Bah, late again. Sorry.

Anwar's POV

I ran, full speed, after her and her captor. I didn't feel my feet hit the ground; all I could feel was the immense anger towards the evil prince who stole someone precious to me.

He ran into, what I believed was, Granatum Forest. I followed close behind, my speed growing with every second.

It continued on like this for a while. Every time I would come close to them, his speed would double and he'd get distance between us.

He stopped running, though, when we reached a cliff.

Nowhere to run, now... I thought.

"Why do you persist to save this girl?" it caught me off guard when he spoke, and I hesitated to speak. "Won't you tell me?"

"If you hurt her the slightest bit, I'll get back at you ten-fold." I snapped him.

He flinched and took a step back, dragging Aria along with him, but smirked, obviously amused. "Aw, now isn't this cute. The heartless swordsman isn't so heartless after all." I gritted my teeth, holding back the avalanche of curses I had for him. "But, I don't mean to disappoint." His amused expression disappeared instantly. What replaced it was evil… the psychotic kind of evil. "You guys won't be able to cuddle much after today."

Aria gasped in pain, and fell to the ground. I immediately ran to her, ignoring the silver-haired prince right behind her. He took a few steps back, giving me space.

I narrowed my eyebrows as I pulled the silver dagger slowly out of her side, trying to ignore her gasps of pain. I lifted my head just enough to glare at soon to be dead man. "You bastard…"

He only laughed. "Please, you think that's it? Her torture has only begun." He opened the Book of Prophecy to one of the last pages, and grinned widely. "At the base of this cliff lays the body of Kullervo." Aria's eyes got wide, but not from the pain. "We retrieved his body after the destruction of Rhoan. I had my soldiers bring it here, just for you." The chosen's eyes were watery, and she wiped it dry with her sleeve.

"How…? I thought… but the spear was-"

"You underestimate me, girl." He snapped back. That made Aria flinch, and I sent a threatening glare in the prince's direction. He only chuckled and put his hand above the book.

"The Book of Prophecy's power will raise the Demon Lord, and he shall reign. I shall reign!" His voice changed at the last moment, becoming deeper and more menacing. His eyes glowed red as his body created a pillar of light that shot up in the sky. The pillar disappeared in the clouds, but came down in another pillar… this time appearing behind him and towards the body of Kullervo.

"No!" Aria got up ran towards him, trying to stop what was happening. "You can't do this!" the prince only laughed maniacally as she got shot back by a force field that surrounded him. I quickly ran to her and caught her, which caused both of us to crash onto the ground.

"There's nothing you can do, girl! Your efforts are futile!" there was a rumbling sound coming from below the cliff. "I shall reign! Nothing can… stop…me…" the prince faltered for a moment, and then passed out. The lights disappeared and the rumbling got louder.

A sheet of sweat covered Aria's face, and it slowly dripped down her face. "I… I guess this is it." She turned to me with a sad smile on her face. "We win or we die." She wrapped her arms around me and buried her head in my chest. I hesitantly wrapped my own arms around her. "You… You don't have to stay. This is my fight." I could tell by the sound of her voice that she didn't really want me to leave. She was practically begging me to stay. She was just being the nice girl she was. I tightened my grip on her, and set my cheek on the top of her head.

"There's no way in hell that I'm leaving you, Aria." She slowly pulled back, trying to find truth in my words. She smiled, and stood on her toes to place a warm kiss on my lips.

It was peaceful, that brief moment. And there was a strong possibility that may be our last kiss together. We savored it, being gentle and passionate at the same time.

Our bliss was short-lived when there was an ear-splitting roar.

We reluctantly parted from our kiss and turned towards the edge of the cliff.

The roar died down to nothing, and it stayed quiet like that for what seemed like hours. Aria tried to walk forward to check, but I held her back, shaking my head no. A few seconds after that, it began.

Aria's POV

I would've sworn that if my eyes could bulge out any farther, they would have. I watched in horror as the beast from my nightmare pulled itself up onto the cliff. The rotted flesh, the thin cloth around its waist, and the hole where its heart should've been….

I reached out and grabbed Anwar's hand, which he was already reaching for. I sent a look in his direction.

I'm so sorry, Anwar… my eyes watered up. He gave me a sad smile and turned back to the enemy.

"The book!" I suddenly remembered. Lying next to the body of the unconscious Prince Valdo was the Book of Prophecy. Anwar only nodded, and used his incredible speed to reach the book, dodge the fist of Kullervo, and come back unharmed.

He handed me the book and smiled. "We've got this." He reassured. I only nodded and hoped to God that he was right.

When I placed my hand on the book, Mieli, Ur, and Neaki sprung out.

"Aria, we're so sorry! This shouldn't have happened!" Mieli quickly apologized.

"My apologies, Aria. I should've done something." Said Ur, obviously frustrated with himself. Neaki only frowned and nodded, expressing her regret.

"It's fine. We have something to take care of." Aria stared at the beast in front of them. It was chuckling as if it was planning its world domination.

The three spirits gasped and got in their fighting positions. "Where's Rempo?" asked Ur, suddenly.

I looked around, surprised he wasn't near. "Anwar, where's Rempo?" he slightly grimaced at the name but he answered my question anyway.

"He's babysitting the man with the scar." I nodded, upset that he wasn't here.

It caught me off guard when Kullervo moved in swiftly with an attack. He swung his fist, but Anwar wrapped an arm around my shoulder and jumped into the air. I yelped, and the monster's head followed the noise.

Kullervo swung its fist again, but missing by a long shot.

Anwar was just too fast.

"I don't understand." Anwar set me down a good distance from the beast. "All he seems to be doing is flailing his arms around. Is he really that dangerous?" The monster's ear twitched and it turned its whole body to face us. I watched, afraid, as he pulled both hands to the middle of his body, and began gathering energy. It was black energy- dark magic.

As he released the laser, both Anwar and I dodged, going in the opposite direction.

The demon lord roared, frustrated.

As Anwar moved in for an attack with Rempo, I pulled the Genesis swords out of the Book of Prophecy. Finally, I was satisfied that I had a form of offense.

When I looked up, Anwar was sprawled out on the ground, grasping his abdomen in pain. Kullervo was making his way to him, each step thundering and loud. I quickly ran in to help him, pushing my feet to move as fast as they could. "HEY UGLY!" the beast twitched and turned his head angrily in my direction. I thrust my left sword deep into his side, and used my right sword to block his flailing arms. I used a muscle in my side that made my wound from the dagger ache terribly. I pulled my sword out and took several leaps backwards, keeping distance between me and the monster. I grabbed my side, trying to stop the oncoming blood flow.

I had expected him to falter in his step, but he didn't seem effected at all by my thrust. I didn't even notice the black laser that shot towards me until it hit me full-force in the chest.

I screamed with all I had, and collapsed to the ground. There was a burning sensation all over my body, and I could barely move. Anwar was getting up, though, and that's all that mattered to me. I tried to pull myself up, too, only getting to my knees. Anwar looked between me, Kullervo, and the edge of the cliff. He seemed to be thinking of some kind of plan, and by the look of his face, it was dangerous. It seemed like he decided to do it, so he taunted the beast over to the cliff edge. "C'mon, you big, bumbling beast! That's right, come this way." It followed angrily after him.

A sort of sick realization hit me when I realized what he was doing. No…

Anwar stuck his sword into the ground by the very edge of the cliff and stood his ground, facing the beast. He waited until it got close enough to where he could pounce onto his neck and hold him by there.

No…

Anwar was chocking him, and Kullervo was twisting furiously, trying to pry him off. Its efforts were futile, though, when it stepped on the cliff edge. They stayed in that position, with the monster trying to regain its balance.

"Anwar, no! You can't do this! Please!" I immediately remembered my dream, and the grief was overwhelming. The swordsman only smiled sadly at me.

"Ah… so you understand my plan." Tears were streaming now, and my vision was blurring.

"Please, Anwar. There's another way to kill him! We can figure it out together." Anwar only shook his head and looked me in the eyes.

"Aria, you're the very best thing that's ever happened to me. If you didn't show up, I don't know what I'd be doing."

"Anwar, stop this! What the hell is with the death speech? You aren't going to die!"

He laughed, but ignored my pleas and continued. "No one cared about me; everyone feared me. I was a servant under Olly, and I thought my life would forever stay that way." He paused for a minute to fix his hold on the beast. "You… You believed in me. You had faith in me. Even when I pushed you away, you came back with everything you had." He laughed, then. A brief, sad laugh.

"Anwar, please stop…"

"I love you, Aria. I always will." I was choking back sobs, each one ripping at my heart. This made the pain in my side nothing compared to this. "Make the new world even better than this one. You have to promise to tell me about it someday." He laughed again, slowly dragging Kullervo off the cliff. It struggled, but its fate was sealed.

"You must survive, Aria. Survive to create the world that will make everyone happy." I couldn't take it anymore. This was hard enough without him saying those things. It was unbearable.

"You idiot…" I choked back another sob when he looked me in the eyes one final time.

"Live on, Aria… in this world and the next." He smiled one genuine smile and said, with heartbreaking sincerity,

"I love you."

I watched in horror as the most important person in my life fell to his death. He kicked off of the monster's back and dragged Kullervo down by the neck. I tried to scream, but no sound would come out.

Right before I shut my eyes, I saw a flash of red jump off the cliff.

And the Book of Prophecy was gone.

The End.

haha I think you fell for it ;)

Jk Jk lol this isn't the last chapter :D I'm sorry, I just had to. The next chapter will most likely be the last, and there MAY be an epilogue. I don't know yet.

Please don't kill me for the cliffhanger :)

Don't you ever forget to review! If you don't, I'll just leave the story as it is ;] muahaha!

…

Yeah, okay I'm not that evil. Bye :D