Magus: The Cost Of Living

Chapter 8: Death Sentence (FINALE)

I was sitting next to his corpse for days. Tenebri would take this bait at some point. I was acting like I was extremely sad, crying at the ranger's corpse, when in actuality I was waiting for Tenebri to show up. And just like I predicted, I could hear his loud footsteps.

"Magus? I see you are looking at that dead man, huh? What, are you saaaad after his death? Don't make me laugh." I couldn't believe he actually fell for the bait. Now he was gonna feel like a damn idiot. "Oh, you think I'm sad? Crying?" I stared at him, at he had a shocked look on his face. "You know, I may be a demon and all but you seem even more sick than I am, Magus. You used him as bait, didn't you?" He seemed impressed. I guess we were both sick in the head. "Precisely." I ripped ranger's head off of his body and rolled it on the ground towards him. "This was your best man, seeming to be even more skilled than you, Tenebri. Now he's dead." "You can't fully kill me, Magus. I'll come back from the deep depths of the underworld, you know." I pulled out the cross and showed him it. His face expression went from smug to somewhat...scared? "...Magus. You aren't doing any justice here. We're both evil, and you know that. This is just evil versus evil, there IS no true winner by the end of this! Why do you want to kill me? Why don't we...make a deal?" He stretched out his triangular hand all the way to me. " You spare me, and we work together and take over the mortal coil, huh? You're very strong, we'd make a great team Magus. What do you think?" I slapped his stupid triangle hand out of the way. I then called him out on this so-called 'Deal' of his. "Didn't you just say you could come back from the underworld? I don't know about you, but it sounds to me like...you're scared. This cross is holy, I know it's from ranger, I've already deduced that at this point. This will erase your soul from existence, right?" He actually started to sweat. "No afterlife for you, you'll really be dead...right?" "You...you asked for this Magus...YOU PIECE OF SHIT!"

He stabbed his hand right into my chest, and pulled me towards him. "WHY DON'T YOU JUST TAKE MY DEAL, HUH?!" He threw me across the entire store, making me crash into a wall so hard that I almost broke right through it. I saw him teleport right in front of me. "Now where's your cross, huh? WHERE IS IT, GOD DAMN IT?!" He grabbed me by the neck, yelling it right in my face. I would remain silent. "No answer, huh? Well, then tell me this Magus...why aren't you fighting back? HUH?! WHY?!" "Look at my arm." "What?" "Look at my arm." "Are those...spikes? WHA-" I stabbed my fingers into his eyes, then pushed him to the ground. "MAGUS STOP STOP LETS MAKE A DEAL DAMN IT PLEASE!" I started to slice his entire body, creating scars all over his body. He would not stop screaming, but I simply ignored it. He...he deserved it. I grabbed him by his skin and threw him into the bakery, all the bread there was rotten. "YOU ASKED FOR THIS MAGUS!" He summoned demon arms from the underworld, trying to drag me down, but I refused. I pried every single one of them off of me and cut one of their hands off and shoved it into one of Tenebri's open wounds. "AAAAHHHH!! FUCK YOU!" He tried to pry my hat off, but I pushed him back with my magic into glass, causing him to get glass shards all over his body. I walked up to him and asked one simple question.

"Where is the cross?" "W..What the HELL?! I WAS ASKING YOU THAT HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO KNOW?!" "Hah! Of course I don't expect you to know that! I was just messing with you, stupid bastard." I started to walk away, but he got up and tried to slice my head off. I grabbed his arm mid-swing. "Nice try." I slammed him down onto the ground, and continued to walk away. "YOU WON'T FIND THAT CROSS, MAGUS! I KNEW WHERE IT WAS AND NOW IT'S UNDER HEAVY GUARD, YOU HEAR?!" "...What?" "You won't get it. Ranger might have been my best man, but there's power in numbers. Those men are loyal, they'll protect that thing with their LIVES! SO GOOD LUCK, YEAH?! YOU COCKSUCKER!" After wandering around, I saw a circle of high tier guards around the cross and decided to walk up to them. "Hey, is that...IT's MAGUS! GET HIM!" They all began shooting their guns, but to their utter horror they saw every single bullet shot, frozen with a red aura around it. "No...no fucking way..." "DEAR GOD RUN EVERYONE RU-" I flung all the bullets back at them at twice the speed, killing all of them instantly.

Except...I saw something. Was it...ranger in the distance? "Hey Magus!" "You're alive? I thought I killed you." "Hah! The ranger never dies! Now listen to me, yeah? Don't grab the cross." "What do you mean? WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN DON'T GRAB THE CROSS?!" "You heard me, Magus. You already know I'm not real, right?" "Of course. You're just a hallucination." "Caused by who, Magus?" "By myself? Wait..." I heard Tenebri approach me, and he picked up a gun and was about to start firing at me. "Checkmate, Magus." "Don't you know what'll happen, Tenebri? I'll just stop every bullet and throw them back at you, you fool." "Fool? FOOL?! Hah! HAH! HAHAHAAHH! That was your only magic left, fool. You think I'm DUMB?!" "...Tenebri, wait just WAIT WAIT PLEASE WAIT-" He riddled my body with bullets...so many bullets. I had bullet holes in my arms, chest, legs, and of course my hat...but he missed my eyes. I still fell to my knees, though. "Outsmarted, Magus. Simply outsmarted. Though I am impressed, really I am!" "......You're still alive, Magus? Wow, amazing! You're about to bleed out though, you know." I stared him right in his eyes, and he could hear hundreds of kitchen knives clashing together...right behind him. "Magus...no...don't." "Check...mate." I flung all of them into his body, causing him to simply stare at me. "You...why...the pain is immeasurable. But I'm still alive. Just try to kill me with the cross, you can't." I was confused at what he meant. "What do you mean I can't kill you?" "The titan of Ohio. My body takes shape of whatever my opponent in scared of, you...you know that, right?" "Of course I do Tenebri." "Good...then you know that I'm unkillable in this state. You're forever scared of how I look, which will make that cross USELESS! I may be in...so...so much pain...but you'll never be able to kill me in your little feared PUSSY STATE THAT YOU'RE IN!"

"I'm not scared anymore." "What?" "I'm not scared of him anymore." ".." I saw him start to melt, and take a different shape...something I have never seen before. "This...is my true form." He looked...I- I don't even know how to explain. I could hardly bare to even look at him.

"ARE YOU HAPPY NOW, MAGUS?! I never look like this, NEVER! I always hated how I looked. My body is built in such a form that it is constantly painful to look like this you know, and I can't ever fully control my shapeshifting. I may not be yelling in pain, but I am screaming internally. Now kill me...please." He picked up the cross and threw it to my hand. "Shove that cross right into my chest. Do it." My whole body was trembling in absolute fear of what was about to happen, but I shoved that thing right into his chest. "AAAAHHHHH DEAR MOTHER OF GOD! TAKE ME AND NEVER BRING ME TO ANY AFTERLIFE, PLEASE! I'M DONE LIVING THIS LIFE! TAKE ME AWAY!" He would repeat this, while his whole body lit up. "I...I see nothing. Thank you, god." He exploded into a million pieces, getting blood all over me. "Is it...finally over?" That's all I thought. I walked to the entrance, and...the border was gone. I was a free man.

I walked outside, taking in the sight of the moon once again. It was beautiful. I sat down on a bench, trying to process everything that happened. So many things happened to me in that hell hole, but...I did it. I killed so many people...hundreds. Maybe you've been wondering when I've been writing this journal, well...I've been on this bench, still at Costco the entire time. I think I'm finally ready to leave this place once and for all.

Magus stood up, and walked away. Not burning it, destroying it, or even hiding the evidence! He left everything be, never to set foot in the place ever again. At first he was going to leave his journal on the bench, for any future soul that would come to the place, but he decided to take it with him in the end. This is the end of his demonic journey here, this...was the cost of living.