Jack giggled... Completely withdrawn from reality by his own insanity...
The flames ripped apart his skin and singlehandedly brough it back together... The ashes in the air both from his own body and Catalyst alike...
He could hear only that of Callahan's voice among the storm of flame... Agonizing him more into his own fantasy...
With a devastating shockwave, the storm parted between the two forces... And all eyes vanished upon the two as a raging blaze surrounded them in a violent circle of smoke and embers... Resembling that of the tales told of Chase of the Phoenix's grand revenge upon The Wendigo of House Frostfang...
It all excited him... So much so that when he had been deconstructing his own body from lack of control... He found an answer beneath the raging fire...
Jack gasped with childish laughter while circling the Paladin of Seh Jenah like his very own prey...
"It is pitiful..." Callahan removed his helmet... Tossing it aside with a graceful wave...
"I heard his voice..." Jack grinned ear to ear.
"I'm well aware of that..." Callahan glanced around at the hurricane of flames breathing with what felt beyond the mere capability of a lowly mortal...
"I've seen your sins as well..." Jack's head swayed left and right, his blood running like a river but sizzling away before it could even leave his skin...
"And what does Prometheus say of them...?" Callahan grinned, unmoved by the presence of yet another Lesser god in this arena.
"After all... Am I not the cause of the decline in numbers of their ancient seating? Was I not I who contended with God-killers themselves in The Golden Era...?" Callahan almost let out a laugh of his own, unbothered by the novelty of this experience...
Perhaps it were the eyes of a madman glaring back at him... Or maybe it was the presence of the dead coming back for what could only be judgement...
A bitter scoff escaped the titan's lips as he adjusted his gauntlets and loosened his chestplate.
Jack stopped, causing Callahan to follow. And for a split moment, it felt as if the universe had ceased around them... Only the raging storm of flames and sorrow existing outside of this clearing.
"What you have done..." Jack started, his fingers twitching at his sides while his body continued to burn away and regenerate as if it brought him no bother of his own...
"Is unforgiveable?" Callahan finished, tilting his head and showing no sign of regret in his truly ancient eyes...
Jack began to lift off of the ground with a newfound grace of his own... The flames swirling in vortexes below his ashen feet...
"I... Jack of House Ember.... Chosen Champion of the dying flame of Prometheus... Am going to condemn you to the likes of Tartarus...!" Jack let out a roar at the end... The flames around them beating like a heart as his body vanished... Reappearing before Callahan with a long blade of flames already coming down at Callahan.
He smiled, dashing back and reeling two giant beams of metal towards Jack.
He growled, his body vanishing before the attacks met...
And in a wisp of flames...
Jack appeared above Callahan, a colossal hex of cinder energy forming behind him and launching him forward in a barrage of fire.
BOOOOOOMMMMM!
Callahan trembled under Jack's force, his flaming body pressing down on him as Jack himself let out another crater-quaking roar.
His flames went into overdrive, bursting with reds and yellows alike as his foot blew straight through the several wards of protection between Callahan and himself.
CRASH!
CRASH!
CREEEEEEKKKK!
Jack's foot drove straight into Callahan's armored forearms, but it was not enough...
The Paladin of metal grimaced, surging outward with a blast of crimson energy, both staggering Jack and separating the two of them.
Callahan came to a sliding stop, his eyes betraying his unbothered state from before.
Although Jack was stuck in place, his body unmoving to his will...
He looked up at Callahan with the lack of any doubt or fear...
"What's wrong?" Their eyes met.
And for a split second...
Callahan felt his mind catch fire... Causing the titan to stagger back himself.
"What?!" He roared, his body bracing for an attack as two flaming chains shot from the ground, wrapping around the Paladin's ankles and twisting him into submission.
"How?! A Nexus attack is beyond your comprehension!?" Callahan outraged while metal ripped from the tunnels beneath even the crater's floor, ripping themselves free and coming to a halt in the sky above.
Meanwhile, Jack was grinning ear to ear with pleasure as he slowly walked towards Callahan, his fingers twitching twice as fast as before as his feet were nearly skipping forward, burning the ground as he went.
'It was you Prometheus... You heard my pleas... And you gave me this chance...'
Suddenly several machines of grand scale descended, along with countless more supplies of metal that collected around Callahan in uniform.
'I'd like to thank you... Even though you have long been tossed to the depths of Lilith's domain...'
Jack stopped, watching as beams of scarlet energy came raining down on the clearing.
His eyes glimmered, and somewhere beside him... He could feel the movements of Callahan in the shroud of smoke that flooded in around them.
He danced, swaying his head back as a greatsword crashed downwards at lightning speeds.
Suddenly... All of the teachings of his benefactor... Came flooding in at once.
He swayed left, avoiding the second attack as his fists naturally shot out-slamming into the blade as his leg swung up knocking Callahan to the side as he pushed off into the air and spun down on Callahan, knocking his head straight down with the back of his flaming foot.
Callahan growled as spikes of metal rocketed outwards, some piercing straight into Jack while others knocked into him bluntly.
His body surged with flames, burning away the metal from within his own flesh.
He fell, landing as several more beams came crashing down along with Callahan's own weapon.
He sighed, his body dispersing into flames again and blowing away with the wind.
'You showed me what I could be... And you gave me a purpose beyond that of my own revenge...'
A smile crossed his face as his form came to light, his body suspended and his back to the ground below.
His eyes wore a confused look, as he could hear something beyond the flames storming around them...
It was...
'Thanks to you... I've overcome my greatest flaws...' Jack's eyes shut... And before Callahan could land his fatal attack...
With a poof...
The entire storm of fire blew away in a single gust, leaving only Jack burning with embers as the spectators gazes washed away any lack of grandeur.
Callahan stopped... Almost questioning himself if his eyes had decided to betray him...
On the other side of the chasm, Vex evaded a meteor of rock with the single slash of his blade and turned, along with Hans who he himself wore a look of panic on his face as the sight was beheld to the world.
"Do it!" Vex roared with excitement in his tone.
Jack's hand hovered above his chest, his eyes glancing down at his form with suspicion.
"They say a Catalyst is a gift from the Gods... Only granted to those of either rich lineages or strongly longing wills..." Jack asked as if in a trance.
Chase's eyes widened under the plummet of Gravity as his fist suddenly crushed into the stone below him.
Equan ducked underneath an attack from Finnian, but couldn't help but glance in the direction of Jack.
Suddenly...
Jack had decided... His fingers elongating in forms of gruesome fire as his flaming sharp nails drove into his own sternum... Stunning several members of Unity and Callahan himself.
"This is getting good!!!" Vex grinned ear to ear, his teeth drawing blood from his lips as his chest rose and fell frantically.
His eyes turned towards Hans, who stood bloodied and battered in front of a pinned down Chase as well as a behind cover Poppy.
"You guys sure know how to turn a guy on..." Vex wiped his lips, his eyes suddenly darkening as chains shot from a contraption on his back, flowing around him like a liquid as he stared deep into the panda's eyes.
"I'm praying you guys keep up... After all... This fight is on my time now... And I'm awfully interested in turning this up a notch..." Vex vanished with a shockwave.
Hans braced, his gauntlets shattering under the clash of a seemingly significantly enhanced Veximus.
Meanwhile... Callahan's eyes and mouth stood agape, unable to come to sense the logic behind Jack's actions.
"You don't know what you're doing..." Callahan finally muttered, watching in horror as Jack tore his own Catalyst from his very flesh with mist of blood and bone filling the air around his suspended position...
And in his hand... A blazing orange sphere resonated and hummed with fatal cracks along its surface...
"Make yourself useful to me..." He giggled at the object in his hand... And with a blast of blazing energy...
Jack descended upon Callahan.
BOOM!