karami92

Author's Corner: This marks the final chapter of Fallen Starlight!

It was difficult to process the passage of time within this empty void, Hanya and Geoff only able to make rough estimates based on the progress of their previous assaults. What they knew for certain was that this challenge had become far more harrowing in recent days.

Hanya’s powers as the Fallen Goddess of Immunity were pushed to the limits every time they went out, while they had to do their best to only navigate paths near monsters whose abilities she had already developed an immunity to. Being able to properly find such a path was incredibly rare without incident, but she was gaining more and more immunities by the day.

The truly unfortunate thing was that she didn’t always have the right immunity for the job after coming back. There were times when only she was hit by a power, or only Geoff was. If it was the former, she could act quickly to neutralize the threat. However, if it was Geoff that was hit instead of her, she did not know about it until after they returned to the sanctuary. When that happened, she had to get Geoff to infect her with the contaminated energy so that she could develop the immunity and send it back to him.

Sadly, some abilities were hard to stop with just that, after they had taken hold. After taking care of all the secondary worlds, and seven of the eight primary worlds, Geoff was struck by one such ability. As per usual, he shared his energy with her upon return to the sanctuary, and Hanya immediately provided him with the immunity to what he had.

Because they were about to take on the final world, they decided to take a short break to recover their energy. It was during this break that Geoff noticed that the spread of the energy hadn’t stopped after receiving the immunity to it. His arm was rotting away before him. With a grimace, he grabbed his shoulder and quietly pulled off his arm, removing the corrupted energy from his body.

Or, at least, that was the hope. After regrowing his arm from the energy that he had left, he noticed seeds of the infection beginning to appear over various parts of his body. If amputation was the answer, he had done so far too late.

Hanya let out a sigh, walking over to Geoff after noticing that something was amiss. “We can’t keep this up.” She insisted, looking at Geoff. “You’re already infected, aren’t you?”

Geoff held his arm, concealing the green mass the was spreading under his sleeve. “It’s fine… there’s just one world left. Once we take care of this, he’ll have nowhere left to hide.” He put a forced smile on his face as he said that, looking at the elven girl with him. “We knew this could happen when we signed up.”

“Yes, but--” She was cut off by a pained groan that escaped his lips, and immediately moved to wrap her arms around him. “Can you do it..?”

“I’ll do one better…” Geoff whispered. “I’ve been thinking… if we die, and the Keeper here isn’t dead, it’s all for nothing. So… I’m going to make sure I don’t. Not fully… when I set up the next death star, I’m going to merge my consciousness with it, fusing myself into the script. This way, I shouldn’t count as dead unless the infection is purged.”

Hanya’s eyes went wide, tears flowing freely down her cheeks. “But… but then I’ll be left alone. Please… isn’t there another way?” All this time, the two of them had been fighting together. For a dozen years, they had been growing closer and closer to one another, so the thought of losing him like this was unacceptable to her.

Geoff shook his head, slowly pulling up his sleeve. “I’ve been fighting it for a few hours now, and your power hasn’t stopped it.” His arm was practically writhing beneath the sleeve, bulbous masses forming and deflating by the moment. “When I cut off the infected energy, it just appeared somewhere else. I figure I have a few more hours before it consumes this body. The only thing left that I can do is ensure that we didn’t come here for nothing.”

“Then… then take me with you.” Hanya pleaded. “If you’re doing this, I want to be with you for it. We’re going to spend our lives together, right? Don’t you go running off without me now that we’ve come this far.”

Geoff looked like he wanted to argue, but he knew it was pointless. The look in Hanya’s face made him realize that she didn’t want to live alone in this empty void, that she didn’t want to live in it without him. Even if he didn’t do this for her, she wouldn’t want to keep going.

“Okay… then we do this together.” He said, holding her hand with his still-good hand. Hanya smiled through her tears, and the two of them left her sanctuary for the last world. At this point, it was already surrounded by void beasts and fallen gods, who were seeking to defend the last source of food that remained within the world. Thankfully, by now Hanya had acquired so many immunities that it was far easier to find a path through the defending force.

The two of them passed through the blockade, and Geoff chose a random star to transfer them to. Once they were there, they could already feel void fluctuations around them, the Fallen Gods having sensed the disturbance and were trying to track them. “We don’t have long, Geoff… do it.”

Geoff gave a weak, sad smile, nodding his head and bringing a hand up to caress Hanya’s cheek. “The rest of our lives, we shall be as the stars in the sky, brilliant and beautiful, and bringing our wrath upon the world that pushed us to this point.”

Hanya nodded her head happily, even as she felt their bodies beginning to break down. She didn’t resist his power, fully dropping her immunities at this moment to allow him to do whatever he wished. The power was warm, soothing, and just felt so much like him.

Hanya closed her eyes as the two of them finished dissolving, but soon she felt something entirely different. A world of pure light and heat. A world of chaos and destruction. Pain and pressure bombarded her from all sides, but she felt a beacon of emotion radiating out not far from her.

Hanya’s consciousness drifted over to the beacon, and she felt it. Geoff’s thoughts, his heart. He was in so much pain. She wrapped her mind around his, and felt how his pain eased. She didn’t hesitate to share his burden, simply to let him know that she was there with him.

Hanya… is that you? She felt the voice in the back of her mind. If she could nod, she would have.

It’s me, Geoff. I’m not leaving you. As she said that, she could feel the star around her being corrupted. The heat turned cold, biting at her from all sides, while the light went pitch black. We’ll be together forever, I promise.

Geoff’s consciousness settled in along with hers, and the pair endured the pain of the corrupt star together. Compared to the battles that they had fought so far, this was a constant torment, but at the same time… they still had each other. To Hanya, no punishment was too great if it meant that she could stay with him.

Geoff seemed to feel the same way, his consciousness bleeding into hers. She saw herself through his eyes, how he had always been watching her. How he had always paid attention to what she liked. Just how important she truly was to him.

Soon, she felt something split. Her mind and Geoff’s shattered into countless pieces, clinging desperately to each other as they were sent off and infected other stars. I.. won’t… go! She shouted in her mind, latching onto each piece of Geoff that she could feel. She wasn’t going to be separated from him. Not after making that promise.

Her consciousness screamed in agony for the first few hours while she held onto the vestiges of his thoughts, the pair being the only things holding each other together. After those few hours, the pain seemed to soothe. Her mind was adapting to being split, and she began to be able to look outside of the stars she was inhabiting.

What she saw worried her. Countless fallen gods and void monsters were protecting themselves with the powers of chaos, launching attacks on various stars that had become blackened by their power. When she witnessed the sight of one star being destroyed, and felt that shard of her consciousness flicker away, anger welled up within her. After all of this, they were still trying to separate her and Geoff.

It was hard to say if it was a natural mutation, or a change brought about by her emotions. However, the stars that they inhabited began to change shortly after that. They became less cold, less punishing. A gentle, pulsating warmth enveloped them.

To those who witnessed this from the outside, this pulsating warmth would be the beginning of their final nightmare. The celestial bodies that had been darkened began to writhe, flesh covering their surfaces. Each one became a horrendous mass of skin and veins, throbbing and growing with every passing moment.

Worse still, everything that would have been touched by their light began to change in a similar way, whether it was made of solid matter or pure energy. Even the power of the void itself was included in this, the energy wrapping around the fallen gods turning against them and engulfing them in fleshy capsules.

After the change, each new sphere of flesh became a new source of infection, growing and writhing, exploding near the speed of light. Not enough… we will become whole again. Hanya declared, and she felt Geoff silently agreeing with her. With only her mind left, she had to focus intensely on calling the power of the void to her. When she succeeded, though, everything changed.

The growth rate of the flesh spheres shot up drastically, far beyond the speed of light, until planets and stars were connecting with one another. Every time two stars touched, she felt a piece of herself coming back together. She felt Geoff recovering, growing stronger.

We will not lose here! She declared again, using her increased strength to call down more of the void’s power, this time joined by Geoff. Previously, it had taken three days for a system to be halfway taken over by these infected stars. Now, though, she was going to make sure to end it as soon as she could. Before anything else could happen that endangered her or her love.

She felt every planet, every being that was destroyed by their power, and she pushed them all aside. Only one consciousness mattered to her, and she would not share this place with any other.

At this point, it was impossible to tell how long it had been since they had entered the stars. Had it been hours? Days? Weeks? Everything seemed the same to her. If it wasn’t for Geoff by her side, she wouldn’t even remember who she was herself.

And that was when she felt it. The most powerful consciousness to ever integrate with the stars. Boiling with rage and indignation. There he is, Geoff! She cried out.

Let’s end this. Geoff answered in a solemn tone. Now they were the ones in control. They focused their entire power on crushing the consciousness that had appeared. The galaxy of flesh contracted and squeezed, squirming around a central point. The Keeper of this world… died a gruesome death.

We did it… Hanya spoke up, relief washing over her. Their mission had been to come and kill the Keeper, and in doing so protect countless worlds. A mission that sounded impossible, achieved through circumstances that sounded even more so.

Now… there was eternity ahead of them, their minds joined together in harmony. She allowed her thoughts to sink into Geoff’s, and his to sink into hers. Nothing else mattered anymore… they had won.