The End Is Here Pt II

There was no more need for violent aggression. Sol had killed plenty and knew the soul wound that came with that. As he took his heavy, strained steps forward, he focused on nothing more than keeping the barrier of light up around them so that the three others would be safe.

Metus had prepared for combat and chaos, but now he was met with stalwart strength that was denying every wave of assault from the horde.

Yumi kept her eyes narrowed and her head down as she clung to Sol for safety. Within the chaos and light, she could hear him snarl and strain as he and the beast inside of him worked to pour every drop of themselves into the shielding.

“Coward! Fight, you coward!!” Metus raged as he hurled choking vines and poisonous fog at them.

Every attack was devoured with screeching, seething heat. All around them, the ground was cracking apart from the deafening noise and shattering thuds. Fires erupted from deep within the earth, shining blue and cruel against the heavy fog as they ignited the moisture into steam that began to scorch Metus and the wanderers.

Sol was breaking. He was not as strong as he once was, but he knew he could make it to the end. No matter what happened after that, he just had to reach the portal and survive. Yumi wanted to help, but her powers of grief meant little to the personification of fear. She was not a warrior like her brother. All she could do was keep the little ones safe.

“Sol, you are succeeding!” she shouted as they slowly pressed forward.

Metus rose into the sky and unmade himself. What flesh he wore was removed as he spiraled his dark body into an enormous, blackened blade that spun in feverish rotations, casting putridity across the expanse as it twirled. Bodies of wanderers were lifted from the ground and pulled into his fury as he gathered his strength to the sound of screams that felt as though they were coming from the soil itself.

“Soooooollllll,” Yumi bleated.

The beast snarled with anticipation.

“Finally a real challenge!” it laughed as orange surged through Sol’s skin.

Sol braced and trusted that he was in control of himself.

Metus fell like judgement. The blade of him struck the shield, and the sky itself buckled as the remaining pieces of stability within the surrounding ground were forsaken. Time bent and the laughing melted into a single droning noise that hurled around them in a hurricane of deathly happiness. Sol and the beast cried out in strain, but they held. The barrier held, and his knees locked to set his footing. Yumi watched as his body broke against itself.

Another step brought them to the bridge of light.

Veins of golden energy began to snake across Sol’s form as both he and the beast felt themselves fading. Amber and gold shone out from within him, revealing the deep, true, ancient parts of him that could never be touched. Golden ether poured out and came to life, sparking across him, the others, then out of the dome. They struck the wanderers like lightning, freezing the lost souls in place and turning them to polished, incandescent figures.

Metus’s voice cried out in rage from all around them as the fog turned into a vice that tried to crush them.

Another step brought them closer to the portal.

Dawn and Sayane saw his hands flicker and fade.

“You caaaaan do… this… Sol. Youuuu are… not… a… failure… Not any… more…” he growled to himself as white-hot tears fled from his eyes.

Another step and his knees were lowering.

They were close.

Yumi jammed one of her hands under his arm to hoist him up.

The beast sensed that the last wave of wanderers was gathering behind them. Metus gathered himself from around the dome and slammed into the wanderers like a wave breaking on rocks. For a moment, the laughing stopped. Then it returned in a single, unified, deep laugh. Limbs melted against one another, and the sea of blackened corpses reanimated into a lone, dripping mouth that was large enough to devour the entire dome.

“Go! Now! Get up!” the beast roared to himself.

Sol cried out and pushed forward.

They were almost there. It was almost time to say farewell. Bittersweet melancholy moved through him, and his grip faltered from exhaustion.

Then the little one was climbing up his shoulder.

She’d slid out from Yumi’s palm, trusting that her little sister would be safe. Down below, the tiny head popped up from the enclosure and watched.

Dawn settled on Sol’s shoulder, then leapt across the void to land on his broad nose, just in front of his eyes. He saw her and smiled.

“You can do this, Sol. You are not a failure. You can try to forgive yourself. I… I also love you. Thank you,” she said to him.

He sniffed and nodded as the enormous mouth inhaled.

The portal was just before them, just outside of the reach of the dome. He knew that he would have to change the shape of their safety to allow the others to reach the round opening.

It was time for the last step towards nothingness.

“Goodbye, Dawn. I love you, too. Thank you,” he said.

“Goodbye, Sol.”

She jumped back to Yumi’s clutches and landed beside her sister, who was almost smiling.

“Goodbye, Sol!” she called.

“Farewell, gentle little cabbit. You were more beautiful than anything I’d ever seen,” he said.

Sayane blushed and stopped a tear from falling.

Yumi stepped in front of Sol and moved as close to the barrier edge as she could.

“What is death to an eternal being?” she asked herself with a curious head tilt as she relinquished all sense of self to the infinite unknown.

She met Sol’s gaze one last time.

“Goodnight, my gorgeous sunrise,” she said.

Sol bowed his head.

“The moon is beautiful, isn’t it?” he said.

With that, the farewells were over. Light bent around them as the groan began. The enormous mouth dripped black and stagnant as the lips pulled back. Sol faced the distorted jaws.

“Ready?” he asked the beast.

“Ready?” Yumi asked the sisters.

They pulled one against one another and closed their eyes. Yumi cupped her hands closed and kissed the edges of her thumbs.

“Maybe just… say one another’s names as we go,” she offered.

Paws pressed against backs. Tears flowed, not only from sadness but from relief. Furry ears tucked in subtle fear that was calmed by brave acceptance.

“Sayane.”

“Dawn.”

“Sayane.”

“Dawn.”

The beast chuckled at the sight of the darkness being calcified into a final attack that looked as though it would tear through reality itself.

“We might not survive this,” he muttered with a sigh of annoyance.

“No, I fear we will,” Sol chuckled.

Sol’s feet settled on the bridge of light, and he exhaled. Just as the mouth tore itself open, his hands rotated and pulled the barrier from a domed shape into a single flat wall of light that spanned upwards and laterally across the entirety of the realm. A single, infinite, cataclysmic shout of a laugh exploded from the titanic maw.

It struck the barrier with a high pitched scream that rattled across every plane of existence, and Sol saw that the barrier cracked but held.

Behind him, the dome fully vanished as all of the light was pulled towards the frontal defense. At last, the portal was open and waiting for Yumi, Dawn, and Sayane. Yumi burst forth, unafraid and unslowed as she pressed her hands to her lips and said the names of the girls with them.

The last thing Sol heard was;

“Sayane.”

“Dawn.”

“Saya-”

Light and dark screamed against one another as life shuddered but held like a door against a flood. In that shudder was written the frailty and wonder of the life world that life was meant to guard. Metal snapped away, and Sol’s eyes were freed. His head turned upwards and his eyes closed.

Then there was nothing but nothingness.