‘Simonides…’ Athene whispered to herself. Her mind finally came down from the rag pace she pressed it into for days. It staggered her for a moment, falling babsp; The strength in her legs fell out leaving her a mess on her floating ptform of lights. ‘What have I been doing, Simonides?’

  The silend lull iack gave Yori the mueeded ce to recover from everything. Ever since he awoke from the fog in his head, things moved too fast for him to process. He hoped it meant that the fightiween them finally ended. ‘Looks like she’s calmed down some. Still didn’t really get an answer from her, but if it brought her to her senses I’m not going to pin.’

  Yori took a few steps forward once he gathered himself. A lot rode on his risk, but he o provide the proof she needed. “Um…excuse me, Miss.” Silently a prayer ran through his mind that it all worked out. ‘Please don’t try to kill me again.’

  Alerted out of her thoughts, Athene gnced down at Yori, cautious approag. Her mind leveled out enough with her emotions still running hot. No longer was she at a blindly seething rage, but it didn’t mean she accepted him. She immediately stood up, taking up a dominant position with needles appearing in her hand. “What?”

  Holding his hands up, doing everything he could to make himself seem non-offensive, Yori approached her a few more steps. “I was thinking, you don’t believe what I told yht?”

  “Of course! I heard straight from Abeiron that Simonides is dead at the hands of you and your friends.”

  It didn’t feel as strong as before, but he felt the anger directed at him. She didn’t seem to be solely exeg everything upon him. Even still, she dropped most of it on him. Wing a little looking at her as though he felt it, he broached the subjebsp; “I was thinking. One of your abilities is to read my mind. Use it and look io find the truth. Then you believe me.”

  Narrowing her eyes, she stared at him reading his i. “Your mind’s a maze. It’s too plex for me to be certain anything I find in there is the truth.”

  ‘Dammit! e on, stop making excuses!’ Yori sighed, trying to restrain himself from yelling at her. “You won’t go check over there where my friends are just to see him. And you won’t search my mind. He sounds important to you, I’d bet he’d be pleased to see. Especially since he’s only got Nerih him that he knows.”

  “Sed Lieutenant Nerioo…” Athene’s suspis started to rise. Her eyes gnced over to where she first found Yori. ‘Could it be true?’ The thought made her heart jump. ‘No, I ’t trust him. He’s the enemy.’

  He saw the doubt in her fabsp; ‘I almost got her. Is there something else I do to finally vince her?’ The man she knew was still fairly unknown to him. Yori didn’t know enough information that might be a trigger for her.

  The st ce he had was just to expihing. He hoped it was enough. “After our st battle with your Captain and his men, he came to our side. He seemed to feel there was something bigger that threatened your try. He couldn’t beat us, so he joined us to watch us. oal is not to attack Atntis, but just t ao the assassination on Yuki Hayashi. sidering what his aeant, he faked his death. I suspect that it wasn’t just because he was afraid of those in the Capital that would view it as a traitorous move to side with us.”

  Yori could see that he at least had her attention, even if she remained skeptical. “I think he also wao protect his men. Just something in what I saw in his eyes whealked. He felt very protective of them. Wanting to keep them out of danger. As he correctly saw the Omega Division and eveans ing after us. If you kept following us, the disaster could have been far worse. The loss of life might have been catastrophibsp; These people are in a pletely different league than everyone else.”

  Silence huween them for several seds. He wasn’t sure if he should say anymore. He said what he needed, but she just stared at him. “So I feel he did it all because his mehe most important thing to him, including you.”

  Nothing.

  Chapter 259 – Awakeions

  The silence was unbearable. He knew he couldn’t say anymore. He likely already exceeded his bound. There was a fair bit of assumption made, even though he was ho about what he saw in Simonides when speaking to him.

  Atheared down at him. The whole time she read his face, cheg for clues. It should just be lies. She shouldn’t believe a word he said. The little chip of his mental avatar still hauhe back of her mind, threatening her sanity at every turn. It taunted her. He corrupted her mind, tainted her vision and cracked her sanity.

  “I despise you, Yori Mizuno,” Athene firmed. “But I believe you.”

  He sighed again. “Thank you.” It was over, finally. He could return to the others.

  “But this isn’t over yet.”

  “Huh? But you just said you believed me!”

  “Believe you when you said that Simonides is still alive and you talked to him, however our matter is still uled.”

  “What matter? I don’t have anything to settle with you. You’re the ohat invaded my mind a me unscious for a few days after.”

  “You took my sight! And threatened my sanity!”

  “Eh?! I did her of those things!” He couldn’t remember any of that happening. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Besides, if you ’t see then how you fight so well still?”

  “I modified my power to reproduce everything directly into my mind through echolocation. I make it as detailed as I o evehe wrinkles in your skin.”

  The response made him lean back a bit. “That’s some frighteningly powerful stuff.” Yori already felt impressed by what they were capable of, but the lengths she went to left him stunned. He really didn’t want to fight her, even though he saw that in her eyes. “Do we really have to fight though? Haven’t we settled the main reason you wao kill me already?”

  “I still won’t be satisfied without pung you for everything you’ve got ing!”

  “That doesn’t even make any sense! Why ’t you people be more enlightened and be above fighting?!” He sighed again seeing her unvinced expression. She was clearly set on a fight even though it was unnecessary. “Fine, if you just want to punch me a few times. I’ll give you all of the free shots you want until you’re done!”

  “Huh? I’m not going to punch you! That’s just an expression!”

  “Well I don’t want to be punched by your on again!” Yori caught a disappointed look when he shut down that idea. “You were thinking about it?!” He ruffled up his hair, annoyed by the whole situation. “Fine, since we’re not getting anywhere like this. You want a fight. I'll do my best with this new power I have. But I want you to unscramble my brain after this! There’s something I know I’m missing still that’s really important.”

  “ you give me back my sight?”

  “I don’t know how I took it away from you!”

  “You have your answer.”

  “Tbsp; Damn, whatever. We’re having a long chat after this is all over though. We settle everything with this fight, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good!” Yori threw down his hands as bck bdes materialized at his call. It was the only thing that felt familiar to him. He was still o his power to uand it like the others. ‘I’ll give her a fight, but hopefully it’ll be over quickly.’ Looking ready for the fight, didn’t mean his heart was really in it. He just o satisfy her need for it.

  Athene ched her needles as her opener, but stored plenty in reserve for the fight. She felt ready for anything he might try to do. ‘I’ll win this and finally put this all to rest. I’ll quer this!’

  Jumping forward, Yori made the first move. Not out of aggression, he just wa pushed. However, he realized that he actually was higher than he pnned, even though he jumped with full strength. ‘What’s with my body? Is this her Field?

  The long hang time in the air gave Athene all the time she o react, despite his swift absp; Throwing her needles at him to force him to use his on to block allowed her to set up her attabsp; A whip appeared in her freed up hand to tch around his bde and swing him away from her into the ground. She tossed some more needles amongst the coughed up smoke cloud around Yori.

  A little shook up, Yori stood up out of the cloud feeling the ringing in his head from the impabsp; To his side, one of her needles dug into his shoulder. ‘Damn, I’m not sure which hurts more…’ He yanked out the needle chug it to the side. ‘I know I said I didn’t care about the fight, but I don’t want to get hurt that much…’

  Questioning his position in the fight, Yori hesitated too long. Arike from Athene forced him to start moving. Like before, everything seemed to move slower than it should. ‘What’s with everything? Why is it so slow?’ Because he wasn’t used to it or really even suited to bat, the well-telegraphed attacks gave him time to evade, but still left him rushing around.

  Taking up his dual swords, he charged in for Athene blog her needles. The sshes he made were stopped by more of her needles, a on on for her apparently. Between the end and start of his attack, Athene pushed him back spinning around suddenly whag him across the stomach with a rge scaly tail. The force sent him flying back to the brick wall.

  Smming his head painfully against the immovable wall, Yori staggered a bit. “Urgh…damn…” He pressed his hand to the wall to push off. A strange image fshed through his mind. He saw a dark sphere gather in his hand in the image. It seemed familiar. ‘Did I…’ Thinking about it, he looked down at his hand to see the sword ging shape into a sphere like in his mind. ‘Something else this power do?’

  Yori wao ask what it did, as though someoh the rulebook stood o him. However, he just fired it immediately at Athene, somehow knowing what it did. ‘So it’s a projectile…’ The result from the hit unfortunately missed Athene, something deflected at the st moment. And she seemed to feel enced to respond with her ed attack, missiles. Missiles, as in the rocket propelled from an installed battery or naval ship type. Yori’s eyes widened just looking at what she summoned. “No fair…”

  Running was about all he could do in the face of that. Explosio off behind him tossing him into the air. ‘Why am I still alive?! I thought she didn’t want to kill me anymore!’ Yori smmed into the dome wall again, but ran his free hand against it keeping a bauck to the side. It gave him visibility on the missiles allowing him to jump off, taking advantage of the slowed time.

  Slig through the front missile, he jumped off the two halves to turn himself around in midair. While still tumbling through the air he threw his sword at the o pin it into the ground and took out the st two with quick bsts from his hands. He came to rest on the wall on the plete opposite side. ‘I swear she’s just throwing random things at me. There’s no theme to any of it!’ All around the Field explosions ripped through the earth.

  Settled into the situation, Yori started feeling different about the fight. “If it’s going to be like that, I’m not going to lose!” He materialized his swords once more before dashing across the air, actually running on air, towards Athene.

  ons cshed quickly before Athehrew out another random on. Yori spun around making use of the slowed movement. She still had another ter, but he could keep up with the pabsp; Even when he made a mistake, the time given allowed him to make it up.

  They danced around each other rapidly exging blows. Yori learned he could shift the swords into other shapes, giving him a rger array of ons. New, more bizarre tools in Athene arsenal appeared like a frog’s tongue, a fme throwing lion’s mouth and a ballista.

  Yori ended up staring down the wrong end of a giant guillotine bde, as though there could be a good end. It came flying at him, missing the guide rails and not vertical. It moved too fast for him to dodge. He lifted up his hand with another image popping into his hand. Squeezing his hand, the bde crushed on an invisible force rendering it pletely useless.

  He sighed, feeling his mortality more than some of the other attacks. However, the pause gave his body enough time to remind him that he wasn’t in shape. The minor wounds he picked up from the course of the fighting and fatigue washed over him. ‘Dammit…this is going to be what does me in?’

  Gathering up the bergy into his hand, Yori stared across at Athene. He needed something to level the field. ‘All of her random ons are making it difficult to get close to her at times. My body isn’t holding out for anymore crazy stunts, even if I have the time to pull it off. I o restrict her movements…’ An idea suddenly came to him. The power was still o him, but different funs seemed to be popping up. So he had a ce.

  His hand closed around the sphere, shrinking it down to a smaller size. Opening his hand, several orbs appeared ner than a marble. ‘Just o be careful…’ He released them from his palm, letting them float up away into the air. They spread around the space between them. It worked, somehow, but one suddenly faded away. ‘Damn, lost my tration. o focus on them. If I create them in my hand I should be able to do it elsewhere too…’ More marble sized bck spheres appeared in the air all around them. The t increased to the hundreds.

  Packed tightly around them, Yori moved in closer to Athene pulling out his swords again. Their bdes extended further and thied. ‘Alright, let’s try this now!’ He forced a csh with the woman once more. She pyed around him carefully, but made the mistake of hitting oh her dragon’s tail sweep. Bsts went off for the three orbs she collided with knog her back.

  Barely put off by the bsts, Athene charged ba for Yori, but went for a melee on. It kept things cle and out of risk. It was exactly how Yori wanted. His floating mines focused their fight to something more favorable.

  His ons cshed with her battleaxe. The ons sparked with each swing. They struggled against each other for the dominant ground, surrounded by bck marbles. Leaning in with their whole bodies, their heads almost touched trying to break through the other.

  However, amidst the csh, a swarm of images flooded Yori’s mind. A burning vilge and a child appeared. They were unfamiliar ses, but something about them he knew he had seen before. More tio show off the girl. He felt like he was seeing someone else’s life. Then he remembered.

  ‘It’s her! I remember! During the interrogation, I saw these memories!’ Everything suddenly started to e ba. The other fotten pieces swarmed his mind. ‘…the truth! I remember, I saw the truth of Atntis!’ Finally recalling his fotten memories, he started to put together all of the pieces. Everything he knew from curres and his newly acquired knowledge formed an even bigger picture. ‘That expins everything! Ayumi’s pn! Yuki Hayashi’s in danger! If she tinues with her pn, he’ll die!’