Rage Alone III: Ambitions - Part Six

      All eyes followed the cruiser just east of where they all stood. It passed over their heads with a loud boom as the air was displaced by the blue flames and roaring engines. Everyone except Sloth ducked down when it passed them by, and the same went for when they braced themselves for the shockwave bound to follow the impact. With a thundering slam, the Virtuclaw drove itself into the mountain, which shook the ground for many miles. An explosion erupted from the shattered hull of the cruiser, both of yellow and blue flames twisted together. Smoke clouded out of the wreckage, which refused to cease moving due to the engines continuing to push it forward on severely limited power. Although the Virtuclaw touched down far from them, the mere size of the vessel caused everyone to continue to feel the heat produced by the engines.

      Over a five minute period, the flames expanded over the Virtuclaw to consume it. The engines inevitably died from the remaining generators failing under the stress of the ship's damage. The smoke was ceased to rise from the flames, which were nothing but the raw fury of Fethva at that point.

      As the wall of flames rose, the pieces of Fethva's previous shell resonated with a very noticeable hum in response to the close vicinity of the former spirit. The vibrations they gave off led the pieces to move closer to one another. They danced upon the platform, stacking one top of one another in some cases. Each piece found another to hold itself to until many pieces held together. Sloth removed his gaze from the ship to watch as the Legacy of Fethva reconstructed itself before his very eyes. No sight before that had made him as happy as he was at that moment.

      In a single, wind shattering eruption, the wreckage of the Virtuclaw blew open at the top in an explosion of blue fire as an echo of screams was heard throughout the land. Jyrados shot from the opening like a bullet into the sky with the flames leaving a thick trail behind him. He flew a hundred feet above the vessel before he stopped abruptly. The flames from the entire ship traveled through the trail he left and gathered around him. After they all caught up, Jyrados was out of sight. Instead, a pair of wings composed of blue flames held in place with thick ribbons of energy spread out in the sky, and blanketed the digsite in a faint shadow.

      The wings folded as they descended to the ground in front of the crowd. Before touching down on the ground, the wings retracted to reveal Jyrados. Blue energy flared from his eyes and reached behind his head, where they continued to coil around his arms and ended in the palms of his hands. He gripped the energy in his palms as the energy took the form of blue flames. His wings remained in an outstretched position as their frames faintly glowed with the power of Fethva. His teeth were grinding together as he kept a fixed gaze on Sloth with a soft growl coming from his vocals.

      All the Grundos pulled out their weapons and aimed them at Jyrados until Sloth held up an arm and yelled, "Halt! No one fire!" After the Grundos slowly lowered their guns, Sloth continued to Jyrados, "I suppose I should have known. How else could you survived any of the ordeals you went through when it shattered? None the less, I will have your power soon enough."

      Miermah screamed out, "Jyrados! Run away, Jyrados!"

      Jyrados barked back to her in a deep voice, which was almost painful to hear, "I am not Jyrados, mortal! I am Fethva, keeper of Neopia, and this world is far too tainted to allow to continue." His stare returned to Sloth before he said, "And I will start with these outworlders."

      Sloth backed up while he moved around the platform to put the crystal between him and Jyrados. The rest of the Grundos backed away at a faster pace as they trembled. Jyrados noticed the crystal and said, "Ah, the pure body. Those binds are no longer mine, and shall never be again."

      Over the planet of Neopia, the blue skies twisted into a crimson glow to be cast over the world. The rocks beneath them shook as the area began to quake, which is when Sloth screamed to his people, "Open fire!"

      Without a moment of hesitation, every Grundo held up their weapons and released a volley of red lasers towards Jyrados. Not a single one made it to Jyrados before a shield of blue energy appeared around him in a sphere. He threw out his arms as the shield expanded out to destroy their weapons as it did to the commander. This time, however, he did not throw the people back. His hands released the blue flames towards Sloth, who grabbed onto one of the spikes on the platform. The flames stopped at the platform and were redirected towards the other two spikes. Instantly, Jyrados screamed as the flames condensed into energy ribbons and continued to travel into the spiked platform. Jyrados' roar echoed through the mountain walls with the energy drained from his was the only reason he continued to stand. The crystal held a faint glow in the center, and expanded to glow brighter every second it gained more power.

      In less than a minute, Jyrados dropped to the ground with the entire force of Fethva drained from his body. Once the crystal once again contained the essence of Fethva, it levitated one foot above the center of the platform. As Sloth kept hold of the Spike, his hand shook while the crystal shifted from bright, blue glow to a subtle, black glow. A look of sadistic pleasure consumed Sloth's face as he proudly said, "I command the very planet itself. All will bow before me or suffer the wrath of your world."

      Jyrados, although still weak, pushed himself to his feet with his eyes still filled with anger. He slowly stepped towards the crystal while he told Sloth, "Been there, done that. Now it's about time you stop."

      Sloth laughed without expressing any worry. Sloth held up his other hand and flicked his fingers. A rock then flew up from the ground and impacted on Jyrados' gut. Jyrados fell to his knees in pain, but recovered quickly enough to continue towards the platform.

      Jyrados reached out for a spike across from Sloth, but before he could touch it, a shockwave of energy knocked him back a few feet, and left him on his back. The collar, which had been on his throat the entire time, began to weigh him down in his exhaustion. Being damaged, he took a hold of it and tore it from his throat with a painful groan. Once off of him, his shadow trailed behind him as he jumped up on his feet and rushed back to the platform. He took hold of the spike with both hands, and stared across as Sloth. The crystal flickered in power for a moment as its color quickly switched back and forth between black and gray.

      In frustration, Sloth said, "Let go, Neopet. Your will is no match for mine."

      Jyrados ignored Sloth and cried out to the crystal, "Fethva! Calm your rage and free yourself of corruption! You must break free from all of us!"

      The crystal shook violently at the conflict between those who controlled it. The air became thin around the platform, but both continued to hold on despite the trouble they had with breathing. Black fire filled the cracks between rocks all around them, which caused all the Grundos to run into the pods for relative shelter. The Neopets, however, were unable to move. The only one who could make an escape attempt was Gorrem, who pulled at the wire with his break. He wasn't successful, but it was the only thing any of them could think to do.

      Sloth and Jyrados clenched tighter on the spikes until finally a shockwave shot out from around the crystal, and sent both of them flying several meters away. Both of them were singed by the black flames, and rolled into clear spots where they wouldn't be hurt. Fethva flashed a white light and crumbled the platform as if it were made of sand. In an instant, Fethva shot to the ground and burrowed through the rocks at a rapid rate. A few seconds passed before the whole suddenly filled with magma and cooled instantly to seal it. The flames died down until they were nonexistent, and the sky slowly returned to its natural blue.

      Sloth managed to bring himself up, but did not stick around any longer. He ran into the pod at the end and closed the door shut. One by one, the pods all lifted off the ground and ascended into the atmosphere even faster than they arrived on the planet.

      As for Jyrados, he remained on the ground for a moment to compose himself. The others remained silent and still in their bounds. Tumarche interrupted the moment with a cough, followed by, "Umm, Jyrados, you think you can let us loose?"

      Jyrados' first response was a laugh, which clearly pained him. It took him a few minutes, but he crawled over to the others and picked up one of the daggers they brought, which was left on the ground from when the Grundos retreated. He first cut the wires off of Miermah, then fell to the ground. Miermah checked on him to make sure he was alright before she cut the rest free with the dagger.

      "Well," Simpha started, "looks like we have to walk all the way home from here yet again. We really need to stop this."

      Draicus slowly shook his head at Simpha before he asked Jyrados, "So what happened with Fethva?"

      Jyrados gave a faint smile and said, "He went where he will never be corrupted again."

The End