Star's Strife
Chapter 8: Victory's Victory
Star blasted through the first spire that was closest to herself and her progressively catatonic lover, his eyes were emotionless as they scanned through the Spire, it was completely empty, except for the dormant armor that was no doubt one of many Strife's previous lives.
"Come on Marco! We might have a chance that she's still alive!" Star tried to beckon Marco as he struggled to even pick his feet as our two heroes scrambled towards to the next closest spire, Star once again blew a hole in the wall of the spire, being another hole-filled room, with the exclusion of the lifeless suit of ornate and grandiose armor that was pinned to the inner sanctum of the wall.
"Its hopeless Star...Jackie is probably already dead anyway..." Marco lamented as he started to cry his heart out but in a silent manner, to drained to even lash out in grief, Star could feel her heart be beaten by a guilt-laced cudgel, she grabbed Marco's hand and clenched it tightly.
"Don't ever say that Marco...Don't give up." Star tried to raise the spirits of Marco, there was fruit for her labor as he seemed just as hopeless as he was before she even spoke anything.
Frustrated with the boy's catatonic state, she held his hand tighter than ever before, It was tight enough for the broken Marco to lock eyes on his friend, she was crying as well, not tears of loss,but of self-loathing, of guilt and regret, she held on to him almost as if they were a chain link, they seemed inseparable as they continued on their near-hopeless on searching for the most-likely murdered Jackie, Star had to drag his Love for he wasn't keeping up with her pace.
'Don't give up Star...' The Princess of Mewni repeated and repeated in her head, she turned her head to slightly to see the Knights of the Wand standing off against each other, the world tearing apart and splitting away from where they were fighting, despite the cataclysm that they created through their fight, it was only in a small and controlled area around them, not at all harming the Princess and her love.
"You're strong...Other half..." The Knight of Victory said with a laugh as the clouds rained down on them, their blood dripping off of their armor and flesh as the rain water washed it away, the earth around them has shattered and eroded, the fires raged on and pulsed like a wardrum as they surrounded the two knights.
"Shut your mouth...Whelp." Strife retorted back, his armor was cracked and starting to look weary and umkempt, but the Knight of Victory looked more ready than ever despite his battle wounds, his weapon armor covering the wounds he acquire from Strife's strikes, the Knight of Strife fiery visor blazed brighter than before, looking akin to a lantern in the rain storm.
"Tell me...Did you really kill her?" Strife asked desperately, this got Victory to giggle hysterically like some crazed serial killer, without a beat, the Knight of Victory nodded in return.
"Like I said before, she died Screaming! And now, its your turn to do the same!" Victory said before commencing another roaring charge, his black master-craft longsword overhead and ready to cleave either the Knight of Strife or the Earth beneath, Strife roared back, blocking the Sword with his shield, his black metal buckler cracking once again as it struggling to take the hits of Victory's sword, the earth underneath Strife's feet shook and trembled as the two weapons collided with each other.
Before Strife could Retaliate with any form of offensive strike, his chest was once again stabbed with one of Victory's many knifes, despite the many wounds he was receiving, his will didn't waver, his strength didn't falter.
Knowing that he could score a clean hit with his sword, Strife punched Victory right into his targe shield-chestplate, shattering it completely and causing Victory to screech in agony, the metal spikes of Strife's gauntlets slicing into Victory's exposed black-tinted flesh.
They both backed away, Strife pulled the knife out of his chest as Victory's chestplate began to repair itself, they both growled at each other like two alpha animals, they both silently stared at each other, despite their many efforts, they seemed more evenly matched than anything else.
Without a second deep thought, The Knight of Strife threw his shield at the Knight of Victory like some kind of throwing axe, pieces of his armor shattered upon impact with Strife's shield, not willing to dodge the shield and instead letting himself take the damage and self-repair his armor.
"Thanks for the shield Strife..." Victory said in a mocking manner before equipping the shield for himself, Strife ignored Victory's words, wielding his brutal sword with more agility and more nimbleness than ever due to not having to slog a shield around with his attacks.
"Enough of this..." Strife said calmly, removing his large shoulder pads, ripping them apart from his body as if they were leeches to his black-tinted skin, he began to rip out other pieces of his armor, removing his black-clothed tasset, his spiked gauntlets and his flesh-rending shin-guards the thick but cumbersome armor pieces dropped to the ground, cracking the ground underneath it due to its shear weight they possessed.
"Enough of this...Armor, I don't have to protect, for I know that Star can protect herself from Scum like you..." Strife repeated with a monstrous growl as Victory stared at his other half with some form of curious confusion.
"Enough of this...If I'm going to perish, I'm going to perish with you alongside me." Strife recited as he roared out an aggressive battlecry, his helm shook and shattered completely from the shear volume of his battle fury, his face was nothing but a blazing flame with a pair of ruby-red eyes, as the shards of his helm drifted off and joined in with the sediment and ash-filled air, his face burned like a light in the darkness as the rain storm was getting heavier and heavier every passing moment.
Strife looked smaller than he did before without the unnecessary armor pieces he wore, most of his black, almost shadow-like flesh and skin was revealed as he flexed his now-uncased muscles, more ready than ever before to defeat his other half.
"You done undressing?" Victory asked in a unimpressed tone, Strife held his sword with two hands, his movement with the blade being a lot more quicker and a lot more potent with its ability to slew his enemies.
Strife Swung charged forward with a new-found frightening speed, his now discarded armor seemed to limit this unknown speed, with two hands, Strife unleashed a massively wide horizontal slash, hoping to slice the Knight of Victory in two, Victory laughed hysterically as he blocked the attack with his newly-obtained shield, only for the shield to shatter completely.
"WHAT?!" Victory shouted in shock from Strife's ineffectiveness of blocking Strife's attack, his shield was able to protect Strife from most of still continued on his leeway, slicing through Victory's chest piece and cutting the Victorious Knight's stomach, the Victorious knight screamed in agony, without enough time to even fight back, Strife punched Victorious right into the side of his axe face, the axe head of Victory shattered from the strike, Victory screeched again in pain as he finally retaliated, grabbing a handful of knifes from his tasset.
Strife quickly jumped back as Victory attempted to stab Strife with a fistful of knifes, he screamed in pain as his axe head helm and chestplate repaired themselves, his wounds starting to pile up against each other, despite the many wounds, both Knights were still standing and still valiant with their battle
"You little...Piece of Trash..." Victory insulted, clearly furious from Strife's new found power in speed in strength, Strife was now silent as his shattered helm heated brightly against the wild head flame of Strife.
"You just signed your Obituary..." Victory taunted before his shoulder armor was smashed in pieces by the blunt and heavy side of Strife's sword, Victory screeched again in pain as pieces and shards of his shoulder armor were now in his flesh, adding more pain and injury to Strife's
"You sick...FUCK!" Victory wailed in agony as he gripped his shoulder, the shards and bits of the shattered armor piercing and sticking into his shoulder like thorns, Suddenly, Strife, in a tranquil fury proceeded to grab ahold of Victory's free hand, Victory yelped in surprise from the sudden action and before he could even react, he was lifted up in the air.
"HOW ARE YOU THIS STRONG?!" Victory lamented loudly as he was slammed into the ground with Strife's throw, creating a deep hole that was several feet, with a now losing Victory Knight at the bottom of the hole.
"How are you...This strong..." Victory repeated in a confused and muddled manner, clearly not understanding why Strife was overpowering him despite the extremely fair fight between them before he removed his heavy armor pieces.
"This doesn't make any sense...I should be stronger than you...Ludo's desire for Victory, is greater than Star's conflict..." Victory said in defense as the flame of Strife's face began to charged up for an attack, it started to shine brightly like a miniature sun as the rain fall started to evaporate from the pure concentrated fireball that Strife was channeling.
Victory groggily regained his senses from such a slam, seeing a bright orb within the darkened skies as the Knight was quick to question the sudden increase of heat and light.
"…Now I see a bright light…A big…Bright light…" Before Victory could run his mouth some more, Strife finally spoke, his voice was stricken with rage, anguish and hate, yelling out this single line that spelled out both ferocity and wittiness.
"WALK TOWARDS IT!" Strife unleashed the attack, channeling out a beam of concentrated heat energy, right into the chasm that Victory was laying in, Victory screamed in fear and terror as the attack made an explosion occur, a flash of white, red and black, the force of the explosion was strong enough to knock Strife off of his feet and making him land straight on his back several feet away.
The Explosion was strong enough to cause several nearby spires to crumble to the ground, revealing several dormant armor suits of Strife's previous lifes
The Explosion was strong enough to knock Marco and Star off of their feet despite being nowhere near the battle.
The dust and smoke settled, Strife silently got to his feet, feeling heavily fatigued from using such an attack, it was reminiscent of the magical attacks of his queens, powerful, but controlled, deadly and destructive, but only for a good cause.
Strife couldn't stand up any longer, he dropped to one knee as he huffed loudly, planting his weapon on the ground as an attempt to uphold himself from dropping to the ground, Strife stared at the ruined earth in front of him, the desecrated earth, looking as if the world was in a brutal state of cataclysm, no life, no clean, flat land, just chaos, anarchy.
There was no sign of Victory, perhaps…He was defeated…Strife couldn't help but scoff to himself, as the rain fall ceased and the cool and lonely wind was able to be heard/
"Your name was Victory…Yet, you perish in failure…" Strife mused to himself as he covered his chest wounds with one of his hands, growling to himself as he felt more blood trickling down.
"You said that you were the knowledge to my strength…Yet you forget, our power, is determined through our bond with the Bearers of the Wand…I'm from a long line of bonds, connections, and Friendships, I taught Celena Humility…I taught Solaria the Kindness of Mercy, I taught Moon that doubt is the cornerstone for progress…I taught Eclipsa…About individuality…And I still have yet taught Star about her internal conflict…" Strife paused before finishing his recital.
"What chance had you? A pale imitation of our Long line of Knights?" He concluded as he decided to have some rest on the spot.
"I will never surrender, I will never die...Not until the pain within Star has subsided, not until her personal turmoil is gone."
"Jackie!" Marco exclaimed as both he and Star finally found her, she was completely covered in her blood, she was still chained up but the our two heroes doubt she'll move, her eyes were closed shut as her body was littered with small little but painful cuts, each cut was laced with salt to maximize the pain she would receive in her motal-wounding torture.
Marco could only cry when he saw her, Star was dead silent as she blasted away her chains, allowing Marco to properly mourn his loss, she plopped to the ground but Marco was swift enough to catch her from hitting the floor.
"Jackie…" Marco said before he began to cry once again, Star finally started to cry as well, her guilt and regret began to grow tenfold as she witnessed her lover caressing the blood-lettered face of Jackie-Lynn Thomas, the hatred towards herself was apparent, without another word, Star attempted to walk away from the spire of where Jackie was imprisoned, allowing Marco to cry in a lone peace.
That was until…Someone, with a damaged voice, coughed, her little gasket of air was light, fragile and weak, but it was a clear sign for one thing however…Life, Marco wails finally stopped as he stared right into Jackie's now opened eyes, they were dulled but not lifeless, fading, but not completely endeavored.
Marco's love for Jackie-lynn Thomas, was reignited for her once he saw her eyes slowly opening up, without a second thought, Marco kissed his love, all in the while Star watched from afar, silently crying her poor poor heart out.