The Beginning of the End (Universe in Flames Book 4) (28 page)

Chase’s unborn child, Chris, also has demonstrated impressive abilities already. Perhaps he will play a role in all of this yet. Though I wonder what will be left of this universe by then. Will anything be left? I don’t even dare let my thoughts go in that direction.

Aphroditis blinked. It was the first time Ares had witnessed it and he wondered if perhaps some of her natural bodily functions simply acted automatically. Her eyes were still all white, and she looked more like a scary, gray-skinned flesh-statue than the smiling and full-of-life Olympian he remembered.

I really hope you don’t mind me telling you all this. If there’s even the slightest chance you can hear any of this, then I hope it helps you a little. I’m sure if you feel anything at all, these days spent here must feel like centuries and a little change of pace could probably help you.

Something started shining on her forehead. At first Ares thought his own golden light was shining on some dust or a particle of some kind. But, much to his surprise, a hair-thin golden energy wire grew and connected with Ares. He heard her in his thoughts, but her voice felt weak and far away, as if she spoke from the top of canyon that was hundreds of miles away and Ares only heard a very weak echo.

Ares, I am still here. Thank you for coming. But listen to me carefully. Chase is in trouble. His fight with Miseo . . . I . . .
Her mental voice was trembling, as if she was in such pain that the act of speaking was excruciating.
I’ve lost most of my powers. My mind and body are constantly bombarded with darkness and it takes all my energy just not to succumb to utter madness in here.

Ares was deeply hurt, just listening to her feeble and tortured voice, and anger rose within him.

I will get you out of here, soon. Chase and I will find a way.

Ares, no . . . listen . . . I saw Chase . . . vision . . . he . . . will . . .

“He will what?” exclaimed Ares out loud.

Go . . . Droxia . . . before . . . late.

The energy wire connecting them solidified and turned black for just a second, before it turned to dust.

Ares felt her fear resonate deeply within his entire being in the last moment of their brief communication, and knew what it meant.

He instantly teleported out of the cell and back to Droxia.

Chase was starting to feel tired, having fought for hours now, first with the general and now with Miseo, who was a much stronger opponent.

He needed to find a way to end this fight, and soon. Perhaps he needed to provoke Miseo and hope his anger would force a dip in concentration, because it had been near perfect up until now.

When Chase back flipped three times in a row to escape Miseo’s current combo, he landed on his feet and adopted a defensive stance.

“Where’s your maximum, Miseo? If that is it then we both know that if I had all my energy, I would easily win this fight.”

“Think what you will. Argos told me how you let your emotions guide the way you fight. Everyone with power can use hatred and rage to unleash more potential for brief moments. Doing it while not letting emotions get in the way is the true way of the Fury warrior.”

Chase wondered if that was true. He was proud to be a little more in control now than before, but he didn’t feel as much power flow through him as when he went after Argos in Tokyo, for example. His rage really made him that much more powerful. Was that the key to defeating Miseo as well? he wondered.

“To be honest, I’m a little disappointed by your technique, or should I say, lack of? You’re a skilled warrior, but you lack the mental discipline to best me, whether your energy levels are low or high. You have witnessed how I can also raise my power levels at any time, and I don’t need hatred to boost them.”

Miseo’s aura doubled in size, and before Chase could react he had planted a powerful blow into Chase’s stomach. He then took Chase by the hair and unleashed three terrible blows to his face with his knees. He then struck Chase with a powerful kick to the torso and sent him flying and crashing backwards. Blood flowed from Chase’s mouth.

“See what I mean? I did not need hatred to put you down just now, just perfect control of my powers and emotions.”

Chase’s ribcage hurt really badly, and he had to heal at least half a dozen broken ribs as he stood back up, using energy he was running out of.

“Perhaps, but at least I’m not a heartless robot intent on destruction of all life in the universe.”

“Not all life, just the weak and useless. And as distracting as it has been fighting you today, I’m starting to believe you belong in the ground with them.”

Chase spat blood on the ground. He looked for any doubts to exploit in Miseo, but he only sensed utter confidence. Whereas Chase’s doubts, which started as a small nagging thought at the beginning of the fight, were slowly but surely taking over his entire psyche.

What if I fail? What then? Will the universe fall? Will Sarah and Chris be killed?

“I believe these people will rally even if I lose today,” said Chase, though he had no idea what would happen if that came true.

“
When
you fall, not if! You have lost, and deep inside you already know it. I can smell it on you now. It would take a miracle for you to win now.”

Chase regretted appearing overly confident before. “This fight isn’t over. I may have been arrogant but not more so than you and your pathetic friend the general.”

“Do not speak ill of the dead!”

“Or what? I’m not afraid of you. I think I’ve proved that much.”

“All you proved today is that you’ve been training to become a formidable warrior, but one that has no sense of true technique. You should have left this world after defeating Arkoolis. But you let your pride convince you that you could take two of the most powerful beings in existence in a single day. You bit off more than you could chew and I will look forward to bringing your head to my father.”

“Fuck you, daddy’s little boy. My father this, my father that . . . Why don’t you call him to your aid right now?”

A vein bulged on Miseo’s forehead.

Chase decided to antagonize him even more, see if he could break his icy-cold demeanor now that he sensed anger in his enemy.

“So much for controlling your emotions, asshole! This one right here is anger. The truth is you are just as unsure as I am about how this fight will end up. Sure, you’re better at hiding your emotions. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t buried behind that ugly mug of yours.”

“THAT’S ENOUGH!” shouted Miseo as he shot a fireball at Chase in an attempt to shut him up.

Chase blocked and absorbed the attack with his hand. That gave him a small but needed boost in energy.

“That one’s called rage.”

“I’m going to make you regret this. So let’s finish it once and for all. I’ll tell you what, once I’m done with you here, I’ll make it my personal mission to find your wife and show her what a true warrior is, just before I rip your unborn child from her still-living body.”

Something in Chase snapped and the sky darkened almost instantly. A thick layer of cloud covered the sun and soon it felt like nighttime on Droxia.

Chase unleashed the most inhuman of all animalistic growls as his pupils shone a bright orange before disappearing altogether. His aura was also tainted orange, and golden lightning sparked madly all around him. A powerful lightning bolt crashed down on Chase and boosted his energy. His hair flew upwards.

“You will not touch a hair on their heads. I won’t let you!”

Chase flew so fast towards Miseo he left a trail of light behind him. He started by unleashing a powerful butterfly kick upon Miseo, who didn’t have time to react as his head was thrown downward. But it was thrown back up quickly when Chase kicked it again and again with his right leg. He then alternated between shin kicks and powerful elbow blows to the face, and finally sent Miseo flying with a spinning crescent kick.

One of Miseo’s tooth flew from his mouth, as well as a huge amount of blood. Before Miseo hit the ground again, Chase extended his arms and mind as he grabbed two of the biggest boulders around and crashed them into Miseo. Chase then grabbed Miseo with his mind and held him there. Miseo’s limbs dangled. He hadn’t recovered yet from this powerful cascade of attacks.

Chase approached a floating Miseo with fire burning in his pupil-less eyes.

He prepared a powerful fireball and let it grow until it almost engulfed his entire arm.

He thought he heard Ares in his mind—
No, Chase, don’t do it!
—but he ignored it.

“Time to join Arkoolis in hell!”

He sent the fireball towards Miseo with all his might, but then everything went wrong. It all happened very quickly. Miseo’s crimson aura exploded out of nowhere, firing impressive, red bolts of lightning all around him. The entire planet shook. The debris from the boulders Chase had crashed into him a few seconds before all rose from the ground, and sizzling, dark-red lightning bolts shot between them, obliterating every one of them.

He released himself from Chase’s mental hold with ease, extended both his arms in front of him and sucked in every last bit of Chase’s extremely powerful attack. He syphoned it all.

Chase did not believe his eyes. He was certain that he had just landed the finishing blow of this fight, putting most of his remaining energy into it.

Miseo smiled from ear to ear.

“That’s the difference between a true Fury warrior and a pathetic traitor like you. Would you like to know what just happened? I used your emotions against you. I willingly provoked that transformation in you and you fell for it. Partly because I wanted to see how powerful you might become when you unleashed all that raging power of yours, but also to make sure you hit me with everything you had next, like Argos told me you did when you entered that furious mode of yours. I knew I could use the power of your own attack to replenish mine, and I did. Thanks for the power up.”

Chase’s hair fell down his back and his aura returned to its usual purple.

He played me all along.

“I told you from the start that very few warriors ever live to see me deploy my abilities to the fullest. Well, now you have. And like the very few others before you, it is time to die. You’re on empty now. I can feel it. Let me give you some of that energy back.”

He extended his arm towards Chase and unleashed a super-fast series of small fireballs. In less than a second, Miseo had fired one hundred of them, all flying towards Chase.

Time seemed to slow and Chase realized how foolish he had been.

He heard his son’s voice in his mind.
Dad, you can’t die here today. You must survive!

Chase used the last of his energy to fly upward into the air in an attempt to dodge the attacks. He traveled miles in an instant, but Miseo closed his fist and all one hundred of his attacks arched upwards at various angles and they all hit Chase simultaneously. The resulting cascade-explosion and shockwave pushed back every one of the dark clouds in the sky and soon the light of the sun burned Chase’s broken body while he plummeted back towards the planet’s surface.

*   *   *

When Ares arrived on Droxia he realized he was too late. He saw Chase falling from the sky and felt that he had no energy left. Miseo had also expended most of his own. He had a lot of battle damage on both his armor and face, but he was smirking while Chase plummeted from the heavens towards certain death.

Dammit! I should have come back earlier.

But what could he have done? Perhaps affect gravity around Miseo at a strategic moment, or try to add his own energy to Chase, to give him just a nudge when he most needed it. Instead, he saw his friend, his protégé, hit the ground at tremendous velocity head first. Chase lay there, defeated and unable to move a single muscle.

I’m sorry
, Ares heard.

Chase, no, you can’t die now. You promised you’d stop the Furies and save Aphroditis. You have to!

I failed you just like I failed everyone else. Please promise me you’ll tell Sarah and Chris how much I love them both.

Chase, I can’t let you die!

I don’t think there’s anything that can prevent that now.

Ares’ mind raced to find a solution.

Miseo took a few steps towards Chase and stood above him. He extended an open palm towards Chase’s face. A dark-red fireball crackled into existence.

This can’t be happening!

To Ares surprise, Argos shouted towards Miseo, asking him to stop.

“Not now, Argos!” answered Miseo.

Ares flew towards Chase. He needed to teleport him away from Droxia before it was too late. He had no idea if Chase would survive the trip in his current weakened state but there was no choice. He couldn’t let Miseo finish him off. In order to do so he had to materialize into his energy-based form, and so he did a few yards before reaching Chase. But Ares hit an invisible wall.

Miseo looked at him and Ares saw that he had extended his other arm towards him.

How is this possible? How can his telekinetic energy affect me in this form?

“I expected you damned Olympians to try to intervene. I can’t kill you in your current form, but I can make sure you don’t move another inch.”

Ares pushed with all his might but he was stuck, paralyzed even. He couldn’t do anything. He couldn’t travel the last three yards separating him from Chase.

“I take it you’re the one who trained him? I’m glad you came by to see him die.”

The fireball in Miseo’s hand grew a little more.

“I’m so sorry, Chase,”
said Ares

But Chase couldn’t hear him anymore.

*   *   *

When Argos realized Miseo had no intention of honoring his promise he flew towards Miseo and hit him square in the face with a flying kick. Miseo skidded on the ground, leaving a trail of dust behind him. The fireball in his hand receded.

When he got back up and saw who had attacked him he was furious. “You’re going to die for this, Argos!”

“I can’t let you kill him! I’m the one who has to do it.”

“Then you’ll die here as well.”

“That won’t be necessary and you know it! You said you’d let me finish him if it was at all possible. You have won. He cannot move anymore so you have nothing to prove. Don’t forget it is thanks to me and me alone that you’re standing on the surface of this planet today! It is also thanks to me that you had plenty of time to wage your destruction today. I have fully earned my right to kill my brother as promised!”

Miseo took a few deep breaths and calmed himself down while he reflected upon Argos’ words.

“This,” said Miseo, pointing at his bruised cheek where Argos had kicked him a moment before, “is the last time you touch me.”

Argos nodded.

“Very well then, finish him.”

Argos levitated Chase’s body towards him and grabbed him by the throat.

*   *   *

Chase was only semi-conscious when he felt his body levitate towards Argos. Soon the entire weight of his body dangled from his neck where his brother grasped his throat. Chase could barely keep his eyes open.

“Look at me, brother. I want to see the look in your eyes when I rip you from existence once and for all.”