The Dawn of Destruction, Chapter 23

                                  The Dawn of Destruction

Interitus 1 – Book One

            Chapter Twenty-Three

 

            Not a sight could be seen; not a sound could be heard. Not a thing could be done, but motionlessness was not an option. Ever second that passed was one less second of breath—one less second until drowning. Seth knew he could not fight the giant worm in an abyss of saltwater, but there was one redeeming quality in this sightless battlefield: The rushing water lowered as it flooded through the streets of San Diego. This meant that after several terrifying seconds, the moon and electrical fires lit the debris just enough for Seth’s salt-burned eyes to locate the monstrous worm.

By peering through the shadows in the water, Seth located an enormous mass, possibly the wall of a building, straight ahead in front of the wave. If he were to crash against it at this speed, the water would probably hold him there until he was forced to breathe. Even the impact itself could injure him. Therefore, before the wave slammed him into the wall, Seth Destroyed his own kinetic energy. And since the worm was charging through the water, preparing to attack, it crashed against the wall in the spot where Seth would have been if he had not suddenly stopped moving. The impact forced the wall to collapse underwater, flooding the saltwater with debris and dust.

            Seth discontinued his Destruction, and then the rushing water dragged him back into the current. His body trembled violently, and his lungs ached for a breath. As he crashed against some sharp debris caught in the crashing wave, Seth realized that this debris was his only opportunity to escape the underwater world. With every ounce of adrenaline in his body, he forced his stinging eyes to see through the cluttered saltwater. With this new sphere of vision, Seth threw his hands against the falling scraps of stone and metal, and then he pulled them down so that the reaction force propelled him upward.

To Seth’s surprise, this iterated motion started working; he climbed the wall of tumbling debris at a constant speed. And because the tsunami thinned out as it charged on, he figured he would reach the surface. That was the case, at least until his body struck another building. The wall did not break, and so the water’s flow trapped him against the wall. He looked up and saw the water’s surface five feet away, but the current was too strong to fight. His body needed breath as quickly as possible, and he did not have enough time to wait for the water to drop. Therefore, Seth pushed his hand upward and Destroyed a large cone-shape of water. He took a very sudden breath, and then the water swept into this opening and immersed him once again.

***

            Meanwhile, Phil flew over the endless wreckage in his helicopter. He looked below as the powerful moonlight glistened on the water below him. He watched the wave advance through the city, but he chose not to watch people and cars get swallowed by the ocean. Instead, Phil watched Naomi levitate herself through the moonlit air. She soared quickly over the wreckage left in the wake of her tsunami, until at last she landed on top of a tall building that was strong enough to withstand the wave.

Phil decided to chase Naomi, despite being in a fragile helicopter. If he were to attack immediately, while she was distracted by her fixation on the mayhem, he knew he might just have a chance to defeat her. As a result, Phil sighed and stretched his legs; he mentally prepared himself to jump out of the helicopter if needed. But since she would notice an approaching helicopter, Phil devised a plan to lower her guard. He cleared his throat and accelerated the helicopter toward the edge of the building.

            “Excuse me, young woman! Please stand aside as I land the helicopter. I will have you away from here in no time!” Phil shouted through the megaphone with a stern voice.

            “No. No one will escape me,” Naomi whispered as she Created a mounted machinegun.

            “Maaaan, of course she gon’ kill a rescue worker too,” Phil groaned as he widened his eyes.

            The bottom of the tilted helicopter was about ten feet above the building’s rooftop, though Naomi stood on the opposite corner. As she opened fire at the helicopter, Phil jolted out of his seat and jumped feet-first through the opening that Seth had made. As he dropped through the air, he saw the helicopter spin out of control. He knew that it would land somewhere in the wreckage, but he focused on his own fall.

As his feet fell closer to the rooftop, Phil glanced at the destruction caused by the tsunami. Even though he had only seen part of the wreckage, he knew that the city would have to be rebuilt almost entirely. Bodies and debris were spread in all directions across the water’s surface. He knew that Naomi had caused all of this death, and so he looked straight ahead as his feet landed on the roof of the building.

            When the tips of his shoes touched the rooftop, Phil still had forward momentum leftover from the helicopter. He jolted forward because of this motion, hoping to limit contact between the soles of his shoes and the rooftop; he needed to maintain as much of his forward speed as possible without tripping. This high-speed sprint overwhelmed him; Phil ran almost twice as fast as Seth’s maximum speed. However, Naomi still had not noticed that someone jumped onto the roof; she simply fired away at the falling helicopter.

            As he rapidly charged at Naomi, doing everything that he could to stop from falling forward, Phil unsheathed a knife and pointed it at her. To keep his body stable, Phil pushed his arms through robust swings which moved his knife at a high speed. This way, even if Naomi were to strike him with her machinegun, he was confident that he could throw the knife and strike her with his dying breath.

            Naomi barely had any time to react. When she realized that she was under attack, Phil was only a short distance away, running at an inescapable speed. Naomi immediately dropped to the ground and threw her right hand forward. She only had enough time to Create a small mound of stone, but when Phil’s right foot struck it, he suddenly tripped. As he fell to the ground, Phil slammed his knife into her stomach, tearing through everything he could with all his strength.

Even after Phil fell to his knees, he kept holding onto the knife, and the knife clung onto her stomach from the inside. Naomi started screaming; she flailed her legs at Phil. Her second and third kicks were powerful enough to knock him away, but he took the bloody knife with him. He quickly sprang up, pushed forward, slashed upward, and ripped a tremendous gash from Naomi’s belly button all the way up to her neck. The blade tore through her black shirt and pale flesh all along the way.

            As her blood splashed upon her sleeveless shirt, Naomi lifted her left hand and prepared to counterattack with energy Creation. But Phil was too quick to let this happen; he slashed his moonlit knife down through her wrist with so much power that her hand fell limp. He pushed himself forward, crashed his right elbow into her face to knock her backward, and then backhand-stabbed the knife in through her chest.

            “You listen to me, bitch. My brother mighta died jus’ now ‘cause of you and your wave. And all you can say for yo self is that you don’t like people?! That some seriously fucked-up shit,” Phil shouted as he ripped the bloody knife out of her moonlit chest.

            Naomi was unable to reply; Phil’s assault had paralyzed her lungs. Her right hand was her only weapon left. As she pulled her fingers together, Naomi felt something within her which seemed to resist, but she succeeded in the end. Before Phil could attack again, Naomi Created a longsword in her right hand. She immediately swung it and crashed the tip of it through the ground; the sword pierced through Phil’s left leg and the front of his shoe along the way. Phil roared, and his leg seized as blood splashed from the wound on his shin. He tried to back away from her, but the sword had pinned his shoe in place.

Instead of executing another attack, Naomi used her right hand’s Creation to regenerate her body. Her left hand was fixed, her deep slash had healed, and her clothes were repaired. Within three seconds, her body returned to an unscathed condition. Phil groaned because this made it feel like all his effort was wasted, but that was the least of his problems. He could not move his left foot at all.

            “That’s a bitch move, Naomi, lockin’ me into the ground like that!” Phil shouted as he winced from the agony.

            Naomi smirked. Without having to worry about her enemy, Naomi slowly moved her fingers onto the grip of her machinegun. The weapon glistened because it was wet with blood, leftover from Phil’s first attack. She tilted the weapon and swiveled it so that it pointed at her enemy, but it still rested atop the mount that she had Created. She squeezed the trigger but nothing happened; she had depleted all of her ammo. She used her right hand to Create more bullets, but before she could fire them, Phil suddenly ripped the sword out of his shoe and did a sudden left-to-right slash. The moonlit blade knocked her machinegun off of its mount; the heavy weapon slammed upon the rooftop.

            “I ain’t stuck!” Phil said, spinning until he was just ninety degrees from facing Naomi.

***

            As he showed off his new shoes with a wide grin, Phil said to Seth, “Hear me out! I was watchin’ this movie and there was this dude talkin’ about how guys with big feet got a big dick too, so I was thinkin’ if I wore bigger shoes, then the hoes would be all up on me.”

            “I don’t think that’s even true! Is it really worth it? Man, you’re getting a shoe that’s like three sizes bigger than your feet!” Seth replied.

            “You jus’ wait. This shit gon’ save my life one day.”

***

            Phil was right. Had the sword struck his foot instead of harmlessly penetrating the hollow fabric at the front of his shoe, Phil would have never pulled off his surprise attack. And now that the tip of his stolen sword faced away from Naomi, she expected to have a split-second to prepare for his next strike. But instead, as he spun, Phil dropped the sword and crashed his right elbow into her face with so much force that he knocked Naomi off the roof of the building.

Careful to not get ahead of himself, Phil resolved to not celebrate until she was dead. But since he could not see her anymore, he quickly swerved and picked up his weapons. Afterward, he sprinted to the center of the rooftop so that he could not get sneak-attacked from behind. As he waited, he quickly drew an Equilibrium Trigger on his knives, and then he scribbled it on the sword in his right hand.

            After two minutes of stillness, Naomi emerged from the flow of water that surrounded the building’s base. She flew skyward by channeling a powerful burst of her energy Creation. As she approached the blood-soaked edge of the building, she pulled her right hand together and Created another sword. This led Phil to believe that she planned to fight in close combat, so he simply awaited her approach. He kept his sword in his right hand, a knife in his left hand, and prepared for her feet to fall upon the building. When Naomi landed, she suddenly ran toward Phil and shifted her sword to her left hand.

            As the two swords clashed with a spark that illuminated the night, Naomi activated the Creation of energy and gave her sword an overwhelming push. The impact sent Phil tumbling to the ground, and he rolled away from her before she could attack again. As he climbed to his feet, Naomi charged toward him, realizing that he stood only a short distance from the edge. The moonlit tip of her sword inched closer by the second, but Phil twisted and pulled his own sword back like a baseball bat. He knew that Naomi would think that he planned to knock her sword out of her hand, but Phil actually planned to discard the sword during the moment of collision. His sword would likely be thrown off the building, but for a moment, it would give him the opportunity to stab her with his knife.

            But instead of following through with her charge and slash, Naomi suddenly stopped running and then pulled back. She kept her soft brown eyes focused on Phil and his glistening blades as she moved away. She had expected him to lunge forward and slash, but Phil stood rigid.

            “Time and time again, I been trickin’ yo bitch-ass. You think I’d fall for this shit? You must be out yo damn mind! You ain’t never been in a real fight in yo life, and it shows.”

            “You’re good, but I can promise that your stamina is vastly inferior to mine,” Naomi retorted.

            “Stamina? What kinda stamina you mean? I know you ain’t talkin’ about my dick game when we s’posed to be fighting, but shit, girl, I would blow yo damn mind! Believe that,” Phil said with a strong laugh.

            “That’s… disgusting,” Naomi said as she steadied her sword.

            When Naomi dealt a sudden flurry of three swift slashes at his knees, Phil had no choice but to block with his knife and his sword. After barely blocking Naomi’s fourth attack, Phil lunged forward and slammed his head into Naomi’s face, using his weapons to hold off hers. He hoped that his headbutt would disorient her, but instead she counterattacked by activating her Creation of energy. Her sword erupted through the air, just millimeters above Phil’s head, swinging with so much power that it felt like a gust of wind had hit him.

This sudden attack had startled Phil, so he threw his back onto the ground. Naomi twisted her arm and tried to slash straight down toward his head; Phil twisted his sword to block. Her sword crashed into his, and then the impact caused his own sword to bump against his forehead with enough power to cut his skin. To his surprise, Naomi jumped backward instead of counterattacking. Phil knew that she could have easily killed him, but Naomi had retreated instead. He quickly climbed to his knees and then to his feet, but then he watched her Create a gun in her right hand. Not wanting to take any risks, she narrowed her eyes and steadied her handgun.

Without any other options, Phil lunged at Naomi with his sword outright. Their blades crashed together with enough power to send off a spark, but Phil used the impact of the collision to spin his body clockwise. Because of this spin, he managed to dodge a deafening shot from Naomi’s gun. As he quickly spun around, Phil pulled the handle of the sword inward so that his spin sped up, like an ice skater pulling in her leg.

But before Phil could finish spinning and cut her with his high-speed knife, Naomi jumped back and pulled her sword upright. Phil stopped spinning as he crashed his sword against hers, but she activated the Creation of energy in the moment of collision. He knew that she would overpower him; Phil had to choose between discarding his sword or getting thrown on the ground along with it. He let the sword get knocked out of his hand and off the building. He then staggered backward, next to the edge of the building, realizing that he was starting to get tired.

            “I can Create energy to operate my weapons for me, but you are bound by the pitiful stamina of an ordinary human. You have no chance against me now.”

            Naomi stepped forward and crashed her foot against the side of Phil’s knee; the impact of this knocked him down onto the building’s edge.

            “You think you got my black-ass now, don’t you? Well take this!” Phil shouted as he threw his knife up in the air and then grabbed the building’s edge with both hands.

            While keeping his hands in this place, Phil rolled and pushed himself off the building. But as soon as he started to fall, Phil pulled himself up with both hands; his body went through a wide arc until he finally jumped back up onto the rooftop. And since Naomi had thought that he jumped off the building for some chance of survival, she got distracted by the knife that spun harmlessly through the moonlit air. As soon as Phil landed, he lunged forward and quickly tore two light gashes through her arm with his next knife, but he failed to sink it deep enough to use the Equilibrium Trigger.

Committing everything he had, Phil swiftly attacked with an aggressive flurry of unsuccessful slashes. Naomi continuously dodged by jumping backward again and again, but she started to feel delirious. As she concentrated on suppressing her mental instability, she twisted and unleashed a powerful spinning kick with her left foot. Phil blocked the kick by moving his knife in the way, and though it did pierce her foot, the impact of the kick still threw him off the building. As Phil started plummeting toward the water, he saw that an Equilibrium Trigger activated.

            When the trigger separated Naomi from her body, she felt an incredible sensation pervade through every piece of her two-pronged existence. Naomi had seen the astral plane before, but this time it felt even more peculiar. The astral plane appeared to be covered in an opaque fluid which shadowed the sky, but otherwise it was simply air in liquid form. However, the fluid began to cool rapidly as she felt the essence of her sisters reemerging from within her. Once the liquid began to freeze, the world became black and sightless. But something on the outside, something that looked like a vague shadow, shone through the ice. Its fists slammed repeatedly against the ice, chipping it away with every pounding. The figure was unrecognizable.

            Meanwhile, Phil braced himself as he plummeted toward the shallow water which surrounded the building. The water was murky, and because it had spread so low, it would not cushion Phil’s fall whatsoever. Phil sighed, accepting failure for the first time in his life, when Seth suddenly burst forth from a pile of wreckage. Phil figured that Seth had found him by chasing the light of Creation, or perhaps he had heard the crash of gunfire. Nevertheless, Seth was about 33 feet away from Phil’s landing spot. With a grimace, Phil quickly calculated that Seth would be unable to reach him before he hit the ground, even if he acted immediately.

            Seth burst into motion even though Phil was too far away. Using all that Phil had taught him about torque and trajectory in the past, Seth sprinted forward at full force until the tug of the water on his feet became too strong. After many paces, this tug forced him to trip and start falling forward. By folding his legs in as he started to fall, Seth waited for the instant when his back made a forty-five-degree angle with the ground, and then he launched himself forward so that he could maximize horizontal distance. As Seth flew over the murky water, his forward spin continued so that his hands fell lower than the rest of his body. Seth’s left hand struck Phil’s body and Destroyed his falling speed, just milliseconds before he would have been killed. Phil and Seth both panted as they climbed to their feet in the dark water.

            “Seth! You alive!” Phil exclaimed, embracing his friend for a moment before turning his gaze to the top of the building.

            “I didn’t think I was gonna make it! Where’s Naomi? Are you alright?!” Seth asked.

            “Yeah, that hoe’s on that buildin’ up there, but I put her punk-ass in the astral plane! I was doin’ pretty good ‘til I started runnin’ low on energy. I don’t know what we gon’ do now,” Phil explained.

            In that moment, Naomi appeared at the edge of the rooftop, fully conscious and determined to strike down her enemies. She held her left hand in the air with her fingers bound together as she coolly said the words, “Freeze the city.”

            Seth and Phil both flinched as soon as they noticed the sharp decline in the temperature of the water. And though Naomi was not quick or skilled with the power of thermal Creation, Seth and Phil knew that it was near-impossible to escape this attack. Doing all that they could to resist, they jumped up and down, hoping that the water would freeze while their feet were above it.

            “Man, Seth, this shit’s stupid! You know we gon’ freeze if we don’t think of somethin’ fast,” Phil said.

            “Take my hand,” Seth said, suddenly struck with an idea.

            “You and yo gay-ass, tryin-”

            Seth grabbed Phil’s hand with his left hand and jumped vertically. When they were both in the air, Seth used the Destruction of energy to neutralize the effects of gravity. As they remained motionless, levitating over the frigid water, they both looked up at Naomi. Her face broadcasted a sinister grin.

            “Seth, stop this shit, man. She can keep the water from freezin’ as long as her ass wants, but you usin’ up all yo stamina to keep us safe up here! She tryin’ to drain you now,” Phil reasoned.

            Seth sighed, knowing Phil was right. Therefore, he opened his left hand, causing them to both fall into the frigid water with a splash. The dirty water then tightened its lethal grip. Seth and Phil felt the ice encase their feet and hold them in place, but Seth knew that they were not completely stuck. He bent his knees, lowered his right hand to the ice, and activated Destruction on the ice that imprisoned them. But in the time that Seth spent with this, Naomi also used her Creation to make a submachinegun that glistened in the light of the full moon.

            Seth could sense Phil silently warning him that he could not outlast the power of Creation, and then he threw both hands in the air. Naomi started firing countless bullets down upon them, but Seth blocked every shot with his glowing hands. During this storm of bullets, Seth lifted his right leg and used it to kick Phil toward the wall of the nearest building. Seth continued blocking every bullet until he heard a loud click pierce the night; Naomi had finally run out of ammo. And while she spent a second Creating more, Seth charged across the ice until he reached the building on top of which she stood. He Destroyed an opening in the northwest corner of the building, and so they both ran into the bottom floor. The murky water was only shin-deep inside the building.

            “Seth, you my hero, I ever tell you that?” Phil raved.

            Seth grinned but refused to celebrate, since he knew that it would not be long until Naomi found a way to attack yet again.

            As he pointed diagonally across the bottom floor, Seth asked, “Do you see that door by the opposite corner? Go there and just throw a knife up. She’ll think we’re over there, so she’ll probably try to come to this corner with her big gun. Then I’ll just jump out of the water and surprise-attack her.”

            “A’ight, I like that idea. You becomin’ a goon like me, Seth. Setting traps and sneakin’ up on dudes. That’s some good shit,” Phil laughed as he ran to the opposite corner.

            After Phil threw his knife into the sky, Seth dropped his body upside-down in the water with only his eyes and nose above the surface. Just as he had planned, Naomi dropped from the sky and landed a couple yards away from him with a submachinegun in her hands. It was now or never.

            With a murky splash, Seth jumped out of the water and sprinted toward her. He threw his right hand forward, preparing to Destroy her on contact, but then a human form separated from Naomi in a split-second Creation. On a subconscious level, Seth recognized this person and stopped his Destruction, but he followed through with the impact of his punch. He knocked Felix backward through the air, knocking him unconscious from. Even when he landed on the ice, Felix continued sliding backward. His ash-covered dog limped from the shadows and into the moonlight.

            “That was indeed powerful; I sure hope he forgives you,” Naomi sneered.

            Naomi jumped backward onto the ice and started sliding away from Seth. And though it was unintentional, and though Felix might not have even realized that Seth hit him, Seth could not help but remember the tragedy that befell Iris.

            “I won’t do it again. I won’t let myself hurt another friend,” Seth whispered.

            Seth channeled his anger into power. After lowering his hand to the ground, he stripped bare a 100-foot line of ice between himself and Naomi with his Destruction. As he then sprinted toward her, he pulled his right hand back and prepared for two outcomes. Either she would suffer the touch of total Destruction, or she would defend herself by regurgitating Zheng.

            Naomi, on the other hand, did not want to be anywhere near Seth. Therefore, she jumped onto the nearest ice and Created a pulse of kinetic energy; she then slid away from him at an impressive speed. But as he hopped onto the ice and traveled along it, Seth realized Naomi was struggling with herself; he could tell that Arisa fought to seize temporary control, right as Seth prepared to Destroy her. After capturing Naomi’s body, Arisa slid and crashed into a wall; the impact knocked her to the ground. Two seconds later, Seth crashed against the same wall and also fell.

            “Seth, hurry! Destroy me now!” Arisa pleaded as the moonlight shimmered on the ice that surrounded them.

            As Seth rose to his feet, he heard the quiet sound of a small Creation taking place behind him, but he thought nothing of it. With one look in her soft brown eyes, Seth felt calmed by her presence. He steadily stepped closer until she was within striking distance.

            “You may not have another chance. Please! Now, before she comes back,” Arisa gasped.

            As his mind flashed back to the moment he lost Iris, Seth said, “I can’t do it. This power already killed someone who meant the world to me. I don’t want to feel that pain again.”

            Arisa sighed and shook her head. After three seconds, Naomi reentered her body. She swiftly kicked Seth in the chest and threw him to the ground with his back against the wall.

            “I had no idea that there was a traitor among us, but she will be annihilated soon. Maybe in death, you two may meet again,” Naomi coolly whispered.

            Naomi lifted her left hand and Created an aerial flow of energy. This wind was so powerful that it pinned Seth’s limp hands against the ice ground. Naomi then placed her foot upon his neck.

            “I still regret that I never got the chance to fuck your brains out, and you can take that as literally as you’d like. I can honestly say that on some level, I’ve always wanted you beneath me like this,” Naomi whispered through the moonlit air.

            “Your obsession with pain and hatred… destroyed everything that made you human,” Seth choked in response.

            “You call me human?” Naomi scoffed.

            Seth shook his head and muttered, “No, you’re right. You surrendered every right to be called human. You don’t deserve compassion. You’re a monster. People don’t do this.”

            “I couldn’t be happier than to shed that disgraceful title,” Naomi retorted, exhaling as she prepared for the killing strike.

            And just as with her other Creations, Naomi bound the five fingers of her right hand together. But her body unexpectedly seized, and the essence fled from her eyes. Seth noticed a delicate pattern drawn across her five fingers and a Cosmic Pen resting on the ice beside her feet. It finally struck him; Arisa had a second reason for taking over Naomi’s body when she did. When Arisa had stolen control of Naomi, she apparently used her time to Create a Cosmic Pen. She had used the pen to draw the pieces of the Equilibrium Trigger across her right hand, meaning it would activate as soon as Naomi pulled her fingers together to use her Creation.

Since Naomi was ejected from her body into the astral plane, Seth felt the wind that pinned him down disappear. There was no time to thank Arisa, and there was no time to somehow spare Zheng. He had to go through with it; this was his only chance to make the nightmare end. And so, Seth thrust his right hand onto her neck. He closed his eyes, focused on her whole body, pulled his fingers together, and activated Destruction. A faint light consumed Naomi, and then it rapidly disintegrated her molecule-by-molecule. In less than a second, her whole body was gone.

            A small pendant fell from Naomi’s pocket onto the ice. She was gone, so Seth sighed with relief. It was over at last; her body was exiled from this world. While her spirit still existed in the astral plane, she had no body through which she could return to Earth and fulfill her onslaught. Seth knelt against the wall. He placed both the Cosmic Pen and the discarded pendant in his pocket. Phil slowly walked across the ice in his direction.

            “I killed her,” Seth said, confounded by the bittersweet success.

            “You some tight shit, Seth. You some tight shit,” Phil tiredly said as he walked up.

            “I can’t help but feel kinda sad. I mean… it sucks that Naomi had fallen so far in the first place, you know? If only someone could have helped her before she became a monster, I guess… it could have been different. And what about Arisa and Zheng? Are they just gone too?”

            “They was both ready to pay any price to stop her. They knew from the start they might just die tryin’ to stop that crazy girl. You jus’ made sure that they sacrifice was worth it. I’d be proud if I was them.”