Belzarius’s office was empty, the room was a big hall and at the end of it he was waiting. As arwin walked, his footsteps were loud and clear and he stopped at the center,
“Arwin, I had a feeling I might see you again” said Vincent as he turned, he held two orbs a black and a transparent, one in each hand.
“I have come to put an end to this once and for all, this is where you die” said arwin his voice was firm, every anxiety and fear was left behind, he stood strong and fearless
“is it? ”said Vincent, “tell me arwin why are you even still fighting against me, does it even make sense anymore?”
“your very existence is constant reminder of my failures and weakness, killing you is the only thing that will release me of this curse” said arwin
“so many years and you are still the same. Think beyond yourself arwin, even if you kill me what will you have achieved, nothing. Allow me to digress you from our petty differences. I am sure in your study and training with magic you have come across the origin of it. Two great powers one good one evil, the white wizard and the black wizard, erloser and verloren. These two powers collided and from them came the essence of magic” said vincent
“yes I know, what of it?, it’s just a folk tale that the elders tell children about good wining over evil” said arwin, it was the same tale that arystar had told him and the others when they were on their mission to find clues about Alvin.
“oh no my friend, it is the more than that, truth become rumors then stories then legend then tales. But that is not the entire truth that people know. In every age there arises a good that will save everything and the evil that will lead everything to destruction. I was born with memories and purpose of all this, I am the savior arwin, I am the one who will save and bring harmony to the essence of magic” said Vincent, then he raised the black orb towards arwin and tried to use it, but it had no effect,
“just as I thought, you are the evil, the black wizard who will only destroy the essence of magic. This orb is the heart of Verloren , your heart” he said and the black orb shattered in his hand and its fragments fell to the floor.
“is this your master plan?, is this why you always killed the people I care about?, since all those years, was everything that happened because of this?!” asked arwin
“No it wasn’t, but it was fate that you always ended up where you did. And now you can see why. But there is still more to it, the essence of magic in this world is wearing out. You and I are the last ones in the line, here it will be decided what happens to the magic in this world. Join me arwin, help me save the magic in this world and look at the world through my eyes, together we will be at the highest power and I will give you true peace that you yearn for” he said
“do you really expect me to believe this fucking bullshit, this is the justification you have for everything that I have suffered?, that I am the bad one!?. This is the shittiest story I have ever heard, don’t think you can talk your way out of this Vincent!” said arwin
Vincent replied with laughter, “well ofcourse this is what I have perceived in my life and this is my side of the coin. The choice is yours and regardless of what you choose weather join me or fight me. I shall do what I must.”
“I have already made my choice” said arwin, he took off his coat and threw it aside, a dark aura surrounded him.
“I see” said Vincent, “…a pity”, he raised the transparent orb, its power appeared around arwin and threw him back.
Arwin fired up the black lightning around him. Vincent raised the orb and then crushed it into his hand and the power emitting from it was sucked inside him. He spread his arms and light was emitting from him and then he was normal again.
“I have already reached a level far beyond a human’s capability, there is nothing you
can do!”
Vincent raised his hand and arwin quickly moved with blinding speed and circled around him. He lunged in to attack, but Vincent swung his arm and arwin was thrown off from a distance by his power. Arwin quickly cast the spell and created multiple portals around Vincent same as arystar could, combining with his own speed he jumped from one portal to another so fast it was almost impossible to predict from where he would attack, only the crackling sound of the lightning and black flashes were visible. At one moment he appeared behind Vincent and thrust his hand through his chest and he stopped, arwin pulled out his hand bloodied till the shoulder. Vincent fell to the ground splattering blood on the floor from the big hole in his torso. Ariwn was stunned at what had happened, he had killed Vincent and his corpse lay in front of him.
(Arwin) Fuck! What happened!?, did I really kill him?.......just like that?, is it over?......i did it, I ……..
And then arwin felt a hand on his shoulder, he turned around at there he was, Vincent very much alive. He punched arwin so hard, he went flying and crashed into the wall and spitting blood. He got up but the hit wasn’t what pained him, his eyes were wide and his mind in shock. He looked on the floor the body was gone he checked his arm and it was still stained with vincent’s blood.
(Arwin) what in the fucking world is happening, I just killed him I did, I still have his blood on my hand, I made a hole in his chest. Is this all just an illusion?....
“whats the matter arwin?, you look like you have seen a ghost” said vincent with a grin
Arwin yelled and charged in, he launched himself with so much power, the wall behind him shattered as he jumped. In mid-air he transformed himself into black lightning and instantly went past Vincent and appeared behind him crouching, he got up. A crescent cut appeared across Vincent neck and his head fell off spraying blood on ariwn’s face.
“I did it, this is no illusion!” arwin yelled to himself
“you are losing your cool ariwn” a whisper in his ears and suddenly he was launched straight up and hit the roof and was falling down, Vincent threw a chain made of his aura that pierced his shoulder, he swung and slammed arwin on the floor. He then conducted his magic through it and arwin was yelling at the touch of his magic. He got up slowly, he grabbed the chain and cancelled it out with his aura. Blood was flowing down from the side of his face, he spit out some more of it. He was breathing heavily but then he tried to calm down.
(Arwin) I need to keep it together, he is trying to mentally corner me. Something is not right here, I killed him twice now I know I did, I have his blood all over my body. He is using some trick to fake his death or maybe not. Is he using clones?, but I did not sense any other magic source than him. Or am I in an illusion from the start and in reality I am not even moving. I need to test some things. Zeke I need you to keep my magic essence in check while I fight him.
(Zeke) yeah I really don’t feel like doing anything, I would rather just lay back and enjoy the show…..
(Arwin)Do as I say you fuck! or I will kill you
(Zeke) ok ok fine, could have said please though
Arwin ignored Zeke’s comments and focused on Vincent. He fired and arc of lightning, Vincent deflected it with a wave of his hand and threw his aura chains at him, arwin dodged it and attacked physically. Vincent caught his fist and hit him back in the face, then another knee in the stomach. Arwin grabbed his sleeve and jumped on him and sat on his neck he fixed his legs around and bent backwards pulling Vincent along and slammed him on the floor. Arwin quickly stepped back, as soon as Vincent got up a small rune on his robes exploded and he fell aside.
“you will never kill me with such petty attacks” said Vincent, a trail of blood fell from his nose and his sleeve.
“then how is this” said arwin and covered his body in lightning and attacked
Vincent fired up his power, he was covered in a golden raging aura. Both caught each other’s fists and expanding their magical pressure, the floor below them started to crack. But Vincent’s power was increasing while arwin’s was at a limit. He grabbed arwin and blasted him with all his power, it blew away the wall behind arwin and he was nowhere to be seen. Vincent lowered his magic and arwin jumped out a portal on the other side of the hall. He was roughed up but still able to stand, thanks to his last moment save using a suction portal similar to that of arystar’s teleportation.
He looked at Vincent and grinned, he raised his hand holding a lightning bolt. The portal behind arwin was still open, a numerous portals appeared around Vincent that all focused the energy coming from that lightning bolt and aimed at him, black thunder from all directions rained on Vincent, resulted into a massive explosion of black lightning. The roof came crumbling down and the pillars fell apart.
Arwin lowered his energy and tried to regain his strength. He knew it was not over yet and also what to expect next,
“you have grown arwin” said Vincent walking out of the rubble, “you have become a lot powerful than I thought, but even you see now there is no point. You cannot kill me”
(Zeke) your essence is not disturbed it is firm and cold and full of hatred as always. This is not an illusion
(Ariwn) he still has the blood on his sleeve and the hit on his nose, its not a clone it is the same person. If he is manipulating time then why has it not affected me I am in the same time flow as his. No that is too far fetched, this is something else.
“you seem confused. I can see why ” said Vincent, “you have killed me three times till now and yet here I am alive, I’ll tell you how. I have gained the ability to change the reality, you killed me three times and every time it was a successful kill, but this is how the ability works. It’s an individual spell like a curse or a rune, once my life passes out of my body after a few seconds the ability is activated and my reality of the past few seconds changes. Since I am currently dead that reality changes and then I turn out to be alive. I am immortal!, you have failed once again!”
“No, I have gone through too much for it to end like this” said arwin
With this knowledge about Vincent, that he wouldn’t be able to kill him. He felt powerless again those thoughts of failing that had hunted him always came back rushing. But he was too far gone to just accept it, he activated his time stop spell on himself. Now Vincent was immortal and arwin could temporarily disable the pain he suffers from the battle. The only thing he could do was keep on fighting. They both attacked, exchanging blows and blasting magical spells.
(Arwin) there has to be some way to kill him for good, there must be. If his body reacts to death which activates the ability but If I isolate his mind then maybe I could make a fatal blow so that his dying body crosses the delay to get revived by this ability.
Vincent got some distance and cast another spell, arwin was surrounded in a magic sphere and trapped inside. Then the air inside the barrier started to change, it turned into a fog and it was difficult to breathe. The fog was acidic and it melted his glove and then the skin on his hand turned red and started to burn. After a while Vincent dispelled it and when the fog cleared arwin was gone, but there was a hole in the floor from where he had escaped. Vincent burst out in anger and hit the floor, the entire floor collapsed and he jumped below to the lower floor. Arwin was standing in the open in front of him. Vincent turned and there they were, Gilbert, Ewen , Avaline, Fiora, Erica and Gus. They all attacked him with their magic at once and Vincent was covered in multiple layers of destructive energies and aura, but he stood still as if nothing was happening to him. The next moment all the magic around him vanished and so did everyone else, except arwin who was standing behind Vincent with his hand next to his neck ready to slice through it but was unable to move, he stepped on a magic circle around Vincent and was now unable to move.
“its a good thing I placed some protection around me, though I will commend you for putting me under an illusion, for a moment I thought you friends really did come to your aid” said Vincent , “so you thought if you could kill me while I am under an illusion, it will cross the delay between me dying and my ability getting activated. You really have gotten clever and not just in your magic skill. But your are still too weak”
Arwin was struggling to move, he couldn’t even speak but just tilt at the most.
“it ends here arwin, it seems you failed in the end after all” said Vincent and then thrust his arm through arwin, his arm went completely through spraying blood from the back. He pulled out his hand and the blood spattered forward on him and arwin fell to the ground, eyes wide and blood pooling around him. Within a moment he was dead.
In that moment, he found himself in his inner consciousness. A completely white surrounding, infinite nothingness insight and there he looked below, a hole in his chest and he fell to his knees as tears started to flow down his cheeks.
“I now realize it, I have been wrong all this time. I never could have won against him, I made him a target for my failures but in reality it was my own lack of ability to change things that I was fighting” he spoke to himself
“I now see it, I could never accept myself and it only fueled my anger which turned into hatred and now here I am at the end of my path realizing it too late. Irena I finally understand what you meant, it was not that my aim was wrong but the path I took to it was, but it took me to come at this moment in death to finally understand it. If only had I made some changes when I had the time, but all of that doesn’t matter now. This is the end I am atleast glad that I did not die in ignorance, I am not dying with the same stupidity that I lived with atleast in the end I could change a little.”
“and I……………….I forgive myself, I accept that I am not that strong and powerful. I did fail to do anything back then and its okay I accept it now, I forgive” he said to himself
He saw a younger version of himself walk to him and place his hand on his shoulder, the image of his younger self smiling and finally at peace and now so was arwin, then it disappeared. Arwin felt a warm feeling inside, in the end he might have failed but he accepted it and the bitter feeling of failure was gone.
Infront of him was Zeke, who came to him and got down to one knee. He took arwin’s hand in his,
“you might be dying now, but you are also more powerful than ever. Now that your mind is not clouded your power is raging like a storm inside you. Tell me arwin do you want to end this your way?, do you want to win!?” asked Zeke
“Yes and not because of my past, but because I want to fight and win right now in this moment” said arwin
“you can do it but your enemy is still an immortal man. I can only give you the power but you have to figure this out, you will still die if you he kills you again and then I won’t be able to do anything, this one chance is all I can give you” said zeke
“I understand” said arwin
“but there is a price to pay. You and I we have a contract and to grant you this power we will have to rework it and change certain things” said zeke
Arwin simply smiled and nodded to it.
Vincent was walking towards the door cleaning the blood from his arm and he suddenly stopped with shock and turned around. Arwin was slowly standing up covered in a black aura, the hole in his chest was gone. Vincent could sense his essence and it was more stable and powerful and that it ever was. He stood up smiling in the face of death. His left arm was completely black and the black mark spread till his neck, his green eyes were shining and he looked like a demon.
“so it seems I am not the only one who can cheat death” said Vincent, “but now you are starting to annoy me boy”
He attacked, arwin dodged his strike. Vincent at point blank range blasted his magic that pushed arwin but he recovered quickly and moved around him. Arwin was still wounded and in pain from his injuries throughout the battle, he grabbed Vincent jumped around him and threw him ahead. He lunged at him with lightning bolt in hand, Vincent blew wind so powerful from his mouth that threw arwin back. They continued to fight in consecutive physical and magical strikes. Vincent twisted arwin’s arm and hit him with his magic, the force of it expelled behind arwin breaking through the rubble. Arwin stepped back coughing blood, he was drenched in blood and suffering injuries all across his body he was in great pain and he was slowly losing the power he got from Zeke.
(Ariwn) Even with this power I won’t be able to kill him and he still seems able to fight for long, while I am getting weaker with every moment. Zeke I need to know something, I can use your power does it also means I can use your abilities?
(Zeke) yes, you are like a half spirit right now
(Arwin)You can freely look through my memories right?, also communicate with me by separating my consciousness?
(Zeke) yes but I isolate myself as a spectator so that I don’t have to feel whatever it is that you felt in those memories
(Arwin) but when Arystar went through my memories he felt the same pain I did. In a matter of seconds he suffered everything I did in years that took a heavy toll on his mind and body.
Arwin climbed up the rubble and got to a higher ground, he looked at Vincent and they both knew this was the final move. He formed a ball of black lightning, the black aura flowed out of him and focused all at one point putting every ounce of his power into it. Vincent released all his power , he was shining in a white light building immense magical pressure, the rubble around him was floating and broke into a crumble and the next moment they fired all they had at each other. The explosion was massive that it blew off the top part of the tower, the black lightning and the white magic flow through it destroying everything in its range……………………………………