Despair

A monster rose from the corpses of its dead allies – a creature scarier and stronger than it had looked before.

Absorbing their vital energy, a white liquid poured into its body from the fallen creatures, and the last monster standing changed shape. It kept its elephant’s legs, but its formless body transformed into a large, perfectly smooth red sphere. Its single big eye split into four smaller ones, and a huge mouth – half the size of the sphere – appeared, a toothless black void.

It began to walk toward Lo. Each step dug into the ground under its massive weight.

“This creature is much stronger than before. I can sense it. I need to stay focused, or I won’t be able to rejoin the others!” Lo thought, bracing on its goat-like legs.

As Lo prepared to leap at the creature, an immense shockwave resonated through the ground, stopping and destabilizing it. The creature in front of Lo toppled and began to roll toward it, gaining speed as it went.

It leapt over the creature as it approached. When Lo began to fall back down above the creature, it glanced toward the crater where the shockwave had originated. Narrowing its eyes, its face showed what seemed to be confusion.

“Who is that inside? I can’t recognize them… their body is smoking.”

Lo then turned its head quickly toward the fight between the king and Iwao, just in time to see the king hurl Iwao savagely into the crater. Its face contorted and trembled.

“Iwao… weren’t you supposed to win…? You can’t die... It’s impossible. I’m the one who can kill you, not him. I have so much left to learn. You can’t die yet.” It whispered calmly, slowing its fall with a wind spell.

Beneath Lo, the creature had stop rolling to start spinning faster and faster on itself, tossing its legs and then spreading them parallel to the ground. The motion created an enormous gust that blasted directly at Lo.

Caught and surprised, it was trapped in the tornado, unable to move. The creature suddenly stopped spinning and braced on its legs, while the tornado still raged in the air.

Upside down, Lo vomited and fought to bring its arms together against the tornado’s force.

“Need to… dissipate… this wind… I… have… enough strength!” It thought, locking its gaze on a point ahead and battling the wind.

After one more bout of vomiting, Lo flexed its gorilla-like arms until they doubled in size. It slammed its palms together. The raw force dissipated the tornado, sending the wind away and leaving it alone and upside down in the air.

Turning to face the monster below while still falling, Lo saw only the creature’s enormous, gaping mouth, waiting to consume it.

“This creature didn’t think for a second I could change my trajectory with a wind spell. If I’m quick-”

Lo’s thoughts were cut off by a whistling suction: the creature’s black-hole mouth inhaled the air with terrifying force. Even using its most powerful wind spells, Lo couldn’t escape. It was swallowed whole.

Now inside a dark cavity – presumably the creature’s stomach – Lo found itself on a sticky floor, the stench so horrid it made its nostrils wrinkle. The creature continued to spin, flinging Lo around the digestive chamber.

“If I’m inside, it should be easier to kill. I need to blow it up from the inside. Everybody counts on me to help win this war. Chasing things out of reach will only put me at a disadvantage in the fight I have to win.” Lo thought, gripping the creature’s innards to stop being tossed around.

Lo felt the matter beneath its hands, gripping it firmly before relaxing and repeating the process several times.

“It’s all soft... not hard. From the outside, I thought the smoothness meant its matter had solidified, that piercing it would be difficult. But by sending Firia inside… I see that everything is soft. I expected it would take time to find a way to kill this thing, but it turns out it will be quick.” Lo thought, as Firia emanated from its body through the creature’s insides like veins of multicolored light, also revealing that the interior of this cavity was just a chaotic mess of soft matter, rotten corpses, and even skeletons – explaining the stench.

Suddenly, the spinning stopped, and Lo was pressed against a wall of the stomach. Its fists began to glow – the only light now that the Firia veins had dimmed when Lo lowered its hands.

“I have to strike with a single, powerful spell – enough to end this quickly.” 

Lo swallowed and cleared its throat. Its fists glowed brighter as it raised both arms to its sides and unleashed powerful lasers from its palms with a scream. Rotating rapidly, Lo fired lasers up, down, left, and right. They shredded the creature’s matter from within.

Joining its hands upward, the laser produced the flicker of an impending explosion. When that flicker reached the creature’s flesh, a huge blast erupted. Lo shielded itself with a barrier and its massive arms.

The creature exploded from the inside. Its matter scattered everywhere, coating Lo. It fell out of the stomach and hit the ground for a few meters below – the creature had been standing tall before it detonated.

Lo rose and healed its bruised back. After wiping the foul residue from its body, it ran without hesitation toward the crater where it had last seen Iwao. Its goat-like legs and natural speed brought it there in no time.

In the crater, Lo found Iwao dripping blood, gasping and struggling to sit. Beside him was Celi – alive, wounded all over, trying to move slightly. Half her hair had been burned. Her right leg was charred and useless, though she had somehow stopped the flames from spreading. They were both in a pitiful state.

Lo rushed in and began healing them simultaneously, one hand on each. Seconds later, Iwao’s eyes flew open in panic. Yet when he saw Lo, he sighed with relief and lay back on the ground. He then managed to sit, tracking Lo’s body with his gaze, and then saw Celi – his eyes widening in shock.

“I’m sorry… Celi! That’s me! My fault! My guilt! The weight I’ll always carry for both of us! Let me take care of this… wake up! I’m so sorry… Because of me… your body is scared, all burned… because of my actions… my weakness… the false strength I tried to build on the surface…” Iwao choked on tears, gritting his teeth, fists clenched, rage tinging his voice.

Celi woke suddenly, coughing painfully. She tried to get up but couldn’t. Rage flared across her face. She managed to lift herself just enough to see the state of her body. As she took in the sight, her rage dissolved into sadness and disappointment.

She lay back and watched Iwao crying beside her.

“Sorry… Iwao… It seems like I’m out for today… I must not have been very glorious back there… If you hadn’t been there… it could have been worse. Thank you. It has to be this way. I have to let you do it.” She said in a heavy voice, punctuated by ragged breaths.

After a pause, she stared up at the blood-colored sky and continued.

“I give you my vengeance… I give you my hate… I can’t fight or stand anymore. Take care of this. Take care of our vengeance. Take care of Saya, take care of Lo, and take care of me… I will become a burden… Please, kill him. Get rid of him and make him suffer like he made us suffer!”

Celi reached out her right hand. Iwao grabbed it firmly, staring at the ground as his tears dried, replaced by a surge of determination and rage.

“I won’t die! I had cast a barrier on myself – if I hadn’t, I’d be dead. With it I managed to survive. It could have been worse if the king had used all his power on me. Go kill him! Don’t worry about me! Lo will carry me on its back and I will watch you win this fight! Go, now!” Celi shouted.

“Celi, I closed the worst wounds, but some remained. I had to spend my remaining Firia for Iwao. However, your leg… I can’t fix that. As for you, Iwao, your main wounds are healed. You weren’t as badly injured as Celi. Your body withstood, so healing worked better and faster. As Celi said, you have no time to lose.” Lo explained, ending its healing spell and lifting Celi onto its back.

“I must not be afraid. This king is nothing compared to what you’ve endured, Iwao. Fight for them, and mostly for yourself! You want to die? Fine – but not by him, not like this. I want to give them a better life, to settle my debts before I might disappear forever. Fight! Push back the fear, at least for this battle!” Iwao thought, rage and murderous intent in his expression, as the wind pushed him forward, giving him speed to sprint toward his objective.

He strode toward the king to end the suffering, the despair, the nightmare.

Iwao was on his way to kill.

******************************

“Rufus! How dare you betraying your own king?! How dare you stabbing me?!” The king roared as blood spilled from his stomach and mouth.

“I can’t let Princess Saya suffer any longer because of your actions. I seized the opportunity to do what I should have done years ago! You are nothing like your late father. You’re not the rightful king of this kingdom! I realized it too late… I was afraid, but how could I keep restraining myself in front of such determination from Princess Saya and her friends? As a royal advisor, it is my duty to help her – to ensure the rightful person claims the throne and reigns justly over this kingdom!” Rufus replied, his voice steady though anger flared behind every word.

From afar, Saya watched, her gaze fixed on Rufus as his sword pierced deeper, tearing through the king’s armor and sinking into flesh.

“Rufus… don’t… That won’t kill him…” She thought.

The air around the king grew hotter with every passing second as he screamed in pain and fury, collapsing to one knee. He tried several times to turn but could not. Smoke rose from Rufus’s hands as he forced his blade deeper into the king’s chest.

The king stared at the ground, his eyes darkened with rage, though his expression remained calm.

“Rufus… The traitors, I kill them.”

At those words, Rufus’s face faltered, his grip on the sword loosening for an instant. The king grinned and seized the moment of confusion, igniting his left fist in an instant.

Rufus let go of the sword, his hands burned by the heat radiating from the king. He staggered back.

But the king was faster. As Rufus retreated, he spun left – fist clenched, aflame, ready to strike – and in an instant, his burning fist smashed Rufus’s face into the ground.

Positioning himself above him, the king punched him mercilessly, both fists ignited. Again and again, he struck, breaking bones, burning flesh, spilling blood.

“You’re nothing but a traitor! I trusted you! You always proved your worth! And now look at you: pitiful, siding with the weak instead of the one who could give you everything! You no longer deserve to live – not in my kingdom!” The king bellowed, raining down blows.

After several minutes, the king rose, leaving Rufus broken, lying in his own blood.

Gripping the sharp edge of the embedded sword, the king watched the metal melt as flames engulfed it. Leaning back, molten iron poured from his body. Then he lifted his chestplate, pressed his hands over the two gaping wounds the sword had torn into his body, and sealed them shut with flames.

“Saya! There’s no point staring at him. Don’t expect a word, an expression, or a sign of life.” The king shouted, seeing Saya’s eyes locked on Rufus’s body.

He laughed, planting his feet on it.

“He’s already dead!” He shouted, a wide grin spreading across his face.

“Rufus… why did you do this? You knew you would die, and yet you tried anyway… Thank you – for your courage, your determination, for being there all through my childhood. You waited all this time… I will finish what you couldn’t. I’m not strong, but even so… There is no father anymore, no princess anymore! There is only me, Saya, and a sovereign to kill!” She thought, rushing forward, determination blazing in her eyes.

As she closed in, she hurled spheres of rock and water from every angle around the king, then formed a steel spear in her hand and shielded her entire body with a barrier.

“I will pierce your heart! I will end you for good this time and finish what Rufus began!” She yelled, lunging forward as her spear drove straight toward the king.

“Oh, poor child! All of you have angered me enough to make me serious. You stand no chance.” The king snarled, then vanished from her sight.

Saya froze, hot wind brushing her face.

Moments later, she collapsed, her spear shattered in half.

She dropped the part still in her hand and reached for her chest in agony. She stared at it, her eyes widening as she saw the broken tip lodged in her heart. Blood poured from the wound and her mouth.

The king appeared behind her, squatting with a wide, terrifying grin.

“You weren’t even worth a fight. Were you really my daughter? I had every reason to kill you, and now one more. Though you’re the last one alive, you fought as if someone were still waiting for you. It’s over – as is your life! Be grateful you lived this long. Now get out of my sight!” He said coldly, watching the light fade from her eyes as her hand slid lifelessly from her chest.

As he stood, a whistle of wind reached his ear. Then a devastating punch smashed his jaw, hurling him a good hundred meters away. A scream of rage tore across the plain from the one who had struck the blow.

Before Saya, Iwao stood, desperation and terror etched on his face as he stared at her.

“Saya! SAYA! No! No… NO! I refuse to lose you! Don’t die! Please, please, PLEASE!” He shouted, kneeling beside her as he began to heal her wounds.

A flicker of light returned to her eyes. She smiled faintly and lifted a trembling hand to his cheek.

“Ah… Don’t be sad, Iwao. I did what I wanted… I knew I’d lose... but I still threw myself into battle. I’m glad I met you... despite everything… I was happy, fulfilled. For the first time, at your side, I truly lived… I go with few regrets. I love all of you, and I’m glad you’re alive… I suppose the others are too. Carry on without me. You will – I know you will. Don’t let my death burden you. Keep my memory in a corner of your mind, but…”

Iwao sobbed, realizing his healing could not close her wounds. He dropped the spell and clutched her hand to his face, his body trembling. Saya gazed at him softly.

“You are the most human person I have ever met in my life.” She whispered.

Iwao’s eyes widened. His tears froze for a moment before flowing again as he stared into her empty eyes.

On the battlefield, in front of him, lay Saya’s body – bloodied, scarred, her heart pierced. Unmoving, she rested there as her final breath slipped away.