Chapter 16: A Traveler's End

Max

July 25th, 2017

1:22 PM

High Providence, Meridian Prime

Ark of Genesis

I cut down the last of the Fallen with Excalibur's sword. I'm out of ammo clips to spare for Alex and even with the Fallen neutralized, Alex won't be able to cover me. Suddenly, I see Chronos fall to my platform floating in the massive typhoon caused by the seismic event triggered by the Ark of Genesis. Chronos appears beaten and unconscious.

Then Ares drops down on the platform with his two legs. Armed with his Olympian sword and Eternity Gauntlet, he prepared to swipe the Time Shard from my gauntlet. Alex was still pinned under her debris. It was just me and Ares now. With only my Excalibur sword and gauntlet to fight him with.

Ares: It's over, Max Caulfield. You have no more allies left to guide you. You were never worthy of your power and never will be.

Max: What would you know about being worthy of power, huh? You talk about balance, but all I see is chaos! You allied Joanna and slaughtered her the minute you got what you wanted!

Ares: Everyone in my cause is expendable! The Saxons, the Heard of Whales, the Continuum Defense Front, everyone! I earned my power through conquest and divinity! And where did you earn your power from? A school's latrine?!

Max: You know?

Ares: I know all your memories, Max. The Mind Shard reads all. From the day your beloved Chloe Price was shot, to the Arcadia Bay storm, to Triple Four, to this! I even know all your prior enemies before me and what you fear from them.

Ares used the Reality Shard to shape-shift into my old foes.

Ares: (posing as Mark Jefferson) Your old photography teacher. Whom you idolized until he drugged you, kidnapped, and captured you in his dark corner. (posing as Derrick Crosby) A corrupt Chief Executive Officer. Who manipulated you into being his friend until he was revealed to be the constructor of Triple Four. (posing as Joanna Prescott) The sister of Sean Prescott. Lady of the Heard of Whales and ally of Ares until she was of no use to him. (morphing back to original form) And now I, Lord Ares; the bringer of balance, the son of Zeus, the grandson of Chronos, the god of war, will be the culmination of all that you fear, Max. A traveler's downfall. A traveler's pain. A traveler's end.

Suddenly, the Eternity moons up in the sky whipped out tentacles that were spat out from the moons themselves. One tentacle for each moon. Six of them in total. Each tentacle attached itself to the platform of the Ark of Genesis. Lighting up the platform with glowing blue, purple, red, green, yellow, and orange energy for each moon and each shard they were bound to. Whatever the moons were doing, they appeared to be powering up the ark for Ares's final phase in his conquest for balance in the universe's population.

Ares: Prepare yourself, traveler, for the final step in my quest to bring balance to the universe! And for your demise!

I had enough talk from this monstrous god. I raise my sword in front of me. Ares raises his. And the two of us clash our swords together. Fighting for my life and for Alex's who was defenseless while lying down pinned by the rock over her body and legs. My Excalibur Sword and Are's Olympian swords cross one another with each swing and cling against the metal material the blades were made of.

Fighting Ares was nothing like fighting Joanna. Ares was more brutish, more experienced, and more formidable than my fencing session with the late Prescott lady. I could feel the weight of Ares's swings against my sword heavier than mine. I stand my ground, keep my guard up, and maintain my edge against Ares.

It was more than just a sword duel against my thousands-of-years-old opponent. Ares utilized the five Eternity Shards on his gauntlet against me. Using the Space Shard to force me backward. Then he shoots a massive purple beam from the Power Shard to annihilate me. I deflected the beam with my Time Shield for as long as I could. When both our moves wear down, I make a countermove before resuming clashing.

I freeze Ares in time with a Time Bubble. Giving me enough time to strike at him with my sword before the bubble wears down. I Time Dash my way towards Ares to strike at him. Then, while Ares is still frozen, he uses the Power Shard to break himself free. Then my sword slashed through Ares's armor as soon as he had freed himself. Ares barely parries my other strikes with his sword as soon as I struck him. Then I kick up away with another Time Dash to push him further away from me.

Ares slides across the ground with his sword scraping the ground as he's pushed backward. I give Ares a menacing glare with my blade raised near my head. Unlike Joanna, it was going to take more than sword fighting to fight against Ares's malice. I was going to need all the power I had against him. My time powers and my gauntlet with the Time Shard boosting my power all together.

Ares: You're bolder than I predicted. But I won't allow you to win that easily.

Ares then used the Space Shard to yank the Time Shard out of my gauntlet. I could feel the Space Shard's power pulling my arm forward. I try tugging myself backward to fight Ares's grip with no use to it. Then the Time Shard pops out of my gauntlet and is summoned straight into the sixth and last empty slot in Are's gauntlet. As soon as the Time Shard is inserted in, the energy from all the shards sends empowering light through Ares's veins as Ares. Ares hollers against the cracks of light in his blood veins. Even a god can be human after all.

Now Ares had all six shards. He could snap his finger and wipe out half the universe this very second! I had to stop him now!

Ares: Killing you here and now would make you a martyr. But I now have all the time in the world to kill you wherever and whenever.

Ares activates the Time Shard from his gauntlet. But he doesn't use it to rewind time. He uses it to send us back in time to kill me elsewhere in a different place at a different time.

I feel the green energy from the Time Shard flow through me and see it flowing through Ares, too. Ares and I are then transported through a time vortex. A green wormhole that sends us back in time to an event set earlier in my lifetime. Where we're sent to is someplace, I never thought I'd witness again.

We exit the vortex made from the Time Shard. We're no longer in the destructive typhoon in Meridian Prime. We were sent back four years earlier to Arcadia Bay. Back to the Arcadia Bay storm!

Ares and I set foot on the beachfront of Arcadia Bay and see the massive twister swirling across the ocean water. Same place Chloe and I set foot on right before she carried me to the lighthouse. Lightning, cold air, high winds, this is part of history I didn't want revisited. Much less rewritten.

Ares: Welcome back to your first challenge as the traveler, Max! The Arcadia Bay storm! Where you stood by and watched your home endure its demolishment with your beloved Chloe.

Ares then points to where I see myself being carried by Chloe. Being walked up to the lighthouse while I'm unconscious. Where Ares could intervene and obstruct Chloe's path right now!

Ares: I could wipe your very survival of this storm from history! Kill you and Chloe where you trudge! And by killing you in the past, no one can stop me in the present!

No one's rewriting my history. Not on my watch. I had to get back that Time Shard before Ares could break the timestream. And I had to do so now.

Ares used the Power Shard to send the storm's lightning down on him so he could redirect it toward my other self's and Chloe's direction. He does just the thing and uses the redirected lightning to shoot down a tree on the path to the lighthouse. The comes down on Chloe and my other self and barely misses. I had to stop Ares from killing me somehow but without the Time Shard on my gauntlet, my powers won't be enhanced enough to fight Ares. With or without the shard, it was time to improvise.

I use my Time Freeze on Ares again which keeps him from shooting more lightning. Then I Time Dash towards Ares again, jump at him, stick my hand through the Time Bubble, attempt to reach for the Time Shard, and then stab at him with my sword right before the bubble wears off. I'm able to kick Ares backward with the boost of my Time Dash and steal an Eternity Shard from his gauntlet that ends up sticking to mine. But it's not the Time Shard. It's the Space Shard.

Ares is bewildered to see the shard in my gauntlet. Albeit the wrong one. Ares and I clash our swords some more and then I'm able to push Ares backward again with the Space Shard. I'm wielding a power that isn't time. But telekinesis. I then use the Space Shard to send waves from water near us toward Ares to try and splash a big wave at him. Ares deflects with the Time Shard. Rewinding the wave behind the shore.

Then I use the Space Shard to grasp the sand beneath my feet and throw the sand towards Ares to blind him. Ares deflects again with a Time Shield via the Time Shard. Then I use the Space Shard to grip the earth underneath the sand and toss the chunks of ground at Ares. Like an Earth Bender from Avatar: The Last Airbender. The chunks of the Earth are too deflected by Ares's Time Shield until it depletes and Ares himself is hit with a boulder of dirt. Ares shakes it off. Impressed by my improvisation.

Ares: You're more practical than I figured, Traveler. But if I can't kill you here, I can do it somewhere else.

Ares uses the Time Shard to send us into another time vortex. Same process as before. We both jumped through the vortex and this time, we jumped to an event a year ahead from this one.

The vortex transports us six months ahead from the Arcadia Bay storm. I find myself surrounded by a room with machinery inside a building. When I turned to see a machine with what I recalled as the Elysium Forge inside, I knew immediately where Ares had taken me. The room inside the Chrysalis building where Project Elysium was installed. During Triple Four!

I look up and see the Elysium portal beaming in the sky. I could even see myself, Chloe, and Rachel fighting Derrick Crosby on the tower. I already guessed what Ares was going to pull next.

Ares: Welcome back to Triple Four. Where you and your companions fought Derrick Crosby before defeating him in the world of Elysium. I will ensure that never happens. It is here where you'll die instead.

Chronos: Max. Max, can you hear me? Its Chronos.

I hear Chronos's voice through our telepath again.

Max: Chronos? But how?

Chronos: No time. You must retrieve the Time Shard. Ares will stop at nothing to kill you even if it means in the past. Once you have the shard, I will take the shard's power to transport you and Ares back to the present. Hurry.

Ares utilized the Power Shard to emit lightning from the portal tower to try and kill my other self, Chloe, Rachel, and even Crosby if he could. I knew what had to be done.

I freeze Ares in another Time Bubble and then Time Dash towards him to retrieve the Time Shard. This time I retrieved the right one. I now had the power of space and time on my knuckles. I dash out of the way as soon as the bubble wears off and Ares ceases his lightning. That is when Chronos from the other side activates the Time Shard and sends Ares and me back to the present.

Ares and I are now time-vortexed back to the present. Back to the ark's platform still swirling around in the typhoon caused by the ark. With the tentacles from the Eternity Moons still tethered down, the codex still inside the machine, Alex still under the rubble, and Chronos still unconscious behind me. I glare at Ares with a menacing frown. My Excalibur Sword and Exo-Gauntlet are in my two hands. Prepared for a fairer fight against the mad God of War himself.

Max: You time travel with me again, and I'm gonna lose it.

Ares: It doesn't matter when or where I kill you. Your empty bravado won't win this fight. If Lady Joanna was correct about one thing, you are a sad little girl with delusions of grandeur.

Max: I'd be more concerned about your delusions of grandeur.

Ares and I clash our swords once again. I combine my sword attacks with my Space and Time Powers given to me on my gauntlet. I force Ares backward with the Space Shard. Ares mimics my attack with the Power Shard and then I'm forced backward. Ares then shoots another purple beam from the Power Shard and I shield it with a combo of the Space and Time Shards. As the beam wears down, I use the Space Shard's power to hold Ares's hand gloved with the Eternity Gauntlet still. Then Time Dash towards him to my sword against his and then graze him with my sword across his cheek. The mad god could feel the flesh would peel open as I struck him. Touching it with his fingers and checking how much blood was spilled with his one finger. Not a lot.

Ares: All that for a drop of blood.

Ares then seep-kicked me off my ground. Causing me to fumble on the ground. Ares then swings his sword downward at me. I parry each move as I start crawling away. Same way when Joanna was pinning me down earlier. But Ares's mettle proved more hardened than Joanna's like it had been since this fight began. Then Ares picks me up by my neck and pushes me away with the flicker of his Power Shard. Sending me rolling away on the ground. I instantly get him and shoot a beam that combines the Space and Time Shards power at Ares. Only for Ares himself to deflect it with a shielding ability from the Power Shard's power. Ares marches closer and closer to me as I struggle to overpower Ares, but my power is ineffective.

Once Ares breaks my attack, he instantly disarms me from both my sword and my gauntlet. Then finally, Ares strikes me down with the plunge of his Olympian Blade piecing through the side of my hip. I gasped instantly as the lethal weapon struck through my flesh.

Alex: No!

Ares wrenches the sword out from my flesh. I fumble to my knees and pressure my hand on the wound. Blood dripping and stained on my hand. Blood dripping from my lips as I attempt to gasp for air. I look down and see the blood stained on my palms and fingers. My head is then forced upward with the tip of Ares's sword. So, I could look him in the eye before he slays me for good.

Ares: You have my respect, Max. I thought hard of granting you a swift death. But not before I've finished my work. You will bleed here succumbing to your wounds. While witnessing the completion of balance I will bring to this world. That is an honor I will reward you before you die. When I'm done, half of humanity will still be alive. I hope they remember you.

Before Ares turns away, his sword slashes across my cheek and damages my right eye. My whole body collapses to the ground as I feel the sting of blindness in one eye. Leaving me to lie down bleeding from the pain of blood draining from my right hip stabbed open and my right eye torn from its socket. With my blood dripping down from it as well.

Ares approaches my gauntlet lying down on the floor to reestablish the two shards back on his gauntlet. I lay down dying on the floor. Staring off into the dark skies invaded by the six Eternity Moons. Mouth as big as the Sarlacc Pit, teeth as big as Godzilla, and tentacles bigger than a Kraken. Alex still struggles to pull herself off the rubble while I decide to accept my imminent death, my loss in this war, and the Ares will win with all six shards to him served on a silver platter.

Until Chronos, still down on the ground, uses his powers to not only reach my mind but also the ghosts of all Order of St. Loomis and Heard of Whales members. Allowing them to reach my mind and repower me back to life to finish this fight once and for all. Whispers of the ghosts enter my mind telepathically.

King Arthur: Max, these are your final steps. Rise and take them.

Percival: Max.

Tristan: Max.

Lancelot: Stop Ares, Max. As we did.

Merlin: In the night, Max. Find the light.

King Arthur: Alone, you have never been. Every member of our order lives in you. Rise, Max.

I feel myself feeling healthier again. The stab wound through my kidney was healing. I slowly but surely get up. Using my arm and legs to stand again as gradually as I can.

Martin Prescott: Feel the power, Max.

Ezekiel Prescott: Feel the might of a traveler.

Adam Baldric: We stand with you, Max. To the end.

Anna Laurie: Reach out, Max.

Christoph Carter: Stay with us, Max.

Willem Hayes: The path of a traveler lies in her strength.

Richmond Need: Max.

Joseph Barrell: Max.

Tariq bin Malik: You can do this, Max.

Yazid al-Basra: Stay with us, Max.

My wound is close to healing. Then the wound is fully healed, and the stab opening is completely sealed by the power of the ghosts of the Heard of Whales. The flesh from my exit wound entirely regenerated. I can feel myself gaining the energy to stand up again.

Jeremiah Blackwell: This is your defining moment, Max.

Ezra Prescott: Stop Ares, Max. At any cost.

Bryan Caulfield: Max, the Heard is with you. Always.

As I'm fully healed, I pick myself back up. Using my sword as a fulcrum to lift myself back on my feet. Then I'm standing on my ten toes again. Sword in hand ready to fight Ares who I see removing the shards from my gauntlet reinserting all six on his gauntlet. The shards reignite the God of War and as soon as begins to snap his fingers, I Time Dash toward him and push him backward. Breaking his snap. Ares turns his head in disbelief to see that I'm still alive and kicking.

I notice my Exo-Gauntlet next to me and I pick it up and slide it back on my fingers immediately. Time for round two.

Ares: Impossible.

Ares and I clash again. Swords clinging even faster than before. I attempt to reach for the shard on Ares's Eternity Gauntlet in an attempt to get all six of them on my Exo-Gauntlet. As soon as I'm about to, Ares knocks me again with a single headbutt and a kick to my stomach. Despite my comeback against Ares, my opponent still prevailed. Now all he needed to do was snap his fingers and win the war.

Ares: I am…inevitable.

But as soon as Ares's fingers on his gauntlet are snapped, a cling is heard. Nothing occurs. Ares checks the slots on his gauntlet to see all the shards are gone. Shock in his eyes he turns to me.

It is I who have all six shards on the knuckles of my hand. Kneeling on the ground and my gauntlet raised next to my head. The shards fueled me with their energy. I feel the sting of the shards' empowerment as Ares is mesmerized to see a mortal traveling ready to use the shards at her disposal.

Max: And I…am…Max Caulfield.

And that is when I snap my fingers with the shards on my gauntlet. I hear a snap. Then a boom.