"You've always had so much trust in the Homura girl. Why is that?" Frost asked Ivankov the night before the second round began. They sat in Ivankov's room and classical music played from an old radio in the background. Ivankov held a cup of coffee and took a lazy sip before finally answering.
"The nine-tailed fox goddess 'Kiyomi'," Ivankov said and placed his cup down. "Their kindred have had a connection to her for as long as their history has existed."
"They have an affiliation with a God?" Frost asked with piqued interest.
"Yes. They've been a valuable asset to AXE for hundreds of years but now, their entire clan has been reduced to just two descendants. Misa and her older brother, Mora."
"What happened?"
"Misa killed them all." Ivankov's words made the room silent. To Frost, Misa was nothing more than a naive nuisance but hearing something like this changed his perspective on her just a bit.
"How did that happen?" Frost asked and leaned back in his chair.
"When two Homura siblings are born, they are destined to fight and when that happens, one of them always dies and the one that survives gains the favour of the fox goddess." Ivankov turned off his radio and stood up. "Misa was supposed to be born a twin but somehow, she killed her sibling in the womb and was blessed by their goddess since she was born."
"She had problems controlling her powers then," Frost said and Ivankov nodded while walking towards an open window.
"She was labelled a freak and an abomination to her clan and from what I know, she snapped one night when she was five years old and was consumed by her overwhelming power." Ivankov turned to face Frost. "The only survivor was Mora and..." Ivankov went quiet when he realised Frost had already left the room. He sighed and looked back out the window into the clear night sky.
The standoff between the two Homura siblings grew more and more tense. Frost watched quietly and he was genuinely curious as to how this would play out.
"If I kill you, I'll get my blessing," Mora said and Misa scoffed loudly in response.
"You really are a sad excuse for a human," Misa said.
Subtle flickers of lightning crackles grew around the two siblings but the energy behind the bursts grew more and more intense.
"Umm... Misa? Is that supossed to be happening?" Ayame asked and stepped back as the bolts became more violent and erratic but Misa didn't answer.
The lightning slowly took solid shape on both of them. Their hair and eyes turned blue and long, sharp claws and fangs grew in place of their normal teeth and nails. A set of blue fox ears grew on each sibling's head and so did long blue tails but unlike Mora who had just one, Misa had two.
They circled each other in the clearing, tails lashing and ears pinned flat. Misa bared her fangs at Mora and lunged low with explosive force. Mora swung his axe at her and she dropped flat on the ground, the heavy blade whistling over her head. Without his arm and eye, this battle was going to be incredibly hard to win and he knew it better than anyone. His barrier wasn't something he could count on either as it was the only thing keeping the Hunters outside from interfering with his mission.
One of Misa's tails wrapped around Mora's legs and tugged hard enough for him to land on the ground with her. She scrambled up onto his back and sank her fangs right into his neck and ripped out a large chunk of flesh. Mora roared and shrugged to shake her off but she held her grip on his neck until he yanked at her tail.
She yowled as he flung her off. She crashed into a building, bounced gracefully off its wall and landed in a crouch just as Mora closed the distance again. The axe came down in a diagonal slash and she caught it with both arms raised. The ground beneath her cracked from the force.
With a sudden shove, she directed the axe into the dirt and drove her knee up into his stomach. As he gasped for air, Misa raked both her claws across his face, leaving deep red cuts in their wake. Misa didn't give him time or space to recover. She sprang onto his chest and sunk both sets of claws into his chest. Her weight and momentum drove him backwards and he crashed through multiple buildings. Mora had dropped his axe right in front of her and she looked down at it as blood seeped from her claws.
"I'm embarrassed to call you my brother," Misa scowled and tossed the axe at Mora and it lodged itself into a wall beside his head. Misa was stronger and faster than Diego in this form and Frost was very impressed.
"Think she'll be able to win?" King asked from inside his barrier. He was still lazing around as a cat.
"Twenty bucks says she'll lose," Paige said and kept scrolling through her phone.
"You're on!" King yawned and purred lowly. "Just wake me up when it's over."
Mora gripped his axe and pulled it out of the wall it was stuck in. His face and neck bled but the pain was something he could ignore. Close combat was something he never excelled in so he had to change strategies.
Misa waited for Mora to step back into the fight but then her long ears stood on end and her tail twitched. All her survival instincts were firing at once.
FWOOOSH!!!
Mora's axe hurtled forward with speed too fast for her to even react. She shut her eyes and braced for the worst... but it never came... She opened her eyes and saw Diego?! He had somehow arrived and managed to shove her out of the way right before Mora's axe hit. She landed on the ground with a soft gasp and the axe buzzed right past them.
Diego's hair was messy and his body looked pale and weakened from blood loss. The bandages around his chest loosened and fell off revealing his wound hadn't fully healed.
"This is the second time I've had to save you," Diego said and helped her up. That's when he registered her new form and he stared at her, puzzled by whatever this was and out of nowhere, she kissed him. Diego froze for a split second but pulled back just enough to duck and pull Misa down as Mora's axe flew right above their heads.
"What happened to you?" Diego asked and flicked Misa's fox ear playfully.
"That's not important right now. My brother's behind all this. Once I kill him, everything ends," Misa said and watched Mora's axe fly all the way back into his grip. Mora got ready to aim his axe at them again when the sound of loud thudding made everyone pause. The thuds got louder and louder and all eyes stayed locked in the direction of the intense sound.
CRASH!!!
Mercer flew through the air and crashed right into the ground with force that left large craters in its wake. Not far from the dazed abomination, Romeo staggered forward. His wings were spread out and all attention was on him.
"I can handle Mora on my own. I'm sure Romeo might need your help. Besides, Ayame's got my back," Misa said and her tail twitched in the direction where Ayame hid with a pistol in her hand. Diego hesitated but the look on Misa's face was one he had never seen before.
"Alright. Just be careful out there," Diego said and ran in the direction Romeo was in.
"That was a stupid move, sis!" Mora yelled and lifted his axe up with his only arm. "No one's here to protect you anymore!" Misa didn't respond and kept her eyes locked on him.
Diego caught up to Romeo and stood by his side. Romeo glanced at him briefly and turned his attention back to the four-armed abomination right in front of them. Diego noticed how badly injured Romeo was but the boy's eyes still had that hollow gaze.
"Guess I'm late to the party," Diego joked. His Hell Breaker activated and he got ready to fight. His jacket was still bloodied but he decided not to take it off.
"I'll pass out at any moment from now," Romeo pointed out with a flap of his large wings.
"Then rest up. I can take it from here," Diego offered but Romeo shook his head.
"I have to see this through," the boy said blankly and both brothers started walking towards the abomination. Diego spotted Frost and the others trapped in Mora's barrier and that brought up a question.
"On my way here, I saw students either knocked out or trapped in those barriers but I didn't spot Zany. Did she teleport out of the arena?" Diego asked and Romeo halted.
"Zany's dead. The abomination killed her," Romeo said with no emotion and kept walking. Diego's breath hitched in surprise but he forced his shock down and followed his brother. Romeo didn't want to talk about it and neither did Diego so they both did what they had to do. Fight Mercer.
"Both of her spawn!" Mercer growled when he saw the two brothers approaching. "SCREW THE MISSION! I'LL MURDER YOU BOTH!" The abomination roared and charged at them.
Diego moved first. He flapped his dark wings and stomped a foot on the ground, sending a barrage of razor-sharp ice spears at Mercer. Several slammed home, punching deep into the flesh of the abomination but it didn't relent and barely slowed down. Mercer really charged at them and one of its arms stretched out to attack Diego but he twisted himself out of the way just in time for Romeo to send a crushing uppercut to the abomination's jaw.
Diego followed up with a fast punch to Mercer's knee. Mercer roared and brought two hands down on Diego like a hammer. Diego raised his hands and took the full force of the double strike. The ground shook and blood ran from Diego's mouth but he grinned through the pain and froze Mercer's feet.
"Hold still!" He growled with effort and watched Romeo fly up from the corner of his eye.
Romeo soared above them and gathered a swirling vortex of freezing air. A spear formed in his palm and it plummeted downwards. Mercer lifted two of his free hands to block it but the spear ripped right through flesh and bone, freezing the abomination's arms.
Diego tried to use the advantage to escape Mercer but the abomination grabbed him with a massive arm and squeezed. Diego gasped for breath but grit his teeth even as he heard and felt his bones cracking
BOOM!!!
Romeo dove and launched a fist straight into Mercer's gut. The force blew the massive abomination back and in the process, forced it to release Diego.
"Keep standing. As long as he can bleed, he can die," Romeo said.
"I can take it," Diego smirked and wiped blood off his lips. "We just have to keep pushing till—"
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
Three gunshots ripped through the air. Diego turned in the direction of the sound and saw Ayame standing behind a building with the tip of her pistol smoking. The shots were fired in Mora's direction but when Diego looked farther, he saw Mora still standing with a smug grin on his face. MISA?! She was on her knees and the ground beneath her was bloodied. The bullets hit her?! Without thinking, Diego rushed to her side. Diego was beside her instantly, knees hitting the floor.
"No—stay with me. We'll get help. You're going to be fine." He said and pressed his hands on the bullet wounds in a vain attempt to stop the bleeding but Misa looked at him and smiled.
"I feel stupid…" she whispered. "For not saying it sooner—"
"Don't talk like that!" Diego yelled and cut her off. Tears welled up in his eyes. The girl before him said those exact words before she died and this all felt like some twisted déjà vu. He gripped her palm and blinked the tears back.
"I love you." Misa said those words and the world froze. Even silence stopped moving.
"…Please…" she breathed. "…Just once… I want to hear you... say you love me back..."
Diego opened his mouth to speak. To say the words he couldn't tell the first one who died.
"I lo—"
Her hand slipped away and the moment ended. Not violently. Completely. Like a switch being turned off in a system that had already finished its task.
Mora let out a loud laugh when the life left his sister's body. Blue lightning burst from around him and a second tail grew behind him.
"You did a good job there, Ayame," he yelled and Ayame snickered from a distance.
"It was a pleasure. Those idiots didn't suspect a thing," Ayame said and strapped her pistol. She had been working with Mercer and Mora the whole time and she couldn't have picked a better time to strike.
"We're almost done here," Mora said as more and more power surged through him. "I'll have some fun with this red-haired bastard and we'll leave once we're done."
Mora took confident steps towards Diego. Romeo watched with neutral eyes but his focus moved back to Mercer. He could feel his consciousness fading and if this fight kept dragging on, he'd lose.
"Told you she'd lose," Paige said while grinning at King. "You owe me twenty bucks."
"Yeah yeah, I'll pay you if we get out of this alive," King grumbled and went back to sleep.
Mora reached Diego and grabbed him by his red hair and kicked Misa's corpse away like it was a discarded plaything.
"This is for my damn arm!" Mora yelled.
Mora slammed Diego's face into the concrete ground with impossible strength. The ground cracked under the force. Mora pulled Diego's face up and looked into his eyes. His eyes were covered by his bloodied hair and Diego didn't flinch or respond to anything. Mora brought Diego to his knees and admired the look of despair.
"And this is for my eye!" Mora yelled and pulled his fist back.
A heavy punch cracked straight across Diego's jaw. His head snapped to the side, but his body stayed limp. Mora snarled and struck again, then again, the impact loud and solid. Diego didn't react in any way whatsoever. No groan, no attempt to block, just the dull thud of fists against his face and that pissed Mora off. He wanted to see Diego suffering. Wanted to see him beg but instead, he got nothing more than just a hollow shell of a person. Ayame got closer and leaned in for a better view. A sharp laugh left her lips when she saw how defeated Diego was.
"Say something you bastard!" Mora yelled and finally relented. His fists were soaked in blood and his tails lashed around restlessly. He pulled his fist back for another punch and abruptly paused. Something was awfully wrong and a sense of dread overtook him.
A loud banging sound rattled the massive barrier he had put over the arena. The Matrix Barrier which he was told even gods couldn't scratch suddenly cracked loudly until finally shattering. The arena was now visible to the outside but one question lingered in Mora's mind... who or what broke it...
"What's wrong?" Ayame asked with a confused tone. "Put the barrier back up."
"It's not that simple," Mora shot back.
"She's... dead..." Diego whispered and both heads turned to look at him. Diego's fingers slowly grabbed Mora's shirt and when Mora tried to break the grip, he found it next to impossible.
"Let go of me!" He yelled and clawed at Diego. Deep gashes grew on his body but Diego didn't react to them. Ayame stepped back in fear and watched Diego slowly get back to his feet.
"She's dead..." He whispered again. Mora's axe was too far from him and that meant he had to escape this death grip without it.
Diego lifted his second arm until it brushed against Mora's neck. His grip tightened slowly until Mora gasped for air and panicked. Mora clawed desperately at Diego's arm, wrist and forearm but even with his new strength, it wasn't enough. Mora's eyes grew red and his movements turned frantic but slowly, they died down until he gasped one last time. The crowd watched in silent horror.
The barriers around all the trapped students, including Frost, Paige and King disappeared and they were finally free but none of them moved to interfere with what was going on. They just watched.
Diego dropped his body like a ragdoll and turned his bloodied face to Ayame. She panicked and ran to save herself. Diego shuffled towards her weakly. Ayame didn't know what to do. The students in the stands had seen her. AXE might have seen her by now and no matter how she spun her stories, they would end with her being executed, either by AXE or Diego.
She stopped running, took a calm breath and did the only reasonable thing to get herself out of this situation. She pulled out her pistol and placed the tip in her mouth.
...BLAM...
She blew her brains out, right there on the spot and her body crumpled to the floor.
Mercer saw everything that happened. This was the worst outcome imaginable. Romeo still stood in front of him and the boy didn't look like he would relent and die anytime soon. The only thing this abomination could do was escape somehow and with Frost Wheeler freed, he had to escape fast. Mercer turned to make a run for it but froze. An impossible level of terror flooded every part of its being, a fear so pure and overwhelming it threatened to tear the creature apart from the inside.
Black combat boots stomped on the ground in front of him. A tall woman with long blood red hair stood in front of him. She looked young, like she was in her early 20s. Grey tank top and black camo jeans. This woman was the mother of both Diego and Romeo... The rank 1... Andrea Torrez... Frost looked starstruck and so did every single person who caught even the faintest glimpse of her.
"Quite the mess you've made here," she said and took another casual step forward.
"You're finally here to finish what you started..." Mercer said like he had accepted his fate. Andrea on the other hand tilted her head to the side in confusion.
"Am I supposed to know you?" she asked cluelessly and that made Mercer infuriated.
"You did this to me!" Mercer growled. "You made me skin myself alive for your own amusement! You even gave me the name Mercer when you left me to die!"
Andrea tapped her chin in an attempt to remember but then she shrugged. "Doesn't ring a bell," she said and yawned. "Besides, I kill your kind all the time. Even if we met, I wouldn't remember a nobody like you."
That was the last straw for Mercer whose rage quickly overcame his fear. He lifted all four arms above her and slammed them down with enough force to make the ground split and nearby buildings collapse. He growled and looked down but, she wasn't there.
"What's gotten you in such a bad mood?" Andrea teased. She sat right on his red head. "C'mon, smile for me," she said and playfully tugged at the abomination's cheeks.
"I'll make you pay for what you did to me!" Mercer roared and tried to swat her off his head but she hopped off gracefully and landed on the ground in front of him. She lifted up a finger and pointed it at Mercer. Andrea's face turned from playful to cold in an instant.
Mercer lifted all his arms to attack her again. From Andrea's fingertip, a small black ball of energy formed. She looked up as Mercer tried to attack her.
...Bang...
A black ray of energy erupted from the ball and the sky turned dark from the sheer power behind it. The blast was loud enough to shatter eardrums and its radius expanded continuously as it shot at Mercer and went all the way into the sky. The sky finally brightened. There was nothing left of Mercer and half the arena had been scorched completely.
"That's the end of that," she yawned and blew her fingertip. She turned around, ready to walk away but in her path stood both Diego and Romeo. Andrea cringed at the sight of them.
"Mom...?" The brothers whispered and took a step forward and Andrea instinctively took a step back.
"Hey... kids..." she said through gritted teeth. Tears welled up in their eyes and Andrea noticed. Awkwardly, she spread her arms out and both brothers tackled her into a tight hug.
"I missed you too," she said softly and hugged them back. Maybe it was a weird family reunion but they would take it just the way it was...
END OF CHAPTER 18