Chapter 16
The Blot
Terrill thought he had seen everything on his journey across the world. He thought he had experienced all there was to offer between his battles with the Fiends and discovering the Lifebloods. The war, the state of towns like Sheeris, or the bustling researchers of the Academy; all of it he had experienced and though it had surprised him, none of it seemed wrong or out of place.
This, however… This just felt sick.
The Shadow was a monstrosity full of every seething, negative emotion possible, accrued from the souls that made up Adversa, only now in a very real and very physical form. Seeing it for the first time, Golbrucht’s plan fully realized, Terrill didn’t want to believe it was real, and yet the nausea pooling in his stomach told him it was. Already, there was nothing left for him to do but watch it rise higher into the sky. Those near him were already useless, with Lumen trying to staunch the bleeding from Charles as the black armor he had been wearing broke away. Walter had become catatonic. It left Terrill alone to stare at the rising Shadow.
What can I do? What is there to do? Terrill’s hands hesitated on his blade, an ineffectual toothpick against the largest monster he had ever seen created. More than that, he could sense how ancient it was, like a monster from the past that had ravaged the world, now brought back into being by Golbrucht in his maddening need to be “free”. Was this why Crea split the worlds in two…? Because of this thing? Because of people?
Whatever Terrill might have surmised was irrelevant at the screech that pierced the air. Lumen shivered under its sound, while Terrill stared skyward, to where the cocoon was drawing greater amounts of the shadow. His eyes trended higher, however, to something else that was slowly growing into existence.
No more than the size of an apple, a veritable pinprick in the blotting darkness, but Terrill saw the tunnel of light forming, and he knew what it was. His theory was only confirmed as four appendages of the Shadow shot to all corners of the world with great speed and accuracy, those limbs turning colors as they mixed with the black. The apple-sized hole started to grow larger, opening the crack in the sky.
Golbrucht was slowly opening the existing rift back to Dimidia.
“The way home…” Terrill breathed, but couldn’t stop to appreciate it. There was no way he could go home. Not now. Not with this thing. He couldn’t let it go any further, yet his limbs were locked up. That discontent could be felt in his very bones, preventing him from moving. He had never been afraid, no matter the situation, but now…now he was very afraid.
That had nothing on the voice.
“Lumen…” it hissed on the air, a raspy word spoken by Golbrucht through the conduit of shadow. The boy looked to the cocoon, and Terrill saw him drawn to it. “Join.”
“Lumen, move!” Terrill’s shout tearing from his lips helped him get his act together. He lunged for the three collapsed on the stairs and took them in his arms. As he did, one of the Shadow’s tendrils struck, breaking the entryway to the Abyssal Palace. The floor cracked and burned, the grass around it beginning to wither, die and disappear. It was horrific, but Terrill had managed to get the three despairing individuals clear. That still gave him no time to catch his breath.
Where the Shadow struck, its tendrils emerged, consuming the palace where the Lifeblood of Darkness sat. It protected it in its own cocoon, Golbrucht taking no chances of removing the source of his amplification. Likewise, he wasn’t willing to let Lumen go, and he sent another tendril from the roaring Shadow. Terrill slapped his hand, pooling all of his magical power into one spot and creating a giant shield to block the incoming strike. Moments later the piercing line broke through, crashing into the stairs and tearing them apart, leaving a hole. The ground began to shimmer.
Adversa was breaking apart from the threat.
Terrill wasn’t sure if they had become lucky or unlucky from the blow, as the resultant blast from the Shadow’s punch sent all four flying down the stairs. They flew back, to the leveled forest where they rolled like ragdolls until they stopped. Floyd and the others were near, Terrill could see, each staring at the Shadow with terrified expressions.
“Terrill…” Floyd said, his voice quivering. Behind, Taro Downs was still burning, but any attempt to quench the fires was paused, all the citizens staring at the creature that looked to consume them. “How do we stop that thing?”
“There is no…” Krysta was still on her knees, and to Terrill, she looked broken. He couldn’t understand how someone who had come so far as her would just break, but then he looked to Lumen and Charles. They were all breaking apart, one by one, their greatest regrets and fears entering into their heads, which made Terrill wonder all the more why he wasn’t feeling so affected.
“Krysta! Please, help him!” Lumen cried out, unable to contain his voice any longer. He was unable to stop the bleeding, and not from any lingering darkness. In that despair, he looked up to the girl who turned her head in his direction. “Please. He’s dying. Charles is dying! He’s my only friend, you have to save him!”
“You cannot save them.” The Shadow’s whispers were enough to make even Terrill want to cover his ears. Torry had already done so, as though Golbrucht had wormed his way inside their heads and was tormenting them with every breath. That wasn’t the case, but Terrill couldn’t help to make the comparison. “If you choose to, you will lose Adversa. Or fail Adversa to save the one. It is an easy choice to make.”
“One…or the other…?” Krysta’s fingers were clutching at dirt, her body shaking while tears fell to her arms, causing them to shine even in the darkness. A clanking of many armors told Terrill that the soldiers in town were beginning to approach them, but he couldn’t warn them to not go any further. “I can’t… I don’t know which to choose…”
“Poor lost lamb of Light. Does his sacrifice meaning nothing weigh heavily upon you? Does it make you hesitate?”
“Shut up!” Krysta shouted. Terrill watched her, her tortured form unable to choose between Charles or Adversa. Even Terrill didn’t know the choice to make, or which was right. But he didn’t want to lose anyone, not now. He still had a promise to keep. Terrill walked forward, placing a hand on her shoulder.
“Don’t worry. We’ll hold off the Shadow. Heal him. We’re not losing anyone today.”
“Terrill, it’s too strong. It will eat you apart.”
“Then it does!” Terrill shouted. His sword came to be held in both hands, and Torry and Floyd took to his sides, each wiping away their own tears to face the abomination. “But this is everything we’ve been fighting to stop. It’s pointless if we lose the people we wanted to save along the way! So, heal him. That way, you’re fighting for us. In the meantime…”
“We’ll fight for everyone!” the couple chimed in. The Shadow screeched, and its writhing tentacles shot for the three.
“There’s no way we can hold this off alone, so together.” Terrill reached for Torry’s hand, clasping it tight as the two lifted a clot of earth from the ground they stood upon. A crater formed, and as soon as it was hovering in midair, Floyd kicked through it, lighting the rubble aflame. The stones flew out, crashing through the tendrils and burning them. It was successful, causing the Shadow to recoil, but more replaced them seconds later. “Walter, get up! We need you to cancel its movements, or whatever you do!”
“Walter!” Floyd shouted, as well, but had to cut off. The Shadow slammed into him as his blades seared the air with their fire. It was just enough to protect him from the pummeling darkness. “Hey, old man, you need to get up!”
“Why…?” The scarred hunter asked. His spear had been flung down with his body, but he made no move to take it. Near him, Krysta had crawled to Charles and was working to heal him, the sight causing the hunter to further shut down. “Why struggle? I hunted a man who only wanted to die. I gained power and Blessings, and none of it mattered. What use am I?”
“You’re of use in a fight, right?” Torry screamed. She let an arrow loose, flames spinning from its shaft to block the Shadow’s approach. It was a temporary stopgap, and not an effective one. There wasn’t long before the Shadow would break through the heat and light to reach them or the soldiers now at their heel.
“We’re here to fight, too! What is that?” The soldier had to have been pissing his pants by his expression, but they were still standing as a united force, spears and swords held in equal measure to the striking creature.
“The enemy!” Terrill shouted to them. “If any of you have magic, now’s the time to use it. If you don’t, then either help us fight or fall back to Taro to-”
The Shadow’s latest screech cut him off, displacing enough air that Terrill was pushed back. Its tentacles pulled back, before being replaced with a swarm of smaller shadows that rose in a liquid tide of darkness for their entire party. Terrill and Torry raised the earth to protect them, knowing it would do little, while Floyd readied himself for another burn. Higher in the sky, the rift had cracked a mite larger, but the Shadow had tripled itself in size, absorbing souls to make itself even greater. The watery tide broke into the wall. It held a moment, but soon cracked and broke on through.
Terrill slashed his sword upwards, creating a spire that caused the shadowy wave to break around him. Torry and Floyd took equal measures, while on the ground, Lumen protected Krysta with his shield of light. The girl flinched from that. The soldiers pulled away, many running back towards Taro, though less from fear and more the realization that the townspeople came before fighting.
Only Walter didn’t move. He was done, staring at the wave meant to wash him away.
“Yes. This is how it should end. I’ll be there, soon.” Terrill reached out for Walter, dashing away from his earth to reach the man. Then the water hit and pulled back, Walter in its grasp. He was lifted up, pulled into the Shadow, and was gone.
“No…no way…” Floyd gasped. The disappearance of Walter rocked him, and everyone there. His hands caused his daggers to clatter. “He’s gone.”
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“He’s not gone!” Terrill yelled, unsure if it was him convincing Floyd or trying simply to convince himself in their hour of greatest need. “He’s just inside that Shadow. We only need to cut him out!”
“And what is it you believe you can do, Terrill?” Golbrucht’s voice, amplified through the Shadow’s, only served to enrage the man, turning his blade on the beast with all confidence and conviction. “You are one man. Your choices mean nothing against the tides of fate, or a thing greater than it!”
“I don’t care! I have to try!” Terrill took a step forward, and as he did so, the black wind emerged from the Shadow’s body. It felt like Winifred’s wind, all of her despair and hopelessness that he had experienced at Fort Tierial threatening to blow him down in a swift move. It was the reminder that he hadn’t saved anyone yet. Terrill felt his mouth go dry, but he pushed forward until he was able to take another step, putting that next foot in front of the other. “I made a promise…to get everyone home! I’m keeping that promise!”
“You will fail. You are irrelevant to the great plan, mine or Crea’s.”
His words carried with them a tornado of black wind, the Shadow whipping up enough of the air to rip across the already fallen trees. They were shredded to pieces, the tornado on its way to the Taro Downs, where the screams were amplified, and the Shadow obtained further power.
“To the port! Get everyone to the port! Keep the citizens sa-” The wind tore at homes, but that was nothing to the column of shadow that slammed down from the sky. It enveloped the town, breaking nothing but absorbing all of the people that attempted to flee. Like a dragon, it had snapped them up and gobbled them down over the water’s now black surface, before retreating back into the core of the Shadow. The cyclone changed direction, now barreling for Terrill and his friends.
“We need to stop it,” Terrill proclaimed, but he had no idea how. Charles was coughing behind, blood going on to his chest as Krysta continued to work, but she had lost her steady hands. They were running out of steam.
“I’ll have to use my wind magic. Terrill, keep us safe, and we’ll burn it into the sky.” Torry’s convictions gave Terrill something to hold on to and believe in. She and Floyd walked forward, taking each other’s hands as they faced down the greatest threat they’d seen. The longer Terrill watched, the more he could see them shaking, afraid to fail.
The tornado consumed the ground, leaving nothing but scorched earth in its wake, and Terrill recalled the horrific burns on Silicias. His breath shortened as he wondered if Golbrucht had tried to create the same thing there, in that crucible of despair, but had fallen short of achieving his goal. It made Torry and Floyd’s attempts at stopping the wind look fruitless before they’d even begun.
Each raised their hands to the sky, towards the endless darkness, and Terrill prepared to help. From Torry’s hand came a gust of wind, not as strong as Winifred’s, faltering under the overbearing shadowy twister. It flew into the center, and Floyd shot off his own flame. The two collided and exploded within the nexus of the tornado, ripping outwards to burn the very winds that wished to consume them. The Shadow screeched over one of its limbs being damaged and Terrill created another wall to pull his two friends back.
That was when the flaming tornado flashed black again and the speed of its winds increased. Terrill felt himself lifting off the ground but he dug in, refusing to budge. His hand stretched towards the couple in an attempt to pin them down with his earth, but they were too close to the tornado. It ripped them off the ground, sending them flying into the air. They flailed and floundered, each screaming as they rose higher and higher on the wicked cyclone. They reached out, each attempting to grab the other.
“Torry. Torry, reach for me!”
“I’m…trying!” Their hands milled in midair, their fingertips almost touching as they tried to grasp one another. Desperation welled in Floyd’s eyes and his voice cracked when he called Torry’s name once more, their fingers almost locked in place. The winds, however, were too strong, and they were torn away from each other. “Floyd, I-”
Whatever she chose to say was swallowed by the Shadow.
Again.
Once again, he could save nobody.
“Lumen. You can end this, Lumen,” Golbrucht called. Terrill turned towards the only three remaining. Krysta was away, back on her knees while Charles struggled to come back to reality. He was no longer dying, but his very life appeared to cause Krysta no end of torture. Golbrucht’s words did the same for Lumen, looking towards the core of the Shadow and the rift. It wasn’t yet large enough for the Shadow to pass through, and the lines of the Lifebloods’ power that created it were dimming little by little, as though it was siphoning their power through his strings to create a path through. “Join with me, Lumen.”
Lumen had no words, but he chose to stand. He held no weapon, and his face conveyed one of resigned peace.
That horrified Terrill.
“Yes. I’ll end us both. I’ll die and take you with me.”
“No, we shall become one!” This time, it was a pure darkness from the Shadow. Golbrucht reached out his hand, shooting for Lumen, all to integrate him and join them together as the perfect vessel to ravage the land. Either way, someone would die. Terrill refused to let himself be late.
He dashed for the spot between them, and didn’t bother with magic, but brought his cold steel forward to strike against the Shadow. It grated, pieces of the darkness flaking off to the ground and scorching it, while they glanced over his skin. It wouldn’t relent, and neither would he.
“No one’s becoming one with anything! No one’s dying! I won’t let you die, Lumen!” Terrill was pushed back, his feet digging deep clefts within the ground. He couldn’t hold it, not without the others, and not without Krysta. She, however, was staring at Charles as he turned over, coughing, a tortured look rising in her eyes. He could feel his very skin burning, wanting to break down, but refusing to do so. “I promised…I promised I would bring you home. I promised I would-”
The Shadow broke through, sending Terrill flying until he was flung into a collection of broken trees. One of the splinters from the trunks dug into his leg, ramming through it with a scream of pain. He attempted to stand, pulling it out and watching the blood dribble down his leg. He was too far to stop Lumen from approaching the very core that hung in the air, waiting for him.
“Lu…men…” Charles’s cough gave the boy enough pause, but only to turn back. “Don’t…”
“I must, Charles.” He held his arms out, awaiting the fate that was sure to visit him. “I’ve made peace with it. I’m going to die. I was always going to die against the King of the Dark, but at least…this way, I can take him down, too.”
“It won’t… He’ll make…a puppet of you!” Charles cried. Now freed from Golbrucht’s influence, the man struggled to stand, coughing and spitting trace amounts of blood with every minute movement. His wound was healed, but left a mottled scar upon his skin, and his worry for Lumen was all too real. “I won’t…let another one become that. If anyone is to die…it will…be me!”
Golbrucht wouldn’t give them a choice. His Shadow descended to swallow them whole, with Lumen its top priority. The boy refused to move, accepting his fate. Terrill wanted to scream, but his words were failing him. He couldn’t let this happen. He wouldn’t let this happen. He wasn’t just going to accept Lumen’s death because some arbitrary force told him it was meant to be. He could still move. He could still fight.
There had to be something he could do.
Charles was the only thing. With what little strength the man had, he stood, his body heaving. Krysta tried to hold him back, weakly grabbing the man’s sleeves in an attempt to tell him his body wasn’t ready, but she hardly held tight. Her arm flopped to the ground, and Charles crossed the gap, his own weathered hand grabbing Lumen and holding him back.
“No, Charles! It’s meant to be me! It’s only supposed to be me!”
“And what kind of Guardian would I be if I didn’t protect you now!” His ragged voice was lost to the throes of a cough, the Shadow nearly upon the pair of them. “I failed you, Lumen. I failed all those who came before you. I just accepted it, but I cannot allow you to accept this now. I must…protect you! You need to live!”
“CHARLES!” Lumen cried, his anguish on full display as the Shadow barreled into the pair of them, wrapping them up and spiriting them away. They, too, disappeared, leaving nothing but barren wasteland and dead trees.
Only a barely standing Terrill and Krysta were left.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” Krysta’s soul-wrenching scream saw her doubled over. Her face was stained with the tears running down it, each glittering with a crystalline blur. She was in pain, tortured by everyone vanishing before their eyes, the Shadow swallowing them and Adversa whole. “It was all…all for nothing! I lied! Sacrificed! Thought so little and did everything myself! It was all for nothing! There’s nothing left! He still broke free! He used puppets and vessels! And I…I did nothing… I failed… I… aah!”
Krysta was rocking back and forth, her words causing Terrill to halt momentarily. She was saying things that made no sense, or shouldn’t have been said by her. It was almost like she was speaking of another life entirely, one that was ripping her apart, inside and out. Terrill limped forward, hesitating to put a hand upon her. The Shadow was drawing back, preparing for its final victims, but Terrill didn’t want to become one. He chose to put his hand on Krysta’s head, tousling her hair as he walked out to face the Shadow. His leg burned, but he didn’t stop. “Krysta, it’s okay.”
“No, none of it’s okay!” she screamed, pounding the ground with her fists. “It’s all my fault…all my… There’s nothing left… It’s over… We failed…”
“You don’t believe that,” he said. His knees bent, his body preparing for the incoming shadowy tide that threatened to rip him apart. His sword flashed out, its tip preparing to rend the Shadow in two. Krysta looked up, shaking her head in a silent plea to stop. He would not. “You can’t believe that. We can still keep going. Because we’re not alone! The things we do matter! So, we have to fight!”
As he spoke his last word, the Shadow struck and Terrill brought his sword down, rending it in two. The Shadow split to the side like black fire that burned the land and reduced it to nothing. He, too, felt like his body was going to burn apart but he stepped forward, willing to take the risk of his body being consigned to oblivion if it meant protecting the one person behind him. There was no world in which he risked losing Krysta to something like this.
His sword followed through, ending the attack, but leaving him winded. His body smoked from the fire that had singed him. He turned his head back, grinning just a little. “See? We can still…”
“No…” she whimpered. Rather than finding the strength to fight, Krysta had only given in further. Her body had gone limp, all the fight drained out of her. “Don’t you see? You’re on your last legs.”
“This…this is nothing.”
“No, it’s everything,” Krysta said through the sniffles. “I’m so sorry, Terrill. I’m so sorry for everything. We’d just been living on borrowed time, and no matter what I tried, it did nothing to stop that. It just got you dragged into this mess. It just…would have been better for you if we’d never met…
“So, let me pay for my sins.”
“Krysta, no!” Like Charles had for Lumen, the girl forced Terrill out of the way with her shield, the last bit of fight she had left. Terrill screamed at the pointlessness, knowing it couldn’t stave off what she felt to be inevitable, but was forced to watch as the Shadow rushed across her, too, pulling her into oblivion as her smile vanished.
She didn’t even tell him to run.
Terrill was alone.
The darkness was drawing around him, and the Shadow’s red eyes pierced through it, leading Terrill to look towards the cocoon where Golbrucht was. Where Atrum was waiting. He had to break through. He had to keep fighting. He had to free them. Save them. Get them home.
“I won’t stop. I can’t. Golbrucht, let them go!”
No matter how much his body ached and cried out for relief, Terrill would not stop. He was going to fight on. A plinth of earth appeared beneath his feet, firing up like a rocket that sent him into the air. The Shadow struck forward, but Terrill used his momentum to slash through it. The force behind it helped carry him further into the air. The hand not attached to his sword was slung backwards, calling on the earth, willing to rip the whole continent apart if it meant breaking the Shadow. He sailed onward, halfway between the ground and the core.
Terrill was struck from behind, his side impaled by one of the Shadow’s many appendages. He gagged, but would not stop moving. The Shadow spread over much of his body, drawing him in towards the same inky blackness that his friends had disappeared to. He dragged himself out, his fist coated with stones that he used to beat it away.
He kept swinging and thrashing and slicing until, at last, his body was mostly covered in shadows.
It was the end, and Terrill let go of his sword, the weapon falling to the ground.
He couldn’t do anything.
He was just a stone cast into the river, making a ripple, but little else.
Fate had won out in his role, and Golbrucht had won in his plan.
The rift cracked open a little wider, and the Shadow began, piece by very small piece, to filter through it. That was the last thing he saw.
Then, Terrill Jacobs sank into the abyss, and the world of Adversa was covered in shadow.