To Find the Infection

Chapter 13: The Wrath of the Core

Zain struggled to breathe. The air puffed out of his throat in a painful wheeze. Every breath being more difficult to attain than the last. Zain tried not to panic, though it was hard. The large place they had entered, below the surface of the Earth, was beginning to glow red with heat. They were both descending into the core of the Earth. Zain finally had an idea. Zain tried to concentrate less on breathing, and more on his surroundings. Majotte's gigantic fists clutched Zain's throat, but Zain's breathing suddenly halted.

Majotte smiled, believing that Zain had finally been defeated. Suddenly, a small pebble hit Majotte on the back of his head. The pebble landed on Zain's shoulder. Then, something incredible happened. Instead of the pebble simply falling towards the core, it stuck to Zain's body

"Miracles come from the smallest things..." Zain muttered to Majotte, still breathing relaxed. Pebbles pierced the air around Majotte and Zain, and began to stick themselves onto Zain's skin and clothing. In a matter of seconds, the pebbles grew to giant rocks, and the rocks soon into large boulders. The rocks had become part of Zain. His skin turned into the color of the rock, his body grew in size, his shoulders become massive and much more broad. His entire body thickened. Majotte's hand simply could not fit around the new Zain's throat. Zain's feet now touched the ground, where Majotte was holding him in the air moments ago.

Zain had become a rock golemn, an elemental beast of the Earth. His eyes, which were now tiny black dots with no pupils, focused at Majotte with a confident glare. Zain raised his titanic fist into the air, and brought it down hard on Majotte, landing the crushing blow into the mutant's ribcage.

Majotte backed away from the blow, holding his entire rib area with his arms. "Damnit!" he scolded at himself. He pain was immense, at least, for a few seconds. Majotte straightened himself out, and stared at the golemn, with a huge smirk across his face. "All the more...fun." he laughed.

Like lightning, Majotte charged fast towards Zain, launching a hard kick right onto Zain's rock-like neck. Zain didn't even budge, not even an inch. Infact, Majotte's leg began to hurt from the blow, just a little bit, but still noticable.

"This won't be easy." Majotte had spoken.

Rahk woke up once again from his "sleep". He looked towards the ground. The dirt and grass was unsettled, and it looked as though the ground beneath it had all been carved out, like it was a hollow piece of the Earth's crust. He jumped up, staring at a familiar broadsword that was stuck on the hollow ground. He approached the sword with uneasiness. His body was still recovering from Erutan's attacks. His nose constantly bled on his approach, drops hitting the floor every few seconds. Rahk jumped towards the sword, but before he landed, he kept his body floating above the weapon, shaking. He grabbed the handle of the sword, making sure that he gripped it just right. Rahk picked it up from the ground, the sword hissed violently. The ground suddenly caved in, and fell deep into the core, making a large crater in the ground below Rahk. Acting on impulse, Rahk stared into the crater, and threw the sword into it, hard enough that it made a sonicboom behind it's path.

"Agh!" Majotte shouted. "I can feel it. Someone has my sword." he paused. "I have to get the hell out of here." Majotte quickly charged up, and shot back up towards the opening of the whole. Chunks of rock fell down from the upper layer's of crust, striking Majotte in the face. He created a small barrier to protect him from the small irritant.

"I can't stay like this forever, using this extra power, and the power draining from my sword, all the energy will burn me out, and I will be burned alive if I fall into the center of the Earth." Majotte thought. Suddenly, the top layer of the Earth that Majotte had stuck his sword in came tumbling down in pieces. Majotte shot a small ball of energy towards the land. The ball incinerated the land on impact, then dissapeared in a flash of light. Majotte began to float up to the surface again when he suddenly heard a chuckle from behind his back. He stopped immediately.

"Hello Majotte, can I help you?"

Majotte quickly turned around to see the man. "So, it is you."

Zain looked up towards Majotte. The falling rocks and grass not harming his rock hard body. He saw a figure standing next to Majotte, but with his beady golemn eyes, he could not see who it was. Zain simply shrugged this off, then continued his assault on Majotte. He jumped up into the air, but due to his weight, his jumps were small and very short lived. To combat this problem, Zain created rock ledges that suddenly shot out from the walls of the hole that they fought in. One by one, Zain jumped from one ledge to another. As big as he was, jumping in such a manner made it look as though he was leaping large distances. Zain made another ledge, then jumped as high as he could into the air. He was a few yards out of range to attack Majotte, but this didn't bother him. He pulled back his giant fist, then shot it forward. At the exact moment he punched the air, his entire arm shot off of his body, and like a rocket, shot towards Majotte's body.

Majotte didn't turn around, but knew what was about to happen. He braced himself for the impact, but this wasn't enough. The giant fist pounded Majotte's entire body, sending him, along with the fist, into a wall. Again, the rock stuck to the wall, pinning Majotte behind it. Zain then shot his other fist towards the upper layer of rock that hung above Majotte. The fist struck the wall hard, causing even more earth to land on Majotte, sticking to his body. In moments, Majotte was buried alive in a wall of earth.

Majotte could not move, the ground covering him was too hard to physically pierce through. Majotte pulled his body along the rock, placing his belly toward the wall he was pinned against. He placed his hands onto the wall at the same time, and concentrated more of his energy onto the wall. Two powerful beams of energy shot into the wall, pushing Majotte against the custom made wall by Zain. Majotte added to the pressure by pushing himself away from the wall by using his feet and tail. The trick had worked; Majotte came shooting out of the wall, and into the air. He struggled to maintain his balance in the air, then sighed and stared back at Zain.

"I have a plan, and you're not going to get in my way!' Majotte shouted. He dashed towards Zain, throwing his hand out towards Zain's side. Majotte's palm revealed itself, and shot an energy wave towards Zain's large body. Zain stumbled back, only to be shoulder tackled by Majotte. The attack finally made Zain fall backward. Majotte wasn't finished however. He cupped his hands together, and fired a large energy beams towards Zain's chest. It struck Zain and bounced right off, but not before launching Zain into a wall.

"You will NOT get in my way!" Majotte growled. His eyes began to glow red once again. Two similar beams shot towards the rocks the stuck to Zain's body, and onto the rock wall behind Zain. The rocks melted, and molded together with Zain's body, trapping him inside the wall. The rocks Zain had used to fight Majotte had sealed him to the wall like Majotte.

"And now to finish it." Majotte muttered. In a flash, his mutant appearance changed once again. His spike shot out even more, but curled downward like hooks. His hair shot back down to his waist, and his tail split into two towards the end, making a "y-shape" at the end. After the quick transformation, he shot down deeper into the Earth's core.

"I've travelled far enough for this." he said. Majotte threw his hands into the air. His body was incredibly moist with sweat from the incredible heat that the core was giving off. Majotte began to roar as a large ball of energy formed above his hands. The ball became the size of Majotte's body, and continued to grow.

"He is becoming too powerful." Zain thought. "He'll destroy us all." Zain struggled to move, but couldn't even budge. Zain again began to concentrate on the rock wall, and with ease, the wall crumbled and fell back into the pebbles that they once were. Zain was back to his original being, with the exception of the long golden hair that extended down towards his waist. His face began to show concern for himself.

"I'm not so sure how much longer I could contain this form, it's burning up all of my energy." Zain looked down into the hole. The glowing red color became more dark and distinguished as it descended. Zain made up his mind, and with a deep breath, he dived into the hole. He fell completely straight down into the crater. He began to gain momentum the longer he fell, thanks to the gravity around him, and to his own power giving him the needed boost. "If I hit him, maybe he will drop the attack." Zain muttered. He curled himself up into a ball, and continued to head straight for Majotte.

"What the hell!" Majotte yelled. "My power, it's falling! But I must..conserve energy!" He suddenly descended back into a "normal" being. His skin color reverted back to normal, and his spikes all dissapeared. The only exception being his spiky golden hair, which shortened back to only the top of his head. A ripple effect shot out from the sudden drop of power, causing the earth around him to break apart and fall into the core. Majotte looked up, smiling, but in one moment, that smile became a frown.

Majotte's sword had come sweeping down into the hole, past Zain, and into the core of the Earth. Suddenly, the Earth itself felt as though it was trembling. Tectonic plates began to move more than triple their regular speed, crashing contintents against each other, creating mountains out of thin air. The newly made mountains burst open with lava that even burned the air in the sky. Oceans began to violently shake, tsunami's were being created, and cities began to flood with water. Earthquakes topped it all off, creating large canyons where nothing was before.

"No way," Majotte spoke, "A good sixty-percent of my power was in that sword. Those idiots. Do they know what it could do to the Earth? We could be gone in seconds! FOOLS!" he thought. He looked towards Zain who came pelting towards Majotte next. "You ruined my entire plan! You will pay with your life!" Majotte yelled. He threw the massive energy ball into the core of the Earth, making a small "plop" sound as it dug into the center of the Earth. The core's solid interior began to meltdown. Soon, the Earth would begin to collapse on itself.

No sooner did he throw the attack did Majotte dodge Zain's attack.

Zain felt Majotte's large energy attack dissapear, oblivious to the fact that Majotte had thrown it. "Good, he seems to be losing power." Zain thought. His thoughts were interrupted however, by a blinding light. Zain opened his eyes, and gasped. He was flying straight into the core of the Earth. He tried to turned around, but the momentum he built up was too much to fight against. Zain's voice shrieked across the hole as his body plunged into the core. A last scream ripped out of his throat before his body disintegrated into the massive ball.

Majotte shrugged off the scream of his enemy, and began to fly back up and out of the hole, chuckling in his head above Zain's death. Before he could make it out however, a ball of light stopped his path. The ball shot Majotte's body back into the core, but only for a moment. Majotte managed to escape the attack, to stare back up at the attacker.

"Did you forget I was here?"

"No, you just didn't seem worth my time, until now." Majotte spoke. The old man had returned. His smile pierced the darkness that encased his face in the cloak. His old hand reached into his cloak, and pulled out another small ball, and threw it towards Majotte. Majotte jumped out of the way, but was then sucked deeper into the core.

"Damn those attacks, he's trying to make me fall into the core with Zain!" Majotte thought. Not knowing how much more he could take, Majotte quickly bursted towards the old man. He old man suddenly opened up his entire cloak, revealing nothing but a small dark black hole inside.

"What the hell are you?" Majotte asked. More orbs began to shoot out of the black hole inside the old man's cloak, each heading toward Majotte. Majotte countered each attack with a small energy attack, one that was powerful enough to break the small orbs into tiny pieces. Majotte jumped upwards towards the old man, and threw a punch towards him.

The old man leaped fast towards a piece of land that shot out from the wall, a piece of land that Zain made. He giggled and laughed at the fact that Majotte's attack missed. Majotte appeared quickly behind the old man, and threw a kick his way, into his neck.

The old man's laughs turned into a gasp, then into a small cough. He began to gurgle and choke on his own blood, which rushed out of his mouth. The kick Majotte unleashed was so fast that it cut right through the old man's neck. The cloak fell off of the old man, the black hole was mysteriously gone. The cloak landed into the hole, followed by the old man. The head bounced off of the wall, then began to fall into the core, but before falling in, the old man smiled.

"You'll have to die with me then!" he said. As soon as he landed in the liquid core of the Earth, the core made a loud vicious noise. The liquid in the core suddenly turned into a deep purple. The liquid shot up into the upper layer of the core, and onto the surface. It was the same as the liquid that was infecting the Earth. Majotte's eyes widened.

"Oh shit, I gotta move!" Majotte yelled, shooting as far out of the core as possible.

"Time to Wake Up." a voice beamed out.

"Zain's eyes opened up. "But, I'm dead aren't I?"

"That doesn't matter right now. Time to wake up."

Zain nodded. "Okay."

Zain's eyes opened. He was in a garden. In front of him stood a woman with the same colored hair as himself. Her eye color matches his own, and her energy felt familiar to Zain.

"Mother..." Zain murmured.