Chapter 21:

Flames of a Burning Saint

Power of Fear


At Ketsuki's location.
"Such hostility... Such benevolence... no matter." Ketsuki waved his hand, and six golden swords appeared in the air. "I will end you immediately."
"W-What the -" The swords immediately flew towards Emi.
Emi ducked and dodged three of the swords, which striked the ground and disappeared.
She jumped over two more swords and charged at Ketsuki, who didn't bother to raise his golden Zweihänder nor his halberd.
"Have you forgotten to keep count?" Ketsuki said angrily.
Emi immediately sensed something was wrong and turned around to see a golden sword, almost touching her forehead.
"Fuck!" Emi closed her eyes.
"You can't fight with your eyes closed, Emi." Said a voice.
Emi opened her eyes to see Kumojoshi with her bottom half as a spider with black hands and a golden sword stuck in her right palm.
"Kumojoshi! Your palm..." Emi screamed.
"Don't worry about it... it's just a scratch!" Kumojoshi pulled out the sword and looked at the ground in agony. "Ouch! No, no... definitely not a scratch."
"What are all of you trying to achieve here?" Ketsuki asked.
"Trying to get you back..." After a few seconds of silence, Kumojoshi suddenly shouted. "WAIT IT TALKS?!"
"Leave that aside... What percentage is he?" Emi asked.
"He is..." Kumojoshi's eyes turned red, and after a few seconds, she looked shocked.
"I knew it... he is a low percentage true infected, isn't he? Explains why he is so strong." Emi said confidently.
"No..."
"Kumojoshi, what's wrong?"
"He is a 90% true infected..." Kumojoshi looked at the golden sword, which she pulled out from her palm.
"Wait, let me get this straight... we have a 90% chance to save him? Is that what you mean?!"
"Generally, a true infected's strength has an inverse relation with its percentage. The lower the percentage, the higher the strength. If he is this strong when he is at 90%... then how strong would he have become if we waited?..." Kumojoshi explained.
"That's..." Emi looked towards Ketsuki with a smile. "That's great!"
Kumojoshi sighed and smiled. "Well, that's one way to look at it."
"If you are done... then can you please leave." Ketsuki said calmly.
"Sorry, no can do!" Kumojoshi's nails grew into black claws.
"Emi, be careful of anything golden... though I bet he shouldn't be able to create anything out of thin air, only Aina could do that anyway!"
"Thin air... wait, those swords - "
Before Emi could finish, Kumojoshi charged towards Ketsuki.
Ketsuki raised his Zweihänder. "This will be your graveyard woman! Divine construct."
"Huh?!" Three golden scythes appeared out of thin air and surrounded Kumojoshi.
"The end always feels bitter... farewell." The three scythes flew towards Kumojoshi like spinning fans, but suddenly all the scythes slammed into the ground, and Kumojoshi had difficulty standing upright with her eight legs.
"This pressure..." Kumojoshi smiled.
Behind them, standing on top of a red wall beside the gate of the garden was a short girl with green hair in a pretty green white attire, making a finger gun.
"Shika! What are you doing here?"
"Heh heh heh... I am here to save the day!"
"Shika..." Kumojoshi looked at her with a smile (who was still struggling to stand)
"Praise me, hag! I saved you." Shika laughed.
"Shika~" Kumojoshi smiled angrily.
"O-Oh, right... I'll stop making the finger gun." Shika opened up her palm and jumped down.
"Shika... it's dangerous here, you should go." Emi said.
"I will not leave all the glory to you two!" Shika replied.
"Change of plans... both of you should go." Kumojoshi turned back into a human.
"You almost died! How can you expect to defeat him by yourself." Shika reasoned.
"Yeah... if I almost died that easily, how can the both of you expect to survive? This is a real battle, and I am not going to babysit anyone." Kumojoshi said seriously.
"Kumojoshi... is this about how he can create those golden things out of thin air?" Emi deduced.
"Golden things... those are called Divinations. Normally, people who can use the Divine are already very rare, but that mostly involves coating yourself or your weapon with golden energy of God."
Suddenly, a golden halberd spun towards Kumojoshi, who sidestepped to dodge it.
"Do you expect me to kindly wait while all of you are having a nice chat?" Ketsuki said furiously.
"That's Ketsuki alright... Give us two minutes, please~" Kumojoshi requested.
"Do you expect him to just accept it old hag-"
"I accept." Ketsuki threw his Zweihänder into the ground and sat in silence.
"What the fuck..." 
"Pervert." Emi put her hand on her face with disappointment.
"Ahem, ahem... anyways, the golden coating can counter some infected abilities, which is the main reason it's used."
"But he only coated his blood... The rest he-"
"That is why he is dangerous. The strongest Divination excluding the Divine God series... Divine construct. This allows the user to create anything he wishes... It still has its limits, commonly being only being able to create two or three times a day."
"But Aina... she created it a billion times a day." Shika pointed out.
"She is a monster... well, at least that's all that Jin told me when I asked him about it."
"Why is he able to do it then?" Shika asked.
"Like mother like son, I guess." Kumojoshi shrugged.
"But!" Emi suddenly shouted.
"But?"
"Never mind..."
"Time is up!" Ketsuki raised his hand, and a golden wall popped out of the ground, blocking the garden entrance.
"Shit... Exiting will be hard. Fight carefully, everyone." Kumojoshi's cut a good portion of her hair and ate it. "So long my pretty hair."
Kumojoshi's entire body was covered up with black armor with a 'V' on the helmet to see through it.
Ketsuki tried to raise up his hands but a sudden force pulled him towards the ground.
"You are not going to pull that move again!" Shika pointed her finger gun towards Ketsuki.
Kumojoshi charged towards Ketsuki with her razor-sharp claws and slashed his chest.
"Ugh!"
"Emi!"
Emi ran towards Ketsuki at a high speed and punched Ketsuki's face with all her might.
"Hmm... that punch was weak... are you lacking confidence in your abilities?" The blood from Ketsuki's chest flowed out and attacked Emi and Kumojoshi, who stepped away.
"I-I don't... I..." Emi was muttering to herself.
"Yeah... this won't do, let's retreat." Kumojoshi said in a sad voice.
"But you wounded him very deeply! We can take him out." Shika said.
"It's risky..." Kumojoshi looked at Emi.
"Poor creature..." said a voice.
"Come on... who is popping up now!" Kumojoshi said with frustration.
"I can not stand seeing a human in pain." A woman dropped down from a height.
"Cardinal..."
The woman had white shining armor with a blue cape. Her long brown hair was braided, and she had a comforting expression on her face.
"We can't let her kill him!" Shika shouted.
"Fear not... I am on your side." She smiled and drew a silver sword.
"I will kill you all!" Ketsuki shouted.
Ketsuki made two spears with his blood and attacked the woman.
"I am sorry..." The woman gracefully slashed the blood.
"W-What?!" The blood stopped moving and fell towards the ground.
"I fear inflicting pain on others."
Ketsuki charged at the woman and grabbed her by the neck.
"This is the end of your pain..." The woman slashed Ketsuki's arm, but it appeared to have gone through it without any damage.
"My arm..." Ketsuki let go of the woman's neck.
"What is that sword? That just went right through him!" Emi pointed out.
"I can't move my arm!" Ketsuki was enraged.
"Your soul has been damaged." The woman explained.
"Fuck this!" Ketsuki raised his other arm and created fifty swords.
But before he could attack, the woman grazed Ketsuki's brain with her sword.
"Mercy blade..." After uttering those two words, Ketsuki lost consciousness.
The woman had a fearful expression on her face for a moment before regaining her composure.
"Did you kill him?!" Shika shouted.
"No, don't worry..." Kumojoshi replied.
"I will take my leave... I believe he will be key for saving Pope Qin Shi Huang." The golden wall crumbled, and the woman sheathed her sword.
"Thank you... Please tell me your name." Emi asked gratefully.
"Farewell, heroes. Remember Joan of Arc in your prayers." Joan smiled innocently and quickly fled the scene.
"Ketsu!" Everyone rushed towards Ketsuki's side.
"His red mask disappeared!" Emi shouted with joy while the other two were staring at her.
"What? Aren't both of you happy?" Emi asked while blushing.
"Cute." Kumojoshi patted her head.
Somewhere in an unknown location.
Joan of Arc was running towards Vatican city.
"Joan, stop right there!" A man on a horse called out.
"Oh! Didn't know you were there." Joan replied kindly.
"Interesting game you are playing!" The man drank beer from a pot.
"Hmm? What do you mean?" Joan asked.
"Haha! Don't worry, I won't tell Alex about it. It's not like I give a shit who is in power. I am my own leader." The man laughed loudly.
"Is that so... I will take my leave then." Joan started to walk away.
"Oh, but remember... If you stand in my way, I will kill everything related to you." The man said casually.
"I... Will keep that in mind." Joan changed her direction, and there was genuine fear on her face.
Everyone, you must be careful... even Alexander the Great shows mercy... but there is no escape from the wrath of Genghis Khan. Think twice when confronting him. Joan of Arc prayed. 

Power of Fear