Machinations
Were a glass to break on the opposite side of the planet, those in this room would be able to hear it, as silence was not the lack of sound, but the totality of its absence. Everyone was standing, looking at everything possible… everything besides Eve.
"This is too much. Too, too much. What could I possibly say to such a ridiculous story?" My voice cracks and waivers.
Just then, Loyalty coughs violently and falls from his chair. Before anyone could possibly reach him, he falls to his knees. On all four, he scrambles to crane his neck to the others. Tears pool in his eyes and shimmer as they fall.
"I believe in a better future for you, my Lord. But to achieve it, Queen must be stopped. Or this planet will be eradicated with you and the entire Family on it. You musn't let that happen."
He starts to cough; again, I can see blood sputtering out. Is this the result of his other half being destroyed? A part of me doesn't feel for the man and his deceitful lies. But I know it to be true, those deceitful truths. I don't remember a word of what he said. But I feel it within me, the reality of it all. I look down at my hands, those of which look so foreign to me now.
Glancing back up at Loyalty, he's looking at me expectantly. He's dying and all he wishes is words from me. He is fading, I can tell. Half his soul is gone. I have no idea how he has even held on this long. I hesitate to offer the words he seeks. I am not worthy, and I'm not sure that he is. I wish to make him squirm until the end as penance for bringing this down upon me. In the end, I was right. It really was all my fault.
"Rest now, Loyalty. We will meet again. As before, and so shall continue to be, your job is not yet done." I speak words so unlike my own.
He offers a small, sad smile to me. He mouths a thank you, and fades into dust. Behind me, I hear Mimi sobbing. I try to offer her my shoulder, but she looks towards me with unfamiliarity and distrust. The others are not so dissimilar. I don't blame them. Learning you're nothing but a pawn in a selfish, cowardly god's excuse at running away… they can surely never look at me the same.
I know when this is all over, regardless of how it ends, I will never be able to look at myself the same either. There are no winners in this game of life, only losers at different points in time. After all, we all end up in the same place.
"You're all so full of yourselves. Such cowards!" Fennis spits out and walks away. His receding back can't be ignored and so we all follow him in silence.
Each heavy step is one of acceptance; every step is rejection. I can't say who feels what, but I know I feel both. The paradox rages inside of me with each feeling vying for control.
As we approach the boat, the heavy feelings within us presses down harder as the noticeable maleficence appears before us. The silence is deafening. Our army and the remains of the consulate, they're all gone.
The ship stands barren and hushed. An evil, but recognizable, laugh glides on the wind. Gehenna's twisted smile warps the air around us and mocks us. It goads us to the sky. There high above, is a lonely island.
"'Tis the highest you've ever seen me, to greet me. But a moment more and one of us will cross over the edge."
"That harlot has brought the end of our world." Fennis spits.
"Then is there a reason to go on?" I ask, much to everyone's chagrin.
He looks at me with disdain and speaks thus: "I will fight until literally nothing remains. I am the Zeroth."
I look over at the others. Their sadness seems enlightened when he speaks. Charlie makes her way over to me and places her hands on either side of my face. "Look. What we do here now may be pointless. If what… Loyalty said is true, nothing is going to happen to the five of us. But Fennis…"
"Ah." It dawns on me.
"He doesn't have a role in the way we do…" Kay mumbles.
I try and fail to choke down the rising bile at what that means. Not just for him, but for the countless other lives lost. As I vomit to the side, I understand. They're gone. No matter what we do here, Fennis' life is over as well, and he will disappear for good. However, he still marches on. Is that him? Or is that Rei?
"We are survivors by happenstance. We don't continue this for ourselves. We do so for them, the ones we've lost. If Gehenna isn't stopped, she's just going to do this all over again at the next world." Rose stares into the sky with a look of melancholy as she speaks.
"I agree," Mimi responds to Rose.
"What say you, Eve? Will you deny your lovers their last request?" Charlie speaks in a manner between chastisement and teasing.
"Never. Let's end this."
We board the ship as Fennis takes the helm, and soars us to the sky and the limit of this world. There… is the end of it all. A final fight.
We will have to kill a friend… all because she couldn't handle the curse I placed on her. I suppose I can't blame her. Just a single moment gone astray, and anyone's life can derail.
But we are all responsible for our actions in the end. Even if we have no control of them. That's what it means to be alive.
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So Falleth The Fate (1)
The island we land on is a desolate wasteland devoid of even plants. I don't know where Gehenna got this place, but it's disconcerting. I figure it isn't worth asking questions. She will have some answers related to things I can't remember. I click my tongue and kick a pebble. It bounces down a long path – our path.
With very little spoken between us, we move down the only path available to us. The magik is palpable and dense as it stings my tongue and my body. I've never felt this kind of concentration before.
The whole area is covered in a darkness reminiscent to a time before the stars themselves- in contrary to the suns still shining high in the sky.
"The bitch sure knows how to set the atmosphere." Fennis barks.
"Likely as reference to this all being a grand play," Rose quips to Fennis.
"You're going to upset Eve," Mimi chastises Rose, but the damage had been done. Indeed, it's all a grand play permeating a grand stage. We're puppets to my own machinations.
The ground shakes, pulling my attention back to reality just in time to roll away as a massive set of arms wrap themselves around the others. Looking around, only Fennis managed to get away. A colossal creature surely from the abyss itself crawls out from the innards of the land holding my loves tight. They scream in pain and fight back against the creature.
Four grand horns rise towards the sky. Its razor-clawed hands dig deep into the girls as a twisted smile coats its face.
"To think this is how my legacy would end, killing those who took my Nina from me." Its voice booms as it twists its head one hundred and eighty degrees to set its coal-colored eye towards me. "I will take your women as you took mine."
Mimi takes the chance to call down a bright beam of lightning on herself. It explodes the creatures' hands and an ooze of vile, thick blood coats the area. It screams with all its might and then laughs as a hand grows to replace the one he lost. Immediately, all the Valkyries are at the ready with Charlie not missing a beat in joining them.
Fennis dashes from behind and slices the creature's head clean off. It turns and slams him straight toward the ground. I break from the spell fear has cast on me and charge at the beast, slicing its leg in half. And like a lizard's tail, it grows back, and he uses it to kick at me. I block it but my blade shatters and I go flying.
A shock wave pushes through the area flattening us all. The force of it loosens some tarp laid over my memories.
"I am Azreal Von Vvesson. And I will finish what I started all those centuries ago. Come forth my pawns and bring forth the Armageddon of Gehenna!"
His voice echoes wildly as my mind soars to the past. Small cracks form, letting small memories flow. Memories not my own filter through me. I recall battles fought, those to be challenged, and worlds and lives that pang in my heart. My head pounds furiously and I roll on the ground screaming. Everyone has their woes writ across their face. But from the depths of hell, amalgamations of banshees appear in the form of allies lost.
"No…" I hear Charlie's oppressed voice in the distance.
Long black hair, a lithe form, Kagura Mitsuki stands before us twisted and deranged. Standing heads and shoulders above the others is Gabliel Throughdon. Abiliath marches towards the others with a sneer so menacingly. They stand side to side, bastardized perversions of once grandiose individuals. Now they stand at the ready, merely waiting on Azrael's horrid indiscretions.
"Destroy them all and this world will surely be ours."
All at once they descend upon my women and all I can do is scream for a mercy that is never to come. I scratch at my face and peel back the skin. My insides feel the need to take their place outside as the very fabric of my brain boils at the eruption of my memories.
Each woman faces off against a member of the consulate. Kay dodges as much as Mitsuki. Both's agility is impressive as is the way every strike is aimed to kill. A single well-placed blow from either would end the other. Two killers facing a past yet revealed.
Gabliel is massive but unable to land a single blow against the sheer speed of Mimi. All the same, she is unable to do much damage even after landing a full charged lightning fist square on his jaw. He uses the flat of his broadsword to blow her away as she stands in confusion over her ineffective powers.
Rose's hair flies free as she uses her powers on Abiliath, bringing her to her knees. Charlie's blade slices through her head. But as with Azreal, it is regrown before the body hits the floor. The consequence- Rose has lost her hold. Abiliath swings her sword up, slicing through Charlie's shield and sending her backward with blood dripping from her torso.
Fennis does not stop at evisceration Azreal but, nothing stops him. Every blow Fennis takes ruins him little by little.
I feel my life fading as the dam of my mind collapses. All that I am will be washed away as another replaces me. I refuse.
"I would rather die. Do you hear me? I would rather the entirety of existence be snuffed out before I lose who I am!"
Fennis eyes me and blocks a blow from Azrael's serrated claws. He jumps away from Azrael as the latter sneers in delight. Looking all around himself, he can tell what hardships are to pass.
He clicks his tongue while looking at me. "You were never worthy to be the Zeroth. You know that, don't you? The real Zeroth would give all that they were to save everyone."
I look at him through hazy bloodshot eyes and do my best to nod.
"But then again," he grips his blade and stares at it with an expression I can't quite place. "I was never one to care about my own life, was I? I gave the entire thing up for a dream." He puts strength behind his fist and raises it high. "Let me see you grit those teeth."
He slams his fist square into my face. I'm looking up at the sad sky as it passes by without a care for the trifling matters of us so far below.
Fennis shakes his hand and glares at me. "Hard-headed bitch." He fumbles as he reaches down and pulls me by the collar. "I hate you. You know? You earned nothing, yet you took everything. And in the end the pattern isn't to change."
He lifts me up to eye level like a piece of fine glass. "Remember me, Evangeline Sayagawa, as the support character in your grand scheme. Remember me not for the life I led, but for the life I was never given." He pushes my hair behind my ears, causing my heart to pound in my chest. A warmth spreads through me unlike any before. I look him in his deep, blue eyes and feel myself getting lost in an ocean of plenty.
They begin to shimmer. The smallest of golden hues takes over and he leans into me.
"Remember Fennis, who saved eternity." He whispers just before his lips meet mine. They're rough and chapped. They carry a prickle of ice and cold. The world around me stops. Against my will, my mouth works with his, and a fire comes over me. It collides against his ice and the two opposites intertwine before exploding the area in a fine mist. As droplets flow down around us, Fennis' blue hair lengthens and gradually darkens.
The golden hue hides the blue beneath and takes over. His straight, broad jaw gives way to a more supple yet sharp one. All of Fennis's body cracks and breaks away. Inheriting his physical spot is none other than Rei. The lips upon mine are soft now, and delicate-feeling.
Share the story if you think it's good. Please rate some stars and leave reviews guys. It will help encourage other people to take a chance with the story and get to know this wonderful journey with us. Also, there's a Discord for the "Zeroth Universe" if anyone wants to join and hang out to talk about the stories, theories, or just general fun chats with us!
https://discord.gg/f3Bc4TR
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