Chapter 18
The Truth
“Commander!”
“Someone, get a medic here! Fast!”
Meredith and Vivian had let go of Emil, the boy crumpling to the floor without the support of the girls. The blonde lifted her fingers to her mouth in horror, barely containing her own scream, but Meredith was mute. She was transfixed upon it, watching the blade slide out, tossed aside. The Reaper moved his gaze upwards, locking eyes with her before disregarding her presence entirely. He kicked Masters to the side, the commander fallen.
The cries still begged for a medic to arrive. For someone, anyone, to help, but Meredith knew the man was beyond help. His soul teetered on the edge of oblivion while his body bled out. He still tried, clasping to the hole in his chest as his bloodied fingers attempted to grip some stones, but it was fading. Down the corridor, Amelia kicked Cynthia in the chest, another tornado whipping her down the hall.
“Roy, stay still! We’ll get some help! Those who can fight, hold the Reaper off! We’ll not let them get a foothold on our castle!” the Tempest Commander yelled. She dashed towards her friend, ignoring the trembling girls nearby. Her weapon sailed out for the Reaper, but he formed a fist.
“Stone.” The pillar of rock snapped upwards, into Amelia’s stomach, though she used enough gale-force to rip through it, her bladed weapon managing to slice the Reaper across the shoulder. He shook it off.
“Amelia…no…” Masters coughed out. His hand had stopped struggling, stopped trying to find his footing. His soul was on the verge, permitting Meredith to hang her head. There was no stopping it, but still, Masters kept struggling. “You can’t win against him…”
“What are you saying, Roy?! Are you giving up?!” she yelled. Her wind-laced kick collided with the Reaper, only for the form to melt away, just another copy. “We are the Guardian Corps! We don’t give up!”
“Then don’t give up…” the commander gasped. He let go of his wound, allowing the blood to flow without restraint. “But live to fight…another day.”
“Damn it, Roy!”
“LEAVE, AMELIA!” His shout, the last of his energy being put into it, caused Amelia to freeze. The Reaper materialized, and Meredith wanted to shout in warning to the commander. She didn’t want to see it; didn’t want to experience it. Meredith couldn’t see a second commander fall in one day. A cry of great anger and pain filled the air, Raymond’s voice. Her brother sailed through, slashing apart another copy of the Reaper.
“Why them?!” he shouted. “What are you planning here, Reaper?!”
“A cull.” The Reaper danced away from Raymond’s blade, and Meredith could see the tears in his eyes. The castle shook, but outside, the people collecting the fallen members of Tempest Squad were scrambling to recover. “A cull of unrighteous, lazy beings. Too long has the Corps taken. Now, it returns to where the true power lies: with the goddess.”
“He’s…” Masters was fading, his words becoming as mumbles. “He’s no cult…”
Amelia Chavez watched as the light finally left Royston Masters’s eyes, the man growing cold. His soul hung for a second and then, like a whisper, faded away. He had become just another body, littering the halls. Just another life lost in the Reaper’s conquest.
But why…? Why kill him? Why do any of this? They had people on the inside…Meredith reasoned. Her head was pounding, unable to come up with the answers she sought. It hurt too much, the pain flowing in. She stumbled under the weight of it. I’m sorry. I can’t do anything. I’m so useless.
Stop thinking that, Meredith! Terrill’s yell at her brought her back to reality. Brought her away from those souls that were screaming. You want to take on their pain? That’s fine. But you can’t do everything! And sometimes, taking on their pain doesn’t mean anything more than living! You can’t do anything for the dead but live!
Meredith reached up, slapping herself across the face. She wanted to believe it, had to believe it. Another slap, and she found herself back from the brink, with one sobering realization coming to her at long last.
“Take it all back…” Meredith ran forward, her thoughts spilling from her mouth faster than she could think of them. “Commander Chavez! They’re here for the Beastmaster!”
“Bind.” The Reaper’s command snapped her arms and legs together, having her fall atop Emil. Vivian snapped out of it, running to her friend and pulling the bindings off. Amelia straightened from where she had bent, closing Masters’ eyes, and she turned around, her hair rising wildly.
“Guardian Corps!” she yelled, her voice echoing all around, carried on the wind and amplified. There was solemnity in her words, filled with grief. “Evacuate Corps Castle.”
“Commander?!” Raymond shouted, his shock evident. “What about Marcus? Shouldn’t he be the one to make that call?”
“Maybe, but he’s not here right now. I will trust in my friend. Those that remain, make for the elevator! Make for the hangar! Whatever you do…” Amelia sucked in a breath, walking closer to the Reaper, “Live!”
“No. Die.” In the instance of a snap, the whole hall froze, each of their legs sticking to it. Just Amelia and Raymond had managed to escape. Meredith took hold of her sword, beginning to stab at the ice that was encircling her, beginning its climb again. Cynthia approached from the end of the hall. “I’m afraid the elevator is out of order. Or in-use for our purposes. You’re finished, Amelia.”
“If I am, then I’ll finish us together!” Amelia bounded from the ceiling, the armor of wind around her while she soared for Cynthia. The stone broke apart, raining on those few cultists left standing from the clash between Masters and the Reaper. “Raymond, get those hostages somewhere safe. Evacuate this castle and-oof!”
The Reaper had intervened, his invisible wall erected between the two commanders. Cynthia smirked, not attacking her old friend, but bowing to the Reaper. He stepped away from Raymond, who raised his sword. He didn’t attack, or couldn’t. Meredith wasn’t sure which, but she could sense how unpredictable her brother was becoming.
“That’s quite enough, Lady Winter,” the Reaper spoke. His paling dropped, but every step deterred attack. No Guardian was foolish enough to strike him, or even approach him. “Go. Aid Maria in procuring what we came for. I shall obliterate the rest.”
“As you wish, Your Worship,” Cynthia said, bowing low. A flurry of snow surrounded her while she smirked in Amelia’s direction. The diamond dust swirled and then vanished, the Winter disappearing with it. They were all alone with the Reaper, and the cultists that were recovering from being involved in the assault.
“Now, then…”
“Air Burst!” Amelia thrust both palms forward, and a globe of air flew forth. It struck the Reaper in the chest, flinging him down an empty hallway and into the bodies. “Childs, and that’s both of you, get to the hangar. Take anyone with you. I’ll make sure to cover your back. Evacuate on any skyship you can find. Understood?”
“Sir!” Meredith said in tandem with her brother. She awaited orders, while her brother addressed Amelia with one last question. “And what of our chief commander?”
“Marcus, wherever he is, can take care of himself. He’s likely dealing with the issue below. Your duty is to get up two floors and get out of here.” She sprang into the corridor, supported by the wind behind her lithe figure. Raymond saluted her and straightened his robes, his sigh heavy.
“Mera, create a path straight up. The stairs will likely be unstable, so we need a way to clear floors in quick measure,” he ordered. The implication was obvious, asking her to lead those stragglers, left behind, up and beyond. He didn’t need to mention that he didn’t know how many Guardians were still above…or fallen. “What remains of Flare Squad, fall to Tempest Squad. Bring them away from the castle, and protect them from any of those skyships. Let’s lose as few as possible. Everyone, we make for the hangar!”
“Viv,” Meredith said, pulling her out of her reverie. The blonde was lost, but understood Meredith’s request. She bent to pick up a once more unconscious Emil. “It’s too unsafe to move him back outside, so we’ll drag him with us. Conrad, Summer, if you two are there, get over here!”
“We’re fine!” Conrad announced, popping out. He wasn’t frozen to the floor like the rest of them, and from the sweltering heat that formed in the air, Meredith realized she wasn’t either. Summer had made quick work of Cynthia’s ice field. “Escape plan?”
“Something like that,” she confirmed. With her feet free, Meredith crossed the small distance to one of the holes in the ceiling. Of course, she made sure to avoid the holes on their level. Images and thoughts of the Reaper, warring with Amelia, and the pair that was Cynthia and Maria swam in her head. She slapped her forehead, hoping they’d be excised. There was no room for hesitating. I’m sorry to ask it of you, Terrill. But this is a big job.
He was silent, and Meredith feared that, for the first time, he wouldn’t allow it. There was much confusion in him, but Meredith shook the sword. He didn’t feel it, but he understood. Yes.
“Going up, then!” Meredith whirled her blade around, holding it in front before stabbing the sky. The ground of the castle rumbled and bubbled. Those few Guardians left that hadn’t splintered off watched in awe as the chunks of stone that lay abandoned, no more than part of the debris, melded together to form a set of stairs reaching the second floor.
“Good work. Now, move!” Raymond commanded. He wasn’t the first, electing to stay behind and cover their backs. His eyes were drawn to where Amelia was holding the Reaper off with all she could. Uncertainty pierced Meredith’s breast, but she chose to believe in the commander, and she placed her foot upon her stone steps. They held, and she started climbing upward.
Vivian struggled over the threshold of steps, forced to retreat when many of the Guardians, including a number that had remained hidden, pushed past her to climb the stairs. Conrad took pity, grabbing Emil in the process and hauling him up the steps. Meredith took charge, making sure they were all together until she reached the top and climbed to the second floor.
It was no different than the first floor. Cultists had made it through, and the cannon fire of the skyships had ripped the second floor apart. Walls were broken through, blown apart by the blasts. Bodies lined the corridors, fallen Guardians and cultists alike. The smell was overwhelming, taking full hold of Meredith’s senses. There was very little left of Corps Castle and the Guardian Corps as it once was. She was taken away from staring out the hole in the wall, to the thrumming skyships, by one of the Guardians bumping into her. Realizing where she was, Meredith cleaned her sweat and turned to help others up to the second floor.
“Is it like this everywhere…?” Vivian’s voice lamented once she’d witnessed the same sight that Meredith had. “Are we all that’s left of the Corps?”
“We’ll know once we reach the hangar. Come on,” Meredith said. Tapping her friend on the back, she located the correct corridor and jogged down it, sidestepping the bodies and destruction. Most of those with them had cleared the threshold, running to try and get ahead to the stairs that could lead directly to the hangar. Raymond’s orders could be heard behind, signifying his own climb up the stairs.
“I see it! The service stairs! We’ll make it!” a Guardian ahead of her called. His relief was self-evident, and Meredith couldn’t blame him.
She only wished he had retained his wits longer than he had.
The ground shook, which was no surprise to Meredith, but it was the roar that came after which startled her. She pulled to a stop, nearly tripping over a body before Vivian caught her by the elbow. Again, the floor rattled. Meredith knew what was coming.
“No, pull back!” she shouted, but it was lost. There was a second where the Guardian lunged for the stairs. The very next, one of the intact parts of the floor was destroyed, a scaly creature of black skin and red eyes rising up. It snapped the man up, gobbling him whole while the creature climbed higher. Its wings slapped against the ground, and a different sound underneath them indicated a tail’s movement. Someone was riding that tail.
“Ahaha! Hee hee! Freedom!” Caleb’s raucous cries sent nausea through the fleeing crowd, emphasized all the more when the Beastmaster landed on their floor. He rolled his shoulders and cricked his neck a few times. His stringy hair fell in front of his eyes until he leaned back and began to laugh. “Eheeheeheehee!”
“Go back. We’ll find another way,” Meredith whispered, her steps light to avoid being noticed. She should have realized there was no point in bothering.
“Leaving so soon, girl? No. I think a little payback’s in order.” Caleb’s eyes flashed down, dark particles climbing off his skin. It was something she was uncomfortably familiar with, and seeing it again made that no less unsettling. A creature formed at the man’s feet, with familiar eyes and a snapping jaw. “My poor Cario. How long we’ve been separated. I have a treat for you. Why don’t your brothers and sisters play fetch?!”
“Everyone, stand your ground!” Meredith ordered. “Keep the wounded out of harm’s way. Those who can fight, fight!” The dogs, snarling and vicious, with more rows of teeth than any one man could count, barked and yammered. There were more growls, and then they obeyed their master in charging down the dilapidated hallways for them. Vivian acted first, sending a scattershot out, while Meredith swung, stones patching the holes in the floor to jab the dogs. Their advance was barely halted.
“Feast, my friends!” Caleb’s words were a salve on any wounds, and a push in motivation. The dogs that had been injured snapped their jaws and began to move again, unaware of pain. One reached the group of Guardians, to which Meredith and Vivian slashed through them. A few others slung spells, hoping to hold them off, but when Meredith looked back, she could see most had run. “How unfortunate that there are so few of you to fight. How alone you must feel. But don’t worry…even those fleeing will join you in death. You’ve nowhere to run.”
“If any of you have a shot, take him out,” Meredith ordered. The wide grin, completed with licked lips, told her that Caleb didn’t feel threatened in the slightest. More and more particles were rising off his figure. Creatures of all species, shapes and sizes populated the hallway. Meredith recognized many of them, of birds and tigers, each black with red eyes. Screams echoed from the other corridor, and Meredith flinched. There was no hope of escape. Just the fight.
“Now, where do we start, hm?” Caleb stepped forward, his lip-licking insane, as if he’d been unable to during his imprisonment. Cario, too, was slobbering, hungry. Meredith and Vivian put their backs to one another. “I know…I’ll rip your limbs and take your Weapons. Oh, I’ve been waiting a long time for that!”
He snapped, giving his order. The monsters howled and charged. The thundering made the floor more unstable than previously, with pieces of it breaking apart, trickling down below. A flash of lightning announced Raymond’s arrival, but he went down the other hall, protecting the runners. Meredith focused front. Her blade glowed red, and she and Vivian slashed in tandem. With their ribbons of light came flame, wind and mud, cleaving through the first wave of creatures. She wasn’t surprised that it didn’t make a dent.
Something was coming that would, though. She could feel the soul, shining bright with light, or maybe it was the visible sight in front of her eyes. The floor itself was burgeoning with a great glow. Flakes were sheared off the beasts before them, and Caleb’s advance halted. Meredith stepped back, Vivian and the other Guardians with her, before the floor broke apart entirely. Light erupted, shredding through the creatures as the man producing it zipped on to the wall within a beam of light.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Chief Commander!” the cry went out. Meredith had nothing to say, but she and Vivian smiled. Marcus was on the wall, turning his head for Caleb. The man offered a lopsided grin, rotating his head to complete the effect.
“I suppose I gambled on long odds.”
Marcus gave no denial or confirmation. He bounced off the wall with his light, multiple discharges going off that tore through the enemy. He aimed for Caleb, and the Beastmaster grinned. He leapt back on his wyvern, the creature snorting and starting to take off. Marcus nearly crashed into the other side, but he righted himself with fury and jumped after his enemy.
“The chief commander made us a path! He made it all right!” Many cheers rose, lesser than they’d been before. Meredith nodded, trying not to think of that unfortunate fact. She stepped to the edge of what was left of their floor.
Her eyes closed, calling on the stone below them, each and every piece connecting with her, fusing with her soul. Her breath was deep, loud to her ears, and with the Earth-Splitter in hand, she wove it all together, raising it up to recreate the path. Vivian tapped her shoulder and shouted something down the hall. Meredith didn’t listen, keeping focus on holding the path together. However, she could feel the people walk by, passing over what she was holding to move beyond, to the service stairs. It took less time than expected, and eventually, Raymond was letting her know it was safe.
She kept concentration while she slowly walked over, careful to not let the path fall beneath her feet. The other souls ahead were clambering up the service steps, making their way to safety. That reassured her, giving her the time needed to arrive on the other side. She let go, and the rocks fell back down. Vivian and Raymond were waiting for her, urging her along and up the steps. Though she didn’t voice it, Meredith was grateful for the support, exhaustion from her magic usage beginning to claim her. In her hand, Terrill, too, helped spur her ascent.
This one didn’t take long, their feet pounding the metal steps to get up there, and no one was surprised by what they found when they reached it.
“So few left…” Raymond said. He didn’t appear sad, but rather…angry. “Why did they run? They could have…”
Meredith left her brother, walking towards the Guardians that were pooled in the center of the hangar. Conrad had set Emil down, falling on his butt from exhaustion. Summer was no different, the backs of their heads touching. A few of those that hadn’t traveled with them were there, but it was small in number. The debris of skyships at the exit to the hangar, and the fire that burned at its edge told the rest of the story. It disheartened her, and before she could stop herself, Meredith fell down next to Emil. Vivian joined her, clasping her legs.
“There are so little…how did this happen?” the blonde asked, burying her face in her knees. There was a small hiccup, and Meredith was afraid the girl was crying, but her eyes weren’t even red. “Culling the Corps…they just take out anyone who doesn’t agree with them. Just like Rico…”
Meredith puffed out some air, trying to make sense of it all, herself. There were only a handful of Guardians, not counting those outside. They had all been slaughtered by the skyships or the cultists that had run them over. Masters’s dead body cemented itself in her mind. Why had they run? Her brother’s question held a scary amount of merit to her. Just as Maria had pointed out, it was proof of cowardice, opposite the creed of the Corps. They had all paid for it, too. Everyone was paying for it.
Rebuilding the Corps…what a joke…Meredith laughed in her head. Terrill stirred uncomfortably, himself thinking the same thoughts. What’s even left to rebuild? Two squads betrayed us. A commander is dead.
The Corps has never been a building, or the people. Even if Terrill said it, she found it hard to believe in that. Whether it was a set of ideals or convictions, there was no good to it if people weren’t there to carry it out. In the end, the Order’s beliefs had won out over them all. They had played them like fools, right down to Gaius’s murder.
But why was he murdered? That singular question kept returning to her, and it felt like the answer was on the tip of her tongue. There was something he had wanted to say. Something that…Meredith sat up straight, Caleb’s words now echoing in her mind, all about his loyalty and his faith in the goddess and her emissary. And there was something Maria shouldn’t have known, but did. A truth they had uncovered, and while Maria accepted it, Gaius hadn’t. It was something that must have been instrumental in the final plan.
Meredith tousled her hair and stood. She didn’t know what that answer could be, but she knew it had to mean something, and she walked towards her brother.
“It looks like there are about four working skyships,” a Guardian was informing him. “I’m not sure we have the pilots for them, but they’re all we have left at this point.”
“Then we’ll just need to figure out a plan to get us out of here without the Defender and Avenger taking us out the second we’re within range,” Raymond instructed the man. He nodded, clearly thinking things over, himself. “Fitting everyone on isn’t the problem, but we’ll wait to see if any more Guardians can get here. At least until our commanders arrive. It seemed like very few cultists were left, at least, but who knows how many are struggling to make it here. Although, there’s no point in waiting for squads. We’ll pick up mine below, but Frost and Quake have allied themselves with the enemy. It’s inconceivable…”
“In the meantime, I’ll make sure the skyships are ready to go, captain. We’ll load ‘em up as soon as the commanders get here.” Raymond nodded. He began rubbing his temples, not taking any notice of Meredith, and she opted to not approach him. Her brother was on edge, stressed enough as it was. They all were a hair’s breadth away from slipping into the deep end.
She backed off. Now that they were in relative safety, Meredith could feel exhaustion creeping in, but endeavored to remain strong. They weren’t out of the woods yet. None of them were. Not Flare Squad, or her brother, or Amelia, or Tempest Squad. Not even Emil, still unconscious. She huffed loudly. Having not seen Eddie yet, she hoped that Flare Squad was taking care of him, protecting him to the same extent as Tempest Squad. To that, she closed her eyes, her Soul Vision revealing the little lights that dotted the area. She searched for a bit of time, longer than expected, but seemed to find Eddie, closer than she could imagine, and she chuckled. It all seemed so much cornier than she could ever voice aloud.
Her friend’s near proximity gave her some solace, and she tried to relax. Until the goosebumps ran up and down her arms, at least, and she sensed the mass of souls that obscured Eddie’s dimmed one, suddenly manifesting far closer than any of them wanted. Her eyes snapped open.
“Defense!” Meredith shouted. She wasn’t sure she got it out in time.
Boom! Boom! Boom! BOOM!
It was a chain of explosions, centered around very specific areas. Meredith dove to the floor at the first, the heat and force pushing her back. The second one knocked the wind out of her, sending her flying. The third one, to her surprise, didn’t even make contact. By the time the fourth went off, Meredith was able to look up and found three people standing in as best a ring as they could around the surviving Guardians. Two were using their bodies as shields.
The third was Vivian, her arms wide as an opalescent shield was created between them and the blasts. Her breaths were as pants and grunts, trying to hold against such destructive force. The skyships were blasted to smithereens, becoming nothing more than burning hunks of metal. Their parts sprayed in the air, as if the vehicles were bleeding, each part colliding with Vivian’s shield and cracking it just a little bit.
A fifth explosion arrived soon after, breaking the shield in two. Vivian went flying back into Meredith’s arms. Their whole contingent was thrown back, into the walls opposite the hangar doors. The glass windows shattered and broke upon them, rendering them unable to do anything but witness the burning of their only ticket out of there.
In the middle of those flames was the Reaper, calm and composed.
“How?!” a high-pitched voice squealed. “How did they get up here?”
“Is Commander Chavez…?” The question was too hard to bear an answer to. In Meredith’s arms, Vivian was gasping, her strength gone from her maximum defense spell. She set the girl down and looked up to Raymond. His arm was bleeding, a piece of debris at his feet.
“You’ve all run so far,” the Reaper said, his cloak burning in the flames, but never diminishing. “Yet no more. I am here, and where I walk, so, too does the goddess.”
“Enough of your…goddess crap!” Raymond said. He tried to raise his sword arm, but the unbidden tears told Meredith of the strain it was putting on him to do so.
“You’re injured, captain. A pity.”
“My only pity is not killing you when I had the chance!”
“Is it?” the Reaper said. His voice was like an insidious drug, feeding into their worst thoughts and fears. Meredith shook her head, begging Raymond to not listen. “Are you sure, captain? Did my words mean nothing? You’ve seen them for yourself, right?”
Raymond said nothing. He gripped at his arm, glaring at the Reaper, but Meredith realized one very important thing: he wasn’t angry at the man…but at something else. His body was sagging in defeat, the questions creeping in.
“You’ve all managed to survive so long,” the Reaper continued to speak. “Have you given thought that, perhaps, the goddess wills it? Join the Order, a new system for a better world. There needs to be no further bloodshed now. We’ve lost enough.”
“Never!” Meredith shouted, her defiance directed at the man. He turned to her, finding humor, and her fear threatened to overtake her once more.
“Then you leave me no choice.” The Reaper’s hand raised, an orb, void of all but the deepest black, swirling within. “Fall to the abyss.”
“Perish by light, Reaper!”
Raymond managed to move in time, tossing himself onto his sister and the others there. A pillar of light cut through the floor in a perfect circle, a blur rising through it before flying for the Reaper and striking against him. The leader of the Order skidded backwards, their robe damaged. Landing on the ground was Marcus, clad in his shining armor, scorn scrawled on his lips and eyes.
“Chief commander! How long it’s been since we were together!” the Reaper exclaimed joyously. Marcus stood tall, his blade of light twirling around in his hand before being pointed at their foe. “I’m glad to see you’re still as strong as ever.”
Marcus’s lips twitched, and he turned his head. “Keep back, Raymond. We shall see the sun of another day together.”
“Will you? Please, chief commander, let’s see you make that happen. I’m sure you’re dying to do so.”
Marcus pivoted his foot, his body in a battle stance. The joyous cries behind Meredith indicated how pleased all the surviving Guardians were. How saved they were. Meredith, too, felt she could relax, almost giving over to the waves of exhaustion. Marcus spun his blade once more. Then he leapt forward, blitzing past the reaper with his light. He appeared on the other side, and the Reaper teetered, but whipped around.
“Fly.” The pieces of the destroyed skyships hovered in midair, sharp and aimed. The Reaper crushed his fist, and they all flew towards him and Marcus. The chief commander watched the Reaper, and then slashed with his weapon. It was a flurry of movement before all of the attacking pieces broke apart in harmless shreds. Marcus ran at the Reaper once more. “Blade.”
One of the Guardian’s swords was wrested from his control, flying to the Reaper’s hand as he blocked Marcus’s swift strikes. The two whirled around each other, considering the other prey. Their feet moved the same before thrusting forward, each blocking the other’s strike, before they both whirled around to lock blades. The Reaper removed a hand, and flicked it. A column of flame erupted beneath Marcus, but with a swift stroke, he cut it aside. Once more, his body became as light and he zoomed around to strike at the Reaper’s exposed back. He didn’t make it in time, and the attack was blocked. They jumped away from one another, each readying their own spells, like a deadly choreography.
“Dark Gasp!”
“Light of Judgment!”
From the Reaper, an attack of pure dark energy. From Marcus, seven stars that coalesced in one spot to collide against the attack. They force of the collision exploded, pressing all of them against the wall, enough to make indents. Wind was knocked from their lungs, to the point that Summer coughed, and many Guardians were knocked out from the sheer radiation. Emil also coughed, waking up as he stared at the battle.
Marcus was on the move, zipping with light to reach the enemy’s side. His blade switched positions in his hands, gaining the advantage on the unsuspecting foe. Meredith cheered inside as his blade came up, cutting at the Reaper’s hand and disarming him of his blade. That sword spun in the air as Marcus kicked the Reaper’s stomach. The force of light sent him sprawling backwards, but gravity righted the cultist, just as Marcus caught the second blade, preparing to press his advantage.
“Your plans shall be finished here, Reaper!” the chief commander said, his voice rising as he slashed back and forth. The figure didn’t create any copies, carefully avoiding the strikes as he could, not a single peal of laughter on his lips. “You may have freed your friends. You may have harmed the Corps. However, this is the end of your plan!”
“Oh, you and I are both more than aware of that. This is everything I’ve been building towards since we saw each other at the settlement.” Marcus wasn’t deterred. His usual sword came up in a flash, while his second sword made a jab for the Reaper’s midsection. He missed both, but the swiftness of his strokes was not to be denied, forcing the enemy on the defensive. Raymond sat up, a smile as he watched the man he admired duel the Reaper.
“It won’t…it won’t be enough…” Emil grunted out. His voice was barely a whisper, strained to get out, but desperate to speak. “He…he…”
“Save your breath, Emil,” Vivian uttered, herself finding the requisite energy to say so. “Marcus will win. He has to. He has something he’s fighting for.”
“And Marcus is the greatest Guardian there is.”
A Guardian. Against her better judgment, Meredith found herself praying. Praying for Marcus to win. For the Corps to survive. For her to find answers on what it meant to be a Guardian, something that Terrill remained silent on.
But Emil kept his voice rising.
“He has a Legendary Weapon,” he grunted out.
Meredith looked on in worry, shaking her head. It was impossible. The Lightbringer Axe was nowhere on the Reaper’s figure, and she hadn’t sensed a single soul in the vein of one of the Weapons. Yet the Reaper was calm, expectant of every slash and blow. One or two may have nicked him on the side, but he kept moving, until Marcus aimed for his face.
The effulgence that followed nearly blinded Meredith, and she forced herself to switch her Soul Vision on, for all the good that would do. It didn’t do much beyond give her a readout of who was where, and she couldn’t see Marcus make any kind of attack, not until the light faded. The situation had changed.
One of Marcus’s blades was tangled in a chain, stemming all the way back to the Reaper’s now held blade. He yanked it, pulling Marcus’s main weapon out of the chief commander’s hands, and into his own. The chain snapped back into place, revealing a large sword. Terrill’s fury was palpable, telling Meredith that what the Reaper held was one of the Legendary Weapons, indeed, but still not a single soul stirred inside it. It evoked what the man had told her, and her heart went out to him, though her mind remained on the moment.
“Thank you, commander. I’ve been waiting to hold this in my hand.”
Marcus struck once more, not waiting for the Reaper to finish his taunts. Light channeled from his blade with all speed to thrust through the Reaper’s heart. It blew out the other side, cutting along the ceiling of the hangar. The cult leader offered no reaction. Nor did Marcus, his body unmoving.
The Reaper’s body melted, both weapons clattering to the floor.
“That’s…copy magic…my magic…” Conrad gasped out. “Where did he…?”
“Chief Commander Marcus!” Raymond shouted in warning, but like Masters before him, he was too late. The Reaper appeared behind Marcus, and with an open hand, summoned the blades back to him. Raymond struggled to move, his arm making it difficult. As soon as he stood, Marcus’s blade was flipped around in the Reaper’s hold, and he stabbed straight from behind.
“Chief Commander!” the cries came. Despair set in. Their leader turned around, nearly falling as he stared at the Reaper. He was pitiless, staring at the man who touched to the sword in his chest. There was no blood. Not yet. Marcus began to descend, his body hitting the ground with an all-too audible thump. The sword was dislodged from his body, flipping back into the Reaper’s possession.
“No!”
“It can’t be! Chief Commander! Get up! Get up!”
Meredith was shutting down. Her brain couldn’t process it. Not a second death of someone so strong. Not so soon. She almost dropped the Earth-Splitter, staring at where the Reaper stood above Marcus. For a moment, she thought the man would take the chief commander’s soul.
He didn’t, however. He just…stood there.
The Reaper stood over Marcus’s body, now unmoving, with an unreadable expression, yet one Meredith could tell all the same. It wasn’t the look of a man who’d bested his foe, or of respect or disdain, or anything she could imagine the Reaper feeling towards Marcus at all.
It was the stance of a man who was staring at a tool that had now outlived its usefulness.
Meredith’s heartbeat pounded in her ears. It echoed in such a beating drum that the despair of the others, and the struggle of her brother, were meaningless. Only she could see what none of them could.
Marcus’s soul wasn’t gone. It lingered.
No, Meredith realized, shaking her head as though she couldn’t believe it. Her hair flew back and forth, her breath shallow. She gripped her chest. It wasn’t possible.
The Reaper tapped Marcus’s sword to the body, and suddenly it was set ablaze, the intensity melting the body. More cries, but Meredith just felt tears. True despair was setting in as Marcus’s body disappeared…
…but his soul returned inside the Reaper.
It hadn’t been forcibly yanked. It wasn’t grabbed.
Meredith screamed a little.
Gaius had wanted to say something. Gaius had heard something. Heard something from someone that day that made him so scared, he needed to tell someone, and paid for it with his life.
Quake Squad had betrayed them.
And there was Masters. Meredith’s eyes widened, and she wanted to vomit. The Reaper had told him something, enough to make him freeze in a way nothing else did.
Vivian was shouting, calling Meredith back to her senses. She turned, the tears coming while the Reaper now looked back to them. “Mera! Mera! We can’t-”
“It’s him…” she gasped, her voice wavering between sobs of despair. “It’s him…Viv…He’s the Reaper. He’s always been the Reaper.”
“What are you talking about, Mera?” Meredith had no choice but to grab Vivian by her robes, hoping to make her understand with every syllable she could muster.
“The soul…it went back to him. It was just a copy.” Vivian shook her head, not understanding until the Reaper had come close enough to hear them.
“The Reaper is Marcus.”
Everything felt as if it was in slow-motion. Questions were raised. Disbelief ran rampant. Heads turned in her direction, mouths hoping to shout about how wrong she was.
The Reaper, however, halted. He sighed.
“Oh, Miss Childs…I really hoped you wouldn’t figure it out.” Meredith found herself letting go of Vivian while she turned. A clatter echoed around the burning hangar, and all watched in despair as the Reaper’s mask, having once concealed his face, fell to the floor. The hood was drawn back, and the robes morphed into a familiar set of armor. “But I always had a feeling it would come to this. You were always the only one who could figure it out. I just wished it wasn’t now.”
Marcus was alive and well, and looking down on them with all the souls swirling inside him, nothing more than pawns in his ever-long game.