The deathly figure crept towards the boy, its claws stretching and slowly ripping through the air as it approached. Tommy was struggling and horrified as he saw the figure fixated on the boy only, a chilling, primal fear flooding his mind. He tried spells of magic, attacks, incantations, and even physically empowering it, but it proved too strong, and it weakened and crippled Tommy to the touch. It proved impossible to counter or stop, thus, he was left with no choice.
A second before the claws could puncture through Adrian’s chest, a blur enveloped him, and in his place stood Tommy. The claws pierced through his chest and a strange wave of dark energy enveloped the man as he screamed in pain. He felt paralyzed, unable to move as the energy flowed into his body in a greater velocity and power. The claws retracted as the figure took a step back, leaving the man before he collapsed onto the ground gasping for breath. The stab wound left a light mark, lighter than a needle would, but the pain it left was unimaginable, excruciating.
It was Midnight’s most desperate attack, a spell which he cast only to kill in an instant. He wished suffering for Tommy, and he aimed to achieve it through Adrian. Much to his dismay, he never thought that Tommy himself would take the brunt of the attack. The sight of the man he hated collapsing onto the ground, supposedly dead, left him in inconceivable joy as he laughed, wheezing painfully, his eyes bulging.
“You idiot! Look what you did to yourself!” He laughed, “How does it feel, to suffer?! To know that you’ll die?!”
His voice echoed horribly in Adrian’s mind, but not as terribly as the sight of Tommy on the ground. He didn’t know what to do, or what to feel. The shock left him frozen, even a breath was too hard for him to draw. Suddenly, he saw a twitch in the latter’s body before it sprang up in an instant, dashing in a blur of seconds towards the deathly figure before wrapping it with the chains of his hathphools.
The chains tightened and shone in a bright light, and the figure seemed to wail and scream in pain as it was burnt by the chains. If he hadn’t been hallucinating, Adrian could’ve sworn he heard a ‘Mercy!’ in its unintelligible pleas. But the chains squeezed harder and burnt brighter before they dissolved the figure in a fiery white light.
Midnight couldn’t believe his eyes, he gritted his teeth to the breaking point and wished nothing more than to wrap his grotesque, bony, charred hand around Tommy’s throat and choke him out of life. Alas, how could he? For the rage burning within him rivaled for dominance against a sense of fear at the sight of a rising Tommy, fiercer than before.
“How aren’t you dead?! Why aren’t you?! Why won’t you just die!”
His words were cut short by the man’s absurd dash, disappearing into a blur before wrapping his hand around Midnight’s throat. He raised him in the air, squeezing tightly and choking him out of breath, wrapping his fingers so painfully hard around his throat that it crushed his windpipe as he gargled on the overflowing blood.
“Do you really think you will defeat me? Do you really think that you could possibly win against me? Not even in a thousand, in a million, in a billion years will you ever see through to that satisfaction! Dare not think for a second that your special spell could kill me, for if I die, I die on my own accords! Dare not think the darkness devours the light, for it’s the sun that overwhelms the night! Dare not think you will ever have the satisfaction of defeating me, you bastard. For if you are Midnight, then I am the burning daylight of the sun!”
Suddenly, with Tommy’s booming, powerful voice, the darkness disappeared, and daylight broke. The sun gradually shone over the horizon before it shone overhead in a raging ball of fire! A brilliant flash of light flared in the sky, and the sun appeared greater, its rays bearing down on the world below! The darkness summoned by Midnight dissipated in anguish and cowardice upon the presence of the sun!
Then, Tommy’s hand flashed, and the light that burnt the deathly figure away burnt equally as hot on the blue-haired man’s body. He winced and screamed, his shrieks less that of pain and more of powerless rage and despair. His body began to vaporize at certain parts, but with a desperate kick, he fled Tommy’s hold and slammed onto the ground, crawling away in a pathetic sight.
Though this was the decisive moment to eradicate the man from existence, Tommy failed to keep standing, spitting a frightening amount of blood from his mouth. He appeared tired, his eyes sunken, and his breaths short. As Adrian rushed to his side, he helped prop him up against his shoulders, too weak to stand on his own.
“Oh, Adri…” He said, smiling. “What would I do without you?”
“Enough of that, Tommy! Please, cast a spell, let’s run away from here! You’re too hurt, you need someone to save you!”
“Oh, Adrian. It’s already too late.” He said, “I’m already dying.”
“What?” Adrian stuttered, not believing his ears. “No, no no no! No, that’s not possible, you’re not dying! Listen, Tommy. You’re just tired, you’re very tired!”
“Adrian, listen to me.” He said, performing a gesture with his hand before a vortex appeared from thin air. “You have to go.”
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“What? No, no! You can’t do this, Tommy! Please!”
The man pushed the boy away, struggling to stand on his own. As he balanced himself once more, he performed the gesture once again, and another vortex appeared next to Ora.
“She’s important. She will be safe, somewhere far away.” He said, and with a wave of his hand, the vortex enveloped and carried her away before vanishing from sight. “You will too. Seek help from master Fredrick, and tell him what happened, he knows the right call to make, always.”
Adrian froze upon hearing those words, was he truly thinking of abandoning the boy? Was he truly going to die? The thought was too cruel, too painful to imagine, let alone face as a fact at this very moment. He couldn’t let this happen, not after all those years. He promised him years of adventure and memories, and it’s not over yet!
“Tommy, please, come back to your senses.” He pleaded, tears welling up in his eyes.
However, the man simply gazed back and smiled warmly. He sat on his knees, hugging the boy and gently patting his head before he spoke to him:
“Adrian, don’t think that this pest is the one who brought my end. I was dying, a long time ago, long before I met you…It was eminent, it would’ve happened one day, and it would’ve certainly happened in the next few months, for I have lived too long. I have the same disease as you.
Thank you, for all the memories. If it weren’t for you, I would’ve died five years ago simply from loneliness; but through you, I lived the best years of my life right at the very end of it. I regret not even a second I spent along with you, not in the slightest.”
“But, why? Why didn’t you escape?”
“That figure, whatever it was, would’ve never stopped unless it claimed a life. I know, I’ve seen it before. A life had to be sacrificed, and mine was more fitting.”
“But why?! Why?! You’re the hero of the world, its savior! People need you, not me!”
“Oh, Adrian. I saved the earth, but I haven’t saved my world…not until now.” He smiled, stroking the boy’s cheek, and wiping the tears away. “You are my world, and I’m proud to have not let a scratch lay on you. Throughout all those years, your father promised me to not let a single thing harm you, and I’m glad that I delivered, to my last breath…no, even beyond.
I think Midnight might never die, and since he knows about you, he will pursue you…but not on my watch. If I pulverized him into an eight-year-long comma last time, then I shall do it again, even if it’s only half that amount. I shall see through, to my last breath, that he suffers so greatly he won’t ever be thinking about following you, and trust me, he shall not.
Adrian, don’t think for a second that he’s the one who brought an end to me. His attacks, nor my disease were enough to kill me, for I shall only die on my own accord. I overused my magic, for eight long years, and it will linger on for many more, believe me. I overused it until it weakened me beyond what I could handle, and I couldn’t be happier that I did. Don’t be sad that I will go, but happy that we spent all those years together. The end would have come, sooner or later, and I’m glad it has come now.
Finally, remember, Adrian. No matter how strong the daylight is, the sun will set, and the golden rays will linger until the night falls, but the moon will light your path when you need it most; when it’s darker than you could see. It will light the path…” He pointed at Adrian, “Until the sun rises once again.”
The boy was in shambles, his face twisted in a teary mess. He mustered up all remaining courage within his frail body and hugged Tommy one final time. His arms wrapped tightly around him, and the latter hugged him back with a smile on his face.
“Thank you.” The boy whispered.
“Goodbye, Adrian,” Tommy said, gently pushing the boy towards the vortex, soon vanishing out of sight along with the boy.
The man sat kneeling, basking in the moment, and memorizing Adrian’s face one last time. Then, he rose to his feet, strong as the mountain, and trod towards Midnight’s pathetic, crawling figure. As he approached him, a sword of pure energy materialized onto Tommy’s hand, growing powerful, brighter, and radiating an aura that would shatter boulders around it.
“So much talk about hate, about vicious and violent intents, about how you long to torture me, but you crawl away so pathetically in the end?” Tommy wondered.
But Midnight couldn’t respond as he crawled away, focusing his energy on crawling away from harm. But, he could only escape for so long before Tommy flipped him onto his back and pinned him to the ground, his foot pressing on his chest. In that desperate moment, Midnight laughed and eyed Tommy with a furious glare.
“You will die, but I won’t.” He laughed, “How about it, huh?! How about, when you’re dead, I go and find that little runt, and tear his skin apart, bit by bit, and torture his skinless body without the sweet release of death?!”
“I should like to see you try, you pathetic excuse of an existence.” Tommy laughed, “I have done my part in protecting him, but there are greater men who will keep him safe. Not just that, but I myself shall keep him safe, even beyond the grave! Though, I suppose that doesn’t matter…once you know who he is, I’m sure you, of all, will wish his death the least. But believe me, you won’t have him, you never shall. For if you think that I brought you suffering, I should like to see your face once you see the sun rise once again.”
Midnight was silent, defeated. “Go to hell.” He murmured.
“Don’t be too happy, I will be waiting for you if I do. And if I don’t, then I will chase you there.” He chuckled, “Regardless of how much I dislike you, in the end, I pity you, for everything you went through. But for now, accept this as a parting gift. A send-off with all my magic and power, with all my life poured into it. It will kill me, but at least it will leverage another four years of you becoming a crippled, weak, helpless, mangled corpse. And that is more than enough for me.”
He raised the sword above his head, stretching his arm far in the air, before he plunged the blade deep into Midnight’s torso. The light flashed, the heat burnt his insides, and the glow grew in luminosity, so bright, so incomprehensibly powerful, and shot through the ground. An explosion of light erupted from the sword, consuming both men in its blast, and obliterating all that remained of the terrain, even kilometers away.
The sound of the blast circled the world, and the light of the explosion illuminated the night sky, bearing light over all of the Midwestern Isles. The people thought doomsday had come, and that the sun had risen at the dead of night. However, their worries were much the opposite. It wasn’t the sun that had risen at night, but that it had faded into the horizon, its light waning from this world, peacefully and beautifully, like the sun always was.