Imawashiki peered down at Asami and Manabu emotionlessly, his flames spiraling around his floating form rapidly. The red scales on his skin stretched slightly further across his face, signifying a change of power within the fiery abomination.
'...Their power is too veiled to compare to mine.' Imawashiki noted, eyeing the vessels on the ground. 'All that time blending in with society molded them into weaker versions of themselves.'
Asami surrounded herself with water, the liquid flowing from her palms; Manabu simply extended her arms outward in preparation to morph the earth itself once again.
"How are we doing this, Asa!?" Manabu questioned her fellow vessel, not taking her eyes off the fiery abomination in the sky.
The blue-haired woman heaved a heavy exhale and yelled, "You think I know!? We can't physically hurt him without doing damage to the planet itself! Even then, I'm not sure if a simple planet-sized attack would phase him for long!"
Manabu's eyes flitted around nervously, ideas flashing through her head at an unprecedented rate. Imawashiki was growing stronger with every attack he endured, and neither Asami nor Manabu could retaliate with devastating enough attacks without causing the mass extinction of almost every living being on the planet. It took a few moments, but a plan had finally surfaced at the top of her mind.
"We just take the fight outside of Earth's atmosphere!" Manabu hollered, her eyes lighting up in hope. "There, we could reduce the risk of destroying everything!"
Asami shook her head. "Reb, he can fly! If we take him to space, he'll have us out-matched due to the lack of surfaces alone! Besides, how would we manage to drag him out there if we can't even make him budge on the ground!?"
"Well, where's Shototsu?" Manabu queried, her eyes searching the red skies.
"Probably trying to put himself back together after getting his ass handed to him!" Asami suggested with a vexed tone.
*FWOOSH!*
Without warning, colossal walls of fire surrounded the space Asami and Manabu stood in, blocking out everything except for Imawashiki, who remained hovering in the sky.
"...It was great to reunite with you all, but I'm afraid that we must wait to meet again another time." Imawashiki spoke condescendingly, floating down to close in on the two women.
Flames soon enveloped Imawashiki's right arm, which was stretched outward in Asami and Manabu's direction.
*SPLISH!*
*CRACK!*
Expediently, the two vessels on the ground fought back with their elements. Asami discharged a wave of water, while Manabu quickly formed dense pillars that ripped through the earthen floor and surged toward Imawashiki.
*FWOOSH!*
To contest the two powers, Imawashiki dispelled a cyclone of fire at the water and stone pillars, preventing himself from colliding with the attacks.
"It's too late. I wield more power in a single hand than you do in both of you combined." Imawashiki asserted vaingloriously, increasing the intensity of his flames.
*FWOOSH!*
"A gentler goodbye would have been preferred, but this is just the reason why the world must change." The fiery abomination stated coldly, his fire becoming unrelenting in its advancement toward the two women.
Asami grunted as her water faltered against the heat cast by Imawashiki, her arms trembling under the pressure.
"This isn't looking good, Rebbie!" The blue-haired vessel exclaimed with a strained voice, clenching her teeth.
Manabu fretted as she tried to create another plan, her breath accelerating with every second.
"Get behind me, Asa! I'm the most durable one! I'll just take the brunt of the fire and you can slither away!" The principal ordered hastily, her stone pillars that held back the fire beginning to weaken.
Asami's eyes widened, her mouth agape. "You can't be serious! I can't let you die here! I can't handle him by myself!"
"It's either one of us or both of us! Besides, you said you were going to marry him when we were kids! Handle him!" Manabu retorted, ending her speech with a nostalgic joke.
She just couldn't move. Asami refused to even pick up her feet, her eyes glued to Manabu. Her best friend, after finally seeing her again, was going to be burned to a crisp—alone. Even if Asami wormed her way out of this moment, leaving Manabu behind, there was no way she could beat Imawashiki all by her lonesome, probably not even with Shototsu.
'Kaminari… where the hell are you!?'
*KRSSHH!*
Suddenly, a streak of lightning tore through the space between Asami and Manabu, startling the women greatly. After a few moments of silence, the sound of someone coughing up blood could be heard.
"Gragh!" Imawashiki choked, the pain from the hole struck through his chest catching him by surprise.
"I'm coming out of retirement for you, so you better go down quick." Kaminari Nozomu's voice radiated throughout the area, making the fiery abomination crane his head to see behind him.
Floating with a majestic pair of white wings and blue tints coating the feathers, accompanied by black streaks traversing his entire body, Nozomu was revitalized. Lightning danced around his open white cloak energetically, showcasing the man's newly surfaced abilities.
Imawashiki's body temporarily dispersed into flames, reforming away from the streak of lightning. "I would've given you a peaceful end, Kaminari!"
"Letting you live like this is far from peaceful. I can't even address you by your name with how far you've fallen." Nozomu replied stoically, narrowing his royal blue eyes.
Imawashiki seethed through his teeth as he said, "Always so hard-stuck to your ways… I knew, even to this day, that you'd grow into nothing more but a depressive man!"
Silence filled the air, with Nozomu and Imawashiki glaring at each other intensely.
Nozomu clenched his fists. "You saying that makes this so much easier for me."
*SWOOSH!*
Imawashiki felt terrified when he noticed the white-haired man reappearing behind him, moving far quicker than he currently could. Nozomu's speed was nigh-immeasurable to the fiery abomination, his motion resembling instant teleportation instead of an actual pace.
"Because I now am certain that you're not the brother I once had." Nozomu finished speaking, ramming his right fist into Imawashiki's back.
*KABOOM!*
The mere shockwave from Nozomu's punch rattled half of the planet, blowing away any warrior participating in the Detrimental War and any person simply standing outside for thousands of miles.
However, the shockwave was not the only impressive factor in the punch. Due to Imawashiki being far too slow to turn his body into fire and prevent himself from being struck, he was quickly sent flying through the center of the moon, his body emerging from the other side of the giant celestial sphere. Fortunately for the fiery abomination, he never crashed into the moon itself, only uncontrollably soaring through the hole inside it he had made previously when battling Shototsu.
Imawashiki quickly regained his senses after being impacted by the elements of space. There was no noise, no oxygen, and nothing but open space for extraordinarily long distances.
'With how my body has progressed, air is isn't exactly a necessity if I could have already survived without my lungs.' The fiery abomination thought to himself, staring down at the blue globe known as Earth.
Squinting his eyes, Imawashiki began to wait.
'He's most likely still on Earth, so I can simply watch and wait for him to come after me—!'
*SMACK!*
It was instantaneous. Nozomu's form flickered into existence before Imawashiki's very eyes, leading to another deadly punch that sent the fiery abomination spiraling through the empty vacuum of space once again.
'You can't be serious! I can't even fight back with how fast he travels!' Imawashiki was frantic as he stopped himself from spinning through space, controlling his body expertly. 'He's formed a more connected relationship with his Tansu Beast…'
The fiery abomination kept his eyes peeled, rotating his body as fast as he could so he could have the slightest of chances to possibly see Nozomu fly toward him before landing yet another hit.
Such a reality was quickly forgotten.
*SMACK!*
Imawashiki was unable to move as Nozomu's knee was lodged into his face, spilling blood from the fiery abomination's nose and sending him crashing into the closest celestial body—Mars.
*CRASH!*
"...At this rate, I'll lose before I can throw my first punch…" Imawashiki murmured, picking himself up from Mars's rocky ground. "And just like that, I'm on an entirely different planet."
Nozomu landed a few feet away from the fiery abomination. "I'll throw you into the sun next if you don't stop fighting."
Imawashiki inhaled as he turned around, locking eyes with the white-haired vessel.
"...Look at you—actually fighting for something…" Imawashiki chuckled, clenching his fists. "Never thought I'd see the day you'd try to protect the Three Nations with everything you've got! What changed!?"
Nozomu's face retained its neutral expression. "You did. You are what brought out a change in me, and now that I have finally bettered myself, you have taken a turn for the worse. This is me repaying the boy I grew up with."
"You aren't serving that boy well—especially since he was killed by the people you're trying to protect!" Imawashiki hollered, letting his fire surround him.
The white-haired man scowled. "That boy wasn't killed by anybody; he died from you, Moeru."
*CRACKLE!*
A battle between lightning and fire promptly ensued.
XXX
So close to the end of this novel! Just a few more major fights, which are pretty lengthy, and we can reach the end of this story! This next chapter is going to be between Imawashiki and Kaminari Nozomu, so stay tuned for more!
Have a Great Day!
Peace - Cr1ticalz_