Heaven's Lost Guardian

Suffering Fire

I woke up in Tomoki's room. I stared blankly at the ceiling for some time until I turned to see Ikaros on her knees in tears beside me. She didn't know I was awake. I noticed she was holding and squeezing my hand, I squeezed back gently. Ikaros stopped crying and looked at me.

"I am sorry." I said quietly.

Ikaros cried more and put her face on my chest. I pet her head with my other hand, trying to get her to stop crying. Eventually Ikaros did and laid down on top of me. I realized that it was dark outside so I shut my eyes and slept.

I woke up with sunlight on my face. I looked down but Ikaros wasn't on my chest anymore. I got up and scanned the room but it was empty. I walked downstairs to see everyone laughing. I stood and watched at the corner, thinking about how it would be if I hadn't arrived here. I looked around for Ikaros but I saw that she was outside. I walked past Sohara, Tomoki, Astrea and Nymph silently. They stopped laughing and watched as I opened the sliding door. I took a step and opened my wings when I was stopped by a voice.

"I don't hate you for your actions." Ikaros said sternly.

I froze and peeked back.

"But I will hate you if you leave." She stated with sadness. 

I just looked at her face as she fought back tears and couldn't help but smile. She was the entire reason I wanted to live, and I was finally here with her now. I offered my hand to her and she reluctantly took it. I lifted her as I took off and made for the skies with the clouds above. The others noticed this scene and came over to check on us. They walked out and watched as we led them to a public pool and they cheered happily. Sohara and Tomoki separately got changed and rushed to the water. Tomoki jumped into the water along with Sohara who dove. I landed on the edge of the pool. I looked down at the pool and realized I was still wearing pants. I untied my ribbon and dropped my pants to reveal a pair of Tomoki's shorts, ones that seemed to be too big for him. They were purple... my favorite color. Tomoki and Sohara looked excited for me to enter the water. I took off my shoes and touched a foot on top of the water. Cold... refreshing. I stepped back and flipped into the water. I submerged and stood up out of the pool slowly to wet my wings. I very slowly pulled back my feathers and extended them until finally, I snapped them to throw the water drops everywhere. Tomoki and Sohara laughed as they got soaked. It was truly starting to feel like I belonged there.

The cold winds of midnight hit me as I sat alone on Tomoki's roof. I felt a shift in the wind around me, something was wrong. I stood up and looked out but I was immediately met with a force that pushed me back into the air. I blocked a few punches, getting flashes of a female Angeloid with a bell in her hair. Hiyori? She suddenly morphed into Chaos. Had Chaos returned? Whatever I was fighting glitched and changed into Ikaros. She kicked me back and turned into her Uranus Queen mode. She initiated the Uranus system and targeted me. Ikaros hit me with every missile she could fire. I curled up into a ball in the air and took the attack the best I could. The explosions caused smoke but when the smoke cleared, He had drawn back Artemis with an arrow that would destroy the town, no... the planet. He aimed it and fired. It flew directly towards my face in mere seconds but I awoke abruptly from the nightmare. I was still sitting on top of Tomoki's roof. I looked out to the horizon to see the sun just rising, making the skies edge a beautiful orange blend. What was that nightmare about? I went back in Tomoki's window, knowing Ikaros and Nymph weren't asleep. They both shot up and looked at me.

"Sparring. Now." I walked out of the room.

I ran outside and took off above the farm land. Ikaros and Nymph eventually came out and joined me in the air so I made sure we were a distance away. I fabricated my sword and beckoned them seriously. They both waited a second and then attacked me at the same time. I blocked what I could and dodged what I couldn't. They were both pretty quick but I slashed them both with my sword until they were well away from me. I took a chain off of my waist and wrapped it around my swords handle. I spun the other end of chain around my hand and threw my sword at them. Nymph foolishly caught it so I pulled it back and she let go, but that wasn't actually my plan. I swung it back over to Nymph and the chain wrapped around her. I yanked it and pulled het towards me, holding my fist out to let her momentum break my fist in her face. Nymph fell to the ground below as Ikaros flew at me at high speeds. She threw one punch but I caught her fist and held it. I pulled her and kicked her straight up into the sky, flapping my wings to shoot up after her. Ikaros recovered but only to meet me again. I slashed her making her mostly limp and flew up behind her, smashing the bottom of my foot into her back to send her down to the ground with Nymph.

"You two are holding back." I growled unimpressed.

Ikaros heard me and initiated her Uranus Queen mode. Nymph followed along and charged up her Paradise Song. Their hair covered their eyes like I had pissed them off... Good. Ikaros shot her Aegis missiles at me at the same time Nymph fired her Paradise Song. Nymph did not scream her attack like before but I sliced through Ikaros' missiles while spinning in the air. I spun to face Nymph but her Paradise Song was closer that I thought. I could have dodged out of the way but I instead put Soul on my back and tried to block it with my bare hands. It did not burn me but it definitely hurt. Nymph and Ikaros stopped firing to see if I was okay.

"You fools." I growled.

I  ignited my hands in red fire and watched them as my vision reddened too. My veins were flowing like lava and my scars were glowing to match my eyes. I aimed my palms at them and shot many fireballs. Ikaros activated her Aegis shield to protect herself and Nymph. Every fiery explosion caused tons of smoke to occur so I quickly took advantage of it. Ikaros looked up when the smoke cleared but saw that I was gone. She did not lower Aegis like I had hoped however. I stabbed my blade into the shield but I remained outside with the handle. I punched Aegis a few times as Ikaros turned to look at me. I engulfed myself fully in my red fire. I put my palm on Aegis and burned a large hole right through it. The second I jumped in and landed, Ikaros lowered her shield and jumped back safely away with Nymph. I laughed and jumped forward towards them. I smashed my fist into Ikaros' stomach, then spun to give her two hard slow punches followed by a kick that sent her flying back. I grabbed Nymph's head and clenched but she was already waiting for me to do so. Her Paradise Song was fully charged and Nymph shot it, sending me into the sky with burns. Ikaros must have recovered because she fired Aegis missiles into me too, but she wasn't done. She pulled out her Artemis bow and drew back a burning arrow. She let it go and watched it soar. It, along with the missiles, exploded on contact. A large plume of black smoke lingered around me for what felt like an eternity. The smoke cleared to let Ikaros and Nymph to see that I was cowering weakly inside my wings. At that point, I could no longer keep myself airborne and I began to fall. I moved my wings to land but I dropped my knees onto the ground and put my good hand down in front of me to brace myself. I kept my other hand on my intense wound as I panted weakly for air. I looked up at Ikaros and Nymph as they started to rush over to me, seeing my heavily bleeding shoulder.

"Guardian!" Nymph came over to help me but I struggled to put my wing in front of her.

She stopped and looked in confusion.

"You... You two are ready..." My shoulder would not stop bleeding.

The wound was so big my entire hand and glove were drenched in blood. Ikaros walked me back into Tomoki's house. She sat me against a wall and rushed to find Tomoki before I bled too much. Nymph grabbed my good hand and sat hovering over my legs.

"You stay alive, you hear me? Don't die, Guardian! We need you!" Nymph screamed.

I started to lose focus and my vision began to darken. My head fell to the side but Nymph caught it. She stared into my eyes for a short moment until I suddenly fell unconscious.

"...I need you." Nymph's voice echoed loudly as blacked out.