Drackiella jumped up to her feet and began running away whilst Darthmund pulled out a black and transparent shield from his large bag and held it in front of him just before Sebastian finally roared, "HAAAAGH!!!"
The general area was blinded by a piercing white light that shined from Sebastian's mouth and eyes, whilst a gigantic pulse of energy was blasted from his wide-open mouth towards Darthmund, who was crouching behind a black and transparent shield that was covering most of his body. The pulse of energy shook and broke the stone-slabbed ground in between Sebastian and Darthmund until it finally hit Darthmund's shield.
Darthmund and his bag were sent flying into the air. His face was covered with shock and fear. His shield cracked with shards of it flying at his body; cutting him all over. He fell back-first onto the hard stone ground that was rough and jagged from being thrashed by Sebastian's energy blast. Darthmund shouted and groaned in agony as his back smashed against the ground. His shield escaped from his hands to land beside him; his bag landing further away.
The bottom half of Sebastian's face was covered with blood that was raining down from inside his nose. His face was flushed; blood red. His vision was blurry, but his eyes were still wide with passionate rage. After the shout, Sebastian began trying to groggily run over to Darthmund, but halfway he was interrupted by another violent cough. However, this one was even louder, made his throat sorer, and sprayed out more blood onto his hand and the floor. His legs then started to feel weak, so he briskly staggered over to Darthmund, who was able to force himself up onto all fours.
Sebastian however, reached Darthmund fast enough to stomp on his back; smashing his chest back down onto the sharp and coarse rock. He groaned in pain again. Sebastian then pressed the point of his sword to the back of Darthmund's neck, cutting into it slightly to cause blood to drip out of it. "Give me the antidote," Sebastian said.
"Damn you, Sebastian!" Darthmund exclaimed. "I want to give you the antidote, but I can't if you try and sabotage my plans! I want you to promise m-" Darthmund was then interrupted by Sebastian pulling the sword away from Darthmund's neck but then spinning Darthmund around and slamming his back onto the floor. He then plunged his knee down onto Darthmund's chest and reached for Darthmund's left pocket with his spare hand.
Darthmund, however, quickly reached into his left pocket and pulled out the antidote before Sebastian could get to it. Sebastian lunged his spare hand towards the antidote whilst Darthmund pulled his hand away and began tightly squeezing on the glass antidote vial until it began to crack. Sebastian then pressed his sword onto Darthmund's neck again and froze. Then there was silence.
Sebastian and Darthmund stared into each other's eyes for a few seconds, not making a single sound. Only if you were to listen very carefully would you be able to hear the plopping sound of Sebastian's blood as it dripped from his nose, down his face and then onto the floor; at a constantly accelerating rate.
"You know, the poison is gonna kill you soon, right?" Darthmund said, breaking the silence. "If you're dead, who's gonna protect Elizabeth?"
"No one, I know."
"If you know, then why am I still alive?"
Silence began to fill the air again as Sebastian hesitated to respond, until he said, "I will kill you."
"Why should I believe you?"
"I made a promise," Sebastian quietly muttered. "I have to!" He then exclaimed whilst pressing his sword deeper into Darthmund's neck. Darthmund appeared more anxious and wriggled in pain.
"Who cares about promises! You want to work with me, I know you do!"
"I can't break promises! I'm not like you, I'm the Hero of Fos! I'd rather die!"
"But you can't kill me! We're friends! We've been friends since we were kids!"
Sebastian's tense, fierce and fervent face relaxed slightly. "We certainly were friends... very close friends, but you killed Mary and traumatized Elizabeth. I can't forgive that."
"Then let me ask again. Considering the fact that you could kill me faster than I could crush this antidote vial, why won't you kill me?" Another stretched out silence, filled the air. This one was longer than before, and the plopping sound from Sebastian's nosebleed was even faster and louder. On top of the sound of Sebastian's nosebleed, however, was the sound of tears dropping onto the ground. They came from Sebastian.
"You're my friend, Darthmund! You killed Mary and hurt Elizabeth so I have to kill you, but it's not so simple! You think this is easy for me!? Of course, it's not, I don't want to kill you, but I must! " Sebastian exclaimed.
Darthmund's fear-ridden face relaxed into a melancholic sorrow, as his glistening eyes stared into Sebastian's. "It's confusing, isn't it? Trying to be a hero, that is. Trying to atone for prior sins is as well, but not nearly as confusing as trying to be a hero, since they're not the same thing. One person's hero is another person's villain. Heroes can therefore never atone. Don't try to be a hero Sebastian, do what you want. Yeah, Elizabeth will hate you for a while if you work with me, but she'll come around eventually, and yeah, Nihilvid will still get on your nerves for blaming your kindness for his girlfriend's death, but it's your choice whether Nihilvid haunts you or not. It's your choice whether you want to be chained by useless morality or not, Sebastian." Sebastian's grip on his sword loosened slightly and his sorrowful frown rose to a neutral expression.
"My father sacrificed everything on his expedition to the Mystique continent," Darthmund said. "He worked as a prominent blacksmith in the Nothrotitan capital and he was in the forge constantly; all day and all night. Across the decades he spent making enough money to go on the expedition, he barely slept; the bags under his eyes did nothing but multiply.
"I didn't know at the time that he was building up to an expedition to the Mystique continent, but I could tell that something was going on in his life that he kept a secret from my mother and me; something larger than life. I could tell because despite working so hard and appearing so exhausted, he was also excited, optimistic and hopeful. Despite being so old and looking even older, he behaved and talked like a child. He used to tell me the world was my oyster, and to never give up on anything that I would set my mind to." Sebastian slightly pulled his sword away from Darthmund's neck.
"So he didn't give up." Darthmund continued. "After decades of hard work he hired a group of two hundred mercenaries that he separated across multiple expensive ships that he bought. When my mother found out, she was angry but also distraught. This hurt my father a lot, but "If you want to make an omelette, you have to break some eggs," my father would say.
"So he did; he sacrificed his happy life with his wife that he loved, and his son that he loved; for the greater good. He left for eight years, and during that wait, I kept imagining what it would be like when he came back. I imagined his large, brown and wooden ship coming back filled with beautiful treasures and powerful magical objects. I imagined him bringing back swords that could slice mountains and wands that could conjure them. I imagined the cheerful and smiley faces my father and his crewmates would have as they'd tell outlandish but fascinating stories of their exciting adventures to my mother and me; but no.
"What came back was not a large, brown and wooden ship, but a small wooden boat covered in red. Inside that small boat were also the shells of three men: two crewmates and what little remained of my father.
"He said that three-quarters of his crew died before they landed at Mystique's coast. When they landed they struggled to find food and nearly starved to death, relying on the supplies that they brought with them. It all then fell apart when one of the crew members was poisoned by a three-headed snake's bite and also found out that the poison was contagious. Most of the crew wanted to abandon the poisoned but my father foolishly wanted to protect them. So the crew; anxious and desperate, fought each other and in the end, only six were left alive. Half of the remaining few then died as they travelled back on small boats.
"When my father came back, he completely changed. He was gloomy and idle. He went back to working at the forge, but he hated it. He hated everything. He then laid on his deathbed a few years later. His death was bad, but it wasn't the worst thing. The worst thing was that on his deathbed he told me that he thought he lived a meaningless life. My father had flaws, but despite those flaws, I still think he was the greatest man that ever lived. Yet, a man like that went on to tell me that his life was meaningless? Was it?"
Darthmund's eyes were filled with passion as he then tightly grabbed onto Sebastian's sword, pushing it away; his hands bleeding in the process. He then exclaimed, "No! I will never let his legacy die! I will follow in his footsteps and make sure I acquire everything the Mystique Continent has to offer for myself! No matter what! You see, Sebastian!? I have no choice but to go!"
Sebastian then pulled his sword away, got up and took a few steps back; giving Darthmund enough space to stand up. Dortmund then walked over to his large bag. "Fine. As long as you give me the antidote and let Elizabeth live and escape the kingdom with me, I'll let you do what you want with the Kingdom," Sebastian said.
"The King doesn't care about the Queen and the Queen doesn't care about the King," Darthmund replied. "I guess I could use Nihilvid, but considering his ambition to take down the Ilios family, I'm sure his and the Queen's relationship is fickle. Adding on to that the fact that Elizabeth has a much greater potential of becoming a brave and intelligent warrior, I'd want to use the King and Queen as hostages, therefore leaving Elizabeth as a soldier to lead the way on the expedition." Darthmund said, reaching inside his bag.
"I can't accept that," Sebastian replied.
Darthmund signed deeply and his face wrinkled with rage. "Well, fuck. After all that..." Darthmund then pulled out a black and transparent dagger from his bag and crushed the antidote vial in his other hand. Sebastian's eyes widened in shock. "... after all I've told you, you're still trying to be a hero," Darthmund said as he ran at Sebastian, grabbing his shield from the ground on the way towards Sebastian who stood still; looks of confusion and shock plaguing his bloody and exhausted face. His whole body felt heavy, his knees were buckling and he could barely keep his eyes open.
"Well, I guess dying is one method of escaping guilt. Since I'm your friend I'll give you a death suitable for a hero!" Darthmund said as he got up close to Sebastian and plunged his dagger towards Sebastian's stomach. Sebastian parried the dagger's slash and swung his sword at Darthmund's torso to slice him in half. However, Darthmund blocked the sword with his shield and then hit Sebastian in the face with it, causing him to stagger backwards in a daze. Sebastian then quickly shook his head and regained his balance to see Darthmund's shield being thrown at his face. It hit him in the head and knocked him to the floor. A ringing sound pierced through his ears, he felt as if his nose was about to fall off and he felt a sharp sting in his stomach. He then looked at his stomach and saw he was stabbed, and also saw a teary-eyed Darthmund standing over him plunging his dagger down towards Sebastian's body to stab him again.
Sebastian then swung his sword at Darthmund's dagger and cut his hand off. "AAAAAARRGHHHH!!!!" Darthmund shrieked. "What the Hell is wrong with you!? You're gonna die anyway, I destroyed the damn antidote! I'm not doing anything wrong, I'm just trying to help people of this Kingdom!"
"You'll help them by dragging millions down into hell with you," Sebastian muttered. "You started by killing Mary, then me, then it will be the thousands that will die in the civil war and then finally it will be the thousands that will die on the expedition."
"Shut up, I have no interest in arguing with you anymore. I've wasted too much time on a dead man with a death wish." Darthmund then staggered away, clutching his bloody and severed arm, groaning, moaning and cursing on his way out of the garden.
Sebastian tried to totter up to his feet, failing multiple times until he finally succeeded. Despite standing he was still wobbly and could barely see. Now blood was not just spilling from his nose but also his stomach. He tried to hold the blood pouring out of his stomach in. He felt his warm blood gushing against his hand and spilling in between his now weak fingers.
He slowly marched at a snail's pace to the city's coastal beach. He sat against a cliff-face at the edge of the beach and stared at the ocean. He anxiously tapped his foot and fingers on the sand as if he was waiting for something.
He was. He saw Emily, his housecarl, rowing a raft around the cliff and towards the beach. Inside the raft was Elizabeth, she was lying on the bottom of the raft. The raft got closer to the beach when Emily stopped rowing and picked Elizabeth up and ran across the water towards Sebastian. As Emily got closer Sebastian could see her face and saw she was utterly shocked and anxious. He was then able to see Elizabeth much clearer and saw she was unconscious and her body was covered with blood.
Sebastian smashed the sandy ground with his fist whilst tears rapidly streamed down his eyes. He punched the ground, again, again and then again, until his hand bled. He cursed himself, over and over again, calling himself a weak and pathetic bastard.
"Sebastian, what happened, what's going on!?" Emily asked frantically as she ran up to Sebastian.
"Just... leave the city. Leave the kingdom and save yourself. I'm already dead." Sebastian replied.
"No, Sebastian! You can't give up! I don't think I can protect Elizabeth myself!"
Sebastian's eyes then lit up and a slight smile spread across his face. "Wait, is Elizabeth alive?"
"She is for now, but we need to escape here quickly and heal her wounds!"
"You need to go now then. She can't die."
"No, we can't do this without you! You're the Hero of Fos!"
"I'm... I'm no hero. Not any-" Sebastian's speech was then interrupted by a continuous and tortuous violent cough. The cough went on for twenty seconds long with each cough feeling like a mace was being rammed down his throat. The amount of blood he was coughing out of his mouth made him question whether he was losing more blood from the gaping wound in his stomach, or the rapturous cough.
Emily looked on at her hero in horror. "What... what happened to you?"
"I was poisoned. There's no chance of me surviving so please go before Darthmund's soldiers find you. Please, save Elizabeth."
Emily's fear-ridden face turned miserable just before she then suppressed her sorrow, therefore, causing her face to become serious as she resolutely stared at Sebastian and confidently proclaimed, "I am sorry for failing you, Sebastian by not protecting Elizabeth sufficiently and now causing her injury. I will not let it happen again and prove my worth by saving Elizabeth and avenging you by killing Darthmund and his followers in your absence, with a healthy and fit Elizabeth by my side. That's a promise and I will die before I break that promise."
"If that is your goal, then, in that case, you should go to Tollon Town in Nothrotita. There you will find my son. He will share my powers that can destroy Darthmund's armour and weaponry."
"Yes, sir..." Emily's stern and stone-face facade cracked and dissolved as tears began running down her face just before she then sombrely whimpered, "...goodbye." Emily ran away, Elizabeth in her arms, whilst Sebastian sat against the beach's cliff face, staring off into the distant ocean.
He stared at the sparkling blue of the ocean; illuminated by the hot summer noon sun. He stared at the stark bright blue sky above him; not a single cloud in sight. He listened to the gentle crashing and folding of the calm ocean waves; and the whistling of the seagulls flying above and around the beach. He felt the warm and soft sand in between his fingers. His calm and peaceful surroundings comforted him in his final moments, distracting him from the pain that he felt throughout his body. This therefore allowed him to stay calm as his vision slowly faded to black. It allowed him to stay grateful as the serene sounds of the beach quietened to silence, and it finally allowed him to look forward to what was next when he, for the first time in many years, let himself succumb to exhaustion and fall into a deep sleep.