The Finale, New Horizon Together
The plan began like a whisper carried on smoke.
Blood, Ania's blood, smeared on cracked walls, broken stone, the ruins of war. Every surface became a decoy, a lure. Harry marked the terrain with ruthless precision, while Carolina stayed hidden with Ania, applying fresh gauze and cutting new ones whenever they needed a drop more.
At first, it was guesswork. A desperate gamble.
But then---
Kairos halted mid-charge.
He dropped to all fours, sniffed the scorched concrete, and tasted it. The faintest trace of her blood.
That moment, those precious seconds, were everything.
"Now!" Slacovich roared.
They struck.
Sofie's blades sliced through flesh, Diego's fists shattered bone. Li's daggers danced with Harry's syringes, while Tyler's greatsword cleaved in deep. Kairos didn't scream. He didn't recoil. He couldn't.
He didn't feel pain. That was the flaw.
And they weaponized it.
Strike after strike, always the same spot. Tear muscle. Break bone. Crack it open.
Harry poured serum into every gaping wound. It sizzled. Hissed. Infected.
Kairos twitched, stumbled, then moved again.
But not at them.
He turned. Followed another trail of blood. Another scent planted into stone.
Again, he paused.
Again, they attacked.
Every time he stopped to taste, they turned his curiosity into vulnerability. They tore through flesh, flooding him with silver-purging serum until his massive body began to tremble under the weight of corruption.
It became a rhythm. A brutal, perfect loop.
Lure. Wound. Dose. Retreat. Repeat.
He started slowing. From unstoppable juggernaut to unbalanced beast. His knees buckled. He crawled now, staggering from one blood-marked trap to the next.
The cracks began to show.
Skin split where strikes had landed repeatedly. Limbs hung awkwardly. The silver in his veins hissed out like steam, forming a mist around his dying body.
And then, Volton stepped forward.
Face twisted with disbelief. "Enough!"
His coat billowed behind him, fury unraveling in every step. He stormed toward his prized creation, the ultimate weapon forged in obsession and blood.
He dropped to one knee and offered his wrist to Kairos.
"Drink. Rise. Kill."
Kairos looked up. Bloody. Tattered. Burned.
Then he moved.
One clean swipe.
Volton didn't even gasp. His head hit the ground first. Then his body followed.
The ultimate betrayal.
Even in death, his eyes remained open, staring at his monster, at his failure.
But Kairos, if he could even be called that now, gained no strength from it.
He staggered once more. A beast on its last breath.
More blood trails pulled him forward like invisible chains. But his legs gave out. He crawled. Dragged himself with torn arms.
More attacks landed. More serum burned through him like molten fire.
Until finally, his body couldn't take more.
On his knees, face to the dust, Kairos reached forward, toward her.
Toward the small, trembling girl whose blood had sealed his fate.
Ania.
His fingers stretched across the dirt, reaching like a child yearning for warmth.
But they didn't make it.
His hand turned to ash.
Then his arm.
Then the rest.
And as the monster crumbled into silence, the wind carried his ashes into the dawn.
The battlefield quieted.
Not with peace.
But with victory.
---
The battlefield was silent.
Ash drifted where Kairos once stood, a monstrous force reduced to nothing more than dust, caught by the breeze and carried into the dawning light.
And for the first time since the war began…
they could breathe.
Sofie dropped to one knee, blades loose at her sides. Harry sat back, chest rising and falling, face smeared with blood and sweat. Li, Diego, and Tyler barely kept upright, their bodies worn thin, but their eyes burned with something new.
Relief.
Slacovich exhaled through clenched teeth, not from exhaustion--
But from finality.
They had won.
But just as the dust seemed ready to settle, Slacovich's gaze shifted--
And froze.
Volton's head, severed clean by Kairos' blow, still wore a smile.
His eyes were open.
"Persistent bastard…" Slacovich muttered, stepping forward.
Volton, only a head now, laughed. A hoarse, wet sound, rattling from a throat that no longer existed.
"You think this is the end?" he rasped, mouth barely moving. "I've… prepared for this. I'll… live on. One way… or another--"
Slacovich didn't need to hear more.
He was done.
Done with Volton's madness.
Done with the endless trail of bodies.
Done with the twisted experiments, the stolen lives, the chaos.
Without ceremony, without even looking down, he raised his boot.
And crushed the head beneath it.
A final crack.
Then, silence.
Volton's remains, too, turned to ash, blown away into nothing, unmarked, unremembered.
And then the six of them, the Demonfires, stood tall once more.
Bruised. Bloodied. Shaking.
But alive.
As the first light of morning broke across the ruined city, it painted them in gold.
The long night had ended.
The sun rose behind them, slow, quiet, and warm.
A new dawn.
A future they carved with every drop of blood, every scream, every impossible fight.
And there, at the heart of it all, standing with wide eyes and a scraped knee---
Ania.
The little human girl.
Their reason.
Their anchor.
Their hope.
She ran to them, arms open, and they met her halfway.
Together, for the first time in forever--
they stood.
All of them.
Together.
As the world began again.
---
Finale
Years Later…
The world had changed.
Skyscrapers rose from ashes. Roads once marred by war now pulsed with life. Laughter echoed where screams once did. The sky fortress, once a silent witness to bloodshed, now stood as a sentinel of peace, ever-vigilant but at rest.
The war had ended long ago.
And from its remains, a new era had begun.
The Demonfires stood side by side, unchanged by time.
Not in body, but in soul, they had weathered more than most.
Slacovich, arms folded, watched the bustling city below, eyes still sharp yet quieter than before.
Sofie stood beside him, wind in her hair, her blade sheathed, for once.
Diego leaned against the rails, a familiar smirk playing on his lips.
Li stood tall, cool as ever, but her gaze softened with reflection.
Harry fiddled with an old gadget in one hand, a token from battles past.
Tyler stood apart, arms crossed, yet never really far.
Behind them, the fortress hummed, no longer a bastion of war, but a home. Rebuilt. Reinvented. Upgraded with the years, made not to conquer but to preserve.
And beneath them, the city thrived.
What was once rubble now sparkled with light and movement. No hint of the bloodstains, no scars of the nightmare that nearly devoured it whole. Just life. Moving forward.
They stood in silence for a moment longer, until---
Footsteps.
Light. Familiar.
They turned.
A woman approached.
Her long black hair flowed freely, kissed by the breeze. Her steps were confident, grounded. A glow radiated from her, not from power, but from presence.
And on her face… that smile.
Bright. Open. The very same one that once pulled them out of despair.
The one that once belonged to a little girl with scraped knees and tearful eyes.
Ania.
No longer a child, but a woman now. Grown. Glorious.
Still human. Still fragile.
But no longer someone they had to protect.
Now---
She stood beside them as an equal.
Their heart. Their anchor.
The symbol of what they fought for.
And when she joined them at the edge, standing tall between Slacovich and Sofie, the six didn't just smile---
They exhaled.
Because this, this moment, was their peace.
They may not have changed in body. But time had marked them in other ways. Through bonds. Through pain. Through victories.
And here, overlooking a future once thought lost---
They faced the horizon together.
Not as warriors.
Not as legends.
But as family.
As protectors of a world they helped rebuild.
And as Ania reached out and held Sofie's hand in one, Slacovich's in the other, they all looked out toward the skyline bathed in golden light.
A new day.
A new world.
A future worth living for.
---
The End.