Whispers of a Dead Empire - Chapter 117

I fell once more. It was something that I wasn’t ready for. But it was relentless. I plummeted through what felt like a limitless fog as my mind tried to connect the dots. Who was Quintus again?

My mind wandered and drifted as I fell through the haze until at least it clicked. He was once a great hero. He was the angel of people, at least until he fell.

But just as suddenly as the thought came, the fog was torn away from my vision. I stood in a large courtyard. Overlooking it was an enormous palace that stood at the top of a large flight of stairs. All around me were countless bodies. The once beautiful courtyard was now filled with dried and coagulated blood. Heads were cleanly cut from their body, and corpses lay strewn from head to toe and stacked high. But the rest of the area was covered in what looked like white static, obscuring everything else that wasn’t important.

My eyes wandered, soaking in the carnage. What could have caused all of this?

“Show yourself, you filthy traitor.” I heard Alessia’s voice tear through the eerie silence. Her words filled to the brim with bile and hatred. Quickly, my eyes locked onto her, and it felt like a serrated blade stabbed my heart.

Her once beautiful mane of white hair was now matted and covered in drying blood. Her once golden armor was broken and sundered in countless places, letting blood ebb out in a steady flow. Her face was pale, and dark rings encased her eyes. The pole ax she used was scratched, chipped, and covered in dried blood. Its luster was drowned by the sheer amount of life it had taken.

“Oh, Alessia, you haven’t changed one bit, have you?” A voice came from the shadows. I could only describe it as snide yet angelic. Like a choir of angels were speaking all at once.

She flourished her poleaxe and pointed it in the being’s direction. My eyes followed it, and I was horrified by what I saw. He looked like an angel. Nobility radiated off him in sickening waves, and his body was sculpted to absolute perfection. He lacked any sort of clothing outside of a pair of slender black pants. But yet his porcelain flesh rippled and writhed like something was lurking under the surface, waiting to be released. His face was absolutely flawless save for a set of glowing red eyes.

Her poleaxe quivered slightly. “Why, Quintus…Why did you betray us?” Her words trailed off slightly as she regarded the angelic man as he moved forward. Each step was exaggerated to show how sublime his body was crafted and how easy it was to move.

A twisted sneer crossed his face, marring his beauty. “Alessia the favored. Alessia the Chosen. Why, why do you have to come and usurp what was always mine?” His muscles flexed, and the two exquisitely carved swords twisted in the air, beckoning to drink fresh blood.

“I did this for you, fool. You always seek glory, and there is none to be found here. Once I discovered you were to be chosen, I realized that you would have withered here. All the glory that you seek would be out of reach. All the new experiences would be forever lost to you. I shouldered that burden so you can continue to live. But you betrayed me.” Tears streamed down her face, washing away dried blood and dirt.

A primal scream ripped through the air, conveying a sense of pain and betrayal that I couldn’t comprehend. “I never needed your help. You were always better than me.” He clenched his fist around his blades as tears streamed down his eyes, as a strange golden aura glowed behind him. “No matter what heights I reached, you were always better. No matter what I did, they always whispered your name on the streets in awe. I’ve slain so many monsters; I’ve saved so many people. I’ve led armies; I’ve broken cities. I’ve cut down walking apocalypses. Yet, why, why have I never overcome your shadow?”

“Quintus, I have never once tried to outdo you. Everything I’ve ever done was for you. Those days on the streets, I did what I did, so you could live. I’ve stolen and fought so that we could live another day. I gave everything just so you could live. Now, I’ve given everything I have left to give, and this is how you repay me?” The quivering of her poleaxe ended, and her golden eyes lit up.

A hiss escaped from his lips. “It doesn’t matter anymore. I’ve made my choice. Come stand with me, Alessia. Together, we can rule as gods. We can overthrow death and live forever.”

Alessia stood there before casting aside her poleaxe and grabbed two swords lying on the ground. “No. You have betrayed me. You have betrayed Asteria, and for what? Petty vengeance? The maiden has fed you honeyed words of poison, and you’ve allowed them to blind you.” She stood up and skillfully brandished the two swords. “My name is Alessia Veers. I am the Chosen of the Empress and her beloved. I renounce you Quintus Regulus Veers. I renounce you as my brother. I renounce you as The Angel of Asteria, and I renounce you as a hero.”

As I stood there watching, I was floored. This was a brother fighting a sister. This was all caused by petty vengeance? The dots connected as I stared at the two, realizing what I was watching. This was where Alessia died. I rushed forward, trying to reach them, but a barrier stopped me. No, no, I didn’t want to watch this.

Quintus stood there, and for a moment, his red eyes flickered. “Sister…” He seemed like he regretted this all, but it vanished just as quickly as it came. With a clap like thunder, Quintus covered the distance, and their swords met with a boom. Blood and stone flew in every direction as two gods of war met in a titanic clash. They traded dozens of blows in a blink of an eye, with neither side being able to score a hit on the other. In a flash, they both broke away from each other, with Alessia looking even worse than she did before.

“You’ve been fighting for three days straight. How are you still this strong?” He hissed as his breath came in ragged waves.

“As long as I draw breath, I will never relent. I have taken my vows, and I will live by them, in life and in death. For her, there is nothing I will not do. There is no moral that I won’t shatter.” She stood, and blood ran more freely than before, but I knew that the fight was ending. She couldn’t possibly keep going on.

“Even after all these years, you haven’t changed. Your sense of loyalty is admirable, sister. Perhaps once I finish with you, I’ll see what you enjoyed so much about her.” Quintus’s words made my skin crawl with the sheer amount of hatred that oozed from them.

He pointed his blades toward Alessia, and golden spears formed from the air. Each radiating a holy fire that washed me in feelings of purity and righteousness. A direct opposite of what radiated from the man. With a flick of his wrist, the dozens of spears rushed towards Alessia like bullets.

She gritted her teeth and nimbly cut through all but one, which broke through her armor. With a sickening crunch, it impaled her to the stone of the courtyard. “But if there was one thing that I know about you, it’s that you cannot use magic. It’s almost admirable how far you’ve gotten with just the use of blade work alone, but that won’t save you now.”

My heart shattered as she coughed up blood. Weakly, she reached up, placed her hand on the spear’s haft, and clenched it. The magic that held it together shattered under her grip, dropping her to the ground in a twisted heap. “Abomination… Accursed…” She struggled to get to her feet. Blood came in a torrent as she pushed herself further.

There was so much blood. More than I thought possible, but it just kept flowing. Why was she doing this? I’m not worth that much. I struggled against the barrier, trying to get to her. I wanted it all to end for her sake. She didn’t deserve to die like this. Not for me.

She stood up. Her golden eyes dimmed by the second as she clenched her blades. I knew what was coming next, but I couldn’t stop it. I reached out, desperate to stop it, but I couldn’t. Quintus circled her like a hound. “Look at you. Look at how weak you are. How pitiful. How far you have fallen, dear sister.” He sneered at her as she stood there. The torrent of blood from her finally slowed to a trickle.

Alessia’s gaze seemed to stretch to eternity before her golden eyes lit once more. “This…ends…here…” Her words were weak, but her body quickly took up a fighting stance.

“Then let’s end this.” He readied his swords as he rushed forward. Their swords met once more in a blinding display of light. Each impact drove craters into the ground under them as the two gods clashed. But Quintus still had the upper hand. Nothing she could do could overwhelm his defenses.

At least until I saw Alessia make a mistake and open her guard, which Quintus quickly took advantage of. In a heartbeat, he was on her, his swords coming to deliver the killing blow. She slipped his guard and plunged one sword into his heart, and the other into his stomach, just as his swords cleaved her cleanly in two.

The lower half of her body hit the ground, and Quintus stood, trying to gasp for breath. Malefic red tendrils slithered around him like a snake in the surrounding air. Alessia was still alive, but just barely. Her fingers weakly stretched out towards the hilt of the swords that were still embedded in the man’s body.

“Shhh, rest now, my dear sister.” The fire that raged in his eyes turned to a burning cinder as he ever so gently lay her down on the ground. His words were airless, yet the red energy around him seeped into his body. “You have earned this defeat.” He lay her down like a loving brother, easily swatting away her weak fingers. Blood coated his lips and drained from his chest. Yet the surrounding energies pulsed with unnatural life and entered him as his life left him.

Even though he was dying, he forced himself to breathe as he laid his dirty hands on MY Alessia. “My blades have drunk Father’s life and the life of everyone in our order. But I didn’t want them to drink yours.” The cinders in his eyes faded, only to be replaced by two eyes of golden radiance as the man wept. “Alessia, I’m so sorry.” The surrounding energies twisted and writhed in fury as the veil was lifted from his eyes. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. I.. I saw what I was doing but couldn’t stop it. Please, I don’t want this.” The surrounding energies grew in intensity and shifted from red to putrid green.

The light in Alessia’s eyes faded and shifted to that of the milky white of the freshly deceased. Yet, even in death, she still reached up towards the blades sheathed in the man’s body. Her last words were spoken in complete and utter clarity. “I can never forgive you for what you have done. This place will be your tomb.” With that, her hand fell away, and the man wept as he was shrouded in rancid green energies that destroyed a once beautiful angel and crafted a monster in its place.