With an intense fury blazing within his eyes, Raphael pulls the trigger, expecting to finally end this infernal chase....
But there is no bang, no explosion of gunpowder. Raphael pulls down on the triggers of both his firearms repeatedly, not believing that his 1270's are out of ammunition.
As he slams the triggers, the fury in his eyes begins to slowly seep away with every pull. “Um, shit...” he thinks “I guess I'm going to have to use something else....”
“Sherah! Or whoever you are that is within her body!” he screams out to the slit-eyed enemy in front of him “You and me both know that neither of these portals are going to open again anytime soon, so I wish to face you in one-on-one combat. You and me both have the nanobot treatment, so this fight will be fair! I only have one wish before we face off with one another, and that is that we leave June out of this! She is in no shape to fight, and we both know that. So please, leave her on the side lines!”
Sherah just stares back at Raphael with a feral grin on her face. The look on her face shows no signs of agreement. Without allowing his eyes to stray away from Sherah's, Raphael yells out “I know your mission, Demu.” the look on Sherah's face changes ever so slightly at Raphael's words “I know that you have been tasked with bringing June to the netherworld to execute her within it's dimension's borders. Otherwise you wouldn't have setup this intricate series of portals to get you to Planet Demu! If your mission was to kill June, you would already have done it. It is just that obvious. So I ask you, in honor of both of our missions, to please move June away from this fight!”
Sherah, in small footsteps, walks into the center between both her and Raphael and about twenty footsteps to the side. She knells down and places June's limp body on the moon's surface. She then walks back to where she was before and stares back at Raphael with a deathly glare, but Raphael doesn't allow her to discourage him.
“If you can hear me Sherah, wherever you may be within what remains of your soul, then listen to me!” Raphael says before raising his fists and preparing himself into a battle stance. “Is this what you wanted!? Do you see what your jealousy of me has done!? Do you see the danger that you are putting June in!? If I hadn't caught up with you right now, then June would be within death's grasp!”
Deep within Sherah's soul, she weeps even harder for what she has let happen. She always knew that being the Key's protector would result in her taking many a hardship, but she thought that she would be strong enough to face them. But apparently, her strength alone was not enough. She regrets everything now, every single word of protest she said against the Guardian. If she could go back in time and just accept him as June's new protector, her destined protector, then this atrocity of a situation would never have happened. “Raphael... Guardian... I'm sorry... for everything....”
“NO MORE WORDS!” screams Sherah's possessor through her body, the very words being said shooting pure malice into the air. “YOU DIE NOW, ANGEL SCUM!”
Sherah's body moves at such a pace that Raphael is almost unable to react in time. Sherah's clawed left hand shoots by Raphael's head, which he barely dodges with a swift motion of his body to his left. Her thumb claw, however, nicks Raphael's cheek as he moves away, drawing a small bit of blood before the nanobots patch him back up.
Sherah stops on her feet and slashes her right hand to Raphael's side, which he is able to block by grabbing her forearm halfway through the strike. Sherah's left hand sweeps toward Raphael's head, but he is able to dodge underneath of the strike and tackle into Sherah's mid-section using his right shoulder.
The tackle hits Sherah with such unexpectedness that she is knocked straight off of her feet and to the ground. After regaining himself, Raphael pulls himself on top of Sherah and starts hitting her head into the ground. He doesn't want to do this, but it is either fight or die at this point.
After four punches to the face, Sherah is able to regain herself. She slams her left obsidian claw into Raphael's side, all the way down to her fingertips. The blow is so painful that it makes Raphael reel over in pain.
Luckily enough, Raphael's nanobots are fast enough to rush to the wound as soon as Sherah's claws are out of it and heal him in the matter of a second.
Raphael rolls onto his back to Sherah's side with Sherah jumping to her feet as soon as Raphael is off of her. She reels her right claw back and slams it down right next to Raphael's face. Raphael reacts in the matter of an instant after Sherah's claw slams down into the moon's surface. He arcs up to his right side using his right hand as support and uses his leg strength to sweep kick Sherah's legs out from under her, knocking her back down to the ground.
Following the momentum, Raphael sweeps his legs behind him, puts his left hand on the ground and arcs himself back upward to his feet.
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After which, seeing as Sherah is laying on the ground and harmless for the next few seconds, Raphael decides to recharge his nanobots. He reaches to his back pocket and is amazed to feel a large hole in his pocket, with his recharger nowhere to be accounted for.
Raphael curses, now realizing that he will have to survive the rest of the battle without recharging. Right after he curses, Sherah's clawed hand sweeps across his face, making him push to the side in pain. Before Raphael can even see the next attack coming, Sherah throws her left leg behind her and kicks Raphael in his back. The kick is so powerful that it sends him a good ten feet in the air, with him rolling to a stop after another five feet.
Coughing up a small amount of blood, Raphael gets up to his knees and then staggers up to his feet. His nanobots are running out of power, and he can feel it. He looks at Sherah out of the corner of his eye and grits his teeth.
Sherah runs toward Raphael at immense speed soon after he is able to get his bearings. He lowers himself and begins to concentrate intently. When Sherah is only a few mere feet away from him with both of her claws raised in front of her, he grabs her by both of her arms and slams his right foot into her stomach. Raphael falls backward and uses his leg strength to launch Sherah over top of him and to the ground.
Raphael vaults himself back up right and backs away from Sherah, who is now about ten feet away from him. He touches where Sherah had wounded him earlier and can tell that the nanobots are having trouble closing the wound. Nonetheless, he still must fight on. He readies himself into a fighting stance once more and waits for Sherah to get back up.
Sherah is back on her feet right as Raphael readies himself. She rushes toward him with her right claw raised. Halfway to his position, she launches her index finger claw out of her finger. It flies through the air and slams into Raphael's shoulder. That he definitely did not see coming.
Before he can take the obsidian claw out of his skin, it slings out of his shoulder and back into Sherah's fingertip. Raphael barely has enough time to react following the attack, but is able to reverse-punch Sherah in the face as her left claw slams through his own face.
Both Sherah and Raphael recoil to their left, roll, and then kneel back up on their foot and knee.
As Raphael gets up to his feet, he feels his face and can tell that his nanobots have officially run out of power. But luckily enough, he can also feel his holy powers coming back to him.
Suddenly he is hit with a massive headache, but this one is more painful than all of the others. Sherah looks at him as he holds his head in pain and laughs into the air. “Hahaha! What's the matter, Angel!? Did I hit you too hard? Bwahahaha!”
“On the contrary, you Demu piece of trash, you hit me to light... you need to work on those swings, hehehe....” Raphael says as he raises his head back up to look at Sherah's possessed face.
Focusing his power, he snaps his right fist shut and shoots his index and middle finger out, pushing them both together and flicking his hand. “Holy father, grant me the light I need.” Sherah notices what is happening a second before it happens and rushes to finish Raphael off, but she isn't fast enough.
Blue light envelopes Raphael's hand, making his two finger's impossible to see. He shoots his head back up and rushes toward Sherah. He has obtained something that he needs at this very point, the one and only thing necessary to save everyone.
The power of exorcism.
With blood dripping down his face, Raphael rushes toward Sherah with his exorcism ability ready. Sherah swipes at him as he gains closer, but he dodges underneath of the blow and punches Sherah in the gut as he goes by.
Also as he goes by, he spins around on the balls of his feet and slashes Sherah across her back with his exorcism fingers. Sherah, the real Sherah, begins to stir within her slumber. Her body, however, screams in pain. She spins around and backhands Raphael in the face.
Raphael backs off slightly but regains himself quickly. He spins around in a three-sixty spin and stops facing Sherah. It is obvious by Sherah's disposition that her possessor is beginning to lose control of her body.
With blood now pooling down his face, he rushes forward with a battle cry, and then slams his exorcism fingers into her chest.
Although Raphael has now, as far as he knows, finished off Sherah's possessor, he can feel something wet in the center of his chest. He looks down to see that all five of Sherah's right obsidian claws have slammed through his chest plate. He coughs up blood from his fatal wound, the nanobots not having enough charge to support his life.
Using what remains of his strength, he grabs Sherah's hand and wrenches it out of his chest, but the damage has already been done. Sherah's possessor stares Raphael dead in his face and says “I may have not completed my mission, but at least I killed you, you upstart punk. I'll see you in hell-!”
Raphael watches Sherah through his cloudy vision and sees the damage that had been done to her body being reversed. Her obsidian claws shed off of her fingers like loose skin, revealing that the fingernails that she previously had are still attached to her skin. The narrow slits that she had for irises widen back to the shape that human eyes are supposed to be. Her teeth mold and reform back to the way they were before.
Once Sherah's reversion is finalized, Raphael pulls his exorcism fingers out of her chest. She whispers “Thank you....” before her limp body crumples down to the moon's surface. She does not die, she simply falls unconscious as her soul regains control of her body.
With blood dripping out of his face, chest, and mouth, Raphael turns his gaze to June, who is still laying drugged on the ground.
June regains some control of her body as Raphael's last moments hit. She blinks as her eyes regain themselves. She sees Raphael, covered in blood, looking at her in the distance. She whispers “Raph...?” as he stares back at her.
With his final few breaths, Raphael watches June. He says “Live on June, live on for the both of us....” before his life energy sheds it's final light. One last breath escapes his body, and he falls backward to the ground. His wounds catching up to him, his destiny over before it had even begun.
Thus, the universe's greatest defender and protector dies on that moon. He saved the Key, but at the greatest price one can imagine....