"True friends stab you in the front."
"So go on then… Talk."
Kad's vision was lying to him…
He saw Cinder there, sitting on one of the black crates scattered about in the darkened warehouse. Her amber eyes staring silently back at him paying no mind at all to Mercury trying to rise off his wounded side. Her head tilted waiting for the boy to follow command like always, ice cold in the face of his defiance. Every detail an exact match for the ones in his memory, her hair, her dress, her demeanor.
But he knew it wasn't her.
Kad could feel her aura elsewhere.
And he smelled blood.
A small drip, coming down from Emerald's nose. Kad turned his eyes to the right where he smelled the fresh copper scent. But his eyes were lying again, he saw only shadows. But he still sensed the thief's aura.
With a swift kick down on the closest wooden pallet by his black boots Kad sent the planks up into reach of his left hand which snapped tight on the splintering wood to bring it back and send it spinning straight at where he knew Emerald was. She had a moment to inhale in surprise before the heavy planks crashed into her stomach and exploded into pieces. Her aura shed most of the force but she still cried out and fell to her knees clutching her bruised chest.
Blinding two people at once with her illusions had been a cakewalk compared to tricking this single mind. She couldn't keep their Master hidden any more. Emerald coughed painfully bringing her slender fingers up to the trickle of blood dripping from her nose.
The real Cinder appeared from the darkness thirty paces away, the spectre faded back to oblivion.
His mentor looked even worse than the false image Emerald had been spinning. Her hair was matted and sweaty, her amber eyes were blood shot and red rimmed and her clothes were a wrinkled mess. But in every other way she was as composed as she had ever been, not at all concerned that her ruse was thwarted.
"What? Nothing to say Kad?" Cinder asked,
The shirtless giant grounded his sword to his right. With all the haste that he had taken off after Cinder with, Kad did not have the time to think of just what he might say to her when he caught up.
After all he never would have considered this happening in ten thousand years.
"What about you?" Her student asked, "What do you have to say?"
The pyromancer did not hesitate to rebuke him, "I don't have to say anything to you of all people."
Cinder began to walk forward, Kad held his ground.
"You have your instructions Kad," She tried to remind him. "See, to, them."
"That's why I'm here," Kad said, hearing every single word like a knife in his heart.
Cinder paused reading him like an open book, remembering his plea, "…What did you do?"
Reflexively Kad's fingers found the place where Raven had stabbed him, his skin smoothed over as though it hard never even been scratched.
"Someone…" The giant sucked down his emotions, most bitterly his pride, "Someone finally called me out. They heard me talking to you. They all know, everyone knows I lied. That I was hiding something. And now they won't follow. They want to run."
The giant's heart and head sank with remorse and a dead weight of known failure. Cinder crossed her arms, a smile almost on her face, "Is that all?"
Kad nodded, thinking he was finally reaching through to Cinder. Believing she would understand.
The red dressed woman sighed, "Whoever this was you should have killed them."
The Primarch recoiled in shock, hearing but not believing those words. His tongue began to slip and stutter as he tried to voice this outrage. But he still couldn't believe.
Cinder should have known better.
She ran a slender hand back over her black locks of hair, "Well, nothing to be done now Kad."
Relief started to creep into Cinder's thoughts. Her own master had been wrong, she was still in control.
"So come if you are coming," She told Kad, moving to walk past him out to the Bullhead, "But if not…"
"No."
It took all the Primarch's will to speak that one word. That one word which froze Cinder back in place, the soothing cold dried up instantly in her boiling veins. Mercury and Emerald inched closer to the two of them, practically wading through the tension hanging heavy in the air.
"What was that?" Cinder hissed,
"I said no," Kad repeated himself, "I won't let you do this."
"You can't make me do anything…" She cut him off, "Even with how you have failed, despite my giving you the perfect opportunity to seize your place at the head of these worthless students. But I suppose none of that matters now, I have the crystal."
"Then do something!"
The power in his demand made both Mercury and Emerald take a step back. Kad pointed behind him at the smoke floating up from the still burning city.
"Look out there!"
Cinder did not. Kad's accusing finger did not waver, "This is too far. If we don't do something now all of Vale will fall."
"Yes!" Cinder screamed at the giant, "That is the whole point or did you not realize that? You must die to be reborn. But this time… This time it will be different. People will truly know why we can't fight each other when the Grimm are at our doors. They will know we have power to change. So everything will. New kingdoms will rise, strong kingdoms led by warriors. This peace will last, I will have fixed everything."
"Cinder, it's too far," Kad tried to continue,
"Fall in line Kad! I need this crystal to find the others in Vacuo, Atlas and Mistral. I will learn to control it."
"We can still do that. We can do that after we have saved the city."
Cinder groaned in pure disgust and contempt, "…You were my one concession to this world. But you care far too much for these pathetic excuses for Hunters."
"… It's what you told me to do."
"You have to make a choice Kad,"
So he did, "Give me the crystal."
Still desperately clinging to her former composer Cinder didn't bat an eye, "No," She succinctly answered.
"I can't," He tried to tell his master,
"Vale will survive," Cinder told him, "You will be here."
"I can't do this on my own! We can't win this fight!" Kad shouted, "Not anymore…" He took a deep breath trying to calm himself. Then looked to his fellow apprentices.
"Mercury?" He asked, not truly expecting a positive response. And getting exactly what he pictured when the assassin's son spat at Kad's feet.
So he looked to the thief, "Emerald?"
The green haired girl found herself torn. Torn between the giant's withering gaze outlined in the dying city's inferno. There was a power she had never seen before radiating from the boy they found in the wilds, forcing her to look. But on the other side was Cinder. The first to believe in her. Who had saved her from a life on the streets doomed to end in a dirty gutter or somewhere much worse.
Like Cinder had done for all of them. They owed her everything. A fact that Kad seemed all too eager to ignore, to throw away what they had dedicated their lives to accomplish.
Emerald reached back for her weapons. She wouldn't let Kad do this to Cinder.
But her master held up a hand, signaling the girl to stop. Cinder looked to the giant,
"You're resourceful," She told him, "You can do what needs to be done without my relic."
"You don't understand," Kad said, "This is bigger than anything Remnant has ever gone through. If you don't act now everything will be lost."
There they stood waiting for the other to blink, neither about to submit in this now silent clash of wills. Cinder had come too far to give up on her destiny, to forsake the power she had been promised to anyone.
This crystal was hers, this power had been promised to her. The world could go to hell. The witch would learn, her master would see after she destroyed Kad.
Mercury and Emerald rapidly cast their eyes back and forth between them.
Master and pupil.
For how much longer neither of them knew.
"Fine," the pyromancer told him, "Take it."
Emerald gasped, "Cinder!"
The woman's outstretched hand swiftly found its way to the thief's face. The sharp crack of impact, and the stinging pain silencing this protest. Cinder gestured to her right at the black crate sitting on a stack of pallets,
"It's over there. Go on."
It was such an innocuous answer and motion towards such a mundane thing. Kad looked to the crate and then to Cinder again, just to be certain. His master nodded, Kad was pleased she saw sense finally. So the giant left his sword standing in the concrete and moved to the box. Placing his hands on the smooth edge, thumbs positioned over the latches. He levered the simply devices up, light spilled from the miniscule crack. Growing into a blinding torrent as Kad opened the box.
Kad brought up his left hand trying to shield his eyes from the radiant glow. His eyes took only a second to adjust and reveal the pure white Dust shard in all its glory. He turned back to Cinder one last time and told her, "Thank you."
Then reached down and grabbed the crystal.
It fit snug in his right hand.
The infinite rays of light dimmed, covered by his callused palm. The thousand facets were smooth and the crystal felt cool.
The air began to hum,
Slowly at first, only heard by Kad's superhuman hearing as his heartbeat began to accelerate when his body reacted. The shard began to grow warm. Painfully so, wisps of smoke started streaming out around the giant's fingers. Kad tried to let go of the crystal but found he couldn't.
His lip curled in exertion, his fingers remained locked. Strength began to leave his chest, his aura tried and failed to keep him insulated from the raw energy contained with this rock. His breath quickened and Kad latched his left hand onto the opposite wrist trying to shake the crystal loose as he stumbled backwards.
Once free from the foam pattern the crystal had no weight to it at all. Sweat fell from his body and Kad groaned into clenched teeth. Pain began to creep up his arm heading at the wave from his heart and he still could not drop the crystal. His muscles were frozen in place from the power surging into his body.
Dark clouds unseen by all four began to gather in the sky above.
His aura shimmered tracking the progress of the force moving into Kad. It reached his shoulder in the blink of an eye.
Kad suddenly realized what a terrible mistake he had made.
It was just a Dust crystal he had assumed. They required the touch of an active aura or semblance to use. But this one had activated the instant his skin touched the arcane substance. Laying hand to something no mere mortal was meant to lay a hand upon.
Power was flowing into him. His geneforged flesh weathered the raw energy for now, held together by the strength of his aura.
The first of the thunder heads broke, shock waves crashed against the age old roof. Static electricity being drawn down from the sky crackling through the metal. Manifesting as powerful blue bolts arcing down into the glowing giant.
The energy was drawn to him like a lightning rod. Kad's aura shed the crackling strikes which drove him to his knees. Desperately trying not to scream.
And in that desperation he struck his hand against the floor with all his strength. Concrete broke along with the last two fingers on his right hand. But energy kept coursing into Kad. Sparks rained from the charged ceiling as more blue discharges hit making his back arch up, before he threw his head back and screamed.
Shimmering translucent flames began to flow from his eyes.
He had only one other option.
One thing he could turn to and free himself before the energy killed him.
Like trying to move a mountain, Kad brought the crystal up. Pushing the last of his strength into his semblance.
The two forces began to merge, trickling together as a stream meets an ocean. The manifestation of a Primarch's soul and the wild fury of Remnant.
The glow exploded into an unbearable brilliance. Mercury and Emerald threw their hands up in front of their faces.
Cinder stood stock still, a smile creeping up as she sensed her nearing triumph.
Until it was wiped away when Kad slammed the crystal down again.
It didn't work.
That blow would have shattered the head of Goliath and kept on going without even slowing. But the crystal held and the fires engulfed him. Wind swept through the shattered windows, the warehouse shook like the walls were coming apart.
Friction built, warm air met with cold in a swirling storm. Kad's muscles cracked and contorted feeling like his skin was being ripped off. Mirroring the starting movement of tectonic plates in the supernatural soil and rock around the planet's molten core.
Time froze for one single second.
A wave of light exploded from the giant's body when the crystal met the shaking ground, crashing against the other three Hunters. Pushing away even the very air as Kad's aura broke.
And then he was lost.
His mind unbound from space and time, swept away in uncontrollable currents. Senses flung out far beyond his tortured body.
Kad felt everything.
Steel and wood, stone and air. The world.
Out beyond the wall, through the forests and over the oceans. High into the black sky feeling the components of a storm brewing. And down, deep into the…
Dust.
He could see the elemental veins reaching up from the living heart of Remnant. Waning towards the surface where it was collected by the people, but down further and further…
Just as quickly as he was lost Kad returned. Back to his weary body. On his hands and knees sucking in what oxygen he could into his heaving chest. Trying to comprehend what just happened.
The crystal was still in his hand, which was smoking as the skin blackened and carbonized. The forces had calmed for now, yet Kad could still not remove his hand. With the crook of his left arm Kad wiped away the cascade of sweat pouring from his face.
Blocking his vision.
His arm came down.
Cinder's right came up, manifesting her black bow.
With fire in her hungry eyes, she loosed three arrows at Kad.
Three points of ice struck the giant's chest above his heart. A neat grouping barely a finger length apart. Cutting through muscle, digging into shielding bone and the life carrying network of fleshy veins and arteries. The inferno raging inside him vanished underneath a cold wave as Kad recoiled and looked down to the three obsidian shafts sticking out of him.
His shaking left hand trembled its way up to them. Kad looked back to Cinder, mouth agape refusing to form words of betrayal, "…You…"
"It could have been different Kad…" Cinder said, lowering her bow, "If only you hadn't gotten pretensions in your head. But this power was always meant to be, mine."
The weapon disappeared, breaking apart into a ball of fire that hovered in Cinder's hand. Soon mirrored by a second in her left, and the same not fire in her eyes that had just been flowing from Kad's.
"HA!"
The pyromancer shouted and cast her hands forward, her wrists striking together with her palms bent back.
"NO!" Kad's animal will to live turning that shouted word of denial into a piercing howl from the bottom of his lungs. The beam of fire cast by Cinder raced to consume him.
And he brought the crystal up into its path.
The flames seemed to crash against an invisible wall a finger length away. Spiraling off in all directions. Like water splashing on the ground, but creating a shockwave like an artillery shell exploding.
Again Cinder Emerald and Mercury were pushed back again, cargo containers were sent spinning through the air. Smashing through the beaten sheet metal walls, threatening the structural integrity of the old building. The inferno began to return to Kad's hand.
And the shimmering flame re-ignited in the Primarch's eyes.
Madness.
She just tried to kill him.
Cinder had just tried to kill him!
And he knew. Kad finally knew…
The giant would have wept if his body let him. Watching the last bit of the woman who had been his family for all his time on Remnant, the woman he had sworn to and cared for with all his heart become lost in some insane quest for power… If or how long this had been her true motive he could only guess… But he saw it now. From she had acted when her carefully laid plans crashed around them, only wanting chaos to further her own goals... And now this… Nothing else mattered to Cinder but her own quest…
A quest with no room for him… With no room for anyone on this new road into insanity.
Vale was burning... Remnant was bleeding…
"You have to make a choice…"
Madness.
Kad's left hand reached for his chain belt as he stood. Not used to fighting with only this hand but seeing little else he could do to defend himself with his right locked around the crystal.
He banished the pain of the arrows in his chest, banished thoughts of the molten blood flowing up his arm again. Focusing only on this motion he had done thousands of times, chain links clicked together as he slid the black steel free. Up high in the air behind himself, ready to cleave down.
As the chain began to descend Cinder rapidly jabbed her palms forward right then left then right again. Red aura blasts shot at the chain, the first bolt blasted away a third of links. The second shattered half of what was left before the third destroyed everything not covered by Kad's fist, peeling away the callused flesh on that hand as well.
Kad quickly cast away that last now useless piece, not even long enough to garrote a Creep.
Cinder spun back raising up her hands together.
Fire began to gather around Kad's boots like a tornado. The vortex picking up debris and making them glow white hot. Sensing the building pressure as Cinder called on her powers. Kad quickly dove to his right as the floor exploded and the giant snatched up Ignis in his left hand. Rolling for cover keeping his momentum.
Cinder willed the glowing remains of her failed strike to follow her rebellious pupil with a swipe of her arms. Kad twisted in midair, bringing Ignis down to block. The flames splashed against the blade dividing the deadly stream around his battered form. Scorching Kad's aura again.
"Go!" Cinder shouted to her other students in command. Mercury immediately leapt into action, moving to circle around wide on the giant's left. Emerald had to force herself out of a haze of disbelief at the madness unfolding.
Cinder had given her orders.
The thief jumped through the air to the top of a rolled cargo container Mercury just passed behind drew her pistols and began shooting at Kad. Bullets stung his skin like a swarm of bees drawing blood from a dozen impacts.
Mercury leapt and closed in, twisting and flipping until his boots were falling down like hammers. Kad moved back dodging the first blow then shoulder charged at the assassin. Mercury acrobatically pushed off the giant's arm safely out of his reach.
Cinder's raised her right hand pinching the fingers together, directing her will towards the three arrow shafts still in Kad's chest. Kad screamed into clenched teeth as they suddenly melted down burning deeper into his flesh.
Emerald sent her scythes sailing out to bind Kad's sword arm.
Hilt in hand linked to his aura, linked to the power flowing through the crystal.
The crystal flared again. So when the giant swung up and deflected the chained blades Ignis began to spew fire like a flamethrower. Torrents of clinging out of control burn Dust splashing where ever the blade pointed, first to the ceiling and then almost incinerating Kad's black pants.
Surprised at his sword's sudden ranged ability but ever intuitive Kad redirected Ignis's point to Cinder who splayed her fingers deflecting the Dust around her body. Emerald jumped down from her perch, rolled and lashed out low with her blades.
Kad took the drawing cuts against his stomach which failed to pierce his aura. Emerald sprinted forward slashing again. Kad spun Ignis back across his palm catching the two blades at the base and severing them from their green chains.
The thief still rushed forward before she registered what had just happened to her weapon. Unable to avoiding coming into Kad's long reach. He kept the sword going to follow through behind him. But then, with his right hand and the crystal trapped within the giant took a step forward and sent a brutal uppercut into Emerald's stomach.
Another shockwave of light and energy blasted out from where his fist met her stomach. Emerald's aura shattered from the single hit, blood and air coughed out her mouth before she went flying up into the darkness above.
He was a conduit.
The giant was starting to understand… He was the valve through which all this unrestrained power from the crystal, power from Remnant and the universe flowed. The pain in Kad's body subsided slightly when the coursing power left with his attack.
Emerald's back struck a support beam, bones cracked and gravity snagged its claws into the thief and she fell from above. Crashing on her face, blacking out instantly.
The flames coming from Ignis burnt themselves out, leaving the sword functionally the same as it had been for the majority of its life. But glowing brighter than ever before with wisps of steam coming from the blade.
Cinder quickly summoned her weapon again, stringing another three arrows. When Kad crossed his arms and braced to block, the crystal responded to his need sending more power into his body. The bow string snapped forward and the arrows flew true, exploding against the giant's arms making him flinch.
One look from his master was all Mercury needed to jump back into this fight. She needed him to keep Kad busy and buy her time.
Kad decided Mercury had his chance…
White blasts of Dust swirled through the air from every direction as Mercury dove onto his hands and kicked out firing his boots, the assassin's favored opening to keep his target guessing where the real strike would come from. Which always came after he smashed the hurricane of blurs into his target.
It helped relieve the pain and building pressure inside as well when Kad punched the crystal into the ground again. Making another shockwave explode out, dispelling Mercury's incoming attack. But Mercury still followed his go to plan, flipping closer ready to strike.
Kad swung up with Ignis, about to cleave him in two. Mercury nimbly twisted to his right and kicked down on the red blade. Pushing himself off and away from the cutting edge. He rolled back onto his hands and kicked up with both boots at Kad's face.
The giant brought the crystal in the way, blocking the white Dust blasts. Another river of fire swept up his veins. But he beat down the pain and cut backhanded. Mercury however had used the momentum from his last shot and pushed away.
But he hadn't gone far enough this time.
Kad leapt after his former friend, bringing his red sword back.
Mercury rolled to his feet. His eyes went wide and he crossed his arms, focusing his aura into this block.
Ignis came down, out on the edge of Kad's reach.
Sparks showered from where it crashed into Mercury's guard, and caught in his crossed forearms. Yet the sword still had a Primarch's strength forcing it down. And the assassin's aura was focused elsewhere.
The tip of Ignis cut down through the weakened soul shield protecting his head and cracked Mercury's skull like an egg.
Blood and brains boiled away around the hot metal that had lobotomized and killed him, lodged deep between Mercury's right eye and the bridge of his nose. The last look on his face one of surprise.
Kad would mourn later.
Mercury's arms fell limp, his corpse remained stuck on Ignis as Kad tried to raise the sword again knowing Cinder was about to strike. The giant punched out with his right hand.
The storm had come down. Surrounding their battle like the walls of a hurricane.
Intentionally or not, following the Primarch's motions. Bending the laws of nature.
Shattered glass was pulled from the many broken windows as the walls shook themselves apart. And a sudden powerful gust of wind manifested itself when Kad's fist struck Mercury's guts. Both sending the corpse flying up and out through a long window.
Cold permeated through Emerald's right side, shock still keeping the pain of her fractured ribs from overwhelming her. The noise woke her up first, the howling wind and the sounds of the warehouse shaking itself to pieces. And the sound soft the two combatants almost screaming their lungs out.
She raised her face off the gritty floor. Trying to squint through the light.
Everything was glowing, like two suns were competing for the right to rule the sky. On her left, the larger spot of brilliance filled the warehouse. Flowing through the all of the Dust left behind calling it to her master. But the shining flame on her right, outlining the towering figure and his great sword holding his right hand up to the sky.
Cinder was to slow.
While the young thief's retina's were being seared by both Kad and her mentor. Whatever the giant was doing made her skin run with ten thousand pins and needles. A pressure was building far greater and faster than Cinder's.
Much faster. About to reach a critical point.
With tears of pain in her eyes Emerald looked to Cinder. Snarling in defiance at her treacherous student.
She wasn't fast enough and Cinder knew it.
So did Kad.
What he didn't know was whether or not his next strike would kill Cinder. With what little control the giant had gotten over this power through iron resolve and every ounce of his strength barely keeping the force coherent. Energy that would have killed any other man long ago strayed away from his body as bolts of lighting, striking cargo containers and leaving jagged glowing slashes across the metal. Plumes of shining Dust rose like geysers from within.
Kad punched with his right hand. A deafening thunder clap followed the move swallowing Kad's roar of exertion. Aura and lightning were one. Manifesting as a single blinding bolt dripping incandescent drops of power and sparks while it arced from the Primarch's hand.
Cinder screamed her hate and defiance of fate into the uncaring air, summoning her strength to brace her aura.
A spot of darkness blocked the light about to consume her.
Through waves of agonizing pain the thief had used the last of her aura to leap between her master and this attack. Her back to Kad's oncoming attack, still in a dive that would take her past the pyromancer if circumstances were different. Emerald looked for the face she hoped to see on her mentor every day since she pledged herself to Cinder one last time.
Gratitude. Pride. Finally Love?
None of those expressions she wished for broke through the surprise in time…
But the end came mercifully quick for Emerald.
She had time to gasp once in shock. As the instant Kad's lightning bolt hit the dead center of Emerald's back she was torn apart. Spread as ash on the out of control winds being called upon with an already fading blue flash.
Kad cursed into clenched teeth.
Cinder gave him a carnivorous smile, grateful for Emerald's sacrifice but even more exhilarated at victory now within her grasp. The shining Dust around them gathered to the pyromancer. Kad crossed his arms to block as his skin began to blister, shutting his eyes against the light searing his retinas. Knowing he couldn't close or draw on this force again with any sort of control before Cinder struck.
Once again Cinder swung her hands together and let loose with everything she had. It was like an Atlas heavy missile hit the giant. A fireball blossomed to life and ripped the giant warehouse doors to shreds. The elemental beam shot out into the night and carried Kad through the air out into the empty lot to crash against the tail section of the Bullhead flyer and bend the craft in half. Ignis had flown from his hand, he did not know where.
Kad tried to pull himself from the wreckage, panting while his head swam. Light flickered across his body. His aura surging and fading in waves. The pain was back and worse than ever and slowly concentrating in the left side of his chest while his heart kept hammering away.
Motion brought Kad's eyes up,
Training and instinctual reflexes brought his last weapon up. Drawing the long knife with his left hand to block the black swords coming down at his face.
Cinder had called the winds and launched herself out to finish off her errant disciple. Sparks flew from edged metal meeting. Cinder was caught midair when Kad pushed the blades away to his left, then hooked a punch with the crystal in his right hand up into her side.
Light exploded again, Cinder took the blow.
And some of the power laced in it.
She didn't go as far as Kad thought she would. Nimbly twisting down to the ground. Scouring her heels across the black top as she slid to a halt still almost in arms reach.
Cinder held up her swords, fire ran up their lengths.
Kad dove to his right, and kicked out with both feet at his mentor.
She blocked the twin blows that still almost dislocated her arms, more letting herself be pushed away. Finding herself with some space again Cinder spun and brought up her swords. Conjuring a wave of hovering ice spikes.
Kad rolled and turned back.
This time something about the Dust caught in his mind.
Ever since he found his semblance more and more the giant found himself using and calling on the strange element that permeated the planet. He tried to cast his memory back to those times as he raised the crystal.
The jagged blue shards exploded, one touch of Kad's will and wild power then they were no more. Musically raining onto the ground as a backdrop to Cinder's wild yell as she sprang forward.
Kad spun his knife to a proper grip and leapt to meet her.
She was just as fast as the giant. Caught in the crook of his swinging left arm, pushing her blades into his skin. But she still felt the full punishing force behind Kad's arm. She kicked up while being thrown away like a ragdoll. Uselessly striking her heels against Kad's knife hand.
Black hair waving in the wind she swung wide from two directions. His knife meet the left blade, shaking Cinder's arm to the bone and knocking the sword from her hand with a sharp chop.
He brought the crystal up into the right's path. Energy flared again, both flinched away from the explosion of light pushing away a sphere of dirt and light from the two flaming auras.
The crystal responded to Kad's rage and need. More power poured into the giant's body, this time he was ready. Flowing like water Kad focused his semblance and punched out again at Cinder.
She dodged to the side around the rippling beam of energy which destroyed the bullhead wreck. His master spun away like a ballerina while the pain and blinding power in his body rose again as he stretched this growing muscle. Her sword trailing plasma fire as she flipped it in her hands above her head.
Then quick as a whip chopped it down into the back of Kad's right leg.
The black steel cut through his calf and aura until it struck bone. Cinder slid it free making Kad grunt and hiss in pain as his leg gave out.
She did not waste time reviling in triumph. Cinder quickly jumped backwards, dodging the knife's stabbing point coming for her which chipped the ground. Kad tried to stand, putting weight on his right leg. But the limb immediately gave out on him and the giant fell to his hands again.
If he could have looked Kad would have seen that now even his blood had a hint of light to it. Coming out of the wound which failed to clot, like a river of molten steel leaving scalding marks running down his leg into his boot.
Even with that limb now unable to take his weight Kad cut again at Cinder, pushing off with his left leg. Swinging wide again with his knife. Cinder leapt backwards carried by her winds, then raised the first two fingers of her right hand up.
His raw power was unmatched now. But Kad still had little control over it. Cinder had years of practice. Honing her strength and skill within this untapped field of Dust.
Kad suddenly felt a cold deathly chill radiating from the ground beneath him. It spread quickly, it wasn't long until he saw frost beneath him.
Then felt the ice spike pierce his stomach.
Blue Dust came up and skewered him low on his right side. It held him in place for a second until Kad threw himself forward and broke off the Dust, ignoring the pain. A piece however remained in him. Blocking off the drip of blood while his aura ripple again in baleful light.
He couldn't take much more.
That Cinder knew, she knew by the trembling she saw in Kad's limbs as he crawled after her. The ease with which his aura fell and she cut into him. His body was resilient to mundane damage and the giant had survived much longer than she had expected him to. But it was only a matter of time.
Time which she had a plan to shorten.
Cinder's eyes flared and she held up her left hand, the blade in it disappeared. But her extremity itself like a torch in the darkness as she manifesting her will, reaching out her aura for the crystal.
The fire came again. Up his blood and into Kad's heart. Pain so bad he fell to the ground, eyes smashed shut and teeth bared in a rictus of agony. Screaming into clenched teeth and choking throat. The crystal was unpredictable, but Kad didn't think he was agitating it this time.
Cinder was. Calling on the power, having it flow into him instead of her.
He couldn't breathe. The giant could barely even keep up on his hands and knees while Cinder opened this floodgate and tried to turn him to ash. His muscles spasmed and contorted, grinding against his bones. Bleaching his mind with a blanket of agony, his very soul shifting from the comforting warmth to a thousand burning daggers stabbing into him and scrapping his skin off.
Kad stabbed his knife into the ground again, not that he expected the action to help him break free from this torture.
The razor edge glinted, reflecting his aura.
Flicking a shadow of hope across his fiery eyes.
One swing and it would be over…
"After all that I did for you," Cinder spoke in a venomously low tone, "You swore to me, you ungrateful bastard!"
The giant groaned abandoning that thought as quickly as it came to slowly looked back at Cinder coming in close again.
He managed to plead in whisper to her, "Stop… Stop…"
Cinder cracked a smile, though it held no good will, "You lasted longer than I thought you would."
She stretched out her will again, savoring the pain twisting Kad's tormented face as she sparked the crystal again.
"So I'll admit… I might actually be impressed Kad."
The giant suffered through the riptide of energy again. Cinder delighted in her assured dominance for a single moment before her face turned to anger and ice again. Deciding to grant the boy who had been as dedicated as any of her late disciples a measure of mercy,
"Drop the knife," Cinder commanded.
Kad could only hiss in pain again. But he let the blade drop from his shaking hand. A powerful gust of wind took it to Cinder's right hand. She swung her cousin's knife in a lazy loop. Remembering the weight and feel of the wooden grip on the old steel.
She looked down on her tormented pupil, "Give me that."
"I… Can't…" Kad coughed miserably, holding up the Dust shard. Smoke still coming from his burned and blackened hand. Small blue sparks of power flicking up his arm making the tiny hairs stand on end.
Cinder huffed, "It's a shame, but you could never hope to fight destiny Kad. And holding this…"
The red dressed woman reached her left hand down, palm up to accept her rightful prize. She took a breath savoring the thrill and flutter in her heart.
"This is my destiny."
The knife in her hand moved past the crystal flowing like water, then scraped back one lock of sweat drenched hair plastered to Kad's forehead with the razor tip. Leaving a wake of light rippling on his skin.
Sensing the shadows closing in, Kad did the last thing he could do.
He moved to touch the crystal on the back of Cinder's left hand.
Cinder couldn't stop herself. In reflexive panic she turned up her palm to receive the shard.
Like a solar flare, light exploded across the lot again.
The pyromancer thought she would be prepared when she finally claimed this. She lost her breath feeling a fraction of what her favored student had gone through.
Then Cinder screamed. All her composure and superiority gone. Eyes shut trying to fight this crippling pressure running from the crystal. Air was blasted back away from the two of them, pushing everything away.
Kad took his chance.
Cinder had underestimated a Primarch.
The crystal seemed to weigh tons now, Kad persevered and reached forward. Pressing it against Cinder's left shoulder to pull himself up onto his one good leg.
She stood despite his immense mass bearing down and the crystal now burning the red dress and the skin beneath. Kad clamped his free hand down on Cinder's right and the knife it held completely enveloping the woman's hand. The haze and fire cleared from Cinder's body, her eyes went wide as she beheld the giant now face to face with her and knew his intent.
Both of their eyes again shot flame. Kad's in fury and Cinder's in desperation.
Kad forced the knife back. Cinder moved her left hand off the crystal shard to block, fingers of electricity appeared still tying it to herself for a splint second. Its point faltered when it met the resistance of Cinder's wild aura. Sparking and scraping against the ethereal barrier, pushing the back of her hand low on her chest.
Her aura held for a moment against Kad's superhuman strength.
But the blade still pierced it, parting flesh and pushing aside the bones of her middle and ring fingers.
Blood slicked steel slid through everything in its way. Only stopping once the little cross guard slammed into her palm.
And the knife cut Cinder's heart in two.
They fell together to the scalding ground.
Kad now knelt over Cinder his hand still on hers and the knife as she started to breathe her last.
And the realization of what the giant just did began to sink in.
The final cracks in his whole reality rent and torn open in the blink of an eye.
Kad's world shattered by his own two hands.
Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled in the sky. Kad tried to brace himself up with the crystal as best he could. His vision blurring, a black pit had opened in Kad's stomach almost making him sick.
"Cinder…" Kad managed to whisper, "Why?"
The woman coughed up a mouthful of blood, slightly propped up by the steel tip coming through her back. Trying to laugh, smiling with a mouth full of red teeth.
Kad tried to continue, asking again, "Why!... It didn't…"
He stopped, his throat seized by the power of the shard. Rising again but this time there was no way out of his body. Its light cast long shadows across Cinder's dying face. But the Primarch fought through the pain.
"It didn't have to be this way…" Kad told her, slowly managing to give voice to this turmoil.
Blood ran from the wound around the knife and their hands, only visible as a darker shade spreading and swallowing the golden inlay.
Cinder drew in a deep breath through her mouth, trying to fill her one working lung.
Passing over fleeting thoughts of what might have been
Or what might be when she was gone.
"…Maybe."
Kad's aching heart sank when he deciphered what she gurgled to him with her dying breath.
But Cinder savored that look on his face and how she knew she would haunt him forever.
"Maybe…" She repeated, twisting that knife in further, "Maybe… Sa…"
She did not get her chance to fully voice these final words. Cinder choked and wretched trying to breathe again.
But only gave one last shuddering sigh,
Then the darkness took her.
Kad tried his hardest, yet the power would not be held back any longer.
It flowed into him like an all-consuming tidal wave, turning him into a glowing star with his aura shining bright and rippling. Kad planted his feet and stood on quaking legs, hunched over with every muscle tense and curling. His endurance almost spent.
The air crackled around him, lightning bolts fell from the sky into to the giant. So heavy with energy even small rocks and debris on the ground began to shake before they were carried away in the storm.
Kad tried one last time to release the crystal. Tearing at his own fingers with his left hand but to no avail like the digits were now welded onto the crystal. He almost felt himself coming undone, like he could feel the individual atoms and cells in his body start to peel apart one by one.
It had nowhere to go.
But Kad had no idea if he could actually do what he knew he needed to do to survive.
To let go.
How could he? After years of struggling… Holding the seams of his world together with blood sweat and tears.
Everything else had spiraled out of his control. How could he let this?
In the end it was simple.
Either Kad would act or he would die.
The Primarch crossed his bare arms, the action like trying to move a mountain to him.
And Kad stopped fighting. Stopped trying to brace his mind and body against the flood.
In the constant horrendous pain Kad cast his mind inward, remembering back to every time he had manifested his aura from the very first to now what might be the last. And when he had cast out that power with his semblance. That unseen fire inside of him they called the soul. Feeling the new link to the world of Dust and energy around him through the crystal.
Calm settled in his chest.
And with a mighty scream echoing out to the wall and back to the bay, Kad threw his head back arms down and let go.
Pulsing his aura to never before reached heights.
Expelling all the energy trapped within. Like a dam broke and released the fury of a long trapped river.
And the world exploded around him.
White light ripped through the ground, expanding out consuming everything in its way. Down into the earth carving away a wide crater around Kad's black boots. Smashing aside the warehouse, fences and the buildings, corpses and Grimm around him for twenty blocks like they were all made out of cardboard. Carrying the remains out to the edge of Vale.
Reaching high into the storm above, taller than any tower on Remnant had ever risen. Like the candle of a god had lit itself upon the world and turned night into a new dawn. The sounds of the energy tearing through the air drowned the crash and ring of the still raging battle against the creatures of darkness.
The dragon in the clouds passed to close to the unexpected energy flare. Scales were charred and burned, the Daemon within writhed in pure agony when its vessel failed to shield it. Turning to flee for reprieve as far away as it could. Ignoring its master's howling commands to attack.
The brewing storm finally let loose and the rain came down. Torrents of ice water showering the city. Beginning to extinguish some of the still burning fires as the light of the false sun disappeared.
Blackness fell over his sight, Kad's muscles lost their rigid tension. His arms went slack as the rain washed away hours' worth of grime and soot when it stopped vaporizing the moment it touched his steaming skin.
It had been enough. Enough had flowed through the giant and into the air, the crystal lost its power for a moment and Kad's death grip faltered. And the crystal fell from his ruined hand, splashing into the little puddles pooling below him in the crater that had been blasted around him.
The giant took steady and deep breaths, wracking his whole body just trying to do this simple act trying to recover from this ordeal. But he felt like a Goliath was stepping on his chest, right over his heart. Everywhere else numbness was overtaking him as his lungs failed to pull in vital oxygen. And the fatigue of his battle took its final toll.
Kad fell.
Like an ancient tree cut by an ax crashing to his knees splashing in the dirt filled water, left hand over his chest and the raging heartbeat within. Then facedown into the grey mud below him. Unmoving, unbreathing as the pulse of life began to fade into nothing…