A drunken man enters the pub down in Snakewater, Oroboros Pub. He orders two beers from the bartender and drinks one from a lost memory.
He rambles on about a girl, yet not a soul listens. Nobody lends an ear to a rambling drunk, as there’s nothing to harken.
Her once vivid face is now a blur. Nobody cares for who she is, so why should he?
All there''s to his name is some beer, a shilling, and a poor; and a sorry mug of sorrows. He could no longer recall the times with her, and how could he? He filled the abyss with cheap alcohol.
Perhaps the drunkard isn''t meant for this world when the world ceases her existence.
The patrons at the bar cheered. They listen in to a different story; a nyancan’s.
And the drunkard smiled to himself. He is a broken man, society tosses him aside so that others can be happy. The smell of alcohol tells his story.
There is a way for them to join together. A way for him to no longer feel.
Go deeper into the abyss.
Lose all sense of his humanity.
That way, he is invincible.
— — —
The very same man. That was the man I saw.
When I looked, the end stared back.
Lyle tackled me away. Moments ago, the demon breathed in deeply. The monstrosity’s maw gaped open, I looked at all the sharp teeth. It chomped down, what sounded like lightning echoed.
My legs and my legs went limp as I stood back up. I noticed that Lyle wasn’t wearing his visor. It broke at some point when Lyle flew. The operative’s gun went off. His revolver smoked at the end of the barrel.
Lyle put his hand on my back as I balanced myself. The demon coughed up blood while I grabbed another knife from out of my duster. The other one slipped out of my hands from the chaos. Lyle helped me up.
Black ichor went down the demon’s mouth. Its bloated body waved in the wind. The maw again grinned, yet there was no twinkle in those eyes.
Lyle and I circled the thing. A relentless assault occurred, cuts and slashes appeared all over the demon’s body. It wrenched its eyes at me as the monstrosity breathed in and out. It glanced at me. Lyle’s revolver went off.
*Boom!*
The demon closed its eyes as the piece of lead went over.
Uggggghhhhhhhhh
We both lost ourselves in the noise. Stunned in one place, the burden weighed on my arms and my legs. I thought about the lack of any past, how I could never see my mother.
I could almost see her face.
Anima seeped back into my body. My previous flushed face looked as the demon swung its arm in a devastating strike. Lyle was the first to react, I was the first to respond. I leaped out of the way. The initial whiplash breezed past me. The arm struck Lyle right across the stomach. A mouthful of blood flowed out from his mouth. The operative fell limp.
I laid face first on the ground. My head went fuzzy for some time. I supported myself with my arms. I came to my senses when I saw the mutant slowly creeping onto Lyle’s unconscious body. It loomed over Lyle as it pressed its arm against his red hair. The demon hissed as it opened its mouth.
The reason why he was here was my fault, and my fault alone. I was the one who was supposed to die, not Lyle.
My reckless behavior got me into this, and I had a duty to get him out. When Lyle asked me if I was ready to die, I now knew what he meant.
I stood up “hey, demon!” I yelled. The monstrosity swiveled its head. “You are going to be with her,” I said with deliberate words.
The monstrosity released its grip from Lyle. The mutant looked at me with lifeless eyes. Its measured movements stopped. Water flowed, then poured down the irises. Out of an emotion that wasn’t emptiness. Yes, the demon bawled.
My feet kicked off on the dead foliage. Leaves hit my face as I dug deeper into the forest. The demon tugged not far behind, a mess of footsteps. It shuffled closer.
To a desolate canopy far from civilization or Lyle, this was as far as I could go. The pointed branches twisted from the dead trees.
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I looked back, and handled my knife. My palms shook as I got a hold of my grip.
I wasn’t prepared, nobody ever was. However, nobody was going to die because of me, that’s what mattered. There was one quote that I recalled from an old play in my previous life.
Readiness is all.
Although I was never ready to face my fate. The moment alluded me when I started down the mutant’s face. I couldn’t escape my fate, yet if I did nothing, fate came sooner.
I planted my feet below the dead shrubbery. The demon screamed. All was lost, and yet I stood. I placed my blade below my body. One final strike.
That was all I needed.
The demon struck with its arm. I jumped, and soared above the mutant. My body twisted. I bore my knife down onto the demon’s arm.
The limb split cleanly, it landed away from the morphed body.
My body took most of the battering while I rolled from the impact. The monstrosity closed in. The maw groaned as it opened near my head. I was too late to dodge.
So, is this how they are going to remember me? At least I didn’t bring anyone down with me. Did I buy enough time for Sophia to evacuate everyone, or was everything pointless at the end?
A beam pierced the air and descended into the demon’s skull. The focused light cried before dissipating into space. What the beam left was a hole into the monstrosity’s eye, and punctured wood behind the demon. No heat, no coldness, or pain, only power.
An anima break.
Smoke formed at the end of a barrel. Lyle clutched on his arm, nothing but a tremble in his gait. He sported his revolver for fate to see.
My claws tore into the thing’s back. I climbed through the flesh before the monstrosity could respond.
The demon’s teeth crackled. I flipped over the thing. My knife tore down into the flesh.
The mutant lingered at the spot of the beam’s impact. It was at a loss; more so than before. Lyle grasped at his stomach. We were at eye level with my short stature.
“You should have left me to my fate and run when you had the chance,” I growled.
“You’re not dying under my watch,” he replied.
I watched as the demon twitched its vestige, “So then tell me, you think today’s a good day to die.”
He looked at the husk, and nodded, “We make a final desperate charge. I’m heavily injured… out of bullets, and broken. A deserving end for me.” He caressed his revolver with the remaining strength he had. His pale, shaky fingers touched the cylinder, “May I rest with them,” he stowed the gun away.
Lyle lunged at the monstrosity. His sword dulled from the many cuts he inflicted. The attacks grew less purposeful, more primal.
I ducked under the thing’s still intact arm. It glared at me. I thought of all my time with IMPERIAL. I was frozen in place, however I made one last move. A knife embedded itself inside the thing’s eye.
UGGGGHHHHHHH
The demon screamed. Lyle and I toppled from the noise. It stumbled on the ground, looking for me.
The arm felt my boots, then gently brushed past my body. It gripped my head. The demon pressed my hand against the cold, hard grass. My eyes turned sideways into the trees. A tongue slid across my face. I held back a shudder as the vile liquid seeped across my face. The monstrosity’s warm breath touched my skin. The demon inhaling grew shallow. Its teeth clattered while it opened its mouth.
I closed my eyes, and held everything about myself; repressed the tears down my eyes.
The demon’s shattered teeth echoed in the air. I awaited for oblivion, yet nothing came.
My eyes opened. A barrier surrounded me. It refused to budge no matter how the thing clawed at the magical shield.
“Sorry, Mekiko. I couldn’t come in time, in your need,” a voice resounded.
The demon no longer pressed my head. I was free, so I turned my head. A silver-eyed gentleman stood when no one could. He held a tome with a silver quiver.
“A demon? Mekiko, what have you gotten yourself into?” Donovan asked me. He stared past the monstrosity, and onto me.
My mentor scrawled on his tome. His writing was so fast that his pen blurred on the pages. Donovan tore the page out of his book. The paper dissipated in the wind.
A curved broadsword descended from the sky. The blade chopped off the last of the demon’s limb before disappearing. The monstrosity screamed, yet my mentor didn''t even so much as flinch. He wrote more words in the pages. The demon ran towards Donovan, despite its lack of eyes.
“Where are you going?” Donovan clicked his tongue.
A flick on the page, and chains appeared from the ground. They wrapped around the demon. Donovan looked down at his book.
The monstrosity gaped at my mentor, yet no sound came out. Not an ounce of sorrow, or anger. It pulsated while tied to the chains. The demon shrilled almost as if to say a word. Bile rolled down the mutant’s sockets.
A sword from the air beheaded the demon. It smiled, even when its head rolled.
My mentor lowered his book and quill, “a demon not welcomed in life. There was nothing left for the thing to lose as there was no longer humanity left to give,” he looked at the huge corpse. “Piteus things.”
Donovan tossed his book and pen. They vanished into dust. The particles swept by the leaves.
“Donovan,” I stared at the man with widened eyes. “How did you come here?”
“Lyle transmitted it to me. He mentioned your strange behaviour on multiple occasions. I went there as fast as I could.”
My strange behaviour? Yeah, I see it. Lyle cared about me at least that much.
Lyle dropped to his knees when he saw that I was doing fine. Sleep washed over him.
“Donovan…” I said, my voice shook. “Can you hug me? I need you to hug me.”
“Okay,” he wrapped his arms around me. I shook in his embrace.
“Did I…” my tears covered his duster, “did I do well?”
I couldn''t hold all that I bottled up. My throat constricted, It felt like the air tightened. I tightened my chest to fight back to tears, but the pressure on my heart relented.
Pressure to act, the strain to worry, and the tension to perform; they all weighed on me, and formed into an uncontrollable sob.
Donovan said nothing. He pushed me further in, and rubbed my back.
I don''t know if I can move on, but I also don''t have much of a choice.
I couldn''t hold myself back, no matter how much I wanted to.