Despite Rehny being closer to Ishar, it was Mairek who dealt the first blow. Mairek cut through the air like an arrow loosed from the tightest bowstring, inching forward through time, parting it like a ship amidst waves. The young Talisi man twisted his weapon, bearing its blunt end and extended it towards Ishar's temple with the aim to incapacitate not to kill. He measured the strength of the jab, certain he won't crack Ishar's skull with the impact and hoped his friend would simply collapse and the madness raging across the Ganidan Plain would end.
Ishar titled his head at the last moment to come to rest on his left shoulder, his eyes remained closed. Mairek's spear met Ishar's horn and deflected off the Kolotian. Rehny closed in just in time with a fist aimed at Ishar's jaw, a fist sparkling with a magenta flame that spoke of unbridled power. Ishar raised his right hand and caught Rehny's fist, the impact sent a shockwave that blew at Rehny's pink hair and Ishar's dark hair.
Ishar smiled, eyes still closed.
Rehny pulled away and employed a Form of Pride, jumping into the air and twisting for an overhead kick that might serve to put Ishar down.
Mairek backtracked a step and switched his grip on the spear, whirling it so the barbed point replaced the blunt end. He thrust the spear head at Ishar's knee, his conscience warred between the thought of crippling his friend and saving the lives of all those upon the Ganidan Plain. All around death bloomed around Ishar, spreading out like petals facing a spring breeze and engulfing all within the Plain. People died by the second and if Mairek did nothing the whole realm would perish.
Ishar's eyes opened. Burning amber with sparks at the edges.
Ishar caught Rehny's foot mid air, swung him around and slammed him into Mairek as if he weighed less than a doll. Mairek missed his thrust as Rehny barreled into him. His feet lifted off the ground and his grip on his spear loosened as the impact made him cartwheel through the air.
Rehny felt the air get knocked out of his lungs as Ishar spun him through the air and slammed him onto the ground. His body felt deflated as if he was only skin and bones, flesh nonexistent. The Kolotian would spin him, use the momentum to raise him then bring his body down. He felt his ribs crack and break, he felt his arms dislocate, he felt his shin break, his skull fracture. But he healed with every injury.
The pink lights flooded to him as thousands continued to die, but even he knew that an end was in sight. The damage outweighed the healing and it was only a matter of time.
Rehny turned an eye to the horizon as Ishar raised him once more, time slowed and enabled him to take in the battlefield, to see all the dead in red armor spread out to the furthest reaches of the realm. Three hundred thousand dead? He could not tell. All he knew was that the number was only increasing.
Slam! He felt his neck break.
You will die! The Goddess Nyawe screamed in his mind. But what was he to do? He'd made a mistake, he should never have tampered with the rope. He should never have brought chaos to its purest form.
The realm couldn't handle it. Nobody could.
But he could try.
Rehny felt his neck mend as Ishar started spinning him once more but this time he lashed out with a kick to Ishar's face that was off the mark but served its purpose to falter the Kolotian's mad spinning. Ishar brought Rehny down onto the ground once more, quicker than he would have and with less of an impact than intended. Rehny curled his arms upon his face to ensure he didn't lose consciousness then uncurled and twisted for Ishar's right foot. For the purple rope that ended at the cut he'd made only a foot away.
The rope burned to the touch and Rehny screamed from unimaginable pain as his hand got scorched.
Let go of the rope! Loss of love has spawned hate, the rope is tainted with his hate for life. He craves total annihilation! Nyawe said and Rehny let go.
Mairek landed in a roll and thanked the Gods that he had not impaled himself on his spear. He lay staring up at the sky, the screams and shouts upon the Plain were dying down and he could not tell whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. Dawn's golden glow pierced the veil of darkness and set to light the truth of war. The stain of red upon jade flowers, entrails and grey brain matter spattered all over the place. The poetry of slaughter was a song that the Ganidan Plain danced to and Mairek lay witness to it all. He raised himself and stared at Ishar, seeing his friend whom he always accompanied to herd sheep spin a man twice his size and weight around and slam him onto the ground. Rehny struggled to free himself from the deluge of helplessness but it was as hopeless as a toddler straining against his father's grip.
Mairek grabbed his spear, aimed it at Ishar. "I'm sorry." He whispered and extended his arm backwards from where he sat with his grip in the middle of the shaft and the barbed tip aimed just above Ishar. He closed his eyes and perceived the chaotic play of time, he aimed for a tendril that was thicker than the rest. A tendril that chaos raged from. He leaned further back and-
A tight grip suddenly upon his shoulder and knee. Mairek opened his eyes and met Ishar's face inches away from his own. The grip on his shoulder tightened and so did the one on his knee. Ishar smiled at him, an unsettling mask of joy with the horns arrayed on his forehead.
"Your God can fly but can you?" Ishar asked.
"Wha-"
Ishar abruptly turned around with his grip still on Mairek and the Talisi man screamed as the Kolotian spun once, twice then launched him into the air. As he departed the ground like a projectile aiming for the rising sun, dropping his spear behind, he caught a glimpse of Rehny, battered and sprawled on the ground, magenta eyes speaking of defeat.
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Mairek screamed as he flew through the air as if launched by a catapult. The figures on the ground, dead or alive, all lost form the further he traveled. He screamed and tears welled in his eyes until his ascent slowed having reached its peak. As his descent through the sky started Mairek made a desperate plea. "Nielda, help me."
The God did not answer.
His descent accelerated, the ground started having form as death became imminent. Animalistic fear clutched at Mairek's heart, he flailed his limbs as the air's chill bit through his armor with his accelerating fall.
"NIELDAAAAA!" Time stopped.
"Stop screaming my name, we don't know each other like that."' Nielda said. Suddenly appearing beside him, hovering mid air several feet from the ground while facing the battlefield.
"Help me." Mairek begged.
"I already did. I taught you all you needed to know." The God cupped his chin in both midnight hued hands and observed the battlefield below. "Ovek is teaching Nyawe a lesson, a beautiful one mind you. 'Alter my champion at your own risk.' What was the puckered bitch thinking? Unleashing chaos in its truest form! The last time that happened we had to abandon an entire civilisation and start afresh.
Tsk.. Tsk.. Tsk."
"Please, I cannot ignore this as I did time. I don't wish to die and leave Ishar to this, he is in pain. He is losing himself with-"
Nielda raised a palm and interrupted Mairek. "Please, none of that sentimental bullshit with me." The God stretched his arms, looking like a swimmer midstroke and sighed loudly. "You know, you impressed me today and so I will help you know the secret to-"
Nielda's gaze widened, his blue eyes enlarging to the size of twin orbs as he observed bellow. Mairek scanned the ground and saw the cause of the God's discomfort. Ishar, who'd been standing frozen was vibrating, breaking free of time's frozen hold.
"Fuck!" Nielda said, panic in his voice.
"What?" Mairek asked. Panicking himself.
"Here's the plan! I'm going to fling you at him to divert him away from me." Nielda said while floating further above.
"Wha-" Mairek started but his words turned to a scream as he suddenly shot towards Ishar like a javelin flung from above.
Time resumed its march and Ishar shook himself of some mild discomfort that had assailed him. "You know, Rehny," Ishar said as he walked towards Rehny who was picking himself off the ground, his scrapes and bruises healing as he straightened. "You of all people should understand my motives, I once sensed pain in you, chaotic pain. Pain that I now feel."
A scream grew closer and louder. Ishar shot out his hand behind him and caught Mairek by the collar of his leather armor as he flew towards him. The Talisi's impact upon colliding with Ishar's arm did damage as Mairek puked blood upon Ishar's arm that held him above the ground. He dangled limply from Ishar's hold, a glazed look to his green eyes.
Ishar faced his friend. "Huh, you can fly! That's really impressive. I wish I could fly."
Rehny prepared himself to charge at the Kolotian who stood distracted by Mairek but he decided against it. "Ishar, Niada is not dead. I cut the rope that tied the both of you. Under the instruction of Nyawe, the Goddess of Love, it was the only way we could defeat Meena and Vayin. I'm.. I'm Sorry."
Ishar tilted his head back and laughed. A terrifying laugh that sounded like the scratch of a blade against a breastplate. "I am no fool, Rehny, you lie to save but what's the point of saving if what's being saved feeds pain? No. Extinction is best."
Rehny's shoulders slumped. How could he make Ishar see the truth while he'd blinded him with a lie? Inwardly he cursed Nyawe and hoped the Goddess heard him. He balled his fingers into fists and held them before him, he ignored the bodies lying all around. Bodies of foe and ally alike. The sun painted the scenes all around for what they were. The touch of chaos was unmistakable. Countless sightless eyes beheld a dawn they would never witness. Was there hope for the realm?
No. The Talisi young man channeled a God. Rehny was certain of it yet there he was in Ishar's grasp.
Eyes half closed with his hands dangling limp and blood staining his lips and chin. He also channeled a God yet Ishar had treated him like a child prone to anger treats a doll. Spinning it and slamming it onto the ground. Rehny tightened his fists, the Gods would not intervene, that was as certain as day yet if he did nothing the realm would not live to see another day.
He needed a miracle, words had failed him and so had combat. He needed another option, something that would-
A grunt from his left.
A grunt from his right.
Two Telinete Rhinos came to a stop flanking him on either side while facing Ishar. The two beasts radiated heat from beneath their thick red carapace. The smaller one on the left tilted its head to the left and let out a bellow that shook the ground.
Ishar cocked his head to the side and observed Carrot. "What do you mean I look ugly? You also have horns! I look just like you!" Ishar said while lowering Mairek to the ground, hands still clutching his collar, the Talisi young man's knees sunk to the ground. Carrot twisted his head from side to side and Rehny had to step to the right lest he be impaled by the creature's huge horns.
Carrot sneezed and grunted.
Ishar turned his head to Mairek who looked up at him from where he knelt. "He is my friend, just as you are, Carrot. But he doesn't understand, you see? Niada is dead! Killed! And I know no peace now, so neither will anyone. Stand in my way and-" Carrot inturrupted with a grunt. "What do you mean you can smell her?" Silence. "She's dead, Carrot, dead. You smell a dead body."
The Telinete on the right bellowed and Ishar turned to face it, taking note of it as if for the first time.
"What is she saying?" Ishar asked. Carrot lifted his upper lip and run his tongue upon his upper teeth. "Where is Niada's body?" Ishar let go of Mairek and the young man came to sit on the ground while struggling with each wheezing breath. Ishar turned around and surveyed the bodies all around him.. Looking.
Carrot moved forward, his huge bulk bringing a slight tremor to the ground with each step. He came to stand next Ishar and nudged the Kolotian's side with a horn. Rehny could hear Ishar's chaos fueled voice from where he stood next to the other Telinete. "She's dead... No.. Her scent increasing in intensity means she's coming closer?.. No.. She's dead Carrot... And the realm is dead too... What do you mean Cabby wants to see her? But she's dead!... We must wage war..." Ishar tilted his head to the side and Rehny heard as a sob escaped him. "Okay, we'll do as you say. Take me to where you believe her scent is strongest so I can show you the body then you'll join me in my vengeance, deal?" Rehny smiled as he watched Ishar climb the Telinete Rhino. Carrot bellowed, lifting Ishar further onto its neck. "Of course Cabby has a bigger arse, she's a Rhino for Ovek's sake Carrot." The Rhino made its way away from the battlefield with Ishar on its back and the other Rhino departed Rehny's side to tail the pair. All the while Rehny held a smile that was mirrored by Mairek on the ground as together they watched the trio depart and the chaos subside.