I released electrification from my body, and Immediately I felt the draw backs of using such immense power. I nearly fell to the ground, my shaky legs just barely supporting me.
My fingers were trembling so much that I could barely keep a good grip on the sword. The beating I had taken along with the use of electrification on 200% had left me in a bad state. n
However, I had done it. Defeated all of those who were under Eve's control, freeing them.
Above, the sun shone done brightly. I had liberated it from behind the massive wall of clouds that had covered it since the beginning of this siege.
I looked around, searching for Hikaru. It was thanks to her distraction that I had managed to get enough time to defeat them in the first place. I didn't know what I was going to say, but I had to at least thank her. Maybe even admonish her for being so reckless.
As I took a stumbling step forward, I took notice of a figure in my peripheral vision.
White dress, white hair, and blue eyes. She was staring at me.
I snapped my head to the left, but the only thing that was there was the remains of the academy which had been brutally burned by the powerful lightning spell I had used.
Who was that?
I had seen her once before. Right before I had been knocked unconscious in my fight with Thor.
She was the height of a young girl, with a white dress that blew in the wind, as well as a bright ocean blue ribbon in her white hair.
But for the life of me, I didn't know who she was. Or what she wanted. My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of footsteps, and I snapped my head around to see-
Pink. A girl scandalously dressed in pink.
Blonde curls that were pulled back. A bright smile on her face, and pink eyes.
Eve.
In that moment, my entire body tensed. My eyes widened as I stared her. The trembling in my hands increased significantly. In that moment, my entire mind and body was vibrating. I couldn't think straight.
Her she was, standing right in front of me. My attacker.
And I didn't know how to feel. My mind couldn't process any stable thoughts. And my body didn't know how to feel either.
Half of me wanted to shrink away, while the other half was too shocked to do anything. Staring at her, a well of shame opened up in my stomach, and I could feel bile rising up in my throat.
A feeling of being, "dirty" arose in my body, and I physically took a step back.
On the other hand, Eve had a smile on her face. Her eyes were so filled with desire that I wasn't sure she was present in the moment.
"My believed." She whispered.
The sound of her overly sweet voice sent shivers up and down my spine in waves that completely immobilized.
"I knew you would prevail. I had faith in you, and it paid off." She began to take steps towards me. There were alarm bells screaming inside of my head, telling me to back away, however my body was frozen.
The smell of her perfume began to fill my nose. It was sickeningly sweet, and slowly, I began to remember that day once again.
Inside of the mall.
Her approaching me.
The sweet smell of her perfume. The intoxicating smell.
Slowly my vision began to fade to black, and when I awoke-
■■■■■: You're not there anymore Raiden. That moment doesn't define you anymore unless you let it.
■■■■■'s voice broke through my mental fog, snapping me back into reality.
■■■■■: You said you want to be free right? Then become free. Liberate yourself from everything that once held you down.
With her words, the shaking in my body subsided. My breathing slowly calmed down.
She was right. If I wanted to be free, the first thing that I had to do was stop letting these things hold me down. I would face this challenge and then overcome it.
"We were always meant for each other." Eve's words were spoken towards me, but her eyes were distant, as if she was recalling a past memory. She continued to slowly approach me, her hands playing with the hem of her skirt.
"You were the first to not look at me with a lustful gaze. You were the first to be truly pure. You were the perfect Adam. Unlike those disgusting men from my past. Those pigs who could only see their fantasies when they looked at me."
Eve's voice slowly began to break but then filled with anger as she spoke about her past.
I listened closely. Why did I do that? Did I really want to know more about her? No, that wasn't the whole case.
I wanted to know whys he did it. Was it really just because she was obsessed with me, or was them more to it?
Those questions are what motivated me to hold my breath in silence and listen to her speak.
"I would spend every waking moment hiding from their gazes. But it was impossible to hide. Impossible to escape them and what they wanted. And what they wanted, they always got."
I could see her shiver, and I could see her hands trace up down her arms, as if she was trying to shield her body from the cold.
"I was just an object. That was my role. Nothing I thought or said or wanted mattered. Just that I was silent. Just that I didn't try to fight it. That I didn't try to escape. I saw so many different faces every day, and yet in each of them, the same thing was there. Lust. Disgusting desire. It was in all of their faces. In their touch."
Her breathing was slightly shaky.
"I began to think to myself, was that the only thing there was in the world? Was everybody like this? Just a slave to their desire? With no care of second thought for others? I didn't want to believe it. So, when she had come. When she had saved me, the witch, I began to search. The ends of the Earth. For my Adam."
When she made a mention of the witch, her demeanor shifted. The vulnerability and the anger left her. Her smile slowly began to return.
"And then I met you. I met you and for the first time, I knew that you were the one. You gaze wasn't like theirs. Your words weren't like theirs. I saw you, and I was reminded of how I used to be long ago. Pure."
She was now a few steps away from me. She began to reach out her hands.
I didn't move.
"She saw it too. The witch. She saw what I saw, and she gave me this mission to find you. I was so happy when I figured it out."
She tilted her head at me and smiled. Her face was framed by the sunlight.
A soft breeze blew through.
She took the final step to close the distance between us, and then she wrapped her arms around me, squeezing me tightly.
My body tensed for a brief moment, and I wanted to pull away. However, I didn't. I steeled myself. I faced Eve, and did not turn away.
"You saved me, Raiden. The idea of your existence is what kept me alive back then, and actually finding you rejuvenated me. I was so excited when I found you that I couldn't wait. I couldn't control myself."
You ended up committing the same sin that those men committed against you. I said in my mind, finishing Eve's tale. You let your own desires take control of you. After spending so long being the victim, forced to endure, when you were finally free, you repeated the same wrong as all those had done to you.
My question had been answered. Eve's motive. Her reason. It didn't make anything better. However at least now I understood why it had happened to me.
It was her act of taking back the power that had been stolen from her. It was a power play, a move to establish domination. It was also a bit of what she had told me. She felt like I was the one meant for her.
For the simple reason that I didn't look at her lustfully. That I wasn't commanded by desire.
Strengthening the grip on my blade, I prepared myself to do it one more time.
To once again liberate someone. Even if I didn't truly understand why I would do this for her.
I should hate her. I should feel disgusted by her. I should push her away and be utterly repulsed and angry at the fact that she was here touching me.
But in the same way that Eve needed to show that she had broken free from that past, i needed to show that I wasn't going to be a victim of my circumstances. That I wouldn't let won't happened to me define me.
Unlike Eve, I had gotten helped up from my bad situation. Unlike her, who had just been given the means to further her own broken mind. What happened to her throughout her childhood broke her, and she never recovered.
And so, she ended up hurting someone else. That's why I couldn't blame her completely. Why I couldn't hate her.
But I also couldn't forgive her.
So, if there was one person that I could blame for this situation, then it would be the witch that she spoke of.
She was the catalyst. And this witch, was looking for me.
In that moment, I looked down at her, looking her in the eyes. Her eyes were filled with desire, longing, and pain. A pain that would never leave her. A pain that had been branded into her by her past, and a pain that she could never escape no matter how hard she tried.
I raised my blade above both of our heads, pointing the tip at her back. I was holding it with both hands. I needed the strength of both of my hands to do this.
I had no words I could say which could accurately capture anything I was feeling. There was nothing I could say to truly convey how I felt in this moment.
So, I did something utterly insane.
I leaned down, and I kissed her.
It was more of brushing lips; however, it didn't change anything. I had still momentarily locked lips with her.
It was the first time I had voluntarily kissed anyone. Eve had leaned into the kiss, and as I pulled away, something in her face told me that she wanted more, but there was also a hint of satisfaction in her eyes.
Maybe I was subtly getting back at her for the kiss she had given me when this battle started.
I didn't know for sure. And I was a bit scared to confront the true reason why.
With that final action, I plunged the blade through her heart, stopping it just before I stabbed myself.
In that moment, Eve's eyes widened. Slowly, she placed her hands on my face.
I didn't flinch away from her touch.
"Thank you, darling."
CRACK!!!!
With that, her hands went limp, her eyes dilated, and her body slowly crumpled to the floor.
I pulled my blade out of her body, and let her body slowly fall.
I stood there for a moment, looking at her. Despite all I was feeling, my mind was empty. I just watched her lifeless body, under the sunlight.
I saw the blood drip from my blade and unto the charred dirt.
I stood there for a long while, frozen. Just looking.
I may have stood there for the rest of eternity if it wasn't for the voice that shouted out at me in that moment.
"Raiden!"
I looked up. My heart may have swelled a bit.
Blonde hair. Dressed in a black trench coat.
Hikaru had finally arrived. And along with her, was Aura.