Episode 27 The Iris and the Lily

“What…?” Bishop Calburn stammers, “What is the meaning of all this?”

Ryuu turns to Calburn, magnetizing him with his penetrating green stare. “It means that we’re here to save the Third Phoneme.”

Before Calburn has a chance to respond, he is interrupted by a deafening boom, as black clouds form in the sky, rumbling with the murmur of madness. With a bang, a spear of black lightning crashes in a straight line down onto the desolate plains below, and a dark figure emerges from within the blast of electricity.

“What’s that?” Ivy gasps, as the tide of a single, chilling, rattling whisper sweeps through the entire valley, causing all within the vicinity to shudder.

The temple is soon drowned in the roaring whirlwind of a single black tornado; black and silver lightning crashes overhead, and the ghostly images of cracked skulls reveal themselves, dancing in and out of view.

“What’s going on—” Ayame gasps, holding her left arm up to cover her face, as dust and tiny pebbles are whipped up by the fierce blast of air and wind.

“This is just like back at the court in Meridean!” Ryuu interrupts, digging the soles of his feet into the ground, as the wind intensifies, nearly lifting him off his feet. He clutches the hilt of his sword, slowly struggling to draw it out of its sheath.

In an instant, a counteractive flash of red fire explodes through the sky, canceling out the fierce tides of wind breaking down upon the temple. Ryuu stands still as the tornado clears, and plants the still-smoking point of his blade into the ground, leaning on it. He breathes heavily, as if having just run a mile.

“Damn,” Ryuu curses, “that is some strong breeze.” Thunder continues to rumble overhead, while every now and then the silvery and blackish spikes of lightning jolt across the sky, bringing into light the darkly shimmering clouds.

“Ryuu! Look out!” Ivy screams, and Ryuu immediately looks up, to see an enormous explosion of black cloud and lightning hurtling towards him.

He shouts out loud, and cuts the air with his sword, sending back an equalizing blast of fire, ice, and lightning. The two gargantuan forces collide midway, shattering upon each other.

“Yeah! You did it!” Ivy and Sasha cheer brightly.

“Not quite,” Ryuu growls under his breath, as the settling dust and smoke clears, to make way for a dart of black lightning rushing out from it.

Ryuu cuts straight into the lightning as it arrives, but it merely blasts him away, forcing him to jump back several feet in the air. The jolt of lightning heads straight for the rear of the group—Ivy, Ayame, and Lily.

“Get out of the way!” Ayame cries, pushing Ivy and Lily out of harm’s way. Meanwhile, she takes the full blast of the lightning herself, as it shocks into her very marrow. Ayame screams, collapsing onto the ground.

“Damn!” Ryuu growls hoarsely, eyes narrowing bitterly at the sight of the lightning, “You fried Ayame! I won’t forgive you!”

Ryuu runs straight up to the unmoving jolt of lightning, and just as he reaches it, the lightning gives way to a single, dark form, and draws a Doombringer.

The figure gives Ryuu a gentle backwards push, and sends him sliding back several feet again. As it emerges completely from its shell of black lightning, long strands of purple hair fall delicately like a waterfall behind her back.

This new figure’s face is largely masked by a Blue Bamboo Hat, and wears light garments of black cloth. In its right hand it holds the hilt of a dark Doombringer, its blade shimmering with eagerness for battle.

“I-Impossible!” Ryuu gasps, having caught a peek at the face under the hat. His face blanches, and he takes a bewildered step back, his knees shaking.

“What’s going on?” Kunai asks, arming himself with an Avenger as he speaks. “Who is this?”

Ryuu glances cautiously at Ayame, who is lying on the floor, nearly unconscious. His gaze returns to the figure that had emerged from the black lightning before them. “Who are you? What magic is this?”

“Who am I?” the figure murmurs mockingly in a soft voice. With one swift motion, it sheds its Blue Bamboo Hat, and casts it away into the night sky behind it. “My name is…”

“Ayame!” Kunai, Ryuu, Ivy, and Sasha all shout in astonishment as one.

“That’s right,” the Ayame standing before them smirks. “But don’t call me by that despicable human name. My real name is Iris.”

“Wh-Who are you?” Ryuu gasps, his knees continuing to shake involuntarily. “You can’t be Ayame!” He gestures wildly to the woman laying on the floor at Bishop Calburn’s feet. “That’s Ayame!”

“Do not even associate me with that pathetic human,” Iris retorts bitterly, not even bothering to glance at Ayame. “I may have once been part of her, but that union is no more. Thanks to the magnanimous Lord Kimura, I am free. Completely free!”

Iris’s eyes glow maliciously yellow, as her pupils dilate and become red. “My power is now free for me to tap into! I am no longer limited by the pathetic stranglehold of my human host’s limitations!”

“You’re—!” Kunai cries.

“That’s right,” Iris smirks, “you guessed correctly. I am that soul which you thought was dead. The Paradox that once dwelled within the human Ayame!”

“Impossible,” Ryuu growls, his fists clenching in a futile attempt to calm his shaking knees, “I killed you! I used that Soul Potion and destroyed you completely!”

“You may have,” Iris replies nonchalantly, “but I still clung to life, as a pathetic, intangible soul. Lord Kimura found me such, and with his knowledge of forbidden magic he wove me a new body, and resurrected my destroyed soul.”

“What…what’s going on?” Ayame says, her voice barely audible as she struggles to rise from the floor. Streaks of soot and burn marks run all along her cheeks, as she glares with hatred at Iris.

“Despicable human!” Iris spits, flying straight at Ayame before anyone can react, her Doombringer poised to land a fatal blow.

Just as Iris is about to kill Ayame, the clang of metal and metal signifies a parried blow. Everyone in the vicinity turns to surprise to see Iris’s blow challenged by Lily, the blade of her Helios crashing against that of Iris’s Doombringer.

Iris smirks, her face becoming distorted in an evil grin. “Well, well. The very soul I come here to reap challenges me to battle? How can I not refuse?”

“Lily!” Kunai cries, “Get away from her! You don’t know what you’re doing! She’s dangerous! You’ll get killed, or worse, taken away by the Myougun!”

“Silence your filthy mouth, boy,” Iris answers Kunai. “If the Third Phoneme wants to battle, then I shall be more than pleased to acquaint her with the pure feeling of mortal pain!”

Iris continues to bear down on Lily, slowly approaching her step by step, as Lily returns her determined glare, though she begins shaking slightly at the shoulders.

“Stop right there!” Kunai shouts, and launches his loaded shuriken at Iris.

Iris, without even a single glance, catches the shuriken like a Frisbee just as it arrives, and crushes it with her bare hand, crumbling it to pieces. “The pathetic movements you call attacks are laughable.”

“What do we do, Ryuu?” Kunai growls under his breath by Ryuu’s side.

Ryuu folds his arms, observing the tense situation for several moments silently. Finally, he turns to Kunai. “Okay, if what she says is true, she’s still a Paradox, even if she appears to be in a human form. Knowing that, we can aim for her weak points, points we know must be there.”

“The eyes,” Kunai answers automatically.

“Exactly,” Ryuu growls back.

Together, Kunai and Ryuu both hoist their weapons closer, preparing to strike. At these movements, Lily turns her head towards them. “Stay back!” she shouts, “I won’t forgive you if you interfere!”

“What are you talking about?!” Kunai cries incredulously, “We can’t leave you alone to fight someone like Iris all alone! That’s what comrades are for!”

“This is my battle!” Lily cries back, “I won’t let you interfere! This woman, regardless of who she is, has invaded and threatened my home, this temple, where I live! I won’t let her get away! I’ll kill her myself!”

Iris smirks, laughing hysterically now. “My, my. Such a brave and confident girl. It will be even more painful to watch you plead for your own life then.”

“As if!” Lily retorts, returning the sneer.

“Then just try and strike me!” Iris taunts, beckoning Lily to come closer.

Lily shoulders her Helios, and running with impressive speed, she throws her own weight against the axe, forcing its impact and momentum straight at Iris.

With a swift motion, Iris neatly dodges the attack, leaving Lily to be carried by momentum to the floor. Her axe crashes to the ground, and she is forced to pause momentarily to catch her breath.

“Such a wide opening in your attacks,” Iris comments, darting past Lily as a flash of light, appearing instantaneously on her other side.

Without warning, a large gash opens up on Lily’s left side, near her ribcage. Lily stumbles, falling to the ground from the shock attack. Blood rushes out from the wound, as it widens from Lily’s coarse breathing.

“We’ve got to interfere!” Kunai cries, and Ryuu nods in agreement. The two of them take a step forward, but draw back once again as four glowing arrows land at their feet.

The two of them look up, only to find Arayu standing upon the tiled roof of the temple, his Dark Arund loaded with a stream of arrows in his hands.

“Arayu?!” Kunai cries in surprise.

“Do not interfere,” Arayu replies simply.

“Iris is moving too fast for Lily to see her…” Ivy mumbles worriedly, staring at Iris, who circles Lily only as mere flashes of silver light.

Lily watches as the flashes of light circle around her at a dizzying rate. She closes her eyes, the better to concentrate, and slowly raises her Helios again.

Eyes still shut, Lily takes a step forward, and cuts the air with it. With a heavy crash, Lily’s axe collapses onto the ground once again, and she is forced to leave an opening due to the ricochet.

“Ha! Missed!” Iris’s voice taunts from somewhere around Lily.

“She missed!” Kunai cries, his face falling.

“No.” Lily remains sitting still, her graceful form confident and calm.

Flashes of red light suddenly appear, counterattacking the flashes of silver. With a hoarse, rattling cry, Iris is forced to stop her movements, clenching her shoulder where a small cut has appeared.

“How did she do that?!” Kunai shouts in alarm.

“I see,” Ryuu mumbles to himself, a satisfied smile appearing on his face. “She’s smarter than you, Kunai.”

“What…?” Kunai mumbles, blinking in confusion.

“That move right now was Slash Blast,” Ryuu answers, “what it does is it concentrates fragments of electricity in the air into solid points of energy to shock and inflict damage onto the enemies. Normally Slash Blast would only absorb what little static electricity there is in the air, but in this case…”

“Right!” Kunai cries in understanding, staring up at the black sky, where rumbles of thunder still continue to roar every now and then. “Her very opponent is electricity!”

“Exactly,” Ryuu replies.

Lily shoulders her Helios, staring as Iris continues to nurse her wound. “Next time, my aim will be better. You were spared a fatal injury this time, to my dismay.”

Iris’s face contorts with bitter hatred as she returns Lily’s stare. Iris, ignoring her own wound, dashes straight at Lily again, her sword outstretched. Lily immediately reacts, preparing to parry the blow with her axe.

Iris glows with hatred as she rushes at Lily. “You bit—”

A third gleam and crash of metal suddenly separates Lily from Iris, just as their weapons are about to meet. Acting as the partition between the two colliding weapons is the point of a Blue Screamer.

“My, my, Iris. We can’t have you killing the Third Phoneme now,” Lord Kimura says softly.

Next Time: Episode 28 The Four Naraku—Assembled!

Kunai: Those are some nice traveling goggles.

Lord Kimura: Why, thank you!

Episode 28 The Four Naraku—Assembled! coming soon!
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