Chase held the sword above the back of his father's throat.
He knew that none of this was real, yet he still couldn't shake the feeling that this moment meant more to him than anything he had ever been through.
His hands were trembling, and his eyes were blurry from the tears building up within them.
He would have sobbed if the noise hadn't been burned by the flames that had taken over his childhood home.
Trying to hold the blade steady, he lifted it up and above his head.
His father nodded, not daring to make eye contact with his executioner.
Chase brought the blade down at terrible speeds, but then a moment of hesitation had been all that he needed to realize something vital.
'Why...'
Using all of his might, he stopped the blade inches from his father's neck.
Then he screamed with all of his built up rage, all of his draining energy, and all of the emotions that he had found throughout his journey so far.
He felt a powerful growl within the depths of his soul.
"I WON'T DO IT!"
He roared, as the flames burst to life around him.
The walls began to shake, and the front door began to quake.
He remembered seeing the fire poppies, on the day that he had parted with his friends for the last time.
Feeling a terrible pain within his right knee, he grit his teeth and threw the sword across the room.
Blaze looked up at him, with a sad smile.
"Chase..."
He mumbled sadly.
"I hope you are ready for the pain you are going to bare..."
Chase met his eyes, feeling a terrible sense of dread overtake him.
"What do you mean...?"
Blaze sighed, and stood up tall.
His topaz battle axe appeared from nothing but sparks of fire, as a loud crash was heard upstairs.
"You must know now then... The chaos will try to take you, as it has taken many. It will warp you into a monster... It will take those you love and never cease... And one day you will have to face a monster worst than any you bare a grudge against..."
Chase felt a terrible chill run down his spine.
His father turned toward the stairs, and began to walk away.
"In four years, you must enter the underworld. Find the palace of obsidean, and say goodbye to your mother for me..."
"What! Where are you going!?"
Chase screamed frantically, as he fell to the ground.
Then he felt it...
As his father faded to dust, his soul began to shake.
It began to shake like the mighty mountains when the goddess Gaia had risen them from the oceans.
Everything hurt so so so bad.
'I can't do this...'
He tried to scream out.
Putting a hand on his chest, he looked down only to realize that terrible green flames had engulfed his body.
His hands were glowing with all sorts of terrible runes.
Ones that foretold of the trails he would face, and those that marked pinnacle moments that had already happened throughout Chase's journey.
However, one of the runes that rested on his wrist... Was glowing a faint orange within all of the emerald green flames.
It was the marking of The Phoenix... It was his family's sigil... The last part of him that connected him to that of his father's bloodline.
He felt a strange warmth through all of the pain.
The realization dawned on him that the sigil was healing his body, as fast as it was being destroyed by the other ruins...
Chase cried out, or at least tried to.
Then everything went black, and the world around him shifted to a crimson haze.
Poppy was standing in front of him, with her abdomen stained with her own blood.
She had a look of fear in her eyes, as they met his.
Behind him, a terrible hiss was heard.
To his right; however, the corpse of his father lie.
It was mangled and burnt to the point where no one else would have recognized it.
For a second he wondered how that could have happened.
Until he realized that the green flames were still tearing apart his body.
The ruins had still be shifting across his skin.
"Help-"
He called out to Poppy, but stopped once a terrible sight lie before him.
Red runes began to form on her flawless skin. Similar to Chase's yet vastly different.
Then... White flames began to engulf her body, followed by a terrible shriek that was barely able to escape her lips.
She fell to the ground in front of him, as she began to pull on her own hair from the terrible pain that he felt all too well.
Then far away in the distance...
Blue flames began to engulf the entire horizon, where Chase could have only guessed was where Neo had been fighting the third mimic.
Then holding back another terrible scream, his soul quaked once more.
Flames began to blind him, as they encapsuled the entirety of the crimson world that had swallowed them
It only lasted a moment, but to the three of them it had felt like an eternity of pain and sorrow.
Everything went pitch black, and the sounds of flesh sizzling echoed throughout his very mind.
But what was strange, was the feeling that he could just open his eyes and everything would be okay.
So he lifted his eyelids.
He was stunned to see the beautiful night sky.
The vast constellations filling the indigo sky, painting it like the most delicate canvas of a famous artist.
He let out a ragged breath, that quickly turned into rapid attempts at air.
It felt like his lungs had been nearly to the point of collapsing in on themselves.
Then with blurry vision he looked down.
The scene before him was quite something.
He seen his own twisted and deformed body, with monstrous limbs and a terrible horn that had ripped itself free from his forehead.
However, that body was burning to nothing but a pile of ash.
Three different flames had consumed the monster from the inside out.
While Chase could only feel the pain in his wounded leg, and the exhaustion of his catalyst. He could no longer feel or see the runes that had taken over his body.
His eyes scattered across the small clearing in the forest, only to see that Poppy was lying lifelessly by a small pond.
Neo was on the other side of the monster's corpse, but it looked as if he had been at least able to regain consciousness, because he was growing terribly from pain.
Chase stumbled over to Poppy's side, reaching into the small satchel that was strapped onto her waist.
Praying to the gods that maybe he was right, his hand trembled as it searched the satchel.
His heart skipped a beat when he felt a small glass vial.
Pulling it out swiftly, he fumbled it multiple times as he tried to uncap it.
Then glancing down at the terrible gash in her stomach, he forced the open regeneration potion against her mouth.