This story was taken down and re-uploaded under my new screen name.
Author's Note:
My second, and probably final, Metroid one-shot.
This is very old, though not as old as Last Words. It has another surprising new perspective to offer, this time for my favorite game in the series, Metroid Prime 2 Echoes.
Like Last Words, it is not the best of my writing, but I hope it is enjoyable in its own way.
Testament of Light and Darkness
I couldn't sleep.
It was the darkness I couldn't handle.
I would lock myself away in my room, close my door, shut the window tightly, and wrap myself up in my sleeping place, knowing all along that I was perfectly safe from all harm…
Yet, whenever I would close my eyes, sharp, burning images of strangeness would cloud my mind. Voices would accompany them, echoing through my ears, although in reality there was no noise.
My mind was never clear when I was surrounded by the darkness.
It is a strange thing, the mind structure of the Luminoth race--we love the light, we bask in its glory, we never wish to separate ourselves from it--yet, the first thing a young Luminoth sees when opening their eyes for the first time in the cocoon is the pure darkness. It would seem logical that one would consider such an element their closest friend after living submerged in it for three and a half years… yet that's not the way it is.
It turns out that one, specifically myself, fears the darkness as a child would fear suddenly finding oneself in a splinter hive. It would cause my mind to animate nightmares before my eyes… to make me hallucinate unspeakable horrors (at least, what I considered unspeakable horrors at that age) in both eye and ear.
"Kill, kill, kill…" the voices would say, as if trying to rally the darkness around me to bring about my demise. "Consume! Devour! Dominate!"
The personality my mind gave to the dark was horrible. It wanted to consume me, my mind told itself. It wanted to devour all. It wanted to dominate all light and submerge the universe into the dreaded silence of the eye.
I recall that one particular night when I just couldn't take it anymore. The voices screamed in my mind louder than I had ever heard them before. I could not ignore them. I could not distract myself from them in order to sleep. It was as if a creature, separate from me yet living within me, demanded to be let out so it could destroy me. I became deeply afraid.
"Be with me," it said, flooding my mind's ear with the sinister voice I gave to it. "Let yourself become one of the shadows…"
"No!" I cried to it. "I will not!"
"Let the darkness surround you!" it called, growing louder. "LET THE DARKNESS DESTROY YOU!"
"GO AWAY!" I screamed back at it, my heart beating uncontrollably. "I fear you!"
I knew I had to escape the darkness for a short while to let my mind calm itself. Deciding this, I quickly unwrapped myself from my sleeping place and jumped to the door of my chamber. I made my way to the central room of our house and turned on the light. The lit crystal shone brilliantly with its artificial rays, bringing a greater degree of peace to my heart. I felt safe. The darkness couldn't get me now.
For a while, I just sat there and admired the light. I watched it closely, observing as it did nothing. Wondering how it did what it did. Wondering how it brought about peace in the midst of fear. I watched it as if it were a tiny pet insect searching for food, amusing to the eye. I was content. I no longer felt tired, I just felt like sitting there endlessly with the light, waiting for the sun to rise and flood the entire field of Agon with its glorious rays.
Apparently, my parents had other plans for me that night.
"Daughter?" Spoke a groggy voice from the far entrance of the room.
I turned to him, half startled and half embarrassed, as he emerged from the darkness of the hall and entered the sphere of light.
"Why are you still awake at such a late hour?" He demanded kindly of me.
"Father," I answered, "I can't sleep. The darkness was beginning to intimidate me too much…"
"That seems like no excuse to turn on the light and keep the rest of us awake as well, does it?"
"I apologize, father," I sighed, reaching to turn off the light. "I didn't realize…"
"No, no, leave it on," he said. "If your fear of the dark is getting to you tonight, by all means, take comfort in the light for a little while."
"Thank you, father," I said, sitting back down.
He came there and sat with me, and we conversed to me about various things for a little while. I did my best to prolong the useless conversation until I had decided that my fear had subsided enough to go back into the dark. Father sensed how I was excessively delaying my return, and after a while, he spoke out to me…
"Young A-Kul, I do not understand you. I have never, ever known someone to be so afraid of the dark. What has gotten into your mind? What makes you think that you won't be safe without rays of light touching you?"
"The voices," I told him. "Whenever I see darkness, I hear the voices. They echo through my head so relentlessly. I can't stop them. And the visions…"
"Young A-Kul, that is perfectly normal!" father exclaimed, chuckling a little. "Those voices in your head are your own!"
"Yes, I know, but…"
"I experienced the same when I was a nymph. Everyone does."
"Truly?" I said in surprise.
"Yes," he laughed. "Every child is afraid of the dark to some degree."
"How did you find courage against it?" I asked.
"I awoke one morning," he explained, "and I realized what it meant to take control of my own mind. I simply began to see the darkness for what it was, not a deadly force of evil opposed to the light, but light's twin brother. My fear of the dark never returned. You must learn to do the same. Learn to take control of yourself, A-Kul. Of both sides of yourself."
"Both sides?" I repeated. "What do you mean?"
"Look, daughter," he said, sitting forward to express his explanation with his hands. "Every Luminoth, or every creature that walks the universe, for that matter, has two sides to them. They are the light, and the darkness."
"The good and the evil," I said.
"No!" he corrected. "Darkness is not necessarily evil. Although darkness tends more toward evil, the darkness within oneself can be a powerful force of good also."
He pointed to me.
"You," he said, "Are no different than any other creature. While you adore the light and are afraid of the darkness, there exists within you an A-Kul which finds comfort in the darkness. You must find this other half of yours, and then you must learn to make friends with her, instead of fearing her! You must learn to see the world from her point of view in addition to your own. In doing so, you become a completed person, capable of going into any battle without fear."
I looked into my own mind. Another A-Kul? Within me? Afraid of the light, but not of the darkness?
"Do you understand what I'm saying, my daughter?"
"Yes," I replied.
"Good," he said warmly. "Now go back to sleep. When the darkness becomes frightening, dig into yourself to find your other half, and call it to befriend you. No doubt that it's very lonely, seeing that you've taken so long to find it…"
With that, he reached over and turned the crystal off. The room became black.
Black.
Nothingness.
A world consumed in swirling shades of purple, gray, and black.
The darkness had proven to be relentless, covering the world after the meteor hit our majestic planet. It had taken its own form, a form which it used to destroy all remnants of the light it could find. The Ing.
I am A-Kul, champion of Aether. At least, that's what my people referred to me as. They decided to bestow this title upon me just because I had liquefied more Ing than any other warrior. They saw me as undefeatable, because I had returned alive and successful no matter what mission I had been sent on. Because I had learned not to fear the dark.
Now, I suddenly found myself appointed leader of their cadre to search for the ten sky temple keys that held the last shred of hope left for our race in the balance.
The dream of my childhood over, I opened my eyes and found myself laying within this world the darkness had created for itself. It was the evil side of Aether. I had slept deep in the enemy territory, far away from any portals or any signs of my brothers and sisters, surrounded only by my armor and the sphere of light generated from my crystal staff. I had locked myself in a small cramped room where the Ing would not find me easily, laying myself down to sleep and recharge whatever bit of life force remained in me.
I awoke with a headache, which was not uncommon when sleeping in Dark Aether. I became saddened after emerging from my dream, having expected myself to awake within the mighty temple of my homeworld in the light. The temptation to give up all hope and just let the darkness take its course once again came over me, but I knew it was my duty to continue forward at all costs. Having run out of shells for my weapon and energy for my light beam long ago, I brandished only my Ingscythe which was crafted specifically for close-ranged, one-on-one duels.
I groggily arose, holding my staff of light in one hand and my scythe in the other. My key was close. I could feel it. The Ing knew I would be coming for it, so they multiplied and blocked my way with all manners of mutations and hideous beasts. But as strong as they were, most of them were less than intelligent, easily overcome with the proper tactics.
I sighed as I pressed my hand to the door to peek out. It looked empty. A bit of white could be seen between the purple and black clouds in the sky- it was early morning. The best time to strike.
I carefully stepped out of the hallway within the wall and continued my trek towards the sky temple. My key lay near its shadow, the region directly below the mighty fortress. I knew the Ing would be most ferocious there, so I had made the effort to pace myself well… and now, all my efforts were about to pay off. For today, I would finally take my key.
Luck with me, I could cover enough ground to make it to the key, put it in place, and begin my return to the light world- a place I hadn't seen in months. I longed to be triumphantly greeted by the rest of the cadre, their mission complete, the only trial left for us to accomplish being to equip the new energy holder, gather our greatest army, and charge the sky temple to take the Ing's main source of energy. Every Luminoth longed for that day, for it would mark the turning point of the war. So many had died in the war… at times, as I crawled through Dark Ather's terrain and felt the burning sensation across my skin of the atmosphere trying to disintegrate me, I wished to be among them.
But no. There I was, on the final leg of my journey. I would have my key. And I would return home, to our blessed land of light, to sleep in the safety of the great temple until our final, triumphant march into the enemy's castle. Death would not have its way with me today, I told myself.
I crept along in the shadows near the rocky edge of the room, listening for any sign of the Ing coming to impede my progress. It wasn't long before one of them smelled me and came out to investigate. A Warrior Ing oozed through the rocks and flowed in the center of the room, taking the form of a dark, demonic, oversized splinter, the creatures which the Ing had found favor with.
It roared at me. Challenging me. Not knowing that this particular Luminoth had personally killed more of its brothers than the number of Luminoth they had killed in their first assault.
The Ing did not wait for me to accept its challenge. It lunged at me. I jumped to the ceiling, taking a slash at it as it charged by. It cut deep. The Ing squealed in agony, turning back into its mass of slime and oozing up the wall after me. I quickly crawled across the ceiling and onto the roof of the crumbling structure, where I stood and waited for the thing to follow. When it arrived, I leapt into the air just as it took shape. I sailed over its head, jabbing my blade deep into its heart twice as I flew. I landed back into the room on both feet and one hand.
The Ing cried in pain. I saw it try to come back after me, but it couldn't seem to keep solid form… It fell from the ceiling and melted away into a puddle of black ooze on the floor.
My first kill for the day. The first of hundreds.
Such was the life of a Luminoth warrior on a mission through the dark side of Aether. I paused to catch my breath before moving on.
The day went on. I slaughtered many Ing, not caring to count them. Some more intelligent than others. The Hunter Ing were the worst, sometimes getting as far as wrapping me up in their tentacles and forcing me to drop my light crystal before I could slash myself free. I cannot possibly describe the torture of being naked to Dark Aether without the protection of a light crystal. It is as if every particle in the body explodes over and over, depleting all remaining energy within.
As I approached the temple, I saw some things I had never seen before, some formations of Ing that seemed new and odd to me. Their Sky Temple was their dark holy place, and I found that they had much reverence for it. Still, I fought on, not caring what types of Ing I had to kill to move forward.
Half the day had passed and I had covered good ground. I was happy, as happy as one could be in the situation of walking through a barren hell, separated from their loved ones for weeks. I was almost to my destination. But I soon found that I had walked directly into a trap, and my hopes were dashed yet again.
Six warrior Ing and three hunter Ing faced me in a room near the temple's shadow. One dropped down behind me, mutating into a web to seal my exit. Fear quickly shot into my heart. I had taken on this many before, but with better weapons. Now that I was out of ammunition, I knew there would be a chance I couldn't defeat them all. I fled. I ran for the closest wall and leaped up onto it. A Hunter Ing shot a tentacle at me, pulling me off the wall and dropping me into the circle of warriors on the floor. I twisted in midair, aligning myself with one of them, sinking my blade deep into it as I landed. I quickly jumped off and ran to the other side of the room, trying to flee through the only exit the Ing had not sealed.
But then, something happened that I did not expect.
An earthquake shook the ground. The bricks that surrounded that door started to crack. The entire wall burst open, hundreds of broken bricks falling to the floor, casting a thick wave of dust before me. When the dust cleared, what I saw made my heart want to melt away and sink into the ground.
There stood the biggest Warrior Ing my eyes had ever met.
It stood nearly ten fringes in height, more than twice my own. As it roared, it opened its enormous webbed mouth and revealed its heart. It looked down at me with its horrible, spotted eye, as if knowing full well how superior it was to me. I took a deep breath of the acidic air, my terror drive starting to activate. I instinctively looked over my shoulder for any possible escape route. The rest of the Ing had fled. I followed suit.
I didn't make it very far before the demon leapt across the room and landed before me. It obviously intended for me to stay. It charged at me, and I leapt up as far as my legs could spring me. I pivoted in midair and landed atop a broken wall.
For the first time in quite a while, I found myself terrified for my life. I had met many Ing that were no match for me. This was not one of them. This was one that was worthy of every fierce, terrible roar which it sounded. This was one that I knew I could not be able to defeat using my scythe. It hit me that I was alone, and in peril, and I had very little chance of escape.
I jumped off the wall and started to run away from the beast, not caring whether or not other Ing chased after me. I suddenly felt that I had to get to that key at all costs before I died. I had to accomplish my final duty as a Luminoth warrior. I had to evade this monstrous leader of the Ing until my obligation was fulfilled.
It burst through the wall behind me and ran with a terrifying speed. It caught up to me quickly, instantly demolishing anything I tried to hide behind. I leapt from wall to wall, running out of room to flee.
As I was leaping toward the door, it mutated a tentacle and snatched me by the leg right out of the air. I closed my eyes as it drew me back, bracing myself for the pain I was about to undergo. It whipped me through the air and slammed me down onto the ground before it. My consciousness shook. My vision was jolted with red. My armor clanged around my body and my chest plate broke. It then picked me back up and slammed me down once again. I started to lose my grasp on consciousness, everything seeming to swirl around me in shades of red in black.
Then, finally, it let me go.
I lay there on the floor, staring up at it as it prowled over me. I was its well-earned prey. I was helpless. My scythe was gone, it had flown out of my grasp as the Ing thrashed me about. My body was numb, unable to move. My mind was unable to function. I could do nothing but clutch my crystal staff as hard as my muscles would allow me, cowering beneath it as it started to bend over to devour me.
CRASH! The Ing's claw came down beside me like a lightning bolt, puncturing my light crystal and shattering it to pieces. My orb of safety vanished, and immediately I could feel the full brunt of Dark Aether on my skin. I knew that I would only be able to survive for about thirty heartbeats without the sacred light, and I emptied all the voice left in my being into one final cry of agony and defeat.
I could feel them. My brethren. The fellow members of the cadre. Through my hazy but constant mental link with them, they knew what had just happened to me. They cried out to me, lamented my failure, my defeat, knowing that they could do nothing to help me now. They sounded so distant, so faint…
I would die. And my key remained unfound.
As the air seared away whatever was left of my willpower, I stared up at the monster. It had won. The darkness had prevailed over me. Perhaps I had a reason to fear it after all.
To my surprise, it did not finish me off. It seemed to purr as it watched me, amused at my writhing in pain, enjoying every minute of my slow and painful death.
"Finish me already, Ing," I taunted with what was left of my voice.
The Ing reared back, lifting its shadow from my body. It took a few steps backward. I expected it to puncture me through the heart with all of its claws at once before I would have time to take another breath.
But it did not. Instead, it cried and burst into tiny pieces which swarmed through the air like orange and black files. It suddenly hit me. I knew what was coming next. Desperately, I tried to feel around for my scythe to see if it was anywhere near my fallen body. It was nowhere to be seen. I held my breath as the dark swarm descended upon me. I closed my eyes.
Darkness.
Peacefulness.
I don't know how long I was unaware. It could have been days. I eventually opened my eyes. Was I dead?
I groggily rose from the ground. Was I still in Dark Aether? Yes. The sky was still swirling with its dark poison and the smell of death was still everywhere. But the great Ing who attacked me was nowhere to be seen. I looked down at the ground and saw the shattered light crystal, my last friend in the world of despair. My last shred of hope. But, even without the light, I felt no pain from Dark Aether's air. I felt as if the spirits of my fallen brothers bestowed on me a powerful armor which protected me from the invisible pain. I felt alive. I felt powerful. I felt comfortable. I felt as if Dark Aether was my home.
My skin was pitch-black.
Horror filled my heart when I noticed it. I looked at myself. My remaining armor. My arms. My legs. Every part of me was covered in the darkness, making me one part of it. One of its own. One of them. I had been possessed by the Ing.
I was a Darkling.
But why, I wondered, was the Ing allowing me to keep my free will? Why was it not using me as a weapon, sending me to go kill my brethren?
"Ing?" I soundlessly called to it, assuming that it could read my mind.
"A-Kul." It replied. "We are one again, at last."
"Again?" I demanded. "When were we ever one?"
"Before we were separated, of course," it answered. "Now, come. You are looking for a key. Let's find the key."
I was confused. The Ing wanted to help me? For what reason?
I glanced around the room. The fog that had shrouded my view could no longer be seen with my eyes… as if my eyes were now powerful enough to see right through it. I spotted my scythe behind a nearby rock and gathered it back up.
"The key is south of here," it told me. "Many Ing stand in the way. I will guide you through them. I know how to defeat them most efficiently, even with that one remaining weapon."
"I don't understand," I told it. "Are you not my enemy? You tried to kill me."
"The greatest strength comes in the symbiosis between light and darkness. Come, we don't have much time. Go this way."
I followed its instruction, not quite knowing what else to do. If it would lead me to accomplish my goal, I would not make a move to stop it.
With its guidance, I found my way to the next room. Hunter Ing stood in my way. Apparently I was still seen as an enemy, for they immediately floated up into battle stance when they sensed me. They flooded the air with tentacles and phased themselves in and out of tangibility.
"Ah, the children," The Ing within me said. "They are not difficult to defeat. Stand still."
They approached me further, wrapping their tentacles all round me, sealing all escape routes.
"Wait until they return from the inner dimension," it told me. "Then, quickly strike at their hearts"
I obeyed. I waited patiently for them to fade back into opaqueness, and then immediately slashed both with blazing speed. Squealing, they fell to the ground, their tentacles disintegrating into a rusty blood which diffused into the air.
I walked a bit more. A while passed without any Ing confrontation, so I spoke up once again to the enemy in my head.
"You say we were one, before the separation," I questioned. "What separation?"
"You cannot have forgotten it," it answered, "as you have lived through it and seen it with your own eyes. As have I. The virus came. It divided us."
"The meteor?"
"You don't seem to understand the relationship between you and I. I was with you throughout your childhood. You must remember me."
The voice in my head. The one which would cry out to me when I was surrounded in darkness.
"I was uncontrollable to you. I would come alive in the darkness and make you fear. I was your other half, the part of you that reveled in the darkness. You tamed me and we became one. And we became strong. But the meteor came. It didn't just split the world into light and darkness, it split the Luminoth as well. Though apart, You and I kept our strength. You went on to become the champion of your people… and I, the emperor of mine."
"You are the Emperor of the Ing?!"
"That I am."
Another room. An ambush by a Warrior Ing.
"A Runner," the Emperor told me. "You can easily defeat them as they flow around the room. You can disrupt their life force even when they are not solid."
I gave it a good slice with the scythe, then continued to harass it with the blade even in its liquid form. It seemed to forget how to morph, then simply sank into the ground.
"We are almost to the fortress where the key is being held. It is being guarded by hundreds of my warriors. I will guide you through it."
"You still didn't answer my question, Emperor. Why are you helping me if you're not on my side?"
"Because there are some things that can only be accomplished with the unity of light and darkness. So long have I yearned to be one with you again, A-Kul. To be powerful again. And today is the day. We are one once again. We render service to each other. I find use in you, and you in me."
"What use do you possibly have for me, Emperor?" I asked. He did not reply. Instead, he seemed impatient to fetch the key I was after. So I continued to walk.
We finally reached the temple where the key was housed. The innards were swarming with Ing of all shapes and sizes, summoned there to protect the key from me.
"That's too many," I complained. "I will never make it out alive!"
"You will if you listen to me," the Emperor insisted. "These Ing are my most powerful fighters. I kept them here to protect the key, but I came to you myself when I discovered who was coming to fetch it."
"Will they recognize you?" I pleaded. "Or will they attack?"
"They will recognize you, and they will attack," he said.
I then felt a strange feeling, a trickling, unnerving feeling flowing through my arm. I glanced down and noticed part of the Emperor oozing from my form and into the weapon I held. It became coated in black, just like me.
"Okay, I'm ready to listen to you," I said warily as I approached the entrance to the temple. "What is your plan?"
"I have no plan," He said. "Just do what I say. Walk in. All the Ing will attack you. You must fight back and slay them all."
I stopped breathing. My heart froze.
"When every last one of them is dead, take the key."
"I… will never make it," I warned him. "You have too much faith in me, Emperor. I…"
"I will protect you," The Emperor assured me. "Just keep slaying the Ing. If you stop to rest for but a second, they shall overcome you. You must never stop until every last one of them is dead. Do this, and you have nothing to fear. Now go. Enter into the temple."
I looked down at my black hands. My black arms. My puny, black weapon. It suddenly hit me what the Emperor meant- Darklings had always been stronger and more resistant to attacks. The Emperor would literally protect me with his presence in my body.
I took one step.
The two warrior Ing guarding the door spotted me. I slashed them both as I walked by, and they died instantly.
Three more flooded out the front door. I took them all down with a single swing. They fell to the ground and bubbled away.
I took one step inside. The temple was living, breathing, moving with Ing. All bent on killing me. I could not even make out any of the room's walls, as Ing all blocked my view. The vision was like one of the horrid hallucinations I experienced as a nymph. My exit was quickly sealed, and the assault began.
I slashed. Two Hunter Ing fell to the ground. I slashed. Another warrior was down. I slashed. A figure I had never seen the Ing in the shape of fell to the ground.
Over and over and over, I lunged with my weapon.
They formed a circle around as they fell to their death, the next row always jumping in over the corpses of the previous. Some infected robots from the fallen Sanctuary Fortress eventually came to me, but they, too, fell with one slash of my unnaturally powerful blade. I only caught glimpses of slain Ing falling to the ground and more taking their place. I kept going, my body taken over by a seemingly infinite supply of stamina, killing with a strength that was not my own. Sometimes claws would scrape me and draw blood, but I felt none of it. I was overcome with the Emperor's lust to destroy every last one until they stopped coming.
I could barely believe it when I sliced open the last Ing. I wondered- how long I had been constantly fighting? It was a quarter of a day, at the least. But they were finally all dead. Like the bottom of the swamps in Torvus were stacked with mounds of dead Luminoth, the room was filled with dead Ing, slowly melting away.
"The key lies in an invisible cache," the Emperor said. "Strike it and it will burst open."
He guided me to the dark altar at the very front of the room. I prodded the empty air above, only to have my blade get stuck. A strange, floating form of Ing appeared, my blade shoved deep into its eye. It fell onto the altar and melted away.
The key. It lay out in the open, ready to be taken. I grabbed it and brandished it with joy. It was a creation of the Ing, possibly even the Emperor himself, one of ten to lock the Luminoth out of the Sky Temple where we could retrieve their main supply of energy.
"So you see now, do you not?" the Emperor's thoughts echoed in my head. "When the forces light and darkness combine, they can accomplish anything. They complement each other, having strengths where the other has weaknesses. With my help, you have gotten the key. I have been a great service to you, and you to me."
"Why? What could I have possibly done for you?"
"A-Kul, you still do not realize the sad fate of your dying race."
"You still confuse me…"
"Now is the time you must realize the truth. We were glorious once. All of us. The entire Luminoth race. We were the united forces of light and darkness, able to take on any war. But after the accursed meteor, you will never rise to the same glory you once had, the reason being that we are now separate. The Ing and Luminoth are now in enmity. Even if your cadre were to accomplish their mission and unlock my temple, and if you were to reclaim your coveted energy, you would simply do no more than defeat us… destroy our dark world… and be left as incomplete people for the rest of the short existence of your race. You would survive for three generations. Perhaps four. You will never be the race you once were, now that we are gone."
"And you?"
"… Come. Let us return to the Shadow of the Sky Temple so that you may place your key."
Dazed from the battle and confused at the Emperor's words, I began the trek back to the dark incarnation of our Hall of Honored Dead. It wasn't that far, but every step in the realm of Dark Aether seemed like its own little eternity.
We finally arrived. The sun was setting, bringing the eerie night into the already-dark sky. I found the correct pillar in which to place my key, and it clicked into place, fitting snugly. The pillar lit up, and the gateway to the Sky Temple was one tenth opened.
It was then the Emperor spoke to me...
"A-Kul… you know what happens now, do you not?"
I hesitated, looking down at my still-dark skin and blade.
"I must leave you now. I am the guardian of the planetary energy kept in the Sky Temple, and I must go now to absorb more of it for my children to use."
"I will die," I told it. "I cannot make it back to the light world before this world consumes me."
"Indeed, you will. But that is how fate is written. I am finished with you. I have accomplished my duty."
"What was your duty?"
"A-Kul, through your mental connection with the rest of your cadre, I have guided my children accordingly and defeated every last one."
I staggered. The emperor had used me for my psychic link with my brothers. I tried now to speak with them, but they were indeed all dead… left lifeless by the Ing… their cries unheard to me as I fought the wave of guardians protecting my key. An absolute despair sank through my head, a darkness swept over my heart. I had been defeated. And, with me, so had Aether herself.
"You see, I have saved your life, and you have saved mine. We are even, my childhood friend. Now that the Sky temple will not be opened, I will be safe from your remaining forces in the other world. I can guide my children to destroy them once and for all."
"You wretched beast," I cried at it from the bottom of my heart. "You… you have destroyed so much…"
"It is my nature. It is something I cannot defy," it said solemnly. "I am of the darkness. When the darkness is separate from the light, the two are at war. Now, our symbiosis must end, and so must your time, brave A-Kul, in the world of the living."
He began to strip himself from me. It felt like my flesh was being brutally torn away, leaving my innards raw and open to the world. The sizzling of the air once again swept across me, quickly bringing me to lifelessness. The Emperor reformed before me, as if to take one last look at me before he left me to die.
I clutched my Ingscythe and lunged at him. He batted me away with a simple swing of his claw, and I flew backwards into the pillar where my key was secure. He then split himself up into particles and flew upwards to the temple, leaving me to die.
Soon I shall pass to final rest. My key is in place. Through my spiritual link to the others, I know where their bodies lie. I shall leave this knowledge, that their last location in the dark world can be known. May this knowledge lead other warriors to the Sky Temple Keys.
The time draws near. Hear the words of A-Kul, she they call Champion of Aether. Know that my warriors fought and died with uncommon valor. Do not look unkindly upon their failure, for they died to save us all.
As have I.