Chapter Forty-Three
“There’s no chance you didn’t just see me do that, is there?” I asked. It’s not like I didn’t remove my foot from the pile of brains, but it was worth a shot.
“I’m…” Ripple began, unable to take his eyes away from Ardentia’s dead body. “I have to say I’m disappointed in the choices you’ve made.”
“It was always going to come to this, though. Ever since I began this journey. And now, the end is within reach,” I said.
“I don’t even think prison is an option for you at this point,” Plethora said. “If you ever escaped…again, there’s no telling what you’d do.”
“I don’t care what happens to me after I’m finished, so long as I finish what I started,” I responded. “To me, it sounds as if you think I’ll go on another killing spree. With the Nobles dead, there’s no one left I’d have the desire to kill.”
“What about the aliens that survived the mock invasion?” Ripple asked. My breath escaped me when he said this. So many questions shot through my head back-to-back, I don’t even remember what I was thinking. It took me a second to get together a question to ask aloud as I regained my composure.
“There were survivors?”
The couple nodded slowly, glanced at each other, then back at me.
“We can tell you where they went, but that would require the person you probably hate the most to show up,” Ripple said. They were smart in choosing who should say this, as I didn’t know Plethora as well as her husband and likely would have snapped at her. I also saw through their ruse and understood they arrived before everyone else to stall, meaning the remaining Nobles would be a challenge, especially if they showed up at the same time.
“You were probably the two Nobles I wanted to kill the least,” I said boldly, well aware I was speaking in past tense. Ripple stepped in front of his wife and held his hand out.
“Amaia, think about what you’re doing and what you could accomplish by negotiating,” he said. “You could get proper revenge on the one that killed your brother.”
“You’re saying that as if you knew who did it,” I said as my team approached me and began to surround the couple. “Do you?”
Plethora was eyeing the other four and gritting her teeth. She seemed ready for what was about to go down. Ripple, in seeing the way his wife was reacting, was ready as well as he answered my question.
“No.”
“Then you all die.”
Rose drew a pistol and fired at Ripple first, but his wife was fast to react as she created a clone that jumped out in front of the bullet and disappeared into thin air as fast as it appeared. Ripple then punched the ground and created a sonic ripple effect that knocked the five of us away. As we regained ourselves, Plethora sent out a plethora of clones after each of us.
Aura Ray dealt with hers the fastest as she had an automatic weapon from a dead guard and fired with accuracy that would rival a top marksman. I was really curious to know more about her origin.
My eyes followed Vulcon next as he attempted to create a lava moat in front of himself, but the clones maneuvered their bodies and boosted each other over it. One did fall in and burn to death, but the others surrounded him.
He swung at one and she easily deflected and spun him around, putting him in a hold that allowed the other clones to beat on him. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why he allowed them to get a few punches in but he let lava escape the cracks in his ashen skin. The clones surrounding him in close proximity screamed as they burned alive.
Most of the clones created came after Rose, Adriel, and me though. As they cautiously approached me, I saw the other two go to work.
Rose withdrew both pistols now and headshot as many as she could, before others got in close to her. I saw her summon her dragon to help and saw Adriel slice a clone up through the middle before the clones after me closed out my field of view from the rest. I rolled my eyes and held out my palms at the ground, letting ice burst from them. I formed a spiked ring of black ice around me and eliminated the clones stupid enough to get close. The ones that weren’t immediately obliterated, I tossed icicles at. This killed a few more, but a resistant few dodged the icicles and leapt over the ice ring to get in close to me.
I hit the first one with a haymaker and she immediately disappeared. Realizing my strength alone was enough to finish them, I ducked and weaved out of their fruitless attempts to land a hit on me before countering each attack with a one-shot blow of my own. I got to a clone in front of me that was still blocking my field of view and straight kicked her into oblivion, but as she disappeared, Ripple jumped out at me from behind where she was and punched straight at me.
He didn’t connect the punch, but I imagine this was purposeful as a sonic wave came from his fist and sent me into my own ice ring, shattering it.
I got to my feet, healing from the scratches and gashes as I glared at the two real Nobles that were directly in front of me.
“We figured you’d have the easiest time with the clones, so we knew we’d have to attack you ourselves,” Plethora said. She looked so proud of herself. I just smirked.
“That so?”
There was a bright flash of purple-tinted light from behind them and with this flash, all their confidence was erased. Adriel defeated the rest of the clones sent to him in a single move, causing multiple bolts of lightning to strike them all at once. The couple turned around to see him slowly make his way over to us, scythe thrown over his shoulder.
“I’d do the same for the others, but I don’t wanna risk hurting them,” he shouted. “But with Amaia as a combat partner, this’ll be easy.”
“That so?!” Plethora shouted. She probably thought they’d have more time, but clearly none of them did enough research on the rest of my team and far too much research on me. She sent out a wave of more clones at Adriel and all he did was poke two fingers out at them, beginning a stream of lightning. He started at one end and killed the first clone, then swiped his finger across the line of clones, killing them all in one motion. The three of us ducked the bolt in time as he finally reached us and smirked at the two Nobles. They looked back at me as I got to my feet and copied Adriel’s smug smirk.
“This battle only has one ending,” I said, my smile disappearing. “I am sorry it has come to this.”
Adriel and I rushed them simultaneously. Plethora created a wall of clones around her and her husband. And as Adriel and I easily wiped out the clones one by one, Ripple was using the openings as opportunities to shoot more sonic waves at us. But, Adriel and I were too swift for his attacks, and in ten seconds flat, we cleared out the dozens of clones without breaking a sweat.
Ripple punched at the ground again, creating a tidal wave ripple effect, but I created an ice pillar that lifted me above the effect of the wave. At the peak of the pillar, I slapped my palm down on the ice and forced a wall to jut out of the front of it, separating the couple. I jumped down to the left side where Plethora was as Adriel handled Ripple on the right.
I let Plethora tire herself out more as she created clone after clone while trying to get a hit in on me, but I outclassed her in everything. She was down to the last clone she created and while I was distracted, attempted to land a hit on me from behind, but I spun around in time and with my ice sword, sent the blade through her heart.
“You were the only Nobles I respected. Ones who could question what you were doing. I’m sorry.” These were my last words to her as Adriel, with a bolt of lightning, shattered a hole in the ice wall, allowing Ripple to see his wife take her last few breaths before collapsing.
“KIMBERLY!” he shouted. He ran over to her and lifted the upper half of her body onto his knees. Tears streamed down his face as he hung his head low. The clones fighting Rose and Vulcon disappeared and the two of them made their way over to us along with Aura Ray.
“Just…just make it quick,” Ripple said, not even looking up. I had no more words for him, as Rose handed me one of her guns and I put a bullet into the top of the Noble’s skull. I handed Rose her weapon back and we turned to face whomever was next as a team.
Unfortunately for us, the couple accomplished their goal of stalling until the remaining of Asai’s forces arrived. We had no time to escape, but at this point, I don’t think I wanted to anymore.
Fiberglass, Vital, Tyfuse, along with the other three remaining Archs, Ice Cap, Psyna, and their leader Seismic, Cobbs, and Asai made their presence known as they returned to their headquarters with an army of guards in trucks and helicopters to back them up. There was no sign of Lux.
