White Rabbit

Chapter 61: Unleashing Genesis

ESSENCE

"Man, this sucks!" Antillies shouts as she ducks behind a car as a jar of poisonous smoke flies passed her as Reece and I approach.

"No shit," Cassidy seethes as he sits next to Antillies, leaning up over the car with his eye pressed to the cross-hairs in his pistol as he looks through his sights and aims, ducking occasionally as debris flies towards him.

Meanwhile, Aeryn is mid-leap and swinging her chain around, attempting to wrap it around Nightshade as it crackles through the air, frost following after it. Below her, Lucian runs towards Nightshade with his sword, propelling along his diamond path that he set out and breaking through the walls made out of energy that stand along them, shattering them like glass.

"Where are Mitsuko and Ryouichi?" Reece asks as we slide up against Antillies and Cassidy.

"They went to, well," Cassidy's eyes flicker upwards, making our gazes follow his, "there."

Just then, Mitsuko appears in the air from a rift and continuously disappears and reappears as she slashes through time and space, Ryouichi trailing behind her with his kataras made of sunlight and bright yellow-golden energy.

"You don't get to treat everyone like shit and walk all over them!" Aeryn shouts as she continues attacking Nightshade, who narrows her eyes at her, "you will bow before me! You will repent for all that you've done! You hear me?! Repent, you lunatic!"

"Are you upset that I almost killed you? Or are you upset that I broke your precious boyfriend's heart? Got him abandoned by his father? Which is it? Or, perhaps, is it every one of those reasons?" Nightshade's lips curve up into a smirk as she swings her daggers around and Aeryn clenches her jaw, lunging at Nightshade and scraping a gash across the side of her face with her chain as Lucian sweeps at her with his blade and manages to slice a cut across her side while she's distracted from Aeryn's hit.

My eyes flicker to everything around me, all the fighting and pain and suffering, and it makes anger burn inside of me. Reece summons a giant energy shield made out of clockwork to shield Cassidy, Antillies, himself, and me as we hide behind the car while Aeryn, Lucian, Mitsuko, and Ryouichi attack Nightshade. Reece grits his teeth and clenches his jaw as more and more pieces of shrapnel, debris, and attacks deflect against the shield.

"Somebody's gotta do something about this shit," Cassidy grits out as he fires more shots above the car.

My eyes meet Reece's and we both seem to hold a sense of understanding between each other. Worry begins to fill me and swirl around with my anger as I see him struggling to keep the shield stable to protect the others and my eyes flicker over to Nightshade before I take a few steps forwards, holding out both of my arms as I slowly begin to walk towards her.

"Essence! What're you doing!" Reece shouts as I walk around the car and I glance back at him, smiling.

"I'm doing what I was meant to do," I say, "reign Genesis."

Reece's eyes widen slightly and his breath hitches upon hearing those words, Cassidy's eyes flickering to me and Antillies's lips parting in surprise as I continue walking towards Nightshade, my gaze directed at her with my arms spread out. A scythe begins to materialize piece by piece in my right hand, as well as one in my left hand. The scythe in my right hand being metallic dark blue and containing silver chains that wrap around the blade as lavender energy burns off of it and criss-crosses, swirling in ribbons around the scythe with dark blue energy forming the other half of the criss-cross. The scythe in my left hand is a metallic neon blue that almost looks baby blue and has bright neon blue flames burning off of it and white and blue orbs of energy floating off of it as well as a bright white orb of energy glows in the center of the blade.

I swing the scythes around as I continue walking and I swing the right one clockwise as I swing the left one counter-clockwise and I swirl around whenever they connect, forming one giant scythe that contains all of the components from both scythes as a pair of wings made out of dark blue energy form and burn like flames on my back. I swing my scythe around and point at Nightshade as I raise my head high, looking her directly in the eyes as a halo of dark blue flames burns above my head and white and neon blue energy sparks wherever I step.

"My name is Essence Kaori," I state firmly, "and I am Genesis."

Aeryn's eyes widen and she backs away from Nightshade, tugging Lucian along with her as they stumble out of the way and Ryouichi and Mitsuko land beside them, watching as I take one step forwards and swirl around, swinging my scythe and sending a giant surge of energy off of it that spirals around like a bullet, causing a giant burst of dark blue energy mixed with white to glow and temporarily block out everything else, the last thing that I'm able to see being Nightshade's shocked face and her audible gasp. Once the energy clears and everything is visible again, where Nightshade once stood is reduced to ashes and the other stand there, watching me with an array of different expressions.

"Well..." Aeryn starts, putting her whip away, "I wanted to kill the bitch, but that works too."

Lucian stares at where Nightshade once stood with a mixture of expression on his face and Aeryn gently places her hand on his shoulder, smiling at him, which causes him to smile back and place his hand on top of hers, their eyes gazing in to each other's.

"Essence..." Reece breathes out and I glance back at him to see him running towards me, the shield now gone.

My scythes and wings fade away and I gasp as Reece runs up to me and picks me up, swirling me around in his arms and laughing.

"You did it!" Reece beams happily and places me back down.

"Yeah," I smile up at him and his warm expression, "I did, didn't I?"

"And now we just have to deal with Loralai and whoever else is left," Mitsuko says, swinging her scythe around and placing it over her shoulder as she stands next to her half brother, "Ryouichi and I can go help the Loralai team."

"Lucian and I will come with," Aeryn says and Lucian raises his eyebrows at her.

"Who said that I'd go with you?" Lucian asks.

"Oh, please, I'm your pretty girlfriend. Besides, who wouldn't want to go with me?" Aeryn flips her hair and sashays her hips as she walks and Lucian smiles wryly, running a hand through his hair after sighing, knowing that she's right.

"I'll go inside and try to help the others," Cassidy says.

"I'll come too!" Antillies shouts, beaming excitedly and Cassidy sighs in irritation.

"Reece and I will go inside as well, right?" I ask and glance at Reece.

"Right," Reece smiles slightly and nods, grabbing my hand before running off with me, "come on, let's go."

And with that, everyone heads off to continue the battle that never seems to end but could very well be ending quite soon.