Lies To The Light - I Rage Against Fate

Atos and Elek collided in the middle of the hall. Every punch they traded blasted the stone apart beneath their feet, each blow landing like it was ripping the earth in two, the whole castle trembling around us. An entire facade collapsed behind me, revealing another wave of Elek's army, which charged straight at us. Great!

A hulking beast lunged for Bjorn. He sidestepped its strike and slid one palm over the other, and the monster's upper half flew into the air while the rest of it crumpled to the floor. Marie whistled, the note echoing off the obsidian and swelling louder and louder until the whole horde stopped dead, the shrill wave piercing their ears and hurling them back into the corridor they'd come from. Kai darted around the pack, flinging her golden spear from one monster to the next and recalling it to her hand in a flash of light each time. Once she'd tagged enough of them, she slammed the butt of her spear against the stone. The marks glowed brighter and brighter on the monsters' hides until they blew apart, taking three or four more down with every tag.

Zelo and Ior sprinted over to me.

"You and Yumii go help Atos!" Zelo pointed at the two figures tearing the hall apart. "You're the only ones who can bear that kind of power."

Ior grabbed my arm before I could move.

"You were right… I really only needed to choose to defend those I cared about."

She smiled at me and leapt into the fray. I watched her battle, a faint smile on my lips. I’m glad you figured that out for yourself.

I looked down at the blade in my hand.

"Are you finally ready?"

The sword hummed, its shadow crawling up my arm, all the way to my face.

"So are you," the blade chuckled. "You can take over now. See you in another life Storm Cleaver."

The buzzing in the back of my head faded, and for the first time in days, the voices stopped whispering. A cold breath brushed my cheek. I touched my face, shadow tendrils stretching from my skin and fingers as I rubbed it. Why..?

Yumii ran up to me, eyes wide.

"What's going on with your eye and your face?! They're red and black! It's like half of your body just disappeared."

I looked down at the polished obsidian. A glowing red eye stared back at me. Half of me was simply gone from the reflection.

Whatever it takes. I clenched my fists.

"I’m fine."

"Right… Listen, Elek means to use my soul to break free from his prison, in his world."

"Why?"

"Because I helped put him there ages ago! My soul is the key to his cage."

"How do you know that?!"

"That's what his ritual was for!"

I rubbed my temples, mind racing. This is the worst!! I brought her EXACTLY where I shouldn’t have!

"We need to get you out of here!"

"No!” She grabbed my arm. “We need to remove him from Sam's body first. Possession of this kind takes a huge toll, you've seen what it did to the Angels!"

"That'll happen to Sam?!"

"Even worse! He's not a devotee, his soul will be ripped apart as it's forcefully linked to the arcane."

Why can’t it be easy, for once?!

"... How do we disconnect him?"

Yumii bit her lip.

"There might be a way. I'll handle it, just make sure you get Elek to stand, and stay in the same rune circle he tried to use on me!"

She rushed off. Easier said than done, but okay.

Atos and Elek traded blows that cracked the air itself. If I go in like this, I won't last a minute against those two monsters. I pulled a handful of sigil pills out of my pouch, steadying myself. Four-no, five of them…

Maybe we really are all a little crazy.

I swallowed them all at once.

I doubled over, steam pouring off my skin, muscles spasming out of my control. Pressure built in my skull until blood trickled from my ears, my heart pounding faster than a hummingbird's wings. I groaned, then yelled through the pain, grinding my teeth so hard I thought they'd crack. Come on, Zoe, don't fail now! Move it!!

I roared and dashed forward, the stone shattering behind my heels.

I reached Atos's side, who glanced at me in shock, and threw my spear at Elek. He dodged it in a blur while weaving through Atos's furious chain of punches. I yelled, and a wall of shadows wrapped around him, pinning him down. I was about to run him through when he bellowed, blinding light bursting out of him and shattering my shadows like glass.

"So," I dodged a spike that exploded out of his shoulder, "want to tell me why you've been lying to me my entire life?!"

"Now?!" Atos ducked a wind slash that carved a line through the pillar behind him.

"Yes, now! Why fake being a drunkard all these years?!"

Elek fired a blast of condensed water that sliced clean through the castle wall. I rolled under it, and Atos caught the next one on his forearm, steam hissing off his skin.

"I wasn’t just drinking! It was an arcane inhibitor I made myself. It made me drunk because it cut off all my power."

Elek retched a stream of acid at us, and we split apart, the floor bubbling where we'd stood.

"I was hiding, Zo. For thousands of years, he's hunted me and tortured everyone I cared for. If Elek had learnt of my attachment to you, there isn't a single rock under which I could've hidden you. He would've set the world on fire just to get to me through you! That's why I hid!"

Elek howled, and the air above us twisted into a whirlpool that tore at my hair and clothes. I dug my heels in, the shadows anchoring me to the floor.

"So that's why you changed…" My voice cracked. "But then why pretend to die in Bahal?! Did you have to break my heart like this?!"

Atos stayed quiet.

Walls of glass burst out of the floor around Elek, deflecting every strike we threw, until I sank my shadows into them and ripped them apart. In the second it cost me, his fist caught my ribs and sent me skidding across the hall. Atos answered with a blow that hurled him straight through the stained-glass murals.

I groaned in pain, Atos pulling me back onto my feet.

"I figured it'd be best for you if I wasn't there anymore. I destroyed our relationship because of my attitude, and you and Sam were already in trouble… I'd hoped I could finish this before you and Yumii got here."

"And how'd that work out for you?" The words came out bitter, my heart aching.

"How can I trust you, when all I've seen is that you lied to me my whole life? When you've been written down in history as a man who committed genocide and toppled societies?"

Atos bit his lip.

"It’s more complex than that… But I’ll explain later. I need you to trust me for this fight. We can't win otherwise… If we even can."

"Don't you ignore me!!" Elek roared, hurling himself back at us.

My shadows poured out through my sword, and I cut at him in a flurry of slashes, afterimages trailing behind the blade.

"I should've destroyed this cursed heirloom long ago!" Elek roared, blood spraying in the air.

The blade shook violently in my grip. Pools of shadow spread across the floor, and massive dark weapons surged out of them to impale him. Elek dodged them one by one, twisting his body in ways no human spine would allow.

We backed off as Elek unleashed his full might in a shriek that broke all the castle’s windows. The walls twisted and broke apart, and the floor tore free of the mountain beneath us, rising into the air on drifting platforms. A wall came spinning at Atos and knocked him clean off his platform, sending him plummeting towards the mountainside below.

"You're so rusty!" Elek mocked. "No wonder you had to hide! Coward!"

He leapt onto my platform.

"No escape now, girl!"

I hesitated. Sam's face was right there, inches from mine.

"You're pathetic. This is why this body was the perfect choice. If you think I'll just wait and stand patiently in your little ritual, you'll never defeat me." He grinned cruelly. "You'll have to kill your precious husband either way! Hahahah-"

I shut him up with a punch to the nose. Sorry, hubby.

The platforms spun around us like leaves caught in a storm. His spells ricocheted off the drifting walls, while my shadows kept me glued to the stone even when the world turned upside down, handing me a new weapon every time the last one shattered. Black and blue chains snapped taut between the platforms. Elek heaved on them, smashing the tiles together, and a storm of shards shot straight at me. A shadow wall rose before me, swallowing every single one.

"You think your friends will survive this?" He pointed below. "You've brought them here to die!"

Far beneath us, his army was swarming my friends. They fought as one, covering each other's backs as they cut down monster after monster, but the sheer numbers were turning the tide. Marie stood at the centre, blood running from a wide gash across her forehead, arcane surging into her glowing green hands. A snake caught Zelo by the leg, and he howled until Kai tore it off him and flung it into a monster's face. He staggered back to his feet, struggling to keep up. Bjorn was flipping the earth over Elek's minions when an arrow as thick as a spear punched into his shoulder and dropped him. A five-eyed lizard swung its mace into Ior's chest, sending her sliding across the stone, coughing blood. She screamed as the beast charged her, then backhanded the ground, lifting the floor beneath the lizard and launching it off the mountainside.

Marie groaned, her hands shaking as she reeled in the arcane, her yell growing louder and louder, the light in her palms burning brighter than the sun.

"Tch." Elek vanished in a blink and reappeared right beside her.

Oh no you don't!

I ran to the edge of my platform and jumped. The wind whipped my face, the platform below growing bigger by the second as the arcane raged around me.

Marie roared to the skies and released everything. A supernova swept through the castle, blasting away the floating stone, burning Elek's army to a crisp and washing over our friends, their wounds closing before my eyes. Elek staggered back from the blast, his skin steaming as he healed.

“RAHHHHHH!”

I smashed a giant shield into the ground as I landed.

The shadows at my feet absorbed the impact and released it in a wave of razor-sharp teeth flying at Elek. He stumbled backwards, torn open in a dozen places.

"Do you know what you’re doing?! If I let go, Sam will die by your hands!"

I hit him with a flying kick to the neck.

"Fine! Be my guest and get the fuck out of my husband's body!"

A huge boulder slammed into Elek’s face, shattering on impact, and he toppled backwards into the void.

"Get him!" Atos, back from the mountainside, ran past me and jumped.

"Go to the throne room!" I yelled at my friends, and leapt after him, gravity pulling me down with an invisible rope.

Mid-air, Atos grabbed me and flung me straight at Elek, who blasted me with fire. I covered myself with a frost-covered shadow shield and caught him in my arms. He roared, black spikes bursting out of his body and piercing my leg, my arm and my stomach. I coughed up blood, groaning.

"Idiot!" He laughed as he tried to pull away.

I didn't let go. He pushed me away repeatedly, failing every attempt.

"Let me go, you ignorant child!"

I grinned at him.

"Do you think I care if I die like this? My husband will be by my side, and you'll have failed. I told you I wouldn't fucking lose!"

"You're insane!" He laughed like a maniac.

Atos swooped past and wrapped himself around Elek, locking an arm around his throat. We fell faster and faster towards the ground. Elek roared, engulfing us in burning arcane. The sigil pills worked overtime to keep me alive, my body steaming, my mind going numb.

The world lurched around us, and suddenly the throne room floor rushed up to meet us.

BOOOOOM!

Dust exploded everywhere. The stone crushed me, my shadows splattering across the hall to absorb most of the impact before letting go of me completely. A silent scream tore out of me, fire shooting up my leg. I looked down. My foot was facing the wrong way at the knee.

Ughhhhhhh, that hurts!!!

I looked up, nails scrapping the stone from the pain. Yumii and Atos, whose arm was slowly sliding back into its socket on its own, were dragging Elek's battered, steaming body into the runic circle in the centre of the room. Marie had already begun chanting, the runes lighting up one by one. They dropped him into the circle and pinned his arms and legs to the floor with weapons they'd picked up off the ground. Yumii took over the incantation from Marie, Atos standing over Elek with a frown.

Elek coughed and groaned as he recovered.

"Such a weak body."

Kai and Zelo pulled me back onto my feet, holding me up between them, all of us breathing heavily. Almost there…

Marie, pale as snow and drenched in sweat, her blond hair turned black with blood and dust, did her utmost to heal me, her arcane flickering.

"Thank you," I whispered.

Marie winked at me. Elek cackled to himself.

"Eight of you and you still won't win… Do you really think this will break my possession? Sam belongs to ME now! You'll only get an empty shell!"

I spat at him.

"Shut up! I'm tired of your lies!"

"How long do you have left to live, because of your little enhancers?" He smirked, rage burning in his eyes. "You'll die in agony as your organs fail one by one!"

"I'll die at peace knowing you failed."

Elek groaned, realising he wasn’t getting under my skin anymore.

"So you'll let her do your dirty work again?" He laughed at me. "All of this just for you to let another faery sacrifice herself for you!"

"What does he mean?" I turned to Yumii.

"Don't listen to him, he's desperately trying to buy time." Atos stepped up.

I stared him down.

"I wasn't asking you."

Yumii sighed, frowning.

"To complete the ritual and extract a soul, the incanter has to pay an equivalent price. That is why Elek possessed Sam, a human. Your husband's untouched soul was his perfect sacrifice. His devotees' souls are twisted, and probably wouldn't have worked."

"W-wait, wait! You're going to kill yourself?! There's got to be another way!"

Everyone stayed quiet, Elek grinning wildly. Yumii looked me dead in the eyes.

"It's okay, I won't die… but I will forget everything. I told you, us faeries live long because of our memories. Eventually, to stay alive, I will have to forget it all."

I knelt in front of her, the purple runes glowing brighter and stronger by the minute as she channelled her arcane.

"I can't let you do that, it's not fair!"

Yumii smiled at me, tears in her eyes.

"It's not… I've come to cherish our time together, as short as it was. I-I wish I could've kept these memories for as long as I lived… But I can't. Only I can defend you… and I've made my choice."

I cried, wiping my face with my arm.

"Screw you faeries, always so goddamn loyal and brave!"

I pulled her into a hug.

"We'll take care of you, I swear! I'll protect you with my life."

She hugged me back, her skin glowing like a star in the night sky, growing warmer and warmer.

"I know you will…"

Her body shone brighter still, flooding the room with light. Yumii's head tipped back in a breathless scream, and a strange white smoke rose from her. I stared in awe at the images drifting through it, translucent. Many I didn't recognise: blurred faces handing out bread, dark tunnels hung with black and blue vines.

Others I knew instantly. The Aested's belly, and me holding onto the bars of her cage. The Kraken tearing the ship apart. The desert of Bahal and the ruins beneath it, beasts on our heels. The villages on fire and the falling white granite tower. The Twilight Forest's beautiful jungle. Her history book lying open on her lap. The ice fortress.

One last memory slipped out before the smoke gathered into a cloud above us, and my heart squeezed. It was me, my arm wrapped around her, laughing as we walked through the desert beside a belly-laughing Atos. My face looked tired but bright, my eyes glistening, while Atos smirked at us, waddling through the sand like a penguin.

The white smoke slipped into the runes, which glowed brighter than day, the stone around them melting.

"This will trap me again but it won't kill me!" Elek's raspy voice cut through the roar as he fought his restraints. "I will come back someday! You WILL SUFFER!"

I’ll die of old age before that happens. I held onto Yumii's cold hand, squeezing it tight. Let's all go home.

Bright light wiped it all from existence.