Final Battle: Part 2

“Anastasia… How could you betray me, too? After all that I have done for you!” King Alucard was furious. Both generals of his army had double-crossed him.

“Don’t play the victim here! It’s your fault Stephen is dead! I’ll make sure to get my revenge,” Anastasia’s aura of flames grew wilder, melting the surrounding ice.

“Thanks for the support, Anastasia. His magic was getting troublesome,” Natsu expressed her gratitude.

Fumes escaped from the top of King Alucard’s head. His anger had surpassed the boiling point by 10 times. He gripped his fist tightly, exerting even more aura than before as he readied his blade for another attack.

I dashed forward along with Natsu, flaming swords in hand. The biting cold was no longer inhibiting our movements. We were able to dodge his attacks and counterattack with our own slashes. Anastasia rained fireballs from the sky on King Alucard, scorching the land.

Flames replaced the towering plots of snow and ice. King Alucard was being pushed back by our onslaught of flames, unable to form his towering mountains of ice. Our teamwork prevented him from making any counterattacks. His defence was crumbling.

“Don’t stop! We’re winning!” I announced. My heart was racing with expectations.

Natsu and I danced around the battlefield, slicing him with our flaming blades in unison. King Alucard could no longer defend against any of our attacks. He took the brunt of our slashes, and burning scars were seared all over his body.

“That’s enough!” King Alucard shouted with his booming voice, pushing us back with his sheer power.

“What’s wrong? Wanna give up?” I taunted him. It wasn’t even part of the plan anymore. I just wanted to irritate him as much as possible.

“We won’t let you live, no matter how much you beg!” Natsu threatened. For all the pain and suffering he has caused, we would never give a drop of mercy to him.

King Alucard stabbed his sword into the ground once again. The pressure around him shook the atmosphere. He wasn’t just freezing the pitch-black floor anymore. The ground itself had transmogrified into ice.

His body had been dyed a deep blue, replacing his fair skin. All the scars and burns that littered his body healed instantly. King Alucard’s body had grown twice in size, and his eyes glowed a bright blue. Massive claws replaced his fingertips. He was no longer human.

“He’s completely fused with his monstrous mana,” Anastasia commented. She stared dumbfoundedly at the being in front of her, defending herself from his aura.

“So he’s let go of his humanity. How sickening,” Natsu chided, even if he would no longer understand her.

“Doesn’t change our objective. We just have to keep it up!” I said.

The three of us, clouded in a shield of flames, cut through the blizzard. This battle was far from over.

—------------------------

Emperor Nobunaga hadn’t been prepared for their next move. He readied a gravitational spell to send Anastasia and Chiyo flying towards Riku, taking down all of the most dangerous members at once.

But Anastasia disappeared into thin air.

“Misao! Your magic is truly infuriating!” He thought to himself.

He was too late in sensing the overflowing mana behind him. As he turned, his eyes were blinded by a golden light. Before he could defend, his entire body was scorched by the beam of gold. It shot him towards the ground, pushing him against the cobblestone road.

His body was bruised with scorch marks and scratches. There was only one person who could have done this much damage to him.

“Yukino. Not you too.” Emperor Nobunaga’s confident persona had crumbled. He expected his daughter to go against him, but it hurt all the same.

“Why Father?! Why did you lie to us all this time?!”

Yukino’s tears were uncontrollable. She stood in front of her father, pointing her blade at his neck. Her hands shivered, unable to control her overflowing emotions.

“I did it for us, my dear. I won’t do anything that would hurt you.”

“Stop it! Just tell me the truth!” The tip of her katana pricked Emperor Nobunaga’s neck. A light stream of blood flowed down his Adam’s apple.

“Are you afraid of dying?” Emperor Nobunaga asked all of a sudden.

Yukino stared wide-eyed at her father. She did not expect those words to come out of his mouth.

“I’ve always had this fear in my mind. It’s almost a phobia. Just thinking that one day, I would cease to exist left me with dread. My regrets would be too great for me to accept. I wouldn’t be able to spend time with my loved ones anymore. There would be dreams in my life that I would never be able to fulfil. And I just can’t tolerate that.”

It wasn’t just Yukino this time. Arakawa, Chiyo and Misao couldn’t believe what they were seeing. The man they had formerly revered as an unbreakable leader was crumbling before them. This was the first time they had seen Emperor Nobunaga’s true colours.

“So I decided to find a way to live forever. I was desperate. The number of sacrifices I had to make didn’t matter. As long as my goal was complete, I would take any drastic action. That was when I read that excess mana would prolong people’s lives.”

“If I could take mana from large amounts of people and collect it in a single source, I could use it to increase my lifespan. But I wondered how I could do that. After multiple failed experiments, I found my solution: the Sovereign’s Tourney.”

“I would set up a large-scale war between Aogiri and Aethelheim. Once the war was over, the king of Aethelheim and I would capture all the mana from the dead bodies and keep it for ourselves, regularly taking it in. It didn’t take much for the king of Aethelheim to agree with my plan.”

“Every 10 years, we conducted the Sovereign’s Tourney. We even added another nation to the mix to increase our credibility and spread rumours that we were being manipulated by special beings in No Man’s Land to do this. Everything worked out perfectly, and I don’t regret it a single bit. Aren’t a king’s subjects supposed to sacrifice their lives for their leader?”

Emperor Nobunaga chuckled. The weight in his heart had finally been lifted after countless years. He had kept this secret for so long that it was permanently lodged at the back of his mind like a parasite. It had finally been killed, relieving him of all his worries. This really was the happiest he had ever been.

“What about Mother and me? Were you going to give us the mana as well?” Yukino asked. Her expression was undecipherable.

“Why would I? If I gave it to both you and your mother, it would mean less for me. I only kept the mana in your necklace because of the biting itch in my mind. Keeping both of you alive till you reached old age was enough for me. I would find another wife and have another kid after that.”

The silence among them was deafening. None of them could even look at the deplorable man before them. He didn’t deserve any respect or sympathy from any of them.

“Even when I try to find the little bits of sympathy in the depths of my heart to give you, I can’t. How could the man who brought me up and cared for me be such a disgusting and weak creature! I despise you from the bottom of my heart! I’ll give you the death you’ve feared for so long myself!”

Yukino was beyond furious. The love for her father was completely gone, leaving it empty for hatred to fill. All the hope for redemption for her father had shattered into pieces.

She pushed her sword forward, ready to slice Emperor Nobunaga’s neck. But it wasn’t working. No matter how hard she pressed, the sword refused to budge.

“You’re hurting your old man’s heart. But if that’s how you feel, then I have to kill you as well. I won’t repeat these mistakes with my next child.”

Emperor Nobunaga had used his gravity magic to push her sword back. With a flick of his finger, Yukino was flung towards a building with a large crash. Misao couldn’t react in time to soften the blow.

“So, how old exactly are you, Nobunaga? If you created the Sovereign’s Tourney, you must be over a hundred years old.” Arakawa asked out of curiosity; his hostility was still apparent.

“Too long to remember, but you must be right. Does it even matter, though? Everyone present here will die anyway.”

Another flick of his finger attracted Arakawa. Emperor Nobunaga grabbed his neck tightly, ready to snap it. But Arakawa disappeared into thin air before he could deal the final blow. Just as Emperor Nobunaga predicted, a slash from a scythe from behind as well as impacts from water magic soon followed. The pain he felt was equivalent to a mosquito bite.

Another phoenix soon darted towards Emperor Nobunaga, but he dispelled it with ease before it impacted him. With a wave of one hand, the building where the magical arrow came from crumbled from within.

“Riku!” Both Chiyo and Arakawa screamed in unison. A normal person would not be able to survive being crushed by that much debris.

“Phew! Thanks for the save, Mr Misao!” Riku’s familiar voice jolted Chiyo and Arakawa.

“You guys are killing me here. I don’t know how many more teleportations I can do,” Misao sighed. He was out of breath.

“Cockroaches! Just die already!” Emperor Nobunaga was annoyed.

Shwing! A slash of light split the building in front of him. Its effervescent glow was mesmerising. But Emperor Nobunaga had no time to revel in it. For the first time in the match, he unsheathed his katana and held the attack of pure energy back.

Yukino flew through the building at the speed of light, clashing her own sword with Emperor Nobunaga’s.

“Let’s end this, father!” she shouted.

“I agree. Prepare to take your last breath!”

—-------------

Every bone in my body was rattling with exhaustion. Taking even one step took all my effort. My armour was almost destroyed, leaving scars from the ice. If it weren’t for Anastasia’s flames, I would have died of frostbite already.

Beside me. Natsu still had a look of determination. Her condition was similar to mine, but her stamina had not depleted as much. She was already prepared for her next attack.

On the other hand, Anastasia was still as energetic as ever. She continued to rain fire on King Alucard. How did she still have so much mana?

We continued our plan of overwhelming him with our flames, but it had become less effective. His eyes easily traced Natsu’s and my movements, and Chiyo’s attacks were becoming less effective. All of us were unable to dodge the counterattacks from his sword. They hurt way more than I imagined.

“We can’t keep doing this forever! Anyone got any ideas?” I asked the others.

“Isn’t that your job? I’m gonna continue whacking him with my sword,” Natsu replied. I was almost shocked at how straightforward her answer was.

“The fire will burn him sooner or later. He shouldn’t be able to bear any more of my mana,” Anastasia added. Judging by her current condition, I could agree with her statement.

Wait. He couldn’t bear any more mana? If that’s the case…

An idea popped into my mind. If Anastasia’s observation was true, we had found King Alucard’s weakness.

“Hey, guys. I’ve got a plan. Listen up.”

I briefly explained the rough plan that was in my head. Anastasia and Natsu pondered for a while but ultimately agreed to my plan, even with the dire risks it brought.

“I can’t think of anything better. Let’s do it!” Natsu pumped her fist.

“This is’ll be nothing for me! I’ll easily overwhelm him!” Anastasia was confident in the plan.

With a deep breath, I strengthened my nerves and calmed my beating heart. This was our last-ditch effort. There was no room for error.

King Alucard roared like a beast, sending tremors to the ground littered with ice and fire. His sanity had disappeared, leaving only his animalistic nature. The beast stood on all fours, holding his sword of ice in his mouth. He was ready for his next attack.

I pointed my sword at him.

“Do it!” I commanded.