109

 

109.  Blackout

 

"That was bullshit..." Sabine grumbled as she picked herself up off the ground, momentarily hidden behind some fallen trees. "How was that tiny little sword supposed to help me?!"

 

"It was perfectly designed for close combat," explained the digitized voice of Volundr, the artificial intelligence that dwelled inside her mechanical sheath. "Condensed and powerful, much harder for the opponent to cut and hit, whilst still powerful enough to strike and allow reasonable mobility."

 

"Close combat," Sabine said flatly. "With a guy who can turn leaves into razor blades."

 

"Hey, you're still alive."

 

Sabine's furrowed her brow. "Amyr sacrificed himself so I could live. This is his time I'm living on...I'm going to kick the shit out of anyone who tries to take it from me!"

 

"I see," Volundr replied quietly. "Well then, want me to give it another go?"

 

Sabine shook her head. "This guy has too many tricks up his sleeves, and I have a feeling we haven't even seen the worst of them yet. Let's go to base form."

 

"If you say so."

 

As Sabine sheathed Volundr once again, Tani emerged from the thicket with a twisted grin on his face. Blood dripped out from the only wound he had sustained, giving his metallic armor a crimson gleam.

 

"So much pride you have," Tani said. " Never been conquered by a man before, I take it?"

 

Sabine shot the man a dark glare. Tani sneered and thrust his spear out, sending a sharp wave of tin psynergy toward the woman. She dodged to the left, and he took pursuit. Sabine kept her hand wrapped tight around her weapon's hilt the entire time, waiting for Volundr's magic words. The Shinsengumi was not wasteful with his attacks, and gradually thinned down her avenue of escape until she was backed up against yet another wall of trees.

 

"It's over," Tani insisted. "Come now, you seem rather quiet compared to before. I enjoyed you more when you were friskier."

 

"Metallurgy complete," Volundr announced suddenly. "It's all yours, Sabine."

 

Sabine unsheathed her weapon a third time. Tani brandished his spear, intending to parry the blade, but was completely unprepared for what came next.

 

Out from Volundr materialized a gargantuan sledgehammer. As she swung it into Tani Sanjuro's spear, Tani's tin psynergy sliced into the hammer's steel, but there was far too much mass to deal with. Heavy and unstoppable, the sledgehammer continued forward, smashing through Tani Sanjuro's spear and armor with all of Sabine's power in tow.

 

Sabine finished following through with her swing, then set the beastly hammer softly on her shoulder. "That's what happens when you fuck with a blacksmith."

 

Fragments of Tani's spear clattered down next to his body, which was sprawled

 

*************

 

out on a straw mat, wheezing softly in the darkness.

 

"You can die honorably, or you can be slain." Yamazaki Susumu whispered down to the wounded emperor. "If you do not choose, the latter will happen."

 

Hanazono Mikado, the royal leader of Yamato, opened his old eyes. Next to him lay the bodies of the two boys who had tried to protect him with their lives.

 

"I do not wish to leave my people in a time of strife," Hanazono began. "But the tides are changing, and I will follow them."

 

Yamazaki tensed up as he watched the emperor pull a dagger out from his robes and point it towards his own stomach, awed by the strength and peace he saw in the old man's eyes. In that moment, he really did seem divine.

 

The Emperor thrust the dagger into his stomach and gnashed his teeth as the pain set in. "I am prepared."

 

Feeling his pursuers drawing ever closer, Yamazaki paid no further heed to the emperor. His blade flashed, and in an instant, the old man's head went flying, now free from his pain.

 

What gave him so much comfort? His hidden daughter's return?

 

But there was no more time to think, as Yamazaki sensed the ten auras rush up from behind him.

 

I have to kill her here.

 

Yamazaki slipped into the shadows only a few moments before

 

*************

 

Azuka and nine of her chosen arrived. Inside, they were met with lifeless eyes staring up from the bodies of the two dead boys.

 

A woman with short, curly hair pushed her way out from the group and knelt on the ground. It was Arashima Yayoi, and the boy on the left was her brother.

 

"Kenta..." Yayoi placed her small hands on the dead boy's face and began to cry. "Who...who could have done this?"

 

Azuka stepped past Yayoi to the foot of the Emperor's meager cot and stared down upon the corpse of the father she had barely known.

 

Images of her early childhood flickered in Azuka's mind, misty and hard to recall. She had never really understood her father. She hadn't known who he really was, and hadn't ever seen much emotion from him. Still, he had imparted much to her through his words, and she was grateful.

 

I wish I'd known him more. What thoughts ran through his head? What secret opinions did he hold? What unspoken hopes, dreams, and ideas did he hide in his heart? All of a sudden, Azuka wanted to know everything, but it was too late.

 

"Over there!" Chiaki screamed.

 

Yamazaki Susumu stepped out from one of the shadows lining the cavern, and moved to slice Azuka a second time in the back.

           

Without delay, Azuka spun around and let her aura explode, preventing the spy from getting near her. Radiant psynergy seeped out from her blade and mixed in with the darkness.

 

After absorbing what little light emitted from the candles in the hallway, Azuka sought out the assassin. She could feel him slipping in and out again, and soon, it became clear why the Shinsengumi was so mobile.

 

The darkness... Azuka paled. Somehow he can move through shadows as he pleases...

 

"Light!" Azuka shouted. "We need light! Now!"

 

Frantically, the nine women let their auras roar, illuminating the cavern. Azuka felt Yamazaki freeze up and desperately aimed a blast of dazzling iridescent psynergy at him. In the next moment, a torrent of white rushed down the cave, eating up the darkness and leaving Yamazaki with no place to hide.

 

Azuka rushed to his front, giving the spy just enough time to draw his katana. Rage exploded from the empress as their blades met, and Yamazaki began to lose his footing. As he felt the full force of Azuka's might, his eyes widened, and his dark aura began to flicker. In a last ditch effort, he slid his black blade up, ducked down, then rolled out of the way.

 

"You will not escape alive!" Azuka cried, as the last bits of light burst from her body and sent Yamazaki flying. Her blade pursued him, and he was quickly crushed between rock and psynergy.

 

"Anun Teimei."

 

With a whisper, Yamazaki let darkness spread out from beneath him, refilling the bright cave and blotting out the light. As she felt the blackness surround her, Azuka clenched her fist around an end of the spy's kimono, refusing to let him escape.

 

However, the darkness did not swallow Yamazaki in. On the contrary, it moved along his body, smothering his clothes and slowly tracing up Azuka's arm as well.

 

She tore her arm back in fright, but that did nothing to stop the phenomenon. Darkness ate up the cavern, but it was thicker than shadow, and it pulsated with dark psynergy.

 

Beneath the darkness, Azuka heard a voice.

 

"Azuka..."

 

Although it couldn't be possible, it sounded like her father. Slowly, Azuka closed her eyes and searched him out. Shining softly within the corpse of her father was a single glimmer – the last remnant of his soul.

 

"It is your time now, my daughter. You are the last remaining link to the royal family, the last speck of light in this dark world. No matter how bright a light, it will always create a shadow somewhere. You cannot resist the darkness."

 

"Do not forget this. Light isn't something to be used against darkness. It’s too chaotic, too uncontrollable. As a prismatic warrior, darkness is your only weakness. Therefore, you must become one with it. You must be the connection. Find the masters of dark chaos, and use your power together with them. That is your goal...the one that I failed to achieve."

 

I understand, father, Azuka answered in her heart. Thank you.

 

"I...l–"

 

Hanazono Mikado's mortal coil snapped, and his brilliant psynergy dispersed. Azuka was quick to react, and let not a sliver of her father's last energy escape from her grasp. Azuka's blade swallowed up the last of the emperor's light, and her power was restored.

 

She screamed, opening her tear-soaked eyes to dazzling radiance. Blinding power filled the room, churning Yamazaki's darkness into oblivion.

 

He escaped. But this battle is far from

 

*************

 

over, Ravi thought, as she let out a frustrated sigh.

 

No matter how many times she thought she had pinned Shimada Kai, he always materialized some animal appendage that would allow him to break free, and his repertoire appeared to be endless.

 

Why is this happening? The first seeds of doubt had grown much larger since the beginning of the battle, and Ravi was starting to think that something was awry. His skill is nothing compared to Zeigfried's, yet he doesn't seem to feel any pain. He ignores his wounds, while I only tire myself out.

 

Bloodied and beaten, Shimada somehow still appeared as energetic as ever, while Ravi was starting to feel strained. The spy had just picked himself up after taking a direct palm strike to the forehead, and grinned with excitement.

 

"Let's go!" Shimada mashed his fists together. "This is so much fun!"

 

"Come on," Ravi beckoned.

 

Smiling like a playful dog, Shimada galloped toward Ravi. As soon as he reached her, she opened her mouth.

 

"Seal #4...Anhata...I release you!" A vein jutted out on Ravi's bald head as a hundred arms exploded from her back and sides, rearing up into the sky like a god's umbrella. Ravi took a breath, pressed her own two hands together in front of her face, and let the palms rain down on the earth.

 

"Lakh Taala."

 

Ravi closed her eyes and steadied her mind as her additional ligaments continually slapped the ground, pulverizing a patch of the forest beneath them.

 

After the attack ended, Ravi opened her eyes and saw the crater her hands had made. She expected that Shimada was at the bottom, but the yoga master's mind was already focused on something else. Behind, she could sense Sabine's aura flickering. The life of her new student was in danger.

 

Ravi shot toward the forest, but froze when she heard Shimada Kai's needlessly loud voice echoing from the ground.

 

"Mission complete?" The Shinsengumi murmured, as he picked himself out of the crater and held up a wristband-like accessory to his ear. He listened for a response, and then his face lit up even more. "Wow, that sure was fast!"

 

Ravi scanned the sky. Far off, at the edge of the mountains, she could see the hovercraft she encountered at the beginning of the battle, zooming back toward the forest

 

*************

 

trembled as Sabine brought her sledgehammer down on the fallen body of Tani. A sickening crack erupted from the Shinsengumi's heavy armor.

 

The blacksmith pulled her hammer back up and re-focused her aim on his head. "Forfeit or die."

 

Tani laughed. "That was your chance. You should have killed me."

 

The Shinsengumi's aura flared, spilling over Sabine's hammer and transforming the handle of the weapon into a blade. Feeling it cut into her hands, the woman panicked and ran back, desperate to get beyond Tani's rapidly expanding aura.

 

Tani was up in an instant, shaking off the remnants of his metallic armor. "This has gone on long enough!"

 

The Yamatoan reached around to the back of his head and pressed something. His eyes flashed with tin psynergy, and his body pulsated. Tani's eyes glazed over, as if he had fallen into a daze, and he slowly reached out his arms. All the while, his aura grew larger and larger, gradually filling the forest.

 

"Oh shit!" Kamo shouted. "Watch out, you two!"

 

"Shinkei Suijyaku."

 

A burst of air exploded through the forest as Tani Sanjuro unleashed his psynergy, ripping through trees and tearing the earth. As his power cleaved it all, the fragments also turned into blades, lacerating the skin of the three foreigners as they desperately raised their defenses.

 

Sabine ran for her life, and Kamo stretched his psynergy shield to include her as well. She was already cut in numerous places despite her attempts to block the leaves. Behind the two, Caleb had formed a barrier of ice around himself, but the frozen shield was quickly being chipped away.

 

Tin psynergy seeped through everything – it felt as if Tani's power had multiplied within a matter of seconds. With another grunt, he shoved his power deeper. Tani's fluctuating force broke through his enemies' guards, and soon, it manifested blades on their kimonos.

 

Caleb screamed out as his ice sharpened and cut into his skin. He quickly dissipated his barrier, but the bleeding continued. Kamo had done the same, yet his body was already covered in gashes. Pain racked his body, but Kamo's experience had hardened his senses, and he did not cry out. His experience also told him that Tani Sanjuro's was not finished with his berserk rampage.

 

"Kamaitachi."

 

One final surge of psynergy rushed out from Tani and targeted something that Kamo had considered inevitable from the first moment the man revealed his ability – its cruelest culmination.

 

Tani's psynergy merged with the wind, and soon Kamo felt the air cutting into his skin. Then, he watched in horror as Sabine rose to her feet. She bled from every side, and her eyes looked foggy and distant. But, she was alive, and her eyes were determined.

 

"No, Sabine!" Kamo said hastily. "You did enough!"

 

"I'm not finished yet..." Sabine murmured. "This asshole's mine."

 

"Sabine!" Caleb screamed. "Don't do this!"

 

On the other end of the wrecked grove, Tani stood surrounded by a tin vortex. His eyes swam with energy above his sneer. Whether he was still conscious or not, he appeared to be savoring the bloodshed.

 

Sabine took one last look at Kamo and Caleb. "Cover me."

Next: Psycho Kineses