Finish Line

Cora shambled her way up the stairs of the building. She held her leg as she hoisted it up with each step.

“I get I would be useless in close combat, but—Dammit!”

She clutched her leg as a sharp pain tore throughout her shin.

The sniper girl had snuck into the building Blitz was being held in while the rest of the group engaged the apostle which had interrupted the battle between the two parties. “The group” being herself and Maya, who had brought Cora to the other two: Slater and Axel. She had seen the duo fall from the arch after Cora fell through the building they had been battling in. They did some minor first aid to everyone present, but not enough to fully recover anyone. Cora still had her unfinished business with Axel, but that had to wait until later, due to the fact that as soon as Axel awakened the other three went to join the battle.

Thus, brings Cora to where she was now, half-collapsed at the top of a flight of stairs. Judging by the distance of her shot she had aimed earlier, she was only a few steps away from the floor Blitz had been held on. She couldn’t be sure he didn’t move during whatever battle had taken place, but she limped into the room all the same. She had to stop a moment once she was greeted with the hellscape inside. Cooling iron still gleaming orange scattered across the ground, Blitz sprawled out on the floor with the hand of a demon, and Droite’s body, unmoving as it was frozen in the fear he felt in his last few seconds alive.

Her eyes settled on Droite’s body first as she approached Blitz’s. She stared at her once-tormentor’s body, but felt nothing. No satisfaction, but no pity either. A stain which was meant to be bleached years ago was finally gone, but when she looked at Blitz, she saw the damage the stain had done in that time.

Sitting down next to him, she placed a hand on his cheek. His body instinctively recoiled from the cold sensation, but Blitz smiled softly as he embraced it, waking up slowly to the sight of his friend.

“Cora…” He groggily passed through his lips. He didn’t sit up, he didn’t have the strength. However, he turned towards Droite’s body, seeing the purple core, still intact, poking out of the melted wreckage once used as legs. He reached out his left hand for the core. He remembered what Droite had said, that his father personally fashioned this one. Even if he had cut all of his connections to his father, the base instinct that he was his rightful successor, not Droite, forced his hand forward. But, without being able to move, he couldn’t reach far enough.

The core found its way to his hand without him having to grab it, as Cora was able to tell where he was grabbing. She fit it into his palm, with him curling his fingers around it and drawing it close to his chest. Accomplishing what he set out to do, his eyes began to close once again. With sleep setting in, Cora lifted his head onto her lap and began stroking the boy’s brown hair.

To soothe him as he began his rest, Cora remembered the melody she had heard so many years ago in Blitz’s room, the melody his mother had sung to him those many years ago. As her hums filled the room, she looked out the window into the city below.

It’s all up to you guys now…

Before Icarus could act on his impulse to attack Slater, he was beaten to the punch by him, who had already sunk his blade into the apostle’s gut. Gritting his teeth, Icarus threw the boy back with his newly-reformed aether hand, with the boy taking his blade with him. The wound filled with blue shortly after.

“So aether doesn’t stop his power…” Slater wiped his mouth, turning to Axel. “Got anymore ideas?”

“Don’t get the wrong idea, we are not working together. I’m just working independently against this man for attacking my boss.” His focus remained on the cloaked man ahead. “But, as someone who also pours power into their wounds, one thing which always gives me trouble are keeping whatever inflicted them inside the wound.”

“Like, not removing our weapons when we attack?” Slater asked.

“For me, I can remove things such as that easily by forcing them out with an excess of blood. This man, however, seems to have his ability work passively. If that’s the case, we can make his damage stick as long as we keep him from removing the weapons…” Axel trailed off, holding his single sword in a ready position. This proved to be the best thing to have spent those moments preparing, as Icarus was right in front of him.

“Cool sword.” Icarus grasped the blood blade and picked it up, with Axel going with it, and tossed it over his shoulder. “But I’m more interested in yours, boy.”

Slater quivered at how close he had gotten in mere moments, but steeled himself and tried driving his blade into his body again. This time though, his blade was caught by a familiar shield of water, which burst and pushed Slater into a nearby brick wall.

“Now, just let me break a few of your bones, kid… You know you did much worse to me—“ Icarus was cut off by another red flash tearing through his torso. He turned around to Axel, who had interrupted his revenge. “There really are too many of you!” He spat out, walking slowly towards the red annoyance, who began an assault of red slashes all over Icarus’ body. “This is a matter between two people that doesn’t involve you guys! Can’t you see that!? The respectful thing is to just ignore it an move on, don’t you think!?” His hands were in his pockets as his skin was slashed and cut open, but every slash seemed to pass through him like a ghost, with each bit of ripped skin being replaced by a shining, blue replacement. He grabbed Axel by the neck, lifting him up. The boy’s final resistance was inserting his blade into Icarus’ shoulder, but he simply pulled it out of himself with his other hand. “Now, please, leave us alone. Vergil told me I’m not allowed to kill anyone for the sake of his ‘grand vision’ or whatever.” He stared daggers into the Wendigo, which is likely what caused him to almost miss the actual daggers which were thrown at him from his left.

Maya, perched on a pile of rubble, had thrown a barrage of light blades. Once Icarus had taken note of them, he cleanly stepped out of their path. What he didn’t take note of was the same daggers flying back at him from his right, accompanied by a gust of wind which had redirected them. The daggers piled into his side and threw him off his balance, releasing Axel from his grasp.

“Take that, bastard.” April slipped out of her emotionless persona as she subtly celebrated getting a solid hit in from the ground in the center of the arena.

With Icarus changing targets to the group trying to hinder his own vengeance, he prepared a barrage of water bullets. “Why don’t you all just mind your own damn business—“ His face of anger gave way to a new expression, with his mouth stuck somewhat open and his eyes staring blankly forward. He looked down, seeing a stone pike driven through his stomach. Before he could react to the pain, another blast came from his front. The result was the stone pike being fully encased in ice, keeping it stuck inside of him.

“That’s your game, huh?” Icarus spun, facing the crowd around him like a gladiator in an arena. “If you’re gonna use some strategy like this, shouldn’t you all come at me at once?”

The group gladly obliged.

Icarus first found vines holding his entire body in place from the girl he had thought was constricted, but had frozen her own restraints and broken free now. As the plants had grown from his feet, he was able to free his arms before they were taken as well. When Axel and April attacked him from his right and left sides respectively, he blocked each attack with each of his palms, the blades sinking through but stopping just short of his head. He grasped April’s blade, breaking the steel under his vice grip, but still receiving a blast of flame to singe his face and remove a few of the roots from his upper body. With his other hand, he moved Axel’s crimson sword to cut the vines off of his feet, cutting straight through and cutting his own legs off at just below the knees to free himself. Icarus jumped to free himself using his water core to support him as his legs regenerated. When the man landed, Maya fell from above and sank her daggers into his right arm. He shook it with all of his might, but the girl wouldn’t come off from how deep she had sunk her blades. As he became more and more frustrated, Icarus started banging his entire right side against a wall to remove her. As Maya’s spits of blood began to cover his face as he looked into her gritted teeth and bloodshot eyes, he was too enthralled to notice the old man behind him.

“This will be the final blow.” Said the gentlemanly voice.

When Icarus turned, all he saw was a storm of blood as his entire left arm was removed by the twin claws that had pierced his shoulder. Normally, this wouldn’t have phased Icarus. He could grow that back in a couple minutes. It was what Lupus hid behind him that made the apostle’s eyes drop in fear.

The boy who had slashed through him before had his blade drawn, his teeth gritted and a hardened look on his face. The blade itself had erupted into a burning sapphire flame. He was already midair and bringing his blade down at where Icarus’ arm had been, with nothing between the sword’s edge and his own heart.

The white-cloaked man threw Maya off finally as he turned to try and block the final attack, but his efforts were for not as the flame dug into his side. It passed straight through his skin, burning straight through his heart and stopping before making it to his other shoulder.

The blade of aether dissipated, leaving the apostle nowhere else to go but to fall onto the ground in defeat.