Chapter 54: Nightmare

{"Safo, wake up, wake up. Safo! Safo! Please."} Luna desperately called out for Safo who fainted, unable to withstand the sudden amount of pain.

He missed half of the beating while his eyes were open but rolled over showing white For the unknown to Luna reason she was still able to see the outside world through Safo's white eyes.

Safo's consciousness blacked out but he didn't enter his Soul Room. So Luna didn't know how to reach him. All of her attempts to shout his name brought no results.

"Die you bug!" Kardon stood materialized, he cared little about the world or his reputation anymore, he saw only his aim in front of his eyes. The head of the rival candidate. Savoring every second he slowly approached the most convenient place for the clean strike.

In position, he once more swung his purple blazing sword upward and dropped a final look at Safo's face. "Die!"

"You die, jerk." Breath of fire in the form of a round pillar came to meet Kardon's legs.

Luna took over the command of the body.

She had only seen Safo training in the armored room, never in her mind, the thought that she would have to use his resources appeared even for the slightest second. Though she was able to make a copy of a Mini Pillar it lacked a duration that Safo was able to perform. When the excitement and the anger settled within her she saw the result of her work.

A couple of meters from her lay Kardon, or at least it was his upper body, his scorched bones scattered all around save for two which still were attached to his hip. His flesh completely burned to coal and just pour down as well as his thin cuticle wings that were too fragile to bear the power of close fire.

{"Luna where are you"} Luna heard Safo's voice inside of her head and swiftly switched with him.

"Hey, are you alive?" Safo asked.

"How? HOW? How can you have so much power in you?" Kardon turned his head to face Safo.

"Oh, didn't I mention before? I have the knowledge of the stone, motherfuc*er. Haha. What do you say to that, huh?" Safo half laughed and half cried. He didn't feel the pain that much, his brain just cut out the pain sensation as a result Safo saw the world floating.

"No! You had no time to... That bastard Halazar... he made you touch it on purpose. I will kill you, and him, and then all of your pathetic friends. That bitch O'rmon didn't tell me that you already received the information hidden only for kings. I will kill that useless piece of shit." With that, Kardon using his last strength, will, and hatred rolled to his belly and took his rifle from his back which was surprisingly well considering the battle. He put it on the ground aiming for Safo's head. "You will be first to die, trash."

Safo had no strength to move, he simply utilized his remaining resources. "Explosion!"

A sphere of concentrated fire burst out from Safo's body with tremendous force and sound.

Rifle and Kardon flew in a different direction. Kardon rolled several times before stopping fifteen meters away from Safo, his clothes caught on fire, and skin was singed scorched, and covered with blisters. Still, he was conscious.

At this point sponsors and hosts argued about stopping the fight but couldn't come to an agreement. The tournament was an important part of the culture of the psiora race from ancient times. It was only an excuse, of course, they were captivated by the statistics that presented how many viewers they had and how many more were joining every second. The stream turned out to be on the list of the most rapidly growing live videos on all platforms. Profit rained along with the popularity of the psiora production all across the universe.

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"Give up. Don't make me use the Fire Pillar, you know you won't survive it." Safo directed his arm towards Kardon and opened his fingers as if it was some lid of a bunker hiding the nuclear rocket. At least it felt so for him.

"You better kill me and face disgrace or else I will haunt you, all of you." Kardon didn't mind his blazing clothes nor the absence of his legs, he was fuelled by all the negative emotions that the living being could have. His face showed no pain, only rage.

"Fuc* you then, man. I tried." Starting from shoulders the soul energy that was left in Safo started to sip out, Ignited, accumulating to launch itself towards the opponent that was located in front of the palm. Safo could just make a regular Fire Pillar, that usually came straight from his palm, but exclusively for this opponent, he decided to stretch the process so Kardon will have time to be intimidated before his inevitable annihilation.

His Flame Armor exhausted itself and also was consumed by the building pillar of fire. Soon Safo's arm was a thick condensed fire roaring to be freed. And so he was about to do when out of nowhere a blurry shadow passed by him with a disturbing wind and stopped just before Kardon.

"Please don't." O'rmon looked straight into Safo's eye, she came to stop the assault despite breaking traditions and the rules of the tournament. She was determined to share the blow and perish with Kardon.

A motion was set and the fire was pushed to start its unstoppable journey of destruction. The world halted in Safo's eyes, he was going to kill the girl that saved his life many times before. Even though she was mean to him all the time, she never brought harm upon him. Except when she betrayed him and reported everything that she knew about him to Kardon. Safo had mixed thoughts and feelings. In all that stir Safo saw one decision.

"ARGH" Safo shouted more out of frustration than from the difficulty of redirecting his attack. He bent his arm at the elbow and all the energy gathered in his arm was released upward.

For a second a long flaming pole rose from the arena and disappeared immediately. A wave of heat reached even people sitting far from the battlefield so they could comprehend the amount of soul power invested in that one attack.

O'rmon dropped to her knees covering her face with hands, she no more could hold her tears. Kardon behind her fainted right after her heroic appearance of her spy and missed Safo's firework.

Suddenly a tsunami of pain engulfed Safo Nur, all the pain that he managed to put aside while concentrating his attention to keep himself alive broke the dam and flooded Safo's mind. His torn skin, the result of broken bones' sharp tips. Here and there a white bone came to the view to watch the match, apparently. Three through holes in his other leg never stopped bleeding causing Safo to lie in the pond of his blood. And soon unable to withstand the pressure and the lack of blood in his body also played its role, making his vision darker and darker. Everything seemed to be in a far distance, faded in the background, even Luna's words of assurance that everything was alright and it was time to rest. Safo dropped asleep.

…

A bright sunny day on the green valley, that surrounded the small apartment, was especially pleasing that day. It was a picnic day.

A young family left their tiny concrete walls to enjoy the sunlight and have an outdoor meal. Mother ran after the stormy child in a vailed attempt to feed him a fresh slice of watermelon. Father laughed at the comical scene and slowly stood up picking up another slice and also ran forward to try his luck with a child.

A moment later all of them were rolling on the ground covered in red juice, the child's face had some of it but none went into his mouth. With a victorious look, the child prankster jumped to his feet and resumed his important games.

When the father stood up and he was taken aback in horror. The grass turned to red flames and the child was trapped inside the circle of fire as well as the woman. He couldn't reach them unless he walks through the all-consuming fire. While he froze hesitating, the skies turned red, the very clouds were on flames threatening to fall bringing an end to the world.

With no other way to go, the man decided to throw himself to save the kid, or at least to bring comfort to a frightened child. At that moment, the deafening sound vibrating the ground came rushing pushing him on the ground by the sheer power of the soundwave. Dreadful events did not end with that alone, a veil of dark red fire of an explosion moved like a wall. Without having enough time to help his family, full of regrets, with tears in his eyes realizing his helplessness, the father was buried under the flames as well the rest of the family.

Safo Nur jumped up from his slumber with a bawl, drenched in a cold sweat. He closed his eyes and hid his face from the light on the ceiling that was piercing through hurting his brain. After a short while of heavy breathing, his senses slowly came back to him.

"What a nasty dream. How the mind works I won't understand. An apartment in the middle of the field. Haha, silly thing to say even." Safo recalled the image from his nightmare and laughed at the absurdness of it.

{"I'm so happy that you are awake. How do you feel"}