Dawn- An age of Darkness

"Your business is with me, so would you mind letting them go?" But before anything, Alisa tried to reason.

"What the hell are you saying?" 

I was finally going to fully focus on the emperor again but Alisa was saying weird stuff. 

The emperor poised his sword at me. "UNFORTUNATELY, I CANNOT PERMIT THEM TO LIVE AFTER WITNESSING THIS FORM."

"Sounds kind of cliché." I took a stance. I was out of options. 

I could use magic but that wouldn\'t be effective and so far, I couldn\'t hit him properly, unless I took hits. Even if I took hits and hit him, there was no guarantee it\'d be enough. 

And with all the stones dry, my physical capabilities weren\'t quite what they were even minutes ago. Just Imbuition wasn\'t going to be enough. 

That\'s when- "Then we\'ll just have to defeat you right here, right now." Alisa gave me some of her mana and a pale blue aura covered me. 

Well, at least I had her backing. 

She froze Ve\'s wound and was trying to heal her. 

Meanwhile- the Emperor was being courteous again by not attacking… He was serious, I could tell, but even now, he didn\'t really try any cowardly attacks- at least not yet.

Meaning- he wasn\'t the least concerned about or he hadn\'t even considered the possibility of him losing. 

I didn\'t rush in; I didn\'t quite wait for him to strike either. Instead, I was waiting for him to try to make a move. I knew what his target was- so if I could only react just before he attacked-

He came my way- fast. 

No time to think!

But I took a step back and as expected he showed up just behind me, swinging his sword over at Alisa\'s head. I blocked it. 

And he called me predictable!

The almost invisible translucent hands punched me on my chest and stomach. I almost spat blood but- I kicked the emperor\'s chest and threw him back. I guess fighting that guy this morning wasn\'t a waste after all. 

"Careful, he can teleport," Alisa said.

"Uh-huh. He could also teleport you guys and use you as shields, so be careful."

The emperor hadn\'t fallen. He merely shrugged and grinned. "GOOD, GOOD, BUT NOT ENOUGH."

For someone who talked about power and all this crap, he sure wasn\'t all that great either. 

I was basically running on fumes and he couldn\'t take down me, so why the hell was he enjoying and saying I wasn\'t enough?

Weird. 

Anyway. He dashed forward again and I blocked him again. The whole thing repeated as I kicked him, punched him, he punched me, and vice versa. It just went on. 

We punched each other, bled, but in the end, he had better healing and he was back to normal before long. Meanwhile, I was out of breath and potions. 

This was not working.

He cracked his knuckles and neck. "ANYWAY, THAT\'S ENOUGH WARMING UP. SHALL WE GET DOWN TO BUSINESS, PRINCESS? OR WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO GET SERIOUS?" He was speaking directly to Alisa. 

So, he wasn\'t serious till now?

What?

He didn\'t seem like the type to be bluffing. Or maybe he was just an expert. 

But wait, even moments ago- he wanted to kill me. But now he didn\'t?

Something didn\'t quite add up.

"So, now you want to talk?" Alisa grinned. 

She probably had a plan, judging by that look. 

"AS PER OUR DEAL, I\'VE COME TO CLAIM YOUR LIFE AND YOUR CORE."

Her life and her core?

Basically, he wanted to kill her. 

"Unfortunately, I\'ve changed my mind and I\'d appreciate it if you didn\'t kill me." Alisa met him head-on. She didn\'t look away even for a second. "And I\'m assuming you\'d kill us all here even if I were to just hand over my core to you."

The emperor stopped grinning. "A DEAL\'S A DEAL, PRINCESS. NO MATTER WHAT, YOU CANNOT BREAK A DEAL WITH A DEMON. AND ARENT YOU GODS SUPPOSED TO BE TRUE TO YOUR WORDS?" He mocked. 

"Well, it\'s a shame I\'m only half a god." She grinned and kicked the ground. "Ice Bind Fury!"

The floor beneath the emperor lit up in blue writings. He let out a scream in agony. The scream gradually got worse and worse as blue chains, chained him down. The chains had thorns and it looked awfully painful. His new wounds started to freeze and I finally got why Alisa was being so optimistic. 

"NOW!" Alisa screamed.

"Right!"

I gripped my sword tight and ran for the emperor. I didn\'t know why but this three-second run felt like an eternity but- I finally reached him and shoved the sword straight through his chest. 

The light of the emperor\'s eyes ceased to be. 

The chains shattered. The light disappeared. 

\'Finally.\' 

My heart raced. Everything felt surreal. We\'d done it.

But wasn\'t that too easy? \'Could it be-!?\'

We\'d-

"Oh no!" Alisa grunted. 

The emperor\'s eyes lit up again and he caught me in a split second, lifted me up by my neck. Dark liquid oozed out of his wounds and healed him. The invisible hands grabbed all of my body so I couldn\'t move.

My sword was still in him but I couldn\'t move it anymore. 

The holy field which was active till now- vanished. 

"AS I SAID, NOT GOOD ENOUGH. YOU SHOULD HAVE JUST LISTENED TO ME AND HANDED HER OVER." His voice was much colder and he looked at me with the intent to kill me. "AND I EVEN WENT AS FAR AS TO SPARE YOUR LIFE TOO… SUCH A SHAME…"

But I tried to just shove the sword deeper and- he caught my hand- he tore my whole arm from my shoulder. 

"AHAHHQHQHQHHDHDFHFHFHFH!"

I\'d never screamed like that in my life. The pain was unbearable. Even being punctured in the heart paled in comparison. 

My muscles, my bones, my everything- torn.

Tears streamed down my face and I couldn\'t control them. Blood gushed out at first but soon it ran out.

The pain was too real- so real, I felt like going mad. I couldn\'t hear much- I couldn\'t see much: I couldn\'t even comprehend my own screams. Everything went blurry and the only reason I was still conscious was the thought in the back of my mind –\'I\'m dying?\'

He threw me on the ground and used my sword to impale me. "ARh!"

Icicle after icicle hit him but nothing happened. 

He pulled out the sword and looked at it. "This sword gave you so much courage that you thought even if you lost everything, as long as you had this, you had a shot? And you thought just because you got new equipment, you got training, you could win?" He smiled, threw the sword on the ground, and stepped on it. "Naivety at its finest."

The mystic blade shattered.

Then he stepped on my chest. I screamed but at this point, I didn\'t have the energy to do anything anymore. The pain had mostly dulled and at this point, I didn\'t think even the curse could save me. 

Immortal my ass.

The emperor lifted his sword up and punctured my chest, slowly making the sword cut up. "It would seem you are almost immortal but- how about your memories? Are they too immortal?"

The sword came up and up and arhgghgh!

I couldn\'t scream anymore- nor talk. I could only cry and drown in my own blood.

"Get away from him!" An unknown voice came from behind me. The bunny girl- Biteria. She could talk! 

But the emperor just struck her with black lightning and she fell on the ground, twitching. 

I couldn\'t even raise my hand-

"Please- don\'t kill him. You can take my life and-" Alisa came forward. "Let\'s, let\'s make the deal."

The emperor\'s voice was too stable. "This is why I despise your kind. You knew very well this would happen, and yet, you enraged me on purpose: hope really is a fickle emotion. I\'m a lenient demon, but- I\'d take your life regardless. And since you caused me so much waste, I\'ll make all your deaths extra painful!"

The emperor lifted up Alisa by her throat just like he\'d lifted me. 

"And since-" He looked at me. "I\'ll tell you a story."

A story?

What story?

I was on the verge of fainting and-

"Once upon a time, there was a certain kingdom which was on the verge of being destroyed because the queen had slept with a cunning god. The king disowned her and the queen had to run away for her life. The king had married into the family and the queen was the only real royal, hence a war broke out. Revolts awoke everywhere and by the time the rebel soldiers caught the queen, she\'d already given birth and was dead: murdered to be precise." His grin intensified. "The newborn was a god and her cries summoned me to this world: She offered me her life in exchange for me to avenge her mother and let her escape. I obliged and the country met its end. Our deal had a grace period of five thousand years. And it\'s exactly five thousand years today, therefore don\'t be sad, I\'m only easing her pain of losing everyone she ever loved or would have loved." His grin widened as his cheeks made an almost V curve. 

So- this guy destroyed her whole kingdom?

"Sorry- Daarc-"

Crack!

Blood spilled everywhere. 

Her corpse fell right next to me. Her blood-

But even though her neck was shattered, her arms moved. She picked up my pendant, broke it, and said something. "I love you." She caressed my face with her blood-stained hand: her hand fell, her breath was no more. 

"How touching." The vampire arose from the emperor\'s shadow.

"NOW-"

Something broke within me: Something died.