Tug of War

Again and again... my life comes back to the battlefield. It's an endless cycle from which I wanna break out, but my own strength isn't enough... I'm powerless against my fate. So much so... that I wonder what it has in store for me.

Yala had left with two other Black Monks to fight Kele and Meku. Thos was standing in the middle of the chaos with Kael, that mysterious and never-seen falconer. He had recovered entirely from that previous punch. With deep breaths, he concentrated on the enemy in front of him, expecting him to do the first move. He was right.

Kael's body flickered, disappearing and reappearing constantly for a second before he walked forward with a menacing slowness. As soon as his foot touched the street, two exact copies of himself sped diagonally in opposite direction, aiming to disorientate Thos. A linear gush of wind followed, roaring in his face like a feral beast.

The monk waited a few seconds and finally struck left to right with a lace of super hot and dense plasma. The weapon connected with the first copy but cut through nothingness – as if the figure was made of gas.

I'll hit his real copy anyway!

Just as this was about to happen, Kael's real body disappeared and took place of the fake one.

“... !!!”, Thos retracted the lace and dodged right.

Kael kept going, throwing a hook which ended crashing in the walls of a house. Thos counterattacked by shooting a plasma ball towards him. He defended himself by breaking apart the same wall and using the debris for protection as the sphere imploded. He was thrown back a few meters away by the impact.

Plasma magic... those attacks are dense and hot matter which is very unstable. I have to be careful about the explosions...

His thought was interrupted by Thos, who charged at him with a straight punch. Kael blocked with both his wrists and rotated to the left to avoid another ball of plasma. He quickly climbed up the building with agile movements and was followed by the monk.

The fight kept going ferociously between punches and kicks as both of them danced across the roofs. The rhythm was frenetic and didn't leave a second of respite.

He's fast and precise...

Kael shifted his body slightly to the left with the help of magic. He locked Thos' extended arm under his and hit him on the face with the elbow. He tried striking the adversary once more but his cobalt eyes caught the punch coming and he was quick to get out of the way, jumping to a nearby roof.

Using its ledge, he bounced back towards Kael, ripping through the air. Thos' punch got into his defense, repaying the previous hit on the face on the same spot. Kael countered with another swing which connected with the monk's cheekbone in a hard impact, but failed in tripping him with a leg sweep. His whole body was now lowered and open. Raising his head, he saw Thos' punch coming right for him. He held a hand high and blocked it.

“Huh???”

Kael clenched his fists on the enemy's one and somehow lifted and threw him violently.

Thos rolled far from the main battlefield, the hard rock roofs smiting his body. His tumbling ended when he smashed into a cobbled wall, smashing it into pieces.

“Ngh...”, Thos' laments broke the silence. “That damn guy...”

Kael stepped right in front of the pieces of the destroyed house. He waited as he got up, blood running down his forehead and bruises covering his face and arms. He flinched from the pain, reaching for his left arm.

Kael looked around.

No noises... I feel no presence other than us two. That means I can have a little more fun now!

“You are healing fast.”, he observed, smirking under the clothes. “You're a tough one too... No wonder you're leader of an entire district!”

Thos smiled bitterly, “Just who are you? I've never seen a falconer with such abilities.”

“Oh, me? Just a new member...”

Even though my latent mana is limited... my normal supplies are still there.

“Just who are you? I feel like a bit too much people are asking me that... I wonder why, mpfh!”

The earth shook from the core, sending shockwaves all across the district. The rumbles announced that surge of power, unexpected and sudden. It hit Thos like a boulder. He looked inside his enemy, who he thought, just a few minutes ago, to be a normal falconer; just another one of them. He saw what many thought to be impossible, lost in time, space and history. The Perfect Balance showed its scary fangs once again, threatening to take everything on its path.

From under Kael's feet, a strong wind rose and circled his body five times before engulfing all the abandoned houses and streets around them. The newly formed tempest challenged the height of the walls, roaring all around them while lifting effortlessly chunks of stone and wood in the air.

“Truly a work of art, don't you think?”, Kael jumped over to the top of a roof, non-caring of the strength of the wind surrounding him. “I've mastered air magic... as well as other ones.”

“...”

Kael smirked, looking satisfied at Thos' expression. “You're looking awfully determined and angry, monk.”, Thos was on his feet again, having fully healed his injuries and reinforced his body with mana, “Unfortunately for you... I think I've seen enough.”

“Huh???”

“You confused?”, Kael teased, crouching down to look down on him.

Thos let out a frustrated growl, furrowing his brows and clenching his hands, “Speak up!”

“... fine, fine. What I meant is that up until now I was diffident. Diffident about the power and strengths of the people of this... unimaginably huge city. But now I've measured you and your bevy enough and I can say one thing with confidence.”. He shot him with a menacing gaze. Those beautifully shining emerald eyes now went dark with haughtiness and persiflage. “You're all nowhere near my level.”

“... !”, Thos winced and stepped back instinctively. He had noticed the archness in those shiny irises.

“So, with that in mind, I warn you that I'll be more carefree... and you'll get the most degrading defeats you'll ever receive.”

The monk finally snapped. His eyes went wide and bloodshot. “S-shut up!!!”

He lounged at Kael as five different bolts of plasma departed from his sides. He quickly dodged three of them, weaving between the roofs with nimbleness, and then shirked the charging enemy by jumping over his head. He stepped mid-air on top of the fourth plasma dart and leaped away before it exploded.

The fifth one was on its way to hit Kael, who had just landed. Instead of avoiding it, he opened his hand and grasped it. A strong sizzling sound came out and, after a trice, that same projectile of scorching hot plasma was now completely frozen.

“Be able to control the temperature of water! How useful, don't you think?”

“Ngh!!!” Thos charged again, this time enshrouding his hands in fire.

“Uh uh. That's quite the news!”

Kael wrapped the right arm in mana flames. The two adversaries' punches met and gave birth to an enormous shockwave – which sound resembled the one of a thunder.

The monk kept his attack going, throwing punches and kicks with rage but also precision. Kael extricated himself through that barrage of hits, shielding or shunning them with easiness.

“Keep it up! Keep it up!”, Kael shouted with irony before grabbing Thos' arm and dragging him closer. “Keep...”, he raised the other arm, closing his fist up in the air, “... it...”, his smirk widened, as if he knew victory was in his hands already, “... Up!!!”

Woosh

“Ugh!”

Something sharp suddenly hit him in the back; on his left side. He couldn't hold the blood coming out of his mouth, as it stained the turbans on his head. As soon as he felt a sharp burning ache in his wound, he understood who just struck him – and he smiled with reassurance.

Thos thought it was his chance to counterattack and end the duel, but before he could even move a muscle, a hook from Kael rendered him unconscious.

I... didn't even see it coming...

Kael got up dully, grabbing the red arrow on his side with frustration.

You've hit me... Ascarin.

He clenched his fists violently, shattering it in dozens of triangular orange particles.

I won't let you do it again!

He turned around and finally glanced at the figure of Ascarin standing on a higher roof, bow in hand and with the giant storm still howling behind him.

He surely won't let me get close... mhh???

He felt something slightly touching his left foot. He peered down and let out a gasp of surprise. A little vine had come out of the stone roof and rapidly wrapped around his ankle.

Mala too!? I can't move...

He lifted his right arm and grabbed the second arrow coming from Ascarin, clasping it despite the fire burning the inside of his hand. Mala appeared on his left side, ready to strike.

Kael moved the arrow in between them and overcharged it with mana. The explosion staggered Mala and gave him enough time to burn the vine with a flame.

Dammit... I can't even use mana flames or they'll recognize me!

He created space for him to organize his next move. He quickly moved his eyes between Ascarin and Mala, who were both reading their attacks.

Kael lifted his left hand, forming a solid monolith of rock between him and Mala before turning towards the friend. With his speedy reflexes, he saw immediately the third fire arrow coming towards him. He got his hands close, forming in the middle of them a large ball of wind, which stopped the arrow thanks to the air friction. Still maintaining the sphere intact, he lifted his right hand as a swirl detached from the surrounding storm and brought more wind and debris to the ball, which subsequently grew in size.

The force of the air around Kael was too much for Mala to get too close, and he managed to throw a powerful gust of wind – mixed with stone pieces and dust from the broken houses – towards Ascarin.

“Kuh!!!”, he was barely able to stand his ground against that small tempest. “What the hell was that???”

As the vision cleared from the roof he was standing on, Ascarin looked at the enigmatic enemy below.

From what Thos and Yala told us... falconers shouldn't be able to use these types of magic in this way!

Kael now faced Mala, whose sight was open after the column of rock had crumbled. She looked determined and sure of herself – so much so that Kael smiled under the thick clothing.

That's the dear Mala I know...

He slowly lifted to the sky both his arms.

Now I want to have fun too!!!

He clapped his hands. The loud echo scattered across the area of the storm and bounced back, ringing in Ascarin and Mala's ears like the bell of demise. And just like the fuse of a candle lights up in a fraction of a second at the whisper of the flame, the little ember that formed in his hands covered the tornado in flashes of flame, lighting the whole place with a hellish hue and raising the temperature.

Both Kael's adversaries widened their eyes in front of the grim spectacle that was encircling them. Long tongues of fire painted on the dull vortex of wind danced in a frenzied-state, shifting, disappearing, appearing, uniting and separating in an endless cycle. The strong humid odor in the air was replaced by a pesky and hot ash scent. Smoke couldn't escape and was just sucked in the circle of wind, further increasing its already intimidating size.

The crackles of the fire mixed with the loud whirling hum of the storm, adding to the visual chaos unrolling in front of them.

They hesitated before moving at all. Ascarin's hands were trembling as his legs were frozen too, while Mala stood there speechless to observe all of that.

Who even is he? Even Ascarin is not moving... I've never seen such raw power in one single person, except for... No, it can't be Kael. He's stronger than this... it would be more humiliating, even if he didn't want to hurt us.

“I've had enough!!!”, the three of them turned around, where Thos had just got up. “Nonsense this, nonsense that!!! Who are you??? A god? A monster?”

Kael waited, observing the furious face of the monk, covered in blood from the injuries. He opened his mouth, ready to talk, “...”

“Thos!!!”, Yala's voice interjected as she landed on his same roof a few meters next to him. “Polus and his deployment let a horde of prophets slip through! We're getting attacked by them and they won't hold off! Meku and Kele are still busy with our best men, so I came here... since I saw this huge tempest. Who made this???”

“Get out of there, Yala! You have to get away!!!”, Thos screamed, holding the side of his head. “Go... away!!!”

“What are you saying, Thos?! Come to your sen-”, her eyes widened. She froze in place as if something just waked up inside her. “Ugh...”

Thos, in the silence of the clamant circle of wind, looked at the only visible portion of the sky. It was night, but the stars began to go off. “Ascarin, Mala... you go back to our district. We'll take care of him.”

They both looked at each other, but then nodded and went away, leaving the two monks and the falconer inside the storm.

Something is different about them... are they still sane?

Kael studied their figures. Thos stood still, lowering his head and concentrating. Yala moved behind him so that he was encircled completely.

“... !!!”

As she stopped her feet, the flames embracing the wind cone vanished without anyone's command.

“... Oblivion magic!”, Kael gasped with enthusiasm as his hands clasped.

Both Thos and Yala shot a blast of plasma from their hands, which turned dark mid-flight.

Kael formed his spear quickly, blocking the posterior attack with the tip of the handle and the anterior one with a scythe extension made of the same transparent and violet substance that Efimorij used.

He reabsorbed the dark plasma in his weapon, letting it flow in the whole body.

“Ahahaha... What about that!!!”, he swung his spear – now a scythe – and released a light violet magic slash towards Thos.

He leapt over it. Yala countered. She punched the roof and a series of rocky spikes shot out of it, aiming to strike Kael. He turned and bent his knees slightly.

“Mpfh!”

Instead of evading them, he launched himself towards the upcoming attack. With outstanding precision and speed, he cut all the spikes with his scythe, grinding them until he came face to face with the emotionless visage of Yala. Her wide eyes were marked with deep black veins running across the white surrounding her irises, which were now presenting a darker color than before.

He positioned the scythe behind her neck, giving her a sly smile.

“Bye, bye...”

He pulled the weapon towards himself, letting the blade slide through her neck. Her lifeless body fell on the ground before Thos could react.

“YALA!!!”

The monk grabbed Kael's left arm, trying to hold him still while charging a shot of plasma from his other hand.

Kael made the scythe disappear and slapped him across the face with his closed punch. He then clutched his mouth while holding him in the air.

“Pft... you two really surprised me! But I think you can't fight well enough with Oblivion magic; look how fast I've destroyed you. I didn't even get the time to have fun... ???”

Yala's body twitched. Then it rose, without a head. A shrill and unnatural hum escaped from the severed neck as a dark aura pulsed around it, veins crawling around the red blood stump like worms.

Kael turned, genuinely surprised.

“... What the hell?”

… that is what Polus told me before coming to Rmune.

“We don't know very much about the Curse that is currently afflicting Rmune. It's still a mystery what's causing it and how a subject gets hit by it. We just know some of the effects; people infected by it loose any ability to reason like human beings, they show an immense increase in their strength and magic powers and significant or minimal physical changes... then, in a few cases, these victims can survive to life-ending injuries and can be killed only if their hearts or more than 80% of their bodies are destroyed. It's a very serious matter and this is why we're trying to find more evidence than we can.”

So they're accursed. Fine then...

“Chanted Spell, Fire Ring: Absolute.”

A flame burst from nothing right inside his hand, coming into contact with Thos' face with a painful sizzling sound and muffled cries.

“Ehehehe... I can be cruel, can't I?”

The fire encircled the monk's whole body as it found its way on the ground too. It rose up as the tempest around them began to descend.

Eat them, flame.

With a horrific, low pitched sound, the bloom of fire swallowed everything on its path. And when it lay down, nothing was left other than the wind and debris – and Kael smiling in the smoke.

Wow... maybe I overdid. Ah, I won't worry about it now! Those two are dead but what about Ascarin, Mala and... Hold up!!!

His eyes went from thoughtful to shock as he felt a presence behind him.

He turned rapidly, meeting Olivia's staid gaze pointing a finger at his face. He grabbed her wrist right before she could shoot a super compressed ray of water – which only tore the side of Kael's turban.

The top piece of his falconer uniform fell off, revealing his face to Olivia.

“... !!!”, she had a start.

She recognized those green eyes as the world seemed to pause and her knees weakened. Her hand relaxed in his. She looked into his eyes, trying to say something out of that shock.

“Ah... I-it is...”, she mumbled but was unable to finish.

Kael tried to smirk but only got a strange tense grimace, “Eehehe... surprise! Ufh!”

He expected a scolding, but Olivia hugged him. She buried her head in his chest without making a noise and held him close to her.

“A-ah... wait, O-Olivia! Stop, you know I can't handle these kind of romantic things!”, he desperately said while blushing every second that passed. “Ouch, ouch! You're clinging too hard to me. You wanna suffocate me?”

“Why?”, she suddenly talked with trembling voice, “Where have you been?”

“... A-are you crying?”, he asked.

Olivia clenched Kael's clothes with her hand, “Yes! I am... we missed you so much. I missed you...”

“Huh??? W-well... I am here in one piece now! Then it's all okay, isn't it?”, he tried to calm her but got only silence from her. “Listen... it's a loooong story on how I ended with these stupid clothes and in this Cursed City. I bet all of you can tell me a lot of things that happened! Oh, by the way... where are Ascarin and Mala right now?”

She looked up to him while he was glancing around. She smiled reassuringly.

Look at him... somehow he can always calm me down. Tehehe... you never change, do you?

She detached from the hug. “Yes, they retreated outside the storm. Ah! And while you were fighting, the battle ended.”

“R-really??? Who won?”

“The Black Monks lost to the Prophets and the ones you came with got a minor victory on them.”

“Good! I'm happy for Polus and the others.”

Olivia raised an eyebrow, “Who's Polus?”

“Oh, you'll meet him soon. He's a good guy, don't worry!”

She chuckled contented, “Yeah, there are a lot of things to tell me.”

“Yeah, you can say that. I hope there will be enough time!”

Uberdia, Royal Palace, the same day

The king stood next to a tall double door in his egregious residence. He was looking down, thinking about something in the empty hallway. His hands fidgeting anxiously. A year had passed since the start of a secret and ancient rite, which still had no name. Inside the room in front of Mitir, the supreme head of the Church of Mitarsen had already been waiting for an entire year and it was the king itself who had to open the doors to put an end to the rite.

What happened during that year in that room, though, was unknown.

Here we are again... and to think I have to worry about this other than the whole Null situation.

He put his old hands on both the doors and pushed them. The creaking sound echoed first through the dark hallway behind him and then in the ample chapel in front of his eyes. Its walls white like the rest of the palace but there were no windows and the light was provided only by two giant magic crystal chandeliers hanging from the vaulted roof. Despite it being a place of cult to the Gods, there were no benches or chairs in between the pillars, which merged with the ogive vaults in detailed anthropomorphic capitals.

On the space of the room stood out a big marble statue of a feminine figure, covered head to feet by a very light drapery – and her left hand holding nothing but a small rolled parchment. It was placed on a tall altar with no decorations other than a dozen of candles encircling it at its base.

In front of it, kneeling, was the only living presence of that grim and quiet room.

“Iria... the Goddess of Justice.”, the person talked. Instantly his voice sounded young and yet full of knowledge.

“... ???”, the king was intrigued by that premise.

“You're finally here, Mitir. The statue kept me very good company during this one, long year.”

Mitir's eyes adjusted so that he could see the figure well enough. His white uniform and whole back was covered by a red cloak. “Pontiff Estrea, welcome back among us livings.”

“Pft... good thing to hear.”, he joked, raising to his feet and observing the statue. “Things are going good outside?”

Mitir reflexively nodded first, “Yes, everything good. You will see how nothing else has changed once your out of here.”

“... Ehehe, wise as ever!”

The silence following that statement made Estrea turn. His cape budged with unusual grace.

Pearly eyes – coupled with snow white eyelashes and eyebrows – gazed at the monarch in front of him. His medium white hair with black highlights shone at the light that embedded the room.

“As for what I got from this rite... I have to ask one thing and one thing only.”, he said, this time emanating a creepier aura, which made Mitir clutch to his vest involuntarily.

“... and what is it?”, he responded while trying to keep his composure.

The Pontiff smirked, “Mitir, please and kindly, could you bring Kael of Nara to me?”

Mitir immediately talked back, “He's not here. We sent him with the noble Ascarin and his wife to the Great Void to search for the Null. But we've already got Tena, Olsted and Tanaka following them there.”

This blunt answer colored Estrea surprised. “Really...”, he moved forward without hesitation, passing next to the king with no regards, “I'll go too to the Great Void. Archbishop Carnelian will take my place in my absence.”

Mitir swallowed nervously at his imperative tone and seriousness – he knew he couldn't comply. “Tell me the reason. The reason why you're so eager to search for Kael that you're willing to go in that hell of a place!”

Estrea stopped right in front of the double door, placing a hand on the door fixture. He turned his head slowly, grazing his king with his typical malevolent smile. “A very kind old man has bestowed upon me a few months ago. He was so polite that I couldn't refuse his offer.”

That said he disappeared in the hallway, leaving Mitir confused.

What??? A man... a few moths ago... but no one can enter here! Not even Gods...