Internal Freedom

Muttering something, a wall of thick vines sprouted out of the earth acting as protection. The vines started to wrap around the black swords in Yori’s hands. He ripped through the vines before they reached his hands. Pieces of the vines fell at his feet, twitching only to suddenly grow up after him. “Tch! Don’t think this’ll be enough to protect you!”

From the sidelines, Yumi stared in shock at seeing her brother completely consumed by his rage. ‘He’s normally so calm and in control…what’s gotten into him?’ She completely ignored the fact that he suddenly had powers.

Ourias took a step back keeping their distance even. However, Yori didn’t plan to let him escape his reach. The sword stretched around the vines aiming directly for him. Inside his clouded mind, he couldn’t hear Ourias speaking. A semi-opaque block shifted in to absorb the impact, preventing the attack from connecting.

Grinding his teeth in annoyance, the man kept stopping his attacks. He needed something different. Yori threw out his arm in an arch. The vines in his way suddenly fell to the ground crushed by an unknown force. Cleared away, Yori brought his hands together clapping them. A black light pierced through the gaps in his fingers. He slowly pulled his hands away revealing a tiny black sphere.

Exposed, the atmosphere around the sphere dragged in towards the form. Wind reversed with a suction force coming from the sphere. The sphere quickly grew in size becoming palm-sized. “All the defense you can mutter won’t be enough to save you!” spat Yori. Small chunks of the earth ripped up near to Yori's feet. Debris lifted into the air starting to swirl around the growing mass in his hands. Streams of black light broke from the sphere signaling a sudden expansion.

Now a diameter greater than his waist, the effect the sphere had on the environment became more pronounced. The forces increased with the pull making it difficult for those normal humans to hold their position without keeping up an effort.

Wrinkles raked across Yori’s face. Strain stressed every corner of his expression. The pure white of his eyes made him appear more like a wild beast than a human. All reason lost only instinct and emotion. A being filled, consumed by rage.

All of the gathered energy in his hands unleashed on Ourias without any warning. Old walls jumped up in its path, but the black sphere blew through them with little effort. The chunks of shattered cement dragged behind it. Steel beams fell down rapidly followed by a strange liquid coating the whole surface. Nothing stopped it.

Yori’s face darkened further. “I told you nothing will stop me!”

Suddenly from far outside of the battle, several thin metal long needle-like objects flew in piercing the black orb. A reaction occurred inside exploding beams of black light before the whole thing collapsed upon itself. Moments later, shockwaves ripped through the area knocking everyone off their feet.

A heavy cloud from the explosion covered the whole area. Yori stared angry and confused. Through the cloud, a figure appeared walking towards him. “I finally found you,” a familiar voice said through the smoke. “I searched, tracked you across all of Atlantis. I made a vow that I wouldn’t stop until I found you.” Out of the white veil stepped Athene in a metal infused blue dress glowing with a mysterious power. “This is the end for you, Yori Mizuno!”

Chapter 243 – Internal Freedom

Athene walked out between Ourias and Yori. She leveled her gaze upon Yori. The air around her seemed to ignite into blue flames with a look that could kill. “You’re mine!” She lifted her arm, pointing an array of similar needles floating around her wrist.

“Who are you?” asked Ourias.

“None of your business, stay out of my way!”

Yori wanted nothing to do with Athene. His eyes remained focused on Ourias. “Don’t interrupt me!” Squeezing his hand, Yori crushed all of the needles pointed at him. Then he threw his hand away casting an invisible force that tossed Athene aside. “You’re not the one I want!”

The swat barely did anything to dint Athene’s drive. She charged back into the battle before Yori could make another attempt on Ourias. “I’m not giving you a choice in the matter!” she yelled. The ground around her tore up creating a wall behind her keeping Ourias out of the scene.

Remaining patience Yori had for Athene burned up instantly. “Fine, I’ll make you then!” He charged after her to remove her personally.

However, she seemed to have something different in mind. The earth lifted up with her like a massive scoop carved out the ground. Everything went flying through the air along with Yori. Well outside of the range of the others, chunks fell back to the field dropping the two emotional warriors. “Your fight is with me! You owe me more than even your life could hope to repay!”

Yumi tried to do something about everything that happened, but naturally, without her powers she was on the sideline the entire time. She could only shout out for her brother as he disappeared from her sight. Everything turned into a mess quicker than she could follow. ‘He’s got powers too now? I assumed he did since everyone did, but he never used them before. How long has he been able to use them?’ More important matters came up for her to change her focus. Ourias marched on her to resume their one-sided fight. Yumi tried to prepare herself.

“Do you still plan to resist?”

She looked a little surprised at him. The question wasn’t meant to be intimidating. He was genuine. “Eh!?” It caught her off guard that he still seemed uninterested in fighting.

“Surrender yourself now and nothing further needs to happen.”

The offer still laid out for her. However, nothing changed for Yumi. “I still have things I must do and they are behind you.”

“I cannot allow you into the Capital.”

“So we’re back to the same place we were before.”

“It would appear to be the case.”

“Then I will fight to the last drop of blood in my body!”

Ourias sighed. Something came from him that she didn’t understand. Everything that remained from his exchange with Yori disappeared. A clean slate. “It shouldn’t be children here like this, but perhaps it’s a sign of the times.”

Prepared as well as she could, Yumi dropped into a weak stance. She had no official martial training like the others. All she could do was copy what she saw others do and in the media. She didn’t even know if she did it correctly (she wasn’t). “It’s not the times, but the need.”

“Need? You have no need to be here stirring up trouble.”

Yumi wiped away the blood from her forehead that started to dry a little. She remembered how rough it was before for her. Nothing she did reached him. It was like a baby trying to fight an adult. It couldn’t detour her. “That might be the effect, but the cause is different. However, it doesn’t matter what I say. Nothing will change your mind.”

“You’re right. My duty is to protect the city and I won’t allow you to set foot inside. All you bring in your wake is destruction.”

“Sadly that is the case, but I hope one last act of destruction is all that is needed to reach the truth!” She knew it was all talk for her. There was no chance for her to be able to do something against Ourias. Chance or choice didn’t play into it. She had to do it. ‘Some way, things will work out. It’s not really logical or strategic, but I can only do what I can as I am.’

Suddenly the gravity disappeared from around Yumi or rather it seemed to have reversed. Something pulled her along, but not like a hand. She could only describe it as gravity, the way it weighed on her body. It cut off sharply to leave her suspended for a brief moment before falling back down to the earth.

A few meter fall normally was painful in any normal situation, but the sword part of Yumi jerked her sternum around like it wanted to tear apart her chest. It remained solidly embedded like an extension of her body.

Fresh wounds from her last round with Ourias reopened to spread the dirt in her blood. Yumi coughed trying to get back to her feet. However, sharp vines jumped out of the dirt drawing up new wounds. The first was enough for her to attempt to roll away even as they followed her.

Yumi breathed heavily once more, feeling the full mortality of her body. She started to wonder if everything before was merely a dream. This felt normal, how things should be, yet she wished for the way things were. ‘I want my power back! I can’t always be standing behind shouting out orders. I need to stand myself!’

Rocks rained down from above bruising and bludgeoning Yumi. She fell backwards in an effort to escape the attack. Her leg took the worst blow. Yumi yelped aloud, grabbing for her injury. ‘Is it broken? I can’t let him beat us here.’ She pushed herself back up. ‘He wouldn’t give up!’ A faint image of Yuki’s back in front of her appeared as a reminder. Yumi forced herself back to her feet. Pain shot up through her leg when she put her weight on it. “I won’t give up!”

Blood dripped over her face once more. The look only reinforced her resolve. She refused to stop.

Narrowing his expression, Ourias stared at Yumi. The gigantic wall of the Capital stood behind him. Its shadow weighed at him. ‘I do what I must for them. Even the dirtiest of deeds. So that I may in the future stand next to them once more…’ A dark shadow fell over Ourias’ face blotting out his eyes. ‘It must be done. They’re just criminals.’

Vines grew up behind Ourias twisting together quickly. They stretched out, speeding into a piercing edge straight for Yumi’s heart, the deathblow. The end. The bloodiest of deeds.

Blood dripped in thin trickles from the vines bunched up in Yumi. Her free hand rested on the spun vines in a failed attempt to stop them from running through her heart.

“You’re right,” she said with her head hung forward covering up her face in a darkened shadow. “You must stand in the front if you want others to follow. No one follows someone cowering in the rear.” An odd laugh came from her.

Ourias turned up his head in confusion. He noticed something didn’t seem right with the girl.

Suddenly, Yumi’s black hair ran with streaks of red. Coming from the roots of her hair it changed completely. Her hand tightened around the bundle of vines tighter and tighter and crushed them. Torn in two, she ripped out the remains of the vines. Behind her tunic, the wound turned out to be shallow. Yumi pulled her head back revealing green eyes had completely taken over in place of her soft brown. “I would have been done a lot sooner if you hadn’t bothered me so many times.”

‘What’s going on? She stopped the attack with only her hand?’ He ran through the report on Yumi recalling that she once had powers like the others. ‘That’s right, one of Captain Simonides’ men sealed away her power. I picked her hoping that she would see reason and not fight. They’re just kids.’ Yet Ourias sensed the sudden change in the air from Yumi. Things were no longer the same as before.

Yumi flexed her hand, staring at the state of her body. “She’s started to rub off on you, that woman’s recklessness.” She seemed to be catching up with everything that happened as though waking up from a sleep to find an earthquake had trashed her room. “You’re better off remembering my lessons.” Her free hand stretched out and took hold of the hilt of the sword.

“This is in the way.” The hand pierced by the sword squeezed down sharply, completely crushing the blade into pieces. She freed up her hand finally and used it to pull out the remains of the broken blade from her chest. The hilt rested in one hand at her side with the destroyed blade at her other side. “Much better!”

Suddenly, a white multi-layered barrier came up around her with hexagonal patterns inlaid. She floated up off the ground as white particles started to emit from her body. “This is your one freebie for keeping our body in one piece.”