Chapter -23: Scattering Embers
Valflame's men pulled away and spread out their formation, bowmen in the back, spearmen in the middle, and swordsmen at the front.
Vermilion's eye darted around wildly, picking out every individual prey she was going to hunt down. She then unsheathed her hands from her sleeves with needles at the ready and flicked them back at the army.
Carolina swooped in with agile flight and sliced the needles, sending them back to the owner.
Vermilion jumped back and caught them all as she spun around, engulfing them in fire before throwing them again at her fellow Sage.
Her agility kept her untouched and she launched a small ice bloom at Vermilion that blossomed into a frost-biting flower.
This latched onto Vermilion's wrists and slowed her down, allowing Valflame to run in and slash at her.
Vermilion turned and intended to block with the back of her hand but instead got cut on the wrist. The heat around her melted the frost off and she clicked her tongue, moving straight towards jabbing her hand towards Valflame's face.
He successfully swiveled his sword to deflect her hand and then pulled away while deflecting a few more times. The strength of her thrusts was enough to make him feel he was being punched by the wind regardless.
When Vermilion kept pushing her offensive, Valflame nodded and one of his men came in and cut Vermilion down her back.
He made a swift retreat, Vermilion's back kick blocked by a row of Carolina's ice spikes.
A relentless inferno of brute force, Vermilion kicked off the ice and flipped over Valflame, using the stinger on her braid to try and stab his head.
Valflame rolled down and prepared a defensive stance on one knee, correctly predicting that Vermilion would smash the ground and send magma spewing everywhere.
A quick expansion of his fire kept the worst of the droplets from hitting, and then he brought the flames down to his blade and slashed down while standing to send a wave out.
Vermilion backflipped over it and stretched her arms to draw more needles and flick them all at him.
A backstep swing deflected all but two, which penetrated through gaps in his armor to cause excrutiating pain.
Nevertheless, Carolina rushed to his aid, tackling Vermilion and through a brief engagement, flipping her around to throw her towards the army.
A couple spearmen ran out and stabbed Vermilion in the back, only getting a centimeter deep before she flexed her muscles to force them out.
She then staggered them with a burst of fire around her body and flicked a set of needles behind her to impale them through the neck and chest.
The first of many prey slaughtered fell to the ground gagging on their own blood and Zeno, nestled in the crowd, started to tremble.
"A-Aaaah...!" He was tense, but eased himself by gulping hard and remembering that his parents were fighting without fear...
Vermilion fell to the ground hunched over, rear up, and her arms crossed along the ground. She licked her lips and hummed merrily before diving straight for Valflame's legs.
She sensed the slightest increment change in temperature and slashed her arms out to cut the ice spike rising in her path.
It was meant to stall her so Valflame could get out of the way, but Vermilion had anticipated this and grabbed Valflame by the leg to offset his balance.
She rose with a firm arching of her back and then slammed Valflame into the ground following a short hop.
She let go and swallowed her feet in flame, diving down to smash him in the gut. The reinforced armor at his beck and call lasted a second before cracking, and the unstable ground would soon do away with any other resistance.
Carolina was there to reinforce the ground by freezing the magma solid, and Valflame's men charged valiantly into the fray, slicing their enemy down the back and retreating.
Save for one soldier, who had the misfortune of being too bold, and suffering the sting of her hair through his throat.
Valflame mourned his sacrifice for as brief a moment as he could and then spared no expense drawing on the strength of his will to try and stab the demon through her legs.
Vermilion jumped out of the way and scoffed, "Feh...! You're putting up more of a fight than I expected, you cowardly rat!"
She raised the density of flames around her body and her pupil shrank with delight, "More, more...! You need to feel alive before you die!"
She started launching massive fireballs from thin air and Carolina got in the way, countering them with intense frost.
Vermilion scowled, "Grrr...! This isn't your fight you blind BITCH!"
Then she received some slight stabbing pain down her back thanks to a volley of arrows before fired from the crowd.
She craned her head back and murmured, "And you rats...!"
She dropped straight to the ground and cracked her spine turning around to face them, "Are just prey to be hunted...!"
She stabbed a flaming javelin out of her hand to pick off two random soldiers from the army.
The formation split apart further, their wills shaken but the grip on their weapons remaining strong.
More arrows were fired off, a trebuchet of magma was added to the mix. Vermilion deflected all the arrows with just her sleeve then jumped and punted the magma sky high with her knee.
She then plopped back down and charged straight for the army.
Valflame galloped in front of her atop his trusty stead and slashed at her face, clipping the tip of her nose and igniting fire off the ground.
He then rode alongside her as she hopped back, taking a few more swings just to keep her from mounting a counterattack.
Then he jumped off and slashed down with both hands, his body acting as a shield so his old friend could get away.
Vermilion grabbed the sword between two fingers and tugged Valflame in closer, stabbing two more fingers right into his gut like the armor wasn't even there.
She then performed a hard twist to wrench the pain out of Valflame's face, whispering with ecstatic vapor out of every breath, "I should have done this years ago...!"
She then expelled a white-hot blast of fire from her fingertips to send him flying back with a smoking wound. Carolina flew in to catch him and bring him to safety on the ground.
Valflame had managed to put some flames over his wound in the nick of time to reduce the damage, but when looking at his age taking too many of those kind of risky hits would end his life quickly.
Carolina waved her knives down and gave Valflame a nod, "Let...me..."
She then floated quickly at Vermilion with the grace of a butterfly and started slicing quickly, leaving trails of ice dust in her wake.
Vermilion could twist her limbs in inhuman ways to escape this tight barrage of slashes, and the heat fended off the nipping frost.
All the while her face scrunched up, especially in the eyebrows, condemning this Sage for her presence, "I've never liked you...! Always so quiet...judging me...!"
Vermilion's flames roared around her body and she stood up, letting her arms be cut so she could headbutt Carolina in the face. The impact released a shockwave that set fire out beside them on both sides, even going up part of the volcano.
Vermilion then pulled her hand back and set it ablaze, casting a wicked shadow over the half of her face that still had an eye, "Who do you think you are...?!"
Carolina shook off the bleeding on her forehead to mumble, "Someone...who cares..."
Vermilion flinched and then grit her teeth into a positively grotesque smile, "Don't recall ever asking for that...!"
She stabbed her hand towards Carolina's face but wound up having to pull back when an arrow nearly pierced the wrist.
She caught the arrow and then threw it towards the crowd, letting out a hard "Tsk...!"
Valflame proceeded to rejoin the fray by going straight for Vermilion's outstretched arm.
However, the sudden shift of her eye and that awful, piercing glare paralyzed him and let her hop atop his sword with one foot to get the height advantage over him.
She proceeded to jump for further attacks, but Valflame raised his right gauntlet and released a series of fireworks from the capsules around them to frazzle her.
"Gah...!" She was forced to close her eye and Valflame dragged his sword up to slash her across the front of her body. Not a deep cut, but enough to draw blood.
Vermilion landed and cracked a minor, trembling scowl.
She was constantly being pushed back. HER.
This was hardly any significant damage, she's felt so much worse. So, SO much worse.
No. It was that these rats were trying to get rid of her, daring to reject her ways after she tried so damn hard to teach them how to live life properly.
It all started to boil over these...repressed feelings of disgust towards other people who have stood up against her way of life.
Her pupil dilated and she grabbed the side of her face, her pants steaming with hot vapor, "Weak...! You're all so damn weak...!"
She lashed her arm out to attack Carolina and Valflame with violent flames, "This world's been cruel to all of you...!"
She then lashed out even harder against the army, forcing them all to pool their fire together just in hopes of surviving, all the while enduring her vicious wail of confusion, "You've never wanted to stop caring...?! Or let it all loose, FUCK this world and it's tired rules?!"
When the army stood defiant, she raised her hands over her head and began creating a massive fireball of deep crimson hate, her scowl so tight the sides of her mouth looked ready to crack.
When she was ready to throw, Valflame ran up and put his sword in the path of her arms, causing the fireball to fall to the ground and cover them both in the explosion.
This pushed them away further into the battlefield, with Vermilion sliding in a hunched forward pose and letting out a frustrating shriek, "GAH...! Don't you get it...?! This is what the world's meant to be...! A place where the strong fight to tear each other limb from limb, every day a battle for your right to LIVE!"
She charged at Valflame and started rapidly thrusting her fingertips at his body. His masterful swordplay allowed him to repel or redirect her hands, all the while guiding her position so her back was pointed at his fellow men.
All the while, he found he couldn't fully reject the message she was sending, "There was a time when I gave in to apathy and forced myself to be another soldier in this endless cycle..."
He swung his sword down and Vermilion crossed her arms to block it, swinging out to make him stumble. But even pressed on the backfoot, Valflame gripped his sword with courage and fought to gain every inch back.
And this allowed his men to pelt Vermilion's back full of more arrows, with Carolina adding a flurry of her own slashes to slow her down.
Finally, Valflame delivered a slash that started to push one of the demon's knees closer to the ground, letting her look at her with a gaze of pity illuminated by the fire of his blade.
"But a dear comrade helped me learn to never give up in the face of hopelessness, and showed me that there is a better world I can create for future generations...A world without a need for your self-destructive creed!"
Vermilion's fire grew brighter and louder and she started pushing back with a heavy grunt, "W-What the hell...?"
She pried him off long enough to jump back and land with an destructive stomp, spreading magma-filled cracks along the ground.
The roar of the land as she stood and swung her arms down made everyone stop and reconsider their next move.
The cracks started exploding simply from her digging her toes into them, like she was hooking herself into the very planet itself and refusing to budge.
Her eyes stretched out all the way and with a tight grin she grilled Valflame on his resolve, "Like your self-righteous BULLCRAP is any better...! Peace, peace, peace, all I ever hear from you LOSERS is that you want PEACE...!"
"Well guess what? A calm world, where the birds chirp and everyone gets all lovey-dovey with one another...is SUFFOCATING to me...!"
She began to hold her hand up and create a devilish red twister of fire to herald the arrival of her signature weapon, "This world of battle and carnage...!"
As she clamped her sword down in her hand and swung it out, a whirlwind of hot air tormented the battlefield, amplifying the roar of her own resolve, "IS MY PEACE...!"
She leaped hundreds of feet into the air and stabbed the sky with her blade, swinging down to tear open a massive gash that looked like a red sun over the battlefield.
And from it's abyssmal glow hurtled out a storm of tiny burning meteors.
The army scattered to deal with the individual pieces, but many quickly fell from the relentless bombardment, as the houses at the edge of the battlefield were punctured.
Vermilion then wreathed her sword in a vast spiral of flames and launched it at Valflame like a spear.
Carolina floated between them and created an iceburg as a shield. The sword pierced halfway through, and Vermilion dove down and stabbed her hand into the handle to break the rest of the ice.
She then grabbed hold and launched herself on a flaming rocket from her feet, twisting into an unnatural shape to really slam Carolina with her blade.
This sent the ice fairy right into the side of the volcano and crack it all the way to the top. As the magma cone erupted Vermilion continued pursuing Valflame while meteors rained down around them.
She slashed across his sword and got behind him, trying to break through his armor with the stinger at the end of her handle.
She spun around and jumped, holding her blade overhead as magma mixed in with the meteors and darkened the skies, giving extra fear to her presence.
Valflame was shaking, staring the beast hunting death straight in the eyes.
He was on the defensive now but had plenty of tricks left to buy time, and his allies in Oreore had given him plenty of warnings about what she may try and pull with that blade...
He had to watch out for it's snapping maw the most. There was no armor in his mind that could withstand such super-heated cutting force.
He stepped back and let Vermilion stab the ground, which she used to ignite the magma underneath and send geysers bursting up across the battlefield without discrimination.
Valflame's options for movement were being tightened and forced to commit to an engagement with his enemy.
His slashes were hot but at this point, damp in comparison to the demon's aura.
So much hate fueled her, but she charged forward with a gleeful smile.
She whipped her body back and forth, lashing her sword out against his with all her might. And his sword started to chip down, his fingers feeling pain comparable to being stomped by an Ashen Mare tenfold.
Valflame only had one chance to break free, and grabbed hold of his sheath to flick it at Vermilion's warpath.
She sliced through it and pushed forward, covering her face in the ash it released.
Valflame then took a deep breath and thrust his hand out to expunge a cone of condensed flames upon her face.
An explosion was set off that made Vermilion scream and her eye flood with tears.
And Valflame was pushed away, only to find his hand now limping at his side because the tendons had been torn through by her blade.
His old heart started racing and he used his remaining grip to hold onto his blade in the other hand.
The battlefield grew tense as Vermilion wobbled forward, puppeteered by nothing but pain and rage.
Her head lurched upright from her hunched over posture with a deep, menacing scowl, with the side of her mouth now scarred with a burnt mark and the space beside her eye bleeding out.
"Burn me, bite me, stab me...! I don't give a SHIT...! I'll still be here...!" She leaped straight at him with her sword pulled back and blade split wide open.
Valflame felt the hot steel pressing on his neck already, a cold, boney finger riding down his back. He closed his eyes, accepting her final words to him as an echo in his head, "TO KILL YOU...!"
A loud neigh punctured the fading noise and Vermilion was headbutted out of the air by Valflame's trusted steed.
Sent tumbling across the ground, the mare pursued her and started stampeding all over her with all fours, driving her further and further into the magma below.
"You DUMB horse...!" Vermilion raised her weapon and with one clench of her hand, had her blade chomp right through their stomach.
The proud beast let out one last whimper and then both halves fell down with her standing between them, it's blood burning to smoke off her body.
She then walked forward and grinned as Valflame stood, shaken in his futile attempt to raise a useless hand in mourning.
He looked to his army and saw that half of them had fallen or been killed by Vermilion's meteor rain. But despite all manner of terrors entering his eyes, Sarajin's boy...the boy he gifted away, stood there still ready to make a difference.
Valflame heart beat loudly, pained with sadness. He had gained so much loyalty, enough that men were ready to throw their lives for that one glint of hope at freedom from war...
They believed in him...because he believed in Sarajin.
And now, faced down with corpses burning in magma of friends and comrades alike, and the demon who cast them all away...
He held his sword and pointed it at the menace, taking a deep breath to steady his heart and tell himself, "Our world is still burning...I cannot lay one foot in the grave until the sun rises over a brighter tomorrow!"
Before Vermilion could take another step forward, a series of giant ice spikes blocked her path. She took one step back and another row appeared beside her, and the another one, trapping her in a triangle formation.
Carolina floated overhead, her clothes and skin singed, and delicately swung her knife at the center, unleashing a terrifying flurry of frost to consume Vermilion.
It applied to her skin and weighed her down rapidly until she found herself on all fours. Burning it off wasn't working fast enough, forcing her to adapt and shove the flames into her palms and feet.
Pressure building up until finally, exploding and propelling her over Carolina, hand outstretched.
She dove down and grabbed the ice fairy by the face, repeatedly pounding away with explosive force while shouting, "Before I kill you I'm gonna finally see what you're hiding behind that ugly blindfold!"
Carolina's wings began to expand to wrap around her and Vermilion, though at the last second Carolina slid out of the back.
The tight ice was enough to temper Vermilion's flames and leave her vulnerable to impact.
Carolina twirled around to slow her descent, calling out to her ally, "Val...flame!"
The leader of these lands charged in with his one-handed blade and, empowered by the grief of his friend's demise, was able to produce slightly redder fire than before to slash away at Vermilion through the ice.
But eventually that ice had to melt, and when it did Vermilion engulfed herself with fire so thick it left her body looking like a black ash covered monster.
Her roar was distorted in the crackling flames and hundreds of fireballs launched out to burn away everything in her surroundings EXCEPT the people she wanted dead the most.
Valflame kept slicing away the fireballs and taking stray hits while shouting to his men, "Fall back! Defend the village!"
The remaining soldiers rallied to the defense of their homes and loved ones. Many fell like dominos, but the foundation of their society would survive.
Zeno was frozen amidst the fleeing armies, his mouth shaking open as his bravery was being tested.
"I-I didn't know a real battle was like...this...!" So many loud noises, people screaming, explosions going off, it was too overwhelming for a young boy.
He wasn't prepared for this, why was he still holding onto this sword instead of running...?!
His mind was firing on all cylinders with these sorts of questions and yet his body remained in place, watching the inspiring leader of Canofloe stand and fight.
When Vermilion's onslaught was at an end she floated to the magma floor and was covered in sweat.
She grit her teeth and with a pronounced grunt, forced the arrows out of her back with deep red plumes of fire.
She the marched out of the crater, magma explosions surrounding her.
This battlefield was a scene right out of the end of the world, all the thick smoke and plumes of fire leaving no beauty to salvage with their eyes.
Carolina floated above Valflame and whipped out another layer of frost onto her knives. Her eyes could see Vermilion's aura begin to burn brighter from her core.
"Get...ready..." She worried.
Vermilion grinned and glanced across her shoulder to see smoldering pillars across the village, and many bodies dead or unconscious.
"And now..." She thrust her glare at Valflame and Carolina, a spurt of blue fire coming out of her eyepatch, "Just two rats left...!"
With the haunting sound of heat being vacuumed away, blue flames spread across her body, contrasting the blood red devastation in her wake.
This was the most harrowing outcome...but also the countdown to victory.
Either they can hold out long enough for her to get exhausted, or they die trying.
"Ready yourself, Lady Carolina..." Valflame held his blade tight, Carolina gripped her knives tighter.
With this blue flame, Vermilion could now outpace Carolina's agility and went to target her first.
The two figures met in the middle, a devastating plume of blue fire washing over the ice moth that her waves of ice couldn't breach.
She pulled away and fell to the ground, wings melting and Vermilion millimeters from her away.
She unleashed a flurry of punches that lashed blue fire waves through the air, and pounded the atmosphere like ghoulish drums.
At the end of it she kicked Carolina into the air and then grabbed hold of her leg, engulfing her body in the fire and then using her as a club to attack Valflame.
Valflame dodged to the right and stabbed at her wrist to force his ally to be freed. Vermilion wasted no time leaping at him and rolling down engulfed in flames.
Carolina rapidly slashed her knives to slow her down for the few precious moments Valflame needed to pull away.
Vermilion smashed open a fissure deep into the ground line with blue magma and then hopped forward, kicking off Valflame's chest, the delayed impact causing his chest plate to shatter.
Carolina lined the shards of armor with frost and flung them at Vermilion, scratching her up all over as she threw herself at her.
Vermilion tangled with Carolina by whipping her fists around, burning through all the ice she put up in defense.
"Gutless fairy...! You don't have what it takes to finish me off...!" Vermilion smashed both her fists clear across Carolina's face and drove her into the ground half a mile away.
Once Vermilion landed she smashed her palms down and shouted, "NONE OF YOU DO...!"
The cracks all the way to where Carolina was filled with blue and unleashed a pillar of fire so tall, the top of it could be seen from Sancturia.
Vermilion then kept clapping her hands upon the ground, starting together and then going one at a time, keeping up on Carolina while screaming, "This is why I survive...! This is why I LIVE...!"
"DIE, YOU-" As Vermilion raised her hands for the final attack, she was punctured through the center of her body by a thin spear of ice laced thick with aura.
Vermilion felt a deep chill in her soul and staggered, and with a single tug Carolina pulled herself over to where she was.
Her blindfold had been burnt off and the lower half of her dress was gone, exposing her bare legs.
Despite all this her appearance was kept mystifying by her bug eyes.
Vermilion stared deep into those eyes, swallowed by tears, and muttered, "W-What..."
And in that moment, Valflame got the drop on her from behind and pierced the other side of the wound Carolina inflicted.
His sword was laced with aura, a gesture from Carolina that had gone unnoticed.
Vermilion's flames sputtered and she let out a cough of blood, "No...!"
Her trembling form erupted into flames that threw her assailants off. She jumped right for Carolina and grabbed her behind the head, then flew at Valflame and grabbed his, slamming both of their faces together, blood stringing between them through their noses.
Vermilion then flung them at the ground, running forward propelled by a burst of flame so she could grab them by the faces and then move straight into a spiral leap that repeatedly bashed them against the ground.
Finally she swung them overhead and dropped them like ragdolls, the amount of blue fire gathered around them resulting in one final explosion.
Vermilion dropped to the ground and laid a hand on her chest, panting once before grinning and squeezing her fist.
Carolina was struggling to get up, gasping for air in a hostile, smoke-filled land.
Valflame was on his back, his sword barely intact. He raised it up at Vermilion, for as long as he still breathed, he'd keep fighting...Because too much had been lost already for this to mean nothing.
Vermilion jumped over and leaned her head back with a wide, deadly sneer, spitting a tooth out into the magma.
Only her eyepatch gave off light in the shadows the magma cast.
"You scurried around quite a lot, but..." She grit her teeth tight and thrust her hand back, "It's...OVER!"
She stabbed her hand out while a high-pitched scream of bravery penetrated her ears.
The next thing she knew she was cut across the back of her hand and forced to jump away, with her attacker, a simple, little boy with nothing more than a sword, stood between her and her prey.
Zeno's heart was pounding, his knees were shaking, he was sweating and struggling to breathe.
He held his sword in both hands and hunched over, looking Vermilion in the eye.
Valflame let out a pale-gasp, "N-No...my son...get out of here...!"
Vermilion was intrigued, "So...this is YOUR little BRAT huh...?"
Zeno clenched his teeth and stuttered, "I-I am...Zeno Stratos...! And I'm...I'm going to be the one who will defeat you!"
Vermilion's pupil shrunk so fast it made Zeno's skin turn pale. There was hostility pointed towards him that he was simply too young to understand.
"Oh..." She muttered, before firing up the blue flames a little louder around her body and announcing in a deep, grim tone, "That's. Even. BETTER!"
Vermilion ran at him and started attacking while he mustered up an amateurish defense with his blade.
She guided him around at her leisure, wanting to savor the joy of ripping fear and pain from the scion of her most hated person in the world.
She slapped her hands against his blade and the best display of his courage was the fact that he kept holding on.
Valflame tried to get up, one last push to save this boy's life and the future he represented.
But his knees had enough...his old heart...feeling bleak.
Zeno grit his teeth and couldn't stop himself from trembling. All he saw was a figure in black with deep flames engulfing their body, their movements obscene and lacking anything he could tell...
Their gleeful laughter had a deep, echoing tone.
Zeno closed his eyes and was learning for the first time what it was like to fear death, "W-Why did I...jump in...?! Dad...dad was right...! I wasn't ready for this...!"
"When I'm done with you brat...I'm going to shove your roasted corpse in your father's face and show him how stupid his 'peace' truly is...!"
This scathing taunt sparked something in Zeno's heart, and the next thing he knew he shoved her back with a feat of blinding rage.
He steadied his breathing and fire started to rage uncontrollably around his body, lashing across the ground and leaving scars in his wake.
He grabbed his sword in both hands and pointed it at his enemy, telling her with no signs of backing down, "My father...IS NOT STUPID...!"
He charged at Vermilion and started swinging his sword around, razing the air with wide infernos that managed to hit her a couple times.
She backhanded his blade a couple times and then outright grabbed the sword on the third attempt. She prepared to headbutt him but he beat her to the punch, freeing himself and pulling back with a slash across her arm being his payback.
Zeno then stood still and squeezed his fist, swinging it out and crying out with pride in his heart, "I...I'm the son of Sarajin Stratos and Auris Aurora...! I'm going to be a great hero, just like them...! So I can't...So I can't be afraid of a jerk like you!"
Vermilion grabbed the side of her head and growled, "Lord...All you fuckers read from the same book...!"
She charged at him and starting lashing her hands and feet out at random, while Zeno began to deflect her attacks with surprising precision.
Her flames were starting to get weaker, turning this into a wild dance between red and blue flames, fighting to consume one another.
After a prolonged clash the two hopped away from each other and Zeno felt his hand trembling. He could sense it...it was time to use THAT technique.
"My ultimate move...A product of all my hard work...! Not even my dad knows about this...!"
Vermilion revved her flames one last time and got on all fours with a feral expression, "THIS ENDS NOW...!"
Zeno stood upright and closed his eyes, slowly pushing his sword into his sheath. All the flames violently spread across the battlefield began to get sucked into the sheath like it was a vacuum, brightening the appearance of his blade in a shade of red.
Vermilion was inches away from impact, her face stretched into something truly ferocious.
Some of her blue flames was swallowed into Zeno's sheathe, creating a ghastly white flame blade.
"Now...!" Combining fire and wind into one, Zeno grabbed hold of his blade and ripped it from the sheath with a quick draw that cut through Vermilion's aura and delivered a cut across her face.
She grit her teeth and immediately fell back in retreat.
She dug her heels into the ground and panted, the flames coming off that blade swallowed up the air and left even it's wielder sweating profusely as he tried to hold it.
The iridescent blade flashed across the battleground with every swing he performed at his enemy.
Vermilion swung her hands in the way but suffered severe burns for her efforts.
Her mouth went agape, her face was pale, and her movements crawled to a complete halt.
With both hands Zeno dragged his sword along the ground and roared as he raised it.
In a split second, the flames rose to form a wispy feather towering over Vermilion. The front of her body was scarred up to below her chest, and then blood burst out of it, covering the left side of Zeno's body.
Vermilion staggered back and her blue flames broke off from the rest of her body.
She continued to bleed despite her best efforts to cover it. Neither fire nor aura could reduce the damage all the way, because she had burned herself out plenty...
And the pain on top of all that left her feeling something...fear.
Zeno was falling towards the ground, still holding on to his dulled sword. But when he took one step forward, she took two steps back.
And when he kept going, she found herself retreating more and more.
Gasping and panting, Vermilion observed her surroundings, and saw an opening leading towards the wilds.
Bitterly biting her teeth, she ran as fast as her legs could still carry her.
Zeno then fell on his stomach with his sword before his face.
With a happy smile he quietly remarked, "I...I did it...dad..."
He fell asleep, surrounded by destruction fading around him.
For the first time in many, many years, Canofloe would know silence.
For the first time...there was a reason to celebrate.
Their unity was victorious.
The demon...had finally been defeated.
Next Time: The Decisive Collision