Tales of a Lost Sword 55

Episode 55 The Brewing of Chaos
Arai watches his clone disintegrate through a large, ornate mirror propped up in front of his throne. The doors to the throne room are slammed shut, and the only light entering the room is through the large, heavenly windows situated far above the room.

“I’m afraid you are quite mistaken, Ryuu,” Arai pronounces, his arms clasped in front of him, “you have merely defeated a clone this time, Ryuu and Kunai. The real me awaits you within the confines of my castle. I trust that I will soon see the two of you with my real eyes soon enough. Until then.”

Through the mirror, Arai watches Ryuu’s angry reaction. A slight smirk permeates his lips. Arai smiles pleasantly. He watches as the disintegration of his clone in the mirror has now reached its waist. The clone holds up two hands to its face, examining them while they still remain. Arai then looks directly into Ryuu’s eyes.

“Ryuu…despite everything we’ve been through, you’re my friend. I would never use these hands to kill you, Ryuu.”

Within moments of finishing speaking, Arai’s clone evaporates completely in the mirror. The real Arai sighs in his throne, as the mirror turns dark now that his clone has vanished.

“Yes,” he mutters pensively, gazing down at his own hands, “I promise I will never use these hands to kill you, Ryuu. Not you.”

Standing several paces from Silver, Midori lowers her light sword triumphantly, and lets it dissipate into the air. However, Silver merely grimaces and bites her lip, her intense concentration not abated. She continues to focus her Reverse Poison Bow towards Midori, the wrath clearly carved into her silvery eyes.

“Tch!” Midori murmurs to herself. “There’s no way I’ll let that hit me… If I just overwhelm her with an even bigger attack…”

A massive burst of golden light surrounds Midori, as she summons her largest bow yet. It stretches from the tips of the grass on the ground to the lower branches of the trees around her and hums with anticipation of a devastating attack. An equally massive sword replaces the arrow in the bow as Midori aims straight for Silver.

Her own bow locked onto Midori, Silver narrows her eyes with supreme focus. She clenches her teeth, her eyes blazing with fire.

“This…this is vengeance for Tide and Wake!” Silver howls at the top of her lungs.

“Fool! Your obsession with vengeance will be the end of you!” Midori roars back. “Tide and Wake aren’t even worth avenging!”

“TAKE THAT BACK!” screams Silver.

“NEVER!”

In the next instant, both Silver and Midori fire. Their arrows rush towards each other with devastating force and velocity, destroying everything in their paths.

Silver’s attack overwhelms Midori’s. Her Reverse Poison Bow strips past Midori’s gargantuan sword-bow and shreds it to pieces. Meanwhile, Midori can only watch defenselessly in shock as Silver’s bow heads straight for her.

The bow pierces Midori directly in the stomach. It plants itself deep within her stomach, as a reverse flow of energy immediately begins pouring into the thick, fibrous bow connecting Midori and Silver.

Sniffing slightly, Silver gazes haughtily at Midori. “If there is such a thing as poetic justice in this world, then this is it. You will die here.”

“You’ve…got to be kidding me!” Midori growls, wrenching her face into the most hideous expression she can. She grasps the bow, attempting to forcefully remove it, but the bow remains immobile, stuck. “Damn it! Remove this thing at once!”

Ignoring Midori’s pleas, Silver reaches into her quiver and calmly strings her bow with another arrow. “Forget it. The nutrients from your body are already flowing into mine. The flow cannot be reversed. You no longer have the energy or strength to do anything about it.”

Even as Silver speaks, Midori suddenly sways dangerously. She reaches out a gloved hand to the tree behind her, using it to steady herself. ‘She’s right…I can barely stand! I have to do something about this…it can’t end like this!’

Midori’s attention is suddenly drawn back to Silver, as she loads her bow with the finishing arrow. Silver stares directly into Midori’s now-helpless green eyes with her own cold, hardened silver eyes. “Tide…this is for your sake!”

Bracing herself for the final blow, Midori squints her eyes, looking away. However, it never comes. Silver remains standing still, gazing at Midori coldly, but her hands refuse to move.

“Damn it!” Silver mutters to herself, displaying weakness for the first time. “Why…why can’t I shoot?”

From the ground, Wake shuffles to his feet, still holding his left eye with his hand. Grimacing, he squints at Silver with his only eye left. “Silver…” he mutters under his breath.

Midori watches the scene with both surprise and relief. She takes the opportunity to resume attempting to pry herself free from Silver’s arrow, but it still does not budge.

Meanwhile, Silver remains standing still, hesitating as her killing blow is still fixed upon Midori. She tightens her hands around her bow, but still cannot bear to fire the shot. “This is vengeance for Tide…!” she mutters, almost as if arguing with herself. “I have to fire…!”

A rustling noise suddenly disturbs the scene. Without warning a second figure wrapped in dark black robes appears on the battlefield. He carries a Doom Bringer on his back. The second Fatalist lands lightly on top of the Reverse Poison arrow connecting Silver and Midori.

Without a word, he reaches for his sword and in one smooth motion, slashes the arrow into pieces, cutting it in half. The arrow snaps back towards Silver, allowing Midori to fall to the ground, freed at last from the grip of the arrow.

Silver watches with silent shock, unable to do anything in retaliation but stare. Her hands are still wrapped firmly around her bow and arrow, poised to shoot.

After helping Midori to her feet, Recelo turns and faces Silver. He glances briefly at Wake before turning his attention back to the Bow Master. “This battle is over. I’ll let you escape with a win for now, but we warned that the next time we meet we won’t be as generous.”

“W-Wait!” Silver shouts, stumbling forward clumsily.

Recelo gazes at her impatiently. “There is nothing more to discuss, vermin!” He turns to Midori, inspecting her injuries as he carries her in his arms.

“Tch,” Midori murmurs weakly, her green hair obscuring her face slightly, “to think I’d have to be rescued by you…I’ll never live this down.”

“Yeah,” Recelo smirks. He turns to leave, but takes a moment to glare at Silver before he departs. “You’re just lucky the timing worked out well for you…otherwise I would have killed you right this moment. However, His Majesty has plans that cannot be ignored.”

“Wait!” Silver cries again, chasing after Recelo as he leaps away, Midori safely in his arms. She takes several further steps forward, before coming to a stop in front of the very tree Midori had used for support moments before. Silver bends over, breathing heavily, her wounds having obviously caught up to her.

Silver suddenly feels a hand on her shoulder. She jumps slightly in alarm, but finds Wake by her side, his hand still held over his eye socket.

“Wake…your eye…” Silver babbles suddenly, unable to stop the tears from flowing.

But Wake merely shrugs and flashes a grin in response. “It’s okay, Silver. These things happen in battle. If anything, now I’ll be able to get an eye patch. You can’t say it doesn’t add character!”

Evening begins to fall at last as the sun grows low over the horizon and the sky becomes bathed in a mystical glow of orange. Several crows fly by overhead, cawing loudly over the deadened battlefield in the valley.

Fayvard and Rill stand side by side in the middle of a small clearing of trees at the foot of the mountain upon which the Fatalists’ castle stands. Fayvard stands still with his eyes closed and his arms folded, deep in thought. Meanwhile, Rill is seated on top of a rather large rock, lost in thought himself. His mysterious black eyes stare forward towards the horizon without actually being focused on it.

Footsteps sound suddenly in front of them. Fayvard unfolds his arms, gazing tensely into the quickly darkening groves of trees in front of him. From out of the forest emerges Kunai and Ryuu, their faces battle-scarred and weary, but otherwise fine.

“Yo,” Fayvard greets, sharing a high-five with Ryuu. Rill turns to look as both Kunai and Ryuu join them in the clearing. “Glad you made it back okay.”

“Tch,” Ryuu smirks, “same goes for you.” Sighing wearily, Ryuu plops down on the grass and leans against the trunk of a tree, closing his eyes.

“Well, well, if it isn’t the young kid,” Fayvard says, as Kunai joins him by his side.

Glancing slightly at Fayvard, Kunai nods in greeting. “Yeah. Hello, Fayvard.”

“What? What’s with the cold greeting?” protests Fayvard, chasing after Kunai. He extends his hand for a handshake. Glaring down at Fayvard’s hand, Kunai reluctantly takes it.

“That’s more like it!” Fayvard growls.

Another pair of footsteps suddenly interrupts the exchange. The four men gathered in the clearing look up this time as Silver and Wake appear from within the forest also looking battle-weary.

Silver looks up with surprise as she spots the four of them, Kunai, Ryuu, Fayvard, and Rill, already gathered in the clearing. “You guys are fast,” she comments.

“Yeah, glad you could find our designated meet-up spot, though,” Fayvard announces. He jumps slightly as he spots Wake, who now has a black eye patch wrapped around the spot where his left eye formerly was. “What happened to your eye?!”

“Had a bit of an accident,” Wake answers simplistically.

“More importantly,” Ryuu interrupts, directing his question towards Silver, “what happened to your Rift Army? Are they not coming with you?”

Silver shakes her head. “I’ve instructed them to remain where they were and how to hide themselves so that they won’t be discovered by the enemy. Given the covertness needed for this meeting, I thought it would be better not to bring them along.”

“That’s probably for the best…” Ryuu mutters darkly.

Fayvard folds his arms again, gazing around at the clearing even as the sky darkens towards a hue of dark blue. “Speaking of missing people, where is that Bishop and that Hyacinth girl? You did tell them this was the spot for us to meet up again, didn’t ya, Ryuu?”

“Yeah,” Ryuu replies briskly. He remains silent.

“They couldn’t have gotten lost, could they?”

“Well, they were assigned to rally the townspeople to support the coup. Most likely that’s going to be the most time-consuming mission of all, so it makes sense that they probably wouldn’t be back yet…” Kunai offers.

“Yeah,” says Ryuu again. He pauses for a moment before continuing. “I have a bad feeling, though. From the looks of things, it looks like all of us were attacked by one of the Fatalists. I have a hard time imagining that they didn’t engage one of the Fatalists either.”

“Now that you mention it…” Silver says slowly. She raises a finger to her chin, as if trying to think. “At the conclusion of our battle against Midori, another of the Fatalists showed up to save her before I had a chance to make the finishing blow. I think it was that one with the Doom Bringer, Recelo.”

“‘Before I had a chance to make the finishing blow,’ huh?” Wake murmurs to himself, placing his hands on his hips as he watches Silver speak from behind in the semi-darkness. “More like…you’re too kind to kill even an enemy, Silver. You try your best to hide it, but you’re definitely a compassionate person deep inside.”

Ryuu looks up at Silver’s words, having not heard Wake’s mutterings. “Recelo, huh? Did he say or do anything suspicious?”

“He did mention something about ‘timing…’ and how I was lucky that the timing prevented him from killing me at that time. I have no idea what he could have meant, though.”

Ryuu lowers his eyes, his face darkening considerably. As he considers this news, he speaks again. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Recelo was the one who encountered Zack and Cynthia. This is not good. We have no way of knowing what happened to them.”

“They couldn’t be…dead, could they?” Wake says suddenly.

A sharp, distinct silence follows. Insects begin chirping in the background. Ryuu finally shakes his head. “I don’t know as much about the girl, but there’s no way that Zack would go down so easily. I’m confident they’re still alive.”

“Then, where are they?” asks Kunai, a hint of worry in his voice.

“Most likely…they’ve been taken prisoner,” Ryuu guesses, “as a way to lure us towards the Fatalists. They couldn’t defeat us individually, but if they lured us together into a trap, it could be advantageous for them.”

“Then what are we going to do?” Rill asks.

“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” shouts Fayvard, pounding the air with his fist. “We’ll chase after them and free them, wherever they are.”

“Are you kidding me?!” Silver protests. “That’s exactly what the Fatalists want us to do! We’d just be walking into their trap!”

“No, Fayvard’s right,” Ryuu says slowly. He folds his legs from his sitting position, as he continues to look thoughtful. “we’ll have to rescue them. But we’ll have to do it covertly. Rill, of all of us here, you’re the only one who knows their castle. Do you have a way of sneaking us in?”

“Yeah,” Rill replies softly, “probably.”

“All right, then, plan’s set!” roars Fayvard, striking the air again.

Ryuu nods, returning to his feet at last. Stretching slightly, he gazes up at the forbidding castle now rising high into the sky above them situated against a backdrop of stars emerging against the blackened sky.

“In order to rescue Zack and Hyacinth, we’ll penetrate the castle where the Fatalists are,” he announces. Then, as if to just himself, “And where Arai is as well…”

The six companions gather together to their feet once more, as they prepare to break into the Fatalists’ castle now in the next part of their mission.

Kunai lags behind, taking a moment to stare up at the castle before following the lead of Rill and Ryuu. However, as Rill passes Fayvard, Kunai catches a glimpse of a glare as Rill frowns at the poison swordsman. Blinking slightly, Kunai now suddenly finds himself catching Fayvard’s eye as well.

The two of them gaze into each other’s eyes for a moment. Kunai finally looks away first. “Let’s go, kid,” Fayvard growls, as the rest of the group departs. “Or else we’re gonna leave you behind!”

“Y-Yeah!” Kunai cries. He stares at Fayvard’s retreating back momentarily. “What was that about…?”

It happens in a flash. Kunai is forced briefly to his knees as a jolt of pain flashes through his head. He automatically slaps a hand on his forehead. Blinking away several tears, Kunai quickly recomposes himself, though he continues grimacing obviously. However, none of the others, who are now all several distances away, notices.

“Damn it…” Kunai hisses to himself, releasing his forehead at last. “Now’s not a good time…”
—END FIFTY-FIVE—
Starting today, I’m on summer break. Time to ramp things up a notch. Also, this month is the series’ 5th birthday. Yes, it’s been that long!