The Lost one's journey

Part 40: The Shadow king

Kokhav's lifeless body falls to the ground with a loud thud. Folmon runs up to Raphael as she lands on the ground, clearly exhausted. He helps her up. "What was that?" Raphael ignores him as she stands. "Folmon, go out and get Pocu. Take the left stairs to the top, then enter the last door on the left. That'll be the portal out of here." Folmon looks at her, baffled. "What!? That wasn't part of the plan. We-" "I KNOW WHAT THE PLAN IS!" Raphael shouts, cutting Folmon off. "Get Pocu and leave, please." She says it with a small smile before going up the right stairs. Folmon grimaces before turning and leaving for Pocu. As Folmon steps out of the black palace, he looks at Kruhabelt in shock. "What happened!?" He shouts out.

Meanwhile, Voda rests on his throne. Two other empty thrones sit besides him. Ikati opens the door to his throne room. With the two locking eyes, Ikati approaches Voda with every step she takes, echoing within the empty, hollow throne room. The two's eyes never leaving the others. Eventually, Ikati reaches Voda's throne. Voda stands up from his throne and approaches her. He towers over Ikati as his purple eyes meet Ikati's own. The two don't speak a word as shadows start to gather around each of them. A large construct made of shadows in the shape of a panther appears behind Voda, while Ikati's shadows take an odd, unformed shape. "Xafra." Voda calmly says as Ikati shouts out. "Xafra!" Ikati's unrefined blade is contrasted by Voda's focused and clean blade. Unlike hers, it's refined and sharp, with a clear edge. As they shout out, they both swing their blades at each other. Their blades clash and push against each other while shadows fire out from the sides of them. A tendril seems to break Voda's finger on his opposite hand. His blade suddenly grows larger and more imposing as it launches Ikati back to the end of the throne room. She lands on her feet on the ground, barely having enough time to look up, as Voda seems to be already in front of her, but it's only in her mind that he's there. She struggles to stand as a darker shadow seems to surround her body, pushing down on it. "Leave. It's the only mercy I will allow you for her sake." Voda says as his arm returns from the blade form. Ikati's eyes constrict, with her Iris not even visible. "Her!? You have no f***ing right to even mention her!" Ikati's shouts out in a rage as she surrounds herself in water and stands. "Divine puppet." She says as a ball of water forms in the air with shadows fusing with it, creating an eye in her image onto the ball. Small strings of water leak from the ball and attach themselves to her body. She then dashes towards Voda, her body flickering in and out of sight due to her speed, but Voda looks unamused by her childish behavior. "Xafra. frosta." He calmly says as shadows surround both his arms. His right becomes the elongated double-ended blade, but his left becomes surrounded by shadows and turns into a thin, elongated barbed whip with a spear tip at the end of it. The whip looks as though it's made of muscle tissue, besides the black color it has from the shadows. Small claw-like fingers surround the end of the spear. Ikati quickly reaches him as his arms finish their quick transformation. She swings her blade downward onto his head while her other hand's fingers are all broken by the water that surrounds her. As her blade rises, shadows explode from it, causing what looks to be a fissure of shadows to erupt from the back of her blade. Voda merely steps to the side of her attack and lightly whips his arm, causing the spearhead to stab into her stomach. Ikati screams in pain, but the strings of water forcibly pull her arm up to try and swing towards Voda again. This time she fired out water from the back of the blade along with her shadows in order to add more propulsion to her strike, but Voda pulled his arm back, causing the once small hole into her stomach to grossly expand into a large hole. Even despite this grievous injury, Ikati continues her strike at him, but it's rendered useless as he blocks it with his own blade and instead shatters her blade. Then, with his whip, he quickly reels it back and smacks it into her. The strike shatters her bones and sends her once again to the start of the throne room. Voda dispels his arms, returning them to their natural form as he sits back upon his throne. But as he sits, to his surprise, she rises back up. The gigantic hole in her stomach is reforming, and her bones are healing. The ball of water that floats above her shrinks, but it quickly grows back as she floods it with mana and physical energy. Voda, not saying a word, stands back up this time, not even bothering to transform his arms. "Tarka!!" Ikati shouts out as her left arm transforms into a large, jagged shield. She whips her now-broken blade, quickly reforming it from the shadows as she once again dashes towards him. Every step she takes, she floods her body with water and drags her blade and shield on the ground, slicing the ground as she dashes to Voda in blind fury. Voda keeps his calm expression as she dashes towards him. As she quickly arrives at him, Voda doesn't move as she tries to slash at him once again, but it's once again stopped as he takes a step back. But to Voda's surprise, water bursts out from her back, sending her to him as she finally lands one slice on Voda, lightly scratching his chest. Voda doesn't seem to care as he kicks her square in the chest, shattering her rib cage, as she is not sent to the start of the throne room but kicked out of the room itself.

She doesn't return for some time, letting Voda inspect his small wound. He looks at his crimson blood with the smallest hint of shock. 'Red blood...' he thinks for a brief moment until the door breaks down, revealing an entire army of Ikati's, all with their own constructs of water, each with their own eyes. Voda doesn't seem surprised as he summons his Xafra and Frosta. The Ikatis cry out in rage as they all dash towards them. There are easily thousands of them as they flood into his throne room. As they dash towards Voda, he crouches down with his blade at his side and, with a single kick of his leg from the ground, fires into the army like a bullet. The backlash of his kick shattering his throne and ground Shadows build up around Voda as he swings his blade in each direction. Each swing is joined by a blade of shadows that expands his range, slicing through the numerous Ikati's as if they never existed. All of the ones he slices leak water as though it were their blood but quickly reform as the construct of water shrinks. Voda is almost stuck by one of the clones until he whips his Frosta, causing it to slice the entire area but his walls. It isn't done yet, as the shadows build up around him, boosting his already incredible speed. Within the blink of an eye, he slices all the Ikati clones into bits so small they're invisible. To his surprise, they all reform, but there is something wrong with them. Be it the wrong eye color, hair length, or even skin tone, he starts to cut them down, but they all suddenly shout out. "Devas!" Voda's eyes grow in shock. He shouts out. "Tarka!" causing a perfectly spherical great shield to surround him as all the Ikati clones fire out shadowy tendrils in a 360° sphere, each appearing like a spear. From the impact of the Devas, Voda is shot out of his black palace, breaking through the wall.

He turns around to see where he is to land, but instead sees his kingdom in ruin. Red ink surrounds the ground like flooding water, the buildings are alit in flames, armored knights dash through the kingdom seeming to kill humans on their spears and swords, other armored men ride upon their horses striking the buildings with maces, an entire platoon of knights firing out arrows tipped with flames onto the kingdom, and all of them humans. Voda looks at his city and his kingdom in shock until something shatters his shield. He snaps his head back forward and sees Ikati above him with a raised Xafra. She fires out an entire tsunami of water mixed with shadows from the back of her blade as she brings it down on Voda. He doesn't relent, however, and while still shocked at the state of his kingdom, he uses his own Xafra to counter Ikati's and uses his whip to grab her waist and throw her onto the red, inky ground. "Xedd!" Voda shouts as his arms revert to normal and tendrils made of shadows appear on his back. They quickly grow and form wings, letting him fly in the air. He looks around his kingdom in shock once again. His vision flashing with the past, he sees Kruhabelt flash into what appears to be a small camp, then slowly grow and expand throughout time, becoming the large and prosperous nation it now is. His fists clutch in rage and begin to bleed as he tightens his grasp. "Who!" He roars out in a rage until he sees the core of the issue. He sees Pocu in the center of Kruhabelt, surrounded by an army of knights and the same two corpses at her feet, while she is held by a lady made of ink. He sees the ink leaking from her eyes and can immediately deduce what's happening, but he also sees an odd person cloaked in black with short white hair and both a black and white hand gracefully dancing across the red ink. The man also seems to notice him, and he smiles and points down. Voda, still enraged by his kingdom, ignores him until he senses a surge of magic and looks down. He sees Ikati fire out a black and blue dragon made by mixing water with her shadows. It looks reminiscent of the Melanis Valis's own spell. The dragon bites down on the unsuspecting Voda as it moves faster than anything before. Its teeth pierce his skin and leave gaping wounds as it slams him into the ground, then disperses.