Chapter 28: My Fate (Part 4)

Ronalt and I ran up the stairs quickly reaching the top. What I expected to see was a mound of unconscious knights and Earnest waiting. He was a Master Swordsman and even the most experienced knight paled in comparison to him. They'd need dozens of people to stop him. Yet, when we reached the gardens a different sight entered my eyes. Something I never thought I'd see.

"Lara… why?" the words fell from my lips loosely as a sense of despair closed into my heart. The garden had been destroyed and the sky above was covered in thick dark clouds. Bodies laid thrown about and in the centre of it all was Lara standing, her pure white sword impaled through Earnest's body.

He coughed once, turning his eyes to us, choking, "Sorry."

Lara drew the sword ending his life as he fell to the ground dead. Her eyes were cold and lifeless, as if killing Earnest had been nothing.

"Taylor run," I whispered and stepped forward raising my voice. "What the hell did you do to her?"

A clap and a victorious laugh, "Not quite what I had in mind for tonight but it was still an excellent performance." An older man stood at the sidelines, the uniform he wore a more ornate version of the Imperium robes and on top his face was a gold mask to match. Behind him several regular Imperium waited. His eyes were filled with mirth, "Not even hesitating to kill her past friend, the Hero is ours."

"What did you do!?" I yelled louder furious. This wasn't the Lara I knew and the change in her frightened me. Expressionless and cold without a single care.

"Simple Rain Axel of Axel, we took control of her," the voice belonged to General Elroy as he stepped beside the Imperium man.

"You bastards," Ronalt cursed them.

"Lara!" I screamed at her. "Snap out of it, it's me Rain! Please, don't you remember me?" Her emotionless eyes didn't waver. I grit my teeth, "It's me Jane! Come on Lara say something." Not even a twitch.

"It took a lot of mana you know," the Imperium man laughed. "So much more than we thought it would. You should be proud, she was strong and fought us for days before she finally succumbed. It was a good thing we harvested it in surplus."

His words clicked within my head and for a brief moment I once more saw the massacre of Axel. This is what it was for. The reason they attacked Axel and Kerchest, small villages of not much notice, reaping hundreds and thousands of lives for mana.

"I'll kill you!" I pointed my sword at them. No matter how many times I had to die I'd kill them.

General Elroy laughed, "That's if you can kill her first." He gestured to Lara who raised her sword at us. An immense pressure threatened to collapse my mind. This was the power of the Hero and without her conscience there was nothing holding it back.

"Rain, run with Taylor, I'll hold her off as long as I can," Ronalt stepped forward.

"No I-,"

"Go Rain!" he yelled determined. In the next moment there was a flash. I only saw it briefly and couldn't react in time. Ronalt as weak as he was could barely move and right before my eyes Lara pierced his chest. Her eyes focused with a chilling indifference.

"Rrra!" Ronalt screamed and dropped his sword, instead encasing Lara in his firm muscles, almost covering her entirely. He was seriously trying to crush her, tears in his eyes, but then his body stiffened and without so much as a warning he fell to his knees. A single emotion captured on his face, regret. His head rolled off his shoulders, landing to the ground with a sickening thud.

I charged my mana and jumped away as fast as I could. Lara's eyes kept perfect track of me undeterred despite the familiar pain in my chest. A sense of panic enveloped me. If she could see me then-. It was too late, her eyes flicked to my side and from her palm a spear of ice shot.

"Taylor!" I screamed in desperation only to watch her appear as the magic impaled her to the wall.

She coughed, "Bitch."

No…. No! I couldn't stand what I was seeing. Ronalt, Earnest, Taylor! All of them killed by the last person I expected, my best friend, the Hero. I ran to Taylor's side.

She choked a laugh as blood poured down the wall behind her, "Not-not how I thought…." A tear rolled down her cheek as her eyes looked to mine unfocused and a tentative smile tried to break through the pain. "Bye… Rain." It was too much. The spear of ice disappeared leaving a gaping hole through her chest. With nothing to hold her she slid down into crumpled heap, dead. No matter what I did there was no way I could heal her.

"Why?" I faced the onlooking crowd with tear filled eyes as Lara stared at me, the true definition of a Queen of Ice.

"A final test," General Elroy clapped his hands. "If she can kill those closest to her, then she is truly under our control."

I grit my teeth feeling a seething rage unlike ever before. My mana flared causing my heart to burn inside me. "No matter what, I'll make you suffer." There was no amount of death that could appease me now.

"Hero, kill him," the Imperium man ordered.

My eyes narrowed towards Lara. I'd do what I had to, even if it was her. We charged at each other but it was clear who would be the victor. My head rolled but a split second later I was once more standing, Taylor impaled against the wall, her body lifeless. A resounding heartache scraped across my nerves. There was no going back. After all we had been through, this was how it ended.

I roared in pain and anger. The volume of my voice whipped further by the mana raging inside my body. The sound caused them all to flinch, all except Lara who regarded me with cold indifference.

"Kill him!" the Imperium man shouted as my eyes locked on to him and General Elroy. They were the casters of the spell. If they died Lara would be free. No matter how many times it would take I would end them and the entire Empire. I would grind it all into the stone so that no semblance of their reign ever existed.

I charged towards them but Lara blocked my way. I prepared myself, then to my surprise she stabbed her sword into the ground. For a moment I thought perhaps she regained her sanity that she remembered me but then she clapped her hands and a tremendous outpour of mana filled the space around us. I looked down in horror at the circuit shining at our feet. How? It was the same one we had used against the Demon Lord. Her instincts were telling her how to kill me. The cage of light closed around us. I felt a part of me cut away and the fear of death struck me like it had never before.

"Lara please," I opened my mouth as she picked up her sword. "It's me. Stop this."

Before I knew it, her sword had crossed through my head.

*

No matter how many times. That's what I said at the start. I wanted revenge for what they did to us, to Lara, to Taylor…. I died and died and died and died. So many times I lost count after the first few seconds. Gradually I got used to her speed and technique only for her to change completely. Unlike the Demon Lord there was no set path I could follow, each movement was different, reacting on the minute differences between each death. When I tried to use magic she beat me to it. When I tried to talk my words fell on deaf ears.

Memories flooded my mind as we fought for what seemed like an eternity. As much as I loved her, death after death paved a frustrated hate into my heart. I remembered now. When I was Jane, I hated her. As kids I couldn't understand why. The adults thought it was because I liked her, but truly it wasn't like that. Then it changed. No matter how mean I was to her, she took it with a smile and overtime she became my best friend. Then when we reached puberty I hated her again. That was when my memories returned the first time, though that hate was quickly squashed by my life as Jane.

She killed me again as I failed to push her away. My mind couldn't rest. The moment I came back I'd die if I didn't react. The cold steel of her blade had probably killed me in every conceivable way. If it wasn't her sword, it was her magic, at times her bare hands. I wasn't strong enough. Though even when I was, I couldn't match her. This wasn't the first time I had been trapped with her like this. That past memory of her cold eyes looking into mine as her sword impaled my chest. Back in Kerchest when I first saw it I had been so confused, now it was clear as day as the same scene was repeatedly forced right before my eyes.

Oh how I hated her. She defeated me again and again and despite all my efforts I couldn't stand against her. Even when I somehow made it out alive I swore to find and kill her one day. The instrument of my destruction summoned from another world to kill me, my best friend who I cared for so much. Ironic how my life played out in the end. The twists and turns that didn't make sense all on the whims of a higher being. I had to wonder if she found this entertaining.

My feelings as Rain were beginning to muddle away. Determination turned to desperation which in the end became a thirst for it all just to end. I could barely remain conscious. How many thousands, if not millions, of times had she killed me. I couldn't even feel the pain anymore as my soul began to crumble. Open, close, open close. I lacked the will to move against her. Dying again and again, with barely a sigh in between. How hollow I must have looked and yet the once caring girl couldn't give a damn.

"Lara…," I couldn't even speak her name anymore. The syllables stretched through my deaths. "No-more. Please-stop." I had enough. Why couldn't I just die? Was I really cursed to end this way again and again for all eternity? When would the very threads that bound me begin to unravel? This world was truly being sent to hell.