Lightning and Cruelty

The shattering of space around him echoed in his mind, the splitting of realities as he stepped through the planes, carrying himself towards his goal. Feeling the energy of the spirit start to condense down he dropped down to his knee and stepped out before it. Just where he was about to arrive.

Seeing the Oni suddenly materialize out of the fog, lightning crackling in the condensing cloud that formed into flesh he swung his hand.

Splitting the Oni's hand clean off. Michi was caught just before she hit the floor as Atlas dashed to the other side of the cave, holding Michi in his arms as the hand turned into grey flakes that floated away.

Putting the shocked girl down she clung to his coat as he looked at her, she tried to speak but the tears rolling down her face and the words that didn't leave her mouth were evidence of the shock that she was going through.

"It's okay, I will get you out of here alive. I promise." Atlas said, crouching down in front of her as he heard the Oni growling behind him, the twisting mass of cursed energy pulsing as a blast of lighting ripped the air apart. The smell of ozone filled the air as the hairs on his arm stood on end.

But the shock never hit them. A shattered wall appears out of Atlas' back like broken wings made from shards of mirror. The gap between dimensions halting the lightning as the impact resonated with the cave. Standing up straight Michi could do nothing but look in shock and wonder at the boy before her. Glass and mirror wings erupting from his back, a dull violet light pouring out of the cracks.

Lightning crackled behind him as he faced a beast more than 40 feet tall. Towering over them made from fog and flesh.

With two fingers pointed to the sky, his voice a low hum that resonated with the shards floating around him. Chiming like thousands of bells. Mystical, wonderful, terrifying.

"Emerge from the darkness, blacker than darkness. Purify that which is impure." Seeing the spirit condense into a more solid form at his words she could do nothing but stare at it in shock. The Oni becoming pure flesh.

Roaring like a wild beast it cried, "Prey! Prey does not hurt!" Its 15 eyes flickered madly as it leapt towards them.

And the true battle began.

---

Having deployed the curtain Atlas watched the Oni jump towards him, he could handle this. The cave he found himself in was massive, the towering stone walls and the chipped earth clear signs of the Oni having made this place his home. The cave was a bit too big to be normal, it might be an innate domain. He didn't know. He didn't care. He had a spirit to exorcise.

His fingers that he pointed to the sky suddenly swung down in a wide arc of his arm as a blade of folding dimensions, shattered shards ripped through the air crashing into the chest of the beast as Atlas dashed forward, taking advantage of the body that started to tip through the air from the force that change its movement.

Getting into a stance as the spirit crashed into the ground he slapped his hands together, gathering the frayed dimensions on the edge of his hands as claws of shattered glass-like space formed around his hands.

And then he started.

Slashing and punching he kept the giant creature off balance, a dance of brutality and grace that ripped and rended flesh. The tough hide of the Oni did nothing to defend it against the onslaught of the young man that twisted with grace as he leapt off the air. Crashing into the ground on the other side of the beast.

Throwing a hand forward the crashing of his open hand strike against its chest sent a ripping wave through the air before Shuten-Doji found its chest explode into 12 parts, splitting in perfect lines out from the palm strike.

Screeching, a horrid sound that boomed like thunder with enough force to send Atlas sliding back over the ground. The splitting sound caused his head to ache slightly, god damn it.

That brief moment of concentration slipping was all the Oni needed to slam a giant hand down on top of Atlas without him being able to enter a dimension in time.

The impact shattered the floor as Atlas felt the hand strike down directly on top of him. The shattering ground around his feet split and cracked from the centre of a formed crater. Stone plates folded up as Atlas glared up through the fingers at the spirit.

Healing the broken arms he suffered at the same time as entering another dimension the hand passed right through him as he leapt up and twisted his foot around planning to hammer the Oni right in the head with a kick but as soon as his foot entered the correct dimension to strike a blast of electricity from the Oni ripped through his leg.

Feeling his leg no longer respond the momentum of the kick was lost as the heel harmless was grabbed by the massive hand before it phased through it.

And so that continued, every time he was about to strike the beast would send electricity out of its body. Shocking Atlas to the point of paralysis.

Cursing he twisted around backing away just long enough that the spirit with a horrid mocking grin rushed past him and swung its hand down towards the Michi, he had forgotten about her. The Oni had been luring him to the other side of the cave!

With no time to think he teleported in front of her and shattered the dimensional wall once again as the blast of lightning melted the stone around them. The air became unbreathable for a fraction of a moment as the entire cave was flooded with the strongest blast of lightning he had ever seen, the condensed electricity ripping apart the air around them in a single moment.

Cursing he grabbed her and pulled her into another dimension with him. Stepping out of the cave he left her outside as he said, "I'll be right back, stay put okay?"

The rising tension in the air as he stepped back through folding mirrors and once more into the other dimensions. Appearing in the cave above the Oni he swung down but this time before it could shock him he never entered the correct plane. Instead falling inside of its flesh before releasing a blast of dimensional fraying cursed energy from his body.

Splitting the beast once more into multiple parts.

Landing on the floor he let out a sigh as he turned around, the body was turning into grey flakes and fading from existence? Had he done it?

Turning around he saw the head of the Oni falling towards him, maw opened wide. Pulling himself into another dimension his senses were quickly overwhelmed with the quick pull into another plane before he was able to focus on the real world once more. The shattering faded from his vision. But the head wasn't there anymore.

NO!

Teleporting back out he didn't have time to think, pulling her into another dimension would take too much time.

Appearing between Michi and the condensed fog of the Oni's head he held his hand out as a condensed blast of lightning shot from its mouth. A beam of pure destruction that tore into the cracks in reality, and for the first time ever started to overwhelm them.

Eyes widening he watched as the lightning forced its way through the cracks before blasting into his palm.

That was all it took.

In that single moment that a fraction of the beam got through the defense his entire arm was blown off. Obliterated to nothing, the pain shaking his head as he felt his vision blur at the edges. Red flooded his mind as he gasped for air. A slip in concentration. The maw once more closed around him as the body of the Oni started to once more grow out of the neck.

Pulsing energy once more he felt the shattering of the world around him as he grit his teeth. He should be much stronger than this spirit! He was! It was just a cunning and deceptive little shit!

It was targeting her, and forcing him into situations that it knew he couldn't respond to fast enough. The one problem he had was that its cursed energy was slightly faster than his, and if he didn't have quicker teleportation she would be dead by now. The only saving grace was that his movement was slightly faster than it.

And his reserves were much bigger. But could he really wear it out? He had almost slipped up twice now, and sure it was using a lot of cursed energy. But it had a lot as well. The lightning and thunder were a pain to deal with, he barely had time to react. One slip-up would mean her death.

Growing his arm back in a single moment, the energy that flooded his body shattered space once more around them as he grabbed her and went back into the cave. Letting out a deep breath as he threw his now-healed arm back out deflecting another beam of lightning that ripped out of the condensed fog.

Shattering the space around him he sent a wave of cursed energy crashing towards it rending its flesh but it didn't care. The cruel grin beamed as it simply smiled at him. A sickening playful grin, it was having fun.

He was not.

Staring at the Oni's split-mouth grin Atlas stood up a bit straighter. The stalemate held between the both of them for a moment as Atlas and the Shuten-Doji stared at each other across the cave.

He couldn't take Michi outside the barrier, and it didn't really matter if he did anyway. The Oni could just find more people to get in the way, such as taking him to the actual city. It wasn't doing that because it had marked Michi as its prey but as soon as that was inconvenient or not possible? It would target another.

Cracking his neck Atlas sighed, the exhale of air enough to restart the fight. As soon as he looked back up his purple irises crackled with energy as he shattered the air in front of him like a wall stopping the countless lightning strikes.

He was tempted that the start of all of this to try to seal it with a talisman and then give it to Geto but that wasn't going to be happening anymore. He didn't have the luxury of doing that this time.

Closing the distance between the Oni and him in a single moment he learnt from the previous fight, keeping himself between the Oni and Michi and not letting it get any closer to it. Every time it tried to turn into a fog to change the positioning he would shatter the dimensional lines around them trapping it in a temporary cage.

It was starting to get worn out, desperate. Its tricks were no longer working. Atlas had it cornered. He was no longer attacking physically, just with the blast and fraying of dimensions but it was wearing on him. He had to keep his body flooded with positive energy to not melt his mind and body with the amount of cursed energy that was being channelled through it like an overheated wire.

He was the catalyst for the dimensional changes. If he did it too often he could overload his body.

But he would endure. He couldn't take any more of those fucking lightning strikes without risking something important being messed up. Time spent healing that would give the Oni enough time to attack Michi.

Once more shattering space he saw it, a brief moment where the Oni slipped up, its 15 eyes looking at a reflection in the floating shards of shattered mirrors instead of him. This was his chance.

Appearing before it he put his hand on its forehead and with the biggest push of cursed energy he had done until now he sent waves of power crashing through the body of the Shuten-Doji.

The air vanished as cracks filled the cave. The overwhelming energy became both a blessing and a curse as the air split into fragments. Dimensions warped as they tried to fix themselves but Atlas didn't let them. Keeping the Oni torn between them.

The main problem of the Oni was how fast it healed… even with the smallest remnants of itself it could heal to full and hide within its fog. Healing far faster and being far more resistant than any spirit he had fought up until now.

So he wouldn't let it heal. Closing the dimensional walls he was trapping with he didn't care that his body was smoking, the shattering shards slowly crawling up his arms from the tips of his fingers, the violet light bleeding out of this flesh as the world around him shifted.

It was only for a moment, but Atlas didn't know what would give first. His body. Or the Shuten-Doji.

The energy that flooded the air was insane right now. Killing a spirit by overwhelming its cursed energy with your own instead of cutting it down.

But he couldn't cut this spirit down, not without a much longer fight. So he would kill it like this.

And just as his mind started to falter the spirit started to crumble into shards. One last horrid roar filled the cave before its body collapsed.

And it was exorcised.

Dropping to the ground Atlas stumbled.

Looking at the shattered webbing of cracks that flowed up his arms he let out a deep breath as they mended. His body once more adjusting to being on one plane. God that was overloading…

Sitting down he looked at the other side of the cave, a good distance away sat Michi. Staring at him with wide eyes as the barrier went down. The small entrance to the mouth of the cave made letting the crawling moonlight wash across his broken flesh mended slowly. The glowing violet of his eyes painted the high points of the walls and floor with a dim light.

Smiling a bit he held her eyes. A soft voice coming from his torn body. "It's okay, the spirit is dead now. You are safe."

Seeing her nod her head frantically as if trying to believe the answer herself he walked over to her and with slow movements helped her to her feet. Carrying her in his arms as he teleported out of the cave before she saw what was littered around the edges.

The fight had been too intense, the battle too catching and shocking to look away from she had failed to see the lingering shadows in the corners of the cave. Tucked away, the skeletons and torn clothes, the old book backs trampled and torn. Uniforms and casual clothes were all ripped to shreds. The lingering stains of dried blood.

The victims were her friends, and others before them. The remains that he had not been able to save.

Teleporting into her room he put her down. Her legs were clearly too shaky to stand on her own. Looking at her he started to make his way back to the folding space but she clung to the sleeve of his shirt. Looking up at him she asked shakily, her voice small. "Where are you going?"

"Back to where I belong…" keeping his words cryptic. "Don't worry, when you wake up this will all seem like a bad dream… you're not meant to remember things like this. Spirits will stay as a scary myth. You will be sure you saw them though, and the scars will stay with you. But I promise, it will get better. Slowly, these memories will become a bad dream. But until then stay strong. I know you are Michi. You are strong enough, you can do this." He said his words were kind as he smiled at her.

"W-What… about my friends? Where are they? Could you save them too?" She asked, her voice hopeful as she held onto the edge of his sleeve a bit tighter. Stopping him from moving to the chiming space was his escape from this situation.

"No… I couldn't. They are gone now." Was all he managed to say, his head hanging as her eyes widened with realization. "The news will say something about a serial killer or some other cover-up. But you will always know that isn't want happened. And I am sorry… I'm sorry I couldn't save them." Atlas said. Turning once more but she didn't let go. Instead standing up on shaky legs as she stared at him. Eyes full of fear and sadness.

"W-wait, please. Don't leave just yet, what if something comes back? What if it's not dead? Please… just stay tonight…" she pleaded, her voice desperate.

It was so… cruel, that she had to be caught up in all of this.

"Okay…" he lied, his voice gentle.

It wasn't long before she was in bed. And he was laying beside her on top of the covers that she was under. He could feel her back against his side but right now. That was just an observation, there was nothing more to it.

She was traumatized and scared. As soon as he felt her breathing steady, her body relaxed. Her heartbeat stabilised, and he knew that she was asleep. And he left. Stepping into the folding space. Like a dream, gone.