Finality

"You aren't any different than the demons you defend, Destroyer," Micheil spat out.

"I don't work for morality, dude. I work for payment."

"Then I was wrong. You're even worse than the Venlanz."

"Uh-huh." If he was being honest with himself, Fate did feel a little bad about this. But he'd done hundreds of contracts back when he was an assassin in Styx, many of them even worse morally than this was. He fulfilled those, so he would fulfill this one. No point in ruining his spotless record.

"Okay, tell you what." Fate rested his Miao Dao on his shoulder. "After we kill you and everyone in your army, I'll talk to the king and see if we can sort this out peacefully."

"An empty promise. You don't care about peace, or else you wouldn't have even threatened my army." Micheil raised his hands, placing them in front of him in a martial art ready stance, palms open.

"Normally I'd agree, but there had to be at least a few dozen children in there." Fate pointed to the flaming ruins of Frendnann with his sword. "Along with many men and women that had nothing to do with this war. You killed them out of spite and anger, so we'll do the same to you."

Suddenly, Micheil roared, rushing at Fate. To his side, Hedra raised her hands to the sky, a pulse of Divine Energy leaving them. 'She hid some?' Fate wondered. 'Didn't know that was possible. Guess she was paying attention, unlike this guy.'

Fate grabbed his Miao Dao and, with remarkable ease, chopped Micheil in two, separating him from shoulder to hip. Fate blinked in surprise as blood spurted onto his face and chest, drenching him. He studied his blade, which seemed surprisingly fine, considering he had clearly felt it cut through bone just then. 'This is a good sword.'

A bolt of lightning struck him just then. He dropped to the ground, writhing in pain. Fate instinctively used his Manifest Power, his convulsions turning to twitches as the Divine Energy that made up the lightning was annihilated. He pushed himself up with his sword as support, panting.

When he was on his feet, he found Hedra staring at him, her tears now a veritable flood gushing down her face. "I loved him," she whispered.

"And the people in Frendnann didn't have someone they loved as well?" Fate asked rhetorically. "I swear, everyone on this damn planet is a hypocrite."

Hedra screamed, a massive pulse of Divine Energy rushing out and impacting the entire battlefield. Her wail was loud, so loud Fate could feel his ears dripping with blood. Sound, unfortunately, was still registerable while intangible, just like light. While they still went through him, his Manifest Power somehow allowed him to hear and see. In other words, he could still be deafened or blinded, but light wouldn't burn him and sound wouldn't cut him, or however Embodiments used those Manifestations offensively.

He wiped the blood off of his ears, wiping it on his shirt. He looked up to find Hedra still staring back at him, a qualitative change having come over her.

She was now an Incarnation.

"I think it says something about me that I keep driving enemy Emotional Embodiments into breakthroughs," Fate said exasperatedly.

Hedra's scream had stopped. She now looked at Fate coldly, palpable killing intent coming off of her. She raised her hands, fingers splayed and pointed at Fate… and lightning came out.

Fate rolled to the side reflexively, the lightning smashing into the troops a few hundred feet away and killing a few of them. The lightning arced from one person to the next, barely singing some and rendering others to ash. Fate rolled once more, a bolt of lightning striking where he just was.

'Even I can tell those will do some damage,' he said. 'Shit's hopeless.' He felt a tear roll down his cheek. 'Oh, great,' he sniffed, 'she can make me sad now. Just got to hold out. Those bolts take a lot out of her.'

He continued rolling and dodging, each one bringing him just a step closer to Hedra. In turn, each bolt became harder and harder to dodge, as he was almost entirely relying on Hedra's tells. Every time she was about to throw some lightning, her hands would inch back before thrusting forward.

He was about seven feet away from her when his luck finally ran out. A bolt struck him dead in the chest, and he dropped his sword and fell to the ground, convulsing. Hedra snatched the opportunity, spraying Fate with a relentless barrage of lightning and making him shudder like a fish on land.

Stars danced in his eyes, his entire body consumed by pain. His Manifest Power was eating away at the foreign Energy, but not fast enough. It felt like he had spent hours like that, rolling on the ground, before he finally managed to force himself up. He got onto one knee, his eyes still forced closed from the pain, and his body still jerking from the electricity. He put both hands on his knee and pushed up gradually, taking his time. He stood humped, shambling forward to where Hedra was, based on his psychic senses.

"Why won't you DIE?!" Hedra screamed, amping up the lightning.

Fate closed the distance in eight stumbling steps, throwing his hands around Hedra's throat. He forced his eyes open, the eyelids inching up in agonizing slowness as he fought against his instinct's demand to keep them closed.

Hedra watched in horror as Destroyer, Null, opened his eyes with the grim slowness of death. Even with her immense sadness of Micheil's passing and the unnecessary death they've inflicted forced on him, even with her lightning turning that endless mental pain into a physical one, his deep blue eyes, surrounded by the void of his own sclera, gazed back at her calmly. Despite the tears running down his cheeks, even as they ran down her own, his face held no hint of sadness or even anger.

They held only the finality of death.