PHOENIX

𝙿𝙷𝙾𝙴𝙽𝙸𝚇 𝚂𝚄𝙳𝙳𝙴𝙽𝙻𝚈 𝙵𝙴𝙻𝚃 𝙱𝚁𝙰𝚅𝙴𝚁 𝚃𝙷𝙰𝙽 𝙴𝚅𝙴𝚁 𝙱𝙴𝙵𝙾𝚁𝙴. He had been through shock, terror, loneliness, and a debilitating savagery of sadness. Most of his thoughts stemmed from the idea that he wouldn't make it out of here, but now, as it turned out, he believed there was more. God had gifted him the power of lightning. An ability so unbelievably potent that it may as well have controlled the universe. Without light, there was nothing. So, he thought he could have been a messiah whose purpose was to rid the game of the darkness, of bastards like Chrono. And in the process, he supposed, he would save people a lot of grief, a lot of bloodshed, and a shitload of horror.

  The tornado sparked and cracked in the hazy fogginess, encircling them in a grey arena around which resided a wall of electricity. Phoenix, posture fully straightened and fists held aloft, sent the man a piercing stare, eyes glowing cyan.

  Chrono returned it, no longer smiling, no longer pompous; it seemed there had existed a mixture of uncertainty in the way he carried himself, as if he'd travelled this world murdering and causing havoc for so long that he figured, in some sort of roundabout way, that he was a god. That he was God. And now, he had no choice but to question it.

  A snarl escaped Chrono and it sounded so maniacal that even Phoenix shuddered. He was one creepy, ludicrous piece of work, all right; one with more power than he deserved.

  "You are foolish to challenge a god!" bellowed Chrono, the voice divine yet demonic. A steamy mist of purple sifted through the iridescent goggles winking in the light of the Spiral, uniquely unaffected by the conditions of the weather. He lifted his arms, creating a clock about twice his size, and snapped it in Phoenix's direction. A tail of whitish blue smoke ghosted behind, whirling and pivoting like a match falling into a dark pit.

  Phoenix dodged the attack and countered by expelling a lightning bolt. It whipcracked across the gunmetal fogginess and stabbed him in the chest. Seconds later, Alysia flew up behind Chrono and lashed a luminous white whip over his skin. SNAP!

  Flashing across at a pace that the average individual would have no doubt considered "lightspeed" (or maybe even Godspeed, because how much of a difference was there?), Phoenix roared croakily, punching Chrono not once but five times in the space of a second. Each successful connection caused the atmosphere to shake, but upon going for the sixth, Phoenix found that he couldn't move. The bastard had frozen him in time again, and the cheeky grin peering through the mask hole confirmed it.

  "You're strong!" Chrono teleported behind Phoenix and whispered fervently, "But not strong enough!"

  WHACK!

  His fist drove down and plunged Phoenix towards the ground. The heath zipped up towards his face until smacking him nose-first. And that hurt. Hurt like a motherfucker. If this kept happening there was no way he'd be able to survive; for some reason that he couldn't quite wrap his head around, his strikes were more powerful whenever he trapped people in time. That meant . . . that meant he could repeat the process until eventually killing them all. Valerie and Alysia and . . . He could just about murder anyone, because what in the universe was more powerful than time itself?

  Light, light is more powerful. Time and light are indirectly connected. Like branches of the same tree. He gazed up, anticipating the ghostly clocks to come floating down and snap Phoenix out of existence, the way Jeremiah went. And sure enough, they were there, however, static. Instead of the clocks raining down, it was a luminous white light. Alysia. She zoomed down and slammed on top of Phoenix, causing more smoke and mud to spring into the air. Despite the pain, which was much less extreme than when he had initially been struck, Phoenix trailed his hand up to her shoulder and shoved her off. He realised that he had gained control of his body again, but instead of turning back to fight Chrono, he wriggled over and slapped Alysia's delt. "Alysia, are you with me?!"

  A groan spilt out of the woman's lips. "Waste no time. Fight him on the ground so—" She paused to suck in the pain. "—so Valerie can help you."

  Help you? What did that mean exactly? I have to fight him without you? Eyes shimmering opalescently, Phoenix flicked his head up towards the tempest, watching the tornado thicken. At first, he had seen a hole open up in the sky like a whirlpool, like a portal to another dimension, like a gateway to space—if that was possible—and then he saw the clocks vibrate and zip down, spiralling in the process. He had to think, but there was oh such little time. Even if one of those objects hit the ground, the closest person would evaporate into dust. Alysia would be gone, and maybe even Valerie, too. Had this been back in another division where she had attacked him, he mightn't have cared so much. But, to be honest, after getting to know her a bit, he'd actually miss her, even though they'd only known each other for such a short time. He didn't even get a chance to thank her for helping him in the first place. The sort of thing you'd expect from someone that gave a shit about you but never got around to telling you. Why? Because they'd known you long enough for a simple thank you to carry no value; simply being around them was thanks in itself.

  This thought occurred to him in the blink of a teary eye. Grimed in dirt, he pushed himself up, redirecting his sight from Alysia, badly hurt and in need of medical attention no doubt, to the hole in the sky, to Chrono, and finally to the falling objects, which were about halfway towards the ground.

  "NOOOO!" A massive wave of electricity sparked through his body, causing his hair to puff out even further. Bolting upwards as a phantom of blue ectoplasm, time slowed. The sound of the tempest slowly faded into silence, leaving nothing but his own heartbeat. A pang of anger sizzled in his throat like dry copper. He blitzed from clock to clock in what felt like slow motion, dispensing great bars of lightning and obliterating them one by one, piece by piece. He worked his way towards the top, where Chrono was levitating with his arms stretched out, the palms open in a summoner's frenzy. His mask was almost completely torn off, revealing the lower portion of his face, including his neck and chest. The goggles remained, and the grin . . . it was back.

  This is my chance! I have to make this a big one, before he can even see it coming!

  But what if he could? What if Chrono could see through time no matter how quick or slow things were. No, if that were the case he would have attacked by now.

  He can't see me if I move fast enough. Though, if he teleports, I won't be able to see him either. Please, God, let me have this one . . .

  Yes, God; let him have a chance at getting rid of this bastard once and for all.

  There's a sixty-seven per cent chance God exists.

  As he grew closer to Chrono, he noticed a weird pulsation on the side of his neck—a scar, it appeared, glowing with intensity. Phoenix inspected it closely.

  What is that? It's so . . . weird. Like, it's taken some real damage . . .

  With this in mind, he held his fist up to the man's neck and felt his power pulse through the skin. Eyes growing bluer, heart pacing up, he felt his own energy trail up along his bones and tickle on the edge of his knuckles. Anger came with it.

  ZAP!

  A giant snake of lightning jumped, dug through Chrono's neck, and crossed into the hole in the sky. It was twice as thick as Phoenix's body, and the longest stroke he'd ever unleashed. Even with time slowed, everything occurred instantaneously.

  For a moment he thought he might have used up all of his energy (just as Shadow had said would happen), because he felt the conflicting conditions of strength and weakness, leaving his heart in murky disquiet, and his body in an in-between state. Despite it, he supposed beggars really couldn't be choosers: if this was the only way to defeat him, to find Alex, then may the Lord have mercy on his soul.

  Thoughtlessly, his eyes shut and he fell towards the glade. At the same time, Chrono's muffled shout bellowed into the night, each of the clocks shattered (they all amalgamated as one big connected sound, almost distorted), and thunder clapped pettishly. After that—THUD!—he hit the ground, this time without that untoward pain to which he'd so feverishly grown accustomed.

  Listening to the somewhat subdued howl of what Phoenix could have only hoped was pain, he dozed off for a slight bit, lost in near-total darkness. Panting, he struggled to peel his eyes open; next to him, a blurry figure approached.

  "Levin!" the muffled voice said, and behind it another two figures came. Although it took him a bit to make out the features, he knew it was Valerie. She reached out a hand, and when his vision cleared, he accepted it. About ten metres farther right, Alysia stood up from the ground, using the large boulder as an anchor. She was no longer brimming with power. She looked like her regular old self.

  The roaring continued. And in that instant—the instant of relief, that is—Phoenix reckoned he had finally taken Chrono down. He predicted, although not fully, that the villain was going to fall to the earth (or the horizontal plane, if you wanted to be really specific) and accept his demise. His power would diminish, leaving him unable to reverse time. He would be at a complete standstill with Phoenix, and it would be up to Valerie or Alysia

  (I sure hope Alysia's strong enough to keep moving let those big muscles be good for something!)

  to finish the job. Because, right now, Phoenix wasn't looking too hot, wasn't feeling too hot either. His stomach was stewing with whatever emotion it was that had allowed him to unleash such power, leaving him on the bridge of vomiting. And, just like that, he hurled over and puked. A streak of blood slipped in with it. Not much, but enough for Phoenix to feel even queasier.

  "Levin," said Valerie, "come on, love! We need you!"

  That, they did. Of course, without him, they'd very likely be de—

  "I'll kill you all!"

  Who was that? Chrono? Phoenix looked up, face sickly pale, grimacing. Yeah, it was Chrono; he was still in the air; he hadn't fallen; he hadn't been kneeling on the grass completely powerless. He was . . . glitching?

  "What in the name of—" Phoenix began, making a mental note not to say "God".

  Chrono's limbs jerked and twitched in an almost surreal fashion. He didn't seem to have any control, the infinity symbols were pulsing like crazy, and the purple aura surrounding his lanky frame grew to a blaze, shedding diffused beams in all directions.

  Phoenix fell to his knees in frustration. "What are we gonna do?"

  Alysia stepped forward, face matted with dirt, hair now absolutely soaked and hanging over the left shoulder. "Don't give up so easily, he's weak now, one more attack should do it."

  Valerie turned back, brow creased. "I can't reach him from here! Or, my wolves . . ." She paused and watched the animals circle her. ". . . They can't help . . ."

  "May be true, but he's running out of options quicker than we are." Alysia wiped the filth from her face. "Look at him, that means he's losing power. Maybe there's a weak spot."

  "His neck," said Phoenix quickly, swallowing hard. "His neck. It's his weak spot. I'm sure of it."

  "How do you know?" asked Alysia.

  "There's a weird line there, like someone's damaged it before," he said.

  "It mustn't have healed, that's what he gets for using so much power on time."

  A cough. "Yeah," said Phoenix. "But I'm all drained up . . . My power, it feels . . . man, what happened?"

  "You went all out, it happens," said Alysia. "You'll be fine. I just need you to focus now. If you don't, well—" She paused and swept a gaze towards Chrono. Slowly she brought her eyes down to Phoenix again. "—game over."

  "Don't think we have much time to talk about that," said Valerie.

  "Agreed," added Alysia. "If it's a war he wants, it's a war he will get."

  Phoenix nodded in sudden agreement, caught in his conflicting web of emotions.

  I'll be with you soon, Alex, thought Phoenix. I just have to deal with this piece of shit in the way.

  A streak of electricity bolted out of the tornado like a shooting star, and just like that, he wished on it, wished that this bastard would go down, that he would shut his mouth and accept his death like a man.