[TTIABAD] Chapter 122: The End Comes For Us All

Tyler was worried, panicking a little. He could feel the Aura power draining away from himself. In the sky, Lightning was being overwhelmed with Fire, the assassin was down, and Konohora and him were finally fighting the giant man equally but… they were getting weaker, quickly. It was like the rank up had boosted them at first but was dying down now. If they didn’t finish this battle soon, he was worried they were going to lose.

He pushed harder, defended better, blocked more attacks, but the man was relentless, a titan of strength and power. Even with the rank up, he was strong. It was like a wild animal with all the ferocity of an angry gorilla was trying to him apart limb from limb. He was well aware that without Konohora, he’d be dead a hundred times over. Worse… she had stopped healing him. His bones stayed broken and he used his aura as best he could to defend and keep them together, keep himself in one piece. And Konohora…

She was going all out.

Boom Boom Boom Boom.

It was like listening to a bomb going off, again and again, as her metal quarterstaff struck the man, and the man struck back, only to hit Tyler’s shield. He was fairly sure that each strike was actually stronger than a small bomb…

Something changed again. The flames above his head and even the ones below his feet, suddenly seemed to explode. For a brief moment, he nearly faltered, as it seemed like the sky and the ground had become burning blue flames. Like he was standing above a clear blue ocean and sky, except instead of Water it had become Fire. And then he heard the screams.

“AHHHHH!!!!!!”

Horrible, gut wrenching, screams.

“Sicily! NO!” The divination mage screamed out and suddenly, his barrier dropped, and waves of light green seemed to come from his body, heading to his teammates. Tyler’s heart pounded away, swinging his sword with all he could manage. They struck the armor with a terrible noise of metal on metal but it wasn’t fast enough. If the enemies start getting healed-!

They had to end this fight, right now.

Tyler rushed forward, taking a blow to his side from the enemy’s hammer that crushed half his body, but he bashed hard against his arm, giving Konohora an opening.

She didn’t hesitate.

Tyler has seen it once and seeing it twice was not any better. She swung down, hard, striking the man in the head. Tyler had expected it to explode. Instead, the man seemed to spasm like he’d been shocked. Tyler backed away, side crumpled in, and stared in horror. The man took a few steps forward… before his eyes rolled into the back of his head, blood poured out of his eyes and every hole on his head, and he fell down face first. Dead. At least, Tyler was pretty damn certain he was dead. The way the blood had fallen from him, the way his eyes had seemed to just… break as if they were just… gone. Tyler shuddered. He was going to be seeing that image in his nightmares.

He stumbled, wincing. Everything hurt so, so much. But his team, his team needed him!

He turned, only to see another horrible sight. The lightning mage was revealed, screaming, as healing energy tried to keep her alive. Tried… as Riary burned and burned her. Her flesh melted, her hair evaporated, her eyes boiled, her whole body screamed and screamed. Riary didn’t stop, only burning hotter, as she seemed to coat the world in fire.

Konohora ran, heading straight for the barrier mage. He panicked, looking at his people, and prepared to run away. Konohora never gave him the chance. He was clearly less experienced in combat despite being in B rank. He turned to run and Tyler saw as Konohora reared back and threw her staff like a spear, watched as it zoomed through the air, and finally embedded through his spine. Tyler froze for a moment, unsure what to do, unsure where to be. He’d seen people die, he’d been in fights, but everything in his head felt so hazy, the pain hurt, and he didn’t know who to help or how. It felt like, like everything was actually… almost over.

Words from earlier flashed into his head and his eyes widened as he sprinted for Konohora.

The mage died, the screams finally stopping, and most of the flames disappeared as Riary collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily and spasming.

Konohora stomped once, crushing the healer’s head.

Tyler didn’t stop, ignoring his injuries, as he sprinted as fast as he could. He slammed his shield forward, aiming for Konohora.

He slammed into her and an aura of death shrieked towards him, even as he deployed an Aura Shield behind him, cutting through it, leaving a horrible gash across his entire back. He fell, looking at Konohora’s shocked face, as he heard Riary scream. Memories from before swam in his mind.

“Alright, so we need to figure out a way to deal with this damn assassin. The fire floor method is great but Tyler, you should probably be ready at a moment’s notice.”

“Got it.”

“No. I mean, yeah, sure, but what I meant is that no matter what… the assassin isn’t dead. That’s what I’d do in his situation. Take a hit, pretend to be dead, and then come back for round two. So, if it feels like we got him… we didn’t. Be ready for the ambush. He’s probably going to go after Konohora of course, since he can just pick us off if she dies. Well… probably not me.” Derek scratched his face, looking tired. “Anyway, just be ready for that.”

“Of course.”

Tyler had nearly forgotten. The battle wasn’t over yet. Riary melted the assassin, but Tyler got to his feet, shield and sword up, ready for more. The slash across his back was healed from Konohora… but not fully.

He quickly looked around. The big guy… he was dead, Tyler couldn’t believe otherwise. The healer was crushed and the other two had been burnt to ashes. Well… one of them. Riary seemed to be trying to use the last of her fire to try and burn the mage down further, even though she was dead, and was getting progressively more panicked that she wasn’t succeeding.

“Riary?”

“S-She’s, I-” She took tried to take a deep breath, faltering, and turned away. “She’s dead.” She finally said.

Tyler stood there, looking at all of them.

“They’re all dead.” Konohora said, walking up next to him. At that moment, Tyler felt nothing but relief.

“Alright, we need to quickly go help Derek-”

Tyler’s words cut off… as an explosion happened. An explosion anything unlike he’d ever felt or seen. It happened so fast. His ears blew out, the wind seemed to blow back, he was nearly launched from his feet, and in front of him was a massive ball of energy, even bigger than the last one he’d seen floating in the sky. Except this one was on the ground and wasn’t just some ball of energy, it was an explosion so massive that it seemed to devour the world. At that moment, Tyler was positive that not even an airstrike could be so loud, so powerful, and so horrifying to be so close to.

As quickly as it came, it seemed to begin to vanish, slowly shrinking down. He was left stunned, they all were, at such a horrifying amount of force. There was a suction, as air rushed to reclaim the void that had been left. Tyler couldn’t so much as breathe.

Finally, his thoughts once again connected with reality, and in a soft whisper like a gunshot in a quiet forest, he whispered.

“Derek…?”

With disbelief and fear, he began to head towards the site of the explosion, the others following behind.

*****

Derek had gone further than any of them had expected in such a short time. The size and speed of the lasers had helped create the illusion he was close by. He wasn’t. After a dozen minutes of running, Tyler broke through the treeline and gasped, nearly losing control of his aura for the first time in over a year. That would have sucked considering he only had a single working lung at the moment and more injuries than he was used to.

The reason for it was because… there was a crater. A massive crater. If someone told him a meteor the size of a house had fallen, he’d have called them a liar, simply because it would have taken at least two house sized meteors to make a hole this big. The crater was… disturbing. It was a hole that looked like it had been made by the sharpest blade imaginable or simply… erased everything around it. The ground was just gone, the trees, the grass, a perfect cut across the entire hole. Like a mirror shine finish. Tyler wouldn’t even know to describe it if someone asked him. It simply looked so… unnatural.

A beat of fear rose in him. He swallowed.

“DEREK! Derek, where are you?!”

He slid down the side, beginning the search for him. Konohora and Riary moved to the outside of the crater, seeing if they could find him. He… he couldn’t really be…

Dead.

As the seconds grew into minutes, as nothing was left but trees and ground with large and small holes, as not a scrap of any body could be found from the fairy or Derek, that fear began to grow and grow. That was Derek was truly Dead. Guilt washed over Tyler like a storm. He remembered, how before he’d had to deal with Happy and being teleported to a wasteland, that Derek hadn’t wanted to come with. He’d wanted to separate, go his own way, explore. How Rhicontinu Vegarl had gone out of his way to fight him, how Grant wanted him to separate from him, how both Derek’s trainer, Konohora, Riary, and even Derek himself had said there’d be problems because of him. If he had never pushed for him to stay with them… if he’d kept his mouth shut and just let him leave with bad blood between them…

Then he might still be-

“KONOHORA!” Riary shrieked, screaming at the top of her lungs. The noise made Tyler nearly jump out of his skin.

Konohora came running and Tyler followed right after, scrambling to get out of the crater that had been made.

Tyler rushed, heading towards where Riary was. She wasn’t close. She was beyond the treeline that had been left, between some bushes. Tyler pushed through and-

He froze. At that singular moment, his entire world seemed to collapse at the sight in front of him. Derek… Derek… Derek…

Konohora was already putting her hands down, touching what was left of him, trying to heal him. Tyler barely noticed, it was like everything fell away from him all at once. Riary, Konohora, the world, light, time and space. At that moment, it was like all that existed was the roaring inside his own head, the bleating panic and horror of a scared animal, and the sight that would never leave him.

Derek was gone. He was gone, nearly dead. The word nearly fought hard in his brain to make it there and only succeeded because he didn’t want to believe what his eyes were telling him. He didn’t want to believe it, to find out this way, to see this sight.

Derek’s arms and legs were gone. His horns were gone, his wings were gone, his tail was gone. The entire front of what was left of his torso was… gone. He had no face. He had no face. No teeth, no eyes, nothing. The front and mostly bottom of his skull was simply… gone. Blood coated and poured down, openly. Tyler could see his lungs and more. Jesus Christ, Tyler could see his brain. Just like everything else, he had been… shaved down. As if a sword had simply cut off his entire front half. He looked more like a pile of meat than he did a living creature. What was left of him was red, bright red, with holes in his skull. He’d… He’d never have realized it was a person. Especially not a still living person.

Wrong. Seeing Derek like this was, was wrong. It was all wrong. Wrongwrongwrongwrongwronwro-

“Tyler.” Konohora said, far too calmly. “Tyler.” She repeated again. She kept repeating it, in the exact same tone, in the exact same way. It was only after a few more times that she must have been repeating it for a while.

“Y-” Words failed to come out of his mouth. He felt, he didn’t know. Worse. Sick. He felt sick in a way he had never felt before. Never knew before. Never knew was possible. His vision spun and his aura flickered out, failing him, as it suddenly grew hard to breathe and his body seemed to be going numb as ice seemed to fill his veins and-

“Tyler. I need you to go get our bag. Bring it to me. Quickly please.” Konohora said, her voice and tone dead.

“Ye- Ok-” Tyler couldn’t speak, he felt like he could barely move, he felt like he’d been poisoned. But he did, his feet were under him, and his body responded. It was a blur, he couldn’t remember leaving or grabbing the bag or coming back. He only snapped out of it when he saw Derek again. He now had a full skull. But that was it.

“Tyler, get the first aid kit. It’s at the bottom of the bag.”

“Why aren’t… you healing him?” Riary asked and she sounded even worse than Tyler felt.

“Because I can’t.” Tyler froze, hands searching for the kit.

What?

“What?” Riary said, shocked.

“I can not heal him fully.” Konohora repeated. “Tyler, I need the first aid kit.”

Tyler continued, finding and handing it to her. They had packed a lot in the bag and this had been one of them. But… but it had been packed at the very beginning of their journey and he hadn’t questioned it then. Carrying a first aid kit made sense when traveling. Except… he’d forgotten about it, because they had never needed it.

Konohora took it, opening it up, and immediately began to pull out needles, potions, glassware, bandages, and more.

Konohora began speaking, in that same empty monotone.

“He has ranked up. It kept him alive, but his Aura is the only thing keeping him alive right now. And it’s almost gone. And my healing is the same rank. I… can no longer heal our bodies as easily, for what it is replaced by is also higher rank. His injuries are… many. I am using my healing mostly on his brain and trying to save the rest for life support. He… I…”

Konohora kept moving, putting a swab into the potion and placing it against certain area’s, even as she went silent.

“I… can save him.”

Those words did not bring Tyler comfort. Not for how long it took for Konohora to say them.

“Derek… said something to me once. While we were traveling to Prinsk. We were talking about how strange this world was. He still found it incredible that this world didn’t have any ‘spiders’. He said…

‘It almost makes the world seem a little fake. But well, we could all be just brains in jars I guess so…’

It was… I found it one of the weirdest things I had ever heard. He said it casually but it is, somewhat true. To live, one requires a brain and not much else… technically. A brain needs air from blood. Right now he’s… like a bucket with holes. I am trying to plug up those metaphorical and non-metaphorical holes, circulate and generate blood, and keep his brain alive. His Aura will fail within the next fifteen minutes I believe. He will immediately die. My healing… might prevent that if I prepare his brain now for the shock. After that, I will try to repair him to a survivable state before my healing runs out.”

Tyler had never felt so cold. Can, might, fifteen minutes, survivable state. Konohora had always done it. Had always waved her hand and made all the injuries go away. He’d never thought he couldn’t die but… but…

He stared down at Derek’s decimated body.

He’d never thought his friends would die.

Riary came up to him, holding his arm. They both simply watched as Konohora worked.

And waited.