Jiroh...
When he was sent flying into the upper atmosphere and then past it into the harsh vacuum of space, the sun that shined so warmly with its rays, something he had once seen as gentle and harmless, it blinded him. Its shining rays were so bright that he had to close his eyes for fear of being blinded. That wasn't the worst of his fears however because not a moment later, all the air in his chest expanded violently and his lungs burst. he started coughing up blood and he tried to breath but to no avail.
There was no air, no sound, nothing to remotely grab onto. He was simply floating in the vast emptiness of space.
He clawed helplessly at his throat trying to breathe but failing. Even though his skin was resistant to heat, his blood still boiled horribly as it burst from every orifice of his body and it was so horrible to the point that his left eye burst apart. His mind started running through any possible options he had left to survive.
As he was panicking, he then realized that he was still holding his sword in his right hand, though it was steaming as the blood infused within it boiled as well. The only thing that came to mind was to merge with the blood. As the blood was boiling inside his own body, it escaped out of him in an agonizing mist and it was even more excruciatingly painful for him to completely bleed himself dry and wrap himself around the sword before pulling back the arm of his lifeless husk of a body and throwing his sword back down to the earth.
His corpse continued to float through the void as his boiling blood wrapped itself around the blade of his sword, passing through the vacuum of space and falling back to Erebus.
Artemis...
With Jiroh long gone after Selene sent him flying into space, all they had left to do was either wait until he died from being in space for too long or until Marcus killed Malthael, whichever came first.
As the two of them stood, side by side, they watched the Archdragon Malthael as he bored down with his beam of flames drilling into the ground and likely slamming into Marcus.
Come on Marcus, she thought to herself. Urging him to fight and win against the beast.
It was then that she started hearing a horrifying whine whistling through the air. As she turned her head in the direction the the noise was coming from, a sword fell from the sky-
-and pierced Selene straight through.
It easily broke through her armor as it stabbed her in the chest and sent her crashing to the ground dozens of feet away.
"Selene!" Artemis shouted.
She charged towards her, pulling out her own sword ready to kill anything else that might try to harm her.
She then noticed the mass of blood and black flames clinging to the sword and without hesitation she swung her sword, hoping to shred Jiroh to pieces before he could reform.
Before her sword could land however, the flames and blood expanded violently and an explosion erupted from the sword that sent her flying backwards.
Artemis then scrambled to her feet to watch as Jiroh reformed himself out of blood, bone, and fire, screaming in agony the whole time. He reached out his hand and took hold of his sword, pulling it out of Selene's chest as she let all a shriek of pain.
"I need to repay you for sending me into the void. You can feel your own blood boil from the inside out after I stab you over and over again!" He said before he stabbed his sword down at her only for Artemis to deflect it and caused the point of his sword to slam against the ground harmlessly.
"Leave her be. I am your opponent now," she said with a calm rage burning in her chest.
Artemis pulled back her arm and punched Jiroh in the chest with such force that he was now the one being sent flying. She did not stop there as she rushed to him before his body could hit the ground and slammed the edge of her blade at his neck. It sparked off of him, failing to cut his skin but slammed him against the ground.
He sprung up quickly as if nothing happened and gripped his sword tight, staring at her with focused eyes and growling in irritation.
Artemis too was angry, seeing Selene stabbed like that drew all the protective instincts out of her. With her enemy right in front of her, clear in sight, she held her sword with both hands, its sword point aimed at the sky mimicking Selene's stance albeit right handed.
She then mustered as much strength as she could and concentrated it into the blade.
Jiroh then took a single step forward before he swung his sword at her.
She met his strike head on and their blades collided. The energy from both of their blades connected shattered the ground beneath their feet and clouds of dust expanded out from where they stood before being sucked back in. They swung their swords together once more and again the ground trembled and the dust circulated. They continued slamming their swords into either, dozens of times. Each cycle of attacks tearing apart the earth beneath them and rousing a storm of swirling dust.
After many swings though Artemis had noticed the small fractures on Jiroh's sword. It was so close to shattering and leaving him weaponless that she could feel the advantage being within reach.
This time she decided to feign an attack and managed to bait Jiroh into matching her strike. Instead of swinging her sword back at him, she stepped out of the way and he lost his balance as he struck nothing but air. Jiroh then clumsily switched the grip on his sword as he tried to swing his sword back at her the other way. Catching him off balance and unprepared for her to bait his attack, she swung her sword at the fractured part of his sword and shattered it...
Only for him to discard it instantly and grab the handle of her sword with his left hand while swinging his right arm to the side and from it, a blade made of bone extended from it and he stabbed her in the chest.
"That was a clever trick you made to disarm me by slowing wearing down my sword. Unfortunately, I don't need that thing anymore. I am my own weapon now," he said as he pulled her body in close with his blade embedded in her heart.
"Ngh shut up...," Artemis said before she swung out her leg and kicked him in the temple. He released his grip on her sword handle as he stumbled backwards and she reached out with her left hand to pry open his mouth before shoving the point of her sword down his throat. She then held it with both hands before forcing the sword hilt deep into him. The moonlight flowing through the sword cutting up his insides.
Even as he was coughing up blood with her sword in his throat, he smiled.
With his right blade still embedded in her chest, he reached out and grabbed her clothes tight as he lifted her body above his head and slammed her into the ground.
His right blade retracted and he lunged forward with his left hand to stab her in the brain but she managed to roll away and stumbled backwards.
He had stabbed her right in the heart and blood was filling up her chest slowly. With her speed, she didn't notice it all that much but it was still a hindrance. Her body would heal eventually with time but she didn't have enough of that to spare.
Jiroh then reached into his mouth and pulled her sword free from it before tossing it over to Selene as she still laid on the ground couching up blood and healing herself.
"What are you going to do now without your sword and your weapon of mass destruction taking a time out?"
That was a good question...
Well, she did have one, other option...Although she had thought it would be too cruel and powerful to use against the likes of him. But after seeing what he did to Selene, she didn't care anymore.
Artemis reached behind her back and pulled out two wooden handles, crossed her arms in front of her and said, "Khonsu."
She swung both her arms to her side in a wide and open stance and from the handles where blades should be, two silver sickles appeared.
Jiroh merely laughed at the sight of them and with a smug expression on his face, he asked, "What do you hope to do with weapons as small and fragile looking as those?! HAH!"
Artemis simply looked back at him with a merciless stare and said, "I'm going to erase your existence."
His smug expression faltered only slightly but he remained confident in the face of her declaration and extended the blades in his arms, both of which gushed with blood and black flames.
Jiroh struck first as he lunged forward, his right bladed arm thrusting forward to stab her but Artemis threaded his blade through the circular shape of her left handed sickle and the sharp edge ate away at the bone that made up his weapon. As it cut into the bone blade it took with it the years of his life that would have made up his body. Given how he had only had his transformed body for a short while, cutting through it was child's play for her.
With his right handed blade erased he took a frightened and confused step back.
"What did-what did you do to me?!" he shouted in protest.
She didn't feel like answering him as she raised both sickles above her head to stab them through his chest but he jumped away in fear of them.
She swung out her leg to knock him off balance and he jumped into the air to avoid them instead of jumping backwards.
She smiled as she then spun her body around and slashed at his chest. She could feel the pieces of his soul being shredded away by her sickles and the small moments of his life, his memories, flashing in her eyes before fading away.
Jiroh stumbles backward clumsily, completely losing his composure and putting his arms in front of him helplessly for her to slash them as well and she could sense his mind reverting back to that of a child. Parts of his body where she had cut had also reverted back in age where as other areas slightly remained the same, making him a morphed abomination of young and old in a single body.
"Please! Stop please! It hurts! I...I don't...what is happening to me?" Jiroh asked, his voice a duet of his middle aged voice and that of his past child self. His fear and pain overtaking him as he fell on his back in fear of her while his memories were being erased along with his sense of self.
In a cold, quiet, and sickly sweet tone, she said, "Do not be afraid child. I will not hurt you. All you need to do is close your eyes and raise your head. I will make sure you rest soundly."
Jiroh obeyed as he struggled to raise his head to her while on his knees. It was always a pitiful sight to see the victims of her sickles obey her without question, willfully welcoming death. That being said, she had no sympathy for anyone who pushed her to use these weapons if they went so far as harming someone she cares about.
Artemis crossed her arms with her sickles at either side of her and she swung them through his neck and his soul evaporated into nothing.
With Jiroh's soul dead and the slashes of her sickles reversing the time of his body, it should have reverted back to before it was made into a vessel as his other half. That being the case, Malthael's dragon body should be reverting back to its brain dead state...right?
Marcus…
He looked up at the dragon with rage in his eyes. He wasn't sure what it was that fueled it, but his mind was filled with so much anger to the point he could tell he might explode. It was a surge of adrenaline and power reverberating through ever fiber of muscle and all the bones in his body.
He reached deep into the pit of his soul, he reached to try and find the bottom of the well of power and...he couldn't touch it. He couldn't feel the bottom of it, couldn't even sense where it ended. Whatever happened to him during that period that he had blacked out had expanded his well of power to something far beyond what he was used to using before. He couldn't control what he wasn't able to fully perceive so he simply imagined pulling energy from the well of power that he had gotten used to up to this point. He pulled from that energy and made himself into living lightning and stone. He could feel his very skin take on the texture of black volcanic glass with sparks of electricity flowing through it almost like a nervous system.
As he did this he felt himself merging with his energy more completely than whenever he did turning into stone or electricity. Almost as if he had become a living breathing organism of pure energy. It gave him a very strange sensation, one where he could feel his power nearly overwhelming him while at the same time draining to the very last drop of power but never fully emptying until it surged once again. Over and over again this sensation repeated and it filled him with exhilaration unlike anything he had ever felt before.
With every drug, every high, every narcotic or drink a person uses to experience a certain sensation, after a little while the feeling fades as the mind and body adapts to get used to it. It would never feel the same as before unless a stronger dose was administered.
However, what he was experiencing now..., he didn't think it could ever stop. In fact, it felt like it was only getting stronger. The rush, the rage, the power...it was unending.
He closed his eyes as he reached out his left hand and 'held' his grip on the torrent of power coming down on him. It almost felt tangible the way he was able to grab the falling energy as it was absorbed into him. Unlike before where he was unable to control his absorption and his ability to maintain control, now he felt more in control of his power than he ever did before despite the near blinding rage flowing through him.
He opened his eyes and looked up at Malthael and the dragon stared back at him, confused but unshaken by him standing up under the pressure.
Determined to end this fight between them, he bent his knees and held his grip on his sword with both hands. He then focused on his gravity curse, manipulating it so that it gave it its own field of gravity along the length of the blade itself. He made the gravity affecting the sword spin inward like a planetary body pulling things into itself. The lightning sparking across Marcus's body began spinning around it, dust and dirt from all around them also collected around it and began spinning violently. They started spinning faster and faster until it glowed red hot like an accretion disk.
As he was doing this he was reminded of a scenario of moving a star's orbit to avoid a supernova via a Kaplan Thruster. He wouldn't be pulled in by the gravity affecting the sword itself, but everything else would be. He was simply the stellar engine directing it towards its destination and once it came into contact with Malthael's body, the weight of the sword mixed with Marcus's speed would tear through his scales like construction paper.
"χάος ξίφος (Void Blade)" he said as he shifted his grip on Light Taker and leapt into the air.
As he continued to climb higher and higher under the pressure of Malthael's flames, he could feel the weight of his sword resisting it and kept him stabilized in the air. As long as he held onto his sword he would not be knocked down.
Malthael's eyes narrowed into sharp slits as he watched Marcus climb into the air higher and higher. Gritting his teeth as he came ascended higher and higher, he let out a grunt of effort before roaring at the top of his lungs as he slashed his sword through the air, and as he did he released a stream of obsidian sand and lightning.
It cut through Malthael's flames and flew into his mouth, cutting into the back of his throat and forcing him to close his mouth in pain before he growled in irritation.
Before Malthael could even react in time, Marcus swung his sword in a wide arc, slashing through the dragon's right eye. The slash had enough force behind it to knock Malthael's head to the side.
For him to have forcibly moved Malthael's body...
Refusing to give him an opening to counter attack, Marcus kicked the side of his face causing him to fall back to the ground. He couldn't maintain a consistent barrage if he was suspended in midair.
Not a moment after his feet touched the ground he had already jumped back into the air.
Malthael's head turned in his direction as he raised his left claw to slam down on top of him. In response, Marcus swung his sword at the Archdragon's wrists and completely severed his claws from his arm.
Taken aback by the fact that his scales had been penetrated, Malthael unfurled his wings. Marcus had no idea what he intended to do but he wasn't about to let the Archdragon escape.
"Are you planning to run away, like a coward?" Marcus grounded out in annoyance before landing back onto the ground. He pulled back his left arm, and as if winding up a pitch, launched an obsidian dagger attached to a chain flying through the air. It soared over Malthael's back where his wings were attached to his body. He then grabbed hold of the chain and traveled up the length of it reaching the dragon's wings in less than a second and severed them from his body.
As he was falling back down to the mountain, he watched as Malthael's right eye was already beginning to regenerate but even he could tell that trying to regenerate parts of his body, with it being as huge as it is, required monstrous amounts of energy.
"I guess I just have to keep carving you up until you run out of steam then," he said with a crooked grin.
Malthael looked at him and thrusted out its left arm. From it, black flames burst to life and solidified into an arm. He must have realized that it was a disadvantage for him if he continued to regenerate his limbs every time he got hurt. He then extended his claws and slashed at the air where Marcus was falling.
He's finally getting creative, Marcus thought to himself in amusement. He didn't know why he felt so unconcerned now but for some reason he was also enjoying himself. It was unlike him to take joy in a life or death fight like this, and even less so to enjoy inflicting pain on his opponent.
Using his chains, he zipped around the battleground swiftly avoiding all of Malthael's attacks and delivering his own, each of his attacks too fast for the dragon to react to.
As much fun as it was to torture Malthael like this, he needed a way to put him down for good.
Something Selene had told him once when they were training together resurfaced…
Several weeks ago...
"I have a question," he asked Selene.
"Go ahead," she said.
"You once told me that with enough mastery of the third aspect of flow control, I'll be able to regenerate limbs, organs, and most wounds. Does that also mean that I'll be able to come back from decapitation?"
Selene shook her head, "In most cases of decapitation, no. A person will almost surely die when their heads are severed from their bodies or their brains are destroyed."
"I'm guess that Kayron is one of those special cases right?" he asked.
"Why, did you manage to cut off his head when you fought him?"
"Something like that."
"Well...Kayron is indeed a special case. His regeneration isn't completely under his control. In fact, that sword he carries around is the source of his power. Its what's allowed him to stay alive for several centuries and shrug off injuries that would certainly kill even the toughest of men. Chop off his head, tear out his heart, spill his guts, blow his entire body apart until his nothing more than a puddle of blood and he still won't die. The only thing that seems to have any effect on him is fire. Boiling his blood until he's vaporized is the only solution to bringing down a monster like him."
"So what you're saying is, the only way to heal yourself from decapitation is by having an outside source of immediate regeneration?"
Selene's brows scrunched in doubt and she shrugged her shoulders.
"It might but I doubt you're going to find anyone suicidal enough to test that theory out. Although I will say this. The more extreme the injury, the more energy your body is going to demand from you to heal it. Its better to just replace the point of injury with magical constructs as a temporary fix until you have the time to heal it in one go. But to heal yourself from having your head exploded...you wouldn't just be regenerating your head but also your thoughts and memories, your very sense of self. It would take an insane amount of energy to come back from having your head decapitated if you were quick enough to pull it off, but its unlikely anyone is capable of doing that."
Now...
"Even though you have Kayron's regeneration, as big as you are, I doubt you can fully regenerate after having your head destroyed more than once," he said thinking aloud.
He leapt into the air and landed right next to the dragon's left eye, his left hand digging into the gaps between his scales to hold on.
Malthael's pupil focused on him the moment he landed but even he wasn't fast enough to stop Marcus as he raised the point of his sword and drove Light Taker deep into his eye.
Roaring in agony, Malthael slammed his face into the ground but Marcus refused to budge as he forced the blade deeper, blood gushing out of the wound and drenching his body. No matter how much he bucked and shook his head like an enraged bull, he couldn't seem to shake Marcus off of him.
Then he started to get desperate as he surged with energy once again and flames collected in the back of his throat, swirling to form a beam of energy.
"Oh shit, no no no! Dammit stop!" Marcus shouted as he frantically tried to force the blade deeper into his eye before Malthael could do something catastrophic.
But he could not stop the devastation that he would unleash as the Archdragon breathed hellfire onto the land. His beam of black flames scarring everything around him. As he shook his head back and forth, spraying his beam of energy in all directions.
Selene...
When the sword had fractured her armor and stabbed her in the chest, it barely missed her heart by a few inches. If it had hit her heart, the shock alone might have prevented her from healing herself in time. Thankfully Artemis was able to by her enough time to close up the wound and she was able to get back on her feet.
As she was making her way over to her, Artemis started walking towards her, a chest wound of her own to match and coughing up blood as she picked up her sword. She now had a silver sickle in her free hand.
That was a curious weapon to have but she decided that she would ask about it later.
"What happened to Jiroh?" she asked.
"We won't be seeing him anymore. He's dead," Artemis said bluntly as she put away the sickle and sheathed her sword. She then stumbled forward and Selene caught her before she could fall. She must have used a large amount of magic in their fight to be this worn out.
"You must be exhausted. Why don't you rest for a while and I'll take over," she said and Artemis nodded gratefully.
Artemis leaned on Selene and the two of them watched as Marcus fought Malthael from afar. Their battle had razed everything around them, flattening the landscape save for Lunaas for which she was grateful. He had managed to keep their fight away from the town as much as possible, as difficult as that was with a mountain sized dragon.
She watched as he butchered the dragon mercilessly, tearing off its limbs, its wings, and generally making a nuisance of himself. Malthael was thrashing around in pain from Marcus’s attacks as he swung his claws in every direction but seemingly not being able to hit anything.
The two of them continued to watch their battle until Marcus landed on the side of his face and Malthael started bashing his face into the ground.
"Is he having a temper tantrum?" Selene laughed and Artemis joined in.
"Maybe its his way of dealing with headaches," she joked and Selene laughed once again.
Then a dark glow started shining from the dragon's maw and as he released the beam of energy and destruction, he shook his head wildly. As if sensing something horrible was about to happen, Artemis went very pale and pulled herself away from Selene.
"Artemis, what's going-," Selene was cut off as Artemis stood in front of her just as Malthael lowered his head to the ground before arcing his head back in their direction.
With fear in her eyes, Artemis shouted, “Crescent Divider!”
It was the last words she heard before Malthael’s beam of destruction fell upon them.
Malthael’s breath did not simply stop with the two of them as it traveled on for miles, cleaving through several towns in seconds. The Archdragon’s wrath carving a scar into the very planet itself. Thousands of lives snuffed out in an instant as the energy continued to reach the far corners of the continent before it reached the skies. His dark breath would reach so far as to cut through the clouds, past the atmosphere, and even so far as to arc through the void of space. The asteroids encircling the planet were vaporized by its power and the resulting force from their destruction sent hundreds of smaller ones careening downward as they struck the planet. It would reach past even further as to make a new canyon upon one of the three moons encircling Erebus before it ceased.
Selene was hit so hard by the force of the blast that she had blacked out for a few minutes.
Her vision was fuzzy and unfocused as she tried to get her bearings. She looked around her to see a figure standing in front of her.
It was Artemis.
Once again Artemis stood in front of Selene to defend her from death and because of that she had taken the brunt of the attack. She fell backwards on top of Selene as she could no longer hold her body upright.
The entire front part of her body was burned and blistered, and her silver shining eyes had gone dim.
She slowly turned her head to look up at Selene as she asked, “Are…you…okay?”
Selene couldn’t seem to understand why Artemis would go so far to protect her. She didn't understand why a complete stranger like her would go to such lengths to protect her.
"Why...? Why would you push yourself so far?" Selene said with tears forming in her eyes.
She wanted to blame it on the ashes falling all around them sticking to her skin but she couldn't deny that she was feeling emotional at seeing Artemis' selflessness for her sake.
Artemis slowly reached out her hand to hold Selene's face as she said, "ἐμός κάλλος κόρη…"
With those last few words, she lost consciousness in Selene's arms.
She barely had enough of her flame magic left to heal Artemis so all she could do to help her was give Artemis her lap to rest on as she wrapped her arms around her and lit herself ablaze with a gentle flame.
But the nightmare hadn't ended. Only a few minutes had passed when the dust and ash began to settle as she heard a deep voice call to her from within the haze.
“So even the great Goddess Artemis could withstand my might?! Today is just full of surprises,” A disembodied voice said.
Selene's head popped up and she looked around frantically to locate the voice but she couldn't seem to find where it was coming from. She then heard the slight rattle of metal being picked up from off the ground and looked towards the source of the sound just as a tall dark figure started approaching.
It wasn't possible. Artemis had assured her that Jiroh was dead. How was he still...?
But she was wrong. It was not Jiroh who stood before her. Rather, it was Malthael himself, standing in the form of a man made of solid flame and malformed bones made of crystallized blood. The Archdragon of the Abyss had taken over Jiroh's corpse and had now been given a human vessel to control.
"I can't say that this is an ideal state for me to be in, with this human form in such a ragged state but I shouldn't really complain," he said with a pleased expression on his face as he looked over to the battle still taking place between Marcus and his dragon body.
Malthael then turned his attention back to her as he said, "You know...I remember you girl. You were the one there during the final years of the war, when I was sent here to bring Duranell's army to ruins. I wasn't really interested in all of that but it was part of the deal I had made with Jiroh at the time...But Alas, Jiroh is dead. I no longer have any obligation to carry out his wishes."
Selene could do nothing but stare up at this monstrous being in shock and fear as she continued to spread her flames across Artemis' body and heal her as quickly as possible.
"Then...what do you intend to do now?" she asked but regretted her words the moment they left her lips.
"I intend to finish the fight I challenged you to fifteen years ago. A fight to the death! You and me, and that child of Hestia to make it all the merrier," he said with wild eyes and a psychotic grin on his face.
Selene couldn't bring herself to get up and fight him with Artemis still wounded in her arms.
"What are you doing girl? Get up and fight," he demanded as his grin faded.
She did nothing.
Malthael's eyes then narrowed in impatience as he tossed her sword to her and it clattered to the ground before it stopped at her feet. She must have dropped it when Jiroh stabbed her in the chest because she didn't realize had lost it.
"Pick it up," he said with an eager tone.
Selene's hand drifted over to it before it rested on its hilt.
"Yes...pick it up!" he said, his lust for battle showing in his eyes.
Her fingers traced the handle of it but she didn't dare pick up her sword with Artemis still in her arms. It was in that moment though that Artemis woke up for a brief moment to grab hold of Selene's right hand and said, "Take it..."
In her right hand Artemis had pressed the handle of her moonlight sword which glowed faintly as Selene's fingertips brushed against it.
"Artemis...!" she exclaimed in surprise but Artemis seemed to know that Selene was worried for her.
She shook her head and said, "Take it and finish what Adrianos started."
Artemis wrapped Selene's fingers around the handle and tightened her hand around it before her eyes shut and she collapsed once again.
She slowly and carefully lifted Artemis in her arms. She looked Malthael in the eyes, who gave her a knowing smile and nodded, allowing her to take Artemis to safety, knowing the goddess was done and could not continue.
Selene disappeared in a plume of fire and reappeared back in the Inn and laid her down on her bed.
Without saying a word, Selene returned to Malthael waiting for her.
With her heart pounding in her chest, Selene said, "Prepare yourself, for I will not show you mercy in this fight."