Chapter 235

Embers and Ashes (VI)

He’d had enough, Cain realized, his lips curling up into a smirk; amidst the roaring fire and the billowing smoke, he could still see the old man’s expressions change and contort. Chuckling lightly, he blinked back, but didn’t stop at just that-- he immediately began running further back, opening up nearly a whole mile of distance between the two before the roar sung out from the depths of the now-distant fire.

“FUCK THIS!!!!” a roar itself seemingly flung the winds that blew the roaring fires outward, dissipating them into tidal waves that raced for good half a mile before collapsing like molten lava, vanishing.

From within the fires, silver beam of light burned, dissipating the surrounding darkness like the rising sun. Inside the beam, a silhouette of a figure emerged, clad in thick armor, Mana surging like the raging seas all around it. Cain stared at the distant figure, his playful smile disappearing, replaced by a serious and frigid expression.

Though the quantity of Mana certainly was overwhelming, that wasn’t what had him finally acknowledge the fight-- it was the quality. It matched, and even outpaced, Cain’s in many ways. Unlike what Cain predicted, Mael didn’t even try and leave the area covered by the Elemental Resonance-- rather, the raw output of Mana... destroyed the ‘storm’ completely.

The strobe lights calmed some seconds later, leaving only Mael, floating midair, his armor a shade lighter, shining. His expression was rather ugly, no doubt due to fears that he had exposed himself. He’ll go all out from the start, Cain knew. I won’t have time to adjust to his pace. Tsk, I’ll have to rely on my instincts more than I planned.

He blinked to the side immediately, yet was still slightly late; a feeling akin to a burn echoed out from the right side of his abdomen. Looking down, he saw a deep, profusely bleeding cut that he hastily closed up with Mana. Shit, he’s fast.

Blinking back again, he was still late, a gash opening up on his shoulders; after, it was his right thigh, then his left ribcage, then his forehead, just inches away from his eyes. He began to bleed profusely, but none of the wounds were deep enough to cause any harm that would impede his ability to fight. He continued to dodge, the wounds growing shallower and shallower, until he completely adjusted to the speed, beginning to occasionally retaliate.

The two’s clashes echoed out midair, procuring sonic booms, one after another, that shook the surrounding hills and canyons, causing the countless wildlife to run away from the epicenter. It was impossible to follow the two with a naked eye, yet, nonetheless, countless eyes were glued to their battle. It was less so due to the sheer spectacle of it all, the razed landscape carved out by the supernatural, and more so due to the far less extravagant and far more minute implications.

Cain’s Mana surged into his palm as he cast a spell, conjuring up a spatial ‘shield’ of sorts that he used to deflect a direct stab at his torso. The blade swayed and bent sideways, missing his body, as he retaliated with his other hand, all mid-flight, going so fast he was a blur, casting a spell that summoned an array of blades behind Mael from the void itself, stabbing at the old man’s back.

The latter violently jerked his shield-wielding arm backward, easily covering the length of the attack and deflecting the blades with ease while contorting his own sword to strike again at Cain’s side.

Cain, optionless otherwise, was forced to Blink again, but this time forward, bypassing Mael and instantly appearing some forty feet at the old man’s rear; without a break, even before he completely materialized, he conjured up a megastructure of sorts, two hundred feet long, rotting spear. Ruin and decay nearly snuffed out the core from which it was made, fire, as Cain hung his arm back-- not holding the spear itself, but rather imitating the actions as though he were tossing a javelin-- and tossed the massive spear at Mael.

The old man spun in place and, roaring, held his shield tightly as the spear rammed directly into it. Spacetime got sucked into the point of collision before imploding, the sheer level of explosion carving out a mile deep crater down below while blowing Mael nearly twenty miles back, cracks surfacing on the majestic shield.

Even Cain wasn’t safe from the blowback, having needed to shield his face by his arms that now lay scorched, the burning pain screaming inside his brain. He gritted his teeth and swiftly cooled the wounds, realizing that healing after-the-fact would be a major pain in the ass. There was a brief pause as the noise and the dust and the rippling spacetime settled. The two’s eyes locked from miles away, the tensions rising.

The old gray hairs suddenly drew ashone, and the wrinkles vanished. Within a second, opposite of Cain flew not an old man, but a youth so handsome Cain felt instinctive desire to walk over and break his nose.

“... even if they cage me,” the man’s voice, however, remained deep and hoarse as he spoke, Mana around him beginning to bubble. “You have to die.”

“Man, even you? Tsk, I thought you were above the cliches.”

Startled, Cain jerked his head to the side, nearly snapping his neck in the process, barely dodging the man’s sword; even still, the blade cut a huge chunk of the right side of his head, including clipping his ear off entirely as it began to bleed profusely. He didn’t even have time to register the pain, however, since the man abruptly appeared in front of him, the same sword he tossed back in his hand, mid-swing already toward Cain’s head.

The latter nearly yelped as he contorted his body unnaturally, dislocating several bones in the process, just to barely dodge the strike. Angered, he flared off and shot his right palm forward, summoning a concentrated implosion that hurled both toward the opposite ends. The man’s holy visage finally crumbled, blood spraying out of his orifices and dyeing his armor crimson. He managed to halt his backward momentum forcibly and violently, shaking his organs so much he nearly spat a mouthful of blood. Without even taking a second to catch his breath, he hurled back toward Cain who was still flying back due to the impact, desperately closing up the ever-increasing number of wounds appearing all over his body.

Gritting his teeth, he ignored the pain and, carrying the momentum, suddenly blink behind the man; casting a skill that encased his back in several casts of Mana, and carrying the momentum of his fall, he rammed into the man’s back, causing the latter to cry out in pain as the sound of the breaking bones snapped into the reality, the armor breaking apart at its seams.

The man’s spine snapped in two as he found himself uncontrollably falling down, gaining speed until breaking that of the sound and crashing into the ground down below, carving out a majestic tomb of desolation and causing a ginormous dust storm to sweep out like tidal wave. As it all settled, Cain saw a huge hole down below, spanning good ten miles across. He, too, was unable to remain afloat any longer, violently crashing into the ground and rolling downhill, reaching the bottom.

Blood swiftly pulled under him as he fought the wicked desire to fall asleep back, snapping his dislocated bones into place and using his fractured, bleeding, and skinned arms to sit up, barely managing. Opposite of him, some hundred yards or so away, he saw a lump of flesh leaning against a rock. Half the man’s skin was melted off, the other half either eviscerated or carved, one of the eyeballs having been ejected elsewhere, leaving in its wake a desolate, black hole.

He was still alive, though; however barely, Cain saw the chest moving up and down, and felt the heartbeat. Though slow, it was still dynamic, vital, alive. If left alone, there was no doubt that the man would recover within minutes.

Cain knew, however, if he allowed the man to recover, he’d die. There was barely anything left in his tank -- and it was not due to his Mana. Rather, his reserves were still beyond plentiful, but his body was physically incapable of acting as a conduit. If he tried to channel a skill, it was likely that his arms would implode.

Gritting his teeth again and biting into his gums until they bled, he forced himself onto his feet, shaking, ignoring every single alarm in his brain that was telling him to lie down and fall asleep. That if he just that... all the pain would disappear. All the anguish. The strange lump in his throat that he ascertained to be a part of some organ that jerked up due to the violent impact and got stuck there.

He was, similarly, fairly certain that he’d already bled out twice the amount of blood his body could hold, and for the life of his couldn’t figure out how he hadn’t passed out yet. His natural recovery wasn’t bad, far from it-- but it was not good either. Especially when it came to violent and deep injuries. Even with the help of pills, it would still take him weeks to recover. He was certain that, considering his current body state, even Yuki would be unable to heal him completely as certain wounds-- especially when it came to nerve damage-- would have to heal naturally.

But... he walked forward. No, he didn’t walk -- he wobbled. Step by step, each more excruciating than the last. Tears began to pool instinctively in the glands, seeping out. Step by step. Breath by breath.

He slowly crossed the hundred yards distance that seemed to go on for tens of miles, reaching the lump of flesh that had already began to resemble a human being. A few more minutes-- nay, perhaps just a minute longer, and he would have been helpless. Mael stared into his eyes with a strange mixture of loathing and fanaticism.

“T-t-t-hief...” Mael mumbled weekly, his voice barely audible.

Cain crumbled down and fell to his knees, suddenly crying out as his kneecaps broke due to the impact, forcing him to lay down in agony. Even still, he managed to coalesce a smudge of Mana in his fingers and aim them at Mael’s head.

“Godspeed...” a faint array of light lurched over and through Mael’s head, momentarily only boring a tiny, needle-size hole through his brain, before the entire skull exploded into a rain of blood, scalp, and brain matter.

Seeing the explosion, the last of Cain’s willpower evaporated as his eyes closed, darkness swallowing him.