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Final Chapter: The lull as a storm ends.
Note: Play this as you read. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFbjOlJRyBw&list=RDMMxzrTGnkHkZ0&index=2
Rosemary was blasted away from Sariel as Sariel’s bond with the system fell apart. Rosemary had done it; she had saved her last connection, her mother. But such an achievement came at a cost. With most of her life force used to set her mother free, Rosemary had less than ten minutes left to live.
Rosemary’s fingers wrapped around her sword’s handle and pulled Yamato out of her chest. As the light silver blade came free, crimson blood gushed from the wound and puddled in front of her. Rosemary stared into one of the puddles and her weary, yet content was reflected back at her. Her red eyes had a light in them that she thought was extinguished long ago.
‘I suppose finally being able to save a person I care about… brought that back.’ Rosemary thought, a faint, content, smile tugging across her face.
She shakily raised the blood-stained sword up and began to slice open a portal. In a practiced move, Yamato’s tip caught the fabric of reality and Rosemary pulled. The sword ripped open a whirling blue portal and Rosemary limped through it.
As she staggered out, she was greeted with Julius kneeling in a field of white flowers. He didn’t seem to notice her as he rested the tip of his sword on the base of his neck. His knuckles white from gripping the blade too hard and his brows covered in a cold sweat. He’s about to commit suicide, but Rosemary doesn’t have the strength left to stop him. Even if she tried, she would be too slow to.
Rosemary slowly walked towards him, her every sound masked by her numerous stealth skills. Every step aggravated her gaping chest wound, but she didn’t care. She had something she needed to do.
Miraculously, the blade slipped from Julius’s hands and fell into the flowers. He fell onto his hands and started gasping. His breaths are quick and shallow and his pupils dilate and contract wildly. He pushed himself onto his knees and stared at his shaking hands.
“Shit…” he breathed out, his hands curling into fists. “How many times am I going to have to do this before I can finally die? How much practice does it take for a man to kill himself!?”
Julius slammed his fists into the ground and swung his head back backwards. A rage-filled scream of agony ripped through the halcyon field. When his lungs ran out of air, he let his head fall and his chest rose and fell with several shaky breaths.
‘He’s scared.’ Rosemary realized. ‘He’s attempting to kill himself, but his fear is holding him back from completing the deed. He still has something to live for, and his mind is preventing him from killing himself before he can complete it.’
“Do I deserve to live?” Julius asked himself, thinking back to everything he had done. “No… not after the things I’ve done in the name of revenge. How many children are left fatherless because of my… crusade. How many lives have I destroyed… What do I have left to give?”
Julius closed his eyes and picked up his sword. His dull royal blue eyes appeared in the reflection on the longsword’s dull silver blade. How long had his eyes been like this? They looked so… lifeless and tired, more fitting for an old weary soldier instead of a young man nearing his mid-twenties.
He raised the sword up and tried again, pressing the tip on the base of his neck, only to let go at the last moment and let the blade fall into the field. With his teeth clenched, the disgraced hero took several deep breaths and raised his head. The cloudy sky stared back and a soft breeze picked around him.
Julius thought back to why he came here in the first place. Why he specifically decided to end it all in this field of white flowers. An old memory remerges, one of a blissful and happier time. When he wasn’t the hero and his mother was still alive.
When he was just four years old, his pregnant mother brought him here. A field of white thornless roses, a safe haven and a sanctuary, free from the corruption of the outside world. It was one of the last memories he had of her before her sickly body gave out shortly after birthing his younger brother.
The white scarf around his neck caught the breeze and started to slip from his neck, only for Julius to swiftly grab it before it had a chance to fly off. The spider-silk scarf was his mother’s parting gift but it slowly became more and more damaged as he continued fighting.
Fortunately, Rosemary ended up mending his scarf with her own before the tattered scarf became unwearable. Both of theirs were the last gifts of someone they lost, yet the mercenary had given up her own for his to be repaired.
“That’s right… there’s… my promise with her.” Julius whispered mournfully, his right hand clasping around the white scarf tighter. “I… promised her that I would take care of the twins… didn’t I?”
“What a terrible father I would be if I just killed myself here,” Julius said, scoffing at himself. “I guess can’t kill myself, not yet. I won’t allow myself to leave them to fend for themselves. Without me, they would be sold… and I can’t allow that to happen.”
“That’s right.” Rosemary began. “There is no need for you to die just yet.”
Julius spun around and his eyes widened at her emergence. Rosemary stood around twenty-five paces from where he was kneeling. Her long, ash-white hair swayed in the wind and her right hand was wrapped around the handle of Yamato, her sword and main tool of destruction. The sword’s light steel blade was covered in crimson blood Rosemary hadn’t bothered to wipe off.
Julius sprang to his feet and hastily picked his dropped sword from among the roses. He reflexively got into a stance and readied his longsword sword into a ‘Fool’s guard’. Though, Rosemary noted, his hands are shaky and his breathing is still erratic.
‘Neither of us is in any shape to fight.’ Rosemary thought. ‘His emotional state was still reeling from his suicide attempt.’
Rosemary approached him with slow, deliberate, steps and seemed unconcerned with Julius’s wary expression. She spun Yamato in her hand as she took step after step without faltering. Once the mercenary was in hand-to-hand range, she stopped. Both of them are within striking range of each other, yet neither made any move to attack the other.
The rational part of Julius’s mind told him that Rosemary’s eyes hold no malicious intent, Yamato was pointed at the ground and she wasn’t holding it in her signature one-handed grip. Yet his more emotional side told him that he could end it all in one move. With one swing, he would avenge them. Yanna, Hyrince, Jeskan, Hawkin and so many more would be avenged if he would just swing his sword.
Rosemary slowly raised her katana, but then, she suddenly let go of Yamato. The sword of oblivion unceremoniously fell into the sea of grass and flora.
Unable to comprehend her intentions, Julius’s mind stalled for a few seconds. Before Julius had the time to question why Rosemary dropped her sword, the mercenary had already wrapped her hand around his.
Julius was taken by surprise and tried to counter her attack but the disgraced hero was pulled into a tight hug. No matter how much he struggled, Julius can’t break out of Rosemary’s iron-clad embrace.
“Let it all out,” she said. “We’ve both been burying our emotions in favor of vengeance for too long now. It’s time we both let it go. I… am not here to fight. Our feud, our fight, it’s over.”
“How…” Julius started. “How can you say such a thing? Who are you to decide if our feud was over or not? I… I…”
The disgraced hero trailed off, his mind in too much turmoil for him to continue. Rosemary had appeared in the middle of his suicide attempt and pulled him into a loving embrace. Their relationship had always been of cool indifference, and the only time she was this affectionate was on… that day. His eyes further widened in shock when he smelled the rusty scent of blood coming not from the blood-covered Yamato, but from Rosemary’s chest region.
Julius looked down and saw the stain on Rosemary’s black shirt. For the time being, he quelled his thirst for revenge and paid attention to her. The first thing he noticed was the slight dither in her breathing and how her arms were vacillating ever so slightly.
“It’s time for you to put down your sword, and live.” She continued, softly pulling the sword out of his grasp. “You’re now nobody’s tool, no kingdom’s weapon. Your body and soul are yours now. Not the church’s, not the system’s, nor any kingdom’s.
Your fate doesn’t have to be bound with me any longer Julius. Forget about me, and live. If not for yourself, then for our children. You still have your youth and the rest of your life ahead of you, please don’t waste it.”
Rosemary then coughed violently and fell down on her knees. Her hand clutched at her chest wound. Julius instinctively bent down and helped her up. Disgraced or not, he never truly lost the compulsion to help those who were suffering. Rosemary’s left arm wraps around his neck as he becomes her crutch.
“Fuck… I don’t have much time left.” She says blood dribbled out of her mouth as she shakily stood up. “My body’s strength was rapidly vanishing. By my estimations, I have less than five minutes remaining.”
“Why?” Julius asks, finding his voice again. “Why die now, right in front of me? Why would you want me, your worst enemy, to be the one who witnesses your death?”
Rosemary can only smile weakly at his inquiries.
“Because I owe you some closure,” Rosemary revealed. “After all, you’re one of the only ones I have left. Everyone else is long gone.”
Rosemary started to cough violently again.
“Do me a favor will you?” She asked. “Just… lean me on something.”
Julius complied and sat down. The disgraced hero leaned the mercenary on himself. He didn’t know why he was doing this, but it felt right. Who was he to deny the wishes of a dying woman?
“Let me tell you something.” She said, “Please, forgive yourself, Julius.”
Julius’s eyes widened at her words. He didn’t expect Rosemary to request that he forgive himself. He… can’t, no, he doesn’t deserve to be forgiven. Not after he failed them all those years ago.
“I was too strong, too fast and I took all of you by surprise.” She added, “There was nothing more you could have done.
It’s kinda funny hearing that from their dying killer, isn’t it? Survivor’s guilt is a shitty thing. Your mind always goes into ‘what if things were different' and ‘what I should have dones’ after the fact. And just when you think it’s gone, it rears its ugly head with a vengeance.
It’s a spiral of torment that will only stop once you forgive yourself, once you accept that there was nothing more you could have done. You can’t change the past Julius, there’s no need to mull over your past regrets. Please, forgive yourself and let it go. I had learned that lesson too late and look at where that got me.”
…
“You and I, we both are very similar.” Rosemary continued after a long pause. “We were both set on the path of vengeance after the death of those we care about. And we both came out the other end empty, hollow shells of our former selves. I can’t recognize myself in the mirror anymore, and I wonder if it’s the same for you.
And to think it all started with the same old fool. A fool who had lived too long and thought that only he knew what was best. The world is better off without people like us.
But enough of me rambling, is there anything you want to ask me?”
Julius pauses and thinks about Rosemary’s offer. He knows that he doesn’t have much time left with her so he asked the only thing he could.
“Do you have any regrets?” he asked tentatively.
The question gave Rosemary some pause, but a small smile emerged on her face.
“Even though I lived my life mostly without regrets, there is just one.” She started. “I regret that I won’t be there to see our kids grow up, but I don’t have to worry. After all, I trust you to take care of them.”
A lull of silence fell over the two enemies; before it was broken by another violent coughing fit assaulting Rosemary.
“You know,” Rosemary said after the mercenary spat out the collected blood in her mouth. “I never expected to die peacefully like this. I never expected to die satisfied, knowing that the remaining ones I cared for were safe. Thank you, Julius, I really appreciated it.”
Rosemary’s right hand grasps Julius’s own and an electric shock travels up his arm. He clenched his teeth at the unfamiliar feeling, but he didn’t pull her hand off of his. Julius felt several skills finish implanting into him as the electric shock faded.
“Think of this as a farewell gift.” Rosemary breathed out before she descended into another coughing fit. “Out of everyone, you deserve to know the full truth the most.”
“Yeah, this… this is good.” She said, peering up at the sky; the cloudy heavens only impassively stared back. “For all it’s worth… I… think I love you… Julius.”
With her final words spoken, Rosemary’s head fell limp and her body slackened. The greatest mercenary the world has ever seen has now died in the arms of the disgraced hero. A cool breeze materialized and picked up the fallen petals of the white roses around them.
The snow-white petals danced in the wind as the wind blew, and when the cool breeze subsided, they fluttered to the ground like snow. Julius didn’t know how long he stared at the scene for, but he suddenly sensed someone appear in the field. He looked up and saw her.
She was a beautiful woman with white hair that ended in sky-blue tips. Her misty eyes shone a light aquamarine and two blue wings ending in orange tips framed her head right above her ears. Her face, Julius realized, looked exactly like Rosemary’s. With his Taboo skill now at level 10, he knew who she was.
“So this is my daughter’s final resting place.” Sariel almost robotically said; if not for the slight waver in her voice, Julius would have thought that she didn’t care for the fact that Rosemary had died.
Julius stood up and gently picked up Rosemary’s body in a bridal carry. He walked towards Sariel and gently handed her daughter’s body to her. Sariel nodded in gratitude and brought the body close. She held Rosemary’s body the same way a mother would hold her baby.
“When I was in the system, all I could think about was my daughter,” Sariel said; while tears started rolling down her face, her stoic expression didn't change. “She was barely a toddler when I sent her away for her own safety. But now, I have to bury her. I didn’t have a chance to watch her grow, nor do I have the chance to speak to the person she became. She’s paid dearly for my hubris. For my stupidity and my programming.”
She started to laugh hysterically and fell onto her knees. Julius can do nothing but feel sorry for the grieving mother. And before long, the hysterical laughter transformed into sobbing and later, wails of sorrow and despair.
A wife who lost her husband is a widow, and a child who lost their parents is an orphan. But, not many know what a parent who had lost their child is called; because to them, such a loss is too awful to imagine.
A patch of white flowers turned red after Sariel’s tears made contact with them. An angel isn’t made to cry, nor are they to feel any emotions except for blind compassion. Yet, knowing that she was the reason for her daughter’s death changed that. The wave of shock and grief was powerful enough to sever her from the confines of her programming.
“My daughter…” Sariel hoarsely sobbed out, her voice had given out quite some time ago. “Had died due to my hubris. She has died because of my foolishness, my naivety. My inaction had killed her.”
Sariel hugged Rosemary’s body tighter and quietly sobbed into her.
“She made her own choice.” Julius spoke up, “Rosemary chose to sacrifice herself for you, and it’s for the best if you don’t blame yourself for it. You're not the one at fault here.
She chose to dedicate the last minutes of her life to give me closure and request that I forgive myself. I think she would have wanted you to do the same. Even after losing herself to revenge, she never lost the compassion she inherited from you. She never lost the will to do what’s right for the greater good.
She once told me that there is no meaning to life, there is no greater purpose we are to serve when we are born. And because there is no greater purpose we serve, that means we are free to choose our own paths in life. In the same vein, because life is meaningless, that means everything we treasure just means so much more.
She had lived through most of her life without knowing what it’s like to be loved, yet that didn’t stop her from loving others and living life to its fullest without regrets.”
“‘Let the world fear me, for it is just a means to an end.’” Sariel added. “When Rosemary was siphoning her life energy and stores of MA energy into me, I experienced her memories. From her friendship with ‘Kumoko’ and her grief and rage at her death. Rosemary had experienced many things in her short life, and I want to thank you. In a way, you comforted her when she was at her lowest and soothed her worries.”
“I’m not worth thanking. It was a night of bad decisions and I ended up impregnating her when she wasn’t ready for motherhood. If anything, you should be extremely angry at me.”
“But you took responsibility, you acknowledged that you made a mistake and took care of the children. That much is worth thanking you for.”
“Rosemary… She died without knowing their names. I guess she never asked because deep within herself, she knew that she wouldn’t be involved in their lives one way or another.”
“And… May I know the names of my two grandchildren?”
“Vincent and Violet.”
Sariel nodded, Her face glistened as her tears reflected the warm orange light of the setting sun. The air around her distorted before she disappeared, taking Rosemary’s body with her.
Julius stared at the spot where Sariel once was. The patch of red flowers amid a sea of white stood out like a sore thumb.
‘And I suppose that fits.’ Julius thought as he turned around. ‘The memory of what happened here will forever stain this serene field of white flowers.’
When Julius turned around, Yamato greeted him. The sword was plunged into the field of white flowers sheathed in its black sheath. The blue ribbon wrapped around its sheath fluttered in the light breeze.
‘So, it chose me huh?’ he thought. ‘Rosemary’s sword has decided on a new wielder so soon after her death.’
Julius started laughing deliriously, what else could he have done in the face of this? He started off the day hell-bent on making sure he doesn’t live to see another day, yet he was told to live by the person he swore he hated the most.
As his laughter turned into sobs, he finally allowed himself to grieve the loss of the most important woman in his life.
Many, Many, Many years later.
Julius handed the money to the barista for his steaming cup of coffee and sat down in front of his old laptop. He laid his porcelain coffee cup down and adjusted his red beanie, a gift from a student of his when he took on a different identity. He stretched his fingers and hovered his hands just above his laptop’s keyboard. He used his hand to crack his knuckles and began typing out the third draft of his new novel.
He has been immortal for over a millennia and over the years, he slowly realized that humanity keeps on making the same mistakes. After the system collapsed, the world was never at peace. For one reason or another, war always broke out. And even without magic, it has only gotten deadlier and deadlier with more and more civilian and military casualties as time went on.
After fighting in every major conflict in history, he can tell another, deadlier, conflict is brewing. One that would shake the twenty-first century as much as the second world war did to the twentieth.
He still has Yamato, but it was kept under lock and key in a display case. At first, he didn’t understand why the blade chose him; however, as time passed, he slowly realized that the sword chose to help him find his purpose after Rosemary’s death. He no longer needed the blade, but he just can’t let it go. Not yet anyway.
The Yamato also isn’t the only thing that Rosemary left to him. The mercenary also entrusted the blueprints of the Murasama and the blueprints of a normal HF sword to him in a letter she left in his room the day before everything happened. She has also left him with the mystical FOX blade, a sword that cuts through heavy armor as if there’s nothing there. He had made blueprints of that katana long ago and consigned them to his twins, Vincent and Violet.
He took a sip of his coffee and looked over what he had written. The story he was writing was a familiar one; a tale of vengeance, anger, sorrow, and forgiveness. Even after so many years, those events and her death are still fresh in his mind. Not a single detail was forgotten. After all, he is the only one left that remembers all of what happened.
He grabbed and took a swig of his still boiling hot cup of coffee, half of the cup emptying in one go. His Heat Nullification skill, still active even after the system collapsed, prevented him from getting any severe burns an otherwise normal person would obtain. The bitter brown fluid slid down his throat and a warm feeling emanated throughout his chest. Caffeine does nothing because of his Status Nullification skill, but the warmth and bitterness are comforting in a way.
Julius looked up from his screen at the sound of familiar footsteps and the scraping sound from a chair being pulled out.
“Hello, Sariel.” He greeted, “Have you been doing well these days?”
Sariel sat down in front of him with a hot boba drink. Her hair is now midnight black with navy blue tips, a stellar departure from her appearance before she became a ‘Fallen Angel’. Her transformation happened right after burying Rosemary and finding comfort with her old friend, Güliedistodiez.
Her aquamarine eyes still shone with a certain sadness to them. She has moved on from Rosemary’s death, but the hole in her heart never truly healed. It has only been scarred over.
“I’ve been doing quite well, Julius.” She said, smiling warmly. “How’s that manuscript of yours coming along?”
“Well, I’m now editing it with yours and Güliedistodiez’s criticisms in mind,” Julius answered.
Sariel nodded and took a sip of her boba with a metal straw. The two made some light conversation as Julius continued working on his manuscript.
“This is the place you wanted to go to, right Kumoko?”
Both of their eyes widened at the sound of the familiar, yet so different voice. It was Rosemary’s voice, but without the burden of regret and exhaustion weighing it down. Even after so long, neither of them ever forgot her voice.
A black-haired teenager held open the door for her white-haired friend. From the uniforms the two of them are wearing and the time of day, they’re likely a pair of high schoolers.
The black-haired teenager… looked exactly like Rosemary, except she had no scars on her face and her expression wasn’t hardened with years of experience. The smile on her face as her white friend walked in just further solidifies the fact that this isn’t the Rosemary that Julius and Sariel knew.
Julius and Sariel looked at each other and he shook his head. There’s no point in holding onto the past; they had moved on a long time ago. If not for their own sake, then for the sake of their own children. Sariel’s children knew of their older sister not as the monster everyone says she was, but as someone who dedicated everything to do what she- selfishly- felt was right.
Julius smiled when he thought of Vincent and Violet. It has been a long time, hasn’t it? They’ve grown up and left the nest, fighting their own battles and living their own lives. But no matter what they do, no matter what mistakes they may make, Julius will always be proud of them. Because that is the duty of a parent.
“Is it okay if we sit here?” The black-haired girl asked, her face replaced with Rosemary’s for just a second.
Julius raised his head and looked around; every other seat in the small cafe was taken by someone. His table is the only table with unoccupied seats.
“Yeah, sure. Go ahead, miss?” Julius said, blinking the image away.
“Whites. Whites Rosemary.” She said, introducing herself. “And this is my friend, Wakaba Shiro. Nice to meet you, mister…”
“Analiet. Analiet Zagan Julius.” Julius introduced himself. “I’m just a writer.”
“And I’m Kurayami, Kurayami Sariel.” Sariel added. “His editor.”
With that, the two of them introduced themselves to Rosemary again. Fate is certainly cruel for making the two of them meet someone so similar, yet so different to her all these years later.