章節 74: Raiden Ei

"Where are they!?" a panicked Yae Miko appeared in the Tenshukaku, where a group of people were showing different emotions, but she didn't care about a single one of them. "WHERE ARE THEY!!?"

"They disappeared in a purple space" replied Ayato, who was sitting on the ground covering his eyes with his hand.

"Dammit!" shouted Yae, who rushed to the Shrine again. She had been struggling for an hour and only using her last resort, something nobody knew about, not even Ei, was able to escape after countless struggles. Kenshin's bindings were that strong.

Sara, sensing that Yae was trying to save Kenshin, quickly followed her. Yae was running in a specific direction, and Sara thought that Yae may have a way to enter that purple space.

She didn't know what she would do once inside, but for now, she needed to see Kenshin again.

"Dammit!" she heard Yae's shout from a wall and realized that one of them was false. Injecting some elemental power, she quickly made it disappear only to see an empty 'Torii Gate'.

"What's this?" asked Sara with impatience, sensing that there was no meaning to keep this empty thing here.

"I can't reach them" Yae said biting her lips. "I need a signal from the inside to locate them".

"Then if Kenshin sends us a signal we can find them?" asked anxiously Sara, looking at the empty portal.

"If Kenshin wanted to be rescued, he wouldn't have challenged Ei in the first place" said Yae with a sharp voice. "We can only wait".

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A flash, a white light, a broken pillar, another flash.

Kenshin had a determined look on his face, releasing another burst of concentrated soul power towards Ei's body.

It was the first time he found himself in a soul like this, and he realized that he was incredibly powerful here. The same transference of 'soul energy' he had done with Guizhong before was transformed into a soul cannon here, and he could use the almost inexhaustible energy in this plane, a product of Ei's incredible soul.

Outside he could sense the movement the people would do even before their bodies started moving, but here he was almost able to see the future. It was the only thing keeping him alive, as Ei's movements were too fast for him to react, only predicting Ei's rush could he send a cannonball of soul energy towards Ei, forcing her to abort the attack, move or get blasted back a few meters.

But above all, he could see again.

Not only the souls, he was able to see colours, sand the broken pillars, the black sphere in a corner of this place, everything.

He could see Ei's focused face, trying to look for a place she could attack from.

On her side, Ei had no time to think about anything else but the enemy in front of her. What was supposed to be an execution turned up to be the most difficult fight she had experienced in a while, as difficult as her fight against Orobashi, and the difficulty was only escalating.

The more time Kenshin spent here, the faster he was able to think, the stronger his shots were and he was able to shoot again faster, making Ei realize that she needed to end this as quickly as possible or this would get even more difficult.

She was infinitely faster, and she was sure Kenshin wasn't able to react to her movement speed, but he always knew where would she strike. Even if she tried to alter the trajectory he was able to predict even that, and she suddenly found herself in front of a 'bullet', and only her lightning-fast reflexes were able to divert bullets that were increasing in size and strength with every single second.

Kenshin saw how Ei was able to get used to his patterns of attacks, and he needed to consciously strike different places or he would get sliced in half. He was not worried about stamina consumption, there was infinite ammo here, but his mind would get tired after staying concentrated for a long time as those 'soul bullets' were hard to make. He could make smaller ones, but Ei would just ignore them and bisect him.

For how long could he stay this way? An hour, a day, a month?

Something told him Ei wasn't going to get tired in at least a hundred years, so he needed to end this while he was still rested.

A bullet was in front of Ei once again, forcing her to block with her sword but the bullet had too much force and sent her a few meters back, she landed with a flip and looked at Kenshin who was proving himself to be formidable, but she only saw Kenshin with a frown. She was getting used to his rhythm, and she knew Kenshin also realized it.

She lunged again, her figure transforming into a purple flash and she found herself facing another bullet, but she expected it. She dodged with a sideway turn, and lunged again, doubling her previous speed towards the not-so-distant Kenshin.

But Kenshin, while frowning, was not desperate. If this was a soul, he could manipulate it, and he was very good at that.

The ground itself transformed into giant maws that instantly crushed everything between them, not leaving Ei time to react. One second the floor was plain, and the next Ei found herself trapped between jagged teeth, only her sword saving her.

The moment the jaws moved, a new bullet propulsed Ei backwards after she covered herself with her sword.

"....." Ei looked at her bleeding arm with a grim face. It was not a deep cut, probably swiping her finger over it would erase any trace of the wound ever appearing, but she had bled nonetheless.

She looked at Kenshin with a focused stare, but she saw something she didn't expect, Kenshin was smiling, and it was not a nice smile.

On his side, Kenshin suddenly understood how powerful he really was here.

He controlled souls, and absolutely everything here was a soul. What did that mean?

Ei is learning to block my bullets?

Ei rushed towards Kenshin, her speed increasing even more but a wall made purely of bullets was approaching her even faster than the speed she was moving at, making her eyes go wide and only a disgraceful jump to the side allowed her to escape an attack that would have left her gravely wounded.

If she learns to block, make her unable to block, and shower her with attacks so she can't block them all.

Ei is learning to dodge my attacks?

Ei quickly jumped to the side again to dodge the maws that sought to trap her again and realizing her grim situation, she jumped towards Kenshin once again, but this time she didn't rush. If she goes slow, she will dodge everything until she eventually reaches Kenshin. Of course, even Ei's 'slow' pace was nothing more than a flash in Kenshin's eyes.

Ei opened her eyes wide open in alarm and lay down on the floor, a rain of bullets approached her from behind and passed right through the place her head had been a moment ago. But the maws in the floor appeared once again, and before Ei could move, jagged teeth penetrated her arm making her grimace.

If Ei is learning how to dodge, force her into a position where she is unable to. Everything Ei wanted to do, he had his ways to counter them.

Before Ei could assess the damage, another shower of bullets rained at her from above so she jumped forward, only for a stake to appear from the ground, forcing her to dodge in an unconventional move that left her in an awkward position, and she could only block with her sword the cannonball of energy that came from one side.

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Ei rolled through the ground assessing the damage, and it was a disaster. Her arm, while not limping, was hurting with every move she made and she was not sure she could use it to wield her sword with her 2 arms now.

She felt 'physical' pain for the first time in almost 2000 years and that reminded her of the Archon War, a brutal war where every single God had to fight for supremacy, only for them to be able to keep their lives.

She was way stronger then than she is now, even after 2000 years of training, she felt that she couldn't win against her much younger self. And she knew why.

She had her sister Makoto with her.

She didn't want a country, she didn't want subordinates, and she didn't want to have to make such complicated decisions.

She wanted to fulfil her sister's dream and live peacefully with her friends.

But then she lost every one of them, only the little pink fox known as Yae Miko remaining. Those wounds still hurt, as they will always do.

But she shouldered the pain and decided to protect the only thing that remained in this world besides her memories, Inazuma.

She will fight for the nation her sister Makoto lost her life for.

And now a foe she couldn't find a way to beat appeared before her. She didn't think Kenshin would destroy Inazuma, but she also didn't think he would be able to protect it if another disaster like the one 500 years ago happened again.

So even if her now late sister disapproves of this, even if Miko never talks with her again, even if she hates herself for this, she will defeat the enemy in front of her.

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A bright flash of purple illuminated the whole Plane of Euthymia, and Kenshin realized that things were finally getting serious. He could see how Ei's heart was not in the fight. She was focused on the fight, but she was just trying to kill him in a single strike, and that was not going to work.

Now he was going to face the Archon of Eternity, and not merely Ei.

The purple flash quickly condensed in the figure of Ei, whose eyes shone with purple arcs of electricity, and Kenshin had to form a ground full of stakes to prevent Ei from executing what he sensed she would do.

And despite this, by the time the spikes formed, Ei was already mid-way through the field, making Kenshin realize that he needed to adjust his timing, Ei was too fast now.

Ei jumped back unharmed, but instead of rushing to him again, she started running to the side, releasing ranged attacks at Kenshin, who had to form a thick transparent wall of pure soul power so he wouldn't lose sight of Ei, but his walls crumbled after barely deflecting Ei's sword slashes.

Kenshin and Ei's narrowed at this, realizing that things were even now. Whoever adapted faster would get the advantage.

Ei started releasing more ranged attacks, spears of pure lightning that roared through the air with a deafening sound, and Kenshin tried to block them all forming thicker barriers, but a thicker barrier took him more time to form and Ei realized this.

Ei's attacks were faster with every second, and Kenshin found himself in the backfoot. He could use all the energy in the plane, but he needed to stop these attacks no matter what.

Just as Ei's rate of fire was growing, Kenshin's familiarity with his new abilities here also increased.

'I can't dodge those attacks, they are too fast, but if I can't block them, I only need to stop them before they are released'.

The floor suddenly rose in 2 walls with stakes that tried to crush Ei between them, only for her to move out of the way, but she realized Kenshin's plan.

Kenshin defended himself while trying to obstruct Ei, but she was too fast and started circling around him so fast that a circle of purple light appeared in the Plane of Euthymia with Kenshin in the centre, and attacks started coming from all sides.

It was an agonizing moment for Kenshin, no matter how many traps, and bullets of obstacles put into Ei's way, she dodged them all while releasing those lightning spears that were leaving him deaf at a faster pace with every second.

The next few minutes consisted of Kenshin desperately trying to defend while Ei was getting faster and faster.

Ei's improving pace was better than that of Kenshin's, which meant that Ei was simply more talented.

Until the sounds of lightning spears colliding with those walls stopped sounding, and Ei saw a bullet approach her. She blocked it with her sword, but before the impact, the bullet divided into a myriad of smaller bullets that left Ei wide-eyed.

But the moment she prepared herself to receive some wounds, the moment some bullets scratched her skin, they exploded. The combined force of all those bullets exploding made the Plane of Euthymia rumble, and the whole mountain the Shrine was in trembled.

The dust and sand in the air slowly dissipated, revealing the bloodied face of Ei panting, but still standing firm.

But Kenshin was not any better, these last minutes had taken a huge toll on him and he felt his reaction slower than before while Ei's would only get faster.

He didn't want to talk and he didn't want any emotional speech so he attacked again, stakes appearing above Ei in a sphere with her at the centre and were shot a breakneck speeds.

Ei only needed to break one, and slipped through the crack in the attack, intent on resuming her ranged attacks on Kenshin, as she saw that he was starting to slow down but she finally understood why she had suffered such an attack.

Instead of blocking the spear with a whole wall, Kenshin shot the smallest of projectiles towards the spear making it detonate in the air. Ei was able to create spears faster than Kenshin was able to create those walls, but his small bullets were too fast.

Ei realized at this moment that not only the spears but every ranged attack was useless now. She gritted her teeth at not having used her chance to deal enough damage and decided to give it her all in a close-range attack.

Instead of releasing attacks, she focused on increasing her speed as much as she could, and then some more.

Kenshin wasn't able to predict anything now, he couldn't look at Ei's soul, it was like Ei was everywhere at once.

'This is a soul, and souls are my expertise, my tools, my gadgets and my weapons. So, everything here is a weapon I could use' he thought, closing his eyes as they were useless now, and focused on the Plane itself.

Ei widened her eyes when she sensed something happening in the air around her. No, it was the whole plane.

Every grain of sand, every mouthful of air, every single stone, everything was now hostile against her.

And she knew this was the turning point, Kenshin had been able to outgrow her.

In a burst of speed, everything she was capable of, everything she had, she gave it into this one attack.

But Kenshin opened his eyes, sensing her determination, and using the Plane itself concentrated all the energy he could muster into an extremely thin purple and golden spear that he threw towards Ei.

This stake wielding enormous energy and the Mussou Isshin collided. Ei's fierce eyes contrasted with Kenshin's calm look.

The stalemate lasted for around 5 seconds, before something broke.

Ei's sword reached Kenshin, his blood tainting the previously immaculate sand.