New Life
There were very few things to do when you lived in a fairly isolated part of town from any other kind of contact with people of a young age.
Most teenagers lived in neighborhoods too far away to make visiting on a daily basis possible.
Consequently, he had never really bothered to make plans to go outside from home.
So when he walked through the door using the key, he simply left the backpack at a random place.
What bothered him was the paper he had on hand.
He set about rummaging through the old papers, those that had come to this house long before even he was born. Once he found what he was looking for, he set about comparing what was on the paper with his name on it to what was on the one with the older brother's name on it.
"Math... 8 vs. 9.5... natural science... 9 vs. 10... History 8 vs. 10... Geography... 8 vs. 10..." he put his hands to his head in frustration and returned the old paper to its place.
Every year... it was always the same...
He didn't even bother to compare Art Education... a 6 was bad enough.
Inheriting clothes was commonplace when the family income wasn't exactly high.
So today he was getting a few "new" shirts.
Being a person who cared much more about practicality than aesthetics, this was not usually a complaint for him. If anything the only thing he might grumble about was the fact that these clothes had no blue in them at all, being all red or black.
Or at least that was at first.
Was it a day when he had to keep his mother company on a visit to some sort of... alumni reunion?
He had never really understood.
While the adults chatted he just read a book. Even if there were other kids around it's not like he was really interested in interacting with them for the simple reason of wanting to interact.
"Hey mijo, come here!"
He looked up from his book and just sighed as he approached the table where the adults were talking.
"What's on your mind, mother?" she usually always called him when he was required to go buy something.
"Look let me introduce you to my friends from school." His mother put a hand on his shoulder.
"Hi..." He raised his hand in greeting but did no more.
He truly didn't care about learning their names. He would most likely never interact with these people again, and there wasn't much that made them particularly memorable.
Many of his classmates did not receive the privilege of having their names be worth enough to be recorded in his brain, even less these women.
However, there was something that did make the situation memorable.
"And so I guess this one goes by Miguelito?"
Huh?
His mother shook her head and was about to respond, but he stepped forward.
"My name is Luis..."
There seemed to be confusion between them.
"Hadn't you and your husband said at the last meeting that you were thinking of calling him Miguel too?"
Seriously, they were going to give him the same name?!
There was something about it that truly irritated him.
"That's what my husband wanted, but I told him that now it was my turn to name the kid. I decided to name him Luis given a certain song I love and then my husband wanted to name him Luis Miguel."
"Like the singer?" one of his mother's friends commented, while all the others laughed.
"I told him no, that Luis Manuel sounded better."
"Well, they look a lot like each other, although he's a güerito."
Whatever they continued to say didn't really matter.
The only thing that was certain was that from that day on he discovered something.
People calling him by his brother's name was something that pissed him off a lot.
And having to inherit clothes from him made it more insulting.
Which unfortunately began to happen a lot more when he became a teenager.
"Hey, bro, can we play together?" Luis raised his hand shyly, the difference in stature had always scared him... and considering how much Miguel and one of his sisters used to argue, he doubted Miguel was the most reasonable person on the planet regarding this kind of detail.
Without taking his eyes off the computer and typing at high speed, Miguel simply replied. "I can't, I'm busy. Lots of homework I have to go get my driver's license."
"B-but..."
Miguel rolled his eyes in annoyance and rubbed his forehead. This time he moved his head slightly to the left to look at him.
"I know you just want to play video games, but I'm using the computer now so I'm not going to let you. I need it now, it's as simple as that!" he shook his head, his eyes so narrowed it was obvious the contempt.
"O-okay..." Luis started to walk away.
The older brother's facial expression changed, this one looking "softer" for a moment before turning stoic. "Look..." he sighed and pulled some money out of his pants. "Here, go and buy some Takis Fuego or something."
Luis turned and received the money... but just stared at it without saying anything.
"What, you don't want it?" the older brother paused for a moment and folded his arms, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh? No, it's not that. Thanks..." he nodded slightly before leaving for good.
But... he didn't actually want money.
He just wanted to play something...
Together with his brother.
That was the important factor.
Kiran Mark screamed extremely louder again as the Master Sword sliced him vertically.
The sacred light from the blade reacted to his body as if it were matter and antimatter touching each other, it was effectively as if the blade was specifically designed to hurt him.
That was why the next thing that happened was a burst of energy that sent him flying.
If hitting the walls of the void was painful enough, it was even more so when the "body" suffered extreme burns... and when the body had been reduced in size as well.
If he was shaking before, he now looked like a nervous wreck.
Although Kiran Mark got up and immediately began to repair with mental magic his burns, it wasn't as if Miguel was going to show him any sympathy.
Kiran Mark tried to defend himself by summoning both la Ragnarok and la Illuminadora.
The second vertical attack was parried by two blades... and even so, Kiran Mark could feel himself being slowly pushed down...
Had he tried to defend himself with a single weapon, he would now be burned by holy flames again.
"At no time did you ever consider the idea of going back, did you? You abandoned us all the second you were offered a pretty sword, didn't you?!"
His mistake was only paying attention to one of his big brother's hands.
"Gr-uaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" electric sparks were expelled from the area where his heart would be as another sword pierced him.
Given his small size, it was not difficult for Miguel to separate him from the ground by simply raising his left hand.
And then Kiran Mark noticed a big problem.
The sword that had pierced him was la Iluminadora.
Even when a sword glowing in light threatened his face, he really only paid attention to the detail that his older brother was carrying the sword he was supposed to have summoned to defend himself.
And then looking to his left... he noticed the detail.
Why was he carrying Excalibur?!
Excalibur wasn't a bad weapon at all but in terms of power, this one had always been below the other two.
"What's the matter, is that the best you can do!" Miguel extracted the la Iluminadora from his opponent's body... and then began a long sequence of attacks with both swords.
The holy power again showed no mercy as electric sparks popped out of Kiran Mark's body again and again and again, being a total of 30 slashes across his entire body.
Kiran Mark didn't even feel able to stand up after that, so he ended up falling down with his face facing the ground.
And then the older brother put his leg over his head and started to exert excessive force downwards.
"Grraa... Graaa..."
"I hope you're very happy now. I'm sure you care little for the fact that our mother suffered extreme mental health decline since you decided to abandon her when she was approaching old age!"
There were several moments where the two heroines watching this whole situation felt too motivated to intervene, but no matter how much they tried to push, block or do anything to defend Askr's summoner they all proved useless since they always passed through them as if they were transparent.
Naga wasn't lying, they were essentially ghosts.
"This isn't going well for him."
They were both startled when the voice of the "goddess" was heard behind them.
"Lady Naga!"
"Aaay!"
The "goddess" folded her arms. "I told you, you can't interfere with this, at least for now."
"But!" Corrin turned to look at the "fight."
"This is..." Lucina wanted to protest.
Naga simply denied slightly with her head. "I'm afraid it is necessary... there is too much darkness in his heart and this is the only way to know if said darkness will not be an impediment in whether or not he is worthy." Naga pointed to the Master Sword. "If he had tried something like the Awakening ritual I'm afraid he would have a hundred percent chance of dying. Those sacred flames aren't much different from what I employ and yet... well, you saw what it causes him."
Naga then moved a little closer to them, placing her two hands on the forehead of each.
"Still, I guess I forgot the language detail. Let me help you."
They felt a rather gentle magic cross their minds.
"You should be able to understand now."
Kiran Mark continued to suffer for some time until Miguel got bored of crushing him and kicked him away.
The younger brother had to cough a few times before he opened his left eye.
"Come on! I don't even have to strain myself a bit. That's the best you've got?"
Kiran Mark tried to get up... and given how much he was shaking he even stumbled and had to do it more than once.
Miguel simply chuckled at this.
"Why are you so quiet, are you angry, BECAUSE I HAVE MORE REASON TO BE MAD THAN YOU, YOU DAMN TRAITOR!"
La Ilimunadora began to glow brightly as Miguel prepared to cast the Sanctus spell.
"This world needs help... they need help to save both Askr and the multiverse of this planet!"
"THEY OWE YOU NOTHING!"
The elder brother waved the Illuminator sword in their direction, releasing a wave of pure anti-demon energy.
Kiran Mark somersaulted backwards as the entire area where he had been standing became a pillar of holy power.
"Why do they have to fucking owe me anything?! They're innocent people who need help!"
"Help? From you?! PLEASE!" Miguel raised the Master Sword to the sky and it was then struck by an electric bolt of lightning. After that, he performed a horizontal slash, sending out a disc of celestial lightning.
Kiran Mark wasn't foolish enough to think that he could block that... luckily, being locked in his ten-year-old body had its advantages so by lunging forward he was able to dodge it.
Though of course, him having to dodge multiple celestial beams was something he found himself doing after that.
"YOU'RE NOTHING BUT USELESS! THEY NEVER NEEDED YOU! THE ONLY THING THAT REALLY HAS VALUE IN YOU TO THEM IS THE KNOWLEDGE YOU HAVE!"
Kiran Mark gritted his teeth and looked down slightly.
Big mistake.
Electricity is in such an enormous supply is not anything that should make contact with the human body under any situation.
Kiran Mark ended up dropping his weapons as he growled in pain.
Within seconds Miguel was beside him, slashing him to pieces again with both swords.
Every time a cut caused him damage, there was a flash of light.
This time, instead of falling face-first, Kiran Mark was pushed back with a kick and ended up looking skyward.
"Urgh... uhaaaa!" The younger brother panicked when he saw that the older brother had jumped and was falling with the Master Sword aimed downward.
He had to roll to the left to avoid ending up just like Ganondorf.
Kiran Mark very barely managed to lift his torso when he saw the Master Sword pointed at his face... to which he crawled backwards by exerting force with his feet forward.
"The only reason you were born is because our father wanted one more son who could take care of him and our mother when we all left home!" Instead of burying the sword straight into his chest again, the older brother contented himself with kicking the younger one in the stomach several times. "AND YOU COULDN'T EVEN DO THAT!"
"Graa! Ehe! Aaah! Grrra!"
"I didn't kill myself studying and working so I could raise us from a lower-middle class family to an upper-middle class family and give you everything you needed to succeed in life for you to throw it all away just because some stupid girl put in your head the idea that you have what it takes to save a country... SAVE A COUNTRY!" Miguel started to laugh as he shook his head in amusement. "How are you going to save a country? you are little less than a stupid child who can't even manage his own future!"
The elder brother's laughter caused him to pause momentarily.
Kiran Mark kept his right eye closed, the pain being too much for him to think properly for a few seconds... and then he finally stood up again.
Since he had dropped the swords, they ended up fading... but he didn't need them.
He raised his left fist and threw a punch.
Which Miguel had no difficulty stopping with his palm once his weapons also vanished.
At this, the younger brother threw another punch.
Miguel rolled his eyes in annoyance as he deflected the other fist.
Kiran Mark growled like a beast and then threw one more punch.
Although Miguel managed to parry the attack but, this time, the impact between palm and knuckles expelled a wave of sound and air so powerful that the onlookers almost lost their balance.
"I..." Punch with the left hand. "I..." punch with the right. "I WILL... NOT..." punch with the left again. "GO BACK!"
"So what are you going to do?" Miguel asked, again shaking his head with a smile. "They're not your family. We're the only ones who really care about you. They'll abandon you the moment you stop being useful to them."
"You don't know them!" Kiran Mark continued to growl, "You have no right to say anything about them."
"You and I both know that the only ones you can truly trust are your family!"
Kiran Mark this time remained adamant. "Yeah, sure, tell that to the Lopez side of our DNA!"
This broke the older brother's smile, cracking it with hatred.
To which he responded with his own high-speed punch against the younger brother's face.
But despite the punch connecting, Kiran Mark refused to move a single inch or show pain. Exerting force against the fist with his forehead, the younger brother grunted once more as he began to move forward despite how much he was shaking. "You'd do anything for your daughters...wouldn't you... BUT I NOW ALSO HAVE A DAUGHTER TO PROTECT!"
"THAT CHILD IS NOT YOUR DAUGHTER!"
"SHE IS TO ME!" For the first time, Kiran Mark managed to connect one of his attacks as his fist buried itself in his brother's stomach.
"GRRRR!" Miguel recoiled, but very little... just enough to actually show that this had indeed hurt him.
"Maybe you're right... maybe the heroes don't need me, maybe I'm useless... but no matter what, that little girl is depending on me." Though he might have tried to attack again, Kiran Mark merely gave his best look of hatred.
Michael shook his head in disapproval. "You fucking retard! You're always talking without functional brain cells in your mind! If you love that child so much just bring her into our world! How are you going to take care of her by yourself when you're not even capable of supporting yourself?!"
"SHE'S AN ALIEN!" he roared in a tiger-like manner. "The moment someone finds that out she'd be kidnapped by the governments of the planet!"
Unnoticed by him, his left-hand mark had begun to glow dimly.
"I can't bring her! And I can't abandon her! Not her or anyone who now depends on me in this universe!"
A green aura began to materialize around him, his fists were at waist level.
"I can't go back anymore... even if I ever wanted to... and no one is going to take my precious blue gem girl away from me..." The aura became more erratic. "NOT EVEN YOU!" he then raised his right hand at high speed and his fist impacted against Miguel's chin.
For a moment it seemed as if everything froze, before from the force and speed of the blow both brothers were propelled upwards.
While Miguel was spinning around, Kiran Mark simply jumped a little before stopping and starting to fall.
He did not notice that the lower right triangle of his mark now shined brightly in gold.
Likewise, he had regained some height. He now looked as if he were 14 years old.
Lucina watched Naga extend her hand towards the two combatants, a flow of magic being sent towards the hand of Askr's summoner and strategist.
"Now the really tricky part begins." She lowered her hand and folded her arms.
Lucina gritted her teeth. "This was just the easy part?"
"There are several things to test in this place." Naga remained adamant.
Lucina turned to look at Corrin... who stood motionless.
"Hey... are you okay?"
However, she didn't answer.
It was an awkward silence. Her face showed a strange mixture of longing, sadness, and regret.
Unable to get a reaction out of her, Lucina then decided to continue watching the fight.
But after a while, Corrin did something.
She folded her hands... and began to pray.
Miguel took a few seconds to react and began to spin on himself with more control.
When he hit the ground, it was as if he had somersaulted backwards instead of being hit with extreme strength.
He placed his fist next to his chin and lightly brushed it as he moved his hand from right to left.
"So that's your answer... well... then you'll see what mine, traitor!"
Kiran Mark summoned a new weapon.
He expected to have in his hands the Artema weapon of the FF Universe 7... but soon realized that again he only had la Ragnarok in his hands.
Miguel was the one holding the Artema weapon.
Both weapons collided against each other a total of seven times before remaining in a thrusting blade-lock duel with each other.
"I never thought you would turn your back on our family and our world!" as the older brother said that, a red-colored aura "took possession" of him.
Somewhat noticeable was that Kiran Mark was shaking less, though his rage was still perceptible even to one who was blind. The green aura getting stronger.
"Our world is doomed, for me it was always like the Titanic after hitting that iceberg... I was just the guy who wanted to drink something to sink comfortably so our planet can rot for all I care, it will be on this other one where I can start from scratch and lead humanity to a brighter future. That is my duty."
"YOUR DUTY BY BIRTHRIGHT IS TO BE WITH US! I CANNOT FORGIVE THE CHOICE YOU'VE MADE"
"I'm afraid our family is no match for the fate of this world."
"YOU ARE NOT A HERO! YOU NEVER WERE AND NEVER WILL BE!"
Kiran Mark readied his fighting stance and smirked. "Well, on that I agree with you."
Corrin remained speechless.
Lucina wasn't sure what to say either... but she had doubts.
Why did Kiran think in such a way about his world?
Had he really decided to never go back for so long?
At the same time, she noticed something strange...
The environment of the dream changed.
Now she was... standing on a strange gray floor.
The floor was decorated with many lines of white and yellow...
And then she noticed the buildings.
They were... they were very big!
The trees next to them, which were also of considerable size, were simply very small in comparison.
It was as if they could scrape the heavens.
They were filled with windows of the purest crystal...
And likewise, she could then notice some strange... carriages made of metal next to them.
They all looked empty.
Wait...
Corrin finally broke her silence. "This is... it's their world..."
As both brothers began to advance against each other... Corrin flashed a smile. "You can..." she whispered.
Both giant swords impacted against each other, causing the asphalt to fracture due to the force of the impact.
Kiran Mark and Miguel then engaged in a chatter where their swords said everything for them.
After a few seconds, they both stopped... and began to run across the street.
The two girls felt Naga's hand once again.
"Let's follow them."
And then she flew with them.
As they advanced through several city blocks, in which they occasionally jumped and impacted their weapons looking for an opening, they halted for a moment.
Kiran Mark landed on top of a car.
He raised his hands slightly, dematerializing la Ragnarok. His arms glowed and in that moment he now had gloves that had a precious metal and a red gem.
He placed his hands on the car and using the strength the gloves provided, he jumped up and lifted the vehicle and held it above himself before throwing it at the older brother.
Miguel didn't look surprised at all, he simply broke the car in half with the Artema weapon.
And then he materialized his own gloves.
Kiran Mark, in panic, noticed that Miguel's were golden.
He looked down to realize that his were silver.
Michael only needed to use one arm to grab a car from the frontal part and send it flying much faster in the direction of his opponent.
Kiran Mark put his two hands in front of his face and very barely managed to resist the impact before trying to send it back.
The mistake was that Miguel had already launched a fireball towards him, so the car exploded very close.
The force of the impact blew him to the asphalt, and even then he rolled several times to a stop.
The stronger it is in your mind, the worse your torment shall be.
"So... that's why..." Naga had designed the test to be specifically designed to kill him... that's the reason why Miguel always had the best stuff.
No matter.
He could handle it.
He rose to his feet.
Behind him was a statue suspended several feet above the ground of a golden angel, around him and further down were other, simpler statues with "greenish" coloring.
He attempted to heal all the wounds immediately.
He summoned a new weapon.
What surprised him was that he actually had the Z-saber in his hands.
Usually, it would be expected that he would have the O-saber as it was a copy made for Omega and not Zero's original Z-saber.
His confusion was answered by a giant blue plasma sphere speeding towards him.
He had to jump high to dodge it.
The monument was shattered, with its various components falling around it.
The dust from the explosion was enough for him not to see his older brother appear out of nowhere and hit him in the face with a blue metallic fist.
And immediately notice his other hand now a plasma cannon that was charging another attack.
The X-Buster Mark 17.
"Bringing a sword to a gun duel, YOU STILL DON'T STOP DISAPPOINTING ME!"
Kiran Mark activated the Z-saber to receive the strike and he managed to deflect it with a slash. "We both know there's nothing I can do to make you happy!"
His fists and boots also took on that metallic style, but with the difference that his were now red.
The two continued, in the air, exchanging attacks, with Kiran Mark desperately generating energy waves with his plasma saber.
This was bad.
Strategic retreat time.
He began to run in the direction of a motorcycle, which he started and began to escape on it.
Miguel did not look at all pleased. "WHERE ARE YOU GOING YOU USELESS ADOPTED COWARD?!"
Miguel then activated a hawk-inspired armor that allowed him to fly.
Kiran Mark turned back and checked that Miguel was chasing him from the air.
He let the bike drive itself and summoned his Breidablik.
Again and again, he tried several shots at him, which Miguel could easily ignore by increasing his speed or moving to the side.
Miguel charged the X-Buster and began raining down a shower of plasma on the road.
Kiran Mark had to hold the bike again to steer to dodge said plasma.
Eventually, he was stopped as a plasma shot shattered the ground in front of him, to which Kiran Mark had to jump. The bike ended up crashing to the ground multiple times, spinning around.
Kiran Mark landed... on what looked like metal lines that were constantly parallel to each other, but connected by strange wooden rectangles.
As Miguel prepared another plasma shot by landing on the soil, Kiran Mark decided to bet everything on getting closer.
Miguel de-transformed his arm canon to a regular one and blocked Kiran Mark's fist.
They both glared at each other with hatred.
"Our father made a mistake in creating you!" Miguel started to push, which the younger brother did as well.
"Considering how he once said he was afraid I would someday kill him, I'm sure he believes that." Wrath, a lot of fury that gave him the strength to counter-push.
Kiran Mark then exerted upward force causing Miguel's arms to be in the air and kicked him.
After which Kiran Mark spent not even a second to activate the Z-saber once again and began to perform diagonal, vertical, and horizontal slashes.
"WHAT DID I EVER DO THAT HE EVER THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO COMMIT PATRICIDE! WHAT THE HELL DID I DO?!"
Miguel received at least 7 slashes, after which he managed to dodge the eighth and move a bit away.
He did not answer the question.
Corrin and Lucina, who were watching almost everything from "the sky" with Naga then had to cover their ears when they heard a very loud sound.
They then noticed that above those metallic lines, a gigantic caterpillar was traveling... except that it was metallic and of different colors. Its front part was red while other sections varied in size and color and shape. Not to mention that frustrating noise it made.
Miguel started to run towards Kiran Mark, the Askr summoner somersaulted backwards and landed on the red-colored part of the caterpillar.
Miguel simply walked up to it fearlessly and jumped as well.
Kiran Mark tried to attack him while he had the higher ground, but Miguel simply dodged everything.
Miguel then generated his own Z-saber, to which Kiran Mark panicked slightly.
The two clashed plasma swords again and again, backing over the metal caterpillar, which seemed to have something written on the side: Ferromex.
Another section of the caterpillar that Kiran Mark jumped onto by doing a back flip while firing more plasma bullets said BNSF and was orange.
Another was blue and said FNM.
It was then that they finally understood that this was a caravan.
But it was gigantic!
As Kiran Mark's plasma sword sliced through one of the wagons, it began to drop wheat all over the road.
A plasma shot from the older brother caused many carriages inside those giant boxes to be ejected as well.
But what really stopped the caravan... was when another explosion hit what appeared to be a giant black container.
It exploded with extreme force.
Both Kiran Mark and Miguel saw this and began to escape towards the rear boxes, many of which continued to explode behind them.
After that, the rear boxes ended up collapsing off their tracks and the explosions damaged many nearby buildings.
And then both brothers hit each other's faces again.
"Where did you get all this strength?" Miguel smiled.
"I don't have to tell you!"
Miguel laughed and then… he used the golden gloves to hold his younger brother, throwing him lightly with holding a train car with which to hit his opponent away.
Kiran Mark spun on himself multiple times, crashing into the glass and through offices. He crashed through several buildings until he finally managed to stop at another.
This one was… massive, or at least much bigger than the others.
The most interesting thing about this structure was perhaps its peak at the top as if it were a large anti-cavalry spear trying to pierce the skies. In addition to some giant letters.
Latinoamericana.
Miguel flew once more, on a collision course to crush Kiran Mark, to which Kiran Mark resorted to running over the wall and then up.
They both struck their sabers again and fired their guns at each other, causing damage to the structure as they went up.
"Face it, you can't beat me." Said the older brother.
Kiran Mark growled like a beast.
Miguel then invoked the Master Sword again. "You will never be worthy of this, or anything you have."
Kiran Mark once again found himself in a situation where just being near that weapon caused him pain...
But he was fed up.
"OH YEAH? WELL FUCK THE MASTER SWORD! FUCK MY PAST LIFE!" And in a fit of rage, he then pounced on Miguel.
"AND FUCK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"
Miguel then simply placed his holy sword in front of him, while he completely ignored gravity and stood upright.
The holy flames began to generate mystical force from him, and Kiran Mark found himself as if he were facing a force field that prevented him from getting any closer.
In the distance, both Lucina and Corrin were screaming.
"DO NOT DO IT! THOSE FLAMES WILL TEAR YOU TO PIECES!
"IT'LL DESTROY YOU BEFORE YOU TOUCH IT!"
This made Kiran Mark's eyes widen for a moment. "C-Corrin?... Lucina?..."
"Did… did he just hear us?" Corrin turned to see Naga.
The "goddess" smiled.
"The next part of this is arriving…"
Kiran Mark could feel it, the extreme fire of that holy light.
But he didn't care.
He needed to win this...
He needed to ensure Corrin's wish came true...
He needed to win to get that sword…
He needed all the power he could get…
He needed to beat this nightmare from his past again...
He needed to prove...
He needed to prove that he wasn't just a poorly made copy of this man! "Grrr…grrr…. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" little by little he got closer to Miguel, entering the flames.
Miguel also started growling as he tried to apply more pressure.
And then his Master Sword was punched away.
Miguel backed off about two steps, his eyes widening in extreme surprise. On the back of the hand that Kiran Mark had used to punch with, which now had extreme burns…
The upper triangle had begun to glow.
As a result, his aura had turned red.
And then when it hit the building after Miguel dodged, the punch caused extreme damage to the structure.
Miguel quickly regained his composure.
"It won't do you any good to do that." It was especially obvious given how slowly the wounds on his arm took to heal even with magic, as he started to attack only with his right hand.
Miguel jumped from the wall to gain height... and once he was behind his younger brother, he threw one of the heavenly rays from the Master Sword.
Kiran Mark descended several floors as electricity transformed his avatar into something dark full of wounds and Lichtenberg lines... but he didn't give up for a second and started running up.
"Luis Manuel... you have lost your sense of fear... or rather you became as suicidal as our father predicted..." Miguel shook his head as he dodged another punch. "You always let the anger get to your head… I can only feel pity for you."
It didn't take long for them to reach the top of the tower, at the part where you could walk.
"Right now you are not what you think you are... YOU ARE JUST A DEMON AND A STUPID CHILD!" Miguel blocked one of Kiran Mark's punches with his sword and immediately went to grab him by the neck. "BEHAVE AS SUCH!" Miguel suddenly began to glow in an extreme blue aura.
Limit Break.
He launched Kiran Mark into the sky.
And then he jumped after him.
Kiran Mark summoned a weapon in desperation as he saw his brother approaching.
But then… He noted that this time he did have the Artema weapon.
And what Miguel seemed to have was the Buster Sword.
This didn't make sense.
But he noticed what was wrong when both weapons collided.
Miguel's sword didn't seem to be…a single solid object.
Kiran Mark wanted to scream in panic… as the sword split into several ones which remained floating around them, each glowing in that blue aura.
Omnislash Version 5.
Miguel began to move at hypersonic speed.
Kiran Mark was pierced by one of the swords into which that gigantic weapon had split, making him open his eyes even more.
And then another hit.
And another.
Twelve times he was sliced.
And then… Kiran Mark could feel his heart stop... seeing that the final cut would not be with the Fusion Sword... but with the Master Sword, which was charged with electricity.
The blow was a straight thrust to his stomach. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"
The electricity consumed him once more and it continued to damage him as the momentum of the attack sent him falling.
He pierced the "spear" of the tower and continued to fall through the entire interior of the building destroying floors and infrastructure as he fell deeper and deeper.
…
…
…
And then the tower began to collapse.
The forty-five levels of the structure were unable to stand, and after at least 30 seconds… of the tower, there was nothing left.
Miguel simply watched the disaster with indifference.
"Stay in my shadow, the place where you belong."
…
…
…
He couldn't move.
He couldn't see.
Everywhere he looked… there was only darkness.
He couldn't…
He couldn't do it.
Perhaps… this was his fate…
Wasn't this what he had always wanted?
Letting the darkness take him and his mind to shut itself down...
Forever.
All the times he tried to end it all but he just couldn't do it because even at that he was just a coward...
He thanked that he was already underground...
But... this wasn't real...
It was just another one of these nightmares he'd had… only amplified by the power of a "goddess".
He would wake up... as the useless piece of crap he had always been...
There was no way to win this...
"I… I give up…"
Naga… she blinked several times.
Had she heard correctly?
She, in the real world, began to channel more magic into his mind.
And then she "materialized" next to him.
"Repeat that…"
Kiran Mark didn't even turn to look at her.
"I give up… get me out of here… I can't do it…"
Naga blinked several more times and she suddenly crossed her arms.
"Is this serious?"
Kiran Mark was not irritated by having to repeat it... he simply looked into the void with "eyes" that had lost all will.
"I give up… get me out of here… I can't do it…"
"Do you realize what you are asking me?"
How was it possible?
He was in the final stretch!
Was he truly going to refuse to continue with victory so near?
"I can't do it…"
Naga looked at him with fury "If you give up now I won't help your friend like you asked me to!"
Contrary to what she expected... there was no anger or at least resignation on his face at this "threat". only…
Just drops of water coming out of his eyes.
The "goddess" even verified that this was also happening to his real body.
"I'm sorry… Corrin…" Hearing her name made the princess of Nohr and Hoshido also approach.
"Why do you say you're sorry?"
"I failed you…"
Both Corrin and Lucina jumped.
"Yes, he can hear us now…" the princess of Ylisse remarked.
"I can't see…" he commented.
They understood that this was due to all the tower debris above him.
It was good that they were for practical purposes ghosts here.
Lucina "sat" next to him. "Come on Kiran! you're the one with a diary with a heart that has the word determination on it! You can't give up, just like that!"
"Don't... give me... empty... words... determination... can become worthless... when faced with overwhelming power… I have no more strategies… I have no cards... I accept my helplessness..."
Naga was horrified by this...
Because the triangles that had gotten golden stopped shining and they had degraded back to their old black coloration.
Corrin tried to hold his left hand, but she soon found that she couldn't move it at all... and he was cold... almost as if he was turning into stone.
"Kiran, this is your mind! There's no way someone can beat you here!"
"He gets his power from my mind… I can't beat that…"
"I'm sure you can do it," she spoke to him in a firmer tone. "Because it's impossible for you to give him unlimited power! And because no matter who or what, everyone has a weakness!"
Lucina then rushed to say. "And if there is someone who can find the weakness of a seemingly invincible being, it is someone like you! Robin did it with Grima and I'm sure you can too!"
Robin... the warrior who had been created to eradicate the world... the warrior who got amnesia and befriended his master's enemy's champion... Robin the warrior who faced a mirror of darkness, a mirror that displayed what he would have become if he had decided to accept his original purpose, and won...
The slayer of the demonic fell dragon Grima.
The Zero of this universe...
He couldn't measure up to that...
"Robin had access to Grima's power... I don't have that."
"And Miguel has access to your power!" Lucina exclaimed.
"And he has my full potential…"
"But not your full potential." This time it was Naga who decided to speak. "Only the potential that he can extract from you."
He negated slowly"That doesn't make sense, if he has my potential then he has everything."
"You're sure?"
"Yes..."
"Are you truly sure?"
"Yes...
"ARE YOU DEFINITELY SURE THAT'S THE CASE?!"
His face finally changed from sadness to rage... as the tears continued dropping from the windows to his "soul"
"FOR THE LOVE OF, YES! YES! YES! THERE'S NOTHING I COULD DO TO BEAT HIM! EVERYTHING I KNOW HE KNOWS BETTER! THE ONLY WAY HE COULDN'T USE ANYTHING I HAVE IS IF HE DOES NOT KNOW ANYTHING ABOU…" he went silent before completing the sentence.
Naga smiled at this.
He was finally getting it.
"... if he... if he... if he does not know... something I only know..." he gradually lowed his head. "Something I know... he has definitely... never seen..."
...
...
...
Kiran Mark began to wave his arms... if he could, he would have brought them to his head.
"I... I... I... I am... I AM AN IMBECILE!"
"K-Kiran?" Lucina stepped back a bit. So did Corrin.
"HOW DID I NOT THINK ABOUT THAT? IT'S JUST, UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRGH!"
All the rubble around them began to shatter.
Because he extracted force from his hate and began moving them apart... and then he started punching the wreck.
"OUT... OF... MY... FUCKING... WAY!"
Naga panicked.
She didn't expect him to react like this.
His triangles remained black.
However...
His right hand began to glow in purple energy as he got fed up with doing it the hard way
And then he touched the rubble above him.
"DESTRUCCIÓN! (HAKAI!)"
The rubble of the tower was enveloped in the purple power which little by little, step by step, atom by atom, began to disintegrate everything into nothingness.
Miguel raised an eyebrow and shook his head slightly.
Kiran Mark remained standing in the center.
"Grrr! Grr! Grr! Grrr! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!"
Growling much more than ever, like an actual demon.
Michael crossed his arms. "Is that… were you… were you crying?!"
He began to walk slowly.
The older brother started laughing, placing his left hand on his forehead while he pointed his right hand at his little brother. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Kiran Mark spawned a new weapon.
The sword had the appearance of a pirate saber.
Miguel raised his eyebrow again, but the smile did not disappear from his face.
Holding the sword in his right hand, Kiran Mark drew it in a perfect circle in front of him as the blade began to glow white.
All traces of humor instantly disappeared from Miguel, who simply, with his eyes narrowed, prepared his combat pose.
Once the sword was pointing towards the ground, Kiran Mark slightly raised it until it was diagonally in front of his chest.
The guard was by his face's right side.
And then he very quickly performed two slashes in the air. One vertical and one horizontal.
The two crescent-shaped slashes turned into energy and it didn't take a second for them to be about to strike Miguel.
"What the?! Aaaaaaaargh!" The brother tried to block said attack, and although he was successful at first, said attack suddenly detonated in his face.
"GRAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
The anger that Kiran Mark had suddenly vanished as the realization filled his mind.
IT WORKED!
Miguel got up without a problem, but for the first time he looked genuinely wounded.
Kiran Mark grinned slightly.
However, one thing was clear. If what he thought was really happening... He couldn't replicate any of his attacks. Kiran Mark began to run. Michael did the same. "You don't want to get smart!" Miguel summoned another celestial lightning bolt and launched it against his younger brother. Kiran Mark did not try to dodge at all. Instead, he immediately summoned another sword.
And then he drew it.
And where before existed one now stood four.
"Uh?!"
One of them kept the green coloration of the suit.
But the other three, instead, had blue, red, and purple.
The blue clone smashed his sword hard against the Master Sword.
The red replied with the same action, forcing the older brother to protect himself with both hands.
Which gave the purple and green free rein to attack.
The purple one jumped and performed a helm-breaker slash.
This stunned the big brother enough, giving the red and blue clones a chance to plunge their swords into his feet, cutting through everything and digging into the ground.
They proceeded to finish the movement by grabbing his arms. Immobilizing him.
"YOU'LL PAY FOR TH-AAAAARGH!"
And then the green clone and the purple one started cutting him back and forth on both sides.
"HUREA HUREA HUREA HUREA HUREA HUREEEEEEEA!"
"HUREA HUREA HUREA HUREA HUREA HUREEEEEEEA!"
Both attackers suddenly stopped their assault…and then they both created doors that they could hold with their arms.
They threw them into the sky and then jumped towards them.
The doors opened and once they were inside, the doors vanished.
Miguel managed to push away the red and blue clones by expelling energy with his aura.
But he was still immobilized by the swords. And when he was about to remove one, the magic door appeared again.
From within them, the purple clone shot out like a rocket.
He slashed with his sword.
"CURSE YOU!"
And just as quickly as he had appeared, he disappeared through another gate.
And then a new gate materialized from which the green clone emerged and made the same attack before vanishing as well.
Miguel growled in rage, trying to look around. The next door materialized behind him, so after suffering that attack he immediately tried to attack behind him… only to have the door materialize on top of him.
The next door was under his feet.
The green and purple clones took turns to attack and with each second the attack rate increased.
Miguel got to such a point of frustration that he tried to attack in all directions like a headless animal.
And worse for him, the two clones decided to stop using swords and summoned hammers.
This time it was more difficult for him to use his aura to force them away, but after at least sixty times, he managed to accomplish that.
The green and purple clones moved in constant contact with the ground several meters as they landed on their knees.
And it was then that Miguel could see that the red and blue clones hadn't just stood still.
They had been constantly throwing stars into the sky which had coalesced into various "rocks".
Which immediately began to fall on his head as meteors, slowly burying him.
The last 3 that fell were even just three simple lone stars.
Kiran Mark made the power of that sword vanish, becoming one again.
On this occasion, Miguel took a long time to stand up.
But something was clear.
This was not over yet.
"SO YOU WANT MORE UH!" He nodded slightly.
"LUCINA! CORRIN!"
The two princesses came closer as they heard their names.
"Yeah?"
"You won't mind me borrowing your power, will you?"
They both turned to see each other, they didn't understand what he meant by that, but... but they did not hesitate.
"If that's what you need." Lucina gave a determined look.
Corrin smiled gently at him.
"Do what you must."
Kiran Mark nodded back to them.
Miguel was finally on his feet.
"What the hell was all that?!"
"Did you like it? Because it's going to get worse!" He closed his "eyes"
"Pay attention... this... is an armatization!" Kiran Mark then began to roar loudly, his body began to radiate light to such a level that his distinctive features were no longer really visible. The only thing that could be noticed was the humanoid figure made of light from his being, almost as if he was a humanoid star.
"CORRIN!"
Corrin was turned into a sphere of light which was infused into his body. Miguel gritted his teeth and stepped back slightly. "Simply increasing your power is not going to work against me!"
Kiran Mark raised his left hand towards the sky. A sword began to take shape.
And then he returned to be visible.
Lucina blinked… and then she noticed the details of this new weapon.
It seemed to be on fire, but unlike the Master Sword's holy flames, these were pure fire flames. It was also as if the sword had "teeth".
Lucina for a moment thought of comparing it to a saw for cutting wood… except that the teeth of this sword moved through the entire section where you would find the edge. It seemed to generate an extremely loud sound too, to the point that Miguel himself backed off a bit when Kiran Mark pointed his sword in his direction.
Regarding Kiran Mark himself, his suit had turned almost completely white. There were still multiple stripes and decorations of gold color that made the suit more similar to Askr's tactician outfit... with the difference that other stripes and the belt were now red. Likewise, he had a cape that seemed to ripple with power at all times.
And perhaps the most obvious change of all.
Kiran Mark now possessed reddish hair and eye coloration.
His face changed for a moment. He was no longer showing hate, instead, it was confusion… by looking at himself.
"Wh… what happened to us?" That was Corrin's voice.
His face returned to the emotion it had shown before, and this time it was Kiran Mark's own voice that came out of his mouth. "I'll explain later! for now, focus!" Without wasting a second he slammed his weapon into the ground.
"PURGATORY OF FLAMES!"
What followed was that the flames began to advance in a frontal direction as if it were a sequence of explosions in a row.
"What the hell is this?!" Miguel covered himself with a shield, the current of fire was such that he had no choice but to stay there until the current stopped.
And then he barely had visibility he noticed that Kiran Mark had run around him around and was now behind him. Miguel jumped with the clear intention of not taking damage, but he found that Kiran Mark, just like him, wasn't going to give him a chance to rest.
Miguel had to block a slash with the Master Sword... and both weapons continued to rub against each other... but then Kiran Mark began to growl and yell.
This time, it was the two voices doing this.
The Omega Yato then accelerated the speed of its blades, and its thunderous sound increased even more in intensity.
And then two things began to break.
The first was the Master Sword itself, denoting several cracks in the area of impact.
And the second was Miguel's self-confidence.
"WHAT?!"
"¡TE VOY A HACER PICADILLO! (I'M GOING TO TEAR YOU APART!)" Kiran Mark began to demonically roar much more until his opponent's sword ended up collapsing into shards.
As the Omega Yato made contact with Miguel's body, Miguel released an extreme amount of sparks before being sent flying.
Miguel impacted a building, and as he tried to get up he could see with horror what was coming.
Kiran Mark made the tip of the Omega Yato begin to drag on the ground as he spun around and then performed an upward diagonal slash.
The sword in question was still releasing extremely hot flames. "FLAMBERGE!"
Miguel was then slashed across the chest by the chainsaw sword… and then he was engulfed in a wall of inferno, and so did the entire building.
He raised his hand to the sky once more.
"LUCINA!"
The princess of Ylisse turned to see him... and exactly the same thing that had happened to Corrin occurred to her.
Although everything white in his outfit remained that color, everything which had an actual color changed immediately.
Everything red immediately turned blue… giving Kiran Mark the blue hair and eyes that he had asked so much for.
And the sword was immediately replaced by a bow.
His look denoted surprise once more.
Although this time it was both of them who were confused.
"I was expecting a bow... but what is this?" Kiran Mark inclined his head slightly to the left.
It had a golden design with two blue gems and seemed to be specifically designed for combat.
"It's the bow my father gave me after the war!" Lucina's voice came from his lips.
"LUIS MANUEL!" Miguel was not going to give them a moment's rest. He came out of the flames and Kiran Mark had to jump back as a gigantic sword nearly crushed him.
Kiran Mark certainly didn't feel like being destroyed by the Artema weapon, so he continued to do backflips until suddenly he somersaulted harder, allowing him to stay airborne for several seconds.
Kiran Mark put his hand where an arrow should go, stretched the bowstring… and a blue magic arrow came into existence.
"OCEAN BLITZ!"
The arrow that was shot immediately split into multiple ones which certainly did not respect the laws of trajectory and gravity.
Miguel covered himself from the first assault by positioning the Artema weapon in front of him… and yet many arrows, as if they were AI-controlled missiles, surrounded the weapon and hit him.
"AAAAARGH!" Once his feet touched the ground, Kiran Mark tensed the bowstring again.
And then he raised his bow towards the sky.
"ARROW SQUALL!"
Miguel was able to observe the multiple arrows gaining height before all falling vertically toward him.
The older brother simply raised his shield and took cover. Unlike the previous arrows, these didn't seem to be remotely controlled and those that didn't hit the shield just dissolved on the ground… like literally drops of water. "Who follows up a strong attack with a weaker one?!"
It was then that he noticed that Kiran Mark was no longer ahead.
He was now to the left of him and released another fury of water arrows. This time the arrows abandoned their form and turned into literal streams of high-speed water.
The torrents of water hit him on the face, chest, legs, and anywhere it was possible.
The stun was such that it gave enough time for Kiran Mark to make his bow transform into a spear which he propelled with all his strength.
Still holding on to it, it was as if he was flying.
"AQUA LIMIT!" The tip of the spear pierced Miguel's chest as if it was a high-pressure liquid used in industrial operations. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"
The younger brother continued moving for some distance before landing.
And he raised his hand towards the heavens again.
"NINO!"
"What?" two feminine voices made that question.
Lucina and Corrin were sure that they were the only ones in this mental world, the only ones inside Kiran Mark's mind.
Why had he called the name of someone who wasn't present?
However, it was then that they noticed… that there
was someone else. The figure of Elibe's green-haired mage girl had materialized beside them and, like the two of them, turned into an orb of light that merged with Askr's summoner.
Again, everything blue in the light was replaced with green.
However, this time he did not carry any weapons.
Instead, behind him, something else had spawned.
They seemed to be angelic wings… which were made of blades.
Green blades made of wind magic.
Kiran Mark prepared to fly... and in a microsecond, he had separated the distance that separated him from Miguel, who still had his hands covering the area of his chest where there was now a hole.
And he then held him with both hands on the shoulder area.
"NOW WHAT?!" Miguel growled, squeezing in a futile attempt to free himself.
Without letting go of his opponent, Kiran Mark flew extremely high into the sky.
And a second later he was falling at high speed headfirst with his opponent's face having the frontal position.
The impact was thunderous, opening a large crater in the earth. "GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" The older brother was left holding his head and thrown into the crater for several seconds.
Rage seized him, standing up and glaring around him, although his hands were still trying to reduce the pain on his skill.
The seconds he spent searching for his opponent on the ground cost him dearly.
When he looked up at the sky, he could see it. Kiran Mark was floating high… in front of him was a green magic book… and an excessively high amount of wind blades had materialized around him.
They then stopped being in a state of rest and took turns going down to the speed of sound and passing through him at the moment that Kiran pointed his index finger at him.
"SYLPHYSTIA!"
"Urgh! Aargh! Uha! DAMN! Curs-AAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"
"!HECTOR!"
The figure of the Prince of Ostia manifested next to him and, like all the others, merged with him.
And once again, everything that had been green turned yellow.
The wing blades disappeared, instead being replaced by the Armads axe. Holding the heavy weapon in front of him, Kiran Mark then began to spin on himself at an elevated rate in the air and fell towards his brother.
Miguel, who was still lying down, panicked when he saw what was approaching such speed, so he immediately rolled on the ground.
Kiran Mark ended up hitting the ground.
The ax made the crater even bigger, to the point multiple buildings around began to collapse.
Kiran Mark quickly released the beautiful weapon from the ground and covered himself from an attack coming from his brother.
The clash between Armads and the Artema weapon generated such a strong "wave" of impact that both of them were pushed back slightly, the buildings getting even more damage.
Kiran Mark then found himself back on the defensive as all he could actually do was block. Not surprisingly, he was dealing with a sword of brutal size and weight against his ax which not only had a natural handicap but he wasn't exactly knowledgeable how to wield one of them.
At this, Kiran Mark held the weapon by its medium part.
And he divided it into two pieces.
"Uh?!" Miguel, still extremely furious, but not stupid enough to think that his little brother had gone crazy, stopped the attack for a second as a precaution.
Both Armads shards were attached to Kiran Mark's arms, more specifically on top of the back of each hand in a way… they were now used more like claws.
"EARTH SHAKER!" His younger brother smashed his right arm against the ground.
Immediately followed by the left one.
Miguel at first expected something akin to purgatory from the flames… so he paid no attention to the fact that the ground below him cracked.
And then the earth began to part under him in an X shape.
Miguel had to immediately jump in if he didn't want to end up even deeper.
When Miguel saw his younger brother approaching him, he then decided that if he wanted to play with elemental powers nothing could stop Miguel from doing so.
He conjured the power of the Materia embedded within the Artema weapon and unleashed a torrent of electricity at Kiran Mark.
But then he noticed the mistake.
When the two pieces of Armads hit the ground, two giant rocks had attached to Kiran Mark's arms like gloves... and then he covered himself by placing the two rocks in front of him.
The beam proved ineffective as a result, and so the younger brother made another attack as he leaped forward.
"DIVINE BASALT BLOW!"
Which translated to throwing a rain of punches as if it were a boxing match.
"HUREA! HUREA! HUREA! HUREA! HUREA! HUREA! HUREA! HUREA! HUREA! HUREA! HUREA! HUREA!" The total stun from all the attacks combined was enough to prevent the big brother from attempting any counterattacks at that.
Finally, Kiran Mark delivered one last blow that sent Miguel flying through whatever remains of buildings you could find around. "HUUUUUUUUUUREAAAAAAAAA!"
…
…
…
Kiran Mark finished landing... and finally, his transformation ended.
The outfit was once again the hybrid suit between his Elibe and Askr strategist clothes.
Corrin and Lucina then noticed that they were outside of him again, with the summoned "ghosts" of Nino and Hector next to them.
Naga was blinking with her mouth partly open after seeing such an act of aggression.
Armatization… huh?
She placed her index finger on her mouth.
Interesting…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGYg5hHPGK0
Miguel had trouble getting back to his feet, to the point that the most he could do was use his left knee to keep from falling to the ground, but he couldn't really get up anymore.
Kiran Mark had to moan in fury.
Why the hell didn't he just fucking die?!
He then stopped.
And he gave himself another hard punch on the forehead.
He didn't have to destroy him...
He just had to win the battle.
Both things did not have to be the same option.
Kiran Mark spawned the Breidablik, aiming towards Miguel.
"It's time to end this..." But then he waved it to the left, at which point what appeared to be the blade of a sword emerged from the barrel of the weapon.
The problem was that this weapon was not made of metal.
Instead, it seemed to be made of pure cosmic energy.
The entire blade was black with multiple white dots that, with a little more inspection, turned out to be stars in the infinite void of the universe. Likewise, the blade was not straight… looking more like a curved Katana. "GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Kiran Mark yelled as loudly as he could as his blue aura changed.
Now it was as if he was on fire.
With flames that were blue.
Two flames in particular were on his forehead, taking the shape of what appeared to be horns, and another appeared to be a tail.
Fire also emerged above the sword.
Miguel, for the first time, showed signs of being truly terrified.
Kiran Mark raised his weapon to the sky. The flames from his aura spread beyond him so that Kiran Mark seemed to be standing on a fire as blue as himself.
He made the blade descend in a semicircular motion before holding up the gunsword.
The older brother seemed consumed with rage as he yelled at him. "YOU MEAN TO STRIKE ME DOWN?! COME ON! DO IT! DO YOUR WORST, YOU LITTLE BASTARD!"
And he then began to move at supersonic velocity against Miguel.
"LUNA INFERNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL!"
Miguel attempted a block with the Artema weapon.
But as Kiran Mark closed the distance between them and performed the slash, the dark blade pierced through the gigantic sword in a ghostly manner.
The dark sword had gone from being to the left of him to now being to the right of him as he stood there, the flames on his body dimming a bit but still existing.
Corrin and Lucina kept watching the scene.
Neither of the two brothers moved at all.
…
…
…
The silence was interrupted by a cry of indignation.
"LUIS MANUEL!" Miguel finally got up fully and turned to face the younger brother.
"¡PENSÉ QUE ME DOLERÍA, NO QUE NI COSQUILLAS ME HARÍA! (I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE PAINFUL, NOT THAT IT WOULD NOT EVEN TICKLE!)"
Kiran Mark lowered his weapon, not bothering to look back.
"It's simple, brother... corpses don't feel pain."
Miguel narrowed his eyes and clenched his teeth… only to then feel as if a current of wind was pushing him backwards.
"URGH! HUH?!" Behind him, something had formed.
It was a gigantic sphere of darkness… which seemed to be an entrance to the void of space.
Instead of just stars, what appeared to be nebula and galaxies were visible.
Miguel had to try to fly forward, reaching out with his hands in an attempt to grab onto whatever to not be absorbed into the infinity.
Kiran Mark finally turned around. "Maybe you'll recognize this technique by its original name... MEIDO ZANGETSUHA!"
Miguel seemed to be about to explode in fury at this.
"I HOPE YOU ARE HAPPY NOW!" Miguel wanted to try to separate the distance between himself and Kiran Mark to strangle him.
"ENJOY YOUR STUPID GLORY AS MUCH AS YOU CAN, BROTHER! THEY WILL ABANDON YOU ONCE THEY KNOW WHAT A MISERABLE SCUM YOU ARE! THEY WILL NEVER ACCEPT YOU, DEMON!" As much as he tried, little by little the big brother was sucked into the sphere.
"YOU WILL REGRET THIS! YOU WILL REGRET THE DAY YOU DECIDED TO TURN YOUR BACK ON US, THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO REALLY CARE ABOUT YOU! YOU WILL DIE ALONE AND ABANDONED IN THE DEEPEST DARKNESS FROM WHICH YOU WILL NEVER ESCAPE!" The dark hole began to close and the last thing that was seen of the brother was his face and his hand.
"LUIS MANUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEL!"
And then the space sphere collapsed into itself, being erased from that "reality".
…
…
…
This would have been the perfect moment to smirk.
Or to exhale in relief.
Or just let himself fall onto his back in exhaustion.
But all he did was keep looking at the spot where the hellish moon had once been, uncertainty taking over his face he just didn't know what to do…
Or how to reply to what his brother had said...
It was true that he was just an impostor, there were so many people who were probably better for the job of saving the multiverse from Embla's empire...
They deserved better...
But since they were stuck with him...
He would do his best for them!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2zErx9rMrM
He was eventually distracted by light.
"Uh?" he turned slightly to his left… and saw that his triforce mark was glowing.
Placing his hand in front of his face, his eyes widened and his mouth held slightly open as the bottom left triangle turned gold.
And so did the other two.
Corrin and Lucina tried to go to talk to him but were stopped by Naga who put a hand on their shoulders.
"Let him enjoy it a bit."
Kiran Mark began to levitate slightly as he raised his left arm to the sky in triumph.
For a few seconds, the right triangle began to glow green and with it, his aura, hair, and clothes took on that coloration.
Then the upper triangle was red, and in the same way, now its coloration was reddish.
And finally, the left triangle turned blue. The blue hue remained for several seconds and, finally, he returned to the clothes he had started with.
And he released a genuine smile with more some more tears.
Lucina and Corrin's eyes widened in surprise as the dream seemed to end. "Wh… what happened?" The princess from the future blinked.
"The test is over," she nodded in satisfaction. "Let me change your translator back to its regular configuration." she made a flow of magic into their minds.
This took at least seven seconds.
"This feels nice." Corrin commented, smiling and closing her eyes.
Once she was done Naga turned to see that her cloning machine had finished replicating what she had ordered it to do.
"Now I have to focus on doing the second task he asked me to… and some extra things, his genetics are a bit… bad." she giggled in sympathy.
"Well, maybe you'd like to go get some rest after seeing that? I don't think you want to witness this. This isn't exactly pretty." She commented as she increased the dose of the anesthetic "drug" and took out some tools. Seeing those tools approach Kiran's eye, holding it open, and then appearing to enter into it was enough for both princesses to accept that what Naga told them was not an exaggeration and they preferred to go back to the surface to see what Kagero and little Azura were doing.
"Keep your eyes closed, trying to open them so quickly would be a mistake." He heard the voice of the "goddess" and simply nodded slightly. He could feel one of her hands helping him to stand up... in addition to gradually removing the chains that kept him tied to the operating table.
It was something he had always found amusing.
When he still had nightmares or something similar, it was normal for him to move as if he had spasms, but at no time did he scream or anything similar since none of his family members had ever complained.
"Very well, I've given you these glasses that darken everything so that your new eyes can adapt correctly to the light. Now open them slowly." Just as Naga had told him, there was a dark filter on everything he could see.
"Wait, am I wearing sunglasses?"
"Is that what they are called in your world?" Lucina asked.
"Can you pass me a mirror?" The princess of Ylisse fulfilled his request. Kiran Mark then noticed that yes, he was wearing dark glasses.
He smiled and gave her a thumbs-up. "Chingón (neat)"
He sighed.
"Anyway… so, Naga?"
"Hmm?"
"Did I pass the test?"
Naga smiled and giggled. "Why would you think you didn't?"
"You gave me the answer of how to win… and I received help…"
"I didn't give you the answer, I gave you a clue. And no one said you couldn't get help."
"But... it was a test for me... only for me."
"Isn't it wise to accept that you can't do it all by yourself?"
"..."
Lucina began to speak. "If you could face Miguel no matter how scared you were and confront his power…why couldn't you have the wisdom that you could never have beaten something that strong without some help? Or without employing a totally unknown type of strategy?"
"It's also true that sometimes you can't expect help from anyone... I gotta prepare for the worst... it's part of my job."
"But that doesn't mean you should automatically act like you don't have anyone." Naga looked at him sternly.
For a few seconds, there was silence... and then he again denied that he had completed the test.
"If there's one thing I've learned from tests of character, it's that it's usually disguised with other tests on top of it."
Naga rolled her eyes in annoyance and proceeded to pat him on the head as if he were a small child.
"And what makes you think there was something hidden?"
Kiran Mark raised his left hand.
He was delighted to see that now the three triangles remained golden... but...
"Although I understand why you gave me this after overcoming that… I don't understand how that proves if I am worthy of wielding one of your weapons. Courage, power, and wisdom are things that someone with a heart full of darkness can have." Kiran Mark shook his head.
"Certainly, I don't deny that." Naga nodded slightly, still patting him.
He wasn't going to complain, this reminded him of when Corrin did the same.
Besides, for a being that had millennia behind her, he might as well still be a child from her perspective.
"So?" Kiran Mark wanted an explanation.
"Do you think someone whose heart is DOMINATED by darkness would worry about that?"
"...maybe not, but that still doesn't indicate that I'm worthy."
"You are not the first nor the last to have a heart with a balance of darkness and light, child of the stars."
Kiran Mark sighed.
Naga continued speaking. "Do you still remember what you said? As much as it hurt you to never see your family again and the suffering that will cause them, you decided that your duty as protector of the world was much bigger and more important. And even though the decision seems obvious, you still cared a lot about what to choose, about its consequences. A person who only seeks glory would have simply abandoned their family without feeling any remorse. You? You have a real reason why you can't come back that easily."
Kiran Mark couldn't find something to argue against that.
Lucina crossed her arms in concern. "May I ask…why is your brother the one you fear the most? Was he really that mean to you?"
He made a negative sign with his hand. "Please, no, don't say that... it's not his fault that I feel like this..."
Naga decided to explain. "I designed that trial taking into account what I saw in his memories. That wasn't really Miguel in the sense of how he behaved… it was more of a manifestation of his inner fears and insecurities taking the form of the one he respects the most."
Lucina blinked for a few seconds as the implications of that hit her like a Zanbato.
"I think I kind of understand what you mean." Corrin commented. "Garon used to scare me a lot… partly because I was afraid of disappointing him." Naga then commented something. "True respect cannot arise from fear... but real fear can be the result of respect."
Kiran Mark sighed. "After the country's economy started to take a turn for the worse, my brother worked twice as hard to make sure we didn't have a hard time… what the heck, my parents used to complain that "he'd never amount to anything if he just spent time on a computer" to which he proceeded to show them how wrong they were..." he closed his eyes. "And it is not surprising that he is that good… my father, who is also called Miguel, managed to woo the daughter of the richest man in town… a town that was not even his hometown. Grandpa Pedro? He was practically respected by everyone in his village and he managed to raise at least twelve children to adulthood despite being a simple farmer with a minimum salary... me?... I was just a useless parasite... there were days when they gave me things I needed or wanted since they wanted me to have an easier life…" He lowered his gaze. "But there were days when I felt like I hadn't done something to deserve all that... I tried to follow in my brother's footsteps... but no matter how hard I tried I could never match him..." he slightly opened his eyes and tried to smile...
Emphasis on tried.
"The age difference is also a considerable factor, you saw it yourself. The other is already an adult in the prime of his life while this one is still a teenager. Siblings with such an age difference often have difficulty connecting."
Kiran Mark chuckled slightly. "Besides our love of video games…I have a hard time remembering a time we actually spent time together…and I don't blame him, when I try to remember what it was like as a kid…the only thing that makes me want to do is to go back in time and beat the shit out of that useless and stressful brat."
"Kiran!" Corrin yelled.
Lucina looked equally mad. "How can you say something like that?!"
"…using my mouth?"
They both facepalmed.
"I only wish I was even half as good as him..." They didn't see it at first, but once the tear was no longer behind the dark glass, it was perfectly visible.
Corrin then proceeded to grab his face and make him look at her. "And I don't know where you got that stupid idea that we don't need you."
Kiran Mark raised his eyebrow. "Because you don't… I mean, Robin already does the strategist job perfectly and my knowledge has already been copied into a book so you don't really need me anymore. You can take the Breidablik and summon heroes without me. I do not matter." Corrin proceeded to get even more angry, but Kiran Mark stopped her before she could speak. "And that doesn't bother me. Being special really isn't something that sounds like a good idea to me. If only I could manipulate the Breidablik, getting myself killed would be an easy way to defeat Askr. If all this knowledge were still only in my mind, it would mean that I should be protected at all costs because if I die or get lost in the multiverse, all that knowledge would be lost, with all that this entails for humanity..." He slightly lowered his head. "I've never liked being special... at all"
Once more, there was silence for a few seconds. "Can I take his glasses off now?"
Naga gave her approval, to which Corrin immediately did so.
Revealing his new blue eyes, they looked at her without confidence. Corrin stopped to look at him before sighing and hugging him.
"Well, even if you don't want to be, you WILL still be special to all of us. We are not going to throw you out just because you have done everything you could for us." She then gave him a light blow on the back. "You complained to your brother that he and your father always thought the worst of you for no reason, so why do you do the same to us?"
Lucina then decided to add something. "Robin was also filled with doubts after discovering his origins, but if even the man most linked to the fell dragon's darkness could prove to have the purest heart… what's stopping you from doing so?"
Kiran Mark didn't know how to respond to that… they were right, he was a hypocrite.
Corrin looked at him sadly. "I know better than anyone what it feels like to have to go against your family to follow what you know is right." The hug she gave him became a bit more motherly "I know that most likely the guilt will never go away, but you should always fight for what is right and choose that path."
Naga crossed her arms. "If I have to defend him, most fears are irrational."
Lucina placed a hand on his other shoulder. "You also gave up on returning to your world because that girl depends on you."
He, however, denied with his head again. "Even some truly evil people can have individuals they really love and that doesn't change the fact that they will continue to cause harm to others."
"But I repeat, are they worried about that? Do they ever wonder if they have crossed any lines?" Naga said with a firmer tone of voice.
"… I suppose not…"
"It is your capacity to worry about every action you do that convinces me that you are worthy. That concern is what allows you to achieve many things that others do not." She placed a hand on his forehead, Corrin moving a little to get out of the way. "True intelligence can dispel all lies and illusions." Naga then placed her hand on his chest. "And a true heart can carry the poison of hatred without being harmed." She then pulled her hand away. "There may be darkness in your heart... but that and the light don't fight each other... it's almost as if they cooperate for a common goal."
"… I see…"
"Of course, a lot of worry can be an impediment to focus on the goal, but we must not forget that our capability to care is the door to a lot of potential."
Kiran Mark looked into the "void" "Worry... potential..." he seemed to smile for a second. "Limitless potential..." he chuckled as he began to stroke his forehead.
Naga scratched her head. "Yes, I guess you could say it is 'limitless' or something like that."
Kiran Mark took a deep breath and then exhaled. "Well..." he held up the mirror and looked at himself once more.
"Thanks for this, lady Naga." Blue eyes
Just as he wanted.
To tell the truth, he couldn't notice at that moment the difference in sight quality compared to his first eyes, but he wasn't the expert.
Naga, with a slight smile, raised a vial to show it to him. "Here are the originals, in case you want to see them." Corrin stopped hugging him and took a few steps back.
Lucina, too, backed away in disgust.
He didn't blame them, this could be a little disturbing or gross indeed.
Kiran Mark simply toyed with the glass jar for a bit, then he simply placed it on the table.
"It was not the only thing I did," Naga sighed. "I also extracted four teeth. Your mouth is too small to hold all your teeth." She showed them to him, which he immediately recognized as wisdom teeth...
Wow, new eyes and a painless tooth extraction…
"Naga, you are amazing."
She shrugged her shoulders. "Not that I want to insult you, but your genetics are so…terrible."
Kiran Mark just laughed. "Yeah, I imagine." He looked at himself once more in the mirror. "I mean, look at that face, it's horrible." And then he laughed even more.
"Speaking of you…" Lucina crossed her arms. "How is it that your name is Luis Manuel?"
Corrin narrowed her eyes. "Right, you only told us that your name was Luis and that you changed it to Kiran. You never said anything about having a middle name originally."
Kiran Mark sighed and rubbed his forehead. "I really don't like that name… for two reasons… first? Well, when you put it together with Luis, they sound phonetically similar to the name Lucifer… which… well, Lucifer basically means the same thing for my planet as what the names
Grima and Anankos mean here."
The three women winced.
"Oh..."
"That is…"
"It's also like the names Medeus... or Loptr..."
He closed his eyes. "I mean... it's a coincidence... no sane parents would name one of his children "Lucifer" and the other Miguel, being Miguel the one who defeated Lucifer and threw him into the depths of hell unless both parents want both children to kill each other."
Well, at least their names weren't Cain and Abel…
"And the second reason... urgh, well... it's not a name you can use in modern times anymore... it's... I can't really say this like this... uh... Lucina, you can come closer."
He gave her a signal that he wanted to whisper something.
Lucina obeyed. Kiran Mark then began to speak to her…
First, he began to play with his right hand to make her pay attention to it. And then he made his hand into a kind of "spear" by extending his fingers and starting to move it back and forth.
She then blushed a lot. Lucina covered her face with her hands. "STOP! STOP!"
The problem was that he hadn't considered the Manakete had somewhat better hearing so Corrin and Naga also heard what he said…and decided to look away and keep their mouths shut.
He sighed and got up from the table. "So." He looked at Corrin. "I take it you haven't started doing what I asked you yet?" Naga made a confirming sound. "I haven't told her yet, I thought it would make more sense to do it with you awake."
Corrin inclined her head. "Did you want me to be with you when Naga gives you your new sword?"
He loved her innocence.
"No, this is something different." He then asked the princess of Hoshido and Nohr to follow him, while he ordered Lucina to go have some fun.
Naga had taken them to a different room but one that also had that hospital motif that Kiran Mark was so used to.
Corrin, for her part, was very confused. "Why do you need a…um…sample of my DNA for?" She still didn't get used to that strange word.
She then placed a hand near her eyes. "Do I also have vision problems?" Naga denied that using her hand. "None of that, it's something… more complicated, but prettier. I'll need to run some tests on you, though."
She then used her elbow to hit Askr's summoner.
Kiran Mark clenched his teeth and scratched at his hair. "Ah... how do I begin to tell you this?" he had mentally prepared for it many times... but apparently the fool had forgotten to prepare a speech. "Corrin… all this time… urgh… look, can we run the test on her to see if this is gonna work first? I don't want to give her false hope and I need to prepare my words." Naga patted his shoulder. "That makes sense."
Corrin crossed her arms. "Kiran, I want an explanation."
"It's Kiran Mark… uh, sorry. I'll give it to you, I promise this is nothing bad, I just want to help you." Corrin raised an eyebrow… but then she nodded. "OK, I trust you." Naga asked her to sit down as she extracted the DNA sample and used all sorts of devices Corrin didn't understand how they worked to apparently analyze her body.
Corrin felt nervous when she was scanned, especially when Naga focused mainly on her stomach or womb area... and certainly, other exams made her uncomfortable, but Kiran Mark kept up with her holding her hand so she would feel safe.
This continued for an hour or two.
Naga was surprised when she found that this girl's DNA revealed the fact that she was Anakos' daughter, but she had nothing to really comment on the matter.
Once she finished, Naga exclaimed the words that Kiran Mark had been waiting to hear. "It will work." She nodded.
Kiran Mark sighed in relief.
"What are you going to do to me? I want to know, now!" Corrin looked at him sternly.
Kiran Mark began to stroke her hair. "You see Corrin…I've kept something secret from you… ever since you told me you wanted children I…I was afraid to tell you this."
Corrin narrowed her eyes.
He understood that the silence was an order to resume speaking. "You are a hybrid between humans and dragons... and well, although that is wonderful since it gives you abilities that not every human has and also prevents you from suffering from degeneration like other dragons... not everything is perfect... and well, as a scientist that I am I always knew that hybrids are usually…" he felt his heart tell him to stop, fear taking control for a moment before his new blue eyes turned serious and he dropped the "bomb" "Hybrids are often sterile. ."
The next thing that happened was that the irritation drained from Corrin's face… just like her skin color, she was now partly pale.
"Wh-what?"
Naga decided to give him some support there, she used the same tone that she usually used with Tiki when she was a child. "Creating a hybrid is not exactly an easy task given the usual incompatibility between two species. Since we used humans as the base for the creation of these humanoid forms, luck was with you when you were born… but that doesn't eliminate the usual problem hybrids have."
Kiran Mark continued to stroke Corrin's hair gently. "It is somewhat complicated, my lady, but usually the resulting DNA turns out to be incompatible with that one of either of the two species that created the hybrid."
Corrin was silent for a while.
Her hands instinctively sought to place themselves on her belly.
She had had many times the dream of having a son or daughter who came running towards her.
They had a cute smile that gave her such happiness...
Corrin always opened her arms to receive them.
But now, when imagining the scene, the boy or girl vanished as soon as she tried to complete the hug.
Corrin showed her horror so much with her face… and then she was furious.
Kiran Mark was not surprised that she grabbed his neck and pulled his face closer, or that she tossed his hand that was stroking her hair away. "You knew... since we met..." The accusatory tone was clear.
Kiran Mark slightly lowered his gaze. "I… I was waiting for the right moment to tell you…"
"And according to you when would have been the right time?"
He could see a few tears.
"To tell the truth… I was thinking, first of all, to take you somewhere where I could give you a wonderful day before saying it… it's not something that can be said that easily… I didn't want to break your heart…"
But the look she gave him told him very clearly that her heart was broken. Maybe not as much as if he had said it from the beginning, but the fury was clear.
"Before you try to kill me, tell me... if our places were reversed... would you have been able to tell me?"
Corrin stopped her fury for a moment as she herself considered all the implications of it.
The grip gradually weakened but it did not completely disappear. "I don't know…" He didn't try to go back to stroke her hair yet, but he did keep a gentle grip on her hand. "Listen, the reason I finally got the courage to tell you this… is because we have a solution."
"A solution?" she seemed slightly offended. "Kiran, this has no solution! If what you say is true I simply can't have children!"
"Not in the regular way." Naga remarked as she prepared her tools. "But this is my laboratory and here the impossible becomes possible."
"Do you remember how Naga used her technology to create these copies of my eyes for me... well, we can do something like that... but for a whole person."
"What?..."
"You see, DNA is unique to each person and it is, let's say, the instructions for the body on how the body should look like and what characteristics a person should have. Most children are created when the DNAs of both parents combine. That is why they have characteristics of both."
Naga gave Corrin a gentle pat. "But with my technology, it is possible to have a being born with the same DNA as the one who I extract the DNA from. The reason you can't get pregnant is because there is no DNA that is compatible with yours to mix with… but…"
"But…if we use my own DNA…" Corrin felt her eyes widen as she began to comprehend what she was being told. "But...would that mean the baby...would be completely identical to me?"
"More or less, but Naga can fix that. This method is what she used to bring Tiki to life and you will remember that she is not an exact copy." This time, he held her hand again, intertwining her fingers with hers. "So I asked Naga if she could help you fulfill your dream."
"But… but… copying me..."
The "goddess" crossed her arms. "These types of babies are known as clones, clones cannot be created in the image of the original instantly. They have to grow up like any child. They will be a regular baby like any other who will grow up, have dreams and their own aspirations in life." Corrin was silent as she had to process everything.
"So… can I really be a mother like this? Can I… get pregnant right now?" "Right now indeed, you just need to accept and Naga will do the 'miracle' of making you a mother."
"I... I..." It was as if the child of that fantasy suddenly materialized again in her arms.
Corrin sighed…and smiled.
"I understand… yes… I would like to do this, please."
Naga took out a paper and a pen from a drawer.
"By the way, do you want a boy or a girl?"
Corrin shook her head. "That's not important, I would love my child whether it's a boy or a girl."
Naga paused for a moment before laughing. "No, what I mean is if you want me to give you a boy or a girl."
This got Corrin's attention too much, who slightly rose from her chair even more surprised than before. "Wait… I can choose that?!"
Kiran Mark patted her back gently with his other hand. "Of course, you can, even more! If you want more than one kid you just have to say so."
"I… I… don't know what to say."
"Take your time, don't worry.." Naga smiled at her.
Kiran Mark made her turn to look at him. "That's right, although once this happens don't expect me to let you fight at all."
Corrin nodded slightly. "Yes, I understand."
She stared at 'void' as she repeated to herself.
"I can choose... I can choose how many... Kiran... what would you choose?"
The Askr summoner scratched his hair and showed a confused smile at such a question. "Well, I'm sure it wouldn't be me who would make such a decision… I mean, I'm a man… but if I had a wife and she accepted…" he began rubbing his chin, looking up and slightly to the left. "Maybe… maybe two boys and two girls. I would give each of them green, blue, red, and purple clothes… and identical four swords. Maybe even a fifth child in black clothes. I don't know, this is a strange question, my lady."
Naga put a hand in front of them, in order to tell them to stop right there. "Keep in mind that the more babies you ask for, the more food you will require. Not to mention the difficulties of childbirth."
Corrin blinked and smiled slightly. "Right, I usually eat more than a normal person... so..." She placed her hands on her belly again and closed her eyes with a smile. "I want twins! a boy, and a girl!"
"Well, I recommend that you start thinking about some names," Naga closed her eyes with a smile.
"Anyway, let's get started with this then."
"I guess I shouldn't see this." Kiran Mark started to leave.
"Not at all." Naga signaled him to get out.
"Very good, Corrin. This will take a while until I can confirm that everything will happen as you requested, so," she put on some clean lab gloves, "If something bothers you just tell me."
Corrin raised an eyebrow, but then she nodded.
In the next two days that Corrin stayed with Naga, Kiran Mark simply used the time to spend some time with his daughter, advancing more into the story she loved so much.
So much was the progress that by the time Naga finally asked for him, little Azura had already heard the part where the warriors of light entered the Lufenian space station to face Tiamat.
He really didn't understand why Corrin wanted to see him alone.
Wasn't it more coherent to have everyone together to announce this? Or did the process turn out to be futile and now she wanted the luxury of beating him unconscious for giving her false hope?
Naga and he were in the elevator.
And when it finally stopped... he noticed that this was not "the medical room"
Instead, it was the temple at the top of the mountain.
Naga then pushed him out and told him something that he didn't quite understand as she immediately closed the elevator again.
Something about… have luck?
He looked at his golden triforce mark once to give himself courage and then he began to walk.
He didn't have a hard time finding her, she wasn't trying to hide.
"Were you looking for me?"
Upon hearing his voice, the dragon woman turned around… and had the biggest smile she had ever shown.
"Am I to assume that face means everything went according to plan?" "Why didn't you tell me that you decided to exchange a holy sword for giving me this?"
Oh.
"Well… it was a single opportunity. Once we leave this place it wouldn't be possible to ask someone to do this for you… plus I'm still going to get another sword. She had promised me two, but I really only need one."
Corrin started walking toward him.
"She says that you practically begged her to help me."
Kiran Mark shrugged.
"I just had to ensure she did it."
"Still, why didn't you say anything?" She was already standing in front of him.
That smile just wouldn't go away.
"Does it matter?"
She then hugged him.
It wasn't strange at all for her to do it…but something…felt…different.
"Of course it matters." Corrin most likely would have rested her face under Kiran Mark's chin if they weren't both similar enough in height to make that uncomfortable.
"Thank you."
Kiran Mark made a sound of denial. "It was Naga who granted you your wish, I would not have been able to do this... I just don't have the capacity."
Corrin then created some separation between their faces to look him directly in the eyes. "I'm getting tired of you talking about yourself in such a way."
"But it is true."
Corrin narrowed her eyes, closing the distance between their faces quite a bit. "And it is also true that if you had not summoned me and brought me here none of this would be possible." She reflected on that. "Did you choose me to accompany you here specifically for this reason?" Something… was definitely weird… This wasn't like when she caressed him all those times when he liked to act like a cat.
Her eyes… were very bright… more than usual...
Wait…
This atmosphere…
This place…
Her behavior…
Was it… was it possible?
"Uh..." he nervously tried to look away, but Corrin didn't let him. "I was unaware of Naga's capabilities in the fullness of it... but she seemed to be much more knowledgeable in science than I am when I met her... so... I thought maybe there was a chance."
If her previous smile denoted affection, now there was too much adoration in this one.
"I thank you, with all my heart."
Kiran Mark could feel that the temperature of his face was higher.
"Uh… Corrin…"
"Yes?" she asked in a whisper, her eyes not wanting to leave his.
"If I'm wrong you can call me weird and punch me... I won't get mad... but..."
"But?"
"Are… are you… are you trying to make us more than just friends?"
Corrin narrowed her eyes again… seductively.
"It's a good thing you're not a dense boy..." And then she closed the distance between their mouths.
In addition to hugging him tighter.
Kiran Mark… he knew what was happening, he knew what this meant, but…
He couldn't react right away.
He was kissing a dragon girl... just... wow...
However...
His mind sent him images of Lyn... and then of Nino...
Did this count as cheating?
Well… Lyn and he had never really consummated anything in his days as just Mark…
And after everything Veronica did, he wasn't sure if he would ever see her again…
And Nino…
Did he really love her? Or was it just the result of his mind having just been mixed and with all the logical disasters it caused that had led him to think so?
He had kissed her, but… they hadn't had a chance to talk after that… maybe…
Maybe he was just overthinking this…
The thing that was happening now...
It wasn't intrinsically bad or wrong...
His hands found two natural positions on his partner. His left one found itself comfortable on her back, pulling her closer to him. And his right one was placed on her hair and he caressed it slowly.
Would they kiss again later?
Was she his girlfriend now?
He wasn't sure... but at that moment... that didn't matter...
He closed his eyes.
Einstein once said that time is relative.
Even though time dilation was something that only happened at speeds close to the speed of light… he actually felt as if his perception of the fourth dimension was altered since he couldn't determine how much time had passed since they had started this.
They had stopped to breathe, evidently, but it had not taken long for them to return to claim each other's lips as their own.
The only thing he was sure of at that moment was that he decided to enjoy the moment.
Communication between continents was something she had developed long ago, so for Naga it was as simple as turning on a computer and sending the signal to the exact place she wanted.
It took a while to get an answer, but eventually, she could see it.
A woman almost as old as her with blue hair, she wore a golden crown and a beautiful white dress with golden decorations.
"Queen Lumera."
"Queen Naga."
The woman on the other side of the screen raised an eyebrow.
"We haven't interacted in a while."
Ylisse's "goddess" sat more comfortably on her chair.
She and Lumera didn't have the best of relationships, even if Lumera and her family hadn't done something like what Mila and Duma had…they had different ideals.
At least it was a much more peaceful separation.
Still, it was never a bad idea to have some communication to exchange ideas.
"Do you remember when you gave me the information about your ideas to create a kind of 'virtual ghost' or whatever you call it?"
Lumera nodded slightly, crossing her arms.
"What's up with that?"
Naga looked slightly to the left.
"I think I finally have something to thank you with. You see, I saw something that inspired me to start a new project." she commented with a smile.
After being able to see dreams, recording what happened in them had not been so complicated.
And what she was seeing… were four images of the four types of Armatization.
Oh, you don't know how good it feels to finally complete these two chapters. Seriously, the satisfaction of finally being able to complete something you've been planning for years is just too high.
When the vision of these chapters (both Luis vs Duncan and Kiran Mark vs Miguel) appeared in my mind I wanted to play with two questions: what happens if two omnipotent beings meet each other? And can an omnipotent being create something stronger than itself and also regain omnipotence from it?
Although of course, like any idea, this one evolved.
Originally instead of a single battle, I thought there would be three individual battles taking some inspiration from the chapter of Power Rangers Dino Thunder: Fighting Spirit, in which Tommy Oliver faces his three previous ranger forms in three duels. These battles even had a clear color motif, the only thing that I would need to do is change the white color to blue and that's it: green, red, and blue.
There was even a scene in Kiran Mark's head of Naga appearing to him after finishing the test and giving him the three pieces of the triforce (in the form of scales) in the same way that the three rangers give Tommy his black Dino Thunder ranger stone.
However, I decided to change that because I thought it would be that clear to understand why he was receiving said fragments.
I also considered having Kiran's sisters appear as a cameo at one point (I'll say it again, I like the idea of them looking like the first three female forms IS gave us to represent Kiran. Just swapping out their golden eyes for brown I guess, I don't worry about the red and blonde hair since Mexico is so full of mixed races that who knows what could be found with a genealogy analysis), I even wrote a dialogue for one of them. "When it comes down to it, you are nothing! born in the King's shadow you could never make a world of light."
However, the scene just didn't make sense. It's one thing to have Naga testing him... and another is her kicking him while he's down… metaphorically speaking, she literally did it in the previous chapter.
Defeating what you fear the most is something that would require a lot of courage, and if you fear it so much it is usually for a good reason so you would need a lot of power to achieve it... but at the same time to defeat something of such power you would need to use everything at your disposal wisely.
And the truth is that while Kiran Mark didn't have to show that he was smart... he did have to show that he could accept changing his mind and find the weaknesses of his opponents as well as being able to accept the advice of others.
The last part of the test was the most difficult to understand... but not for nothing wisdom is something that requires high intelligence and seeing beyond the obvious.
Now let's talk about all the Miguel and Kiran Mark references.
Miguel is the Spanish version of the name Michael.
Something that is often said about the Master Sword is that it actually has the name of Fay/Fi's master... so it is a subtle way of saying that it is Link's sword... so, the sword is named based on who it is the owner of the sword In this case, Miguel's sword… Michael's sword, which is described as a sword that has holy flames capable of destroying evil and is therefore specifically designed to destroy Lucifer.
Perhaps the name Luis Manuel at first glance does not sound sooo similar to Lucifer, but keep in mind that the sounds of the R and the L are, as I learned in my phonetics lessons, extremely similar given their location to the point that, as some of you may remember, the Japanese feel both sounds as the same and they have trouble telling them apart. Add in the fact that TV Tropes has an article called Louis Cypher that describes how in fiction the devil likes to use that kind of alias and I guess you can understand better.
Again, this does not mean that the Kiran Mark is literally the devil, it is simply symbolism.
People mistaking Luis's name for his brother's one is more or less a joke regarding the fact people often call Luigi "Green Mario".
The straight-up punch to the chin is the punch that Luigi can use in Super Smash Bros.
If you know the reason why Manuela's name was changed to Miguela (Ha! Very funny Nintendo) in the Latin American versions I guess you get the joke.
Something that you usually find in many works of Mexican fiction is the lesson that the family is the most important thing... but the truth is that the plot never convinced me.
I mean, the mere fact that patricide is commonplace among some of our lead characters, Robin and Corrin being the most obvious examples and Alm the most tragic one, immediately goes to show that our allegiance shouldn't belong to someone just because we share DNA ( I mean, if we're going to be strictly scientific, you share some DNA with every living thing on the planet).
Since Kiran Mark is balanced between light and dark he usually takes characteristics of both villains and heroes from all the works of fiction he draws inspiration from. So, if you noticed similarities between our main character and Coco's two characters, Hector and Ernesto, let me tell you, it's totally intentional.
Oh, and this chapter allowed me to show the expy characteristics that Kiran Mark shares with Corrin. The latter turned out to be the most difficult avatar to write tributes for, to the point that I had to create some artificial similarities (one of them being that they both read a lot of books about the nature of the world while they spent much of their childhood in their houses without going out). This chapter helped a lot, if you pay attention you will realize that some of Miguel's dialogues are identical to Ryoma and Xander's ones.
Oh yes, I guess many want to know about the Armatization.
If you've never played Tales Of Zestiria, Armatization is the result of a human merging his body with a seraph. Seraphs are "guardian angels" that are usually invisible to regular people.
And yes, that mechanic is very similar to the Engaging. However Tales Of Zestiria did that in 2015.
And considering that I already said that FE Engage is something that happens in the future… I saw a good opportunity to write the origin of Emblem Engage.
The summoner's white and gold outfit even resembles the outfit that results from using the armatization (seriously, go take a look) and would also explain why Engage fusions have such a weird design.
I mean, if the fucking game isn't going to tell me how the rings were created, I don't see why I can't invent and change whatever I want.
That is why the Armatization that Kiran Mark made is not exactly the same as the one in Tales Of Zestira. For example, the hair should have always been yellow… however, I didn't think it would look good.
Likewise, since the Armatization was done with Fire Emblem characters, I didn't see why I couldn't use Fire Emblem weapons instead of the ones that the seraphim grant in that game... although of course, this did not affect the powers that these fusions gave. And considering that FEH allows you to grant elemental affinity to your heroes, this was just perfect.
Of course, I gave them elemental affinity taking more into account the weapons they could offer than anything else. That's why Corrin is fire instead of water since her sword is the Fire Emblem (although poor woman, IS won't let her wield her Yato. It seems only male Corrin can use it).
To tell the truth, I would have preferred to use references to Velvet Crowe (she's a magnificent waifu, it's as if instead of dividing them into two characters someone decided to write Pyra and Mythra as one single character with all their characteristics... and also give her an appearance similar to Ayra's) since she is the opposite of Sorey (the protagonist of Tales Of Zestiria) since despite the fact that she is the Lord of Calamity (basically the demon king) she is an anti-hero... but in the end, it just made more sense to use the Armatization.
Maybe I can use the Velvet Crowe stuff for the future if I ever write another mental battle.
Regarding the double slash technique in the form of a crescent-shaped moon identical to the one used by Eirika and Ephraim, the technique appears in Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger and is owned by the master of the blue ranger (and yes, there are meant to be references to some of the critical attack animations of Engage forms in the fight).
Lumera cameo!
Again, since Engage doesn't explain shit I preferred to write that she is the creator of the Emblem rings... and small detail here:
I like to think that, since in a lot of fanfics Corrin is usually written with the idea that their name in Nohr is Corrin but their Hoshido name is Kamui, Alear would also have two names:
Alear, his original name when he served under Sombrón's power... and Lueur (Japanese name), the name that Lumera would give him when she adopted him.
This given the meanings of the names:
Alear: Alloy in Spanish… apparently? I really don't know anything about that, maybe it's Spanish from Spain.
Lueur: Shine in French.
The second name is closer to Lumera's own name... but at the same time, since Lumera must have seen Kiran Mark/Luis after receiving the information of the armatization from Naga... Lumera decided to rename Alear in honor of that hero who inspired the concept of the Emblem Engage.
Unlimited potential stemming from the ability to care... while I prefer Zero as a character, I must admit that the characterization X was given in that PSP remake of the first Mega Man X really made me grow fond of the blue robot hero, in especially since I finally understood why his concern was considered a strength.
Basically, because X cares and worries too much, he is able to think deeper than other robots/reploids, so he is more capable of finding solutions to problems... which Copy-X, the villain of Mega Man Zero 1, does not have. Hence when there was an energy crisis Copy-X impulsively decided to start a robot genocide instead of ordering the investigation of a new energy source.
In Zero's own words:
"X wasn't as simple as you... he was a coward, always worried about everything, that's what made him a hero."
There's also a reference to Blue Exorcist, that last part where Kiran Mark's aura turned flaming but still blue in color? Well, that's the transformation of the main character who is the son of Satan (and therefore, a character archetype called the anti-anti-Christ, similar to Zero).
Remember how I once said la Ragnarok and la Illuminadora were sword versions of the tomes that Mark inherited from Athos? Well, the Meido Zangetsuha (known in Latin America as La Luna Infernal (The Hellish Moon)) means: Dark Path of the Dawn Moon's Wave, it is a technique that creates a path that sends anyone who is hit directly to the Underworld/Hell ( strangely, this technique of Inuyasha displays "hell" as if it was the outer space... I don't get it, but I like it). Remember Nergal's tome? Ereshkigal? The FE wiki describes it like this: "Casting the tome causes the background to go black and creates a giant black portal alongside smaller portals reminiscent of black holes that pulls in a stream of swirling purple energies reminiscent of souls or spirits, taking the tome's name and its meaning into consideration it could mean that the portal is in fact a portal to the underworld and it is pulling in the spirits of the damned into it."
To finally end the author's notes, regarding Corrin getting pregnant that way.
I know I said she's sterile, but please understand this:
Sterility is the inability to conceive and infertility the impossibility of ending the pregnancy with the birth of a healthy child. I was discussing with my Scientist friend and we both agreed that while Corrin should, by logic, have the first problem there was no real reason to write she also was infertile.
This difference is not only conceptual because the studies aimed at finding out the causes and the treatments aimed at solving them are totally different.
The couple who sees that they cannot conceive is not the same as the couple who often conceive without difficulty but sadly see how the pregnancy is not evolutionary (although this last one is waaay more depressing).
