by Max Jager
She opened her eyes slowly and her whole body was back to normal. She was exhausted from the fight. She looked up at Alerius and touched his face. "I'm alright."
Alerius smiled and said, "I'm glad."
Alerius then looked at where Korzen had sunk into the floor from the light and asked, "What was that Aurela?"
Aurela looked over where Korzen was and simply said, "The Wrath of God."
Alerius took a long breath and then exhaled. He looked back at Aurela and said, "He must have been pissed!"
They both got up to their feet. They looked where the lava fall had been. There was nothing but this big, gapping hole through the volcano. Half of the exit was still intact and the way leading right up to the fourth floor was clear. The other half though was decimated and walking through was not an option. Aurela and Alerius looked at each other. Alerius then said, "I guess this is it."
Aurela just smiled at him. "It's not the end Firius. It only a new beginning."
Alerius was thinking as soon as Aurela got rid of The Flaming Meteorite that they would never see each other again. Aurela would make sure that didn't happen. She would stay with him forever. She would stay with him until her last breath. Until she herself was gone from existence!
Alerius looked back at where Korzen had died. He just looked silently at the spot. Alerius had a couple quick thoughts back to his academy days. Korzen was hailed as a legend back then. He was an inspiration for all the rogues he went to school with. Alerius felt that he at least owed him just a moment of silence. Not for what he had become but what he had been. One of the greatest rogues of all time! Probably the best solo-agent ever and a man that kept most of the army still fighting! Alerius kind of wished he could have said a goodbye to the Yellow Korzen he knew. The greatest role-model he ever had.
Alerius looked back at Aurela and she reached out for Alerius to take her hand. He looked at it strangely. She smiled at him, "We can't get up there unless we fly."
Alerius looked back at the destroyed wall. "Oh yeah."
He hesitantly took her hand and they both hovered up into the air. Alerius had this strange feeling that this was the last stretch of his mission. He couldn't really tell if they would succeed or they would fail but this was different then when he reached Hogarth. This time he was sure that everything would be decided in the next hour. The entire fate of the universe was at hand. The last Leyline, able to fight, against the last Oadin. The fate of the war was now!
Planet Wrath Burn: All Is Fair
The corridor was long, winding, and it had a dark red glow to the rock walls. As if lava itself flowed through them. Alerius and Aurela hovered right up to the fourth and final chamber.
There was this long corridor attached to the one they had come up. This one was a more orange color. It glowed bright like fire. Alerius and Aurela hovered down to the rock floor and both of them stood silent looking at the exit.
Aurela looked at Alerius and said, "If you want us to go back…" She cut herself off waiting for his reply.
His reply was swift and brutal. "I didn't come all this way and have so many die just to turn back now!"
Aurela nodded her head in agreement. They both began to walk down the corridor. Alerius and Aurela both had a stone cold stair right at the end. Both Aurela and Alerius could feel Flaming! The Oadin was hiding and this was his refuge.
When they exited the long corridor they entered into a huge chamber. It seemed to be right under the top of the volcano. All around the rock walls glowed a fiery orange. Lava was all around them although neither one of them could feel it. The chamber was about as big as the one they had faced down Domaren in. It was more circular though. Like a hollow dome.
Alerius kind of shrugged his shoulders. "Well, where is he? I know he's here!"
Aurela took a step towards him. "Do you really want to know?"
Alerius kind of thought about that. Maybe he didn't want to know. He didn't have to wait for long. Suddenly, this monstrous quake shook the whole dome. They both were almost knocked off their feet. The rock wall in front of them began to change. As if it was coming towards them. It seemed to head towards them like a slow moving train. The chamber still was shaking as this wall began to move.
Then, it began to reform. Small debris began to fall to the ground and began to make small dust trails around the moving wall. It was all transforming! The orange glow from outside began to accumulate around the moving wall and the wall itself began to transform. It took a shape of a face.
It was The Flaming Meteorite! Alerius was totally clueless as to what was going on but Aurela understood perfectly. Flaming had been hiding in the volcano but not in the way other things hid. Most beings hid inside of a place with its interior hiding them. Flaming had hid inside the structure of the volcano itself. Hiding like a virus.
His two eyes formed out of the rock as well as his nose and mouth. Flaming's face seemed to be etched in the wall. The fire from the walls around had been sucked around behind the face. It resonated behind it like a solar eclipse of the sun. The mouth quickly opened and this loud screeching came out of it. It rocked the whole chamber worse then the quake that had proceeded it. Alerius was knocked right off his feet and fell to the ground. Aurela stood shaken but firm. It ended quickly and Alerius got back up to his feet pretty quickly.
Aurela looked at Alerius and said, "He's powerless. If that's all he can do?"
Alerius was still a little off set by the evil he was feeling from this monster.
Aurela began to walk right up to the rock face. Alerius let her go. This is what she had come here to do. He figured it be best to just let her do her thing. Whatever that might be! He was confident though that she knew what she was doing.
The Meteorite began to talk to both of them. His voce still had that old man's harshness with that intense snake-like hiss to it but it didn't effect either of them like it had so many others. "So, the hero rogue of the next seed and the last of the angel's mortal agents have come to end me!" Flaming was completely powerless. Not even his voice carried the near death inducing power it once had.
The blue skin of Aurela began to gain that luminescent glow and her eyes began to disappear behind this bright light out of her sockets. She began to raise off the ground and Alerius took a couple of steps back. Her voice seemed more powerful then ever as she spoke doom for Flaming, "You, lieutenant of Lucifer, must die!"
The rock face seemed to smile. "Death has no meaning to one of my power, light assassin."
"I'm going to give it meaning!"
Power pulstated in Aurela's hands as they began to swarm with this golden light. Bolts of energy began to swarm all over her hands and accumulated at her finger tips. An energy orb of golden light was building up and it was growing bigger with every passing moment. She was ready to finish this planet devouring demon for good. She was ready to destroy the last real weapon of power that the hellion forces had left. Aurela thought back to Scalobore. She thought back to the words of Lire. She thought about Alerius and her. Would he finally say the words she wanted to hear now?
Another sly smile slide across Flaming's face. "Isn't there something your forgetting, dear?"
Aurela just hovered calmly with that huge golden orb pulsating with power getting even bigger.
"Isn't there something you want to ask The Red Firius over there?"
Flaming could almost read her thoughts. Psychology was the only attack he had left. He was too powerless to defeat her. In truth, he was already dead. She was just going to speed up the process. Ever since the attack from her, he had suffered at planet Hogarth, he had been powerless. He had come to Wrath Burn to die out quietly and organize one last super strike on the universe from Wrath Burn!
Now though, it seemed he had her by her heart strings. If he could make this work, he might be able to assure the hellion forces' success in this war. He had to play this smart though. He had to let Alerius and Aurela destroy each other. It was the only way his final plan for evil dominance woul
d work.
Aurela's orb faded away and she hovered back down to the ground. Her skin went back to normal along with her eyes. She looked at Alerius with this kind look. It was the same look she had given him so many times before her transformation.
Alerius looked around somewhat dumbfounded. He wondered what was going on with her but he would soon learn that he was probably better off not knowing.
In this calm and lovely tone, she asked a question in four simple words, "Do you love me?"
Off set did not even come close to describing how shaken Alerius felt. His eyes grew wide with shock and fear. "What?"
Aurela walked over to him and looked him the eyes. "Do you love me?"
"Aurela, this isn't the time…"
"I have to know…Alerius!"
Again, Alerius got a shock of surprise and fear. She knew his name! His real name! He had never revealed it.
"Please let me know, baby."
Alerius didn't know what to do! He had been thrown a curve ball, right here, in the middle of hell itself. Right here, when the final decision of this war was going to be delivered, she throws this out.
"I know you do." She continued on. "I just want to hear you say it. Just once. Please, I need to hear you say it. Just once!" She slowly slid her hand up to his cheek. "Please Alerius! I love you! Just say it. I just want to hear you say it. I just want you to quit lying to yourself and me."
Alerius grabbed her hand and wanted to throw it away but he couldn't. He just stood there holding her hand. He looked at her eyes with a moment glance but it was enough to last a lifetime.
"I know what's bothering you." She said.
It bothered him immensely. He knew what was bothering him too. He knew what would happen if he confessed his love for her.
"You don't have to fear that anymore. You've protected me, giving me a life I never knew existed, and a destiny that I never knew I was destine for. You won't fail the mission. I will still live beyond this. The mission's over, sweetheart. You've succeeded. Please, just say them. Please, for me. For us."
"You don't understand." Alerius was just lying again. He knew she understood perfectly. It was him that didn't understand that the time for the decision to reveal his love for Aurela was now! That the time to decide, the mission or his feelings, was right now! He held true to his mission and now it was time to hold true to his feelings. Bad thing was that, in his mind, the mission wasn't over until the last Oadin was gone.
"After you do this I'll…"
Aurela stopped him. "No! I want to hear you say them now! Please, I just want to hear them now. I've went without hearing them for as long as I can. I want to hear them. Please, I know you do, just say them. You can do that, can't you?"
"I…I…" Alerius was at a lose for any kind of rational thought.
"I thought maybe you would say them sooner but you haven't. I thought at the moment of death you would say them and…"
Alerius thought back to the second chamber they had encountered Domaren in. "You knew what you did to me, didn't you?" He grabbed her arm. "You knew that lava wouldn't hurt me if he dumped me in there, didn't you?"
"I thought maybe I could get you to confess. You weren't in any danger. Then, I thought if I put my life on the line you would say them but not even then did you say them."
Alerius thought back again. "You could have easily taken out Korzen?"
"Of course! I love you though. I just want you to say it back to me. Just once, please! Just once. I know you do!"
Loosing every thought he had, she didn't even give him time for contemplation. She knew she couldn't. Aurela put her arms around his neck. "I know why your so deadlocked to this mission like you are. I know why you won't say them. You're afraid you'll end up like Korzen. Honey, you're not him. Stop fighting me. Love me." She pushed herself up against him. "Please, just say them. I want to hear them, just once." She was rubbing his cheek and then she looked him right in his eyes again. "Please, just once, try them on for size. After you say them we can leave this whole war forever. We can go anywhere you want and you can have me. Please, just let them roll off your tongue. I'll get rid of this evil and we will be free."
Free? It rolled around in his head. Alerius was still ripped between Aurela and Korzen. Even though The Yellow Korzen was gone he was still haunted by him. His words back on Scalobore still stayed with him. "I can't let my emotions take control. You'll die, I'll die!"
"No sweetheart, your mission was successful. I'm still breathing. I'm still here. I love you. Just say those words. Your not The Yellow Korzen. Your Alerius, The Red Firius, your fate is not his!"
"People choose their own fates!"
"Then choose me! Please Alerius! I want you, I need you, I love you! Just say it, oh please Alerius!" She was trying everything she could to get him to say it.
Alerius was now beyond the point of being cautious, being weary, being fearful. He was just now being prideful and stupid. He had been so against the idea of saying that he loved her for so long that now it was part of his subconscious. All of these feeling were pulling at him. Tearing him apart! It was just a question of which heavy cluster of feelings was going to win over him.
"Please Alerius, I've wanted to hear you say it since I first met you in that cave. You were the best thing that ever happened in my life! You took me out of that cave and made sure that nothing happen to me. You're mission's successful, honey. Come home, come home with me. I love you with all my heart, nothing will ever change that!"
Turning away from her harshly he said, "Then why are you asking, isn't knowing enough!"
She began to massage his back. "No. I've always done want you wanted me to. I just want this one thing from you. Please, just this one thing."
"I remember another time you massaged me."
Aurela increased her sexual allure for him. "Back on Traxus. When we were in that cave and your leg was so hurt. I want that to happen again. I will do anything for you Alerius." Her hands slowly slid onto his chest and began to massage it. "Anything."
He first began to relish in her gentile touch. "I…" He wanted to say it now. He had only felt one other way this time in his life and that was back in the calsins' cave back on Traxus.
"Go on Alerius, say it."
Aurela intensified her passion for him. She was at her peak of erotic attraction. She loved him so much. She would do anything for him to say it. She would give up her life just to hear him say it. She would give up anything or do anything just to hear him openly say just those three words, once.
He stopped himself though. He couldn't say it! He knew if he did say it, things would go wrong. He was hell-bent on this "theory" that if he said anything even remotely close to those three words she would instantly die or he would or just something would go wrong. He was loyal to the mission. He was not about to lose Aurela because of her or his selfish needs.
Not once did he not want to tell her though. He wished he could. He just couldn't realize that nothing bad would happen and he didn't even try to remember Lire's words. He was remembering Korzen's and Braxus's. All the people he shouldn't be listening to.
They were dead and he was still alive. That didn't make them wrong. What did was that neither of them understood exactly what Aurela and Alerius had done for each other. They had completed each other. Aurela had filled the hole in Alerius's heart. Alerius was no longer alone in the universe. Alerius had provided Aurela with what she wanted the most. Protection and love. The only thing she needed now was for him to say it. Just once.
Alerius turned to face Aurela, "Aurela."
She was listening loud and clear.
"I can't say it. I'm sorry. I do. I…I care for you." Alerius wanted to cry. He held back his tears deep in his throat. He wanted to grab her and kiss her deeply. He wanted to whisper those words right in her ear. He wanted to hold her forever. He had been given a choice here again just like he had on Scalobore. His feelings or the mission. He chose the mission, just like before. Korzen was right abou
t one thing, and it was the only thing he was right about when he had spoken to Alerius for the last time still being sane. "The mission. Sad choice agent."
Aurela turned away from him and walked away. He was lying and she knew it. She couldn't understand why. She just couldn't understand why he was still like this. She really didn't care anymore. She would never stop loving him but she figured it would be better for her just to go in a woods somewhere and die. She didn't even feel like killing off the Oadin anymore!
'Flawless.' Flaming thought to himself. "Aurela. Aurela?"
Looking up at him with this god awful depressed look on her face, Aurela barely floated her eyes in the demon's direction. The Flaming Meteorite had beaten them both but neither Alerius nor Aurela knew it yet. Then, The Flaming Meteorite laid a bombshell right in both of their laps. "I love you."