Chương 82: CHAPTER 81 - Old Thunder

One after another, the blows thundered through the air, steeped in the melody of rain. The dampness made sparks impossible. In their place, a swarm of greenish droplets hovered high above the challengers' heads. The blade of bone and cement crashed down from above, trying to reap the neck of the white-haired man. A small crack, and the figure was nudged aside while the earth shattered. Quickly, a rapid sequence of beats, the man's elbow was buried in the girl's flank.

The pain shot through her, making her snarl and sending her skidding away. Lautre immediately pressed the assault, lunging with the heads of the tuning forks aimed low. A vibration shook the sewage under their feet, raising a wall of rock and water.

"He wants to block my sight?" The sounds around Maica ceased as she was wrapped in the veil of water. Behind her, the sound of a bell. Immediately, her senses drove her to react. A wall of cubic forms and rock erupted from her arm, tearing through the barrier. No blow to deflect awaited her, and Lautre seized that instant to slip through. Both weapons were raised to the sky and vibrating. A pillar of rock shot up from her ankle, shoving her aside.

The iron struck the ground, shaking the entire area as if caught in an earthquake. Maica drew a breath, in her case, more a hiss, of relief. Lautre slowly lifted his gaze, returning to stare at her in silence with that vacant, almost distracted expression. The girl snatched a couple of pebbles from the ground, throwing one to the man's side and then the other at her feet. The first made no sound at all, and at that she smiled.

"Your ability has a maximum range, doesn't it? A sphere that extends from your core for about ten metres, most effective at the centre. The sound of the rain is just a distraction to draw me into your domain." Lautre nodded, straightening up and walking toward Maica. Without moving, the girl stretched her sword toward the shattered ceiling." Distortion has a considerably greater range…" The blade grew more squared, sprouting cubic and conical protrusions at the tip. A reddish tear slid down her cheek.

He sighed, clashing his weapons together.

"Your assumption is correct, though only in part…" Maica felt a shiver run across her skin. The scales stirred, a bestial instinct. Lautre kept moving, rolling his shoulders.

"But even if you were to abuse that body… You still have no certainty of hitting me." Both stopped, sizing each other up. A drop of blood slid from both their chins. From the blade, dozens of sharp tentacles of rock, flesh, and water erupted, composed of various geometric shapes. All crashed to the ground with immense force, impaling themselves. Lautre wove through them, shattering two with a single impact of the longer tuning fork. He was a few steps from Maica when she snapped her fingers.

From the remains of the tentacles, smaller protrusions emerged, coiling around his ankle. Lautre was hoisted into the air and hurled against the wall at insane speed. Before impact, a series of beats followed him like a wake. All those tiny explosions cushioned his body. He landed softly on the wall, the rain once again spreading through the room." The sound echoes everywhere, but the origin is at the edge of his bubble. As long as I'm outside it, he can't use the waves to strike me from behind."

Maica's strategy gave her confidence of victory, yet something was out of place. Lautre stared at her intently before vanishing. Maica raised the tentacles from the ground, creating a dense, tangled forest of rock and sewage. One by one, she watched them fall shattered to the ground." I can't follow him!" The man's silhouette kept appearing and vanishing amid the falling debris. With every movement, various thunderclaps flooded the arena. Her eyes strained to see him.

First he was on the right, then the left, ever closer.

"Don't fuck with me!!" Maica slammed all the tentacles to the ground, lifting a wave of dust and filthy water. Without waiting for the water to settle back to the ground, the protrusions exploded in a spiral, tearing through everything and leaving deep furrows on the walls. Greenish splinters flew everywhere, but Lautre had vanished. Her skin went cold, and unconsciously her tail pushed her away. The blow fell from the sky, immediately fracturing everything below with a gigantic shockwave like a scream.

"Incredible… This man is truly a beast!" Lautre stared at her for a moment and vanished, appearing at her side accompanied by a sequence of crackles. Maica's blade clashed against the small fork, but immediately began to tremble and tear. Her claws opened his chest, trying to gain distance, but the man kept accelerating. Their exchanges were brief, but Maica always felt that vibration burrowing into her. Another strike of her blade grazed Lautre, mixing his blood with the pools of sewage.

The tuning forks tried to reach her, but the tail drove them back. The man smiled, whispering something. The tail exploded, and he vanished into nothing. Small bursts distributed themselves around her, sometimes louder, other times almost imperceptible.

"He's manipulating the rain's reverberation to steer his attacks, but without a decisive impact, he can't do too much damage to me." Maica listened, waiting for a discrepancy. Behind her, a thunderclap. She spun around, piercing the air with a hiss. Not even a shadow of the man. She felt a presence behind her again and the icy contact of vibrating iron.

"Was it a trap?! He burst a bubble behind me!" The hardened skin withstood the blow, but not the vibration. She vomited blood, losing concentration for a second. The rain ceased briefly. All sound condensed into the knuckles of his left hand. The impact sank directly into Maica's abdomen, fracturing the ground beneath their feet and hurling her against the wall. Lautre took a heavy breath, grinding his teeth into a smile. Maica fell with the rubble, wrapped in a steady flow of blood and viscous fluid.

One of her eyes had turned terribly dark, the pupil violet.

"Get up..." She lifted her shredded sword with difficulty, spilling even more fluids. Lautre smiled, appearing before her. They exchanged a glance, and immediately after, were enveloped in a haze of debris and dust. The cloud chased them along the entire wall, echoing throughout the hall. Lautre's forks grazed the wall, fracturing it completely. A rain of rubble bloomed around them, but neither averted their gaze. Maica's blade cut the air, ripping the index and middle fingers from his hand.

She tried to exploit the opening, but the man re-gripped the diapasons with the fingers he had left, completely fracturing the ground and lifting blocks of rock. Maica lost her footing before being seized by the throat. Lautre's palm struck her full in the stomach, releasing a conical mist. For an instant, silence, then her eardrums shattered. Blood gushed from her ears as she tumbled across what remained of the hall. As soon as she got back to her feet, Lautre was already there in front of her.

A second silence, followed by a second impact as devastating as the first. This time her carapace didn't hold, shattering and revealing the withered organs beneath. She rolled in the filth, gasping when she wasn't spitting blood.

"Lautre's fingers… They've already grown back. He's a monster, even for our people's standards." Maica pounded her fists on the ground, trying to rise, without success. Her face smeared itself as grotesque scales burrowed into the skin of her cheeks and eyes.

"Stop. I recognise your strength, but enough now. Can't you see the state your body is in? You can barely remember your humanity. There's no hope left for you, Maica." The tone of those words was dry, empty, yet with every syllable the cadence of the rain increased. Maica stared at him for a moment, catching her reflection in the sewage. Her young face had split, her canines thickened, her skin turned greyish. Her tongue was forked, bones beginning to emerge at her cheeks, and her memory was starting to cloud.

"Why were you born like this?" Maica asked, while Lautre stayed there, watching her as she whispered those words over and over.

"WHY ARE YOU STRONG?! WHY ARE YOU STRONG AND I'M WEAK?!" She rose with tears and blood in her eyes, spitting on the ground and trembling with rage. A fiery glare rose to her face.

"I wasn't born strong…" Before he could finish, a slash lopped a lock of hair from his forehead. Maica had risen, now more beast than human. The blade had extended to her shoulder, and the hand of her other arm had become a sharp tangle of claws. Lautre pulled back, watching her carefully. She writhed, dragging those foul masses on her own limbs.

"I'll kill you, I'll tear you apart. Kill… you." She babbled, and with every sound, Lautre bit his lip. He lunged at her, aiming for the chest. His instinct forced him to stop. Right in front of him, a gigantic tentacle emerged, this time equipped with square eyes and sharp pyramidal teeth. More sprouted immediately, crashing down on him. Despite his speed, he was grazed. He spat blood. All his senses collapsed, and the skin where he'd been touched began almost to fray.

"Shit… Now her ability is spreading through everything she's contaminated? And those eyes… Even with my current speed, I can't beat her." He tightened his grip on the weapons and sighed bitterly, dodging a tentacle almost instantly.

"THIS REALLY IS THE WORST OF THE WORST!!" All of Maica's limbs hurled themselves at him, shattering the slab where he stood. In that storm of blows, even she decided to assault him, yet Lautre kept accelerating. The booms grew more frequent and more intense. When he vanished, the sequence of sounds broke and then resumed. Small blows were slowly reaping her. She tried to impale him, but it was her own arm that was torn open. Not cut, but ripped away by sheer brute force.

"It's the sounds! Even my own heartbeat is helping him!" Maica thought, watching the tentacles drop to the ground one by one without a sound. She bit down, perhaps hard enough to sever her tongue, and hurled herself at that whitish silhouette. Lautre appeared before her, both tuning forks crossed in front of him. In that precise instant, every sound in the enormous sewer complex stopped." Requiem: Acte 1."

The blow erupted with immense power and silence, utterly devastating the arena with a flash of fire and generating a column of air that tore the ceiling open to the floor above, sending reddish pillars raining down and covering everything in a downpour. The whole world inside Machinamentum's relic was shaken. Maica lay with her back against what remained of the bloodied rubble; a hole the size of a serving platter had opened in her carbonized chest.

No organs, only a dark, crystalline sludge dripping from the walls of withered flesh. Maica stroked the edge, cutting her fingertip on a black splinter that jutted from her flesh. Lautre coughed, wiping the blood from his lips and setting down the weapons. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"It struck my core… I can't regenerate." The icy embrace of death took her legs, now only meat attached to her body. A smile dawned on her face at the sight of the man.

"In the end, I lost… You were holding back at the start, weren't you?" She stared at him with a disappointed, pitiful air, a palpable contempt for herself. Lautre shook his head, pointing to her violet fingers and the blood staining her neck.

"Decades ago there was a scientist, a brilliant mind straight from Northest. His name was Ernn Mach. If I'm not mistaken, he coined the term for measuring airship speed." He stopped in front of her, slowly sitting on a slab of earth.

"One Mach equals the speed of sound… The blow I dealt you was way above that number. Sound is energy! Instead of dispersing it, I channel it." As he spoke, Maica smiled and wiped her pale lips.

"Why are you talking to me? Shouldn't you be happy you killed me? Isn't your hatred satisfied?" Lautre stared at her, his pupils now normal. He tapped his index finger on his knee and sighed.

"It's improper to answer you with a question, but… What value would there be in hating you?" Maica, even in that condition, was confused by those words.

"Hatred, animosity, resentment, rancour. What value do they hold for me towards you when we are fundamentally the same? I killed for my ideals. I tore life from people who fought for their cause… Just as you two did. I can't stand that you undermine the peaceful life we've built, but I have no right to hate you." Maica laughed, coughing blood into that thin, raucous laugh.

"Maybe it's the same for me. Right now I hate myself more than I hate you. If I hadn't been weak, I wouldn't have used that abominable drug…" Maica said it with a sob, subdued by the blood slowly pooling in her throat.

"It's not a matter of strength. You are strong… But hatred slowed you down. It was the anchor that kept you from flying. If you had loved yourself more, perhaps you would have challenged me without sacrificing your humanity." A tear slid down the girl's face, now radiant with the embers of what she once was.

"Hatred makes us grow, but often it consumes us, devouring our hearts and minds. What truly has value in this life is our capacity to express love. It gives us the strength to carry on, and you proved that today." The tears didn't stop, and for the first time, a smile appeared on Lautre's face.

"I would have liked to be a mechanic, you know? A stupid dream, isn't it?" The man stood, taking what remained of her hand.

"It's more stupid to think a stranger could put a value on a dream, isn't it?" They laughed together, heedless of their wounds. A faint echo accompanied their laughter as her consciousness began to drift. Before her, a dark alley. Not even the street fires could light it. Iron skeletons in the sky cast seas of shadow over the ruins of houses. A woman emerged from the darkness, walking briskly, her face obscured. Dressed in rags, yet strangely noble and satisfied in her stride.

"Mama, please… Don't do it." A little girl with greenish braids, dirty with dust and paint, stumbled out of the alley. Her forehead split, letting blood mix with her tears.

"I can still help you! I can become strong… Come back, please!" Maica watched that child despair, scratching the road with her nails. Reddish trails were carved into the thin cracks as she screamed.

"That's me. This wound still burns. Even while I'm dying…" She turned, deciding to walk away without looking back. Yet something made her turn: a note of a song never heard before, or perhaps a feeling. Maica knelt before the crying little her, stroking her head.

"It's all right! You've done enough. Don't prove to anyone anymore that you're strong." The child kept crying, but slowly she clung to her, embracing her with hands dirty with blood and dust.

"Now love yourself. You'll find someone who cares for you, sooner or later. Never despair more than necessary over some storm." As the sobs subsided, a man appeared. He was tall, his beard neatly trimmed, wearing dark, refined clothes. He walked with a dark cane, like the gloves on his hands. Only now did Maica realise the street had vanished. She was in a battlefield, strewn with weapons and dog tags.

"Are you hungry?" The man, as if not noticing her, stretched his hand toward the child. From the handkerchief he offered, crumbs fell. Lifting her gaze and drying her tears, little Maica took it and began to unwrap it. A smile didn't take long to form at the sight of that slightly warm piece of bread. The man laughed as she devoured the food.

"This place doesn't suit you. What do you say to coming with me?" Maica recognised the man, unchanged after all the battles and escapes. Maica wept, reaching out her hand but stopping shortly after.

"Here I was happy because you were here… Roman." Before her, a series of images: their home together in the forest, the first awakening of her powers, his constant insults to nobles, and the killings. Something beautiful only for her, since it was dedicated to her. She dried her tears and waved goodbye to the young Maica, side by side with Roman. Before her, Lautre's face returned, still seated beside her.

"You know… I imagined dying would be less painful." Lautre clenched his fists and bit his lip as he rose. He reached his arm toward his gear, adjusting the tuning fork and withdrawing his hand with a small bronze-coloured cube. The shape shifted until it became a small firearm in Lautre's hands.

"Your core is trying to keep you alive, but you're no longer human. The longer it goes on, the more you'll mutate into a monster. I can put an end to your suffering." Maica smiled, nodding. Lautre activated the piston on the barrel, loading the reddish air into the mechanism.

"Thank you, but first, could you promise me something… I know I have no right, but even you would listen to the wishes of a poor woman at the point of death." Lautre cocked the weapon, giving a quick nod. Maica smiled and found the last strength to speak.

"Please, forgive Roman if you ever face him again. I've killed so many people for our ideals, but we weren't bad people… We only wanted the best." A cough, followed by blood, interrupted her speech. Lautre briefly averted his gaze from that pitiful scene as she gasped to start speaking again.

"Accept his hatred, because he was the only one… For whom I was worth something." At that point, reddish foam began to swell her wounds and consume her face ever more rapidly. Lautre stared at her with a grimace, while she smiled. His finger pulled the trigger.

"Thank you, Lautre Clerc." A sound like shattered crystal echoed through the arena, as a figure slid down the walls with tears streaming down his face. Lautre watched him, driving his own nails into the palm of his hand.

"How I hate that sound…" He turned toward the old man descending rapidly, his face red and eyes bloodshot. He slammed into the ground, raising a gigantic mass of debris. By then, what remained of Maica's body was already crumbling into the air. The old man burst from the water, snarling, staining his mask of hatred with tears.

"LAUTREEEEEE CLERCCCCCCCCCCCC!!" Roman hurled himself at Lautre, sheathing his arms in black tendrils. Their fists collided, shaking the entire area. Both were knocked back, flailing.

"You'll pay for killing her!" The longer tuning fork emerged from Lautre's shoulders. A rivulet of blood slid from the hilt as he aimed it at Roman. His face was streaked by a single tear hanging from his right eye. The air cooled, leaving only the two of them motionless, staring.

"I'll send you to the other world along with her. That's what she wants." Roman burst out laughing at Lautre's words, perhaps hard enough to tear his vocal cords. He laughed and laughed, stopping abruptly.

"And you… Think you know what she wants? You? Her murderer?!" The two collided again, this time their weapons crashing against each other. Roman leaped into the air, gathering all the tendrils on his right arm into a gigantic drill. Lautre's heart accelerated, transmuting his beats into kinetic energy. Both lunged, but a wall of darkness separated them. Lautre's impact blasted away all the rubble.

"We need to go, Roman…" A voice murmured from the shadow as he nodded with a grin. He pointed a finger at Lautre and moved his lips.

"I'll kill you." Lautre read those words, nodding as the black cloud dispersed. He sheathed his weapons and drew a long breath, followed by a long coughing fit. He turned, searching for a hole in the wall. Slowly he began to walk, stopping after a few steps. He raised his gaze to the dark ceiling, drying that single tear on his pale skin.

"Maybe in another life... I would have sailed the sky with your inventions". He slapped his cheeks and vanished into the darkness, without making a sound. Outside the tower, Ed Guin was beginning to feel the toll of the clash. The fat reserves in his body were slowly vanishing while Edvard kept shredding his plants one after another. Lexa struck him from behind every time his attention wavered, never managing to land a direct blow to the nape or heart.

"Far too resilient." Ed, now reduced almost to a skeleton, assaulted Edvard, clashing with his blade. With a swift gesture of his hand, spines of dark wood pierced his opponent. White smoke took hold of his sight, projecting his death countless times in dozens of forms." Paranoia." The agent appeared from the other side, the tip of his cane perpendicular to Ed's neck. Lexa assaulted him head-on, gripping her baton and aiming it at his chest. Ed snarled, but suddenly all three were swallowed by darkness.

"Mr. Malcom demands a change of plans…" The voice vanished with a nod, making Lexa and Edvard slam into each other. Both rolled to the ground, groaning.

"Well... At least we won!" Lexa smiled, gazing at the artificial moon, only to be immediately halted by the elegant figure of Ross. His reddish beard and the warmth of his eyes instantly roused her from that calm. She coughed, stretching out her hand. He smiled, taking Lexa's slender hand and pulling her back to her feet.

"What was that explosion?" Edvard pointed at the column of smoke and flames in the distance. In that artificial world, there was no wind whatsoever, preventing the black snow from building up or the flames from spreading.

"The offices, but they've already been evacuated." Edvard nodded, yet something terrified him when he looked at those serpentine columns of fire. A horror lurked in that smoke, and he was convinced it would soon appear. Edvard was roused only when he heard Lexa trampling and snapping twigs left on the ground.

"Where are you going?" He asked, stowing his cane and arranging his hair swept back, revealing a mature, slight receding hairline. Lexa pointed at the gigantic red tower, then raised her finger to the top.

"I want to regain control of the tower and the residences. I have one last card to play for the win." She gave a wink, with that brazen and at times terrifying air that only she could convey. Her eyes shone with distant flames, and now and then her tongue peeked past her lips, slithering back inside.

"So this is the level of Lexa Warhol? The goddess of the arms industry." Edvard nodded, taking her arm and helping her walk.

"It would be rude of me not to escort a beautiful woman after this great favour." Lexa laughed and immediately jumped into his arms, letting herself fall with all her weight into his embrace.

"Please then, my knight… It pains me to reveal that my heart, however, leans toward someone else." Ross stared at her, stunned, moving slowly as he held her tight.

"You even know where your heart leans? What an extraordinary woman." A radiant glow of success lit her face, sliding down to her finger as she pointed at the top of the tower.

"Come on then, let's retake my home." Edvard nodded and quickened his pace as the ground trembled like an earthquake.