Chapter 24

The Sacrifice

The tower rumbled and shook, its foundations of earth turning to nothing. Terrill fell forward, onto his knees. His body was giving out, his energy lost from the battle, and with the tilting tower, he began to slide towards the gap in the center. Walter and the other two were doing the same, with Torry leading the way. She, unlike the rest of them, had enough magic, herself, and when she reached that gap, her hand touched the crystal. From it sprouted a stone bridge, sturdier than anything Terrill could imagine. It was enough to shock Torry, who didn’t brake herself and rolled onto the bridge. She would have rolled straight off of it had it not been for Walter catching her arm and bringing her up.

Charles sped ahead of them, sprinting for Lumen’s side.

“Lumen! Lumen!” His cries were desperate, tortured as he gripped the shoulders of the boy he had sought to protect. Lumen coughed, but could barely open his eyes from the pain. His Guardian pulled him away from Atrum. “You really…?”

“It was…the only way…” Lumen’s words were less than pleased, but Terrill heard the peace they contained. A grunt came from behind Terrill, and while Charles cradled Lumen close, he turned to see Floyd trying to pull himself back up. Another crumbling beneath them broke the bridge away, and almost sent Floyd falling off before Terrill caught him. The redhead gripped tight, heaving his body upwards until they were both on the bent and sloped roof.

“You have…good friends…Terrill…”

At Atrum’s pained voice, Terrill turned away from Floyd. The redhead patted his back, ensuring that he was okay, allowing Terrill to focus on his friend. Dying friend, if the bleeding wound was any indication. He walked forward, and knelt at Atrum’s side, the two able to look at each other with clarity for the first time since they had left home. He wanted to pound his fist into the ground at the fact Atrum would not be making the return journey. Instead, he reached out and took hold of Atrum, realizing only now how insubstantial the boy’s body was, ready to flicker out of existence at any moment. He brought him forward into a hug.

“You were, too.” He couldn’t see it, but he felt Atrum smile against him. That happiness was real. “I wanted to bring you home. To keep that promise.”

“Some promises…can’t be kept…” Atrum said, his breaths turning to whispered wheezes. For a second, Terrill lost his hold on the boy, that soul slipping through his fingers. “Some people…can’t be…saved…”

“I don’t want to believe that. I want to…” Terrill gripped tighter, looking up to see Lumen. His fingers dug into the fabric of Atrum’s clothes, cursing inside that for all their protests, they had failed to avert the one point of destiny that mattered. He didn’t want to allow it.

Neither did Atrum, who fell from his hold, but pulled his hand on the way down. The smile still turned upon his lips. “But you did…save me… No matter what happens next…I can be at peace…

“Thank you.”

Terrill hated those words, and hated more the selfish feeling that bubbled up inside when he turned towards Krysta. His request died before he could even voice it, and the tower shook again. A fissure opened on the crystal, spreading across all of Priscus in an interconnected web. From those many cracks emerged the dying elements. The tower vanished for a second, only to be replaced the next, each transition ripping more of the city apart.

“What the hell is going on?” Floyd shouted. At another shake he slid closer towards the split, but Terrill slapped a hand out to catch him, still holding to Atrum. Torry was held fast by Walter, but was the one who endeavored to provide them with some form of answer.

“The Lifebloods are gone, but yet…I feel a surge in magic power. That bridge came to me way easier than any spell ever has, even in Adversa,” she informed them. As she spoke, things were getting worse, one world overlapping into the next, but destruction being caused in its wake.

“The world is integrating,” Krysta said. Each push of her hand failed, slipping without friction on the surface that matched most of her body. One of her eyes had turned to crystal glass now, unmoving, but she looked to all of them to impart the seriousness of the situation that had befallen them.

Golbrucht had been vanquished at last, but he had succeeded in his last act. Adversa was fusing with Dimidia.

“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?” Walter asked, planting his spear to ensure he and Torry didn’t pitch over the edge. “There’s an infusion of magic, the worlds coming together.”

“Not this way,” Torry replied, looking up at him. His scarred eye scrunched together, not understanding the seriousness of what this meant for the world. Terrill, however, knew. He had felt it the moment he had cut through Golbrucht’s final attack. “There’s nothing to secure that integration properly. The Lifebloods acted as more than just a buffer separating the souls from the physical body. They were also intended to guide the souls of Adversa through the lines, to their respective bodies. That’s what we called a Blessing.”

“But now they’re gone. There’s nothing to stop all of that magic from running amok.” Floyd’s conclusion was met with him collapsing into a squatted position, a sigh of frustration coming from his lips. “Even now, the elements are going crazy. Anything more and the whole world’ll vanish. Or we’ll be left in a world populated by Fiends.”

“It’s more likely that kind of fusion will cause numerous cataclysms, with widespread destruction that will…” Krysta didn’t need to finish the thought to impart just what would happen if the event continued on.

“What is there…to do…then…?” Lumen croaked out. Charles pulled him closer, shaking his head with sternness.

“You’ve done enough, Lumen. Your part is over.” Lumen tried to disagree, but the weakness in his body was apparent, reminding them all that even while the world was undergoing a violent fusion, both Lumen and Atrum were at death’s door. Knowing this, Charles looked up to Krysta, bowing his head in reverence to her. “I know, after all I’ve done, after everything Golbrucht attempted, we do not deserve to ask, but can you save them?”

It spoke to the direness of the situation that Terrill wasn’t sure of which “them” he was speaking: the boys, or all the people of the world. Krysta held her own interpretation, taking shallow breaths to build up the strength to answer him.

“My body is failing. This vessel,” Krysta slipped again on her words, this time with Torry to catch her. “I don’t think Alexander intended for this vessel to use those powers associated with light. At this point I-I don’t think I have enough…”

“It’s okay,” Lumen managed to breathe out. He slumped against Charles, keeping the smile up on his face, to the point Terrill wondered how much of it was a lie. “You’ve done so much already. I can be happy with this.”

Out of the words Krysta expected, it was obvious that those cut her the deepest. She flinched, and trembled in Torry’s hold. Her eyes, including the one already crystallized, shed tears. “How can you be happy with this?!

“As a Lifeblood, I stole your life away, ensuring that fate was done this day, and now, when you all would need me most, I don’t have the strength to-” Krysta cut herself off, choking back the tears with a light hiccup. She looked down, her palm splaying itself on the crystal, feeling the empty lines that coursed through it. Terrill could feel it, too, the once supportive system crumbling away. There was no solution he could think of. Krysta, however, arrived at her own answer. “There is one way.”

There was a moment where no one knew quite what she was talking about, not with how grave and low her voice had gotten. Terrill grasped it a little faster than the rest, recalling it as the voice she used only when speaking in her capacity as a Lifeblood. He left Atrum behind, crossing to her and bending to take her hands. “No, Krysta. That’s not an option. We can’t lose everything just because he-”

“Terrill,” she said, cutting off his tirade. Her smile was soft, and her eyes wept, but inside them, she was asking for this one moment, this one decision, to be allowed. “You promised me.”

“Yeah, but I-” She reached up to touch his face, just as she had below. He remembered the feeling of her lips on his, those that would soon fade away, as desperate as his memory was to hold on to her. “I didn’t want this.”

“I know, but we have to make a choice. After all my manipulation and lies, the souls I sacrificed for the seeming greater good, this is the right choice. Lumen deserves to be saved more than I do.”

“But how would you-?” Torry’s own question answered itself and she shook the girl in her hold, her blonde locks whipping around in defiance. “No. Krysta, you can’t! There has to be another way! There has to!”

“Torry, you are someone more than well-versed in the ways of magic.” Krysta took her hand away from Terrill to put it on Torry’s. The others could only watch, varying levels of comprehension dawning on their faces. Floyd was the one to step closer, looking like he’d swallowed the most horrible medicine ever created. He wanted this decision even less than the girl demanding Krysta to stop. “You know, you all know, that we’re out of time.”

“But we’d lose you! And you’d be-”

“I know what I’d be doing!” Krysta cried out, the words painfully ripping at her. A cacophonous noise interrupted the conversation, showing as a whole block of Priscus was ripped away from reality, disintegrated into nothing. “I have to, though. It’s the only way to save Lumen, to retake my form in this crystal and heal him. Bless all those souls that are longing to join. Restore the Lifebloods to keep this world alive. It may be too late for Adversa, but for humanity…I won’t allow another Eric North. I will accept that burden myself.”

“That’s insane!” Floyd countered. He was intent to shove Terrill aside, refusing the mounting situation as much as Torry and he were, but even Terrill knew how close they were to running out of time. All too soon, they wouldn’t be able to make a choice at all. “You’d be giving up your soul to become some edifice for who knows how long, without any guarantee of it working! The other Lifebloods are gone and you wouldn’t have the energy to support the entire world on your own!”

“But souls are never gone.” Krysta did what she could to squeeze Torry’s hand, removing it from her shoulder. She endeavored to stand, all eyes on her with desperation to find a different way, but having no answer as to how. “I am the primordial soul of light in this world. I can use my line to create them anew, bring their souls back from the brink. But I have to act now.”

“And the Fiends?” Walter asked. He was less distraught, but Terrill could see how unconvinced he was by Krysta’s solution. The girl stumbled forward, reaching a spot between both Lumen and Atrum. She reached out to touch them before she let herself look back at the erstwhile hunter. “You bring the Lifebloods back, will they not be reborn?”

She shook her head. “Adversa will be integrated. They will have no cycle through which to be born. I will make sure of it. No more sacrifice.”

Sacrifice… Terrill shook, his jaw clenching so tight he believed his own teeth were cracking from the pressure placed upon them. No matter what, we have to choose something to sacrifice…

‘ You can’t save everyone.

“We can’t accept that!” Torry shouted. The tower pitched forward, and she began to slide down, but Torry fought against the slope to reach Krysta and hug her tightly. “We fought this far so we wouldn’t have to let go. So we could save Adversa, and everyone. You can’t make us say goodbye now!”

“But if you don’t, then both Lumen and Atrum will be lost. I cannot accept that.” Krysta took her hands away to wrap them around Torry, embracing her. “I want you all to live. I want you to have a life free from sacrifice and pain, and if I can give it…”

“But we all want you there with us,” Floyd said. His lips were turned down, but Terrill saw him grab Torry. He was going to pull her away; he had already accepted the choice Krysta was making.

“And I will be. Every line, every vessel. I’ll Bless the entire world, and fill it with light. You can always count on me because-”

“Because we’re not alone,” Terrill finished, and he was not the only one to speak, each of them joining in the chorus. “You on one end, us on the other. But I feel like you’re taking more of the burden.”

“It is something I deserve far more than the burden of death resting upon these two. They deserve to live, and continue living. It’s all I ever wanted.” Krysta drew away from Torry, standing on her shaky legs. She walked towards the chasm at the center, only for Terrill’s hand to reach out and grab hers. He wanted to pull her back, keep her close, but when she smiled, the crystal tears trailing down her face, he knew he no longer could. “To sever fate, so all of you, those I love, who taught me the meaning of love and life and humanity, could be free.”

Terrill stepped forward to meet her, but she slipped her hand out of his, and allowed herself to begin falling. All their voices and hands joined together, but already she fell down the center of the tower and out of their reach. “Krysta!”

“Goodbye, my friends. Bring them home.”

Terrill made the final lunge, his fingers ghosting against hers, but missing. In that singular touch, all of her emotions were conveyed, however. Her desires. Her dreams. Her hopes. Her love.

No more sacrifice… he echoed to himself, watching her sink, her body breaking to crystal. Light was shining, the vessel which she had long used beginning to break apart entirely. Each piece of broken crystal joined to the tower, creating a network of crystal veins that injected light into the once gleaming white tower. He could no longer save her from that sacrifice, but his eyes met hers and he nodded. I won’t sacrifice or lose anyone else, so you’ll always mean something.

He couldn’t say the words aloud, but she understood them all the same.

Nor was there any further time for farewell as the crystal structure was fully breaking at its foundations, each of them falling. Terrill whipped back, both he and Floyd lunging for Atrum’s body while Charles hoisted Lumen on his back. Walter was the first to move, grabbing Torry and convincing her to act. Palms behind them, the duo created a wind that pushed them for the edge of the tower, their group sent flying over the edge and plummeting for the destroyed ground. Torry wiped at her tears.

Light poured from the ground, coming from every orifice and angle that could be conceived. Some buildings were ripped apart in its luminescence, and Terrill feared they would be caught in its holy grasp. One of his hands flapped out, grabbing Torry’s, who joined hands with Walter, until they had formed a full circle, the unconscious and dying Lumen and Atrum on their backs. The group pulled all of their magic together, and managed to move the earth just enough to reach a safe landing.

They immediately sprang to their feet, dashing away from the source of the light, the crystal tower shining with a blinding radiance. Energy was coming off of it, rolling across the library, nearly eclipsing all of them. Terrill tripped on a broken stone, but retained hold of Atrum, only to realize the boy was being pulled…towards Lumen.

“Integration… Atrum, you’ll-”

“I’ll be free. Lumen, brother, let’s go home.”

Lumen did not answer with words. From Charles’s back, his hand raised, like a magnet drawn to his soul. The light coming from where they had left Krysta split the sky in a ray, raining down beautiful arrows of shimmering glory. The earth underneath Terrill’s feet glowed with her power. From the line that ran where they were standing, it glowed with warmth, like those of so many Lifebloods before them. That same light sprouted from the ground to where Lumen and Atrum joined hands.

Terrill let go, holding on to Atrum just long enough to say his farewell before the boy was sucked in. Lumen, too, was torn away from Charles, into the light. That effulgence grew around the pair, soon expanding towards the entire city to drown it out and rip away the remains of Priscus. Terrill stepped back, joining his companions as a pillar of light shot towards the sky. The earth underfoot changed, and Terrill could feel it, the life rushing back through the lines of the Lifebloods, evidenced by Torry’s wide eyes and summoning of the four elements she had long practiced.

The Lifebloods were returning, the world being Blessed in Krysta’s holy light.

It also meant the destruction of Priscus, with the island that was Adversa bursting around them with vines and trees, nature overtaking those spots that were not crystal. There was nowhere for any of them to run; not to the skyship, or the sea, for the explosive light of the Lifeblood of Light was disintegrating the entire city. They all grabbed each other close as the light beneath them, one they could never outrun, reached the zenith of its glow.

It erupted, but Terrill found all he could do was see it, a barrier erecting itself around them. One last gift from Krysta, proving her words a reality. They nevertheless held tight, the rumblings of the city crashing down around them sounding out, echoing across the entire world.

The land fell away, and their globe hit the sea, stabilizing but for the power in the air. They were washed about on the waves, and Terrill watched as all of the light was pulled in to a single spot that illuminated the sky, before fading inwards, down to a pinprick.

The air grew warmer. The winds began to blow again. The seas calmed out. The land where Priscus had been, now an island, stopped crumbling.

And the light receded, balancing the world. Krysta’s barrier fell away, dropping all of them in the ocean, but they were not alone.

“Lumen!” Charles shouted, informing them of where the boy had been dropped. Those that could swam over to the royal, floating atop the waves. His Guardian grabbed him, shaking him, until he coughed out and looked up. His hand moved to his chest, and Terrill could see that his wound was gone.

So was Atrum.

“I’m alive?” Lumen asked, glancing up to Charles, who nodded in relief. Mixed with the salty water of the sea, Terrill could see the tears; for the first time, a Chosen One had not died under his care. Lumen reached further up, towards his heart, and then stared to Terrill with a smile so brilliant, Terrill wondered if the boy had ever truly smiled before. His words confirmed he hadn’t, for this time, he was smiling for two. “We both are.”

Terrill tried to smile, knowing that Atrum wasn’t gone, but only managed a wan upturn of his lips. That feeling increased tenfold when the glittering Lifeblood, now having retaken its place, caught his eyes.

Atrum. Krysta. Both were those he couldn’t save. Not entirely. Neither was Winifred, and he cursed at his own failure.

Or he would have, had it not been for the last words and wish that fluttered on the air before all went calm at last, one that was shared by all those souls he had failed.

Thank you.

And in that moment, floating in the seas of the merged, new world, Terrill found peace.

Perhaps, he wanted to think, he had saved something after all.

The world marched on.