Cold, And Tense (Finale)

"Oh?"

"Yes. He was able to be on par with Kajiyashaki Ryujin. You could say that he could rival the council."

"I see."

Ryo looked at him curiously. Then, he noticed the tattoo on his arm.

The tattoo resembles a symbol, a symbol that closely relates to a Japanese mask, with horns on top.

But somehow, this symbol seemed familiar. It was like, he already saw that symbol from somewhere.

He looked at Silas with sharp, gazing eyes.

Hayashi... Silas...

As Silas continuously pressured Ryujin for answers, several people arrived.

Suddenly, "There is our class." They heard the voice and looked in its direction.

Walking in their direction were Aenaias Candi, and Harutani Yui, with Yasuna, the fifth, and several police officers behind.

Upon seeing the scene, the police officers immediately ran towards them and dispersed. Some assisted the students, and healed their wounds, while some went to the unconscious, and previously possessed police officers, lying on the ground.

"Are you all okay?" Yasuna asked the first-year students.

They answered affirmatively, nodding.

"That's great then. your other classmates are on the other side of the building. We'll have an emergency meeting regarding today's events, that'll have the answers to the questions you all have. But for now, rest, we thank you for your service."

After those words, Yasuna walked right past them, and back onto the council building to check up on Stella.

Sometimes, I regret my decision to enter this school.

Ryo thought to himself, as he let out a sigh.

...

As Yasuna walked through the hallways, she opened up her phone and called Stella. It rang, and rang, but to no answer.

This seemed odd... Yasuna felt like something was off.

With this rising feeling in her chest, she began to gradually speed up and run. She was hoping to every God that exists, that her bad feelings may not be true.

As she arrived at the door, she immediately burst it open.

And behind that door, standing was Suzune Rei.

"Suzune!" Yasuna exclaimed. She felt instant relief that her bad feelings weren't true. However, chaos doesn't end yet.

Suzune's true identity is yet to be known. If she is indeed an apostle, then this must be a trap.

But Yasuna's heart can't think of Suzune as a traitor yet.

Suzune looked confused. Her eyes were emotionless, and she seemed like a newborn baby, unaware of everything around her.

"Y-Yasuna?" But somehow, despite the blankness in her mind, she was able to recognize Yasuna.

"Suzune! How are you? What happened-" However, amidst her panic, she noticed Stella, unconscious behind Suzune, and lifelessly lying on the floor.

"Stella!" She yelled out. She ran right through Suzune and immediately ran towards Stella.

She crouched down and immediately looked for a pulse. There was a pulse. It was normal.

Then, what is it? Is it like last time, a total deprivation of magic energy?

If so, then it's a must, that she transferred magic to her.

She looked behind her, and Suzune was standing there, lifeless, like a withered flower. She looked confused at what Yasuna was doing.

I need to give Stella magic energy. 

While staring directly at Suzune, she transferred magic energy towards Stella.

Yasuna's eyes are still cautious. Suzune isn't her usual self, and considering the events that had happened, even though she doesn't accept it, there's a chance that Suzune could be an enemy.

She maintained a tense and sharp eye contact towards her. Then, all of a sudden, Suzune's body slowly straightened, and her eyes began glowing a faint, white color.

Then, she slowly straightened her arm forward, and her palm began gathering a whitish-orange energy, circling around her palm.

Yasuna braced herself, and prepared herself to launch a magic barrier, when suddenly,

As if attacked from behind, Suzune staggered onto the ground, all the magic energy she'd been gathering disappeared.

She fell onto the floor, coughing blood as she did. She was letting groans of pain as if something was hurting her so badly.

"Suzune!" Then, there's no doubt. Suzune is being possessed right now.

Unable to handle both situations, Yasuna grabbed the nearby walkie-talkie on their side table.

"Anyone!? Emergency in the council room!" She yelled out, before turning it off and placing it on the ground.

She pondered deeply. How should she deal with this? Suzune's cries of pain are like slashes being struck on her heart.

"G-G-Get o-o-out!" Suzune stuttered as if something was preventing her from speaking. Her voice was desperate, and tears were almost dropping from her eyes.

Yasuna can't use some purification magic to remove the mind-controlling magic embedded in Suzune, only Stella could do that.

However, Stella is unconscious and needs magic energy. The only way to handle this is to subdue, and tie Suzune up quickly, or cast a binding spell to bind her.

"Argh, I wanna sleep." She mumbled, as she quickly drew out her dagger. She needs to do this as quickly as possible, at the moment when Suzune will stagger.

"Sleeping Rose," she quickly flickered in front of Suzune and was ready to slash.

Suzune isn't herself. At any moment, she could burn this whole building down. Even though she is fighting the manipulation, this isn't enough to guarantee that she won't destroy us.

The first step would be,

Weakening her.

Yasuna slashed both of Suzune's thighs, and arms, embedding a deep, wound to weaken her physical state.

Instinctively, Suzune launched a small, yet fiery phoenix towards Yasuna. She quickly covered herself with her arms crossed, with magic embedded to somehow mitigate the impact, however, Suzune's phoenix was faster.

It sent her to the wall across, crashing violently. The immense power of Suzune's Phoenix was enough to easily shatter the magic covering, and pierce through Yasuna's magic. It was fatal enough that it caused a third-degree on her arms.

The burn is insanely deadly. I can't stop crying; it hurts so much. But, it's so hard. I need to protect Stella while deflecting Suzune's attacks.

Yasuna gritted her teeth, forcing herself to endure the pain. The painful, burning agony in her arms made it hard to concentrate and almost made it impossible to move. However, time was of the essence, and she didn't have enough.

Every, second, count.

She can't let Suzune rampage, not with Stella here and unconscious.

She let out a deep breath, as she channeled her magic around her, further amplifying the sleeping magic all around.

She can't beat Suzune head-on, she must think of another way.

Suzune's glowing eyes flickered. Her breathing was ragged, her body trembling as if in turmoil. It was clear that she was resisting the possession, but it wasn't enough.

"D-Don't come closer!" Suzune yelled out, her voice desperate.

Suzune's arms jerked forward as if a puppet to something. In the next second, she launched a high-speed, fiery phoenix once more towards Yasuna.

Yasuna managed to dodge it at the skin of her teeth. The force shook the room, and destroyed the whole wall upon impact, revealing a hole.

Using this as a counter-attack, she immediately dashed forward, and in swift movements, she slashed forward, this time targetting her abdomen.

This open wound allows for her sleeping pores to worm in and slowly force Suzune to succumb to sleep.

The dark energy within Suzune's body instinctively repelled those pores with magic forces.

"Those things are annoying!"

Yasuna's burned arms ached once again, sending sharp, shooting pain all throughout. She gritted her teeth in pain, as she endured.

Suzune's defense seemed to get weaker, as she struggled more. She constantly battled the demons inside her.

Just another push,

Yasuna, with her remaining strength, gathered her magic into a single, concentrated, bright spell. A spell, that upon contact, will make the target fall into an endless sleep unless woken by the user themselves.

"Sleep, into an endless void, where dreams, wouldn't reach you." A powerful magic shockwaves erupted around her, causing things to fly all around.

As Suzune, was battling the manipulation technique inside her, Yasuna launched her magic.

And it hit her.

It was painless.

It was just as if light just passed through Suzune. But, she fell on the ground, her eyes closed, and she, was unconscious.

Unfortunately, Yasuna's spell drained so much of her magic energy, that she, herself, fell on the ground, weakened.

She spent her last strength tilting her head upwards, looking to see what happened to Suzune.

And to her horror, Suzune was still trying to stand up. This time, her whole body is covered with a dark energy, an aura so strong, it's enough to weaken those who dare look at it.

Yasuna's spell is lethal; almost a sure-kill spell. She decides the life of its victim. However, Suzune was able to resist it, at least the dark energy inside her.

This means that the dark energy grows with the host's strength. The dark energy that enveloped the guards was able to be subdued. However, in Suzune's case, in combination with her natural strength, resisted a sure-kill skill.

"This is... Insane." She muttered with the last of her strength, as her shallow breath slowly weakened.

Suzune was slowly regaining her strength with the help of dark magic.

Stella is still unconscious, and moreover, much scarred from the battle around her.

Suzune prepares yet another spell, this time, a bigger, and stronger one. A spell, which has a fiery energy in the middle.

Like a black hole, it slowly sucked through everything in the room, slowly turning them into ashes as it approached the core.

Everything looked like it was done. Is there still hope for such a situation?

Just as things were looking so dire, from behind Suzune, spikes of ice emerged, sending sharp spikes of ice right through Suzune's flesh. This broke the wall and entrance door.

This instantly stopped her magic, and blood poured right through.

Entering the room, was Yukime, and behind her, was the emergency crew, with their equipment in hand.

They immediately walked towards Yasuna, who was almost unconscious, and Stella, who was already unconscious.

As they were taking care of those two, Yukime stood in front of Suzune, who was suspended in the air through her Ice Spike.

"Just sleep for now, Suzune." She whispered, the pain in her voice overshadowing her whisper.

Suzune's eyes were desperate and in pain. However, upon hearing Yukime's voice, her eyes slowly calmed down and slowly closed.

Whether death be it, at least, she won't be a catastrophe anymore.