Chronicles of Eden - Act XII

by Alexander Gordon

Ragnarok yelled in her outrage as she struck her hands into Daniel’s chest like a phantom, halting the overload of pain Daniel was experiencing as he suddenly felt numb and weak on his knees. His newly formed sword rested on the dirt at his side as he suddenly found no strength to lift it despite it being nearly weightless in his hand. Catching his breath he saw Ragnarok staring at him in horror while floating above the ground in front of him.

  “There’s no magical energy in you now!” she cried out in dismay. “No! How can this be? Your soul, it was connected to the very ether of magic that flows through Eden, it had unlimited amounts of energy tied to it! There’s nothing going through you now, not a damned trace of monster energy at all!”

  “What does that have to do with-”

  “You damned fool! Do you realize what this means? You have no monster energy coursing through you, there’s no magic for me to feed off of! You’ve trapped me inside a worthless human’s body!”

  “What are you saying? You’re the one who wanted me to take you, remember?” Daniel shot back, speaking to what appeared to be nothing at all as everyone around him was watching with complete bewilderment at the sight of Daniel talking to himself.

  “That’s not the point here,” Ragnarok hissed. “I need monster energy to manifest in the real world, I need that energy to take form. You had unfathomable reserves of monster energy surging into your very soul while you were in the ether. With that much power inside your fleshy body I would have been able to sustain myself indefinitely, I could have become even more powerful as a weapon in your hands than ever before! But there’s nothing at all inside you except for a stupid human’s soul, there’s no flow from the magical ether going through you at all now! There’s nothing for me to feed on now!”

  “You never explained any of this to me before! And it’s not like I would have known this would happen, you told me to wield you so I tried to!”

  “Don’t you dare try to put the blame on me for this!” Ragnarok yelled with thrashing arms. “I can’t believe it, you pulled me out of the ether only to reveal yourself with having no magical aura at all to sustain me! I’m trapped inside your body now, trapped with no energy to feed off of and no way to escape!”

  Daniel strained himself with not screaming again as a surge of pain was felt going through his arm. He saw the Ragnarok sword lying on the dirt in his immovable grip, the blade now starting to slowly dissolve into dust that floated up into the air while a horrible stinging sensation was creeping throughout his whole body. He then noticed the gemini sisters staring at him with raised eyebrows, the twins glancing to each other with shrugs then back to Daniel while showing dark glares as they gripped their swords.

  “You fucking bastard!” Ragnarok shouted as she saw the gemini staring him down. “This isn’t how I expected this to go! If you die with me bound to you then I die too! You sentenced me to death in this worthless shell you call a body by bringing me here with those monsters right next to you!”

  “Believe me that was not my intention,” Daniel growled while struggling to move through the pain.

  “I can’t die here! There’s so many people I haven’t killed yet!” Ragnarok fretted nervously. “So many lives remain in this realm that I haven’t cleaved into pieces! This can’t be how it ends for me! You stupid human, don’t just sit there, do something! Kill them, quickly!”

  “And just how am I supposed to do that?” Daniel barked back as Jacqueline started walking towards him with frost drifting off her blade.

  “You’re still holding me in your hand, I still have some energy that you drew out from the ether. Strike them down before I vanish completely. Hurry!”

  “But you’re just one blade,” Daniel worried. “They need to be killed at the same time by-”

  “Get off your ass and shove me into that bitch, now!” Ragnarok yelled at him.

  “Looks like you really have gone insane,” Jacqueline scorned as she lifted her sword up. “Speaking gibberish to yourself in your final moments. How very pathetic and fitting for you, Daniel Sorres.”

  “DO IT!” Ragnarok desperately roared. Daniel summoned all the strength he had to fight off the crippling pain that streaked through his body, the image of Ragnarok’s body vanishing before his eyes to reveal Jacqueline raising her blade high with a murderous leer aimed at him. With a furious shout Daniel threw all his might and willpower into lunging forward at the naked woman, jumping up onto his feet and swinging his sword through the air into her side. Carving into her chest he knocked her off-balance a step, the large weapon lodging itself in her bust with a heavy crunch as she froze in surprise. Gripping Ragnarok with both hands Daniel mustered his resolve to stay standing, staring right into the multicolored eyes of Squeak’s killer as blood ran down her naked flesh from the deep wound he had rended. With a shaky breath Jacqueline went wide-eyed, a hoarse gasp being made as scorched flesh began spreading across her breasts and backside around the gash dug into her.

  “What… the…” she sputtered as her eyes began to glow. Daniel witnessed a sharp burst of light shining out from the girl where his sword was struck into before she suddenly shrieked in agony.

  “IT HURTS! IT HURTS!” she screamed at the top of her lungs.

  “Sister?” Jovian worried, right before she suddenly cringed with a loud scream and dropped to her knees. Holding her head she cried out in distress while Jacqueline dropped her sword and grabbed hold of Ragnarok. Her fingers seared from the touch, her blood boiled as it ran down against it, her hair burned off from the weapon’s sharpened edge. She cried out with a frightful expression on her face, her eyes staring in horror at the strange sword that was resonating profoundly throughout her entire body before turning to Daniel as he grit his teeth with a furious glare aimed straight at her.

  “HOW?” she screamed with her body trembling. “YOU… YOU… YOU CAN’T!”

  “For Squeak!” Daniel shouted, gripping Ragnarok and yanking it straight across Jacqueline’s body. The blonde girl let out a painful shriek as an eruption of light sliced through before consuming her completely, exploding violently afterward in a blaze of red light with black streaks flowing through it. Those nearby shielded their eyes from the piercing glare that erupted within the clearing while Jovian dropped forward onto her hands with a feral roar.

  “What’s happening?” Felucia cried out.

  “Dan!” Clover shouted while trying to peer through the light.

  The burst of light bloomed violently in the woodland before slowly subsiding, with the girls nearby lowering their arms and hands as they then could see a lingering cloud of dust gently flowing away in front of Daniel. He retained a focused glare on his face while struggling to withstand the pain his body was enduring, the Ragnarok blade in his hands still being in one piece although deteriorating in size as he held it off to the side from his swing.

  “What… just happened?” Sheal asked. “What did he just do?”

  “Daniel,” Cindy softly said, then blinked and noticed somebody now missing. “Hey, where did that mean girl go? Where is she?”

  “Ah, now that was quite the display,” Aeon chuckled with a dark grin. “Oh how I enjoyed witnessing it with my own eyes.”

  “What was that?” Flarah carefully asked. “What is going on here?”

  “Incredible,” Kindra breathed out. She blinked before promptly turning around and punching her sister in the arm with great force. “HA! Fucking told you! I told you Ragnarok was real, I told you Daniel Sorres would summon it, I fucking told you, big sister! How does that fat pussy of humility taste now, bitch? What do you have to say to that?”

  “First, ow,” Flarah dryly replied as she rubbed her arm. “Second, calm down if you can. We don’t know if that thing is actually Ragnarok. He brought forth something alright, but whoever said it’s really-”

  “Oh, it is,” Aeon chimed in with a sly grin. “Your sister was correct, my dear friend. Why else do you think I would have bothered gracing any of you here with my presence on this night, o
r go through all the trouble of arranging this event by placing everyone where they needed to be for it? Thanks to me Daniel Sorres has summoned Ragnarok from the depths of the ether itself. The weapon you see him holding now is indeed the one of legends.”

  “Suck it!” Kindra shouted in Flarah’s face. “I told you! I told you from the very beginning, but noooooo, ‘Ragnarok is just in fairytales, you don’t know what you’re talking about, little sister.’ Well choke on that, big sister, Daniel Sorres just brought it into this world like I always knew he could! I was right and you were wrong!”

  “It is only in fairytales,” Flarah argued. “Don’t get so cocky, little sister. Do you really expect me to believe that human over there just summoned something as miraculous as Ragnarok into being? A mighty power that not even angels or demons could wield, with the ability to cut down any adversary on the face of the planet, would really exist and be brought forth by someone as lowly as that man over there?”

  “The ability to cut down any adversary,” Aeon repeated, with the kitsunes turning to see her giggling while watching Daniel. “A weapon so powerful that it can slay anyone it is used against, be they man, monster, or even angel and demon. Nobody, not even a Dark Queen, would be immune to its deadly strength and terrifying power.”

  The chronofly glanced to the two women with a smug grin and twitched her eyebrow, with the sisters slowly looking back to see Daniel still standing while the Ice Princess sword that lay lodged in the dirt had nobody reclaiming it now.

  “Wait, where is she?” Flarah asked. “The other half of the gemini, she should have regenerated by now.”

  “She’s not coming back,” Aeon answered, with the kitsunes turning to her in surprise. “If you wanted further proof that Daniel Sorres is truly holding Ragnarok in his hand, there it is. You saw it yourself. He destroyed that half of the gemini. He doesn’t need the likes of the Hellfire’s Edge or the Archlight’s Blade so long as he possesses their greater as he now does. That sword can rend humans like they were made of paper and strike down even the most tenacious monsters by completely destroying their monster energy, the very core of their lifeforce. And that includes each half of that Dark Queen’s being. That side of the monster he struck down isn’t coming back, she’s very much dead.”

  Flarah and Kindra looked to each other in stunned silence then back to Daniel as he watched the last floating wisps of dust finally settling in front of him. His glare then slowly moved towards Jovian who was screaming wildly while on her hands and knees, her grip on her Hellstorm being white-knuckle tight as she yelled something that only came out as an enraged slur. She slowly got up on her feet, head hung low while her sword shook in her trembling hand with a building electrical charge crackling around the dark runestone weapon.

  “What… did you do…” she furiously snarled. Lifting her head up Daniel jumped a bit at seeing the left side of her face now having been reduced to rotting flesh while the eye was completely black. “WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY SISTER?”

  The girls nearby trembled a bit as the animalistic roar of the gemini echoed loudly into the air. Jovian yelled like a furious demon, turning her body heavily one way then back again as she howled in unrestrained anger never seen in her before.

  “SISTER! WHERE ARE YOU? WHERE’S MY SISTER? WHERE IS SHE?”

  Screaming at the top of her lungs Jovian looked around the area before resting her chilling gaze on Daniel again, her eyes glancing down to the Ice Princess sticking out of the dirt then back to him as she trembled with rising ferocity.

  “YOU! WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY SISTER?”

  “The same thing I’m going to do to you,” Daniel coldly replied. “Send you straight to hell, you fucking bitch.”

  Jovian screamed bloody murder as she charged him, rushing Daniel with pure hatred and anger fueling her now while her Hellstorm built up a tremendous amount of electrical power that zapped the ground wildly below in her run.

  “DANIEL SORRES!” she shrieked with a heavy swing towards the human.

  Daniel lunged forward and swung Ragnarok at the raging monster, his blade clashing with Hellstorm and immediately plowing right through it as the dark runestone blade shattered with a burst of lightning that wildly struck the ground all around them. The Ragnarok blade destroyed the gemini’s enchanted weapon, followed by her hand that was swiftly hacked clean off her arm. Staggering back with an agonizing scream Jovian clutched her severed limb, eyes staring in shock as the wound sizzled up along her arm while causing the flesh and bone it crossed to decay and fall off as dust.

  “WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS? WHAT THE HELL? WHAT IS THIS HORRIBLE FEELING?”

  “Pain,” Daniel answered. He swung his sword and hacked off Jovian’s other arm, the woman shrieking loudly as she stumbled back and dropped onto her rear. She cried out in horror as she saw her stump of a shoulder burning away while the sense of actual pain registered overwhelmingly clear in her mind.

  “STOP IT! WHAT IS THIS? THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING!”

  “For the centaurs,” Daniel scorned, swiping his blade around and cleaving off her right leg. The monster screamed in terror as she hopped about on the ground before seeing Daniel raising his sword up again.

  “For the elves,” he continued, striking down and slashing off her other leg above the knee, sending the monster into a squealing tirade while shaking her head wildly in agony.

  “For my mate!” he yelled, driving his sword down into Jovian’s chest with a heavy crunch. The woman locked up with a hoarse gasp, her body twitching slightly as red and black lines began erratically spreading out along her skin from where she was impaled. Her eyes shakily looked down to see Ragnarok struck through her while feeling her body throbbing in pain like she had never experienced before, her fearful gaze then slowly turning back up to see Daniel glaring at her with unbridled fury against the backdrop of the burning forest.

  “This pain is nothing compared to what you and your sister inflicted upon so many people,” Daniel sternly condemned. “Nothing compared to what you did to me. You deserve far worse, far worse than I could ever pay you back in my lifetime. But if this is all I can make you suffer for your crimes then so be it. At the very least, your bloody crusade in this world now ends.”

  “How…” Jovian choked out as her eyes began to glow. “You’re… just a human…”

  “Yeah,” Daniel agreed as he clutched the handle with both hands. “And you’re just a horrible monster.”

  With that he stood aside and slashed outward with his sword, tearing it through Jovian’s chest, neck, head, and the dirt under her as he swung Ragnarok up into the air. The ground ruptured from the force while the gemini’s body exploded with a violent burst of fiery crimson light with black streaks billowing through it that quickly consumed her remains in a powerful explosion. Everyone watching was rendered speechless as they saw Daniel destroy the dreaded monster’s body with a mighty swing of his oversized sword and resulting radiant fireball that tore downward through the shaking forest floor. Daniel slowly took a few deep breaths before turning around and walking away, his attack finally fizzling out behind him before an eruption of fire and smoke blasted up from the newly formed hole with cinders and ashes fluttering wildly around it through the air.

  “And with that,” Aeon mused. “The Dark Queen of anarchy has fallen. A suitable and quite entertaining execution for those wild dogs if you ask me.”

  “Amazing,” Kindra breathed out. “He… he killed them. He actually killed the gemini. All on his own.”

  “Impossible,” Flarah quietly contested, her eyes keenly focused on Daniel as he slowly walked away from where Eden crumbled apart and dropped into a fiery pit in the wake of his devastating attack.

  Walking with unsteady steps Daniel felt a wave of fatigue washing over him, the pain he felt across his body slowly fading into the back of his mind as he lost focus of it. Looking down to his armored grip on Ragnarok he saw the blade almost having dissolved into dust at this point, his eyes then moving to the hand
of Ragnarok herself that was placed over his as the woman held onto him from behind.

  “Not bad, for a human,” Ragnarok snidely remarked as she floated around his back to face him. “At least you used me for a good purpose while you could. Destroying the gemini was one of my reasons for being made in the first place. So, for helping me achieve that goal, thank you… I guess.”

  “I thought… there wasn’t supposed to… be any kindness… between us,” Daniel slowly quipped. “Isn’t that what you said earlier? What’s… with the thank you?”

  He dropped to his knees as the Ragnarok blade fizzled away into ashes, the armored gauntlet over his hand flickering with a crimson glimmer before it too started crumbling into dust.

  “There isn’t supposed to be any,” Ragnarok agreed shaking her head. “I’m just a weapon after all, never anything more. Still, I’m stuck with you now. Like it or not, I have to deal with you being my handler. I figured I might as well commend you for a job well done on the off-chance you actually do something right. You know, since you’re human and all. Humans like being coddled when they do good, don’t they? They’re like housecats. Filthy creatures…”

  “Stop, you’re… being far too kind,” Daniel flatly replied. He wavered on his knees as the world around him seemed to be spinning slightly, the muffled cries of Clover and Cindy being heard and drawing his blurry gaze over to see the girls running around the gap in the clearing to reach him.

  “You… were made to kill the gemini?” Daniel carefully asked as he turned to Ragnarok. “Is that what you said?”

  “That was one of my reasons for existing, yes,” she answered with a nod. “My original handler forged me with the power to slay them and anyone else that stood in her way. A shame she never got the chance to use me for such grand desires. And even further a shame that she was beaten to the punch by a human man of all creatures.”

  “I’m going to ignore that last comment,” Daniel grunted, blinking a few times to try and clear his vision before showing a cautious look towards the ghostly woman. “Tell me, who exactly created you? Who was your original handler?”