Phantom - Chapter 11

Eric had followed the trail of destruction leading to the leisure area because he knew that if the battle was that fierce, then Lares would be at the centre of it, fighting until his last.

When Eric had arrived, Lares’s men were all already dead and his uncle was on his knees, a large hole in his chest, and his skull was being held in a white knight’s claws. The knight’s armour and blade was drenched in blood and it was staring at him, holding Lares’s face to Eric.

Uncle Lares!

Wait, Eric, Lucifer told him, materialising beside him, a scary look on his face. “Michael.”

“Lucifer,” Michael whispered. He crushed Lares’s skull and casually tossed his corpse to one side, ignoring the sheer terror and rage that had overcome Eric’s face. “It’s been a long time.”

Eric’s face had lost all of its colour.

He had wanted to vomit; he had wanted to break down and scream, to curl up into a ball and weep until he couldn’t cry any longer. He glared at Michael, his eyes overflowing with pure hatred and rage.

“You bastard!” Eric screamed, his aura exploding around him.

“Eric, don’t!” Lucifer ordered.

His aura transformed into a large inferno, licking high into the sky, and his Armour evolved inside of it.

It became more sharp and jagged, like it was made of rocks with razor edges. His wings shifted and expanded to become more demonic in appearance, the bones in them becoming coated in obsidian-like material. His God Weapon materialised before him and it became more terrifying in appearance, a river of deep red energy swarming around it. His helmet morphed and the colour of his Armour became a solid crimson with a black trim.

“So, that’s what it looks like,” Michael mumbled. “It’s more disgusting than I imagined.”

“Shut up!”

Eric flew at Michael, his sword drawn back over his head, and he swung at Michael.

Michael raised his own sword to block the blade, then pushed it to one side, before kicking Eric in the ribs, launching him into a nearby shop. Michael fired dozens of blue diamonds at Eric, battering him and sending him through the building and out the other side of it. Eric got up onto his hands and flew back at Michael, launching the black spikes from his wings at Michael. Michael flew up into the air, avoiding the attacks and fired a solid beam of blue energy from his free hand. Eric dodged it and soared at Michael again, swinging his sword madly at him.

Eric, calm down! Lucifer cried in his head. If you try to fight him like this, you’ll die!

Michael blocked and parried every single one of his attacks, until Eric fired a large beam of energy from his free hand, smashing into Michael’s chest and sending him through the air. Michael hit the shopping centre’s roof, recovered and flew away from it.

“Get back here!” Eric screeched.

Eric followed after Michael as he had hoped and Michael turned around in mid-air, coming to a stop. He unleashed more diamonds from his wings but, now that Eric knew about the attack, he could prepare for it. He used his wings as a shield and they absorbed the damage, leaving Eric untouched. He pulled his wings back to find Michael right in front of his face, his sword ready to cut off his head.

Eric just about raised Oblivion to defend himself, but the impact knocked him out of the air, sending him tumbling along the pavement. Before Eric could recover, Michael fired a beam at Eric, sending him further along the road, decimating the concrete as he went. Eric flew out of the way of Michael’s next beam and fired back with two of his own from both of his palms.

The blasts were too quick and powerful for Michael to dodge.

He raised his arms in front of him to shield himself, but they still knocked him out of the air, cracking his armour a little as he skidded along the floor. Unlike Eric, Michael had landed on the soles of his feet and he was able to land fairly well.

“Not bad, Lucifer,” Michael said, flexing his arms.

“Eric, stop!” Lucifer pleaded, materialising before him. “Unless you control yourself, you’ll die!”

“Shut up and get out of my way!” Eric roared, his aura still just as strong as it had been when his Armour had evolved.

“You can’t use this power and it’ll kill you unless you transform out of it now!”

“I told you to shut up!”

Eric cut through the mist form of Lucifer even though it wouldn’t damage him.

At that moment, he didn’t care even slightly about himself.

All he cared about was killing Michael.

“Michael!” Eric yelled, flying at him.

Michael fired two beams at Eric which the boy tried to block with his wings, but the blast still knocked him out of the air, tearing through the leathery skin. Eric landed and tried to fly again but he was unable to. With no other option left, Eric leapt off the ground and ran at Michael, his sword aimed at Michael’s heart.

Eric unleashed a flurry of slashes and stabs, but Michael was skilled enough to block and counter every single one. He side stepped one of Eric’s stabs, took out his legs and kicked Eric square in the face, cracking the front of his helmet and launching Eric into the side of a building. Eric left a large crater in the concrete and collapsed onto the floor, the back of his Armour broken and he was bleeding through the gaps.

Michael walked over to him, picked him up roughly by the collar and punched him hard in the gut, knocking the wind out of Eric. Eric coughed madly and he felt his strength quickly leaving him.

“Is this all you can do here, Lucifer?” Michael wondered, looking at him in disgust. He dropped him onto the ground and pressed the sole of his boot onto Eric’s skull, slowly applying pressure to it, causing Eric to squirm and scream. “All these years I’ve waited and it turned out that it was this easy all along?”

Michael lifted his boot off Eric’s head and then kicked him in the chest, launching him onto his back. Eric slowly tried to get up, eventually managing to bring himself back up onto his own feet, but he was bloodied, broken and shaking.

“Had I know it would have been this easy I wouldn’t have killed all these people and waited all of this time,” Michael said, cursing his own actions.

Eric tried to attack Michael again but his slash missed him by a mile. Michael slashed Eric’s chest from his hip to his shoulder diagonally, breaking his armour and launching him into a low brick wall. Eric’s Armour disappeared, leaving only Eric’s broken and bloodied body.

“Eric Agrim, I know very well that you’ve done nothing wrong, that you were just cursed to have that thing in your arm. What’s happened today, what’s going to happen now, all of it, none of it is your fault, mine or anyone else’s. All of it is Lucifer’s fault.”

Michael reached Eric and stood over him, his sword in his hand and he shoved his blade into Eric’s shoulder. Blood spewed from the wound and Eric’s body twitched in response, spasming and thrashing around in pain.

Eric was too broken to even scream in pain.

“Lucifer, this is all your fault,” Michael said, forcefully removing the blade from Eric’s skin; it was covered in blood which dripped from the tip. “Had Kasmine given me the Death Stone, I would’ve just killed your spirit and then Eric, his uncle and no one else would’ve died. If you want someone to blame, Eric Agrim, blame that monster in your arm or that monster who rules your school.”

Michael thrust his sword into Eric’s other shoulder, causing the boy’s face to contort in pain and he tried to scream, his face straining to even emit a croak, but he didn’t have enough strength left.

“Stop it, Michael!” Lucifer yelled, appearing beside him. “Eric hasn’t done anything to deserve this.”

“I know.” Michael forcefully removed his sword again. “But it looks like I won’t be able to get the Death Stone anyway. If I can’t have that and use it to kill you, then I’ll torture Eric Agrim to the point where he’ll wish he was dead.”

“Why?”

“Because then you can forcefully take over his body, ending his suffering and giving me my revenge.” Michael turned his blade to Eric’s thigh and thrust it all the way through the width of his leg. “Until you do, I’ll keep doing this.”

Lucifer glared at him, his spiritual body ablaze with a fiery aura and he stared daggers at Michael.

“What will you do, Lucifer?”

***

Takahiro and Osiris charged at Kavachin once again.

Takahiro slid on his knees beneath his fist and Osiris battered away the other, and the two of them slashed their weapons at Kavachin’s chin, knocking him back. Kavachin growled, threw his fist at Takahiro, but the teacher side stepped it and sliced his claymore through the arm, cutting at the flesh below. Kavachin’s arm transformed into a large cannon, crushing the tip of the blade as it did, and swung at Takahiro. Takahiro ducked beneath it and threw a punch at Kavachin’s cheek but it didn’t do any damage.

As Takahiro had relentlessly attacked Kavachin, Osiris had bashed the mech’s chest again and again, his hits and lightning blasts not damaging him in the slightest.

“You’re annoying!” Kavachin cried, his other arm transforming into a large blade.

He chopped at Osiris but the God didn’t have to dodge it.

Axisam landed before him and, with a roar, sent her fist through the blade, halting its momentum and temporarily snapping it in half. The blade healed and came at them again, but Osiris and Axisam drew back away from it. Then, Axisam summoned her dragon over her armour and, using its strength with her own, smashed her fist at Kavachin’s stomach. The armour and flesh beneath it crumpled, causing Kavachin to howl, and he fired a red beam from his cannon at her.

Axisam side stepped it and then leapt to a safe distance away, allowing Void and Damona to strike.

Void conjured a blackhole in the ground before Kavachin, dragging him into the earth and Damona sent hundreds of vines to wrap around his arms and legs, holding him in place and helping Void drag him down. Kavachin tried to break free of them with his own strength, but his power wasn’t enough this time.

With an opening created for him, Messorem leapt up onto Kavachin’s back and placed his palms over Kavachin’s heart. He activated his powers and slowly, but steadily, his power rotted the armour away even as it regenerated.

Seeing that the Rubikium’s ability was being nullified before his very eyes, Kavachin lashed out.

He spawned twenty small cannons on his suit, blasting the vines and the others around him, damaging but not breaking them, and he slowly pushed his way through them. His arms both transformed into cannons and he blasted the ground, devastating it and the vines, giving Kavachin his mobility back. Now free, Kavachin shifted his aim to Void and, with both cannons, blasted at him. Axisam grabbed Void and dragged him out of the way, saving his life but allowing Kavachin free again.

“Damn pests!” Kavachin screamed. Spikes deployed from his elbows and he stabbed them into Messorem’s lungs. “Especially you! Get off!”

Even after being impaled, Messorem’s grip didn’t loosen.

“Get off of me!”

He stabbed Messorem again and again in the chest, leaving gigantic holes with every stab.

Stab.

Stab.

After eleven stabs, Messorem fell lifelessly onto the ground.

However, Messorem had done his part and gave Evony the opening she needed.

By using his ability on a single part of the armour, Messorem would be able to break through the armour and give the others less than a second to strike and kill him. However, no one there had the ability that had the power to definitively kill him and destroy his body before his wounds could heal.

That is, except for Evony.

By charging her God Weapon for a longer duration of time, its powers increased and, if left to charge for long enough, its explosive power could rival that of a gigantic bomb. Whilst the others had attacked and distracted Kavachin, Evony had jumped up onto a rooftop in her Armour and began charging the arrow knocked against her bow. When Messorem had broken through Kavachin’s suit as much as possible, Evony would strike, but the only time she could do it was after Messorem moved his hands and the only way he would do that is if he was dead.

The moment Messorem’s hands slipped from his suit, Evony loosed her golden arrow into Kavachin’s heart, instantly exploding it and the pilot inside in an instant, vaporising his body.

The now empty mech suit fell forwards onto its knees, before dropping forwards onto the ground.

Takahiro ran over to the suit, a fresh sword drawn, and confirmed that Kavachin had indeed died. As he did that, Osiris ran over to Messorem’s body and saw his lifeless eyes staring back at him, a small smile on his lips even with the large holes in his flesh.

Osiris knelt down beside him, placing a hand over his eyes and closing them, and then smiled sadly.

“You were a wonderful Guardian, my friend,” Osiris whispered as the others gathered around them.

A gunshot smashed into the side of Osiris’s chest, knocking the boy to the floor.

“Enemy reinforcements!” Sapphire cried, raising several runes in front of them to protect everyone.

Over a hundred Phantom mechs, soldiers and mages were running down the bridge to them, constantly unleashing attacks at them. Evony shot some of them out of the air, while Axisam used her dragon to absorb some of the blows and the attacks they missed were useless against Sapphire’s barricade.

Osiris tried to stand back up but he noticed that there was a large hole just beneath his ribs, a steady trickle of blood flowing from it.

“Damn,” He whispered, clutching it hard.

“Get him a medic, now!” Sapphire ordered.

Just as she began to fire black bolts at the approaching horde of Phantom forces from the bridge, a deafening explosion rung across the site from across the bay, before a piercingly bright light enveloped the entire bridge.

When it had faded, all that remained of the Phantom soldiers were their corpses.

“Kids, you don’t have to worry anymore,” Sapphire said confidently, a small smile on her lips. “Because we just got our reinforcements.”

***

The Grand General Ares, Commander of the Guardian forces in the field who answered only to Kasmine and Kasmine alone, stood on the bridge to Ferris, an army of charred corpses at his feet, smoke rising from the cannons above his wrists.

Ares was a God Armour user in a grey stone set of armour that covered his entire body, complete with a full face helm with horns curling along the side. On his gauntlets he had two piston-like devices that ran from his elbows down to his wrists which served as his God Weapon and he had a brown cloak waving from his shoulders.

Lich couldn’t help but smile when he had seen Ares’s attack.

With a single blast from the cannons on his gauntlets, he had decimated all of the Phantom forces on the bridge, clearing the way for reinforcements from the city to pour into the school.

Given its sheer length, the number of Phantom soldiers on the bridge had to have been at least a thousand strong and he had wiped them all out in less than a second.

Two fighter planes flew towards them, firing high calibre machine guns at Ares. He grunted, slammed his fists together, a bolt of silver energy sparking from his pistons, and he thrust his right cannon at them. He fired a solid beam of grey energy at them, cutting through them like paper and they exploded mid-air.

“As expected of the Grand General,” Lich chuckled.

Ares nodded and began to run across the bridge, an army of Guardians and police behind him.

“What do you want us to do?” Mara asked her master.

“Stay here and help with the wounded,” Lich ordered. His aura crackled violently. “I have something I need to do.”

***

Sangili had felt the impact of Ares’s attack before he had seen the blast.

His gaze turned towards the Ferris bridge and he saw several subsequent blasts shoot down Phantom aircraft, blowing them up upon impact. Kiara and Kaida sent attacks at Kalaraja, thinking that he might have let down his guard, but a chain snapped up off the ground and bat the attacks out of the air. Kalaraja snapped back to them, wrapped thirty chains together, and smashed it against Connor and the others, sending them flying and knocking them unconscious.

Kalaraja threw one of his chains into the air. It latched onto a transport helicopter and he pulled himself into it.

It soared off into the distance extremely quickly, leaving Imperial and Ferris far behind.

***

Kalaraja let out a low hum when he saw Ares’s attacks.

“I guess the fun’s over for now,” He mumbled, drawing a black portal onto a nearby wall. He saw Ares blast another plane out of the sky and grinned. “Well, it was fun while it lasted, Michael, but Phantom’s done for.”

The Shinigami jumped through the portal and vanished.

***

Michael was furious.

He knew that there was only one person among the Guardians who could’ve launched such a powerful series attacks in such quick succession and, upon Ares’s arrival, the battle was over.

He removed his blade from Eric’s stomach, causing Eric an immense amount of pain but, due to all of the wounds across his body, he barely felt it.

Eric’s body was covered in deep cuts and his skin was dyed red.

A massive jagged line ran across his chest from his shoulder to his waist, he had multiple, deep cuts of varying sizes along his arms and legs, a giant hole in each of his thighs and his right bicep. He was barely moving and his eyes had long since lost their life; his skin, before it had become covered in blood, had turned as pale as a corpse.

Even after everything that Michael had done and the massive blood loss he had sustained, Eric was still somehow conscious.

“Ares, huh?” Michael whispered. “Well, it’s not the ideal solution but.” He aimed his sword at Eric’s left arm. “I’ll just take the Armour and go.”

Then, out of nowhere, someone appeared between Michael and Eric.

She rose from the shadow before Eric and began to madly slash and stab all across Michael’s body, desperately searching for a weak point.

Laila? Eric thought.

Laila kept up her relentless and thorough attack, refusing to let Michael have even a second to fight back. She would launch a flurry of slices, then disappear into his shadow, and then reappear at a different point and resume her attack once more. She was repeating it so many times that Michael couldn’t keep up with her speed.

However, she wasn’t doing any damage and she was quickly running out of energy.

Every time she performed her teleport, her energy would drop quite dramatically. If she hadn’t been using it so excessively, she wouldn’t have lost her momentum so fast.

Her movements were becoming more sluggish and slower.

Michael simply had to wait until she was at a manageable speed before he attacked.

He summoned and then swung his sword, missed, and then lunged at her, which she dodged. Michael slammed his fist into the ground, cracking it and causing Laila to lose her footing.

Then, Michael struck.

He stabbed her through her chest, piercing her heart and cracking her spine. The blade protruded from her back, drenched crimson, and Laila’s body became limp.

Michael pressed his boot onto her chest and forced her off of the end of his sword. She fell onto her back, blood pouring out of her chest and she was struggling to breathe. Eric tried to scream, desperately trying to call out to her, but his throat was dry and his body was weak. Michael looked blankly at his blade, raising it up in the air, allowing Eric to catch a glimpse of his bloodied sword.

“Another one,” He said, no emotion in his voice.

He raised his sword once more and swung at Eric.

A black bolt of energy hit his hand and the sword went flying out of his grasp. Michael growled and glared towards the origin of the bolt.

“I wouldn’t try that again if I were you,” Lich warned him.

Three large black knight spirits surrounded them: one standing behind Lich, another directly opposite him and the third was standing on the nearby rooftop. Michael looked at all three and then back at Lich.

“There are two ways this goes,” Lich said. “First, you and Eric both die. You kill him, I kill you; you don’t get your revenge. Second, you and Eric both live. You run, I let you go; nobody leaves here happy. If I were you, Archangel, I would run away with your tail between your legs.”

“Why are you of all people interfering, Lich?” Michael asked. “This doesn’t concern you.”

“Oh, but it does.” Lich’s aura grew and his voice became much more menacing. “You killed Lares and you tried to kill Eric. No matter what Lares thought of me, I respected him and swore that I would keep him and his nephew safe. Normally, I wouldn’t have ever gotten this involved in any matter, but you crossed a line.”

“Then why not kill me?” Michael thrust his arms to the side, baiting Lich to attacking him.

Lich grunted and grinned. “I could kill you, but the blast would also hit Eric and, if that didn’t kill him, you would kill him. However, you’re not my kill, Michael.”

Michael lowered his arms, his hand curling into a fist.

His wings expanded and he flew off into the air, zooming far, far away from Ferris. Lich ran to Eric’s side and checked that the boy was still alive and then sent up a single black spark into the air as a flare, signalling the medics to his position.

“I’m sorry that I wasn’t fast enough, Agrim,” Lich whispered.

Eric had passed out from the blood lost, tears remained in his eyes and his cheeks were damp with them. Lich looked over his shoulder to Laila’s corpse, lowering his head in respect.

Then, he saw the impossible; her fingers curled a little.

She was still alive.

Lich didn’t hesitate to act.

He thrust his hands out, one at Laila and the other at Eric, black energy flowed over their bodies, generating a dark aura around them. Eric gasped for air, shocked by his sudden awakening, and Laila sat up, coughing violently, blood spitting from her lips as she did. Whilst shaking, Eric sat himself up and saw Laila, sat up, and seemingly breathing.

She ran her fingertips gently down the hole in her chest and winced.

“Laila,” Eric said softly, his voice hoarse.

“Eric, listen to me carefully,” Lich said, grabbing Eric’s shoulder and crouching beside him. “You don’t have much time. This spell will only last a few minutes at best, but it should be long enough for you two to say your goodbyes to one another.”

“You mean-?”

Lich nodded. “Once the spell runs out, Laila will die. It takes a lot of energy to cast something like this and I can’t use it on someone who is already dead.”

He stood up and left them alone together.

“Eric,” Laila weakly called to him.

Eric shuffled as quickly as he could over to Laila’s side. He reached her and she fell into his arms, nuzzling her forehead into his shoulder, a warm smile on her lips.

“Eric, it’s okay,” She whispered.

Eric pushed her away a little and stared into her eyes.

Her skin with deathly pale yet her cheeks were a light pink with a gentle smile between them. Tears were welling in her eyes, but she was holding them back with all of her might. Laila touched Eric’s cheeks with her hands, her icy cold fingers warming his heart.

“Laila, I’m so sorry,” He said, almost breaking down into tears himself. “It’s my-”

She placed her fingertip against his lips and slowly shook her head. “I don’t want that to be the last thing I ever hear…” She said, resting her head against his chest. “Eric…thank you…for everything. Thank you for inviting me to join your team…thank you for letting me meet so many amazing people…thank you…for being my friend…”

“Laila…”

“I’m happy…that I saved you…so…please…don’t blame yourself…for this…”

Even though his friend was dying in his arms, Eric couldn’t find the right words to say.

There was too much that he wanted to say to her, to tell her, to still do with her and, even knowing all of that, he couldn’t say anything.

He felt tears well up in his eyes again and he placed his cheek on the top of her head, stroking her back softly. “I’m going to miss reading together,” He whispered.

Laila smiled and wrapped her arms around him. “I will too.”

She gently placed her head against his shoulder and held him tightly, neither of them saying another word, even when Eric could feel the tears dropping onto his body.

Eric could feel her chest move up and down as she took her final breaths and he held back his tears, refusing to let them fall.

Slowly, the grip on his back loosened and her chest stopped rising, before her body went limp, sinking more into Eric.

“Laila…” He whispered, gently shaking her, but she didn’t respond. “Hey…wake up…Hey…” He held her tighter as tears fell endlessly from his eyes. “Laila…”

His vision turned black and he fell onto his back, Laila’s body falling on top of him, her cheeks wet from her tears.

***

Ajax had run, with all of his might, through his fatigue and weak muscles, over the Ferris bridge and towards the vault.

The battle had been won and whatever remaining Phantom forces were in the city or in the school were being swiftly eradicated. He pushed past students, soldiers, guards, and professional Guardians to reach the vault and he almost threw up at what he saw.

Hundreds of corpses with large holes in their chests, dry blood covering the floors, and their lifeless eyes gazing at the entrance.

“Alexis!” He screamed.

Please! He yelled in his thoughts, his breaths becoming heavier.

Please! His legs began to feel weak, like they would break if he didn’t stop.

Please, be okay! He cried once more and then he saw the large steel door, a light and the end of the tunnel.

A smile grew on his face almost instantly as he continued to run, thinking to himself that Alexis would be standing there, waiting for him to return, with that monster’s lifeless corpse at her feet. She would probably have pushed herself too far and gotten herself wounded, but Ajax would be able to rush her to the hospital now that the fighting was over.

That hope, however, was soon crushed.

His smile vanished and grief rushed over his body and tears streamed down his face.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!” He yelled, running to her corpse. He stood there, his body exhausted and he fell onto his knees, whispering, “No…”

He held her body but it was ice cold; her head was detached from it.

His tears become more intense, with no end to them in sight.

“Alexis…”

With shaking hands, he picked up her head and cradled it in his arms, her eyes staring vacantly at him.

“Sis…” Ajax croaked, his throat dry and his tears falling onto her once bright red cheeks. “Hey sis, it’s me.” He weakly smiled, the faintest amount of hope left in his heart. “It’s Ajax…I came back for you.” He brought his forehead to hers and his tears poured over her. “Alexis…Sis…”

Clutching her head tightly to his body, he screamed as loud as he could, his voice echoing along the corridor as reinforcements moved into the building.