The Dawn of Destruction, Chapter 14

                           The Dawn of Destruction

Interitus 1 – Book One

            Chapter Fourteen

 

            By using the information he had overheard in Naomi’s cathedral, Felix gathered that Destruction and his friend were hiding out in the Himalayas. And while he resolved to carry out God’s will as quickly as possible, Felix knew that he did not have the resources to travel to the Himalayas on his own. Therefore, he sought out a small but secretive group of skeptics in San Diego. Since these men also believed that Creation and Destruction were pawns of the devil, Felix convinced them to pool their resources and act.

One of these men was a pilot, and so he flew Felix out to the Himalayas by way of a private jet. Once there, they rented a sturdy helicopter from a town in western China. They used this helicopter to search the mountains for Seth and Phil. After hours of searching and several stops to refuel, the pilot and Felix descended through the mist onto a mountainside in the eastern Himalayas. They knew that Seth would be upon them soon, and they planned to take him by surprise. Felix reasoned that they would win quickly since the power of Destruction was limited to close combat. Felix, on the other hand, could use his thermodynamic power from a distance. The pilot stood by his side with a beautiful sword that he had brought from San Diego.

            “Allow me to attack first. If we hold them off at a safe distance, they won’t have the chance to fight back,” Felix said to his companion.

            The swordsman nodded but said nothing. Felix ran the rest of the way to the mountaintop, and when he arrived, he gazed across the snowy grandeur of the surrounding landscape.

Within that grandeur, Seth and Phil trudged miserably through the endless snow. Only moments before, they had playfully bickered with each other as usual. But after hours of endless marching, they were too fatigued to continue their petty squabble.

            “Phil, I think I see someone at the top of that mountain,” Seth tiredly said.

            “He better give us food or some shit, or else I’m finna rob his punk-ass,” Phil said, clenching his famished stomach.

            “Phil! Don’t say that! You’re not a criminal. Besides, he can probably hear you,” Seth warned.

            “I ain’t a criminal, but right now I’m 120% stomach and it’s tellin’ me to find some damn food,” Phil said, looking up the vast slope.

            Narrowing his eyes to inspect the man on the mountaintop, Phil shouted, “Hey! Do you got any food for me and Seth?!”

            But then, the frigid air between Seth and Phil burst into intense flames. A sudden jolt of surprise overtook the two friends, and then the shockwave of the explosion sent them tumbling through the snow. When they both came to a stop as adrenaline pumped through their veins, Seth and Phil looked over their shoulders to see steaming splashes race down the mountainside. This steaming water defrosted the snow in its path and released a cloud of mist. There was a brown layer of stone and dirt beneath the steaming flow, leaving a scorch mark burned into the mountainside.

            “Damn. I missed,” Felix muttered audibly as his friend and his dog ran up to his side.

            “You hear that, Seth? That ugly-ass dude just tried to explode us somehow!”

            “With what…?” Seth asked as he pushed himself to run.     

            Phil knew it would be pointless to run toward an attack that he did not understand, so he stayed still momentarily. He tried to form a hypothesis, but he did not see any signs of an explosive device. Concluding that the attacker had somehow combusted the air, Phil realized it could probably happen again.

            “Phil, don’t stand still! He’ll do it again!” Seth yelled.

            During this commotion, Felix stood still and concentrated on a trapezoid of snow near the top of the mountain. In less than two seconds, the snow there turned to water; it became a cascade of scalding water which rolled down the mountain’s slope. The trapezoid of water got wider, faster, and hotter with every second as it barreled toward Seth and Phil. The steaming wave swept Seth and Phil off their feet and into the waist-high water. It repeatedly slammed their helpless bodies against the craggy surface of the mountainside.

As the current dragged him, Seth looked downstream and saw a stone outcrop which looked like a ramp. As the scalding river hurled Seth and Phil over the edge of the ramp-like plateau, the water suddenly transformed into ice; only their arms and heads were over the surface, and only the ice protected them from falling.

            “Damn, Seth, this is real bad! We stuck over the edge of some tall-ass mountain and if we don’t move, we gon’ burn!” Phil shouted.

            Seth knew that Phil was right; their situation was especially precarious. Therefore, he threw his right hand against the ice and Destroyed a huge layer of ice. Once the ice broke under its own weight, Seth and Phil plummeted toward a field of snow and rocks that was blocked from Felix’s view. Before either of them would crash into the rocks, Seth grabbed Phil’s arm and Destroyed their kinetic energy. A second later, they landed painlessly atop the sharp rocks.

            “Seth, I needa get my freezin’ ass up this mountain so I can equilibrialize his sorry ass! but if I go out there, he’ll explode me with ice and shit,” Phil said worriedly and hurriedly.

            Before Seth could reply, the rocky outcropping began to tremble. Crevices tore through the snow as the outcropping violently shuddered. Phil ran as far to the right as possible, but Seth ran toward the rocky cliff. The stone cliff melted into a molten wall and quickly began falling. Just before it unleashed a wave of lava, Seth thrust his right hand forward and pulled his fingers together. He knew that he had to Destroy every drop of lava regardless of the energy cost, even though he was already exhausted from days of hiking.

While Seth did successfully Destroy the lava, the reaction pushed him into a deeper state of exhaustion. But if he relaxed long enough to catch his breath, Seth knew his enemy might combust the air around him.

            “I know I pissed off a whole buncha dudes in my life, but what did Seth ever do to you?! That punk over there’s the nicest guy I ever met!” Phil shouted to the enemies on the mountaintop.

            “Creation and Destruction are two sides of the same unholy coin. They were both brought to Earth by the forces of darkness, so I will do anything it takes to bring them down,” Felix answered solemnly.

            Knowing that a fight was inevitable, Phil and Seth silently resolved to climb up the mountainside. After Seth ran up to Phil’s side, they jogged up the slope as a team. Their plan was to get Phil close enough to throw, and in the meantime, Seth would Destroy any long-distance attacks that could stop them.

Felix, on the other hand, prepared to explode air in the spots where he expected Seth and Phil to stand. Since his ignition blast had a four-second delay, he knew how to plan for a moving target. However, he struggled to pinpoint his enemy from this distance because of his imperfect eyesight. This resulted in a series of aerial combustions, all several meters to the left of Seth and Phil.

            Phil continued climbing up the slope, but his cautious approach hindered his speed. Seth had to shake himself free from being transfixed by the flames every time Felix attacked. He ran to Phil’s side again, but then he realized that the air felt uncharacteristically warm. Because they both suddenly understood what this meant, they jumped in opposite directions; the fiery shockwave singed them and launched them at a high speed. The smoke and steam from this explosion quickly rose into the sky, separating Seth from Phil like a curtain.

            Seth knew he could not protect Phil from any more long-distance attacks, but the smoke curtain also meant that the thermal attacker could not see Phil. When Seth felt the air around him begin climbing in temperature again, he remembered that he alone was his enemy’s target; this would protect Phil as long as Seth could keep him distracted. For that reason, Seth burst into motion at full speed. As he threw his head over his shoulder to check for a heat explosion, Seth realized that his enemy stopped the attack before detonation—likely because he did not want to create another cloud of smoke.

            “Who are you?!” Seth demanded as he approached.

            “My name is Felix Gonzales. I will bring demons like you back to Hell’s gates, even if I must be your personal escort,” Felix said as he sublimed the air beside Seth.

            Hoping to bring the fight to an end, Seth wondered if he could establish Naomi as a common enemy. For that reason, he asked, “Have you met Creation? Did you bring her to Hell’s gates? Because that is what I want more than anything.”

            “I did humiliate her, but I failed to kill her in time. But you will not deceive me! I know that the children of the devil are united in an affront against God,” Felix said.

            With that, Felix transformed various spots of air in the overhead sky into ice. Seth was thrown off at first by Felix’s strategy, but then he realized that his enemy had essentially created watermelon-size hail. In addition, he noticed that these ice spheres were all perched high above the mountainside. Seth stopped running and concentrated on the falling ice while holding his hands above his head, preparing to Destroy anything that would fall upon him. What he did not realize, however, was that in doing this, he had remained in place for four seconds.

            A heat explosion triggered at that moment. Seth was thrown onto the mountainside as flames engulfed every inch of him. But since he did not immediately register the pain, Seth hurled himself into the nearest snow before he became transfixed in agony. And though his clothes were now covered in holes and burns, they still layered his body—but they could not protect from the plummeting ice.

            As Seth knelt on his hands and knees, he coped with the agonizing shift from freezing to burning and back. A huge sphere of ice fell onto a nearby rock and exploded in all directions; a dense shard flew out and crashed between his shoulder blades. He fell forward into the snow as the pain pushed him into a temporary paralysis. Even his mind felt as powerless as his body. Between the thermal damage and the blunt-force trauma, Seth failed to move a single muscle. To worsen the situation, Seth knew that the air would burst into fire in mere seconds; he had no way to defend himself. He decided that his only choice was to make his death justified.

            Having accepted it was over, Seth lifted his chin from the snow and glared at Felix at the top of the mountain. The temperature was already beginning to skyrocket, but Seth figured that Felix might hear his message. After all, he had nothing to lose.

            “Promise me that you will kill Creation! I’ll accept my death if I have your word that she’ll die too. It has to be you because no one else can!” Seth demanded, and as he yelled, he noticed that he did not burst into fire.

            “I promise you that I will stop her,” Felix answered, maintaining the high temperature that surrounded Seth.

            Seth felt the uncomfortable heat pulsating around him. His eyes began to swell with tears because of the temperature, so he pressed his brow into the melted snow. He knew the heat explosion would kill him in milliseconds, and he could already feel his body surrender.

            “Seth, don’t give up on me now! You my best friend; how you gon’ leave me behind like that?!” Phil yelled.

            The shock of these words caused Seth to open his eyes. He watched a throwing knife pierce the hazy smoke, and there was a symbol drawn upon its blade. It was a symbol that warranted a possibility for survival—a possibility for escape. The knife struck Felix’s shoulder, activating the Equilibrium Trigger. Felix dropped unconscious onto the snow, halting his explosion.

Phil suddenly emerged from the fading cloud of smoke with another marked blade, and he slashed it at the idle swordsman who stood beside Felix. The swordsman was clearly baffled by Felix’s collapse, though he jumped backward to dodge Phil’s knife. Phil dropped low as he threw himself forward, hoping to strike the swordsman with a low slash, but his enemy dodged once again. As he hurried to unsheathe his sword from its holster, the swordsman ran until he stood between Phil and Felix. A frantic dog trotted up to Felix’s side, whimpering at his owner while Seth rose to his feet.

            Seth knew that Phil’s quick thinking had saved his life. Hoping to return the favor, Seth sprinted the rest of the way to the top of the mountain. But as he ran, he realized that the fight between Phil and the swordsman was not going well. Phil was on the defensive, unable to fend off a sword with just a knife.

Phil wanted to score some damage before he retreated, but he could tell by one glance that his enemy predicted a knife-throw. Since Seth was running up the mountainside, Phil hoped to stall his enemy by feinting this throw. If he could do it convincingly, then Phil could distract the swordsman long enough for Seth to Destroy him from behind. After all, Phil knew that Seth’s conscience would justify it. The swordsman stood in the way of stopping Naomi, and besides, the swordsman would not hesitate to kill either of them if given the chance.

            Seth adjusted his footsteps to minimize the sound of crunching snow. As he approached the mountaintop, he felt a peculiar presence in the air; snowflakes fell lightly from the clouds as a steady wind chilled his scalded skin. In a way, it set the mood; It granted Seth the necessary coldness for killing his enemy.

            Phil twisted his body so that his left foot faced the swordsman; he pulled his right hand slightly back, giving the impression that he would soon throw his knife. Phil tried to maintain this look as he hopped away from the approaching swordsman. At the same time, Seth silently closed in on Phil’s enemy.

But somewhere between Phil’s distracted gaze and the muffled sound of crushed snow, the swordsman realized that Seth was nearby; he dropped into a crouch to dodge a future knife-throw. At the same time, the swordsman swung his weapon in a circular arc. Because Seth had not predicted this sudden movement, he threw himself forward and jumped just enough to dodge the slashing sword. As he flew through the air, Seth’s left hand caught and Destroyed the sword’s kinetic energy. The swordsman jolted backward to dodge, but Seth was faster; he landed and crashed his right fist into the swordsman. The impact forced him to fly back into the snow.

            Without letting go of his sword, the swordsman landed with a backward somersault and wound up on his feet in less than a second. In a swift and sudden follow-up attack, Phil threw a knife directly at his enemy’s stomach. However, he was just a moment too slow; the swordsman deflected the knife with the broad side of his sword. It bounced off harmlessly and landed in the snow.

            Using his enemies’ surprise to his advantage, the swordsman pulled back his sword and sprinted toward the unarmed Phil. Phil clumsily reached into his coat pocket, but by the time his fingers found a knife, he had to throw himself backward just to dodge a sudden slash. Phil quickly threw the knife from its tip without accounting for wind or gravity; he hoped to regain his composure while his knife distracted the swordsman.

            Just as Phil had hoped, the knife caught his enemy’s eye, forcing him onto the defensive. But with an incredible twist of his powerful sword, the swordsman deflected the knife once again. Meanwhile, Phil climbed to his feet and armed himself with his fourth knife. However, the swordsman had already turned his attention elsewhere; he charged toward Seth with his snow-covered sword. As soon as he got close, the swordsman swung his weapon in a right-to-left slash. Seth knew that he could not possibly dodge the blade, so he threw his hands out front. The weapon stopped immediately because Seth Destroyed its kinetic energy. A moment later, the sword itself fell into oblivion; Seth disarmed his enemy with his right hand’s Destruction.

            “What you gon’ do now that you don’t got that fat-ass sword?” Phil shouted at the stunned swordsman, sheathing his knife back into his coat pocket.

            The swordless swordsman dropped his shoulder, charged forward, and crashed his left fist into Phil with incredible force. Phil flew through the air, crash-landed in the snow, and rolled to a painful stop. The attacker then ran after Phil so that he could strike again, but Seth trailed just a few meters behind him. Phil grabbed his damaged ribs and rose to a crouching position, only to get kicked in the chest by his enemy. The impact knocked the wind out of him and threw him flying backward.

            “Man, this dude’s real strong; this shit’s ridiculous! I can barely stand up,” Phil gasped.

            While Phil realized his enemy was dangerous even without a sword, he knew that the swordsman could never outrun Seth. Exactly as he predicted, Seth caught up and thrust his right hand on the swordsman’s back. Just before the enemy could attack Phil again, Seth activated his power of Destruction. The swordsman’s entire body disappeared into nothing, leaving Phil to let out a sigh of relief.

            “Seth, you my hero! You jus’ saved my life,” Phil shouted with a slight whimper.

            “Just returning the favor, man, I thought for sure I was gonna die back there,” Seth admitted as he helped Phil rise to his feet.

            “I know, I heard yo bitch-ass from ‘cross the mountain. That’s some seriously fucked-up shit, Seth. You ain’t never give up, never back down, never surrender. This ugly-ass thermo dude can’t take on Naomi and I can’t neither. You know that, man.!Besides, leavin’ my ass behind while you die ain’t somethin’ I can just stand by and fuckin’ watch,” Phil said as he walked toward the unconscious Felix.

            “I know, man, I’m sorry. Won’t happen again,” Seth laughed.

            Phil suddenly stopped walking. He grabbed Seth’s shoulder with so much force that he was forced to turn around and face him. Phil glared at him and said, “This ain’t no laughin’ matter, Seth. You can’t be doin’ shit like that. When I say we like brothers, I mean we like brothers. And brothers don’t leave each other behind. Not ever.”

            “Yeah… you’re right. I really screwed up. I won’t let that happen again.”

            But before any more words could be said, Felix began to stir. The snowfall startled him as he came to his senses, and Phil unsheathed his last two throwing knives. Two of his knives remained in the snow a short distance away, and Felix slowly extracted the last one from his body. After Felix pulled out the knife, he used his power to cauterize the wound.

            Seth sensed that Felix had experienced a profound journey during his time in the astral plane. But after Felix took a moment to search for the missing swordsman, he realized that his friend had been killed. After concentrating on the gentle cascade of snowflakes, Felix forced every ice crystal to simultaneously boil. The gas-water droplets fell like searing rain and scalded his enemies on contact.

Without a moment to spare, Phil and Seth pulled their jackets over their heads as a shield from the scalding rain, but they both knew that their speed was their only hope for survival. Therefore, Seth began sprinting toward Felix with his hands held high over his head, while Phil prepared to throw the next to last of his knives.

            Just before throwing, Phil calculated that his knife-throw would have to account for gravity, air resistance, wind, and the shockwave of exploding steam. With these factors in mind, he threw it such that his knife flew blade-first toward Felix. The knife pierced deep into Felix’s stomach, activating the Equilibrium Trigger and separating him from reality. As a result, the precipitation stopped boiling; Seth pulled down his jacket down and ran at full speed. With every step, Seth prepared himself to Destroy his unconscious enemy.

            Seth crossed the distance quickly. He sprinted full-speed with his right hand outstretched, ready to deliver a lethal strike in just two seconds. However, in the last few milliseconds before Seth arrived, the snowflakes in front of his right hand expanded explosively; each particle of snow shot outward and encased his right hand in ice. By the time his hand struck Felix, he had to Destroy the layer of ice on his palm, sparing Felix from Destruction.

As a swift counterattack, Felix transformed the falling snowflakes into boiling rain. Unwilling to let his adversary escape when he was so close, Seth threw Felix to the ground with a violent kick. But when Felix fell into the snow, Seth felt Felix’s right hand grab his left hand. At the same time, he noticed that Felix had bandaged his own knife wound with ice.

            “Prepare to have your arm boil; this is how I will purge the darkness that’s infiltrated your body,” Felix whispered.

            Felix gripped Seth’s left hand exceptionally hard, raising the temperature in his arm at a meteoric rate. For a moment, Seth thought about letting Felix’s warmth alleviate the coldness that had crept into his bones, but he absolutely could not let his enemy win. Therefore, Seth swiftly thrusted his right hand toward his enemy, forcing Felix to retreat and break their thermal connection.

            “You betta get yo punk-ass away from Seth right now,” Phil said, suddenly bursting into the area with his last knife outright.

            Felix agilely jumped backward three times to dodge Phil’s rapid slashes. Phil was determined to attack so quickly that Felix had to stay on the defensive, so he followed up with a swift vertical slash at Felix’s left arm. Felix twisted on his right foot just to barely dodge the weapon. However, this left Phil and Felix right beside each other, facing perpendicularly, meaning that Felix could not run away. But instead of running, Felix threw his hands toward Phil’s right wrist.

Since Phil suspected that Felix might try to grab him, he tossed his knife to the side, distracting Felix. As Felix stumbled backward, Phil grabbed onto the handle of the knife that was still stuck in his stomach. Phil clenched this knife and threw his right knee up so that it slammed into Felix’s chest. The reaction force let him rip the frigid blade out of Felix’s stomach. The impact knocked Felix into the snow, and as he landed, he grunted from the extraordinary pain. He fastened his hands onto the wound in a failing attempt to mollify the pressure.

            A mechanical clamor suddenly sounded from the other side of the mountain. A small helicopter ascended into the air, pointing two shimmering turrets toward Seth and Phil. The helicopter shot two quick shots from each turret, forcing Seth and Phil to drop into the snow for safety. They quickly scurried backward to take cover from the turrets. A long rope ladder then dropped from the aircraft.

            “Felix! I got you, buddy! Let’s get the hell out of here,” shouted the helicopter pilot.

            The helicopter’s megaphone barely pierced the deafening wind. Felix grunted in pain, but nevertheless he grabbed the ladder with one arm while holding his dog in the other. The helicopter then climbed through the air, and though Phil wanted to throw his knife, he was too afraid of the turrets to do anything. The ladder gradually ascended back into the helicopter.

            Once the helicopter was gone, Phil retrieved his knives and griped, “Man, I feel like I ain’t done shit this fight.”

            “Don’t sweat it, Phil. You did great. We’ll get him if he ever tries anything like that again. Besides, it’s not so bad, ya know? I think I might see the airport Harold was taking about,” Seth said.

            “You right, you right. I see it too. Come on, let’s go. I’m tired of these mountains anyway,” Phil said, rubbing his hand against the bruises on his torso.