My vision flickered as the other me slapped the side of my face twice in quick succession. “No, no, stay awake!” he said. “You can sleep later, but not now.”
The pain lancing through my skull was already subsiding. I really wanted to just close my eyes, but the other me was insistent. “What’s… why did that hurt so much?” I asked.
“Sorry about that,” the other me said. He created another fireball in his free hand so we could see. “The Pain Taker’s blessing doesn’t work on everything.”
“What did you do to me? How did you… how did you get here? How did you travel back in time?”
“Don’t worry about all that,” he said. “I know you have a lot of questions for me, and I’m going to answer them all. Just not right this second. That’s the whole reason I came back here. So you can learn from my mistakes.”
“What mistakes?” I asked. “What happened—er, happens to me?”
The other me’s focus shifted while I was talking. He looked down at that black sword of his. “No, I can’t do that,” he said. “What would be the point in coming this far just to kill him?”
“Hey, are you… okay?” I asked. It seemed like a silly question considering his body was practically falling apart, but I was more thinking about his mental state. Talking to your sword just didn’t feel natural. Especially when that sword emanated feelings of fear and dread.
The other me looked up. His one good eye had a blank expression. He blinked a few times in rapid succession, then met my gaze. “Sorry, did you say something?” he asked.
“Are. You. Okay?” I repeated. Slower this time. “Mentally,” I clarified.
He shook his head. “No. I’m pretty far from okay in just about every way that can be measured. I… I think I killed some people. Innocent people. I’m not sure why.”
“How bout we, uh, get you to a healer? What do you say about that?” My mind went to that Indoctrination service the church offered. If it could supposedly cure all ailments physical and spiritual, it seemed like exactly what this other me needed.
He shook his head again. “Wouldn’t do any good,” he said. “I can’t be healed. I’m already dead.”
“Yeah, me too,” I said, “but a death sentence doesn’t have to mean you let half your face melt off and start talking to swords. You’re kind of freaking me out.” I took a half step back. I wasn’t sure I could actually get away from him, but I figured being slightly further away couldn’t hurt as long as he didn’t realize what I was trying to do. Maybe if he got distracted and started talking to that sword again, I could make a break for it.
“Not a death sentence,” the other me said. “I literally died. That’s why I need this—shoot! Look out!” He slashed at me suddenly. I barely jump back out of his range, even with the warning. If he’d actually been trying to kill me, I had no doubt he would have been successful, but the rest of his body wasn’t in on the attack. Only the sword arm moved. “On second thought…” he said. “Maybe you should go.”
I started walking back carefully, not taking my eyes off him in case he tried to follow me. He didn’t seem to want to. “What about those questions you were going to answer?” I asked. “Can you maybe try that again when you’re feeling less… murdery?”
The other me’s chest started heaving. His sword arm flailed at me some more, but the rest of his body didn’t follow. “Not gonna… get better…” he said. “You should… go. Losing control… fast… Hurry!” He took a single, halting step in my direction. Then another.
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“Yeah, screw this,” I said. I’d seen enough zombie flicks to know when someone was turning. That he had a fireball in one hand and a sword in the other only made him that much more threatening. His teeth were still gritted like he was fighting it, but I couldn’t say how much longer that would last. I continued back-pedaling away, glancing over my shoulder out of habit even though the room was too dark to see anything.
“T-Tell M-Marcus…” the other me groaned.
“Tell him what?” I asked. I knew a kid from highschool named Marcus but somehow I didn’t think that was who the other me was referring to. It had to be that angry paladin that had tried to question me about Ferrith.
“He was… right…”
“Right about what?” I pressed. I had to shout across the room now to be heard.
His lips twitched open and closed spastically. “E-e-ever-every-e-ev—I’m going to kill you! I’m going to eat your flesh and drink your blood! Come back here! Come back! I must spread terror. That’s what he’d want. He wanted us to…”
I gave up walking backwards and turned around to sprint in the opposite direction. All the Doorways were closed, but I could still get down the hall to where everyone else had fled. I heard footsteps behind me. Slow, but getting faster. I could see a slit of light ahead of me. Not much, but it was something to aim for. It came rushing towards me through the darkness.
Wham!
I hit a metal gate. It was thrown down over the hallway, just like the ones covering the Doorways. I was trapped. “No, no, no!” I banged my fist against the gate. “Someone! Anyone! Open—”
Like an answered prayer, the metal gate flung open, rolling up into the ceiling. Light poured in from the other side, revealing a swarm of armored paladins. I never thought I’d be so happy to see paladins after the way they’d tossed me out of the church the day before. The light following them into the room came from the starburst emblems embedded in the front of their armor. The bottom left tine of the starburst on each of them lit up like a flashlight. “Get behind us, citizen!” the first paladin through the gate shouted. “We are here to exterminate evil in Marketh’s name.”
“In Marketh’s name!” the other paladin’s echoed. There were at least eight of them. I couldn’t get a solid count.
“There’s a man!” I told them. “He’s chasing me. He has a black sword!”
“We were warned of the curseblade,” one paladin told me as the rest marched past. “That is no man. Not any longer. Only Marketh can save him now. All we can do is help him find her.”
I looked back the way I’d come. The red glow of a fireball lit the darkness, but as more paladins spread out into the chamber, the lights on the front of their armor exposed the other version of me. His single eye was wide and darting around the room, lips curled back in an animalistic snarl. “I’M GOING TO EAT YOUR HEARTS!” he wailed. “EVERY ONE OF YOU! WHO WANTS TO GO FIRST?” He was raving mad. Whatever vestige of sanity he’d held on to until he met me was gone. I was at once sickened to see him getting surrounded, but also relieved. On one hand, I hardly wanted to watch myself die, especially if that literally was me from the future. But also… if the FSR had already put me on a list for thought crimes, I could only imagine what Kalador would do if they found out I was another copy of the monster they’d come to kill. Maybe if they killed him super fast, nobody would notice.
He threw his fireball into one of the paladins, who called out to his goddess and became surrounded in a golden aura before the fireball hit. Instead of burning the paladin, the fireball splashed around a protective bubble, leaving the warrior within unharmed.
The zombie me howled and dashed forward, sword out in front. He feinted at the paladin that had blocked his fireball, but when the paladin brought his sword up to defend, he dived low instead and went for the ankles. It didn’t work, of course, since the paladin had some kind of protective aura, but it looked damned impressive. After his attack, the paladin brought his sword down and the zombie rolled to the side. He brought his black blade down on the wrist of the paladin as the larger man tried to swing where he’d been a few seconds ago. He was so much faster than them.
But then another paladin came up behind and bashed his head with a sword. Somehow, they didn’t penetrate his skull, though it knocked him to the ground. Then he was surrounded. He howled indignantly and tried to fight back as at least five blades hacked him to pieces. For a second, they could only slice off pieces of his skin, but then the first bone snapped and the rest soon followed. They didn’t stop until he was unrecognizable as having once been a person, a few of them shouting benedictions to Marketh while they did their bloody work.