While Chiyasu looked suspiciously at Ayumi, anticipating an unpleasantly difficult and gruesome decision to be made, Amaterasu was still walking steadily toward the two men standing next to each other, keeping a reasonable distance between them to charge at each other or interfere in case something went wrong by the presence of the dead queen and her seemingly regained determined gaze carried by fearless steps like a butterfly ready to tear her cocoon, or a wave preparing to dash through the shell echoing its preserved yet distant tides.
"You dare revive the dead now and defile their bodies by manipulating their corpses?"
"The queen revived herself by herself… you yourself said her soul had never crossed your boundaries!"
Laila interjected, forgetting her fight with Chiyasu and preparing herself for a destructive occurrence as she kept asking with the furiosity that should belong to the prince since this was a unforgivable violation of his authority and duty.
"Besides, how come you are seen by us? Even the elemental princesses can not see the face of death before encountering it, what spell have you broke the rules with?"
Hearing her words, the prince of souls decided to ignore her inquiry, though it was mentally shared by the other princesses, except Ayumi who was locked her own zone of fury. The prince directed a similar harsh inquiry toward the body moving freely out of his time and place strikingly amidst everything and everyone else that is alive and pertaining to this era. He demanded of the awakening yet still unconscious body of Amaterasu.
"You are not allowed to roam this earth anymore, wondering soul, return where you belong!"
The prince exuded with a white aura accompanied by the floating petals of hundreds of blossoms, but this did not stop the dead queen who merely cast a quick glance at him, his aura exerting no effect on her, as she was a body without her soul, the inhabitants of the domain he ruled over. Then, the golden orbs turned at Noboru, who was more than glad to send her to her death once again and shatter her revived body in the process. Everyone was ready to interfere, Reiha summoning her wind, Chiyasu raising her roots, while Ayumi kept coursing her radiant beams to protect the late queen, determined not to allow Noboru to have his way again and repeat the same end to the battle they were continuing, fully aware that if anyone could send the queen peacefully on her way, it would be only that prince of souls.
However, Amaterasu cared for no one around her, as if time had stopped at this exact moment and the place contained nothing aside from her dead body and the one who delivered it to that fate. Noboru did not even have to aim his sword at her. The "revived" queen herself, taking one step after a step toward that man with the grace of royalty and the determination of a warrior, grabbed the sword aiming it in her direction.
"Amaterasu!"
The two princesses of earth and wind shouted out, but it was too late to interfere, the queen's movement swift like the light she carried and represented, resolute like the merciless time, and unpredictable like fate, all concepts both her murderer and her were more than familiar with, yet despite this, Noboru seemed taken by shock, doubt toward her next action taking over his ability to make a decision of his own, if the queen decided to end things herself, then this would defeat his purpose and serve him nothing. The two stood opposite each other yet closer than they did in their last battle, facing and meeting each other's eyes in the same way they did when Noboru delivered the strike sealing her demise, but who could if the feelings reflected in those eyes back then, were the same now?
Only the two of them.
Holding the dark blade in her bare hand, fearlessly resting it against her pale pulse-less palm, not a drop of blood seeped despite the cut left by the sharp edge of the cursed weapon. Feeling no pain, she held to the blade even tighter drawing it nearer to her chest, her vacant stare not leaving Noboru's similar one for a moment, as if despite the coldness of death she was enveloped with, she desired to burn this sight into his memory for eternity like a flame never to be extinguished, like a sun that would never set down, keeping him in the wake brought by the scene to unfold all day and night. At last, the dead queen stabbed herself, with her own hands, in the same spot where the scar of the old wound that delivered her to death tore her armor and flesh. This time, unlike when she first awakened and saw Noboru, the wound did not sprout with blood, making the scene even more terrifying for those around. Not a muscle in her body stirred, not a single hiss of pain left her lips, her breathing did not hitch or stagger, even her chest did not rise or fall at the intense impact of the sword going through her ribs and flesh. She did not even blink, maintaining her unreadable stare toward her killer as she drove the sword deeper and deeper inside her lifeless body until she reached the exact depth of her last and fatal wound, pushing the sword till it pierced her heart. Only then, did she slightly bend over the black blade but it was not out of pain or agony. These were still foreign concepts to her body and mind at that instant. Then a sight which Ayumi and those present were all familiar with by this time explained what was going on.
Amaterasu's soul was not just a small orb floating purely with silver light though starting as one when the blade pierced through her heart, her soul quickly transformed into an avalanche of pure golden bright, like a sun melting the harshest storm of snow and setting it ablaze. The light emanating from the sword and filling her body dominated Ayumi's entire house, forcing everyone to shield their eyes, including the prince ruling over the souls of the dead.
Everyone looked at Ayumi, expecting her soul to be extracted and joining her rightful owner, but the girl felt nothing, her soul remaining safe and intact. Amaterasu's soul had never sought Ayumi, only her powers did, and now everyone realized, that what Ayumi possessed was a small portion of the late queen's full power and abilities.Her power resonating with their original owner's power, now emerging and engulfing the place along her soul, struggled to leave Ayumi's body and return to Amaterasu.
"I cannot breath..."
Ayumi muttered strenuously, grasping in agony to her tightening chest. Glancing quickly over the pained girl, the prince determined Ayumi's soul was safe but it was the queen's power trying to pry what resided inside the girl chosen to be her heir and reclaim it back. However, this was a different era, this power was Ayumi's now, and if anything, the opposite was ought to be transpiring but the late queen's soul was stubborn and adamant in her seek for her once – rightful power.
"Dead woman, you no longer belong on this earth. This place of the living is yours no more! You are trespassing, return where you belong now, I command you!"
The prince of souls bade the soul emerging from the dragon blade like a tempest, pointing his sword toward it as thousands of sakura petals tried to calm down and guide the soul in the direction of the sword meant to command the souls of the dead, help them, and purify them. However, that soul and the immense spiritual aura released within it was not an easy boat to raw, it was one capable somehow of defying the current of time and fate awaiting all souls. Even Noboru's cursed sword remained powerless to absorb that spiritual aura back, unable to defile it or absorb it back.
Like the rays of a million empyrean stars, whirling like a barrage of diamonds and flapping like the wings of golden swans, the soul burst one last time freeing itself completely from Noboru's sword and settling inside the dead queen's body who staggered backward, her dead body overwhelmed by the power permeating through every pore and muscle in her body, bringing the consequences everyone was dreadful of anticipating.
Consciousness at last lit the late queen's golden eyes, dawning their dimness with an awareness that pertained only to her past till the moment of her demise, and budding inside her awakening mind the old memories sealed in her heart, again up to the same instant of her death. Straitening up her posture, she finally managed to stand gracefully and demanding like in the olden times, her eyes flickering with a sole emotion.
It was neither astonishment nor loss, not even rejoice at meeting the old princesses or happiness at the new chance of life she apparently had accounted for somehow.
All what resided in her eyes was hatred, pure as her powers, and unstoppable like her soul that defied the blade meant to deliver her blessedly to the other side.
That hatred radiating in her eyes immediately darted toward Noboru but unfortunately to her, her dead body was no longer a competent vessel to harbor all that immense power, even when they were missing the part gifted to Ayumi, prevented by scepter left on the floor from leaving the girl's body as that light item had accepted Ayumi. So, without uttering a word, she quickly glanced between the girl and her killer, before jumping out of the window and disappearing in an aura of light.