The Infinite Chronicles

Act 8: Resurgence

Chapter 24

She was dead, there was no denying it. I sobbed into Zero's shoulder, which wasn't the most comfortable since he was rather small. Silverius punched Elanis hard enough to break some of her armor off. She kept fighting through her pain, bleeding and broken. But even she couldn't last much longer, as Silverius shattered her blade, putting her out of the fight.

Ace also got knocked out, now only Steve and I could fight, and our chances of winning weren't great. I grabbed my knives and ran at Silverius, determined to tear him apart. I dodged, sliced and dodged again. Every wound I dealt to him, it just regenerated just as fast. He grabbed my throat and held me in the air. "Well, it seems you and your little team ends here doesn't it?" he laughed.

"F-Fuc-k you," I managed as he squeezed my throat. I glanced at Steve, who was desperately crawling away from Corvin who was swinging his sword. He slammed his fist to the ground and skeletal arms held Steve and he readied his blade for the kill. I closed my eyes as he raised his blade over Steve. CLANG

I opened my eyes, a hexagon made from some golden colored material appeared over Steve, blocking Corvin's sword. I glanced at Grace, who was unconscious, so who was it?

"I will not be denied," Silverius was so startled he dropped me. A scream built up in my throat, Hazel's corpse was moving. Her eyes were pure black, and the sword was still embedded in her gut. Her hands clawed at the wall and she stood up. Suddenly, her eyes changed to a brilliant glowing gold. "I refuse death and defeat," her mouth didn't move, but the sound was definitely coming from hers, although it had tripled in volume and bass. "You will do no such thing," Silverius moved at the speed of light. I didn't see the counter, but the sound made me cover my ears. Silverius was launched to the far end of the room. She grabbed the blade in her stomach and ripped it out, her wound healed almost instantly.

"Awaken, Ontos, Aegis of Creation, I accept your power and I will not be afraid of failure!" the voice roared. Infinite's body began floating before he glowed gold and a new figure stepped out of the golden light. This time, a person covered in a shiny grey armor with orange lights and two wings that floated on his back, but they were not connected to his back in any way. He exuded confidence and had this aura of calm and power. Some golden sparkles appeared next to Ace and Elanis and they both started healing slowly.

He held out his arm and he pulled a sword out of a crackling blue rift. The sword activated almost instantaneously in his hand. The part I thought would split in half, moved downwards to the front of the handle, and a golden blade of light formed in the middle with its top being diagonal, rather than a normal double edged sword. He threw the sword at Hazel, who caught it without looking. She looked both impressive and terrifying, like a being with the power to destroy worlds.

"Time to end this," I gripped the sword. "Quite," Silverius dropped his cocky act and went all out. I didn't hold back either, slashing aggressively. This time, I was actually doing damage and I could see Silverius could feel it. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Steve and Jess healing Elanis and Ace. We were in harmony, the same sword, the same goal. Our fighting was much more effective than usual, I vaulted over him and midair I passed the sword to Ontos, who caught it and dealt a heavy barrage of attacks at Silverius.

Out of nowhere, Corvin slammed into me, but I could somehow sense how he was going to attack. I fell down to the floor, and used his momentum against me, sending him flying into a wall. Corvin and Silverius were moving at the speed of light, but I could move faster. "What is this power?" Corvin grunted as I countered his attacks over and over again. Sensing they couldn't win now, Silverius punched the ceiling hard enough to cause a collapse in it.

Huge chunks of metal rained down from above. We were forced to let go of both of them to help our friends. I saw his face one last time. "This isn't over kid," he mouthed. We shielded our friends as more chunks started falling down on us.

"So, what exactly is Ontos?" Ace asked after we survived the whole ordeal. We moved to another room and set up another camp there. After the debris had finally stopped falling down on us, Ontos had reverted back into Avalon. "Ontos is our true form, when we arrived in this world, both Infinite and I existed, only Ontos," Avalon began. "Eventually, he found himself to be too powerful and sealed that power away, the first and last person to see it was Luke, millennia ago, now, he can only be summoned if Infinite and I agree on it, which is rare," he continued. "You agreed that pineapple goes on pizza! Of course I disagreed with it, you weirdo," Infinite complained in my head. Avalon ignored it.

Infinite took over, "Ontos rather prefers to be called Zhen instead of Ontos, he thinks it's cooler or something," he said. This time, Avalon was in control. "Will you stop that, I'm trying to tell a story here," he grumbled. "Anyway, long ago, the humans of another world were very technologically advanced, and they found the Conduit, scientists claim it was a god, which didn't sit well with some people as some called it a heresy. Eventually, they started fighting, the group was called The Saviorite Rebels. During a siege on the facility where the Conduit was held, our father, a scientist named Klaus, activated the Conduit for an experiment, which led to the opening of many gateways to billions of worlds. Klaus, being the only survivor, decided to fix the world." Avalon switched to Infinite.

"Now, the Conduit is monitored by the Trinity Processor, which holds three data processing units, Logos, Pneuma and Ontos, and it's our job to process data being sent and received by the Conduit, and sometimes, the Conduit will try to open a gateway, and it's my job to close it, one day, it was too large and I got sucked into it and I appeared here, seeing how humans were dying out, we took pity and started reconstructing the world, using the biological blueprints that we had in our core, and done, history of the world," Infinite finished.

We took a moment to take in all this, different worlds? More Aegis'? Rather confusing. Then I remembered the vision of a sort of tall structure exploding in a green flash, I wondered if I had just glimpsed a part of the old world. "We'll stop here for the night, Ace and Elanis' wounds are serious," Jess wrapped another bandage over Elanis' arm. "Really, I'm fine," she tried standing but fell immediately. "Woah, calm down, blade eater or not, you still need to rest," I laid her down. She didn't like it, but I could see she was slightly relieved "Fine doctor," she laughed.

"How did friend come back from being dead?" Steve asked. All eyes were on me, but I looked at Infinite for answers. He shrugged, "Honestly, I don't know either, you really should have died there.". "Man, it sucks dying twice," I rubbed my stomach. Gran smacked the back of my head with her head. "Ow!" I rubbed the spot where she hit me. "Stop dying, you hear me?" she scolded. "Okay captain," I said meekly.

"Well I'm going to bed, see you in the morning," Ace crawled into his tent, despite his broken arm. Healing ether really is wonderful, but Jess said that it would still take a day for it to be fully fixed. I slid in my sleeping bag and sighed. "He's changed a lot y'know?" Gran said to me. "Who, Infinite?" I asked. "Very," she nodded "When I was with Jackson, he was arrogant and believed he could do everything himself, although he restrained from killing without emotion, that's what Luke taught him, the value of life.".

"How bad was he, before I was his driver?" I was curious now. She laughed "Oh my, back then, he would beat up Jackson for making mistakes, and during emotional moments, he didn't really care at all, but something changed with him, the longer he stayed with Jackson, the more he learned about love and emotions, that's why he treats you differently,". "Huh, well that's quite an improvement, well goodnight Gran, I'll see you in the morning," I rolled over to my side. "She's right, my back still hurts to this day from his beatings," Jackson complained in my head.

"I didn't know you were still alive, Elanis," I asked her. "Heh a girl like me would definitely live this long Infinite," she prodded the fire with a stick. "Still, it's impressive that you can still use your powers after five hundred years," I said. "You do remember that Silverius didn't just put any blade in me right? Plus, the old king is still alive, so I suppose blade eaters can live longer than expected," she said. "We'll help you reclaim your honor, promise," I looked at her broken armor, remembering the last fight we had. "That's if we survive tomorrow..." she muttered.

The next morning, after a hearty breakfast, we headed on. "I can sense something powerful beyond this door," I stopped. "As long as we have each other, we can win anyway!" Ace boasted. Jess smacked his head "We almost lost yesterday remember?" she sassed. I took a deep breath. "Let's get this over with," I pressed a button which opened the door.

And, as I predicted, Corvin was blocking our path. Infinite transformed to Ontos, I mean Zhen, and I felt a surge of power and my eyes glowed gold again. "Are you sure this is what you want?" I asked him, not yet activating the sword. He looked me dead in the eye "Of course, why would I be standing here in the first place?".

"Maybe because you are blinded by your rage and Silverius' lies,"Zhen's voice boomed. Corvin lost it. The look in his eyes became one of a wild animal's and he pointed his sword at him. "You of all people dare tell me that! Do you not remember what you did! The pain and suffering of many due to YOUR selfish goals?" he yelled at him. For a moment, Zhen wavered. Since we were as one, I could feel his guilt and desperation.

"Calm down, it wasn't all your fault," I said. "But it was, the war killed many of my comrades. I tried saving Corvin, but he became the monster he is today," he answered. "That's for later, we have to stop him now," I tried to reason with him.

We drew our weapons and the fight began. Despite fighting five people at once, he was gaining the advantage. Since only I and probably Elanis could react at the speed of light, we were the last ones left standing. Corvin landed a dozen of attacks on Steve, Jess and Ace in less than a second. They collapsed, as the amount of ether damage they had taken. I dodged his attacks, while Elanis reflected them.

"Why do you even plan to stop us?" Corvin furiously slashed at me. "For the better of mankind!" I slammed the flat of my blade. "Really? You would sacrifice your lives for a world of sin?" He flipped backwards, dodging Elanis. "The world has only brought me pain as well, but I believe it can change," Elanis said. "I was in your era, I too, believed the world could change, but look where we are now, the king of Erimos is still putting blindfolds over people's eyes, the Epitychiménos Trade Guild is full of corrupt officials, Viomachina is still using slave labor, Phantomi is tearing itself to pieces and Regeum still selfishly profits, so what changed?" He threw Elanis backwards.

I threw the sword at Zhen, who striked Corvin from a multitude of angles , forming a sort of cross-shaped pattern before it exploded in a burst of gold. "I know it's hard to just let the world move on and forget what happened, but we have to let go, I don't love this world more than you do, it's filled with despicable people, people who are selfish and greedy, but thats why I fight, I fight for a better world!" I punctuated the last word by striking upwards, flinging Corvin's sword and disarming him.

"Yeah that's right, that's my role, there will always be the ignorant and the greedy, but just because of those people, we shouldn't punish the whole world for it." I sheathed the sword. "Do you really think the world can change?" he didn't meet my eyes. "Positive, although it will always take quite the effort to convince such a stubborn generation," Zhen put his hand on Corvin's shoulder. "Quit hanging on to the painful past and move on, for the good memories are the ones that shape who you are, remember the good times we had when you were on my side?" Zhen asked.

"Heh, Teretl was such an idiot back then," Corvin laughed. "So remember Corvin, time is precious, and that every moment you spend with someone can already open up different worlds, and helping others means you are giving them more time," Elanis said. "Time..." he mused. "I am tired Infinite, a-and I wish to see her again," in one swift motion, he grabbed his sword and drove it into his chest, cracking the core crystal embed there.

"Why?" I asked. "When you've seen what I have, I prefer to just rest..." he started disintegrating in front of our eyes. "Promise me Hazel, you will help to change the world," he took my hand. "I promise," I said. He smiled sadly. "I believe my time is up, we will meet again, although, in a less than preferable circumstance, Sarah, I can see her...". And with that, he disappeared. Although your life was tragic, we will learn from it, and look forward to the future. May you rest in peace, Corvin.