The Beast That was Promised ✔

TWENTY-TWO: The Calvary

For a long moment, all Isiah could do was stare as the flames rushed toward him. In the back of his mind, fragments of his life flashed for less than a millisecond, but long enough for him to notice. Running around the Sanctum of Ishin as a child, going to his lessons with the Mother, meeting Rina, Nerin, Emrick and everything else with the Beast that was Promised.

Then without properly thinking about it, he dropped Rina's hand and stepped towards the coming flames. Somewhere behind him, she yelled his name, but he didn't turn back. The flames were of Ishin's creation, just like his stone, just like him. He could control them too if he concentrated hard enough.

As his vision was engulfed by orange flames, he flicked his arm up, the heat tingling on his skin. Then it was gone and he was left to stand in the middle of the street, his arm in the air and Ishin glaring down at him from outside the walls. The fireball shot into the sky and disappeared through the clouds, illuminating the sky for a split second before it was gone.

"Isiah!" Rina yelled again, but he couldn't look away from the God ahead of him. To think that it was a being he had once worshipped, had once devoted his entire life to, it shocked him. He couldn't understand why he had to fight him, why one of his Gods was trying to kill him, but he had to keep living. He had to stop him with Teremtys's stone and save the realm, even if it meant going against his Gods.

But he'd damned them before, gone against Askarune's wishes for him to be violent. It was the same thing, he could do it. But finally coming face to face with Ishin, he wasn't so sure. Ishin was far bigger, far more powerful and far more ready to kill than he was. Anything he tried would get him killed, but he couldn't just leave the realm to burn under Harudan's rule. He had to do what he was born to do, but he would always do it his way.

Rina's hand fell into his and she pulled him down the street. "How did you do that?" she gasped as they turned down another street, the faint sound of the ocean reaching his ears over the terrifying sounds of battle.

"I don't know," he replied, looking over his shoulder at Ishin, who was still staring at him with an expression he was too far away to read.

He had no idea how he'd done it, but it was the only thing that had made sense in the moment. They were the same flames so surely he would be able to control them too. There hadn't even been a second where he'd doubted himself; it was either try it or die, there'd been no other option.

But it meant he could control all of the flames around Liman and hopefully save more people. He couldn't see the flames on the other side of the wall, even though he knew they were there so he wasn't sure if he could do anything about them.

As he and Rina ran, with her leading the way, he pulled at the flames around the town. He drew them up, threw them into the sky and allowed them to fade away into the clouds. He had no idea where he was going, getting rid of the fires was far more important.

He stumbled when a roar echoed around the small city, angry and desperate. Rina pulled him back up but her movements had slowed, both of them staring at the creature that had screamed. Ishin, who had once been still, had his face tilted towards the sky and his hands pressed against the wall, which crumbled under his weight. The figure on his shoulder stood, an ant in comparison to him, but just as intimidating.

Ishin stepped over the wall as if it were nothing but a rock underfoot and a lump formed in Isiah's throat. "Rina, go!" he yelled and ducked around the corner of a building. Her hand was still in his, tight and sweating and her laboured breaths filled his ears. The beach wasn't far, but Ishin was faster.

There was a second thud as the God's other leg came over the wall, but then there was silence. Despite his curiosity, Isiah didn't stop running. Even as the air around him began to glow a dull orange, he and Rina continued to run towards the beach. They didn't stop until he looked up and saw the clouds had turned into fire.