With an echoing clash the two collided, Alice had conjured forth a blade made out of pure darkness that clashed against the blonde man’s tightened fist. Junsei was taken aback by his foes newfound speed and strength, he was certain that if they had clashed mere minutes earlier his fist would have effortlessly crushed her blade and pierced straight through her chest. But now, the blonde man found himself struggling to push back the skinny black-haired girl with nothing but his physical power. As they stood there, his fist firmly blocked by her sword and vice versa, both of them would exert themselves more and more to gain an edge against the other in their clash. Eventually, with a bellowing shout Junsei’s fist would be victorious as the pale woman was sent flying backwards. She was not given any time to recompose herself as the blonde man immediately followed up by kicking the ground, launching himself after her like a heat-seeking missile. Alice, who knew that Junsei would try and use this as an opportunity to get a clean strike in, put both her hands up and projected a shield of darkness before her. As his fist made impact with the shield, Alice was slung backwards from the attack as her construct cracked from the force it had just received.

Landing gracefully on the ground after throwing that strike, Junsei could see how his opponent recovered almost instantly from the attack. Regaining her balance, Alice would conjure forth another blade of darkness as she began slowly walking towards the blonde man. He had won their first exchange but now they were on equal footing once again. Responding to her invitation by doing the same thing, the two of them would walk towards one another until they were around six meters apart.

Just like last time, both of them waited for the other to make a move. In a split second, Alice lunged forwards and slashed towards the man with her dark blade. At the same time, Junsei jumped up into the air and narrowly avoided getting hit by Alice’s blade. He now had the opportunity to freely attack the black-haired girl while she was still on the ground. His choice of move was an overhead kick, aimed straight at Alice’s temple from the sky, and had she not dashed backwards with all her might the instant she saw him rise up in the air it would surely have connected and dealt tremendous damage to the young woman. Now, all the kick did was leave a crater in the pavement as it collided with the earth.

Immediately rushing forwards, using the dust that Junsei’s kick had sent flying as a smoke screen, Alice managed to hit him squarely in the chest with her sword made out of darkness. Even though it lacked the power to penetrate his skin, it was clear that her attack had some sort of effect on the man as he reeled backwards. Not wanting to give up the momentum she had gained with the strike, the black-haired woman would follow up by performing a sweep towards the man. Hitting his legs squarely, the move sent the winged man falling but before he even had a chance to hit the earth Alice would cleave upwards and send the man flying into the sky.

Not being foolish enough to follow a winged opponent into the heaven’s, she would simply stand on the ground and watch as he regained his balance in the air. Not long after, Junsei was simply floating in the air, bloodlust being visible in his eyes as he stared down at Alice. She would respond by staring back at him, not reverting her gaze as a determined expression rested upon her face, the woman would raise her right arm like she was mimicking a finger gun and point it towards the winged man. At the same time, dozens if not hundreds of black spears manifested in the air behind her as the sword she had used to attack him before had disappeared without a trace.

Pulling her hand back, like she was mimicking a shooting motion, all the spears were released at once towards the man. Using his wings, Junsei would easily be able to negate the first wave of spears by deflecting them. When Alice continued to send lance after lance made out of shadowy material after him, however, the blonde man quickly realized that he would only get hit sooner or later if he kept using his current strategy of deflecting the projectiles with his wings. Therefore, setting his sights on Alice, Junsei would descend from the heavens, moving so incredibly quickly that she was only barely able to keep up with his movements. He moved at a speed that was equal, if not superior, to what he had done when he killed Oda. But even if she could only barely see his movements, Alice could still see them. Barely able to keep up with her opponent, the young woman would devise a plan for how to deal with him in the split instant that she could see him approaching her.

Just like before, she would put both her hands in front of her and produce a shield made out of shadows. Just like before, Junsei would hit her shield head on with his dominant leg, the force being enough to push her backwards across the pavement. Unlike last time, however, her shield did not crack and fall apart, instead it exploded violently upon impact. It was like he had stepped on a landmine, splinter and shrapnell being shot towards him at such speed that the blonde man was barely even able to react. All he could do was put his fists up to protect his head from the incoming projectiles, resulting in a stance that was not much unlike that of a professional boxer. Even if Junsei managed to defend against the projectiles caused by Alice’s explosion, the shockwave still sent him flying for several moments before he was able to land on his feet again. Looking up towards the woman, it was only in the last instant that Junsei managed to notice a certain spatial anomaly in the air, going right through his shoulder. With lightning-quick reflexes the man dodged the anomaly right as the space where he had been milliseconds earlier was cleaved in half, causing reality to visibly fracture. Before he was given any opportunity to recompose himself, a black fist came crashing down on him from above.

Hitting Junsei straight in the forehead, the force Alice’s punch carried was more than enough to send the blonde man flying backwards and through a nearby light-pole before he finally hit the ground, sliding several meters before stopping moving. The force her attack had possessed had been greater than Oda’s uppercut, yet it left no visible damage on the man.

Standing up without looking at his opponent, Junsei’s eyes would be fixated on the ground below him. After several seconds, he raised his eyes to meet Alice’s. If anything, the expression of bloodlust was gone and what had replaced it was determination, not much unlike Alice’s own. Raising his hand into the air, an arrow made out of light would manifest above him in the air. Alice knew just how fatal being hit by an attack from Junsei could be and before he had even launched the projectile she would have already started moving in an attempt to dodge the arrow. With a flick of his wrist, the arrow was released straight towards the girl, moving at such speed that keeping up with it using the naked eye was impossible. Kicking the ground with all her might, the pale woman would launch herself into the air to narrowly avoid being impaled on the arrow of light. As she flew through the air, she looked up at the blonde man and saw how he had prepared dozens of arrows made out of light while she had avoided the first, all for the purpose of striking her down. Watching as the arrows approached her like in slow-motion, Alice knew that she needed to come up with some trick to escape them or she would be skewered not much unlike how Shi had been.

Her brain went through countless possibilities as she flew through the air, she thought about kicking the air with enough force to propel herself downwards. While Alice certainly possessed the physical strength to do so, overclocking her muscles to that degree would tear and weaken them. Even though the damage would be less than what Oda had received from doing the same thing, she did not know if she possessed the same amount of regenerative prowess as him. Instead, she settled on doing something differently. Conjuring forth wings of darkness to outmaneuver the arrows mid-air would take too long, but summoning a platform for her to kick herself off was a completely different thing. Just as the projectiles were about to make impact with the young woman, the wall of darkness she had summoned forth was kicked with enough force to shatter it and as a result she plunged towards the ground like a meteoroid. Hitting it with enough force to send her bouncing into a nearby building, Alice realized that she had underestimated the agility needed to land gracefully after that stunt. As a result she had accidentally scrapped up her right shoulder with red blood showing. It was not many moments later that the wound had disappeared completely, having regenerated.

Looking out from within the hole created when she made impact with the building, Alice could see Junsei floating in the air before her. “That power… no single manifestation should be capable of something like that.” He looked straight at the woman, her wounds having closed up before his very eyes. “Tell me, what are you?” A slight smile would appear on the black-haired woman's face as she answered that question. “I am Alice Yuki…” Junsei’s face would amass into a disappointed expression as he heard those words, he hadn’t meant for the woman to introduce herself but rather explain the reason for her power. The expression was quickly changed as she continued speaking, however. “... I am also Kaguri Oda, and Evelina Kinderton. I am Mifuyu Matsuki, I am Jonathan Douglass, Kigura Matsuki…” Their eyes meet once again. “... and I am Shi Ishin.” If anything the expression on Junsei’s face was more irritated than anything at this point, it was clear that Alice was just messing with him, nevertheless he would choose to amuse her one last time. “In that case you can die along with this damned city… each and every one of you.” After he said that the blonde man rose to the skies, looking down on the town he had been born in, it seemed like it was getting smaller and smaller with each passing second.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

As her opponent took to the skies, Alice would be quick to pursue him. Creating a pair of black, almost demonic wings she would have a clear contrast to Junsei’s appearance as she flew after the man. Looking up, she could see the stars above shining through the cover of clouds that rested above the city. As she went higher and higher in pursuit of the man, it was almost like the stars began to shine brighter and brighter. Just as she could once again make out the winged man’s features she realized that the stars weren’t shining brighter, for in that instant the cloud cover was torn apart by thousands upon thousands of arrows made out of purifying light. Each and every one of them was falling down towards the town of Pandemonium. Watching as the projectiles of light approached her from above, Alice used her wings to weave through them and get closer to Junsei at the same time. As she flew through the air, she tried to look away from the destruction the arrows caused the city, yet she found herself unable too. Looking down towards Pandemonium she could see how the city was being devastated as projectile after projectile made impact, causing explosions that looked like something out of the apocalypse. No part of the city was spared and after just a few moments, the entire town had been reduced to little more than rubble, surrounded by burning forests and broken mountains.

The next instant, her undivided attention was once again placed on Junsei. The blond man was now diving towards her, a collision between the two beings seemingly inevitable now. Wanting to use both the power of her own and her opponent's momentum, Alice would cover her right fist in the same, dark and steel-like skin that Oda had once possessed and aimed a strike right at her opponent's forehead. To her great surprise, Junsei did not even attempt to dodge it, instead he took the blow head on and immediately responded by kicking Alice in the groin. Had she been a man, the pain she was now experiencing would probably have been much greater than it already was, the black-haired woman was unsure if she would have ever been able to recover from something like that. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case and she could retaliate by performing another strike, this time directed towards Junsei’s chin. They kept on fighting like that, neither of the two even attempting to dodge each other's strikes as they fell through the air. As they started to approach earth again, Alice was launched into one of the few buildings that hadn’t been completely destroyed by one of Junsei’s powerful strikes.

As Junsei landed on the destroyed pavement, he looked up towards the cloud of dust and debris that he knew Alice would soon be emerging out from. As he stood there, the blonde man felt like he was losing himself, like the entire world around him started spinning. After just a moment, the unpleasant sensation had disappeared and he was once again able to focus on the foe before him. Emerging from the cloud of dust, a battered Alice would descend from the building before promptly hitting the ground before Junsei, who was in a much better condition than her. Looking straight at each other, a distance of around twenty meters was all that separated them in the wasteland. The city of Pandemonium, for the first time in its existence could one argue that the town lived up to its name. Both of them knew, after this last clash only one of them would be left standing. Alice grasped the air before her and in her hand a black blade made out of shadows manifested, the blade would soon have streaks of golden light running through it, almost like the veins from that of Oda’s transformed state. After another moment, the air around the blade began to twist and distort, like its mere presence was enough to affect space itself, like how Evelina’s manifestation had appeared.

Looking at his opponent with determined eyes, Junsei would transform a part of his body into pure light. His right arm was stretched out and distorted, losing any resemblance to a human body part as it looked more and more like a blade coming from his shoulder with each passing moment. Once he found the newly created weapon to be satisfactory, he would look towards Alice. The young woman locked eyes with him, the look of determination on her face being stronger than ever before. There were no words uttered, no exchanges of compliments or words of mockery, both of them knew that wouldn’t amount to anything now. In an instant, the two had exchanged positions, both combatants had moved faster than any form of sight could track and truth be told neither of them knew if they had managed to land a hit on the opponent.

Then Junsei’s transformed arm returned to its original state as Alice’s sword disappeared into thin air, a slight chuckle escaping his lips. Like on command, Alice would collapse to the ground and if it weren’t for the fact that she managed to stop her descent with one of her arms, she would surely have been lying face down in the ash. As she stood in that kneeling position, blood would gush out from the deep wound that had appeared on her chest just the moment prior. The wound was a deep diagonal gash that was slanted from her left shoulder down to the right side of her abdomen, going straight through Alice’s heart. At the same time, Junsei was seemingly untouched, the only thing that could be considered signs of damage was small tears in his white suit. Without even turning around, the blonde man was certain that he had won this battle. Just as he was about to take the first step to walk away from his felled foe, a sudden pain arched through his body.

Gushing out diagonally across his chest, a clean stream of pure water flew through the air before promptly hitting the ground in front of Junsei. Falling onto his knees, the blonde man looked out at the scene in disbelief. The clear liquid that was now his blood was spilling out from the wound that had just appeared on his body. He was certain, absolutely confident, that he hadn’t gotten hit by Alice’s attack during their final clash, yet now he had the same kind of wound as the black-haired woman. All that could escape his lips were a quiet “Why?”.

Hearing Junsei it would not be long before Alice responded, even as breathing was hard with the wound she now had she would explain to Junsei what had happened. “The power Evelina left me, the power to create and destroy borders… It’s a thing that can be used to destroy the border between people.” Not turning around, the blonde man would listen to what she was saying. “Normally, it was something that could only connect people on the spiritual level, turning two manifestations into one. But with Oda’s ability… or rather his unyielding spirit and refusal to give up, the power evolved into something that connected those affected both physically and spiritually.” Standing up and turning towards Junsei, who was showing his back to the black-haired woman, one could see that Alice’s wound had already stopped bleeding while he was still spilling water all over the ground from where his wound had appeared. He remembered the way he had felt after the two exchanged blows, that must have been the moment Alice put her plan into action.

There was but one question plaguing Junsei’s mind. When something was hit head on by his manifestation, the divine brilliance of purifying light, it would disappear from the very face of the universe itself. Not even Oda, with his inhuman ability to regenerate from mortal wounds one after another could recover from being pierced by Junsei’s fist when it was imbued with that ability. While it was possible to overcome the rules of another's manifestation with nothing but raw strength, which is what he assumed had been what allowed Alice to regenerate even as her heart was hit by his blade of light, he himself should be subject to that principle as well. That was why, it seemed illogical to him that he was the one now dying on the cold and hard ground while the weaker woman was standing up, her wound now having closed. Not caring for mannerism or appearances anymore, the man whose wings had begun to fade away as they slowly disappeared from reality asked the only question he could think of. “Why did you survive?”

Looking at the dying man before her, Alice would give him the only answer she knew. “Because I don’t want to die.” As he heard those words a slight smile would appear on Junsei’s lips. “I see… so that’s how it is.” With those being his last words, the man would fall over and hit the ground face first, a puddle of clear water flowing out from his body as he drew his last breaths. As he laid there, dying from the wound inflicted by his own power, his mind could only think about one thing. Nothing else, not the seven angels, not the prophecy ingrained on that stone slab nor the fifty years he had spent trying to end the world would be on his mind. There was but one question that he had still, but it was a question that Alice would never be able to answer. ‘Will I be able to see Shi again?’ His last words having already been uttered, those last thoughts left the man's body as his white wings finally disappeared completely. Even though he was laying face down on the ground, dead from having his heart slashed in half, not a single speck of blood could be spotted on the man’s body nor his clothing. In a way, it was like Junsei had remained untouched by the world even in death.

As Alice looked at the dead man lying before her, an expression of pity could be seen on her face. She did not know if she truly felt sorry for the man, but in a way she could sympathize with him. There had been moments where Alice herself had been mad at the world, there had been times when she wanted to do nothing but tear it all down and turn everything around her to ash. Yet, as she thought about the poor soul who had just died she could not bring herself to shed any tears. Junsei had let those feelings consume him and in the end there was nothing left but a desire to destroy everything and finally, a desire to destroy himself.

As she stood there, Alice could feel something could hit her cheek. Rubbing the now cold spot with her hand, as she looked down on her fingers she noticed that they were wet. The next moment, a single snowflake came gliding down from the heavens and planted itself firmly in her palm before melting and disappearing forever. Looking up towards the skies, the black-haired woman could see countless white dots slowly gliding towards the earth. For even as Junsei had torn the cloud cover apart with his countless arrows of light, the heavens had reformed themselves before their battle had even ended and as to commensurate his display of power, bestowed upon them the first snowfall of the winter.