The Inheritance

Chapter 4: Revenge

A/N: Hi everybody, Reina's back. Sorry it took so long to update, I had a lot of trouble picturing how the fight between Sophia and Kairi should go to give very thing an exciting end. I hope you like it.

Queen Mera looked over at one corner of the room and saw Shoran lying on the floor. She was sure that he was dead but there was something bothering her about it. She looked over at Sophia and Kairi, looking at each other with intensity. Neither of them were moving. She had to help Sophia. She looked down at Dante. If a fight between her, Sophia, and Kairi took place here, his body might be caught up in it and get injured. She decided to create a shielding spell over his body, lying on the floor.
Queen Mera was about to stand up when Sophia said, "Mother..." Queen Mera looked at her. "I need you to create a shield to protect yourself."
"But I want to help you. He's too strong," Mera argued.
Without turning away from Kairi, the princess continued, "I know that he's strong but I'm strong too. I can feel the powers of Occult rushing through me but I don't know how to control it. I don't want to lose you, too."
Mera's mouth gaped when she saw Sophia raise her hand to wipe her face.
"Okay," she said. She create a shield around herself, making sure that she stayed out of Sophia's way.
Sophia's swords glowed, and she swung it toward the ground in front of Kairi, destroying the ground, creating a smokescreen from the dust. Sophie used the smokescreen as a chance to plant her swords in the ground. She looked up and saw Kairi jump out of the smoke and land behind her. She, immediately, turned around, swinging a fist of flames toward him. Kairi blocked it by raising his sword up, blocking her fist and the flames from reaching him.
"Do you really think you can defeat me with your bare fists?" He asked as he smirked. Sophia gritted her teeth, not allowing him to see her next move. She weighed her fist down on the sword as her other hand glowed. Scarlet glowed as well and flew to her hand. Kairi gasped and tried to move away from her as Sophia slashed the blade up.
"Too slow!" She said as the tip of the blade cut Kairi's chest, forcing him to jump away from her. They, both, stood, facing each other. Kairi was bleeding but not excessively. He had moved out of the way just in time that Sophia's blade only inflicted a shallow cut. Some small drops of blood scattered on the floor, where he stood. He passed his hand on the small cut and looked at the blood. He raised his bloody hand to his lips and licked the blood.
"Well, I guess that I shouldn't underestimate you," Kairi said. "I think it's about time I get serious."
Sophia swallowed and gripped her sword, straight, in front of her. Her eyes widened when Kairi disappeared then reappeared right in front of her. He kicked her in the stomach, sending her flying across the room, to the wall, above her mother's head. She hit her back on the wall, causing it to crack. Kairi was in front of her, and he thrusts his sword straight to her neck, but Sophia raised her sword in time, blocking the tip of his blade with the surface of hers. Sophia struggled against his strength, using her sword to push his blade away from her face.
"What's wrong, princess? Are you not strong enough?"
Sophia used Scarlet and forced Kairi's sword into the white wall, keeping it there as she used the chance to glide, swiftly, away from him.
"So weak!" Sophia quickly turned and saw him, floating above her, right before he kicked her in the face, sending her flying down, across the floor. Sophia caught herself, stopping on her hands and knees. She spit out the blood that was in her mouth and looked up. She looked where she was pinned and saw that Kairi had left his sword in the wall in order to continuously attack her.
Kairi moved closer, watching her pained face. When she looked up, he grabbed her by the throat, slowly lifting her off the floor, as she struggled to breathe. He rejoiced at her futile efforts, trying to remove his hand from around her throat.
Sophia glanced over his shoulder and saw the worried look on her mother's face. She, then, saw her furrow her brows and place her hands together. Sophia quickly shook her head before her mother could materialize her sword, Stellar.
When the queen saw her signal, she stopped summoning her blade and kept on observing. She knew the reason that Sophia was doing this was because of guilt. She felt weak because her father died protecting her and her way of becoming stronger is by defeating the man who killed him. That was her revenge.
Kairi smirked and glided forward, forcing Sophia back until he pinned her on a walk, once again, on the opposing wall.
"You are weak and pathetic. Do you think you can rule this kingdom like this?"
Sophia moved her mouth, trying to make out some words. "What is it?" Kairi moved closer to her, trying to hear what she had to say.
"Asc... As-aschente!" Multiple orbs appeared around them, pointing toward Kairi. The balls of fire exploded, forcing Kairi and Sophia to separate. Being a child of fire, Sophia was unaffected but her clothes were burnt. She stood, her arms hanging loosely to her side, trying to catch her breath. She glanced over at Kairi, who was looking at the burns on his body. Sophia's body continued to glow with the light red, ethereal light, which was slowly healing her wounds. After she slowly recovered, she picked up the sword at her feet, and looked at Kairi, who was slowly trying to use magic to heal his wounds.
Sophia released a cry, before she charged at Kairi, with her sword, once more. Kairi raised the sword up to block.
"What have you done?"
"You won't be able to use magic to heal yourself, anymore," Sophia said. She furrowed her brows. Sophia jumped back, separating herself from him.
Kairi gritted his teeth. "Princess, you must really have a death wish."
Sophia stood up straight, looking at him. She switched the hand which she held her sword. She tried to focus the occult power, which she could not really comprehend. She felt a ball of fire and magic swirling around in her core and focused that power to her sword, causing it to glow. She swung her sword, nonchalantly, toward Kairi, who dodged at the last second, the blast of energy that passed by him. His eyes widened as he looked at Sophia, then back at the huge blade scar on the floor and on the wall behind him.
"What?" Kairi was at a lost for words. He looked at Sophia. He saw her eyes dawned, as if she has no interest in doing this. Her eyes were glazed as she looked at him.
"You see, I cannot fully control this power," she said, in a passive voice. A ball of fire glowed in her hands. She shot it out, moving the blast, burning the walls as has followed Kairi with the burst of flames. Kairi finally stopped and created a shield in front of himself, waiting until Sophia's flame burned out.
Sophia stopped. She grasped the sword with both hands, keeping the tip pointed at the ground, as if it was too heavy for her to lift. Her bare feet took one step forward, causing a dent in the floor. She had become super heavy because the power she was channeling in her body was weighing her down.
To everything else, she was heavy but her body felt extremely light and agile, like she could move from one place to another in the blink of an eye. She widened her stance and bent her knees slightly. Holding the sword down, to her right, she took another step forward.
Kairi blinked when he saw her disappears then reappear in front of him, like he did earlier. She swung the sword down, on top of his head. Kairi quickly dashed out of the way, by going to the side, but Sophia grabbed his foot and threw him, back, against a wall. He dodged his head when Sophia came in to grab it, resulting in her grabbing the wall, breaking the concrete with her fingers. He stood in the middle again, and Sophia disappeared before him once more. She did a sword thrust to the head, which he barely blocked, then did a spin kick, that sent him flying across the room. Before he could recover, she was in front of him again. Their swords clashed and Kairi threw Sophia up, toward the ceiling. He, then, placed his hands on the ground and formed a magic circle. "Damn you. Die!" Black spikes came out of the ground, the walls, and the ceiling. They surrounded Sophia, but in a moment, with a flash of a sword swing, all the spikes turned to pieces that fell to the floor and dematerialized.
Sophia caught herself, with her feet on the ceiling, hanging upside down. The ceiling cracked under her strength as she pushed herself off the ceiling, flying straight down to the ground. The ceiling broke off and chunks of rocks fell off the ceiling. Sophia caught herself on one of the chunks while Kairi jumped to another. They headed straight for each other and their swords clashed once more. Sophia pulled back, jumping higher to the hole in the ceiling, then came back down, taking Kairi with her, slamming him to the floor. Sophia pushed her sword down on the magical shield, he was holding, which was slowly starting to crack.
Sophia passed her palm on the blade and recited, "Falda escrima solia!" The sword glowed white and cracked the shield.
When Kairi saw that he was bleeding, he pushed the princess away from him. She gently glided off of him to the other side of the room, landing on her feet. Kairi quickly stood up and looked at his arm. His arm had turned white and was slowly disappearing as it broke into tiny, microscopic crystals. Without a second thought, he used his sword to slash his arm to stop the spell from spreading throughout his body. "She's mastering the spells so quickly," Kairi thought. "The dragon spirit is helping her powers mature and evolve quickly."
    They, then, went through a speed round of exchanging blows, until Kairi was able to send Sophia flying through the roof, and into the night sky. The roof cracked under her weight and she flew straight out. Kairi brought himself up and flew out of the building after her. They circled each other and clashed swords twice. Sophia was, finally, able to catch Kairi, with her hand right on his face and threw him down. Kairi fell through the ceiling and to the insides of the main ballroom. Boom! Kairi groaned. It really hurt, hitting concrete and stone with that amount of force. He looked up. His eyes widened when he saw Sophia dropping down, feet first. He rolled out of the way as Sophia landed on the ground, barely avoiding her. There was so much strength in the drop that she created another crater in the floor. She disappeared again.
Kairi turned around, when he heard the sound of her blade, quickly blocking Sophia's attack with a magic barrier. Kairi gritted his teeth.
    With the other sword in her hand, Sophia attacked over the head as Kairi continued to dodge her. She continued to push him back with double attack with both sword, moving swiftly on the ground. Blocking with one hand was proving difficult for Kairi. As he moved, he noticed that Sophia was trying to push him into a corner. He looked over his shoulder with his sword raised up, blocking Sophia's attack to him neck. His eyes widened again. If only he'd been paying more attention. Swish.
With an upward slash of the other blade, Sophia cut off his arm at the shoulder. The arm fell to the the ground, with the sword still closed tightly in his hands.
"Die." Thrust. Sophia pulled, forcefully, the sword from his chest. She swung the sword outward, causing the blood on it to splash on the floor.
Kairi fell on his back. He looked up at the princess, who was looking at him. "You may have killed me... but... my legacy lives on. Th-there are really others who will follow in my footsteps," he said, weakly.
"Then, just like you, I will kill them all," Sophia answered, calmly.
Kairi scoffed. "My son wi...will avenge me."
"Don't be so sure. He's dead." Sophia said as she looked over at the other body that was lying on the floor. She looked back at Kairi.
"And you can join him in hell." Her eyes flashed and she ignited Kairi's body in flames. She watched until the body and all his drops of blood on the floor completely turned into a pile of ashes. A small black orb came out of the ashes and rose into the air. It stayed there, then burst into small lights that slowly disappeared. Sophia walked away from him. The dragon essence slowly disappeared from her body as she walked across the hall, over to her mother at the bottom of the stairs.
"You did good work." She said as she dropped the shield. "The only way to make sure that a sorcerer and their powers die is to seal it or burn to magical essence completely." Sophia nodded. The two swords fell out of her hands as dropped on her knees in front of her mother . "Sophia!?"
"I'm fine. My body is suddenly feeling heavy."
"That's because..."
"That's because," a voice echoed through the halls, interrupting the queen, "you were fighting using the Dragon Essence without a contract with the dragons."
Sophia and her mother gasped. Sophia turned around, with eyes wide as she looked at Shoran rising from the floor. Sophia, despite the pain, moved quickly off the floor and picked up her swords.
"Your body is not mature enough to handle the power of the dragons and your newly awakened occult powers. You're body should be extremely sore right now." He looked at her with playful eyes and a smirk. "You shouldn't be moving right now. It's just going to put more strain on your delicate body."
"I...I killed you." Sophia felt her knees buckle from under her but caught herself by sticking one of the swords, through the concrete floor, as she fell. She looked up at him.
Shoran stood right in front of her and looked down at her, crouching on the floor.
"Yes, that attack did hurt a bit but it's nothing a little magic can't heal." He bent down to her level. He took Sophia's chin in his hands and lifted her head to meet his eyes.
"You did good in getting rid of my father," he said in a soft voice. "I must say that your rampage was fun to watch. I already knew that he couldn't kill all three of you." He looked behind Sophia's head. "But we should give him credit for taking out the king," he looked back at Sophia, "and for all the damage he did to you." He looked at Sophia and couldn't help but snicker at the fear he saw in her eyes. She was completely paralyzed from shock.
Shoran moved his lips close and whispered, "Don't you worry princess. I'm much more powerful than my father. I'll give you a fight that you can enjoy that won't be completely one sided, even with the Dragon Essence."

A/N: YES! I was finally able to do it. Shoran is the main antagonist of the story. He is the most powerful sorcerer in the world. He'll be a great challenger for Sophia, and he's going to force her to evolve into an even stronger fighter. Even with the power of the Dragons that Sophia just now had, she can't win against him.
I'm going to have a lot of fun creating Shoran's character. He's probably my favorite.
Also, chapter 5 won't take as long as this one.
coming up Chapter 5: "My True Enemy"