by Jason Letts
Mira, Roselyn, and Chucky raced back out the way they came in, leaving Vern and Aoi in the middle of the war-torn city. Hand in hand, they ran down an alley to the east, the symphony of destruction echoing all around them. After checking to make sure they were safe, Vern led Aoi to a vertical clay wall.
Vern put one foot against it and held himself in place until he was perfectly horizontal. He extended his free hand out to Aoi, who blushed when she took it. Soon they walked up the side of the wall, her weight supported by his fingertips on her back. When they got to the top, he gave her a cocky look.
“Oh yeah, amazing,” she scoffed sarcastically.
Running along the rooftops, they hopped over narrow divides, peeking over the sides and watching the marauders canvas the streets for plunder. One building started to rumble while they were on it, and they quickly leapt for the next one. An intersection followed after that, and Vern stopped on the edge when he realized it would be impossible for him to jump over the gap between the next building.
This time he felt her hands on his back and watched as his feet left the ground. She swung him around and launched him over the divide. He sailed headfirst but then tilted upright enough to land on his feet when he reached the next building. Aoi got a running start and long jumped all the way across. After landing, she yawned like it was child’s play, and he just shook his head and laughed.
They made it to the eastern edge of the city, climbing to the top of the tallest building on that side, a whopping four stories. From there a cool breeze abated the glaring sun and they could see everything, the lifeless battlefield to the south, the gaping cavern and river to the east, and even the ranch house by the dry riverbed to the north, it all looked picturesque from this height. They actually weren’t too far from where they fought the spy by the riverside.
A few tiny figures, probably their friends, ran along toward the cavern. A small group had gathered to defend the entrance, and occasionally a solitary and foolish savage would stray from the city to challenge them. For now at least, Darmen’s defenseless were safe.
Gazing through the streets for the Warlord’s unmistakably distinct appearance, the scale of it all hit them at moments. Swarms drifted through the streets, buildings collapsed into dust, and that which took hundreds of years to build rapidly disintegrated into nothing.
“It’s kind of beautiful, isn’t it?” Aoi mused.
“Sure not something I ever thought I’d see,” Vern replied.
“Even the greatest of cities meet their end sooner or later.”
On the ground, Mira, Chucky, and Roselyn returned to the cavern entrance. The rancher watched over the cavern alone from the opposite side. Westley had just returned to the surface after relinquishing Mary to those in the tunnels.
“I didn’t tell them how things were going,” Westley said to Neeko’s shadow, which guarded the entrance. “Let them be spared that for as long as they can.”
He then turned his attention to the small incoming group.
“What are you doing here so soon? Did you find him?” he asked.
“We’ll never find him in there,” Mira informed him. “Our only chance is if he comes out into the open.”
“It might be a tough wait. More and more of them are trying to get into the cavern, and I doubt he’d stick his neck out when the coast wasn’t clear,” Westley added.
Nodding, they braced themselves for the last stand. The explosion of another building caught their attention. Looking up, they saw Vern and Aoi still atop another structure, watching over everything like birds in the sky.
The destruction gravitated further and further east. From the rooftop, the pair watched it drift closer, heard the hooligan-like yells grow, and noticed their own apprehensions rise. Invaders trickled from the city toward the cavern frequently now, and it was hard to imagine how long the small force near the entrance could hold them off.
The disjointed mob wove through the streets, just below them. Vern shook his head and blinked, checking to make sure he’d really seen it, and then he grabbed Aoi by the shoulder. The Warlord was stalking eastward, his underlings dashing by, too wrapped up in their own pillaging to notice him.
The man set his calloused hand on a clay hut and the building exploded in a cloud of dust and debris from which he emerged, undaunted and unmoved, a moment later. It took just a simple touch for him to deliver so much devastation.
Vern, his anger growing, pursed his lips and breathed heavily through his nose. He clenched his fists and leaned over the edge to get a better look. His anger took on a flash of excitement, and he quickly turned to Aoi and jabbered through his words.
“Nobody’s paying any attention. We could drop in on him and finally finish this! If you could absorb his energy then there’d be nothing to stop me from attacking him. This could really work, don’t you think?”
His eyes had a bright glean, and he felt ready to leap from the building’s edge in an instant if she said yes. But Aoi tilted her head a little, setting her dark eyes upon him and speaking slowly.
“What if it’s too much to absorb? What if it doesn’t work and something happens to one of us? There’s no reason to believe we would have a chance.”
“We could try. That’s all we can do, right? Maybe it would work and we’d be remembered forever as the saviors of Darmen. Maybe it wouldn’t, but at least we’d know we stood up to him,” he pouted.
“I can’t take that risk,” she whispered, coming closer.
Putting her arms around his sides, she rested her head on his chest. The sound of another exploding building rattled through the sky.
“I’ve hated you forever, but maybe I’ve loved you forever too. And now I can’t bear to lose you even if it means everything else will be lost.”
On the ground below them, footsteps raced toward the edge of the city and the cavern beyond. In a moment, the city’s remaining forces would clash with them again in open conflict and they would have to help, but for now they couldn’t find the strength to let each other go.
“Are you ready?” Vern asked, stepping away from her and taking a deep breath. Aoi had some dirt on her face near her eye and around her mouth, but it wasn’t nearly enough to cover her resolve and determination.
“Always,” she grinned, and together they hopped to a shorter building.
From the riverbank and the city’s edge, the roaming army set its sights on the small group of Darmen’s guard and Shade army veterans guarding the cavern. Buildings within view started to collapse, and frontrunners popped out of more streets along the city’s eastern side.
Just feet away from where the river dropped into oblivion, Mira, Chucky, and Roselyn watched Vern and Aoi descend from their perch. Mira shook her head, disappointed that another opportunity to strike at the Warlord didn’t materialize. Instead, clusters of enemy forces emerged to strike the final note in his victory.
“How long do you think we’ll be able to hold them off?” Chucky asked.
“Five minutes would be impressive,” Roselyn considered.
“Why stop at impressive?” Mira smiled at them. “I’d much rather go for unbelievable.”
As they climbed out from the riverbank to face the incoming foes, Aoi dropped from a three-story building onto an emerging band. Two fighters broke her fall, one for each leg, and they flailed headfirst into a wall. Instead of falling on her back after the kick, Aoi dangled in the air like a spider, slowly righting herself as she floated in the air. As soon as her feet were under her, she dropped to the ground to pursue the rest.
Vern swung down from a small one-story hut, and he raced across through the patchy grass and sand to rejoin the other defenders. He snared one of the frontrunners with his gravity, lifting him off his feet and pulling him back to elbow him.
An incessant flow of invaders following behind urged him to hurry all the more. One coerced townsperson found himself at the front of the charge, and he tripped over what looked like nothing but air. That air continued to thra
sh him though, and it wasn’t until he had been immobilized completely that he spotted Neeko’s shadow just off to the right.
They all had their hands full a moment later, fighting to prevent anyone from getting into the cavern and fighting for their lives. Mira punched at one blonde Sunfighter’s midsection, but she felt her arm sink into her opponent’s stomach. While her arm was stuck in the black void, her captor used the butt of her fist to knock Mira in the face.
Using her one free arm, Mira tried in vain to defend herself, getting pounded heartlessly in the process. Chucky yanked on her enemy’s hair and stuffed an oil-ball into her mouth from behind. She choked and gagged, freeing Mira’s arm. The girl collapsed to the ground while Mira and Chucky ran off to intercept more incoming attackers.
“Thanks. That was sweet,” Mira said to him.
One Sunfighter swooped around Westley and evaded Neeko, choosing to go right for the dark cavern instead of fighting his way there. He leapt into the air at a sharp angle to land on the cavern’s top level. But instead of passing through, something kept him level with the earth’s surface, and he fell flat onto the open air. The edge of the river started to sputter and spit, resulting in a thin puddle of water emerging on the invisible surface that covered the pit.
Completely bewildered about his inexplicable levitation, the solitary warrior stood on the surface over the pit, looking straight down to all ten levels that encircled the fissure below. A few meek faces even looked up at him. But he picked his head up again and saw the rancher standing alone on the opposite side of the cavern.
Once he’d found the source, this undaunted warrior stalked straight at him over the invisible surface. Aoi, distracted from her own fight, turned her head to see that her mentor was in danger. The rancher looked calm and relaxed, despite a wily hooligan bearing down on him.As soon as his pursuer made it halfway across the cavern, the growing puddle that spilled across the surface and the warrior fell through as if nothing had ever held them up. Once the man had plummeted into the abyss, the bubbling river started to form a new puddle over the vacuous space.
Between the city and the cavern, Vern and Westley fought to impede the never-ending stream of incoming warriors. Suddenly surrounded, Westley struggled to fight off swords and chunks of dry ice. A few stones revolved around him, batting away the most invasive attacks, but his exhausted huffing signaled he wouldn’t be able to keep it up for long.
Struggling to get to him, Vern floundered through the thickening crowd. He tried to bypass one villain but received a pinch on the back that felt like the bite of a dog. A kick slammed into Westley’s leg, further diminishing his ability to fight back. Scooping up a couple of rocks, Vern tossed them at him in hopes he could use them and buy some time.
Only one of the rocks made it, and it curved around his side just in time to deflect a swinging sword. Westley reached out to shove away one of his antagonists, but his eyes connected before his hands, and the gaze they shared proved impossible to break. Their eyes locked together, Westley desperately jerked his head but without success. He flailed his arms to the side, blindly keeping the rest at bay, but a knife sliced him above the elbow.
Pulling his arm inward and cradling it, blood started to leak through between his fingers. Stones whipped around him, and he launched one straight ahead. It hit the one who held his gaze in the shoulder, but it didn’t disconnect them. Unable to even blink, his eyelids wouldn’t close no matter how hard he clenched his face.
Growling, Vern careened into Westley’s mesmerizer, sending him tumbling. Westley jerked too, but the sudden impact broke the mesmerizer’s neck. Westley shut his stinging eyes as soon as he could, and he rubbed them through his bloody hands.
“Vern, is that you?” he howled, his voice hoarse and unstable.
Replying with just a grunt, Vern railed against the growing number of enemies, who herded them farther away from the cavern. Slamming his fists into anything he could reach, Vern searched desperately for a way to get them out. Westley let out a sharp cry as another blade clipped him on the side, forcing Vern to return his attention to his mentor and let out an excruciating yell.
“You cowards and your metal,” Westley huffed. “The web would have your power back long before mine.”
But Westley’s proud words only egged on his adversaries, who savagely prodded him despite Vern’s rabid defense. He lifted a long knife from a fallen foe and started swinging it haphazardly at anyone within range. But wherever Vern wasn’t, Westley was vulnerable.
“I’m not gonna make it. I’ll hold them off and you make a break for it,” his mentor advised.
“I won’t leave you!” Vern cried.
The sound of clashing blades rung in Vern’s ear, and he could only just hear the sputtering cough that followed it. Turning his head against his shrugging shoulder, he caught sight of the sword in Westley’s back. His orbiting stones dropped to the ground, and Westley slunk to his knees, his face beaming a shuddering curiosity that didn’t quite make sense. The rupture seemed to wash over him and plant mirages in front of his eyes.
His killers quickly left him to renew their assault on the cavern. Some of them threatened Vern, who received smarting blows for the attention he paid Westley. Looking at Westley stricken in the sand, Vern felt like he’d been stabbed.
“I always knew the war would come for me,” Westley muttered, straining against one arm to support himself. “I’d never give in, so I always knew it would end like this.”
Vern hated that he couldn’t comfort Westley in his last moments, but he knew abandoning the fight for even an instant would bring him an even quicker end. Westley’s sweaty brow drifted ever closer to the sandy ground.
“It’s not over for you yet, Vern,” Westley coughed, fighting through his words just enough so that Vern could hear them. “Just live and wait for a better day.”
Not another sound came to Vern’s ear from the man on that sunny patch of land. He dared not look over at it again, instead preferring to leave Westley the dignity of being intact, if only in his memory. Bleary-eyed, Vern swung wildly in all directions, oblivious to all else but the sheer frustration of his loss. No matter how many his rage-guided blade managed to cut through, he would never get his teacher back.
Back at the cavern’s entrance, much too far away to even imagine Vern’s plight, Mira fought a losing battle that pushed her back onto the water-logged surface covering the bottomless pit. Other than her fists, she had her mother’s tears and her father’s globe, but she never reached for them.
A few enemies jumped into the river in order to get under the invisible shield, but Mira watched them fall past all the levels. Some of the invaders went for the invisible platform’s creator, pursuing the rancher outright while his allies depended on his support.
Aoi saw them going for him, and she charged through an opponent and started drilling her way across the crowded battlefield directly to him. Dipping and leaping, she slipped under and over menacing Sunfighters. Her heart throbbed furiously, and the energy she expelled driving to the cavern left a row of incapacitated bodies in her wake. Someone chasing Roselyn swerved just in front of her, and Aoi leapt to slam the butt of her fist against his neck.
Breaking out onto the slick glass-like surface that covered the cavern, Aoi plowed through a few of Mira’s antagonizers. On the other end, she spotted the rancher’s big frame and big hat. He stood idly even as murderous villains approached. A lump formed in her throat when it dawned on Aoi that he would let them kill him. It fit in so well with all of his teachings, and he would live them right to his very last breath; if he couldn’t prevent his death then it served no purpose to delay it.
But the devotion she had for him prevented her from letting him go. She would’ve never known the truth about herself if it weren’t for him, but until now she’d never known the truth about him. When she stood on the straw bridge, did it really support her own weight? Was the peace she thought she needed really the answer, or was it all a cheap tri
ck? Her mind felt like it had a lot in common with that brittle bridge.
A sudden flash swept at her from the side, and she leapt over Chucky as he slid across the open expanse. Just a few more steps and she would be right there next to her mentor, just like if she were sitting on his porch. A Sunfighter reached into his ragged and patchy hair, tore something out, and prepared to hurl it at the rancher. Her eyes focused on the ruffian, and she leapt into the air, sailing at him feet first.
Slamming into him, the impact launched him into a grassy patch. Finding herself by the rancher’s side, Aoi wished to watch the clouds with him or hear him say, “I told you I’m way ahead of you.” She couldn’t waste a second now or he would disappear into the past.
Musing to himself, the rancher watched her short and slight figure prance around him, harnessing the might of a berserker and the grace of a ballerina. She fought so quickly and so fiercely that not a single person could lay a hand on them. Listening to the breath that wafted into and out of her body, she imagined their resistance would last forever.
“Why are you fighting, Aoi?” he asked her.
“Because I don’t want you to die,” she answered, letting her eyes close for just a moment.
“You can’t stop me from dying,” he said, the smile on his face meaning the world to her.
Then she felt something slimy strike her on the temple as she turned to see who approached them from the opposite side. It stuck to her, and she froze herself, stopping in place as she slowly put her hand to her head. Her fingers sinking into a sticky goop, she pulled them back to see a string of fluorescent blue plasma stretching from her head to her finger.
Swiveling ever so slowly, Aoi saw a woman in a brown robe who held one sleeve like a cannon. She couldn’t see anything in the dark folds where her arm was supposed to be, but another fleshy sack jettisoned from inside and sped toward her. It struck Aoi square on the chest, and the impact made her stagger back, but her calmness prevented it from harming her.
“I’m impressed. You’ve mastered it,” the rancher applauded as the plasma disappeared into Aoi.