//------------------------------// // Holy Fire // Story: Dying Embers // by MrSpartan //------------------------------// Illitheous barely felt a breeze on his slowly decaying skin but he could feel the energies of the heavens whipping around his adversary. “It’s been a long time coming Celestia,” he commented in a scratchy deep voice. Celestia didn’t respond. She just stood there, her mane flowing, the turmoil of the fighting at her flank. From her view she saw only a shell of what once must have been a dedicated and caring person; now nothing more then a retainer full of hate and pain. The sun had started to set behind him as it cast everything in a reddish glow. His two monsters of war were at his sides. All three of them were silhouetted against the setting sun. They seemed as shadows except for the Golem’s golden fire for eyes, the vague glow of the Umber’s nocturnal set of eyes, and Illitheous, whose ring glowed with hellish power and whose frowning teeth seemed unnaturally visible for her to see. A few minutes passed. It felt like eternity to both parties (although for completely opposite reasons). Finally, after some unseen queue, the metallic and carapace giants charged straight at Celestia, their footsteps leaving mini earthquakes and craters from their sudden momentum. The Umber Hulks maw and razor sharp mandibles drooling as it lunged. The Adamantine Construct broke the nearby windows not already shattered by earlier combat with the sheer air pressure its descending fist caused. A quick flash told both their efforts were wasted as they made their respective strikes. Quickly looking around, they saw the alicorn had teleported to the top of a shop to their left, nearer the Golem. It reacted faster this time. It brought its adamantine palms together in a mighty clap. The princess was able to fly away from where its hands met but she was buffeted to the ground by the force it made. She rose, but the bug-eyed hulk had climbed like a monkey over the building separating the two, over a boulder and leaped once more toward Celestia. It snarled some kind of animal threat as it descended. The Princess flew easily as fast as the Element of Loyalty past the monster’s outstretched claws and clenching mandibles until she was behind its head. The bug monstrosity had now landed. It kicked up more dirt as it did so. Celestia had already lined up a charged shot of heavenly fire. She wielded it with all the intensity one should expect from a princess of the sun. Her horn was bright yellow as it directed an inferno focused into a cone of the purest flame. The dull beast caught sight of this and moved to escape the fiery demise it would surly suffer if it stayed. It screamed a high-pitched insectoid screech of distress as its entire lower half was burned to a crisp. It was a stubborn thing though, just like the man it served under. It was using both pairs of arms to crawl away from the alicorn. The cauterized wound helped, of course, by stopping the bleeding. The exchange had only taken a couple minutes. The living construct had finally moved past the row of dwellings that were just big enough to keep the Golem from simply stepping over them. It picked up a handful of nearby rubble that used to be part of a certain maroon colored teacher’s house and flung it at Princess Celestia. She easily dodged the improvised projectile, but the golem wasn’t out of junk to chuck just yet. It tossed another and she maneuvered out of its path. Another was thrown, another was dodged. Celestia was just about to unleash a powerful quicksand spell when the next clump of rubble flew by. On it was perched none other then Illitheous, his ringed hand ablaze. Celestia was completely surprised at the unorthodox and reckless attack. Earlier he had ordered the Golem to hurtle the first few, not as a true attack, but as a feint of sorts so she would grow used to the deceptively simple strategy and ignore the one carrying the human. He leaped to get at the previously out of range aerial target. “AHH!” she yelped in equal parts surprise and pain as Illitheous grabbed hold of her forelegs, his skeletal palm burning her. The minor goddess was naturally resistant to fire, but the man’s unholy source caused the hellfire to harm even the Princess of the Sun. He was heavier then he looked. Celestia struggled to keep both herself and the undesired passenger aloft. The look of determination to see her dead was crystal clear in the undead man’s eyes. It frightened even Celestia. She had NEVER seen a gaze so angry, so unending in its ire before. She felt something she hadn’t felt in a very, very long time, Terror. Not the nervousness or unease she might usually feel at times, but unwavering terror like when she had known her mother was dying. Celestia began to panic. “Get off!” yelled the princess. Illitheous moved the scorching hand up to where Celestia’s shoulder connected to her wing, causing more pain. She started kicking at his face with the one newly freed foreleg and his legs with her back pair. The back ones made several firm impacts. Illitheous’ own legs made squishing and cracking sounds, but his murderous expression never changed, never shifted from the all encompassing fury! The red sky made it all the more horrifying. It was an image that would undoubtedly never be forgotten by Tia. That was, if she survived to next nightfall. She presented a surprisingly good hit to his half-intact face, cracking the exposed jaw and neck portion. His head went limp and Celestia thought she may have seriously injured him, but he slowly moved his head back to where it was before. “You can’t stop me” he deadpanned while positioning his normal hand up to the base of her neck. The other was rising to her snout. Tears were falling down her cheeks. Her voice lost its regal tone and rose to a girlier pitch. “Leave us all ALONE!” She used her nearly endless magic to engulf them both in a sphere of fire and plasma. Illitheous was not ready for that and cannoned to the streets below in a smoking heap of bones, flesh, and rags. Princess Celestia wasn’t without pain and her own trail of smoke, but it had been HER mana and a spell of her own making so the effect had been very limited on her. Luna was still preoccupied, helping the currently losing royal forces against the humans to see if her sister was alright. Celestia touched down gently onto the street, breathing ragged. Was it over? The new crater Illitheous had smashed into seemed eerily calm. The Princess certainly hoped so. It wasn’t Celestia’s day apparently for she caught movement coming from the crater. The deathly figure’s bony hand reached up and out of it. Celestia readied herself for the monster’s retribution. The extremity was still grasping at the sky when the ring switched colors completely. The blood red ruby now shined as if it were some blasphemous black and purple beacon. Fire slowly crept outward from the ring. It swirled along the charred, blackened claw. The fingers balled up into a fist. A burst of intense heat flared up from the blemish in the earth then died back down. Celestia repressed a shudder. The dark energy Illitheous constantly exuded had just tripled. She nervously shuffled her hooves. Taking a deep breath she calmed herself down to a manageable amount of anxiety. Illitheous’ hand slammed down onto the bare earth. He clawed at it for purchase, leaving reddening, almost molten dirt at the pit’s edge. Where Tia had expected a cadaver of a man with midnight black hair and clothes to climb out, she instead laid eyes on the form of a hellish skeleton clad in hellfire and the damaged clothes of the human commander. Illitheous entirety was healed of the chars and trauma it had received. “For that latest attempt on my life you have set in stone a very slow death.” With a grimace Princess Celestia took flight. She circled Illitheous from on high like a bird of prey. The alicorn started blasting a plethora of unique fatal spells. The burning skeleton took spell after spell full force. Although each spell caused him the same amount of pain as they would a normal creature, he stood his ground like a conflagrating fortress of bone. Blasts of acid, pure energy, holy magic, electricity, illusions, even a few trap spells; nothing was having any permanent effect. Illitheous’ head jutted forward, his arms in an aggressive up position while he yelled. “Coward!!! Your entire family is nothing but cowards and usurpers! While my people we suffer you rule a false utopia! Why should we be subjugated to misery while you prosper in harmony on OUR land?! You don’t deserve it. You don’t deserve any of it!!!” Illitheous’ fiery aura intensified. The alicorn princess had been out of his reach, but he had had more then enough of it. It was more than a lifetime’s worth of her being just beyond his ability to reach. He harnessed his fury, drew power from it and let loose a mighty shout. His seething hatred combined with the dark magic he utilized and formed a cone of powerful, black hellfire from his gaping jaw. It ignited the air near Princess Celestia. She was forced to evade the onslaught and halt her own. Through a beautiful display of aerial maneuvers the alicorn dodged the hellfire, yet it was always trailing right behind her. The Princess realized she couldn’t continue like this and expect to win. As much as she wanted to keep a safe distance and buy time to find a spell that worked, this new technique prevented such. Eventually she would slip up. She did a nose dive, simultaneously creating an impressive force field around her body that crackled with power. The hellish figure continued to unleash his breath weapon, but it was blocked by the barrier. The Princess of the sun tackled the undead human hard. _ _ _ _ _ Celestia’s vision was blurry as she opened her eyes. Apparently the force field hadn’t been able to juggle the tasks of protecting her and acting as a battering ram quite as well as she planned. The dust that had been kicked up like a storm quickly parted. Celestia’s eyes went wide and her pupils shrank at what she saw. Illitheous was still aflame and very much unscathed. The goddess had struck the human with the actual force of a comet but he wasn’t hurt in the slightest. He stood low, looking into her eyes. It was as if he was viewing all that she had ever experienced; all the joys of her little pony’s growth and happiness over the thousands of years as well as the sadness she still bore after their inevitable passing. He saw it all but was unmoved. The blaze of his hatred never dimmed. “I despise you,” he said. “with every last bit of my essence. I hate you so much it hurts. I won’t let you take away my vengeance.” His voice lowered to a murmur for a moment. “It’s all I have left.” The fire surrounding him burned brighter. “Now you will die. And this time, only the true heroes will be the victors.” “Celestia! Don’t worry! We’re coming!” a familiar set of voices called. The flaming abomination looked away, momentarily distracted by the interruption. If I act now it will give the elements the time they need. Celestia thought. She closed her eyes and concentrated. The illusion spell titled ‘Solar Flare’ blinded Illitheous with light. “Aaarrg!” he covered his eye sockets in vain, attempting to douse the pain now shooting through him like someone had set off a private fireworks display inside his own head. The main six crowded around the princess who had stepped back from the blinded human. “Hurry! Now might be our only chance! Use the Elements!” Celestia ordered. The six best friends took the positions they always did for this. Applejack had a bit of trouble getting in place due to her one leg still being completely numb and useless. Twilight’s eyes became luminescent and she started to float off the ground. The other battle weary mares followed suit and the area around them charged with the “Magic of Friendship”. A rainbow of cosmic power arced toward Illitheous, attracting the attention of all the others still engaged in combat. Illitheous finally possessed unhindered eyesight just in time to see a rainbow he faintly recognized as belonging to the princess’s pet underlings heading right at him. “CELESTIAAA-” he roared, but the sound was drowned out by the attack.