636. For your life, 8
My face lost all compassion I might have had.
I didn’t shed a tear, but my heart does ache a lot.
My daughter has become tyrant, and it sounds like I’m the only left to stop her.
She looks extremely angry as she realizes that our bond doesn’t make me falter or tremble on my knees.
N - You think you can stop me?
R - ...
I make the first step and strike. She gasps in shock.
I would have cried too if my mother had come to me a knife in her hands.
She talked so much, I couldn’t follow. But I got the idea she wanted to convey.
She wished for me to slay her, now, before she truly became everything that I hate...
She barely dodged my attack, now in genuine tears.
My body is moving very swiftly and I reach her.
My hand does tremble slightly before I go for the blow.
My mind will probably not survive her, but right now, only my sharpest thorns speaks.
She deflects the blow, shredding her opulent clothing. She’s angry again. Her body grows a metre taller.
N - You think you can stop me!
I remain very cold and sharp.
Her fists and legs are fast and keep me at bay, until I hit well and the sword pierces one of her legs.
She yells. She falls.
But as I approach, something new happens.
Her hair and pelt suddenly shake, as if a silent shockwave went through the air.
Her fangs and claws are bare. But her voice commands more in this space now.
N - Fall!
My body shakes. I feel shot, and I collapse on my knees.
I’m feeling too weak to stand up.
But my mind is still in that very hypnotic lull since I woke up and deeper since I took the fight to her. I’m feeling outside to myself. Is it a dream in truth? A nightmare?
I miss Nightmare...
I miss Nok...
Blume is powerless too.
Nokarlık in front of us grabs the two curved swords that stood a little further aside. They are large enough for her giant size.
She then walks toward me as I lie on the floor.
Is this my end?
Something more hateful sparks inside of me.
I remember that dog that first met my wrath.
I feel the same.
A mad dog comes to bite me.
One that threatens far bigger things than just my life.
It begins to sink in. Every dreadful thing she said.
And despite my love, my hatred begins to grow for what you’ve become.
My flesh rips, but I move.
My light flashes a little randomly and weirdly, I can’t manage to make it work like before.
But I’m jumping back to face her.
The pyramid that shines far behind, it still bugs me as an oddity. But I now better realise the monument is to megalomania. Something far sinister than mere hubris.
God wants to reign over all.
And I...
My heart bleeds in pain. But I dodge the blade and strike, my sword now set ablaze.
~
Yells and shocks ensue.
My sword pierces her huge abdomen and then chest, but she survives.
And she strikes back, with enough weight to send me flying above the open balcony and street, to crash on the roof of the next building.
I barely manage to fly my way up there before the crash. T.I. in the air doesn’t seem to respond to my commands the way it used to.
I stand up as the giant goddess lands next to me and comes to strike me down.
I face her without doubt now. Only an abstract hatred, love and sorrow.
Even if the exhilaration of a fight to the death does something to me, I’m not happy. I can feel that my face remained cold all this time, and I still don’t feel like I’m going to laugh, cry or yell. I’m feeling so cold.
Her sword slashes mine off.
She brings her two blades in a twirl toward me. I crouch, and give it my all into my light.
Again, the fire doesn’t start as I thought it would, but my hands at least do begin to glow.
R - I’m counting on you Blume...
Blume nods. Her poison appears as well at the tips of my fingers.
I throw myself below the weapons to grab my daughter’s legs, and I poison her.
My heart does feel like it broke at that moment.
She reacted as if she just had a heart attack, and I felt some tears as I saw her fall.
~
Nokarlık fell, and her body shrank back to her human size.
The marks of my burns on her legs shrank too, but their toxicity still spreads through her veins.
She coughs petals of roses. Other flower bulbs begin to sprout along her veins and pierce her skin from within.
I begin to sob, my body failing me again. As does my mind.
N - Don’t cry... I’m happy I have you with me again.
Oh no... Please don’t say things like that now.
How will I face her other roses now? I’m scared. I’m so scared.
R - What have I done...
N - What you’ve done... Was leaving me behind, to kill a god that threatened everything. Because that’s a part of who you are. You were surely right to act, but you still deserved a punishment for that.
My messy face rises.
What?
Nokarlık suddenly sits up. The flowers fall and wither as if they were parts of a costume. She’s perfectly healthy... I’m petrified. She’s not dying...
But the way she’s smiling... She was faking her dying moments?
R - Wait...
The way she grins now over me, it is familiar, despite our tears...
My eyes widen.
She points out with a smirk at her parting army below. I look. No one has moved an inch...
I... What...
They’re not real?
Nokaranlık pulls out her tongue on me.
N - Bleh! Serves you right, stupid Rose!
I’m a complete mess, gawking at her, mouth hanging open in shock.
She tricked me!
Nothing was real... It was all a joke?
N - As if I could stand more than one stupid rose or care for an empire over Hierosolyma... You just needed to be punished, stupid Rose! That’s all you deserved for leaving me alone...
~
