Dak(White fire)
FINALE Part 3- Final battle of the final chapter of this story with Kar.
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Dak's head seemed to be filled with tar. He slowly opened his eyelids like they were stuck together with glue and watches in slow motion as Kar removed the arm blade from Sayo's stomach and dropped him to the ground.
"No! Sayo..." he mumbled, trying to form the words.
Dak rolled over on his hands and knees and tried to stand. He got one foot under him and pushed off the ground, standing up shakily. He stumbled towards what he thought was Sayo's body, but there was something wrong. His hat was gone, and he had very long hair. Too long for a boy. Dak's head began to clear and he started running towards Sayo's body, but when he reached it, he was stricken silent. His thoughts instantly cleared and he dropped to his knees. Tears started to well up in his eyes...
"No... No! No, no, no, NO!" he yelled out and put his head in his hands.
"Rae... Rae? Please.... Korae!"
He reached down and touched her hand. She wasn't moving. He felt her chest. There was no heartbeat, no breath. Dak's mind shattered. He couldn't think. It was like a bad dream. A sick joke he was playing on himself. He was still unconscious. This had to be fake. But no, it was real. Her very real blood coming from her very real wound. His only thought was her. He could see her body vividly when he closed his eyes. He was so out of it, he had forgotten why she died. Not for long.
"How tragic. She was beautiful. Not to worry, I can send you after her if you'd like..." Kar's mocking voice came floating across the chamber. He was leaning up against a rock a few hundred feet away.
Everything he had forgotten about Kar came flooding back into his mind like a red tidal wave of rage. All of the suffering and torture, the pain, the killing he had to do. Dak was shaking with fury as he crossed Korae's arms over her chest and whispered something to her. He then stood and focused all of his attention on Kar. He lit his fire blades, giving them much more power than normal. So much that his entire body began to heat from the energy he was suing to bend. His tears evaporated and the belt of the sheath for his discarded sword started to singe. He cut it loose.
"You know, she cried right before I killed her. I wonder if she was going to miss you? Or maybe she was afraid to die?" Kar taunted.
Dak roared and charged at Kar. Kar hopped down from his rock and stood his ground. Dak reached his and swiped at his face. Kar ducked back and swung his blade at Dak's chest. Dak didn't even try to dodge. He walked into the swing and swiped again. Kar's back was against the rock now, and Dak started mauling him, cutting into his armor in several places. Kar swung wildly, cutting Dak's arm and face, but he didn't even notice. Kar realized what he was fighting now, and bent some of the lava still on the ground between them and blew Dak backwards with it. The lava splashed all over his legs and torso, and on the left side of his face. He shook violently to remove it. He felt himself go blind in his left eye as it burned and bits of his hair were on fire. He dug his fingers into his eye socket and pulled the burning melted eye out of his head and tore the burning hair off his scalp. It finally hit Kar about what he'd done now, and he looked on dumbfounded.
Dak didn't hesitate to get back to fighting. He went right back into swinging his fiery blades at Kar. The attacks were wild and unfocused, but Kar could feel every single impact on his armor like a sledgehammer. Kar managed to get around most attacks and sliced at Dak's legs, his arms, and his body.
Kar finally got tired of being hammered, and using the molten metal in his gauntlet, forced Dak backwards several yards. Dak immediately charged back at Kar, but Kar wasn't going to have it. He waited until Dak was within striking distance of his blade and stabbed Dak in the chest with it. Finally, Dak stopped. He looked down. The blade was stuck in his heart. He drew a raspy breath from his burnt lungs and looked into Kar's gleaming eyes with his own. Kar's wicked smile spread across his face and he laughed.
"So there it is! You're done. I've beaten you. After all this time! Want to see your parents, Dak?" Kar gloated.
Dak's furious glare returned. He couldn't die now. He had to kill Kar. Dak looked at Kar's hand, still pressed against his chest with the blade still in his body. He grabbed Kar's hand with his left like a vice. Kar stopped laughing and looked at Dak bewildered. Dak lit a fire blade in his right hand. Kar panicked and tried to jerk away from Dak. But he couldn't, it was as if they were nailed together. Dak brought his fire blade down on Kar wrist and started sawing at it. Kar tried even harder to escape, but to no avail. Dak cut through the armor and instantly cut through Kar's flesh and bone. Kar stumbled back and screamed in pain. Dak held Kar's hand in his palm, then caught it on fire and dropped it. He lit this hand with a fire blade as well.
"You bastard! Ahh! I'll kill you!" Kar shouted.
Kar unlocked his other arm blade by knocking it against his leg and snapped it into place. He slashed at Dak, who was already upon Kar again, but Dak caught his arm and broke it at the elbow. He starting sawing at this arm too, cutting it off. Kar screamed again and Dak kicked his knees, causing Kar to fall. Kar rolled on to his back and tried to scramble away from Dak now.
"Please, no. Don't do it. I'll give you whatever you want. Anything!" Kar pleaded.
"Shut up!" Dak shouted as he started a fire ball in between his two hands.
He cupped the flame and started pushing it in on itself through bending. He would breathe more fire and compress it tighter, breathe and compress. He did this until it was an extremely dense and hot ball of fire. With one more breath and a final compression, he finished it off. The ball of fire was so intense that it threw rays of white light around the chamber and was slowly burning a hole through Dak's left hand as he held it away from his body. The skin of his palm was already burnt and falling off. Dak grabbed the broken blade from Kar's hand and pulled it out, throwing it to the side. He staggered up to where Kar lay. Kar couldn't move, all he could do was watch as Dak grabbed him by the neck of his chestplate and brought Kar's face to his.
"Just give me a chance, I'm begging you. Please, Dak, I-" Kar started.
"A CHANCE!?! Did you give her a chance!?! DID YOU MAKE HER BEG!?!" Dak yelled in his face.
"No," Dak continued after pausing to stare at Kar, "You don't get a chance. You die."
Kar's terror was showing in his face as he looked at the blinding ball of fire in Dak's hand, which was starting to char his skin.
"I'll give you gold, uh, jewels, anything you want!" Kar pleaded one last time.
Dak, furious at the idea of accepting money to spare the man who had destroyed his life, pulled him close, spat in his face, and shoved the white fire ball into Kar's chest. It melted through his precious armor like it was made of air and sunk into his body. Dak let go of it, and it burst from it's containment like a cannon, scorching the rest of Dak's left arm and blowing him back several feet. The fireball seemed to shoot a continuous jet of flame from the hole in Kar's chest and soon it spread. It spread to his mouth and his feet and his amputated arms where it burst forth and burned. His face seemed to be boiling as the fire spread around the inside of his body. Kar screamed in agony and torment as his eyes burned away and his whole body caught flame like a raging tornado of fire. Then, the screaming stopped. But the fire didn't. It continued to burn.
Dak turned away, the deed finally done. His thoughts turned back to Korae. He had to get to her. Painfully, he started walking back to her. He had his left hand, burnt and charred, pressed against the wound on his heart to try and stem the blood. Each step was getting harder and harder to take, and he wasn't even close to Korae yet. Then, Dak's legs gave out and he fell forward, landing hard on the rough ground. He pulled his left hand out from under his body and started to drag himself forward with his right. Each pull dragged the hard stone of the floor of the chamber across his body and the gash on his chest. Soon, even his arm gave out and he was left trying to drag himself forward with his hand, then his fingers, then one finger, and finally he couldn't do any more. He reached out and rolled his head to look at Korae one last time, then passed into darkness.
But if he was dead, why did he hear footsteps? Why did he hear his name being called? He felt himself being rolled over and the darkness faded to form a familiar face.
"Dak! Dak! Can you hear me?" It was Bai Mao. A miracle.
Dak looked up at him. "Bai Mao... wh- what are... you..." he slowly rasped.
"We're in battle outside, I had to see if you were ok." he said as he looked at Kar's still flaming pyre.
"I wonder...... how long... he'll burn..." Dak stuttered through raspy coughs.
"It doesn't matter; we need to get you out of here so Ariel can heal you." Bai Mao said.
"No." Dak wheezed, "I need you to... do s- something... I'm dead. I need... you to save... her..."
Bai Mao looked over at her corpse. "Dak, she's dead, I'm sorry."
"No, she has... an am- amulet... of water. It's... special. It can heal her..."
Bai Mao just looked at him.
"I... want you... to promise me. Promise me... you'll make sure... she lives..." Dak coughed a large bit of blood on himself as he said this.
"Dak..."
"Promise... me."
Bai Mao hesitated. "Yeah, I promise. She'll live."
Dak moved his fingers a bit. Bai Mao reached out and grasped his hand.
"Good... friend..." Dak forced a small smile and then closed his eyes. He was gone.
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Dak opened his eyes. He was laying on a patch of grass in a glade. The light filtering through the trees was faded, but it was bursting with color. He looked above through the trees at the sky and saw a myriad of colors. Purple, blue, green, orange, pink, and red painted on the clouds like an artist had been loosed on them. He looked at himself. There were no scars, nor cuts, no burns. he had both of his eyes and was wearing a pristine Fireflower suit. Then he looked around. There was a clearing just a little ahead of where he was. He decided that he would walk to it. It seemed like he had been in that spot for an age before he decided this, and it seemed to take him a lifetime to get to the clearing. He stood for an eternity there, or maybe it was only a second. He couldn't tell, but time must be taking much longer in this place.
He watched the clouds change for what felt like several lifetimes before he heard a girl crying. He couldn't imagine how someone could cry in this place, but he looked for the origin of the voice. he couldn't pinpoint it however. He only wished he could find the girl.
And suddenly, he was looking down at the negative image of the colorful clouds he had seen before. He looked around himself and saw he was on a mountain covered in snow. The wind was whipping his hair, but it made no sound, nor was it cold. He looked down and saw his clearing. It seemed like a million lifetimes away and it had a glowing aura. Dak didn't know where he was, but it was massive, and vibrantly beautiful. He heard the crying again and turned to face a girl sitting on a rock with her head in her hands, crying her eyes out. She seemed so familiar.
"Why are you crying?" He asked
"She stopped crying. "I've lost someone."
"Who?"
"I can't remember."
"You seem familiar."
"So do you." She looked up and Dak recognized her immediately. His memories of the fight and his death came back to him. And her, apparently, because they both ran forward to each other and hugged tightly.
"Rae, I'm so glad I could see you." Dak said with a smile.
"Dak, what happened? Why are you here?" She asked.
"I killed Kar, but I didn't fare so well myself. Listen, there's probably not much time left. Bai Mao and I talked before I died. He's going to use your water to save you."
Korae's smile vanished. "What about you? I can't leave you here."
"Rae, this place is perfect. Look, no scars, no burns. I'm not in pain for once. I'm at peace." he replied.
"Dak, I can't do it. I won't."
"Rae, this is what I've needed all these years. But you, you still had a life. You have more to do than die with me."
She looked as if she would cry again. Dak held her close.
"I'll be here, trust me. After you've lived a full life, we can be together, but it's too soon for you now."
Korae knew there wasn't any point in arguing. Dak was happy here. And Bai Mao would get her healed anyway. She embraced Dak.
"Rae, don't be sad. I'll be fine. I'll bet my parents are here. I can meet them. It's been so long..." Dak trailed off as he looked at the amazing view from the mountain.
Then, as she was being revived in the real world, Korae started to fade. She grabbed Dak tightly and they kissed one last time. And then she was gone. Dak's arms held empty air. But he was happy she was alive. He turned to face the world. There was so much to see in this place he had found himself in. He thought his first stop should be his parents, if only he knew where they were. he opened his eyes and before him was a large cottage surround by hills and a green yard and turtle-duck pond in the back. It was just like he remembered it.
"Home."
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Fin.
