V.I.R.A.L

Chapter 196: The Last Face Off

"Scarlett? Scarlett what are you doing?! Scarlett!"

Scarlett gritted her teeth, not making any eye contact staring Ragnar down. She was trembling in fear holding her arms out yelling at the top of her lungs. "Doing what Alton would do! I owe you all so much, you've made me the girl I am today, and I won't change any of that." Her head shifted to Zinnia, fighting back the tears. "Thank you, Zinnia."

As the attack charged up, Ragnar spotted another figure in the distance. Emerging from the hole in the wall there was no going back for Alton now. Stepping onto the snowy surface, Alice's head turned, staring on in shock. Her lip began to tremble as she gave off a small smile. "I knew you were still alive."

Alton kneeled next to Alice, holding her hand and tapping Emil's arm. "It's alright now, you all did amazing. I'll take over from here you all rest up." Continuing to walk over, Alton stood beside a distort Scarlett whispering. "Now just what are we doing Scarlett? You aren't going against our promise, are you? We're taking him down together."

Scarlett's head pivoted towards Alton. Before she could attack Ragnar flourished forward landing his attack blowing the area apart entirely. Although no one was gravely injured by such a mighty blow. Alton stood with his back to Ragnar blocking the attack with his own sword holding his ground. "Ah, there you are."

"Everyone… I'm sorry for what I've done. I promise you, though. This ends here." Pushing his father back, Alton spun his sword around, stabbing it into the ground. "No more running."

Ragnar stared at his son with a smug look. "You know that's rather rich coming from the boy who cannot stop running. Did you finally regret your actions and come to accept your fate? Or do you honestly believe you can win again?"

Alton stared down at his frozen hand, shaking it. A small chuckle emerged. "I knew my plan wouldn't trick you. You would see through it; not once did I hope you wouldn't. I was hoping to trick everyone else. To run and never look back. I can only blame myself for that… All of this blood is on my hands. Sunset Peak, Destiny, Marco, Sam… All of it is my fault. Time, I take responsibility for my actions. No more running this time it's just you and me dad."

Ragnar scoffed creating two scythes wielding each one down by his side. "The only way you can take responsibility for your actions is to lie down and die!" The grey sky faded, and the blizzard came to a sudden halt throwing him off. "What?"

Ragnar stood dumbfounded as a raindrop fell landing on his face. This was met soon by a downpour. Alton's eyes opened, revealing the sinister garden yellow as he began transforming into his Garden form. The water droplets all began condensing to his hand, charging up. Tilting his head, Alton stared his father down. "Many people have failed to kill me. What makes you think you're anything special? You're nothing but a failure of a father too afraid to face his own regrets. Allow me to demonstrate true power."

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Ragnar stumbled back, seeing serval deep wounds appearing around his body. Blood began trickling from his hands. "Hmm? What is this? This power… I see, so that's your game, Alton. How truly pathetic."

"Pathetic? The only pathetic person I see here is you. To think you'd be so desperate for a son that you'd throw away any sense of humanity and steal a monster from the Garden. How truly sad and to even that end you would never get the son you'd hope for. Why? Because you're no father to me."

Ragnar bit his lip taking the statement to heart as his whole body began freezing over. "And you are clearly no son of mine!" Going to attack Ragnar found himself unable to move flinching slightly. "What? My body… Impossible!"

Alton shook his head sighing. "Impossible is only a word used by weaklings who have no clue of true power. While you were too busy blabbering about how much of a mistake, I was I made sure to attack every nerve in your body paralysing you on the spot. The only mistake I see is your lack of judgment. This isn't like last time Ragnar. No, this time… You fall. Now die, die for her. Die for your precious Lilly." Pushing the condensed typhoon forward it exploded bursting to life-consuming Ragnar in a tornado of water. It's might drowning all possible resistance before shooting him out flooded him further off the wall. "The water is the perfect judge of life. Only the strong can withstand my Judgement Typhoon!"

Falling out of sight into the city below Ragnar vanished consumed by Alton's tremendous power. Taking a long breath, Alton held his head in pain panting. "Is that the end of it?" Alice whispered. "Did you get him?"

Zinnia was left stricken with a mixture of grief and anger staring at Alton. Both stared blankly at each other, neither knowing what to say. Alton built up the courage sighing. "Hey Zin… Are you alright?"

"Alton… I. Well…" She began mumbling only to stop frozen on the spot her eyes widening seeing Ragnar standing behind him. "Alton look out!"

Alton couldn't react fast enough as a long icicle ripped from the ground piercing through his stomach holding Alton in place. Screaming in pain, Alton turned seeing his father staring sinisterly sending a chill down his spine. "Judgement Typhoon? How truly low… May I remind you my poor, poor Alton we both know you cannot defeat me with your mother's stolen powers!" Alton was tossed to the side, smashed into a newly made ice wall. Ragnar pinned him against the wall holding him by the neck as the hailstorm returned. "You're nothing more than a leech feeding off others. You cannot be anything more than that." Thrown into the air Alton was blasted with a constant barrage of hail flying back. Curling his hand forward, he dragged out all of the blood from his wounds into a mighty liquid javelin. Ragnar erupted before throwing it from the ground kneeing Alton in the chest, destroying his counter-attack. Above the streamer, Ragnar clutched both hands together slamming Alton down crashing through the wall and to the ground. Ragnar stood floating in the air, waiting the moment he expected. The air got that bit colder as part of the wall froze over. Alton rippled through at high speed in full control of the Garden throwing a punch. Ragnar avoided the attack staring on with superiority. "There you are."

The two began matching blows with Alton taking serval and Ragnar blocking the rest taking minimal damage. Spinning in the air, Alton was kicked back to the ground as Ragnar charged up serval attacks. Those icicles charged were all frozen in blocks stopped in its track. A heavy blizzard emerged around Ragnar alone blocking off any escape. Keeping his calm state of mind, he withstood a bombardment of ice snapping at his defence with his frozen wings covering his body as a shield. Charging up over time Ragnar unleashed a sharp iceberg ripping through the blizzard making the ground shake. Alton stared blankly up as Ragnar smashed into him. Blocking the attack, Alton moved his free arm around to strike back, but Ragnar saw this coming sending a sharp chunk of ice to withhold Alton's might. "I will not be denied!"

Ragnar gave a look of disappointment tutting. "You really don't get it, do you, Alton? You really don't know when you've lost!" Ragnar placed his hand on Alton's head, dropping his temperature more overpowering Alton entirely. Alton's eyes turned a colourless blue as he fell to the floor, shivering uncontrollably. "You're stronger in some regards. But I can tell you're still holding back unintentionally. Helga recently sealed your powers for a time, didn't she? You live in so much fear of what you are. That's what makes you weak. If you had accepted the monster, you are you might have won. But that would have meant turning Rhinefield into a wasteland like Sunset Peak, so perhaps that's a good thing."

"No way… He defeated Alton in his Garden form… Impossible." Zinnia whispered.

Impossible is only a word used by weaklings who have no clue of true power. That's what you said earlier, no?" Ragnar teased stepping on Alton. "You won't last much longer even with that stolen power of mine your insides are slowly freezing over—the heartbeat struggling with each passing second. You'll make a marvellous ice sculpture when all is said and done. The only good thing you've done for the world no?"

"You're wrong!" Scarlett yelled, dragging herself forward. "Alton is more than you could possibly imagine. He's strong, he's saved us all from our demons. He's a hero to so many people. You're just so fixated in your guilt and the past you can't see anything good in your own son!"

Ragnar walked up to Scarlett holding her neck, forcing her to look past the wall. "Look beyond what you can see Syndicate. This world is dead, and it's like that because of him. No matter how many people he saves, he will always have that blood on his hands. And he'll do it again, I'm sure he's come close, and no matter how much you claim he's strong that curse will consume him and destroy the world. Unless I put an end to this."