Dear Ms Lady Demigod: Twelve Days To Doom

8 2 Leave The World In Chaos

The tower was now fixed, but now what? It was still falling. Akagi stood before Nataniel, Ariel and Jevelene with his eyes closed. Lict looked at him, "Do you see something?"
But Akagi didn't reply. With his eyes closed, all he could see was darkness. His powers had left him years ago, it felt futile to try and look into things again. He simply couldn't. He opened his eyes and shook his head, "No, I don't see anything,"

Lict sighed, "It's alright," He turned back and looked at the dying hell, the vines blooming into its ruins. The rivers drying up and getting sludged by dead vines and mud. The goblins looked at the cold mountains, the dried-up lava that kept hell warm and alive, it now felt fleeting. Jevelene looked back, "Is that heaven?" They all looked at the golden-red horizon far away, "Oh no... It's merging with hell," Aleksei mumbled.

"...Only a few hours left," Lict whispered.

Ariel looked at Akagi and walked past him, standing between him and the tower. He reached his hand towards the tower and felt the atoms on its surface, everyone looked at him. He looked up and the tower slowly began glowing lightly. Lict looked at Ariel, "What is he doing?"
Jevelene gasped and turned towards Nataniel, "Nate, you can stop it,"
"What?" Nataniel and Ariel looked confused.

"If he freezes the tower, it should stop falling!" Jevelene said, "It's already pretty cold, which means it's not generating heat anymore. Nataniel can freeze it!"
Ariel looked at Nataniel and so did everyone else.
"It would take days to freeze the entire tower and it requires so much energy! I can't do it!" Nataniel panicked as he watched all the eyes laid on him.

"You can," Ariel looked at him, "You froze a god from inside out, Nate,"
Nataniel's eyes went down, "That...That was...Even if I could do it... It would take at least a week to freeze the entire tower," 
Ariel turned towards Jevelene, "Liquid nitrogen"

"What is liquid nitrogen?" Aleksei whispered into Akagi's ear.
"You should've attended more science classes, Aleksei,"
"My sila is not elemental!"

"It can freeze any metal" Ariel looked at him, "Here's what we are going to do. I'm going to go to heaven and freeze the clock," He looked at Nataniel, "You want time, I'll give it to you... Nate will stay down here and freeze the tower,"
"I'll come with you," Jevelene held his hand. Lict made a golden staircase, leading into the sky, "Come then, I'll guide you," Lict walked up the stairs and Jevelene followed him. 

Ariel got on the staircase and the fleet of stairs behind him started disappearing, as they faded, Ariel looked at Nataniel, "Nate," And as he said his name, he faded into the grey clouds.
Nataniel turned back and pressed his head on the tower, "Nataniel?" Akagi looked at him.
"If I could make the world last...a little bit longer," Nataniel was crying, "If only, if only I could make a wish," He sobbed as he looked down at the dried vines, he remembered the lavender fields and the sun in the sky, for a while, he remembered, that for a while, it was love.

Watching him cry, everyone seemed to realise the gravity of the situation. They were probably living in the last hours of their lives. And one never thinks about it, because one doesn't know when their end would come. But what if you knew when your end would come? To forget or to remember, what makes one...less miserable? Because that must be when the real you starts breaking, our primal instincts to fight our end kick in, we fear, even if we wish to celebrate, we still fear and pray to make your life last a bit longer, prayer into an emptiness that continues to relieve meaning out of everything you once loved. And that emptiness is so frustrating because...it just doesn't seem to go away. It doesn't matter if you are around people or if you're all alone. It won't let you celebrate your end. It would remind you of how empty you have always been.

Something about it just doesn't let you...be you.

"I feel...so cold... I can't... do this anymore," He remembered Sylvester as he spoke of those words, "Guilt...This guilt continues to remind me of someone I so ardently wished to end...It's like... It's like killing him made him more alive inside of me... How do I end this? How do I undo that act of love? How do I forget?" Aleksei and Maks started crying.