Author's Note: Last chapter. Enjoy!
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Ragnarok Online
Deadly Enchantment
Epilogue
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Keep going, just keep running.
There ain't no endgame.
Not yet, not now,
There are still things to do.
Just keep going, keep on running.
It's not over, not yet, not now.
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Trian shivered as he sat hunched over a book in Yuno's large, expansive library. It was the dead of the night, where even the librarians had left for home. He had not been able to sleep at all, a terrible thought worrying at his consciousness. Ever since he had 'escaped' from the Stream, he had been on the long, slow road to recovery. Immediately after he had 'awoken', it had taken several weeks to get his wasted body to accept food. It had taken a significant amount of effort to keep everything he ate down.
It took even longer for him to regain strength in his diminished limbs. Walking again had been a task that had taken painstakingly long. The darkness that clung to his left leg refused to go away, despite every healing spell and every purification rite his parents could think of. Trian could almost feel the thing eating away at him, slowly devouring the flesh beneath. He swore its creeping tendrils of darkness crawled just a little further up his body every day. Because of the darkness that clung to him, he had difficulty bending his leg, giving him a noticeable limp. His precious dragon-headed staff was being used more like a walking stick than something to channel his energy.
The valkyrie had called him a high wizard, a title reserved for only the most powerful of wizards. But Trian also recalled that the high wizard that he saw in his time in the Stream, Kathryne Keyron, caused mass destruction all over Rune-Midgard. Her power had been terrible, he saw that. But what about all the other past high wizards? Had they all been as crazy as she had been?
…He shouldn't have come here. He would have been better off not knowing. Phrases and sentences jumped up at him from the thick tomes he had gone through. Went insane…jumped off the tower screaming about serpents…destroyed a town before committing suicide…a note found written in blood saying "That damn snake!"…found screaming about snakes before consuming himself in a ball of fire…engulfed Rune-Midgard in an iron-fisted rule…the High Wizard Kathryne Keyron, bringer of Ragnarok…
Trian buried his face in his hands. What had he done to deserve this? This was everything he never wanted. He had been granted the gift of power, but he wanted none of it. Now he remembered the words of warning from his mentor. They were the very first thing the wizard had said, even before they had introduced themselves.
"The strength in magic does not come from using it when you can, but not using when you know you can. Magic gives the wielder a sense of power, of superiority over others. Why should a mage listen to a mere commoner's insults when they could easily turn the impudent fool into a toad? But by doing so, the mage is giving into their sense of superiority, giving into their sense of power. Giving into these desires is the first sign of a mage going to the bad. They will begin to give in more and more often. And when that happens, there's no going back.
Be careful. The reason why so many high wizards have turned bad, no matter how good they had been before, is because power is intoxicating. Once you have power, you realise that it might just be possible to possess the world…"
Some of those high wizards he had read about were better than him, but they, too, fell into the Stream's powerful lure. Trian let a miserable smile pass over his face. It seemed almost inevitable that he would spiral into insanity like the others. The easiest solution would be to end all this before anything happened, before he did something he would regret for the rest of his life. But he just couldn't bring himself to say goodbye to all the people he knew, to say goodbye to the life he enjoyed prior to the Geffen invasion, to say goodbye to his family…
Rubbing his eyes tiredly, he glanced up at the oil lamp he had left burning on the table. It spluttered weakly; it was about to give out any moment. The dying light seemed to flicker ominously, casting shadows over the book he held in his hands. An icy hand closed around his heart. Getting to his feet, he closed the book and reached out for his staff. He let out a scream of terror when he saw his dragon headed staff become the grinning face of the Stream's serpent. Dropping it to the floor with a loud clatter, he looked up into the mirror hung against the wall. The lamp light flickered, causing the shadows reflected in it to dance. And deep within the darkened mirror, he thought he could see a serpentine shape rise and twist in the darkness…
Crying out with a mixture of rage and fear, he seized the book beside him and hurled it at the mirror. With a terrible crash, it shattered, its glassy shards falling to the floor. But now he could see the serpent reflected in every one of them, grinning eerily up at him.
"No!" he screamed at that mocking face. "I won't become like the other poor bastards you drove mad! You can just take your shadowy ass back to hell!"
The snake simply grinned infuriatingly at him. Unable to bear the stare of those bloodshot eyes, Trian fled from the library.
"You can run all you want, but one day you'll come back to me…"
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Author's Note: It's done! Finally! (faints) The first complete story I've ever written! (feels so proud xD) Now to go back to working on Things Unforgotten…Comments and criticism welcome, as always.
