Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Chapter 64: Maliciousness In The Wine Woods! Kūkiatsu & Kusabue vs. Ayame & Tsuki! Soulfness & Sacrifice! The Best Big Brother!
Kūkiatsu and Kusabue walked into the Wine Woods, both of the siblings taking notice of the wine purple bushes and wine purple flowers that bordered the dirt path. The path going straight down had been light wine purple while the route seemed eerily calm, and it wasn't like the atmosphere of the Witch's Forest. The witches weren't striking them with spells of Darkness Magic that contained feelings of hostility, but Kūkiatsu narrowed his eyes in a stern manner from thinking that these woods merely had a peaceful appearance as a facade.
There was probably danger lurking in the deeper areas of the woods, which were probably going to appear soon. The woods seemed to have a very straight path, since Kūkiatsu noticed that they would soon stop at a wine purple sign that was attached to a purple stake on the ground. The stake stood in front of a wine purple tree that had been quite large with fruit hanging from its branches, and all of those fruits seemed to be wine purple apples. They moved on the branches while the wind loudly began to howl, prompting Kūkiatsu to build up Wind Magic for the purpose of absorbing that wind into his left hand.
He felt a high amount of wind go into the palm of his hand while looking down at it, causing him to softly smile. Kūkiatsu felt that he would be strong enough to defend Kusabue from any enemies that they would encounter, and he calmly glanced at the area around this path. It seemed like the path in the Wine Woods would end here, which seemed a bit strange, and Kūkiatsu looked down at the wine purple grass that was to the right of the sign. That grass oddly seemed to be leading elsewhere like it had been off of the main trail, and Kusabue also turned her attention to that grass.
Similar to berries that she consumed, the wine purple grass gave off an inviting aroma of alcohol. She proceeded to apply Sound Magic to her feet, before quickly running towards the grass that was right near the sign, and Kusabue was about to start eating it. Although, the sight of Iris purple flowers suddenly springing up from that patch of the grass startled the young girl to where she quickly leapt back to avoid the Iris purple aroma that bloomed out of the mysterious flowers. As Kusabue stretched out her hands to absorb the sound waves, Kūkiatsu focused all of his attention on the sign that was in front of the large tree.
"Are you prepared to play this game, until you die?" Kūkiatsu read aloud with a curious look on his face, before his eyes widened in a surprised manner at the question.
Kusabue asked in a surprised manner, hearing the trees and plants nearby detonate in Iris purple blasts as the aroma from the flowers reached them, "Kūkiatsu-onii-chan, what's going on?!"
As Kusabue absorbed the sounds of those blasts into her hands, Kūkiatsu replied with a stern look on his face, "Whoever just fired at us is intent on damaging the plants, but let's go back and try to hit them from a distance."
Upon turning around, Kūkiatsu immediately had a look of disbelief in his eyes. The wine purple trees and wine purple plants that were seemingly destroyed now stood behind the siblings, as the branches of the trees disturbingly creaked and crackled during their moments of stretching their limbs to make them block the siblings from going back in the direction that they came from. To make matters more interesting, the path of wine purple grass behind the flowers seemed to reveal itself. Kusabue wasted no time with absorbing the noises from the trees, before running off in that direction.
Kūkiatsu ran after her, looking concerned as he started to get a bad feeling about venturing deep into the Wine Woods. The new path led him and Kusabue to a new section of the woods, which was a clearing that had a nearby dirt path moving in a curving trail, and Kūkiatsu followed it with Kusabue staying by his side. Kūkiatsu watched his sister gently put her left hand in her dark green hair for a moment, thinking that her hair looked darker than it normally did. That may have been due to the tall treetops of the Wine Woods concealing light from the Gunjou Moon, and the only way to see where they would go involved following the light purple trails.
Although, following this particular trail resulted in Kūkiatsu and Kusabue immediately having to step back for the purpose of evading a wine purple beam that was fired at them from someone who stood behind a tree near the end of the trail. Despite dodging the attack that resulted in winds that made several patches of flowers bloom again to exude an Iris purple aroma, running through it to continue on down the trail surprisingly made Kūkiatsu and Kusabue find themselves back in the small clearing near the giant tree. The only difference was that an Iris purple thicket rustled in the northeastern part of this clearing.
"All right, let's see what's going on! Typhoon Tempest Arcwind!" Kūkiatsu fiercely shouted with a serious look in his eyes, making his hands be aimed at the thicket.
Upon seeing the cloud shoot out heavy gusts of wind to easily blow away the thicket and reveal a young girl standing behind it, Kūkiatsu shouted in a stunned manner, "What? Who are you, and what are you doing here?"
The young girl who wore a wine purple dress with an Iris purple sash around her waist responded in a hollow tone, as her voice and giggling sounded very eerie, "Hee hee hee... Won't you play a game of death with me?"
As Kusabue took notice of the girl having long wine purple hair that went well with her deep wine purple sundress hat, she kindly replied, "We're not interested in playing any games right now, so please just let us go deep into the Wine Woods."
That only prompted the young girl to slowly move her head in a refusing manner, before smiling maliciously as her head turned all the way around in a full circle for a moment. Kūkiatsu wasted no time with letting the four tornadoes of his spell be created, before sending them all towards the young girl, and the mint green explosions that occurred had been quite powerful! They made some of the trees fall down, but all the mint green clouds of smoke that occurred couldn't hide the loud laughter of this little girl.
She wasted no time with floating through the smoke in midair, looking unaffected by the spell whilst not even having a bruise on her body. That caused Kūkiatsu to gasp in a baffled manner, as all of the tornadoes did make contact with her as if she was a tangible object, and he wondered if she was possibly a Celestial Spirit who wielded Darkness Magic. That would probably be one reason for her durability, along with the wine purple aura of Darkness Magic surrounding her body. Kūkiatsu was about to unleash another spell, but he was surprised by the sight of a wine purple sphere suddenly coming towards him at high speeds.
The sphere passed right through the floating girl, immediately causing Kūkiatsu to dodge out of the way, and the teenage wizard looked frustrated as he used this opportunity to run towards the area where the sphere had been fired from. Kusabue ran alongside him with a determined facial expression, only looking back for a moment to see the wine purple aura around the evil girl start to glow as the sphere bounced off of the smaller wine purple orbs that it left behind after gently striking the trees in that part of the clearing.
Running away from the orb allowed Kūkiatsu and Kusabue to reach a larger clearing that had several trees with wine purple leaves bordering the left and right sides of it. However, this clearing also had a violet bush in the middle with wine purple orbs attached to it. The orbs spun around in the clockwise direction, but Kūkiatsu looked puzzled at the fact of how they weren't immediately propelled from the bush as part of the attack. If the witches in the Wine Woods were intent on killing him and Kusabue, then they would've already struck them with barrages of attacks.
At least that's what Kūkiatsu gathered from his quick analysis of the situation, and he shifted his attention to the sight of Kusabue curiously wandering into the northern path of grass. The northern path led to a meadow of wine purple grass, which interestingly had seven patches of Iris purple roses surrounding another violet bush that had its wine purple orbs spinning in the counterclockwise direction. Kusabue heard the strange sounds of those orbs moving like the gears in a machine, and they made the flowers around them start to glow with thin beams of Iris purple light coming from them.
Neither Kusabue or Kūkiatsu had seen these plants in any of the books that were kept by botanists in their hometown, and even the encyclopedias that Gardenia created in Seigan Town never had them listed. This probably meant that Kūkiatsu was going to be the first researcher to investigate the foreign plants, and he unleashed the spell called Zephyr Zero Wind. Kūkiatsu fired an immensely large twister of mint green winds from his right hand, making it go straight towards the bush for the attack to be zeroing in on it, and the strong amount of wind loudly roared for Kusabue to absorb the sound into her hands.
She happily watched the attack strike the bush, but Kusabue started to look stunned from seeing the attack's winds quickly get repelled as the bush was engulfed in a wine purple aura. The high amount of wind that got repelled ended up pushing Kusabue back into the clearing, prompting Kūkiatsu to apply Wind Magic to his feet for the purpose of seeing if a dangerous mage was hiding in the meadow. He ran into that area of the Wine Woods at high speeds, thinking that he could quickly unleash an attack against the mage who would reveal themselves, but Kūkiatsu got to see that his heavy winds made all of the glowing Iris purple flowers start to bloom while the bush suddenly detonated in a wine purple explosion.
"What is this intense light?!" Kūkiatsu asked aloud with a stunned facial expression, seeing the flowers create a high amount of wine purple light while wine purple orbs emerged from them.
Upon hearing the bush from earlier also loudly explode, Kusabue asked in a curious manner, "What's going on?! Did we just solve a puzzle?!"
An older female's voice stated in a cold tone, as her footsteps could be heard during the moments where she emerged up from an orb's wine purple shadow, "Well, you tampered with my telepathic spell before my finishing move of making it explode."
"That just doesn't make the game of death be fun!" The little girl from earlier exclaimed in a sadistic tone, floating through the air at rapid speeds with a sinister grin on her face as the orb from before detonated to create several wine purple blasts that were massive.
The woman who stood in front of Kūkiatsu was named Ayame Katanashi, and she had long hair that was in the color of raspberry purple while her eyes were wine purple. She had an extremely voluptuous body, as she had very large breasts matched by similarly large hips for her to perfectly have an hourglass figure, and turning to the side for a moment to glance at her opponents allowed Ayame to show them that her ass was large and bare. It had only been covered by her raspberry purple corset dress, which was extremely revealing while halter neck straps held it up.
In terms of being revealing, the dress left her back, her cleavage, and the area of her abdomen near her navel entirely exposed. The raspberry purple dress reached down to her thighs while a slit in the left half of it revealed her left leg, and Ayame also wore a lavender leather belt around the waist of the dress. All of the belt's buckles had the design of looking like wine purple orbs, and they complimented her amethyst purple flat shoes. Ayame also had an amethyst purple ring on the ring finger of her left hand, but putting it into the Iris purple light allowed the ring made from steel to become Iris purple.
This ring was able to amplify Ayame's level of power when it came to using Darkness Magic, and that also applied to how she was able to build up a high amount of magical power for the purpose of sending the wine purple aura around her body towards her younger ally. Ayame thrusted her hands forward in an aggressive manner, allowing the aura to hastily touch the ghostly girl, and Ayame smirked in an arrogant manner from seeing the young girl's head fully turn around before her body followed in the same direction. She began to transform into an older and much slimmer version of herself, nearly looking at least 26 years old.
"Thank you for allowing me to be in a more powerful body for this fight, Ayame." The woman stated with a vicious look in her eyes, as she began to smile in a devious manner.
As she turned her attention to Kūkiatsu during the moments of Kusabue running up to the meadow's entrance, the dark witch stated in a hostile tone, "Before I end your lives, allow me to introduce myself! I'm Tsuki Shiraz, one of Maruberiki's top commanders, and the woman beside me is Ayame Katanashi. She's also one of our leader's top commanders, and we'll drag your souls into the darkness."
"That last part will happen after we tear them out of your fallen corpses, dear little mages." Ayame calmly stated, before closing her eyes and smiling in a smug manner.
Upon hearing these witches think that they could easily win and torture their opponents, Kusabue shouted with a determined look on her face, "We're the ones who are going to take you down in this fight! Kūkiatsu-onii-chan, let's show them the power of combining wind and sound!"
Kūkiatsu immediately built up the mint green aura of Wind Magic in his hands, before quickly putting his hands over his mouth for the purpose of exhaling a high amount of air against them. He felt his hands become coated by dense amounts of air, prompting him to run towards Ayame, and Kūkiatsu attempted to hit her with a backhand slap to the face. She dodged his right hand, but Ayame widened her eyes in a surprised manner for a moment to see the air pressure from Kūkiatsu's slap be strong enough to generate mint green winds that quickly formed a tornado!
The tornado was controlled by Kūkiatsu's right hand, and moving it to his left side allowed the tornado to go in that direction towards Ayame! As she was about to be sucked into the tornado that grew larger from Kūkiatsu exhaling more air against his hands, Ayame activated a spell called Iris Hex Explosion. She aimed her right hand at one of the wine purple orbs that had bloomed from the flowers, and Ayame made it quickly send itself to her palm. She caught the orb, before sending more Darkness Magic into it, and the wine purple aura made the orb grow seven times its original size.
The orb proceeded to become deep wine purple, before shifting to be deep Iris purple as the Gunjou Moon's light touched it. That prompted Ayame to have a sly look in her eyes while throwing the orb at the tornado, causing Kūkiatsu's attack to absorb it, and the dense winds quickly became Iris purple. They also grew much larger, before the winds had a hypnotic effect of self-hypnotizing Ayame into believing that her strength increased to an extremely high level. However, her opponents were also hypnotized by this hex by how Kūkiatsu and Kusabue felt Ayame's tremendous level of strength when the tornado slammed into Kūkiatsu to create a massive blast that was Iris purple! As Kūkiatsu screamed in pain, the rest of the winds obeyed Ayame's telepathic command of violently bursting when they struck Kusabue! She screamed in agonizing pain, feeling the immense pressure of the winds harming her body, and Kusabue fell to the ground.
However, the young girl quickly got up and narrowed her eyes at Ayame. That woman had hurt Kūkiatsu, prompting Kusabue to unleash the spell called Musical Cannon Shot. Kusabue loudly sang the eight notes of the musical scale, before she fired a shamrock green beam from her mouth. The large beam had light green musical notes appearing within it, and the spell was about to hit Ayame. However, it was interrupted by Tsuki purposely using a spell called Dark Distortion Beam. Tsuki put her hands together, before shooting out a large wine purple beam, and it seemed to evenly match the strength of Kusabue's attack. However, the young girl started to gasp in a shocked manner at the sight of her beam becoming wine purple while being distorted in bizarre directions.
That beam was directed at Kūkiatsu, who quickly dodged it before activating the spell called Aero Air Zephyr. Kūkiatsu made a large mint green tornado form in between his hands, before aiming it down at the ground, and he made the mint green tornado strike the wine purple grass. When it hit the grass, the tornado pushed itself down against the ground while Kūkiatsu generated another Aero Air Zephyr from his hands. He fired that attack into the center of the first tornado, causing them to fuse together while the attack increased in power, and Kūkiatsu proceeded to jump on to it.
The moment that he jumped on to the attack was the moment where Kūkiatsu was sent flying high into the air, the green-haired researcher spinning around rapidly like a tornado, and he watched his upgraded spell aggressively spring up into the air. It spun at rapid speeds, generating heavy winds that made large amounts of dense air pressure go down to the ground, and Kusabue absorbed the sounds of the winds into her hands. She proceeded to unleash the Musical Cannon Shot spell again, but Kusabue aimed it up at Kūkiatsu's tornado.
When the attack collided with Kūkiatsu's fusion spell, the collision created a shamrock green explosion that was massive. The explosion made the sound waves give off a high-pitched noise while shamrock green tornadoes started to fall from the sky, and the attacks gained more power and speed as they descended towards the meadow. The sound waves in the attack also grew to a heightened pitch, nearly deafening Ayame while Tsuki activated a spell called Dark Wine Shield. Tsuki built up the wine purple aura of Darkness Magic in her hands, and she slammed her hands up against the air.
Upon seeing the shamrock green tornadoes burst as they hit a ring of wine purple beams that started to appear, Kusabue shouted with an astounded look on her face, "What?!"
Kūkiatsu asked aloud, looking shocked, "They're deflecting our attack?!"
Ayame stated with an irritated look in her eyes, as she aimed her right hand up at the sky, "Now, it's our turn to attack."
Ayame unleashed the spell known as Dark Moon Iris Explosion, and she fired an Iris purple orb from her right palm. It quickly went up into the air, before the moonlight made it become deep iris purple, and the orb quickly fell down from the sky while it began to rapidly spin. The spinning orb released a dark hex pertaining to its magic, and all of the opponents who were near it began to have their bodies be engulfed in a deep iris purple aura. Kūkiatsu looked concerned as his body was surrounded by that aura, before looking worried at how the aura immobilized him while he couldn't lift a finger.
Kūkiatsu couldn't even defend himself with a spell, and he was struck by Ayame's attack. It created a large iris purple blast in midair, which only became deep iris purple with more brightness from the moonlight, and Kūkiatsu screamed in excruciating pain from being hit by that attack. He was quickly struck by Ayame using another spell called Iris Implosion, and she shot out an Iris purple orb from her left hand. It quickly went up into the air, before capturing Kūkiatsu in it with the slightest amount of contact with his left arm, and the orb quickly imploded with Iris purple flames bursting from it.
Kūkiatsu quickly fell to the ground in front of Ayame, who soon saw Kusabue quickly get in front of her by applying Sound Magic to her feet. Kusabue activated the spell called Record-Scratching Sound Burst, and a large shamrock green disc appeared on her tongue. She began to rub the disc with both of her hands, scratching the record back and forth in a rhythm like a disc jockey who was making music, and several shamrock green sound waves of classical music emerged from the disc. They struck Ayame at point-blank range, causing several shamrock green blasts to occur, and the blasts amplified the strength of all the other sound waves that Kusabue created from this spell.
"Don't think that I forgot about you! Sound Wave Entrapment!" Kusabue fiercely stated to Tsuki, who watched the young girl send all the remaining sound waves towards her.
Upon seeing herself first get struck with a shamrock green aura that came from Kusabue's hands, Tsuki responded in a calm manner, "Well, you're certainly interested in making this fight be dangerous."
Tsuki was instantly trapped in the shamrock green aura, which became a shamrock green sphere, and Tsuki was quickly struck with sound waves that contained Kusabue's rage-filled screams. The shamrock green sound waves exploded within the sphere while they touched Tsuki, before the shamrock green sphere itself exploded in a much larger shamrock green blast, and the loudness of all those sound waves amplified the other sound waves that were still moving through the air to strike Tsuki.
They ended up going through the shamrock green clouds of smoke to attack Tsuki, resulting in enormous shamrock green blasts occurring, and Kusabue quickly lifted her brother up off of the ground for the heavy winds to reach his body. Kūkiatsu weakly absorbed the winds into his hands, liking how Kusabue managed to create winds that were almost reminiscent of a large and vicious cyclone. Kūkiatsu sent the Wind Magic into his body, trying to heal himself, and he began to softly smile at how Kusabue had grown in terms of intelligence by quickly coming up with plans.
However, intelligence was not the same as growing in power. All of the smoke quickly cleared up to reveal that Ayame and Tsuki had only received mild injuries from Kusabue's injuries, and Ayame frowned in a cold manner as Tsuki mercilessly smirked. They both realized that Kūkiatsu and Kusabue couldn't kill them with their combined strength, but Ayame tightly clenched her fists as her eyes displayed the feeling of displeasure. She felt an immense amount of distaste towards the siblings, especially Kūkiatsu, and it stemmed from how these kids were like meager bugs who wanted to oppose her with low levels of magical power.
Viewing herself as the person who was the stronger commander within the Wine Woods caused Ayame to believe that she couldn't afford to die here, especially since she would probably lose an immense amount of respect from Maruberiki. He would probably use his own magic to take her life, if either Kūkiatsu or Kusabue managed to defeat her. Ayame angrily gritted her teeth while narrowing her eyes, not wanting these kids to make a mockery out of a top commander such as herself, and she built up a large amount of magical power as she prepared to use a powerful spell of Darkness Magic.
She unleashed the spell known as Iris Darkness Wall, and Ayame got on her knees for the purpose of roughly slamming her hands down against the ground. Kusabue absorbed that specific sound, before leaping towards Kūkiatsu. She wanted him to be out of harm's way, but Kūkiatsu widened his eyes in a concerned manner from sensing that Ayame was aiming her attack at him. It seemed to be underneath his feet, causing him to jump forward while applying Wind Magic to his right hand, and Kūkiatsu intentionally punched Kusabue in the stomach.
The young girl was sent down to the ground, rolling across the grass, and she could only get up fast enough to see an Iris purple wall of dense dark magic rise up only a few inches behind Kūkiatsu's feet. Kusabue tried to reach for her brother's feet, only for the dense wall of Darkness Magic to interfere by making Kusabue's hands suddenly be surrounded by crackling Iris purple fire. Despite absorbing the sound into her hands, Kusabue still felt the need to scream in pain from the feeling of the fire burning her hands.
She threw it back at the wall, only for the result to be that the fire instantly ended up bursting in an Iris purple explosion. The fire itself was impeded by the wall of Darkness Magic rising up higher in the air, meaning that neither Kūkiatsu or Kusabue could propel themselves up high to attack the wall itself. That left them both in the situation of fighting as a team from opposite sides of the wall, not able to see through the swirling and bright Iris purple energy, and Kūkiatsu groaned in frustration at how he didn't even have a plan for countering a situation such as this one.
"Kusabue, can you hear me?! Are you okay?!" Kūkiatsu asked his younger sister in a concerned manner, as he turned around to look at the wall.
Kusabue replied in a serious tone, "Kūkiatsu-onii-chan, don't touch the wall! It'll burn you, and I don't think any attacks can go through it!"
"Well, you have no idea that you're wrong. Dark Wine Shadow Beam!" Tsuki responded with an evil smirk on her face, before firing two large wine purple beams from the tips of her right hand's index and middle fingers.
Kūkiatsu aggressively slashed at the air with his left hand while creating a spell called Wind Intercepting Slash, and Kūkiatsu smiled in a somewhat confident manner as he slashed the air around one of the beams to distort it. That only made it detonate early, though, and the wine purple blast that occurred was lustrous as it sparkled with a glittery appearance. However, the side effect of this spell was that it left behind a wine purple orb that slowly floated down to the ground. When it made the gentlest touch against the grass, the orb exploded in a plume of wine purple flames that headed straight for Kūkiatsu.
Despite believing that he could easily dodge the large burst of wine purple flames that were coming towards him, Kūkiatsu widened his eyes in shock at the sight of the wine purple beam going through the wall of dark magic as if it wasn't even there. The beam created a wine purple blast that spun outward, damaging Kusabue to where she screamed in excruciating pain, and hearing his sister scream in agony caused Kūkiatsu to take his attention off of the flames for a moment. That gave Tsuki the opportunity to send more magic into her flames, causing them to move at a faster level of speed.
The flames quickly struck Kūkiatsu, causing him to scream in agonizing pain as he could feel the intense heat of the flames. The flames exploded around him, causing him to take more damage, but Kūkiatsu made his legs persistently move forward towards Ayame. She scowled in anger at the sight of him proceeding to fight her with a spell called Mint Green Chaotic Cyclone, and Ayame watched Kūkiatsu cross his arms over each other multiple times before unleashing a massive mint green cyclone from his hands.
Upon hearing the intensity of his spell, Kusabue shouted fiercely as she jumped up into the air, "Resounding Vibration Bomb!"
Tsuki commented with a bored frown on her face, hearing Kusabue clap her hands five times to send sound waves through the wrong area of the wall, "Well, their teamwork is certainly impeded. That wall can even interfere with the strength of an opponent's magic, which includes the wall being able to suppress sound."
Kusabue thought to herself with a regretful frown on her face, before looking shocked, "It's no use. My sound waves can't tear through the wall, and I can't work in sync with my big brother. Is there really nothing I can do?! What would Kotomi-san do?!"
Kusabue felt that she needed to calm herself down for a moment, and she could faintly hear Kūkiatsu's spell haphazardly moving towards Ayame while it left behind small tornadoes of wind. Kusabue began to groan in frustration, thinking that this battle would end badly for her and Kūkiatsu if she couldn't see what was going on. However, the sound of her brother's spells was more familiar than any other sounds that she had memorized. Kusabue decided to focus on that, and she even decided to be as unorthodox as Lucy by forming a strategy of her own.
Kusabue decided to unleash the spell known as Sound Slowed Wave, and she stretched out her right hand in a very slow manner as she made her left hand put her hair over her eyes. The shamrock green beam that emerged from her right hand rapidly struck the wall, which had its effects occurring as slow as molasses, and Kusabue started to move in a more hyperactive manner. She could quickly hear her spell going through the wall to strike one of Kūkiatsu's tornadoes, and the sound of his large cyclone exploding was able to make the air and sound waves send more power into that specific tornado.
Kūkiatsu wouldn't use it, however, and he unleashed a spell called Aerial Sky Drills from his left hand. Kūkiatsu jumped up into the air, before firing six drills of mint green wind from his left hand, and he aimed them all down at Ayame. She decided to counter his spell with a defensive move known as Iris Hex Spin, and Ayame created two Iris purple orbs in her hands. She proceeded to apply Darkness Magic to her feet, before rapidly spinning around in a circle, and the orbs in her hands ended up bursting into a tower of Iris purple beams! They deflected Kūkiatsu's drills of wind, before turning them Iris purple while also sending the attack back at him with much more power.
Kūkiatsu immediately sent Wind Magic down to his legs, causing them to be engulfed in a mint green aura, and Kūkiatsu evaded the attack by bouncing on the air itself. He jumped upward several times to avoid the Iris purple blasts, thinking Ayame's spells could reach a limited altitude. That made Kūkiatsu think about using the high altitude to his advantage, but he started to look very guilty about how he felt that Kusabue would need to follow his lead for the benefit of her own survival. Even if he couldn't survive this fight, then he would at least want Kusabue to escape and rejoin the other Sabertooth mages.
Kūkiatsu felt that he always needed to be responsible for the safety of Kusabue, as he was her older brother, and Kūkiatsu started to narrow his eyes at the thought of how he would make his enemies focus all of their attention on to him. He activated a new spell called Minty Spiral Burst, and Kūkiatsu loudly slammed his hands together. He aimed them down at Ayame while a mint green aura engulfed his hands, and Kūkiatsu fired large rings of Wind Magic from his hands. They came down upon Ayame in the form of a spiraling attack, before creating several mint green blasts.
Those mint green blasts didn't do much damage to Ayame, and she angrily raised her right hand into the air. She activated a spell called Iris Drill Claw, and she grabbed one of the Iris purple orbs from earlier. Ayame chose to eat the orb, absorbing all of its Darkness Magic, and an Iris purple aura engulfed her body as she made an Iris purple claw of dark energy be unleashed from her palm. It went straight up towards Kūkiatsu, before becoming transparent like a ghost, but the claw became tangible when it was two feet above him.
The claw aggressively slammed down against him, sending Kūkiatsu crashing into the ground, and the harsh impact made him cough up blood before he screamed in pain. Kūkiatsu felt more pain from the claw proceeding to aggressively and rapidly spin down against his right arm, roughly drilling into it for the purpose of making all of him arm's muscles be severely torn, and the claw detonated in an Iris purple blast! The attack was large enough for Kusabue to see its light, prompting her to have tears in her eyes, and she purposely made her hands absorb all of the sound waves. As Kusabue felt that she needed to force herself through the wall and help Kūkiatsu, she was stopped by what seemed to be his ghost transparently walking through the wall as she made some Sound Magic engulf her body for the purpose of hearing his thoughts.
"Kusabue... It's me. You're in my thoughts, and I know that you can hear me. Kusabue, I want to protect you. In order for you to stay alive and hopefully beat these women, follow my directions precisely. Kusabue, use Sound Wave Entrapment for the rest of this fight until Ayame unleashes her strongest attack. After that, use Sound Slowed Wave to make them all move much faster right before you use Record-Scratching Sound Burst." Kūkiatsu calmly explained with a soft smile on his face, as he gently touched her head with his head.
Kusabue responded with an important question, "Kūkiatsu-onii-chan, what will you do?"
"After I unleash my final attack, you and I will probably have to be separated forever. Kusabue, don't get distracted by that. No matter what happens, you have to help Kotomi-san get her body back from that impostor. This is my way of helping her do that, and your portion of things is how we'll still be a team." Kūkiatsu stated with a stern frown on his face, doing his best to hold back his own tears as he rubbed Kusabue's head.
Kusabue chose to not even argue, doing her best to understand all of the circumstances of this situation. She calmed herself down enough to use Sound Wave Entrapment on one of those tornadoes that was still spinning, making it be surrounded in a shamrock green aura, and making the aura of Sound Magic engulf her ears caused Kusabue to start having enhanced hearing like a dragon slayer. That allowed her to run to the other end of the wall, before unleashing the Sound Wave Entrapment spell in the same moment where Ayame's Iris purple blast faded away.
Kusabue's spells hit another tornado, before she could hear the sound of another tornado only being a few feet across from it. Kusabue gently slid back, before aiming her hands upward to fire the shamrock green beam at a curved angle, and Kusabue decided to think like Kūkiatsu by calculating the result of how to make her attack hit its target. She made sure to launch this spell before Ayame or Tsuki could use a spell of Darkness Magic, as any of their explosive spells could create air resistance, and Kusabue wanted the wind to work in conjunction with her sound-based magic.
She added her own strategy into Kūkiatsu's larger strategy, and Kusabue used Sound Wave Entrapment on herself by aiming the shamrock green beam directly at her face. The shamrock green aura that engulfed her made Kusabue feel its high level of power, and she heard the sound waves rapidly bounce around. Kusabue interestingly used this spell for the purpose of ramming into the wall, as the crackling fire exploded outside of the sphere, and making those sound waves occur outside of this sphere only made it grow larger.
"If the flames are exploding and still moving slower, then fast-moving sound waves strengthening this spell and exploding against the wall should somehow greatly contribute to our odds of winning!" Kusabue thought to herself with a serious facial expression, seeing more flames slowly attach themselves to the sphere.
Ayame yelled fiercely, looking agitated at Kūkiatsu as Kusabue's beam from earlier hit the tornado to make the four tornadoes form a square, "Despite my high level of power, you weaklings want to get stronger and think you can oppose me?!"
"Iris Darkness of the Wasteland!" Ayame aggressively stated, having a cold look on her face, as an Iris purple orb propelled itself into her hands.
The Wine Woods suddenly became engulfed in a wine purple light while darkness filled the entire area, and slamming her hands against the Iris purple orb caused Ayame's hands to be surrounded by vortexes that were layered on top of each other. Ayame stretched out both of her arms while her palms faced downward, and thrusting her hands forward made all of the vortexes go towards Kūkiatsu. He applied Wind Magic to his feet, running in the darkness as he tried to avoid his enemy's bombardment of attacks.
Whenever one of Ayame's struck the ground, it created a large blast that was in an Iris hue of purple. Also, that blast left behind a ring of Iris purple beams that had the aftereffect of making gravity intensify itself against the ground. Kūkiatsu continued to run from Ayame's attacks, but she slyly turned to face the area in front of him as she fired her last attack. It hit the ground in front of Kūkiatsu, causing him to come to a halt, and seeing the Iris purple blast be very close to him was no different than feeling like his eyes were being blinded by an intense amount of light.
Kūkiatsu wasted no time with activating a spell called Cyclone Turret, and six mint green cyclones appeared in front of him in midair. They formed the shape of a hexagon, before shooting out several smaller mint green cyclones at the Iris purple blast, and the mint green blasts that occurred had enough force to generate a high amount of air. Kūkiatsu purposely used that spell as a way to make the air push him backwards, essentially pushing him away from that gravity field, but that smart little maneuver only made Ayame's rage grow to its largest amount.
Ayame wasted no time with unleashing a spell called Iris Vanishing Flower, and she coldly glared at Kūkiatsu as an iris purple rose formed in her right palm. It had been made from Darkness Magic, before growing much larger from the dark atmosphere that was strengthened by Gunjou's moonlight, and Ayame threw the flower up into the air. It quickly ended up bursting into smaller flowers that were heavily engulfed in an iris purple aura, and those flowers started to fall down towards Kūkiatsu. He proceeded to use a spell called Minty Spiral Burst, and Kūkiatsu made a mint green aura engulf his hands. He fired large mint green rings of wind from them, and Kūkiatsu watched his attack go up towards the flowers.
When the projectiles made contact with Kūkiatsu's rings, the iris purple and mint green blasts that occurred in midair were strong enough to create powerful gales of wind that blew through the Wine Woods. Kūkiatsu inhaled a high amount of air, before unleashing a spell known as Aerial Tempest Shield. Kūkiatsu shot out a mint green tornado from his right hand, and it grew to a large size from taking in the last two gales of wind. Kūkiatsu thrusted his right palm forward, sending the tornado towards Ayame.
As she unleashed the spell known as Iris Hex Sphere, Ayame watched Kūkiatsu's tornado detonate in a mint green blast that spun outward. Although, the strange aspect of his attack was that the winds continuously spun outward after the tornado had been gone. Kūkiatsu wasted no time with unleashing that attack again, seeming confident as he fired the second mint green tornado for it to be within the center of those winds, That tornado quickly exploded, resulting in a larger amount of winds now spinning outward.
That didn't stop Ayame's iris purple sphere from forming in between her hands, seeing several smaller orbs of dark magic emerging from the remaining larger spheres for them to form this new attack, and Ayame aggressively threw her attack at the dome of winds. It roughly pushed through the portion of the dome, almost breaking down that area of wind, but Ayame's spell ended up getting caught in the air current to where its inevitable detonation resulted in the Darkness Magic pulsating outward in the form of Iris purple waves. They affected Kūkiatsu's attack, making it become iris purple, and those winds created several gales that were transformed into an iris purple aura of dark magic.
"If you still want to oppose me, then it's time for me to stop using attacks that aren't as strong as this one." Ayame sternly told Kūkiatsu, as she absorbed all of the iris purple aura into her left hand.
Kūkiatsu responded with a serious look on his face, thinking about protecting Kusabue, "Well, I'm prepared to use my strongest spell! In fact, it's time for me to end this battle!"
Upon hearing those words from behind the wall of darkness, Kusabue thought to herself with a reluctant look on her face as she tried her best to accept what would happen, "Kūkiatsu-onii-chan, I'm... I'm ready for this moment."
Ayame built up a high amount of magical power, making an iris purple aura surround her body, and she put her hands next to each other while aiming her hands directly at Kūkiatsu. He watched her unleash a spell called Ghostly Iris Flowers, and the iris purple flowers from earlier bloomed again for the purpose of firing eight iris purple orbs high into the air. Each of the orbs contained the souls of tourists and other mages who previously ended up deceased in the Wine Woods, and all of the orbs started to fuse together for the purpose of creating a much larger iris purple orb with several souls of ghosts swirling around inside of it, and the orb had several roses made from dark energy protruding from it.
The sight of Ayame's strongest attack prompted Kūkiatsu to think about the sound of his own voice moving slowly, and loudly thinking about that particular thought caused Kusabue to hear the sound of it. She decided to finally release the Sound Wave Entrapment spell from herself, hearing and seeing it create a massive green blast that tore through the wall of Darkness Magic as she unleashed the spell known as Sound Slowed Wave, and she stretched out her right hand in a very slow manner. The shamrock green beam that emerged from her right hand rapidly struck one of the tornadoes, which interestingly made it move at a slower pace while the green dome around it ha its aura moving at a hyperactive level of speed, and Kusabue recalled the sounds of the tornadoes that had precisely been struck earlier by the Sound Wave Entrapment spell.
She wasted no time with using Slowed Sound Wave to strike them, putting the tornadoes in barriers of sound waves that would move at abnormally high levels of speed, and Kusabue watched the shamrock green domes start to get larger from the sound of Ayame's attack getting closer to Kūkiatsu. He smiled in a confident manner, believing that Kusabue would carry out the last part of the idea pertaining to their teamwork, and Kūkiatsu began to smile back at her with a slight amount of tears forming in his eyes as his confident smile was masking the feeling of being apologetic to Kusabue for not being a much stronger older sibling.
"Kusabue, it's always been my job to protect you and work alongside you. Although, you'll probably harmonize well with your new partner in battles. Whoever your new older sibling will be, I hope you'll become just as smart as me or even smarter if you want to be an official researcher later on." Kūkiatsu told Kusabue with a soft smile on his face, as he let the tears start to fall.
That only prompted Kusabue to respond with a worried look on her face, as she also began to cry, "Kūkiatsu-onii-chan, don't sacrifice yourself to protect me! I'm.. not as smart as you, and I can't battle without you! I've always tried to prevent you from getting hurt, since those corrupt researchers had attacked our home! They only attacked you because of me, and I don't want you dying to protect me!"
"Kusabue, we're a team until the end. As your big brother, I need to be smart by giving you one last lesson. Even without a partner, there will be a time where you have to be strong on your own. You can do it, especially with that new spell. Although, for now, let's carry out our last bit of teamwork." Kūkiatsu explained to her, as started to have a more stern and serious look appear on his face.
Kūkiatsu shouted fiercely, building up an immense amount of magical power to where the mint green aura engulfed his body, "This is my strongest attack! Windy Skyward Tower's Stairway of Clouds!"
Upon seeing her brother proceed to unleash his strongest attack while the shamrock green domes from earlier grew to the point of fusing together, Kusabue loudly and emotionally stated with tears streaming down her face, "Record-Scratching Sound Burst!"
The large shamrock green disc from earlier appeared on her tongue, and Kusabue began to rub the disc with both of her hands. She wasted no time with scratching the record back and forth in a rhythm, and several shamrock green sound waves of classical music emerged from the disc. They struck the shamrock green dome that contained several sound waves of Kusabue screaming, causing several shamrock green blasts to occur within the dome, and the blasts amplified the strength of all the other sound waves inside of it. Although, these sound waves were much stronger than when Kusabue previously used the spell while they also started to pass through the dome.
They made Kusabue's spell gain much more strength to where the shamrock green dome that was still growing now looked as large as the iris purple orb that came down towards it, but Kūkiatsu got into a combat stance by sliding his feet backward in the same moment where he aimed his hands up at the orb while they moved in the motion of a circular air current. After a few seconds, several mint green clouds of Wind Magic emerged from his palms. The clouds began to move around in a circle in midair while constantly switching which sides of the circle they were on, and the clouds of wind floated up to the sky.
The clouds positioned themselves on the left and right sides of the sky, the clouds being in pairs whilst also being on different levels of altitude, and they began to rotate around counterclockwise in a circle. The heavy winds on the ground also spun in that direction, even making the shamrock green dome of sound waves start to spin in that same direction, and Kusabue's nonstop usage of Record-Scratching Sound Burst kept making the shamrock green dome grow larger and higher. It wasn't equally as large as Kūkiatsu's attack, however, and the amount of winds generated by the sound waves pushing through the dome allowed Kūkiatsu to create a massive mint green cyclone that originated from the dense amount of wind that was on the grass.
Kūkiatsu watched the cyclone rise all the way up to the altitude where the lowest mint green clouds were situated, and those clouds glowed with thin mint green beams of light emanating from them. They proceeded to shoot out large mint green vortexes of wind at the cyclone, causing it to briefly shine mint green, and having more wind caused the cyclone to grow to a much higher level of altitude like winds that were floating up a staircase. However, enhancing this powerful spell came with the drawback of Kūkiatsu feeling the effect of vicious winds densely tearing through his palms as the vortexes drilled themselves into the cyclone during its ascension into the sky.
The next tier of the tower of vicious winds also contained two mint green clouds, which shined and made their vortexes loudly strike the cyclone for it to grow again in size. Kūkiatsu winced in pain again, ignoring the blood that was emerging from the wounds on his palms, and he believed that this spell needed to be at its full strength. The cyclone went up through the next four levels of clouds, each level making it grow much larger to where the cyclone started to resemble a massive hurricane.
However, every instance of strengthening the hurricane came at the cost of Kūkiatsu feeling the wind start to tear into his arms. That was especially the case with the vortexes that emerged from the last two clouds, which had slammed themselves into the cyclone right before sending the largest pair of vortexes into it, and the green-haired wizard smiled softly in a confident manner at how his attack had become a fearsome spell that could counter Ayame's attack. Although, seeing his cyclone collide with her iris purple orb made Kūkiatsu groan in more pain from feeling the impact of the attack seem like wind pressing down against his body.
Windy Skyward Tower's Stairway of Clouds was an extremely powerful spell of Wind Magic while it contained a massive amount of energy, but the side effect of this spell was that it put an enormous amount of air pressure against Kūkiatsu's body. Despite coughing up some blood and feeling his body want to let itself be crushed, Kūkiatsu felt that his desire to protect Kusabue was even stronger than that. By protecting her from Ayame and Tsuki, Kūkiatsu believed that he could allow her to rejoin their teammates in this mission of escorting Miko to the dark goddess. That grateful witch would probably be glad to hear about Ayame and Tsuki being deceased, even if this victory came at the cost of Kūkiatsu's life.
"Kusabue, you've... got to... protect everyone. They'll gladly.. help you.. find your new partner." Kūkiatsu told her in a stern manner, wincing in pain as he didn't even turn around to face her.
Upon seeing the blood drip from his wrists in thick amounts, Kusabue could only respond through the tears with a saddened look on her face, "Kūkiatsu... Kūkiatsu-onii-chan!"
"Kusabue, I... was happy.. to be the best... big brother." Kūkiatsu responded in a pleased tone of voice, smiling softly as his hair obscured the feeling of sadness and tears that rolled down from his eyes.
"Kūkiatsu-onii-chan, I... I have so much more that I want to learn from you! Without you, I... I can't be knowledgeable on my own!" Kusabue answered back in a distraught tone, closing her eyes as she heard the spells start to create an explosion.
Kūkiatsu stated in his final moments, right before feeling the heavy winds compress his body during the moments where he'd be engulfed in the blast, "Goodbye, Kusabue-chan. You're... an intelligent... little sister, and I... believe in you."
Kusabue only got to see his smiling face for a moment, as his spell ended up bursting in tremendous and massive mint green blasts that spun outward. Those blasts engulfed Kūkiatsu in their light, before the heavy winds of the attack took the form of thick mint green blades that were pushed out towards Ayame. She watched her iris purple blast be as large as Kūkiatsu's most enormous mint green blast, taking note of its effect involving iris purple streams of energy that would be zeroing in on the opponent after the orb detonated, and Ayame simply let herself be struck by the blades.
She ended up being caught in several mint green explosions that charred and damaged her body, along with feeling a high amount of air pressure push her backwards. Ayame was sent sliding backwards on the grass, wincing in pain while she had several bruises and bloody wounds. Some of Kūkiatsu's blasts also engulfed Tsuki, who also felt some slicing blades of Wind Magic explode against her body, and the strength of the impact was strong enough to make Tsuki revert back to her previous form of being a young girl. However, she ended up being pushed back and damaged instead of dying.
That wasn't the case for Kūkiatsu, who fell forward to the ground as all of the mint green and iris purple clouds of smoke began to clear up. He had been struck by all of the iris purple beams, the sound of their explosions only making Kusabue's eyes widen in a horrified manner as tears continued to stream down her face. She allowed her body to tremble in a panicked manner, feeling a mix of shock, sadness, and disbelief all in this moment at how her older brother was now deceased. Kusabue couldn't even feel herself move while the smoke fully cleared up to reveal that Ayame and Tsuki were both trying their best to stand up, and this moment of losing Kūkiatsu made Kusabue's body start to shudder in anger.
As she couldn't control the shamrock green aura of Sound Magic from forming around her body, Kusabue could only see all of the painful experiences in her life to start to quickly flash by in front of her eyes. Upon even hearing Kūkiatsu's voice and seeing him carry out acts of their teamwork, all that Kusabue could do was have a berserk look in her eyes. She closed her eyes for a moment while breathing heavily and panicking, feeling extremely stressed and traumatized as her body continued to immensely shudder with her heart beating loudly, and hearing the sounds of her own cries come from within her mind and heart only made Kusabue open her eyes. They now looked berserk and rage-filled, her face looking vengeful and grief-stricken as she let out strident screams of anger.
"What's... happening?!" Tsuki asked in a startled manner, seeing the shamrock green aura massively be around Kusabue while the ground itself started to shake from an earthquake.
Ayame stated in an emotionless manner, ironically starting to gasp in shock, "These aren't seismic waves. They're sound waves, and they're currently being amplified."
Upon hearing the loud sounds of mournful crying and angry screaming be hollow like a grieving sister's echoing sound waves, Tsuki could only say in a startled manner from seeing the image of a larger Kusabue angrily standing behind the young girl's actual body, "That spell...! It's not the sound of any ordinary spell that she's conjuring up! This is... the sound of her soul!"
That didn't seem to make Ayame react in any way, as she found herself coldly looking at the sight of Kusabue making her fusion spell from earlier be molded into a shamrock green sphere that had mint green winds aggressively swirling around it, but Kusabue's thought of the winds sounding larger and denser caused that to actually affect the spell. She tightly held the spell in her right hand, before running up to Ayame with the shamrock green aura brightly shimmering as it emitted the strident sound of energy pulsating.
Kusabue imagined the sound of her feet running much faster at rapidly hyperactive speeds, causing her to quickly get in front of Ayame before the antagonist could counter with any spells, and Kusabue imagined the sound of more magical power bursting up from inside of her. The loud sound of her magic not only made Kusabue put an excessive burst of Sound Magic into her spell, but the sound of Kūkiatsu's voice in her mind made her imagine that they were still fighting in sync to where the mint green winds excessively grew.
Kusabue wasted no time with moving her right hand in a slashing manner, making the spell viciously slash through the air itself, and the sound that went in the same direction as the slashing air was a strident scream from Kusabue. Hearing that deafening scream at close-range made Ayame not even have time to feel pained, not even realizing that the sound at 500 decibels instantly shattered her eardrums, and the density of the wind and sound engulfed Ayame in a massive shamrock green blast! It soon became mint green while the slicing sound waves from the entirety of this spell sliced Ayame's body in half, doing so before the heavy winds sent Kusabue flying backwards.
She found herself roughly rolling across the grass, the sounds of the impact being heavy, and glancing at the wall of Darkness Magic for a moment made Kusabue see that it was beginning to fade away. Ayame's death made the spell known as Iris Darkness Wall cease with persisting, allowing people to access or walk away from this part of the Wine Woods. However, Kusabue was slowly getting up from the grass with a saddened look on her face. She would have to go back to her friends without Kūkiatsu by her side, and it seemed like this perilous situation was what Nioi had foretold.
Kusabue simply walked over to Kūkiatsu's body, before kneeling down by his left side. She gently rubbed his back, hoping that he would wake up. She had a distraught look on her face right now, being in denial about his death, and Kusabue turned Kūkiatsu over on to his back. He was still dead with a calm smile on his face, not even moving his hands or making his face have any other facial expression, and Kusabue just couldn't accept that her best teammate was gone. Even if that sacrificial spell of Wind Magic was necessary for their team to win, Kusabue grieved and wished that there had been another method available.
The fact that Kūkiatsu's plan for defeating Ayame and Tsuki only resulted in one of them being defeated only made Kusabue tightly clench her fists, and she started to glare at Tsuki in a vicious manner. Kusabue felt very emotional right now, not even able to logically form a plan, but not being able to strategically create a long-term plan didn't mean that she would lose against her enemy. Kusabue activated that spell again, imagining the sounds of her feet moving at a rapid pace, and she started running towards Tsuki at hyperactive speeds.
The evil young girl simply smirked at Kusabue, before making herself transparent like a ghost in the same moment where she created a wine purple sphere in between her hands, but she soon gasped in shock at some sudden sound waves that aggressively made her be pushed around to the four corners of the space around her. It took the form of a tight square, almost like she was being pushed around in a tight box, and Kusabue imagined the sounds of Tsuki getting crushed by the sound waves that were in the spatial area around her.
"That.. won't.. stop me!" Tsuki exclaimed with a harsh frown on her face, before throwing the orb at Kusabue.
Kusabue quickly responded with an angry look on her face, activating a new technique as she ran straight towards the attack, "Wall of Sound!"
Kusabue made this attack work in conjunction with her other spell, imagining the sound of a shamrock green sphere pulsating in her left hand, and she threw it towards Tsuki's attack. When the wine purple sphere hit Kusabue's sphere, the resulting shamrock green waves of sound immediately made Tsuki's attack bounce back at her like a rubber ball bouncing off a wall. The impact instantly created a wine purple explosion, causing Tsuki to also feel pain from her own Darkness Magic, but Kusabue made the sound of the attack be much larger than normal.
The strident sound of the explosion was deafening enough to make Tsuki hear her ears ringing in pain, distracted from her spell weirdly having a crackling noise, and the spell simply known as Dark Wine Sphere strangely had the aftereffect of flames surrounding the target. Tsuki looked puzzled by this, as she never saw this aftereffect occur at any prior point in time, and Tsuki looked at Kusabue to see the shamrock green aura heavily engulfing her body again. Kusabue lightly aimed her right hand at the flames, making sound waves from her imagination affect the flames in reality, and the fire itself melted down into wine purple puddles of magma that were near explosive flames.
The loud sound of the melting flames was followed by them violently exploding into wine purple blasts, which produced more dangerous wine purple flames, and the fire continued to create large explosions. They all ended up striking Tsuki at point-blank range, causing her to scream in pain from how the ghostly fire and its explosive sound waves ignored her intangible form for the purpose of damaging her, and Kusabue's explosive barrage of attacks reached the point of being strong enough to send Tsuki flying out of the woods for her to go in the direction towards the plaza.
Upon seeing that Tsuki's blood was covering several patches of grass, Kusabue stated emotionlessly as she walked away with a vengeful frown on her face, "She's still alive. In order to avenge Kūkiatsu-onii-chan, my attacks need to be much more fatal in this fight."
As she turned back to look at Kūkiatsu's body, Kusabue stated aloud with a stern and dark facial expression, "I'll have to be as fearsome as Miss Rairakku, and that sadistic girl will know what it feels like when a soul truly visits the afterlife."
Kusabue didn't even stop to pray for Kūkiatsu's spirit, only walking out of the Wine Woods with her dark expression. She tried to imagine the sound of Kūkiatsu's heart still beating, hearing it occur in her mind as she hoped that sound would occur in reality. However, turning around and not seeing him move a muscle only made Kusabue continue to keep walking. She didn't even cease with casting the spell, only making her sound waves create the sound of a dark green dagger gently falling into her hands, and she soon saw a dark green blade with a plain green handle appear from the aura coating her right hand.
The dagger had large sound waves circling around it, almost like Kusabue was planning to impale Tsuki with the power of Sound Magic, and making sound waves internally crush her opponent seemed like a befitting punishment. Kusabue seemed like a vicious queen who would be executing a traitor for committing a heinous crime, and she would gladly make Tsuki be punished for helping Ayame end Kūkiatsu's life. Kusabue hoped that her older brother would approve of her actions, even if other mages would oppose her beliefs.
Kusabue continued to walk out of the Wine Woods, ignoring the sight of Kyasurin and Matsuba both running to this location with surprised looks on their faces. Kuabue said nothing to them, not even bothered by the sound of another wall of Darkness Magic fading away like a certain young evil mage deactivated that lock out of sheer feelings of terror. Despite letting Kyasurin and Matsuba take Ayame's body out of the Wine Woods whilst they easily walked here on a specific path, Kusabue tightly clenched her fists and the dagger during this moment where viciousness in her eyes made the green-haired girl feel like she needed to go down the path of being a corrupted wizard who would use her power to hunt down a certain dark mage named Tsuki.
How was Chapter 64? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. Kūkiatsu is now the first Sabertooth mage to die in this story, and he was also the first protagonist to join the team after the time-skip since he usually comes to mind before Kusabue. Lucy and the others will eventually find about Kūkiatsu's death, but his self-sacrificial philosophy won't be the only philosophy that Lucy can't believe in. Speaking of philosophies, they were subtly pertinent to beliefs on teamwork and perspectives on how emotions influence battles. Also, this battle only had a single chapter for it to not drag on too long. By the way, this is the seventh part of the Mauve Darkness Arc! I'll update as soon as possible. :)
REVIEWS!
FireBlitz: Thank you!
OrangeDetermination: Thanks!
YellowThunder5: Here it is!
GreenGrass4: Thank you very much!
BlueWater234: Thank you so much!
PurpleReis155: Thanks!
Matt: Thank you!
jennie: Thank you!
Kiri-chan: Here you go!
Sena: Thanks!