CH26

Memories Of a Shadow Clone Continued.

The witches' knoll wasn't how I remembered it. While craters were still littering the property, strawmen were bound to crosses. They looked to have been put together quickly with enough care to make them all identical. Heavy black nails punched through their gloves, and blood leaked out of the wounds instead of straw. The heavy wood supporting them swayed a little in the breeze before one burst into flames. Suddenly, the creepy crucified scarecrow stood bleeding on the parched ground, then flames. Nothing shot out of the cottage on the hill, and I didn't feel anything nearby.

I looked over at Raven and raised an eyebrow. Her lilac eyes were on the case. She gave the scene a critical eye backed with knowledge and experience I couldn't match. The girl approached the scarecrows and began counting. When she pointed to the last one, it burst into flames. She went down the list and pointed to another, which burst into flames. Clearly, something was happening I wasn't aware of, but she hadn't filled me in yet. Maybe I should have brought Yukari; she likes to brag about magic; then again, Raven probably knows more than anyone on the planet.

"These fetishes are a part of a custom ritual. I've never seen anything exactly like it. This isn't demon summoning or familiar binding. It has parts of both, including wards to turn away the interest of humans. Can you see the smoke in the center?"

I shook my head. "All I can see is the cottage." I summoned an aura sphere and pointed it at one of the fetishes. "If we break them, will it damage the ritual?"

"Don't; if this isn't a demon summoning or familiar ritual, they are most likely attempting to bind a higher-powered being. The fetishes are placeholders for witches linked to humans in the city. Each of them was transfigured into the fetishes." Raven said and glanced at me. "You aren't disappearing."

"I could, but this is something a shadow clone can take care of. Destroying me will only tell my original everything I know. You could say I'm perfect for suicide missions." I said and shifted my aura cloak.

A solid black mask formed around my face with white markings that looked like bat wings. My green-collar grew tall enough to cover the vitals on my neck and a little of my chin. Thick black plate armor covered my body from head to toe, leaving my green cowl as the only color on my costume.

I glanced over at raven, who raised an eyebrow and shrugged my shoulders. "I'm still making changes; nothing is set in stone yet." She nodded, smirking slightly at my expense.

"I didn't say anything," Raven said. "A friend of mine might have something to say about your mask."

Kurumu has bat wings, and Moka is a vampire, so the bat motif seemed natural.

We made our way closer to the cottage, and I felt a slight blip. It was like a bug hitting a car windshield. One moment I was standing at the threshold, and the next, I saw smoke billowing up and a massive amount of youki. I was strong and mixed with magic from the witches. Only that shouldn't be possible. Even if she stacked all the monsters here on top of her own power, it wouldn't have been anything of note. The power wasn't really anything special when I sensed it either. Akasha was much stronger, even holding back. But still, I had a bad feeling.

"That is the presence of soul magic you're sensing." My zanpakuto said.

"Why are you talking to me? Don't you only belong to the original?" I asked the soul cutter.

"There is no difference; your soul is the same soul as the original. You were never torn off, only stretched to fill a vessel made from Chakra. Even if this form is temporary, your soul is the soul of the original from a certain point of view."

That wasn't promising at all. I thought the zanpakuto spirit was supposed to make me feel better. But apparently not. So, I had to deal with soul magic, summoning, and a binding ritual. I thought about what to do for a second and decided to go with fuck it. So, I blasted the cabin with an aura sphere and charged up the hill.

Raven flew behind me while I crossed the distance. Crows shot out at us, pecking and clawing, unable to find purchase on my cloak. My cloak turned into a multilimbed assortment of blades before ripping into the birds. In a matter of moments, they were reduced to mincemeat and barely slowed me down.

The rest of the fetishes erupted into flames as I crossed a line. Something felt like it crashed against my senses before the world practically opened itself.

A strange-looking man with shaggy black hair and a winning smile was half-buried in the flesh of an elderly witch. I saw everything, and it wasn't a pretty sight. Wrinkled old skin sloughed off her body like mud revealing vibrant flesh underneath. Tumorous grows bubbled over the man's body as he fought like a deer in a boa's coils. The sight wasn't pretty, but I knew what to do.

In this kind of situation, it was better to put them all down. An aura sphere blasted forward, ripping up dirt before a tendril from the old witch batted it out of the way. That was something I hadn't expected. Normally when one of my aura spheres hit, they were nearly unstoppable. My last one was particularly deadly.

"Hey, Raven, get some distance. I'm going to destroy the area." I said as several tendrils lashed out at me. I blocked them with bladed aura cloak tendrils of my own but touching them felt weird. No matter how hard I hit them, my attacks were weakened. The edge of my weapon wouldn't cut, and the witch continued to dig into the man.

"You're too late. My mistress has already absorbed All For One." Ruby said.

I wasn't buying it. My Hero Academia wasn't my favorite show, but I knew the memes and saw some clips. AFO was a slippery bastard, and everyone knew it. The likelihood that a witch from the boonies could take him over was slim to none. Maybe if I was supremely lucky, that would be the case, but it was unlikely. But on the bright side, I had an opportunity to use an attack that the original hadn't tried yet.

A smile flashed on my face as I put my hands together and a universe full of stars appeared within. More qi than I had ever used before fell into the attack until I felt the power of creation in my hands. The best part was the skill bonus. I gained 3 times experiences when I used the seventh divine cruz.

Light enough to illuminate half the world flashed when I used the attack, the ground in front of me turned to glass, and a massive golden cross vanished in the distance. My chakra reserves hadn't even been touched, but my qi had been cut in half but was on the road to recovery. While the qi concentration had been extreme, it happened outside my body. That made everything ok.

As the smoke from the attack cleared, I saw the center of the hill had been ripped through. Molten rock cascaded down into its center, filling in the gaps. The witch's body was burning slowly, and Ruby was somewhere still alive. I would have a talking with her later. But, before that, I needed to kill AFO.

Slowly AFO with the witch's body still attached flew up in the air. I watched as the witch's remaining eye widened as she was absorbed into AFO's body. Moments later, she was no more, and I had an AFO in his prime with witch DNA in him to deal with.

"You have an impressive quirk. It was perhaps the strongest light quirk I've ever seen." The man smirked. "You seem winded; perhaps you should take a rest." I moved, delivering a full-powered knee to the man's face, and knocked him into the molten rock. He seemed entirely undamaged by it. AOF stood up as if nothing had happened. Even the slight bruise I left on his face disappeared. "Are you perhaps one of the heroes of this world?"

"No, I'm merely a temporary existence destined to fade away. You could say this is my last hurrah, and I want to make it a good one." I said.

I had enough qi for one more seventh divine cruz, so I had to make it count. That was probably the only thing I had that could take him down. Well, that and ascension. A smile spread across my face; why not? What did I have to lose? This was it anyway.

Power erupted across my body as I condensed my qi to the absolute limit. My Chakra was lit like a fuse, and in a few minutes, I would die. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to use ascension like my original and be a pansy about it.

I flashed to AFO and punched him into the cooling magma. The man lashed out with eye rays that burned into the first layer of my cloak but failed to pierce further. Ascension flowed through me, squaring my cultivation.

"You remind me of another who stood in my way," AFO said. The ground split below me as I blasted him with an aura sphere. He raised his arm to block my attack, only for it to grind his arm down to the elbow. My cloak split into blades and stabbed into the cliffside to hoist me up. AFO hit me, and the ground tore around me as I was shot through it. A sudden telekinetic force gripped me before a ball of cooling rock blasted into my side.

I wrapped my cloak tightly around my body while I was dealt those blows and managed to stand back up. Lightning crackled up high as the sky turned black. Whatever that was, I didn't care; I only had eyes for the fight.

My hand-launched forward, ripping the ground apart, forcing AOF to evade upward. I slammed into his chest with my knee-knocking him, hurtling him to the ground. My Chakra was running dry, and I didn't have much else to lose. Shadows shot up from the ground and captured all for one.

I looked over to see Raven. She hadn't left, but I might not have sealed the win without her. When I clasped my hands next, a galaxy appeared between them. The ground shook, and lightning flashed, striking closer to me. I pushed my hands forward and unleashed blinding light. A smile of victory appeared on my face as AOF's body vanished in the light.

…

My eyes shot open at the hotel from my shadow clone's memories. I could have sworn I was just there. However, the emotions I felt and the sheer elation at killing AOF was something else. And AOF wasn't dead. I could sense as much even from a distance.

Ascension: Beginner 2%

Seventh Divine Cruz: Beginner 10%

Aura Cloak: Beginner 15%