Chapter 35: Don't Fight Me, Ignite Me (9)

Caim swallowed hard.

The moment of truth had arrived.

The final battle that would decide everything turned out not to be a physical fight. In short, he was ill-equipped to handle it, as he wasn’t good with words. Convincing them was the same as manipulating them, even if it was for a good purpose, and he had no idea how to do that. Victoria’s father wouldn’t have agreed, if he could see him from hell or wherever the hell he was.

In any case, if he had manipulated her, it was with the truth, and that wasn’t enough. Not when his clone could give her the exact same thing, having all his memories.

So, what could he do, what options did he have left?

He couldn’t think of anything at all. He wasn’t fighting alone; Victoria, Yonah, and he were a team, as always.

But it was clear that they couldn’t think of anything either.

Caim licked his lips. His mouth was dry as straw. The two had survived what he thought was certain death, but if he failed here, there would be no second chance. The monster would tear them apart before they could blink.

Everything hung by a thread.

That’s why he didn’t feel alive at all.

It was as if he were a ghost, only able to watch disaster approaching. But he should be able to do something. Otherwise, the Tower wouldn’t reveal to him the meaning of his existence and suffering. It would’ve been better if he had never been born in the first place.

This entire journey had been a mistake that could never give him what he wanted, but at least he had to manage to get them out of here alive.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t know peace, not even in death.

“Girls, please listen to me,” said the impostor, taking another step forward.

“Stop!” Victoria shouted. “Even if you are him, we can’t take that risk yet.”

“Sorry. It’s just that it hurts, understand me. That we have to go through this. We haven’t come this far to fall now because of something like this. I... I am me. Deep down, you know it, don’t you?”

“Deep down we know something,” said Yonah, “but he also seems real, so we don’t know shit. It’s not something we can trust to instinct. Stay still and... And I don’t know what the hell we’ll do.”

Yonah’s eyes were fixed on him, like daggers sharpened to the maximum.

“What do you have to say?”

Caim swallowed.

“I don’t know what to say,” he admitted. “I don’t see any way to prove that I am me.”

Maybe that was the right path. Admitting his incapacity and not even trying to manipulate them to make them understand that he was the real Caim, while the monster would desperately try to sell his lie.

Maybe. They could take it as the exact opposite.

A display of disinterest uncharacteristic of him.

No matter how many ideas came to his mind, he could imagine what would happen if it went wrong. Anything could go wrong, damn it. That wasn’t a reason not to try something.

Just something.

He didn’t have to commit to it, but he should decide soon.

“Are we sure there’s a good one and a bad one, to begin with?” Victoria asked. Wow, he hadn’t expected that. He supposed it sounded more or less reasonable from her point of view... Well, nothing about this situation made sense, so reasonable had different limits. “Maybe they just split somehow.”

“It’s not like that,” both Caim and the impostor said at the same time.

Caim grimaced, feeling the urge to vomit.

“I suppose we can accept something they both agree on,” Yonah said slowly after a while. She moved to the right, turned, and returned to the original position, over and over, caressing her daggers.

Yonah was also one to attack first and ask questions later, like him. Used to solving problems like this with violence. So, he perfectly understood why she was so calm, like a panther ready to pounce on its prey.

Everything was much simpler, naturally, when you could solve your problems with what you did best.

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But if they didn’t find a way to improve, they would all die here.

Yes, this was a team fight. He shouldn’t forget that. No matter how desperate he felt, he wasn’t alone in this. He wasn’t the only one fighting, so they could win.

Victoria must be quietly preparing a spell to cast as soon as the impostor revealed himself. So, there would be no fight. Everything would end in that very instant. He was so close to achieving the happy ending he longed for, so close, and he couldn’t think of anything. He was so useless that he couldn’t even prove to the people he cared about most that he was who he said he was.

“What did I tell you after we had sex?”

Her words were like the blow of a huge hammer. It left him dizzy, seeing stars and utterly confused. What was she talking about? That never happened. Victoria was looking at her the same way, with her face all red and her mouth open, but she seemed to have believed her.

“You? You two did that?”

But Yonah didn’t respond, she was waiting for one of them to do so. He didn’t know what she was thinking, what she believed she would achieve with this. That’s why Caim hadn’t responded immediately. As for the impostor, he supposed he should be shitting himself, wondering if there really could be such an important gap in the memories he had borrowed.

Could it be that?

If Yonah misinterpreted his answer, Victoria would tear him to pieces in an instant, and then they would die, but he decided to play along, hoping it would be worth it.

He swallowed and took a step forward.

“Yes, I remember perfectly,” Caim said loud and clear. It meant falsely confessing to having sex with someone who was like his sister, but desperate times called for desperate measures. “I would never forget it.”

Victoria might not be sure that Caim was Caim, but that didn’t stop her from looking at him as if asking him to tell her that it was all just a bad joke. It didn’t matter now, but part of him felt bad anyway. It’s for a good cause, he thought as he returned the look as if he could transfer his thoughts.

“The other one doesn’t know, he’s the impostor. But I would never forget that night.”

It took a great deal of willpower not to blush. He felt like he wanted to bury his head in the sand, literally and figuratively. This wasn’t how he had thought this would turn out. Well, he hadn’t thought of anything really, but if he had, it wouldn’t have made it into the damn top hundred possibilities.

“The way we connected, as we always wanted to.” Each word that came out was more embarrassing than the last. He told himself he wasn’t talking to Yonah, who knew the truth, but to the clone. Which didn’t bring much comfort, but it was better than nothing. “I am the real Caim.”

Victoria was stunned. It seemed like she was trying to speak, but nothing came out of her throat.

On the contrary, Yonah didn’t even raise an eyebrow.

What would happen now?

“That’s nonsense, it never happened,” the damn impostor dared, taking a step back to position himself at the same level. “I would never have something with Yonah. Or with Victoria, for that matter. They’re like my sisters.”

Victoria regained her composure, more or less, taking a deep breath. She grasped the staff with both hands. He wondered if Yonah’s ploy had disrupted Victoria’s concentration for whatever spell. No matter what the answer was, it didn’t matter now, but he couldn’t help it. This was too strange. And too personal. Yes, he really wished he could solve this with violence, as usual.

He was good at it because he was a demon’s son or the way they had treated him had arbitrarily turned him into that kind of person.

In any case, he was good at it, and that’s how he lived his life.

No one liked to feel completely out of their element.

“Which one do you think is the real one? Surely the one who denied it, right?” Victoria asked.

The impostor had given the correct answer, the one expected from Caim.

However, Yonah shook her head.

“On the contrary.”

“So you really did that? Seriously?”

“No.” Yonah crossed her arms. “Precisely because we didn’t, and yet he was the first to speak, risking confessing something that never happened. I think it’s too risky for the impostor to have done it.”

Caim was relieved to hear that. He had played his part correctly in the little ploy, then.

“But you’re not sure?” Victoria asked.

“No.”

It hadn’t decided the fight as he hoped, but at least it hadn’t been completely useless either. Now Yonah suspected the truth, and soon Victoria would too if her friend hadn’t managed to convince her yet.

Progress.

The moment of the first blood, to unnecessarily compare it to a deathmatch, his element.

“There’s too much at stake to be sure, but it’s a start.”

The same trick wouldn’t work twice, though.

Referring to a nonexistent memory. The clone would have to be stupid to fall for the same trap. It wouldn’t happen, and they couldn’t count on it. That had been a good idea, he wished he had thought of it.

Now that that door had closed, what was left for him, even a small window?

“What can we do now?” Victoria was trembling. “Please, tell me what to do.”

Enough. This doesn’t have to continue.

There was a way. He had known it from the beginning, but he had resisted, looking for literally any other solution when it was the simplest thing in the world.

And the most appropriate.

They had sacrificed everything for him. Their friends, their family, their community, their safety. And he hadn’t rewarded them. No matter how much affection he had offered, that wasn’t a reward, but the norm.

On the contrary, he had done nothing but demand more and more from them.

But that ended here.

Caim would show that he too could make a sacrifice here and now.

He took a deep breath.

He felt strangely calm, as if he had known that everything would end like this since the day he was born.

“Yonah, Victoria. I love you with all my soul if a thing like me has any of that. He is the impostor.” He raised the sword with both hands, placing the tip right above his heart. Both of them gasped. He heard it, or rather didn’t hear it, clearly. He didn’t want to hurt them, but this clearly wasn’t enough. The impostor could also put on a show. Besides, it wouldn’t be a sacrifice if it wasn’t real. “Goodbye. I really regret bringing you to this damn place.”

Then Caim stabbed himself, pushing with both hands until only the hilt of the sword was visible.

From the front, at least.

Don’t Fight Me, Ignite Me (9): END