*Boukyaku*

"Boukyaku!" Aunt Koukyuu yelled, running toward us. "Eien just informed us, Lei is in Wahkan. Nyima and the others have closed the gates between the universes firmly and destroyed most the creatures. However, some still linger."

"Not for long," Tahoma said as he emerged from the forest, several red cores on hand."

I stood up, glancing at him. "You said that your job was to close the hole to the abyss when we first met back in capital."

Tahoma nodded. "That's correct. It's for that reason that I need you to get away from here. This area still contains a great deal of darkness."

"Do you know of any abyssal creature with white hair and resembles a person?"

His eyes widened. "A creature that takes on the shape of a person? I've heard that there were beings that resembled angels.

I recalled the crescent bow the man wielded against us. The weapon wasn't a normal tool form our world. "The guy had a weapon that was reminiscent of an angel too and a wand."

Aunt crossed her arms as if perturbed. "A weapon that is like those of Zionia and our own?" She closed her eyes and furrowed her brow. "In all my life I've only seen a few fitting that description. Our own Magus Maximus has one. Most who do are extremely dangerous individuals, though the ones I've met didn't come from the abyss. Well, except for one..."

"You never met a white haired man with a bow shaped weapon?" I queried further.

At this my aunt opened her eyes and her mouth. "A bow?"

"Yeah, a black one with a crescent moon on it."

"I once met a person with such a weapon. But the individual who wielded it had black hair, not white. Though... it's possible that whoever this is somehow recovered it after the last war..."

Shivers ran up my spine. "Wait, you're making it sound like you've been to the Abyss before. Have you? If so, how may we get there?"

Aunt nodded. "Felt like I've answered this so many times already. Yes, I have. One of those portals was the one which caused this whole mess. But like I said, Nyima and the others closed all of them up. Why do you ask?"

I curled my hands into tight fists. "Lucette... she fell into that world. Tell me, do you think that she might still be alive?"

"That world is a harsh one," Ms. Key said as she floated down into the meadow. "Lucette is strong, but the chances of her surviving on her own are hard. We barely managed to survive in groups."

I closed my eyes as a faint memory returned. It was of a black winged angel with a shield. They had mentioned something about it. Back then, shadows similar to those that attacked us descended from the skies.

"So that's what those beings from long ago were called."

Aunt nodded. "You should remember them rather well, from the last time the Mahoulympics were held in our lands."

Mayu nodded. "I remember that too. It was you who kept them away, wasn't it?"

Ms. Key smiled bitter-sweetly. "Yeah, us and the heroes from the other realms. Though we lost so many people in the war."

"It was for that reason that we couldn't allow it to expand further this time. I wanted to think that our fight against them was the moment mentioned in the Xianian legends. That somehow we managed to overcome our cruel destiny."

Tahoma put his hands into the pockets of his cloak and chuckled. "Defying destiny is a difficult thing to do. We're better off preparing ourselves for after the end." His red eyes narrowed. "We will still attempt to prevent the worse, but it'll be wise to keep my words in mind."

Keep his words in mind? Does he think that we'll fail? But... didn't we just stop the darkness once more?

"Let's get out of here," Haroun said, maintaining his eyes on the tree-debris-filled ground. "The longer that we spend here, the harder it becomes to breathe."

"Really?" Aunt asked. "The air her is perfectly fine."

I tapped her shoulder and shook my head.

She nodded. "Ohh. Well, go on ahead. We'll stay here and monitor the area."

"No need," Tahoma said, taking a step forward. He stretched out his arms and formed two spheres of light. "Leave this to Aria and me. The two of us are enough to take on the wimps that were left behind."

***

On the way back to Nine Petal Academy, we saw several lifeless bodies, their limbs torn apart and disfigured into inhumane shapes. Next to the unidentifiable bodies, there was a sea of broken wands littering the forest floor. Also accompanying them were broken crystals.

"We shouldn't have allowed them to have fought," Ms. Key said, cupping her hands together as if in prayer. Her face contorted with guilt, nearly as much as how I was feeling.

"We should send someone to retrieve their remains and return them to their families," I said. As I walked, I noticed that some of them wore military uniforms.

Mayu cusped her hands over her mouth and shook her head. "No..."

"You know them?"

She shook her head. "I can barely identify them," she responded, muffling a cry. "But as you can tell, their uniform is the same one from the camp. It's... entirely possible." Tears streamed down her face. She probably felt the most regret out of all of us. It was her fault that all of this began.

No, that wasn't right. It was the fault of the person who destroyed the tower, the hidden leader. The man referred to as 'Kitsune'. Who was that man after all? We never did find out.

Creak. I turned around for the source of the sound. Was one of those creatures still around?

"Prince," my aunt called out, snapping me out of my thoughts. "Is something the matter?"

Looking over my shoulder, I continued to survey our surroundings. "Did you hear a sound?"

"If it's a beast then Aria and Tahoma will take care of it," Mayu said. "Those two are strong. Plus, I don't sense a strong darkness, so even if it's a creature of the abyss, it mustn't be all that powerful."

She was right, the lingering darkness was very weak and rapidly fading as we spoke.

"Alright, let's head over to Nine Petal Academy. I'll like to research more on the portals to the abyss." If there was still a chance that Lucette was alive, then I would take it. Thanks Mayu, for having saved me from despair. Not all hope was lost.

*???*

I grinned as Boukyaku and his grouped walked away. Now that they were gone, it was time for me to begin what I came for. I spun around, only to be greeted by two teens in white cloaks.

"Where do you think that you're going? Fox mask?" Tahoma asked. "Nahimana was right about her suspicions relating to your 'death'. You're the guy who caused all of this aren't you? The same guy who blew up the tower."

I leapt into the air and threw flame kunai at the two. "You're not foolish, foreigner. Alas, I have little time to play around with you two."

Aria deflected all attacks in a blur of slashes. The girl grinned, directing her sword toward my neck. "You're not going anywhere. Face us, and face justice for your crimes!"

"Tsk. You're a persistent bunch, aren't ya? I already said that I got no time for you!" I unleashed a roar, sending the annoying duo flying into the forest.

I turned tail and ran. There was no time to waste, I had to retrieve the abysmal monster whose aura came from the other side. The beast's core was filled with incredible energy.

"I told you to stop!" Aria yelled, pursuing me with incredible speed.

I should've expected this from the daughter of one of the seven judges. A ring of red spherical flame danced around me. "Take this!" The nine fireballs flew out in all directions, lighting the forest on fire.

"Damn it," Aria said as a large plume of smoke filled the air.

That took care of one, but where was the boy?

"Looking for me," Tahoma called out. He stood in the center of the meadow where Boukyaku had met my white-haired acquaintance.

Nine red fox tails emerged from my back, slicing the air around me.

"You're in league with that man, aren't you?" he asked. "The one who took Lucette."

I scoffed. "And what if I am?"

"What are your intentions? What do you desire from her?"

I shook my head in disbelief. The guy sure loved to play dumb. "You should know by now."

He narrowed his radiant red eyes at me. "So, you desire to use her to destroy us. In that case... I'll destroy you first! Come on and fight! Here and now we shall determine the fate of all creation!"

Not being able to help but laugh, I stepped forward and unleashed another round of fire spheres. "So be it. In the end I'll be the one on top of the world!"

**Solar Note: I hope that you enjoyed this chapter. I'm glad to finally be back to where I was prior to unpublishing back in the end of April of this year (2017) :)**