Two darkened hearts were to become one, but they were separated by the threads of Fate.
Now they find themselves stranded in a cold, hostile world alongside only a handful of survivors, ruled over by a dark, omnipresent force.
Though they are not to...
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The lifeless gray metal shell that knelt before me seemed an effigy of sorrow, a characterization of hurt. Nemenera, Guardian of Thalor, had been slain.
Behind me, a woman's voice spoke.
"He was such a sad being, was he not?" I turned around to look at the figure, which was cloaked in hooded dark armor. "Was seeing his past painful for you, boy?"
"Who are you?" I asked, my stab wound still bleeding and throbbing with a burning heat.
"I am Grimoire, she who knows all." She said. "You, marked one, have absorbed his power. He now shall live on forever in you. A child, overcome with darkness and given a chance at redemption."
"What you gave him was not redemption, Grimoire." I said, recalling Nemenera's memories of a woman in black who matched this description. "You offered him torment and nothing more."
"I offered salvation." She replied commandingly. "And you did the rest. Now, wield the power of the Guardian's Shell."
All around my body, a strange gold mass accumulate, crawling up my arms and legs like some sort of sentient liquid. I was frozen in fear as it covered my neck, and then covered my entire face in darkness. Then, after that, I could see clearly as if I were wearing nothing at all over my eyes.
"What in blazes is this?" I asked, terrified.
"His power. The power of the life you so shamelessly took." Grimoire replied. "Use it wisely."
I stepped up to her, anger filling me. This woman, this being of evil and darkness, she was the problem. I would strike her down right now and finish this once and for all.
I lunged forward with Bloodlight, the tip of my blade pointed at her head, and she simply leaned backward to the exact point that my blade would not touch her. However, the hood fell backward, revealing a face I never wanted to see associated with evil and darkness.
"Margo?" I asked in disbelief. This could not be happening. My eyes deceived me.
"Margo is long gone." Grimoire replied in a raspy and condescending tone of voice. It was strange hearing the woman I loved speaking to me like that. The idea of hearing her voice was beautiful, but it was corrupted by an intellect that was not her own. My hatred for her grew, but was still stifled. It was Margo's face, Margo's voice, I could not bring myself to keep attacking.
"Her body is so... fascinating." Grimoire continued. "She was so strong in body, but in her mind, she was nothing. Now I own her mind and body. She was already so... fragile before I got to her, it took nothing to break her down. It was fun talking, Theris. See you soon. Very soon."
"I love you, Margo!" I shouted. "I always will, my brave knight!"
On her face flickered a look of confusion, then anger. With a sudden and violent wave of her hand, she disappeared in to thin air before my very eyes. I could not believe what I had just seen. Margo, my love, who I had been fighting for all this time, was now so close, yet so far away. It was as if she were held just outside my grasp.
The platform, slowly, began to lower. From what I could tell, it was Nemenera that was controlling this factory's functions, but who really knew?
My thoughts turned to Grimoire, that purely evil, corrupting influence not worthy of even being spat upon. I would find out how to get Margo back, and I would kill Grimoire as painfully as I possibly could. Then there would be justice. Then there would be love. Then I could have a happy ending.
The platform stopped gently, and I looked down at the ground. There it was, Nemenera's golden spear, now the length of a dagger. I reached out my hand to grab it and noticed that my golden armor had disappeared entirely. Confused, I picked up the weapon and held it in my left hand, with Bloodlight in my right.
Meeting up with Jolly was a simple enough task. I simply walked back through the hallways, calling his name, until I heard the tell-tale clank of boots rushing toward me.
"Scrag!" he said. "Where were ya? Ya could've gotten killed!"
"Later, Jolly." I told him. I then pointed to my stab wound, still burning like fire. "We need to tend to my wounds, first."
"Where is it, scrag?" he asked, looking around hastily. "The warden?"
"Nemenera, Guardian of Thalor, is dead." I told him. "It is all over, now."
"You... killed it?" Jolly asked in disbelief. "How?"
"I faced him in honorable combat." I said. "He fought well."
"Theris, let's get our arses outta here."
We found ourselves soon back on the main factory floor, greeted by a veritable army of motionless automatons. Jolly eyed them suspiciously, moving around them carefully, but in my heart I knew the truth: the hold that Grimoire had over this place had disappeared.
"Scrag, don't ya see it?" Jolly asked, pointing to our lefts. "The door!"
I looked to my left to see sunlight slowly pouring in through a gently opening door, one that had seemingly not been there before. I smiled, seeing the sun again.
We stepped out on to the torn cobblestone streets of the Collapse, Jolly supporting me as we walked back home. We happily did not encounter any of the 'bumpers', the devilish things that no doubt answered to the woman behind it all: Grimoire.
I swore to myself that day, on my life and any lives that came after, that I would kill Grimoire. That I would rend her from this world and any others she could possibly run to. That I would erase her from existence itself.
