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Songs of the Chapter:
Imperial Circus Dead Decadence - Uta
[For the final scene]  Have a Nice Life - Music will Untune the Sky

The blaze scaling the island was endless. Furious scarlet tore through the forest and the vicious, battling cats. The fire looked like sharp, ferocious clouds of red and orange that raged mercilessly through the ferocious crowd. Hell itself had risen to trap them in the tornado of a mad sunset. It reached for the sky and turned it to a veil of sullen smoke. 

Spotfur found herself weaving through the blinding inferno, choked by endless scarlet. All she could see here was the labyrinth of eye-burning red and black. The whole world was ablaze, even the stars smoldered in the red storm. She broke out from the blistering woods with the winds teasing her lilac-gray fur. The quick she-cat was greeted by the glow of the full moon, a spirit in the oil-black sky. Even though the wildfire was just behind her, and its golden light shimmered upon the sand and the cats there, it was amazing to no longer be surrounded by the storm. However, she skidded when she caught Cinderheart writhing in a battle with a spirit. They tussled violently in the sand, and the ginger tom seemed to be winning as he began to open his jaws to bite down on her throat.

Spotfur didn't hesitate. She darted across the golden-lit sand, her paws pounding and tearing through with all the quickness she could bring as she rammed into the tom and they were sent flying in the air. She felt dizzy as she dropped into the sand, her mind stricken. The tom writhed beneath her paws, but she kept her eyes closed to keep herself from vomiting.

"What are you doing?" her mother hissed, but even her voice sounded faint against the roaring fire and the screeching cacophony that shattered her eardrums.

"Saving you, of course!" Spotfur hissed back, finally opening her eyes. But when she stared at the tom she'd pinned down, she froze. All the passion that'd run lustrous in her veins vanished and she simply became froze and still. This cat, his shape, his colour, they all belonged to a cat she once knew. Stemleaf.

But this wasn't the cat she'd loved. His eyes were ebony black, pits of soulless tar. He was a ghost, an image made to mimic him, only this tom had only been made for malice. Her grip on him weakened.

'Stemleaf' quickly shot up, striking into Spotfur and shattering her ribcage with the stunning impact. Her brain shot forward into her skull as she stepped over and fell back, burning sand catching her when she dropped onto it. She felt as though all her blood was flooding up to her head, and she was never going to breathe again. He stared down at her and they began rolling upon the shores, towards the shining waves. The whole world became a spinning blur and her mind rolled through her skull. Spotfur felt as though she was simply laying there and the ground was turning like a whirlpool around her until a loud splash stopped the spinning.

Water rushed up past her, swallowing them into it's cold liquid. The fire had been so hot it had melted the ice covering the lake. The current only swept at her fur at first, but cold waves snatched her and she fell under the liquid. Spotfur gasped as it began to swallow her body. The heavy, ice cold sea dragged her down, washing up to her neck and sealing her in a cold pool. She splashed desperately as she struggled to keep herself floating, only seeing the image of Cinderheart staring in horror, a silhouette against the blinding image of the blazing island, with the light from the flames glimmering and turning the lake golden. The waves seemed to suck her down into their abyss, but also push her up and carry her floating at the surface at the same time.

She turned and saw Stemleaf gurgling not far from her. Bubbles and foam spurted as he cried out in the endless sea. When he turned to look at her, he seemed to stop drowning, and swam fiercely towards her. Spotfur pushed through the water and created huge splashes as she tried to pull herself back to the shore, struggling to break the heavy rocking of the waves that tried to bring her down.

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