Disclaimer: Do I really need to keep saying it? *Sigh* Fine… I don't own Princess Resurrection! Wish I did but I don't! Please support the official release. And don't sue me—special emphasis on that last part!
Author Note: Hello all! Raza here! Let's get right down to business! I promised you guys a double feature at the end of chapter one…and I, Raza, regardless of my competency when it comes to due dates, do not lie (about things other than due dates ;)) and so here it is, my first ever double feature, chapter's 1.5 and 2 of Princess Finale! YAY! Now, as I mentioned before, chapter 1.5 is kind of a side story. This is what was happening before the events of Princess Finale, like two days before Hime's assault on Sylvia. I originally wanted to include this chapter with chapter 1 but then I felt like it was too disconnected and now that I finished writing it, it definitely feels like it's own one-shot. Even so, I didn't want to just leave this bit of the story untold. I mean how lame is it for important people to die in a story and then you never know what happened to them?! I know a few books and movies and shows, hell even video games that do that now and I hate it… I hate it… I absolutely hate it… so here you guys go, enjoy this little… tea break if you will before chapter 2 which picks up right after the events of chapter 1. Enjoy! Oh and yes, see the end of chapter 2 for my end note! Enjoy the double-feature guys!
Chapter 1.5: At the Summit of the World:
4:45…
The time was 4:45 when Gilliam sighed impatiently and stared into his pocket watch.
Still not time eh? He thought moodily as he growled underneath his breath and shoved his watch back into his pocket. He knew he shouldn't let it get to him… of course he knew… but like the little things you know you shouldn't get annoyed at, they're the ones that drive you the craziest and indeed that was more than true as Gilliam gave a low sigh and crossed his arms uncomfortably, and then, with a frown that could been seen a mile away, he just sat silently on an old war-scarred rock with his feet apart and his sword and sheathe to his side.
And for a time he just stayed like that… like a statue, unmoving, among the many rocks and boulders, mauled and overgrown, he sat on top them all up upon the greatest mountain ever to grace the Earth, he towered like the King he believed himself to be across the land upon his throne made by God.
And it was indeed something special to see, that mountain, something sinister with its many sharp and jagged edges shaped and molded as if by fire, it reached high into the heavens past the throat of the world perhaps closer to in between the eyes, and it was simply a fine place for a king to be… sitting, towering at the summit of the world… that if you were at the base and tried to bend your head and look straight up… you still wouldn't see the top—like you couldn't comprehend the glory. And then, as if to compliment the picture because the mountain throne itself wasn't enough, miles below and miles in front, there lay an empty wasteland with nothing but scorched sand, sand and railway steel, and worms and death… and a few lesser mountains dotted off into the skyline…and Gilliam simply waited above it all, he waited and waited, he waited…
"Fuga…" called a voice and then out of nowhere a rather slender man with blonde hair in a butler suit appeared…
"Mark II…" Gilliam spoke calmly… "Are all the preparations in order?"
"Fuga…" the butler replied bowing deeply.
"Good." And just like that Gilliam got up and walked to the edge of the mountain side.
"It's beautiful is it not?" He said as he stared off into the distance.
"Fuga…"
"Ah yes I forgot… Android's don't have visual preferences do they? But it is beautiful… It is…" Gilliam smiled bitterly as he stared off across the desert and there marooned safely perhaps even tauntingly upon the aurora glazed horizon, there stood a castle… a mountainous castle the likes never before seen. A castle with many tall tips and spires that reached up toward the heavens and perhaps even scraped past the chin of God… it may even have been as tall as the mountain Gilliam stood upon… but there was something else… something magnificent about this castle… truly magnificent… with its large size and wonderful architecture that could be seen a universe away, and the effervescent glow that somehow naturally irradiated off the marble or the diamond from which it's perfect walls were crafted, and that if heaven and perfection could be blended into one and had a place upon the Earth… it would be there… right there… at that castle… a castle grander than any other, simply existing as a monument to its own existence, it was the royal palace… the king's home… the city of phoenixes… . And how envious that must have made Gilliam…to see all that he desired just barely out of reach yet entirely within sight, it seemed like everything just existed to spite him today. He did his best to shrug off that helpless feeling… "Tell me something Mark II." He called again still staring off into the deep. "Do you know… the history of this desert?"
"Fuga?"
"That's right… the history."
"Fuga… Fuga Fuga."
"Hehe yes… That's absolutely correct. That is… this place… this desert… this mountain top…all of it… as far as the eye can see, even to the palace itself… and then even past it…
It's all one giant mass grave…"
And with that a cold and harsh howling wind whizzed past the mountain side as if resonating with the equally cold and harsh words.
"The Sea of Chaos…" The words were as thunder. "That's what they call here… that's what they call this place…
An ancient battlefield from an ancient time…
A time of shadow and blood…
A time before the royal family…" At this Gilliam couldn't help but smirk a bit as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his watch…
4:50…
Well at least time was moving forward he thought as he scuffed to himself and continued on with his story…
"Long ago… the world was consumed by war…
Shocking right? Hehehe…
And yet… ever since the dawning of time all the way to modern evolution… there has always been fighting… a constant struggle for survival… for dominance… there was no hierarchy you see… no royal family… no king or centralized government… no one to rally them all, to standardize laws and share territory, to oversee treaties and manage alliances… to punish traitors and regulate trading… hmfp… or to crush rebellions and enslave fools…
And so the world knew only one thought… and that was greed…
The problem with greed though… it often leads to violence… and indeed… when all the world is consumed by madness… by selfish hunger… what remedy is there other than war? And so we fought… yes… we fought… our prehistoric selves…down throughout the ages… all the way to our ancestors… until at last… at long last… it all culminated into a final battle… the final battle… the end of days… hehehe… on that day or… days rather… It is said that the entire world fought… divine beings, werewolves, vampires… all the legendary feuds and creatures…
Even humans…
That's right… even humans fought with us on that day… because back then the human and the monster worlds were one in the same… and so it truly was the breaking point… the world… it tried to commit suicide…
Heh… In fact, if you believe the old stories… there were no civilians on that day… no refuges or children… the Sun… the very Sun… refused to rise blanketing, condemning the Earth and all its evil in perpetual night… and all throughout the world, the lands were empty… everyone assembled here… right here… upon these very slopes… upon these very fields… and the entire world was condensed into a few hundred miles… and the world came to an end…
… And then a miracle happened…
A Phoenix was born…
One of my ancient ancestors somehow matured on their own… and became a God…
They became a God…
… But… even so… even for a God… to be born during such a time… to look upon the world with so much wisdom and to see it helplessly tear itself apart screaming in happy agony… what would a God think? What could a God do? How do you save a people that don't want to be saved by you? And so… the phoenix… the very first phoenix… my ancestor destroyed the world…
Gone… just like that… this entire region… the mountains… the seas… the forests… and all the fighting… it all disappeared… it all turned to ash as holy fire spread all throughout the world with a mere flap of my ancestor's wings… and the sea of warfare… the sea of death… the sea of chaos that had engulfed the world, that had threatened to destroy everything… it became docile, and the raging winds subsided…
That was 70,000 years ago…"
Gilliam sighed as he finally took a deep breath, finishing his long and grand story, for it was as perfect as it was terrifying he looked again at his watch… 4:57…almost…
"And now it will be a battlefield once again… like picking up an old sword… it's poetic don't you think? The end is the beginning… and yet… it must seem disrespectful… bringing war here… to the birthplace of peace…"
At this Gilliam couldn't help but frown a bit and a swift melancholy took over his eyes… and while it wasn't like him to despair, to be clumsy with his words and to talk abstractly without purpose or directive… Gilliam couldn't help himself… like how warriors often hide their pain but show their scars… he was in pain… a great and terrible pain… and he had spent so much time showing off his scars, barring his fangs that here—finally—in the emptiness and loneliness of the mountain side, Gilliam dug deep into his own soul and shared his inner most thoughts with the nameless air…
He decided to be free…to be honest with himself, his emotions that he long hid behind his sinister smile reveling in the heat of combat… it was a front… a lie… a coping mechanism… all his siblings had one… but don't get me wrong… Gilliam was still Gilliam, and he still reveled in the heat of battle, but he was a man… regardless of royalty and status… phoenix or not, he was a man and he had emotions, and the live-by-the-sword mentality only went so far underneath the breaking pressure of the world on his back…
Gilliam reached into his pocket and pulled out his watch.
5:00… it was time. It was finally time… and so, giving a soft sigh, regaining his composure and remaining strong and dedicated to the very end, Gilliam closed his tired eyes one final time… he opened them and looked up.
There before him stood Fuhito…
"So… you're Fuhito…" Gilliam said unmoving as he looked upon the short and unassuming boy. It must have seemed a joke at first, a mistake, granted that he didn't know what to expect, he'd never seen Fuhito before…but all it took was one look and their eyes met, no, their eyes locked and Gilliam knew he was the one… this is Fuhito… he thought as he stared with his own crimson red silted eyes and watched a mirror image stare back…this boy… this child was royalty, no doubt about it…and yet there was more to it than that…there was an undeniable presence about him… like choking or being stabbed, there was a great cruelty in his eyes… it crawled underneath the skin and harmed the soul… a malice… the kind not seen for an age…
"Yes…" The boy spoke… he simply spoke… and yet the mountain itself seemed to creak as if it stirred uncomfortably beneath their feet… "And you must be Gilliam…"
"I'm honored you know of me… how did you like the invitation I sent you?"
"Hmpf… Well I have to admit, dismembering my android was a nice touch hehehe…"
"… And you'll be next…"
"Oh? Just so you know I cannot die from being cut by that sword of yours Gilliam… I am immortal… however… if it's a fight you want it's a fight you'll get. I'll accept the challenge of any would-be-upstarts any time, any place…"
"What bold words for someone who hasn't made a move since his revival…"
"And you're any different? Hehehe… you haven't made a move either oh great warrior Prince…"
"Tsst… that'd be pretty stupid of me…"
"And yet here we are…" Fuhito said smiling… "Notice how you're words and your actions reflect the opposite… I mean why not just wait Gilliam? Hmm? Wouldn't that have been better? Wait for someone else to attack me and then… after we've worn each other out, just swoop in and catch us both off guard… I believe that's what one of your siblings is planning on doing right now… in fact she's over on that very hill… a sound strategy… even if doomed to failure…"
"You mean a cowardly strategy…"
"Oh?"
"Waiting… watching…" Gilliam spat as he clenched his sword tightly. "This war has been full of that… even now… since you came… my little sisters don't openly attack unless provoked… and my older sister only attacks when she thinks she can win… waiting for someone to attack would be like waiting to mature on my own! Well that's not how I fight… that's not how I'll win! Not only will I strike you down here and now but I will survive my twisted older sister's attack and then I will eliminate Lillianne and that child. Only I will be the victor in this accursed war…Only I can be king!"
"Well said Gilliam… and I compliment you on your honor… it is indeed worthy of a king… but pride and honor alone will only take you so far…" Fuhito said still smiling, his hair starting to flare up, dancing as if flames, and even the air around them seemed to boil. But Gilliam just stood there, steadfast in his ways, in his words, and he too held a smile on his face even as he made to wipe away the sweat that glistened from his brow, staring at the unimaginable monster in front of him.
"Pride and honor are the only things that matter in this world. A victory without either isn't a victory at all… but I suppose you wouldn't know anything about that… lying… cheating…"
"Lying? Cheating? As if I'd stoop so low…"
"Don't you dare play dumb!" Gilliam roared as he unsheathed his sword with lightning speed and pointed the tip toward Fuhito. "You feigned your own death and had your lackey the professor rig the war… you had an army of vampire werewolves at your command and before that a robot horde… all of these crimes I lay before you… answer them! Justify them! Tell me you're innocent!"
"I see… you speak of things you do not understand."
"Oh I understand perfectly…"
"Whatever you say… Gilliam… but at least know this before you die in vain… I've earned my place here… and what's more I'm still not a complete phoenix… if all that you said is true, if I am truly guilty of crimes against the crown… the royal family could've easily destroyed me…
And yet here I am… you know what that means? That means they don't care… they're allowing me to continue… they're allowing me to fight.
I adhered to their rules… I kept everything isolated… I never attacked with my armies… and in the end; the truth about my life was exposed… and the professor? He betrayed me, ended up siding with Emil…
I was a corpse while you were fighting your siblings… as I was an infant when I was fighting mine… you had a chance Gilliam… all of you did… I was the one with the disadvantage…
Don't throw a tantrum now because I'm calling checkmate…"
And with that there was a great dead silence between the two as Gilliam glared at Fuhito who in turn just smiled viciously back…
"Hmpf… It seems we no longer have anything to discuss…" Gilliam finally said as he strengthened his grip on his sword…
"Then shall we?"
"You're move."
"Hmpf…I thought you better than that Gilliam… underestimating your opponent is unbecoming of a king!" And just like that Fuhito glared in Gilliam's direction… and the world that had been holding its breath waiting for this moment two years in the making, finally exhaled…
It's over… There's no way you can dodge at this range… Goodbye Gilliam… Fuhito smiled realizing his own victory… and yet…
Gilliam…
He too was smiling…
And then a great cloud of smoke erupted forth from the mountain… as if the very winds themselves wished to participate in their battle…
"What is this?" Fuhito called out cautiously as he turned his head side to side examining the greenish smoke that now surrounded him…
"You're death…"
"Hmpf… don't get cocky. This is some kind of poison right?"
"Hehe very good… But… there's more to it than that… this toxin is designed specifically to counteract the effects of… Trioxin…"
"!?"
"Oh yes… I did my homework… If Trioxin brought you back to life then this can put you down… oh and you can thank that brain on the other side soon enough…I'll be sure to send him your way… tell him… he should've invested more time researching better security measures for his devices… hehehe!"
"… Tell me something…" Fuhito called calmly from beyond the veil causing Gilliam to cringe a bit. "If someone is immortal… does that really count as being alive?" And just like that a great light engulfed the world and clouds of poison seemed to instantly rise as the temperature skyrocketed. "Or is that closer to being undead?"
"Impossible!" Gilliam cringed underneath his breath.
"What?" Fuhito smiled, as his hair began to settle and he started walking toward the prince, the air practically baking the world around them. "What's with that face? Not the result you were hoping for?"
"You used trioxin to resurrect yourself…" Gilliam growled as he wiped away the sweat accumulating on his brow. "You must have a body! You must have living tissue!"
"Don't bother… Even I don't know the full details. It just sort of worked its way in at the last minute…"
"Just worked its way in?"
"Why yes…hehehe… you didn't actually think I bet my entire resurrection solely on trioxin did you?
Amongst the many failed attempts I had Dunken labor on… a few did indeed bear promising fruit… of course… hehehe… that was before your siblings started meddling in affairs they ought not meddle in…
Your brother Emil for example… he also seemed to search for the answers I sought. He found the ancient mermaid stone and I found old cryptic resurrection rituals… your younger sister… Lillianne… when threatened she invoked a rather innate and special power that few immature phoenixes can control… the holy flames… and then there was the Trioxin… engineered by a servant under one of your other sisters…the one on that very hill…
And so you see? It was your generation's misguided attempts at immortality that helped me complete my research… I merely had to put the pieces together… like a puzzle… difficult yes… but even when the professor betrayed me over Emil… my second coming was inevitable… do you see? Do you understand now?"
"Yeah… I do…" Gilliam said slowly. "If I can't beat you by undoing your resurrection; I guess I'll have to kill you with my own hands!" And with that Gilliam vanished surprising even Fuhito himself as he blinked in disbelief and barely even a second later Gilliam reappeared right next to him, smiling victoriously, he unsheathed his sword… and in an instant… he did the impossible… he cleaved Fuhito clean in two…
"CHECKMATE!" Gilliam bellowed tauntingly as his pupils shrank with glee… the sheer excitement he felt as he watched Fuhito's eyes go lifeless and break off contact with his own… and the devil Prince, the terrible shadow looming over the war, the boogeyman from the old age fell backward out of space and time…
And then a great fire engulfed them both…
"As I said…" Fuhito chuckled, his flames subsiding, not a single scratch on him… "…I am Immortal…"
"I see…" Gilliam cringed as the smoke surrounding him started to clear. His shirt was almost completely burnt away, with only ripped up pieces left glued to bits of his burnt up skin… and he had terrible scarring up and down his left and right shoulders… the kind that would never heal even with time and yet he smiled… he simply smiled… as if it were the only thing he could do on that day… smile at the madness… greet it with his own… defying Fuhito even as Fuhito defied him…
"Wow…" Fuhito chuckled… "What do we have here?" He chuckled as a great bone like structure jutted out of Gilliam's left arm molding itself into what appeared to be a large shield with a giant eye on the surface… like it was alive or something… and Gilliam was simply magnificent to be that way, that despite his wounds he stood with his sword and now his shield in hand like a king standing before the devil, he refused to wane…he refused to submit… and he was prepared for every horror that hell had to offer…
"A living sword and shield… very impressive… You've upgraded since the last time I had Dunken survey you… but even so…" Fuhito smiled maliciously… as if savoring ever second of this fight… for it just keep getting better and better and better… "You've taken some damage… which means you're defense is far from perfect… and I still haven't got a scratch on me… What do you say to that?"
"Tsst… you want to know what I say to that? I say there's still time…" And just like that round two had started…
Fuhito made no effort to dodge Gilliam as the agile prince pin-balled all around the mountain top, dust being kicked up by his rapid movements, and then being set on fire as Fuhito started to burn and for ten minutes, they carried on like that. David and Goliath had met and now they fought, and the winds screamed in agony as they blistered from the heat, and the mountain seemed to tremble as portions of it rocked beneath their feet… all this and more, as the world hung suspended by a thread fearing for dear life, it all continued until Gilliam finally appeared in front of Fuhito panting like a dying dog…
"Done already?" Fuhito mocked… his hands in his pocket and that same smile having never left his face…
"Damn it!" Gilliam coughed as he slammed his sword into the ground to brace himself… he'd put up an excellent fight but the heat was unbearable… his own saliva seemed to dry up before it even formed in his mouth… and he could feel his lungs collapsing… begging him for air… "Damn it! There's no way you'd have unlimited energy!"
"Oh yeah? Same with you. But let me just put things in perspective here Gilliam… Notice how I don't have to move a muscle… And each sword thrust you make does no damage. Every time I attack, I merely have to glare in your direction… and you have to use all your strength just to block. And this heat. I merely have to concentrate on my own power, and you'll suffocate as the air around you rises just above your lungs reach… Gilliam…" Fuhito said as he finally moved—like the greatest insult in the world—he walked right up to the gasping prince. "Are you really so stubborn you can't see this isn't a stalemate?
I've humored you long enough. And truth be told, your courage and determination have… inspired me. One could even say I admire you for them. But it's over now… I think I've shown you enough kindness…I could've simply turned this entire mountain top into rubble at the start of the fight.
And so now… it's time I end you Gilliam…" Fuhito said smiling casually as the ground beneath their feet turned to ash and then even the ash became burnt… all the while Gilliam's sweat evaporated as soon as it glistened from the pores of his face… and even bits of his skin started to flake off, too cooked to remain attached to his body… And yet… he smiled… one final time… he smiled…
"Hmpf… fool…"
"Hmm? What was that?"
"I said you FOOL!" Gilliam roared as he jumped back through the air landing perfectly on a nearby rock. He snapped his figures and then, just like that, the rock beneath him exploded and in its stead was the reassembled head of Flanders G super cannon… " MARK II FIRE!"
"FUGA!"
And time seemed to slow down in that moment as Gilliam savored the look on Fuhito's face as the cannon fired… It shot with such a fury… such a sound… point blank into the face of the moon… cutting the air clean through as the mountain reeled from the aftershock of a gun made to kill Gods…
"I've won… there's no way you could have survived that…" Gilliam howled praising his victory. "In the end your arrogance cost you dearly… Prince Fuhito hehehe… Couldn't you tell I was running out the clock? Two years of laboring to reassemble this ultimate weapon… I knew it was the only thing powerful enough to defeat you…"
"Really?"
"NO WAY!" Gilliam screamed white faced as he spun around and a blinding, searing white flash engulfed him.
"N-N-No… way…" Gilliam choked, his pupils all but gone as he flew backward some thirty feet with a bone shattering crash. Just barely out of the corner of his charred and blistered eyes… he realized Fuhito was standing right next to him…
He had less than a second to move… and yet he evaded the Flander's G at point blank range!?
"GAH!" He choked as the taste of burnt blood filled his mouth…
This fight is over… d-d-damn it… Gilliam winced as he collided several times with the ground each time with a terrible crash… as if there was no limit to suffering in the world, in that moment… and there really wasn't… not for Gilliam… not as Fuhito started walking over to him… not when there was that little mercy left in the world…
And just as Fuhito started walking over to the poor prince's charred remains… Mark II suddenly stepped in front of him holding up his hands, as if to beg and plead for his dying master's life for he could not attack another royal and even if he could… against Fuhito… against a God…what hope did a man or a machine have? But Fuhito just smirked cruelly as he glared at Mark II and the poor robotic butler exploded into a million pieces, bits of circuitry and fine butler clothe flying high into the charred air of the early morning sky…and Gilliam watched in horror… as his entire kingdom came crashing down…
Damn it… my body is broken… I… I can't move… Mark II is gone… my sword… my shield…all gone…
And yet…
"I told you Gilliam." Fuhito smiled as he stood over the deep fried Prince. "This was never a stalemate…"
"… Yu-dojeddd…"
"Hmm? What was that?"
"You d-d-dodged…" Gilliam reiterated; the tone of his voice, though weak, was powerful and uncompromising. "Why would you dodge if you didn't feel threatened? He… *cough*… hehe..." Gilliam smiled through his charred lips and his fractured skull, all of his hair completely gone to say nothing of his skin… he smiled regardless… with vindication…as if he were the final victor even if he lost everything… for in his mind, in that instant, he was… he simply was a king…
"Hmpf…" Fuhito smiled shaking his head… "Whatever you say Gilliam… but I've won…" And with that, the cruel prince knelt beside Gilliam and raised his hand to his face… "I've won." He reiterated… there was no remorse or kindness in his voice… "Goodbye Gilliam… it's been… interesting… "
Damn… Gilliam groaned in his mind, his eyelids feeling heavy closing without his permission… I guess I couldn't beat him after all… I guess… I guess he's going to become king…
But right as Gilliam thought that an image of Lillianne… of Hime… suddenly popped into his mind… and he had no idea why…
… Huh… I'm sorry my sister… I leave the rest to you…
Meanwhile, in the human world, Hime awoke softly from her sleep as she stared up at the ceiling of her room... for some reason… all she could think of was one word… a name… "Gilliam nee-sama…"
Gilliam smiled… he smiled even as he looked at the blurred image of Fuhito… this was a warrior's death… and so… doing what he did best… he hid his pain and showed his scars, he closed his eyes and said goodbye to the world… sinking deep into the darkness of his receding lids…
And then a miracle happened…
"I think that's enough…"
"What's this?" Fuhito said cautiously as he felt a sudden pressure around his body… his image becoming distorted as if he were starting to fade away, his hair and his clothes dancing like evaporating flames. Gilliam opened his eyes and watched on through his seared pupils as Fuhito turned his head and saw a hand, that's right a hand, a rather long and slender hand gripping his shoulder tightly, whose grip burned with power and noble determination, and there, standing before his two brothers, Emil, Prince Emil had returned…
"Ah… I see… you must be the other one… the one they all spoke about… Emil…" But even as Fuhito said that glancing back behind him, Emil didn't say a word… not a single word… he just stared… the power in his eyes… even Fuhito must have felt a bit uncomfortable…
"Well then… hmpf…What business do you have with me dead Prince? Certainly you aren't here to save your brother? Hehehe… or perhaps maybe you're here to challenge me?" Fuhito said as he teleported free from Emil's grip…
And yet Emil didn't say a word. He just kept staring… like a newly awakened titan who was taking the time to take everything in… he turned his head to look around his back and there he saw Gilliam as he struggled to push himself up against a jagged old rock… bits of his facial skin were peeling off, falling onto the blood stained remnants of the fine clothes he once wore, fragments of bone were peeking out as well and the muscle and the skin above them were all but disintegrated… he was unrecognizable… and the worst part was… he was still alive… "Gilliam…" Emil called… and that was perhaps the very first time his voice ever carried any emotion… as he looked upon his dying brother…their eyes met… Emil's strong and youthful… quite interestingly so for someone presumed dead… and Gilliam's charred and burned… a distressing white fluid drizzling from the corners…and everything became clear…
Emil never held any grudge against Gilliam no matter how many times he came to challenge him. Gilliam's blatant attack on Fuhito was the same. And likewise Gilliam held no ill will toward either of them. He just felt compelled, threatened by the strongest. And so if he could beat the strongest, then what did he have to fear? That was Gilliam's philosophy, not born out of malice as much as pride. It was Gilliam after all. A victory in which someone else killed the strongest; it would be meaningless to him. That is why he went to such extents and challenged his enemies directly. Because even if someone else kills the strongest and then you kill them, you become the strongest by default, indirect in some ways. But… if you killed them both, then you become the undeniable champion of everything. Emil knew all of this and more and he communicated his understanding as he stared at Gilliam who in turn stared back, each of them staring deep into the other's soul…
And Gilliam realized in that moment that Emil had forgiven him… him… the assailant who almost obliterated his plans and pushed his health past the limit… all he could do now was look upon his brother and smile… brother… the word held the universe together…
"Excuse me…" called a voice as the temperature once again started to rise… "I asked you a question… what are you doing here Emil?"
But even as Fuhito interjected, Emil didn't falter, not one bit, and finally, with a great power in his impassive voice, he spoke… he finally spoke…"I'm here to kill you…" and that's all he said. That's all Emil said as he remained as taciturn as ever, the diligence in his eyes and the aggression in his stare…they communicated everything else that needed to be communicated… it was magnificent… the simplicity albeit the conviction in that small conversation…
"Ah! So you've come back from the dead with the intent of challenging me? Very well… come then… I'll accept the challenges of any would-be-kings any time and any place!"
And just like that Fuhito glared right at Emil who in turn just glared right back and for a second… the world didn't know how to react as the flames that they both brought danced in the boiling air… and perhaps it was a mirage or some kind of illusion… the manifestations that seemed to come forth from each of their souls yet neither of them moved but there was indeed a battle raging on, a battle of their hearts and of their minds and the great flames that came forth upon the open air were as a representation of their struggle as they contorted into broken half shapes and shattered dreams of what they used to be, in the end… both Emil and Fuhito were simply glaring at one another and yet in the end, the entire world was starting to quake…and stray bits of weaker mountains started to fall and crumble along the horizon… the world was falling apart simply because these two monsters refused to break eye contact…
And then, Emil fell to the ground… and it was over…
Just like that… no explanation… no reason… no grand salvation or wondrous victory… Emil had challenged Fuhito… and just as hope had been kindled… it was snuffed out by a far greater flame… like too masters who meet in a fated duel… it was all decided in an instant… and Fuhito stood towering now as the champion of everything… and there were no miracles left upon the Earth…
"Hmpf. Even you fall before me." Fuhito smiled casually as he turned on his heel and left with his victory… but it was not over… not yet…
"No…" Emil said defiantly as he seized Fuhito's arm… both of their outlines becoming enflamed…
"Let go…" Fuhito's voice was as cold as ice, the mountain creaking underneath the strain of each syllable he pronounced as if the very land itself cowered before his terrible power. "You are at your limit."
"… Yes…" Emil replied… he replied so easily, the sound of his voice causing the mountains nay the very heavens above the kingdom to shake, quake, and resonate with his power…as if responding to Fuhito's strength with his own. "I am at my limit."
And when Emil said that it was like thunder… a submission, a sign of defeat and Fuhito stared intently back into his impassive crimson eyes… "That's right"… Emil reaffirmed without shame, working his way back to his feet… still maintaining an extraordinary grip on Fuhito's arm. "I'm at my limit…
But…
You are too… there will be no retreating… no second chances…" And just as Emil said that a sweat drop of flame rolled its way down Fuhito's cheek and Gilliam stared in awe… Fuhito, the royal monster who held eternity as his power, who cheated death, who tricked the phoenixes… Prince Fuhito was sweating…. Like seeing a crack on a previously unbreakable glass or seeing something unimaginably strong meet its equal, the first signs of damage when so much damage had been dealt, it meant the world to Gilliam even as he closed his eyes… basking in the gift his brother gave him… Win… that was Gilliam's last most precious thought as he finally released his fingers letting go of his broken sword…
And yet, the momentum of such a monumental accomplishment did not faze Emil, he like he always was, remained calm, composed, calculating, proper and placed, he just stared deep into Fuhito's eyes, into his soul, and his grip did not wane.
"Fine then…" Fuhito said as he turned to face Emil but there was no smile on his face… no rather his features had become bland and cold. Ironic as the air around them seemed to ignite again, the stray bits of dust, manifesting themselves into chaotic flames as it surrounded the two godlike Princes… "We'll finish this now."
And just like that the entire mountain… all of it… the largest and tallest mountain in the monster realm… it was set on fire…the rocks burning despite the fact that there was nothing combustible on them and a great fissure opened up across the desert as the land crumbled to burnt up pieces… even the skyline became mauled, a great divide splitting across the clouds searing deep into the eye of space, where no God could overlook, the battle torn asunder the doorway to Heaven, crying down the golden glow of the moon and all that shined brightly despite the stars and silver galaxies seventeen thousand years away was a fire deeper than the depths of Hell and colder than all the horror history had wrote.
"You… you were holding back?" Fuhito cringed as he closed one of his eyes reeling in pain… and for the first time in his life… the devil prince felt his soul was at risk… he noticed out of the corner of his eye Emil glancing back to where Gilliam now rested… "Ah! I see! You were holding back to avoid killing Gilliam… How careless of me…" Fuhito grunted as Emil redirected his gaze back at him and the temperature heightened once again…
"To think I'd actually lose… hahaha…"
And with that, the entire mountain was gone… the largest mountain ever to grace the Earth… it vanished… it simply vanished… and there was no rumble or sound that plagued the world, perhaps it was so massive, the energy, the explosion it was impossible to process and all ears were deaf to the hell and all eyes blind to the madness. But it was gone… the mountain upon the Sea of Chaos was gone and all that gleamed in the faint morning light was a steady stream of ash that rained down all over the world… and all that remained at the foot of the summit was a lone figure…
Fuhito just sighed…
"Hmm… you come swooping in and barely say a word… then you leave without your victory? my oh my… you are a strange one… hehehe…
Yes… Oh yes… I had heard about you… the first late son of the king… a boy said to be great and powerful… like me…. but also noble and pure… gentle even… all at price of being deathly ill…
Emil… the prince who could see the future…
Hmm… I suppose that's the difference between us… the juvenile phoenixes and the mature ones… we're born unfairly… some greater some weaker… and even now… in this form… this holy royal form… we are still unequal…I was outmatched even before I started fighting hehehe… to think after all these years… I still can't become king…
You've won…
Emil…"
And just like that Fuhito started to crumble, his form disintegrating into bits of black flaky ash, he just smiled as he died… calm and composed, intrigued even at the very end as he accepted the beautifully crafted defeat that he had walked right into… And just a few seconds later… Gilliam… Emil… Fuhito… they were all gone… just like that… and the desert was silent once again…
But there was still life in the world… a pair of crimson silted eyes looking on impassively across the desert wasteland…
"It's over…" Sylvia said as she put her binoculars down… but she did not smile when she did that… for even she, the demon princess, the oldest and perhaps the cruelest… right after Fuhito, she did not smile nor did she chuckle as per her usual forte… no… she just held on tightly to a rather strange orb as she glared over in the direction of the great calamity that had befallen, that had threatened to destroy all notion existence, the soil from which the world had grown.
"Princess Sylvia?" "Fuga?" called two voices from behind her and there stood two tall women, one dressed like a maid with a menacing drill for a right hand and completely black pupils and blonde hair bolted back while the other wore a rather stylish fur coat without a shirt revealing she was only wearing a bra and baggy pants that didn't quite fit, she had black hair and a stare that could choke on sight…
"Francette, Mikasa we're leaving."
"You're highness?"
"In the end… Emil planned to take on Fuhito and clear a path for Hime-chan… Fufu… to think he'd even go as far as sacrificing himself… what a foolish child… but I guess we'll have our ending soon enough then won't we Hime-chan? Fufuf…." And with that Sylvia turned on her heel and walked away with her subordinates just as several cars and trains filled with royal guards dotted distantly off on the horizon as they rushed toward the site where two… no… three god's had battled…
A legend was born… the war was about to end…