Chapter 15: Chapter 15:Complicated relations.
Year:1991
Ingenuus is now barely able to stand while the chakra of Kurama that surrounds keeps intensifying, Ingenuus' skin starts slowly peeling off and beneath it, there's a dark red layer of skin instead of the muscles. This happens due to Kurama's chakra overpowering Ingenuus' control that was fragile and started breaking the moment he lost his calm.
Ingenuus' left arm and right side of the face are right now going through this process while he holds the spiritual chakra sword on his right hand with his teeth grinding strongly, as the aura of rage is absolutely visible, the bloodlust emits from him at great heights.
Darkios:|No good! Ingenuus keep yourself together! You'll end up destroy-.| Darkios tried to warn Ingenuus about something but his connection was cut off by the dense bloodlust aura surrounding Ingenuus.
Kurama and Darkios wanted to stop this but the rate at which Ingenuus' bloodlust and rage are building is too high and if they actually stop it, the consequences on Ingenuus and everyone present in his soul plane right now will be catastrophic. This being the case they have no other options but to slow it down as much as possible.
At this moment Ingenuus started running towards the distorted dragon at a high speed, with a wild and furious aura around him making even the distorted dragon warry of him.
-The inner soul layer-
Inside this area with a beautiful grassland with a garden of flowers in its center, there's a giant fox and a light blue-haired young man talking.
Darkios: "Damn it! He won't listen to me anymore. I'll have to help him the other way..... Foxy gimme some chakra." He said relaxed to the giant fox-like talking to a pet.
Kurama: "Who the f*ck do you think you're calling that?! You must be tripping if you think Imma help some disrespectful little sh*t like you!!" Kurama could no longer take this guy's disrespect and blatantly refused.
Darkios: "Chill, I really need this. It's no time for your diva moments!"
Kurama: "Now you're just asking for a straight beatdown!! Don't think I won't wipe the floor with your face!!!"
They discussed like children for a couple of minutes longer and then came to an agreement where Kurama accepted helping Darkios.
-Inside the distorted dragon-
There's a girl made of light, shining bright in the middle of all the darkness. She's just laying down as if waiting for the end to come, even if an expression is difficult to tell in her and even more in such a dark place, it's obvious from her disposition only that she's no longer willing to fight.
As time passes she shines brighter than before, so bright that it would blind anyone just from looking at her, but even in such a situation where she seems to carry no hope and there's no reason to carry any hope, there's a part of this girl of light that tells, that if she gives up now, she'll just fail herself and the one she's serving once again. The regret of the past won't let go of her no matter how much she tries to forget it with the happiness of the present, and that same feeling is telling her that even if logically her decision is the best way to protect her host, and even more important her first true friend, Ingenuus... All these thoughts and doubts mix in together and dance ballet in her mind making it harder for her to focus on what she has already decided for herself, she knows perfectly that there's no point in trying to change her mind now, no matter what she does she can't reverse what already has started, but no matter how much she tells herself this, the uneasiness and the part of her that tells her this is a bad decision keep coming up every instant. This is obviously Rikune who's now more than a physical battle against the corrosive properties of the distorted dragon is having an internal battle with herself, questioning what's correct and why does she feel bad for her decision to sacrifice everything to protect him....
Rikune: "I've decided with all of me long ago to not let my determination to protect my host... My friend... That no matter what the sacrifice necessary that this time I would properly do my duty.... Then WHY?! Why do I feel so empty?! Why do I feel that I have accomplished nothing? Why do I feel even worse than before?....
This is what I wanted.... To protect what's important at all costs, that's what I decided for myself and I was happy to finally have some kind of conviction to move me, I wasn't just there to serve for serving, I know and love who I'm serving... I'm not just doing this for myself, I'm doing it for us... Bu- BUT NO MATTER! How much I think of it and try to convince myself that I'm fulfilled, I'm not... I'm actually emptier than before, I feel like instead of gaining.... I'm losing something precious, something I deeply and dearly want, but I don't know what I want....." Rikune said with a touch of confusion mixed with doubt, uncertainty, and regret.
With all that going on in her mind Rikune slowly let out a colorless liquid that reflects her light, falling from her eyes and being absorbed into the unknown darkness that surrounds her.
While she is absorbed in her own feelings and thoughts, the shadow of a woman with crimson red hair and dangerous deadly eyes appeared excluding the aura of victory and said.
Soul Elma: "Poor poor girl, crying in loneliness. Don't worry, all you have to do is give me the access sequence to get into this sphere and it will all be over." She said with vicious and tricky eyes.
Rikune: "I don't need your help to end this! Do you really think I don't know you're trying to get to Ingenuus' soul core to take possession of its unique properties.... just know that you'll never succeed, the moment I made my decision the outcome was set in stone." Rikune responded very sure of herself.
Soul Elma: "You might be right about my intentions, but your little plan to stop them just brought me some steps closer to it since my prey himself came to me, for that, I can only thank you." She said and then immediately a hole appeared in front of them showing the outside.
Rikune could perfectly see Ingenuus who's in a state of rage fight against the distorted dragon, looking at this situation, Rikune couldn't help but let out a sigh of both relief and frustration. She is at this moment happy because Ingenuus cares about her and at the same time angry at him for endangering himself this way while she already did all she could to protect him.
Rikune: "I won't listen to you just because he's here, I'm worried it's true, but I also trust that he'll be able to get to me. So, f*ck yourself!"
Soul Elma: "It seems I have nothing left but to force out of you."
Soul Elma approached Rikune, who had just gotten up, and is standing ready for the battle despite only having one arm and half. This made Soul Elma start to laugh at her.
Soul Elma: "Hahaha! You're really pathetic!! Do you actually think you can defend yourself?"
Rikune: "You would be surprised by what I can do."
Soul Elma decided to attack and got herself closer to Rikune and sent a kick that was immediately blocked by Rikune with her own leg, then Rikune countered by sending three punches one on the stomach, one on the chest and the last one on the face, all with her left hook since her other arm only had half of it left.
Rikune: "{Battle command-pistol punch: triple shot}."
Rikune was standing having just used one of her many battle techniques which she didn't use before because she was in a hurry and she also can't come in contact with the black substance. Soul Elma had just gotten the sh*t punched out of her was bleeding from her nose and mouth now kneeling on the "floor" looking at Rikune from below with disdain, as she understands that she has underestimated her adversary.
Soul Elma: "F*ck! This b*tch than I thought! I'll make sure you'll regret this so badly!!!"
While soul Elma is speaking Rikune got closer to her and was about to kick soul Elma's face really hard, but soul Elma throw fire at Rikune which she had no choice but to dodge and back away from.
The red fire emitting great heat, soon went out as if it had never been there but what interested Rikune was the fact, that the black substance was also burnt out by the fire and didn't start regenerating, this also explained why soul Elma didn't use it before as it would have killed her distorted dragon.
Rikune didn't lose herself in her thoughts and looked around to check if soul Elma was anywhere to be seen and she wasn't, she disappeared right after using her fire, making Rikune question if she's really gone or just hiding and wait for an opportunity to strike.
Soon Rikune was kicked in her stomach, followed by some punches on her face before she could react, but she regained composure fast and increased the level of attention to her surroundings as it seems soul Elma is attacking her while invisible and making no sound until she actually came in contact with Rikune.
Rikune knows that if she doesn't develop a strategy to fight this, soul Elma will definitely win and use as a hostage against Ingenuus, as to why that hasn't been done until now, Rikune believes that the distorted dragon can't focus on its inside and outside at the same time, so since it's fighting Ingenuus, it can't attack Rikune or at least that's what Rikune believes makes sense.
Now that things outside have gone outside of her control soul Elma probably decided to change her plans and force Rikune to cooperate with her, so Rikune can't let soul Elma come out victories in this. But the situation isn't that good for Rikune as she keeps getting attacked without the possibility of defending herself at all.
Soul Elma: "Not so tough anymore huh!! Hehehe, look at you now. Well, if you kneel down and beg for forgiveness I might consider forgetting what you did."
Rikune: "Do you really think I would kneel to a weakling like you?"
Rikune could somewhat keep track of soul Elma when she speaks, so she decided to make her furious so that she will talk for enough time for Rikune to beat the cr*p out of her.
Soul Elma: "How dare you call me a weakling?! Don't compare me to your level?! I have lived for far longer than you can imagine and you!!! Call me a weakling?!?! I'll burn you and everyone here into nothing!! F*ck his special soul! F*ck this stupid plan you're all dying here!!!" She said absolutely furious and completely out of patience.
Rikune's plan worked a little bit too well and pure red flames covered soul Elma as she exploded in rage, while Rikune thought that she never expected her to have such a short fuse.
-The outer soul layer-
(Back to the moment Ingenuus lost it to his rage)
[Warning: 30 minutes left for termination of Individual Rikune]
At this point, Ingenuus wasn't paying attention to the system's warming at all and was only concentrated on destroying his enemy and finding Rikune.
Ingenuus ran as fast as he could at a new level of speed with his left arm and face transformed into the four tails mode, with his skin peeling off and only leaving the very red skin of the four tails mode of Kurama, this state in which Ingenuus seems to have gone out of control and more to the wild side.
Ingenuus with the spiritual chakra sword on his right hand while running is cutting through each and every tentacle that came his way at a high speed and with movements that wouldn't be possible for him in his normal state, not only is he cutting the tentacles, he's also dodging the ones he doesn't have time to cut down. His movements are wild, impulsive and based on instinct, it's a completely different style from the one before that had calculated and well-planned movements made to have the most efficiency with the less effort possible, this not only makes it weird to look at, it also makes it very hard to predict.
[Warning: 20 minutes left for termination of Individual Rikune]
Another warning that was ignored by Ingenuus.
This unusual movements allowed Ingenuus to advance closer and closer to the "body" of the distorted dragon that seemed to be moving slower than before, and Ingenuus didn't let this chance escape attacking with everything and cutting through all the tentacles in order to put an end to this horrible creature. But this was a trap, as soon as Ingenuus got close enough, he was showered with a powerful beam of dark energy.
Distorted dragon: <Abyss shot>
The proximity between Ingenuus and the distorted dragon didn't allow for him to dodge, so the only option left was to defend himself. Ingenuus despite being in a wild and more instinct oriented state, he's still able to think to some extent and so used his sword to deflect the dark energy beam by rotating the sword with his right hand and using it as a shield of sorts.
The sword Ingenuus used slowly started cracking as he defended himself from the eminent beam of dark energy ready to overtake him at a minimum mistake, even so, Ingenuus with all he has is doing his best to keep up. But in the end, it wasn't enough.
Crack, crack break!
[Warning: 10 minutes left for termination of Individual Rikune]
Ingenuus was hit by the beam of dark energy and fell down on to the ground. His left arm is now covered by a black aura and his body is slowly losing its color and even Kurama's chakra disappeared, the distorted dragon didn't waste this chance and immediately send its tentacles to grab and restraint Ingenuus that is now very weak after getting hit by the remanents of the dark energy beam that was launched at him by the distorted dragon.
Ingenuus: "Release.... Rikune..... now!...." With his remaining strength that is very little Ingenuus once again talked about Rikune who's not just his assistant and friend, but his family now that it's them against all the anime worlds he has to get his hands on, he's, of course, worried for her.
Distorted dragon: "Do you think you're in position to make decisions? Don't make us laugh, your puny existence will soon end and so will your little friend's, so you don't have to worry you'll be together again in death." The horrible creature said with its terrible voice, as Ingenuus' eyes of hate fell on it.
Distorted dragon: "It's now the end for you." <Abyss shot>
Once again the disgusting creature is ready to shoot its beam of death on Ingenuus to end him for good, even though Ingenuus wants to fight back, after the last attack he has no energy for that. There's nothing he can do now.
-The inner soul layer-
Darkios: "No! No! Just give me a little more time and it will be done!!! Kid don't give up!!!!" Darkios who's working with a miniature holographic figure of Ingenuus said while he saw Ingenuus is going to be shot by the distorted dragon.
-The Outer soul layer-
The beam of dark energy once again came towards Ingenuus at full speed when.
BOOM!!!
The beam of dark energy dispersed as a big explosion of flames happened inside the distorted dragon and most of its structure was burned to nothing. In the midst of all this, two figures jumped out of the explosion in opposite directions.
These two figures are soul Elma and Rikune, who now stand opposed to each other. This as Ingenuus' body had fallen away from them, and in that instant, both of them looked at the unconscious Ingenuus and started running towards him.
Rikune: "I won't allow you to get your dirty hands on him." Rikune said to soul Elma.
Soul Elma: "You can't stop me from getting him." soul Elma responds.
Rikune: "Let's see about that."
At that moment, soul Elma got surrounded by fire and it started forming wings to make herself faster and get to Ingenuus first. Unfortunately for her Rikune is following her movements.
Rikune: "{Battle command-Photon canon: photon snipe}"
Rikune once-great transformed her left arm into a canon and shot soul Elma down and then hurried towards Ingenuus while her right arm completely disappeared.
Rikune: "{movement command-rollerblades mode: nitro dash}"
Rikune used a different command to make her feet into rollerblades with thrusters that made her speed increase a lot.
While Rikune is approaching Ingenuus suddenly the remains of the distorted dragon that are very close to Ingenuus start consuming him.
[Warning: 1 minute left for termination of Individual Rikune]
Ingenuus who's unconscious couldn't receive this warning.
Rikune: "F*ck! Stay away from him!!! {Battle command-Photon canon: photon shot}" Rikune who didn't know there were remains of the distorted dragon and immediately shot since her attacks won't harm Ingenuus as the host of the system.
The attack hit the distorted dragon and what was left of it and then Rikune finally got to Ingenuus.
Rikune: "I'm so happy you're alive!! You're so stupid, you could have just left me to die and wait until it was all over!!" Rikune said as she hugged Ingenuus' unconscious body.
Unfortunately, this moment didn't last as danger came right after.
Soul Elma: "Did you think you got rid of me so easily!?!?!" soul Elma said as she threw 10 fireballs at Rikune and Ingenuus.
Rikune immediately let go of Ingenuus and used herself as a shield for him.
Rikune: "Yeah, but it's the end for you now!!" Rikune said as she defended Ingenuus and shined brighter than ever.
[Warning: 5 seconds left for termination of Individual Rikune.... 4, 3, 2...]
But then.
[Warning: Individual Rikune's termination canceled.]
Rikune: "What?! Why?!" Rikune questioned as she looked at the message she just received from the system while realizing there's a hand touching her and that's Ingenuus from behind.
Rikune looked behind her to see Ingenuus with one of his eyes shining orange smiling at her.
Rikune: "This way we can't fight her... Why not let me go?..."
Ingenuus: "You're my family now and I won't let my family sacrifice themselves for me." Ingenuus said and hugged Rikune while the fireballs rained on them.
As the explosions of fire happened a smile on soul Elma's face was very present.
Soul Elma: "This moron really risked his life for a computer? Or whatever that thing is, really?! Well good for me since now I can do what I-."
While soul Elma is singing victory the explosions ended and what was left annoyed soul Elma since nothing should be left.
Standing there is a dome of ice and inside are Rikune and Ingenuus with a new message from the system.
[The recovery process of host Ingenuus soul has reached 1% of its entirety]
-The inner soul layer-
Darkios: I did it!! The easiest first 1% with this cr*ppy chakra thing!! I can only be called a genius no, even greater an unmatched genius!! Now for the real showdown let's get at it and go have these two love birds." Darkios bragged.
-The Outer soul layer-
Soul Elma: "Impossible!! They stopped my fire with ice!! Unless.... A godly ice body here? No way! My godly fire body is already rare there's no way there's an ice one here... "
Inside the dome of ice Ingenuus and Rikune, both fainted of exhaustion and then appeared two figures inside the dome.
Darkias: "Man, using chakra as qi is really troublesome. Anyway! Girl! You-....." Darkios looked at soul Elma and stopped for a bit.
Darkios: "Leave this soul and don't there touch those close to this child at all, I'm sure you know what will happen to you if you don't leave." Darkias said to soul Elma and opened a portal next to her, this action made Kurama look at him with a weird expression but it didn't say anything as it's none of its a business.
Soul Elma: "You!.... Remember this, I Xhe Nier will always take revenge on those that humiliate me!! I'll definitely kill all of you next time!" soul Elma said as she went through the portal and disappeared.
-Outside world-
Inside the room where Ingenuus is hospitalized in, there are 5 fainted young woman surrounding a fainted kid and a dark aura came out of the kid then immediately left the room and started wandering the hospital and searched for something, not long after it moved out of the hospital and started wandering the village.
After a long time wandering around and it found a little girl with blond hair who doesn't seem to be more than 5 years old, who was playing with mushrooms and plants around, then it went inside the girls that started struggling against it then after a while the little girl stabilized with deep red eyes that soon turned light brown as the girl regained control over herself.
Lady: "Sara! What are you doing on the ground?! How many times do I have to tell you to be more lady-like!! Come with me! We have to get you ready for didn't before your father sees you like this!!"
And just like that, the girl was taken by her mother back home and from time to time a red glint can still be seen in her eyes.
-Back to the Outer soul layer-
There are four people there and two of them are unconscious. Then Ingenuus and Rikune started waking up Rikune being the first one to regain consciousness and Ingenuus followed.
Ingenuus woke up to look around himself and see the scenery that was once a deserted place with nothing has become a vast forest around them.
Ingenuus: "What happened here?.... Even more important who's this?!?! Wait where's Rikune?!?!?!" Ingenuus asked as he got confused by having just woken up.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Darkias07
Darkias07 Thanks for the views!!
I'm sorry for the late chapter.
This is the end of volume one: the pre-story.
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