Arc III: “Return of Darkness”
Chapter I: “Dark Army”
Episode X: “The Third Admiral, Head!”
Shit… Reito thought as he glanced at the cracks in the floor where the man was just standing. “Kyoto!” Reito shouted at the top of his lungs.
A blur cleaved the air. Head jabbed his elbow into Kyoto’s jaw.
Reito’s portal bloomed behind Kyoto, but it was too late.
Kyoto staggered back, the light vanishing from his eyes. He collapsed to the ground as Head prepared to dash towards Reito.
A single hit!? If only my portal made it in time… He slipped through a second portal as Head flashed again, buying a heartbeat of space. “Spirit Ascension—plus True Demon Form, Level Three!”
“It’s pointless,” Head said, already there—two body shots into a heel kick.
Reito skidded across polished stone.
It’s impossible—he’s on another tier… even if Kyoto got back up, we wouldn’t stand a chance against this guy!
“Not yet, Reito! Don’t give up yet!” Kyoto pushed to his feet, blood ribboning from his brow.
Reito’s jaw tightened. He can barely stand. Even then, we still don’t—
“Don’t tell me you forgot,” Kyoto barked. “The technique our fathers drilled into us for emergencies. We laughed and shrugged it off… but this is one of the times that they were talking about!”
Reito blinked. Right… that legendary technique!
“Convergence!” They yelled in unison.
Convergence? Head questioned, his eyes narrowing. “Whatever the two of you are up to, I won’t let you accomplish anything!”
“We’ll see about that!” Kyoto shouted as he unleashed full strength. “Reito!”
“Right!” Reito opened numerous portals, surrounding the three of them in a circle.
What is this!?
“Aster-Volt Canticle: Trinity of the Tempest! Triple Lightning Dragon Strike!”
Three cyan wyrms dove out—then vanished into Reito’s portals.
“Shadow Hold!”
A well of shadows puddled up from the ground with dark hands rising from them, cinching Head in their cold grasp.
“What!?”
The three dragons reappeared from the portals, attacking Head from three different angles—
But Head easily tore the tethers to shreds, slipped through the three-pronged bite of cyan lightning, and unleashed a pulse of aether that burst through the ring of portals.
“Dammit, it’s not strong enough…” Reito hissed. “Abyssal Shadows!”
A dark beam surged out, reducing everything in its path to shadowy ash.
Head caught the beam and crushed it to nothing, fingers grinding through dense darkness.
“Kyoto—catch!” Reito flicked a small, black-violet orb.
“Huh?” Kyoto sprang up and snatched it, drawing his attention away from Head.
“You’re open!” Head dashed straight towards him at high speed.
Reito’s mouth quirked. Instantaneously, he swapped positions with Kyoto, and his hand was covered in black and white lightning.
What!?
Reito struck Head.
A thin line opened on Head’s cheek as he jerked back. How did his attack hurt me? His energy is too low… “Huh? What’s that!?” Head noticed a dark filament knitting from Kyoto to Reito, a stream of aether flowing through it.
“Hehehe, do you like that? My Shadow Swap combined with my Shadow Drain. And now, Dark Passage!”
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With one portal before him and another behind Head, Reito thrusted his arm through the first—his black and white lightning piercing clean through Head’s abdomen as it exited the second portal.
“Argh!” Head grunted as he Aether-Skipped.
“Lightning Flash!” Kyoto became a bolt that re-formed behind him. “Lightning Impact Fist!”
Blue-white knuckles detonated on Head’s jaw, hurling him toward Reito’s charge.
“Super Shadow Demolition Cannon!”
Head ate the beam and was pushed back, then the sky went cerulean—
“We’re not letting you off yet! Aster-Volt Canticle: Empyrean Alectryon: Godly Lightning Star Destroyer!”
The two waves met and pincered Head, the blooming explosion tearing the hall open to the horizon.
“HAAAH!” Head roared, geysering as he forced the blasts apart. Black carapace spread across his skin—Demon Form Level Three—and his wounds knitted with obscene speed. He scanned the ruins. Where did those brats go?
“Looking for us?” said a new voice.
A lone figure drifted down and touched stone with easy grace, aura sealed to a whisper.
“What—? Who are you?” Head demanded.
“The Utopic Convergence of Kyoto and Reito,” the man said, smiling. “Reiko.”
“Convergence? The Doctor didn’t inform me of this…” he whispered. Strange… why can’t I feel any energy coming from him? I shouldn’t underestimate this… “Great Insidious Saber!”
A high-velocity black ray screamed across the hall.
“Hmph.” Reiko smiled as the laser traveled towards him. He vanished before it reached him—reappearing behind Head with his hair lifted, his eyes shining white with the power of Spirit Resonance.
“Hm!?” Head jerked his head around. He was able to get behind me without me noticing!
“Hehehe, that’s payback for earlier! Now, Sparkling Shadow Cannon!”
Lightning crackled; a dark beam bloomed point-blank and hurled Head through pillars. Once the smoke cleared, it revealed a torn torso—left limbs gone. Head’s flesh slowly knit itself back together as serum boiled through his veins. He shouted out in agony as his newly formed muscles bulged.
“The drug again, huh?” Reiko sighed, rolling his shoulders, “That’s a lame way to fight, but whatever.”
“Don’t play with me, bastard!” Head barked. He blitzed him, hands blurring.
Reiko parried with a single finger, yawning with the other hand without even looking.
“Damn you!” Head fell back and inhaled deeply. It’s alright… everything is under my control… as long as we control the Dark Heart, they can’t beat us. When he opened his eyes, a sudden cold, regal pressure rippled outward. The air soured purple. “Let me show you the power… of the Dark Heart!”
Reiko’s eyes narrowed.
So much power! Head thought. Mother must not be supplying the others with energy anymore… which means that they’re— “DAMMITT!” Head’s yield soared immensely.
“So, we’re laying it all out for show then? Alright, we can play that game too!” Reiko’s aether seeped out of his frame, reaching for the sky. “Spirit Transcendence!” His coat of white aether thickened as his hair glowed, but his eyes shone violet from his Demonic Base.
Head lunged again—
But Reiko danced seamlessly through every attack—one step, one breath ahead.
“Come on, surely you can do better than that!” Reiko laughed.
“Argh! We’ll see who is laughing after this! Final Demon Hunt!”
A formless, predatory surge of aether peeled off Head’s aura and chased Reiko, learning as it hunted him down.
What is that? Reiko thought as he dashed through the halls of the temple. Whoa, now that I’m looking, these halls are endless!
The temple’s corridors were flooded with a wave of fluid-like aether in an instant. The energy got faster and faster until it caught up with him.
That’s not good! Reiko blasted a hole through a wall outside the temple. The energy continued following him, tendrils sprouting from the mass, trying to grasp him. Ew! “Alright, that’s enough out of you!” Aether surged through Reiko’s meridians as he cupped his palms. “Eclipsed Aster Oratorio: Umbral Verse of Stellar Ruin: Shadow-Charged Star Destroyer!”
A black and blue beam vaporized the sprouting tendrils that were reaching out to him.
“HAAA!” Head dropped from above.
Reiko dodged the initial attack, but that wasn’t the end of Head’s assault.
“Heh, my hunt isn’t over!”
“What!?” Reiko looked behind himself to see the arms of the formless energy still reaching towards him as Head unleashed another blast of aether.
“Great Insidious Saber!”
Both attacks connected. Head had a wide smile on his face, thinking that he had finally succeeded.
Everything seemed to slow down. For an instant, panic flickered across Reiko’s face—then it curved into a smile.
Once Head noticed this, he felt fear creep onto his own face. Why is he smiling? With these attacks, I’ve surely killed him…! Right?
The body that Head skewered burst into a storm of electricity. Arcs webbed the air, stunning both Head and the residual tendrils of dark energy.
“Hahaha, you thought that was close, huh? Joke's on you, that was just my Lightning Projection, hahaha!”
“W-what!?” Head blurted as his face reddened.
“Don’t worry, I’ll put you out of your misery—Right. Now.” Reiko’s expression flattened. In a stream of lightning, he flashed in front of Head, who was still being stunned by the electricity of the clone. He held his hands over his head as a multitude of colors swirled above him. “Eclipsed Aster Oratorio: Draconic Verse of The Void-Tempest! Abyssal… Lightning Dragon Strike!”
A triple-hued dragon—black, blue, white—erupted from his palms and erased Head from the waist up.
“That’ll do.” Reiko turned, ready to leave, but then he paused.
Dark threads coalesced behind him.
Head’s body started reforming behind him. A dark energy was surrounding his body.
“Hmph?” Reiko turned around. He’s regenerating? That should have killed him!
“AHH!” Head’s torso rebuilt with glacial inevitability, Dark Heart energy lacing the strands.
“In that case… I’ll just hit you even harder…” Reiko murmured, lightning crackling around his hand.
[Five minutes later]
“Damn, you’re persistent,” Reiko said, his breath still even.
Head’s body regenerated for the twelfth time.
“Curse you! Stop doing that!” Head yelled.
“Okay, let’s try this one…” Eclipsed Aster Oratorio: Catena Fulguris Umbrae! “Vanishing… Lightning Chain!”
A spear of light punched through Head, exploded, then blinked and struck again—zipping from body to body as the Dark Heart spat out half-grown decoys, chaining through them in a vicious circuit and leaving a carpet of glowing arcs.
“RAAAHHH!”
“Heh.” Reiko laughed, placing his hand on his chin. “That’s definitely a keeper. Now, what else can I do?”
“ARRGH!”
Suddenly, several of Head’s bodies were being created at once from the various remnants of the explosion. His flesh ballooned; red electricity sprouting around a hovering tumor.
“Eugh,” Reiko winced, “what the hell is that!”
It ruptured into a brutish form, red bolts coursing. A mutation…
“That’s nasty… I’d better finish this—Ooh, I have an idea!” Reiko put his hands above his head and waved them around. A point of unbearable brightness forming from the rainbow of aether between his palms. “Let’s try this!” Draconic Verse of The Void-Tempest—Quintuple Tempest! “Quintuple Abyssal Lightning Dragon Strike!”
Five heads howled as a braided dragon coiled around and constricted Head’s body, then erupted a beam from its mouth that erased half the courtyard and chewed the temple’s edge.
“Whoa, maybe I overdid it a little…” Reiko said, scratching his cheek. Reiko’s body glowed and split—Kyoto and Reito each stepping out of the light.
“Huh? Why’d we separate?” Kyoto said, “I still have Utopic aether.”
Reito frowned. “I don’t know… maybe our art was so advanced that our Convergence lost integrity.”
“Hey, look over there!” Kyoto pointed. A blob of flesh was still quivering in the air. “He’s still alive!?”
“ARGHAHGUH!” Head’s body continued mutating as he screamed in agony. Eventually, the ball of flesh contracted, then imploded, leaving nothing but silence.
“What the hell,” Reito muttered.
Then, a chill crawled up both their spines.
“Hey… do you feel that?” Kyoto said, sweat crawling down his face.
The two of them turned around to face the temple. A woman stood at the highest parapet, one hand cradling a purple-glowing orb.
[Next Time on Lyte of Utopia]: “The Queen”
[Yield Levels]:
Head: 100sx
- DFL3: 10sp
- DFL3 + OD: 1oct
- DFL3 + OD + DHB: 1dec
- Dark Heart Mutation: 1 quattuordecillion
- Great Insidious Saber: x1m
- Final Death Hunt: x1qd
Kyoto: 350t
- Unconscious: 5
- ST + LECT3: 175qt
- Triple Lightning Dragon Strike: x1000
- Lightning Flash: x20
- Lightning Impact Fist: x1000
- Godly Lightning Star Destroyer: x1m
Reito: 300t
- SA + TDFL3: 30qt
- SA + TDFL3 + SD (175qt-100%): 205qt
- Shadow Arsenal: Oblivion Liturgy (Utility)
- Abyssal Shadows: x1000
- Dark Lightning Edge: x100
- Super Shadow Demolition Cannon: x1m
Reiko: 115oct
- Divine Pressure: 115non
- DP + SR: 11.5dec (115non) (Physical)
- DP + ST + DBF: 115dec
- Sparkling Shadow Cannon: x1m
- Shadow-Charged Star Destroyer: x4t
- Lightning Projection: x1 (Stun)
- Abyssal Lightning Dragon Strike: x1m
- Vanishing Lightning Chain: x1b
- Quintuple Abyssal Lightning Dragon Strike: x1non
Mysterious Woman: ???