Zelda was still on the bus, shocked by what she had just seen, she knew that the Hero was strong, but not that strong, it was not normal that a child could break the window of a bus with just his strength.
She knew it was extraordinary but not that extraordinary, perhaps it had a genetic attribute like the last modified humans? This thing should have already disappeared with the millennia that separate us from the modified humans, it should have been even more worth less than 0.01%...
Even though he was strong, she wasn't going to leave him alone in this burning city. Anyway, he was the only person she cared about, and she had no desire to be alone in an unknown place without her friend... her little brother.
Mother Theresa yelled at the Sister who was driving their bus to stop, it was after the third time that she took the Matriarch's word into account.
- Why don't you want to stop?
- Because we have to get away from Novillios as soon as possible," said the Sister, "don't you feel the evil aura that emanates from this place? I have shivers running through my whole body.
- But Elena's little one jumped off the bus to join his mother. We have to bring him back!
- No.
- Why?
- With all due respect Mother Superior, I cannot turn back and put all the Sisters on board in danger. Sister Elena is the heroine of the legend, she is the only one who can fight the Nemesis and not be corrupted, if there is anyone who can protect her son, it is herself. At least he will be the reason why she will come back.
Zelda took the opportunity to jump out of the bus through the window broken by the boy to escape and head back to the village, the Matriarch noticed her too late, she wanted to go down after her, but the other Sisters held her back.
The Mother Superior let out a swear word and said:
- Why do these children behave so stupidly?
- Perhaps they are the cause of our Sister's return. In the meantime, we have to get to safety and catch up with the other buses.
The old woman watched the girl run to her doom, joining Novillios, but gave in to the girls' injunctions. She returned to her seat and Sister Deliane went on her way. She asked all the Sisters to pray that Elena and the two children would make it out and eventually join them in the next town they were to live in: October.
~
In the heart of the flames, ashes, rubble, blood, corpses and monsters fought the two "illustrious" legends of Fayiera Terra: the heroine of the legend and the servant of the Evil One, the Nemesis.
Having put on her saintly armor, wearing a crown of thorns high on a white nun's veil with golden stars encircled covering her hair. In the middle of the spalière was a cross, and it went up to her rib cage and up to one of her shoulder blades, on her arm arm arm elbow was a shield with a pike in its middle, towards the ends were pyramids of the same silver color, a gauntlet with a more than aggressive shape of iron and gold on the whole arm. It is girdled on the side of the rights of the circles of iron and gold in concentric circles with purple red and a belt hanging of Christic crosses. Her left arm is wrapped with belts that are attached with stars.
The Sword of the Eternal One was metamorphosed and a figure of Christ was placed on it from the spindle of the sword to half of the gutter, this one was rolled up with thorn vines, the spindle took the shape of an amber yellow ear of wheat with a pommel whose center was a ruby and surrounded by gold, this ball as a pommel was at the ends of its guard. This sword was beaded with rubies, the structure of which was also made of gold and the blade took the shape of an arrow with at its top yet another cross.
Here she is, fully dressed in her heroic armor of a saint, her forehead painted with a red liquid, her eyes luminous thanks to the power of the hero of the legend, burning with fury in front of her longtime enemy: the Nemesis.
Elena was going to fight for the second and last time with the enemy of Faerie humanity.
However, her thrust failed and she ended up on the ground, behind the Nemesis who had just taken a step forward.
- You disappoint me. When we first met you had more zest for life. Could it be because of this kid? I can get rid of him, you know. But I think it's something else, something you and I know: the clock is ticking.
Elena stood up and wiped off the grime that covered her armor dress in a gust of wind.
- I'm just rusty, but if you want me to beat you up that badly like the little rascal you are. Like when I was ten years old. I didn't know you liked getting beaten up by underage girls, but, on the battlefields of Eden. Well, I can't really blame you, it must come from this new corpse that you corrupted, she laughed.
- Even at death's door, you can't transcend yourself to make a proper joke. Poor you.
- I'll still have time to learn how to be fun when I've destroyed you... and your damn cadaverous monsters that surround us.
Emerging from the darkness, shadowy bodies, an army of corrupted monsters, some approaching human bodies, others transcending the gruesome and nightmarish - if you could see but you can't, there's Albedo Wata in the background to the left, heading into the forest.
The boy was terrified by all these evil presences. He had seen monsters, abominable ones, but none, even the ones that came closest to what he knew, reached the torpor that those put him in. His breathing was jerky, and at any moment he could go into apnea to die of fear. His instinct was to do everything he could to avoid being noticed by these monstrosities by blending in and making as little noise as possible.
Elena could feel her son's fear. She wanted to cut this fight short as quickly as possible, but her opponent was not just anyone. Although he wasn't the terrible Maleficent, he was still the most terrible Nemesis: Nemesis Prime.
But the other extras, whether they were his generals or not, they didn't have the level to face him!
The Nemesis charged at the heroine, she countered two of them with her forearms and pushed them back with her magical energy. She put away her sword for the moment and took her double chain scythe through her armor, making it create a circle by thrusting it into the ground, creating a cloud of smoke.
Some of the monster-Nemesis threw fireballs at her, while other mage-Nemesis prepared super-powerful spells, the heroine stepped out of the smoke screen and grabbed one of the mages with one of her mini scythes, wrapping the immaterial chain around his neck. She approached him and thrust her feet into his belly to lean on him and decapitate him by tearing off his head.
She continued her assault by slicing through two of them before going after the Boursures, Plitarcs and harpies not far away who had not yet joined the fight. Leaping from enemy to enemy, fighting these creatures with strength and vigor, she was as fast as lightning and as agile and dexterous as the greatest of gymnasts, despite the heavy and cumbersome armor she wore on her shoulders.
Unfortunately, it was not enough, without using his heroic weapon, they came back from the dead regenerating from their wounds.
And without warning, she was attacked in the back and thrown against the ground, she tried to get up, while seeing the source of this treacherous attack.
The evil being that was Nemesis had managed to rally the late troll king, Morkinkan, to his cause, equipped with Stelenincia, the pure fruit of the technology of previous decades and ancestral magic. The technomagic weapon that had succeeded in killing him, he had the trace of his death on his face - since one part of his face was not parallel to the other, nor his hooked, pointed and pustular nose.
Elena never thought she would meet his glassy yellow eyes in her life, but also, discover that this monster was armed with the sword of the hero Torn who had given his life to bring him down.
- You don't shy away from anything, Nemesis, do you?
- No," said Albedo Wata-Nemesis, landing on the heroine and wrapping his long medusa snake tail around her neck, "why should I restrict myself to forming an army of vile bastards like myself for you heroes to enjoy? And you know it who looks like, assembles, he laughed through this chimera.
She accentuated the embrace that she had on the trachea of the Sister. It became more and more difficult for her to be able to breathe correctly, she tried to remove this terrible scaly tail of her throat that this one grated her neck, but she lost more and more strength.
Was she really going to die like this?
Without a true sounding board?
This was not the way a hero should die!
And yet... the other heroes had died far more merciless deaths than she had... whether they fought to the end, betrayed humanity, or abandoned it in a fit of cowardice as she had... It was rare that many of them had a glorious death. More often than not, they were so desperate that they begged the Nemesis to finish them off.
But even death was not allowed to them...
We, the heroes, are forced to live to keep the Will of the hero of the legend alive, and this is helped by Fate which is a force beyond our own will and free will. We may have some leeway but that was at our own risk, having a family, friends, children ... while assuming the role of hero of the legend was far too risky and stupid for us to, but our human nature or otherwise for some could not resign to live alone.
She couldn't live alone either. Because loneliness gnaws at your heart and soul, this boy was a bluette that she was going to make grow into a great blaze capable of warming me up. Was it selfish? She doesn't know. No! To say she didn't know was a blatant lie! It was of course selfishness! It was as if she had taken advantage of him and his desperation to make herself feel better... All she wanted was for my heart to come back to life...
And Zelda... She was like Audiselia. She admired her without knowing the sacrifices that the heroes of the legend had to endure. They were only entitled to the phantasmagorical legends that praised their exploits. Both of them wanted to join her in her adventures, but Elena could not bring herself to involve them in such a danger. Whatever their mental, physical or magical strength... She had hardly deigned to train Zelda so that she could better defend herself, but this heroic life that she had to live she had rejected with all her might.
But now this life had caught up with her.
Unfortunately, she no longer had enough strength to fight.
That was his end.
She was not the one chosen by the Hero's Will.
He was going to have to find another one and let it wither away.
Losing little by little consciousness, the air missing her, she was close to giving herself up to death...
When in the darkness of her mind, she heard small cries calling out to her. These little cries became more and more violent, more and more desperate, louder and louder until she could make out words, then a sentence. She opened her eyes again and saw her son shouting at her:
- Mommy! Don't give up!
"You know, my boy, even if you are sick and it shows, you don't have to give up on the idea of living because no matter what happens, someone will love you despite your flaws."
Those were the words she had said to him on the first day of school after one of his wounds had opened.
- So you didn't run away, stupid kid? declared Nemesis Prime who came out of the wall where he had been pushed.
The heroine struggled as best she could to remove that scaly tail from around her neck, but the more she did, the tighter the polyform chimera tightened its grip.
Nemesis approached the child with a sadistic grin, he raised his weapon, Blitzstrike, in the air and was about to bring it down on the horrified kid, when suddenly he was saved in-extremis by Zelda who got her leg burned.
The boy threw himself on his friend to use her body as a human shield, he asked Zelda if she was okay.
- It burns like crazy, it feels like my leg is being grilled.
Elena opened her eyes wide when she saw that death had come so close to taking her child away from her.
"Most of the time, we ask the children to surpass themselves because they are capable of much more, but we too, as parents, must know how to surpass ourselves for them" were the last words of Sister Leïla before leaving them, a few days after the arrival of Elena and her son.
- How can I... tell... a child not to... lose faith... not to give up... and to excel... when I'm doing what I'm blaming him for?" Elena raged, "No matter how much I use him, I won't let... either of his two... children die in front of me... Nemesis!
She pointed her finger behind her and raised it with her other hand to the sky and yelled with the rest of her breath:
- Rise up in the sky and fall on my enemies, Sword of the Lord!
The great sword that she had put on her back ground to use her scythes, rose into the sky and came down on the tail of the gorgon-succubus, slicing it off as if there was nothing on it. She untied the tail that was wrapped around her neck before grabbing Albedo Wata by the throat and smashing her against the ground several times and grabbing her severed tail and swinging it back and forth, before turning it around and sending it like an Olympic hammer against Nemesis Prime.
No sooner had she caught her breath after strangling the chimera Nemesis, than she was attacked by goblins out of nowhere, sent by the troll king. She dodged them by grabbing her sword, broke the chain of her two scythes, tied one part to the handle of the sword and wrapped the other around her arm. The goblins pounced on her, and she cut them down by swinging her sword around.
The mages threw fireballs at her, which she stopped in midair with her hand.
- Poor fools. Using fire spells against me who masters flames, you still share a brain by the fifty of you? It's distressing, she laughed, First miracle of flames: fire arrows.
The fireballs raced against their summoners, piercing them before charring them.
Despite the pain, Zelda was overwhelmed by the fighting prowess of her friend's mother. She was indeed the one praised and glorified in the legends.
Behind her, the king of the trolls jumped down from the perch where he had found himself and used Stelenincia against the heroine by sending lightning blades through the sword.
Was there still enough magic power belonging to Audiselia that he could execute attacks with it? Elena wondered.
She dodged the blades by barely moving her body from left to right, and as soon as the weapon was completely emptied, she went on the offensive and charged at him by thrusting her fist in his face. The blow was so powerful that it sent him flying thirty meters away and divided his face in two.
A harpy tried to get the better of her, but she grabbed his skull and smashed it against the barricade of a destroyed house.
She picked up Torn's weapon and used it as a weapon to fight with two swords. She infused it with all her magic so that she could use it to its full potential.
Elena turned to the two children:
- Go and take refuge further away, while I finish cleaning up here. Then we'll go and join the villagers where they went.
The boy nodded and supported Zelda to help her walk despite the pain that was shooting through his body. But if his mother had taken up arms again, then he owed it to himself to make an effort as great as his own.
Yes. Her mother had taken up arms again, the one who was called "Death" among the Bantu in Eden, the continent beyond the Mediterranean, rose from her ashes. She intended to give her Nemesis empaths a hard time so that they would leave her and her children alone.
She fought in the air as well as on the ground, slicing the flesh of her putrid creatures, tearing the wings of her harpies who harassed her with their sharp talons as she confronted them on their grounds, jumping from harpy to harpy.
With her knees, she broke the carapace of the Boursures, lizards created by the Nemesis to serve as their "attack dogs", they were covered with a rock as hard as steel which served as much as protection as weapons with their sharp claws. And slaughtered the Plitarcs, savages who had been corrupted by the essence of evil, they now served, body and soul, their beloved masters - and a funny but not funny note: they had a sickly appreciation for fresh flesh like the Nemesis.
She struggled as best she could, transcending herself to face this army of immortal monstrosities, but it never ended. She could cripple them, char them, decapitate them, pulverize them... They always managed to get back on their feet as best they could, and they couldn't break through her defense that she created by twirling the sword with the chain she had attached to it. She was getting out of breath, but the memory of seeing her son being so close to being cut down gave her courage. A courage she had never known before, so there could be ten, twenty, thirty, forty, one hundred, two hundred, six hundred, a million... she would keep fighting.
But she had to face the facts: she could never escape under these conditions. Perhaps she too would have to betray humanity in order to give the two children a chance to escape.
Recovering from his ko, Nemesis Prime got up and cleared Albedo Wata's body, he saw on the ground the feet of the troll king who had stayed there abandoning the rest of his body, explaining why he still hadn't returned. He had managed to corrupt him, but he was a waste, he had not managed to make him acquire their infinite regeneration. He watched from a safe distance as Elena fought her monsters and generals, and he saw in her eyes the ferocity he had seen when she had first defeated him when she was ten years old in Kongo. Despite the years and the trials, she still had not become a good vessel for the Evil One. It was a total failure.
Should he back off before she could kill him?
It was inconceivable.
However, she had begun to use miracles, the only "magic" capable of overcoming curses through faith. Although it was the most unstable power because in a moment of doubt, they could be cancelled in no time, but at the height of their power, she could ask a mountain to throw itself into the sea and she would do it. The difference with conventional magic was that it was all or nothing, it was not a simple acquisition of powers through the mastery of mystical arts or the borrowing of power from a god... No. This was pure faith, whether it was in a god or in her determination to survive, this faith allowed her to accomplish any miracle. Especially since she was a fighting prodigy, so if her faith increased again and again, she could, perhaps, counter Fate if it was not a divine order.
The Nemesis ordered his troops to stop the fight and approached Elena.
- I have a deal to offer you, said the knight Nemesis.
- No, retorted Elena coldly.
- Let me do the talking.
- No. I'm going to dismember you right here and now, and anything that comes out of your mouth will be nonsense," the heroine inveighed.
- I don't think you can afford that kind of remark when you have two deadweights there.
Elena gave him a black look, if he attacked one of them by wanting to use them as hostages, she would reduce him to pieces as many times as it will be necessary so that she can have the certainty to have peace.
- I'll listen to you, but the slightest hanky-panky and I'll turn you into brahamine skewers.
- You see that you know how to be reasonable when you want to," he complimented her anxiously, "setting fire to the cities in my path, beating up humans and faeries, and defiling them is only a pastime. You and I, being bound by Fate, know what my real goal is: to make you one of us so that you become a substitute body for my master. So I have no reason to attack your children, do you follow me so far?
- Yes.
- So the deal I'm offering you is to fight me one on one, if you win, I'll let you and your kids go and I'll "lose your trail", but if I win, you're mine. However, I know how to be good when I want to be, therefore, in no case, I will kill them.
If she could harness the full power of her faith, she would succeed in...
- ...to exorcise us?" she cut him in the threads in her reflection, "to make us disappear? Do not worry, our bond is much too strong for me to break it without consequence. That would have been the Maleficent, I could have overcome it with perhaps a miracle but you and even more your henchmen, to waste my time... Good I accept since you propose it to me so nicely, she laughed.
Nemesis Prime grumbled at having been scared unnecessarily. He'd made a deal with her to go one on one, if she managed to take him out, he'd miss the opportunity to pass the torch of the hero of legend to someone far more susceptible to corruption... No, his time was almost up. He knew it. They were connected by the red thread of Fate, so he knew his time was up. Surely she wasn't going to be the first heroine to escape death?
Fate had managed to create an opportunity for her not to escape him.
She was doomed.
- Let's get started.
Elena charged Stelenincia with all her energy, turning her completely green and covering her with it, then charged towards Nemesis Prime, assaulting him with blows that he could hardly see coming, each time almost being skewered by the Sword of the Eternal or pulverized by the energy emitted by Torn's weapon, chaining with his two blades the blows of cutting and slashing, scratching the cheeks and the armor of the knight Nemesis. He managed to dodge as best he could, but the heaviness of Blitzstrike and his cumbersome technological armor made it difficult for him to move.
He pushed her back by throwing an electric charge at her, before using Blitzstrike as a mace, she retaliated by breaking his elbow and slicing his right arm, he took Blitzstrike with his left hand and sent lightning bolts at her which she countered by waving her sword with her chain, pushing the lightning bolts all around her, among the rubble.
Although he managed to regenerate his arm, his pseudo-immortality would not be enough to defeat her. She really was too strong. He would end up exhausting this body more than he would be able to beat her.
- Is it good? Did you finish your monologue in your mind? Because I'm going to finish you off!
She threw herself against him and in the air, she began to incant a miracle with a prayer:
- May the Holy Spirit perform the greatest miracle of the flames: Divine Absolution...
Elena stopped talking and spat out a flurry of blood as Nemesis Prime looked on warily, seeing the chance he had before him. He grabbed her and put a right into the heroine's jaw, sending her back to where she came from, but grabbed her foot to repeat the same action Elena had done to Albedo Wata, before sending her waltzing against the wreckage of a holocar, dropping both her swords on the ground.
Nemesis Prime breathed a sigh of relief. The order of things was returning to normal, Elena was definitely condemned and this was how his life would end here. He hesitated to go and kill the two observers. But hey, he had more important things to do, leaving them alive would be his parting gift.
The boy left Zelda against a tree and ran to his mother, calling her name.
Anticipating the ambition of the youthful child to rise up against him as he sought to prey on him, unaware that he saw him as a mere gnat, he hurled a javelin of dark energy at him.
The attack was about to hit its target when suddenly, Elena stood up at the last moment and faced the javelin of Nemesis Prime. Taking it in the shoulder, she gave a horrible cry of pain before collapsing on the ground.
The boy was distraught. He saw a huge, black, unhealthy object tearing at his mother's shoulder. His whole body began to tremble, to have spasms of fear, tears flowed from his eyes, he was paralyzed in front of this horrible scene.
- I just... wanted to...
- I know," her mother said tenderly, "you know very well that this is nothing for me. Can you please take this thing away from me?
The boy tried to stand up, but his legs were wobbly from the pressure. They could no longer stand on their own. He couldn't get up. Then Elena turned her back and told him to take the javelin away.
- But do you care about your marmot Elena? asked surprised the Nemesis, I made it in the purest evil magic that I have...
- Don't worry about me or him, I know what I'm doing.
Elena helped him to remove the javelin of evil energy by pushing himself forward and he succeeded, Elena grabbed it and threw it away from her before getting up with his back bent by fatigue and facing his opponent. The Nemesis was circumspect, he observed the boy and did not see any trace of corruption, that was impossible, no being, except the hero, was able not to submit to the evil which was in this energy.
But who is this boy?" growled the Nemesis.
It was the first time in his "life" that he discovered such an anomaly in this land. He could not accomplish such a feat unless... Was Fate playing with him? Had Mïra succeeded in her task?
The fatigue had invaded the body of Elena. She was struggling to stand up to the immense pain of the hole in her shoulder.
Damn Fate, she cursed, there was no other time to make me can than in front of him?
No," replied Fate, "the hero of the next and last generation is here, it is time for him to assume his role.
Because you answer me, bitch? Plus, you had to answer me a rhetorical question. Like I give a shit about your plans with the Hero's Will...
The word "last" ran through the heroine's mind. What did the voice mean by "last"? That this is our last chance before the final coming of the Evil One? She knew that this damn seal had never served any purpose. So many beings sacrificed, fallen, bruised for something as ephemeral as this seal.
For a moment, she saw the future... The Will had offered her, for a moment, a vision of the future of this world. She felt an immense joy.
She was not reassured, but if what she had just seen was true, like in the books, then... she was willing to make an effort.
- I think it's time to end this," said the Nemesis, "I'm going to send you and your son to the afterlife! I can't ignore that a being from this planet can't be subjected to Corruption.
The facial veins of Nemesis Prime's borrowed body turned black, his eye turned red and his iris yellow, a long, black, spiky tail burst out of the back of his armor, and glowing claws protruded from his gloves.
- Even metamorphosed, I remain stronger than you..., she spat accompanied by a net of blood.
- Yes... But not enough to protect him at the same time!
He charged a blackish-scarlet ball of corrupted energy with his fingertips and fired into the boy's chest. The attack was so fast that Elena couldn't see it coming. She could have anticipated it if it had come at her, but it didn't. She threw herself on the still dead body of the boy. She threw herself on the still warm body of her son who was spitting blood, his lungs half destroyed, charred, burned by the Nemesis.
- How could you...
- The same refrain with every life, with every successor, with every hero. You think you can escape from revenge, from hatred, from the fear of losing your own, from despair... by setting yourself apart from your own, forgetting that your humanity catches up with you every time. This is also true for the Faerie people, but well, they are a special case and anyway, the Imaginaris and the Realiterrians, it's the same thing. Now I'm just waiting to see where your anger will lead you, now that you are no longer worthy of being the heroine, it's time to pass the torch to someone more capable than you. I can only wish you a sweet rest in the meanders of the Hero's Will.
The Sister sang a melancholy rhyme at her son's bedside, wiping away the tears of her little boy who could no longer breathe, could no longer speak, looking painfully at his mother and clutching her arm. She finished her song by apologizing for not being able to save him, then declared, with a look filled with rage:
- I betray humanity to devote myself to evil and offer the Will to save humanity, the Faerie and all the inhabitants of this planet to my successor who will be able to defeat the Evil One!
The heroine, in tears, straightened up, advancing step by step to the hero, her teeth became fangs, the sclera of her eyes turned black and the essence of evil began to cover her whole body, demonic wings came out of her back to allow her to fly into the sky, her armor took on a color that was a mixture of black, scarlet and purple. She opened her mouth wide and sent a beam of energy at the Nemesis, exploding the whole area.
This one protected himself with his arm and burst of laughter in front of the fury of Elena corrupted.
- Well, my dear, you have chosen to give up your humanity and you want to resist our master's call at the same time? And anyway, it is not now that you should have decided to become the Prime. Especially since, in spite of your extraordinary strength, for an unmodified human, if we omit the fact that you had the strength of the previous heroes, you don't equal me enough in despair and resentment to pull you to my right or to be able to surpass me.
Elena threw herself on him, tackling him to the ground, her eyes filled with that unhealthy madness which belonged only to the subjects of the Evil One, spitting white smoke from her mouth.
- I'm not... I'm not... I'm not a Nemesis," Elena said with a voice from beyond the grave and in another language that was foreign to mortals, "I have enough strength left to... take you with me!
- What are you talking about?" said the Nemesis, taking the same intonation as her and the same language, "I am superior to you in every way!
Nemesis Elena reached out for her former heroic weapon and with what little humanity she had left, she managed to send it near the Hero's body. Nemesis Prime did not understand the gesture of her former partner, he wondered if Corruption, although she was one of the heroines of the legend, had not perverted her to the point of madness.
Zelda, having witnessed the whole scene, managed to reach, as best she could with her leg wound, the body of her dead friend. She never thought she would see her friend killed before her eyes. Why did he have to go to his mother? He had her. Why did he have to go and get tangled up in the middle of a siege led by the legate of the Prince of Darkness, enemy of Men and Faerie? They were going to get through this, damn it!
- Please, stay alive," she urged him in a half-voiced voice, covering her face about the death of her friend.
When she arrived at the place where the body of her deceased partner in all her crazy tricks lay, Zelda thought she was hallucinating from his wound. She wanted to touch his chest and realized that it was not just an illusion caused by her tired brain but the reality: the boy's body had healed. There was no longer that huge hole in the middle of his chest.
Suddenly, the young man's eyes opened again, illuminated by a golden light. He sat up and took a deep breath as if he had just finished the marathon of the millennium, on his hands and knees spitting out all the air from his lungs. The girl was happy to see him alive and wanted to hug him, but the boy got up, dodged Zelda and picked up the sword that was at his side.
- But what are you doing? I want to hug you, which is rare, and you're ducking me?
But Zelda noticed something that made her disbelieve her eyes. How was it that with his body so bruised and weakened, he could carry the heroine's sword? Elena had made him carry her weapon and she had been unable to lift it, while he held it with one hand. Sister Elena had explained to him that only she could carry her own weapon, and no one else. And he could do it easily.
A voice assailed the boy's mind. It was not alone. There were several of them, he felt it like an incessant hammering that beat his skull. These voices spoke continuously, then images of people who were totally unknown to him, all those people who had lived countless lives, who had countless families, countless friends, who eventually died countless times, regretting countless non-actions, countless remorse... Seeing these tortured faces, these bruised voices, pleading... tormented the boy's mind. The voices became more and more persistent, but they were still so inaudible, until they all joined together to declare the same thing: "Kill her! Kill her who has abandoned humanity! Kill this Nemesis!"
He looked up and saw a woman with a demonic appearance fighting the knight who had attacked them, the aura they gave off horrified him to no end. The voices that became one ordered him to seize the blade of his predecessor and to kill this evil being before it was too late.
If that was the only way to shut her up, he would do it.
- Any being submitted to the Evil One must perish from the blade of the protector of Humanity and the Faerie, declared the Hero.
Zelda remembered the words of the boy's mother as she held him in her arms. It was then that she understood. She had just put him in charge of this world.
She understood the need to do this, she knew why Elena had done this, but a nagging question swirled in her mind, "Why didn't she entrust the Hero's Will to me instead of giving it to her cowardly son?"
When no words came out of her mouth, she clasped her hands in front. She had no right to think such things when he had just come back to life by a miracle. But if she had entrusted her with the fate of humanity through the legacy of the hero of the legend, she could have carried the sword and gotten them out of the mess they were in...
But damn, why do I start to think about it? It is not the moment! she yelled.
Then she saw her friend going straight into danger. She shouted at him to hold him back, but the boy did not seem to hear her. In fact, her mind didn't seem to be present in her body, as if it was being guided by something that had taken the place of the boy's soul. His mind was bombarded by this harassing multiplicity of voices that kept repeating his command. However, the closer he got to the two demonic beings who were unleashing their anger on each other, the more he had a bad feeling, as if he was going to make a monumental mistake. However, if he slowed down, the voice became louder and louder to force him to carry out his injunction.
Unable to bear these orders, he finally gave in and ran towards the Nemesis putting his weapon in front of him to bring it down on the two creatures, Nemesis Prime was the first to see it and seeing the look of his enemy going towards another point, Nemesis Elena understood that something had come near them. She sensed the murderous intent of this person and moved away from them, taking a step to the side. Looking at her assailant, she fully recovered her senses and saw that her attacker was no more and no less than her son.
So she didn't choose Zelda but you? I don't know if I should thank her or curse her... Zelda could have healed him with her magic or her power... No, it's better this way... Well, I don't know! Why is it that nothing always happens the way I want it to?
The real Nemesis, shocked to see that the child he had just turned into a donut was standing upright, possessing the strength to carry the sword of a hero of legend, did not know how to react in this situation. He watched the golden eyes of the boy who looked as if he was completely possessed by the Will of the hero of the legend.
Don't tell me that in addition to not being able to be reached by Corruption, he had to be the new hero of the legend, enraged the Nemesis.
The essence of evil withdrew from Elena's face and one of her eyes returned to normal, she turned to her boy and gave him a smile, her eyes misty with tears, despite the pain of resisting turning into a Nemesis.
- I'm so... glad you're... alive..., the former heroine said breathlessly.
The new hero did not answer her and simply tried to slice her in half. She too noticed her son's golden eyes, and realized that it was the Heroic Will that had taken over her son's mind. She punched him in the jaw and demanded that the Hero Will give way to her son if she did not want a new Nemesis to be created. After a short period of time in the boy's mind, the light in the boy's eyes was not as bright as it had been at first, and he was able to regain his personality.
- Ma.. Mommy!
- Yes, that's right my boy, that's me.
- Why do you have such an ugly costume?
- As if I wanted to be covered... by that slimy thing!" she vexed, "I'm sorry, but our reunion... can't last as long... as I'd... like. You're going to have to... help me.
- How do you do it?
- When I... tell you, you'll know what... to do, just... be ready with... my heroic sword.
- But I have never held a sword in my life.
- Yet... look at your hands, she pointed to the weapon he held between his fingers.
The boy caught himself with a weapon in his hands, cried out in fear, and dropped it reflexively, repulsed by holding something that could take the life of another living being.
- We don't have time... for you to be... naughty. If you care about Zelda... and me, you're going to have to take your courage... in both hands and listen to me!
The new hero took a deep breath, picked up the sword and nodded.
- Well...
Elena flew to the Nemesis, and fought it with all the strength she had left before her mind was flooded with the malevolence of the Evil One and his corruption. She chained him with blows with an unheard of strength, flaying his skin with her claws, deploying all the powers she was acquiring by transforming into Nemesis, sending demonic spheres in the direction of her enemy, he dodged them and counterattacked with air blades waving his index fingers, she dodged them and threw him against the ground, barely raised, she hindered him with a plant spell.
- From the roots of the great world-tree to the roots of the tree of knowledge, root my enemy to the ground: Links of Yggdrasil!
Roots from all sides wrapped around the body of the Nemesis and shackled the limbs of the Nemesis who was paralyzed.
- Is this the kind of trick you intend to use to defeat me, you fool?
- Absolutely, you big lug!
She bombarded him with devastating attacks while repeating her plant spell each time to tire him out. His body didn't seem to be able to hold on much longer.
The boy observed his mother trying to push back with virulence this thing which ran through her body, while fighting the Nemesis, he saw her clenching her teeth to make her gums bleed, close to making her eyes exorbate, making the veins lodged in her eyeballs burst, her nails tore off and her flesh burned because of this unnatural power she could not stop using. The skin of her hands, not covered by the essence of evil, burned visibly, and her resistance to the attacks of the Nemesis, who would not let her, diminished with the passing of time. Only his own willpower allowed him to continue fighting so vigorously. The boy could not believe that it was his mother who showed such tenacity, he wondered how she could be so strong although she was the heroine of the legend.
How could she not give in to this monstrous character? He would have fled as far away as possible a long time ago. What is he saying? He had come just because he was there and he didn't want his mother to be alone and dragged the one he considered his big sister into this unfortunate story.
The Nemesis managed to escape from Elena's attacks and sent a ball of energy at the boy. Elena managed to catch it in time and was pinned to the ground. She held it back, crushed by the imposing force which was released from it. She pushed back it with all the forces which remained to her. To see her rebelling against her own destiny, only increased the admiration of the young boy towards his mother.
- What's the matter Elena, I thought you were going to go all out to defeat me? Show me more fight for your grand finale! You don't want to die so easily. Another hero who is no match for us... It's sad, but you are the only mortals who can accomplish anything in this world. Throughout the ages, you have only failed! Losing all reason to live because we took everything from you. Nothing has changed. Everything comes back to the same place. An infernal cycle from which you cannot escape because that is your mission. This is the only truth that exists in this world: you are damned!
- But you're going to shut up, Nemesis! Elena got carried away, do you want to scare my kid or what? he shouted with a huge smile on the verge of tears, as if the damn hero of the legend was the only one who could save this world? If we were entrusted with the world in pairs, it's because alone, we're incapable of doing anything, whether we're human or Fairy.
- If you're talking about that fairy, she's still in no condition to do anything against me. I'm the most powerful being on this damn earth right now.
- Maybe I can't do anything but someone can... This hero will be able to stop you and your master! He will be able to fight and turn around any difficult situation by going beyond the Hero's Will, by going beyond the limits of his mind. The miracle that he will accomplish will be beyond comprehension... Know one thing, moron, everything will be fine in the future.
- Who told you this? Your imaginary friend?
- I have seen it. I can tell you that you are not there, Enricio, you who chose of your own free will to abandon humanity.
The Nemesis gritted his teeth. How did she know her old name? In anger, he put more force into his attack to make the heroine bend.
- Now, you are reassured, my little guy? she said while addressing her son.
The boy stared at her, confused. Were her words directed at him too?
- As I said to Zelda, "you don't have to be born extraordinary to be extraordinary". As I have always told you, it should not be your body that stops you, otherwise what good will your life have been? I know that I have made countless promises to you, but I will not be able to fulfill any of them unfortunately. So write them down in your head and remember the prayer that you used to address to the Lord every morning and every evening, because even if it is not today, nor tomorrow, I am sure that it will be granted to you because you are a good person and good people always attract people, afterwards you should not base everything on his kindness but you will understand it later on. The only thing I can tell you is: don't be a coward like I was, and you will surely live a happy life, despite this horrible world! Be resilient!
His resistance was really starting to annoy the Nemesis.
Elena was only delaying his death.
If she didn't want to die alone, then he would take her and this whole village with him.
Before he could execute his idea, roots caught him and pulled him to the ground. Elena swallowed the Nemesis' attack, and filled with magical energy, she continued her spell by performing a series of signs with her fingers and marking her forearms with glyphs. Elena was about to perform a spell that transcended the schools of magic, the glyphs lit up with an orange color and she made a rectangle with her thumbs and forefingers aiming at the Nemesis.
- Magic contraction: Tombs, mausoleums, pyramids... Let these last places of our lives seal my enemy in exchange for my powers! Altar of the Abode of the Dead!
Large black hands came out of the ground and grabbed the plant cage where the Nemesis was imprisoned and pushed it into the ground, making it disappear from the surface of the earth.
She was satisfied of her act, but exhausted by this chain of fate and this fight more than exhausting, she could not retain her tiredness and fell on the ground, she suffocated noisily, pressing her hands on her chest which ignited.
Not now! I don't have much time left.
- Come here..., she said, addressing the boy.
He knelt down beside her, worried about her condition.
- You've seen what I'm capable of... and what he's capable of?" his mother asked, "You should know that it's not even... the extent of the Nemesis' powers that you'll have to face now... that you're the hero of the legend.
- But no, you're the heroine!" the boy refuted.
- Stop it! You're smart. You're smart... you've already figured it out, little guy... You're going to have to... kill me...
The new hero cried out in horror at his mother's injunction and could not bring himself to do what the old heroine asked.
- Don't worry, I haven't become... totally... the Nemesis so... the curse won't work...
- But I don't care about that!" the little boy shook his head, as if that were the most important thing...
Elena reached out her hand, blackened by the essence of evil, to the boy and wiped away the tear that flowed from her child's eye. She felt a strange sensation as she touched her son. The heroic power no longer seemed to recognize her as human.
- I know that... I wish you would have never... never had to face such nonsense like our... predecessors who were forced to, but to protect... those you love, you have to... A mother shouldn't have to demand this of her son, but for the sake of all the species on this planet... and for me who definitely doesn't want to become a monster who might attack you... please... kill me!
- I don't want to! I don't want to! I don't want!" he repeated, shouting and shaking his head.
He was crying his eyes out, refusing to listen to what his mother had to say. Seeing him in such a state could only cause Elena to be moved, but she knew how dangerous the Nemesis were. She knew their madness and their cruelty, she could not let herself be invaded by this evil power.
She then inscribed a glyph in the shape of an inverted N with curved bars on her son's torso, it lit up with a golden light, it diffused a beneficial energy that surrounded him and covered his sword.
- I forced the activation of the heroes' power, you have to do it to save Zelda from me, I beg you, do it.
The boy burst into tears. It was certain, he was going to die with his mother, barely ten years old. To think that they had never been able to see the stars, or that sea of sunshine, or see what a beach looked like. He had never even seen what a turtle was. If he was stronger... if he was stronger... he could have protected them all... he would never have needed to be protected like his mother did at that moment or Zelda earlier. Why was he born with this defective body? This pitiful and miserable body that had only brought him mockery and ridicule? If he had been born from a better birth... If he had not met her... This situation might never have happened...
The boy swallowed and finally gave in, understanding the seriousness of the situation, he staggered towards the lying body of his mother and pointed the blade of his predecessor's weapon above her. His hands were shaking, his breathing was ragged and his tears kept flowing down his face. Elena smiled to reassure him.
- Don't blame me, Mom...
- I would never blame you...
Was this how she had seen his death?
Saria had always told him that no matter who you were, you never chose where you would die. No matter how strong we are, how brave we are, how lucky we are. We could only accept that this place is ours.
And Audiselia... She would still cry when she learned what she was doing, when would she become more mature? The years were passing, and she was still crying! She prayed that Sawyer would take care of her, and that he would finally admit his feelings to her.
After a long time of hesitation, the young Hero finally thrust the sword into his mother's chest making her cry out in pain, the heroic energy flowing through her veins and coming into contact with the evil energy of the Malefqiue, she gritted her teeth so that her son would not stop, she grabbed the blade of the sword and helped him to make it go deeper into her so that she would definitely not survive this. The breaking point was about to come, she had only a moment left...
- Zelda!" shouted the old heroine, "I entrust you with my world... I entrust you both with the world! Now do it!
His skin tore, his teeth broke and from all his orifices came out a resplendent white light, before an incredible explosion gave birth to a huge ball of burning light, it swept everything in its path.
In the last moment of her life, the last words she thought of were:
Yes, Saria, you were right, we can't die without regrets...
The boy flew away like a twig in a storm, so did Zelda, he caught the Sword of the Eternal and planted it in the ground so as not to be blown away by the blast, he clutched it with all his strength using this mysterious force that allowed him to be stronger. Zelda grabbed the edge of a destroyed window and wrapped her weak arms around it as best she could. They held the object of their survival until the blast faded and the Hero and Zelda were once again subject to the earth's gravity.
The wounds created by the overcoming of his limits faded instantly. Strangely enough, he no longer felt any pain.
The Will of the hero of the legend and his Destiny have just been bequeathed to you, a female voice tells him.
At these words, he remembered his mother and ran to the site of the explosion. He saw only a huge crater that must have been ten meters in diameter. There was nothing left, not even the slightest trace of a body, just ashes that could have belonged to houses, earth, trees and Elena. He hit the ground, his heart sinking with despair, asking God why she had forced him to commit matricide.
Then he was interrupted in his pleas by a thud, which became louder and louder, becoming a real noise and he saw Nemesis Prime coming out, covered in blood, apparently, he too had been impacted by the explosion that had caused the death of Nemesis Elena. He was scarred all over, his eyes half closed, black and red hemoglobin gushing out of his body without fading like a fountain.
The Hero was distraught, he could not believe that his mother could have disappeared without a trace and that the enemy of humanity could still exist.
Something broke inside him, a shell that protected his soul, his heart, his emotions and what have you... from this black thing, from the depths of the abyss of his being to begin to rot his heart...
Suddenly, the Nemesis reopened his eyes and got out of the ground, his mouth open, letting drool flow from his mouth.
- Damn it! His plan wasn't shit! I could have been there!
He looked up and saw Elena's son staring at him with eyes filled with rage and hatred.
- You're still here, aren't you? he said, catching his breath, you don't have to look at me like that, I'm not the one who got blown up...
- Why are you alive?" spat the boy as he approached him.
- It's simple: because I am the strongest!
The Hero ran towards him and punched him in the stomach, the Nemesis hardly felt a thing, and kicked him out of the way. The boy grabbed his sword and tried to hit him, but the sword disappeared into dust in front of the Nemesis.
- Indeed, she is dead. Scenario four, concludes the Nemesis.
The legate of the Evil one put a blow of knee in the chin to him, sending him in the air, before receiving him there and sending him back to the ground by shaking hands and sending him in the back his punch of all hands. The Hero thought he was dead but against all odds, he was still alive. His scars disappeared instantly. But although he survived the Nemesis' blows, he knew he was too weak to defeat him, yet he could not forget that he was the cause of his mother's death. He mourned his own helplessness in the face of this abomination.
The Nemesis was caught by gravity and came down to earth. Although he had survived, Elena's suicide attack had not left him unscathed. His body swayed from side to side, he felt nauseous and his vision blurred. The other Nemesis and Aberrations and Corruptions approached him to see if he was okay.
- Since when have I allowed you to look down on me?" Nemesis Prime snapped, killing all those who came near him in one blow.
Angered, he crushed the new hero's chest with his foot until he could hear his bones crack. Zelda intervened and threw herself at Nemesis Prime to stop torturing her friend. Nemesis lifted her by the collar, stared at her and asked with a husky voice and piercing eyes:
- Who are you to him?
In front of this creature who pretended to be human, she started to tremble with fear, her body was traversed by a shiver as cold as the icy wind of the Arctic. She did not know what answer to give him so that he would not kill her.
- I'm not going to repeat myself! lost patience with the Nemesis.
- He is my little brother!" the girl exclaimed.
The Nemesis looked at the boy and turned his eyes back to the girl.
- You wouldn't fool me, he looks older than you.
- He is my little brother and nothing will change that.
The Nemesis gritted his teeth before accepting this answer and putting the girl on his shoulder. He signaled to his army to get back on the road and they set off.
The young boy mended his broken bones, struggled to his feet and grabbed his mother's borrowed weapon, Stelenincia, and threatened his new nemesis in the back.
- Release my friend!" the boy ordered.
Nemesis turned around and had a mocking chuckle.
- Are you giving me orders now? Wasn't it you, a few moments ago, who was crying on the floor?
No matter how much he scoffed, he couldn't ignore the look the boy was giving him, he was enraged, his teeth were chattering and his hands were shaking, not with fear, but with anger. Seeing his mother's death had awakened something unhealthy in him.
Had the Nemesis found the one his master had been waiting for so long?
- If you want to beat me so badly, find your own heroic weapon before you try to confront me. And again, despite your strength exceeding that of the basic mollusk that is the human, you are still not at my level. I'm taking your sister from you so that you don't do like Elena and run away across the world. I count on you.
The boy stood up and filled with rage, shouted:
- Why... Why did you take my mother from me?
The Nemesis laughs out loud.
- Are you kidding me? I didn't take anything from you! You killed her! And God knows, if He exists, I love killing people but don't blame me for crimes I didn't commit. It is not my fault that she chose you to end her life... Especially since now, like her, it is your duty to die for "our" lives, mortals, whether we are human or Fairy - although this term is a lie. For she has made you the puppet of the Fate of the heroes of the legend as she had been before you! he laughed hilariously.
These words struck the boy's mind: his mother had not chosen to be the hero, she had only suffered this cursed role, while her life in the convent was much better than this life of sacrifice.
- So... it was you and the Hero who took my mother?
The Nemesis could hear in his voice that this little boy, who was so afraid of death, was seething with anger. He couldn't even understand that it was because of his mother's sacrifice that he was still wanted. Was he still thinking intelligently?
- If it makes you feel better... But it won't bring her back...
- So it is for this miserable world that she sacrificed herself? he said, moving his fingers frantically in anger.
- Stop! Zelda yelled at him, I beg you, don't do that!
The girl was getting nervous, her hands were shaking and chattering her teeth, the Nemesis Prime could feel the fear of this mortal and did not understand why she was in such a state. He then tried to probe the mind of this new hero, but for the first time in his life, he had been blocked by this boy's mind. Neither he nor his predecessors had ever faced such a blockage, communication with the heroes to torment them had always been smooth.
No, it was something else, he was not blocked, it was that he could not find it, what he saw in his mind was beginning to empty, this boy could not be devoid of intelligence, wit or any aspirations. No human being was as empty as an empty shell!
Inside him was only... Nothingness.
The boy's anger faded and he lowered his face like an automaton in need of energy.
Zelda was becoming more and more nervous, struggling with more strength and anger than when she was taken by the Nemesis, who noticed that she was starting to fear her friend more than him.
What is happening to him?
The boy raised his head, his face hidden in the darkness, he pointed at the Nemesis, a strange ball was created at the end of his index finger, the Nemesis felt the air rush in and... disappear. What was happening in front of him was impossible, no scientific or magical law obeyed what was happening.
"Nothing is created, nothing is lost, everything is transformed" as Lavoisier said.
But there, everything disappeared, everything was annihilated.
This clears up some points in the mind of the Nemesis.
But his train of thought was cut off by the words of the young man who seemed possessed by a superior force, superior even to that of the Will of the hero of the legend.
- In the beginning, there was only...
But suddenly he collapsed to the ground, his body smoking, his eyes rolling back and his lips drooling, as if whatever had just taken over his body had exhausted the rest of his strength.
For the first time in his life, the Nemesis and the other demonic creatures that accompanied him became afraid. This power he had felt was like no other, it was the first of its kind. Finally, the reminiscences of the Maleficent's past came to remind him of vague memories at the sight of this power.
However, Nemesis Prime was ecstatic. This boy truly had the potential to be one of them, more than any hero had ever been before, not him, not the other traitors! If he could corrupt his heart by perfecting his hatred to the point of perfection, he could make him the perfect vessel for the Evil Demon.
Zelda continued to struggle to get the Nemesis to release her so she could go to the fainting boy. The Nemesis slapped her on the back of the neck to stun her. One of his generals, Kankar, a Belgrom, approached him. He was a being who was born from the resentment of the dead in the cemeteries and mass graves to avenge the injustices inflicted upon them while they were alive. It had pale, hairless skin all over its body, streaks on its forearms and legs that let out white smoke with every breath it took - no doubt from the ashes of the corpses that had created it -, its arms were gigantic, almost touching its knees with bone spikes protruding from its elbows, purple veins ran all over its body, it was devoid of eyeballs, and it had crooked black teeth whose canines twisted.
He asked their leader through the hiss of his pores, what they were going to do with him and the girl. He looked far too dangerous to be left alive.
- It is not yet time for him to die, none of us could kill him because that would deviate from the scenario. We need to keep him alive until an opportunity presents itself to win him over.
He conjured up a long sword with a crystallized blade with red markings and threw it at the child's feet.
- This is the Right Arm of the Titan Ymir! My weapon of choice. If you can master its power, I guarantee you will gain immeasurable strength and power. So train up and come get your sister back or take my head, your choice!
And the troop of evil left, leaving him alone in the middle of this devastated landscape, of this village filled with corpses and traces of their unspeakable filth. He was determined to take the head of this knight..., this legate of Nemesis! But another hatred was growing inside him, an enmity that was directed towards the one who had forced his mother to die! He would kill the hero of the legend that dwelt within him.
On the ground, slightly wounded, his morale at its lowest, tears in his eyes, an insatiable hatred was beginning to be born in him, his quest for revenge towards those who had taken everything from him was about to begin. He would destroy everything in his path until destroying the world if necessary...
Yes... Destroying the world was the right thing to do to claim justice.