"Kotaro!" Akina cried in disbelief when she found out that she was no longer holding Kotaro's shirt, and called out again: "Ryota!?" But without replying. Ryota was standing behind her, clutching her shirt too, but now she could no longer feel his hand.
"Friends, where are you?" Ryota shouted in panic. From the beginning he was cautious about this place and now the thing that he was afraid of happened.
"Akina? Ryota?" At the same time Kotaro too separated from his two friends, and found himself alone on the bridge, and then, terrified and confused as to what he was going to do next, in front of him and from the depths of the mist he heard a "Tak, tak, tak" sound of footsteps pressing on the bridge logs. "Tak, Tak".
The voice rose, and as the owner of these steps progressed more, Kotaro became more cautious, as he did not think that this person would be either Akina or Ryota, because these two were originally behind him, and he thought that he would be someone like them and came from the other side to cross the bridge as well. .
Kotaro stood ready. At the same time, the figure of the unknown person began to unfold among the shadows of the mist and from afar it could be seen that it was a woman.
Moments later, the woman arrived in front of Kotaro. She stopped and revealed her face and features. She was wearing a blue dress that seemed somewhat ordinary, and on her feet were brown shoes of medium quality, her hair was long black and hung over her shoulders like fine silk, and despite the simplicity of her clothes, she had a pretty face, with a tender expression and a warm smile with kind eyes.
"M...m mm mom‼", as soon as his eyes fell on the unknown woman, Kotaro screamed and took a step back involuntarily, because this woman and although it seemed something unbelievable, Kotaro would never forget this face, it was his mother who was killed two years ago and whose body he saw himself. It was not just a voice embodied like what happened when Kotaro fought Selania, but his mother herself in her body and presence.
"who are you?" Kotaro became more suspicious and couldn't calm himself, nor did he jump and hug his mother in a kind of longing because he knew with every logic in this world that his mother had died a long time ago and will never come back to life again, even if this was something he would be the most person wished to happen.
"Dear Kotaro, don't you recognize me? This is your mother, won't you come and hug me?" Kotaro's mother spoke, and when Kotaro heard her, his breathing became heavy for a moment. Those words and that voice were just like his mother in the past. Kotaro was suddenly moved and didn't know what to do, but was still awake: "you son of... how dare you?"
"It looks like you're not yourself, Kotaro. It's okay my son, I'll come instead." Kotaro's alleged mother continued to speak, in a way that indicated that she was really his real mother, which confused and angered Kotaro at the same time.
Kotaro's mother came up to him, and wanted to hug him. Kotaro couldn't move either and stiffened in place. He didn't know what force was stopping him from resisting and only let himself submit to it, because inside him there was a part that still gave the possibility that this person was his true mother. But when everything seemed to be normal all of a sudden Kotaro felt a slight leak of murderous intent locked onto him, he turned his head slightly and saw that the soft hands that were about to surround him had turned into sharp blades, reflecting on a cold smile.
"Shit, I was so naive", at this moment, quickly and without neglecting a single second, Kotaro slid down in the woman's hands.
He summoned his magic to bolster his flexibility and evaded the attack, as for the two sharp blades they were already aiming at his neck and now they bumped into where his former head was, releasing some sparks.
"Huh", Kotaro immediately stepped back and created some distance between them, then let out a long breath.
After this sudden change, Kotaro became even more suspicious: "Who is this person? How did he get to know my mother so that he could imitate her with such idealism? Is he a mage belonging to the Yamikara that they sent to kill us after the last incident?", what made Kotaro associate this person disguised as his mother with the Yamikara is two reasons, the first is because he thwarted the bloodstone project and defeated Selania as he mentioned and therefore they learned about this and sent some people to assassinate him, and the second is his belief that there is no one outside Pace City knows who his mother is except for Yamikara and Uncle Cesar in addition to his missing father, and of course Kotaro would not suspect these latter two, especially Uncle Cesar. As for his father, even though they had never met before, he knew at least that he wouldn't do anything to harm him.
Regardless of the identity of this con man, now that things have reached this stage, Kotaro should have fought, but the question was, can Kotaro punch his mother? Just before, he couldn't even move in front of her.
...
"Kotaro!Stop, what are you doing?!", Akina retreated and shrieked in disbelief. At this time, she was about to receive Kotaro's 'Destructive Fire Fist' attack.
Akina leaped backwards and continually dodged, giving herself some time: "The White Barrier", between her and Kotaro hastily formed a white wall of soft clouds, blocking the fiery attack. The barrier held for a few seconds and during this period the attack was weakening little by little, this was an advantage of the barrier being able to absorb the magical energy of the enemies' attacks.
The barrier didn't hold for long and crashed the next moment, but Kotaro's attack weakened and slowed and then continued towards Akina, but she had used those seconds before to get away safely.
"What's happening to you? Why are you attacking me?" After exchanging some movements, Akina stood in front of Kotaro and screamed at him, she tried to remember but did not find any reason to push Kotaro to attack her, and because of some tufts of fire that fell on her, her dress was torn and it looked like a miniskirt revealing her soft legs, In addition to burning some pieces above her stomach and on her waist, this made her even more angry and she needed a convincing explanation from Kotaro or else she knew how to deal with him.
...
On the other side, over the bridge and in front of Ryota, an enemy in the guise of his father also appeared and began to attack him. His father had died four years earlier, two years before Mrs. Christina's death and their leaving of Pace city. He was like what Ryota remembered before his death, a man of forty years old, with brown hair and a face began to wrinkle.
At first, Ryota was very happy, neglecting even the fact of how his father came back to life or how he came to this place. He only continued to look at his father's face, and rushed to him, wanting to hug him: "Dad."
"Come, my son. I see that you have grown into a man." When Ryota's father spoke, he seemed moved as well.
For most people, the most dear person to them was the mother, but for some it was the father, especially Ryota, who lived with his father alone most of his life, and he was for him a father and a mother at the same time.
Father and son came closer to each other, Ryota was more joyful and kept smiling like a little child who had bought a new toy, wanting to feel the feeling of fatherhood again, but what the enemy was waiting for in reality was the moment when Ryota was completely exposed, and as expected The father suddenly attacks while Ryota is still ignorant of what is happening.
And the face of the fraudulent father was changing in a strange way. His little teeth began to make annoying grinding noises and slowly their size was growing into sharp fangs, when he finished his lips rose and showed two rows of large shark teeth, and between them moved a tongue with an arrow-like edge. His face was very ugly but he didn't care about it.
At this moment, Ryota looked dazed, his beaming expression changed from before to disbelief as well as disappointment.
Because it was discovered, the father attacked like a raging beast and without warning towards Ryota's left shoulder since the angle was right for this area, his big mouth opened and the fangs were very close to tearing apart Ryota.
The direct attack surprised Ryota, and there was no time to dodge and speed was not his specialty, so he decided to confront and immediately turned his magic, supporting his defense and focusing on his shoulder part.