To Serve and Protect (3)

“Getting sleepy yet, Primot God?”

How many days had we spent in here?

At this point, my body was moving on pure instinct, fueled only by the desire to protect Annabelle. If I tried spending so much as a second thinking about how to progress, my consciousness would return to me, and with it the realisation that I was exhausted.

It felt like an eternity had passed.

This wasn’t something I could chock up to the permanent darkness any more. Long enough had gone by that any hope of a simple exit, getting saved by Maelle or Soren or some other external factor, were completely eradicated.

Not that I had banked on any of that in the first place. I was entirely prepared to progress and defeat Kenshi with only Annabelle by my side. But thinking became more and more difficult with every wave of fleshbeast that swarmed us like endless tides. No matter how they were dispatched—sliced in half, beheaded, decapitated by thorns or rooted in place to be gored by Annabelle’s staff—they would simply turn back into blobs of ink and drip back into the river, waiting to be recycled by the machinations of this evil place.

“Succumb to despair. Give up hope.”

Finding endless wave after wave of inkstained zombies, my body began to crumble under the pressure.

At first, the issues were minor; like my blade making shallower cuts than usual, or getting stopped mid-slash by heaps of flesh that I’d been easily slicing through when this all started—whenever that was. Things of that sort.

But then they slowly became more and more severe, and at times, inexplicable. Sumirezaku chipping apart. Getting caught every now and then by a stray attack, resulting in Annabelle needing to heal me. Watching blood drip off my body. Trying to understand the logic behind sight in a pitch-black dome. My off-hand, which had initially been useful in magically powering through things that I couldn’t slash through, was now beginning to run on fumes.

This went beyond just mental or physical exhaustion.

Why… are we so powerless here?

“Ha ha ha… Ahaha!”

Annabelle and I had initially come up with a strategy.

It was impossible not to notice the gigantic beating heart all the way on the other side of the domain thanks to Kenshi’s insatiable need to goad us. Had he remained quiet, there would have been no way either of us would’ve noticed the fact the dome was actually a corridor, or that the thing even existed, since we would’ve given up on the idea of trying to search around a permanently dark place. Besides being the source of all the taunts, it seemed to be the thing responsible for recycling and reforming the fleshbeasts whenever we vanquished them, sending pulses throughout the lake of ink to recycle them into their grotesque forms.

Therefore, the solution was obvious. We would make our way to the heart. I’d stand at the vanguard, getting the attention of as many fleshbeasts as I could, with Annabelle casting [Entangling Roots] on the stragglers. Then she’d swiftly dispatch as many as she could with magic while I dodged and blocked, and we’d clean up the remaining few together while she waited for her reserves to recover.

It was uninspired but effective. I was the tank, she was the artillery. In a pinch, she would double as a healer, or I would tap onto my off-hand for more bursts of damage. It worked well because the monsters were senseless, attacking with no other desire than to kill me, and they for the most part ignored Annabelle.

But inexplicably, things got more difficult, and it wasn’t just because we were tired.

First of all—the monsters got more and more ferocious as we approached the heart. Initially they were nothing more than mindless zombies, but they differed in shapes and sizes as we made progress. Some of them sat at range, spitting acidic blood at speeds Annabelle couldn’t dodge. They began to come armed, holding maces and spears made of flesh and ink that I couldn’t hope to compete with in reach. Then came the sudden influx of sentience and strategy, focusing down Annabelle instead of I whenever it was convenient, and we began to burn through more and more of our energy reserves having to adapt to their sudden intelligence. Eventually, things got too difficult, and we decided to retreat to an “earlier” zone.

“Run away for as long as you’d like. All eventually submit to the Fifth Circle.”

“My Quanta isn’t recovering in time,” Annabelle said in passing. “We need to go slower.”

But it was wishful thinking. No matter how slowly we went or how simple we took the fights, Annabelle’s Quanta would not recover.

And neither would mine. My off-hand was as good as nothing. Sumirezaku’s form began to lose focus as well, stuttering as if it was a glitch in this reality waiting to be overwritten. Our difficulties casting compounded another problem, which was that we were physically exhausted—a lack of [Entangling Roots] support meant that what should have been trivial battles were now more and more time consuming, and the situation more dire now that we had to fight on multiple fronts.

Whatever this domain was, it dampened our magic.

How long can this go on?

Eventually, the sheer volume of Kenshi’s creations, no matter how easy to read through, made it impossible for me to survive alone in the melee. Which was when Annabelle began to hold her staff at its very edge, wielded it as a mace, and we fought back-to-back with each other against endless tides of fleshbeasts.

I was conflicted.

On one hand, it made me realise… again, that Annabelle was an amazing person. It was the confirmation that if in another universe, she found me throwing up in the shower, she would definitely clean it up for me no questions asked.

I had made no mistake trying to come back here to override her death. I wouldn’t want a universe without her in it to exist.

It also made me feel overwhelmingly conscious that, if—and this was a very big if—this was really the end, then I would be immensely proud of her for ignoring her fears and stepping up to the challenge. Something I didn’t know how to do until recently, and something I would never have learned how to do without so many women in my life beating me over the head with examples.

On the other, however—I still didn’t know anything about her.

She must’ve realised this, because in between swings of her repurposed mace, she called out my name. “Primot,” she said.

“Yeah?”

“I’m not trying to jinx anything… but if you knew you were going to die tomorrow, would you want to know the truth about everything, or die happy…?”

The idea that she thought truth and happiness were mutually exclusive was a problem, but I wasn’t going to address it now. Her voice was wracked with something akin to guilt. Or maybe sadness.

Whatever it was, this was probably her way of tying up every loose end.

“…The truth.”

My answer would’ve been different even yesterday. Or maybe it would’ve been the same—maybe I would’ve lied just to look heroic. But now, it was how I truly felt.

Being exposed, getting called out, having all my flaws pointed out to me... I wouldn’t want it any other way. Getting coddled till the very end… you’d get a world full of Kenshis, living on for asinine reasons, cultivating power for no real purpose.

She bashed in the head of a creature with her mace. “Are you sure?”

“Of course.”

“Well then… don’t get mad, but the truth is that I’m already married to someone.”

My heart didn’t waver.

“I guessed as much.”

“...You do?”

“With the context of everything… It only makes sense. You’ve been trying to hide something from me for a while.”

There was that husband thing in the tent.

You’re not even my husband anyway.

I just chose to “not notice it” for convenience’s sake, then blanked it out of my memory. Then I’d further decided I would cross that bridge whenever we got to it, expecting it would take at least months, not realising that one moment of pretense would’ve sealed my descent into madness without an intervention… but if that moment was now, then I had no right to take this away from her.

“...I know. I’m sorry.”

“What are you apologising for? It’s alright. Seriously—”

There was a cry of a ghoul jumping out to try its luck, except it had decided to attack from directly in front of me. I let it carry its own momentum into Sumirezaku’s edge, mouth first, trying to be as efficient as possible with my energy. Its entire body turned into ink as my blade passed through its brainstem.

Then, as it flowed back into the lake, I saw at least a hundred more of them behind.

“...Are you sure?” Annabelle asked.

“It doesn’t change anything.”

“Um… So can I keep going?”

“Yeah. Tie up every loose end you need to.”

“Then… um… well, the other thing is, Primot… I’m afraid of you. You change so often. When we first met, in the carriage, when you casted, under the tree, even now—it makes me feel like, if I blink, that any version of you I get attached to will disappear. It’s silly, but it makes me scared… and so, I don’t know if I’ll ever be truly able to trust you, even if this shared hell fighting to our deaths are our last moments together. I’m sorry.”

“Mhm.”

“But even then… I think… I wish we could have at least gotten to try.”

“Die in awe.”

The hordes of fleshbeasts were closing in. At this range, we’d have to start engaging in our last dance soon. And definitely with no more second, third, fourth, fifth, or sixth chances from any goddess or magic. It was just my dulled blade and Annabelle’s warstaff against an endless legion.

A sense of calm washed over me.

Thirty seconds to put her heart at ease.

There was no use worrying now.

“Anna. Three things. Well, four.”

I could feel her straighten out on my back.

“Y-yes?”

“First of all. Nothing you said has changed anything. I’m glad you told me, though.”

“…”

“Secondly, if you weren’t married, and we weren’t in this predicament, would you…” I trailed off.

“Um.” She didn’t pause for very long. “Yes.”

I wasn’t sure if she got my drift. “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” she repeated.

“Okay then. The rest of the things don’t matter.”

“Wha—”

“I’ve decided that I’m going to save you, even if I die trying a hundred times. I love you.”

That’s right, Kenshi.

I won’t run away.

I’m ready to go back and experience this hell a million more times to get her out of it. I’ll get on my knees and grovel the dead Saint for a third second chance—will her back into existence if I have to.

Even if she had said no… even if there was no hope for me and her—it was never about what I could gain from Anna in a transaction, or the promise of hope. This is simply what I want. And for that, I’m willing to—

Just then, something inexplicable happened.

“Caw!”

The sound of a bird.

And with the bird… light.

Not a lot of it, but considering how dark it’d been, it was practically blinding.

Then with the light came noises.

“What the hell?” said a girl.

“Did… Did that hatchling… just… run through?” asked a distorted voice.

“What?! Who dares enter my domain?”

“Grak.”

With the noises then came realisation.

The calvary has arrived.

But more than just that—my arm was suddenly reinvigorated, and my gauntlet exploded in fifty different shades of grey. My feet were lighter. My mind thought faster. Sumirezaku was reformed, light glinting off its edge, and Annabelle’s staff glowed once more.

“Caw!”

“Entangle!” Annabelle yelled.

Roots burst from the ground and entrapped every single fleshbeast that was in her field of view. The ones that weren’t might as well have been, frozen in horror at the sudden influx of light.

Light and Quanta.

I mean… in hindsight, it’s so obvious now.

In a dimension with no light… of course it’d be harder to paint.

“Go, Cockie!”

Primal Infusion
1 Life Quanta
Spell
Burst Speed

Until your end step, give target Life creature +2/2 and Trample.

In a flash of green, the once tiny turkey grew a monstrous amount—easily towering over Kenshi’s creations, and even the masked azure knight on his crocodile who I was certain was flabbergasted by the sight of all of this.

She’s repaying the upkeep and buffing it at the same time.

The turkey plowed through the rooted fleshbeasts like a wrecking ball, goring them back into the lake from whence they came, and the rest of the monsters turned their attention from me and Annabelle to this avian monstrosity.

“Get rid of the intruders!”

I took this moment to stabilise myself. Annabelle had inspired me, as she always did. Breathing in as deeply as I could, I drew as much energy as I could into my core, and then imagined I would set off in a singular, deadly stroke. I gripped Sumirezaku with both of my hands, then channeled the feeling of courage.

She never gave up. Well, I won’t either.

I told you so, Kenshi. You will never break me again.

Moment of Glory
1 Light Quanta
Spell
Burst Speed

Until your end step, target creature gains +2/0. This turn, if it destroys another creature in combat, Draw a card.

My desire resonates.

“Bloom, Sumirezaku!”

White blinded everything.