Close Nemesis

Chapter Fifty-Two: Rotcetorp, Reaper of Death

XALIR:

I'm the reaper of death. I am not a hero, like I've been leading myself to believe. I am a murderer. Of course, this is nothing compared to the guilt Laiva is facing. I understand the pain she carries. This pain is a disease, rotting away Laiva's sanity.

I don't know if I can ever get Laiva back. But I do know that someone has to stop her.

I don't want to harm a hair on her precious body. She might be wrong about containing remnants of the pebble star's energy. Superpowers may have existed long before the pebble star came into being. But, I still have to defend cities from her attacks. I know she won't stop until I kill her.

She said she became Oppugnant to stop me from causing destruction in the future. But, from what I saw on the news about Knirdova, it looked as if it had been flattened by a tsunami. What Laiva did when she teleported that city was way worse.

Her true nemesis isn't me. It's herself.

As her lover, it is my duty to help her. Perhaps the only way to help her is to end her life. But I won't do that. I will just have to protect this galaxy until my dying breath.

Anyway, I am travelling at the speed of light towards Teglyo. When I arrive mere kilometres away from the planet's light blue atmosphere, I descend towards a grey spot on the planet's surface.

Once I pass through the levels of the atmosphere, I notice the first several levels of the fort. Even though I expect there to be some Teglyon casualties, the fort has been emptied of superhuman recruits, so I guess that's good.

As I land hard on the runway that's connected to the fort, I find Oppugnant staring out to the hangar.

She turns around to face me, and chuckles. The red hues of the Teglyon forests reflect in her one-way visor.

"No wonder you're always seeing red," I remark stalely.

Oppugnant grumbles angrily, before teleporting me away.

I rematerialize underneath the runway, before freefalling into the seemingly bottomless gorge. I use the air to slow my descent before launching myself upwards. Moving myself a centimetre to the left, I fall onto the asphalt of the runway. Oppugnant laughs once more, and then my burgundy eyepieces shatter.

"WHAT THE KCUF!" I swear, prompting a dark giggle from Oppugnant.

Then, Oppugnant waves her hand in front of me, and my sight goes black.

Sharp pain travels through me as metal strikes my chest. I topple over, but I quickly recover and blindly throw a few punches. I feel my neck go tight as metallic fingers wrap themselves underneath my helmet. I try to punch backwards, but suddenly, the tension releases, and my sight soon returns.

Oppugnant stands in front of me. The blankness of their visor sets in for me that there is little humanity left in Laiva. I feel racked in pain, and I know that Laiva has many other tricks up her sleeve.

"Do you like the new powers I stole?" Oppugnant asks cruelly. "Because I don't. Just kill me already!"

"NO!" I exclaim, generating rocky spikes out of thin air.

They hover above my hand, and I push them towards Oppugnant, who effortlessly destroys them with a bright plasma blast.

"I guess until you decide to kill me, I'll keep on causing destruction until you find the courage to destroy me! I will not actively seek Xalir out, but I will attempt to lure you to me, Rotcetorp."

Oppugnant teleports away in a flash of light, and a heavy cloud of uncertainty envelops my mind.

I collapse onto the platform, picking up loose pieces of shattered red glass from my eyepieces.

Oppugnant will strike again, and I cannot wait until she does so. I need to go back home and get Zieré to build me a new suit. Then, I'll figure out what I'm going to do next.