Chapter 48 : I Love...You

All over the world, people were watching all of this live, on social media and on the news. All eyes were on the exam. But it wasn't the exams anymore, it's a battle for survival.

Over on the other side of the exam city site, Tetsuya was walking on a pile of bodies. He was bloodied up and bruised up, wounded from head to toe.

'We have to secure those kids..we have to..'

Out of nowhere, a large hand grabbed Tetsuya's leg from underground, and it was from a 11 foot tall prophet.

He instantly threw Tetsuya against the wall, then punted him in the gut.

Tetsuya rolled all over the ground, and the tall prophet was coming at him.

The prophet said, "Your Hosts are dying…and soon you will join them! This is for the purpose of Reborn! For Harvest!"

"Yeah, yeah, I heard you like a gazillion times."

The tall Prophet made knights on horses made of blood appear in the air, and they went to attack Tetsuya.

Tetsuya pointed at them, and closed his hand, making the blood knights attack the Prophet.

The prophet smirked, saying, "No. Go."

The blood knights turned around, and went to attack Tetsuya again.

Tetsuya thinks, 'He can counter my ability?...Indeed, they did get stronger overtime as they began to lose allies, but if this keeps up, they'll overpower us. And why aren't the other Hosts here? We just have to keep fighting, we can't let them roam free to let them do whatever they want. We shouldn't be afraid if they get stronger when they lose.'

Tetsuya used his mind to create a force field in front of him, and it blocked the blood knight's attacks.

Then, coming out of the force field, were black spikes, and they completely destroyed the blood knights.

The tall Prophet was running around Tetsuya, and he could make his own body stretch as long as he wanted it.

He made his arms stretch at least 8 feet over at Tetsuya, Tetsuya grabbed the arms with one hand, squeezed down on it one, and crushed it, making blood come out. But, that blood that came out of the tall prophets hand, formed into the tall Prophet himself, and he punched Tetsuya in the face.

Tetsuya staggered back, and he was attacked again.

'All the prophets can manipulate blood. But is it their own blood?'

Tetsuya dodged some long arm punches and blood attacks, Tetsuya dashed up to the prophet, touched his chest gently, and the prophet blasted backwards through a few buildings with a crushed chest.

Bursting up from the ground, were more prophets, and they were aiming bow and arrows made out of blood right at Tetsuya.

Tetsuya crunched his fingers and slashed the air with them, slashing grey and black acid from out of nowhere and onto the prophets devouring them.

And as they were getting burned and devoured by the acid, Tetsuya jumped near them, and slammed his fist down near them, breaking the ground apart, and knocking the prophets away from him in a thunder of force.

"Tetsuya!"

Tetsuya turned around to see who it was, and it was Host Kedarah. She was bruised up and bloody too with a broken arm.

Tetsuya jogged over to her, saying, "Shit…they gave you a beating too.."

"Y-yeah…they've been breaking out of my gardens, they really are getting stronger. But-but I'm really worried about those babies.."

"Tell me more."

"Me and some of the other Hosts have been gathering some of the exam students up and bringing them to a clear cube in the sky, and that would protect them. We would've teleported the kids out of here, but there is a barrier around the city, a barrier that we can't get out of."

"Tch. Those bastards really did come prepared. Have any students died?"

"No..but they are gravely injured. But we are successfully getting them all to the cube in the sky. The prophets have been trying to destroy it, but they can't. We intercept them red handed."

"...That's a weight off my chest. Those kids are the most important aspect of this entire situation. Getting them safe is our number one priority."

"Tetsuya.."

"What is it?"

"Why do you think the other Hosts aren't here?"

"I know they wouldn't just leave us to dry like this. Something is going on."

"Yeah."

Immediately, charging right at them, were 43 prophets on horses made out of blood, and they were wielding blood bows and arrows, blood swords, blood scythes, blood staffs, and blood axes.

Some of them were holding little black books, and the pages of those books were swirling over their heads.

Tetsuya said to Kedarah, "Let's kick their asses. We're taking this place back."

Kedarah snapped her right arm back into place, and she replied, "Yes!"

Tetsuya and Kedarah blazed forward, and they were already in front of the incoming prophets.

Kedarah stomped on the ground, and a garden of flowers began to

Grow all across the ground. Then she formed some 8 foot tall semi-invincible stuffed animals with red eyes, and they began to attack the prophets brutally.  

The prophets tried to attack the stuffed animals with their blood weapons, but it didn't work. The stuffed animals punched, kicked, and broke body parts, and completely destroying. But in the midst of that, some of her stuffed animals were getting ripped to shreds by the pages of the prophets books, meaning they were getting way stronger now than before.

Kedarah was vanishing then reappearing near all the prophets, and each time she moved, she struck her enemies with one good punch or kick, knocking them into the sky or blasting them through buildings.

She would dash through the enemy forces, clotheslining them in the face, and breaking body parts with her legs.

Some pages of the prophets' books were soaring over Tetsuya, and Tetusya pointed at them, then closed his fist.

The pages went back over to the prophets, and those pages turned into the prophets' deceased loved ones, and those loved ones attacked them, beating them to a pulp. 

Tetsuya soared above the prophets, and he stuck his hand out, a quick bolt of gold lightning shot out from all of his fingers, and they broke the ground apart like 30 grenades went off.

Some of the prophets were struck, and most of them were hurt by it, blowing up all over the place, and buildings around them broke apart and blew up, smashing to the ground.

Tetsuya walked past all the prophets, and black spikes flew out from all places of his body, and those spikes struck the prophets.

More prophets were trying to perform their blood abilities on Tetsuya, but Tetsuya snapped his fingers, and some of the chests of the prophets exploded.

Behind him, Kedarah kicked the air in front of some prophets, and a holographic form of her foot was shown, and blasted some prophets back at least 30 feet.

Kedarah had blood draining from her head down to her chain, she cuffed her fingers together, and said, "Go, Kyori!"

Cute white and brown puppies came into existence, and they barked quickly. Their eyes began to get red, their teeth were getting long and sharp, and their tongues were long and sharp too.

They pounced forward, attacking the prophets, assaulting them with their sharp teeth and tongue ripping limbs off and swinging the prophets around with their tongues.

Tetsuya and Kedarah zipped forward together, and they were on the other side of the prophets, and those prophets blasted everywhere.

Tetsuya said, "They're down."

Kedarah smiled, "Ye-yes! Now we can get to.."

All of a sudden, red thorns grew out of Tetsuya and Kedarah's body, causing them great pain.

Tetsuya asked, "What is that?!"

Kedarah replies, "I-I don't know!"

Some prophets were walking towards them, saying, "We can manipulate the blood within you now since we are stronger. We turned your blood into your own enemy, if you use your powers it will weaken and hurt you. Keep doing it, and it will kill you."

Tetsuya responded, "Son of a.."

All of the prophets formed red 13 foot hammers made out of blood from their hands, and they started to bash them against Tetsuya and Kedarah.

They hit them both across the face, in the stomach, in the back, and straight through some buildings with the hammer attacks, bashing on them badly.

Tetsuya and Kedarah flew back and they fell and slid on the ground together, and the prophets proceeded to rush at them. 

Two prophets with blood-made swords came up, and they chopped at Tetsuya and Kedarah's necks.

The swords didn't cut all the way through, but it was stuck in there.

Tetsuya and Kedarah were grunting hard, while the prophets were struggling to cut their heads off. 

The ground was shaking because there was so much force and pressure going on. The prophets began to yell, and Tetsuya and Kedarah yelled as well, feeling the pain from the thorns and the blood swords.

'How are they not beheaded yet?!' A prophet thought.

Tetsuya yelled out to Kedarah, "Kedarah!...Stretch your arm out to me!..Now!!"

Without hesitation, Kedarah extended her entire right arm to the right of her, straight at Tetsuya.

Tetsuya extended his left arm over at Kedarah's arm, and they almost touched hands. Suddenly, a glowing white energy ball was sparkling and growing between their hands.

The prophets yelled, "Hurry and kill them before they do something! Push harder!!"

Other prophets came over there with blood swords and blood axes trying to hack off Tetsuya and Kedarah's body parts. The blades went in, but they didn't go through.

Tetsuya thought, 'It may hurt us if we use our powers..but we are not letting these bastards get us!'

The energy ball was growing bigger, but it brought much pain to them, but they had to do it. They all were bleeding, tears were in their eyes as they pushed hard. Tetsuya and Kedarah gritted their bloody teeth, holding onto the energy ball as long as they could.

One of the prophets thinks, 'They're using their own energy…combined their own energy together, to make a power move..? I've never seen it before!'

The energy ball grew bigger, Tetsuya and Kedarah sat up and held the energy ball together with one hand, screaming, "Get off!!!"

The white energy ball blew up, blasting and massacring the prophets that were around them, throwing them everywhere.

Tetsuya and Kedarah stood there breathing heavily, looking at the destruction they caused, watching smoke rise into the air.

Kedarah said, "This..hurts..so bad..Tetsuya!"

Tetsuya answered, "No! Don't try to pull it out! We don't know what could happen.."

"But it hurtsss!"

"It doesn't matter! Just..don't touch it."

"...Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

Kedarah and Tetsuya turned around, and they saw seven prophets standing side by side in a line, and a large tsunami wave of blood was flowing into the city.

The prophets chanted together, "The blood of Reborn shall flood this earth and cleanse it. Be washed, for the king will be satisfied with your death in his blood."

The large 400 foot tsunami of blood was rushing forward quickly, and Tetsuya yelled to Kedarah, "Come on, Kedarah!"

"I'm right behind you!"

They both started to run as fast as they could to the super tall waves of blood. They ran and ran, and once they got to it, they put their hands out in front of it, and created a force field that was almost the same size as the waves. Then, Tetsuya made the force field stretch out further, extending to the ends of the waves.

Tetsuya and Kedarah were burning with pain, as they wanted to cry. They were using their powers.

They felt themselves getting weaker, and Kedarah said, "I'm getting weak fast! I can't let go though! I can't let this wave touch those babies!"

Tetsuya replied, "I know! But we have to hold it!"

Suddenly, a bunch of Hosts came out of nowhere, and they started holding the large tsunami wave back too with their powers. The waves were strong, everyone struggled badly to hold it back, using everything they got.

One of the Hosts said to Tetsuya, "Good news and bad news! Good news is, we got almost all of the students in the cube barrier in the sky. Bad news is, we don't have them all yet. BUT, we have other Hosts taking more and more kids to the barrier while fighting!"

"That's all we care about! We are being counted on! As Hosts, we have to protect!!"

Kedarah and the other Hosts replied loudly in unison, "Yokai!!!"

…

Duri and Tek crashed on top of a very large rooftop, rolling all over it, with Ferrow teleporting near them.

Duri and Tek looked at each other, then looked back at Ferrow, and attacked.

Ferrow pointed at them to use his paralysis ability, but Tek covered himself fully in chains like a suit. And nothing happened to Duri.

Ferrow said, "Oh? Your chains can block out illusions and paralysis? That's new considering what I experienced dealing with the chain users from my realm. And you..Duri, you aren't affected?"

Duri responded, "When I was 6 years old, a man named Conan tried that same paralysis shit on me. You can't paralyze a shadow. Shadows are never still!"

"Adorable."

Duri and Tek got close to Ferrow, but they both punched the rooftop instead, startling Ferrow.

The rooftop started to collapse, and their punch was destroying the entire building, making dust sky everywhere.

Ferrow started flying backwards, thinking, 'They hit the rooftop instead of me? Was it on purpose?'

Duri and Tek appeared behind Ferrow, and both of them threw a barrage of fast punches and kicks.

Ferrow dodged them all, saying, "How boring. That woman Host trusted you two to defeat me?"

Ferrow grabbed Duri and Tek's head, darted down to the ground, smashed their heads down hard.

The dust cleared, and Ferrow saw Duri and Tek were covered in chains, and they were kind of okay. 

Ferrow thought, 'Their teamwork is in sync. At that split second, they covered themselves in chains. But still..they are not worthy enough for me to go full power on them.'

Duri and Tek grunted as they sat up fast, kicking Ferrow in the face with all they had.

Ferrow was hit, and he blasted through a building.

Duri and Tek rushed forward, and Duri said, "Is he toying with us?"

Tek answered, "He probably thinks he doesn't need to go all out against us."

"I'm taking that shit as an insult!"

Duri reached his arm out, and four shadow dragon snakes came out, slithering over at Ferrow.

They bit Ferrow, and drug him up to the sky. 

Duri said, "Let's go, Tek!"

"Don't say my name."

"Damn you."

They both jumped up into the air, and went to work on Ferrow.

Duri made both of his arms go full shadow, and he punched Ferrow multiple times in the face. 

Ferrow kept a straight face the whole time.

Then, Tek came up and created sharp chain whips.

Tek struck Ferrow over and over in the neck and face with them, and after a few seconds, Duri would come in with his shadow arms and shadow legs, punching and kicking Ferrow. 

Duri moved out the way, and Tek continued to slash Ferrow across the face with the whips.

Tek then wrapped the chains around Ferrows neck, and Duri grabbed a piece of the chain.

Duri and Tek twisted downward, and Ferrows' neck snapped all the way around.

Then, Duri and Tek flung themselves up to Ferrows body, pulled their fists back as far as they could, and they stuck Ferrow in the chest, and when they did, Ferrows chest exploded in blood, and Ferrow flew back and hit the ground sliding.

Duri and Tek dropped down to the ground too, and Duri said, "Ha! Too easy! Told ya."

Tek replied, "...That was too easy. But he managed to beat Host Hanako, Ren-Ren, and Espen."

"Huh?"

Dashing past the two of them, was Ferrow. He had already regenerated everything, and he grabbed Duri and Tek's necks.

Ferrow said, "My turn."

Duri thought, 'The hell?! We killed him!'

Ferrow was flying around at bullet train speeds, breaking the sound barrier and all, and he was smashing Duri and Tek against every surface he could see.

He bashed their faces and backs against buildings and the ground, and smeared their faces on broken glass. He did this for at least 2 minutes straight, and then he stopped, and he was floating in the air, while still holding Duri and Tek by the throats.

Ferrow looked at Duri and Teks' bloodied and bruised faces, as blood and spit dripped from their lips.

Ferrow says, "If only my son could see you like this, Duri. If only he was still here."

Duri responded, "Oi…you wanna know sum?"

"Hm?"

"Fuck you…fuck Harvest…fuck your mom…fuck your dad…and FUCK your son. Haha!"

Ferrow started getting flashbacks of his mother and father, killed in the Arcane invasion.

Ferrow shed a tear slowly, and he was staring at Tek with a horrifying look.

Tek said to Duri, "You had to say all that, Duri?!"

"What? I mean what the hell I say! This idiot comes and attacks us, and hurts people? And thinks I'll be lenient?! AS IF!"

Ferrow was about to snap Duri and Tek's necks, but 20 large shadow snakes swooped smoothly out of Duri's chest, and started to spiral around Duri and Tek, breaking Ferrow's grip.

It made Ferrow back up a little and Tek's hand reached out from the spiraling shadow snakes, and grabbed Ferrow by the throat, and dragged him in.

The giant swirling shadow snakes were still circling Duri and Tek, while Ferrow was brought into the party, and it was flying around in the air fast.

Duri and Tek were fist fighting against Ferrow right inside of it.

Duri and Tek were jumping all over the spiraling snake walls, and Ferrow was blocking their punches and kicks.

Duri threw two punches, but Ferrow caught it and kicked Duri in the stomach, making him smash against the snake wall.

Tek had chains wrapped around his fists and legs, throwing a hail mary of spinning roundhouse kicks and punches.

Ferrow punched Tek over and over in the face and chest, then smashed him in the face with his elbow.

Duri jumped on Ferrow's back and put him in a chokehold. Duri tried to break Ferrow's neck, but Ferrow kept backing up and smashing Duri's back against the snake wall.

Duri coughed up blood on Ferrows head, but he didn't let go.

Duri thought, 'This man is crazy! He's not even trying against us, and he's winning! And he regenerates! How do we beat someone who can't die?! I have to think of something! Think…think..oh wait! I can try this! A death blow I learned in the Shadow realm..'

Duri flipped over Ferrow, and climbed on his face.

Ferrow was releasing a hundred blows to Duri's chest and stomach, making him cough up more blood.

Ferrow thought, 'His grip is strong..I can feel his Shadow energy within it. And these two boys, their tolerance to pain is that of an experienced fighter. I'm hitting them as hard as I can…but they're still standing. I'll have to dig deeper. They still aren't worthy of me using my full strength and true form…'

Ferrow kept punching, and Duri punched Ferrow down the throat, letting his hand stick down there.

Duri said, "AGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"

Duri let his shadow dragon snake form inside of Ferrow, and it grew.

Ferrow coughed, and his entire body exploded, blasting Duri and Tek out of the swirling Shadow snakes and towards the ground.

Duri and Tek fell together, Duri said, "That HAD to kill him!"

"It didn't!"

"What?!"

"See for yourself!"

Duri looked up and saw Ferrow fully regenerated, flying towards them.

Down on the ground, Seven was looking up at them with blood drenching her entire face.

She saw Duri and Tek, and she was about to tear up, saying, "Duri…Tek…they're out…but how? Good….they're okay. Duri..Duri!"

A few shadow dragon snakes formed around Seven, and they blocked Prophet Adam's attempted punch, barely. Then, Chaos, Nine, Kazuma, Jiyu, and Shiryu went to fight Prophet Adam again. 

Ferrow created giant sharp red discs, and they were going full speed, slashing Duri and Tek up all the way, knocking them around like rag dolls. They both were being slashed up, and they were getting punched and kicked and battered by an unseen force. 

But Duri and Tek were still holding onto survival…barely.

Ferrow watched them suffer badly, and he thought, 'I took them for granted. These boys are unique. They come from special backgrounds with a special bloodline attached to them. I can't go easy anymore. I thought they weren't worth my full power, but now that I think about it..I want Katai to know how much I fought for him to bring him back to life. I'll make these boys suffer even more!'

As Duri and Tek were getting pummelled by everything, dark storm clouds surrounded them, and red lightning struck Duri and Tek over and over again making them scream.

Ferrow let this happen for a minute straight, then he appeared over Duri and Tek, and then he created over 30 blood knights on horses with swords in the sky and he ordered them to attack. 

The blood knights flew downward to Duri and Tek, and attacked them with a large boom.

Duri and Tek crashed inside of an empty building, slamming against the floor as blood leaked away from their bodies.

They both were gagging and coughing, and they didn't wanna stand.

Duri thinks, 'Marshy…I'm..I'm sorry…for everything…I wasn't strong enough. I've trained so hard..but in the end…I couldn't do it..Marshy..you and Mifu taught me a lot..and showed me a lot of things…and I..love you both for that…and Jae..my first best friend…I'm sorry. I was supposed to survive for the both of us..'

Duri started to have flashbacks of when he was trading hard alone, laughing with Jae, training and having fun with Marshy and Mifu, and meeting Tek, Kazuma, Ren-Ren, Seven, Nine, Jiyu, Espen, and Shiryu.

…

Tek thinks, 'Uncle..if I lose here…I will find you another way…and I'll let mom and dad know…what I've done..to you..'

Duri and Tek were crawling, and Ferrow was walking towards them.

Ferrow had a red aura surrounding him, and he said, "Impossible! How can you still move?!"

Duri and Tek started to stand uo at the same time, with their legs shaking and blood dripping from their eyes, ears, mouth, nose, and head.

They both limped over to Ferrow slowly, and Duri said, "I'm…gonna kill you…bastard.."

Tek said to Ferrow, "...I..am too…"

Duri threw a really weak and slow punch, and Ferrow caught it, snapping his arm upward, making Duri scream.

Tek shot chains at Ferrow, and Ferrow caught them. At full speed, Tek flashed up to Ferrow and kicked him in the face twice, then punched him. Ferrow felt that, and he performed a backhanded punch on Tek's face, sending him crashing against the wall. Tek was down, but not dead.

Duri said to Ferrow, "Oi..no one gets to kill Tek….but me! You hear..me?!'

Ferrow started punching Duri in the face at fast speeds, with over 50 punches per second.

People around the world that were watching were covering their eyes or their children's eyes, some people threw up, and some people said:

"Why aren't the Titans helping them?!"

"You know the Titans can't fight here on earth! That's why the Hosts are here!"

"Why?!"

"I don't know!"

Ferrow exclaimed to Duri while still punching, "This is the pain Katai felt when you killed him!! I promised his mother I'd protect him and love him and keep him safe! And you ruined it! It's like how Zabel and his realm attacked Harvest, you DON'T CARE!!!! I'LL KILL YOU AND TAKE YOUR SOUL!"

Ferrow made a blood sword form in his right hand, and he stabbed Duri through the stomach with it.

Tek yelled, "Duri!!"

Ferrow pulled the sword out, and rammed it in Duri again a second time, and left the sword in there.

Duri struggled to breath, and he fell to his knees as the blood sword was still stuck through his stomach.

Ferrow kneeled down in front of Duri, watching him struggle to breathe, and watching his eyes fade.

Duri looked straight into Ferrows eyes too.

Ferrow grinned, saying, "I feel your life slipping away…almost there…almost there..'

Duri slowly but finally stopped breathing, and his eyes were left open, and he was looking at the floor.

Ferrow said, "Yes. He's finished. I shall be taking his soul now before it slips away."

Tek yelled, "You bastard, no!"

Ferrow was reaching towards Duri's head, but suddenly…

Out of nowhere..

In that exact moment…

Marshy came bursting through the ceiling of that same building, screaming, "No!!!!"

Marshy landed feet first in front of Duri, and the force from that landing made Farrow slide back.

Marshy immediately kneeled in front of Duri's body, and she was rubbing his hair and face, crying, "No, no, no, no, no..no..Duri!!! Please Duri..I'm here…it's okay…I'm here…momma's here…wake up!!!! WAKE UP DURI!!!"

Marshy hugged Duri's body tight, screaming to the top of her lungs, which made the entire earth shake.

Ferrow thought, 'Her scream caused that quake? And why is she here?! She wasn't supposed to be here!'

Marshy said to Duri's body, "I love you…son..I always did..please…please.."

Ferrow smirked, "Now…you see and feel my pain for Duri killing my son?!"

Ferrow continued to talk, and Marshy ignored everything he said.

Marshy had steam coming out of her nose as she huffed and puffed in anger and rage. Her teeth were getting sharp, and she stood up.

Without saying a word, Marshy turned around, her eyes were fully white, and she got in a stance and she stuck her hand into her own arm.

Marshy gritted her sharp teeth as she began to pull something out of her arm. 

Wind blasted hard and consistently from the force of Marshy pulling.

Marshy had a handle in her hand, and she was pulling out a scythe. 

She was pulling out her Excalibur.