People burst from nowhere with pops and snaps from their teleportation. Every last one was an enemy, and it was absolute pandemonium.
Rust, Tatem, and I were fighting almost immediately, Terminus had vanished with some strange look on his face.
I hacked and slashed my way through my enemies. Red lightning fired from my fingertips at one person, white flames flowed from my sword at another. At some point I lost track of the other two, but I heard screams of pain and saw a dull red light coming from one direction, saw purple and blue light followed by peals of thunder coming from another. I assumed that these were Rust and Tatem respectively.
But no matter how many we slew, more came. There seemed to be an endless number of them. At some point I dropped my sword and activated Silky's power in tandem with all of my others, using my bare hands to crush skulls, tear people in half, and just leave carnage behind me in general.
Eventually the carnage was under me. I stopped moving to my enemies and let them all come to me, resulting in me standing atop a mound of bodies killing all who climbed to the top to face me.
I would split a skull, break a neck, punch a hole, disembowel, rip out the spine of, or tear in half any enemy who approached. Soon, I was painted red.
The slaughter showed no signs of ceasing, until all of the sudden, all of the soldiers stopped approaching the three of us. They stood staring up at me in fear as I held one in my hand by the spine.
Then there was clapping. One pair of hands meeting, over and over again, and Lato emerged from nowhere.
"Well done, well done," he congratulated. "However, Nierix, your friends don't have the stamina you do."
I looked at Tatem and Rust. Both were panting and had various cuts and bruises.
"Indeed," Terminus voice rang out clearly across the battlefield. "However, Lato, it's over for you now."
Terminus appeared in front of Lato holding a black sphere. "I found our original body, Lato. All of the extra power that comes with that is now mine."
Lato chuckled. "You used this whole war as a distraction, didn't you?"
Terminus did not answer, and that was answer in and of itself.
I grit my teeth, and the next thing I knew, I was behind Terminus, grabbing him by the back of the head, and slamming his face into the ground.
I kept him there for a moment. The forest was completely silent. I lifted him again and saw anger and disbelief in his eyes.
"Of all the pieces, you were the one who I trusted the least," he said with such venom, it was hard to believe that such a person was crowned "King of Heroes."
I answered by slamming his face into the ground again. And again. And again, and again, and again until he stopped flailing and firing off shots trying to get me to let go. When I lifted him up the last time, he was bleeding profusely from his head, and was making a face that told me he was unconscious.
I dropped him to the ground and looked at Lato, who had not made a move for the black sphere that Terminus had dropped. The shock and disbelief on his face was apparent.
"Unexpected," he finally managed. "Though not unwelcome." He reached for the sphere, but I stomped his hand to the ground hard enough to create a crater, crushing all the bones in his hand.
He grunted.
"Oh buddy," I said coldly. "You're next."
-
I let off his hand, which healed immediately, and punched him in the face, sending him flying into a tree. I flew at him and unleashed an onslaught of punches and kicks that shattered every bone they met. I was so absorbed in my flurry of attacks that I didn't notice the Rift cracking until it shattered and a hole into it opened, and we fell in.
The hole closed behind us. As we fell, I continued to beat the ever-loving crap out of Lato. He tried to return punches but missed or was too weak to do any damage.
I made us stop falling and rolled him over so that his back was to me. I knew what was right here. A sweet spot that Corbin had left just for me.
I clasped my hands together and brought them down over and over again onto Lato's back. More specifically, into the only injury on him that stayed open. I shattered his spine over and over again, and eventually his white shirt was red.
I finally ceased my rage and bought him back to the Forest of Almer.
I dropped him next to Terminus and started back to Tatem to heal her.
I knelt next to her and started to work.
"I must admit, I cannot condone your actions here, Nierix," Rust told me.
"I figured, though I don't much care."
"I thought as much."
We were silent as I healed the two of them. When I finished, I rose and turned to Lato and Terminus to see that they had both reached the sphere and were just touching it when I shouted a protest. But before I could stop them, I was blown back.
I looked up and saw them standing on their own, their wounds healed apart from Lato's back. Both glowing, radiating an eerie power.
They looked at each other and nodded in silent agreement.
"You die here, Nierix," Terminus said.