Chapter Eleven

I slightly tilted my head towards Advocate and whispered, “Do you know his full name?”

“I do,” he whispered back. “It’s nothing creative.”

“Do it. Now.”

He stepped before the rest of us and spoke.

“Ash Phoenix.”

The human phoenix halted his charge and his powers immediately shut off as his eyes widened. Aura Ray’s irises disappeared, leaving just her white sclera. 

“His aura’s gray,” she reported. “He’s under The Advocate’s control.”

“Good,” I said, turning to the nuisance before us. “So, this is the famed power of the Archs, huh? Pathetic.”

It felt cliched to say it, but I was really expecting more of a fight.

“Keep your power off and get on your knees,” Advocate commanded. I nodded at him.

“Thank you, Advocate,” I said. He sighed.

“The--”

“Shut the fuck up.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

I crouched down to the phoenix’s level and stared him in his dead eyes. I couldn’t help smile at the power I had over a legendary Noble as I crafted an icicle and slowly pierced his left eye with it until it came out the back of his head. Then I grabbed what remained of the icicle on the outside of his head and twisted, snapping the Noble’s neck. 

He, of course, dropped dead next to my feet and I walked past his corpse, motioning for the group to follow. There was a pair of footsteps I didn’t hear following me and I spun around to realize my mistake. I was so drunk on power at the moment, I didn’t realize what the fucker’s namesake meant. Vice, who had fought Ash before, had already known, which is why he was the one that wasn’t following us. He was waiting for the rebirth. 

By the time I had turned around, Ash’s body had already become ash and was reforming into his new, stronger body.

“Fuck! Advocate, s--”

“Miss Luther, please! It’s The--”

“Shut the fuck up and say his--”

In the blink of an eye, I could no longer see Advocate’s body. As I was being tackled out of the way by Vulcon, I saw a wave of orange flames engulf my teammate’s body. After we hit the ground, Vulcon helped me up and I glared at an Ash ablaze. He killed my only guaranteed ticket of getting the Nobles to do what I wanted. I could’ve trapped each and every single one of them with Advocate controlling Asai. They would’ve listened to her instructions. They were bound by them. So much wasted potential. We didn’t even leave the Prison, and we had our first death. 

And it was all due to this “hero” before me. He stood still, waiting for us to make a move. His stance, his pose, it made him seem like he knew he was better than us. Like he was in the right! It was fueling the fire within me further. 

“Not going to attack?” he asked. His voice. Whispery. Ghostly. Similar to Ache’s, but nowhere near as creepy. I forgot he could talk. I assumed all the Archs were just mindless monsters. “Good.”

He dashed up directly to me, a trail of flames behind him. I was too late to move. He could burn every piece of me to a crisp. If he did that, I knew there would be no coming back. I knew my regeneration could only get me so far. 

Vulcon stepped between us and shielded my body from the onslaught of flames this young Noble released. So much power trusted to one individual. Was he even the strongest one?

“Amaia!...You gotta move!” Vulcon shouted at me. His skin was gray, as if it were covered in ashes and there were cracks in it that revealed lava flowing underneath. I wondered if the serum could do such a thing to the human body. “This…really hurts!”

How? How could seemingly normal flames harm someone who was capable of producing a substance hotter than the flames spewed at him? Was it the rebirths? The legend of the phoenix says their flames burn brighter and hotter every time they are reborn. If that was the case for Ash, just how many times has he been reborn?

I heard a powerful kicking sound come from in front of Vulcon and the fire ceased as a result. Vulcon dropped to his knees and passed out as I realized that Vice had snuck behind the phoenix and knocked him across the lobby. 

“Good stuff, Vulcon,” Vice said, before closing the distance on the Noble again and punching him across the face, sending it into the floor. Ash slowly raised his head again and made eye contact with Vice.

“You…” he said, gradually getting to his feet. “I remember you.”

Vice kneed the phoenix in the face, and the force from the metal-infused knee sent Ash’s body flying. Then there was a whiplash sound as Vice let his right wrap fly and wrap around Ash’s waist. 

“What’s not to remember?!” Vice shouted as he yanked Ash back to him and sent another punch rippling through the phoenix’s face, sending him into a wall, causing a crater. 

Vice sprinted in to close the distance again, but before he could get too close, Ash lit himself ablaze once more, causing Vice to cease his charge. Ash glared down Vice, but his attention shifted when a blast of plasma grazed his shoulder. Like him, I turned towards where the blast came from.

“Huh, look at that,” Infracon stated. “His flames can’t melt plasma. In fact…”

He fired again, this time hitting Ash in the chest, opposite his heart. The blast sent a hole through the phoenix.

“I think it’s safe to say his flames increase the heat of these plasma blasts,” Infracon deduced. 

Ash gritted his teeth. The first sign of emotion I’d seen from him. This was a good sign. But, these Archs didn’t come without their own surprises as Ash formed wings from his flames and flew at Infracon, faster than he had been moving before.

He swung and connected his fist with Infracon’s nose, blowing his head off and sending the rest of his body into a wall. But, the body didn’t break the wall. In fact, the body completely disappeared as it wasn’t actually Infracon, just an after image. 

I had heard stories about this guy and how the Nobles couldn’t individually catch him, but Lux and his partner were able to. Some of the Nobles even tried to team up and couldn’t catch him, so how did Lux? And who was he with?

The real Infracon set off another plasma blast from his cybernetic arms and it connected with Ash again. Ash shut his fire off as a result and let the next blast hit him. It didn’t affect him nearly as much. But, just as he believed he had gained an upper hand, Vice appeared behind him and tried to connect a kick to the head. Ash was able to block it with his forearm and as a result, he set himself ablaze again, but as he did this, another plasma blast hit him. 

There was more back and forth of this, Ash was not able to concentrate on keeping fire off and approaching Infracon without Vice right there to contend with him. Using the pattern of the back and forth, I searched for my opening and took advantage when it arrived. 

As Ash turned his fire off once more and waited for the attack from Vice, I attacked from his weak side with an icicle already formed and successfully sent it through his temple, killing the Noble instantly. His body dropped and began to start the rebirth process, turning to ash. And before it could begin to reform, I treated him like I treated Price and froze the ash over so he couldn’t come back; forever frozen in a state of being reborn. 

“Good work,” I said to the rest. “If he was strong like that alone, I can’t imagine what he was like with the rest of the Archs.”

“You…don’t wanna know,” Vice said, rewrapping his wraps. 

“Sorry, I had to sit this one out,” Detonade announced. “Even if I were to completely let loose and explode myself, I’m sure he could have absorbed the explosion. He and Lux had done it before.”

I furrowed my brow. “Lux can--”

“I don’t even know how that shit worked when it happened, but it landed me here,” Detonade continued. “Well, technically the Keep, but I couldn’t play nice with the others.”

“Well, you won’t be able to have your revenge just yet. We’re going to the Headquarters first. Take care of them, and the Keep falls apart.”