Pshh…
Rain began to pour from the dark heavy clouds up above, right overtop the battlefield of Obeli and flames. Dante's screaming had halted, and his face spelled shock. As the water droplets spilled all over our floating bodies, I watched as the flames on Dante's body began to be put out. The inferno was diminishing, extinguishing from the torrent of rain.
Tsss…
The sizzling sound of his flames dampening filled the precipitating air. How ironic I'd found it to be that the very counter to his Fractal had made its appearance at just the right moment. Now that he was in an environment where his Fractal would be less effective, I decided it was time to finally finish things off. I raised my hand and pointed my palm, ready to manifest an Obelus around his body to condense him into imploded matter the same way I did with all of my victims.
I clenched my palm. As I did, the unexpected occurred.
Tsss—!!!
A giant spark had ignited from Dante's body, erupting about a fiery bright ember. The power from his sudden explosion of flames was so strong that it blew me backwards, disrupting the formation of my Obelus. The energy he produced in the instant was so incomprehensibly hot that it boiled the water of every single rain droplet in the air, evaporating them all in an instant. What was once an environment overshadowed by rainfall had been engulfed entirely by mist. The air had become damp and foggy, with distant visibility at only an arm's length.
I couldn't see anything around me at all.
Fascinating.
I remained afloat in one spot, unsure of where Dante may be. With the silent, still air of the mist that moved around me, I realized in the quietness that even the rain had stopped. Above me, I could sense emptiness in the clouds.
His flames were so hot, he'd not only evaporated all the rain into mist, but even extinguished the water contained within the clouds.
For once in my life, I was truly surprised by someone's power waged against me. I did not at all feel intimidated, nor provoked by this matter. But I was most definitely entranced by the remarkability of this individual.
This is an absolute peak Fractal Activation. Dante Hade, you have entered the realm of anomaly.
From a Fractal that simply kept children warm in the winter, to something capable of opposing Mother Nature, Dante had put even myself in a vulnerable position. As capable as I was with my Fractal, a lack of sight was detrimental to anyone. I was cornered by the mist, unable to tell from which direction he might have been approaching. I had to consider all of my senses.
Eyes, no. The fog blinds me. Smell, no. The air is scented with smoke in every direction. Hear, no. Every sound made echoes around me in a gyre. Taste, no. In this scenario it lacks all purpose. Touch…
I pondered for a moment. Down to the last sense, I couldn't immediately write it off. There were only a select few people in the world who could consider their own sixth sense, except it differed among all of them. In my case, it was an extra sense of touch. Every Obelus I deployed I considered an extra hand capable of feeling. The ones I condensed around people to death were like aggressively clenched fists. The ones I expanded to produce my velocity were like open pushing palms. In order to determine from which direction Dante approached, I had to use my Obeli to my advantage.
Higher.
I raised myself into the sky. With both my hands stretched, I deployed 13 Obeli in the space around me, surrounding me like a sphere. Each one was positioned exactly a hundred feet from me, in equal intervals apart. The empty spaces between each Obelus were not wide enough for Dante to pass through without physically contacting at least one of them, meaning that when he did, I would know exactly which one it was, indicating his position.
Now, to wait.
I remained still, subsiding all motion. I dampened my breath as to produce little sound. I focused only on the sense of touch connected to my Obeli, waiting for the moment that one of them were disturbed. Once I gauged Dante's position, I would make my next move swift.
Fwoo…
It sounded like wind began to blow. There was a creeping motion in the air, but I knew it wasn't natural. As the particles of mist started to vibrate erratically around me, I knew that it was due to the increasing heat in the atmosphere that their motion had been produced.
It's a feint.
My tenth, south-east Obelus suddenly popped. I felt hot energy follow through the sphere into my radius, but I spared no attention towards it.
I knew it wasn't Dante.
Pop—!
My eleventh, north-west Obelus had burst in pursuit. I felt a stream of even stronger heat energy now coming from its direction.
There he is.
Two sources of fire were approaching me at the same speed, from opposite ends in a perfect 180 degree angle apart. Just like he'd already done earlier in the fight, Dante was attempting to sandwich me between a source of fire and himself again. The heat coming from the north-west Obelus must have been him, considering how much stronger the energy had felt, while the other from the south-east end was a feinted fire ball.
If it didn't work the first time, why try again?
As I began to float aside to dodge the incoming attack, I realized that Dante was not as dull as the others I've encountered before. You had to be a certain kind of smart in order to escape the Cube on your own.
"You're not the only dynamic one here!"
His electronic voice swirled in the mist around me. I suddenly began to sense numerous incoming sources of fire from all directions. The two initial attacks were already soon to intersect me, while the rest of my Obeli began erupting in succession. Dante had somehow managed to synchronize an attack on all my remaining Obeli at once. Fire began to pour through my Obelus shield, towards me, from all directions of the three-dimensional compass.
I was surrounded by the flames of Dante's inferno.
"Well played, Hade."
Anyone's first thought in my position would be to shield themselves with an Obelus, except that wouldn't work. While I had the ability to encapsulate anything in the world with an Obelus, my Fractal had one condition—I could never enclose myself in an Obelus.
Fwoosh—!!
Dante and his flames were soon to intersect me. While I was powerful, I was also far from fire-resistant. If I couldn't confine myself within an Obelus for protection, I only had one other choice for this kind of predicament.
I must use it.
I clasped my hands together, twisting my palms in the clockwise direction as they connected.
"Obelus: Inverse Divisionary."
A green wall formed around me, but its interior side faced outwards.
"What—!?" The green glow caught Dante by surprise.
I had wrapped an Obelus around the entire world.