The plan. What I had to do.
I took a breath. "This is gonna suck," I muttered.
I walked out of the room and found Bricin.
"Where is the most fighting right now?"
Bricin looked slightly confused. "On the Plains of Arameus within the district of Minueta. Why?"
"I just figured out what I had to do."
"And that is?"
"Something I wouldn't do," I said, a little nervous.
"Nothing too reckless I hope."
"No. Well, maybe. Probably."
Bricin sighed. "Do you need me to come with you?"
I shook my head. "I'll see you around."
"Very well," Bricin reluctantly replied.
I warped away.
-
The place I landed in was loud, bloody, and stank of festering flesh. The sounds of blades clashing, explosions, of bones breaking, and blood and bodies falling to the ground was nearly overwhelming. The whole of the plains was a writhing mass of bodies and metal.
I took a deep breath. I knew what I would do, and I knew what I could do, but was it acceptable? Would God allow it?
"Are you going to do it?" A voice asked from behind me.
I turned and saw the bell boy from earlier, only now he was dressed in full battle gear. "How?"
He shook his head. "Don't ask questions."
"But you-"
"What did I just say?"
My mouth froze. Almost like it was being held in place by some external force.
"You may answer my question," he told me.
"I'm not sure," I responded, deciding to comply. "Is that what God wants?"
"No. What you have in mind is not what God wants you to do. But you are a smart kid, you can figure out a way to do this the right way. If you want, I can even let you use some of my power for a second."
I considered his offer. "No. I will do this with the power I have now."
"Good." He smiled. "That's the way. Now think." And then he was gone.
I turned my attention back to the battlefield and racked my brain.
My original idea had been to simply blow away the battlefield because I had no idea whose soldiers were who.
I thought for a minute about how to end this quickly while only killing the right people. Then a thought occurred to me. I opened my senses a little more and started reaching into their minds. Who were they fighting for?
The more minds I looked into the more I realized. They were fighting for themselves. Not what their leaders or rulers wanted. They were fighting for their lives and their families.
I didn't want to kill them. But if I didn't, would they go back to obeying their leaders?
I shook my head and finally found out where each one was.
My skin turned grey, my hands cracked, and the light was sucked out of the air around me.
I held one hand out in front of me and snapped.
The battlefield seemed to stop, and then the enemy was diced to pieces. And their pieces were diced to pieces, and they continued to be until they were not visible anymore.
Immediately after the enemy was dealt with, my hands turned to ash and dissolved. I felt no pain but was surprised, caught off guard and afraid nonetheless.
I hit my knees and gasped for air. I felt my hands beginning to reform.
It made sense. My powers extracted a toll on my body relative to the output. An absolute eradication like that caused my hands to crumble to ash. I imagined that if the group had been larger, I would have lost more than my hands.
"Unexpected, though not irrecoverable."
I whipped around and saw Lato standing there, surveying the battlefield.
"Why cause a war?" I asked. "Is this bloodshed just amusement for you? Or do you have a reason that seems justified in your twisted mind?"
"Of course I have a reason!" He exclaimed, almost sounding offended. "My reason is to win."
"Win what? What are you winning Lato?" I said angrily. "Look at this!" I waved my arm across the battlefield covered in blood and bodies. "Look at it! What are you winning?"
My hands finished reforming. I grabbed Lato by the back of the head and thrust it toward the battlefield. He didn't resist.
"Is this what winning looks like for you?" I turned him back to face me, and for the first time, I saw something like uncertainty flicker across his eyes, but it was gone almost as soon as it had arrived.
"I have no reason to tell you what I'm fighting for," he stated.
I pried open his mind and heard his thoughts.
"Is this what victory looks like for me? What am I fighting for? I don't remember. She would know. He would know. They would all know. Where am I again? How did I get here? Someone's listening."
He screamed at me, "get out!" And forced me out of his mind.
He proceeded to push me away from him and take two steps back, fear in his eyes, and teleport away.
-
"What did you say?" Rust asked.
Rust at this point was wearing full battle gear.
"He has several conflicting opinions in his brain. I don't know why. Some of them don't even know where he is or why he is there, or how he got there. I don't think any of them know why he is fighting," I explained.
"You said parts of him were saying that he or she would know?" Skie asked.
I nodded.
Skie turned to one of his aides. "I want you to bring me those things I had you hold."
The aide bowed and left to retrieve whatever it was.
"You have something, Skie?" Xorn asked.
"I have an idea. I was doing some reading the other day and found something that sounds interesting. So I had my aide hold it."
The aide returned and was carrying two books. One was Niro's Guide to Individuals of Inter-Dimensional Significance: Volume 96024. And the other was a children's book by the name of The Chosen Who Failed.
"Cheery," Rust said, looking at the title.
"What are you doing, Skie? Writing your dissertation or going to read Rina a bedtime story?" I asked jokingly.
"Ironically I was doing both the other night when I stumbled upon this," he admitted.
I snorted.
"We all know the story of the failed Chosen, Skie," Xorn told his brother. "We don't need to hear that. I'm just curious why you think it's linked to this situation at all."
"Actually," I spoke up, slightly embarrassed. "I am unfamiliar with the story."
They all looked surprised.
"Well, allow me to give you the short and sweet version," Skie told me. "There was a Chosen in what was once known as the Great Dimension. It was on the verge of becoming the Third Prime Dimension. The Chosen, slew all of his enemies without hesitation or mercy. He was overwhelmingly powerful, smart, and crafty. But when his final trial came, his family feared for him, and for themselves. He eased their fears and went to fight his final trial. He did indeed slay his enemy again, but this time, he was too late, his world was reduced to a dusty, barren wasteland and he was the only survivor."
"And what does this have to do with our current predicament?" I asked.
"Well, it just so happens that there is an entry in Niro's Guide to Individuals of Inter-Dimensional Significance: Volume 96024, there is an entry on a man written to be a Chosen but whose name is unknown. He is believed to be among the strongest people to ever live. However, he is nowhere to be found now."
"But you have a hunch," Xorn guessed.
His brother smirked. "Of course I do. According to what Nierix just told us, Lato has several voices in his head, this is a trademark of Intrapersonal Fission, which is a side-effect of Individual Fission."
"English," Bricin said.
"Individual Fission is when a person splits, creating two or more different bodies that each house a different aspect of that person's personality," I explained. "Intrapersonal Fission is when a person's strength exceeds their mental capabilities and they develop DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder). It's a trademark of Individual Fission because when one splits his personality in such a way, he inadvertently awakens all of the slumbering aspects, and they all vie for control of the body."
"That's correct, though I'm curious why you know so much," Skie said.
"I have friends," I said simply.
"So, what does that mean?" Bricin asked.
A thought occurred to me. A possibility so bizarre and unexpected, but that would make everything make sense.
"Skie," I began. "Do you think that Lato is a part of this Chosen?"
Skie smirked again. "Indeed. It would explain his overwhelming strength. But that begs the question, where is the other piece, or pieces?"
"That was a rhetorical question, wasn't it?" Rust asked.
"Have you ever heard the Tale of Gardener?" Skie asked.
Once again, everyone but me nodded.
"Gardener is supposedly an incredibly powerful individual," Rust explained. "But no one has met him. If anyone would know him, it would probably be the Knight, the Saint, or that man."
"That man?" I echoed.
"The one who wields Interitus."
"And you think that this Gardener is the other piece of Lato?" I asked Skie.
"I think he's the second of three," Skie corrected. "He claims to hail from a ruined land ruled over by a despot who craves destruction and chaos, probably Lato. But he also says that there was one other. He calls them the Sleeper. Probably because he doesn't know their name. He says he has never seen them awake, and yet they feel like a teacher, student, brother, and friend all at the same time. Giving us reason to believe that that is due to the prior connection they could've shared."
"Interesting," Xorn muttered. "But how does this help us now?"
"People have this misconception about the Chosen, that they are, by default, the strongest thing walking the Rift. But that's not true. It is a case-by-case basis. And even if Lato was once one of the strongest, he is now just a fraction of that power, and we have people here who can take him toe to toe."
Just then, an aide, landed next to me.
"Lord Scribe, Lato has touched down in your home world and is now moving toward Miss Carmen," he told me. "Given his speed, it is reasonable to assume that this is bait for you, Lord Scribe."
I clenched my fists.
"Nierix," Bricin warned calmly. "Think. Don't act rashly."
I was thinking. Thinking that I wasn't about to let Lato kill the last person I loved.
"I'm gonna kill him," I said through clenched teeth.
The last thing I heard before I teleported home was a shout of protest and desperation.