While the Crow considered a possibility that could turn the tide of the war in their favor, halfway across the intact remnants of the city, Katie and June fought against Riverton's Founder.
Just as we shifted our focus to them, June was slapped away, thrown by the hand into a burning building. Crashing through the back wall then landing into the debris once more, Wilder groaned against the ground, only raising her head to realize her fingers were wet with her skull's blood. Through her blurry vision before collapsing to unconsciousness, with Eternal Sight, she could just barely make out the approximate sight of Callum battling against Katie's unwavering, sword-wielding might.
While protecting the incoming punches with her Blackened Blade katana, Katie consistently grunted with every blow Callum threw against her sword.
Eventually, the Founder grew tired. "ENOUGH!" he yelled.
Once he took this time to scream, a split-second opening appeared around his throat. Widening her eyes upon realizing this, quickly, she guided the sharpness to Callum's neck.
Conveniently, he vanished before her eyes without a sound. With one mental command, she smoothly transitioned to the same world of stopped time Callum fled into.
The blazing background wholly grey as they fought now, Callum caught her Blade. Holding it tight in his grip, the Founder glared at the Source—for the two were locked in this position. However momentary their lock was, it was meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Within their blue and red eyes, inside the pupils was the same unmistakable look. No malice or hatred, nothing so childish! Dark Determination was ablaze inside them!
Finally, Katie punched Callum away. Not only did her fist send him flying, but she was also free of his hold. Watching him soar away following her punch, her feet shattered the ground, and she was propelled forward at an unimaginable speed! The world of stopped time they'd temporarily fought within reverted to normal as the surrounding fires around them continued to loudly crackle and move.
Callum had already flipped in mid-air, implanting his feet into the rubble-covered ground. While moving past the battlefield's wrecked surroundings, his legs stabbed downward, he spotted the same imminent threat that'd punched him over here. Katie, moving with such a quickness that her body turned to blurriness. The Founder sharply inhaled, slamming one foot against the ground, his fist impaled the air with a punch.
June, watching from afar with Divergence's Eternal Sight, raised an eyebrow. Then, it hit her. He hasn't punched the air to throw some sort of projectile at Katie, no. He was going for something much sneakier than either of the women could've anticipated. The gist of wind Callum drove toward Katie was akin to the irritation of advancing through a sandstorm. Multiple rocks were carried via the winds in the storm to crash against her face, sending an insatiable itch to her exposed skin.
'That damn Founder…'
Nevertheless, she persevered in the face of overwhelming irritation, rushing through the dust to exit on the other side. Outside the smoke, there he was, clenching his knuckles to form a fist. Just about to slash at his face after closing the distance, Callum jumped into the air. Punching at her skull from overhead, she stepped back, effortlessly dodging. Maintaining her foot, however, nervously, two punches soared past her face almost incomprehensibly. Raising her Blade quickly, the Founder rapidly punched at her darkly-tinted steel, leaving multiple sparks against the sharpness.
"What happened to earlier, Karlo?! You beat me so easily before, what's wrong NOW?!" Callum yelled at the blue-eyed swordswoman.
In response, Katie clenched her teeth, then threw the Founder back. Affixing his balance, he raised his fists. Catching two slashes with his bleeding wrists, he watched as the steel sunk into his flesh. Pushing her back, Moon tumbled. Now holding her Blade one-handed, Katie punched at her enemy's ribs, actually cracking four. Tumbling back, coughing blood while holding his stomach, he watched as Katie dragged her sword behind her. Slashing at any openings, rapidly slicing at anything she could with just one hand.
The Founder had many moves he could play right now, but he continued to play this ceaseless game. Crashing his fist to connect against the sword, the miniature explosion blew Katie back before she dashed again, this time jumping once she reached close enough. Instead of diving downward with the Blade's tip aimed for his head, her legs crushed where he once stood. Forming a crater upon her landing, she rushed ahead once again, grasping the katana with two hands once again.
Rivers unleashed a breath of fire to keep her away, raising his palm, as if awaiting the chance to activate a follow-up attack. Eventually, Katie exited the flames. Just before the Founder could blast off whatever beam he was charging, his hand was gone--having been disconnected at the wrist with one slash from Moon's Deathly Blackened Blade. Watching his fingers fly away after being spliced apart, Callum's long white hair moved with the wind, his eye wide.
'There it is again! That abnormal speed she used before to defeat me earlier! But how? How'd she bypass the Requiem Artifact's absolute power so easily... especially when my power is the single most superior strength in the whole New World!' Callum's thoughts quickly rushed through his brain after Katie's surprise mutilation.
'It's simple. As long as I use 'that' as they told me to, I should be able to defeat the Requiem Artifact easily. I can't use this again for another month, so this has to be it--I have to end this right here and now. Whether or not I kill him is irrelevant, but if we don't recover the usurped Artifact, all these deaths will have been for nothing!'
Instead of beheading the Founder right then and there, he was grabbed by the throat. Slammed into the ground, her fingers against his neck, she raised her free hand--still holding the Blackened Blade.
"One second," she said after raising one finger.
In the time it took the heart to beat thrice, Callum's limbs were amputated, leaving all but one arm. Then he was stabbed into the ground with the katana pierced into his chest. Somehow, despite wielding the absolute power of the Requiem Artifact, was pinned to the ground and was unable to escape. He couldn't explain it then, but it was almost as if there were something invisible binding him there. Whether it was transcendental like Fate or mysterious like Death, it was irrelevant. Someway Katie declined to explain, the Founder was beaten twice in the same day, with one arm to show for his useless efforts.
An ulterior thud entered Katie's ears, her head raising to spot her white-haired cousin holding a syringe.
"Took ya long enough," teased Kate.
June remained silent. Instead of answering, she got down on one knee beside Rivers' body and stabbed the syringe she held into his vein. However, instead of injecting a fluid into his body, she drew blood. Not Founder Callum's blood, though, but Alexander Amara's.
"Back when you sought the Artifact, you had it in your grasp yet you were unable to use it. That was because you needed special blood to do so: Alex's. After Icarus broke apart his barrier following his fight with Harbinger, he'd gotten a blood sample… and then gave it to you. You used it on yourself, but you would soon die without proper verification. And that was when you got the Artifact, as the silent scriptures of the New World written by the Allfather allow only two Requiems to exist at once. Alexander Amara… and the Artifact's inheritor. In other words, you, Callum Rivers. With your blood, we can make another Requiem to officially annihilate Retly's forces the next time we meet. A Requiem weapon controlled by Riot, housed in the magical Evolutionary Capital. Because of you, you've tipped the scales of the war in our favor. Just like the Old World, the Requiem Empire will reign supreme me and promise eternal peace for all its subjects. Not only is that the fate that awaits you, but it is justice. Not Riot's altogether or just mine, no. That justice belongs solely to the entire world fending you off from committing any more atrocities, Rivers. So accept it. For the first time in your spoiled, pathetic life, you've lost.
The demons have been defeated and humanity rises to take a stand for itself with the Requiems leading the next path to the new future."
But what more could Callum say? Surprisingly, he'd been defeated, but that wasn't just it. As far as the eye could see, there was destruction. Innocent bodies crushed under debris, others just charred skeletons increasingly burning with every passing minute.
Maybe it wasn't worth it—maybe this was all useless in the end. But they did it. Riot had infiltrated Retly, and not only shattered the chain of command, but they obliterated their city. Hundreds, maybe even thousands died. But all Katie could do was smile, and the Founder knew exactly why.
Just then, when she finished speaking seconds prior, he knew, better than anyone, that she was lying. Disregarding everyone else, she knew this was what she wanted. The rest of the world remained dirty and corrupt; this was only the start. No matter what she or anyone else said, righteous or not, she wanted this. To leave the oppressors of the world in flames, unable to recover.
That—was her justice.
To Be Continued.