I sensed Douglas spooling up energy again.
“It seems he can’t sustain a continuous burst, at least for now,” Monty said. “The intervals between blasts is shorter, though.”
“So we’re running out of time,” I said, getting ready to dodge another blast.
“He’s a ticking time bomb we can’t defuse,” Monty said as he started gesturing. “The next best thing is removing the bomb itself.”
“One day, it would be great if you could just explain things plainly.”
“I thought I just did. Get your dawnward up. When I give you the signal, cross the street over to Haven.”
“Across the street, over to where the maniac with flame beams wants to melt me into nothingness?”
“Exactly,” Monty said. “It will be the last thing he expects.”
“Last thing I expected, too,” I grumbled under my breath. “This sounds like a one-way trip.”
“It will be,” Monty said, focused on his gestures, “for him. Get your shield ready.”
I materialized Ebonsoul and closed my eyes. I took several deep breaths and channeled the energy into my blade. When I opened my eyes, an iridescent violet shield covered my skin.
Monty’s brow was covered in sweat and I saw him juggling a pair of larger teleportation circles—only, these were perpendicular to the ground, not flat on it.
“Now!” Monty yelled, getting to his feet. “Go!”
I jumped over the hood of the car and slid across in my best TJ Hooker move. Douglas turned at my sudden movement and extended a hand in my direction.
“Ignisvitae!” I yelled as I charged him, extending my own arm.
A beam of bright violet energy shot forward, slamming into Douglas. He fell to one knee and began laughing. I kept charging. He extended his arm palm first, aimed at me. The now blue beam of energy punched into me, but I still kept charging. Douglas opened his eyes wide in surprise and poured more energy into the beam.
It turned a deep blue and I could feel the heat cooking my skin even through the dawnward. My charge had been reduced to a slow walk and I could hear Douglas laugh.
“Your shield can’t hold out forever, Strong,” Douglas yelled. “I’m going to end you where you stand, and then I’m going to blast this place to atoms.”
Douglas extended his other arm, firing another beam of deep blue heat. The two beams merged into one as it hit my dawnward. I was no longer moving forward. Douglas was covered in orange energy as he poured more power into reducing me to ashes.
I didn’t dare look away. Keeping the dawnward up was taking all of my concentration. If I looked away, even for a second, I would lose its protection and Douglas would disintegrate me.
“Anytime you feel like lending a hand would be great,” I said through clenched teeth as I started slipping back and losing ground. “I’m beginning to get a third-degree suntan here.”
“No one is going to mourn you, Strong,” Douglas said with another laugh. “You will be forgotten. Your life was meaningless, but your death will help me usher in a new age. Goodbye.”
Douglas took a deep breath and poured even more power into his attack. I started seeing parts of the dawnward thin. Douglas was bathed in orange energy and I saw blood start to pour from his nose and eyes.
“Shit! Monty?” I yelled. “He’s going to blow!”
“I know,” Monty said. “Hold on.”
I saw the first teleportation circle hit Douglas and disappear him just as my dawnward failed. When he reappeared, he was easily a hundred feet above us and falling. Monty moved his hands in a circular motion and whispered something I couldn’t understand. The second circle turned on its axis and became parallel to the ground. It went from green to violet tinged with black.
Monty stepped forward and stomped on the ground, creating a shockwave that blasted me away as he extended his arms upward into the second circle.
The second circle raced upward and intercepted the falling Douglas, vanishing him from sight.
“Where did he go?” I said, stumbling over to where Monty stood looking up.
“There,” Monty said, pointing. “That’s him.”
I saw a distant orange glow that looked like a mini-sun. It pulsed several times, increasing in size.
“That’s him?” I asked, surprised. “How far up is he?”
“I would say about fifty kilometers,” Monty said, gesturing again. “Avert your gaze.”
I turned away as the mini-sun exploded. Monty formed a dark violet shield above us, diffusing the light from the blast. I felt a flash of heat as Douglas detonated in the atmosphere and lit up the night sky.
All of the windows in the buildings adjacent to Haven shattered, along with the glass in all of the vehicles surrounding the building for several blocks.
Car alarms screamed into the night, a symphony of chaos as the blast from Douglas’ explosion slowly expanded across the sky.
“He’s dead?” I asked. “I mean, really dead?”
Monty narrowed his eyes and looked up into the night sky. After a few seconds, he nodded.
“He’s gone,” Monty said, before heading toward Haven’s lobby. “It’s over.”
“Can we not do that again, ever?”
“I didn’t want to do it this time,” Monty said and touched my arm. “It would seem the jacket was projectile resistant, but not heat resistant.”
I looked down and realized I was in my charred shirt. My arms were baked a dark red, but my curse was working overtime to heal the damage from Douglas’ blue beam of death.
“It did its job,” I said as we walked slowly into Haven. “Feelds tried to put three in me. It stopped them all.”
“Did you…?”
“I let her go,” I said. “Maybe she won’t make the stupid choice next time, if there is a next time.”
“There is always a next time, Simon,” Monty said, pressing the button to the elevator. It took us a moment to realize all the electronics in the building were disabled. “The explosion must have unleashed an EMP.”
I pulled out my phone as it rang.
“I guess the pulse wasn’t strong enough,
