C281: End of the Beginning Pt3
Alt title Teaser: Cursed Flames
Date published: 8/21/2025.
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"Ignite the cursed flames forged through blood bonds, Knave"
The Reaper slashes out in an 'X' format with their collision creating one last set of sparks that ignites the dual swords but also the drop of blood on the ground.
Yet an unexpected final change occurs as the it is not just the fire which is summoned by calling upon its shikai state. The two flaming swords actually float in front of him as they melt and reform into a simple looking but powerful silver and red flaming spear.
Waving his hand, the reaper grabs the newfound burning red spear, a small hint of what it's power is showcased as a bit of the flame stuck to the air itself from the slash before fading away in a bit of time.
Axel recognizes that his enemies stance becomes far more focused but casual as if his previous state of weapon proficiency was a lie as he rushes towards Axel, exhibiting expert spearmanship as he sweeps his polearm horizontally, then closes in to disrupt Axel's footwork by smacking the butt of his staff into Axel's thighs.
Axel was no slouch during this time but through the usage of faints and other techniques courtesy of his expert usage of Zenjutsu techniques is he able to just barely surpass Axel in terms of pure weapon skill. Especially so when Axel has chosen to be unarmed since his magically made weapons of metallic essence were damaged.
Of course it has to be noted that Axel did not receive any long lasting damage from any of these attacks due to the combination of elemental and law based powers either boosting his defense or speed.
Though it also can't be forgotten that Axel has a prototype version of his speed force, a template power that he had copied from The Flash long ago when they first met in the Watch Tower. It had taken a long time to make this prototype as he had only ever been able to make short bursts of speed before facing backlash since he did not have an actual speedforce but a sample that he had elongated over long periods and raised up like a lab-based 'virus' to propagate over the years.
He is using the newly formed bits of this 'virus' to further reduce the actual impacts of the attacks as he regenerates the sliced off bits or blocks the attacks by quickly condensing appropriate barriers to protect himself.
The only change from this series of attacks from the shinigami is that he had once again returned to his original energy levels. Meanwhile Axel is no worse for wear as he is the one who has borderline infinite energy and a pseudo indestructible body.
The reaper does sport a single punch to the cheek in this exchange which doesnt seem to heal but it's impact was not too impactful so it could be it just didn't bother with it. It also certainly didn't help that it felt like punching a thick stone wall. His body is not immovable but it's heavy now that Axel actually felt it himself.
The most unnerving part of this situation is that right now there are floating waves of blood red fire hanging in random locations all around wherever the speartip went.
Axel has not made contact or gotten close to any but he can tell that unless he closes the barrier around them, he will eventually run out of room as he did find out an intriguing part of this fire.
It merges.
All the close-by flames link together into floating orbs of the same fire but those last much longer. Akin to a situation of instead being 2 + 2, it's more like 2 x 2. With the numbers being locked to their original times instead of the degraded lengths that each individual attack had been.
Axel raises his hands in a cross pattern as he begins to stretch, The shinigami is baffled as he states, "isn't it a bit too late to stretch."
"Not really, I'm pretty rusty as for a long time I've been the strongest in the worlds I've visited, there are few with such high power ceilings which made me quite lazy. But I think I'm finally ready to fight now." As he talks, he finishes stretching, Axel then begins to hop on one foot then the other as he takes a boxing stance.
Boom Boom
As Axel steps forward a shockwave is felt as he accelerated, in response the reaper also tenses up as they utilize flash step yet Axel intercepts him mid movement as he is sent flying into the ground, creating a crater, but the reaper doesnt stay there as he once again charges at Axel but the slime has a better understanding of his fighting pattern as well as speed.
Always staying one step ahead as his body morphs numerous times to keep ahead and strike back as the reaper attempts and fails to land a blow. A kick to the shin, stomp to the toes, punch to the face, chop to the spear holding wrist, electrical beam to the belly. Axel was able to pull off a variety of counterattacks as the reaper was the aggressor in every instance.
Even the previous leftover ravens even attempted to dive bomb Axel to create an opening for a greater blow yet the air seemed to freeze the stone-based birds midair before they were suddenly crushed.
Even the reaper experienced this air 'void' as well as the air density pressure but he toughed them both out with his reishi which allowed him to break through and stab at Axel but it only collided with Axel's palm.
It is only then did Axel finally realize what type of flames these were as the stab had caused it to bloom out in his hand.
'Pain, a curse of pain that bypasses the actual nerves in my hand. It feeds on experiences, I guess I know why he mentioned cursed blood burning blood bonds.' Axel analyzes the sensation as he can feel that even the causality of those his left hand had physically interacted with burns slightly but never a complete burn. Leaves a tiny trace to ensure it does not alter the past or future but enough to cause Axel mental and physical pain from it all.
"Thats a dangerous fire you got there, haven't your parents told you not to play with fire" Axel retorts for once as he can tell that these flames are anti-thetical to life itself. It certainly doesnt help that once a single instance of this fire 'blooms', residue flames of the same nature begin to ravage the ground itself.
"My parents died in an accident when I was still a child, and it was my adoptive mother that bestowed these flames to me" The reaper offers a somber explanation but offers no mercy as they continued attacking even after the initial fire explosion against Axel's hand.
Axel mentally freezes from the description but it tells him all that he needs to know, for now though he dodges and experiments a bit with his enhanced mind in putting the fire out by cutting off its oxygen but it keeps burning. It is likely magical in nature, aka fueled by either the reaper's spirit energy or on the lingering mana in the air.
To stall the reaper as well as continue his experiments, he releases a tide of water to push the reaper back, in doing so, Axel found out that the water was unaffected by water.
Axel eventually grits his teeth and reverses the time on his hand as even if he cut off the hand, he would still feel the extreme pain of being burned, the flame follows bonds, that includes the former bond of where his hand used to be connected to his wrist and thus the rest of his body. But by reversing the flow of time on a localized instance, he can negate his injury and thus cease his short term agony from further exposure to the flames.
Though Axel does not feel safe yet as to his shock, even without being able to devour his own body through his special eye, the Linou Doue, he was still able to somehow grow stronger as his reiatsu is released and growing.
"Thanks bud, that helped" the child-like voice pitches in again as the reaper waves his hand around to cast a multitude of spells at once.
"What I seek is the burning field, Kurenai"
"What I seek is the trembling earth, Gillian"
"What I seek is thunder, Izuchi"
Spell after spell is released as before the reaper's hands is a variety of magic glyphs forming in the air. The first spell lets loose a series of fireballs but he swipes his spear through each one which seems to taint them as they turn from normal red fire to blood fire which shoots towards him.
He simply dodges those as they simply begin to burn the floor once more. The second spell soon follows as big boulders are summoned and then let loose, nothing special happens with them except their destruction as they are simply demolished in mid air just like the previous earth bird summons.
The final spell was a simple series of lightning bolts which Axel simply devoured in turn, though he was careful to destroy any form of alien energies before converting it into his own.
"Was that supposed to achieve something?" Axel curiously asks as he now chooses to rush toward but as he approaches, he understands the situation only marginally better as he looks into the reapers eyes. The left like before activates the Lino Doue but what Axel didn't realize before was that the right eye also bears a stigma.
The Alpha Stigma.
The beautiful blue pentagram sigil manifests and then glows a noxious purple but contrary to the original, the reaper doesnt seem to go mad from some sort of hidden spirit within the eyes, no instead the accumulated magical abilities that the reaper possesses are unleashed all at once.
BOOM
Earth, water, various forms of fire including the blood flames and then finally hundreds of types of lightning attacks all collide with Axel in the short distance between the two of them.
The Lino Doue kicks in to absorb all the blood that flowed from either himself or Axel. This helped return his condition to it's optimal state once again while Axel is less fortunate.
Covered in blood and with one of his arms and legs missing, he remains standing as his mood has rapidly grown far more pissed off. The reason for this is simple, the blood flames are covering his whole body. Even his previous action of using time to undo the flames on his hand was destroyed. Showing that the flames even affect that part of causality.
Any attempts to destroy his own body with the exception of a small core would prove fruitless as the flames would simply expand towards that unaffected area. With this much covering him, Axel can tell the reaper is mentally controlling the flames on him.
Axel realizes that there is only one proper way to extinguish these flames. Drowning them in so much energy that they cant burn anything.
"Come forth,
"The pillar that restricts the world,
"The shining rainbow that brings about peace for all life"
"My shining Rhongomyniad"
Axel reaches forth and the spinning silver spear is pulled out of space itself. The true beauty of this empirical weapon is made obvious as Axel's law energy overflows throughout his body, dousing the flame properly. The spear then morphs into a pair of cestus that Axel puts on.
"Ohhhhh, not a bad kid. But if you're going all out then I should reciprocate." The Reaper is grinning with his twin magical eyes still shining. The spear in hand still burning as he lifts it up horizontally to himself in response to Axel's actions.
"Bankai"
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Word count: 2038
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