Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction, I do not claim any rights to any of the characters or
concepts created or owned by Viz Video or Rumiko Takahashi. This is just the work of one fan to the others. The only characters or concepts that I claim are the ones I created or introduced. That said, I bring you:
The Annals of the Heroine Akane, and the Dreaded Demon King. A Tale of the Mirrorverse.
Chapter 24; Hell Hath No fury….
Some part of Akane wanted to look for Ranko, to find out where she had gone, what had happened to her. That was the part that had been pushed aside, had been shackled and chained in her own body. What controlled her now was something that was barely definable as human, as Akane Tendo. She had been pulled once again from her own mind, and the implacable force of the Hero had taken her place. Usually she just let herself go, gave herself fully to the will of the Divine. Accepted this as part of who and what she was. Why she didn't this time, why she still struggled against impossible odds was that she wanted to find Ranko, wanted to make sure that she was safe.
That she wanted to ignore the horrible truths that the Hero whispered into her mind, that now rushed through her soul like a burning torrent. That washed away everything else in the drive to slay the Demon King.
Even if it meant that she would lose Ranko forever.
In the prison of her mind, Akane wailed even as the Hero started to move.
Ranma watched the changes to Akane and marveled at the glory that she was,even as he hated the look of anger, rage even, that hid the wonderful beauty that he had come to cherish. The surprisingly gentle soul that had shown so brightly had been buried under that turbulent sea of hate and rage. And in his heart, he knew that there was no one to blame but himself.
Ranma was pulled fully back to the present as the Priest snarled at him, then shouted out an order to the two Orcish champions that faced the Heroine.
"Stop her, no matter what it takes!" The priest shouted out as he shifted his grips on the Shard and his Lash. All that he needed to do was land one blow with the Shard and this half-blood upstart would be no more, his very soul devoured as his own power rent him asunder.
Just as She wished.
Ranma fended off the attacks with the Shard, even if that meant taking ng a hit from the Lash. The Lash would not kill him, not directly. His demonic form could withstand the pure agony that seeped from the barbs of the Lash far better than Ranko's form could. Conversely, the Shard was nothing but an obsidian knife to her.
The Heroine eyed the two obstacles with disdain, the haughtier and more aggressively assertive parts of her mind pushed to the fore as she shifted her grip on her sword slightly before she engaged the champions again.
The two Orcish champions knew that things had changed drastically for them. Before, the pair of them had faced off against a human woman. Regardless of the fact that she was faster, stronger, tougher and more skilled than any mere human woman should ever be, she was still just a human.
Now, they could see the light of the Divine that shone from her, feel the raw, unmitigated power that washed over them from her. They no longer faced a human woman,a mere mortal. Instead they had crossed swords with the Heroine, and before her they were insignificant.
The Heroine fixed her gaze on Ranma, and the pure, unmitigated hate was palatable to him. Gone was the shy, awkward and adorable woman that he had come to know. That he had come to love. Seeing Akane like this, with the things that made her who she was wiped away or suppressed filled him with grief, and also a fierce, burning anger. Not at her, or those around her. No, he found himself filled with anger towards not just the Goddess of Light who had set Akane on this path, but also the Goddess of Dark who had engineered the situation that they found themselves in now.
If he made it out of this alive, he would try to do something about this. No, he had to. Something had to change for the sake of everyone who had been drawn into this endless, pointless war about the squabble between two Goddesses. It had to end.
But first he had to survive against a fanatic, and the woman he loved.
Akane watched through her own eyes as she advanced on the pair of Orcs, and struggled to regain control. She had always just gone with it before, and had retained a fair amount of herself, or at least that is what she had always thought.
As she struggled in her mind to regain control, she had to truly wonder about who had really been in control.
The Heroine once again crossed swords with her opponents, her moves swifter and more powerful than before. She blocked the attack of her opponent on the left with an easy roll of her shield even as she slid her blade along her right hand foe's sword. She planted her right foot on his left and drove the rim of her shield into his chest, blocking his sword arm at the same time as she pushed him back. In that narrow opening she drove the edge of her blade into the inside of his thigh and then stepped backwards as red, hot blood flowed freely from the wound.
While the uninjured one attempted to force the Heroine back, the other tested his leg as it threatened to buckle. He knew that he was going to bleed out, but he had a duty to perform, no matter the cost. The wounded orc gathered his strength and rushed the Heroine, his arms wide as he attempted to close and grapple her, or at least hinder her blade with his own body.
The Heroine moved with lethal surety as she stepped to the side and crushed the throat of the charging Orc with an almost contemptuous disregard. As he choked, she stepped past him and towards the other orc as she almost offhandedly lopped his head off with a back-handed swing.
Akane watched with a horrified feeling as her body moved with lethal intent. Never before had she seen herself like this, perhaps it had been because she had never fought against it before.
Always before she had led from the front, but she had still kept the others in the battle in her mind. She had made decisions that she felt best suited the situation, at least until the Demon King or one of his generals had appeared, and then she would leave her command to confront them directly. Yes, there were times that she would wade into the battle without a major threat on the field, but even then it was a tactical decision.
Now, she started to question the times that she had walked into the bloody chaos of battle while leaving the command of the battle to others when the Demon King had been present. Had that been the best decision, always? Or had she simply been going along with this rage that filled her like molten lead?
Those were the questions that passed through Akane's mind as she watched herself move relentlessly towards the remaining Orcish champion. The exchange was fast and efficient, and left the fallen Orc almost cut in half as she calmly stepped through the blood and gore and directly towards the Demon King.
The Priest could hear what happened behind him, but he didn't dare to turn his head to look directly. He had to keep his attention on the Demon King that stood before him, and just count on the fact that the two champions would gladly die to carry out their orders. He just had to land one blow on Ranma, and then his duty would have been carried out.
What happened to him after that didn't really matter at all.
When Ranma stiffened at the approach of a presence behind him, the priest thought that surely one or both of his champions had come to his aid after dispatching the human woman. He started to speak, only to be interrupted by a cold, burning feeling in his chest. He looked down and saw the glowing blade that had impaled him from behind, and coughed up a mouthful of blood before the blade was pulled from his body with the same almost negligent motion that had been used to drive it through him in the first place.
The priest looked up through dimming eyes from where he lay in a pool of his own blood as the Heroine stepped over him. She only paused long enough to sneer down at the Shard where it lay, before she brought her boot down on it and shattered it into black sand. That done, she continued to move towards the Demon King as the priest coughed out a few bitter laughs before he slipped into the realms of his Mistress for the last time.
The two eternal foes looked at each other for a long moment, one's eyes filled with sorrow and sadness while the others were filled with an overwhelming fury that seemed to be impossible for any mere mortal to contain. They locked blades in a flash when the Heroine rushed to strike down her hated foe.
The thunderous impact of the two powerhouses as they clashed shook the ruins to their foundations, as the bloodied and battle weary members of the two disparate groups that had found themselves intertwined looked up at the upper floors as a deep sense of foreboding settled over all of them.
Clearly something had happened upstairs and they just had to hope that Akane had it under control.
Little did they all know that she was a big part of the current problem.
"Die! Die you foul demon! Die in Her name!" The Heroine ground out as they locked their blades, her face only inches from Ranma's. He could see none of what he had come to know as Akane in the eyes of the zealot that faced him now, and he wondered if it had always been like this. When they had faced each other before, she had clearly been cloaked in this power, but she had still seemed to be herself.
The woman he faced now was definitely not Akane.
It had quickly become the situation was not quite what he had expected. He had expected to fight her, yes. But he had harbored some small hope that they might be able to in some way.
He had not counted on a religious zealot who seemed to be completely devoted to her Goddesses' cause and crusade.
In the corner of her mind that was still hers, Akane struggled against the fetters of her fate as she tried to wrest some measure of control back. All the while, she watched the battle unfold before her as the Heroine and Demon King clashed.
Ranma had tried to hold back at first, but the little hesitations and quirks that Akane had when they had sparred, or even when he had watched her fight before, seemed to be gone. He found himself forced to fight to his utmost unless he wanted to die at Akane's hand.
They clashed again, and again as they traded blows. Ranma's blade was longer and heavier, but quick because of his supernatural strength and the spirit that resided within it. The Heroine was possessed of the kind of strength, stamina and speed that you would expect from the chosen vessel of divine wrath.
A disturbing thing that Ranma had also noticed was that Akane would leave herself vulnerable if that would give her an opening to strike him. It was an utterly ruthless and reckless style of combat that showed him that any loss or injury, even death, was acceptable if it meant that she could strike him down.
Ranma and the enraged Heroine exchanged blows over and over as the stones of the floor grew slick with the blood they had spilled. Neither one backed down or attempted to disengage. For one it was an impossible thought, and for the other a moment's hesitation would result in death.
An ever more desperate Akane struggled to break free as she watched their blood fall to the floor and mingled together as each suffered injury after injury. There had to be something she could do, some way she could end this fight. Some way to regain control of herself, and stop this bloodshed.
Even if it meant that she would be cut down by the Demon King. By Ranma… By Ranko.
The truth still sat heavily in her gut like molten lead, and tasted on her tongue like rocksalt. It wasn't something that she had seen coming, and if she hadn't felt the moment that Ranko had vanished, and the Demon King had appeared. It had been a flash of heat and light that had wiped her volition away as the full force of her Blessing had rolled over her with more force and suddenness than it had ever before. And it made her realize the horrible truth that had been whispered into her mind for the entire time they had been running from the pursuing force.
Just who Ranko actually had been all along.
The pair clashed once again, as the Heroine blocked Ranma's slash with his sword and rolled her shield to let his attack slide to the side. She used that momentary opening to drive an attack towards his side with no regard to whether she had opened herself up once again. The sudden foot that impacted her chest and sent her slamming backwards into the wall behind her stunned the heroine for a moment, a moment that changed the fight in a drastic, fundamental way.
Akane felt the impact as it shook her body, and for just a moment the iron hold on her mind and soul slipped. She mustered all her willpower and resolve, and took back control long enough to cast her sword aside and yell out one short phrase before she felt herself sliding back into the recesses of her mind.
"Run, Ranko! While I have some control!" Akane called out before she slumped at the base of the wall.
Ranma hesitated for a moment, then slammed his sword back into its sheath and dashed towards the outside wall. For a moment, his form wavered and flowed, then a massive Shadow Dragon burst through the wall and circled once, before it flew out of sight.
As the power of the Heroine slipped from her, Akane passed out in a pool of her own blood.
