Phoenix of Light: Buusu Achamo

--Boo's Perspective--

I stood against Illya with flames on my back, surging in heat... and another problem on the rise.

[Internal Body Temperature: 100 Degrees Fahrenheit]

Shit...

I was able to counter Alexia's temperature-altering ability by just heating myself up and keeping it the same temperature for as long as I could... but my internal temperature would just kill me if I kept it like that.

Illya was standing in front of me, I was losing my sense of reason... and I want to see blood spill.

There are people counting on you, Boo.

I used my ability to speed up as fast as possible.

I realized something in this fight...

There's no way Illya should be able to keep up with me. She said it herself, she can only use a fraction of my true power because she doesn't specialize in anything... but she's still able to read my speed.

I can process this... and I can move faster than the speed of light.

There's something faster than the speed of light?

I should be breaking the rules of space and time when I go that fast... why am I not doing that? What is faster than speed?

I realized it was a stupid question as I caught a glimpse of the strands on my back.

Son of a bitch... Are Strands faster than the speed of light?

Illya caught my foot while I was rushing over to her at my fastest speed, and even cut my leg as I retreated.

She stared at me with a straight face and those golden eyes... she was trying to use that weird ability against me now... but it didn't work.

Not anymore.

I clasped my fist together and peered at Illya.

I can't believe I didn't notice earlier.

This isn't my SIM. This is just my ability. It was just like Alexia's SIM as well. Her SIM is something she couldn't do before... she could always change the size of objects, but never the size of atoms.

I could always move the speed light... but not faster.

I changed that with my next move.

However, when I did it, my leg melted off of my body because of the heat.

I slashed at Illya and completely caught her off guard as my saber connected to her arm and slung straight through her chest.

And I threw up blood everywhere.

[Internal Body Temperature: 102 Degrees Fahrenheit]

[Blood Loss Percentage: 29%]

Shit!

Illya struck me in the face with her saber and almost decapitated me completely.

I had to take a second to gasp for air and regain my composure, as the information pouring in was too much at the moment... and on top of that, I realized that my leg was still missing.

Moving that speed increased my body temperature... by almost two degrees... that would be fatal if I used it too much...

Do I have an option?

I stood back as much as I could and readied my katana again.

"It sounds like... you found something out that you weren't supposed to." Illya told me. Then, I was right.

Strands are faster than light.

That's insane... that rewrites all laws of everything I've known. I'm barely anatomically possible to keep composed when moving that fast... yet it's possible to move faster?

Again.

I surged my speed and my bottom half melted off like ice cream on a hot day.

But the strike I landed on Illya caused her to be launched to the ground again with a cut in her chest that took more than ten seconds to regenerate.

[Internal Body Temperature: 104 Degrees Fahrenheit]

[Blood Loss Percentage: 34%]

I threw up blood again as I regenerated my limbs and faced Illya again.

I used the normal speed of light ability I had to counter her next attack and place one on her, but she was quick to defuse it again and push me back while looking like she was starting to hate me.

I can't keep doing that speed! And she's not even close to dying...

What do I do...?

I knew the answer to that... whether I liked it or not.

The light around me warped into a blue color... before completely going invisible...

The strands in front of me, portraying a grid in front of me which outlined my enemies, lit up Illya's body. I took my katana, held it back, and cut halfway into her neck before being stopped by something incredibly hard.

My arms popped off of my body and I slid on the ground again as my body melted.

The skin on my legs was no longer in one piece, as it melted all around, making the muscles and fibers underneath those layers of skin visible.

And I couldn't see out of my left eye.

[Internal Body Temperature: 104 Degrees Fahrenheit]

[Blood Loss Percentage: 39%]

[WARNING! FATAL BLOOD LOSS AND TEMPERATURE ARE IMMINENT!]

I coughed up more blood onto the floor and pushed myself up with the katana... realizing Illya wasn't standing.

She was still regenerating on the ground.

Time froze.

I wasn't born into that world to be prosperous... I was made to be killed.

Yet I lived.

I fought against the abuse of my mother, the guilt of harboring a last name that didn't bring any strength to my friends or family, and so much more pain.

And I was still worthless.

At this moment, knowing that I was this close to death... I was okay with it.

The light around me vanished again and I held my katana back while focusing my vision down on Illya as I flew up in the air.

All that was between her and me was a hundred feet worth of distance that I could close in a fraction of time that isn't possible to list in numerical form.

And I did.

My katana connected with the center of her chest and the blade chipped.

The strands exploded.

My arms, my body, my blood, and everything else exploded as well in the expulsion of heat.

My right eye popped out of my head and melted as the ground beneath us cracked with a hole so deep I was convinced it was almost a mile deep.

[Internal Body Temperature: 106 Degrees Fahrenheit]

[Blood Loss Percentage: 44%]

[SHUTTING DOWN...]

And with that, I fell face-first into my own blood and guts, mixed in with my melted flesh.