“Let me guess, you've seen quite a bit in the short time you've been here? Shouldn't you have come to realize why that aspect of yours is so eager to help and protect you?” Delirias kept quiet and used the opportunity to catch his breath, pulling his hood over his face.
“Do you really believe that he is your friend? Because you two arrived here together? If you knew what he really was after, you would've never taken another step forward,” he continued his laughter until Gwyn interrupted him.
“Why do you think that I didn't know all along? I don't care what my aspect schemes – I'm here for myself.” He took a deep breath and for a second it felt as if everyone was listening to his words. “Even if it means that us getting together was simply a means of who used who, then I will accept that. I'm not willing to throw away another chance. I will pay my price.”
“Uhahaha, you humans will never be satisfied,” opposed Despair him
“Hm?!”
Out of nowhere the wounded Destare appeared behind him and clenched his fist ready to smash into him.
“It's a tad too late for that, isn't it?” With such speed, not caught by the human eye, Despair escaped and flew over Destare's head. With the skilled movement of his weapon, he smashed the colossus to the ground.
Leandro froze in bewilderment. He couldn't bear to see the how his mortally wounded aspect fought his fight. The very feeling of Despair crept up on him as the adrenaline began to slowly fade from his body. Paralyzing fear emerged from underneath it, taking over his blood. Like a shadow that was ready to swallow him whole.
Destare groaned in pain inside his heavy armor while trying to stand up. Again, and again he stood up to stop Despair. His panting and huffing could be felt by Leandro with every step he took as if they were his own. Not even Delirias’ help was enough. As the two aspects began another barrage, it became crystal clear that their attacks whiffed and Despair was about to triumph. His scythe, still ablaze, mowing them down time and time again.
“Th-that c-can't b-be it, r-right G-gwyn? W-we are the g-good guys here, r-right?” Leandro stuttered as he tumbled towards the battlefield.
“Leandro? What are you doing?!” Gwyn noticed it way too late, after being absorbed in the fight, that Leandro was nothing but a former shell of himself.
“Were we really this dumb? I thought we could manage it somehow. That if we stayed together, we could take down anybody, but now…”
“What are you saying?!” Gwyn intervened. “It's not over!” he tried to comfort his friend.
Despair pushed the two aspects from him and saw his chance.
“Maybe it was hopeless to think that we could win, right from get go?” Leandro thought to him tacitly.
A voice began to ring through his head, and everything around him went dark. He found himself standing before a giant black wall, imposingly blocking his way.
“I hope I have not misheard what you've said, my boy. HOPELESS? DO YOU MEAN THE NEVERENDING FEELING OF DESPAIR?! That is what it sounded like to me, what do you think?!” The terror grew in Leandro’s eyes to a point where he thought he would lose his mind. The gigantic, purple eyes of Despair appeared in the wall in front of him, staring him down while twitching wildly. “Then allow me to release you from that pain once and for all.”
All it took was a single moment.
A tear erupted before his inner mind, right between the eyes in the wall. Splitting them apart down the middle. Finally, he was freed from the psychological pressure, the nightmare that was his own reality. Just as Leandro adjusted to the situation, he still couldn't see properly. His vision was still split in half, while he saw Despair standing before him.
He couldn't remember how he got that close. His eyes began to close and his thoughts to fade, yet in his last breath he saw the sinister grin and radiating eyes of Despair.
“NOOOOO!” Destare and Gwyn screamed in unison, unable to stand by Leandro.
It was already too late.
The mighty Lord had taken his chance to escape from the two aspects and promptly cut the young man asunder. The two halves of his body were slipping to the floor like a lifeless piece of flesh. His blood shot forth, while the rest of his guts gathered on the stone floor.
Gwyn went numb immediately from the shock of seeing his dear friend die in such a cruel and twisted way. He felt as if his body was tearing up from the inside. The uncontrolled pumps of his blood ready to burst his veins.
Meanwhile, Destare mustered up all of his remaining strength and tried to eradicate Despair with a single strike, but his time was already up. Right as his fist was about to smash into his enemy, his body started to dissolve. As if he had lit a piece of paper on fire, the giant vaporized, and Destare's armor crumbled away piece by piece. All that remained was Leandro's dissected body and the triumphant laugh of Despair who blew away the leftover dust of Destare's body. His voice echoed through the room, where it was unexpectedly met by another laughing figure.
Irritated, Despair took a look around.
It was Delirias who stood near the destroyed throne, laying down comfortably on the rubble.
“That might have been the wrong move, buddy,” the aspect grinned. The only thing that could be seen was his white, eerie smile that flashed across the room.
“Don't be ridiculous, what's the wors-” Despair stopped abruptly as he felt an enormous energy rising from behind his back.
It came from Gwyn himself whose eyes had lost their color, and his mind was no longer with him. Like in a trance, he swung his head back and forth, folding his hands on his lap.
“This can't be,” mumbled Despair aghast as he took up a defensive position for the first time in this fight. “This is impossible. Is this truly happening?!” In shock he turned to Delirias who calmly whistled to himself.
“Kikiki, how should I know? Shouldn't you be the expert? I'm so excited to see what will happen. Not even the Pansarum works anymore, how crazy is that?” His grin became more arrogant and gleeful by the minute. “Did you know you have a surprising amount of free time when your human is asleep? Ah, forgive me, of course you know,” Delirias said before their attention was drawn to Gwyn who began to groan in pain. “Oh boy, It looks like you are in for a lot of trouble. It's finally time for the fireworks.”
Gwyn himself didn't catch any of what was happening.
The only thing that went through his mind was the pictures of Leandro’s death that played before his inner eye. Over and over again. In his endless loop of dread he saw his friend being murdered, noticing how every time he saw it, a piece of himself broke apart.
“UUUUUUUUUUAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHH!”
Gwyn’s scream roared through the hall with fear and desperation while many different voices inside his head came back to him. All the conversations he held, the thoughts he had. All of it played itself like a film before his eyes until that fateful moment where he had gone too far.
“…the tragic events of a young couple, which found its misfortune way too early…”
“Multiple personalities, huh?”
“Here lie Ragos and Cynthia Viridas…”
“From today on we are partners.”
“You seriously have no idea what kind of situation you stumbled into, do you?!”
“Pansarum? What the hell is that supposed to be?!”
“Is everything all right Mr. Viridas?”
“If I were to be one of your patients, this would be the only wish I'd ever hold. Someone who believes in me until the bitter end, even when I've already given up myself!”
“...it seems that there are more people following you, besides me…”
“But why books about personality disorders, hm?”
“That what we accept as right, and true is only based off of the things we experience around us.”
“You know, no matter what happens, and how many people doubt you – I know your potential, and I believe in you.”
“It will never be over, every day we fear to think outside t
he borders we set for ourselves.”
“Purposeless are only those that stop making decisions.”
“… the collective subconsciousness of mankind.”
“The Akeyanaru. A fair warning little lamb, should you ever run into one of them – run for your life.”
“Lust spoke of a masked ball in Pride's city.”
“Can I really trust Delirias?”
“Don't tell me you still believed, deep down, that all of this wasn't real?”
“Isn't this what you always wished for? For something exciting to happen in your life for once.”
“In the end, it doesn't really matter what morally correct ideals a human holds dear to himself, and who he once was. The only thing that matters is right now. 'Good' and 'Bad' – what do these words even mean?”
“Aspects are so deplorable. Bound to their humans, distanced from their own freedom.”
“My name is Leandro.”
“You wouldn't have sacrificed your curiosity over something so trivial as the life of someone else. I wonder what that says about you?”
“The Pitiful Story of Lohka the Human…”
“How do you know if you can trust him? I hope you have ever thought about the possibility.”
“All of that doesn't matter to me. I'm just human garbage, following my own desires. I'm here for one reason only, and that is myself.”
“For the first time, I had the feeling that I could decide something on my own. To be alive, even if it meant looking like a reckless maniac to everyone who's watching.”
“Well, did you find your answer by now?”
“Thanks for being with me Leandro…”
“The only one who can save me is me”
A final scream came from Gwyn, creating an enormous aura around him. His body was taken over by a ray of black light that took the form of a pillar, swallowing him whole. Delirias watched in excitement, while Despair desperately tried to intervene, yet with every try, he was flung backward.
“It is already too late. For all of us. The rest will be decided by the sum of our decisions,” Delirias grinned, full of expectation.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?!” yelled Despair that stared at the aspect, looking for answers. “Don't tell me…? No!. It took me ages to do that,” he mumbled perplexed as he watched what transpired under the dome of light.
Small pupils and yaps with sharp teeth were forming themselves in the light and began to gnaw the flesh off of Gwyn’s bones. Piece by piece. In his agony he tried to rip his jaw apart with his fingers, letting the sound of cracking rumble through the hall. Without rest he pulled on it until his lower jaw broke loose from his face, letting the blood stream down. Two big claws pierced out the hole at his throat and pressed themselves out of the remaining corner of his mouth with all their strength.
“Hui, how disgusting,” Delirias commented while giggling from a safe distance.
“You are completely insane! What have you done?!” Despair scolded him, as he panicked for a solution. The pillar of light shot forth into the sky with a prompt jolt of energy, creating a massive hole in the roof.
Shortly after, nothing remained of him as the blinding light faded as if nothing ever happened to begin with.
“Where did that pitiful excuse for a human go?! Did he rip himself to shreds?” Despair looked around with impatience.
An unholy presence could be felt next to him. By a hair's width, he dodged an attack that almost beheaded him on the spot.
“Kikiki, simply incredible isn't it? Who would've thought that the unity of aspects and humans could create such a wonderful and bittersweet nightmare? Isn't he beautiful?!” Delirias couldn't contain his laughter while Despair examined the creature.
An abomination of a monstrosity had emerged from Gwyn's body. A creature that was surrounded by a black shadow, moving on four legs. Like a tumor, the four legs were adnate to the torso with cysts on them that were convulsively pulsating and twitching. The sharp claws from before were on each foot. Fangs, paired with lifeless white eyes stared at the Lord. A few pieces of Gwyn’s skin and extremities remained on parts of the beast's body where it had burst out of Gwyn. His brown, dry hair was the only human like thing that was left over, because even his ability to speak seemed to be gone. Merely a panting and howling came from the monstrosity, while it's warm breath crawled over the ground.
Matching the speed of Despair, that made him triumph over the aspects, the creature chased him through the hall as if he was his prey. Fiercely, Despair counterattacked with his scythe. Black flames brought forth more howls from the beasts with every hit, but it retaliated without mercy. Dark black-red blood poured from both sides as the claws hammered onto the black steel, filling the building with dismay.
Nothing resembled the once glorious throne room anymore since every exchange of blows ruptured the ground and new craters were created with crumbling pillars in the background. A stroke from its paw catapulted Despair deep into one of the walls, and the beast stormed after him. They were tightly pressing against each other, only a few inches apart, the black scythe was the only thing that separated the two. The being screeched and bared its teeth directly in front of his face. The salvia that was dripping from its jaw fizzled at it evaporated on the black flames of the scythe.
Out of seemingly nowhere Despair started to grin as if he had an epiphany.
“This form of insanity will never change the world,” he pushed the beast away from him and started a counter. Simultaneously, the beast clawed itself into the debris midair and opened its mouth. Little dark light particles gathered before his jaw while the beast breathed stertorously. A mighty pull followed, engulfing the area, bringing the ground to tremble once more.
“Ksk, damnit. And here I wanted to save this for the damned virtues,” Despair seemed annoyed and swung his scythe around him until he rammed it with the shaft into the ground. Immediately a rapid, focused beam of energy shot out of the beast's jaw, threatening to disintegrate him and the whole stronghold, reducing everything to ash. Yet he seemed calm, the purple in his eyes glowed and he whispered something.
“Paradise is lost.”
Out of thin air, a gigantic portal opened behind him, which even impressed Delirias. The screams that were escaping from his scythe were louder than ever before, increasing the earthquake that was shaking the palace. Just as it looked like the beam of light was about to exterminate him, a dark figure with a death's head grimace came forth from the portal.
It looked like the grim reaper himself, with imposing silver chains hanging from his body and bony fingers that pointed at the beast. Promptly, transparent worm-like entities emerged from the reaper that howled and flew right into the beam. As both forces collided it felt like a huge explosion was about to follow, yet after Delirias watched closer, he saw the beam of light shrinking, until an implosion pulled everything towards it, erupting and flinging back everything with tripled force.
The aspect could barely save himself from the debris that was flying around and a wide smoke cloud spread through the room.
The beast itself seemed to be breathing heavily and crawled weak-willed over the ground until an unexpected voice resounded from behind.
“This form of insanity… IS. JUST. TOO. UNCONTROLLED!” He paused after each word with heavy emphasis and swung his scythe with enormous strength. It was so strong that the echo could be heard through half of the stronghold and the flames were burning sky high. Burning down everything beyond their initial target as well. The beast lost its left paw from that attack but wasn't affected by it in its frenzy.
“NO! NO! AND ONCE MORE – NO!” With every second Despair became more energetic and every strike cut open the body of the beast. The painful yelping and screeching complimented the destroyed landscape. First, the other arm followed, then the shoulder. Yet, the beast tried to snap at him tirelessly.
Despair pressed it down to the ground with his heavy metal like an animal. Gradually he chopped off, with exuber
ant elegance, the remaining extremities and when the being almost stopped moving, he swung once more with all of his strength, separating the torso from its legs.
Exhausted from the fight, he watched with Delirias as the creature slowly transformed back into the human it was once. With Gwyn's consciousness returning in his last moments looking down on his severed body.
“Let's bring an end to all of this. Because the only thing that you have left in the end is the only real truth in of all creation – Despair,” the Lord preached and lounged out one last time.
Chapter 33 – A new Age
“Not so fast,” said Delirias as he forced himself between the two, blocking Despair's range of motion. As Gwyn was about to lose consciousness again, he saw, for one last time, the black-green coat was fluttering before him. He could not clearly say whether he felt scared or safe. After all the time he spent with his aspect, it might have been a combination of both.
With a cramped, weakened breath he tried to talk. “D-delirias…” His eyelids became heavier with every passing moment.
“It is not over yet, Gwyn,” answered his aspect and his eyes sharpened as he focused himself onto the Lord.
“I'm not afraid of you, Delirias. It looks like you have failed? In a few seconds, your host will die, and you shall vanish with him, you pesky eyesore,” taunted Despair from the other side as he dragged his black scythe across the ground.
“Uargh… h-he is – a-almost as… annoying a-as you are…” wheezed Gwyn with half a smile on his face. “Lo-looks like th-this… i-is it for m-me…” he barely got out as he had to repeat almost every word to gather enough strength to speak. Blood started pouring from his mouth.
He writhed in pain and tried to support himself with what was left of his body and upper arms. With all of his might, he forced himself to stay awake. “I-in the end… y-you were my b-biggest hope. H-how pa-pathetic. Hehe…”
My Insanity Page 47
