Just then, he noticed that the aura weapons closing in on him were no longer visible. In their place a large amount of spectral energy. It wrapped around his temporary arm, merging with the power bestowed upon him by the spirits of Holden Cemetery. To add to the craziness, Amos' ears were filled with a cacophony of voices. Love. Laughter. Tragedy. Sorrow. He didn’t even have the time to comprehend any of it as all of that energy quickly expelled itself from its host, forming a massive orange sphere.
“Wh-what… ?!” Nanaya's mouth hung agape as she stared down at the phenomenon. She couldn't believe her eyes. All told, neither could Amos. He'd used this ability against formidable opponents numerous times, but it'd never done anything like this before.
What is this…?
In seconds, the sphere emitted a rapid, tempestuous gale knocking Amos to the ground and launching itself with unrelenting force toward Nanaya.
“Aahhhh!!”
The girl screamed as the impact created an ear-splitting explosion. Its grand force pushed Amos back a few yards upon landing. As he recovered, he noticed Nanaya's body crashing to the ground a few yards away. He took this time to examine himself. He was losing a lot of blood, and his body ached every time he heaved in a breath. I need to close these wounds, he thought, seeking help from the spirits of his domain. However, not a single one responded. Amos also came to realize that he could no longer feel their presence either. Looking over to his left, he was surprised to find that his temporary arm had reverted to his usual stump of flesh.
Odd… I didn’t end the contract, yet they disappeared anyway…
This perplexed him. Normally when the energy thrown at him reached a certain threshold, his Spectral Counter would redirect it. The more powerful the energy, the more difficult the feat. This time, however, it did more than that; it also took the spiritual energy he had gathered before the battle. Something he had never known it to do before.
Was it because those spirits had merged with my domain?
“No!! This… This can't be so!”
The sound of someone crying interrupted his thoughts. He turned to see that it was Nanaya. Her sundress was torn, tattered, and covered in mud. She was on her knees, frantically sweeping her hands across the marshy ground near a slew of tombstones.
“No… no… I… I can’t feel them anymore… Where have they gone? Where?!”
The girl sobbed uncontrollably, nearly hyperventilating, as she surveyed the cemetery, becoming increasingly agitated with each passing second. Amos realized that this was his chance to complete the mission. He grabbed his sword with his lone arm and moved swiftly across the yard toward his target.
Sorry, Frida, I may not need your help after all.
Nanaya silently stood up, her back to him. Pressing on, he prepared to thrust through the girl’s trapezius, which would then penetrate her heart, an effective finishing blow. He was only inches away when he was pushed back by a turbulent force.
“Whoa!” Amos managed to catch himself and gather his bearings before glaring up at the girl.
“You…” Nanaya said, her voice cold and monotone. Her small hands knotted in fists and shook violently. “What did you do…?”
Amos stopped. Perplexed by her question.
“What are you talking about?”
The girl squared around to face the boy, her blonde hair adhering to her tear-stained face, shoulders heaving as she struggled to take in air. Her face contorted into a stony glare, a look that any of her previous expressions couldn't hope to match.
“WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY FRIENDS?!”
“—!”
Amos was taken aback by her outburst. It was rife with anguish and hatred. The girl was now brimming with mana, the flower-shaped rune sigil on her left leg glowing bright orange and the air around them began to shift. Amos couldn't detect any spectral energy; this was her power, and hers alone.
This bodes ill…
Nanaya lowered her head, scowling at the damp dirt beneath her feet. “My friends…My...precious friends…” she muttered, her voice trembling as she wiped the bottom of one foot on top of the other. “They’re gone...and it is all your fault…”
“What do you mean, they’re gone? You aren’t making any sense!” Amos didn't intend for that much bass to be in his voice, but he couldn’t piece together what this girl was getting at and it was wearing on his patience. Instantly, Nanaya’s head shot up and snapped in his direction. Her eyes shimmered.
“This was their place! Their home!!” Her voice shook even more as she yelled. She dragged an arm across her face, attempting to wipe away the tears. “We were but humble guests in their resting place…and you drove them away…How could you?!”
Amos couldn't believe his ears. The realization hit him. “No… No, no, no... You…You don't mean I—”
“This was the only connection they had left to this world… It wasn’t their time yet!” Nanaya's tears streamed down her cheeks as she gazed from the ground, eyeing a harrowed Amos with disgust. “... And now… Now they can never hope to pass on…” Her body shook with sobs. “You…Because of your actions…My friends…they are forever lost! I was mistaken…you are nothing like me… Leave this place!!”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Her harsh words pierced him like a hot dagger, cutting deeper than the aura weapons he'd taken moments before. Amos had no intention of banishing those spirits from this realm. He shouldn't have been able to do such a thing, as far as he knew. He felt his heart sink to his stomach. As horrid a revelation as it was, he still had a job to do. Amos had mana to spare, but his proficiency in other forms of magic was lacking. His all-around specialty was soul magic, and with the cemetery now completely exorcised, he was barely stronger than the average human teenager.
Amos stood his ground, his sword in midstance. His act of defiance only seemed to incense the girl further.
“I said, leave!!” she roared. Before Amos could act, she was already upon him with shocking suddenness. Something jabbed sharply into his solar plexus.
“Gah!”
As a result of the impact, blood erupted from his esophagus, forcing him to lean forward and drop his sword. His gaze was drawn downward as a result of his new precarious position. He didn't have to guess what had hit him so hard. Nanaya was standing on one leg, her right knee pressing against his injured midsection.
Amos channeled the adrenaline in his legs and drew back, but only by a couple of feet.
The girl came in with a swift left hook, he dodged and grabbed her arm, attempting to throw her over, but the sharp pain in his side allowed her to quickly break away. She threw a right hook that was quickly revealed to be a feint before gutting him with another knee strike, this time with her left.
“Gahhh!!”
Although he stood at about five feet ten inches, his five-inch height advantage over Nanaya proved detrimental, making it easy for her to sneak in her knee attacks. That, combined with her incredible speed, turned her into a force to be reckoned with. Soul magic or no.
Amos knew it was coming, but enduring the pain was a necessary sacrifice in order to lower the target's guard. He coughed up some more blood. His body began to feel numb, senses fading.
No… not yet!
He quickly dropped to a knee before sweeping his right leg, taking Nanaya’s left leg from under her. The force of his sweep pushed her up a few extra inches. Before she could fall, he reached out and grabbed her right ankle, yanked her over, and slammed her face-first into the ground.
“Ahhh!!”
With his target's ankle pressed under his boot, Amos reached down and pulled a large bayonet from the holster on his right leg, bringing it down on Nanaya's back. A strong gust of wind pushed back at the boy's downward stab, knocking the weapon from his grasp. Nanaya then rolled away from her captor. She quickly rose to her feet and brushed herself off.
“......”
“......”
She dashed forward again in a burst of speed, but Amos was ready this time. Using all the strength he could muster, he struck the girl in the face with his stump before pivoting around to her back. His arm then encircled her neck, the crook of his elbow resting on her trachea. As he anticipated, she tried to push him away by expelling her aura, so he cast another defensive spell, this time a barrier around himself to soften the impact.
“Nice try…” Amos rasped, trying his damndest not to cough. “Like I'd fall for that again…”
“Be silent!!”
She then fought back physically, scratching, clawing, and biting through his flesh. He didn’t budge, but he could only resist for so long.
“Let... go!!” Nanaya grimaced, her fingernails digging deep into his arm.
She was starting to waver, Amos felt her muscles loosening as she struggled to remain on her feet, her heart was racing as it sought oxygen from her lungs. Her lack of experience with hand-to-hand combat had reared its head, just as the report predicted. Her affinity for aero magic gave her strength and speed, but without the discipline to back it up, she would be outmaneuvered every time she faced a trained opponent. If Amos still had his spectral arm, he simply could have snapped her neck and been done with it all, but he was already pushing himself far beyond his limits. Putting the target to sleep to weaken her before the kill appeared to be his only remaining option.
“Look at me…” the girl rasped, “So much time has passed… and I’m still making things… harder for myself…”
“Shut it!” Amos tightened the chokehold, trying to expel what little oxygen she had left to produce. The barefoot girl simply chuckled before entering a brief coughing fit. Her nails were still digging into his arm. And then, a gust of wind swept past them. This sudden change in the air around them seemed to provide the girl an opportunity to fill her lungs.
“I-If…If onii-chan could see me now…” Nanaya continued. She clenched her right fist, now brimmed with orange energy. “...Surely…he would scold me for being so thoughtless…I can't have that… Can I?”
Amos tried to apply more pressure to the smaller target's neck, but no matter how hard he squeezed, all he could feel was the girl's mana circulation as its intensity began to rise at an alarming rate.
This energy… Where is she getting it from?!
“Matsuga!!” Nanaya croaked as a swirling sphere of energy formed around her fist. The air once again shifted around the two of them. She then threw her fist back, pounding Amos square across the face.
“Augh!!”
The sphere gyrated furiously, grinding into his skin before a powerful gale sent him flying backward. He slid violently against the ground, head, and limbs hitting a few jagged rocks before slamming back first into a tall tombstone.
“Gahh!!”
The spine-crushing impact forced him to cough up more blood and vomit. His forehead was now wounded, throbbing vigorously. His vision was slowly becoming stained with red. He looked over at his target. She was coughing violently, trying to calm her labored breathing.
“You said... you’d do anything... to get the answers that you seek…” Nanaya panted heavily, she now sported a swollen left eye and bright-red liquid ran down her bruised nose. Amos' offense had done quite a number on her face.
“Well, then…”
The girl took to the sky. Once she was high enough, she closed her eyes and channeled her mana, emitting a massive sphere of red aura floating just above her head. It began to take on a new shape, stretching outward as it was ovated into wedged-shaped layers. From where Amos was seated, he could make out the sphere’s shape.
“Let me show you my resolve!!”
Amos sat there staggered as he stared up at the large object. A flower?… No… a chrysanthemum × morifolium?
Nanaya grinned before bringing both of her arms downward. A mighty gale followed, nearing the wind speed of an F5 Tornado. The wind rushed through the cemetery as the roots of nearby bushes and shrubs and trees held on to the soil for dear life. The force pinned Amos to the tombstone as if holding him in place for the oncoming attack.
“Matsuga…” she uttered as her eyes produced an emerald luminescence. Her pale sundress and long golden tresses danced in the maelstrom.
Damn… She put everything she had into that previous attack… And she still has enough energy to spare?
With all feeling gone in his arms and legs, Amos could not move, let alone fight against this powerful wind. He could only watch as the red ball of aura shaped itself and dispersed into multiple flowers.
I never stood a chance…
“...HANA!!!!!!” The girl roared as the flowers rained down on him. The suffocating aura seeping from them told Amos that he would not survive should this attack land; the sheer amount of red light illuminating the cemetery around him was bound to get caught in the blast as well.