Chapter Seventy-Five
The Final Battle
I stood within the Divine Fortress, on the same clearing where Cedric had been Displaced. My armour of Ancient Atreia, was donned over my body. My white hair was braided down the length of my back. My blades, remained within my spirit, leaving my hands empty.
Even now, the Divine Fortress still held a twisted beauty to its shards of crystal and webbed-like rock structure between the remnants of the Tower's Temple.
The Abyss was just as I remembered it. Despite all the centuries which had passed for me, I recalled where the fortresses still lay in the floating murk. I remembered, the outposts, the ruins, the wind streams.
Now, I also recognised the ruins and fortresses from sections of the Tower of Eternity, and much of the surrounding regions at the bases which had been pulled into the vortex.
It was a strange and heavy thing to have to accept, that I had once walked many of these ruins, long before I actually came to be born.
My real life had begun in the Abyss. And it was going to end in the Abyss.
I turned my heavy gaze up, where the distant flashes of Aether clashed as Balaur, Asmodians and Elyos alike, all fought each other amongst the chaos of the collapsing world, each thinking they knew best how to prevent it.
None of them knew. None of them except the Shedim Lords, Julius, and I.
The Dragon Lords had also come out to fight, with their greatest Generals at their command. I felt Marchutan, Triniel, Zikel and Lumiel battle somewhere against Tiamat and Fregion. Elsewhere, I could feel Ariel, Nezekan, Yustiel, Vaizel and Kaisinel, fight against Meslamtaeda and Beritra.
Beritra had never fallen to Israphel's attack. It had been a ruse from the start.
The only ones missing were Azphel, Sudryl and Ereshkigal.
It did not matter. They would all congregate at Reshanta's centre soon enough, when they realised what was happening. All of them – except the Shedim Lords and Sudryl – would be vying to stop me.
Within the Weave, I could also feel the presences of my four beloved friends; Michael, Surion, Seregon and Amia. I did not realise how much I had missed them. For so long, I had not seen nor heard them, nor felt their presences. I still was not going to be able to see and hear them. But at least, I felt their life once again.
One more time.
I had lost everyone. And I was going to lose more still in the next three days. However, there were four whom I could ensure survived. Four more I could protect in addition to Julius.
The Aether within the air, rippled, hummed and screeched with discordant wobbles of straining, rumbling chaos. The marks of Aether were breaking, as Siel's power eventually began to fail.
There was no stopping it. I had tried. Julius had tried. But even with the two of us, we were not strong enough to hold the two halves of the world together.
Only a God could hold it and bring Elysea and Asmodae back together. Only a God had the power to heal what was broken, to make the world anew.
There needed to be a living, physical God on Atreia.
That God, had to be Julius.
My eyes closed, and my breath came out as a long and slow sigh, as if the sigh could breathe out and away the sheer weight upon my shoulders and heart. Raising my hand to my heart, I knew what had to be done. I knew what was going to happen. I did not need Marchutan's Sight to show me the immediate future. It was too painful to bear.
And so I took solace within the core of my heart. Because while its outer shell had cracked with sorrowful acceptance, my love remained unyielding. My love for Julius had never wavered. Not once.
Even now, I never doubted. Even if he looked on me with betrayal upon our eventual meeting, I would still love him.
Until the end of the universe itself. That was my oath.
I will break the promise I made on my necklace, for I must die . . . but I keep my oath, to love you until the end of time and the universe comes to its ageless end, I thought in my heart.
I did not know where my necklace was now, for it was lost somewhere within the folds of time. And perhaps it was for the best, for the necklace represented a wish which could never be granted.
Such a simple wish.
Yet because it was Julius and I, it was impossible.
As I inhaled the static air of Reshanta back into the lungs of my aching and tight chest, I felt his presence zip through the Weave to the clearing upon which I stood.
I opened my eyes.
Julius materialised out from the Weave like a wraith of emerald mist. His Sorcerer's robes had been replaced with his true armour. Magnificent, glorious and terrible.
The Emperor of the Empyrean Lords stood before me.
But also a man. Behind the power of the presence of the entity who stood before me, was Julius the man, a scholar, a gentleman, my half-brother, and my husband.
They were all sides of him, all Julius. And I had come to love them all. No more did I fear him as an Empyrean Lord.
Only despair, respect, and love.
There, we stood opposite each other, as Aion's Key and Aion's Vessel, the two Weavers Fated from the beginning to shape the world of Atreia.
I wished with all my heart to bridge the distance between us, to throw my arms around him, to feel his arms around me, strong, protective and safe. Those arms had held me together, shielded me, brought me joy and made me realise just how wonderful it felt to be loved.
I wished I could do the same in return, to engulf him in my embrace, to soothe away his worries and his burdens, so he could finally put down his title and rank and power, to just relax and feel safe within my presence. I wished I could tell him it was going to be alright. I wished I could tell him he was not going to shoulder this weight alone.
But I could not. Because then, I would be lying.
I could not go to him. I could not let his arms encircle me within his embrace, because I knew if that happened, my resolve would crumble, and he would lock me away. He would seal me away somewhere so hidden I would never find my way back. He would take away every freedom I had, if it meant I would live and stay by his side.
Likewise, Julius stood where he was. He did not come to me for the same reasons I did not go to him, because within my embrace, I would released my essence and existence, becoming the conduit for his final ascension.
Both needed the other. Both desperately wanted to go to the other. But both dreaded it equally. Both would fight to prevent it.
"Indeed, you were right," Julius said. "I would discover the truth in the end, and I would hide it from you as long as I could." His voice was gentle, despite the clarity within it which pierced through the warble of the vibrating and humming air. "But, as Aion did back then, He took you and made you See."
I swallowed. I felt I had not heard his voice in so long. Just hearing his voice, almost made my resolve waver.
"You were too strong for Aion, you always were," I said quietly. "Aion could not make you do His bidding. But I was never as strong as you. So He created me to do it for Him."
"And through both my ignorance and yours, He had blackmailed me into raising you like a porgus to be slaughtered," Julius said, still gentle, yet a bitterness was laced through his words with a power and malice which cracked through the entire foundation of the Divine Fortress.
The rock of the ground split between us.
"I will not allow you do what you have come here to do, Bera. I will fight Aion Himself, if it means keeping you by my side. Even if you grow to despise me for it, that is fine, as long as you are alive."
"None of us will be here in three days, if we do not fulfil the prophecy, Julius," I said as my voice broke.
"No," Julius said firmly. "Give me Aion's Tree, Bera, and I will fulfil the prophecy alone."
My expression distorted with pain. "No, Julius. You need both the Artefact and me to repair Atreia."
"I need you alive!" Julius's furious voice cracked out like a whip, so violent and harsh that the shockwave rippled through the Abyss like a wave which shattered and cracked all rocks, floating mountains and structures which had not been fortified or reinforced.
"I will not kill you, Bera. I can lose everything, everything in the world, but you. I cannot lose you." His own expression distorted with anguish.
"And I cannot lose you either!" The Aether in my voice matched his with a crack of clashing energy. He was not the only Weaver of Atreia. "We both know our power alone cannot hold the Tower together. We tried and it failed! But there was only one time when you did have such power; when you almost killed Fregion, Meslamtaeda and Beritra in one swing; when you destroyed the moon. That is the only power to save Atreia. It is the only power to protect the world, and everything living upon it, including you, and what is left of our friends."
Julius's expression twisted with terrible anger, and despair. "I almost killed you, Bera! And it broke me. I never healed from it. I cannot do that again. I will never forgive myself, just as I will never forgive you. You ask too much."
My fists clenched. "Aion asks too much, from both of us," I hissed through my gritted teeth. "I hate Him as much as you do. I don't want to do this." My voice broke with grief. "I don't want to do this! But I must, and I will, because it is the only way to save Atreia. It is the only way to save you. I am not asking you. I am telling you, this is what will happen."
Julius's own hands curled into fists. "You condemn me to an eternity alone, as God."
I had nothing to say in response to those words, words which cut me deeper than any blade ever could. It was a pain which dwarfed the agony of Beritra's lightning, my destroyed wings, and Ereshkigal's ice. None of them hurt as much as Julius's words did. It tightened my chest so much that I could not breathe. It constricted my throat so much that not even a whimper could strain through.
"I never wanted to be a God, Bera," Julius said quietly. "I never wanted power. All I ever wanted, was to live a normal life with you."
Silent tears filled my eyes once again, and I shook my head with devastation.
"As did I, Julius," I whispered. "I wish we weren't Weavers. I wish we weren't even Daevas. I wish we were Human. I wish we could create a family, have children, grow old together, and then die together. Such a simple wish, hardly selfish, yet so impossible, because of who we are."
"That future still exists. It is still within reach, Bera," Julius said softly. "But to do so, you must give me Aion's Tree." He held his hand out. "Give me the Artefact, Bera."
I pulled out the wooden medallion from my armour and held it in my hand, gazing down at it. My heart wailed and shrieked to go to him. Every fibre of my being commanded me to step forward, to bridge the gap between us, to let his arms encompass me.
He never went back on his word. He never broke his promises nor oaths.
But this was one wherein I knew he could not fulfil. Julius was the greatest man on Atreia. However, it was not enough. He had to become God, because only he could. It had been his Destiny from the moment he was born, one which he could not escape.
That was the reason why I hated Aion. Julius had been given the greatest burden of all, the greatest pain and agony. And I had to ensure this agony came to pass. I had to hurt my own husband, my other half, my everything.
Julius would hate me for eternity. But it was either this, or everyone died, including him. As selfish as I wanted to be, as selfish as Julius was, I knew we were not bad people. We never were. I could not destroy an entire world, including Julius, for the hope the inevitable may not come to pass.
I bowed my head in misery, and in my other hand, I materialised one of my twin daggers. With a devastated sigh of finalisation, I drew the blade across my palm.
Blood welled from the cut, soaking around the medallion.
My fingers curled around it, so I did not have to see it as my blood – Aion's blood – activated its green glow, and I brought my gaze up to Julius.
His eyes swam with equal devastation, and betrayal.
Traitor! My heart screamed at me as I finally felt it break entirely.
"Did you ever regret falling in love with me?" I asked him. My voice was steady, despite the falling tears which contained the full force of my grief.
He held my eyes. Within his swelling fury, hatred, despair and betrayal, the love still remained. It still overpowered every other emotion in his gaze, even as he held his hand out to his side, and his sword misted and shone into tremendous existence.
"No," he whispered. "I never regretted loving you. I will always love you, until the end of time."
I would never have his forgiveness. But I would always have his love, just as he would always have mine.
I smiled, and let go of the medallion. "Until the end of time, I will love you eternally, my Julius."
It fell from my hand, shining green as the blood awakened its life. Julius disappeared, quicker than the falling Artefact, as if time everywhere else had slowed.
I stepped forward, both daggers in my hands as I met his strike, preventing him from catching the medallion as it fell to the ground. Daggers and sword met with a force which thundered out through the skies of the Abyss.
The medallion landed on the floor, and instantly, lines of green light snapped through the ground as the Artefact fused with the Divine Fortress. The lights became roots, which ripped through the giant floating landmass with a bubbling and magnifying surge of Aether.
Julius's strike was so hard that I was forced to take a step back, feeling the jarring pain rush up through my wrists and arms to my head. His strike twisted to crack open my defence, so as I stepped back, he reached down to rip the Artefact from the stone of the ground before it fully fused and began to grow.
I swung my dagger up as my foot was still stepping back, splitting the Weave to rip up like a whip and a wave of heaving power.
Julius batted the rip away, but its power forced him back as well, and I took the chance to push back off the moment my foot hit the ground. I struck forward, and he countered, striking me back with frightening speed and ferocity.
Of which I matched as desperation and determination drove me, fuelled by my love for him, and desire to protect him and the world.
Each strike tore through the structure of the fortress. The crystal spires split. The surrounding webbed stone which created a dome-like barrier around the landmass, crumbled and collapsed as the force of each clash splintered and shattered the rock.
We danced and darted between the collapsing boulders of rock, using the Weave to pull and push them and swing them against the other to bring one of us down.
The fortress began to fall apart, and the growing Artefact of Aion's Tree, took its place. Its coiling bark was dark, yet between its wrinkled and rough skin, shone the blinding emerald light of Aion. Roots and branches grew over each other like a swelling ball of yarn, slowly increasing in size as it floated within the heart of the Abyss, becoming the new emerald sun within the realm of Reshanta.
"You cannot win against me, Bera!" He snarled. "You know that as well as I."
"It is not about winning!" I gasped, repeating Azphel's words, as I diverted one of his thrusts away.
His strikes were stronger than mine. He was bigger than me. He had more strength.
But I was fast. What I lacked in physical strength, I made up for in speed and agility.
"Even as a Weaver, I can never fully fight you as an equal!" I grunted, leaping forward to slash. "But in hand-to-hand combat, in weapons, I match you in speed." My blade passed through strands of his hair, slicing them away to flutter around us like lines of golden light within the emerald Weave of our sight.
I reached out to him, to touch him, for that was all it would take to begin the transference process, for me to either touch his skin with mine, or embrace him wholly to compensate. I wanted to feel him in my arms once more. Yet, I dreaded it as equally, as if he were the light I desperately sought in the dark, but knowing that getting too close would burn me simultaneously.
Julius jerked away from me and my reaching hand, slapping it aside with his gauntleted one. His sword swung next, and I warped back through the Weave, barely missing the tip of his blade as it skimmed across the torso of my armour.
While my goal was to reach him, his goal was to disarm me, to force my submission.
It hurt more than I could endure, to come to terms with the fact I was battling my husband for our Fates, and the Fate of Atreia. This was nothing like our sparring duels.
This was real. Julius's strikes were as fast as Triniels. His hits were as hard as Zikel's. His defence was as impenetrable as Nezekan's, and very quickly, I came to comprehend just how much he had been holding back from me, how much he hid from everyone else.
The only thing I could match him in, was my speed. He was still my superior in everything else. My speed would be the key to my endurance against one so overwhelmingly powerful.
I gritted my teeth. As much as I did not want to, I had to fight. I had to dredge up everything in my arsenal. I had to resurrect the same force of will I used to survive the Dragon Lords, because even though I had lost, I had been powerful enough to still stop them.
It had never been about winning.
It was about succeeding.
Each strike, each slash, sent waves of Aether booming through the Abyss. It drew the attention of the Dragon Lords, and I sensed Fregion's presence surge through the matrix of the Weave like a tidal wave of searing fire and heat. Its crimson glow approached fast from beyond the farthest reaches of the Abyss, howling through space.
I could not spare a glance, despite the need to. Julius took my entire concentration, barely able to stay one step ahead of him as we fought over the ruins of the Divine Fortress being swallowed by the roots and branches of Aion's Tree.
"AMAUREA'S LEGACY!" Fregion's voice boomed as his giant form thundered through the expanse of the Abyss like a horrific wave of fire which spanned horizon to horizon.
Sharp, and equally searing fury, and irritation, flashed through Julius's blazing eyes. We both needed the developing Artefact, but for entirely different reasons. Fregion's arrival risked its destruction. Yet I could not break away to defend it, lest Julius bind me then and there. Likewise he could not turn away from me to defend the Artefact, lest I reached him while his guard was down, to begin the ascension.
Another roar joined the rattling vibration of Fregion's. But this one was also shrill, crackling with a different force, one just as deep, but of an entirely opposite element.
Ereshkigal soared up from below, his enormous wings of blue and silver spreading with nature's might of winter and frozen wrath, and released a shrieking pillar of ice and Aether against Fregion's thundering arrival.
Ereshkigal had not been alone. His unexpected retaliation against the Emperor of the Balaur, was accompanied by a green strike, like a giant whip which cracked out like a streak of emerald lightning. It met the wave of fire, cancelling it out with a catastrophic eruption of Aether from one end of Abyssal space to the other.
It was Sudryl who floated beside Ereshkigal. The two, united against Fregion.
For a moment, I stared, wide-eyed, in stunned shock. A Dragon Lord and Empyrean Lord working together?
But then I remembered, and vaguely pieced the rest together in this small instance. Ereshkigal had barely made his presence known in the Millennium War. Ereshkigal had spared me because I had been chosen, the same as Amaurea, by Aion. Ereshkigal wanted nothing more than for Amuarea to remain asleep in peace after her violent defeat. Ereshkigal was the one who did not fight Amaurea for supremacy. The others had done it behind his back.
Because Ereshkigal would have stopped them. Because he had loved Amaurea.
"TRAITOR!" Fregion roared, with such fury that all who heard his bellow in the Abyss, were forced to turn away as pain split their heads and eardrums shattered.
I Wove the Weave through my ears instantly to protect them. Twice shattered eardrums had been enough. I was not going to experience it a third time.
"No, Fregion," Ereshkigal's cutting voice split the atmosphere. "You are the traitor. You betrayed our First. You betrayed Amaurea."
Ereshkigal's force of presence magnified with terrible, icy fury and long awaited revenge.
: We will hold him, Beralin! Fulfil the prophecy! Sudryl commanded in my mind as he and Ereshkigal, engaged the First Dragon Lord with violent and terrible battle of fire, ice and emerald Aether.
: Block and warp, Aion instructed abruptly.
I obeyed instinctively, telepathically Weaving a shield in front of me, simultaneous to warping backwards.
Julius's sword cut through the barrier as if it were nothing, and his sword sang through the space where I had just been.
I inhaled sharply, and countered the following strikes with abrupt succession, scrambling to regain my footing in my concentration after Fregion's, Ereshkigal's and Sudryl's unexpected arrival and chosen sides. Julius's attacks were hard and fast, driving me back with each hit as he took advantage of my momentary distraction.
Another ripple in the Aether pulled my frantic and frustrated attention. This one was of blinding light. Despite the purity of the approaching light, I felt irrational terror within it, and detected weakness in her soul and character. Arrogance.
No wonder the Elyos had become such a proud and arrogant race. Because it had been led by the Lady of Light – whom had been the most blind of all the Empyrean Lords. Her light blinded her to our reality.
"Beralin! Stop!" Her voice commanded as her form soared through the space of the Abyss like a shooting star.
Azphel had been correct again. I detected Ariel's fear, her twisted weakness. Displacement terrified her more than anything. She had never been willing to listen to the Shedim Lords. She believed she held the answer to it all. To saving Atreia and preserving herself in the process.
Ariel was here to stop me, just as Azphel predicted.
My jaw clenched, and against my instinct, I ignored her approach, maintaining my focus on Julius as our blades clashed with flurries of violent and powerful sparks.
I ignored Ariel, because I trusted in Azphel.
A great, black and looming force, like an elongated black star, intercepted Ariel within the raging sky, yawning into materialisation as if the air of Abyssal space itself split open, revealing a maw of nothingness beyond existence.
Light and shadow collided with a blinding, yet darkening, flash of light and dark energy and tremendous force.
Azphel's sword of night, struck Ariel's sword of golden light. There, two winged entities of literal light and shadow, met within the skies.
"Their battle is theirs," Azphel said darkly. "This fight here however, is between you, and me. Today, you will learn what it means to truly be an Empyrean Lord, Ariel, for you have forgotten."
"No!" She screeched at him. "It is you who have forgotten. You cannot see. The shadow has blinded you!"
"On the contrary, Ariel. I remember. I remember and see absolutely everything!" His final word was a shout, one so filled with power and malice, it almost put the evil of the Dragon Lords to shame.
Azphel attacked first, and within the skies, the Lord of Shadow and the Lady of Light battled, while their remaining Empyrean Lords fought the Dragon Lords, and Sudryl and Ereshkigal fought Fregion.
All the greatest entities in the world, fought each other within the Abyss. All had their key fights, all in this moment where all loose ends finally came together, where all grudges could finally be settled, where all Destined encounters, were finally met.
My battle with Julius, raged. Our wings were brought forth, taking us to the skies, between the leaps and warps over the growing Artefact and between its spreading branches.
The battle was a terrible one.
It warred for hours, and hours ticked by into one day. Then two days.
By the third, I was exhausted. The Artefact had grown, to the size of a mountain upon which a complex city of roots resided within. Emerald light streamed between the mighty branches and roots, coiling between the other as they reached out on all sides.
But here, was where it stopped growing. Its light and life, pulsed and hummed, awaiting the final instruction and activation, to be given direction on which two directions it was meant to grow towards to bring the Tower back together. It was the guide to channel Aion's divine power, to guide God on how to repair the world.
I perched on a branch. My wings sagged with my shoulders as my breath wheezed in and out of my lungs. Blood dripped down my body from the multiple wounds I had accumulated. My stamina had weakened over time, making me slower. And as I became slower, my defence started to show its cracks.
They were cracks which Julius exploited, for he was stronger, and had greater stamina, and one by one, more and more strikes hit, each one designed to weaken me further, to slow me down.
Until at last, I half collapsed down onto one knee.
Julius did not inflict them without consequence, as upon each draw of blood, I saw more of his soul crack and writhe in pain, as if the slashes which ripped through my armour and drew across my skin, were upon his own body.
It hurt him, more than he could bear, to wound me.
"Surrender, Bera. I beg you," Julius pleaded.
I raised my head. Julius – shining with green light and surrounded by ethereal mist – floated in the sky, his great wings flapping slowly and powerfully behind him. Each beat was as powerful as a typhoon.
Yet despite the power which emanated from him, he was not without wounds of his own.
Sections of his armour had been cracked by my strikes. His gauntlets had been shattered from parrying the strength of my hits. A line of red dripped down his cheek from my own blades.
As much as it hurt him to wound me, it hurt me just as equally to wound him.
He too, was exhausted, because he was fighting the only other Weaver besides Sudryl. But he and Sudryl had never truly fought. None of us knew what it meant to fight another Weaver, none of us comprehended just how terrible, great and catastrophic such a battle and encounter would be.
But Julius and I knew now. Because we were the two Weavers at battle. It was a battle unlike any other.
I could barely feel the straining and screaming of the world as its last strings of Aether pulled taut, desperately holding itself together through futility. Our own Aether saturated the air, combined with the cataclysmic battles of the Empyrean and Dragon Lords in the distance.
There was so little time left.
"No!" I rasped, hauling myself back up to my feet. "Julius, please! Stop fighting me! You can feel the world dying. Let us save it!"
"No!" He thundered, swiping his sword with a violent swing of Aether. I leapt up into the skies again, as the strike struck where I had just been.
"I cannot do it, Bera! I will hurt you to the point you can stand no more. But I will not kill you! I will not use you! Ever!"
Julius rushed me, and I countered his strikes. But barely. Each swing of his sword somehow grew in strength. The speed of each strike, increased with growing desperation and fear.
He was not going to give up.
He was going to win.
Because I knew I was failing. We both knew.
I can let myself fail soon, but not yet. Not yet! I thought in desperation.
I gritted my teeth, inhaling sharply, summoning everything I had remaining. All of my resolve, all of my love and desire to protect what was left, all of my anguish and pain to know I was betraying the one man I could not, all of it I poured into my focus, my speed, and final burst of strength.
I turned my counters into attack, which forced him to defend, fuelling everything I had left into my flurry of final strikes, matching his speed, matching his strength.
Like lightning, each flash was quicker than a millisecond, as if a series of its crackles combined into single, frequency of abrupt explosions as the duel's skills peaked.
I spun, using my momentum to put everything into my last hit. My rage, my devastation and guilt. It put it all into my final strike.
My swing hit Julius's blocking sword. The strike was so powerful, so strong, that my dagger shattered upon impact, and swung Julius's defending block wide. His guard was open, and he gasped sharply with shock.
I dropped my other dagger, letting it fall into the darkness of the Abyss as I reached out to him, to hold him.
It was as if time slowed.
The last time I held him, was as the Tower shattered. The last time I held him, Aion took me away, leaving him to walk and wander the world alone, for seven hundred years.
This time, when I would hold him again, it would be for the last time, before once again, Aion took me away.
But unlike before, I could not return.
Julius would be left to wander and govern the world alone – for eternity.
Only the strongest could bear the heaviest burdens . . . and we are the strongest, Julius . . . you and I, I thought with despair. We had been cursed with strength and knowledge, right from the very beginning.
My expression distorted with grief, regret and heartbreak, yet mingled with a resigned resolve, and tragic acceptance.
Julius recoiled away, his expression twisted with devastation and desperation.
"Stop, Bera. Please! Stop!" He begged, in that single, terrible moment, as my hands reached out to him, to embrace him to me.
"I will not ask for your forgiveness, Julius." My voice broke with the splintering of my heart, as guilt filled the cracks with the greatest sin I could ever commit.
"I am sorry."
My fingers reached, straining. The skin upon my fingertips, began to glow as they came within a hair's breadth of distance from Julius's face. I felt the tingle of the transference, and my expression smoothed into one of accepted sorrow.
There.
Defiance flashed through Julius's features, his eyes blazed brighter than it ever had before, and with a shout, he heaved himself away through a last-second warp, away from my fingers which had so nearly touched his skin.
Disbelief crashed through my chest.
I still was not quick enough. I still was not strong enough. I had failed.
The world would end.
Julius would always be better than me, stronger, quicker and more intelligent, in every possible way. I no longer had the strength and speed left to fight him. He was going to win, but in doing so, he would lose the war. His love for me, finally blinded him.
Julius materialised out from his warp behind me, where he grabbed the end of my wing, and threw me down into the landmass of Aion's Tree.
I crashed into the bark like a meteor falling from the sky, feeling the air explode from my lungs upon the shocking impact. The dizzying disorientation, scattered my awareness and concentration, forcing my wings to disperse back into the Aether with a flurry of feathers of light.
Desperately, I blinked the dizziness from my eyes as I lay on my back. But my vision swam with the pain from the impact with roared through my body.
Get up! I have to get up! I cried to myself.
I barely propped an elbow underneath my body, when Julius landed over me. His power and presence smothered me entirely. So mighty a Daeva and man he was. No one, including me, could ever contend against such an entity. Not even Aion. Otherwise Aion would never have needed my help to carry out His bidding.
My instinct, my body and mind, shrieked for me to shy away, to submit to such might and commandment. He was the scorching sun. I was the moth. Within his presence, I felt I was burning away. But I could not turn, I could not run, because I was still on the ground.
A broken hardness steeled Julius's eyes. He lifted his sword, its tip pointing directly at me to thrust and pin, not to slash.
Clarity burned the haze of my vision away in a single burst of adrenaline, the only chemical left which my exhausted mind could produce. I saw his trajectory.
Julius intended to pin me to the ground with his very sword. Nailing me through the shoulder to trap me where I could not move.
He lunged.
My hands clapped out, clamping against his oncoming blade.
My limbs shook, and the searing, divine edges of Julius's sword, cut the skin of my palms and fingers. The blood dripped down over my chest.
Julius placed both hands over his hilt, and pushed, straining against my resistance. I gripped the sword's blade harder, and pushed back. The blood dripped heavily, warm as it seeped through the cracks in my armour. My arms shook, struggling to resist Julius's impossible strength. They trembled as I gritted my teeth, feeling tears of anger and frustration fill my eyes.
After everything, after all we had done to try and advert the Cataclysm, the world was still going to perish. Everyone was still going to die. I was still going to lose them all.
They all flashed before my eyes, the ones I could still save; Michael, Surion, Seregon, Amia . . . and Julius.
Julius's image lingered in my mind's eye and heart. Not the terrifying Daeva who towered over me, consumed by despair and fear, but the man at his core, the man I had loved more than life itself, who had been just as normal as the rest of us. A kind and honourable gentleman, a scholar, librarian, commander, friend and husband.
That was the man I wanted to save.
Julius forced his entire weight behind his sword, and the tip of the blade edged further and further to where I knew it would pierce my armour, and stab through my shoulder. It would not be a fatal wound. Julius never intended to fatally wound me. He just needed me pinned at his mercy, because then, I knew I would have truly lost.
He was too strong. He had always been too strong!
"Don't run. Running from me will do you more harm than good."
It was what Julius had said to me on the night he had followed me to the pond, where we first spoke as normal individuals and I had learnt the green lines of light was called the Weave.
I had never wanted to run from him. I still did not. But right now, I needed to.
Yet I could not.
I could never run.
"It was never your Fate to win, Beralin. Your Destiny, was just to succeed. Every trial you encountered, every battle you fought, every mountain you had to climb, has been in preparation for this final meeting. Because it is only now, that you are strong enough to stand against him, against Aion's Vessel. Only you, could bear this impossible cost. Only you, are strong enough to accept what has to be."
Azphel's words came to me. And with his words, came a tragic alternative. I was not going to escape Julius's sword. It's tip was barely a finger's width from my torso.
However, there was somewhere the blade could pierce. There was a target the blade could run through.
The realisation was a gut-wrenching one, but simultaneously I also knew, it was the only one.
I'm sorry, Julius.
I shunted the sword across and let go before Julius realised what I was doing.
The sword pierced my chest, and went through my heart, where the agony exploded with a shocking gasp.
Julius's face warped into one of overwhelming horror, and in that moment, his entire world shattered.
"NO!" He screamed.
Through tears and blood, powered by all which was left to me – my love – my arm snapped up, where one of my hands grasped the blade higher along. That hand pulled myself up along the blade in one swift movement, while my other hand flashed out, grabbing Julius's hand before he could let go of the hilt.
My final burst of speed and strength, hauled us both backwards over my head, to land Julius on his own back on the ground and me on top.
His sword misted away instantly, and at last, my arms were around his shoulders.
"No, no, no!" He cried with mortification, sitting back up immediately as his arm supported me against him.
My body sagged against his, as I finally allowed and accepted my ultimate defeat.
At last, I was back in Julius's arms. Even though my breath wheezed and rattled, even though I felt my lifeblood pump from the gaping gash in my chest and through my back, I felt the warmth of Julius's skin as I rested my face against his neck. I felt safe.
At peace.
"No, Bera! What have I done? Oh what have I done? Please no! Please! Please!"
One of Julius's hands pressed against the wound from behind, as if the pressure could stop the blood while he fed his Weave into the hole.
But no Weave could heal it. Not even Marchutan nor Yustiel could. Because while the blood bled down Julius's front, my body began to glow softly, growing cold, and disintegrated along the edges.
"Julius . . ." I sighed. "Just let me . . . hold you . . . one last time . . ."
Julius's other hand came up behind my head, cradling me to his neck.
"Why?" He cried, his voice cracking with horror and grief. "Why would you do this? How can you do this us?"
The warmth of his skin against my cheek, chased away the chill of death. It absorbed the unbearable pain of my heart.
"No other way," I said quietly. "You know there was no . . . other way . . ."
I felt my power and essence slowly flow away, into Julius, becoming one with him. At least this way, I would still always be with him, even in death.
My love would remain with him for eternity, until the ending of the universe. It was the one oath I could still keep.
"No," Julius sobbed. "I can lose everything, but you. Don't leave me behind. Please, stay with me. Please!"
I smiled softly against him. "My power, my essence . . . and my soul, shall become yours. I am always with you, Julius. My heart, is already in your chest."
My form grew transparent. My arms slackened, and slipped from his back. And as I felt my strength and life drain away, I sensed Julius become stronger, greater. His aura swelled, becoming something greater than what he already was. He held me tighter. His whole body trembled as sobs wracked through his being.
His body shone brighter, and not just my essence flowed into him, but the Aether of the ten remaining Empyrean Lords as their long lives finally came to an end with their release.
Azphel, Marchutan, Zikel, Triniel, Lumiel, Ariel, Nezekan, Yustiel, Vaizel, and Kaisinel.
: Thank you . . . Thank you, Beralin . . . Thank you . . . Many of their voices sighed.
Azphel's lingered, on us. His presence swirled around us, engulfing us in his arms, to apologise to Julius for everything, and to assure both Julius and I, that Azphel would look after my soul within the Aether.
Azphel's presence was a final, comforting gift, to his greatest friend, to take all of Julius's hatred and anger, and to make him finally accept the truth and his Destiny.
Julius hugged me close. His shoulders heaved with his sobs.
"I will never forgive you, Bera," Julius wept. "But I never hated you. I can never hate you. I love you, Bera. So much. I love you. I always will. I love you."
Aion at last, flowed through me and into Julius, taking what was left of my essence to fuse to the newly ascended living, and walking God. My tears glistened against his neck, while my body finally lost its form, and Julius's arms passed through nothing but the glowing, ghostly remnants of my fading soul.
"I wish . . . we could have lived a normal life . . . together," I whispered. "I love you . . . my Julius . . ."