Chapter -10: For Whose Future?

The citizens of Sancturia were guided towards the churches by Borealis, Stonestein and Gabriel, where Borealis used his power of Alchemy to conjure up powerful defensive seals to keep them safe.

But still, many of the citizens were running around in a panic, difficult to corral.

Gabriel went off on his own to gather them up, leaving Borealis a chance to catch his breath and think through this stressful situation.

"How many have perished already...?" He whispered, leaning into a slump against the palace walls.

He slowly raised a finger for each, but could not surpass what both hands could yield before his heart ached.

"Lords..." He drew a hand against his face and felt Justek's hatred glaring at him from afar, but was unable to clue in to where his aim would strike from next.

"I only did what I thought was right all this time, and yet...Now, my people suffer for this decision. So was I truly serving the greater good...? Or..."

He curled his fingers across his face and rose to his feet. Planting his body in his friend's direction, he asked, "Should I surrender myself to him? Would that truly quell his wrath?"

Stonestein answered, "Right now, they are safe with us."

"Hold out. Auris or Sarajin will arrive."

Borealis gestured his hand out and raised his voice slightly, "This is MY home, I can't leave affairs to them. Not this time..."

"We don't know what Justek can do." Stonestein remarked.

"It's too risky..." His voice dipped into sorrow.

Gabriel then returned with a few more Aurians guided behind him. Their stoicism was broken, their faces fragmented into sorrow and confusion.

They were put in Stonestein's care and directed towards the church, the man's shield raised to banish any rift that may come.

"Lord Borealis," Gabriel spoke up in haste, "I have yet to run across Lady Auris in the city."

Borealis' eyes grew tender, and he turned away to spare this loyal man any show of weakness, "...So it's what I feared. Before the assault...her aura vanished from my senses."

Gabriel raised his brows with a gasp, "Then Justek...?"

Borealis squeezed his hands tight behind his back and trembled with a volitile mix of sadness and rage, his voice restrained to a murmur, "If he has...Then look away from me, Gabriel."

"For I shall become a man no longer worth even an iota of respect."

Borealis marched to his distraught pace while Gabriel continued to scour the city for signs of other Aurians.

Vermilion exited the palace afterwards mumbling aloud, "Where'd that brat go all of a sudden?"

A flash of another Aurian being smited caused her to direct her attention to the right and smirk, "Hooo, I've been missing some excitement!"

Thus she set out on a hunt within her own city for some action.

Meanwhile, the people of Aquamoria were forced to retreat from the seas they love and hastily craft spears and trident out of spare wood to fend off the advancing Vortexians.

"Hold the line, everyone!" Shouted Lulu, "If they get into the village, we're sunk!"

But not a single one of their weapons could pierce the mighty kraken's hide. It lashed it's tentacles at the waters, sending waves to knock down swathes of fishermen at once.

"Grrr...!" Lulu held up barely.

"Teach!" Brine came running onto the scene with Torren right beside her, and that's when Lulu's priorities came into focus.

"What's she doin' here still?! Get out! Yer the reason these things're attackin'!"

Brine's jaw went slack, "Now hol' on a moment...!"

Torren extended her own defense in haste, "I-I've never even talked to Justek before...!"

Brine gestured a thumb her way and stood his ground, "Yeah! That!"

Lulu shouted back in anger, "Well if that ain't a load of-"

"THIS AIN'T THE TIME FOR THIS!" Brine shouted back, leaving Lulu stunned speechless.

Left in a huff, Brine stampeded towards her and slapped his hand against his chest, "We gotta figure out a way to get through to Justek. Something's got his head in the fog."

Lulu bitterly bit her teeth and after a tense grunt she refocused her efforts on his idea, "Fine. Ya used to be his friend, maybe ya'd be able to get through to him?"

"Ain't talked to 'im in years, but...Maybe? Could be worth a shot."

Torren said aloud, "He wants me. If I go, he'll call off these things."

Brine turned around and shook his head and crossed his arms, "No way, then you'll die!"

He reached out and grabbed her by the hands as the fighting unfolding around them, "I need ya to keep our home safe, cuz ya have the best chance out of all of us of beating these landlubbers back."

Torren was aghast, then slowly came to accept the hand they've been dealt, "There's no way for us to go together."

As they held their hands tighter her skin became riddled with goosebumps, "I don't feel good letting you go. M-My chest...feels a bad omen coming."

"Then how about a kiss, for luck?" Brine said with his simplistic smile.

Torren smiled with wet eyes and leaned in, the two pressing their lips together tight and holding that position for what felt like an eternity, as conflict became silent around them.

When they parted ways, Torren's spirit rose with a light feeling. Brine valiantly dashing across the sand like a knight made her feel like one herself, instead of the lonely princess trapped under the moon's light.

She then spun towards the mighty kraken and with an eloquent dance, spun waves of water through the air that sliced through the monstrous tentacles with ease.

"I've done nothing to these people! This is my home...And I won't let you hurt them!"

The people handled the Vortexians, she made sure all the Kraken's foggy eyes were on her, for this would be the most heartfelt performance of her life.

Brine ran and ran towards Tanglefae to recruit Carmine, only halfway through realizing that the forest had to be completely defenseless against the Vortexians.

"Ah dang!" He picked up the pace until barreling between the palm trees brought him into the guarded forest, where, much to his surprise, it didn't appear to initial be in any distress.

He looked around and saw a clean line of rampage the Vortexians had gone through thanks to all the wilted plants and blackened bark leaking that irregular fog.

Following it along quickly brought him close to Ividae's domain, where he hit the brakes upon catching his friend...sitting near the Titan.

First gasping in shock, he spent a good few seconds staring at him before Carmine raised his head and remarked, "Brine? Why are you here?"

"Why are ya?! Ain't ya seen what's goin' on?" Brine asked, throwing a gesture at the black trail cutting through the forest.

Carmine hung his head and remarked in a partially neutral manner, "I noticed."

"So?" Brine threw his hands out, "Justek's lost it, we need to reach out to 'im and get 'im to stop before he wipes out all the Tribes in a tidal wave of revenge!"

Carmine raised his head with a notable glare, "Do we?"

"What." Brine stuttered.

"Maybe this is the break we needed. Justek will wipe out the Sages, and Sarajin will finally get the peaceful world he wanted."

"There ain't no way I'm hearin' this from ya." Brine remarked in sheer disbelief.

Carmine's glare worsened, "My daughter was nearly killed by their actions. I'm DONE being patient with them."

Brine immediately clawed into his coat and pulled him up while scowling. But immediately, he let go and pulled away, taking a deep breath before he bruised his friend's face something fierce.

"Fine. Glade, Lilith, there's a few of those bastards I'd wanna drown," Brine then lashed his arm out of the forest and exclaimed, "But Torren and the others aren't deservin' of Justek's vengeance and ya know it!"

Carmine's eyes widened.

Brine then wagged his finger at him and said, "Listen ta yourself. Agreeing to fight hate with hate ain't the path you've aspired to follow."

"If Sarajin saw this, he'd be tellin' ya the same thing I think."

Carmine looked inside of himself and trembled with hate. But the kinder man he was fought back, overpowering it, and making his eyes hang with sorrow.

"I...I wish we could just stop fighting this fight already." He admitted.

"Same here, chum," Brine muttered with sympathy, then extended his hand out and remarked, "But we ain't ending this fight without all our friends by our side. So whaddya say? Why don't we try getting through to Justek?"

Carmine looked over his shoulder at his shivering friend and asked them, "Will you be safe here?"

Ividae nodded, but not without a caveat that it seemed only Carmine wanted to be heard.

"Ok..."

He then turned to Brine and with eyes locked in determination he said, "Lets go save our friend from himself."

"Right on!" Brine cheered. And together, they left the forest behind to challenge the vengeance that swept through the world.

Still, the people stood and faced down the onslaught, seemingly infinite in design.

Vortexians continued to shove through rifts in pursuit of the Sages.

Cecilia and Ezekiel escaped Oreore and rushed towards Pulsa Minoria with the digging Vortexians in pursuit.

They received aid from the Tremorlords, who rose to devour hordes of Vortexians and drag them into the core to be disposed of by the crushing gravity.

Carolina and Nimus were getting back-up from the Titans of the respective lands to a point, as the Vortexians were toxic to their bodies and by extension, the weapons they could create.

The golden lands of Caimanabel were tainted black by the machines running amok. The strongest forces were sent here to crush the illusion of sanctuary to dust.

The masked priests fought tooth and nail to keep the dream alive, unaware that they were feeding into their leader's twisted desires.

As warriors fell for her worship, Lilith stood at the top of the staircase and brandished her hands towards the monstrous black swarm unafraid.

Staring into streets painted with red and the scent of panic, she smiled an illustrious smile and taunted the very one who manifested vengeance inside her walls, "You hide behind your puppets because you're still too childish to take a life yourself!"

"Ha ha ha...! Prove me wrong, you ill-blooded beast! Smite me where I stand, if you are not afraid!"

"But you won't...! You cannot raise a hand against salvation! You are a coward in your flesh, and fear rattles your bones!"

"This vengeance...is toothless!" She exclaimed as the lifeblood of more loyal followers spilled at the feet of her holy monument.

She screamed to the wrong soul.

Justek had his chance and knew he lost it. But his eyes had been open to all her failures, and the breakdown of her sanity that followed.

He smiled and laughed at how pitiful she was.

The mind had already been broken. All that needed to be killed was the flesh it inhabited.

Lunis dropped from the shadows behind her and hung her knives by her hips.

Unsteady hands kept them with her, and she quietly gulped before thinking about everything this woman had done, allowing her to keep moving forward.

She performed a weightless leap across the distance between them and pulled her knives back. Her eyes darted between neck, chest and legs, depending on how much her peaceless mind wanted her to suffer.

And she hated this feeling. All of it. It made her sick, she wanted to go away.

This was all happening too fast. But she knew this was coming. She didn't want to say it, but she knew it.

Her father was still a loving man, but he was always going to choose this path.

So she was ready to be by his side and take some of those burdens off.

And if he believed taking a life, just this once, would help, then she would stomach this feeling and do it.

Because there was no one more deserving of this than this woman.

Lilith let off a sigh and muttered, "Speaking of..."

Before Lunis' attack could strike at the nape Lilith turned and caught the knife in her palm. The scar was stiched back together by roots.

Lunis shivered as Lilith clicked her tongue and shook her head, looking at this girl with a glazed over expression of pity, "You poor, pathetic child. Never learned a thing..."

Lunis sliced her knife out of her grip and bounced back before remarking, "I did...!"

A second Lunis jumped Lilith from behind with cold eyes and sliced her head clean off. The body dropped to it's knees and the head rolled towards the real Lunis' feet, pointing upward with a smile and eyes wide.

Lunis trembled and covered her mouth before she threw up, "Ah...ah...! I-I did it..."

"I can...be myself..."

"And just who is 'your self'?" Lilith's voice haunting the atmosphere.

Lunis turned around and the doors of the palace flung open at the presence of thick vines, which grappled Lunis and dragged her into darkness.

Then it untangled to let her go at the real Lilith's feet.

Panting from the shock of murder on top of this, Lunis was forced to look up at the woman's face. Between the disfigured nature created arm and gold-plated eye, she was only half the person she used to be.

True monstrous intent beamed from her remaining eye and was like the gripping cold of nightfall. With a big smile, Lilith then puckered her lips and clicked her tongue.

"You THOUGHT you had the strength to make decisions on your own? You ugly, worthless child..."

Lunis tried to stand and raise her own voice in defiance, "I-I am my own person!"

"Since when?" Lilith uttered softly.

"A-Always...!"

"Tsk tsk tsk...Then why are you here?"

Lunis opened her mouth but her words were stolen by Lilith, rewritten to add a mocking bite to it, "To kill me?"

She craned her head back and the shadows under her brows illuminated a chilling sight from her eyes, "Would you have if that beast hadn't pointed you in my direction?"

Lunis opened her mouth again but found herself suffocating on her breath.

"No, because deep down, you crave what all the little lost children want...Guidance from the wise."

Lilith extended her hands and became basked in a golden light as she advanced upon the moon child, "You're thankful of what I've done."

Lunis bit her teeth and retreated slowly with a scream, "N-No...! You tried to make me into a killer!"

"Tried? I succeeded. You did not hesitate to try and cut my head off."

"Y-You deserve it for everything you've done!" Lunis shouted.

"You scream at me, but it has no bite. I suppose that's to be expected..." From her magic, came a mirror, which she levitated before Lunis' face, "From someone without a face."

Lunis saw a blank canvas where her face should be staring her back and immediately recoiled onto her rear, barely able to breathe.

Then, copies of Lilith surrounded her on their hands and knees, using every inch of their body to hold her softly, their skin cold but cumbersome to her ability to resist.

The true Lilith then dropped the mirror onto the ground, then pulled out a certain mask from thin air, "But I have it right. Here."

Lunis' eyes widened and her mouth was covered by two of the clone's hands.

"Pandemonium sweeps the land. This is the perfect opportunity, now more than ever, to kill all who have stood against my salvation. You should be delighted to serve me again...my Silver Shroud."

Lunis' vision went black as the mask was forced onto her face.

Gabriel ran through the city but was running into less Aurians over time. He was scared to look at the ground to confirm his worst thoughts...

Auris was gone, Sarajin was still nowhere to be seen, and their enemy played tricks with their eyes to keep himself from being caught.

He was loyal to the Ten Sages...would it only be a matter of time before he was used as a sacrifice to draw them out?

He thought back to the oath he swore to the great-great ancestors and how if now, this situation would have been avoided if they were here.

But if a simple change in time was enough to fix every problem then no one would try to make a difference.

He had to continue adhering to his beliefs in the here and now, and preserve every life that Justek seeks to destroy in his rampage.

There was little he could do to make a difference otherwise.

"MOM...?!" Cried out a voice in the distance that hushed his inner thoughts.

He stood upright and looked around, waiting for the voice to cry out again. It was a young boy in pain, familiar to his soul.

He ran in the direction of it and after a short while, crossed paths with the young Zeno wandering by himself.

"You..." Gabriel's heart skipped a beat. The boy was pale, he was coughing, he was shivering.

Lost and alone, Zeno looked him dead in the eyes and murmured, "Where's my mom...?"

Gabriel swallowed hard and admitted a half-truth, "She's fighting her own battle. I...choose to believe she'll be back eventually."

He then reached out to the boy's shoulder and it helped settle his nerves, "It's not safe out here. I'll bring you to Lord Borealis' care."

As he began to guide him along to safety, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up when faced with a dangerously aggressive presence.

"Hey, I remember you..."

Gabriel turned around and saw Solaris standing in the middle of the road with his sword planted in the ground and a mean smile reminiscent of Vermilion's across his face.

Zeno reached for his sword. The boy was sharp. He could tell who Solaris' aggression was aimed towards.

"But why?" Gabriel raised his sword and pointed it at the charred silhouette growing in front of him.

"Did your father send you after me?" He asked to try and divert the point of aggression, only to tremble in awe as it pierced through him.

"I couldn't give a shit about you, guard dog! But that little shit and I have some unfinished business!" Solaris roared.

Gabriel narrowed his eyes and held his sword before the center of his body, only for another point of aggression to come barreling down behind him.

He looked over his shoulder to find Vermilion standing atop a nearby roof.

"Heh, knew ya'd have to be here, brat." She chuckled.

Solaris calmed down slightly and shouted to her, "Master! Once I get payback on this brat for hurting you, I'm gonna give you the fight you've always wanted, so you better be ready!"

"Feh, why waste time?" She hopped off the roof and took two steps towards Zeno with a flame spurting off her eye, "We'll take him out and get right to the main event!"

Solaris grinned, "Sweet!"

Gabriel muttered to her in a flat tone, "What...?"

Vermilion grit her teeth and hissed, "Move aside, guard dog."

"You're talking about killing a child, what proper manners is that for a Sage to take?" He replied.

Vermilion widened her eye and growled, "That shit nearly killed me...! Move. ASIDE."

Solaris stepped closer, his footsteps burning molten craters into the ground.

Vermilion took two steps closer, her aura billowing smoke into the air.

Gabriel swiveled his position between the two, focusing more on Solaris, as hesitation kept him from drawing his blade upon the one he was sworn to protect.

Vermilion was slowly getting furious, "I gave an order, you bastard! MOVE! ASIDE!"

Zeno was only holding onto his hilt because his warrior instincts trained him to...but he was in no condition to fight.

Gabriel's heart continued to be pressured on both sides.

"...Zeno," He whispered, before decisively pointing his sword at Solaris alone. He calmed himself with heavy breathing and steadied his blade forward, "Come what may, do not attack me or this man."

He then glared down the fledgling sun god and declared, "I invoke the Rite of Singularity!"

Vermilion widened her eye and stopped in place, "You traitorous swine...!"

Gabriel shook his head and changed his stand so his blade was pointed out past the side of his face, "My oath was sworn to never let harm come to any who bear the Ten Sages' blood."

His grip tightened, his eyes focused, "The sun will not set on this child's future, that, I swear on this blade...!"

Brine and Carmine had crossed the wastelands in search of Justek out of suspicion that he'd be somewhere close to Sancturia.

Closing in on the city, Ividae's vine reacted on Carmine's shoulder by pointing upward, causing him to stop and see a cloaked figure pouncing at them from a nearby rock spire.

"Watch out!" Shouted Brine, narrowly running in to parry the figure's knives with his trident.

The figure repelled and their cloak unfurled across the ground as they landed. When they rose their feet poked out from the bottom of the cloak along with the rims of their blades.

There was no ignoring the mask or that silver hair curtained out behind it.

Brine went from surprised to annoyed in a matter of seconds, "Ya gotta be jokin' me. World's on fire and that bitch's still tryin' to kill us?!"

"Wait," Carmine remarked quickly, "Maybe we've incorrectly assessed the situation."

Pointing at Lunis standing stationary in wait for them to make a move, Carmine remarked, "Perhaps the reason for Justek's desperation is her still being under Lilith's control."

Brine's eyes widened, "So if we free her, he'll calm down?"

Carmine narrowed his eyes and muttered, "It's possible..."

Brine swung his trident and faced Lunis, "Then let's go!"

"Except...I haven't been able to develop a countermeasure for the pollen." Carmine said with regret.

Brine looked back and though his expression faltered he swung his optimism in their favor, "Worry 'bout gettin' the mask off first, we'll think of something then!"

Carmine nodded, then raised his hands with some hesitation.

Across time and space, he felt his thoughts cross paths with Justek's, "I know how you're feeling right now, more than anyone...That's why...I'll do everything in my limited power to save your daughter's life."

Justek felt a shiver on the back of his neck and grabbed hold of the front, choking up a bit while the grip on his staff grew tighter.

His children now faced the consequences of his failures.

He could only harden his gaze and continue to raze this city of lies bit by bit until the master emerged to face judgment.

His eyes would not look away, no matter how many tears pounded at the back...

Next Time: Destiny