Chapter -5: For Want of an Answer
Just as soon as this all began…it was over.
Justek's startling invasion of the Tribes didn't even last a day, yet most of the citizens felt their bodies shaking like they had been at war for weeks.
However, while everyone was initially unsettled with worry that they lost loved ones in the mess…They would come out of this confused, as there were no corpses to clean up.
That's not to say there was no blood shed, or that there was yet to be mourning…
Just that for a brief, flickering moment, the collective consciousness of this planet wondered if they had even experienced this day.
Only the falling, breaking hunks of metal that were Vortexians confirmed their reality.
In the unsettled forest, Glade dragged himself out of the roots rising to tear him limb from limb.
Barely escaping the pursuit of the Vortexians, his skin was being torn at by the forest's wrath.
Gasping and panting for air, he shoved himself through the bushes with the help of his chainless sickles and tumbled across the heathen dirt.
His right hand had been mauled to shreds, blood mixed with poison dripping from the wound. His upper hip had been pierced by a spear of wood.
He was alive…that was all he could be grateful for right now.
As he squeezed his damaged hand to stop the bleeding, he looked up at the night sky…and thought of Lilith, yet could not put a face to her image. It was twisted, putrid wood, just like every other person he saw.
…But hers was the most profound.
Up in Arc Hurricanos, Nimus hovered over the edge of the city watching the metal sputter out the last bit of black fog they had in reserve.
He took a few heavy hits, but nothing compared to what the Devil had to offer.
He plucked his goggles off his eyes and smirked, "All worked out in the end…"
But it bothered him that those two great powers fighting on the surface had suddenly just…vanished.
"Tsk, don't tell me you took each other out, Sarajin." He said with a defiant scoff.
He decided to turn around and return to the city where Darnia was located. But as he landed, the weary Titan perched down on one of the nearest houses and glared at him.
Nimus gave them a quick stink-eye back and then tucked his eyes under the shadows of his helmet, "You know, I might be able to finish you off right now."
Darnia locked his scythe in both hands and poised himself to fight the Sage.
Nimus looked his way and smirked, "But 'might' translates to…a .00000001% chance of happening. We're all beat. So…truce for now?"
"Our scars do not heal quickly, Aurian." Uttered the stern and wise owl.
"But…we shall offer temporary amnesty for your efforts in warding off the Khull Drago and those horrid beasts just now."
"Great!" Nimus sparked up, "Cause to be honest, I dunno if Sarajin's coming back anytime soon."
Darnia's eyes widened as he gasped in horror, "He couldn't have…"
Nimus wagged his hand up and chuckled, "No way. Him? Just saying, his aura's gone elsewhere. Same with ol' Justek."
Darnia sheathed his scythe by his hip and remarked, "But not depleted, you claim?"
Nimus shook his head and tucked his hands into his pockets.
Twinbeak stirred with worry, "We sensed a…greater power at play. If our suspicions are correct, then the 'higher-ups' have chosen to intervene."
Darnia turned to them and remarked, "You know about the ones Sarajin works for?"
"The Winged Flame, our creator, warned us to not cause anything to happen that would draw too much undue attention to our world."
"And yet…"
"We cannot speak of that. The pact forbade us from doing so."
Twinbeak took a look towards Nimus, who logged that away in his head with a curious hum before rubbing behind his hair with a sigh.
"So our favorite Elemental Overlord's tangled in some pretty big divine jurisdiction is what you're saying?"
Twinbeak nodded.
"Aaaah great," Nimus looked up at the moon rising over the horizon and sighed, "This day's not going to end anytime soon, is it?"
He then tucked his hands into his pockets and turned to Darnia, "Well s'long as my sleep schedule is already ruined, I'll keep an eye on this place until Sarajin gets back. You probably need it, seeing how…y'know."
Darnia's eyes got tender and with a heavy sigh he murmured, "You noticed that too…"
Nimus said empathetically, "Didn't mean to pry, but it was hard not to feel it."
"...I can only hope my son will make it back in time." Darnia remarked, turning in the direction of where his house lies.
In the wastelands, with the battlefield quiet, and nothing but the starlight to look upon, Atrax turned to Solomon to poke at his thoughts.
"Well? Did you find whatever you were hoping for, Lord Solomon?"
Solomon's eyes narrowed, and he faced the masked spider with an icy glare.
He then left him with a chill down his spine, as he marched away from this battlefield with only his armor rattling like tight chains.
"Hmm…" Atrax rubbed below his chin with a dry sigh, "I suppose it doesn't matter at this point."
He then began to walk on his own to where he left the parasite's ethereal form, "One last little clean-up before it's over…I won't miss this in the slightest."
But to his surprise, the bodies of the two godlings were gone. Only the corpses slowly going through rigor mortis remained.
"..." Atrax walked up to the phantom and tore the binding off its mouth with one of his appendages, then aimed it at the center of their face, the tip glowing bright red.
"You're testing my patience with these constant unplanned interruptions, exile. Now where are the two children?"
"You mean YOU didn't make them disappear?!" The parasite countered with a genuine show of surprise.
Atrax withdrew his threatening gesture an inch and rose with a stiff, pondering pose, "Disappear, you say?"
'D.' grinned with a mix of laughter and shaken confidence, "So you're just as confused as I am! Heh heh heh! Curious…cause you seem to know things you shouldn't the rest of the time, spider."
Atrax stabbed him through his ethereal head and the crimson energy spread through like veins, causing the phantom to explode and send immense pain to the parasite back in its cage.
Atrax then tucked his hands into his sleeves and muttered, "I suppose, again, it doesn't really matter…"
He then began to turn to the corpses while muttering under his breath in a slightly crazed fashion, "I should count myself lucky that that man didn't overstay his welcome…"
He then grabbed the side of his head and groaned with a few clicks and hisses. Then, squeezing his hand down, he rose slowly with a deep breath and looked at the two bodies before him.
"...You were good men, and loyal friends to Sarajin," He then gestured his hand out and created two portals into the shadows to carry them away, "The least I can offer is for you to be buried by loved ones."
He then closed the portals with a shaky hand, looking down upon it with a shoulder slumped out of guilt, "One last act of kindness…From here, I can only guess what will happen next."
He then turned and walked away, "I must hurry, and so must you…Sarajin…"
"It's time."
In the endless void of white nothingness, Justek finds himself still in those accursed chains.
All his efforts…amounting to a mere exchange of prisons.
His warden, standing "wise" and proud of what he's accomplished, said not a word to him as he waited nearby.
Justek was forced to look up as an immeasurably large shadow descended over this void.
Serpentine and infinite, the grandest dragon, whom Sarajin described as the creator of this world, brought the gravity of his jurisdiction crushing down upon Justek.
It felt tough, and attempted to come off as fair and just.
A notion Justek laughed at.
Yen Sid, the wizard, pointed his strange bladed weapon at the chained man's heart and remarked, "He has been brought before you for judgment, Lord Futanji."
"Justek of Genestasia, last of the wyverns and Dragons. You have been brought before my council. Do you understand why?" Uttered the dragon in the confines of Justek's heart.
"I can gander a guess…But I shall dare not give you the satisfaction of complying with an answer."
"Then you already admit to your guilt in the matter?"
Justek smirked, "Seems you've already chosen the verdict. Why else would I not be allowed a trial?"
"You make no attempts to justify your actions?" Spoke Futanji in a confused tone.
"I see no point in wasting my breath on a creature who willingly deprived itself of its ears, so that it could free its 'heart' of the guilt of ignoring the cries of the weak."
"Hence why I am even allowed to speak out, because I am not heard."
"...I would have given you my grace, out of favor to the one you call a friend."
Justek glared at him with slit pupils, "Do not dare leverage him against me. Your chains are tighter around his neck than they are mine!"
Futanji turned to Yen Sid and with a nod that could turn a thousand tides over, the wizard began to summon light to the tip of his sword.
Justek shuddered in utter defiance of his fate, and out of fear towards the inevitable.
"Stop!" Rang out Sarajin's voice, bringing the wizard's execution to a halt.
Justek got a chill down his spine as he craned his head back and saw Sarajin dashing over to him and shoving the executioner's blade aside.
Yen Sid stepped back with the blade withdrawn, and his arms in his sleeves, "How did you get here?"
Justek and Sarajin kept that knowledge to themselves, the secret hidden away in Sarajin's pocket.
"Y-You can't do this to him! There's been a misunderstanding, or something…!"
Yen Sid patiently remarked, "This is not about-"
"I-I don't care what this is about! He doesn't deserve this!" The roar of Sarajin's passion only hurt Justek further.
"Your defense of your friend is commendable, even going so far as to pierce the infinite walls of time and space to reach my domain…"
"But your friend is irrefutably guilty."
Sarajin dared to look up at the creator dragon and ask him, "Tell me then, and I'll decide for myself!"
"...You discovered his clairvoyance abilities during this battle. Well, he utilized them beforehand in a way that perverted the natural law of time and space."
"Branches in the continuum are an expected occurrence, but given the circumstances behind the 'Blanks', added timelines incurs a greater risk of the 'Poison' forming and spreading."
Justek glared at the dragon and the call of his hate was heeded with strict dictation, "You question why you are punished, but Auris Aurora is not. Because she merely accessed alternatives that were already there."
"While you forced into existence possibilities that were never meant to be, by stealing information from other branches."
Justek spoke bluntly in his defense, "I merely replaced one branch with another."
"Perhaps one instance could be overlooked, a couple, a few, begrudgingly…But you abused this ability countless times with reckless abandon to reach your desired outcome."
"Desired outcome?" Sarajin wondered aloud and looked back at his friend. He then turned back to Futanji to speak in his defense, "But…didn't you say that our world is an exception to the 'Poison' outbreak?"
"If the reach of his desires stretched only over your world this would not be a subject of debate…You must have wondered how the Vortexians came into being, surely?"
Sarajin gave it a quick thought and realized that the machines were too advanced for this world to produce.
He looked back at his friend with doubts of his innocence now being thrown into question, not helped by Yen Sid commenting, "His rifts violated the boundary into other worlds, where he plundered supplies as needed, shifting the branches of those worlds as well."
Justek stirred with disdain at the wizard, but became melancholic when he felt Sarajin was thinking less of him, his tone doing little to help, "All that…just for revenge on the Ten Sages?"
"Tell me this isn't true. I'll believe you." He whispered his plea.
Justek turned his head away with a forced smile, "I can scream against their hypocrisy but not their truth, for it echoes in my heart."
Futanji stirred with a heavy sigh, "...This was all for an act of vengeance, and in the process, dragged many possibilities into your war."
Justek raised his head with a defiant smirk, "At least I had the courage to do what I thought was right, damn the consequences. You stand tall…but for what? The order of the whole, in negligence of the many?"
"You cast me in a selfish light, but your plot would-"
"THAT IS NOT YOUR RIGHT TO SAY!" Justek screamed until his jaw was sore.
In the stillness that followed, Justek bit his teeth in a defeated scowl, "...Enforce your judgment upon me already, heartless beast."
Sarajin hastily turned against Futanji while holding his body in-between Yen Sid and his friend, "I won't let you do this! There's a better solution to this!"
"Do you speak out of what is right in your head? …Or your heart?" Yen Sid asked.
Sarajin stuttered, then formed his stance in his path with his eyes sharp and narrow.
Yen Sid looked proud, but nevertheless began to raise his sword at Sarajin.
"Perhaps another voice needs to speak out, Futanji."
Yen Sid's composure shifted with disbelief as he turned to the right.
The voice echoed twin tones of ferocity and justice and came from a bright light similar to a newborn star. And inside floated the unconscious bodies of Lunis and Solaris, taking on see-through appearances of the celestial bodies they represented.
"S-Sirius…?" Muttered the dragon with a constrained crack of grief.
The light stopped behind Justek and motioned towards Yen Sid. The wizard lowered his sword and closed his eyes, nudging a slight bow of respect his way.
The light then faced Sarajin directly and said, "Thank you for being loyal to your friend to the bitter end. You gave him just enough time for me to arrive."
"Who are you?" Sarajin wondered in awe.
The light faced Futanji, letting the natural flow of conversation unveil all the answers, "You look miserable, buddy."
"Whether long or short, the time spent mourning your sudden disappearance has been as painful as a million arrows."
"I burnt out gloriously stopping that great darkness from killing another world. Ha ha, does it sound like I have any regrets?"
"Never," Futanji said with an easing sigh, "I suspect those two children are your successors?"
"They are still me, in some manner of speaking. Wisdom and strength, divided in twine like the eclipse."
The mysterious voice then took on a more forward demeanor while turning to Justek, "And I offer their experiences as proof of this man's selflessness."
"...I'll allow it. Speak."
"Thank you, Futanji," Sirius replied, "When I pursued the darkness to that world, it had already nearly succeeded in wiping out the entire tribe of dragons and wyverns."
"I am aware of that much."
"But not the aftermath. Despite my consciousness being splintered between two bodies, I retained some awareness of the world around me."
"And despite being on the verge of a traumatic breakdown, with no hope of survival…This man shielded my newborn forms with his own body and held onto them softly."
"That proves the strength of his character in the face of adversity, not in tempering his own wrath."
"But his wrath was tempered…by the purity of love, and the patience of a saint."
"The wicked and the depraved tried to tear his heart apart, and plunge him into the deepest despair. But he rose to every occasion, and never stopped attending to his children's needs as best as his circumstances would allow."
"If these twin bodies are the moon and stars, then he represents the space that cradles them. Appearing harsh in its actions, yet plenty capable of fostering warmth in unexpected ways."
Sarajin then spoke up with passion, "That's how Justek has always been ever since I first met him…And…And I wouldn't want him any other way."
"Sarajin…" Murmured Justek tearfully.
Sirius then floated closer to Futanji, "That's why I have no regrets. Because there was someone who repaid my kindness without question, and continues to do so…"
The light turned to the chained man, "Even now."
Sarajin was the only one left confused by this statement.
Sirius whispered, "I'll ultimately leave the decision up to you, Justek, but…your friend is the only one who hasn't pieced together why Futanji did not judge you sooner."
"What is he talking about?" Sarajin said in a quick display of confusion.
Justek closed his eyes and hung his head.
Facing the ground, he began to speak in a guilt-ridden tone, "Borealis' strength is monstrous. I would only have succeeded in killing him, and the other Sages thereafter, through sheer tenacity."
"After that…both mind and body would give out."
Sarajin's heart shook with a twang, his expression horrified and skin getting pale.
Justek had a sincere smile of relief on his face as he whispered, "But that would have been fine. My children would be free to be whoever they wanted. And you…you…my friend, would have been able to succeed in bringing peace to the world."
"I didn't ask you to do that…!" Sarajin shouted in outrage, his voice choked up with grief.
He bit his teeth and with a raspy hiss he threw his fists down and shouted at his friend some more, "W-Where did you get that STUPID idea in your head that I'd be happy with a world without you in it?!"
"Who can say?" Justek uttered with sincerity, "Perhaps I believed I no longer would have the right to live in paradise with so much blood on my hands."
Tears rolled out of Sarajin's eyes, "I am not a god, Justek…! I would have been upset at you, but if we just talked it over…!"
He shook his head and muttered, "I don't have the right to judge you when I acted out in vengeance myself!"
"...And that's where the problem lies." Justek whispered.
"What…?"
"You would have talked me out of this. Because the sincerity in your voice has a way of making even the most stubborn-willed second guess themselves."
"But if I did not see this path through to the end…Then I would no longer have been myself. And no matter whom I hurt…I could never betray my heart…even if my feelings…can never be reciprocated."
"...J-Justek, what…what are you saying?"
"..." Futanji stirred with a hum, "I have heard enough. I may have been…a little rash on my judgment."
"But the initial cause behind these chain of events cannot be ignored. The threat your power holds is too risky to keep around. Something must still be done to rectify this matter."
Sarajin flung his body around and shouted, "You're still going to kill him?!"
Sirius stepped in with a more rational comeback, "Futanji, wait. I don't think that's necessary."
"Do you have an alternative solution, Sirius?"
"The root cause behind Justek abusing his powers was to bring peace to Sarajin's world, and secure freedom for his children."
"So if both these requirements are met another way, then he'd have no reason to use these powers again."
Sarajin calmed down with a few deep breaths, though his tone still edged on the side of desperation, "Yeah! I agree!"
"Hmmm…Justek. When you gaze upon my visage, what is it you see?"
Justek answered bluntly, "Nothing but bones, and the void in your eyes."
"...Sirius, you know what this means."
"I do." He answered.
"His heart has chosen me as its enemy. And even so…you'd stake your faith in this…selflessness of his?"
"We shouldn't always act on our worst assumptions," Sirius said with a chuckle, "Let's give Sarajin extra time to bring peace to his world. After that, it's up to Justek to decide his fate."
Sarajin stepped forward and remarked, "I only need to talk with Borealis for a while. It shouldn't be much longer. So please…"
"Fine, you have both made a strong case for this man to deserve a second chance. Nevertheless, we cannot return him to his world immediately. Until such time that you have managed to achieve harmony for your world, Sarajin, we will be keeping him imprisoned amidst the stars."
"That…!" Sarajin choked.
Sirius' light reached out towards him, then faced the dragon, "Let these children be with him too, in that case. He will feel comforted knowing they're safe."
He then turned to Justek and told him, "I'll use my will to keep them in a state of unconsciousness so they will not have to deal with the immediate trauma of today's events until you are able to help them."
Sirius then said to Sarajin, "This is the best I can manage. The rest…is up to you."
Sarajin was shaken, but knew he had to remain strong for himself and his friend, "T-Thank you, Sirius. I won't take long."
He then faced his friend and, still shaken with disbelief, he addressed him quietly, "I…I still can't believe you went this far…just for me."
"...Justek, is there something you're still not telling me?"
"..." Justek held his head up high and smiled, "Only for you to never lose your grip on who you are, my friend. I look forward to seeing how you succeed in this final stretch…"
Sarajin gulped hard and then with a nod reached into his pocket and used the Gaia Temporis to leave this realm.
Sirius then approached Justek and remarked, "Are you ok with this outcome?"
Justek hung his head and whispered, "Even my courage has its limits…An admission now would only hurt him more, and he needs all the strength he can get for the end of this difficult journey."
"...What do your eyes see, Justek?"
Justek kept his thoughts private, "...I saw nothing but darkness in a world where the Ten Sages still lived. Yet now that I look deeper…I see another constant."
"Every future bathed in darkness…exists in a place that I still live as well."
He began to shed tears without his stoic expression shifting, "In my haste to satisfy the urge for freedom…Have I led my friend down the path of damnation?"
"Oh Sarajin…forgive me. I fear as though I have let my eyes be blind to the true evil infecting our world."
Next Time: Decision