Redemption of a Demon
It took Terra almost six hours to return to Aquilla. She had to stop several times to change the bandage around Hectors chest. She couldn’t shorten the trip by running for fearing that his wound would open back up and cause him to bleed to death. Terra entered the church at the far end of town, while holding Hectors unconscious body in her arms instead of over her shoulder. She started for the double doors on the left side of the main room. Apparently, Ambrodia had followed them in. She peaked around Terra to see who she was carrying. She then quickly came around to help.
“What happened to him?” Ambrodia turned around and opened up the double doors that lead to the healing wing.
“Edgar!” Was all that Terra said to her. Ambrodia cleared off the nearest bed and helped Terra sit Hector down.
“Edgar?” She asked. Terra goes to the closest cabinet to get some clean bandages.
“He did this.”
“Why?” Terra came back with an armful of bandages and rages.
“Because he’s a demon…an un-controllable one now.” She then started unwrapping the blood stained bandages from Hector body to inspect his wound. Ambrodia pulls up a chair and takes a seat and begins washing the wound.
“Let me look after him, you go see about stopping Edgar.” Terra stands up and walks for the door and stops. “Where will you start looking?”
“The only place I know he’ll hide.” Terra then picks up her discarded sword and walked through the doors.
“Where?”
“The city ruins of Lania.”
Terra arrived at Lania almost an hour later after leaving from Aquilla. The last time she was here, the city was deserted. Lania had now become a city of demons. All the buildings and piles of junk and rubble were covered with demons. Dangling and lurking around every corner. Terra was awed by what she was seeing. She readied herself to fight if needed. But, the demons paid no attention to her, as if they were commanded to stand down. She slowly made her way through the ruins. Always staying alert to defend herself at any given time if attacked. The demons squabbled and screeched as Terra walked by. Terra eventually reach the building Edgar had been living in, to find that it had been destroyed. All of Edgar’s things were removed and placed next to an other ruined building that was supported with metal beams and wood supports. There wasn’t anything she could’ve used, except the black and blue scythe that had been lodged into the side of the building.
“I don’t ever remember him having that.” She then looked up to the reactor tower to see someone standing at its peak. From that far of a distance, it could’ve only been one person, Edgar. She quickly made her way to the tower to try and find a way to get up to him. When she got there, she noticed that a hole was blown out at the bottom of the tower.
“It’s not great, but it the only way in.” She climbed through the hole. Terra then gazed up at the inside of the two thousand year old tower. There were several sets of stairs and latter’s leading up to the top. In some places, metal poles were jammed into the sides of the walls were stair cases once were to use as steps. The light source came from all over the inside of the building. All peering in from rust covered windows, rotted out holes and holes recently made by demons for entry. It took Terra almost twenty minutes to ascend to the top. Now the only thing between her and Edgar was a door with words on it, written in blood.
‘Don’t cling to things, because everything is impermanent’ Terra thought about what it said but came to no conclusion to what it meant. She pushed open the door to the roof and stepped through. Edgar had been waiting, so Terra made no attempt to sneak up on him.
“Edgar!” Edgar turned his head to look at her over his left shoulder.
“So? Has the angel finally decided to live up to its destiny?” Terra was slightly irritated and confused.
“Angel? You speak nonsense.” Terra then watched Edgar stretch out his folded up wing to its full twelve foot length. He then turned to face her.
“Ah, only if I were…Obviously, you didn’t believe the story I told you.”
“The story about a demon and an angel that destroyed the world? It’s a damn myth!” Edgar then lets out an evil laugh.
“Then how do you explain what I am?” He holds both arms out to his side. “Since this is what Samos wanted all long.”
“What do you mean, explain?” Edgar then slowly paces the edge of the building.
“Samos is a demon…and he created the order to make you humans hope for an end to this demon horde.” Terra couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“How could this happen?” Edgar stopped moving.
“It’s easy; he manipulated you when he should’ve killed you.”
“I don’t understand.” Edgar then raised his hand to the sky.
“Then I’ll show you…show the angel what it missed.” The sky slowly started to turn dark from the storm Edgar was creating. “We will destroy this world through our conflicts.” Terra then readies herself for an unbearable fight.
“What’s going to happen to the people?”
“That is up to you to decide.” Edgar then thrusts his hand downward to spur up the storm. They both then lunged for each other; they clashed together while flying off the top of the old reactor tower. They started slashing away at each other, gaining nothing in return. With one swift swing, Edgar knocked Terra tumbling through the air. As Terra regained aerial balance, she searched for the now missing aerial demon. As she was searching, she glanced to her left to see Edgar flying towards her with sword ready to strike. Terra goes to block it, but gets batted like a ball. She went tumbling through the exterior wall of the closest building. The impacted blurred her vision slightly, but she quickly got back up to her feet. But right after she did, she saw Edgar fly through the hole she just made. She jumped back only to find herself blocking even more attacks. She then jumped back wards, landing on the side of a pillar. She then started jumping from pillar to pillar. Edgar joined her in doing so. They would glance off a few attacks before standing face to face with there swords locked. Edgar’s smile grows.
“Ah, where’d you find this strength?”
“I’m not about to tell you.” Terra then forces him off, sending him crashing through the side of the building at an upward angle. She jumps up after him to only land at the opening. She then hears metal crashing and twisting against metal. She looks up to see a giant piece of debris tumbling down just above her. Terra quickly launched herself forward to the building in front of her. She turned around in time to see Edgar land and they continued this brutal fight. Terra jumps up and does a summersault while bringing her sword down on where Edgar was supposed to be standing. Her sword slammed into the metal surface of the roof, jarring her arms. She looked up to see where he went but was greeted by another chunk of debris that was cut away and now slid towards Terra. She jumps back through the air, immediately pursued by Edgar. More attacks were thrown at her before she landed on the top of another ruined building. Edgar flew up behind her, ready to decapitate her. But she turned and ducked underneath it in time. They lock swords again for a brief moment. Terra forced him off again. As Edgar flew backwards, she shot herself after him. While flying through the air, Edgar grins at her as he brings his sword up in front of him.
“I thought of a wonderful present for you.” He spins around, bringing his sword across horizontally to cut through a small metal tower as he flew by. It started falling towards Terra, but with one swift slice. She cut through the middle of it. She quickly gained on him and started slicing and kicking at him. They locked blades in mid air. While Terra was this close, Edgar asked.
“Shall I give you despair?” Edgar then throws her off with such force, she had trouble regaining balance. To stop herself, she stuck out her massive sword only to have it sink into the side of the old reactor tower half way up. She came to a sudden stop, surprised she didn’t rip her arm off. She looked up to see Edgar staring down at her, while standing on a ledge some fifty to sixty feet up from her. The top off the reactor was all but hanging by a thread, waiting to break.
“On your knees, I want you to beg for death.” He then swung his sword upward, sending a sword slash through the top of the tower. The debris that had been hanging there let go and started tumbling down towards Edgar and Terra. Edgar folded up his wing before turning around and slicing his way through the debris. When he sliced through it, he caused it to scatter everywhere. As the debris neared Terra, she launched herself from the side of the building. The debris caught up to her as she slowly descended, she started to slicing and cutting through it. She continued till she sliced though and saw Edgar on the other side. They landed on a falling platform and unleashed a flurry of attacks on each other before they both started jumping through an almost endless rage of a rockslide. They land on another platform and continue there fight till Terra could no longer take it. She then cut her way of all of it and jumped her way to a brief moments safety. She came to a hard landing on top of the reactor tower and dropped down to one knee out of fatigue. As she went to stand up, Edgar came flying up from the falling rubble and back down for a killing blow. Terra rolled away to evade him. Then she stood up and started blocking. Each hit she blocked felt like an impact tremor. She was extremely tired. Edgar then hit her with his free arm, that felt like a sledge hammer. Terra stumbled and rolled backwards. She got up to fend him off, but it was no use. Edgar had whipped around and smacked her with his massive wing to send her into one of the inner walls of the tower. She blacked out momentarily, she then felt a searing pain in her right shoulder. When her vision returned, she looked down to her shoulder to see that a sword had pierced her to the wall. Terra‘s eyes then followed the length of the blade to see Edgar standing on the other end. She brought her left hand up and grasped the end of the sword.
“Tell me what you cherish most? Give me the pleasure of taking it away.” Terra’s thoughts then went to all the memories of her friends and her brother Hector and all the things they did together. She then rips the sword from her shoulder and kicked him back. She quickly picks up her sword.
“I pity you; you just don’t get it all.” She lunges at him, but Edgar jumps back then launches himself into the sky with a hard thrust of his wing. Terra followed him up in the same direction.
“There’s not a thing I don’t cherish!” Terra then goes berserk, slashing, punching and kicking away for several hits. She then raised her sword over her head and brought it back down on Edgar, sending him straight through the wall he had her against. As he passed through, the debris had collapsed on top of him sealing him inside. Terra then dropped down to both knees relieved that the fight was over and Edgar was defeated. But not long after having these thoughts, Terra heard something moving inside the rubble. She turned and looked to see Edgar emerge from the pile of debris. He was covered in blood. His wing dragged on the metal grating as the main bone that connected it with his back was snapped in two. Rendering his ability to fly perfectly useless. Sections of the bone can be seen through the blood and tendons sticking out. Terra got to her feet and readied herself for a final fight. Edgar then started running for her, his wing dragging along behind him. He raised his sword over head while Terra lunged at him with her blade horizontally across to cut through the middle of him. As Terra came to a stop, Edgar kept going and fell to his chest. The storm Edgar had created started to fade away to reveal the mid afternoon sky. Terra then walks over to his body and kneels down next to him. She rolled him over and pulled him up onto her lap.
“Edgar, what were you trying to do?” Edgar coughs up some blood.
“What else would a demon do? Besides world domination.” He then reaches up to his neck and rips off a necklace that he found sometime earlier that day and handed it to Terra. She rolled it over in her hand. There were two figures, one was a demon and the other was an angel. Their arms and legs were twisted together around a sapphire. Terra clenched her hand around it.
“You are…the angel.” These were the last words he spoke before passing into the void. The sides of Terra’s face were now streaming with tears. She leaned back while holding Edgar’s body and let out a long heartfelt scream. She then remembered all the memories that they experienced together. Playing in these ruins when there were younger, the face off when sparing together, and the lone demon that wandered these ruins that looked after Edgar. She then heard Edgar’s voice in her head.
“Here today, gone tomorrow. We’re saying our goodbyes. Drive away from the past. Don’t be sad, don’t feel sorrow. The memories in our hearts.” The tears finally stopped. Terra slowly lowered Edgar’s body down onto the cold metal surface that made the top of the tower. She then heard a long hollowed scream followed by several. She stood up and wandered over to the edge of what’s left of the building and looked down. The demons that had surrounded the ruins were now converging and scaling the reactor tower. Terra turned around to see that several demons were now standing behind her. She quickly ran over to Edgar’s body and took up his sword in her left hand. Then she started fending off multiple demons. She started slicing and dicing all that got into her reach from her spinning attacks. After several long minutes, Terra had defeated all or most of them. She then stood at the edge of the tower looking towards the setting sun. She raised up Edgar’s sword in front of herself to gaze upon it one last time. The black blade, scratch less and beautiful as always. It was still very sharp, even after all it’s been through. She then twirled it around in her left hand before thrusting it into the metal grating. Terra then turned around to gaze on Edgar, but his body was now missing. He had faded away like most demons when they die.
“You know Edgar? You and I…aren’t so different. Both trying to hide who we really are.” A ten foot angel wing gently sprung from her right shoulder. She then stepped backwards to the edge of the building.
“You…were the demon.” She then let herself ease off backwards and off the top of the destroyed Reactor. She outstretched her wing and flew off towards the sunset.
