We woke up and got ready to storm Pahaӓӓni’s castle. We then realized that his castle was on the other side of the world. We should have realized this forever ago but we had to get there somehow. We needed to train some fucking pilots now. Not my wheelhouse. I need to find someone to train some air support.

Whatever. I informed the armies and sent for someone to make fighter planes and to train people to use them. One five hundred men to fly us and drop us over Pahaӓӓni’s castle and kill them from the skies.

I went to check on Link and Cori. Link was holding a knife like I would when I use my flames dance technique, dogging and jabbing and trying his darndest to copy me in battle. When I entered the room he turned to me and smiled.

“Amaterasu! I was just practicing like you! Look how good I am now!” he turned with his long knife in hand and smoothly cut deep gashes in the trunk of the tree he was practicing on. It wasn’t half bad but his stance was a little off so I fixed it for him. His technique was pretty good. It seemed this kid was crazy observant.

“Not bad. That technique was meant for a one handed longsword though. It would fare better with a longer weapon.” I told him. “I don’t use one because my weapon is special.” he nodded and asked where he could get one. I got one from the armory in the steel sun and gave it to him, along with some leather armor. “Why do you need to fight? You’ve got an entire rebelion to protect you.”

“I don’t need to. I want to. Cori needs someone to protect her. She didn't die three years ago because you showed up before they could find her. I want to protect Cori." Came Link's heartfelt reply.

I couldn't help it. I trained the kid. I showed him all of my fighting styles and he copied pretty well. He was doing the basics of bokator fluently by the end of the day. And so it went, me teaching him, and him learning until the planes were made and people learned to fly them.

It was two years before the planes were made and Link was basically an adult. He looked good with his golden curls and his muscular form. I never ran for that sort of thing though. I was into bad boys. Ironic that I'm basically a super cop now and I'm into bad boys. What a life.

I decided to get Link a drink. I went for the classic beer. It isn't as intense as my personal favorite: whiskey. It would be better for him to start out with. I got him a beer and me a glass of whiskey with ice in it. More casual than the shots I had had lately but it was good.

"Are you sure I should be drinking this? I heard that you shouldn't drink until you're twenty five. I'm only nineteen." He said.

"Well, you'll be drinking later than me. I was sixteen. My dad said 'if you're old enough to drive, you're old enough to drunk drive'. Needless to say he was a hopeless alcoholic." I told him. He hesitated. Then he drank the whole thing in one gulp. Damn.

"It's pretty good." He said as he put the glass down and wiped his lips off. I smiled and I told him to spar with anyone he could find to match his skill. He agreed and I left. I continued to train the army.

By the time we were ready to leave for the storm on Pahaääni's castle Link was fighting on my level if I didn't have super strength and super heat powers. On top of that he had more brute strength than my girlish form would likely ever hold.

Cori was in safe hands. Speaking of, Cori was doing menial tasks and organizing the rebellion. The people were ridiculously unorganized until Cori stepped up and fixed it.

The planes were ready, the pilots trained, and we were ready to go. We planned for a week of flight, though we would only likely be flying for three days.

We got in the planes and flew to about Maine to refuel with the small team of rebels there. Then we flew to the UK to refuel again. It was a wonder how the apocalypse brought people together. We stopped again about a hundred miles west of Pahaӓӓni’a castle in moscow for the final refuel.

As we flew within fifty miles of the castle, we were attacked. Fire, ice, all kinds of projectiles were thrown at us. A good bit were off by too much to make a difference but enough were on point to be dangerous. Luckily our pilots were trained well and most missed. We dropped a bomb over roughly the area where they were shooting at us. I had severely underestimated the power of dropped bombs. It hit the ground and I had originally thought that that was the shock wave of the explosion, but I was wrong. It then exploded and I could feel the plane rocking from the impact. The projectiles stopped however, and we continued forward to the castle.

As we approached the castle, we prepared another bomb. We dropped the bomb and as it reached the tip of the castle a blue circle around the castle flared to life and the noisy bomb bounced off of a blue force field and rolled to the ground. Halfway there it exploded and the field flared brighter as it deflected the explosion. Based on the description of Pahaӓӓni’s power, this used sound to create a solid wall we can’t get past.

I could mask a lot of my presence, but not my sound. The problem with such a field is, the more powerful the attack, the louder it was, which only made the field stronger. Quite a problem.

“We drop as planned on the dome and keep our balance if possible, then figure it out from there.” I told my assassins in the plane with me. They nodded and prepared to jump. I told the pilot to relay the message to the other planes of what we were doing but not to do the same. They would land on the surrounding edges of the sound barrier. We lined up the jump, then out the back end of the plane we went. I stayed equal to my assassins, who would attempt to get through the sound barrier with silence or as much as they could manage. As I got within ten feet of the barrier instead of using a parachute, I activated my speed cloak. I broke the sound barrier. I was now moving so fast that I could go through the barrier before it registered my sound.

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I hit the barrier with a thud and then I heard shattering as I broke through. The ambient sounds had given it a very small amount of enforcement, not enough though. My assassins landed on top. I was on the tallest spire of the castle. Pahaӓӓni was surely aware of our arrival. I made sure and lit the place on fire. I masked myself. I dropped down, burning everything in sight. I fell into a room that looked like servants quarters, filled with scantily dressed women screaming in fear at the fire engulfing them from seemingly nowhere. I took in the heat and burned through the walls. I found a room with a man, holding an electric guitar, calmly strumming out a tune as he burned to death.

“Finally, a release from this awful place.” he said as he strummed along. I took in the heat again. I wouldn’t let this strange man die. I continued on. For hours. Pahaӓӓni had ruined so many lives, that his castle was a maze of servants and people wishing for an out, almost on the verge of committing suicide.

In a hall, presumably outside of the throne room where Pahaӓӓni was, there were ten black bladed men. They were complaining about having to stay there while the place was burning down.

“So what if these rooms are fire proof! A strong gust of wind just blew open that door! This place has got some crazy shit going on, but it's not cool to make us stay here twenty four seven!” came one of the men.

“Come on, it's not that bad, he did give us a spell circle so that we don’t get tired. And we eat whatever we want, and we can have whatever we want. We can use it too if someone covers for us.”

“I don’t know, I agree with Narshias. We are kinda treated like scum. He keeps us happy enough so that we protect him, but not happy enough that we are cool to defy him. I don’t think I like it.”

“Well, no matter what, I don’t like this sun goddess they keep telling us about. She supposedly killed four demonsbloods at the same time without breaking a sweat, and she kills armies for fun. I hope we don’t have to face that demon.” said the man that came to close the door.

“Yeah.” came the agreed assent from the group. As he walked back.

I killed one with a stab in the eye and lit the guy next to him on fire. I then unmasked myself.

“Shit! We’re fucked!” came the voice of Narshias as he backed away. I finished off the man that said living here was great with a bokator kick to the face and a knife to the gut. His eyes widened and then he fell.

The surprised men clumsily tried to pull out their swords. I killed one more as they fumbled with their blades. The burning man was screaming as he tried to put himself out by rolling around. No matter what he wouldn’t be able to fight in this battle. The fire didn’t disperse.

The men finally pulled out their swords. The darkness engulfed the blades. Six left.

I entered flames dance and flowed smoothly around every attack they had made and made shallow cuts, going straight through the armor like it wasn’t there, melting around the edges of the gashes. They started to recklessly slash and stab seemingly without regard for their own safety. I entered bokator and knocked away the blades and counter struck. One more man fell with Aurinko to the mouth. Five left.

I amputated a hand from one of the men and stabbed him in the heart. Four.

I took a sword to the back and I turned and shot him in the face with a gout of fire. Three.

I turned and slit both of the remaining mens throats in one slash. Zero.

I then heard the scream of an electric guitar playing a fast song coming from the throne room. I masked myself and walked in through the only door to the throne room.

“You know, sun goddess? I never had this in my dimension. I played the most spunky, and rebellious instrument I could. I played the violin. But this thing? So much. . . spunk.” said the skinny man on the throne, with feet up, playing the electric guitar with apparent ease, paying little to no attention to the notes he was playing.

See, the violin is for evil people.

Just because an evil man is playing it, doesn’t mean that the instrument is!

“Ugh. whatever inner dialogue you’re having, you can share it with me. Stop sitting there and staring at me. I can clearly see you. Come, have a drink. You like vodka? My personal favorite.” he got up and walked over to a bar at the side of the room. There were five people staring at Pahaӓӓni like he was insane but they were to scared to say anything.

I unmasked myself. The men jumped and drew their blades. I had assumed that they would cut themselves but no. They simply drew their swords threateningly.

“Calm yourself, Curtis. She wants a glass of vodka.” said Pahaӓӓni waving his hand at the man at his side, like his number two man.

“Glass?” I asked.

“Well, I guess you could drink straight from the bottle but I wouldn’t suggest it. We only have so many.” replied Pahaӓӓni. The man by his side, Curtis, looked at him like he didn’t know what had happened to the man he was used to serving. He followed anyways, however.

“Traditionally, vodka is drunk from a shot glass, to limit the amount of alcohol a person has and it is drunk quickly.” I told him. He turned and smacked Curtis across the face.

“You didn’t tell me? And I thought I trusted you. Whatever. He adds more protection than most. Have a drink. Come on.” he said as he sat down at a massive table to the side of the room. I didn’t come. I was still confused. “Ugh. you can’t possibly say that you don’t want a drink? A drink before a fight always helps me. When I get drunk I get more focused and overall fight better. You?” he asked as he took a big mouthful of the stuff.

I threw Aurinko at one of the men at the sides of the room. He was knocked from the air with a sonic burst in front of him and he clanged against the marble floors and started to melt through at a gentle pace.

“I show you an ounce of hospitality, and this is how you repay me? You try to kill my-” he looked at Aurinko. “My, well, that is an interesting blade. You mind if I. . .” he got up and walked towards Aurinko.

I activated my speed cloak and rushed in front of Pahaӓӓni. “I do mind, in fact” I told him before I delivered a bokator kick to. . . nothing.

“You know, that was quite impressive. I can only do that once a day. It is quite mana intensive.” he said as he tried to catch his breath across the throne room. “What that does is-” *huff huff* “ I turn myself into sound-” *huff huff* “and travel like that. Ugh. You know, you make me make that sound a lot.” he said as he finally caught his breath. During all of his monologue, I was recovering from the surprise and picking up Aurinko, who had made a dagger shaped hole in the marble flooring. “Curtis and other godsbloods, kill her. She’s made me waste enough energy for one lifetime.” he said as he turned away. “Oh, and, I thought you should know that our armies are having a very close fight right now. That distance on those sniper rifles of yours. Wreaking havoc on my servants.” he said shaking his head as he walked away.

Four of five men advanced, Curtis staying by Pahaӓӓni’s side. “Curtis, you can stay behind. Make sure our guest is taken care of properly.” he said looking back at me with a dark look on his face and an evil smile playing on his lips. Curtis advanced as well at that point.

“Let the games begin.” I heard from Curtis as he drew his sword for the second time that night.