1 YEAR AGO
ROSE BEACH
DOSLIGHT, NAZENDEL - 6:31 PM
“Elena, do you believe in happy endings?” Nick asks as the waves crash onto the pink sand below them.
“...I like to think that… people get the endings they deserve. Good people get happy endings, bad people get unhappy endings,” Elena solemnly replies, looking out into the ocean.
“What kind of ending… do you think we deserve?”
“We deserve?”
“We deserve?”
“We deserve?”
“We deserve?”
“We des-”
1 YEAR LATER
LUNE RESIDENCE
AURUS, PRECIDIA - 6:32 PM
A massive explosion occurs in the middle of the street when Damon hurls a massive fireball towards Nick’s vehicle. Nick hides behind it, avoiding the fireball and kicking the vehicle towards Damon. Damon responds by slicing it into two with his saber as Nick tackles him through a house on the opposite end of the street.
The two clash blades to a stalemate until Damon summons a massive pillar of flame, commanding it to rampage through the streets. The pillar consumes everything in its path, leaving a trail of ash and ember as Nick narrowly avoids it by jumping across the rooftops, just as he did while escaping Aurus after the botched detonation job. Damon goes after him, sending fireballs along the way. Nick continuously dodges the flames as he attempts to lure Damon into an open space to prevent destruction. Damon takes notice of this, however, and summons several pillars of flame across the city that ravage the various buildings and settlements of Aurus to aggravate Nick.
The two end up at the Aurus train station, just as the last train begins leaving. Damon kicks Nick through a train car filled with storage as the latter struggles to get up in the tight space. Damon then burns the car entirely, with Nick escaping at the last second by forcefully tackling down the next car’s door. Thankfully, since this was the last train, there were barely any passengers, allowing Nick to output more powerful attacks without the danger of involving outsiders.
He slices the storage car’s coupling off in hopes of losing Damon, but the latter catches up by propelling himself with a pillar of flame. Nick fires off a huge arrow that Damon dodges by swinging himself through the window. The two trade blows using their weapons as Nick pushes Damon to the very end of the car with a blast of electricity. Before Damon can retaliate, Nick follows up with a kick that sends Damon through another car.
As Damon gets up, Nick zooms past him, rushing to the conductor’s car to get him to stop. Damon, however, instead generates a massive orb of flame that destroys several cars ahead of him. Nick fires off an arrow that detonates the orb, scorching the trees that surround the train. With only two cars left intact, being the one Damon was currently on and the conductor car Nick was at, Damon fires off another flame pillar that goes straight for Nick. Nick dodges by jumping upwards, but at the cost of the conductor's car being engulfed in flame. With the conductor’s death, the train stops in the middle of a mountain range with the city of Aurus nowhere to be seen. It was as if the heat and electricity generated by the two demedioms affected the tracks and unknowingly sped up the train, leading it to arrive in the uninhabited border of Idland.
With the uninhabited mountain range being the perfect battleground, Nick and Damon go all-out as massive orbs and pillars of flame start lighting up the area, as bolts of lightning dance around the night sky. One bolt strikes near Damon, sending an electric current throughout the railway. It briefly shocks Damon, as Nick is given an environmental advantage with his immunity to electricity.
Due to Elena’s constant invites of ice skating dates in the winter season, Nick had gotten accustomed to the act. He uses that knowledge to skate across the railways, firing arrows towards Damon while he moves. Damon tries to dodge the constant volley, but eventually gets hit in his remaining wing. Damon is sent crashing down towards the forest as Nick stops himself. He teleports to above where Damon fell, aiming his greatbow downwards, wanting to finish Damon once and for all.
As he continues charging his bow, however, Damon suddenly appears from behind him. Damon brings his blade down, with Nick able to block the attack at the last second. Damon swats away Nick’s bow as he grabs the latter’s collar, launching him with all his might. Nick manages to retract his weapon before he gets tossed miles away, the skyline of Derros now visible in the foreground.
SOUTHERN NAZENDEL EXPRESSWAY
DERROS, NAZENDEL - 7:28 PM
Nick manages to land on his feet in the middle of an expressway after being sent flying through an entire region. He prepares his greatbow, looking around every direction for a glimpse of Estreval. His paranoia would only end up harming him, however, as Damon rushes him from behind, the angle Nick was first facing. Nick once again blocks the attack at the last second, before Damon flares his blade and propels himself with flame. Damon pushes Nick back the entire expressway, sending the latter through a statue of Baron Rivers as they arrive at the city proper.
Nick retaliates by summoning dozens of lightning bolts to attack Damon, sending Derros into a blackout due to the constant ramping up and down of electricity. Damon dodges the bolts, dancing around them as he flies upward using his one wing. He raises his sword in the air, flaring it before sending it down, creating a huge burst of fire. Nick jumps backwards, avoiding Damon’s massive attack that levels the ground around them.
A massive cloud of black smoke engulfs the already darkened city, the only remaining lights left being Nick’s blue electricity and Damon’s crimson flames. With the scenery no longer visible, Damon slashes through several skyscrapers, sending them toppling down. Nick chooses to trust his instinct and continue retreating as the deafening sounds of shockwaves caused by the crumbling buildings resonate throughout the city.
CITY HALL
EVERNIGHT, NAZENDEL - 7:48 PM
“Thank you so much for joining us tonight, President Ross,” the reporter says, his interview with Tina concluding after two whole hours.
“It was a pleasure to be here, and don’t hesitate to call again. I would love to share so much more, though I have duties I must attend to,” Tina humbly replies.
“Oh, feel free! Tonight itself was momentous after decades of hearsay. I believe the makings of a good leader lies in communicating with the people, do you agree?” the reporter asks as a secretary approaches Tina in the background, whispering something inaudible.
“One sec,” Tina tells the reporter as she listens intently to her secretary. Her face drops from a happy expression to one filled with concern as she decides to wrap up the interview.
“Sorry, something’s come up,” she says as she decides to abruptly leave her seat. The reporter and crowd’s looks of confusion soon turn to fear as shockwaves can be heard in the background, shaking the ground below them. The crowd screams as they try to regain their balance to no avail as the shockwaves continue.
VIRALE AVENUE
ROSCHER, GRATA - 8:02 PM
Damon’s trail of destruction and Nick’s retreat goes on all the way until they reach Roscher, where both men have been significantly worn out after chasing each other throughout South Lavia. The cities that the people worked so hard to rebuild came crashing down once again, all to the efforts of a sole, vengeful man with nothing to lose.
Slowing down the pace of the battle, Damon and Nick withdraw using their abilities and instead clash with their weapons to a standstill as citizens are ordered to retreat through various speakers throughout the city. The two demedioms continue their clash until Nick avoids Damon’s stab by sidestepping to the right. He traps Damon's forearm between his own left elbow and torso. Nick wriggles his elbow around Damon’s wrist, loosening the latter’s grip and forcing him to drop his saber. Though unarmed, Damon begins swinging with his free left hand, which Nick blocks with his right forearm. Nick spins around, swinging Damon and slamming him onto the concrete, following up with a stomp to the former dictator’s ribs.
Damon coughs up blood before Nick comes down on him, battering the former dictator with a series of blows to the face. Damon retaliates by attempting to choke Nick with his left hand while defending with his right. Before Damon can crush Nick’s throat, the latter slices the former’s left hand off with a dagger as he continues the assault on the downed prince. By this time, Nick’s head was also clouded by rage. Zico’s death had finally sunk in, and he did not expect that his failure to find Damon’s body after the Eternal Tower raid would come to bite him back tenfold.
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Damon, unable to defend himself physically, instead engulfs himself in flame. Nick’s fists are partially burned as he quickly backs off with Damon getting up on his feet. Surrounded by flames, the former dictator grabs his saber and launches himself towards Nick. Nick opts to retreat and stall, aware that the flaming aura would expeditiously drain Damon’s stamina and energy.
Damon, annoyed at Nick’s constant retreat, decides to burn the entire city of Roscher as he flies upward, bringing forth dozens of flaming pillars and orbs. Nick hurls his chakram towards Damon, teleporting and attempting to strike him with the chakram. Damon blocks Nick’s attack with his saber, attempting a punch with his left arm. The stump barely damages Nick, though the blazing aura burns his face. Nick follows up with another chakram strike, though this time Damon dodges by turning around. As he dodges, Damon pulls off a powerful roundhouse kick that sends Nick crashing through several buildings, eventually ending up at the sandy outskirts of Virtum.
ROUTE 86
VIRTUM, GRATA - 8:35 PM
Landing on the desert plains just outside of Virtum, Nick readies himself for Damon’s next assault. Surrounding him were only vast plains of sand and concrete, with a motel down along the road. With the flat road being ideal to create a thunderstorm, Nick prepares by scouting the environment, looking for potential spots to lure Damon into and strike him with a devastating bolt.
Those plans would not come to fruition, however, as Damon flies by, grabbing Nick by his collar once more. Nick tries fighting back by attempting to stab the former dictator, but the latter’s movements are too unpredictable due to his singular wing messing up his flight pattern and direction.
Nick decides to imitate Damon instead, coating himself with an aura of electricity. Though it sends shocks throughout Damon’s body, he decides to fight through the pain and continue flying across the empty route. As they arrive at Virtum proper, Damon hurls Nick towards a skyscraper. Nick catches himself by immediately teleporting to the ground, firing several electrical arrows at Damon.
Damon dodges the arrows, sending a wall of flame downwards that widens as it approaches. Nick is forced to retreat into the city to avoid the attack, to which Damon begins summoning pillars of flame once more. By this time, Nick had realized Damon’s plan - to cause as much destruction in South Lavia as possible. A sore loser through and through, Damon could not care less if Nick defeated him once more. All the former dictator cared about was creating as much chaos as possible just as the nation was beginning to rebuild itself after decades of his tyranny.
Nick launches himself towards the dictator, no longer caring about his own safety. Damon retaliates by kicking Nick through a skyscraper, continuing to ravage Virtum just as he did with Aurus, Idland, Roscher and Derros. Nick lands on a suburban house, one he was all too familiar with.
FRIEDMAN RESIDENCE
VIRTUM, GRATA - 8:48 PM
Nick found himself at Zack’s former home which was passed onto Luke after his death, though Luke never used it as he was more accustomed to his Lutherford home. He recovers after a few seconds, seeing Damon flying across the sky with countless pillars of flame surrounding the city. Damon spots Nick on the ground, but before the former dictator can do anything, Nick summons a bolt of lightning in the sky, finally striking Damon.
Damon is sent into a brief shock as Nick teleports upward, grabbing the side of Damon’s face and sending him crashing downward. The two land on the street in front of Luke’s home as Damon breaks free of Nick’s grip by kicking him through Luke’s home. Nick is sent crashing through the closed garage door. Damon follows him, an orb of flame in hand. Nick intercepts Damon, redirecting the orb upward as it engulfs the entire second story of Luke’s home in flames.
Nick takes the opportunity to grab Damon’s face once more, yanking him downwards and expecting him to land on the ground…
…though Damon instead seemingly falls through a hole, confusing Nick. Perhaps this was what Luke meant by the garage feeling hollow.
Nick follows Damon down the hole, surprised as he finds himself in the middle of a huge, underground laboratory containing countless weapons and tools. He continues walking along the facility, following Damon’s trail of blood.
As he approaches a corner, flames burst through to which Nick retreats back into the open area. The flames engulf the facility, forcing Nick to run up the walls. As he sprints by the corner, he brings several thunderbolts down, zipping through the walls with one striking Damon in the chest, briefly stopping his heart and sending him flying into another facility.
The sight inside this facility shocks both Damon and Nick to the core - a massive nuclear missile with enough mass to destroy entire cities was situated right under Eternal Drive’s nose the entire time. Surrounding the missile are countless blueprints and notes, a project that was clearly worked with passion.
With Nick distracted from the missile, Damon takes the opportunity to send a pillar of flame towards him. Due to the narrow nature of the facility, Nick is forced to take the brunt of the flames, burning the entire left side of his body. His eyepatch turns to ash, revealing his sunken eye turned crimson due to Damon’s flames.
Nick drops to his knees in pain and agony with Damon collapsing as well due to overexertion. Both men were completely done for. Even if one were to win over the other, he would simply pass away shortly after due to the injuries they sustained during this battle.
As a desperate Damon tries to crawl towards a downed Nick, a ray of light shines through the facility, partially blinding him. Elena Mordegarde arrives at the scene, though she was already too late as the battle was nearing its conclusion.
A horrified Elena looks at Nick, half of his body burnt and charred. Meanwhile, Damon bleeds out on the floor, having landed on a steel pipe after Nick blasted him with a bolt of lightning earlier.
Elena prioritizes Nick, lowering herself to speak with him. A seemingly despondent Nick gives off a slight smile, happy that he was able to see Elena’s face once more.
“Hey… can you push through?” Elena asks, desperate to bring him to the hospital as soon as possible.
“I don’t… know… I can’t… feel… anything… here…” Nick mutters as he raises his left hand, his bones beginning to peek out of his melting skin. A concerned Elena finds herself in a dilemma - if she went after Damon, Nick would undoubtedly pass away from his injuries. If she immediately brought Nick to the nearest hospital, there would be no guarantee that he would survive and Damon would escape her grasp once more.
Elena was terrible in making decisions during crucial moments such as these. Her lack of conviction led her to leave Esper in the first place, instead of facing her problems firsthand. However, she decided that this time there would be no running away. She would do everything in her power to save the love of her life, even if it was just a slim chance that he would survive.
As Elena hoists Nick on her shoulder, Damon suddenly stands up. He gives off a devious smile before turning towards the missile. He summons a miniature orb of flame in his right hand before turning to Elena.
“Remember, this is all because of you,” Damon says before hurling the orb towards the missile. Elena summons a massive barrier, coated with several layers to protect herself and Nick from the incoming blast as Damon’s orb penetrates the metal coating of the missile. Mundane, rainbow colors seep through the unfinished product before detonating, creating a white flash that would have blinded Elena if not for her protective barrier. The surrounding environment is engulfed in decades of Zack’s built up energy amplified by Damon’s final stand. Damon himself is turned into dust after taking the full force of the blast. A massive, grey and crimson fireball rises to the sky followed by a shockwave that can be felt across the country.
The explosion soon overtakes not only Roscher, but the entirety of Grata along with it. It does not stop there, however, as the mass destruction spreads throughout Aeternum, Nazendel and Precidia. It even destroys the barrier protecting Lavia from the outside world situated in the center of Evernight. The surrounding seas quickly form a tsunami from the massive shockwaves, followed by a huge earthquake that can do no further damage as everything was already taken by the explosion. Millions of people from all over South Lavia are instantly engulfed in the blast, including the crowd in Evernight who was celebrating mere hours ago. The various structures created by Eternal Drive were burned to atoms. The massive wall separating South and North Lavia was blown to bits by the shockwave, being situated at the very edge of the explosion whose center was in Virtum.
GROUND ZERO
BARREN WASTELAND - 10:56 PM
With the area surrounding them being turned into a massive crater at the hypocenter of a nuclear explosion, Elena collapses to her knees in shock at the destruction. Over the horizon loomed nothing, only miles of a barren wasteland. A barely conscious Nick coughs, getting Elena’s immediate attention.
“What… happened…?” Nick mutters, aware of the massive shockwave that just occurred an hour ago.
“Hey, shh… Don’t talk…” Elena affirms him as she thinks of a solution to save him. Perhaps North Lavia was still intact, though it was too far and the radiation would instantly kill Nick if she dispelled her barrier. Once again, Elena finds herself at a dilemma, unsure what to do as Nick begins fading in her lap.
“Laine…” Nick says as Elena continues to panic. The devastating event had not even sinked in yet; her biggest concern was to save Nick.
“I'm... sorry...” Nick apologizes as Elena lowers her head.
“No! I can’t lose you! Not after everything!” an emotional Elena responds.
“It’s over... for me… I... accept that…” Nick says as his eye starts to shut. His organs were badly burnt, his body was shutting down.
“No, Nick… Don't... Don't leave me...” Elena says as she clasps onto his dying body.
“I love you… Please… Go on... for me…” Nick says as his head goes limp.
“Nick!” a desperate Elena yells out.
“NICK! PLEASE!” she continues yelling. Even though Nick accepted his own death, Elena could not. It was at this moment that everything that transpired started to sink in. It was not only Nick who passed tonight, but the entirety of South Lavia.
Elena holds her head, unable to contain the various emotions she was feeling. Damon’s last words only stung even more as she started blaming herself for everything.
At that moment, Elena collapsed. She could not bear to face everything that happened, nor could she bear the weight of millions of people on her shoulders. Though Damon Estreval was a sadistic bastard, he was right about Elena. It was in her nature to run off instead of facing her problems directly, and the mere thought of this shattered her mind. She only had one escape left, and that was Nick who was still, somehow breathing.
Elena picks herself up to face Nick, carefully placing him in her arms. As she embraces the love of her life, she starts radiating a bright, white hue that engulfs the both of them. She sheds as much tears as she can before touching foreheads with Nick, whispering her final words to him.
“I’m sorry, Nick… I can’t do this… not again…” she says as she starts fading away. Starting with her fingers, her body begins to disappear in midair as Nick’s body was somehow reconstructing itself. The left side of Nick’s body, previously burnt and charred, was now back to the way it was, fully healed and functional.
“I love you too… I always will…” Elena declares before fully fading away, no trace of her to be found. Nick is left on the ground, seemingly healed to perfection yet lifeless as he remains still in the center of a massive crater surrounded by a barren wasteland - the land formerly known as South Lavia.
END OF ACT I - ESTREVAL MUST DIE
To Be Continued…
/Out of character
/In character
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