Of Ice, Death & Monsters

Chapter 58 : And Reject Despair

‘Save us…’

‘Don’t go…’

‘Run…’

‘Get away…’

‘Help…’

So many voices, so many souls, so many whispers, and so, so many memories. They blended together like a fruit shake as I felt my body be pulled apart in every direction. I didn’t know where I was anymore, and who I even was. I felt my mind land in a maze that constantly shifted in the dark, with lights flickering in every direction.

It was like when I first got the Performance Arts of Telekinesis. Everything was such a blur with knowledge colliding into my head without a second wasted. I felt like I was going to pass out. There was too much, I couldn’t handle it at all. 

Each moment I thought I could take a rest, I was dragged further into the deluge, and each moment I tried to remember what I was doing, a billion more voices joined my thoughts as they got a hold of my mind and dragged it across a metaphorical or perhaps it was more apt to say a metaphysical pavement of souls.

However, even in these instances of chaos, I saw order in its ranks. I saw familiar faces and memories that slowly filled my mind, scattered, yes, but even I could make out pieces of it. I saw a familiar, tall, brown-haired man. He looked quite sullen as he rubbed his chest before looking up at me. We made brief eye contact before I uttered out his Name in the darkness.

“Rodion…” He disappeared, but another figure took his place. A man in a lab coat with scales on his body. He looked so distraught and tired that I recognized him as:

“Rook…” I tried to reach out to him, but again, he disappeared. I sighed internally from frustration before looking around.

All around me grew more familiar faces, from Henry, who seemed to be sitting all alone, to even that girl I saw a while ago with Jane, Samantha, who was by a maze’s corner. But like Rodion and Rook before, they disappeared again.

I rolled my eyes at that before I heard a familiar voice call out to me.

“Look at that~ You’re finally here~”

That happy-go-lucky, bratty voice scraped at my mind as I turned to find that damned fox smiling up at me innocently. I didn't know if I should be angry or annoyed, so I chose to be confused. 

“Finally here? You wanted me to be here?”

“Well, of course. This is where you will do the most work. Thank you for coming here. In just a moment, your wish shall be granted!”

I pointed to myself. “My wish? Which one, I had like, multiple, and a lot of them included me not dying, which I think those were granted in the worst way possible.

The fox giggled, laughing as if I had told a bad joke. “You wanted to be special,l right? This is your chance. This is your destiny. Come and take it!”

"Wait, wait... Destiny? What destiny? What are you talking about? Can you please be clear for once? I want to know what I'm getting into. Didn't I get absorbed into the Smorodina? Doesn't that like mean I'm gone, like I'm a spirit now until I reincarnate... Huh."

My failure had just dawned on me. I didn't quite die, but it might take years, decades... Even centuries until I return, and even then, I might become a plant, or a gust of wind, or anything but a person.

"I guess..." My hands shook as my life literally flashed all around me. From my childhood, to school, to even finding jobs. They plastered themselves across the corridors as I watched them go by.

"Guess, this was the end of the road..."

"Hah, silly boy!" The fox slapped me down to the ground. "No, it's not. In fact, you're life is just beginning~ You can come back, scratch that, you will come back. All you have to do is move upwards. Here, I'll guide you."

It pranced around in the air before slowly floating upwards, creating a staircase with every step as I began walking upwards, joining back with the chaos once more as my mind began to hear all the murmurs and memories once more, or rather not just hear them... Become them.

“Saveus all.”

"I will.

“Kill them all.”

"Of course."

Billions of wishes wrapped around my body as I lost myself in the memories and ideals that were placed upon and within me. I tried to remember my Name, my purpose, who I am, what I was doing, why I am doing it…

But each time I said something different. I was someone different. I wasn’t being ripped apart anymore; I was being built, I was being forced and shoved around as another piece of someone else entered and attached itself to my soul. I felt myself bloat, as if I was a cup forced to bear the weight of the ocean, doomed to break under all the galleons made to bear.

However, for whatever reason, I was able to handle it all. I was able to hold it all in. I was able to stabilize and become one with every single being. Was I an I… Or were we a we? We couldn’t know. I couldn’t know.

It all began to blur, and I tried to hold onto my sense of self, as did each billion of voices. They all struggled, we all struggled. It was futile, it was… Sad. I could hear them, I could feel them. They wanted a second chance; a few of them, like me, had a second chance. It all went to shit, though, it always did.

A billion broken dreams echoed in my ears, singing songs of loss and pain and of hatred and love. I had to be there, I had to withstand it all. I had to make sure to listen to each chorus and note of this Choir.

I rose up, with each song ended, I grew, and with each note played, I manifested. There was seemingly no end, with every tale and story beginning, I simply added it to who I was, to who I am. 

My mind blanked, or rather it expanded, it grew. It did not just encompass me anymore, but everyone in the Smorodina River. I wasn’t just dissolved with the water; I became one with it. I am it. I was overflowing with richness and lost myself within its vastness.

It was as if I was in a dream, floating in the midsts and mists of the world. I was so many things, I was a farmer, a warrior, a poet, a mailman, a businessman, a cobbler, a butcher, and even a candlestick maker. I was a murderer, a monster, and a fanatic.

I was all things, for that was who I am, that was who I was, and after accepting that. I opened my eyes.

Jane and Marian

Jane watched as Samantha fell into the Smorodina. Her screams echoed amongst the wails of the dead. Why? Why does this always happen? Why do her friends always suffer and fall?

Why wasn’t it just her? She joined the Choir to stop the pain, to save others, and yet, each mission was only a temporary success. 

Every time she delivered medicine to a family, they would have been cut off in a few weeks' time. Whenever they managed to send food to a charity, it would have been all dumped and contaminated the next day.

It never ended in complete happiness. There was always something wrong, something else… Someone else stopped her, stopping the Choir. It was as if the world itself was against them, against her.

She just wanted to help people… What was so wrong with that? Why was she punished like that? Is there a reason why? Should there be a reason why? Would she have cared at all if she were told, or would she have spat on it and looked the other way? 

Jane’s own life flashed in her mind. She had everything should could have ever asked for. A family, a good home, friends… Her life was happy, she was… Not. She couldn’t be, who could be in this world?

Who could be happy when every day you’re surrounded by people who come home unable to eat? Who comes home in debt, or who comes home to be by the side of their sick father. Jane wanted to make a difference; she wanted to be the difference for all of these people.

“What are you thinking? Running away like that?! You could have gotten hurt!” Her father’s words echoed in her ears.

“Everyone gets hurt… I’m trying to make sure it’s only me!” She yelled back. 

Tears welled up in her eyes. It was only supposed to be her. Not anyone else. She thought it would be different, that it would have changed. She was the Harbinger’s Chosen, made to give freedom, to bring about destruction to those who tried to impose themselves on others.

Instead, she failed. Most of her friends died without even meeting her again. The one that survived… She thought she could protect, she thought that they would be together side by side for what was to come.

“Why?”

Was it her fault?

…

Yes, it was. All of it.

“It was… My fault.” Her flames didn’t die out; instead, from orange-red, they turned into a violent crimson hue, a deep scarlet that began to wrap around her body as the Nawia began to shake. The River Smorodina started to gurgle, its typhoon reaching its climax.

The souls started to pile up, wailing together as they formed a tidal wave that enclosed Nawia. Each drop of water began to form into another body, another person, glued and meshed together as they moved like squids out of water, faceless and squirming.

Marian looked up at the tidal wave, both in awe and in fear, but before she could act, several of the bodies grabbed at her, shoving the woman into their ranks, consuming her whole as she couldn’t even scream.

Jane turned back, her face growing pale as the towering deluge of manifested souls reached out for her as well. 

“W-What- no!” She raised her hand up to fire a blast of flames, yet when they landed on the abomination, nothing happened; not even a scorch mark was left. 

She tried to run away, but several arms reached out to her, grabbing at her body and mouth before she could scream, and thus consumed her as well.

“Hahahahah… What a wonderful show.” Zmey’s three heads grinned as he watched the souls of the Nawia all come alive. It was a bit strange, but who could argue with such a dramatic finale as this? The two chosens gone after one experienced immense grief. The remaining survivors were traumatized by their actions.

He surveyed the ones that remained. Carey, Mollie, and Charlie were by the bridge; the three girls were staring at the walls of souls gathering all around them. They stayed close to Zmey as if he was going to protect them… Which, he would, it was his duty after all.

The Keepers have lost another one of their ranks, and while their greatest enemy seemed to be dead, it was at the cost of an even greater ally. Now they stand in horror at the approaching monstrosity, unable to act in any way but to ready themselves.

Matthias, Godwin, Derek, and Topher watched from the mountainside, staring at the writhing and wriggling spawn of the Abyss that had just been birthed before them. They were tired, without much choice, they sat down and only watched.

“But, I’m afraid that this is the end of the story. It has been fun, I have not felt this way for so long.” He bowed his heads as if he was giving an ovation.

“Thank you, and good night, all of you. Now… Settle down.”

His voice reverberated throughout Nawia as he commanded all of the spirits of the Smorodina to return to normal so that they may continue with their eternal ritual.

But… The abomination resisted. It curled, the souls of the billions… Of the trillions, they began to amalgamate.

For once in his everliving life, Zmey was confused. His eyes narrowed as he tried once more.

“Fall!” He commanded, putting weight by his word, and as if gravity was turned on, the abomination staggered, shivering under the force… But it pulled itself up.

Flames began to spark along the edges of the bodies, lightning up as if gasoline was lit. Weapons manifested on the arms of the souls, gripping tightly as they clashed with each other, waving swords, axes, and guns in their midst. 

And the eyes, billions of them opened up, moving and wiggling around, blinking every so often. Yet they all stared at the same thing. Or rather, the same being: Zmey.

“What madness is this?” He asked as he raised his wings, snarling as his claws grew out.

The abomination in response let out a roar. An ear-piercing, echoing roar that resounded throughout not just Nawia, but even beyond, ascending towards the living realm as every single soul in Galfania felt a shudder pass through their bodies at the same time.

Without any hesitation, the three-headed guardian dragon of Nawia flew up into the sky and dove straight first into the beast to do battle.