Araka took aim at Nero, and he released a singular, glowing crimson arrow.

It flew out, faster than a bird, and it split into eight more arrows, all honing in on him. Fire ejected from Nero’s soles, propelling him toward his enemy, and he weaved through the arrows, but instead of continuing on course they turned and followed him.

He screamed as his entire body burst into flames and flew through the walls into the other rooms. Ricocheting through file cabinets, desk computers, and lamps, he left a trail of fire as he zipped through the rooms.

He flew faster and faster, making more sudden turns to lose the arrows. Once he approached another wall, he waited until the last moment and made a sharp turn. The arrows hit the wall, and red sparks lit up the room.

Unwillingly he let out maniacal laughter, Unas becoming bolder and taking small moments to pilot his body, taking joy in destruction making the flames brighter. Nero’s confidence soared as his trick worked and he flew around to kill him, no longer worried about his appointment.

Araka swiveled his head around sporadically, eyes flitting around the hallway. He could sense Nero’s aura, but couldn’t see him nearby.

The smell of smoke increased as Nero made his way through the walls and back to the hallway. He burst through the wall to the left of him and brought his sword up to swing, but Araka put up a shield, and the blowback pushed him into a wall.

Nero stuck his foot out, and made the flames from his sole burn brighter and hotter, turning blue, but all it did was push Araka through the other wall, his shield near impenetrable, and chased him into the office space he forced Araka into.

Araka hovered, blue and pale, his business suit no longer clean, his hair no longer perfectly neat. Broken pieces of burning ceiling fell around Araka and Nero as they circled the room, looking for an opening. Araka swiped his hand to the side, and the file cabinets came speeding at him.

Nero simply stuck his hands out and incinerated them, but it was a simple distraction but a wonderful ruse. A table came from the other side, hurtling through the room, pushing Nero into the wall. He fell to the ground, never letting go of his sword, rabidly refusing to let go. His vision blurred, as if underwater, and he struggled to stand, hunger smacking him in the face.

The sword mentioned something about meat , and Nero tried to drown out his complaints trying to stay alive, but his body was weak, and it was a long time he had eaten, blood or otherwise.

Araka’s eyes began to glow even brighter, and the objects in the room began to circle him. Like a cyclone, they shielded him from any possible attacks. Random sharp office objects left the cyclone towards Nero, a pair of scissors at his head.

It missed, sticking horizontally out of the wall behind him, shaking while stuck inside. Staples swirled around and cut him and banged against his head, random mugs smacked him in the face, and Nero was frustrated, he was about to die at the hands of a printer as well.

Large office printers, shooting out paper at lightning-fast speed were easy to dodge, but the paper cuts were what really stung, and Araka let out a cackle as Nero let out a soft oww.

Nero focused his aim on the books and papers inside the cyclone and set them ablaze. Araka cried out as he was set on fire, trapped in his own shield. Quickly he moved the blazing cyclone towards Nero, but he didn’t bother to move. It went right over him, simply burning what remaining clothes he had left.

“You really are the pervert they say you are,” Araka grumbled.

“What,” Nero shouted.

“I said—”

Rushing water flooded the office and Nero’s heart sank.

Time to go,  Unas said.

“I’m killing him and that fucking goldfish, then I’m killing Jack,” Nero screamed.

The water was filling up fast, the lower portion in undertown Atlaan, deep underwater, and Nero would soon drown underneath. He burned down the walls, the protective barriers, and in a split second, he decided to swallow his pride instead of saltwater.

Araka swam through the water with ease, opened his jaws, his prey right in front of his mandibles, and he fell into a portal right along with him.

One.

Water gushed out, and the naked man, tumbling through his favorite scenic view spread his arms wide open, the glittering, sparkling purple lights surrounding him, reveling in the screams of terror from Araka who had never taken the Nero Transportation Shuttle before.

Two.

Nero slid out into a room, filled with bird-people instead of fish-people, more water filling in, screams and squawks, feathers in the air.

“Monsters,” shouted a parrot. “Monsters are here!”

The room looked disturbingly familiar to Araka, the same office he and Nero were fighting in earlier, the sound of phones ringing, printers beeping, except it was filled with employees screaming, flying in the air, unable to escape the new fish tank.

Araka wouldn’t let Nero escape, he knew it was a distraction.

He also knew Nero was his ride back.

Faster in water rather than land, he practically glided across it, and much to Nero’s dismay, he followed him through the tunnel, and out the other side.

Three.

He landed on one of the upper floors of the Triangle Corp. building, coughing, naked and wet, more water filling up the halls, and Araka came as well, his unwelcome hitchhiker. Unable to keep going, assuming he would have lost him after three jumps, the last portal closed behind him and Nero heaved on the floor, his stomach concaving in, eyes fluttering.

“Fuck off,” Nero screamed. “Can’t a man burn a building in peace these days!”

“I almost feel bad for hurting an unwell man. Almost. You try the patience of any normal aquatic being,” Araka said in awe.

The inch of water Nero was lying face-up began to bubble and boil in the hallway, and Araka screamed, the soles of his shoes being melted into his feet, and Nero giggled, impervious to almost all forms of heat, and sighed, enjoying the warm bath.

“I’m so tired of being called crazy. You’re the crazy one if you think it’s cool to kill a crazy dude,” Nero chuckled.

From the center of his chest something warm spread, and he loved it, a hug on the inside. Unas grumbled as he used the sword to help stand up, and Nero leaned on the wall, slowly approaching Araka, who was now fearful.

He flew into another room and grumbled at the strangely mangled corpses all over the ground. Using his telekinesis, Arka started catapulting the bodies at him and Nero exploded.

The bodies incinerated upon impact, Araka covered himself in a shield, and the entire building trembled under the weight of Nero’s anger. Cooked organs fell to the ground and smacked the walls, landing with loud, wet smacks.

Nero groaned, upset that he let go too early to have as big a blast as he wanted as before, but the job was done, and the entire right side of the floor was blown right off.

Friends are near, said Unas.

“Nero," yelled a voice.

He turned to look and it was Alto.

Without missing a chance to win, Araka focused all of his aurae on his eyes.

He shut them tight, and opened them wide, shooting hot beams out of his eyes. They cut through whatever was left of the top floor, zig-zagging through the wall, the ceiling, and the floor.

Nero and Alto ducked as the beams worked their way through the building. A chunk of the building fell off, and quickly, Alto jumped off of it onto the remaining part of the building.

With half of the top floor missing, all of them could hear the screams, whirring helicopter blades, and sirens below on full blast. The wind at a higher altitude added to the disorientation, whipping what was left of his hair in his face, the air stinging his eyes.

Nero’s sword lit up and he knew what he must do, the second best thing he knew how to do.

Break and burn things.

As he was about to light the entire building on fire, Alto ran up to him and hugged him from behind.

“I was so worried about you," he said.

All of a sudden, Nero relaxed. His eyes turned to their regular pale green, and his flaming hair was gone. He turned to kiss Alto, and he stroked his fingers through his hair.

“I’m sorry,” Nero said. “I’m so sorry."

“Don’t ignore me,” Araka screamed. “This is my moment, and not yours!”

Using all of his strength, Araka focused on what was left of the top floor. He raised his arms up, and it detached from the building. Everyone on the street watched in confusion, horror, and amazement, as the burning office floor soared through the sky.

Adonis flew upwards in the sky, with Azara on his back once they spotted their friends. They tried to land on the office floor and rescue them, but it was moving too fast.

Burning chunks of wall and cement broke off and fell onto the buildings below, further spreading the fire. The police turned their attention to the fire, the Federals and Aecors tried to avoid the falling, burning debris running in all directions, but it was almost impossible to leave.

Cars were positioned in certain places to make it so gang members couldn’t escape, their own war tactic their demise.

Burning chunks landed onto helicopters, either pushing them down to the ground, into buildings or leaving nothing but a fiery explosion in mid-flight. Nothing and no one was spared in the wake of chaos and destruction.

Araka grinned the higher he brought the office floor into the sky. His favorite color had returned, soaring through the sky, sparkling into the air, released by everyone that could see his rising platform of metal and fire.

The color of fear and death burned brightly, and he shuddered, knowing that nothing else could compare to seeing so many swirls of them at once. Alto and Nero held onto each other to keep steady as the floor rose higher and higher into the sky, and their fear only made Araka stronger, filling his aquatic veins with adrenaline and malice.

When Araka felt he was high enough, he brought his hands straight down, pushing the burning floor down towards the pavement, hurtling fast. Nero pushed his sword downwards towards the floor in an attempt to stay on, but he missed as the floor was already falling. He and Alto went flying upwards from the force of the sudden movement.

Araka simply jumped off the floor, and levitated in the air, surveying the chaos from above.

Panic increased in the street below as they realized what was happening.

Police, random citizens caught in the crossfire, Federals, Aecors, all ran as fast as they could as the burning chunk of metal, cement, and office supplies came crashing down on them. Screaming and crying they all ducked under cars, moved into buildings, or simply stood still, closed their eyes, and accepted their fate.

Adonis flapped his wings as hard as he could and shot down to the ground. He landed near Pumpkin and she grabbed on. Azara and Pumpkin held on with all their might as Adonis adeptly swerved through the flames, corpses, and screaming people.

Diamond saw him and ran headfirst into him, as he slid under a piece of burning roof, Azara and Pumpkin screaming and praying.

He narrowly came out the other side, and the force of the impact pushed Adonis into Diamond, and she held onto his break, face twitching as for the fifth day in a row, Atlaan was surrounded by fire and death.

They soared into the sunset, getting away without fear of the police or enemy gangs as everyone was more preoccupied with living.

Up above, Nero’s eyes burned as he fell through the sky, and he struggled to hold onto his sword. Alto tried grabbing him, but he missed and instead pushed himself even farther away from him. Nero didn’t think he could make a tunnel fast enough, so he tried to get close enough so that he could just blink with him.

Nero shot fire from the soles of his feet, aiming for Alto, but went too far and missed, the freefall causing them to start twisting and turning. Nero looked down and the pavement suddenly became a lot closer than it was before. In one last burst, Nero pushed himself towards Alto, and his fingers touched his hand.

Nero let out a blood-curdling scream, and in a blink of an eye, they were gone.

The office floor came crashing down on any poor soul that couldn’t make it out in time. Dust and debris went flying out into the air, and then crashing back down on anyone lucky enough to miss the first attack.

The ground cracked under the pressure and car alarms went off as fire hydrants burst and sewage pipes erupted onto the road. Chunks of metal that were on fire stuck out of the sidewalk. Limbs littered the street as people cried out in agony.

Dust settled in the air, and all that was left was fire, metal, ash, and pain.

Alabaster Almuz rose from the ashes, his entire body covered in jewels, not hiding the monster he was anymore. Every inch of his skin was covered in diamonds, from the back of his knees to his eyebrows and armpits.

His clothes had burnt off from the wreckage. He stood naked, and his skin sparkled in the sunlight and shone among the flames. The blood of friend and foe alike slid down his hard exterior, and he gazed at the hellscape around him.

At the top of the rubble, he looked down and saw the bodies of his dead coworkers. He didn’t want to deal with all the paperwork and hoped someone was alive so they could at least field the phone calls for him while he took care of it.

Almuz sat at the top of the pile of rubble as he heard ambulance sirens in the distance.

He planted Jack to give them false information, hoping that Nero would get himself kidnapped and Almuz could buy him from Crassius. Yet somehow, someway , Nero had managed to free himself and set another building on fire. Almuz was amazed that Ace’s body double happened to have the same stupid streak of luck just as he did.

Almuz smiled, and his golden teeth melted, dripping down his chin, slightly pleased that he didn’t dispose of his favorite one as he did the others. He did as promised, making him suffer as Godiva wanted, but didn’t see the point of keeping him around after he no longer looked cute.

As backup arrived, he remembered her words.

That thing was made to one day grow into a weapon. He is the last one of them… a monster…

Almuz grumbled to himself that he would have no choice but to corner him again and take him at his weakest. It worked before, why not now? His fancy, flaming sword made no difference.

He slid down the rubble, down the other side of the remains of his employees whom he promised true leadership to, and scared the EMTs, when he spoke, gold dribbling out of his mouth, and then chuckled, realizing his mistake.

Slick, wet noises could be heard when new, pointy quartz teeth replaced them.

He coughed and spat out the gold, and bits of gravel as well, his mind not concerned about the death around him, but his party two days from now.

He wanted to add more to his collection.