Fractured Darkness

The chaos below churned like a storm. Demons tore through carnival stalls, neon signs shattered into rain of sparks, the scent of smoke and ozone stinging the night. Guardians and angels countered with flashes of fire, arcs of water, gusts of wind, and beams of pure light, but the tide was relentless.

They needed distance, somewhere safe. The other angels already scooped up the girls, wings beating hard as they launched skyward, away from the chaos below. Akihiro held Aihana close as he lifted off—but before they gained height, a jagged surge of demonic energy sliced through the mist.

It wasn’t a random blast. It hunted.

A twisting blade of shadow struck between them with lethal intent, ripping her from his arms in an instant.

She fell, terror etched across her face, arms clutching the bear. Akihiro twisted mid-flight, barely stabilizing himself, his gaze locking onto her descending form.

Then Ravukaru appeared from the mist, impossibly fast, a predator born of shadows. His grin was cruel, and his eyes burned like molten rubies. In one fluid motion, he snatched Aihana from the air before Akihiro could reach her. The plush bear slipped from her hands and fluttered downward, forgotten.

Ravukaru’s eyes gleamed with malicious triumph. “ She is mine now!”

The wind howled, whipping through the mist, carrying screams, the clang of torn metal, and the scent of ozone from shattered neon.

Ravukaru’s grip was unyielding, a vice of darkness. Aihana tried to summon her power, a flicker of light struggling against his suffocating aura, but each attempt was suppressed, trapped like a flame behind a glass dome. His cold, sardonic smile widened. “You won’t. Your power belongs to me now.”

She gritted her teeth. Her heart raced, and though her energy was restrained, it throbbed stubbornly beneath his grip. Fear and anger intertwined, and within her, a tiny ember of hope remained, refusing to be snuffed out.

Akihiro’s eyes never left Aihana. His chest burned with determination and fear—their lives hung on the edge of every second.

Aihana’s heart thudded in her chest, fear and defiance clashing like wildfires. Though Ravukaru’s grip was unyielding and her energy warped into his chains, a spark of hope remained. She still believed Akihiro would never let her remain under his control.

Every instinct in her screamed to fight, to resist, but the energy she summoned was twisted back against her. Each pulse she cast, desperate and fierce, was a wave crashing against a rock—blocked, repelled, reshaped. She trembled, feeling the darkness curl around her like living chains, yet a fragile ember of defiance lingered inside.

Ravukaru raised the barrier around them, a wall of dark, crackling energy, impenetrable, isolating them from any outside help.

“I can’t do this alone,” Akihiro whispered, jaw tight. He drove forward, every fiber of his being straining against the barrier—an oppressive wall of crackling darkness that encased Ravukaru and Aihana. His sword blazed with energy, and his aura flared, yet no matter how fiercely he pushed, the barrier held firm. It didn’t shudder. It didn’t even ripple.

He gritted his teeth. I have to get to her.

The Guardians and angels raised their hands, their combined energies—fire, earth, water, air, and angelic—melding into a slender rift in the barrier, a shaft of light piercing the darkness. Akihiro surged through it, his wings slicing through the mist, heart pounding like a drum of war.

Ravukaru’s power pulsed, coiling around Aihana like a living cage. It shimmered with a sickly violet hue—the same color that bled from her eyes as she fought the force inside her. Her own energy was being siphoned, twisted, reshaped into a weapon not her own. With every thought she tried to reclaim, Ravukaru whispered into the cracks of her mind, bending her will inch by inch.

Then he sensed it—Akihiro had breached the outer barrier. The sharp surge of energy, the subtle shift in the rift, told him the angel was closer than ever. A cruel smirk spread across Ravukaru’s face.

“Attack him,” he hissed to Aihana, his dark aura tightening around her like living shadow. She resisted instinctively, her spirit screaming no, but his influence was creeping inward, slow and inexorable. Each pulse of his power pushed her closer to obedience, twisting her light into something jagged and dangerous.

Aihana’s body moved despite her will. The energy that flared from her hands was no longer fully hers—jagged, wild, and aimed at the one she had never wanted to hurt. Yet even as the corrupted power surged toward Akihiro, a small ember of resistance burned deep within her, a reminder of what was truly hers.

Akihiro met the blow head on.

He didn’t strike back. He didn’t even step forward. He stood firm—like the still point in a storm. Every pulse of corrupted energy that surged toward him sparked against the shield of his will. The space between them glowed, illuminated by blasts that felt like shattered stars scraping across the air.

“Why aren’t you fighting?” Ravukaru’s voice boomed, distorted by the barrier.

Akihiro didn’t answer him. He only looked at her.

Then he spoke, his voice threading through the chaos, raw with emotion:

“Aihana. Love is your element. The strongest of all. Remember everything you hold dear—painting, your parents, your friends…” His gaze locked on hers, heartbeat echoing in the void between them. “…And… I know what you feel for me… use all the love that burns within you.”

Aihana gasped.

Suddenly, she was everywhere at once: in the living room at home with her parents, the warmth of their presence filling her chest; laughing with her friends, the sound of their joy echoing in her mind; at the very moment she first met Akihiro, when his hand brushed hers, sending a spark of awareness straight to her heart. Her throat tightened as a wave of emotions surged through her, and her chest flared with a searing, almost blinding warmth—love, fear, hope, and longing all intertwined in a single, overwhelming heartbeat.

Love burned through the chains. Her power surged—not jagged, but incandescent. Pure. The barrier cracked. Ravukaru flinched. His form rippled like smoke hit by a sudden wind.

“No.” His voice wasn’t confident now—just angry. “Not yet.”

The barrier shattered.

Light exploded outward, scattering the dark threads that had bound her. Ravukaru staggered backward, cloak whipping in the storm of radiance.

And then he vanished.

Silence fell, heavy and trembling.

No trace remained. Not even ash.

Was he gone? Unmade? Or merely hiding in the corners of some unseen dimension?

No one knew.

But the effort had drained Aihana. Her body collapsed, unconscious.

Akihiro caught her just before she struck the ground. She was fragile, weightless, pale as moonlight, her breaths shallow. He shivered, realizing how close he had come to losing her.

“Hold on,” he whispered, pressing her to his chest. Arms tight around her, shielding her from any remaining danger.

Behind them, the Guardians and angels continued the fight, taking over against the remaining demons. They formed a protective formation, clearing a path through the chaos so Akihiro could escape.

“I need to get her back to the Academy,” he murmured, voice firm yet heavy with concern.

Without hesitation, he spread his wings, cutting through the misted, neon-streaked night, Aihana held firmly in his arms. For that moment, nothing else existed.

Rei, flying alongside, spotted her plush bear tumbling through debris. He swooped, catching it midair, clutching it tightly. “ She’ll want this when she wakes.”

Together, they surged through the night, Aihana fragile in Akihiro’s arms, each beat of her heart, each shallow breath, driving urgency into his soul.

The towers of the Academy rose in the distance, bathed in warm, crystalline light—their only hope, the one safe place amidst the chaos.