An explosion of stone and smoke suddenly filled the entire chamber. It didn’t take long for them to know who arrived. “AYUMI!” screamed Yumi, her shadowy figure flying through smoke.

Immediately without delay, Yumi sent an orb of energy blasting towards Eudokia. A ripple ran out from Eudokia’s feet as she halted the attack completely in her ice. She placed herself between Yumi and Yuki, knowing the main reason why she came. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?! If you damage any part of this room you’ll be condemning millions to death!”

Yumi continued to speed towards the two of them. “I don’t care about any of that! You should have thought about that before deciding to lie to us and send Yuki to his death!” She charged up another blast, but ice suddenly completely encased her arm, halting it. Unfazed, Yumi squeezed her hand, shattering the ice.

“Dammit, Yumi! I don’t have time for your childishness!”

Crashing into Ayumi, the two girls rolled over the ground before separating again. Yumi crawled up to her feet glaring at Ayumi viciously. “I don’t give a DAMN about what you have time FOR!” Charging up another blast, she threw it before she built up much. It was enough for Ayumi to need to focus on protecting something else.

Using the distraction, she flew over quickly to Yuki. “Yuki! Don’t sit in that chair!” When she appeared in front of the Throne before Yuki, she could see that he wasn’t completely aware of her. “Yuki?” He only seemed to be partially awake. A thick glaze hung over his eyes.

Eudokia recovered from the diversion and charged after Yumi. Extending her sword out at Yumi, she forced her way in front of the Throne as well. “Back off, Yumi. Yuki, activate your power like I told you!”

“Ayumi, what did you do to him?!” Yumi grabbed the tip of her sword, crushing it in her hand fighting over position. “Don’t listen to her, Yuki! It’s me, Yumi! Hear me, Yuki!”

Unhindered by the struggle, Eudokia held her position. “I did what must be done for the survival of our country!”

“I don’t care about that! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO YUKI?!” She tore the sword out of Ayumi’s hand. In the next instant, Yumi wrapped her hand around Ayumi’s neck starting to squeeze. “Answer ME!” The fires in Yumi’s eyes burned even stronger than before.

Coughing weakly, Eudokia didn’t bend to the pressure. Ice expanded from her body over Yumi’s hand. It shattered quickly from Yumi’s exertion, but formed up again. The ice held as stubborn as her. “You don’t…have it in you…to kill.”

Baring her teeth in rage, Yumi pulled Ayumi in closer. “Normally you might be right. But you’ve exceeded any threshold I have for morality. So just try me!”

Chapter 272 – Desperate Emotions

Grinding her teeth, Eudokia judged the look on Yumi's face. She could see the resolve and determination along with all of the blind rage. There was no convincing with her. Eudokia could see it. “Fine, you want to kill me?” The sword reformed in her hands and halfway through Yumi’s upper arm. “I won’t hold back!”

Barely even affected by the wound, Yumi severed the blade with her power. Removing it with her telekinesis, she sent it back at Ayumi , embedding in her upper shoulder. “AYUMI! I’m going to kill you for what you’ve done to Yuki!”

Eudokia broke free from Yumi’s grasp finally. She yanked out the blade from her sword. Ice formed up over the wound. Harsh lines formed around her eyes. Even she had limits. “My name is Eudokia Ismene! Ayumi is a lie! I don’t need lies anymore!”

“Eudokia!”

“Yumi!”

Yumi danced around the room evading ice attacks and slashes from her sword. All of the injuries she sustained during her last fight with Ourias disappeared from her mind. She wouldn’t let anything hold her back from dealing with Eudokia. Everything would end now.

At the center of the room, Yuki remained still. He seemed locked in a position uncertain what to do next. Even with the fighting in around him, his eyes remained glossed over. Any sense of consciousness gone. The identity known as Yuki Hayashi was missing.

Using pieces of her barrier, she kept blocking the swings from the sword. Between attacks, she threw out blasts of green energy. The progress quickly entered into a stalemate. Neither made any significant headway in the fight after the first blood.

‘Damn, the girl’s gotten better with her powers,’ thought Eudokia. She threw around waves of ice to block several incoming attacks. It easily broke on impact even though it negated the attack. The ice had been strengthened even and it still shattered. ‘Her power’s grown that much in this short time?’

The resistance she expected from the girl was greater than she forecasted. ‘Out of all of them I saw Saki as the greatest threat, which was why I made sure she was separated. Yumi’s made significantly more advancements than I calculated for. She’s not the timid girl I wrote her off being.’ Even when they were in Atlantis, she never actually disappeared from the fights. She watched them all secretly.

All of her planning would fall apart if she lost. ‘Judging by the look in her eye, she might actually want to kill me… Glad I added an Addendum to negate her telekinesis on my body.’ Her Law was far more complex and layered than any of them realized. She had to plan for any of them attacking her.

Spreading out ice over the ground, Eudokia drew out multiple paths for her. She jumped onto the first taking off to out flank Yumi. Unfortunately, the agility of Yumi made it difficult for her to actually out maneuver her. She slid around the whole area moving with Yumi as they fought higher into the air.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Amidst their fighting, Eudokia materialized her chain attached to her sword. It appeared all around Yumi immediately tightening to restrict her movements. She charged in with her sword ready to pierce her. However, multiple sections of barriers popped up. The sword managed to cut through a few, but hit resistance suddenly.

Yumi shattered the chains around her through mere strength. She then materialized several of her pieces of barriers, throwing them at Eudokia. The first few missed, but Yumi rapidly increased the speed until she was unable to keep up. One struck the upper sleeve of her kimono. Several more followed up sending her flying back to the dome’s wall.

Pinned to the wall, Eudokia had little range of movement. While she tried to release herself, Yumi threw more at her, but no longer aimed for her clothing. She had to use ice to keep it from a lethal injury and it still only deflected it.

Eudokia altered her clothes quickly to free herself from the shackles. She threw out ice shards to keep Yumi off her, while she recovered. ‘Tch…she’s getting more lethal with her attacks.’ Catching the ice, she rode the wave around taking shots at Yumi from a distance.

Fueled off rage even more so than before, Yumi released more of her shield barriers. Spinning quickly, the pieces of the barrier flew off after Eudokia. Dodging and out running them with her ice, kept Yumi from scoring any clean hits. However, she raised her hand towards the path Eudokia took. She crushed both the front and rear of her ice wave.

Forced to recover quickly with new paths, Eudokia came back around. However, she found that Yumi had already set up her next attack. ‘Damn…she’s much smarter in combat than I expected…’ A focused beam shot out. Ice covered up in a wall to protect her. She made it even thicker, discovering how fragile it was against Yumi. It managed to hold.

Yet she saw cracks already starting to form. She repaired it quickly to keep the defense. ‘She’s able to focus her power through the barrier as well… It’s much more versatile…’ The intensity of the beam increased. Her wall wouldn’t hold for long without more strengthening, however it was a losing fight.

‘I need a distraction…’ Eudokia materialized several ice shards from different directions. However, they couldn’t even make it more than a few centimeters before they disappeared. Completely crushed by Yumi without even a slight alteration of her stance. ‘…damn…this is getting more annoying… I shouldn’t be taking this long with her! She should already be exhausted from fighting the Titans, why does she still have so much power?!’

Worse for Eudokia, she realized too late that Yumi had something else completely different planned. She just played her with a distraction. The frontal attack wasn’t the real attack. Multiple beams came in from different angles. ‘How did she…?!’ Eudokia didn’t have time to react.

A weak defense was the only thing she could offer. The beams easily pierced through the ice. At the last moment, she collapsed on the ice supporting her. It dropped her, but not soon enough to escape all of the beams. She took several hits to her arm and shoulders. Fortunately, they weren’t deep since she fell before it became too bad.

Eudokia landed on the stone floor kneeling. Blood dripped off her wounds. ‘Damn…Yumi…I’m going to have actually get serious with her…’ She slowly stood up, wiping off the blood as ice sealed up the wounds. “I hope you’re pleased with yourself.”

“You’re still moving,” Yumi replied in disagreement.

“You won’t be very soon.”

“Big talk for someone that’s been barely able to keep up.”

Narrowing her eyes, she fixed her gaze on Yumi. “You’ll see how long that lasts for.”

All of the ice suddenly disappeared. The sword faded away from her hand. Ice gathered around her hands, completely encasing them. Her feet grew ice claws as well as she knelt back down. “I’m ending things now!”

“Just try!” Yumi immediately shot out beams from multiple directions to converge on Eudokia. However, she was already gone from the position. She nearly became a blur lashing out at Yumi with her new claws. They sliced her barrier into pieces with no effort.

The close call pushed Yumi back as she watched Eudokia fly further into the air. She had pieces of her barrier in place to redirect the beams that previously missed her. Eudokia had nowhere else to go. The beams chased after her.

However, just as the beams moved within reach, Eudokia bounced off the air to change her course. Her speed increased coming back around for Yumi. ‘Dammit, she was never like this before,’ cursed Yumi. She threw up barriers to push back Eudokia, but they didn’t stop her. Her claws sliced straight through coming for Yumi.

“I told you, this is over!” Eudokia shouted, as a flash of light arced over Yumi. Blood sprayed up from her claws sinking into flesh. Stubbornness in Yumi’s eyes made it clear to Eudokia that she wouldn’t be done in by just one attack. She bounced around taking Yumi from multiple angles breaking her barriers and cutting deep with her claws until she fell.

Yumi collapsed to her knees. Blood dripped over all of her body. Old wounds complained loudly along with the fresh. Her body shook, unable to keep going forward despite her will ordering it to move. “…damn…I can’t…lose…” She stretched out her hand towards Eudokia gathering energy. “I won’t…”

Standing in midair, Eudokia stared down at Yumi’s continued struggle. “You’re done.” The coldness in Eudokia's eyes returned. She dropped down quickly, landing next to Yumi. A new spray of blood coated the right side of her face.

“Damn…you!” Yumi clutched her severed arm. She couldn’t stop the bleeding. However, she didn’t plan to go down without Eudokia. She grabbed Eudokia’s shoulder with her blood soaked hand. “Eudok—“ Yumi coughed up blood suddenly.

Eudokia jerked her hand free from Yumi’s stomach. “I can’t stop me.”

Blood poured out from her stomach. The pain had become so strong that she stopped feeling anything. Yumi collapsed backwards. Her blood fell into the carvings along the floor spreading out almost like a pair of skeletal wings. “…Yuki…”

He was close to her. She could barely see him. Just in reach, she grabbed at him. “…Yuki…wake…” Yumi pulled with her arm trying to reach him.

“He’s never going to hear you. He’s completely under my control.”

“Yuki…” Her fingers could feel his boots. She dragged herself closer. ‘…closer…I just need…to get…’ Yumi reached up to his leg pulling on him. She could feel his warmth. He was in reach. ‘Just…a little…’ Each pained pull brought her a little further.

More upright, she knelt next to him leaning against him. “Yuki…please hear me…”

“Just die already!” Eudokia charged in for the finishing blow, but Yumi suddenly managed to lift her hand up and unleashed a powerful blast of energy. Unable to dodge in time, she flew back crashing into the wall.

Yumi coughed up more blood. “Damn…I…” She tilted her head up towards Yuki, still completely lost to the world. Forcing her legs to move, she stood up a little wobbly. “I…don’t know…how much time…I’ve got…but there’s…something I want to say…”

Some of her last bit of strength fell out from under her. She leaned forward, forced to support herself with her only hand against the Throne.

Blood soaked, Yumi smiled at him. “Ever since that day… I’ve watched you… I…looked up to you…admired you… At first…” Her hand started to give out. She leaned a little closer to Yuki. “…but something else…grew inside me…in my heart… I could feel it every time…I saw you… It’d beat so hard…I thought I’d die…”

Her legs buckled a little more, knocking her down a little more level with him. “…I’m shy…introverted…anti-social…self conscious…but you… Yuki you made me…want to change…not be like that anymore. I wanted to…stand at your…side…”

She could feel all of her strength disappearing. She couldn’t hold out much longer. “Yuki…” Yumi leaned in further only centimeters away from his face. She paused a little in wonder at his face, even blank as it was. “…I can finally say this to you…I love you…Yuki…” Yumi pressed in kissing him deeply until she had no strength left.

Yumi fell backwards slowly. “…so please…awake up…Yuki!” Her body collapsed on the floor unable to move anymore. Blood pooled around her again.

“…Yu…mi…”