Across the Capital, inside the walls of the palace another wooden door opened.  Ayumi and Yuki surfaced from their long walk out into a massive square.  On the left stood the majestic structure of the Kings and on the right a wall locking them inside.  Ahead however, Demosthenes stood awaiting their arrival.

He stepped forward declaring his presence to them both.  A spear already rested in his hand, propped up against his shoulder.  “I figured you’d come in this way…Eudokia.”

“Demosthenes…”

Yuki couldn’t hold himself back any longer than a second.  The sound of the man’s voice was enough to set off the trigger.  An image of Kazuhiro appeared in his head.  He needed nothing more.  A ripple exploded out from Yuki as he blasted forward.  “Demosthenes Alexander!  I’m going to KILL YOU!”

Slapping her face, Eudokia sighed.  She sort of expected it to happen.  ‘I had hoped I had tempered some of his emotions, but I guess that part of him was too strong for me to completely remove.’  The initial clash between the two already started leaving Eudokia on the sidelines.  “Yuki!  You need to calm down!”  She tried getting closer to the two, but they jumped off to a different part of the courtyard.

She could keep up with them if needed, but she would only be adding a potential for greater risk.  ‘Damn, he can’t even hear me right now.  His mind’s so closed off it wouldn’t matter how much time I spent on him.  Perhaps it was a bad idea to leave that much free will.’   Eudokia shook her head to close out the doubt.  ‘He already started acting suspiciously that Haruo probably noticed, the man’s too observant not to have.  Any more would have ruined the plan…’

Eudokia stared at Yuki bouncing around his stage.  It was the last trial, the last test he needed.  Even though she knew how it needed to end, the one that he was up against was Demosthenes.  The second most powerful currently in Atlantis.  Regardless of how powerful or skilled Yuki became from all of his fighting, Demosthenes still sat on a completely different level.  ‘Last time, Yuki didn’t have a set power so Demosthenes wasn’t fully prepared for him.  But even despite that, Demosthenes never actually used his full power against Yuki.  Saki interrupted them before that might have happened…’

This was the only part of the plan that Eudokia didn’t know how it would turn out.  She did everything to set up the pieces so that Yuki was prepared for it.  Yet preparation alone wouldn’t be enough.  He would need to take his skill to a new stage to compete with the old man.  ‘Come on, Yuki…prove to that old man you’re worthy of being the new King!  That Throne belongs to you!’

Chapter 268 – Screaming Revenge

“Dammit,” cursed Yuki, still not being able to do anything to touch the man.  Even with a more refined control of his powers, the spear kept him from breaching his defense.  “I’m going to KILL you!”

The constantly analyzing eyes of Demosthenes watched every movement of Yuki.  Despite their age difference, it did nothing to slow him down.  In fact, he actually seemed even faster than Yuki.  Age seemed to be a meaningless notion to him.

Throwing Yuki off with his spear, they landed apart.  “I see you’ve made some advancements,” praised Demosthenes.  “Your Field is quite a bit stronger than it was when we last meant.”

Yuki charged back in, an explosion of brick came off his feet.  “Screw you!  I don’t care about your talk!”  He danced around the spear doing an awkward flip to evade the thrust over top of it and land on the other side.  It allowed him to keep his forward momentum.  Yet when Yuki managed to get inside his defense, Demosthenes blocked his fist with an open hand.  “Damn you!”

Lowering his fingers over Yuki’s closed hand, Demosthenes paused, holding him at bay.  “You take advantage of that energy that surrounds you to give you a speed boost by creating micro explosions underneath you.  Riding the blast wave is very dangerous on your body.  There’s much better methods to achieve such results.”

Tearing his hand free and jumping back, Yuki shook his hand a little to break free of the sensation.  “The only results I care about are seeing you dead!”

Narrowing his eyes, Demosthenes seemed a little troubled by something.  However, he didn’t give it a voice.  He simply dashed over the ground as though surfing the air.  Spear held down, an explosive force shattered the brick tiles in front of Yuki.  Using it to throw himself into the air, a series of new spears materialized just above Yuki.

Trying to cut through the barrage, all he managed to do was deflect them away from him.  “Bastard!”  Yuki pushed himself out of the forest of spears with another burst from his feet to try to flank Demosthenes.  However, the old man stopped him once more.

Nothing could get through, even when he hit him.  ‘Dammit all!  I can’t even harm him anymore!’  Anger and frustration fueled everything in his body.  He threw everything he had into his punches to try to beat the man’s speed, but nothing succeeded.  It only made him feel tired.  ‘Why can’t I even touch him?!  Last time I know I wounded him!’

Demosthenes lowered his eyes a little watching the continued increase in emotions.  He threw back Yuki with the shaft of his spear.  “You seem to be under the impression that you can wound me just by getting past my defenses.  I’ll show you how wrong you are.”  The spear disappeared from his hand.  An odd shift in his stance made it clear he looked to fight bare handed.  “I fight with a weapon because it is my choice, but I’ll show you how different we are.”

‘Now he’s mocking me!  An old man like him is trying to take me on?!’  Just staring at him made Yuki think of Kazuhiro.  He could hear Hiroshi yelling at him in confusion as to why their friend was dead.  He had no answer for him.  All he could do was accept reality.  Their friend was gone forever.  Nothing would bring him back.  Yet if he could kill this man perhaps his body would stop burning every night when he tried to sleep.  Perhaps he would stop the nightmares of seeing him die repeatedly.  Maybe he would have closure, anything to end it.

Accepting the challenge, Yuki dove straight in with Demosthenes.  While no master, Yuki had refined a certain style from all of his street brawls after he quit the dojo.  But after the first few blocks, he saw it clearly.  Demosthenes' martial prowess was no less than him and perhaps better.

Yuki purposely even strengthened the energy around his hand and arms by stealing it from his back.  The old man kept up with him blow for blow.  Nothing still breached his impenetrable defenses.

Trying to mix in kicks with his flurry of punches, Yuki did everything he had in his bag.  Flipping around and blasting off, Yuki tried to out flank him.  He managed to get behind for a hit on his back, but all it did was make him step forward.  The fight resumed without further interruption and in reality Yuki had trouble keeping up.

Knocked off his feet, Yuki fell prone a couple of meters away.  Eudokia rushed up as he slowly returned to his feet.  She grabbed his shoulder, but he ripped free of her hold.  “Yuki!”

“Not now, Ayumi!  Get back!”  Expelling the barrier around him, he used it to knock her away from him.

“You think you can be King with that level of control?  Very disappointing.”

Yuki sprinted back into his clash with Demosthenes.  “I don’t care about the throne!  I’m only here for two reasons!  To kill you and stop people from killing me!  Atlantis can burn in hell for all I care!”

A break in Demosthenes’ stoic face blew back Yuki in a swift leg sweep and one palm thrust.  The look in his eyes hardened up quickly.  “I see you’ve got a lot of lessons still to learn.  Allow me to hammer them into you.”  He punched a slowly rising Yuki directly in the face, knocking him back again.

Wiping away the blood from his lip, Yuki grinned a little.  “Touch a nerve, Mr. High-and-Mighty?”

‘Yuki you idiot!’  Eudokia stared over to Demosthenes after Yuki.  The fighting only got more heated for the wrong reasons.  ‘I thought you already committed to your course…  Why are you provoking him too?’

The fight continued to go even worse for Yuki.  Before he had been able to touch Demosthenes, even if it did nothing.  However, it all changed suddenly with him not even being able to touch him.  Most of the fight he laid on his back.  The other half had him charging back in for more of the same.

It was no longer a wall he tried to punch.  He fought against a cannon.  One that easily moved to counter him.  It rotated with ease to shoot whenever he got in range.  Demosthenes became even more of a monster than Yuki thought possible.

Once again on his back, Yuki wiped away the latest bit of blood from his face.  “Dammit!”  He tried to get up only to be grabbed by Ayumi once more.  “I thought I told—“

Eudokia slapped him hard enough to echo through the courtyard.  “Snap out of it!  Yuki!”

Blinking a little confused by Ayumi’s slap.  “Ayumi?”  It did manage to cut through a lot of the rage that walled up his awareness.

“What the hell is the matter with you!?  This isn’t you, Yuki!”

Kazuhiro appeared in his mind again.  The reminder never went away from him.  He could never forget in front of this man.  Yuki clinched his hands together unwilling to let go.  “This bastard killed my friend!  He killed Kazuhiro!  He deserves to die!  And I will be the one that serves it!”

Eudokia threw herself in front of Yuki to hold him back from standing up.  She needed him to hold still.  “Do you hear yourself, Yuki?  Do you hear what you’re saying?  Is this really what you’ve become?!”  Her voice shook a little, bordering on tears.  “Yuki!  You shouldn’t kill someone!”

“…Ayumi…”  Her words left a surprisingly deep cut on his heart and mind.  Yuki froze hearing her words repeat in his mind.  Ayumi’s words and Kazuhiro’s memories fought within him.

‘You shouldn’t kill someone!’

‘Chiharu!’

Suddenly, Yuki felt the weight of another memory slam into his chest.  It left him in shock as he remembered.  It was so familiar to him.  The whole scene was familiar.  How could he have forgotten so easily?

He stretched out his arm futilely trying to stop Chiharu.  “Chiharu!  You shouldn’t kill someone!”  Chiharu was getting further away from them, but Yuki wasn't going to give up on Saki’s fight.  He recognized that look.  The emotions felt all too familiar.  “I know how you’re feeling!  Chiharu stop!”  It seemed to hit a nerve with Chiharu as she paused in her step.  “The rage and anger inside you is too much to contain.  It speaks to you telling you this is right.  That you must do it.  There’s no other way.  If you don't, it won't be at peace.”

Chiharu turned part way looking back at Yuki.  Her fists tightened at her side and shaking.  “Is that all you can do, talk?”

“It feels uncontrollable doesn’t it?”

The tension in his body fell away.  It actually made him start to laugh.  Enough that Ayumi looked at him strangely and backed away.  She did not seem to know if he was still sane or not.

“Yuki?”

Yuki placed a hand on her shoulder as a bit of comfort.  He managed a smile for her.  “Thanks for clearing my mind, Ayumi.”

“…Yuki…”

Sighing to himself, he got back to his feet.  His body felt sore from all of the beating he received already.  Flexing his hands and testing out his current state made him feel a little better, even though his condition should have worried him.  “I guess this is what I get for acting like a damn fool.  Well, a handicap will make things interesting.”  A confident grin drew over his lips staring at Demosthenes.

Lifting his hand to call to the old man, Yuki addressed him.  “I can’t forgive you for what you did to Kazuhiro.  However, I’m reminded of my own words that killing you won’t make things any better for me.  It’s something I’ll have to sort out with myself later.”  Yuki closed his hand and returned to his fighting stance.  “That being said, we still have something to settle.  Until I defeat you I can’t put an end to all of this fighting.”  The energy mist suddenly started to appear throughout all of Yuki’s Field.

Demosthenes saw the change in countenance.  So many changes occurred in Yuki that he had to re-evaluate the situation.  “So you’ve mastered your rage.”

Yuki chuckled a little at the comment.  “I don’t think I’d go that far.  You hurt my friends, you're going to piss me off pretty easily.  So I don’t think there’s anything mastered there.”  He sheepishly rubbed his cheek.  His thoughts went back to the fight with Vangelis where a similar thing occurred.  “It’s going to be something I need to work on.  Clearly our powers don’t work very well, clouded with strong emotions.”

“Understanding that is the first step,” Demosthenes replied with praise.  The spear returned to his hand making it clear that he took the fight more seriously again.

Narrowing his features in preparation for the fight, Yuki watched every movement from Demosthenes.  “I should give you a much better fight now!”  He charged in on the twitch Demosthenes made bringing them to clash once more.