Tales of a Lost Sword 25

Episode 25 Hatred’s Maw
A bead of sweat runs down from Xavier’s forehead down to his jaw and falls to the ground. He hugs his crossbow tighter towards his body. “Kunai…” he hisses, “I’ll back you up.”

“Stay out of this,” Kunai growls back, his eyes fixating on Rill the entire time.

Rill slashes the air with his claw, sparks flying from it. “Prepare for this, Kunai,” Rill barks. “This time we’ll finish our battle from last time!”

Kunai raises his Avenger, as he digs his heels into the ground, ready to launch into action at any time. “Why are you doing this, Rill? Why do you want to kill me? Have you really gone to fight for the Fatalists?! You gotta be kidding me!”

“I told you!” Rill exclaims, his face contorting wildly with anger. “My only desire is to kill you. That is the reason why I have obtained this power!”

“Your desire is to kill me?” Kunai repeats, laughing ironically. “You can’t be serious. Why do you even want to kill me? I’m your ally!”

“You’re not my ally!” Rill shouts. “It is your fault…that Ivy is dead!”

The memory of Hiraku revealing Rill’s affiliation with Ivy crosses Kunai’s mind. Kunai’s eyes widen, as his stance slackens. Rill suddenly takes the opportunity and dashes forward, bringing a Lightning Avenger crashing into Kunai.

Kunai reacts at the very last second, flipping over into the air and landing several feet behind him. A massive crater forms in the ground at Rill’s feet, smoking seeping into the air out of it. Kunai hurls his Avenger at Rill in retaliation, but the latter merely deflects it with a stroke of lightning.

Xavier bites his lip, his arms and knees trembling slightly. “Kunai! You’re crazy! Let me help!”

“I told you to stay out of this!” Kunai howls impatiently. He turns back to Rill. “So that’s it, huh? You were in love with Ivy as well.”

The three combatants suddenly fall silent, as Kunai forms another Avenger. He raises it, the clink of metal rising in the air. “I’m sorry I didn’t take this fight seriously at first. But what you’ve just said has convinced me to take you on seriously. I’m not gonna stand by and let anyone, even you, Rill, say that I let Ivy die! All right, let’s go all out on this fight!”

Rill forms a Lightning Avenger as well. He raises his own weapon, facing off against Kunai. The two stand directly across from one another, snarling at each other angrily.

Xavier takes a step back in awe. “Whoa…what is with this tension? It’s like I can feel their anger pouring into the air.”

Rill is the first one to move. Kunai remains stationary, his breathing remarkably calm as he analyzes Rill’s movements. Rill heads straight for Kunai with the speed of lightning, but still Kunai does not move, watching Rill’s movements intently.

‘I may have the more experience fighting, but he’s been trained by the Fatalists…I should consider this a Fatalist-level battle. This could be dangerous, especially on my own.’

Kunai blocks Rill’s attack at the last moment with his Avenger. However, Kunai’s metal Avenger collapses into pieces upon contact with Rill’s lightning attack.

Kunai is forced to leap backwards as Rill pushes forward with his Lightning Avenger, its spikes crackling loudly in the air. Kunai aims two Steelys at Rill as he lands, which Rill deflects quite easily.

Rill flies straight at Kunai again, bridging the gap in mere seconds. Kunai ducks at the last moment and slides past Rill, aiming another pair of Steelys over his shoulder at the latter.

Rill blocks the attack with his Lightning Avenger; both Steelys fall to the ground uselessly. His Lightning Avenger continues to sing through the air with devastating force and clarity.

Kunai narrows his eyes, watching Rill turn and face Kunai again. ‘He’s definitely been taught by Arai…his attacks, his movements…they all resemble Arai’s when I trained with him in the Underworld. But Arai’s movements were actually less predictable since he could Teleport. Rill’s movements are as a result actually slower and more predictable.’

Once more, Rill launches himself at Kunai, his Avenger glowing through the air. Kunai leaps straight up into the air, waiting for Rill’s momentum to carry him past Kunai.

Kunai lands behind Rill, rapidly creating an Avenger within seconds. ‘Now’s my chance!’ Kunai spins and with brute force throws his Avenger straight into Rill’s back.

However, the Avenger merely continues sailing into thin air as Rill disappears into the darkness. Kunai’s eyes widen as his feet touch the ground again. “Where’d he go?!”

“Behind you!” Rill shouts, striking Kunai with a blast of lightning.

Kunai takes the hit with full force, and goes flying into the air. He tumbles across the ground for several more yards before coming to a rough stop on a patch of dirt. He quickly gets back up, spitting dirt from his mouth.

“‘I’m slower than Arai because I can’t use Teleport?’” Rill smirks. “But I am a Mage hybrid now. That means I too can use Teleport, though perhaps not as efficiently as a true Mage can.”

Kunai merely glares at Rill wrathfully, readying another pair of Steelys in his hand.

Rill generates a new lighting Avenger in his right hand and raises it, pointing it straight at Kunai’s chest from afar. “Let me tell you something, Kunai…I hate you.”

Kunai laughs. “Ha! You think I care if you do?”

“I hate everything about you, Kunai,” Rill growls. “I hate that you, who did not deserve her adoration and attention, was the one who was closer to Ivy! I hate that you left Ryuu’s group for your own selfish reasons and then returned for your own selfish reasons! I hate that you left Ivy to cry alone on those long nights, longing only for you! I was the one who was there to comfort her when all she could think about was you! And then you went and let her be killed by Lord Kimura! You are the worst, despicable!”

Kunai bares his teeth, his eyes darkening mercilessly. “Oh yeah? Where were you when Ivy was captured and was about to be killed? I was the only one who went after her. I was the only one who was there when she died! Where were you when she needed all of us the most, huh?!”

“All the same…” Rill hisses, his voice icy cold. “You couldn’t save her!”

“Neither could you!” Kunai roars back. “None of us could save her back then! You think I don’t spend every day and night regretting what happened back there?!”

“You were a mistake,” Rill simply replies, “and I am going to erase you from this world. I have obtained the power to do so. And I will obtain the power to bring Ivy back, by taking the Shield of Wizet for myself when the Fatalists are defeated!”

“The Fatalists will eat you alive,” Kunai growls angrily, “you’re delusional if you think you can beat them on your own! Do you really think that they’ll let you do something like that?! You’re just playing into their hands!”

“So says the traitor who chooses sides just for his own convenience!” Rill roars in return, attacking at last. His Lightning Avenger sings through the air with its piercing energy, coming straight at Kunai with dangerous speed.

Kunai dodges the attack, flinging his Steelys at Rill; Rill blocks the knives with his Avenger again. The two land across from each other once more, breathing heavily.

“Look who’s talking!” Kunai shouts back, forming an Avenger. He goes on the offensive this time, bringing his Avenger hurtling through the air towards Rill.

Rill blocks Kunai’s attack again with his Avenger. The electricity brimming through it flares against the metal of Kunai’s Avenger. The two weapons clash with ferocious animosity; after several moments scraping against each other, the two Avengers explode into pieces.

Kunai bares his teeth, as he and Rill each take a step back out of attacking range of the other. “Dammit…we’re fighting pretty even. At this rate, it’s just going to end up a battle of attrition. I need to change the pace of this battle.”

He reaches for another set of Steelys, readying them in his claw. Rill braces for Kunai’s attack as well, raising his claw in order to counter Kunai’s attack.

Kunai flies at Rill, but instead of attacking Rill head-on, he sidesteps Rill at the last moment. As he passes Rill, he flings two Steelys at Rill.

Rill hurls his own pair of lightning bolts at Kunai, who dodges just in time. Meanwhile, Rill’s eyes widen as he notices the Steelys heading towards him, each with a meso note attached to it.

The Steely traps explode with force, sending smoke rising into the air all around Rill. Kunai skids to a stop, watching the scene apprehensively. He forms an Avenger, readying himself to launch at Rill at full speed.

Rill emerges out of the smoke as it clears, his Lightning Avenger in tow. However, Kunai is too fast for him, as he leaps forward and brings his Avenger crashing into Rill.

Blood flies into the air, as Kunai is the first to draw blood. Rill pants heavily, blood seeping out of his shoulder, where a fairly large wound has opened up. He glares at Kunai hatefully.

“I did it!” Kunai cries, gasping and smiling despite himself.

Rill suddenly begins sniffling. Bitter tears run down from his eyes to his mouth. He wipes them away, the tears mixing with the blood flowing freely from his torn shoulder. Without warning, Rill bursts into a savage cackle. “Hahaha! You’re the one that doesn’t understand! But soon…! Soon I’ll make you understand the pain! I’ll make you pay for killing Ivy!”

Abruptly, Rill creates a set of lightning knives in his hand, holding them precariously by their tips. He then proceeds to hurl them at Kunai with blinding speed.

The knives dance through the air like golden needles. They penetrate the entire sky, coming in all directions at Kunai. Agilely, Kunai manages to dodge them, but Rill retaliates by increasing the speed of his attack even more.

“You cannot guard against my speed!” Rill howls tauntingly, manically throwing more and more knives with reckless abandon. Kunai continues to dodge and block the needles with his claw. The lightning knives bounce off his claw back into the air, sparks flying with each strike.

Finally, Kunai breaks through. He disappears in a flash, and appears in the sky above Rill, an Avenger raised in his arms. “Argh!” Kunai yells, bringing down his Avenger with a crash.

“I’ve got you.” Kunai’s eyes widen as he comes down from the air, as a massive blast of lightning emerges from Rill, enveloping the entire airspace around him.
—END TWENTY-FIVE—
Insight Special 1: On the Origin of the Series
In light of the ToaL series winding down with ToaLS being the last in the series, every once in a while I’ll be posting an Insight Special (we’ll call it “IS” for short) that highlights some of the behind the scenes stuff behind the series. I don’t know how many of you would actually be interested in this, but I thought it might help provide some insights into how the series is made and my thought processes behind the writing. Think of this as the director’s commentary version of the ToaL series.

With today’s special, we’ll start from the very beginning on the origin of the series–how the series actually came to be. Any similarity of that title to Darwin’s work is strictly coincidental.

As you may or may not be aware of, the ToaL series began wayyy back in June 2006. So some quick arithmetic will tell you that the series is nearing it’s 5th birthday very soon. I can honestly say I certainly did not expect to still be writing this series in 2011, but that’s how things work for you. It’s been a pretty crazy ride.

Some (very) brief historical background: In June of 2006, I was recently coming off from finishing another MapleStory fanfic called Surixin. (Three chapters were actually posted on the original MMOT in April 2006, though not by me.) Considering the Surixin fic to be a spectacular disaster, I set about to try my second attempt at a MS fanfic in June of that year. School was just about to end for summer break, so it was a perfect opportunity.

Tales of a Lost Phoneme was originally conceived to be a futuristic fanfic. I had a vision in my mind at the time of a scene in which an assassin was jumping out of a skyscraper stealing some sort of machinery. This vision was very (and I stress the very) loosely based on an original fic idea of a futuristic world plagued by an invented virus that I had had for some time but never implemented into an actual written work. You can sort of (vaguely) see how the machinery mentioned above morphed into the Phonemes, and how the invented virus morphed into Paradoxes. Despite the original futuristic visions, the series eventually evolved into one that emphasized less and less the futuristic aspect and became more a series of fantasy with elements of futurism in it.

On Split Souls and Hybrids
In that same vein, I also borrowed ideas I had from another original fic for the concept of split souls and hybrids. In this original fic, characters lived in a world in which people formed compacts with (animal) spirits and gained special powers. Exceptionally strong people could form multiple compacts and thus become hybrids. There was a character named Ryuu in this fic, that possessed such hybrid powers. In fact, Ryuu is almost the sole reason why hybrids were incorporated into the ToaL series in the first place–but I’ll talk more about his character in another IS. Anyway, seeing how people don’t form such compacts in the MS world, I needed to devise another way to explain the existence of hybrids. Thus enter the splitting of souls. As the series went on, I expanded more and more on Hybrid Theory. Azuma provided Kunai with an explanation of Hybrid/Soul Theory in Episodes 43-44 of ToaLW, although I think a lot of people were/are still confused with it. There’s actually a very simple explanation of the theory that I never managed to incorporate into the series. But that’s a story for another IS.

On Development of Story
I’ll admit: When I first wrote the prologue for ToaLP, I had absolutely no idea where the story was headed. Even when I published it, I had no idea what direction I was going. Even as late as chapters 7-10 I had no idea where it was going. In fact, I did not even know exactly what the phonemes were supposed to be, which explains why I delayed for as long as possible having to explain what the phonemes were. Things worked out well, right?

On Inspirations
Okay, this is a big one. I know various people throughout the series have accused me of pilfering ideas from other works, but what author/artist/musician/director/etc. hasn’t been inspired by other people’s works? So let me lay it bare:

Characters–Followers of the anime/manga Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle by CLAMP may have noticed a certain synchroneity between the big four main characters in TRC and the big four heroes in ToaLP. Well, that’s no coincidence. Kunai = Syaoran, Ivy = Sakura, Ryuu = Kurogane, and Arai = Fai. It’s no coincidence either that the anime was still running in summer 2006. Hmm. I will say, though, that although there’s a certain similarity between the characters’ roles and personalities, my characters have developed and differentiated themselves from their humble origins over the course of the ToaL series. They’re not just complete ripoffs. So even though they have that particular origin, they’re completely different characters as their roles developed within the series.

Plot–The plot, however, is quite original. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t synchronous elements with other series as well. The name of the series itself is an homage to the Tales of video game series by Namco. I was especially inspired by the Tales of Symphonia entry to the series. You may notice some similarities. The Myougun (and the Fatalists, even) have a very similar hierarchical structure of political organization as do the Desians and Cruxis in Tales of Symphonia. Whoa.

That Bleach thing–No comment.

Paradoxes–I’ve heard a couple different theories about the inspiration for Paradoxes. I can’t remember if I ever actually explained it. But I’ll do so here. No, they’re not based on the Hollows in Bleach. They’re actually based on the Ing. From Metroid Prime 2. Whoa. Their movements, their looks, their functions, are all very similar.

All right, so that about wraps it up for this IS. Next time, I’ll provide some insight into the actual writing process itself, and how the process of extricating ToaL from my head to the MMO/VuTales frontpage works. Look for it soon. Until next time–AznRiceFan, signing off.