The Last Saint

35: The Past's Future

It was time. Time for everything to come to an end. Adam was prepared. He and Eve stood side by side, with Cain behind them, swords on their hips. They stood in Adam's backyard.

"In order to kill Fate, we have to find her first," Eve said.

Adam nodded. "I know. So how do we do that?"

Eve grinned. "It's simple. We use the World Tree."

"How?" he asked.

"Essentially, since Fate is connected to the tree, Eve can use it as a sort of radar to find her," Cain answered.

"Exactly," Eve said. "But it's not a power I could pull off before. With Baum gone, I can tap into the World Tree to find her."

"It requires that much magic?" Adam said, surprised.

Eve shook her head. "Sort of. But Baum's gift of bonds also prevented us from taping into the Tree's potential. In any case, let's go. We have things to do."

She raised her hand, and a portal formed. She walked through, holding Adam's hand, while Cain followed.

"Welcome," Eve said. "To the roots of the World Tree! This is the place where we will go to save the world! This is where we connect to the Tree and funnel our magic into it."

They stood on the edge of a cliff. Far off in the distance, surrounded by 14 colossal stone torches, stood a round stone wall. Above the wall, from some source too high to see, massive roots came down, invading the stone walls and coiling around them, before splitting off and descending into the endless abyss.

Between the walls and the cliff was a long, winding narrow stone bridge. Eve lead the way. It was just wide enough for them to walk single file comfortably. 

As they approached the walls, the bridge widened immensely and lead into a staircase leading up to massive stone doors.

"This is the Cathedral of Origins," Eve said, as she walked up the stairs. She reached the doors, and pushed them open with surprising ease.

On the far end of the cathedral the floor dropped off, with another bridge leading across to the end, where the roots came down. They formed a sort of stage, with many roots piercing the stone or descending into the pit. In the middle of the stage was a throne made from the smaller branches of the roots. It had spikes made of root on the arm-rests of the throne.

They crossed the bridge, but Adam lagged behind while Eve and Cain walked up the roots towards the throne. Eve's hand glowed as she touched a root that connected from the back of the throne to a large root above them.

She then turned towards Adam, and smiled. "I know where Fate is now."

Adam sighed. Eve asked him what was wrong. He said "I'm not going to kill her."

"What?" She replied, shocked.

"The Saints, they were never our enemies, were they?" Adam said.

Eve's face contorted in anger. "Of course they were! They killed your parents!"

"Yes, they did. But they were provoked, weren't there?"

"What are you saying Adam?"

He took a deep breath, and looked at her with conviction. "I'm saying you can stop lying to me now! I know the truth! I know everything. I saw it. I know that I'm the reincarnation of the original Adam. I know that my purpose as the Fourteenth is to die and use my soul to create a gateway in the roots, and that your purpose as the Seed is to sit in that chair and let your soul pass through the gate. I know that the Saints were never trying to stop us. In fact, it was their duty to help us make this happen. They were supposed to show us how to do this, so that you could replace the dying World Tree and renew it for all eternity!"