City of Colors

Fourteen (final chapter)

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The guards unleashed a flurry of spells, sending Kira and Serenity stumbling back. Both of them groaned in pain. Kira's arms stung, and steam rose from her flesh. Serenity bit her lip to keep from crying out, hastily shielded them both. The Guards continued to bombard them with spells, two of them circling around the shield. "Kira!" Serenity yelled.

Kira nodded, blasting them with orbs of violet light. They absorbed it with their weapons, magic pulsing in the rainy sky. Kira tried firing again, this time at their feet. It hit one of them, who fell to the ground gasping. The other one jumped, as Serenity's shield began to break. "Kira..." Serenity said through her teeth, as cracks slowly formed in the shield.

The guard's sword pierced through the shield, sending the pieces flying. Serenity fell back, knocking Kira down with her.

Desperately Kira summoned her sword, charging head first at the guards. Their blades clashed, water flicking off their tips. The guard jabbed, she backed away. Slash, swipe, another jab. Kira blocked as best she could, being pushed farther back off the road. She shot out another spell, knocking off the helmets of one of the guards.

Serenity sees, taking the opening to knock him out. "We have to go!" She yells desperately, trying to shield herself.

"I'm working on it!" Kira yelled, ducking as a guard swiped behind her. "Go away!" She yelled at the guard, jabbing at their chest. "I'm trying to live a nice life here!" Kira shoots another spell at the guard, throwing him back. They get up quickly, slicing branches for cover. Kira yelps as the blade sliced through the air, scrambling away to keep from being crushed. Screaming she struck their blade, meeting them in a blade lock. They parry. Back and forth back and forth the duel goes. Eventually they make a strike for her face. Kira jumped back, gasping as the blade sliced a strand of hair. She somehow counters, watching their blade for any sudden attacks.

"Aim for the guard!" Serenity yelled. "Not his sword!"

She groans as they smack her with the butt of their sword. The guard goes in for another swipe. She ducks, sending a spell towards his gut. Screaming, they fly back through the trees, the branches falling down to the ground.

There's only one guard left. Kira tries to stab him, but the man counteracts quickly. He jams his blade towards the pommel, twisting her wrist and forcing her to let go.

"The council's name-" She starts.

The man blasts Kira with an equally powerful spell, evaporating the rain before Kira's eyes. She scrambles back, desperately shooting spell after spell. But it was no use. The man blocked each one with effort, slicing each on in half. Finally Kira makes a shot, shattering his helmet.

She stops. Calculating green eyes stare back at her, stuck on a pale sand face with greasy black hair. The face of Drake Lordly glares before her. He raises an eyebrow.

"Do you recognise me?" He asks cooly, holding up his blade.

Kira tries to back away, only to hit something. She looks behind her. Another guard. "Why you-" She grits out.

"Why me?" Drake says cooly. "You're breaking the law. Interrupting our prosperous city. Disrespecting the blood sweat and tears our government shed to keep this city alive. Why are you breaking our delicate harmony that our ancestors worked so hard to create? Why do go against everything?"

The next thing he says sends a chill through her being. "Is that what your parents would've wanted?"

The other guards yank Serenity up, holding her arms roughly behind her back. Drake pointed his blade tip at Kira, who lay gasping on the forest floor.

"Yield." Drake said pointedly.

"...No." Kira reached out to send another spell out, violet light firing off.

"Stop!" Drake yelled, kicking her hand away. Kira gasped in pain, tears appearing in her eyes before she could stop it. Her wrist ached. "You don't understand what you're doing. This is for your own good." He pointed his sword again. "Get up."

"No." She chokes out.

"Get up!"

Kira looked around. Water soaked her cloak and hair, droplets clinging to the guards blade. Serenity's eyes shone with desperation. And the guards wore no expression behind their masks. She needed to leave. She needed to save her. What could she do? Her father's sword rests by her side, the weapon unable to protect her without a hand to wield it. Her mother wasn't anywhere. The sword. She needed the sword.

"If keep trying to fight, I will have to take that away from you." Drake said, aiming his blade at her hand. He pointed it precisely, prepared to stab her.

Kira's eyes widen. "Serenity..." She swallows. "...Whatever happens, I don't want to hurt you."

"What?" Drake asks as Kira takes a breath.

"Forever till the stars die." The flash of light startles everyone, the sword disappearing from Kira's hands. Just then she unleashes her magic. A wave of violet light bursts through the air, slicing the rain drops as they flew. Serenity ducked as the shockwave hit the guards, sending them sprawling. Steam curls through the air, coming off her cloths and the guards armour.

The guards lay stiff on the ground, their weapons knocked from their hands. Twitching ever so slightly, before stopping completely. Droplets begin to form rivers in the cracks of their armor. Not moving in the cold rain. Slowly it all sinks in. "...It worked!" She yells in disbelief. "By council's name it worked!"

Serenity grimace, creeping up to the guards. Sweat pooled from Drakes forehead, hands numb in the rain. She moves to the other guards to check their pulses. She hears a shallow breath from one of them. She sighed in relief. "That was dangerous." She said, turning to Kira.

"I know." She says, wiping something from her eye. "I'm sorry."

From her wristband Serenity pulls out the verifier. The wood feels smooth against her skin. Soft. Ironic, judging from the government it's representing. Both girls glance at the gate through the trees. Rain still patters down the road, soaking them from head to toe. Distantly Serenity thinks about how the water will tangle her hair. But she brushes it off. "Are you ready?" She asks Kira, handing her the verifier.

"Yeah." She smiles. Slowly, they make their way out from the undergrowth. Feeling the rain at full force on the street. Kira takes a breath, hugging it to her chest. This is it. This is where everything that mattered had left her. Gate street. Kira exhales, letting her magic rise up from her. Violet light swirls around them, weaving their way through the gate bars. The hinges creak as they open, exposing to them the world. A dense forest of trees was scattered all the way to the horizon, the gray mountains remaining a splotch in the far south. The dirt path was worn in the soil, wheel marks forever stamped in the dirt. It's bigger than she ever could've imagined. Hesitantly, she steps through. Serenity follows her footsteps slowly, looking in wonder at the outside world.

The gate closes behind them, wiping away their tracks in the dirt. Serenity smiles softly, feeling the rain on her face. Kira held out a hand, watching the droplets fall. All the pain that she had felt over the years. For her parents, for Mr. Armitage, for Aria, washed away with the rain.

"C'mon." She says, taking Serenity's hand. Kira slings the satchel over her shoulder, taking a breath. It was going to be a long journey. "It's time to go."

Serenity nods. "I'm ready."

So they walk, hand in hand, away in the rain. Leaving the corrupted city behind.

fin.