Thank you, KaitheHotHead1 and TheGodsQuill, for your reviews! :)
A couple things before we start. First off, I apologize for all the weird formatting errors that have cropped up in previous chapters. I'm currently going through and fixing them. It'll take a couple more weeks for that to be over.
Secondly, my Facebook page, Go Ninja Go. If you haven't checked that out yet, and you're a Ninjago fan, please do so! ;) You'll probably like it.
Over
They ran for countless minutes before Cole finally allowed them to break. Breathless and weary, they sat at the top of a rocky hill- this area of the island had a rougher terrain than other places they had been, Besai noticed- and caught their breath. The ground had convulsed on and off as they ran, though the tremors seemed to be slowing.
"Those quakes weren't- aren't- natural," Cole said as another one shook the ground. "Overlord must be doing something."
"Which explains why we haven't seen him yet," Kai said. "I wonder what he's doing to Ronin and…" He trailed off uncomfortably, clenching his fists. He looked disturbed. Besai felt the same: Merv was in Overlord's hands. And he would either claim her as his slave again, or kill her. Besai wasn't sure which was worse.
"Where are we?" Kai asked at last. His voice was weak.
Cole craned his neck and looked over the trees at the bottom of the hill. "We're near the northern coast. I'd say about five miles east of Overlord's fortress. Look, you can see Lord Keith's old ships right down there." He pointed at the misty coast, ahead and to their right. In the distance Besai could barely see their masts through the fog, like the tops of burnt-out husks of trees. "Should we continue, or wait for Overlord to come to us?"
"Wait," Kai said without a pause. "He'll come for us soon enough, I'm sure. We might as well save our strength for the inevitable fight." He sighed, rubbing his forehead, looking pained. Something was bothering him that he wasn't telling them. "It'd be better to fight and take Sunseeker here than over where the other slaves could be inadvertently swept into the mess."
Cole nodded. He took Chedva from Sage and unwrapped her blankets. The infant was shivering, hair sticking wetly to her dark scalp. She cried feebly, and Cole's face darkened. He kissed her forehead. "She's too cold," he said, and gave her back to Sage. He took off his cloak and draped it over Sage's. "Try to warm up."
Sage accepted extra cloak gratefully and untied the front of her ragged, travel-worn dress to feed the child. Chedva whimpered, then latched on and went quiet. Sage stroked her dark fuzz of hair with a shaking hand.
"We're the last ones," Sage whispered. "No one else is left."
"That's not true," Kai assured her. "Ronin and Jay are alive. I can still feel them."
"What are they doing?" Cole asked.
"I can't really see where Ronin is," Kai admitted. "It's dark and full of water. Best as I can tell, he's swimming. And Jay…" Kai went back to rubbing his forehead. He shook his head. "I hate this power."
"Do you see Overlord anywhere?"
"Not anymore," Kai answered. "He was chasing Ronin for a while, but then...I don't know. He disappeared."
Besai put a hand on Kai's arm. She knew he must be seeing some terrible things, so she did not prod him for any more answers. Ronin and Jay are alive, she thought. That's good.
Then the implications of what Kai hadn't said sank in, and she jerked her hand back with a small gasp. Hrymerv…
Kai met her eyes sympathetically. Besai looked away, lips parted as she tried to comprehend what Kai had just communicated to her. Merv… Her sister, who had always been there for her. Merv had looked after her during their captivity. Shielded her from the worst of Overlord's abuse- especially when they were younger.
And now she was dead.
Cole caught their looks and stood. "I think I saw some good roots at the bottom of the hill," he said. "I'll grab us some to eat." He touched Sage's shoulder- a reassuring I'm here gesture- then left them.
He hardly made it ten paces before Overlord appeared in a cloud of yellow light and gave Cole a hard kick. Cole plummeted to the bottom of the hill, where he lay unmoving.
Overlord turned, drilling Kai with a white-eyed snarl.
Kai knew he should do something- stand up, draw his own Blade, protect the women- but he couldn't. Not while those malicious eyes held his. Seeing Overlord always put a chill in his bones, but there was an extra something that bubbled in his gut now like spoiled food. It made him want very badly to avert his eyes. It made him feel dirty.
…Shame. Kai felt ashamed. Not of himself, or even of Overlord. But the shame was there, an almost visible aura around the white-eyed Overlord, and anyone close to him.
"It's over!" Overlord screeched, and ran toward them with incredible speed, his Blade's yellow Gem glowing as if the sun itself come down from heaven to blind them all.
Get up! Moonsong said. Come on. This is no time to freeze!
The Blade pulled Kai from his trance, and he leaped to his feet, drawing both Besai and Sage behind himself. He barely managed to free Moonsong from its sheath and block Overlord from cleaving through all three of them at once. Kai let out an alarmed grunt and pushed against Overlord's Blade.
I have to take it from him! Kai thought. They had to use that Blade to escape. But now Kai was the only one who could make sure that happened. And he knew he wasn't strong enough.
Overlord shoved his Blade against Kai's. The former nobleman fell backwards into the rocks, smacking his head, and a sharp boulder nearly gored his shoulder. His fighting arm was momentarily disabled by that pain, but he jumped to his feet regardless, gripping the Blade in his left hand as he rammed his body into Overlord's. The pair hurtled away from the women.
Kai came to land on top of Overlord, and he pressed his Blade to Overlord's neck, intending to slit his throat. But Overlord growled and got his feet under Kai's belly, kicking with all of his strength.
Kai felt ribs crack as he flew through the air and crashed into a huge rock on the far side of the hill. He slid off the boulder and came to rest on his back. Unable to breathe, feeling as though every organ in his body had been ruptured, every bone- even his skull- broken, he stared at the sky, limbs splayed in random directions.
Come on, Master, Moonsong urged him. Can you stand?
Kai could not even manage a groan in reply.
Besai needs your help! Moonsong shouted, voice filling his mind. Bloody… You're not breathing. Come on now. You humans aren't that fragile.
Kai wanted to explain to that Host-cursed Blade exactly what he had just endured, and list off the reasons why he should not have even survived the crash. But it took all of his willpower just to remember which muscles he needed to use to breathe. Pain pulsated through his head and chest.
He heard Besai in the distance screaming his name. His lungs filled with air. With that first breath all motion returned to him, and he lurched upright, gasping, ribs grating painfully.
Before he'd drawn his second breath Overlord was on top of him, two hands gripping Kai's throat, cutting off his breath once more. Kai's arms flailed as he tried to push Overlord off.
"You killed her!" Overlord screeched, spittle flying in Kai's face. "You deceived her, and now she's dead!"
Kai hardly had enough willpower to be confused about who she was. His vision began to fade. He needed air!
"She was going to be Queen!" Overlord continued. "She was to take Garmadon's place, and YOU KILLED HER!"
With Kai's last bit of strength he tried to reach out to Moonsong. Maybe he could use his Blade's mind-manipulating power to scare Overlord off of him. Or something.
But Moonsong was gone from his mind entirely. For some reason this terrified him almost as much as Overlord, and he opened his mouth in a silent shout, face hot. He could feel himself fading, see black spots growing like spilled ink across his vision. Somewhere he heard a woman crying out. Was it Besai? Or Sage? Were they in trouble?
What about Cole? Hosts, was he dead too? Kai could not tell, with his Blade gone from his mind.
Suddenly Overlord released his grip on Kai's windpipe, bellowing in rage and pain.
When Kai's vision cleared enough to see a bit, he looked up. Sage stood behind Overlord, Moonsong gripped between two shaking hands. Overlord was bleeding from a gash in his arm- which healed quickly, but had sufficiently distracted the monster so Kai could breathe.
Overlord stood and approached Sage, who stumbled backward with a yelp, holding Moonsong up clumsily.
Kai staggered upright again, heart seemingly beating double-time to supply air to his starving body. He charged Overlord, but the shorter man threw him off. Kai fell to the ground.
Overlord growled, snatching Moonsong from Sage. She cried out and threw her arms over her head; a feeble attempt to bar his attack. She nearly fell as the gravel beneath her shifted with another quake.
But Overlord no longer seemed concerned with her. Instead, without saying a word, he drove Sunseeker's gleaming tip into Moonsong's Gem.
The Gem shattered into a thousand tiny, glittering fractals that fell like a rain of blood
"No!" Kai gasped, reaching out to grab a few fleeting shards. They stuck in his skin like slivers, and he clenched his fist. Needle-like pains shot through his palm.
Well done, Master.
Time seemed to freeze as the faint voice spoke in Kai's mind. He blinked as streams of red mist rose from Moonsong's broken Gem. Opening his palm he saw the red shards in his skin glowing weakly like cooling embers.
I guess you get your wish, Moonsong said. You won't have my power anymore.
"No!" Kai reached out to touch the mist. His fingers passed through it without resistance. No, Moonsong! I didn't mean that! I-
Shut up, Moonsong said. Bloody mortals… Never stop talking. You remind me of Lei. A moment of silence. Moonsong chuckled. It's been an honor serving you, my lord.
And the mist was carried away on the wind, taking with it every remnant of Moonsong's mind and voice. The shards in Kai's hand sputtered, then went dark. Eyes closing for the last time.
…Moonsong, you bloody Blade, don't leave me now…
The whole conversation could not have lasted longer than a heartbeat, because a few pieces of Moonsong's Gem were still falling as Kai raised his shocked eyes to meet Overlord's.
Overlord cast the broken Blade to the ground scornfully, as if he had just done away with an insect that had crawled up his arm. The Blade clattered against the stones, and Kai picked it up, speechless. This wasn't right. Blades weren't supposed to break! He had become so accustomed to Moonsong's presence: he'd just always assumed that the Blade would be there forever. And that maybe he would pass it on to his own child one day.
"Surrender." Overlord's voice was a guttural growl. He knelt and grabbed Kai's chin, pulling his face close. "Tell me that you want to die, and I will kill you quickly. I want to hear you say it."
Kai was not sure how he'd responded. Maybe he'd loosed a string of all curses known to man. Maybe he'd screamed wordlessly. Maybe he'd remained silent, trembling with fear and pain and shock and grief and…
It wasn't supposed to end like this, friend.
After Sage's desperate attack on Overlord, she had fled down the hill to make sure Cole was all right. She was still down there, safe from Overlord's attention at the moment. But Besai was here, trying without success to find a place of peace within herself to still her heart and bring back clear thought.
But who could have clear thought at a time like this? Her sister- her dear, dear sister- had been murdered. And now Overlord was going after Kai, too, and Besai had no way to stop him.
Overlord seemed angrier than was usual even for him as he bent low, taking Kai's face in one hand. He shouted something, which was lost on the wind before it could reach Besai's ears. Kai responded in the same tone, a fire in his eyes that, even from this distance, made Besai shiver.
Go! something in Besai exclaimed. Save Kai! He's going to die!
Besai took out Pixal's knife and looked at her reflection on its wet, shiny surface. She looked as scared as she felt, and then some.
I'll get myself killed if I go, she thought. The baby will die.
She had a notion then that she should run into the woods. Maybe Overlord would let her go. Doubtful, but then at least she would have a chance.
She looked up at Kai. Overlord was glaring at him impatiently, as if waiting for some sort of reply that Kai was not willing to give.
And give us the courage to stand up and fight, no matter what odds we face.
Ronin's prayer hit Besai's mind like a frigid winter's wind, bringing back clear thought. Wu's voice followed shortly thereafter, gentle but firm.
It is natural to be afraid. I understand that as much as any of you. But let me tell you this now: there is absolutely no need to fear for your life if the creator of the universe is on your side.
The creator of the universe. The one who had caused such a profound change in Kai. The one who had helped Ronin to forgive Cole, even after losing his love because of Cole.
Cole didn't believe in any god. And, after so many years as a slave, Besai wasn't sure she could believe, either. What sort of god would allow her to suffer for so long? And if he was powerful enough to create the universe, wouldn't he stop people like Overlord from murdering children like her Alyx? Or her sister, Merv?
But Kai's change was too profound to ignore. He believed. Wasn't that enough for her?
She hadn't been able to save Merv. But she had a chance to save Kai. Shouldn't she take it?
All right.
Besai grit her teeth and ran for Overlord, brandishing her long knife. It was no Blade, but it would cut Overlord's skin as well as anything.
Give me strength, she prayed as she crossed the distance to where Overlord was shouting something in Kai's face. Give me courage.
Her knife cut across Overlord's back, tearing cloak, shirt, and skin. Overlord released Kai and roared, whirling on her with bared teeth. He swung his Blade at her face.
Besai held her knife above her head with one hand, and was as surprised as Overlord to find that her strength rivaled his as their weapons clanged together.
"You're finally discovering the true potential of your Implant," Overlord growled.
"Why?" Besai grunted.
"Why did I Implant you?" Overlord smirked. "Because you were a sickly girl. I saved your life, gave you a privilege that none save my daughter had. And this is how you repay me?"
Besai pushed him off, then barreled head-first into his chest, shoving him into Kai, who still knelt on the ground, staring dumbly at his broken Blade. Overlord stumbled and fell over Kai's head, but was on his feet again with unearthly speed. He flew over Kai's ducking form and kicked Besai soundly in the chest. She fell with a sharp gasp as her ribs flexed.
"Why…are you doing thees?" she wheezed. She did not expect an answer- at least, not a direct one- but she had to ask.
"You are all asking the wrong questions!" Overlord exclaimed, seeming more exasperated than angry for an instant. "Looking at the wrong angles, examining the wrong evidence. Typical humans; so shortsighted!"
Besai stood. Deciding that nothing was broken, she reaffirmed her grip on the knife and slashed at Overlord again. "The Knights will destroy you!" she said, lunging for his neck. "The prophecy-"
With speed that shouldn't have been possible Overlord moved out of her way and came up behind her. He swung out with a leg, sweeping her feet from under her, causing her to fall.
"Prophecy?" Overlord spat, grabbing her by the hair, forcing her to look up at him. "Let me tell you something, whore. There is no prophecy!" He pressed the tip of his Blade- now shrunken to a tiny knife about as long as her hand- to the base of her throat. "For nearly seven hundred years I have waited. Watching each of the descendants of the…" He sneered. "…Patriarchs. Waiting for a day when each of them would possess the attributes I desired. Then, four months ago, I gave Cyrus a scroll to plant in the Middle Library for the Queen to discover."
So…he made up the prophesy. The realization did not surprise Besai as much as it should have. He used it as a way to bring us together so he could… Each pull of air caused the Blade to dig press deeper into Besai's skin. She grimaced and pressed her eyes shut against tears.
"I groomed each of you into the perfect prey," Overlord said. "Then I set you loose on the world. I let you squirm under my finger when I could have just crushed you. Let you think that maybe you could win, if you only knew how to defeat- or at least elude- me. But I am your master. You would be fooling yourselves to think there was ever a way to be rid of me."
Kai finally struggled to his feet. He took his Blade from the rocks, face red and twisted with passionate wrath. Muscles in his neck, darkened with forming bruises, flexed as he stormed toward them with a howling battlecry.
With that same inhuman speed, Overlord rounded Besai and came behind Kai, grabbing him by the throat. Overlord's feet hovered so he stood several inches higher than Kai. He wrapped his other arm around Kai's belly. Kai struggled but could not get free.
"Say it," Overlord crooned in Kai's ear, just loud enough for Besai to hear.
Kai stiffened, wide eyes fixed on Besai. His chest rose and fell with heavy breaths, and he clenched his Blade in a tight fist. It looked so…dead without its Gem.
"Say it, Sanguine. Or have you lost your tongue?"
"Let him go," Besai said.
Overlord's eyes flitted down to where she knelt on the ground. His lips lifted in a biting smile. "Or what?" he asked. "What will you do, whore?"
"I don't know!" Besai found herself screaming. She stood, tears cutting trails in the dirt on her cheeks. "But I weel not let you hurt heem!" She lunged forward, all too aware that this would probably be the last mistake she ever made. Yes, she had her baby to think about. And yes, she did not stand a chance of winning. But she could not just run away and save herself with the knowledge that she had not saved him. She couldn't turn her back on him. Especially not now that Hrymerv was…
Before her first step had even landed, Overlord repositioned his grip on Kai's neck, fingers caressing his skin, tilting his captive's chin toward the sky. Overlord, never letting go of Besai's eyes, set his teeth under Kai's Adam's apple, which jutted out as if he had swallowed a stone. Overlord's touch remained as light as a kiss, but Besai did not doubt that he would break the skin, if provoked.
Besai froze, breath caught in her throat. Her heart forgot how to beat for a long moment, then beat twice as fast to make up for it. Her face grew hot, and she was caught between reeling panic and outrage that Overlord would dare to touch her husband like that again.
…when Ara saw how far gone her husband was, her heart was filled with rage, and she attacked Overlord. Overlord responded immediately by sinking his teeth deep into Lei's jugular, killing him.
He's been grooming us for this moment since our births, Besai realized. He trained us to react exactly as he wanted.
And Overlord wanted Besai to attack him. He wanted her to try to save him.
"Be…sai," Kai murmured. The whites of his eyes were all too visible as he stared at her, breathing fitfully through his nose. His chest quivered with quick breaths. "Don't."
Don't what? Besai wanted to ask, but she didn't dare speak. She didn't dare move. She hardly dared to breathe. Don't attack Overlord? Don't leave you behind? Don't let Overlord kill you? Don't try to stop him from killing you?
Overlord said nothing with his voice, but his motives were all too clear in his eyes, which sparkled as if he found the whole situation entirely amusing. As if, at any moment, he might burst into peals of laughter and not be able to stop.
But it was not Overlord who laughed.
It was Kai.
Kai had put all of his strength into struggling against Overlord's hold. But when Overlord's finger's traced his neck, and his mouth touched Kai's skin in a manner that was so blatantly sensual, Kai immediately let his hands fall limp. Overlord's breath came hot on his skin, reminding Kai of days he wished he could forget, and he cast a desperate look to Besai, momentarily overcome by blood-freezing, mind-numbing panic. He couldn't scream. He couldn't breathe. His whole body trembled, and not just with cold, or with fear. He felt the familiar beginnings of hysteria coming on. Insanity.
No! Kai firmly shoved down his terror and forced himself to breathe, though it was difficult, the way Overlord held him.
Overlord wanted him to succumb to his fears, to say that yes, he wanted to die. but Kai could not let that happen. He could not encourage Overlord to do what he so clearly desired to.
Kai did not want to die again. He could not die again; not yet. He was the last man standing. Jay was miles away with Ronin. Cole was unconscious- or maybe even dead- at the bottom of the hill. Zane was over three hundred miles away, oblivious to this battle.
Kai had to figure this out. If he didn't, they would die, and in a couple hundred years Overlord might continue the cycle and find a handful of new men and women to toy with until that game too came to a close, and they died. And again and again until he got bored, or someone finally found his weakness and struck him down.
Strike him down, Kai thought. Could the God of the Way do that? Strike down Overlord so he could never rise again? Strike him so he would never condemn another soul to the fiery pit of eternal torment again? Though if I died... Kai was surprised to find that he would be okay with that: he knew which Way he had taken today, and that he had abandoned the path of the…fallen angels, as Wu had once said.
Though his neck was at a painful angle, Kai had not looked away from Besai. She stared back at him with those wide blue eyes through the rain, hands limp at her sides. She had dropped her knife as soon as Overlord had pressed his teeth to Kai's throat.
Kai did not know if Besai yet believed in the Way. Cole certainly did not, and Sage seemed inclined to go whichever way he pushed. Kai had to teach them. This gift Kai had been given was meant to be shared. Which meant that he could not die now, before he had done what he now so fervently believed he must do: help guide the world away from the path of the fallen angels that was so pervasive.
"You tasted death once," Overlord purred in his ear, a sultry, cloying tone. Kai grimaced at the memories that voice brought back. "Does it scare you to know that you're going back, Sanguine?"
More strongly than ever Kai felt that aura of shame and guilt around Overlord; a sticky murk that made Kai want to vomit. Had that always been there? Kai wondered why he had not noticed it before. Perhaps it had something to do with his decision to follow the Way?
...Fallen angels, Kai thought. Deception, wickedness, a turn down the wrong way…
Shame. Shame he had only felt once he'd given himself to the God of the Way.
As the pieces crashed into place, Kai's lips parted in something between a laugh, a sob, and a cry of astonishment.
No wonder they hadn't put it together sooner!
Thank you, Kai prayed, and closed his eyes as he smiled. I have it at last. Now, please use me to finish this. For good.
"You're…a fallen angel," Kai croaked. His throat was dry: Overlord held it in such a way that he could not swallow without great difficulty.
The way Overlord stiffened told Kai all that he needed to know. He reopened his eyes.
"I deny you, Overlord," he said. "You hold this world because you are strong in so many of its faults. But you hold no power over me- not because I'm faultless, but because someone else has taken my faults from me and thrown them far away."
Overlord's grip loosened. Kai could not see his eyes, but he could feel the beast trembling in its stolen body.
"You manipulate those consumed by shame and fear," Kai continued. "But against their opposites… Well, when your filthy pot goes through the fire to be purged, there will be nothing left to salvage."
"Lies," Overlord hissed, and grabbed onto Kai with strength twofold, eyes shining whiter than ever before as he opened his mouth wide to shred Kai's throat.
"I deny you too!" Besai said suddenly. Overlord went rigid. Kai tried to take another breath so he could speak again, but Overlord's fingernails cut deep into his skin, and Kai could feel his face, once again, grow hot as his body tried and failed to give him air, tried to circulate his blood. It was all he could do to grip Overlord's wrists and push against them. But he might as well have tried to bend iron bars.
Besai swallowed and spoke again, her entire body consumed by shivers. "I deny you, Overlord. You cannot hurt us."
Overlord snarled at her, and she leaped back. As he did this, he inadvertently loosened his hold on Kai's windpipe. Kai heaved a gasping breath and, harnessing every bit of strength he could muster through the pain in his head and ribs and a dozen other places, he raised his legs and kicked Overlord's middle as hard as he could. Kai and Overlord both fell to the rocks.
The demon got up more tentatively than the last time. He looked less like a predator hunting, and more like a predator cornered in its den.
"My compliments," he growled. "You put the pieces together at last. But do you think that mere words will hurt me?"
"I- I really don't…" Kai panted, struggling to stand up straight. "…don't think it's the words that count. It's the power behind them that has you shaking with fear." Kai could feel that power coursing through him, stronger with every beat of his heart, filling his spirit, though his body remained weak and pained.
"You humans are so…fetid," Overlord said with a wrinkled nose. "You think you can know everything, though you live for the smallest fraction of the time that I have been. I have knowledge and power gleaned from many thousands of years of life. What do you have?"
Kai smiled. "I have the knowledge and power of the one who has always existed on my side, Overlord."
Overlord stared, making a wide-eyed face as though he'd been stung. Kai raised his hand, palm outward. Signifying the barrier now between himself and his shame and fear.
"I stand in the Way," Kai declared, his fear fading with each word he spoke. "And Besai is under my protection. You can harm neither of us. Not now, and not ever again."
Overlord shuffled back a step, eying Kai like a beaten animal. He had too much pride to admit surrender, but the look in his eyes was as good a confirmation as any. He gripped his Blade tightly, but did not attack them.
We're safe, Kai thought. For a stretch of time he tried to wrap his mind around the notion. Besai and I are safe.
But he could not speak for the rest of the world, which was still largely under Overlord's thumb. If Kai didn't put an end to him now, Overlord would slink back into his hole and go back to his wretched life ruling over his slaves, playing games with lives that were not his own to take.
But as the words began to form in Kai's mouth, Besai spoke.
"Leave us," she said, and ran to Kai's side. "Leave this world."
The fallen angel did not react to her words as strongly as Kai would have liked, so he pushed further, hand still raised at eye level.
"Go home," Kai said.
"No!" Overlord snapped. "I don't answer to-"
"GO!" Kai thundered, and Overlord recoiled as though his words were a whip. "Back to Hell with you. You escaped your chains once. But never again. Leave Lou's body unharmed, and go back to your prison to await your judgement."
"I will not," Overlord said.
"You will, in the name of-"
"STOP!" Overlord screeched, reeling backwards.
"-the God of the Way," Kai talked over him. Moons, was this actually working? He hadn't really doubted that it would. But it was difficult to comprehend that, after nearly seven hundred years of bondage, all any Way-believer had needed to do was tell Overlord to leave.
It's not as easy as it would seem, Kai reflected as Overlord fell to the ground, writhing and screaming as if something was eating him alive from the inside out. To decide not to be afraid. To step away from a lifetime of darkness and walk through the fire to embrace unconditional love.
But now he was free. The notion nearly made him cry with relief. Never again would he fear death, or Overlord, or anything else with the taint of sin.
Take him away, Kai prayed as Overlord's struggles grew weaker. Put him where he belongs. End his reign of terror.
At long last Overlord's eyes rolled back in his head, and he went still.
All at once, the suffocating aura of fear and shame was sucked out of the air, as if it had never been.
Overlord was gone.
"I deny you," Besai said to Lou's body, softly, but resolutely. Then she ran to Lou's side and, still shaking, checked for his breathing, touching his skin as though it might burn her.
"He ees alive," Besai said. "Deed… Did you feel that? Something changed when he…"
Gone. The ground beneath Kai's feet seemed to quiver- or perhaps it really had- and he fell to his knees, all of his pain slamming into him at once, like stone warriors on all sides, bludgeoning him with stony fists. Every breath hurt as the grating of his broken ribs came back to him. Shards of Moonsong's shattered Gem still stuck in his palm. His head hurt where he had hit it during his fall earlier, and his shoulder throbbed.
Overlord is gone. For good. Kai was not sure how many more times he would have to tell himself that before he could comprehend it.
To think that, just last night, he had been planning ways to sneak Besai out of the cave so that they would not have to fight in a battle Kai have been certain they would lose.
To think that, a week ago, he had tried to kill himself in what he'd thought at the time to be a last stand against an invulnerable evil.
To think that, last autumn, he'd thought of Overlord- and the Dark Island, and the Dark Knight- as some small but inconsequential threat on an island far away from his peaceful home in Sheshin Keep.
Besai stood and ran to Kai, weeping without reservation onto his shoulder.
Kai wept with her.
Thank you, he prayed, holding her tight. Thank you, God. It's over.
It's finally over.
Well then! That was a rollercoaster. Phew. So glad this chapter is done.
So...what do you guys think? And how many of you knew (or at least guessed) what Overlord was before Kai did? And Moonsong, geez... Don't get me started.
The story isn't over yet, though, I'm afraid... It was supposed to be, but then the plot stuff over on the Eastern side ended up having a lot more work than I'd thought. So there will be a five or so East-side chapters with Vara, Zane, and the gang to wrap up that stuff, and *then* the epilogue.
I'm sorry about my poor planning, you guys. This should have been the end. Dagnabit. In any case, the East-side stuff will be interesting, I promise. :)
WHOO! So who wants to guess what will happen next on the West side? Will Ronin find Tina? Is Cole all right? And Lou, of course. Can't forget about him...
Reviews are very appreciated, especially since...*cough*...this is the final battle for the main villain and all. ;) [_] A cake to celebrate Overlord's defeat, and a toast to Kai for figuring it out! *Raises glass* I'll see you all soon!