Chapter 14
Consumed by flames
I woke up covered in ash and saw a blank pale sky. The inn was burned to the ground and everything I had was gone. Sarah, Zachiriah, and Loki. My family was consumed in flames for the second time. I couldn't contain my anger as I looked up at the pale sky and yelled "NO!". Joshua has grown mad since he left and that madness consumed him. I was by myself again. I had nobody left, no reason to continue, no posessions, and this time I had no powers.
I followed the path of ash, ice, destruction, and death that Joshua left behind him. Eventually I found my way to Lake Tayaka, which was completely frozen over. I saw footsteps melted into the ice and realized that Joshua grows stronger the longer he possesses the necklaces. I began to think about what would happen if I were to confront Joshua in my current condition. My shirt was burnt to shreds, my long black hair was impairing my vision, and I was beginning to grow tired and hungry.
After a short rest in the middle of the frozen over lake I worried about what would happen if Joshua got the other two necklaces and combined all four. Would he grow all powerful? Would he take over the world? These questions plaugued my mind until I noticed things around me start to blur and shake in my mind and I saw the lake as a large empty crater. I heard a cold evil voice that sounded familiar "We meet again former self." And I saw a warrior in black armor standing in front of me.
"So despite giving her the rose my future wasn't altered and you are still the outcome of my actions?" He removed his helmet and looked down on me with the same glowing golden X on his forehead. "No your future was in fact altered severely. I am the future you from a future which never came to be. I am the same one that spoke with you before and told you to give her the rose." "I did give her the rose and things were happily ever after until my past came back to me and destroyed everything I knew and loved."
"In my reality I am still the supreme ruler and my advice caused your actions to branch your destiny which made you follow a different path to love and partial happiness. I never gave Sarah the rose. I told her that I had powers she could never understand and I left. Eventually I grew angry, vicious, and even hateful. I realized I had the power to do much more than serve my nation, I had the power to create my own nation free of war, poverty, and all the other problems that ruin the world." I began to wonder about how this future self could help me stop Joshua. "Tell me. The golden X what is it?" "The X represents my power. It comes from this." He lifted a necklace from his neck and it was a golden gem with a glowing golden X in the center of it.
"How can I find that gem?" "You cannot. Only someone with the power to reach the temple of the ancients can obtain this gem provided they are worthy enough." I thought for a moment. "You are from a future that can no longer exist. You have no possible way of causing consequences in this reality I live in. Please help me. Can you not come into this world and give me the gem or give me some way of stopping Joshua?" He dropped the gem into my hands and I noticed that reality was starting to come back to normal and he was fading. "That gem has the power to do anything. It was all that kept my world in existence and now my world is fading from history. Goodbye Zack and goodluck in your task of defeating Joshua."
The next thing I knew everything was back to normal and I was still sitting on the frozen lake. I saw the gem in my hands and secured it around my neck. I then felt everything as it was all being as one for that second that the necklace came around my neck. Then I focused on a small fishing boat that was frozen into the lake and imagined it exploding into a cloud of beautiful butterflies and when I imagined it in my mind the fishing boat fell apart into flapping butterflies which flew away. I knew that I posessed great powers and could do whatever I pleased.
I imagined myself appearing next to Joshua and I did seeing his whole body engulfed half in flames half in ice. "What the hell?" "Hello Joshua. It is time that you lost these powers which you've abused." I watched as the necklaces around Joshua's neck turned to dust and he turned back to normal. "What did you just do to me!" "I have the power to manipulate reality in this world and your powers are gone along with all of the necklaces." I then touched my palm to his forehead and spoke into his mind. "You are Joshua of the Sea. You have no parents or a home. You sail the Seas endlessly always doing the right thing and never becoming corrupt. Your life will last as long as the Seas remain high enough for you to sail on." I then made him appear on a raft in the middle of the sea.
I knew that the powers I had needed to be destoryed so not even I could be corrupted by them so I focused my powers to destroy the gem and myself. These are the last words of my story and should you wonder where did the world around you come about, think of where you came about and what your life were like if you lost everything you loved…