Mecanimus
patreon
A Journey of Black and Red: addendum to 224
🕑 Added 2023-02-22 04:06:42 +0000 UTCAN: I obviously messed up by not including Jimena's fight so here it is! Chappie 224 has already been updated.
Jimena’s focus was absolute. Malakim was the most dangerous opponent she had ever faced and any mistake would spell disaster. Deflect low. Step back. Counter. Deflect right. Wait for Diego’s hit to distract to lunge. He was always just a little late. That was fine. They did not need to win.
Malakim pulled back once again this time without new wounds. They didn’t matter. Malakim was a bear trap of spite and mutual destruction. Committing against him meant death. He wanted it, wanted people to attack his protected heart. Ariane told her. Ariane trained her in his style. Jimena would not let up. Her focus was absolute.
Then, Diego made a mistake. He overextended. Jimena pulled the lord aside but their formation was in disarray. John was to her back. She had to hold him.
That was fine. She still had an ace.
“Magna Arqa.”
Behind them, Semiramis cried out. A burst of power distracted Malakim long enough to push him back but she still needed to fend him off. Semiramis was ascending right now. She was becoming a goddess. They had almost won.
Jimena pointed her sword, Justice, at Malakim.
“YOU ARE JUDGED GUILTY.”
Power, intoxicating and rightful filled her veins. She felt like living thunder as she rushed him. It was great to fight with the perfect knowledge that one’s cause was just.
Malakim smirked.
“Magna Arqa.”
He stole her thunder. He cut her wings. His sword aimed for her heart.
She lightly deflected it then stabbed him in the jaw. She almost beheaded him but he twisted away at the last moment, face a mangled wreck. His baleful gaze was still on her but it was clouded, confused. Thick black blood dripped down the dragon scale armor. She had hit something important. Diego and John were in position. She attacked. Malakim stumbled. She had him.
And then, the runes on his armor shone and Jimena was facing death itself.
There was no time to react. No time to curse her fate.
One strike.
“YOU ARE JUDGED GUILTY!”
Power like no other. One lunge, one perfect movement to close the distance. The red sun of Nirari’s might was already eating at her skin. Nirari was weakened, hurt. Still taking his bearings. Her gaze met his. He roared, an expression of rage, pain, and anguish. Jimena’s blade bit deeply into the flesh of his hand but he did stop her, the tip of Justice only a finger away from his eye. She saw terror, there.
She had shed the blood of the first.
Then he killed her.
With a series of furious strikes, Nirari cut down the entire squad before they could react just as his Magna Arqa failed, power buckling under the strain. He dragged himself forward to the circle. The cave’s enchantments turned his spilled blood to ash but it would not be enough. Even on his last leg, he was still the first.
Only John remain to watch the old queen’s last moments.
Nirari moved inside of the circle to the hovering form of his mother. Her dark eyes shone like magma as she glanced upward, lost in the felicity of apotheosis. She was blind to the world while the secrets of the universe were finally revealed, so she could not react when Nirari embraced her one last time.
“Even… even now, you cannot see me. We… always leave each other behind. I wish you had spoken.”
Nirari bit down. It took a while for the power to transfer to him, for the ritual to change direction but eventually, it did. It was his turn to ascend.
Comments
e
Yeah! How will progenitors occur with Semiramis dead? Although at some point Semiramis said that she didn't even know the identity of the Vanheim progrenitor, which seems weird if she was the one distributing immortality elixirs.
RonGAR
😂😂😂 You serious? '' The specifics were not detailed'' 😂 My man... Mecanimus hasn't been about 'detail' since the first 30 to 40 chapters. The dude has been using a 'brush over' writing style for the longest while now, leaving us to fill in the 'details' with our own individual imaginations. (With the exception of the first two chapters of the fae world arc and the first chapter of the dead world siege arc, because both needed 'world building' descriptions) Its the price of writing two books at once I guess. Tell me... what does the airship look like in your mind. Because I promise you, I think they look like something else... Why is that... simple. NO SPECIFIC DETAILS! 😂 'Specific Details' .... 😂😂😂 you kill me bro. 😂
Pierre Steiner
I'm not sure Semiramis intended to take the magic from the world? The specifics were not detailed, but I think she'd just ascend, kill Nirari, then be on her merry way to explore the spheres
Pierre Steiner
Actually none of them died off screen, Semiramis' death was described in John POV, whereas Nirari's was from Ari's POV
A
I like to imagine that after Semiramis dies and Ariane ascends that it either becomes Constance’s duty to create new Progenitor’a, or the Watcher is able to make them itself now that a vampire is the Sovereign of Earth. There never being any new Progenitors with her dead would just be a bummer.
closeded
I liked how anticlimactic it was for Nirari and Semaramis to die off screen, but this was much better.
Pierre Steiner
Honestly I wasn't shocked Jimena's fight wasn't included. I mean, from what John said it wasn't much of a fought was it?
Bunny Waffles
Of course, after Nirari got to experience nuclear hellfire first hand and face first thanks to John.
Necrotyr
So Nirari began to ascend, then was yanked back to Ari and she began to ascend instead? What a game of musical chairs.
Olof Karlsson
Thanks for the chapter!
Andrew
Thank you!
LenoraeKB
Yeah thanks so much for this one. Jimena dying was fine and powerful, but it just felt diminished before with it happening offscreen. Getting to see her final moments kind of lets us say goodbye to the character. Edit: going back and reading the chapter I like the placement. The reader finding out with ariane from Constance relaying aintzas death preserves the initial shock, and then the backtrack lets us say goodbye
RonGAR
CHEESING OVER HERE! 😁 Nicely done. It put just enough meat on the bone. ------- Still I got a question. Semiramis was using a spell to make her the soverign or goddess of the earth, then she was suppose to leave and take Nirari with her, that was the deal. But was she really going to be that selfish? Was she really just going to take all the magic there was on earth, empower herself to be a soverign then just leave? If so, that chick got what was coming!!! ---------- Now that we know what comes next, If Semiramis did win, leave and take Nirari with her, the supernatural that were left behind would've had a huge problem with the humans and nukes. Things would've gone much the same, but I thing they would've lost a lot of ppl all the same. Especially that first night/ sunrise after the battle. Humans would've came for them in their sleep.
SDCard
I like that she made him bleed, after he mentioned not having done so in centuries. A worthy ending i suppose
Isley
good edit
