SKY AND AVIE VS COLE (3)

Illya was stuck, only looking at Cole, and the people running in to battle him. I couldn't help but leave my eyes on her while Charlie tried to pull me away.

Illya aimlessly stood up, one foot in front of the other, and looked back at me. I had seen Illya literally die in front of me before, but the look in her eyes was even more dead than that.

They were a dull gold, and marks started to sear her face made with of black strands. When she was looking at Charlie and me, I felt chills shoot over his arm and I could barely feel the strength in my legs.

"Charlie... Tavian... you two need to get everybody else out of here... I still have The Goddess of Wrath, I can be useful here... just get to safety..." I muttered.

It was obvious that I couldn't dive into such a dramatically powerful state again, not without taking years off of my life... but it wouldn't even matter. It wouldn't matter if I lost a hundred years off of my life, because Sky was the one risking it all.

The first time I looked at him, I never thought of him to be a courageous man. He was sleeping so peacefully, without a care in the world, and now at this point, Sky had his innocence ruined. He had seen things we were lucky to never even imagine... and this was his last stand.

Even if it kills me, I have to help him.

Illya walked forward and I followed right behind, perking my head up to see Cole tear limbs off, suffering damage from Avie, Umbra, and Sky. It was plainly obvious that those three had the highest chance of taking on Cole and winning... but still, for those three to have to fight one person.

Just how powerful was Sky all that time ago?

Cole was summoning weird things out of the ground, enlarging his body, using metal to block hits, and large shockwaves of air to launch people away.

When Boo landed beside me with a saber in her hand, she looked over at me with worry in her eyes.

"We can't win... we'll run out of stamina before we get close..." Boo told me, shortly after having half of her face cut into with a mace.

She was launched further back, violently bouncing off of the ground. Once, her knee broke. Twice, her arm fell off. On the third time, her body paused in the air, as if it was made to be a static object.

Golden strands flew into her face, and a dome slowly started to sprout out of the ground again. I was amazed to see everything come together so easily, with no adamant control over the strands being used to summon all of the things around me, I looked around, trying to analyze what was going on.

Alexia, Lia, Lily, Shike, and everybody else who dove into the dome to fight Cole besides Umbra and Illya were pushed out with golden strands encapsulating them to prevent damage and to push them out of the dome without anybody getting in.

"Who moved us out...?" Alexia asked, trying to search for her weird katana.

From above the hill behind us were two people, one with an odd eye patch on her body, and another one with golden blonde hair, shimmering in the sunlight.

"Son of a bitch... they came to us..." Boo said with a smirk.

The girl with the golden blonde hair slid down the cliff in her bare feet. Her coat rippled in the wind, and she very easily gathered her stance just by walking as normal after she slid to the bottom.

"It seems I was right... Charlotte... please conduct evacuation protocols... for everybody except for you three," The girl said, pointing toward Lia, Faith, and me.

"Who... are you..?" I asked her.

She tapped my forehead with her two fingers, and I felt my body swell in a warmth that felt... fulfilling.

The girl walked straight into the dome without stopping, ending up at the center of the battle with no weapons in hand.

She turned her back to me, looking at me with shiny eyes.

"Hikari Asterio, Sky's Intelligence. Sister to Avie and Umbra Asterio, Sky's Speed and Strength," She said.

"Hikari?!" Umbra shouted out.

The fight came to a standstill as Avie, Umbra, and Hikari gathered together in one embracing hug. Sky stood in front of them with a ton of strands, ready to block any attack... but it looked as if Cole paused to talk again.

"You had to bring together the three sisters with my prowess within them... just to have a chance... doesn't that tell you something, Sky?" Cole asked him.

Sky stood with a strengthened resolve, only watching as Cole creepily walked back and forth while keeping his eyes on Hikari specifically.

"How are my girls doing? It's been... four hundred years, right? Did you miss me?" Cole asked the sisters. I was utterly disgusted with his tone of voice and almost wanted to join the fight against him.

Illya walked up beside Sky next, her eyes still a dull golden color, and she summoned a black and gold saber.

"Isn't it kind of awesome to be surrounded by so many beautiful women, Sky?! Keep in mind... they all used to be mine, so let's not be greedy now, shall we?" Cole asked him.

"We're not here to team up on you, Cole... we're here to give Avie and Sky one thing they've been missing," Hikari told him, holding out her hand.

"The Asterio Markings," Umbra said. She put her hand on Sky's back, and before I could even rationalize what that meant, two triangles appeared above and under his left eye, with the flat edges pointing towards each other.

"Do you think giving him such a puny power would help him beat me?" Cole asked Hikari next. She nodded and turned toward him.

"The Asterio Markings is a calling to a person's true abilities... doesn't it scare you that Sky had been fighting you all this time without possessing one?" Hikari asked Cole next. He shrugged, and she walked out of the dome.

My jaw dropped in confusion as Umbra and Illya followed behind her, leaving only Sky and Avie in the dome.

"What the hell was that? I thought you were going to team up on Cole!" I told them, but Hikari shook her head and smiled.

"Cole's defeat will bring us our true power back... without it, we cannot match the strength of those three," Hikari said with her arms crossed.