****
Varyon landed in a crouch behind Ayzeth, his spider insignia glowing with spiritual power as it covered his opponent in thick spirit webs. Despite having abandoned the guild, the power of his guild insignia still flowed through him, allowing him to access its unique array of techniques. In fact, the only way to remove the power would be to carve the insignia right out of his flesh... Perhaps he’d consider it one day, but for now he’d use it to his advantage.
Ayzeth let out a growl, drawing out his spirit aura and destroying the powerful webbing before turning to face Varyon, eyes glowing with crimson light. “I’m going to eradicate you!” he roared, drawing in energy for a second attack.
Varyon narrowed his eyes at him, channeling energy of his own. “You may find that more difficult than you think.”
Again, Ayzeth struck first, launching a wave of destructive energy directly at Varyon’s chest. The temporal adept countered, releasing a blast of temporal energy and slowing the attack’s approach. He then dashed towards the technique, sliding beneath the attack before rising in time to slam an open palm directly into Ayzeth’s red-skinned chest...
An attack that would ultimately prove futile.
Ayzeth let out a roar as Varyon closed in, releasing a burst of devilish spirit energy and breaking the temporal hold on his body. As Varyon struck him he countered with an equally brutal strike, driving a clawed fist into the man’s throat. He followed it up with a mighty headbutt, slamming a curved horn into the temporal adept’s head and splitting the flesh just above his eye.
A wave of pain passed through Varyon’s body, but he refused to show a single shred of it. By the gods, he’d been slain before. It was going to take more than a flesh wound to break his icy cold resolve.
Varyon spun off his back as another strike came in, rolling to his right as Ayzeth’s claws dug thick grooves into the ground. Another strike followed in its shadow, coming so close that it sliced the tunic that clung to his chest.
As the sharp claws passed him by, the temporal adept lunged forward, smashing another palm into the side of Ayzeth’s face, then followed it up with a wheel kick to his side. He then used the impact of the blow to vault away, leaving him just out of range of a deadly counter strike.
It was clear that the temporal energy flowing through Varyon’s body was giving him a substantial edge in speed, even against his spirikai foe. However, the lack of power behind his blows was a problem. If he didn’t begin dealing some substantial damage, he was eventually going to get caught by the devil adept... and then things would be dire.
“Your eyes betray you,” Ayzeth said as he paused his pursuit to adjust his tunic, clearly unaffected by Varyon’s blows. “At first glance, you look like a man without fear, an unwavering soul willing to take on the gods. But a look into your eyes reveals your personal truth.”
“And what’s that,” Varyon replied, buying himself a few seconds as he desperately searched for an answer to the devil adept’s awesome strength.”
Ayzeth’s face stretched into a wicked grin, a sight that reflected the darkness that dwelled within his soul. “That you’ve come to accept your fate, traitor. That today your soul becomes mine!”
Suddenly, the devil adept propelled himself forward, spirit energy swirling around his form. Varyon immediately went on the defensive, surrounding himself with a temporal sphere as he began moving to his left. He dropped the second Ayzeth entered his sphere, reaching down and retrieving a scorched piece of wood left behind from one of the devil adept’s previous techniques.
As Ayzeth closed the distance, Varyon rose from his crouch and swung, pouring spirit energy into his arms as he struck the devil adept with all his might. The thick piece of timber shattered upon contact, causing tiny splinters of wood to hover about the temporal sphere…
That is, before they burst into flame.
Ayzeth winced behind the force of the blow, though it hardly stopped his progression. Channeling his destructive power, the devil adept summoned a powerful energy sphere of his own. Red-black spirit energy cascaded from his body, shattering Varyon’s temporal aura and sending the assassin crashing into the nearby wall. It was a simple technique, but one that displayed the vast power disparity between the two.
No longer interested in sparring with the assassin, Ayzeth darted forward, slamming his palm into the temporal adept’s chest and pinning him against the cold, hard stone. “See you in the underworld, traitor,” he whispered, his tone full of mockery and deceit. “Obliterate!”
Destructive energy began to build beneath Ayzeth’s palm, disintegrating Varyon’s tunic and burning at his vulnerable flesh. Desperate, the temporal adept resisted with every that he had, everything that he was. He forced raw spirit energy into his chest, channeling it into a makeshift shield as he tried to stave off the obliteration technique. The man had died before, so he knew the pain that it brought. However, this particular skill wouldn’t just kill him, but likely destroy his body entirely. And if he was being honest with himself, he wasn’t certain he could come back from that. Varyon hated to admit it... but he felt actual fear.
“Die,” Ayzeth uttered, channeling more of his energy into the devastating technique.
Varyon tried to defend himself, but the destructive spirit energy was proving just too much to overcome. Waves of agony began to encompass his body as the smell of burning flesh made its way to his nose… his own flesh. By the dark gods, he was being burned alive!
For the briefest of seconds, the temporal adept considered giving in to death. By continuing to channel his time-altering aura, he was only guaranteeing himself a prolonged period of unbearable pain. And yet, in the face of insurmountable odds, the former assassin for the spiders could not allow himself to give up. He would fight to the bitter end, just as he was trained to do so. This would be his end…
Suddenly, a flash of silver aura blinked into existence a mere second before the devil adept took Varyon’s life. The temporal adept watched with amazement as the aura appeared again, this time just feet from where he was pinned to the wall.
Ayzeth saw it too, thought the look on his face was far from amazed. No, the Kaito brother wore a look of shock and disgust as he gazed upon the aura’s strange source…
Emerging from the flash of silver light was Seline Bonaduce, armed and ready for war.
“Slayer of my kin…” she growled, eyes fixated on the devil adept. “Prepare to give me your soul.”
****
Remley let his aura flare as he measured the man in front of him, a small, wiry creature covered in bandages from head to foot. From what he could tell, the adept didn’t possess any weapons, and the aura emanating from his body was of the likes he never felt. The most sensible strategy would be to feel the man out, to gain an understanding of his abilities and expose him in brutal fashion. Unfortunately, Rem didn’t have the luxury of a long, drawn-out battle, especially when the lives of his companions were on the line.
And besides… speed kills.
Drawing his curved blade, Remley channeled aura into his legs and dashed forward, taking aim at the adept’s neck. A single, clean strike would be enough to remove his head, no matter how tightly it was wrapped to that wretched body.
The flame adept managed to close the distance in an instant, slicing through his opponent with little resistance and sending his head rolling about the market’s floor. It was quite easy… almost too easy Remley realized as he paused to gaze upon the corpse. A breath later, the decapitated body began to melt away, leaving just a pile of bandages lying at his feet.
“What in the underworld pits is this?” Remley muttered as he crouched down to examine the pile. There wasn’t a single trace of his opponent left, not a drop of blood or a shred of torn flesh. Simply put… It was impossible.
“Over here,” an ominous voice whispered into his ear, nearly causing Remley to jump out of his skin. Immediately he rose to his feet and turned, searching for the source of those words. Then he saw him.
>
Standing mere feet away was his strange opponent, bandages once again wrapped tightly around his form. And though he couldn’t see his face beneath all of those white wrappings, Remley somehow knew that it sported a wicked grin.
“What are you?’ the flame adept growled, lifting his blade in the air as he took aim once more.
“I am nothing. I am everything,” the man said as a strange, almost invisible aura began to swirl around his form. “I am seen. I am unseen. I am life and death. I am a dream… and I am a nightmare.”
Remley remained unmoving, hesitant to charge in after the strange behavior this man, this thing had exhibited. “Your words are hollow,” he finally replied, continuing to measure his opponent with growing suspicion. “You’re just a coward that chooses to hide his face”
Kazuka began to chuckle, then immediately started to reach for the wrappings around his wrist. “I’m not hiding from the world, you fool,” he uttered. “I’m sparing them.”
Slowly, the mysterious Kaito brother began to remove his wrappings, unraveling them from his limbs, his torso and eventually his face. Casually, he allowed the rags to fall to the ground and spread his arms, revealing himself to Remley just as the naïve flame adept had requested…
An act that Remley would come to quickly regret.
Kazuka’s skin was withered and malleable as if it’d been haphazardly stretched over his bones. And yet, even more horrifying were the hundreds of eyes embedded into his flesh, ever seeing, spinning about as they emitted more of that strange, toxic aura.
“Behold, my god’s eye imbuing…” Kazuka uttered, curling his lips back to reveal a row of razor-sharp teeth. “For I now foresee your doom.”
Remley forced a grin onto his face, masking his fear beneath his bravado and a thinning layer of steely resolve. “Or perhaps you’ve just given me another twelve dozen eyes to poke out. Here, let me demonstrate.’
The flame adept immediately shifted his stance and began channeling spirit energy into his insignia. “Steel brotherhood technique… seven blades of re-“
“Die!” Kazuka interrupted, taking a step closer as each of his embedded eyes locked on the flame adept’s form.
Suddenly, a wave of nauseating energy passed over Remley, putting a halt to his signature technique and forcing him to a knee. He hadn’t seen what hit him, but the pain in his body was excruciating, like nothing he’d ever felt before. His stomach felt like he had swallowed a thousand daggers. His skin felt as though it was being stripped from his bones.
Remley tried to rise, but he felt like a mountain was resting atop his shoulders. He tried to breathe, but it felt like he was drawing hellfire directly into his soul. He was in agony, and the only thing that he could see were those eyes looking back at him… those damned dreadful eyes!
Slowly, Remley shifted into a fetal position as his body began to crumble. He was unable to breathe, unable to move without suffering unimaginable pain. In seconds, he would die. He knew it, for it was the only thought left in his mind!
Growing silent, the flame shut his eyes and tried to shut out some of the anguish in his soul. Though as he did, he began to feel something… a slight shift in the wind, and not due to inclement weather. No, this feeling brushing against his molten hot skin was wind aura.
Suddenly, three spears of spirit energy soared through the air, taking aim at Kazuka as he continued to wrack Remley’s brain with torment. One went wide but a pair of them struck the monstrous adept head-on, gouging out a pair of eyeballs on his arm and shoulder. Kazuka shuddered from the blows, giving Remley just enough relief to force his eyes open and watch in awe as Leila charged in, spirit lances forming on the tips of her fingers.
“Leila, no!” Remley yelled his voice hoarse as it traveled across the market. She promptly ignored him, launching another barrage at the Kaito brother and forcing him to scramble away.
Suddenly, dozens of the man’s eyes shifted from Remley and centered on Leila’s form, quickly bringing the woman to a knee. He could see the pain etched into her face, the agony building behind her stalwart gaze. There wasn’t a single physical wound on her body, and yet he knew that she was feeling the same pain he was. She had fallen into his trap.
“N-no...” Remley said, using his blade to force himself to a knee. He would not watch another one of his companions to fall to one of these bastards. He couldn’t bear it.
Clenching his teeth, the man channeled flame aura into his blade and errantly swung it through the air, sending a wave of fire at Kazuka.
The Kaito brother almost seemed surprised by the resilience that flame adept was displaying, especially under the weight of his endless nightmare technique. Unfortunately, the oncoming wave of flame went wide, only forcing the Kaito brother to double down on the usage of his vile aura.
Remley doubled over in pain once more, dropping his blade in the dirt before collapsing into the ground himself. There was just nothing he could do against the man’s invisible torment... Nothing he could do to spare the others this pain.
Slowly, his gaze shifted back to Leila who now quietly knelt on the ground. Her eyes weren’t looking back at him though, nor were they centered on their opponent who stood mere paces away. No, her gaze was centered on the runic wrapping tightly strapped to her left arm.
“Leila!” Remley yelled, eyeing the intention written all over her face.
“It’s the only way, Rem!” she replied as she unfastened one of the straps. “He’s in my head, and it’s the only way I know how to get him out!”
Tears began to swell in her eyes as she continued to remove another strap, though Remley wasn’t certain if it was due to pain or because of what awaited her.
For as long as he knew her, Leila had kept the power that lied within that arm well hidden. It was something that she hadn’t used since she acquired it that fateful day as an airship Captain. When spoken about, the wind adept had alluded to it as a darkness that she couldn’t control.
And yet, here they were.
“You’re going to regret this, you ugly bastard,” Leila growled as she removed the final strap, rising against the pain to face the unyielding Kazuka. “Just remember that you brought this upon yourself.”
Remley grimaced as Leila pulled away the wrapping, unsure of what to expect. A breath later he found himself going wide-eyed as the runic piece of cloth fell to the ground.
A thick, sludge-like material that was blacker then ink began to crawl up Leila’s arm, adhering to the contours of her body as it stretched across her entire form. Clusters of small spikes began to form on her shoulders as a similar set of spikes formed over her knuckles. Her face, once elegant and fierce, was quickly covered by the strange black entity, leaving only her eyes and the long, whip-like appendage that was once her hair.
“Le-Leila?” Remley muttered, still fighting against the unending waves of pain.
Leila didn’t bother to acknowledge him, instead falling into an animalistic stance as she set her sights on Kazuka. Her mighty wind aura, once a great source of pride for the adept, was all but gone. Instead, the energy surrounding her felt all too similar to a mighty darkbeast straight out of the veil. It was in that instant that Remley knew... his captain was no longer in charge. No, controlling the woman was her dark passenger... a divine power born of the dark gods.
“What have you done?” Kazuka roared as his eyes locked on Leila. “You’ve soiled a precious gift from the deity of shadows!”
Leila merely responded with an otherworldly roar, then sprang from her crouch and charged. She moved like a shadowy blur across the battlefield, leaping on to the Kaito brother’s back before he could fully grasp what was happening. Enraged, the transformed wind adept began her relentless assault, battering the wretched man’s head with her spiked knuckles until crimson stains decorated her inky black shell.
In a matter of seconds, Remley witnessed a transformation in Kazuka that he could not have foreseen. At the onset of battle, the many-eyed man had been nearly untou
chable, his aura like an invisible predator toying with its prey. But now, with Leila under the influence of similarly sinister forces, he seemed unable to stave off her assault. In fact, without the power of his nightmarish aura, he almost seemed feeble. He seemed weak.
Leila let out another roar as she thrashed the man atop his shoulders, her talon-adorned fingers now clawing at his face. Kazuka desperately tried to block, but each time he raised his arms Leila merely clawed out more of his many eyes.
“Get off of me!” Kazuka screeched, pouring aura into his arms and giving him the strength needed to toss the woman away. Leila displayed superior dexterity, spinning through the air and landing on her feet before redoubling her attack.
A pulse of dark energy propelled the woman forward, sending a pair of clawed hands into Kazuka’s chest. She used that momentum to drive the Kaito brother into the dirt then vaulted off his body, landing in nearly the same place that the battle had started.
With unmatched quickness, the wind adept dropped to a crouch, scooping up the spear that she’d dropped at the onset of battle. The inky black substance that covered her body quickly consumed her weapon as well, transforming the polearm into a shadowy instrument of death.
Kazuka forced himself to his feet, his many eyes narrowed at his speedy foe. “Turning the shadows on me will only anger the dark ones above. Would you be so bold?”
Despite holding his ground, the Kaito brother could do little to hide the fear in his voice. His abilities, no matter how strong, were fueled by darkness. They built to pray on one’s mind. However, facing an opponent who had willingly given themselves to the dark, he found himself all but powerless.
Leila cocked her masked face to the left, pausing as if she understood the Kaito brother’s idle threat... Then she promptly snapped her arm forward, propelling her spear directly into Kazuka Kaito’s chest.
The Adept Archives: Volumes 1-3 Page 38
