I had been seated on the ground with my legs crossed and my hood overhead for a few hours now. The wind blew against my back as I kept my eyes closed, putting the sense of sight aside to accommodate the feeling of warmth in the air as it approached.
This is unexpected.
I could feel that Dante had gotten faster. In fact, his arrival would be within the next hour, rather than the expected remaining dozen of time.
His speed has ramped-up with exponential steepness.
I stood up and reopened my eyes, noticing that the sky had gotten darker. I rose towards the grey clouds that were already beginning to settle atop the field. It was going to rain soon. In the distance, a spark of orange burned brightly into my sight, I'd squinted my eyes. The way my skin began to press with heat, I already knew what began to approach.
Dante Hade had arrived.
In just a matter of seconds, he'd blitzed flamingly in my line of path with no regard for my existence. I raised my hand and deployed an Obelus directly between us, stopping him in place just a few hundred feet from me. Now that he was this close, I could make out his characteristics. From head-to-toe, he was wrapped with medical bandage—likely fireproof—to cover the burn wounds he'd obtained from his Fractal Activation. Overtop the wrappings, he was still wearing the bright red prisoner clothing from the Cube.
He's really come straight from the prison.
I noticed that he remained afloat in air from fire that constantly emitted from beneath his feet and hands. They were like the boosters of a rocket, keeping him suspended with propulsion.
"Dante Hade," I announced. "Where are you headed?"
He spoke, his voice robotic from the electrolarynx. "What does it matter to you? Who are you?"
I kept my face concealed with my hood, as always. "A border."
There was a serene quietness that blew between us for a moment—the wind of an approaching storm.
"Get the hell out of my way." His emitting flames began to grow. "I have personal business to cease."
"I won't let that happen."
The flames erupted. An inferno was born. Stretching far and wide from his body was a raging wall of fire. With his eyes strained and bulged, he gritted his decaying teeth as he said this to me.
"I will burn you to death."
I did not spare blinking, for in the next second, he'd blazed forwards with fuming speed. He moved so quickly towards me that the flames he emitted had been left behind in a trail. My arm was already raised, so with a few twitches of the hand, I deployed numerous Obeli in a jagged pattern in front of me. I saw his eyes track them as they were placed, indicating that he knew to avoid them. Immediately, I detonated an Obelus before me to propel me backwards as far as possible.
Fwoosh—!!!
Right in my previous position, the air had burnt-up in flames. Dante hovered there, seemingly surprised by my quick reaction.
"What is your Fractal?" He asked, annoyingly intrigued. "Are you Activated?"
I shook my head with no response. He showed distaste for the lack of words in my reply.
"Tsk… Why are you even getting in my way? Are you with A.X.A.?"
I shook my head again.
He sighed. It seemed that Dante had come up with his own assumption. "You think I'm guilty, don't you? You think I'm responsible for that incident at the orphanage?"
I did not reply.
"Did you not see the news?! Klyson Rainer is the one responsible! He's the serial killer on the loose! He's the real culprit for what happened to those children! It wasn't me! I would have never done that to those kids! I loved them! I took care of them! I protected them! I did everything I could to keep them warm and safe! I was their hero!!"
My suspicions had been confirmed. With Klyson's exposure to the public, Dante had his sights set on him after all. I was here to ensure that they would never intersect, so that Ian's plan for Klyson would not be disrupted. It would be a waste if the long-coming plan came to an end after how much had already been done.
"I do not doubt you, Hade. But what you seek is pointless. Leave and let it be."
"Let it be…?" His eyes grew with anger. "You think I could just 'let it be' after I've been framed for the death of my beloved children?!! Who the hell do you think you are?!"
In a straight line, from his chest towards me, a ray of fire shot forwards. I weaved aside and it flew past me, but flared outwards at the end of its path, producing a wall of burning flames that left me no exit from the back. He suddenly zoomed towards me with both hands raised, from which I noticed flashes of fire beginning to emit. His plan seemed to be a method that would sandwich me between the wall of fire and himself, but there was still room both above and below me. I disabled my hover and dropped downwards with gravity, accelerating the movement with an expanding Obelus from above. I'd avoided getting pressed with his fire, and I began to fly out of danger's way.
"You really think you can stop me?! I'm surging with power right now!!"
With my evasion, he quickly turned around and formed a burst in pursuit using explosive firepower that came from his hands and feet. I continued to fly away in an evasive pattern, all while he tailed me with a burning trail. He began to shoot gulfs of fire from his palms in my direction, and I soared through the sky avoiding the fireworks he produced.
"Come on! You seemed so confident that you could stop me! Why are you running away?!"
For a moment, my hood flapped high enough so he could catch glare of my iridescent eyes. Without an inch of strain, no furrowed eyebrows, and no legible malintent to meet his gaze, I gave him my final reply.
"I won't assure that you'll live to see the next hour."
That was the ignition for a fury of fire that exploded from Dante's body. He'd become more enraged than ever before, screaming with wrath at the top of his lungs. Then, lightning had struck, and the rumblings of thunder followed through.
Rain began to pour.