CHAPTER 512

THE QUINTESSENTIAL TRUTHS

The wind whizzed unperturbed, carrying with it the chill of the winter, blasting through and around the tall mountain at whose peak three figures currently stood. Lino had drawn some distance between himself and Ella and Dan, confusion swirling inside his abyss-drawn eyes.

Dan was still on his knees, his eyes saucers, looking up at the ethereal figure floating slightly above the ground who looked straight back at him for a moment before turning back toward Lino, her eyes deepening in confliction. She bit her lower lip, landing and removing the decorations around and on her, returning to her ever-so-slightly less beautiful state. She still stuck out like a sore thumb from the dull and colorless background of white and gray, though to a lesser extent.

“... put down the sword, Lino.” Ella said.

“...” Lino looked into her eyes for a moment before obliging, putting the Slayer back into its scabbard. “You seem... different.” he added.

“I remembered.”

“Remembered what?” he asked.

“Everything.” Ella replied. “But mostly who I am. All the people I’ve been.”

“... and one of them just happens to be his wife?” Lino’s frown deepened as he glanced at the still-kneeling Dan who seemed entirely unaware of their conversation.

“... yes.” Ella nodded heavily, sighing.

“... any others I should know about?” Lino asked queerly. “Just in case I get a murder-boner for one of them.”

“Don’t be like that.”

“Like what? Confused? Because I don’t think I can maintain any other state of mind right now.”

“Dismissive,” she said. “I didn’t know.”

“... you know now,” Lino said. “And you should know well enough I can’t leave him alive, El’. My Will won’t let me.”

“... and mine won’t let me stand aside as you do it.” she replied, smiling bitterly.

“... so we’ve come to an impasse then,” he said.

“... you feel it, don’t you?” she asked, peering beyond his facade.

“Who are you? Really?” he asked. “At your core?”

“...” she remained silent, as though contemplating whether she should tell him.

“... do you still consider me your son?” he asked after a short silence.

“Of course I do! How can you--”

“Then stand aside.” he interrupted.

“... that’s not fair, Lino.” Ella said. “That’s not fair.”

“... I’m not patient enough for the quizzical riddles and cerebral nonsense, El’,” Lino spoke in a growl. “Nor am I interested in trying to decipher them. Where have you been since the invasion?”

“... remembering.”

“Good for you,” Lino sneered, shaking his head. “I hope it was worth the while. Meanwhile, do you know what I was doing?”

“--Lino---”

“I was worrying whether something happened to you,” he said. “Besides grieving over the deaths of the hundreds of thousands of people, El'. Hundreds of thousands. Do you know what hundreds of thousands of corpses piled on a stretch of a few miles looks like? Whatever you imagine, it's far worse."

“...”

“Cae and Eggor have barely slept since we’ve figured out you were missing,” he continued. “I actually heard the old guy praying, El’. Praying. And what about Cae? The lad barely smiled in over a month. And what were you doing? Remembering. Hah, remembering...”

“... I had to remember, Lino,” Ella said, calming down. “Otherwise, I would always feel a void inside of me.”

“--in remembering all that, did you forget us?”

“... I know it’s not you,” she said, sighing. “Resist it, Lino. Please. Resist that calling. Don’t answer it.”

“...” Lino remained silent; she was right. Something inside him, the Primal Chaos that was now well beyond his control, was urging his heart to be consumed in hate, in anger, in repulsion. However, it did not create those feelings; it just emphasized them... considerably. “Tell me then, mom," he chuckled. "Why is it that the quintessential form of energy, one that shouldn't even exist, to begin with, feels repulsed by you? Why is it that you of all things in the whole goddamned world woke it from its slumber?” She--can’t---tell-you--- Lino shook, taking an involuntary step back. Ella cringed, her expression distorting.

“Ignore it, Lino! Please! Listen to my voice!!”

It wasn’t Ataxia -- he vanished, as far as Lino could tell, somewhere deep, hiding from the primal energy that was surging within Lino’s veins. She--is--bound;--I;--can tell. Ask. Ask me.

“Lyonel!!!” Ella’s scream jolted Lino back to reality as he instinctively drew out both the Edge and Slayer, entering the battle stance once more. She still stood on the other side, her expression pained. “Please... I’m begging you, Lino. Ignore it.”

“... and if I don’t?” he asked warily.

“... please, please,” Ella suddenly began to cry, visibly, startling him. “Please, Lino... that is the only way... I can save you...” --save? or enslave? Ask theeself. Ask--ask--Us.

“What do you think?” Lino whispered toward the small fragment of Chaos hidden away in his depths. Ataxia shook, the black swirl dancing for a moment, seemingly meeting Lino’s gaze. “Any advice for me?”

“... I’ve asked, once,” Ataxia replied after a short silence. “There is no turning back, Lyonel. Some questions... and some truths... are better left unanswered and unlearned...”

A thousand thoughts were currently sitting jammed inside Lino's mind. Though he felt overwhelmed, he never once lost his composure. One thing that surprised him was that the Primal Chaos withdrew -- it didn't try to control his emotional state or his thoughts anymore. Rather, it seems to have given up the decision entirely to Lino, allowing him to choose freely... something that happened rarely.

While both Ella and Ataxia urged him one or the other thing, the Chaos left him, strangely enough. It was a novel position to stand in, as he had a faint idea over what awaited him on the other side... yet it was all still entirely hidden within an impenetrable mist. A fog so thick it's impossible to peer beyond it.

For a long while, he felt that some things never quite added up and that his story, or at least the story of the Empyrean Bearer, transcended the tiny realm of Noterra in some way. Chaos was too... volatile to be chained to a single planet in the expansive void.

He extended his right arm amidst Ella's shouts and Ataxia's anxious whispers, opening his palm upward to heaven. His fingers tingled with electric dissonance for a moment as unstoppable energy swarmed through them, tiny, crimson bolts belting out of his fingertips, converging to the center of his palm, just slightly above it, into a tiniest, silver-white-crimson sphere. It seemed to face him, its gaze, beyond metaphysical, pure and unblemished. It didn't say anything, do anything, or try anything; it simply stared at him openly, waiting patiently for him to make a decision. To make a choice.

He could reject it, and it would most likely leave. Lino had the faintest of ideas of what it might lead to; following it, Ataxia would also rip himself from Lino and leave. He would cease being the Empyrean once and for all. In the worst-case scenario, he might even die.

But, in return, he’d be freed from any supernatural struggles of the future. He would be able to return to the simplest of lives, however short it may end up being. He also wouldn’t have to fight Ella, as this choice seemed to be the only way to avoid the confrontation. And he really didn’t want to fight her.

And yet, he couldn’t settle. It wasn’t even the case of his Will anymore, but of who he was at the core of his being. He may yearn for the return to the simpler times, but he yearned even more for seeing all of this through. He wanted to chase the unreachable heights, pull back the curtains folded over the eternity’s truths, understand the whys, the hows, and the wheres.

You--made;--your--choice.

It spoke to him, seemingly having read his throbbing heart.

I have.

Are--you--certain?

Is anything certain?

--all--things--are;

Show me.

You--will--fight;fight---forever--

... show me.

“Lino, please, don’t!!” Ella cried out from the top of her lungs.

“There’s no turning back, Lyonel...”

He ignored both of them and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and suddenly clenching his fingers into a fist. The swirl of energy exploded through him like a violent, soul-tearing storm. It dug through every inch of his body, remolding it from the tiniest of molecules. The skies above him darkened and thundered, the world around collapsing, seemingly incapable of withstanding the sheer surge of energy. It was no longer Qi -- but something much, much purer. Something that Lino felt only when he channeled Primal Chaos into one of his attacks.

Strength and power beyond comprehension filled him, his muscles pulsating, veins bulging, blood surging like the most cataclysmic river to have ever flown. His mind cleared, like the sky after dispersing the countless, ashen clouds.

His body rose slowly, black, crimson and silver tendrils exploding out of him in the form of threads, as the surrounding winds gained in speed and severity. They tore through the thickest of ice-encased stones, ripping apart everything in their surroundings.

The pair of black eyes heaved up toward the sky and exploded in a burst of black light shaped like two conical beams. A roar burned through his lungs and out his throat, tearing through his flesh on the way out; the spacetime broke apart as though it was the rotting wood, void consuming the reality around temporarily.

Ask--ask--ask--now.

Who am I?

Thee--is---Agent--of---Destruction--

Who is she?

She--is----Agent---of--Creation--