Tsuki ignored this venom, asserting her command once more.
“I thought I told you not to move. Now, turn around.”
Ace ignored this order completely, planning to send an uppercut into the jaw of the monster wrapped in the form of a beautiful woman. Before he could even carry out his scheme, Tsuki vanished in a blur, bludgeoning him in the back of the head, causing him to sprawl onto the ground unconscious. Tsuki exhaled all of the air inside her in a gust of a relief. Victory was finally achieved after a long, hard fought battle.
She let her snowy sword drop to the carpeted floor in order to use her hand for spell casting. She mentally prepared herself for the massive pain she was about to endure. She outstretched the fingers in her right hand, chanting two spells in her head.
After reciting these two incantations, her entire body immediately glowed white, with five blades of pure glaring light surrounding her. The luminescent blades promptly shattered like shards of glass into tinier and tinier fragments, with almost all of them coalescing around her now missing left arm. Tsuki winced in agony, unable to prevent herself from yelling out in shrill screams. Fragments of bone began forming where her left arm was. Bearing through the unimaginable pain, she cast the spell three more times, causing bits of muscle to appear, concluded finally by snow white skin being molded around the newly created muscle. Her body was now whole once more. The dried blood on her lip had also begun to evaporate. The blackened bruise on her face was quickly being replaced by supple pale skin.
Just then a single beeping noise pierced her eardrums, indicating a friend had messaged her. She was immediately reminded of the similar situation that Dusk was in right now. Worry overcame her; she hoped it was him. She opened the simple message which read thusly:
“I won.”
Tsuki smiled from the bottom of her heart, the corners of her eyes leaking a few tears.
Thank God, Drake. Thank God.
She immediately began typing a response, in order to hear from her beloved pupil again.
Nice! I knew you could do it! I won my battle too, though it was harder than I expected. Where are you? Are you still in the courtyard?
Tsuki pushed her index finger to the send button, eager to hear a reply back from her dear friend.
After a few minutes back with no reply, the trepidation began creeping up on her steadily, like a horde of insects. One minute with no reply. Then three. Then five. That settled it; she needed to rush to the courtyard immediately. Yet she couldn’t leave Ace here. He was too dangerous to be left alone. He could escape if she left him unguarded. There was no time to go to where Omni was, as he was too far away. Right now, she suspected something was wrong with Dusk. Grunting in irritation, as if she had to carry a sack of manure, she slung the repugnant Dark Knight above her shoulder, his feet dragging across the ground like a corpse. The best she could do was jog with this heavy weight upon her.
Please be okay, Drake. I’m coming, just hang on!
Ten minutes later Tsuki had made it to the courtyard. The scene before her eyes could only be described as hellish. On the ground she spotted the brown haired man called Jigsaw lying in a large pool of blood, rife with deep lacerations. She assumed he had to have been dead, but he was barely hanging onto life. She noticed his health pool diminishing, albeit gradually. At this rate he had about four minutes left to live unless he received some medical attention. Lying directly across from him was her cherished student, drenched in his own puddle of crimson with two hideous looking large gashes that extended from his shoulders all the way down to his hips. Both of these men would die from blood loss if they were left alone, in this world or the real world.
Tsuki immediately set Ace down on the green grass, running to Dusk’s aid as fast as she could. She began casting her
Dusk came back to life slowly and painfully, his azure eyes reluctantly opening to the world around him. All he could see was an angel clad in the purest white, her figure glowing spectacularly. Several brilliant sun rays were shining out from her in all directions. Was he in heaven? Did an angel save him, or was she a goddess? Not that he believed in heaven at first, but the scene before him made him wonder. It was then he was able to distinguish her facial features. He recognized this goddess. This was his goddess and teacher, Tsuki. He wasn’t in heaven; he was still here in the War of the Elements.
Before he could utter any words, Tsuki buried her face into his chest.
“I was worried, I was so worried, Drake. You almost died!”
Dusk felt a tinge of guilt for being happy that Tsuki was so upset over this, but he was touched that she cared about him that much.
He sat up slowly, outstretching his right hand, placing it on her sleek silver hair and pressing her head into his chest slightly, comforting her. He was really glad to see her again. For a while there he wasn’t sure if he’d make it through that battle. He smiled warmly at the teacher who leaned against him.
“But I won in the end. It seems you won your battle too, right, Tsuki?”
“Karla.”
“Hmm?”
“My real name, it’s Karla.”
Dusk’s sardonic chuckle floated through the air.
“It took you long enough to tell me.”
“But you know now, and that’s all that matters.”
“I suppose so.” Dusk paused for a moment, basking in the warmth, cherishing this moment.
“So, you won your battle, right?”
Tsuki answered by wordlessly pointing in the direction of the unconscious Ace, who had his arms tied up behind his back with rope.
Dusk looked over, spotting the incapacitated guild leader. His lips shaped into a grin, elated that his teacher had come out victorious. More than that, his conflict with the Hand of Blood was now over. It was finally over.
Seconds later, the arrogant would-be king stirred to life, groaning and grumbling.
“Ugh, so it’s you again,” he protested, his eyes fixating on Tsuki’s newly restored left arm.
“Damn, that sucks. I was hoping your left arm would stay gone.”
“Shut the hell up already. Haven’t you said enough?” Tsuki snapped, really having reached her limit with this person.
“Your left arm? What is he talking about, Karla?”
Ace laughed, realizing the situation. “She didn’t tell you, huh? I guess you could say she won, but really she almost lost. If I landed one more hit on her she probably would’ve bit the big one. I actually chopped her left arm clean off. That was so satisfying. I thought I had won the game. But she used some kind of cheat at the end, I don’t understand what the fuck happened.”
“What happened is I finally used my full power to beat you instead of holding back.”
“That’s a load of bullshit. You mean to tell me you were willing to lose an arm before you tried your hardest? Quit lying, Princess.”
“Yet here you are, with your hands tied up behind your back, all because you lost to me. How else do you explain that?”
Ace’s face scrunched up into a displeased scowl.
“Like I said, you had to have used a cheat code of some kind. Despite how real this world seems, it actually is a game you know. There’s no way you beat me fair and square because that’s not possible.”
Tsuki could only laugh at this man’s glaring insecurity. Here he had to find a justification for why he lost, otherwise his world and all of his ideals would crumble before him. Ace continued on with his sore loser speech, speaking directly to Dusk now.
“But man, your lady friend really is a monster regardless, you know. I can’t believe she could use telekinesis like me to throw swords around.”
Dusk was completely stumped. He looked like a deer in headlights, utterly lost.
“What?”
; Ace stared at the clueless warrior for a moment, before his sapphire eyes lit up in enjoyment, unable to contain his laughter.
“Hahaha, oh I get it. You didn’t even know she could use telekinesis, did you? Man, I can’t believe she kept that from you all this time. Haha, too funny.”
The troublesome scythe wielder turned his head, staring at Tsuki mischievously.
“Did you not want to destroy his manly pride or something?”
“You really just love to stir the pot don’t you?” Her urge to punch this egomaniac was becoming greater and greater by the second.
“Because peace is boring, like I said.”
“So all this time... all those duels I lost; you weren’t even using half of your strength?” Dusk muttered lowly to himself before releasing his humiliation through his fist, straight into the grass below, as if he hoped that by touching the grass, the electric charges of his degradation would be discharged into the earth.
“Son of a bitch!”
“Are you actually concerned about that right now?” Tsuki asked in amazement.
“Why would you keep that from me?”
“Because I didn’t want you to feel like it was hopeless. Training is done in steps. What good is the training if the gap in power is that large? Moreover, would you even have had the confidence to do it if you knew I could perform telekinesis?”
Dusk isolated himself in deep thought.
She has a good point there. I don’t know if I’d learn anything if she unleashed that full power on me from the start. Still...
“I wish you would’ve told me at least.”
“What good would that have even done?”
“I don’t know,” Dusk admitted. “It just... feels like you were keeping it from me or something.”
“I wasn’t keeping it from you. There was just no need for you to know at the time. It’s not like I lied to you about it.”
Dusk ceased his complaining, realizing that this really wasn’t that big of a deal. This was just his ridiculous pride talking; pride that hadn’t really served any positive purpose for him.
It was during this instant that Jigsaw woke up, his demonic bloodthirst fully dissipated, now replaced with a grouchy disposition.
“Oh damn, what happened? I feel like shit,” he grumbled to himself before settling his chocolate brown eyes on Dusk, who was now fully recovered.
“Oh right... I lost.”
“So you lost too, bro?” Ace chimed in, seeming somewhat disappointed.
“I lost... too?” Jigsaw’s mouth was wide open with astonishment, seeing his brother Ace with his hands tied behind his back.
“Wait, you’re saying you actually lost, bro? You never lost a fight in your life!”
Ace nodded with enthusiasm, fully agreeing with Jigsaw. “Well, that’s true. I didn’t actually lose this fight either. She used a cheat code to beat me.”
Jigsaw shot a murderous gaze towards Tsuki.
“Of all the low down, dirty... you have no honor.”
“Oh for fuck’s sake, I didn’t use a cheat code!”
“So, did the monster’s friend here use a cheat code on you too, bro?” Ace queried, ignoring the crashing waves of rage coming from Tsuki.
“I dunno, bro. I thought I was scary when I got mad; but this guy.”
Jigsaw stared straight at Dusk with grudging admiration.
“I was kicking his ass, and then all of a sudden he goes batshit, like he was possessed by a demon or somethin’.”
“Is that right? Maybe they were both using cheat codes, because this princess here did something similar. I was kicking her ass, and then she pulled out some hidden mode on me too. Instead of it being demon mode, it was more like the complete opposite. She became all peaceful and shit, like some kinda Zen mode; and then... well, you know the rest,”
Ace concluded, moaning in discontentment.
“Man, maybe I shoulda joined up with that Raven guy when I had the chance. Maybe then we wouldn’t be in this situation.”
Dusk’s eyes shot open instantly as every muscle in his body hardened into stone. His voice dropped to absolute zero.
“What did you just say?”
“Huh?” Ace asked, clearly annoyed at being pestered. “I said you guys were using cheats. So?”
“No, after that.”
“Oh, right. Some guy named Raven came to visit me yesterday. Offered me an invitation to join him. Said he wanted to gather all the telepaths he could find to help him fulfill his goal or whatever. I told him to go fuck himself.”
Ace stopped for a moment, smirking wildly as he continued speaking.
“But even though I said that to him, he said maybe I’d reconsider, and as a token of goodwill he’d give me a gift. He told me there was still something I could do. So he gave me your location, and you know what happened after that.”
Dusk’s fists were squeezed so tightly they turned completely white, his entire blood flow being cut off. His teeth mashed into each other in a nearly uncontrollable rage as he muttered in a deathly tone,
“That son of a bitch... It figures. I’ll fucking kill him.”
Ace couldn’t help but laugh arrogantly at Dusk’s bravado.
“You, kill him? Not in a million years.”
The enraged dual wielder shot daggers from his eyes.
“Relax, guy. That monster was definitely using cheat codes. I couldn’t even move when I was near him. He hacked the game somehow, for sure. No matter how strong you are, you can’t beat a hacker, you know? Don’t even try.”
“I’ll kill that motherfucker if it’s the last thing I do.”
“Seriously, Drake...who is this Raven guy, and why do you hate him so much?” Tsuki asked with desperation. This was one of the many secrets Dusk was keeping from her. He mentioned Kevlar’s name before in the same breath as Raven. So who was this Raven? How were he, Dusk, and Kevlar connected? She had to know.
“I’ll tell you. I’ll tell all of you after we’ve turned these guys in.” Dusk got up to his feet, ready to bring down the gavel on the Hand of Blood once and for all.
“Sure,” Tsuki replied. She was eager to hear the story right away, but she accepted this compromise for the moment.
Roughly ten minutes later, Dusk and Tsuki had made it into the main room where Omni resided, with the reluctant Ace and Jigsaw in tow. The multitudes of other enemies were still pinned to the ground from the force of Omni’s telekinesis. Scarlet and Reaper were also present now, tying up the prisoners.
The corners of Omni’s eyes raised slightly, his lips turning into a relieved smile.
“You’ve returned. That took a while.”
“The opponent was a bit more difficult than I had originally anticipated,” Tsuki admitted.
Ace made a compounded din of frustration and disdain.
“Damn right! You had to use a cheat code to beat me.”
“Gees, you’re like a broken record,” Dusk grumbled.
Reaper transfixed his hazel eyes in contemplation upon the man with flaxen hair: the one who called himself Ace.
“So, this is the man behind it all? The one who caused the Black Death so much trouble for two months? The guild leader who’s been terrorizing the Bermian territories? He doesn’t seem like much to me.”
Ace spat at Reaper in contempt. “Tell that to your princess over there. I cut off her arm and almost killed her.”
Scarlet immediately got in Ace’s face, staring him down with a look of contained fury. She had the aura of a bomb that was just waiting to explode.
“Hey, you bastard. Is what you just said there true? You really cut off her arm?”
Ace, used to several enemies trying to intimidate him throughout his life, wasn’t about to back down. He didn’t show the slightest sliver of fear. Instead he stuck out his chest proudly, getting even closer to her face, as if to reciprocate the gesture. She could feel his breath on her face as he spoke.
“That’s right. I cut off that princess’s arm and
was about to kill her when she activated her cheat code. So? You gonna do something about it, missy?”
Scarlet balled her fist tightly and threw a right hook, digging her fist into his face, causing blood to ooze out of the left corner of his mouth. Ace was about to taunt her again, but before he could even speak another word, she punched him on the other side of his face and then followed up by kneeing him right in the balls.
Jigsaw, seeing his brother abused like this, shouted out at the top of his lungs, struggling against his restraints.
“Hey, leave my brother alone, he can’t even fight back!”
Scarlet turned away from Ace, shaking her wrists vigorously in order to relieve the mild pain now coursing through her hands.
“Your brother got off easy. For everything that he’s done, he deserves much worse of a beating than that.”
Ace was still chuckling, even after the beating he just received. Mere physical pain would never be enough to dissipate the extreme arrogance that swirled within his persona.
“Missy, you are no princess. That’s for sure.”
“Damn right I’m not. I don’t want to be one either. I’m a soldier.”
Ace broke out into a laughing fit. This was utterly ridiculous.
“You guys really think a prison can hold me? How stupid can you be? Listen up. Nothing can hold me. Nothing can contain me. You can throw me into that shithole of a prison if you want, but soon enough I’ll break out. And when I do, I’m coming for the princess first, and then all of you.”
Reaper exhaled deeply, somewhat agitated at this man’s reluctance to admit defeat.
“If you break out, we will merely defeat you again and throw you back in.”
“Because it was so easy the first time, right?!”
“Enough!” Tsuki boomed in frustration. “Just don’t even talk to him, seriously. He can do this all day.”
Phoenix commenced their roundup of the prisoners, starting with Ace and Jigsaw. They were about to teleport to Bermia when Dusk stopped them.
“Hey, guys, I think I’m gonna go back to our place. I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to go to Bermia with the reputation I have. But I have something important I need to tell you guys, so I’ll see you all in a bit.”
The Virtual Realm Page 34