Pyrus (16 page)

Chapter 22: The Fury

“We need to find his body!” I shout out at Leo. He nods silently, his thoughts synchronized with mine. All of this time, we were receiving training from the heir to the throne, and I should have known. The smoke of Trublind proved to me he lied about his name, and yet I didn't question him further.
There is a time for self-pity later.
Leo's voice rings in my head.
I will search through the flames for him. You need to find some way to calm down Centurion.

Be careful, Leo; Ivan may still be around,
I remind him. He jumps into the flames, and I lose sight of him.

“Centurion, I need you to look at me. Look at me, damn it!” His scared eyes meet my fierce gaze, and we remained locked as I attempt to reassure him.

“Everything will be alright. I need you to trust me. We will find him. I need you to remain calm though; nothing good will come of worrying about him.” This was the first time I have ever seen a Kreysor cry, and it strikes your heart once you see it. His fiery skin hardens as the tear passes down, and as more tears pass down his face, more of his face becomes magma rock. He looks like he is a statue that is breaking free from its stone-clad prison. The moment a tear touches the ground, his body begins to fade away piece by piece.

“Centurion! I need you to stay with me!” I yell at him. His body is transparent, and I can see the wind blowing through him as he begins to disappear right before my eyes.

“Forgive me, Jack, for not being strong enough,” he whispers to me. In a flash, he is gone. The only remains are smoke coming off of the spot, just like the smoke from when you blow out your birthday candles. Screaming at the air, I punch the ground until my knuckles bleed, until I feel as if my bones are about to shatter.

“Why are you so worked up? I have told you before: „Whatever is not useful is merely dead weight.'” Surely you knew this was going to happen no matter what you did.” Ivan walks out in front of me, and the first things I notice are the smile on his pale blue lips and the gleam in his eyes.

“What made killing that exiled Kreysor even better though,” he continued, licking his lips as he spoke, “was that he begged for me to save him before he died. At first I considered freezing him and leaving him outside for you to find, but then I thought, why not just wait and see if you can find his remains?” His cruel laugh pierces through my calm appearance. I do not call for Leo to return, although I know he will pick up on my emotions and come chasing back.

“I … I'm going to …” I stammer. I am shaking with an uncontrollable fury that I have never felt or seen before. Gron was my mentor, my friend. I will not have his name defiled take that image away from me. I will kill him before that happens.

“You will have to speak up!” Ivan calls back to me, his smile remains on his lips. “I can hardly hear your mumbling!” That was the last straw, the crossing point. I give in to my emotions. They consume me, and I lose all control of my body—I just watch from the sidelines as my hatred takes command.

“I'm going to kill you!” I let out a roar that I have never heard before. It was a roar of ultimate suffering that came from my heart and went all the way to my lungs, filling my entire being. My claws flex and sharpen as I strike the ground. My clothing begins to tighten as I drop onto all fours, while my pant legs become tatters as my legs muscles expand and flex. My eyes focus upon my prey, and I know without a doubt that he is going to die, and that I am going to enjoy every minute of it.

Ivan's eyes widen as he views the monster I have become, but I ignore that. I don't care what emotions he feels unless it involves suffering of which this world has never known. He calls Glace to his side, wrapping her around his neck as she transforms into her whip form.

“It is time to decide who is truly stronger, Jack!” Ivan screams. “Only one of us will walk away from this battle.” My voice is deeper, and I respond with effort as my humanity seizes control. “It's a shame it's not going to be you.” At my response, he strikes Glace into the ground. Pillars of ice come charging toward me, but they are so slow, I can dodge them. That technique was a new one, and I have the feeling that it's the not only thing he has kept secret.

“You are not the only one who has a few tricks up their sleeve, Jack!” Ivan yells at me, laughing like a madman. What he increased in power, he lacked in speed though. I can feel the wind; I can catch it, roll it into a ball and play with it on my fingers. The moment it touches me, it bursts into flames, creating an aura around my body.

As he extends Glace to attack me once again, I sprint behind him and charge up to strike him across the back. He slowly turns, realizing that it is definitely easier to sprint as fast as the speed of sound when you are on all fours. Both of my hands have a flaming aura around them, but I keep charging, knowing that I have all the time in the world before he can defend my onslaught.

“Magmoras,” I begin, clapping my hands together and spinning them in a circle, fusing the spell with so much raw magii from my hands that the result will be catastrophic, “burst!” The aura from my hands disappears as the flames engulf his body. He stands still for a second, almost immobilized by my strike, when the air behind him begins to bend. Like a slingshot, his body gets sent flying so fast that even with my new eyes and ears, I can't see him exit. What makes this even better was that my spell hadn't come into effect yet. It takes about five seconds before I hear the howl and scream as the lava consumes his flesh and bones. I laugh at his misfortune and enjoy every minute of it.

My eyes can see him as he struggles to stand, half his body burned alive to the point that his bones are exposed. I can see his pain, and yet I feel nothing, nothing but resentment for the man who killed a member of my family. My claws grip the ground as I race toward him, and right before I charge into him, I jump, grab his face with my hand, and shove him into the ground. I let loose on him, punch after punch, waiting for him to beg for mercy, to scream. But he doesn't. He doesn't give me that satisfaction, which only makes me punch him harder.

“Stop it!” I hear Lyra's scream from behind me, but I ignore it. Ivan was going to die, and there was nothing she could do about it. I can hear her screaming at me to stop, but I continue to punch him until he starts to cry out in pain, and even then, I only laugh. This was the type of man who didn't deserve to live; this was the type of man who enjoys others' misfortunes. I feel soft hands surround my chest, holding me back. I feel Lyra's head against my shoulders as she tries to pull me away, tries to stop my slaughter. I can feel her tears dampen my shirt, yet the part of me that has taken over doesn't care.

I try to take back control of my body, but I end up shaking uncontrollably. As I glance at my hands, I can see the monstrous thing that I have become. My fingers are dagger like.
What's happened to me?
I scream into myself.
Leo, where are you? I need you!
But my cries of desperation are in vain. Almost immediately after, I feel as if I'm being torn apart from the inside. I want to scream out in agony as I continue splitting in two. Lyra's hands are gone, but I can hear her sobs from behind me.

Keep control!
A dark voice inside of me calls out.
Remember what he did! He killed the one man who took you in. He killed your mentor! Have you no hatred? No rage?
I struggle to respond, but I can't find an answer to myself. Of course I have hatred for Ivan, but I remember what Leo told me not even a few days ago:

“Killing him would make me no better than the filth that he is!” I scream, and the split gets worse. I feel myself getting torn apart, but I don't want to give into my anger anymore. I look beside myself, and I almost throw up. Leo is actually the one splitting from me. I look like a mutant. My left side is back to normal, but my right is still merged with Leo. I can see him trying to split off, but something is keeping us tied together. This was the final thread before the tooth came out. I turn and look at Ivan's decaying body. I look him straight in the eyes and say to him, “I am not, and will never be, like you. The only monster that I see is you, and I will do everything in my power, with every fiber of being, to make sure that no one else becomes like you. That is my resolve now.” The final thread is cut, and Leo rips out of me with a red pulsing wave of magii. I turn around and see Lyra, and I smile at her. She smiles back, but that smile changes to horror as I walk toward her, and I knew what was coming next. Ivan is back on his feet, but for how long, I don't know.

“You … you puzzle me,” Ivan mumbles almost inaudibly, “I have trained every day so I could defeat you. I have achieved powers beyond the mere limits of the Kreydurs. And yet, you stand before me, victorious once again. What is the secret to your power?” Once he asks that question, he begins to tremble. His eyes fill with tears.

“Why can I not defeat you?” he screams at me. “I was born in the slums of Tundar. My skin was the only thing I had that I could truly call my own. I had nothing. Nothing! And I finally mean something to the world once Glace comes to me. I finally get revenge on everyone who struck me down, and you take it all away from me!” As he speaks, I almost throw up again. His body begins to reform, the tissue that was torn and burned away reforms itself into a new layer of skin.

“I will not put up with that,” he whispers, his body now reformed. “I refuse to bow down to anyone, including my king. This battle is about you and me, Jack, no one else! Fight me like a man!” At first I hesitate, but I realize that this is no longer about the countries or our jobs as Kreydurs, or even the rules of this country. This fight became personal when he murdered Gron, and it will remain personal until the end.

“Leo, it is time to finish this.” Sweat drips from my brow as I speak, and Leo doesn't listen to me. My magii chambers are leaking everywhere; I can barely channel at all. If I fought now, I would die. Was I prepared to accept that as my fate?
Ivan is just as tired as I am
, I remind myself.
He may look brand new, but he is just as weak.
Leo feels my determination through our link, and he wordlessly transforms into the cloth box.

Ivan launches Glace at me the moment Leo's sword becomes visible. The glacier thorns on his whip are pointed right at me, and I do not have the strength to move anymore. There is only one thing I can do: block it for as long as I can. I raise Leo slowly with my right hand, placing my free hand on the blade itself, and point it toward the sky. The whip collides with my sword, and I use all of my remaining strength to push her away. Glace retracts, but disappears almost instantly.

Ivan collapses onto his knees. His energy completely drained. The spell that he performed was way past his natural magii limit, or even Glace's. He saved himself from sure death, only to nearly kill himself. His hair begins to turn grey, wrinkles form on his snow white skin. We were a sorry-looking bunch, let me tell you; my magii chambers were destroyed from the inside and he had pushed past his natural magii.

“You … you better not walk away from me!” Ivan screams. I release Leo from his sword form. There was no point in fighting anymore. I had won, and he knew it. As I begin to walk away, I hear his groaning of pain and rage as he stands up again. His face is beet red with shame, anger, and rage.

“Prepare to die!” Glace forms in his hand and launches at me once again. His eyes are wild, and I can tell he has lost all reason. His only goal now is to have me killed, even if he goes down with me. I call Leo back and deflect the whip with one slash. I put everything I have into running toward him.

“Forgive me,” I whisper as I jump into the air, screaming as I bring my sword upon his head. No blood spurts out from his neck, and there is no sound aside from the sweeping motion of my blade. His body crumples and collapses as his head rolls away. Glace disappears from his hand without a sound in a flurry of snowflakes. The weight of what I had just done brings me to my knees. Was there no other way?

There was no other way, Jack
. Leo attempts to comfort me.
Ivan would have kept going until either he or you were dead. That is the horror of war, and of battle itself.
Despite his best efforts, deep down I believe that there could have been another way to resolve this. My hands are shaking uncontrollably, and I break down into tears. I feel Lyra's arms attempting to comfort me, but nothing helps. I cry until I have no more tears. I shake until my body becomes numb to it. I return from within myself a hollow shell, unable to feel anything but pain.

“We should go and see what we can find,” Lyra whispers to me. I nod wordlessly, still numb to my surroundings, to the whole world in general. Pyro's rays rest upon my hands as I see the guilt that will forever stain me. Lyra drags me toward the now destroyed record house. The flames had nothing to burn anymore, so they just died out. The smell of smoke intoxicated the air around us, but still we walk on, as if in a trance.

My eyes rest upon the viewer's table. Its glow was bright blue, just like it was when I used it for the first time. Pushing away Lyra's hand, I stagger toward the light, and touch the table. The familiar tingling of magii surrounds as my hands make contact with the stone, and the whole world disappears as it does when you enter the realm of the table.

“I am glad to see you could make it,” Gron's voice calls out. My eyes burst into tears as I see him appear before me. I run to him and try to hug him, but I pass right through him as if he is thin air. He shows no sign of emotion, and I remember that the real Gron is dead, that this is just a memory he has recorded.

“If you are receiving this message, then it is safe to say that I am not around anymore. The secret of the Magician's Core will now rest with you. If you have not already guessed, my true name is Flayre, prince of Pyrus. Release the spell on the Core, find my father, and restore my, no,
our
country to the way it was meant to be.”