Chapter 24: The Real War Begins Part 2

Yihizo Ye Langa, Limpopo – Battlefield

The desert shook under the weight of  war.

Smoke, fire, and spiritual residue mingled in the air, suffocating yet electrifying. 

Every heartbeat of the AZO soldiers carried fear and awe—their lives caught between beings far beyond human comprehension.

At the center, two figures locked eyes across the jagged ruins: John and Miloslav.

Miloslav’s hands flexed, his gaze tracing the subtle symmetries in John’s stance.

“The Seal isn’t just about resetting everything,” he said, his voice low, sharp. 

“And you know that.”

 

A faint smirk tugged at John’s lips.

 “Oh, my former apprentice… it won’t matter once the Seal is broken. Everything rewinds—even the original sinner.”

 

“You don’t know that,” 

Miloslav shot back, eyes narrowing.

 “And I won’t let you—or Aries—test if it’s possible.”

 

John laughed, a sound that echoed across the battlefield. “I’d like to see you try.”

He flicked his wrist.

Instantly, the battlefield around him stuttered—moments folding back as if reality itself obeyed him. Miloslav’s eyes narrowed, instincts screaming.

The clash was precise, surgical.

Each strike Miloslav aimed at John’s symmetry-points was met with a rewind dodge or pre-emptive counter. Sand erupted where attacks should have landed. Sparks of spiritual essence tore through the air.

Miloslav aimed, muscles tensing. Every strike landed, every rhythm broken, yet John adapted, rewinding again. The duel wasn’t just strength—it was a test of timing, intuition, and inevitability.

Enter The Zodiacs

Above the chaos, the sky split with fire.

The air grew heavy, pressing down on soldier and Hunter alike. Flames licked the horizon, shadows stretched unnaturally long across the sand.

Three golden streaks of energy marked the approach of the Zodiacs.

Ava, Luna, and Kent drew themselves from the shadows of their watchtower.

Their opponents emerged: Aries, Anya, and Noelle.

Ava froze.

Her eyes widened as she took in Anya—ten years passed in an instant. 

Memories surged, a flood of laughter, shared victories, and unspoken pain. 

Memories surged: laughter shared under a setting sun, battles fought side by side, secrets whispered in the quiet hours. The ache of loss, the weight of time, pressed on her chest.

Anya, oblivious, gripped her red blade, poised to strike.

“A-Anya…” Ava’s voice cracked, carried over the roar of the battlefield. “It’s me… your sister.”

Luna and Kent exchanged astonished glances, unable to hide their surprise at the revelation.

Noelle’s purple gaze shimmered with amusement. “Now this is a twist,” she murmured, her tone cold but sharp.

 

 Anya’s grip faltered. She glanced toward Aries, seeking guidance.

 

Aries’ grin was cold, his blue fire casting harsh shadows over the sand.

“She’s trying to trick you,” he said.

“Remember what I told you when you were twelve? Humanity was never your tether. I took you away to make you a Zodiac weapon. Everything else… ties to mortality, to family… were illusions.”

 

A spark of memory flickered behind Anya’s violet eyes.

She remembered the training, the long nights under Aries’ shadow, the harsh lessons, the subtle care that had disguised itself as cruelty.

She had been moulded for this very moment, guided—and even loved—by the man who had torn her from the life she might have known.

 Anya’s gaze snapped back to Ava.

 “I… I’m sorry,” she said, voice low, almost pained. 

“I have no memory… of us ever being sisters. Even if we were… it doesn’t exist for me.”

 

Ava’s chest constricted, a scream caught in her throat. 

The world felt heavier, each breath a blade cutting her open. The flood of memories, the hope, the ache of recognition—all of it shattered in that single, cruel sentence.

 

Before she could recover, a streak of blue fire erupted across the sky. Aries’ blue devil bomb hurtled toward the three. The world seemed to tilt in slow motion.

 

The first bombs dropped.

Soldiers screamed, scrambling for cover as a sphere of blue spiritual energy smashed into the sand nearby. 

A young AZO private barely dove behind a barricade, grit and blood spattering his uniform. His hands trembled as he looked up at the streaking lights, realizing how small and fragile he was against gods in the sky.

 

Ava’s chest tightened. 

Seeing her sister—the one who had taken everything from her—and feeling the sting of Anya not remembering… it made her hesitate. 

Every instinct screamed to reach out, to bridge the impossible gap, but the battlefield demanded otherwise.

 

“Ava!” Luna’s shout cut through the haze of emotion. The sharpness of her voice snapped Ava back. Her hands clenched, probability folds surging, time snapping to the now.

 

The bomb was coming. The war waited for no one—even for sisters.

Ava’s hand wavered.

 Probability Fold.

She tried to manipulate the outcome, misdirect the blue flames, slow the fatal arc—but the hesitation was deadly.

 

Ava vs Anya

Anya’s first strike cut through the air with relentless precision. 

Ava’s Time Freeze snapped a heartbeat too late—the red-flame katana grazed her shoulder, searing fabric and flesh.

 

Pain flared, but what truly staggered her was the face before her. Anya. Her sister.

 

“You… remember me?” Ava gasped, voice trembling.

 But Anya’s eyes—sharp, unyielding, predator’s eyes—showed nothing.

 No recognition, only the cold focus of a Leo Zodiac. 

Her blade spun again, forcing Ava back step by step.

 Ava faltered, memories flooding her—laughter, promises, a bond now erased. 

Her hand wavered.

 Anya’s katana pressed closer, heat licking her arms, flames threatening to carve her apart.

 

The hesitation nearly killed her.

 

At the last instant, Ava snapped her fingers—Time Freeze! The world around Anya slowed for a single second. Ava surged forward, upper cutting with all her strength.

  The blow connected, sending Anya flying, red flame scattering like shattered glass. 

Steam and sparks rose around her like a miniature sunburst.

 But the Leo Zodiac’s reflexes were uncanny.

With a flicker of movement almost too fast to follow, she twisted mid-flight, katana angled to intercept the blow’s final momentum. 

The uppercut was slowed, deflected, leaving Anya only slightly off balance—her eyes glinting with renewed intensity.

Ava stumbled to regain her footing, heart hammering in her chest- heart hammering, grief clouding every instinct. 

She had struck her sister… but the battle had only just begun.

 

Kent vs Noelle

Arrows streaked across the battlefield, each one wreathed in black fire.

 Noelle’s fingers twitched—space itself bent. Shots vanished, reappeared, twisted mid-flight, forcing Kent to adjust on instinct.

 

One arrow detonated at his feet after she warped it back; he leapt away, the sand scorching beneath him. 

Another phantom slash came from behind, her warped clone cutting air where his spine had been.

 Kent grit his teeth, loosing another volley. 

This time, some struck true—grazing her robes with searing flame. Noelle only chuckled, circling like a predator.

 

“I'm always two steps ahead of you,” she murmured. 

“Every move, every breath—I’ve already seen it.”

 

Kent raised his bow, black flames flaring brighter, forming a shield that shattered her next distortion. His arms trembled, but he didn’t break. Young, raw, yet unyielding.

 

Their clash became rhythm: strategist against survivor, master against prodigy. Noelle pressed relentlessly, always calculating, but Kent’s defiance refused to die.

 

Luna vs Aries

 

Above the battlefield, Luna’s control over water surged, waves whipping around her like living shields. Aries burned like a blue storm, fury incarnate, flames licking the air as he advanced.

 

“You can’t hold back the tide of war,” he roared, arcs of blue fire clashing with Luna’s walls of water. Each strike sizzled and hissed, steam rising where fire met liquid, the ground trembling under the elemental fury.

 

Luna twisted, directing torrents of water to sweep toward him, forcing him to shift mid-air, blue flames carving paths through the spray. Their powers collided with a roar, a storm of fire and water that left scorched puddles and steam clouds in its wake.

The battlefield became a kaleidoscope of fire and shadow- time bending under Ava’s folds, black flames slicing at impossible angles, and blue fire scorching the sand below.

 Anya advanced, red flames trailing like blood in the wind.

The world around her blurred.

She cried out, “Time Freeze!” splintering in her grip.

Kent and Luna noticed, instincts flaring. “Ava—now!” Luna shouted, sending a wave of water to push Aries back. Kent released a flurry of black flame arrows, forcing Noelle back temporarily.

But the moment was lost. Ava’s hesitation—human, painfully human—created a gap Anya exploited. Her red flames cut a swath through the sand, separating Ava from her allies.

Chaos and consequence:

The desert shook under the weight of war.

 Sparks of blue and red fire streaked across the air, colliding with arcs of black flame and torrents of water, creating clouds of steam that clawed at every soldier’s lungs.

 

John and Miloslav clashed at the jagged ruins, the shrapnel of their strikes sending sand and debris flying, which rained over Ava and Anya as they fought.

 Ava staggered from a fiery gust, almost tripping on the same debris that had erupted around the two sisters.

 

From above, the roar of water slamming against blue flames cut through the hiss of igniting black arrows.

Luna’s wave crashed over the edge of the sand dunes, splashing toward Kent, who twisted mid-shot, black flames snapping against Noelle’s warping prism.

 The shimmer of her eye bent the light, briefly illuminating Anya’s red flames in Ava’s peripheral vision.

 The desert shook. The air shimmered. And reality itself—fragile, dying—hung in the balance.

The real war had begun.