The Last Rising Sun

He propelled himself using the tree trunks as platforms as he followed the shadowy beast. His heavy footsteps caused damage to the wood, with a speed that left a great wave of wind spreading through the leaves of the trees and bushes.

It was the swift movements of a ninja following his enemy. Like a cat chasing a mouse, or a wolf chasing a rabbit. It was a predator running after its prey with fangs and sharp teeth. This was his chance, one he wasn't going to let slip away.

Like two small clouds of smoke, the two daggers appeared in his hands. These were illuminated by the glow of the shakuton, which lit the way like a pair of torches.

The beast sensed how close the light was and tried to increase the speed at which it ran, but that was not going to do it any good.

In just a split second, he appeared in front of her like a ghost raising his leg and provoking a strong kick to her canine face. The force of the impact sent her flying skyward. Following that, another strong kick sent her flying into one of the three giant statues lying on the roof of the mansion.

Toru leapt into the air to get there. He prepared to slash and kill the beast, but just as he hit it, it vanished like dust in front of his eyes. Noticing that there was nothing left, he stared into the void for two seconds. He closed his eyes and breathed in the cold night air. The wind up here was a bit strong due to the altitude, but there was nothing to worry about.

Suddenly, in a strange and curious way, he felt the souls in the castle walls whispering. They seemed angry, but also relieved at what they supposed would happen in this castle.

"Can you hear them too?"

He asked that question even though there didn't seem to be anyone there.

"Tell me... do you listen to those suffering in this place? If not, no problem. You don't have to answer if you don't want to. It's just that I find it curious. The owner of this castle possessed a magic that allowed him to contain souls. That brought back a memory from the past..."

He clenched the hilt of the daggers tightly as the shakuton light in them began to grow to form two medium sized swords. Thus he opened his eyes slowly and with the shigan, in less than a second, he turned around and swung both daggers. His gaze took in all the lines of death in existence and two large shakuton blades shot out in this direction.

The blades obliterated a small part of the ceiling surface as they approached the person lying behind Toru, but something prevented that person from being hit by the blades. Like a swirl of dust, the shadowy beast's existence appeared. It opened its mouth wide and roared, spreading a powerful sound wave that echoed throughout the castle, this, in turn, extinguished the shakuton blades.

Behind that beast, Seigen stood looking at him with a strange expression. His mouth was smiling, but his eyes showed a lot of fear.

Toru knew why this was happening, but he couldn't allow this farce to spread any further.

"I didn't want to do it... I didn't... but you found out... You found out everything so fast. You, a servant..."

"To figure it all out takes research. I'm very good at researching and learning from those researches. I simply researched you and put all the pieces together in my imaginary puzzle. That brings us to this moment."

"You can't. Not you, not you... I just wanted his magic crests. Every time I saw those beautiful crests on the bodies of all those magus I couldn't help but feel I had to have them for myself... I... I'm not going to let you tell this to anyone... I'm going to tear you apart before you can even go to Japan to fight in that war."

"I'm afraid, much to your bad luck, I also have records of my investigations. You can no longer pretend who you are, Glannid Ashbourne. It's all over."

"No... no..."

Seigen held his head tightly. He dug his nails into his skin causing blood to begin to ooze from it and glared at Toru angrily.

"No! I will kill you!!!"

Feeling the anger of her son's soul inside Seigen's body, the mother's soul in the beast also felt wrathful. It began to growl and its four eyes pointed at Toru with murderous intentions. Even though she was humiliated by this heroic spirit before, this time she was going to give more of herself to tear her son's enemy apart.

"Looks like it's going to be a 2 vs 1!"

Toru launched himself into the attack, but when he was close to the beast, it roared causing a deep resonance throughout the castle. At that moment, he opened his eyes in surprise, for new information came to his mind, a small gift from the clone that stayed with the other Magus. It was about Glannid's father and a certain ability that this shadowy beast has. However, he didn't have time to think about that as the resonance reached his ears and bounced around in his brain.

He felt dizzy from one moment to the next and what his eyes were seeing changed to a scene from his past. The depressing corridors of that mansion appeared as a passing experience.

"0.3 seconds..."

The illusion shattered like glass and allowed Toru to see. As he regained control of himself, a sharp blow to the face sent him hurled against the central statue. This left him confused for a split second, but he quickly recovered and jumped from that spot swinging the daggers. He looked at the beast protecting Seigen and then....

"Dansu Gyakusatsu."

He whispered, and the prana in the air began to mold under his feet. Using those characteristic invisible platforms, he propelled himself with overwhelming force.

The beast was not going to allow itself to be torn apart by Toru's daggers, so it opened its mouth and roared again. This generated the same effect as a second ago. Toru saw scenes from his past again as a disastrous vision, his eyes acted accordingly and released him from the illusion. The beast quickly understood that this was Toru's weakness.

The illusions the beast generated were different from the ones Toru had faced in the past. That roar acted in a very different way than genjutsus, as this same roar used the entire castle as an amplifier, a tuning fork. Although Toru could come out of the illusion, it took longer as it was not an illusion involving chakra, but sounds that stimulate the brain.

That was also something Toru understood, but upon receiving the attack a second time, he took it upon himself to leap upwards to get away from the beast and not be attacked as he had that 0.3 second margin of weakness. This time it worked, as he managed to get back before the beast bit him and swung both daggers in the air with intentions of stabbing the beast and killing it by cutting its kill lines, but the beast wasn't slow either. It used its own mouth to retain both daggers, but at that its teeth broke and it plummeted to the ground.

Down below, Seigen did not stand idly by. He clasped both hands together as tears of blood streamed down his face. He was about to use his ace up his sleeve, but the shadowy beast fell next to him making him fall backwards and followed by that fell Toru wrapped in flashing rays that, combined with the shakuton, generate....

BOOM! an explosion.

This raised a large curtain of smoke, but Toru hit the air with the daggers and the smoke dissipated. This revealed that Seigen had been protected by the beast, who was still as resilient as ever, though it was now staggering in pain. Toru did not understand how a beast created by human hands could become so resilient, but he had to attack before the roar affected him again.

***

As the fight began up there, Gray had already prepared himself by releasing the first seal of her mystic code. Add laughed excitedly at this, for when the cage opened and the seal was released, its form changed as if it were a strange metallic mass which extended into Gray's hand like a staff until the thick, sharp blade of a scythe extended at the tip.

"Let the feast begin, brat!"

Add said. Gray nodded her head and turned around running toward the castle wall. Before crashing into that wall, she put her right foot on it, followed by her other foot. When the others saw her, she was running up the castle literally running into a wall.

Sakura saw her and was amazed at the skill this girl had. She had never seen Gray fight, but this time she wasn't going to stand idly by. She wanted to fight too.

Just before she activated her magecraft, Waver grabbed her by the arm.

"There's no need for you to go too. With the two of them, we've already won."

"But I..."

"We're only going to be in the way if we get in the way. Well, at least I would be in the way. You're strong, but don't spend mana in vain. When this is over you'll have to share some mana with your servant."

Sakura looked at the ground thoughtfully. Waver gave her encouragement.

"You are her master. Support him in his fight."

"Well... I'll try."

***

She managed to climb the entire castle, but when she was about to enter combat spotting Toru and Seigen, she froze for a second as she saw Toru approaching her at a ridiculous speed, as this one had been hit by the beast, which in turn also hit Gray and sent them both hurtling into the central garden of the castle.

As they fell, they both left a huge crater.

-By Sakura-

A few seconds after Gray climbed onto the castle roof, something descended from above and crashed in front of us. I could sense that Toru was at the spot where a crater suddenly formed.

"Ouch... My back..."

Lying on the ground, he looked up at the sky feeling something under his back.

"It hurts..."

What was under Toru was Gray, who moaned trying to escape. Toru, hearing her voice, immediately stood up only for that strange shadowy dog to appear in front of him with its jaw wide open, ready to bite and tear apart.

He reacted instantly by putting both daggers in the dog's mouth. This prevented the dog from closing its mouth, giving Gray a chance to stand up to swing her scythe with clear intentions to cut the dog, but the dog, seeing the danger involved, backed away with a powerful leap backwards positioning itself on the yellow flowers in the center of the garden. At the same time, behind the dog, walking over the flowers, the yamabushi Seigen approached walking relaxed.

"Look what you have made me do!"

He said extending his arms.

At that moment I felt a great pressure of mana. Everyone in this place felt that, which also made Toru and Gray, without saying a word to each other, advanced to the attack.

Then Seigen exclaimed:

"May the gates of the Castle of Separation open!!!"

I don't know if this could be considered strange considering the things that can come to exist in this vast world full of mysteries, but I think we all had the same thought when we saw it. Out of all the statues of angels in every corner of the castle, which began to crack, came hundreds, thousands of white butterflies that glowed faintly in the darkness.

The butterflies flew above us and hundreds of whispers began to be heard.

At that moment Toru whispered:

"So you can do that. Releasing all those souls brings a lot of trouble."

At that my father frowned. He seemed worried about something, but I didn't understand what it was. However, seeing how Toru simply remained expressionless, I had confidence that this would all turn out well. That was probably why my father didn't allow me to go fight, for he, after reading the scroll Toru gave him, realized what we were facing and took this as a possibility. For me it is impossible to fight against these souls, but Toru and Gray did, well...

Death is something that has always been with them. Something they controlled like breathing.

But there was something wrong with all this. Toru looked ready to fight, but Gray lowered the scythe and fell to her knees.

At that I remembered something...

"She's afraid of ghosts..."

Said my father, causing everyone to become confused. This led everyone to prepare to fight, but my father also said:

"No need. In any case both of you are already prepared."

Looking at the fearful Gray, what Toru did next somehow made me feel strange. He held out his hand and looked at Gray under his hood. For me, knowing what Toru is thinking is always difficult for me, but something like this was something I will never understand.

I am your master. I'm the one who should be holding your hand, but....

What am I thinking?

***

What happened next only made doubts and a dark feeling grow in Sakura's heart.

This was the birth of a combined power. Two broken souls coming together to complement each other and overcome adversity.

To be continued...