Gambit Of The Living Weapon - Chapter 279 Before the end

During that night, the last night before the final battle, after a long day of training, magic practicing, combat, and testing their skills with one another, it was time to finally rest and wait for the next day to arrive.

Naturally, many were having trouble falling asleep at that night.

As some assumed that the worse might come to happen and were not aware if they would still be alive on the day after tomorrow, they assumed it would be the best to close a few loose ends before the end.

Part 2

“Hey, bro…” Ashley whispered while dangling her brother who was now stuck in the body of a fur fro toy by his leg, “How long were you planning to keep avoiding me…?”

“Ah… If it isn’t my useless sister…” Xadi commented while trying his best to avoid looking her in the face, “You came to mock me before your head gets bitten off tomorrow?”

Ashley just looked at him while memories started to flood in her mind. How he tried to kill her and Evlin many times with his lightning magic, how he tried to make her best friend turn into his slave, how he chased them all the way to Emerald Dawn, and how many times he told her that she was a useless bag of trash that he wishes would be just disposed of already.

Even after all this time, after finally getting a reunion, these were still the first words he had for her.

“I saw you finally got an apprentice like you wanted…” Ashley commented.

“Ah! Indeed! Despite your best efforts to completely ruin me, I still managed to find a way to come out on top! That kid will bring me a lot of fortune in the future after I properly nurture him!” Xadi boasted.

Ashley knew that after this whole Knucker thing was over, Joseph would have to return home, but she avoided commenting about that, “He seems to really like you for some reason… I’m honestly surprised…”

“I treat people the way they deserve to be treated!” Xadi explained, “He actually listens to my instructions, so I take care to teach him respect! While you are a waste of mine and everyone’s time, so I do my best to just ignore you even exist… Sounds fair, right?”

Ashley glared at the toy, “You know… I cried when I saw you die… Back at the south kingdom…”

“Good for you, I laughed after I heard about you having your body stolen by a demon!” Xadi replied.

“You really have nothing to say to me!!?? You’re my only relative still alive… I’m your sister!! I know we had our differences but… Tomorrow might be the last time we see each other! Can’t you show a little bit of affection for me at least once??”

The red-haired woman finally lowered her arm and released the toy on the ground. Xadi turned around and started to walk away but his sister began to respond while he was still close.

“I did not kill your wife… You ungrateful jerk… I tried to help her! I tried to help you many times!! I just wasn’t able to!! I didn’t ask to be born unable to perform magic!!”

“Then why were you born at all…?” he replied before finally leaving.

Once Ashley was finally alone, Evlin appeared from behind a tree and came closer to hug her sister who was now looking at the ground while sobbing non-stop.

“I’m so sorry…” Evlin whispered.

“You were right…” Ashley mumbled while cleaning her nose, “He hasn’t changed at all…”

“But you have! And tomorrow, he will see that!” Evlin replied.

“Thank you, Evlin…”

“Anytime, sis…”

Part 2

Marcus was sitting on a rock gazing at the bright light of the full moon while rubbing his hands when he suddenly heard a soft voice coming from behind.

“Hey…”

The lad turned around to see who it was and was met by Leona who was now wearing some casual clothing and had her wet for some reason.

“Hey…” he responded, “Did you just took a bath…?”

“Your mother and I managed to improvise a bit with my fire magic and her ice magic while she trained me the ways of master-class magic… We managed to make a hot-spring!”

“That’s nice! I think I will try it too!”

“All the women are taking it right now, so it might take a while…” Leona explained as she took a seat next to the silver-haired young man, “You… Mind if we chat for a bit…?”

“Not at all…” Marcus replied, “I don’t know if I make it too obvious but I actually don’t like being alone… But I feel awkward just asking for someone to make me company…”

“I know the feeling… I also have trouble showing people that I do not mind their presence… But many just look at me and assume that I rather be by myself for some reason…”

“Guess that make us fellow loners…”

“I guess!” she replied with a giggle.

The two stayed in silence for a moment gazing at the moon when Marcus suddenly made a comment.

“Feels just like that night…”

“The night when Hana arrived? After we had the war with Mia?” Leona guessed.

“Yeah… I’m sure you must be worried about your friends… The other east followers…”

“They… Are not really my friends… They feel more like co-workers if anything…” Leona corrected while removing her hair from her eyes, “Honestly, you guys are probably the first friends I’ve ever had…”

“Seriously?”

“Fire magic is not a very popular skill to have… It’s the easiest kind of magic to use to harm someone… I was not very popular among the other kids growing up because everyone assumed I would burn them…”

“Must have been rough…” Marcus commented, “I didn’t even know other kids when I was young… Fighting demons was all I would do all day, every day…”

Leona smiled at him, “Looks like being alone is not the only thing we both share in common…”

Marcus lifted his face and stared at Leona’s ember eyes, the natural color of fire, as she herself stared at his blue eyes, the natural color of water.

“Do you ever think about that night…?” Leona asked.

“You mean the night you sneaked into my room, kissed me, pushed me down, and then stood up with your face burning of embarrassment after realizing what you had done, followed by running away to your quarters like a teenage girl?” Marcus answered with a giggle, “How could I forget?”

Leona began to blush and cover her face with her blond hair, “That wasn’t my proudest moment… Could you please forget that ever happened?”

“Why? It was cute!”

“It was lame!!!” Leona replied, “I looked pathetic!!”

Marcus laughed and then removed her hair from her face again, “It was cute! You’re cute…”

Once he finished removing the hair, his palm began to hold her cheek.

“Are you going to run away again this time?” he wondered.

“Maybe…” She admitted, “So… Please do it fast!”

And not wasting any time, Marcus moved closer to unite both of their lips to feel the blood rushing through her body and making her skin burn.

Once he backed off, he realized that Leona wasn’t just burning from the kiss, her hair had somehow caught on fire while they were distracted, but it didn’t seem like it was hurting her.

“Whoa…” he gasped, “I think you got the hang of master-class magic already… You’re on fire!”

Leone didn’t notice the fire and before the lad could warn her, she just pulled his face to kiss him one more time.

“Indeed…” she responded.

Part 3

“Do you remember anything…?” Ria asked as she walked with her rested sister by her side after changing clothes from a bath together.

“I remember being in this white open space with miss Evlin…” Dia explained, “And there was this girl that looked like you, but much younger, and much scarier…”

“I see…” Ria replied, assuming the person in question was probably Mia, “Did she tell you anything…? Any last words before… Leaving…?”

“She told me to never become her… She looked sad…”

“Sad…?” Ria gasped, “I can’t remember the last time I saw my sister sad… She’s always either bored with everything or acting like she’s having a party…”

“I- I don’t know… I didn’t get to talk much to her…”

“It’s fine… Probably better to know as little as possible anyway…”

“Did… Did you hated her…?” Mia wondered.

Ria stopped walking and lifted her head to gaze at the sky, as if she was wondering if her sister was now in there somewhere among the stars alongside the rest of her family.

“I loved her… More than anything in this world…” she admitted, “But I couldn’t stand looking at this thing she was turning into… So anytime we would reunite, I would do my best to avoid her… It was just too much to see my little sister turned into a monster like that…”

Dia began to rub her shoulder, “Do… Do you hate me…?”

Ria crouched and gave Dia a hug, “I don’t… But I don’t know what I’m feeling right now, to be honest… So… Could you be a little patient with me? I need some time to figure this out…”

“Does this mean I can be your sister? Can I… Can I stay with you…?”

“I don’t know… Me and my husband have a contract to fight demons for our boss the west goddess… If you stay with us you would lose the chance to live a normal life…”

“I don’t mind!” Dia replied, “I’m already used to that anyway! Miss Detra reached me how to fight!”

Ria watched as Dia raised her arm and turned her skin into red metal.

“Unless… You don’t want me to stay with you…”

Ria stood up and kissed Dia’s forehead while lowering her arm, “Of course I want to stay with you… I just don’t want my little sister to be dragged into this craziness again…”

“But… I have nowhere else to go! Our only other relative is a goddess in the divine realm!”

Ria stared at the girl, “We will figure something out… Don’t worry! If not, you can stay with me as long as you want!”

“Really!!??”

“I promise!”

Part 4

Auren and Daren were watching Lance and Cia play with each other while Eclips, Sphinx, and the new griffin cuddled themselves against the two men during the silence of the night.

“What happened to him…?” Daren asked while looking at Sphinx and wondering why he wasn’t by Evlin’s side.

“Oh… I’m not really sure…” Auren admitted, “Something about being stuck inside Evlin’s mind and being imprisoned by her inner voices when the two were fused and now he’s afraid of staying close to her…”

“Ah…” Daren blinked and tried to pretend he understood a single word of what he just heard, “I hate when that happens…”

The three beasts soon began to fall asleep after a couple of seconds leaving their owners alone with their kids.

“I can’t believe Gustav is gone…” Auren whispered, “After everything we’ve been through… I kinda started to feel like nothing could ever happen to us… It’s so… I don’t even know…”

“I know what you mean…” Daren commented, “I feel like garbage…”

“It’s just… We are always together, you know…? The three of us, me, Ria, and him… The three supporters… We never really cared too much for not being good enough to be the living weapon’s partner because, well, we all were in the same boat… At least we could not be good enough together… And now he’s gone…”

Daren scratched his hair. This was not the first person in his life that he lost, but it was still a terrible experience that made him feel like his heart had just been stabbed.

“How’s Ria doing?” Daren wondered.

“Like usual… Trying to put up a smile so everyone will be at ease and waiting for everyone to calm down so she can mourn in secret… That woman really doesn’t know how to let others share her burden…” Auren explained, “What about Lilith?”

“Not so good…” Daren admitted, “She keeps thinking that she should have tried harder and made a better job of protecting us… I don’t know… She also seems to think it’s her job to carry the weight by herself… This isn’t the kind of thing where people act rationally when it happens…”

Auren lifted his head to gaze at his friend, “You seem like you’re doing better than us…”

“I’m kinda used to it… Sadly… When you see so many people going… You kinda start to accept just how fragile our lives really are…”

“I see…”

“You think he had any regrets….?” Daren wondered as he gazed at Cia pulling the hair from his son’s head and making him cry.

“Not sure… He never told me about anything, in particular, he wanted to do that was left undone… As far as I know, he just wanted to help people, just like most of us…” Auren commented.

“Well… He helped us many times in the past…” Daren noted as he raised his son that had run towards him to escape from the baby girl, “I don’t think I would be here looking at Lance right now if it wasn’t for him… I would still be stuck as a slave for Mia right now…”

“Same… He helped us many times when we needed him… Even if he refuses to admit it…” Auren agreed while looking at his daughter, “I just hope we can continue to look at our children like this after tomorrow…”

Part 5

“So tomorrow is the big day, huh?” Ellie commented while exiting the hot springs and helping Lilith to dress up with Claire’s help.

“So it seems…” Lilith commented.

Claire just looked at the two while trying to dry her hair with a towel while trying to see if Joseph had tried to peek at them.

“I hope all of you are ready…” Detra commented as she also exited the baths as well after having fully clothing herself, “We are this close to finally ending this nonsense, please try to not mess anything up in the end…”

“Is this your weird way of telling us to be careful, Detra?” Lilith wondered.

“Please… As if anything I said ever entered that thick skull of you and your friends…”

“Honestly…” Lilith smiled, “Your words have helped us way more than you expect… We probably would not be here today if it wasn’t for you… In many ways…”

“Yeah, well, don’t get used to it…” Detra commented, “After Knucker is dead, I’m going back to the other world and will never think about you guys again…”

Ellie then lifted her head to look at Lilith, her old traveling-partner with whom she entered Hana’s garden with and overcame many challenges.

“I guess this will be goodbye then…” Ellie whispered.

“So it seems…” Lilith agreed, “I would ask you guys to stay a bit longer, but if you do, there is a chance that something else might show up and force you to stay even more…”

“I would love that, but, I just want to see my mother again right now…” Claire replied.

“Same here…” Ellie added, “My mom and dad must be worried sick about me right now… And my grandmother must be going mad thinking about where my aunt is… I don’t think we ever even fixed her apartment after Mia tore it apart…”

“Indeed…” Detra mumbled, “It is best that we leave as soon as possible! So get to sleep and rest, young miss!

Tomorrow, everything will finally end.”