CALAMITY CORE : FREE THE WORLD

CH.86 'SUNDERED SKY, NEW BEGINNINGS'

Steel cut through the air, wood and leather clattering as weapon's sheaths blew in the wind produced from the heat in the castle. Ohta's blade dripped with a silvery-purple coating of water, her broken mask having retracted back into her face. She opened both her eye, and the socket which held her core, to reveal the pearlescent core. Alpha's colossal weapon vented pure heat as she began to heat it up again, cycling the energy inside it with her own as she came into contact with it, her palm wrapping around the black hilt. "Saiji... That's him." She said, her tone quiet.

The air around them stood still as Ohta's eyes shifted to Saionji. Who was 'him,' one of her fellow demons? She wondered about it, eyes locking on both Kannon, and the unfamiliar form of another Chimera. Her steely determination faltered as memories injected her with a cold sweat, something which formed on her brow. "I-..." Her voice was still coarse, and she could barely speak above a whisper, the bones in her body still out of place, pain shooting through her with each breath. "... If he's a threat too, I'll kill him. The Hierophant comes first though." Through the gravel in her throat, a distinct ice formed on the pools of her mind, reflecting in her tone. Ohta took a combative stance, her rusted blade gleaming with the sharpened edge of water. "I believe..." She trailed off, dwelling on Saionji's nickname, "... I owe you my life, 'Saiji.'"

Saionji's rapier glimmered with golden light as the winds caught her presence. Her hair was suddenly not blowing backwards, away from the two war-locked Chimera, but rather towards them. The streaks of blonde hair on her head, from the roots, began to reflect an emerald sheen, and her eyes took on a mixture of golden and green light. "Andrei is not a threat. I-..." Her eyes began to grow cloudy through their blinding radiance. "I know he'd never lose..." Suddenly, she remembered Alpha's earlier update on his condition.

"... Not to the thing in his head. He needs my help."

Across the way, across a separate division. Not the physical ravine which split the rest of the castle and once buried Ohta, but across this new split in the atmosphere, Ra's features became more clear in the hellish black flame which erupted from his face. His fangs were hot, nearly molten from the heat, and his eyes only reflected an even deeper inferno. There was a chaos in his very soul, the true soul which resided within the core in his head. With a boundless fury, Ra watched Kannon stand up to meet his gaze once more, and he tilted his head low. This enemy is incredibly analytical... I get the feeling I'm playing into their hands here, Andrei's allies... His Generation is here?

Trying to quell the flames of chaos and think for a moment, the core fought against its nature for a moment. That second thought was what spelled disaster for him. Kannon shot forward, in their hands forming two spears. The spears furled outwards even more, their blades like blooming flowers. Kannon wielded two axes, pure manifestations of solar magic.

Holding out both hands, Ra attempted to catch the blades, but his own precision was matched by Kannon's speed. Feeling a more divine, searing heat in his palms, Ra clenched the blades harder, causing the hardened flame to crack and give way, spraying fragments of molten light formed of the lava in his veins and the dissipating solar axes. In a gamble, he clenched his hands, feeling as the blood which had been sent flying erupted into flashes of light. Charging through this light, Ra rushed Kannon with searing fists.

Feeling a sharp feeling in his gut, or what had healed of it, Ra saw Kannon's own fist as his strikes were easily evaded, his first jab a simple side-step, followed by Kannon's attack. Reopening the wound with a simple strike, Ra's next swing was far easier to simply step back from, Kannon's hands finally coming out from under their cloak of sunlight to spread wide, creating spheres of light around them which evolved into spears.

The timer was running low. Andrei's body wouldn't be able to sustain him if it didn't hand itself over to him entirely... Ra gritted his teeth and balled his fists before trying to take a step forward. In that moment, he was rooted to the ground, the pain finally reaching a threshold which the caged demon would've once scoffed at. Had he... grown weaker? Before he could even curse under his breath, a flash of soft golden light was before him. Her back turned, Saionji's rapier cut through the incoming spears of sun. Each spear had been sliced in twain twice over, her muscles tearing as she unleashed the full power of this awakened state.