The Dawn of Destruction, Chapter Ten (Clean)

                       The Dawn of Destruction

Interitus 1 – Book One

Chapter Ten

 

            “My heavenly prophetess, it is an honor to finally meet you. You are even more beautiful than the disciples led me to believe,” the man said, lightly bowing as a sign of respect.

            Naomi gazed briefly upon the man that Antonius had sent to meet her in this underground chamber. He was humbled to be in her presence, which Naomi figured meant he would make an ideal puppet. He had completely bought that she was the representative of God Himself. It therefore led Naomi to believe that this meeting would go very smoothly for her on the road to her totalitarian ambitions. And although his face was dirty and his clothes were stained with the sweat of a long journey, she believed that he could make a valuable disciple. Then again, her disciples would serve little purpose beyond heavily-armed bodyguards. The sweaty man stood with an enthusiastic gaze as a golden retriever stood at his side.

            “May I ask your name? Do you have a place to stay?” she inquired.

            “Certainly. I am Felix Gonzales, and when I left my town, I donated all of my money to the church. I admit that I have spent more than a few nights under the stars. But, I have done enough makeshift jobs to support myself and Skipper,” he said in his thick accent, motioning toward his long-haired dog.

            Naomi glanced over at the large security guard standing by the elevator. He had traveled with Felix into Naomi’s underground chamber, although it was clear that he trusted him. The golden retriever looked up at Naomi and let out a joyful bark.

            “You are perfect for my congregation,” she told him.

            “But I am not, because I am a liar. I did not come here just to be your disciple, my prophetess. I want to be your guardian,” Felix admitted as he lowered his head again.

            “Well, I already have dozens of men volunteering to be my bodyguards….”

            Felix confessed, “I don’t want to be an ordinary guard! I know this may sound silly, but I want to know if you have the power to grant me an ability. A small fraction of your power so that I can defend you with the right hand of God.”

            “What exactly do you have in mind…?” Naomi asked, trying to conceal her excitement at the idea of a superhuman puppet protecting her.

            “I have spent many nights dreaming of using a specific power to fight for God. I don’t even know if this is something you can bestow, but I have prayed to God many times to make it so. You see, I ask for the ability to modify temperature—the power to use my deep knowledge of heat transfer in the name of God. In the name of salvation,” explained Felix.

            Several moments of silence passed as Naomi pondered this decision. On the one hand, it was dangerous to transfer a piece of her power since she did not know if she could take it back. But on the other hand, she had hardly used her power to create heat in any way. So after finally making up her mind, she extended her left hand toward Felix and said, “Give me your hands.”

            From the moment Felix’s hands touched hers, an intense glow poured into the air; the security guard and the dog turned away to protect their eyes from the vibrant illumination. An incredible energy detached from Naomi and surged through his veins with an overwhelming intensity. He stared ahead with a fiercely determined gaze, but Naomi could tell by his trembling and quiet groaning that this felt incredibly painful. He withstood the pain because he understood that this transformation would grant him what he wanted—a powerful weapon to uphold what he knew was the true path to God.

However, Felix’s true path was not the one he had explicitly stated; his goal was instead to silence the unholy imposters on Earth who had stolen Creation and Destruction from God. And though he did not know how Naomi had taken the Creation power in the first place, Felix concluded that it was an affront to the almighty Creator. If that were not enough, Naomi had mimicked God by using His holy name to spread her influence. Therefore, it was up to Felix to strike her down and end the duplicity.

            So as soon as this transaction finished, Felix hurled himself to the concrete floor to regain control over his pulsating body. The force felt bizarrely invigorating; something about the energy was so powerful that it threatened to overwhelm his body and wreak a devastating rebound. Naomi watched with brooding concern for the crumbled man at her feet; she could not risk losing a fragment of her Creation power if her vassal were to die. Then again, if he were to perish before he contained his power, it was possible that she could revive him.

            “Thank you,” Felix whispered, but his tone carried an ominous inflection. His dog padded away until its back pressed against the concrete wall.

            “But I shall not be deceived by a fake who employs God’s name; I will not be tricked by a false idol who aims to condemn humanity!”

            At this point, Felix dropped a glass canteen from his tattered jacket pocket. When it hit the concrete floor, it shattered in a splash of glass and water. This sudden sound forced Naomi to jump backward in surprise, and the security guard suddenly rushed toward Felix. Neither Naomi nor the guard understood that Felix had premeditated his attacks before he even received his power, but this was because he already knew the science behind it.

The splash of water suddenly evaporated into a sizzling cloud of vapor; the security guard charged through this scalding steam, burning his eyes and destroying his eyesight. He released a deep roar of pain as he fell to the ground; Felix effortlessly jumped out of his way. Naomi continued backing away from Felix as fear started to settle in; she was shocked that Felix had tricked her, but more importantly, she felt drained because of the energy transaction. When the bodyguard rolled to a stop on the hard ground, there were only about four seconds before his body burst into fire. The sweltering flames engulfed him, but they only lasted long enough to render him unconscious.

            “If you stand against me, I will purge you from this world with fire,” Felix coldly said.

            “How are you doing this? I could never do a long-distance thermal reaction!” Naomi said, breathlessly backing away from her assassin.

            As soon as she felt the air temperature soar, Naomi pushed her exhausted body to stay in motion so that her skin would not ignite.

            “And why are you doing this…? I thought you wanted to protect the emissary of God!” Naomi shouted.

            “You are no manifestation of my Lord. You are nothing more than a tool of the devil—a false idol leading righteous men to the depths of Hell. I can see right through you,” Felix retorted with frightening solemnity.

            Felix turned his attention toward the floor in front of him and focused on a specific piece of the ground. After several seconds, the target of his concentration transformed into molten liquid. Within seconds, smoke flooded the air as Felix used his new power to quickly cool the liquid back into a solid. In the end, the only real change was that he had broken off a piece of ground, now shaped into a spear made from concrete. Felix bent down and picked it up, all the while glaring at Naomi.

            And though his body still ached from accepting the new power into himself, Felix steeled his nerves and charged at Naomi. But instead of backing away, she materialized a submachinegun with her right hand. She had no time to aim, so she squeezed the trigger and shot several bullets through the air. But because she fired blindly, none of her bullets came close to striking Felix. Deafening clamors echoed as she tried to swivel her gun closer, but she knew that her fatigue had gotten the best of her. Her hastily-made magazine then jammed, and so her weapon stopped firing. Naomi quickly considered repairing it, but then the gun started heating so quickly that she had to drop it. And though she stared at her enemy as he sprinted toward her, she could feel second degree burns appear on her fragile palms. Before her weapon even hit the earth, a malodorous smoke lifted from it.

            “What do you want from me?” Naomi screamed, stepping backward until she saw that Felix had melted the ground behind her.

            “To burn you from the inside out,” Felix said, noticing the next opportunity to further his speedy assault.

            Naomi stopped running and turned to face Felix. But before she could prepare to defend herself, the tears and sweat on her face suddenly turned frigid; they were frozen to her skin by the time she realized that Felix had caused this. The ice became so brutally painful that she could not stop herself from screaming, even as she threw her hands upon her freezing face. Felix slowed to a stop with a confident smile, having distracted her with his approach.

            “With every second, your face approaches absolute zero; do you have any idea how cold that is? Do yourself a favor and end it now,” Felix muttered to his enemy.

            The smoke and embers made it harder for Felix to concentrate on the air which touched Naomi’s skin, but he had more than enough time to punish her for her motionlessness. Her arms and legs both erupted with cackling flames, torching everything but her face because of the ice. Her body convulsed with smoke and screams. She rolled on the ground, fighting to escape the excruciating pain; her body truly felt like it was being incinerated. Her disfigured right hand had practically melted as she pressed it against her body, and even this small pressure burned with agony. Nevertheless, Naomi used Creation to regenerate her body back to its original state, though she was still scarred by the memory of the searing flames. She was still terribly exhausted.

            This sudden jump into battle was too much for Naomi to handle. Every time she took even a moment to breathe or cope with the previous attack, it seemed that he was ready to lock her down again. Escape was impossible. Her enemy was too treacherous, too intelligent, too prepared, and too trustworthy at the start. A wayward voice in her head remarked on the irony, since she had spent years learning how to manipulate others; she had spent years learning how to psychologically profile people, only to take them down with underhanded tactics. But now the tables had turned.

            Even in the time Naomi took to Recreate herself, Felix had run right up to her, pushing forward with his molten rock spear. Naomi jumped diagonally away from him so that she could dodge both his attack and the molten ground behind her; this would also protect her from the threat of standing in the same spot for too long.

            When her feet landed on the ground just inches away from a second molten pit, Naomi used Creation to quickly make a sword. It was too heavy for her to hold normally, and she could not empower it with energy; her left hand was the only thing helping her keep balance. Felix’s spear, however, was almost twice as long as her weapon. This meant that she had much less energy, range, strength, and speed than her opponent. Felix thrust his spear forward in a series of quick, horizontal strikes; he was clearly unconcerned with the presence of her sword. If anything, he felt more comfortable because she would have to first discard the weapon if she chose to Create something else.

            Naomi’s feet danced across the concrete, trending leftward as she focused on dodging spear lunges and the rapidly-heating air. On the one hand, she found herself growing used to a fight where she was always in motion. On the other hand, she knew that if she did not attempt a stealthy counterattack, her body would be mortally punctured or incinerated. But after she jumped back to gain some distance from Felix, Naomi pulled her sword back like a baseball bat and then jumped into the air.

            Felix knew that she would be more dangerous now that she felt desperate. This meant that Felix was ready when she suddenly went on the offensive; he was prepared to knock her out of the air and then end the fight. Therefore, he pulled his weapon far left of her flying body. As she reached the peak of her jump and started swinging her sword, Felix swung his spear with all his might; it clashed against his airborne enemy’s glimmering sword. Although his spear was lighter than her sword, it was also much faster, and therefore the mid-air collision sent Naomi flying backward at a jarring speed. After crashing and tumbling against the ground, she rose to her knees and stared at her enemy. It was now that she noticed she had accidentally cut herself with her sword in the fall and the tumble.

            Because Naomi was too far away to hit with the spear, Felix superheated the stream of blood meandering down her thigh. The scorching fluid scalded her leg and began to liquefy her skin. Her body shook with agony, and it overwhelmed her thoughts and senses. The handle of her sword began glowing in the heat, and the metal singed the new skin that she had Created on her right palm.

            Naomi decided that her only hope was to sprint away, knowing that he would force her to ignite if she stayed still for just one more second. As she threw down the sword and prepared her legs to run, the splashes of blood instantly evaporated. The gaseous heat seared her face while her left hand clasped her crouching legs.

            In a desperate attempt to escape the combusting air, Naomi used Creation to impart herself with a burst of kinetic energy. This allowed her to soar from that location with spectacular speed. But as she barreled away from the combustion zone, the air beneath her flying body erupted with fire. Her neck felt the scorching pressure first, and while her skin transmitted the searing pain, no part of her body or clothes had actually caught fire.

As her ash-stained body flew beneath the basement ceiling, Naomi slammed her left hand into the overhead concrete and used Creation of energy once again. This time, she Created an earthquake that could be registered by the clergymen above. She hoped that this would cause them to send people down to ensure her safety. If they arrived in time, they could reinforce her and bring down this assassin. One thing was certain: Naomi did not possess the speed or energy to defeat Felix alone at this point in time.

            But for the time being, the tremors in the earth did nothing to dissuade her attacker. Still soaring beneath the ceiling of the underground chamber, Naomi used her right hand’s Creation; she materialized a pole that protruded out of the ceiling and into the grip of her right hand. In mid-air, she pulled on it and used the force to spin around the pole. Immediately after she let go, she launched herself at Felix. He watched her body fly toward him, but he had no time to defend himself. Her hard shoe slammed against his face, and the impact slammed him onto the concrete floor. The dog barked from the edge of the room.

            Striving to maintain control, Naomi prepared to follow up with a swift series of attacks. As she started to Create another submachinegun in her right hand, she kicked him again and again in the face; she was surprised that he did not even try to block. His teeth were bent and bloody; his face was black and blue. Her fast and heavy kicks managed to shatter his nose and spill blood across the ground.

            But by the time she figured out why he had let this happen, she was already under attack. Before Naomi even recognized the fiery source of her convulsions, her body had slammed on the ground, staring skyward, watching a shower of molten concrete pour from the ceiling and onto her body. Every drop was more painful than acid; every second caused more of the hellish drops to rain down onto her. As a searing drop landed on her cheek and burned a hole through her mouth, Naomi shrieked with agony.

There was nothing she could do but watch the trickle of scarlet stone. In just seconds, this molten rain rendered her extremities almost unrecognizable. Various holes and burns covered her chest and stomach; it felt like her body was melting from the inside. Her bleeding wounds began to simmer and boil—the agony paralyzed her. As she screamed and writhed on the floor, several drops struck her eyes, burning them into immediate blindness. Her sockets boiled from the dripping lava, scarring her body into a motionless, visionless, paralyzed shell. Her hands were partially destroyed, anyway. Even if she somehow survived, it would be a while before she could Create again.

            But even through all this, her ears could still hear. Naomi heard rhythmic dripping and distant footsteps over the sound of her screams and her boiling blood. A faint hum finally sounded from the elevator, suggesting that help was finally on the way. At long last, the molten rain stopped because Felix realized that he needed to escape. Naomi knew that he probably believed he had killed her, but she did not know if she should let him believe this. The elevator would arrive in mere seconds, and both Naomi and Felix knew this. For that reason, Naomi decided to prove that she was still alive.

            “You want to kill me for masquerading as an emissary of God, for using the power that should only belong to Him. But then… why is it okay that you’re using the same thing? We both now have a Fragment of Omnipotence,” she said.

            The red glow of dying flames illuminated the underground chamber, and they sent beautiful shimmers across the sword and guns which rested on the floor. Naomi remained on the ground in a state of disrepair as steam lifted from her disfigured skin, but her dilated eyes still pierced the darkness and stared at Felix. Instead of burning her again, he used his power to melt a small piece of the ceiling above his head. The orange glow illuminated his face.

            “Though I am a soldier for God, the truth is that I was damned long ago. I have already been condemned to an eternity in Hell. So I will save as many souls as I can by adopting the same evil that seeks to destroy them, and I will make it a part of myself as a tribute to my own damnation,” Felix announced.

            “Naomi! Felix! Are you alright?!” a parishioner shouted as he ran off the elevator with many others in tow.

            The men noticed Naomi and sprinted toward her, but some unsheathed their handguns and pointed them at Felix.

            “What have you done to her?!” one shouted.

            “I have declared war upon one half of the new evil which plagues our species. I await your gratitude,” Felix said with a smirk.

            Felix concentrated on a passageway of air between himself, his dog, and the elevator’s entrance. Bullets fired toward him, but in that precise moment, the air uniformly sublimed into ice with impenetrable thickness; the bullets were swallowed by the wall of ice.

Felix had formed a narrow corridor of ice between himself and the elevator. Some of the clergymen beat their fists against the ice while others tended to Naomi’s disfigured body. As Felix walked toward the elevator, his dog calmly padded up and licked his hand. Together, they entered the elevator.