Aldred crawled on the floor, his body dragging itself. Why was he still fighting? He had no idea.
All of this was happening while Kyra and Hojoi were having their face-off.
He could clearly see it, the way Hojoi was getting better and adapting with each hit. He couldn't understand what was going on, but he could feel it.
An instinct dragged him. His scar glowed yellow as it reached closer and closer to the book. Aldred finally understood what it was. He had a spiritual connection with it. He didn't know why, but he knew the fact that he surely had a connection.
Why? Why can't I give up? He finally questioned it. In his whole life, he had never given up on anything. Why? Why can't I abandon my freedom? Why must I always fight for it? This was shocking for his mind. Why was he thinking like this? No idea. In fact, even I don't have a clue.
Finally, the palm grazed the book's cover, sparking an inner energy.
The vision appeared again. The vision of a masked man killing his parents! Why does he taunt me? Always! Why! Maybe… Something made sense finally. Maybe it is because of him that I never give up! I have to surpass my strengths and kill him, TO AVENGE MY PARENTS!
His arm glowed, his hair spiked. The book opened, turning each page until one old yellow page opened;
Lord Kamui, at the beginning of the first Megos, split his power to create two godly beings–Dialga, the time God, and Palkia, the space God.
The other lines were erased, there was only one visible word, and that was;
Giratina! The word slowly glowed.
Aldred felt the energy surging inside his body. He felt the heat travelling across his veins.
Then his eyes opened.
The smiling man stood there, finally not sitting on his throne like he was serious, for the very first time.
He gave a good glance before starting the conversation, or, to be precise, a one-sided conversation.
" Hey, brat!" He spoke with a petrifying look," It was sure nice to be with you and see the new, modern world created by him." He saw the confusion in Aldred's face, finally reminding him to introduce himself," Oh, sorry…My name is Giratina! That's all you must know, at least for now."
He slammed both of his palms on the long grey table before continuing," Remember, this is the last meeting we can have before everything begins!" As the fog lifted to block Giratina, he said," Before I leave, don't get too attached to your friends and family, a fair warning is required before trauma, right?" The fog slowly covered his entire face except his eyes, showing the symbol of a diamond as he gave a send-off," Now, now, goodbye brat!"
The fog disappeared, and the real world appeared.
Aldred's eyes were blurry, but he could see the book in his left hand, constantly turning pages. Before he could realise anything, a blast smeared through his body. Rage popped in, as if he had kept it stored from the moment of his parents' death. A surge of energy, never felt before, surrounded him. His smart brain quickly recognised it as Magic, though he had never seen it before.
" How dare you! How dare you touch Kyra like that!" He shouted, his throat screeched with agony. Hojoi activated Wind Dive, pulled his grey sword out of thin air, and jumped forward, slashing his sword.
Aldred raised his arm, which was somehow already wounded. It was a movement that he hadn't commanded; it had happened on its own, like his muscles had their own mind working on rage.
Hojoi suddenly felt gravity pushing him to the ground. His body felt immense force towards the centre of the Earth before slamming on the floor. Huh? He questioned the situation in agony before swirling around his feet, covered in Mana, to hit Aldred's toes.
Aldred jumped, his body moved on its own, without command. Hojoi turned his body up and surged a lot of mana behind him, propelling him to the skies while holding his sword in his right hand. He swung the sword mid-air near Aldred, and Aldred retaliated by holding the sharp blade with his left palm, making a cut deep enough to squirt out blood. He pushed his left hand forward sprutting some of it on Hojoi's eyes. And then, suddenly, the grey sword and his Wind Dive form had disappeared. Not only was Hojoi confused, but Aldred was too– the caster of this new technique.
Hojoi quickly landed on his feet before the limitless questions splashed in his head.
What was that technique just now? Did he just cancel it, my Wind Dive? No! It isn't possible. Magic and Mana are truly opposite and cancel each other, but the cancellation also brings destruction. It is almost like Matter and antimatter; in their presence, they self-destruct. But here, there was no blast or a surge of energy emitted; it was not Aldred's magic popping out; it was a spell!
Hojoi sighed before shooting wind bullets at Aldred to test out his theory. Aldred again lifted his wounded, bloody palm, and magically, the wind bullet was gone from existence. Bingo!
I see. So I was right. He is using something similar to anti-mana, which just dissolves Mana instead of self-destructing it. But there is something else that he is hiding! What is it?
Aldred used his lifted arm. Suddenly, Hojoi felt an immense force in his chest, like something imaginary was pulling him. Hojoi's body started moving towards Aldred on its own, like Aldred was forcing him.
Gravity? He questioned amidst the opposite wind.
Hojoi again created the Wind Dive sword in the middle of the air and slashed it after arriving closer to Aldred.
Aldred's stomach was cut open, with blood pumping out. Suddenly, the sword disappeared, his Wind Dive form disappeared, but then a beam of Wind Mana blasted out of Aldred's finger, which had been pointed at Hojoi.
Hojoi blasted back in pain, again confused about what just happened.
Can he also control Wind Mana? How? Especially when he is an Avery, how?
Hojoi came back to his Wind Dive form, created his sword, and slashed it in thin air to produce Wind Bombs, which were blasted towards the book demon.
Aldred threw his book towards the attack, continued by the wind energy to get absorbed by the book.
Then, Aldred lifted both of his arms forward and created a huge Wind, a green colour bomb and blasted it towards Hojoi.
Hojoi used his sword to deflect the bomb through the ceiling as he pondered.
I see another power. He can absorb techniques and release them with greater intensity! What more powers does he hide?
Aldred realised it too. Even though all of these moves were on instinct, he was able to grasp the knowledge. Slowly, he learned how to control these new demonic powers. He realised why his parents had tried to keep him away from this book. He understood how the demon inside his body was linked with it, which was left by his parents.
Is there any link between my parents and Giratina? Could be. But then comes another question. Why didn't my parents reveal all these secrets to me? Why are these questions appearing in my mind now? Why didn't I expect something like this before?
New doubts appeared with each answer.
He felt like the energy from his body was slowly depleting. He checked the book to see that a lot of sentences and words had disappeared.
I don't have much time, le- Suddenly, all the Magic surrounding him disappeared, as Aldred felt weakness coming back. The energy loss took a toll on his body as Aldred fell to the floor, while trembling.
Hojoi, while huffing and tired, looked at the kid. He gave a chilling smile before saying," You sure are special, both of you.
" You both are coming with me!" His form disappeared, but the sword didn't leave, sensing the slow weakness of the reawakener.
No! Shinsu thought while looking at all the chaos. She tried to stand up, trying to protect her daughter even if it cost her life.
Suddenly, Hojoi's legs gave up. They slammed down on the floor, giving Dunn an opening to make an ice sword and attack him.
Hojoi's legs had given up, but surely his arms didn't. He clashed his Wind Dive sword with the ice one, producing a shockwave that pushed their hair strands back.
Shinsetsu got her time. NOW! She shouted to herself before forcefully lifting her body and sprinting towards Hojoi. Her legs hurt, her body hadn't healed enough yet, but she kept on moving, while reminding herself of her dark fate, to motivate.
Hojoi, in a flash, saw everything go down. Dunn kicked his stomach, causing the wind dive sword to fly out of his hand. It flew in the air before gravity affected it. Shinsu slid down, laying her right arm flat on the floor as the wind dive toppled on her palm, quickly engulfing her whole body with a green light, completely healing her wounds. She had retrieved the Wind Dive back.
Hojoi landed on his feet to see his sword vanish from his grasp. In rage, he quickly threw all the tarot cards left with him with all of his Mana.
One of them was thrown towards Dunn, but he quickly dodged at Aldred, like he had a plan.
One more tarot card infused with Hojoi's Mana flew toward Dunn, but quickly, Dunn lifted Aldred's fainted body front. The card pierced through his stomach.
Earlier today, I had infused my Mana inside Aldred, and I know how it affected, what if I do the same thing with the enemy? He surely doesn't have Aldred's blood, right?
Hojoi noticed how the tarot card slowly got engulfed in red coloured liquid before sending chills throughout his body.
Labrica woke up to the commotion.
Shinsu grabbed her sword and started to massacre all the warriors present in the area, the awakeners and non-awakeners, no one should be spared, at least that's what she thought.
Labrica, while shivering, pulled out a bottle of liquid, which looked like blood.
Hojoi's heart pumped intensely as the images of pomegranates kept appearing. Why? He couldn't understand. A simple image of a poppy flower popped into his head, before everything could go down.
Grey fog could be seen everywhere before a huge table appeared with many seats. At the end of the table was a person sitting on a throne. He smiled before grinning," You humans never understand, do you?"
Laughter erupted, engulfing the fog around him, as Hojoi felt a sharp pain in his chest.
He fell to the ground as the fog disappeared. He coughed up blood, more like vomiting. His whole body was engulfed in flames before a cracked capsule, containing someone's blood, flew above his face, just parallel to his mouth. Through the cracks, a drop of blood directly dripped into Hojoi's open mouth.
Lord Mars knew something like this would happen, so he gave this capsule containing blood. I have no idea whose blood it is, but it surely must work if Lord Mars trusted it! Labrica pondered.
The flames quickly calmed down, but it was already too late.
Labrica didn't notice Shinsu. Before she could do anything, a sword pierced through her stomach, spilling blood all over her body. Shinsu removed the sword and gave a sad look before aiming at Labrica's neck, but then, a tarot card sliced through her arm holding the sword, causing the sword and the sliced hand to drop on the floor in front of Labrica.
Shinsu turned back to see Hojoi with half of his body completely burnt, looking like ash, while the other side looked pale, lifeless; he had narrowly survived Giratina. One of his eyes had permanently gone, one of his arms wasn't functioning, and his hair looked like a blonde mess.
Dunn was shocked by the resilience of this warrior. Respect took its birth.
Shinsu ignored Labrica, quickly healed her arm, and picked her sword up before rushing towards Hojoi to finish him off, sensing pure danger from this lone warrior.
The dead warrior's blood grazed Hijoi's fainted body with trauma. Flashes of memory flushed his brain.
The smell of iron filled the cafe as Shinsu and Dunn stood side by side, getting ready to fight the half-dead Hojoi, who keenly glared at his younger brother, Hijoi, with his half-opened eyes.
That time you didn't give up and saved me! Now, I WILL NOT GIVE UP AND SAVE YOU! His eyes widened like he was finally determined to finish the job, even if it was impossible at this point.
When will this torment end?