Midas sprung forward with golden ash and grass flying towards his golden hand to form a blade. Meanwhile Jeanne thrust her stake down into the earth again, the first flaming pillar shooting out of the ground only a few feet away from her, the roaring flames reaching high into the sky and threatening to leap out over the top of the arena. Midas timed his leap to dodge perfectly, but he could never have accounted for the pure heat of the flames that threatened to engulf his entire being.
He landed back on the ground, half of his golden leg turning molten, the disgraced king quickly turning the ash to gold to rebuild it. His head jolted up to see what Jeanne was doing but didn't see anyone despite the heat being felt throughout his entire body. As the gold stretched to form the leg, Midas saw the saint above him in its reflection, stake readied to strike him. He pushed off the ground with his good leg, barely managing to roll out the way as the large stake slammed into the ground, ash and dust being kicked up into the air.
The golden king kicked himself up onto his feet and instinctively jumped back despite there being no apparent reason to. However, this seeming waste of energy was quickly proven useful and from the dust burst the burning saint, swinging the stake at where she assumed the king would be. Their eyes locked for a moment, Midas' shining golden meeting with Jeanne's blazing red. No words needed to be shared at that moment, for their eyes showed their true feelings, their true souls. Conflict met determination, divinity met faith, pain met pain.
'Please halt your efforts and surrender, I don't want to kill you,' internally pleaded Jeanne, her deformed and burnt face unmoving. 'I will knock you out if I truly must, but please, please surrender and let me bring you unto salvation.'
'Surrender... no no no... no I can't surrender. I have to win this or else... I can't surrender. Lord Dionysus gave me all of this... I can't surrender now. It sounds so easy... so nice... but no I can't... I just can't,' thought Midas, his teeth digging into his lower lip in a desperate attempt to remove any thoughts of surrender from his mind.
Midas kicked out with his golden leg and had it jut out as a spear in an attempt to skewer the saint. Jeanne sidestepped to dodge, her stake now burning the left side of her body as she swung up to cut off the rest of the gold so Midas would have to reforge his leg. Midas hopped back again to give himself space to make more gold, but instead of reforging his leg, all the gold around him formed into a single spike, no thicker than a needle's head, that he shot forward with the speed of a bullet. The thin gold melted as it approached the maiden of Orleans, but not even her strongest flame could reduce it to pure liquid. The needle shot completely through her thigh, piercing cleanly through like Midas had hoped, but to his misfortune the needle had been melted enough that it also exited the wound instead of holding her in place, if only for a brief moment.
Jeanne's leg nearly completely gave out beneath her, considering how burnt it was and the amount of wounds sustained to it, her leg under all expectations should have, but through pure force of will, Jeanne remained standing. "I cannot give up nor bend the knee now. My fire still rages and so shall my spirit until you are brought to salvation." Jeanne weakly pointed at the awaiting king, his leg reforming before her eyes. Yet in Midas' eyes, he saw an image he would remember even if he lived for eternity. The iron breastplate of the saint was melting, the black robes of what seemed like a nun's garb underneath, though to the king it was hard to truly tell for all the cloth on her was drenched in a red ichor, the crimson mixing with the black fabric to create an even deeper tone, this sheer amount of blood the only thing stopping the saint's clothes from catching aflame and engulfing her. Then he saw the saint's hand, covered in horrific burns that would make any human pass out from sheer pain, burns that presumably spread all across her body.

YOU ARE READING
Re:Cord of Ragnarok
FanfictionThe Gods have gathered in the Council of Valhalla and have decided that it's humanity's time to face judgement day. However one man, King Solomon, has a plan to save them. This is a collaborative project involving many people including myself Art th...