The Asterio-Slaying Man

"The Asterio Slaying Man... we don't have anybody like that here, my friend. Sorry to say," Khalil tried to cover my identity from the strange man, but I thought I gave myself away when Arthur vanished from my vision.

His head settled right over my shoulder with a tight grip on my hip, holding me in place so I couldn't move. I could feel his nails slowly starting to poke through my shirt.

"You're an Asterio. I can smell it off of you... that stench I have to take care of. A stain on the world," Arthur said to me.

With Avie's speed, I was able to move out of his grip and reclaim a stance against him fifteen feet away, sliding on the ground and locking eyes with him. His seemingly black, glossy eyes were carefully watching me as well.

"The last of the Asterios ended with that girl... or at least, should've. Genesis Asterio is dead, Eirikr Asterio is gone, and Illya Asterio is dead as well. That leaves the Vega to finally come out of hiding and reclaim what was rightfully ours. Or... that's how it should've been. Now, I have three extra targets in my field of vision. Sky Asterio, Dani Asterio, and Faith Asterio. It's like you kill one, and three more appear!" Arthur exclaimed. His voice was refined yet violent in nature.

He vanished again in front of me. This time, he appeared millimeters from my face, breathing a rancid smell into my nose while he smiled. His teeth were perfect, but the inside was rotted out with sharp teeth.

"You've already met my son, I presume? Oh... I can smell your deep-rooted fear of him too," Arthur murmured. I kicked him in the chest, forcing him to slide backward on the dugout dirt of the cave. His mention of his son, who I knew was Finlis, scared me deeply. Arthur was warping everywhere he could possibly go, was that Finlis's full potential?

"What do you want, carrot-top? You looking for a fight?" Khalil rolled his sleeves up, trotting down the cave to see what he wanted.

"A fight? Don't be ridiculous, it wouldn't be much of a fight. More like murder," Arthur warped again, ending up behind Khalil with his hand placed in a specific way to make a clean strike.

Khalil was hit with the edge of Arthur's hand, and the force of the attack caused the ground to shake. From above us, tiny slits in the ocean floor started to erupt and flush into the area.

"Death by drowning? By being disemboweled? Lacerations? Go on, share with me, what do you prefer?" Arthur asked next. He summoned a large, bastard sword, slamming the point into the ground and pushing the rocks away from it.

Khalil raised his hands up, parallel to the ground, and the force emitted by the palm of his hands erupted the ceiling into dusty dirt, pushing it forward and moving Arthur behind a large cluster of fallen rocks.

"You are cowards in the face of true power. I have an understanding of Strands you Asterios do not, and will not. I've made a deal with the devil, even the ones worse than you, Faith," Arthur exclaimed.

Even through the fallen rocks and ocean drowning out his voice, I could still hear him. His voice boomed, as if it were ethereal, and followed Khalil, Mizu, and I as we all ran further down the tunnel back to the middle of the city.

Luckily, even if the ocean broke through the fallen rocks, it wouldn't rise above the sewer drains because the city was a lot higher than the ocean itself. Regardless of its stance, I was still worried about being flushed away from the insurmountable waves now in the caves.

"These people just keep popping up out of nowhere... Vega, Eirikr, what else can be thrown at us and still be reasonable?!" Khalil shouted out. I noticed he was very out of breath, clutching his stomach while moving forward.

"Nothing ever will be reasonable, from the looks of it. It appears that Arthur and Finlis are the only two Vega left alive, so at least there's that," I added, panting from the fast speed I had to reach. Mizu wasn't exhausted at all and even looked like she was ready for more.

"Simply put, we need to return to Sky's side. Only he can take away the trouble we now face. I have high hopes for you, Faith, but we can prevent this problem from flooding my city if we let Sky handle it. My only worry is the Rubeki, and how fleshed-out their reach has become. If this one tunnel is where they came from, I'm more than certain Arthur can bring Rubeki to his position," Khalil explained to Mizu and me.

Although I didn't want to hear it, and I wanted to be strong enough to take down the main threat, Khalil was right. Sky is the one to handle these threats.

As soon as we jumped through the opened sewer grate at the very beginning of the tunnel once more, I saw something horrifying once more.

My vision cleared the cement at the very top of the sewer drain and once more, I was able to see fiery orange hair gliding upward in the wind, with one finger pointed directly toward my head.

[PREDICTION: DEATH]

As fast as I possibly could, I summoned a golden saber and moved my body to deflect the attack coming at me.

To my surprise, the saber had exploded into Golden Strands, and my right arm was removed from my body in a flurry of blood droplets scattering into the sky.

It was the first attack of my entire life that I couldn't block.

The Iridescent Strands that exploded the saber and my arm burned and sizzled like grilling meat, causing the regeneration of my arm to be delayed. If that hit me in the head, it would surely last longer than my brain would.

An attack that could damage me in the form of a projectile was equally as terrifying as Finlis was to me, and Arthur settled into my mind with his horrifying grin as well. The Vega Family was started to chip away at my sanity.