Akiara's group were fighting against dead pirates. Even sirens climbed the ship started attacking them with their ultrasonic soundwaves. Estelle acted as a sniper. She shot them down from crow's nest. She gave thumbs up showing she got their back. Suddenly tides started to move violently causing waves to swell making the ship to shake. They tried to keep their balance while fighting. They noticed the climate changed so quickly. Heavy rain and swelling of waves making their fights even harder. Suddenly octopus tentacles showed up. One of its tentacles landed their ship causing it to move violently.

"What the?!" Akiara looked alarmed.

Suki-san killed the captain and ran off to their ship. When she arrived all the skeleton pirates went berserk attacking them. Akiara's holy sword gleamed in golden light and dashed towards them. She sliced them off into pile of bones, "This is frustrating."

Suki-san slashed off the tentacles but the rain and storm doesn't seem to end. Screams and tremors caused the creature to reveal itself. It's eyes glared at them. It charged towards then with its remaining tentacles. Suki-san jumped towards the kraken and slashed it cutting it to pieces.

Arrow was fighting against the leviathan. Scratch marks covered his body. He roared loudly. He charged towards it. He stabbed his claws on its chest pulling out the core. It fell on the water causing to splash water towards them.

Akiara shouted, "Arrow! Explosion!" she pointed her fingers towards the sky.

He growled. He started creating a huge fireball from flames. He let it go and it exploded amongst the sky clearing the cloudy sky. They cheered in victory.

___________

The female mage was exhausted from using her mana but it didn't stop her.

"Come on, quit it. At this rate you will die." Keegan spoke clearly sounded he was annoyed and was not having fun anymore.

"I don't care and give a damn about it." She was panting.

Keegan's small droplet of blood was floating on tip of his thumb and forefinger, "Die." he shot it near her feet. It threw her in the air.

"Looks like it's my end here. I couldn't even fulfill master Hayden's wish." She closed her eyes accepting her death.

___________

Arrow flew down and transformed back into human. Blood from scratch marks seeped his shirt. He collapsed on Akiara. She caught him placing his head on her shoulder.

"You did a great job back there." Akiara ruffled his hair.

Mizuki and Suki-san took both his arms and placed it on their shoulders, "We will take care of him." they smiled giving off ominous aura.

"O-okay. But please can you keep your aura low because it is..... quite overwhelming." Akiara commented.

Their face turned beet red, "S-s-sorry."

"It's alrigh-" she was cut off by Estelle's shouting, "Watch out!"

"Huh?" Akiara looked confused. A person crashed on her. They looked at her shocked.

"Aye aye aye..... that hurts." Akiara rubbed her head.

Cordelia rushed to her aid. She picked up the person so that Akiara can move. She looked at the person to see who it was. It turned out it was the female mage that was fighting against Keegan. She was unconscious. Mizuki and Suki-san rested Arrow's back on the cabin wall and ran towards Akiara.

"Are you alright Aki/Aki-chan?" Both asked her in sync.

"Yeah I'm fine. But what about this girl?" She placed her two fingers on the mage's neck to check her pulse.

"She's alive. Take her to the cabin. We need to treat her wounds." She picked her up in her arms.

"Aki/Aki-chan, why don't we carry this woman?" Both were smiling painfully.

"It's alright. You guys carry Arrow. Me and Estelle will go tend her wounds. You guys go take care of Arrow." with that Akiara went inside the cabin.

Arrow and the mage's wounds were treated. Captain also entered the room to inform them.

"Heroes, we are going to reach the dockyard of Pilan empire by midnight." Captain spoke.

Suki-san nodded, "Got it." the captain bowed and walked out of the room.

After few hours the mage woke up. She opened her eyes and saw unfamiliar surroundings. She noticed she was in new clothes with bandages on her body. Even she sees Arrow is sleeping on the other bed. She sits and saw Akiara was sitting on the chair reading a book.

"Where am I?" the mage asked.

Akiara glanced her from the book, "You are awake?" she walked towards her, "You're in Heroes ship. You fell on a hero in your unconscious state."

The mage blushed feeling embarrassed. She asked, "Who are you?"

"I'm Akiara. What's yours?"

"Dennise. Um.... thanks for saving me."

She smiled, "Anyways how are you feeling?"

"I-I I'm feeling better. Even the injuries are healing really quickly." she spoke as she was panicking thinking what to say.

"Good to hear. Next time don't force yourself to completely drain your mana. It is harmful for your spiritual energy."

Her face turned red like tomato. She looked down, "I.... understand."

She hummed in response and walked out of the room. Mizuki and Suki-san entered the room with a fake smile plastered on their faces.

"How are you feeling?" Mizuki asked.

"I'm fine I guess. What's with you guys aura?" She mumbled the last part.

"You guess?" Suki-san asked.

"Don't even think about Aki to take care of you. She's mine." Mizuki replied sternly.

"I see." Dennise was processing what's happening around her.

"Whatever. I'm Mizuki."

"I'm Suki."

"I'm Dennise."

Akiara knocked on the door. She entered, "Here you go. I got some light food for your stomach." she placed the tray on the bed.

"Thanks."

She smiled. She looked both of them and spoke looking serious, "We must prepare for the arrival."

They nodded. Before leaving the room she glanced at Dennise, "Rest well. Then we will have good chat." they left the room. She smiled seeing Akiara taking good care of her.

Heroes and adventurers gathered on the deck as the ship will soon reach the dock of Pilan empire. As the ship reached, Akiara pulled down the anchor. Ship's stairs were put down and they got down. They were walking around the streets. There was no sign of human life in the street.

"Where are everybody? I don't feel any human presence.... it's like everyone vanished." Estelle exclaimed worryingly.

"Well I have a bad feeling." Akiara turns to face them, "Let's spread across different places to find clues or a sign of human being staying in this deserted town."

"That's a good idea. But how are we supposed to communicate when there's no headphones?" Suki-san asked.

Mizuki tilted her head, "Headphones? What's that?"

"It's a communication device used in my world." Akiara explained.

"I see." suddenly her mind lit a bulb. She spoke, "There's an ancient spell which is something similar to your headphones."

Akiara asked, "Are you talking about the magic circle tattoo that is placed behind the neck?"

"Yes! That spell." Mizuki looked quite excited.

"But I don't know ancient language." Akiara replied.

"Well I know." She started saying some kind of chant in weird language. Akiara felt something behind her neck. She casted on them then for herself as well.

"I will tell you how this circle works. If Estelle wants to tell something to Cordelia then Estelle will call her name. If she wants to inform us then say 'everyone'. Only those who have this circle will hear the conversation." Mizuki explained. They nodded.

"Alright then let's get going." Akiara jumped on the roof running away. Others also ran off to different directions.

Akiara was running on the roof suddenly someone grabbed her hand and pulled her closer. Mizuki was smiling.

"Mizu?! Don't scare me like that!"

"I'm sorry. But you forgot something."

"Forget what?"

"This." She kissed her and ran off leaving Akiara baffled.

"She stole a kiss again. I will make you pay for that." She ran off.

They were wondering around the nation for few days but didn't find anything. One night, Mizuki snuck on Akiara. She grabbed Akiara's hand and hugged her, "I missed you."

Akiara looked startled but immediately composed herself, "Gosh! Don't scare me like that!" she hugged her back, "I missed you too."

"We still have sometime until our break ends. We could star gaze for a while."

"Sure."

They sat there and enjoyed the silence for a while. Both glanced at each other and shared a kiss under milky way. Morning came and they resumed their search. Akiara was standing in the middle of the street all alone. She felt a presence behind her. She took out her holy sword and turned around to see who it was.

"Oh? What a pleasant surprise to see another guest." Keegan exclaimed happily.

"Who might you be?" Akiara asked.

"I am Keegan, one of the six dark emperors."

"I see. Looks like I'm screwed." her facial expression changed to serious, "Guys I'm facing against the dark emperor." she spoke softly so that Keegan doesn't hear her.

"What?! Where are you now?" They asked her.

She noticed Keegan cut his palm with a dagger. Blood dripped down. A small droplet of blood was created and shot towards her. She evaded it and the droplet fell on the ground. He raised his eyebrows.

"How did you deflected my bloodshot?" Keegan asked.

"I didn't do anything. All I can tell you is that the blood has been purified by my sword." Akiara replied.

"I see. Are you perhaps a paladin?"

"I guess. You know blood magic is a part of dark magic. How did you even acquire it?"

This question caught him off guard. His psychotic expression changed to soft one. He replied, "By sacrifice like you know." his blood started taking the shape of daggers and charged towards her.

Akiara stood in her fighting stance. She started evading it by fighting against it. Some of them grazed her cheek, shoulders and thighs. "You are a worthy opponent to fight with. All the heroes were so weak, they died in one strike." Keegan commented.

She sat on her knees feeling weak and exhausted. "What the? Why do I feel tired all of a sudden?"

"Oh? It seems my poison started working." He created a sword with his blood and walked towards her. He lifted the sword to kill her suddenly he flinched.

She glared at him with her eyes gleaming in dark blue color giving off holy aura. Golden flames engulfed her body healing the poison inside her. She stood up and started clashing with swords.

"Who is she? She is completely a different person now." He started evading her movements as he started to understand her sword attacks, "Don't hold back! Show me everything you got." he slowly started levitating his blood from the ground and started creating tiny droplets of shots.

"You better watch your back." he snapped his pointing his forefinger towards her.

All the blood droplets started shooting towards her. She prepared herself suddenly a transparent golden shield appeared causing all his blood to fall on the ground. Her other members arrived to fight. They charged towards him attacking him with their swords.

"I didn't expect that you bought your friends along." Keegan while fighting.

"Be careful! He's got blood magic!" Akiara shouted.

"Don't worry we got it." Mizuki replied. Akiara also joined them in the fight.

"Please keep me entertained. I finally found some people who matches my skill." Keegan exclaimed.

"Suki! Mizu! Prepare your swords for final blow!" Akiara spoke as she unleashed her holy sword's radiant light.

Trio dashed towards him trying to stab his heart. Finally Suki-san managed to find an opening an stabbed his leg. He fell on his knees. Mizuki appeared in front of him and stabbed his heart, "Holy light!"

He smirked, "I'm dragging you to hell as well." he snapped his fingers.

Mizuki couldn't react but Akiara pushed her away causing her to get stabbed by blood spear. "Aki! Akiara!!!" Mizuki caught her. She sat cradled her body. Her head rested on her chest.

He smiled. Suddenly he heard a sweet voice, "That's enough big brother. Let's go back." he saw a familiar face. Surroundings changed into a void. She was smiling. Tears started to fall, "Lily?!"

"You have suffered enough. Mother and Father are waiting for you." His sister spoke softly soothing his ears.

"I... I cannot go to meet them. I killed so many people including them." Keegan replied.

"You don't need to worry about it. Your soul is already purified by the Celeste."

"What? That holy sword was Celeste?"

"Yes."

"Before we go, I need to apologize."

She smiled, "Sure take your time."

Keegan opened his eyes and mouthed 'Sorry' since he lost all his energy. Tears trickled down seeing Mizuki hugging Akiara's limp body as vanished into nothing. He held his sister's hands and ran towards the light vanishing in the sight.