Return of The Seven

"I think it's adorable that you think you were all going to live today," Illya muttered through the smoke.

Eo jumped in over my head with her scythe and cleared the smoke instantly, turning her body upward, and using strands attached to the scythe to spin it over a wide area. It covered most of the area that Faith couldn't cover... but still not all.

The smoke cleared around me and I made eye contact with Rin, as Illya cut through the top of her skull and kicked her body into a puff of blood and broken bone.

After going through Rin, Ren and Ellios ran over to Illya... but were quickly cut in half by a saber swing.

And I froze again.

My entire world froze. Nothing moved in this blank space I was in. Everything was greyed out, and the face of fear all around me started to corrode my brain.

I felt dry tears fall from my cheeks.

My hands started to twitch.

What am I doing?! Why am I just standing here?!

The White Stone on my hand started to resonate with my heartbeat. It was beating a pure red color, almost as red as Illya's eyes.

I looked up at her while frozen in time and felt my eye twitch as well.

Kill...

I'm going to kill her...

I'm going to eat her...

…

…

…

I closed my eyes for a moment, and before I knew it, the smoke cleared, and Illya was in pursuit of Rin.

…Why was Rin still alive?

Have I... traveled back in time? No, was that just a premonition? A premonition of death? Had Sky ever had one of those?

I took it as a sign and rose my hand, using my ability to manipulate gravity to push Illya up in the air, and then smash all ice spears from above.

Faith and Eo were no longer strained by the strenuous amount of damage we were all about to take, and Rin was saved... or so I thought.

Illya slashed through her back on the way up and she fell to the ground, screaming about how she couldn't feel her legs.

I immediately threw Illya to the ground with my ability and pushed as hard as I could. All loose pieces of weakened glass were thrown into her body and blood was spilling out everywhere.

"Could this finally be Dani's chance to take the stage?!" Illya said with a smile. Blood dripped down her face, and I rose my sword up, focusing my dead eyes on her position.

"There's too many of us to rely on Dani for now." I heard behind me.

The white-haired boy, who I now realized was Shike, put his hand on my shoulder and without his right leg, smiled at me.

"Will you let us help you one more time, Dani?" He asked me.

From my left side, Belle, Boo, and Alexia all emerged, with their wounds completely healed.

"Carl, get everybody together so I can protect you guys. Let Shike and the others handle this." Eo told Carl. He nodded, running to all of the split-apart people around us.

"How pleasing. Getting together the gang that I so easily destroyed last time we fought. This will be easy." Illya muttered.

"We all have White Stones here. Dani, Belle, Alexia, Boo, Mitra, Myth, and I all had our Stones before you killed them. It would be wrong of us to not put up a fight, wouldn't it?" Shike asked Illya.

And so, the fight finally began.

With Shike charging in first, Illya rose her hand to launch ice at him. It turned into a huge glacier worth of material, but before it even connected with Shike, it was immediately turned to dust by Belle.

"You have our abilities, you said it yourself, you should've known that was possible," Belle muttered.

A loud, banging noise came from Illya's position, and as Boo's turned body landed on the ground, Illya was launched a hundred feet forward.

"You should've caught that as well," Boo muttered.

Illya's legs were expanded until they blew up into a red cloud of blood and a large spear of ice was sent into her stomach. On top of that, Boo jumped in and performed an axe kick that almost split Illya's head in half.

"And maybe that," Alexia said to Illya again.

"Funny, but did you guys consider that I was never the real one?" Illya asked. She vanished into smoke as if she was an illusion, and Shike kicked his foot into the ground, launching up the floor, and stopping Illya dead in her tracks. I couldn't see her... but he seemed to notice.

"We did. That's how you fooled us when you killed me, wasn't it?" Shike asked Illya.

"I knew I should've wiped your personality from the System. You're too troublesome to have around." Illya muttered.

"I guess you're right. I am pretty troublesome to have around. We've already fulfilled our goal, in fact." Shike said to Illya.

I was even confused at this point, but before I could ask Shike myself, a dome appeared around all of us. Illya, Shike, Belle, Alexia, Boo, and I were all trapped now.

From the inside, strands that layered the dome were ignited with flames, and on the outside, a frozen layer of strands wrapped around the dome as well. And as the final touch, Shike snapped his fingers and the dome around us started to move as fast as the eye could process, almost appearing invisible.

"Dani, I believe that Faith wanted me to give this to you," Shike said, throwing the armament she used to fight Illya before into the ground right beside me.

This weapon... this was Sky's sword, but now, it serves a much more important purpose than I originally thought. This weapon could cut through strands, and it just so happened, that my opponent was Deity.

I remembered everything all at once as I picked up the Mahina Armament, or Sky's Blade, and walked toward Illya.

I've been called meaningless before... hell, I have even been useless before... but now, that's different.

I've only been alive for a few months now, but that doesn't invalidate who I am now.

I am the one who will defeat Deity!