(21.3) Facing Vira
Somehow, seeing how she knew she felt didn't make her feel all that well. Aki's blurry vision focuses on a white gap against the scorch marks on the gashadokuro's skull.
Wait. Burns on a creature that's supposed to be immune to damage? Aki's mind raced. She had seen the gashadokuro wreathed in flames but was it ever actively on fire? Even the flames that rushed down its arm previously hadn't lingered long nor were they impactful.
Thinking back on it now, she recalls her witchbolt had managed to hurt it as well as make its head recoil from the impact.
"Idiot! How did I forget that? Why didn't my gift remind me??" She curses herself. However, that brings another possibility to mind.
Is the gashadokuro not actually immune or could it have something to do with Vira's fire that allowed her to harm it?
Aki tries to make sense of this new possibility. If it could be damaged, it could be destroyed.
Vira bends over and grabs Aki by the hair, forcing Aki up to look at Vira.
"Can you hear me now?" Vira's breath is cold and smells like spider lilies. "I'm disappointed. I wasn't expecting you to simply stand aside when I told you the Estril family and this city are monsters that committed unforgivable crimes but for a fellow otherworlder to continue to stand in the way of my vengeance?"
She shakes her head and clicks her tongue. Meanwhile, Aki has taken to slowly and carefully rotating her axe so that she can press the handle into the crack in the skull.
Aki smirks as the handle's end sinks a few centimetres into the skull. Just enough for her plan to work.
"You don't know this world like I do. What they'll do to you. The things I had to suffer!" Vira shouts suddenly, her temper flaring with an intensity to match her flames. "I am the hero in this. It's justice! Stop looking at me like that!"
"I give all my Life Essence." Aki mutters. "Destroy where I stand."
Thorns sprout with vicious speed but when they find no flesh and bone to dig into, the axe yanks itself from Aki's faint grasp, sinking in its entirety into the gashadokuro's skull with a loud snap. Moments later, the gashadokuro shudders as it gets pierced by massive thorns from within the skull.
Rumbling from below comes after. Lightning flashes and thunder cracks as if in anticipation before massive bramble vines erupt from the ground.
Unable to pierce the magic immune gashadokuro, they coil their thick bodies all over the bones. The bramble fills the ribcage and wraps around the spine, filling the skull from within as it tries to pierce the skull to no avail.
Soon, the entire 50 metre monster is completely enwrapped by massive brambles. Any Dead that were close to it are completely crushed or otherwise destroyed. Though it's hard to tell over the thunderous rain, the cheers and war cries from the New Pinaccan fighters and Silver Sword could only just be made out and growing louder.
"What was that!" Vira's eyes dart to the crack and her jaw falls slack, finally noticing it and the weapon embedded between. She violently shakes Aki's head, pulling out some hairs in the process. "How? How did you make that?! Was it that spell from before?"
"I didn't use witchbolt." Aki weakly spits out some blood. The rain quickly washes it away from her lips. "Your own fire burned you."
Vira snarls, contorting her lovely features into something that could only be seen as monstrous. She wraps her free hand in flames, blackening the flesh even more than it already is, and strikes Aki across the face.
Searing pain fills Aki's entire being yet she lacks the energy to cry out. No blood pours from her nose, but she can feel her heartbeat as if it were in her skull.
The cold of the rainwater stings as it falls onto the burned flesh of Aki's cheek. She can't make out any discernible smell. It had long been since she could smell anything but somehow she's much more conscious of herself now.
"Is this what it feels like to be dying?" Is the only thought that can come to Aki's mind.
A short laugh and Vira speaks again. "You got lucky with the crack but it's still immune to everything. This is just a delay, not a defeat. I could easily command it to break free from those vines."
"Do it then."
Vira blinks, slightly loosening her grip on Aki's hair. She hadn't expected Aki to call her bluff.
The gashadokuro might be immune to damage from other sources but it can still destroy itself by overextending the magic that summoned it in the first place. Considering her Devastator's Flame had managed to crack it, she reasons that she might have unintentionally created weak spots all over its body. Meaning that one wrong move would cause her unbeatable summon to self-destruct.
Vira hisses in frustration. There was always her last resort but to use it would be the same as admitting she'd been beaten.
Her emotions flare; hatred, frustration, anger, and desperation pumping through her body that Aki wouldn't even need her Empath gift to tell what Vira's thinking or feeling right now.
"Undo the spell or die." Vira's words are venomous, each sound laced with her burning magic power.
"Only the caster can do that." Aki huffs, unable to breathe properly from her nose. "And that's not me."
"Death it is." Vira growls. She tightens her grip on Aki's hair and drags her to the edge of the skull. "For any otherworlder that wants to defend the evil people of this city, become an example and die like a bug."
Vira whips Aki back, widening her stance, and launches Aki as if she were throwing a stone and not a person. Immediately after, Vira forms a shadow lance, takes aim, and throws it.
Aki feels the rain hitting her face, the cold water chilling her to the bone. She sees the burning city with its fires now dimmed thanks to the rain. Silver Sword rushing up the brambles. Phoebe with a panicked expression flying up to her on a crumbling disk.
"Gotcha!" Phoebe shouts.
Bloodied arms grab Aki and whip her about as Phoebe uses the last of her magical momentum to spin Aki and herself around, trading places in an instant.
SCHIIK
An explosive sound came from Phoebe's body. The sound of bones and organs being completely obliterated.
Phoebe's eyes widen, her pupils dilate and her mouth makes an 'O' shape. Blood splatters across Aki's face.
The lance Vira threw had pierced Phoebe's stomach dead centre. Her shredded intestines wrapped around the shadow lance's tip.
Phoebe gasps lightly but still pulls Aki into a defensive hug as the pair plummet to the ground.
"I have you, Cacai. Your sister has you." Phoebe hugs Aki tightly and raises her staff, casting a spell to cushion their fall.
She turns her body, making sure Aki won't take any of the damage. They crash, kicking up a cloud of embers, ash, and dust.