Chapter 52

Kirin raged with guttural yells and cries of supremacy. The Kirin wreath was growing and arcing wildly. The electric blue colour had shifted toward a blinding white as the wreath started to zap the floor and ceiling around Kirin as he walked. He held his hand up and a blue org started to form in it, and as he channeled power into it matched the colour of his wreath.

“You are nothing but a filthy bug in the code. You were never meant to be alive. Never meant to exist past sixteen. And now, you dare try to take what is rightfully mine away from me?”

The lightning in his hand crackled wildly. His eyes were surrounded in orbs of lightning, and the Kirin wreath was exploding with energy. He was the same as me. Anger fueled him. He was cruel. He was brutal. Just like I was. I pulled myself out of the wall and stumbled onto the ground as I stood up. Sparks of electricity were latching on to my mana shield, but I felt no pain from it. This must be what Tsuki was talking about when reaching a power threshold for mana shields against electricity. I stumbled to my feet and readied my fists as I went to attack him again.

“You showed me one thing, that I still need to get stronger. I was complacent; I’ll admit that. I can be humble. But now, you die.”

He threw his hand forward, the lightning orb shooting out from his palm in the blink of an eye. The orb was gone from his hand, and I didn’t see where it went. I felt a slight pain in my stomach and put my hand over it, assuming it was from the explosion knocking me into the wall. As I rested my hand on my abdomen, I felt a wet and warm sensation. I looked down to see a hole in my stomach about the size of a golf ball. Pain seared into me in that moment, as my body writhed from the overwhelming heat. Then, a second later, I felt my entire body tingle as the electricity shot throughout me, causing me to collapse on my knees.

“You put up a good showing. I’ll be honest, that speed was unexpected. You got a few good hits in on me. I might have some bruises. I’ll be sure to tell Theseus that his manifestation was put to good use. Before I kill him, of course.”

Kirin walked over to me, conjuring another white lightning orb in his hand.

“I’ll also tell your girlfriends and that traitor, Ichiro, how much of an idiot you were to challenge me.”

He flicked his fingers and the orbs shot through me again, puncturing a hole through my left shoulder.

“Here, take this final moment to remember one good thing. You’ll meet your family in the afterlife. Well, it was never your family, anyway. You just lived the boring, peasant life I was saved from. And my parents, will always be that; mine. You have no family. You have no future. You have no reason to exist. You were made to die. I’m just fixing that.”

“You’re wrong.” I squeaked out, coughing out blood.

“Excuse me?” Kirin said, turning his head as if he didn’t hear me.

“You’re wrong. I had a family. And I have one now, too. They may not be my birth parents, and I may not even be human...” I spat out blood as I struggled to my feet. “But they treated me as their own. Fed me as their own, raised me as their own. So, yeah, they’re not my father and mother... or my sibling...” I put my hands to my side, the dragon wreath shimmering behind me. “But they will always be my mom, dad, and little sister.”

“Oh, so very sentimental, give me a break. Don’t convince yourself they thought of you as you, you’re just a fake!” Kirin screamed, forming another lightning orb in his hand.

“They never knew of me as anything other than Ryuki. They never knew Kirin. The last time they saw you, they thought you were dead right out of the womb. I was brought into their life as their first living baby. And I felt their pride. I felt their sorrow. I felt their happiness. I felt their hope. I felt their care.” The dragon wreath shimmered into a shining white. “And just as I feel it from my friends and family now, I felt their love. Something you have never known, and never will, Kirin.”

Kirin screamed, launching the white orb at me. My dragon wreath roared like a dragon as it exploded into a blinding light, blasting away all the magic in the area. The traps, the tempest clouds, and the white orb all vanished as the wreath swelled in size and changed to a shimmering silver in colour.

“W-what the hell is this... this pressure?” Kirin said, holding his hands up as if he was being pushed by something.

“I was like you in many ways. The main way is we were both fueled by rage. But, you taught me something. I can be humble, too. Rage can only get you so far, and you get there alone.”

“Don’t spout that bullshit! Don’t say it!” Kirin shouted, holding his hand up as a long blue misty shape formed into his hand.

“You need people in your life that love you. And that you love.”

“Don’t give me that!” Kirin screamed as he held a long blue sword over his head. The pommel had a multicoloured tassel on it that fluttered violently against the pressure my wreath exuded. “I will end you with my own power! My own strength! AHH!”

Kirin swung down his sword, and the air above him started to shimmer. Magical cracks formed in the air above him, as if something was breaking through reality. Several more cracks formed, until hundreds of cracks broke the space above him. Then, in a single instant, every crack shattered and hundreds of different weapons came storming out of the holes in space. Each one looked like a different manifestation. Scythes, swords, axes, maces, spears, polearms, glaives, halberds, man catchers, everything. Every kind of weapon shot out of the holes and were traveling directly at me. I put my hands out to my side and conjured two blades in my hands. Tsuki’s manifestations. Except this time, instead of my usual ethereal orange, these manifestations shimmered a bright silver. Then the blades erupted into silver flames at the handles. I kicked off the ground and charged through the barrage of weapons, parrying every weapon that came my way. I sliced through the onslaught of manifestations, pirouetting and jumping around, just as I saw Tsuki do when she fought. My dragon wreath roared as the intensity of the silver flames grew ever stronger. I jumped from side to side and held a palm out, dispersing one katana and saying a single word.

“Abyss.”

A black orb shot out of my hand, consuming all of the manifestations caught in its wake, leaving me a large gap in the torrential downpour of weapons to run through. The spell that Ichiro gave to me to test that once nearly took my life, I could cast now without even needing to say the chant. Again, my dragon wreath roared, and the flames grew larger nad brighter. Kirin screamed as he swung his sword over and over, creating more holes in space for more manifestations to come through like a hailstorm of blades. I dashed through it, parrying everything and launching Abyss orbs to create pockets for me.

“Die you freak of nature! You’re not even real! Just a fake! How do you keep fighting!?” Kirin was throwing everything he had. He swung his manifestation, conjured the white lightning orb, shot out lightning railguns from his arms, called in tempest clouds, everything he could think of.

I dodged and parried everything he threw at me with ease. When I finally caught up to him, I conjured Theseus’ manifestation and tried to hit Kirin with a downward punch. He dodged backward, my silver fist hitting the ground and erupting it, blowing a hole straight through it. With a quick step and an even faster leap, I was right next to Kirin again. I grabbed his arm and threw him over my head again, twisted his arm and a snap louder than thunder rang out. He screamed out in complete anguish as I held him there, stomped my heel onto his chest and dispersed the katana manifestation, and conjured my gun. However, instead of the usual hand cannon-shaped gun, it was a long rifle with a scope and, although it was just how it looked, a bolt action chamber. This was Marie’s gun. My dragon wreath roared and hit a peak of intense silver flames.

“Goodbye, my other self.”

Kirin scream as I pulled the trigger, silencing him in a spray of blood.