"You weren't that great after all," the robed guy stands straight, he smiles.
"Hey, I am not that easy, you know." The dust of debris that just filled the area is now mist. The body he previously saw slowly fades in the mist, revealing a chunk of mist on the ground.
He appears behind the man with a sword at his neck.
"I've got no time for this," the black man starts to shout as he tries hitting Kara.
Kara takes a wild stare at the guy. His pupils become reflectionless, his pupil has changed into a black dot with a ring around it.
The black man looks terrified by the look in his eyes.
"That is—and the winner of round one is—" the announcer on the TV.
"That fight was really good, but will I be able to do the same?" Seka starts thinking in the lobby, with doubt in herself. She looks down from the TV.
"Hey Seka," Chio calls her, "look at that guy, he looks quite powerful, don't you think?"
"Yeah, he does seem."
Grab!
Chio holds her hand, "I thought you wanted to get stronger."
"No, I can handle him, no worries," Seka says.
"Now for our next match, we have quite special guests who are entering their first Kioku International Battles."
"From the Red team, we have Garry, a B-rank player who's just became the captain of our B rank party known as the 'Boom Ground.' And from the Blue team, we have another B-rank who just joined us only 7 months ago, our one and only Royal Scarlet's Captain, Seka."
People start shaking the arena from their cheers. for them.
Seka feels a slight chill for a moment, looks at the enemy, "It's glowing in yellow with a small pupil." The words just come out of her mouth.
The audience starts to chatter here and there:
"It's quite heavy to breathe all of a sudden.""It's kinda cold."
The enemy looks at Seka—no fear at all—like he is looking right into her soul, ready to crush it.
Seka gets terrified, her expression changes, she moves slightly in fear.
The enemy launches without a second thought. She starts to run far behind and tries to use her bow. She jumps.
Cwewr!
She charges the bow in air.
Garry stands still.
ThwakSwiss
Even with the opponent standing straight, she misses it."Why? What just happened to me? Am I scared?"
Pheep, cling clang
The bow changes its appearance, transforming into a sword.
She creates a blade for her weapon with ice.
She lands.
Garry looks at her just standing there, with a smirk."Looks like he's enjoying it," she speaks.
"Haaaaa." She starts running.
Bhugsh! she jumps.
She tries to attack and gets a hit. Her sword breaks."What? No, why?" Seka gets shocked. The enemy's hand slowly comes to her and grabs her neck, lifts her in the air, slowly increasing the pressure on the fingers.
She struggles to breathe. Tears start to form in her eyes as she remembers Kara and the moments they spent—Chio, Mizuno—. then remembers her talking with Kara."Wait, why did I come here?" she asks herself.
"Do you remember asking me..." She remembers talking to Kara on the mana bridge that connects the mana to the general defense towers.
"Which one are you talking about?" asks Kara."Why did you leave your parents? Remember now?" Kara remembers asking this question."Oh yeah, what about it?" he asks.
"So the thing is, I left because there was nothing I could do. Only if I had been a little stronger—just a little stronger." Some flashbacks of her mom shouting...
ChyakStabbing sounds."I cannot change the past, but I can make my future." She stands up from the seat and shouts,"Haaa! I will not be weak anymore.
I will protect myself and others!"She starts freezing Garry's hands. He opens his hands.
"Frost, huh? You're quite stronger than you seem." She starts to run around him. She launches at Garry with her broken sword. His hands come her way—
Gyarrr!
She slides, dodging his hand.
Buksh! She dashes with force and then—
Chyak! She stabs him.
"Ohh, you're bad at this. Didn't even manage to hit me in the right spot." He looks dead into her eyes and raises his hand to knock her out.
Seka sees her death in his eyes. Time stops in the moment. Everything gets a little darker. All the living are glowing with magic, but a little darker than her opponent Garry. Smoky stripes are coming out of them. As she looks at herself, she has the same effect—with pink glow. Time starts to move slowly, then her body starts to move as well, dodging the attack, getting behind him, and doing a spinning kick.
Dkish! Garry gets sent flying.
Her weapon has changed. The blade has been restored with proper blue ice—a sharp blade and a stronger build.
She just stands there, thinking "What just happened?" She stares at Garry. Her eyes turn into a small pupil, as pink smoke stripes start to leak from her body. Her eye with the patch starts to leak golden, but everything else is pink, "I know what I want now."
Kara is running with a serous face, Hachi following him through the city. Hachi remembers:"That scroll's contents were not great." A bit of sweat drops from her face."Brother, this case is getting even more serious than we actually thought it would be."
She hands over the scroll to Kara. He takes a look. His face changes."I don't think I can handle this thing on my own with my abilities." His confidence drops as they dash closer.
"This scroll contains their plan. We need to hurry." He speaks about the contents of the scroll.
"It is a curse that was sealed about a thousand years ago. They are trying to free it, using a person as a sacrifice. But where?" Kara asks Hachi. Hachi glances around.
"There." She shows a temple that was built on top of an old temple.
Kara says, "Hachi, the jet—use the jeet!" They use their fire element to boost their speed, jumping through buildings faster.
Kara tells her, "Hachi, note that this ritual cannot be stopped by destroying the magic circle, and we don't know who the sacrifice is at all."Hachi replies, "Brother, what kind of curse was it?"Kara replies, "It's the curse that feeds on revenge. It takes the desire to take revenge from a person and increases that desire. Then it feeds on them, using the person as a vessel for its body in the overworld.
It grows as the people it attacks keep getting what it wants. But the thing is, it grows as it fulfills those desires and gets even stronger. It was one of the most dangerous ones in the world at that time. And now It must have a strong target."
Hachi calls him, "Brother, we're here!"They enter the temple. They find that the temple is empty.Kara starts speaking, "There must be some way. The temple is kind of big from the outside, don't you think?"
"Hachi, use your focus mode," Kara speaks as his vision gets darker. All the tiles are black, but the tiles on the south wall glow.
"Brother, I can see them—it's that wall." Hachi points her fingers to the wall. Kara launches himself and punches the wall.
Brimm! Kara gets knocked back as he catches his fall.
"Brother, are you okay?" Hachi asks."Come on, this door." She pulls her hand to punch the door.
"Wait, Hachi." He grabs her hand and pulls her in. "eak," She makes a sound, gets a slight blush."Don't be reckless. These doors were probably used to seal the curse from the public."Hachi looks at Kara still flustered a little."So you mean it was made by the king—""The royal family and the Luminants of that time," Kara completes her sentence. He looks here and there.
Hachi taps Kara."I think I might be able to do something with this." She points at her doll."Magic: String Lockup!" Strings from her doll connect to the sacred door.
She sees symbols in the door."Hey brother, can you tell me if there's anything about a code of some kind in the scroll?"
Kara takes out the scroll and starts reading it."Yes, there is a code. It's some kind of samurai's blade, shining with words—'Rivals'."
Hachi looks at the symbols. She rotates the symbols, forming the word "Rivals" on the wall.
Treww. Clang clang!
The walls start to unfold like origami,
Revealing the secret people in the place, and the magic circle. They look around. More black-robed guys surround them.
"Sorry, guys, for coming without invitation. I think I was rude, was I?" he asks.
Hachi grabs the doll."What are you talking about? You're always rude."