The Six Guns

Chapter Fifty-Seven: Fall

  "So what's the plan now?" Holly asks.
  "Survive" Siran says as he clenches his fists in anger. When he opens his hands, an endo spear appears in each hand. The moment Naris runs towards Siran, Siran throws both of the spears. Naris jumps to the right to dodge the first spear, but the second spear comes straight for his head. Naris ducks beneath the second spear and continues to rush at Siran. Naris punches Siran, but Siran stops the attack with his own fist. Naris looks up and smiles, and a blast of pure endo pushes Siran onto his back. Naris makes the rock beneath Siran shoot up, sending him flying into the air. As Siran was suspended in the air, lightning comes down at him. Siran redirects the lightning around himself and lands on his feet. Zia tried to kick Naris, but her foot passes right through him as if he were a ghost.
  "No, no!" Naris says to Zia, "You're not getting it at all!". Naris hits Zia with the back of his hand and sends her flying backwards.
  Alex jumps forward at Naris and shoots at him with his gun, but his blast goes right through him. As Naris looks at Alex, Alex has grabbed Ruby's calling card and was trying to take it out of his hand. "You want this?" Naris asks. "Then work smarter, not harder".
  Before Naris had the chance to attack Alex, Siran flew in from above and punched Naris with armament magic powered by reactive endo. The punch lands and knocks Naris onto his back. "You can only hurt him with reactive endo" Siran says. "Believe me, I've tried every other way".
  Alex looks down at his hand. Naris has let go of the calling card and it was now in Alex's hands. Alex clenches his fist around the card, then charges up distortion magic. As Naris gets up, he says "Really? Magic again? Even Siran had told you that it-". However, Naris was interrupted by the attack from Alex. At the last second, Alex charged reactive endo into his spell and punched the air. Cracks formed in the air and the impact hit Naris from afar. Naris flies back at a high speed and crashes into the remains of The Mages Guild building. As brick and drywall crumpled on top of Naris, he says in a very disappointed tone "Very clever". After standing up, Naris creates a solid ball of pure endo and aimed it at Alex. When the ball shot from his hand, it vanished and reappeared in front of Alex. Alex jumps back and Holly creates several shields. Spell after spell shot from the ball without Naris needing to focus on any spells. A volley of fire balls, ice spikes, wind blasts, rock shrapnel, and thorns flew from the ball. Upon contact, Holly's shield would instantly shatter, but after each shield had broken, Holly created two more as Alex gets his distance. While they were busy with protecting themselves, Naris had already attacked Siran again. Naris kicked at Siran, and Siran blocked with his arms. However, even though Siran blocked Naris's attack, the impact from his kick pushed Siran backwards and deeper into the ground as he was pushed. Naris jumps back and makes a rock spike shoot at Siran's back from the ground that surrounds him. As the tip of the spike began to shoot out from the ground behind him, Siran grabbed the spike with his arm as if he were putting the rock in a headlock. After the spike stopped, Siran broke the spike in half and threw it into the air. The rock shattered into lots of tiny pieces and Siran sends them flying at Naris like a thousand tiny missiles. Naris creates a rock wall that caused the rock missiles to be deflected and hit a house instead of Naris.
  "You humans must be getting tired" Naris says. "It shouldn't be long until you fall".
  "Stay back" Siran says as he steps forward. "I have a plan. For now, save your energy. We're going to need it later".
  "Syr, what are you-" Zia asks.
  "Trust me" Siran says. "Just get yourselves prepared. Besides, I can't go all out when I have to worry about hurting the people I care about". As Siran passes Zia, he hands her his gun and says "Hold onto this for me. It'll weigh me down". Siran then takes off his jacket and puts on his dark blue cowboy hat and sun goggles.
  "Now this is what I've been waiting for!" Naris says as he seems to get excited. "Are you finally ready to rumble?".
  "Let's fucking dance" Siran says with a smile. Zia gets her distance and stands with the rest of the group to watch. Siran moves so fast that he seems to teleport yet again, however as he jumps at Naris, the ground beneath him shatters. Naris blocks Siran's attack, but the force sends him flying outside of the city in a flash. However, Naris moves back into the city and after Siran in less than a second. Naris punches Siran, but Siran uses distortion magic to redirect the impact back at Naris. The impact goes right through Naris and destroys the three buildings behind him. Before Siran has a chance to recover, Naris plants both of his feet on Siran's chest and sends him flying back into the ground. Siran lands on his feet and crushes the ground beneath him. As Naris finally lands on the ground, Siran creates an endo dagger in his right hand and charges at Naris. Naris charges at Siran as well and the two attack and dodge each other. Neither of them able to land a hit on each other, the force from their attacks keep ripping tears and scars in the ground around them. As the two dodge each other, a glowing white ring of reactive endo appears over Siran's head. The ring looked just like a halo, but didn't feel like one at all. Siran head-butts Naris with the halo over his head and it pushes Naris away from him. Siran then grabs the halo from over his head and throws it like a chakram at Naris. Naris narrowly dodged the chakram and it continues to fly outside of the city. It hits a mountain outside of Omnium Guild and cuts a mountain in half, vertically. The mountain still had its height, but it now has two peaks. Siran creates an array of spikes from the ground that all shoot up at Naris. Naris jumps into the air and grabs onto the first spike, then jumps from spike to spike until he closed in on Siran. Naris tries to punch Siran, but Siran grabs his arm and then his neck. Siran flips his body around and drives Naris's head into the dirt. Siran then reached back to power up a punch with reactive endo while Naris was pinned to the ground. When Siran struck with his fist, the ground blew up, but Naris used shadow step to appear behind Siran. Naris reaches back with an open hand, as if he was preparing to slap Siran, and a firebolt spell charges up in Naris's hand. Siran elbows Naris's open hand and redirects the spell. The spell shoots out and hits a building. Upon making contact with a building, the spell grew in size and took out every building in that direction and didn't stop until the spell reached outside of the city. A barely noticeable white light came off of Siran's arm and was now stuck to Naris's hand. However, Naris did not notice it. Naris raises his other hand into the air and lightning struck down. Instead of aiming at Siran, the lighting landed in the palm of Naris's left hand. The lightning became a ball in Naris's hand as Naris reaches back to prepare to strike at Siran. Siran creates a large digital shield and prepares to block with his arms. When Naris throws his spell, Siran instead shadow steps behind Naris. The spell created a large thunderous blast that destroyed Siran's shield and 15 meters of ground behind that. Siran grabs Naris's left hand and twists it until Naris is pinned to the ground again. Another small white light appears in Naris's hand and Siran reaches back with another endo dagger to stab at Naris. Naris causes his own body to shoot out spikes in all directions, stabbing Siran multiple times. Siran stumbles backwards, but stays on his feet.
  "Guys!" Siran yells at the crew, "start charging up reactive endo, now!".
  "Same old song and dance, eh?" Naris asks. "You've used that trick too many times, it won't work like it did the last time we had a proper fight. Don't you ever learn any new tricks?".
  "I've learned a few" Siran says as he snaps his fingers. Suddenly, the small lights of reactive endo in each of Naris's hands grow brighter and Naris is held in place by his hands. He could move his legs and head, but not his arms. Forced to stretch his arms outright, Naris was left defenseless. "Like from Ruby" Siran says, "I've only seen her do it once, but I remembered that reactive endo can control regular endo. Then I remembered that your whole body is made of endo. I'm not sure how Ruby's repression worked, but thanks to her I've come up with a good plan".
  "You!" Naris says as he struggles. "You dirty... sneaky... fox!".
  "I hope you like repetition" Siran says as he turns his back to Naris. "You deserve this. This is for Ruby, Mason, Angela and all the others you've killed".
  A volley of reactive endo spells shoot into the sky from the rest of the crew, like flaming arrows, and all come down at Naris. Naris continues to struggle and the spells cause an explosion all around him. When the dust clears, Naris is gone. The crew sighs in relief, but the ground begins to rumble again.
  "You're really pissing me off!" Naris's voice echoes from around them. Naris's body begins to climb out of the ground. Naris waited for the impact to rip off his arms, and then dug himself deep underground to avoid the rest of the spells. Most of his body was torn and both of his arms were still missing. However, endo from all around them was being sucked into Naris's body. Naris grows and grows, until he takes his usual shape of a giant serpent. Pure black, glowing red circles for eyes, smoke falling from around him, and as tall as the heavens are high, Naris once again stood above Siran.
  "No..." Alex says, "we've failed". Alex falls to his knees in defeat.
  "I can't cast another spell" Mikoto says as she begins to collapse. "I've used up all that I can! I don't have any endo left".
  "Same here" Rose says as she slouches over, trying to catch her breath.
  Zia tries to catch her breath too, but looks around at the rest of the crew. "It can't go down like this..." she says to herself. Zia begins to slowly walk up next to Siran.
  Naris looks down at Zia with a skeptical look. "Oh?" He says, "do you still have a little bit of fight left in you?".
  Zia tries her best to charge up reactive endo, but when she throws the spell, nothing happens. Naris squints at Zia, at first in anger and then in amusement. Naris begins to laugh and laugh. Suddenly, he feels something strange. When he looks back down, Zia is absorbing Naris's body into herself.
  "Zia, No!" Siran yells.
  "Yes, Zia" Naris growls, "I wouldn't do that if I were you!". Naris swipes his giant tail at Zia, but Siran jumps in the way and takes the hit. Naris's tail slams Siran into the ground. When Siran gets hit by Naris's tail, you could hear a loud snap as his left arm gets broken.
  "Zia... why?" Siran asks as he slowly gets back up.
  Zia pants in exhaustion as she says "It wasn't my first choice. Desperate times and whatnot, you know Syr? It's all I can do, and if it'll save billions of people, then it's worth it".
  "But..." Siran says.
  Naris raises his tail again to strike. Siran creates another endo dagger and cuts off his tail. While Naris winces in pain, Siran says "I can't lose you! Anyone but you!".
  "We don't have a choice!" Zia says. "Finish him off before this goes to waste!".
  Siran hesitates but he nods in agreement. His head hanging low in defeat at first, then hanging up in anger at Naris. Naris looks down at Zia, but Siran dashes through his body with his knife in hand. With Zia stealing his endo to keep him from being able to cast spells freely, and the shocking pain from Siran's dagger, Naris was unable to attack them. Siran moves like a flash, back and forth, through Naris's body. Siran would dash through him with the dagger in hand, cutting him. When Siran came out from one side of Naris's body, he dashed trough him again. Then again, and again, and again, and again. Moving fast enough to lift off of the ground, each attack bringing Siran closer to Naris's head. When Siran finally appeared over Naris's head, he charges up an endo spear. This time, the endo spear was several times larger than before.
  "Gungnir!" Siran yells as he throws the spear through Naris. The spear pierces the top of Naris's serpent like head and pins him to the ground. Naris folds in on himself like a coil, and gets destroyed by the impact. Naris's endo disperses and then dissipates as Naris finally dies for the final time. Siran lands on his feet, but then the pain from his broken shoulder hits him. Siran struggles to stay on his feet and conscious. After managing to keep himself from collapsing, he vomits blood onto the ground. Siran looks up at Zia, who still stood on her feet.
  "Are you okay?" Siran asks. "You didn't take too much, did you?".
  Zia raises up one thumb to tell Siran that she's fine, but then collapses to the ground and passes out. Siran rushes over to her and tries to wake her up, but it was helping. The endo was killing her, and fast.
  "Aaargh! NO!" Siran yells. "This isn't fair!".
  "Siran, are you-" Vivi begins to ask as she approaches Siran.
  "Gaia!" Siran shouts. "If you can hear me, save her! I swear to all that is considered sacred and holy-". Suddenly, Siran remembers something, and uses the last of his endo to charge up a powerful distortion spell in one hand and reactive endo in the other. A large wall of cracks appear in the air from Siran's distortion spell, then the cracks shatter when he hits it with reactive endo. When the distortion spell shatters, it reveals a gate just like the one that Siran appeared out of when he first left Valhalla. Siran picks up Zia and dashes into the endless white void with Zia in his arms. The gate behind them closes after he enters. Siran and Zia suddenly vanish from the face of the earth. The crew stared off in the distance where Siran and Zia used to be, dumbfounded.
  "W-where... did he go?" Vivi asks.
  "Did..." Rose asks as she carries Finn in her arms. "Did we win? Is it over?".
  "Yeah..." Alex says. "I think it is over".
  "What do we do now?" Satomi asks.
  "I guess go back to Seeira?" Rose asks. "We need to get Blake and Finn healed. Maybe after that, we can wait for Siran and Zia... then get back to work as The Six Guns".
  "About that..." Alex says. "I think we should disband the crew".
  "What? Why!?" Rose asks.
  "I don't mean we have to stop hanging out and seeing each other as friends" Alex says. "... but, I mean... a lot has happened. We don't even know IF Siran and Zia will come back. Even then, we did our job... didn't we? The Ly'Lum pretty much shut themselves down, and people started joining the fight to stand up for themselves. That was our mission, wasn't it?".
  The rest of the crew was silent as they all thought about it. "Maybe he's right" Vivi says. "We did what we had to. But now that the world is... well... still here, then I think we did all that we could. Those Killshot Hunters were right. The world doesn't need heroes, the world needs to learn from it's mistakes. That'll never happen if we stick around forever, trying to clean up everyone's messes".
  "So... back to Seeira then?" Tanya asks.
  "I think that's about right" Vivi says. "We should at least get home to clear our minds. For now, let's worry about keeping Finn and Blake alive. We don't need to lose anymore people".
  "Siran... Zia..." Rose says.
  Vivi puts her hand on Rose's shoulder and says "Come on... we can't wait around forever".
  A tear begins to form in each of Rose's eyes. Rose looks down at Finn, who is still unconscious in her arms. "Right..." Rose says as they begin to leave.