Chapter 54: Death, Is Only The Beginning [MOON]

 

“Daddy.. is dead?” asked Daisy with a confused look.

 

“Yup” I told her with an upbeat tone.

 

“Daddy is really dead?” she asked her mother as she turned her head slowly with a more concerned look on her face.

 

“Yup” replied my wife with the same upbeat tone.

 

“T.. then, who is this person?” asked Daisy as she started to shiver a little.

 

“I’m your daddy,” I said with a cheerful voice.

 

“H.. huh?” Daisy was confused as she began alternating her look between me and her mother.

 

“How is that even possible?!” shouted Daisy as she placed both her hands on her head.

 

“Alright, I think I’ll take over from here, dear. We had our fun teasing Daisy. Let us continue with the story. I doubt you remember what happened after you were dead. I’ll try to remember what the other person told me from her perspective,” said my wife with a thinking face.

 

I gestured her to continue while I sip on my favourite tea. Ahh, my throat was parched from talking for so long.

 

***

 

I opened my eyes. Rose was staring at me. Was she trying to wake me up? What happened to Zen?

 

I stood up quickly but was hit with a head rush. As I struggled to gain some form of semblance, I saw Rose holding Q in her arms. It looked pale and it seems as though she had applied some healing gel on him. What is Q even doing here in the first place?

 

“Onii-chan is fighting, but.. he seemed different. It feels as though he is just charging towards Tom without any regards for his own safety. I’m scared on what might happen to him, Lily,” said Rose as she started shaking while holding Q.

 

I noticed that the atmosphere was getting colder. What is going on? This feeling feels familiar. I stood up and saw Zen fighting rigorously with Tom. Indeed his fighting style feels different. Even though he was still avoiding a lot of the arrows, some still managed to grace him or outright hit him. Wait, is that… steam? Since when can he use bloodlust?

 

“Did you know that Zen is capable of using Bloodlust?” I asked Rose.

 

“Huh? No, I didn’t know at all. He did not told me about it,” said Rose as she placed Q rested against a tree trunk and stood up.

 

Zen was fighting tenaciously. I’m also worried about Zen as he seems to be receiving more and more injuries on himself. But Tom is losing ground. Frenzy must be affecting him somehow when it is even affecting us. I’m surprised that Rose is able to remain calm despite the effects from Frenzy, did she cast a spell on herself or something?

 

Zen was swinging Tengu-kaze with wind pressures like a madman which made even Tom afraid. Is he really going to be ok? No wonder Rose was getting worried about him. This is not his fighting style at all. Don’t tell me he lost himself again like that time when we found his grandfather’s dismembered hand?

 

Wind was accumulating around Tengu-kaze and Zen swung it towards Tom, destroying even more trees. Ugh, my kind aren’t going to like this. I don’t even know if I am able to vouch for him when the elves comes for him. But more importantly, did Zen finally get him?

 

We awaited for the dust to settle. I saw the first silhouette, it was Tom. He had some extra wounds but none as bad as the dagger sticking out of his pelvis. Where’s Zen? I looked around and finally saw him. Wait… wait, is that?

 

“Zen!!! / Onii-chan!!!” the both of us shouted at the same time and ran towards him.

 

There was an arrow sticking out on the left side of his left chest. I hope what I saw was wrong as I began praying to the Goddess that what I saw earlier was not true. Zen fell to the ground when we reached him. My prayers were not answered as he was indeed shot in the area where his heart was. I crouched down to try and stop the bleeding. Rose on the other hand started screaming and ran towards Tom.

 

“You got wings too?!” shouted Tom. Rose must be using sacred wings to fight Tom.

 

What should I do? What do I even do?! If I remove the arrow, he is going to bleed to death. Blood was pooling in his mouth. Nothing in our medical supplies can stop a heart from bleeding.

 

“Zen! Zen!! Don’t you dare die on me! Don’t you fucking dare!” I shouted to him as I noticed that my voice was quivering.

 

I did not even realised that tears were dripping out of my eyes as I put pressure on his wound. He started chocking on his own blood.

 

“No… no no no!! Zen!! Don’t you dare, don’t you dare! Rose!! He is dying!! I don’t know how to save him!!” I shouted out loud.

 

“I know!!!” shouted Rose as I can hear her sobbing a little while fighting Tom.

 

Shit!! What can I even do?! Healing gel does not work in recovering organs or critical wounds. It only works with flesh wounds. Am I going to just watch him die? Am I going to see Zen die in my arms?

 

Zen reached out his hand to my cheek and wiped my tears. He smiled despite knowing that he is dying. Then his hand dropped and his eyes closed.

 

“No… no no no!! Zen!!! Nooo!!” I shouted while checking for his pulse. There was nothing.

 

“Zen? Z.. Zen??” I placed my hand on his cheek. My tears were dripping on his face as I felt his body getting cold.

 

“R.. Rose.. ROSE! HE’S GONE!!! I couldn’t save him!!” I shouted as hard as I could.

 

I did not hear a reply back but I can still hear them fighting. Shit!! Zen is gone? He’s gone? What the hell am I doing? This man saved my life three times and I couldn’t even save him once? No.. No! I refuse to let that happen!

 

I dug into my pouch and took out a vial. I can see my hands shaking as I held on to this vial. I do not know whether this will work but I have to try. My nostari, I am so sorry for what I am about to do. Please find it in your heart to forgive your daughter. I will gladly accept any form of punishment if it means saving him.

 

I started removing all the arrows that was stuck on Zen’s body. Then I removed the vial and poured the contents into his wound where the heart was. There were only three drops so I had to make it count. After pouring the contents, I sat down and prayed to the Goddess. I even told the Goddess that she can take my life in exchange for his revival as I do not care. Just the thought of Zen dying makes me want to follow him in joining with the cosmic tree itself.

 

His wounds started glowing. It is healing. It’s healing! So it does work! Zen can be saved! But he still looked pale and there is no sign of movements from him. I placed my ears to his chest. There.. was no heartbeat. No pulse. Damn it! I quickly removed my gauntlets and started doing chest compression on him. Come on, Zen. Come on!

 

***

 

Where am I? This place looks familiar. That bright light looks familiar along with that white ceiling. My vision starts to fade white. I see someone standing in front of me. It is a young woman with red hairs that is close to my age. She was smiling at me. Mom? Is that you? I have never seen her before in my life and now she is right in front of me. There were no words exchanged between us. I just smiled and walked closer to hug her. It was a brief hug but for the first time in my life I finally had some form of closure with my mother that I had never met.

 

She stood aside and gestured another woman forward. Who? Who is it?

 

It was then that I knew. The person in front of me that I am staring at was my wife to be. I had my decision made all along and this dream is showing me. She was smiling at me with tears flowing down her cheeks. I walked up to her slowly and held up her right hand. I gave it kiss and bowed politely to her. Then I proceeded to hug her tightly as I know deep in my heart that I will never ever let her go.

 

***

 

I continued doing chest compression on Zen while blowing air into his mouth. I do not even know how long I was doing this as my arms were burning with pain and aches. I was close to giving up and did not even realised he had his eyes opened. But.. it looked foggy and white.

 

He stood up all of a sudden. He was scanning the surroundings. He took a look at me and smiled and gave me a head pat. His eyes looked so unreal with the colours being so dull. He then rushed toward where there were sounds of fighting. Zen is back. He is alive!

 

***

 

Fuck! Why is this asshole so hard to kill?! Are you telling me I can’t even avenge onii-chan?! This person sure likes flying so I used sacred wings to chase after him. But even if both of us can fly, he certainly has more combat experience. Even fighting in close combat, he still knows what to do despite being a ranged combatant.

 

I was about to use Fa Jin Zhòu when he took a quick shot that knocked my rapier off my hand. Damn it! I need to concentrate myself and not let my feelings distract me. I must avenge onii-chan!

 

“Why are you attacking me?! I have no qualms with you!” shouted Tom.

 

“You just killed my brother!” I shouted back at him angrily.

 

“Oh for crying out loud! One after the fucking other! Why can’t you all just leave me alone!” he shouted to himself.

 

I dived down to retrieve my rapier. I know that will leave me vulnerable but I had no choice. It is my only weapon. I thought I’ll just perform a quick swipe to pick up my rapier but arrows suddenly landed in front of me causing me to crash onto them. I lost my balance and skidded on the ground. I regained my bearings and looked at Tom hovering above. It was then that I saw showers of arrows coming down from above me. I wanted to dodge it by flying but my wings seemed to be in bad shape after I crashed earlier. The arrows are right above me now and I don’t have enough time to dodge it. Onii-chan, I guess I’ll be following you after all. Please forgive your little sister for not being able to avenge you or your grandfather. I closed my eyes and accepted my fate.

 

I felt someone’s hand pet my head. It felt familiar, warm and I knew it was onii-chan. So he came to welcome me into the afterlife. I am so glad that I won’t be venturing alone.

 

Numerous loud clanking caused me to open my eyes. Someone was.. deflecting all the arrows away. But how? There were thousands of them showering on us but none of them made its way through.

 

“Rose, stay here. I’ll be ending this,” said onii-chan as he turned his head a little to look at me. His eyes.. they are muddled. It looks as though he is between life and death with those pale looking eyes. But it is onii-chan, he is still alive. But how?!

 

Tom flew down to see what actually happened to his arrows. His face started turning pale and angry after seeing that onii-chan is still alive and standing.

 

“What the actual fuck?! How are you still alive?! And how are you able to use Focused Meditation when you were using Bloodlust just earlier?!” shouted Tom.

 

Focused Meditation? Is that why I am feeling so calm right now? I feel warm and calm when I was feeling distraught, furious and pure anger just moments ago. This is onii-chan, right? I hope I am no dreaming or just some illusion from the afterlife.

 

“Tom Snapdragon, your time has come for you to face the consequences of your actions. Today is the day you die,” said onii-chan calmly.

 

“Just because you can use Higher State of Mind does not give you the right to talk bullshit. You are not the first person that I’ve killed while using Focused Meditation and it won’t be the last!” shouted Tom while he drew his bow.

 

Blue particles started forming on his bow into a large arrow. This must be what he used to pierced through all those trees. We need to dodge this or we will be killed!

 

“Onii-chan!” I shouted to him but he stood firmly in place.

 

Tom released his arrow and it flew at us with the speed of light. But something miraculous happened. Onii-chan deflected the arrow one-handed causing it to arc back towards Tom. How did he do that?

 

A loud explosion erupted directly on where Tom was standing. A silhouette appeared out of the dust to attack onii-chan. Tom used his Rend armour again and flew towards onii-chan trying to grab him. But onii-chan reacted almost instantly to it and smacked Tom’s hand away with Inazuma. Tom then attempted to slice onii-chan with his bow but it too was blocked.

 

Lightning started wrapping around Inazuma and he swung with precision. Tom tried to avoid it but ended up bleeding on his chest. He had a semi-circular chunk of meat missing on his ribs portion, possibly due to his own arrow being deflected back at him.

 

Tom was panting hard now and decided to fly up high. How is onii-chan going to reach him? I am going to need to carry him up in order to reach Tom. But onii-chan did something unthinkable. He stabbed Inazuma on the ground and leaped on it with one foot. Seemingly as though he was weightless, he jumped straight up directly at Tom with insane speed.

 

Tom was certainly caught off-guard at the sudden speed that onii-chan displayed. They fought up above and moved deeper into the forest which I couldn’t see. I deactivated my sacred wings just in case I needed to use it for emergency. Deactivating a spell before the duration ends quickens the cooldown much faster.

 

I heard someone running towards me and I knew who it was without even looking. I ran towards the direction where onii-chan went and Lily came to my side. I need to see how this ends.

 

More loud explosions can be heard ahead of us along with showers of arrows falling from the sky. Please be fine, onii-chan.

 

We reached the location where they were fighting. Tom was covered in new wounds now. How is he even still standing with all those wounds? It looked as though a part of his wings was sliced cleanly off. I did not know that it was possible for anything to destroy the Rend armour when Lily’s devastating punch was nullified by it. Even my Rapier could not penetrate the wings earlier. Is it because a legendary weapon is needed in order to counter Rend?

 

They were fighting on solid ground now. Tom is certainly on the losing edge without his wings. They fought until they were at the edge of the elven forest close to the edge of a cliff.

 

“There’s nowhere left to go, Tom. Perhaps if you surrender then I might consider sparing you,” said onii-chan.

 

“Puhahaha!! Surrender? Now that is something that I’ll never thought I’ll hear. But fuck no, there is no way I’ll surrender. It’s not even the end yet!” he shouted.

 

He summoned a multitude of bombs covering himself with it. Is he planning to commit suicide? Or is he planning to kamikaze onto us?! Onii-chan turned his head look at us, as though he was warning us to step back which we obliged. He summoned his spectral cloak by pulling his left hand from his right shoulder. I can never get over how cool that looked, I want to learn that too.

 

“It’s just you and me, Hawthorn! Time for you to choose. About time we end this for the both of us! You attack me, you die. You deflect my arrow back, you die. You do nothing, well, only you die,” he grinned as he drew his bow and blue particles started forming a large arrow. It is that penetrating arrow again.

 

Onii-chan summoned a scabbard with his left hand. Then he sheathed Inazuma with it and slotted it at his hip. What spell is he planning to use? Dark Slash can’t hit him at this range. Onii-chan can deflect the arrow somewhere else but Tom can continue shooting more arrows at him. Is there some range attack that onii-chan can use? Lightning Strike perhaps, but at this range, the lightning itself will trigger the explosion from the bombs. What can he do? From where he is standing, the explosion will reach him.

 

Onii-chan readied himself with an iai-goshi stance. Tom’s arrow was getting even larger than he previously used. Is onii-chan capable in deflecting such a strong attack? Both Lily and I stood as far as we could from both of them while still being able to see what is going on.

 

“Let’s end this,” said onii-chan calmly.

 

What happened next was in a span of a couple of seconds. Tom released his arrow which flew at onii-chan at ludicrous speed. Onii-chan unsheathed his kodachi which at first had no sign of lightning on it, but mid-way of his swing, numerous lightning started arching around it. With a calm voice, onii-chan said “Kirin’s Thunderbolt” and a flash of light blinded my vision.

 

After gaining back my sight, I saw Tom sliced in half from his pelvis to his shoulder. The arrow that was flying towards onii-chan was sliced in half as well causing it to fly in a different direction. But the bombs did not trigger somehow.

 

Tom was falling off the cliff as he was in disbelieved at what happened. He seemed to be mumbling something that I think it spelled “I have not even decided yet”. Both Lily and I started cheering as we knew that onii-chan had won the fight. But the explosion happened even though we can no longer see Tom.

 

The ground that onii-chan was standing on started giving way and he too was in a free-fall. I did the unthinkable. I knew I had a fear of falling but I ignored it. All I could think of is saving onii-chan. I rushed towards the edge of the cliff and leaped towards him, chanting sacred wings while diving towards him. He smiled as he saw me reaching out to him. I think I heard him saying “White Angel” as I reached out for his hand. Now it is my turn to save him.