Annihilation

The hourglass seemed to disappear into the light that emerged out of it, forcing me to shut my eyes as it swallowed the entire room. When I opened them, I could see nothing but blue light all around me, as if I’d been sucked into another realm.

Selphine stood in front of me, smirking.

“What just happened?” I asked.

“What happened is that you’re done, it’s over for you. You’re in my domain now.”

I launched myself towards her, but immediately stopped when I realized my fist wasn’t being enhanced. I tried enhancing it again, but once more, nothing happened.

“What’s going on?” I tried to enhance it a third time, but the result was the same as the first two: Nothing happened.

“What’s wrong?” Selphine asked smugly, clearly knowing what was happening.

“What did you do?”

“Like I said, you’re in my domain now. You can’t use magic here, fool.”

I looked around to try to find a way out, but all around me was a sea of Blue Light.

Suddenly, a wall of ice spawned right in front of me and fell over, I barely managed to dodge it as it crashed and shattered.

“Unfortunately for you, my magic capacities are still at full strength, so you have basically no chance now.” She said with a confident expression plastered on her face, as if she already knew that she’d all but one.

“Alright, now that we’ve established that I’m done for, can you please explain what the hell all of this is?”

“Nope.” She said.

“Damnit Selphine, this isn’t how it works! As the evil mastermind, you’re supposed to explain in precise detail the machinations of the hourglass so that I can somehow find an exploit and plot a counter attack! You’re breaking the typical shounen rules!”

“What the hell is a shounen? Besides, you really think I care about that?”

“Damnit, I forgot you don’t have them here…wait, no! Weren’t you originally from Earth? How could you not know what shounen is?”

“Not everyone is a nerd like you, nerd!”

“Further proof that you’re behind on the times, nerd isn’t an insult anymore, it’s a compliment!”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Okay, don’t, but it’s pure facts.”

“Hold on a second!” She bellowed. “I know what you’re trying to do! You’re trying to waste as much time as possible so you can try to figure out this space since I didn’t have the courtesy to inform you myself! You think I’ll just let you do as you please, fool?”

“Shit, I’ve been uncovered!” I took a step back. “But unfortunately, it’s too late for you!”

I charged at her with full speed but was swatted away instantly by a magic shield.

“Uh…was that supposed to be your big attack?” She said in a disappointed tone.

“Damn, time to shift to plan B!”

I ended up trying every plan until Z, and most of them looked eerily similar, as they all involved a form of charging at Selphine.

She didn’t bother to finish me off, clearly playing with me. I had to figure out a way out of this mess, and soon! But I had nothing, no way at all. I had no magic to attack her from range, and whenever I tried to get close she didn’t need to worry a speck about anything I could potentially do!

I was on the verge of resigning myself to my defeat. What could I even do? The hourglass was surely what was stripping me of my magic inside this domain of hers, but I had no way to get to it….

Suddenly, a sword stuck out of Selphine’s chest, leaving the two of us completely shell shocked.

“Wh-What the…how…”Selphine managed to say while coughing up blood.

The sword was pulled back out, and she slumped to the ground, revealing Arthur who had just stabbed her from behind.

“Nice!” I yelled.

He then picked up the hourglass that was in her hand and shattered it, making the blue light all around us dissipate and leaving us back in the room.

Selphine struggle to breathe, trying to crawl away.

“It’s over, Selphine.” Arthur said while approaching her.

“No…you rotten bastards…why…I just…I just wanted to live here in peace…Why…WHY DID YOU HAVE TO RUIN IT ALL?” Selphine screamed from the top of her lungs like she’d never screamed bef0re.

Arthur stabbed the sword into her heart, ending her life. Selphine drew her last breath with a look of pure fear on her face, the last thing she ever felt, and she died before the void could sap that away from her.

And that was it. Selphine was dead. The one person who stood in my way, in all of our way. We had done it, we’d succeeded.

“Finally, it’s over.” I breathed a sigh of relief and threw myself to the ground, knowing I could finally rest.

“Yeah..” Arthur said. “…Now it’s your turn to join her.”

I immediately sprung up and jumped to the side, evading the sword he’d brought down on me.

“What the fuck?” I shouted. “What are you doing you idiot, you have your body back!”

“But Louise doesn’t.” He said. “Besides, I can’t let you destroy Obrillis.”

“Then why did you help me kill Selphine in the first place, dumbass?”

“Revenge for Esmeralda. I wasn’t planning on helping you guys at all until I found out that it was her behind those attacks years ago.”

“Arthur, you know Esmeralda was plotting the exact same thing I want, right? She was going to cause the destruction of Obrillis as well, would you have stood in her way?”

“It’s….It’s not the same thing.” He hesitated.

“Of course it’s the same thing! Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Just shut up! You’re going to die right here, right now!”

“So it came down to this, after all, huh?”

I faced off with Arthur, we stood still for a while, staring each other down.

And finally, we attacked.