Kento and Celestia clashed in the dimly lit corridor, their movements a blur of speed and precision. Each strike and counterstrike revealed their deep familiarity with each other's fighting styles. Sparks flew as Kento's daggers met Celestia's ice constructs.
"Kento, why are you here?" Celestia asked, her voice strained as she deflected a strike with a shimmering ice shield.
"I could ask you the same thing," Kento replied, sidestepping a freezing blast and retaliating with a swift slash. "You disappeared when we were teenagers. They branded you as a murderer. What happened?"
Celestia's eyes flashed with a mix of anger and sorrow. "It's complicated. You wouldn't understand."
"Try me," Kento said, pressing the attack. He launched himself forward, his daggers a whirlwind of silver arcs.
Celestia created a barrier of ice spikes, forcing Kento to back off. "I didn't want to leave, Kento. I was forced out. They said I was dangerous."
As they fought, Kento's mind drifted to memories of their shared past. He was considered a shame to the prestigious Salvatore family, untalented and unworthy of their name. Most of the other nobles avoided him, but Celestia, despite her cold demeanor, had approached him. She became one of the few friends he had made as a child. They were both misfits—him for being a lout and her for being the so-called ice queen. Her sudden disappearance following the death of her older sister had left a void in his life, and the rumors surrounding her disappearance never sat right with him. He never knew what had happened to her, and it was one of his biggest regrets. Seeing her now, after all these years, made him conflicted, but both his training and his Cost enabled him to push those emotions back to a point.
Kento's expression hardened as he dodged another flurry of icy shards. "And now you're working with sorcerers and attacking us?"
"It's not what it looks like," she insisted, conjuring a blade of ice, and engaging him in close combat again. "I'm trying to survive."
"Survive by killing innocents?" Kento's voice was thick with disbelief as he parried her strikes.
Celestia's blade nearly nicked him, but she pulled back at the last second. "You don't know the whole story. Just trust me."
Kento's eyes narrowed. "Trust is hard to come by these days."
Celestia's ice blade clashed with Kento's daggers, the impact sending shockwaves through the corridor. "I didn't choose this path, Kento. It was forced upon me."
"Then stop fighting and explain," Kento said, his movements fluid and relentless.
"I can't," Celestia replied, her voice breaking as she unleashed a flurry of ice spikes. "Not here. Not now."
Kento deflected the spikes with a swift spin, his daggers a blur. "You're making it hard to believe you."
Celestia's expression softened for a moment, a hint of the girl he once knew shining through. "I'm sorry, Kento. I really am."
Before Kento could respond, Celestia lunged forward, her ice blade aimed directly at his heart. Kento twisted to the side, the blade grazing his shoulder. He retaliated with a swift slash, cutting through her ice barrier.
They paused, both breathing heavily, their eyes locked. The air between them was thick with unresolved feelings and unspoken words.
"We don't have to do this," Kento said softly, his daggers still raised.
Celestia's eyes glistened with unshed tears. "Yes, we do. For now."
With that, they resumed their fight, each blow carrying the weight of their shared past and uncertain future.
***
Shift and Darryl stood amidst the chaos, their chests heaving from the exertion of battle. The last of the mages lay lifeless at their feet, but the fight was far from over. All around them, the undead continued to rise, their hollow eyes glowing with a malevolent light. To make matters worse, the mages they had just killed began to stir, their corpses reanimated and now firing spells in their direction.
"This is getting out of hand," Darryl muttered, reloading his guns with a speed born of long practice. He fired a volley of shots, taking down three undead that had been advancing on their position. Shift, her eyes sharp behind her tactical visor, quickly assessed the situation. "We need to find out how he's controlling them," she said, her voice steady despite the urgency. She activated a small device on her wrist, sending out a pulse that temporarily disrupted the nearest undead. "Marcus is still dueling the necromancer, so we can't rely on him."
Darryl nodded with a grim expression on his face. "I'll cover you. Do what you need to."
Shift didn't waste any time. She pulled out a compact gadget from her belt, a multi-purpose device she had designed herself. As she approached one of the undead mages, she activated the device, sending out a surge of aetheric energy to scan for any signals or magical threads connecting the undead to their master.
The undead mage suddenly rose and lunged at her, but Darryl's precise shot blew its head off, giving Shift the moment she needed. "Got it!" she shouted, her eyes lighting up as the device's readings confirmed her suspicion. "There's a control nexus somewhere. We need to find it and shut it down."
"Where is it?" Darryl asked, firing at another approaching undead and watching in frustration as it began to rise again.
Shift scanned the readings on her device. "It's... above us. The control nexus is in the bookstore. That explains why the necromancer can keep reanimating them without actively casting spells."
Darryl cursed under his breath. "Figures. We can't get to it while these things keep coming at us."
Shift's mind raced as she tried to formulate a plan. "If we can disrupt the mana flow temporarily, it might give us enough time to find and destroy the nexus."
Darryl fired another volley, his bullets tearing through an undead that had been aiming a spell at Shift. "Alright, let's do it. But hurry. We won't last much longer at this rate."
Shift nodded, her fingers flying over the controls of her device. "Cover me. This is going to take a few seconds."
Darryl stood his ground, his guns blazing as he held off the relentless tide of undead. Each shot was precise, each movement calculated, but even he could see that their position was becoming increasingly untenable. Shift focused intently on her task, charging the device with aether to create a disruptive pulse. "Almost... there..." she muttered, her brow furrowing in concentration. Finally, with a triumphant shout, she activated the pulse. A wave of energy rippled out from the device, and for a brief moment, the undead froze, their movements halted by the disruption.
"Now!" Shift shouted, already moving towards the exit to the bookstore above.
Darryl didn't need to be told twice. He fired one last volley to clear their path, then followed Shift as they ascended to the bookstore, determined to end the necromancer's control once and for all. Shift and Darryl burst into the bookstore, their breaths heavy from the rush. The eerie quiet was a stark contrast to the chaos below. Their eyes immediately landed on Mr. O'Brien's lifeless body on the floor, his eyes staring blankly at the ceiling.
"No..." Shift whispered, her voice shaking as she took a step closer. Tears welled up in her eyes as she knelt beside the old man who had been more than just an ally to her; he had been a friend and mentor. Shift was close friends with Alice O'Brien, and losing her has been something she never got over; she bonded with her father over their shared grief, and always spent time with him at the store. Seeing everything destroyed like this shook her down to ge core.
"Mr. O'Brien..." she whimpered.
Darryl put a comforting hand on her shoulder, his expression somber. "I'm sorry, Shift. But we need to shut down the nexus. It's what he would want us to do. He probably gave his life to ring that alarm, we have to honor that." he said.
Shift nodded, her jaw trembling while tears were streaking her cheeks. She gently closed Mr. O'Brien's eyes, then stood up.
"Let's do it." she said.
The room was dimly lit, the shelves filled with books casting long shadows. At the center of the room, a strange, pulsating orb of dark energy floated above a makeshift altar, surrounded by various mystical symbols. The nexus.
Shift approached it cautiously, her device at the ready. She quickly scanned the nexus, deciphering the complex network of magical threads that powered it. "It's tied into the necromancer's life force," she muttered, her fingers flying over the controls. "We need to disrupt the flow of mana and sever his control."
Darryl stood guard, his guns trained on the door, ready for any threat that might come through. "Can you do it?"
"Yes, it's similar to what I did to disrupt the undead earlier but it'll take a lot more power," Shift replied, her voice steady now as she focused on the task at hand. She calibrated her device and channeled her aether in full force, hoping that would destabilize the nexus.
"Almost there..." Shift said, her eyes locked on the nexus. She felt a hand on her shoulder and her flow of aether increased. Darryl was channeling his own energy in her to help bolster the process.
Suddenly, a loud crash echoed from below, followed by the sounds of intense fighting. They were running out of time and Marcus was on his own. Darryl hoped that he had picked up on what they were doing – they couldn't shout a warning to him and alert the necromancer to their plans after all.
"Shift, we need to hurry," Darryl murmured, his grip tightening on her shoulder.
"I know, I know," she responded, her voice tense with concentration. With a final adjustment, she activated the device, sending a powerful pulse of aetheric energy into the nexus.
The orb of dark energy shuddered violently, then exploded in a flash of light. The symbols around it faded, and the oppressive aura that had filled the bookstore dissipated.
Shift exhaled a sigh of relief, her shoulders slumping as the tension left her body. "It's done."
Darryl glanced at Mr. O'Brien's body, then back at Shift. "He'd be proud of you."
Shift wiped away her tears, nodding. "Let's get back and help the others."
Together, they turned and headed back downstairs, ready to rejoin the fight, hoping they weren't too late.