48 - Lumo End

The fight continues across the illusory village of Parallaxia.

The three of us battling over the lake where Lumo once took the five of us fishing.

We clash through the village streets, where Lumo once walked with us all, our hands joined together, like children bound for school.

We tear through the forests where we caught butterflies, and set them free at the end of the day, watching them fly off into the sunset.

Jessica and I are both at our limits.

—No. No, we're way past that.

Every fiber of my being is screaming at me to stop. I'm bruised and battered beyond belief. I've never been in such pain. I can hardly even lift my arm. Jessica's stronger than me by several magnitudes, but even she must be feeling it by now.

But still we press on.

Under the blood-red sky, within this collapsing dream—

We press on.

Because the man in the eyepatch has already taken so many precious memories from me already …

And I'm not going to let him take any more.

This ends here.

… Not that I can remember, very clearly, what exactly he's taken from me. I only know—know, in the deepest recesses of my soul—that he has. I know there have been others like Lumo, and that he's erased them out of existence.

"… Oh, 'Jessica'," the man says, deflecting a spread of arrows from my repeating crossbow. "Just tell the poor boy what you and I are. Don't you feel any shame, keeping him in the dark like this?!"

"Lumo!" I shout. "Lumo told me what you are. … You're part of her story. You came from her world. You come in at the end of her story's arcs, and you erase the route's heroine. … You've broken out of her story, and now you're doing the same to other fictional characters!!!"

The man cackles, as he throws several shurikens at Jessica, who deflects them with her sword. "Oh? Is that what ol' Ms Doll-face told you?!"

The man disappears in a blur, re-appears in front of me.

With his gloved hand he grabs me by the throat. I flail uselessly at his arm, as he lifts me up in the air.

"What if I told you," he snarls, "that that's just one big happy coincidence? She's got an eyepatch villain in her story who erases characters—a completely different character from me!? … After all, parallel thinking is all too common, don't ya think? One author had the same idea as another. Big fuckin' whoop."

Jessica's behind the man, slashing in vain at his back with her sword. It doesn't even faze him in the least.

"… Jessica here, she never told you the truth of the fictional characters inside Point Parallax, did she? Why they end up there, in the first place?"

He looks me in the eye. His heterochromatic gaze burning into me.

"… They were abandoned, Odd-kun. They were never written. Stories left half-written, or not written at all. Characters left without a story by their own authors. Characters with arcs that'll never resolve. Some of those poor characters existing merely as barely legible notes scribbled down on some piece of paper."

I manifest a knife in my hand, try to stab him. He just bats my hand away, like I'm some kind of annoying bug.

"… See, I'm not doing anything to them. It's simply their time to go. You can think of me like …" With his free hand, he strokes his chin, exaggeratedly, like he's in deep thought. "… like entropy. These characters—they're simply … dissipating. Like energy does. It just happens. Me?" He points a finger at himself, mock-innocently. "… I've got no part in this. I'm just here along for the ride."

And then I feel it. He tightens his grip on my throat.

I can't breathe.

My vision begins to fade …

Fade away …

Blood-red sky …

I hear Jessica continue to slash away …

I hear …

… the familiar hum of an energy cannon powering up.

My eyes shoot open.

From a short distance away, Lumo's there.

In the corner of my eye.

Powering up her energy cannon—

And then—

The man disappears.

I fall to my knees, gasping for air.

I reach out my hand, toward Lumo.

"No …"

The man re-appears behind Lumo.

Jessica is already on her way.

But it's too late.

Lumo looks at me one last time.

"Odd-kun," she says, smiling at me, the man's gloved hands on her shoulders. Tears streaming down her face. "I'm—"

And then they're gone.