A Journey of Black and Red: addendum to 224 (Patreon)

AN: 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.