The topmost floor of the central tower had turned into nothing more than a thick cumulus of flames and smoke that rose to the heavens and mixed themselves with the nimbus above, but soon enough, a strong wind blew by and removed the dense curtain of destruction that had been left behind by the preceding explosion.
Shun kicked a wooden plank off of himself; his back embedded into the floor further than his feet and arms.
"...Well....Could have been worse..."
He sat up from the crater he’d made and checked to see if his family blade was still intact, happy to find it was.
Kneeling close to him was Sei himself, who was enclosing the both of them within a chi barrier that had protected them from most of the blast's impact.
-"You've arrived sooner than expected..."- spoke the metallic voice Shun recognized as the one from the previous conversation. An individual clad in dark samurai armor now stood before them; his face a blazing blue flame that seeped out from a fanged facial cover.
"You look uglier than expected." Shun returned in a mocking tone, almost trying to sound metallic, but failing as he brushed himself off. "Oh, hello there, Sei".
Just overhead, the three Falcons circled, watching them closely and listening in. Even from their height, if they wanted to know what they were saying, they could achieve it. The princess screeched out and dove again, landing like before near them.
Sei glanced briefly at Shun as this last one called out his name and then at Keyi as she landed, but his attention soon shifted elsewhere as the hayabusa bird screeched in alarm. Flapping a few feet away from them, the noble creature pointed the spot where someone else was buried. Also, laying very close to the samurai Fiend was the charcoaled corpse of a man.
-"The shogun..."- murmured Sei at the time he dispelled the barrier.
"Damn" Shun commented, turning to the metallic figure. "Like it or not, I’m blaming you for that!"
He whipped the oversized Shuriken at it, not taking enough time to sit there and ask what happend. His disappointment in being the Shogun’s demise hidden.
Keyi shook her head and rolled her eyes at the bickering men. She completed it bluntly with, "Don't you two have something important to do?"
The shuriken zoomed swiftly through the air and onto the samurai’s armor as several sparks sprouted from the impact, along with a resounding clink. Still, the Fiend was completely unscathed.
-"The aspiring Kami, is it?"- spoke the metallic being as it stared down at Shun's weapon, which laid static on the floor beneath him.
".... Maybe?"
Shun reached for another weapon, which happend to be the Tanto.
"You must be the metallic guy who was enjoying a conversation with someone until I opened that door?" he accused and shrugged at the same time.
-“Ah, so it was you the one eavesdropping...”- replied the samurai, unamused.
Keyi wondered if it would be best to leave them to die, but stayed anyway. It pleased her greatly to see the worried looks on her guard's faces; she wasn't supposed to be in a path of danger, but nor could they disobey her.
She stepped forward and tied a beautiful violet cloth around her eyes to kill her vision. It glowed brightly when in place. Then, she drew several layers of magick, balling it in her palm and then rising her arms above her head, wrists crossed and the magick split between both hands. With a single step and a flap of her wings, she was invisible to all but her Falcon guards as she thrust forward and completely through the samurai, her taloned fingers first. After leaving through his back, instead of violet magick in her hands, something bright red was there...it writhed and whipped angrily.
-"Nice try, your highness."- spoke the Fiend as it turned its vision in her direction -"But next time, you might want to aim for the real thing."-
With that, the samurai rose his Kitetsu sword from his side; a red string of energy emerging from it and onto Keyi's hand.
-"This blade hungers for the souls of those it executes."-
*FWASHINK*
The weapon was no longer in the Fiend's hand. Instead, it had lodged itself right into the chest of one of the Falcon guards that escorted the princess.
-"You'll make a fine addition."-
Immediately after, the sword pulled back on its own and returned to its master's grip, ripping a strange blue aura from the sentry it had just pierced.
"...creepy.” expressed Shun “Sei, instead of gawking at the big guy, care to give us a hand?"
Setting the Tanto and Glaiv aside, Shun instead drew his own blade into his hands and took a step forward, bringing the sword onto the Fiend’s own. The attack did no more than cause its edge to vibrate, but not just a little... a lot, much more than normal, as Shun attempted to disarm the Fiend.
As all of this happened, Sei had approached the place his bird had pointed before and dug through the debris.
*COUGH COUGH*
The coughing that emerged belonged to someone under the rubble. Sei removed the wreckage as fast as he could and finally came face to face with a beautiful blue-eyed, blonde-haired young man; his childhood friend and comrade in arms...
-“Jaquio!”- exclaimed Sei as he took hold of his friend and lifted him a bit by the back. This last one simply opened his eyes slowly and stared at Sei wearily.
-“Sei, is that really you?”-
The young Hayabusa nodded at the time he removed everything covering his face and head.
-“Sei...I’m so glad you came.”-
-“What happened?! Jaquio, where are the other clan members?”-
-“*Cough cough* The shogun...he betrayed us...he poisoned our water supply and allowed the Fiends inside the Castle. We were too weakened by the time we realized what was going on...”-
Sei’s eye narrowed with concern.
-“The shogun?! Why would he...”-
-“Listen, there isn’t much time left. Pretending to be dead on the floor, I listened up on the shogun and that Fiend’s conversation. They were talking about some kind of trap, a set up to bring the most powerful members of the Dragon Lineage here, to bring you and other warriors of notable strength to this place...gather them at a single point.”-
-“Why?”-
Jaquio reached for his friend’s shirt and clutched it tightly within his grasp.
-“It’s coming, Sei...the Black Dragon.”-
Sei’s eye widened momentarily as he came to a dire realization.
-“When enough bloodshed and malice are gathered...when mankind’s worst traits and emotions come together at a specific location...IT will unavoidably show up.”-
-“We must warn the others! Come on, I’ll carry you back to the...”-
-“It’s too late for me. That samurai...Doku...I was severely wounded in our battle.”-
It was then that Sei noticed it; a deep crimson gash running across his friend’s torso.
-“No...Jaquio...”-
-“It’s alright, Sei. There’s no greater honor for a ninja than dying on a mission. *cough cough* Besides, the only reason I held up until now, was to relay this information to you...to save you...to save our brothers...to save...”-
With the exception of burning wood and the clash of steel in the background, everything went silent after Jaquio’s last words. Sei’s eye closed mournfully as he deposited the lifeless body of his friend gently on the ground, but almost immediately after, it opened again fiercely with new determination.
-“Doku...”-
~Gone to the furthest reaches of the Earth to look for answers~