Chapter 19 - The Cliff at the End of the World

Back in reality, Dominic held his sword strong. He gripped the handle to the point where it almost shattered. If it was him speaking, the internal world him speaking, or both, I couldn’t tell.

“Kaya always talked about justice. I never truly understood it. But at this moment, I want nothing more than to enact it.”

He yelled at the top of his lungs. The muscles on his body got sturdier and his skin hardened. A golden aura encased him and his sword. His eyes turned a similar color to mine.

This was something I had heard about before. A power gifted to humans by a generous god.

The King of Hell’s power- an awakening gifted to the people who have the straightest paths- the Maylem Awakening.

“In the name of those lost in Hell. In the name of the sins encased in my blade. In the name of those you have killed. And in the name of those I have killed. I will SEND YOU TO HELL!”

He shot forward faster than my eyes could keep up with, even if I used RME on them. His sword vibrated on impact with Verwa’s broken and bleeding hand, who was blocking it from cutting his neck in one clean slash.

Verwa yelled at him.

“Dominic! I will kill this child right now if you don’t stop!”

He held his palm in the direction of Kaya, who was unable to move.

He shot a slash of wind towards her to distract Dominic.

But, with a single cut, Dominic teleported to the slash, dispersed the wind and sliced through Verwa’s arm.

With one arm, Verwa grabbed Dominic’s neck. He encased his entire remaining arm in the wind to deflect any attacks from Dominic’s sword. But Dominic did not flinch. Not even a bit. He gripped his sword lightly and cut through Verwa’s shoulder, making his arm fall off..

Verwa, now sitting on the floor, was unarmed.

Dominic held his sword up to his neck.

“You allowed me last words. Justice would be to allow you some as well. So speak.”

Verwa sat there, silent. He was bleeding out quickly. Dominic defeated him so fast, that it was difficult for me to process what had just happened.

Sy carried Kaya and I over and placed us next to Verwa. Ame soon walked over, with the body of the 50th commander lying behind him. He coughed up blood and collapsed down onto his knees beside Dominic, before looking Verwa in the eyes.

At this moment, Verwa got the courage to speak.

“I was right. None of you belong on this battlefield. I was always right. You’re all actors on your own stage.”

He turned his eyes to me. But not exactly me. He looked behind me. And he tapped a button on the device in his pocket.

“Click! Good game. Justin will see you all soon. And Dominic, I’ll see you soon too.

…

At the cliff at the end of the world.”

He closed his eyes as Dominic cut his head off. It rolled down next to my paralyzed body.

We laid on the floor, completely still. Nobody said anything. The blood of multiple commanders slowly slid to my grounded elbows. The audience had already scattered long ago. Verwa was dead. I normally felt horrible when somebody died, but I didn’t. I felt relieved.

Because Dominic was back. We were back. The rides on the back of Little Man wouldn’t have the deafening silence of the absent sword polishing. Kaya’s actions wouldn’t be left without care. Ame wouldn’t need to stress as much. We could live. We could all live. Dominic didn’t need to die. Ame didn’t need to die if we were quick enough. Kaya was alive. Sy was unharmed. Little Man was chewing on the bones of the 38th commander. We were all here. And all of us had a smile on our face. I didn’t need to push to learn more. All my gluttony was stemming from care. But all of that would come naturally. Just by us living. So, that’s what I did.

With the bit of energy I regained, I crawled over, got on my feet and hugged Dominic as hard as I could. Tears ran down my face, but I wasn’t sad. It was yet another odd feeling. But I liked it. The warmth that comes from the comfort of the world was nothing compared to the warmth of Dominic. Maybe they were the same thing. I couldn’t know. All I could do was mutter the feelings I understood.

“I’m glad you’re back. I’m glad I can learn. I’m glad you’re alive. I’m glad we’re alive. I’m glad. I’m glad. That’s what I am. I’m happy. I don’t need anything else.”

Dominic patted my back.

“I am too. I’ll make sure to get you to Dionysia. We’ll all go.”

I closed my eyes and cried.

“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

He nodded as we stood there for a second, before I felt a push on my side.

“Move!”

Kaya pushed me out of the way and hugged Dominic harder. Sy came by and did the same thing. They were both astoundingly short compared to him. They looked as if they were his children. Dominic looked up into the sky. It was the most emotional I had ever seen him. He smiled and looked like he was on the verge of tears.

But, it wasn’t over yet. Ame was still going to die if we didn’t hurry. No matter how much the scenario provided comfort, the world wasn’t going to let that happen. I was the only one to tell Dominic about Ame’s condition. He was from Cittaglia, so he knew the fastest ways to get there.

He saw me stumbling over my thoughts and walked over. He looked at me, and then at Ame. He saw the blood on his face as Ame avoided eye contact with him and coughed.

Dominic shot forward and grabbed the collar of his shirt.

“You’re sick.”

Ame didn’t say anything. The blood dripping from his mouth spoke for itself. Dominic yelled into his face.

“It’s Nokhtsol! You’re sick! Why did you come here?! It almost killed me when I had that during my training!”

Dominic figured it out. I could tell that Ame was conflicted if he should speak or not. But, he did.

“Not sure, honestly.”

He looked away from both himself and Dominic as he spoke.

“I guess I was just worried.”

Dominic dropped him and put his hand on his forehead as if he was thinking.

“We’re going to Cittaglia. We have to cross the country in 4 days. It’s possible. We need to hurry. No interruptions. Nobody getting kidnapped. I’m not allowing this to happen. Get on.”

Dominic hopped on the back of Little Man, who had a small wound on her neck. She was eating the bones of the perpetrator along with the worm, though. Ame frantically picked up any documents left behind by the dead commanders and shoved them into his coat, while Kaya ransacked their bodies for money. Sy was lagging behind after picking up fighting gloves from a soldier, but he caught up and hopped on. They all stared at me from on top. Kaya and Sy were confused about Ame's sickness, but I was glad they didn’t need to worry too much. It was nice that they were being rewarded. Effort without reward is hard to come by, so I wasn’t surprised. But I was glad. I was glad about a lot of things. It was honestly the highest my mood had been in a while. Or at least it was, until I heard a voice in my mind.

‘You’re right. Effort does deserve a reward, doesn’t it Nell? That’s what I believe in, at least. Watching you grow from an apathetic little child to a caring worker was heartwarming.’

My mood instantly plummeted. I didn’t know why. The God of Time wasn’t mean.

“Hey! Nell! Hurry up!” Dominic yelled out to me.

‘It seems you have to go. I could speak to you whenever, but I would feel bad interrupting your reunion. I’m not that mean, haha. Just keep working hard. Keep being content. Whatever problems come up next, I’m sure you can handle it. ‘He’ handled it perfectly, after all. You just need a little push. It doesn’t matter to me if Ame dies, but it would certainly matter to me if you were hurt by it. So, take this. A bit of efficiency for your efficient behavior, and enough moderation for your love!’

I nodded my head after trying to process what she said. There was too much to unpack, so I just ignored it.

That was another thing that made me human.

As I hopped up to get on the back of Little Man, I leaped higher than usual, and landed on Ame.

“I didn’t know you could jump that high. You don’t need to use RME to jump, Nell!”

“I- I didn’t.”

Ame tilted his head, as I remembered what the God of Time said. She told me that she would give me a bit of efficiency for my efficiency. Is this what she meant? I was always exerting magical energy on my legs to try and go faster, but it never did anything. I used it on my legs, and then removed it again and again to see if I was correct. I was correct, but after the third infusion my hamstring was struck with an agonizing pain that made my muscles contract. Ame saw this, coughed and spoke to me.

“Hey! Don’t use that too much. I told you before, don’t overuse RME, got it?”

I nodded. Little Man started to dash forward in the direction of Cittaglia. This would be my first time visiting another nation, and it wasn’t under the best circumstances. But I wouldn’t let it get to me.

Normally, on occasions like this, I would fall asleep for a while. But I couldn’t. Sy, Kaya, Dominic and Ame were all speaking to each other. I was speaking to them too. The worm was sitting in my lap as Kaya spoke.

“Dominic! Once Ame isn’t sick anymore, Dionysia starts, right? We’ve killed enough commanders for the country to start collapsing, right? Right?”

Dominic nodded.

“It’ll start in January. And I’m not sure about the collapse. We need to kill Justin Beckwith. With our strength, it should be possible.”

Sy’s jaw instantly dropped.

“That’s like 3 months! What the hell are we supposed to do as we wait?!”

That was an interesting question from Sy. I wouldn’t consider that as waiting. The festival and the time we would spend waiting for it would have the same value in my mind. They would have all of us, after all.

Dominic ignored Sy’s question, presumably thinking the same thing as me.

Ame chuckled and smiled softly. It was hard for me to speak in these situations, because I had nothing to interject with. It was rather painful to not be able to say anything, so I had to put in the effort to come up with a topic. A question I had forgotten about previously popped back into my mind.

“Dominic, what happened against Verwa? I saw your internal world, but I didn’t know what was actually going on.”

“You saw my internal world?!”

Oops. I guess he did try to stop me from seeing it before. It wasn’t on purpose this time, though. I’m sure he would be okay with it.

He cleared his throat and started telling me his point of view.

“After he almost killed Kaya, something came into my mind. I was standing on a barren road, with a cliff at the end. It felt as if somebody was watching me. I thought about everything that had happened, as if my life flashed before my eyes. And at the final memory, of Kaya getting slashed, I stepped forward. A being that looked almost identical to me jumped out of the cliff’s canyon and faced me. I had always believed that Hell existed, but this made me even more certain- That man jumped up from hell to see me. He connected a string on his heart to mine, and whispered to me. He said ‘You’ve finally earned it. Don’t let this happen again’. I came back to reality, and started fighting Verwa out of pure rage and instinct. It worked though. I felt a lot stronger.”

So, he figured it out even without my help. His case was slightly different. It was like mine, where the internal world self connected with the person’s identity consciously. I didn’t know what it meant, but I was glad that Dominic survived.

I nodded to him. Kaya spoke up again, and the conversation continued as she told Dominic about what happened while he was gone. It was easier for me to speak too, because Kaya’s explanations needed some outside credibility.

Eight hours passed. Sy and Kaya fell asleep, so it was just the adults speaking. I didn’t know if I would consider myself an adult. I was technically an infant with the knowledge of an old man, but I couldn’t measure anything else that could determine my age. Eventually, I fell asleep too. Dominic and Ame were the only ones left awake, and as I closed my eyes I saw Dominic smiling. I had no blanket or pillow, and yet it was the most comfortable I had ever felt while falling asleep.

…

…

I was shaken awake by Dominic after sleeping for a lot longer than I thought I would.

“Don’t panic. It’s getting worse. We’re stopping here for a bit to get any medicine we can to buy some time.”

Oh. Oh. We were near Barye. The buildings were the same ones that we drove past on our way to meet everybody for the first time.

It took my mind a second to process it. I wasn’t panicking. I was just stunned. I wasn’t conscious enough to panic. My adrenaline was pumping enough to move, but not enough to think. I got off without saying a word, and followed everybody as they dashed into a shop.

We swung the door open. I didn’t even know what city we were in, but it didn’t matter much. The pharmacist was startled, but had no time to react when Dominic spoke to her.

“Stress relief medicine. Within five minutes. I don’t care how much it is.”

He threw one of the dead commander’s wallets on the counter and carried Ame on his back over to a seat. Ame sat there, with a hurt grin on his face, coughing. Sy was sitting next to him, clinging to his side without touching him. Kaya was doing the same.

I stood in front of him. He looked into my eyes, and I looked back at him.

“Live.” I said.

He nodded. I couldn’t say anything else. I didn’t know why. All I could do was just hope he understood every emotion behind my singular word.

Within moments, the pharmacist came from the backroom with a bottle of pills, hand shaking.

“T-T-This i-is X-Xanax-”

Dominic grabbed it off the counter and pointed to the wallet.

“Apologies for being rude, but we are in a hurry. Thank you.”

The pharmacist stood there stunned as Dominic dashed out of the room faster than she could see, while carrying Ame on his back. I awkwardly waved to her before following the rest.

Dominic squinted his eyes to read the dosage on the bottle before turning to me and telling me to create some water. So, I did. It was my first time creating water for non-combat purposes, and it felt much nicer than using it in battle. Dominic pried Ame’s mouth open as an owner would do to their sick dog and placed the pills and water inside. Ame swallowed it and looked over to a shop in the corner. His eyes widened as he pointed at it. Dominic sighed and walked him over to it.

The door opened and we walked inside. Each glass bottle on the shelf was glistening directly into my eyes. It was unfortunate that I couldn’t drink it. Dominic said that it would taste horrendous and hurt my liver. Ame pointed at a bottle on the shelf and laughed. His eyes were staring at random directions in the room. Dominic picked the bottle off the shelf and put it on the counter in front of the only worker there.

“I’m from Cittaglia. I don’t have an ID. But I’m over 21. It’s for this guy.” Dominic said, as he pointed over his shoulder at Ame who was blankly staring into nothing with a slight smirk on his face.

“He’s really high. I don’t think it’s a good idea to let him drink this.”

“He’s got his stomach cut open before, he can handle a bit of poison. Isn’t that right?”

“Uh… huh… yup.”

The worker was going to speak, but Dominic put another wallet that Kaya stole from the commanders on the counter and his mouth closed.

Dominic spoke again.

“I don’t like alcohol. I don’t think anybody should drink alcohol. All I’m doing is paying him back. He earned it.”

The worker nodded.

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Inside the pharmacy, the pharmacist walked into the back room. She pulled a device off the wall and hit a couple buttons on it.

Ring Ring Ring

A voice came out from it.

“This is Justin Beckwith's Advisor. What would you like to report?”

The pharmacist responded.

“I-I saw them. Dominic Karna, Kaya Koinu, Sy, Ame Nishimura, and Nell Moren. I saw Eternal Flame.”

A ruffling noise was heard as somebody new picked up the phone.

“Sy? He’s with them?”

“Y-Yes.”

“I’ll be there in two days. After what happened to Verwa, I will need to go myself. We can’t let Ame escape agai-”

A new voice burst into the call from a third line.

“Hey, Justin, can you hear me? Did the connection work?”

The pharmacist stood there, stunned.

“...Marē? I see. Congratulations on becoming the new king. I will go now.”

“Wait! Connect me to the president! I need to speak to him about Eternal Flame!”

Beep!

The call ended.

Unable to comprehend what just happened, the pharmacist falls down onto the floor.

“I shouldn’t have reported this…”

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