Grey Vivium 6

Regis emerged beside me, fiery hackles raised but only barely able to hold his normal form.

My brows furrowed as I glanced down at my companion. Regis. You shouldn't—

'Relax, Princess. I'm no martyr; I'm your weapon, remember?'

Flashes of instructions blazed in my mind like a branding iron, showing me glimpses of Regis in a dark forest clearing.

This is…How did—

My vision darkened as Cadell's shadowy form barrelled toward us.

'It's not perfected, but it'll probably still work. Just do it!'

As the flood of hellfire was almost on us, Regis closed his eyes, his lupine body growing shadowy and see-through as it became incorporeal. I raised the aetheric blade in my hand, but rather than attacking, I reeled back and…

I plunged the aetheric blade into my companion.

His body flared before enveloping my sword until the aetheric blade grew larger and was sheathed in dark violet flames.

"It doesn't matter how many more tricks you pull out, lesser!" Cadell roared as his shadowy, demonic form neared.

My grip tightened around the Destruction-clad sword and a shared sense of a cold, emotionless void wiped my senses clear of anything other than Cadell. His long, taut limbs of flickering obsidian, his jagged horns that had grown twice in size, and the aura of soulfire wrapped around him like wings—I took it all in.

Cadell unleashed his arsenal of spells with abandon—a volley of blood iron, a maelstrom of void wind, a barrage of soulfire—but it was useless.

The dark violet sword in my hand arced in jagged flames as my body blurred. Concise, wasteless movements carried behind the small openings carved out by my new sword.

Arcs of violet tore through every spell spat out by the Scythe, and his gleaming red eyes widened in fear more each time.

Ignoring the icy grip around my core, I let God Step carry me right in front of Cadell's distorted visage. I raised my sword over my head, Destruction blooming in a blaze of violet. His ghoulish black arms crossed in front of him, wreathed in soulfire, black metal spikes materializing like shields.

The blade came down, passing through the black spikes as if they were nothing but mist. I struck him with the full force of my strengthened body, flooding every muscle with aether. He was crushed to the ground, and a shockwave rippled outward from us, toppling the thirty-foot-tall spike that jutted up just behind Cadell.

Screams filled the stadium as part of the coliseum collapsed, dragging down the thousands of people seated there, swallowing several private boxes, and filling the coliseum with a thick cloud of dust.

Cadell struggled to regain his feet. His arms were flickering with soulfire and Destruction. He flailed desperately, like he could shake the purple flames away. His body flickered in and out of incorporeality, but the Destruction clung to him, his own outpouring of mana the only thing keeping him from being consumed.

The Scythe's face was pale as he shivered, and the shadows clinging to him melted away as he returned to his normal form. His scarlet eyes were full of fear, his usual snide face a mask of desperation. Turning away, he stared up at the high box, perhaps hoping the other Scythes or even the Sovereign would appear to save him.

As I looked down on him, I felt only the cold acceptance of justice finally fulfilled. "This is for Sylvia."

The violet flames flickering jerkily around the aether blade grew even more agitated as I thrust forward. It plunged through his chest and burst out of his back. Destruction leapt across him, devouring Cadell from the chest outward. There was no blood, no gore of internal organs spilling out, just the cleansing flames of Destruction wiping him away as if he had never existed.

No, I thought, not quite like that. The stain of Cadell's existence would always be on this world, visible by the holes he had left in it.