Carina sighed and cracked her joints. She reached for her belt, luckily still attached to her suit and pressed the pocket, to release the syringe. Then injected herself with it, as she heard a blood-curdling scream from above her.
Adrenaline coursed through her body, as the medicine went to work. "We'll make this quick." She whispered under her breath.
However a sudden beam of violet fire, razed down on her, forcing her, to raise a barrier of rocks and stones, to shiekd herself. It barely held together as the stones molted away from the heat.
"I'll kill you!" Xyrisa yelled as the beam suddenly stopped, with her appearing in front of the Nova's barrier, then smashed it apart while meeting her arm raised in defense. Yet her rage could not be stopped. With quick reflexes, she managed to grab Carina's arm and spin like a flaming top in midair before throwing her into the ground.
Yet, Carina didn't panic, instead she dropped her arms towards the ground, as she uncontrollably fell at an alarming rate. A wave of lava emerged, alleviating the fall and her momentum to allow her to surf on it to propel her forward. Meeting the princess halfway as their fists met each other's faces with a loud impact.
Then they proceeded to descend to the ground, while exchanging a violent flurry of strikes at each other. Before Carina, broke the deadlock, by socking her so hard with her temporary arm, that it shattered and pushed Xyrisa a little back.
The Nova quickly made a new arm and planted her legs into the ground. Molting the magma prosthetics she had on to it, to make sure she wouldn't move, then gathered energy and heated her remaining intact hand with a lava gauntlet.
The princess tried to recover quickly, but Carina wouldn't let her and continued to strike the princess without letting up. Each time, she struck, her temporary arm and gauntlet would break from impact, as she hit her harder than she had ever to anyone before.
"Aaaaaahhh." The Nova yelled, as six seconds passed by, before she struck her with her final punch and launched her temporary arm with it. Hurdling the princess a distance a way, before an eruption like explosion, resounded across the city.
"Keep going!" She heard Ashunde say, within her, cheering her on. Immediately, she drew her sword and raced towards the explosion.
However, it didn't stop, but grew bigger, violet and brighter as it started to consume more than it intended, confusing Carina, as she braced for impact.
The unnatural phenomenon coming for her, blew back hundreds of meters. Completely breaking away her prosthetics, as she used her remaining arm to stick the sword into the ground, and slow fall.
Her leg stubs, bled from sliding across the ground, but she bit her lip, to push away the pain. Then, grew new legs and an arm out of the ground, before using a small column and her sword, to raise herself up.
Just in time as Xyrisa bared down on her with a large blade, heavier than the Novas short sword. Violet flames burst out of it, as Carina coated hers in a lava and sila iko to protect her from the heat.
"We were together, for over a millennia and you just took him from me. Don't expect your death to be painless." The princess growled, as she struck again with even more force, before unleashing a countless amount of strikes on the Nova, as she searched for an opening.
"Crying after you attacked us first, is a child's mentality." Carina retorted, without budging from any of her attempts. Then she bit down and gritted her teeth. Putting more effort in their exchange and slightly overpowering her, before their swords clashed apart. It was finally the moment she was looking for.
With quick reflexes, she grasped the rock column she used to get up, and molted it into a moltened spear, before stabbing through the princess' chest. It sunk straight through as she screamed, then the Nova twisted it, spiralling a blade of lava that burst out of the spear, within the child of Atlas and had it split her in half. Perfectly splitting her to the middle of ears, as she fell back.
Carina stepped back, heaving and taking deep breaths as her side effects had started to creep up. Then, jumped back even further and summoned a dome to protect her, as another explosion of violet fire, erupted out of the princess.
"Aaaaaahhh, aaaaaah, it hurts. Kaelin where are you?! It hurts so much." She could hear the princess wail outside of her dome in pain.
Carina knew that even though, the princess might actually be hurt, her tears were still just crocodile tears. She had a feeling that once she took the dome down, that the princess would have already regenerated.
However, suddenly breaking into the dome and facing her, was Xyrisa, carrying a livid expression. "Ever heard of cold fire?" She asked before blasting the Nova point blank with a beam of ice cold, blue fire.
She got up hundreds of meters away, while quickly trying to regain her bearings. That was when she noticed, her prosthetic knee locking, nearly frozen from the beam and shocking her of what the princess was still capable of.
Xyrisa appeared once more in a blur of fire, as Carina spun around to punch her face in, however the princess caught it, smiling. While covering the arm with cold blue fire and crumbled it down, before punching her back and making her spit blood. She smirked as, she followed up with a low kick of cold fire, at her legs, shattering them as well and ending it with a back heel to her gut.
However, the Nova did not budge. Instead, she caught the princess' leg, as her own ones, manifested back out of magma, rocks and stones, within half a second and kept her standing. Then pulled together her other arm, to catch Xyrisa's other foot, from a futile kick.
"Unhand me!" The princess yelled, as Carina, burned her with her touch and the ground below them gave way. Revealing a wide tunnel, five times their size in diameter.
The princess panicked, thinking of the worst she could do. "Nope!" She yelled, as she started to burn fire through her feet, which Carina took on unfazed, while swinging her around down into the tunnel's walls.
Xyrisa popped open a doser and injected herself with it, then reciprocated the charge the Nova was following up with. The collision began caving in the tunnel all around them, however the princess managed to push her out.
Shooting Carina into the air, defenseless and disoriented. Yet, Xyrisa wasn't going to let up and took the chance, aiming to finish her off with one last strike, this time with blazing hot fire.
Though, to her surprise, the tunnel, she leaped out of, erupted. Flowing a bright hot beam of ultramafic lava. The princess watched it approach closer, then looked back at the Nova.
Carina, was already a step a head of her. She had already been pulling together lava and diamonds to her, as she was launched into the sky. A sphere of extremely hot lava, burned hovering before her palms. She knew she needed to match the eruptions, strength, but she still couldn't predict what Xyrisa would do.
Instead of running or dodging, the child of Atlas stood her ground, erupting forth, twin beams, of violet fire, from her palms, to match both of Carina's attacks.
"I'm not going to die here, Human!" As she yelled, her fire had started to push back, both of Carina's attacks, steadily, but evident. "You must pay for what you did to Kaelin! Mere ants, could never step against us!"
The fire got closer and doubts hidden within Carina's mind, creeped back. "What am I-"
"Finish it."
The two last words, coming from deep within her, crashed all doubt she had left within her. It was a combination of Ashunde's and what she wanted to hear coming from herself beckoning forth every last drop of might she had in her, to see this through.
"Erupt: Twin Vulkan!"
Both of the concentrated beams of lava spun, and burned white hot, before they ripped through Xyrisa's attacks. She screamed as she managed to raise up a thick flame barrier, laced with her iko, and holding the lava back to a a meter and a half radius around her.
The Nova, stopped the eruptions, and spun the lava around her barrier, while splicing up the diamonds she gathered into billions of shards.
"You dare trap me! I was chosen! Kaelin said he'll help me get to the top." She banged her hands against her flame barrier. "Since you killed him, it's your obligation now. Let me out and let's talk this through."
The princess' last words came out in a softer voice as she started to realize the situation she was in. Carina smiled and shook her head. "It's unfortunate we met."
Xyrisa's eyes grew wide, as the Nova clapped her hands together. "Erupt: Mycket Burial!"
On command, the dome of lava rapidly shrunk and fought against the flame barrier for only a moment. Before it shattered it in and consumed the princess, then imploded outward. Spewing up burning rain everywhere, as Carina's side effects, took over.
She descended down slowly, while her temporary prosthetics crumbled apart, as people around the world cheered. However she looked around her, seeing the carnage throughout the once beautiful city, then remembered, those she couldn't save. She gripped her fists, resolving herself to get stronger, then she felt a light tap on her shoulder.
A clone of Saphyra had just landed by her and extended out a hand. They smiled at each other, before she gave the Nova a piggyback to the nearest shuttle.
In Montreal, but entering Nur's ethereal plane...
Dusk-like smoke surrounded the two of them as far as the eye could see. The Rennayan before her, was dressed in a loose fitted tribal outfit, up to his feet. Bare, as had them crossed over each other, while floating and watching the Nova's expression.
He was not much older than her, a couple years at most, but smiled as if nothing bothered him. He stood up, letting his feet touch the floor as he started to speak. "Anger, is not such a bad thing you know, but it depends on the time, place, and who's experiencing it."
"Are you just going to waste my time?!" Nur spoke with urgency, she couldn't let what she was feeling dissipate, or else she feared she might not want to fight again.
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The Rennayan smirked. "Hmph." The smoke around them faded away and revealed a room, where two young girls were playing with multiple toys and having fun.
"This was ten years ago wasn't it?" He asked her, as she stared jaw struck. Unable to comprehend what it was like to see her cousin again. How she regretted up this day, even though there was nothing she could do.
The scene around them, moved, without being disturbed their presence. The Nova watched, as the younger version of herself jumped up, laughed as her cousin played apart in the pretend game they way playing. Then looked out the window of their living room in disbelief.
People were screaming and running to safety outside. However from what was what truly stunned her. A large wave, dwarfing their house, crashed through their neighborhood and caused carnage in its wake.
A natural disaster they couldn't see coming, wrecked havoc across her city. Nur watched as the younger version of her, ran screaming, without truly warning her cousin of what was coming. They watched her run up the stairs all the way to the roof, and was left in despair.
The downpour of rain dropped down heavy on her as she stepped into the reality of her house being carried away by the water, with no one for kilometers that could help her. Her parents were visiting a family friend close by and her aunt who had recently fallen asleep on the couch as they were playing, was the only adult nearby.
'Where they still alive?' As the thought crossed her young mind, she heard spluttering and splashes near her. Then the flat roof she was standing on shook violently and broke apart as it lodged onto another sturdier house, holding back a large amount of garbage and debris. She hung on to the door handle, that led back into the house for dear life.
Waves of turbulent rushing water, struck her roof walls, terrifying her more, as she prayed for everything to stop. Amidst, the splashes, she heard a voice. "Help me!"
It was her cousin, she could tell from her voice, but was scared of what she might be going through. Slowly but carefully Nur stood up as her feet caused the remains of the roof to slightly tip over, like a loose balance, against the house it was stuck against. She looked over the walls, seeing her cousin holding on with one hand on a broken tree, recently stuck to the same house. At least ten meters away from her.
She also realized that out of five floors to her house, she was standing on the last one. She pondered what she could do then saw a rope her father used to raise and lower items with to the roof.
The only problem was, she needed to let go of door handle to get to it. She thought of her cousin once more, then let go of the handle and rushed for the rope to throw it to her.
"Grab hold of it!" She yelled out to her, when she had a moment to hear her over the constant waves splashing into her.
The rope dropped near her and stuck onto the tree, making it easier for her cousing to grab. However the tree was beginning to dislodge from the house, it couldn't keep up with the constant battering from the tide.
"Pull yourself towards me!" Nur yelled out to her desperately.
"I can't! My left arm hurts, I can't use it!" Her cousin replied.
"Ok I'll pull you in-" She started to say, then heard and yells for help from dozens of people being carried by the water, near her. She looked back over the wall, with her eyes growing wider by the second, as another large wave, larger than the one that first hit her her house, looked in with incredible speed.
She didn't know in the time if she could pull her cousin and save her, but her fear didn't even let her try. "Sorry!"
Her cousin's eyes grew wide, as she yelled after her. "Nur, don't leave me. Please help me!"
Nur ran back to the door, opened it as water spilled out, then rushed inside and hung against the gaurd rail of the top floor, seeing her staircase end not too far below. There was silence, then a tremendous force of water struck the cement roof structure she was standing in and took everything along with it.
Hours passed and Nur finally woke up. She was soaked in water, the glass window on the door had been shattered with debris all over her floor. The Sun shined rays of light through a hole in the ceiling, as birds chirped far off. The young girl, walked out through the door, to see, water, as far as the eye could see, with remains, of houses, only visible by their rooftops.
Bodies, piled up against a large tree blocking much of the debris and water way. She noticed her cousin's pink dress, and walked closer on what remained of the rooftop, before she dropped to her knees crying.
The Rennayan showing the real her the memory spoke up. "You were rescued 3 days later, malnutritioned and with no will to live."
Present day Nur walked off to the side and puked as the Rennayan continued to shift the scene as if it was a movie. "Fear caused you to make mistakes..."
The scene shifted to a younger version of her, being pushed to the side, as other people rushed to line up for food in a refugee camp. "Guilt, determined your life and anger will be your downfall."
Young Nur walked off to the side and sat, staring into the distance, scared, sad and unable to go on. An aid worker noticed her not lining up, she was extremely busy and knew her colleagues would need her help. Yet she made the decision to grab a bit of food, from the stall and rush to the little girl and gave it to her.
The woman could tell, she was burdened by something, then sat with her for a while to console her. The Rennayan continued speaking as the two chattered on. "If you let your emotions rule you, you'll fail to make critical decisions, like the one this woman decided here."
"I was ten! There was nothing I could do!" Nur yelled back.
"You could have saved her and you knew it, from the first wave."
"But... But..."
"The Atlantic Ocean is nearby, if you were only willing to sacrifice a few of your mates and not let all those people die. You could have also managed to push her into or near the Ocean with their help then win against her. Before her brother becomes a problem-"
"What's your point?" Nur growled, unsure what he was trying to to get at.
The man looked at her, unfazed and smiled. "My point is, your critical thinking and decision making is lacking. It could cause fatal results on your journey forward to those allied with you and those around you. What do you think would happen, if a person like that were to gain even more power?"
"Then why did you pick me?!" The world around them shook, as her anger visibly skyrocketed. She was furious and didn't need to be talked down to like this.
The man raised his hands to the air as if he was reaching for the light. "Because of your tenacity! Why else?!" He said as he looked back at her.
Nur was lost for words, she didn't know how to reply to him, or where he was going with this. However he didn't wait for an answer as he waved his hand out once again and the scene began to change.
They were now looking at a battlefield, in a torn up city on a Rennayan settlement, situated on a large Moon. Three people were behind a bruised and injured version of him. One healing another, as the other aided him against Tamun.
It was a fierce fight, devastating much of their vicinity, until a blur whizzed past him, and he heard the splash of his partner's blood behind him, while he connected fists with the prince. He jumped back, seeing his comrade down and a portion of his torso had erased.
At the same time another child of Atlas, dropped down beside Tamun. "Sorry for taking a bite out of your meal." Were the first words she uttered to her brother, while smiling behind a generic, white mask, with two parallel black lines, that matched the ones on her face. The mask was mouthless, but had a strip of purple and black lined diagonally from the right eye's corner.
"Please, the honors mine, have as much as you like... You're still wearing that mask so they don't run from you?" He replied back.
She sighed, as she kicked a rock, into the comerade that was being healed, killing him, while blowing apart the arm of the one healing him. "They've done their research, most of the Hespers and Pleiades are on a watchlist, by the remaining civilizations."
The princess looked around smiling as her hood fell back, revealing her turquoise blue hair. "They didn't even evacuate this little Moon, since it was just you guys."
Tamun scoffed, as he looked back at the Rennayan, seemingly entering an ascended state. Dark energy rose around him, as black and turquoise veins revolved around his body.
A voice tuned into the comm of the Rennayan. "This is Central HQ, a ship carrying children, elderly and the sick, is about to leave orbit. However there is a warship, that is moving to intercept. We need the assistance of a Nokayan, please send aid immediately."
"I heard that." The princess, spoke up, making him snap out of his anger for only a moment. "I listen to the air all the time. If you want to go save them, you can, but we might be done here and move to the next city by the time you're ba-"
He didn't wait to let her finish as he drew his sword and chased after her, leaping with joy, all around the settlement. Halfway through, she froze him in place, with extreme cold, eating into his skin, as he was unable to conjure up any strength. He looked up at her in anger, as her hair flowed streaks of silver along with her eyes.
She pointed up. "Look."
Their eyes couldn't pick it up, but their senses could. A missile had just connected with the evacuee ship, blowing into pieces. He looked back at her in horror, unable to comprehend what he had just allowed happen.
"You let innocent children die... For revenge." She took off her mask, but she wasn't smiling. "You need to pay for that."
She walked up closer to him, as he cursed at her. "I'll kill you, if not me, then someone, will make you suffer."
The princess smiled, as he took in her face and remembered it as if he couldn't forget. Then she left him with a few words. "If you only had a calmer mind."
She snapped his neck, without touching him as the wind did her the favor. The scene stopped as the Rennayan looked back at Nur.
The Nova broke the silence first. "He was the there."
"Yes, he was."
"Who was she?" She said, as she walked up to her and took in the princess' appearance.
The Rennayan smiled. "A Pleiade. They wipe out civilizations on their own, and move just like their Father, but she's not for you to worry about, as of now."
Slowly he walked up to her and sighed. "Listen, dark energy, is not like any other. It plays on your emotions and eats you up. Once you touch it, you will be different."
Nur took in what he said, but was still undeterred. "Will it hurt?"
"Yes, until, you get used to it, but it always demands a sacrifice."
The world around them shook, as the Nova nodded back to him. "I'm ready."
He reached his hand out and broke, through to another dimension by punching the air. An ominous, wall of darkness devoid of light, flowed streams of strands of light, mixed with dark matter. The man, lacking fear of the unknown, reached his hand in, then held his other out to her.
"Then, I'll step into the darkness with you."
She woke up back in the same spot, restrained by the princess with her brother looking around for more. In the background, she could hear, Kyrianna's voice going off on her, but she continued to blur it out.
It was pointless to her. She wanted to lock back in. 'Maria,' she thought, but said out loud.
"What-" The princess tried to ask, before Nur shattered the restraint holding her left arm and grabbed hold of her neck. Strangling her as she looked into her eyes. A grayish skull, with lines representing waves, etched on with blood, began half manifesting over the Novas face.
Kyrianna knew that something had changed about her after her after witnessing her comrades death. Streaks of silver evenly flashed along her hair before it all went completely silver, undoing her ponytail.
The princess, twisted her body to strike back, however Nur broke the other restraint holding her right, to block it. Then, rocketed into the sky, as a heat wave, settled around her. The velocity was too much for the child of Atlas to bear, as she struggled to pry the Nova's hand off her neck.
However, in seconds Nur suddenly stopped, just before they reached the dark ceiling of clouds, down pouring an unnatural amount of snow. Without wasting momentum, she threw the princess, upwards crashing through the clouds.
Unfortunately though, they weren't as soft and welcoming as clouds tends to look. Kyrianna shattered through ice sheets, dense with moisture and static charge. However she was finally free and didn't hesitate to begin swinging as the Nova came into view, but failed to connect and was rewarded with being socked higher into the sky.
Multiple times until they finally broke above the highest clouds. Then a sudden phenomenon began occuring, as Nur took a deep breath in and locked eyes with the princess, blocking out the sun.
The clouds, blanketing the land beneath them, started to converge into the Nova's palm and formed a sphere. Condensing, while spinning blades of ice, and wind to an unfathomable degree, before she thrusted it forward into her gut. "Frost: Hawa Ka Daira."
The sphere shot Kyrianna further up, before exploding a massive shockwave of storm and ice. Constantly shredding anything that might've existed within.
Nur heaved, after bracing the winds of the aftermath, as she felt ice creeping up over her joints. However she didn't have much time to think, as Tamun appeared right beside her in a blur of electricity. She managed to raise her left arm up and cover it in ice, before he threw a right high kick, surging billions of volts.
The collision was meant to rock her back, yet she still remained unfazed, as her anger burned even hotter once she saw his face. The prince glanced up, feeling something massive coming his way. A dark tunnel like tornado, manifested way above them, then converged towards him and took him back down to the planet.
He caught himself standing, trying to withstand the pressure of a concentrated F7 tornado. The ground around him ripped up, while he let off a massive electrical shock, breaking apart the tornado and cleared his surroundings.
Seconds later, Nur dropped down on him like a meteor, superheated, by friction and ability to cause him as much damage. Her mask shattered, as he blocked her with one arm up.
He noticed her ice glass eye, was glowed hazel as her other shone brown. None of them emitted kindness.
He smiled, bright and undisturbed by the loss of his sister. "Did I make you angry?"