The silence lingered far too long. The two lords stood frozen in time, one illuminated by the heat of creation; the other ablaze with the fires of destruction.
Eartakiel: His face turned soft for a brief second. It seemed there was still a glimmer of hope that Valkun would back down. "Please..."
Valkun: He only smiled, a sadistic, tearing smile across his cracked, molten face. Suddenly, the ground ripped open beneath them, and streams of magma twisted through the floor as he lifted his hand.
Eartakiel: His eyes widened, slamming his hammer into the floor quickly, the rocky floor reshaping back together, forcing the magma down. As he ripped his hammer from the ground, spikes of stone and metal burst forth from in front of Valkun.
Valkun: He held up his hand, the heat burning off his body turned the rock into magma sludge, but the metal was quicker to stab into his lower gut. "Nnghh-aaagh!!" Molten red blood spat from his mouth, but he wasted no time, slashing his molten claw through the metallic spike. As he ripped the remaining piece from his gut, magma reshaped itself over the wound.
Eartakiel: He slammed down the hammer as if a mountain had fallen from the sky. The entire throne room buckled, and molten streams erupted up from the shockwave. Valkun sprinted out of the way in a blur of fire with Eartakiel's weapon crashing into the ground where Valkun had stood a splitting moment before. The burst of power exploded through the floor and cut a massive fissure through the citadel.
Valkun: With a roar, he drove his claws forward. Pillars of flame sprang from the ground, wrapping around Eartakiel's legs, burrowing and braising into his rock-like exterior. The ground seared the surface to a blackened mass, but Eartakiel stood there, unfazed.
Eartakiel: Letting out a growl from his throat, he tore his legs free of the molten bindings. Shards of charred stone erupted in all directions, a hiss erupting from the stone as it hit the searing ground. "There is no way you make it out of this, you traitor!"
His warhammer thrummed with seismic energy as he swung it back and forth, calling the stone to his command. The rock face cracked apart and surged forward, slabs of stone and veins of metal weaving together into a towering shield that encased him, an earthen fortress, giving him enough time to repair himself.
Valkun: The heat at the center of the chamber became unbearable. He drove both claws into the ground, and the planet's molten veins traveled up through his body. Magma geysers pulsed out of the earth all around Eartakiel's barrier, holding, spiraling straight up into burning columns that slammed together into a flaming vortex.
The raging fire consumed the outer layers of the fortress, melting stone into slag and raining molten drops across the field. "Victory is on my side, the only traitor I see is ALL OF YOU!"
Eartakiel: With determination, he plowed forward into the fire. Each step he took made the ground shake beneath his immense weight, rivers of molten stone splitting apart as he walked. His stone and metal skin shone with molten scars that cooled into plates of living metal.
With a roar heard above the maelstrom, he raised the hammer over his head and brought it down with apocalyptic force. The strike hit Valkun full in the chest, creating a shockwave that blasted outward like a cannon, tearing through the cavern and shattering whole ridges of black stone.
Valkun: The impact knocked him backward through a spray of magma, his claws digging deep as he skidded to a stop. His eyes flared like two molten furnaces when he slammed a fist into the ground, triggering a chain reaction of volcanic eruptions that blasted flaming debris into the sky.
He fired himself forward in a streak of molten red, using the blasts as bursts of propulsion, swinging a blazing arm that tore through the air like a comet. Valkun's strike hit at the low point of Eartakiel's swing as they collided, erupting into a shockwave of molten shards exploding out from the point of impact, vaporizing the stone around it.
Eartakiel: The two weapons struck at a cataclysmic force level. Hammer clashed with claw, stone blasted through flame, and the world beneath them shattered. The air howled as the hammer and claw struck together, and the resulting force ripped through the citadel, creating a blinding shockwave that ruptured the very foundation of the structure. Walls imploded in a flurry of molten rock and ash, as the magnificent columns of the citadel were scattered into dust, raining molten stone and debris from above.
Valkun: The explosion knocked him backward through layers of rubble against the crumbling architecture of the citadel. He plowed through a molten doorway, becoming embedded deep within the ruin that was consumed in fire. The ground began to buck and heave like a wounded beast, as veins of lava burst open around the surface of the planet. Volcanoes erupted in the distance, firing plumes of ash into the sky as whole sections of the atmosphere rumbled.
Eartakiel: He plummeted in the opposite direction, his massive form tearing through the floor like a meteor. When he impacted, the continent shattered. Conversely, plateaus folded into each other, and mountains smoldered into sludge. He pulled himself from the crater, molten debris sliding off his chest, his eyes burned through the haze of ash and flame.
Valkun: Clambering from the wreckage, his molten body re-solidified, the cracks glowing with hellish light. Flames blew out of his mouth in short bursts, the fury still boiling in his molten veins. Around them, the citadel was gone, transformed into a field of fire and ruins. The sky had turned red, the stars engulfed by the rising ash. But, even among the utter devastation, both still stood, gods of the beginning and the end, neither one falling.
Eartakiel: In the scorched earth, he steadied himself and slammed his hammer into the ground. Molten dust fell around him. "You've destroyed it all… our home, the foundation of our people." He rumbled across the air, spilling disbelief through the words.
Valkun: He laughed weakly. It was a dry, crackling sound, like fire tearing through bone. "They were weak. If they can't survive what we are, then they were never meant to rule at our side."
Eartakiel: "You've lost your mind." He took a step forward. With his movement, the ground trembled. "This isn't balance… this is your pride burning the world alive. They are our friends, GENA WAS OUR FRIEND!"
Valkun: "Balance?" He spat, glowing embers falling from his lips. "There is no balance in creation… only dominance. The strong make the law… everything else is ash. The new world has no place for friends." They glared across the molten expanse, the air bending from the pressure of their auras.
Eartakiel: He clenched his jaw, fury coursing through the glowing cracks in his stone skin. "Then you've become the very corruption you swore to destroy." He raised his hammer, its head pulsing with the heartbeat of the planet beneath them. "If this is your new world… then I'll bury it with you."
Valkun: His eyes blazed crimson, molten lines crawling across his body as his claws spread wide. "Try it, brother. Let's see if the Earth still listens to you when it's burning." Eartakiel charged forward, Valkun's smile widening as he did. "Just like you predicted..."
Eartakiel: As he charged, there was a flash of a shadowy figure behind Valkun, his eyes widened as he felt himself weakening. Before he could realize what had happened, Valkun's claw ripped through his chest, "ghkk!!" He could feel his blood building in his mouth, choking on it.
Valkun: "I guess it doesn't~." In a quick flash, he rotated his claw, pulsing a heatwave out, turning Eartakiel's body into ash. Within the ash sat an orange shard, the earth element. He leaned down to pick it up. He crushed it in his palm without hesitation. Molten orange ignited in Valkun's eyes, with magma-like lines tracing across his scaled arms. The claws on his hands lengthened and grew black, heat emanating from him in waves, while a faint shimmer of hot embers and smoke billowed off of him.
His form grew larger, molten obsidian adding itself to his body, replacing the magma rock, "Yes... The beginning and the end are mine to command now, but there are still many to eliminate, many to slap back into my chain of control. Monse and Wiliaquo...prepare yourselves for your ending!"