Chapter 53

Kirin’s headless corpse lay before me. I stared down at it as the loud, thundering sounds of the tempest clouds in the room slowly faded away to nothingness. I let out a deep sigh and put a finger to my ear.

“Hey, everyone alive?”

“Ry- Ryuki? Dude, where the- Ah! Where the hell have you been? We’ve been trying to contact you!” Tsuki shouted over comms.

“I was fighting a guy that had a room full of thunderstorms. Comms were dead.” I said, trying to think of a reason my comms never transmitted.

“Well, we kind of have a problem.” Tsuki said as she grunted, clearly in pain.

“What’s happening, is everyone safe?”

“We’re all safe, yeah, but we’re stuck on this floor and we just got news that the entire basement is flooded with Apostles and Bishops. Marie and I are holding off the Apostles that are still here, but we’re running on fumes. Ow, my arm.”

“Is Ichiro there?”

The sound of muffling was heard before Ichiro spoke over the earpiece.

“Yes, I’m here. We only have one earpiece; the others got destroyed in the fight. What is it, Ryuki?”

“Use the spell. Get you three out of here.”

“What?”

Ichiro’s response tugged at my heart more than I expected. It wasn’t his usual monotone, tired voice saying that, but a response of pure confusion and remorse.

“You heard me. You three need to get out of here. You’re out in the control room, right?”

“Y-yeah, we are, but can’t you get here?”

“I don’t want to risk you guys waiting for me.”

“I-it’s not that far! An-and you’re fast you can get here.”

“...”

“Come on, Ryuki, don’t do this. Please.”

Ichiro was on the verge of tears. But I had to do this. Killing Kirin wasn’t the end of this mission. We needed to destroy this place, too. We had to remove that largest hold of the Japan branch of the Secular.

“I tried letting you guys go with ignorance.”

“What the hell does that mean?!”

“We need to destroy this place.”

“...”

“Too many reinforcements came, so that part of the plan is out the window. But you gave me something else than can do the job.”

“... I said only as a last resort.”

“This is a last resort. We either finish the Secular branch here, or we never get another chance like this.”

“...”

“I have to.”

“I know. I just don’t like that I didn’t give you a way out.”

“You said those gateways were hard to make. I don’t blame you, Ichiro.”

“I blame myself.”

The sound of muffling was heard as Marie took the earpiece.

“Ryu? Ryu? Are you there? What’s happening, are you heading here? What’s going on?”

“I’ve never heard you so panicked Marie.”

“Don’t speak so calmly, what’s going on what- Ichiro what the hell are you doing? Ryu’s not here yet, stop!”

I heard the yells and cries of Tsuki, Ichiro and Marie over the earpiece.

“Marie, Marie, let him do it. I told him to.”

“What the hell are you talking about? Why would you...”

“...”

“You promised me.”

“I know.”

“Come back to me.”

“I will.”

“I don’t like it when you lie.”

“I don’t like it either.”

“I love you, Ryu.”

“I love you, too, Marie. Now get out of here.”

“Hey, don’t I get to say goodbye to him?!” I heard Tsuki cry out in the background. “You loser! I’m taking Marie from you!”

Over the earpiece I could hear Marie fighting to hold back tears as the magic of Ichiro’s scroll started to warble and distort the connection. After a few seconds, I heard Ichiro yell ‘jump’ and the connection terminated as they exited through the spell sheet he made. It was a gateway scroll that he spent nearly 4 days crafting as it took an immense amount of mana to fuel. Both Tsuki and I acted as batteries for it, swapping out each time one of us was tapped out. We wanted to make more, but logistically we could only make one. We planned for all of us to use it once we set up the base of this place to explode. But, as it was now, I just wanted them to get to safety. I could feel my energy dropping as the dragon wreath around me started to flutter away. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the scroll that Ichiro gave me. I smiled as I read the title of it, but grimacing soon after. The pain from the hole in my stomach and shoulder returned and I hobbled over to the large hole in the ground that I made during the fight with Kirin. I looked below and saw what looked like hundreds of Apostles and other mages making their way up the large tower. Based on the size of this room, this hidden cathedral of the Secular was larger than the Skytree it was hidden inside.

I looked back at the scroll and started to read it, chanting the immensely powerful spell. I stretched my hand downward toward the base of the tower.

“Hear my plea, power from beyond,” my hand started to shimmer with a dark mist surrounding it.

“Hail the world below, strike the heavens above, clear this plane of sinners.” The mist enveloped my arm, swarming around it.

“Take this path, my body, my soul,” I felt my mana draining.

“Attach yourself to this existence, snuff out all light.” My head was light and I couldn’t feel anything.

“Bring out the darkness of the ethereal, take back the wrought gift,” My eyes fluttered in my head.

“Void, eclipse this world.” Sound vanished from my ears.

“Take back what you hath given, what you have cursed,” Feeling was gone from my arm, totally enveloped in black smoke.

“Take back what we have stole, what we rape and pillage as our own,” My sight was leaving.

“Remove from here the essence of your world, remove from here the taint that we have spread,” I felt ready to collapse.

“Obliterate those who seek to abuse you, those who have trifled with evil deeds,” Nothing mattered to me anymore at this moment.

“Drain and purge this land, eliminate the vile filth,” Nothing except one thing.

“Reclaim your powerful gift of mana, reclaim your curse of talent,” The only thing that I ever mattered to me.

“Prithee, reclaim... reclaim it all... for you are...” New or old, it doesn’t matter. The only thing that mattered to me.

“Umbral Void.”

My family.

***

Tsuki, Ichiro and Marie all fell out of the gate into the street near Skytree, but far enough away to not be detected by any nearby Secular magi. Tsuki landed first, with Ichiro landing on top of her and Marie on top of him.

“Waah! I hate portals! Hey, that reminds me, Ryuki never explained the fire gate he made at the bunker!” Tsuki cried out. “Get off of me!”

Ichiro and Marie got off and helped Tsuki up. The three of them stared at the Skytree from afar, watching as the harmless attraction stood there.

“We won’t know if he did it until the agency sends scouts there.” Marie said.

“Yea, I guess so.” Tsuki said, kicking a stone.

“No, we’ll be able to tell as soon as he finishes chanting it.”

“Chanting... what the hell did you do, Ichiro?!” Tsuki yelled, grabbing his collar.

“I gave him a spell as a last resort. It’s a very powerful one. One that we will tell he used in about.... now.”

On cue, the ground shook. It was more violent than an earthquake as it reverberated and kicked up dust, toppled over vending machines and streetlights, and everyone on the street was forced to get on their hands and knees to stabilize themselves. The three of them dropped to the ground and waited out the earthquake. After what felt like forever, the quake stopped and all of Sumida was in a foggy cloud of dust. Ichiro let out a sigh and flopped onto the ground, letting out short fits of laughter.

“The hell’s gotten into you?” Tsuki said, rubbing her arm that had multiple deep cuts in it.

“Oh, I’m just accepting how mad you all are going to be.”

“What?” Marie said, tilting her head. Her face was still streaming tears, as she was still recoiling from Ryuki’s sacrifice.

“Just wait. It should be any second now. Oh, Tsuki, you should get ready.” Ichiro said, giggling to himself.

“Ready for Wha-AH!”

With a loud thud, something heavy slammed into Tsuki, cushioning yet another person's fall.

“What the hell! If one more person- OH RYUKI!” Tsuki screamed out from underneath Ryuki.

“Ichiro, I hate you.” Marie said, kneeling next to him and kissing him on the cheek.