58.

Inferno

Tears streamed down Hemah's cheeks as her flight burned a lingering golden stream into the air behind her. A shockwave exploded from her constantly, rattling and rumbling the landscape below her, eradicating the more clumsily constructed houses. Sunlight shone from her silky white skin, obliterating those unlucky enough to be stood beneath her boiling, burning path.

“ALGIRAAAAAAAAAAK!” she howled like a banshee, her eyes locked on that white and gold city beneath the horizon's black sky. It wouldn't be long before she reached it — and then she'd wipe them out. All of them.

A hand wrapped around her ankle. She glared backward.

Faunia Vleren hung from her leg. She shouted, “Hemah, stop! We already dealt with it in Aeon, listen to me!”

“Fucking whore!” Hemah kicked her boot hard into Faunia's forehead, spun away into a burst of acceleration that knocked Faunia backward, out of balance.

A bloody gash poured blood from her head. Tirolith patched it with impeccable speed. Icy armor grew around her flesh, enveloped her whole.

Then the teal girl caught Faunia by the underarms. Her momentum came to a jolted halt. “Are you alright?”

“I'm… I'm fine…” groaned Faunia. Then she snapped back to urgency as Hemah rushed away: “Throw me, throw me now!”

Tirolith flung her as hard as she could.

“Ithlo!”

Nothing.

Fuck! Cedric took...

It's alright Faunia; I've got you.

She grit her teeth. Tirolith tossed Faunia again and again, disappearing and reappearing in seamless fractals of ice. Their precise, synchronized movements were almost enough to match Hemah's speed.

But the goddess of the sun was still getting away.

“Throw me, Tir. Throw me like you fucking mean it!”

Tirolith appeared before Faunia, grabbed her collar tight in a fist. She launched forward, extended her arm into a powerful, incredible throw.

Shwiiiiiiiiiish!

The wind whipped Faunia's skin painfully. A shield of clear ice materialized over her face to protect her, to better cut the air.

Then Hemah was rapidly approaching. The icy shield was melting away into big globules of water. Faunia could feel her body heating up.

I don't have to kill her…!

Her lip quivered. Her fingers tightened into fists.

Do I…?

Faunia wavered, though her speed did not. She collided with Hemah in the sky and sent them both into a tangled tumble.

Hemah gripped hard into Faunia's skin, but Tirolith's armor grew greater, thicker around her, froze Hemah's hand in place.

Faunia rammed her forehead into Hemah's nose, sent her head lurching back. Hemah's other hand went up and, with golden nails like claws, swung fast for Faunia's eyes.

The Silver Sword rotated away, kicked Hemah toward the vacant green hillside below, a light spot between Aeon and Calamon. Kylinstrom. How fitting that we'll fight here.

But Hemah easily caught her balance in the air.

Faunia shot downward like a bolt. Icy blades appeared on her shoes as both of her feet slammed into Hemah, struggling endlessly to maintain her sunlight spell. The golden deity gasped as blood sprayed, and down they both went. Her scream became a fierce, blood-curdling wail

You're not as strong as we were warned! We can kill you! We can…!

Hemah, still careening toward the ground with those bloody icicles impaled through her chest, wrapped a hand around Faunia's ankle.

Faunia yelped in alarm. She tried diplomacy again: “Hemah, it doesn't have to end this way! I don't want to kill you!”

…There was a distinct brilliance to her voice, a discord between all ten, twenty, fifty… one hundred of her voices. And they simply said, “...cute.”

And then her whole body lit up in platinum.

X

Cedric's heart was pounding through his chest.

The whole world was spiraling around him — a pervasive dizziness made him shudder, and he collapsed against an alley wall, vomited all over the cobbles.

I… fell…?

The world still spun. He desperately clung to the wall, tried hard to remember what had happened only seconds ago.

The twice-ley is screaming…! I've never felt it like this! I can't…

He slouched, nearly collapsed. His body was covered in horrible scratches and scrapes, healing slowly by Serkukan's wrathful mercy.

The crimson daemon jerked him back to his feet.

ONCE AGAIN, YOU PROVE YOURSELF UNFATHOMABLY WEAK.

Cedric ignored him. This is completely insane…! Ithlo!?

No answer.

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HE'S DYING.

The boy winced.

ALL OF HIS EFFORT IS TOWARD CONSTRICTING HEMAH. HE'LL BURN OUT THE SAME WAY THAT LLESTREN’VATIS DIED.

Cedric clutched his head. He hissed, “Fuck.”

THE PANTHEON CALLS.

It was like a screeching in his ears, a burning, itching through his entire skin. Horrible agony. His muscles tensed and released beyond his will. The whole world was collapsing in on him, his mind was becoming too weak to bear it.

IF YOU'RE NOT CAREFUL, YOUR WHOLE REALITY COULD COLLAPSE RIGHT NOW.

“Where's it coming from…?”

JUST A FEW MORE STEPS, BOY. THERE YOU'LL FIND A THIRD OF THE WHOLE — THIS WORLD IS BEING RENT APART.

He threw his leg forward, barely caught his balance on it. He wobbled onward. Then the other leg. Shakily, unsteadily, Cedric yanked himself forward. Blue magelights were glowing from the corner beyond. From the northern wall of the city.

“...Tyv?”

The massive gate was falling apart, giant chunks of flaming wood and crumbling stone were collapsing all over. Clawed, fur-covered hands were jutting through, tearing at the locks. The Hunters on duty did their best to chop and slice the hands — flaming arrows rained down to pierce Hunter armor, ripped deep into flesh repeatedly. Their ladders had reached the peaks of Calamon’s walls. The siege would soon find its end, with each Hunter finding a claw or an arrow through their heart.

But in the center of it all was a massive tree, twisting and turning unlike any tree could. It was still growing erratically, its branches lurching desperately to catch something almost invisible to Cedric's eyes.

The other side of his branches stretched and grabbed the intruders who made it through, slammed them like dolls against the floors and walls of the town, making brilliant red splatters of paint all over. Their lifeless bodies grew thinner and thinner in those growing branches, fed the daemon's endless growth. A tree which fed on mortal life...

“Tyv…!”

Cedric could see him in the middle: his face was jutting through the trunk, sedated and confused. His jaw hung slack, his eyes rolled each way with no focus. But the tree spun and rotated, still swung those desperate swings at that black silhouette, that dark figure which darted around his peripheral.

And there he was, finally: a figure dodged out of the way of one of Sie’uel’s limbs, flipped overhead, and dropped gracefully before Cedric. He glanced over his shoulder before he turned fully around, his dark eyebrows raised in surprise.

“...Cedric Castelbre!” the man mused in pleasant surprise.

“SERKUKAN!”

An explosion of violent fire tore apart their surroundings with a deafening blast, exploded carriages and stands and ran down the connected alleyways like a wave of cool water.

Everything within those alleyways was incinerated within a second. People included.

Cedric rode the current of hot air backward, his robes splayed out like a mast around him.

The figure appeared again even closer, riding the same wave of hot air as Cedric, crouching on nothing but the wind above him.

“You’re the one who Kogar seeks? I hardly think this should be a challenge at all.”

Cedric’s skin exploded into red spikes, he flipped as the crimson armor began to form around him, his boots slammed hard and launched cobbles into the air as he skidded himself to a halt.

The man flipped from the air as the current ended, gracefully planted himself like a gymnast just ten paces away. Everything was covered in illuminating flames all around. Houses were already beginning to collapse — Cedric only prayed that nobody was sequestered within them.

“Tartys.” he panted.

“The very same.”

“You’re not what I expected.”

The black-haired man cocked his head. “I’m not sure what you mean?”

“Someone stronger than Kogar… and you’re just… a man? No crazy accouterments, no decorations or unfathomable designs, no crazy helmet, no buckles all over yourself… And you seem so calm…”

Tartys smiled. “I am calm. And, why bother with embellishments? We both know exactly why I’m here.”

Cedric summoned his Sylvet blade. “I’ve got my suspicions.”

There was a fast stomping from behind Tartys. The ley tightened, constricted.

Only Cedric reacted with a gentle widening of his eyes.

Tartys smiled. Then he spun around to face Copper, rushing at him with his mace ready.

“Don’t!”

Tartys only lifted a finger. The mace went up.

Then Cedric lunged forward on a burst of uncontrolled flame which engulfed more of the houses behind him, slammed his blood-cocooned body hard into Tartys, knocked him off course from Copper.

Serkukan, control yourself! The collateral… limit your damn flames!

Cedric spun an overhead kick which landed dull halfway. A whip of flame trailed from his leg and seared through the building behind Tartys, cleaved it in half and prompted a rumbling collapse. Debris and dirt spilled out into the air like a tsunami.

You fuck! You're out of control!

Serkukan cackled, FEEL THE BLOOD BOIL, BOY, AND LOSE YOURSELF TO THE THRILLING ECSTACY OF COMBAT.

The dust cleared. Cedric could finally see that Tartys had caught his leg in a hand. The crimson armor was turning black against his pale grip.

Then swung a heavy mace from the dust.

KLANG!

Teeth flew into the air. Tartys slammed hard into the ground and slid.

The Etherian Knight Copper stepped out of the obscurity. He pushed his sweaty orange hair out of his eyes. “Fuckin’ Etherians…”

The dust swelled as the building behind creaked and shuddered again. It came down in a storm of debris, covered them all in grit and dirt.

Don't lose sight of him!

Cedric desperately tried to focus. He only saw Tartys stir once before he was completely concealed behind the airborn rubble.

“Copper! Move!”

The man lifted his head, slung his hammer over his shoulder.

Then appeared Tartys at his face.

Cedric hissed in a breath, prodded the twice-ley in a futile effort to stop time.

But it was a pale hand which reached over Copper’s shoulder, clamped tight around Tartys’ fist. The Etherian, white as ash, began to hover up from the ground. A sly grin collected upon his gaunt, lifeless face. He looked like a vampyr to Cedric, an ancient myth of men who could supp blood, drink it like wine. Except to call it a myth would be to admit that the existence of Etherians hadn't already shattered his pessimistic worldview.

Tartys looked unphased. He only lifted his other hand, lunged it for Copper’s chest.

Pfff…

There was a strange sound as the hand plunged into the man's ribcage like it wasn't even there. His whole chest seemed to deflate slightly, exhaled air like it'd been popped.

Cedric gasped in horror. The world felt frozen.

Copper only grinned. “I'm not sure you can kill me — I'm not sure I was ever alive in the first place.”

The Etherian behind him began to abscond into dust. The dust crossed Copper’s face, began to strip away the flesh to reveal bloody bone.

“...What kind of ability is this…?” Cedric murmured.

And then the new form, the fusion between the Etherian named Vrail and the boy Copper, was revealed in its entire horror…