A Journey through Kingdoms

CHAPTER 26- COLD AIR

Before Derrick was put down to the ground and was about to get stabbed by Mortimer, we'd have to take ourselves back before this moment. Back over to the moment where Derrick was standing right in front of the royal adviser's door. "Tetsuga is counting on you, Derrick. Let's make this count," he mutters to himself as he approaches the door. Ready to meet what or who was on the other side. Then, with a tight breath,. He swings the door open and raises the jar full of his newly concocted potion. "What in the!?" Mortimer was rightfully surprised, as he didn't expect the alchemist to arrive at his doorstep. But here he was. "This is for Ecrucio!" Derrick shouts as he then throws the jar straight over to Mortimer as it hits him directly in the nose. The jar immediately breaks upon impact before it explodes into a frosty white mist. The room quickly filled up with snow as cold air began to rush through the door, inadvertently blasting Derrick with a cold wind. Once the initial effect wore out, Derrick got a glimpse of everything and noted it in his head. "Looks like the solution was a bit low grade. Was going for a more icy effect rather than snow," he says with his finger on his chin.

"Right! The sword! Where did he put the sword?" Derrick then quickly remembers why he was here in the first place. He scans the room again in search of the sword and finds it mounted on the wall in front of him. "Aha!... huh?" Derrick was about to go and get it but then saw Mortimer get up from the now snowy floor with shards of glass in his face and blood that had frozen itself on it as well. "You annoying little runt!!" Through shivering teeth, Mortimer spews out his frustrations at the boy as he stands up from behind the side of his desk. Glaring at Derrick. "Look, Mr., I may not know why you want me dead, but my partner is in danger right now, so hand me the sword," Derrick says. Telling Mortimer to just step aside to avoid any more conflict than there is now. "Oh, you're not getting anything! After the things you ruined for me, all you're getting is this pen through your throat!!" Mortimer screams before grabbing a fountain pen from his desk and running straight towards Derrick.

"Woah!" The boy yelps before diving to the side. Dodging Mortimer as his momentum landed him outside the door on the floor after tripping a little bit. Derrick takes the red gemstone from inside his vest and glances over at the mounted sword. "I have to get to that sword!" Derrick mutters as he quickly gets up from the snowy floor and makes his way over to it. But before he could get too close, a vase hits him in the back of the head and knocks him back down. "This is where you die, little boy!! I'll make sure no one will ever find your body!!" Mortimer says sinisterly as he closes the door behind him and locks it. Preventing any chance for Derrick to escape this encounter. Derrick holds his head and feels something wet. He brings it down to eye level and sees his glove stained in blood while more blood starts trickling down his face and mask. Now the adrenaline had started kicking in for him as his breathing got a lot faster and the air became more tense and colder. He turns around on the floor and sees Mortimer coming in with his fountain pen again. Attempting to stab him while he was down. Derrick rolls to the side, grabs a handful of snow, and chucks it at Mortimer's eyes.

"Grah!!" The snow hits and stuns Mortimer for a moment as he tries to wipe it off to regain his vision. Derrick then uses this as an opportunity to shove him towards his desk, tripping himself over it and landing painfully behind it. Derrick then tries to reach for the sword again, but is then hit in the side by the desk as Mortimer kicks it towards him. Derrick lands on the floor on his side, and luckily for his lack of feeling, the hit didn't feel all too painful, but he sees that it became a lot harder to move it since it was now injured. Mortimer stands back up from his spot, and so does Derrick, as both start staring straight at each other. "I'm sorry that I ruined whatever you think I ruined, Mr. I promise that I won't ruin anymore things if you give me the sword." Derrick tries to reason with him. But it served to be futile since Mortimer was a man who held a lot of grudges. "You're not getting out of this with a sorry!! I won't be satisfied until I see all this snow-stained red!!" Mortimer says as he slowly starts to maniacally laugh. "I'm through with keeping my hands clean!! If you want something done right, then you do it yourself!!" Mortimer shouts as he rushes the boy again. With little mobility, Derrick tried his best to dodge his aggressive, uncoordinated attacks.

He weaves to the left to avoid the first strike. Mortimer swings his right arm at him, which Derrick dodges by stepping away. But to do so, he accidentally used his bad leg, which caused him to trip on it and land butt first to the ground. "Gah!" Derrick then quickly crawled away but Mortimer grabs his leg and pulls him back in. He forces the boy to turn around and starts to strangle him as he pins him on the floor. "It's over!! Just die already so i don't have to deal with you or any of this anymore!!" Mortimer says with venom in his voice as his grip tightens around Derrick's neck. The boy starts gasping for air as the panic slowly makes him flail around in hopes of escape and take a breath. "E... Ecru... cio..." Derrick spoke brokenly as he was slowly being deprived of oxygen. "That old bastard isn't going to save you, boy! You're all alone, and you'll die alone, you hear me!" Mortimer yells. Derrick is almost running out of time. He tries to collect himself and focuses his hands over Mortimer's face. At first, he weakly places his hand on him, but then suddenly uses the last of his strength to push the glass shards that were still on Mortimer's face even deeper. Causing a surge of pain in Mortimer as he screams in pain and accidentally lets go of his neck. "AAAAARRGGGHHH!!!!" Mortimer hops off of Derrick and lands straight back onto his knees as his hands hover below his face to catch the dripping blood from his wounds.

Derrick coughs after being released as he flops over to his stomach to regain his strength as well as catch his breath. "The Sword..." Derrick mutters as he slowly gets back up and limps around over towards the sword. "DERRICK!! WHERE ARE YOU!!" Suddenly, Tetsuga's voice shouted from outside as Derrick instinctively looked towards the window after hearing it. "Tetsuga!" He says. But then, right after, his head slammed into the wall right below the mount the sword was on. Mortimer then throws Derrick away in the middle of the room as he facesplants on the snow. The impact from the slam did, however, unmount the sword mount from the wall as it fell to the ground. "Since you like your friend so much!" Mortimer starts as he walks over to Derrick, picks him up by his hair, and walks with him over to the window. "Then go say hi!!!" Mortimer shouts before smashing Derrick's face through the window as shards go flying and cutting his face.

"DERRICK!" Tetsuga shouts as his eyes widen. "Tetsuga!" Derrick managed to speak out his name before getting shoved back into the office, which was now filled with white, cold snow. Mortimer stands right above Derricks' body, now adorning a crazed look on his face. Finally, I lost all sense of rationality. "THIS IS THE END OF THE ROAD, YOU PESKY LITTLE RUNT!!" He yells. Clutching the fountain pen even harder before slowly raising it up as Derrick watches it all happen on the floor. Immobile. Was this it? Did he fail? The situation already seemed hopeless from the get-go, but it was now that he truly felt like it was. In his mind, the images of people flashed before him as he internally apologized to all of them. Their lives were taken all because of him. But one image stayed in his mind the longest. Ecrucio's. He felt his death to be the guiltiest for him. If it wasn't for him, Ecrucio wouldn't have needed to sacrifice himself for him. He wouldn't have had his son threatened by Mortimer if it wasn't for him. But suddenly, his words started to speak in his head.

'Whatever you create will ultimately become its own. And by then, it will be separate from you. Your actions to tell him may have endangered me, but it's not you who is trying to at the moment...' echoed in his mind. That's right, he thought. Sure, he was the center of it all, but they only lost their lives because of the hunter and the man in front of him. And like Ecrucio said in his own words,. 'I owe it to him and everyone else to try!' He exclaims in his head as he grits his teeth and stares straight at Mortimer. Though his eyes were obstructed by his goggles, that didn't stop him from staring at the man with determination in his eyes. He develops a slight smirk, which only ticks Mortimer off as he shouts with all his might. "DIE!!!" before bringing down the fountain pen as it heads straight towards Derrick's chest.