Ascension of Chaos

Ashley

Blake and I both carefully take out a large box from our storage rings. A metal box that immediately begins to show faint, glowing crimson cracks across it. Then we toss the box at the King of Destruction as the king himself begins preparing another breath attack.

And without any hesitation, Blake teleports the two of us backwards over and over again. Not sending us very far with each teleportation, but still building up distance. Meanwhile I create numerous barriers of destruction mana along the way.

Making as sure as I possibly can that we're protected from the blast. Because the bits of pyroclast in the boxes are the only bits that me and Blake could safely gather up and keep before the rest of the central region was turned into a lava pool.

Not to mention the breath attack that should be firing any-

My thoughts come to a grinding halt when a loud explosion sounds out mixed with a roar. Meanwhile a bright crimson light shines all over amidst the explosions and roars, blinding both me and Blake.

And on top of it all, I feel pain spreading across my entire body, and hear Blake grunting and coughing from his place holding onto me with his arm around my side.

The explosions continue one after another as the many pyroclasts inside of the boxes no doubt explode in contact with the king's breath attack.

Then everything goes silent all at once. Leaving the blinding light to slowly fade until I can see the aftermath.

Or mostly see it, considering the smoke and ash filling the skies.

From what I manage to make out, the remaining ground of the Unique Domain that isn't covered by the lava is terribly damaged. So badly that it's just a bunch of craters now with the occasional small pools of crimson liquid, lava, and what looks like blood splattered everywhere.

The sight of the blood instantly brings my gaze to the King of Destruction, where I soon find the ash and smoke clearing enough to reveal the king.

Without any scales left.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

He's now completely scaleless.

A faint smile spreads across my face. Only for that very smile to vanish when I turn to look at Blake and find him unconscious with his own wounds covering him.

Shit.

I quickly search through my skills for a healing skill that works on others, but the only one I find is so bad that it doesn't even heal his scratches. Something from a low level human I fought in an Official System Event.

Because apparently most monsters, especially destruction affinity ones, don't have healing skills.

Fuck.

Instead of a healing skill I look through his ring real quick and grab a couple of his healing potions. Then I pour them down his throat to get the healing process a nice boost, since I thankfully still see his natural regeneration at work. Meaning he still has health. Even if he is covered in wounds all over the place and is unconscious.

I begin to look around as the king begins to recover from the damage, trying to take advantage of its current disorientation to find a place to put Blake.

But the king manages to find us first. And with Blake unconscious right now?

He doesn't put up his barrier.

My eyes widen in horror at the sight of crimson cracks beginning to spread across Blake's body. Then I move as quickly as I can to spread my wings out before wrapping him in my wings to cover him so that the king can't see him. Expanding the size of my wings in the process through one of my many skills.

But the damage is already done, and his wounds are now even more severe than before.

I find myself falling down to the ground since I'm using my wings to cover Blake, meanwhile flashes of memories with my twin flood my mind. Memories of his protecting me during the social parties hosted by our parents. Of him shielding me from the other top enforcers and the media.

Memories of him teaching me how to fight. Teaching me magic spells even though I couldn't use magic myself. Just because I asked him to when we were kids as a form of escape from our lives.

One memory after another floods my mind. Everything connected to Blake. But only the memories connected to him, which leaves my mind filled with holes still.

Tears begin to leak out of my eyes as I hold Blake to my chest while falling towards the ground, repeatedly seeing the System Message count in the corner of my interface growing thanks to the king's attention on me.

"I'm sorry…" I mutter out loud into his ear as I hold him and fall. "I'm so sorry…"

He went through so much to protect me all through our lives. And I just… tried to forget everything.

I hear another loud roar coming from outside of my wings. A sound that knocks loose my focus and makes me think of the pain I'm in right now. Of the pain I spent my childhood in. The things my parents did. Or rather, didn't do.

I remember how said parents acted during the Planetary Council Meeting despite all of that.

And everything slowly builds up a fire inside of me.

A rage.

Rage at my own family. Rage at everything both Blake and I were put through. Rage at the enforcers who put us through it, and our family who didn't do anything besides push it even further with their fucking ignorance.

And rage at this damned lizard that is still sending me System Messages about its gaze being reflected back at it.

My eyes harden, my tears dry, and right as I'm beginning to grit my teeth, I feel a hand touching my face, making me open my eyes faster than I've ever done before. At which point I find Blake looking up at me through half lidded eyes with a faint smile on his face and his hand on my cheek.

Then a purple light spreads across him just like the teleportation spells he's used before. And just like the spells I remember him showing me in the past.

"You can…" he begins, only to cough out some glowing bluish red blood with golden runes on it onto my chest, "…win."

The hatred growing inside of me halts in an instant before he vanishes from my arms, having teleported himself away. Hopefully to a safe place. Because I have no idea where he is anymore, even when I try to use Destructive Sensory Pulse.

I finally open up my wings and flap them, halting my fall mere seconds before I'm about to hit the ground. Then I fly up into the air and turn my glare onto the King of Destruction once more.

And what I find looking back at me through the now clear air is an enraged King of Destruction covered in open wounds and without a single scale on his body. He's also missing a few fangs, and several claws spread across his hands and feet.

But most importantly, he seems to be missing half of his tail. As if he tried using his tail to protect his face, which was closest to the blast judging by the severity of his wounds closest to the face.

Although that makes sense considering we tossed the boxes at the king's breath attack. An attack formed in front of his mouth.

I grit my teeth and narrow my eyes at the monster while remembering the different types of runes that Blake taught me as a kid. Numerous runes and arrangements of them that will work for destruction magic the same as they worked for his spatial magic. Albeit with different effects.

"You're a dead lizard," I mutter out loud, my voice echoing across the hellscape around us. And as if understanding my words, the King of Destruction lets out a hissy growl. Like he's angry.

Good.

Be angry.

Because you're not the only one.