Update
Tyki suddenly stiffened when he felt a wave of fear run through the bond, immediately sending back a wave of reassurance back to his twin star. Though, he abruptly stopped when he felt Apocryphos coming. He quickly phased into the ground, feeling it shake under the Innocence’s attack. Eyes flashing, the Noah sent a blast of Dark Matter at Apocryphos from beneath. He phased back onto the surface, disconcerted when he noticed that the Apocryphos was missing. Feeling the redhead through the bond once more, Tyki did his best to reassure him. He couldn’t risk the redhead being in danger, in any way.
“Should you really be focused on the bond, Joyd~?”
The Noah of Pleasure barely had time to react when he found himself on the ground, the Apocryphos gripping his hands tightly with one hand while straddling the man. In the back of his mind, Tyki somehow knew that if Road saw this, she’d be making jokes. Though, he gritted when he felt feathers beginning to drill into his hands, glaring up at the Innocence who merely grinned down at him. Tyki gathered Dark Matter into his body, allowing it to take the form of tentacles that knocked the Innocence off of him. He quickly got up from the ground, eyes watching the other warily. He frowned when he heard it laughing and gathered more Matter into his arms.
“You can’t kill me, you know,” the Innocence taunted, its voice echoing throughout the forest. “Someone like you doesn’t possess the power to kill me.”
Tyki kept quiet before smirking. “Really now? Is that what you think? I believe I’ll have to disagree.”
“You may be one of the strongest Noah, but even you can’t kill something entirely made of Innocence.”
“You sound so confident,” Tyki said, focusing on closing the bond. He held back his surprise when he felt anger coursing through, briefly wondering if his mind was playing tricks on him. It was the first time he felt Lavi determined to keep the bond open. Though, he quickly snapped out of his thoughts when he felt something coming after him. He quickly deflected the Innocence blast with his own blast. In the back of his mind, he could feel Joyd beginning to become restless. It would only be a matter of time until the Memory will start to take over, and Tyki had to prevent that from happening.
Tyki soon felt Apocryphos charge at him, but the Noah didn’t bother moving out of the way. He turned to grab its wrist and slammed it into the ground, creating a crater. The Noah held back a grunt of pain when he felt Apocryphos punch him in the stomach with its free hand, but it only caused Tyki to tighten his grip. He glowered down at it, but it only laughed.
“Go ahead and kill me if you can, Joyd. For once, you might get the chance,” it teased.
Tyki’s eyes narrowed, ignoring the pain coming from his injuries. The Noah replied, “I’m not going to kill you. Not until you give me answers.”
“Oh?” Apocryphos’ lips curled back into a wide grin. If Tyki didn’t know any better, he would have thought that he was fighting against one of his own Family members (not that it’d ever happen), not a sadistic independent Innocence. The Apocryphos laughed. “Are you talking about the day of the Flood? It’s such a shame that you really don’t remember it.”
Tyki growled. “Enough of that. What happened before the Flood?”
Apocryphos went quiet, but the maniacal grin remained on its face. Then, it laughed again.
“How interesting~ One would have thought that the Earl of the Ninth follower would tell you about what had occurred between you and your twin star,” it remarked.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Tyki asked, but a troubled feeling began to cloud him.
The Innocence smirked. “You and Bookman Jr. weren’t always twin stars.”
Tyki’s eyes widened a fraction before he found himself suddenly blown back, crashing into several trees. He slowly sat up, holding his head when he felt a sharp pain. Immediately, he knew that Joyd was hurt, but wasn’t surprised to know that the Memory was struggling to stay conscious. Tyki let out a low chuckle. The two of them really were stubborn. He glanced over at Apocryphos, noticing that the other was walking calmly toward him.
“You should have known better than to fight me.”
“For a thing like you, you really do talk a lot,” Tyki remarked as he got up to his feet.
“Can one really be a thing if they’re fighting to protect another?” Apocryphos retorted.
The Noah smirked. “I highly doubt that you’re fighting to protect the Earl. Besides, your idea of protecting seems a bit twisted.”
“And yours isn’t?” Apocryphos sneered, charging at Tyki. Tyki released a maniacal laugh, meeting the charge head-on. All he could hope was that he’d make it out of this alive.