Chapter 144
Ayaka’s hand tightened around her blade at the sight of this new atrocity.
Even as darkness surged and the fractured sky bore witness to an ancient, unholy rebirth, she rose.
The horror before her might have worn the remnants of her brother’s face, but her resolve ignited with crystalline clarity.
"I won’t give up on you," she whispered to herself, eyes reflecting both sorrow and defiance.
Then, with a burst of speed that shattered the stone beneath her, she launched toward the abomination.
The clash began again.
Ayaka’s blade met a wall of shadow. The impact sent her flying across the air, but she caught herself mid-spin, wings of frost flaring open to brake her fall. She dove again, blades dancing, leaving spirals of frigid elegance behind every strike. But the creature—Ayato—was an unrelenting force. Its wings blocked her advance with each beat, its hands conjuring rifts of screaming light and gravity that bent the air around them.
Ayaka fought on, her movements a storm of memory and will.
She struck with grace, each attack a plea. Each dodge a prayer. Even as bruises bloomed along her arms, even as the ice began to melt from her wings from the sheer intensity of corrupted heat, she did not falter.
"You’re still in there," she cried, parrying a blow that cracked the air itself. "I know you are!"
The monster laughed, a triplicate sound that echoed like a cruel choir.