The Strings Being Pulled

Finale.

Ch 100 - Finale
Deadline

Tying the gas mask around myself, glancing over at the direction at where Liza is, it's a dreadful and anticipated day. I look infront of me, there he is, looking relaxed and calm. Guess he isn't berserk, yet. The weather is humid, it's late at night. It's hard to see in the forest but he's here. I hope the ring doesn't break...the gas mask is light. Weller's eyes blend in with how dark it is here, it's almost like I'm staring into black holes. His rose necklace is there.

Guess I'll be careful to not break it, maybe Rose is watching? Who knows, can she even see in the dark as a spirit? Whatever, all I know is that I'm finally getting the chance to kill him. If I lose an arm, a leg or an eye then it'll be worth it as long as he's dead by the end of it. He wants to die with thrill, I want to kill him and he gets to be with his wife once he loses his life. The lighting is dim, it's a bit cloudy but the moment I can set everything on fire, it won't be so dark and that's when Liza sets off the gas.

Weller doesn't have that usual smirk on his face...For someone who looks forward to dying, that's odd. If I'm not wrong, his nails can become sharp. I should look out for that...he's fast and I'm honestly feeling a bit nervous. He didn't use his strings on Asher during their fight and Asher nearly died even after fighting back with everything. I'll have to find a way to counter that, I can burn his strings after all...

"Here." Weller throws a fairly small envelope to me.
"What's this about?" I catch it, my name is handwritten on it.
"Read it if you live, you can burn it after." he states, his tone is very neutral.
"Why, why'd you want to give me something like this?" I question, inspecting the envelope. "Am I not another ant to you that you don't care about?"
"You'll find out eventually, besides, we're too low on time to explain." he coldly smiles...right. "Come on, we're both eager for this, aren't we?"

He chuckles.

"Kill me."

My lips twitch up as I start making flames out of my hand. Now it should signal to Liza to set off the gas, I'm trusting that she'll leave as quickly as she can. His nails grow longer and next second, I find myself barely dodging a piercing attack to my head. There's a loud delayed bang behind me, something got destroyed from that attack, I back away immediately. My heart is racing, I can hear it loudly. Looking behind me, a whole part of the forest is destroyed in one straight line.

Just paralyzing him won't work, will it?

I breathe in, throwing a wall of fire infront of me and move behind him. He can read my mind, he'll know what I'll do at every moment. It's nothing like sparring with Asher. He's fast, he's already disappeared. I'm not sure if the gas has reached here yet, it shouldn't take too long I hope. I set multiple trees or hundreds of them on fire, not as if they'll start a huge wildfire as I'm controlling them. Now I can see clearly, he's to my far left, 100 meters (328ft) away. Moving constantly. Using the fire on the trees, connecting them together like a net though he avoids them all.

He stops, I notice a faint smile on him. My head turns around, multiple strings, no, how many? 50? 80? Shit, can't count. It goes higher than some trees. They're varying in length and thickness and are coming to pierce through me and are fast, I'm barely able to create a wall with fire to burn then, where is he? Not in the same place, a sudden piercing pain goes through my shoulder, it's one of his strings. The string changes direction aiming for my head, I create fire out of my arm and burn it. Fuck.

It hurts.

I create fire all around, the gas won't be able to paralyze him I guess. I'm moving again and jumping up on the trees. Need to calm my heart rate, I need to calm it down so I can listen to any movements or rustling. There's a shadow in my peripheral view, I quickly gather strength in my legs to push myself in his direction, aiming to kick him into the ground. He evades it. There's quite a crater now, exposing some of the pipes, it's 70 meters (~230ft) deep but not all that wide. Multiple strings come out of his finger tips, just as I'm about to make another wall of fire, he changes their trajectory to come from all directions and changes their speed.