Legends of Orlea

Chapter 10 (Finale)

Thinking back on that moment, he realized he'd been stupid to believe that Chaos could have been slain by a simple slash, even if it was with a lot of momentum. 

Zirem struggled to get to his feet, using his sword to hold most of his weight. Dragging himself forward, he grabbed the sword stuck in his chest, pulling it out quickly. Dumb mistake. Blood started gushing out of the hole in his chest.

However, a purple substance covered the wound, just before he would've lost consciousness. Staggering towards where the explosion happened, he did his best to not collapse. Once he'd found the site of the explosion, he found a pulsating cloud, the same texture as Chaos's original form. It seemed to be gradually expanding, so he stumbled to it, meeting Akil and Alicia along the way.

They grinned at him, and he did his best to return it. The trio leaped simultaneously, but as Zirem was just about to plunge his sword deep into Chaos's core, an image of the knight boss from floor 1 in LoO flashed through his mind, and he dropped his sword, paralyzed.

Black lightning crackled around him as he slowly came to the realization that this knight had been Chaos all along, and since Hollow had used a part of LoO's code, Chaos had been copied into Hollow, but in a more complete form somehow.

The knight flashed through his now closed eyelids again, and he fell to the ground, smacking his cheek painfully against the rubble. 

Get up, get up, get up , he thought to himself, GET UP, GET UP!

His body didn't obey his mind's command.

Zirem opened his eyes, noticing dimly that the knight had physically appeared as well, through some logic he couldn't understand. It was now fighting against Alicia. Akil was getting up, a big gash running across his face.

Zirem tried to move his arm, but it barely budged. He forced it to move more, and managed to get his hand over his swords hilt. He only needed one to finish this. With a savage battle cry, he got to his feet, gripping his sword tightly.

"Go to hellllllllllll!" He screamed, leaping towards the knight, and slicing off its head. It glared at him, the red lights it had instead of eyes flickering, before finally dying altogether.

Gasping, Zirem dropped his sword, and closed his eyes. 

Damn, kid, you're really hopeless. Give me one minute and I'll kill Chaos, said the Aflune.

"I... can't," he mumbled, his eyes closing, his entire body fading, "I'm too tired..."

Stupid boy. Surely you won't let Chaos win because you're tired?

Zirem said nothing.

Instead, he opened his eyes, back in the real world, groaning. 

"He's alive! Akil, he's alive!" cries Alicia, tears streaming down her face, "Oh my god, that was so scary. Don't do that again."

"If you squeeze him too hard, he'll die," replied Akil.

"What... about Chaos?" asked Zirem, wondering why he was in a comfortable bed, in a house that wasn't ruined.

"We managed to kill it. After the weird knight thing was gone, it was weakened, and our swords went through."

Zirem sighed with relief, glad to know it was finally over. He closed his eyes again, feeling more content than ever. But before he was fully unconscious, he felt Alicia's lips against his as she kissed him. 

Author's note: Sorry for the rushed ending, I'm quite busy these days, so I will end the story with an epilogue, but I will come back To this story to polish it off and hopefully lengthen the ending so that it's more enjoyable for readers. Thanks for your continued support of this story and for bearing with me when the chapters were slow to come out.

:p