45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbYei1Bzms3A brief update of our friends back on Earth...
Wren concentrated as she flew. She was over the Pacific Ocean near East Asia as she steadily willed a typhoon to curve enough to miss the coast of Japan. It was her fault these storms kept popping up over the last year since her defeat. She felt the least she could do was help avert them.
Why don't you just evaporate the storms? It'd be a lot quicker, Trevor's voice chimed in her head.
Trevor, what? She responded in disbelief. You don't evaporate hurricanes.
You know what I mean. Just use your powers to wipe'em out. Rip'em apart, he responded.
No, I don't want to disrupt the ecosystem any more than we already have. That's the kind of thing Alissia would appreciate, too, she told him, as she felt the typhoon slowly change course, with over a hundred nautical miles left before it hit shore.
Really? I guess she would...then yeah, maybe don't disrupt the ecosystem.
****
Cindar – Forgeton Sector 01 – Pier
Za'Fia's advanced perception showed her that while she could perceive Aeric's attack, her body wasn't nearly fast enough to evade it. Unable to move her body fast enough, she willed her aura to flow as a torrent of flames, hoping to at least slow it down to give herself more time to move. But as Aeric's blast carved destruction in its wake, it sucked in all Za'Fia flames without losing momentum.
Za'Fia was mid-turn when she stood, dumbstruck like a deer in headlights as the energy closed in. Then, suddenly, she was whisked away into darkness just as she saw Fulvia intercept Aeric angrily.
When the darkness faded, she was a few hundred feet away from where she'd just been and was held protectively in Tymon's arms. The beam of energy that missed her traveled off the pier and collided with a large ship that was among the fleeing civilians in the open ocean. There was a moment of silence as energetic sparks popped from the ship just before it exploded. This caused a chain of explosions among the compacted ships, taking hundreds, if not thousands, of lives.
When Za'Fia looked at Tymon, she saw that he was breathing heavily and was banged up pretty bad, but Za'Fia saw a flicker of something in his eyes she'd never seen before: fear. Coupled with the tightness of his grip as he held her close and the slight tremble in his hands before they steadied, she knew even if he didn't, that for a moment, he was afraid of losing her just then.
"I thought that first attack got you, too," she heard herself say.
"Me too. The force hit me hard and buried me beneath a ton of debris. Took me a while to get out with all these injuries."
Za'Fia saw that, among his many injuries, one of his legs was terribly bent after being crushed.
"Ty...," Za'Fia said, about to thank him for saving her. She knew the consequences of preventing someone's death.
"Don't mention it," he said, keeping his eyes forward as he watched Fulvia and Aeric. "There are more reasons to save you given the choice again than there are not to."
Za'Fia's heart sank a little as she let out a nervous laugh unlike her.
"Yeah, it's the logical choice. Saving me prevents billions on Earth from dying vs a few hundred here..."
She felt his grip tighten just a little more as he looked down at me.
"Even if the numbers were reversed, I doubt I'd change my decision."
Za'Fia couldn't help but blush when their attention was suddenly drawn to a multi-colored barrier placed around Aeric and Fulvia's vicinity.
****
After intercepting Aeric, Fulvia raised a barrier of her iridescent energy around the vicinity where she and Aeric stood. Her iridescence gave them privacy, preventing anyone from sensing or seeing what went on within it, even if they knew how to see beyond illusions. It was the same unique application of iridescence that the Pegasus district was shrouded in. She often used this when she practiced honing the power from her mark without the others finding out.
As she stood before Aeric, she began to transform, knowing not to take him lightly. Her body began to change: brown fur sprouted in various places, her nails extended into talon-like short claws, a tail whipped from her lower back, her muscles grew larger, and a pair of brown-feathered wings emerged from her back as her power increased tenfold.
"You need to leave my nation. Now," she demanded.
"Cute," Aeric said, disregarding her bravado. "How's my power been treating you?"
"Let's not act as if I got here because of it. I was Ryfa Pakt long before you gave me your mark. And I only accepted it for the worst-case scenario," Fulvia declared defensively.
"So, you haven't had a chance to show it off yet," Aeric deduced. "I suppose it won't be long before that time comes, isn't that right? I stay out of things, but I'm very aware of how close you are to war. That power's going to be very handy then...you should be more grateful to me."
"You didn't give it to me out of the kindness of your black heart. You were hoping you'd own me afterwards. A lot like Fuse, I'd imagine."
"To what possibly end?" Aeric shrugged coyly.
Fulvia remained silent. She didn't know why he gave her the mark despite her refusal to work under him. She didn't know why he'd given Fuse one or why he had several klevonians that followed him. All she knew was that whatever he was up to, it involved the Celestials – he had always been obsessed with them, wanting to be one. Every influential figure knew that. But what did people like her and Fuse have to do with it? Was he trying to start another fight with a Celestial? A war? Even he must know that'd be suicidal.
"Speaking of hopes...," Aeric said pointedly.
Fulvia glared at him in annoyance.
"My answer remains the same," she said clearly. "I told you no the first two times you asked. Me receiving this mark doesn't mean I'm your slave."
"You haven't heard my pitch this time," Aeric raised a finger of pause.
"Nothing you can offer will change my mind," Fulvia crossed her arms.
"You sure about that?" he responded cunningly. "For the life of me, I couldn't comprehend why you'd refuse my offer despite the gift I've given you. But I get it now. Power alone isn't enough for some. Like Fuse, you need an incentive."
"If you hurt ANY of—"
"Think before you speak," Aeric waved off her pointless threat. "My blood oath prevents me from doing that. No, no. I've taken a different approach. I chose to learn more about you and discovered that the man you loved like a brother was tragically murdered."
Fulvia gritted her teeth as her power flared.
With a grin, Aeric extended a hand, "You've been curious about who killed him, haven't you? Turns out he's an officer within the Neutral Corp – a ruhkan believe it or not. Work for me. Give me your blood oath you'll do as I command, and I'll tell you all that I've uncovered about him. I'll even lure him here if you want."
Fulvia was seething with sudden rage when she lost it and lunged for Aeric. They engaged in rapid close-quarters combat. Unlike with Felix, the tables had turned against Fulvia. He used her rageful flailing to his advantage. She swiped, she stabbed, she spun, but Aeric was calm as he used her momentum against her, avoiding her blows.
He stopped one of her attacks by grabbing her right wrist mid-swing.
"It was foolish for you to lose your composure and attack me," he said smugly.
Fulvia knew this already, but it was too late. Now she'd have to use his overconfidence to try to end things before he got serious. She placed her palm onto his chest and extended forcefully, desperately pushing him away as she stayed on him. Still, he stayed in control as he skipped across the ground, his feet softly touching it in hops until he used his own strength to stop himself. But as he was, Fulvia was stronger than he was. She dug her claws into his shoulder, causing him to wince as she pushed harder, making them fall horizontal until they were carving a path through the ground near the pier. As this continued, she kept up the pressure until her dagger edged closer to his heart.
He placed his spirit-enhanced palm in the path, intending to defend against it, but her Ten Ha was able to cut right through it effortlessly as it went through it.
In response, he grimaced, and his energy flared, causing Fulvia to leap back from the ground.
Aeric rose slowly and silently observed the gash in his hand. Then he touched his shoulder.
"It's been ages since I've bled...," he rubbed the blood between his fingers.
"You know something? You've never attacked me before...," he chuckled.
Then he began to transform. Fulvia swallowed as she watched him morph into a horrifying presence. His skin darkened into a crimson, monstrous alteration with bright red veins of power pulsing visibly. The same occurred to his face as his eyes took on a sinister stare.
"I'll ask one last time," his voice was distorted and deeper. "Submit."
Fulvia answered his request by using a more complex technique, True Militia: Cannons. She conjured illusions of three highly advanced, militant machines that were capable of firing high-caliber shells.
She willed one to take aim at Aeric and fired off a shot. Fulvia used reality shifting to change the shell from illusion to a real projectile and shrouded it with spirit enhancement for a bigger impact as it sped toward him, but Aeric easily deflected the shell with a simple swipe of the back of his hand. The shell spun through multiple nearby abandoned buildings, crumbling them from the force behind it.
Aeric's hand was protected with his own superior spirit enhancement, which caused her attack to not even leave a scratch on him.
Fulvia gulped.
"Cindium, huh? That stung a little," Aeric claimed.
Fulvia then fired off three more shots, but made them invisible. Still, Aeric dodged the first two, knowing they were fake, then caught the third before throwing it back at her even faster than she'd fired it off. She shifted the shell back to an illusion just in time to avoid being hit by her own attack.
Fulvia's mind raced with the many possible attacks and illusions she could throw at him, but she had to face the fact that none of her illusions would fool him. Even her Negation was useless against him. It couldn't negate any of the cosmic elements the same way it did the others. She'd have to completely focus on the target to do that, but that'd leave her vulnerable since she wouldn't be able to move.
That left her dagger. They both knew that it was the only thing in her arsenal that could cut or possibly kill him, but he wasn't stupid. He'd never let her be close enough to use it again. But she wasn't going to lose heart. If she couldn't break his body, she'd aim for his mind.
Fulvia breathed as she focused her energy. She changed their surroundings to an illusion of a swirling storm of iridescence, as she conjured hundreds of illusions of her Ten Ha that moved rapidly with the lights.
"Trying something new? One last desperate act?" Aeric stood confidently as his aura began to draw in things around him. "It's quite the visual, I'll give you that, but you lack the power to do any real damage to me. You know that."
He looked around calmly.
"Let me guess; you're going to fire those at me from all directions. Illusion congealment will make most of them feel real, but only one will actually pierce me. My heart or my head, which one will it be?"
"Arrogant bastard," Fulvia grunted as she secretly channeled nearly all of her energy into her Ten Ha, which was hidden directly above him in the storm of color and debris. His drawing in so much rubble was helping her keep it hidden.
This was her Critical Disruption technique. To most, being hit with so much condensed iridescence would break one's mind and disrupt each sense, from taste to being able to sense energy. But she wasn't sure how it would fare against someone stronger than her, let alone someone like Aeric.
Once the blade was ready, she fired it straight down at him. Luckily, he didn't realize until the moment it hit him and erupted into a devastating, multi-colored explosion of raw iridescence. The explosion grew so large that she had to reinforce the privacy barrier to keep it from being undone.
Please work. Do something, she found herself praying.
She watched with anticipation, waiting for the obscuring mist to settle, when she suddenly felt her breath burst from her lungs as an impossibly heavy force pushed into her stomach.
Her heightened perception slowed time as she saw that slightly to her left stood Aeric, not even looking at her. He was completely unaffected by her most detrimental attack –an attack that would knock any pneumarian out of commission. She felt her feet lift from the ground as the force behind his blow ejected her with high speed through buildings until Aeric appeared above her and slammed his foot on top of her, forcing her into the ground with a mini quake. Her transform began to weaken as her consciousness shook. But by sheer will, she got to her feet and took a few steps away from him.
"That was a splendid attack. You're strong," he praised her. "Once you're forced in line, I have no doubt you'll be my top officer when the day comes."
"What day? Why do you want to build an army so bad?" Fulvia asked, buying time. Her entire body ached as if she'd just had a hard, drawn-out battle. Yet in just moments, Aeric had exhausted her.
"Hm? You want to know what grand plans I have? My ambitions reach beyond the politics of this planet. Once you've joined me, as my top officer, you'll be privy to it all. But first, I'm not done beating you into submission."
Then he switched gears. Over the next several seconds, Fulvia was utterly defeated in a fashion she had never experienced before. Nothing she did so much as slowed him down. It wasn't until he grew bored that those eternal seconds finally came to an end, and he held her bloodied body by the throat.
"Your spirit still holds...it's incredible, really," he sighed before shaking his head incredulously. "I've given you plenty of time and a valid reason to join me. I'm done waiting. You will willingly surrender your mind to me, or I will continue until I've broken you. Then, I'll force your mind under."
Fulvia gripped his arms as she hung by his vise grip around her throat and smiled through bloody teeth.
"Auryn will hear of this..."
"What makes you think I'm concerned about that old fool?" his eyes narrowed.
"You can't fool me. I know you're terrified of him. We all know you're just a big fish in a little pond. You've never been able to step into the realm of those with real power – to them you're nothing, and you know. It's probably why you're seeking to create your own army, hoping you could stand among them. You're pathetic," she laughed.
Aeric's expression warped into pure rage as his grip tightened and he started smashing Fulvia against the ground. Hard. Each smash generated a quake in the ground that destroyed part of their surroundings, and Fulvia lost feeling in her body.
"You insolent. Insignificant. Ingrate!" He shouted with every smash, then stopped and stood over her as her body fell from its transformation.
Fulvia a shaking hand and fired a blast of energy to his face to no effect. Aeric grabbed her wrist and callously snapped it, causing Fulvia to shriek as pain flared through her body.
"I've given you power that places you at the top of your pitiful society and even your enemy's, and this is the gratitude I get? Is your pride in these people truly this great?" He raised a hand with a beam ready, but forced himself to lower it, knowing it'd violate his blood oath.
Then he set his sights on her one last time.
"Fine. What a waste," he said as he placed his foot on her head. "If only zenith marks worked the same as ascension marks. I'd have the Klevonian Army under my command. I suppose I'm left with no other option. Perhaps killing you will make the next Ryfa Pakt more inclined to fall in line..."
Just as Fulvia felt him applying pressure, her privacy barrier broke as she no longer had the energy to hold it.
****
Just as the privacy barrier fell, I was right there and struck Aeric with my most powerful Destruction Fist before grabbing Fulvia and dashing off. Looking back, my blow did damage to the already-destroyed area, but Aeric hadn't budged. Thankfully, I was able to see what happened inside the privacy barrier with All-Sight; otherwise, he'd have just killed the Ryfa Pakt.
Aeric looked our way and suddenly appeared before me. He pushed me back effortlessly and tossed Fulvia aside.
"And who are you?" he asked, looking down at me.
His eyes shimmered with the techno color of bio lenses as he read my bio card and laughed.
"Such meager power," he mocked, then looked closer. "But you have some interesting cintracies. You must be the new Crest Head."
"That's the one who led the intruders into your home," Fuse said, from nearby.
"In my defense, I didn't lead the intrusion, but I am the leader," I remarked impulsively.
"Then you will take full responsibility," Aeric stated seriously.
All of this because someone went into this home? He can't be that petty, I thought, looking away.
When I met his gaze again, his glare alone nearly shattered my will.
"This is insane...how can one person be this powerful...?" I stepped back, trying to calm my trembling legs.
"Stupid child. Did you choose this, unaware of who you're up against?"
In the next instant, he reached for me. I instantly put up a stasis field with all my power in it, slowing him down.
"Interesting," Aeric tilted his crimson head with intrigue as he applied more pressure.
I was trying to push past the fatigue as I pushed against him when my head suddenly felt like it was being stabbed, and blood fell from my nose.
I've reached my limit already? I thought as the memory of the klevonian who tried to resist me earlier in the Aethum came to mind. Lightheaded, I fell to my knees just as he broke through and caught me by the stomach.
"Painful, isn't it?" he said with false concern, then blasted me with a single shot that shaved off a piece of my stomach from the side.
I wailed in pain as I fell to the ground, clutching my stomach.
"Alissia!' I heard Tymon bellow, but the same energy punctured holes in his legs when Aeric turned toward him.
"Now," Aeric looked at me with a devious smile and cupped my sweaty face with one hand to force me to look at him. Then he spoke in a hushed tone. "I heard you figured out my way around the Blood Oath. I could kill you right now, but I'm curious – maybe it's the sphinx in me. I wonder how smart you'll be with that information. How many people are you willing to sacrifice by revealing it...should you survive that wound, that is."
He rose with a gleam in his eye as if he'd just found an interesting subject.
"I'm satisfied now," he said, reverting to his suppressed state. "Fuse, grab Felix. Let's go."
Before leaving, he stopped and projected his voice so that everyone in the vicinity could hear him clearly.
"Let this be a warning to anyone thinking of venturing into my domain: Don't."
Then just like that, the three of them shot to the skies and vanished. Fulvia, Tymon, Cinder, Luna, and I...we each were surrounded by the members of the Burn Division. I heard one of them yelling about needing urgent medical assistance ASAP as I began to pass out. My mind reeled as everything replayed in my head. All the lives that were lost. All the destruction that could've been prevented.
We were too weak to stop any of it. We were powerless...
"Michael...," I whispered, hoping I'd also sent it out telepathically. The last thing I saw was Michael appearing above us in the sky from a streak of light, his expression a mixture of confusion and urgency.
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