94: No more deaths on my conscience

(Nathan POV)

Sirens were ringing in my ears, and everything around me was dark. When I made an explosion inside its mouth, I called out every swear word I knew for Beatris. If she were not here, I could have used all my powers. There were so many choices. I could have impaled it with a stone, used air to cut it, used water to freeze it, or fire to burn it, but no. She had to come here. When the explosion occurred, I tried to quickly grab the sword I had let go of, but there were several burn marks on my body and both my hands were badly burnt. I tried to grab the sword, but my grip was weak. So when the Basilisk shook its head, I was sent flying out of its mouth. Immediately, I conjured "arresto momentum," the spell to slow down my fall. But between the activation time and the moment I hit the wall, the spell could not take full effect, and I smashed into the wall with almost half the force I was thrown with. The pain in my back was excruciating as I felt something crawl up from my neck and out of my mouth, probably blood. Everything darkened, and I lost consciousness. I had no idea how long I had been out when I woke up. The pain was terrible, and I was having trouble moving. As my senses returned to me one by one, I saw that Beatris was standing on top of a stone head in front of me. The snake was ready to attack her, and she too was holding a sword.

(Wait… Sword? Where are mine?)

The realization hit me that I did not have my swords with me. I looked around. My whole body was hurting, but I had to move, or once again someone was going to die because of me. I could not afford one more on my conscience. I found Vespira near me. Aurora was also on the floor some yards away. I got up, fell, got up again, and picked up my swords.

(COME ON, NATHAN... MOVE... FASTER.)

I picked up the pace. The Basilisk was ready to attack Beatris, and then I saw it lunge toward her.

"No!" I wanted to shout, but a wheeze came out. The snake attacked the head she was standing atop.

I felt as if the world around me shattered into fragments as I watched in horror, Beatris disappearing, a victim of the monstrous snake's strike.

(DAMN IT)

I started to run towards the snake.

"YOU FUCKING BASTAD.... I WILL KILL YOU." I started to shout. Forgetting all my pain, I ran as fast as I could. Each step felt like shards of glass piercing my flesh, but I refused to yield. I was not going to let her death be in vain. I was going to kill that snake and then I was going to beat the fuck out of that Dark lord. My whole body was battered and falling apart but the rage that surged within me was overwhelming. It was overpowering my pain and injuries. It was making my blood boil. I had but one thought in my head and that was to kill that colossal snake. I was not going to stop until I had killed the snake. No force on the planet would stop me until I had seen the snake lying lifeless at my feet. I was going to keep pushing until I had bathed in its blood.

"AAAAHHHHHH!" I screamed as loud as I could and then summoned my magic. The earth beneath my feet shifted, and a pillar rose right where my foot was, pushing me upwards. At the same time, the wind reinforced me, and I jumped as high as I could. The synchronization was a bit off between the earth and the wind magic, so I was not able to reach the height I should have. But I did not need the maximum height. The power I had applied was enough to take me to its head. In the short moment it took me to reach its head, I noticed that a lot of its scales were missing.

(This must be when it fell under the debris. I have to aim for those parts. I will kill it right here, right now)

Filled with rage, I raised my hands. But even if I was blinded by rage, I immediately noticed that there was something wrong with my arm. There was no strength in my right arm. I could not muster any strength at all. This was bad. Even if I hit the mark, which in itself was a Herculean task, I would not have enough force to pierce it. I was getting closer to the snake at an alarming speed.

(I need to think of something fast.)

But no matter how fast I thought, it was not going to help. The only thing I could do was use magic. So, using the wind once again, I reinforced the blades on my swords, and in the next moment, I was on top of the snake. With all the force that I could muster, I stabbed the snake. Due to the condition of my right arm, my attention was a bit diverted, and as a result, my aim was off. The sword in my right hand landed exactly on a space with no scales, but the lack of force did not allow the sword to penetrate more than two, maybe three inches. Meanwhile, I completely missed the other sword. All my attention was on the right hand, and the attack from the left did not hit the target and bounced off. My feet slipped off the slimy surface of the snake as it screamed in pain from its wounds. It jerked its head backward, and I slipped. In a fight-or-flight response, I let go of the other sword and grabbed the right one with both hands.

"AAAAAHHHHH" I exerted all the force I could and pushed the sword further. It went in for another two or three inches. The Basilisk screamed again.

(NOW DIE YOU, BASTARD.)

I looked up and was stunned for a moment. In the air right in front of me was the girl I had thought dead for the past few minutes.

(What, Beatris? She was alive)

A sense of relief washed all over me as I realized that she was alive. My heart started to pound heavily. I did not know why I was so relieved to find out that she was alive. It was a weird feeling. Just moments ago, I had witnessed what I believed to be her tragic end, and now seeing her jumping from the height with the sword in her hand was.... If I had to describe it, mesmerizing. In seconds she reached the mouth of the basilisk and then with her arm stretched out, she pierced the snake with her sword from inside the mouth. I saw the sword coming out of its skull and immediately I knew that was the end. She had pierced its brain and no matter the creature, no matter the strength it possesses, it would die if its brain is damaged. And exactly as I had anticipated, the snake screamed, jerked its head a few times, and then it fell. Its body, lifeless, without any movement. As the snake was falling on its back, I had to let go of the sword or else I would have fallen under it and died. I fell on the floor. The height was not too much, so I was not hurt. Beatris fell on the snake's body and that cushioned her fall.

I was the first one to get up of the two. I stood up and looked around. I could see Aurora, stuck inside the snake's body and Vespira was laying further away. I slowly trotted towards the blade and picked it up.

"It's starting to get chipped." I looked at the blade that I had used mercilessly. It was damaged in many places and it needed maintenance. I placed it back in its sheath. Then I walked towards the snake's body to retrieve Aurora. Beatris had also gotten up and she was now dusting her clothes. I walked up to her slowly. She raised her head to look at me.

"Are you mad?" I whispered to her. My head hanging.

"What? I could not hear you." But she did not hear.

"ARE YOU FUCKING MAD?" I shouted and that scared her.

"I TOLD YOU TO RUN AWAY, DID I NOT? YET YOU STAYED. FINE. BUT THEN YOU HAD TO STEP. YOU HAD TO FIGHT THE COLLOSOL SNAKE. YOU HAD TO JUST BUTT IN TO MAKE YOUR AND MY LIFE HARDER." I was furious. Slowly walking towards her I was shouting every word that came to mind. Half of them I did not even know, what I was saying. But the only thing I did know was that I was enraged and I did not like what had happened. I did not want to feel that again. I did not want to have another death on my conscience.

"YOU COULD HAVE DIED. ONE STRIKE AND YOU WOULD HAVE DIED. DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT POTTER?" I looked up. We were only inches away. I could feel her breath. I was sure she could do the same. I looked straight into her emerald eyes. Her pupils were trembling. So were her lips. I did not know maybe she was trembling all over, I really could not tell. I wanted to punch her in the face. Then her lips parted. She wanted to say something. But then she did not.

(Say something damn it.)

I don't know what response I was expecting or what I wanted to hear but.....

She opened her mouth again. I could tell that she was struggling with the choice of her words. Then she spoke.

"Are….. are you... a….. Are you okay?"

(WHAT?)

"YOU ARE ASKING ME THAT?" Of course, I was not okay.

"You...… are...… crying."

"Huh?" Her words hit like a punch in my gut. My hand immediately went up to my face and yes surely, my face was wet. I was crying.

(What? Wha??? Why? How?)

I was so confused at this that I did not know what to do for a moment.

"Are you..... really okay." She asked me again, awkwardly.

"Yeah, I am fine." I turned away.

"you... sure?" She asked again.

"Yeah. Dead sure. Now come along." I started to walk.

(SHIT, SHIT, SHIT. HOW COULD I HAVE BEEN THAT CARELESS)

I started to walk briskly. All I wanted at this point was to be as far as I could from Beatris. She was following me. We were headed towards, where Tom was. As we got closer we started to hear the sounds of two people. Immediately I could tell that it was sis beating up Tom.

"you will tell me Tom….. or else you will suffer." She was saying.

"You stop this violence. Don't you know who I am….." She probably punched him after that.

"Yeah yeah, whatever. Just tell me how to stop this." We were getting closer and I could even see them now.

"You can't stop it. I will be reborn." I saw as she punched him before he could finish the sentence.

"Aren't you tired of this? Just tell me." At this point, Tom was hanging downwards. She had him by his collar and he was hanging. His nose, bleeding badly.

"Slytherin was right. We are an esteemed race of wizards. Brutes like you who rely on strength should be killed right alongside the mugg....." this time I punched him.

"Sis, why did you even listen to him till now? I mean it's your tolerance that you listen to him this long. I would have killed him by now." I shrugged my shoulders.

Sister was standing there holding Tom's collar. Her clothes were ruined due to all the blood stains. And I also noticed the head of the dead basilisk laying on the side.

(She literally beheaded it. My swords could not even cut it.)

My whole body shuddered at the thought of it. She really was worthy of the title Berserker. I could not even start to guess how she did that.

"I know..." She exhaled. "I know but we need information. I can't kill him before he tells me how to stop this." She replied.

"Hmm, reasonable." I shrugged my shoulders.

"I won't tell you anything. Your children don't know about the forces you are trifling with. In mere moments I will be at my peak and then."

"JUST SHUT UP".

"JUST SHUT UP".

Both me and sister had had enough of his rants.

"I believe I know how to stop this." And we heard the most unexpected sentence from the most unexpected place. I turned around to look at Beatris who had said the statement. She noticed our shocked look and started to explain.

"From the very beginning, it has all been a very odd situation." She sat down. "I mean he was a memory. He could not have done magic. Even now he is not completely visible. You can touch him but I don't think he can do much magic. So I was thinking that how was he doing all this." She pulled the diary towards her. "The answer that came was...." She looked towards Tom. He was awfully quiet now. "That it must be some artifact that could store magic." And then she raised her hand high above her head. In her hand was something pointy. It was white, with a curved structure.

(Huh????? A tooth.)

It was one of the basilisk's teeth.

"Stop, what are you doing???? I said stop." Tom jumped towards her. But before he could reach her she said.

"And the only thing that could do something like this would be this diary." And with that, she brought down the tooth upon the diary. The moment that tooth went into the diary, I saw a blinding light emit from Tom's body.

"AAAAAHHHHH." He screamed. "STOP THAT. IT HURTS AAAAHHHH." He kept screaming. And then he jumped towards her.

"Stop him," Sis said as she too jumped after him.

"Already on it." And we both grabbed him by his arms.

"Let me go.... Let me go you mongrels." He shouted.

"hah... as if." Sis chuckled.

In the meantime, Beatris closed the book and stabbed it again from the top. It started to ooze green blood from the holes, or wounds should I say. At that moment, it felt as if the diary itself was alive. It was squirming under the pressure and I could hear sounds that I could only describe as that of screaming. Beatris was stabbing the diary repeatedly. She pulled out the tooth and stabbed it again, doing it over and over. Tom was screaming hysterically as his body started to disintegrate and disappear into flocks of light particles. In mere moments all of his body had disappeared.

"This is not the end of me. I wi...." Were his last words as he disappeared into nothingness.

"Well, that went well." Sis joked.

The moment Top disappeared, Aug woke up. He looked around with his big brown eyes and immediately understood what had transpired.

"Hey, Aug….. How are.... You?" I tried to ask but could not as he had started to cry.

"What? What? Are you alright?" I panicked.

"Does it hurt somewhere?" And unexpectedly Sis panicked as well. The only one who was unfazed was Beatris. She was just sitting there without moving. Maybe she was tired from all the fighting. But she simply sat there as we tried to quiet Aug. He raised his hands and then started to talk.

<I AM SORRY> he cried as he told us what he was thinking. <I am sorry about everything that I did. I knew what I was doing was wrong, but I could not think straight. I knew that he was using me to do things that he could not do himself but I could not stop. It was like there was a fog in my mind. I simply did whatever he told me to do. But I am sorry I did not mean any of that> And he started to sob. I did not know what to say and I did not know what to do. Thank God my sister was there. She grabbed him by his shoulders and hugged him.

"It's okay...." She said. "no one blames you and it was not your fault. We all know that it was Toms doing. You do not need to concern yourself with matters like these." She gently patted his head. "Aint that right Nat?" She looked towards me and I nodded.

"See Nathaniel also thinks that none of it was your fault. And I am sure Beatris also thinks the...." She turned towards Beatris but they stopped.

(Hmmmm, what)

I turned around as well and what I saw scared the living hell out of me. Beatris was laying down on the, the tooth still in her hand, and her arm was slowly turning blue.

"BEATRIS." Sis jumped towards her. "Oh no, OH no, OH no." But I did not need any diagnosis to know what had happened. I could tell from here.

"Oh no," Sis said it once more. "She has been poisoned." She was poisoned. Probably when she stabbed the snake through its mouth. That was where the tooth had come from. It was stuck in her arm when she came here. And now the poison was spreading in her body. She was poisoned with the poison of the Basilisk that was said to be uncurable. She was poisoned and she was going to die.