"You have one chance. Both of you."

----------

The next day Emilia shot through the sky. It had hurt so much, not just to have this technology, this weapon put inside her, but to fail. It was a new thing for her, even against other candidates she had been so good as to never fail. But this, this felt good. The electricity of a small nuclear weapon racing through her felt good. The absolute insanity she had fallen into felt good.

She had never been good at coping with things, it was much easier to drop logic and throw all into meaningless chaos. That mental chaos had been bending her over time, now it showed in full. She had become like her mother, something, the one thing she had wanted to avoid but now that she was here it felt so good. She could cast everything off in the fire she would blaze through the Kiyene. Ant it too would feel good. She realized she didn't much care anymore and she didn't want to have control anymore. She was better off a crazed lunatic so long as it meant she felt good.

Behind her Trem and few others surely followed, they had told her to wait for them but she didn't like that idea. It wasn't good. So she would tear through everything on her own. Because it was chaos and it would mean she was chaos. Above all, she wanted to tear through that boy. The one whose hair became white while she fought him, the one who she acknowledged as a monster. If she could beat him then the only monsters in the world would be herself and her mother. And that would be good.

She could see it now, the little town of cottages and the manor that stood out like a sore thumb. There was a bang as she blasted forwards as fast as she could trailing a flaming crimson behind her like a scar in the sky. People were scrambling around, no doubt they'd noticed her a while ago. In their pursuit of secrecy, the Kiyenes had seemingly neglected to get much actual defense.

Emilia wouldn't have too much time before soldiers showed up and things got out of hand so she'd be quick in her carnage. The bang of her crashing impact was ear-shattering, even to herself, yet it was good she thought. She stood up and took in the consequence of her crimson. The manor wasn't simply gone, there was not a splinter of it left. The ground beneath her feet glowed a seared crimson and it smelled charred, but she loved it more and more than she ever had before. People screamed while others shouted.

The first few to begin towards her were obviously candidates, they prided themselves in their ability and Emilia hated them for it. There were about a dozen of them male and female all in uniform. Emilia raised her hand towards them, she didn't even need the rod now. She smiled as a blood-red saber formed from the crackling power she drew from her bones. "This is more than just good," she affirmed. She tightened her muscles and with a lightning-like bang, the saber became a blinding beam of power reaching all the way to the horizon. She returned it to normal and gazed at where the candidates had stood. Nothing stood there now.

Emilia laughed until her gut hurt and tears rolled down her face. Now then where was that boy? Surely he had noticed this. She felt him long before she saw him. Thomas was there suddenly, moving faster than the eye could see, at least a normal eye. Boosted by the Kinuon his movements were normal to her now, she could see him as if he had no speed at all. And she could move to match, she stood there with his fist in her hand, she had caught it. He stood there with a surprised expression across his face and his hair already white. "Good morning."

"How the fuck?" he muttered.

"Do you like it? Isn't this power so good? I have no idea why you idle around us much if you're capable of this too, well almost capable." Her fist flashed into his gut sending him flying to the edge of the radius scorched by Emilia's impact. He stood up and spat out blood and then just stared at it like it was a death sentence.

"I... this...," he recomposed, "is unexpected." Emilia frowned, he grinned. "And I suppose Kuro will be jealous again."

"You think you have a chance?" She taunted.

"Of course," he said as he wiped his mouth. "You don't know what I mean when I say Akuma, do you? Much less number seven. The Akuma is a system to record the most powerful creatures across the worlds, you don't seem to know about those either, Kuro and I are number seven, the seventh in ranking. Your mother is twentieth and you crash down here claiming to be able to wipe your tiny blast radius with my ass." The air grew dense and heavy. "Normally I'd call out your audacity but I feel that might not be the case this time. She really turned you into a weapon didn't she?"

"And I'm so incredibly thankful."

"As long as you can pay the cost," he warned. Emilia laughed again.

"I already have." Thomas shook his head.

"You have no idea what the full price of this is." His eyes glazed with forlorn. "And you will never be done paying." She returned a sour face and shrugged.

"I don't like dead people's warnings," she said as she vanished in her a zooming speed. Thomas kept up this time and fought her toe to toe.