436. Heroess, 5

(Rose)

I honestly expected to wait a few minutes at most before it found its way out. Enough to instil radiation poisoning inside his whole flesh, but not kill him right away. I waited for at least one or two hours instead.

If I didn’t know better, I would have guessed that he died in there. But that thing won’t just lie down and die.

Finally, I heard noises down there. Below the open tower.

I didn’t need to go inside the reactor myself, as I had planned as a last resort if he had refused taking the bait. But he took it. He took them all...

He could die there, without ever again seeing my face.

What emerges from the tunnel below, is more wounded flesh than I recall ever witnessing. I expected him to still have some strength and shape, or skin.

The crawling demon out of the pipes has lost all skin and scales, slipping over its own bloody flesh and molten muscles. His arms are reduced to stumps, dragging crushed meat and bones. So are his legs and ripped wings.

What I did to him looks horribly cruel.

My goal was not to inflict pain.

Priest can barely move. His faceless throats vomits more flesh as if he was poisoned. He was. He did stay a long time in there. His cells are dislocating faster than he can regenerate them. His metabolism is in collapsing cascade now.

His death is inevitable now.

Still... I snap my fingers for the last time, igniting magically the thread at my feet.

Priest raises his faceless neck in my general direction, but he can’t stand up anymore.

The cooling tower that survived the end of times now sees a blast at its heavy foundations. The struts bend, and soon, everything begins to collapse over the crushed pile of flesh.

I run away to a different spot meanwhile. It’s still not over.

~

From the roof of the reactor, one of the last standing buildings really, I watch over the rubbles of the tower.

It still is raining, but the thunder is gone, and the sky is gradually becoming clear. Its will goes dimmer.

The last spiteful piece of my trap was in the large amount of radioactive pellets I left scattered at the end of the tunnel and inside the cooling tower’s walls. This flesh will dissolve until nothing can survive.

It seems I’ve won. I’m not claiming it too fast.

My eyes can still sense its life, or consciousness, down there. It’s barely moving now, and fading.

It bleeds profusely. It’s not regenerating but decaying. It’s buried. It finally does lose consciousness.

But it’s still not dead. Not fully. And as long as the body remains, I’m not sure it could pass away, left like that.

Its aspect in T.I. may take longer to degrade beyond repair in this environment I’ve trapped it in, along with the flesh.

I don’t want to take any chances, and that means cutting and burning the remains now.

A being-like-her is hard to kill, and this one was exceptionally hardy with what flesh can be.

I wait for an entire day before I try anything.

When I return closer, nothing has moved or changed. Temperature may be continuously cooling down below the rubbles, but is still lukewarm.

There’s no need to have a lot of experience with things like that to know what will happen next.

As soon as I reach it if I dig, it will jump at me and kill me with a last impulse.

It’s waiting for its chance to strike back, consciously or not. Its will remains.

I’m taking my time, considering my options. I could still just leave.

Priest won’t be the same when it resurrects, because that would be allowing it, and it would still take some time.

If I prefer to insure the end to its existence, I have to be careful.

I’ve calmed down, as sun reappears. It fully stopped raining on this day.

I’m sitting there, pondering in silence.

~

As I was still trying to decide, he chose for me.

He moved. Rubbles rolled around.

The fleshy mess was crawling out of its burial site.

The dying body of the monster slowly, painfully came out of the dirt, with a great moan of pain. It crawled for a few seconds in the open, staining everything with blood and poison.

It still survives. Even now.

The headless neck released a gurgle of anger, pain and hatred. I shivered, but I unsheathed my sword by reflex.

I hold an olive in my other hand, tightly. I should probably use the toxic light to vaporise him...

Why am I still reluctant? Because he’s my last enemy? Or because I still hope he could evolve in a pacific way? I lean naively toward the later.

Clouds have begun gathering above us anew.

The beast roars again. It realises in the absence of skin, eyes and any other animal way to perceive its surroundings, that I was still standing there.

I’ve crushed the olive onto the sword, turning my wish inside. The blade begins to glow and a transparent flame surrounds it as I command it.

With what’s left of the dust of that olive, I secure my landing as I jumped from up there.

The dying Priest sees without eyes his worst enemy approaching to put him down for good.

I’m still on my guards, still at a safe distance, but ready to sever what still makes his body his own.

R - Last chance Priest. Evolve, or die.

P - ...

His hatred burns the air literally. It’s hard to breathe.

P - Betrayer... God slayer! Just kill me!

And face the consequences, I think to myself. Killing another being-like-her will have more consequences I can’t control, with the upmost fanatic ones like him out there.

Even now... I’m afraid, and I wish there was another way.

R - Priest, if I spare you, you could spare others later... Could you?

P - I will destroy the last remnants of humanity! And gods will reign at last!

I sigh as it began this diatribe and ceased to listen as it went on like that for another minute.

Priest is desperate, getting weaker by the moment, wasting his energy into insults and faith.

R - You’re even lonelier than me. Even other beings-like-you can see your insanity.

P - ... Another God will prevail...

R - ... You were not smart enough to realise the dead-end you’ve ran into, I guess. You were an admirable foe Priest. Adieu.

The sparks in the clouds above us suddenly fall, and lightning falls right over me as I begun striking him down.

The sword of light had already put a fiery end to the beast, when the electric shock struck me.

Fire and light turned the thing to dust before me.

At the same time, electricity ran through my sword as well, my limbs and my head, extinguishing my life as well.

I collapsed there, electrocuted.

~