Specularis (The Order - Vermish)

15: i don't wanna know what it's like to live without you

 Everything was in slow motion.

"Vera." I sobbed out after hastily transforming. I was down on my knees in seconds. My eyes never left the body sprawled on the floor, but there was no fight left in me. We were mere meters apart, but I could not find it in me to move. Imagining how it would feel to have her in my arms, lifeless; it was torture enough.

In the corner of my eye, I noticed my friends fighting for me. Randall, Gabrielle, and Nicole were taking advantage of the weakening portal and threw off the remaining hoard of undead.

Jack rushed to Vera's side, disregarding the struggle it took to get to her. His determination was apparent. And if only I didn't feel like my heart had been ripped out of my chest, I would have been at awe at his display. I diverted my attention back to the woman whose fall caused my own, with full expectations of her being still but hopes that she wouldn't be. I was surprised to notice her stirring from her unconsciousness. She was up in a matter of seconds, disoriented.

"Wait, what?" Despite my nakedness, I stood up as quickly as I could and ran towards her. As soon as I reached her, I engulfed her with a tight embrace. My head was buried on her nape, and I didn't care about suffocation. She was life itself; all I needed was her to survive.

"Oh my god." Gabrielle cried in relief. She was looking back in our direction, halting for a moment from protecting the rest of us after witnessing the scene.

"What happened?" Jack was confused but unmistakably relieved. "Did the necromancer lie?"

Up until then, I refused to let her go. It was as if I couldn't. "I don't know. But right now, we have no time to discuss. The demon has a weakness caused by entering the realm-"

Lilith was in my view, still trying her best to defeat the empress. "Yes, and I think Lilith is having fun trying to hit that-"

"Um, guys! There's another wolf!" Nicole announced. And she was right. On top of Xzhuria was a clinging, pitch-black wolf who, in their best attempts, was using their claws to scratch at the demon.

"Who is that?" Randall clenched his teeth from pushing off more of the army.

"Alyssa?" Jack returned with a question.

Lilith used the opportunity to her advantage, hurling balls of fire as much as she could in the hopes of getting a lucky shot. Unfortunately, due to the overly aggravated state of the empress, she ended up missing.

"Tiltidor!" Xzhuria screeched.

"Yes, mistress." Tiltidor was panicked. "Oh, fuck. Get off of her!"

They hurriedly grabbed the wolf by its fur and sent it flying to the other side. It, indeed, turned out to be Alyssa, and it was Jack's turn to race towards her. He then brought her to Vera and I, nodding at me, entrusting me to aid in her recovery.

Jack takes over for Alyssa in figuring out how to distract Xzhuria. His efforts were not much of use after the demon caught sight of him and attempted to charge at him. Thankfully, Gabrielle was swift enough with another shield she conjured in front of Jack.

Vera magicked two black robes and handed them to Alyssa and I. Alyssa was jarred by the offer and the clothing itself. She looked at both the dark material and Vera with uncertainty. "Hurry up, Ms. Drake. We have a demon to banish."

"What do we do?" Alyssa muttered.

"The plan is simple: banish the demon." Vera was about to leave when I sought out her hand and tugged at it.

"Wait- Vera? Are you gonna be okay?" There was no doubt in my mind that I was so close to crying my eyes out in fear again. We were in the middle of battle, and I didn't want to cause her to lose focus when I was being this way. But there was no way in a million hells that I was going to lose her twice today. I don't ever want to lose her.

With a single look, Vera was able to convey to me a million things. I knew she could never answer me straightforward. As much as we wanted to, we never owned our fate. But when she leaned in to press a soft kiss to my lips, I wanted to believe that we do decide the future after all. I wanted to believe that with the two of us together, we could conquer it all. "For you, I will be."

And with that, Vera was back to helping the students. Using her magic to its full potential, she cast everyone else into a protective force field, and all that was left outside of it was us.

"Just trust me, Randall." I heard Gabrielle convince Randall.

"Fine." He grumbled.

"Verbera ex, " They both recited a basic attack spell at Tiltidor, who was slightly taken aback by it.

"Wasn't that bad, was it?" Gabrielle teased.

I instantly lunged towards Tiltidor to continue the momentum. "Ut irrumabo descendit." And they were down.

Alyssa and Lilith disappeared for a millisecond and then reappeared accurately at Xzhuria's side. Lilith, without hesitation, hit her at her weak spot, which was glowing red and only burned brighter after Lilith's triumphant assault. The demon screamed in pain and collapsed from the intensity of it.

The empress lifted her head at Lilith. "You may escape me now, but not forever. You need us. You will need us because we're what's left when everyone else from these people perish."

"You'll never fuck with me again! Not now, not ever." Lilith kicked Xzhuria towards the portal, where she was sucked in.

"Don't come back, Tiltidor." Vera, who just arrived at my side, smirked at them. Tiltidor said nothing, only mimicked Vera's expression. Randall had the honors of throwing them in.

"Alyssa, why did you come here?" Jack shook his head at her, not waiting for privacy to discuss. She never responded, but the way she shifted her gaze towards Lilith spoke volumes of her intentions. Jack remained silent as well, completely understanding her reason.

"Um..." Gabrielle trailed off. Her head tipped towards everyone else who were still stuck inside the protection.

"Everyone is dismissed." Vera declared after getting them out of the shield.

I caught Angus staring at me, but I couldn't read his expression. He lowered his gaze, seemingly in deep thought. Right as the majority of the students exited, he bowed in my direction, his eyes still not meeting mine. And then he turned away and left.

No one said anything for a while. There was a comfort in the silence, and we all took the time to fully digest what just occurred. There was no way we could ever recoup in such a short period, but still, we tried.

"Now what?" Alyssa broke the silence.

"What about everyone else in the world?" Gabrielle pitched in.

"Oh, come on. We just defeated an empress demon and her hoard of zombies. Do you really have to ruin the party?" Randall joked and received an unimpressed look from Gabrielle. "Just kidding, of course."

"Isn't the Order like the Illuminati? Don't we have members from all walks of life? Why don't we get some of our scientist friends to create some excuse as to why the earthquake occurred." Jack proposed.

"What do you think?" Nicole referred the question to both Vera and me.

"I'll take it." I glanced at Vera, waiting for her response.

"I'll make some calls as soon as possible. Hopefully, one of them will still take orders from me." Vera sighed in exhaustion.

"Drinks at the den?" Randall suggested, a yawn following afterward.

"Fuck it. Why don't we just do it here?" Lilith shrugged.

"But it's a mess?" Gabrielle scanned the Temple and wrinkled her nose at the state of the place.

"It's perfect." Vera's mouth quirked up a little.

I smiled at the fatigued-looking people surrounding me. Maybe we could conquer anything as long as we were together.