ROSES HAVE THORNS-Chapter 107 - Pretty Fireworks

Bursting out from the wreckage of the broken door was Emelie. She soared into the room, her eyes and hair glowing with a fierce, ethereal light as she moved like a streak of pure magic. Before Violet could even raise her whip, Emelie was already on top of her. Her hand grabbed onto Violet’s forehead, fingers digging into her skin, and slammed her down into the wooden boards.

"Gargh! Unhand me! Get your filthy hands off–!"

"Disrupt!" Emelie screamed.

crackle— BZZZT!

An electrical green current of mana surged from Emelie’s palm and into Violet’s head. The purple swirls of magic suddenly went haywire, flickering and sparking as Emelie’s special magic tore through the internal mana flow that fueled Violet’s immortality.

"AAAAAAHH!!!"

Violet let out a high-pitched, agonizing shriek as each and every one of her limbs started convulsing.

"KURT! FINISH HER NOW! WHILE HER MANA VEINS ARE GOING WILD!"

Emelie lifted Violet’s body in the air using her magic, giving Kurt the perfect angle to finish her.

Not needing to be told twice, Kurt surged forward, biting his boots into the floorboards. With a flick of his wrists, the heavy, serrated blades of his brass knuckles hissed out, locking into place with a deadly snick.

He closed the distance in a single, blurring stride, pouring the mana coating into the steel. The blades glowed with a jagged, sapphire light as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. Then, he jumped.

"HASTA LA VISTA, BABY!"

As he reached Violet, he snapped his arms outward in a violent, scissoring motion. The mana-infused blades met at the center of her throat. There was no resistance. Only a clean, whistling arc of steel through air and bone.

Her head was thrown backward by the force, spinning into the shadows of the room, while her body remained pinned in the air for a heartbeat longer by Emelie’s magic before collapsing into a heap of lifeless meat.

Kurt landed behind her in a low crouch, his blades clicking shut as he retracted them into the brass. Behind him, the purple magic vanished completely from her body. The oppressive weight in the room evaporated, leaving only the sound of the rain drumming on the roof and the heavy, ragged breathing of two survivors.

Slowly standing up, Kurt looked at the wreckage of the woman who had died five times and then to Emelie, who was watching the body carefully.

"Is she...?"

"Yeah, she’s dead. With her magic being temporarily disrupted, all it took was the finishing blow to sever her connection with those hearts. She won’t be getting up again."

"Oh, thank God." Kurt’s voice cracked with tiredness. "I was starting to think she had more lives than a cat... By the way, what are you doing here? You were supposed to be with Dominik and that Thomas guy."

Emelie wiped a splatter of blood from her cheek as her eyes scanned the room to ensure the purple mist was disappearing now that its host is dead. "I knew Violet would become too dangerous for you to handle once enough time had passed, so I had to find a way to leave Thomas without looking suspicious. Duncan started slipping back into that maddened, babbling state of his. Dominik told Thomas something about him forgetting his meds. That gave me the excuse to take him to the infirmary immediately. He bought it."

"Duncan?" Kurt raised an eyebrow. "Who’s Duncan?"

"... Mr. Shittypants..." Emelie sighed

"Ooooh, right! I’m so used to calling him Mr. Shittypants that I completely forgot his real name. So, where is he now?" Kurt asked, looking at the broken door. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

"In the infirmary bed. I knocked him out cold before tossing him under the sheets. He won’t be waking up for hours. We don’t have to worry about him for now..." She paused, her eyes narrowing as she looked at Kurt’s wounds. "You need me to quickly heal you?"

"Nah, this is lightwork..." Kurt grunted as he moved toward a pile of debris to dig out his black sword, Silent Night. "There you are, my precious. Also, Emy, Violet knew who I was. She said someone named Gary tipped them off. Apparently, it’s the same person who poisoned me in the park. Who the hell is Gary?"

At the mention of the name, Emelie’s hand curled into a tight, white-knuckled fist. "Gary is... never mind. Let’s just focus on the matter at hand. I am dealing with Gary. He is... a complication from my side of things. You don’t have to worry about him. Not yet at least."

Kurt stared at her for a long moment. He didn’t like the secrets, but he trusted her judgment, seeing as it brought them this far. "Fine. But if they know me, they might know Dominik. He’s up there alone with Thomas."

"Dominik will be fine," Emelie reassured him, though she began to move toward the door. "Thomas is a middle-manager. Basically a ’suck-up’. He isn’t nearly as strong as Violet was. Besides, think about the gate. The guards didn’t know you; they only knew that we’re part of their brotherhood. Sure, Violet and Thomas knew who we were, but they didn’t expect us to walk through the front door. The guards didn’t dig into our story because they didn’t have a reason to."

She then gestured to the shredded curtains and the shattered furniture. "And this ruckus? People know that Violet is violent. They probably think she’s just breaking a new toy. It won’t rouse the alarm immediately, but we can’t stay here."

"That’s all fine and dandy, but we have one problem. Look at me. My cloak is ruined."

"Just take Violet’s." Emelie walked to the broken bed and picked up Violet’s cloak.

"Ahh, yes. Come to think of it, Violet did take hers off and fought me in that skimpy leather suit. Thanks." Kurt took it and replaced his ruined one. "Alight. Let’s hurry." He said as he pulled the hood low.

As they stepped into the threshold, Emelie turned back. She raised her hands, and Kurt felt the ground beneath them vibrate. Using a delicate blend of telekinetic precision and earth magic, she pulled the shattered wooden frames back together. The splinters knit into place, and the stone doorframe settled with a soft groan. To any passing guard, the door would now look closed and undisturbed. Little do they know that it’s now a silent tomb for their fallen sister.

"Holy shit... You really can do anything, can’t you?" Kurt admired.

"Heh. It comes with the territory of being nearly a thousand years old."

"Damn." He smirked knowingly at her. "You really said that with your whole chest puffed out."

"S-Shut up... I’m not a granny."

.

..

...

High above the and inside the observation room, Dominik stood with his back to Brother Thomas, his eyes fixed on the glass partition. Below him, the sea of children moved in their strange, rhythmic play. It was eerie, and for a moment, he felt a pang of genuine horror for what these kids might’ve been led to believe.

Then, he caught a movement in the reflection of the glass.

Thomas was no longer the polite guide. His face was twisted into a wide, jagged smile, his eyes reflecting the golden light of the playroom below. In his hand, he held the cultists black, signature jagged dagger. He was mid-lunge; the blade aimed directly for the base of Dominik’s skull.

"—Oh shit!" Dominik dropped low.

SHATTER!

The blade slammed into the tempered glass, causing the partition shattered, creating a jagged hole. Huge shards of glass rained down into the playroom like frozen lightning. Below, the hundreds of children stopped. They looked up, their small faces tilted toward the ceiling, whispering to one another as the "sky" above them broke.

"You bastard!" Dominik roared, his hands erupting into bright, orange flames.

"Intruder!" Thomas shrieked, his voice cracking with madness. "The Goddess saw you! She saw the rot in your soul!"

"Shut up, bitch! You knew who I was and led me here. You waited for me to be distracted enough so that you could use the opportunity to kill me. Well too bad, it didn’t work. Now you die."

Thomas lunged again, but the fight was a mismatch from the start. Thomas was no fighter. Just a crazy devotee. Dominik moved like a wildfire, unpredictable and scorching. He parried the black dagger with a palm cloaked in intense heat, the metal of the blade glowing red-hot instantly. He delivered a brutal kick to Thomas’s chest, sending the cultist sprawling across the control panels.

"You think a little toy knife makes you a killer?" Dominik snarled. He snapped his fingers, and a whip of fire lashed out, searing across Thomas’s robes.

From below, the children watched in awe. To them, it wasn’t a life-or-death struggle. They saw bursts of brilliant red and orange light illuminating the dark upper deck.

"Look! Pretty fireworks!"

"Wow! So cool!"

"I’m hungry..."

Back in the room, Dominik was relentless. He rained down blows, his fists wreathed in flame, turning the observation room into an oven. Thomas was desperate, his robes scorched and his skin blistering. He realized he couldn’t win. As Dominik stepped forward to deliver a finishing blow, Thomas slumped, his eyes rolling back as if he had lost consciousness.

This caused him to hesitate for a fraction of a second, his fire dimming as he looked down at the "dead" man. Once he turned his attention towards the glass, Thomas scrambled to his feet with a burst of panicked energy and sprinted for the door.

"INTRUDERS!" Thomas screamed at the top of his lungs, his voice echoing down the stone hallway. "INTRUDERS IN THE OBSERVATION DECK! GUARDS! IT’S PREFECT DOMINIK AND AN UNKNOWN FEMALE!!! HELP ME MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS!!!"

"Damn it!" Dominik cursed. He used his fire magic as a propellant, and with a roar of flame from his boots, he took flight, gliding three feet off the ground and slamming into Thomas’s back before the cultist could reach the end of the hall.

He caught up and pinned Thomas to the cold stone floor. The cultist thrashed, still trying to scream, but Dominik shifted his elemental focus. He reached out and condensed a sphere of swirling, heavy water around Thomas’s head.

The screams turned into muffled, wet bubbles. Dominik watched with a grim, cold stare as the weakened cultist drowned in a ball of water no larger than a melon. Thomas’s hands clawed at the air, then at Dominik’s arms, before finally falling limp against the floorboards.

When he dissipated the water he heard the sound of iron-shod boots. Not one or two, but dozens running at him. All coming from the stairs at the end of the hallway.

Dominik looked back toward the room of broken glass and the children, then toward the approaching guards. "Looks like the jig is up. For me at least... I hope." he muttered, though his eyes were scanning for a way out.