Cain

Celestia holds her fingers against my chest, not squeezing, nor pressing, but very clearly threatening. She very clearly knew my abilities and knew a gesture like this gave her no tangible benefit, but her message was clear.

“I’m surprised, I thought you would be the least concerned about this out of the three of us.” I say.

“I long for battle, not one-sided massacres. Even I have a point where enough is enough.” Celestia mutters razor focused, I could tell she was already calculating and running scenarios for the eventual fight.

“Unfortunately, you’re wasting your breath with me. Regardless of whether I agree or disagree, this will continue until the fire reaches the center.”

Celestia then slowly looks up and gives me a defeated look. “I’m really not good at talking with people.” She slowly retracts her hand back to her side.

“Look at this.” She then gestures towards the raging inferno behind me. “Absolutely unfathomable, even someone like me wouldn’t be able to hold a candle to this.”

“Get to the point.” I say, beads of sweat dripping down my neck.

She stares at me for a couple of seconds, pondering on something.

“Eh, might as well show you instead.”

Celestia takes a fierce step forward, instantly exuding an astronomical amount of hostility. She flies forward, accelerating in such a way that made it seem like she simply disappeared into thin air. I let her first strike pass through my torso, flames sputtering out from my back as her fist displaces them. I hardly felt any strain from this maneuver anymore for some reason, even factoring in my fatigue after creating the ring of fire.

I swivel my hands behind as they flare up into a great wall of fire and push my arms forward, creating a giant cone of flame.

“She survives this right?” I chuckle nervously, not too concerned.

Two hands clasp against my own, interlocking fingers and squeezing tight.

Instantly, the fire goes out as Celestia appears right in front of my face, arms extended towards mine.

And somehow, she was completely unharmed.

I don’t even have time to register what the hell she did before, with only a single push, I'm sent skidding through the dirt, I stabilize myself using wind but ultimately smack into a tree trunk. Driving the breath out of my lungs.

I scramble to my feet in a panic and look up at Celestia, who was staring at me with a smug look.

Celestia

As I thought, there was a way. I look down to see a green circle full of untouched plants and leaves around my feet with the rest of the vegetation ash black.

After meeting Cain there was something that bothered me for a while. If Tetsudo were this strong relative to Ankudo then that war an eon ago makes no sense. With such a power disparity, why didn’t the Tetsudo just walk over the Ankudo? How did it end up being so deadly?

There was a variable I had to be missing, and now I knew exactly what it was. Inside I felt euphoric, knowing that only a genius like myself could think up something this complex on the fly. When I was fighting in the heat, I subconsciously figured out a way to make it bearable. I was able to control it and then destroy it.

Searing waves of fire dissipate into nothing upon contact with my hand.

Fundamentally, Anku was simply the manipulation and control of the body, or if the user is strong enough, other bodies. But if that was the case, how was it possible to affect inanimate objects using blood? It never made sense to me.

I just had a feeling that everybody was missing a crucial principle about Anku, one piece of the puzzle that had yet to show itself. Until a couple of months ago when the Tetsudo arrived.

I walk toward Cain slowly, take a step, then run forward.

Cain disappears into a sheet of fire, as I claw out smashing the tree behind him. I hear a now familiar whoosh as he rematerializes behind my back.

To me, it was simple.

Tetsu is creation.

Anku is control.

Therefore, all creations are under my control.

Cain thrusts forward with a blast of fire, attacking me from my back. I fold my hands back, similar to how Cain uses his power. An empty cone appears, slicing through the blast like the tip of an arrow, shielding me from the dangerous heat.

As I turn around, an unexpected blast of air comes through, I stumble backwards as the flames around me subside.

“Imagine, someone like you, scared of his own strength, scared of himself I dare say.” I say, still looking down.

“Grow a little spine why don’t you?” I look up at Cain. Who was panting quickly, wide eyed at my new abilities.

“What did you do?” He asks.

“I’m not confident in beating you so I don’t want to tell you yet.” I admit to him.

Despite my new found revelation, I was still unsure if I actually held the upper hand here. Normally, I probably wouldn’t hesitate to fight but right now…

“You’re not… Betraying us, are you?” Cain then hesitantly asks.

“No, I’m not, but I then remembered something annoying, so I’m going to be principled for once.” I tell him.

“I… Think I can understand. Sorry, my mind is a bit jumbled.” Cain says, showing unexpected vulnerability.

I could tell he was very conflicted right now. I didn’t like talking through my problems, but all I may need right now is a little push.

“Hey, do you know what I asked Yesenia before we left?” I reflect upon the time myself.

“I know, you came here because you wanted to fight me.” Cain nods. “The entire way here, I could sense your bloodlust for me.”

“Bloodlust huh?” I nod, that does sound right. “Then, do you sense that bloodlust now?” I ask him.

“…No I don’t.”

I close my eyes and exhale. “Then, we don’t need to fight.” The words reverberate through my skull, sending feelings of both regret and surprisingly, bliss.

“If you calm the fire down now. I will not fight you, nor will I ask for any fights in the future, and then I will devote all of myself to Yesenia, at least until the end of the war. Should make for a lot less problems in the long run, admittedly.”

…

…

…

“Oi, are you going to keep thinking or—“

“Sorry. I’ve made up my mind.” Cain flexes out as his arms and legs erupt into flames. Immediately I’m blasted with intense, almost suffocating heat. I watch as the ground around him begins to melt from the jetstream of fire running off his limbs. He was almost too bright to look at.

I cough violently then brace up my negation, dispelling the heat.

“You sure about missing a chance like this?” I smile bitterly. Oh well, not like this wasn’t what I was going for in the first place.

“I’m sure. In fact, I’m kinda glad you’ve given me a reason to not hold back.”

“Riiiight, don’t get ahead of yourself now.” I inhale then exhale sharply, sending adrenaline spiraling throughout my system, I take a couple of quick hops before throwing some shadow punches.

“Warming up?” I could hear Cain whisper to himself confusingly over the raging fire, my senses had been dialed up so tremendously that I could even hear mouse steps against the backdrop of the raging fire.

“Yea I’m fucking excited!” I respond loudly, to which Cain immediately turns alarmed.

I take another bounce, bend my knees, lean forward a little bit, and then disappear.

.

A pop and boom. It was movement so quick that it would look like teleportation to the untrained eye, movement that shatters the sound barrier.

It was the combination of perfect biomechanics alongside Anku activation and strength. Three things I have long surpassed anyone else in the world, the mastery of raw power.

I observe as Cain’s pupils dilate upon losing track of me with his eyes. He immediately swings out, sending a wave of scorching hot flame horizontally, melting anything along its path, causing trees to topple over, as if cut by an axe.

No way to dodge. I swing forward in retaliation, cutting through the flames with my arm, causing a great blowback to my speed, Cain’s eyes refocus on my position as a result. I click my tongue as I slice down a kick through Cain, knowing it wasn’t going to work but taking it anyways.

“Ow shit!” My leg catches on fire, turning white hot from Cain’s flames. Why did my negation not work? I immediately jump back, prancing around to extinguish my leg.

“So there is a limit.” Cain looks at me dead in the eyes. “You just passed through the hottest temperature I can possibly make.” He gestures towards himself. “My body is a living flame, hot enough to incinerate all organic matter to carbon. Which means you cannot even touch me.” Cain says, most likely trying to intimidate me off this fight.

But…

“My leg’s still fine.” I point to the now dimly burning fabric around my foot as it extinguishes. “If you haven’t noticed.”

He was right though, I could not stop the fire from reaching me, and for a brief moment my Anku wasn’t enough to overcome his Tetsu, and if I were any slower and held my leg longer inside I might not be feeling so good right now.

I furrow my brows, millions of calculations racing through my mind, thinking up of a way to defeat him.

Cain looks at me cautiously, bracing himself for my next move.

“Not going to attack me first?” I look up. “Such an explosive ability and you’re just going to run defense?”

Cain doesn’t reply, my taunt falls on deaf ears. Of course he isn’t going to attack first, he just needs to stall long enough to win.

…

Right, that’s an idea.

I dash forward once again as Cain tenses up for a counterattack. Every millisecond passing, I observe carefully, Cain’s skin shimmering from the raw heat, the translucence of the white fire emanating from his limbs, tiny beads of sweat dripping off his face, somehow avoiding evaporation as they fall and soak into the dirt.

Cain swings out in slow motion, the exact same attack as last time, completely undodgeable.

A light buzz ringing in my ears, a dark cone of concentration forming in my vision, goosebumps running down my neck and through my entire body.

There is a widely accepted theory that the more organs one focuses Anku on. The weaker each segment gets. For example, if I focus too much Anku into my eyes, my strikes won’t hit as hard. If I focus everything into my body, my mind won’t be able to keep up with the speed and I would end up flailing around like an animal.

The challenge was the shift. If you were good at moving Anku around your body, then you could simulate being a lot stronger than your normal self. By intentionally creating weaknesses in certain parts of your body, you can amplify other parts of your body.

I push my arm out, my right palm meeting the wall of fire head on, as my hand slowly sinks into the blindingly hot surface. I close my eyes in preparation, my vision rapidly readjusting to darkness.

The timing has to be instant, it has to be overwhelming, a complete shift of Anku from my muscles to…

Everything.

A bubble expands from out of my hand, a bubble of nothingness, consuming the fire around it into nothingness as well. My arms, shoulders, legs, my entire body drains of all its strength. I stumble forward, moving a bit too fast to perfectly keep balance.

My perception of time quickly returns to normal speed, an endless roar of fire once again fills my ears as my hypersensitive hearing fades away.

I open my eyes once again to a pitch dark forest, devoid of any fire or brightness, only the ring of fire behind Cain remains.

I quickly regain my balance and charge forward, the sharp brittle tree branches brush my cheeks, drawing blood.

“What the fuck?!” Cain topples over, completely caught off guard by the change in atmosphere.

I reach forward, muscles rippling across my arm and chest as I drive my hardest punch straight through his nose

Blood spatters across my fist as Cain reels back in pain, blood pouring from out of his nose. All of his Tetsu alongside the surrounding area was now rendered useless, and so was I.

I let out a crazed laugh. “Just me and you now!” I sputter out with blood and saliva.