BEYOND HIS REACH

Disbelief and surprise made him eager to take a hold of the amulet. He rushed to the chushin not minding the ache on his feet as his hand reached for it yet no matter how he ran he could not close the distance between them. Raijin extended his hand and he continued to reach for it. Run after run even if the arrow pierced in his feet were pushing deep inside his skin.

At last, with a slight trip on a stone that made his injury bleed more, but the pain had not run over him more than the desire to hold onto the amulet again, his fingertips brushed through its circular ends. And for a single stretch he could already grasp it however just about he could lay it on his palms and bear it, an arm seized him from behind making himself stay further from the chushin again. Their close distance was severed along with it slowly disappearing inside the mist.

Raijin looked back in eagerness, his eyes boiled with a starting rage searching for the person who had pulled him. It was the 3rd General, her sword was swinging along with Hiro and Mitsuka's prowess who continued to defend themselves against the enemy. Hiro's ice extinguished the campfire that they made. And if it wasn't for the light patches of the full moon that shone above the night sky, they would've not seen the attacks charging at them.

The arrows that were shot had all fallen on the ground and were replaced by a number of men holding spears, swords, and shields of the kind—others on the troop's back formation held a stick that continued to erupt energy in support. They all wore dark garbs.

"What are you doing? Do you want to die?" Seratsuki spoke as she swiftly took a couple of their enemies in a slash of crimson energy.

Frozen to where he was, Raijin could not comprehend anything at the moment. Rather most of the time he couldn't comprehend anything, especially at times like this. "General..." he whispered slowly but the woman ignored his words.

"What's wrong with you!? You are a full-time stupid! You've been standing there for so long!" Mitsuka exclaimed, her tone bellowed with annoyance for she had struggled to keep every enemy on their feet with her briars. This is the time she had blamed herself for not studying more spells and chants other than healing, briars, and growing vegetable crops healthy.

Completely puzzled, he didn't know how to respond. He glanced at his foot and was even more confused to not find any wounds from a pierced arrow.

"We don't know what's gotten to your stupid tomato head but we just saw you walking straight to the enemy!" Mitsuka followed, her palms shone a green light waving continuously as the briars and plants of the woods abided by her commands in lashing the enemy.

"What?" said Raijin. He wanted to believe that the chushin wasn't any illusion the Nemiendlich had given him. For its familiar energy was too close to him, its rippling shocks that could bring him into oblivion and wake up equipped with alvaryniues made him want to trust that it was near and was waiting for him. "The mist..." he muttered to himself, but it was now nowhere around them.

General Noguchi's eyes landed on Raijin. Her whole body was surrounded in a crimson miasma, she immediately slashed the man on her right and swiftly dashed behind Raijin. She charged a kick on his back causing him to fall over. Mitsuka and Hiro's eyes widened in surprise.

"How long are you planning to stand?" Seratsuki said. She raised her blade in front of him and he knew too well what she could do in a snap of time. The 3rd General pointed the sword towards his neck when he turned over to face her. "Answer me" Her dark eyes glowed in crimson and this was different from the General who had always given a carefree response.

The blade deepened on his throat and he felt it prick through his skin, flowing out a thin string of blood. "I-I'm sorry, General," he said, careful not to move any sooner. The 3rd General was right, mulling over something that hadn't happened in the first place would only bring him destruction.

Seratsuki took the blade away from him, rapidly killing two Nemiendlich warriors in slashes who thought she was occupied with something and that she left her opening in sight.

"Thank you for reminding me that I still need to do something" Raijin uttered, but the General had already disappeared before him and was fighting on their front. Screeches and flashes of lightning started to form on his fists and with a final glance at Hiro and Mitsuka—he charged towards the enemy knocking them, along with heaven's rumbling cries of distant thunder.

Raijin wasn't aware, but he made the 3rd General show a small smile when his breathing had ticked together with the flow of his energy.

The four of them fought against a number of Nemiendlich warriors. They wield weapons, techniques, and spells that are unknown to them. Though the flashes of lightning, shallow shaking of nature, cold breeze of ice, and the slashes of a blade made the entire area a battlefield. Several Nemiendlich troops were beaten on the ground as others continued to face the group's charges.

Yet not far from the clashes, a man stood behind the Nemiendlich warriors unscathed. He was the one leading them and he made no movements in assisting his warriors to the ambush. His eyes focused on a woman wielding a crimson blade. He watched her execute charges and slashes towards his men and that made quite an impression on him. For it was dangerously beautiful.

"Who is that kid?" The man asked the one beside him, catching a glimpse of a young man who successfully landed a clean strike.

"I have no idea, sir," one said.

"Is he also from Anshiantum?" The man followed again, his focus was now diverted to the young man.

"I am sure he is"

"That's strange. His energy is quite familiar, was he perhaps..." pausing his words he spoke again. "Nothing that would be impossible." His gazes remained on the clashes but as the cold breeze brushed them—he caught a short glimpse of a crimson thing. He wasn't sure what it was as it had only passed on his eye's view in a blink. The moment he realized it his arm was cut in half, blood aggressively gushing out of it as he let out a scream of agony.

"Sir!" the person rushed to his aid immediately muttering chants to prevent the bleeding.

"Go." The woman wielding a sword that dripped blood before him uttered, followed by the screeching of lightning behind them. There, the young man appeared out of nowhere. His fists were covered in flashes and were prepared to pound them in an attack from above.

As the lightning was nearing them, the person muttering chants on their leader equipped the whole area in a gray mist causing Raijin to halt his attack. He could still see them and the General yet the mist made his mind cry in a fuzz as if he was about to lose his sanity. The events of the dreadful night where his grandfather died suddenly flashed on his memory like a movie tape along with his murder of Kato and the fate of Algard Yozou.

Everything repeated continuously causing him to grieve in pain. It's more than the breaking of the memories for it caused an ache on his head to thump unbearably, seeming to rip everything out of his mind and soul. And across those, there are scenes of others that he had not yet seen before. Everyone's death appeared in his thoughts: General Noguchi being slain by a god, Hiro dying at the hands of someone unknown, and Mitsuka's breathless whole lying on an altar as the Nemiendlich sacrificed her in a stoned statue.

Seratsuki on the other hand had always been wary of everything. She felt a pair of eyes watching her which made her and Raijin execute a surprise attack against the two men. But to see the young man suffering now by something she had no idea of had made her feel fear that was too familiar in her memories.

With a sword in the 3rd General's hand, she rushed towards Raijin who was continuously screaming and losing control of himself. "R-raijin!" she called. But his response was only screams and she began to worry and be frightened of what was about to befall her soldier.

Mitsuka and Hiro arrived where they were. They immediately approached Raijin, seeing his current state that was almost comparable to a wild uncontrolled beast.

"Rai!" Hiro called. But Raijin had only pushed him aside.

"What happened!? Tomato head!" Mitsuka took a hold of his shoulders, shaking him yet she stumbled back when the lightning started to run through Raijin's whole body, causing them to immediately keep their distance.

"What did you do?" the 3rd General swung her blade, walking towards the two men.

"You are quite skilled to be able to finish my men like that" The man who had his arm cut spoke. His shoulder was covered in runes that halted the bleeding. "Your highness had ordered us to capture you and kill them"

Seratsuki's eyes glanced at the three, Hiro and Mitsuka were trying everything they could to aid Raijin. "And? You're saying that if I'll go with you, you'll set them free? Don't give that." she lashed her sword to the side again and drops of blood flew falling on the ground. She slowly walked towards the two men who seemed to not be faced by her and in a drop of a second, her figure vanished near the three and appeared in front of the two men aggressively executing rapid slashes on them.

"Of course, we won't do that. Her orders are absolute. She's our goddess and no one can come above her. Not even you, or your mother" the man grinned.

"Zero zone, dance of the death blade"

Everything turned crimson and the gray mist engulfing them disappeared making Raijin wake to his normal self. The weight of the General's aura on the zero zone made the three youngsters struggle with the tension. Their knees are bent to the ground feeling the spiking of enormous energy that seemed to drag them deep below.

Raijin who had just awoken from the continuous flashes of deaths had no time to understand everything again. Right now, his wonder is focused on their surroundings. For everything, even the night skies, woods, and the moon were hued red as if they were inside a box filled with nothing but blood. He felt it, the dense and controlled energy of the 3rd General was now flowing freely on the corners. It was suffocating and drowning him little by little.

"Kara, feast on them" the 3rd General uttered. Her eyes glowed in complete crimson as horns and a pair of fangs peaked on her lips making her far from human.

Kara? Raijin wondered. Even with the intense pressure that made their whole struggle from keeping them on their feet, he heard the unfamiliar name.

They watched the 3rd General battle against the two men leading the Nemiendlich warriors. They couldn't do a single thing to support Seratsuki, for the zero zone's tension brought them down on their knees. And it was quite a surprise that the two men had survived it without ease.

General Noguchi closed the distance between their enemy. Her blade created sparks in contact with them as her hand skillfully wielded the sword who seemed to follow her every move without a flaw.

"I can handle this, go and kill them," the man said, as the person who aided his arm charged at Raijin, Hiro, and Mitsuka.

"I won't let you" A strong gush of crimson liquid emerged from the General's blade. Yet, the enemy successfully blocked the attack using the runes he chanted. Without thinking twice, Seratsuki launched herself in front of him before he could lay a finger on the three. And with a single slash, the man's body was cut in half leaving the remaining of his parts to disappear into thin air in contact with the General's sword. Raijin's mind might've been affected up until this time but he heard a distant laugh coming from the crimson sword and a voice desiring something more.

"Too late" the leader of the enemy whispered in the 3rd General's ear and before she took a way out of it, ropes of dark runes encircled her wrist that crawled on her whole body, sinking deeply into her skin.

"General!" Raijin screamed, he thought that his voice would come out as a muffle but it reached out clearly for the zero zone that engulfed them was starting to weaken.

"Don't come close!" said Seratsuki when the three immediately stood on their feet when the crimson world began to wash away.

They stopped abruptly. The runes tightened on the General as if to break her every part and her screams were music to the man's ear. "It's over. You're going to-"

A sudden flash of lightning came to them as the man felt a fist struck on his face leaving it with burns and shocks. Pillars of ice emerged from the side of the 3rd General to separate her from the man as Hiro had also come to support Raijin in defeating the leader. Mitsuka rushed to Seratsuki's aid in getting her to safety, commanding her briars to create a path deep inside the forest where they had run into. Mitsuka placed both of her palms on the General in the hopes of her healing's effectiveness as she took her in running.

"You kids!" the man growled.

The coordinated charges from the two young men made their enemy be pushed to the defensive side. The continuous emerging of ice blocks along with the sharp icicles and the lightning's zipping speed did destruction. The mixture of cold and will later on be joined by the lightning's almost burning and electrifying shock took the man in annoyance.

Raijin's fist engulfed by bolts landed repeatedly and its lightning flashed its way to the man. He'd been careful to not let the enemy predict his movement though the man had only evaded a number of his attacks and some had scratched him a bit. Accumulating the energy on his leg, Raijin's power gathered through it, dashing his way to the man with a kick.

The sharp icicles that floated trailed Raijin and were directed after the man. It charged to pierce the enemy but dark runes blocked a number of it and only a piece on the man's opening had successfully pricked him deeply on the skin. Just like his sister, Hiro was also skilled in issuing chants one after another and thus he muttered his next incantations as the wind had picked up swirling into a blizzard that surrounded them.

"General! You need to stay here!" Mitsuka said, stopping Seratsuki who still stood on her feet even if the pain of the runes made it almost unbearable.

The 3rd General avoided Mitsuka's hand, swiftly dashing to where Raijin and Hiro were. With widened eyes, the two boys stared at her in surprise and at Mitsuka who followed immediately in stopping the General. For her efforts were in vain to how rapid Seratsuki moves.

The leader of the Nemiendlich warriors that attacked them caught a glimpse of the General. He snapped his fingers creating bodies of humans made in runes, emerging on the ground to appear behind Seratsuki. The figures were about to take a hold of the General's arm when her leg charged them with a kick even if it had caused the runes to completely break her muscles and make her blood drip on the ground.

"Abandon the mission and go back!" the 3rd General exclaimed. She towered over Mitsuka, pushing her to stumble to not be caught by the rune figures who seized her arms from the back.

"General!" Raijin shouted, running to her side.

"Kazahana Fujihiro, Hitomi Mitsuka! Take Ikazuchi Raijin and go back to Anshiantum!"

Her words didn't make them move and as Raijin would've felt the delight of his real name being called by her finally, he had only felt the urge to reach for her and save his General out of his fear of losing someone again. He launched at the rune figures with lightning in his fists.

"This is an order!" Seratsuki shouted when she saw the desperation that would lead to nowhere.

Just as before the man who they were battling came to clash an attack with Raijin, Mitsuka's briars surrounded the young man to capture him near them as Hiro restrained him by encasing his hands in ice. And the situation had reminded them how it was similar to when they stopped Raijin from battling Kato.

"Hiro!? Mitsuka?! What are you doing?!" Raijin cried. The two began to run further and further from the General as Seratsuki struggled to keep their enemy's attention on her. "Let go-" commanding the briars that tie him, Mitsuka sealed his mouth. She adjusted the size of its thorns to not hurt him completely and its little prick and blood might've kept him quiet for a while.

Raijin's eyes slowly watched how the Nemiendlich had taken a hold of the General. They took her, and he was helpless in preventing it from happening.

But our young man, you must live for you are the light of the Anshiantiae.