Prelude Chapter - Against The Sun

The Red Offensive of Eternal Sight: Divergence.

The Inner Chaos of the Crow's Blackened Blade.

Ace Wilder, indented with those specialized orbs that could peer through even the clouds that shielded the Heavens with their grey shade.

Katie Moon, gifted with a sharpened blade that could sever apart clouds with a simple stroke from its lengthened edge.

Both at standing to the side of the other, for as they prepared themselves for the coming battle, all that laid before them was simply unpredictable chaos.

Their knuckles collided as they fist-bumped one another, the relatives zoomed right off to but see-through afterimages of their former selves, air whisking out from below their feet. It was like they could feel their skin flapping in the winds, rushing over faces, nerves tingling to the touch for bumps to manifest over the smallest portion, over the arms of the cousins.

While her mind was erratic, no sense of conscience was visible in the way she so monstrously moved from side to side, head snapping with every little movement her eyes made, analyzing present surroundings. Raising her head to spot those legs aiming at the top of his skull, just jumping back, she managed to dodge the initial impact, watching as a crater rumbled out from his soles slamming into the earth below. Mei slashing apart the prohibiting clouds, she felt her arms fall as the Blade came soaring at her face, eyes expanding, pupils shrinking.

The Blade clashed against an invisible border, shielding the slice from inching ever closer, as Katie squinted, she could see it; that violet strand of light protecting her face from being cleaved in twain shed the camouflage. Tearing it out this sticky situation wasn't anything difficult, for the song of darker metal reflecting the sun's deadly-bright rays hummed to her ears, Moon's grip on the katana's handle tightened. The strand of light unzipping downward to form a gate in space, Mei felt her body enveloped by the warmth of her home, childish giggles echoing forevermore through the world's endless sky, Kate watched as she abnormally lacerated at her enemy's previous whereabouts.

There remained one advantage to her team the crazed mind of Mei hadn't considered, and it was those scarlet eyes, gifted with the capability to peer through anything and everything; gazing into the realm between realms and sinking his fangs into his prey's neck. That familiar sensation she despised so much, an invisible string narrowing over her throat, searching endlessly for breath, unfortunately, for her, the reserve within this confined space was akin to attempting to paint on canvas littered with colors.

She could barely manage to twist her muscles, recognizing those snowy edges, those scarlet eyes not only special to this ginger boy, but another with full white spikes and red-eye not his own. Even as her body went falling back, body limp and unable to twitch even the slightest, she could feel it, maybe it was the way those knuckles sparked with red lightning, closing the minuscule distance between her features and his fist. The way it clenched, veins protruding out his fingers, rumblings audible through the world, the clouds were blown away, intact fragments of her head withering away to smithereens.

It was almost as though her body weren't her own, feeling the rear of her head splatter contained gore against that tree's bark, chunks trickling out her lips' flank; nostrils adding miniature droplets to the surplus between. What were these new memories, she asked herself. But not only that, why was she questioning that in the slightest? Inquiring about her very existence, the history she knew not of- where was its origin?

She gasped! A foot came at her head, but she moved it to the left, however, just as fast as she'd managed to react to the incoming kick, a thrust came directly forward; straight at her features. Palm squirting out blood as it covered her face, Mei's eyes enveloped by a bright violet tint, she blasted a ray at Kate's head, still backed into a corner, seated against the tree's wooden stump.

Another slash came out of the radiation, Mei ducking right under, the tree reverberating a circle of dust as it crashed into the ground, she ran ahead from the crouched posture, clenching her fist and aiming at the face as she uppercut at the chin. Severing the hand from the wrist so it could go flying into the air with a trail of blood behind it, Kate kicked at her chest, watching as she stumbled back, Mei shook her head, shedding the discombobulation and ducked under another slash. Palm on the disoriented green below, the foot entered Kate's gut, sending her stumbling back.

Mei took this second to inturn her fingers, radiating a violet shade around them, emanating afterglow steam from the extremities. With only one hand, she had a disadvantage, however, thanks to this ingested Artifact, the speed engraved into bones served as second nature. Though Kate raised the Blade to shield from the coming chop, even she was unable to halt the continuous descent from that superheated hand, destined to chop her in two.

Tendril entangling her single wrist to direct it elsewhere, Ace, all the way on the left, one hand extended out, fingers pointed inward to tighten against the rope... the other raising from the grass leaving but a miniature red spark below his fingers. Watching as Mei simply disconnected the rope they were connected to with but a downward chop, Ace sidestepped, dodging at the abrupt tears, leaving nothing but tiny cracks through the air, for while he'd so effortlessly moved from side to side, bobbing her as nothing but insignificant with but the simplest step, he couldn't help but widen his eyes. Even with one hand and multiple wounds to her skull, she tried and tried with the most hardened of resolves, as if attempting to reach an end she wished was favorable. But as those tears appeared out her eyes' corners, and he'd finally managed to get a turn, he could feel it, his fist joining into her gut.

"You're... starting to remember, aren't you?"

Until the embers of her determined soul dwindled to a cold fireplace with nothing but wooden logs and the chill of winter to encompass her, there remained no climax in sight. And so, as the knuckles unleashed a shockwave into her bust so she could fly back, he turned his head, and the onlookers were missing one, but the robe-wearing sensei who'd trained him for over a month.

"So, that's her play, huh?"

Wilder extended his palm, more tendrils shooting out the palm, wrapping around the flailing limps of his distant relative, her mind elsewhere, he directed her to the left, guiding her to her fall. Just before she could smash her skull into the smashed terrain, a hand cupped her cheeks, and the flower petals that appeared in her pink eyes' core... reflected onto the forehead, as if marked. And just then, it started pouring in; the sight of Vegas's flashing neon lights gleaming onto her face as she arrived there, seated across the counter with her mother. Azazel's leg guiding him out, as Hana stepped to the side, Mei collapsed with clumps, squirting out from her damaged body, forming a pool below her destroyed vessel.

"A... Az... zel?"

Was the only word she could weakly muster, and it wasn't even slightly eligible, for as he knelt in front of her, she couldn't tell... if this were reality. Spiked black hair aimed at the clouds, azure orbs pointed right forward, the slightest semblance of a beard daring to grow in, that memory of him when he was but a clean-shaven Detective Prince- did it dare to resurface?

"It's... ben... so lng..."

Mei whispered with but the faintest smile appearing over her face, raising her body for even the slightest amount, she couldn't fall, though. Not from any use of abilities innately slammed into her genetic material, but she was sure of it; for she'd already decided it. That his arms would catch her before she'd descend further into Hell, the grace of Heavens' angels guided her further into that golden castle, to be treated to such delicacies like this... not any food or riches she could attain.

Love.

"Welcome back... Mei Rivera."

To Be Continued.