Kire's Remains

--Lia's Perspective--

Alatus, Fudo, and I all walked from near the entrance to the mountain bunker, analyzing our surroundings. We set everything up that needed to go up, and now, we'd be intercepting Kire, wherever he planned to go.

I found it odd that each member of Quake willingly split up, instead of steam-rolling through everything together. However, I felt lucky that this wasn't the case.

"Does anybody have eyes on Kire? Or anybody we can intercept?" Alatus asked.

"I'm not sure... I don't see anything from here," Fudo said, pulling binoculars out of his pocket to peer deeper into the city.

"There! I have sights on Kire and Fico! They're moving together!" Fudo shouted out, he put the binoculars away and led a full sprint toward the two.

I followed right behind Alatus and kept my eyes peeled for anything I could.

"What are those two doing together? Where is Cole? Zeka? Austin?" I asked Alatus.

"Sky is cornering Cole, Dani and Illya are fighting Zeka, and Mandi and the others are fighting Austin and Amy. We need to take care of Kire and Fico until Group Orion gets there!" She shouted again.

Alatus turned the corner toward a building, and both Fico and Kire were standing next to each other, pointing toward the mountain.

"Find something interesting?" Alatus led while panting. Fico turned her head and barely paid any attention to her, instead looking at Fudo and me.

Fico's small, black horns sticking out of the top of her head were blocking her hair blowing in the wind. She didn't wear any shoes, which was the second most alarming thing about her besides the large, black wings on her back. Her appearance was just... scary...

"I believe I did. Let's get these things out of our way," Fico told Kire. Six claws in total sprung from her knuckles, and out of them was a clear, thick substance that dripped off the tip of them. I was confused about what they were, but I knew Sky warned us about them. We couldn't be hit by that.

Right as the battle was beginning, I primed my weaponry, and six people jumped from the second story of an open building down toward Fico.

Ellie, with her weapon, raised first, clashed with her claws, and Moon and Noboki clashed with her next, pushing her away.

"Focus on Kire! We'll handle Fico!" Amera shouted out, nodding at us, and running straight past Kire.

Kire, amazed by what just happened, exclaimed his surprise and lightly clapped his hands together.

"Excellent! So, you three are here to kill me?" Kire asked us.

"Is that what it's going to take to stop you? You don't look like the kind of man who would surrender," Alatus said. Her bow was in her hand, and she was searching for a reason to shoot.

"Don't you find it interesting that we're only here to kill each other? Quake had no intention to negotiate, and only want to seize Sky away from you," Kire stated. He wasn't pulling his weapon out... perhaps there was a different way to do this?

"Why aren't you trying to kill us? What's your deal?" I asked, keeping my composure in front of him. His head glided over into my direction, he didn't blink or break eye contact with Fudo until about three seconds after he moved his head toward me.

"Do any of your names have 'Asterio' in it?" Kire asked, looking at all of us with his hands in his pockets.

"No," I stated, to which he answered that he didn't care about us.

"Why does that matter if we have Asterio in our name? We're not letting you take Sky, no matter the offer you might have for us, or if you want to fight to the death," I yelled at him again. He sighed.

"Listen, girl, I'm forty-seven years old, I've seen my fair share of fighting. I'm only looking for one thing. My son, Ra Madio. If an Asterio happened to get in my way, I wouldn't have a problem taking them out," Kire told us.

"Ra? Why do you want to find him?" I asked him again.

"I don't think that's any of your business. So, will you tell me where he's at, or will I have to beat it out of you?" Kire asked. His demeanor changed, and he no longer held a peaceful stance.

This isn't making any sense... why isn't Quake destroying everything?

"I'm sorry, but until I know what it's for, I can't tell you about Ra," Alatus said. Kire nodded, wiping his mouth, and staring directly at the mountain.

His strand-compressed laser vision shot through the mountain, piercing into the vault where we kept all of the citizens. Alatus noticed this and pulled an arrow back on her bowstring to fire it at him.

Kire turned his head and incinerated the arrow before it reached him, cutting through a building and scraping my clothes with that burning laser.

It felt hot, like scalding water, but the heat left as quickly as it arrived. I dodged to the left and jumped out of the way before it hit me again, and his vision turned off. He looked down at me, and shook his head.

"You didn't seem that stupid. Quake isn't here to hurt civilians, but I told you, I'm forty-seven, and I've seen my fair share of fights. I don't fight unless I absolutely have to, and Ra is far more important to me than my morals, so start talking, or I'll ruin everything you've tried to defend," Kire said, holding his left hand up in a weird stance.

"If you fire into that vault again, I'll kill you, and your search for Ra will lead to nothing," Fudo said to him. Fudo was a fierce shit-talker, and didn't take any shit from anybody. This would be an interesting encounter if Kire kept up this aggressive front.

"Many have tried, and all have failed," Kire shortly said.