Free Web NovelChapter 23: The ending of the fight
"Then let me use my trump card too..." having said this, the princess cold-bloodedly uttered one word aloud.
"What, no way!" having said this, the professor immediately stepped back.
Princess Celestia slowly began to rise and was barely standing on her feet. Meanwhile, her gaze was fixed downward. Not at the professor. Not at the people. Only downward. There was a sword in her hand, and it was clear she was gripping it very tightly. Coldness on her face, but her body betrayed itself - ultimate aggression.
"Arise," she said slowly, quietly, and in a soft voice, as if giving her very last energy to the pronunciation of this word.
In that same second, some kind of monsters began to appear straight from the fire. After some time, fiery rams could be seen appearing. Their saliva was made of lava, their eyes burned with a predatory gaze, and there was a sign on their foreheads.
"Grrrrrrrr!" they cried out.
The professor felt icy sweat run down her back. The air around the princess instantly heated up, trembled, and blurred, turning into a solid haze. The ground under the hooves of the fiery beasts melted, turning into a sticky, bubbling sludge. All her former fragility evaporated—only a frightening, ancient power remained.
"Back! Move back!" - the professor wailed frantically, having lost all her former arrogance and charisma, but her voice broke into a rasp.
Celestia slowly raised her head. In her eyes, reflecting the hellish flame of the summoned monsters, there was neither fear nor hesitation. Only a soul-chilling emptiness and a verdict. She didn’t even look at the frightened face of her enemy. A barely noticeable, cold smile touched her pale lips.
The fiery rams glanced at each other, the signs on their foreheads flashing with an ominous crimson light. The earth shuddered.
One of the monsters made a sharp dash forward, leaving a smoking trail of lava behind it, and the square drowned in a panicked scream.
"Princess, stop, this is dangerous!" one of the guards shouted, implying that there were ordinary people here who were not to blame for anything.
"They have committed a crime, so they must be punished," she replied, and she hinted to see everyone and do not return.
"Everyone, evacuate all citizens. First of all, children and men must be moved to safer places!" she shouted.
"Damn, I didn’t think you had such power. Usually, it takes a month to open at least the first stage, but you opened it in two days," the professor said, biting her lips.
"But don’t be glad; you’re not the only one who has this!" she shouted with a smile on her face.
"Arise!" she said likewise.
And a black aura began to surround the professor, and black wolves began to appear from the ground. They also had predatory gazes.And at that moment, the battle between the rams and the wolves began.
A ram began to run straight at a wolf with its horns.
Bang!
The wolf dodged.
The wolf didn’t just dodge - it slipped right under the ram’s side, baring a maw dripping with pure darkness. The black beast tried to sink its teeth directly into the fiery ram’s throat, but as soon as its fangs touched the burning wool, a furious hissing rang out. Darkness clashed with lava. Thick, acrid smoke swirled.
The ram roared deafeningly, and the sign on its forehead flashed even brighter. Ignoring the burns, it spun sharply in place and with a full swing slammed its massive, red-hot horns exactly into the creature’s side!
Crunch!
The black wolf flew several meters, plowing the ground and crumbling into pieces of dark matter, but new predators immediately crawled out of the cracks in the ground. The square turned into a literal hell: the cries of the frightened crowd mixed with growling, the crackle of flames, and the dull thuds of clashing monsters. The guards in panic tried to pull people apart, leading the bewildered citizens as far as possible from the epicenter of this catastrophe.
The professor laughed frantically, although her fingers were visibly trembling from the colossal tension: "Well, come on, princess! Let’s see for how many seconds your exhausted body will last! You’re barely breathing!"
Celestia didn’t even budge. Standing on trembling legs, surrounded by the raging lava fire, she looked like an icy statue in the middle of hell. But inside her limbic system, there was no longer any room for pain. Only one thought burned there. ’Ruthless.’
The princess slowly raised her right hand, and her fingers were enveloped in pure, dazzling flame.
"I have enough time," - her quiet voice sounded right over the professor’s ear, despite the roar of the battle. "To erase you to ash."
The rams, sensing their mistress’s will, simultaneously arched their backs. Lava from their maws poured in a stream directly onto the advancing pack of black wolves, burning away the darkness itself.
Seconds flowed like molten lead. The battle turned into a bloody meat grinder.
The rams pressed with their mass, crushing the wolves’ skulls, but the black creatures crawled out of every crack, tearing the fiery flesh with their fangs. Suddenly, the professor’s wolves pulled back sharply, lining up in a dense wall. Their maws opened in sync. Instead of a growl, a ghastly, whistling sound escaped from the monsters’ throats.
Inside their jaws, a poisonous, neon-green magic gurgled. The air instantly stank of rot and death. The professor bared her teeth insanely - the spell required time, but its power was meant to burn all living things.
"You’re finished, girl!" she howled.
Celestia didn’t even blink. Her gaze remained icy. Her fingers clenched into a fist.
"Ignite," the princess whispered.
The fiery rams did not wait. Obeying a silent command, the three surviving beasts crashed into each other at a run. The earth shuddered from a dull explosion. Lava and flame mixed into one raging whirlwind, and from it, with a crushing ramming blow, one giant, colossal ram burst forth. Its horns were the size of fortress gates, and pure magma spewed from its mouth like a waterfall.
The sign on its forehead burned so brightly it was blinding.
Shot!
The wolves finished their concentration. A thick, deadly beam of green magic roared through space, striking the giant ram square in the chest. A deafening crack rang out. The professor’s magic burned the monster’s fiery flesh alive, leaving smoking through-and-through wounds from which lava gushed.
But the giant didn’t even slow down. At an insane, mad speed, ignoring the pain burning it, it charged head-on with a furious roar! A true living shell.
Ten meters. Five. One.
"No! Don’t come near!!!" - the professor screamed in horror, having lost all her arrogance as the colossus loomed right before her eyes.
KABOOM!!!
The collision was titanic. The giant ram slammed into the wall of wolves and the professor herself with all its might. The green magic exploded, mixing with the lava. The shockwave blew the square to splinters. The wolves were torn into atoms, and the professor was thrown back with a wild scream, smashing into the stone rubble.
Smoke shrouded everything. A deathly, ringing silence followed. In that same instant, both the ram and the wolves dissolved, leaving behind only a scorched wasteland.
"Kha-kha-kha!.." - someone’s hacking cough echoed through the muffled air.
Because of the thick veil of soot, nothing was visible around. Princess Celestia finally raised her gaze and looked around.
All the nearby houses were destroyed. More precisely, absolutely nothing remained of them — the destructive magic had consumed and erased these buildings from the face of the earth. Fortunately, the guards had managed to lead the people away, and the citizens were now in a safe place. The guards themselves were also nowhere to be seen.
And what about the professor?
The princess peered into the gray mist, but there was no one around. Literally not a single living soul - even the birds, animals, and insects had disappeared. Everything had burned, turning into silent ash. The chance that the professor had perished was huge, for no one could have withstood a blow of such colossal power. The only exceptions might have been the queens.
"What does it mean to me... to be human, then?" - Celestia whispered very quietly, barely audibly.
Her gaze remained frighteningly cold. Did she feel satisfaction from having exacted revenge for her fallen friend?
Not at all. There was no relief inside.
After all, this woman was only the tip of the iceberg. Someone else clearly stood behind everything that happened - the one who gave the order to destroy Ruthless. Moreover, if this puppeteer is not stopped, they will continue to kill others as well, using the most absurd, stupid, and cruel methods.
Strength finally left the princess. Celestia sank to the ground again, leaning her back heavily against a half-ruined stone.
"Well, why... why is it always like this with me?" - a quiet sigh escaped her lips. "It’s not my fault that I just wanted to have friends..."
She was silent for a moment, looking at her trembling palms.
"Or maybe... I am at fault. I don’t even know anymore."
The princess’s sad, broken voice dissolved into the emptiness. She spoke to herself, asking questions with her wounded soul, but found no answers to them.
