Chapter -22: At the Apex of Paradise and Hell
At the peak of the two battlegrounds, a great battle began to unfold between Sarajin and the Titan Magmankey.
The Titan made the first move by extending the reach of his blade with his stretchy arms, stabbing and stabbing with nonchalance behind every strike.
Sarajin made every step forward count, using the side of his sword against the blades.
He could feel an intense stabbing heat warping the air around each stab.
The Titan resorted to stabbing both blades out at his arms. Sarajin turned sideways between them then leaped up, continuing to twirl and build up wind to slash out at him.
The Titan raised his heat and smirked, "That all ya got, kid?!"
Once Sarajin began his descent the Titan's arms sprung back with the blades locked together.
Sarajin's eyes darted behind him and he reinforced his poncho with diamond as a makeshift shield.
The Titan jumped when the blades hit and doubled the size of his feet to kick Sarajin away.
Then he pulled his blades overhead and set the ablaze, grinning and hollering as he wildly swang at the kid.
Sarajin sheathed his blade and locked his heels into the ground. Then he kicked up the pace, matching Magmankey's flurry with his sword.
The space between them was shredded down to the microbes, the Titan grinning even wider.
"When'd you find the time to get this fast?! Ha ha, I thought you were busy giving door-to-door sermons to the other losers!"
Sarajin locked eyes with him and remained calm, his hand barely visible amidst the flurry.
Magmankey's hands accelerated to the point of turning the air around him bright red, "Time to step it up!"
Sarajin started to feel recoil on his wrists and broke off, holding his sword horizontally as the Titan stabbed both blades out.
The blades froze there and were used for him to roll in, curling his arms against his sides like rope.
He then swung his heels down atop Sarajin's head to disorient him, followed by slashing circular twice, delaying the second swing to add more fire.
Sarajin recovered in time to douse most of the fire in water. But in the steam's divide, he lost sight of his enemy.
The pressure of their attacks was his only heads-up. He bent his arms to stab his swords through to attack him from the sides and behind.
Sarajin took to the air and the arms pursued, weaving between each other until eventually getting stuck in a knot.
Sarajin then took a deep breath and slashed the blades with electricity to deliver to its owner.
The Titan's body lit up and his silhouette freaked out all over the place.
Sarajin immediately dove in and grabbed tightly onto his sword.
Only for the electricity to come to a sudden stop and the Titan's fiery brows to arch down, flames around the spaces between his fanged grin.
"Fooled ya!" He then opened his mouth and fired a giant beam of yellow flames too late for Sarajin to fly away from.
Once consuming him in the fire, Magmankey swung his head around to throw him around like he was wrapped in a whip.
The trail at the end burned a copy of his face into the sky with smoke.
He then jumped and slammed Sarajin into the ground, surprised that he wasn't now nice and toasty.
Sarajin had managed to keep his body cooled off with heavy moisture, but now it was turning into sweat.
He whipped his sword out and shook some of the excess off, then held his body sideways to extend his sword at the Titan.
Magmankey plopped on his rear and spat out a ring of smoke through some lingering embers. He took his tail out and wagged it at his smirking face.
Sarajin smirked confidently in return amd tapped the Gaia Temporis, using time stop to get behind the Titan already swinging with all his might.
Magmankey looked behind with momentary surprise then twisted his hand to get his sword in the way.
He only managed half the blade necessary and had his wrist cracked for the trouble.
Sarajin then immediately swung up to knock the sword higher before shoulder tackling him off his seat.
Magmankey started bouncing on one set of toes, fighting back with his hands in reverse until he could turn around all the way.
Then he added a dash of fire to his hops to make rings splash out, each successive one taller, hotter, and wider.
Until eventually he was making Sarajin dance away, letting him take advantage of his rubbery range in full force.
Sarajin blocked a few swings then took to the skies, raising his hands up at the smoke filled clouds.
By the squeeze of his hand did the clouds compress and thunder roar from within, smiting the battlefield with dark yellow lightning, followed by a torrent of rain.
"Oook hoo hoo! Trying to smite me Mr. Big Man on Top?!" The Titan kept hopping in place, the water doing nothing to dull his fire, "Then c'mon, smite me almighty smiter!"
Sarajin wasn't aiming for that. He needed the water to sink the ground beneath the Titan and then, with a swing of his hand, he froze it solid.
This resulted in Magmankey slipping and going belly up, where Sarajin grabbed his sword and gathered all the lightning in the sky to him as he dove down with a thundering boom rupturing the sky.
He successfully pinned the Titan onto his back, electricity rattling his body. He had managed to cross his swords to block the blade, and was gritting his teeth annoyed.
Chill Dillo slowly clapped off to the side, "Nice ice."
Magmankey growled, "Whose side are ya on?!"
Sarajin jumped off when he saw he couldn't overpower his foe.
The two reset their positions, both letting out a few pants amidst the receding rain.
Magmankey dried himself off with his fire and a few thrashes of his head. Then, the fire along his brows extended, spitting up smoke.
"Why ya little…!"
Sarajin calmly told him, "I have learned a lot from all the other Tribes. This battle…is the culmination of all my lessons!"
Magmankey curved his brows and grumbled, "Oi vey, cut the chit-chat, bird brain."
He then glanced across his shoulder to remark, "Hey, Chillo! What am I missing out on down below?"
Chillo leaned over the side of the arena, "Uuuuuuhhh, nobody's died yet."
"What?! Yer kiddin' me, did those losers not get enough sleep?"
"The armies aren't even fighting each other right now. It's uhhhh, looking like that Colrez fella is being blockaded by some babe. And Valflame and his men are fighting the demon alongside that nice ice fairy lady."
"What in the world…" Magmankey gritted a scowl and then cocked his head towards Sarajin to glare at him, "Yooooooou…"
Sarajin threw a hasty shrug and the Titan's fiery brows plumed dark red, "So, this ain't a one man sabotage…Yer tryin' to end all the fun!"
"We-heh-heh-ell….! If you wanna dip into the inferno, then I'm just gonna have to CRANK UP THE HEAT!" At that moment Magmankey's sides below his armpits bubbled like boiling magma.
Chillo Dillo let out a gasp, while Sarajin looked in with surprise and a bit of mild disgust on his face.
The Titan popped out four brand new arms and elongated his torso slightly to fit them in. Then those four arms dipped towards his legs, drawing out more swords for him to wield: A claymore, a cutlass, a flamberge, and finally a rapier.
He held his arms and pointed his blades that clanged the metal together to create a harmonious jingle. He then began to hop on one foot again, raising the fire around his body enough to make the air sweat profusely.
Sarajin was starting to feel his body being dwarfed by the Titan's legendary visage. There was no mistaking the feeling of shakiness in his wrist.
Chillo Dillo started clapping loudly and cheering in a more dulled fashion, "Yay…! It's the Six-Bladed Solar Asura, in the flesh…!"
Magmankey closed his eyes and smirked, humble being the last thing on his mind, "Thank you, thank you, please, don't hold the applause…"
Magmankey's eyes locked right onto his opponent's hesitation and scathed him with a babying tone, "Awwww, gonna cry Cloudie Jr.? Is the big bad monkey too much for you?"
Sarajin closed his eyes and smiled, whispering with a bit of reverence in his voice, "I can't get over how impressive you all are…"
"Eh?" Magmankey tilted his head and slacked his jaw off the side of his face.
"I thought it was just because I was a kid that all of you Titans were so…majestic, and wise, and sometimes…frightening."
Sarajin reached his hand out and admitted to him, "But it's not that. You all live up to your legends, even now. This wonderful world wouldn't have existed without you to begin with. I may disagree with how you're handling things now…but I AM grateful that someone like you entrusted me with a chance to make things right."
Magmankey readjusted himself and grinned, "Flattery will get you nowhere, kid."
Sarajin nodded, "I know…I have to finish proving that your trust wasn't wasted."
He drew his sword once more and pointed it at the Titan, "Six swords? That just means six ways to reach your heart, Magmankey."
Magmankey dragged his head back and started hollering at the sky, "Ha ha! You're a weirdo, kid! Reach my heart? Ya ain't even gonna singe my fur!"
Sarajin hunched over and pointed his sword across the front of his face in both hands, his eyes sharper than the blade, "Then you better start taking me seriously."
The Titan whipped his head forward and laughed, "Oh trust me, ya don't want that."
The battle resumed in full with Magmankey leaping out to make the first move. He swung two of his swords down and Sarajin stabbed forward to pass underneath him, whipping around to try and hit the Titan from behind with a wind blade.
Another sword was swung behind to cut it, then stabbed down at him. Sarajin jumped and landed on it as pierced the ground, then sprinted up the arm.
He tucked his sword into the sheath and tried to kick the back of the Titan's head, only for it to retreat inside of his neck.
Sarajin fired off a burst of wind to retreat before the whirling fury of his heated blades could slice him up.
He then drew out an extra large wind scar from his sheath to strike his opponent, disrupting the rampant rhythm of his swings.
Then he proceeded to stab a lightning bolt out from the tip of his sword at the Titan's back.
The Titan grabbed the lightning in its tail and flipped around, wagging it over his head and the jiggling of his body suggesting he was laughing inside.
Sarajin stabbed the ground at a slant and released a quake that split the ground at the Titan's feet.
While their legs performed a split between the cracks, Sarajin slashed a few wind blades out to stagger him.
Magmankey finally popped his head out to get some balance back, then started thrusting his swords out through his elongated arms.
Sarajin held his ground and tried to predict where the swords would approach from, performing quick ripostes and backing away.
But the Titan was taking this chance to stab away at his footing too, wanting to level the playing field.
Sarajin locked his sword in his sheath and widened his eyes.
An opening appeared, and he thrust straight through all the blades to stab his sword into the Titan's chest.
The Titan froze for a moment and then with a resounding crack, went tumbling along the fissure sides.
Sarajin had to pause and shake off the pain of the scars that appeared afterwards.
Magmankey stabbed all his swords at three different lengths and stretched his arms out so he'd be stopped a little past the edge of the arena.
A few snaps of the old bones and Magmankey grinned, "There we go…!"
He then went barreling down the fissure leaving large walls of rock and fire bursting in his wake, "WOO-HOO-HOO!"
He slammed into Sarajin full force and forced him to hunch over his feet with his pupils shrinking as the pressure built up.
All leading up to a cataclysmic eruption of fire that launched Sarajin into the air.
Magmankey then dropped onto his feet and twisted his arms around his body, going hog wild in mannerisms, "Ya finally chipped the ol' rust off these bones!"
He then sprang up past the front of Sarajin's body and wildly slashed away.
Sarajin raised his blade and guarded against less than half the attacks, the combined force hurtling him to the ground and leading him towards the opposite end of the area.
Magmankey then spread his arms out and hovered in place thanks to a sphere of fire around his body taking on the appearance of the sun.
He then speared the air around him with his blades and gained an ash black silhouette, pronounced by a border of white hot waves around his fur and eyes.
His grin matched the color of the heat, and he began swinging his blades down one at the time from high up.
They came down hard and fast, the sheer pressure off them leaving no room to run around.
Sarajin had to clash with them and match their might even a little bit, otherwise he'd quickly lose ground and succumb to the onslaught.
His arms felt the feedback of every strike he swung out against, and he pressed forward, trying to think of a plan of counterattack.
His first thought was to conduct the blades with electricity and then send them up the arms, but the lightning merely vanished upon contact with the Titan's solar shield.
Sarajin thus took a step back and held his breath, tucking his sword against his sheath. He needed just one second to grab the Gaia Temporis and strike through the flurry.
He kicked his body into overdrive. Arms, legs, even his lungs, firing at full force to attack Magmankey's swords with a blinding flurry of cuts.
The two's clash superheated the air around them, the physical force of the slashes grinding up the smoke clouds in the sky for miles around.
Magmankey's grin turned into a demonic sneer as he leaned in and started snapping his elbows around to apply more pressure.
Eventually his blades were glowing bright orange at the tips and scarred the air so deep that any living being would burn up their lungs on contact.
But it was through his overconfidence in the heat of the moment that Sarajin burned a whole through his offensive and snatched the opening he needed.
His eyes widened and he dove his hand into his pocket to touch the Gaia Temporis and freeze time.
He then pulled his hand back. Fire, lightning, a bit of diamond, and some compressed air went into his clenched fist.
Putting all these elements together at once took a mental toll on him, but his vision remained pure and focused on his target.
He plunged through the space between all the blades and as time resumed, he smashed his fist into Magmankey's barrier.
Lightning fired out in five directions, lashing against anything it came in contact with, edged out by a thin trail of fire.
As cracks formed in the barrier, Magmankey snarled and then opened his mouth to blast Sarajin point-blank with fire.
And his attack connected in tune with his barrier shattering, leaving the feeling of overpowering his assailant diminished.
Sarajin whipped his sword out and managed to eke out a divide in the beam, allowing him to drop safely to the ground alongside the Titan.
But he started to fall towards the ground on one knee, while the Titan was as fresh as ever.
No chips on his blades, and indeed no ruffled fur.
Magmankey hopped around on one foot and gave his blades a twirl before brandishing them all at Sarajin.
"Hoo hoo hoo! Burning up on the inside, are we? C'mon, kid! Didn't you say you were gonna end this?!"
Sarajin clicked his tongue and started to stand up, reaching for his hilt, "Haven't…reached deep enough yet…"
He stared at the Titan and saw him as this towering inferno standing amidst a deep darkness, "But I know…there has to be a part of you that still cares…!"
The moment he gripped his katana a white light flashed across his body, as he activated the Light Conduit Form, brandishing his gleam blade and spreading his wings with conviction.
"I'm not letting this end on your terms, Magmankey! I'll burn out when I choose to!"
"So…" Magmankey's tone grew a little more serious, "Yer finally igniting Luminesca's spark."
He snapped his arms back into place and toughened up his biceps, "Alright kid…let's dance!"
Sarajin appeared behind the Titan in less than a blink of the eye and slashed at his head. The Titan ducked under it and kicked around to try and trip him up.
Sarajin swung behind him again but the Titan snagged his leg with his tail and dragged him along the ground before flicking him up.
The Titan then crossed all six blades and jumped into the air, hitting Sarajin with three burning cross slashes.
Sarajin guarded with his blade and sliced back with a wave of light, pushing Magmankey to the ground.
Sarajin then briefly raised his hand to rain arrows of light across the battlefield.
Magmankey retreated, hanging low and dancing around the attacks and slashing them back up where appropriate.
He hooked his tail around one of his swords and performed a backflip when Sarajin got in close, taking a mighty swing that kept him from going all the way in.
Sarajin hopped back onto the ground and then changed into pure light to bolt to ram Magmankey in the center of all his blades.
Once repelled, he then swung a few slashes of light out to keep his defenses up before igniting light in his hand and hitting his palm on the ground.
This caused a pillar of light to erupt underneath the Titan and knock him up. Sarajin then jumped at him and passed through him with a few slashes, the Titan spinning around to block the majority.
For the last, Sarajin rose above him and swung his sword like a guillotine, dragging Magmankey through the lingering light and the bursts of energy that were released upon them splitting.
When Sarajin smashed him into the ground they both bounced up. The Titan took advantage of this to stab all his swords behind him and launch himself up, kicking Sarajin repeatedly in the gut with a fiery, twisted flurry.
Sarajin grit his teeth through the attack and dove his hand through the white-hot flames to grab the Titan by his tail and start tossing him around, throwing him down surrounded by his blades.
Sarajin then used all his speed to hammer the Titan in the gut with his elbow, destroying the bottom half of the arena in a brilliant display of light afterwards.
Magmankey grit his teeth back in a scowl and started flailing his palms out to pepper Sarajin's face with fire.
Sarajin coughed up smoke and pulled away and the Titan was able to grab his swords and start going wild on him.
Sarajin swung his sword around in one-hand until he could clear his eyes, taking a brunt of slashes across his arms and legs and a few stabs to the chest.
Once he was able to fight back with both hands, however, he was able to quickly put a stop to the Titan's best efforts.
They bounced away from each other to take a breath, Magmankey starting to notice his fur was getting sweaty and his wrists were twitching.
He twisted his grip on his blades tighter and stabbed them at the ground as he started running after Sarajin.
He rapidly flicked up burning rocks from the ground to cover Sarajin's openings for escape, and then once he jumped in and swung half his swords down he brought the burning rocks together into a massive meteor behind him.
Magmankey swung both sides of his body down in a rhythm to pound away at Sarajin's defenses until his footing broke, then he rebounded behind the meteor and gave it a light poke with his tail to send it hurtling down.
Sarajin stumbled back, grabbed hold of his sword in the sheath, then charged forward valiantly through the center of the meteor.
The heat was inverted to the outside of the meteor and made it glow bright yellow, setting off an explosion that delayed the Titan's ability to stop Sarajin's attack.
The strike warped the air inward around them and Sarajin whipped his leg around to kick Magmankey under the blades, before then slashing downward to send him to the ground.
Half the arena was now annihilated by the meteor's destruction, and the other half was barely holding on.
All the air was consumed by an inhospitable heat wave that left the two fighters as little more than blurred visages distinguishable only by the elements that bathed their bodies.
This fight had gone so deep that the Titans had forgotten all about their titanic forms needing to fight each other to maintain the illusion of conflict.
No, Magmankey was grinning like a fool and his heart exploded like he had gulped down a whole ocean worth of nitroglycerin. Golden flames wreathed his fur and brought forth the true divine majesty back to the fold.
Sarajin took a deep breath, brushed the sweat off his wings, and then gathered light into his blade to pierce through the heat.
He swung ahead of his charge, striking Magmankey's blades with pure pressure and then ramming the center of his blades with all his strength.
He could sense every battle unfolding below him. Everyone had their own fights to win, but none of them would matter if he couldn't win this one right here, RIGHT NOW.
But every clash of their blades revealed nothing that he didn't already understand about this Titan.
He had become apathetic to the world's suffering, delighted in the war-time efforts that formed in the wake of decay, and saw humans as little more than playthings.
But he was still born a Titan. Surely he wasn't always like this?
Magmankey relentlessly beat back his assault while growling at him in a taunting tone, "Just give it up already, kid! No amount of force is gonna put out this inferno!"
Sarajin's muscles hurt, his brain was getting fuzzy. The heat was starting to build up on his body, bringing forth an exhausting sweat.
"I don't want to kill you…! I just want to UNDERSTAND YOU…!" Through his determination, Sarajin's blade ignited with a pearl and golden light, and he struck all of Magmankey's blades at once.
For a brief moment, Sarajin was plunged into a time long forgotten, seeing vast fields of lively wildlife running across a desert landscape. Across the horizon were colors more vibrant than his eyes could comprehend, and Magmankey sat and watched over it all from a distance with a loving smile.
Sarajin's heart skipped a beat and he pulled back, Magmankey himself freezing up with his head hung and eyes dilated.
"Th-That was…" Sarajin stuttered, his heart being swayed into lowering its guard by the beauty he just witnessed.
"Whoa. Whoa. WHOA! What the Hell did ya just pull on me there?!" Magmankey was flabbergasted to the point he dropped all his swords to swing his arms around.
Sarajin looked at the ground to think about what he just saw, then slowly looked back up at the Titan, now attaining greater resolve about what he needed to do.
"It's not too late…! We can still make this world a beautiful place again!"
The Titan hunched over and growled, "Shaddap…! You think you know better than a Titan, kid?!"
"I've been alive for over a million years, and I've lived so long in Hell that maybe I don't WANT to return to Paradise!"
"I don't think that's it…" Sarajin shook his head and pointed at his heart, "Deep down…You're afraid."
"Afraid?" The Titan muttered, a vein bulging on his forehead.
"Yeah, you've spent so much time with your eyes closed. You don't want to open them back up because if you do, maybe the world won't be willing to accept you again."
"But there's still a place for everyone in this world, even you, and I-" As Sarajin leaned in with his hand on his chest the Titan rolled his eyes.
"Oy oy OY ENOUGH!" Magmankey flicked his wrist out to the side and snapped his fingers, "Chillo! What am I missing out on down below?"
"Uhhhhhh…yeeeeeaah…" Chillo rubbed the back of his head and looked away, "The fighting's stopped."
"What." Magmankey said plainly.
"Yep. Colrez and the demon are defeated. The armies have stood down."
"What?!" Magmankey started hopping up and down, growling and tearing at his fur for a few seconds.
Then he flicked his six pointer fingers at Sarajin and flung accusations at him, "First ya interrupted my fun, then you had the gall to try and psychoanalyze me like yer some big brained fresh out of graduation student!"
"Well I think I've had enough…!" Magmankey's voice deepened as he spread his hands out and grinned as far as he could go, "Con-grat-ulations kid…! You've pissed me off royally! Now I'm gonna send you off like a true Titan should…!"
When he clapped his hands all volcanic activity below him went silent, and all other noise save for his echoing voice was swallowed up…
"PYRE DOMAIN…!"
Time and space collapsed upon them in a shade of distorted red then expanded outward like a growing sun.
Indescribable heat pressed down around Sarajin as he opened his eyes to the sky on fire and lava bubbling up in a massive geyser up the side of their arena.
He took a brief peek over the side and was stunned to see that the whole world had transformed into a fiery hellscape full of ashen trees, magma flows devouring the landscape, and volcanoes constantly growing higher and higher towards the atmosphere.
The stars in the sky were rapidly burning out and reforming, the moon had been replaced with a gigantic cracked asteroid, and the sun was pitch black with a deep crimson wreath of flames.
Magmankey's hollering was amplified by the surrounding fire, "HOO HOO HOO! Welcome to my world, kid! An entire parallel dimension where everything you know has been set ablaze!"
His eyes were spewing fire and his fur had become a dark shade of red with hints of black. It even looked like he grew a few inches.
"This is the ultimate power of the Titans! And you're the first person to ever see mine! So be honored…! Cause I'm gonna scatter your ashes here…!"
Sarajin faced him and reached for his blade, "This domain…It reminds me a lot of Caimanabel and Obscura…!"
This was the last stretch of the fight, the Titan was utilizing his full power to finish this. Either Sarajin got through to him now, or his body would never be recovered by his loved ones…
But when he went to take the first step forward his brain throbbed with heavy fatigue that dragged him closer to the ground.
Magmankey grinned wildly, "Awwwww, is the baby boy havin' trouble standin' up?!"
"See there's…another upside to using this domain. Any elemental energy that isn't mine gets burned out of the body…! And oh…that's right! When Luminesca's gift runs out…so do you!"
"Buuuut, I ain't gonna take that risk…You hero types always find some way to get a second wind!" Magmankey grabbed hold of his upper jaw and pulled his head back, letting out a groan of revulsion and a couple gags.
A single sword with a black blade covered thick with stomach oil was pulled out of his system, the handle alone longer than his body and requiring all six hands to wield.
The blade itself was twice as long and as thick as a knife, the oil oozing onto the ground.
"Take a close look! This is my ultimate blade, the Sun Splitter! And lemme tell ya…" He raised it over his head and in the blink of an eye, the blade extended all the way to the sun, "THAT NAME AIN'T HYPERBOLE!"
The sun was split in twine and spilled fire onto the oil, igniting the blade all the way back down to the hilt in black flames.
If this was unleashed in the real world, the whole world, perhaps even the whole solar system, would be fried to ash.
It was only the shielding his form provided Sarajin that kept him from boiling alive, and time was slowly running out.
"It's been fun kid…But now it's night night time!"
Magmankey dragged his sword down with incredible pressure. The burning world was divided, pushed apart by it.
Sarajin grit his teeth and grabbed hold of his sword. The light around his body was flickering out, his wings the first to start fading away.
He charged ahead, shoving against the sheer pressure weighing down on him to draw his sword for one last strength.
He put everything he had into this attack. His light, his hope, and the emotions of everyone who helped him make it this far.
Magmankey yelled at him gleefully, "It's too late, kid! You've lost!"
"NEVER!" Sarajin roared, dragging his sword out of the sheath as the Light Conduit Form appeared to disappear from his body, only to reappear back on in the blink of an eye.
Magmankey's expression wavered, "Huh…?"
And in that moment of lapsed judgment, Sarajin charged in closer, getting narrowly close to the black flames while launching his sword out of the sheath to deliver the mightiest slash beyond what even his peak strength could accomplish.
There was dead silence as the Titan was carved into from down below.
For a moment, he didn't even register that he was being hurt. His mind had gone blank, his thoughts drifting elsewhere…
From atop his lively volcanic domain, the young Magmankey leaned his hand against the side of his face and let out a sigh.
He watched the youngling humans build new homes and forage for materials in this still strange and unfamiliar world.
They were so tiny, so weak.
It annoyed him.
While he was lost in his thoughts, a transient voice called out to him from behind, "What ails your heart, Brother Fire?"
He looked over his shoulder to see a towering, serpentine body with white, prismatic scales and bits of gold dotting her many long, luxurious rainbow colored wings. Her eyes were covered by a pair of tiny wings, and she was notably defanged.
Magmankey shrugged and looked back down at the humans, "How long do ya think this will last? Be reasonable."
"Hmmm…" Hummed Luminesca with a soothing tone.
"Their curiosity's got'em occupied at the moment but when that runs out, ho ho, well…I think we both know what'll fill in the gaps."
"It just ain't sustainable…paradise. Not by humans anyways."
Luminesca laid in a coiled up pose behind him and leaned her head behind his shoulders, "You doubt them too soon, Brother Fire."
"I'm just being a realist, sister. Humans? Sure, they couldn't help being born with sin. But they sure as shit don't try and keep it under control."
"I suppose there is…logic…in what you are saying," Luminesca pointed her head out towards the wandering humans, driven by their current desires, "Humans wage an endless war…not just against the world, but against themselves. Some succumb to their darkest vices, others rise above them, to become truly extraordinary."
"Yet they continue to survive, while even our ilk shall be made redundant with the passage of time…And why is that?"
Magmankey chuckled, "Because they're as stubborn as cockroaches?"
"Because within them is a light, one that even I…admit to envying. It represents hope, and the ability to make the impossible possible."
"Even in the darkest of days, where all seems bleak and unwelcoming…There shall always be a light of hope that will persist through it. That is what makes them strong."
"You may believe them to be pointless now, Brother Fire…Weak, fallible, prone to tripping and falling…But someday, they will stand up, and rise to meet us as equals."
Magmankey took one long look into Sarajin's burning eyes, and saw that it was his light, his hope, that kept this power going just that little bit longer.
"So do not lose faith in humanity…no matter what."
Magmankey began to smirk, his body having been consumed vertically in a scar of light, his greatest sword now broken to pieces and slowly falling down around him.
His eyes watered as he murmured, "Sonuvagun…"
Sarajin's attack roared as it towered over this realm, forming a split that shattered the dimension and dragged them right back to their original world.
The ensuing aftermath left Chillo Dillo nearly rolling off the edge of the crumbling platform. He had to resort to making an ice flat to stay afloat, and once he crawled on top of it he looked through the fading heat wave to see two figures standing inches apart.
Magmankey had a deep scar across his body and was bleeding out, while Sarajin's consciousness was fading quickly.
He took a few deep breaths and then passed out, falling backwards off the platform towards the volcano.
But then the Titan reached out and grabbed him by the wrist, pulling him back up with a proud smile.
He then sat down, leaning one hand against the side of his face.
"Heh heh…" He chuckled softly.
"Alright, Sarajin…You've earned humanity a second chance."
Next Time: Victory Everlasting