1.10.2 – An Empyrian End
2.0 - Edited by: Rellawing, AlliterativeArts, Raleon, Trismegistus Shandy - 8/29/2020
Ahead, the typically abandoned warehouse was now full of people and music that pounded loud enough to make little puddles on the ground outside ripple to the rhythm.
The sisters walked towards where throngs of ravers eagerly awaited their entrance to witness a certain dubstep prodigy’s performance.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles northeast among shadow-cloaked majestic mountains, a pair of airbourne super-powered titans raged in a life or death battle far above a lonely graveyard.
As a field of pure darkness enveloped a vast swath of the Rocky Mountains, Mistral conjured snow to counterattack. It couldn't be seen, only sensed in this darkness, but sight wasn’t necessary to control her specialty. Mistral wore a cloak which was sky blue on the inside and white outside which billowed against her tight white leotard. She wore flared gloves in the same sky blue. Upon her brow, a stylized headdress with native tribe fetishes was attached to be faintly visible beneath her waving silver hair. On her feet was a set of matching blue mid-shin stocking-style boots with hard soles, all tied together by a leather belt fastened around her waist.
A whooshing noise came from her right where she knew her eternal nemesis lurked, ready to use her powerful dark blasts to turn her to ash in a heartbeat. Mistral narrowed her eyes and continued chanting softly under her breath. Suddenly, she sensed a fluctuation in the air, as expected. She flattened her palm and a gale emitted from it, pushing her to the side as a colossal blast of dark energy sailed through the air where she had just been that was sensed but certainly not seen. Her concentration deepened as she allowed herself to sink further into stillness and quiet. Her nemesis might have somewhat of a home field advantage due to getting to choose the battlefield, but she still had a weakness.
Without any light whatsoever her enemy could only see outlines due to imperfect night vision. By not making noise, Mistral was making herself difficult to pinpoint causing the darkness blasts to be off their mark.
Unable to suppress her villainous nature, Black Angel squandered the initiative advantage she’d created with a classic monologue. “Hahahaha! As expected of you! A small puff of hot air from one of those ancient beasties within you? Careful, Mistral. He might break free if you use those powers carelessly.” Black Angel taunted. The sound of her flapping wings filled the air. Anything related to frequency like light or its opposite, darkness, was within the domain of her power, which included sound waves.
Mistral smiled secretively, not that her opponent could see it anyway. As usual, Black Angel was being overconfident. I’m waiting for you to perform your finishing move…
A faint echo triggered behind Mistral but she ignored it to continue chanting under her breath. The winds about them whipped up into a frenzy, beginning to form a funnel with her standing in the eye of the forming tornado. The cadence of her chanting changed and the cyclone grew colder. Ice crystals formed and snow flew in every direction.
“Your little bluff is as weak as you are, shaman,” Black Angel’s voice cackled from above. Still, Mistral smiled. There was a ripple of energy building directly below her. NOW!
With a sudden burst of gathered winds, Mistral propelled herself high into the air. Because she knew Black Angel wouldn’t have been waiting too far above her, the singularity that began to form below her was no surprise at all. Allowing an explosion of energy to flow through her body, Mistral saturated everything below with the aura of the Great Manitou’s fire, a taxing spell. Her eyes would be drawn to Mistral, but there were a few other advantages to using it that wouldn’t be immediately apparent.
“Great Manitou, please guide my steps,” Mistral murmured, feeling the god’s attention.
“Ah… that peculiar trick again…” This time Black Angel’s voice roared from every direction. “I won’t allow it this time. The power of that god of yours won’t touch me.”
Favoured daughter, you must loose the Beasts for a short time should you wish to prevail. Alone you cannot win. It will be dangerous, but you must. The leashes upon one or all will again be loosened afterward, and a ritual to reseal them will be necessary in the near future.
Mistral nodded, her teeth gritting. Then it shall be so. A voice echoed in the deep corners of her heart. Did you hear that, brothers? A chance to let fly! The voice hissed in spiteful glee followed by a chorus of laughter.
Suddenly another fluctuation passed through the air and the motes Mistral had scattered drifted to one side of her, tracing a path through the air to her opponent. This was the location of Black Angel, but as the dark-winged one stated, having an inkling of her location wouldn’t be enough. Mistral’s enemy still had every advantage. As another eruption of darkness sailed towards the heroine, the fetters on the Beasts were thrown off temporarily. A burst of pure elemental energy exploded from Mistral’s arms as the Beasts took form in the space around her.
But this too would not be enough. She’d had to slip the shackles on the Three Great Beasts of the North to make use of their fury and strength in their conflicts before. There was more to her plan, however.
“I command you, Korakorkomaq, Rosshossho, Howeesha. Fly to the beacon and capture my enemy. In the name of the Great Manitou, I bind you to my will.”
The Beasts hissed and resisted her influence. They snarled and fought.
“Recalcitrant as ever, I hear.” Black Angel laughed softly. “Why don’t you three join forces with ME? Your hated jailer stands before me… together we may return her to the elements. I shall prove a far kinder mistress once she is no more.” Black Angel’s dark smile didn’t need to be seen to be sensed. And yet Mistral still smiled confidently even as the brothers hissed and charged directly at their jailer. A new chant she’d started uttering echoed through the air.
“Go!” Mistral’s voice echoed with the authority of the Great Manitou.
The Beasts shrieked and writhed in frustration as Mistral slipped through their grasping claws. They could not strike true as they too were blinded by Black Angel’s technique. On the face of it, the odds seemed stacked against her with the power of their raw bestial energies allied with the debilitating trickery of her hated enemy.
The power of Great Manitou rippled through the air. Mistral allowed herself to fall while casting out chains of energy to where the brothers writhed. The Chains of Fate, bestowed upon his favored daughter by the Great Manitou. She felt the moment his influence connected. The Three bucked wildly as their eyes squinted to locate her before it was too late. Thus despite the total lack of ambient light, they still had a card to play, the same card Mistral had played. It was their mystic connection, a two-way connection to Mistral. Due to their natures, they weren’t as sensitive to it, but soon their eyes found Mistral.
Hissing with fury, they flew at their jailer to rend her to pieces with wind, ice, and lightning. Surely Black Angel had expected as much. The Three were anything but loyal servants.
To the contrary, Mistral rocketed in the exact opposite direction and smiled when her hand found the throat of her enemy. Black Angel gasped. “H-HOW?!”
Mistral said to Black Angel while the Three seethed and scrambled around where she was, “I know you better than anyone else in this world… A schemer like you would only ever be as far as possible from that beacon I ‘connected to you.’ It ends tonight, one way or another! You’re irredeemable!”
“When did I ever ask to be saved?” Black Angel scoffed.
“Your crimes will finally be ended. Great Manitou will make sure of it.” Mistral snarled as Black Angel gripped her wrist and began infusing it with her void energy.
Black Angel laughed throatily as her power ate at Mistral’s arm. “You know, touching me was a mistake. I halfway hoped you’d reach me just so I could see the look on your face up close as my power eats you away.” She practically purred with overweening egotism.
At this point, the Beasts had realized their prey was now merely an illusion and were hissing vainly into the darkness.
“Here, Korakorkomaq, Rosshossho, Howeesha. Your hated jailer is here!” Mistral yelled.
“Ahahahaha, you’d call your executioners upon yourself? You fool! They’ll be mine now. It’ll be child’s play to capture them as I did before. The elements will be mine to toy with as I wish once again, and you’ll be bound to my will.” This ploy had put Black Angel off balance, but she waited for Mistral’s servants to destroy their mistress.
She felt them coming in with their teeth and claws bared.
“They’re mine now!” A stream of power burst forth from Black Angel that was cold and yet burned. Mistral winced, feeling the current of her nemesis’ power trying to wrench the Beasts away from the heroine’s Chains of Fate. However, now was the moment. All was aligned as her patron had ordained.
“Now! Great Manitou!” Mistral yelled. The chains connected to the Beasts suddenly shortened as they neared the grappling two. Flashes of lightning and the booming of thunder echoed through the darkness as their combined storm surged forward to claim Mistral’s life.
Though made somewhat immaterial by the chains to prime them for absorption by their jailer, there was still a colossal collision as the trio were jerked forward directly into Black Angel.
Mistral expected Black Angel to be knocked back where she could deliver the final blow, but instead the Beasts unintentionally interdicted by passing through the body of the ebony-feathered villain while being sucked back towards their prisons within the shaman.
Great Manitou had little mercy for an enemy of the Balance, and this nature of his often left Mistral with regret. She recrminated herself for not having considered the strength of the pull forcing the Three back into their cells. By his ancient standards, the Beasts’ reimprisonment was more important than a single life.
Mistral cried the moment the Beasts reconnected with her. The darkness faded as Black Angel’s power suffered from the backlash of the mystical forces that had just blown through her. The villainess’ energies lashed out and crackled about her. Black Angel hovered for the briefest of moments but then she fell, leaving a trail of black feathers and blood through the air. Mistral lost control as well and fell together with her enemy because the shock of the rejoining was causing her power to fail. The fated enemies spiraled downwards under the brightly glowing moon.
They smashed down onto the mountainside, leaving a crater where they hit, destroying a few stone structures. It was all Mistral could do to wrest enough of Howeesha’s power to soften their landing somewhat.
Black Angel sputtered and coughed blood into the dirt. Mistral struggled up, tears flowing. Their eyes met briefly. The villain’s beautiful and yet utterly evil-filled eyes then gazed upwards at the sky as she fell onto her back. Her eyes fixed on the sun that had just begun to rise, staining the sky a lovely pink. She reached towards the star as though pleading. Mistral stumbled forward and placed herself between the star and Black Angel, unable to prevent a flash of intense regret as she looked into her eyes, though her animosity quickly rose like bile in reflex. How dare you make me pity you?!
Black Angel looked away, seeming to understand as she hacked another gout of blood that flew from her mouth. “T-they were almost mine… I was just a millisecond off with my timing… I knew you would…”
“They aren’t yours. They’re mine. My wards,” Mistral hissed.
“Your slaves! Hahahaha, you think yourself so much better than me… the great hero… in fact, nothing but a slave owner.” Black Angel coughed again.
Mistral looked away with a glare. “Shut up!”
They’d landed in the rural graveyard below. It was a fitting final resting place for her enemy.
Black Angel gasped with the last of her strength and reached up to gently touch Mistral’s face as she turned to ash. In moments, all that remained of her was tainted soot and equally ashen feathers that floated into the air and slowly drifted away, high above.