The fire in my hands went out the instant Yashin stopped rising.
He spun inside the dense cloud of steam, gripping both daggers firmly.
For a fraction of a second, I could see the sky through the hole in his abdomen.
That bastard was still standing.
Then his arms moved in a swift arc.
The shadow blade swept through the rain and severed the top of a distant antenna.
The second strike came from below.
Tsukumo altered our trajectory again.
The dark tip grazed my boot and tore through the leather. I felt hot blood spill over my toes as the tower's rooftop rushed toward us.
We crashed onto the maintenance platform.
Tsukumo slowed our descent at the last instant, but my knees still slammed hard against the metal.
Two rows of ventilation boxes occupied the center of the rooftop.
To the right, a metal walkway descended to another platform, closer to the massive crater opened across the prison's surface.
Behind us, the tower wall rose upward, covered in pipes.
My sword was still in Sector One.
A heavy shadow covered the metal.
Yashin's dagger pierced the floor exactly where I had been kneeling, tearing through the steel plate between the beams.
Before the jailer finished landing, his other weapon came down in a sharp strike at head level.
I ducked against the first ventilation box. The steel passed over my hair and split the equipment in half, scattering blades, screws, and pieces of grating.
Tsukumo grabbed one of the fragments and slammed it directly into Yashin's shoulder.
The jailer stumbled.
His injured leg buckled, and the hole in his stomach twisted, spilling blood over his burned coat.
The edges of the wound were black and charred; inside, the flesh was exposed and red.
He felt the pain, but still swung his dagger toward Tsukumo.
I slipped underneath his extended arm and pressed my left palm against his ribs.
Fire exploded between us.
Yashin was hurled into the severed ventilation box. The metal buckled beneath the weight of his back, and flames climbed up the fabric of his coat.
He planted his boot on the ground, drove his body forward, and came out of the flames swinging.
I retreated too late.
The tip of the dagger tore through my eyebrow, and blood ran hot over my left eye, forcing me to blink.
Through my right eye, I saw his other arm sweep out in a wide arc.
"Get down!" Tsukumo shouted.
I threw myself to the ground.
Tsukumo ripped the ventilation box from its supports and hurled it over me.
The equipment collided with Yashin's crossed daggers and split in half.
One half flew over the railing; the other landed between the jailer's feet, with Tsukumo coming right behind the metal block.
His fist struck Yashin hard beneath the ear.
I heard the sharp crack of the impact and saw another tooth fly from his mouth.
Yashin, however, trapped Tsukumo's arm between the side of his own body and the guard of his dagger, pulling him forward.
The second blade rose rapidly, aimed at Tsukumo's stomach.
I grabbed the wrist wielding the weapon.
The force of the movement nearly tore my left arm from its shoulder. The blade kept advancing, only a few inches from Tsukumo's clothes, while my boots slipped through the mixture of blood and water.
Yashin turned his face toward me.
Behind his rain-soaked hair, he opened a grotesque smile.
His knee came up and slammed directly into my ribs.
Pain tore through my chest.
I spat out a mouthful of blood, but kept my fingers locked around his wrist.
Tsukumo thrust his head forward and slammed his forehead into Yashin's face. The jailer's already-broken nose collapsed again with a sharp crack.
The pressure beneath our feet suddenly changed.
Yashin's weight skyrocketed, forcing his knees to bend as the metal plate gave way beneath his boots. I released his wrist and rolled away before the floor collapsed.
Tsukumo moved to the other side, trapping him in the gravity field.
Yashin sank into the steel floor up to his shins.
It lasted less than a second.
He cut through the metal around his legs with his dagger, ripped one boot free from the hole, and drove the other weapon into the floor.
The shadow cast by a pipe stretched rapidly behind Tsukumo.
"Behind you!"
Tsukumo ducked just as a black blade emerged from the wall. The strike grazed his hair and sliced through a thick water pipe.
A pressurized jet exploded across the rooftop, washing over the floor alongside the rain.
Yashin charged through the water.
I barely saw his face; I only saw the blade coming toward my neck.
I threw my body to the side and slammed my right shoulder against a ventilation box, feeling the pain from the old injury shoot all the way to my fingertips.
Yashin's dagger tore through the steel plate beside my head.
The second weapon came low, seeking my waist.
I tried to retreat, but my injured leg gave out. The tip cut across the side of my stomach before Tsukumo pulled me away with gravity.
Yashin's blade collided with the wall behind me, carving a long gash into the metal.
I came to a sliding stop beside Tsukumo.
His blood-covered hands left puddles on the wet floor.
"He's trapping you in the corners."
"I noticed."
"Then stay close."
Yashin ripped his dagger from the wall, and the shadows beneath the ventilation boxes began to writhe.
Black arms emerged from beneath the equipment, wielding shadow copies of the daggers. One appeared to my left.
Another stretched over Tsukumo.
Two more rose between us and the tower wall.
We ran toward the center of the rooftop.
The first shadow strike tore through the floor beside my heel. The second sliced through the air in front of my face.
Tsukumo raised a steel plate he had ripped free to stop the third, but the black blade pierced through the metal as if it were paper.
He threw himself to the side to avoid being impaled.
I saw Yashin advance through the gap we had left.
His right dagger descended toward Tsukumo's throat.
I fired a ball of flame directly at the jailer's hand.
The flames engulfed Yashin's forearm, but he followed through with the attack.
Tsukumo dodged the edge by mere millimeters. The tip carved a deep cut across his back, from his shoulder down to his ribs.
Blood sprayed across the floor in a wide streak.
Tsukumo fell onto one of his injured hands. A muffled cry escaped through his teeth as his fingers bent against the steel.
Yashin raised his second dagger to finish him.
I threw my body against him before the strike could fall.
My left shoulder slammed into his abdomen, directly over the wound opened by the eruption.
I felt the torn flesh give beneath the impact.
Yashin let out a strangled roar and lost the support of one foot.
I pushed with what little strength I had left, and he slammed his back against an intact ventilation box. The structure crumpled, trapping part of his coat.
I shoved my left hand between our bodies and ignited the flame in my palm.
Yashin grabbed my wrist before I could aim the fire at his wound.
The explosion burst to the side, tearing the metal cover from the equipment. His free dagger rose alongside my arm.
I released my body's weight and let myself fall.
The blade tore through the collar of my shirt beside my neck. I landed sitting down, my wrist still trapped in his fingers, and watched the blade descend toward me.
A steel bar cut through the air and struck Yashin squarely in the mouth.
His head slammed against the box behind him.
Tsukumo was standing, his arm extended, blood running down his back and dripping from his elbow.
I pulled my hand free the instant Yashin's fingers loosened and crawled away.
The steel bar returned through the air, but the jailer cut it in half with a swing of his dagger.
Both halves fell to the ground, and Tsukumo pulled them back against Yashin's legs.
Yashin had to jump to avoid having his calf crushed.
I moved into the exact spot where he was going to land.
The red markings burned across my skin up to my neck as I slammed a fist into his face.
The flash of fire blinded me for an instant.
I felt Yashin twisting to escape. His dagger scraped across my forearm, opening a deep cut from my wrist to just below my elbow.
I screamed in pain, but kept pushing until he lost his balance.
Tsukumo used gravity and pulled Yashin away from me.
The jailer crashed through the last ventilation box and slammed violently into the railing.
The metal wall gave way and broke, leaving Yashin's back hanging over the abyss.
I ran toward him.
Yashin drove one of his daggers into the floor to hold himself up. When I tried to kick the hand supporting his weight, he pulled himself upward and brought his other dagger around in a low arc.
I pulled my leg back in time.
The steel tore away the edge of the floor directly in front of my boot.
Tsukumo pulled me backward before the ground beneath me collapsed.
We fell together onto the rooftop.
My companion braced one knee against the metal, blood running from his nose into his mouth. He spat out the blood, raised his hand, and made part of the railing rise into a barrier between us and the jailer.
Yashin's black blade cut the structure in half.
We separated.
The jailer advanced across the broken metal, one side of his face burned, his mouth stretched into a smile displaying broken, bloodied teeth.
"Keep playing, you brats."
The shadows advanced with him, pushing us toward the walkway.
Far below all the chaos of Gron-Tarh, the sign marked Sector Ten appeared above the raised gate.
Candice slid underneath it on a trail of ice, keeping her scythe low beside her body.
Havelyn entered right behind her, her wings folded to fit through the opening, her right claw scraping against the floor as she landed.
A burst of gunfire struck the wall in front of them.
Candice lowered her body without interrupting her slide. Ice rose from the floor into a thick barrier that absorbed the bullets before cracking apart.
Three guards blocked the corridor.
"Over the top!" Candice shouted.
Havelyn jumped before the ice wall collapsed. Her left wing beat hard, propelling her over the fragments.
Candice passed underneath.
The tip of her scythe hooked around the first guard's rifle, pulling the weapon to the floor, and Candice's mechanical fist struck the man's face.
His nasal bone crushed against the metal.
The second guard tried to turn the barrel toward her, but Havelyn dropped onto his shoulders.
The harpy's claws closed around the man's neck, and the force of the impact knocked him onto his back.
The shot fired into the ceiling.
Candice swung her scythe in a swift arc.
The blade cut through the third guard's side.
The man doubled over the wound, clutching his stomach as blood poured between his fingers. He collapsed lifelessly the moment Candice passed him.
Ice formed beneath Candice's boots again.
The two of them raced down the corridor, leaving the fallen guards and shards of the barrier behind.
The cell doors were open.
Screams echoed through the bars, mixed with the sounds of footsteps, alarms, and gears working within the walls.
Rainwater flowed down the stairs, carrying ammunition casings into the drains.
A powerful tremor shook the ceiling.
Candice instinctively raised her mechanical arm as a section of the paneling came loose.
The piece of metal collided with the prosthetic, deflected, and shattered against the wall.
The pain from her fractured ribs stole her breath for a second, but Havelyn grabbed her hand and kept her running.
It was the last sector.
The passage to Rubens's room was just ahead.
Candice touched the communicator at her ear.
"We're in Ten."
The response from the other side came muffled by a massive explosion.
"Go," Gordon replied.
"And free your brother."
Thunder still roared above, accompanying the frantic battle.
Yashin's dagger grazed the side of my head and destroyed the railing of the walkway.
The severed metal pipe plunged into the void, falling toward the lower platforms.
We had already retreated beyond the rooftop.
The walkway connected the tower to a suspended loading platform above the crater.
The massive fissure opened to our right between twisted, burned structures, the storm pouring directly into its depths.
Tsukumo was behind me, near the end of the passage.
Yashin blocked the way back to the tower.
There was no room for us to fight side by side.
The jailer noticed the disadvantage first.
His right dagger came in a quick thrust toward my stomach. I jumped backward and launched another fireball at his chest, but Yashin pushed through the flames with his weapon raised, his other dagger aimed straight at my eye.
I tilted my head on instinct.
The metal tore through my ear and ripped away a piece of flesh.
Pain burned along the side of my face. The sound of the storm became muffled on my left side, and hot blood ran into my collar.
An invisible force seized my waist and pulled me.
Tsukumo dragged me onto the loading platform at the exact moment Yashin's shadow blade sliced through the walkway.
The structure collapsed, plunging into the abyss.
Yashin leaped across the gap.
Tsukumo extended his open hand, and gravity altered the jailer's trajectory in midair, throwing him against the steel pillar of a crane.
He collided sideways, his abdominal blood smearing across the structure.
I advanced before his feet touched the ground.
My left fist slammed directly into the open wound in his stomach.
Yashin doubled over.
The burned flesh gave beneath my knuckles, and his blood ran down my wrist to my elbow.
He thrust his head forward and headbutted me. My vision disappeared for a second in an explosion of pain, but I stayed pressed against him to keep him from wielding his daggers.
Tsukumo came in from the side and drove his knee into Yashin's ribs.
The bone gave with a muffled crack.
Yashin spread his arms to force us away.
Tsukumo pinned his wrist against the pillar with his forearm while I ducked beneath the other blade, which scraped the back of my neck.
I drove my palm into the crook of his elbow and released a quick burst of fire.
The coat caught fire, the skin on his arm blistered away, and Yashin's fingers spasmed around the hilt.
"Now!"
Tsukumo pulled on the gravitational field, and the jailer was crushed against the pillar.
The crane structure groaned above us, shedding flakes of rust.
I bent my knees to finish the enemy once and for all, but a shadow dagger emerged from the ground between my boots.
I twisted my body in midair to avoid being impaled.
The tip cut into my thigh in the same place as the previous wound, and my knee slammed into the ground.
Another black blade emerged from the pillar's shadow.
Tsukumo released Yashin and jumped backward, but the cut tore through his forearm until the bone was exposed.
The gravitational field faltered and collapsed.
Yashin lunged forward.
The side of one of his daggers struck Tsukumo's chest with the force of a hammer, hurling him into the base of the crane.
My companion collided with the steel and fell onto his side, motionless. The jailer turned the other dagger toward me.
I was still on my knees.
I raised both hands toward the sky, but my right shoulder failed completely and dropped.
The fire came out crooked, striking the side of his blade.
The dagger descended, tearing through my right arm.
The cut began near my shoulder and continued down to just above my elbow.
My right hand fell limp beside my body, exposed flesh visible beneath the torn fabric.
I rolled across the floor before the killing blow.
The dagger's tip struck the floor beside my face, and metal fragments pierced my cheek.
I dragged myself backward using my heels and left hand.
The shadow beneath Yashin spread like ink.
Black arms rose from both sides of the platform, closing off every path to Tsukumo.
I tried to ignite the flame again, but managed only a weak, spasmodic flash. My hand trembled uncontrollably.
Blood ran down my left arm, and my fingers refused to obey.
Yashin walked toward me, limping on his ruined leg.
His chest rose with difficulty, and the hole in his stomach continued to bleed.
Even so, he dragged both daggers behind him without lowering his eyes.
There was nowhere left to go.
A thick chain flew over my shoulder.
The steel hook collided with Yashin's dagger, knocking the descending strike aside.
The jailer took a step back as the chain wrapped around his forearm.
Tsukumo was standing at the base of the crane.
He held one hand out, his fingers twisted and his entire arm covered in blood.
The chain unwound from the crane's reel above him, snapping as it pulled Yashin.
"Get up!"
I grabbed the edge of the engine with my left hand and forced my body upward.
My leg did not respond.
Get up!!!!! I screamed in my thoughts.
I changed the flow of energy through my body.
The red bands ignited alongside the glowing blue ones. My muscles contracted in a violent jolt, crushing the open wounds beneath a pressure that drove the air from my lungs.
Blood sprayed from the cut across my chest before the Strength Transformation managed to forcibly compress it.
I stood.
Yashin cut the chain with his other dagger.
The loose links struck the engine beside me, throwing sparks. He came at me, the free blade driving straight toward the center of my chest.
I blocked the side of his forearm with my left hand, redirecting the strike toward my ribs.
I stepped inside his guard and drove my elbow into the center of his face with all the momentum in my legs.
Yashin staggered.
Tsukumo used gravity and pulled the jailer's body backward, forcing him to place his weight on his injured leg.
The bone cracked.
The jailer dropped to one knee.
I grabbed his hair with my left hand and pulled his face into my rising knee.
The impact made both of us cry out in pain.
I released his hair before the daggers could rise. One grazed my stomach while the other split the metal floor beneath my feet.
Tsukumo pulled me aside just as the shadow emerging from the cut struck the engine behind us, splitting the casing and scattering heavy components.
Tsukumo used the debris with gravity.
A massive gear slammed into Yashin, and the engine block came right behind it, colliding with his chest before he could get back up.
The steel crumpled from the impact, and he doubled over, using one dagger against the floor to keep himself from falling.
For a second, it seemed like we had won.
His injured hand slipped on the blood-slick hilt, and he had to adjust his grip with effort.
Tsukumo advanced.
I went with him.
Yashin ripped the dagger from the ground in an upward strike, tearing an entire steel plate from the floor and throwing it toward us.
The plate rose like a blade.
Tsukumo deflected it with gravity before it could hit us, but lost sight of Yashin for a fraction of a second.
The shadow of the crane opened behind him.
I saw the black hair first.
Then the blade.
"Tsukumo!"
My companion twisted his body, moving his throat out of the way.
The dagger pierced his shoulder from above, burying itself deep.
Tsukumo grabbed the jailer's wrist with his other hand, but his ruined fingers slipped through the blood.
Yashin pulled him closer and drove his knee into his chest.
Tsukumo doubled over, coughing blood, and the jailer ripped the dagger from his shoulder in a violent pull, tearing the flesh.
I ran toward them.
Yashin used the side of his other dagger to strike Tsukumo's head.
My companion was hurled against the base of the crane, collided with the steel, and collapsed onto the engine wreckage, motionless.
The jailer took a step toward him.
I threw myself against Yashin's back before he could reach Tsukumo.
We crashed into the structure.
I drove directly into his open wound when he turned to face me.
His hot blood soaked through my shirt.
I pushed with my legs, forcing him back one step. I tried to advance another, but Yashin raised the hilt of his blade and struck me in the chest.
The pain destroyed my strength.
The wound in my chest split open beneath the pressure of the technique, and a torrent of hot blood ran down my stomach to my waist.
Even so, I grabbed his arm.
Tsukumo was lying behind him. I needed to get him out of there.
I pulled Yashin toward me and slammed my forehead into his mouth.
I felt his tooth cut into my forehead.
He growled in fury and tried to raise one of his daggers. I pinned his wrist against my own chest, leaving the blade pointed outward as it scraped my shoulder.
My left arm was trembling so violently that my fingers could barely close.
Yashin stopped pulling.
The sudden change in force made me lose my balance.
He twisted his wrist inside my grip and violently shoved me against the crane pillar.
My back slammed into the metal, followed by my head. The air vanished from my lungs.
I saw his other arm rise.
I tried to raise my right hand to block it, but my shoulder did not respond.
The tip of the dagger pierced my chest.
The world shrank in a single second.
The rain.
His face.
My left hand was still open against a wrist I could no longer hold.
Yashin kept pushing.
The blade pierced straight through my chest and embedded itself in the steel pillar behind me with a wet, metallic crack.
My mouth opened.
Blood gushed out before any sound could escape.
He stroked my long hair with those dead, slender fingers.
"I didn't want it to end like this," he whispered.
"But you left me no choice."
I tried to tighten my fingers around his wrist, but my hand opened.
The red and blue markings of the technique faded from my skin.
Yashin slowly pulled the dagger free. I felt every inch of the blade widening the wound as it came out.
Blood gushed out, covering the steel, my clothes, and the hands I could no longer raise.
My legs gave out.
I slid down the pillar until I was sitting on the ground, my chin dropping against my chest.
I heard someone shouting my name in the distance.
I tried to turn my head, but couldn't.
The rain kept falling.
Tsukumo emerged from the wreckage, propped up on one elbow.
"NAKAMURA!!!!"
Yashin pulled the dagger away from the fallen body.
Blood still dripped from its tip as he turned his face toward Tsukumo.
"NO!!!!!"
Yashin saw Tsukumo's grief and simply ignored it. He walked toward the platform and was about to jump.
"Choose, gravity boy."
"Him or me."
Then he finally jumped.