SoH: Sky of Heirs (Chapter 7 - The Power of Reign)

"I don't get it? What is it exactly that I don't understand? Your friends are all scattered throughout the abyss and there are only a few minutes left before Ajisukitakahikone unleashes its true form and drains the remaining Aura from the city." Kei steps forward towards Reign and raises his arm into the sky. A bolt of lightning strikes down and materializes an electrical scabbard into his clutch. "Tell me Reign, what exactly is it that you cherish? Give me the satisfaction of taking it away from you!!" Kei draws an invisible arming sword from Avalon as he rushes at Reign. "I pity you. You just don't get it all." Reign dashes at Kei as their weapons collide and maneuvers around to kick him straight in the chest. "Ugh, how about this?" Kei spins his invisible sword in a twister-like motion and then points it at Reign. "I see it all. There's not a thing I don't cherish!!" Reign parries the multitude of invisible sword strikes in an instant with his gunblade by using the purple Aura to slow down time around him. Kei stepped back a bit as he was stunned that his attack was repelled so easily. Reign aims his gunblade fires a large sphere of violet energy that engulfs Kei completely. The sphere utterly immobilizes Kei as Reign moves in for the final blow. He separates his weapons once again into Darkest and NightStar and phases into a violet cluster onto Kei. A myriad of slashes and gunshots land onto Kei as he is unable to move due to time warping around them. Kei takes fatal damage as a flash of piercing indigo light erupts and breaks from within the sphere. Reign emerges and lands on his feet with his Aura suit and weapons dematerializing. "Stay where you belong... in history." Kei desperately tries to move as he gazes at Reign. "I will never... be history." Kei slowly gets up and dissolves, returning to the Aura. "There's no time to waste, I've gotta go find the others."

With the defeat of Kei, the incantation of Ajisukitakahikone disappears allowing the heirs to be dispersed from their dream-states. Reign uses his soul animal, Falcon, to scout the surrounding area and locate his friends. The Falcon finds Axl dazed out at the entrance of a factory. Seeing this, Reign shoots a portal using NightStar and quickly arrives at the scene. He slaps Axl around on the face until he wakes up. "CANDICE!!!!" Axl rises up from the ground and stares at Reign in shock. "Dude..what?" "Wait, what happened? Was that a nightmare? It felt so real though." "Kei used his powers to send all of us into a dream-state where we would be placed in a perpetual nightmare and be rendered powerless to stop him. Luckily I got some help from my Grandpa and was able to escape the abyss." "Oh okay. What happened to Kei then? Is he still out there? We need to stop him immediately." "Don't worry man, I've already handled Kei. We just need to go and find the rest of the gang and wake them up quickly before the authorities arrive." "Alright, I'll bring out my Snow Leopard and see what I can do." "Nice. I've just located Casanova with my Falcon so we'll be splitting up now." Reign shoots another portal and quickly charges through. "I'm counting on you Axl!"

Near an enclosed area that was close to the abandoned factory, Casanova was lying there, suspended in the air by a mysterious force. "CAS! HOLD ON!!" Reign sprints towards Casanova and materializes Darkest. He swings and makes a vertical slash but is repelled backwards by the mysterious force. "What's going on here...?" Reign looks on in confusion at Casanova who is still suspended in the air. "Urh..ARRRGGHGH!!!!" Casanova jolts and looks physically in pain. In utter distress, Reign recombines Darkest and NightStar into the gunblade and phases through the mysterious force, pushing Casanova and himself away. In a fit of rage, the mysterious force gathers into the form of a Lion and roars at the two teenagers. "What is this thing?" Casanova begins to wake up and looks at directly at the Lion. "That's... it's a soul replicant... made from my dreams." "Cas, you're up. Great. We need to get out of here now!" "No, we've got to defeat this beast. Otherwise my soul animal will forever be fragmented." Casanova quickly does a kip-up and materializes SoulString, aiming the arrow at the Lion. "Alright Cas, we'll do it your way." Reign and Casanova both shoot at the approaching Lion at the same time. The orange arrow pierces straight through while the shadowy violet bullet makes contact and disintegrates the Lion back into an orange Aura. "Come back to me Lion" Casanova points his finger out at the orange essence and captures it in his palm, drawing it back into himself. "Now that this is done, we've gotta go find the rest of the gang." "Wait, what happened with Kei?" "I'll explain later. For now, we need to move." 

~At Ashtyn's location~

Ashtyn was sprinting quickly throughout the outskirts as his newly formed locket was pointing in the direction that he needed to go. "Damn it Luna, I won't lose you this time." He clasped both hands together and pushed forward. A violent burst of red light shimmered from his chest with a Tiger dashing out. Ashtyn leapt onto the Tiger as it began to accelerate. "I should be close, I can feel it." 

A bit further off in the distance, there was a secluded house on a hill. Chilling screams could be heard from inside the house and a barrier that permeated the surroundings was protecting it. "There it is!" Ashtyn's Tiger pounced furiously against the wind gaining momentum as it headed for the house. "Okay, time to see what this thing can do." Ashtyn grasped the locket and held it tight. The locket began to glow and bask itself in a crimson light briefly before sending its energy into a beam that burned down the barrier in front of them. "Just wait a bit more, Luna." The Tiger smashes through the window and Ashtyn glimpses the scene unfolding before his eyes. On the wall, Luna had been chained up and was being tortured by two mysterious forces. One of the mysterious forces was whipping her as Ashtyn barged in. "Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!" Luna was screeching in pain and unable to move while the other mysterious force was collecting her blood in a small jar. "LUNA!!" Ashtyn immediately held out his fists and materialized Crossed Hearts, shattering the mysterious force holding the whip with straight punches in quick succession. The other mysterious force attempted to escape from the house after seeing its companion be destroyed but it was too late. Ashtyn's Tiger clawed it back into the house as Ashtyn slowly stalked towards it. "You'll never hurt her or anyone ever again." Ashtyn violently brutalizes the mysterious force and does not let up even when the force is no longer moving. Meanwhile, Luna begins to make sense of her surroundings again and sees what is happening. "Ash... stop. You've already beaten them." Immediately upon hearing Luna's voice, Ashtyn comes back to his senses and runs over to her. He breaks the chains that were restraining Luna onto the wall and holds her in his arms. "Luna, are you okay?" "I am now that you're here..." Luna grabs onto Ashtyn tightly. "I'm sorry...for everything. Haruka told me about all of it. I'll never let go of you ever again." "Ash, it's alright. It was all my choice to do all of it." "We need to get you to the Riser house at once. All of this bleeding needs to be stopped or you could be in danger of....." Luna moves up a bit and kisses Ashtyn passionately. "Shh..just hold me like this a little bit longer." 

~At Axl's location~

"Kaiser, wake up!" Axl slaps Kaiser around in the face with fury. After a brief moment, a hand grabs Axl's wrist. "Oi, that's enough. I just wanted to rest a little longer and you just had to come in and wake me up." "Good, you're up. Reign's already taken Kei down. Now we just need to round everyone up and meet at the rendezvous point." "Rendezvous point? Where's that?" "It's a place that Reign told me to meet up with him after I found one of us. It'll take us about five minutes to run there if we're fast. We should get going." "Sprinting for five minutes? It's alright if we arrive casually late, dude." "Kaiser, you need to stop being to ceebs..." The two start to casually stroll towards the agreed rendezvous point. 

~At Reign and Casanova's new location~

"Look, over there! It's Nidus and Richard." In the distance, there were two teenagers freaking out over what they had just seen. "OH MY GOD!! MY RIGHT ARM!! I THOUGHT I HAD LOST YOU!" Nidus was kissing his right arm with good luck as he overcame the despair he had just seen in the dream-state. "Are we safe? Are there any of them around? Thank god, I couldn't bear another minute on that island." Richard was standing upright in bewilderment from the nightmare and paced nervously around in a circle. The two split up, Reign making his way towards Nidus as Casanova sprints at Richard. "Nidus, you're alright. Kei's been defeated and the authorities are on their way. Just calm down, we need to get moving now!" NightStar materializes into Reign's hand and he fires a dimensional gate out into the open. "Quick, we need to move bro!" Casanova grabs onto Richard and drags him through the gate that was opened by Reign. "I don't get what's going on, but it's time to get out of here." The dimensional gate closes behind Reign and Nidus as they head in. 

~At the rendezvous point~

"Man, where are they? I'm pretty sure I told Axl that this was the place to meet up at after he found one of us." "Maybe he wasn't able to find Kaiser?" "Nah, knowing them I'm pretty sure Kaiser just can't be bothered to run here and be on time." "Yeah guys, I can see them slowly walking up to us right now." "Okay that's good. Now we just need to find out where Ash is." Axl and Kaiser make their way up to the rest of the group in a nonchalant manner. "Yo, we're here." "Wait, where's Ash?" ♫愛が愛を「重過ぎる」って理解を拒み ,憎しみに　変わっていく前に…♫ Reign's mobile starts ringing and he grabs it from his pocket. "Ash! Are you alright? Where are you right now!?" "Woah calm down Reign. I went to go save a friend of mine that was entranced in Kei's incantation. I take it from the way that the sky cleared up and the storm subsided that you've beaten him?" "Yeah, I was able to take down Kei. He won't be bothering us anymore. Anyway, whose the friend that you needed to save..?" "I'll let you know later. For now, you guys need to head back to school and make it seem like nothing out of the ordinary happened. I'll see you back in class, Reign." "Alright, laters." Reign ended the call and proceeded to shoot out one last dimensional gate back to the school. "Time for us to head back for our last period." "Oh man..really? Can't we just skip it." "No, we've got to make it seem like nothing happened." "Yeah, I need to study anyway" "Nerdddddd..." "Whatever, lets head back already." The group of six walked through the gate as a ghastly, inhuman figure gazed on in the background. It took out a transceiver from its coat and released its demonic face. "The Sky of Heirs are unharmed as you predicted." "Fall back for now." "Understood." The ghastly figure vanishes into smoke as Reign is left with an ominous feeling while closing the dimensional gate behind him. 

~Back at school~

The group arrives back at the school on the basketball courts. ♫Bell ringing♫ "That's our queue to get back to class!" Everyone out in the playgrounds starts to make their way to their classrooms. The sky had returned to its normal bright, blue spotless self and the heirs had seemingly not been gone too long. Just outside the classroom, Reign sees Ashtyn waiting by the door. "You okay, Reign? If anything's wrong you should go get some healing serums off Nidus." "Nah, I'm good. We should just head into class." The two friends walk to their seats and sit down slowly while checking their surroundings. "Reign! What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost. Did something happen in the last few hours?" "Well, you see....."

Chapter 7 - The Power of Reign

-END-

Next time:

Chapter 8 - Endless Sky

[Dialogue Legend]

Ashtyn - Red

Axl - Green

Reign - Purple

Casanova - Orange

Nidus - Dark Blue
Kaiser - Black
Richard - Yellow 
Kei - Grey
Crystal - Lilac
Luna - Light Red
??? - Light Green
??? - Pale Blue
Weapons - Strikethrough