The ground began to heat up making as a giant bird of fire appeared behind of Nova. Everyone's eyes widened from horror. They asked themselves multiple questions but none of them were as stunned as Ezra was.
Why is he doing this? Is there an enemy behind us? Why? Why? Why Nova?
"You're probably wondering why am doing this. Perhaps there is an enemy behind you. Perhaps I've detected a traitor in our midst." Nova said, his voice was stone cold and his eyes were lifeless.
"Let me give you an answer." He took a deep breath. "I can't allow any of you to make it to Eden and close it."
"Now you may ask why and for that I'll give you no answer, but I do have my reasons. My reasons for doing all the things I've done and you guys are an obstacle to that goal so prepare to die."
Eternal Phoenix: Inferno
Ezra's eyes widened at the sound of those familiar words the words that could pulverize them in seconds.
Bond: 555
Ezra got into his armor and covered Tina, Koko and Delilah before telling the rest to hide behind something hard. Suddenly, a flame formed on Nova's phoenix before it flew up into the air and flew over the forest burning it down in the process .
Ezra guarded the rest with his body as he withstood the fire head on but some other member of his group that were not shielded burned to black lumps of flesh. Once Ezra sensed that the phoenix had stopped flying, he told the survivors to run as fast as they could as he followed behind.
The group ran out of the forest that was currently burning down. They tried running as fast and as far as they could out of the forest until they reached a dead end.
Blocking their escape was a group of burning trees that had blocked the path out of the forest. Ezra looked behind and saw that Nova had bonded with his phoenix and was walking them down as trees and human bodies burned behind them.
"Hey guys, out of the way." Koko said as he cracked his hands. Koko was a bat user which was an air animal. "Let's blow these trees away."
Bond: Morpheus Night Creature
Notus: Wind Punch
Koko stretched his right hand out in a fish and punched the air pushing it in the trees direction blowing and breaking them out of the path. Nova saw this and started flying to them.
Ezra drew his sword and shouted to the rest off them to go to the nearby village. Nova flew to him with a punch that Ezra blocked with his sword but the impact of the punch still pushed him back a little.
"Nova, why are you doing this?" Ezra asked looking into Nova's wrathful eyes, seeing his reflection.
"You see it now. You see yourself. You're the reason I'm doing this. Among them all I fear you the most. You are our biggest obstacle. I had worked so hard to make sure you wouldn't be but you're wearing that armor. I can never forgive myself if I let you live." Nova said tears forming in his eyes.
He increased the intensity of the punch. Ezra saw the punch coming and weaved out of its way but another punch was already on the way. The punch hit Ezra's gut making him hit the ground and bounce off of it into the air before he was kicked into some trees breaking them.
Ezra knew that this was a fight he couldn't win. So once he felt that the others had made it to the village, he made a run for them.
Nova was now pissed. He flew into the air and found the village they were going to and flew to it. Tina, Koko and Delilah finally reached the village and Ezra was not that far behind them.
They reached the village and began to rest from exhaustion but Ezra yelled at them from behind telling them that it wasn't done yet.
Koko looked up and saw Nova hovering above the village like an angel of fire. Koko almost broke down. He carried Tina and Ezra carried Delilah and they continued to run out through the village.
"What is he planning to do with the village?" Koko asked Ezra.
Ezra looked up and saw Nova fully combust into flames. He had never seen this but he had a feeling that he was about to attack.
"Found you." Nova said before flying even higher above the village that the full moon looked like it was behind him.
Eternal Phoenix: Helios Grave...
Nova then formed four rings of fire, one behind him and the other three in front of him at a distance of 2 meters apart. A small phoenix emerged from his chest and shot from his chest through the other rings speeding up as it went through the rings until it landed in the village. The villagers were watching the entire course in awe and confusion but the moment the phoenix hit the village. A nuclear bomb sized explosion formed pushing Ezra and the group off a cliff and into the river below.
Meanwhile, the village they were in was nothing more than a burned ruin of what was once a peaceful village. The explosion also destroyed the rest of the forest surrounding the village leaving only a burned crater in the ground with burned trees.
On the other hand, our escapees who had fallen in the river managed to survive the explosion but they were all wet and in despair. Luckily for them, Nova flew away and didn't bother to look out for them.
"I can't believe that Nova really destroyed that village." Tina said, in despair.
"He must have a reason for it. He must have." Ezra said unwilling to accept the obvious.
"What do you mean?" Koko asked angrily. "That village was full of innocent and he's burned to a crisp. Women and children. All of them. what can you not see, Ezra."
"Had a good reason my ass. Look at what your bestfriend did. He killed the entire group and he was gonna kill you and us. Open your eyes, Ezra. That is who Nova is."
Ezra remained silent. He knew that everything that Koko said was true but he didn't want to admit it. Tears began trekking down his cheeks. He looked at them and quickly wiped them away remembering what his father used to say. "Men don't cry, Ezra."
He stood up and looked at everyone. He could see that Koko was angry, Tina was sad and Delilah was worried.
"Hey Delilah, what's wrong? You look worried?" Ezra asked her.
"Oh! I'm just thinking." Delilah said catching everyone's attention.
"Thinking about what?" Ezra asked, curious to know what she knew.
"It's just that. What if Nova wasn't the only traitor." she said.
Everyone else's eyes widened but Ezra was the least shocked because he had had that feeling ever since he found the eagle but what was scared him was that Alba may have been caught in the attack of the traitors. He had to go help her.
"Is anyone there?" asked a voice coming from Ezra's communication device.
"Yes, we are here. Who is this?" Ezra said into the phone. The voice was distorted that everyone was confused as to how he was even able to hear anything.
"Ezra (static) help.(static) It's me Alba."