Grim vs Lady IV: Promises to Keep

"So anyways, Seraph", Lady took a deep breath, clearing her mind, "You do remember you're out of time, right? I told you to solve the mystery or I'll kill you myself."

"Oh, right", its not that I'd forgotten, "About Bardock's assassination."

A new Commander in Chief had already been appointed. Bardock's era was officially over. The mystery remained unsolved, baffling many, but the top echelon of military didn't break their silence.

"By the way Seraph, I admitted this before and I'll confess again. I killed Bardock in cold blood", she smirked when she said this.

"Yeah, I remember you saying something along the lines."

"But you haven't accepted that answer yet, have you? I wonder why. Is it that you can't accept it or is that you don't want to?", she was teasing me, knowing full well what it was.

I didn't meet her eyes.

"When this thing with Grim is over...and if we all survive, then I'll tell you my answer", I said.

She blankly stared at me for a while, then sighed.

"Alright, I'll be looking forward to it then."

As I watched her avoid Grim's traps, I thought back on those words just before this fight began.

For a moment it looked like Grim had the upper hand. And in fact, just briefly, he did. But instead of putting an end to her, he used the moment to enjoy himself.

Wherever Lady moved, Grim summoned the portal in her way. Surprisingly enough, he was able to keep up with her lightning speed. For a while, it went on and when he got bored of chasing after her, he stopped.

He and Lady stared at each other for a long while, then he smirked and extended his hand.

A portal appeared right below Lady. Lady quickly jumped up and right into a portal overhead. Grim chuckled on his success.

Then a portal opened right beside him and Lady was vomited out.

Shocked to see herself in one piece, Lady realized Grim was only messing with her. Those portals were nothing but portals after all. At least for now, they weren't anything more.

Then Grim continued his play of catching Lady into one of his portals and throwing her out in some other corner. This one lasted a long time.

"She must be frustrated", Deli bit her lip.

"That jerk's got shit for brains", Chopper growled.

Frustrated or not, Lady sure was getting tired of running around. She wasn't getting any closer to Grim like this. So she finally decided to stop moving.

She stood firmly on the ground, glaring up at Grim. She took a deep breath and bringing both her hands together, she focused her energy. Her hands began to glow, and then she bammed them on the ground.

The glow quickly moved into the ground and it cracked open, even more than it was already banged up. Then, as if exploding, the debris flew up into the sky all around. The battlefield was once again hidden behind the rubble.

Lady quickly moved behind the rubble and started shooting the debris at Grim who couldn't see her moving.

But it was no problem for Grim to counter. His portals started spiraling again and the debris began being pulled inside.

After a moment the dust was pretty much all cleared up and Grim began searching for Lady again but she wasn't anywhere to be found.

Then, feeling a sudden sting in his chest, he looked down. A hand was protruding right out of his chest. The hand was smeared in what looked like pitch, but was nothing more than his blood. He coughed, and trails of blood followed down his mouth.

The hand held his beating heart in its grip. Grim turned his head just barely to get a glimpse of Lady's face.

Lady was panting. It had taken quite a lot of moving around to create that distraction and find her way behind Grim without him realizing. She made sure all his portals were busy, so she wouldn't get caught again.

And now she'd pierced him right through his chest.

We all stood silently watching that unfold. It appeared to be the finale. The outcome wasn't unexpected at all. Lady had allowed Grim to have fun in his final moments. That, I thought, was an honorable thing to do.

"Lady...", Grim's voice broke, his eyes were filled with a sinister glow, "What do you think you are...?"

"You said the calamity wouldn't turn away even if you died. Which means, there is no reason to keep you alive either."

"Oh...", Grim chuckled before Lady burst his heart with a clutch of her hand.

Grim vomited a flood of pitch like blood and hung motionless midair. We awaited the moment he would fall down and we could pay our final respects.

I hadn't known him much. He was a mystery right through to the end. But even I believed that his motives weren't as simple as a mischief. Perhaps, I could have believed that at any other time but for this one thing, as persistent as he was, I just couldn't ignore the feeling that he had a solid reason behind his actions. Regardless, I realized that I wouldn't get an answer to that. Perhaps Chopper did know, but would he tell me? That was a question for another time.

For now, there were more pressing matters at hand. We still hadn't resolved the matter of that calamity that was on its way to destroy this planet.

"Hurts...", Grim mumbled before a portal opened above Lady's head and one of his pillars shot down right on her head, driving her down and pummeling her into the ground.

With that short disturbance, the world went back to a painful stillness once more. We watched, bug-eyed, some of us with our mouths wide open.

"Chopper...", Deli's voice barely got out.

Lady hadn't dodged this attacked. She really did get pummeled into the ground and the overwhelming pillar stood erect on top of her, like a gravestone.

"Chopper-san, how many hearts does a god of death have?", I was trying my utmost to keep my composure.

"Just one, of course. They aren't demons."

"I see."

"Is that Grim immortal, then? Or a zombie?", Deli asked, her lips trembling.

"What idiot'd think death comes to a god of death? How d'ya even go 'bout it?", Chopper replied, snarkily.

Oh but of course! Death was always out of the question, I thought, that was why Chopper needed to put a time limit on this battle. So then, that would mean...

"But that...it isn't moving at all", I muttered.

Chopper let out a good long puff of smoke, "I'm afraid she might pass the 5% threshold."

Deli's eyes that were going blank, glittered upon hearing this.

"We've got promises to keep, Chopper", Sight said gravelly, "Now, don't we?"

Chopper looked his way through the corner of his eye and then shifted his gaze back to the battle.