-------------
Chapter 31
-------------
Throughout the city of Paragon, more than half of the people fell unconscious with the coming of the enveloping light. Throughout the nether realm, bolts of lightning, red and blue, crashed, and more reality clouds formed.
It was only a matter of time before the two realms melded completely.
As hard as the lightning crashed in some places, it was nowhere as great as the collision between the arch-demon and Adamast Cross. Her first punch, hitting the demonic master in the face, sent a shockwave that echoed through the realm, and parts of Galaxy Park. Their second impact echoed through Nerva, and a third to the south across the bridge.
They jumped and flew through the nether realm, exchanging blows and blocks.
Trash Knuckle whistled while he watched, and the League gathered nearby. He wanted a piece of the action, but he knew that this was a real fight between two monsters, and nothing to do with him. This exciting trip into the Circle’s home turf was becoming more and more boring by the moment, however.
He wasn’t the sort of man who stood around watching others do the fighting. Maybe that was why he’d gotten arrested for jumping into a boxing ring that one time.
“What happened to the rest of the party?” Trash Knuckle asked.
Growls seemingly answered in the distance. Lesser demons remained on a couple of the more mobile islands, which were approaching the one that the heroes and villain were on.
“Alright, now we’re talking!” exclaimed Trash Knuckle.
War said, “Are you sure you’re up for more? I can barely smell you.”
“That’s because I’m holding back my powers. I have my stinking aura up all the time because I’m always surrounded by random twerps worth less than a rat’s turd, and they’re always trying to hurt or kill me. But, you guys? You guys might be alright.”
Trash Knuckle charged for the lesser demons, never mentioning the fact that he was actually getting tired, and was keeping his strength and stench powers on reserve.
“I’m starting to wonder if we can use that boundless energy,” said Walter.
“Oh, don’t be a stinker,” said Psi Wizard.
Walter eyed Princess Undercut, who shrugged. “What? I agree with him.”
Adamast Cross continued to fight her loathsome foe, laying more hits into him than he into her ice armor. The worst hit she took so far was the punch that struck her in the chest, but at least the ice armor absorbed the majority of the blow, or the fight would have been over; her final moments in tears of physical pain rather than the loss of the woman she loved.
They flew through a reality cloud and crashed through a building in Talos. The concrete was nothing but stiff paper to their titanic struggle, which left the city as quickly as it had entered.
Her feet skid across the ground of one island, and she pushed back as if to tackle the arch-demon. Ice powers ignited stronger than ever, and she unleashed them in the assault. She encapsulated the demon, and gripped the ice with both hands. She swung the frozen arch-demon against the bottoms and sides of islands while passing them in her enraged flight, but the demon broke free before too long. Both fighters heaved now, yet neither was anywhere near done.
Wings flapped, and they charged once again at one another. Adamast Cross was that much closer to wiping the smile off of the demon’s face. That much closer to ending all of his schemes, now and forever. She punched, she kicked, and she shoved, never giving in to exhaustion, and never slowing down.
Not even to notice the city passing around them again, and vanishing in a mist.
The fighters grabbed on to one another and twirled through the air until they flew through a short waterfall into a cave.
Adamast kicked off of the demon, hoping that he would reach and hit the cavern wall, but he stopped short of it. She slammed a fist into the waterfall, and froze it behind her when her friends caught up outside.
The arch-demon stood. He said, “You should have just told me that you wanted to be alone with me. Or that you wanted your friends to watch while we fucked. We can do that here now, you know.”
“Shut up. You really are a piece of work,” said Adamast Cross.
She ran at him, and continued the assault. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, her energy was starting to run low. However, it seemed like the arch-demon was running out of stamina as well, and his smile was finally cracking the more she struck against him. Simple weapons or punches still wouldn’t be enough, but now she knew how close she was to finally winning against one of the worst monsters Paragon ever knew.
Neither one of them was getting out until the fight was done, though their attacks could still dent or crush stone. The arch-demon unleashed a few more fireballs in their succession of attacks, but only the third hit Adamast.
She fell to one knee. Almost. Almost there, don’t lose now.
“I should never have left,” stated Walter. “I could have prevented so much.”
“You had no way of knowing half of this would even happen,” said Princess Undercut.
“I’m better than this, though. I failed everyone, and ran away because I thought it would make me better. I ran thinking I could do so much more.”
“We’re here now. Don’t fall apart on us, fearless leader. We need you. Mary needs you, even though she now fights on her own. Especially now. I hate to admit that, but we do.”
Walter pounded on the ice wall, water running down one side of it, “Bates, you better hope she doesn’t lose to you, or I’m next. Do you hear me?”
A hideous, unnatural scream caught the League’s attention. They turned to find a demon that had been trying to sneak up from behind, but now it was standing in the creek and writhing in pain while vapors rose from its legs. The demon fell forward and disintegrated.
Half of the League had been touching the water with their own feet, they all realized, and most of them jumped away out of instinct.
Then Trash Knuckle called out from another island, “Hey, what’s the deal with these pipsqueaks? They suddenly don’t like the water!”
Mortar Mage scooped a hand into the creek, and let the water slip through his bare fingers. “It’s only affecting the demons.”
Ohm Wire drifted away from the crystal as it glowed a dim violet. She gave it so much of her power. She gave so much of her life for a world greater than herself. Blood dripped from her palm into the water, but she could feel nothing then.
Adamast had been facing the ice blockade when her friends turned away following the scream, which was muffled by the cavern walls. She also saw the smile finally drain from the arch-demon’s face and turn to dread in a flash.
Oh, Kyra, please wait for me.
“It looks like your plan has failed,” Adamast Cross said, finally getting up.
The arch-demon said, “That one took so long to prepare, but it’s not my only machination. I can always move forward, and I will when I’m done with you.”
“Forget it. You’re done.”
The cave moaned as a reality cloud passed through a wall, revealing the Faultline district for a brief moment, and then Adamast launched another series of attacks at the arch-demon.
He parried most of her attacks before Adamast socked him in the jaw. He paid her back with a punch to the stomach, and Adamast fell again.
Damn it, so close. Hold it together, Mary.
However, the arch-demon grabbed Adamast by her scalp, and lifted her.
“What makes you tic?” he asked, the demon's voice shaking. “I have seen generations of people give up their well-being because they sought better for themselves. I have ruined countless lives both for fun and for some scheme, big or small, in a network of loftier goals. But you! You took the succubus for yourself, and nearly gave me trouble because of it.”
“Only nearly? Well then, I'm glad to hear it,” said Adamast.
“You may die knowing that you, and your friends, managed to thwart me one time, but know this. There are only so many of you. Sooner or later, there will be no more chances, no more heroes, and there will be an end to new beginnings.”
“Only one of you, though. Don’t let my double vision fool you.”
“I am immortal. I’ve created two Seeds of Eternity to make this plan work. I gave you servants to help you on the way to corruption so you would be unable to fight my advances. I opened the way through this realm, bypassing barriers you mortals could never fathom, so I could find and use that crystal. And I can do it all again, with new forces as may be. If it will take another couple of centuries to create a world of my liking then that will be no trouble at all. Only, next time, you will not be there to stop me.”
She vaguely heard Psi Wizard in her mind up until then. The water burns them. Use that. You can do it.
Out of one eye, Adamast saw a reality cloud forming where the ice blockage met rock. It was different this time. Like overcast in place of random tufts of clouds. So much water—Adamast wondered, could that body of water, whatever it was, destroy any demon it touched? Could it be that simple?
And Adamast huffed.
“What?” asked the arch-demon.
“Oh, we’ll keep on trying,” she responded. Adamast grabbed the demon’s arm that was holding her, and then used her legs and whatever remained of her ice powers to kick him in the torso.
The arch-demon grunted and let go.
To the bitter end. All she had left was a moment and an ounce of super strength. She hoped that was enough, and that she was right about the water beyond that cloud.
“To the end of time!” Adamast yelled, ramming into a screaming arch-demon before he could recover. They hit rock, and ice, and torrential amounts of water.
They drifted apart, but the water stung so much. It hurt worse for the demonic master, who faded into the darkness of the sea, his form dissolving and reaching out in its finals moment.
Adamast felt her consciousness slipping, but she looked without really knowing why. She did not want to be alone, perhaps. Yet, she looked with what little time she had left, and she found another body drifting.
It was Kyra.
She swam with her feeble, deteriorating form, with no breath to speak of, until she reached her lover. They were together at last when her eyes failed, and they continued to drift to the unknown.
