To both armies facing each other, it felt as if the world was standing still, holding its breath in front of the battle that was about to unfold.
It was all but silent in the borderlands that were soon to turn into a bloody battlefield. The whistling wind passed between the blood soldiers and the Blood King, toying with his pale blond hair as he focused his eyes on the enemy army; around fifty-thousand fire elementals stood on the borderlines with all kinds of weapons in their arms. On the mountains stood a hundred Flame Archers and Wizards, all aiming at his face and there was even a large pack of Alpha Flame Wolves with Beast Masters riding on their backs, courtesy of Cinnamon Bun's school to training flame beasts. Finn couldn't help but smile at the scenery.
"Attack"
A blood soldier riding on top of an undead stallion raised his sword up and yelled from the top of his lungs and he charged forwards at insane speed "For the Blood King!"
"For the queen!" yelled a fire elemental and both armies charged at each other. The caged monstrosities were released, the rangers threw spells and fire arrows at the battlefield and a bunch of flying plant monsters emerged from spores hanging from the blood titan carrying the castle. Water came out from a blood soldier's greatsword and covered it as he split a fire soldier in half, only to be incinerated by a fireball dropping from the sky. A blood assassin was leaping throughout the battlefield, slicing enemies left and right with his leaf scimitars and then bending backwards mid-air to evade the huge fire axe that was coming directly at him. Landing on the ground and looking behind him, he turned to face a flame berserker charging at him with brutal strength. The fire rangers were attacked by the swarm of flying plant monsters, some of them were devoured and some of them were snatched in their claws, taken high in the air and then dropped in the battlefield. Some of them de-materialized and escaped while some fought and killed the monsters, but they could no longer support their friends at the bottom of the mountains.
"As expected of the kingdom with the most brutal and savage race of hot-headed soldiers" said Finn as the vine balcony from which he was staring retreated into the floor and he stepped forward, grabbing his cape and throwing it into the air "Maybe I should join the fun?" As he placed his heel on the wall of the castle, Finn fell forward and then pressed his foot against the wall, crushing it and launching himself forwards at incredible speed. Seeing the cape in the air, the soldiers all turned to look at their king and tried to escape towards the sides of his range. Like a jet ski moving through the water and pushing it aside and into the air, the Blood King sent hundreds of enemy soldiers and unfortunate blood soldiers who didn't make it out of his way in time into the air, leaving a massive trail of corpses behind him. As he rolled on the ground and hit it with his fist, the entire battlefield became a field of huge cactus spikes which emerged from the ground and impaled the remaining resistance. The king stood up and looked at the castle surrounded by guards "Should we charge in, sir?" asked him one of his generals "no need, I'll take care of this myself. Chase down the escaping forces. We don't need yet another rebel group on our hands" he said as he began to slowly make his way towards the castle, walking casually as if he had all the time in the world.
In the flame palace, the royal family was panicking "We're dead!" yelled Torcho
"Oh Glob, please have mercy on our souls!" prayed Agnes as lava tears fell from her eyes "We're all DOOMED!" yelled Randy, running in circles with his hands up "QUIET!" roared the Flame Queen as she shot a fireball at the ceiling, silencing everyone down. "We'll be fine, I'll distract him while you guys escape from the secret tunnel" she said as she pressed a rock on the fire throne, making it slide sideways and reveal a dark hole in the castle wall with a staircase leading underground "But what about you, sis?" asked her Randy as he clung to her "We can't leave you behind, my queen" protested Agnes "Please, just call me Phoebe, and you all come from an evil race of fire elementals, don't you? Leaving a family member behind shouldn't be a problem for you guys" she said with a smile as she kneeled and petted Randy on the head. Her smile began to fade slowly as she watched her family run away into the tunnel which was lightened by their natural glow.
"Now it's your tu-" she began to say to Cinnamon Bun, but was stopped by a fire slash which demolished the tunnel "Why did you do that!?" she asked him "To make sure Finn wouldn't reach them, as well as making sure they wouldn't come back"
"But what about you!"
"It should be of no surprise to you that I'll follow you whenever you go" he said putting a hand on her shoulder "… You stupid knight" she said with a smile. However the warm feeling in the air was cut short by a sarcastic slow clap of hands "Man, aren't you guys just sickeningly adorable!" said Finn as he walked into the room. Cinnamon Bun assumed a fighting stance in a matter of milliseconds, without even thinking about it. His legs were shaking, his palms sweating cream, and for the first time since he got to the Fire Kingdom, he felt shivers. It was as if his instincts were screaming in the back of his mind and telling him that the man in front of him stood worlds above him. "Blood King" hissed Flame Queen at the sight of the man in the red wooden armor.
"That's what they call me these days" said Finn as he walked in her direction, but was stopped by the blazing sword of Sir Cinnamon Bun "CB! Man, it's been so long!" exclaimed the Blood King in a false manner of surprise, to which Cinnamon Bun did not respond "What do you want from me?" asked him Flame Queen, to who's comment he replied with a snort.
"From you? Nothing. From the kingdom however…" he said as large vines erupted from his wrist and pressed Cinnamon Bun against the wall, breaking it "Cinnamon Bun!" yelled Flame Queen "Where's the Fire Monolith?" asked Finn as his tone turned serious "I… Have no idea what you're talking about" said Flame Queen.
"…Wow. You're a horrible liar" said Finn in realization as the vines squeezed Cinnamon Bun even tighter. CB yelled in pain. "Stop it!" said Flame Queen as she was about to burn him alive "Ah, ah, AH!" said the Blood King with a sadistic look on his face, shaking his finger "Remember that this guy is basically living candy- The slightest movement from you and I'll feed you Cinnamon crumbs. Now I'm gonna ask for the last time: "Where's the fire gem?"
CB looked through his pockets and felt in his hands two objects he recognized as his wolf whistle and a bag with lightning pills inside it. Finn's plant limbs might be highly resistance to fire, but lightning's heat is ten times that of fire. This plan, however, is sure to cost him his life. Even someone like Cinnamon Bun is afraid of dying, he had so much to live for, so many things he wished to do..
…No. This wasn't time for hesitation. Before the queen had time to answer, Cinnamon Bun smashed the bag against the roots, which gave a huge electrical shock to Finn's body and set his arm and armor on fire. The Blood King screamed in pain as he was being engulfed in flames. Cinnamon Bun whistled as hard as he could into his wolf whistle, summoning his pet, Jake2 the Fire Wolf. He quickly mounted Flame Queen on the mighty beast and bound her to its back with his shoulder strap "What are you doing!?" asked him Flame Queen, although she could already see where this was going "I just wanted to show you a new trick I taught this little guy" replied CB with a sad smile "Jake2…Combust".
"No!" yelled Flame Queen, trying to grab him. Suddenly, sparks began to emerge from Jake2's body. The Fire Wolf let out a howl that could be heard across the mountains as it bent and shot out at an insane speed, like a meteorite across and out of the kingdom's borders, carrying the crying Flame Queen on her back.
"…You know it will take me a couple of seconds to reach them, right?" said behind him the voice of the Blood King, who turned off the flames using his blood. CB would be lying if he said he wasn't surprised, but he knew Finn and how tough and stubborn he can be, not to mention the frightening rumors he heard about him. When he looked at how his hair grew back in a matter of seconds and how his fleshy wounds were being stitched by vines which morphed into skin, he realized how much those rumors were true. "Doesn't matter. When Jake2 comes in contact with grass, it can triple his speed. Fast enough to reach the Candy Kingdom, which according to my spies, is now a liberated city" Finn couldn't believe what he was hearing, but then again, he was the one who eventually came to be known as the cunning general of the fire army. Even he admitted that Cinnamon Bun was smarter than him, something that pissed him even more than having spies in his army.
Enraged, a leaf sword grew from Finn's palm as he ran into him and stabbed him in the chest. CB' eyes grew wide open as he stared at the wound in his chest. The Blood King turned the sword in his chest like a key. Cinnamon Bun could feel the grass blade turning into vines inside his body and expanding throughout his sugar veins. Spikes began to emerge across Cinnamon's body, making cracks in his figure. He looked up to stare at Finn's face as his was being filled with cracks and crumbling, giving him a pure smile before crumbling into dust, which then burned to nothing after his death dispersed the fire immunity spell from his corpse.
"… Why did you smile at me? I killed you… So why did you smile at me like we were friends..?" Finn clenched his fist and began to destroy things around him in a mixture of confusion, anger and mostly sadness.
Back at the Candy Kingdom, Rose was rolling around in her bed. As she opened her eyes, she found herself lying on the ground in what would seem like a jungle. "What the…" she said, or rather thought, as she stood up "Dad? Jack? Chief? Heck, even Stacey would do, just someone please answer me!" no response came. She climbed up a high tree to get a better view of her surroundings. As she climbed up, she could see that the jungle spread in all ways beyond the horizon and above it laid a sky with countless star and galaxies "Weird…". Despite never being in that place, Rose felt pretty natural in it. It felt like home to her. She swung from the vines, jumped from branch to branch and swam through the rivers. She eventually reached a temple of sorts. As she entered it, she walked through a hall filled on both sides with statues of women with tribal outfits and tattoos, holding spears, bows and swords. As she reached the last one, she stopped and took a good look at her. She looked just like her, except for the weird hairdo and her amazon-warrior-like style.
Rose eventually reached a garden filled with flowers. She felt a weird De JA vu as she moved across the tall garden and the strawberry and raspberry bushes. At the end of the garden was a tall door made of solid Rock with a weird inscription on it that was partially covered with vines and leaves. "Huh" she said as she walked towards the door, but as her hand was about to reach it, a familiar white sword hit it and made her retract her arm. As the sword was pulled out, she watched it float back to the hands of Jack, whose blue eyes were staring at her with a cold expression.
"Jack?"
"You shouldn't have come here Rose. Back off from the door" commanded Jack with a serious voice that echoed across the garden "Why? What's inside the door? And where are we anyway!?" Rose demanded to know "We're in the depths of your consciousness. You're asleep. Now step away from that door and get out of this place"
"What's in there you don't want me to see?"
"Enough with the questions, now get away from that door" said Jack, losing his patience "Only if you tell me what's in it" insisted Rose "I… Can't do that" Rose frowned and reached towards the door once again, but Jack attacked her. Rose pulled out another white sword from thin air and countered his attack, wounding his arm. Jack backed away with a shocked look in his eyes "This is MY consciousness after all" she said, swinging the sword around. A strand of blond hair fell in front of Jack's face. He blew it away and charged once again as his arm was now fully healed. Rose prepared a powerful blow, but he disappeared in front of her and appeared behind her, sending her flying with a roundhouse-kick to the stomach. As she barely landed on her feet, Jack hit the ground with his sword. What Rose thought was a green wave which then turned out to be an erupting jungle blew her away. Inside the Jungle, Rose was constantly hit by the moving trees and plants. As the jungle wave stopped, she was lying on the ground all beaten up and looking at Jack who stood above her with his sword pointing at her chest "Massive power amounts to nothing if you don't know how to control it" he lectured her as he quickly dropped his sword.
Rose woke up and found herself falling off the bed, her sword falling next to her "Ugh, you idiot!" she said, grabbing Jack and throwing him into a wall, fixing him there as she went to make herself some coffee. What was that place? Why did it look so familiar? And why did Jack try so hard to prevent her from entering that door? Normally one would get stressed from all the constantly rising questions, but Rose just got more and more pumped from the scent of adventure.