The Tower of Chains had risen once more, heralding the end of all things beyond Evolutionary City's confining walls.
"Huh. Looks like I'm too late. Then again, with this wound, I guess my fate was already sealed…"
Callum fell to his knees, intestines slowly spewing from his cut-open stomach.
Katie took one step closer. Her hand raised, petting the top of the Grim Reaper spirit's head. It disappeared after she touched it.
After it vanished, she asked, "Did you know you'd die this way?"
"No. The content regarding perfect predictors' death is always kept secret whenever they 'predict' the future," he weakly replied.
"But you knew it would all come to this, huh? What did you think when you saw it?" Kate questioned the Founder on his deathbed.
"Everything that's happened so far has led up to this pivotal moment. Humanity beyond the walls of the Evolutionary Capital will finally be extinguished. It's everything you've always wanted and yet… you're asking my thoughts about it. Tell me something, Katie Moon, why does my opinion matter to someone like you?" Cal questioned, for the last time.
Katie didn't even have to think about it before she answered. "Because it's exactly the way you said it was. You and I are the same. People who wish to destroy everything after our ideal lives were stolen from us."
Callum feebly mustered a chuckle, his arm covering his sliced-open gut.
"It's been three years. It took you that long to realize that?" Even in his final moments, the Founder mocked her.
He started coughing uncontrollably. Unable to help, Katie diverted her eyes. Only after he finished hawking did her retinas return to analyze his face. He didn't have much time left. At this rate, by the time they finished talking, he'd already be dead. Ignoring whatever innate human instincts urged him to keep living, he stifled another laugh.
"In a second, it'll be too late. Do you… have any final words?" Katie pondered, biting her bottom lip.
He smiled. For his last words, his eye averted from her face. Instead, he took to admiring the horrific scenery ongoing somewhat distantly.
"Everything I'd done was entirely pointless. Destroying, repairing, teaching, helping—what good did that bring into the world I doomed? Then I realized that nothing I ever did helped anyone but myself. But, I'm fine with that, for some reason. Most humans live their whole lives without finding a reason to keep going, yet their hearts beat regardless. What pushes them forward? Why persist when nothing lies ahead? I could never read the heart of man. I had to figure out the truth… for myself. Everyone is a slave to something. Even me. Even… you," Callum spat.
Her nostrils flared, an angry vein protruding out her temples. She jerked forward, pulling him close with her hands gripping his arms. "THOSE were your last words? What the hell does that even mean, anyway?!" she angrily asked.
"It's a curse, Kate. From me to you. Then again, I guess you might hate me after saying that but you're my executioner. So, please. Let fate toy with you before your death. Live a long, foolish life."
Callum spat one last time, inadvertently throwing blood onto her cheek. Her eyes momentarily widened and then they closed. Her hands closed his dead open eyes, while her arms carried his idle corpse. Right beside the Reaper's grave was the Founder's new resting place. Not Riverton, not anywhere else in the New World—just here. The Evolutionary Capital.
In her heart of hearts, she knew it was undeniable. Looking down upon the Foretold Founder's grave, her black hair swayed in tandem with the wind. Despite his numerous sins, she couldn't escape this feeling. Out of the tens of thousands of friends and foes, there was no one she'd fought or loved that had so much impact on her. The same man she yelled at just one minute ago, now mourning his demise. How the mighty had fallen.
'Live a long, foolish life.'
"If only I'd realized it sooner…"
Katie bent the knee for her fallen enemy, intertwining her fingers and pushing them to her forehead. Only after finishing praying did she arise, her eyes fortunately devoid of tears. She turned around, sniffling abruptly, allowing her arms to wipe her eyes' corners as she started walking away.
"He was more human than anyone else."
But now wasn't the time to mourn a dead man. She had work to do—and fast. She was reminded of that when Alex's voice started calling her name from within the forest's depths.
"KATIE! KATIEEEE!!! OVER HEREEEEE!!!"
She started moving quicker, about to shift gears into sprinting. But before she did, she stopped; to take one last look at the new grave she'd personally made for none other than that fallen icon. The man who altered the world because of his own selfishness and personal whimsy. To think she'd ever feel sympathy for such a horrendous man. But where did she get off judging him for the things he did for the reasons he wanted? They were one in the same… after all.
And so, remembering what she would eventually do in the not-too-distant future, she shakily sighed. If she would dare to reject him now, would that mean being true to herself? Then, some words she hadn't heard in years resurfaced—taking charge of her mind's eye and dictating what she thought for the next few moments.
'It's not easy. It won't happen quickly. You must learn to afford yourself on your lonesome. I won't always be by your side. It's unavoidable and painful, but you must look into the eyes of the beast and move forward. No matter what, for the sake of your happiness.'
Acceptance. She really had come so very far.
"Goodbye… Founder Rivers. Let us meet again in the next world."
…
In due time, she'd reunite with Alex. At the edge of the forest, there he was, holding the Requiem Artifact in one hand while it dismantled his very essence. Her eyes widened, and without skipping a beat, her Blade was drawn.
"WAIT!!" Alex screamed.
Katie faltered her downward stroke, just barely stopping before his wrist. She stepped back, Blade still unsheathed.
"Uh, what's happening?!" Katie loudly asked, watching Alex's hand with him.
"I think it's rejecting me!" He replied.
"Huh?! How's that even possible?! Don't you have—?" She was interrupted.
"THE TECHNICALITIES DON'T MATTER! I need you to do me a favor and take this from me—"
Before he could finish his sentence, his body was swallowed into a gateway. Katie was left speechless, a mere bystander to the way the ancient Requiem Artifact dropped to the grass. Eventually, she regained her consciousness and swiped the Artifact from the green ground. Almost instantly did she start enduring the same pain her mentor underwent, holding her hand in agony, unleashing uncontrollable blood-curdling screams.
"RAAGHHHHHHHHHH—!!"
And then, she was transported through the same gateway her teacher was warped through. Everyone witnessing the world-destroying Tower rise was unaware of Alex and Katie's disappearance. While the duo of student and teacher exited the realm of the world simultaneously, for the single inhabitant of the all-seeing Seas of Time, his brother appeared first.
Endlessly gazing into the beauty of the star-lit sky, the Seas' artificial breeze slipped through his strands and awakened him. These whereabouts weren't anything familiar. The omniscient Seas that transcendentally connected all Requiem Subjects via nonlinear time. He'd… been here before.
Turning completely around, what greeted him was none other than—his infamous white-haired brother: Augustus Rivera. Seated against the sand, slowly raising his head, he waved at his long-haired sibling and feigned an arrogant smirk.
"Brother…"
"Nice to see you again, Alex."
Trivia: Callum Rivers was born on July 21st, 1999. Until 2005, he lived around his mother, father, sister, uncle, aunt, grandmother and uncle. Courtesy of a government discourse, unfortunately, Texas was effectively nuked and wiped off the map of the world. He was the only survivor of that event, and while he laid beneath the debris of the devastation, Naraku inhabited his body and sent him to the future. This future recounted everything that would come but excluded Callum's personal growth. He would have to figure that out for himself. Rather poetic.