Shadow Heart shot out from her shadow, she caught the black blade in her hand. Her Gate was wide open, Aura erupted within her along with her hatred. The ground they were standing on warped and shook. And then she shot forth like a loosed arrow.

Bell intercepted her attack, their swords rang like a broken glass bell. For a moment they were at a stand still, their Auras clashed with each other.

“Heh! Do you see? Your attack means nothing to me! I can see it!”

He was fast. His swings were as quick as the wind itself. But that didn’t matter. She dodged his swings with ease and cut his head off. Before surprise escaped his gaping lips, she stabbed his heart. Sliced his legs. Chopped his arms. Her swings turned erratic as she screamed in rage, letting it all out.

She stood over his corpse. Blood covered her face and she took in deep and heavy breaths.

She didn’t understand.

She kicked his arm a distance away.

How had this man killed Kenichi?

The thought attacked her, gnawing on her head. Tears dripped from her face as she lifted her head and screamed her grief free.

“Are you kidding me?! How did you get killed from this weakling?!”

Of course, he couldn’t answer her. He was dead.

“I’ll never forgive you.” She murmured under her breath.

A pink ball of light crossed in the corner of her eyes just as she was about to drop her black sword back into her shadow. She cut at it, but her sword went through it, as if she had tried cutting the moon by cutting its reflection instead.

Yoru jumped away from the body. Her ears turned, but she heard no one around her. She kept her gaze upon the pink ball, watching it carefully. To see what kind of attack it was.

The ball dropped on the Black Sun’s body and in a blaze of pink light, Bell stepped out without a hint of injury, holding a pink blade with three gems instead of the silver sword he had held before his death. Two of the gems glowed, but one of them was dim.

After seeing that, he bit his lips in frustration. Blood trickled from it.

“How dare you?” His voice shook. “You took away my right to be heroic. Do you know how humiliating it is to be killed by a noob like you? You’ve taken away my moment to be triumphant!”

None of what he said made any sense to her. Other than one.

Cedar’s face, Elm’s face, Kenichi’s, and his face flashed in her mind.

“Are you kidding me?” Her face twisted in rage and the sword she held trembled. “Why? Why are you assholes allowed to revive when the ones that deserve it are killed!”

She screamed stabbing the ground. The shadows boiled like oil, and stretched covering the whole area with nothing but blackness.

“Memoria!” The sword in his hand changed forms. Turning into a blade that looked broken pieces of mirror glued together. “Fine! I suppose I’ll have to take you seriously!”

Yoru cackled to that. Madness pumped to every corner of her body. Her nails peeling her skin as she raked it down her face.

She had enough! Just fuck everything!

“I’m going to kill you now! As painful as possible!”

“You’re nothing but a NPC!” He screamed at the top of his lungs. “But in my infinite benevolence, I shall kill you. As you are evil.”

He came at her. Though slower, she was surprised to see that his swings were competent. More than that, they were masterful. Their clash rang as their swords met each other. Each time, she could feel her hands go a little number.

“Do you see now! My skills! Aren’t they overwhelming?” Their blades met, and he pushed his body against her. Her blade was shaking in her hand, but she stood defiant. His face scrunched in annoyance. “You should just give up. I’ve already won. Like this, I cannot be defeated. My blade houses the spirit of a sword master. It allows me to use his moves.”

“Only a fool, tells their enemy, what their ability can do,” she said before she slipped away from him, leaving a parting slice to his cheek in the process.

Bell touched his cheek, seeing blood. He looked less like an angel and more like a boy throwing a tantrum.

“How dare you! You still disrespect me!” He roared. “I’ll show you! I’ll kill you right now! I-”

A shadow blade pierced through his chest. He looked underneath him, seeing a shadow blade sprout from his own shadow and then his face finally changed to his true one.

“You bitch!” Blood dripped from his mouth.

“You’re no hero. Just a fool.”

Multiple shadow blade erupted turning him into a pincushion before melting away. The canopy of shadow that had engulfed them had guaranteed her victory, allowing her to thrown blades from any direction. within her shadow she could throw blades from any and all direction. But it left her drained, she leaned against her planted sword, and her vision shook for a moment.

She felt pain erupt from her belly and fell on her back. When her vision stopped shaking, she saw blade planted in her gut and put two and two together. Before he had died, the man and thrown his sword at her.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Yoru hated to admit it, but it had been smart.

A moment later, a pink light bloomed and Bell stood over. The sword in her gut had transformed into the pink one and he pulled it free from her. There was only one gem left glowing.

“You bitch!” He raged up a storm. “Do you know how long it takes for that to cooldown? It takes a week for at least one to come back!” He pointed at the gems on the pommel. “I have to wait two weeks! You put my legend in danger! What if…what if I die?”

Yoru gave a bloody smile.

“That’s the point.” She gathered her Aura where she had been stabbed. She used a piece of her shadow to stitch her wound shut. “I’ve never seen a bigger coward than you. Even the that shitty prince had more courage than you.”

Bell looked like he bit a lemon.

“I am the Champion chosen by the Goddess of the Sun,” he said that as if it was supposed to mean something to her. “I have been chosen to slay evil and you are evil. You are an evil that will become much more eviler.”

Yoru forced herself to laugh, even though it hurt to.

“You think I care?”

A shadow blade shot from under her, Bell parried the attack and jumped back. It turned back into the Memoria sword.

She pulled herself up, using her black blade as a crutch. Her gut bloomed in pain, yet she bit it down. Bell’s face twitched seeing her stand up.

“Why can’t you just die!”

She enjoyed how frustrated he looked. It made her feel better already. She wrenched Shadow Heart from the ground ready to continue their fight.

“I know you can’t use that anymore.” A smile cut across his face. “That was a big attack. Your Gate is probably almost dry, or ready to close.”

That was true. Her Gate was only a crack open now after using that. She could eat another Key, but she knew if she did so quickly, there was a chance that she could turn to ash.

But she was going make sure to kill him and then she would kill Cedar.

He shot forth at her. She formed her shadow into a circle to act as a barrier. Tendrils of shadow erupted from it attacking him with its sharp limbs.

Yoru joined the tendrils and attacked Bell. He parried her attacks with ease, cutting the tendrils down one by one. She summoned more, but she couldn’t form them as quickly as they were being cut down.

He ducked under her sword and kicked her gut.

She gasped and managed to throw a retaliatory cut.

He back off, dodging her attack smoothly. He held his sword near his face, tapping its face in deep thought as she used her free hand to hold her gut. His stab was surprisingly shallow.

“How does it feel?”

A sadistic smile formed upon his face and he pounced upon her like a wolf to a wounded hare. They exchanged dozen of blows and once more he slipped through her defense and this time cut her leg. It was another shallow cut.

Yoru spun, she felt her face burn with anger at the humiliation she was receiving, in an attempt to catch him off guard. Cold steel clanged. Bell stood there, holding her back with one hand, while he gave a great big yawn.

He pushed her, throwing her off balance, and in a flash sliced her multiple times. They were like paper cuts and individually they did nothing, but with a lot more than she would have liked, she was starting to lose enough blood to feel dizzy.

“How does it feel? To be bested by a Champion?” He asked again. “Answer me!”

“Answer you?” She was breathing hard and choked out a bloody laugh. “You’re no hero. I knew someone,” Elm’s face flashed in her head, “if there is one true thing, it’s that heroes always die, but scum like you tend to live.”

This time Cedar’s face flashed in her head.

Two brothers, and they were world’s apart.

The one she loved died, while the one that should have died was still alive.

She hated it.

It should have been Elm that lived.

Bell’s face turned red with rage.

“Are you telling me, that I’m scum?”

“You’re worse than scum. You’re cancer,” she said.

#

Bell, Champion of the Goddess of the Sun, had been granted a sword that transformed into twelve forms. The one he used right now, Memoria, allowed him to use the skills of the master he slayed. The master had offered himself to Bell.

Right now, he moved like him, cutting through the wolf’s shadows like aluminum foil. Though she barked about killing him, her bite was that of a toothless dog.

Bell laughed himself in a fit as there clash continued. Her swings were getting weaker and he made sure to sadistically poke her any chance he got. He did it again, cutting her shoulder.

Then he met her eyes.

Her eyes, were so dark, darker than her black sword. Just as dark -no- even darker than the gaping hole of the Wishing Well when he descended.

Fear pressed against the back of his neck and his heart started hitting his chest wildly. He swung wide, feeling his mistake he righted himself, but she had fallen down.

Sweat dripped down his face and he gave an uneven laugh.

“For someone that says they’re going to kill me, you sure fall quite a bit.”

She roared and rose up with her black sword. He didn’t like it. It hurt his ears and wanted it to end. Memoria moved his body as it willed, and he stabbed her through the gut, where her shadow had stitched her wound.

“Ah shit!” He slapped his face. “I didn’t mean to do that. I still wanted to play.”

He pulled the blade free from her and she fell on the ground. Even at death’s door, her glare was filled with all the hate that she could will up. It forced him to look away.

“Shit!” He remembered. He needed to switch Memoria. It could only hold one memory at a time. He didn’t want a weakling’s memories overwritten.

He shifted his blade to Silverlight, but it took a little longer to transform than it should have. The blade allowed him to move quickly. He took notice of his Gate, it was slowly closing.

Bell reached for his pouch taking out another Key. He ate the rubbery fruit with disgust and his Gate opened wide.

He turned back at her and stopped in his tracks.

She was gone.

He stomped at the ground where she had been. “Where did you go?”

She couldn’t have moved far. She was on death’s door. Yet as he scanned the area, he saw nothing beyond the trees. He waited, the image of her glare burnt in his mind. Time passed and yet nothing happened. At some point he loosened his stance and sighed in relief. She must have ran off. With those wounds, and her exhausted Gate, there was no way she could survive.

A black sword popped through his chest. He turned behind him, seeing half of her body submerged in his shadow. With blood dripping from her face and long hair that covered her face, she looked like some horror movie monster.

“I was waiting for that.”

His fairy revived him, bathing him in a storm of light. The third jewel on his sword dimmed. He saw bubbles come from his shadow. He was completely angry.

It would take three weeks for all three gems to recover.

He transformed Fairy Giver into Doom Slayer. The blade turned into a hulking slab that was meant to slay dragons. Its face looked like a burnt battlefield, and smelled like one too. He stabbed his shadow, and the blade slurped all of his Aura. Enough as he felt his face crack and he could tell he was nearing the point where he would turn to ash, he no longer cared.

He would kill this bitch.

The sword shattered not only his shadow, but all shadows in the area.

#

Yoru dived, waiting for her next chance to kill him for good. She held her breath, seeing the brilliant light that would revive him. She positioned herself, waiting for the best chance to stab him again. He would let his guard down, there was no doubt about that.

It would take time though.

Something stabbed into the shadow. Its scent sickened her, reminding her of the scent that exuded out of Cedar, that of burnt corpses.

Aura built up into the sword, leaking and tainting her shadow realm.

She straightened herself, every hair on her stood straight up. She turned and swam away.

Her whole world cracked like a broken mirror.

#

Her consciousness came back in bits. She was falling, drowning deeper into the shadow. One thought occurred to her as she did.

When Kenichi’s face rolled over to her, she saw his final expression.

Why had he looked so peaceful?