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Chapter 48: Fighting Fate

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Khalina island

A thousand years was a long time to live. Wars, conflicts, famines, droughts, disease; she lived through it all. Outliving husbands, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, generations after generations of family was the hardest part of it all. But the island’s elder was determined to see the end with her own eyes. A day hadn’t passed without her wondering why she had to be the one cursed with a sneak preview of the coming destruction.

A Midaharian child with silver hair and crescent irises would be born and with him will come eternal damnation.

Her warning to the world was written so clearly even down to the child’s connection to the isle of women. Misheal’s first attempt to stem the tides was ordering every woman on the island to take a vow of celibacy. With the threat of world destruction, not a single female born on the island strayed from the order, but as time went on, doubt filled many hearts.

And so, the end of the world was giving life.

She sought to change the course of time again with Jaff’s help, but her efforts were in vain. Too many fools walked the Earth, were her thoughts the night Jaff thwarted her plans to save the world. That was the night the old woman gave up to despair.

She thought she was ready to see the end, but as the stars started aligning, her certainty wavered. And for the first time in nine and a half centuries, Misheal allowed the Rebirth of Life to pass through her palm.

Nihon

Growling like an angered cat, Ahmya marched toward Yamato with six rings of hot lightning up and down her arms. Matsuo jumped between them, catching her attack with his weapon and moving quickly to cut her down. A gust of wind knocked him out of her way. It was her father she wanted, yet another one of his men sought to stop her. This time it was Ino.

“Move!” she ordered, flinging the man aside like a leaf caught in a windstorm.

“Release that rune, Ahmya!” Yamato said, steadying his blade. “If not for me, do it for your homeland!”

Ahmya held Yamato in an angry gaze as she spat on the ground. Two of her rings slid into her hands as she swung at him, electricity flying as their weapons impacted. Brazen and unhinged, Ahmya attacked like a wild animal, keeping Yamato in a defensive stance.

She was so focused on one target, Ahmya didn’t notice two of Yamato’s men rushing her from behind until their steel ripped her fleshed. “Cowards!” she exclaimed, striking the men down with lightning. Seizing the opportunity, Yamato struck his daughter in the stomach and knocked her to the ground with the hilt of his sword.

“Don’t make me kill you,” Yamato warned his blade a breath away from her chest.

“We both know you’re too weak to do that,” Ahmya grinned and shifted her gaze over her father’s shoulder. Yamato spun around too late to stop Zaki’s weapon, yet before he could slice his target Zaki was telekinetically yanked to the side by Aiden.

Ahmya brushed her father away with a swirl of fast moving air, then turned to Zaki’s multiples. “Would you get him to the void already, you pathetic fool?!” she scowled.

“I’m trying!” they responded all at once.

Void? Anticipating an attack from one Zaki was challenging enough; dealing with five at once required most of Aiden’s concentration. The void Ahmya mentioned was a worry for another time. Aiden sidestepped one Zaki, grabbed him by his dreadlocks, and spun him into another Zaki’s oncoming blade. Four to go!

Two came at him at once with their weapons leading the way, but Aiden was more interested in the one behind him. He teleported out of their path, letting the one behind him cut down the advancing pair.

A long sword fully assembled in his hand just as Zaki spun around and struck. Finally, he was facing off against the real person and not Ahmya’s clones. He was just as agile and aggressive as before, but Aiden refused to allow himself to be bested a second time.

Striking him down with lightning or frying him in his lizard armor would end the fight instantly, yet Aiden settled for swords. Since Zaki wasn’t a Rebirth user, a sword fight felt more appropriate, and catching every one of his strikes made the clash all the more exhilarating.

The sound of steel hitting steel, the rush of adrenaline as Zaki’s weapon sliced through his cloak, feeling the heat of the metal as it brushed by his flesh; there was nothing else like it! But, to Aiden’s disappointment, the intoxicating match came to an abrupt end when Zaki retreated into the fog.

Aiden looked around, noticing how far away from Yamato and his men he was. Then it became clear; Zaki intentionally led him away from the castle and back to the center of town. As he threw his gaze around the area, anticipating another one of Zaki’s sneak attacks, the fog lassoed around his legs and pulled him to the ground.

He was being dragged toward the monument they flew over before. Aiden teleported out of the fog’s grip and landed back on his feet, but the fog was still behaving aggressively, actively trying to grab him. How do you fight something as formless as a cloud?

Aiden glanced over his shoulder, checking what was behind him. A longer look was required before he noticed that the giant crevasse Ino spotted when they flew over was nothing more than an impressive piece of art.

A sharp and sudden pain in his chest pulled Aiden's attention away from the art. Zaki was in his face, two of his weapons impaled his heart. “Goodbye, Aiden,” Zaki said before kicking Aiden backward toward the street art.

His body fell through its dark center and it rippled like water where he vanished into the void.

*

Surrounded by darkness, it was impossible to tell if his eyes were open or closed until he felt a sharp pain in his body. Aiden’s eyes widened in a hurry, but he wasn’t prepared for what they revealed.

A yellow and black spider the size of a man stood over him, its many legs dug into him on all sides. He was eager to shake it off, but his body wasn’t reacting to his thoughts. Even more, spiders crawled around him, working quickly to cover him in a tight cocoon.

“...get..off..!”

“Did you think running to Nihon would change your fate, Aiden?” Alba’s voice rang in his ears. “You were merely fulfilling it.”

Damnation’s fiery waning crescent symbol burned between the large spider’s eight eyes. Summoning a weapon didn’t work, his telekinesis was useless, fire, ice, water; nothing was answering him. The more he struggled the faster the cold pain spread in his veins. The Damnation rune was spreading inside of him, filling his soul with a poisonous thirst for ruination, torment, and terror.

Was this the moment Misheal saw? Was there really no changing my destiny?

He wanted to shout, he wanted to scream, but his body was numb and his voice was weak. “I don’t..want this..!"

“Poor Aiden. Whatever made you believe you had a choice?” The spider buried its oversized fangs into Aiden’s chest and feasted on his heart.

A painful vision of darkness covering the world engulfed his mind. Death, misery, destruction, the end of humanity; it was never so clear. The worst part about it was seeing himself, under the will of Damnation, cause it all.

As his consciousness began to wane, three words slipped from Aiden’s lips; “...one...more...time..”

*

Aiden opened his eyes and was struck by immediate relief. It worked! His heart was still racing from his encounter with Damnation, but there wasn’t a moment to celebrate his escape. Reversing time with only a brief window to alter the future as Zaki moved swiftly toward him, anxious to sink his blade into him.

Aiden promptly stopped him in time. He turned to the street art and caused the ground to split beneath it, crumbling and turning until it was unrecognizable. When he was done, Aiden released Zaki from his time hold and he stumbled to a stop.

“Planned on serving me up to that wicked rune, huh?” asked Aiden.

“How’d you know that?”

Aiden lifted Zaki into the air and gradually compressed his armor. “Damnation is never going to control me! NEVER!”

“You...you can’t..!” Zaki said, desperately over the sound of snapping bones. Aiden ignored him, keeping his anger on crushing the man who trapped him with Damnation. Seeing himself under the rune’s influence was still fresh in his mind, plaguing his conscious and tormenting his soul. His fury was boiling over, not just for Zaki, but for himself as well, for being at Damnation's mercy and for coming dangerously close to carrying out the rune's malicious will.

Zaki had to pay for that.

“Aiden! Stop!” Zaki pleaded, choking on his own blood as Aiden crushed his ribs.

"Why should I?!"

“Because....! You’re my brother...!”