Chapter 83: Duel Under The Raining Skies (V)
The swordsman lifted his blade, and Zan shook himself out of his reverie. The white glowing orb still followed the path of the yellow tassel, but Zan could not be bothered to put his focus on the thing.
Once the swordsman pointed his sword at the sky, he knew that a strike was going to come soon.
The blue aurora borealis that emitted from him started to gather, and become dense around his figure and his sword. Within a three hundred and thirty-three meter distance the blue light became increasingly denser and denser, and all of the rain of the physical world had totally stopped in place.
Zan saw this all with the help of his eldritch eye, concluding that the same thing must have happened before he activated his ocular powers, and this time, he was ready.
Yet there was more to the scene than what he saw.
Deeper within the layers of the universe, the invisible energies of fate swirled and twisted into inconceivable mysteries, foretelling of imminent death unless a creator used their power of free will to rewrite destiny.
Simply put, the strike that Lloyd was gathering this time was completely different. The swordsman had not used this power since five years ago but now that he had used it over and over again, it sent him closer and closer to the edge. What Zan was seeing at this very moment, was not at all what happened with the previous strike.
A third of the sky would not have been dyed blue by the aurora lights if it was just the same attack. All the rain that fell within a three mile radius would not have stopped in midair, frozen in place if the current phenomena was not strong enough. What Zan saw this time was the ultima, the last step, the last activation and gathering of energies before assaulting the limiter.
Yet, although Zan sensed something was off, he paid no heed. Energy entered his legs and the brash young man exploded forth with literal monstrous strength, blasting himself towards extreme danger. In times of confusion and doubt, Zan did not stop but vehemently pressed forward.
But once his figure penetrated a hundred meters, he found himself dramatically slowing down. The further he went towards the swordsman, the harder it was to move.
The dense, endless blue light was like an ocean of sorrow, that Zan found himself in the very bottom of. If the youth could really choose, he would definitely prefer to suffer the crushing pressures at the bottom of the sea instead.
For although the blue lights were beautiful, they contained an insidious quality.
Waves of aurora hit him like an avalanche, and as the brash youth grit his teeth and pushed himself further, the metaphysical light started to permeate into both his mind and body.
The power of the blue light behaved in the same way as extreme negative emotions, more specifically, it functioned in the same way as severe depression.
A person going through such extreme sadness could not pull themselves out of bed, or force themselves to bathe or to eat. Sorrow consumed them to the point where they found it difficult to even function, and that same sentiment trickled down from the mind, to the body.
The immense sorrow weakened the physical vessel, leading towards a lack of strength and energy, a weakening of the immune system, and even the tightening of blood vessels or high blood pressure.
It was strange, in a sense. The sadness could become so extreme that it could lead to the downregulation of genes and even affect cellular health.
In this particular case however, the blue light was a supernatural power, and its consequences were much more dire.
The cells in Zan's eldritch flesh started to weaken, while all the human organs he had left already shut down. Luckily, his black heart and black blood were quite resistant to the blue light, and were doing their best to keep both his organs, and his whole body alive.
Unfortunately that only covered the effects on his physical body. As the blue light also permeated into his mind, extreme emotions that he had long forgotten started to resurface. Hopelessness, despair, self destruction, all sorts of emotions in his head started to either appear, or come out of the woodworks like shadows that hid from the light.
The light which was Zan’s active consciousness, was right now being constantly drowned out by the extreme emotions of sorrow, and these feelings not only weakened his mind, but spurred the shadows of hopelessness, despair, and pain to consume him. Like a black cloth was put over his head, the shadows enveloped his mind totally, and brought him back to nightmares that were like permanent scars on his subconscious.
Zan’s eyes once again transformed, reflecting hues of red, orange and yellow, returning to the nightmare of fire.
Two soft thuds sounded out from the dirt as the young man fell to his knees. In front of him, an inferno of flame consumed his home whilst two vague figures of a man and a woman faltered and staggered from the burning torture. The figures were none other than the few who ever received his love, and seeing them go through such pain shattered the boy’s heart. As tears started to come out on his despondent face, the negative emotions consumed him. Deep sorrow came first, before mixing with profound rage and grief.
In the same way, the blue aurora lights that emitted from Lloyd intensified and transformed, encompassing not just sorrow, but a mix of blue, red, and black.
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The energies then started to gather into his sword, they were a pure expression of the rage, destruction and pure grief that followed after the heartbreak.
The long blade now did not look at all to be made from metal, but instead it looked to be a sword made out of pure color. It looked similar to the primordial paint of omnipresent gods, who used such a thing to create their own realms. Although…no one else could see the tragic beauty of the painted sword, for their eyes were much too weak to grasp such a thing.
Lloyd moved, his anguished eyes obviously in another world. That same brush colored by the paint of misery and pain, started to descend. It wanted to paint reality with the same suffering that it had suffered.
Though as it started its vengeful retaliation against life, something that looked to be insignificant to its prominent, defining colors, denied it that victory.
A dim, bright red light that continued to shine in the ocean of colors. It was different from the red light of rage and destruction, although it looked just as menacing…Instead the red was not of destruction or anger, but an expression of life and personality that fused the eldritch tissue with Zan’s existence.
The blue light did its best to snuff out Zan’s spark, but the red light of his eldritch eye continued to shine dimly and desperately. It shined valiantly to utter its vibrant light both in the physical, and the nonphysical higher planes. It had a single goal, to fight through the auric waves of emotions to shatter Zan and Lloyd’s realities.
Weakly and exhaustedly, the light pierced itself into Lloyd’s eye, and now both Zan and the swordsman had a glowing red eye each.
Yet now, Lloyd’s energy was too strong, and it was now too weak to directly break their illusions. The intelligent power then, instead put all its leftover power into another venture. It did its best to remind them that they were the master of all their realities. It brought to them the one thing that was the key to breaking any illusion, awareness.
Lloyd faltered, his sword moving briefly for just an inch before his hand paused, trembling in place between descent and hesitant stillness.
A hint of confusion placed itself on his agonized expression. For a brief moment his lover’s corpse was replaced by a red haired muscular teenager, and the enemies he wanted to slaughter turned into his own allies.
A hint of enlightenment flashed across his eyes, for he remembered the duel that he was currently engaging in.
“Ye– Yes…”
“I was fighting against the red haired fellow and then…”
“And then—”
“...Then?”
A blank look crossed his face before the emotions of grief and anguish returned.
Her motionless body still laid there, her blood mixing with the falling rain and her bright smile buried under the filthy wartorn ground.
To Lloyd, this was his reality, and the duel he was having with Zan, was the dream.
…
The red light continued to glow in Zan’s eye. Although his body was in the same position of fighting through the aurora tides, that same red light glowed on the eye of the kneeling boy.
Clarity returned to him just as briefly, just to be crushed by the extreme pain and heartbreak.
The negative emotions of pain, hurt, and anguish often overpowered logic, painting realities that were often not real, or forcing one to relive the same hurtful memory over and over.
The red glow of Zan’s eye disappeared from him in both realities. In the reflection of his eyes that connected the two dreams, there was only the burning colors, and the vague figures that woefully burned in it.
Light and darkness seemed to switch places within the contrast of shadows and flames, as now it was the light that was cruel, while it was the darkness that fought to snuff the flames and end the boy’s suffering.
Yet within that perplexing world that was the reflection in Zan’s eyes, a hint of an unknown element entered, and suddenly something changed. The two figures that were aflame in tortuous pain, started to move differently from when they were staggering and stumbling.
Zan who was confused, focused on their vague figures, and for a brief moment his attention deviated from his pain. The two figures of his mother and father did not stay in the same spots anymore, but seemingly found purpose to move elsewhere. They still struggled under the searing, scorching anguish, but the boy could tell, there was determination and resolution in their actions.
The two figures made their way across the perpetually blazing house that cracked, crumbled, and fell apart in their subdued but resolutely ruinous journey. Stepping over and destroying the remains of what was once tables and chairs, and even pushing upon the ruined burning walls that used to be their cherished family home. All of this, to make their way…towards each other.
Zan now saw that their paths moved towards reunion, and nothing could stop them whether it was falling debris or agonizing flame.
In the end, they succeeded, and the two burning bodies embraced with their last vestige of life.
A vague imperceptible feeling placed itself in Zan’s heart, and the burning colors dimmed in his eyes. He thought back to the painful memory of when he found their bodies, and indeed, they were eternally locked in embrace. Fleetingly, sweetness and tenderness touched his heart…
And what followed was confusion.
“...Memory?”
For a brief moment the fires dimmed and even threatened to go out. The raging inferno became dim embers that now only held small flames akin to a lighter. Awareness briefly found itself again in Zan’s mind when the boy pondered how he could remember a memory that was currently happening.
But his eyes darted back to the two embracing figures, and when life fully left the two bodies and the pain of the present returned, so too did the heat of the flame. The fires once again started to rage and the scorching colors also came back.
The walls that still stood lit aflame and so did the ground as the fire that burnt it magically started to rise. The flames danced on the feet of the two embracing bodies but then suddenly…the two figures moved their feet and the flames were resolutely stomped out.
Utter surprise found itself on Zan’s face as he saw the two figures of char and ash pause their embrace, moving like aged mannequin dolls that snapped, cracked and bent themselves to walk towards him. Zan was sure he felt the last remnant of life leave their bodies but now they were animated once again, approaching him with their hands locked tightly in each other’s grasp. It was nothing short of unnerving if not horrifying.
Zan could only continue to watch as they approached him. Truth be told he had no idea what was happening.
The emotions of grief and sorrow still had never left him, and the closer they approached the more his mind raced with thoughts to explain the terrifying, confusing scene in front of him.
Those same negative emotions tainted his logic and once clear thinking, leading him to the only conclusion that he could muster under that state of extreme distress and heartache. They were coming to take his own life.
Blame was placed on no one else but himself.
If he had been home instead of training his stupid strength he might have been able to use it to rescue them. Or maybe if he had been stronger he could have easily smashed through all the obstacles leading towards his home. If he had been faster he could have pulled them out of the scorching flames even if it meant suffering torturous burns and permanent scars.
But no…he was too late. He was not enough. He had made the wrong decisions. He…had failed them. It was only right for them to take his life, and maybe after death he could make them proud again.
As Zan’s own guilt and self loathing rose, so too did flames rise from the ground. It was not only the house that burned now, but his entire world.
An unconscious comprehension of flame manifested, and the boy in his illogical guilt, started to burn himself too. It was what he deserved, after all.
Zan’s eyes never left the two figures. The soft patter of their footsteps sounded out as they slowly approached him.
As the two figures of char and ash walked towards him however, each of those flames of misery…were snuffed under their feet.
Zan found them now directly standing over him. Their burnt bodies looked down on the kneeling boy, and Zan could feel the judgment on the eyes, and faces of theirs, that no longer existed. Burnt by the scorching pain, and a testament of his own incapability.
He looked down towards the ground, unable to meet their gazes.
The charred hands and arms found themselves on his burning body and when Zan expected those hands to place themselves around his neck, or pull him six feet down towards the earth where he belonged, they did neither.
The two figures plopped down by his sides, and held him in their embrace.