The red ball of light hovered in the sky and sent an immense wave of dust and wind in all directions. On the ground, Lakshman braced himself as the dust and wind, hit him. In his right hand, he held the Phoenix Blade firmly as he stared up at the glowing Demon Slayer.
For some strange reason, he was wearing a crazy smile on his face as he stared up at the red glow of light. All around him, buildings were destroyed by the wind and flew away like tiny rocks while trees got uprooted out of the ground to get carried away by the wind.
He did not pay attention to any of this, including when the ground, beneath him, began to make large cracks and spread everywhere. All the while, he just stood there with wide eyes and wore an expression of craziness as he stared up into the sky.
“Master, I don’t understand what’s so funny about this situation that makes you smile like that!” Tetra said in his mind as he stood firmly against the force of the wind.
Lakshman chuckled and said “It’s a simple case of knowing when you’re pushed to the last resort, although I believe its good fortune for me.”
“Good fortune?! You’re calling this ‘good fortune’?!”
“Yes! It’s a good fortune the Demon Slayer’s finally decided to self-destruct! Now I can smoothly proceed with my plan without having to worry about what the hell it’s going to do!”
“Please explain because I’m lost…!”
“Look! Under normal conditions, the Demon Slayer is a powerful opponent and such an opponent is hard to deal with, even with my amazingness. All I had to do was push her to the edge to get more and more riled up! When the Demon Slayer has built up so much negative energy and readies to self-destruct, it will have a difficult time to resist when I proceed with my Phase B plan.”
“That… doesn’t… make any sense! I thought your plan was to beat the energy out of her!”
“Yes. The original plan, I’m calling it Phase A, was to beat the hell out of the Demon Slayer and release all the negative energy she’s gathered within her for self-destruction. However, it was just a rouse to prepare for Phase B!”
“Phase A… Phase B… Are you saying that, in order to get her to self-destruct, you did your best in making her use more and more powerful techniques?”
“Precisely!” Lakshman said with a smile and nodded his head.
Tetra could not believe his crazy plan and also was shocked that she did not see his true intentions. She did not clearly understand his original plan about beating the energy out of the Demon Slayer, but it turned out to be just a ruse. The real intention was to push her into self-destructing while gathering great amounts of energy.
“This is one hell of a complex plan that would blow so many minds!” she finally told him with a sigh.
Lakshman laughed and said “So what? I’m not expecting anyone to understand my plans. It’s fine so long as I understand it, that’s all!”
She sighed again and asked “So then, mind telling me what Phase B is?”
“Ah. Phase B is–!”
He began, but abruptly stopped in an instant. His eyes narrowed and he looked around. There was a building there as pieces of its foundation slowly broke away. The next moment, the whole buildings got lifted into the air and it got destroyed into many pieces. A large chunk, that did not get destroyed, headed towards him as he stared at him.
Lakshman casually extended his left hand out and stopped the large chunk from hitting him. Instead of throwing it aside, he held it in place and used it as a shield to avoid being hit by the rocks and pebbles that flew towards him. Once it was over and they were carried away, he let the wall drop to the ground and it crumbled into multiple pieces due to the impact.
He started looking all around him with narrowed eyes and a shrewd expression on his face. He did not mind the wind and used the technique, Phoenix Eyes, to protect his eyes against the dust. The way he was looking around, it was as if he was expecting to see something, but was unable to find what it was he was searching for.
The reason to this was because he felt something strange. With all the destruction and wild power levels the Demon Slayer was emitting, it was not easy to detect any other power levels nearby. Yet, he was certain he had felt two hostile power levels nearby and he was searching for where they were.
“What’s the matter, master? Why are you looking around so sharply?”
“Tetra, did you sense two power levels nearby?”
“I’m sorry, master, but no. With all the debris and wind blowing around, I doubt it is possible to sense such things.”
“I know, but I sensed them. It was for only a moment, but I sensed two power levels and both were really strong!”
“Maybe you were mistaken, master? I mean, with the amount of power the Demon Slayer is emitting around us, I am pretty sure you just sensed them because of high alert you were.”
“Yes… It’s most likely just have been my imagination…” Lakshman said slowly, but he sounded unconvinced.
There was a sudden burst of energy from the Demon Slayer, which made him focus on her instead. With a small eruption, the red glow of light got bigger and sent a wild force of wind and dust in all directions.
Lakshman fully turned around and faced a huge wave of wind and dust that was headed his way. It was approaching him at a fast pace and he could see the swirling dust as it quickly covered distance that separated him and it. Instead of defending or getting out of the way, he chose to stand his ground and fold his arms while holding onto the Phoenix Blade.
As the fast travelling wind and dust reached him, he showed the slits of his eyes as he stared at the wind with a serious expression on his face. The next moment, he took a deep breath and screamed at the top of his voice.
“RRRRRRRRRRRRRUUUUUUUUUUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!”
His wild roar sent a wave of wind of his own towards the incoming force. The two forces collided as he continued to roar while exerting energy without flinching. Eventually, his force gained victory and the incoming wind and dust was forced to move away from him as he screamed his lungs out.
Once the dust was gone and things began to settle, except for the Demon Slayer pulsating in a red glow of light high up in the sky. Lakshman breathed a little quickly from how much he screamed a moment ago.
“Master, are you a wild beast to scream like that?!” Tetra asked him in a disbelieving voice.
“I’m not going to step aside for a stupid wind and dust as if they are above me!” Lakshman retorted angrily. “Anyway, I’ve wasted enough time talking and looking around! It’s time I focus on the real problem here and solve it once and for all!”
As he spoke, he looked up at the sky and noticed the red glow slowly turning crimson. He knew the Demon Slayer will self-destruct once that crimson color changes to purple color. Knowing this, he suddenly realized he was running out of time for him to activate his Phase B plan.
“But first, Tetra… I’m leaving you here! I’m going to go alone from here on.”
“Wait, what?! What do you mean ‘leaving me here’?”
“Like I said, I’m leaving you here because you’ll only become an obstruction. In order to deal with the Demon Slayer and follow through with my Phase B plan, I’m going to have to get close and personal to her. In this process, I will not have the time to protect you and use you! You’ll only become a burden from here on.”
“No… I do not accept this, master! I’m coming with you!” Tetra said stubbornly.
Lakshman sighed as he waved his head at her words. He knew she would say that and was prepared to forcibly maker her stay. Without saying another word, he raised the Phoenix Blade and pierced it hard into the ground. Then he followed through with a technique to keep her there until he returned.
“Lightning Chains!”
In an instant, chains of lightning appeared near where he held the sword and quickly covered the entire body of the sword. Then they erupted out and chained themselves to the ground while creating a paralyzing affect that causes the Phoenix Blade, Tetra, to become unable to do anything, but stay pierced into the ground.
“Sorry, Tetra, but you left me with no choice! This is my battle from here on, but don’t fear! I will return with my prize, the Demon Slayer!”
“No, master! Please, don’t–!”
Tetra began to shout in his mind, but he completely blocked her. Now, he walked towards the location where the Demon Slayer was hovering high up in the sky. It took him a few seconds due to him not wanting to fly there and waste precious energy and the wind that buffeted him as he got closer.
Once he reached the location, he looked up and saw the glow of light become red violet as it surrounded the Demon Slayer. From just that, he knew the self-destruction was nearing the completion and it meant that he finally cane jump into action.
He closed his eyes and placed his right fist against his left palm. He followed this up by placing his head against it in a sort of prayer position.
“Storm Titan, please pardon my rudeness, but I will be borrowing some of your techniques.”
He remained standing there for a moment, but he quickly withdrew his hands and let him drop to his side. The next moment, he began to surge with power while radiating a golden-red aura. He looked up to where the Demon Slayer was and kicked off the ground.
He soared like a rocket as he flew through the air and headed towards the Demon Slayer. The Demon Slayer sensed him approaching and surged her power to send a violent amount of energy at him. She did not realize that it had become weak due to the self-destruction sequence and energy, sent towards him, was not powerful as she thought it would be.
Lakshman easily smashed through the waves of energy she sent towards him and he kept rocketing up to reach her. He suddenly widened his eyes in surprise when a black wave of energy was sent in his direction, causing him to punch at it and got pushed back due to the explosion.
“Wow! It still got energy to fire Dark Shot at me?” he said aloud in amazement.
Without hesitation, he rocketed up and flew as fast as he could because the glowing color was changing. The red violent color finally changed and the glow was now pure purple in color which meant only one thing; the Demon Slayer was ready for self-destruction.
“I won’t let you die, not while I’m here!” Lakshman bellowed and he fired an energy beam towards the ground and it propelled him even faster forwards.
In a few seconds, he covered the distance separating him and the glowing energy ball of light. The moment he reached it, he punched through the ball of light and soared inside. He was amazed to see the inside of the ball to be full of energy circuits that were connecting the Demon Slayer.
“AAAAAAAHHHH!!!!”
He began screaming as the energy circuits began to hit him with a load of lightning. For a moment, he was hit by lighting from all around, but he quickly recovered and moved to where the Demon Slayer was, pinned into a slot inside the ball.
“Sorry, but you’re not dying today!” he told in a firm voice.
Ignoring the lightning attacks, he held both of his hands up in front of him. Then he shouted “Thunder Blades!”
Using the lighting sent at him, he formed two lightning swords in a matter of seconds. With each hand, he gripped the lightning handle of the lightning energy swords and surged it with his energy. In an instant, both lightning swords glowed brightly and extended their blades out and pierced through the ball of energy that they were inside. He began swinging them around and, as he did, the pierced end of the blades tore up the ball of energy.
In seconds, he completely split the ball of energy from the inside with his lightning blades. As soon as his two swords vanished, he saw the circuits disconnect from the Demon Slayer and knew he successfully separated her from the ball of energy. The ball suddenly started to glow and he realized it was about to explode.
He quickly moved forward and placed his hands on the handle of the Demon Slayer. In an instant, he sensed a great surge of power from the Demon Slayer and felt an intense pain when he was hit by a technique the Demon Slayer used on him without him preparing himself for it.
“Ugh! Dark Pulsation! Damn…!” he said in a pained voice. “Even so… This isn’t enough to knock me down!”
He began to scream from the intense pain he was feeling as he gripped the handle of the Demon Slayer tightly. With a great surge of his power and, he began to pull the Demon Slayer out of the slot while enduring the pain his body was going through. Finally, with sheer force, he pulled the Demon Slayer was pulled out of its socket.
“Finally!”
With a shout, Lakshman held onto the sword tightly and blasted upward and flew away from the fast radiating energy ball. A moment later, it exploded and lit up the sky as it created a wild blowing wind that was sent in all directions.
Lakshman, flying through the air, got buffeted by the wind and it only caused him to flip around a few times. As he sighed in relief, he immediately winced as he, once again, felt the pain of having been hit by the Dark Pulsation, the technique the Demon Slayer used on him.
“Let go!”
He heard the Demon Slayer speak to him in his mind and felt pain once again when she hit him with the same technique. Although she had weakened due to trying to self-destruct, all the negative power she gathered was still stored inside her.
“Gah…! I got rid of that destructive thing and now I’ll get rid of all that negativity of yours!” Lakshman shouted fiercely.
While surging with power, he rocketed towards the ground at high speed while gripping the sword as hard as he could so it would not get blown away by the wind. The fast blowing wind blew his spiky blonde-red hair wildly as he plummeted to the ground at incredible speed.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!”
With a loud scream, he landed on the ground and pierced the sword into the ground. The impact of landing on the ground was so strong, it caused the ground to shake violently. Huge cracks appeared in the ground and spread to several place after he slammed the sword into the ground.
“Let go!”
Hearing the Demon Slayer shout in his mind, he began to feel the sword struggle in his hands. He gritted his teeth as he fought to hold her there by using all his strength.
Finally, having had enough of the struggle, he shouted “AH! This is annoying! Lightning Blockade!”
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Lightning Blockade is a technique that blocks the movement of the victim by constantly zapping them with lighting shots. It is a very different technique to the Lightning Chains, that chain down the victim and stops all their movement and the use of their techniques along with their abilities. Lightning Blockade simply stops the movement of the victim.
In an instant, lightning erupted out of his hands and began to zap the sword into submission. The lightning surrounded the Demon Slayer and zapped it so much that she was having trouble fighting back. Still, it put up a valiant fight and activated Sword Drive and began to surge with power.
“Now then! Time to release you off that negativity!” Lakshman shouted as he watched the Demon Slayer surging with power by using the Sword Drive technique.
He quickly made some hand gestures and then placed his right hand on the handle of the Demon Slayer. She immediately activated her power and he was instantly hit by intense pain. Even so, he concentrated on the task at hand while ignoring the pain his body was going through.
“Lightning Channel!”
Lightning Channel is a technique that allows one body to connect with another body, which allows for the flow of energy to connect. The connected energies do not mix or merge, but it allows them to borrow each other’s energies, except for when the user makes it so their energy cannot be used, but can be borrowed from the victim.
Lakshman planned to release all the negative power that the Demon Slayer stored up inside her. In order to do this, he first had to make connection with her using the borrowed technique, belonging to the Storm Titan. The fact is, Lightning Blades, Lightning Blockade and Lightning Channel are techniques mainly used by the Storm Titan, but he was using it because he had the knowledge on how to use them from the Decisive Player’s vast amount of knowledge and wisdom.
Using the force of his energy and the technique, he began to draw upon the negative energy from within her. His next move was to raise his left hand high up into the air and extended only it middle and fire fingers out while closing the rest of his fingers. Then he channeled the negative energy through his body and winced as he felt how terrible it was.
“AAAAAAAHHH!!!! Energy Release!”
With his shout, he released the negative energy in a destructive beam of energy and it sailed into the sky. For a moment, the sky was lit up in purple light as the beam of energy soared into the sky and parted the dark clouds that formed up in the sky.
After a few seconds of painstaking release of the negative energy, he dropped his left hand and let go of the Demon Slayer. Feeling a little weak, he took a few steps back while breathing a little quickly. It was a lot of energy that he released and it was not perfect, which was why he was slightly drained due to using his energy to protect himself from the corruptive force of that power.
“You… What did you just do?”
He chuckled and said “Come on, Demon Slayer! You should at least know what I just did from seeing me do it. You might have memory loss, but not the stupidity that I endured since the time I was born!”
“You… You release all the power I gathered up? No…!”
Lakshman laughed as he staggered and said “Yes! I did exactly just that and now, you no longer have the power necessary to self-destruct or do anything foolish!”
“URAGH!” the Demon Slayer raged in anger.
The sword surged with a massive load of power and instantly broke itself free from the Lightning Blockade technique. The force of the release, caused a wave of wind to get blown around and pushed Lakshman back as it hit him. He stumbled back, but quickly recovered and straightened up to see the Demon Slayer fly high into the air.
The Demon Slayer flew high into the air before stopping and turning around to point its bladed end at him. It was obvious as to what the Demon Slayer had in mind; killing him. Lakshman also realized this and smiled fearlessly as the Demon Slayer plummeted towards him at incredible speed. The speed it flew at was so great, flames began to form around the sword.
Seeing this, Lakshman slowly nodded his head and said “I see… Using Dark Meteor and yourself as its core, you plan on destroying yourself, me and the all surroundings? Good plan, if it weren’t for the fact that I’m a Phoenix Titan and death is not the end for me!”
He pulled back his hand and prepared to launch a powerful technique at her.
“Positron–!” he began, but suddenly stopped before he could complete the technique name.
“Wait, wait, wait! Stop! What the hell am I doing? Positron Cannon? Positron Laser? Positron Lancer? What the hell am I thinking!? Those three are too darn powerful and will definitely destroy her and that’s not what I want to do. I need a technique that will hit her hard, but not knock her out; a technique with the potential to rattle her into distraction. That should buy me the time to prepare for my final plan, Phase C!”
He looked up at the plummeting Demon Slayer and a smile slowly formed on his face.
“Yes… I have one technique, which was used so many times by the previous Phoenix Titans, but it was learnt. I’m now basically going have to do ‘trial and error’ the technique and hope, like hell, that it works! On the other hand, there is the chance that I’ll be the one who will end up getting fried by it if it backfires! Mmm… Chances of failure look fifty-fifty, but I’m a guy that doesn’t care about the odds! The more the odds, the more fun it gets!”
Lakshman laughed out loud and said “Haha! Let’s do this!”
Taking a firing stance, he pulled his hands back and put them together. Then he began gathering energy into the joined palms of his hands and aimed up at the sky. The burning force in the sky was as bright as the sun and it bathed the darkened surroundings, because of the dark clouds, with a great shine of light. This, in literal meaning, takes form of the ‘calm before the storm’ and it was something Lakshman also felt at that moment.
“AAAH! Ready!” he shouted once the technique was ready.
In the palm of his hand, there was a bright orange ball of energy gathered. He looked back to where the Demon Slayer was as it neared him and the sheer brightness made him strain his eyes, even while using the Phoenix Eyes technique. He hesitated slightly and shifted positions to get a better shot at her with his orange swirling energy ball.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!” Lakshman began to scream as he surged with power and brought his hands forward to unleash the ball of energy. “Solar Starburst Cannon!”
With the pressure of his power, the orange swirling ball of energy was unleashed in a mighty beam cannon. The beam of light, erupted out of his gathered hands and soared straight into the sky at an amazing speed. A few seconds later, the plummeting Demon Slayer and his attack collided and a struggle ensued, making Lakshman feed more energy into his attack.
The colliding forces, created a wave of wind and energy, which was sent in all directions. The ground began to crack and split away, rocks were throw into the wind and buildings were destroyed. The whole area was alight with power as the Dark Meteor and the Solar Starburst Cannon fought with their strengths.
“UUUUURRRRRRRAAAAGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!”
With a powerful scream, Lakshman used more power and pumped his technique with more energy, causing the Solar Starburst Cannon to finally push the Dark Meteor back. Then, all of a sudden, there was a violent flash of light at the colliding forces and an enormous explosion erupted. Lakshman covered his face and tried to keep standing, but the strong winds finally blew him off his feet.
“Heavy Gravity!”
He sailed through the air before forcibly increasing his personal gravity. With the strong gravity pulling him down, he stood a chance against the powerful winds, but he was still showered by pebbles and rocks as they got blown away by the strong winds.
After a while, everything began to settle down and calm down. Lakshman had minor scratches, which he was slightly bleeding from, but he did not care. His released his hands from covering his face and looked around, only to see the destroyed layout of the surroundings. He closed his eyes and let out a sigh of relief to know that his pressure to get the people to safety worked well for him. Otherwise, he would have had to punish himself for his careless behavior.
“Still… I didn’t think the explosion from Solar Starburst Cannon and Dark Meteor would create such a mess. I guess it goes to show how well the forces of light and darkness don’t get along…”
Sighing once again, he rose into the air and flew towards a certain direction, where he felt an energy; it was the energy signal of the Demon Slayer. Realizing the Demon Slayer was weakened dramatically due to that last attack, he flew there as fast as possible and arrived several seconds later. He landed and saw the Demon Slayer sword, lying on the ground without any sign of movement.
Although he had won against it, he did not deem it as his victory since he had the power to destroy her several times by now, but the only reason he kept her alive was to acquire her for the future. In the vast knowledge and wisdom he obtained from the sacrifice of the Decisive Player, he had learnt several things and wishes to follow with a certain plan the Decisive Player had been following until now.
Lakshman breathed a sigh and bent down to pick up the sword by firmly gripping the handle. He expected an immediate painful sensation of the Dark Pulsation, but felt nothing instead. The Demon Slayer was in a weakened state and could not use her commonly used techniques.
He looked at the sword and asked “So hey… Will you accept Astral Contact with me?”
There was a pause of silence, after which the Demon Slayer spoke to him in his mind.
“F-Forget it…! You failed to reach out to me when I did and now you expect me to reach out when you want to? Go to hell!”
Lakshman sighed and looked up at the sky, where the clouds were parted to let the sunlight shine through.
“Ah… I knew it… Why did I even bother asking that question in the first place? Maybe, I was hopeful that you might’ve changed your mind after all this… Guess I was wrong… Ha…”
Then he looked back at the Demon Slayer and said “Still… I’m not giving up on you!”
“W-What?!” the Demon Slayer exclaimed in surprise.
He quickly grabbed the handle of the sword and forcefully slammed her bladed tip into the ground. Then he shifted the position of his hands to the top of the handle and placed his hands on top of each other. In an instant, he began to surge with power and his eyes gleamed with power as he made a serious expression.
“W-What are you doing? What are you going to do to me?” the Demon Slayer asked desperately, as it was unable to do against his power.
“I know you will not listen to me, my lovers or anybody else because of a certain matter that happened in the past. However, there is still one person who you will listen to and I’m going to have her convince you to partner up with me with Astral Contract! You can deny me, but you can’t deny it! I know it because you constantly blamed yourself for her death!”
“Wait… You don’t mean…!”
As the surge of his power became strong, he pushed down on the handle of the sword and said “Spirit Connection, followed by Spirit Transition–!”
At that moment, he heard several familiar voices shout “Lucky!”
At hearing his nickname being called, he turned around to see who it was. To his astonishment, he saw Ondine, Tetra, Venezuela, Emilia, Erza and Cantia running towards him with worried expressions on their faces. It seemed the barriers were brought down due to him losing his concentration and the recent battle that took place and made him focus all his energy on it. Due to the distracted state he was in, his senses did not alert him when they were so close to reading him.
“What the?!” he exclaimed in shock at seeing them. Then he shouted “Why the hell are you here?! Get away!”
“Lucky…!”
“Stop!”
“Don’t do it!”
Without caring about what he shouted at them, the girls screamed at him with desperation in their voices.
“Ha?”
Lakshman was momentarily confused by the desperate voices and the worried expressions on their faces. Then he realized, just from holding down the Demon Slayer sword, he must have looked like he was about to destroy her. He told them his goal was to acquire her and they agreed to it, but they became worried the recent battle might have made him want to destroy it instead. With this realization, he sigh and shook his head in exasperation.
“Why did I forget? Girls do tend to worry often about stuff, especially when they involve their loves ones. It’s often a good thing to worry, but letting it get to their heads and then barging in like this is so… how do I put it… annoying! Ha… I’ll have to have a word with the ladies after this.”
At that moment, he saw a light appeared at his hands and it made him remember what he was doing a moment ago; activating Spirit Connection and Spirit Transition. He widened his eyes in realization that those spells were delayed in activation due to him semi-activating before he got distracted by the shout from the girls.
He turned to the incoming girls and bellowed “Stop! Don’t come!”
Unable to hear him due to the howling wind in their ears, the girls kept running towards him. Unable to do anything, he closed his eyes and only thought of one thing before it happened.
“Oh crap…!”
There was a sudden violent flash of light that erupted out of his hands that were placed upon the top of the Demon Slayer sword. The flash of light suddenly became a bright dome of light that surrounded the area, including where the girls were moments ago before getting enveloped by the light.
As the dust slowly flowed away from the earlier battle, two mysterious figures appeared. Their appearance was unknown because the dust was masking them and their appearance. Up until this time, these two figures had been masking their presence while observing the goings on as they waited for their chance.
“He did it.”
“Yeah.”
“This light… Looks like the Spirit Connection and Spirit Transition.”
“Yeah.”
“Now’s the chance. Let’s go.”
“Yeah.”
With that, the two figures, masked by the dust that seemed to come with them, walked the few meters and stepped in, disappearing into the dome of light.
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Author's Note
Battle scenes are also longer and crazier than ever before, which I think people will like.