The Fall of the Society

Chapter 70: Power Erupted

Scion glared at her, fury in his eyes, power pulsing out of him. If the two kept up the attacks they were doing, they would eventually be buried beneath the soil that was above them. He sent a wave of ice cascading across the chamber, which Rose deflected with a wave of her hand, creating a massive barrier of solid flame. His attack collided with a wall to her left, causing a column of ice to shoot up the wall, fracturing the cement further.

"You are powerful, but if you continue down this path, I will have to kill you," Rose said calmly. "I suppose that is actually impossible." Scion looked at her furiously, but a smirk of smugness crossed his face at her words. "Me letting you go is impossible. Killing you will be accomplished eventually, but I am not sure how long it will take me to figure out how to do so."

"I would never back down from this fight!" he yelled at her. "I am a god, and you are a mountain. I will take you down and stand taller on top of your remains!" Mania flashed in his eyes as he sent a swirling attack of ice and lightning shooting toward her.

Rose stepped left, before jumping into the air to dodge a second attack of ice and lightning. Tendrils of fire shot from her, lashing at Scion who was forced to dodge sideways before constructing a powerful barrier between them. The two were pushed apart as the barrier spread outward. Small clouds of dust puffed outward as Rose lowered herself back to the floor to wait for the barrier to dissipate.

Changing tactics, Scion walked into the middle of the room and beckoned for Rose to come toward him. She obliged, walking confidently into the middle of the room to meet him. Their eyes locked, Scion lunged forward. He swung punch after punch, barely missing Rose as she dodged his attacks. She realized he was faster than her, but her muscles reacted automatically. They were reacting from muscle memory that was not originally hers but was now. He kicked hard with his left leg, and she blocked it, but it was not enough to deflect the force, throwing her backwards, her feet skidding across the floor.

She smiled and stood up straight, staring at him. A grimace crossed his face, which made her smile more broadly. The knowledge and power he had given her made her feel invincible, while accepting that she was flawed. A mistake was the only way she was going to lose, and even then, it would not necessarily be her end. Scion lunged forward once more, but Rose was ready. He swung hard with an overhand right, but she met him with an elbow directly to his left jawline, sending him careening into the wall behind her.

Scion was powerful, but he did not have the combat experience needed to put his technical knowledge to full use. He had hidden in the shadows and gotten others to do his dirty work in order to evade detection, but that put him at a severe disadvantage now. Emotion was driving his movements, not logic. He was throwing a fit, having a tantrum in the middle of a fight, and the worse he did, the more frustrated he became.

Rose watched Scion carefully waiting for him to make a move, to make a mistake. The misstep finally came, she could tell he had fully committed to a movement toward her, hoping to attack. Unfortunately for him, she used that exact moment to shoot forward and knee him in the mouth. Between her force and the motion he had just started, his head jerked back violently, and he hit the floor chaotically as a cloud of dust spread out around him. He slid across the room before jumping back to his feet. Rose was ready and with a hard kick from her left foot, she sent him smashing into the wall to her left. Debris fell on top of him as he struggled to get back to his feet. Blood was trickling from his nose and mouth.

Scion spit on the floor and scowled at her, before forcing himself to smile. He wiped the blood away, and the bleeding stopped. "It is time to get serious," he mumbled to himself. His eyes focused on her, and instead of lunging directly toward her, he flashed to her right, then behind her. He was moving so fast she could barely track him, a tactic that would work much better she silently thought to herself. She felt his pattern change as his power spiked and he came toward her from her back left. Rose put her arms out and a pulse of blazing white fire shot in every direction. Scion was forced off course but continued to move at his current speed. Every time his power would spike as he drastically changed directions, Rose would send another pulse of fire outward, keeping him from being able to approach properly. He came close a couple of times, but she simply leaned out of the way as he passed.

Growing tired of the process, Rose focused. The air around her began to heat at an incredible rate, causing it to swirl. As the air spun, it caught fire, whirling upward, creating a massive spinning column of fire. Rose was obscured from view by flames and smoke, but it also clouded her ability to sense where Scion was located. She would catch a hint of where he was every now and then, but he had yet to attempt a movement toward her. Her hair was floating around her, swirling with the current of the air and she could not help but think how beautiful the formation was that she created.

As she continued to focus, Scion disappeared from her senses completely, which caused her to wonder. His power burst in front of her as a small barrier smashed through her formation to her right. She turned and was greeted by a sharp pain in her abdomen. Scion had retrieved Sid's sword and had thrust it into her stomach, up to the hilt. She latched her hand onto his wrist and smiled. The pain had vanished as quickly as it had appeared, and she felt something inside her awaken. Scion looked panicked as power surged from Rose, her eyes turning golden. The flames around them flashed and burned golden as well, the temperature spiking upward. Scion screamed and tried to free his hand as his flesh blackened and blistered under Rose's grasp, small blisters appearing on his back which was nearest to the swirling flame cyclone that surrounded them. Rose was clasping his wrist with both hands but released her right-hand which became engulfed with golden flames. She swung it hard, hitting him square in the chest, forcing him to fly backward, through the cyclone and into the wall.

Scion hit the floor in a shower of debris, his cloths and skin smoldering. He shrieked in pain as he looked down at the stump that had previously been his right hand. Now that he was clear of the flames his skin started to heal and the bones protruding from his forearm began to elongate, recreating the hand that had previously been there.

Rose tossed his hand into the swirling golden flames and it disappeared. She then grasped the hilt of the sword, and the cyclone around her froze for an instance, before retreating into the blade which turned golden and began glowing. Rose began walking slowly forward toward Scion, swing the blade in a sort of dance, the golden blade flashing beautifully as it passed through the air. Stopping about ten feet away from where he was laying on the floor, she swung the sword in front of her, producing a golden blade of razor-sharp fire that split the wall above his head, causing more debris to fall on top of him. She then swung it around and huge gashes burst open on either side of him. He screamed loudly and covered his head.

"Stop!" he cried. His hand had nearly regrown but was odd looking due to the process in which it was currently engaged. He held his hands in front of him as if asking for mercy. "Let me live and you will be wealthier than anyone has ever been, and you will never want for anything as long as you live," he said pleadingly. "Join the Society beside me and together we can work for a better and brighter future for everyone!"

Rose swung the sword one more time but stopped just shy of his throat, his skin blistering and peeling nearest the blazing hot blade. "That is pathetic. You claim to be a god, but yet you are begging before me, willing to change everything you have worked for in your life." She looked at him appraisingly before continuing. "It is all a lie though. As soon as my eyes were no longer on you, you would resort to attempting to gain more power and usurp whoever was more powerful than you." Scion looked terrified at her words but did not move, except the twinging from the pain in his neck as the blade continued to scald his red and burned skin. "The Society is no more. That is the new reality this world will have to embrace." Her eyes were still golden, and her cloths had melted away, unable to withstand the heat she was producing, but her form was hidden by the glow she was emitting. "I have no use for you," she said flatly, but she turned and began to walk away. "You are not worthy of my blade."

Scion could not believe what was happening. She had dared to pity him, to defy what he wanted, and she would have to pay. He got to his feet and roared in rage as he focused as hard as he could, his power skyrocketing to a height it had not yet reached previously. The room around them began to shake as an aura of power burst from him, creating a cyclone of wind within the room. As his power continued to grow, the entire earth around them shifted and a huge power surge ripped through the room around them. Scion's focus faltered and his aura disappeared. He and Rose stared at each other, both of them wondering where the surge could have come from as a new source of power burst into being.