Until This World Ends

Ch18: Received Scars

Those whose wings ignited freely were trained under Lord Tollsfee. Tokio took over the fighter's strength, while Vajin-Rex handled training on the energy core. They were both befitting a legacy that surpassed this world, as the Goddess mentioned. Hin proved to be the most successful with the beastial rage needed to hone the claws to perfection.

This left Loric free to modify weapons that ran off each man's faith as they geared up to end it all.

They weren't waiting for the rift to come to them anymore. Nor would they breach the other world. They assumed it would kill them as easily as their world killed the demons. No, this was solely baiting the thing that Ashera feared into coming to find them.

Regis wondered at her capacity to think when she revealed that one to him. It wasn't caged in her hidden tones, leading him by the nose. It was a direct plea to allow her to hide from the monsters she had fated them to kill. She did it all in fear of whatever lived out there beyond the demons and dragons.

The individual rifts that popped up due to dragons forced a team of two to live in each city across the many nations. Someone had to meet the menace of draconian demons that shielded themselves in shadows. They weren't always successful in killing them before they wreaked havoc across their respective cities. At least people still lived in them, instead of these monsters being the end. Trains were being taxed in their movement of refugees from stronghold to stronghold, though.

It was inevitable. They had to end this.

Loric built a traveling cage and packed it onto the last train going back up to the Cradle of Man. They intended to bring their fights full circle. Gareth felt too old to fight as an octogenarian. He stayed near Ashera, as he could call out the rifts the bigger demons made as they broke open. If everything went well, this would be the last gate from the depths he predicted.

There would be no rapture, no rebirth, just unending freedom to live their lives free of this burden.

Regis didn't lead on any battlefronts. He would often walk to the front line. They gave up on horses a few turns back. They weren't creatures that could have faith in order to keep up with the growing menace. Today, though, he walked out side by side with Gareth. It was a bittersweet memory of past lives.

"Please, don't bring me out there!" Ashera mumbled at them both. She had been stoic up until the moment they brought her to the rift. "They are looking for me."

Regis glared at her. Of course, this thing that kept creeping in was here for her. Would they have a world without her?

If he could guarantee it, he would feed her to that beast himself to be free of the unending years. But no, he had no guarantees.

She didn't ever tell them things about herself that made sense until she finished toying with her people. Why would she be truthful now? "We are done playing."

"It isn't play. We will all cease to be."

How many times did she try to force him to cease and fail? The very idea that she thought something out there was more capable than herself sent shivers down his spine. Then it angered him even further. What was the point of making and remaking mankind if she couldn't have faith in them in return? "If that's all the praise you have for your work, you should have let us go a long time ago."

"Valentine..."

"Do not!" Regis caught his anger behind his teeth. The faithful did not need him raging at their Goddess in the middle of the field. They had a hard enough time accepting her in a cage. Ignoring a foul-minded king who shouted against being her prophet for all these years was difficult enough. "I am not that man anymore. We are not sacrificing on your terms."

"Give me a chance to test other powers, anything!"

The four he settled for hung like a millstone around his neck, a burden he chose to bear. They both knew that they would be agreeing to torture. "Is the pain I cause you much less than what's out there?"

"Yes. That's..." She bit her lip, not wanting to confess to what led the demons out from the depths of the void. "There are worse things in other worlds than what I have allowed you to do."

"Then break free and run away."

"I'd have to call you all home, and we'd do this all over again." She settled back against the bars. "I can't do this any more."

"And neither can I." With that, he turned away from her and started to pick up his pace, moving to the front.

She called out one last temptation to pull the rebellious king off course: "I can give you Guin!"

That hurt. Regis would have torn out his own heart to know both his children had made it back into this world. With him distrusting his queen and the other he once loved fleeing with his son, there had been no hope for the little girl. This was not the decision to make with death bearing down on them.

It wasn't something that he often admitted to himself. The thoughts of his girl were painfully sweet. The biggest factor in why he wanted these damn fights out of the way was so he could figure out a way to share a world with his children. He had already missed out on most of Carwen's childhood, damn Valeria.

And the Goddess knew her people. She knew him so well that she made sure he received every scar he'd ever given her. He was beginning to wonder if there was any rest in the women of this world, but then, who did he allow respite? He looked back at Ashera, huddled and fearful, the mold from which all womanhood sprang. Would she offer herself as the mother of his child to escape this battle?

It was insanity to be the father of a little goddess.

But if she did, she could call him whatever the depths she wanted. He'd gladly be Valentine again.

Surely, she'd find a suitable woman, not herself.

Regis sighed. It didn't matter. He would have a few more years with that bright little girl and then lose her. He'd be back on this field, with Ashera still running away from everything that this battle carried. "That is a discussion for the man who saves you from your fears, not the one who has failed you time and time again. I'm not the man you should bribe."

He turned away from her as she shot back, "Then who is he?"