City of Culture VI

“How do you wish to do this, then?”

“No need for words, old man. Just be sure to choose your next actions carefully,”

Heitsi chuckles, “See, there it is again. It’s not that I actually plan to kill you, but it’s that you keep forcing my hand,”

“You’ve went for the kill multiple times,”

“As I said, you keep forcing my hand,”

“Your hand must be pretty weak then. Last I checked, I’m still standing,”

Heitsi says nothing.

Instead, he immediately bolts through the air, and smashes his enlarged claws towards Kayin.

However, Kayin uses his right arm to block the incoming strike with Oshé, leaving the two of them locked into position, each vying for dominance over the other.

“The old man’s still got it! Keep at it! I’m sure you’ll find a way through!”

Heitsi’s expression rages even harder, as he summons a few of his crows to dive directly towards Kayin from his blindspot.

Kimiko, still kneeling on the ground after being torched by Kayin’s flames, instinctively stretches out her hand.

Protect him!

However, even before Kimiko manages to summon help for the sake of Kayin, Kayin himself has already begun his own counter.

While holding Oshé with his right arm, Kayin swiftly grabs the helm of Oshé with his left hand, and pulls out what seems to be another axe, resembling the same form that Oshé is already possessing.

In that same motion, Kayin sweeps his left arm across the area of his blindspot, removing all incoming threats in a single move.

Heitsi’s eyes begin to expand.

Impossible!…

Has he truly returned to his side?!

Kayin sweeps his right arm even harder, pushing Heitsi back into the air with a great show of force. Heitsi stumbles as he tries to regain his balance, and is forced to use the crows surrounding him in order to do so.

While recovering in the air, Heitsi stares towards Kayin’s fixated expression.

“You’re supposed to be blind!!”

“I still am!...”

Kayin smiles, as he stares up towards Heitsi.

“But I can see you just fine!”

Just as with the visions of fire Kayin was able to see before, Kayin’s vision is now solely locked onto Heitsi, as if targeting him as the only threat left to finish off.

Heitsi summons thousands of crows from the sky, and rains them down towards Kayin in droves.

In that case…

You shouldn’t be able to see this coming!

As thousands of aerial threats rain down towards him and those around him at lightning speeds, Kayin holds out the two versions of Oshé, and flips them into the air.

As the battle axes twist and turn, they begin to morph…

Until they land back into Kayin’s hands, now resembling swords, with lightning coursing through them.

Kayin takes a deep breath.

He thinks back to what he just experienced, and recognizes it to have been a trial from the gods.

And in clearing it, or at least in formulating his own response to it, he has been granted power.

Power that he has held before.

However…

For someone that is currently not an avatar wielder, it’s a miracle that I’m not already dead.

This fire…it’s far too hot…

But I have to use it…even if it’s only for the short while that I have it…

Kayin’s fiery eyes flash even harder, and the veins across his muscles swell tightly.

As the crows descend and near his position, Kayin pinpoints the location of each and every single crow, and strikes each of them down. One after another, the onslaught continues, but no harm comes to Kayin even through it all.

“You did well!...”

Kayin swings his sword towards the direction that he hears Heitsi’s voice, but doesn’t manage to make any contact, as Heitsi phases through the strike and reaches a fatal position for Kayin.

“But this is the end!”

Even knowing that Heitsi was using the crows as a cover for his real attack, Kayin did not anticipate the possibility of Heitsi being able to merge with the air itself, leaving him completely open…

Or at least, that is what Heitsi believed.

whoosh!

Suddenly, from beneath the ground, the two main bodies of Oshé jump out from both the shadows that merge between Kayin and Heitsi, as one of Oshé moves to block Heitsi’s deadly strike, while the other moves to strike Heitsi himself down.

Heitsi, completely caught off guard by this, is struck down heavily by Oshé, and bounces off the city floor until he crashes into the building that Kimiko had been inside, prior to the ordeal at hand.

Kimiko appears completely stunned.

He moved the real figures of his axe towards his own blindspot, leaving only a small part of them as enough to combat the aerial assault!

Even while fighting blind, his battle sense…it’s insanely keen!

Kayin jumps up in the air, pushing him directly towards where Heitsi is now situated. As he lands directly in front of Heitsi, inside the strange building in the back of the city, Heitsi begins to laugh.

“So you were never really abandoned like the rumors said, then…”

Kayin recalls the last time he saw Shango, being during the court trial that his sister and mother manufactured to strip him from the throne.

Where Shango refused to fight for him…

Because he knew that Kayin wasn’t willing to fight for himself.

“I was abandoned.”

“Nonsense. You wield your avatar holder’s power right in front of me, and expect me to believe it to be your own?”

“It isn’t my own. But it isn’t Shango’s either.”

Heitsi slowly glances up at Kayin. “...what?”

Heitsi freezes, as he realizes that the fire circulating around Kayin’s eyes seems to be fading.

“I am no avatar wielder. How can I be?”

All that remains now, is the empty eye sockets of Kayin.

“I have no eyes, after all.”

Heitsi bursts out in laughter, and slowly rises up from his position. Even while bloody and severely bruised, his spirit is lifted.

“Are you truly that much of a fool?! You should have struck me down with the bit of that divine strength you had left! Now you’re only back to where you first started!”

Heitsi reveals his large claws and swings it towards Kayin’s neck while cackling, completely amused at the situation.

“At my mercy!!”

Kayin grabs Heitsi’s claws.

Heitsi immediately stops laughing.

“What was it that you said again? Something about my bloodline, and our dependency on the gods, right?”

Heitsi appears dumbfounded.

How in the…

Kayin smacks the flat side of Oshé across Heitsi’s face, forcing out blood from Heitsi’s mouth. Kayin tosses Heisi’s claw away, and moves to face down his enemy.

“Have you ever thought…”

smack!

“That maybe…”

smack!

“Just maybe…”

smack!

“...that it’s the gods that also depend on us?”

SMACK!

Kayin holds up Heitsi by the neck, and stares towards his severely wounded and swollen face. He looks around, noticing the strange altar through Oshé, as well as the children and young adults hung up on the walls.

“Speak. What is the meaning of all this?”

Heitsi coughs out blood.

“Speak.”

“...this is the altar of sacrifices made to the true king.”

“True king, huh? Not a bad way to piss me off.”

Kayin snaps Heitsi’s neck, and watches the life fade out from Heitsi’s eyes. Kayin remains in place, but notices the strange aura emitting from the red and black hole circulating around the altar.

So this old man isn’t the ruler of the city, like I was led to believe.

And this king he speaks of clearly needs sacrifices for some insane purpose…

Suddenly, Kayin feels a hand grab his own hand, forcing his attention to return.

“You really are a fool…”

Kayin appears completely shocked, as he realizes that Heitsi has now somehow returned to life, and with a slightly different appearance to boot.

What once looked like an old man with the shape of a crow's head, now appears to be a young man with the shape of a fish head.

Heitsi grins deviously, and a sharp whirlpool of water begins to surround him.

“You should know that the likes of you could never kill me!”

The sharp whirlpool of water lashes out from around Heitsi’s body, and slashes through Kayin.

The building itself becomes slashed with water so intensely that it bursts open with it, as Kayin and many of the half-dead children fly out into the open space.

Kimiko, who still lays outside, stares up and sees Kayin flying backwards with a deep cut across his chest, and blood spilling out from it.

From the point of detonation, a whirlpool pushes a cackling Heitsi up into the air, as if helping him to look over the destruction he just caused.

“What’s the matter, dear grandson?!”

Heitsi’s sinister grin reappears as he stares down towards Kayin.

“The night has only just begun!”

…

However,

Contrary to both Heitsi’s and Kimiko’s expectations, Kayin grabs tightly onto Oshé, before he suddenly disappears.

And reappears directly above Heitsi’s head, cocking back his arms at full throttle.

Kimiko’s mouth drops, as she slowly glances towards her left, seeing Narada laying down but holding out his hand.

Heitsi’s mouth drops, as he slowly glances behind, seeing Oshé’s sharp edge swinging directly at him with full force.

“...Edge 2.” Kayin calmly states.

“Gate of the Eclipse.”

In the next moment, Heitsi finds himself cut in half, and then cut into four pieces, as the initial swing hits him vertically, but another seemingly hits him horizontally. The process of the number of pieces continues, like a game of division that never ends.

Heisi falls to the ground in pieces, and the epic whirlpool he had conjured up for himself falls with him. Kayin reappears in front of Heitsi on the ground, and notices Heitsi’s cells continue to divide while seeping into the floor. A small patch of grass grows quickly from the cells; but deep in the roots, the cells just continue to divide, on and on, forever.

“I don’t really have any clue what’s up with you, or this strange city.”

“But what I do know…is that I’ve seen enough of it.”

“And I don’t care to see more.”

Kayin lifts Oshé high into the air for the people all around the area to see.

“If you wish to remain here, then do as you wish. If you wish to save yourself from this place…”

“Then follow me!” he shouts.

The people all stand shocked, unsure of what to do. The city itself has become a safe haven for most of them, even with its hidden flaws. To them, leaving would only spell the end of their peace.

Kimiko stares towards Kayin, with a disheartened expression, as she thinks of the young girl from her empire.

They won’t listen to you. No matter what you say.

You heard them say it themselves.

They already have a king to foll-

“What is it that you all fear?!’

The people freeze in place. Kimiko included.

“Is it war that you are afraid of? Is it harsh labor?”

“I am stronger than any of you, and even I have my own fears. But that doesn’t stop anyone from being able to see reason.”

“This city is not a haven! It is a melting pot of tricks!”

“It promises peace, but at the cost of lives! Young innocent lives that are supposed to be the future of this city!”

“You can choose to play along for as long as you like. But I promise you, tricks run out.”

“And before you know it, the very things you are afraid of will come to your doorstep!”

“And its due payment will be paid with interest.”

Kayin lowers Oshé, and stares towards the groups of individuals standing around the area.

“Instead…allow me to build that haven for you.”

“One without tricks.”

“One without sacrifice.”

Kayin begins to feel weak in the knees.

“As king…I promise…”

Kayin faints, and quickly falls to the ground, but is caught by Kimiko just in time, as she had already noticed his weakened stature.

Kimiko looks up, and is stunned by the scene she sees before her…

As almost all of the people in the area rush in to take care of the king.