Thirty-Seven years earlier...

Dirt and concrete erupted into the air, as Kito was thrown back head over heels. Sprawling on the ground, he rolled a couple of times before using his momentum to flip up to his feet, skidding back a little before getting his balance under control. His jaw set, teeth grinding together as he looked back. People were still evacuating, running to the dirt road leading out of town. “Hold the line…” He said under his breath. Kito whirled his katana and spread his stance, sword up and gaze fixed on the street ahead of him, smoke still billowing from the explosion that had rocked it. Within seconds they were sprinting through. Kito tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword as the Revenants came at him blindingly fast. Orange energy flew at him and his sword flickered blue, his body glowing with the same colour as he moved. To him he moved between the blasts, slapping them away, though an onlooker would see several blue copies of Kito deflecting the barrage before the undead horde could kill any of the villagers. Less than a second, and they were on top of him. Clawing, biting, swiping, kicking, Kito whipped his sword in tight arcs, drawing dark blood. His feet were sliding along the ground as he avoided the creatures as best he could. Strikes were making it through his defence however, claws snagging his coattails. He let loose a wave of blue that blasted a dozen Revenants back before leaping back himself to get his bearings. This was bad, it was true that Xan had always used undead creatures in his army. It made it far easier to gain massive numbers, and this had been perfectly fine for almost fifty years - Xan apparently preferring quantity over quality and using things like Zombies and Ghouls. This had held true, until recently when he had started using creatures such as Revenants and Wights, the strongest of undead creatures. It was in the seventy-seventh year of the war that the Alliance had first started seriously losing ground due to Xan throwing these much more resilient undead creatures at them, and now in the eighty-ninth year, the Alliance was on the ropes. Kito had led his team here in a desperate attempt to save the people of Iaetria, but it was looking more and more like the Red Mask was going to die alongside all of the townspeople. Unless Kito could do something about it.

Kito swiped his sword to the side like a samurai would flick blood from the blade. Blue energy started to burn around the steel, licking at the air around it. Kito himself had a faint glow around him as well as he started a run at the approaching monsters. Before they could start swiping at him, Kito was whirling his glowing blue blade. Magic exploded in a swirling storm of bright blue slashes that ripped apart dozens of Revenants that screamed as their blood filled the air. Kito had been conserving magical power for so long that he’d forgotten about the much more important things. He looked behind him at the people in the distance growing smaller and smaller as they escaped. Kito turned back to the seemingly endless stream of undead that were chasing the scent of blood. So he got to work, flourishing and swiping his sword and slashing apart the Revenants ten or twelve at a time.

Katy fell back slightly as another Revenant came out of nowhere to swipe at her, drawing blood along her cheek. She dispatched it easily enough with a short combo, bashing with her shield then slicing with her sword. Her muscles, however, had been tired almost an hour beforehand. She couldn’t even imagine how Kito was feeling, given he had gone to head off the force where it would be funnelled the most. Katy and Seiko were in the heart of the town where there were considerably less. Speaking of… Katy looked around with a frown, trying to catch some sight of her partner. Seiko appeared from around a corner, hurling fire at an unseen foe. A bright blast of orange rocketed at him and he performed a perfect side-flip away from the blast, leaving the wall to take the force of the attack. He backed up, then started a run to where Katy was leaning. Slowing to a stop, he shook his head when Katy straightened up.

“Couldn’t find anyone.” Seiko’s voice was as smooth as always, though he had blood running down the side of his face, clearly getting into his dark eyes.

“We’ll keep looking,” Katy rolled her shoulders to work out the kinks before turning her attention to the Revenants sprinting down the narrow street towards them.

“And wipe these ugly bastards out while we’re at it.” Seiko took a deep breath before raising his arms up in a fighter’s stance. Without a word, the two of them dove into action, slicing and striking and blasting their way through the hordes. It only took them a few minutes, it was a group of almost twelve or so. Katy was needing to put more power behind her swings than she was used to, each Revenant taking two or three hits to destroy. She swept one with her shield and with a spin plunged her sword down into its face. She got to her feet just as Seiko kicked the last one so hard it cracked against a wall with a sickening splat. He brought his blood-soaked leg back down and turned to Katy, wiping his forehead. Before either of them could get a word out however, Seiko was blasted back off of his feet. Katy immediately fell back into her standard stance, though something did strike her as alarming. The colour of the magic that had hit Seiko wasn’t orange. It was red. Katy’s eyes widened in shock as the Demon blurred towards her, leaving her barely enough time to raise her shield and get pushed back several metres. Looking up and tensing up all over, her face went suddenly slack as the Demon threw the unconscious body of their teammate - Sapphire on the ground in front of Katy.

“You’ve been a thorn in our sides for almost a year now. I’m here to end that.” The Demon said without interest, his red eyes gleaming violently.

Katy slid one foot back, shield up. Though before another movement could be made, Seiko blurred past her, towards their new adversary. The Demon easily dodged all of Seiko’s flaming kicks and lightning-quick jabs and punches, lazily striking a palm out. A red shockwave erupted and Seiko spun from the impact with a cry, crunching against the ground with a pained moan. Katy started a run before the Demon could finish the job, smashing her shield against his jaw and sending him staggering back. He spun in a tight circle, his leg coming up with a flash of red, though Katy saw it coming and parried it away, her sword flashing and coming close to catching the Demon’s chest. Though before it struck, he was able to use the momentum she provided him and flipped upwards, landing a couple of metres away. Without missing a beat, the Demon sent a wave of red that Katy barely managed to get her shield up to defend against, though she didn’t put quite enough power behind her block. She was lifted off of her feet, her shield flying through the air as the force of the attack pushed her arm aside violently. Katy slammed into the ground and rolled backwards, getting to her feet quickly as the Demon came in close. She ducked a punch, blocked a roundhouse with her shin and went to stab for his head, turning it into a slash when he moved to the side, though his movement turned into a duck and his fist found her ribs, lifting her slightly. The air left her and she staggered back, her vision suddenly filling with red. The world tilted and pain lanced through her whole body before the ground came up to meet her, hard.

Katy tried to get to her feet immediately, though her balance failed her and she heard her sword clattering along the ground as her strength left her. The Demon wasted no time, summoning a red spear and almost instantly sending it stabbing at her face. Katy closed her eyes and waited for the pain to hit, though instead, she felt warm blood splash across her face. Her eyes bursting open, she cried out when she saw the dark blue coat whipping in the wind as Seiko fell to his knees in front of her. Blood splashed the ground around them and the dust he had kicked up getting to her so fast swirled around him. He looked down at her with a slightly surprised expression, blood running from his mouth as his hands shakily moved to the new spearhead protruding from his chest. The Demon moved to retract, though Seiko caught the spear in both hands, gritting his teeth and roaring as he made one last desperate effort to stop him from attacking Katy.

“Seiko…” Katy rasped, “Please, stop!”

Seiko’s hands were sliced and bleeding, but still, he held on.

“Stop!” Katy yelled, tears streaming as her hands balled into fists. The Demon grunted and with another yank, the spear freed itself from Seiko’s chest, blood spraying across the wall next to them. Katy watched as Seiko fell forward, almost in slow motion, his face met the ground with another cloud of dust kicking up around him. Katy felt a tingling in her fingers, running up her legs. Electricity sparked at the edges of her eyes and when the Demon attempted another stab, she turned her glare on him and punched the ground. Cracks spiderwebbed from where her fist met the concrete as thunder boomed, an enormous bolt of lightning clapping from the skies and sending the Demon flying back with a flash of blinding light.

Katy had just managed to get to her knees when she realised her strength was going to fail her once again. Not surprising... she hadn’t ever been able to use lightning magic before now. Her magical stamina was completely destroyed. The Demon stood back up, black smoke swirling around him with massive parts of his nice suit gone, the skin underneath a mess of blackness, smoke and dust leaking from him. Though it was healing fairly quickly, the clothes reconstructing as she watched. She dealt a small amount of damage, it probably took a lot of his magical power to completely heal those wounds… Though now the Revenants were beginning to swarm the street as well. They were about to eat her and Seiko’s prone body alike.

She had only begun resigning herself to this fate, about to fall back onto her face, when the street was suddenly filled with a whirlwind of bright blue slashes, spinning and slicing. All of the Revenants were instantly shredded to pieces, dark blood erupting into the air as the Demon’s eyes visibly widened, barely able to block the onslaught of furious magical energy. Katy whipped her head around, to see Kito standing at the mouth of the street, backlit by a red evening sun and covered in the dark sticky blood from head to foot, his face a mask of pure, cold anger. She didn’t need to ask to know he had sensed what had happened to Seiko. The size of the previous attack told her exactly how he felt. She had put the count of Revenants in the street to around fifty, or even sixty. Only one remained, crawling along the ground meekly, growling impotently. Even this meagre excuse for a creature wasn’t spared, however. A spear of blue light appeared above the thing, stabbing it to the floor as dark blood rained from the sky. Deep, resounding laughter rang out, the only sound in the quiet street beside the light pattering of blood from the sky, and Katy turned her head back to the Demon, fully clothed and healed now. He wore a wicked grin as he started a walk towards Kito.

“You! You’re the one who was apparently able to defeat General Ardor!” The Demon called out, a wispy red katana appearing in his hand. Clearly to match Kito’s bloody and chipped blade.

Kito remained silent, walking towards the Demon slowly.

“This should be interesting,” The Demon broke into a run, red burning the air around him angrily, “Put up more of a fight than your useless friends!”

Kito’s eyebrows twitched slightly at that, though he didn’t speed up at all. He simply gripped his sword tightly, holding it low in preparation for the strike. Katy tensed, and within a second the Demon passed Kito, his blade slashing in a wide diagonal arc. Katy had only barely noticed it. The slightest of movements, Kito glowing blue for a split second and whipping his sword up easily. Kito simply swiped his blade to the side, the burning blue aura disappearing as the Demon barely even made a sound. The red katana fell in two pieces, the Demon crumbling into black dust as he tried to turn his stunned gaze on Kito.

Katy watched in awe as Kito sheathed his sword and walked over to her. She could see him deliberately not looking at Seiko as he fell to his knees in front of her. She didn’t have that level of control, her eyes falling once again on her old friend. Fresh tears breaking over and flowing down her cheeks. Trying desperately to keep her composure, Katy shook violently. Though it only lasted for so long. The racking sobs eventually broke her poise, the hand that tenderly grasped her shoulder taking her by surprise. Her gaze flicked to Kito, who was looking at Seiko’s body just as she had been. It was difficult to see to anyone further away, though she could clearly see his brow twitching, the tears barely noticeable against the splatters of dark blood covering his face. Katy placed her hand on his, and squeezed, her sobs becoming louder, wrenching their way out of her chest painfully. She felt herself being pulled to Kito’s shoulder, his hand on her head. He smelled awful, but she didn’t care. Kito looked around at the carnage and death surrounding them. Sapphire was unconscious but alive… He could feel the others as well. Hurt, but otherwise okay. He closed his eyes and exhaled deeply, surrounded by dark blood, Seiko’s cold body finally crumbling into dust on the ground.