Victoria flies from the building, she hits the ground and bounces off it then flips and lands on her feet after the bounce. She runs up to us, holding her side.

“You okay, Princess?” Asks Levi.

She shakes her head." No, I think my ass is bleeding. Fuck that hurt."

“Victoria, take Levi, Rene, and Emelia and leave here now.” I turn to the roiling inky fog that seeps out from the city now.

Knowing what will come next makes me have to send them away.

“Run.” I pause.

“Run, until you can’t anymore.”

Then, a monumental storm of purple and black energy shoots into the sky, parting the clouds and darkening the sky. My hand tightens on the grip of my sword. The aura of the beast is pure evil; it makes my skin prickle and crawl, a feeling I did not miss.

It has been a long time since I’ve felt fear.

The team readies their weapons, and I shake my head.

“Thank you, but there is no need. This Is something you all cannot face right now. Trust me.” I walk towards the beast and feel my arm grabbed.

“What is it Alva?” I hear Levi ask.

“It is not something that would have been in your compendium, Levi.” I stare at the swirling vortex.

“Then what is it?” He asks again, standing next to me.

“A Godling.” I turn to see any reaction on their faces and see nothing but blank stares.

“A Godling is something ancient. It’s from the immortal realm.”

“The immortal realm, you mean where the Angels of Azrayel crypt are?” Victoria asks.

“Yes, but this one broke free of the Crypt.” I say.

“Is it really strong?” Emelia asks, her eyes still never leaving the vortex.

“Very. It’s virtually indestructible and stronger than most of anyone in the kingdom.” The metamorphosis is almost complete. Time to get them out of here.

“Now go.” I say and walk towards the vortex.

“Alva, don’t.” I feel my arm grabbed I turn to stare at Emelia.

Her eyes drop to the ground for a moment. Then she locks eyes with me again.

“You can’t just walk away and fight alone!” The fear her aura gives off is thick.

Then the vortex falls away, and there stands a godling.

“Look at that thing!” Emelia screams at me, her eyes wide, her chest rises and falls rapidly, her breathing becoming erratic.

“I will be fine Emelia, do not fear for me. You’re just not ready for a monster like this yet.” Then I pull my arm free and walk away.

Before I take another step, a firm grip on my shoulder stops me. I turn to see Victoria’s gray eyes crackling with their usual power.

“I can help you take that thing.” She stares at the creature as it walks towards us. Her hair whips in the wind coming from the storm above us, caused by the mzynes in the air going mad from the power they’ve gained.

Just for a moment, I see the storm part the clouds in her eyes. Letting me see the young princess still inside, the only friend still left from my childhood.

Just like that, she hones them back into their new and stronger form.

“I have no clue what it is, but you know together we can take it.” She says that stubborn look in her eyes reminds me of her father’s during the war.

“It has been such a long time since I have had the chance to let loose during a fight.” Smirking, I stretch out my neck, but she doesn’t break eye contact with me.

I smile at her. “Of course, having you fight with me would help tremendously. With your power and mine together, few could stop us.”

Releasing a bit of my suppressed magic, it craters the ground beneath the pressure of it. It feels like I just dropped a vest of weights off my back as I stretch.

She sighs and takes a step away with a smile on her face. “You will never change, no matter what personality you have.”

Victoria slaps me on the back.

“Go get’m. Reaper.” Then she runs off towards the gate.

Shaking my head. “Only you,” I say with a smile.

“Victoria.” She stops but doesn’t look back.

“Protect them. Don’t let them turn back for any reason, understand?” She salutes me and turns on her heels, and I see them disappear up the hill.

“Good luck.” I whisper, then take a deep breath.

I take another deep breath to calm my shaking.

It’s coming back to me. That warm tingling before a battle. The pleasurable ripples and warmth ease my worry and fatigue away.

My mind always clears up and sharpens right on the eve of battle. My hands shake as the excitement raises my heartbeat. Like it always did back then. I tremble at the feeling of my hand going up to the hilt of Nightingale on my back. My mind itches to see its curved and glossy surface again—the feel of its ancient power coursing through my body. The shivering prickles of warm pleasure kissing my nerves as I reach Nirvana.

Without hesitation, I force my other hand to grab my wrist and stop its accent to the hilt.

No. Relax, do not lose your cool. Ten years, you’ve suppressed those feelings. Hold it back. I close my eyes and take a few deep breaths, waiting for that feeling to subside. A crunch or rubble in front of me makes my eyes open slowly.

The beast stands in front of me. It wags its talon at me to come closer. I oblige and walk right up to the monster and stare up into its hollow, non-existent eyes. It is like staring into an endless sky during the night. Its body is pure magic; it rolls off the beast in sickly dark waves. I feel like I’m standing in front of a living vortex of black and purple flame. The beast’s sharp talons could sever anything they come into contact with.

This monster stands tall and broad shouldered with two long horns on its head. The monster has rows of razor-like teeth it uses to latch onto its prey and tear the flesh from their bones. I have to crane my neck to look up at the beast, who’s at least two hundred and thirteen centimeters. It is impressive against my one-hundred-and-eighty-centimeter frame.

“Alva Copper, glad to see you again. You’re older and much stronger.” The beast shivers and writhes.

“Flattery will not save you.” I adjust the grip on my swords.

The beast bellows with laughter.

“Tell me, have you taken the oath with Triss? Unending?” I ask.

He smirks and moans. “Oh, it feels so good to hear my name after so long locked away. Yes, we took the oath."

"We are now the True ending!” He bellows with laughter again. It’s a harsh, gritty laugh that scratches at the walls of my soul.

“Thank The Flames, I get the chance to fight you again. Our last bout was a sight to see. Canvord City, was it not?” His voice rises an octave.

He flinches slightly as my aura presses down on him. “Do not speak of Canvord. You do not have the right.” He smirks, baring those long fangs of his.

“Now, how did you escape your bonds in the world’s core?” I ask the question that’s been burning in my mind since he walked out of the storm.

“How did you escape? No one but one of the Fates or my father should have the power to break the chains in the world’s core.” I stare at him for a second and I get my answer.

“The True Immortal, master Phoenix, raised me from perdition.” He reaches towards the sky like waiting for praise from something. A huge smile on its face shows all its teeth.

“Phoenix, you mean you’re with the Embers?” I mention.

“Yes, I shall work with our lord to help birth The New World. One I shall help rule over.” It says, delight dripping from its tone.

“Who is Phoenix, and why does he want to make this new world?” I ask.

“Something is upon us,” Unending says, his voice dropping to a deeper one.

“An unfathomable darkness that will not stop until it swallows all life.” Another pause.

“The only way for it to cease its encroaching accent is to restore the world to its original state.” Unending states.

Something about Unending’s words sends chills down my spine. I can feel how scared he is by the shift in his aura. Whatever this darkness is, has even an angels Godling scared. And that is a rare achievement. They are made and molded for battle by the Angels of Azrayel Crypt.

For now, I must focus. I will worry about this darkness later. This is enough time for them to have gotten away.

“Now I need you to die,” I say.

Magic flows through me as I vanish and end up behind the beast. I slash at his spine with my sword. He sidesteps the blow. He turns and slaps my blade from my hand. It skitters away.

It takes a second for me to disappear from my current spot as Unending takes a swing with Triss’s Ax, now doubled in size and black as night and outlined with purple flame. The purple flame’s heat sears the skin on my cheeks as it passes by.

“Tell me, Unending, when did Triss become your Keeper?” I ask while dodging the second barrage of swings taken by Unending.

“We became one when she fell from the mountain, and I heard her cries from across the realms.” Unending says.

“Nothing you do can hurt us, when we kill Emelia, the world will be reborn.” They cackle with laughter.

“You will regret not taking this seriously.” Unending appears behind me without moving, it seems, and kicks out my legs.

With the feeling of myself beginning to fall, I teleport and end up back on my feet, a few steps away. Next to my sword, I pick it up.

“Fine,” I say out loud and disappear.

Popping into existence above Unending, I swing a full-powered strike at him from above. He turns his axe to block me, but I’m now at his side instantly, swinging my sword directly into his ribs. The attack is full of magic. The power explodes on contact and sends him flying a few hundred meters away. Unending sits half-buried under a ton of rubble.

“Look at this, a Godling buried like a corpse.” Taunting has always been a bad habit of mine.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

He explodes from the pile and goes for my neck. Teleporting away, I slice the back of his knee. Unending roars in pain, shaking the world around me until it falls to its knees.

“Nice job. You almost had me there.” I rub my neck, scared he might know the weakness to my teleporting.

He smiles. "Yes, I think I did, now shall we?" He cracks the ground below him as he launches himself above me. He swings the Ax down at me with tremendous strength; I quickly step and block it with my sword, which shatters, saving me from a death blow. I throw it aside and summon my quarterstaff from on my back under my cloak.

Unending summons his magic to swirl around his ax. He swings it, and magical bursts of energy shoot from it and launch at me. I teleport left away from the one on the right. Then again, finally, I teleport behind him and swing my staff as hard as I can into his back. The blow sends Unending flying forward, but he catches himself by slamming his feet into the ground, stopping him. Then he vanishes, and before I know it, three clones explode from different spots around me.

I slam my staff into the stomach of one of them, and it disappears. The second one comes from above and tries to hit me with the Ax. I teleport high above it, and with a flip from my momentum, I summon magic into the enchanted staff. It double in size and slams the second one down into the ground, shattering the street into a shower of rubble.

Unending doesn’t miss a beat. Six more clones appear in the air in a small circle around me. They all have giant replica axes. I can feel a considerable spike of magic being near them. I vanish to go higher up to get a better vantage point. A clone appears above me too fast for me to respond and slams me into the street below. I hit hard into the ground. It explodes into rubble and rains down around me.

I cough, trying to get the air back in my lungs.

Magic pressure slams my face back into the ground. With considerable strength, I turn struggling to look up. I see ten—Unending clones above me, with a gargantuan sphere of swirling energy.

“Alva! Please take this seriously. It really is pissing me off. I know you are so much stronger than this!” The voice is now Triss’s, her voice breaking through Unendings voice.

“You were such a menace. Back during the Civil War. You stopped at nothing to finish us off! You would wipe cities off the map just to make sure we couldn’t escape.” Triss shouts the words like she’s begging the world to listen to them.

“City by city, village by village all left desolate in your wake!” Triss’ face forms into Unendings again Then she raises her hands to her face, pretending to hide her eyes from me.

“Run! Oh Run The Reaper has come! Come to reap the souls of the damned and innocent! Flee now or die by her hand!”

One of the clones is now Triss, who has rapturous delight in her eyes.

“The carnage you reaped! Oh, it was artistic! No one was safe from you. Sweet Mother!” Triss’s breathing is erratic. Carnage was…sadly a turn on for her.

“I wish that bitch Victoria left our last battle alone all those years ago! Oh, to fight you a second time is a dream come true!”

She looks down at me, then without noticing a clone stabs a dagger in the back of my leg while I am distracted. I grit my teeth, trying to fight off the pain. Then I'm pushed into a whole in the ground and I am pushed down by a ton of aura pressure.

Her eyes narrow and then a murderous look is in Triss’s eyes, like she just discovered her lover’s dead body. She licks my blood off the blade.

“You are not Alva. You’re an imposter!” Her eyes are wide and ravenous. Nothing remains except for a wild beast. The symptoms have begun I would know them well.

“Give me back my Alva!” Her scream makes my ears almost rupture.

“Whoever you are now, you are just a watered-down version.” Her newfound power has caused her to become lost, and it will soon consume her completely. The heightened emotions of seeing me again don't help.

“I see.” She sings.

“Is it them?” She turns her head lazily up to the hill. I can see a huge smirk on her face.

“Those ‘friends’ of yours running up the mountain at full speed are they the reason you are the way you are now?” Triss says, her voice low and raspy.

“Hmmm, maybe if I kill them, I’ll get you to take this fight seriously!” She claps her hands until the gloom in her face is rinsed away.

“That’s it! Maybe then you’ll show me my Alva!”

I push myself to my feet, fighting back the pressure of the magic she has sitting on top of me. With all the strength I have, I gaze up at her, daring her to proceed with that idea.

“Last chance, Triss.” I look up at her, and she takes a step back and almost trips.

“There’s still a human in there, no matter how black your soul is now. No matter how close you are to the edge of madness you are. I can help you back away from that edge.” Again I smile.

“I know my old friend is still in there.” But it is a futile struggle.

Triss grins and coos.

“Ahhh, that look!” Triss sighs contentedly.

“I knew it! That was her smile!” Triss laughs.

“It so lovely she is still in there!” She laughs hysterically.

“I knew my Alva would never leave me.” Then, a massive sphere of power on one of the Unending clones doubles in size and is launched too quickly at the group.

Ten years of control slips in a split second, and I feel her power slither through the cracks.

“A Monster to the end then!” I scream.

The scream cracks the reality around us as a flare of bloodlust leaks through. Then, the world around me slows to a crawl. Bloodlust a vile and evil power only gifted to those who suffer from an ancient disease. Gifting you a power boost unlike anything the world has seen. A curse more than a blessing.

The orb has paused half way in my slowed world. I stretch slightly, then I jump several thousand meters up the mountainside with no help from magic. In a blink, I land behind the group with two seconds left to catch the sphere. I plant my feet, bracing for the full force of the sphere. Its shadow covers up the starlight bathing me in darkness. When the sphere makes contact with my hands, the magic burns them. Then, the pressure of the sphere pushes me deeper into the surrounding mountainside.

My ankles feel ready to be crushed, almost ready to give way, my knees ready to snap, my tendons barely hanging on.

“Ahhh!!!” I unlock my first limiter, strengthening my muscles to take more strain. With my newfound strength, I take a single step to give myself leverage. Then I spin and throw the sphere into the far side of the mountain. The explosion sends thousands of tons of rocks at me. A thousand-wide meter hole now sits in the mountainside.

In an instant, Unending appears above me. Another chink in my in armor exposed. I look up to see their ax is only centimeters from my nose. With the world slowed, I can see the glee on their face. No longer Triss or Unending. I guess they are True Ending now, a new entity born from my mistakes. A new tool placed in the enemies’s hands.

True Ending’s new found power comes from their souls being bound. The madness has overtaken them both.

They have fallen into Battle Dysfunction; they are now too dangerous to be left alive. The same disease I suffer from that gifted me with the immense power I have.

As I stare down the ax, a flash of yellow magic hits the Godling. Sending them hurtling across the city below.

Victoria stands beside me, her gloves glowing that same Royal Yellow.

She looks me up and down. “Your Bloodlust is leaking.” I finally come down from the euphoria and realize the immense pain in my legs.

I’m positive the muscles have been shredded. I take a few deep breaths to calm myself and to lock her away again.

Breathe in, now and out.

Remember the room with the bed put her away again.

Let her go back to sleep.

Let her return to her dreams.

Victoria smiles. “Good, no reason to go back to that state of mind.”

“You’re above that. Now go take that thing out; I’ve got these losers.” She points at the group, who stands staring.

I nod.

“I am going to use it.” Then, with another breath, I teleport back to the city.

As soon as I appear in the city, Triss, or now True Ending, stands leaning on their axe. The city is quiet, nothing but the crackling of the lighting and a quick break of silence from a low and thunderous boom.

“That was beautiful. The Bloodlust I got you to let go of was so beautiful I could cry.” She wipes a tear away.

“I’m so glad Alva, my dear goddess, is not dead. I thought you killed her, but no, she’s still there.” Her eyes go wide and her pupils dilate.

“You’re just this parasite that took over! You sit and parade around using her face!” She lifts her ax up.

I don’t answer her; just stare.

“Even now you say nothing, even though I can put up a fight against you.” More tears roll down her face.

“You even let your bloodlust leak!” Triss’s deep voice breaks as she lovingly says the last words.

Still, I only stare at her.

“Typical! The Almighty Alva Copper, always above the rest of us!” Triss snarls.

“Is that what you think?” I ask her.

“Think what?” They state.

“Is that what you tell yourself about why I kicked you off that cliff? That you were the victim of someone above you?” I try to see if that is truly her thoughts.

Her aura flares and I can feel the pressure push down on me. This answers my question and shows me the anger buried deep beneath her loving words.

“We were your only family, Alva!” I can see the tears fall down their cheeks more rapidly now.

“The Keepers were your only family for twelve years, and then you hunted us down like lambs to the slaughter.” They laugh shakily.

“We never saw it coming that you would kill us yourself, but it should have been obvious.” She wipes away the tears.

“You by yourself murdered half a million people, Triss.” She scoffs.

“I blew up Xuta because it was a hellscape where the dead walked! Everyone there deserved death because of what the Priests of Gander falls were trying to summon!” Triss eyes glow purple.

“It does not matter what you were to me or the things we did.” I pause.

“You all deserved so much more than the quick deaths Father and I thought we gave you.”

“What about you, hmmm?” Triss takes a step closer.

“Why did you get to live when we were all rotting in our shallow graves?” Triss or True Ending is now right in my face, their eyes now an ethereal purple with black flames burned to the inside of them.

“If you even gave us that courtesy!” They scream.

Again they speak. “You made the same deal we did with the Mad King. You have more blood on your hands than all the Keepers combined!” She is hysterical at this point.

“Yet you got to live. Why?” They beg as True endings voice breaks they beg the question as more tears fall down their face.

“I have to live with what I did. I wake up every day knowing that there are families out there who curse my name. Children who no longer have their fathers or mothers.” I pause, holding the emotions back.

“There are people who live their whole lives for revenge because of me now. Every day, I wonder when I’ll meet another person whose life I ruined! Or whose future I stole!” It’s hard to not let my rage slip through the new cracks this battle has formed.

“It’s difficult looking into the eyes of someone who truly hates you.” I take a small breath in, reeling back the emotions I’ve casted.

“Even though they do, I will take in all their hatred. It’s how I will repent.” I smile at her.

“I saved you all from this never ending future of torture we had coming.” I pause for a moment and finally feel the rage subside.

“None of you could have dealt with the pressure of it. I know all of you too well. This path I chose is not a path of forgiveness, Triss.” I pause again, staring at her blank face.

“It’s a path of repentance for all our choices. I was responsible for the old Keepers actions. Someone needed to clean up the messes we made.” Triss doesn’t break eye contact, but I can see her hand is gripping her ax tightly.

“Tell me, Triss, who of us got the better of the deal?”

True Ending tries to speak up.

“No, stop, that was hypothetical anyway.”

“Nothing is being gained from our brief trip down memory lane. It’s time I finish our battle here and finish my mission.” I begin the Incantation.

“Forgive me, for this breaks my vow.” My aura shrouds my body in a bright red light of magic.

Triss explodes from her spot and grabs me by the throat. Her arm has taken on the purple and black flame. Each breath I can take is small and ragged.

“You’d dare break Your Vow?!” Triss hisses at me. Her icy breath is cool to the touch on my skin.

“My actions here and now will taint my soul once more.” Triss slams me into the ground, but I continue to mumble.

“You wouldn’t! You swore to never use it on us!” Triss roars and slams me into any building she can repeatedly.

“Thus placing me back one step closer to becoming of one of The Strayed.”

She jumps thousands of meters into the air. She throws me to the ground. I slam into it, my breath gone. As the power flows through me, I summon even more of it. I try hard to continue the Incantation through the blinding pain.

“I have failed to uphold this vow as I forfeit my promise and release myself from your guidance,” I say, each line as clearly as I can through my crushed throat. The words come out barely audible.

My aura grows and grows into a sphere that surrounds me. The more I continue the chant, the faster the sphere grows.

Like a rag doll, I feel myself picked up, thrown into a building, and buried beneath all the rubble. Before I can say more, my throat is grabbed again, and I’m pulled from the wreckage and slammed into a wall twice, three, four times before I am held aloft.

“What about the people here, Alva?” True Ending asks me now that he and Triss have now finished their transition.

From every building, from the piles of rubble anywhere, people walk towards us like an army of the undead. Some crawl along the ground in all shapes and sizes. They use mangled and twisted limbs, or teeth, or whatever will allow them to move toward us. Some leaving trails of offal on the slow ascent towards me.

A small girl holding a crusty teddy bear looks up at me after crawling out from beneath a rubble pile. Blood runs down her face, and one of her eyes hangs from her socket.

“Please, lady, don’t kill us!” She squeezes her bear tightly and cries into it.

Then the rest speak up one by one till a cacophony of voices assaults the very air around me.

“A Reaper till the end! How fitting you would kill innocents!” One woman screams.

“It’s not enough. You took scores of lives already! Now you want more! Will you never be content, even after taking scores of lives already?”

“I-I.” I choke out the words, and I spit out the blood pooling up in my mouth.

“Yes, Reaper?” Sings True Ending as they smile and show all their rows of teeth.

“I know that, and I will take all your dreams and hatred upon me, I swear.” Then I take my legs and push them against True Ending’s arm, and with one push, using my aura-infused body, I free enough of my neck to teleport away.

A few meters away, I grab a syringe full of Rene’s temporary healing concoction from my pack. I jam it into my thigh. A warm feeling rushes over me, and I feel my neck heal quickly. It’s only temporary, but it’ll help me finish this fight. Then I choke out the rest of the Incantation.

I stare down the entire city of hundreds of thousands, all burning like an army of shadow creatures who burn with an ancient fire. All you can see behind them is thick black smoke and the wall of flames they leave behind with their marching. In the smoke you can see an outline of Two eyes with black spirals in them. It must be Phoenix.

Every citizen is now lost to these Primordial Flames. They all stumble to me, chanting.

“Join us in the ashes.”

“Burn away the darkness, and join us in the ashes.”

“We are his fuel to resurrection. We are his Embers!”

Honestly, all of this is a terrifying sight, one I won’t soon forget.

I will save you all. Let me end your suffering. I cup my hands together again.

“Ten years was the time of my service.”

“I have strayed from your guidance once more. And for that, I am humbled.”

“Demise of Resolution.”

My Aura grows denser. The sphere surrounds the entire city. Now it’s entirely in the blast radius, locking all inside in its grasp. The world shakes around me as reality begins to crack. True Ending explodes from their spot and is centimeters away from my neck again, the heat of the shadows singe my skin.

The world slows to a stop. True Ending has their claws right at my throat. But it’s too late.

The world rips and loses all color in the blink of an eye. Everything and anyone near the explosion has now had every last Mzyne in their bodies shredded into nothing. The very fabric of their reality is now non-existent.

My teleportation activates the second, the last words leave my lips. But before that I stare at the people being blown apart to remind me.

Just one more city full of people dead by my mistake. Genuinely I am The Reaper.

Before I teleport away, I see that woman in blue appear in a flash and take True Ending away in a flash of light.

Just as the world erupts, I’m already gone.