Hero's Return 17 The Battle Ends

Sparks were flying in the air above the camp, the battle between 'Seiju' and Sora was reaching extreme heights and each exchange made by the two would create a small shockwave in midair, Sora was currently using only his gauntlet's to fight 'Seiju', who had grown and constantly regrown claws made of darkness, the flames that Sora could produce were ineffective against 'Seiju' as whilst Sora had definitely gained the power of 'Peace and Calamity', the power one could exert through any manner of magic or aura was dependant on the power of the individual in general, all his awakening really did at this point in time was give him the power to fight back against 'Seiju'. He was currently limited to blows with his gloves made of pure light that seemed to burn the darkness the 'Seiju' was using, the only use he had for his dark flames was manouverability.

The magic of light and the magic of darkness had extremely special properties, unlike some of the other basic magics like fire and ice they could be used in very weird ways. Light could be used in three ways, as a direct, ultrhot type of attack, as healing magic, or as 'purifying magic' - which helped to cure ailments and such. When used in enchantments, it would make whatever material it was enchanting extremely hard and would grant it a property only held by light, the ability to completely 'purify' darkness, which simply meant completely destroying it. Darkness could be used in two ways, as a direct attack that packed an insane amount of force or the wielder could directly allow it to envelop them to allow them to move faster, hide in the shadows or create weapons on their own body through concentrating it in one place. When used in enchantments, it would make whatever material it was enchanting the ability to use it's ultrpowerful flame, it would also grant it a property only held by darkness, the ability to completely 'corrupt' light, which simply meant completely destroying it. This is what was so special about 'Peace and Calamity', it allowed the two to work with eachother, someone would have both strengths whilst not having to deal with the two weaknesses because of the natural control they would be granted. Whilst Sora could do all these things, he hadn't been that experienced in any kinds of magic before this, meaning that he could not yet use his power to it's maximum effectiveness. Sora knew these applications through what he read, but that did not mean he understood how to do them.

After one ma.s.sive exchange that caused a shockwave stronger than any of the ones previous to it, both of the figures retreated to a safe distance away from eachother, the dark claws on 'Seiju' had already regrew and was ready to fight again, Sora was in a difficult situation. Whilst he was definitely more powerful now, he was only awakened to his power, his own didn't actually increase, he was finding it difficult to maintain his current state, whilst 'Peace and Calamity' allowed one to be able to naturally control light and darkness and summoning the weapons based on the owner's own idea of a perfect weapon with no actual energy used, most of the exhaustion was on the mental side. He had experienced too much, he could barely fight before, he almost died, was taught about his power and now he had been fighting for a long time with no visible change in the 'Seiju' in front of him.

So: "d.a.m.n, he doesn't look like he's getting tired."

Sora was not exhaused due to his use of light and darkness, but through the use of his body as a whole. Even with an innate talent for aura, he had been fighting for too long.

So: "I just need a little more..."

Sora almost thought about a way to save Seiju whilst simulaneously killing the dark mist but did not yet have enough information. 'Seiju' had been preparing for Sora to attack, but after seeing him refusing to move first, he immediately charged forward, Sora quickly jumped forward to meet him and immediately began to fight with 'Seiju' again, meeting blow for blow. At this point Sora was just buying time for his friends to get away, it's all he could do while he gathered more information. The results were not changing, 'Seiju' only kept regrowing his claws whilst Sora grew more and more tired, it was a war of attrition that he was clearly holding a disadvantage in. After another big exchange they both retreated once again to a safe position, 'Seiju' was in the process of repairing his claws.

So: "So that's how it works..."

Sora stood up and with a flash of bright light, his gloves disappeared.

So: "Come on Seiju!!!"

'Seiju' had a clear expression of shock on his face, but the shock quickly turned into anger as he charged forward to meet the weaponless warrior. Sora smiled.

...

?: "Hey, I'm back."

?: "Only now?"

?: "Yeah, those guys weren't exactly the most cooperative people."

?: "Then... how did you convince them?"

?: "Well..."

?: "No... you didn't reveal your power did you..."

?: "Well... not all of it..."

?: "C'mon! It's not time yet!"

?: "I'm sorry! I wanted to get back to see the fight!"

?: -sigh-

?: "Well... take a look..."

?: "Thats..."

?: "The power, yeah..."

?: "Seems he's only using gloves, they look similar to Azu's."

?: "Yeah but he changed them a bit."

?: "Still... the resemblance is uncanny."

?: "Think he remembered?"

?: "Can it be?"

?: "No, it's impossible, leader was stronger than any of us back then and are probably on par with even the strongest of us here."

?: "Sora hasn't reached that stage yet."

?: "Is is just a coincidence then?"

?: "Hmmm... it may be... but I don't think it is, there's probably something deeper to this - none of us have experienced having that power after all..."

?: "He's won. It's time for us to leave."

?: "What?! I just got back!"

?: "Yeah well nothing's gonna be happening from here on out..."

?: "You- ugh... fine... let's go..."

Leaving just as quietly as they arrived, multiple figures disappeared from the area.

?: "Wait... aren't we forgetting someone?"

?: "Hm?"

?: "Wait..."

...

As 'Seiju' charged towards Sora he smiled. He had known of the special property held by the power of light that purified darkness, he also knew of it's healing properties, Seiju didn't count as 'darkness', only the thing possessing him. Condensing a tiny amount of light in his hand about the size and shape of a needle, he also charged forward, at this distance he was at a clear disadvantage, he was taking a ma.s.sive risk as for his plan to work, he would have to place himself in a position where he was completely open to attack, he had set up a defense made of a faint dark energy but it was very weak due to his own aura and exhaustion. 'Seiju's' claws ripped forward, aiming at Sora's heart, Sora, knowing that he could not dodge the attack but had to get in close for his plan to work, made the split-second decision to jump up in the air and allow the claws to slash through his stomach, while he was now in incredible pain he had stabbed 'Seiju' in the shoulder with the needle and then used his dark flame to stop his momentum along with 'Seiju's', keeping them both locked in place. 'Seiju', seeing that Sora was still standing still next to him saw a chance to turn his claws into a sword and then swiped in an arc to try and behead Sora, Sora was extremely exhausted now, with one hand still holding onto the needle still jabbed into 'Seiju's' shoulder he used the last of his strength to take his own blade and block the one made of darkness, he had hardened his own with a light enchantment. With everything in place Sora let out a light laugh.

"Purify"

With a flash of white light the needle disappeared and a white mist began to envelop 'Seiju', a distorted scream could be heard before the white mist completely covered him, forming a small sphere where 'Seiju' had been. Sora jumped back and instantly collapsed, his exhaustion had reached it's peak, not only had he been fighting at full power for a long time, his mental exhaustion had built up and he had a deep wound into his stomach that he could just barely heal up to a scar before not being able to move, he could barely keep himself awake now. He lay staring straight up at the sky, it was an orange colour now, the fight had begun in the dead of night but had finally ended when the sun had begun to rise, all he was thinking about now was where the other hunters had went, how many survived? The attack on the camp had happened too suddenly, there was no time to react, whilst the initial attack hadn't killed anyone, he was worried about the possible deaths that happened during the attack before him, Del and Rez intervened and the possible deaths that could have been caused through the fire.

The sphere of white mist was slowly swirling around from left to right, it was an extremely slow moving mist, and it was so dense that nothing from the inside could be seen. Whilst Sora knew about the property of purification held by light, he didn't know what form it would take, he looked towards it and waited for the process to complete. After about 5 minutes, the sphere slowly began to dissipate, the mist spread out and disappeared to reveal a young man standing, looking straight up at the sky, his eyes were closed and he began to fall forwards, Sora tried to stand up to catch him but he couldn't move.

Seiju's fall stopped in midair, he seemed to be suspended there.

?: "Jeez, this guy, he actually won."

?: "Yeah, a true surprise."

Sora turned to look at where the voices were coming from and saw that it was Rez and Del, along with a small group of hunters, they had returned after such a long time, Sora smiled. Rez had caught Seiju in his strings, they were thicker so they weren't dangerous. They walked up to to him while Rez placed Seiju's body onto the floor gently, some of the hunters around gathered around him and inspected him for any wounds or internal injuries. Rez and Del got on one knee, Rez stayed in place while Del rested Sora's head on her lap and began to heal the wounds that he could not. Whilst Sora was being healed a couple of questions came to mind.

So: "Where were you two? I didn't expect you to come back this late."

R: "Well..."

Rez looked at Del. Del looked down on Sora.

D: "After I woke up I found that I was already out of the camp, all of the surviving hunters were injured and the ones who knew healing magic were exhausted, Rez didn't have any injuries but I could tell the amount of mental exhaustion he had was intense. With you not there I panicked but he filled me in. After filling me in I naturally wanted to charge in and help you, but... we were stopped..."

So: "Hm? Stopped?"

R: "Yeah, before we could come back we were stopped by a woman, she had purple hair and was pretty tall. Initially we told her to get out of our way, but after a couple of back and forths, she seemed to get annoyed and she reve aled her power to us. It was terrifying... all of us combined probably wouldn't even get close to her level of power."

So: "What? All of you?"

R: "Yeah... It was like a thunderstorm, it was way scarier than even that monster."

So: "Well.. what did she say?"

D: "Well... she said that we couldn't intervene or something."

So: "What? Intervene?"

R: "Yeah, we knew how much danger you were in, so we tried to negotiate but she wouldn't back down. We couldn't really force our way through either."

D: "She kept us hostage for quite a while. She wasn't letting up, but..."

So: "But?"

D: "Well... she just... left... suddenly..."

So: "Huh?"

R: "Yeah, after blocking us she just looked up somewhere then left, she said that she didn't care what we did after."

So: "After all that she just left?"

D: "Yeah, after she left we had most of the hunters stay at the camp and rushed here at full speed with that group of healers and found that you were on the ground and Seiju seemed to be back to normal, aside from being pa.s.sed out."

So: "Heh... wait... what happened to Kuo?"

R: "I used my strings to move him while I carried Del. He's fine too, he's just recovering back at the place the rest of the hunters are."

So: "That's good..."

R: "Man though, you actually beat that thing? All three of us could barely beat it in it's monster form, let alone when it possessed Seiju. How'd you do it?"

D: "Yeah! You're aura seems completely different from when we left!"

So: "Well... maybe I got a little stronger..."

D: "A little?! You're probably the most powerful in the village right now!"

R: "Yeah!"

So: "C'mon, that's an overexaggeration... I still probably can't beat you if you two fight me at once. The only reason I was able to beat that thing in the first place was cause it was made of darkness."

R: "Hm? What does that have to do with anything?"

Sora suddenly remembered that whilst he now had this power, he had to keep it a secret, whilst hesitant to accept the power, he had. So he had to follow the guidelines set by those before him. Sora snickered.

So: "My secret."

D: "Hm?"

So: "All I'm saying is... I'm gonna start studying the magics of light and darkness."

R: "Huh? Don't those go against eachother?"

So: "Yeah but... after this fight I think I found a way to make it work..."

R: "Well... you do you... you saved the area from that beast."

D: "Thanks. Ugh, I feel so useless..."

R: "Hey, it's not only you."

The three began to laugh, they were some of the most powerful people in the village, so they already had a good relationship with eachother.

So: "Wait... whatever happened to that little cat that was possessed?"

D: "Hm? I completely forgot about it..."

They began to look around.

R: "Looks like it ran away during the fight."

So: "Huh... well... I hope it isn't a bad one that we have to hunt."

D: "Maybe it's thankful."

R: "I don't think it would run away if it was thankful..."

D: "Well... maybe it was... maybe it was shy..."

R: "Oh yeah... something with that kind of aura... shy..."

Del had a soft spot for things that looked cute, she was a hardened warrior that everyone acknowledged as the strongest captain of the hunter squads, this would quickly crumble when she saw something cute. The little cat was definitely enough to make her crumble but she was too distracted by the battle to really pay too much attention to it.

So: "Well, as long as it doesn't attack us or anyone else again, I don't mind where it is."

Del and Rez stopped arguing.

R: "Yeah, I guess."

D: "Hm, well, no matter where it is, we need to get you all back to a safe place. I've done all I can to heal you now. Can you stand?"

So: "Yeah I think so."

Sora propped his body up and tried to stand up, he tripped over himself at first but quickly recovered and successfully stood up then stared at the orange sky and the sun slowly rising over the horizon, Del and Rez also stood up and stared.

So: "Man... that sun is beautiful..."

R: "Hm, I didn't think you were into that kinda thing."

So: "Usually not... but... this was the first time I've actually felt my life threatened, knowing I survived... it's a good feeling."

D: "Well, can't argue with that."

The three stood, staring at the sunset.

Se: "Uuuugh."

Seiju, holding his head, had woken up and was now sitting down.

Se: "What happened?"

Sora, Del and Rez turned around.

R: "Man... you don't even know what you did."

Se: "Huh?"

D: "Rez... it's not his fault..."

R: "Yeah I know... but still..."

Se: "Hm?"

Sora walked up to Seiju and held his hand out, helping him stand up.

So: "Let's go home man, I don't think I'll be taking on any jobs any time soon."

Sora smiled then began to laugh.

Se: "Huh? what happened?!"

As they walked back to the camp that the hunters had set up extremely quickly, Del and Rez had filled Seiju in on the situation, he turned very apologetic very quickly but he was constantly told that it was 'okay' and that 'he didn't need to worry about it', so after a while he accepted the fact that everyone had forgiven him, after all, it wasn't really even him. When they arrived back at the camp they had met up with Kuo who, whilst not having made a full recovery, was well enough to walk.

D: "So, lets tally up the hunters, we came in here with 63 hunters."

Del shouted to the other hunters who had fully recovered or were not hurt at all to line up so she could count every single one of them, the ones who were still recovering were visited by her seperately.

D: "Huh?"

Rez walked up.

R: "Hm? What is it?"

D: "63, no one died."

R: "What? isn't that a good thing?"

D: "Well... yeah but... how?"

R: "What do you mean how?"

D: "Well... when that thing attacked, it caused destruction and a fire that was extremely strong, to have no one die... it's suspicious..."

R: "You sound like you wanted someone to die..."

Del quickly waved her hands.

D: "No it's not that! It's just... I don't believe we would be that lucky..."

R: "Hm... you are right... it's a bit suspicious..."

?: "I may have an answer for that..."

D: "Hm?"

R: "Kuo?"

K: "Well... when you guys were gone... some... little girl appeared, she seemed friendly and showed no hostile intent, we weren't in any place to fight either. Whilst she didn't have any of that, the aura she had... it was weaker than the woman before with the purple hair but it was definitely stronger than anyone from the village. We were terrified at first but with a wave of her hand a whole bunch of bubbles rose from behind her, and... in them were the missing hunters, they were all sleeping but they all looked completely fine, she lay them all down and the bubbles popped, and she left."

R: "What?"

D: "You're joking right?"

K: "Ask the other hunters... I'm not lying..."

...

R: "Del?"

D: "I don't think Kuo would lie about this... even if he was, he would at least try to make it more believable. But if this is the story we're going with. The two of those people, the woman and the girl, they are undoubtedly linked..."

R: "Two powerful figures... one blocked us and the other helped us... what is going on..."

After some thinking, they realised that they didn't have enough information to go on and kept it in the back of their minds.

D: "Well, as long as all of our hunters are alive, that's good."

R: "Yeah. Let's go back to the village, I think everyone here has had enough of hunting monsters for now."

D: "Hmph... that's now how a powerful hunter should speak..."

R: "No... but it's how an honest person would."

D: "Hm, you're not wrong."

Del smiled and looked towards the distant Sora.

D: "He's the hero this time, we need to power up, Rez."

R: "Hm... yep, fully agree with ya."

With this, Del sounded the horn for the return to the village, and after packing up everything, they all went back to the carriages and travelled back home.

...

?: "Wait? Where is she?"

?: "Hm? Oh! I forgot about her sense of direction!"

?: "d.a.m.nit! We need to go back!"

?: "No need."

?: "Hm?"

?: "Gave her a magic item that I created that will lead her back to me every time."

?: "Really?"

?: "It's not that hard..."

From the distance.

?: "You guuuuuys!!!!"

?: "Oh hey you're back."

?: "What do you mean?! You left the spot!"

?: "Well you had that thing I gave you."

?: "Still!!! Ugh... did he win at least?"

One of the figures laughed.

?: "Yeah... he did."

?: "He awakened to it already. But... it's much weaker... after this he has to go somewhere to increase his power quickly. This is going by quickly now. Well, make your preparations guys, we're going to where he's going. Let's go!"

...

Under the depths, a fiery h.e.l.l with a violet moon perpetually locked in a dark night, a tall tower with a throne at the top, sat a figure, with two red horns.

?: "Bested... useless..."

?: "Lord, why don't you go out already? You have long surpa.s.sed the power you had when your horn was shattered by that human."

?: "NEVER!!!!"

The entire surrounding area vibrated and some of the decoration around the room crumbled.

?: "-Speak about that, it is the biggest humiliation granted unto me by someone from a race so weak and fragile."

?: "I... apologise..."

?: "Hmph... it's true that I have long surpa.s.sed that level, but... I will not make the same mistake again... now that I have found a new way to gain power, I will abuse it to it's maximum effect, bring me more essence..."

?: "Lord... we have ran out of strong essence, killing powerful figures is too difficult, we may have to start killing weak mortals in the thousands in order to keep the pace at which your strength grows going."

?: "Do it... as long as I can kill that reincarnated brat, I don't care."

?: "We will begin as soon as possible..."

One figure, with a flicker, disappeared from the room, leaving only the two-horned giant in the room.

?: "Prepare yourself... I'm coming for you..."