Chapter Fifty

Seismic ripped several rocks from the ground with his terrakinesis and forced them to orbit around him. Then he charged at me, full sprint.

I had honestly been toying with him up until this point as there was a certain lack of lightning I avoided using for the first part of my battle with the two--now one--Nobles. I lowered my head and smirked as my eyes flashed with lightning as my body flickered in and out of sight before completely disappearing before Seismic’s eyes. 

I was behind him now and shot a bolt of lightning from my fingertips directly at his spine, but one of the orbiting rocks took the attack, but the explosion startled Seismic and he didn’t react in time as I had closed the distance and clocked him across the jaw. I sent him skidding across the wasteland, but before he finished tumbling, I flashed next to him, keeping my smile. 

“Feel familiar?” I taunted, before planting five fingers on the center of his torso. The force from the push caused his body to carve a crater into the ground and I sent several bolts of lightning through each fingertip. He couldn’t even yell as his body did most of the talking, uncontrollably spazzing until I stopped and took a step back to wait for him to get up.

His stomach was smoking and he was visibly pissed, but ultimately fine. So introducing my lightning earlier into this fight wouldn’t have helped. Probably not even before he died, as that’s what set the volcano off. 

“That it?”

“You really don’t know what I’m capable of, do you?” I asked. 

“I’m not here to find out,” Seismic said, raising a palm and sending the rocks that were orbiting around him--and that had fallen due to my last attack--directly at me. As I effortlessly dodged, sliced through, and broke through the rocks, I heard him stomp and rip up more to throw at me. So instead of fending off his weak attack, I flickered and appeared behind him again. I should have gone with a different approach because this time he was counting on my being behind him. 

In time he was able to spin and jut his arm upward, forcing a rock spike to shoot out the ground. It narrowly missed the center of my stomach, but nicked my ribs as I tried to dodge.

“That’s new.”

He had no quippy response to this as he stepped towards me and jutted his arm upward again, creating another spike. I flickered again, and again appeared behind, but I flickered once more to appear at his side. I was forced back though as he slammed his fists into the ground and created a ring of rock pikes that protected him temporarily.

“Delaying the inevitable?” I asked, but he glared at me again. I didn’t think anything was different, but I felt something tighten around my feet. I looked down to see the rocky ground trapped me up to my ankles, then I looked up to see him in front of my face with a rocky glove hand. He punched me head on and broke my nose, then he followed up with another super-strength-powered punch that broke my jaw. 

I moved my legs out of the rock trap with my own super strength alone and swiped upward at him with my scythe. It barely missed him as I saw a tiny cut appear on his cheek. As he stepped back and as I healed, he pointed his palm at the ground then lifted it upward. I was expecting another rock spike, so I dodged, but instead of rocks, lava spewed from beneath the ground. I locked eyes with him, then the ground beneath me, and finally back to him.

“Ah, shit.”

He forced more lava plumes to burst from the ground. I was trying my best to dodge while getting in close, but every time I took a step forward, he raised two plumes in my face. This gave me an idea.

I took a step forward and he raised two lava plumes. When he did, I dodged them, but sent my scythe spinning through them, forcing him to dodge as well. As he dodged, I preemptively shot a lightning bolt for the direction in which he dodged and struck him again. This was enough to stun him for half a second as I recalled my weapon and sent the scythe blade spinning through his torso. 

He stopped moving. He knew it was over and spoke as if his body wasn’t about to slide into two pieces.

“I kinda wished we could’ve seen eye-to-eye,” he said. “I feel like we could’ve been cool. But, you helped kill my friends, following Amaia. So, I had to do this.”

For once, I shut up and let him talk.

“At least it’s over now though,” he continued. “If you guys do win, I hope you’re satisfied with the feeling you end up with.”

I was confused. I didn’t feel great about killing him.

“My weapon has the ability to bring back those slain by it. All I have to do is hit their body within a certain amount of time with the hilt. I normally do this to teach gods and monsters a lesson. But most I don’t bring back,” I explained.

“Why’re you telling me this?”

“You know why.”

He chuckled. “Pass. I’d just try to fight you again. And we see how that’ll--”

He cut off as his torso separated from his legs and his face crashed against the ground. I approached his body and closed his eyes. Behind me, Rose’s portal appeared. How did she know I was done fighting? I’d have to ask her. But I couldn’t help but keep my mind preoccupied with this overwhelming feeling of regret. Then the thought of battling Amaia to stop her flashed in my head, but I immediately threw the thought away.

This was just supposed to be some sort of fun thing for me to do as I never really did anything with Erza’s crew. I know Rose had a stake in this. And Amaia was the cause, but was this worth it for me? I helped kill that guy’s friends and killed him and with his dying words, he admitted to being able to be friends in another life. 

This made me come to a thought I wasn’t comfortable with having: The Nobles didn’t need to die.