Chapter 22.5 - My Final Day

On the opposite side of the town was a man striding through with a sheathed sword attached to his back and a Jeti commander uniform covering his body.

This man was Justin Beckwith, the first commander.

Every step he took shook his mind. He had one clear goal.

Kill Eternal Flame. He didn’t care if it was his last mission alive. He didn’t care about the consequences. He stole the sword of the 4th god- the ‘Mirror Blade’. The blade that could reflect any damage it took.

The 4th god went by the name of ‘The Servant of the Mirror’.

A book written by the king of Cittaglia stated this.

‘The fourth god- The Servant of the Mirror, the being who split humanity into two parts. First, he created male and female. Then, he created an internal self and external self. The internal self resided in one’s internal world. The Servant of the Mirror decided that humanity should not be forced to suffer with themselves, and split the connection of internal self and external self with a shard of glass. The string of ‘Identity’ was snapped, to only be repaired by the person themself.’

This book was never released, after a woman by the name of Dess stopped it from getting out. That didn’t stop any theories or farfetched beliefs that people had from existing.

And in Jeti, the average citizen was almost certain about this god’s existence. The sword was given to the president by The Servant himself, and was imbued with his power. It would only be able to be held when the string of ‘self’ was snapped.

That is exactly what Justin Beckwith did.

His internal world was never connected, but it was now completely off-limits. His internal world self no longer existed.

Just as he was walking, he heard a buzz in his pocket. He picked up his phone- another perk of being the first commander.

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

A noise came through his phone. The call was from his advisor, and he could only assume that he forwarded the call to him.

“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-”

Just as he was about to hang up, somebody else joined the call.

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

Justin Beckwith grit his teeth. He was about to respond, when he collapsed to his knees. He held his head as if it was falling apart.

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

He hung up the phone as quickly as possible and stared at the floor.

This was the biggest side effect of having the Mirror Blade. The biggest side effect of becoming a propagator for a god.

Humans couldn’t handle the power. Despite his rank and mastery over wind magic, Justin Beckwith was not on the level of a king. He was a human.

This level of divinity was bound to split his head into two pieces.

As he was struggling to have a single clear thought, a child touched his shoulder. His ideas began to waver violently as he turned his head.

In front of him stood a small child who looked about 7 years old. He had white hair and silver eyes, and looked quite similar to Justin himself.

This was a child he knew very well. He was closer to this child than the child’s parents were. This was Zbrke Beckwith, his nephew.

And the man Nell knew as ‘Sy’.

It, of course, was not the Sy who was currently on the other side of the city. This could have been an illusion, or even an effect of his insanity.

But he knew what it truly was.

This was an incarnation of the Servant of the Mirror. He could only see this due to his propagator status.

However, despite being a god, it still had the memories of a 7 year old Zbrke. It acted the same way. There was no clear way to differentiate this being from the person Justin loved.

So, he saw this child as Zbrke.

A tear ran down his face, until his thoughts finally caught up to him. He wiped his eyes and grinned.

His brain was still in agony, but he got up off of his knees and grabbed Zbrke’s hand.

“I’m finally going insane.”

…

“Let’s go get you dinner, alright?”

Zbrke nodded and smiled. Justin led him towards a restaurant. They both stepped inside, and Justin propped the child up into a seat at the bar.

Justin grabbed his forehead and held it in pain.

Zbrke turned to him, and tilted his head,

“Are you okay, Uncle?”

Justin snapped back to reality for a moment and smiled.

“I’m alright. Anyway, what do you want to eat?”

Zbrke thought for a moment, before yelling out his order.

“I want a L’eaun steak! With gold leaf plated fries!”

Not a single person turned their head. This confirmed Justin’s theory. Only he could see Zbrke.

Justin’s eyes widened after he realized what Zbrke was ordering. He remembered how rich his parents were, and understood why he thought this was normal.

He looked through his wallet, and pulled out all of his money. He held his hand up and motioned for the bartender to come over.

“Hope you’re having a good night sir. Judging by your condition, I think you are… haha. Just go easy on the drinks. Anyway, what would you like?”

Justin smiled.

“Give me a L’eaun steak. With gold leaves on the fries.”

The bartender smirked.

“Oh really? You’re going all out. A special occasion, maybe?”

Justin looked at Zbrke.

And he smiled.

“Yeah.”

…

“It’s my final day.”

The bartender was silent for a moment. He didn’t know what Justin was talking about, nor did he get paid enough to ask.

He simply walked away and began to make Justin’s order.

While the bartender was away, Justin began to speak with Zbrke.

“How’s school going?”

Zbrke spun on his spinny bar-chair and smiled.

“It’s okay… I haven’t really met anybody. I always have to do my work. But it’s okay! Guess why!”

Justin smiled back and entertained his question.

“Hm… I’m not sure. Why?”

“Because you’re always there for me when I come back!”

Justin’s eyes shot straight open.

He looked down at Zbrke as tears streamed down his face. He couldn’t stop them.

“Huh?! Uncle, are you okay?!”

Justin began to cry harder. This would normally be a heartwarming sentence.

But Justin knew the reason he was crying. Zbrke was dead. Not long after Justin got drafted into the Jeti army, Zbrke ran away from his house. He was never heard from again. The area around his house was home to hundreds of rabid wolves, and Justin could only assume that he had been eaten.

Justin never knew the reason for his departure. He was always pained by a guilt. A guilt hammered down into himself. He had always thought it was because he left.

And, once he heard this sentence, the final crack in his mind happened.

“Because you’re always there for me when I come back!”

Justin imagined the scenario of Zbrke being told about his draft over and over again. The thought that nobody would be there for Zbrke when he came home from school pierced his mind.

It was right to pierce his mind. Because that’s exactly what happened.

Zbrke would come home from school, and be told that his uncle was drafted. He would be on call with his online friends during that interaction.

And he would dream of it, over and over and over again. That feeling never escaped Sy.

And it never escaped Justin.

In order to not be lonely, in order to be a person- Zbrke needed his mirror.

So he ran. That was the moment Zbrke died, and the moment he met Eternal Flame was the moment Sy was born.

Justin grabbed Zbrke’s hand and walked out of the bar. He had left all his money on the counter, so it didn’t matter.

He ran down the street, holding Zbrke’s hand.

“Uncle! Where are we going?!”

“We.. haah. We’re going somewhere… special!”

Zbrke nodded as Justin grabbed him and shot himself forward using wind.

This continued for about 30 minutes, until they reached a building.

The building they reached was the supposed headquarters of Eternal Flame- Barye.

Justin stopped in front of it, and patted Zbrke’s head.

“Why are we here, Uncle?”

Justin knelt down.

“Heaven may be unreachable for me. The guilt of those I’ve left behind will never leave me. And yet, everything must go. Everything must fade to dust and get blown away. Each and every gust of wind, you must savor. Bring them closer to yourself, and hold them dear to you.”

Zbrke tilted his head.

“You’re saying weird things!”

Justin chuckled.

“I know I am. But I’ve forsaken everything that I have. It was all for you. It was all to keep you close to me.”

Zbrke was silent. He was simply staring at him.

Justin closed his eyes and smiled.

“I love you, Zbrke. You are the person I care about the most. Today is October 10th, which means your birthday’s today. Let’s see if they have anything I can use to make you a cake.”

Justin walked through a bit of rubble and entered the ‘living room’ of Barye as Zbrke followed. They went to a makeshift cabinet, and pulled out some ingredients.

Justin pulled out the first one.

“Flour, for the structure. Having order in your life is always a nice way to continue on, don’t you think?”

Zbrke nodded as Justin pulled out the second ingredient.

“Sugar, for the sweetness. Having a bit of sugar from time to time is the best way to stay content. Don’t get too much though, or you’ll keep wanting more.”

Zbrke smiled and nodded, and out came the third ingredient from the closet.

“Buttermilk, to give it moisture. Having different consistency within a cake always makes it better. You can’t be content with just one of anything, can you?

Zbrke, yet again, smiled and nodded.

“And now, for the last ingredient. Eggs. Eggs act as a binder in the cake, huddling everything closely together. Even though it isn’t as sweet as sugar, as solid as flour, or as smooth as buttermilk, it has the most important job. It brings everybody together. No ingredient deserves to be left alone. It brings connection, and fends off loneliness. That’s the power of an egg, Zbrke.”

Justin took the different bowls and put them together in a parchment paper-lined baking pan.

It went into the oven. They both simply stared at it with anticipation until it was done cooking.

Justin took it out of the oven, and placed it on the counter. He went to the cabinet and pulled out two candles, labeled 1 and 5.

“You’d be 15 today, if you were still alive.”

Zbrke ignored his words and smiled at the cake. Justin walked over and lit the candles with a spare match in his pocket.

He reminiscently looked at Zbrke.

“Happy birthday, Zbrke Beckwith.”

Zbrke blew out the candles and grinned.

“Do you wanna know my wish? Do you?”

Justin tilted his head.

“You’re not supposed to tell me your wish… but I am curious.”

Zbrke held back tears and chuckled.

“My wish… is that I’ll see you tomorrow."

Justin’s eyes widened for a moment. He thought.

And he smiled softly.

“I’m sure it’ll come true. Just keep your eyes open.”

He patted Zbrke on the head, and wrote something down on a sticky note. He placed it on the cake and looked away.

He took one step forward.

“Uncle! Where are we going?”

Justin grit his teeth.

“I’m going somewhere nice. I’ll bring you something back, I’ll just be gone for a moment.”

“U-Uncle? Are you sure that you’ll see ‘me’ again?”

Justin shut his eyes and tried not to cry. He knew that he was lying. He thought that Zbrke was most definitely in heaven. But, even if heaven did exist, he would not be making it there.

That was yet another clause of the Mirror Sword. The wielder, after death, will cease to exist. Their identity will not be stored, and instead, sent away in the wind.

The pain in Justin’s head disappeared. He steadied his hand, and took another step away from the room. The cake was left uneaten.

“UNCLE!”

Justin stepped out of the room, and stared into the endless sky.

He thought to himself.

‘I will kill these terrorists- the cause of the lost connection with Zbrke. That will be my final task. And this will be my final day.’

He unsheathed his sword.

A group of people began to dash towards Barye, riding on a massive wolf.

He gripped the hilt.

He sent a slash directly at the group of people. And he spoke.

“Goodbye, Zbrke.”

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