Chapter -63: What It Takes to Kill
Carmine was the target, the silver shrouded warrior was the killer, and Darnia was the last line of defense standing between them.
It became quickly evident that the assassin would not be repelled quietly, for despite the weight of Darnia's swings the silver one was able to bend around them and continue pressing forward in search of an opening.
Darnia stepped back and wound up his swing in both hands before delivering a vertical gale slash that burst upon passing the assassin.
The assassin tumbled to the side and then tried to swerve in a wide arc towards Carmine's backside.
Slow as the growth of a plant comparatively, Carmine would have to rely on Ividae's reflexes to shield him with oaks growing from barren ground.
The assassin persisted with a guided hand, their blades sharp enough to leave the wood cleaved cleanly through.
But any time gained from resisting helped Darnia move into position. He used a pocket from his scythe to fire off compressed air and knock the assassin back, where they flipped to land comfortably and then fleetfoot their way back towards them.
Darnia levitated around Carmine, locking onto the assassin's hollow gaze in an attempt to calculate their next moves.
His brittling bones cracked under the pressure of the assassin's thin cuts, but not as much as he expected.
While he fought off their enemy he relayed any thoughts he could manage to his ally, "This assassin isn't as strong as I expected."
Carmine remarked, "But their speed is enough of a concern."
"A fitting strength for a coward." Darnia said in a firm, judgmental tone as he swung his scythe wide to cover the ground the assassin could run through.
The assassin dove into a slide and then kickflipped back, hitting the blade with just enough force to push Darnia's arm up overhead.
The assassin then landed on all fours and bolted straight for Carmine's legs with their knives crossed.
Carmine threw his hand up and a massive tree trunk erupted from the ground to clobber the assassin in the gut and carry them skyward.
The assassin pulled themselves and then launched off the top, running down the wood faster than it could grow and using the momentum to prepare a whirling slash.
The wood was then converted into ice by Darnia's hand and tripped the assassin up, giving him time to put his hand on Carmine and shove him out of the way.
The silver one hit the ground hard but before the dust had finished rising they were charging right back towards Carmine.
Darnia summoned vines from his hand and latched onto the enemy's arms and legs to hold them down. They were already prepared to cut them apart with a reverse grip so he had to act quick to fling them away.
The moment he did he braced both hands on his weapon and scoffed, "Seems our enemy is not interested in killing me."
Carmine raised his hand out and admitted, "Just as we figured."
"Good," Darnia said with a somewhat dark view of the situation, "Then we can use their single-minded focus to our advantage."
Carmine winced as he thought, "Assuming they don't have any other tricks up their sleeve..."
The shroud was an effective shield in hiding their assassin's identity and movements, but Darnia at least seemed to be able to get by on his experience.
Carmine, however, felt both a sense of helplessness and guilt over what he's being forced to do, "I'm not fit for long conflicts. My body is so brittle I'll die with one cut..."
"I don't want to hurt this person, whether they're a victim of the Ten Sages or a willing participant. But if I don't try and do my part, then more people will get hurt."
"So please, do whatever you can to help me, Ividae."
The vine nodded and with a firming of his glare Carmine pushed his fingers out and called forth a bulbous, tropical colored plant by his side to start firing a barrage of black seeds towards their assassin.
While trying to dodge that the assassin had to slip by Darnia's compressed air slices too. They were as slippery as a sea sponge, as Brine would probably remark, but as long as the element of predictable was in their favor the two Genesis Samurais would hit the assassin eventually.
When they came close to Carmine again, Ividae retaliated by summoning a giant leaf from the ground for him to ride on.
The assassin sliced through the stem but Carmine walked off to another leaf and kept moving until he was closer to Darnia.
Darnia impaled his scythe into the ground and split it open with many cracks, then released a pocket of air inside to send the broken rocks hurtling at the assassin.
The assassin's movements became a blur as they went from ground to sky using the rocks as platforms, trailing their movements with streaks of starlit silver.
They then propelled themselves forward in a spiral towards Carmine. Darnia barred the way, using the middle of his scythe to guard their charge.
On rebound the silver one was vulnerable to be ensnared in vines. This time Carmine and Darnia worked together to cover more of the body and ensure the wrists wouldn't see use.
They then brought them crashing down and started to drag them in closer, with Carmine trembling all over, "T-They're resisting a lot...!"
Darnia then assured him, "Stay focused! I will be the one who unmasks our enemy..."
The best laid plans always crumble under the element of surprise, and now, left with no other choice, the assassin revealed theirs.
Before either Genesis Samurai could blink, there was now a second silver one that jumped out of the first and began running atop the vines with a second set of knives in hand.
Darnia was stunned long enough for the assassin to run in and get a free kick on the side of his face to get him out of the way.
This loosened the vines enough for the first silver one to slice free and run in to join their copy. Together they jumped in unison in separate directions and filled their knives with silver light.
Darnia quickly raised his hand and erected a wall of diamond in front of Carmine. The assassins couldn't cut it with their first slashes crossed diagonally into an "X", but when they jumped back in the opposite direction their cuts sliced through and sent the upper wall flying.
Darnia still latched onto the upper half and threw them back down to keep the assassins away from Carmine and in the air, they didn't have enough strength to cut them down.
Instead, upon landing the two assassins ran together and upon contact, the second one released a blinding silver flash.
It was powerful enough that Carmine lost his hearing to a high-pitched sound coming from his overwhelmed brain.
He slowly regained his senses and the first thing he noticed was that his heart had stopped for a moment, causing him to gasp and pant while a wild flurry of plants came to his aid to fend off the assassin.
The silver one twisted and ran through the mass entanglement, fighting and running along the wood spearing out of the ground.
Carmine then gestured for the vine and remarked, "Settle down Ividae, we need them alive!"
The assassin continued to lop off all the foliage in its path unimpeded until the wood began to crack and burn up at a rapid pace.
They paused and fell back as the whole plethora of greenery was turned into a red and orange inferno by Darnia's touch.
Darnia withdrew his heavy hand from the dispersing ashes and made a quick, apologetic remark, "Forgive me, Ividae, Carmine.
"Do you have a plan?" Carmine said, no offense taken.
"I thought we could wear them down with smoke." Darnia answered, and indeed there was tons of smoke to deal with.
But all this gave was proof that breathing was a non-issue for the silver one, as they punctured themselves through the smoke cloud with little slow down.
Darnia waved his hand to get Carmine aside and then positioned his scythe to fire two compressed air blasts at the assassin.
The first slowed their descent, the second was sliced through, with the assassin guiding their hand forward to throw the knife ahead.
It hit Darnia's scythe at just the right angle for the curved blade to latch on and spin around, so that when the assassin landed and grabbed it, they could try to dislodge the scythe from his hands.
But he was stubborn much like his son and stamped his foot down on the silver one's toes, using this to press forward and shove the handle against the underside of their mask.
"Show us your face already!" He grunted with effort.
"Darnia watch out!" Carmine shouted, summoning a flurry of vines around him and their foe right as a second one jumped out of their body.
The copy flipped and twirled their knives to slice through the vines until they covered enough distance to vault over them all in one go.
It then used the first one's head to bounce over and make their way towards Carmine.
Carmine was sweating as he flicked his fingers up all at once to summon another oak to hit them higher. The copy was knocked up but threw their knife at the last second, managing to slice into Carmine's left arm.
"AAAAUGH!" He shouted, the oak losing pressure while he bit his teeth to restrain any further pain coming out.
Darnia turned away from his target and then jerked them towards the ground, stabbing his scythe's blade in and enforcing the bottom of the handle with tight vines to pin them down.
He then whipped his hand back and uprooted the tree. The clone tried to stick to the top and slide down, but he threw them away into the air like they were on a javelin.
Through his panting he then shouted, "Are you ok?!"
There was blood leaking down Carmine's arm but Ividae was able to brace it with a growth of multiple leaves, "I-I can make it. You?"
"I hate to admit it, but-" Darnia winced as he heard a loud snap, and turned to see the assassin viciously cutting the last vine loose.
Darnia threw his hands against the ground to summon a small radial cone of ice and spikes to force them back for a few seconds.
Carmine looked between him and then back to the clone, who has long since vanished, seemingly recalled to the assassin.
He then focused on Darnia and saw that he was tiring out, "His age is working against him. There's only so long he can keep this up."
Ividae's vine was feverish, and though Carmine felt his concern he tried to keep a smile going as he worked his mind to the bone to come up with a plan.
"I know we're struggling, but I can't run away now..." Carmine confidently raised his wounded arm and slanted his gaze, "There's still something I can do to help!"
Once Darnia was standing and the assassin resumed their killer's charge, Carmine raised his voice ever so slightly to say, "Darnia, I have a plan to identify the real assassin from the copy. Once it's done, you'll need to focus on getting the mask off so we can exhaust their ability to breathe."
Darnia gave only a nod and then swept his scythe off the ground, hunched over and ready to meet his target straight on.
The assassin clashed with him a few times, using the swift strikes to push itself further into the air where predictably, it would soon summon its clone to dive after Carmine.
But the Genesis Samurai of Nature had determined he would stand in the face of death and defy it.
With the help of his friend and allies aid giving him comfort, he rooted his feet in the ground and summoned one yellow, bulbous plant. It inflated to the size of his head and then spewed out a thick cloud of pollen at the silver one.
A couple seconds and one glint of silver later, the clone flew from the pollen cloud, identifiable by having less pollen stuck to its cloak.
"I knew it..." Carmine then carried himself higher into the air via the roots at the base of his clothes, trying to play keep away while Darnia dispensed with incapacitating the real one.
The assassin attempted to escape around Darnia but he was ready for their movements and swung the blade of his scythe to intercept their mask the moment they tried to slide under it.
"You're not getting away." He uttered coldly as he dragged them around in a wide arc and then slammed them against the ground.
He then closed his eyes and extended his hand out towards the ground, "So, your mask is composed of silver and ceramic glass..."
He had to concentrate while the assassin was struggling to stand. There were flaws in the craftsmanship, and he targeted them at key points in the center until they were pushed to the brink, causing the whole mask to tremble.
The assassin stood tall and drew their knives, reaching the crucial juncture of realizing that this elder man was in the way.
But as they prepared to leap forward, Darnia's eyes widened, containing the ferocity of the storm, "How unfortunate for you...!"
The mask broke apart, the various pieces falling to the assassin's feet as their unrelenting charge began to slow, and then staggered forward.
Darnia was readying his scythe to begin swinging away their enemy's air. Then, his heart stirred with a frantic pulse.
"W-What..." He said with a lifeless gasp, his skin going pale.
Carmine suddenly saw the clone disappearing from sight and from his position up high he looked down at the assassin, their face now exposed for all to see.
Long, draping silver hair unfurled from atop their head and they had soft, glistening skin, with a face that could have only belonged to a young teen.
When they looked up they were gasping, quickly breaking into a sweat as their pupils shrank as far as they could go, leaving only a confused, frightened child staring at them.
They took deep, hefty breaths and their knives clanked upon the ground.
"What is this...?" Darnia said, shifting between thoughts of confusion and utter outrage.
The longer Carmine looked at this person, the more their distinct appearance made him feel like he should know who they are...Which only made their presence here more disturbing.
He brought himself to the ground and tried to approach the panicking girl with his hand extended out.
"What is your name?" He whispered.
The girl's eyes retracted into their sockets and with a chilling, teeth biting hiss they swiped their knives off the ground and fled.
They tripped and stumbled but before either Genesis Samurai could mount an attempt to call them back, they were a speck over the sunset horizon.
Carmine hung his hands and muttered in a daze, "Who...who was that?"
That he couldn't put a name to their face was going to plague him for days on end...
As he stepped forward his foot retracted in pain from the shards of the mask. He then set his sights on looking down and picking the largest piece off, which contained an eye hole.
Darnia joined him and picked up the next largest piece, trying to do a side-by-side comparison with a stray remark of, "There is something abnormal about this mask..."
"Everything about this situation is abnormal. Our killer was...just a child, of all things..." Carmine was saddened, bordering on anger, a feeling that would only get worse once he began examining the backside of the mask shard.
"Haaa...!" He gasped, his gaze freezing upon a faint, grainy texture applied to the backside of the mask. It was colored violet with hints of black.
It was pollen.
"Him..." Carmine's eyes narrowed, his hand shook...
Closing his eyes, he tried to keep calm and analyze the situation for what it was, as the sun, and thus his time, was running short...
"This mask was laced with pollen. The assassin must have been breathing it the whole time," He remarked while looking at Darnia, "And perhaps...once we robbed her of that connection, they had no urge to kill us."
"A pollen that drives a person to kill..." Darnia said with a grim tone.
"Or, perhaps something else entirely..." Carmine added on to this grim atmosphere, letting out a deep sigh before pocketing the piece of the mask beside his hip and waving his hand out, "This involves my domain. Let me look into it later."
Darnia nodded, "Ok. I will help whenever you call, but I must wonder...What will we do, now that we've lost our assassin?"
Carmine focused on the evidence at hand and suggested, "We still don't know who the mastermind is, but I think these mask fragments will be enough to dissuade Valic."
"Alright. I'll trust your judgment."
Carmine frowned, "...Thank you for all your help, Darnia. I'm sorry I couldn't do more to assist you."
"You did plenty," Darnia said, putting his hand on his shoulder, "There is nothing to feel ashamed over."
Carmine's thoughts were as heavy as his feet as they made their way back to Oreore. The guards pushed the gate open and they were allowed to head in and find Ezekiel.
He was safe at home, where his whole extended family was working together to keep an eye on Valic, whose wrists were chained up with steel.
Pitori had a real curious look in his eyes, focused on the man, and leaned in with his hands pressed between his legs.
The high tension in the room was keeping him from saying anything though.
Once Carmine and Darnia entered the room, Ezekiel turned to their attention and stood up with a mildly shaken look, "Oi, didn't expect to see ya here sir."
Carmine reached for the mask fragment and threw it to the ground at Valic's feet, upright.
"Do you recognize this?" He asked.
Valic stared deep with a stammer from his voice, "T-That's...the face of..."
"The killer?" Carmine said calmly, "Yes. We were able to lure them out of hiding and unmask them..."
"The mask they wore seems to have been laced with a pollen that drove them to kill without remorse." Darnia added.
Cecilia's face became stunned while Ezekiel's mouth went agape with a pale uttering of, "Holy mother of...Yer kiddin'? That sneaky bastard Glade's at it again?"
Valic looked around the room in wild confusion and then stood up to raise his voice, "Hold on...you know the assailant by name?"
Carmine quickly intercepted before things could escalate, "No, the Sage we're dealing with was not the assassin but rather, someone involved in their creation."
Valic turned and scoffed, "Excuse me?"
"It was a collaborative effort meant to sow the seeds of further discontent between your Tribe and Oreore."
Valic narrowed his eyes, "And so you know who masterminded the assassination attempt?"
He pressured him with his fists tight at his back and teeth grit, "Because none of this means anything, if I don't know who killed that bright young man!"
His voice shook the people present, his rage and fear was palpable...
But all Carmine had to offer was a vague possibility of success in the future, "We've narrowed down our options to two of the Sages. I'm sorry, that's the best we could manage. The assassin escaped before we could question them at all..."
"So they'll strike again..." Valic muttered, "Why should I believe any of this in the first place? You're clearly biased towards this barbarian's lot!"
"Enough!" Darnia roared like a lion as he stepped forth, gently putting his hand on Carmine's shoulder.
"This is much larger than you and your desire for revenge. The assassin was after this man's life too, and yet he risked it for the chance to bring back anything that would give you closure."
"Yet you choose to stew in paranoia and hate, risking more lives and for what...?"
Darnia bit his teeth down and growled, "Are you not the smartest man in your Tribe? Then start acting like it, and forge onward, LIVE for the dreams of the young man who can no longer make his a reality."
"H-How dare you..." Valic's voice cracked, his eyes wobbling on the verge of tears.
With a whimper and a huff through his nose, his head fell limp and he let out a gasp, "No...no...you're right. You're absolutely, positively right..."
"I'm a scientist...I am a master of all things electric. I...presumed I was untouchable. But my theory was proven wrong...in the face of cold steel."
"In my grief and rage towards myself all I wanted was to inflict my bitter will upon anything I could hold power over, and in lieu of that assassin fleeing the scene like the coward they were...I turned to the next closest target of my hatred."
He then turned his head up at Ezekiel and with completely tired, empty eyes he muttered, "...I'm sorry."
Ezekiel's expression turned tender and with a flick of his fingers the chains snapped off of Valic's wrists, but he could no longer look him in the eye and instead faced Darnia.
"Can ya escort 'im home? It's been a long day..." He said, exhausted.
Darnia nodded, then extended his hand towards Valic with a softer tone of voice, "I'm sorry for the way I acted. But I swear upon my life, we will not let this mastermind get away with this. My son will definitely assure that."
"Son...?" Valic took another look at the man's face and let out a dry chuckle, "Ah, you're his father. Heh...I suppose thunder roaring from the clouds...is the only thing that can shake lightning."
He said no further words as he was escorted out by Darnia.
And in the absence of his presence, a certain shadow was free to take its place.
"Well done." Atrax's emergence spooked the people here into turning on him with weapons drawn.
Atrax then chuckled, "Sorry? Am I interrupting the celebration?"
Carmine lowered his hand and glared at him with intrigue, "You were watching the whole time?"
"Of course. I do love to watch a good mystery unfold."
"Then are we close?" Carmine asked.
"Close, and yet farther at the same time," Atrax said, not helping his cryptic tone being the amusement he seemed to take towards his curiosity, "But at least the crisis at hand has been averted. Thank you, sincerely."
"No. Hold on," Carmine said with a forceful gesture, "The assassin...they were a teenage girl with silver hair. Who was that?"
Atrax froze still and then it felt as though the air widened around his face, indicating a smile, "You don't know? Then you haven't been paying enough attention, fu fu..."
As Carmine started thinking it over, Atrax gave a quick, blunt remark, "Sorry, no hints this time. It's been enough of a risk helping you this much today."
"I'll figure it out eventually." Carmine admitted.
"I hope you do." Atrax said, sinking away into the shadows.
Ezekiel then crossed his arms and admitted, "I ain't ever gonna be comfortable around that fella..."
Carmine then approached him, leading to him asking, "They're targeting you now...?"
"Don't worry about that right now," Carmine said, trying to hold back his worries, "There's a lot we need to talk about...And this may involve your Tribe more than we expected."
While information was being exchanged and theories were being proposed, a certain Light moved through the darkness...
In the crevices between Light and reality, Lunis had staggered back into the realm of prisms with her toes bruised and her whole body sweating profusely.
She was on the floor, elbows flat down, as she gasped and cried and teared up until she was beginning to hiccup.
Her mouth was soon dry and all she could think about were the clear flashes of everything that had happened from morning until now...
A knife thrust into a heart.
Blood spewing like a geyser.
Her body puppeteered into a relentless hunt for one man...
And the crushing weight of all coming crashing down once she was free of the mask...
"Ah...! AAAAH!" She wailed in a hoarse tone, grabbing the sides of her head and tumbling around, wanting to shake these bad memories free.
The slow, methodical clatter of footsteps bore into her head, as a long, thick shadow fell over her vulnerable body.
"Poor, poor, pitiful girl..."
Lilith trampled over her cloak to pin her down and then threw her sword over her shoulder, hunched down with her one eye filled with disgust, as her lips curled into a puffed out sneer.
"So worthless, so ugly, you couldn't even do what you were told right..."
She then began to grin, her voice dropping to the faintest of ill whispers, "It felt good though, didn't it? In the moment...when your blade penetrated the flesh...and blood spilled out..."
"THAT...is what it means to be in control...when you can TAKE what you want...even a life...!" Lilith's voice was getting lucid, and that was no more clear than in how hollow her eye looked from Lunis' perspective. Her saliva dripped from her hung tongue onto Lunis' face, making the little girl shiver.
"W-What...what do you want from me...?" She gasped.
Lilith pursed her lips together and then grinned, "It's not what I want, it's what you should want...And that's to please me, with every fiber of your being. You're a good child, aren't you? You'll LISTEN from now on, when mother tells you what's best...won't you?"
Lunis was still, and then Lilith slammed her sword upon the ground beside her and howled into her face, "YOU WILL LISTEN TO ME, WON'T YOU?!"
Lunis cried and nodded until she couldn't no more. Lilith slowly pulled herself up with a more stern, bitter look in her eyes, "Good."
She then bit her teeth down in a frenzy, "You failed me. But that's ok...! I am still in control, yes...A failure...can be amended, if something is gained..."
"Glade's pollen worked wonders...While you breathed it in, your body ignored your emotions, turning you into a perfect, obedient killer. Not bad...for a prototype."
"Heh..." She cooed, "I have big plans for you and that pollen...So next time, do not disappoint me."
She then pulled herself away and marched for the edge of this realm, where she passed through an unseen wall into the darkness of the vast empty throne room.
Her scowl grew firm, her eye tired and twisted, "Another damn inconvenience...How?! That pathetic plant-loving rat should be dead...! And the scientist along with him...!"
Huffing and puffing with stress levels at a peak, Lilith took to laughing as her medicine, unhinged in all but her jaw, "Someone is betraying me...And I will find them! I. WILL. FIND. THEM!"
She then put her hand against her head and dug the fingertips in, "I won't be denied...by fools...!"
She marched through the darkness, blind to her surroundings.
Ignorant...to the silhouette of a man scorned, meditating in wait for her passing...
The moment she passed she felt a cold chill down her spine as bones creaked and a figure rose to tower over her.
And before she could even observe it, the shadow lunged at her and assaulted her with a staff, slamming her against the closest wall and pinning her throat with crushing force.
"Gcckk...!" She slowly forced her eyes open and saw the face of consequences past glaring down with cold, tired hate, "Y-You...!"
Justek was before her, standing over her with unrelenting force and a silent demeanor.
He continued to press on, desperate to hear the first vertebrae of her spine break, waiting to see the blood fill her esophagus and mouth.
His hate was immense, denser than any black hole.
Visions of the pain his children endured burned into his retinas, and he forced them into her lifeless eyes.
Such arrogance...she dominated her surroundings, even vulnerable and taken off-guard.
Oh what joy there would be when he snuffed her last breath out of her heartless cavity...
She writhed and squirmed like the worm she was, and here, as the light began to fade from her eyes, he wanted to burn the last words she would ever hear into her soul...
"Witness ME, fouled light...I am your oblivion."
Through the pain of her last breaths, Lilith began to smirk, and its appearance seemed to brace her body against his overwhelming force.
"You...are nothing...wyrm..."
Sharp, blinding pain, a flash of red in the pitch black abyss...Justek felt warmth oozing out of his thigh. Lilith's sword had found its mark...
She dug the blade in deeper, using it to leverage her rise and ensure his fall, as she pushed herself further away from the wall and marched onward until she could drag this pathetic heel onto his back...
Her eyes were devoid of light and her expression a wretched twister of the worst humanity had to offer.
She dug her knee into his gut and twisted her blade around while slowly dragging her face closer to his, taunting him for her amusement...
"You've never killed a human before, have you...little foulblood?"
"Why. Is it. SO. HARD...for you to get how EASY it is...!"
She ripped her blade free and then rose, at the same time entangling Justek in chains of golden light to force him onto his knees.
Justek mustered his strength to break free, only for Lilith to break the chains by smashing her shield across his face.
Once blood had been drawn from the nose she switched to her sword, delivering a hard slash across his chest, grinning all the while.
"I don't know HOW you managed to escape...! I don't CARE...!" She said, now fully deranged.
"I am in control...! And you...can do NOTHING TO ME...!" She kept beating him down with both her weapons, bloodying them up and throwing Justek deeper and deeper into unconsciousness.
He started to growl strong, but soon began to whimper and cry. Every time it looked like he would fall down, she pulled him back up and started anew.
"WITNESS ME...!" Her voice echoed with sovereignty, "I AM YOUR GODDESS!"
And as she prepared to keep going at it, she stopped, and thought...
A sinister grin grew across her face and she dispelled her weapons...for Lunis was soon about to enter the room.
Justek's brain was rattling but he could feel her discordant demeanor from here. She was a mess, minutes away from breaking...
And his battered body was being kept here to help push her further along...
"F-Father...?" She uttered in a ghoulish tone.
As she tried to run over to him, Lilith honeyed her voice up as only the devil could, "See what happens when you fail, my dear, dear child? The bad men retaliate...and your father pays the price."
Lunis fell on her knees before her father and held his head up in her soft, warm hands, wanting to look him in the eyes, now drained of color.
"W-Who did this to you father?"
"It was the men of Pulsa Minoria. Those evil Genesis Samurais must have told them of your identity and somehow, they then managed to draw your father out to start taking their revenge on him."
"I found him crawling before my little temple, barely able to stand. It was a miracle that he's still breathing."
"NOW do you understand what happens when you don't kill the bad men? When you FAIL...?"
Lunis broke into tears and pressed her face against her father's chest, whimpering at the top of her lungs, "I'm sorry...I'm sorry I'm sorry...! I'll do better father...I'll protect you from being hurt like this again...!"
Justek slumped over and dragged his hands up to hold her tight, whispering back to her as his tears fell free, "No...forgive me...my child..."
He may have felt broken this time, but he wasn't completely consumed by despair.
His thoughts stirred, already ready to march on towards the next future...
"That's right...I may have failed. May have gotten arrogant...But I got to this point...With my own two hands I nearly took back what's rightfully mine...!"
"I can change my future...I AM stronger than fate...! And I will keep trying, over and over, endure every bit of pain it takes along the way..."
"Until I can create the future...where you die at my hands...Lilith..."
"...I will save you, Lunis. I will save you...Solaris."
"You gave my life a second chance...This...is the least I can do...as a father..."
Next Time: Loss of Identity