An Empyrean End
Chapter 13 [https://www.rellawings.com/superluminal/chapternum/chaphead_13.jpg]
The Canadian Weather Witch, Defender of the North, a Junior Member of the Society of Sentinels, Favoured Daughter, All-Around-Hero, Friend. All were titles that Mistral felt honored to bear, perhaps none more so than that last.
Mistral also felt that other, less appealing titles also applied. Jailer, Target, Victim, Gullible, Ms. Forgiving to a Fault, Stubborn, a Fool.
Yes, these were far less appealing… but painfully and regrettably were equally true.
But now, after years of skirmishes, trading victory and defeat, countless long hunts and games of cat-and-mouse, the cause of a great deal of that very pain and regret now stood, or rather floated, before her once again.
Many titles applied to Black Angel as well, some of them even good, but for Mistral they all boiled down to the only that ultimately mattered: Villain.
When Black Angel had returned and launched a new attack after having suffered her last defeat, Mistral knew she was being led along. Knew that this was most likely a trap. Knew to be prepared for anything.
The Ebony Winged Despair Personified had demanded that she leave her ‘wingless guard dog’ behind, lest she first take the life of Garou, Mistral’s compatriot and stalwart wolfman ally.
Such was Mistral’s commitment to putting an end to this never-ending cycle that she actually agreed to leave her fellow hero behind and face her nemesis alone. It wasn’t smart, downright foolish, as a matter of fact. But it needed to be finished.
Black Angel had revealed herself by attacking cities across Canada, clearly trying to draw Mistral out. Flying at her best speed, Mistral simply couldn’t match her opponent’s, even with her teleportation skill. From the beginning, the villain had always chosen her targets with such apparent randomness that her next move was too unpredictable.
However, to say that there was no method in this madness revealed only ignorance of Black Angel’s character. There was just no way someone as devious and cunning as she would ‘just pop up out of nowhere and randomly strike’, and yet—
Still, none of that mattered against what Mistral knew needed to be done now.
‘The Hero needs to put an end to the villain.’ It really was just that simple at the end of the day. The problem lay in the fact that the villain in question knew that, too.
Black Angel had shown herself and stayed long enough for Mistral to arrive, then flown off into the mountains where they could finally have their climatic battle. It seemed so straightforward, so easy. But nothing ever was when she was Mistral’s opponent, unlike most of the rest of her gallery of villains.
The fact remained, however, that they were face to face once again. Mistral swore in her heart that, no matter what tricks Black Angel had up her sleeve this time, she wouldn’t let this chance slip through her fingers.
The moment their eyes met, a field of pure darkness enveloped a vast swath of the Rocky Mountains, this field of darkness far more sweeping than she’d ever witnessed her foe create, even though this was a classic ploy to gain the proverbial tactical high ground.
Mistral conjured flurries of snow to counterattack. The resulting swirls of ice were invisible under the circumstances, only detectable in this darkness by feel. Her enemy knew that sight wasn’t necessary to control the Weather Witch’s specialty, but Black Angel almost always employed her blackout ability.
Mistral had a new costume, symbolizing her commitment to take down Black Angel once and for all.
Her new cloak was sky blue on the inside and white on the outside. It billowed against her tight white leotard. Her flared gloves were the same hue of sky blue. Upon her brow rested a stylized headdress that was adorned with native tribe fetishes that were faintly visible beneath her waving silver hair. On her feet was a set of matching blue mid-shin stocking-style boots with hard soles, all tied together by a leather belt fastened around her waist.
A whooshing noise came from her right where she knew her eternal nemesis lurked; the umbral angel, ready to use her powerful dark blasts to turn a hero to ash in a heartbeat. Mistral narrowed her eyes and continued chanting softly under her breath. Before her next breath, she sensed a fluctuation in the air.
As expected.
She flattened her palm, and a gale emitted from it, pushing her to the side as a colossal blast of null energy sailed through the space she had just occupied. Mistral sensed it, but certainly didn’t see it coming. Her concentration deepened as she allowed herself to sink further into stillness and quiet. Her nemesis might have somewhat of a home field advantage because she’d gotten to choose the battlefield, but she still had a weakness.
With no light, her enemy could only see outlines because of her imperfect night vision. By not making noise, Mistral was making herself difficult to pinpoint, causing the darkness blasts to fly off their mark.
Unable to suppress her villainous nature, Black Angel squandered the initiative advantage she’d created with a classic monolog, “Hahahaha! As expected of you! A small puff of air from one of those ancient beasties within you? Careful, Mistral. They might break free if you use those powers carelessly,” Black Angel taunted. The sound of her flapping wings filled the entire battlefield to intimidate or simply to smother the hero’s senses.
While not having much control over it, anything related to frequency like light or the darkness her enemy specialized in was within the domain of her power. That included sound waves.
Mistral smiled secretively. Not that her opponent could see it, anyway. As usual, Black Angel was being overconfident. Now if you’d kindly perform an unnecessarily flashy move for me…
A faint echo resounded behind Mistral, but she ignored it to continue chanting under her breath. Winds whipped about the darkness-cloaked figures and sped until they strengthened enough to make a frenzy, and in gaining speed and rotation, these winds formed a tornado funnel. The cloaked heroine hovered now silently in its eye. The cadence of her chanting changed, and the cyclone grew frigid. Ice crystals formed and snow flew in every direction from it.
“Your little bluff is as weak as you, Shaman,” Black Angel’s voice cackled from above. Holding steady, Mistral smiled and waited.
There was a ripple of energy building directly below. NOW!
With a sudden release and implosion of the gathered winds, Mistral propelled herself high into the air. Because she knew Black Angel wouldn’t have been waiting too far above her, the singularity that formed below her was no surprise at all. Allowing an explosion of mystical energy to flow through her body, Mistral saturated everything below her with a different spell, a divine energy: the aura of the Great Manitou’s fire. It was a highly taxing spell. The tremendous energy would guarantee her own position would become known, but there were enough advantages to taking such a risk that wouldn’t be immediately apparent.
“Great Manitou, please guide my steps,” Mistral murmured, feeling the god’s attention on her.
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“Ah—that peculiar trick of yours again—!” This time Black Angel’s voice roared from every direction. “I won’t allow it this time. The power of that god of yours won’t touch me.”
Favoured daughter, you must loose the Beasts for a short time should you wish to prevail. Alone, you cannot win. It will be dangerous, but you must. The leashes upon one or all will again be loosened afterward. A ritual to reseal them will be necessary in the near future.
Mistral nodded, her teeth gritting. Then so shall it be.
“Did you hear that, brothers? A chance to let fly!” A voice echoed in the deep corners of her heart. The voice hissed in spiteful glee, followed by a rising chorus of laughter.
Suddenly another fluctuation passed through the air and the motes of snow Mistral had scattered about drifted to one side of her, tracing a path through the air to her opponent. This was the location of Black Angel, but as the dark-winged one stated, having an inkling of her location wouldn’t be enough. Mistral’s enemy still had every advantage. As another eruption of darkness sailed towards the heroine, the fetters of Great Manitou placed on the Beasts shattered and fell away within Mistral’s soul.
A burst of pure elemental energy exploded from Mistral’s arms that would counter Black Angel’s potshot as the Beasts took form from the loosened energy in the surrounding space.
But this too would not be enough. It was only one maneuver in her stratagem. She’d had to slip the shackles on the Three Great Beasts of the North to make use of their fury and strength in her conflicts with Black Angel before, so this ploy wouldn’t surprise her.
The next step.
“I command you, Korakorkomaq, Rosshossho, Howeesha. Fly to the beacon and capture my enemy. In the name of the Great Manitou, I bind you to my will.”
The Beasts hissed and resisted her influence. They snarled and fought.
“Recalcitrant as ever, I hear.” Black Angel laughed softly. “Why don’t you three join forces with ME again? Your hated jailer stands before me… together, we may return her to the elements. I shall prove a far kinder mistress once she is no more.” Black Angel’s dark smile didn’t need to be seen to know it was there. And yet Mistral still smiled confidently even as the brothers hissed and charged directly at their jailer. A new chant she’d started echoed through the air.
“Go!” Mistral’s voice echoed with the authority of the Great Manitou.
The Beasts shrieked and writhed in frustration as Mistral slipped through their grasping claws. They could not strike true because, like Mistral, Black Angel’s blackout field technique blinded them. On the face, the odds seemed stacked against her with the power of their raw bestial energies allied with the debilitating trickery of her hated enemy.
The power of Great Manitou rippled through the air. Mistral allowed herself to fall while casting out chains of energy to where the brothers writhed. The Chains of Fate, bestowed by the Great Manitou to his favored daughter.
She felt the moment his influence connected. The Three bucked wildly, but their eyes locked on the spot towards which the snow was flying. Because of their natures, once they had a target to attack, they ferociously launched towards it. Destruction and slaughter were so ingrained that it didn’t even matter whether it was a prey of their choosing.
Hissing with fury, they flew at where the snow was telling them Black Angel should be, each Beast ready to rend her to pieces with wind, ice and lightning once they befell her. But when the Three arrived, they found nothing. Their senses weren’t especially sensitive, but surely there should be something there for them to rip into.
The villain had hoodwinked them! Surely they’d just done exactly as Black Angel had expected.
Against those expectations, however, Mistral rocketed in the exact opposite direction and smiled when her hand found the throat of her enemy. Black Angel gasped. “H-HOW?!”
Mistral said to Black Angel while the Three seethed and scrambled around where she was, “I know you better than anyone else in this world… A schemer like you would only ever be as far as possible from that beacon I ‘connected to you.’ It ends tonight, one way or another! You’re irredeemable!”
“When did I ever ask to be saved?” Black Angel scoffed.
“Your crimes will finally come to an end. Great Manitou will make sure of it.” Mistral snarled even as Black Angel gripped her wrist and began infusing it with her void energy.
Black Angel laughed throatily as her power ate at Mistral’s arm. “You know, touching me was a mistake. I halfway hoped you’d reach me just so I could see the look on your face up close as my power ate away at you.” She practically purred with overweening egotism.
The Beasts had realized their prey was now merely an illusion and were hissing vainly into the darkness.
“Here, Korakorkomaq, Rosshossho, Howeesha. Your hated jailer is here!” Mistral yelled.
“Ahahahaha, you’d call your executioners upon yourself? You fool! They’ll be mine soon. It’ll be child’s play to capture them as I did before. The elements will be mine to toy with as I wish once again and I’ll bind you to my will—forever.” This ploy had put Black Angel off balance, but she waited for Mistral’s servants to destroy their mistress.
Mistral endured, sensing them bearing down with tooth and claw ready.
“They’re mine now!” A stream of power burst forth from Black Angel that was cold and yet burned. Mistral winced, feeling the current of her nemesis’ power, trying to wrench the Beasts away from the heroine’s Chains of Fate. However, now was the moment. All was now aligned as her patron had ordained.
“Now! Great Manitou!” Mistral yelled. The chains connected to the Beasts suddenly shortened as they neared the grappling two. Flashes of lightning and the booming of thunder echoed through the darkness as their combined storm surged forward to claim Mistral’s life.
Though made somewhat immaterial by the chains to prime them for reabsorption by their jailer, there was still a colossal collision as the chains of fate jerked them forward directly into Black Angel.
Mistral expected Black Angel to be knocked back where she could deliver the final blow, but the Beasts unintentionally interdicted her body by passing through while being sucked back towards their prisons within the shaman.
Great Manitou had little mercy for an enemy of the Balance, and this callousness often left Mistral with regret. She recriminated herself for not having considered the strength of the pull, forcing the Three back into their cells. By his ancient standards, the Beasts’ reimprisonment was more important than a single life.
Mistral cried the moment the Beasts reconnected, but her gambit had worked. The darkness faded as Black Angel’s power suffered from the backlash of the mystical forces that had just blown through her. The villainess’ energies lashed out and crackled about her. Black Angel hovered for the briefest of moments, but then she fell, leaving a trail of black feathers and blood through the air. Mistral lost control due to a loss of equilibrium and fell together with her enemy. The shock of the force of the rejoining was causing her power to fail. The fated enemies spiraled downwards as the horizon lightened with the coming dawn.
They smashed down onto the mountainside, leaving a crater where they hit, destroying a few nearby stone structures. It was all Mistral could do to wrest enough of Howeesha’s power to soften their landing somewhat.
Neither could move for a time, but Black Angel haltingly rose to her feet, coughing blood into the dirt and rock beneath her and collapsed. It was Mistral’s turn to struggle up, tears flowing.
Their eyes briefly met when Black Angel’s head twitched around at the noise of Mistral’s own struggle to rise.
The villain’s beautiful and yet utterly evil-filled eyes then turned forward to gaze at the sky and her head fell back to the ground. Her eyes fixed onto the sun that had just risen, staining the sky a lovely pink. She reached towards the star as though pleading.
Mistral stumbled forward and placed herself between the star and Black Angel, unable to prevent a flash of intense regret as she looked into her eyes, though her animosity quickly rose like bile in reflex.
How dare you make me pity you?!
Black Angel looked away, seeming to understand as she hacked another gout of blood from her mouth. “T-they were almost mine again… I was just a millisecond off with my timing… I knew you would—”
“They aren’t yours. They’re mine. My wards,” Mistral hissed.
“Your slaves! Hahahaha, you think yourself so much better than me——the glorious hero—in fact——nothing but a—slave——owner.” Black Angel coughed again.
Mistral looked away with a glare. “Shut up!”
They’d landed in the rural graveyard below. It was a fitting, final resting place for her enemy.
“Next time… I’ll—don’t think—we’re finished yet——Luv.”
Black Angel gasped with the last of her strength and reached up to touch Mistral’s face gently as she turned to ash. In moments, all that remained of Black Angel was an angel-shaped pile of tainted soot and equally ashen feathers that floated into the air and slowly drifted away, high above, swept tenderly in a south-westerly direction.
It took Mistral’s having seen the glory of the sun come into full view over the horizon for realization to sink in.
It was over. At long last, it was finally over.
Mistral knew there was still much good work that needed to be done, but first she would take some time off to consider her feelings and begin the healing process.
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