Death's Winnings

Light bleached out Cosmas until he completely disappeared from sight. Even before it reached him, the massive light engulfed him. However, just as it washed over Cosmas, the direction of the beam changed. It was only a few degrees, but it was enough. After the energy faded away, Cosmas emerged from the smoke and falling debris. His swords crumbled, unable to hold their form from the damage. The left side of his body looked burned and his clothes completely destroyed. His power restored the clothing damage quickly.

Still seething and now confused, Seiji looked down to see one of Nerine’s gauntlets pressed up against his arm. The talismans floated back behind him after the end of the attack. He batted the gauntlet away, the force creating a crater. “…the HELL? WHY?”

Nerine ignored her injuries and marched over to Seiji. She summoned up her gauntlets behind her. “I should be asking you, THAT!” she shouted over the Field. The end of her sentence was loudly punctuated by her first gauntlet disappearing and suddenly ramming into Seiji’s face. Its impact deafened the area around them barely budging Seiji a centimeter. “What’s wrong with you?” Another gauntlet flew at him pushing him back a little more.

The barrage continued with the gauntlets moving too fast for Seiji to see. Each landed on his face knocking him back more and more with each strike. “Wake up!” One punch finally knocked him off his feet. The angle of the gauntlets changed to throw him into the ground. They continued to rail on him. “This isn’t you!”

She stopped at his side, the battery ending. “Well? What do you have to say for yourself?”

Flames of rage still burned brightly on Seiji. All the beating did was bruise his face. “…nerine…protect…”

Ordering another punch, she knocked him a little further into the earth. “I didn’t ask for you to protect me! I can look out for myself! So return back to your stupid, naïve, fight-loving self!” She sent another gauntlet at him.

However, it stopped before reaching him. Seiji’s fingers surfaced around the armored fist, holding it back. He pushed aside the weapon, allowing his awoken face to be revealed. “…-rry…I’m sorry…” Guilt and sadness washed over his face as he stared at Nerine.

“As long as you’re yourself.” She smiled back at him, relieved to see the darkness lifted. “That’s all that matters.” Using her gauntlets, she offered him a hand.

Accepting her, Seiji walked out of the pit she put him in. He saw his arm still glowing brightly making it impossible to actually see it. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught the sight of the talismans floating. It was all strange to him. ‘I don’t remember any of this happening. I let it all consume me. Damn! I’m so weak!’ He looked back at Nerine. “Thank you. I allowed my fear to consume me.” A small smile worked up in his lips staring at her.

Concern still settled into a part of Nerine. ‘He’s afraid of something? I don’t know what’s wrong with him, but the middle of a fight is hardly the time for this.’ She turned to face Cosmas, who was still recovering from the damage taken from Seiji’s last attack. “I don’t know what’s wrong, but you just need to focus away from it. Your strength is in the way you love to fight, but not to hurt or kill just simply for the challenge and enjoyment of testing yourself. That’s what I saw in you from our fight. Focus on that, on who you are and leave the fear behind you.”

He stared down at his glowing arm. It was foreign to him. The whole thing was a mystery. He understood none of it. He wanted none of it. “You’re right.” He was certain of one thing. All of the strange powers showing up around him, he wanted one thing. “I want to beat him, so that he knows never to come back. I want to show him that he’ll never be able to kill us. I want the power to prove to him that he can’t win!”

Chapter 237 – Death’s Winnings

Laughter erupted from the opposite side of the Field. It was Cosmas, as to be expected. He seemed to have recovered and entertained by their little motivational speech. The absolute void of dark killing intent lifted away from him. He was back to his talkative self. “You lost your only chance. Such naïve sentiments, it’s laughable!” Cosmas began walking towards them, putting the tension back up.

The dimensional swords all appeared around him. “You really think you can beat me like that? Even if you managed to win, it’s not going to change my mind. Beat me to a sliver of my life? Pressure me, torture me, rip off all of my limbs, cast me to the bottom of the sea. I will return. I will find you. I will kill you. There is nothing you can do to change that reality.” Dozens of his clones started to appear around his Field. “Remember what my power is. If I must, I can kill you any number of ways without you even putting up a fight. I only fight you head on because taking you apart piece by piece is more enjoyable. But leave me with no other options, I’ll kill you in your sleep. I’ll give you that certainty.”

Seiji felt assured in what the man said. It actually sent an eerie chill down his back. He believed what Cosmas said. ‘Such a man…no!’ Squeezing his fist tightly, Seiji focused on what mattered. “Then I’ll just find another way to do it! You won’t stop me!”

“Focus on who you are,” encouraged Nerine.

“Yeah!” Seiji threw up his fist into the air. Suddenly, the glowing came to a stop. The light faded away. His arm returned to normal. Underneath his skin, a faint pulse came out from his shoulder to the tips of his fingers. The pulsing continued until a little of the light seemed to be left behind. His two scars that ran up the entire length of his arm glowed brighter. It seemed to be absorbing the light. Soon the scars increased with intensity until they became solid white lines.

His body felt different. Seiji stared at his arm. It wasn’t the same as before. It was still foreign to him, yet more familiar and comfortable. “Huh?” Talismans appeared in his hand. He found that all of the ones floating behind disappeared. It felt very familiar.

Nerine jumped out in front of Seiji when one of the slashes came after him. Cosmas stopped waiting on them to do something. The attack washed over them, dampened enough to do nothing. Chunks of metal from her gauntlets dropped to the ground. “You ready to fight?”

Tightening up his fist, it was still him. “Yeah!” Seiji tried to pound his fists together to psych himself up, but found that he missed. “Right, I’ve only got one arm.” He stepped out to stand next to Nerine, ready for Cosmas. “I only need one arm to beat you!” Some of the excitement returned into his expression.

Pleased, Nerine felt reassured with him. ‘Still looks a little forced, but he’s closer to himself.’ She threw out her gauntlets to start dealing with the numerous clones. ‘He seems to have more than just his strength now. I don’t know what his new power can do…’ Then she saw Seiji charge in blindly like he always did without regard to plans or surroundings. It made her sweat a little watching him. ‘I guess I’ll find out later.’

Seiji grabbed the first bastard he found, planning to throw him into the neighboring one coming after him. But the body stopped moving. He stared at him for a moment before it vanished. One of the talismans floated down, evaporating a moment later. ‘Just damn a clone. I’m going to only be finding clones with the way he fights.’ It didn’t mean a lot to him. He didn’t have a way of getting Cosmas to surface. He just started clearing the clones out.

An attack from behind flipped Seiji around. He confronted another one of the dimensional slashes. Seiji threw up his arm to block it, but talismans appeared in the air tracing his movement. They formed a line that guarded Seiji from the attack and allowed him to charge in for a counter. ‘Just another damn clone,’ he commented, dropping the vanishing body. ‘I need a way to deal with these clones. He’s altered his power so I can’t find him using the previous method.’ Seiji charged off after the next one, likely to be another clone. He had few options.

The battle leaned towards Cosmas with his clones. Neither side had achieved anything meaningful, but Seiji and Nerine had the disadvantage. Nerine was wounded and Seiji would eventually get exhausted from all of the running around. They couldn’t last.

Inevitability didn’t matter to Seiji. He continued to charge around the Field in search of the real Cosmas. It proved empty. The clones naturally came back. His talismans could block the shitty attacks, but he could land nothing on him. Seiji came to rest next to Nerine. “Damn him, can you do anything about these damn clones?”

“His Field’s bigger than mine and stronger. I’m barely able to keep up with him. He keeps moving around so much every time I think I’ve found the center I’ve missed.”

“I thought it was strange that I couldn't find the center.”

“He’s aware of the weaknesses and has countermeasures.” Nerine didn’t like the direction things headed. He was a skilled MP. His talents as an Omega agent couldn’t be doubted with what she saw.

“We need a way to get rid of all of his clones so we can focus on the real one!” Seiji’s frustration came out in him punching the ground. He didn’t put much force behind it, just annoyance. However, the ground lit up suddenly. Small orbs of light ignited around the Field in response. “Huh? What’s happening?”

“Did you do something?”

“I don’t think so.” A large circle drew across the ground along with Japanese kanji carved within. The kanji for the cardinal directions marked out in the key locations. It all glowed brightly filling the whole area with light. Then suddenly, the clones all started to fade away.

Seiji stepped out among the strange drawings on the ground. He saw one of his talismans firmly affixed within the drawing. “Did I cause this?”

“Found a way to deal with that, huh?” Cosmas resurfaced, forced to fight them face to face once more.

Looking away from the talisman, the whole thing still confused him. “…sure…” Little of it mattered anymore, he could fight directly. Seiji charged in after Cosmas. The same swords as before. Long slashes through the air came for him. Seiji already knew his talismans would negate them. He cast them out to deal with the threat while he focused on Cosmas. However, the slashes ripped through the talisman effortlessly coming straight for him. “Damn!”

Seiji had to dodge recklessly, throwing himself towards the ground. It still wasn’t enough as the attacks dug into his back. The pain wouldn’t stop Seiji. Nothing would stop him. He was too close. Seiji pushed through grabbing Cosmas’ damn leg to slam him into the ground with him. The crappy sword in his hand came down glowing to unleash a point-blank attack. Seiji threw up his hand directing the talismans to cover the sword up, sealing it before it could attack.

Annoyed, but not detoured, the sword disappeared briefly to rid itself of the seal. The sword was still in motion for Seiji, but Nerine’s gauntlet flew at it deflecting the attack away just in time. The earth only a centimeter away from Seiji carried a new deep wound.

Nerine entered the melee, throwing around her gauntlets to push back Cosmas. She threw herself around the air to keep dodging the attacks coming at her, narrowly maintaining her position. Once Seiji recovered, he jumped in with her throwing his fist in as well. An uneven two-way struggle exploded across the night.

“Damn bastard!” Seiji barked, landing on the ground. Cosmas slid back several meters to a safer distance.

She came to rest next to Seiji. “This isn’t getting us anywhere.”

“I know! We need to finish this!” Seiji glanced over at Nerine. “How much are you holding back?”

The question returned to Seiji with a bit of an indignant expression. It changed quickly for her. “I’ve still got one thing left. But my body isn’t exactly in the best shape right now.”

“Good!” He grinned a little with the thought of something reckless coming to mind. “Throw everything into it! No time to worry about your health! Damn caution!” Seiji threw up his fist, the two strips of white pulsed in waves down his arm. “Throw everything you’ve got into this! We’re finishing this now!”

All of Nerine’s gauntlets disappeared suddenly. “I haven’t used this form without my arms before.”

“You’ve been doing fine! Just believe in yourself!”

“This coming from you…”

“I’m just returning the favor! Come on, Nerine! Let’s end this!” Talismans streamed up around Seiji in response to his need.

Armor appeared on Nerine’s legs and covered where her arms would have been. The armor clamped down across her chest, locked into place. “Right! Now or never! Let’s go!” A blast came off the backs of the armor acting as thrust propelling her forward. She closed the distance with Cosmas. Immediately, she spun herself down, starting things with a kick. Cosmas blocked it with ease, but flames erupted over the whole area. He retreated out of the smoke only to find Seiji tagging in.

Knocked back, Cosmas flew over to Nerine. She caught him with her fists throwing out blades of wind. She bounced around the air making use of her entire body to navigate landing numerous blows to Cosmas. He crashed into the ground, but not without swords following in after Nerine unleashing close range slashes. Explosions covered her up with smoke.

Seiji jumped in, threw down his fist erupting Cosmas in light. He went tumbling away. The swords cut in keeping Seiji back. It forced him to back off. Nerine fell from the smoke to land next to him unharmed.

Recovering and confused, Cosmas stared at the two of them. He found the talismans burning away from Nerine’s armor. Grinding his teeth, he knew what it meant. “You think you can win by working together?!” A ripple came out from Cosmas’ feet.

“He’s Folding again! This isn’t good! He’s going to be too much for me to handle!”

Confidently, Seiji moved a little closer to Nerine. “Then we do it together. He can’t beat us!” They nodded in agreement and charged forward. An array of swords came flying at them. Seiji took the front, blowing away most of them to open up a path. Nerine covered his back as the rest came throwing out dimension cutters. She threw up her arms to the attack, but it sliced through them with no effort. Her Field could no longer dampen his power. Kicking out of the way, smoke coughed up from the ground as the attacks dug through.

Seiji threw out an easily telegraphed attack with a beam that Cosmas dodged. However, Nerine appeared above him spinning down. Talismans appeared at her foot channeling the flames and giving them a slight white coloring. The blast drilled a hole through the earth burning away Cosmas’ clothes barely evading.

Talismans stretched out to crush all of Cosmas’ swords, preventing any attack. He was completely open. Nerine landed in front of Cosmas, her arm already pulled back. Seiji charged up, coming up on her left side matching his fist with hers. The two fists slammed into Cosmas’ chest, sending him flying back with his Field disappearing.

Several minutes passed with Nerine tending to Seiji and Cosmas’ injuries. She was reluctant to do so for Cosmas, but Seiji insisted. Once everything finished, they woke up Cosmas.

He sat staring at the two of them getting a read on everything. “So you think things are over.”

“No,” answered Seiji. He knelt down to meet the man in the eye. “You made yourself pretty clear earlier.”

“Damn right. If you don’t kill me, I will keep hunting you down. Just remember, I won’t be polite about it anymore.”

Seiji stared at Cosmas deeply for almost a minute. He believed what the man said. As long as he ran free, he would keep haunting their shadows. It didn’t matter how long it would take he planned to finish. “That’s fine with me. It just means I’ll always be watching my back for you.”

Smirking, Cosmas narrowed his eyes. “The next time you won’t even know it was me until it’s too late.”

Their conversation was over. Seiji stood up and started walking away. “I look forward to it.” He motioned with his hand back at Cosmas, telling him he had his freedom.

“Are you sure about this?” Nerine asked. “I put a seal on him, so he won’t be able to use his powers until someone finds him, but this is a big risk.”

“Yes.”

“Did you overcome your fear?”

“For now.” He looked back at Cosmas, walking away. “That man brought out a terrible side in me. Now freed, I can’t put the lid back on. All I can do is live with that part of me and not let it control me. I’ll always struggle with it.” Seiji felt a little better about the whole thing. “If I feel I’m losing myself, I’ll just remember what you told me.” He smiled over at Nerine. The long night was finally over for him. At least for the moment.

Nerine tilted her head in the direction of Cosmas. The man was already too far away for her to see. Her eyes narrowed to harsh lines. ‘Killing for the sake of killing is wrong. But there are times when it is necessary, necessary to protect those important to you. There are the right reasons to do something evil.’

Far in the distance away from Seiji and the others, a body laid alone in the grass of Atlantis. Blood poured out into the grass from their neck. A violent action had removed their head from their body. Evil rested alone by the act of another evil. Alone their secret would hold, for now.