Present time…
"Oh, I definitely didn't see this coming." High hummed. "You five being here sure is shocking."
"Shut up," Sunny spat, and he swung his sword up, an arc of light zapping off the blade. It missed the man in the trench coat who slid past him. High swung at the princess once again but was stopped by Olivia and Sieg, who both sliced at him. He was forced to abandon his strike and slid under their blows, circling past Ken. Then, he ran for the exit as fast as he could and still managed to dodge Ash's arrows. "After that bastard!" Sunny roared. "I'll make sure the princess is okay; you four, kill him!"
"I never liked that guy," Ash sneered.
"Less talk, more chasing," Sieg ordered, and the four of them ran after the fleeing cloaked Licht-Fulk.
High moved at incredible speeds, dodging bolts of fire, lightning, and wind arrows, all without looking back at them. Olivia struggled to keep up with her three companions as they ran on ahead of her, and her lungs started to burn.
Sieg was in the lead, followed by Ken, then Ash, and finally her, yet all four of them were nowhere close to High, who began to move through twists and turns, darting through the halls and cutting corners.
Eventually, High made it past one corner, and all four of them came to a sliding stop when they turned and saw a split of four other hallways that all led to different sections of the palace. Worse yet, they had no idea which one he had run down and had now lost sight of him.
"Fuck, this place is like a maze," Sieg grunted. "And where the hell are the guards?"
"We're never going to catch up to him at this rate!" Ken complained.
"Split up," Olivia called out. "There are so many hallways, we're bound to cut him off at one point. Sieg, you can sense mana, right? Whoever finds him, we'll all flare out mana as high as we can to alert you. That way you can take him out."
"Sounds good to me." Sieg nodded. "Let's find that bastard."
All four of them separated after that, running down the different halls. Now that she was alone, Olivia allowed her legs to slow down slightly, and she simply jogged. She looked back and forth as she passed several hallways and rooms, but she didn't see High.
With how big this place was, she expected he was already gone and had escaped. What did seem odd, however, were the guards. They were all gone. None patrolled the halls, and none came to check on them despite how loud they were being. In fact, all the golems that had been depowered were gone as well.
Had they moved them? Why?
And who the hell was this guy? He was dressed so weirdly yet had Davi's sword. He tried to kill the princess and had been babbling about something, though she didn't hear very much of it. It was all just so weird. Then again, this entire dungeon had been weird thing after weird thing.
At least it couldn't get any worse-
A hand suddenly covered her mouth, and Olivia felt her body go stiff. High hummed as he stepped out of the portal that suddenly appeared behind her. "Aw, so sad; I can teleport, sorry. Anyway, I'm stealing you now."
Olivia tried to yell, but the hand blocked her mouth. She tried to flare her mana up, but it didn't activate quickly enough. High twisted her around and kicked her in the gut, sending her through the portal.
By the time her mana did reach its peak, she was so far away that there was no chance of Sieg feeling it. She simply didn't have enough. She also knew she was far away, because an instant wave of cold hit her and all color faded out. High had teleported her to outside of the city. The walls of Enforcer City were directly in front of her, large and encompassing; they reached up to the skies above, but her eyes were locked only on the Licht-Fulk who stepped out of the portal.
"Sorry for being rough." High chuckled. "I needed to get you alone so we could-"
Olivia let out a battle cry and sliced out with the cursed knife, yet High lazily deflected it with his sword. "Stop that."
"I'm good!" Olivia jumped back several feet and swung her knife out again. "Row Blood Slash!" The curse spilled out of the blade, and a crimson bolt of energy mixed with it before it fired out as a black and red slash. Despite how cool it was, High lazily sat down, and the attack flew directly over his hand. "Damn it! That would have been so cool if it worked!"
"It would have," High agreed. "Mixing curses with blood magic. How interesting. You know, mana types always confused me." He stood up and dusted his coat off. "I mean, light cores usually are associated with life, so they have light, blood, flesh, bone, muscles, and other types of magic that fall into them. Haru was a being composed of light and metal bones who could do nearly anything. She was holy and basically a god. And yet, cursed magic goes so well with light-type cores. Did you know that? Funnily enough, the Ebony Knight had a dark-type core, just like me. Whereas light is all about life, the dark is about reality and controls things like atoms, space, time, shadows, and gravity. Those with a dark type core often find themselves closely linked to gods and have the best chance of becoming a Saint, or gaining the use of holy magic."
"You're one of those people who like to hear the sounds of their own voice, aren't you?" Olivia said flatly.
"Ouch. Your words hurt." High clicked his tongue. "I guess I can't say you're wrong, however. My voice is so fucking sexy, ain't it?"
"I heard better."
"Like who?"
"Pretty Face."
"Thank you, my face is pretty."
"No, she's a-" Olivia shook her head. "It doesn't matter. What the hell is wrong with you? Aren't you a Licht-Fulk? Why are you trying to kill your princess?"
High clicked his tongue. "Ah, well, you see, that's simple." He flashed over in a burst of speed, and before she could move, his hand was on her throat. Olivia gasped as he lifted her off the ground and began to choke her. She swung out with her cursed knife, but it bounced off his clothes, which were harder than armor. "The real question you should be asking is why the princess wants you. Do you know that she wants to marry you? Oh, I guess I should say she wants your body. Wait, that's still dirty? She wants to melt you down and fuse! Yeah, that's it. So, beg my pardon if I don't trust the Licht-Fulk." High shrugged. "Anyway, I'm gonna totally stab you with Storymaker now, okay!"
Olivia's eyes widened as he pulled his arm back and thrusted the blade forward. Right before it could reach her, a hand suddenly gripped it and held it back.
"Sneak attack," Ken announced.
"What-"
Ken rammed her palm straight into High's mask, sending him and his sword flying back. "Never underestimate a ninja."
Olivia dropped to her knees once High was forced to let go of her, and she took several large gulps of air. "K-Ken? How did you find me so fast? I don't think my mana could have reached you?"
"Maybe not your mana, but your scent sure did," Ken announced proudly and pointed at her nose. "Weeks of secretly sniffing you allowed me to instantly tell that you were moved somewhere else!"
"What…"
"I'm pretty cool, right?"
Olivia took several steps away. "Anyway, it's good you're here. I assume Sieg's on his way?"
"Sieg?"
"Yeah? Like, after you noticed I was gone, you flared your mana up to alert him and then ran over here so he's chasing after you, right?"
"..."
"Ken?"
"Who needs him anyway-"
"Damn it, Ken!"
Ken huffed and folded her arms. She was already in her enhanced state, so her tail began to wag back and forth while her ears dropped down. "It'll probably be fine." She then turned her attention to High, who had stood back up a while ago. "You, how dare you try to steal what belongs to me?" Ken declared, fire crackling around her fist. "I'm going to give you a serious beating for that."
"Are you now?" High looked a little amused.
"I am." Ken smirked. "Olivia, you stay out of this."
"Huh?"
"I want to fight this guy on my own."
"No way!"
"Yes way!" Ken stomped her foot down. "I haven't gotten a single good fight since I've entered this stupid dungeon! I worked my ass off training with stupid Ragna for his stupid pokey attack so I could use it in a stupid fight, and it's driving me crazy that I don't get to use it at all! So, I'm going to fight this guy on my own; you get to see how totally awesome I am, and then after you can congratulate and reward me once I save the day."
Olivia sighed and rubbed her head. "I don't even know why I bother to argue with you. Sure, do whatever you want. If you start to lose, I'm jumping in, or if I notice he leaves himself wide open."
"Sounds good." Ken turned back to High. "Hear that doofus? I have permission to beat your ass!"
"Wow. You're very hyper." High noted.
"Well, I am a bit ticked," Ken admitted, then, without warning, she charged forward and slammed her palm out, narrowly missing High, who dodged the strike. "That sword isn't yours! Davi treated you well and trusted you! How dare you rob him!" Her tail stabbed out toward the Licht-Fulk, but he dodged that as well.
High laughed and swung his sword, splitting her shoulder open, yet it was already starting to heal. "You think stealing his sword is the worst thing I've done to him? Sorry, but he might be dead!"
"You fucker! Row Flame Feel! Row Flame Armament!" The fire erupted from her elbows down and roared as it took the shape of gauntlets with the heads of lions at the end of them. Her strike speed doubled, and she began to leave craters in the ground as she kept launching her palms at the fleeing Licht-Fulk.
In terms of attack power, Ken was doing a tremendous amount of damage, and yet, High was stupidly fast, weaving in and out of her attacks like it was nothing. He would dodge again and again and slice into her flesh with his sword every chance he got. Of course, her healing kept her safe, her body mending, but still, she just couldn't hit the slippery fucker. Or at least, that's what she wanted High to think.
High kept laughing and side-stepping the attacks. Ken slammed her palm toward him again, but he moved out of the way and saw his opening. High stabbed up with his sword and jammed it directly into Ken's stomach. It came out of her back, and he hit her hard enough to shatter all of her ribs and lift her off the ground.
"Sorry that I'm killing you." High hummed. "It isn't anything personal, but I really need to get these events set up and make sure Davi hates me. You're important to him, right? That means you have to die." He twisted the sword and drove it in even further. "Hopefully, in the next life you're reborn as something better. Like an ant! Yeah! Ants are cool."
"Why worry about the next life?" Ken looked up, and her crazed eyes met his. "We still have this life to enjoy, don't we?" The fire on her arms went out, and she grabbed the sword that was in her hand and pushed on it, shoving it in deeper and stopping High from pulling back. His eyes widened, and before he could even think of letting go, her fingers locked around his wrist and kept tugging. Further and further, until the handle was all the way in and he was knuckle-deep in her guts. An ocean of red was flowing out of her, but Ken didn't care and pressed her forehead to his mouth. "There's still so much I need to do in this life. So much I haven't gotten to experience yet. Like, for example, I never kissed a Licht-Fulk before." The heat around her began to grow. "Pucker up, pretty boy. Vil Flame Dragon!"
From Ken's open mouth, the screaming head of a dragon blasted out and rammed into High's upper body. He was dragged back and sent flying away as the dragon bit into him. It carried him all the way to a nearby mountain and then exploded in an eruption of flame.
"Take that!" Ken yelled, vomiting up blood as her guts poured out of her. "How does that taste, huh!"
"Ken! A-Are you okay?" Olivia asked in pure panic.
Ken's smile grew, and with a simple spell, her gut began to mend, fixing itself in only a matter of seconds. "I never felt better. I bet I looked epic, huh? Did I woo you with my awesomeness?"
Olivia let out a sigh of relief. "Yeah. I forget how insanely strong you are sometimes." She glanced at the mountain, which High had been blasted into. It was crumbling and falling apart, rubble and debris burying his body. "I hope you didn't break Storymaker. Davi might be mad if you did."
"Oh shit." Ken's eyes went wide. "I might have! That was a crazy strong attack!"
"Well, go get it!"
"Yeah!" Ken nodded. "I should. You stay there, okay!"
"I can come with you?"
"Nah, I'm the one who did it; it is my job to collect it." Ken puffed her chest out. "You stay there and look pretty."
"Okay? I guess I can do that."
Shockingly, the battle with High ended pretty easily-
"Row Atomic Stitching." A wave of golden mana shattered the debris, and with a Mana Step, High appeared behind Ken, his outfit miscolored, as white stitching covered sections that had been burned away. "Row Atomic Undoing." High sliced his sword up, and Ken felt pain, but worse than that, she felt her connection with Yujin come undone!
It was so sudden. One moment she was fused, and the next she wasn't, her body returning to normal as Yujin was launched out of her. The spirit cried out, but before he could move, High used another spell.
"Row Atomic Blade." A sword formed into the air and slammed into Yujin's back, running the spirit through and pinning him to the ground.
"Yujin!" Ken screamed, and then pain flooded through her as High once again stabbed her, only this time her enhanced healing was gone. Her eyes widened in panic as blood filled her throat, and High lifted her off the ground with his sword. Her eyes met his, and she saw a cold stare. His mask hadn't fully recovered, and it wasn't the face of a Licht-Fulk that was staring back at her. It was something else. The skin was a mix of red, purple, and what looked almost like human skin. As if it couldn't make up its mind. "What are you-"
Ken's body was tossed to the side as High flicked his blade and sent her flying away.
"Ken!" Olivia screamed in sorrow and rage, and she charged toward the downed girl, but she barely got three feet before High Mana Stepped in front of her and smashed his knee into her gut. He then easily stepped behind her and split her back open with one swing of his blade.
"You won't die." That joking cold was gone. It was replaced with nothing more than a cold, calculating voice. High slammed his boot into her back and sent her flying until she crashed next to the bleeding-out Ken. "I need you alive." Olivia cried out as he slammed his boot into her back. "You'll live. But her…"
"Don't you fucking dare!" Olivia glared at him, but High ignored her and stabbed his sword down, going through one of Ken's shoulders. She used Polymorph and transformed into her witch form since she couldn't touch Ken, but before she even had the chance to cast a spell, High slammed his foot into her mouth, nearly breaking her jaw and cutting off the ability to use spells.
"Do you hate me?" High asked, and he began to grind his boot onto her wounded back while twisting the blade that was in Ken's body. "Good." He pulled it out and stabbed it into Ken's leg. "I hate you. I hate humans. I hate them for what they did to my people. For what they did to Haru." He hissed. "Humans created the demons. Humans slaughtered the elves. Humans rebelled and made my teacher go insane! Humans stagnated! Humans grew fat and lazy! Humans stopped the ultimate plan, and it is humans who made Haru turn herself into a god so she could save a weak and pathetic race! Humans, humans, humans, humans! They tear down, and they break, and they kill! All the giants, all the dragons, all the elves, and even other humans! Since the creation of Adam, your kind have been a blight on this world! The Crimson King should have never been born! You humans should have never been given the title of Saint! It sickens me to see how far everything has come!" High let out a tired sigh and finally stopped stabbing Ken. "I will save them."
Olivia tried to push herself up, but High kept her pinned down. Then, everything suddenly turned dark as High kicked her upside the head and knocked her out.
"Fuck." High sighed and rubbed the side of his head. "I went a bit overboard. Being exposed for even a second caused the radiation to seep into me, and the 'other soul' woke up. Shit, I hope I'm not changing." He shook his head and removed the sword from Ken's body. Then, he scooped Olivia up. "Alright, I should get you ready for the next stage of the plan." He turned and began to leave.
Ken remained on the ground, bleeding out. She spat up a mouthful of blood and tried to reach for High, but he was already too far away. Even with her healing, there was no way to fix all this damage in time. She'd be able to recover, but she'd need Yujin. If she got to him, High would teleport away.
'Remember. Qi lines are special, Ken.'
Ken's eyes suddenly widened as she recalled a familiar voice. Ragna had drilled this into her over the course of months.
'Qi lines run through our body. They weave themselves into our muscles and nerves and spill forth from our souls. Unlike a normal mage, our cores are physically there. While we lack proper cores that can use spells, we are very talented at reenforcing our bodies with mana. Mana Skin, Muscle, Blood, and other stuff like that come easily. Our bodies are also naturally stronger and able to heal more quickly. Now, what if I told you there was actually a way to draw out more power?'
Memories of Ragna's lessons kept flooding her mind, and her body began to move on its own.
'Acupuncture was something my clan specialized in. We never trained with Spirit Beasts and lacked the ability to fuse. Instead, we mostly spent our days practicing medicine. Acupuncture is a trained skill we picked up, where we focus our qi into our fingers and turn them into something akin to needles. This allows us to jam a tiny bit of mana into a person's body. There are specific points. Three hundred and sixty-one, in total, and they can help ease a person's pain, increase their blood flow, or make them heal faster, or in some cases, they can cause their power to skyrocket by flowing their mana out far, far faster.'
Struggling, Ken lifted her hand up and held a finger out. Mana formed on the tip of it, and she brought it down on her shoulder. Then, she moved it to her side, her thigh, her right wrist, her left breast, her right breast, and then finally, the side of her head. She jammed her finger into it hard enough to break skin.
'See, all mages aren't actually able to go all out. Humans have a restriction. There is a section of the brain that stops the body from pushing its muscles beyond their limit so they don't tear. Under rare circumstances, this block can be temporarily taken away. Like our bodies, mana also has this limit. A mage has a hard cap on how much they can force out. I learned acupuncture and discovered at a young age that by using it on myself, I could open up 'chakra points' along my body, rapidly increasing the flow of qi and removing all restrictions.'
High reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of chalk, but he suddenly stopped as a shift in the air occurred. He turned around and stared in shock as Ken stood back up.
'Battle Acupuncture! That's what I called this style. You target your own vitals and force them all to surge, allowing you to go past your limits! Pain no longer exists, and you gain all the power you have deep within yourself! This is what I will teach you.'
"You're still alive?" High raised an eyebrow. Now that he was looking closer at her, Ken's wounds had stopped bleeding. "What did you-"
Ken appeared in front of him. She didn't use a Mana Step. The sound barrier shattered in a loud sonic boom as she rammed her palm into his stomach. High was sent flying back, and Ken easily removed Olivia from his grasp and then appeared next to Yujin. With a lazy kick, she shattered the surrounding land and broke the sword that was in her spirit's body.
"L-Lord Yuan?" Yujin stared up at his master. Her hair was red, and her eyes were yellow, yet she was fighting harder than she ever had before, even when they were fused.
"Heal, Olivia." Ken gently placed the snow-haired girl down. She then lifted her hand and, with two fingers, caught High's sword as he slashed down toward her. "This isn't yours." She yanked it out of his hands, startling him, and then turned around and jammed her finger into his shoulder, his elbow, and his wrist.
High jumped back and gasped in shock as his arm suddenly fell limp. "I-I can't move my arm? What did you do?"
'Two stages exist in this martial art, Ken. The first is to boost your body's natural performance, and the second is to shut down nerves that run in the enemy by placing mana blockers in their body. It takes a lot of practice, but I think you'll quickly discover how useful of a skill it is.'
"You were right, Ragna." Ken stalked forward. "I shouldn't have doubted you."
High took a step back and eyed the sword she held. "Eh, whatever. I can play with this hand. Row Atomic Shield." Ken struck out with her finger once more, but it broke and twisted as a barrier formed around the cloaked man. "I'm sorry I didn't consider you important before. I see, I was deeply mistaken." High chuckled and then, with his good arm, he pulled out a piece of chalk and opened a portal. "You can keep the sword. I have a feeling it'll end up in the right hands. Bye for now."
The portal closed as soon as he was gone. Ken stared at the spot he had been with a cold silence. Then, suddenly, red flowed out of her as all her wounds opened, and she collapsed into the snow.
'Be careful, young Ken. Like all things, it's not without flaws. There is a backlash against its use. In exchange for temporary power, you'll break your body and double your wounds. Never use it on the verge of death.'
"S-Screw you, Ragna." Ken's eyes began to close. "I do what I want…"
And then everything went dark.