Chapter 525: Bittersweet Afterclaps
I fall backward onto my knees as I let my Ether finally release from building up within. A stream of vitality enters my veins from Vincent's dying body, but it simply isn't enough to fix all that is wrong with me. Deep breaths come in and out of my lungs as I struggle to regain my energy.
But as I sit here, on my own legs stripped of much of their mass, I hear nothing. The sandstorm that eternally shifted around Desolation has ceased, and all of the Endless has died. There are no sounds. The creatures born from Vincent are unlike true life; they do not fall to the ground after their deaths. Instead, they simply evaporate back into their origins, Ether.
So, there are no crickets. No wind. No rustling rocks. No shifting leaves. No animal calls. No... nothing but my own strangled air.
Looking forward, I remember that I'm not even on my own planet. Vincent's body rests against the rock where Lily finished his story. His corpse has shifted from the old man I once saw to an amalgamation of sand-colored beings. To the naked eye, it's just a statue of some kind. But... to mine...
I can see the billions of dead creatures. Being alone with countless of yourself is still being alone, Vincent. You should have known that.
The sky rumbles for a fallen God. But... Nothing breaks. For all his power and strength... Desolation, the God of the Endless, is only peaceful in his death. It is fitting. He had destroyed so much in attempting to protect that when he finally does stop, peace reigns.
I bow my head slowly as I rise shakily to my feet. I always looked up to this man—a grand figure, more consequential than all the others. Even when I met Louis Fern or witnessed Remington, I always wondered... who among the legends was the most profound?
Who was the... strongest? The one who stood above all the rest?
I have my answer.
Unrivalved under the cosmos, even after his death. It took everything we had, every person, every artifact, every advantage we could garner to beat this... monster among men. Every step along the way was a grim decision. At any point, he could have turned the tide permanently. That is just who he was—someone who you'd rather bet on than the boundless decay of time or the army of an ancient God who had already destroyed the world once.
"Goodbye, Vincent. I'll remember your warnings."
Reaching forward, I grasp his hand and pull the sandy corpse to his feet. I hold him up before picking up the heavy body and dragging it toward the rift in the distance. The dark veins still run along his corpse, too, and I carry what must be my father's corpse at the same time.
No matter what they have done in the past, neither deserves to be buried in a distant realm unknown to him or his family. For all of Vincent's evils... He still protected us for a long... long time.
Step by step, I climb out of the crater. It takes me a while. A good while. And when I reach the top, I find something I desperately hoped I wouldn't.
Elizabeth sits on the ground, cradling Virgil's head in her lap. I sprint to them, nearly falling after my first step, dropping the corpse and sliding on the ground beside the two of them. Virgil's head looks directly upward while his whole body is beyond ruined. Pieces of him are missing, devoured into nothingness that leave no blood behind.
His eyes are already cloudy, and they have no sense of direction.
Why did you come back? Why... why didn't you just stay back? Silas could have taken your place! He even had your Dominion taken! I...
"He doesn't have long, Wyatt. Talk to him."
I glance at Elizabeth for a second, seeing the tears already streaming down her face. Lily awakens from her rest of devouring so much vitality, screaming in my mind while Blodwyn curses the world.
"No! I liked Virgil! Do something! Help him! Please!"
"Why him? He was one of the few who liked me."
My teeth grind as I reach out to touch Virgil's arm, already brewing a Sacrifice in my body, but the limb disintegrates the moment contact is made.
"He didn't stop teleporting us. Without him... I would have died. He gave me opportunities to shoot, too. I... I owe him my life. But... my Power isn't enough. I already tried five times. Is there anything?"
Suppose this was a year ago, yeah. I could just give him the Lily. But now... we're tied at the soul. She cannot be removed from me without one of our deaths. If I can't touch him, Sacrifice won't work. It seems he's beyond the limit of Ether saturation too, holding on by the sheer force of will he's known so well for.
My mind races for a solution as I feel Virgil's soul flicker within his body, preparing to depart. He is low on time. So... desperately low.
"Can you shoot him with the Colt? Buy me some time. Anything. I'll figure it out."
Elizabeth nods, drawing her Colt with one hand and blasting several rounds into the distance. Each bullet takes a moment to switch between, and when she's finished with them all, she hits Virgil with the bullet that mirrors Johnny's Golden Eye.
Something tells me... if he had time, he would have developed all the abilities the gun holds with a Dominion or something of the like. But that is not something to ponder now.
I look all over, staring at a thousand things for ideas and inspiration. I find nothing until my eyes rest on Vincent's corpse. The sand-monster. It shifts slightly under my gaze, and I quickly realize that the entire corpse is the Divinity.
Fucking monster. Absolute one-of-a-kind monster.
Shuffling over, I haul the Divinity over to Virgil. Simply touching it brings its name to me, possessing the exact significance of a Sirza to the Ether within it. Wasteless Corpse.
Not a corpse for long. I don't know what the thing will do once it's finished forming, but I sense Vincent's soul clinging onto it bleakly. Tightening my jaw, I flex my Dominion, letting my own soul war against his.
It's a far easier battle than all the others. He falls to the wayside quickly, but I can't just kick him out of it quite yet. The thing needs to be finished. So, I reach out to Virgil's soul and take it, bringing him to this Wasteless Corpse.
The act is... beyond difficult. I struggle to even move him out of his own body, but a helping hand comes. There is a second soul within this corpse, also fading. Death himself lends me a hand.
"Here, son. This is how you do it."
Killian manipulates Virgil's soul to take the place of Vincent's in the Wasteless Corpse. He goes one step, further, too. He lets Virgil's soul fill the whole of the Divinity, an act that will allow him to control it as if it were his own body.
And as my father does this with my help, I come to a grim understanding. Shakily, I speak to him through this connection.
"What about you? Was this not your plan? To take the artifact?"
Second by second, Virgil fills the entirety of the Divinity, leaving Vincent and my father less room to work with. And the instant that the Wasteless Corpse finishes its development, Killian cuts himself and Vincent out.
Two small but supremely decisive souls fall into my hand—that of Death and that of Desolation. Vincent cannot speak, but the Undying Curse can.
"I have... done what I needed to. I... I do not have the resolve anymore to continue. Let me do this one good thing, okay? He has a family to go back to—those who love him. You may care for me. But you do not love me. And that is alright. The world will lose an awful curse and gain a guardian in exchange."
I want to speak up and say something, but for a moment, my soul is overpowered by Killian's brilliant light. It flickers luminously before losing most of its splendor.
"You have done good. Better than I ever expected. I'm... proud. May your shoulders be a little lighter now, son. Even Gods die, Wyatt. Enjoy the moments with those you love while you can. I sure wish I had savored them more. Goodbye."
Tears fall from my eyes as that radiant soul darkens and molds itself until it forms a skull, yet another Divinity. The Undying Skull. It holds the Concept of Immortality and Death. How peculiar. It isn't like Lennon or me. It is one Concept formed from two.
He was similar to me. But he did it all on his own, combining two Concepts into one state. The other soul stretches back toward its Divinity, still attached at some level to its soul. Seeing this, I clench my fist and take the soul into mine, devouring it with my Dominion.
Clarity plummets into my mind as such a mighty soul joins mine. Then, I look down to witness the eyelids of the Wasteless Corpse open. The pupils within are hollow pits, nothing at all, but I feel the gaze within nonetheless.
"I'm alive?"
A hoarse, wretched voice comes from the empty mouth without a tongue, and I struggle to smile at my friend's condition. Killian would have been okay with a life like this... but I don't know if Virgil will.
I nod.
"Sort of."
Elizabeth shuffles over to us, still carrying Virgil's body, and we both look at it. My friend is in awe for several seconds, glancing at his arms and legs before turning back to the corpse.
"Makes sense. Better than dying I suppose."
Stunned in return, I wave my arms, feeling dreadful now that I have the time to think. This is worse than what Earl did to me back then in Bonedunes.
"Really? You're not angry? Scared? Disappointed?"
Virgil shakes his head, the lips curling into an ear-to-ear smile. Still, the voice possesses the tone of a thousand locusts.
"Nope. I can feel the sun again. I can taste the air. I can smell the winds. The only different thing is my skin. And a few other minor pieces. But... that's fine. I can make up for those with Ether. My Sigils are also... weird. Really weird. Could you take a look?"
Stepping forward, I place an arm on the Divinity and gasp in awe at the creation my father had managed. Within the heart of the Wasteless Corpse dwells a cage made of bone and death. The inside of the cage inhabits Virgil's 9th Sigil while the rest of the body possesses the true Divinity of Vincent Harvey.
With my Dominion, I can sense that the Divinity controls the Endless, but in an entirely different way. It is not an endless horde of insects, but instead, it has been tailored by an immortal hand to that of an endless night.
The sands even gradually shift to a darker tone, mirroring that of basalt.
"I see. My father was a better Craftsman than I could have imagined. He managed to fuse all your Sigils and mold Vincent's ownerless Divinity to match you. This is your new body now. Maybe a bit weaker than the old one, maybe stronger. Who knows? You'll just have to learn. At the very least... I believe you're immortal."
Virgil laughs as he pats his body down, sighing at the lack of knives afterward. He then steps to his previous corpse, taking some of the clothes off to place on his own body.
Elizabeth and I give him some privacy, but the stoic man finds it hilarious.
"Stripping my own body. Never thought I'd do that. Well, hopefully, the craziness is over."
"Yeah. Let's hope so."
Once he is done, we walk toward the rift. Elizabeth excitedly discusses the future and what can be done now that peace has been made between the races for this war. She believes it will continue even after everyone moves to rebuild.
I cannot listen to her much, however. I'm too focused on other cases—the deaths.
The one at the forefront of my mind, too, is my father. I truly knew so little about him. His past... is mostly a mystery beyond the torture and experiments. I just... wish... I knew him better. I wish... he had more time with us. A long, drawn-out sigh comes from my lips as I stare at the skull in my hand. His soul is in it. But... he used all that remained of who he once was to mold Virgil's vessel instead of his own. When a God dies, they don't go to any afterlife. No being can retrieve their souls and harbor them. My method does not let them retain their minds or personalities. When Gods die, they cease existing beyond their Divinity.
Even Killian. He was a pioneer in controlling bodies and souls with Ether, but when one dies and becomes an artifact, their minds are wiped, and their emotions are turned into all that remains. He could swindle his way out of it, but he chose not to. He chose death.
Soon... perhaps even now... there will only be his emotions left as his soul can no longer hold the rest without a body.
Worst yet, he's not the only one to die. So many soldiers. Alexos. Almost Virgil. Tonuyn. Granulen. As we approach the rift, I feel many souls gather, but some more are missing.
Rich. He's gone, too. Closing my eyes tightly, I stop looking, unable to peer at the deaths and injuries. It's too much.
But ... where is Bonfire?
"Bonfire?"
I stop abruptly, speaking aloud to the heavens as I just now realize the flames on my body have ceased. When did that happen? When I killed Vincent? I don't know... but
Oh...
He's standing at the open fracture in space, waving toward me next to Abraham. I see. His Sirza. It ends with him being back home. But... where is home to him? The Ether says it's where the fire is, but where is his fire?
I don't know, but it's certainly not on this planet.
Emmet Knox leaps through the portal, quickly followed by Earl and Tomas while Leviathan shouts at them all about how difficult it is to hold the passage open.
"Wyatt! You won't believe it! After I stopped my Ether, I died! Then! I came back to life within Silas' cigar while standing next to Abraham! Hahaha! I can't die! Hahaha!"
The over-enthusiastic pyro is exaggerating his strength, for sure, but it is still impressive. A free escape from any fight is something worth celebrating.
Behind Emmet, however, Earl waves at us, beyond exhilarated at our victory.
"You guys did it! Yes! YES! I knew you could do it!"
No one even seems to notice Virgil's change, the man's clothes darkened by Ether and the open pieces closed by threads of shadow. I guess he likes being hidden, even from positive attention.
Earl begins to step out of his armored suit, but Elizabeth stops him with a raised arm.
"Wait! The conditions of this planet are harmful. Especially now. They can all handle it... for obvious reasons, but you can't, Earl. Just wait until we step through. Come on, guys."
My eyes shift around for a moment before I shrug. I didn't even notice. I was far too hung up on... everything else.
Whatever.
I follow Elizabeth to the rift and watch everyone step through, but I pause at the exit. Glancing around, I see only devastation left in our wake. Thousands of miles, if not tens of thousands, are left wasted because of our battle. A civilization used to live here, and we ruined it.
My heart aches, but Blodwyn says it best.
"We did what we could. Better them than us, anyway. And... no one else would have cared. At least we do. Let's leave that planet be. We've done enough damage. Maybe it's for the best they don't have Sigils."
Sighing, I nod and step through the opened fissure before Leviathan closes it. And there, I stand before all the others as they look at me. Even the demons and Pygmies gape at me in awe. Then the cheers ring out. I close my eyes and let those be the primary sound even as my heart aches.
But the one I've been waiting for takes only another second to arrive as a pair of arms wrap around mine.
"I'm glad you're safe, little one. It is not your fault he is dead. The only thing that could kill him was himself. He chose this, I am sure."
Her words finally break me, and while all others celebrate, I fall into my mother's arms, crying like a child. Even after all of this, killing Gods and becoming one myself, losing the father I always wanted pierces through it all.
Aniwye pats my back while her own tears drip from her lone eye.
"It is okay. See that, there? He will always be with you, little one. Now. Let's get you some rest."
I nod before Aniwye puts her palm against my head. Her Ether moves toward my brain, and I could so easily resist if I wanted. Nevertheless, I don't.
I let her lull me to sleep, just as she did when I was a boy.
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