Chapter 98 - Battle For the World (III)

Chapter 98

Battle For the World (III)

Zaya flew forward, crossing her blades and melding into the cascade of shadows–the small town, quickly emptied, grew dark and desolate as the crawlers began bending around the buildings and lampposts and parasols. She appeared mad and hurried, but below the surface she was calm.

She couldn’t run or hide–in part because of the countless ‘Bleed’ effects that just made her pop up like a firework in the city, and in part because of the scroll–so she could only fight. However, she’d already figured that she can’t kill the man in front of her–it was the difference in Classes, in the end. Even if she had Levels and items and experience on the man, she’d already recognised that he had at the very least 2,000 Health–an amount that was insurmountable.

After all, a finisher that she’d carefully prepared before ever approaching the man, and one that spent almost 80% of total Mana reserves, did less than half the man’s Health in damage. And chances were that each time he struck her, he leeched some Health back. Even if she was in top form, she feared she could only run.

However, she couldn’t just back down–so she put on a front. She would fight recklessly and repeatedly and buy enough time for the Scroll to run out. As it's a pre-First Law scroll, the longest it can last would be 5 hours. But that’s for a Quasi-God Rank Scroll, something that was impossible to get. At most, it would be a few hours–and she could last a few hours, at the very least.

Her mad dash was met with calm–he let himself be hit, but made sure to relent. She couldn’t get any quick jabs in without getting hit herself; he knew the difference in Classes, too, and used it to gain advantage. Each stroke of his against her was ten times worse than hers against him–she could see the wounds visibly close, his eyes never so much as flinching.

Gnashing her teeth, she endured the pain of seeing her Health dip below 50% and dashed in once again. Her Mana had recovered somewhat, and she used one of her trump cards–suddenly, all of the surrounding light was sucked in into an absorbing shadow above her head in the shape of the halo. Shapes grew indistinct and colourless and soon everything became like the centre of a black hole. Even she had no means of navigating in such a world, but the spell could last upward of 40 minutes based on her Mana reserves. It was enough to buy time, to stall, to wait it out.

“We aren’t that different, actually,” the man’s voice echoed out in the darkness. Even so, she couldn’t tell where he was, for he was everywhere. “Do you know why I wanted to come back? Why I was so desperate I made a deal with a fairy despite everyone and their mother telling me that it’s worse than making a deal with a devil?”

“...”

“I have a sister,” he continued. “Young, young thing. My past life, she died. Very early on into this mess. She never had a chance to live. Was robbed of it.”

“Touching.”

“It is, yeah. So, I made the choice to come back. And to prevent her tragedy. To give her a world where she can just be a normal girl. I had it all planned out. But… there was a wrinkle.”

“... me.”

“Yeah, you. You progressed the timeline violently. You made changes that I couldn’t have anticipated. And, worst of all, you want to redo the tragedy I came back to prevent.”

“So, you understand me.”

“No,” the man said. “You need to kill the world to make your dreams come true. Me? I just need to kill a selfish bitch that has no business being in this world to begin with.”

“That’s no way to talk to a lady,” though she didn’t know why he was talking, it was good that he was. “Didn’t your mother ever teach you that?”

“Perhaps,” suddenly, she felt something–it was like a needle piercing her soul, but she couldn’t see. Then, the pain came. It assailed all her senses, devouring her.

“Shit,” realising she had been found, she undid the world of darkness–endless shadows wriggled like worms for a moment before detaching and crawling back toward her. As light surged once more and shapes came to be, she looked about and saw the world she could not recognise–no, she did recognise it. It was just awash with blood–there were tens of millions of tiny, blood-coloured needles floating about everywhere, stabbing randomly. And then… then she saw him–from head to toe, he was red, awash with blood, fried with crimson. “What the fuck…?” she mumbled, aghast.

“There is nothing, no one, and nobody, in this world or beyond,” he spoke coldly. “That will rob me of her again.”

“How…–how many times have you fuckin’ stabbed yourself?! Are you insane?!!” she screeched in horror as she tried to retreat, but there was nowhere to go. Blood needles were everywhere, like rain stuck in time, just waiting for it to unfreeze so it may fall.

“I’d ask you to give me the stone, but I really don’t want you to live. So, goodbye.”

“No, no, wait–stop, please, no!!” she cried out desperately as she saw the innumerable blood needles shake midair and slowly distort, pointing toward her. Her brain froze at that moment, her mind taken adrift in the memory lane.

Lake Gwan was deeply seared into Zaya’s memory.

It was a stretch of limestone green, perennially still waters that were flanked by a vigorous mountain range. All year long, the only season was the Spring–flowers were in perpetual bloom, and trees never shed anything but green.

In their midst, a little hamlet grew–no larger than four hundred people, a tightly-knit family. Then, one day, the sky was scorched by the blazing light and a ghastly, metallic ball fell on top of the lake–the serene scenery was caught ablaze, and the entire town fell. Few of the hundreds survived, Zaya among them–and the man who led them through the world of post-Descent, Mye.

The memories flashed–their first dungeon together, the first time a party member died, the sordid defeats, the glorious victories. The first kiss beneath the straddled moonlight on the vanishing shores of the forgotten Lake Gwan . His touch, like the searing fire, and his voice, a musical choir. For the first time in her life, she felt loved to the gravity of madness. Air was lighter around him, colours were brighter, songs more melodic, life… life of horror, of struggle, of pain, of loss, and of agony, suddenly felt bearable.

Steel wraps that chained her to the desolate reality felt untangled and she felt freed, like a bird whose wings had finally healed. She still remembered her lips quivering like leaves in the wind, her heart awakening like a volcano–her whole self becoming alive like never before.

They found each other and they forgot the world–they retired into the desolate mountains of Lake Gwan, built a small hut, and had a kid–Lana. Though the world was falling apart, they lived in their own little paradise, one isolated from the decrepit reality of everything. But nothing was forever–and all sins must be cradled by the cosmos.

Mye and Lana were taken from her, and she was forced back into the world of death and decay, their lives always hanging above her head. Year after year. Decade after decade. Centuries. Soon, time became a concept more so than something tangible–she went from one cosmic battlefield toward another, fighting wars she could not understand for reasons she didn’t want to know. She froze her heart, her mind, and her soul, all in a desperate bid for that singular future where she could go back to the peaceful time in the mountains.

But, deep down, she knew it would never come–she was a disposable soldier, a footnote on the scale of cosmic horrors–her battles were forgotten before they were even fought, her accomplishments only celebrated in her mind. Nobody cared, nobody bothered to learn… nobody. Nobody. Until Mye, once again, found her–he’d broken free… and told her everything. Everything. All that they were doing.

Lana was too young and too weak. She had barely Awakened when they had taken her. She lasted 344 years before her Vitality expired.

She was still just a child, both in body and mind, and they robbed her–robbed of a chance of ever seeing anything beyond darkness.

Mye hung on, desperate, unwilling, and managed to escape. But they caught him, once again, and ended his consciousness, turning him into a puppet of Vitality–a broodmother for items and titles and relics for the new conquests. Now, whatever was left inside that hollow prison was just a husk of flesh, blood, and bone. There was no human in that mind, no thought, no care, no love, nothing–but it didn’t matter. She would save him, and she would go back home and bury up in that mountain. She would bury it all at the last place they ever lived.

She spent hundreds of years looking for him, looking for a world that they sent him to. So, so often she was just a little bit too late–the world had collapsed or ascended, and he was shuffled elsewhere. But finally… finally, she found him. He was here. And now… now she realised she would fail, again. If her Avatar was killed, they’d immediately realise it was her. The Protector in charge of this world will send the information back… and there would be no corner of the cosmos that she could hide in.

“No…” her last words weren’t a roar of defiance, but a whimper of defeat. Tears coalesced deep in her eyes… but she never regretted it. If she did, it would mean that she regretted loving him.

She was pierced countless times, and pain quickly shut her mind off. She watched her HP evaporate, bit by bit, until it hit 0. She felt herself falling, and suddenly, she was back on that mountain once again.

She was a star-shaped leaf that the wind blew from the branch. Lana laughed at the sight and ran over, catching it with her bare hands, gently cradling it as she ran screaming to show it off. The sun above blazed, and the wind was gentle. The world swayed in the colours of the rainbow, and all was calm. Heart, mind, and soul were in unity, and she was free. She was free to love, for now and forever. No more pain, no more agony, no more anger, no more hate. Just a calm, freeing, warm salvation. But the sharp, acute pain interrupted it all, and her mind was wrangled back to reality.

He was standing tall above her, casting shadow, his face bloodied, like a devils. And she glanced down toward her chest where she saw a sword sticking through her heart, piercing it directly. He was calm, untouched, unflinching. It was then that she recognised she wasn’t being hunted by a human… but by a monster. She smiled as she spoke.

“I’ll… remember you,” she mumbled, choking on her own blood. “You won’t… have… good death.”

“No death is ever good,” the man said as her consciousness began to fade into darkness. “But you’re welcome to try.”