14 years ago - Musicia, Anata
Welcome to Musicia, a small but lively village approximately 500 miles away from Anata's capital. Currency such as money served little to no worth here - instead, your place in society depended on your music skills. Songnote, a small girl abandoned by her father years before, strives to be a top musician - despite her lack of prestige, her determination and hope refused to falter.
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"Hey," a deep voice called from a distance, "you okay?"
With a weak, fearful whimper, Songnote opened her eyes, revealing her withered features to the voice's owner. In front of her stood Tarsa and Chrome, greeting her with a worrisome gaze. Chrome stepped ahead of Tarsa and slid a bagged cookie from his jeans' pocket. "Here," he followed up, "eat this, please."
Hesitant, Songnote received the bag from Chrome's hands, consuming the cookie in a single bite. "Who are you guys?" she asked, responding to the gesture with a thankful smile.
"We're travelers from Carnage Village," Tarsa replied, irritated by Songnote's vulnerable position. Chrome released a sigh of dissatisfaction. "This wretched society… we're going to destroy it and create a new one." His sincere pupils descended, and his arm extended towards the dust-coated girl. "How about you leave this place and travel with us? Maybe we can find a way to change the world together."
Present, Fire Moon's Catacombs
Purple, glowing wisps of power radiated from Songnote's violin, stirring a slight breeze throughout the crypt. A vivid memory of her once shrivelled face flashed through her mind, forcing a hateful jolt in her heart. "Why is everyone trying to stop our dream from happening!?"
"What you call a dream is nothing but a selfish desire," Gerald responded, his expression hardening. The glowing embers on his leg strengthened alongside Songnote's growing opposition. His warm flames exiled the cold, empty darkness from the crypt, replacing it with a vibrant spark of hope. Songnote's aura, however, served as an obstacle to its domination - her surging power formed a funnel of purple fog, placing a seal over the connecting paths. Her body disintegrated into the developing swirl, spreading her power across the growing domain. A high note hummed from her violin, sounding with a repeated echo. "You've come far since our last meeting. This will be your final test - our legendary final battle, defining Saul's ultimate fate!"
Gerald's pupils dilated. "Saul… It may have been a short period since we fought, but this is where I'll set you free!"
Volume 13, Chapter 73 - Deathmatch
"This sensation," Kaelan whispered, clenching his fists. His eyes lifted, inspecting the loaded revolver in Red-Scar's bulging arms. A stream of blood slid down Kaelan's nose, staining the lush, brown dirt below. "Ever since this fight started, weird pulses have been battering my head…" Red-Scar's finger wrapped around the revolver's trigger and, in a hesitant motion, released a soaring bullet towards his prey. Another pulse, this one more fierce, ripped through Kaelan's head. Unlike before, however, time had only slowed by a small amount. Kaelan weaved the approaching bullet, its speed grazing strands of his crimson red hair. Keeping his expression steady, Red-Scar forced his hands to his waist as he quickly descended the crunching dirt.
"Feels like my face is being ripped apart," Kaelan muttered, carefully backing away from his approaching enemy. A few seconds passed before his shoes came to a halt at a steep cliff. His eyes shot downward, noticing the flowing lake at the cliff's bottom. A single step more, and he would've been killed. Across the cliff stood Red-Scar, meeting Kaelan's eyes with threatening intent. "There's nowhere to go now, kid."
"When there's a will, there's a way," Kaelan responded. He leaped off the cliff with a risky sigh, splashing into the cold water below. Examining the water's reflection, he noticed two pulsing rings coating his pupils.
"Wait a minute," he thought, flicking small droplets of water from his forehead. "Something's familiar about that ring - didn't Levi and Ashira use it during our f-"
His independent thoughts were interrupted by a sudden trickle that lured his gaze downstream. From the sound's epicenter approached a quick ripple accompanied by the water's repeated swishing. The lake erupted with an upward splash, revealing a long-nosed man with light-blue skin analyzing Kaelan with a grim smirk. "So you're the prey Boss was talking about, huh?" The distant cock of Red-Scar's gun drew their attention. "There's no need to talk to our target, Shark. You heard what Boss said; kill him on sight."
A stream of embarrassment engulfs Shark. "Red-Scar, always taking the fun out of everything! He's Reid's prey, so let him handle the killing!" Kaelan's eyes studied the surrounding terrain - a gushing lake surrounded by shrouds of endless trees. In a forest like this, Reid could be anywhere - and if all the assassins united to eliminate their prey, his fate was sealed."Two assassins, and neither is Reid. How the hell am I supposed to survive against these freaks?"
"Until then," Shark's voice proceeded, lifting his arms, "we'll torture the bo-"
With a sharp wheeze, Kaelan dived into the streaming lake. Surging pulses of sky-blue energy flooded his legs, propelling him through the water like a racing jetski. His immediate escape triggered a series of unsettling sounds - Shark's body hitting the lake, the pouncing crack of Red-Scar's revolver, followed by a piercing ring that rattled his brain. "Devising a getaway plan is my only way to survive!" He approached Shark's sadistic gaze, and, activating Courage of Gold in the nick of time, blasted out the lake with a loud boom.
Tracking Kaelan's ascent with his chilling gaze, Red-Scar lifted the gun above the lake - perfectly aligned with his target's chest. "Nobody's ever escaped Shark in the water! However, nobody's ever escaped me in the air!" The firearm's bullet cracked through the air and captured Kaelan's attention in an instant. "Courage of Gold," Kaelan sputtered, observing the bullet's slow approach with his Advanced Senses. "Refrigerated Sunfire Stew ULTIMATE BURST!"
A wave of brown, gushing stew filled the air, splattering onto the rustling trees below. Above the jungle's rustling trees soared Kaelan, lunging backward right before Red-Scar's bullet pierced a hole in his chest. Shark emerged from the demanding stream, his patterned nose reflecting the glimmering sun. "What the hell are you doing, Red-Scar!?" He lectured. "Our victim was right in our fingertips, yet you let him ge-"
"Silence." A moment of absolute quiet settles between the two. "Either way, Reid will kill him. No matter how much of our onslaught that boy weaves…" His arms descended to his waist, returning the revolver to its leather case. "He'll be found and killed, for this is Reid's Imaginative Studio - it's only a matter of time."
!!!
"A floating island suspended in midair, floating above a void of endless white."
Gerald's eyes shot open at Songnote's voice. Once again, he had been swallowed by her inescapable domain. Raising his head toward the open skies, an enticing whiff of power captured his attention. "What the hell…" The sensation of energy moved, luring his eyes downward onto the island's rustling grass.
"The curious boy takes a moment to observe his surroundings, trapped in a sea of indecision."
Songnote's intercepting narration forces his heart to jump. "No openings yet," he whispers.
"From the distance approaches a raging whirlwind, approaching the boy at extreme speeds!" Gerald detected the incoming figure, blown away by its immense power signature. The whirlwind's tip crashed into the damp grass, its impact forming a wall of howling dust. Gerald's arms rose to his eyes, protecting his eyesight from the oncoming storm. "Only one person can do something like that with a single move…"
"The masking dust fades, revealing scattered patches of the man's body!" His sky-blue hair, his white polo, his emotionless eyes - before Gerald once again stood Saul of the Skies, one of Nahata's best past-generation hunters. Saul's straying power came to an immediate halt and masked perfectly with his controller's domain. Gerald didn't attack immediately - instead, his observant gaze monitored Saul's motionless body. "Here we are once again - standing face to face, preparing for the oncoming battle."
Breaking the silence, Saul's body ripped with a growing surge of light-blue power. "Well," Songnote's narration resumes, "after a moment of silence, it seems like the two forces are preparing…"
Gerald responds to Saul's power and unleashes a surge of Emberatalia that loudened the scene with its hissing embers. His eyes narrow, analyzing the expanding holes in Saul's shirt. The moment of attack was fast; in the blink of an eye, Saul had already blown across the battlefield, striking Gerald in the stomach with a ruthless punch.
"At what seems to have been the speed of light, the boy is struck with an immediate attack!"
Droplets of blood-splattered saliva sputtered from Gerald's mouth, his heart jumping upon noticing the rip in his shirt. "That was way…" His gaze observes the droplets of blood. "Way… too fast…"
"As soon as his eyes lift, the belligerent whirlwind approaches his blood-spitting victim with a follow up!" The dark embers follow Gerald's leg, instantly colliding with Saul's dominating fist. "This guy is on a whole other level… if I want a chance of defeating Songnote…" Maintaining the frequency of his surging power, his eyes focus back towards the shifting anchor of energy. "Then… I'm going to have to use my studies!"
In a bold and swift movement, the force of Gerald's flames deflect Saul's crushing punch. His body lit with Emberatalia as he launched upward, evading the pressure of Saul's mighty blast and approaching the cluster of power with his flaming legs. That exact moment, a low note played on Songnote's violin, its bass echoing through the island's open skies. "What the hell are you doing!?" Songnote breaks, defying her narration. "You're up against one of the previous generations' top dogs - WHY ARE YOU-"
Gerald's leg swept through the shifting cluster of power. From its surface awakened a small crack, contagiously spreading across the domain's blue skies. The moment of repeated jitters was terminated by a loud shattering sound - and alongside that shattering sound collapsed the entire structure of the domain. Gently returning onto the catacombs' patterned tiles, Gerald rushed out the shroud of purple mist and approached Songnote's violin with his flaming leg. "Every Advanced Transformation domain needs an anchor!"
At that exact moment, a grim smile bloomed across Songnote's face. "You're right," she responded, forcing a high screech from the violin's strings. "However, breaking one of them doesn't terminate your inevitable fate!" The room filled with a reinforcing shroud of fog, transitioning Gerald onto a pirate ship under the sunny skies. "You've done your research," Songnote's voice echoed, "but how will you execute your plan?"