Immortal
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I put my hand out and formed a thick cloud that stopped the fireball. The cloud was so dense that I felt it with my hand. I could touch it as if it was in my hands, but not at a distance of several meters. The feelings were incredible. I pushed it forward with my hand. The fireball with the cloud hit the lava monster. And if the fireball did not hurt him, then the impact of my protection black matter caused him significant discomfort, if not pain.
I hardly rose to my feet, and began to throw more and more black clouds, and Cerberus backed down. My powers were on the wane, and I felt weaker and weaker with every new attack, barely standing. Having assessed the situation, it became clear that my actions caused inconveniences, but did not enough harm to destroy the opponent.
I wanted to pull out the sword attached to my belt, but it was not there. Most likely, I dropped it at the beginning of the fight. It was hard to find the sword in the dark, but I had no other option. I fell to my knees and began fumbling on the asphalt in an effort to find the sword, while Cerberus helplessly shook his head.
"Darsy!" Eugene called me.
I turned in the opposite direction and caught the flying object. This was the sword I was looking for in the wrong place.
Buildings began to explode. There was no doubt that firemen and policemen, who could get caught in the crossfire, would soon arrive. I could not let this happen. I headed straight for Cerberus. He got really angry. He stopped throwing fireballs. His look alone exploded hangars, and the ground melted and parted under his feet.* He embodied horror! But as scared as I was, I knew what to do.
Cerberus was getting closer. I stood still, praying to all the gods and mentally saying goodbye to my family. I could feel the monster's heat ten meters away. My clothes started to burn five meters away, and a second later, he grabbed me by the shoulders. I screamed in pain, but it was exactly the distance I wanted.
My sword easily pierced through his body. Cerberus stopped moving from the shock and blinked in surprise. A silly smile on my face made him frown. I pulled the sword up and cut his surprisingly soft body in half. Cerberus fell at my feet into a pile of ash. I defeated him not by the Force, but by cunning.
A moment later, his ability flew out of him and pierced my chest. The heat slowly spread through my body, and thick fiery lava filled my veins, burning me from inside. I felt terrible pain with every cell of my body, which struggled not to burn from the external fluid. I was paralyzed. I could not even breathe of pain. My legs buckled, and I collapsed to my knees. The flame within me grew more and more, lacking space and willing to break out. I felt the raging force was about to explode, and tear me into pieces. The skin burst from the high temperature, and the wounds did not bleed but exuded the fluid like Cerberus's one. My body was not adapted to such temperatures, and even the ability to heal did not help much. Wounds quickly healed and then reappeared. All the clothes turned into ashes, and now I was kneeling completely naked, but that was the least of my problems.
I rested my hands on the asphalt that almost instantly began to melt.
"I'm about to explode!" I heard my desperate cry, as if it belonged to someone else.
The moment before my words came true, I felt someone touching me. Eugene pressed his chest to my bursting back close to the ground, clamped my feet with his feet and hugged me. In the place where he touched me, the tearing force was weak and therefore sought a way out in other areas.
"It's too much! My body can't take it anymore!" I cried with fiery tears. Tears dropped on the asphalt and burned through it. Eugene’s embrace kept my body from exploding into tiny pieces by the powerful bomb inside.
"Listen to me, Darsy! Focus on my voice and do as I say. Don't try to adapt to this ability. You won't be able to as your body really can't take it. Remember, you have a Vessel, which like a black hole can absorb any ability and all the abilities of the Universe, and there will be enough place left. Let the Force absorb this. Let it out. Let it consume this. Otherwise, this will consume you. Come on, Darsy! I can't hold it back long!"
"I can't! I can't!" I said honestly. To do what Eugene suggested, I needed to concentrate, calm down, tune out and trust the Force inside me. But I could not as all the other emotions were paralyzed by the pain of millions of wounds appearing every second, by the feeling of being torn to pieces, melting my body.
"You can, Darsy! I thought you'd die fighting Cerberus, because he's a thousand times stronger than you and has lived for a thousand and a half years, but you defeated him! Come on, Darsy! Do your best!"
I focused on the darkness inside. I felt it from the very beginning like an engulfing abyss. I had been able to ignore it all this time, but now I was going down it. Eugene was not lying. It was a real black hole, where one could disappear. It absorbed everything – both good and bad. It was insatiable. Today I had something to feed it.
The pain was gradually relieving, and Cerberus's ability stopped torturing me. I had no fever and could breathe. Cool night wind was blowing at my bare and hot skin. Eugene opened his arms, but I long remained in the same pose shameless of being naked, breathing in the cool air and calming down. I got back to normal a few minutes later, as if nothing happened during the last two hours: neither bloody fight nor absorbing the ability. But the witness of all this was lying in front of me in an unnatural pose resembling a failed sculpture broken by the artist in anger, and left in the midst of a burning hangar.
I heard police sirens in the distance. Did it take them surprisingly long to get to the place, or did everything happen fast? After all, I felt like every second lasted an eternity when, in fact, very little time had passed.
"Get up! We need to get out of here fast!" Eugene said.
I looked at him frightened. A bunch of emotions and thoughts raced through my body and head. He picked up his fancy jacket, which he apparently took off to keep it from burning, and threw upon my shoulders. It still kept his smell and warmth.
To say I was ashamed would be an understatement. Now I had to get through half of the city like this: barefoot and butt naked wearing nothing but a leather jacket. Eugene looked no better than I did. His T-shirt almost burned up, and I saw his muscular torso almost all tattooed. His jacket disguised his shape, and even having the best man in the world at my disposal I could not but marveled Eugene's divine body. He might be an arrogant bastard, but now I could not keep my eyes off his well-developed broad chest, muscled arms, where every muscle was outlined, and rare veins whirling up at the slightest movement. His six pack was perfect – clear contours ending with a thin strip of hair as if forming the down arrow to indicate the movement direction. The front part of his jeans at the hips and lower leg was partially burned, and was hanging on a single thread, exposing the slender legs of an athlete. He was lucky to have the most important element of his look unaffected – his manhood was proudly covered by Calvin Klein underwear.