by Aaron Oster
“You show Sovereign Render the respect he is due!” she snapped, her voice far lighter than Ikari might have guessed due to her immense size.
The woman — clearly defined as such by the shape of her body — looked almost entirely human, except for her ten-foot height and the six whip-like tails that protruded from behind her back. Her hair and eyes were also odd, both a stark yellow, like the color of a lemon. Ikari couldn’t even begin to guess about her origins. Her Belt, as she’d noted, was Brown, though four Gray stripes marked one side.
“Do not rise to their provocations, Ella,” Render said, still not taking his eyes off Ikari. “They are baser beings and do not know the meaning of respect.”
Ikari growled, feeling a vein in her temple begin to pulse. Seeing no reaction from the Sage, she turned on the final fighter, a bare-chested man with a 6th Dan Gray-Belt.
“What about you? Got anything smart to say?”
The man didn’t even deign to look at her, keeping his eyes fixed squarely above her head. He was about average height and had a slighter build than the other two, with long, bushy brown hair falling down his back. His skin was a dark brown, though it seemed leatherier than was natural for humans. Additionally, a pair of small tusks poked from his lower lip, giving the man a perpetual frown.
“Do all human Sovereigns behave in such a crass, abhorrent manner?” Render asked, turning to address Pelata, who had — until now — remained largely silent.
“We are enemies,” Pelata said. “I see no reason to pretend otherwise.”
Render’s eyes narrowed for just a moment, his mouth cracking a bit and revealing the tongue of a serpent.
“Very well. Then we will send you to your graves as nameless savages!”
Ikari barely had time to raise her hand before the Beast flashed before her, a gleaming sword made of pure, golden light slamming into her open palm. Her knees trembled for a moment as she glared at the snake-man, their faces just inches apart.
“Your speed is greater than predicted for a Darkness Artist,” Render said, leaning on his blade more heavily.
“Please,” Ikari said, keeping the section of her Armorer technique between the blade and her skin active. “You’re just much slower than you think you are.” She smirked then. “Aren’t Power Artists supposed to be one of the fastest?”
Render didn’t answer, pulling his arm back and summoning a crackling lance. His hand flashed forward, and Ikari’s came up to meet it. Still locked together as they were, she could do little more than smack his hand out of the way. The golden lance streaked away, impacting with the sandy ground.
The lance struck, but instead of exploding as one might have expected, it flashed outward, splitting the desert in two for a hundred yards in either direction. When the light faded just an instant later, sand poured into the almost four-foot gap, filling a hole that likely reached hundreds of feet down.
“That wasn’t Power Reiki,” Ikari said as the snake-man pressed down on the blade.
Her hand clamped down on the sword, and Darkness began to leak out of her. She coiled her Reiki into a technique and allowed it to flow out in a blast of misty darkness. The snake-man’s eyes went wide as his blade began to corrode, the Reiki eating away at its core and disintegrating the very power it was made of.
He released the blade with a hiss, flashing back to rejoin the others and shaking his hand.
“And that wasn’t Darkness Reiki,” Render said.
Ikari grinned, releasing the blade, which crumbled to dust before it even hit the ground.
“Ready to give up ye-?” she began to ask, only for the other Sovereign to vanish, appearing at her right and unleashing a cone of condensed blue fire from his open mouth.
Ikari barely had time to react, a cloak of Darkness springing up around her and deflecting the attack. The power of it drove her back, blasting her from the air and driving her a hundred feet into the ground. Pelata moved in to attack the man, but Render intercepted, a massive sword made of golden Reiki cleaving down at him.
Stony armor rippled across his arm as he blocked, his other hand extending and unleashing a hail of glowing diamond chips as the Sage tried to blindside him. She let out a scream as they hit her, erupting in a series of massive explosions that echoed for miles around. The second Sovereign darted in, blue fire coiling around his fists as he prepared another attack, only for Ikari to slam into him from the side, her body shrouded in an arrow-shaped field of Reiki.
The Sovereign, unprepared for the attack, was hurled from the air, Ikari bearing him to the ground and trying to bury him. He let out a snort, and fire erupted from his nostrils, engulfing them both in a dome of fire that exploded outward, forcing her off of him. She shot up from the ground, calling on her Terrain technique.
Darkness gathered around the Sovereign as she rose, needles sharp as glass randomly shooting out, extending for an instant before retracting. He dove, fire jetting him in an unpredictable pattern, but the technique stuck with him, remaining around him like a cloud. Ikari, satisfied she’d trapped him for at least a few seconds, turned her attention back to the arrogant asshole who’d dared mock her.
Only to see Pelata launched from the air by a hammer the size of a building. He smashed into the ground, and a new crater was formed, but the snake-man wasn’t done. Beads of gold appeared in the air and began raining down on him. Each impact cut and slashed at the ground, ripping massive gouges that even the sand couldn’t fill fast enough.
Pelata exploded up from the ground, his body covered in stone plates that gleamed unnaturally bright in the sun. A massive fist followed him up, one made entirely of sand. Ikari was so engrossed in the fight that she almost missed the Sage trying to sneak up on her.
She whirled, hand extending and stopping the metallic yellow spear just inches from her nose.
“This is an interesting Path deviation,” Ikari said, holding the spear tight as Ella struggled to pull it back.
She was strong, to be sure, possibly even as strong as a Base Gray-Belt, but Ikari was beyond that. She could easily hold this pathetic weakling there indefinitely if she so desired, but if she killed the Sage, it might enrage the others, which would give her the utmost pleasure.
As the oversized woman tried wrenching her spear back once more, Ikari released it, causing her to stumble back. She followed quickly, darting in, her bladed hand flashing out to take the Sage through the eye.
Once again, though, she hadn’t watched her flank, and a spiraling pillar of fire slammed into her, driving her nearly half a mile back in an instant. Ikari choked and spluttered as she tried to fight off the incredible force of the attack but found herself unable to. For just a moment, she was tempted to summon her Conqueror technique. Something that powerful would wipe that damned Sage from existence, putting them on a more even playing field.
She now understood the Sage’s presence. She was there to make sure that the fights would always be two on one, so neither she nor Pelata would be able to land a clean blow. They would constantly need to keep one eye open for an attack from the side.
Ikari screamed, then reached for her Path.
Vanish! she screamed, imposing her will over the shadows cast by the burning flames all around her.
The shadows rose, engulfing her in an instant and removing the crushing force of the fire.
Appear! she screamed again, intending to emerge from the shadow below the Sovereign.
Even as she traveled, she felt his will fighting against hers. While other Sages couldn’t directly affect a Path other than their own, they could repel attacks within their sphere of influence. It seemed that this Sovereign was also a Sage, just as she was. Ikari was forced to choose a different shadow, one more than a hundred feet away from her target.
She exploded up from it, teeth bared in a snarl, reaching deep for her Projected technique. The Sovereign, clearly having guessed which set of shadows she would choose, was already attacking, a condensed pillar of fire blasting from his open palm
s as she pulled a wave of shadow up, attempting to drown him in it.
Ella appeared at her side, a yellow metallic spear buzzing into being as she slashed at her face. Having anticipated the attack, Ikari ejected a finger-thin spear of Darkness aimed for her head. Instead of piercing through the Sage’s brain as intended, a rounded disc of the same yellow metal flowed out from her skin, catching the needle of shadow and stopping it short.
Ikari growled in annoyance but was forced to give up on her attack as the Sovereign appeared at her side in a burst of fire, his fists glowing white-hot. She was forced to match him in strength as he slammed both fists toward her chest. Seeing as he was a Beast, Ikari’s strength couldn’t hold up, and she was driven back through the air.
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Pelata being similarly pushed back by Render. She growled, shoving back with all her strength and slowing their movement through the air. She needed to sync up with Pelata.
Ella appeared in another flash of yellow, her entire lower body now clad in yellow plated armor. She struck out at her, and occupied as she was, Ikari was forced to take the attack on her Armorer technique. A misty plate of shadow appeared in the path of the attack, causing it to rebound, but the force of the blow drove Ikari sideways, causing her to lose her grip on the air and allowing the Sovereign to drive her to the ground.
Her foot twisted as she landed, and although it barely hurt at all, the distraction was enough for the Sovereign to land a crushing blow on the top of her head. Ikari’s Armorer technique failed her, shattering beneath the force of the attack, and she was driven face-first into the sand with such force that the ground caved in thirty feet.
She vanished into the shadows at the side of the rising slope as the Sovereign dove down, and this time when she reappeared, it was closer to Ella. She might have been a Sage, able to fight off other Sages, but as a Sovereign, Ikari’s power outstripped hers by a good margin.
Ikari burst from a shadow five feet from the woman, misty darkness collecting in her hand as she grabbed at her face. A hand snapped out, catching her own just an inch from Ella’s wide eyes. Ikari turned, seeing Render standing right next to her, his face livid. Then he struck her with all the force he could muster.
An unprepared Ikari was sent slamming into the ground once more, but Render’s rush to save Ella cost him, as Pelata came barreling in from behind. A diamond hand caught Render full in the back, launching him more than a mile away.
“Come on!” he yelled as Ikari dragged herself from the ground, only to find herself facing the other Sovereign.
“Enough of this crap!” she snapped, triggering her Full-body technique in an instant.
The Sovereign didn’t know what hit him when Ikari’s fist, augmented by the power of her technique, slammed into his abdomen and launched him after Render. Ella didn’t try and stay to fight them on her own, instead taking off after the other two to regroup.
Ikari and Pelata raced after them, finally coming to a halt above the other Sovereigns as they dragged themselves from a new pair of craters. The desert all around them bore the signs of their fight, massive pockmarks, huge rifts, scorch marks, and patches of glittering dust where the diamond had shattered.
“Did you really think you could defeat us so easily?” Render asked as he drifted up into the air.
He rubbed at his back, but Ikari could detect no real injury. Nor could she see any in the other Sovereign as he rose, despite the force of her attack. They were more powerful than them, after all. But that didn’t matter now.
Ikari smiled as a silver dome spread over them, slamming into the ground in a five-mile radius around their location.
“What…What is this?” Render asked, looking around at the dome.
“Can’t sense the outside world, can you?” Ikari said, her lips pulling into a wide grin as a portal opened behind her and three figures stepped out.
“Looks like we missed the start of the party,” Sora Ame said. “Hope we’re not too late.”
At 8th Dan Gray-Belt, she was the strongest there, stronger even than Render, the snake-man.
“You’re as dishonorable as you are foolish!” Render hissed as the other Sovereign and Ella moved closer to him. “The others will sense your arrival and send reinforcements. You don’t stand a chance.”
Ikari’s smile grew even wider.
“Unless your Scions can penetrate a barrier designed specifically to fool their senses, I think we’ll be just fine.”
“We have five minutes,” Kuren Nami said, her bright golden eyes taking in their enemies. “After that, Duncan will have to drop the barrier.”
“So all we have to do is kill two Sovereigns and a Sage in under five minutes,” Mizumi Tokei said, blue light rippling around her body.
“If we must die,” Render said, his own body beginning to glow gold, “then we will take as many of you dishonorable humans down with us as we possibly can!”
With a roar, the three enemy fighters threw themselves at the gathered Sovereigns in an all-out attack.
27
Roy sat in the eating area of a small house high atop a mountain slope. After he’d woken up, Doragon had left, but not before giving him instructions on how to reach this place and telling him he would meet them there. Aika had been less than happy that Doragon had run off before she’d even woken up, but had traveled along with Roy on his way here.
It had taken nearly a week to reach the small house, as they’d been forced to navigate some truly treacherous landscape on the way up here. The house itself was located on a flat bed of stone, which jutted some fifty feet out from the side of the mountain. It was surrounded by a split river on both sides, which fell, tumbling down to either side, only to crash into a pool some five-hundred feet below.
The only way across had been to either swim or jump, and seeing as neither of them felt like taking a five-hundred-foot fall, they had elected to jump.
Over the week, their injuries had improved, and though not fully healed, they had arrived in much better shape than when they’d left the scene of their battle. The door had been open when they’d arrived, and a small note on it had told them to come in and seat themselves.
Aika sat next to Roy on a low cushion, fidgeting in restless anticipation as they waited for Doragon to show up. A pair of steaming mugs sat before them both and though Roy was tempted to drink — it had been a very cold and wet climb — he decided to wait for the man to show up before he did.
“You’d think he would have the decency to be waiting for us after the climb he made us take,” Aika muttered, glaring around at the set of sliding wooden doors at both the front and back of the small room.
Roy knew that there was no right answer to give, so he wisely chose to remain silent. Doragon had known who he was and when he’d spoken with the man, brief as it was, Roy had felt how very different he was than the two versions he’d previously met. This was a different man than the one who’d abducted him from the Itachi capital and definitely different than the madman who’d tried to burn them both to death.
Roy, for one, was curious as to what he would have to say. After all, his mother had told them that Doragon could help, and despite only seeing her for a fleeting moment, he knew her words to be true. Additionally, he wanted to find out more about her, and who better to tell him about the mother he’d never really known, than her own brother?
There came a light padding of footsteps from outside the back door then, and a moment later, it slid aside to reveal the man in question. Roy’s hand flashed out, placing a steadying hand on Aika’s leg beneath the table as she tensed, obviously preparing to get up.
Doragon’s eyes flicked to him, then her. Then, without so much as a word, he moved to sit across them, on the opposite side of the table.
“You do not like me,” he said bluntly, addressing Aika first.
Aika seemed taken aback at first. She got over her surprise pretty quickly, her face coloring a deep red as the anger she’d been suppressin
g flared to the surface.
“You killed my father!” Aika yelled, and only Roy’s hand on her leg prevented her from lunging across the table at him.
“Did I?” Doragon asked, seeming genuinely surprised. “My memories since the time of my sister’s disappearance are practically nonexistent. You’ll have to forgive me if I can’t remember what was done to you.”
Aika faltered, the wind knocked right out of her sails. Had he been lying, it might have been possible to tell, but the genuine confusion on his face told them all they needed to know. He truly didn’t remember what had happened, which meant that what Roy’s mother had said about him was true.
Everything about this man was different than before, from the way he sat to the inflection of his words to the way his eyes and mouth moved. Roy could detect the slightest hint of a foreign accent, one that had been present in his mother as well. The Doragon who’d taken him from the Itachi clan had sounded gruffer, and his words hadn’t contained so much as a hint of an accent. Additionally, this man felt different. The presence he exuded was unlike anything Roy had ever felt before.
If asked how powerful he thought the man to be, Roy wouldn’t have been able to give an honest answer. He was like a blank slate. In other words, he could be a lowly White-Belt or the most powerful Martial Artist in the world.
“Yes,” Aika said, though with a little less heat in her voice. “You were my father’s best friend and my grandfather’s student. Then, one day, you attacked and killed my father, fleeing the clan for some unknown destination.
“We found and captured you just a few months ago, and you were the same conniving and dishonorable bastard I remembered. So why is it that you’re suddenly conveniently forgetting everything you did?”
Roy wanted to say something, but Doragon held up a hand to stop him, his eyes still fixed on Aika.
“While I may not remember what happened over that time, I can recognize Hoshi’s Soulcore when I feel it.”
“Soulcore?” Roy asked, finally getting a word in.
