the ground. She couldn't sense even a glint of his monstrous energy left.

She had won...

"...Alex?" She whispered softly as she cautiously approached him.

"Without his aura he should be free from Yukari's control, just like Dizzy was..." She thought as she looked down at his face, and saw this frighteningly blank look in his eyes.

"He eyed the parents of the prophecized successor, and created his 'Blank' inside of the mother as little more than a fetus in the womb."

"You are the villain, Alex Whiter. Through the simple act of existing you snatched away what was rightfully his."

"You boast that you know who you are, Alex Whiter...But you don't. You know nothing. Worst of all, you don't even know the truth about who or WHAT your 'parents' actually were."

"Do the universe a favor and go away already!"

…

…

…

Floating. Floating in a sea of darkness. Silently, silently his mind drifts through a void, surrounded by echoes.

A voice clamored to him. It didn't make any sounds he was familiar with. It wasn't human, nor beast.

His hand reached up, and something black ensnared itself around his arm to pull him in closer.

Then it just kept pulling him in. Deeper, deeper, deeper...

"Thump!"

Shina leapt back, and didn't quite know why. There was something cold gathering around Alex's flesh. Something cold...and supernatural.

The depths of space pulled towards Alex like rubber and was absorbed into his body, causing him to rise from the ground like a zombie.

"There's...there's no way he should be standing!" She stuttered in disbelief. When a person's aura is removed, they temporarily lose all their power. That was a foundation set in stone since the days of her oldest Aurian ancestors.

As Alex's feet touched the ground, Shina recognized something that she was a fool not to have before. It was the soul of the original Elemental Overlord that allowed Alex to use his powers. She didn't cut down Alex's aura...

"I cut down...the Overlord's..."

Alex swung his head back, his eyes filled with pure red light while his body was bathed in a sublime, pitch black darkness. Shina's heart was beating out of her chest, and she felt her legs stumble back on their own.

He turned around and crouched over, unable to show any expression by pure agony. His mind was torn asunder, the fragile shell consumed by a malicious power. His power. The power of darkness.

Shina was drained from the prior battle...And now Alex was renewed, better than ever. He screamed, his voice echoing with a snarling gargle that shook the planetoid apart.

And Shina could feel only one thing approaching...

Death.

Next Time: Kill the Future