Tales of a Lost Sword 60

Episode 60 Bearing the Weight of the Killing Sin
A burst of blinding white light floods into the hive-like room as Ryuu consumes the cookie. His green eyes glow ominously as a rush of power flows into his body.

“What…the hell is that?” Fain cries, shielding his eyes from the light with his arm.

Without warning, Ryuu bounds forward, his sword flashing through the air. Fain raises his bow just in time to deflect the attack. The impact from the collision rushes through Fain’s body, nearly causing him to stumble and nearly drop his bow.

“Killing others to obtain their power so that you can kill more…” Ryuu hisses in Fain’s ear, “I shall make you pay for the sin of killing so many countless lives. A twisted being like you does not deserve to live!”

“Oh? I didn’t think you were one to subscribe to such idealistic sentiments,” Fain sneers. He takes a step backward, stringing his bow in a flash and firing a single shot at Ryuu.

The trail of gold light flies through the air. Ryuu deflects the attack with his sword, still charged up from the effects of the cookie. “I don’t care about idealism. I just care about avenging Shuriken, and Arai’s soul which you twisted into evil and darkness!”

Fain narrows his eyes, glaring at Ryuu. “I don’t know what you just did to yourself, but in the more than two hundred years of my existence, I have faced much stronger opponents than you, so do not get cocky!”

“Hmph,” Ryuu laughs, the flame in his sword growing brighter by the moment, “I’m surprised you’re not familiar with this. Arai gave this to me a long time ago… A cookie filled with a potion that converts my life energy into mana which charges up my attacks. It’s a trump card, if you will.”

“In other words,” Fain growls, “you’ve cashed in all your chips. So if I survive this, there’s nothing left for you to defeat me with!”

“Don’t get cocky!” retorts Ryuu, swinging his sword. “Here I come!”

Fain fires another shot from his bow. The blast of golden light flies at Ryuu. At the last moment, Ryuu grabs the arrow out of the air with his hand, snapping it in half.

“Impossible!” Fain cries in awe.

Ryuu raises his sword as it roars angrily. “Die!” he shouts.

Before Ryuu can reach Fain, however, a set of teeth rises from out of the ground and consumes Ryuu in a sac-like container. With a crunch, Ryuu is enveloped by the entire container.

“What the—?!” Ryuu cries, struggling inside the darkness of the container.

“Finally…” Fain mutters with a clear note of relief. He stares gloatingly at the container in which Ryuu continues to struggle. “Fight it all you like, but no one has ever escaped the Hive Man’s clutches. That’s why they call this the Trap Zone. We are actually fighting in the nest of an extremely unpleasant creature known as the Hive Man. It senses high concentrations of mana and preys upon it. If anything, your precious little cookie was your own undoing.”

Ryuu does not reply, which prompts Fain to continue. “Struggle as much as you want, but the Hive Man is—what?!”

The container suddenly splits open in a whirl of flame. A vicious, shrill cry rings through the air as of a creature screeching in agony. Ryuu jumps out of the broken fragments of the sac, his sword singing dangerously.

“Don’t underestimate me!” Ryuu roars, his eyes flashing with determination.

“Fine,” hisses Fain, raising his bow again. “I see that I shall have to kill you myself!”

Loading his bow, Fain fires a Strafe at Ryuu. The four arrows whirl through the air, searching for Ryuu. However, Ryuu merely dodges each arrow with amazing agility, flying at Fain with his sword swinging.

Fain dodges the initial attack, but Ryuu pulls back at the last second and pivots, slamming Fain into the wall behind him. Fain crashes into the wall. A thin trail of blood runs down his forehead and greets his lips. Fain licks them contemptuously.

Before Fain can react, Ryuu pierces his sword straight through Fain’s abdomen with surprising speed. A disgusting squelch sounds as blood splashes out of the devastating wound onto Ryuu’s hands.

“This is for Shuriken and Arai!” Ryuu howls with maddened eyes. “Murderer…!”

“That’s funny…” Fain heaves, placing his gloved hands around Ryuu’s blade, “because you’re the one with blood on his hands!” With amazing strength, Fain succeeds in wrenching Ryuu’s sword out of his stomach and throwing Ryuu backwards.

Ryuu stumbles back several paces, blood sliding down the length of his extinguished blade. An arrow flies out of the darkness in front of him. Ryuu sidesteps the attack, deflecting it with his sword as well. The arrow falls to the ground.

“You bastard, how dare you draw upon Shuriken’s power like that!” Ryuu shouts, gathering energy in his sword once again. It brims with fire, ice, and lightning energy.

Fain ambles forward, blood pouring freely from his stomach and dripping onto the floor. Ryuu stares at the gaping hole in his enemy’s stomach. “I’m surprised you can still walk like that,” he notes.

“Tch,” Fain hisses, “it is a side effect of having absorbed the powers of all those that I have killed. My stamina is unsurpassed in either dimension! You will have to kill me a thousand times before I even feel anything!”

His eyes widening, Fain suddenly doubles over as the pain in his stomach overwhelms him. Ryuu sneers triumphantly. “I told you not to underestimate me!” he roars, leaping forward and throwing his blade into Fain’s shoulder.

The sword cuts deep into Fain’s shoulder, leaving another trail of blood flowing into the air. The old Fatalist falls his knees, coughing blood out from his mouth.

Ryuu lowers his sword, staring at the bowing Fatalist with deadened eyes. “You…” he murmurs, his voice low at first, but growing with strength by the moment. “You…probably have the worst Fatalist power of all the Fatalists I have ever met. To take the lives of those who you kill for your own selfish use…it is not human! No person with a human heart that respected the humanity of others would accept a power such as yours. You are the worst!”

“Are you…done flapping your gums?” Fain heaves, forcing himself to his feet. Wobbling slightly, he nonetheless directs his bow once again at Ryuu.

Ryuu dodges with surprise as the Fatalist fires an arrow at him. In the next second, a hurricane of tiny, needle-like arrows flies at him, numbering in the hundreds. Each arrow is pitch-black, brimming with some kind of dark energy.

Eyes widening, Ryuu reacts quickly. He writes a seal in air, screaming, “Guardian Seal!” The light blue seal absorbs the brunt of the direct attacks, but many more arrows still fly at Ryuu, out of reach of his shield.

Swinging his sword, Ryuu crafts a massive wall of ice around himself. The arrows pierce the frozen wall but the wall does not give way. Finally, the arrows stop as Fain lowers his arms, breathing heavily as blood continues to pour forth from his various wounds. The proud Fatalist doubles over, his shoulders slumping as he struggles just to remain standing.

The coast clear, Ryuu allows his wall and seal to disappear, as he steps towards Fain, a frown on his lips. “I’m surprised you even had the energy left to do that,” he mutters.

‘Nevertheless, I’m about to run out of strength as well…the potion’s effects are almost gone.’

Fain merely stares at the ground as Ryuu comes to a stop in front of him. Raising his sword over Fain’s bent head, Ryuu glares silently at his enemy for quite some time.

“You are despicable,” he finally says, “the epitome of evil.”

Without another word, Ryuu swings his sword down. A fresh stream of blood splatters onto the floor of the Trap Zone, followed by Fain’s head.

Kunai stops in his tracks. He narrows his eyes, listening intently. In front of him, the others stop as well, looking over at him with concern.

“What’s wrong?” Fayvard asks, his voice booming in the narrow hallway.

Placing a finger to his lips, Kunai presses for silence. “Shh,” he whispers. “I think we’re being followed.”

“Followed?” Rill joins Kunai’s side. Kneeling down, he presses his ear against the floor. He narrows his eyes as well as he returns to his feet. “It definitely sounds like someone’s coming our way from behind.”

“A Fatalist?” Silver murmurs warily.

“Probably,” replies Rill.

“It could be Ryuu,” Kunai adds hopefully.

“I doubt it,” Rill retorts, “Ryuu would be more covert than that.”

“Then, who is it?” Wake asks.

“We better hurry,” Rill says finally, stepping forward to the front of the group again. “I have a bad feeling about this. We’re almost in the main castle, but there’s one more area we need to pass before we get there. We have to hurry. The rest of the Fatalists are almost certainly aware of our presence by now.”

The others all nod, continuing onward with a hint of nervousness in their gaits. Kunai takes one last look behind him into the darkness, narrowing his eyes. ‘Ryuu…please be all right.’

Fayvard turns and spots Kunai staring back. The smallest of frowns develops on his face.
—END SIXTY—
Remember this?! Look at the date that was posted. Now look at today’s date. Happy birthday, ToaL. I’ve been writing this series for a quarter (25%) of my life. FML.