Red and Moody ran up the giant hole that opened up in the city wall. They both peered down and saw Yasuke with his sword stuck in the wall throwing out balls of dark energy towards Day as she fluttered through the air.
Moody put his scroll up to an unbroken section of the wall and wrote out, "How can Day do that? Is that an innate ability?"
Red shook his head, "Not quite. So imagine this: you're in a shop that sells toys. The cheap toys are low-rank spells. They're cheap and simple, and it's not rare to have a lot of them. The middle rank spells are the slightly more expensive toys. They're a lot more complex and versatile, so you can get more use out of them. Since they cost much more, you won't have a lot of them, probably just a handful."
Moody rubbed his chin and nodded his head as Red continued, "The highest rank spells, seven and eight, are the most expensive toys. They are unbelievably intricate and require delicate care. In the case of the spells, these spells can destroy multiple towns, possibly a whole country. If you use one, you'll probably faint right away."
Red paused for a second, attempting to listen to Yasuke and Day talking, before finishing, "Now lastly, we have innate abilities. I guess they would be like toys passed down from your parents. If you have one, the knowledge of how to use it appears in your brain when you hit puberty. They're hereditary most of the time, and due to many generations passing down abilities, they can vary wildly."
Moody wrote on his scroll, "What does that have to do with Day flying?"
Red snickered, "I'm getting there! Now Day is what's known as a true mage…"
The ground below them rumbled, and it felt as though something slammed against the side of the wall. They both looked over the wall again and saw a large protrusion coming from the wall as Day hurled humungous blue fireballs at Yasuke.
Moody shielded his face from the heat, still squinting his eyes in an attempt to see the battle.
Red continued, "Well to put it as simply as possible, Day doesn't buy her toys from the shop, she has materials of her own and she makes her toys. In other words, instead of using a scroll or a tome and learning a static spell, or being born with it, Day manipulates the mana in her body in a more fundamental way to do some interesting things. There's a little more to it than that, but for now, that's all you need to know."
Red and Moody continued to watch as they neared the ground, and Red thought to himself, "Should I tell him I can do the same thing? I guess that's not important right now."
The two of them watched as Yasuke and Day landed on the ground. Red put his hand over his eyes, and the world became illuminated by small yellow dots. He turned his head in the direction of Yasuke and Day, and after a few seconds, a blinding white light filled his vision.
Red staggered back and grabbed his head, thinking to himself, "That's just supposed to be my view of pure arcana, so if something obscured my vision that bad…"
Red grabbed Moody by the arm, yelling out, "We need to get down there now! If Day uses that, she might kill Yasuke!"
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Day pulled out a small branch with a few green leaves hanging from it out of her cloak. She looked down at it for a few moments and looked back up at Yasuke.
Tears filled her eyes as she cried out, "Yasuke you need to stop this! I'm not the enemy, you know that! Those knights nodded their heads and agreed to your plans when you were around, but behind closed doors, they had sinister intentions. But your goal - our goal is something we can still accomplish. We just need to band together and go after the enemy.
Yasuke spoke through clenched teeth, "You're not my damn ally. These dead soldiers you keep disparaging were my allies. Red and Moody are my allies. But not you. I get it Day. You want everything to stay the same, you don't want to shift the status quo. You want to keep being under King Esa's thumb so your family can hang on to that position of power."
"You're so stubborn!" Day shouted as she pointed the branch at Yasuke. An intricate rune formed in from of the branch and shot out a pillar of blue flame.
Yasuke nimbly dodged and used "Zephyr" once again, shooting out a dark slash of energy at Day.
Day put up her offhand and put up a barrier in front of her, causing the dark slash to bounce off and dissipate.
Day waved the wand up in the sky before swiftly pointing it down to the ground.
At the same moment, a sinkhole opened beneath Yasuke's feet and he fell in. Nearby rocks and sediment began to fly into the air and pack into the hole.
With a dark slash that shot up into the sky, Yasuke climbed out and lunged at Day, who hovered close to the ground.
Yasuke yelled aloud, "Hidden Draw Style Sixth Technique: Dark Pledge to the Devil!"
Black and purple energy began to emanate from his feet, like a shadow spreading across the ground.
With a crackling sound, he disappeared from sight. Day caught onto him after a moment, but couldn't quite keep up with his speed. Before she could put up a barrier, Yasuke cut her deep in the stomach before finally appearing behind her.
Day's facial expression did not change. She flew up higher into the air, keeping her eyes on Yasuke the entire time. She looked down at the deep wound leaking blood. She held her hand over it and the wound immediately began to glow. After a few seconds, the wound was completely closed, although her clothes were still torn.
Day floated down to the ground, held the branch up in the air and chanted out, "Wand of Yggdrasil, assume your second form!"
The wand was enveloped in a blinding white light and as she brought it down in front of her, Yasuke examined it.
The wand had transformed from a tree branch into an ornate small wooden rod with a large golden sphere on one end.
"Yasuke, are you sure we can't just talk this out?" Day said with a sorrowful look on her face as she floated back down, "Because now I'm going to stop pulling my punches, so to speak."
Yasuke yelled out, "Hidden Draw Style Sixth Technique: Dark Pledge to the Devil!
Day put her off-hand up and closed it into a tight fist. Immediately, Yasuke dropped his sword and put both hands on his neck. He began gasping for air desperately.
Day slowly lifted her hand up, and Yasuke's feet began to lift from the ground simultaneously.
Yasuke, now several feet off of the ground, took his left hand off his neck and enveloped it in a black and purple energy.
Day put her wand directly up into the sky, then pointed it at Yasuke. In the distance, something rumbled and crackled fiercely. Still gasping for air, Yasuke scanned the sky for it and saw nothing. He looked down at Day and she pointed up at the sky with her wand.
Looking back up, Yasuke finally saw it. A humongous meteor with fire covering its exterior hurtled directly toward him. Yasuke turned his head slightly, attempting to shield himself from its heat. Despite being a significant distance away, the meteor shook everything in the area vigorously. It turned the sky into a sickly shade of orange.
Yasuke put his left hand up and mouthed some words silently.
Day looked closely at him in an attempt to decipher what he said. She thought to herself, "Demon core? What is a demon core?"
In the palm of Yasuke's open hand, a small ball of dark energy formed. He let go of the dark energy ball and it seemed to quickly increase in size. After a few seconds, the dark energy became massive, although not quite equaling the size of the meteor.
The meteor and the dark energy ball collided and created a massive explosion. The shockwave of the explosion sent both Yasuke and Day flying, although Day regained her balance quickly. The dark energy dissipated right away, but the meteor splintered into tiny pieces.
Day put the wand in her left hand, causing Yasuke to be released from the telekinetic hold. She placed her right hand over the spherical end of the wand, and all of the meteor pieces disappeared without a sound.
Yasuke coughed and hacked as he reached out to grab his sword.
As Yasuke finally reached his sword, Red and Moody ran up right next to him.
Red shouted out, "Yasuke you need to stop this, it's ridiculous. The person you're angry with who betrayed you doesn't exist. The person that you want to be your enemy does not exist. The only person here is Day Oathright. The same Day that healed you when we fought Jeannot and the same Day that supported you those months while I was gone."
Red put a hand out to Yasuke, "I don't need you to forgive her. I don't want you to or expect you to. But I want you to accept her. At least until we figure out the entire truth of what happened."
Yasuke nodded his head, "Okay Red, I can do that." He slapped Red's hand away, "But first, we have to finish this battle."
"Let's finish this then, Yasuke!" Day yelled aloud.
Day closed her off-hand into a fist and raised it into the air, causing Yasuke to float into the air. She moved the wand methodically through the air. Two thick rectangular patches of land lifted from the ground and slammed into Yasuke, crumbling into pieces afterward.
Day dropped her hand to her side releasing Yasuke from her grip. As he fell to the ground, Yasuke looked as though he could barely maintain his balance. His grip on his sword became loose, and he fell in and out of consciousness.
Yasuke grabbed the blade of his sword with his left hand and held it at his side. He forced his eyes open and looked at Day. His eyes were an abyss, there were no thoughts behind them, only bloodlust and killing intent.
The world seemed to slow down around Yasuke as he moved. Red shouted something out, but it sounded like gibberish. Yasuke drew his sword, severely cutting his fingers in the process. In one swift motion, he cut Day horizontally, cutting deep into her right arm. She didn't even react, to Yasuke she was completely frozen in time, along with everything else. He lifted the blade into the air and cut downwards, cutting into Day's torso.
Yasuke no longer had the strength to grip his blade and he let it fall to the ground. He brought his hand up to his face. Dark energy pulsated from his hand and spread into the air. A look of disgust spread over Yasuke's face. It was completely unnatural, the darkness gave him a sinking feeling in his stomach.
Before he could examine it any further, he fell to the ground, unconscious.
Red rushed over and caught Day as she fell over. She sustained multiple deep cuts from Yasuke's last attack.
Moody sat down beside an unconscious Yasuke. He turned Yasuke over onto his back.
He had multiple bruises scraps and burn marks all over. His clothes were tattered and ripped to shreds.
Moody looked on in horror at the result of the bloody battle.