Kurou's POV
As me, Saniki, Saika and Gasseth walked up to the castle, we wondered just how the hell we would be able to get inside, we certainly weren't nobles like Kaiza, let alone royalty, but considering his sister was in danger, perhaps if I told them that, they would let me in. It was risky, after all, they didn't even know how I knew Kaiza or Edakura, but if it got Kaiza to come right to us, the chance was worth it. So I walked up to the castle, preparing to tell the nearest guard I could of the news until suddenly, what looked like soldiers seemed to be walking out of the castle, with a familiar figure seeming to lead them.
"Kaiza!" I yelled to him, running toward him, knowing he was the only one that could help me. He turned to look at me as did the other soldiers who ended up pointing their swords at me. It didn't seem like my plan to reach him worked out too well, but they backed off when Kaiza ordered them to move away, saying that he knew me as his protégé. I rolled my eyes at his comments, used to them already, but appreciating that he tried to give me leeway. In a way, I felt like he was trying to protect me. He had as many hidden secrets as Edakura did, which might've been the only thing he had in common to his sister.
However, that was besides the point, now was the time to show him what was going on "Kaiza, we need to talk, now." I told him as I took out the piece of ripped cloth from Edakura's cloak. Kaiza's eyes had widened in shock upon seeing it and he'd quickly appear in front of me in speed I couldn't follow before taking the piece of cloth from me. He looked at his spear, strangely enough, narrowed eyes at the crystal on the opposite end of the spear, which confused me. I didn't really understand what was so special about it, but looking at it only seemed to make Kaiza angry.
"Where… did you find this cloth…?" Kaiza asked, his eyes seeming as if they were overflowing with rage, I told him about how I found it after leaving Xenona's realm to find Edakura, and he looked ready to scream out before suddenly composing himself, probably not wanting to embarrass himself in front of his men. Kaiza would then look at me, rage still in his eyes, but less worse than before. "Come with me," he said after dismissing his men, and I would nod, beginning to walk with him, wondering just where we were going anyway. Somehow, I had the feeling Kaiza was angry with me, but I didn't care as long as he just helped me save Edakura.
Kaiza started to lead us inside of the castle, and we followed along behind him… well, almost all of us. I looked back at Gasseth who had turned around and started to walk away. "Gasseth?" I called out to her, and she stopped, looking back at me, her eyes narrowed and looking angry. I didn't really know what to say to her since she wasn't part of our group and didn't seem to want to do anything with me. We were just people heading to the same destination, so she really didn't have any reason to be with me. "..." my silence only encouraged her to continue walking away without another word, and I could only watch her disappear down the stairs of the castle and into the village below.
I sighed, then looked back at Kaiza, who would still be walking and we'd all catch up and continued following him, we would walk up the stairs and would then head down a hall to the left. By the time we had stopped walking, we made it to what seemed like a large room, a bedroom, and definitely a fancy looking one, I assumed this was Kaiza's room considering the entire room was a dark brown. Kaiza would walk toward the bed and would sit on it, with his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed, looking at me Saniki and Saika, then mainly back at me, I waited for Kaiza to say something, to scream at me, point his spear at me, anything, but he didn't do any of those things and remained silent, I wondered why.
Kaiza would start to narrow his eyes more at me, I could tell that his eyes were filled with rage and worry "Start talking, now." Kaiza demanded, and I would nod before explaining how I found the piece of cloth after I left Xenona's realm, and what I thought might've happened to her. Kaiza would just grit his teeth, seeming to try to hold back his rage again "Damn it...so it's them again…" Kaiza said angrily under his breath. I would raise an eyebrow, wondering who he meant by them, he noticed my confusion and looked back at me "Listen, I know I asked you to protect your mother, but this, this is out of your hands, you must leave." he told me.
I looked at him in shock, leave after vowing to protect her, to stay true to the promise he gave to me, there was no way I could do that, no way in hell! "What do you mean leave!? I can't just leave Edakura like tha-!!" I said in anger that he would even suggest me not doing anything, but he sharply cut me off.
"YOU DON'T HAVE A CHOICE!!!" he screamed at me, the contrast from his normally calm and caring voice surprising me "You're too weak to fight them, they are much bigger than you know, and if you try to oppose them, you will die! This is not something you can win!" he said, clearly urging me to not get involved, and I could feel rage beginning to swell up inside me, but I tried to push it back. Kaiza ran his hand through his hair before pointing to the door, not even turning his head to look at me. I couldn't imagine the pain he was going through since Edakura was pretty important to him too, but the way he acted was childish. "I'll handle this myself. Go back home." he said, looking back at me with blank eyes, void of any sort of emotion.
My eyes were covered by my hair in rage, after travelling all the way here to ask for his help, he just expected me to leave, there was no chance of that happening, I didn't care what happened to me. I glared at him "No." I told him angrily, Kaiza suddenly grabbed his spear angrily and pointed it at me.
"Last chance, leave now." he said with a hint of rage in his voice, I would summon my spirit weapon and in a burst of surprising strength, I swung my sword actually knocking it out of his hands. But it didn't seem that Kaiza was done, sending a roundhouse kick which knocked my sword out of my hands. His anger was real, and I could feel the intent of breaking my hands for a moment when his leg made contact. "I'll make you leave by force if I have to, brat. Get out of her life if you know what's good for you. Or you'll end up like the other cambions."
"Then I guess you'll have to make me leave then, because there's no way I'm abandoning Edakura!" I said as I summoned my spirit weapon back into my hand, not noticing the gauntlets and greaves appearing on my body again, like in the fight with Rheasio. Kaiza would just grit his teeth.
"Then don't say I didn't warn you!!" he screamed out, rushing toward me while covered in a torrent of wind, I'd rush back at him while covered in flames and slammed back into him, a maelstrom of magic and demonic energy being created throughout the area, destroying the windows. Kaiza would slash his spear at me with great force, the spear slamming into my sword and sending me flying through the halls, but I would quickly stop myself on my feet and would rush at Kaiza again. Guards rushed to stop us, but Kaiza only held up his arm, halting them in their tracks. "This is between us, leave us!" he said, piercing his spear at me.
I would strafe to the side, feeling my cheek getting grazed a bit as his spear pierced toward me; however, I would then slash down toward him, sending a gigantic ark of flames rushing right toward Kaiza at point blank. I expected it to hit, but the unthinkable happened where the flames split and went around him like he was being protected by some sort of barrier. It was at the last second that I noticed he was sending his spear through the middle of my ark of flames, cutting them perfectly which seemed to split them and direct the attack towards another direction. "Your power is weak to someone with experience," Kaiza spat, standing in front of me.
"Then I'll just have to try harder!" I yelled, covering my spirit weapon in green flames and beginning to slash hard and fast at him; however, he just seemed to dodge each of my slashes as if it was nothing. Gritting my teeth, I would then cover my entire arm in flames, converting it into a spike shape before turning it to crystal, and I'd rush toward him with the spike pointed toward him. Kaiza smirked, obviously mocking me as he leaped out the window to avoid my attack. "Coward!" I yelled down at him angrily, seeing him stand in the open space down below that was the garden.
I would jump out of the window as well, heading down toward him with the spike pointed right towards him, however, he'd jump back as I crashed into the ground, creating a large crater in the ground with my crystal spike. There was a large cloud of smoke, however, I just rushed out toward it with the crystal spike still intact, my entire body covered in flames and my speed being augmented greatly by the flames as I rushed toward him. "Shatter," he said in a demonic voice, his body being covered by a black and red armor set, and his spear being changed into a sword. It was almost like- no, it was the exact same technique that Edakura had taught me. Letting a demon change into armor… and the demon Kaiza had was almost scarily powerful.
Despite this, I would continue rushing towards Kaiza while engulfing myself in even more green flames, I would unsheathe Rhienzan as I rushed toward him as well, unleashing violent purple electricity that swirled around the torrent of flames surrounding my body, supercharging the power of the hellfire around me. I would be shocked when as I slammed into him, he'd be knocked back hard, but the magic all around me would suddenly vanish into thin air, I would quickly slam my feet into the ground, skidding across the ground until I was a good distance away from Kaiza, I would glare at him "What the hell did you do Kaiza!?" I demanded as I stood across from him. Kaiza didn't answer me, just giving me a cocky smirk, pointing his sword at me in some sort of weird stance.
I would just grit my teeth and I would hold out my hand "Xhanaru!!" I yelled out, summoning my soul weapon and his tsurugi sword would appear in my hand, freezing flames appearing all over my body and they would cover my entire body before becoming a dark blue set of armor all across my body. "Try and negate this!!" I would yell as I swung down my Tsurugi sword, sending a gigantic ark of freezing flames rushing toward Kaiza. Kaiza narrowed his eyes at me and slashed his sword, sending a counter slash that crashed into my ark. They ended up slamming into each other, countering each other and leaving nothing but the trail of ripped up and ice filled terrain.
"This is the difference in our power level, kid," Kaiza said, returning to normal, holding his spear in his hand, but it was definitely more dangerous than the sword he had earlier. "You may have his blood, but I'm… the stronger Cambion," he said, shocking me to hear that Kaiza himself was also a cambion. I was caught off guard as he just became a blur of brown, my blade barely blocking the attack from his spear, but that wasn't all. I skidded back, feeling some sort of wind pressure from Kaiza that was likely the reason why he was able to move around so fast and give strong attacks. It was like a torrent of air as strong as a hurricane or tornado that swirled around him, pushing all his enemies and foes back. His defense was another reminder of Edakura and how she taught me how to use my flames in the same manner.
Despite the wind pushing me back, I would try my hardest to keep myself mounted to the ground, as I stood, I would summon my spaulder created from Xhanaru's energy, freezing flames blasting back fiercely from the spaulder. The force of the flames blasting wildly from my spaulder allowed me to propel toward Kaiza at high speed, covering my entire tsurugi sword in a gigantic inferno of flames as I rushed at Kaiza, dashing throughout the tornado of wind defiantly. The wind around Kaiza suddenly disappeared, but when he sent his spear towards me, I could see the wind swirling around the engraved markings on the spear, making it spin.
When I got close enough, the tips of my tsurugi sword and Kaiza's spear would clash, and I would grit my teeth as I struggled to push Kaiza back, the dark blue freezing flames around me continuously growing in size as I did. The winds around Kaiza's spear only seemed to create a beast with the way the air moved through the engravings, swirling around in different directions. I could tell that his spear was harder to beat because of the way the wind moved between the lines, but it was probably hard to control too.
I would just keep pushing on, the ice flames getting so cold and so powerful that they began to form into a gigantic dragon-like shape against the beast of wind before me. I would even add my own emerald green hellfire to the mix, the hellfire swirling around the dragon as I did and boosting the power of the ice cold flame dragon incredibly. Kaiza didn't seem too fazed by my attack, however, and ended up leaping above the dragon, smash kicking it to pieces, much to my shock. Physically strong, mentally strong, had the ability to negate magic attacks and could run fast: he was like a cheap, invincible, unbeatable boss from some video game.
I would jump back as the dragon was smashed completely into pieces, angry that the attack hadn't worked, no, angry wasn't enough to describe how I felt, I was enraged, no matter what I did, Kaiza was right, I was too weak, and I was sick of it, sick of my weakness, sick of my losing the people I loved, I was sick of it all. As my mind swelled with rage, the green flames around me began to become a darker tint, and my eyes would glow red, and at that moment, I would let out an inhuman roar as a pillar of dark green flames rushed around my body, continuously rising high into the air constantly growing in size. My skin became darker, red streaks began to cover my clothes and hair, and the tint of my green clothes and hair had turned darker, not only that, but horns, actual demon horns rose from my head, when the flames cleared, I was looking at Kaiza with a look of dark rage, my teeth sharper and grit as I looked at him.
Suddenly, my nose was grabbed, and Kaiza was up in my face, having an annoyed look in his eyes. "If you turn into a demon here, we'll both be thrown in prison. Calm yourself you brat," he hissed to me, his eyes darting around, looking around for something or someone, probably watching out to make sure that nobody was watching us.
"GET OFF ME!!!" I screamed, slashing at Kaiza very hard, actually sending him flying and crashing into the wall, at least for once, I breathed heavily after that… gaining some type of control over my current state of mind now, I was still angry, but not wildly angry like before anymore.
Kaiza didn't seem to be fazed or affected, until I saw the cut across his cheek, blood oozing out of it. The aura he released afterwards was much scarier than what Edakura produced, but I didn't let it get to me, continuing to glare at him as he glared back at me. "You don't understand, do you?" Kaiza said, pointing his spear at me, his yellow eyes glowing the same way that Edakura's red eyes would at times. "What you're going up against is way out of your league. You wouldn't stand a chance the moment you step into that building where she is."
My eyes just simply narrowed at Kaiza, still glaring at him despite his warning "After everything I've been through, how much I've had to struggle, had to suffer, do you really think I care about that? If they're out of my league, then I'll just get stronger, if they beat me down, I'll just keep getting back up, it's better to do that than just sit around while Edakura is dying!" I said angrily. I then looked down "Maybe I am just being some foolish brat like you say, but if I just stand here and do nothing, I would never be able to forgive myself, so forget it, I won't stay." I said defiantly, not planning to waver from my decision in the slightest. Edakura was the only one who ever bothered to give a damn about me, to protect me, now this time, it's my turn to protect her.
Kaiza suddenly became a blur as wind surrounded him, swirling around like a massive tornado, but much stronger. It was almost like a condensed super tornado, but for some reason, it was only sucking me in, just like how Edakura used her flames but only hit her targets while passing through everything else unharmed. I turned around, expecting Kaiza to have taken advantage and sneak up on me, but it was the opposite. Kaiza was still in the tornado and ended up hitting me in the back of the neck. The last thing I saw was a yellow blur slamming Kaiza into the ground, and before I hit the ground, something warm and familiar caught me. I looked up, unable to make out the face, but I felt safe, and let myself drift off into nothingness.