The Last Shade: The Finality of Death

Chapter 5

As soon as Escarcha fell unconscious, the ice unleashed by his ice sword rapidly retreated by into it, the sword sliding out of his body to break into half upon impact with the floor. Kiel gasped for breath, left hand on his chest as his heart pounded vigorously in his ribcage.

Seized with fear, Kiel's chased away the remnants of his dream, his hand automatically darting to the top of his head. There the ice crown floated, like it had never left. A large hole in the wall of the throne room made the palace look even more ravaged, like the smouldering embers of a ruined civilisation. He raced towards it, looking out in horror at the carnage below.

Bile abruptly rose in his throat, and acid left his mouth over the edge of the wall. From here, he could see all the bodies of his brethren, the triumphant Flame Ruler holding a gem aloft...and a crater at his feet, with the twisted figure of his Lord inside it.

"To the barrier!" Eldur's voice carried far and wide, his summons echoed enthusiastically by all his Servants.

May, who stood under the eaves of a roof smiled and sank to her knees, the light dying from her eyes as Eldur crushed the crowns in his hand. Beside her, Nephrite leaned against a collapsed pillar, his lips moving silently and falling still.

A long platform made of volcanic rock connected the two islands, and at the middle, Eldur guided his forces to stop. His remaining Servants gathered around him worshipfully, a heatwave blasting from their Lord outwards shattering their bodies cleanly. As golden light poured into his body, Eldur turned towards Nephilim's main palace, making eye contact with Kiel even over such a great distance. He smiled, plunging his sword into his chest to gouge out his own Life Stone. Holding the two Stones in his hand, a dazzling light pierced the sky and divided the clouds, so bright that Eldur's figure was lost within it, Kiel stepping back as he turned away, raising his arm to shield his eyes.

The light coalesced into a spear with an incomparably sharp tip, the blade easily twice Eldur's size. The Flame Ruler, with the last of his energy, hurled it towards the divine barrier down below.

"Hahahaha!" The Flame Ruler's bellowing laugh echoed through the silence, and then the world turned to light.

With a rumbling roar, the stone platform vaporised, the two islands cracked and were blown apart further from the blast, and Kiel fell as the palace shook bodily beneath him.

Inside a crater, the Frost Ruler breathed his last, his body scattering into pinpoints of light like so many fireflies.

                          ———~~<~>~~———

After the light dissipated and the ground became stable, the ringing in Kiel's ears took a long time to stop. His body ached as he propped himself up with his arms, his breathing exceptionally loud to his own ears.

Leaning out the hole, Kiel cast an ice slide, throwing himself atop it as he tumbled all the way to the bottom. His eyes stung as he staggered past the empty crater, and made his way to Nephilim's edge. A good chunk of the island had disappeared, with multiple cracks scoring across the land. As for the barrier?

Kiel stared at the barrier, with nary a scratch on its surface. Shock seemed to replace every fibre of his being, and he somehow found himself on his knees as he started to laugh.

Everything, was all for nothing.

"It was all for nothing," he croaked. "Staking everything..."

His power stirred from within him, pulsating hotly in tandem with his wildly beating heart. As something seemed to snap from within him, ice exploded outwards, icicles several feet high running across the ground and everything within a hundred feet froze solid, in ice that would never thaw again.

The permafrost sucked the last of his power from him, and the last living being finally fell.