The sun was starting to come up. I suppose it wanted to see the climax of that long harrowing struggle which to me, felt like a ruse we've been playing on ourselves. I wonder if I was the only one who felt like that. Chopper was there and like always, he knew something that the rest of us hadn't managed to realize. I'd been having that feeling for a while now and I know I was right. Sight was somewhere back there too. His presence always eluded me. I can't tell you what he looked like in that moment. As for Lady, I know she was there. But she seemed so distant as if none of this mattered to her. What the consequences would be, was none of her concern. To be blunt, and it makes me sad to say so, she didn't care.

Deli and Magnus were locked with each other, each impaling the heart of the other. I had lost movement in my body, I even forgot to breathe. I can't quite remember what I was like in that moment.

"You'll kill me?", Magnus's voice broke the utter silence, "You...are superior?"

He was wearing scorn in his eyes as he looked at his own daughter.

He then began pulling out what seemed like some sort of thick threads from Deli's body. They were a moss green clump burning with black fire. Deli's eyes opened wide, I think I saw fear in her eyes for the first time.

"I knew when that experiment failed that you've been hiding this on your own", Magnus grinned as he continued to pull the clump out of her chest, "This is the Root!"

Deli struggled and clenched his heart in her hands, about to burst it, but he seemed numb to pain.

"I won't!", she screamed before an immense aura unleashed beneath her feet and enveloped the two of them. Though I was imperceptive to magic, even I could see that rich black pressure with a tint of purple that formed a cocoon around them.

"Sight, don't lose her!", Lady called out to him.

Sight immediately deployed a barrier but it failed to penetrate the aura. Chopper couldn't move very well but still he quickly moved into action and tried to disperse the aura using Ivory. He was pushed back pretty hard. Sight had to retrieve him. Deli was trying really hard, she was channeling everything she had towards stopping Magnus.

"Don't you understand?!", Magnus growled, "Vlad would end!"

"No more", Deli replied sternly, "No more children like us!"

I think I saw Deli was beginning to turn to ash. That fire was burning her away along with Magnus. I grabbed Ebony and leapt towards that aura. No matter how hard I tried to cut, I was thrown back. I kept on attacking until I was out of breath and practically couldn't stand anymore. We all knew the face of hopelessness in that moment.

"Not Ivory...not Ebony...nothing works", I muttered to myself as I groveled in the dirt, shutting my eyes close on my inability to do anything.

"No matter where they might be, they'll burn away."

I opened my eyes and stood straight, facing that aura. Deli and Magnus were barely visible in the cocoon. I unsheathed the Grail that I had been hiding from Felix. I looked at it close, feeling its glass hilt. It was cold. The blade itself wasn't even very sharp.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

I looked back at the aura and focused at it until I saw a glimpse of green. Without wasting another breath I threw the dagger straight at it. If there was one time I needed to aim just right, it was then and I'm glad I nailed it.

The cocoon vanished almost instantly as if it had never been there and the dagger stood frozen touching the Root while all of us stood watching with mouths gaping. Then a glimmer appeared at the point of contact and an insanely bright light ensued.

When we opened our eyes again, we were in a strange void. There was nothing there but blankness. And us.

Deli stood facing Magnus. Sight and Chopper stood behind me. I wondered where we were. Lady wasn't there.

Deli and Magnus kept looking at each other, their wounds gone. They seemed to be having a silent conversation.

Then Deli looked to her side, opposing ours and there stood a man. Wearing a long, heavy and majestic gown. He was holding a staff in his right hand and had a big figure. He was facing the other way and didn't look at any of us. He had white neck length hair, but were largely hidden behind his collar. His white gown sprawled behind his feet and I could barely see any of him.

"Vlad...why did you choose to die?", Deli asked as Magnus watched that figure in wonder and awe.

"I found a world where I was and none else. All that knew me...and all that I knew...they were all gone. I knew everything there was to learn, I saw the end and the beginning, until I was the only one that didn't change. Still, it was a life that wouldn't last forever-"

"Why?! You reached immortality! You had what no one before you could have accomplished! Then why did you give up so easily?!", Magnus burst.

A pause ensued.

"I could not reach immortality no matter how hard I tried. I acquired vampirism. But I realized that even that wasn't immortal. You could live for centuries but then you'd shrivel up and die. I realized that the heart could not be happy. What kills a vampire is grief. And there was no escape from it", I think Vlad chuckled after that, "Still, even knowing as much as I did, I suppose it was ironic that I knew nothing of death. So I tried to die. But I couldn't. I suppose I had been denied...cursed for eternity. Immortality wasn't at all rewarding as it seemed to be. Who could grant me escape? I burdened my children with that question."

"Then did you find an answer yet?", Deli asked.

"The Root, as you call it, was my lifeline. It was not absolute magic, I won't tell you the fate of the real Root of Magic. That is a quest for the living, so I must not reveal where it is. But with my lifeline destroyed. It is time for us to go home", he paused, "I see a way now. I know not if this is my escape but I'd like to be reunited with all my children at least. Let's hope it's as lovely a journey as that."

Saying that Vlad stepped off and kept on walking as we watched his back. The light was soon gone.

We were back where we had been. Magnus's heart was crushed in Deli's hand and Deli sat by his side as he turned to ash. Deli herself seemed to be in quite the same predicament.

"Forgive me, Father", she spoke slowly, "...for failing you."

"One day...", he replied but never got to finish.

"Sure...I'll be joining you shortly", Deli whispered as his ashes flew by.

"What's the hurry?", Lady grabbed her arm and pulled her up, over her back and carried her almost too easily considering Lady was an old midget and Deli was a towering rather curvaceous beast.

It was only then that I noticed she wasn't turning to ash like her father. That breathed some life into me, though I dropped down from exhaustion.

"Man, its one thing or another", Lady said.

Deli had passed out. Chopper was barely keeping it together. If anything, he should technically be dead already. Sight carried him by his arm, as Chopper refused to get a piggyback ride.

"Lady, go on. I'll drag these two home", Sight generously offered but honestly it was rather terrifying where we might end up if Sight was caring for us. Well, at least Chopper was with me.

"Right then. Let me get this Madame here a warm welcome home. Catch up soon, a'right?"

Lady left us. And, as if I didn't see it coming, instead of carrying us home, Sight left us in the dirt and went on to watch the sunrise. Indeed, it was brighter than I ever remember it being.