Leyk couldn't move.
It had all stopped, and he was being held back by what seemed to be unbreakable chains chaining his very mind, Cades already fighting against the chains that only seemed to exist within his own psyche, not anywhere else-
How did this even happen?
He had sent the missiles, Vexxen had defended and defeated them, reflecting some of them towards him, then he had jumped back, Vexxen, and then he had waved his hand towards him, and that had been it.
So, how come he couldn't move anymore, how come he was practically defeated, and how come he hadn't truly been killed yet despite not even being capable of showing any more tricks, if he were to even have any more up his sleeve, which he didn't, something he was certai-
It was as if his very mind had been punched, as if he longed to do something he didn't want to do, as if something was trying to manipulate him...
So this was what the control of another's mind felt for the person?
Very painful, very gruesome, very terrifying, this would undoubtably be a great tool when he was out of here, especially if he got to hitch a ride atop an interesting monster or something of that manner, perhaps, one day, even a dragon, every child's drea-
There the att-
Ag-
It was repeated dozens of times within a single moment, but now it had stopped, blood spewing out of his eyes, a violently purple liquid glowing at his feet, having been expulsed by the constant bluish light resembling bismuth still, but he did not receive anything else, it was over, and he knew that.
As neither Cades nor Leyk could do anything Vexxen suddenly moved erratically like a showman and began to talk weirdly, their mind shot and almost blank, the voice insanely energetic and weirdly, quite insane.
"Did you enjoy it, dear viewers, readers, listeners, watchers, watchers, readers, listeners, whatever you might be, oh great ones above that watch upon this puny little realm as entertainment, as information, or whatever it might be????"
His laughter began to resound and spread throughout the entire expanse of the great pillars whose edge they had now reached, Leyk being chained up just a few dozen feet away from the edge over which he had hoped to never fall but was most likely destined to soon end up on the bottom of, if he even fell long enough to experience that death.
The laughter was high-pitched, false, and insane, it was without method or rhyme, ti was just there to annoy and show them that he had won, that he was superior, if he was even truly talking to someone, this seemed to be more likely to be one of the faiths he had heard of one ehetria, even if he had only read about it in a book.
This seemed to be the faith of the fictional tower, a fairly wide-spread belief that says that ones own world is fictional and created within another, higher standing world that sees the fiction of this world as stories within a story and the fiction itself being this world, but that world being fiction in another world, that being this world, as well as various other worlds, believing that they are watched at all times.
Neither Leyk nor Cades had been very interested in it, but still, it was interesting to see such a rare faith, though this one had once dominated many a world and turned them into fighting each other just for the viewers amusement, a war just to gain approval from non-existent beings.
Though, in the end, it was true that Leyk had no way to tell if they were truly only.. fictional.., pun intended, it was simply a hunch of his that said that there were people watching, just not that the world was fictional, and if the world that was watched form above, in the form of fiction, was fictional there, and real here, then wasn't this world real in the other world as well, that's what he had bene torturing his back-then teacher with, those were the questions he had been asking back then.
Nevertheless, he was still listening as Vexxen continued talking.
"Hahahahahahahahahhahahahhahahahahahahahahhahaahahaahahahahahh"
He almost cowled over from the laughing, something that made Leyk more and more pissed, after all, while he admitted defeat due to his own mistakes, that laughter over his failure wasn't necessary, was it?
"I did my task" he said this as if he was singing, high and freely,"I won against him, the last of the three, the free one, pun i-ii-i-ntended, I won the task, I gained the power, now let me sseae,... I, by the two holy numbers, one and zero, WON!"
The talking and tone was all over the place, at times it was serious, at others it was absolute insanity, it was clear he hadn't been doing well, but after all, this Vexxen was most likely from the forsaken realm, just as he was, this guy probably went through similar things as him, and it even seemed like he had bashed multiple beliefs into one, though he wasn't sure where the two holy number thing came from.
Actually, if he hadn't realized aura and somehow did end up winning, an absolute impossibility as he now realized, he would've probably been acting that theatrical and insane as well, being glad to have won, though this person was truly doing this out of other reasons, that was for certain.
Then, suddenly, he became serious and turned towards Leyk.
"We will soon meet again, that has already been calculated my dear enemy, but fret not, just develop the aura and it'll be enough" a grin spread underneath the mask that began to heave the piece of metal up, revealing a bit of skin that he couldn't entirely see, "as the two holy numbers and the dear viewers long for, I shall reappear, for I am lord Vexxen, and I am, undoubtably, a pretty important character." He whispered the last part, as if to mock Leyk.
"But for now, let's end this, I already fulfilled my task here after all, that being can't tell me off now, you already learned aura, though not the kind I had expected." he said it sarcastically, but also weirdly melancholically, pure insanity, as always with this person.
Leyk perked up at those words, already seeing the bandaged black figure of Vexxen raise the sword, still multiple dozen feet, about three-hundred in total away, further than before by quite a bit, his body still unable to move and standing close to the edge, ready to receive death and forced to stand completely upright by whatever the man had just done that had caused this fight to end in such an abrupt way and for him to show his true self a bit, if it truly was him, that dancing mess of insanity.
Then the glowing blue sword was swung.