Chapter 1: Unbound

Kirin was the first one up that day. Unwilling to reenter the realm of second-hand traumas so soon, she had broken the team's usual order of arrival. Usually, Apollo and Cayman showed up first. Apollo, ever punctual, generally opened up, started the coffee maker, set his station in order (not that he hadn't done so before leaving the previous day), and took at least one deep breath before anyone else showed. Kirin wondered if the office wasn't a kind of safe space for him, a place where he felt capable and in control. As for Cayman, he probably smashed his alarm clock every morning and threw off the covers like it was perpetually "the big day" to get to his personal gym. Kirin would enter about time the coffee was ready, and Shiron would make his appearance soon enough. His lack of impulse control would sometimes see him coming in with eyes still reddened from last night's gaming session, but who could blame him? Genius though he was, he was still only a child. The same might be said for BB, but not in terms of age. He would drag himself through the doors after everyone else had set to work, slump into his desk chair, and soon plop his head onto the pile of scattered paperwork he still hadn't done.

On this hazy morning, however, Kirin leaned next to the dew-clouded window behind her desk. Her yellow cloak on the back of her chair, she gently sipped the coffee from her cat themed mug. The lock rattled, and the jingle of keys drew closer as Apollo entered. He halted when he saw Kirin.

"Good morning, Kirin," he said courteously.

"Morning. Hope I didn't steal your thunder," she said, motioning with her mug.

"Not at all," Apollo said.

He went to the coffee maker and filled his own mug. Upon taking a sip from it, his gaze slanted toward the floor like he had just become conscious that something was very wrong. He swallowed and set his mug back on the table with a light clink. He took off his glasses and wiped them.

"Kirin," he said, "if you'll excuse the directness of the question, are you alright?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kirin said.

"I ask in a purely professional manner," Apollo said. "I simply find cause for concern about your mental and emotional wellbeing."

"Cause for– Like what?"

"As you know, I like to keep a steady routine," Apollo said as he put his glasses back on, "and in the time since you first tasked me with managing our personnel, there are two things I have never seen you do: come to the office before me and take a vacation. One of those things just occured; the other might be well overdue. It is a holiday, after all."

"Look, Apollo, I just couldn't sleep. That doesn't mean I'm about to fall apart."

"Was it another dream about him?"

Kirin was silent. Why did Apollo have to be so good at his job? She squirmed and looked away. Apollo stepped to the window sill and leaned on it.

"It is Day of the Dead, you know," he said.

"He's coming back," Kirin said.

"I have no doubt he will," Apollo said. "Lightning really does strike twice after all. What I'm trying to say is that there's a time to grieve, and grief isn't about death; it's about separation. We all miss Gunvolt, but we didn't have the same bond you did."

Kirin sighed and set her cup on her desk.

"Apollo, I… I'd rather not talk about this right now," she said.

Apollo nodded respectfully and walked back to his desk.

"I should say one more thing;" Apollo said, "I look up to you, Kirin. It was the two of you who saved my life. You're strong, but strength doesn't have to–"

Cayman burst through the door at that moment.

"Morning, boss man!" he said before noticing Kirin. "Oh, boss lady! Gettin in on the gains early, I see. You know what they say, we get stronger every day, and if the day starts sooner, WE GET EVEN MORE STRONGER! Let's freakin go!"

Cayman tossed his hat aside and immediately started doing reps with a set of dumbbells heavier than Kirin's entire body. Apollo looked back to Kirin.

"I apologize if I've–"

"No," Kirin said with a slight smile. "Thanks."

Apollo smiled back, took his seat, and started his work. The day proceeded as normal from that point. Shiron and BB, neither conscious of any change, took their usual positions. Kirin sat behind her computer, trying not to let her thoughts come across her face. After that night and that morning, how could she think about anything but GV? He had been the spark of their operation in more ways than one, and his memories remained central to Kirin's own capabilities. Considering the power of image pulses, she couldn't let the nightmare go. Since the exposure of the Moebius incident, Sumeragi had shared their secrets more liberally with the Dragon Saviors. She shot an email to her contact in Sumeragi's records division.

"I need some information on a deceased Sumeragi adept. Details are hazy, but her name was Elise. She was held in the stratacombs facility under storehouse 66 and used a specialized glaive that split her into two bodies. Let me know what you can find."

The response came surprisingly quickly.

"Kirin, I managed to scrape up a file from the time of Nova's administration. I have never seen that much black ink in my life. What I'm sending you isn't a summary; it's literally every word of information I was able to read.

Subject name: Elise Jenkins.

Glaive type: Invidia ver 0.3.

Septimasome: Resurrection- Subject is capable of reviving or reanimating cadavers which have been confirmed deceased beyond all doubt. Details require further testing.

Medical record: Diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder. Two documented alters. Possibly influenced by her Septima. Conditions unstable.

Recommendation: Subject possesses the most potentially dangerous Septima ever recorded combined with a highly unstable mental health condition. Recommend strict quarantine, extensive therapy, and immediate discontinuation of experimentation.

Report filed by Dr. K*******.

Don't ask for anything else. I can already feel eyes on me. This one is better forgotten."

Kirin leaned back in her chair. She'd seen enough. It really was as bad as she had dreamed. Bringing back the dead: there's nothing Sumeragi wouldn't do for that kind of power. A concerning thought entered her mind. If an image pulse manifested that power in her, what would Sumeragi still do?

An hour passed, and as Kirin looked around the office, her thoughts drifted back to her conversation with Apollo. Maybe a vacation wouldn't hurt, but she did love her work. In her time with Shadow Yakumo, she had always carried a sense of duty and purpose, but she had never been so certain that she was doing something good and right for people as when she fought with the Dragon Saviors. Things had gotten unusually normal recently. Dragon radiation had been gradually dissipating over the last year and primal dragon appearances were less common. At times, the country went weeks without an instance. The Dragon Saviors were a specialized task force. If there were no more need for their assistance…. She wondered how much longer she would have that home, that family.

Just then, an alarm sounded.

"I'm picking up a dragon reading!" Shiron said.

Everyone got up and crowded around his monitor. The reading was coming from right there in the city.

"Ah, crap," Shiron said, "it's moving right toward the Day of the Dead parade. I'm pulling local security feeds…. There!"

Shiron froze one of the camera feeds and enhanced the image. It showed a man flying by on a hoverboard. As with most early-stage primal dragons, his body had transformed in a manner similar to a standard glaive transformation. He was totally clad in a black suit upon which many neon orange lights glowed. An overcoat flapped in the wind behind him, and his face was covered in a glossy, skull-like mask.

"Shiron," Kirin said, "keep the info coming. Everyone else, prepare to strike."

Kirin snatched on her cloak, grabbed her staff, and partly unsheathed its blade.

"Battle Priestess Kirin," she whispered to her reflection, "moving out!"

The Dragon Saviors dispersed to their positions as Kirin sped down the streets on her motorbike. Storefronts everywhere were decorated with skeletal patterns, and merchant stands lined the sidewalks as festively painted pedestrians made their way to friends, family, and parties.

"Forget Christmas," BB said, "this is my kind of holiday!"

"You would want to forget Christmas, wouldn't you, BB?" Kirin said. "I'm pretty sure you're never getting off the naughty list."

"Hey, I was pumped full of dragon radiation," BB said. "Give a guy a break!"

Kirin swerved around a corner and blew off someone's mariachi hat in the process.

"Sorry!" she said before speeding off.

"Ok, guys," Shiron said, "I've got a profile on the target. He's a low gravity racer who goes by 'G,' but his real name is Gene White. He's got a criminal record for illegal street racing, trespassing, defacing private property, and a recent super speeder ticket. He was supposed to take part in a pro circuit race last night, but he got disqualified for his criminal activity."

"The trespassing and defacing you mentioned," Apollo said, "I've got a hunch about whose property it was."

"You got it:" Shiron said, "Sumeragi, and their propaganda is about to be all over the parade."

"So," Kirin said, "we've got an airborne rebel with a grudge against Sumeragi who's just lost the few inhibitions he had to start with."

"Enough about his sob story," Cayman said. "Am I fighting a strong opponent or not?"

"His septima's called Unbind," Shiron said. "He can redirect the force of gravity in a localized area. The effect happens in a septimal field around him. He can alter the field's shape and position using a pair of throwing weapons. Kind of like GV's flashfield actually…. Hope it wasn't too soon to bring that up."

"Not a problem, Shiron," Kirin said. "More like too late, really," she added under her breath.

"Oh, good," Shiron said. "You've got a group of first responders inbound on VTOL a couple streets over, Kirin. I'll let them know you need to hitch a ride. The roof of that apartment building is the best spot to link up."

"Thanks, Shiron," Kirin said. "Tell them not to slow down; I'll be ready."

Kirin screeched to a halt in front of the building and kicked down the parking brake. Throwing down her helmet, she sprinted by some people celebrating outside and burst through the door.

"Apollo, you aid the evacuation efforts," Kirin said as she ran up the stairs. "Cayman, contain and suppress additional hostiles. Shiron, you know what you're doing."

"Hell yeah!" Shiron said. "I'll keep the callouts coming."

"And BB's our floater," Kirin said. "Just stay on task, kay, BB?"

"C'mon, Kirin, have a little faith," BB said.

Kirin reached the roof of the building and perched at the edge.

"Stay ready to adapt;" she said, "I'll probably need some help with this one. Let's do it, Dragon Saviors!"

"Yes, ma'am!" the rest said in unison.

Kirin heard the roar of the VTOL's engines just before it came into sight. She readied a talisman and, just as the vehicle whooshed past, threw it. Hitting her target, she arc chained to its side.

[Simple and Clean (Opening version)-Utada Hikaru. Kingdom Hearts ost.]

Kirin grabbed onto the bar on the side of the VTOL and put her feet on its landing gear. The Sumeragi medics and their escort squad inside startled at her appearance. One of the medics chuckled and clapped. As they sped toward the heart of the city, the buildings towered into the clouds. There was smoke rising, and Kirin saw another blast in the distance.

At the parade, G set his sights on another billboard broadcasting propaganda for Sumeragi's Gunvolt Electric.

"Sumeragi bastards," he said.

He spread his arms, and the two glowing rings around his wrists became a pair of sharpened throwing discs. G leaned forward to speed toward his target and charged a disc with septimal energy. He launched it at the billboard, and on impact, it triggered a burst of zero gravity which set the sign flying, floating, and tumbling in the air for a moment before it began to plummet toward the street.

The parade goers cried out, but Apollo swung onto the scene in an instant. Scattering his purple throwing needles into the ground around him, he concentrated his energy to them and ripped several chunks of concrete out of the ground which he levitated as a barrier against the descending guillotine. The debris crashed together, but Apollo's shield held strong. Several berserked security drones rushed toward Apollo, but BB flew in and sliced through them with his scythes.

Above, a cluster of chase drones which remained under Sumeragi's control sped after G and began firing stun bursts at him. He dodged the shots with a series of twists, flips, and air tricks before retaliating by throwing his discs which boomeranged back to him after slicing through the machines. Kirin, having drawn close enough to the action, saw her opportunity and dove off the transport. Falling from the sky, she threw a talisman to mark a passing drone and chained through it. She zipped between two other drones and came in range to take a shot at G. Successfully marking him, she chained onto his board and grabbed his neck with her staff.

"Whoa, hands off the ride!" G said.

They tumbled and spiraled toward the street, but before they hit the pavement, G caused a gravity distortion that stalled their momentum and catapulted them back to the sky.

"The only ride you're on is a highway to hell!" Kirin said.

"Damn straight," G answered, "but this is a one seater."

G levitated his discs and charged them for an attack.

"Orbit edge!"

Kirin had no choice but to let go and fall back under the rotating blades. She dropped onto a giant balloon of a decorative skull but bounced on impact and slid off its side.

"I've got you, Kirin," Apollo said.

Kirin landed on a platform that Apollo was levitating as he swung along behind.

"Thanks for the save," Kirin said.

"Kirin," Shiron said, "it looks like G's attacks are temporarily leaving a low gravity field in his wake. You might be able to use it."

G looked back at his pursuers.

"Still on me, huh?" he said.

He lined up his discs behind him like a pair of targeting rings and pulled a handgun from his coat.

"Beat it, you fascist dogs!"

G pulled the trigger and fired a shot through his discs to imbue the bullet with his septima, turning it into an anti-gravity missile."

"Go, Kirin!" Apollo said.

Apollo slung the platform forward, moving Kirin out of the path of the bullet which impacted the platform's back edge and blew it into several pieces, including the one Kirin was on. She went flying with it. Kirin launched from her perch and continued to float in the low gravity field behind G. G continued to shoot at her, but Kirin dodged the deadly projectiles by using her arc chain to keep moving between the floating debris. Coming closer to G, she found a foothold in the debris and hopped to a perpendicular chunk of materials along which she performed a wall run. As G's shots whizzed past her, Kirin charged a talisman and hit him with it. Her following chain attack knocked G off balance and sent them crashing onto a nearby rooftop. On impact, G's board tumbled away from him and stuck between the bars of a radio tower. G crashed and rolled many times while Kirin landed into a clean parkour roll.

"Just what do you think you're doing, G?" Kirin said.

"Whatzit look like?" G said as he popped up ready to swing. "I'm stickin it to the man!"

"It looks like you're getting a lot of innocent people hurt, not to mention the other damage you're doing," Kirin said.

"Screw em," G said. "They're all stuck in the rat race, just circling the same track lap after lap for Sumeragi's entertainment. I'm breaking down the walls! If they're too stupid to get outta the way, then let em get crushed."

"That's just the radiation talking," Kirin said. "It's the only thing trapping you right now. My Radiant Fetters will bring you back to earth. Your fate is sealed!"

G responded with a volley of attacks from his throwing discs. Kirin parried and dodged the attacks while tossing back a few talismans at him, but G twisted and flipped between the projectiles while catching and throwing back his discs. They continued this dance for several more beats, gradually drawing closer to each other, until G performed a massive kickflip into the air and increased the force of gravity to crash back down with an explosive ground slam.

Just before G hit the roof, Kirin thrust her blade into the roof to brace herself. She slid back from the attack but held her stance. Snatching the blade back up, she sheathed it and focused to regenerate her lost talismans. Thinking her vulnerable, G slung both discs at her again, but in the blink of an eye, Kirin phazed through the attack with her Issen dash and struck him cleanly.

G recoiled from the hit and blew her back with another gravity blast. Switching to a more ranged strategy, he began to tear up and launch the surrounding ac units, ductwork, and satellite dishes at Kirin. Kirin sliced through the makeshift projectiles, but G started to tear the individual cells off the solar panels and sling them as a stream. Unable to defend against such a volume of projectiles, Kirin ran to dodge the attack. The cells crashed like a hailstorm in her footsteps, but she evaded their impact. G ripped up the frame of the panel and slung it to cover his next attack. While Kirin sliced through it, G revved up a disc and sent it carving through the roof like a buzzsaw slinging up small chunks of debri which he used as additional attacks.

"Better start running!" G said.

Kirin moved quickly, but G sent his other disc in the same attack pattern on an intercept course. Thinking fast, Kirin slid to a halt and tagged G with another talisman. The ensuing arc chain whisked Kirin out of the danger zone and allowed her to land a stunning blow on G. Pressing her advantage, Kirin performed a combination of slashes followed by a rising cut which brought them into the air. She cut him again and slammed him back to the ground with a falling spin slash. When G bounced off the roof, Kirin finished her combination with a powerful side kick to G's ribs.

G slammed against the radio tower with a clang. Kirin, not letting up, rushed toward him for a thrust attack. G, however, pulled his discs back to him, forcing Kirin to spring to the side. Rathering than catching his weapons, G allowed them to fly past him and slice clean through the base of the radio tower.

"This pit stop's gone long enough," G said as he grabbed his board. "Back to the fast lane!"

Shifting gravity to the side, G tilted the tower such that it began to tip off the building with a metallic creak. Kirin pounced at him, but G was ready and blocked her attack. As the tower tilted to a greater decline, G turned his board to rail grind down the outer edge of the steel bars and pushed Kirin off. She tried to snap back to him with more talisman tags, but she missed her throws. She floated for a moment in the suspended gravity as G sped away, but without a target to mark, she began falling behind the radio tower.

BB had just lifted a young woman away from a pack of rabid dog drones and set her on a nearby balcony when the tower began to fall.

"Oh my God. Thank you so much," the woman said.

"No prob– Hey, nice outfit!" BB said, noticing her skeletal paint and grim reaper-esque robe. "You know, I'm something of a necro myself," he added.

He stretched out his elongated, skeletal arm to casually lean on the railing and grinned smoothly.

"Black Badge: Grim Reaper of Primal Dragons, Defender of the Innocent. You mighta heard of me."

The girl laughed nervously.

"BB!" Kirin screamed as she plummeted nearby.

"Ah, nuggets! Kirin!"

BB vaulted over the railing and swooped down to scoop up Kirin in his arms as Apollo handled the tower.

"Right on queue," BB said.

Kirin sighed and radioed Shiron.

"I've lost the target," she said. "What's his vector?"

"I've still got him," Shiron said. "Oh crap. He's going for the sky convoy. You'll need a vehicle to pursue. I'm retasking a transport drone to your position."

BB dropped Kirin off in the transport. Cayman was fighting a pair of chainsaw-armed mechs on top of a nearby building. He ripped the saw arm off one, shoved it through the other, and punched off the first mech's brain module with a flaming uppercut.

"Shiron," Kirin said, "how much weight is this thing rated for?"

"A few thousand pounds," Shiron said. "Why?"

"Cayman!" Kirin called out. "Hop on!"

Cayman strode forward and leapt into the transport, causing it to lurch forward.

"BB, stay with Apollo and help the civilians," Kirin said. "Cayman, I'll need the help of your septima to restrain the primal dragon."

The transport turned and rocketed toward the sky.

"A man who can resist gravity," Cayman said as they climbed to the clouds, "stronger than the earth's own grip: just the herculean task for these muscles of mine!"

Kirin spotted G's contrails as they closed in on the sky convoy.

"I'll bring him in close," Kirin said, "then, you hold him there. Ready?"

"Ready?" Cayman scoffed. "I trained my whole life for this moment!"

"That's the spirit, sensei!" Shiron said.

"Let's go!" Kirin said.

Kirin and Cayman leapt together from their transport to the top of a much larger ship in the convoy. Cayman landed with a heavy impact while Kirin slapped a talisman onto the ship.

"I need to disable his septima," Kirin thought.

She called upon an image pulse, a memory from Gunvolt's past battles.

"Carrera!"

The ghost of the burly brute rose from the seal. Sumeragi's magnetic powerhouse, Carrera, clad in white armor: his power greedy arms a match for Cayman's own.

"Quasar Collapse!" the memory's voice echoed.

At his command, a field of magnetic suction reminiscent of a black hole began to grow. G's momentum was halted, and he began to float toward them. He leaned forward and pushed his speed to max power, but the magnetic hole still dragged him closer. He lost balance and fell into the implosion. Carrera disappeared when the attack was finished, and G stood up shakily, his septima temporarily disabled.

"Nobody does that to me," G said.

"Now, Cayman!" Kirin said.

Cayman took a deep breath and let it out. He focused his power and flexed his muscles.

"Let's settle this in the ring," he said. "Duelist Dimension!"

A spherical barrier formed around G, trapping him inside.

"What?" G said.

"Ground him!" Kirin said as she and Cayman rushed forward.

Kirin approached first with a flurry of strikes that G parried and weaved through, but as he counterattacked, Kirin cartwheeled out of Cayman's path. He hit G like a freight train and sent him bouncing back after colliding with the barrier. Cayman clotheslined him, putting a crack in his helmet. Before G could get up, Cayman brought his foot down next to him, causing a geyser of flames to erupt under G and launch him upward. Kirin stepped in and performed another air combo on G. When G fell down again, Cayman grabbed him by the leg and slammed him back and forth like a ragdoll. At the end of this beatdown, Cayman grabbed G by the back of his helmet and held his face to the floor.

"Now, Kirin!" he said. "Seal him!"

Kirin prepared a sealing talisman, but before she could move another muscle, she felt G's septimal energy spike. It was already too late to stop him. The silent words of his spirit pushed into her mind.

Free falling in void,

Trailing comet spits at earth's

Hollow rotation.

"Un-gravitify!" he yelled.

A massive burst of energy surged from G, expanding his field of control with such ferocity that it broke through Cayman's barricade and loosened his grip. Radiating with power, G ascended into the air while Kirin and Cayman began to float aimlessly. Several ships in the convoy lurched off their flight path as G pulled them in. The cargo holds burst open and spilled their contents which began swirling around G like an asteroid belt. Shiron had the ship they came in on still circling nearby. Kirin knew that Cayman stood no chance in this environment.

"Sorry about this," she said and tagged him with a talisman.

Kirin chained to him and kicked him hard, pushing him out of the gravity field. Cayman tumbled and landed back in the cargo drone. However, just after he landed, a box of heavy cargo hit one of the drone's engines. It began to lose altitude.

"Kirin!" Cayman cried out.

"I can't keep this thing in the air," Shiron said. "I'll handle the landing, but you'll have to find another way out."

"I'll manage it," Kirin said. "This jackass is mine."

G had the convoy swirling around him like a miniature Milky Way. His coattails flapped furiously in the wind. Thunder drew nearer as dark storm clouds rolled over them. Lightning cracked across the sky.

G held his hand up and launched one of the ships, spinning like a drill, at Kirin. As it came crashing through the floating debris, Kirin moved away by chaining to a container in the improvised solar system. G threw a disc at Kirin. She jumped over it, but G turned the disc into its own center of gravity, pulling in nearby objects and seeking to crush Kirin in them. She called upon an image of wrath.

"Viper!"

The furious enforcer appeared in a burst of flames.

"Sunshine Nova!"

Countless fireballs radiated from him, incinerating all that threatened to crush Kirin. She pressed forward with another arc chain and kept her momentum flying through the air. G sent a cluster of containers flying at her.

"Jota!"

Sumeragi's shining sentinel answered her call; the bits he controlled like rays of light around him were already in firing position.

"Disappear in light!"

A salvo of laser beams cleared the way for Kirin to continue her advance. G brought together tons of the debris as if they were a planetary mass surrounded in a swirling ring of devastation. As Kirin headed toward it, she felt the electrons in the air grow agitated around her.

"GV," she said, "lend me your strength."

She threw a talisman at the center mass, raised her sword, and braced herself. A bolt of lightning struck right through her. Her ears rang as the electricity coursed through her body setting her skin hot and tingling all over. Clenching her teeth, she focused her energy through her blade.

"Sacred sword agleam…" she said. "Luxcaliber!"

The lightning erupted from Kirin's sword as a cobalt blade, Gunvolt's own technique. She swung, slicing straight through the planetary projectile, cleaving a burning path through its center.

"How did she…?" G said.

While he was still dumbfounded, Kirin threw multiple talismans and chained to him with the fury of lightning. Her sword bit a chunk out of his armor, and she kicked back off of him. G, awakened by the pain of his wound, threw his discs and focused his energy straight on Kirin. He attempted to bring the full weight of his personal galaxy crashing down on her.

"Time to end this," Kirin said.

She sheathed her blade into the length of her staff and assumed the aerial variant of her striking stance. She focused all her remaining power to a septimal spike.

"92nd Rite: Divine Ruin Arc!"

Kirin unleashed a massive flurry of slashes faster than the eye could see, reaching far beyond the length of her sword. The flash of her attacks melded with the rage of the storm. Indeed, to a distant observer, the strikes would have appeared as a cluster of lightning. They tore the cargo and debris to ribbons and put G through the same shredder. Performing her final strike, Kirin turned her back as the dragon energy came pouring out of G. As she sheathed the blade behind her back, G's dragon exoskeleton cracked and shattered. The anti-gravity field shattered with him, and everything began to fall together.

It was at that moment Kirin remembered that gravity didn't need G's help to kill her. She zipped to his falling body. Where was his board? She looked around, but it must have been catapulted away in the explosion. She checked the team's positions: they were all too far. A parachute. There must have been a parachute somewhere in the debris. Carrying G, she chained around frantically in search of a parachute. Eventually, she located a crate with an attached parachute. She snatched the ripcord, but the chute had been torn in combat. She was running out of time quickly. She kept searching but to no avail.

Kirin's breathing sped up as panic set in. Adrenaline coursed her veins and set her heart pounding even louder than the wind in her ears. The realization sunk in: there was no escaping it; she was about to die. Kirin had risked death frequently. As a member of Shadow Yakumo, she had accepted its inevitability long ago, but not like this. If she died in old age, good. If she was struck down in her duties, so be it, but falling from the sky? At a time like this? She had to keep leading the team that had become her family. She had to see Gunvolt return to her. At the very least, she had to know she had held the world together for him. She couldn't die there… or could she? She had one chance: a desperate longshot for both herself and G. They were going to die, but in her mind's eye, Kirin saw the image of a septima with power over death.

There was no guarantee it would work, no telling if the image pulse would even persist long enough without Kirin's direct control, but she had to try. As she fell past the roofs of the tallest buildings, Kirin clutched her hand to her heart and stretched it out toward the rapidly incoming street. She cried out in desperation.

"Elise!"

A ghost began to rise from the underworld. Her heeled boots and serpentine tail formed first. Her flexible body, coated in black, painted in violet, arose. Her cobra hood shaded her envious eyes. She lifted her hand with a purple light. Kirin hit the pavement, and everything went black.