Chapter -108: What I'd Give for Another Second
His surroundings were blistering past him as little more than a blur. The winds were creasing against his body, trying to keep him from pressing on any further.
He was physically and mentally tiring himself with every passing step, so anguished in his mindset that he didn't even consider flying his way to his destination.
His eyes had already dried of tears and his heart was pounding so hard he could barely feel it anymore. But still, Sarajin pressed onward to Sancturia with every last atom of energy his body could produce.
There Rot Walkers seized hold of his fears and melancholy coming out full force and tried to ambush him and drag him down. But he cleaved through them with his katana, leaving no second wasted.
The barrier to the city started to rise over the horizon as the sun was beginning to set, the sky's pinkish tint mocking him with a reminder of the one he strove to be beside.
His mind remained a whirlwind of calamity that focused on the negativity of his situation while the positive memories he shared with Temporis tried so hard to keep them at bay.
His approach to the city was sensed by the two guards stationed at the Southern side. Without hesitation they raised their arms and began to fire their long, piercing stingers through the air.
The warping skies forewarned their approach and Sarajin grabbed his katana to defend himself, gritting his teeth as each arrow he deflected made his arms and legs buckle back in agony.
But every torn muscle and fractured bone couldn't compare to the pain Temporis had to be going through at the moment.
Each time he felt like he would falter the memory of her voice cracking and her determination to keep being herself drove him to keep going on.
Sancturia's defenses were nothing compared to his will to see her, and as he pressed onward, an inhuman machine of momentum, the guards had to stop and tremble in fear of this one man's approach.
But the stingers were only one obstacle in his path. He wasn't going to be able to enter through the barrier without Temporis' aid and though he knew that, denied the impossibility and pressed onward without hesitation.
He forgoed fighting back for the sake of concentrating on breaching the barrier. Gathering the power of electricity throughout his body, he sought to pierce the barrier by turning into living energy.
But when his body was eclipsed in lightning and the path forward still felt imminent, it was stopped faster than the blink of an eye.
He was sent recoiling through the air with his clothes tattering and blood coming out of numerous microscopic scars.
He crashed down half a mile away from the barrier and dragged up dirt another half a mile along. His vision got blurred but remained focused on his goal, even as his hearing distorted.
He picked himself off the ground without stopping to catch his breath, his knees threatening to snap like twigs if he took another step.
But he did. He couldn't move any other way. Not aside, not back, only forward, until he was at her side once more.
Her smile was the umbrella that kept the tears from flooding his heart.
He widened his eyes and the tears went flying off his face as he ran. He was going to try again, as many times as it took, ignoring the guards that had him aimed down in their sights.
But right as he was about to put everything he got into another attempt...
"SCHWING!"
Dozens of small and familiar silvery blades walled off his path, curved in such a way to shield him from the stingers the guards fired.
Sarajin froze up on the spot and turned around slowly while panting. Floating in the air with a hand tucked cleanly in his pocket and the other raised above his head was Nimus, unchanged after all this time.
He wore his carefree smile and shared a fondness in his eyes that Sarajin could never reciprocate, instead beaming at him with confusion and scorn.
"You...!" Sarajin growled.
Nimus looked up and snapped his fingers a couple times, "Hey! Stand down, I got this."
The guards relented with some degree of resistance. When they were done Nimus tucked his other hand in and smiled, wearing a slightly antagonistic look in his eyes, "Been a while, hasn't it, cotton puff?"
Sarajin's body trembled with his hand drawn towards the hilt of his sword. When Nimus turned his head to look at it, Sarajin felt paralyzed.
Nimus' smile widened and he chuckled in a nonchalant manner, "Lemme guess, you're here about the princess' condition."
He then rustled himself with a smirk and said, "Shame she didn't have someone strong enough to protect her, huh?"
Sarajin grabbed right onto his hilt and brandished the katana at Nimus' face, scowling the whole time. Nimus look unamused for just a brief moment but in reality, he was just suppressing how much he wanted to mock him.
"C'mon kid, if you try to fight me seriously now I WILL kick your ass, make no mistake about it."
"I don't care...!" Sarajin grabbed his sword in both hands and hunched down with it swung out by his side, "I'll beat every one of the Ten Sages if it means getting to be by her side!"
"...You know," Nimus slowly raised his hand up over his head and smiled wider, "I'd believe it too."
He snapped his fingers and while Sarajin flinched, the Sage of the Sky had other plans. He took all his blades, coated them in aura, and rammed them into the barrier to open the way inside.
He then coyly tucked his hands back in and met Sarajin's confused look with a softer and friendlier smile, "Go on kid. Be by her side."
Sarajin cautiously lowered his blade and stood up, glaring at Nimus with a narrow squint of his eyes, "This doesn't change anything between us."
"Heh, don't have to tell me that. We'll settle matters another day when you've gotten tougher," Nimus then said quietly, "Not running away like a coward means you're on the right path though."
Sarajin turned and ran through the barrier and right as he did, Nimus withdrew his blades back behind him and lowered his head to whisper, "I just hope you'll be prepared to cope with the loss of a loved one..."
…
…
"Nnghhh..." Temporis found herself awakening, floating in the middle of an empty sea of black, bereft of all her clothes. Her skin was glowing light pink like she was made of energy, save for her face and her hair.
"Where am I?" Her mouthless words echoed inside the void.
She was drifting towards something that was slowly getting bigger. It was a point in time, captured in her memories.
When her body floated through it, she felt weightless and helpless against being ferried through time to where this memory resided.
She arrived floating through the air like a phantom, where the world around her was now blurry despite her clearly being in her home.
"This is the past, but...When?"
"Dad!" Her voice called out, only younger and even more energetic sounding than the present.
She watched herself just a knee-high young lass run through unmoving scenery until her father slid into view with his back turned towards her as he did his alchemy work in a cauldron.
"What is it, Temporis?" He said in a soft but clearly unattentive voice.
"What was mommy like?" The young Temporis wondered.
"...Why don't you ask your sister?" Borealis replied.
"Auris don't remember much about her, but she said she looked like me."
"Nnn..." Borealis grimaced, dropping a potion onto the floor.
"D-Dad?!" Temporis panicked.
Borealis bent down and started to scrape the liquid up into his gauntlet. Temporis joined next to him and tried to use her aura to scoop the liquid into a bowl, "Lemme help, dad!"
"No!" Borealis raised his voice and the confines of this memory trembled and cracked, the atmosphere growing darker as hundreds of tiny black tendrils seemed to be worming their way inside.
The young Temporis fell on her butt and crawled back, with Borealis' eyes going tender, already beginning to well up with tears.
"...Please, just...leave me." Borealis murmured, forcing his head away as the young Temporis ran off in tears.
"...Dad had always been distant, but this was the first time I felt like he hated me." Temporis drifted out the other side of this memory and onward towards another, failing to notice the tendrils reach on the border of the prior.
Temporis closed her eyes and wondered, "I didn't kill mom! It's not fair that he's blamed me for it!"
She entered the next memory and found herself a few years further along in the past. The scenery was a little clearer but still remained unmoving.
She was trying to walk out of the temple and looked a little more like her present day self in terms of posture.
"Heh," Temporis chuckled with fondness towards herself, "I forgot how cute I was back then."
Her younger self walked past a younger Auris and was stopped in her tracks by her voice. Authoritative as it was even back then, it just sounded so goofy coming from a child that wasn't even ten years old.
"Where do you think you're going today, sister?" Auris asked.
"I'm finally gonna leave the city, sis!" Temporis proudly proclaimed.
"Absolutely NOT! Contact with those savages will poison you and corrupt your mind with violent urges!"
"But Uncle Nimus told me that there's a lot of fun things to do outside!"
"You can have 'fun' inside here, where it's safe," Auris said with her foot planted down, "Go into the city. Play with children your age if you must..."
Temporis just turned away and rolled her eyes, "Nobody knows how to have fun. They're just a bunch of bug-eyed weirdos..."
She then spun right around and clutched her hands up against her chest while hopping around, "Play with me sis! If ya do, I'll hold off on going outside!"
"I've outgrown such childish frivolities, Temporis..." Auris sighed like an adult.
"Yeah, that's what I thought..." Temporis said in a deflated tone, "You're too busy becoming a Sage to wanna spend time with your 'sister' anymore."
"Don't take that tone with me! Being a Sage is an honor very few get to have! Just because you've chosen to become an embarrassment doesn't mean I have to be dragged down with you!"
"What's so good about being a Sage anyways?!" Temporis shouted back, "I don't wanna become a heartless jerk like dad is!"
"H-How dare you speak ill of our father like that!" Auris said, blown back in recoil.
"Well it's true!" Temporis screamed, while the black tendrils began to worm their way inside of this atmosphere. The real Temporis felt a chill and started to see her own breath manifest.
The young Temporis grit her teeth and declared, "Dad doesn't love anyone! And he ain't gonna love you just because you're sucking up to him!"
This was the first and only time Temporis remembered being smacked by her sister. And the moment she saw that again she wanted to get out of here as soon as possible.
She drifted away listening to her younger self crying once more...
"Why am I the only one who sees dad for who he really is?! Even Sarajin...!" Temporis flinched and swerved her head around.
"Sarajin! That's right, we were fighting that black monster and the next thing I knew..." Temporis had to pause and think, "...Why are my recent memories all scrambled?"
She continued to drift unawares towards another memory.
This time, she found herself in a perfectly clear memory, which was rather ironic given how it started off in a room completely blanketed in darkness.
"That's right, this is..."
A door swung open and light filled this concealed room. There, five years ago, Temporis had stood in shock and slowly growing disgust and rage as she found Justek kneeling on the ground, convulsing and sweating all over.
Borealis hung over behind her silently with his hand just at the edge of her shoulder.
She grit her teeth fiercely and ran over to Justek, who huffed and panted as Temporis tried to help lift his head up.
There was no light in Justek's eyes and a deep crimson mark glowed beneath his tattered clothes. Temporis felt sick just looking at it.
"W-Who's there...?" Justek muttered like a panicked child, "Help me...Please end the pain. PLEASE! PLEASE!"
"Daughter..." Borealis murmured, earning the fierce ire from Temporis' narrow glare.
Borealis entered the room with a tender look in his eyes and tried to speak up, "This is not what it looks like."
"What. Did. You. DO TO HIM?!" Temporis growled back.
"...This is for the protection of our people."
"No," Temporis shook her head and no longer had any care left to give, "No. No. NO. You've used that excuse enough! My friend isn't going to become a part of your bullshit! I won't let you!"
Temporis began to lift Justek up atop her shoulder and Borealis just stood there, murmuring in a disheartened tone, "Please, I beg of you, I don't want to stop you."
"Ha, that's funny, dad," Temporis shook her head and concentrated on her Drive, "You've never touched me."
She stopped time and ran as fast as her legs could carry her. Time resumed by the time she passed out the room but she immediately stopped time again, even as her head was throbbing in pain.
Justek was being dragged along with his feet getting battered against the ground but Temporis didn't have time to stop and get him in a better spot.
"T-Temporis, you...?" He muttered weakly.
"I'll get you out of here Justek!" Temporis declared with fierce determination.
"No, it's too late for me. S-Save yourself..."
Temporis kept stopping time for longer periods and at such frequency that eventually, her Drive bracelet began to dissolve into her skin, "I can save you! There's nothing my Drive can't do!"
The black tendrils began to encroach upon this memory as Temporis neared the edge of the city. But as she made the final push through the barrier, she found Justek begin shoved right off her shoulder while she was sent tumbling onto the ground.
She sprang back up with her head throbbing like a migraine and dragged herself back to the barrier. She reached down through it and grabbed hold of Justek's hand, trying to pull him back out.
She found herself repeatedly slamming his hand against the barrier, unable to get it through.
She let go and hung over panting in frustration until her father's shadow loomed over her.
She looked up and he was standing over Justek, helping him up onto his feet by wreathing him in aura, "Arcavira won't be leaving the city anymore. This is his home now."
"A-Arcavira...?" Temporis slowly and profoundly shook her head in disbelief, "Y-You...you used THAT on him...?!"
"I had to to-"
"No!" Temporis shouted, "His name is Justek! And he's got friends who will help him!"
She swung her arm out and screamed at the top of her lungs, while the black tendrils dug deeper into this memory, "He doesn't need you! Or your 'shelter'! Give him up! Give him up NOW!"
"Temporis, come back inside. Please, it's not safe out there." Borealis whispered.
"You know what, dad..." Temporis squeezed her fists against her hips and began to cry, "It's either me or him. Pick one and lose the other one forever..."
Temporis waited with the faintest expectation that even now, there would be some glimmer of a father in this man's voice.
But even a moment's hesitation was too much for her to bear. And when his eyes began to water and he started to look away, Temporis scowled and whimpered.
"I-I knew it..." Her voice cracked, "All you care about is yourself."
"You think you're doing your people a service by protecting them...? You're not. This barrier isn't to shield them from the outside, it's to shield YOU."
"And this limited world of yours..." Temporis grabbed hold of her robe, "Is one I don't want ANY part of."
She tore it right off and stomped it into the dirt.
"Temporis, don't do this. All I've ever wanted...is for you to be safe."
Hearing him say that only made her rage worsen. She turned her back, unable to stand the sight of him for a second longer, "Justek...I swear, Sarajin and I will get you out of this Hell someday! Wait for us, we WILL get stronger together...!"
Temporis then hopped off into the horizon, as the blackness fully consumed this sight, replacing the dead air with haunting laughter.
"Sooo...THIS is your weak point."
Temporis gasped and was expunged from her memory, sent tumbling through the void of her consciousness. She found herself surrounded by a black mist and the realization hit her like an arrow through the head.
"Now I remember! You're trying to worm your way into my mind!" Temporis swung her arm out and exclaimed, "Well tough luck, you black beast! This body doesn't belong to you, so get out!"
"Why are you hostile to my presence?" The demon's smiling face separated itself from the rest of the fog and wiggled it's way around her like a wisp, "I can help you, you know."
"Yeeeeeah, no thanks."
"So cold, and yet..." "D." swung over to the other side of her head in an instant, "Hasn't that been the word to describe most of your life?"
Temporis grimaced as the demon's smiling maw eased it's way against her face and forced her to look ahead, "Your life has been simply unfair, hasn't it? A mother who died to create you...A father whose love has been denied to you...A sister who has taken everything from you before you ever had a chance to have it."
"It's all so cruelly unbalanced, isn't it? But together, we could shift that balance in your favor, and punish the world for it's abuse."
"Oh yeah, I'm just going to give up and listen to the DEMON."
"What you make of me is what you've been allowed to perceive. But who I am is Darkness. What I am is Salvation."
Temporis swung her arm to cut through the darkness and repel his grinning face, "Get real! Who would ever call you a savior?"
"I can make a believer out of you. Just think...All your problems could be solved in an instant, either in life, or in passing..."
"No thanks! I've already got everything I could want!"
"You're a terrible, terrible liar."
"...Tsk!"
"But I know what you crave. You want attention. So that dear old dad will love you."
"Shut. Up!" Temporis faced the demon's smile and told them bluntly, "Who needs him when I've got friends who care about me?"
"Oh yes. All those 'friends' of yours..."
The consciousness began to quiver, and Temporis felt it the most, "Whoa! What was that?!"
"Mmmm, that foolish dad of yours is still at it..."
"W-What?"
On the outside, Temporis' body was suspended unconscious in mid-air by a bed of energy in the middle of her father's Atelier.
Potions and ingredients were strewn along the ground and books either laid open on the ground or were partway into the shelves.
Borealis scrambled back and forth with his skin pale and in a cold sweat, three books drawn before his face at once by bands of aura. He swung his gauntlet out with a grunt and shut them, throwing them carelessly to the side while reaching into the nearby shelf to start flipping through another book.
"T-There must be something in these books...!" Borealis muttered with a clear and present tone of panic.
With intense frustration he threw that book to the ground and furrowed his brows shouting, "NO!"
He then stood before his daughter and with a brush of the hand, pulled apart the layers of her body to see her spiritual framework. Her head to her shoulders has already been devoured by a slowly advancing black fog, with tiny, tiny tendrils wiggling their way out from the frame.
Borealis lifted his head and stared at the dozens of boxes detailing all the finer details about her daughter, but the information was scrambled up, translated into an unreadable language, or wiped out entirely.
"I've never encountered anything like this...!" He mumbled, sounding on the verge of defeat. And his desperation only grew from that dawning realization.
The boxes went on the fritz and were consumed with the demon's grimy black mug, which grinned across the screen and taunted him with a cacophony of laughter.
"Let my daughter go, you foul spectre!" Borealis cried with all his heart.
"Now why would I do that?" "D." replied with his eerie rasp, "I couldn't have asked for a better host!"
"Take me instead!" Borealis shouted, laying his hands against his chest as his face crumpled under the weight of all his distress.
"I'm not a fool to trust your willingness to surrender. Your daughter's laid bare to me just how much of a liar you truly are, Borealis Aurora."
Borealis' eyes widened and he staggered away from the body for a brief moment to catch his breath. But the pace worsened, making it harder to think.
He hastily applied the layers back onto her daughter's body until the brain was visible, partially coated in a black goop that made it pulse and throb like a tumor.
Borealis panted and heaved as his hands hovered over the black mass. His vision started to get fuzzy and the world swirled around him.
So yes, "D." loved to take a chance to rub his misery in further, "You could remove me by force, but who knows how much of her brain I'll tear off in the struggle."
"But you'll have your daughter back, in a perfectly obedient condition!"
Borealis squeezed his eyes and fists and then shouted at the top of his lungs, "I will NOT give in to your madness, demon!"
"Well I hope you understand, dad," The demon's voice began to blend with Temporis' as the fleshless jaw began to move, "It's me or you! Pick one and lose the other one forever! HA HA HA HA HA!"
Borealis dealt with his pain by slamming his fist against the bookshelf.
Outside the Atelier, the pacing Auris was shaken ajar by the weight of her father's punch. Her heart was racing enough as is with one hand tensing up against her chest and the other squeezing her elbow.
She bit her fingernail through her glove and continued to move back and forth across the same perimeter. Suddenly, her instincts stirred at the sensation of someone rapidly approaching.
She turned around with sword and shield drawn and was shocked to find a tired, battered and panting Sarajin coming into the hallway.
"Y-You...!" Auris' expression steeled with anger and confusion as he approached her without pause.
"I-Is this Lord Borealis' Ate-"
"Why are you here?!" Auris shouted with her sword poised at his neck.
Sarajin didn't flinch and stared at her down, "I-I don't have time for this, Auris. I need to be with Temporis."
"You were with her! And now...now she's been infected by a demon!" Her voice was raised, a tempo of rage as loud as her heartbeat.
"I-I know..." Sarajin whispered in pain.
"I entrusted you with her safety!" Auris painfully remarked as her grip trembled, "S-She would have been safer in here, but she chose you...Why did she choose you?!"
"I-I don't know..." Sarajin shook his head and his eyes were too dried out to cry, "Please...let me be with her now. I'm not giving up on her! Please!"
"I looked into those tired eyes and all I could see was his feelings laid bare...But they were not mine. I hated my sister the most in that moment, for she had stolen them from me beneath my notice."
"Because in the end, she has always been moving forward, while I...remained still."
Auris lowered her arms and dispelled her weapons as she stared at the ground and reluctantly muttered, "Go. Be with her."
Sarajin silently ran past her and opened the front door, leaving her alone with the bitterness in her eyes.
He came in to the sight of piles upon piles of books across the floor and Borealis on his hands and knees in the middle of it all, tears falling upon the covers.
Temporis was levitating in front of him like a sleeping beauty. But no kiss would save her from this fate...
"Temporis..." Sarajin whispered.
Borealis stopped and slowly began to stand, turning to look over his shoulder with a puzzled murmur of, "You?"
Sarajin bit his teeth and wondered, "L-Lord Borealis, is she...going to be ok?"
Borealis closed his eyes part way and hid his face away in shame. Sarajin's heart beat faster as this wise and powerful man exposed his weaker side in a tearful admission of defeat, "I've done everything I can short of tearing the parasite out by force. But the cost...!"
Borealis raised his hand before his face and then threw it down as a fist, "I cannot pay it!"
Sarajin looked at Temporis sleeping tenderly in place and his eyes began to water. But even in the face of despair, he still felt the tiniest bit of hope.
"We've still got a chance..." Sarajin remarked, trying to stay strong as his voice cracked, "You've exhausted all of your options, but there's still the other Tribes."
Borealis' eyes widened and trembled towards Sarajin's gaze.
Sarajin laid his hand against his chest and bowed, "Please, Lord Borealis, let me take Temporis to the other Tribes to seek their help."
"Take her...to the other Tribes?" Borealis mumbled back.
"He'll never do it," Temporis' consciousness assumed, "He'd rather die right here then-"
Temporis shook and she watched as her father extended his hand back and began to delicately carry her body over to Sarajin, where she would be cradled in his arms.
Borealis' eyes watered and he laid his hand against the side of his daughter's face, barely able to keep the strength of his voice together as he brushed her hair, "Ever since she was born, her eyes have shone with her mother's light, even as she despised me with her gaze...But no matter how much hate of hers I have to bear...She is my daughter, and I will always love her more than anything in this world. Do whatever you must to save her. I do not care if my life is the toll, just please..."
The tears rolled down his cheek as he begged with all his heart, "I cannot bear to lose another close to me..."
The tear dripped off his chin and onto Temporis' heart. The figment of her consciousness felt a warm ripple within the void and clutched her hands in front of where her chest should be, "...!"
Sarajin slowly nodded and murmured, "I understand, Lord Borealis."
He smiled and looked down at Temporis' soft, resting face, "I love her too."
Everyone was silent, with Auris hidden beside the door frame, her hand flat upon her fluttering chest.
Temporis, meanwhile, found her consciousness shaken, and all she could say was, "...Damn it Sarajin, why did you have to say that NOW."
"D." grumbled and groaned, grinding his teeth together in the void, "How irritating...love. What can he possibly hope to save with that? The end is inevitable..."
He withdrew into the black fog with one last grin aimed at Temporis, "Enjoy your last moments of freedom, as your 'friend' struggles and fails to protect you. Heh heh heh..."
And just like that, Temporis awoke with a gasp and hopped right out of Sarajin's arms. She looked into his eyes with her usual grin and feigned ignorance, "Hey Sarajin, how you doing?"
"Are...are you holding up ok?" He wondered.
Temporis closed her eyes and put her hands behind her head in comfort, "Oh sure, I'm fighting that demon off juuuust fi-"
Her eyes widened and she staggered forward, nearly falling on her knees before Sarajin grabbed hold of her arm to help her up.
Borealis then remarked, "The black monster's parasites will consume her mind within 48 hours even if she keeps resisting...That's all the help I can offer."
"It won't take that long," Sarajin said with his hand on Temporis' shoulder, "We'll vanquish the parasites, together."
Temporis crudely brushed him off and then made her way out the door, "Well what are we waiting for then? Let's banish this demon!"
"Be safe, my daughter." Borealis' final words to her gave her pause, but she didn't reply back.
As the two made their way out the door, Auris sprang off from the frame and approached them from behind, "W-Wait! Let me come with you!"
They looked back with surprise at her offer and she scrambled to try and justify herself to them. Though her stalwart demeanor left a lot to be desired, "Y-You both must be physically exhausted by now. Let me lend you my strength in case you need to fight off any of those wretched Rot Walkers."
Sarajin smiled and remarked, "We'd be happy to have you along, Auris."
He continued to walk along and Auris followed him from behind. As she passed her sister, the two shared a brief glance and then refused to look each other in the eyes as they left the palace behind...
"I knew we were nearing the end...That my sister's life was like sand in an hourglass. The most I could do for her now was be the one to put her down before the demon took hold of her mind forever..."
"This was not blood meant for Sarajin's blade. I had been trained to be a clear and concise warrior, who could not hesitate to fight if necessary..."
"...But I would come to hesitate, and what would happen next...would be a far more cruel punishment upon me."
Next Time: The Bunny Who Hopped Through Time