"I don't care how my dad died, Prince…" Ryker's voice was deadpan as a lifeless melancholy pervaded his gaze. "I know how he died, I know what he did before he died and I know every gruesome detail behind his horrific death."
"W-what?" Chills ran up Hera's spine.
Deranged was the only way to describe Prince's face. He licked his lips as he ogled Hera for a second whilst Ryker spoke.
A light, cool breeze blew in the chaos infested city streets as flashes of red and blue erupted all over the ensuing battle behind the oldest Itsuka twin. A bloody firework show.
"I know. I know everything about his death. . because I'm the one who killed him. I'm the one who murdered my father three times before he finally stayed dead!" Ryker croaked, doing his damned best to fight back the tears now streaming down his face.
"W-what?" Shocked, Hera's magic suddenly dissipates. "R-Ryker, why didn't you-"
"I'm aware of this fact." The Prince interrupted. "I know that Ryker Itsuka stabbed his father in the heart, snapped his neck and blew him away with wind magic!" Enjoyment infected Prince's expression upon seeing Ryker's look of despair. A creepy giggle left his throat.
"Well Ryker, you and Kiyoshi are the only people who have actually murdered someone. Outside of self defense of course. How was it? I must know what it was like for such a kind and concealed person such as yourself!" The only thing that beat Prince's anticipation was Hera's growing discomfort.
Her face during this time had shifted from fear to confusion and then anger. She couldn't stand the presence of the Prince and felt rage building at her lack of knowledge.
"What? Kiyoshi? Kiyoshi hasn't killed anybody before. I'd know if he-"
"Just like you'd know if Yurie spent more time at the hospital than she did at school?" The Prince snapped, aware that his revelations would cut deeper than any knife. "Maybe you'd know that Yui cried more for her sister than she did for you. How about Yurie also falling into a short coma after her little stunt to help Yasu?" Prince had gotten right up in Ryker's face, his fiendish eyes scanning him.
"What are you talking about?!" His overwhelming despair suddenly laced with frustration as the Prince intruded on Ryker's space.
"Maybe you'd know why Yuuta killed Ethan? Maybe you'd finally have the balls to bring your beloved back and stop acting like you're doing her a favor? How about, figuring out by now that Yasu had no idea that Yuuta had died until hours before your reawakening? Surely, it couldn't be a coincidence right?" Prince's insane stare turned back to the frozen Ice Witch. His eyes narrowed on her own as he spoke.
"Maybe, just maybe your best friend was feeling so lonely in this world without you to entertain her every wish that she had to go and spill her guts out to Yasu. Pretty pathetic right? I thought Hera was a perfect person, you couldn't get any closer than her but then. . .I watched her at the Kenshi residence and I almost considered offing her right there!" His disappointment shone through as he spoke.
"H-huh? You were watching-" Hera shuddered at this.
"Of course I was watching you. I've been watching you for the last 2 months, Mizuki. I've been watching you and Yurie duke it out every day waiting for something to happen. You two hate each other so much despite hiding it so well. I really just can't seem to understand how you pull off hiding your emotions so well. It appalls me." His smile shifted disturbingly in his mania.
"I-I didn't mean to h-hurt him like that!"
"Seriously?" He scoffed. "You think it's your fault for not telling him? It is your fault indeed but you know who else was in-"
"Puh!"
Crack! From seemingly out of nowhere, Ryker crushingly uppercuts right into Prince's jaw with an impact so fierce that a rippling shockwave soon follows. It all seemed to happen within milliseconds and left both Hera and the Prince himself scrambling for registry. The Prince endured, he recoiled less than graciously akimbo. He was dazed but fuming.
"Dammit! I don't care who's fault it is! "You don't talk to Hera like that and you don't talk about Yasu like that either!" Within an instant, Ryker spun on one leg, deftly meeting the Prince with a sharp and steady roundhouse kick to the side of his head and sending him careening into the nearby concrete barrier.
A stray shockwave from Ryker's assault snapped the transfixed Hera back into reality, alerting her of her surroundings.
"Ryker!" Hera's voice boomed, quickly channeling her mana so it exploded out of her frame once more. "There's more incoming!"
"You take the ones up above and I'll handle these guys here. Don't worry about me!" His hair spiking once again, Ryker powered up as well to another dazzling spectacle of white and green inferno.
Despite his confidence, Ryker was well aware of Hera's lack of proficiency in a straight up fight. She was tough, but wouldn't be fierce enough to handle Pestilence returning like how he or Yasu would. He watched Hera fly up to face her assailants.
In the instant of silence that Ryker found his thoughts drifting to Hera's safety, darkness soon encased him, a gang of shadow clad warriors flanking him on all sides. He drew himself into a defensive stance when suddenly-
"Tsk, what is happening to me? M-my chest, Why now of all-" A bizarre feeling clutched at Ryker's heart. A feeling he recalls, just briefly, to when he was speaking with Envy. You'd just assume that time would stand still in this moment as he closed his eyes to remember what might've happened. But no.
Fwoosh! A magic blade constructed entirely of water misses Ryker's cheek by inches. "Shit! I let my guard down again." Just then, a large fireball collided with his backside and sent him hurtling toward the crater he left the Prince.
"Ha ha! Drowsy? Did you wake up too early?!" Prince's voice hit Ryker right before a blast of dark purple fire sent rocks and debris flying in every direction. Emerging from the crater was a monster of a man that stood at least a foot taller than he did before with large muscles and purple markings covering his body and face resembling tribal tattoos. A miasma reflecting the color of his energy emanated from the sockets of his eyes, a blood red iris beaming from both.
The explosion of shadow magic slammed into Ryker sending him flying in a tailspin through the air, seven Shades dashed toward him with their signature Gladius' drawn.
"Damn! That hurt more than it did last time. Raaa!" A burst of white fire exploded over the battlefield, blinding the incoming Shades.
"Anemos Arma!" Blades of wind shot out in every direction from Ryker's casting, making their mark and pulverizing three of the Shades whilst blowing all others back in a display of his power. His wind spell kicked up a storm, clouding the entire highway in a fog.
"How can he still have so much power after his reckless casting earlier?!" A frustrated super Prince looks onto the battle from where he stood, further puzzled by Ryker yet again.
The dust soon settled, Ryker nowhere to be seen amidst the mixed groanings and cries of agony from the Prince's underlings and the ongoing humdrum of Hera's battle in the sky.
"Interesting!" A single eye of the Prince's bulged in a brilliant crimson where the other shrunk dully, the miasma masking him concealed a frighteningly manic visage. "He's gone. For once in his life, he's much smarter than I give him credit for." He chuckled.
"Kiyah!" Like a bolt from the blue, Ryker's frame materialized in front of the Prince to deliver a head on axe-kick to his face. The Prince, as usual, appeared somewhat hopeless to the speed of his opponent. This time seemed a little different however. The impact of the attack wrung out a jarring THUNK! like a solid piece of wood smacking into a metal box. The Prince was simply not phased at all, or was really good at not showing it.
"Pfft, pathetic, I'm sure the other girl from the University could've done better than that!" Prince cackled, shifting his weight into a blurry sucker punch as he spoke to the suspended Ryker. "Tch!" The Prince's fist just nearly hit his mark, scraping against Ryker's cheek and leaving a trail of his blood as he dodged the punch. Ryker's momentum left him somersaulting in the air and landing on his hands. Not skipping a beat, he leaned closer to the ground and propelled himself back at the Prince feet-first.
The Prince raised both his arms above his head. "I've had enough of your games!" Suddenly, he brought them both down into a two-handed smash to pulverize Ryker out of the air. Ryker's frame dissipates on contact, the Prince's fists crashing into the earth before him, a ringing shockwave of smashed concrete taking place where an annihilated spiky-haired man should have. He stammered, Ryker fooled him once more with an after-image.
Ryker was suddenly dashing toward the Prince from behind him, alerting him with his footsteps. "Just die already!" They both shouted to one another. The pissed off Prince shifts his weight into an amazing haymaker that cuts the air it travels through with a rupturing quake, looking to lop an oncoming Ryker in two from his center. Ryker just chuckled, performing quick gymnastics before using his newfound momentum to somersault into the air with a graceful front flip and lunging over his assailant's oncoming blow. A radiant Green burst of his mana emitted from his aerial feat which quickly enshrouded him in his aura once again, squarely preparing to land on the Prince's back.
"Now can you just screw off!" The mana around Ryker's legs detonated with an awesome force, the sheer intensity of both energy bursts combined with his feet slamming into the Prince's back launched him into the air at impeccable speeds. "Gah!" The Prince cried out. Shockwave upon shockwave tore the road asunder as the crater the Prince was left in cratered even further, leaving debris of all shapes and sizes attempting to flee the impact zone on specks of dancing sparkling green lightning, hopelessly vaporized in the aftermath.
A thin veil of green hue emitted from Ryker as he brilliantly soared upward, a lime green shooting star bolting away from the planet to the naked eye. Mortal ears would pop at the speed at which he travelled, tearing his way through the spheres in seconds. He happened upon the Shades engaging in their fierce battle with Hera in no time flat, outstretching his hands to cast a spell which immolated both in a searing white flame behind him. His left eye also followed up by illuminating brilliantly into an arcing orange light. He'd intercepted the Shades working together to launch their balls of flame at Hera, casting a spell that ignited his wind magic in pulses of reactant-like green flares.
"Didn't your mom's teach you not to play with fire?" Ryker mocked, clasping his hands to fizzle the blank inferno he conjured. Just then, his bulbs of light flew outward in all directions and filled the air with a new spectacle beyond Yasu's battle, his trajectory conveniently decelerating the closer he got to Hera all the while. The green orbs themselves hissed slightly before igniting, setting off a chain-reaction of exploding magic that prematurely detonated the fireballs each Shade was unfortunate enough to carry.
The atmosphere soon quickly became a sea of red haze, green flashing and mixed guttural screams of agony as all but one Shade was consumed in the cacophony of green hellfire. The orbs Ryker lay continually pulsed like beacons on a radar, chunks of viscera and singed black cloth flying every which-way as the balls of flame unstably exploded like shrapnel grenades at the young man's spell. From a faraway onlooker, they would beholden to witness the beauty of such a cataclysmic display of chaos.
"Hera! Catch me!" Ryker reached out to the baffled Witch in desperation. Just then, his propulsion to the heavens slowed to a gradual halt.
Hera bolted over to Ryker. "Gotcha!" she snatched him out of the air just before he began his descent back to Earth.
A putrid odor overcame the aerial battlefield as the miasma in each of the shadow clad cultists bodies slowly boiled off of their charred flesh. Ryker and Hera covered their noses in disgust.
"Well, I guess that worked out better than I expected it to then?" Ryker chuckled as he hugged the floating Hera.
"Yeah I guess so. But I have a question, if you don't mind me asking."
"Yeah sure, what is it?" Ryker looked confused.
"How the hell can you just casually wake up from a coma and do this?! You've been out for 2 months Ryker!"
"Waha! Hey don't drop me!" The bewildered Hera raised her right hand, almost tossing Ryker off of her.
He feverishly clutched onto Hera's torso in a last ditch effort to stabilize himself, cupping the fabric with his hands until . . .
"W-w-wahaa! You're gonna tear my shirt off Ryker!"
"Then help me! I'm fine with dying to save someone but this is just embarrassing!" Ryker continued to grab at Hera's shirt in total panic until he heard it.
Rip* "Ah shit. I'm de-"
"Dumbass!" Smack*. . .Boom! Hera brought her hand across Ryker's face so hard that he was sent flying above the rooftop of one of the many skyscrapers dotting the city.
Ryker smashed back first into the skyscraper's air conditioning unit, a shocked and dumbfounded look of 'what just happened' plastered all over his face now sporting a very red hand mark from where Hera struck him. "Ow."
"That really-really hurt Hera! What did I even-oh, damn." About a hundred feet away from Ryker was Hera, cheeks red as a beet covering her chest and missing the left half of her purple over shirt.Tears had formed in her eyes and she was now more embarrassed than she had ever been.
"Did I-"
"Yes, you did grab me there you dumbass!" Hera closed her eyes and held up her hand, conjuring in it what seemed to be an icicle from Ryker's still dazed point of view using her cryo magic. "Why don't you go and do that to Yurie when she welcomes you back!"
The floating icicle in her palm exploded into a mist followed by several more icicles jutting out, he counted ten, hurtling toward a still-stuck Ryker. "Woah woah! Wai-" In a moment of hesitation, he struggled against the duct which he could've actually freed himself from. Each icicle made short work of the space between the two but, luckily for Ryker, all of them seemed to harmlessly dissipate before they could pierce him.
"Oh thank God, you didn't try to kill me." Ryker let out a long sigh of relief and looked at Hera with a callous expression. He broke himself free of his metal cushion and spoke in a tone that matched his face. "Anyway, we have more important things to worry about that aren't your boobs."
"What! You wanna run that by me again?!" She stammered, Hera's face a-flush with fury and shame.
"Heh, there was barely anything for me to grab onto, I was scared for my life!" Ryker grinned innocently.
"I swear if we don't die here, I am going to kill you. Actually, I have a better idea, why don't I just tell-"
"Ryker! Do something! Quick!" A familiar voice echoed in Ryker's mind, setting him in motion without hesitation.
"Hera, move!"
"What?!" Her blood chilled at the sight of a massive deformed hand overhead, fingers extending away into feral beast talons. The Shade-beast was outstretched at the ready, bellowing what could've been a war cry from a normal man but an unearthly gurgle from a monster, lumbering hand ready to strike by a shambling and disheveled pair of charred robes soaked heavily in the bearers own blood and viscera. His skin was torn at several seams where his flesh failed to alleviate the new growth, further dehumanizing his entire arm to that of a bandaged leper. Hera's fear had peaked, making a motion for her staff which just would not conjure in her terror.
"N-no, Hera!" Ryker reached out to her, knowing that he couldn't reach her in time even with his Wind Spear active. His soul felt like it had left his body and that sensation in his chest became extremely painful, causing his heart to quite literally ache. "Hera, please move!" A dark purplish ring of energy emerges from Hera's frame, growing rapidly until it subsumed not just Hera, the Shade and even Ryker but the entire building and, seemingly, expanding to envelope a large portion of the city.
The ring began to sphere, suddenly entombing all inside it in a murky and purple haze. Lost in his absorption, Ryker quickly snapped back to Hera's care only to find that both her and the Shade dangled both timelessly and nebulously in the sky. There was no longer a rooftop breeze pelting him, everything within the bubble seemingly held still in time. Not a moment later, the fabric of reality had it's color ripped from it with a force you could only perceive as a black hole swallowing light.
Everything within the dome became a lifeless gray, even the blue sky itself! Distraught, Ryker took a more careful look of his surroundings, a dull whirring carried on as all the color vanished into -- Hera?! Beams of reality's natural hue darted into a graying Hera. Ryker stood back, mouth agape with horror.
"N-no. . .this isn't. . .this can't be right! Let me out of here Priscilla, Hera will--no, not this again, I don't want to see this again!" Ryker's voice was destroyed inside his own throat, he could no longer speak.
"Come away with me and I'll leave you with her head still attached." A dash of resentment and annoyance trilled in what could've been honeyed words soon made contact with Ryker, a disdainfully shrill voice masquerading as a temptress ensorcelled his thoughts. Priscilla of Envy teased him.
"What do you want, Priscilla?" Unable to move or speak, Ryker's voice projected from everywhere in the dome all at once through his thoughts alone.
"This will take a while. . .let's go somewhere private." As she said this, Ryker could feel the pressure of large breasts on his back. Gentle, almost ethereal, arms wrapped themselves around him from behind.
Ryker felt weightless after only a moment as his body could move again, then he saw Priscilla's hand sink into his chest. "Hey wait-" The dome rapidly shrunk in size around Ryker, his world going from an empty gray to an all-consuming darkness. Darkness. And then nothing.
Hera's eyes had caught one malformed claw on its steady approach, herself not having enough time to react to what would seemingly be a death blow. Twisted nails inched closer and closer to her throat. Seconds soon felt like minutes which turned to hours. Was this how it ended?
Her eyes narrowed to a jutting movement catching her glance. The Shade's arm soon began convulsing madly as though a parasite from within was writhing in discomfort, looking to escape its infested prison. Hera recoiled? The reaction didn't feel at all like hers, like she'd been caught in an explosion and being carried by the blast.
A loud squishing sound filled the air as the Shade howled in what the Ice Witch soon discovered to be was unimaginable pain. With a squelching TWHUMP! his arm bursted open, Hera just escaping the range of flaying entrails that exuded from the gushing stump the Shade now helplessly dangled whilst traveling past her.
"Egyaaaaah!" Deep within the Shade's gut unearthed a most unsettling and ear-piercing scream, the nub of cleanly obliterated flesh of his once-arm releasing a foul purple miasma that spewed an equally deep purple viscous-like sludge. That together, with a trailing blood fountain and bits of bone matter was seen crashing into the ground not some feet from where the Prince spectated. The Prince looked on wordlessly as the once-man peeled himself from the gravel, bloodshot eyes pooling heavy tears mixed with blood as he made a pathetic display to return to his master. What, in his panic, he deemed safety.
"Master!" He sobbed, flailing the stump of his removed hand in a shameful display to what a child would to his mother if he was injured playing roughly. Amidst the chaos, it was Hera who felt her heart reach out for the poor man. Her heart sank once she realized the Prince was soon ready to spit in disgust at his henchman. He was uncaring. He was ready to put him down himself. The Shade froze, choked coughing quickly becoming just regular strangulation as his neck began to weirdly bulge. He was trying to scream. He wanted to cry out just one last time.
"No! Stop!!" Hera reached out. The Shade's head looked to have flattened slightly before exploding into an ungodly haze of red and purple mist.
"Look how we made him suffer, all because you wanted me to hold back! I told you I will protect you, so let me finish the other one."
"What is this?" The Prince finally murmured, breaking the uncomfortable silence as both Hera and he watched what remained of the Shade soon quickly fall to the ground in a heap once the fountain its neck shot out had finally ceased. "Is this the crushing presence of the aura that I'm picking up suddenly? It's something else, and yet, so familiar...." The hulking Prince's brows furrowed, eyes narrowing to stare off into the middle distance. "Yuuta..? I'm sure of it! That damned Yuuta Itsuka. His Unholy Affinity! Ryker.." He growled, scanning his surroundings to locate Ryker with an annoyed expression.
"This. . .this is wrong. . .w-why would you. . .why would you let him die like that?" Hera could barely get the words out, tears welling in her own eyes. The ultimate human of her dead assailant evaporated the image that once froze her. She knew he was in a terrible agony, an inescapable one. All of the Shade's that appeared more twisted and mangled than the others carried this same misery. Her thoughts flashed to that one final gurgle it made before the Shade knew death was ready to take him. He had shut his watering eyes, praying for some divine intervention to save him. He didn't deserve to die like that, no one did.
The Prince narrowed his eyes on Hera, but something happened next that really caught her off guard. He did not focus on her as he initially would. Something seemed to distract him, something behind her. Hera slowly followed his eyes, turning around to see a plume of miasma billow from the skyscrapers rooftop as some sort of rift hissed open into the fabric of reality.
Another Shade, no, this one was more distinct. He carried himself out of his portal with more gravitas than any of the other Shade's would, quite possibly one with more of a status. His billowing shadowy cloak was accented with crimson trimming and sported a uniquely blood red pauldron stitched into his fabric.
His unique characteristics followed a more laid-back yet equally insidious tone in his voice, reaching the buildings edge and walking off of it on steps he seemingly willed into existence himself past Hera as though she weren't there. The shadowed hood looked below, whistling lightly at the mass of chaos beneath him in his descent. "Interesting! This you and the Wind Knight's handiwork?" His stride indifferent, his focus kept onto the lone beheaded Shade-beast who died in seemingly more agony than the rest.
"Finally!" The Prince sighed with both arms raised, appearing as though he were welcoming an old friend with a relieved flippant laugh. "A subordinate of mine worth his lick of salt appears. Now tell me." The Prince gave a hearty smack to the Shade's red pauldron, embracing his presence once more as someone he gave some sort of respect to.
It was so out of place for what he acted like earlier, Hera couldn't help but tilt her head. "You work well amidst the shadows. Was it you who felled that disobedient garbage over yonder?" He questioned, extending one large index finger to the pile of flesh and blood-drenched garb that lay upon the ground not some feet from him. "I can tell you plainly that that traitor would only experience a wrath unlike any other for his mistakes."
The graduated Shade shook their hood in response, the Prince's friendly demeanor cracking only slightly with displeasure but quickly resurfacing. You could tell something was concerning him but he did well to conceal that. "As tempting as it is to claim it, I only just got here. Forgive me." He bowed, his formality betraying how he spoke.
The Prince huffed dismissively and waved a hand. "Doesn't matter much now that he's dead. Oh! That's right! Did Miss Aiya give you any instructions? I was told by Mrs. Kiya that she was going to be annexing our division following Estrea's untimely demise." The Prince gave his 'friend' an intrigued smile. "I would expect you to know since. . .you are her personal plaything are you not? She does speak very highly of you and your efforts in sniffing out Pride. . .among other things."
"Why did we stop? Now there's another one I need to kill." Priscilla whispered her fury, half-heartedly to appease a motionless spikey-haired man who lay in the shadow of a distant building adjacent to the combat. He leaned closer, using his mana to listen in on the faraway battlefield. Both his eyes gave a brilliant glow, one a dazzling emerald and the other a more sinister red.
"Yes sir, she did send me orders to hand off to you. . .she stated to me directly and I quote 'The Prince and his division will be put in charge of exterminating Itsuka and Kenshi while I, The Witch of Lust, will handle Kazuhiko and Emelia. Should Prince or any of his subordinates discover the location and/or host of Priscilla they are to report to me at once! No further action is to be taken against her without at least three Sins present or our lord himself.' That was all she told me to tell you and this Lightning Orb has the rest of our plan in magic print for you. . .master."
"Hmm. . .interesting. . .she isn't usually so professional about how we do things, she is rather popular for many attempts at seducing her targets so it's a welcome surprise to see her actually planning for once. Maybe that little girl knows something though? Something that she didn't order you to tell me?" The Prince balanced the Orb of Lightning on his finger with a raised eyebrow aimed at the Shade. "Or maybe, she is hiding something from me? I know you are faithful to her, young recruit, but it would help us in nabbing the Oni girl for you if we knew what her plan was? Her personal plan." Prince looked up at Hera. "I do also have my own ambitions and reasons for being here that aren't so different from your own. . ."
"I do apologize sir but she demanded that I keep her personal plans for handling Kiyoshi Kazuhiko and his sister private at all costs. I can however tell you that one of the three boys who fought Estrea has the Pride Spirit within them. I'm also permitted to inform you that Lady Aiya will be handling Kiyoshi. . .personally."He said, turning his head to nowhere in a displeased grunt "Sir, it would seem that we have some spectators."
The Prince's cohort half-heartedly gestured to some gathering of buildings without himself looking. The naked eye would make nothing out of that distance, but the Prince soon found himself locking eyes with the heterochromic onlooker from the shadows.
"These two?" The Prince scoffed. "Your only concern should be the craftiness of the Ice Witch. Erase the notion of Ryker being any sort of threat, what-with his lackluster and cowardly fighting style." The Prince gestures obscenely to the figure far off in the shadows as the Shade's hood raised slightly, something like a 'but' escaping his breath. "Now, now" The Prince chortled, catching his reluctance. "I know how he'd defeated you prior, but are you going to live that down? Being defeated by him of all people?" The shadow-clad man's eyes dropped to the feet of his robe. "Besides, they're simply no match to me." The Prince said, eyes slowly transfixing to a mystified Hera. "And should figure out how to beg for my mercy." He concluded, a grin so perverse smattering his previously near-serious expression. Yeah, now he's acting more like how she knew him.
Hera avoided the Prince's gaze, focusing her attention on Ryker's disappearance. Was he the person they kept pointing to? She couldn't tell anymore. The mana off in the distance felt somewhat like Ryker, but it was uniquely something else. And Yasu-- Wait, where was Yasu?! She heard the laughter of the Prince behind her. A feeling of dread chilled her spine. She cried out. "Y-Yasu!"
The rooftop of a nearby building exploded, an unrelenting cyclone of crimson fire had consumed the bodies of a few would-be assailants to Yasu had he not completely overwhelmed them with his raw power. Two forms, much larger than the regular Shades, were seen hurtling downward from the blast. Standing atop the structures second-last floor was Yasu and two smaller figures at the base of his hectic conjuration, a white hot fury emitting from his eye sockets and submitting him to a trance-like state. His roar was primal and beast-like, a thin shockwave of his anger shattering panes of glass in the entire building to reach the second floor.
A young girl with blonde hair and crimson red eyes looking no older than Kiyoshi approached Yasu from behind. With her was another young girl about Yui's age, she had silver hair and a rather unique yet familiar pair of eyes with differing colors. The youngest girl had a traumatized expression and blood stains all over her clothes whereas the blonde girl had blood smeared across her face.
"What is happening to him. . .why is he so mad?" Hera said, concern growing in her as she witnessed the intensity of Yasu's spell. His anger had made his flaming typhoon a marvel of exploding fire around the city, literal bolts of flame manifesting from the magical anomaly's gullet. His mania dulled the cries and screams of those below him. The tenants of the building fled the superheated zone to lower areas of the building in a panic-stricken hysteria.
"He could beat Estrea like this. This is ridiculous Yasu, how would you get this strong in just two months? What did you put yourself through after Yurie and I fell into a coma?"
"Snap out of it you bumbling, mediocre cryomancer!" The rude voice echoed incessantly in Hera's mind, snapping her back to reality in an attempt to push out the interloper from her thoughts. "Screw you! Wait, was that Ryker? Stop fooling around already and show yourself!"
No grand entrance, just debris being carried off by the night air. Bells and whistles of all shapes and sizes blared in the distance as the disruptive battle now had the city aware of the danger now taking place. Something sparked the Prince's curiosity, quite possibly just the thought of Hera as a sound from him had them both locking eyes once more.
"Keep Itsuka off of me. . .I have personal business to attend to."
"Yes master." The Shade bowed to his master.
"Pestilence!" The Prince suddenly shouted into the ether. "Reveal yourself and finally deal with that Kenshi boy! And lend me more of your soldiers, preferably already tainted so they don't die as fast as the ones before." He said, impatiently crossing his arms and waiting for a response.
. . .
. . .
"Ugh, coward. I would say it's clear why lady Aiya hates you so much.." The Prince looked around for his assistant while sending an occasional lecherous grin up at the lost Ice Witch. She only noticed the fourth one and simply gave him the finger.
A demonic voice spoke out from the shadows far away from the Prince and the cultist, the dialect unintelligible to all who heard it save the speaker.
"Taint? What?" The man in the shadows some cliques away strained his mana a little more, his improved listening just picking up what the ominous voice had mumbled. An incantation.
As Hera looked down at the Shade who had still had his head down, she saw a small glimmer of light leave his hooded face as he grabbed his chest.
"Is he. . .crying?" Hera's confusion brought her to focus on the hooded figure.
The sound had been unsettling. Bones instantly snapping like twigs and reshaping was all everyone heard next, the man's arm and legs flailed as he screamed in agony at his deforming body. Blood shot out of his mouth and eyes when purple miasma gushed from every orifice on his face.
Hera recoiled, covering her face in immediate shock but unable to look away as the man's blood curdling screams shook her to her very core.
"N-no! He was your loyal servant! Why would you do that to him!" Hera's fists snapped shut, popping every bone in her arms. Tears welled up in her eyes and a small stream of blood leaked from her lip. She had bitten it. "I can't. . .watch this happen. This isn't right. He doesn't deserve this, he's done nothing but listen to everything you've told him to do!" Hera's aura exploded outward around her frame, covering her in a pulsating blue flame.
"Ryker, why did you run away! Where are you!" Purple bolts of lightning formed around Hera's hand. "Whe-"
"Stop sitting up here and acting like you can't help him."
"Huh? R-Ryker! Where have you-"
"Shut up for a second and listen to me, Hera. I can't really tell you how but I know what happened today at Yasu's house. So just do me a favor and listen for a second." Hera turned, Ryker was behind her. Giving off no sound or notion that he'd been there the whole time. The Moon's shadow covered almost all of Ryker's face, only leaving his purple eyes exposed to the light.
Something was definitely more off about him. Ryker stood behind her on the skyscraper, a black wing spanning its breadth behind him from his back. It reminded her so much of a raven's wing, but why did he only have one?
Ryker's voice sounded mature and like a grown man's voice but there was something else, a second voice. Whenever Ryker spoke, the faint voice of a girl played behind his words. The more he spoke the clearer the girl's voice got and the darker his tone became.
"What do you-"
"Come on, I said shut up. Just listen to me for once before you go off and do your usual reckless antics. Stop covering yourself with this stupid Chuunibyo façade for maybe a minute or that disgusting trash bin down there will have his way with you in no time flat."
"Y-you say that like you won't stop-"
"Damn right!" Ryker huffed, pacing the rooftop back and forth with his hands behind his back. His lone wingspan uncomfortably shuffled. "I can't be bothered to deal with other people's problems after all that I've been through in life. I mean come on Hera, you know what I mean. I've been through plenty up till now and I'd say that it's my turn to get something out of my effort. Uh-huh, that's right, I'm done playing hero and I'm gonna start being the type of guy I was before I lost Yuri. You remember that version of me don't you? I'm sure you do Hera, that was the version of me that got Yasu to hate me and even got Yuri to slap me once. Anyway, sorry for the emotion dump, this damn Sin of Envy inside me seems to have gotten a bit of a grip on me." Ryker grinned as he tore his Gi top off.
His face had been fully revealed now, his right eye socket was entirely purple and his left eye was normal. The evil grin he was making revealed two fangs and strange markings under his eyes and on his cheeks.
"What's happening to you? Why are you like this?" Hera began making her way over to Ryker.
The Prince, getting bored and anxious, snapped at Ryker. "Nobody cares about what you've been through, boy! Just shut up and fight me already. Or are you scared of me?" Prince stared up at the building's roof, barely being able to look away from his prize.
"Don't talk to-" Hera stopped, a dizzy spell overtaking her as she suddenly found herself sitting atop the roof Ryker stood on. The realization of her teleportation only infuriated her and her mana frustratingly exploded in response.
"Wha-! How did I get-"
"Stop talking please, you stubborn girl. Your voice makes me want to wretch." Ryker said, still standing where he was before but now glaring at Hera from the corner of his eye.
"Ryker. . .why do you sound so-"
"Are you deaf or something? Spout off to Priscilla again and she will do as she pleases." Ryker's voice had abandoned the second person's presence now just leaving behind his mature voice.
By this time, Hera had enough with his attitude and moved to speak. Before she could, however, Ryker vanished without a trace yet again.
"Uh-what! You get your stupid ass back here now!"
. . .
"Tch, when did he start acting like a stuck up jackass? He's never been like this to me even once. . ."
THWACK! An unnatural gust of wind batters Hera from behind, temporarily deafening her and knocking her straight into the air. Regaining her senses, she was aware of her aggressor.
"Silence, you laggard!" Ryker snapped, projecting his altered voice into Hera's thoughts as she drifted.
"I don't know who you are, but you aren't Ryker. But. . .even if that's true, you aren't wrong. I've been nothing but-" A terrible THUD! was heard as Ryker intercepted a charging Prince, squarely cracking him in the jaw with his fist imbued with wind magic.The ensuing clash sent Hera landing further away from Ryker and flat on her face.
Blood dripped from her mouth off the edge into the 5 stories of space below. It was Ryker's own wind magic that had accosted Hera all the while, spiraling from every direction in an attempt to keep her out of the fight and cutting her face whenever she looked back. "Who's talking? No, someone is. . .yelling? Ryker!" Hera went to turn her head back for the umpteenth time but only met blades of wind that slashed her face, the winds ceaselessly slashed at her hands and arms once bringing them up to block.
The voices she heard were distorted and distant but one clearly belonged to Ryker, this was indisputable in Hera's mind. But, no matter how much she wanted to help, no matter how many times she tried to get up, the wind magic mercilessly cleaved at her flesh in response.
Hera bit her lip, bracing for the onslaught of sharp wind magic coming her way. "This is bullshit! How can I let this happen? I'm not a child and I won't let anyone treat me so! I'm not helpless! And I won't let this fake Ryker or Shade Prince tell me otherwise! But..."
Hera closed her eyes, spiritually projecting herself out of the noisome combat in a state of deep thought. "Maybe I really am useless?" She paused, nebulously escaping all of life and drifting through the ether. "I've just been dragged along this whole time, yet it was me who surpassed everyone close to a week ago... Yasu.. Ryker.. Am I really falling behind?"
Time seemed to stop as she pondered, consumed by her own frustration and misery. But then... Her eyes slowly opened, subsumed by a raging purple inferno that hissed a beautiful auraic emission. "Hell no! I am the Ice Witch of Drecia! And I'll NEVER accept this sleight! And I won't believe for a second the charade they've put on!" Her whole spiritual frame erupted into a blaze of glory, shooting her back into reality. Her bleeding arms soon repelled Rykers wind with a brilliant violet fire, sending each blade scattering in all directions.
She winced first, then grunted feverishly. Hera opened her eyes to reveal that same brilliant violet aura overtaking them once more, a cool rage building in her stomach and erupting into a mana burst unlike any other. Her magnificent aura shone behind her and cascaded her shadow as a colossus amidst the Shade Prince and Ryker, both pausing to witness the goings-on of Hera's transformation.
"Hera don't!" Ryker's voice became clear to her.
"Eh? She can get up?" The Prince turned his attention to Hera.
"Right in front of you!" Growled Ryker, thudding the Prince right in his distracted face with a left hook so severe it dislocated his jaw. "Dumbass!"
"I don't need my staff, I'm just fine on my own! Freeze in my eternal Ice Field as you beg me for mercy!" Hera's mana roared a Northern chill of a wind, her blizzard-like mana ripping any excess features off of the rooftop with a fearsome gale that her clothing and raven-dark hair only danced to. Ryker and the Shade Prince just barely had time to react to the sudden removal of fixtures, defending hard against the gust. They exchanged glances of confusion amidst themselves then back at the Hera.
"I don't know what you did to Ryker, but I know what you're going to do to me and I can't begin to imagine what you'd do to Yasu. That is something I simply can't accept from anyone, I will not let you continue with this disgusting rampage Prince! I will be the one to kill you!"
"There sshe ish!" The Prince glowed with excitement as he popped his jaw back into place, his miasma quite literally boiling off of his face. "Let's see what my Princess can do to me then?! I would simply love to fight you once more!"
""Don't let him deceive you, Hera!" Ryker interrupted. He's way stronger than-. Puuh!" The sudden reality of Ryker playing himself kicks in as the Prince relishes this moment to sock him in the gut with all his might in revenge for earlier, spitting blood as he felt his ribs caving in. "Dumbass!" The Prince mocked, uncontrollably jeering.
"Tch, don't touch him either. That's my only request. If you want me so badly then you can have me, if you beat me." Hera's eyes flashed a bit brighter.
"Seems easy enough, I can't think of a way that you could pull off another stunt like you did in the school." Prince turned toward the burning Witch.
"I won't have to, I'm fully capable of killing you head on now. I'm not 'just' a Witch anymore, but I'm sure you wouldn't know that since you had to have been recovering for a while after that hole I put in you."
Prince cackled maniacally. "That's right, Mizuki! It took me almost a week of constant healing from Lust to recover. Even after that, I can still feel the piercing cold from your attack. I must thank you for giving me a reason to come back. After I died, I was ready to meet with my old tribe once more. Maybe, I could've met my baby sister all grown up but no, I had to come back and have you."
"Sh-shut up! She isn't your plaything!" Ryker dashed in from Prince's left and threw a deep left hook. "None of us are your personal entertainment, piss ant!"
Prince smirked, unnaturally sidestepping Ryker's assault to send the Wind Knight veering uncontrollably into a faceplant and out of further harm's way. He wasn't about to make him break his promise to Hera.
Hera sighed. "Idiot, after all he just said to me he's doing exactly what I would do. Guess it's a two on one after all." Hera brought her leg back into a fighting stance, took a deep breath, and. . .
"Dead Freeze!"
A chilling gust of wind exploded out of Hera and immediately traveled downward, crashing onto the rooftop and flash-freezing all around her in beautiful ice crystals. Prince and Ryker both scattered to avoid the chaotic envelopment of her sorcery, but quickly realized something very dreadful. Very dreadful, indeed.
You could feel yourself gag on the atmosphere, a chilling vacuum with little to virtually no breathable air in its body. The windows of the skyscrapers cried, a haunting sound of protest before shattering into millions of splinters that splayed chaotically. Goers of the skyscraper soon found themselves also fleeing the structure, hypothermia and frostbite causing those not prepared for the weather to limp away in fear of freezing to death. Smoking glass shards, biting cold weather and the cries of people unfit for the immediate change of season was all Ryker had witnessed on the streets below.
A winter hellscape entombed all of the roof like a snow globe. All this, and yet somehow Hera's magic soon willed fire. A light blue flame cracked and divided her icy prison like the blue fire that represented a yokai spirit, erupting into the sky as spheres of pink and gold that decorated the night air like twinkling starlight.
"Her ultimate attack? Right out the gate? Ballsy I must say, my love." Prince flexed his muscles, not to show off, but to burst out of the prison of ice and sleet that covered his body.
"Elements of Ice and Fire, I call upon you, reduce this would-be adversary of mine to frozen ash with your might!" Hera cupped her hands, a mystical wind far more uncommon and much more colder emanating from them within the blizzard. She was preparing for something great. Ryker only wished he'd worn another pair of pants today. Somewhere in the back of his head, he felt it. Priscilla made a face of disgust at this thought as though it were her business
"I guess this is the time to show how resilient this new and improved body is. I do wish you luck." The Prince crossed his arms in front of his chest.
"I plan on pushing you all the way past your limit if you don't mind, pretty boy." The balls of light collided and merged into larger spheres before turning into long streams of golden essence that gathered in between Hera's hands.
The Ice Witch soon found herself struggling to focus on her attack once she noticed the relaxed look on the Prince's face. What was going on with him? Was he preparing to counter her? Her brow furrowed upon closer examination, a 'tent' had pitched in his robing and the look of a delighted drunkard was his expression. Had she the ability to pocket her spell, she would quickly facepalm at his ridiculous display.
"Can you take this fight seriously in the slightest?" An annoyed Ryker chimed in, shaking his head. The Prince only giggled before turning his head. "She ever call you pretty boy?"
"Well, to be honest, she did once, but.. Ah wait, what am I sayin'?" Ryker shook his head, both in disagreement and to this entire spectacle. His tone shifted to change the subject. "I guess if we're acting all official I better ask if I can join in on the fun since I wouldn't want to offend anyone." Ryker's purple eye reverted back to emerald green and a smile returned to his youthful face to compliment his adolescent voice.
The Prince tilted his head in his stance, a careless smile on his face as he closed his eyes in a false ponder. "Hmm, you've already broken my deal with Hera and it would only be proper for a Master's disciple to test the waters for him." Large feet crunched in the snow and ice that made the skyscrapers rooftop, the Prince shifting his ready stance to combat both Hera and Ryker with a grin so diabolically sinister. "I believe I would get some more entertainment out of beating you half to death as well." Prince's eyes flashed red and the space around their sockets had branches of dark purple reaching out across his face
"I thank you for the polite invite but, I was asking Hera. . not you. So, how about it? We kicking this joker's ass or what?" Ryker asked, sliding one leg back into a ready stance.
"I was just about to ask you the same thing, Ryker." Hera said, igniting a navy blue flame in her left hand. "Try not to let the crazy lady out again." She sighed, smiling sweetly once she noticed Ryker suffer an unbearable headache all of a sudden.