#hye!

Michelle Bliss stood at the edge of the building, her soft, angelic features being illuminated by the moonlight in the night. Brisco scratched his scruffy natural, his dark eyes starinng confused at the stoic Michelle. "What's on ya' mind, MiMi?" Her never changing expression confused Brisco even further. His white hi-tops glided silently across the pebbled rooftop, Brisco's white gloved hand fell on ivory shoulder pad before adding softly, "You good, wo?"

Stars above reflected the mission in Michelle's eyes as she stared out into the night time sky. Her voice, soft with the hint of a baby's coo embedded deep within her larynx. "The reason I was asked to come along this mission just made an appearance." Brisco's eyebrow raised over the over the white rimmed sunglasses as he peered down upon her, wondering how something so young, so innocent can hold such a sense of duty in her young heart. Without missing a breath, Michelle added, "I have to go, Brisco."

Another young man with long scruffy hair and stubble all across his angular, gentle face stepped beside the elegant Michelle. The look of utter concentration on her face alerted the young man as he looked at Brisco first, his eyes filled with confusion that neither could deny. Then he looked down at the detached demeanor of Michelle, seeing past her dispassionate disposition and peering into the swirling torrential downpours of anger and hatred and sadness occurring inside of her young soul. Sensing her anguish, the young man offered Michelle a slight reassuring smirk. "You know you don't have to do this alone right?"

With moist dark brown irises, she looked at the olive brown scruffy young man with a tortured smile on her sand brown face of immaculance and answered with an absolute solemn nature in her tone. "But I do, Jimmy, I really do." She broke Brisco's grasp on her shoulder and fully stepped on the edge of the roof. Michelle looked back with a distraught look of hopelessness in her eyes. "When Ari gets back, don't wait on me. I'll catch up when my mission is done."

Echo walked through the cobblestone streets of Eryn Atratus with a complacent stare on her face. Memories of screams and shouts reverberated through out her mind as she simply recalled the screams. The screams of unadulterated terror as she held out her golden brown hand outstretched toward Eden as Paine executed his finishing technique. Eden fell out of the night after the devastating attack knocked her beyond fighting form and into Paine's surprisingly gentle grasp. Paine gripped Eden by her neck as Echo's heart was gripped with terror watching that malicious smile spread across Paine's face. Even in that moment of stricken terror, Paine was still a beautiful nightmare as his dark voice echoed inside of Echo's eardrums. "you want her?" Eden let out one last welp of agony before Paine finished. :Then come to me and get her yourself." His smile stretched across his pale, sculpted face as he added with a deep air of viciousness, "But until then, she's mine," and with that they disappeared into the night. Echo awoke from her walking daydream, her long hair dangling in front of her face, the black veil covering her sadness. But as she unveiled her sadness, tears streaming down her angelic face, another presence was revealed. A familiar presence.

With a smile, the unknown spoke. "Hello, sissy." But her smile did not match the sadness in her tone.

Echo's face filled with questions as she asked lightly, in shock, "Michelle?"

Tears glazed over Michelle's diamond doe dark eyes as she peered into her sister's matching dark  gaze. "Hello, Echo. Have you missed me?"

Echo closed her eyes and allowed the euphoria of past memories entered her mind. Thoughts of a younger Echo toying with the baby tangles of Michelle's hair. The smell of her innocence still intoxicated Echo. A tear jerked out of the lining of Echo's eyes as she peered at the older visage of her baby sister in the crescent of her teens. Troubled. Beautiful. Ignorant. "More than you know, sweetheart."

"Then how come you left me, sissy? How could you turn your back on The Word?" The confusion in her voice scared Echo. It was like hearing a gunshot for the first time.

Echo shook her head, saddened by her baby sister's ignorance to the whole situation. "Some things you will not be able to understand for a very long time, my love."

An angry burst of rage and power overcame her in the form of a pristine light blue aura surrounding Michelle's curvy body. An even angrier outburst boomed out of her larynx as she screamed, a voice filled with tears, "Then why don't you show me, Echo! Make me understand because the way it looks!" Michelle held her blue glowing hands just face level in a rhythmic matter with snake like movements entrancing Echo as she watched her baby sister prepare for battle, her heart shattering into a million and twelve pieces. "Looks like you turned your back on us. Looks like you turned your back on me!" The blue aura around her white taped dainty hands gave birth to a beautiful, sparkling sword of epic beauty, and it looked as though Michelle had held a solar system in her hand.

But there was still a distinct sadness in Michelle's face. One that she could not hide from Echo as she shook her head and said with her eyes closed, "Please don't make me...."

"Make you what," Michelle asked angrily, "You already broke my heart once, and I'm not going to let you you do it again. Especially when I'd rather have yours beating broken in my hand."

Michelle's smile was malicious as Echo pleaded, "MiMi please...."

But anger set in as Michelle's dark thin eyebrows crinkled out of a passionate rage. "Don't call me that! You lost your privilege to ever call me that again." Michelle pointed that sparkling blade toward her sister's face and continued. "Either you draw your weapon now or I kill you unarmed. Make your choice."

Echo shook her head, saddened by the fact that she was truly going to have to face her baby sister in battle. Reluctantly, Echo shook her head as a long dark brown branch appeared in her hand with a vicious yet small curved blade materializing at the end of the oak branch. "So be it...." A small tear splashed against the dark ground below her. "If it means anything, MiMi, I truly am sorry for leaving you."

Michelle smiled, her tone facetious as she answered, "Well it doesn't, but your death will," pointing her free finger toward Echo's exotic facial features glowing in that same brilliant bright aura glowing around her, "So put away your apologies and prepare for a beautiful death."

  In a moment all of her problems disappeared. All her inhibitions were released in the dim lit airy marijuana filled expansive room as she inhaled the fumes of the marijuana clouds floating throughout the room. The soft sultry sounds coming from the beautiful songbird on stage melted into her heart as she swayed with her eyes closed, all of the horrid memories of bloodshed and war and chaos melting into her soul. But it was her smile that gave true testament to her happiness, shining throughout the sunset bright large earthy expanse that was Club Paradise in the heart of Eryn Atratus. Her dark beauty captured everybody’s attention in attendance inside of the warm nightclub. She was the North Star in a sunset from Hawaii. She was confidence. She was pleasure. She was Eden.

            In her heart she knew the reason for the attention. It wasn’t her big doe eyes of dark brown and reddish color tinted and glazed because of the effects the marijuana she inhaled. It was the way the thick marijuana curled from her thin lips to her perfectly angled nostrils. The way her black dress seemed to only conceal her pain as the dress formed perfectly over her luscious body. It was her black heeled booties that tapped in rhythm to the music coming from the stage. But one secret the dress did not conceal was the tattooed large rose covered vine wrapped around her ankle traveling all the way to her thigh, a bonus to any whose eyes fell upon the beauty. An addition to the living wonders of the world. She was playful seduction personified, and in the songstress’ eyes, she was simply perfect.

            The singer on stage continued to stare upon Eden’s beauty with intent in her own dark eyes as the words began to simply flow out of her. Last thing said by the songstress while staring down at Eden. “This was one is for you…” Eden’s already doe eyes didn’t even seem to be phased, concealing the fact that her body temperature had arisen by a hundred degrees.

      I don't think I want to go Heaven

Because I found paradise in your eyes

What good is the feel of the sky, the feeling to fly

When paradise is left behind

The words felt as though they melted, molded into the air. And with each breath Eden took, a piece of the wall around her heart was chipped away. Eden found herself falling into those dark, free playful eyes as the songstress continued to tug the strings of Eden’s heart, toying with every emotion swirling in her soul.

I could see if you were flying with me, it wouldn't be so bad

But without your company what good are the wings I have

I don't wanna go to Heaven no more

To be truthful I never really could

Without my angel showing me the way

I don't wanna go to Heaven no more

I don’t wanna go to Heaven no more

The song continued but Eden knew she had to back away. Separate herself from the world, detach herself from the infatuation blooming inside of her heart. Eden looked down and saw she had been drinking a drink she had not ordered and instantly panicked. She got up with a worried look on her face as she brought the drink back to the dreadlock wearing bartender underneath the dim light of the bar. His voice was smooth as it flowed like perfectly aged brandy into her ears. “Can I help you?”

Eden quickly raised her finger with one raised eyebrow in confusion and asked with an intentional attitude, “Excuse me, but who ordered this drink? Certainly was not me.”

The bartender just simply smiled, not surprised at her brash confusion. “I know.”

Confused, Eden looked at the bartender through the corners of her eyes. “You know?”

“Of course I do. Because she ordered it for you.” The bartender pointed at the beautiful songstress staring brazenly at Eden as she stood by the bar. The songstress’ dimples deepened in her smile as Eden simply stared back and raised her cup in gratitude. But the way Eden’s eyelashes batted against one another gave the songstress a clue to more.

Eden turned her attention back to the bartender and asked him with a dark seduction in her voice, “What’s her name?”

The bartender’s smile widened as he answered confidently, “Echo?”

“Echo,” Eden repeated, clearly interested. “Interesting. I’m going to have a smoke, thank you bartender man.” The bartender smiled, acknowledging her gratitude, and as Eden ventured out of the earthy brown night club filled with artisans and hipsters of all nature, the dreadlock wearing bartender looked up at Echo. And their eyes connected for a brief second, sending a quick and understood message.

Thoughts of a tortuous past filled her mind as the marijuana smoke swirled around her softly angled face. Her dark brown reddish irises stared up at the sky as she processed fighting off a sheer amount of demonic creatures throughout her path to becoming a Righteous One. But her path to becoming righteous was a dark and filled with peril. And as it seemed like every pair of eyes twinkling in the stars above her were staring down upon Eden, every memory recalled brought her closer to a memory she wish she could just simply forget.

            The chaos. The close embraces. Eden could still feel the fabric over his tone, muscular back. She still remembered his scent wafting in her nostrils. He smelled of a chaotic, passionate, pained nature while his dark eyes peered up into the starlit sky. His heartbeat played melancholy beat on her fingertips. Eden could still feel the sad rhythm of his heart playing on tip of her fingertips, tugging at the strings of her heart, pulling tears away from her dark brownish red eyes as she stared up at starless sky above her, reminding Eden that her once shining star was gone. “Hi.” But the appearance of Echo would prove to dull the pain inside of Eden’s heart.

            Eden turned her head in the direction of the exotic dimpled beauty that was Echo. Eden couldn’t help but smile as another star entered her vision. “Hey.”

            The melodic nature of her voice transferred from the stage to their conversation as Eden felt as though she were listening to the truest for of poetry. “Must be wrestling with a lot for you to be standing in the worst part of the city by yourself.”

            Eden smirked and looked back up into the starless sky with a lost yet happy twinkle in her dark eyes. “It’s not the Chaos Beings that scare me. Only the one’s who can break your heart.”

            Echo was heartbroken as she stared at Eden with comforting eyes. “And who would want to break your heart, love?”

            “Funny you should say that.” Eden looked deep into Echo’s dark brown eyes and finished. “He used to call me the same thing.”

  Filled with instant curiosity, Echo asked, “Who?”

A smile stretched across her face as a memory surfaced in her mind. One where her arms wrapped around his muscular torso. Blood the blackest colored poured from his wounds and seeped into his back. He raised his red gloved fingers into the starlight, the same light capturing a smooth, heavy, cracked red stone wrapped around his wrists and part of his forearms. His power made evident by his pain.

As Eden recalled her pain, another presence traveled through the darkness ready to make chaos known. Eden continued to tell her testimony of lost love and of how she became a Righteous One. She recanted on how she fell in love with a Chaos Being. “It was the darkest of passions. Beautiful and chaotic.” Eden continued to tell her story filled with sorrow and despair. But another presence enclosed closer to the two women as Echo continued to explore Eden’s tortured past. “I began to notice how he effected the world around him. Around us.”

“How so?”

The dark presence grew closer as Eden replied, “He attracted Chaos Beings everywhere we went. I always thought my presence as a Righteous One would deter the evil that followed him, but no, his presence only seemed to attract more Chaos Beings.” Eden shook her head as the smell of evil in the air became thick in her small pierced nostrils. So in order to get away from the madness, I had to let it go.” The madness in the air had risen as Eden continued her tragic story. “It was the hardest thing for me to do. Part with my passion. But once I discovered he was a Chaos Being, I knew we couldn’t be. That was a couple of years and with my new marital status, I partied a little just trying to avoid the memories, but I haven’t found someone to replace that intensity from our relationship….” Their eyes connected as Echo smiled, her dimples deepening into her exotic facial features. “Until now.”

As their smiles reflected one another, a dark voice floated in their ears. “It’s like you two are in love already.”

Eden and Echo turned around to see the cause of the madness in the air. And there he stood. The shocked look in her eyes was testament to her surprise as she whispered, “Paine?”

A smug smirk appeared on his fair skin as she fell into the depths of his black eyes. His defined sculpted facial features were still beautiful in her eyes as his wild, short untamed hair flailed in the wind. “I’ve been searching for you, love.”

Her breath was slow and deep as her stark stare melted a hole into Paine’s heart. With venom on the tip of her tongue, Eden replied, “I wasn’t looking to be found, Paine.”

“And I can clearly see why.” Paine’s black eyes feel upon Echo’s small stature and he smiled slyly. “She is beautiful. I can see why she has your attention.”

Eden suddenly shouted, “Leave her alone, Paine. This is between me and you. Leave Echo out of this.”

“Echo? Pretty name. Fine. You’re right. This is between me and you. I’ve come back for you. Journeyed far and wide, only to see you in her arms. I’m taking you with me.”

The sincerity in his voice was proof that he was determined not to leave without her. And she was rigid in her stance not to leave Echo, so she simply said, “No you’re not.” And with  that, the intertwined snake and vine wrapped around her left leg came to life in her hand. “Not without a fight,” she said while her bladed whip wrapped around her small body.

His forearms tingled at the thought of battle with a truly worthy opponent. Nothing else mattered at that moment. Not the warm humid night outside of the humid club. Not the crowd that formed behind a confused Echo as she stared at the battle ready Eden. Without looking at her, Eden with a confident smile on her beautiful presence yell, “Stay back Echo!” But Echo was unmoving in her stance, fiercely loyal to the stranger she had already fallen in love with. Echo angled her face with a look of suspicion pinching her eyebrows. Feeling Echo’s reluctance, Eden closed her eyes and shouted again, “I got this just go!” But Echo’s big sense of loyalty was unmoving as her dark eyes took in the sight of the battle that was about to unfold.

But there was a different glare in Paine’s eyes as a slight confident smirk appeared on his face. His baritone was low, dark. “You got this, huh?” The large rose colored stones on his wrists began to glow eerily as that smirk on his face expanded with an eerie confidence. “We shall see,” and with that last statement, large, curvaceous blades of the most vicious nature jutted from those same stones and he stood ready to separate Eden’s torso from her legs. But Eden stood defiant.

Echo watched as Paine charged ahead, his blades swinging intently awaiting the taste of her blood. A sinister fanged smile stretched across his sculpted face. But when Eden cracked her bladed whip, Echo quickly realized where Eden’s inner confidence had stemmed from.

Eden lashed her bladed whip toward Paine’s beautiful, regretting instantly that she had to scar a work of art. But Paine would not be bested. Not easily.

Paine knocked the bladed whip off of its trajectory and launched himself high into the night. As Paine eclipsed the moonlight streaming down upon them, Eden’s black eyes dilated. He had become simply a target.

She had retracted the blade back to its rightful spot back to her left leg, transforming back to beautiful vined snake, its scales the detailed memories of the Chaos Beings that died at her hand. With dilated pupils and quick movements, she seemed to pull a Bering Gun from the skin underneath the slit on the side of her shirt. Her finger tapped the trigger of the massive Steam Punk assault rifle while a pouring rain of shell casings cascaded to the cobblestone street below her heeled black booties. The sheer swarm of bullets flying through the air was a travesty of destruction. But Paine simply hid behind his massive blades as his descent toward Eden unhindered. Eden realized then that her Bering Gun would not be effective against the massive dark presence that was her lost love.

She threw the Bering Gun to the wind, dissipating in the same wind that carried her tears. Eden looked at the palms of her hands with starry eyes, revealing the incomplete tattooed five sided stars in the middle of her palms, the tattoos making her lifelines beautiful. But the sight of those incomplete stars caused a memory to resurface in her mind. One that she had wished she could run away from.

The shaman inside of the enchanted woodland greenery of the Ancient Wood outside of the castle of Amaritan’s king poked the inside of Eden’s palm with a fiery red feather of a Phoenix. The slight winces on her face was evidence of the slight pain she felt. But her pain was her pleasure as she looked up and saw Paine smiling down on her. In that moment, she knew it would be his smile that would resonate in her memory forever. But when the memory evaporated and reality was made real again, Paine was dangerously close to ending Eden’s life. Her concentration peeked when she heard Echo’s cries. “Eden,” and at the sound of her name, Eden summoned those same stars in the palm of her hands as they became real steel embodiments of the tattoos themselves. With her new blades, she blocked Paine’s impeding attack and threw his arms to the side. Thrown off balance, Eden suddenly became very aware of her advantageous position. Using the steel of the star that ran down on her arm, she punctured Paine’s shoulder blade without looking back.

Paine let out a loud ‘welp’ before yelling, “Bitch,” with a cutting venom on the tip of his tongue before elbowing Eden in the back of her head, flinging her forward. She sailed like a breeze over the cobblestone road. But angry sparks followed the trail of her blade made as she used her blades to still herself and regain control herself once again. Using her blades, she pushed herself back up, unknowingly kicking Paine the bottom of his chin. Knocked off balance, he wiped the blood trickling from his lips with the back of his hand, laughing. “I see this is a fight for real isn’t it?” He blinked once and saw her standing in front of him with a rage embedded deep in her dark brown reddish eyes, her blades masking her face. The smirk of confidence returned as he closed his eyes. “You want to kill me don’t you?”

            Ari ran through the shadows of the brilliant crowded city. He knew he couldn’t let the populace see him face his destiny. His mission. He knew the only eyes that could handle the monstrosity that was The Fury were his own. And he was determined to make sure that suffering Venus and countless others endured would never be committed again against no one else.

            Fear wanted to pause his rapid steps, but he kept going, driven on by one thought and one thought only. Her smile. As images of an unknown darkness began to fill his mind, he wondered to himself if he was even ready to face the evil that plagued the dark streets of Eryn Atratus, but every time he felt as though he were about to lose faith, he saw that same smile. That same smile uttering, “Have faith.” And that he did as he continued to race down dark cobblestone corridors toward the source of the screams.

            As he sped forward, Ari could only hear the screams of a man being tortured beyond measure. This too increased the pace in his steps as he rushed to save the being being tortured by The Fury’s evil power. But when he finally reached the source of the screaming, his face fell into despair as he realized it was too late. The screaming had stopped, and the deed had been done. Ari glared with sad eyes down upon the bloody mess that was once the plump man in the black overcoat, and he simply shook his head disappointed. But as he readied himself to face The Fury feasting upon the innards of her victim, he gripped the hilt of his gunblade tighter as he trembled under the weight of the truth in front of him. The bloody truth as he whispered into the dark surrounding The Fury and himself, “Lete?”

            A memory of a young Ari walking quietly across the castle floor as a young Scarlet cried herself to sleep on the marble floor of the throne room. As Scarlet cried to herself, just as she had done for many years, Ari wrapped his small arms around her neck in an embrace that only a little brother could give to his older sister. “I won’t let him hurt you anymore, Lete. I just won’t.”

            Scarlet smiled at her brother’s bravery as she simply chuckled at the impossibility of her brother making good on his word. The very thought of it was treason, but she knew that if anyone would come to her aide, it would be Ari. And it would be for no other reason but because he loved her. And she loved him for that. Loved him enough to let him go. “No, Ri. Don’t do anything to get in trouble. I’m scared of what would happen if he were to hear you talking like this.”

            His courageous nature shined through him, proving that the bravery and purity in his heart had been there for as long as he could remember. “I don’t care, I don’t want to watch from the corners of the doorways as you go underneath Father’s robe anymore.” Tears crawled down his young dark angry face as his fists balled in a rage barely contained. “I don’t know what you do underneath Father’s robes, but I see you cry when no one’s looking.” The anger in his voice traveled to his dark eyes as the young Scarlet gently wiped away the tears falling on his dark face. His voice was meek and sad. “I just don’t want to see you hurt anymore, sissy.”

            Scarlet had to hold back tears as she looked down at her baby brother crying in her shadow. She never knew that her pain was shared. She thought she had been all alone, but in that moment, she truly wished she had been. In fear that her baby brother would do something dangerous, Scarlet caressed the side of the eight-year old Ari’s face and did the bravest thing she had ever done in her entire life. “You should go, Ari.”

            Ari looked up at her curiously and asked, “Where?”

            “Just leave me here. I’ll be okay, but you have to get out of here. This is no place for you.”

            With furrowed eyebrows, Ari screamed, “No,” and Scarlet quickly shushed him in fear that his cries would awake the monster that was their father. Ari lowered his tone but the rage was still there. “I will not leave you here with him, Lete! No way!”

            A tear fell from her dark eyes as she struggled to add, “But you have to, Ari. You’re too pure to be here. You have to be brave for me, baby brother. Trust when I say, you don’t belong here. Search for the Word and it will lead you right. Right away from here.”

            “But what about you,” Ari asked tears continuously streaming down his face as he stared up at his big sister. He never felt so small in her presence.

            But Scarlet just smiled as she continued to caress the side of his face. The only person she loved. The only one she truly cared for. He had to be free in her eyes. And she would say anything to make sure that he would be. “I’ll be right behind you, little brother.” Ari smiled, not knowing that he would never see his sister again.

            “Hey, what’s going on in there!? Slave!”

She could hear the guards coming nearer, just like she knew if they found Ari with a slave, that he would be beaten savagely by their father so she pushed Ari toward the balcony and with a sense of urgency in her voice, she said, “Now get out of here. Find the Word, and I’ll be right behind you.”

Ari looked at her with scared eyes that seemed to tremble in fear. “But I’m scared, sissy.”

“Don’t be. The Gods always watch over the beautiful souls.”

He shook his head with closed eyes and replied, “Not for me, sissy. For you.”

A tear dripped down her face, and for the first time in her life, she truly smiled. “I’ll be alright, and soon, we’ll be together again. Okay, baby?” She leaned down and kissed him on his forehead. “Now go.” And with that last act of love, she pushed him away toward his destiny. Toward the dark cobblestone road where he stood with his hand on his forehead, still remembering the only kiss he had received from his older sister.

With tears pouring from his dark eyes, he pointed angrily at Scarlet and yelled, “You’re The Fury!?” But Scarlet continued to feast, oblivious to her brother’s presence. This only angered him further as the memory of Venus dancing around the Monastery where he was supposed to meet up with his sister haunted him. “They were supposed to be friends,” he thought to himself as he continued to see her smile shine at him through his memory. “We were supposed to be lovers.” She got off of her knees, the rags on her nimble body sanguine with her last victim’s blood as her white eyes fell upon her little brother. No recollection of his existence fired in the synapses of her mind. Simply hunger. Ari continued to cry silently as he looked at her and asked, “How could The Fury be you, sissy?” He shook his head. “You don’t deserve this. This has to be a dream. How could the Gods curse you so? How could you have become this?” Her clawed gauntlets sprang out beside her as she roared in his direction, still not recognizing the pain in his expression, even though it was a familiar pain. “I can’t walk away from you this time, sissy.” He pointed the tip of his blade toward his sister, and through tears, he said, “This time, Scarlet, I’ll be the one to save you.” She released one last roar of fury just as he released the last tear he would ever shed.

Scarlet raced toward Ari with her claws outstretched as Ari shook his head and reluctantly fired a burst of blue light blue energy from the tip of his grand blade. But Scarlet in her most feral form dodged the blast as though it were moving in slow motion and continued on her path toward her baby brother. Her malicious smile became filled with laughter as she leapt in the air with her right clawed gauntlet high above her long clumped dreadlocks flailing midst her screams of excitement. That same clawed gauntlet came down upon Ari as he blocked her vicious barrage of clawed attacks just as easily as she dodged his energy blast. But hesitation came over him when the opportunity to strike her and in that hesitation, she took her chance by unsheathing her curved sword and slashing upward, just barely missing Ari as he jumped a couple of steps backwards. When he stood on the bloodied cobblestone road, Ari simply gazed upon Scarlet’s madness with tears bubbling in his eyes. “Don’t you recognize me, sissy?” Images of their last shared moments stirred in his memory as he asked again, “It’s me Lete. Ari.”

Scarlet took her pinky claw and gathered a drop of her own blood on the tip of the bladed claw, put it to the tip of her pink tongue, and became intoxicated by the taste of her own blood. She roared into the dark sky above her, crying out for more, thirsting for battle as Ari stood unafraid, simply waiting for her next attack. However, he soon discovered that he was staring at an afterimage of his sister as her claws became apparent. Those same claws inched closely to his surprised expression as his reflexes barely allowed him to pull his head back. Her claws lowered almost making her somersault when the space underneath her right knee caught Ari around the side of his neck. Before he could react, she had already threw him in the air, and in an amazing display of unnatural animalistic acrobatics, she landed on the ground crouching before backflipping in the air, kicking him on the top of the air. His equilibrium had been taken as it felt like he was on the outskirts of a whirlwind of insanity. But then reality came to him again as he felt a vicious side kick in his chest, sending him backwards into a nearby building of brick and mortar. Crashing through the building with a trail of concrete following him, Ari rolled on the tile floor and stood up with his clothes in rags and blood seeping over the Word covered elastic all over his body. He struggled to stand erect as he looked through the smoke to see a hint of a blood red aura walking slowly toward him. He regained his warrior composure and took a quick glance behind him to see a few individuals engaged in criminal activities staring at Ari with enlarged pupils. In any other circumstance, the man tied to the chair receiving a beating from a few of the criminal elements of Eryn Atratus would’ve been saved instantly, but Ari knew the small-time criminals were the lesser of two evils. Waving his hand in the air for emphasis, Ari screamed, “Get out of here!”

The criminals jetted out of the building, leaving their criminal activities out in the open and the hostage still tied up and bleeding. The beaten man sat in that chair staring into Ari’s dark brown eyes and he mouthed, “Thank you.”

Ari smiled slightly and pointed his blade toward the beaten man, and for a second, the beaten man thought the end had come. But then, as a minute burst of blue energy fled from the tip of Ari’s supreme blade, the same blast sliced through the ropes that had bounded him. With a quiet sincerity, Ari ordered, “Stay there,” before slicing an ‘x’ in front of him. The ‘x’ materialized right in front of the newly freed man’s eyes as Ari leapt into the air, creating that same ‘x’. Then he landed in another spot and created another ‘x’ before racing in front of the freed man crouching with his blade extended high into the air above Ari’s head. “Steady,” he said as the freed man watched as that same red aura closed in on its intended target. But within a blink of an eye, that red aura became more visible as Scarlet burst through the hole Ari had created in the wall and rushed into the first ‘x’ Ari had created, and with that, she was bound. The freed man watched as a small contained explosion occurred over her body, flinging her into the air toward the second ‘x’ Ari had created, with the same explosion occurring, sending her to the third ‘x’. With the explosion of the third ‘x’, Ari closed his eyes and whispered, “Run,” before becoming an ethereal version of himself. The freed man, without hesitation, turned around and sprinted quickly away from the battle as Ari proceeded to melt into the ground.

Not seconds after Ari fell into the tiles of the ground beneath him, did he rise up with his right foot spinning high above him in the air with his blade extended to the side. His foot, surrounded by blue flames, connected with Scarlet, sending her a few inches further into the air as he collected himself in the air once again. It took a few seconds for him to gather the amount of energy needed, but when he did, he screamed out as an ethereal triangle of energy formed around him. And as he screamed, a concentrated explosion erupted from his small body and that triangle contained the destruction that would have brought the entire foundation of the building down on their heads.

Scarlet was sent spiraling into the air until she collided into a metal terrace where she laid sprawled out, feigning unconsciousness. But not a second later, she picked herself up off of the metal terrace and rose to her feet with that same fanged smile on her face. She had to admit, Ari was a truly worthy opponent. She looked at the back of Ari and extended her claws ready to taste his blood. She roared toward the roof of the building that housed their battle as her blood aura glowed brilliant over her body. But when he turned his head slight and his dark, sad brown eyes connected with her stark white eyes, an image of a little boy with those same sad dark eyes staring up at her when she too had sad dark eyes. A remnant of her past, and all of a sudden, her insanity wasn’t so comforting. And the denial of who Ari was quickly set in Scarlet’s heart as she leapt off of the terrace with a pain filled scream ringing out in Ari’s ears as he watched her descend down upon him.

When the barrage started, Ari blocked all of her attacks easily without even turning around. He knew she had begun to lose control over her insanity, and truthfully, he didn’t have the heart to end her life in such an unpredictable state. But as if the dominion she held over her power was regained, her movements became less and less predictable as she began to gain the upper hand over the young Ari. Ari knew the battle then deserved his full attention as he turned around and began to battle against his sister, giving Scarlet his full attention. The Words on the elastic wrapped around him illuminated the insanity in her eyes, but within that insanity there was a hint of sadness gleaming in her expression. A sadness that she thought was buried deep within her soul. Scarlet screamed out toward Ari before continuing her barrage. She leapt off of his blade as he held the pistol grip strong in his hand with tears crawling away from his dark pupils. He was at an utter loss as his sister began to twirl in the air, creating a blood red twister of madness and violence. As the twister raged on against Ari’s blade, Scarlet leapt from the eye of her created storm, and sent a violent spinning kick into his stomach. Ari was sent into the darkness above him. Scarlet saw her chance to end the battle quickly, retrieved the blade out of its sheath and slashed a gash in the dark reality.

Behind that slash in the air laid a dimension of blood and despair was revealed and a river of blood gushed out of the portal, swirling toward the falling Ari. His dark brown eyes bulged out of fear when he see saw the blood of Scarlet’s victims reaching out for him, and right in front of those dark brown eyes, that blood became a set of bloody fingers reaching out for him. Those same fingers wrapped around his little muscular body and pulled the screaming Ari into the bloody dimension with a smile large on Scarlet’s face.

In that dimension, Ari was tortured as he was reunited with his father’s depravity and power along with the other countless souls Scarlet had snatched souls from. The blood solidified into blades curved like Scarlet’s sword and began slashing Ari repeatedly. Demons born of that blood began swirling around Ari, pounding him with their rage, slashing with their pain as his ears took in the sounds of the screams that came from the souls just before they had met their end to the hand of Scarlet. And just as Ari thought it couldn’t get any worse, a massive beam of blood and energy washed over him as Ari couldn’t do anything but scream, and a second later, he was shot back into his own dimension, screaming.

The strength of the blood bath blast shot Ari past Scarlet’s back into the wall that held the wound Ari had created in the wall of the building. Ari crashed into that same wall and fell back outside into that same darkness. Tears fled from his eyes as he stared up at the moon, hurt, as his blood began to flow over his wounds, mixing in with the blood of his sister’s victims. He whispered into the sky, “I can’t win, Venus. She’s too strong and too far gone. I don’t know if I can win, and the only good thing that may lie in my defeat is the fact that I get to be with you again. And truthfully, that’s the only thing I wanted.” And in that moment where his faith had been waning away, an angelic naked spirit with a blue aura descended down upon Ari and wrapped her arms around his tone bird chest.

The blue aura gave warmth to his bloody wounds, but her whispers brought comfort to Ari’s tortured soul. “But it’s not what I want, Ari.”

“Venus,” Ari uttered amidst tears.

“Ari, have faith that we will be reunited again. Have faith in that fact, but remember your patience. Do not give up.”

Ari shook his head. “But I just don’t think I can win, Venus. I can’t kill her.” Tears continued to stain his chocolate brown face and distort his voice. “Even though she took you away from me, I just don’t have the heart to kill her. She’s still my sister, and she was still tortured. And she doesn’t deserve this.”

Venus snuggled her head against Ari’s neck and smiled, whispering, “Well then why not set her free, Ari?”

Staring straight ahead with lost eyes, he answered softly, “I don’t know how.”

“I’ll help you,” and before Ari could utter another word, Venus melted into Ari, her aura becoming his, her ethereal wings becoming his, and there he stood anew, faith restored as he stared at Scarlet with brilliant blue shimmering eyes cluttered with the Word. And to Scarlet, it was like seeing her brother for the very first time. And she knew at that moment that he had to live.

She raced toward him, tears gracing her face for the first time in ages. The grip on her bloody curved blade was strong as she stared at the tears her brother shed, the same ones that left his eyes that night when he went searching for the Word. Flashes of Ari as a young boy popped up in her mind and her insanity began to take over again. She screamed, “Stop,” and slashed upward toward Ari’s face. The blade was close enough to wipe the tears from Ari’s left eye, but she still missed uncharacteristically, and Ari knew this was his chance to save his sister. Ari summoned Venus’ beautiful ethereal blade in his free hand and thrust it deep within her heart. Lowering and spinning, the ethereal blade disappeared and he pointed the tip of his gunblade in front of her. As he gripped on the grip of his gunblade with both hands, a massive blue beam filled with power and the Word shot out of the tip of the sharp point. Scarlet’s screams seemed to go on forever, but all Ari could see was her smile. And at that moment, he knew he had set her free.