"Radhaan!?" Sebastian said with a shakky voice, his tone filled with disbelief.
Sebastian had fought Radhaan in the court, and then in Vexely, only he understood the true terror of this man. He could never forget how he, a fellow stage 0 fighter, and technically an equal, was neutralised instantly before the fight even began.
Sebastian stared cautiously towards the man floating in heavy darkness, his red hair, and flamboyant bright red coat lightened by silver thunder crackling all around him, surrounded by the bright red pupils of rouges glaring violently at the killer of their family, Johan who just smiled towards them.
"Nah, the aether reserves are too low for Radhaan, seems like a lightning clone…" Johan shook his head.
His heightened senses instantly sensed something wrong with Radhaan, also the fact that he saw Radhaan leave with Leor, and Lucifer, and there was no way Kirin would fail so fast to hold them.
But, even after hearing Johan, no one relaxed.
This did not make it any better at all. Lightning clones, even though only having a part of the user's aether, possessed the same skills, instincts, memories, so with someone like Radhaan, being a clone barely made a difference.
"...I didn't believe Leor, and Lucifer when they said there's a chance you are alive, I killed you all so throughly." Radhaan chuckled, making Sebastian, and Johan's faces to darken.
"...It seems like you also got yourself some nice abilities… I really wanna explore your body!" Radhaan said, licking his lips with an extremely lustful expression.
'What the fuck…?' Johan's stomach churned, he understood Radhaan probably meant studying his body, aether core, or organs by exploring, but… 'PAUSE!!'
Radhaan, sensing the twitching face of Johan, grinned, believing his words were causing fear.
"Tell me… Johan Von Matilda, how did you survive… I can see it's something related to these clones of yours." Radhaan said with a smirk, pointing towards one of the clones of Johan, and that clone in question—
Instantly vanished, leaving only charred black ground in its place.
Johan's whole body shook, the clones, besides his overwhelming regeneration due to the God tree, were completely identical to him, with the same stats, and abilities, and… Radhaan destroyed it before the clone could even blink.
Even though Johan was the one to control them, they still had some instincts that told them the basic actions, but they weren't enough to dodge an attack at the speed of light.
Orihime's pupils dilated, her mouth opening wide, "You… you are… Johan!?" She was speechless at the mention of the name, she hated this man more than anything for a thousand reasons, most glaring one being in every war that happened between Aurelian Empire, and Midgard Empire, Johan always tried to get Crimson Empire involved, just so he could commit some genocides there as well to get some twisted revenge for his wife or something.
She didn't know the specific reasons for Johan's hatred, but, this always put a ton of pressure on both Velmire, and Orihime, who wanted to maintain peace by any means.
"He knows." Johan said simply, silencing Orihime by mentioning that Velmire knows his real identity, Johan, from original lore of the game knew how much Orihime respected, and trusted Velmire, in one of the choices, she even betrayed the Crimson empire by killing Melinia, the queen, to save Velmire.
And, Johan was right, Orihime calmed down significantly after hearing this, and she also knew this wasn't the time for this, Radhaan was here.
And, now, he also knew her identity. This would be enough of a reason for the Aurelian Empire to declare war on the Crimson Empire.
'Shit… I shouldn't have come here… This is all my fault…'
She started regretting everything, 'If only I didn't come here… now everything Velmire worked so hard to build will crumble. Radhaan won't let this go any other way…'
"No, don't worry, I won't let that happen." Johan, reading her thoughts, said calmly, instantly getting Orihime's full attention—making her stare at him with her doll-like innocent eyes.
"What… What do you mean, we can't win against him, he will kill us, and also declare war against the Crimson Empire, there is no w—" Johan suddenly cut Orihime's soft, despairing monologue.
"To pass memories, a lightning clone's aether need to reach the user's body, if it can't, no memories pass!" Johan explained with a confident smile.
"And, of course… we will win! There's not a single time I, Johan Von Matilda have lost in life, my every move eventually leads to me winning." Johan's face grew emotionless, staring coldly towards Radhaan's mocking face.
"The only loss that we can suffer is either giving up, or dying." Johan said, smashing the face of one of the rouges with his elbow.
His voice grew louder, making Radhaan flinch slightly, "If we die, fair. But there is no way in hell I will give up before we even try!" Johan said seriously, his voice betraying no doubt.
Orihime went quiet, she wanted to retaliate but no word escaped her lips staring deeply at the firmness in Johan's eyes. It was like he meant every last word he said, and no words could convince him otherwise.
Her posture straightened, sighing deeply. 'I didn't expect this from that Johan Von Matilda…' Orihime's mind wandered back at the always cowardly Johan, always abandoning his armies, plotting hundreds of steps ahead to not ever face an enemy.
'And now he's challenging Radhaan of all people…'
It was surprising to see such a cowardly man to challenge literally the strongest man.
Olivia also appeared beside Orihime, Sebastian in front of both with a proud confident smile, he will gladly die here, fighting Radhaan, as he saw, that look was back in Johan's eyes, the look he lost at Alya's death.
All three waited as Johan leiuserly walked right in front of them, staring coldly towards the floating Radhaan. The morale of the group clearly increased from Johan's words.
"No need to hold back now… we are fighting the strongest after all." Johan, without turning back, said with a bloodthirsty grin, canceling all perfect clones and focusing all his attention on the deadly gazes of Rouges and Radhaan.
A.N.= I like this arc! Also look at the chapter number :D
Discord: https://discord.gg/uXjPSCMwBZ
A lot of fun things here in the server like the philosophy channel, team roast nights, gaming weekends, book club, self-improvement club, anime club, music hub — just started yesterday so still building. You'll be the first members and pillars of this epic creative community I have envisioned. Of course, character art will be there as well… NSFW too ahem. There are many things, and we are evolving every day. Come here and join this journey too :)