章 22: Chapter 22: End of Flag Game and Sky Arcobaleno

|3rd POV|

Adriana looks at the young woman in front of her and blinks for a second. The woman in front of her is a young teen girl with dark blue eyes and eyebrows. She has slightly long, straight, light blue hair with messy bangs that frame her face. This is Bluebell, Byakuran's Rain Guardian.

"Who are you? You are here alone."

The young woman chuckles and says.

"Fufufufu~ You did not need to worry~ I am more than enough to beat you."

Adriana holds herself from laughing as she knows that her teammate is somewhere, watching them from the distance to snipe using her bow and arrow. She did not like someone being an arrogant person. She wants to teach this little girl a lesson that she cannot forget.

"Oh? Really? Very well. Let's see if you can do that."

Adriana takes out her sword and dashes forward. Her sword shines golden as she uses her demigod power and enchants her sword with the power of the sun. However, as she swings her sword, a giant seashell appears in front of her and blocks her attack.

Adriana jumps away and looks at the Seashell in shock.

"What is that?!"

"Hehehe~" Bluebell peeks out from behind the seashell with a smug grin on her face. "This is Timmy! Timmiy cannot do much, but~ He can do this!"

Bluebell pushes the seashell, and suddenly, the giant seashell breaks into twelve seashells. A second later, they fly at Adriana at very high speed. Adriana widens her eyes and starts to jump around to dodge all the attacks.

"Dance! Dance, my pretties~."

Adriana did not want to use this ability this soon, but it looks like she needs to use it to win this battle. She takes a deep breath and screams. This is another power she gets as the daughter of Apollo. She gets an Audiokinesis.

As she screams, a wave of light goes through her surroundings, throwing away all the seashells flying toward her.

It did not break them, but it was enough to throw them deep into the ground. Not only that, but her scream makes Bluebell disoriented and gives her a chance to attack. Adriana dashes forward with his sword and thrusts it at Bluebell, who throws her body into the ground to dodge the attack.

Even with her ear ringing, Bluebell still manages to dodge the attack and release a blast of rain flame at Adriana.

"That hurt!"

Bluebell screams as she creates hundreds of needles made of rain flame and lets them fly at Adriana. Adriana is about to scream again, but before she can do that, the seashells in the ground blast out of it and hit her in the back.

She grits her teeth and uses her sword to block the incoming needle as she cannot prepare another sonic wave. She manages to block anything from stabbing her upper body, but her legs get hit by quite a bit of needles.

Adriana did not think of them as a threat as she did not even feel pain when they managed to stab into her legs. However, when she is about to move, she finally notices that her legs give up on moving or even standing.

She looks at Bluebell, who grins at her and says.

"What have you done?"

"Fufufu~ You are fighting me without knowing the true power of the flame. Rain Flame power is tranquility. Your leg stops working and will not work as long as I feed it with my flame. Also…"

Bluebell throws ten needles and hits both of Adriana's hands to disable her hand, just like her legs. However, instead of being angry, Adriana looks at her and says,

"Did you think you had won?"

"Oh?"

"This is a team fight. Iris! Now!"

However, even after Adriana shouts that word, nothing happens, as Bluebell laughs and says.

"Did you think I came here alone? I say that being alone is enough to beat you. I never said anything about being here alone, right Torikabuto?"

After she says that, a tall man appears near them. He wears a hooded gray cloak and a red Oni mask. Beneath the mask, he has a charred and disfigured appearance. This is Torikabuto, Byakuran's Mist Guardian.

Adriana looks at him in shock while Bluebell's smile gets bigger.

"Are you done with the other?"

He doesn't say anything and only nods his head. Bluebell looks at her and says.

"See? You are defeated!"

She happily walks toward the flag and takes it out of the ground. After Bluebell takes out the flag, orange balls appear in the sky and explode before Vale's voice can be heard throughout the forest.

"The game is over! Gesso Famiglia is the winner!"

Markos looks in the distance in shock as he does not think his people will be beaten this fast. As for his opponent, he starts to curse.

"Those Idjits! Why do they finish the game so fast?! Dammit!"

This man is Zakuro, Byakura's Storm Guardians, and the one fighting against Markos. Zakuro looks at Markos and says,

"Why are your students so weak?! We did not even fight for more than twenty minutes, and they were already defeated!"

Markos did not want to admit it, but Zakuro's words were correct, and he wondered if his training was too soft to make the game not even reach an hour.

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While the others heal the participants in this game, Byakuran and Aria walk toward me with Uni in her arms. Byakuran looks at me with a frown and says,

"Brother! Why are they so weak?"

"I don't know what they will be this week. So far, I have only asked them to do endurance training. I don't know if their fighting capabilities will be this bad."

"They did not even want to gather information and only charge ahead of them. If not for me asking my guardians to hold back, they would have been defeated in a matter of a few minutes."

And that is the truth. I can see all of his guardians did not use all of their strength. As a Sky Flame, I can feel their flame; boy, they have a lot of it. Each one of them has at least three times the amount of flame of my guardians.

"Now. Now. Byakuran. You cannot blame him for this."

Byakuran pouts at her words, and I can only chuckle at his behavior. Byakuran likes to act like a child, but I know that is because he is lonely or something.

I turn to Aria and see her smile at me.

"I am sorry for the late introduction. My name is Aria, and I am Uni's mother. As you can see–" She points to the pacifier on her chest, "I am the Sky Arcobaleno."

"Nice to meet you, Aria."

When our hands meet, I can feel her sky flame trying to touch mine, and I let it do it. I can see her gentle soul through this and even see how weak it is. Her life force is depleted, and in a couple of years, she will be dead.

A few seconds later, she removes her hands and looks at me with a bright smile.

"I know it. You are a gentle soul, Valerian. Your soul is pure, and your flame is welcoming. I am glad that you will be Uni's uncle from now on."

"Eh?"

Aria laughs a little at my reaction before looking at Byakuran, who takes Uni away and plays with her.

"Byakuran already calls Byakuran her uncle, and with you being his brother, you are also her uncle."

I nod and say.

"You look happy with the news of her getting a new uncle."

"Of course, I am happy. I want her to have a happy childhood when I die. As the next Sky Arcobaleno, her life will be hard, and I want her to be happy before the curse takes her away. As you can see from earlier, my life force is almost gone, and I will not survive for long. This will happen to her, and I want her to have a happy life just like mine."

I look at her for a few seconds before saying.

"We can help you with your life force problem."

Before I can even react, something tackles me to the ground, and the next thing I know is a toddler wearing a fedora looking at me right in the eyes.

"You can help her."

"That is not a question, but yes, we can do that."

"How?"

"Loss of life force is dangerous, but there are people who can heal it. Hell, we can go to Japan and ask the local Youkai to help with your situation."

Reborn looks at me in shock. I pick him up and look at Aria, who also looks at me in shock.

"Do you want me to book some spiritual healer for you?"

Aria hesitates for a few seconds before saying.

"Do you truly think that my condition will be healed?"

"I don't know for sure because I am not a healer, but I don't see the reason why not."

She looks at me for a few seconds before bowing her head.

"Please. Please heal me so I can watch my daughter grow."