Neytopia › Part 2: Noon › Chapter 48

Showdown

The lightbringer’s airplane flew over the last mountain range, finally reaching the capital. He hadn’t been to it since his brother betrayed and killed him, some lifetimes ago.

The capital stretched as far as he could see. Fires ravaged the houses and buildings, caused by the bombings that had now gone on for hours. Still the capital fired back at the northern forces. When he was flying over the capital, a loud explosion at his right took out one of the planes that escorted him. But they vastly outnumbered the enemy and the northern forces pushed on, flying over mortars and machine guns toward the inner fortress in the capital: the ivory tower.

It was one of the few iconic buildings in the south that hadn’t yet been bombed into oblivion. The lightbringer knew it would be demolished as soon as war was over. It was the home and symbol of the Tyrant. The lightbringer thought it was a pity since it was one of the few remaining buildings in the world with any charisma and originality. It made him particularly sad knowing that architects friendly to the new regime would replace it with a giant phallic glass aberration in memory of the oppressed.

His aircraft landed in a large open patio near the fortress, soon followed by many others. Most of the empire’s soldiers knew it was their end and surrendered immediately. The northern soldiers shot them anyway. The lightbringer ordered his company,

To the ivory tower!

As he was half-way through the patio, a woman’s voice behind him screamed,

Stop, don’t go, please!

He turned around and saw her. He tried but failed to listen to her, as the heavy gunfire was deafening. A large explosion wiped out most of his company and launched the lightbringer into a wall.

All he could hear was his ears ringing. The ground was covered with corpses. A strange aircraft descended and landed at the patio. Even stranger figures came out of it and approached him.

The watchers had come.

They wanted to take him, drag him to their ship. He sliced one in half and cut off the feet of the other with a single sweep of his blade. Then he rushed toward the tower, his head still ringing.

A stinging and burning sensation ran through his body. It started at his chest. He looked down and saw an arrow poking out. He removed the arrow and threw it away. He looked behind, the creature without feet had shot him and now watched him, emotionless.

He rushed to the ivory tower.

Each step, the pain in his chest intensified. Soon the visions began. He felt the endless void calling him. The world slowly faded away around him, shadows enveloping everything behind him. So he ran as fast as he could, fighting through the pain. He opened the ivory tower’s gate and rushed up the stairs. It was like running up the endless stair on the mist once more.

He pushed himself to the limit, stood the pain and ran to the top. A golden door. Panting and covering his chest with his left hand, he pushed it open with the right hand, ready to face the Tyrant.

No…

The first thing he noticed was the huge spiderwebs. Nobody had been there in ages. Only a stone statue of a strange man holding a sealed letter waited for him in the cold room. He took it and began to read, as the world faded away around him.

If you are reading this letter, my secret is no more. History will judge, and I know this will be remembered as a dark age. I have no doubt that she somehow escaped. I don’t know how, or when, but she did. It’s probably you reading these words now. Of course you won, but this was never about winning or losing. For a moment in the waves of time, mankind was free. You will convince them otherwise, I know. But others like me will see through your lies long after I’m gone. This empire I built does not need me anymore, so I’m leaving for a place where you’ll never find me. Goodbye, Cruelty.

Once he finished reading the letter, he fell to his knees and looked around him. The void closed in on him. It had all been a joke, a cheap trick, an act. But now the curtain was closing.

They had played him, used him and thrown him out.

The darkness was no longer calling. Now it demanded. He belonged to the void now. Watching the last sights of a world that had gone very wrong for him he understood that he would never leave the mist. Still, he hoped she would come for him. She had to come for him.

The figures that had shot him dragged him to their ship and flew away to their ship. The watchers threw him into their misty prison, where he woke up.

He waited, believing she would come for him.

But she never did.

He is still trapped in the mist and will never escape. No one remembers him now, but he can’t forget. All there is for him is the endless mist.