Chapter 32: Curtain Call

I wove through what used to be Mister and Misses Clivan’s kitchen, dodging a splintered beam that jutted from a wall like a broken tooth. She met me halfway, her weapon materializing out of a blur of pale energy.

She was pretty fast, whoever she was, and determined to make me hate her even more. Jaff had better not be dead!

“You hear me, you grimalkin?! Jaff better not be dead!” The sound of our blades clashing, over and over again, ringing in my ears, got annoying fast!

I warped behind her with an attack, she caught it.

I double-warped for the advantage, she defended and countered with a wave of energy that knocked me back!

“Now you know how it feels to have everything you love destroyed!” she snarled. Her weapon morphed into a bladed whip with stupid length! It coiled around my waist, but I warped out of its ever tightening grasp.

I settled down where Milo and Leaf street once intersected just in time for our blades to deadlock. “I don’t know who the Hell you are, lady! You attacked me first in Nihon!”

“You ruined everything!” So much emotion in her eyes. Was I supposed to feel sorry for her for some reason?

After what she’s done?

Fat!

Chance!

I sealed her in a tomb of ice then shattered it. Before she could shake the cold I sent her plunging into a field of ghouls. Maybe that would take some of the fight out of her.

Judging by the energy she stirred up around her, she had a lot more fight left. Interesting how that pulsating energy looked and felt exactly like the stuff Bara used.

“Devour him!” she commanded her horde.

Wave after wave of ghouls charged me. Red hot flames easily vanquished some, others I sent to space. Hope they enjoyed the trip!

Slicing and dicing the rest was no problem. I just had to be careful not to get a drop of their septic blood in me. That wouldn’t be helpful.

Neither would letting her get the drop on me, as I caught her out of the corner of my eye. I decapitated a few of my enemies then spun around in time to stop her from stabbing me in the back.

Crazy woman had me tapping into several runes to keep me on my toes. That paralyzing feeling of being overtaken by them hadn’t hit me, though; not yet.

“Hold still!” I said, keeping her from moving. I oughtta just stop her lungs, but I wouldn’t find out, “Why’d you attack Khalm?!”

“You wouldn’t cleanse the world, so I decided to do so myself!” Holding her in place wasn’t easy. She possessed some kind of wicked energy that pushed against mine. “Starting with your precious Khalm!”

“That’s a good way to get yourself killed, lady.”

“You may have control over your destiny in this world, but that doesn’t exempt you from death!”

“What do you mean in this world?”

“Have you no knowledge of what you’ve done?!”

“Why don’t you enlighten me,” I said, loosening my hold on her; just a little.

“Interesting,” she smirked. “You, son of Eden Dal Makhni, defied our ancestors by bringing the Rebirth of Destiny into existence and split reality.”

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I did what? Split reality?? Wait, wait, wait. Why should I believe her? “That sounds insane. You’re insane!”

“See for yourself!” she said, sinking her talons into my skull. Damn it, Aiden! When were you going to learn?!

Her voice reverberated in my head. It was all I heard in an endless sea of ruins. She was in my head again! Wasn’t she...?

I stood, amidst a ruined city, the taste of ash and blood on my lips, death in my nose, guilt in my heart. Was this real?

“I thought I felt a flaw,” came an unholy voice. My voice....

“Damnation...!” This couldn’t be real!

A slew of daggers pierced the shadows, passing through my body as if it didn’t exist. Not even an explosion of fire had an effect on me.

“Oh come on! This was completely unfair!” Damnation complained.

“So, it was true? I made a different reality where I...I destroyed the world?!?”

“I destroyed it! Don’t get it twisted! And you can bet I’m coming to your world so I can do it again!”

“I’ll never let that happen..” Seeing all of the carnage made me sick to my stomach. Even if this world was separate from mine, I had to fix it.

“..wake..up..! Aiden!” I heard Jaff call. Jaff..?? “Wake up!”

With a blink of an eye darkness turned to light, a smoked filtered light. And there was Jaff looking down at me. I couldn’t believe it! He was alive!

“Jaff! You’re ---!” His chest was bloodied with so many wounds! “..not okay. I need to fix that.”

“Nevermind. Help Farah.”

“Farah...? But she’s...” About to get her throat slashed! Move, Aiden!

That crazy woman’s blade was already bloody. As much as I despised manipulating time, stopping it was the only way to save Farah. I couldn’t let her down for a second time.

A quick healing and...”Farah! I’m sorry I was late!”

“...Aiden, no, you..you did fine..” she said. I still couldn’t believe she was here! How’d she escape Catalyst??

I restarted time around Jaff to tend to his wounds as well. They both look like they’d been through Hell and back. “I’m so sorry. This was all my fault.”

“If you’re done apologizing for this fiend, young Aiden...” Farah picked up a sword and was prepared to use it. I stopped her in her tracks. I needed to know what she meant by ‘our ancestors’.

“I want answers, lady,” I said, holding her in place with my rune.

“You wouldn’t have any, would you?” she replied, definitely. “You’re a vessel for Damnation, my sister called you that herself the moment she realized she was carrying you. What a disappointment you grew into.”

“If what you say is true, then I’m more than happy to be her disappointment.”

“FOOL!” She lunged at me eager to continue what she started. Me? I was done with her; her and my mother.

Using the telekinesis rune to turn a living thing into nothing would have been hard for the old me. Good thing I'm not the old me.

***

Even in its ruined state, a lot of Khalm’s population escaped my aunt’s fury. They had Farah and Jaff to thank for that. Mostly Farah, I bet. Jaff was never much of a fighter.

Still, twelve graves were too many for this small place.

There was talk about rebuilding; there was louder talk about leaving the village to rot. I hadn’t planned on sticking around, either way.

“Laul says all of his savings were in his shop when it went up,” Jaff said, watching the man sift through the remains. So many memories went up in smoke. “He’s talking about moving to the steam city and starting from scratch.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Uh, I don’t know yet. I was thinking of returning back to my birth place. I’ve missed the smell of fresh junipers. What’re your plans, Aiden?”

I noticed Farah speaking to a few other people. She didn’t look a day older than the last time I saw her. Then that memory of me saving her from Catalyst hit me. “Did she say where she’s been?”

Jaff was hesitant to respond at first. “You should probably ask her.”

Was there a reason why he didn't want to tell me? “I’ll do that when I get back.”

“Back from where?”

“That lady, my aunt, showed me something I did wrong. I’m going to right it.”

“Are you sure what she showed you was real?”

"I'm positive. I won’t be long. I’ll meet you in the juniper field when I get back. That’s a promise.”

“I’m going to be quite upset if you break it, nephew,” Jaff grinned.

"Uncle Jaff?" I hesitated. "Thanks for trusting me."

And as I expected, he pulled me in for a bear hug. "I'm proud of you, Aiden."

"Thank you." Hearing that meant more to me than I let on.

We strolled down the hill together probably for the last time. I wasn’t sure how I would get to Damnation’s world, a world I created, but I wasn’t going to rest until I did.

And the Days of Damnation’s would finally come to an end.

THE END

(cue ending theme plus long list of people involved with the story)