Eternal Night - Part II

To do things the right way, I first need to deal with the one entity that could stop my thirst for revenge in its tracks without any problem.

And of course, that person is none other than Liselotte Sitri.

We are in Zawar Orcubalis again.

As it was a thousand years ago. Face to face. Watching each other carefully, waiting for the first of the attacks.

This evening, however, the sun is hidden. Storm clouds cover the sky, and raindrops fall on our bodies, soaking our ideals.

We can barely converse, as we decide to do so by telepathy.

The dialogue goes like this...

-Why [Hollow Death] was used on one of my floors? You swore you would never wield that sword because of what it means to you. -. Liselotte asks me.

She is annoyed, very annoyed. You can tell by the tone of voice she's conveying to me. Although even without that I could tell she's angry.

I teleported here, to come and disable the [Supernatural Rift] to completely eliminate Liselotte's functionality in combat.

All the power she has is borrowed from the rift, so putting her out of commission would require me to get rid of Liselotte first.

-There was a change of plan, Lottie. A certain person descended on my flat so I had to take matters into my own hands.

I reply with a bit of glee in my communication. To make her think it's all a simple misunderstanding.

-What kind of changes were there? There is no apparent reason to come here in the first place.

She continues to question me. I really have no idea how to soften my next words.

-This was the place where it all started, remember? The cries of despair from everyone you once knew, and the smell of the whole city succumbing to the flames.

-... yes, I remember. -. Liselotte paused somewhat uncomfortably. Her expression changed to one of sadness.

Of course she remembers. After all, it was the moment when I put an end to an entire population with my own hands.

She was a child. Giving up because she was desperately running for her life, and only moving because her mother was tugging on her arm to keep running.

In order to bring down Ifgraine's magical forces, Liz and I had to strike directly at their source, which was none other than Zawar Orcubalis.

It was I who decided to carry out the genocide, and to stain my hands with the blood of both the guilty and the innocent. I didn't care at all.

Liz would not have been able to bear the simple act of killing so many people just for the sake of it.

I hadn't planned to leave a single survivor, I even went to the trouble of chasing them down and smashing Liselotte's mother's head with a mace.

But somehow that girl... managed to escape from me. I could find no trace of her in the vicinity no matter how hard I looked.

I decided to leave it as it was, since she was a child after all, she was going to die alone in the middle of the woods.

Big mistake.

-I always wondered, how did you manage to escape? Your magic was so powerful, for that age, it would have been very difficult to hide it all. But there was nothing left.

-I wouldn't be here if someone hadn't pulled me out of that awful situation.

-Did they rescue you? May I ask who?

Liselotte looks back at me, a faint smile on her face.

She smiles... uh...

-At first I was angry with my saviour... but at the end of it all, she was the one who taught me to love this world like no one else does.

-Sounds like she was someone interesting...

-And she was. The problem is that they started to hate her for making a single mistake when she had forgiven everyone who had hurt her in the past. I realised how good it was too late. She's already someone you know very well.

!

-No... it can't be possible...

-I never wanted to tell you. Because the one who saved me from dying was... Redhart I... I remember she was crying and asking me for forgiveness for everything that had happened. Even though she had been the greatest genocide, she felt bad for everyone.

Impossible... Liz was the one who told me we should take care of Zawar Orcubalis in the first place. Claiming it would be a problem later on if we didn't finish them off.

It's stupid and hard to believe...

Liselotte continues.

-Redhart loved us all equally. And she absolutely hated the conflict we had caused. She didn't want all the memories of a civilisation to die for something as selfish as war, and she let me stay alive.

...

-I have already forgiven this world, Vivian. The person you loved most allowed me to heal my wounds and forgive all those who turned their backs on both Redhart and Maxwell in their darkest times. At the end of the day, those two were not so different, they both cared about Gamma above themselves. That's why they had to face each other to see which of those ideals was stronger, to prove who was more determined to protect this world.

...

-Although Gulliver Cross was also in that fight, and it was his weapon that struck the final blow, everyone recognises Alexander Yggsdrasil Maxwell as the ultimate winner of that fight and you know it. My master's ideals were stronger than Redhart's, and she, as she died, had a huge smile on her face to see what a human she loved so dearly had achieved.

-You... what would you know... you weren't there...

-I know what my master told me about the fight. And I respect those words as the absolute truth. Redhart passed away happy to have shown humanity what they were capable of.

-What... are you talking about...?

-Thanks to Redhart, the morale of all mankind grew, we realised something very important in that whole conflict, even I collaborated with that. Redhart showed the strongest part of the human will by making us realise that "Gods" can also bleed and die.

-That...

-That is why I regret what I did to end the life of someone as benevolent as....

-YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING, YOU BRAT! YOU HAVEN'T THE FAINTEST IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT, LISELOTTE SITRI!

-...!

Liselotte takes a step back as soon as I raised my voice as loud as I could, ignoring even the sound of the rain. Only that way my voice was able to reach Liselotte.

My heart boils with anger that I'm listening to her bloody stupidity. It's all a jumble of nonsense one after the other.

Liz saving this brat from genocide? That's stupid, Liz was the one who asked me to do that in the first place.

It's true that Liz loved all those human bastards to her very last moment, but...

-Elise Redhart wanted to live too! She didn't deserve anything this damn world gave her! She loved all of humanity! OF COURSE SHE DID! But that didn't give them the right to kill her!

Now it is Liselotte who is silent while I speak. Everything I had been keeping to myself finally comes out.

A millennium of not being honest with my emotions, eh?

-She conveyed it to me in her last words after Gulliver Cross had ripped out her heart... her desire to go on living, in spite of everything, she just wanted to burst into tears but didn't feel she had the right to do so...

-...

-All the horrible things Elise did, it was because of you, the mankind. One mistake was enough to turn you against her and she had no choice but to fight for her life, all while I was protecting her.

-...

-That's why she couldn't cry on her deathbed. Because Elise, Elise...

Tears that I had never been able to shed just started flowing from my eyes. All these years carrying these feelings that I had been ignoring did their thing.

Liselotte could do nothing but watch me in silence.

-Elise... she loved the mankind more than she loved me... that's why she didn't want to fight any more and gave her life to you to end all that senseless conflict...

-...

-Never. No one would be able to win over that love, so great and strong that she sacrificed herself for all of you while sparing your lives.

-...

-All Elise could do was to heal my wounds from that fight, while she said goodbye to me. I couldn't even... hear her say that she loved me once... you took that away from me...

-...

-If it had ended well... Elise would have been with me for all this lonely eternity... but.... You humans stole the person I loved the most from me! Do you even know what Elise meant to me?! No, no, no, no, no! All you cared about was saving your own damn asses by trampling your own mother!

-...

-I didn't... belong anywhere before I met her...! Do you have any idea how horrible it is to have your own family denigrate you just because of your mother's origin?! To be looked at like dirt just because the emperor's bastard couldn't keep his dick in his trousers?! You have no idea, you goddamn child!

-...

-Meeting Elise was the most beautiful experience of my life! I fell in love with her so much that my love still burns even a thousand years after her death! She was my light during my darkest moment!

-...

-Elise gave me a reason to continue to exist... she gave me everything, I became who I am now because of her close appreciation! That's why... when she died... I had no choice but to consume her blood in order to keep her with me forever!

-...

-And now... in the present, there suddenly appears a brat who calls herself the same as her... her face, her voice, her personality... everything is the same as that Elise... but I know it's not her...

-...! Vivian, what did you do?! How did you meet Elise?!

...

I reach my left hand inside my inventory, and I pull out from that place, taking her by the hair, the corpse of the impostor who called herself Elise.

Liselotte's expression went from horror to spontaneous anger.

It was there that she understood why "Hollow Death" had been deployed inside the dungeon.

This wretched imitation... she needed the damn thing to die or she could not be at peace.

-I told you not to dare touch a single hair on her head! Why did you do this! She has nothing to do with the past!

Liselotte came towards me, and grabbed me by the collar of my shirt.

The tears were over, washed away by the rainwater. I let my head fall to one side, replying...

-... I just wanted to... -. I said in an almost inaudible tone of voice.

Liselotte then prepares to slap me. The blow didn't make my face change direction, but I felt it anyway.

-You're not a child, Vivian! I told you... she's not of this world, she has nothing to do with your damned people... and you... you killed her...

Liselotte's voice seems to break. As if she wants to cry, but she's holding back.

-I warned you... I have no choice, Vivian. I'm sorry it's all ended this way.

Spheres of energy gather around Liselotte, these are spheres of mana in its purest state, Prana. In the face of such an accumulation of power, space seems to distort as a black miasma begins to surround us.

She is getting serious.

-If you must die to avenge the death of my friend, so be it. You murdered my purpose for this world, one of Alexander Yggsdrasil Maxwell's last wishes. I cannot forgive you.

...

I hate this damned performance.

I grab Liselotte by the neck, and with all my gripping strength in my right hand I corner her against a nearby tree.

-Kgh! -. She gasps at the sudden impact.

-Let's do what we never did in our rookie years, a fair and equal fight! We're all that's left of a dead era! Let's decide once and for all who's the most powerful monster today!

Liselotte struggles to break free from my grip, but it's no use. She would never be able to beat me in physical strength no matter how hard she tries.

However, she still still has a considerable amount of stats, and by raising her body to apply a constriction technique on my right arm, she managed to completely destabilise the grip and reverse it in her favour.

-All right, let's do this. Let's finish what started here a thousand years ago, Vivian Ifgraine.

-So be it, Liselotte Sitri!

A rain of blood is about to begin. Two immortal beings who can nullify immortality in two different ways are about to clash.

This is certainly a spectacle worth seeing for everyone. So I hope the heavens will delight in what we are about to do.