When I pushed my brothers as they fell into the depths of the chasm, I gave them a smile, and with my right hand I pointed at my face with my thumb.
—Will this be the last time I see them…? No, it can't end like this. I'll see them again… yes… I'll see them again. I just have to win this fight. It doesn't matter if I have to face those two at the same time… I, Iko, will win —I told myself to summon courage.
The air burned like invisible blades. Under my feet, the ground trembled as if the earth itself had awakened. The walls of the chasm swallowed my brothers with a damp echo. Seconds stretched like veins. Everything felt like a broken dream.
Before I turned my gaze back to them, I noticed both men were staring at me… laughing without stopping. It was hard to understand what they were saying between their bursts of laughter. Their laughs were alien, as if they weren't in the middle of a battle but in a tavern telling obscene stories.
—Hey, hey… did you just kill your brothers? Hahaha! Humans really are a strange race! —said Draekon through laughter, his fangs glinting like mirrors smeared with blood.
—You're right. I never imagined they'd go that far —replied Thalor with a macabre smile, his wings folded like white blades ready to cut the air.
I didn't answer. I just stared at them with a cold expression, gripping my sword's hilt tightly. My fingers were trembling claws, my knuckles a map of blue veins. I knew this fight was mine. I couldn't lose… nor let my emotions cloud me. The heat in my chest was a mix of rage and destiny. I had crossed a threshold from which there was no return.
—Special Ability: Three-Headed Water Serpent! —I shouted with all my strength, my throat raw, my voice cracked like glass.
I was determined to give it my all. Even if my ability only lasted two minutes, I had to use every second to try to defeat them. It was my only card, my only roar.
Three magic circles appeared above me, burning like inverted blue moons, and from them emerged the three serpentine heads made of water. Their eyes were bottomless pits, their liquid skin dripping hatred. They were my guardians and my executioners, ready to serve as both shield and weapon.
—So you can activate special abilities too? That's new to me. I didn't know humans could use magic, much less… abilities like that —Draekon commented, surprised, a predatory glint flashing in his eyes.
Without wasting time, he lunged at me with his summoned sword. His speed was a black lightning; each strike rang like broken bells. I didn't know how much longer I could keep it active —more than two minutes had already passed since I invoked it. Each heartbeat was a drum announcing the end.
His attacks were swift, but thanks to my ability, the watery heads protected me like moving walls and counterattacked fiercely, forcing Draekon to retreat. His invisible scales sizzled under the serpents' jaws.
I was so focused on him that I completely forgot about Thalor. When I realized he was no longer in his spot, I began looking around anxiously, but I couldn't find him… until a voice whispered behind me, freezing my marrow:
—If you were looking for me… I've always been right behind you. Turning your back on me… that was your biggest mistake.
I felt a slash across my back… a cold flash. But it wasn't my flesh that tore. One of the serpent heads had intercepted just in time, almost biting off his right arm. Thalor managed to defend himself with his sword, barely dodging the attack. The white light of his wings was stained with dark drops: water and blood mixed.
—Tch… these little servants of yours are annoying… —Thalor growled. His godlike eyes flickered, a flash of irritation breaking his serene mask—. I didn't want to use my ability, but I'm not staying in this damned place any longer… Special Ability: Ten Chains!
From his back, ten black chains began to emerge, and at the tip of each one glimmered the blade of a short sword. They moved like living serpents of metal, sniffing out my fear. Each chain carried the murmur of distant bells, as if they were forged from stolen penances.
This is getting bad… I have to strike before it gets worse.
I sent the serpent heads lunging at Thalor while I focused on Draekon. The three watery jaws hissed, biting the air. Each bite was a poem of liquid fury. Thalor's wings sliced the space; the chains clashed with the heads, creating a concert of steel and water.
I knew I was at a disadvantage. Even as I kept Thalor busy with my ability, only about thirty seconds remained before it vanished. It was an invisible hourglass, sand falling onto my fate.
But I couldn't give up. I had to keep attacking… no matter the cost. My muscles burned, my heart was a war drum.
And then, I heard a dry sound… like flesh tearing. A wet noise that seeped into my bones.
I didn't understand where it came from. I hadn't struck Draekon… I looked at my body for an instant, confused. The world tilted like a ship in a storm.
And there it was.
Ten swords had pierced me. My entire body was riddled… and one of them had gone through my heart. Thalor's chains had found their mark, silent and exact, like inevitable thoughts.
I felt no pain. Time became viscous. My body no longer responded as before, yet my arms still moved, clinging to my sword. As if another force lived within me, as if my hands were marionettes of an ancient vow.
With the last of my strength, I made one serpent head bite Draekon… and another strike Thalor. The watery jaws closed on divine flesh. There was a crackle of energy, a roar of surprise. Their bodies tensed for an instant; it wasn't pain, it was something else: an ancient poison, one not made for gods.
Then I fell.
The world blurred. I heard nothing. I saw poorly. The ground vanished beneath me and I felt like I floated in a black sea.
But I knew one thing: if the heads had bitten them, then the poison was already in their blood. They wouldn't show symptoms… but in three days, they would die. The poison of these serpents was slow… but it consumed from within, as if devouring the soul. It was my master's final inheritance, the secret I was never meant to use.
I smiled.
I closed my eyes… knowing I had done everything within my power…
For them.
In the darkness that followed, something breathed with me. It wasn't the wind, it wasn't death. It was an echo returning my own name.
—Iko… Iko… —it whispered, as if the abyss itself spoke.
I opened my eyes in a world without light. My hands had no weight. The chains that pierced me dissolved into dust, but my body remained perforated, like a sieve of flesh. I tried to move and felt I had no bones. I tried to speak and my voice was a thread.
Around me floated images: the faces of my brothers falling, Daichi's eyes full of fire, Aiko's broken laughter, Ken's gaze before losing the sword. It was as if everything was suspended in black water. Maybe I was dead. Maybe not.
Above me, up there, roars resounded: Draekon's and Thalor's. They were no longer laughs. They were deep growls, the sounds of wounded beasts. I clung to that idea like a castaway to a plank: the poison was working.
The darkness moved. It wasn't an empty abyss. It was a river. And I floated.
—Iko… —again, that voice. Feminine, sweet, like a childhood memory—. This is not your end yet.
I saw, in a flash, a pair of black wings emerging from nothing. They weren't Thalor's. They were older, more worn, like parchments. A figure formed before me: not human, not god. It was as if the chasm itself had taken shape. A face without features, a body of liquid shadows.
—Your brothers… are not dead —it said without a mouth, without sound. The phrase pierced me like light—. They have fallen to the Other Side.
I tried to answer, but my mouth didn't move.
The figure extended a hand. It was smoke, but I felt warmth.
—If you want to find them again… you must keep falling.
And the darkness swallowed me.
Thalor looked at his hands. The marks of the poison were beginning to glow, a faint blue thread running through his divine veins. Draekon spat dark blood, surprised by the fragility of his own body. They looked at each other, silent. Something in the balance had shifted.
—That human… —Draekon growled, touching the spot on his neck where the serpent had bitten him—. He has condemned us.
—Or he has freed us —Thalor replied, no smile this time, his wings trembling.
The battlefield fell silent. There were no more soldiers. Only echoes. Only a god and a dragon, poisoned, staring at the abyss where the other heroes had fallen.
The wind blew.
In the darkness, I was falling. It wasn't a fall; it was a passage. Every time I blinked I saw something different: a field of black flowers, an inverted city hanging from the sky, my brothers walking on a bridge of bones. I couldn't reach them. Every step I took pushed them farther away.
My heart —if it was still beating— burned like a beacon. My sword had dissolved, but in my hands its shadow remained. I gripped it. I felt its weight.
—This can't end here —I told myself, even if my voice was only thought.
And then, out of nowhere, a blue glow opened before me: a circle, a portal, an eye. Inside it, I saw their faces. Daichi, Aiko, Ken, Kurayami. Walking, confused, but alive. Their figures were translucent, like reflections in water.
—Wait! —I shouted, or thought I shouted.
They stopped. But they didn't see me.
I breathed.
The air burned my throat.
And as the world split again in two, the darkness finished consuming me.