Bacorium Legacy (78 page)

“Perhaps I would do that,” she said. “But it's not mine to give.”

“What are you saying? That sword belonged to Marcus... You stole it when you killed him!”

“I did,” she said. “But I have no intention of keeping that sword, or even using it. I don't care much for blades, to be honest. Too barbaric. My way of killing is - different.” With that last sentence, a wicked grin crossed her features.

“Then...” Luca trailed off, unsure of the situation. It was looking more and more like he had no chance of reasoning with this insane woman. But if he was going to kill her, then how should he go about it? He would have to be careful, after all - one touch was all she needed, and he would die.

“The sword belongs to my true master,” Verra said.

“Zinoro?”

“No. Never. I merely acted the part. What I told Serpos wasn't a lie, really. Gordon is the one who betrayed Zinoro. I'm no traitor - because I was never his.”

Verra pulled herself up to her feet, and brushed the dirt off her clothes. Luca took a step back as she did, to keep a safe distance.

“My true master is far greater than Zinoro,” Verra continued. “I would give my life to her without question. I am doing my duty, and bringing Marcus' sword. And if I must give my life to keep it from you, so be it.”

Before Luca could stop her, she kicked the sword behind her, and it fell into the valley.

Verra smiled. “You should get back to your friends. Serpos will kill them if you dawdle here too long.”

And then, laughing aloud, Verra stepped backwards and tipped over the edge, disappearing into the chasm after the sword.

“No!” Luca shouted. He ran after her, and peered over the edge just in time to see her for a brief second before she vanished completely in the thick fog that filled the chasm. For half an insane second, he considered jumping after her, and using his teleportation magick to bring her back up. But he knew that wouldn't work. Even if he could see her through the fog, and see the ledge again after grabbing her, she would still use her magick to kill him.

And even if he could save her, it would be pointless. Because he would still not have the Rixeor Fragment.

“Dammit - I shouldn't have hesitated...”

But he knew why he had. Killing faceless revenants was fine. Killing scum like Dreevius was even easier. But killing a woman, especially in such a way as he would have needed to? He knew he wasn't that ruthless, even if it was a woman who he knew was a murderer.

But still, in the most important moment, he had failed.

Verra's last words reminded him of the fighting in the city. “Serpos...” he muttered.

Now that was someone he could kill.

He warped back to the gate, and ran through it into the city. The fire Serpos had started was growing, he now noticed. It had spread to other buildings, and covered almost the entire side of the street. There didn't seem to be any more revenants. Those that the behemoth hadn't trampled down must have been killed by Brand and Wiosna.

Luca did not see Serpos, nor did he see Wiosna. But he did spot Brand, collapsed in the street, on the side that was not ablaze. Gordon was at his side, apparently tending to his wounds.

Luca ran to them. Brand's was bleeding in several spots, but the wounds didn't appear to be too bad. The worst seemed to be a gash in his side, which Gordon was wrapping bandages around.

“Are you alright?”

Brand gave a shaky nod.

“Where's Wiosna?”

“Still fighting that guy...” Brand muttered. He pointed to one of the alleyways at the other side of the street, where the flames grew every moment. “They went over that way.”

Luca took off in the direction Brand pointed to, ignoring Gordon's shouts. Entering the alley, he found himself running between two burning buildings. The flames were overwhelming, but he tried not to think about that. His sword still in his hand, he searched vigilantly for Serpos and Wiosna.

“-scumbag!”

He froze. The sound had come from inside one of the houses. Though it was on fire like all the others, it was still intact. The doorway, which appeared to have been open just a moment ago, was broken off its hinges.

Through a gap in the boards, Luca could see the shape of Wiosna, in what appeared to be a kitchen. She was on one knee, coughing. Her glasses were off, and there were several cuts across her face. A few droplets of blood ran down her chin, and as she gave another coughing fit, she coughed up more blood, clutching her ribs as she did so.

“Weak,” came the sound of Serpos' voice. “You're all weak. I enjoy the fights, but I'm disappointed in you all. Is this really the best the Alliance has to offer?”

Wiosna said nothing. She looked like she was struggling just to stay conscious. Luca looked around, trying to get a clear enough image of the room to teleport inside. But there just wasn't enough he could see.

“I'll take you back with me, then,” Serpos said. Luca saw his gloved hand enter frame and grab Wiosna by her throat, lifting her up to her feet. She struggled, but her sword was gone. Luca heard a loud smack, and her struggles ceased.

“I'm going to kill your friends,” Serpos said to her. “And then I'm gonna fuck you until you're cold.”

“N-no...”

“No?” Serpos laughed. “You can't stop me. Nobody is coming to save you. Just give it up. It won't hurt as much if you don't struggle.”

Luca beat his fists against the burning wood. He could feel tears about to form in his eyes, knowing what was about to happen to Wiosna, and knowing he was powerless to stop it.

He couldn't see what was happening to her, but her expression told him it was horrible. She was crying through an expression of terror.

And then, as a drop of blood ran down her forehead, Wiosna's expression changed. The fear vanished, replaced by a blank, empty look. Her eyes were open, looking right at Luca through the gap in the wall, but not seeing him. Those eyes then lit up, and a grin slowly spread across her face. Something about that grin was wrong, and Luca felt as though a bucket of cold water had just been poured over him.

Wiosna then moved, disappearing from frame.

“Oh, so you've stopped struggling, have you?”

“I have.” Her voice was different - almost sultry. The fear was gone.

“Well, not here. This place is on fire. After I've killed your friends - then we can-”

“No, I want it now. I want it now!”

“What are you... Stop that! Stop that you bitch! No! No, don't!”

Serpos then let out a scream unlike anything Luca had ever heard. There was sick tearing sound, and then the sound of something falling on the floor.

“I guess you'll have a little trouble fucking me without that, huh?”

Serpos' screams had died down to pained gasps and sobs.

“That's okay. See, I found this knife in that kitchen? I can just fuck you with this, instead!”

“N-no!”

The sounds of meat being sliced filled the air. Luca was silent through all this, oblivious to the burning buildings around him. He couldn't move, he couldn't think. He was frozen in shock.

After several minutes, the sounds inside the house died down. And then, as though to mock his earlier powerlessness and desperation, half the wall collapsed, allowing him access to the building.

He walked past the flames like they weren't there. It was weird, that through all this the town was burning down around them. He climbed inside the building, finding himself in a bedroom. He ran and kicked the door open, feeling a rush of heat as he did so. He covered his face until it passed, and then ran into the hallway, racing to the kitchen.

“Wiosna!”

He emerged to find her standing in the middle of the room, holding a kitchen knife covered in red. In front of her, collapsed on the floor was a disgusting figure, covered in slices and slashes that had once looked like Serpos. He couldn't keep his eyes on the mangled body too long.

She turned to look as him after he called her name, and her expression softened. Dropping the knife, she ran to him, and into his arms, crying into his chest.

“It's - it's okay...”

Though he consoled her, he was a bit afraid. The voice that had spoken to Serpos was hers, certainly - but he had never heard her utter such cruelty before. It was surreal - he felt like he was dreaming.

“Luca, I - I think I did this...”

He wasn't sure what to say to that.

“Let's just get out of here for now. This place can't stay up much longer.”

She pulled away from him, and wiped the tears from her eyes. “Okay.”

As they left the burning house, Luca couldn't help but take one last glance at the mangled figure of Serpos.

It twitched feebly.

<> <> <>

“I've been trying to get in contact with you since earlier today,” Wiosna said. “You know, with my magick. It's hard to send these kinds of messages if the other person doesn't know they're coming, or an idea of what they're about. But I wanted you to know we were coming to help.”

“I see,” Luca said. “I've been getting headaches.”

“Sorry,” Wiosna said morosely. “I thought I could help, but all it did was cause you more trouble.”

Seeing her sad expression, Luca quickly reassured her. “It's alright. You meant well. It's my fault. I completely forgot you were a Mind-form user. If I'd remembered that, perhaps I would have known.”

Brand and Gordon were silent. The four of them were gathered out by the gate, resting after the battle. The fire had died down, there not being much to burn in the empty town anyway. After Luca had explained what had happened with Verra, and then Serpos, Brand had told them their part of the story.

The Sonoians and Saeticians had retreated for the time being, and according to Selphie, they weren't going to be trying again for a while. There was no word on what was going on with the Torachians, but a letter had been sent informing them of the disaster and urging them to retreat as well.

Zaow and Selphie had left to return to T'Saw with the remainder of their army. Jared went with Selphie, of course, and Ash had gone as well. Brand and Wiosna, after hearing about Luca and Emila fleeing to Acaria, had chosen to go after them. Over the course of ten days, they had tracked Luca the same way he had tracked Emila, but being unable to close the lead until today.

Brand had expected Emila to be with Luca, though. “But if she isn't with you, then...”

“I don't know.”

After getting the rest of the explanation, including who Gordon was and why he was helping Luca, Wiosna had calmed down enough from the events with Serpos to tell Luca about trying to contact him through her Mind magick.

Gordon looked as depressed as Wiosna. “You should have told me about those headaches. I'm a Mind-form magus myself. I would have known what they were, and possibly been able to decode them.”

“You are?” Wiosna said, sitting up in interest.

“Indeed,” he said, and his face fell. “I'm sorry, Luca. Mind-form has little use in combat, and after that arrow struck me I could hardly walk. There was nothing I could do but get in your way.”

“I understand.”

“If I could have moved even a bit beyond crawling, I could have gone after Verra while you were fighting Serpos,” he continued. “But I couldn't even do that, and now we've lost the sword. We were so close, and we let it slip right through our fingers...”

Luca didn't care about that. It was frustrating, sure - but at the moment he was more concerned about Wiosna. She was being quiet. He wasn't sure what had happened back at that house, but he knew that Wiosna had acted very unlike herself and done something terrible. And she didn't seem to remember doing it.

He had never encountered something like this before. Was this the only time this had ever happened? Or has this happened before? Some of her behaviour was odd at times, like when she had impulsively kissed him in Reven - was that part of this as well?

He didn't know what to do about this. For the time being, though, he would have to just keep an eye on her.

“Luca...” Brand said, looking up at him. “If you've been chasing this Verra woman all this time, then where has Emila gone?”

Luca frowned. “I wish I knew.”

An arrow flew past Luca's ear and bounced off the stone wall before him. He gasped, time seeming to stop as he realised how close it had come to hitting his skull.

“What?!” Wiosna exclaimed.

“What was that?!” Brand asked.

Luca turned, drawing his sword anew. In the distance, on the other side of the town, he saw a figure stepping out from behind the dead behemoth, carrying one of the revenants' bows.

“He's still alive...!” Wiosna gasped.

Serpos fired another arrow. This one would have likely hit one of them - whoever Serpos was aiming for - but Brand threw out a fireball that intercepted the arrow and burnt it to ash.

“I'll kill you!” Serpos screamed at them.

Luca held his sword with both hands in a combat stance. The blade was pointed straight ahead at Serpos.

“I know what to do now,” Luca said.

He used his teleportation magick, warping from where he was to right in front of Serpos.

Serpos gasped, his mangled and burned face suddenly shocked.

Luca's sword, which was still held before him, was buried in his chest, having materialised inside him when Luca had appeared. Luca hadn't needed to move a muscle.

The twisted face shifted into a grin. “There you go. Now you're doing it right.”

He dropped the bow and grabbed the blade of Luca's sword. Despite missing a few fingers on each hand, he was still able to grip it well enough to pull himself towards Luca. Serpos slid down the blade slowly, leaving a trail of blood on the end sticking out of his back. As he drew closer, Luca thought he was going to attack him, but instead he spoke to Luca in a ragged, dying voice.

“She's at Acarienthia.”

“What? Who is?”

Serpos' grin grew. “Your little girlfriend. The one you came here chasing after. She went to the capital to plead with Zinoro to show mercy. But - hehe... Zinoro is stronger than me... He had no mercy.”

“Emila...?”

“That's what you earn for besting me,” Serpos said. “Now - make an end of it.”