Yumi listeo everything Yori said. Her hands lifted up to her mouth as eae her more shocked tha. “How that be?! All this time…” Yumi turned her head towards the Capital, where Ayumi and Yuki had to be. “…Ayumi…you pnned all of this knowing that? Ayumi…” Yumi hung her head down, most of her face disappearih the shadows.

  Suddenly, a hand grabbed her ankle. It snapped her out of her own world to stare below her. Ourias stared up at her with fierce determination. “I won’t lose… I made a promise…”

  A wind suddenly blew out from Yumi. The area around her eyes turned dark as night. Severe lines carved into her fabsp; An iy not seen before shined from behind her eyes. “You ot stop me,” she uttered in a grave tone. “Ayumi… Not even hell itself will stand in my way! AYUMI!”

  Even faced with the other personality ihe girl, Ourias never saw such a murderous i in her. The sight actually chilled his spine a little and shook his determination. She had the look of being willing to do anything. ‘What happened suddenly? Is it another personality in this girl?’

  Staring down at Ourias, the lines around her eyes multiplied instantly. “Let go,” Yumi demaersely. It seemed she had trouble keeping trol of her voice as she almost exploded again. Only a sed passed before she drew an arc with her finger. Released from her hold, it severed Ourias right arm at the upper arm. She ripped his arm free from her ah the use of her telekinesis and crushed it into nothingness. “Don’t make me…TELL you AGAIN!”

  Chapter 261 – Burning Freedom

  Ourias staggered back with pain, fully waking all of his senses. Adrenaline pumped through his body allowing him to stand. The shortness of breath pletely disappeared. Ripples ran out from his feet a moment ter. Muttering words in a soft tone, a white material formed in the air to stretch over his wound.

  Straightened out, Ourias had his posure babsp; He knew what he had to do. The image of his family sat at the back of his mind. “I ’t allow you to pass.”

  “Then you will DIE!” roared Yumi, casting out another arc aimed straight for his head. It faded away to water after a response from him. “Nothing in this world will stop me!”

  Grinding his teeth together, she made it clear to him how much thied. ‘Dammit, what’s going on with her? Are you going to make me kill a child?’ He summoned up his attack for Yumi. A mixture of his past types came out of the ground. However, her power seemed to have increased as she wiped it all out without even wasting a sed. ‘I covered up for the fw in my power, so she won’t be able to stop me this time, but with this sort of power I’m not going to make any progress.’

  His invincible shield protected him from the of Yumi’s attacks until he was able to nullify it. The exge tinued with the stalemate. ‘She’s increased her attack speed to try to keep me from using my words to destroy her attacks. Even still, we’re not getting anywhere. She’s faster than I react, but nothing she does will reach me.’

  Yumi took to the air, destroying the vines ing after her. “I’m wasting time on this pointless fight. My target lies in there.” Her gaze went to the city wall. She darted for it immediately, giving up the fight. Stone shards rained on her along with metal ns, but she dealt with them quickly and never slowed down.

  Still in sight, but far away, Yumi crashed into something before reag her goal. She pressed against it harder trying to force her away through, but she wasn’t strong enough. Pulling back, she drew up particles into her palm and fired a point bnk bst at the invisible wall.

  Nothing.

  “Damn you!” Yumi tilted her head back over her shoulder to Ourias. “That desperate to die are you?!” She swiped her arm through the air to destroy the ining attacks.

  ‘I’ve got her held down, but I her down.’ Ourias stared up at the girl. The ohat caused him so many troubles already. He wasn’t fond of his job at times. It was he life he wished to have. However, he couldn’t ge his course. “I’m ending this now.”

  Questioningly, Yumi stared at Ourias. She doubted he had anything to back up the cim. But she waited to see what he did. Anything created by him would be struck down all the same. The untouchable situation wouldn’t ge.

  Out of the er of her eye, she saw a metal n running for her like all of the rest. She stretched out her hand to deal with it, but nothing happened. “Huh?” Yumi turoo te for it. The ft end smmed into her hand and then shoulder, sending her flying.

  Her body crashed into the barrier, which prevented her escape, before dropping to the ground dazed. ‘What just happened? My power…’ She stared at her hand summoning up the energy to firm she still had it. ‘It’s not gohen what?’

  Unfortunately, she didn’t have a minute or even a sed to pte her dition. Vines grew up from the earth to tie down her legs. Once more using her hands to cut through the pnts did nothing. Her energy arcs broke apart upon impabsp; ‘Again…’

  The situation became very clear to her what he wanted. She saw even more of his projectiles ing in. Immediately, she threw up a barrier to prevent their progress. While it fought with him, she worked to get her legs free. However, he already dissolved her defenses. ‘Damn, he’s persistent…’ She put another barrier out, which sted the same amount of time. It just was attrition at this point. He would pee her defenses in time.

  All she could do ut her hands up to attempt a defense. Clearly, it wouldn’t be enough. A metal n shot through to her head ramming it against the wall. The heavy ringing of Yumi’s head crushed into the wall echoed throughout the interior. Following the ringing even more flew in, smashing the n with each strike.

  Blood spttered upwards across the wall.

  “Yumi!” shouted Seiji, stuside with the others. The moment Ourias put the Field back up they received the paralysis again. He fought with his body to run to her. ‘She’s not moving! He didn’t…’ Seiji ched his fists. Sidelined, while his friend couldn’t fight bafmed his blood. “Bastard! Let me go and I’ll show you a fight!”

  A cough.

  Attention shot over to Yumi again. “I …still fight…Seiji.” Yumi’s voice wound through and underh everything over her. It came out low and quiet, almost muffled.

  All of Ourias objects flew off into the far ers of the Field boung around a little before stig themselves in the earth. The vines uned themselves around Yumi’s legs, but seem to be resisting against something.

  “I’m still in this,” she decred, emerging from underh everything. Blood dripped over much of her face ruining her youthful appearanbsp; However, it didn’t stunt any of her determination.

  Flexing her hands a little, they felt tight and stiff. It was nothing she couldn’t work out. “If you want to put me down food, yoing to have to do a lot better than invulnerable attacks.”

  Ourias’ eyes narrowed with . ‘I struck her directly in the head. I did injure her, but it should have killed her or at least knocked her out. She shouldn’t be standing still.’ Yumi defied his expectations a him a little worried. He didn’t know how much force he actually o kill her.

  She started walking towards Ourias slowly. The attacks came after her. Waving her hand, the attacks diverted off behind her pounding out a heavy hollow tone on the wall. She kept moving forward. “You ’t stop me.” Her destination remained firmly pnted in her mind. The obstacle before her was just a small bump.

  Pushing off the attacks with telekinesis, Yumi kept the mar towards Ourias. When throwing wasn’t enough, she angled her barrier iions to deflect them off. Her path remained open. Like a machete sshing through a thick jungle, she could see her path clearly. It was always open.

  Maniputing her barriers in pieces kept her safe when she finally stood in front of the only defense Ourias had. “We meet again face to fabsp; I’m going to have to thank you for pounding my head into pudding back there. I’m thinking a little straighter now.” She lifted her hand up to the shield proteg him.

  ‘What are you pnning? You ’t break it. I made it impossible for you.’

  Energy gathered to her palm despite the impervious nature of the shield. Slowly it built up stantly as though size would ge anything. The light of it expanded almost pletely blog her out of sight.

  Ourias thinned his eyelids trying not to be blinded by the light. ‘What’s she pnning? Even blinding me won’t ge the shield.’ However, the ground under him started to rumble. He only had a moment to look down before light exploded from under his feet. It hit him square iomach, throwing him up into his own shield.

  Surprise spread over his fabsp; ‘She was just distrag me from her real iion. The shield doesn’t cover underh me!’ Blood sprayed out of his mouth. He fell back against the surface of the shield. Ohe ball of energy dissipated, Ourias slid down to the earth slumped over.

  “You seem to be copying me.” Yumi gred down at him. Despite no longer being rage filled, her lethal edge never left. It actually made her look even worse as she was no longer animal like, but ed up in a human shell, the shell of a teenage girl small and pearing.

  Wiping away the blood from his mouth, Ourias forced himself back to his feet. “Then five me for repeating you by saying, ‘I still fight.’ So don’t think this over just yet.” He brushed his stomach where the bst burhrough his clothes. It quickly repaired the visual damage to the cloth. “You’ll regret not finishing it there.”

  “No. I know you’ve already fixed your shield to enpass a plete sphere around you. But I’ll still win.” The attacks became more difficult to deflect with her tration focused away. She pulled back floating away as Ourias’ strikes flew over her as though to block her path to him.

  Dozens almost hundreds of pieces of her barrier materialized around her. “My mind was more awake this time around. So I actually remember pieces of things.” ting on the round of attacks, she shot out a small bst down at her side. Just before it came inte, beams from all sides bounced around off her scattered barriers creating a mesh of light. The attacks smashed into the beams uo advance.

  Yumi cast her hand out dragging away everything cluttered up around Ourias’ shield. As she timed out, he dealt with her beams. However, she flew iop of the n and pulled on the bad to turn it around. The force off it sent it speeding towards Ourias’ shield.

  A metal g blew out from the impabsp; It seemed like the shield vibrated from the ringing, but didn’t budge. However, before the n fell down Yumi lifted up the end she pulled on with her bare hands. Lifting above her head, she swung down on the shield creating another ringing. The sound started to bee deafening. She swuedly as if it was a bat.

  Ourias held his hands over his ears, being at the ter of the racket. ‘Is she trying to kill my ears? She knows she ’t break through like that.’ Then he realized. ‘tration…focus…that’s it.’ It took him lohahought to remove it from his mind, but all of the ringing made it difficult on him. His discipline and mastery came back to fight against him. Maintaining everything was so simple for him that he didn’t need much attention for it, but he had to focus to drop it. The pain finally started to ease up. ‘I’ll have to be faster about wiping things.’

  The round came up for Yumi. She dodged the attacks rather than blog or defleg them. Her feet bounced around oops dang around the air. When she o block, she pulled up a yer of her barrier, then rotated in a new one immediately. It pushed back just enough oack before it faded out that it could never make any progress and Ourias couldn’t nullify it in time.

  ‘Damn, she’s getting more clever with her powers. Her speed is so fast that I ’t even finish a word before it’s pointless. I ’t affeething that did the moment before.’ The previous persona reminded him of his fw. C up for the other fossible, but it was the ohat he had no cover.

  Worse for him, Yumi kept increasing the hat she stopped. He could only stare. Other feints did nothing to stop her. The superhumaion and awareness made it difficult for him to get anything over her.

  Crafting a pletely invincible stone n, it rammed through everything straight for Yumi. However, it stopped just in front of her. “Huh?!” He couldn’t see anything she was doing. ‘How is she stopping it?’ Realization for him came a moment too te as she leapt up oone n. ‘She must have made it too small for me to see behind the obstru.’

  Yumi ran along the length of the n and hopped up to the attack trying to knock her off. A barrage came after her to stop her advanbsp; She flipped herself around running upside down skipping around to keep her position difficult to pin down. Finally, Yumi nded on top of the shield. “Checkmate.”

  Ourias stared up at Yumi, fused at her decration. “You ’t do anything.”

  “Not true! I learned a couple of things about my power from her. This being one of them!” She pnted her palm against the top of the shield. Suddenly beams projected everywhere around the Field to a ter point at the top of the shield just inside.

  The energy passed through the shield unhindered gathering into a sphere at her and. It finished before a stunned Ourias could react c the eerior in a blinding light.

  Yumi k was over whearted to fall with the shield gone. He id unscious at her feet. “Like she said, your defense allows non-aggressive acts through. I just had to alter the waveform of my energy into something that could pass through the shield. Did you think all of those things I was doing was just me pying around? I was testing it out and making the needed adjustments while I kept you distracted. I knew I only had one shot at it.”

  She turned away and started to walk off. “Seiji have Nerio any injuries he has. I’m going after Ayumi. I’ll save Yuki from her!”

  Seiji felt a little stunned from watg Yumi. She became someohat he hardly even reized anymore. ‘Is this really the same girl I saw back at the tree when the fairy called us?’ Shaking off some of his sckjaw, he stood up helping Nerine and the others. He looked over at Yumi just as she started to fly away. “Be careful, Yumi!”

  “Save that for Ayumi when I see her again!” Being reminded of Ayumi and Yori’s truth triggered her emotions with renewed iy. She hardehe features in her face flying straight for the wall. Nothing mattered to her anymore other thaing Ayumi. When she approached the city wall, a rge hole puhrough for her allowing her access to the Capital.

  “I’m ing to save you, Yuki!”