Chapter 25 "The Throw down"
Lalo was preparing for the attack he saw coming.
He was lying on his back, with his hands spread apart to keep the lava away.
It was a rocky landscape; his ability was keeping the lava distant for now.
The land was smooth from the lava, but there were pointed ground spikes alongside him.
Iblis was approaching slowly; Lalo knew he couldn't keep this up forever.
He was in pain, because he felt a jab in his back, like he was laying on one of the ground spikes.
But just then, Lalo ran into quite a different problem.
As Lalo tried moving the ground spike, he felt no problem pulling it out of his back; it was no spike.
He was holding in his hand, one of the seven fake chaos emeralds.
The originals were destroyed, but the fake ones worked almost the same way.
His breath was fast, coming in and out of him like his heart was going to leap out of his body.
Now, all Lalo's doubts about the legends were completely gone.
He felt this different feeling in his heart, like the fake emerald was reading it like a book.
He held on to it tightly and tried to get up.
Iblis' eyes glowed with enthusiasm, it had at long last found what it was looking for, and all that stood in its way was terrified little Lalo, scampering backwards.
Iblis kept coming closer, till he was two feet from Lalo.
It stretched out its hand for the chaos emerald in Lalo's, and this is when Lalo found an opportunity.
The massive monster was about to get the emerald, and Lalo threw his other hand against Iblis' with a bellowing scream.
Iblis' arm heated up and glowed an orange color; Lalo's touch was like acid to the abomination.
Iblis roared, not putting up with Lalo any longer.
It picked Lalo up by his arm and stretched him highly above the lava and ground.
Lalo was panicking, he felt like his arm was being torn off, and he couldn't get his palm on Iblis' to burn him.
Iblis couldn't get the emerald, he tried to find it but it seemed like it was no longer there.
Iblis assumed Lalo had dropped it, and held Lalo's arms together tightly.
Lalo shut his eyes, knowing this could be the end.
His life flashed before his eyes, and his heart slowed down significantly.
Iblis wound up his mighty arm, and threw Lalo…into the lava.
Lalo felt nothing…his arms were too weak to let go of one another.
His body was slowly being absorbed and obliterated by the lava, the ability kept the pain away but he knew there was not much he could do now…
he held his head over the lava as it was now the only thing left, but he didn't understand why he was not dead yet.
The emerald was still in his hand, he didn't understand why Iblis didn't see it.
He closed his eyes one last time…
There was a calm quietness, something he could not quite understand.
He opened his eyes…but where he was standing was not the lava river; it was a white floor of which he could see nothing but bright light.
A lovely looking woman was standing there; it appeared to be Rosy with a kind expression on her face.
She faded out, and he saw Sofia there, she faded out.
Then Shadow appeared standing there, his arms behind his back with a solemn expression, and then he too faded out.
Lalo knew at once, he was not on Blake's planet anymore.
He looked about himself, and saw he was there, whole, without a scratch on him.
But what surprised him the most, was that he was holding the fake chaos emerald, it was bright in his hand.
"A noble heart…" he heard a woman's voice speaking.
"Tikal?" Lalo managed to say, he felt a tiredness overwhelm him.
Tikal was standing there, bright as day.
"I am blessed to be the messenger." Tikal said with a smile.
End chapter