CODEPENDENCY
As he walked beneath the colorful banners of the Xian Du arena, Ludger Kresnik paused and took in the sights and sounds; grizzled, battle-hardened warriors lurked around the walls, sharpening their weapons, bragging to one another or haggling with the shop clerks. With all the dimension-hopping and time-bending escapades his adventure had dragged him through, it didn't seem at all the place for the conclusion… and yet, it was where he felt he had to be.
Initially the party and he had ventured to the Land of Canaan, the goal of his journey, where his one-time employer Bisley Bakur kept his kind-of daughter Elle captive. Ludger had burst in and fought a bitter fight to save her, but even though he had managed to win, the victory came at a heavy price; there had been no way to cure Elle's temporal poisoning, and she had died.
As traumatic as that had been, what came next had shocked Ludger even more: a moment later, he found himself back in front of the door leading to that battle, with all his friends ready to go through and fight, as if he had only dreamt of what was to come.
Resolved to find a different conclusion, he had taken the party through again. That time, however, led to an equally unhappy fate: he had chosen to give his life in exchange for Elle's. It was all he could think to do to save her, but seeing yet another person die for her sake had to be terrible for the little girl. Her original father and mother were already dead, and even though his friends had insisted they would be there for her, he knew it would not be the same; without him, she would grow up all alone. But as the black pall of the void draped over him, he once again found himself standing outside the door, even more confused than before.
As he stared at the door a third time, an overwhelming urge to go elsewhere, to seek out another result, rose up inside of him; there was something he needed to find but couldn't fathom just what it was. While some might have said that either result beyond the door was a fitting end, thanks to the Great Spirits' curse on the Kresnik family, that urge inside Ludger refused to let them play out. There had to be another way.
Much to the surprise of the rest of the party, he had suddenly turned away from the door and led them back to the world below, to a place as far beneath the ground as Canaan was above it, where the bonds of friendship he had forged on his unlucky journey had been tested by the shadows. Squaring off against nightmarish duplicates of both friends and foes alike had been disturbing and difficult, but they had made it through.
That challenge alone had not been enough for Ludger's unknown drive, though; as soon as they had emerged from the darkness, it had pushed him towards the legendary colosseum in the world he had never known, and that was why he stood before the admissions desk, its clerk looking him over strangely. He didn't know what awaited him in the closed-off battlefield, but he hadn't walked away from saving Elle to stand there worrying about it.
As Ludger rummaged in his wallet for the entry fee, the rest of the party still tried to figure out why they were there. "Um… is anyone else kinda lost here?" Leia asked, scratching under her cap.
"Shouldn't we go back to Canaan?" Elize asked, the confusion in her voice audible.
"Yeah, don't you wanna save Elle?" Teepo, her talking doll, voiced her unspoken, more irritated thoughts.
"Not to mention all of spirit-kind, Ludger," Jude said. "Bakur said he's going to wish for them to be enslaved, remember?"
Ludger looked back at his confused friends and nodded, but did not move away from the desk. He knew they were on borrowed time, yet he simply could not go back until his urge was satisfied. The clerk took his fee and started filling out a form.
"Is he all right?" Alvin asked quietly. "Think he finally snapped?"
"Perhaps," Rowen said, stroking the white whiskers on his chin, "or perhaps he knows something the rest of us don't. He speaks so little, it's hard to tell."
Milla stared hard at Ludger, who's hand fidgeted with his stopwatch as the clerk stamped the paper a few times. Her mind drifted back to her first adventure, before her friends had met Ludger and Elle, and the events before her final battle against Gaius and Muzet. She too had suddenly walked away from that final portal, because…
Her eyes flashed. "Jude, do you understand?" she asked him. "Before we found Magnus Zero and the Golden Mage Knight."
Jude hesitated, then his eyes widened. "He's had the dreams?" he asked.
Milla nodded. "He's acting as strangely as we did," she said. "That has to be it."
The rest of the group looked at Milla and Jude. "Say what now?" Alvin asked.
"What dreams?" Leia asked. "What do you mean, Jude?"
Jude looked back at Ludger, then shook his head at her. "I'll tell you later," he said. "But for now… lead on, Ludger."
Ludger smiled and nodded.
The clerk pushed the document at him. "OK, you're in," she said. "Did you want a Tag or Party battle today?"
Ludger looked back at his friends, then at the clerk. It may have been his urge, but he knew something as drastic as changing the future would require more than two people. "Party," he said.
… … …
With a breathy grunt, Ludger sank his swords into an ice demon and brought it to a halt, then leaped around to confront a fiery hellhound. The roaring crowds cheering the party on did little to discourage the hordes of powerful monsters that kept crashing into the arena—many several times more powerful than anything the Land of Canaan had produced—but partnered with Milla, and with Jude and Leia slugging it out with other creatures nearby, he still had confidence they would make it through.
With a heavy gurgle, the final blobby ice dragon collapsed and disappeared. Ludger whirled around looking for the next horrendous monster, but instead was surprised to see four humans rushing onto the field. Leia pushed her hat up and stared, her mouth hanging open. "Wait a sec!" she said. "I know those people!"
Ludger recognized them, too. Two of them were women they had done jobs for: a nurse and a bandit. The other two were men with fluttering capes, and though he had never met them in person, he was certain their shades had been the masters of the shadowy lair. He didn't have long to recall, though, before they began an all-out assault of powerful magic and deadly sword techniques. Milla barely dodged the brown-haired swordsman's swings as he flew at her with the speed of a lawnmower blade. "We're going to have some trouble," she growled, sweat beading on her forehead.
"This is the big one!" Jude declared, rushing towards the swordsman with the wild blonde hair. "C'mon!"
Ludger set his jaw and rushed at the bandit girl. Milla was right; even he could sense the power in the four strangers, something far beyond anyone he had ever faced, even his seemingly imagined battles with Bakur himself. But if defeating them would take him to his unknown goal, he was more than willing to do it.
… … …
The battle was as brutal as battles could be, with neither side giving an inch; as soon as one thought he had the advantage, it was flipped around like a pie pan on ice. Slowly, painfully, each of the warriors fell, until finally only Ludger stood against the brown-haired swordsman. With feral yells both charged and their swords clashed, and Ludger's blades flew from his grasp. As they clattered behind him, the swordsman grinned and raised his sword for the final blow. Ludger growled, prayed he wasn't destroying all he had worked for, and activated his Chromatus, freezing time and changing into a black-armored knight with a jagged obsidian lance. The swordsman, completely taken by surprise, could not react in time as Ludger tore through his defenses with his powerful Form Destroyer attack. The swordsman sailed backwards and slid through the dirt as Ludger changed back, panting and gasping for breath, wondering if that had ended the match. After a long moment of thick silence, the swordsman raised a hand. "OK… I surrender," he coughed.
The crowds erupted in wild cheering and applause. Ludger relaxed with a heavy sigh, then went to help his friends up. "Ugh… that was a beating I could have gone without," Milla said as he pulled her to her feet.
"How did we even live through that?!" Leia asked as Jude helped her up. "I felt like I was getting hit by freaking asteroids!"
"The magic of the arena, I guess," Jude said. "See? They're all fine, too."
Ludger saw Jude was right: the mysterious group of opponents were picking themselves up and didn't look any worse for wear. "Ugh… looks like they got us," the black-haired bandit muttered.
"That wasn't 'getting,'" the nurse said, "that was a full-on trouncing!"
"No kidding," the blonde swordsman said, walking over to Ludger and the rest and offering his hand. "You guys are tough! Name's Stahn Aileron. That's Rutee, that's Mint and that's Cress. How about you?"
Surprised, Ludger hesitated, then shook the young man's hand. "Ludger Kresnik," he replied.
"Well, Ludger, I have to say, we've been traveling around for a while," the brown-haired swordsman called Cress said as he stood beside Stahn, "and that was the hardest fight we've had in years."
"You're a very determined person," Mint said.
"Yeah, maybe a little too determined… like something's going on," Rutee said, folding her arms. "What's your story, Ludger?"
"Yeah, you pounded us bad enough," Stahn said, "can we know why?"
Ludger hesitated. Very few people would have believed his story about fractured dimensions and the Great Spirit of Time, but somehow he got the feeling that the four strangers just might. "Well…" he began.
With some help from his friends, Ludger explained his adventure and what was happening. When they were finished, all four of the newcomers' faces wore expressions of concern. "Fractured dimensions, the Great Spirit Chronos and Origin's Trial, huh?" Cress said, scratching his chin.
"I had no idea that was happening in this world," Mint said. "I guess everyone has their own Great Spirits, but they don't all have the same personalities…"
"I didn't get most of it, but some bozo's using a helpless little girl?!" Stahn growled, clenching one of his fists. "I won't stand for that!"
Rutee rolled her eyes. "Oh, boy, again with the hero routine," she said, sounding tired. "You saying we should save her?"
"You bet I am!" Stahn said.
Cress looked around at his companions, then smiled and looked at Ludger. "I guess we can't just ignore what's going on here," he said. "Ludger, why don't you leave this to us?"
Ludger thought about it for a moment, feeling a little guilty; it seemed too easy, not to mention wrong to push his responsibilities onto strangers. Then he wondered if the new conclusion he had been seeking wasn't beyond these warriors, but maybe that it was these warriors. He smiled and nodded to Cress. "I'm counting on you guys," he said.
"Wait, what?!" Leia asked. "Wait a minute!"
"Hold on," Jude said, "let's see where this goes."
Stahn grinned. "OK, Ludger, you guys just wait here!" he said.
"Well, if we must, we must!" Rutee said, shaking her head as she gripped her knife. "I guess we're helping you guys out."
"Yes, let's go to Canaan, Cress," Mint agreed.
Cress raised his sword, which glowed a deep purple. "Eternal Sword!" he shouted.
The arena lit up in a brilliant flash, and the four strangers were gone. The audience voiced confusion. For a moment, Ludger wondered if he Cress and the others had just pulled a mean joke on him and had run off, but as soon as he had thought it, the arena lit up again. The warriors were back, and Ludger's heart leaped into his throat when he saw who had come with them. Standing beside Mint, safe and sound, albeit looking completely confused, was Elle.
"We're back!" Cress said. "It's all taken care of now, Ludger!"
"See?" Mint said, smiling at Elle. "I told you we'd get you back to him."
Elle nodded unsurely and slowly began to walk towards Ludger. "Seriously, that was the problem?" Rutee asked, raising an eyebrow. "That wasn't even worth writing home about."
"No kidding," Stahn smirked. "'Canaan?' More like 'Can'n-Saw'n-Conquered!'"
"Hey, I was gonna say that!" Cress said.
Elle looked back at the joking strangers, then up at Ludger with more than a little disappointment. "Is this really what you want, Ludger?" she asked.
Ludger flinched for a moment—Elle had really hoped he would be the one to save her—but as he thought again of his two visions, he shook his head and gave her a sad but relieved smile. It wasn't a fantastic, poignant rescue or a fitting conclusion, but Elle was alive and well, as was he. Now he wouldn't worry about her future because he would be there to help her grow and watch the results. Besides, he thought humorously, his lifetime of being in his late brother's shadow kept him from minding playing second fiddle too much. The mysterious drive inside him had calmed and quieted; this was the solution he had searched for. He reached out and patted the surprised Elle on her head. "Let's go home," he said. "I'll make some soup."
Elle blinked a few times, still looking a little disillusioned, but she finally nodded. "OK," she said.
Ludger looked up at the mysterious warriors and nodded. "Thank you," he said. "Just… thank you."
Cress smiled, then looked to his friends. "OK, guys, let's go," he said. "Plenty more worlds out there to see yet!"
With that, Cress raised his sword again, and the four warriors vanished. This time Ludger knew they wouldn't be coming back. He turned and, with Elle at his side, left the arena.
At the bottom of the steps, the friends he hadn't taken into battle looked up in surprise. "What the… Elle?!" Elize asked.
"Uh… hi," Elle said, waving awkwardly.
"Wait a second, what?!" Teepo asked, his eyes bugging. "That doesn't make any sense!"
"What in the world happened up there?" Rowen asked. "I mean, this is wonderful, but…"
Gaius said nothing; he just folded his arms and raised an eyebrow. "I thought I sensed some new power," Muzet said, clutching at her chin curiously. "Maybe that's why?…"
Ludger nodded. "Come on, I'll make lunch for everyone," he said, motioning to all of them. He looked down at Elle hopefully. "Is it OK if I invite Nova, too?" he asked.
Elle looked at him oddly, then frowned and looked away. "Why're you asking me?" she asked, sounding a little snarky. "I'm not your mother."
Ludger chuckled quietly, and they walked on in silence.
The others still looked confused, but seeing Elle safe, along with the offer of lunch, got them all muttering with approval. Alvin looked at Milla, Jude and Leia for some explanation. "Seriously, what happened?" he asked.
"Well, you see…" Jude began.
"Some new guys showed up, we beat them, they offered to fix things, Ludger said yes, they kicked Bakur's butt, Elle is safe, everything's fine," Leia summarized quickly.
Alvin raised an eyebrow. "Seriously?" he asked. "Is that really how things were supposed to go down? Sounds kinda lame."
"Kind of…" Elize admitted.
Milla looked past them and saw Elle reach out and take Ludger's hand as they walked out of the arena door, and a rare smile graced her face. "It looks fine to me," she said.