By Rick Bhattacharyya
"Are you ready?"
"Yes," I said.
All of us were on the deck. It was a little past noon, but overhead a thunder was brewing. The island was barely visible from where we were heading; towards the north at 14 knots. It would take us approximately another half hour over the already spent two hours to reach. I turned around to face everyone. Battle ready; shining sturdy armors, freshly crafted weapons, a crate full of healing potions. But all of them had a grim expression. The atmosphere was tense, as war was what we had least wanted. But, we had no other option. Only one side would prevail, the other would perish. Not to mention, the constant intuition that something was wrong about all this...
I didn't know who the opponent leader was, but I was slightly suspicious. I knew they would be tough to fight against; not because they were probably very strong; maybe as strong as my team, but because of a betrayal as well as a memory loss, quite a few years ago. I was naive then, and probably still am. Nevertheless, I could not back down for the sake of all that was lost.
"Ledger, will you be able to do it?" Letitia, my assistant asked, trying to mask her concern, but unable to.
I chuckled. 'Will' is a strong word, and it was not that we were willing to kill the opponent. We had already reached at a point from where going back was not an option. All we had were two options: destroy, or get destroyed.
"Do I have a choice? After all that has happened; the destruction of the towns I made for everyone to peacefully live in, the killing of our comrades, the grudges against each other; it's not about willing. It's either do or die from this point," I said, gripping my spear tightly, giving the indication that I had no intention of losing. But whether that would be actually true or not is a different matter.
After all, there was but one lingering fear within me, overwhelming my suspicion. Yet, I could not afford to look scared in front of them all.
They trusted me.
I stopped by everyone one last time. I had to fight with all that I had. I could be defeated, and that would make the others lose heart and everyone would fall. I had no choice but to either win, or bring this to a neutral state.
"Sir Le, we've almost arrived," the captain called out. I readied myself, looked at everyone in the eye, trying to give them as much confidence as possible.
I enclosed everyone within a barrier and cast a physique enhancing spell on all of them, as well as one to negate Conscience Control. It did consume a good amount of my mana, but at least it'd ensure no-one would get hurt as badly. Once done, I undid the barrier, and we finally started moving out.
And the enemy attacked.
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Four burning arrows, one after the other, came towards me at electrifying speed. I took a stance, ready to defend myself, and barely dodged the first one. It whizzed past my face and hit Raer, putting his hair on fire. Up I flew towards the sky, and the arrows followed. Using my spear to create a wind, I extinguished the fires, but the arrows didn't stop. They combined and became a much bigger one, with as much speed. I ducked, missing it by a good space and because of the size of the arrow, it couldn't turn back as fast. I levelled myself, took aim, and threw my spear with maximum force.
The moment the arrow touched, I thought, "Incinerate." The point where the spear touched, the arrow started melting and with a blast, it got destroyed, leaving behind smoke.
"It's time," I thought.
"Still too proud of your abilities, aren't you?" someone said from a little afar.
I turned towards the voice, just in time to block a sword attack but with my bare hands. I called to my spear in my head, and it came out of that explosion, straight towards the masked person. She saw the incoming spear, and tried to move away. But I had gripped her sword too tightly for her to move away, and the spear came close to piercing her, when she just let go and had her mask cut.
The cut mask revealed her face, confirming my suspicions. I knew her. My memories were a little fuzzy, but that was one face I had embedded in my mind.
"It has been quite a few years, hasn't it," she said, pronouncing the last word carefully, "brother."
"Lesia..." I faltered. I knew what she was here for, and I remembered my promise. What scared me was the guy who called himself the "Supreme Deity" possessing me again, making me betray her; just like back then.
I glanced down at my ship to see how everyone was faring against the enemy soldiers. Some were having a little trouble, but it looked like neither side was having a great time. In the end, it all comes down to us two.
"It's time Ledger, for me to take over," a voice spoke in my head, sounding fascinated.
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A pain in my chest. I doubled over, heaving, trying to reject the takeover. The rest of my memories started coming back. It was as if I was being pulled out of my body.
A grey aura consumed me and I lost consciousness, falling towards the ground. I regained consciousness the same moment and realized:
He had won.
I was enclosed in a blank and black space, but could see what was happening outside. I didn't have control over my body.
"So they were right. It was you, and not him," I heard Lesia say. I tried to shout, but no sound came out. I wanted to find a way to get out, but I could not move. All I could do was stay where I was, and observe. Tears formed in my eyes. I knew what would happen, yet there was nothing I could do.
"Ah, so you have heard about me I believe?" The deity asked her. I started getting anxious, and slowly angry. At no cost should he touch her.
Lesia opened her mouth to answer, but before she could, my body moved, and I lunged towards her, spear in one hand, and rapid-punched her twice in the stomach with greater force in the second punch with the other hand. My body could not take so much power, and the entire arm started bleeding. She spewed blood, and plummeted towards the ground.
I screamed inside. "This shouldn't be happening," I thought.
"Goodbye Lesia, Ledger. You were wonderful tools," said the deity. My thoughts grew rampant; I could not help myself, or my sister.
He teleported over to Lesia, and said a single word:
<><~Burn~><>
Mid-air, our bodies stopped. Within a second, her body set to fire and she started screaming. A hole appeared at her chest; where the heart was. I choked, and looked down at myself. I had started burning as well, but there was no hole in my chest. Instead, my heart stopped.
My body convulsed, and tears turned to blood, coming out from my eyes; my whole body bled and burnt with a reddish-blue fire, embracing me in its coldness.
The dark space went away, and I felt myself becoming lighter. He left my body.
I had failed. Failed to tell her the truth, failed to oppose the deity, failed to save her. And now with an incomplete deed, I had started fading.
Yet, I moved close to my sister, bearing the pain, and hugged her, crying.
"I'm sorry," I said, and with that; my eyes closed, and I breathed my last breath, full of regrets.
By Rick Bhattacharyya
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