Even with his body in this dire state, Daiji stood with unflinching determination. Remaining strong, forcing the bleeding to stop with a flex of his muscles, or more accurate, a circulation of Ki around the wound. Holding the cut together with many small white strings, similar to temporary stitches, his head stayed right where it belonged.
The wound was in a roundabout way self inflicted. He had cut through Kagutsuchi's neck, but he himself had been wounded instead at the exact same spot. He knew why that had happened and from what Kagutsuchi had just said, he too had deduced it. Having been cut numerous times by Daiji's National Treasure, he had developed a feeling of understanding of it.
Since Kagutsuchi now knew what the weapon's ability was, he could prepare countermeasures and at least massacre them before he fell due to injuries. With the knowledge and martial prowess he possessed, he was determined to make that wish into reality.
Remaining silent for a moment, Daiji thinks to himself.
Of course. I came prepared to readily risk my life. Even with the fear I felt before. If I couldn't do that much, I would be unsuited as clan head of one of the Five Great Clans.
Kagutsuchi cleaves Siegfried's silver mirror as the opportunity presented itself. Spreading the glass in every direction. His eyes harden at Daiji's back. A sort of anger wedged far in the back of their reflective surface.
"What a hideously foolish endeavor. Tricks like that is what disgusts me about these type of mages. Magic is not supposed to stoop so low as this. Contracts on this level is a disgrace to the Goddess of Creation. She who granted magic to humans. Tools like your sword stray from the principles that has been taught by the Goddess. That is also precisely why groups like the "Philosophers" were wiped out long ago."
The dragon-kin's voice held a deep fundamental rage from within his very soul. His long gray hair rustled from the emotion in his voice. The words he spoke were fully contrary to his stature as a humanoid dragon-like being. Despite that, his words were steeped in a core belief that harbored no lies.
While he listened to the Kagutsuchi's stern words, Daiji gathered himself and slowly turned to the reptilian man. He had not let go of his sword. Its firmness calling Daiji to the present.
"It is true that my weapon is quite the troublesome thing, and a double-edged sword to boot. It is also without a doubt the greatest weapon for cutting you down should the Heavens smile upon me. The task of cutting is no difficult feat. However, whether it is you or I who suffer the consequences is up to luck."
He took a few steps closer to Kagutsuchi as he was willing to talk, dragging the battle out if only by a few tens of seconds more. Glancing to the side, Siegfried too was staring Kagutsuchi down. He had been a little taken aback at the loss of his Magical Artifact and was clearly contemplating about it.
"As I was saying. Who wins and who dies is up to the Heavens' will."
Daiji brandished his National Treasure in front of himself. The silvery blade reflecting the sun's rays.
"Keh. I'll make sure you regret the decision to throw your life away."
With a sharp laugh Kagutsuchi readjusted his own grip. Loosening and tightening multiple times before he feeling satisfied. Now that he had three arms instead of four, slight adjustments were necessary to prepare for the impending climax.
"Since you're in a talkative mood I guess you'd be willing to talk with Me for a little bit too?"
A cold tone emanated from Siegfried's voice and his eyes were like those of a dead fish. Returning to that scary state, he calmly asked Kagutsuchi for a short dialogue. To be truthfully honest, Daiji felt a little uneasy when Siegfried behaved in a way he had never shown before. It made a faint shiver run down his spine even in his state of tranquility where all distracting emotions had been silenced.
A moment of silence weighed down the atmosphere.
"I have nothing but contempt for you. Aldebrand."
This time Siegfried did not even twitch at the mention of that name. Instead he continued in the same manner as before. The same dead eyes berating his enemies.
"I'd guess nothing other than that. But answer this... Who is this "Magician"? You mentioned him once before. Said he "saved you"?"
"I do not care about him beyond the fact that he saved us from that hellish place. The place that you created after you left us behind. Did you think we we're all wiped out? Think again. There were hundreds of survivors that day. But I guess you were too blind to see that."
The anger in Kagutsuchi's voice started a quiet rumbling throughout the air. The emotion deep inside him gnawed at him. His mind was getting more heated each second the topic of conversation remained.
"Without you we could not return home even with our ships. Because you left there was nobody who could open the "Gate" home. And even before you left with the king, your master vanished too."
"..."
Could he really be-?
"So if you want to know about the Magician, too bad! I don't even know where he left after our previous encounter. He too left us! And even multiple of our own joined him! Cowardly! Repulsive! Betrayal! All of you! Shackling us to the ground while you get to fly freely! Locking us in prisons beyond hope."
The intensity of Kagutsuchi's rant blew everything around him away in a pulsing shockwave. The rubble and makeshift walls were thrown away with the wind. However, neither Siegfried nor Daiji moved an inch or batted an eye. There was no reason to be blown away in fear by someone as scared as Kagutsuchi, both of them thought.
"Well, no matter. I will not think twice about exerting violence in this kill or be killed world. Those who want to shackle my freedom will have to be prepared to have theirs ripped away along with their loathsome lives."
He took a deep breath, filling his body to the brim with oxygen. From the look of him it was clearly excruciating thanks to every injury he had Daiji and Yuu to thank for. The small slits and gaps in between the scales began to glow a faint orange. With the exhale, a sea of flames spewed forth, but not at Siegfried or Daiji, but at the blade of his own glaive.
Coated in highly concentrated flames, the sharp blade of the glaive shone brightly and the temperature around them increased. One swing and mighty sparks flew off the tip. Igniting anything it came into contact with.
...
Siegfried had disappeared once again into the forest of walls, denying Kagutsuchi any use of his Divine Blessing. Daiji too, had leaped into action. Dodging the initial swing and flicking his sword at Kagutsuchi vulnerable body.
When he cut through the flesh, a corresponding red streak marked his own body and left the green scales unscathed this time. What determined the odds of succeeding? Were they equal or did the balance tip in favor of one the two? Daiji did not know. All he could do really was to attack and hope for the best.
In the wake of Kagutsuchi's following swings a warm, nearing searing breeze accompanied the sharp sparks leaping off the glaive. Being hit square on by one of those slashes would surely burn, even with a dense Ki defense.
Kagutsuchi lets attacks upon attacks fly, shifting his grip around between his remaining three arms to trip up Daiji who was narrowly dodging each slash with precise movement. Seeing a perfect opening in the maelstrom of attacks, Daiji slips through with incredible speed and marks Kagutsuchi with a deep red streak. This time luck favored Daiji.
From behind, Kagutsuchi was already mid-slash. He had started the motion the moment Daiji got through his defense and immediately opted to strike at the future. Daiji began to leap away, but was still in the glaive's trajectory.
As the fiery blade neared Daiji's neck, a protective translucent shell formed around the old swordsman. When it came into contact with the burning attack, the shell's outer layer melted and the rest cracked almost immediately after colliding with the glaive.
The Shell created by Siegfried had no chance against Kagutsuchi's attacks, but was just strong enough to buy time for Daiji. Thanks to the assistance, he managed to leap out of harms way and start counterattacking at once.
This was how the battle continued on. Jin raised hordes of walls. Daiji slashed at Kagutsuchi while evading the attacks as best as he could. The times it seemed he would be fatally wounded, Siegfried was always fast enough to deploy a shell to buy Daiji a couple of milliseconds to escape.
Sometimes Kagutsuchi would be wounded by Daiji's buttery smooth slashes and a lot of other times, those same slashes came back to haunt his body.
The number of exchanges they shared grew from the tens and neared the hundreds. Blood and sweat flying off of their battered bodies as they danced surrounded by the lilies of death. An ocean of them seemed to encompass the castle ruins. Each spilt drop of blood transforming into a magnificent red flower.
"Raagh!"
"Uooo!"
"~Heh. Hahaha!"
A violent torrent shredded one of Kagutsuchi's arms. Fire burnt the skin of Siegfried's body. A thin slice forced open Daiji's ribs and painted his body and clothes crimson. Kagutsuchi's left eye was split in two. Daiji's calves were brutally ravaged.
They must be insane to continue this.
Finally, the winds of destruction obliterated all of Jin's hastily crafted walls. In the distance, he was held his hand to his chest, gripping his clothes hard enough to tear them. On his knees he struggled to keep his lungs breathing and blood flowed freely from his nose and eyes.
From that position, he fell forward to the ground with a thud. Jin had reached his limit and fainted as a result. There was absolutely no way that he could rejoin the battle at this juncture.
"Hah!"
With a short shout, Kagutsuchi activated Float Foot and vanished from their sight. Daiji and Siegfried quickly averted their eyes away from each other, however, Kagutsuchi had been faster than both. He unleashed an overhead swing at Daiji.
"-guh!"
Daiji barely managed to redirect the attack's trajectory and escape certain death. Letting his right arm be seared by the unquenchable flames. The skin of his arm bubble fiercely and turned into a dark red.
He breathed three heavy breaths and was shielded against Kagutsuchi's next attack thanks to Siegfried. The Shell instantly shattered and the glaive landed a shallow cut on Daiji's back. He groaned in response, but the pain was surprisingly faint to him.
With all his might, Daiji spun around and struck at the glaive's long handle. Though he couldn't cut through it thanks to the weapon's superior craftmanship and status as a National Treasure, the force of Daiji's attack was strong enough to knock Kagutsuchi's arms gripping it away.
In that brief opening, Daiji shot his sword out at the speed of light and let it fly through Kagutsuchi's unguarded stomach. This time, the Heavens did not look kindly upon him and tore his torso from his lower body.
In the moment right before the two halves fully separated, he pulled them together by focusing over half of his remaining Ki in that area. His supply was rapidly running dry as there wasn't nearly enough time for new fresh Ki to replace the old and used.
It was also in this critical moment that Daiji lost his tranquility. In the wake of that loss, the endless waves of anguishing pain stabbed horrifyingly deep into his old body. Forcing his body to shake uncontrollably and threatening him to lose the grip on the sword. He wanted to scream so much that his lungs would burst but just managed to hold the outburst in.
Can't... let it end. Just yet...
Thoughts grew hazy and his ears were being torn apart by the screams of his body. Tears welled up in the corners of his eyes. It was impossible to contain them in a state like this, that felt like experiencing Hell.
Come on body of mine. Just.. one more push.
Since he had been wounded by his own National Treasure as part of "fate", Daiji had abandoned strengthening his body defensively with Ki. He instead released the energy in bursts when he attacked. In addition to that tactic, he had also gathered what he could spare, little by little in the stump of his left arm.
It had started out as a few couple of drops. But it was now swelling up into a ball as thick as his arm. It was extremely difficult to do, especially in the middle of a fight as manipulating Ki as the pure energy it was in a predetermined shape outside of one's body was something that required immense Ki, willpower, and skill.
He had used just about all that he could spare into that ball of energy. This was his final ploy. The last ace up his sleeve.
Kagutsuchi was still staggered from both of Daiji's earlier attacks. Daiji turned to the dragon-kin's exposed back and pooled even more of the nonexistent reserves of his Ki into the ball. Sacrificing his temporary treatment of his wounds, he disregarded his own safety and let the lifeblood rush out of the open sores covering almost every inch of his body.
He leaped off the ground, and as he swung his sword at Kagutsuchi's neck, the ball in his left arm split and extended. Forming itself into three four tentacle-like limbs, they took hold of the sword that was embedded in Kagutsuchi's back.
Kagutsuchi noticed what Daiji was doing, but couldn't do anything to deter him. Float foot wouldn't activate. He tried to turn and swing, but his remaining arms and legs were chained to the ground by white shackles extending from the limbs and dug into the ground right in front of Siegfried. He knelt with both hands to the shackle-ends as he expended all of his Magical Energy to constrict Kagutsuchi's movement.
His right arm and shoulders were badly burnt, blood was flowing out of his body and pain was a horrible reality. But even so, he held on. Sweat drenching his entire surface and infinite jolts piercing into him as he focused on maintaining the chains.
Come on. Daiji! You can do it!
Blood veins burst as Siegfried circulated Magical Energy inside at a rate faster than his body could handle. He saw and knew that Daiji's attack would be the final decisive one and bet all of his remaining strength on it succeeding.
With all his might, Siegfried wished and prayed for Daiji to disintegrate Kagutsuchi.
"Huuaaagh!!!"
"█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █!!!!"
Kagutsuchi tried to let out a shattering scream that echoed and shattered the ground around them. But undeterred, Daiji pooled every drop of Ki in him into the katana his tentacle-like limbs were gripping. Its blade was set ablaze by the energy, forcing Kagutsuchi to scream even louder. Loud enough for the mountains to creak and the ocean to retreat.
With the blade in his left, Daiji burnt heart and everything else inside into cinders.
With the blade in his right, Daiji sliced clean through Kagutsuchi's thick and scaly neck.
A sharp "shing" rings out from the blades and a clang echoes as they and Kagutsuchi's glaive fall to the hard and barren ground.
"Guh, ~gurgle~"
Pressing what remains of his hands to his throat, Kagutsuchi desperately tries to stop the bleeding. To force the cut together with Ki that he no longer possesses. He tries, but nothing comes to life. His entire supply of Ki has already been depleted. Only tiny shrinking specks are all that remain in his body.
When those specks are snuffed out, Kagutsuchi's life will end. No one, no matter what race or how strong can survive without the life energy residing in this world. Without it, you aren't alive. All you are is a hollow vessel, discarded after use.
"kh, no, no. No... What was I even... Where is? Where are you?"
Talking as if he could not see the landscape that unfolded around him, Kagutsuchi muttered confused words. In a staggered state he slowly moved multiple steps backwards towards the sound of the ocean waves.
"Leonard, Henrich -where is anyone? Where is my light?"
...
The sound of water was a familiar one to ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐. It was a reminder of the wonderful world that existed around them. The many colored lights cloaked the forest in a most fantastical glow and atmosphere. There, ⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹'s friends would play together from morning till dusk. Stirring the waters of the Silent Lake into bountiful waves, picking the wonderful flowers and most of all, playing tricks. Whether it be their friend's or strangers, passerby and lost wanderers, ⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹ loved having fun with them.
So when ⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹ encountered ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐ they felt a longing for the brighter outside rather than their mystical home. Much time has passed since their joyful childhood and ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐ had grown into a man, and then something entirely else. They didn't know what or who? But ⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹ knew that without them, ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐ would be trapped inside their dark prison.
...
The dragon-kin touched a hand to his chest and uttered a single word filled with many conflicting emotions.
"Phoebe..."
Teardrops break through the barrier of ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐'s eyes as he somberly closed them. But despite that, he had a smile many in the world would be envious of. That many would resent him for.
With the sound of the ocean waves soothing his ears and the darkness surrounding him, Kagutsuchi? tips backwards and falls silently down the ravine carved out of the earth.
...
Watching the spectacle, Siegfried thought he saw a tiny pink light scatter from Kagutsuchi.
He was on all fours, fighting to stay awake despite exhausting Magical Energy and stamina.
I couldn't ask him anything. I haven't learned anything truly useful from this endeavor. Was that really Henfrid? How is Daiji? Yuu and Jin should be okay since they tapped out before they tipped over the edge. But that.. state, has to come with a cost. -!
He hears a thud and sees that Daiji has fallen over face first into the ground.
"Daiji!"
Siegfried conjures what strength he has into his arms and crawls to Daiji's fallen body. Even going as fast as he can, the process is slow and it takes what feels like minutes to Siegfried's internal clock. He flips the fallen body over and is greeted by horrendously wounded flesh. Everything is covered in cuts, bruises, burns, more and the blood that is flowing out of the wounds is so meager. A quantity that can't even fill a single cup.
"Are you alright!? Come on, Daiji! Open your eyes! You're not dead right?"
You can't die yet. Not after reaching the place I needed you to.
No response comes out of Daiji's mouth. The silence annoys Siegfried and in an outburst of anger he grabs him by the collar. Different emotions twists his face into something he himself can't recognize.
"You can't die yet! Your last If you die now it'll take decades to regain the qualifications!"
"..."
"Don't leave me now... Your death will greatly push back our cause. H-, the others are still too young to contribute. They're still busy treading down their own path. So without you... I'll be alone again for several years."
Daiji wasn't breathing. His entire body was limb and was dangling like a ragdoll at Siegfried's violent behavior with it. He lets go of the collar and the body sinks to the ground. There was nothing he could do.
"Damn it! Fuck!"
At the realization, Siegfried curses, unable to do anything when the exhaustion forces him into slumber. The last thing he manages to do as his heavy eyelids are forced shut is quietly voice his conviction.
"I will get my wish. No matter how long it'll take. And you will help me, Daiji."
At the same moment, inside of Siegfried's mansion. In the "Star-Chamber", one of the lonely stars, existing by themselves without a cluster of fellows, is joined by a newborn white light. One star has become two, marking this as the true starting point of their constellation.
Through this whole ordeal of anger and grief, Siegfried did not shed single tear for his friend's death.
...
At the mountain-hills in the distance where Fool and Hierophant had been spectating, a third observer has joined them. However, this third one was all but on friendly terms with the others. Hierophant had gripped their black book out of habit while Fool curiously watched the newcomer.
Clad in slack robes, the man gazed at the two with golden eyes matching the color of his short hair. He looked to be young, but he also had an air of age hanging about him.
Fool let a surprise attack fly at the unknown man, but the sharp playing card he had thrown did not reach. Instead, without lifting a finger or uttering a word, the attack was multiplied and redirected at Fool. The counter was too fast to dodge and Fool was cut all over.
"I think you two have had enough fun. It's time for you to go home."
With a teasing voice, the golden man spoke. A word of warning etched into the sounds he made.
However, Fool was thrown in a sour mood and would not listen.
Hostilities resumed and their unnoticed battle continued in the shadows of the grand finale.