The Dawn of Destruction, Chapter 17 (Clean)

(Note: The "unclean" version of this chapter has images, but unlike usual, they are not placeholders. I strongly recommend you read that instead.)

            Chapter Seventeen

 

The five combatants stood motionlessly as they caught their breath in the smoky air. They stared around anxiously, but no one was willing to launch the first strike. Since Seth and Zheng had no way to strike from a distance, they stood uselessly beside Phil on the south side of the labyrinth. There was lava on both sides of them, and even if they ran across the top of the maze wall, they had a long way to go before reaching Felix or Naomi.

Phil decided to use this brief period of stillness to calculate his next move, since he was closest to both Felix and Naomi. However, Phil knew that even if he ran along the wall for as far as he could, he would be unable to hit Naomi with a knife-throw; she stood all the way in the northwest part of the chamber. This distance proved to be a valuable barrier, but it was not one which would encumber Naomi’s energy attacks.

Because Felix stood near the middle of the western wall, Phil calculated that he was about 100 feet away. And though this was too far for him to throw with any real power or accuracy, Phil decided to bite the bullet and run as close to Felix as he could without having to jump over any lava. In theory, he could come close enough to score some damage with a thrown knife. However, he wasted too much time calculating, so he never got the chance to move.

 “Too slow,” Felix said.

            Felix directed his first heat explosion at Naomi’s secluded spot, causing her to jump southward just before the detonation. The shockwave launched her from behind much faster than she intended, but before she dropped into the bubbling magma, she Created a horizontal ladder between the nearest two walls. She caught herself on this ladder, wrapped her hands around it, and then swung her body up onto the rock wall. When she landed, lava surrounded her on almost every side.

            Meanwhile, the air surrounding Seth and his friends began to rapidly pressurize. Certain that Felix had targeted him, Phil discarded his previous plan and charged northward while Seth ran southward, both trying to dodge a powerful explosion. While Phil ran a considerable distance forward, including a dangerous jump over six feet of lava, Seth ran so far southward that he almost fell off the wall.

Since Zheng had not entirely figured out Felix’s power, he did not run. The brunt of the explosion slammed him against the rock wall beneath him. The impact left him with several bruises, but Zheng and his clothes had not caught fire.

Having moved closer to Felix, Phil lifted his knife and prepared to throw, but he decided against it when he gazed at his enemy. Felix fluffed out his parachute and heated the air beneath it, creating an updraft that lifted him into the air like a hot air balloon.

            Preferring to keep her enemies stranded at a distance, Naomi used her left hand to unleash a tremendous wind current. The wind was cyclonic, quickly scraping the dust from the walls of the basement chamber; it spun with a powerful counterclockwise swirl. At first, Felix and his parachute were pulled southward through the air at an unnerving speed, so he let go of his parachute in mid-air. With nothing left to hold him up, Felix fell and crash-landed onto a narrow strip of rock wall. When he landed, he fell onto his knees and pressed his face into the rock, ashamed that he had just lost the advantage.

            Because Phil stood on a peninsula surrounded by lava, he flattened himself against the stone wall and embraced the edge to fight the gusty windstorm. Zheng did the same thing in his respective spot. Seth stood upright in the gale, using his left hand to Destroy the wind before it could push him backward. During this, Seth stepped northward several spots and solemnly glared at Naomi with defiance in his eyes. As he stepped past Zheng, Seth continued walking northward until he and Phil were separated by just six feet of lava.

            “Seth, I am so thrilled to see you here! Although, it is unfortunate that we never got to join as one before your untimely death,” Naomi announced with a wide smile, finally letting the windstorm subside.

            “Surrounded by lava, still gettin’ bitches,” Phil laughed, cautiously rising to his feet.

            Seth said nothing; he simply narrowed his fierce eyes at his bloodthirsty enemy. As much as he wanted to retaliate, he had already realized that he could not travel much farther without jumping over lava. Naomi realized that Seth was trapped by this fear, and she grinned because of her safe distance. As a result, she clapped her hands together, concentrating on the lava that separated her from another nearby wall. With a disquieting roar, the entire chamber shuddered as two metallic worms emerged from the lava in this place.

The worms then dove into the lava like river serpents, safe from the molten fluid because their melting point was far too high. Seth and Phil exchanged horrified glances, noticing that these worms resembled a smaller version of those from the site of the trainwreck. And while their thinness would weaken the force of their impact, it also meant that they could swim faster. To make matters worse, the scorching lava was dense and opaque. It would perfectly conceal the merciless serpents.

            Undaunted by Naomi’s menacing Creations, Zheng rose to his feet and dashed toward Naomi; he simply ignored the countless questions racing through his mind. After bypassing Seth and veering quickly to avoid the lava, Zheng had only a split second to determine his next action. He would either have to jump diagonally from one rock wall to another, or make a sharp turn that would hugely slow him down. To make matters worse, a giant worm emerged from the nearby lava with a crash of fire and sparks.

Instead of turning, Zheng slammed his left foot on the ground and jumped through the air, landing on the spinning neck of the metallic worm with his right foot. The impact startled the creature, and because its neck was spinning so quickly, it accelerated Zheng to a frightening speed.

            Zheng kept a level head and jumped off the spinning metal after a fraction of a second; this high-speed motion launched him toward Felix. As his flying feet approached the narrow wall in a matter of milliseconds, Zheng chose to bypass Felix instead of stopping to fight.

When his feet finally struck the stone wall, Zheng executed a powerful, spring-like jump, soaring clear over another six feet of lava. As he landed on the next rock wall and continued running northward, Naomi realized that Zheng had targeted her. He charged fearlessly onward, even though there were several gaps in the way.

            Zheng saw that his sudden closeness had intimidated Naomi, and not just because they had never met. But as he continued running northward on the rock wall, he heard a sudden splash in the next place where he would have to jump. This sound warned him that one of Naomi’s mechanical worms was lurking in the lava, preparing to jump. Zheng therefore accelerated instead of stopping.

When Zheng and the spinning worm leaped into the air, he managed to outrun the creature by a matter of inches. And though he flew just past the worm, splashes of the molten fluid scalded his calf muscle as he sailed through the air. But when he landed on the rock wall, even this pain was not enough to slow him down.

            Without wasting a second, Zheng jumped outward and upward once again, flying over another gap of lava. Even though there were many more gaps after this, he knew that this was his best chance to take down Naomi. However, he also knew that Naomi would not let him advance without trying to interfere.

            “Zheng’s a real fighter, man. I jus’ wish I could help!” Phil stammered from a distance.

            Since Naomi was determined to impede Zheng’s movement, she Created several large spheres of stone in front of her chest. After they materialized, Naomi swept her left hand across the three rocks with a flash of energy Creation; she launched them at a high speed toward Zheng, who at the same moment leaped from one rock wall to another. The first sphere struck Zheng with a devastating impact while he flew directly over the bubbling lava. The rock slammed against him and knocked away his forward speed, rendering him motionless in the air—a moment away from falling to his death. In a matter of milliseconds, the second stone sphere struck his feet, damaging his ankles and shins, but the impact also spun him upside-down. A few milliseconds later, the third stone slammed against his back, throwing his damaged body back onto the ledge from which he had just jumped. Paralyzed by pain, Zheng grimaced at the reality that his onslaught had failed. When he glanced up at Naomi, he saw her prepare to launch another assault.

            Naomi pulled the fingers of her right hand together, using her power to Create a rocket-launcher that rested on her shoulder. She then aimed at the wall beneath Zheng. Although abrasions scattered his body, and his head was still in a daze from the last attack, Zheng saw the rocket-launcher as an opportunity for redemption. Therefore, he jumped upward and northward when Naomi pulled the trigger. The rock wall behind him exploded in all directions, destroying that location. As the shockwave and the high-speed stone struck him in the back, the force propelled him toward Naomi. When he landed on another narrow island of rock, Zheng sprinted forward and jumped over lava once again, preparing for her next attack. She fired her rocket-launcher a second time, and the recoil knocked her backward.

Zheng knew he had to dodge the rocket-propelled grenade, but he also needed to maintain his speed so that he could reach Naomi before she fired again. Therefore, when he landed on the next rock wall, he suddenly halted his feet and made his body spin forward; he dropped to all fours in the blink of an eye. The grenade missed his head by inches. He scrambled forward, coiled his legs at the edge of the maze wall, and jumped over the lava. Naomi grimaced as he landed on a wall that was very close by.

            “Hey, Seth, how we s’posed to help his crazy-ass? He leave us all the way back here and we can’t do shit ‘cause he so far away! Rude,” Phil said, shaking his head.

            “I really wish we could help, but Zheng could end this whole thing right now,” Seth said as he started walking to the west. He glared through the smoky air, checking to see if he had enough room to get a running start and jump over lava in case Felix got back up.

            Since Zheng was separated from Naomi by only a six-foot gap of lava, he rolled to his feet and continued running toward the emissary of Creation. When he jumped and flew over the lava, Naomi steadied her rocket-launcher, but she was too slow. Zheng landed on the ground right in front of her before she could aim, so instead she prepared to run away.

            Now that Zheng stood before Naomi, he charged forward and crashed into her at full speed. Because this sudden collision startled her, Naomi squeezed the trigger of her rocket-launcher, aimlessly blasting into the lava. Naomi was thrown upward from the reaction force and backward from Zheng’s tackle. As she sailed northward over the boiling lava, she used her power to Create a pillar of stone to catch her falling feet; she landed on it just before she would fallen to her death.

When Zheng jumped over the lava to her new location, she grinned and Created various blades in her right hand. And since he was still in mid-air, jumping over lava at an impressive speed, Zheng could not stop himself from crashing into the blades. They all pierced through his torso; he screamed with pain and coughed up blood. Naomi smiled with a fearsome stare; her dilated eyes concentrated on the trickles of blood as they dropped into the river of fire beneath them. Her toned arms flexed as she clenched her blades, using all her strength just to hold Zheng’s body in the air.

            “Holy shit, man, she jus’ stabbed Zheng!” Phil said.

            Phil ran a short distance to his right, and then he executed a swift left turn so that he could sprint toward Naomi. Even as he ran, he knew that this was futile, but he felt like he had to do something to help his fallen friend.

At the same time but in different places, Phil and Seth both started running along the rock walls. They raced toward Naomi until a giant worm suddenly emerged from the lava bend between them. They both tried to ignore and outrun the mechanical worm, but because it shot into the air and curved toward Phil, he was forced to change course. When the spinning shaft of the worm slammed upon the stone just in front of Phil, the force of the collision shattered the rock wall and sent Phil flying. He flew backward and crashed into the top of a stone wall; he desperately pulled himself onto a small rock island that was surrounded by lava. As he climbed to his feet, the mechanical worm slithered through the lava toward him.

            Meanwhile, Seth jumped over some lava while aiming slightly to the right. As he flew over the lava with his legs swinging back and forth, a sudden splash sounded from the lava beneath him. The second mechanical worm erupted upward so quickly that he barely had any time to react. He instinctively grabbed its jaws, but the force of this collision neutralized his forward speed; the worm was in complete control of their motion. And because the worm spun with such incredible power, its jaws were also rotating, and thus the dizzying motion disoriented Seth.

To make matters worse, the worm began to fall back down toward the lava, leaving him no time to find a solution. He knew that the worm would pull him into the lava, or at least slam him against the stone wall at a deadly speed, but then he realized that this worm was less dangerous than the ones from the trainyard; Naomi had not equipped it with spinning blades. Therefore, with his right hand clenched around the worm’s spinning jaw, Seth Destroyed the spinning creature in mid-air.

Suddenly holding onto nothing, Seth was launched northeastward by the high-speed spin. By the time he Destroyed his own kinetic energy and landed on a wall near the center of the room, he realized that it was probably too late for him to save Zheng.

            Naomi reached her left hand onto Zheng’s trembling neck, and then she coldly pulled her blades out from his shredded torso. As he wheezed in agony from the damage he had sustained, Naomi pulled his torn flesh off of her two longest knives. The scraps of flesh were dripping with blood. She licked the blood and then tossed the flesh into the lava. As his deep breathing started to slow, Zheng fell onto the stone wall beside her. Blood stained his mouth and his body.

            “I am keeping you alive only as a shield, otherwise I would have no such generosity,” Naomi whispered to him.

            Zheng furiously tried to retort, but he could not open his mouth long enough to speak. With nothing else to do, he reached his hand into his jacket pocket and weakly grabbed a Cosmic Pen. He wanted to use it to send Naomi to the astral plane, but he could not stretch his right arm enough to make this happen. Therefore, he silently drew two symbols upon the palm of his own hand. He then activated the Equilibrium Trigger on himself, hoping the astral plane could heal his mind and possibly his body.

            During all of this, Phil had narrowly dodged three more of the giant worm’s dives. When he reached the middle part of the rock wall near the south end of the room, Phil watched the worm submerge beneath the lava. Within seconds, the air where the monster had been burst into flames, unleashing a deafening crash and a fiery shockwave. The entire area boomed and tremored, practically announcing to everyone that Felix was able to rejoin the fight.

And though his body was still wounded, Felix stood in a safe spot on a narrow strip of land near the middle of the western wall. His enemies were too far away to attack him, unless Naomi chose to Create a long-distance weapon. For that reason, Felix followed up with a swift assault. He superheated the stone pillar beneath her feet so that it melted; this caused her feet and legs to drop partway into the magma while her hands barely caught the adjacent wall’s edge. The burning heat overwhelmed her nervous system; her body shook with a series of shrieks as she felt her legs melt beneath her. Using her left hand for support, Naomi pulled the upper two-thirds of her disfigured body onto the rock wall.

            Gasping for breath between convulsions, Naomi at last used Creation to regenerate herself; this action ended the incredible agony. She crawled closer to Zheng, but the palm of her hand brushed against the second Equilibrium Trigger that he had drawn. It activated and delivered her spirit to the astral plane. Because this separated her body and soul, Felix turned his attention elsewhere.

            It was then that Seth noticed a trickle of molten ceiling over his head. Because he did not want it to incinerate him, he immediately started running. But as he ran through the smoky air, Seth glared at Felix and yelled, “Why don’t you kill her?! She is so much more dangerous than me. This could be our only chance! She can’t fight back right now!”

            But Felix answered, “I understand that she collapsed from the same weapon your friend used on me. If her transference into that world is anything like what I experienced, it would be useless to kill her with her spirit detached. The spirit of the devil’s pawn would still live on, with or without the body,” Felix reasoned.

            Seth knew that it was pointless to argue with Felix. Instead, he simply focused on accelerating in the north-northwest direction. As he ran, he kept his eyes focused on the upcoming ledges so that when he arrived, he easily jumped from one wall to another. But as soon as he landed after making the jump, he forced his feet to stop running, and then he painfully threw himself to the ground so that he could dodge a heat explosion sent from a distance. As his knees came to a scraping slide on top of a rock wall, Seth saw the space directly in front of him burst into fire. After several nearby heat explosions, Seth realized that Felix was determined to eliminate him.

At the same time, Phil silently signaled to Seth that he would try to circumnavigate the chamber and strike Naomi; this allowed Seth to focus on fighting Felix. Seth nodded and cast a final sweeping glance at Naomi’s motionless body, hoping that it would be the last time he would ever see her.

But even though she was wrought with trepidation and anger, Naomi still somehow possessed a bittersweet allure. It was partially out of physical attraction, and Seth could not deny that to himself on any level, but it was also out of fascination for her wounded mind. Even unconscious, Naomi seemed to strangle Seth’s attention. But just before he pulled his eyes away from her, he noticed that her beautiful face revealed her turmoil in the astral plane. It reflected a profound sorrow, a conflicting nature—a divided conscience.

***

            “Who are all of you?” Naomi asked.

            Naomi stood before a group of women in a spiritual realm with a white background. All of the women physically resembled her, but they all wore gentle smiles.

            “We are your sisters, Trepidation; we have come to show you the way you’ve compartmentalized your soul… even if it was long ago,” the first explained.

            “Am I dead?” Naomi gasped.

            “No, although you are out of your body. We are the subconscious guardians that you once used to suppress your past, safeguarding you from the tragedy that was buried many years ago. We are the custodians of a latent poison interred in the surrounding sandstorms, swiftly swimming in your head. You may call me your Intellect,” she said.

            Naomi felt her heartbeat finally slow down. She wiped the tears from her eyes and asked, “Why am I just now seeing you? And why are there so many of you? I know I’ve got some problems, but I don’t have split personalities; I know that at the very least.”

            The vessel of Intellect explained, “A long time ago, you created us to serve as the guardians of scarring memories. We work to silence an echo that you were not ready to face—an echo from which you still try to hide. As a result, you stand at our surface as the representative of our incomplete existence. There is one guardian for each sister who was unfairly taken from you. These are the vessels you have accidentally created.”

            Naomi suddenly saw the unveiled form of her innate components. They were the conduits of Trepidation, Intellect, Anguish, Vengeance, Sexuality, Malevolence, Pleasure, Rationality, and Mortality. She felt like she stood in a baffling dream within this spiritual realm, but as she began to retreat from the astral plane, she felt an odd reassurance, almost as if her mind had protected her instead of turning against her.

***

            Unaware that Naomi was waking from her trance, Seth sprinted toward Felix as quickly as he could; Felix tried and failed to stop him with a series of heat explosions. Seth ran southward across a strip of rock with bubbling lava on both sides. But even in spite of his near-superhuman running speed, Seth chose to run straightforward across the rock, jump over the lava, and then turn to face Felix. Therefore, when he reached the rocky ledge before the last gap of lava, he jumped from the right corner and prepared to execute a spinning kick on Felix.

As Seth flew over the lava, Felix outstretched his right palm so that he could catch Seth in mid-air and boil his flesh. But this defense was so predictable that Seth had already prepared for it; he stretched his left hand so that he could strike Felix’s hand in mid-air. When their hands smacked together, Seth activated the Destruction of energy and prevented Felix from transferring heat, but he also accidentally Destroyed his own kinetic energy. Because of this, Seth failed to kick Felix off the ledge.

            Although he was slightly distracted by Phil jumping from ledge to ledge in the background, Seth shook his head and prepared for close combat with Felix. But in a quick first attack, Felix swept his leg forward, hoping to trip Seth onto the ground or into the lava, but Seth jumped high into the air to dodge this. As Felix tried to pull back his swinging leg, Seth parted his legs in mid-air and kicked Felix with enough force to knock him down. Felix nearly rolled off of the rock wall altogether. Just after he stopped himself, he threw his palm against the stone and activated his power; he vaporized a chunk of the wall and flooded the air with fiery cinders.

            Since Seth had intended to strike his grounded enemy, he had no way to dodge the airborne cinders. Flames scoured a vertical strip of skin on his face and neck, leaving behind painful welts. And although his sweaty clothes did not catch fire, the acrid smoke and ashy air brought tears to his eyes.

When Felix noticed this, he quickly stood up, lightly pushed Seth with his left arm, and then threw a swift right punch at Seth’s upper body. Seth tried to stop this attack by lifting his right hand, but Felix expected this reaction. Therefore, Felix kept his right hand clenched as a fist and accelerated his arm—bypassing Seth’s defense. His fist struck Seth’s burned face, knocking him backward and onto the ground. Because the punch splattered a welt on his badly-singed face, the pain temporarily immobilized Seth.

            As all of this took place, Phil had crossed a tremendous portion of the underground chamber in a very short amount of time. By recklessly throwing himself from one ledge to another, he managed to pick up speed in a series of consecutive jumps, until eventually he arrived in the northeast corner of the room without either of his enemies noticing.

            When Seth finally shook himself free from the pain and opened his eyes, he noticed two things in his current location. The first was that Naomi had now risen to her feet; she was brimming with energy as she returned to the fight. The second was that Phil had dashed all the way to the northeast corner, though he had to catch his breath after rushing through the smoky air. Since Naomi had not yet noticed Phil, Seth hoped he could keep her distracted with his fight against Felix. But as Seth glanced at the conduit of Creation, something suddenly erupted in her soft brown eyes; she furiously remembered that Felix had dropped her into the lava.

            Naomi Created another sphere of rock in front of her left hand, though this one was several times larger than the three she had launched at Zheng. Felix and Seth stopped fighting each other and turned to face Naomi, since it was clear that she would launch it at them.

Since Seth had been crouching, he released the spring-like coil in his legs and jumped upward. At the same time, Naomi’s left hand touched her stone sphere. The rock then exploded outward, screeching toward Seth and Felix with a speed so incredible that it shattered from the wind, breaking into a scattershot of dust and rocks. Focusing on the most dangerous of these rocks, Seth outstretched his hands and used the Destruction of both matter and energy to block the deadly shards. In the end, none of the projectiles struck Seth or Felix, though they both would have been torn to pieces if he had not intervened.

            “You saved me?” Felix asked with evident incredulity.

            Before Seth had time to respond, the one remaining worm burst forth from the nearest river of magma. It emerged so quickly that it flung splashes of lava into the air. Stunned by a sudden rush of fear, Seth stared helplessly as the creature charged toward him. Felix pushed Seth a short distance backward, and then the worm flew between them both, soaring so fast that the wind almost knocked them over.

From the moment that the worm’s steel casing grazed the fingertips of Felix’s right hand, it launched bone splinters through his arm. As the high-speed spinning worm continued to charge on, Felix’s elbow shot through the cartilage and flesh behind it, twisting as veins and blood burst into the air. When the worm concluded its jump and dove into the lava with an echoing splash, Felix’s right arm had been completely dismembered—reduced to a spiny pulp. Felix stared at the sputtering wound, paralyzed by the sudden intensity of the pain. As his brain tried to process the fact that he had just lost his arm, his body went into a state of shock; he fell catatonic and collapsed upon the ledge.

            Certain that the mechanical worm would come back for more, Seth peered over the ledge. He deduced from the currents that the devious creature slithered beneath the nearby magma. Meanwhile, Naomi developed a plot to defeat Seth. All she needed to do was distract him, just for a split second, and then she could command her worm to ascend from the abyss and attack.

To enact her plan, Naomi lifted Zheng’s unconscious body, silently noticing that his wounds had stopped bleeding. This caught Seth’s gaze momentarily, and so she Created a tremendous sword to keep his attention. She then began slowly sawing away at Zheng’s shoulder with a deranged smile. Seth opened his mouth in protest, and suddenly the worm exploded out of the lava behind him in a meteoric splash.

            But at the exact moment that the worm emerged from the lava, Naomi’s left hand grazed the handle beneath her Created sword. She Created enough energy to launch the sword into southward motion at a supersonic speed. A vaporization ring appeared around the weapon, and then a deafening boom flooded the whole chamber.

Seth had less than a tenth of a second to respond to both the worm and the sword; they were both timed and powered so precisely that they would definitely hit him at the same time. He did not have time to run away; he did not even have time to drag his left hand forward. Destruction was his only protection, and he could only choose one target. Seth chose the worm.

Seth slammed his eyes shut, pulled his fingers together, and Destroyed the serpentine monster in the blink of an eye. At the same time, the sword pierced his left trapezius muscle. It struck with so much force that it flung him over the lava and onto the vertical side of the ledge behind him. The sword tore through his muscle and deep into the rock wall; it was the only thing suspending his weight in the air. It was the only thing holding his body over the lava underneath him. 

            The pain and the heat nearly knocked Seth unconscious. He pulled his knees up to his shoulders so that his legs would not roast from the convection of the magma below, but his weight slowly pulled the sword through the thin flesh that upheld him. Seth knew the sword would soon tear free from his flesh, and then he would drop into the bubbling lava. The pain felt so disorienting that Seth could not raise his trembling arms above his shoulders; this limitation prevented any hope for escape.

But when his adrenaline overcame his delirium, Seth determined his best course of action. He fastened his hands on the golden handle of the sword so that he could push together with gravity. He took a deep breath and tore through the remainder of his trapezius muscle. As the taut strands of flesh separated, incomprehensible pain surged through his system, but it could not rattle his concentration.

While hoisting his body just barely over the lava by clenching the handle, Seth stretched out his body, contacting the opposite wall with his feet. After moving his feet vertically, he built up enough momentum to perform a backward somersault, and then he landed upright on the ledge of a rock wall. However, Naomi had prepared for this; she knew that he would be exhausted and dizzy when she launched her next assault. She Created a submachinegun and then immediately took aim.

            Seth glared at her weapon but did not lose his cool. He thought for a moment about how Phil would handle this situation, and therefore numbers started cascading through his mind. He saw that the sword was stuck in the rock wall, about nine inches beneath the ledge. If he were to use the wall to the north (on the other side of the lava) as a barricade, he could possibly stay safe from the bullets. With no other option, Seth jumped feet-first at a slight angle toward the lava in front of him. He spun backward as he fell and grabbed the golden handle of the sword, Destroying his energy so that he stayed just over the lava. A barrage of bullets flew over his head, but every shot missed him. He was safe here, but he had no way to go on the offensive. At least, this was what he thought until he lifted his neck just enough to glance over the nearest ledge. 

            Since Naomi’s submachinegun drowned out the sound of his movement, Phil ran toward her with a knife in his right hand. Without being detected, Phil ran across the rock wall, jumped to the next ledge, landed atop another wall, and then jumped a second time over the bubbling lava. As the high-temperature drafts pressed against his skin, Phil jumped two more times in a row. After a short run, when he reached the next ledge from which he would jump, Phil threw himself into the air, twisted counterclockwise, and prepared to throw while Naomi fired uselessly at Seth. Phil pulled his arm back and then hurled the knife at Naomi in mid-air. This was risky, since he was over thirty feet away from her, but he knew it was time to finally deal some damage.

            While the knife flew through the smoky air, Naomi used the recoil of her gunfire to suddenly spin halfway around. Since the magazine had one bullet left and her finger held the trigger, she fired her last bullet so that it barreled through Phil’s lower stomach with a bloody splash. The shockwave knocked him to the ground while his knife flew through the right part of her chest. An Equilibrium Trigger stained the blade, and it immediately activated.

Naomi lost consciousness and fell to the ground while her torn lung began filling with blood. But when she returned from the astral plane only a few moments later, she repaired the damage in an instant with Creation.

            With a grimace, Phil kept his left hand pressed against his stomach so that he could suppress the bleeding. Nevertheless, Seth was horrified by the sight. With a series of tugs, pushes, and jumps, Seth climbed onto the adjacent ledge, hoping to distract Naomi from hurting Phil further.

But when Phil reached into his jacket for another knife, Naomi shot two more bullets through his torso. Phil dropped to a crouching position, grimacing and heaving, rubbing his forehead and trembling in defeat. He weakly tossed his knife forward and sighed as it fell hopelessly into the lava. He shuddered as blood surfaced in his throat.

            “Phil! Hang on man, I’m coming!” Seth shouted in a last-ditch effort to distract Naomi.

            Seth’s whole body trembled from terror at the sight of his best friend’s body. With one glance, he could tell that Phil was on the cusp between life and death. All the while, Naomi glared at Phil, focusing on her dying prey before going in for the mortal strike.

            “No you won’t, and you know it. You know as well as he does that there is no escape; there is no situation in which he survives this. And now, you have to watch your best friend die by my hand,” Naomi coolly spoke.

            With those words, Naomi Created one more bullet and then aimed her submachinegun at Phil. Her face glowed and her eyes dilated as she prepared to end his helpless life. Phil glared defiantly at her, but he knew he had no way to stop her; his heart would stop as soon as she pulled the trigger. He tried to harden his stare, but in the process, he realized that Naomi did not have a single scratch on her body.

            Phil concluded that Seth had been right all along; it was best to assume that they would not survive, but the point of their death was to ensure Naomi’s death. But if Phil were to die for nothing, then nothing would be gained; Seth was too far away to retaliate. He wondered if they ever had any actual shot at stopping Naomi, or if they were simply condemned to lose each other in this fight. Dismissing the thought, Phil silently blamed himself for his failure. He did not even have the strength to graze one of his knives and enter the astral plane. Even after the many hardships and battles which led to this point, he did not have the strength to move himself at all. The only thing he could do, as he lay dying atop the rock wall, was contemplate the impact of his death in the battle between Naomi and Seth. He wondered if he ever truly mattered in the battle of Creation versus Destruction.

Phil refused to accept that he would die like this, curled up atop a wall in a puddle of his own blood. He winced when he realized that never again would he and Seth travel aimlessly together, reflecting on hysterical moments. Never again would he appreciate the sublime tastes had come to adore. Never again would he partake in the simple pleasures of life, surrounded by the people he loved. Never again would he fight in Seth’s war. As streams of blood poured from his body, Phil remembered back to his walk along the shoreline with Seth, just weeks ago. The rhythmic waves slammed and receded, even in his memories. He remembered the gentle whisper of the breeze as it swept ashore, the shouts of happy people as they frolicked in the water, and the pressure of the sunlight beating down upon them. Phil savored the memory of the light, since he knew he would never see the sun again.

            Phil’s brain fell silent. His body stopped trembling and convulsing. He dropped onto the rock wall, his head pressed face-down against the stone. A gentle puddle of blood trickled from his calming body, and the sight of this paralyzed Seth.

            Seth could not think. He could not move. He had lost his closest friend, and he had no one to blame but himself. If he had never brought Phil into this danger, if he had never been so helpless in the face of evil, if he had never allowed Phil to fight Naomi in the first place, then none of this would have happened. Phil would still be at home, happily working on some engineering project without a worry in the world. He would not be bleeding out in an underground dungeon. If he had simply kept Phil out of it, perhaps Seth would be the one lying in a puddle of his own blood. Perhaps Naomi would have simply killed him instead—a fate he figured was meant for him since the moment he received the dark power of Destruction.

Phil had no business being here in the first place. As he trembled on the rock wall, Seth cursed himself for not leaving Phil out of this mess from the very start. And now, because of his mistake and Naomi’s cruelty, they were the only two still standing in the underground chamber. 

            Seth said nothing. With a crestfallen grimace and his eyes hidden by the shadows of the light that danced on the lava, he effortlessly hopped to the next ledge. In complete silence, Seth slowly walked as far north as this rock wall would allow, and then he jumped three consecutive times over the boiling lava. Naomi was unnerved by his silent approach, and therefore she clapped her hands together to Create a plastic seal on Seth’s right hand. It was a flimsy measure, but it was enough that Seth would have to first Destroy the seal before any other target. More than anything, this would prevent a sneak attack.

Nevertheless, Seth continued walking and jumping toward Naomi, but his bloodshot eyes poured a tristful energy in through her soul; she recognized Seth’s state of defeat and oblivion all too familiarly. She had truly never intended to kill his best friend; she planned to save that for her judgment day. His death had served no purpose but to deliver Seth into a state of unparalleled sorrow.

            “You can bring him back, can’t you? Please, I’ll do anything; you can kill me or torture me or whatever you please!” Seth implored, collapsing into Naomi’s arms.

            Naomi stood on a small rock island surrounded by lava. Zheng’s unconscious body still rested on the ground next to the spot where Naomi held Seth. They both had barely any space to move in any direction. As Seth trembled in the hold of her sweaty arms, Naomi took a half-step backward. She placed her left hand on Zheng and activated Creation, levitating him across the smoky air so that he landed close to Felix’s body. Seth stumbled another half-pace forward, held upright only by Naomi’s arms.

            “I can revitalize his body, but his brain’s been ruined by the lack of oxygen. I know a vast amount of anatomy and neurology, but I don’t think I can Create memories. I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do,” Naomi said.

            “That’s okay! He’s better off having never known me,” Seth asserted.

            Naomi shook her head vigorously. Tears covered the stone wall, dripping first from Seth’s eyes onto Naomi’s neck, meandering across her collarbone and cascading down her chest, diverging into thin streams as they became absorbed by her shirt. But while Seth embraced her with his hand on her hip, thoughts of retribution danced through his mind. He knew that Naomi fixated on his right hand; she was suspicious of the exact thought that was going through his mind. Using her fixation to his advantage, Seth had his left hand extract the Cosmic Pen from his jacket. All he needed to do was draw an Equilibrium Trigger on her skin, and victory would be his.

With one glance at her tumultuous gaze, Seth realized that Naomi seemed to broadcast emotions that ranged from empathy to arousal—almost as if his agonizing heartbreak had provoked something within her. He lifted his wet face from Naomi’s shoulder and gazed into her dilated eyes, seeing that she was torn between hatred and curiosity. Her lips gradually diverged in anticipation, suggesting to him that she was mentally disarmed. He figured that this could give him the perfect opportunity to use an Equilibrium Trigger.

            With her hair pressed against his sweaty face, Naomi’s breathing became deeper and faster. Seth began sliding his fingers up from her waist, running his hand gently along her back. Behind her back, he handed the Cosmic Pen from one hand to the other. Still holding Naomi in his arms, Seth suspected that she was willing to entertain her obvious arousal. He pressed his lips against her, kissing her deeply while holding the Cosmic Pen between his index finger and thumb.

            Naomi believed she was harmlessly playing with her food before a shameless execution, but Seth knew that further escalation would simply distract her. He therefore intensified their kiss; she pulled tightly on his muscular back, and it felt to him like she was trying to suck the breath from his lungs. Her legs started to quiver beneath her weight, and so she bent her knees to the ground, breaking the hold of their mouths. Naomi opened her eyes dreamily and wrapped her arms around Seth’s waist while pulling on the bottom of his shirt. She pressed her lips upon his abdominal muscles and inhaled while her damp hair pressed against his body. He raked his fingers through her black hair, but since she was not looking, he suddenly moved the pen across the back of her neck.

As soon as he completed the Equilibrium Trigger, Seth Destroyed the plastic wrap around his hand. The symbol illuminated and activated; Seth watched Naomi collapse soullessly onto the rock wall. And despite his protesting arousal, Seth knew that this was the best course of action. Only now would Naomi face retribution for the damage that she had caused. Phil would have his vengeance in the end.

            Without wasting another second, Seth threw himself to the ground with his right hand outright—fully prepared to Destroy Naomi. However, in the split-second that it took for Seth to close that distance, Naomi made an instantaneous recovery from her Equilibrium trance. She suddenly swung her neck almost ninety degrees and barely escaped his palm; it was like she had expected this all along. After dodging Seth’s attack, Naomi yelled and slapped her left hand against the rock wall. She used the Creation of energy to make an incredible downward force, and then she channeled the equal and opposite reaction force. As a result, she spun her arms like a turbine while she jumped upward. Her right hand struck Seth in the face at a dizzying speed.

Even though she tore open a burn wound on his face with this strike, Seth did not let his right hand separate from the rock surface. He endured the pain and Destroyed the ground beneath them so that they both fell toward the lava. Seth was prepared for this fall, and so he threw himself onto the nearest ground at the last second.

To avoid falling, Naomi desperately activated her right hand and materialized a thick steel rod. With only inches between her foot and the lava, Naomi used her left hand to Create a sudden surge of kinetic energy. By directing this energy, Naomi and the steel rod flew up into the air. She levitated herself to a height Seth could not reach, trapping him in an isolated spot.

Seth took a deep breath and jumped over the boiling lava many times until he reached the rock wall in the northwest corner of the room. Phil’s body lay on this same rock wall beside him. Nevertheless, Naomi had not let these seconds go to waste; she spent that time Creating a light submachinegun. She pointed it toward Seth and locked eyes with her victim.

            But Naomi did not understand physics as well as her enemy. Seth foresaw her plight before it even happened, and thus he held his hands out in front of him. As her firearm unleashed bullets in bursts of three, Seth steadied his hands and used Destruction to block the two shots that would have hit him. At the same time, Naomi and the steel rod were sent upward and spinning by the reaction force of her gun.

When her back slammed into the ceiling, Naomi accidentally dropped her weapon and the bar in a discombobulated daze. She pushed off the ceiling with her feet so that she could fall toward Seth, but then she quickly realized that she did not have the quickness to catch herself in time. Seth jumped out of the way of her fast-falling body, and so she slammed painfully against the wall of the underground chamber. However, Naomi caught herself at the last second and Created a small platform in the lava to uphold herself. Once again, she stood on solid ground.

Seth started to back away from her, but she glared at him with a fearsome gaze. As he neared the opposite ledge, he cringed because his left foot accidentally stepped onto the bloody surface of Phil’s torso. But there was a strange sensation in Phil’s body—one that felt like a weak wriggling or a pulsating push. He felt movement. Even in disrepair to this extent, Phil was still clinging onto life, albeit in a state that was practically comatose.

Outstretching his left arm toward Naomi, Seth lowered his center of gravity and moved his right hand onto Phil’s body. He quickly drew an Equilibrium Trigger on Phil, ensuring that his spirit would survive just in case his body could not.

Naomi pressed her fingers together to Create an enormous sword, but Seth sprang forward and closed the distance in the time it took to materialize. While Naomi wanted to launch her new sword by Creating energy, it would take too long; the time spent on this transaction would leave her exposed to Seth’s right hand. Furthermore, she knew that Seth could easily Destroy her weapon or its momentum anyway.

            As Seth raced toward her, Naomi saw evident exhaustion in his bloodshot blue eyes. She then faked an attempt to Create energy with her left hand, so Seth lunged forward and Destroyed her sword. But Naomi had planned for this; her false move gave her just enough time to Create several blades that were all attached by a single handle. And since Seth held the Cosmic Pen in his left hand, it could not stop her weapon. He did not have enough time to pull his arm back or run away from her oncoming stab.

Tossing the Cosmic Pen slightly upward, Seth thrust his left hand forward and prepared to Destroy the blades’ energy. But just before he would have stopped her weapon, Naomi twisted her wrist and gave her blades a sudden motion that Seth had not anticipated. As a result, the blades slashed through his wrist and left hand with enough force to pierce the bone. Seth was silently overwhelmed by this pain, but Naomi pushed forward and tried to cut deeper into her enemy. Her blades pierced the Cosmic Pen and forced it through his hand, spewing its peculiar ink into the streams of his cascading blood. Seth hurled himself onto the stone wall in a state of paralytic agony.

            Seth looked up at Naomi with a glare of hopeless defiance, and she stood dominantly over his body. She adjusted her multi-bladed weapon to hang precariously over his leg, and then she dropped it while his eyes slammed shut from the pain. As the blades pierced his flesh, he realized that there was only one way out of this situation. While he shouted from anguish in the way Naomi craved, he once again used her carnal distraction to hide another assault; he used the tainted puddle of blood from his left hand to draw a clumsy Equilibrium Trigger on the stone wall. As he crawled backward with agonizing slowness, he felt ligaments and tendons in his leg tear free.

            Naomi stepped forward slowly, certain that she had won. She took her time to enjoy his anguish; she wanted to relish in the full satisfaction of defeating Destruction. But as her foot stepped upon the symbol that was drawn with blood and luminous ink, her eyes became faint. Her body dropped to the ground. Seth ripped the blades out of his leg and forced his mind to postpone the pain. He limped swiftly toward her and threw his right hand forward, reaching her just as she reemerged from the astral plane.

            Seth’s hand of Destruction finally struck Naomi; at last he had touched her with the hand that could banish her forever. And had it been only another millisecond in either direction, Naomi’s divergence would have never happened.

The astral world overlaid on the power of a soul rejoining a body as it exited existence. And though this was only possible through the power of Creation, Naomi brought her nine spiritual guardians back into the real world. Her own, empty body suffered Destruction, but that meant nothing. The nine sister guardians, the nine pieces of Naomi, emerged in a levitating assemblage in the center of the chamber. Glowing in luminous unison, they all levitated together through the opening from which everyone had entered; it was the most magnificent and terrifying thing Seth had ever seen. On the one hand, he learned it was possible to Destroy Naomi, and he would still live to fight another day. But on the other hand, she had now expanded into a dangerous and horrifying new form.