Rose

"Listen here Jamie, when your soul is powerful enough, you can even bend your environment to your will."

"Like how?"

"Like creating a wall from the ground."

"I see. And when do I know I can do that?"

"When you feel that you are connected to your environment. When your soul is connected to the environment and is dominant enough, you can use the environment as an extension of your body…"

Mary looked at the firm piece of spike that was embedded deep into her throat.

She swore that for the first time after so long that she felt a chill running down her spine as she looked at James rising up from the ground.

Mary breaks the spike with her bare hand and proceeds to aim for James' head.

"Impossible. His heart has been destroyed. How can this happen? Is he even human?"

Two more spikes came out from the ground and pinned Mary into the walls.

Mary couldn't cast any spells as her throat was utterly destroyed. However, she mustered up her strength to pull herself out from the wall.

She quickly exhausts all of her energy to heal her wounds and as a result of this, her hair slowly turned white, her skin became pale and black veins started covering her skin. This happened because she did not have the energy to keep her human-like façade and thus she slowly reverts back to her demonic form.

Smokes and steams came out from James' body as his body was regenerating at a frightening speed. The intensity of it managed to keep Mary from approaching him. Mary could push through it but with her current state, it would not be wise. Her skin will be burned off and she would not have energy left to deal a fatal blow to James.

Mary managed to fully recovered herself and prepared to kill James. Just as she wanted to pull James away from the smoke, a hand came out to grab her head and slammed her to the wall.

The smoke cleared and standing there was James looking well.

Mary could not believe her eyes. She became furious. She did not like the idea of being weaker than James. She will not submit to him.

Thorny veins came out from the wall and flew towards James. James cut it all to pieces at such a speed that even Mary's demonic eyes could not follow.

But she did not give up. With a stomp of her foot, the entire floor collapse, and below James was a group of men in the middle of their intimate action.

"Kill him!" shouted Mary.

Upon hearing the order, all men and women looked towards the falling James and rushed toward him like hungry beasts. Their eyes glow red.

James gripped tightly his blades and cut away all of the heads of his assailants.

Mary cracked her jaws to realign it as James managed to break it after slamming her head into the wall.

James looked at Mary who was a few floors above him. He bents his knees to prepare to lunge himself upwards but the floor suddenly turned soft and begins to swallow his foot.

"Don't think you can win when you are in my domain. This entire area is under my control."

James stabbed the floor with one of his blades and the whole house started shaking ferociously as if screaming from the pain.

"What?!" Mary was surprised and she felt a throbbing headache.

The floor Mary was standing on collapsed and she fell to James' level.

Mary was annoyed and at the same time feeling hopeless. She wasn't underestimating James. She has been throwing all of her strongest skills at James but it doesn't seem to stop James at all. All of the men just now were well-known fighters and soldiers that fell into Mary's charm.

However, she still has some tricks up her sleeves and her last resort was approaching James at a high speed.

Coming from James' side, the wall breaks away, and a blade was thrusting towards James.

James dodged the blade and swung his blade but his hand was kicked upwards by the assailant, causing him to miss.

Two men stood in front of him and James felt an anger welling up inside him.

The two men were wielding a familiar weapon. James could felt it. It was the Holy Weapon.

The instant James' attention fell to the two exorcists Mary shot projectiles towards James. James dodged it but the projectiles landed on the two men.

Half of their body was being blasted away but it quickly regenerates back.

"So they are no longer human," thought James.

James took a deep breath and form a stance.

"There's no way he could kill the two of them. Their body is indestructible. As long as I am alive, they will continue to live," said Mary. "They are just husk being filled with part of my soul."

The two men charged at James, ready to kill but before they know it, James was already beside the two of them, his blades stabbed into their chest and James lit them up in flames.

"It won't work," said Mary.

But it did and the body crumbled into dust.

"Rest in peace," whisper a prayer by James.

"He managed to burn away my spells? Just what…?"

James appeared in front of Mary. His blades were aimed at her neck.

Mary quickly reacted and summon a wall of roses to protect herself.

But the wall was chopped off and James blade was aiming her neck. As a defensive mechanism, Mary summoned thousands of sharp thorns and aimed it towards James.

At the very last moment, when Mary saw that this is the end, and when James' face was just inches away from hers. Her eyes looked deep into James' eyes. She felt a sense of relief. She felt the weight carried within her hearts, the frustration, the sadness and anger, all of it disappear and her heart was set free.

"It's finally over…." She closed her eyes and accepted her fate.