Inheritance

The ichor from the pillar wasted aimed itself toward them and flew over.

“Arte, we need to run!” Leo exclaims.

They began running as the ichor slammed into the ground behind them, and the shockwave from the slam caused them to fly farther into the grass. Leo spat the grass out of his mouth, and they both turned to look at the monstrosity before them.

“Like my mother before me, I will usher this world into chaos! I have inherited her will, her hate, her suffering!” He shouted.

The Warpainter was now one with Malady’s ichor. It surrounded his body and looking like a giant. Ichor, memories, emotions, and more coursed through his body as he cried. It was in this moment that he could finally deeply understand his mother’s boundless hatred. Centuries of persecution and jealousy, and defeat filled his body and fueled his hatred. Their very mission had now become one.

“H-how are we gonna beat that?” She questions.

“A hero doesn’t wonder how.” Leo stood up.

He extended a hand to her and helped her up. Arte smirked.

“You’re right… It’s not the time for just trying… It’s time to get it done.” She states.

“You remember right? It’s straight out of the final act.” Leo states.

“Yeah.” She says.

“Then you know how to beat him,” Leo smirked.

“Let’s do it.”

She raises her sword into the air and channels her energy into the blade. The blade glows red hot, steadily turning white as white embers and sparks burst from the blade. A white flame engulfs the blade like a jet engine. Bursting into the sky like a pillar of light. The flame dies down a little as Arte feels a hand on each shoulder. A balding man to her right and a much younger, brown-haired man to her left.

“Grandpa! Dad!” She exclaimed.

Before her, a woman floated down with the same red hair as her. She rested her palms on her face and nearly teared up looking at her. Arte did the same while smiling.

“Mom, Dad, Grandpa, and Leo!” She calls out. “Let’s end this together!”

Arte and Leo launch into the air together. Whether it was the strength she had or her family’s influence, she didn’t know, but she was well in the air, the giant. The Warpainter was lost in his mother’s memories as his ichor started attacking to protect him. Leo and Arte dodged through the sky, slipping past the blasts of ichor flying at them like cannons. Arte cut through one of them on the way down. She raised the sword into the air, and the fire surged even more than before. The Warpainter grinned.

“Predictable.” He states.

A quick blast of ichor shot out like a railgun, taking her left arm clean off, sending the sword flying to the ground with it. Blood splattered on her and Leo’s cheeks as surprise filled his face.

“Game over!!!!” He shouted.

With no weapon in her hand, she writhed in pain as her parents’ spirits worriedly watched. Her mother was panicking as she watched.

The coin in Leo's hand was long gone; instead was the magic wand. Leo raised it and cast the spell Gravity, putting immense pressure on his body, causing him to spit up blood, but he caught up to the sword and grabbed it. The wand changed and turned bright white.

“Please be what I need…!” Leo thought.

It turned into playing cards as Leo threw them into the giant’s body. Using the card as a stepping stool, he shot up, holding the blade with both hands. Rosso’s spirit appeared beside him, engulfing the blade in white flames. Leo raised the blade and sliced through the giant’s body all the way through his ascent.

“Haaaaaaa!” He shouted.

The blade cut from the giant’s stomach to its shoulder. After the blade exited, he started to descend again.

“Arte!” He shouted.

Leo nearly slammed into her as they spun in the air from the momentum.

“Sir, I’m in love with your daughter! She became an amazing woman!” Leo exclaimed happily.

Rosso smirked and patted him on the back and held his shoulder, while Leo rubbed Arte’s back as she shook off the pain. Tears clung to her eyes as they held the sword together. They blasted toward the Warpainter. He fired everything he had, but the purifying energy in the giant’s body made it unresponsive. She and Leo held the sword together tightly as their speed increased. The sword stabbed straight through him as they landed on the giant, sending a shockwave of wind and light through the meadow. The giant’s body began to fill with light before bursting apart at the seams.

“No! I was supposed to avenge my mother!” He shouts.

“What’s your name?” Arte asks as light engulfs the entire area.

When it fades, they remain in a white space with nothing surrounding them. The pain in her arm is gone, but it remains missing. Not even their weapons are there. Before them, the Warpainter was crouched on the ground with his head against it. Leo was alert at first, but Arte calmed him down. She kneels beside him.

“What’s your name? It has to be something other than ‘Warpainter’.” She says.

“My name… Is Ren.” He says.

“Do you know what your name means?” She asks.

“No…? Why does that matter?” He questioned.

“You have a photographic memory, but never knew the in-game language for Crystal Quest?” She asks.

“No. I didn’t think I needed to learn it.” He says.

“Makes sense. Only the most hardcore, addicted players learn it.” Leo says.

She stood there without moving for a moment, only to realize her arm was missing.

“I could feel it even if you didn’t do it.” Leo sighed.

“Anyway, in Crystal Quest's language, that name means ‘Love’.” She explained.

“What?” He questioned.

“While she probably couldn’t save herself from what she went through, I think that she truly loved you and perhaps wanted you to walk a different path,” Arte says. “But It's anyone’s guess.”

“That’s just how life goes. Sometimes we misinterpret things from the people we love most and make mistakes because of it.” Leo adds. “But what do I know?”

“In the end, the two of us aren’t so different,” Arte says. “We both came from the same place. If we met, maybe things could’ve turned out differently.”

“Who knows?” Ren wondered.

His body began to fade away.

“Either way, I just want to sleep. I’m tired of everything.” He sighed in exhaustion.

“Rest in peace,” Leo says.
“See you later,” Arte spoke.

His body faded away into shards of yellow light that floated upward.

“I guess that’s that,” Leo says.

“Yeah. We made some mistakes along the way, but we did it together.” She smiled bitterly.

As she sighed, she heard footsteps coming from behind, and it was her family standing there. Rosso and Remilia ran over and embraced her as she turned. Leo smiled as he watched them. They were crying as they embraced her. Arte felt the tears well up within as they embraced.

Leo and her grandfather stand off to the side and watch as they have an emotional moment.

“Mom… Dad… I… We did it.” She says.

“You did what we couldn’t.” Rosso sniffed.

“You’ve grown up so much. You… Took after me so much! Unlike your dad’s ugly mug.” She joked.

“You still fell for this ugly mug, though.” He laughed.

“I’m so glad I got to meet you!” Arte exclaims through tears.

“We weren’t sure we’d ever get to see you, and now it’s clear Dad took great care of you.” Her mother spoke.

“Of course.” He added.

He walked over and joined in the family hug.

“I missed you a lot.” She says.

“I missed you, too.” He hugged her tighter.

“Leo, get in here too,” Rosso states. “Gramps told us all about you.”

“Huh… He did?” Leo questions.

“So you’re the man my daughter loves.” Her mother walked over and looked him up and down.

“Grandpa, you knew?!” She questions

“It was obvious.” He says.

“Not a bad choice. You could’ve done much, much worse.” She says.

Rosso puts a hand on his shoulder.

“Please, give her a hand going forward,” Rosso says.

Leo looks left and right suspiciously with a subtle grin. 

Behind him, his wife stood with her hands on her hips.

“Who says that when their daughter has just lost their arm!” She exclaims.

“I didn’t mean it like that!” He says, throwing both hands up.

Leo and Arte start laughing.

“I wanted to ask… Are Leo and I…” Arte began speaking.

“No. Your story, your journey… It's just beginning.” Rosso states. “You can both go anywhere you want. Whether it's back home or if you want to stay in Arcadia.”

“Right. How did you get to our world anyway?” Leo asks.

“The goddess gave us a method of leaving this world, and so we sent Gramps there with Arte, in case we failed. I mean, we technically did, but I never expected Malady to go as well.” He states.

“Yeah,” Remilia states.

“They told me if they didn’t show up in a certain amount of time, then they failed and said to never come back,” Gramps explained. “I went anyway and saw the world in peace and realized it was they who succeeded. I found out they never returned and then handed the pendant to Arte.”

“So you wanted to give me my own choice?” She asked.

“It was up to you if you wanted to return home or stay in the real world.” He states.

“I’m just curious how we all exist here inside a game. Aren’t we just lines of code?” Arte asks.