And the Heavens Cried Out (Mini-arc part 5)

Tadatomo realized what was happening almost too late. Alexei vanished into a portal with the attacks close behind. Then, the red-haired fighter heard a portal open behind him, forcing him to dive roll to the side to avoid the barrage of redirected attacks that came forth, and his attack was interrupted. "Dammit!" Tadatomo exclaimed as he righted himself and moved off again. He said nothing to the "advice" given by Yuri and Alexei. He didn't plan on being hit even if wasn't magical, so it made no difference. He surveyed the battlefield for a moment. It looked grim. Despite the power the guy was generating in attacking them all, he wasn't showing any sign of getting running out of energy. By Tadatomo's reckoning, they would all be spent and subsequently dead before Alexei even broke a sweat. But his mission was simple. Whatever the cost, Alexei had to be stopped.

Tadatomo decided this was no longer the time to conserve energy. He rose up into the air and charged his sword, then launched it at Alexei with his Super Sword sling technique. On impact with either man or ground, it would set off an explosion equal to a Cero Oscuros in light-based energy damage. He then shifted position to throw off any counter-attack, before firing off his Super Buster Cannon, sending a large blue ball of light energy at the dark one, hitting with the power of two Gran Rey Cero. Tadatomo called Kurato back to his hand while drawing Apollo and firing a half dozen shots at Alexei, moving constantly to vary not only the angle of attack, but the angle of the counter-attack.

Kain sneered. As if he cared what a human thought. A blade was a blade, it would injure him regardless, not that it helped. He would just heal. Alexai made a point of cutting up some ice spikes, but more just formed around them, and then shards of ice started to rain from the sky, impacting and forming more ice spikes. Soon the battlefield was riddled with them.

The dark mage came at kain and tried to make an example out of him. The sword cut clean trough the hollow's arm, but a tentacle lashed out and grabbed the severed limb. Not even wincing, he stuck the arm to the stump and it healed back onto his body in seconds thanks to his high speed regen. "Fool, I'd have gone for the head." kain said, backing off. "You could easily kill all three of us. Your just playing games. You'll regret that."

He launched another volley of cero powered attacks as he dashed around Alexai and attacked him from the opposite side tadatomo attacked from. He made sure to move out of the path of his ally's attacks after firing off two ceros each time. Just a few more seconds, and his final would be ready. The massive spikes of ice were starting to build up.

Alexei put out his Devil's Sunrise to block Tada. Only for a huge explosion to occur. This actually forced Alexei to look at him. His sleeve was torn off, forearm and hand scared, burned, and bleeding in a couple places. He took four times more damage from light and holy based attacks. The fact this guy had something similar was interesting. He had to be more careful with this one since, beyond Yuri and Kai, he could actually injure him pretty well. He did chuckle at the hollow. "Now where would the fun be in that? Besides...I'd never kill my brother nor wish for his death." Besides, he could also move his soul around. It would suck to lose his body, but whatever.

He used the Soul Eater to slice both ceros in half. A tiny ball of black power hit a blue ball, turning it black, and fired it back at Tada as the dark one danced around the ice that was increasing. He knew Yuri could fire his Genesis spell at anytime now...but he was holding it back. He also danced around the bullets and sending pulse spells back at him.

Might as well give them something to fear. A black mist started to cover the field. No one can get hurt while in it. In fact, it became a battle of wills. An illusion of whatever they feared would start to play out. Often with Alexei being the perpetrator. It could be resisted...if their wills were strong enough. This particular spell lasted a while though...

Tadatomo scored the first visible damage on the powerful mage. Alexei studied the damage to his arm, before reacting to Tadatomo's second attack by firing a small black orb at it. The original blue orb turned black and changed direction, heading straight back towards Tadatomo. The red-haired warrior dived to the side to avoid being blown up by the traitorous attack. He was beginning to think this was one battle they might no win. He fired off another half-dozen shots at the mage, just to keep things going while he tried to think of a plan.

Surveying the scene for a moment, Tadatomo noticed two things. The first thing he noticed was that the ice spikes that were shooting around were increasing in both size and frequency. There was also an energy build-up occurring beneath the ground. Given that the Hollow was an ice-user, Tadatomo reasoned that he must be the one responsible. Logically, that meant there was a large attack coming, one that Tadatomo did not want to be in front of. The second thing Tadatomo noticed was that there was a dark mist beginning to permeate the area. The mist had some sort of mind-affecting quality to it, for as soon as it enveloped Tadatomo, he began to see images of nightmarish things. The images seemed to play on his fears, fears so specific that he knew the others were not seeing the same things. First he saw Laura lying dead on the ground, Alexei standing over her. Then the image shifted, depicting Serion running rampant over the Earth, with the Coalition HQ of New York lying in ruins. It took a bit of focus, but he was able to dismiss the images, using a combination of logic and the practices he had learned from the Shinigami of Village to clear his mind.

Tadatomo decided the best thing to do would be to distract Alexei from the Hollow's impending attack. He shot up into the air and used his Super Buster Barrage, an improved version of the attack he used earlier. This time, each of the thirty projectiles was the strength of two bala. He sprayed the projectiles all over Alexei's position, trying to cloud his vision as well as inflict a bit of damage.

Just a little longer, and he could finish this. He spotted the dark mist rising around them, felt its influance attacking his mind. Just a little longer. He just needed a little longer. Without warning, Kain was suddenly surrounded by fire. He was trapped in an ever encroaching ring, the flames inching towards him. Alexai stood outside the flames, grinning. How did he get here? was he knocked out? Something wasn't right. Kain started to panic, and he countered that fear the only knew how, with vicious fortitude. He lashed out at the fire with ice, driving back the flames, forcing them away to get to alexai. But the flames didn't retreat.

Kain knew something was wrong here, as Alexai walked through the flames unharmed, and kicked kain hard in the chest. He vanished, and the flames got closer. "Little ice tricks wont help you now." Alexai said. The flames grew brighter. Kain roared. He wasn't afraid. He wasn't afraid. He lunged into the flames at alexai, the burning heat ripping at his body, and everything went black.

When he woke up, he was himself again. Not the hollow he'd become, but human Kain. Had he dreamed all that? It felt like it. He looked around the room, and realised he was back in his room at the guild. There was a knock on the door, and Alice stepped in. His Alice.

After the human's attack, a battered and holey Laura came out. "Tada...why?" The lass reached for him as she fell. Dead and motionless. Alex's laugh echoing around the man. "That's not how my illusion works. You have a stronger will than normal...but that doesn't mean you can break out of the illusion. Besides, even if that attack did happen, the mist protects all that reside inside. Your mind...is mine to torture with. If you can endure it...resist it...throw it in my face...you won't feel a thing has changed. No energy or stamina lost...no marks on your skin. If you can't...well...think about any other illusions that have worked in the past..."

The dead Laura rose up with her scythe sniper and swung at Tada.

The Hollow seemed to be having a worse time of it. He'll let the illusion finish out. However, Kai seemed to have had other ideas. The mist was blown away and Alex was assaulted by gusts of cutting wind. With the mist gone, his illusion no longer held anyone. Using his own dark vector spell, he propelled himself up with dramatic force. And activated a spell.

It protected him from all sides, blocking damage up to a hado 63. However, it also filled up with power, and during the hollow's major attack, fired out dark needles that would hopefully soften the blow. It was a very large swarm, being able to mess with attacks and people's powers, though not a lot, as it took 10 to effect them by 2%. The maximum being 80%. Another dark spell appeared, firing 300 small, dark needles, totaling damage worth a gran rey, also directed at the hollow's big attack.

A Doom Ray spell followed, as well. Between the two energy effecting spells, the defensive nature of the one needle spell, and the dark spell that equaled a cero oscuras, Alexei should be able to weather the hollows last resort attack, no matter what it was.

Afterwards, Alexei sliced the Genesis spell in half. But it still did it's duty. The holy spell regenerated Tada's and Kain's wounds and restored their spiritual energy. Upon landing, however, a vortex surrounded the dark mage, protecting him from additional attacks. "It's been fun, but Kai is getting a tad too close for my tastes. It's time I bid you all ado." A female version of Alexei appeared beside the man, and the two disappeared, with the vortex.

Yuri's eyes narrowed and sighed heavily. "So much for that..."

The dust cleared, and suddenly the scene had shifted. Tadatomo was in the gym, the gym in his home-town. He looked to the desk where Laura normally sat. The blonde person behind the desk stood up suddenly and walked towards him. It was Laura, but she was covered in wounds. Wounds he inflicted. He stood absolutely still as Laura questioned why he had done this, why he had hurt her. He had no answers, he did not know why. Laura reached for him, but then collapsed. As Tadatomo ran towards the body, he heard Alexei's voice in his head. Tadatomo began to see images of a fight in his mind. He was fighting a white-haired mage in a valley, with a hollow and another mage. Tadatomo knew he was supposed to be at that fight, but he had didn't know how to get there.

Then, Laura rose up again, weapon in hand. Tadatomo was again absorbed into the moment, not sure where reality lay. She swung her scythe at him, with a madness in her eyes that he couldn't comprehend. He blocked her blows and pushed her away from him. She fell to the floor. Tadatomo reacted with horror at what he had done. He had sworn never to hurt her. He sank to his knees, staring at his hands. Laura rose and once again charged at him. Tadatomo simply stared at her, inviting his doom. "I am so sorry, Laura. I have failed." As the girl swung at him, Tadatomo saw another image of the fight he had seen earlier. But this time, a new person was there. Then, just as the scythe was about to connect, the scene faded.

Tadatomo found himself back in the fight. The illusion had been interrupted. Tadatomo got to his feet quickly and looked up. Alexei was high above them. The dark mage was then enveloped in a black sphere. The sphere suddenly exploded outwards, showering the area with needles. Then Tadatomo remembered what the Hollow was doing. He dived for cover as Kain's attack went off. Tadatomo peered over the top of the cover he had hidden behind. He suddenly felt his energy and health returning to full, and looked for the source. Yuri's Genesis spell had done its job before is was destroyed by Alexei, who now floated above them. The dark mage bid goodbye and fled through a portal, along with a female.

Tadatomo quickly appraised the situation. He spotted Kai and hurried over to him. "Sir. Are you damaged?" Tadatomo looked around. He spotted Yuri, to whom he nodded respectfully. He then looked around for the Hollow.

Kain suddenly snapped out of his nightmare, or what ever that had been, and set off his final. which did nothing but force the guy to dodge and block the countless icey explosions. Another human arrived, stronger than any of them bar Alexai, and then yuri set off his attack which healed and restored everyone's power. Alexai fled then. Kain let out a hiss of anger. "You let him escape." He snarled at Kai, then he opened a garganta and shot throw it. it snapped shut behind him.

Kai sent a scathing glare at the hollow. He DID NOT let him escape. The hollow left. Kai sighed. "I'm fine. Our priority is finding Alexei. Yes, Yuri, I know, so shut up. Far easier said than done. I want everyone back in New York and rested up. We'll think of some way to deal with him. Alexei may be cocky, but he's usually meticulous and prepared for most things. Yuri, what are you going to do?"

"Take the clone's head back to Amesbury. Chances are, he'll at least visit them then disappear. But afterwards, I'm hunting Cinder. She's as good as dead." The white haired mage walked past Kai to retrieve the prize he didn't get to take down himself. Oh well. Lexei saved him the trouble.

~

Unknown Time and Place

Alexei sipped tea as he waited for Amarius to come out of the shower. The man was amusing. When he did, the dark mage smiled at the man. "I at least wanted you to stay long enough for me to say thank you. And if you have any interesting projects, to contact me. You know how. Oh, very amusing by the way. To think that my clones didn't know what you were doing. They just didn't cared unless it would interfere with the project. If I have a project that may interest you, I'll find you and give a sales pitch. I better get going now. Nice seeing you in person...and meeting you. Good luck." With that the dark mage left.