[21]

Flames-that was the first thing he noticed.

Those Azure Flames that burned the air.

A hue of dark blue engulfing flames that coved her body. Deriving from the wisps of nothingness, they converted her body and ripped the air apart in an explosion of intense heat.

Her whole body had been converted into fur. Two blackened horns grew from the flames that engulfed her, pulling from her skull, and attaching themselves to either side of her forehead. Her nails had grew sharper and longer, seeming like glimmering blackened jewels.

The only part of her body that had been freed from the demonic curse was the middle section of her face. However, even her face was not fully safe from its control.

Her teeth bared into fangs that mawed her jaws, extending like pristine bleached blades. Icily gleaming in luster and fanned by the flames from the depths of her innards, and soon-the flames-encompassing her very mouth. With every contact the fangs made with each of their own, there was the sound of a screeching crunch and the crazy wallow of the azure flames that accompanied its movement.

Her eyes had grown asunder with blue flames. They blazed into fury and only two words escaped from her crunched jaws.

The beast within her wanted revenge towards the humans that had laid its life bare.

With her roar, ripples of flames spread into her surroundings. The air exploding in a scorched blaze.

Ais blasted backwards as a wave of heat directly hit her body.

Rain, who was standing a few meters away, staggered backwards as his arms raced to shield his face from the intense heat of the azure flames. His foot stomped into ground-creating finer lines- and he barely managed to keep his body from being directly thrown away by the rips of air.

If it hadn't been for his physique, he imagined he would have been burned to a crisp right here and now.

'Seriously,' his teeth were tightly gritted against each other as his mystical eyes sparked onto the girl.

'What the heck is going on here?' His mind raced to find an answer, he could never stand the unknown, especially in a battle.

Maria's head turned to look at the engulfing flames that surrounded the beast.

'What is she?' She wondered, her eyes glowing in a faint luster of gold.

Her <Racial Trait> had failed to work on the girl, and she couldn't see her Sacred Text, so it was quite clear the girl wasn't the same race as herself. The girl was definitely no human. Maybe it was just the work of a skill? She didn't know, however, it seemed trouble had decided to hold its end of the bargain.

She glanced at her brother as her soft voice echoed out, "Arthur."

He nodded, the two standing from their crouched position.

Curly quickly scrambled to speak, "you're leaving!? What about my companion!? What about Gray!?"

Maria's pinkish eye's traced over the body of the shuddering wolf, it's breathing having calmed down slightly, she spoke, "I've healed most of its internal injuries, and as long as you continue the treatment, it should awaken soon."

"Right now," Her eyes glazed onto the figure hidden amongst the azure flames.

"I've someone to knock unconscious."

Her right hand spread forwards as her eyes turned into daggers glares.

A golden light began to burn amidst her pupils, like holy flames, it engulfed her eyes.

"Radiance!" Her dragon's roar thundered into the arena.

A show of golden light began to manifest within the air, slowly, taking shape. The sword with its gold and silver hilt and its silver blade fanned by golden light made its presence known from nothingness as the air pulsed around it.

The same golden light formed around her body as her clothing began to change.

Her plain shirt transformed into one of dividends. A white vest that showed her shoulders and flapped open to reveal a breastplate of silver above an undershirt of white. The helm of her skirt flapped as a cloak extended at its back, connecting to the side guards of metallic silver luster. The frontal section of her skirt extended as well and made a breaching gap covered by a metallic guard.

Her bleached leather shoes transformed into a pair of white-with a metallic bottom-tennis like shoes. Extending from her footwear to the under region of her skirt, wrapping her legs fittingly, was black stockings to end the image. [Look at the cover image, I suck at detailed clothing explanations, if someone can do this for me better, be my guest, post it in the comment section, and I'll shout you out.]

Her eyes burning in its golden flames looked up as her metallic gauntlet fitted around the hilt of her blade.

She saw the flames of the beast finally centered onto its body. It kicked its feet against the ground as it began its charge, shaking the land with every step and cracking the floor in great damage.

It ran towards the person closest to its direct front, Rain.

Maria slightly crouched, her blade flickered to rest on her shoulder, and her left leg paced backwards of her right.

"You understand right?" She looked to her right to see the boy seating with fighting energy. "We need to incapacitate her. Not kill her, but knock her unconscious."

Balls of flames gently danced atop his right hand as he stood there in temped anticipation.

"Oh please," Arthur mumbled, "would my flames even work on her?"

Maria turned her head back towards the front and kicked off the ground.

The surroundings blurred and her figure traversed the space of the arena with precision, heading directly towards the charging beast.

In no time at all, she reached behind the boy as her free hand grasped the helm of his shirt, pulling him backwards, she swung her blade upwards.

The arm of the beast crashed down on her blade heavily. Its blackened fur blocking the advance of the sword.

A thundering blow issued the air with intensity.

She felt a heavy pressure crash into her body as her feet sunk into the ground and it gave way. Staring into the azure burning eyes of the beast, she knew this was going to be the hardest battle she had faced yet.

Her body was pushed back with the strength of the beast weighing atop her blade.

With gritted teeth and tired muscles, she forcefully pushed back with her sword. Her leg hooked upwards as she delivered a kick.

She felt the hard fur scrape against the metallic underside of her shoe as it's body propelled backwards.

However, the beast was seemingly quick-witted, its body flipped within the air and the soles of its furred feet grasped tightly against the floor.

It forcefully skittered to a stop, staggering slightly, it was back on its feet.

Maria immediately turned towards the boy by her side, "Get your blades!"

A small nod accompanied her command as he instantly shifted into a sprint towards his dropped blades.

The beats jaws opened up as the flames of Azure light churned within.

'This isn't good.' Maria thought as she immediately went into action.

"Manifestation!" Her voice echoed and the golden blades she was familiar with instantly sprung from nothingness with a glimmer of light.

"Shield!" She commanded once more as the blades whistled through the air.

The flames had already begun its path towards the sprinting boy but the speed of the blades was enough to catch up.

They gathered in a circular manner as they formed a glimmering defense at Rain's front.

A boom echoed, almost blasting him back, as the two came into contact. The attack of unyielding flames against the defense of swords.

The intense heat blasted against the makeshift shield as the azure blue light of flames sparked and clashed with the golden radiance.

Rain took this chance to push against the flames, his insides churning with heat and his body already perspiring with intense sweat, and he dashed towards his blades.

The continue spew of flames from the mouth of the beast did little to hinder his advance and served nothing else but a rise in temperature.

In the fastest possible time, he had grabbed hold of a weapon in each hand.

"Arthur!" He heard the yell of the girl not far away.

A single moment flashed by before he saw the figures hurling through the sky.

The crimson flames were formed into the shapes of spears as they glimmered through the sky in asunder's glare. The seven <Flame Spears> burned through the air and hurled towards the beast.

In but a moment, they each bombarded against the blackened fur of the stationary beast.

Sounds of small explosions withered through the sky.

Its body shuddered.

"I don't think this will work," Arthur appeared by the side of Maria as he spoke.

She gazed at the beast.

The flames had done no damage whatsoever, it's azure flames now converted its body in full force, and there wasn't a single trace of injury.

'Indeed, resistant to flames.'

Anger apparent in its eyes, and it found within it a newly awakened strength to charge towards Rain.

"Shouldn't we save him?" Arthur asked, questioning the stationary girl.

"Wait for it," Maria muttered.

"In a second, as soon as you see the beast's movement stop, I'll knock its head down towards the ground and stab my blades into its body to fully stop its movement" she began to talk as fast as possible "And you develop a <Fireball> big enough to crush it."

"How are you so sure its movement would stop?" The boy asked, puzzled.

"Watch," She smiled.

Grasping her blade.

Her body turned towards the beast as she charged towards it.

'Right on time.'

A figure silently appeared behind the beast, her charred clothing of white blue and her golden hair flapping with the wind churned by her movement.

The beast had nearly managed to knock her out with its first blast of flames resulting from its awakening, but she stood back up.

Ais grasped the blue hilt of her sword as its silver blade blurred into motion.

This time, she wasn't making slight attacks, she was going to stop its motion no matter what.

Facing the flames that covered its body, her blade passed right through.

<Elenor>, the blade gifted to her by that man was not made of mere iron.

She used the full force of her A rank strength as her sword stabbed into its legs, cutting into its tendons.

A gaping hole of blood appearing in and going through each knee.

With a howl of pain, it drew its arms backwards as its fist managed to find contact with Ais's figure in time.

A bellow of pain was sent from her stomach into her body as she flung away.

She tumbled across the arena.

Maria watched as the beast began to stagger down, one of its knees upon the ground. She could feel the heat of Arthur's magic rising behind her, she wasn't taking any chances.

"Rain, pin it down!"

Hearing that voice, the boy immediately moved into action, running towards the beast. His body flipped over its body, reaching its back, he grasped his two blades and stabbed down.

Each blade entered to each side of its fur-covered shoulder, its loud wail of pain echoed through Rain's drums as he forcefully pushed the body downwards.

His dauntless blades passed through the innards of the beast, came out of the other side dripping in blood, and stabbed into the floor.

Just in time, he saw the golden swords that had once shielded him in their defense fly through the air, glimmering in their light and hovered above the beast in rotation.

Finally, each one came down and once again, it managed a wail of pain as the blades crudely pinned it down.

Maria directly ran past his figure as she raced towards her knight.

"Run!" A yell reached his ears.

Rain looked up to see the burning figure of a sun overshadowing all their presence. It's reddish hue burning the atmosphere, almost encompassing the arena.

He could see Arthur already standing aways from its presence, already outside of the arena, his breathing rough and sweat riddling his body. It looked as if he had poured all his mana into that spell.

'Holy...'

Rain immediately turned tail as he booked towards the side of the arena.

BOOM!

Not a second after he jumped from the edge of the arena, a boom echoed behind him as his body flung away.

The air ripped behind him and a wave of fiendishly hot hazardous crimson glaring air propelled Rain out of the arena.

His figure slammed into the outside ground in a heavy pound.

The flames poured onto the entire arena above his laid figure before slowly dying out.

His legs struggled to stand and his lungs struggled just the same to cough out the air within. He felt his back and felt he did a portion of his skin burnt, there were traces of blood leaking from the area in which his charred shirt was of no more protection. He would have to get healed.

He walked at a slow pace, staggered slightly, towards the edge of the arena as his eyes wandered around.

The area was still a small blazing area of fire, however, within that flames was the laying figure of that beast. It's azure flames that covered its body where beginning to die out as it sparked off and on.

However, that figure released a low growl that seemed to wail into the air.

Rain was in disbelief as he saw the beasts dark blue flame finally spark into full heat before its body began to rise and its step quivered. It forced itself up, with the two blackened swords nailed into its shoulder, dripping blood from the wound.

How the heck could it take the full force of that blow and still come out awake, much less living? Rain didn't think he would have been able to fully survive that blow if he had taken it, and he wasn't much in the mood to find out. Currently, he was tired beyond anything.

However, just as the beast began to snakingly stand, out of the corner of his eyes, Rain saw another figure.

"Finally..." he sighed as he allowed his body to fall back onto the floor in rest.

Every step the man took was in no haste and there seemed to be a smile playing onto his lips as he walked through the blazing floor of the arena unharmed.

"I was pleasantly surprised at your teamwork, you did better than I could have imagined," O'Brien commented as his voice echoed.

"However, never leave a battle before it's fully over."

With that small comment, his figure disappeared.

He appeared at the beast's front, his hand grasped tightly onto its head as it wailed with the force behind his grip, it's blazing crimson eyes of azure light trickling blood from the pressure on its head.

"The soul of the Hell Hound? You must be the result of that experiment aren't you?" He asked, particularly towards the beast.

"When I had first heard that they had tried to create a killing machine by bonding a human with a beast's soul, I had scoffed at the idea. Inserting the demonic beast core of an Emperor Grade beast into the body of a human seemed highly unlikely. But it seems they had found a way, or maybe your body was just special in its own right."

"I can imagine the torture you must have faced and can see why you would want revenge so dreadfully." He nodded.

"However, you are far too impulsive when you can't even control your own strength!"

He took a step forwards as his hand dived downwards.

Bang!

The land shook.

The body of the beast concaved into the floor as a rumble of sound echoed and a deep imprint appeared onto the arena's floor.

***

She was chained down, her body hanging within the air, cold against the metallic bindings. Her hair fell down with her lowered head and her crimson eyes barely shining through.

She knew where she was, this place was exceedingly familiar. Staring at that towering figure in front of her, that blazing hellhound that had escaped its mental chains, she knew she was within the access point of her cursed blood, the control center of her power, the thing that drove the state of her mind.

Her head swerved to turn and look; six chains of silver white hanging from nothing entangled her in the air. Rattling with every small movement she made, echoing within the realm.

She knew.

This was her Soul Sanctuary, and those chains were the Chains of Restrictions she had placed onto the soul of the beast.

She stared into the blazing eyes of the beast in front of her, even as she hung within the air, its head was able to effortlessly reach her eye level. Her blood ran cold looking at those blazing azure eyes.

"We meet again, Ashe." Its voice echoed into her soul, rumbling the blackened space, and sending a shiver down her spine.

It was after all an Emperor Grade demonic beast; it knew how to speak when it wanted to.

"Why did you attack them? Why did you erode my mind?" She asked as her eyes narrowed.

"Can I not?" Its voice trailed "After all, your people did slaughter me kindly. There I sat, overlooking the dungeon I called my kingdom, a king above all. However, your people wholeheartedly climbed the tower to slay me. Thankfully though, I took most of their numbers with me."

Her eyes narrowed as she bitterly sneered, "I am not one of them."

"Not anymore." Its head shook.

There was a moment of silence before she found her wits as her voice hoarsely spoke, "You promised me I could have full reign till I took our revenge. You need me to travel unnoticed in the human realm."

Its eyes narrowed, silent for a moment, before its mawed jaws finally opened.

"My time is up, it's time to switch control." It didn't respond as she intended.

She stared into its eyes, "you lost against them didn't you?"

Somehow she could feel it, it would have much more spunk otherwise.

"I had a chance to stretch, not fully a battle, but it seems my power has weakened considerably since last. You have learned to control your bloodlust somewhat I see. I could hardly use one-fifth of my ability and my power to recognize and speak your language beyond this realm had been extremely lowered." It dismissed the comment, seeming to blame her in an oddly natural way.

"I had to," she replied, her voice tinged with coldness.

Unless she was to allow herself to become an unstoppable killing machine like they had planned, she had to control her emotions at every step when necessary. Unless she was to allow it to take control of her body in full and break its chains, she had to control herself. Which in turn, would weaken its power even if it were to break free; to the point that, if she were to lock away her full emotion, it would lose all its power unless she unlocked it back. After all, a demonic beasts strength came from both their inherent bloodline and the emotions of their vessel; if locked away, it was nothing more than a slightly stronger animal.

However, hearing that name today, and reminiscing about her past, it would seem she had somewhat allowed a ripple in her thoughts.

"How long as it been since we bonded, three years and you still can't control my power?" It asked.

"You want me to control the full powers of an Emperor Grade demonic beast? Won't my mind break in response if I use your full strength without your soul in charge?" She asked back.

Again, its eyes narrowed.

"I'll be bound by the chains, you will be set free." It finally acclaimed.

"Until we meet again." Its voice echoed.

Currently, she had no control over who was in charge, she was only its vessel. Once it had broken free, it would be in charge till it said otherwise. However, there was a limit.

There were two ways she could regain control; once it had its fill of battle and rampage and willingly goes back to trade places; then she would be in charge. Or, once the body had been knocked unconscious; the control would be forcefully transferred no matter which side had a say at which time.

She had learned to cope with this setup.

"Fine," She replied with force.

Just as she said so, the chains began to descend as they loosened off of her body in a rattle. Slowly, her feet found contact with the hard cold blackened floor, reminiscent of marble.

She stood up, looked at the beast in front as the chains began to wrap around its bulky body. Wrapped around its heightened neck, wrapped and bound its four blackened legs, bind its body, and finally coiled around its tail that burned at an end in blue flames. Wrapped around its jaws as they tightened and forcefully came to a close

The two stared at each other before Ashe finally opened her lips.

"Until we meet again."

It gave a small nod, the most the chains would allow it to.