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Inferno At Vince's demand, Robert immediately pulled off the small country road and stopped the car. As Stephanie and Alice looked on with surprise, Vince opened the door and leapt onto the roadside grass, the afternoon sun shining down overheard. "Holy Heaven!" Vince exclaimed while running over to fallen brown-haired girl. Kneeling over her, he said, "Chrissy! Are you all right?" Vince turned and saw Stephanie, in the car, shaking her head in disapproval. Suddenly, Chrissy opened her eyes and spoke, "Yes, Vince, I'm all right." An icy blast hit Vince in the back, knocking him across the grassy field. He looked back to face Chrissy and saw instead the Dark Fiend of Ice. "I don't get it," Vince said, climbing to his feet. "Why are you attacking me? I thought we were close." "Vince, I loved you once," Chrissy said. "But after you betrayed me for that bitch Stephanie, I realized how worthless you are! You left me to die back at Trioustan! You don't care about me! You never cared about me!" Chrissy fired a beam at Vince, freezing him, but the ice melted away, bursting into flame. The Dark Fiend of Fire rose up from this burning mass. "That's not true, Chrissy," Vince said. "I do care about you, but I care about Steph more. I'm sorry I had to leave you behind, but I couldn't leave Steph. I didn't mean to betray you. I hope you understand. I do care about you, Chrissy, but as a friend." "I'm not your friend anymore!" Chrissy screamed. "I hate you!" "I'm sorry," Vince said with sorrow. Chrissy froze the air into shards of ice and fired them at Vince. However, Vince simply blocked them with a shield of fire. He followed up by throwing a blaze at Chrissy, who screamed and ran to the side to avoid the attack. Vince then ran up to Chrissy with flaming fists. Luckily, Chrissy managed to freeze Vince in a block of ice. Yet, Vince quickly melted through the ice block and emerged carrying a massive fireball. He threw the fireball at Chrissy. Exploding across her black hide, the fireball knocked Chrissy to the ground and sent her skidding across the grass. "Did you forget?" Vince said. "Fire melts the ice." "And don't forget, water puts out the fire," Chrissy added. "What?" Vince asked, confused. Pain shot through his body as a wave of water magic knocked him to the ground. The Dark Fiend of Water dropped out of the sky and landed next to him. "What the?" Vince asked, still confused. Then, the Dark Fiend of Air, bringing the Lightning Fiend and the Earth Fiend in a ball of wind, flew down to him. "Make sure you're grounded," Lydia said to Steve. "I don't want any accidents like last time." "Don't worry," Steve said. "I'm standing on dirt. Dirt don't conduct electricity." Vince was surrounded and outnumbered five to one. He tried to stand up, but a wind wrapped around him, holding his limbs in place. As the ensnaring winds lifted him from the ground, Vince yelled to Robert, "Go! Drive away! Leave me behind! I'll catch up with you later!" Robert hesitated, then stepped on the gas and sped away. While Vince was still ensnared by Lydia's wind, a lightning bolt hit him, then some ice shards, then spiraling winds, then a stream of water. As Vince fell back to the ground, a trail of exploding dirt sped by and erupted beneath him. As if this beating wasn't enough, Lydia lifted Vince up once more. Struggling desperately, Vince was hit by more lightning, more ice, more wind, more water, and more earth trails. Bruised and bloodied, Vince felt the winds wrap around him again, lifting him back into the air. Blood seeped into his eyes, so that he only a red blur. The tremendous pain made it difficult for him to notice anything else. Soon, he was aware that he was unaware of the world around him. Had he lost consciousness? Only now did Vince realize that he no longer saw his own blood, but a vast emptiness, glowing a mysterious red. He realized that he had become human again. "Vince," he heard from behind him an echoing voice say. Vince spun around and came face to face with a humanoid creature that had thick, black hide and long, tangled red hair. "The Dark Fiend of Fire?" Vince asked, shocked and confused. "Yes, Vince," he replied. "I am the metaphysical manifestation of the Dark Fiend Energy given to you before you were born." "I don't understand," Vince said. "Where am I? How did I get here?" "So far, every time you've fought, you've only been borrowing my strength rather than becoming the actual Dark Fiend," the Fire Fiend said. "I don't want to become the Dark Fiend," Vince said. "I don't want to become a destructive, cold-blooded killer." "What you become ultimately depends on your own heart and not mine," the Fire Fiend said, "No amount of influence could ever change that. If you were to become a cold-hearted destroyer, it would happen even without Skias's interference." "But the Dark Fiends were created to destroy," Vince argued. "That's partly true," the Dark Fiend replied. "The Dark Fiend Energy could only strengthen you, not corrupt you. Skias purposely infused only the fiercest, most violent of souls, or so he believed. If you are violent, it will not be because of me." "I don't know," Vince said. "Besides," the Fire Fiend said, going off on a tangent. "Consider your friends. They will be very disappointed if you were to die." "My friends," Vince thought. "Robert... Tina... Alice... Stephanie..." With determination in his eyes, he looked up to the Dark Fiend of Fire and nodded. "Yes," the Dark Fiend of Fire said. "Let us now merge and fight as one. It's time you gaze upon the true power of a Dark Fiend." Vince's body burst into flames, as did the Fire Fiend's. The two burning bodies slowly moved into each other and melded into one body. Slowly, Vince emerged from the flames, only now he wasn't the human Vincent Zeng, nor was he the Dark Fiend of Fire. The black hide was still there, but Vince now wore red armor, carved with images of ancient dragons. Shoulder pads and body plates protected his torso. Red gauntlets burned in his hands while red boots of fiery steel grasped his legs. Vince peered through the mouth of his helmet, carved into the image of a dragon's head. "You are now the Dark Fiend of the Inferno," a voice said from within. With his transfiguration complete, all existence faded back into view. Vince looked and saw that he had become the Inferno Fiend not only in his mind, but in reality as well. He looked and saw his armor. He looked and saw the Air Fiend, keeping him ensnared in her wind net. He looked and saw the Lightning Fiend, firing a jagged lightning bolt at him. Vince let off a shockwave of flame, a shockwave of flame that knocked down the other Dark Fiends and even tore up the nearby road. "Where did he get that armor?" asked a surprised Lydia, who had avoided the flames by flying upward. With a yell of rage, the Earth Fiend charged at Vince with fists of stone. He punched Vince squarely in the chest, but Vince wasn't even fazed. A look of horror appeared in the Earth Fiend's eyes as Vince dealt him a mighty punch to his torso, cracking his stone skin and sending him flying over the road. Suddenly, from Vince's side, the Water Fiend fired a stream of water, but Vince easily blocked the water with a flame shield. "What?" the Water Fiend said, surprised. "I thought fire had a weakness to water." "It does," Vince replied, "but my fire shield is so strong that even with its weakness it's still strong enough to protect me from your water attacks." "Hey, Vince!" Steve yelled from another direction as he threw a giant lightning bolt at him. Quickly, Vince jumped up into the air. Before either Steve or the Water Fiend knew what had happened, the lightning bolt intersected the water stream. The electrical current ran against the water current and shocked the Water Fiend, who screamed as she fell over. Still in the air, Vince threw fireballs at Steve. They were like meteors. Striking the ground, they threw fire and debris into the air, leaving impact craters. Steve, caught in the middle of this blast, was left unconscious in the middle of a crater. Vince then noticed a gray-haired Dark Fiend running across the field, trying desperately to escape. Landing on the ground, Vince swiftly leapt up again to spring himself in front of the Fiend. "Going somewhere, Chrissy?" Vince asked bitterly, holding fireballs in his hands. "Don't hurt me, Vince," Chrissy stammered, slowly backing away. "I didn't want to hurt you. They made me do it. Please, don't hurt me." Vince hesitated a moment, then put the fireballs down. "All right," he said. Vince looked to the sky. "Now, where's Lydia?" The Dark Fiend of Ice smiled sadistically. Behind her back, she held in her hands a glowing orb of frozen energy. While Vince's attention was diverted, Chrissy threw her hands forward, shooting a massive, coherent beam of snow and ice at Vince. Before Vince could react, the blizzard had engulfed him. Suddenly, the blizzard was consumed by a blaze, and Vince emerged, virtually unscathed. He fired the inferno through Chrissy, who screamed as she burned. When the flames subsided, a human Chrissy Wolfreid, badly burned, fell to the floor. "I don't get it," Vince thought. "The Chrissy I knew would never have betrayed me like this. Something must have happened to her, but what?" Suddenly, he saw the bodies of the Dark Fiends rising. Chrissy, Steve, the Earth Fiend, and the Water Fiend all rose into the air, carried by winds. Vince looked up and saw Lydia, flying above, carrying them away. "Lydia!" Vince shouted at the top of his lungs, running after her. "You! You turned Chrissy against me!" By then, Lydia had already flown out of sight with the other four Dark Fiends. "Come back here, Lydia! Come back and fight me!" Vince ran down the field, screaming at the sky for a long time. Then, giving up, he walked back to the road. The armor melted into magma and completely enveloped him. Then, it drained away into nothingness, revealing Vince as human once more. Back at the road, traffic was virtually nonexistent. Vince looked around, trying to recall. "Stephanie and the others went that way," Vince said, looking down the road. Thus, in that direction, he began walking. "Lydia, we're tired," said a young blond woman. "After Fire beat us, you barely gave us an hour to rest. Then, you make us train for three hours in a row." The Dark Fiend of Air slapped the woman, cutting her cheek. "Look, Jennie, do you want to kill Vince or not? We all know that Vince has been militantly fighting against us, trying to kill us even, with the Dark Fiend Energies that he's stolen. We need to kill Vince not only to protect ourselves, but also so that we can take back the Dark Fiend Energies that belong to us. Only with the Fire Energy can we unite the Dark Fiends, and only when we unite the Dark Fiends can we fulfill our destiny. Isn't that what you want? Now get back to your Dark Fiend forms, all four of you!" "But Lydia, we're tired," Chrissy said. "Of course you are," Lydia replied. "That's how Vince was able to tap into his inner power. With all that fighting against Alliatus, against Skias' followers, against the Dark Fiends, Vince as been pushed to the limit so often that he had to release his inner power to survive. We're going to train ourselves to the limit to tap into our own inner powers." No one moved. "Well? Return to your Dark Fiend forms! Now!" Still nothing happened. "Fine! How about all four of you gang up on me? That way, you won't have to fight so hard and I can tap into my inner power first." Reluctantly, the other four transformed into Dark Fiends and attacked the Dark Fiend of Air. Over and over again, they clashed, training for almost an hour. Finally, as Lydia lay on the floor, beaten and bruised, a shroud of wind enveloped her. The winds wrapped around her, throwing up so much dust that Lydia herself could not be seen. "This," Lydia said with sadistic enthusiasm. "This is true power!" "Are you sure you want to get off here?" asked large man. "This city, Kiera, they call it, is swarming with Shadows. If I were you, I'd just speed on out of here." "Yeah, I'll be fine," Vince said as he climbed off the truck. "Thanks for the ride." As soon as Vince closed the door, the truck driver sped off without saying a word. It had been several hours since Vince had fought Lydia and her gang. Shortly after the fight, Vince had managed to get a ride on a truck. Despite the truck driver's warnings, despite Vince's hatred of the Shadow Religion, he knew he had to stop here. Stephanie was somewhere in this city. Vince had felt it so. However, Vince could feel her no longer. As he wandered the streets, he began to notice the people. Most looked like normal people, wearing normal clothes doing normal business. Some of them, though, wore dark robes and cloaks. Others wore dark armor. That the dark-clad people were conversing normally with the seemingly normal people was enough to let Vince know that something was not right. "Vincent Zeng!" someone suddenly called out his name. Vince turned around. "Johnathon Rousseau," he replied. The old man from Rheasville wore black robes with a dark hood over his head, casting a sinister shadow over his face. Behind him stood several people--followers apparently. Some wore armors of black steel and bone. Others wore black and gray robes. "I was wondering when I'd see you again, traitor," Rousseau said. "I'm not the traitor," Vince replied. "I'm not the one who wants to destroy everything simply because the world is supposed to be chaotic." Rousseau laughed and said, "I'm not such a fundamentalist, but I do know that Alliatus is the real enemy of peace. They suppress. They oppress. They kill any who disagree with their teachings." "They only kill those who threaten the safety off the world," Vince argued. "Alliatus propaganda BULLSHIT!" Rousseau replied angrily. "Who are they to decide who threatens the safety of the world and who doesn't? Almost twenty-five years ago, back when I was still a High Priest in the holy city of Alliatus in France, my brother Jack was doing research in Demon Magic. He was just interested in it, that's all. He wasn't planning on summoning Hell's minions, but the other High Priests didn't understand. They imprisoned him and planned to execute him for 'treason'. I begged them to reconsider, that Jack didn't mean any harm, but they wouldn't listen. On the same night he was executed, I abandoned Alliatus for good and joined the followers of Skias. As you can see, Alliatus is the one that threatens the safety of the innocent. I joined the Shadow so that I could fight against the tyranny that is Alliatus." Vince remained silent, unable to speak. "Alliatus is one of the greatest examples of how organized society degenerates humanity," Rousseau said, more calmly now. "Only when there is a social structure is there conflict. Those lower on the social ladder become jealous of those above, and those higher on the social ladder suppress those below to maintain their own corrupt power. Only in organized society is there suffering and misery. While it is true that society brings people together, it also brings out the worst in people. Only by breaking down the bands of society can we repair the woes of the modern world. Only in a state of nature will man find happiness. That is why I fight, to tear down modern society and bring humanity back to happiness, back to nature." "You're an anarchist," Vince said quietly. "Yes," Rousseau answered. "Anarchy is the highest, the happiest state of society." "You're wrong," Vince replied confidently. "Society keeps people like you from wrecking everything everywhere. That and society brings us more happiness, happiness through the interaction of people. Society is where you find love and friendship." "You obviously know nothing about how the world works, young one," Rousseau said. Then, he spoke to his followers, "None of you shall interfere. The traitor is mine and mine alone!" Energy of darkness gathered in Rousseau's hands. He formed it into a compact projectile--a Shadowmissile--and shot it at Vince. |