The Drop of the Other Shoe

Squinting so hard his eyes began to blur, Zida had finally realized what it was that Daim wanted him to see. Among the mountains of death and suffering, two people on either end of the painting appeared calm. A man within a pile of bloodied bodies, peered to the right with his hand stretched outwards. Across from him stood a young girl staring back. Unscathed, and unbothered by the tragedy before her.

“They would have worshipped her as an angel,” Daim uttered.

Zida turned away from the painting, looking down at his own feet move one in front of the other as he slowly stepped away from Daim. “So, if another survivor appeared, Adikos would want her alive… Then why would they let me leave the Central Region with her?”

Daim’s eyes raised, uncertain of what he’d just heard. “She’s here with you?”

Zida nodded his head, an ambiguity filling his eyes.

“Why didn’t you state so when you announced that you were approaching?” Daim questioned, “I could’ve made preparations.”

Zida, however, wasn’t quite catching on. “I never announced my arrival. We made an abrupt decision to head here mid-travel.”

“But I received notice a day ago that you would be arriving.”

Zida and Daim stared at each other, their conflicting words leaving a trail of uneasiness simmering in the air.

Meanwhile standing in the center of the shopping district, the man’s knife was held steady in Toyo’s direction, his eyes teeming with conviction. “Her blood.”

One of the guard accompanying Toyo’s group suddenly grabbed hold of her from behind. Before Daku could react, the other guard clasped his hands together. A white flash burned through the air, briefly blinding Sina and Daku.

Despite her lack of vision, Daku jumped into the sky, only to be grappled by her ankle and brought back down into a swarming crowd. With Sina and Daku being overrun by the bombarding mob, they struggled to hold themselves up. Barely managing to protect themselves from the flurry of punches and strikes being thrusted upon them.

In a final hurl of desperation, Sina screamed Toyo’s name at the top of lungs, only for her voice to barely make it past the mountain of bodies above. Reducing her cries to nothing more than mere whispers.

“Daim, would anything have been different had I not been here?” questioned Zida.

Daim nodded his head, the schemes surrounding him now revealing themselves. But before he could speak, the creaking of the library doors held his tongue, as a single pair of footsteps ominously stepped through.

“General Khor, what is it?” Daim questioned to the sudden presence of his Prosecutor General.

“My liege, I am indebted to you,” Khor spoke, the moonlight passing over his face pulling him from the veil of the shadowed doorway.

“What are you talking about?” Daim questioned, confusion wrapping like a string around his thoughts.

“May the world see itself for what it is. Were those not the words of your father? He died without fulfilling that promise, but today, my liege, you can present that truth to the people with your own life.”

A large blast of energy thrusted towards Daim and Zida, the impact of its speed alone crackling like a sonic boom. Daim swiftly dashed out of the way, while Zida effortlessly deflected the attack with his blade. Its trajectory shifted upwards, tearing through the painting and causing it and the roof to come tumbling down.

“Is this a coup?” Zida questioned, but Daim left no room for an answer. As quickly as he avoided Kohr’s first attack, he lunged forward with a counter, ready to end the battle quicky.

“12 steps!”

As Daim closed in, Kohr attempted to dodge the oncoming blow, but with Zida’s swinging his blade and sending a wave of force within inches of his head, his opportunity was rendered nonexistent. Daim placed his right palm on his chest and uttered the deadly phrase: “Direct contact, 125 hits.”

Kohr lit up in a glowing explosion, his body now crumbling to the ground. “Radius, 1.5 meters.” Daim clasped the palms of his hands together as a board drew itself on the ground, encompassing both himself and the Prosecutor General. Daim’s eyes shined a bright blue as he hawked down on Kohr. The general said not a word as he simply peered up at Daim with an arrogant glimmer to his face, with Daim returning an astonished stare.

The numbers weren’t there. With the board activated, Daim should be able to see the counter, but they were absent, and just as quickly, so was Kohr.

Step. Step.

“The fabled ratio script is quite the spectacle I see.”

Daim and Zida glared at the library entrance as, to their surprise, there stood General Kohr.

“You see the problem with that script is how dependent it is on getting the numbers correct. You always want to avoid choosing the wrong numbers as it makes you vulnerable.”

Daim repositioned himself, passing a glance towards Zida before returning his focus to Kohr. “I’m impressed at how much you pretend to know about my script, general,” Daim retorted.

“Well, I did intend to use it myself,” Kohr replied as he rapidly launched another energy blast towards Daim.

Daim was confused by the general’s words, and even more so on how he managed to free himself from his ratio script, but with his window to avoid the oncoming attack quickly decreasing, Daim saved the deductions for later.

“Defense, 432.”

The liege barley thwarted the blast with his body nearly tipping over from the overwhelming impact, sending the blast into the sky.

Zida wouldn’t stand by idly, however, as he swung his sword towards Kohr, sending a ripping strike at the general that sliced through the floorboards and cut the wall in half. With its speed double that of Kohr’s attack, Zida saw no means for the general to avoid the blow in time. He had launched it just as Kohr attacked Daim, leaving him vulnerable.

Yet the general, once again, defied the odds and somehow walked away completely untouched.

“That would even kill a Mu warrior in one strike,” Kohr applauded before shadowing his own words of praise, “If you manage to make it connect.”

Daim and Zida were both at a loss. Two direct and successful attacks had done nothing to harm the general. Even more astounding, Kohr had seemingly managed to alter reality to make it as if he was never struck at all. It was an ability that neither of them had dealt with before, let alone heard of, and it left them wondering just what it would take to overcome it.

Daim, for one, was finding the unusual script from his Prosecutor General astonishing; struggling to believe that all this time he’d managed to obscure such unbelievable strength.

“Just what the hell is going on?”