Edge of The Afterlife

The front door opens and Alet enters the apartment. Her face and body are tired, but her eyes are glowing brighter.

“Hey, hope you already know that our final match will be tomorrow.” Said Alet with a serious tone.

“Welcome home! Yes I did. I just read the announcement several hours ago.”.

“Good, I hope you are already prepared for that match. I will not accept any mistake.”.

She went to the shower and took some rest. The next day has come, this is the day where Io can stop worrying about the Alet condition. Judging by her look yesterday, he knew she was already on her edge toward frenzy. Just a little push and she can attack him. This is why he didn’t speak as much yesterday.

“Andd this is the day everyone already waiting for, well of course this is done after some rearrangement. But today we are going to see our finalist against the one and only… Reinee!” the crowd go wild after Reine walks up to the arena.

Not for long, Io and Alet already walk up to the arena as well.

“Well well, look who we got here. If not the little rakshasa himself, Dione Ruba.” Says Reine with a proud tone.

“Hi Reine… It’s been a while.” Io greets Reine.

“And… hmmpph. Alet Liona, the one and only who mastered every magic from a young age. This is going to be interesting.” Her eyes staring sharp towards Alet’s eyes.

Rumor said that Reine is gifted with a power from an ancient rakshasa who lives outside the Living Circle. Many believe that this ancient rakshasa is the one who protects the Living Circle. The recent beast outbreak is a sign that their protector has already passed away. Soon after the beast starts to destroy the city, the four immortal Silumas show up and one of them is Reine. Even though Dione is known for his strength, Reine is known for her mysterious magical power that can open a portal to the other dimension. This power makes everyone believe that Reine is holding up their protector power.

The announcer starts the fight. With a blink of an eye, Reine was already standing five centimeters from Alet. She throws a punch that makes Alet dragged to the ground. It is not even a minute but the buzzer already went off.

“She is so fast! Ughh I have to hit her back!” Alet stand up and cast a fireball.

Her spell never hits Reine, all she sees is that Reine moves so fast with a blurry motion. This makes Alet having a hard time to aim her spells. Wind dagger, fireball, water dagger, and earth fist, none of her spells hit Reine. She finally chose to cast a bigger spell. Before she can successfully cast it, Reine already hits her again and the buzzer goes off again.

“Hey. Let me tell you something. You are not alone in this fight. Where is your partner? If you are really that strong all by yourself, I’m going to doubt that.” Says Reine as she looks down at Alet.

“If I were you, I would not try to fight back. You are already at your last life point. Better snap back into this world before it consumes you.” Add Reine as she walks away.

“What is Reine doing? Why does she try to push Alet into a frenzy?” Io was confused as he saw both of them from a distance.

“Now… Io let’s have some fun, shall we?” Reine face Io and completely ignore Alet was there.

She leaps toward Io and Io dodge it to the side. Io throws a punch and Reine blocks it and returns the punch. Both of them exchange punches. After a while Io get hit on his stomach and sends him backward but he still manages to keep his stance.

“Impressive. Now let's see how you handle this.” Says Reine.

Both Io and Reine are fighting like they are at the sparring match. Alet is starting to get mad. She starts to cast a meteor spell that she uses on the day she fought Io inside the dueling field. Reine notices a bright light from above, she quickly jumps out from the range of impact. Sadly, Io didn’t make it in time. He was slightly crushed by Alet’s meteor on the outer side of the impact. He still had a chance to activate his peak and focus his power to his fingers. This made him fall to the ground and broke his finger bones. Thankfully the rock that was about to crush him split in half. Reine quickly runs towards Io and grabs him.

“Io! Io! Can you hear me?” She shakes his body and notices the broken fingers.

“R..eine…” He passes out and loses consciousness.

“HEY! What are you doing!? Look what you did, you nearly killed your partner!” Reine shouted angrily at Alet.

Alet who is already consumed by her peak and enters a frenzy didn’t even feel empathy. She was just standing there and staring at Reine.

“Fine, I’ll have to do this.” Reine starts to cast a spell through her mouth.

Soon the arena glows and everything goes dark. Everyone inside the arena has no idea what is happening.

Alet opens her eyes. She notices that she is already standing face to face with Reine. Io is sleeping on a mysterious bubble.

“Welcome to the edge of the Afterlife.” Says Reine.

“What? Are we… dead?” Alet is confused as she sees everything went bright and her voice also sounds like she never activated her peak.

“Hmmp… I bet this is the real Alet. The one who loves Io and cares about him.”.

“Yes, what happened? Am I doing something terrible?”.

“Look behind you.”.

She turned back and was shocked after seeing a monstrous being with sharp teeth. That monster also has Alet’s face.

“What is that thing!? What is happening to me?” Her voice started shaking in fear.

“Remember back where you fight together with Flyn and Fiona. In that fight, your soul cleanse from any doubt you have in your entire life. This makes you able to activate peaks. Sadly, you are very happy with what your peak offers you, you are able to cast an infinite amount of spells imaginable.” Reine explains.

“Peak? But I don’t remember anything after that fight.”.

“Yes, that means your peak is taking over your body. You still can control it though but only everything that Io wants you to do. Now, I know why Io wants to make the final match with me as soon as possible. I mean look at what is behind you, it is twice bigger than your true soul.”.

“Io… why is he sleeping?”.

“Near death, you meteor is so powerful and it breaks all his fingers. He is in a bubble that I cast before his soul is taken away to the Afterlife. You should-”.

“Help me! Please, help me to get rid of that thing…! Sobs. I don’t know what happened, the last thing I saw was I fought everyone from my school and everything went dark. I- I-” Alet drown in tears.

“I will help you. I will summon the reaper to eat that thing. But here is the note, once the reaper appears you have to grab Io and come to the portal that soon I create.” Reine sighs.

“How do I know which portal we should go to? And how about you?”.

“I will disappear from this realm, now I’m just temporarily stopping the time here. I will give you this. This thread will guide you to the portal.” Reine grabs Alet’s left hand and connects the thread to her hand where the pulse is located.

“One more thing, what happened is this thread snapped?”.

“Well, I’m sorry. Both of you will send to the Afterlife through the reaper mouth. All set, are you ready?”.

“R-ready.” She gulped and took a deep breath.

Soon Reine closed her eyes and everything started to move. The monster behind Alet starts to roar. Alet that doesn't have much time starts running toward Io.

“You! What are you doing! Am I not the one who you want?” A sinister voice coming out from the monster.

“No! Leave me alone! I want to live with Io!” She keeps running.

“Not that easy!” the monster leap forward blocking her way.

“Oh no! I do not know that it will move like this. I have to get to Io and get out of here.” Alet trying to find a way to pass that monster.