Chereads / Chimera Man / Chapter 17 - Scorched Earth

Chapter 17 - Scorched Earth

"Is that so?" Xolotl smirks, folding his arm as lightning strikes the ground, smiting birds in the air and burning trees. "If you're so smart, why don't you show it?!" He announces as he claps his hands, the entire world shifting around him as he does so.

A strong gust of wind undoes Maximillia's hair, causing it to flail wildly in the wind. She smirks before a ring of fire engulfs the circular patch of grass they stand on.

"Welcome to the arena, challenger." The hand lifts upwards and reveals thousands of beady small eyes on Xolotl's head as he smirks wildly.

"It will be an honor." Maximillia's suit starts to catch on fire as she withdraws a giant blade of fire from her back. The handle burns brightly as she pulls it from behind her. It scorches her hand, yet doesn't leave a single scar. Fire traces down her hand, spreading to her entire entire. The blade glistens under the bright sun, fueling the surrounding nature. A giant corona made of embers wrapped around the hilt of the sword. "Lavox, the final feather." Flames cover her eyes as a masquerade mask engulfs them, feathers peaking from the side.

"What kind of hybrid are you?" Xolotl questions, the hands-on his back reacting to the heat emitting from Maximillia. They squirmed back and forth, shriveling up in the immense heat.

"The Phoenix Hybrid." Maximilla fully withdraws her blade, revealing a sword that is as large as her. Her entire body was engulfed in flames, embers sparking from her heat as they coated her body.

From the flames rose a warrior of the sun, a queen of eternal sunshine. The clothes on her body had been burned to a crisp and a golden armor had encased itself around her body. It fully covered every nook and cranny of her skin, golden rivets around her shoulder as she wore a flaming masquerade mask and her golden orange hair flowing wildly with bright red highlights. Above her head was a golden halo that circled above.

"It's been many years since I've used limbs like this." Xolotl cracked his arms, his fingers contorting and twisting in inhumane ways. His neck was extremely thick and dense, the veins running upwards like giant pipes.

"Judgement!" Maximillia went straight for his neck, slicing his head cleanly off as Lavox ripped through the very fabric of space itself. Its blade shined so brightly at such high temperatures it caused the air around to literally and the particles to disintegrate into energy. As the blade made contact with the air, the entire area exploded in a loud burst of energy, scattering light in every direction.

"This bitch-!" Xolotl was caught off guard by Maximillia's sudden attack. He sweeps his foot back as he claps both of his hands again, the beads on his hands slapping against one another as a ring rung out.

The air vibrated around Maximillia's ears and caused her to momentarily lose her hearing. Her entire world shifted upside down as the clouds were at her feet and the trees in the sky.

The liquid in her ear that moderates her sense of balance had been disrupted, completely causing her to see the world upside-down!

"Burning Pheasant!" Maximillia closed her eyes and jumped off of the sky, her feet scorching against the wind as she snaked her way through the 20 meter tall creature. Her movements were graceful yet purposeful, swinging her blade with pin-drop accuracy.

Within a matter of a second, Maximillia swung her blade 200 times!

Xolotl's body exploded into large chunks of flesh as his entire body scorched to hell and back. Maximillia's armor, being made of pure eternal fire, was completely phased through his tough exterior. Maximillia stands infront of Xolotl's body, her back towards him.

"Scorched Earth!" Xolotl's mouth commands as all the remnants of his flesh shoot back inwards, creating a massive goo of flesh. Flaming arrows shot from the sky below as it paraded upwards onto the ground. Maximillia turned her head backwards as an arrow singed her nose. "Welcome to my world!" Right as she blinked, Xolotl had reformed, and there was a fist right to her face.

"Tenfold Punch!" Xolotl's punch staggered tenfold, each instance releasing a different pulse of energy that ripped through Maximillia's armor.

Maximillia's armor ate the attack as her armor began to show signs of cracking. Maximillia swung her blade toward Xolotl as a flaming slash projected from the tip of her blade.

Xolotl catches the slash mid-air and crushes it between his palms.

Arrows of fire continue raining downwards, or upwards in Maximillia's perspective. As these arrows continued piercing through Maximillia, the immediate moment they exited her body, the wounds would instaneously heal.

This wasn't a match of endurance, this was a match of will!

Both of them traded attack after attack. Punch after punch. Slash after slash. The world around them had started to turn to hellfire as their attacks generated unholy amounts of fire.

The grass above their heads had completely caught fire and the sky had turned a bloody red. This was their domain!

Both of their attacks were being traded; for each slash she released, she would receive a punch back. For each time Xolotl's body would be torn and burned to dust, he would counter with yet another punch.

"Argh!" Maximillia's face twisted with pain with each punch she received. Her body seemed to be able to keep up but her mind was not. Each arrow, each punch, each time her body burned itself, she could feel every nerve being torched and severed.

Xolotl however? He was living!

His smile contorted into a giant grin as his shiny white teeth showed uncontrollable happiness. He faced each slash with greater enthusiasm than the last, his body regenerating faster and faster than before.

Before long, the entire vicinity had been turned into a real hellscape. Fire spawned from the sky and the pile of arrows on the ground had accumulated and started burning even brighter.

"Judgement!" Maximillia finally folds and uses one of her attacks.

A giant pillar of flame emerges from the sky below and clings Xolotl to the ground above.

His body squishes like a cockroach as reforms, trying to lift the heavy pillar off of him.

"Judgement!" Maximillia grasps her fists once more and summons another pillar of fire onto the unfortunate soul.

The pillar smashes into the previous one, causing it to shatter into rubble as the new pillar replaces it.

"Judgement! Judgement! Judgement!" Maximillia continues clenching her fist as more and more pillars strike upwards into the ground above. Each pillar was angled at a different angle, accumulating into a giant pile of flaming bricks on the floor. "Judgement!" An especially larger pillar came smashing directly upwards, shattering the ground as bricks of fire shattered across the sky. The clouds lit up in fire as the entire world caught on fire.

Before long, Maximillia could feel the taxation on her body. She couldn't sustain for much longer, her body wouldn't allow her to.

"Agh!" Suddenly, she feels a sharp pain in her eye.

She touched her hands through the mask with her hand as she pulled back, revealing her hand to be coated in blood.

Little had she known, her body had been completely exhausted of all of its reserves. She no longer had any energy remaining. The sheer temperature her body was operating at was enough for the very molecules in her body to start breaking down. Unlike Xolotl, her regenerating factor was not based on the creation of new cells, instead duplicating already existing ones. She could not duplicate new cells if she had none!

"Phoenix, how many feathers do I have left?" She whispered under her breath.

"16. You've used 827 in the past 3 minutes." A voice whispers in her ear.

"Sixteen." She stares up at the ground above her head as she sees no sign of movement.

"You must be careful." The voice spoke in a deep tone and cadence. "My daughter."

"Don't c-call me that." Suddenly, her body locked up. It's as if her entire world had been shifted back to normal.

The ground was at her feet and the sky was above her head. "Oh no." She looks back down at her hands as they are coated in more blood.

She looks at her feet as she's surrounded by a pool of deep, dark red blood. Blood ran down the bare skin on her legs as she felt a nauseating feeling creep up on her back.

The halo on her head had shattered and fragments had impaled itself onto her head. Her armor broke off in shells as she fell forward onto the black burnt grass.

Her body had officially started to decay, her fingertips turning to ash as she lay on the scorching hot ground.

In the rubble of the pillars, something moves. Underneath the thousands of tons of fire brick emerged a singular hand. The black hand reached from the flames as its flesh burned brightly under the sun. With a hand emerged an arm, eventually following another as an entire body emerged from the rubble.

It pulled itself from the ground as it slowly emerged. A burning entity standing atop a mountain of fire.

The creature basks in the sunshine as it continues burning brightly. It nearly became a source of light as its body burned as brightly as the sun. The smell of burning flesh lingers in the air.

"What have I done?" With tears of blood running down his face, Arima looks at his hands, burning with an eternal flame.