Apollo charged his fire energy to the point where everything around him began to melt. He was producing godly levels of heat.
Akasan had a blue aura around him. He zipped to Apollo. They traded blows for a few seconds.
Apollo grinned. "You can't hurt me!! My heat far outmatches yours!"
Akasan extended his palm to Apollo's chest. A blue burst of energy emitted from his hand, pushing Apollo away. "I doubt that."
Jive jumped in, and kicked Apollo into the ground with the back of his heel. Purple energy burst out and spread.
Apollo was unharmed.
Owl quickly followed up Jive's attack with his own. "Zero Wing Attack!" He swung his arm.
A sharp cut of energy sliced through the ground as Apollo swiftly dodged to the side.
Apollo recovered mid air and got himself centered, but before he could fully regain his composure, Akasan was running towards him, covered in Sirius energy and bright blue lightning. He created his Kuroba in his hand. "Kuroba: Sirius Shock!!"
Akasan swung his sword, hitting Apollo with a burst of Sirius energy along with a shockwave of lightning. The pressure rocketed him far into the sky.
Owl suddenly switched places with Apollo. "Switch!"
Owl started gliding back with his burnt-orange colored wings.
As soon as Apollo realized what had happened, still feeling the effects of Akasan's Kuroba, Jive was on his side with his fist balled up, "Illusion Art: Double Fist!!"
Apollo got punched in the face. As he flew off from the punch, he felt the force of another punch to the face that was twice as hard.
Owl looked at him. "Switch!" He switched places with Apollo again.
Akasan landed on Apollo's back. With pure physical strength, he threw a punch into his back as hard as he could, adding crimson fire to the punch for extra damage.
The attack put Apollo deep into the ground with a crash.
Everyone surrounded the hole, waiting on Apollo.
Apollo soon rose up, not a single scratch on his flawless body. He sent out a shockwave that pushed everyone back.
"Apparently you lowlifes don't understand just how weak and insignificant you all are. Allow me to showcase the one and only, True Flame."
Apollo raised both of his hands. A bright yellow star formed. It was enormous. As Apollo flew higher into the sky, the star's diameter reached out over the entirety of Diamond City. The glow of the star began to shine so brightly that no one could even see their own hand in front of their face. "Capella."
Akasan squinted his eyes, as he couldn't see a thing. "Aren't... you the king of this country?! Are you really trying to kill your own people?!!"
Apollo grinned. "People? These aren't my people. I'm a god. My people exist in the Holy Realm. In this realm the only person I ever cared about, is dead."
Akasan balled his fists. He couldn't understand the problems of gods. He didn't see the gap Apollo could see between the two of them. But as the shroud of black-purple enveloped his body, and as his eyes turned a deep violet, he looked up at Apollo, his eyes negating the excess light entering his vision, and he could only see two men.
Two men with differing backgrounds.
Two men of differing races.
Two men with differing points of view.
Two men, who bleed the same color.
Akasan jumped, rocketing into the sky towards Apollo.
Apollo, with a twisted grin on his face, intensified his attack. "Don't think someone like you can stand against me! I am the God Apollo, the one who possess the True Flame!! The origin of all fire!! My flame is as old as the universe itself!!" He let his star slowly descend to the ground.
The heat from the star caused buildings near it to melt. Even the air was being sucked dry by it.
Akasan reached his hand out to Apollo's Capella. As his glowing right arm entered the star, Akasan's darkness enveloped the entire thing, swallowing it whole.
The sky became visible once again, as Owl and Jive re-opened their eyes.
Apollo outstretched his hand to further feed his star. "I refuse to allow my Capella to be destroyed by the likes of you!!"
Akasan's right eye went from violet to the red Eye of Destruction. A brief red shockwave burst through the entire star and shattered it into hundreds of thousands of black shards.
Apollo looked down at Akasan with a mixture of disgust and frustration on his face. He then relaxed, holding both of his hands up at his sides. In one hand, was a bright yellow fireball, the True Flame. In the other hand was a golden fireball, the Godflame.
Akasan's black purple energy subsided, and he returned to his Crimson Fire. His Eye of Destruction glowed a fierce red, and energized his attacks.
Apollo started moving consistently at speeds faster than light. Akasan could barely track him with his eyes.
Apollo punched Akasan in his back, sending him back to the street.
Owl and Jive rushed Apollo at once, and they were both far too slow for Apollo. He flashed between the two thousands of times in a single second, delivering hundreds of blows to the both of them. A golden shockwave burst out, and Owl and Jive were knocked nearly unconscious immediately.
Akasan got up from the ground and ran at Apollo once more. Apollo went after him and punched him in his stomach. Akasan coughed up blood and doubled over on his knees. He felt his insides being burned up by Apollo's fire.
Apollo looked down on him and smiled. "Did you think you had a chance? You should have just let my Capella burn you all to death."
Akasan slowly stood up. His crimson fire aura doubled in size. "There's nothing... that I can't burn!" He lunged in for a punch, but was blocked and countered by a kick to the chin.
Apollo chuckled. "That might be true if you had some more training, but your energy nor your speed is on my level."
Akasan got up again. His crimson flame dispersed as he returned to base form. Then the markings on his arm glowed blue with Sirius energy.
Apollo started walking towards him. "Seems like you don't even know what energy to use anymore. How many times are you going to switch before you decide?"
Akasan closed his eyes. Wisps of Sirius energy slowly wafted from his body.
Apollo ran at Akasan, about to kick him in his head.
Akasan felt the energy coming, and ducked before he could be hit. He tried countering but Apollo dodged. Akasan returned to a neutral position.
Apollo jumped back a few feet. "Did he just react to my speed? No, he should be barely above the sound barrier."
Apollo attacked Akasan some more, this time with a flurry of attacks at faster than light speeds.
Akasan effortlessly dodged every blow with his eyes still closed. He quickly caught Apollo off guard with a roundhouse kick to the jaw.
thwack!
Apollo slid back. There was a bruise on his face from the blow. He touched it. "Don't tell me... that you've grasped the Sixth Sense already?!"
Essentially, what the Sixth Sense is, it's a way of feeling where your opponent is based off of the signature of energy that they give off. One of the Laws of Energy as discovered by The Sorcerer Amun himself, is that energy can not travel slower than its host. What that means is if Apollo moves at light speed, than so does his energy. No matter what happens, with no exceptions, Apollo's energy will always reach its target before he does. Akasan can use his Sixth Sense to react to that energy even if he can not physically see him. This makes up for Akasan's lack of speed.
Akasan opened his eyes. His right eye held the Eye of Destruction and his left eye held the Eye of Creation.
Apollo combined his two flames together to create... The Holy Flame. It was a bright, white-gold flame that enveloped Apollo's body. He darted towards Akasan.
Akasan jumped and weaved around all of Apollo's attacks. He then fueled a punch with Sirius energy to hit him on his face.
Apollo grit his teeth. "How annoying...!!"
At this moment Owl and Jive finally came to.
Owl nodded at Akasan. He nodded back.
Jive's goggles started glowing once more. He began making several thousand clones. They all gathered around Apollo, blocking the majority of his vision.
Apollo was hit multiple times in his torso and face, but he couldn't catch the invisible Jive.
Apollo shot his flames every which way. "Argh!! Show yourself you coward!!" Afterwards he was knocked again from behind.
Suddenly Owl was in Apollo's vicinity. He flapped both of his wings at once, sending a massive blast of wind and orange-colored energy straight for him. "One Hundred Zero Attack!"
Apollo braced himself. The wind made shallow cuts all over his body. He bled from the arms, chest, legs, face, back, everywhere.
After the torture ended, Apollo moved towards Owl at light speed, fist full of his Holy Flame, ready to kill.
Akasan jumped high into the air behind Apollo. He was generating a Sirius Star.
Apollo noticed this and quickly spun around. He held his hand out, ready to counter him.
Owl's sight narrowed in on Akasan and they immediately swapped places.
Apollo realized what happened. But he didn't get the chance to recover.
Akasan forced the large blue star into his back. "Full Power!! Sirius Star!!"
Apollo screamed out in pain as the Sirius Star's heat overwhelmed the aura of the Holy Flame. Apollo was shot into the air from the impact as a blue explosion broke out. The ground shook from its pressure.
After some seconds, Apollo's body fell out of the sky and hit the ground.
Jive walked up to him. "After all this time working under you... you finally met your end."
Apollo's body was all charred up. He slowly stood up and pointed his finger at Jive's head. He then lowered it to his chest. "I'm taking one of you to the grave with me. Sun Bullet."
Apollo shot out a high-powered bullet of Holy Flame.
The bullet passed through Jive, who used a clone to avoid getting hit. But Akasan, who didn't have any energy left, didn't react in time to the bullet that shot through his chest. He fell back, unmoving.
Jive turned around. "Akasan!!"
A pool of blood formed from underneath Akasan.
Apollo smiled as he fell to his back.
Owl checked him for a pulse. "He's still breathing, but his heartbeat is weakening. Luckily Apollo missed his heart." He picked him up. "Where's the nearest hospital that's still intact?"
Jive started running. "This way! Follow me!"
Owl rushed to get Akasan to a hospital. After a half hour of running, they got to a hospital and ran though the doors.
All of the doctors and nurses working stopped to stare at them.
"Someone! Anyone! Help me! This man is dying, he needs medical attention!" Owl yelled.
The workers backed up. "D-D-Demihumans..." Some of them ran away in fear. The others simply refused to help.
The doctor in front was the first to talk. "L-Leave!! We don't serve animals here!!"
Owl couldn't believe it. After everything they'd just done, after everything Akasan had done, they couldn't do anything about the citizen's minds.
Demihumans were hated.
Jive got mad. "So none of you will help him?! I'm human, and so is this man who needs help! I was an Enforcer of this city!! Served directly under the king! And you won't do anything because a demihuman is with us?!"
More people ran and hid.
"Tch! Worthless!" Jive exclaimed.
Suddenly, Akasan got out of Owl's arms. Too fast for him to notice him move.
"Akasan?" Owl asked.
The hole in his chest was gone. But the look on his face was different. Both of his eyes were glowing purple. His expression could be described as bored, or unbothered. He slowly walked towards the nurses. His voice sounded different as well.
"You're exactly right. Worthless." He walked up to the doctor who refused to serve them.
Everyone in the building immediately hit the floor, including Owl and Jive. Akasan was using his spiritual pressure. He put his foot on the doctor's face. "That's right. Grovel on the ground like the filth you are. How dare you leave my brother to die. I should kill you now." He looked up and scowled at the other nurses, "All of you."
Owl got onto one knee. "Akasan.. .stop this..."
Akasan turned around to look at Owl. "I am not Akasan. I'm simply projecting myself through his body. You have my thanks for looking after him. But if you talk again I will kill you too." He strengthened the pressure and Owl fell to the floor again.
The person using Akasan's body pushed his foot into the doctor's face some more. "Listen closely, scum of the earth. Get along. The demihumans are perfectly human just like you bastards. Treat them like they are, or I'll come back to kill you. And that goes for everyone here. Spread the word. Got it?"
Everyone nodded in unison.
He took his foot off of the doctor and looked at his hands. "Akasan. Your body is still far from perfect. It's so... childish. I feel like an infant."
He looked back at Owl. "Hey. This kid's gonna faint again."
Akasan's eyes went normal and he fell out. The spiritual pressure lifted.
Owl quickly got up and caught him.
Jive got up too. "What... or who, was that?"
Owl shook his head. "No idea."
--
Lazuli and Usagi were about to fall asleep in the alley until they saw Owl and Jive walking back towards them. They hurried up and ran towards them.
Akasan was out on Owl's back. He laid him gently on the ground.
"Is he okay?" Usagi asked.
Owl looked away. "Oh he's okay alright. Before we left one of the nurses volunteered to have a look at him. She said it's likely that he'll be out for another few days, so we should get him somewhere he can rest."
Jive walked up to Lazuli. "Apollo is gone, it'll only be a matter of time before everyone realizes. We need someone to assume the throne when that happens. Will it be you?"
Lazuli was surprised, "Me?" She waved her hand, "No, not at all. Though I have the perfect leader in mind."
Jive raised his eyebrows. "Is that so? Um, okay. Well, until then, I'm out of a job."
Owl walked towards them. "Well first something has to be done about the destruction downtown."
Lazuli nodded. "Construction work it is then."
Usagi shied away from the group, feeling like she didn't belong.
Lazuli elbowed her in the side. "What about you? You'll join too right?"
Usagi got flustered. "Wha? M-Me?! No, I couldn't! I'm not nearly as strong as you guys..."
Lazuli looked at her mildly puzzled. "Strong? Who cares, you're one of us too aren't you? I asked if you were joining."
Tears welled up in Usagi's eyes. "A-Ah, w-well... maybe... I can be of some use."
Jive nodded. "That settles it. I'll have to start training harder than ever."
Owl frowned. "Train? We just got done fighting. Why train more?"
Jive moved his goggles to his forehead. His eye color was purple. "Next time I fight with Akasan, I want to be his equal. Fighting you guys was pretty fun."
Lazuli pointed her Hellcat at Jive. "Akasan is mine. There'll be no one more equal than me. And the next time I fight you, I'll make you my pet." She smirked.
Jive stepped back. "Huh? Wait, that's not what I meant!" They started arguing.
Owl sighed and walked away. He smoked a cigarette and blew out a cloud of smoke. "Get it together already."
- End of Volume 3 -