Chapter 38
Kurtis eyes were closed. He could see nothing but the darkness of his eyelids. He felt nothing, not the pain of his shoulder or a blade through his chest.
He heard nothing, no shouts of triumph or sighs of defeat. Kurtis didn't know what had happened, and he was afraid, afraid to open his eyes, afraid to see the truth of it all.
That's when he felt it. The warmth of a body, a limp body. He sensed the sword clasp in the grip of his hand, and the lucid blood flowing upon his arms.
The lids left trembling eyes as he looked upon the vision before him.
Kurtis gasped in horror as his senses met her form, the body of Lara Croft was lying on top of him, a rusted sword shoved through her waist.
He let out a sigh as he pulled her toward him. He had done the unthinkable, something he didn't mean to do, and he would never forgive himself for it. His mind was blank, completely taken by confusion, only knowing that he had reacted, reacted to the thought of being killed. He gasped with realization; he had sacrificed her life for his.
"I had to." Kurtis's mind tried to ease his guilt and sadness. "I never could have brought her back anyway. She was already dead. It had to be done. It was the only way to kill Mariana." He cursed the name as he stared at the blood upon his hands. He had killed her, not Lara. Lara was already gone. He would never have done it if there would've been a way to bring her back.
"No." he gave up on self pity as he stared at her body. "It's my fault, I should have protected her before Mariana took her, then none of this would've happened. It's my fault she's dead."
The cold silence of death filled the room, and Kurtis wept.
He held his head down, eyes closed, afraid to look upon the woman he loved. He couldn't live with himself, not now, not after the sacrifice he had just made. "Fuck the world." he thought "None of it matters anymore." The anger made him shake furiously, as he held Lara's limp body in his arms.
Kurtis suddenly opened his eyes with arched brows as he felt something move against his skin and run up his arm, the delicateness of fingers. He breathed spastically as a noise followed, a sweet familiar voice quietly calling "Kurtis?" in a light and shaky tone. Kurtis's eyes darted across the floor with fear and confusion. He dare not look up, terrified of the truth of what he had done, terrified to see the form upon him still alive.
A movement beside him caught his eyes.
The spirit of Mariana stood across the room, smiling in mockery at him. Her satanic form had returned as she watched him.
He let out a sigh of anger and fear of what she had forced him to do. Mariana wasn't dead, she had left her host somehow at the last moment, before Kurtis had struck Lara's form "Oh God." he said lowly, with fear in his vocals. "That means that I killed-" he wouldn't let the words finish, refusing to accept them as a reality.
He quickly looked at the form sitting upon his waist, the form of Lara, now starring down at him with confusion. "Kurtis?" he heard her speak again. He painfully watched her grasp her waist. Her faced conformed with confusion as her fingers fell upon the blood that soaked her garments.
"What have you done?" she asked lowly, her body suddenly falling backward. Kurtis quickly grabbed her back and laid her onto the floor, pulling the iron slab from her waist.
Kurtis realized then what he truly had done. In an attempt to destroy Mariana, and save his own life, he had killed this gentle and beautiful creature, now dying in his arms. He didn't know that the demon could navigate out of its human host without killing it, so Lara had been slain for no purpose at all. He hadn't destroyed Mariana, he had destroyed Lara Croft.
He quickly and carefully dislodged the remaining sword tip from Lara's torso. He clenched his fist as he saw the wound; it was impossible. She had already lost too much blood, apparent from the wound itself, and Lara's eyes, constantly wavering in and out of consciousness as she stared at him.
He didn't care if it was impossible, he had to try anyway. He quickly locked his hands together and forcefully pressed them against her waist.
The sigh of pain Lara let out from the pressure caused Kurtis to cry out loud in sorrow and rage. He wrapped his hands around her head, and stared at her eyes, there brightness faded by the consumption of death. He heard her speak out at him again and forced himself to keep the stare. The fear and confusion in her eyes made Kurtis curse, and cry.
He pressed against her waist once again with desperation, ignoring the pain he was causing her body.
The effort came to no avail. "Fuck!" he screamed, as he pressed harder, one last time.
His movement stopped and he slowly removed his hands. He was only bringing pain to Lara, not life. He lowered his head in disappointment and shame as he felt a sudden coldness against his face.
He grabbed at it and felt Lara's hand, freezing with death. He gripped it between his own and looked at her with the same coldness in his eyes.
"I'm sorry." Kurtis told her, with tears streaming from inside. His voice lowered. "I'm sorry."
He watched as her brows arched and her lungs gasped from pain. He felt her opposite hand grip tightly around his sleeve as he held her in his arms, desperately trying to hold on to him, desperately trying to hold onto life.
"No." he coldly stated as Lara's head began to slowly fall backward. The grip upon his shirt suddenly loosened as her senses turned numb. "No!" he screamed as her final breaths soared into dying lungs, giving strength to her eyes, holding them open to stare at him and blame him for her demise.
"I love you." He stated as he leaned closer to her form. He stared at her with an unaffixed silence as Lara slowly faded from existence.
She stared at Kurtis with a pained smile before her body completely met with the floor beneath her. She didn't understand what had happened or why, but she knew that she was dying. Her eyelids trembled as she looked upon Kurtis's form for one last time. His previous words ran through her mind, completely interrupting the unknown pain than seared throughout her waist. She wanted to repeat the words, but they wouldn't come, her body wouldn't allow them to.
A sudden gasp flew from her lungs as the unbearable pain returned. The man before her, the man she loved, dissolved into a black slate as her eyes were slowly forced to close. The pain disappeared once again, this time, never to return.
Kurtis screamed with sorrow and rage at that moment. Lara was dead.
He buried his face in her neck, caressing her limp body, praying to the god whom he now hated, to bring her back to him. His sighs were muffled by the black shirt that lay before his face, then were interrupted by another noise, one he hated more than any god that had bestowed this horrible fate upon him.
"Didn't know I could do that, did you?" An evil voice sounded throughout the now echoing room. Kurtis clenched his fist at the sound as he slowly raised his eyes to meet the figure. The voice was horrid, plaguing his mind with its unhumored torture. It was the voice, the voice that had ruined his life so many time, first, by killing his mother, then again by aiding in the murder of his father, and now it had taken his heart and everything he had to live for, it had taken Lara.
Kurtis could feel his teeth on the verge of shattering as he clenched them together with rage. His breaths spastically entered his lungs as pain began to flow through his shoulder once again. The voice would die. He would kill it, for his parents, for himself, and above all else, for Lara.
Kurtis felt the clasp of the sword he had imbedded within her, at his side. He gripped it tightly, still drenched in the lucid blood of Lara Croft, as he slowly stood, his anger keeping him from moving with a quickened pace. He stared at the satanic figure before him, its form horrid once again, with blonde hair and ghastly features. His knuckles turned white as the voice came once more.
"No one ever told you, Kurtis?" Mariana spoke out sarcastically at the anger-filled eyes of the figure standing before her. "No one ever told you that I could leave my host without killing it?" She smiled. "Do you really think I would've let you kill me?" she paused as she moved toward him and shoved her features into his face with mockery. "No. I was just having some fun, and fucking with your mind."
Kurtis stared at her without expression as she spoke. His body was numb as the injured tattoo upon his body suddenly began to burn.
He clenched the sword, knowing that he would use it. Though it wouldn't even injure the demon, it would provide some comfort, though no comfort would be great enough to cure the size of his loss.
He was ready to die, but not before he watched Mariana scream. He ignored the pain in his shoulder as it became unbearable and slightly dizzied his mind. Nothing was going to keep him from this, nothing was going to keep his from embedding the rusted sword in Mariana's heart for his own enjoyment.
"Didn't you have fun?" The creature asked as Kurtis began toward her, his body shaking at the words as his figure met Mariana's. "I mean, nothing is more enjoyable than physically killing the woman you love, and that is exactly what you did."
Sarcasm flew from her words and Kurtis slightly fell forward, he caught himself, the burning pain feeling as though he had burst into flames. He stared forward, angrier than ever before, so angry that his mind was blank, conformed into a savage animal, wanting only blood to flow from the creature before him.
Mariana smiled at his discomfort and sorrow. "Lara Croft is dead and I am still alive." she paused as her face scowled. "She died for nothi-"
Mariana stopped as a feeling of warmth entered her chest, her features stalled as she stared forward. Kurtis was there, and his teeth were clenched. A sword was clasped between his hands, the blade emerging from his palms, and lunged through her body.
She had never seen Kurtis's expression held in such away. His features literally shook from rage, and his eyes were set forward as though he weren't human. She swore that a faint red glow circled within his pupils, rage literally filling his body.
She stared at him with surprise before bursting into a shout of laughter. She looked at him with sarcastic glee before turning the expression into anger.
She quickly ripped the blade from her chest, and spun it around turning the tip back toward Kurtis. She smiled as she lunged the blade forward directing it toward the final Lux Veritatis warrior's waist.
Mariana held the crooked grin as she stared at the form before her. She waited for his emotionless expression to change to that of pain and death at any moment. It did not. Kurtis was still as he stared toward her, no pain lined his face, only nothingness. She looked down with confusion, only to see her blade, not buried inside Kurtis waist, but waiting in front of it, somehow halted before entering flesh and bringing his death. She desperately pushed the sword forward to no avail, not understanding her stall.
It wasn't her stall, something had stopped the blade's motion.
Mariana looked to Kurtis with fearful eyes as he began to speak.
"You killed her." he stated coldly as the rusted blade hovered at his waist.
Mariana tried to force the weapon forward once again. She could not.
"You killed my father," he paused as fear entered the movement of Mariana and she slowly backed away, "my mother," he continued as the demon frantically stepped away from him. She stared at him, unsure of what was to come. She dropped the sword out of fear of his words, "and now I'm going to kill you."
Mariana forced herself to show a fake smile, still lined with fear, as she raised her arms and closed her eyes. "Really?" she sarcastically and desperately asked. She focused her ancient powers and steadied her mind, absorbing the energies around her, strong enough to dispose of Kurtis Trent for good. Her body began to glow bright blue as she steadied the forces, and aimed her powers at the figure in front of her.
Kurtis stared t her, still holding the emotionless face. He felt his shoulder flame again as Lara's dead figure was seen through the corner of his eyes. Her life had been ended by his hand, and the sorcery of the bitch standing before him. Anger took his mind as he spastically breathed.
He clenched his fists as an amazing fire seemed to fill the room around him, and his eyes turned red out of hatred. The tattoo at his side released the immense light that blinded Kurtis as he stared. He had never felt such a power within him before, all brought on by the anger and insane rage running throughout his body and mind.
It was happening again, just as it had happed 1400 years ago in a small village in Hippo Algeria to a man named Augustine.
Kurtis's changing mind was interrupted as his eyes envisioned a large ball of blue light rapidly coming toward him.
Kurtis felt no pain, numbed by the fire that had inflamed his figure, he only felt his body moving, being thrown through the air, and then finally halted by the alter near the far wall, and then the wall itself.
Mariana smiled with triumph as she watched her energies strike Kurtis's form and send him flying across the room. His body connected hard with the stone wall, and Mariana knew that he was dead.
She laughed aloud at his foolishness as she rapidly walked toward the alter, anxious to finally see his dead body. She grimaced as she stepped over the lifeless form of Lara and hurriedly continued forward.
Mariana felt her already dead heart stop as she spotted the vision standing before her. An immense light flew from the space ahead, filling the room with flames, which spun violently around a central form. She stared at the figure within the fire with disbelief and fear.
Kurtis's eyes were red, his body ablaze as he stared at Mariana. His eyes were fixated upon her form, barely visible through the flames. He felt nothing but hate, the flames surrounding him mere air against his skin. He watched as Mariana lifted her arms again, ready to deliver another charge of energy to destroy him. He quickly raised his own as she did so, and focused his mind. He pushed his palm forward, and watched as the demons form followed the movement.
Mariana felt her body being thrown through the air as her powers were disrupted. She screamed out of anger and dread as her body connected hard with a side wall of the immense hall. She braced herself for the fall to the ground, but it never came. Her body instead, stayed elevated in the air and was tightly held to the wall by the newly found powers of the man before her.
Mariana felt a strange new feeling within her mind. She had never been terrified before, but she was now; the flaming figure across the room slowly made his way toward her. She stared at him with disbelief. All her sorcery had been rendered useless by one man, one man and his undying love for a woman.
Kurtis never moved his eyes from the figure held against the wall before him as he started toward the position.
He lowered his other hand, lifting his form as he reached the placement that Mariana was forced onto. He watched as her body began to fall toward him, and he quickly shoved it back into the wall as he reached its same height. He stared at the figure as he forced his hand into its waist.
He watched Mariana's eyes with hate and happiness as her face conformed with a new expression, pain.
He smiled as the form of the demon began to violently scream, the fire around his body passing to hers, scorching her flesh with its heavenly force.
A noise left his lungs as well. He began to scream as she did as his eyes met hers, the noises were identical and different in every way. Both lungs released the horror stricken noise of a pained scream, but one was not given out of pain, but from joy.
It was over for Kurtis, he had now done all that he ever had wanted to, enact his revenge upon the creatures that had ruined his life so many times. And all of it was completed with the death of one being, the demon before him.
Mariana violently jerked her head backward as her body was consumed with flames, she screeched loudly as the other wraiths had done when in contact with the Lux Veritatis brand.
Kurtis arched his brows with pain as the noise flew through the room. He forced his hand harder against the demon as the noise grew louder.
The sound suddenly ended, and Kurtis felt himself gasp as a new pain entered his body. He felt as though an extreme energy was being rushed throughout him.
The brand instantly burst into a flame brighter than any of the rest, and quickly receded toward him, returning to its dormant space inside of him.
Then it ended, and Kurtis felt himself fall backward as darkness consumed him.