All bad things come to an end ( 2/2 )

“Leader… We… We have to go! Now!”

    Right behind Woodle, Marnie appeared, shyly pulling his sleeve. Kiseki turned his head to observe her and beheld the manticore also enclosing them, carrying an unconscious Reisig on his back.

    It took Woodle many seconds appearing as an eternity before answering.

“Yes. It’s high time to vacate this place.”

    In a haste, he took the lassie’s hand and began to run. The circus was about to crash on the town hall.

“Hurry up Idonosoko! There’s no time to rest.”

    Within a minute, they all gathered at the top of the circus. The Idonosoko and all the Players apart from one person.

“Where is Ling?” Woodle asked.

“I couldn’t find her. It’s like as if she disappeared!”

    Worried, the lassie replaced a strand of her golden hair beating in the wind behind her ear. She took a glance at the roof of the town hall enclosing at full speed.

“As we know her, she’s surely in one piece.” Koff underlined.

“Doubtlessly.”

    Agreeing with him, the leader typed a remote instruction on his holographic screen and two metallic blades unfolded from the top of the circus while iron bars emerged all around them. Woodle took a step back from the group. A final bar emerging from one of the vertical ones spread horizontally in a circle at top of the others bars. As the summit of the circus shaped into a nacelle, the pales began to rotate.

“What are you doing leader? Step in before the lift-off.”

    Approaching the brim of the nacelle, a hand on the barrier, Haru extended the other to Woodle, inviting him to join them. The remaining Players stared at him with incomprehension.

“I can’t do that. Don’t wait for me, there’s still something… I have to do.”

    Marnie scurried towards him, grasping the metallic bars while the top of the circus began to divide from the tent, the pales rotating faster.

“This is madness!! The circus is about to crash, come with us leader! Come at once!!”

    She was about to jump out of the nacelle to bring him back when the lassie realised Woodle’s body was slowly dissipating in thin particles. Her eyes wide opened she understood.

“A mere clone…”

“What the heck… You weren’t at all planning to escape with us.” Mekko added.

    A malicious smile on his face, his eyes filled with nostalgia, Woodle Bomme gazed at all these dismayed faces as the nacelle lifted off.

“It was an honour to be the leader of all of you, you the Players.” He then outstretched his arms, raising his hands to the sky, in the direction of the elevating nacelle. “Now leave! Time has come for you to play on your own! Force the dice and shape your own destiny!”

    A broad grin upon his face, a sudden blast ignited the whole circus as it collided with the town hall, the roof shattering while Woodle ended fading away.

    Kiseki knelt down, placing his hands on Marnie’s shoulders. Horrified, she let out a cry, tears dropping down her cheeks as the flames devoured the circus. They wrought havoc in the area all round the town hall which already vanished in high wisps of smoke combined with dust and rubble, flames roaring higher and higher at top of them as if attempting to lick the clouds.

***

    Thereafter the assault, most of the Players escaped before Kiseki even thought of arresting them. Anyway, he was still suspended. As their leader as well as their main enemy disappeared, the Players had no more reason to fight for the time being. Ling Zhen remained untraceable, having mysteriously disappeared into the ether.

    Kazuya brought Reisig to a clandestine clinic. His vital signs had been stabilised though he remained in the coma. His old friend often visited him, sometimes along with Kiseki and Marnie. Indeed, the lassie came to terms with letting a chance to her father. They tried learning to know each other though Marnie remained wary. At least she accepted the idea that her true mother was innocent. Even once, she crafted her a paper lantern together with Kiseki before lighting it and letting it fly to the moon. In fact, Lucy had no sepulchre so that they couldn’t do much more…

    A peculiar fact is that when the police investigated the place of explosion, they found traces of Donna Merlish, but not a single of Woodle nor the android.

~ The End ~