Hallowed Titans

He lowered his head, his heart picking up speed as he roared.

You’re not responding to it, you’re trying to force it.

“It’s not something to be controlled,” he whispered, his body relaxing. “It’s something you are.”

He opened his eyes. His hands began to sprout black crystals, arms swelling and enlarging. He could feel his bones reassembling in his whole body, head lowering as crystals began protruding from it.

It’s something you become.

Wings sprouted from his back, teeth baring as his body rippled, muscles tearing and bones cracking as he grew larger.

It is… the sacrifice for freedom.

He leaned his head back, roaring as agony and fear sprouted fury and defiance.

He stood up, arms wide open as he rolled his shoulder forward. He panted, raising a giant, black-crystal hand. He turned around, footsteps booming, sending tremors through the ground.

The Sentinel paused in its stride, and the Hallowed Titan turned around. Ignacio roared, arms pumping as he charged forward. The Hallowed Titan growled, and started charging towards him.

Wings.

Ignacio beat them once, gaining a slight boost of the ground before crashing back down. He beat them again, and again, lifting higher into the air. The Hallowed Titan came to a halt, raising its crystal hands, teeth bared. That iridescent light began to glow from its palms. But Ignacio was already above it. He raised his fists, roaring as he plummeted and slammed them down to the Hallowed Titan’s head.

The crack of crystal against crystal chimed like a giant glass bell as the Hallowed Titans head slammed into the ground. The impact sent a shockwave around it, Ignacio’s gigantic legs bending as he landed beside it.

He smashed the Hallowed Titan’s head back into the ground, the monster letting out a chime of pain.

This, Ignacio thought, slamming his fist down again, black and white sparks flying. This is where you burn.

The Hallowed Titan tried raising a hand to block him, its palm glowing. But he grabbed its wrist and kicked in its elbow, snapping it in half. The Titan groaned as Ignacio dropped its broken arm, roaring back at it at twice the volume.

This is where you pay for-

The Titan swung its other arm back, cracking Ignacio across the jaw with a backhand.

He fell to the side, head spinning as he crashed elbows-first to the ground. He stood back up, turning as the Hallowed Titan rose to its feet. Its snapped arm glowed, pulsing with light, and when the glow faded it was back to normal.

Oh, Ignacio thought, rubbing his massive jaw with a hand. We can just heal.

The Hallowed Titan raised its hands to the sky. Its palms were like the jagged insides of a white geode, that iridescent glow returning to them. Swirling like the eye of a galaxy.

Ignacio charged towards it, throwing a fist into the Hallowed Titan’s stomach.

The creature staggered backward, catching itself on a back foot, ducking as Ignacio threw fist towards its head.

No abilities for you, he thought.

The Hallowed Titan crouched, springing forward and clipping Ignacio’s chin with a pointed crystal knuckle. He stumbled backward, raising his fists as the Titan stomped a foot forward.

They charged again. Blow after blow landed, sparks flying when crystal met crystal. The Hallowed Titan’s head began to glow, but Ignacio ignored it, throwing an uppercut and snapping its mouth shut. It was like he couldn’t miss.

Remember Blackwell, something told him. A memory flashed back to him. A broken fragment that came and went like the feeling left by a dream.

He looked up as a series of ethereal white holes opened in the sky, twirling like galaxy spirals.

What in the-

He gasped as the Hallowed Titan rammed a fist into his stomach, launching him off his feet. He crashed back first, the shockwave bending trees around him.

He panted, staring up as crystals rained like missiles from the holes in the sky, streaking down with fiery white tails.

Can I do that?

He tried sitting up, but the Hallowed Titan planted a giant, crystalline foot on his chest, knocking him back down. It pulled a fist back, and began swinging. Each blow cracked him across the jaw, or the arm as Ignacio tried raising them to shield himself.

He swayed left and right as the Titan’s fists landed, the crystals above him streaking closer to the ground.

Enough, he thought.

He wrapped his arms around the Titan’s leg, his head snapping back as a fist landed. He rolled to the side, and the Titan fell, smashing the ground. Ignacio lifted to a crouch, beating his wings and leaping backwards. He needed space to think. Everything felt slower being a Titan, even his thoughts.

The Hallowed Titan stood, its crystal teeth glittering as it snarled.

Ignacio cast his hands out, not sure what he was feeling for. But nothing happened. He lowered his hands, and tried again. Nothing. He looked up, the crystals so close he could hear the fiery crackling of their fall.

Where are the others?

He couldn’t see Beltran or Kiyomi, and the Sentinel was blocking his view of Koharu and Zeeq.

They had to retreat. There was no other way.

He shook his head, raising his fists as the Hallowed Titan stepped closed.

We’re not leaving without Celeste.

The Titan’s head began to glow again, pulsing with gold light.

Beltran, he thought, eyes darting over the sky. Where are you… He frowned. Beltran.

He flared his wings open, the dark feathers casting a gigantic shadow.

Raven eye. I never miss. That’s what Beltran had said. If that applied to fighting, he had-

The Hallowed Titan’s mouth snapped wide open, and a vortex of white flame streamed out.

Oh no.

It drilled into Ignacio's chest, his body doubling over as he rocketed backwards. He landed with a boom, skidding across the ground to a halt, pillars of white smoke curling from his body.

His lips quivered, the agony searing his body consuming his mind.

You want to burn, don’t you Ace?

He smiled, his vision blurring as those crystals arched in the air, aiming right for him.

Maybe I do.