Eternal
Maybe you’re not going to help Zelvix, but you’re not going leave Decena to fight off that monstrosity by herself. Semra will just have to hope Zelvix doesn’t have the strength to reach her before you can get back over there.
You let go of Semra’s hand though you still feel a link with her allowing the transfer of energy. You can tell she’s somewhat angry though that you’re being distracted.
Decena is busily trying to hack away the flailing limbs of the massive blob of flesh trying to squeeze through the doorway. You see the sides of the walls begin to crack.
“Decena, get out of the way that thing is going to grab you!” you say and shove her aside. You follow up by casting a cone of ice at the thing in an attempt to slow it down.
“Why not fire?” Decena shouts.
“If I set this blob on fire, it’s going to still come at us except it’ll be burning as well. Better that we should freeze it in place. I’ll take care of this thing, you go over to Morty or Zelvix, or whoever the fuck he is and prevent him from reaching Semra, remember don’t kill him!”
Decena nods and runs over to Morty’s body which has nearly reached Semra, that is until Decena pulls his leg, drags him away and kicks him in the face. Zelvix bellows in anger and emanates unnatural hissing noises.
Meanwhile you’re still attempting to freeze his “pet” in place. You periodically smash chunks of it off, but it’s a losing battle. It continues to roll its bulk into the doorway and the sides of the walls now successfully begin to give way. You jump back to avoid being crushed.
“Semra, you better hurry the fuck up before this thing crushes us all!” you say smashing another bloody frozen chunk off of the mass.
Another unearthly wail from Zelvix and it’s a sign that the end of this conflict is near.
“SSSSSSSSS NO! IT CANNOT END LIKE THIS! I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED BY MORTAL SHIT! I CURSE YOU ALL! NONE OF YOU SHALL AAAARRRRGH!”
Morimer’s body twitches and convulses one last time and you manage to turn your head just in time from your own battle to see a red spirit like mist rise from his body. An angry demonic face can be seen briefly followed by the red mist completely dissipating. In front of you, the mass of flesh you’ve been fighting goes completely lifeless. Mortimer’s body is also lifeless. Whatever spark that was keeping him alive was only due to Zelvix’s magic and he’s truly gone now.
You walk over to Decena who is near Mortimer’s body. She looks okay, but she’s rubbing her head.
“You all right?” you ask.
“Yeah, I just…damn. Towards the end there, the demon was trying to get into my mind. It wasn’t even that long, but shit was it intense. I’m glad you had that spell protecting me.”
“I’d never abandon you.” You say and embrace her.
“Well isn’t that just sickeningly sweet? I do all the damn work and you hug her? Not even a thank you to me, but then you’ve never been grateful for anything I’ve done for you.” Semra remarks who is looking a little exhausted herself.
“Semra, if I were you, I’d be thankful that I’m letting you live.” You remark.
“Oh you just say such things. We both know that you could never kill me. We’re mentally linked now you know. I KNOW you still desire me! Even now that you’re turning into a feeble old man I STILL dwell within your thoughts. I will ALWAYS be within your thoughts somewhere.” Semra snaps.
“Then you also know what you just said isn’t entirely true. While before you could at least lie to yourself and make the assumption that in your twisted mind that somehow we were a couple. You now have complete access to my own thoughts and you know what you’ve seen? You’ve seen that my mind has been always honest with you. Would I like to fuck you? Yeah, and then I’d like to slit your fucking throat. I’m not going to pretend to be a completely well adjusted person, in fact I never have. Honestly given everything I’ve gone through, it’s amazing that I’m not completely fucking insane.”
Semra remains silent as you continue your rant.
“In fact given that we’re so linked now there is less that YOU can actually hide from me now. I’d think you’d like to remember that fact. You know what you are deep down inside Semra? You’re a scared little girl who misses her daddy. I’m not even going to get into your completely fucked up relationship with him, because honestly I’m not in a position to judge. But the fact remains you saw the man you loved and possibly only held any sort of true feelings for get ripped apart by demons before your eyes and you couldn’t do anything to stop it. Just like you saw your entire civilization and way of life get torn apart and couldn’t do anything to stop it.”
Semra’s eyes narrow at your attack on her tragic childhood.
“Y’know. You’d be a rotting infant corpse right now if it wasn’t for me. You weren’t even meant to be an Eternal.” She says coldly.
“And? What the hell does all that matter, I’ve made the most of my mistaken life now. And yes, Semra I’m well aware of ALL the times you’ve saved my life or trained me, or graced me with your magical svelk vaginia. It doesn’t matter, I’ve put up with your shit and then some. Your whole weird obsessive relationship with me is some sort of twisted attempt to re-create what you lost. Well as I’ve told you time and time again, I’m not the one and I’ll never be the one. Time to grow up and face that fact. You’re always telling me that I need to stop worrying about keeping the Empire alive and how I should just move on with my life. Well take your own damn advice.”
Semra says nothing and the two of you just stare at one another for a moment. Even though you’re mentally fatigued you begin to prove your point by attempting to access deeper reaches of her mind. She easily stops you, but your point is made.
“Very well Eternal. You’ve made your feelings and your mind quite clear to me. Possibly the clearest they’ve ever been. And as for moving on with my life? After what has happened to today, I’ll certainly be able to do that with better purpose. Unfortunately for you, there are svelk elsewhere in the world and that is where I shall go and unite the svelk properly once again. Oh don’t worry though lover. That won’t likely happen in your pitifully short lifetime. Heh. It probably won’t even happen in my lifetime, but I will plant the seeds and build the foundation. And KNOW that once again WE will be the rulers of this world. I will be remembered long after you’ve been forgotten like the lesser born you are.”
Well the love is gone, if she’s calling you lesser born again.
Semra begins to walk over towards you once again causing Decena to grip her weapon, but you know that she doesn’t intend to attack.
“And now I shall take my leave which I’m sure you’ll be most thankful of. I know we’ve said goodbye many times before, but I believe this shall be the real one. I can see that your path is ultimately one of predictability and eventually obscurity. Perhaps good enough for you, but not for me. Never for me. I will say this though, I’m proud of you. You saw my weakness and you pounced. I taught you well. Goodbye Eternal.”
Semra nearly moves closer as if to kiss you, but she takes a look at Decena instead.
“He’s all yours tank baby.” She says and begins to walk away.
You watch her walk past the mass of bloody flesh and through the doorway hoping that this will indeed be the last time you have to put up with her.
She can’t help but say one last thing though.
“Better get a good look while you can, because it’ll be the last time you get to stare at my ass again.” Semra laughs and in a few more seconds she’s walked out the palace completely.
There is a silence for a moment and then Decena begins to speak.
“So what now?” she asks.
“Well let’s start with this for one thing.” You say and swing your sword downward severing Mortimer’s head from his dead body. Never hurts to be sure.
“Come on, we should leave the city too before Flevas starts having it blown to pieces with us inside it.” You remark.
Decena nods and you make your way out of the palace and towards the city gates. The barrier is completely down now and there is no sign of Semra. She’s probably long gone and on her way to who knows where now. Though you do wonder about this location she mentioned where there are still svelk. Can’t be anywhere on this continent and from what you know there aren’t any on Nyytrus. Another undiscovered land mass perhaps? To be quite honest you’re not sure if you’d even want to bother finding it if it’s full of svelk.
But if the day ever came where they appear on your shores, you’ll be sure to make certain that none leave to go back to it.
Decena and you are quiet as you leave the city, but just as you see your army banners in sight she has to ask.
“Why didn’t you try to kill her?”
“Heh. Good question. I was sort of wondering why myself. (Sigh) The reasons are a bit complicated I guess.”
“You…you didn’t really love her…did you?”
“Hah! No, of course not. Everything I said was true and she knew it, that’s why she left and I could tell she meant it this time. Mind connection and all. Hell, if I knew it was going to be advantage to get her to leave me alone, I might’ve agreed to it a lot sooner.”
“So what were your reasons for not killing her?”
“Well for one thing it wouldn’t have ended that way had I initiated hostilities. First of all we were all fatigued and in no position to effectively fight one another. Even with you helping me, she would’ve just escaped and probably bothered me in the future. At least this way I won’t have to deal with her again. Not as good as her death I suppose, but I’ll take it. Second? I made a promise that I’d help her and I was going to keep my word. Call it foolish honor or a foolish sense of gratitude that she did save my life many times in the past. Whatever. I made the choice and it’s done now.”
Decena seems to accept your response even if she doesn’t entirely understand it, but then you give a third reason.
“One reason I suppose…and I never EVER expected to feel this way…but I actually felt a twinge of pity for her. What I saw in her mind…shit…it’s no wonder why she’s so fucked up even for a svelk. Almost seemed more like a punishment to keep her alive so she can still live with all that emotional burden she tries so desperately to keep locked up tight. I dunno. Maybe I’m just growing soft and weak in my old age. I mean every step I’m taking right now is painful. There was a time when I could’ve taken on two of those abominations and not even have been tired. Guess Semra was right about that. I will grow old like everyone else and eventually I’ll be forgotten.”
“Not to me you won’t. Not to me.” Decena says touching your arm, you touch her hand with your own.
“I know Decena. I know…and I’m sorry for what I did to you.” You reply.
Decena of course doesn’t exactly know why you’d be apologizing to her. In her mind she doesn’t ever think you did anything excessively negative to her. And even the times you did, she’s ultimately written it off as something that was “for the good of the Empire” in the long term or probably made her own mental excuses for you.
And of course that’s the lasting damage you’re apologizing for.
Smiling again at Decena and giving a few words of praise for her deeds during the fight, the pair of you meet up with the rest of your army where Flevas says he’s glad to see you both since he was planning on carrying out an airship bombardment just in case.
“Fuck it. Let’s bombard the city anyway and let the wilderness reclaim it.” You say.
“You sure? It’s practically intact.” Flevas asks.
“Yeah. I don’t like the architecture. Too…pretty.” You answer.
You let go of Semra’s hand though you still feel a link with her allowing the transfer of energy. You can tell she’s somewhat angry though that you’re being distracted.
Decena is busily trying to hack away the flailing limbs of the massive blob of flesh trying to squeeze through the doorway. You see the sides of the walls begin to crack.
“Decena, get out of the way that thing is going to grab you!” you say and shove her aside. You follow up by casting a cone of ice at the thing in an attempt to slow it down.
“Why not fire?” Decena shouts.
“If I set this blob on fire, it’s going to still come at us except it’ll be burning as well. Better that we should freeze it in place. I’ll take care of this thing, you go over to Morty or Zelvix, or whoever the fuck he is and prevent him from reaching Semra, remember don’t kill him!”
Decena nods and runs over to Morty’s body which has nearly reached Semra, that is until Decena pulls his leg, drags him away and kicks him in the face. Zelvix bellows in anger and emanates unnatural hissing noises.
Meanwhile you’re still attempting to freeze his “pet” in place. You periodically smash chunks of it off, but it’s a losing battle. It continues to roll its bulk into the doorway and the sides of the walls now successfully begin to give way. You jump back to avoid being crushed.
“Semra, you better hurry the fuck up before this thing crushes us all!” you say smashing another bloody frozen chunk off of the mass.
Another unearthly wail from Zelvix and it’s a sign that the end of this conflict is near.
“SSSSSSSSS NO! IT CANNOT END LIKE THIS! I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED BY MORTAL SHIT! I CURSE YOU ALL! NONE OF YOU SHALL AAAARRRRGH!”
Morimer’s body twitches and convulses one last time and you manage to turn your head just in time from your own battle to see a red spirit like mist rise from his body. An angry demonic face can be seen briefly followed by the red mist completely dissipating. In front of you, the mass of flesh you’ve been fighting goes completely lifeless. Mortimer’s body is also lifeless. Whatever spark that was keeping him alive was only due to Zelvix’s magic and he’s truly gone now.
You walk over to Decena who is near Mortimer’s body. She looks okay, but she’s rubbing her head.
“You all right?” you ask.
“Yeah, I just…damn. Towards the end there, the demon was trying to get into my mind. It wasn’t even that long, but shit was it intense. I’m glad you had that spell protecting me.”
“I’d never abandon you.” You say and embrace her.
“Well isn’t that just sickeningly sweet? I do all the damn work and you hug her? Not even a thank you to me, but then you’ve never been grateful for anything I’ve done for you.” Semra remarks who is looking a little exhausted herself.
“Semra, if I were you, I’d be thankful that I’m letting you live.” You remark.
“Oh you just say such things. We both know that you could never kill me. We’re mentally linked now you know. I KNOW you still desire me! Even now that you’re turning into a feeble old man I STILL dwell within your thoughts. I will ALWAYS be within your thoughts somewhere.” Semra snaps.
“Then you also know what you just said isn’t entirely true. While before you could at least lie to yourself and make the assumption that in your twisted mind that somehow we were a couple. You now have complete access to my own thoughts and you know what you’ve seen? You’ve seen that my mind has been always honest with you. Would I like to fuck you? Yeah, and then I’d like to slit your fucking throat. I’m not going to pretend to be a completely well adjusted person, in fact I never have. Honestly given everything I’ve gone through, it’s amazing that I’m not completely fucking insane.”
Semra remains silent as you continue your rant.
“In fact given that we’re so linked now there is less that YOU can actually hide from me now. I’d think you’d like to remember that fact. You know what you are deep down inside Semra? You’re a scared little girl who misses her daddy. I’m not even going to get into your completely fucked up relationship with him, because honestly I’m not in a position to judge. But the fact remains you saw the man you loved and possibly only held any sort of true feelings for get ripped apart by demons before your eyes and you couldn’t do anything to stop it. Just like you saw your entire civilization and way of life get torn apart and couldn’t do anything to stop it.”
Semra’s eyes narrow at your attack on her tragic childhood.
“Y’know. You’d be a rotting infant corpse right now if it wasn’t for me. You weren’t even meant to be an Eternal.” She says coldly.
“And? What the hell does all that matter, I’ve made the most of my mistaken life now. And yes, Semra I’m well aware of ALL the times you’ve saved my life or trained me, or graced me with your magical svelk vaginia. It doesn’t matter, I’ve put up with your shit and then some. Your whole weird obsessive relationship with me is some sort of twisted attempt to re-create what you lost. Well as I’ve told you time and time again, I’m not the one and I’ll never be the one. Time to grow up and face that fact. You’re always telling me that I need to stop worrying about keeping the Empire alive and how I should just move on with my life. Well take your own damn advice.”
Semra says nothing and the two of you just stare at one another for a moment. Even though you’re mentally fatigued you begin to prove your point by attempting to access deeper reaches of her mind. She easily stops you, but your point is made.
“Very well Eternal. You’ve made your feelings and your mind quite clear to me. Possibly the clearest they’ve ever been. And as for moving on with my life? After what has happened to today, I’ll certainly be able to do that with better purpose. Unfortunately for you, there are svelk elsewhere in the world and that is where I shall go and unite the svelk properly once again. Oh don’t worry though lover. That won’t likely happen in your pitifully short lifetime. Heh. It probably won’t even happen in my lifetime, but I will plant the seeds and build the foundation. And KNOW that once again WE will be the rulers of this world. I will be remembered long after you’ve been forgotten like the lesser born you are.”
Well the love is gone, if she’s calling you lesser born again.
Semra begins to walk over towards you once again causing Decena to grip her weapon, but you know that she doesn’t intend to attack.
“And now I shall take my leave which I’m sure you’ll be most thankful of. I know we’ve said goodbye many times before, but I believe this shall be the real one. I can see that your path is ultimately one of predictability and eventually obscurity. Perhaps good enough for you, but not for me. Never for me. I will say this though, I’m proud of you. You saw my weakness and you pounced. I taught you well. Goodbye Eternal.”
Semra nearly moves closer as if to kiss you, but she takes a look at Decena instead.
“He’s all yours tank baby.” She says and begins to walk away.
You watch her walk past the mass of bloody flesh and through the doorway hoping that this will indeed be the last time you have to put up with her.
She can’t help but say one last thing though.
“Better get a good look while you can, because it’ll be the last time you get to stare at my ass again.” Semra laughs and in a few more seconds she’s walked out the palace completely.
There is a silence for a moment and then Decena begins to speak.
“So what now?” she asks.
“Well let’s start with this for one thing.” You say and swing your sword downward severing Mortimer’s head from his dead body. Never hurts to be sure.
“Come on, we should leave the city too before Flevas starts having it blown to pieces with us inside it.” You remark.
Decena nods and you make your way out of the palace and towards the city gates. The barrier is completely down now and there is no sign of Semra. She’s probably long gone and on her way to who knows where now. Though you do wonder about this location she mentioned where there are still svelk. Can’t be anywhere on this continent and from what you know there aren’t any on Nyytrus. Another undiscovered land mass perhaps? To be quite honest you’re not sure if you’d even want to bother finding it if it’s full of svelk.
But if the day ever came where they appear on your shores, you’ll be sure to make certain that none leave to go back to it.
Decena and you are quiet as you leave the city, but just as you see your army banners in sight she has to ask.
“Why didn’t you try to kill her?”
“Heh. Good question. I was sort of wondering why myself. (Sigh) The reasons are a bit complicated I guess.”
“You…you didn’t really love her…did you?”
“Hah! No, of course not. Everything I said was true and she knew it, that’s why she left and I could tell she meant it this time. Mind connection and all. Hell, if I knew it was going to be advantage to get her to leave me alone, I might’ve agreed to it a lot sooner.”
“So what were your reasons for not killing her?”
“Well for one thing it wouldn’t have ended that way had I initiated hostilities. First of all we were all fatigued and in no position to effectively fight one another. Even with you helping me, she would’ve just escaped and probably bothered me in the future. At least this way I won’t have to deal with her again. Not as good as her death I suppose, but I’ll take it. Second? I made a promise that I’d help her and I was going to keep my word. Call it foolish honor or a foolish sense of gratitude that she did save my life many times in the past. Whatever. I made the choice and it’s done now.”
Decena seems to accept your response even if she doesn’t entirely understand it, but then you give a third reason.
“One reason I suppose…and I never EVER expected to feel this way…but I actually felt a twinge of pity for her. What I saw in her mind…shit…it’s no wonder why she’s so fucked up even for a svelk. Almost seemed more like a punishment to keep her alive so she can still live with all that emotional burden she tries so desperately to keep locked up tight. I dunno. Maybe I’m just growing soft and weak in my old age. I mean every step I’m taking right now is painful. There was a time when I could’ve taken on two of those abominations and not even have been tired. Guess Semra was right about that. I will grow old like everyone else and eventually I’ll be forgotten.”
“Not to me you won’t. Not to me.” Decena says touching your arm, you touch her hand with your own.
“I know Decena. I know…and I’m sorry for what I did to you.” You reply.
Decena of course doesn’t exactly know why you’d be apologizing to her. In her mind she doesn’t ever think you did anything excessively negative to her. And even the times you did, she’s ultimately written it off as something that was “for the good of the Empire” in the long term or probably made her own mental excuses for you.
And of course that’s the lasting damage you’re apologizing for.
Smiling again at Decena and giving a few words of praise for her deeds during the fight, the pair of you meet up with the rest of your army where Flevas says he’s glad to see you both since he was planning on carrying out an airship bombardment just in case.
“Fuck it. Let’s bombard the city anyway and let the wilderness reclaim it.” You say.
“You sure? It’s practically intact.” Flevas asks.
“Yeah. I don’t like the architecture. Too…pretty.” You answer.