Chương 75: Episode 20: I Don't Feel Right

The white room was dead quiet. No wind, no movement, just a low hum that rang in my ears. My body felt heavier than it should have as I dragged myself forward through the endless dome, each step echoing off the floor. There was nothing here except the memory of Don Black killing Starla. My fists clenched until the knuckles popped, flaking dried blood from my skin. I staggered, nearly going down, but caught myself and kept moving. My breathing was rough and uneven, my torn hoodie stiff against my shoulders.

I could still feel every hit he landed—my vision blurring, the noise, the feeling of getting completely overpowered. Celestial energy began snapping violently through the air around me.

"WAS IT FOR NOTHING?!" My voice cracked through the silence, sending a shockwave through the void. Jagged fractures split across the room, spreading fast and bleeding blue light. I watched the cracks widen like a shattering mirror. Looking down at my hands in the reflection, I saw Starla's face. My jaw tightened. I made a vow, and Rai crossed a line he couldn't come back from. He wasn't getting forgiveness or mercy. I wasn't going to kill him—I couldn't cross that line, no matter how much I wanted to.

But I was going to hurt him. I was going to hurt him so badly he'd never forget it. Even if I had to do it with my bare hands, I was going to make sure he felt every bit of the loss he caused. I looked back up at the fracturing room. Staying locked on revenge would keep me trapped, but he took Starla and Kai. I didn't need to end his life to make him pay; I just needed to break him.

"… I'm pissed." I stepped forward and unleashed the celestial energy, letting it surge and crackle across my body. Throwing my arms wide, I roared into the void as a massive wave exploded outward, shattering the room entirely. I slammed my foot down, the space broke apart, and blinding violet light swallowed everything. A second later, I crashed straight through a bus. Metal folded around me as glass and debris scattered across the road. I tumbled hard across the cracked pavement before skidding to a stop.

My ears rang as I pushed myself up and shook off the impact. The city was dead. Gray skies hung low over streets slick with grime and ash. Shattered buildings leaned against each other in total ruin, the fractured roads strewn with rubble and old bones.

"What the hell happened here…?" I muttered. I turned in a slow circle, taking in the ruin—twisted highways, collapsed structures, and an abandoned city where the air felt heavy and watched. Something bad had happened here. I scanned the streets, but found no movement. No people. Nothing. Then came the blast. Far in the distance, Don Black tore through the sky, yellow energy ripping from his hands as he punched straight through row after row of buildings.

I clenched my fists, channeled my energy, and launched off the pavement. The street shattered beneath my boots as I shot upward, the wind biting my face. He turned too late. I slammed into him midair, driving him through the cloud line. Following him up, I struck again, throwing hands as we spiraled together above the ruined skyline. He kicked me off, grabbed my hoodie, and hurled me downward.

I tore through three structures before hitting the asphalt, skidding on my back through a cloud of dust and concrete until I ground to a halt. I pushed myself up, breathing hard, and looked up at him. He hovered over the rubble with his arms crossed, the tubed gauntlet over his mouth humming faintly.

"WANNA KNOW WHAT YOUR PROBLEM IS?!" I shouted, dropping into a stance.

"VIOLENCE! NO RESTRAINT! JUST VIOLENCE!" I ripped off my shredded hoodie, tossed it onto the concrete, and locked eyes with him. He chuckled.

"Still haven't learned from your last beating? I've been through worse than anything you've ever imagined."

"YOU'VE SEEN WHAT I'VE BEEN THROUGH!" I roared.

"THAT'S WHAT PISSES ME OFF!"

"And you're still whining about it?" He sighed, shaking his head.

"Disappointing." Celestial energy flared around my knuckles.

"You don't get to just walk away from what you did to Starla." I lowered my center of gravity, power snapping around my eyes.

"I'm not gonna kill you, Rai—I'm just gonna hurt you until you can't stand."

"Then come try," Rai said, eyeing me with an amused smirk.

"I doubt you've got the stomach for it." Something snapped. I launched off the ground, the force of my takeoff blowing out the street for blocks around us. Clouds split apart in spiraling rings as I surged upward, violet light pouring off my skin. Debris and shattered glass floated into the air from the sheer pressure. I vanished. My violet aura flickered across the skyline, snapping from rooftop to rooftop in a fraction of a second. Rai's eyes widened a split second too late.

My fist slammed squarely into his face. A massive shockwave erupted outward from the impact, blowing the windows out of every surrounding tower. The street below split down the yellow lines as Rai was driven horizontally through a high-rise, sending steel beams and shattered glass raining down. His body skipped across the cityscape like a thrown stone, smashing through intersections before skidding to a halt in a cloud of thick gray smoke. Silence hung for a heartbeat before the rubble exploded.

Rai charged forward, black-and-gold energy spiraling around his form. He closed the gap instantly and drove a heavy fist across my jaw.

"DON'T FIGHT ME OVER THIS!" he shouted over the roar of the air. We blasted away from each other, the pressure wave ripping the clouds above apart.

"OR WHAT?!" We collided again and again in midair. Every blow sent circular shockwaves tearing through the surrounding architecture, yellow and violet energy streaking through the gray sky. I twisted under one of Rai's heavy right hooks. The world seemed to slow down. I spun through the air and delivered a sweeping tornado kick straight across the side of his head. Blood and saliva sprayed across his visor as the hit drove him back.

Before he could recover, I closed the distance and slammed a double kick into his chest, driving him through three consecutive towers that collapsed under their own weight. I hovered above the dust, my arms trembling as violet electricity crackled across my forearms. Below, Rai tore himself out of the falling concrete, black energy surging up around his gauntlets. He rocketed upward to meet me. I raised my arms to block, but his knee drove straight up into my nose.

Pain exploded behind my eyes, and blood sprayed onto my chest. He grabbed the back of my neck, whipped me around, and hurled me into the upper atmosphere. My body streaked upward through the clouds. Rai followed right behind me like a meteor, yellow energy igniting around his armor. I caught myself in the open sky above the cloud cover, blood dripping from my chin. I gritted my teeth, pulled every ounce of celestial energy to my core, and flared it wide.

"RAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" I dove straight down. He surged straight up. Two streaks of light—violet and yellow—converged over the dead city. He thrust his open palm forward, his gauntlet screaming with built-up power. I reeled my right arm back, concentrating everything into a single punch.

"VIOLET!!!!!!!" I roared into the wind.

"VIOLENCE!!!!!" Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. We hit. The collision detonated in a massive dome of blinding light that stripped the clouds from the sky and sent a ring of force across the entire continent. The sound cutout completely for a fraction of a second before the thunderous roar returned, tearing up the ocean miles off the coast. The force threw both of us down like falling stones.

We slammed into the shattered streets below, disappearing into a mountain of fire, dust, and twisted steel. A heavy silence settled over the ruined city. A single fist broke through a pile of concrete. Rai dragged himself out of the debris, staggering slightly, his breath heavy. He was bruised, his gauntlet sparking, but he was still on his feet. A hundred yards away, I shoved a massive slab of stone off my legs and pulled myself out.

My hoodie was gone, my skin was covered in deep cuts and blood, and my fists were raw to the bone—but my eyes were still burning violet. Blood dripped from my lip onto the shattered pavement as I held my ground, glaring at him across the wreckage. Rai wiped a streak of dark blood from his mouth, stepped out into the cleared street, and slowly folded his dark dragon wings behind his back. The chains along his legs rattled softly against the quiet background of burning fires.

"I've done my job enough…" I coughed, blood splattering onto the pavement between my boots. Rai pointed a bloody finger at me, wiping his nose with the back of his forearm.

"Why do you still care…? They could still be alive for all you know…." I staggered, my vision blurring in one eye as another fit of coughing forced more blood onto the street. Rai lowered his voice, the distortion in his gauntlet softening.

"My actions… they aren't justified, but they aren't meaningless either. To you, I'm just another variant. But to me—I'm war as a person." He smiled through the dirt and blood smeared across his face.

"Are we sure that what you're doing… is justifi—""YES!" I yelled, my voice cracking.

"IT IS JUSTIFIED! You killed someone I cared about! It wasn't just care—it was love! The kind of love where you'd trade your own life just to pull them out of the dark!"

"And I'm the dark?" Rai scoffed, crossing his arms against the rising wind.

"Get your act together, kid. Killing 'Starla' wasn't pointless; it was a consequence. It's what happens when the protector of a convict tries to run with them."

"At least I know what it feels like to lose someone," I rasped, my voice dropping an octave.

"If you were living in reality, you'd know too. So why lie?" Rai's grin widened slowly.

"It isn't love if you never told her. That gives me every goddamn right to kill her right in front of your puppy eyes." My hands moved to my belt. I unsheathed my daggers, stepping forward as my knuckles went white around the grips. I gritted my teeth, waiting for the celestial flame to ignite down the blades—but nothing happened. The steel stayed dead and dark. I stared down at the useless weapons for a fraction of a second.

"Fuck it." I dropped them onto the stone with a dull clang. Reaching up, I grabbed my torn hoodie, ripped it clean off, and tossed it into the dust, leaving only my jeans and raw skin. I kicked off the cracked asphalt. The ground split beneath my boots, a massive streak of violet energy tearing through the wasteland surrounding the dead metropolis. The shockwave of my takeoff fractured the stone formations miles out, the air roaring in my ears as I closed the distance.

I twisted mid-air, channeling everything into my right arm, and drove a fist straight at Rai's face. Rai raised his gauntlet. The collision sent a shockwave blasting across the open wasteland into the nearby city grid. Glass shattered out of every surrounding tower, cars flipped over on the boulevard, and a wave of dust swept through the streets. Rai hadn't moved an inch. His glowing eyes locked onto mine through the haze as my fist trembled against his gauntlet. Blocked completely.

"You gave me enough time," Rai said quietly. Black celestial energy surged up his arm, darkening the sky above us. He reeled back and drove a heavy straight right into my jaw. The hit detonated. White light flashed across my vision as the momentum launched me straight up into the storm clouds above. Lightning crackled around me as I spun through the dark sky, trying to catch my breath. Before I could stabilize, a streak of black and gold tore through the clouds above me.

Rai came down with a two-handed hammer-fist, slamming me back down through the clouds in a ring of displaced air. I tumbled through the sky, flipping backward to catch my footing mid-fall, but Rai appeared behind me in the open air. His fist drove straight into my spine, sending me flying horizontally across the skyline. He flashed ahead of my trajectory—an uppercut to my ribs sent me shooting upward, followed by a backhand that sent me spinning sideways.

Every hit redirected my momentum before I could even raise my arms to block. He grabbed the back of my neck mid-air and dove straight down. We slammed into the central plaza of the ruined city. The street buckled into a deep trench, concrete and steel piping exploding upward as he dragged me fifty yards through the pavement before spinning and launching me through the base of a high-rise. I tore through three separate support walls, crashing through an armored transport parked in an underground garage.

The vehicle's fuel tank ignited, engulfing me in flame as I skidded out onto the street on the other side. Rai burst through the ruined garage behind me, closing the distance instantly. I slammed my hands into the corner pillar of an adjacent skyscraper, digging my fingers into the structural steel. I heaved, tearing a massive section of concrete and rebar out of the foundation, and hurled the block straight at his head. The slab shattered against him into a cloud of dust and concrete powder.

Rai walked out of the haze without breaking stride. I vanished, using a surge of energy to step through the blind spot, reappearing directly behind his shoulder. I reeled my fist back to strike, but Rai pivoted on his heel before my punch could land. His heavy kick caught me under the chin, launching me across the avenue.

I skipped across the city like a stone on water—crashing through storefront after storefront, tipping support pillars, and leaving a trail of collapsing towers behind me as I rolled through the wreckage. My body tore through the final wall of a collapsed hotel, smashing through the lobby furniture before coming to a hard stop against the far street. I pushed myself up onto my hands and knees, blood dripping onto the cracked asphalt. Rai stepped through the broken hotel windows behind me.

He grabbed me by the back of my hair, yanked my head up, and dragged me out into the open intersection.

"THIS ISN'T YOUR WAY, DON!" He blasted across the ruined streets, dragging me through a row of burning cars before launching us high into the air. We slammed down onto the roof of an abandoned transport vehicle. The chassis buckled, the fuel tank igniting beneath us and engulfing the entire intersection in flames.

"YOU ARE A STRONG WARRIOR!" Rai yelled over the roar of the fire, hurling me sideways. I crashed through another parked car, the vehicle flipping through the air as I tumbled across the asphalt. Rai kicked off the side of a collapsing tower, sweeping his gauntlet forward as black celestial energy ignited around the metal plating. Instead of dodging, I lunged straight at him, opening my jaws and biting down directly into his gauntlet. Metal crushed between my teeth.

Steel casing popped, wires snapped, and sharp copper edges bit into my gums, spraying blood across my face. The gauntlet sparked violently as Rai let out a raw scream. I bit down harder, forcing my teeth through the armor and into the flesh beneath. We hit the street together, skidding wildly through the ash. I twisted through the rising smoke, both of my fists dripping with blood.

"YOU STARTED THIS!" I drove my knee straight into his face, the force cracking his jaw. I grabbed the back of his head, slammed his skull against my knee a second time, and spun on my heel, hurling him through the lower floors of an adjacent skyscraper. The support pillars gave out, collapsing the structure behind him. I surged into the falling dust after him, caught him by the chest before he hit the ground, and launched us upward through the cloud cover.

I backhanded him across the cheek, spraying blood into the slipstream. He spiraled through the sky, but I closed the gap instantly, celestial energy flaring wildly across my torso.

"THIS WAS ALL YOUR FAULT!" I slammed both fists into the sides of his head, following up with a heavy straight right to his nose.

"DON'T SAY THAT I'M DOING SOMETHING WRONG!" I locked my hands around his throat, squeezing until his windpipe gave, and drove us back down. We ripped through the clouds like a meteor, smashing into the exact center of the ruined metropolis. The ground caved, sending a wave of concrete and displaced earth tearing through the surrounding blocks. I knelt over him in the center of the crater, my body soaked in blood, dirt, and sweat.

I pinned his arms beneath my knees, screaming down into his face as I raised my right fist.

"THIS WAS MY VOW! THIS IS MY MOMENT! YOU HAD THIS COMING!" I rained punch after punch into his face. The impacts drove him deeper into the shattered pavement, the crater widening with every strike. Concrete fractured outward, walls collapsed in the distance, and blood splattered across my arms and chest. I couldn't stop. I couldn't slow down.

"YOU DESERVE THIS!" I reeled back and drove one last heavy punch toward his jaw— Squelch. Rai's teeth clamped straight through my wrist. Pain shot up my arm, sharp and sickening. He yanked his head back with a brutal tear. Flesh and bone gave way, and my hand was ripped completely free from my wrist. Blood erupted from the stump, painting the stone as my severed hand hit the dirt beside him. A ragged scream tore out of my throat, echoing across the silent crater.

I reeled back, clutching my arm as pain flared through every nerve in my body. But I didn't back off.

"YOU NEED THIS!" I forced my energy into the open wound. Violet lightning erupted from the stump, surging up through my shoulders and wrapping around my left arm in a wild, blinding torrent. I pulled my left fist back, drawing on every remaining drop of power I had left.

"BLOW OF FINALITY!" I drove my fist straight forward. The force of the strike blew out what was left of the surrounding city grid. Shockwaves hammered through the earth, splitting the street beneath us into deep fissures as the energy detonated on impact. My arm punched straight through Rai's chest. He gasped, his body going rigid. My fingers locked around his heart, and I ripped it out of his ribcage, crushing the organ in my fist right above his face.

Before he could react, I seized his head in both arms and twisted hard. The bone crushed under the pressure. A final wave of blood sprayed across my face and chest. Then, absolute silence. Smoke drifted across the quiet crater. I pushed myself off the corpse and slowly stood up, staggering back a few paces as I cradled the stump of my right arm. The ruined city burned around me. Collapsed towers blocked the horizon, and ash drifted through the still air like snow.

I stared down at Rai's body, then down at my bleeding arm. My breathing was heavy, ragged, and shallow. My knees gave out, and I dropped onto the stone in the middle of the crater. Blood pooled in the cracks around me.

"I actually did it…" I whispered. Blood trickled from my hands, and droplets hit his body, a mess. Wind was the only thing that I was hearing. It's hard to even hear myself think. I tried blinking to get the thought of his body out of my head–but how could I possibly do that if it's sitting right here in front of me? Staring at it is all I could do. My arms moved deliberately to my sides, while my hands felt like they were vibrating from numbness. I bowed my head solemnly.

I sniffed, tears almost flooded my eyes but I tried to pull back. Don't cry. Just–please don't… I couldn't stay still for long enough, so I let everything out. Tears rushed down, water mixing with the blood that was already on my face. I hunched my back, squeezing my fists from the constant reminder that this all came from me.

"A-Am I…?" I stammered.

"I can't–I—" I snuffled.

"I–" My back uncurled from the position. Pale eyes stared at the mess of his hole through the chest. I can't shy away from that word anymore."'Monster'…"