Great Strike Exia - chapter 23-2

Author's note : There is a specific music score made for this chapter, feel free to have a listen while having a read, thank you. Youtube Link here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVcwscMfqEY

...

.......

" ...Mio…?"

She heard not Haru's call.

She heard not the explosions, nor the gunshots at the castle gates.

Only her brother's forgone cry,

echoing like ten sharp bells clinging with no uniform whatsoever maliciously in her ear.

Haru knew something was wrong before it happened, rushing her arms just in time to Mio's sides, supporting her ladyship from sudden collapse, for Haru could clearly hear Mio's miserable gasps for air, almost as clear as the high winds howling.

" No..."

Haru could hear Mio's stressful gasp, but no matter how hard Haru shouted and tried, Mio was consumed in the abysmal depth, falling,

…

.....

falling, back to the lands she called home,

back to Kaminosato, where the festivities have begun, the meeting adjourned,

and the tournament of prominence commencing any moment.

She was back, within the contestant tent of side Kaburagi, from the sigil of a silver birch tree hanging on the ceiling that she now faces, her back on the rough carpeted floor.

No…..

Mio refused, like how she forced herself all these years, to drown this moment, this very moment, with random thoughts, anything, anything she could come up to her head only to stop the memories of this very day from flooding in.

But the more she pushed them away, the more violent they burst in like a mighty stream, forcing her eyes back onto the dim flickering lights, the vague sigils sown on the outer surface of the tent cloth, and the looming shadow that slowly, firmly pressed her down under the hopeless crushing weight.

The sweat dripping down from above,

from her brother's deranged obscene face that loomed over her,

the hot dews like acid burned her every sense that succumbed under the inescapable dread.

It was like her last reflexes fighting to free themselves from the irresistible confinements of agony through vehement spasms, only for the rest of her sinking conscious to drag herself down to a self-accepting demise, under the unexpected ultimate torment in the unrecognizable demon form

of her brother.

Mio wished she were dead.

Then suddenly, a sharp piercing scream tore the darkness that shrouded Mio's sight.

It was a maid, entering the tent to announce the tournament proceedings, only to witness the appalling scene unacceptable to mankind, letting out a mortified scream that unknowingly saved Mio's life.

At that moment, light dawned down once more upon Mio's half-naked self, the atmosphere like solidifying cement shattered to soaring gales that pushed her up to an intuitive flight as Mio without hesitance, rushed towards the niche of light between the flowing tent cloth, gripping her torn garbs as she ran,

and ran,

and ran,

never turning back, just running, to wherever her trembling numb feet could take her.

It was until she yielded to gravity did she find herself collapsed into Toshiumi's securing embrace, under the soothing golden lamplights while surrounded by medics and servants, tending her physical wounds and assuring her with soft comforting voices of care to calm her senses.

Only at that moment, did the tears start to fall.

…

...…

Haru gently wiped them tears off Mio's cheek with her handkerchief.

Of all that has haunted her ladyship of the golden company so, Haru elt them too. In a split second, seeing them in flashes through an interconnected vision of the powers' astro origins that travel multidimensionally, sharing with Haru the jarring memories via this flashback attack.

But the terror soon transposed into an erupting pain, for Mio's eyes shut tightly, giving out a toneless excruciating cry as all the others atop that wide palace balcony witnessed a glimpse of the true colors that has been sealed inside Mio's body ever since the day she was born.

Transparent formless energy like liquid glass, engulfing dust of a million dark corrupting sparkles small and large, like a shapeless cosmos of blackholes that swirled around Mio's fainting frail frame, pushing Haru and everyone back in myriads of brutal energy surges.

" Haru, stay back !!" Rang the strategist and his wife Agnes quickly sprang to action as Akiyama and his black elite legion spread out their arrays surrounding Mio, shielding Haru and the strategist couple away from the unseen horror creeping out of her ladyship's wake.

" It is the curse…" Rang uttered in marvel and horror

" …The Gyouma of Kaminosato is rising !"

Haru wished she could help even with a fraction of her Seed powers, but this primeval force with just its seamless aura validated even the Seed or Exia Rune's influences as inferior.

It is something far sinister…close to Demon kind….

The Seed, Sora's warnings echoed in Haru's head, as she noticed something falling out of Mio's robe pouch, rattling with solid light clanking as it bounced twice on the tiles balcony floor,

what seemed like a golden bracelet with six black stones sown across the chain.

…

...…

" Mio….!!!"

Arashi can no longer hide his apprehension towards his former lord's lady and uttered overtly right under the balcony he hid, clinging with devices utilized in his times under Toshiumi's secret service, now used against the golden Exian lord for sinful lusty greed.

With his keen eyes, he scanned the situation. thoroughly. The right of the balcony was empty, for all the elite guards were now shielding the Seed girl and the strategist from Mio's outburst.

The best moment for his assault on secrecy is nearing, Arashi surmised confidently. He need just wait a little longer…

" Mio...I am bringing you out of this misery !"

…

...….

Kaburagi Shisei sensed it far from the out shores and laughed gleefully, seeing his overpowering presence and radiating corrupting charm has awakened Mio's ancient powers of Gyouma, for his use.

It hears me,

Kaburagi Shisei sneered at the growing transparent cosmos bursting wider and greater in the golden palace tiers.

It senses me,

It knows I am its bane.

Through the trauma and obscene crimes he inflicted upon Mio, Kaburagi Shisei sought to control this Gyouma force which he was very close to succeeding in such a feat.

A solid proof of the failures in his past being worthy each and every bit.

Now all I need….

Shisei's head made a sudden left tilt askew, just before the piercing edge of flaming Kouzuki drove past, slicing his cheek, and leaving a streak of red across his pallid cheek.

…is Toshiumi dead !!!!!

With a lightning-speed twist of his waist, the League disciple swung a palm beam backward at Toshiumi's drawn posture, striking his death beam onto the Golden Lord's chest whole !!!!

Under rash actions and judgment, Tsohiumi had carelessly exposed his chest to the enemy !!!! And the consequences he shall immediately bear !!!!!

" I Gatcha !!!!!" Kaburagi can't believe his own luck. Clashing and brawling through superpowers for hours, for once he had struck a defining blow onto Toshiumi this cheeky bastard, and a killing blow in that regard.

" This is my dark hand !! My Virtuoso Demon Palm !! And you have fallen victim under its justified malice !! Feel this grief, savor this defeat! Toshiumiiiiiiii !!!! For Now, Thou art Toast !!!!!!!"

And without wasting a second, Kaburagi Shisei blasted Toshiumi into the depth of the sea, calling upon all the hovering airships above with his League supremacy, and forced the airships all to rain down bombarding showers of missiles laser beams whatever artillery they can muster and toss them all down onto that one sinking spot where Toshiumi had fallen.

Down,

Down you go, Toshiumi, to where you deserve.

Looking up to me.

And waiting until Toshiumi's sunlike presence had diminished entirely under the depth of the deep blue sea did Kaburagi Shisei focused on one strong leap towards the one last barrier, the Anti-Shisei shield that separated him from his sister, which Shisei began to tear the barriers with his bear hands and immense magical force, inching closer and closer to his glorious purpose.

…

...….

The golden bracelet.

Haru had seen that bracelet through the flashback attacks just seconds before and a gut instinct revealed a quick assumption of what that bracelet might mean.

" Haru ?! Come back !!" Rang cried but evading through the small gaps between the elite guards, diving down under the thrashing Gyouma force like a tormented being in pain, writhing its indiscernible arms wildly over Haru's quick determined glide towards the fallen bracelet on the floor, her hand reaching out!

Her fingers just an inch away!

Only for a greater more violent force to sweep them all away, tumbling Haru multiple yards away from the bracelet and throwing the black elite warriors off guard as Rang saw with unexpecting eyes, the Anti-Shisei barriers overlaying the island like a dome began to pulverize and evaporate from one specific point,

where League Master Kaburagi Shisei stood in the middle of the air,

hovering above all with crimson blood dripping down both hands.

Mio collapsed onto the balcony tiles, as the transparent energy heads of the Gyouma reared up ominously at Shisei's arrival.

Finally….

Kaburagi Shisei smiled with utmost satisfaction

There in his bag of victory, with both the Seed and his overpowering sister, both prizes presented to him by Fate's generous hands.

…Glory to Kaburagi, and its everlasting prosper….!!!!

…

......…

The missiles plunging into the sea,

The torpedoes erupting into balls of air and transient flame,

all around all awesome sinking Lord, wounded but not defeated,

listening to the explosion of all the efforts of the world that goes against his Awesomeness,

…

.....

Like the drums beating to the Grand opening of the Tournament of Prominence, with each pump the spectators follow in cheer and oration.

The flags and their sigils swaying high over their heads under the noon sun.

Six flags erected at the main pedestal behind where the elders sat, waiting for the contestants of the High Houses to be announced by the courier.

The Contestants too were waiting to show.

But Toshiumi wasn't waiting for the tournament to start.

He was waiting to be rid of The Kaburagi fiend once and for all,

For what he did,

to Mio.

He was about to slay Kaburagi Sukuru five minutes before the drums started to beat, right after he learned from Mio what he had done to her, marching towards the Kaburagi tent with his Katana unsheathed, disregarding everything his subjects and butler tried to reason him out of his impulse, to no avail.

It was until someone of a different house intervened that Toshiumi stopped in his murderous tracks.

" Out of the way, Kagami."

Toshiumi threatened the girl standing in his way just a fence away from the Kaburagi tents.

This girl, five and ten years of age as Toshiumi currently is, short trimmed reflecting black hair reaching to the back of her ears, black leather, and thin grayish red-hued armor that contrasted her pallid skin, tightly wrapping around her thin slender frame with a belt running obliquely down her unemphasized chest armor that traced up to an ornate bow as white as snow behind her back.

The Sigil of a crow soaring down to burning snow emblazoned on her shoulders, chest side, and belt.

Kagami, of house Yukimura, there stood, gazing morbidly at this young fuming boy on his path to commit vengeful genocide with her lazily maintained eyelids that slightly exposed the bleak red pupils that glistened like blood drops on the snow.

" Your quest for instant vengeance is untimely placed, Toshiumi. "

The Yukimura girl spoke in a quick faint whisper to the angered boy's ear

" Have you forgotten why you are here? Merely five minutes away from actual bloodshed and now you draw your sword ?"

" Do you have No Idea what he did to Mio ?!"

Toshiumi roared like a provoked lion.

" That's more the reason you have to wait for the tourney to commence. Remember, Toshiumi. Whatever happens in the Tournament, stays in the tournament. Only the victor gets the final say."

With words like sharp glaciers, extinguished the overgrown flame that clouded young Toshiumi's judgment.

" If so then I need your help. "

Toshiumi sincerely asked for the rightful heir of the house Yukimura, house of the flaming snow's assistance.

For it is commonly known within Kaminosato that the Yukimuras inherited intelligence directly from the ancients, being the scholars of the realm instead of the combatants, and spectators of the happenings instead of the writers of history themselves.

" Kagami, please."

Yukimura Kagami eyed Toshiumi with slim portions of surprise added with filaments of amusement, considering his request with a thin lazy sneer.

" …My crows will watch your back. "

The girl sighed like the misty breeze of winter as a crow swooped above her and Toshiumi's heads, when the drums of commencing began to play.

Toshiumi strapped his arm belts tighter one last time before the Elders call upon his name.

" Contestant of house Seraphim, the Dawn! Step forward !" The courier hollered as Toshiumi revealed himself to the roaring cheers of the whole Kaminosato folk, confetti and gold sparks fluttering down as he entered the clearing. But his eyes see them not and came to the elders' presence.

The courier continued

" Contestant of house Yuusei, the Comet! Step forward!"

A relaxing chill dude of gray spikes hair as old as Toshiumi walked forth to the elders, stopping at Toshiumi's left while embracing the wooing and roses from the young girls around them.

" Contestant of house Yukimura, the Snowflame ! Step forward!"

Yukimura Kagami stepped out of her tent, her crow circling far above her away from the elder's scrutiny. She eyes Toshiumi with a thin side gaze, to see the boy of gold was looking straight, eyes in grave shadow.

" Contestant of house Kariya, the Blood fields! Step forward !"

A thin straggled figure, seemingly younger than Toshiumi, of green long pony-tailed haired like a long tail, approached the pedestal with a slightly crooked arched back that carried a huge vehicle-sized ornate lance, eyes wide and mad staring in both directions with each of his eyes, his long watery tongue licking his putrid lips like a bloodthirsty beast of a man. The girls of Kaminosato winced and groaned miserably at the monstrous contender's appearances while the bros that knew him of his courage and berserk valiance cheered wholeheartedly.

And finally,

" Contestant of house Kaburagi, The Royal Birch Tree! Step Foward !"

The whole stadium turned silent as the one Kaburagi Sukuru, donned in pale sleek armor under the prolonged white scarf that spiraled over his chest on both sides, his saber to his waist, and an odd auric atmosphere emanating out of his unnatural presence, even the elders sat up straight from their seats in wonder but cannot point out the evident problem of his altered existence.

No one said a word, even the courier was dumbstruck, either by the awkwardness of the recent travesty that had spread all over Kaminosato, appalling many and disgusting more, or the foreboding pressure the eyes of the Kaburagi contestant emits to all that beheld witness.

But the silence broke abruptly as a thin courageous cry shouted out the words

" Glory To House Kaburagi !!!!!!!!"

All eyes turned to the one that gave out the encouraging cry, who was none other than the daughter of the subordinate house of Kaburagi, Shiranui Kirika, her face now crimson red yet determined and accountable to all the rippling murmurs around her.

Kaburagi Shisei didn't even glance in Kirika's direction but still fixed his daunting gaze at the yonder void unseen to any.

Hastily, the courier continued his annonces

" …So, before we start, let us give thanks to our first honorable sponsor of this grand tournament of prominence, current Director of the Illuminatus League and Head of the Royal Keiken Research team, sir ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ! "

An affable figure in white long splendid robes waved to all amiably as the stadium was refilled with claps and exciting atmosphere.

This emissary of the League, looked closely at the contestants of the tournament, especially at Sukuru with great interest.

But Toshimi couldn't care less about any sponsor right now.

The one thing he yearns most right now, is for the tournament to start,

for his slaying of Kaburagi Sukuru to commence.

It has been an age-long tradition for the Tournament of prominence to take place in the supernatural ancestral woods south of Kaminosato away from the sacred realm's magical protection. Within these woods, all children of Akatsuki stand even before the same disadvantages of the obscure fog that loomed permanently through the seasons, and make their own advantages through the wits and cunning they utilize in this foreign forest.

And indeed, no matter what happens within these woods during the tournament, no action will be judged and those that reemerge from the shadowy sea of trees either surrender in terms of forfeit, or return as the sole victor.

Those that don't return, however, are treated the same as common casualties, left behind to be one with nature and return to the cycle of blessed Herunia.

It is the elders' job to lead the following candidates for the new prominence of Kaminosato to partake in this ritual battle of honor or death, to different parts of the misty woods in blindfolds, and then leave them to fate's command.

As soon as the courier blew the sounding horn of combat,

Toshiumi ripped off his blindfold and dashed full speed, zigzagging across the woods searching one Kaburagi Sukuru with his furious senses, picking up all the information the woods could provide him of his mortal enemy's location, from the rustling of the trees, to the murmurs of the low winds, to the moans of the far elk, all senses to the max for one purpose only.

Slay Kaburagi Sukuru.

As much as Toshiumi yearns to slay him, Kaburagi Sukuru himself craved the same. He too had sensed his own change in levels of power and extent of arts he himself could not imagine. Something had changed him after what he did to his traitor sister Mio, and he was glad he did it. He is partially formidable now, Sukuru believed, and with the rage of the Seraphim scoundrel which Sukuru could already smell ten miles away, he confidently affirmed that his victory is close at hand.

He needs to do it with style, and delight.

.....

Like now, floating at the balcony of Toshiumi's love den, with his sister's Gyouma powers now revealed to him, Kaburagi Shisei has obtained half of the victory of his wild campaign.

Shisei drew out his demonic sword and infused the devilish mystic force of the League onto his blade, ready to take the Seed and Mio with him.

.....

Cornering Toshium from behind, whose vision was blinded by rage, like a wolf after a hart, Sukuru infused his altered dastardly powers onto his blade and crouched for a sudden strike from behind, like a wolf after a hart, which is now !!

Now !!!

Sukuru zoomed !!!! The tip of the blade piercing towards Toshiumi's throat !!!

....

Now !!!!

Kaburagi Shisei dashed down to snatch Mio away before Rang or any of Akiyama's elite black guards could stop him !!!!!

...

As Toshiumi's frame enlarged faster and faster in his sight !!!!!

Something !!!

Suddenly !!!

An Arrow of white !!!! Out of nowhere !!!

like a shaft of thin light drawing past the rim of his eyes, brushing just inches away from his cornea, forcing Sukuru to halt to save himself !!!!!

...

But before his gripping fingers of vice could snatch Mio by the garb around her nape,

A Blue Light !!!!

All of a sudden !!!!!

Erupted right before Kaburagi Shisei's presence, burning his exposed ravaged flesh with the cleansing powers of none other than the Seed !!!!!

Haru has risen at the last moment, forcing her Seed explosion right at Shisei's face !!!!!

....

Breaking his own zoom, Sukuru looked up in haste,

only to see the instant flash,

from the tip of the coming fiery blade !!!!!!

...…

Dodging from the Seed force,

Shielding himself with his devilish infused blade, Shisei backend, only to hear one loud clear crispy

Snap.

Kaburagi Shisei was sure it was a snap of the fingers, but before he could discern what the snap meant, his ears were very soon occupied by sustaining explosions, one after another, thumping eruption echoing altogether in reverbing unease as Shisei looked around, to see his League airships,

blowing up in golden flames by themselves one by one !!!

Without any sound reason !!!!!!

And there his keen eyes see, on the shores of Aurora isle down below,

one hand raised in a position of a finished finger snapping,

Of one Toshiumi Al Seraphim, Exian Lord of Gold !!!!!!!

.....

Towards Sukuru's face, the fiery blade dived,

held forth by none other than Toshiumi Al Seraphim, future prominence of Kaminosato !!!!!!!

...…

Without caring to explain how he blew up the how Illuminatus League fleets with a single snap of his fingers,

Toshiumi the Lord of all that is golden burst up in golden sun-rising sparks,

speeding forth with Kouzuki raised !!!!!

piercing forth the tip of his trusty blade,

like how he did nearly ten years before !!!!!!!

And with one sound-breaking clash, Toshiumi sent this Shisei fiend up with all his dashing might, crashing together violently into the top section of the Aurora palace, the golden Tenshu, the highest prestigious tier of a Japanese-styled castle, as the two adversaries of the ages smashed across the tatami floor of the wide walless room,

to a stage fitting for a final showdown.

...

Risking his left arm Sukuru raised, letting Toshiumi's blade run through even his pale armor, Kaburagi Sukuru evaded certain death as he in excruciating agony pulled back his punctured left arm to leap ten feet away to regain his posture for a second round !!

Toshiumi stanced himself, facing his enemy with his side, arms crossed before his face as his blade held close, the arched line of his shimmering blade aligned to his flaring stare of sheer hatred.

Kaburagi Sukuru smirked,

and with a lung-bursting shout, Sukuru tore down all the trees that stood around him and his foe, slicing them oaks in pieces that were in his way with but one violent wave of both arms, sending a jolt across the earth that even the moon shuddered at his woe.

Now, this dilapidated forest,

is a fitting stage for their showdown.

...…..

And with cries that contained hate and animosity throughout the ages both men clashed within the elegant Tenshu with the skies swirling around them,

Like how they did when they were boys, in the pulverized woodlands where the midst died to the heat of their aggression.

ripping at each other's flesh with their weapons and magic,

like poetry, rhyming itself.

.......

Austria Van Hillingdale still cannot believe how his deck of wonderful cards has brought to him such tremendous failure no Hillingdale has ever experienced.

His squad remaining less than half its might, the fleets of Akahanon Zabi like burning kites descending to the merciless sea.

" Report !!" a League herald rushed to Austria's presence

" Our headquarters is under attack, By the Golden Company, led by their second in command Roy Mustangoo! He has reached through the underground tunnels….."

Austria raised a hand to stop the herald's speaking, for there is no need of knowing any further.

" …leave the headquarters, and retreat to Tron. Send the word ! To regroup in Tron !"

turning away from the tall intact castle of gold he with his schemes and intellect proved under-leveled to conquer, Austria accepted defeat as the horns of the retreat began to moan over the ravaged coast camp.

" And send some ships to search for our proprietor sir Zabi. He might still be clinging on a plank at sea."

Austria added as he alighted the stairs to his ship and sailed back, leaving the Aurora beaches behind him, making an oath to never return.

…

.......

Rang sighed in relief as he crawled up to the balcony fence after the Seed explosion on the League devilman, watching the enemy ships sail away from the island shores.

Hearty young men of the golden company cheered victoriously and high-fived each other, congratulating a jolly good show of flawless teamwork.

Just as Rang was about to get up on his feet, a loud overt gasp did he hear from behind him, along with the rustling of armor in unison, all focusing on one corner of the balcony.

Rang looked up.

" It's over Rang !!!!"

shouted the young voice filled with malice and melancholy

" I have your wife !!!"

And sure enough !!! Arashi the dastardly milk seeker, the obscene traitor of state, has seized Agnes in his ferocious grip, with his blade at the mildly surprised but verily disgusted strategist's wife's throat !!

Rang facepalmed himself in regret that he hadn't finished Arashi sooner.

" Sheath your swords." Rang called with a sigh to the vigilant black elites surrounding Arashi.

" But strategist…" Akiyama quickly whispered to their strategist

" We have snipers ready. Should we just…?"

" Save the ammo." Rang replied, stepping forward to Arashi and Agnes calmly.

" Words are enough to settle this confused juvenile delinquent."

" I will do it !!!!" Arashi threatened everyone on the balcony.

" Rang !! You'll suffer if you don't comply !"

" No. You." Rang volleyed back with annoyed brevity.

" Arashi, you have upon you the wrath of the Golden Company for your betrayal on Helltron, and earned all disrespect the moment you charged in on your former lord with your sword raised. In the name of seizing her ladyship from your Lord's hands !!

You are adding nothing inspirational on your resume if you dare hurt a hair on my wife !"

Strategist Rang scolded like a teacher to a foregone youngster.

But even being confronted by the whole elite squad and snipers aiming at his head, Arashi will not back down.

" Mio loves your Lord Toshiumi deeply, Arashi." Agnes reasoned, even being held hostage, she calmly tried to talk some sense into this confused young man's deranged mind

" Nothing you do, nothing anyone does, can simply change that fact."

" I can !!!" Arashi barked with his morbid confidence unwavering

" Because I know the way to cure Mio! The League has ways, that Toshiumi is too boastful to accept and heed audience! Toshiumi is the reason why Mio has been suffering for so long! If Toshiumi had listened….!!!"

But Arashi stopped mid-sentence for his eyes caught the attention of someone rising to her feet, staggering up to face him.

Arashi gasped with blatant glee at Mio's awakening

" My Lady !!" Arashi cried comforted greatly by just seeing her ladyship once more

" I have come to save you from this Golden prison! The League has cures !! Come ! Follow me to–"

" Toshiumi…..is not the reason...." Mio panted weakly after the Gyouma force outburst.

Her ladyship's steps were yet steady and Mio nearly tripped by her long robe, to which Arashi was about to dash to break Mio's fall, but Haru was already there and supported Mio before Arashi even had the chance.

" Lady Mio, Toshiumi has searched for years with zero progress! I know, because I was there! With you !! But the answer is so close in the League–"

" You don't know what you are talking about !" Rang cut Arashi short impatiently

" The League deceives you so you can bring her ladyship to them acting as a pawn to their ambition !"

" I am in the League, not You !!" Arashi argued with adamant fervor, enemies all around him

" They have shown me what they are capable of! See ?! See not how the League revived Kaburagi Shisei and turned him into a god ?! That is only an example of their limitless achievements !!! Lady Mio, if you don't believe in the League, Believe in ME !!!!

Toshiumi is not the cure, I—"

" YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND, ARASHI !!!!"

Lo! Never had Arashi, nor anyone on this balcony, perceived her ladyship Mio's anger in full display. Her hair rising on its own, the winds stopped abruptly, only to blow the other way all of a sudden at Arashi's wake like a hurricane has intruded. The sea roared with tides as high as mountains and the earth seemed to spin at the opposite course.

Only then did Arashi realize, from her ladyship's countenance that was now so horrible to behold, beyond those of rage and disappointment and utter disgust, that he had screwed up.

" Be gone...!"

Mio forcefully replied to all of Arashi's wanton doubts, with a voice that resonates the chilling far cry from the deepest void of the universe

" Be gone….All of You! ! !"

Surging all out at once, the hate and anger,

like a mighty stream that materialized from restrained emotions of utmost negativity, evolving into a power that is the formidable Gyouma force that devours all, bursting tremendously onto one delusional Arashi traitor man,

evaporating the young delinquent out of existence bit by bit !!

No…Not like this….!!

Haru, standing behind the furious Mio thought quickly.

Killing Arashi will only strengthen Mio's curse-like powers, through the guilt of taking someone's life !!

Haru understands the gravity of the guilt after each Seed explosion in her limited past with the Seed, and it will only spiral down into a cycle of desperation!

Lo, Mio's eyes diminished in color, turning gray and dim, in a cold glance of sheer indifference, staring down at Arashi like he was a roach.

The roach in question, who was coincidentally named Arashi, however, was feeling his lower stomach eaten up by the unseen void, without pain disrupting his heart of joy and contentment. With his eyes on Mio, always gazing at this beautiful moon that lit up his dismal life, Arashi felt no more anger, no more sadness,

But everlasting satisfaction,

without realizing he was slowly reducing into atoms !!!

Haru hope she wasn't too late.

…

.......

" Yes…..!!!"

Kaburagi Shisei crooned as he staggered back up to a straight stance of pride over the tatami-floored Tenshu without walls, like a towering statue of deranged manhood within a tempest firmly stood.

" Petty are your failing promises to cease the Gyouma, Churl Toshi !! Your mercy had only given rise to Me and Mio's bond !!!! Only through me can Mio be most splendor! And I too through her! Today shall mark the completion of my crusade, since the day of the tournament !!!! Of the breaking of the third wheel, You, Toshiumi !!! Shall Die !!!"

" Mio has no bonds with anyone! She owns herself with fitting pride !!" Toshiumi bravely accepted the duel, facing Shisei with his side with his arms arched and Kouzuki pointing forward in alignment with his determined eyes

" Come what may, you with your lust and grievance, I shall put an end to the past !"

" Bold words, TOSHI !!!!!"

like a ghost Kaburagi Shisei of the Illuminatus League, powered with demonry and the cursed link of the trauma he planted within Mio's Gyouma force, flew into Toshiumi's multi-slash attack, only to burst out like an ink-squirting octopus spraying toxic miasma all over the field which Toshiumi set the tatami floor ablaze, extinguishing any possible ailments and curses with a snap of his igniting sage fingers.

Dark arts against eternal flame, clashing in shocking resemblance,

....

to the tournament ten years before.

Young Toshiumi as always in past and future bursts with aggression as young master Sukuru scattered his wrath of alien aura across the sea of dilapidated trees, blowing the natural habitat of many wood life out of existence with powers no elder of Kaminosato has ever witnessed.

" That is no orthodox match !" A commentating elder uttered in terror as he watched through his all-seeing eyes the combat in the failing woods

" The son of Kaburagi is wielding the cursed arts of the Gyouma !!!"

" He must be stopped before he plunges Kaminosato into eternal darkness !" The Elders all nodded in apprehension.

" But all due respects, grand elders." an affable person in abstruse robes suggested amiably to the grave elders.

" Isn't it doctrine in the rules of Kaminosato that what happens in the tournament, stays in the tournament? Surely, to come up victorious in these trying times one has to master both the orthodox and the unorthodox ways to understand the true flow of the ancients fully, don't you say ?"

The elders looked at each other in baffled hesitance towards the words of the admirable sponsor from the Illuminatus League.

The tournament went on, and on it went drastically spiraling into madness as the woods blew up and the trees all unrooted out of the soil, the earth flipped twenty and one times before crashing into a landslide sweeping the stadium and the audience who all started to scatter in panic.

Among all the chaos, there Kaburagi Sukuru floated in the center, commanding all natural forces to swirl and descend into chaos, raising the stakes and bringing the whole fight back to Kaminosato realm !!!

Like a bloody hurricane, the insane boy swept the town without mercy, driving into the town and houses, tearing the frameworks apart into his firing arsenal, and slaying all the innocent in his wake !!! It is a dark moment in Kaminosato history. A massacre so appalling none of the survivors dare recall.

But surely it did happen, and it was all Kaburagi Sukuru's malevolent act of wrath and bloodshed.

The brave contestants, heir of house Yuusei of the comet and the heir of the Bloodfield house tried to fend this crazed Kaburagi off to no avail, tossed away like rag dolls and permanently injured.

Kagami of house Yukimura the snowflame let go a myriad of arrow showers over Kaburagi, but with waves like a dance, Sukuru gathered all the arrows to his bidding and shot them all back, flying full speed and rebounding madly all over Kaminosato, killing millions and even struck Kagami at the back of her waist, penetrating her spine and probably dimming her paralyzed to the rest of her life.

Toshiumi quickly dashed out to break Kagami's fall and escort the wounded girl to safety.

" I am sorry, Kagami." Toshiumi apologized with great regret and anger

" I shouldn't have dragged you into this…!"

" Shut up and kill that bastard, Toshiumi." Kagami muttered, her voice strained in withstanding of her excruciating pain.

With one determined promising nod, Toshiumi was off.

" SUKURU !!!!!" Toshiumi shouted valorously at the top of his lungs across the vanquished Kaminosato village

" FACE ME !!!!!!!"

" WITH PLEASURE !!!!! TOSHI !!!!!"

Swooping down like a winged devil Kaburagi Sukru clashed against Toshiumi's brave standoff.

With just a sword and his valiant skills, Toshiumi faces this corrupted boy that has fallen to the dark demonic path.

.....

Till now, with a better blade Kouzuki, unrivaled skills under Tenka, and the powers of the Golden Exian Rune, Toshiumi Al Seraphim awesomely faces, this corrupted forgone man that has fallen deep into the League's enticing devilish ways of world domination that is Kaburagi Shisei.

From Sukuru, a name that stands for saving grace in his mother tongue,

To Shisei, the killer of Star, feared by all,

disgusted by Toshi,

League disciple Kaburagi seeks to break his nemesis, and conquer his sister, and the world.

…

.......

And truly, drowned in the rage of Gyouma, enticed by both Arashi and her dastardly brother, Mio could hardly hold them back any longer, as the cosmos of dark oozed out of her and became devouring the golden palace like a starving creature, whose hunger was carried away by Kaburagi Shisei's sinister spells !!!

Haru again sprang up to action!

" Mio, Wait !!!!" Haru raced forth across many attacking Gyouma tentacles that shot out from Mio's tranced wake, dodging all the way just an arm's distance away from Mio !!!

Only to be slammed down violently by a transparent hand that harbors the dark cores of the universe in its grotesque robust arm, pressing Haru like a truckload of hate immovable and adamant, slowly dissolving Haru's outfit and flesh like acid.

Haru screamed in pain as her Seed activated to her call of agony, glowing as if a shield of light formed around her, and within just a second or two, Haru saw she was clad in tight light blue ceramic-like armor of sleek design of elegance, golden ancient runes emblazoned and written on their own continuously around her armor plates.

The Gyouma's devouring hand posed no urgent threat under this armor Haru now possesses.

" Hurry…!" Sora's stressful voice echoed in Haru's ears

" Get the bracelet to Mio...I can't stand this power much longer...!"

" On it !!" Haru answered aloud as she sped forth with a kick backward, escaping the huge Gyouma arm, and flew up with thrusters of ancient technologies of the Starbreaking secrets, scooping the bracelet, safely forming its own barrier among the Gyouma-filled ground up to his hands and collided into Mio's arms, embracing the tranced lady with the golden bracelet Haru held close, clasping in Mio's hands.

Mio's eyes lit up, and the world, the Gyouma force all froze.

Surging all out at once into her eyes like quickened flashback attacks, the memories that Mio kept dear of the Kaminosato days,

of their first meet in the mountains,

of young Toshiumi leading her down the mount,

of the night of their encounter of Gilga the wolf king,

of their reunion at the mount that started it all, where he returned with her bracelet reforged,

and of the moment she stood by his side, against her brother Sukuru's wrath over the whole of Kaminosato,

It reminded her of the greatest truth of all.

" Toshiumi ...!"

Mio sobbed in tears, hot streams of joy and recollection of her past as she held Haru close in gratitude

" Toshiumi….Is My Cure ! ! !"

And putting Haru down gently onto the balcony, Mio with a confident nod, sped up full speed towards the top of the Aurora palace !!!!!

........

Like how she raced towards the one last clearing over the devastated Kaminosato, running with all her strength and speed,

to stand in her brother's way, to protect her love Toshumi,

......

As she does now, no matter what time or age she belong,

She will always stand by Toshiumi.

And Toshiumi too, always by her side.

Pushing Kaburagi Shisei away with dimension-breaking force, sending the League Master flying to the other side of the Tenshu.

......

Slapping her brother Sukuru the way he slapped her many times before,

sending her insane murderous brother twenty feet away from Toshiumi, the one she is willing to marry.

….

Both

Kaburagi Sukuru,

Kaburagi Shisei,

looked up with mad wide eyes at his sister's actions of utter betrayal,

rising up once more, mustering the rage of the universe in this one strike, breaking the Tenshu into a thousand pieces !!!!

But in astounding succession, faster than the power of his destructions, Mio flew in, fixing the tiles and tatami of the Tenshu Shisei's had torn and sent an invisible force that harm no one, but brought peace to chaos, broken into mending, bending Kaburagi Shisei physically and mentally in gory manner, a power that only a deranged man as self damaged as he would feel such agony to its correcting force.

Toshiumi raced forth, pushed by the winds that Mio raised for him, and tripled in speed and velocity, sending each cut down that could cleave the Tenka clean in half a million times, dicing Kaburagi's limbs like quick blades to a leaf!

But each severed part of Shisei grew fully into a menacing League Master of his own and struck Toshiumi from all sides, as the awesome Lord parried nonstop, with his lady extending her wishes and also summoned twenty thousand Toshiumis from the vast multiverse, all of them Awesome and affably competent, performing the maximum earth cutting slash altogether combined into an ultimate universal slashing Festa, dicing any Kaburagi Shisei that existed in this realm.

A flawless pair, like a sacred cloth without a single tiniest breach, successfully defended the Aurora isle with their valiance

and love.

...…

With one concentrated last blow, a final confrontation of powers,

sending Sukuru out into the unknown.

Presumably won, the two young children collapsed into each other's arms.

Mio crying freely in Toshiumi's exhausted embrace,

among the ruins of their old home.

...….

Home,

Was the first thing that came to Kaburagi Shisei's mind as he knelt at the far end of the scorched tatami floor with one knee, coughing blood out of his crooked jaw.

All this, to be the prominent leader of Kaminosato, a village that was no more under his massacre.

To be the irrefutable leader of the New World shaped from the recoding of Herunia,

The master to rewrite reality through the blessed heavenly realm !!

He still stands a chance.

" Epic..." Kaburagi Shisei chuckled with nothing but sinister intonations in his croaking voice

" Epic fight….won't it be heartbreaking to know that after all that you two have done, you've just solidified my victory….!!!!"

" Say what, you bastard ?!" Toshiumi spat awesomely, placing his sharp fiery blade at Kaburagi Shisei's throat.

And with cackling that sends shivers down children's spines,

Kaburagi Shisei the Star killer reached for his ravaged remaining pouch behind his tattered robes,

and raised up something on his pallid palm.

Something that sent a ripple of astonished gasps across not just Mio and Toshiumi, but also Haru, Rang, Agnes, Akiyama, Hidaka, Stentor Aramis, Kamo, and the whole golden company.

The thing be,

The seventh lost rock on Mio's bracelet.

" Toshiumi was never your cure, Mio my sweet sister….."

Kaburagi Shisei crooned sadistically

" It was I….keeping you in one piece, an inch away from destroying the world...yes.

I Am Your Cure.

And as the Peace and bliss, I can giveth...….

So can I taketh from thee !!!!!!!!!!"

And with his smiting force of sheer pettiness,

Kaburagi crushed the last piece of the limiter to the Gyouma that threatens the whole of Tenka!

Mio gave out a shriek of agony !!!!

Toshiumi forced his blade toward Shisei's throat !!!!!!!

But all that was of the Tenshu,

now but an erupting blast of the transparent starry substance of unstoppable chaos, raging down over the Aurora palace from the top, crawling down as it devoured everything, every one in its ruthless path.

Rang grabbed Agnes and Haru in his arms as he made them three jump off the balcony with the retreating Golden Clansmen, soaring down the steep mountain castle as the strategist stood on his gliding feathered fan now transformed into a robotic bird, swooping down to the shores in safe retreat.

Haru looked back, as one gigantic crimson mecha hovered above the Gyouma-Tenshu and shot out claws that reached deep, only to pull back Mio, unconscious within the cruel metal pincers as the red machine titan,

which is, to Haru and Rang's utter shock, none other than The Terminas Iron Giant mecha tech combined ultra Oochu Goten top hierarchy monarch machine Maxima Ultimatum Buster Kaboomer Smash Trash Bash Cash Almighty Sky high Alternator Slayer Lord of bazinga Exian Rune King Emperor Varche Scrirocco Za Revenjaja !!!!!

Capturing Mio and swerving a 180-degree turn of massive epicness before Varche Scrirocco the indomitable Revenjaja mecha king sped off towards the Kingdeniom capital: Tron,

With the dastardly Kaburagi Shisei of the Illuminatus League, following in the air right behind the Red Exian machine lord,

cackling all the way in devilish laughter.

The pulverized rubble of the Aurora castle was immediately all blown away as there Toshiumi Al Seraphim the Golden Exia Lord stood, petrified by petty schemes,

at the foot of his crumbled island villa,

his fuming rage resembling his young self,

eyes burning with the inextinguishable flame of Awesome Wrath,

And with a shout that reached across time and space, echoing through the ages,

reverberating that one name to all's ears

" MIO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[........To be continued]