Chapitre 43: AN UNWORTHY KING: the unbecoming
Zahad uses his tail to whip Edward all over his body senselessly.
Up until now, the thing that had allowed him to survive fights of such a high scale with his human body, was the aura his body could summon to protect itself from incoming damage. It was also what allowed him to dish out such damaging and heavy attacks. But now, he had no means of summoning such power. His body was to weak and tired to do it. And so, the damage he would have received normally, the pain he would have felt normally. All of it…every single blow, is starting to take effect right now
Yet despite this, Edward tries to lift his right hand to hit Zahad. Zahad doesn't let him and whips his right hand, forcing it back down. He also hits him on his left arm, at the exact spot it broke, which causes the bone to shift back into place.
Not long after that, the whipping stops. And rather than whip him from all sides, he decides to knock him into the air with his tail. But unlike the move from earlier, he doesn't hold him in place, he uses his tail once more but from above, to slam Edward into the floor from behind. The tail hits Edwards left shoulder, dislocating it.
Edward slams face first into the ground and lays on his belly, but he quickly tries to turn and have his back face the ground instead. The moment he can turn around, he catches a short glimpse of Zahads tail about to smash his face. The tail smashes into his face and chest, which shatters his ribs in the process
"Why? Why is this happening to me?" Edward thought to himself as the world around him began to slow down
Zahad squat over Edward and began delivering blow, after blow, after blow at Edwards midsection. Each time he hit Edward, a sizeable crater began to form underneath.
Unable to move, Edward just lay's there thinking to himself as Zahad continues to beat him
"What did I do wrong? Where did I go wrong? Why am I loosing?"
Edward pondered as the light in his eyes faded and his pupils vanished, filling his eyes with an empty white. As he pondered, the crater underneath got wider, and deeper. And as it did Edward began to understand
"Oh wait…I think…I think I get it now. It's just like back then…before this…before the world came to an end. Its like back when i could call what I had a normal life"
As Edward thought to himself, he felt the gentle drops of a cool liquid touch his cheeks. He could not see because he was in pain, but those soft cool drops were actually Zahad's tears. The tears drop on his face as Zahad continues to whale on Edward, but it doesn't stop. Edward continues to think
"Even when the world was full of grace and favor…I couldn't win. And now that the world has come to this, I still can't…Ngh!"
Edward grunted in pain as Zahad began to reduce the amount of his punches, and the speed of his punches, but increase their power. This was so that he could break Edward completely without giving him more pain than necessary. However, Edward was already in so much pain that he couldn't feel anything. So, continued to speak to himself
"I've never once…not once in all my life, won at a single thing. I've not once! For as long as I've lived, been rewarded for my hard work, dedication, or faith. I've failed at everything in life, and in every aspect of life. I failed as brother, I failed as a lover, I failed as a son, and I've failed as a friend…And now?"
The barely conscious Edward squeezes his fists as his throat swells in pain. Zahad slams both his hands into Edward's chest and he vomits chunks of blood all over the place.
"And now…In a battle I fought, with my own two hands, in a battle where I gave it everything I had…My victory was stolen from me, I stared down death to claim to win this fight…and yet my victory was stolen from me? All because of something as stupid and as simple as luck? This may be the worst joke ever told"
Zahad slowly removed his hands from Edward, who he had already beaten to the point where the crater they were in looked like a crash site for a meteor. As he stood up from Edwards body, slowly.
"I can't feel anything right now…I can't see or hear much of anything either…Is this it? Am I dying? Is this really how I'm going to die? But why am I going to die like this? Aren't I strong?"
Edward began to panic as he desperately grasped for air and his arms and legs began shaking. His heart began to beat so loudly in his chest he could hear it in his head
"What is that? What is this feeling? What is this sound? Am I afraid? This feeling…it…it feels so familiar… Could this be?"
Edward had felt so invincible for so long, and had things go his way for so long, that he had forgotten what it was like to lose. He had forgotten what it meant to be human and to develop through countless trial and error.
He had forgotten he was flesh, that he was weak and could die at any moment in a place like this. But now, facing death, he remembered. The feeling he had forgotten from so long ago finally came back to him, and when it did, his body fought and rejected it and ultimately? His body shut down. This feeling…was…FEAR
"Is this where I'm going to die? No! This can't be it! This can't be my final resting place! This can't be where I die! I have to survive! I have to get out of here!"
Edward mind ran in a panic as began to gain consciousness. Zahad backed away and turned his back to Edward thinking he had broken him. But just as Zahad turned away, he heard a noise. He heard the sound of groans of pain and a short bust of wind. When he quickly turned back he saw that Edward had grown wings and was trying to crawl out of the crater by pulling his weak body forward with his right hand
He was crawling towards the gate and as he was about to climb out of the crater, his left hand stretched out, trying desperately to touch the shining hope that came from the gates light. As his hand touched the light, he whimpered in a weak voice
"No! I can't die here, I have to escape. I don't want to die, I don't care what I have to do, I don't care who I have to leave behind, I just want to live. Please let me live, please let me live, please let me live! I'll leave the others behind, I don't care what I have to do, as long as I survive"
As Edward tried to reach for the edge of the rock to crawl out of the crater. Zahad used his tail, wrapped it around Edward's ankles, and pulled him back in. As he then approached Edward, the face of sorrow he had on a moment ago, quickly changed to red hot rage
"I just want to survive, I just want to survive and win…is that too much to ask?"
Zahad placed Stomped heavily on Edward's back and applied pressure from his foot on Edward's right wing. He grabbed the right wing, he squeezes it firmly, then he breaks it. When he's done breaking it, he rips out a bone popping out from the broken wing. He grabs it like a knife and stabs at the right wing repeatedly.
After stabbing at it, he spits green flames on it. Sparks and tiny embers of the fire still attached to the feathers fall off and land on Edward's back. Edward screams out in pain and agony as he cries softly. Though there's no proof that those flames were hell fire, they were hot enough to make you feel as though they burned the soul
The fire burned so badly that even when Edward's throat ran dry, he continued to scream. Nothing stopped him, but nothing stopped Zahad either.
Immediately after he finished with the right wing, he went for the left. This time he went for a clean cut. He used the bone from before to tear the left wing off, clean off Edward's back. After he sliced it off of him, he threw it in a random direction, and it was only after that, that Edward's cries of pain reduced
Zahad stared Edward down, enraged and frustrated. He threw the bone from the wing he ripped out, then he let out a huge roar
"Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!" Zahad's voice echoed for all of hell to hear as he roared in frustration
Edward did not move from his spot, and did not shriek at the sound of Zahad's sudden and loud roar. As his wings began to fade away into dust, and Edward began to cuddle himself, Zahad looked at him and said
"Truly, it's brought me nothing but pain to watch you like this. I never thought you would fall so far"
Edward responded with nothing, but Zahad continued
"Did you really plan to leave for the gate? Did you plan to run away from me? Leave everyone behind for your own sake? Run with your tail between your legs just so you can keep on living? I'd expect this sort of thing from Cayafaz and myself, but never from you. Even when Cayafaz faced me down and stared death in the eye, he didn't run, he was no coward!"
Edward said, cradling his head in his arms
"I just want to live? Is that too much to ask?"
Zahad grunted, filled with a complicated cocktail of emotions, he yelled out
"You're not the man I thought you were after all! You may be strong, but that's just about it. You may be deserving of the title strong, but you are no king! You are not worthy!"
Zahad said as he spat on the floor next to Edward
"I should end you now before you fall any further and become to unsightly. Corrupting the image, I already have of you in my mind"
Edward began to ask himself in that moment
"Why? Just why? Why god is this happening to me?"
As Zahad raised his left arm up ready to cut off Edwards head, it was then it clicked for Edward, and he said
"Oh yeah…I'm in hell"
As Zahad's hand swing's downward, ready to sever Edward's head from his neck, three snakes bite on Zahad's hand and force him to raise it up.
"Wh-What is this? What are these snakes" Zahad asked as he slowly reached for the snake heads
DUM! DUM!
Zahad's mind went as his strength began to get sucked out of him. He staggered, he twisted and turned, and eventually he fell on his ass as he thought to himself
"My…my strength…what's happening to me?" He turned to the snakes on his arms and saw giant bulging veins around the snake's mouth "Could it be? The snakes are responsible for this? Damn things!"
He reaches for the snakes with all the force he can muster to try and tear off their heads. But as his hand reaches for it the heads retract their fangs and back away. Zahad's eyes follow the snakes back to their point of origin and where his eyes lands leave's him stunned
Just a few meters away from Zahad, is former girlfriend and lover Maya. The snakes coild around the top of her axe and she stares Zahad down. Zahad who's felt invincible up to this point suddenly begins to feel threatened by his ex's presence. He quickly turns his attention to a barely conscious Edward on the floor and panics
"Oh no! She's here for him!" He lunges to Edward's body "Quickly! I have to make Edward a corpse before she…" Before Zahad can reach Edward, before he can even finish his statement, Maya appears in front of him, with Edward already cradled in her arms and her axe only a few inches away from Zahad's face. All this is topped off with the stare of death Maya gives to Zahad just before she cuts him and leaps away
As the axe swings closer to Zahad's Eyes he can't help but ask himself
"Already? So fast…But…how did she…How did she reach him before me?"
He asks himself as a dust cloud and an explosion takes place on the spot they were to meet. Luckily, Zahad dodges the axe by just an inch thanks to his devil's luck, rather than cutting his head in half, it leaves a slash mark across his face.
He stares off at her with an expression of amazement on his face. He's lost for words and can't get himself to act straight in front of her. Meanwhile, Maya couldn't care less about Zahad and has all of her, care, worry, and attention on an injured Edward.
"Oh my…Edward…I should never have let you run off on your own. I'm sorry I only just arrived, but I'm here now. leave the rest to me"
She says as she shuts Edwards eyes and mouth. Zahad feels pressured and asks
"M-Maya! What are you doi-"
But again, just before Zahad can finish his sentence, Maya cuts in and says in a deep and aggressive, menacing and sadistic tone
"Youuuuuu! You just wait here. Once I've healed Edward up a bit, I promise you, your going to pay for what you did to my teammates. For Cayafaz, and most of all…for Edward. When I come back…I'LL. KILL. YOU"
Maya says as she backs disappears through the hole at the foot of the mountain between dead valley. Maya manages to get some distance between her and Zahad and puts Edward down somewhere within the other side of the dead valley to treat his wounds
While checking his wounds she discovers that Edward is not far from deaths door
"Oh no…these injuries…" Edward shivers and coughs up chunks of blood. Maya continues
"There's so much damage…can I even heal these wounds?"
Edward body begins to shiver and shake violently as his blood pours out of him from every area, and open wound on his body.
"Oh no! His regeneration isn't working, he doesn't have enough strength to summon aura to patch up his wounds…"
Edward begins to choke on his blood and cough some of it up
"Edward! Edward! Edward can you hear me!?"
Maya calls out but receives no response
"Healing Cayafaz was already really difficult…but what do I do? If I can't save him here, then Edward will…No! I can't let you! I won't let you die Ed! Do you hear me? I won't make it that easy for you"
Maya brandishes her axe once more and calls out the snakes at the top to become active. As they uncoil from the axe head, she thinks to herself
"Edward, you're not only the strongest one out of all of us, you're not only the one with the most potent aura out of us all, but you're the one we all look to when a tough fight comes around. I know time, and time, and time again we've forced the task of bearing the unreasonable and doing the unthinkable upon you, I know its unfair to keep asking you to fight like this for the rest of us…but right now we need your strength! You can't leave just yet! Not until we all make it out the gate together! I don't know how things reached this point, but I will save you! No matter what it takes!"
The battle once again is unconcluded and it seems as though Edward might be at the doors of death. Will Edward survive? Will Maya battle against Zahad? Or is this the last stand for the kings of men? Who will claim victory by the end of this battle? Only the heavens know
L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS 
Himoyamaro99
Himoyamaro99 please comment and support the novel and feel free to leave your thoughts on the direction of the novel
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone