Part 3

Toketsu took a few steps backwards and then stopped. It seemed he finally decided to take on Sora head on.

“So the ice coffin wasn’t enough to kill you. I admit, you surprised me but this problem can quickly be remedied.” Toketsu said as he prepared another spell.

However, Sora already knew what Toketsu was planning – his sixth sense picked up a lot of ice magic gathering around Toketsu.

“Useless…” Sora said, even though he had never seen Toketsu’s attack before he could already guess what it intended to do – mysterious as it sounded, the ice magic conveyed Toketsu’s thoughts and emotions to Sora.

“Ice Rose!” Toketsu screamed as he pointed his index and middle finger at Sora like a ninja.

Immediately, thorny vines of ice shot out from the ground and wrapped themselves around Sora. Sora knew this was Toketsu’s plans all along – the ice magic had conveyed it to him. Despite knowing so, Sora intentionally let himself be captured. Sora instinctively understood such a weak attack could do nothing to him.

“Hahaha!” Toketsu spoke with triumph. “My ice vines are several times stronger than the ice coffin’s grip. You cannot escape them!”

“…”

“No matter how much you struggle, the thorns will slowly seep you of all your spirit power and then your life force. Submit to me now and accept me as your master! Otherwise you will perish!”

“Are we done?” Sora asked with a bored voice. It was true that the vines were draining power from Sora but right now Sora felt like the amount of energy coursing through him was a bit too much. In fact, the power was starting to strain his physical body. Thankfully, Toketsu used a spell that alleviated the burden. The vines that were sucking Sora’s power felt as if someone put an umbrella above Sora as he stood under a waterfall.

“I see…I have again underestimated you…you are a monster that dares to come from the floor below tenth!” Toketsu began laughing.

Sora looked at Toketsu, thinking – this guy is a complete moron. I can’t believe I thought he was some kind of martial arts teacher.

“Final stage! Ice Rose Bloom!” Toketsu screamed. “It is unfortunate but the rules state those monsters from below the tenth floor are not allowed here. Too bad but you cannot be my servant. Even if you are a 30thfloor monster without spirit power there is nothing you can do! The ice rose is a hundred times more powerful than the…” Toketsu stopped speaking – more like he was too shocked to speak.

Right now, the petals of the ice rose began free falling to the ground and the vines that had tied up Sora began swelling – as if they were about to burst.

“You…which floor do you belong to…” Toketsu asked.

Toketsu began perspiring; his forehead was covered in sweat seeing Sora completely unaffected. To be precise the moment, Toketsu executed the attack, the pain Sora had been feeling completely disappeared for an instant. It was a moment, where Sora felt calm – yet powerful.

The rose began withering away – a sign that the spirit force exceeded the amount it could absorb. The swelling vines were also indicating that more spirit power was being forced into them than what they could absorb.

Sora was overloading the Toketsu’s attack system – though Sora didn’t intentionally intend to do so. The energy coursing through Sora was just so much that it was the same as overloading Toketsu’s attack.

In another second, the ice rose completely withered away and the vines burst. Sora sighed mentally, while the rose existed, the pain ceased to exist. Now, with the rose gone the pain was crawling up his spine again.

“Brother…it has certainly been good knowing you.” One goblin said to another.

“Likewise, at least we will have the honor of dying by the hands of such a strong monster.”

The two goblins already began whispering goodbyes.

Sora had no idea why they were whispering goodbyes– monsters are so weird, he thought.

***

Part 4

“Is there anything else that you would like to show me?” Sora asked. It appeared on the surface as if Sora was being arrogant but the real intention beneath that question was to make Toketsu use his powers. Since, Sora had never used any magic before then he didn’t know any of the spells. By getting Toketsu to use spells, Sora would watch how the ice magic around Toketsu acted and he would then memorize the same.

For each step Sora took forward, Toketsu unconsciously took a step backwards.

“Ice Shards!” Toketsu cried out in panic.

Tiny flakes of snow began falling above Sora.

Sora continued walking towards the frightened vampire. Sora was completely disinterested in the snowflakes. His complete attention was wrapped up in the sensations he was feeling. He was memorizing the strange feelings of ice magic encompassing Toketsu and the strange vibes when the spell was cast. Sora was like a dried sponge, absorbing all the information he felt.

“Ice Shard second stage! Ice Execution!” Toketsu cried out, the blue aura engulfing Toketsu burned brighter for a second before dimming after the spell was cast.

Sora’s eyes shined brightly with interest. The two stage spell, gathered ice magic around Sora and then when enough accumulated, Toketsu released another wave of powerful ‘ice magic’. This effect compounded the existing ice magic and further strengthened it in one for an instant. In the instant the energy jumped, Toketsu forced the ice magic surrounding Sora to shape up.

The tiny flakes of ice on Sora burst into massive snow spikes…however those spike which were meant to impale Sora simply melted. They melted not because of heat but because of the spiritual power oozing out of Sora.

Sora continued walking towards Toketsu.

Toketsu rambled on with spells after spells and Sora took his time leisurely to learn them all. Sora wasn’t scared of Toketsu’s magic. He could tell that Toketsu was incomparably weaker than him – the only use for Toketsu he had was the magic spells.

“Ice daggar!” Toketsu shouted – his voice was high pitched; clearly very frightened.

A massive icicle grew out from the wall behind Sora and raced towards the back of his skull. Sora was disappointed – he could sense what Toketsu had planned a big attack but the execution was very poor. This was no ice dagger rather it was an icicle racing towards him. The original spell meant for it to take the shape of a dagger however because Toketsu was very weak, he could not create the correct shape.

Although the attack was powerful, because of the distance it had considerably weakened. Further, Sora’s energy began pouring out again like a fountain. Hence, by the time the attack reached Sora, it could not move any further.

Sora took this opportunity and decided to play a little prank. He stopped moving and then the light in his eyes dimmed and then slowly died out. Toketsu stood still wondering if his attack worked.

Sensing Toketsu relaxing, Sora shouted out as the light in his eyes returned. “Just kidding!”

“Ice … daggar…” Toketsu cried out again. He was like a desperate man clinging on to hope.

“You…you what are you?” Toketsu asked as he gathered his strength.

Sora took offense to the question and chose not to reply to Toketsu who was backed up against the wall.

“You can’t kill me!” Toketsu declared as he realized the wall behind him belonged to the inner spire of the fifth floor.

“…” Sora was taken aback. ‘What does he mean he cannot be killed? Are there rules amongst monsters?’

“The rules say you cannot kill me!” Toketsu squealed.

“…” Sora was about two feet away from Toketsu now. ‘There are rules?’

“She will kill you if you kill me! Those are her rules!” Toketsu argued back.

“Rules don’t apply to me.” Sora calmly replied – though he wondered who this ‘she’ the vampire referred to was. Whatever rules applied to monsters don’t apply to adventurers Sora reasoned. Either ways, Sora would take his revenge. Sora had a very bad personality. Remember the time he killed the mouse? How he made it tap dance? That was Sora’s ugly but true personality – vicious, sick and twisted.

“You…you what are you?” Toketsu asked one last time.

“The question is not what am I but rather who am I?” Sora corrected Toketsu’s question.

Toketsu took a step sideways – moving alongside the wall, his eyes glanced sideways.

Sora was well aware of Toketsu’s intentions but was completely confident that Toketsu could not escape him.

“Then, who are you…” Toketsu asked.

“Sora. SoraChan – your bloodline’s greatest nemesis.” Sora replied thinking it was a cool answer to give, but was that really coincidence?

***

Part 5

Toketsu didn’t wait to ask Sora any more questions. He simply dashed to escape from the terror. With two leaps Toketsu was flying through the air at atrocious speeds. Sora was surprised that Toketsu could fly so fast. However, Sora could sense Toketsu was unconsciously using some form of magic to move faster than he normally did.

Toketsu reached the center of the inner sanctum of the fifth floor.

“Haha!” Toketsu laughed as he realized he had created a gap of more than five hundred meters between himself and the skeleton. However, he soon stopped when he noticed Sora calmly flying towards him – in no hurry. Sora didn’t think that the gap was too much; after all if he were to apply the same technique as Toketsu he could fly the same distance faster.

“Hear me! This one seeks to kill me!” Toketsu shouted out. Sora wondered who Toketsu was calling out to? It couldn’t possible be the monsters below – their aura was much weaker than Toketsu’s was.

“Save me!” Toketsu cried out hurriedly. The panic and fear in his voice was evident.

The distance was no reduced to ten feet between Sora and Toketsu.

“Are you done?” Sora asked as he patiently waited for someone to come to Toketsu’s aid. Sora wanted a new prey – perhaps someone stronger than Toketsu. Why was Sora looking for a challenge? Firstly, there was way too much energy flowing through him. If Sora didn’t release that energy he felt as though he would explode. Secondly, Sora was interested in learning more magic.

Seeing no help coming, Sora decided to launch an attack and release the energy. Sora spoke no spell and tried to mould the magic through the sensations he remembered.

Toketsu looked terrified. Like a rat corned with nowhere to turn to and hide.

You have insufficient experience to cast chantless magic. Please say ‘Empress Dagger’, ‘Empress Shards’, ‘Empress Coffin’ to release the spells you were trying to cast with chantless magic.

“Empress Dagger. Empress Shards. Empress Coffin.” Sora complied with the system message.

A massive ice dagger jutted out from the wall behind Toketsu and the blade rushed towards him. Toketsu was too frightened to move.

A black glass like barrier flashed between Toketsu and the ice dagger. However, it could not match the strength of Sora’s attack. The ice dagger shattered the barrier and stabbed Toketsu.

After which, Toketsu’s body exploded into an icy spiky ball. There was no flesh splattering anywhere…it would seem as though Toketsu’s body morphed into the icy spiky ball.

And finally Toketsu’s falling disfigured body fell into an ice coffin.

“Nuked the fly…” Sora said with a satisfied expression. This nostalgic scene reminded of his Royal Road days.

As Toketsu was swallowed up by the coffin, Sora felt a massive energy/magic wave surging towards him. Sora turned to trace where the attack came from. However, before Sora could react he was hit with the energy blast. Sora’s wings withered away and he fell towards the ground as well.

Sora was losing consciousness and the last thing he remembered was a woman, holding a long cigarette holder, jumping up to kill him.

“Yuko?” Sora whispered seeing a hazy outline of the woman in mid-air; his strength had completely faded away and his eyes were unable to focus.

When the woman heard the name being called out, she changed her mind from killing Sora to saving him.

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Author's note:

1. Sorry for the terrible chapter! T_T I might update this later and make it more descriptive. I am really tired as I had to re-read the entire FF and look for something to make sure the plot is water tight for the coming few chapters.

2. Thanks for reading!

3. This chapter is dedicated to Surume!