Kuwabara tried to look around but there was no sign of Riya and Kurama anywhere.
"Where did they go?" Kuwabara asked.
"Obviously, not anywhere near here," Hiei said. "That's why we have to find them and we have to do that fast."
"What for?" Yumi suddenly cut in. "Kurama's dead, Riya's broke... We haven't done anything to stop the prophecy."
"So do you want Riya to die just like that?" Hiei pointed out sarcastically. "Like what you said, we're dealing with not just one but two possible deaths. We couldn't stop the first one. Now it's our time to stop the second."
Yumi fell silent after that. It was later followed by a defeated sigh.
"You're right. I should've thought about that," Yumi said before she faced the others. "The only problem is that where will we start looking for them."
No one said a word. All of them were thinking of possible locations. Keiko, however, wasn't only thinking but she was also concentrating as she sensed the wind that blew past. To concentrate better, she closed her eyes.
Unknown to the others, Kazemi interrupted Keiko's concentration as her eyes remained closed.
'What's wrong, Keiko-sama?' Kazemi asked.
'The wind is sending ill omens... Not only that. Another group of demon shinobi is heading towards us,' Keiko answered.
Kazemi let out an audible sigh that only Keiko heard since the former was just speaking through her using telepathy. 'In any case, I know where Mistress Riya and Kurama-san were transported.'
Keiko was inwardly startled. 'You do? How did you know that?'
But before Kazemi could say anything, Keiko's eyes snapped open and faced the southwest direction where she sensed the demon shinobi approaching. Of course, it wasn't only her who had sensed that. The other wielders and the rest of the team felt their presence, as well.
"Don't tell me we're going to deal with another group of demon shinobi?" Yusuke complained frustratingly. Not only that she hated the idea, he loathed it since his energy had drastically dropped because of what had happened a while back when he was tortured.
'Kazemi-chan, you said you know where Riya-chan and Kurama are right now, right?' Keiko asked telepathically.
'Yes, Keiko-sama. They're at the Crystal Valley. The portal on the sakura tree where you stayed a while back will lead you straight to it,' Kazemi responded.
Filled with determination and the desire to protect what was left of them, Keiko made a fateful decision. She knew the others would interrogate her later on but this ongoing battle left her with no choice. Taking a deep breath, she positioned her hand in the air with her palm facing upwards.
"Raging wind, lend me your power..." Keiko uttered followed by a golden orb forming above her palm. The glow from the orb made the others, particularly Yusuke, utterly shocked. "Your mistress requires your presence. I call upon thee..." As soon as she said that, the wind began to surround the orb that Keiko still held. "Come forth, Legendary Weapon of the Sky, Arrow of Wind!" With that said, the orb began morphing into the form of a beautiful familiar long bow and arrow before the glow "shattered", thus revealing the appearance of the said weapon on Keiko's hand.
No one could say anything—not even one word—when they saw that. But Keiko expected that before facing the southwest direction and aimed the arrow there with her bow.
"Keiko, you're not thinking of using that, are you?" Yusuke said but Keiko didn't hear him, or perhaps she just chose to ignore it. Instead, she began pulling the string of the bow.
Both the long bow and the arrow emitted a bright yellow glow followed by the yellow magic circle appearing beneath Keiko. Her eyes narrowed at the sight of the approaching group of demon shinobi.
"Supreme Eagle! Arrow Shoot!" she recited as she released the arrow directly toward the enemies. With the flick of her finger, the arrow that was fired multiplied almost instantly into what appeared to be a hundred in number, thus enabling her arrow to strike at the enemies almost at once located at multiple vectors.
"Amazing... But how did you do that, Keiko-chan?" Botan asked out of amazement.
"And how come you have the Arrow of Wind?" Hiei asked, as well.
Keiko sighed before facing the others with a sad expression that made them quite worried for her.
"Keiko, did something happen that I didn't know?" Yusuke asked as he approached his girlfriend.
"A lot had happened but I don't have time to tell you all about that right now. You need to head out to the sakura tree on the top of the hill just near Master Genkai's house. You'll find a portal there. Just go there and you'll find Kurama and Riya-chan on the other side," Keiko said.
The others were surprised to hear those words from a human. Sei couldn't help but voice out her concerns.
"But Keiko-chan, how did you figure that out?" Sei reluctantly asked.
But instead of answering the question, Keiko faced the southwest direction once more before calling out a name.
"Kazemi."
Kuwabara frowned. "Kazemi? What's that?"
At Keiko's word, a golden orb appeared in front of her before it began morphing into a form of a long-haired girl. Afterward, the glow surrounding it shattered, revealing a familiar small being (familiar only to Keiko, that is). After that, both Kazemi and Keiko glanced at the others who gawked at the sight. Well, Hiei was an exception, though.
"And who's that? Your pet?" Yusuke asked sarcastically. Yukari whacked him on the head hard. "What was that for?"
It wasn't a secret to Yusuke about Yukari's physical strength since they had sparred most of the time during their training sessions.
"At least try to listen to Keiko-senpai for a while," Yukari said seriously before looking at Keiko. "But what exactly are you planning to do calling Kazemi-chan all of a sudden?"
"They left me with no choice, Yukari-chan," Keiko replied, her grip on the bow tightened. She sighed once more and faced the others with a determined look that was new to all of them. "You guys should go ahead. I'll hold them here."
"Hold them here? Keiko-chan, are you kidding me? Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Ayako exclaimed.
"She won't, Ayako-san," Kazemi said politely. "Just this once, please trust her."
All of them were surprised to hear that from Kazemi. But the small being's eyes—her pleading green eyes—made them trust what the Crystal Spirit said. Yusuke gritted his teeth as he clenched his fist when he realized that Keiko was, indeed, serious about holding the enemies off all alone.
"Keiko, you don't have to do this. I'll handle them for you," Yusuke said, trying to convince her.
"Just go, Yusuke. Riya-chan needs a brother right now and I know you can be one for her. I won't let them pass through here. Don't worry, I'll come back alive," Keiko said reassuringly. "I'll come back... for the sake of my mistress and my friends."
"But Keiko—"
"Pass this point, we'll need your powers since you guys have stronger attacks."
All of them were reluctant to follow Keiko's suggestion but wherever they put it, she has a point. Summing up the others' level of powers, it would still lead to the fact that they were more skilled when it comes to offensive attacks than Keiko. But before they could even voice their decision, they saw the Arrow of Wind glow bright yellow and turned into an orb above Keiko's palm.
"Keiko-chan, what are you trying to do now?" Botan exclaimed.
As for the said girl, she faced Kazemi and smiled before looking at the orb with a serious expression. "Winds from the sky... My Crystal Spirit Kazemi... Come to my side and grant me your powers," Keiko recited as Kazemi began to glow and went inside her. "Here I summon the ultimate form of the Arrow of Wind from the Winds of the Yellow Dragon Gem..." she continued before raising the orb to the sky. "Come forth, Spear of the Sky!"
Upon shouting that, the orb glowed even brighter than it was a while back that it became blinding. It was soon followed by gusts of wind getting stronger as it surrounded the orb morphing into a new form. As it was said earlier, the orb morphed into a beautiful six and a half feet long spear. To be specific, a straight-headed spear with a blade that was 2 and a half feet long.
"That's the Arrow of Wind's ultimate form... This is the first time one of the Legendary Weapons was transformed to another form," Soujiro said before sighing. "In any case, we need to go."
Reluctantly, the team and the wielders went as they left Keiko to face the enemy alone. Well, not all of them left her. One of the wielders decided to help Keiko. Keiko was surprised to see someone standing beside her.
"Yumi-san, what are you doing here?"
The shorty blonde wielder just smiled and summoned the Dragon Sword of Flame to her hands.
"I just can't let you take all the credit alone, Keiko-chan. And besides, I'm your leader. You belong to my team now," Yumi said seriously. "But seriously, I'm sure Riya wouldn't want you to face the danger all alone. No matter what, we'll finish this and come back to our mistress safe and sound."
Keiko smiled to herself and faced the enemy as she took a fighting stance.
'Kazemi-chan, let's do this together,' Keiko said mentally to her Crystal Spirit.
'I'm with you all the way, Keiko-sama!' Kazemi responded energetically and with determination.
Yumi sighed inwardly before calling out a name.
"Come forth, my Crystal Spirit Serafina!"
A red orb appeared in front of Yumi as it morphed into a figure of a girl. Seconds later, the glow from the morphed orb shattered and revealed a girl with crimson hair at thigh length worn loose but with pigtails that were styled higher upon her head. The girl's costume consisted of a red and yellow minidress, a waist-attached cape, a pair of white long socks, and ankle-high boots. She was also wearing black cut-off gloves.
"Thanks for showing up, Serafina-chan. I shouldn't be disturbing you but I need your help right now," Yumi said apologetically.
Serafina gently shook her head before smiling. "It's alright, Yumi-sama. You can call for my presence anytime you want. By the way, why did you call for me, my lady?"
Yumi's face went sober. "I need your powers... to summon my weapon's ultimate form."
"So it finally comes to this, huh?" Serafina murmured before facing Yumi seriously and nodded. "As you wish, my lady."
And with that, Serafina glowed before vanishing at the same time as the sword glowed bright red before turning into an orb.
"Flames from beneath the earth... My Crystal Spirit Serafina... Come to my side and grant me your powers..." Yumi said before raising the orb to the air. "Here I summon the ultimate form of the Dragon Sword of Flame from the Fire of the Red Dragon Gem. Come forth, Scarlet Blade of Flame!"
Ribbons of fire began to surround the orb as it began morphing into its new form—a two-meter long nodachi with a red sheath decorated in red jewels. Yumi took hold of it and unsheathed it, slowly surrounding the blade with purple-turned-red colored flame. Yumi faced Keiko, then the approaching group of demon shinobi.
"Let's go."
Keiko gently nodded and smiled.
Both girls took their fighting stances along with their transformed weapons as they prepare themselves to fight.
Meanwhile, Yusuke and the others continued to run in the northeast direction where the portal in question was located, according to Keiko. But while running, Yukari sensed another group of demon shinobi in a different direction.
"They won't easily stop until they take down all of us..." Yukari mumbled before she halted to a stop and faced the direction where she sensed the evil energy.
"Yukari!" Soujiro called out, still running.
"I'll catch up with you guys!" Yukari said before summoning the Flute of Melody. "Symphon, my Crystal Spirit. Come forth to your master!"
It was followed by an indigo-colored orb materializing in front of Yukari and morphing into a figure of a boy. The glow surrounding the figure shattered and revealed a boy wearing a white and lavender tuxedo. He has indigo hair and blue eyes.
"You summoned me, Yukari-sama?" Symphon asked politely, bowing slightly.
"It's time," Yukari plainly said and the Crystal Spirit already knew what it meant. "Will you help me?"
"Of course!" Symphon replied with a smile before disappearing. It was later followed by the weapon glowing in bright indigo and morphing into an orb.
"Sounds from our voice... My Crystal Spirit Symphon... Come to my side and grant me your powers. Here I summon the ultimate weapon of the Flute of Melody from the Music of the Indigo Dragon Gem..." Yukari recited and raised the orb. "Come forth, Harquebus of Sound!"
With that, the orb glowed brighter as it began morphing into a harquebus (as the name implied) while surrounded by veils of music notes before the glow faded and revealed the weapon's appearance.
"Let's see if you could come after us when your fried with my weapon's power," Yukari said with a smirk and aimed her weapon in the direction of her target. The Harquebus of Sound glowed and an indigo globe of concentrated spirit energy materialized in front of the weapon. She squinted in the direction of the approaching targets as her grip on her weapon tightened.
"Sonic Crescent..."
The spirit energy orb grew more intensified and it was only a matter of seconds before she released the shot.
"...Smasher..."
The orb started breaking apart.
"...Blast!"
The Harquebus of Sound fired five beam shots from the same firing point directly towards the demon shinobis, eradicating all of them almost at once.
"Wow... I know Yukari's strong but I never thought her weapon still has powers like that," Yusuke commented in awe when he sensed the spirit energy from the ultimate form of the Flute of Melody.
"No wonder Koenma guarded those weapons so much," Kuwabara added.
They could almost reach the sakura tree and like what Keiko said, there was a portal beside it. An icy blue light was surrounding the portal. But before they could all enter, five demon shinobis blocked their way, infuriating the already frustrated Yusuke.
"SPIRIT GUN!" Yusuke shouted as he fired at one of the demon shinobi that blasted into atoms.
"That's not Yusuke's regular Spirit Gun," Botan commented.
"He's already frustrated and confused, not to mention worried for his cousin," Hiei said. As quick as lightning, he went behind one of the demon shinobi and stabbed it through the chest.
But he hadn't anticipated the surprise attack from another demon shinobi and stabbed him through the neck, shocking the other, eyes widened.
"HIEI!" Yusuke yelled, shocked. But much to their surprise, Hiei turned blue and dissolved into water.
That caught the demon shinobi off-guard and he did not have the time to react when someone slashed its chest and its neck. After a few seconds, the dead demon shinobi dropped to the ground. When they looked around, they saw Hiei putting his katana back to its sheath.
"How come? You were stabbed!" Yusuke inquired confusingly. Hiei just smirked.
"The Hiei that first attacked the demon shinobi was the real one. But upon sensing the approaching attack from the other demon shinobi, someone used an illusion that allowed Hiei to escape and allow him to kill the enemy by surprise," Ren explained.
"Illusion?"
"Water Illusion, to be exact," Soujirou said with a smile. "It's one of the tricks that Riya-san taught me, only that I used my version of it. I warned Hiei telepathically about the incoming attack from the second demon shinobi so I used my other ability, World Transport, to let me create a copy of Hiei behind him as soon as he escaped."
But Kuwabara, Yusuke, and Botan only eyed the Water Wielder with confusion that only made Soujiro sigh exasperatingly.
"I'll explain it further later. For now, perhaps one of you could deal with the other demon shinobi blocking our way," Soujiro suggested sternly as he pointed out what he said.
One of the demon shinobi lunged toward Ren and Sei but the siblings managed to evade. As for the other demon shinobi, Yusuke and Kuwabara dealt with it before it could even strike them. The last enemy fired several dark ice crystals toward the rest of the group about the same time Soujiro uttered a familiar spell. Beside him was a beautiful blue-eyed girl draped in a long flowing blue dress whose icy blue hair has reached knee length and she has two braids on the back of her head that held a small amount of her hair to a golden barrette.
"Water from the seven seas... My Crystal Spirit Mizume... Come to my side and grant me your powers. Here I summon the ultimate form of the Scythe of the Deep Waters from the Water of the Blue Dragon Gem..." Soujiro raised the glowing blue orb to the air. "Come forth, Sword of the Sea!"
The blue orb glowed brighter which caused the ice crystals to shatter to bits as streams of water surrounded the orb before it could even reach the team and the other wielders. Another batch of dark ice crystals was fired at the gang when they saw the orb morphing into a new form—a sword in which the blade approximately measured a meter and a half. Its hilt was colored blue that seemed to sparkle despite not having too many elaborate decorations on it. On its scabbard, a figure of a blue dragon was entwined to it, and rune letters were engraved on it.
After transforming the weapon to its ultimate form, Soujiro swung the sword in front of him, releasing massive blue-colored energy that shattered the ice crystals and killed the last demon shinobi at the same time. Just as soon as Soujiro did that, Yusuke and the others headed toward the portal. But before Yusuke entered, he looked in the direction where they left Keiko.
"Be careful, Keiko. I'll hold on to what you said. Just make sure you come back alive..." Yusuke murmured before finally entering the portal along with the others.
But as soon as they exited the portal, what they saw confused them since they were standing amidst unfamiliar ruins. All of them looked around as soon as the portal closed behind them. Large building columns were scattered all over the place, but they saw a castle built from marble and crystals located at the top middle spire. Only this structure remained standing even though the other infrastructures were destroyed around it.
"What is this place?" Kuwabara wondered aloud.
"It's beautiful but it seemed like it was turned into a ghost town," Ayako commented as she continued to look around. 'But why do I have a feeling that this place is so familiar? This is the first time I've been to this place,' she thought.
"Is it me or do I just have the strangest feeling that I've been here before?" Soujiro asked most likely to himself.
"No, you haven't. But your powers once were," a voice said that echoed to the surroundings. The others looked around only to find no one.
And then an orange orb materialized in front of Ayako and glowed. It began forming a figure of a girl before the glow shattered and revealed a young girl only 8 inches tall dressed like a medieval princess. The girl had orange hair at waist-length and was braided around a golden forehead tiara before flowing into pigtails. Her wings appeared as though three leaflets with the color of powder blue with teal tips.
"Don't tell me you're Ayako-chan's Crystal Spirit?" Botan asked as she looked at the girl.
The small girl smiled. "What do you think?"
"You're the one who said something about our powers a while back, right?" Soujiro asked. The girl nodded. "What do you mean by that?"
"But before that, could you please tell us your name?" Ren added.
The small girl did a curtsy before facing them with a smile. "My name is Hikari and I'm Ayako-sama's Crystal Spirit. With regards to what I said earlier, it's not the wielders who had been to this place before. It was your powers. You see, the wielders' powers once belonged to Celeste-sama."
"The deity from 500,000 years ago?" Sei asked.
Hikari nodded before continuing. "The powers of the wielders were divided and sealed into small shards from the Crystal Spear just after a destructive force struck the realm she was residing into. It ended up killing her in the process as she sacrificed herself from using her full powers to protect her home. Before dying, Celeste-sama supposedly used the last of her magical endowment to send her divided powers that turned into Wielders' Crystals and the 7 Dragon Gems to the Human World for safekeeping and to find a worthy possessor. Your powers originated in this place, that's why this place is so familiar to you."
Ayako and Soujiro looked at each other in surprise upon realizing something from what Hikari said.
"So you're saying that this place was once the home of Celeste?" Ayako asked for confirmation.
"That's right. This place is called the Crystal Valley and the castle you're looking at earlier in the Alyssum Castle where Celeste-sama once resided."
But before the gang could react, they felt the ground shake for a short time then it stopped.
"What was that?" Botan asked.
"Somebody doesn't want to welcome visitors here," Hiei said before reaching for his katana. The others prepared themselves for what was about to come.
After a few seconds, they saw vicious monsters approaching fast. At Yusuke's signal, they charged to battle as their powers and fighting skills destroyed the monsters that were made of ice. But to their surprise, the destroyed monsters could regenerate themselves since the Crystal Valley was covered in thick blankets of ice and snow. Weird enough, the place wasn't as cold as they thought. It has the ideal temperature: warm and cozy.
They were beginning to get even more tired since they couldn't annihilate the monsters as they kept on regenerating themselves where the damage was inflicted.
"Are there any end to this?!" Yusuke complained after firing a spirit shotgun.
As they continued to fight, a voice of a woman suddenly echoed in their minds that caught them off-guard for a while.
'Go to the castle. The monsters wouldn't be able to attack you there since it's a sacred area. Hurry before you ran out of strength to fight.'
Though hesitant whether to follow the voice or not, in the end, they ended up running for their lives. But something happened that they hadn't anticipated. The ground zero blasts created by the monsters threw up an intricate ice tree from the tundra that suspended them all up. All were unconscious due to that but they managed to wake up a few moments later.
"Damn it! I couldn't use my Spirit Gun if I'm like this," Yusuke growled when he tried to move and use his Spirit Gun but to no avail. Half of his body was encased in the ice and unfortunately, his hands were also encased.
Somehow, the ice tree possessed the ability to nullify both demon energy and spirit energy for the captive not to fight any longer. And when the gang looked down, they figured out the reason for that.
The monsters below were growling as each of them began to climb up the ice tree.
"Hey! I don't have time to be an ugly monster's lunch yet!" Yusuke yelled as he tried to move to release himself. "Oh, come on! Can you please try to cooperate now? I need to escape from here before we become the vicious monsters' lunch," he whined again as he tried to focus his energy on his index finger.
The monsters were coming close but Yusuke and the others couldn't do anything to let themselves escape. They all thought it was going to be hopeless and closed their eyes but then...
"Light from the sun, the moon, and the stars... My Crystal Spirit Hikari... Come to my side and grant me your powers," Ayako recited which made the others open their eyes and faced her. "Here I summon the ultimate form of the Staff of Shimmer from the Light of the Orange Dragon Gem. Come forth, Rod of Light!"
Upon shouting the spell, Ayako's hand that was encased by the ice suddenly glowed in bright orange as an orb was formed there, followed by surrounding the orb with ribbons of stars. The ice that surrounded her shattered as the orb began morphing into its new form. After the glow surrounding it shattered, the form revealed a 5-feet long orange rod with four gold stars, a red jewel at the bottom, and gold wings. It was topped with a red crystal sphere inside a gold crescent moon, above which sat a tiny circle with several lines similar to the sun's rays.
Ayako safely landed on the ground and faced the monsters as she raised her weapon. An orange-colored globe materialized on top of the rod followed by light beams from different areas of that field converging to the said orb, thereby further increasing the size of the orb and its attack powers.
"Spirit Summoning Arts? Even Ayako can do that?" Hiei asked, obviously to himself.
"I don't think that's what it is, Hiei," Ren said. "Only the Miyuzaki family are, by far, the masters of the Spirit Summoning Arts. Ayako would take about 20 years to master it alone, 10 years with the help of her weapon."
"Then how do you explain that?"
"She's just collecting and reusing the energies left over by previous attacks scatters in the combat airspace. It also includes gathering energy from one of her power sources, the sun," Sei explained.
The rod was just about done collecting energy when Ayako brought it down in front of her, still facing the monsters. The orb grew more intensified and can be fired any second.
"Solar Marble..."
The orb started breaking apart and then...
"...Force Burst!"
The orb was fired, releasing seven arms of beam shots at once from the same firing point. Two of the beam shots were guided by Ayako as they hit the ice tree, shattering it in the process and releasing her friends that were trapped there. The other five beam shots were fired at the monsters, destroying them to bits.
The rest of the group landed safely on the group as soon as the ice tree was destroyed.
"We need to get out of here before these monsters begin their regenerating process," Ayako said seriously as she let her weapon disappear from her hands.
Everyone agreed and started running away from that place. When Kuwabara looked behind him, he figured that Ayako was right. The monsters were regenerating but more slowly this time.
"Just what kind of monsters are they?" Kuwabara asked as they ran towards the crystal castle.
"Surely, they're not those typical demons I've seen before," Hiei said.
No one said anything more about it since they didn't know what to say. But they, too, wanted to ask the same question Kuwabara had asked earlier. When they were about to enter the fortress, all of them felt something cold as if water washed over them. It made them all stop running and looked behind them where they saw the regenerated monsters approaching them but stopped midway for reasons unknown.
"What made them stop?" Yusuke asked puzzled.
"The voice earlier..." Botan murmured. "She said that this place is a sacred area and those ice monsters would never enter here."
"But for what reason?" Kuwabara asked, still confused about what Botan was talking about though he did hear the voice earlier.
"We'll know the answer once we entered this place," Hiei said and then ran towards the fortress gate. The others later followed him.