I wasn't sure why space was only beginning to bend despite the great amount of mana that Hyosetsu and I were using in our clash. It was then that Hyosetsu and I heard Ayumi grunt. She looked as if she was struggling with something but her eyes were focused on us. It had to be her who was keeping the surrounding space intact.

Zyuuni walked over to her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"I think that we should finish this quickly," Hyosetsu said as he closed his eyes. He dashed toward me, slicing one of the seven floating crystals perfectly in half.

I nodded and slammed Alma against his side, sending him reeling. However, my cousin quickly covered his wound with ice to stop the bleeding and stood up.

He swung his sword, slicing another two of the crystals with the resulting sword beam.

I focused the remaining four crystals and sent them toward the dragon slithering up behind me. The dragon growled as he tried to slap the crystals away with its front claws. The force still managed to send it reeling as shards struck its forehead.

"Thought that I would forget?" I asked as I blocked Hyosetsu's Baldo with my Alma. My weapon encircled the sword. I yanked Alma, pulling Baldo away from his grip. Though, he seemed to not have struggled. His grip couldn't possibly have been that weak.

"Hyoryuu, return!" Hyosetsu yelled. The dragon turned into a sphere of blue energy and flew toward the sword, knocking me to the ground.

Hyosetsu smiled as he pointed his white sword at my neck. I grabbed it with my right hand.

"I'll be taking that back," he said, levitating Baldo out of Alma's grasp. He swung Baldo at me. I gasped and grabbed the sword with my right hand. The sword beam from the swing though caused several cuts to appear on my hand.

He pressed his white sword down, causing it to slip through my hand and get closer to my neck. "Give up. It's over."

"It's not!" I yelled. He gasped and pulled his swords away and took to the air. A wad of crystals erupted from the ground, stabbing my cousin's legs as he failed to fly away in time.

"Got ya!" I said, smacking him in the abdomen with Alma. He spat out blood and saliva as he flew through the air.

He chuckled and swung his swords even as he was falling, forcing me to jump back. "Ha! Unicorn of the Frozen Plains!" He yelled as he spun around and landed on the ground. He pressed the tips of his swords together and unleashed a beam of cold air at me.

I held out my hands and stopped it. I should've done this from the start, but my control over ice wasn't anything like his. I side stepped out of the way and let the beam go. I jumped up and moved forward as a glacier of ice formed on the barrier and spread to where I had been standing.

"Sphinx of the Frozen Ruins!" Hyosetsu called out as he swung both his swords at once. A figure resembling a lion-like creature with a human head charged at me. I raised the earth around me, forming a thick earthen wall. The sphinx passed through the earth wall like a specter, leaving the wall covered in ice in its wake.

I narrowed my eyes at him and sent a black sphere at it as it was a meter away from me.

The sphere though went through it, blasting the frozen earthen wall.

I took a deep breath and held out both hands. "Stop!" I yelled at it as ice mana covered my body. The creature came to a halt as its body disintegrated.

I fell to my knees and gasped for air.

"Get up, Setty. It's not over yet," I whispered to myself through gritted teeth. I picked up Alma and stood up from the ground. My eyes widened as a wall of icy spikes rushed toward me like a shark in warm open waters.

I flew back into the air, avoiding it. I swung my weapon as fast as I could. "I'll end this here!" I yelled at the top of my lungs as I gathered as much mana as I could into Alma while also building up kinetic energy.

Hyosetsu gasped as chunks of ice broke off of the glacier in front of him along with shards of tiles and dirt. Even he was feeling as if he were being pushed upward. At least he could feel how I did with his twister.

"Imperial Meteor!" I yelled at the top of my lungs, throwing Alma straight at him.

Hyosetsu flew away but Alma followed after him.

I chuckled as he unleashed another one of his sphinxes against it but it wasn't slowing down at all. In fact, his technique made it deadlier as Alma grew larger in size like a planetary body, gaining more material as it plowed through space.

Hyosetsu flew away, circling over to me.

I scoffed. "Like I'll fall for that!"

He raised his sword which was covered in a rainbow aura like the aurora sometimes seen in Shirayuki. Somehow, seeing it made me sad as it brought back memories of when our parents, his father and my mother, were alive. It also brought back memories of the happy Hyosetsu I once knew.

***

[Years Ago- Shirayuki Palace]

"Your Majesty. Dame Miyuki and Sir Sebastian have been alerted of your arrival. They will be here shortly," a maid at the entrance to the silver palace said.

"Think that it was a good idea for us to come here earlier than we said we would?" Papa asked as he rocked my baby sister in his arms.

Mama pulled her sleek black hair over her shoulder. "Well, you know how my brother likes to arrive unannounced, so I decided to give him a taste of his own medicine."

Papa chuckled. "I can see where Setty gets her vengeful streak from."

Mama scoffed. "Please, like you don't have one too. I would say you're worse than me."

I grumbled as the two discussed who I was most like. I was just like the two of them!

"Setty, Setty!" someone shouted. I turned and saw a black-haired boy run down a pair of white marble stairs with cyan carpet draped over them. "You're here early!"

I smiled and ran over to him. "Hyo!" I yelled. The two of us hugged at the bottom of the stairs. "Yeah, we're early because Mama here wanted to get payback on her big brother."

"Hey, don't spill the beans!" Mama shouted, her face red. "It's not like that, Hyo."

My cousin chuckled. "No worries, I won't tell Papa."

"So, how have you been? Did you finally master that technique you were working on?" I asked.

He let go of me and stared at the silver-hilted sword on his side. He frowned and shook his head. "No, I can only perform one of the seven slashes. When I try to do a second, it disintegrates. Papa was right, it is a tough one to learn."

I patted his head and smiled. "You'll get it one day! Just keep on working at it. Meanwhile, you can show me that one stroke again! It's really pretty!"

He chuckled. "It sure is. That's why I like to use it! Though, when perfected it's also really powerful!"

"Hyo, have you greeted the king and queen as well," his mama said as she walked down the stairs. In her arms was a crying red-haired baby boy wrapped in blue blankets. Walking alongside her was a tall, brown-haired man with a grin between playful and impish.

"It's alright," Mama said, waving her hand.

"It's entertaining seeing them like this," Papa said, nodding his head.

Hyo turned and saw that Papa was holding a baby draped in white blankets.

"Come and meet your cousin," Mama said, smiling warmly as she patted baby Rosa's head.

My little sister slumbered without a care in the world, a contrast to baby Kohri.

Hyo turned his attention back to his immediate family. "Wait, I gotta calm Kohri down." He smiled at the crying Kohri. "Don't cry, little brother. Your big bro is here! So please don't cry. If you do, your big brother will be sad too. He likes seeing his little brother giggling."

Kohri blinked and reached a hand out for his big brother. Hyo held out a finger toward him. The red haired baby grabbed the finger and giggled as he shook his brother's hand.

"There you go!" Hyo winced. "Ha, you sure got a strong grip there, bro. I'm sure that you'll be strong when you grow up. Maybe as strong as Papa!"

Uncle Sebastian chuckled. "Perhaps, but first he'll have to overtake his older brother."

Hyo snickered. "I bet that he will one day, not that I'll let him do so easily." He glanced back at the sleeping Rosa. "Though, I do wish that he were as quiet as your sister's baby."

Kohri must've understood what his brother was implying as he began to cry.

"Huh? Hey, don't cry. I'm sorry, Kohri!" he said. "Please don't cry! Kohri, please smile."

Kohri sniffed as he stared at his big brother. "Brah, brah."

Hyo smiled and touched his hand again. "No worries, little one. I won't abandon you for anything in the world!"

The baby boy sniffed once more. "Popo?"

The older brother laughed. "Popo!"

"That kid sure is a noisy one," Papa said with grin. I felt his eyes on me. "Reminds me of a certain baby I once knew."

I puffed my cheeks and leered at him.

"Hey, don't look at me like that. You were a cry baby," the king said, continuing to smile.

Mama nodded. "Yeah, she was."

"Not you too, Mama!"

"Well, I was too," Hyo said, blushing.

"Only when you got scared. Otherwise, you were as quiet as Rosa," Miyuki said, patting her oldest son's head.

"Really?" he asked.

"Yeah, only issue was that you were easily scared by the slightest of sounds," Uncle Sebastian said, ruffling his oldest son's hair.

Hyo's face grew warmer. "Uh..."

All of the adults burst into laughter.

I grumbled and ran over to Hyo, grabbing him by the arm. "Let's go spar! You can show me your first aurora stroke!"

Hyo laughed nervously as he struggled to keep up with me as I took him to another part of the silver palace. "It'll be one sided one, though."

"You think you've grown that strong, huh?" I asked, smirking.

He lowered his head. "No. It's just that you're a lot stronger than me. I've never been able to beat you."

"Who knows, maybe you will this time. It's worth trying!"

Hyo looked up and beamed. "O-oh alright! I'll try to take you down for once!" He glanced back as crying erupted in the room behind us. "Let me go get Kohri first. I bet he'll want to see!"

I smiled. What a nice big brother.

***

['Present']

That was years ago. I had won that match and those that followed. Since our parents died, neither of us had seen much of each other.

I couldn't help but wonder as to what happened to that cheerful and somewhat shy cousin I once knew. It was... it was as if he had died along with them. Though, I knew that wasn't the case. Something else had happened which changed him to who he is today.

"Art of the Black Snow Mountain: Seven Aurorae!" Hyosetsu's body dissolved into rainbow light. He appeared in front of me and hit me with seven strokes. "Seven Aurorae!"

I grunted but lucky Alma came at him just as his attack took hold on me. I went toward the ceiling of the barrier just like Eiichi had once done when faced with this very same attack. Hyosetsu, meanwhile, found himself being pushed underground by the force of Alma which sent dust in all directions.

"I won't lose!" Hyosetsu yelled. "I won't settle for a tie again!" Swooshes of blue light radiated through the dust.

I gasped as I struggled against my cousin's dazzling attack. Hyo, he was ascending...

"I was hoping to save this... for my mother, but seems you've pushed me into using it," he said as he flew out of a twenty-foot deep crater. His black shirt mostly gone, revealing his lanky frame and bloody wounds from the various hits he had received from Alma. His left arm also hung limply, as did his feet. His aura poured over the wounds, healing them.

I let out a scream and broke through his Seven Aurorae attack.

Hyo smiled as he let go of Alma. I grasped my weapon with both hands and flew toward him. Just because he had awakened Second Heaven didn't mean that I was finished!

Hyo flicked a finger at me, unleashing a shockwave which blew all of the dust away. I tried to move away, but it was too fast and too large to dodge. I was sent crashing once more against the ceiling of the barrier.

S-such power...

I fell to the floor, Alma reverted back into its weapon form. My hands trembled and the ring moved uneasily.

I pushed against the floor, wincing as tile shards punctured my skin. I shook my head, as if that would take away the pain.

"Stop, Setty," Hyosetsu said. He stood over me with Baldo pointed at my head. "Give up. It's over. You know that."

"Y-you never gave up when we were kids," I shouted. "So why... why would I give up? Huh?" Suddenly an orange light began to flicker around me.

My cousin chuckled. "You know how that ended, but go ahead. I want to test out this form."

I stood up, even though my feet wobbled. I felt as if I hadn't eaten in weeks. Though, the flickering orange light helped me stand. The pain from the injuries I had sustained vanished gradually.

I rushed at him with no weapon in hand. I barely had enough power to stand, so it would've been useless to do so.

Hyo sheathed his swords and charged at me as well. Our fists clashed, sending a shockwave in all directions.

"Gahhh!" Ayumi screamed. Suddenly, space distorted all around us like water falling over a picture.

"Stop them!" Zyuuni yelled. "They're distorting space too much, they'll create a hole!"

"No worries, it's over," Tekeshi responded.

"Indeed, it is," Father said.

The aura around me vanished and I was sent flying out of the barrier. Luckily, someone was there to catch me.

"Got ya!" Serrano yelled as he cradled me in his arms and covered me in a black cloak. He was in his Second Heaven form as well.

"Hyo... finally... did it," I said.

Serrano nodded.

Standing alone in the center of a thirty-foot crater was a nearly naked Hyosetsu. He stepped toward me and smiled. It wasn't a snarky or smug smile, but one I could expect from the kid I had once known.

"I did it... finally," he said as he emerged from crater. As soon as his feet touched the edge of the crater, the icy blue aura around him vanished. He gasped for air and fell to his knees.

I gasped as blood dyed the edge of the crater bright red. He fell forward, his eyes blank.

I wanted to scream but everything around me went black.

*Solar Note: Hope that you enjoyed the chapter :3. Thoughts? Predictions/Theories?*