V.I.R.A.L - Chapter 269

“Monty Montague, I order you this as part of the Contract made you are to kill Iris, do that, and you will be free.”

“What?” Iris whispered. “But you said you needed me to break the seal!”

“I do. So, it’s your choice to kill Monty and help me break the seal or die by his hands and set the boy you love free. The choice is up to you; of course, even if he does kill you, I will simply end his life after and move onto the next host, your sister. If she doesn’t work, I can always turn to Alton. Of course, you can try and reason with Monty and save him, but that just won’t work.”

Monty began walking forward fist clenched tears running down his eyes. “Iris, please, please. Don’t make me do this.”

“You can fight this, Monty! Please, don’t let him take you over! I know you can do this!”

“It’s futile to resist Monty. It only just makes the process more painful.”

“I’m sorry, Iris, I can’t hold back,” Monty screamed, attacking Iris. Breaking her chains, she jumped back, pushing Monty further with her cube as two spears spun around her. “Kill me! Kill me before I hurt anyone else, please!”

Iris clenched her fist, getting into a battle stance with her cubes at the ready. “No matter what happens, Monty, I promise you, I’ll free you from this curse!”

Monty walked forward, losing all self-control; as Iris readied herself for a fight, Monty collapsed, vanishing into the ground. Jumping up, her cube flew out into a pillar as Iris looked around for Monty’s first strike. Turning just in time to find Monty jumping up to attack, Iris smacked him back with another cube knocking him to the floor. Rolling around, Monty pulled himself up, holding his hand out as a machine gun came out from his tattoo. Firing at Iris with no remorse, she pulled up a wall leaning against it as her defence was hailed on with a constant array of bullets. Stepping back, Iris kicked the wall sending it towards Monty, using this found time to turn her attention to Acceptance. Her cube rushed back to her, twisting and morphing into a spear. Gripping it tightly, she stomped the ground throwing it with all her might.

Acceptance smirked as Monty rushed past, looking to take the hit for him. Startled by this, Iris forced her spear to change course, flying off into the distance before shortly returning to her not long after. “Your attention should be in other places, young Salvation. As long as Monty is under my control, he will not let me get injured in the slightest. Holding him back will not do enough; if you want to stop him and me, you need to kill Monty.”

Iris stared at Monty, conflicted and devastated by the apparent fact, she had no choice in the manner. Gripping her fists tightly, she spoke up with a spark of hope. “There has to be another way. I can break Monty from his curse!”

“It’s too late. I only speak the truth; Monty is never returning, no matter how much he struggles and fights. What will it be, Iris Hawthorne?”

Lowering her head, Iris smiled faintly, wiping her eyes. “We’ve been through quite a lot, haven’t we, Monty? Two years on the run from Mortem sure brought out the best of us both; I thought you to be a scumbag selfish villain who only cared for himself. But you not only saved my life serval times but you, in the end, we’re willing to sacrifice everything to make amends. I know you still feel the same; you’d tell me your life doesn’t matter; it’s you or the world.” Lifting her hand up, serval spears appeared hovering around her. “I cannot let the Garden escape! Monty, forgive me!”

The spears flooded forward as Monty looked on with a smile as each one stabbed into him, falling to his knees. His dead look faded as he stared at Iris, smirking. “Look at you playing the hero…”

Limping over bleeding out, Iris stared on, keeping herself together, breaking down at any moment. There was no time for mourning as a hero. She still had one last job. Acceptance’s claps were what snapped her back to reality as his clapping grew louder and faster. “Bravo! Bravo, wow, what a show of power! Forgive me, young Salvation. I truly thought you didn’t have it in you. This was something I should have seen coming, although it will not do you much good. Killing him or not will, at the end of the day, make no differences you’ve lost. You lost the moment you entered this realm of existence. You will open the seal and free us, Iris; it is your destiny.”

“You’re wrong, Acceptance! I’m taking back everything today, and I’m going to avenge everyone you’ve destroyed with your twisted desires. The Garden will never return because I will always be there to stop you!” Iris boasted, pointing to the Stage of Grief.

Acceptance waited a moment, shaking his head. “It seems you truly believe you can defeat me. How pathetic. Very well, I shall amuse your fantasies and show you how wrong you truly are.” Stepping down the hill, Acceptance stopped turning away, looking over his shoulder, taunting Iris. “Show me just what you are made of, then saviour of Victoria.”

Iris turned her hand as a dozen cubes appeared all around her, ready for the fight of her life. She couldn’t afford to lose this one, not ever. The stake of the whole world relied on her winning. Jumping up, she began running in the sky around Acceptance, using her cubes as stepping stones. Hovering around on one more, she skated around, getting the best vantage point. Acceptance looked up, smiling boldly, holding both hands up as vines ripped from the ground flinging around, attempting to strike Iris from the sky. Flipping over one, Iris turned on the spot flicking her arm down as two giant pillars crashed down, breaking through the vines. Acceptance stared at each of them as they were cut down by serval more vines slashing at them. Right over Acceptance, Iris pulled a cube into sight, using it as a slingshot propelling the power of her next attack before unleashing it. Smashing her next attack down, it crashed to the floor, setting off a chain explosion ripping through the land.

As Iris came crashing down, she rolled over, distancing herself from Acceptance. However, the moment she touched the floor serval vines ripped at her. Her cubes formed together into a giant wall blocking the attack catching Iris off guard. Traversing around the wall kept morphing to match the oncoming attacks growing bigger and smaller by each passing moment. Acceptance simply stood watching, hands in his pockets as he began to slowly overwhelm Iris. As the last vines broke through, another pillar appeared, smashing Iris into the air as vines burst from where she was standing. High in the sky, Iris came back to her senses as dozens of vines wrapped around her, all looking to crush her. Unable to move, Iris roared with anger screaming out as all the vines broke. Falling to the ground, Iris pulled herself out of the crater with yellow eyes and a long cape glowing purple flowers. Her face was covered by a long masquerade mask and a black teardrop hat with a decaying purple flower. Acceptance inspected his foe amused. “Finally getting serious, are we? The Child of the Garden on full display; that’s more like it. So shall we continue?”

Stepping forward, Iris propelled herself with extreme speed, passing Acceptance in a manner of seconds, throwing him off. Clicking her fingers, dozens of cubes appeared all around him, changing into different weapons and tools of war. Flicking her finger down, each one lunged at Acceptance, cutting through his vines slashing past him. Jerking in pain, he spun around, sending one giant vine towards Iris in retaliation. One cube appeared in front of Iris, shattering into hundreds of tiny daggers with the opening of her hand. Countering Acceptance’s own attack, a pillar rose from the ground knocking him into the air only for two giant cubes to crush the man. Twisting and turning around, serval spears stabbed the cube repeatedly before Iris sent it back down, exploding in the meantime.

Acceptance crawled from the rubble, slowly standing up, holding his chest. Iris looked at him, frustrated he wasn’t finished yet. “I won’t let you win.”

“You can try, I suppose.” Raising his hand, a Titan grew from the ground, the tree rising to at least twenty feet. “But it won’t be enough.”

All the leaves were plucked, leaving a dead-looking thing in its path as the razor-sharp weapons bombarded Iris. Throwing her cubes together into a dome, Iris protected herself best she could but would find this futile as the vase numbers were too much for the girl as her defence was broken as she was cut to pieces. Once the attacks finished, a bloody and torn apart Iris took a few steps before collapsing, unable to move. “I, I can’t… Give…”

Acceptance stood over Iris, mocking her. “Up? Face it, you’re outmatched in almost every category. You cannot win, and if you had just done as I said from the beginning, none of this would have happened. I might have even spared you and your boyfriend, but no. Playing the hero gets you this far in life. Now with all that said and done, here is a hero’s reward. The seal will break now!”

As Acceptance reached out, his world shattered, the sky breaking apart. Acceptance stepped back, terrified. “That’s not possible! No one can break into my world?! How?!”

“Don’t give up on heroes, Iris. As long as there is hope, heroes will always overcome evil.” Zinnia heroically claimed standing up in her streamer outfit. “I’m glad I made it in time.”

“Zinnia?”

Holding her hand out, Zinnia smiled, helping her up. “I’m not letting you fight this one alone. We’ll take this monster together.”

Acceptance calmed himself laughing. “Quite the entrance there, Miss Trost, we meet again after so long. Although it won’t be like last time. This time I cannot lose.”

“We can say the same thing.”

“Foolish girl, your fate will be the same as the Montague, or did you forget your cursed contract with Bargaining? You already lost the moment you stood against me. Zinnia Trost, I order you to kill Iris Hawthorne!”

Iris stared at Zinnia in horror, expecting to relive the same events again, only to have the opposite. A strong bolt of lightning struck Acceptance frying him as he yelled, falling to his knee smoking. “Impossible! The bargaining’s stage should have full control over you! You made a contract, so gain the power to save the people you care about if you kill Alton Brantley.”

“I did, but you forget something, Acceptance. The contract stated I was to gain the power to save the people I care for; Iris is one such person. Ordering me to kill her breaks the terms of the contract. You have no power over her or me! This is where we end you once and for all! The age of the Garden shall never come!”

Acceptance stared on, devasted as he looked defeated, losing his cool. “No, no. The Garden will grow forever; we cannot lose! Die, die like the heroes before you!”

“You still with me, Iris?”

“Any time.”

“Wonderful. Let’s stop him once and for all. You’re one of us now; welcome to Team Rhapsody Iris for your first mission saving the world.”