Chapter 13: The Dance that Set everything Ablaze [1]

[A/N: Early release! Give your thoughts about it so that I could somehow improve it later on after I check it once again

With that said, here's the chap]

——

[3rd PoV]

In the sky, a huge melee was on display.

Rei and Kotori . Two Spirits, each with enormous strength, launched a brawl at full power. Light danced in the sky, flames of red and purple blew away in the air, and destruction spread all over the place.

Purple and crimson.

That is the color of the sky right now.

Each respective Angel had the power to decide the outcome in a single blow and now that power was flying about chaotically everywhere.

"Persistent...."

Rei muttered as Kotori engaged him in close quarters combat...which he was not so experienced at.

All the time he fought the AST, he mainly uses his advantage in ranged to mid range level attacks due to his and . When the time comes where some of his enemies got through it and fight him in close quarters, he mainly uses his [barriers] to deflect the attack and then warp out and gain distance once more.

In short, his skills in using the sword....was those of a novice.

'But that was the situation back then,' Rei thought to himself.

Due to knowing name and being now able to utilize his full Spirit form, this somehow gave Rei the 'instinct' on the way of swordsmanship. Just like how Spirits would naturally know how to control their Angel.

Right now, he could practically utilize with swordsmanship to those of a master's degree but that doesn't fill out the lack of his experience in using the sword.

Clang! Clang!

KLASH! CLANG!

Though he isn't still that experienced in the way of the sword, the raw strength and power output of was clearly stronger than Kotori's . This made him fill up his disadvantages with pure brute force to stand toe to toe with her in the battlefield.

The sword met the battle-axe and so did the same. Each strike of their induces tremors in the skies covered with each of their individual flames.

Kotori then ignited blasts from her halberd and shot it to Rei's direction simultaneously. In response, Rei shifted his body and created numerous [barriers] to neutralize her assault.

BOOOMM!!

Explosions clamored in the battlefield and smoke covered the area. When the smoke dispersed, Rei was left out almost unscathed from the attacks coming from Kotori.

Rei then narrowed his eyes as he observed his opponent.

Kotori's eyes were slowly turning fiercer—or rather, starting to get filled with madness. And in response to that, the flames of her's began to get stronger and stronger.

Kotori raised high into the air and let go.

Following that Camael's blade vanished into the air, the pole portion still remained in position.

"——Megiddo[Cannon]."

As though replying to Kotori's voice, Camael which had lost its blade started to rumble.

The handle withdrew part of its body, wrapping itself around Kotori's raised right hand.

Kotori, whose right arm was engulfed by the huge rod from the elbow, aimed the barrel at Rei.

That form, was just like the cannon equipped on a battleship.

's barrel slowly expanded, releasing a red glow.

And then the flames that were surrounding Kotori, were sucked into the mouth of the barrel.

Kotori, silently opened her mouth.

"——Turn to ashes, !!"

"Tsk," Rei clicked his tongue as he quickly retracted his offense and put all of his abilities in to defense to block the incoming attack.

At the very next moment, a pillar of crimson flames was then shot at him.

——

[Kotori PoV]

"!!"

Kotori exclaimed as she pointed her at her opponent's direction and blaster a pillar of flames towards him.

She knew that this Spirit wouldn't go down that easily. Reine even treated this very Spirit to have a potential of an SS-Rank threat.

As her blast hit the target, a huge explosion there occured and smoke covered the area.

Soon, the smoke cleared out revealing her enemy almost got out unscathed with only a few existing burns made out of crimson flames which have been produced by her.

There were several burning marks on his body but he didn't seem to mind it too much. Still, it seems that he doesn't have the same ability of hers which is [Regeneration].

As raised his hands, a group of lances then started to shoot right through her.

Kotori wasn't an opponent that would shut up silently after taking on a sudden assault of numbers. Kotori screamed the name of her Angel, manipulating the edge of her flaming war-axe to shoot down the of and cut it down for it to disappear into pieces.

"Fuh...."

But each time they were destroyed, would summon a new [Lance] to continuously pierce her and emit rays of light. However, even for someone as strong as , his reiryoku was not inexhaustible. To add, it seemed that could only create up to 4 lances at maximum. Then moment he runs out of reiryoku and [Lances] disappears──that would be the chance for Kotori to strike.

However, that would only work if Kotori's reiryoku doesn't exhaust itself first. The lances of pierced through her Astral Dress, Angel, and limbs several times. Although revived her body each time with its healing flame, her regenerative ability wouldn't be able to exert itself either if her reiryoku was exhausted.

Anyhow, both of them put all of their effort into this fight. An intense fist fight to see which side would run out of stamina first.

"Tch!"

Halfway through the fight, Kotori clicked her tongue in frustration.

The battle situation was almost in her favor─despite wanting to say that, in actuality was beginning to prevail.

"..."

The reason was likely because of their different human combat and usage abilities.

and are both powerful Angels. Although their specialties and authorities were almost the same which they govern , it can be said that their power output was not comparable to each other and the utility of different armaments which Kotori herself clearly doesn't have. 's and his personal raw strength far outclasses Kotori in that regard.

Moreover, compared to Kotori who has seen far more desk work unsuited for her physical age on a regular basis, Rei had trained his body regularly and experienced numerous battle skirmishes within this short span of a month. The difference in their current limits appeared there.

But if you ask someone who would win between a freshly trained army soldier and a veteran general on the desks, the one who would probably win was....

"Just a bit more.... Arghh. My head," Kotori then stopped for a brief moment as she clutched her temple.

She was losing reasoning bit by bit as this battle progresses. Her desire to destroy any Spirit she sees while in her Spirit form was starting to get a hold of her.

[A/N: This is a detail related to canon, she still doesn't have full control or couldn't control properly until Shidou sealed her Spirit Powers]

Kotori frowned as she swung , the blade of flames swept through the air, incinerating one by one the 'Lances' of that not only pierced her in close combat but also released beams of light.

However, a single lance that escaped the attack released a beam of light that slammed against Kotori's abdomen.

"Kuu...!"

Kotori's face distorted in agony as she moved to strike down that 'lance'.

Feeling a scorching sensation, her wounded belly and Astral Dress began to regenerate as she glared at with fury in her eyes.

In a tense situation where even letting her mind falter for a second could mean a fatal injury, Kotori tried to calmly analyzed the situation despite her reasoning slowly being chipped as the battle continued.

The battle situation—could roughly be considered in a stalemate from before, but he was clearly starting to prevail now.

Although held a more dominant position through 's armament numbers and skill availability, Kotori still held the advantage in close combat and tactics due to her longer experience in battle and by her wits. And more importantly, she had the ability to regenerate through her flames, which meant that an incomplete attack wouldn't be able to harm her.

And Kotori also believes that 's reiryoku is nearing it's limits just like hers. Exhaustion was also being shown from both parties' side.

In other words, it all came down who would first go down from a decisive strike, or through the way of who of them first would run out of Reiryoku.

——

[Rei PoV]

This was had already lasted far too long in his opinion. Even the Reiryoku that he is reserving for his plans tomorrow was already being spent right at this very moment.

Defeating Kotori with an all-out barrage and showing all of his cards once would probably decide a clear win on this match....

Even so, it would be mistake to launch an all-out attack from until Kotori's reiryoku is exhausted.

Since the situation also goes for the same for him. His reiryoku reserves were burning out like leaves at this very moment.

Rei already tried to warp space and attacked her several times, and each and every time, it would be endure by Kotori and just heal back later with her regeneration powers.

There was also a time where Rei crumpled the space right on her very spot, it literally dealt a massive damage to her as he managed to crumple her hands up to her shoulders. But in the end, it was quickly healed by her [Regeneration] like it was as if he made a fleeting joke(damage).

The reiryoku used for manipulating space was certainly more expensive than manipulating his flames and lances. And right now, using any type of space abilities would put him into trouble if he didn't defeat her with that attack.

In the next few exchanges, he then felt the urge to bet all in and destroy her with one single strike. He needs to find the right timing and place to land a decisive strike.

'If this battle goes any longer, it wouldn't be an exaggeration that this fight would end up one of us being dead,' Rei thought internally.

Rei thought that the purpose was to save Spirits yet why is he fighting against Kotori him right now?

About the matter of killing those 'innocent people' matter, he had doubts that something like that would've happened since a space quake alarm was triggered over quite some time now.

If he is correct, then the gathering paths of evacuation and the location of the shelters were located right at the very heart of the city, in short, the center. Or if not, it was at least located nearly at the center connected by various pathways to small shelters spread all over the city.

Even if he did kill some of them, then there is nothing he could do about it. It wasn't like he really intended it though. He wasn't denying the claim that he himself was at fault due to him losing his temper which ended him up using a unnecessary mess like that.

'Besides, I saw a glimpse of [territory] crumbling bit by bit when my [Judgement] cleared out. That means that had interfered....though I'm not sure about it completely'

BOOOMM!!

Rei's thoughts were suddenly interrupted as Kotori launched a fire blast at him which he immediately blocked with his [barrier]. This pattern of exchange had literally always been like that ever since the battle started resulting for it to put them on a stalemate.

And after that attack, Rei decided.

"I'll end this within the next few minutes," Rei uttered with a serious tone.

That utter of his was left unheard except for him as it was then covered with the loud sounds of explosions and blows of weapons all over the place.

——

The fight continued between the two.

Explosions occured in midair as their respective assaults and flames covered the whole battlefield which resulted into basking the sky in purplish crimson hue.

They threw and exchange blows each and every time they got in close quarters. One was that of a halberd, while the other one was that of a sword.

Sometimes, they would send blasts and projectiles as a means of attack to bring down their opponent.

And it would later then shift again into a series of exchanging blows with their head on. Neither side was backing down as they made their assaults.

It was as if they were performing a neverending dance.

Yes, a dance....

A dance that brought destruction to those around it....

A dance filled with the intent to bring their respective enemies to the ground....

A dance that could be called a clash of the .

Yes, a dance....

A Dance that literally Set Everything Ablaze.