Chapter 24: Farewell

 

       Spike continued on his way towards the city. His emotionless green eyes were set straight ahead, waiting for the buildings to begin taking shape in the horizon. It was completely silent out in the vast plains, but at the same time, it was peaceful. Not a single thing stirred in the grasslands except for Spike.

       During his tread eastward, the fact that his life would end a few hours from now hung over his head. Surprisingly, Spike wasn't really that afraid to die. He knew it was for a good cause; even though he would be killed, he would be taking Blade to the afterlife with him. Not only that, but it would help assure that Skylar would be able to live.

       The dark-haired boy didn't reach Fairwell until early that morning when the sun was beginning to begin its reign over the sky. The large castle and the buildings that surrounded it broke through the horizon and grew larger with each passing minute. When he finally reached the large city, Spike entered it, his steps not faltering the slightest bit.

       It was completely empty in the city. Not a single soul was stirring about. It was so silent there that the taps Spike's boots made on the cobblestone streets clearly reverberated off the buildings on either side of him. Spike didn't bother looking about though, but instead kept his gaze fixed to the large castle that sat in the center of Fairwell. He knew that was where Blade was. It wouldn't surprise him if the powerful warrior was already aware of his arrival and was waiting for him to enter the castle at this very moment.

       A couple minutes later, Spike made it to the large wooden doors of the castle. He outstretched his hands and pushed the doors open before entering. A distance away from the entrance to the castle was a throne, and seated in it was Blade. Spike said nothing as he walked towards the man with measured steps until he was just a few feet away from him.

       “Ah, so you've returned,” stated Blade with a smirk. “And I see you've brought the Twin Blades with you. Good, now give them to me.”

       Spike didn't move, his gaze set on the seated warrior before him. Blade stared back, the smirk unwavering. After a few seconds, Spike suddenly unsheathed the Twin Blades and made quick horizontal slashes with them in one fluid motion. Blade wasn't surprised by this though. He was aware of the fact that the spell that was over Spike had been broken and knew that this attack was going to come. The brilliant warrior quickly jumped up from his throne before the beams emitted from the Twin Blades crashed into it.

       The dark-haired youth carefully followed the enemy's movements with his eyes. He turned towards Blade and charged towards him while cutting the air with the Twin Blades to shoot the beams at the powerful warrior. Blade saw this coming and moved to the side as if he was gliding over the stone flooring. When the beams had crashed into the wall behind him, Blade muttered a single word and balls of dark energy rose from the ground. They stayed near Blade for a moment before they began shooting towards Spike one at a time.

       Spike moved accordingly to dodge them while also charging towards his opponent. While doing this, he also muttered a short chant before dark fire shot up from the ground at Blade. To counter it, the dark-haired man muttered a couple words to gain control of the flames before sending them forth towards the younger male. Spike quickly reacted by jumping over the flames. Upon doing this though, Blade sent a blast of wind towards him. Unable to dodge, Spike crossed his arms in front of him to protect his face and chest. He grimaced as the wind cut through him like knives and pushed him backwards and higher into the air.

       While the boy was being pushed away from him, Blade had more of the dark energy spheres rise from the ground. When the wind subsided, the energy spheres were sent towards Spike. The dark-haired boy was unable to respond in time to this though and was hit by each one, getting knocked to and fro like a sac of potatoes. When the barrage of dark energy blasts ceased, Blade jumped up into the air towards Spike. Upon reaching him, Blade quickly made a vertical slash of his sword, but Spike managed to block it with the Twin Blades.

       Before Spike had a chance to do anything else though, Blade quickly shot electricity out of his free hand and towards the younger male. Spike yelled out in pain upon getting shocked. Right when it ended, Blade quickly did a forward flip in the air before slamming his heel into the top of Spike's head. The black-haired boy was sent plummeting towards the floor and crashed into it with a thud. Right after that, a blast of dark energy was shot towards him and he was hit. Blade landed on the ground just a couple yards away from the boy, cackling.

       “You seriously think you can defeat me?” he questioned with a smirk. “You may have the Twin Blades, but they won't be enough to kill me if you don't have the proper skills to use them!”

       “Go ahead, say whatever you want, I'll still kill you,” Spike retorted coldly as he slowly got to his feet.

       The smirk on Blade's face widened. “We'll see about that.”

       Spike felt vibrations in the ground and was aware of what was coming. He jumped up into the air to avoid getting stabbed by a stalagmite that shot up from the ground. The dark-haired youth pushed off of it with his feet to get higher in the air as more stalagmites shot up towards him, each one reaching higher up in the air to attempt to impale him. With each one that he dodged, he jumped off of them to gain altitude. Upon reaching the last one, he pushed off of it so he went towards the wall of the castle. As he did this, he swung the Twin Blades through the air. The energy that shot from the blades were more refined this time, taking the shape of the swords. They cut through the stalagmites and, before the sharp points of the stalagmites could begin their descent towards the castle floor, Spike sent a powerful gust of wind towards them. Right after this, Spike pushed off the stone castle wall with his feet to propel himself through the air and to follow the stalagmite tips that were going straight towards the enemy.

       However, Blade was easily able to prevent the rock spikes from reaching him by shooting dark energy blasts at them. The stalagmite tips were hit and they were instantly reduced to pebbles. Right after this, Blade had a beam of flames shoot up from the ground and straight towards Spike. The dark-haired youth had seen this and quickly swung the Twin Blades. This time the beams were less refined and more massive in size. With this, they had enough force to push Spike further up in the air and out of the fire beam's path. Spike did a couple somersaults in the air before swinging the Twin Blades several times to shoot beams down at Blade.

       Blade simply reacted by moving accordingly to dodge the beams. They instead crashed into the castle floor, stirring up clouds of dust until they obstructed the powerful warrior's vision. The man stood there calmly, readying himself for another attack. A few seconds later, Spike broke through the cloud of dust. After doing another aerial flip to gain more momentum, Spike sent the Twin Blades crashing down towards Blade. The man quickly tried to put up a barrier, but it was unable to withstand the force of the beams that were emitted from the blades. The barrier was shattered and the beams went straight for Blade, who just barely managed to jump backwards in time to evade them.

       Right after his feet touched the ground, Spike leaped towards Blade. When he was within striking range, he began swinging the Twin Blades at him. The powerful warrior moved accordingly to dodge them, letting the energy beams whip past him and crash into the walls behind him. Spike continued to press the attack though while moving closer to Blade to force him to move backwards. Blade was a little shaken from nearly getting hit just moments ago and was beginning to panic a little more as the beams seemed to get closer and closer to hitting him. His footing eventually faltered and he fell to the floor. Spike saw this and quickly swung the Light Blade downwards to shoot a large beam out of it and towards the enemy. However, Blade managed to roll to the side just in time to avoid it.

       When he was far from the attacker and out of the cloud of dust that had been created from the beam, Blade quickly got to his feet. He remained where he was and watched as the dust cloud thinned until it completely dissipated. A smirk came on his face as he watched Spike stand there, panting.

       “What's the matter, getting worn out?” he taunted the boy with a smirk.

       “Shut up!” snapped Spike as he sliced through the air with the Dark Blade to send a beam towards Blade, who simply moved to the side to avoid it. Spike didn't move, but instead stayed where he was as he continued to pant rapidly. The Twin Blades didn't really consume any of his energy, but it took a lot out of him to try to swing them around while also trying to control the sizes of the beams that were shot from them.

       Deciding to take this moment to gain the offensive, Blade quickly mumbled a fairly short incantation. Once it was complete, a wind began to stir around Spike, quickly picking up until it was violent enough to cut through human flesh. While this happened, bolts of lightning shot down towards him while flames appeared out of nowhere and closed in on him from all sides. Spike quickly rolled under the flames to avoid them and the lightning bolts. However, he was still cut by the violent winds and blood started to leak from the newly formed wounds as he quickly got to his feet.

       Upon doing so though, stalagmites shot up towards him from all around him. Spike quickly jumped up into the air to avoid them before seeing ice spikes shoot at him from every angle. He quickly muttered a chant to create a gust of wind that shot out from him to send the spikes backwards. Dark energy blasts were then sent flying towards him. To evade them, Spike cut through the air with the Twin Blades to create the beams, which had enough force to quickly push Spike down and out of the blasts' paths.

       As soon as his feet met with the stone flooring though, a dome of darkness formed around him; not even the light that shined from the Light Blade was able to penetrate it. Spike looked around a little while straining his ears to catch the faintest of sounds. He wasn't able to hear any sounds though and he soon felt something cut through his back. A grunt of pain escaped his mouth as he quickly spun around and swung the Light Blade. He felt the beam leave the sword and waited for it to hit something, but not a sound came. A couple seconds later, something sliced through his back again. Spike repeated the same thing he did last time, but the beam still didn't seem to hit anything. Blade was then heard cackling.

       “You can try to attack all you want,” Blade said, “but you won't be able to hurt me. I'm not even in there with you.”

       Spike mentally cursed at this. He began running straight ahead, hoping that he would be able to escape the darkness. However, after running for about a minute or two, his surroundings didn't change in the slightest bit. Blade cackled again.

       “Running won't help you either,” he said. “You won't be able to escape the darkness, no matter how hard you try.”

       A curse word slipped out from under Spike's breath as he stopped in his tracks. He looked around at the darkness while trying to figure out what to do. Based on what Blade said, he deducted that he must've been in some weird dimension that Blade must have created with some kind of spell. He also figured that Blade was also able to attack him without actually being in the darkness, which meant that he had no hopes of hitting him at the moment. However, there was still one question that remained, and that was how he was going to get out of the spell.

       Spike began getting slashed again. He hopelessly began to move about at a somewhat quick pace, trying to keep himself from getting hit. However, it didn't help; blood practically poured from the open wounds that he kept receiving every few seconds. About half a minute later though, the attacking ceased. Spike stood where he was and soon watched as his surroundings changed. . .

       He was back in Wildtree. It was dark out with the only light source being the full moon that shined overhead. The air was cool and calm winds swept through the quiet village. However, that silence was soon broken by the sound of hastened footsteps. Spike quickly turned around to see a younger Blade running through the empty street, not even paying the slightest bit of attention to Spike as he passed him.

       “Quickly, stop him before he reaches the leader!” someone yelled.

       Suddenly, several of the village warriors flickered into sight in front of Blade. The young warrior stopped in his tracks and smirked as the others charged towards him. He moved accordingly to dodge their weapons while slashing back at them with his sword. They bowed down before him one by one until all of their corpses littered the ground around him.

       Spike's eyes then widened as he saw his parents appear in the area. Like the other ones, they charged towards Blade. The smirk on the powerful warrior's face widened as he readied his blade to cut through those that stood before him. Spike yelled out as he rushed towards Blade. He tried to impale him from behind with the Dark Blade, but it went through him like he was nothing but an illusion. A shocked look came on Spike's face as he watched Blade's sword cut through his parents. They fell to the ground afterwards, dead.

       The scenery had changed again to show the pitch blackness that Spike had been in earlier. The dark-haired boy tightly closed his eyes shut as the image of his parents dying repeatedly played in his mind. He gripped tighter onto the hilts of the Twin Blades until his knuckles became white. Blade cackled loudly as he watched Spike get angrier.

       “YOU B*****D!” Spike yelled furiously at the top of his lungs as his eyes shot open and his rage became uncontrollable. He started to swing the Twin Blades every which way at a rapid pace, letting the beams shoot from them.

       Blade stood outside of the dome of darkness, beginning to panic a little. He struggled to keep the dome of darkness from breaking apart. However, the more beams that were fired from the Twin Blades, the harder it became to keep the spell from breaking. After a few seconds, Blade wasn't able to hold the spell together any longer and the darkness disappeared.

       As soon as it did, the enraged Spike quickly looked towards Blade. He resumed swinging the Twin Blades, letting the energy beams fly towards the enemy. They were being fired so quickly that Blade was almost having a hard time dodging them, and the closer Spike got to him, the more difficult it became. As he did this, Spike also began muttering chants left and right, using one spell after another. Blasts of wind, black fire, lightning bolts, and the beams from the Twin Blades were all fired at Blade. The powerful warrior was cut by the violent winds, burned by the dark flames, and hit by the majority of the energy beams.

       After about a minute of this, Blade was hit by one more beam and he was sent flying backwards. He landed on the ground and slowly sat up, too weak to get up the rest of the way. Spike had stopped firing the beams, but was closing in on Blade at a rapid pace. He wanted to feel the Twin Blade's rip open Blade's chest and he wanted to watch as Blade's heart slowly came to a stop from blood loss.

       However, Blade wasn't going to give up so easily. If he wouldn't be able to live any longer, he wanted to take Spike with him. Summoning the last bit of his energy, Blade shot a huge beam towards Spike. The dark-haired youth stopped in his tracks as he saw this. To counter it, he put all of his might and energy into the Twin Blades before swinging them through the air. Large beams were shot from them and went straight towards Blade's beam. . .

 

       Skylar panted rapidly as he ran through the empty streets of Fairwell. He had woken up about two hours ago to discover that Spike was gone along with the Light Blade. It didn't take him long to figure out where Spike had went and what he planned on doing. Skylar just hoped that Spike was still all right.

       Unfortunately, the pain that Skylar had been feeling for the past few days had increased. It had now grown to the point to where it hurt to move the slightest bit. However, the blond cared way too much for Spike to be halted by the pain. Not only had the pain increased, but he felt as though Death was getting close to strike. He could feel the cold metal of his scythe against his throat and he could feel his freezing breath on the back of his neck. Right now, that didn't worry Skylar either. All he cared about was making sure that Spike was still okay.

       When Skylar was close to the castle, a thunderous boom was heard. The ground shook, nearly knocking the blond off his feet, and smoke began to exit the castle's windows and opened doors. Skylar's eyes widened from this and as soon as the ground stopped shaking, he broke into a painful sprint towards the castle.

       The blond coughed a little upon inhaling the dust clouds that had been kicked up from whatever had happened in the castle. After several seconds though, the smoke dissipated. Skylar's eyes widened as he saw the two bodies that were laying on the ground in the middle of the room. He forced himself to sprint over to the fallen Spike. As he did so, the pain that he was feeling increased, but this time it was more focused towards his heart. Skylar slid on his knees and came to a stop by Spike's side. The blond called the other boy's name a few times, but each time there was not a single response. Tears began to well up in Skylar's eyes as he bent his head down towards Spike's chest, but there was nothing. Spike was dead.

       Grief quickly consumed the boy upon discovering this. He looked down towards Spike sadly. A single crystalline tear rolled down his face, and that was the only tear that Skylar had time to allow to fall, because right after he did, the pain around his heart skyrocketed. Grunts of pain escaped his mouth as he reached up and clutched his chest where his heart was located. A few seconds later, his heart completely stopped, and the blond fell over so that his head was resting on Spike's chest.

Reviews

[Clark]

The biggest problem I have now is when you say "moved accordingly to dodge". I think that it would be better to specify so that the reader can visualise. By saying moved accordingly, I could imagine he spins around like a ballerina or drops to the floor and does the worm to avoid this or that. It's one thing to leave to the readers' imaginations, but feel free to put a few limits on. Plus, you say it a LOT.

I'm also having a hard time believing Spike is getting cut, actual lacerations, from air, this intangible nothingness, even if it is blowing at high speeds. Unless there is sand in the terrain. I've heard of wind burn, though. It's a drying and eventual chafing, which could lead to rawness but getting cut is a little far-fetched.

To the matter of 'curse words', it's also acceptable to say "X cursed" and in fantasy stories, it usually has the connotation of saying bad words, and gets the message across more quickly.

I like your notion of inescapable fates, and how you show that however noble Spike tries to be, some things are just inevitable. I think it's an interesting concept, and contrast, in fact, to the rest of the story.The darkness was�refreshing? I hate to sound morbid, but I think that's the word I want. I do like this ending, though.