JULY 22nd, 2014.

I won’t let myself synchronize with Yggdrasil.

Seth’s hi-tops kick off the ground, pounding against the wet asphalt as he runs toward the spirit without a plan in mind, gun in hand and raised toward the fire elemental’s form. As he began to run, Yasu clashed his fight fist against the left side of its jaw, causing its head to recoil in the opposite direction.

No idea what’ll happen if I lose control again, that’s not a risk I should take.

Despite feeling the suffocating, uncomfortable heat in the air around the elemental, Seth began to circle to its right side as Yasu distracted it, firing at its hind leg in an attempt to immobilize its movement, even by a little. As the bullets leave the barrel, Seth notices an odd distortion with the muzzle flashes, and the two impacts against the elemental’s hind leg leave visible holes. That was not something a normal .45 caliber could pull off.

Something’s different with these… should I check the mag? No, I don’t have enough time.

As the elemental roars in response to the pain from the wound, its tail sweeps the ground next to Seth while he barely dodges it. Igniting the asphalt around him once more, he jumps backward before the sudden flash of fire burns his skin. Though he reacted as fast as possible, he could still feel the small hairs on his body singe against the heat.

If I get hit by that, I’m done for. No doubt about it.

The elemental growls in response to his agile movements, snarling at the both of them again.

“Quick bastards… but you’re only human.”

Yasu steps back from his continuous attacks, getting a read on the situation as the elemental crashes its front paws into the asphalt, ripping through it with its claws as yellow and red hot magma begins rushing out of the gashes.

“Well, shit. As if the property damage wasn’t going to cost enough already.” Yasu scoffs, rushing backward after grabbing Seth by the collar and dragging him along before the lava hits either of them. Before the raging heat of the magma catches up with them as Yasu dashes forward, he jumps in the air as Seth exclaims in pain, nearly being choked to death.

“Sera. Affix: ‘Lattice’.”

A rushing web of chains appears beneath them in mid-air, manifesting and hurling each chain into the walls of adjacent buildings, creating a tight mesh of chains that Yasu lands on as he lets Seth go. The both of them land on their feet as the lava rushes beneath them, with the chains holding strong against the heat below. Seth looks under him in horror as he realizes that if Yasu had hesitated for even a second, both of them would’ve been consumed by that river of red, yellow, and black. Yasu glances to his side toward Seth, giving him a dead stare.

“Looks like you’ve figured it out, rookie. If you spend your time thinking instead of fighting, you die.”

Yasu pulls out his flip phone and scrolls through his contact list as the spirit stands in defense inside the lava, not having moved from where they began to fight it. Putting his phone to his ear, Seth hears the phone ring.

“Do we really have the time for this?” he asks, unable to take his eyes off of the snarling elemental a ways ahead of them.

“Shut it. That thing won’t rush us, it’d make shooting at it easier.”

Seth glances down, realizing he unknowingly kept his gun trained toward the elemental’s forehead the entire time, a muscle memory response from his body in order to protect itself. Yasu’s phone stops ringing as someone answers.

“Sankiva, need you to okay two demolitions.”

…

“Where? Hell if I…”

He pauses before pointing the flip phone out with his arms as he takes a picture of the scene in front of him.

“Here. Now. And yeah, they’re evacuated.”

…

“Finally.”

Yasu flips the phone closed, and puts his hands into his pant pockets.

“Keep that gun pointed at it,” he says, stepping forward on the chain lattice, nearing the forward edge of it.

“What the hell are you planning to do?” Seth asks, frustrated. Yasu always seems smug and full of himself, but he’s never seen him do anything that backs it up.

Yasu lets out a gruff chuckle.

“Overkill, rookie.”

He raises his right hand out of his pant pocket, stepping forward with his right foot as his body angles to the side. Reaching out his index finger, he points toward the elemental with his hand shaped like a finger gun.

“Sera. V-pattern: ‘Coil’.”

A river of chains begins to rush in two directions in front of Yasu, wrapping themselves diagonally in multiple layers around two three-story buildings to the left and right sides of the fire elemental below them. As the chains slam themselves against both buildings, they shatter any windows they land against, and Seth watches as the pieces of glass hit the ground and melt into the lava. Once eight layers of chains have wrapped around each building, Yasu points his middle finger forward beside his index, as he makes a cutting motion with his hand, swiping it to the right.

“Sever.”

The chains begin to constrict against both buildings, crushing the outer walls where they lie as they start to break through the inner supports. Similarly to the windows, the rubble that falls from the damages crashes into the lava as it melts into the ground. As the chains for both buildings begin to cut further and further into them, the stable integrity of the fronts of the buildings facing the elemental give under the pressure, and two diagonally sliced upper halves begin to slide down their bottom counterparts, beginning to tilt and fall on top of the elemental.

“What…?!”

The elemental raises its head, only just realizing the intention behind Yasu’s attack. Before it can jump out of the way, the two halves of the buildings crash on top of it, causing a violent, rushing wave of magma to flow from the impact point. Dust and debris cover the air as a cloud as the rain knocks the dust back down, mixing with the mist that’s created by the droplets hitting the lava. Yasu steps back from the edge of the chain lattice, pulling out a cigarette from the box he keeps in his suit’s inner pocket. He crouches down and brushes the cigarette against the flowing lava momentarily, lighting it before he stands up with the same emotionless look on his face, beginning to take a drag from it.

That… that’s what someone who even the Administrators can’t control is capable of…?

He exhales as a cloud of dark smoke leaves his mouth, glancing toward Seth.

“What, rookie? You surprised I’m not all there in the head?”

He takes another drag, exhaling it out just the same.

“Yeah… like anyone in this job stays ‘sane’ for long. Take a good, long look. Fire, destruction…”

He points with his cigarette toward the disastrous scene in front of him.

“...That’s easy enough to cover up. Deaths, on the other hand…”

He continues to smoke, staring lifelessly at Seth.

“...They don’t forget those. Didn’t even see a corpse today…”

Yasu takes on a sarcastic, mocking tone.

“...Lucky you.”

Before Seth can process what Yasu said, they both notice a hot, bright like coming from underneath the rubble in front of them. Yasu scoffs, staring forward.

“Look at that… this thing just doesn’t die.”

A deep, pained voice comes from underneath the rubble, belonging to the light from behind it.

“Never satisfied with… killing your own kind, you hunt me as well…”

Blue flames begin to erupt against the surface of the lava as the elemental begins to harshly exhale and a thick, harsh smell fills the air. Before it hits Seth’s nostrils, something sticks out to him. Why was the elemental staying still before Yasu used Sera…? There was no real reason for it to. Yasu assumed that it was scared of being shot by Seth, but Seth knew that his aim wouldn’t be able to keep up with the quick movements of the elemental. If it really wanted to, it could’ve broken past and attacked the two of them… so why didn’t it?

As the blue flames continued to spread, steadily growing closer, a murky, heavy scent touched the inside of Seth’s nose… he scrunched it up and held it closed with his hand. It smelled horrible, like burnt, rotten eggs.

Then, he realized it. Yasu did as well.

Why the elemental had stayed so still, despite having the means to easily fight back against them.

As it continued to exhale, it was filling the air with something:

Methane.

Both Seth and Yasu, immediately, figured out that the surrounding area was the equivalent of a giant gas leak just waiting for the elemental to explode it. Without saying a word, they both rushed down different branches of chains, wide enough to walk on, running toward the windows of their respective sides. Seth raises his gun up, firing a shot at the already cracked window to shatter it and give himself an opening, but as soon as the gun fires off, the elemental yells behind him.

“...IF THAT IS YOUR NATURE… I WILL BURN YOU AWAY!”

Oh, shit.

The elemental roars out a torrent of fire into the methane spread in front of it, igniting it as it explodes the entire front of the street, against the two buildings. Yasu had already reached the inside of one of the buildings, where the methane concentration hadn’t risen yet, but Seth was not as lucky. As the explosion hits his back and propels him forward, he crashes against the window he was attempting to jump into, being flung through the inside of the building. As he tumbles through the air, his body launches over a staircase right before he grabs on the edge of the railing as a large drop lies below him, and the blazing explosion sends itself burning above his head, scorching the walls above and to the sides of him as he hangs onto the rail for his life. After a few moments, the fire recedes, and the air around him smells putrid and burnt. He kicks off the side of the overhang, landing with a thud against the first floor’s staircase. 

“Ugh… dammit…”

“You…”

Seth quickly looks up, startled by the voice. The lava had barely reached the inside of the floor, but the elemental was breaking through the front entrance as it spotted Seth on the staircase.

“...I had thought you were different. That was foolish of me.”

It growls at Seth as he stares dead in its eyes, seeing its sharp teeth exposed as its lips curl upward.

“I will not make the same mistake again.”

Not stopping to hesitate for even a moment, Seth turns around and starts sprinting up the stairs as fast as he can. Fire follows behind him, barely missing him as the elemental roars while beginning to chase.

“COME BACK HERE, HUMAN!”

Although he barely had time to notice it, Seth maneuvered his way onto the third floor where he found himself surrounded by office cubicles and various meeting rooms to the side. It was a very wide building, though that didn’t make him feel any safer.

Shit… time to play a dangerous game of cat and mouse.

He slammed his body into one of the meeting room doors, opening it with great force before closing it as quietly as he possibly could. No windows were looking into the room, and he was betting on the elemental checking the cubicles for him instead.

I’ll wait for it to burn through those… and then shoot it in the head

He didn’t know if that would kill it, but he figured it was worth a shot. Just as his resolve steeled and he waited for the sound of the fire outside of the door, he noticed the floor a few meters to his right begin to glow.

It was melting from below.

…You’ve gotta be kidding me.

Slamming out of the office door as the entire third floor begins to melt from below, he rushes toward the staircase again, quickly making his way to the fourth. It had a similar layout, nearly identical to the 3rd, but there was one large difference.

As he turned the corner, the elemental stood in the middle of the room, waiting.