Chapter 56 The Last Stand and the Truth
She reached for her sword and used it as a crutch to pull herself up. She was alone now, and that was why she had to fight alone. Her life was on the line; she had to avenge what had happened to Arnold.
She fell to the ground three times before finally managing to stand. Her body was trembling from the unbearable pain brought by the Tirong's bites. Now she realized why the others couldn't fight back anymore—it was because they had been bitten. The venom from the Tirong’s fangs paralyzed the victims.
She heard them laughing. It sounded like the cackling of hyenas. Accompanying the laughter was a sound like a machine in need of oil—but it wasn't a machine; it was the sound of the monsters' stomachs growling. They stood there, watching her, as a blue liquid dripped from their mouths. It had to be their saliva.
"You know I can teleport, don't you? But I won't do it, because I’m going to kill every last one of you until your race is extinct!" She was becoming delirious, talking to them. "Do you know how ugly you all are?!" she mocked the monsters in front of her.
They were twice the height of a normal person. Their bodies looked like they were made of white jelly, making their bones clearly visible. Their fingers and toes were long and webbed. Their twelve ribs were flared out, leaving a large hollow in their thin abdomens—Arnold was right when he said the Tirongs were genderless, as their reproductive organs were a blank space. Their faces were triangular, framed by thin, white hair. Each Tirong had two pairs of rainbow-colored eyes; one pair was in the usual place, but the other pair was on their cheeks. Their mouths were elongated slits that stretched wide when they ate.
As one of them stepped forward, she backed away and stepped on the bag she had forgotten she was carrying.
Forgetting something so important was very unlike her.
They say when you are on the verge of death, you remember all the happy moments of your past, and your childhood memories play back like a movie. But she could remember nothing. Her mind was a blank, overwhelmed by the pain not just in her wound, but radiating through her entire body.
Using her foot, she pulled the bag toward her and saw items inside. She spotted a very familiar black branded wallet. She pulled it out and checked the contents. There was money and pictures. What caught her attention most was a family photo. It was her a year younger, standing with a beautiful woman and a handsome man. Age had been kind to them.
Who are they?
She asked herself the question. She couldn't remember the couple in the photo, but her heart seemed to know them. A warmth like a gentle hand brushed against her heart.
"You have to remember us, Love..." It was the woman's voice again. "Remember who we are. You have to keep fighting because they are waiting for you. Your father is waiting for you to return home..."
'Father? Who is my father?'
A face briefly registered in her mind's eye before vanishing as two Tirongs lunged at her.
"You have to fight, Aurora!" A different woman's voice echoed, and a surge of new strength flowed through her body.
She met the first one with a kick to the chest, then leaped onto its shoulders and forced her sword deep into its head. Black blood sprayed as the creature dissolved. The second one grabbed the hand holding her sword, so she tossed the weapon into the air and caught it with her free hand. She let the wolf within her take over, using its raw strength to drag the creature to the edge of the volcano, where she slammed the Tirong repeatedly against the rock. Not satisfied, she tore its head from its body and threw it at the watching crowd.
"Next!" she screamed, pointing her sword at them. This time, three rushed her. She swung her sword wildly. She decapitated two, while the third took a blow to the head that split it in two. "I see! You don't have brains after all!" Anger had finally overtaken the pain. The agony in her body faded, allowing her to fight with precision.
She thought they would keep coming one by one, but she was wrong. The remaining creatures swarmed her all at once.
"Fuck!" she cursed as the first one bit her shoulder. She stabbed it in the face, and it instantly died and dissolved. She hacked the head off another. She killed them over and over, but their numbers didn't seem to dwindle. She was growing exhausted.
She screamed again as one bit her leg and tore away a chunk of flesh. She kicked the attacker, but it grabbed both her legs and pulled them in opposite directions, slamming her to the ground. The Tirongs swarmed over her. Just as she thought it was all over, the monsters suddenly stopped eating her flesh and backed away as if in terror.
She forced herself to sit up, though she was bathing in her own blood.
"Remember us so that you can survive, My Love..."
The woman's voice was like a lullaby. It kept her calm despite the living hell surrounding her.
She moved slightly, propping herself up with her palm, when her hand brushed against something. When she lifted the object, the Tirongs recoiled in fear. When she made a move to throw it, the flesh-eaters backed away even further.
"So, you're all afraid of this flower, huh?" she mocked. In her hand was a Santeliom flower. She had picked three earlier because she thought they were beautiful—the moon-shaped and star-shaped ones. They had been green and violet when she picked them, but now they were glowing a smoldering red.
She threw one flower at them. The moment it touched a Tirong, its body exploded into flames. Those hit by the burning fragments also caught fire. Unlike her sword, which made them dissolve, the Santeliom made their bodies detonate.
She threw the remaining two flowers and watched as they exploded and burned.
"I feel like Rizal right before he was executed. It’s an overwhelming feeling, knowing I’ve done something right before I die," she said, mocking her own fate, especially now that the monsters realized she had no flowers left.
She didn't even have the breath to scream when one bit her neck. Aurora simply closed her eyes and waited for the end.
"Find out what is happening to you so you can break free from the curse you are suffering now..."
Because of the woman's voice, a memory surfaced. A man and a woman were sitting beside her, comforting her. She was crying because of a strange dream...
A dream...
The moment she thought that she wished all of this was just a dream, happy memories of her past began to flow like water through a broken dam. She saw the faces of the people she loved, smiling and waiting for her return.
"Aurora!" The voice was muffled, but she understood it because of the diving mask he was wearing. She was weak and couldn't move her hands to swim. She raised her hand, and a hand grabbed her, pulling her toward the brighter part of the water.
"A-Arnold..." she said weakly as she recognized the man. "I t-thought you were d-dead."
"We’re both going to die if we don't get to the shore!" he barked at
her, holding her by the waist as they fought against the raging sea.