A construction stood splendid after external aid. Ferinish, with a satisfied touch on the wood, remembered when she gave thanks for the help. The kind Renkai Creatures clapped, extremely exhausted, but grateful for the opportunity to show their worth. Faller, who had stayed with her through nights, never asked for gratitude, saying he had done it for a friend. And Victoria, who chose on her own to help with her magic, was not even able to give an answer, fallen into the arms of her beloved.
She walked through the humble palace with a small smile, watching her disciples shout during training, tireless. The skirt of her kimono dragged with each step, majestic. While she caressed some plants she had received as a gift from Victoria, a knock, a desperate knock, was made at the door. The disciples looked on curiously, and Ferinish saw their gazes through the window.
When she opened the door, an indigenous man appeared, panting, leaning on his knees. Curious about the appearance she did not culturally recognize, she asked calmly about the man's presence.
Without hesitation, he spoke the words that made Ferinish widen her eyes, lower her hands, and her eyes take on a familiar color upon hearing the name of the man she once could call love, and of the young girls she once saw as daughters.
With a trembling tone of contained emotion, Ferinish instructed with the following words:
"Warn the Pillars and tell them not to wait for me, because I am going to kill him."
In the battle, the leaders try to fight against Slady, but fall before his strength. The earth moves, matter molds itself under the man's hands. Brazilovia trembles with the fight. The indigenous people move their bows and arrows to strike him, and their spears are like giant ammunition that hit him several times.
Unstoppable he was, his blows made the combatants question whether they truly had the capacity. Ryoken tried to restrain him with the earth, but everything crumbled in his hands and became weapons to attack him.
Loren, with his skill with wood, transformed trees into his equipment, axes, swords, but with a movement of his cane, everything fell apart.
With an empty look, Slady rubbed his hands over his face, a heavy sigh leaving his lungs. He looked at the sky, so beautiful for such a complicated day. Perfection had reached him, but what kind of perfection would make him feel so guilty?
Suddenly, before he could return to the fight, a sword was driven into the ground beside his foot. A familiar sword.
With a kick, he was thrown beneath the earth. He recognized that familiar strength. As he descended meters beneath the soil, he whispered the name of the woman who descended from the ground to kill him.
"Ferinish Lawhell."
The clash of weapons caused a rupture of the land that made the previous combatants step back, uncertain of their participation. Like lightning, a man appeared in front of them, looking over his shoulder at them. He lamented, with great chivalry, that he would not be able to introduce himself as he wished. He demanded, with authority, that those who were fighting join the people for a chain attack.
Now, with his sword charged with energy, he launched himself into battle. It took only a touch of his blade for Slady to feel the electric shock flowing through his entire body.
And return it to the attacker. With a punch, he made him feel the same power that had been applied. Ferinish, seeing her friend being thrown into the distance, advanced with increasing violence. The exchanged blows were like snaps impacting the air. Ferinish, with a kick to his chin, sent the Theatrical Assassin flying into the skies, and by bending her legs, she followed him.
The helicopters that followed the commanded direction saw two very small figures leaving the planet's atmosphere. The men, using microscopes, were able to discover the identity of the figures leaving the planet within seconds.
***
With a great impact on a lunar fragment, Slady saw the stars shining in the infinite void of space. He did not feel the need to breathe, but it was better to hold the air.
With a slash aimed at him, which he dodged in seconds, the fragment split in half. With the figure, air held in her lungs, landing on the separated side of the fragment and her eyes staring at him with a glow of pure hatred.
Slady wiped the blood from his face with one hand, using the brief opportunity he had to speak.
"Ferinish..."
"Slady..."
They slowly walked to the edge of the lunar fragments. They looked at the planet they had been on seconds earlier at the same time.
No one attacked suddenly, respecting the brief moment to "breathe" before the confrontation resumed. Ferinish was the first to look at him, seeing small golden stains, like the design of an eye, beginning to appear on each leaf.
"What happened to you during all this time? What did you do to them?"
"I... I was bad. I failed them greatly. Ferinish, because of me, not because of any entity beyond our comprehension, Elisa suffered a mental breakdown and Shaphira, in addition to losing her hearing, seems physically incapable of waking up."
"Shaphira... died?"
"No. But it is a possibility to consider..." (sigh) "... I want to fix all of this, Ferinish. You do not need to help me, just... allow me to go."
He extended his hand, the weight of his movement causing the fragment to drift toward her. Ferinish looked at the hand, then at the golden eyes of the leaves, honest. Her hand extended, with the other fragment also approaching, but she hesitated, moving it back to the sword.
"After everything you have done, do you think I can simply trust their lives in your hand? Slady, you are the most intelligent person I have ever had the honor of knowing... perhaps you were once the best person... but now, you need to die for the good of this world."
With the fragment being thrown away as she jumped, Ferinish advanced with her hand toward his face, but Slady did the same. Palms struck faces, with the Pillar of Combat drawing her blade, igniting fire to cut him in half. One of Slady's arms defended with the cane, the weapons pressing against each other in a contest of strength.
"Perhaps my death truly is a blessing for this world, but it will not be you who decides my fate..." (He grabbed her hands to break them) "Only me!"
With a kick that sounded like a whip in space, Ferinish was thrown toward Earth, Slady leaped after her with weapons in hand. As they slowly entered the atmosphere, like a small shooting star in the blue sky, Ferinish awakened, twisted her hands to force the bones to reconnect and began a sequence of blows and attempts to dominate one another.
On the ground, those who arrived, Victoria and Aurora, watched the figures striking and cutting each other violently. With a robotic voice masking her concern, the technological armor ordered everyone to leave Brazilovia. With Faller in sight, she commanded:
"Faller, use all your mana to bring the inhabitants from here to a place very far away. And look for Shaphira and Elisa. We are going to blow up this entire island to kill him."
Victoria widened her eyes, replying before her husband:
"Have you gone mad, Miss Sinhaygter?! This will kill Ferinish and possibly millions if Faller does not rescue everyone!"
"Be quiet and obey me, Victoria. You and Faller are capable of protecting everyone..." (She looked at the two figures falling from the sky) "... And Ferinish is fast enough to escape. We will need more than just bombs to kill the Assassin of the Century."
Despite the risks, they acted. Faller concentrated all his mana to run at supernatural speed to rescue an entire population, and Victoria raised from the sea an enormous tsunami to carry as many individuals as possible away from the mountain chains, the "wall" of Brazilovia.
The helicopters positioned themselves, with bombs leaving their compartments. And behind them, there was a colossal ship of indescribable size, carrying a much larger bomb.
On top of the ship, there was a male figure who observed all that chaos with a serious gaze. Aurora's armor stared directly into his eyes.
"At your command."
In the sky, Slady and Ferinish exchanged violent blows against each other, the man punched her with several arms and tried to tear her apart, manipulate her with the cane, but the woman responded with increasingly violent physical strikes and sword blocks that made the clouds disappear.
With brief but well used control, Ferinish kicked him with such force into the ground that it devastated nearby houses.
With the two exhausted hunters reaching the border, Victoria supported her partner on her shoulder to help him recover. As Aurora took to the skies in flight, an overwhelming amount of energy began to form in her hands, aimed at the area where Slady had fallen. With a male voice echoing inside the machine, Aurora proclaimed:
"FIRE!"
The bombs were launched like fast missiles. Aurora released the energy. The indigenous people who still had strength to fight fired arrows and weapons, with the equipment absorbing the energy.
Ferinish leaned against a tree when the bombs struck the ground, an explosion pushed everyone away, the helicopters nearly suffered catastrophic damage while the ship remained impeccable. The fusion of energies created a beautiful mixture in the sky, like a chaotic painting made by humanity.
The indigenous people, along with their leaders, were thrown against nearby trees and the ground, but with no truly serious injuries. The Pillars, including Ferinish, who narrowly escaped, could only watch as two entire islands became nothing but memories for the human race.
Ferinish moved away to assess everyone's condition, with the three Pillars watching Brazilovia, once so beautiful, so harmonious with nature, become only mountain peaks over the vastness of the sea.
"So that is it... Slady is dead."
Faller lowered his head as he spoke, as if, even speaking of an Assassin, he was still saying goodbye to a friend.
Victoria said nothing, only slowly knelt in exhaustion, but the trembling fingers against the skirt of her dress betrayed her true feelings.
Aurora, even hidden beneath armor, remained still in respectful silence.
Among the three, Ferinish emerged, not with sadness, not with anger, much less regret.
It was an expression far darker and more serious than usual.
"Where are they?"