Episode 90 The Unhappiness of God
A clatter sounds, as Kunai and Arai break from each other. Their weapons remained raised, however, as they stare each other down, daring the other to make the first move. Kunai grits his teeth, Myou gleaming eagerly in his hands as it reflects the glimmer of the starlight.
“Soul Synthesis!” Kunai cries immediately, cutting the air with his sword with a jolt. With a powerful release, the energy escapes from his sword in a furious storm. The waves of energy crash over Arai, but he expertly slips out of the whirlwind of energy, landing agilely directly in front of Kunai again.
Unable to react quickly enough, Kunai watches as Arai flicks his wrist, producing a massive column of ice out of his hands. The icy hammer rams into Kunai in the stomach, pummeling him back several feet into the air. With a thundering commotion, Kunai crashes into a marble column behind him, toppling it.
Grimacing, Kunai nonetheless quickly rises back to his feet amid the rubble caused by his crash. He grimaces painfully, fragments of ice and marble at his feet.
“Too slow!” Arai whispers in Kunai’s ear, a sword brimming with electricity in his right hand. He hammers the sword down upon Kunai, who escapes at the last minute by darting away.
Panting, Kunai skids to a stop several feet away, his sword raised precariously in front of him. But Arai has already disappeared again, reappearing once more by Kunai’s side. He thrusts forward with another sword made of electricity.
Kunai leaps into the air, spinning in midair to meet Arai. He makes to swing his sword, but Arai is too fast. He slips past Kunai yet again and grabs Myou by the blade, pulling Kunai towards him.
Arai thrusts another lightning spear at Kunai, who only dodges by throwing his body out of the way. Unwilling to let go of his sword, Kunai hangs on for dear life as Arai drags him through the air.
With a powerful thrust, Arai hurls Kunai backwards, sword and all. The latter crashes into another pillar. With a crash, the pillar quickly crumbles, drooping forward over Kunai.
Scrambling out of the way just in time, Kunai breathes a sigh of relief as the marble pillar crashes into the ground where he’d been lying. Kunai hurriedly grabs his sword and rises to his feet again, patting dust and debris off his body.
“Damn it…” Kunai curses, scanning the room for Arai. “Where’d he go now?”
“Behind you, Kunai!” Fayvard shouts from the sidelines, unable to move or fight due to his injuries.
Kunai turns around at the last second, raising his sword. He manages to deflect Arai’s running start just in time, using his own weight to push Arai off of him. Arai skids to a halt a few feet away, but Kunai shoots straight up into the air, using his incredible leaping ability to land atop one of the many marble columns lining the rooftop.
“You won’t get away!” Arai cries, teleporting atop one of the adjacent columns as well. He sprints after Kunai, leaping from pillar to pillar as Kunai does the same.
With a flash, Arai skips ahead of Kunai and arrives just in front of him. He waves his staff, issuing forth a deadly stream of icicles that fly at Kunai.
Kunai throws himself backwards, swinging his sword wildly to block the attack. At once, a massive haze of flames escape his sword, melting the ice before it reaches him.
Despite himself, Arai freezes, his eyes widening as the fire crackles menacingly before him. “Impossible…how did he manage to cast fire magic?”
“Now who’s slow?!” howls Kunai, darting like a fly to and fro. He leaps off his pillar and lands on the ground, before double jumping so that he floats into the airspace just within reach of Arai. “Power Assaulter!”
Arai reacts at the last moment, countering by summoning a block of ice to shield himself from the attack. However, Kunai easily tears straight through the massive iceberg. Arai only manages to get away by teleporting backwards. He lands uneasily on the ground, watching as Kunai looks down on him from the pillar above.
“I see…” Arai whispers. “Your Fatalist powers have begun to develop. I am beginning to understand what your powers are. To think…that you can summon the powers of your previous comrades! That is quite an impudent power to have!”
“Hmph,” Kunai snarls smugly, “I don’t really understand it that much myself, but you can’t argue with the results.”
In a flash, Kunai drops to the floor next to Arai. He swings Myou with expert precision and impressive speed. Arai blocks the attack with his staff, a high-pitched clang sounding as the two weapons meet.
“I am disappointed, Kunai,” Arai taunts, as their weapons remain interlocked. “To think that you would dare try to kill me, your friend!”
“That’s because you’re trying to kill us, your friends!” Kunai roars back, trying but failing to push his weapon past Arai’s.
“It is a most unfortunate fate I am bound to,” whispers back Arai. “I must kill you, for you are a sin to humanity! It is my duty to erase the evils of Grendel from this world. Do you see the pain of this unhappy destiny?”
“You’re not making any sense!” Kunai shouts. “If you don’t want to kill us, then you don’t have to! We’re not Grendel, we don’t support him! And yet you’re trying to erase an entire dimension of innocent people!”
“God, even if he is God, must bear the consequences of what He has created. We created your world. Therefore, it is our responsibility to erase it with the evil that has created it!”
At last, their weapons break free from each other. In the brief moment as the two of them are wide open, Arai fires a blast of frozen ice. At the same time, Kunai dashes past Arai, quickly spinning around. He fires a fireball of flame at Arai.
With a wave of his hand, Arai summons a magnificent wall of ice over a dozen feet tall rises in between Kunai and himself. The wall of ice absorbs Kunai’s fire attack easily; the searing flames lick its icy mantle, but the wall continues to stand, refusing to budge.
“I see that you are not giving in, not even to God,” Arai murmurs sharply, raising his staff again.
“I should say the same to you,” Kunai shouts back, staring at Arai’s blurred reflection from behind the glistening wall of ice. “It looks like this won’t be settled until one of us is dead.”
“That’s fine with me,” replies Arai, as his staff glows with a frightening blue light.
Kunai raises his own sword in response as well. “That’s fine with me too!”
Arai waves his hand again. With a thundering crash, the wall of ice collapses entirely. Knifelike fragments of ice rain down from the sky, each blade glimmering so brightly that it looks like a giant mirror has been broken.
Wordlessly, Arai rushes straight at Kunai, his normally smiling face contorting with concentration. ‘Yes. This is my fate. To kill people.’
Like a drill, Arai summons a sharpened blade of ice in his right hand. Kunai runs forward to challenge Arai, Myou singing through the air like a black bird of prey next to him. He lands a keen blow on Arai’s spear, slicing the block of ice in half.
Weaponless, Arai drifts helplessly towards Kunai out of control. Kunai cuts the air with his sword again, making contact with Arai’s chest again.
Arai manages to teleport away at the last minute, but not before Kunai’s sword has penetrated his skin. A shallow cut runs across Arai’s chest, just below his neck. It pairs with Kunai’s previous other cut to form an ‘X’ shape. Blood runs down Arai’s exposed chest as he breathes heavily.
“Excellent work, Kunai,” compliments Arai, his breathing slightly strained due to his injuries. He sways dangerously, but maintains his battle stance.
“Thanks,” growls Kunai, “but I’m not done yet!” He stumbles forward again, Myou shrieking menacingly through the air, his footsteps thudding loudly upon the rubble-covered marble floor below.
“Tch!” Arai smirks, aiming to teleport past Kunai just as he passes him. Yet even as that happens, Kunai strikes early; Kunai swings his sword and makes contact with Arai as the two of them are in mid-stride, piercing Arai across the stomach.
Arai’s eyes gradually widen with disbelief as he drags Kunai along with him, sword in tow. Coughing madly and blood seeping wildly out of his body, Arai slowly stumbles to the ground. He falls face first, landing with a heavy thud. Blood rapidly pools beneath his body.
Kunai turns cautiously, shaking blood from the blade of Myou as he gazes down upon Arai’s motionless body.
—END NINETY—