Zealous' Demolition

"You're not going to be nice and explain it to me, are you?" I asked Cole sarcastically. He smiled, throwing the saber through the boat above us, collapsing the wooden planks that were left from Avie falling down to the ground.

"Wouldn't it be better if I just showed you...?" Cole asked me.

Orion's boat slowly disintegrated into strands, churning in the wind until evaporating into nothing as they shrunk over time. After the boat disappeared, the metal crates around us started to vanish as well, revealing the dome surrounding us that trapped us from the rest of Zealous.

As Cole held his empty hand up, both Avie and I were ready to attack, but were stopped by the instantaneous dispersion of the dome around us.

The dome, otherwise indestructible to any other entity on Earth or in The First Trial besides my mom, had vanished, meaning that Cole's strength was much further than Mom's last strike, summing together all of her power.

I was left almost petrified, staring at Cole started to look around at nearby buildings of Zealous.

In both of our minds, the connection between Avie and I broke as my motive shifted. I could not let him destroy Zealous.

I shot off of the ground with speed and Belle's ability primed, blocking Cole's vision from the rest of the city. I threw the Mahina Blade toward him and it scathed his shoulder, forcing him to look toward me.

Belle's ability expanded in power behind me as the obelisks of ice began to scrape the clouds. The side of the city that Cole was aiming for hadn't been evacuated yet, and I knew for a fact that what he wanted to do was wreak havoc, to try and make me feel guilty for being powerless.

I was beginning to understand... with the Asterio Marks on my face, the Lifespan Reduction began to slow down, meaning that I could exert more power with less of a consequence... but what drawback did they have?

I continued to throw more attacks at Cole, blocking his with Shike's and launching it back at him with shockwaves coming out.

Avie was nowhere to be seen and I was head-to-head with Cole. He was far superior in a fist fight and ended up shooting me into the ground with a counter hit.

He stomped right where my head used to be, causing me to fly backward with a surprising amount of force I launched myself off of the ground with. I held my head tightly as I looked forward, looking at the new message in my left eye.

[Lifespan Reduction: 35 Years]

I took in a deep breath, panting while staring at Cole again. He smiled, that stupid smile in front of me.

I was starting to lose my cool... knowing I came this far, just to be beaten by a man who could infinitely heal. There were ways to slow him down... but I was wasting my life away at this point with no results... it hurt, so bad.

All of the people who died for my future were turning in their graves, watching me kill myself just to try and stand a chance against Cole...

Instead of playing defense on the city, I lost composure and ran at Cole while letting the large ice obelisks take damage from him.

I slashed down, straight through his arm, and struck him in the throat with a sharp jab from my left hand. He hit one of the obelisks, causing it to tilt from the pressure and collapse onto Zealous.

"That's it Sky... destroy what you've been trying to protect... you're already falling under my trap," Cole mentioned to me.

It no longer mattered to me that he was trying to provoke me. Everything he said was an attempt to lower my guard to strike back fiercely... if Cole were to cut my head off, I would assume no death would be more certain. I can't heal infinitely.

When Cole hit the obelisk and caused it to tilt toward the city, I rose more ice out of the ground to stop it from moving. To my surprise, it all shattered in one fell swoop as blue strands struck the very top and launched the shrapnel up in the air, away from all other danger.

Cole clicked his tongue and I smashed his teeth in with my left hand again, grabbing him by his collar with my opposite hand, and slamming him into the ground.

"SKY!" I heard a voice call out to me, like it was right behind me. I turned my head sharply to see who it was, and who I should protect.

"EVACUATED! DESTROY ZEALOUS!" Ruby shouted out. She cupped her hands together to scream out my name and three words to give me permission to use all that I had.

My head slowly creaked back toward Cole as he pushed his body up, regenerating the damage I had done again.

"You're dead," I told him.

As soon as I summoned all of the power using the Singularity Incarnation, The Incarnation of Wrath, Shike's Ability, and the power of the black strands, my fist connected to his stomach at the same time Avie's foot connected to Cole's face.

He sat there, taking the hit, and having most of his body blown to nothing but dust.

It all collapsed under the pressure of the hit, and behind him almost evaporated from the amount of power unleashed all at once.

Buildings that would almost scrape the sky had their windows shattered during Avie's first arrival, but on the second most powerful thing to occur during the battle, they shattered.

Everything fell.

Houses, trees, buildings, storages, docks, boats, small planes, it all crumbled to dust after the hit.

[Lifespan Reduction: 50 Years]

I panted, watching my charred hand attempt to regenerate itself under the pressure of the hit, but the molten skin and bone inside of my arm lost all feeling and was having trouble coming back.

I couldn't infinitely heal...