Episode 182 - The Traitor’s Portal
Episode 182 - The Traitor’s Portal
Mixxi - SHUT UP, YOU IMBECILE!
Mercavian froze, remaining silent as tears continued to stream down his cheeks, more and more. The silence was almost devastating now. All of us stared at Elowen. If Elowen was dead, if she had been all this time... That means everything we sacrificed was in vain, the way we threw away our first life, the reason we were reborn and deprived of all the memories of our past. The way Mercavian struggled and sacrificed his entire life just to see the love of his life again, just to have her by his side once more; he had wasted everything he had for her.
And what if there truly was never a "her"?
Mercavian's sobs echoed through the forest, raw and unrestrained. His hands trembled as he reached for Elowen's face, but the creature didn't stir, didn't even blink. Its blackened eyes stared past him, empty, as if it had never known him.
Merc - No… no, you're lying. She was real. She was my love.
Mixxi's laughter sliced through the silence like a knife.
Mixxi - Real? She was a shell. A convenient mask. You built your life around a ghost, Mercavian. And now, that ghost belongs to me.
The rift above us throbbed, pulling the forest upward, bending reality itself. My scar burned, and I felt the whisper coil tighter in my mind: You belong to us. Joe clenched his fists, the flames sputtering against the pull of the void.
Joe - It's tearing us apart. She is using her death to bring us down.
Ness - No... Elowen had her own consciousness. She protected us for a long time and taught us things that couldn't possibly have been just part of some stupid manipulation.
Mixxi looked at me, a grimace of disgust on her face.
Mixxi - That's because the stupid girl had consciousness. She had to cross to the other side and then merge the worlds by taking the blood of those mages who crossed with her. But, when she crossed, she broke free from my power, all while I was trapped, just another creature in the crowd. Until you all tried so hard to bring her back to reality, to her original body. The moment you freed me... It was so funny to realize you were digging your own graves...
Joe - Mercavian! She may be dead now, but everything we experienced with her was real.
Mercavian's hand trembled with a nervous tic, though his gaze remained fixed on Mixxi. He turned to look at Mixxi again, this time with his hand on her cheek. He gazed at her with a tenderness, like someone looking at the most precious and delicate thing in their life. With a love I had never seen anywhere else. He closed his eyes as he held her firmly, and only a few seconds later, he opened them, this time empty, with a somber expression, but they weren't directed at Elowen. He turned completely around, looking at Mixxi.
He began to walk, with slow and deliberate steps, ignoring Elowen, Luke, Joe, Tobias, and me. He made his way through us in a scene we caught a glimpse of in slow motion. His hands began to glow with their characteristic gray flames, a color barely distinguishable from our surroundings. He walked toward Mixxi, menacing, who looked at him with a smug smile, as if he were just an ant making his way toward her. The forest seemed to hold its breath as Mercavian advanced. Each step left scorched marks on the ground, his gray flames licking upward, devouring the blackened grass.
Mixxi - Ah, so the stone finally cracks. Do you think your pain makes you strong?
Mercavian's eyes glared at Mixxi, with anger, with disdain, not even deigning to reply. He raised his hands and the flames shot up, twisting into sharp spears of light. The crack above pulsed in response, as if acknowledging his fury.
Luke struggled to his feet, his glow flickering.
Luke - Mercavian, wait! This is what he wants!
Elowen only moved his head an inch, sending Luke crashing to the ground again. That's when I thought. Why just the two of them? Why were Tobias and I here, unable to move, but not on our knees on the ground?; My thoughts were interrupted by a sharp thud, followed by horrified expressions on Luke and Joe's faces. I spun around, feeling like the world was crashing down around me. Standing before us was Mixxi, one eye closed, injured and dripping black blood, his hand outstretched towards Mercavian. He had a hole at least 5 centimeters wide where his heart should have been. A hole that went right through him, revealing the other side.
Ness - Mer... MERCAVIAN!
Mercavian let out one last sound before a grayish energy, pure magic, erupted from his body. As that mass of light hurtled toward Mixxi, Mercavian's body fell to the ground, lifeless, heartless. No chance to give us any more explanations, to move forward. Unconsciously, tears began to well up in my eyes, a burning sensation I had never felt before. The others were equally overwhelmed with grief. We had hated him for so many things he had done... But to see him die, not once, but twice... This time, deep down, it felt as if he wasn't coming back, as if this was the end. That made it different.
Behind me, Elowen let a black tear fall from her right eye, emotionless, simply as if her body, her memory, were reacting to the loss. The mass of energy hurled itself at Mixxi, weakening the rift above us for a fleeting second, a fleeting second that was enough. Mixxi was distracted; Elowen was holding Luke and Joe back. Tobias was motionless.
I looked beyond Elowen. The star. The core. Our only chance. Now that Mercavian was dead, and we were in an unknown place, there was nothing left to do. It was all or nothing; Mercavian had chosen to lose everything. I couldn't afford to hesitate. I moved while Mixxi was distracted, turning quickly, dragging all the pain in my body back. I ran, moving as fast as I could toward the star. I raised my hand to reach it faster when I heard Mixxi scream. A "No" that I never quite finished hearing.
I touched the star.
The instant I touched it, I felt everything change: my body, my very being, my surroundings. The moment I touched it, a shockwave of energy propelled me into the distance, pushing me away with a force that could only come from an extraterrestrial body like this one. That moment unfolded more slowly than it should have; for a second, everything slowed down. It launched me forcefully, and the world ceased to be black and white, becoming completely black again, a total void. Nothingness.
Then time returned to normal, my back hit something hard, so hard that it pushed me back at least a meter forward. I lay on the ground for a moment, pretending to be dead; the feeling of pain I had made me wish I were dead. I didn't want to move.
To be continued..