Through the Dark

Sayaka's heart pounded as Itsuki raised his mace between them and Reathe. Lightning lit sky around them above the flaming forest, ablaze all around them in a ring.

The wind tousled his dark hair. His brown eyes glowed with a subtle light. It was the same aura that radiated from his fist gripped tight to his chest.

Tears blurred her vision for a moment as emotions overwhelmed her.

He was alright—more than alright. And he'd come to rescue her. Wherever this place they were in was.

She thanked every force in the universe as they locked eyes.

He lightly smiled at her with warmth before looking back at Reathe. His expression hardened as he shouted.

"It's the end of the line. You're already beaten! Give up and retreat if you value your life."

"W-what is this?! Why in the hells are you here?!" The cultist trembled in exhaustion and pure shock. The tempest clashed with the fire around them, choking the air as their chest rose and fell in quick succession.

"Nothing you need to know," Itsuki replied.

His mace began to glow as magic surged into it, and Sayaka stiffened back to attention.

"!" Was he really planning on taking on that lunatic? Sure, they seemed a lot more weakened than they'd been before, but energy still crackled around them nearly intense as the storm.

Sayaka swallowed before rising to her feet behind Itsuki. She did her best to get a hold of herself, wiping the tears from her face.

If he really was going to fight, he wouldn't do so alone!

Reathe pointed a finger at both of them as they starting channeling power.

"You were supposed to be in that damned barrier, twink—had a hole through your chest for crying out loud! You shouldn't even be able to walk let alone quip with the damage you had."

They looked at Sayaka next as lightning struck all around them.

"And you, don't think this is over. Not when we've finally found a proper catalyst. This little system's been lit like a beacon, it's only a matter of time before—"

*SMACK*

Their voice splattered mid-monologue, a boulder-sized projectile soaring through the air.

"!" Sayaka's eyes glanced back at Velena who'd crept into position behind Reathe while they'd been distracted by Itsuki's banter.

The matron was here too?!

"Oh for the love of—COME ON!" Reathe as their body ethereally tried to reform. "Can't I even finish a sentence, or does this world not give that to me either?! Rathgara and Stahl were supposed to lock that town down! Why is she here and using the same damned trick as before no less?!"

They hurried back toward the stone's center while being pelted with various projectiles.

"Nobody messes with my town and gets away with it, fiend!"

Velena ran closer as she continued their bombardment. Then she looked back at them as Itsuki secured his mace to his belt.

"Get a head start while I try to lock them down! Just like we talked about. I'll be right behind the both of you, worldwalkers."

Sayaka's eyes widened as the situation started clicking for her, even more so when Itsuki grasped her hand in his.

Her pulse raised at the contact. Did he plan this all with Velena? It was like a rescue attempt straight out of a manga. The only thing missing was them teaming up to make some sort of cheesy signature attack like 'Twilight Breaker' or 'Gold Blast'.

She shook the thought from her head as she tried to focus back on the moment. They needed to get out of here first—get to safety.

"You heard Velena," Itsuki whispered to her before pulling her along. He started guiding them toward a part of the tree line not yet ablaze.

"No you will not!" Reathe screamed as they kept reforming themselves. "I can still claim our rightful divine essence and continue our plans!"

A wall of wind slammed right in front of them, cutting off their escape. It curved around them in a circle, keeping them confined to the stone's perimeter with a barrier that rose high into the clouds.

Reache was tugged back by Velena toward the center of it all.

"How are you so persistent?!" she yelled.

Several bolts of water shot toward the cultist before they could do anything else, spreading out and linking together to form a sphere of water. It enclosed around them as she tried to restrain them.

However, it didn't work.

The earth trembled as if she fought the fury of the weather itself, before Reathe broke free from their prison in a shockwave and sent Velena straight into the humming stone.

Sayaka's eyes widened as the blue-haired woman struggled to stand back up, body shaking from the damage as Reathe crackled in cold heat.

"You cannot tell a storm to back down, my dear Velena."

Without skipping a beat more, energy surged around the cultist and right toward both Sayaka and Itsuki.

***

They were forced apart to avoid them, rolling out of the way just in time before the attacks slammed where they used to be.

Itsuki glanced over at Sayaka to see if she was okay. She was already postured to defend herself. He sighed in relief as she held her palm outstretched, doing her best to unravel a new onslaught of spells hurdling through the tempest air.

"!" Not all of them though.

Itsuki quickly rushed in to block one of them that'd been in her blind spot. He took out his mace as he broke an incoming barrage of wind stakes from the side, just before it could slam into her.

His heart skipped a beat as they brushed past each other.

"I won't let anything touch you so long as I'm standing!" he shouted.

He redirected his momentum when he noticed an electric glow refracting through the storm's droplets. Before it could hit him though, Sayaka dispelled the attack to protect him.

"Same goes to you."

She launched a fireball back at Reathe with as much intensity as she could while Itsuki came to a stop across the slickened stone.

Her attack impacted the twin-tailed cultist, fire shaking the sky. However, their voice boomed out right after, unamused.

"You really do disgust me. Both of you."

The ground trembled as the aura began to grow stronger, saturating the air in pure static.

"!" Crap.

Itsuki instinctually pulled Sayaka away and let his mace clatter to the glowing ground.

Unfortunately, he wasn't fast enough. Magic barreled toward them. Itsuki used his own body to shield her. They both tensed as they anticipated the attack.

Before it could land though, another torrent of water launched to intercept if from where Velena was.

"Keep your eyes on me, fiend!"

Reathe tsked as the matron's attack dissipated their own.

"I'm afraid I'm in no mood for a repeat of last time, and you're in no shape for it either, matron."

The glowing stone circle suddenly began to shake, perking the half-elementaling.

"But I am in the mood for that."

Their voice split the air in mock laughter before suddenly hardening into something deeper.

Reathe panted heavily as their body began to warp around them. Physical form frayed into living clouds. Thunder rumbled. Air cracked. They became a cyclone incarnate with a storm surging at its heart.

"And I'm not going to just let you get away now that it's so close. So come with me to greatness, won't you?"

Itsuki gripped Sayaka's hand as several attacks were launched at them, healing warmth accelerating through her and giving them enough strength to lunge out of the way together.

It was just in time, but not for Velena.

Electricity surged through the air as wind encapsulated the matron. She pushed back with her own magic, though she clearly faltered as sweat streamed down her face.

Itsuki and Sayaka could only look on in horror as Reathe pulsed with more power, then ejected Velena out of the circle through a brief hole in the barrier.

"And then there were two."

Reathe continued to build in vibrato as their voice took up the entire air. Their storming eyes shifted to look at him and Sayaka in a glare.

Itsuki gulped as they scrambled toward the windwall.

"It's almost humorous that the triumvirate have sent two broken souls. An open heart and a guarded one—opposites and identical in all the wrong ways. You drown in your own grief. You drown in your own pity. So how can you ever even think of saving others?"

Ethereal bolts of lightning crackled as they scorched the air in statis, more numerous than Itsuki could count as they grew in intensity.

"What a joke. You couldn't even save the most important things in each of your miserable lives."

They aimed the bolts straight at both of them.

"Now be good and stay down until we arrive."

Itsuki and Sayana finally made it to the perimeter. However, it was already too late for them.

"!" The barrage crashed into him and Sayaka as he tried taking the brunt of it. Both of them screamed while lightning shackled them, and the glow beneath them intensified. They could feel themselves steadily being pulled toward somewhere else.

Pain rampaged recklessly through them like knives in their brains, gritting their teeth as they tried to resist.

Yet despite it all, his grip on Sayaka only tightened throughout the pained breathing and thundering heartbeats.

*BA-DUMP*

"!" He could suddenly sense a glow linking them together throughout the storm. His voice echoed in her mind, and hers in his.

They didn't know what was happening. They didn't even know most of their feelings. Yet they were thinking the same thing.

He looked over to her, eyes shimmering as tears streamed down both their cheeks.

***

'I refuse to stop trying.'

***

Itsuki and Sayaka suddenly pushed back against the magic as warmth flooded their systems. Light surged as it fought the weight of it all, enveloping Itsuki and Sayaka in luminous armor.

Each memory they'd made—each interaction they'd had together—they synched across them in threads. Radiant wings formed behind both of them as their powers converged into one.

The zone around them shattered, and rain resumed pattering around them.

Reathe stuttered, surprised.

"H-how?! That was everything I had! You two shouldn’t be standing! Let alone whatever nonsense this is!"

The cultist leader refocused all of their magic, throwing the heavens at them in one final attempt.

"Just stay down already! Stop being annoying!"

Despite the command, the two of them began to ascend into the air, going higher and higher. Itsuki trusted his instincts as Sayaka did the same. Energy focused in their hands. They cut through the darkness and onslaught as the circle's pull faded away beneath them, then locked eyes on the Reathe.

"Fortify. Strengthen. Reinforce."

The words flowed out of Itsuki's mouth one by one, just as Sayaka yelled out.

"Gold Impact!"

An attack shot out like a supernova from Sayaka's outstretched palm. Droplets and magic vaporized in light. Reathe screamed out as it overwhelmed them in an instant.

The storm died as it all faded, and for just a second the world was still.

Itsuki blinked as a shockwave pulsed through the forest.

"…Did you just yell out an attack name? Like in a manga?"

"Y-yeah, like in a magical girl one."

She smiled bashfully.

Before they could say anything more, exhaustion slammed into them like a truck.

Itsuki looked down to realize just how high they were as blackness started creeping in around his vision.

"…" Well that wasn't good.

Heat flickered. Light sputtered. Powers faded. Then, so did they.

As the wind buffeted them on the way down, their gazes locked one last time. Brown and grey. Falling through the dark.

Their grips tightened around the other, refusing to let go as the ground rose closer.

The final thing they saw before passing out was each other.