Young Flame

Why is he here? I can’t imagine the man would be anywhere nearby when the weapon activated, so how is he here? Heisenberg too. He’s dead? A massive chunk of the man I’ve only seen in the metallic armour is now missing from his upper body. He lay motionless on the ground between me and the General.

The old albanic finally notices me, he frowns at the sight of me. The General walks towards me with that same confidence that infuriated me last time. He is so assured of his own superiority, not even heeding those that oppose him.

“Tell me, why did the bomb not explode? Where are we?” He sweeps the corpse of Heisenberg out of his path with a boot and approaches me.

Does he seriously think I’ll tell him anything after what he’s done? The pain and hatred amplify simply looking at him. My flames expand around me trying to scare the man, but he doesn’t flinch.

“Careful girl, it would be wise not to anger me.”

Anger him? A short, gasping laugh leaves my lips. I couldn’t care less if I anger the man who caused me so much suffering. Everything that has gone wrong in the last years sources back to this man. He’s already tried to have me kill myself for his own plans, not to mention the cage he forced upon me and so many other áed. No, I want him to be angry. I want him to feel the same pain as he has inflicted.

“Why?” There’s only thing I want to know from him.

He stops and narrows his eyes. “Why what?” he grunts.

“Why did you do it? Why hunt áed? What reason do you have for all the murder and war?”

“Why not? Both the áed and the ursu had something I needed, and I had the power to take it, so I simply took it. One hardly needs a better reason for war.”

I knew he wouldn’t be repentant, but to hear the blatant disregard for the lives of my family is infuriating. Momentarily forgetting the last time I met him, I flare out at the man. My flames surround the man trying to cook him alive.

With a clear lack of haste, the General sighs before pulling the sword from his hip in a slow, deliberate motion. Something within me screams to move, to jump out of the way, but I can hardly move before the man’s sword has swung through my body, dissecting me right through the middle.

Two things run through my mind at that moment; one, my flames still don’t hurt the man and two, the sword passing through me doesn’t hurt anywhere as much as it should. In fact, the blade passes through my torso with hardly any resistance at all. My upper and lower body split for only a moment before the flame burns together as if nothing happened.

An attack that would have killed me not long ago now hardly does anything.

The General has sheathed his weapon, but as I remain standing, his eyes marginally widen. Even if I can survive his swings, it doesn’t make it any easier if I can’t burn him. Regardless of my lamentation, I keep my flames around his body trying to burn through the skin that just doesn’t want to burn.

The General’s eyes narrow again and that instinct returns. I try to jump away and I wish to be outside his range. Nothing happens for a time and I look up to find the man is now a hundred metres away, glaring at me through the distance. What happened?

The General sprints at me, closing the distance extremely quickly. I dodge again and try to get as much space as I can. This time I watch as it happens; the Void Fog splits us apart.

I finally realise what’s going on. The Void Fog is following my will. It has been since I arrived for the second time. I wanted the warmth of the lake and it popped out in front of me. I wanted my vengeance on the General and Heisenberg and they show up. Now the darkness separated us because that’s what I willed.

How can I use this? I picture in my mind the lava lake appearing underneath the General. Success! It’s extremely disorienting as the world morphs outside my perception even with my eyes glued to the area around the General. He falls into the thick molten rock now smouldering underneath. Unfortunately, a simple kick against the magma below sends him to the shores. At least now he’s stopped coming after me. He looks around and up at the volcano that appears from apparently nowhere.

Okay, lava doesn’t work. Is there anything that can actually hurt the man? I’m safe at the moment because of the apparent improvement to my body and the fact I have enough control over this fog, somehow, that I can keep my distance despite the General’s insane speed. There is no way I can hurt him either. My fire is useless, he just shrugs the heat off. Is it even possible for this scenario to end in any way other than a stalemate?

While I try to think of a way to end this, the General has given up on attacking me, instead he is chasing the thick Void Fog in the distance. I understand why; I tried the same thing to get out of this place when I was here first, but he still doesn’t realise doing so will not help him. In fact, as he runs away from me, despite the distance he covers with each step, he seems to get closer to me rather than further away. For a moment, I just ponder this confusing place.

It doesn’t take him all too long to figure out that he isn’t getting anywhere.

“How are you doing this?” His commanding tone demands an answer, but I’m too busy relishing in his struggle. I may not be able to hurt him, but watching him flounder is a satisfying placeholder.

My lack of answer must infuriate him as he launches at me with an arm extended. His blade is sheathed again. After failing to hurt me with it, does he intend to grapple me to death?

An idea pops into my head as he flies towards me, and I grin as the world twists again. The General crashes straight through the front wall of the green moss covered hut. I cast a glance through the hole he made in the wall and see the man stuck suspended in the air with his arms extended.

He struggles within the mysterious grasp and I take the opportunity to run up to his side and take his sword from the scabbard. As I tear the sword out, the general pulls his arms in to his chest, out of the hut’s invisible grasp. The walls of collapse over us.

I flinch away, but I’m not fast enough. The General grabs my arm and I fly into a panic. I tug and scratch at his hand, burning it as much as I can, but his grasp doesn’t loosen. My feet kick at him while the landscape morphs around us. The pyramid, continae, ice field. I take us to so many places, but none dislodge his hand from my arm.

My breath comes in rapid gasps and my arms tremble. I can’t get out of his grip. I’m trapped. The general lifts me in the air by the arm and sneers at me. My body jerks away and my eyes slam shut. I want to go home again. I want to be back in the wasteland where I can be free again.

One last time, I pull with all my strength against his grip. Surprise and relief floods me when I crash into sand. I quickly will the Void Fog to separate us again and hold my chest as I calm down.

The desert surrounds us. While I know it’s still within the Void Fog, I am happy to be back. My eyes drop to the arm the General held, the strange sight of unbound flame replaces where my arm should be.

It takes me far too long to realise that the flame is my arm and not my inner flame. Like when the sword passed through me before, my arm has lost much of its physicality. Normally, my body is limited to its default shape; fingers, arms, legs and all that stuff, but now my arm lacks its definite outline. It’s hard to distinguish what is my inner flame and what is my body.

I try to mould the fire of my arm like I would my inner flame, but I find far more resistance to change. That isn’t strange in itself, but the fact that it changes at all, even if slowly, is incredible. In a few seconds, my arm returns to normal, my fingers reform from the flickering flame that took their place.

“How long must you keep this up?” The General’s voice resounds across the silent sands. “I do not have time to deal with this.” He readjusts the sword back into its scabbard.

Damn, I hoped the blade would have been left behind.

Okay, so my form is much more flexible now, how can that help me beat him? It’s great that he won’t be able to hold onto me as easily, but it doesn’t help the deadlock. I could just leave, but I don’t like the idea of leaving this man to his own devices. My flames writhe with hatred for the man, but even without that, I can’t leave him; He will just continue his path of destroying the lives of other áed.

If I knew he’d be stuck within the Void Fog forever, I would ditch him here. But I could figure a way out, there’s no reason to think he won’t as well, especially considering his strength.

The General takes a step towards me, and I follow with a step back. A sting in my ankle makes me jump, but it is only one of the sand-worms, the hyper-aggressive sand worms of the Void Fog rather than the slower normal ones.

“Fuck!” I look up to see the General with a worm of his own lodged in his ankle.

It’s surprising the little things can even get their teeth into his skin, considering how poorly my own flames have done so far. He kicks off the pest and charges towards me, only to have three more of the worms latch onto his legs. I simply have the Void Fog separate us when he gets too close for comfort.

Two more lunges and six more sand-worms later, the General is becoming visibly sluggish. His stance doesn’t have the same stiff confidence as before, each move is slower than before and he even stumbles after his last attempt. How is he getting tired already? There’s no way someone with so much strength could fall after only a few jumps. Is he trying to trick me? Does he want to bait me into close range? Well, I won’t fall for it.

The General yells out a frustrated cry and swats each of the worms chomping at his legs. He pulls the sword from his waist again, but I don’t know what he plans to do with it when he can’t even get close to me.

“Fuck sake, girl. This farcical nonsense has gone on long enough.” He pulls out some strange steel cuboid about as long as his finger from a pocket along his belt. “I needed this for later, but you’ve given me no choice. Just know I will comb the deserts and eradicate your kind.”

I narrow my eyes at his words, and he pushes the small bit of steel into the pommel of his sword. Almost immediately, I feel a strong wind blow into me, forcing me to take a step back to hold myself steady.

The air around the General’s blade is now distorted, making the blade look wider than before. A constant gust pushes out of the sword, sending up a cloud of sand around us. Soon the sand is thick enough that I can’t even see the General. I take a few steps back, expecting him to try and attack through the smokescreen, and I’m glad I do. His sword swings right through the space I was not a moment ago, blowing away the sand for just enough time for me to see him before I lose him again within the rising sandstorm.

The sand whips against my face as I try to take distance from where I last saw the General. My newfound instinct screams at me to move as the howling blade appears to my side. I’m able to jump back just enough that only my smallest finger is cut by the blade, but the damage it leaves is anything but small. An overwhelming pressure engulfs my hand, and the entire upper half of my forearm is blown away.

My arm explodes in agony. It feels like I shoved my arm in a river of water. The time my leg was crushed under a boulder was nowhere near as excruciating, despite leaving me in the same limbless state. My arm is gone. My inner flame erupts from me, not caring that his body has already proven resistant to my fire. I spread it as wide as I can, trying to find him and burn him.

He passes through my flame behind me and while my inner flame grasps at him. I will the Void Fog to separate us once more. The twist in space around me separates my control and the flames disperse around him. With a moment of respite, I scorch off the worms assaulting my legs.

I’ve lost sight of the General again, and while it’s exhausting keeping my flames up so long, having a way to see him coming is crucial.

As he swung his sword through my flame once more, I had enough time to tell the darkness to move me away only so much to dodge. The blade cuts the air in front of me, blowing enough air to knock me off my feet. My back hits the sand but I’m still within range to control the flames now engulfing the General.

I feel many of the sand-worms biting into his legs, some even latched to his back. They are helping me with the old albanic, so I avoid burning the little things while I twist my flames around him. I feel as he stumbles and moves toward me again. Stepping to the side, out of his path, I watch through my flames as he follows my movement. How does he see me?

I have become so accustomed to him being immune to my flame that I take far too long to realise the fire surrounding him is actually burning his skin. It’s ever so slight — only leaving slightly red welts on his skin — but it’s enough to have me push all the remaining energy I have to incinerate the man.

A vortex of fire roasts the General as I dodge more of his increasingly faltering strikes. The sand whipping around is still too thick to see, but I can feel the rage plastered on his face. The small bit of desperation, pain and fear that sneaks its way through his normally grumpy expression has me basking in the malicious pleasure. It is oh, so satisfying to see this bastard who caused so much pain for so many to finally feel some of that himself.

The General collapses to a knee, grunting as he holds his arm over his eyes, trying to block out the flames. I see the weakness he shows and dig my flames into his eyes, amplifying the intensity in the small area where I can concentrate the heat.

He lets out a loud warrior’s roar, pulling his arm away from his face and grasps his sword with both arms. The air ripples as he swings his arms and launches his blade at me. It closes the distance in but a moment. Even my new instinct’s warning hardly blares in time.

I try to dodge, to will myself away, but I’m not quick enough. The blade slices through my hip, and excruciating agony fills my being. I don’t even feel when I slam against the rocky ground underneath.

All I feel now is a chill. I’m too cold and empty. A glance down shows a good chunk of my torso is gone, along with one of my legs.

Breaths come in ragged gulps as my body shivers against the cold. I’m so tired, my flames hardly want to burn anymore. The sandstorm is gone, but so is everything else. Only the darkness of the void greets me.