Pure Malice

--Illya's Perspective--

With this strange, black collection of strands wrapping around my body and pulling me into infinite darkness that I felt once before when my System had Corrupted, I felt nostalgia ignite a passion in my heart as I ran at Amy.

Using Sky's previous ice ability, I shot myself above her while blood leaked from my nose, slashing through her shoulder while falling on the ground messily. My body rolled and I bounced a few times before reclaiming my ground.

My feet moved faster than the ground could handle, as I slid before running straight back at her. My feet picked up off of the ground and my tendrils went wild, slashing at Amy from afar while I closed the distance.

"A low-level Deity like yourself is far too pathetic for somebody of my scale!" Amy shouted out. Slashes made of strands shot out of her body and toward me. With her ability to fill my lungs with water, I was constantly in danger by that one alone. I would need to take a second to empty my lungs out, and my life could easily be over with that time.

Since I didn't possess Sky's strands, I couldn't heal myself to an infinite measure as he could. He doesn't even know it yet, but he was born to fight Cole. He can heal just as infinitely, but something is holding him back...

As Amy's next slash hit me in the shoulder, my lungs began to fill up with water, causing me to choke. If a strand user doesn't have access to oxygen, the quality falls sharply until they are not able to be used anymore.

I dug into my lungs with the claws on my right hand, slashing them open while watching the water pour. As it poured, I was struck in the face by a palm strike from Amy. I was sent up in the air, and two thick strands came right past my head, wrapped around me, and pulled me down to the ground.

Using Sky's previous ability to absorb kinetic energy, I took the hit, exerted it from my forearms, and tore up Amy's body from the shrapnel of cement being torn from the bridge. She took a second to calm herself before surrounding herself with blades from her brother's ability.

"There's always bigger fish, Illya. I'm surprised you've survived this long, all in all. All you're really doing is playing defense. My Eye of Providence far exceeds your speed, my strength trumps yours in every regard, and I'm just better in everything than you. So, your plan? To defend until you die? Is that all The Deity has been whittled down to?" Amy asked me. I paused from across the field, watching her hair sway in the wind as the scarf followed suit around her neck.

How true she is... that I've fallen from such a high status of power. Normally feared by Arkians, I am nothing in the face of other Deities in Quake. All that time I've accumulated power, all that time I've exerted my control over them... all for nothing when I stand against Amy.

I used to be so powerful, especially in my fight against Dani and Sky, and the rest of the Arkians. However, since Sky reclaimed his abilities, I'm just another person. Any time I access his abilities, I permanently lower my strength until I'm left with nothing. It's only a matter of time before Amy beats me...

But... Dani? Dammit, that force of nature is not something to mess with. If I can postpone Amy's fight with Dani for even a second longer, she will likely... no... definitely lose to her. I guess as time goes on, people really do rise to power.

Sky and Dani will conquer this world... I'll be set free.

I let Amy slash straight through the portion of my head on the left side, leaving the black strands to wrap around and claim it. I know all too well how these work, and I know that if they take too much of my body, then it is no longer my body. It belongs to them.

My eye poured out of my head in a viscous liquid and as Amy's saber hit the ground after the attack, the rattling of the metal awoken something deep in my mind.

Memories from before, forgotten with time, I remembered all sorts of things as she got closer to me.

The black strands have always been eating away at my mind, with the tendrils always coming back, the only way they achieved sentience is with the black strands coursing in my veins. I've been constantly losing my memories, but the one they tried to take this time hurt me.

I can't die here... Dammit, I wanted to die so bad, to be freed from responsibility. All of my actions would be settled if Amy just killed me... but even now, I just can't let that happen.

I dropped my special saber infused with black strands and ran as fast as I possibly could toward Amy.

"You going to kill me all of a sudden? Don't forget what I'm capable of," Amy said.

She sent another slash at me, cleanly cutting my entire left arm off this time, but was still tackled by me.

My tendril separated from my back, wrapping her in one half, and pushing her all the way over to Austin.

Dani was in midair with a tattoo on her left arm, and fire in her eyes.

"I'm not going to kill you... we are!" I shouted out.

I launched myself up in the air right beside Dani, peering down beside her with my right arm cocked back, just as her left arm was.

Both Amy and Austin's eyes lit up in worry as my arm went back to Dani's. She was using Ali Asterio's Incarnation to summon more power than ever before, and I was right behind her, supporting her the entire way. She stood silent with a wicked smile on her face, and I joined right behind The Goddess of Wrath.

"IT'S OVER FOR YOU! AMY!"

"IT'S OVER FOR YOU! AUSTIN!"

We both talked in synchronization as our goals aligned and moved our hands forward, together.

A single blast of raw energy from strands hit both of them, evaporating them into dust and other strands absorbed into Dani and my body.

Both Dani and I fell partially unconscious, hitting the floor with a light bounce before sprawling out completely to recover the oxygen we had lost.

"Still... hah... there... Goddess... hah... of... Wrath...?" I asked her in a tired tone.