The Fall of the Society

Chapter 57: Explosive Resolve

     A fiery aura enveloped Rose once more as the sound of more soldiers echoed through the trees. Turning her gaze away from the massive funeral pyre she had created she faced the charred remains of the two soldiers and their victim. She slowly walked into the forest, leaving a trail of burning ground behind her. Rose was making no effort of holding back the heat of her aura as the trees and bushes along her path burst into flames. Sid fell in step behind her, smothering the flames that she left in her wake. Shouts could be heard coming from ahead, but they were soon drowned out by the crackling of the flames all around Rose.

      As far as they could tell the shouts must have been to retreat, because they encountered no other soldiers within the trees. They soon made their way into the opening around the new compound. This facility looked much different than the last one they had destroyed. There were no walls, no guard towers, or gates of any kind. The front of the building appeared to be made of glass, giving a view of a spacious and ornately decorated office. Looking through the windows, they could see no soldiers or Socialites. Sid could not understand why they had fully retreated, it was not in the mindset of the Society to give ground. The lack of resistance made Sid feel uneasy, but it did not falter the pace of Rose one bit, and soon the glass ahead of her shattered from the sheer heat coming off her aura. Passing over the shards of glass caused them to melt and reform into new sheets of glass on the ground, which crunched under Sid's feet as he followed.

      The ceiling and carpet began to smolder around Rose, so she dropped her aura to a fine shimmering orange all over her body that did not force heat outward. "Which way should we go?" she asked Sid as she stared at the many hallways coming off the back of the large open room.

     Taking in his surroundings, Sid contemplated their options. "I do not want to split up because it may be hard to find each other if we need to. Also, I do not want you facing Scion alone. We have no idea how far he has gone to try and get stronger than me. If he has perfected the technique of splicing powers into those that do not possess them, he has likely imbued himself with something to counter us."

     She gave him a nod and headed for the hallway to her left. Stopping just short of stepping into the corridor she held her right hand out in front of her and a tide of blazing hot waves rolled down it. The paint on the walls blistered as the wood moldings exploded into flames. Flames began to spin within the corridor, creating a vortex, pulling the walls and ceiling inward. Rose turned and walked to the next hallway and repeated the process. After the second hallway she walked all the way to the right side of the room and did the attack once more. There were only two hallways left now, and she planned to take the middle one, so she sent one more blazing attack down the second from the right and walked toward her chosen path.

     The walls of the middle corridor were initially painted and looked very nice, but soon became lined with thick cement and lost the appearance of being an office building. They continued to walk for about fifteen minutes when they came to a staircase that only led downward. The smell of fresh construction materials was giving Rose a headache as she breathed hard following the stairs down into the unknown. Rose's head began to spin as they continued, nearly causing her to fall. Sid wrapped his arm around her waist and held her up. He tore a piece of cloth from his arm sleeve and wrapped it around her face. This was not enough to fully protect her, but it would hopefully slow the process. Lifting her easily from the floor he began running down the steps.

     His pace quickly carried him to the bottom, and he burst through a double steel door by slamming his shoulder into it as hard as he could. Rose was mumbling in delirium. He should have realized there was poison in the air long before he did, but he could not linger on those thoughts now, he needed to act and get Rose back to normal. Thinking fast, he pulled one of the daggers from his pouch and placed it against the skin on his now bare left forearm. Concentrating hard, he turned off his ability and sliced into the skin. He pulled the cloth away from Rose's face and held his now bleeding arm to her mouth. After a moment he removed his arm and it healed instantly.

     Her reaction was almost instantaneous as she sat up, snapping her head upward as her muscles became rigid. A shockwave of uncontrolled heat burst from her and washed across the room as she began to scream and her eyes lost focus. Sid stepped back as far as he could as a white aura encased Rose's form. The aura burst in a white flash that blinded Sid and singed the walls, leaving Sid's body armor smoking. Rose fell back onto the floor, where she laid quite still. Her breathing was steady, and her eyes finally opened. She jumped to her feet looking around. "What happened?" she asked unsteadily.

    "I took a risk, and it appears to have paid off," he told her casually. "There was some sort of poison in the stairwell, I should have noticed it sooner, I am sorry."

    Rose stared at him, her eyes wide. "I feel fantastic!" she stated excitedly.

    Sid held his hands out in front of him in a hope of getting her to calm down. "Take it easy, I have no idea how this will play out."

    "Let's go!" she shouted and continued further into the facility. A long corridor led from the room they had burst into, with doors along the walls every so often. Every door they came to, Rose opened excitedly. "Nothing here! Nothing here! Nothing here!" was echoed all the way down the corridor until they came into view of the very last door. "Must be in there!"

    Sid had no idea how long this euphoria would last and worried what may happen when she came down. He continued watching her intently as they came to the final door and she burst through it. They did not expect what they had found when they stepped in, a room full of replicants. Their hollow eyes glared intently at the newly appearing opponents.

     Rose continued to smile gleefully as she approached the onlooking replicants. "Hey! Hollow people, move aside! We are looking for Scion and nothing will stop us!"

     With those words out of her mouth, the replicants immediately took up combat stances. Their hands began to glow a multitude of different colors as they all began to summon the powers from within them. A static sound broke the air, "Welcome to my new facility, I built it for a slew of reasons. One of which is to be your final resting place hunter of Ascended. Rose, you can still come home, you will not be punished, we can work together."

     Laughter filled the chamber as Rose failed to compose herself. "You are insane! This place was never my home!  I am here to destroy your operation, not join it! Why don't you save us all sometime and come down here, so we don't have to look for you?"

     Scion's smooth voice answered with a laugh of his own, "I am almost ready to dispose of the hunter, but you will come home one way or another Rose."

     "Almost ready?" Sid asked sardonically, while placing his hands in his pockets and leaning against the wall, his eyes still flitting to Rose constantly. "I have been waiting for this meeting for centuries, can you hurry it up a little?"

     "You have no chance of stopping me!" Scion stated, anger creeping up in his voice. "I will squish you like the insect you are! You have failed to stop me from gaining the power I have desired since the beginning, and now you will get to experience it firsthand!"

     Sid smirked, with a light laugh. "Scion, you have made me wait all this time, and yet you still are not ready?" He sighed before continuing in a more serious tone. "Did you ever even find out my name?"

     "I do not care about such a trivial matter!" Scion growled. "The only thing that matters is control, and I have all the authority here!"

     "Yea?" Rose shouted, finally chiming back into the conversation. "We refuse to except your authority, so come down here and prove your position!"

     Scion's laughter filled the chamber once more as the replicant's hands began to glow brighter.