Farewell

    " You said I will never suffer again... you liar..." 

    She didn't know why his death hurt her so much, all she knew was that she didn't care why she came here anymore.

     Alice clenched her fists and continued to cry on his chest. She sat there for a long time, she didn't know how much either. 

    Finally she raised her head and looked at Eric's face.

    She held her right hand, touching his cold face. At that moment, without even knowing why, she brought her head close to his face and kissed him on the lips.

    The kiss didn't last long and it tasted like iron because of the blood. 

     After a few seconds, Alice raised her head to look at his face again. 

     At that moment, a wave of heat began to flow through her and body started to glow. She could feel her magical power growing at a very fast pace. Her power has increased at least a hundred times and continues to grow. All her senses were enhanced and trough her eyes it seems like the world was completely differently. She could even see and hear a mosquito that was at least 500 meters away. 

    "What... is this...?" 

    Standing up, Alice asked this while looking at her glowing hands. Her eyes then turned to look at Eric.

      Alice raised a hand and a magic circle appeared in front of her. The magic circle began to glow and Eric's body was swallowed by an ice coffin. His whole body was now under around 50cm of ice. Standing beside the ice coffin, Alice touched the place where Eric's face was.

    "Thanks for this last gift! I assure you that I will live to your expectations." 

     Alice extended her hand and again a magic circle appeared but this time it formed an hole in the ground around 3 feet deep.

     "I need to leave now but I promise you I'll come back!" 

     The ice coffin floated in the hole and dirt covered it like there has never been an hole before. Another magic circle appeared under Alice's feet and she disappeared. 

 * * * Prezent, Year 2022, Underground Secret Library***

    Alice woke up in a big dark room with thousands of bookshelves on walls and a reading table in the middle. That was the room of the Grand Secret Library she found some time ago. The floor was cold.

     She was lying down with her eyes closed. On the reading table was a lighted candle and it seems like it hasn't been too long since she "left". 

     Alice didn't get up too quickly. Images of past events crossed her mind. After some time, she took a deep breath and opened her eyes. At that moment, from her face disappeared all traces of feelings. Just coldness could pe seen and, in the end she finally stand up, just in time because the door of the library was slammed on the wall. There stood a tall man with long hair, half of the face burned and hidden under a mask and his eyes full of killing intent.

     "Well, well, who did we find here. Let's see where will you ran now little ratt."

     Not waiting for an answer, Kratos extended his right hand and a black magic circle appeared.

  "Morvulo!" 

     From the ground, a big thorn, made from something like a black crystal, emerged. 

     Before the thorn to arrive at her, expressionless, Alice slapped the air and the black thorn was destroyed. Kratos was confused and amazed at the same time. 

    " What did..." 

   He didn't manage to end what he wanted so say, because a wave of ice started to come at him. The temperature in the room dropped below 0 Celsius degrees. 

     Kratos observed that something wasn't right but his pride didn't let him back down. After all, the end of the day, he was the strongest in the world. 

      "That won't work... Tectus!" 

    The same black crystal surrounded him like a shield. The shield resisted for 2-3 seconds but it wasn't enough.

      "Don't damage this library." 

    Alice said that with an expressionless face and the black crystal cracked. Kratos was swallowed by the ice and his body was now in an ice cube. 

    She walked slowly towards him and with the flick of two fingers slapped the ice. Some cracks start to appear and finally the ice exploded in millions of tiny pieces letting nothing from what was once "the strongest magician in the world".

     Although she got the much desired revenge, she wasn't happy at all and her purpose in life disappeared. 

     "Well... for now, I think I will check on the state of the kingdom." 

     After she made up her mind, Alice climbed the stairs to get out of the underground library.

     Outside, Dark clouds covered the sky. The sun's rays come down from place to place trough the cracks in the clouds. Here was summer and the wind was warm.

      Taking a look around, the surrounding where in ruins. Kratos used his black crystal magic to destroy the walls and the castle. Once used, these crystal won't disappear no matter what but now that Kratos was dead, those crystal started do slowly disappear like the sand in wind.

    For Alice, this place was so nostalgic. Taking a deep breath she started to scan the surroundings. 

    Although Kratos was cruel and ruthless, he still had people under his command. She wanted to see if there was someone nearby but didn't expected to feel a familiar presence.

      "No way..." 

    Her body moved alone to the highest tower in the castle which, strangely, was untouched. She opened the large wooden door and began to climb the spiral staircase.

     After 5 minutes of fast walking, she reached the end of the stairs where a wooden door with a padlock was waiting for her. She hesitated a bit but destroyed the padlock and opened the door. 

    Inside was only a bed in the middle of the room, and on that bed sat a person with the hands and feet chained. That person's face was pale and dry as if it hadn't eaten for several days. When she entered, his brown eyes opened and looked at Alice who frozen in the front of the door.

     "Oh... hey... long time no see... or should I say short? It's been just several minutes for you."

   " ... " 

   " I'm sure you have many questions but can you remove these chains first? I've been wearing them for a few years now and I can't stand them much longer."

     Even though she was still confused, Alice moved quickly and destroyed the chains immediately.

    "Thanks... ouu... auch!"

     After removing the chains, Alice hugged Eric, making him to scream in pain. 

      "Easy...If you hug me tighter, I'll die more faster than I should do."

    " ... "

 She did not answer and continued to hug him, a little slightly this time.

     Currently, they were both laying in bed with Alice on top of him. She didn't move or said anything for a long time. It was like she was afraid he will disappear again if she let him go. After a while she finally asked the questions she had.

  "How are you alive, and what is going on here?" 

   "So... you finally asked... Well, is a long story but in short the time is not easy as we think. The prezent we are now is happened because you come back in time at that point. Because you come back then, Kratos managed to find me after you left. At the same time, a paradox was created and both inherited a part of my powers" 

    Alice didn't interrupted and let him to continue his story.

     "You see, the rules about how to inherit my powers are a bit special. "The First Human" is someone blessed by God's. The heir of this bloodline has the power to live a human life in some special conditions. If we die without our consent we can revive at what point from our lifetime we want. Also, we aren't the same person with our past reincarnation. We just have their memories so we can learn from our past and have a good life in future. Our powers can't be stolen either. Someone can have them just if we accept it."

 " Then...? "

"...But the life is not perfect. If someone drink constantly our blood they can use 50 percent of our power. So, Kratos find me and drank my blood for several years already. Unlike him, you have my approval and when you kissed me back then, you drank my blood unintentionally. Now you can use my full power." 

 " ... Wait! You remember that?" 

   Alice raised her head to look at Eric while her ice face melded instantly.

    " ... I don't think that's the point here..."

  "Yah, right... so... you were not dead then?" 

    "No, I was barely alive and survived because Kratos used some kind of dark magic to keep me alive for my blood."

   "At least he did something good in his life for once... but that doesn't metter anymore... I'm glad you're alive..."

    "Well... that's not really the case..."

     "What?"

     "Well...I'm alive because of Kratos's dark magic, now that he's dead, that magic disappeared and I will die in 1hr or so, and I will not be able to revive. "

     That come for Alice like a bomb and her voice started to tremble.

   "...No... how can this be... there must be something I can do... I can't let you die again... now that my powers increased there must be something... something. .. " 

 With the eyes closed and with her had on Eric's chest, she started to mumble uncontrollable. 

 "Alice!" 

 "...Something..."

 "Alice!" 

    Alice didn't raised her head but at least she stopped from mumbling and listened him. 

    "I know how you feel but you can't do anything. My blood was drained for years, my life force is approaching it's end. I'm still alive because I wanted to meet you again here and bid farewell."

   "No... I don't want to lose you again...you said you can go back at any point from your life if you die unwillingly. You can go back and re-do everything!"

     A little hope appeared in Alice's heart but it was but it was shattered immediately by Eric's shaking head.

    " I did it already... I went back so many times that I can't count. How do you think I know your name? We never introduced ourselves." 

    Now that she thought about it, he indeed called her name just now. 

     "This is already the best outcome that I could reach..."

   "Still..." 

  "It's alright and you don't need to be sad... I know you think you love me but that's not love, is more like gratitude for me helping you combined with the suffering of losing your dears ones. After some time, maybe years, you will realize that I was right and you will forget about me. Then you can live your life, maybe find someone else, marry him and have kids. The life is long, now that you become immortal, life will be even longer . Is not good to live in the past, you need to go on and forget about everything."

    "NO! Your wrong! I really love you and even if what you said is true... I don't care! I still want to be with you! You said I will forget you but I can't do that. Even if you die now, I will spend all of this immortal life to find a way to save you! I won't give up until I see you again!"

    A warm smile appeared on Eric's face and two tears falled from his eyes. 

   " What a silly girl..."

   " You're the silly one!" 

     They both looked in each other's eyes with a solemn face and then laughed.

    " Then I will wait for you...Ah, and don't go so far as destroying the world or humanity. "

    "I wouldn't have do that... maybe." 

    With a smile, Eric leaned forward and kissed her forhead.

    " It's time to bid farewell, see you soon..." 

     Tears come from Alice's eyes.

     "Yes!" 

   "I love you!"

   "I love you too!"

     With these last words, they hugged while Eric closed slowly his eyes. Alice, not wanting to leave his side, used her enormous amount of magical power to set up a barrier around the tower and entered in a deep sleep what will last for a very long time.