My arms were tired, my legs were bruised, there was blood gushing out of my mouth. Today was an awful day but it was still too early to be tired. We still had the final boss to beat.
A journey that had started with piracy, had resulted in the enslavement of my father. A journey that had begun with innocent bed time stories had resulted in becoming an Apostle. A journey that had risen from the need to cover my weaknesses, had raised two of the most powerful humans in history. A journey that was routed in my greed for recognition had ended in the my tragedy.
I ran through the streets until I encountered the largest gate I had ever seen. Not having the time to deal with it, I jumped over it. The sky, the window panes, and a castle that looked like the deepest pit of hell. I fell like lightning onto the castle floor.
Obsidian for floor made the reflections of lava flowing around the room project on the walls. In the obscene darkness, there was a blinding white beacon and stairs leading up to it. Sitting right in front of it on his throne, with his legs crossed, was the Lord.
"So you have come, Apostle!" He shouted jovially.
I already knew that he was not a friendly force. He sent a fucking hydra after me.
I had yet to seem him properly. Everything was blurry. The light from the beacon bled around him. My eyes weren't powerful enough to discern him anymore.
"What did you do to them?!" My tiredness had taken the power out of my voice.
"Oh dear."
"SPEAK!"
"Your vision must've gotten terrible considering how you can't see them right behind me." He raised his hands to point at the beacon. All my effort trying to concealing this was already immediately pointless. There was no hiding from him. "I don't know if there's any good way to show you this, but they're right behind me. Alive for now. Wait I can do this." I heard him snap his finger.
"Gah!" I heard a loud gasp behind him. "Miss Apostle! Don't come here. We are fine. We'll be fine. He's just-"
"That's enough for now."
"Lithia!" I reached out as her voice got muffled into loud struggles.
"Please don't get emotional yet, we still haven't gotten to killing them yet." The next instance he was standing on the bottom third of the staircase. He was large. Around almost twice my size, covered in a black scale like material. He had a tail that was violently swinging around. His helmet was completely flat, with two protuberances on either side and a gem right in the centre. All lit by the burning mass of lava.
"How did you get here?" My eyes couldn't follow him.
"The Prana of Space." The same thing Lithia used that drained a third of her prana on every use.
It came as no surprise that he had an enormous reserve of Prana but using the most taxing Prana so many times must deplete his tank too. I would have to launch area wide attacks from Iudex to force him to use the Prana of Space multiple times. Once he's down enough I will deliver the final blow with the Prana of Time.
"Would this fight end if I give the two of them to you?"
"Stop pretending like you want to talk."
"You're right." He giggled. "Let me give you a better reason to fight."
Pulling an arm out of thin air and throwing it at me.
"So she did end up coming here." I sighed. I would recognise that arm anywhere. "Why are you doing this?" I could feel myself tearing up. The last time I cried was in the orphanage in Ipspar all those years ago. The arm I was holding, ruffled me to sleep that night.
"She found her peace, and you found her piece."
Prana is ones soul. It is as commanding and powerful as you want it to be. It is the miracle that can make the world bend to your emotions. When those emotions are overwhelmed, people let out the Prana that is inside their bodies to outside.
I could feel the Prana evaporating out of my body. I was stronger than ever before.
"You are a monster."
His laughing stopped.
"Now you get it."
Lightning filled the room bouncing between the obsidian and the walls. He moved all the way to the roof. I jumped of the walls to go right where he was and swung my sword at him. A cuboid surrounded him expanded and imploded. The next second he was on top of the beacon.
I swung around and fired Iudex at him. He dodged.
I got faster again. In fact, every time he dodged, I got faster. I had come too far to give up hope. As the chase continued the world around us started to move slower. It was a battle of instantaneous teleportation and near instant speed. The battle of the planck.
As the speed picked up even further everywhere I went started to disintegrate into shards. Every step led to destruction. Even the air was getting torn up between subsequent moves.
Thunder crashing with every step. Lightning blending with every stride.
With every second the gap between my instant and his started to narrow and before I knew it, I was everywhere all at once. I could see thousands of different instances. It was like looking into a kaleidoscope.
There was no place for him to go to anymore but the one place I was not at. The prey had arrived in its trap. No matter how instantaneous, the second you put your foot down on land, you will have to wait.
His foot slowly got cradled by the obsidian below him.
.
Pause.
.
My assured victory— and in that one moment, my overwhelming loss. I would've been lying if I didn't see it coming. He did manage to kidnap the two of them after all.
The lava had seized to flow. The reflections stopped moving. The world was entirely silent. But in my time, I saw his head move.
He looked at me, eye to eye.
I was stunned. I knew that the best move would've been to start time again. But I couldn't do anything. I had lost most hope.
"Emergent Prana of Time. Astonishing. With this the Hero Wench's odyssey has ends."
The Lord held up his hand and the Prana started to condense itself in his palm. A prism of light was birthed in his hand and time started again. My power had been stolen from me.
The Gem of Time. That was what he was after. He was just trying to force me to emit Prana.
I fell on my knees and could only see the highlights of reflections.
I couldn't see what he was doing anymore.
But I could hear his footsteps as he headed towards me. I was so tired. This had been a long journey.
"I have no need to put up airs anymore. Our fight has come to an end… Ki****, you are special." He crouched next to me. "I have done a lot of things in my life, but you proved to be the biggest challenge, yet. I want my effort to be acknowledged. It took a lot of effort to get you in this state. All the way from spreading news about your town's tragedy to Oisha even though your King tried to keep it under wraps, to slowly making battles so difficult for you that you were forced to use Prana until you went half blind. I even kept track of all of you constantly to make sure you all were always short on sleep. Taking your friends away and putting you on a time crunch forcing you to exhaust Iudex. Then placing my strongest beasts directly in your line of sight. And yet you still got here! I would have struggled immensely had I taken you on without weakening you to this extent."
I lunged forward and grabbed his shoulders and pulled him down to his knees. He didn't resist. Touch was the best sensation I could rely on.
"Why?"
"You know why." He rubbed the gem against my cheek.
"All of this… for a fucking gem?" My nose was getting blocked.
"I went through every way to fulfill my objective without you dying. I gave up a couple of times, and said it was alright to kill you, since you were the ones coming to kill me in the first place. This was the best way."
I was bound to die. This was something I was prepared for anyway.
I got close in cornering him without the Prana of Time but not close enough. He had given up his guard completely. I could not tell what was going on in that monster's mind.
"A hero is not someone who has a lot of skills they can use. A hero is someone who, even at the end of their rope, would still choose to fight for what they believe in." I pulled my head back and jut it straight into his. I heard the sound of his helmet crack. With the blood from my head clouding my sight, I was completely blind.
While he was stunned I grabbed his neck and slammed him on the ground. He might've been stronger away from me but within my grasp, he was but prey. I pinned him to the ground and started punching until I ran out of stamina. Me. Three of my punches landed on the ground while the others landed on his face. I could feel his helmet fall apart.
"Die! Die! Die! Die!" I joined my hands and smacked them to his face. The hits had caused a crack. And we just went further in. "Die!!"
One his arms had fallen down to the side, I started ripping the scales off his chest until I felt skin. This was the final chance I got. I pulled out a dagger and stabbed him right in the heart. He didn't resist.
I rolled over and fell on my side. In fact, this bastard didn't attack me once throughout the fight.
I couldn't understand what was going through his head.
"Khhk." He coughed up blood.
"This is ridiculous. How are you still alive?" I turned to my side. "Any one of those punches could kill a wyvern."
"I'm slightly stronger than a wyvern, you bitch. Were you never taught how to hold back?" He chuckled.
"You were supposed to be too dead to spout shit like this. Guess I did hold back."
"So this is what getting beat up in flesh feels like." To think he would consider that getting beat up.
The more I talked to him the more messed up this series of events became. All the way from how I had ended up here, to why Leia sent me to him, I understood none of that.
"Did you do all of that just to get my Prana to leak?" I felt my neck choke up. I was going to die too. I underestimated the stress on my body.
"Precisely."
"And this was the best way to do this."
"You are still alive are you not? Why not rejoice? You have gotten rid of Lord and you and your companions live to tell the tale."
"Huh? What are you gonna up and die now?"
He grabbed my head and pointed it to the direction of his voice— "I am a coward." His breaths riled up as the sound of a wheel spinning started polluting the air.
My eyes didn't work, but just like imprints of light on a bright day, a rainbow got burned into my eyelids.
And then all sounds stopped. Along with the sound of his breathing.
His prana dissipated.
The Lord was dead. Over the past two years I tried to predict how the interaction would go. But not even in my wildest dream would I had placed my bets on this.
I pushed myself off the obsidian and started walking towards the beacon. It was the only sign my eyes could pick up on.
"Lithia, Javes, you just wait there. I'll free you in a moment." I started climbing the stairs on all four to avoid injuries.
"I am so sorry that I-" As I got closer I felt a whole in my abdomen. "That I let you get talken away." Then my stomach felt empty.
The closer I got the more incessasant their muffled screams began.
"We'll be free from now on." I felt my guts open up. But I had already reached the edge of the staircase. "Let's get you two a farm then."
My hands touched a cushy structure that I assumed was throne.
From what I heard, they were right behind the throne. I got on and extended my hand forward.
"Too bad you might have to do the rest alone." I felt a gaping absense of my heart. "Live."
I was a Hero and this- was the end of my story.
Or at least that's what I wanted.