A vision of the stoning she’d endured flashed before her eyes.
They’ve always hated you. The king wished you dead since you were a babe. He wanted you to die. You have no one. These people are not really your friends. They feel sorry for you. And yet you bring them nothing but death.
Her eyes scanned the crowd. She saw Jaewon and Captain Ha in a desperate fight against the half-breeds. On her other side, Taejo and her brother were surrounded by dokkaebis that were slowly being destroyed. It was her worst nightmare.
Then the fires surrounding her suddenly disappeared and she felt her body floating through the air. The daimyo stood waiting for her, a smirk on his scarred face as he compelled her to him.
“Look at what you have done, my child,” he said with an expansive gesture of his arms. “You have brought me the Musado.”
He displayed the tidal stone and jeweled dagger in his hands.
“And now you will wield these treasures and end this war,” he said. “You will bring us the jade belt and then we will take over the world.”
Inside her head, Kira desperately tried to undo his absolute control. The pressure of having another being in her mind was painful. The blood vessels in her nose ruptured and began to bleed. She felt a tear fall from her eye. One tear. But then, she realized that it was a tear of her own making.
“I will kill your pathetic lover first and save the prince and your brothers for last,” he said. The imoogi let out a pained shriek. The daimyo turned to it, distracted. The Iron Army had drawn black blood from the monster.
The daimyo gasped. “My lord!” he shouted. “I will be there soon.”
Then Kira blinked her eyes. He didn’t even notice. She blinked them again and moved her fingers. His control was not so absolute after all. It was strange that when she was under the daimyo’s power, she didn’t hear the Demon Lord at all. But if the Demon Lord only existed in their world through the daimyo’s efforts, then the daimyo’s power over her could not be absolute. Kira knew she had to break free. She redoubled her efforts to regain control.
“Such a pity about your tiger spirit,” he said. “It died protecting you. Like everyone else in your life.”
Blinding fury coursed through her and for a brief moment, she felt the vise breaking apart.
“You made a good effort, but it was not enough. How sad is that? Pathetic really. All this effort only to fail. But that is your life, isn’t it? No one has ever liked you. Even your father was ashamed of you.”
At those words, Kira’s fist clenched tight and her eyes locked in on those of the daimyo before her. This time her mind pushed hard against the daimyo’s control and forced him from her head. The foreign intrusion was gone. With all her might, she sent a crushing blow into her enemy’s face, knocking him flat on the ground.
“That was your mistake!” Kira was shaking with fury. “My father loved me and believed in me! And I will never let him down!”
The daimyo lunged at her with the jeweled dagger. Kira grabbed his arm and twisted it fiercely. She smashed her elbow into it, snapping the bone. He screamed and dropped the dagger, falling down with an expression of shocked pain. Kira kneed him in the face several times, causing him to drop the tidal stone also. She snatched up the dagger and the fallen stone just as she was hit with a shock of burning energy. Lightning was streaking from the daimyo’s fingertips straight toward Kira. She could smell the smoke rising from her uniform. Though her hair began to singe, she suddenly realized that the lightning was not hurting her. It had even stopped her nose from bleeding. She wiped the blood from her face with a dirty sleeve, and wondered what it was that protected her. On her chest, she felt an unusual coldness. Placing her hand over it, she found that the dragon of the east had frozen solid. It was he who was protecting her from harm.
Now she could destroy the daimyo.
But before she could make her move, Jaewon rushed forward with his sword drawn, trying to protect her. The daimyo saw the danger, and turned in his direction. With a flick of his fingers, he sent Jaewon flying through the air, smashing against a boulder, Jaewon’s own sword impaling him through his abdomen.
“No!” Kira screamed.
The daimyo turned to her in stunned amazement. “How is this possible? How are you still alive?”
The jeweled dagger trembled in her hands. Tears trembled in her eyes as she stared at the surprise and pain in Jaewon’s face. With a hoarse yell, she stabbed the dagger into the ground and opened up a chasm that sucked in all the half-breeds and demons. The daimyo struck her again with a lightning bolt. Kira looked at him with fierce eyes. She twisted the dagger and closed the chasm. Now Taejo and Kwan and what was left of the Dragon Fighters, dokkaebis, and the saulabis rushed to her aid.