Chapter 56: The Sun

“Iris. Is he coming?” Finn asked, unable to see since Iris was on top of him.

“No… I can’t see him with my sniper, and he’s not appearing on my radar yet,” Iris replied, narrowing her eyes in concentration. “That said, I’m almost certain he knows where we are. Well, where I am, anyway. He shouldn’t know you’re here with me, unless your guess was wrong.”

“… Give it some time.”

After several long minutes of waiting to no avail, however, the two began to get confused.

“Where is he…?” Iris murmured to herself, trying her best to look around with her sniper while also keeping a close eye on the radar in her mind, formed with the Oculus Angelica.

“Can he avoid your radar detection, perhaps…?” Finn wondered aloud, but Iris’ eyes suddenly widened.

“He’s here! Right behind us, climbing up the building now,” she whispered sharply.

Finn slowly stood up as he activated his bladed gloves, carrying Iris on his shoulders and turning to face the ledge where Tarot was anticipated to appear. A tense silence ensued, neither parties moving.

Iris gulped as she kept a firm aim on the ledge. “Hey… is it just me, or is it getting hotter…?”

Finn could feel it as well, sweat pouring down his back. Then, he looked up-

“… Shit.”

-Only to see that the sun had began rotating, somehow, and appeared to be preparing some sort of attack — straight towards them.

“Tch!” Finn quickly leaped off the roof of the building and landed on the ground, utilizing his enhanced movement and agility provided by the Ghost blood in his body.

He performed a barrel roll and hid behind the shadows of a broken-down truck, right before everywhere the sunlight could reach was pulverized in a blinding flash of golden light.

Iris and Finn both covered their eyes for the duration, and when it finally stopped, the entire map was burning. The already-demolished church was put under arson, and the wild greenery all around were incinerated in the blink of an eye. Patches of fire smoked the land, evaporating thick steam into the air.

And atop the building where Finn and Iris had just stood, Tarot made his appearance.

“Bravo, bravo,” he commended, clapping his hands slowly. “I never thought ya would’ve escaped that. I gotta give it to ya, boy. You nearly had me with that plan o’ yours. It managed to fool The World, but it can’t lie to The Sun. Now, why don’t’cha come on out yourself and fight me directly? Findin’ people is a hassle.”

‘Finding people… but doesn’t he have The World active still? Or…’ Finn thought in his mind.

“… He can only have one card active at a time,” he concluded as the thought hit him. “That’s his weakness. Otherwise, he would’ve used The World and The Sun together from the beginning… and once he uses another card, his current one will run out.”

“If we go out right now, he’ll just incinerate us with The Sun, as you call it,” Iris analyzed, sneaking a peek at the ball of fire up in the sky. “What’s the plan here, Finn?”

“… We split up.”

“E-Eh?”

“He has no more tracking cards left,” Finn explained. “At least, not according to my past friend’s explanations of the various Tarot cards. I never really paid attention back then, but he talked about this so much I ended up memorizing most of it in my head. Who knew it would be useful today…”

“In other words, you have a rough idea of what his remaining cards can do?” Iris asked cautiously.

Finn nodded. “Yes. My memories are somewhat hazy, however, so some things may be inaccurate. That said, splitting up here is still a good idea. I’ll confront him directly, while you try to land a good snipe.”

“Got it,” Iris replied firmly. “Be careful.”

“I know.”

With that, she split off from Finn, vanishing into the shadows in search of a good sniping spot. Finn looked up at the roof of the building, where he could just barely see Tarot’s figure.

Seeing this as a good opportunity, Finn decided to try something out. He focused all his mana onto his back, where his armor’s large black wings were.

‘C’mon…’

He felt the energy slowly exiting his body and into the armor piece, flowing into the wings and beginning to activate them one tiny bit at a time.

Shutting his eyes tightly, he pushed the mana out of his back harder than before. It was difficult since this was his first time doing this, but he persisted — and that persistence came to pay off.

The two large black wings on the back of his body suddenly expanded outwards and rose, lifting his body up. Finn’s eyes snapped open and he looked behind him in awe. The feeling of hovering in the air was somewhat awkward since he had never experienced it before, and it made him feel… somewhat unsafe.

Still, he had no doubt that was just because it was something new, and there was no time to be worrying about this anyway. Finn looked up at the sky to see the sun pulsating once more, preparing to shoot off lasers again. He quickly controlled his back muscles to flap the wings and rise up into the air, quickly getting the hang of it — unnaturally quick, almost. Perhaps, it was the Ghost blood at work once again. In the matter of a few seconds, flying with those wings went from a completely new experience to second nature for Finn.

“Oho… interestin’,” Tarot murmured as he witnessed his opponent soaring into the air, blades extended. He commanded The Sun to shoot off more fiery beams of destruction at Finn, but they were all avoided with ease.

In the air, there was no limit to which direction you could move, thus making dodging a lot easier. It would’ve been a different story if this was in the real world, since Finn would be blind, but in here, there were no restrictions holding him back.

Finn spun around in the air, tightening his fists and activating the long blades on his gloves. Then, he slowly turned to his target, face emotionless and neutral.

Avoiding the chaos and destruction all around him, he daringly soared through the apocalyptic sky — straight for Tarot.