by A. J. Morton
“And even if we do save Ubiaxus, what do we gain from it?” I sunk further. “We get to save a world we no longer get to live in? What’s the point? We may as well just succumb to the darkness…”
We all came to a halt, falling to our knees, crushed by the weight of despair. My eyes were blurred with tears. I heard footsteps echoing down the stairs. The man who came down from them was none other than the Umbran Xander had seen in Lumos. The one who ran away.
“Yes… Succumb to darkness,” He said. “Succumb to despair. Succumb to me.”
“W-what are you… doing…” I fought back a sob. “Why… can’t I stop… crying?”
“Despair,” he said. “Darkness works in tandem with despair. By manipulating one, I can manipulate another.”
“Just who are you?” I gasped. “That was one of the secrets of the Dyad! Who could Umbra possibly trust enough to tell that?”
“No one of any importance…” His tone was dry his tone wasn’t mocking or full of madness. Every word was laced with layers upon layers of despair. “My name is Ciaran if you must know… I suppose it would be rather rude to not let you know the name of the person who’s going to kill you.”
I gritted my teeth. “Someone’s confident…” But even though the words were brimming with confidence, Ciaran still maintained the same tone as before. Was it confidence? Or did he truly know for a fact that we would be defeated.
“Hmph… Nice try.” Ana suddenly stirred behind me.
Dia and Ana both rose to their feet. “Your darkness can’t possibly hold a candle to our light,” Dia said.
Ciaran’s gaze shifted to the twins. “What? How are you still standing? You should have been crushed by the weight of your despair!”
Dia rubbed a single tear from her eye, looking at it and frowning. “I’ve felt worse.”
Ana grabbed her sister’s hand. “We’ve both felt worse. But we can get through it all without breaking a sweat. Because we have each other.” The two began to radiate an incredibly vibrant amber light. The Umbran winced, blinded. The despair left me in an instant.
“Our light is keeping his magic at bay!” Dia said. “You should be able to keep going up the stairs now! We’ll hold him here!”
The remaining five of us nodded and continued up the stairway.
But as we ran, I noticed a grim look in Kronos’s eyes. Even though we were inches away from our goal, the despair never left his face.
Just what would be awaiting us at the top of the castle?
Finale
Walking through that final door, every step was a reminder that I had to keep going. For those I had lost. For those I could yet save. For those I would lose. For myself.
The door led me to a throne room. The room was bare. It had a single window, in the very back of the room, allowing the moonlight to flood in. The only light that filled the place.
The throne cast a massive shadow, but I could still see who sat atop it. A woman with hair and eyes of the purest ebony. Her dress perfectly black, absorbing any small amount if light that touched it. She stood, walking towards me.
“You have done well to make it this far… Glacia.” A crazed look suddenly appeared in her eyes.
No… It couldn’t be…
“Two queens stand alone at the end of the chessboard. Both desperate to claim the other’s kingdom. Doesn’t that make for a lovely game?”
I trembled at the word game. “Umbra?! But how? Kronos—”
“Yes, Kronos trapped my body in time,” Umbra said. “But while you can trap a body, it’s impossible to trap a god’s soul. It reaches beyond time once it’s released.”
I looked to the door behind me. “What happened to Kronos?” But I knew the answer to the question. I just didn’t want to confront it.
“I killed him,” Umbra answered. “But not just him.” She snapped her fingers. “Bring them in.”
The door behind me opened. I gasped at who walked in. Cronan Blake, Ciaran, and Merrick walked through the door, holding the lifeless bodies of the Disciples.
“Isn’t it sad?” Umbra asked mockingly. “All their souls have been ripped from their bodies. They’re gone. Every last one.”
I clenched my fists. No… I couldn’t accept it. I wouldn’t accept it.
“So here you stand at the end of your journey, all alone and powerless! Just in time to witness everything you have be thrown away!”
I couldn’t… Accept it…
“You’ve lost, Glacia.”
I… Had… To accept it… I had failed.
I closed my eyes, defeated.
* * *
“From this moment on, your desire to defend shall be your power.”
“What?”
I opened my eyes and found myself back in the white room. The table was back. And sitting across from me was none other than my Disciple. Xander Faust himself.
“You shall not err so long as you hold onto this fundamental desire with all your might.” Xander looked up at me. “For a while, those words had meaning. I felt like I could truly do anything. But now… Here we are just days later and we’re on the verge of losing everything.”
I let loose a defeated sigh. “I suppose I am just a false goddess after all… What chance did I ever have of defeating Umbra, a member of the Dyad?”
“Glacia, do you know why you’re so weak right now?”
I knew the answer to that question. But I didn’t want to say.
“Something tells me you know the real reason why.” Xander glared at me, looking into my soul. “I’ve shared I mind with you for so long that there’s nothing you can’t hide from me anymore. So tell me. Why are you so weak?”
I curled my fists into a ball. “Because… I’ve lost the will to defend.”
Xander nodded. “For a while, I felt the same. I thought that all hope was gone. I felt like… I had nothing to defend.” I sensed something behind his eyes… The light of hope. “But still… When all hope is gone, you must stand firm. Do not lose your will.”
“But what if it’s hopeless? What if I can’t win no matter what?”
“You probably can’t…” Xander said. “But lucky for you, you don’t have to do it alone.” He rose from his seat and extended his hand. “Let’s end this, Glacia. Together.”
I smiled. Filling me with hope when all was lost… It was then that I knew that Xander Faust was more of a god than I would ever be.”
As I took his hand, our souls became one. But his will was stronger. It overtook mine in a matter of seconds. A smile appeared on my face.
Xander Faust had returned.
* * *
“You’ve lost, Glacia.”
Those words rang through my ears sharper than a thousand needles. A cold colder than the coldest ice filled my chest. The power returned to my body all at once, a blizzard stirring within my heart.
So, I released it.
Shards of ice shot out of every pore of my body. They ruthlessly impaled all of the Umbrans around me, tearing their bodies to bloody shreds within seconds. The only one left standing was Umbra herself, shrouded in a barrier of dark energy.
Umbra staggered back, shaken by my sudden assault. “W-What?” She stammered. “How the hell did you do that? Your body should have been crushed by the weight of your soul! How did you break free, Glacia?”
“I’m afraid that Glacia is gone.” I glared daggers at her, my expression as cold as ice. “My name… is Xander Faust.”
“What?” Umbra gasped. “You’re supposed to be gone! I cast your soul into the abyss!”
“You did,” I said. “But luckily, I had a little bit of help getting out.”
“Well… It’s of no importance,” Umbra said, although she was still visibly shaken. “There is no way that a mere mortal can defeat me.”
But she was wrong again. I wasn’t a mortal. I felt Glacia’s spirit intertwined with mine, her strength covering every single weakness and every single insecurity that I had. I felt strong. I could do this.
I could defeat Umbra.
Umbra drew and brandished her scythe. I unsheathed both of my daggers from my belt. I took a deep breath.
I had a battle to win.
I rushed Umbra, slashing at her. She sidestepped, attempting to strike me with her scythe. I blocked the strike with the dagger in the other hand and slashed at her again. She jumped back, startled, almost getting grazed by the attack.
“Hmph. I’ve had enough of this farce,” Umbra said. “It’s time that I brought my full might to bear!”
Umbra slammed her scythe down to the ground. The bodies of all of my friends rose, glowing with a pale dark light.
“You’ve come this far because you with to defend your friends,” Umbra said. “But let’s see how you feel when it’s their power that’s being used against you!”
Suddenly, small lights began to rise from each my friends’ chests. Each of the lights was the color of their aura.
I felt Glacia gasp from within me. No… She wouldn’t!
What do you mean? What’s going on, Glacia? I asked.
She’s taking their souls! Glacia said, shocked. She’s taking their power, along with the power of all the gods. But she can’t handle that much power! The body she’s chosen hasn’t even had the chance to adjust to her power alone! If she absorbs the souls of seven gods…
It’ll destroy her, I finished.
“Umbra! I know what you’re doing!” I shouted. “You need to stop! Your body can’t handle that much power! You’ll die!”
“Silence, mortal!” Umbra yelled. “I am the alpha and the omega! The world began with darkness and it is with darkness that the world shall end! Nothing can defeat me! Darkness is eternal!”
All of the souls flew into Umbra at once. She shone with a pure black aura, overwhelming me with power. I flew backwards, all the way back into the wall.
Umbra grimaced as she limped towards me. She was clearly in tremendous pain, barely managing to stand. But still, she had the air of someone who had won the fight.
“You have lost, Xander Faust,” Umbra said. “I have transcended every being in the entire world. I’m the most powerful being in the world! I control earth, fire, thunder, wind, water, light, darkness, and time itself! You have no hope of defeating me!”
She slowly extended her arm. "Now it is your turn! The darkness must command dominion over ALL things! Your pathetic ice included!"
I tried to run away, but when I did, dark tendrils grabbed me and held me against the wall. I struggled desperately, trying with everything I had to free myself from the tendrils. I knew that in this state, any single strike from Umbra would kill me.
I was this world’s last hope. I couldn’t die. But the more I struggled, the more I realized that there was no escape. The tendrils held me with an iron grip that was impossible to break.
A thought suddenly crossed my mind. What if in order for Kronos’s prophecy to come true, I had to die? What if the end of the world could only be averted through sacrifice?
Sacrifice. The word rang loudly in my mind. I then realized that there was only one thing I could do that would save the world.
I closed my eyes and stopped resisting. I stopped resisting. I thought of every moment I had spent on this journey. All the friends I’d made. All I had learned. All of the sadness. All of the joy. All of the pain. All of the people that I had to defend.
I opened my eyes. I knew what I had to do.
Umbra let loose her final attack.
In that instant, I let all of my power leave me. All of my being. I put it all into creating the most powerful weapon in the universe. The embodiment of sacrifice. A shield to repel all.
The completed Aegis Glacia. The Aegis of sacrifice.
By the time Umbra realized what I had done, it was already too late. She let loose a blast of pure, godly power, all the elements rolled into one. It struck the shield, and the shield did exactly what it was supposed to do.
It repelled.
Umbra was struck by the full force of all the power she wielded. I was blinded by a bright light. I felt the dark tendrils wrapping around me disintegrate into nothingness. I fell to the ground.
When the light faded, I saw Umbra on her knees, coughing up blood. There was a gaping hole in her stomach. “But… How…” She choked. “I am… darkness… I am… E… tern… al…”
That was the last word to come from her mouth.
She was gone. The goddess of darkness lay defeated by her own lust for power.
I watched as all of the souls flew from her corpse, back into the bodies they once inhabited. All except one. Her own. It twinkled, hanging in the air, getting smaller and smaller, until it faded away into nothingness.
My friends’ eyes flittered open. They slowly rose to their feet. I wanted to run to them. To wrap them all in an embrace. But I knew I couldn’t. My time in this world was almost up.
I collapsed.
Travis rubbed his head. “Ugh… What the hell…” He turned his head towards me. Dammit. I was hoping he wouldn’t see me like this. “Xander!” He ran to me. Once they had gotten their bearings, the others did the same.
I looked up at them with the last bit of my strength. “Hey guys…” My voice came out softer than a whisper.
Travis clenched his fists. “Xander… What happened? Where’s Umbra?”
I smiled weakly. “Gone.”
Strelitzia put her hand over her mouth. “You… defeated her?”
“Yeah… But I’m afraid it took everything I had…” I said. “It’s taking all of the strength I have just to talk to you right now…”
“No…” Strelitzia’s eyes brimmed over with tears. “Why did it have to be you…”
“Don’t cry…” I tried to comfort her. “The Empire is gone. So are the Glacians. There’s nothing stopping you from creating a world where everyone can be happy.”
“But…” Tears streaked down Strelitzia’s face. “We were supposed to do it together! We were supposed to reshape this world together!”
“I… I’m sorry.” I looked down. “I did what I had to do, and I paid the price. I can’t join you in reshaping Ubiaxus,” I said. “But everyone here shares the same dream that you and I do. They can help you just as well as I can.”
Strelitzia stared at me in silence, before suddenly running at me and pulling me into an embrace. “Your sacrifice will always be remembered, Xander. Always.”
She let go of me and walked away. Travis walked to me next.
“So… This is it, huh buddy?” Travis seemed as though he was fighting back tears.
“Travis… I’m sorry I had to—”
“Don’t give me that crap,” Travis said. “If anything, I should be the one saying sorry…”
“Huh?”
“It was me…” Travis muttered. “You left the island because I left the island. If I had stayed—”
“Travis…” I interrupted. “Don’t you give me that crap.”
“Huh?”
“If you had declined Strelitzia’s invitation, I would have still made you go with her,” I said. “You wouldn’t have been happy. I chose to let you go. There’s nothing in the world that would have stopped me. It’s what best friends are for.”
Despite his best efforts to hold back his tears, a few managed to escape Travis’s eyes. He walked over to me and wrapped his arm around me, giving me a light noogie. “I promise that I’ll never forget you, pal. I’ll keep moving forward no matter what.”
I smiled. For a few seconds, things were just as they once were. Travis sat by my side and I smiled lightly. We sat like that for seconds that felt like hours.
Eventually, I felt myself beginning to slip away. The last thing I saw before I died was Travis’s smiling face. Everything was as it should be. Closing my eyes, I welcomed oblivion.
As I drifted into nothingness, I could have sworn I heard Glacia’s voice.
Sleep well, Xander Faust.
rton, Hail's Disciple
