Victory?

“Saya… Saya… that can’t be true…”

Lo had arrived, carrying Celi on its back. Tears streamed down Celi’s face as she bit her hand hard enough to draw blood, trying to stifle her sobs.

Lo set Celi down and walked slowly toward Saya’s corpse, taking one weak step after another, reaching its hand out toward her.

“Saya… why? Why? Why do you have to die…? You didn’t have to go through this… Answer me, Saya!” It shouted as it collapsed to its knees, tears flowing from its eyes, its gaze fixed on Saya yet lost in an infinite void.

Lo struck the ground many times with weak blows. Its sobbing made it choke and cough. Then it buried its face in its hands, muttering incomprehensible words. Only one was clear as water, whispered slowly.

“Please…”

Celi broke down in tears even more at the sight of Lo’s grief. Both of their cries echoed powerfully in the now deafening silence of the battlefield.

Celi tried to crawl to Saya but couldn’t. Her whole body, broken and burned, refused to obey her. All she could do was crying from where she lay, curled in sadness. A few seconds later, she fell silent.

“You were the one that cared the most for me… With you, I was truly sure you’d make me understand the best feelings… not that the first one I would truly feel and understand, provoked by you, would be… sadness.” Lo stammered as it approached Saya and hugged her.

It held her firmly, its tears flowing onto her body, soaking her face and clothes, mixing blood with tears.

“Look, Saya… You told me this was a hug… what you do when you really care about someone, right? If only I’d arrived earlier…” Lo burst into harder sobs, clutching Saya even tighter.

Iwao, who had been standing back, watching the place where he had sent the king, suddenly turned. His face was emotionless, yet his fists were clenched as if rage burned deep inside him.

He approached Lo, relaxing his fists, and placed a hand on its shoulder. His expression shifted into a sad smile.

“Lo… we have to let go. She won’t come back, and… this is not what she would want from us. She gave me strength in her last breath… I can’t… I can’t dishonor the hope she had placed in me…” He said, holding back tears.

Lo turned to him, its face twisted with sadness.

“But why? Why did she have to die? Why couldn’t we save her? It hurts so much… my heart… it’s as if it’s bleeding.” It cried, its body trembling as it slowly released Saya’s body, its arms dropping limply to its sides.

Lo raised its arms toward Iwao’s face, then suddenly stopped.

“Why… Why aren’t you showing any sadness…? Don’t you feel pain after this, Iwao…?” It asked, lips trembling.

Iwao stood and stepped back from it. He wore a soothing expression, smiling gently as he sighed, his face a mixture of sadness and serenity.

“I am the one most affected by her death." He uttered, a single tear streaming down his cheek.

Staring at him, Lo lowered its arms and looked at its hands for a moment before wiping its tears with its blood-stained sleeve. It had calmed.

“Lo, I will use it. I don’t care anymore if I have to disappear or if it consumes me. I must use it to win. While I’m fighting, your mission is simple: carry Celi and Saya far from here. I won’t put you at risk again. This is my fight.” Iwao said as he approached Lo, who had managed to stand on its feet.

He grabbed its hands pressed them to his pendant, which began to glow brightly at the touch. Then he let go.

“Now go! Don’t turn back! Use all the energy you have left! He’s coming – be gone before he returns, or I won’t be able to protect you as well!” Iwao shouted as a bright red light, warming the air, flared behind them and the ground shook.

Lo nodded, lifted Celi onto its back, and gathered Saya’s corpse into its arms.

It didn’t look back. It just ran to the far side of the battlefield as fast as it could. The dome stopped it, and it couldn’t go further with Celi unconscious. It simply waited there, staring from afar at the final fight that was about to begin across the plain.

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

The light of Iwao’s pendant glowed as brightly as the red light drawing closer. It was the king, walking with heavy footsteps, but Iwao didn’t let the shaking ground disturb him. He clutched the pendant tightly in his hand as light coated his body.

His body twisted in every direction, tensing at each movement, his breathing quick and ragged as if he were gasping for missing air.

The king’s voice could be heard from afar, but as he was still not near Iwao, nothing could be understood. Iwao paid little attention, clutching his head in pain as he trembled.

Suddenly, everything calmed. The light faded, the pain stopped, and he slowly lowered his hands and stood.

“I felt strength and power invade my body, but there isn’t much more than last time… Am I missing something?” He thought as he raised his hands toward his horns.

He felt the rocks tied to the rope between them and grabbed the rope tightly.

“My hand moves on its own... I can’t stop it. My instinct… This pendant is taking over, showing me how to use my strength to the fullest… Or is it?”

With one sharp blow, Iwao tore the rope from his horns. Three of the rocks fell to the ground in front of him.

Each bathed in the light of one of the moons and glowed bright red as they reflected it.

As Iwao stared at them, the rocks began to change. They transformed into ropes. 

Three ropes now lay before him as the king’s voice grew more distant. But these ropes were unlike those from the nightmares, or the ones that had appeared before Iwao back in the swamp.

The rope on the far left had a sumptuous, well-ornamented crown tied at its end, and it began slowly drifting away from Iwao.

A large sword was tied to the rope on the far right, which also began drifting away.

The last rope, the one in the middle, had nothing attached to it except a glow illuminating its end. It was the only rope moving toward him.

“I will not make the same choice as before. I will not chose this rope! I will chose the other two, the ones fleeing from me. I won’t touch this bright rope and let it control me like last time!”

Iwao ran after the crowned rope as the bright one followed him endlessly. As he chased it, the rope quickened its pace. Iwao couldn’t catch it. It was too fast, and he was too slow. The rope vanished into nothingness, disappearing from sight.

Catching his breath, he quickly turned his head and dodged the bright rope, which had nearly touched him.

He ran from it, now chasing the rope with the sword. This one also fled but much more slowly than the crowned rope.

After a few seconds, using a wind spell to boost his speed, he managed to block the sword by planting his foot on it. The rope stopped moving.

Iwao grabbed the sword by the hilt as the rope coiled around his wrist.

Nothing happened.

When he turned around, he froze. The bright rope had caught up and wrappd itself around his other hand.

Then everything went black, and he collapsed to his knees.

He awoke in a bright space, pure white, with flashes of different colors illuminating the emptiness every few seconds. In front of him was an enormous flame – approximately ninety percent red, with the remaining part white.

Iwao’s eyes widened as he clutched his chest, his claws piercing his flesh.

“This… I’m inside myself… The pendant sent me here… I really am connected to it... And this thing… I know what it is.”

He paused, pulling his claws out of his chest, then healed the wound before continuing.

“It’s my essence… and it seems I’m near my end. The monster is taking over…” He muttered, his gaze darkening.

He approached the flame and reached his hand toward its edge, confusion flickering across his face.

“What am I supposed to do? Why did the pendant send me here? I don’t have what it takes to change my essence…” He whispered, his tone uncertain, as he tried plunging his hand into the fire. The blaze reflected in his eyes as he stared into it.

“Eat it.”

“What? Who are you? Show yourself!” Iwao uttered, panic rising as a woman’s voice echoed across the space.

“Eat it. Eat the evil. Rid yourself of the essence that does not befit you. Eat it as you always do with the nightmares.”

“Who are you? Answer me…!” Iwao shouted, but no response came.

He waited in silence for several minutes before stepping from the flame.

“That’s worth a try… Who is that woman? I don’t know… I don’t care anymore. I just want to kill the king quickly, and I’ll try anything if it helps me.”

Iwao opened his mouth wide. A whirlwind formed, pulling toward his mouth.

Bracing himself on both feet, Iwao directed the whirlwind toward the red part of the flame. When it reached it, the flame began to change, transforming into a liquid red energy, which the whirlwind dragged into Iwao’s mouth.

As he did so, he noticed the white part of the flame slowly expanding, overtaking the red.

Iwao swallowed mouthfuls of the liquid energy, but it seemed endless. As the red diminished to about forty percent and the white grew to about sixty, he finally stopped and closed his mouth, ending the whirlwind.

He vomited a large amount of liquid energy.

“That’s… too much… I can’t swallow it all… and I-”

“Too late. You took too long, and you didn’t even finish. What a shame... your time here is over.”

“It’s the woman’s voice again! I need to-”

Iwao’s thought was cut short as he collapsed to the ground, falling into a deep sleep as the space around him vanished.

His body trembled hardly even though he wasn’t awake. In the dark void where he now lay, a faint, fragile white flame glowed above his heart.

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

On the battlefield, Iwao awoke.

A blinding light burst out of his body, preventing him from seeing. A wide tornado raged around him.

A scream of pain escaped his mouth.

As the tornado dissipated and the brightness faded, an immense, raging human fireball hurtled toward him. It struck him to the ground.

“You’re just a wimp! You like attacking by surprise, don’t you? I thought I’d kill you, but it turns out you managed to survive! You dislocated my jaw – fortunately I put it back in place – and that’s the first time it happened to me! Might as well make you experience things you never–” The king cut off his furious rant as he lifted his fist from Iwao’s face.

For long seconds, as Iwao was regaining his senses, the king stared at him, perplexed.

“Who are you? No... not the right question. What happened to your strange appearance?! Why do you have human parts now?! Is this another one of your tricks?!” The king demanded in fury as he prepared another blow for Iwao.

When the king struck, his fist landed in Iwao’s palm. Despite the burning flames, Iwao didn’t flinch and pushed back with all his strength.

The king staggered backward. Iwao stood – it was his turn to rise.

Iwao no longer looked like the monster he had been moments earlier. He was still a monster, but not entirely.

The top half of his head was now human – black eyes, white skin, black hair, a human nose. Yet, the two long, pointed horns still protruded from the top of his head. The bottom half of his face, along with his long ears, remained monstrous.

Nothing much had changed on the rest of his body except for his right leg and right arm, which had become human. Completely bare, muscular limbs, far less hairy than the rest of him.

“Devouring this much of my monster essence made me revert a little to my human form? Strength fills my body, and yet these parts feel so fragile. Will I really be able to fight?” Iwao thought as he stared at his body, touching his face with his new arm and noticing the changes.

As Iwao lowered his hand, caressing his chest, the pendant shattered into small pieces that fell to the ground under his impassive gaze.

He then stared at the king, still confused. But confusion soon gave way to anger when Iwao smirked faintly at him.

The ground beneath the king melted under the searing heat emanating from his body and the flames burning at his feet.

“This is the end, king. I have the strength to kill you. You can’t stop me now! You will never surpass the determination given to me! I suppose you didn’t notice that bleeding wound on your chest.” Iwao shouted, pointing at the king’s chest.

“Because of this creature’s punch earlier, my fall had reopened the holes. I don’t have time to seal them shut anymore. I must not lose too much blood… I must finish this quickly.” The king whispered to himself.

In a fraction of a second, Iwao leapt at the king and reached him before he could react. He cast a rock spell that coated his human arm.

The first blow struck the king directly in the chest, making him spit blood. Yet, despite the enormous shockwave from the punch, the king didn’t fly back.

Iwao then cast a spell on the claws of his monstrous arm, coating them with steel, making them sharper and longer.

He unleashed a storm of blows. From his right hand, powerful punches. From his left came savage slashes that tore the king's right-arm armor to shreds.

The king, shielding himself with his arms, endured the strikes until Iwao paused for just a second.

Armorless and bleeding from his right arm, the king seized the opportunity to strike back.

Propelling this arm with flames, he delivered a blow so powerful it sent Iwao flying through the air, coughing up blood.

The king quickly leapt after him, grabbing him by the arms midair. Iwao tried to kick him in the head, and though it made the king spit blood and lose a few teeth, it did little else. The king retaliated with repeated headbutts, splitting Iwao’s forehead and breaking his nose, blood pouring as his head rocked from side to side.

“This spell! It’s my favorite!” The king roared, his face mangled with wounds.

Meanwhile, Iwao’s body ignited, flames spreading from his arms and the king’s blazing fists. A massive tornado of fire engulfed him, reaching from the ground to the sky until it struck the protection dome, which glowed orange under the flames.

It didn’t take long before the dome shattered under the pressure. The tornado rose higher into the sky as explosions erupted at various points along this tower of fire. When one blast reached the ground, it obliterated a quarter of the battlefield, while another struck Iwao directly.

The king didn’t flinch – he had already withdrawn to avoid the shockwave. He hovered in the air, clutching the hole in his chest, grimacing in pain. But as the smoke from the explosion cleared, his confident smile faded.

“How are you still alive? No one survives this attack, not even my-” The king roared, but stopped when he saw Iwao hovering in the air. His fur was burned, but his human parts remained almost intact.

Iwao raised his head and spat a massive blue fireball. As he lifted his hands toward it, purple energy swirled within.

The brilliant light illuminated the king as Iwao hurled the strange fireball at him.

“My body can’t withstand this kind of fire…” The king whispered just before the fireball struck, slamming him to the ground and digging deep into it before exploding.

The explosion spread everywhere, tearing apart the ground, sending dirt, rocks, grass, and ruins flying skyward.

From above, Iwao gazed at the devastation he had caused. The battlefield was annihilated, along with much of the land outside of it, now unprotected since the dome had broken. One area, however, remained untouched – the place where Lo and Celi were.

“I did all I could to avoid directing the blast a them. They should be safe.” He thought as he descended toward the crater where the king had fallen.

There lay the king, in the deepest part of the crater, his body blackened and charred. Iwao placed his hand on his neck, checking for a pulse.

The king was dead.

Rising to his feet, Iwao began to heal some of his wounds. He stared at the corpse, his expression clouded with concern.

“At least I fulfilled one promise. I avenged you, Saya! I avenged your father, Celi! And I claimed my vengeance too! Everything is over now!” He shouted.

Iwao looked around, then back at the king’s remains, then down at his own hands, sorrow twisting his face.

“But… can we really call this… a victory?”