Trying to become Nirvana

Joan was standing in a floating giant piece of concrete.

"Aia, you're finally here. What took you so long?"

"I had some unfinished things to do. Don't mind me."I said.

"Now that we were alone, we can do whatever we want, kill ourselves, fight to the death, or just talk."

"What exactly are you trying to do, Joan?"

"What am I doing? I'm doing what I should have done a long time ago. Rebel against the monster that is my father."

"Huh? You are prince Shōkō himself? I thought about that, too unbelievable, to be honest. No, let me get this straight, you killed yourself, a train accident, right? And after that, you've assumed another alter ego called Joan, so you could not be recognized by your father. You control all the realm of the dead with your power, making it easy for you to reincarnate as anyone you would want. In this case, you reincarnated in the of Joan d'arc."I said.

She just stood there, in silence, observing every detail of my body.

"Everything you said is right, but, unfortunately, you don't know the rest of the story. One example is why am I here. I don't plan to attack the king again, I plan to achieve Nirvana, I'm the king of the dead, after all. Unite every soul, every connection from 2 to 1. No longer controlled by human misery but turning myself into God, only one being, one Adam...And that's just one part of the story."

(Interpretation of what's he saying: Joan ( Shōkō) plans to control all souls from the realm of dead and the living, turning everyone into only one being, that's why everything is floating).

"I guess you're not telling me it."

"Also right, maybe when you are in the last seconds of your life, I can tell you everything."

Nothing, no sound made their presence around us.

The draw of my Katana made a comfortable noise, one that comforted us two. 

Wood noises.

Dropped the Saya (Katana's scabbard).

The only one with us was the wind...

"I guess it must be this way."Said while she drew her her two swords.

The battle has begun...

"..."

A giant part of a building was floating above, its intention was to crush me. Because I had to protect Alex and Tanya, teleported to another floating wall, far away the building I was standing on.

In an instant, Joan was already near me, making a series of attacks against me, I blocked them all by mere luck, backed off a bit and extended my arm, exploding her. A large cloud of dust around me, making me blind from every directions.

Teleported again, above another wreckage.

Joan walked slowly through the dust, being unaffected by it. Stopping on going easy on me, she decided to something more crazy. Dozens of skeletons, already dead people, basically, were summoned by her, with the only purpose of killing me. Running from them, I jumped to another building nearby.

Skeletons scaling the building, with their bare hands, not caring anything, just to justify their master.

Giant skeletons rushed towards me, though I could easily dispatch them with my explosion technique, it was still not easy.

Cutting skeletons heads, arms, legs. One of them had stabbed me. Me, that was full of adrenaline at that moment, extended my Katana up and killed the damn thing, with just one clean swing. 

I was getting tired, more tired with the incoming skeletons, all of them trying to get a piece of me.

Joan started to get tired of all that, no fun in just watching a battle play out. She teleported, this time behind me, using her advantage to cut my back.

Blood squirted all over the ground.

The good is that I could regenerate my wounds very quickly with Joan's power.

"Does using my power satisfy you, if you weren't using it, you'd be dead a long time ago."She said.

To make space, I caused another explosion. Her whole body was affected by it, bloody, her jaw was ripped wide open, the arm was a ripped off.

Completely changed her, turning her into an unrecognizable monster. In a few seconds, she already was fine, without any visible wound.

"You know that that's useless. Give up!"

I couldn't give up just, for all that we've been through. It would be disrespect to everyone. 

Maya...Matthew...

"I guess that I have to unleash all I have."Said Joan.

A giant skeleton appeared from the ground, one of his hands could easily kill me with one slap.

Boom!

The monster smashed me, all the area began to tremble, with only the sock wave of the skeleton's attack.

"What? Where's she?"

I was not the there, had teleported myself to inside the skeleton's skull.

Boom!

The giant skeleton exploded, from inside out.

"Damn it, what it takes to kill you? Ah?"

A floating giant piece of concrete went against her, making her fall from great height, before hitting the ground, teleported to a same roof that I was.

"Fuck, you're maybe the toughest person that I have ever encountered in my life."She said.

"Are you giving up?"

"Hell no."

Joan went against me at full speed, my brain could barely react, only could see the after-mirage of her body. A tiny increasing pain began to spread through my body, when I looked at it, I recognized that my arm wasn't there.

She was crazy fast.

I knelled, I was too exhausted to fight anymore, my body was full of wounds, one that I don't even imagine how they got there. 

"Aia, you don't have to fight anymore, I don't actually plan to kill, only if you stood in my way, but you now look more weak than anything."

When she waited for my response, I had already regenerated all my wounds.

"I've already emptied all the energy I had in my body, but I'll still 

Wind passed just next to me, cut off my other arm. Because that wasn't enough, she quickly went for another attack.

Guarded it, using the Katana.

We started to duel ferociously, she did the combination of swings and I deflected them. When she did a horizontal swing, took the opportunity to get close.

Parried it, got close to her and made a huge diagonal swing, hitting her in the eyes.

I stayed in my stance (Ko Gasumi), waiting for her attack.

Standing there, Joan was starting to become tired. Breathing as a sign of her tiredness.

"..."

No living thing moved.

Only our breath was being felt.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

We went for the kill...Before hitting her, changed my stance to Sha No Kamae, a thing that she was not expecting. Using Alex's strength, cut from the right of the waist to the shoulder, diagonally, breaking her right sword.  

Before her reaction, I went to my prior stance and I thrust my sword directly into her heart.

A lot of blood was coming from her mouth.

"Looks that you best me in swordplay." 

"I know that this will not kill you, so with your power, I'm going to absorb your soul into the weapon."

"Extraordinary, Aia, using my power better than I did."

"Tell me what you didn't wanted to tell me earlier." 

"Do you really wanna know?"

"Yes."I said confidently.

"Okay."

"..."

"King Arisu is our father...And you're my sister."

"What?"While I was saying this, Joan transformed into Shōkō.

"That's why I attacked the castle, I wanted to finish my father's reign, for all that he did, killing my mom and your."Said Shōkō.

"But why?"

"To avoid a public scrutiny, the people would judge him for not making his sons official."

"..."

"I'm sorry."He said.