Tim and Kou stood still in front of the metal building. Nobody seemed to be around. Not even troops. "Do you really think that Louisa's somewhere in there? I don't feel comfortable staring at it. What if she's been hurt or worse?"
Tim dragged his view of the building from bottom to top. His arms were put in his pockets. "Don't worry, Louisa's fine. But we don't know for how long, so we should hurry up and search."
The building was large and oversized every other building in the vicinity. While the building was constructed out of metal, it also had a lot of stone as support.
Tim and Kou ran around its exterior and came in view of a door. "That's gotta be the entrance." Kou believed and allowed Tim to push the door open. They entered.
The interior of it was a massive room that seemed to be empty at first. It was like a normal lobby for people to talk to, but the door at the far back had a sign on top of it. On it was written "Cell Room" and once they opened the door, they noticed massive stairs that lead straight down into the underground.
"Seems that we've hit the jackpot," Tim said and looked down toward the bottom of the stairwell. "Louisa must be in there." Kou ran down the stairs, leaving Tim behind. Kou stopped and looked at him. "What are you waiting for? Tim?" Tim became solemn. "I have an odd feeling about that." He claimed but followed the stairwell down.
They entered a corridor that had built-in cells in a linear direction, but none of them were occupied by people. But there was one at the very back of the corridor. There was somebody in there, and Kou ran for it without looking back.
He came running in front of the cell, grabbed the bars, and looked inside. He noticed Koume sitting on the ground at the back, leaning her back on the wall. She had her head stuffed between her elevated knees. "Louisa! We found you!" Kou called.
Koume raised her face and quickly became stressed. "Kou! What are you doing here?! You need to get out of here now!" Kou could mildly notice sweat and anxiety on her face. "What? Have you lost your mind? We came here to help you. I promised to get you out of here. I can't back away now, not when we've made it so far."
She continued pressing her hands on the bars. "No, you don't understand! This place is rigged to blow up! While you were out there fighting, Niklas planted the bombs around it, locking me after! It's going to blow up in the next minute, so you need to get out! Just, save yourselves and forget we ever met!"
Kou continued denying, but at that moment they heard feet behind them. "It's too late now." Tim, Kou, and Koume looked at the front of the stairwell. Niklas stood there, holding a device, keeping his left arm in the pocket.
"Niklas," Tim stated, becoming agitated. "you would dare to show up now that all of your sidekicks lost their battles!" Niklas cared not. "Am I supposed to care about those weaklings? If they can't handle one simple task I give, then they aren't worth my time." Tim tried to rush in, but before he succeeded he was stopped by Niklas. "Take another step closer and I'll set off the explosives." Tim didn't want to risk getting caught in the explosion while Kou and Koume were at the rate of fire.
"I guess you're not that good of a leader after all. Are you really planning to blow up one of your own possession? If you blow it up, you'll be caught in the explosion and killed too." Tim slightly looked away, hiding his mouth that trembled.
"Oh, I'll be fine. I thought you came here to take back the island. Well, if I blow this place to fragments, then you won't need to worry about prisoners ever again." He continued, "All I'm doing is making your work easier."
Tim formed fists. "By exploding this building with people in it? Is that your way of trying to "save" people? I don't think I get it." Niklas wobbled his hand to the side. "Oh, I see. You're too dumb to understand. Let me enlighten you, buddy. When I press this button, you'll all be killed inside, and I'll take my leave without worrying about suffering any wounds. Blowing it up with you in it will make this whole battle pointless, and I'll return to being this island's leader. See you in the afterlife."
He moved his finger closer to the button and pressed it. Then he phased through the ground into his own shadow and said one final word. "Now, if you don't mind. Let's start the fireworks." Tim became astounded, but he instantly turned around and swung his arm. He grasped Kou's body and then dashed for the cell.
Then the timer reached zero and finally a massive explosion lit up the sky. It drove its force through the whole building and vaporized through every material that constructed it. It caused enough force to create vibrations and quakes that spread through the surroundings. The scorching flames rained on the floor and powerful wind, stronger than a hurricane, darted outward.
Niklas came ascending from his own shadow out in the open and allowed the strong wind to soar past him. It made his clothes ripple rapidly, and swayed his clothes, and turned away from the explosion, he dropped the device on the ground and stomped on it, destroying it.
He reached inside his pocket, dragging out the artifact that the guards gave him after they locked away Koume. "Now that that's over with, I can finally charge up the swords and become unstoppable." But then he sensed enormous pressure around him and tried to scout it out.
Tim flashed in the distance, squatting. He held both Koume's and Kou's bodies in one of his arms. Both kids were confused about what happened and felt that they were gently placed on the ground next to Tim. "Sorry, guys. I might have been a bit too rough, but I needed to get you out of there as soon as possible." They both stood next to him and watched him straighten up.
"No, it's fine. Thank you, stranger." Claimed Koume, befuddled. "The name's Tim." Kou was relieved, but then both Tim and Niklas exchanged their view.
"This is becoming tiring. I guess even an explosion that big doesn't kill you, huh? You're quickly testing my patience." Niklas stepped forward. "I thought you had amazing patience. You know, hiding behind the mansion and allowing other people to do the dirty work for you. It's too bad that that won't be necessary anymore."
Tim and Niklas' eyes met straight. "I guess you're really hard to kill with that special ability I've heard about. Or maybe you were just too fast and managed to escape the explosion in time. You're a stubborn one, huh? Looks like you really don't want to die."
Kou stepped forward in anger. "You be quiet! You don't know a thing about Tim! He won't die unless not until he keeps his promises!" Tim looked at Kou, perplexed. He smiled, but then looked at Koume. "So, you're Kou's friend. Are you all right?" Tim asked, looking at her. For a moment she seemed confused, but smiled. "Yeah, I'm fine, thanks to you! You really saved our butts back there! You're super cool!" laughed Koume.
"Aw, come on. You're embarrassing me!" He awkwardly scratched the back of his head, then smiled, stood back up, and became serious. "Kou. It's not safe for the two of you to be around here. Hide a far enough place and wait until I'm done. Remember, whatever happens, don't interfere. I intend to kick this guy's ass." Kou nodded, confidentially and grabbed Koume's arm. "You got it. Louisa, let's go!" the moment he pulled him behind her, she felt a bit heated up in the face, but quickly agreed with him and followed him behind a building.
Tim stepped forward and grinned with his mouth wide. He punched into his palm and released blue flames from the gap between that blasted on the sides. "Okay, ugly. How about we get this over with?"
Two of them remained still, and then both exposed their powers at once. Purple shadow flowed around Niklas like a surge, and around Tim the blue flames flared around, searing. The battle between the shadow of fire would soon become a reality.
To be continued...