_________________________________
R : "Haa..."
The ice cave was indeed as bad as the rumors make of it. The frost in the place is unnaturally cold, and Katachi could only imagine his partner's feelings - Roberia probably felt a sharp, numbing curtain of cold air blanketing her.
It was intense enough to call it oppressive, for she collapsed behind him, drained and devoid of her pep and energy.
K : "... Roberia?"
R : "Y-y-y-yes, Ka-katachi?"
Katachi looked at Roberia's slender body, suffering from what he could only guess was the morbid cold of the ice cave.
K : "... You're tired, love. You should have a rest."
Katachi, seemingly unaffected by the cold, turned around and laid the groundsheet againt the ice. He didn't respond to the cold that Roberia felt-... No, how could he? His nerves, heart and brain had died, his entire being had stopped feeling anything altogether. For the longest of time since his death, Katachi hadn't found the sort of passionate joy from kissing Roberia he used to cherish ever so.
What used to make his heart race, at the thought of a woman as beautiful and empathetic woman like Roberia being his precious lover now seemed like a distant memory. The only thing he felt for Roberia was the bond of lovers, and that had pushed him this far, to help her cope with his death.
But... Was it the right thing to do?
He had seen it - The absolutely heartwrenching look on Roberia's face as she bawled her eyes out and hugged his corpse with such yearning and vigor. He had seen, how she desires for his reciprocation, how she has always put on that cheerful mask on her face since that day, how she tried her best to keep him with her for as long as possible, matterless of the inevitable outcome.
He wasn't helping her by staying with her.
He was hurting her.
When she should have been able to accept his death wholly back then, had Katachi just pretended to be dead for that little longer, she may have been able to get over the fact that Katachi is gone. But now, she seemed more attached than ever, almost as if she was desperate to be with the corpse that is Katachi.
He knew. He understood. He could comprehend why Roberia would be devastated over the broken promise of living their lives out after this was all over. Katachi didn't want to die, either - But Death, as is all things in nature, is not something that can be predicted. It wasn't even a choice - Or was it? Perhaps, had he not lunged out for the decisive blow, he could have waited for a better chance after, when Ned had exhausted the little energy left within him- No, that couldn't be. Ned attacked him with the intention of piercing the two of them at the same time. Had he not lunged forward and be impaled deep enough, Roberia would have died, and this would have played out the exact same way it did, only with their roles reversed.
But the worst of it all, is that it will happen all over again.
He could see it - Roberia would beg him to stop, and make threatens like killing herself to sway his will. He couldn't bear to have Roberia see his death, but he can't stop, not when they've come this far.
These Words of Power, fought over and desired by the strong, to safeguard their status as strong; The weak, such that they might overthrow the strong and change their fate; Coveting this power, and riding it to fame, only to lose it all by the others who share the same notion... Katachi could not afford to stop now. They must be destroyed.
She probably knows, too - The only reason Katachi has been alive until now is because of his 定 setting his Life as Constant. If he destroys the Words of Power, once and for all, he too shall return to his original, inanimate state. Just thinking about that made Katachi cycle all the memories he's shared with Roberia thus far. Though, there wasn't much to reminisce, not when every memory seemed so hazy and unclear. The effects of his death were taking its toll - Katachi could no longer remember as he used to.
(R : "I am sorry, Katachi. It is indeed wrong to lie on my part, and I apologize heavily for that. To make amends, I'll believe one lie you tell me. Is that fair?..."
K : "I guess. 'One ought to tattle only lies of white when need be.' I won't really be lying, not unless it's for your sake, so... I don't really care, I suppose.")
... That is why...
... If there was ever a time to dissuade her, now will be the time.
Roberia sat on the groundsheet, and curled up into a fetal position. It was really cold, and even with her clothing, she couldn't stave off the harsh chill of the ice cave.
It's now or never.
Katachi walked towards her, and took off his clothes. He covered her back with it, and then walked to her front.
K : "... You know, Roberia, something came to me just now."
R : "W-w-what is it?"
Her teeth clattered and her jaw trembled vigorously, trying to generate the heat energy she needs. It's clear to him that she is obviously not in the condition to move about. It's almost painful to see her slender figure, without any form of natural protection like blubber to shield herself against this chill, here in this cave, but he mustn't go soft. From here on, Katachi must steel himself.
K : "There's the one time that you said you would believe one lie I told you, right?"
Roberia tried to nod her head, but her shivering made the nod awkward.
K : "... I may as well use this opportunity, then."
Katachi turned around, and showed her his pale back, whitened by the lack of blood.
K : "It... It... It sure is cold, isn't it?"
This is technically not a lie, since it is the truth - From how she was shivering, the ice cave had to be cold enough to cause Roberia to quiver like so.
K : *chuckle* "I know, I know, it's not exactly a convincing lie, but... I've always been bad at lying, I guess. You probably knew that a long time ago, haven't you, love?"
Roberia sneered at him while shivering like a leaf.
R : "Y-yeah. You a-a-are a ba-a-ad l-l-l-l-liar." *pants*
K : "Let me try that again. Uh... Wow, it sure is cold! I think I'd get frostbite in less than twenty steps in this place!"
Roberia smirked at the horrid attempt at a lie. It was such a horrible lie it couldn't have gotten any further from the truth. Though, from another perspective, it is a lie as well, since Katachi had long been unable to tell the surrounding temperature with his skin.
K : "Come on, humor me, love. I'm trying my best! Smile for me!"
It's painfully obvious how Roberia tried her best to suppress the cold overtaking her body like a plague, but she managed to eke out a wry smile. With that, Katachi started walking.
K : "Okay, here I go, Roberia! One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten! Ten steps, love! I'm feeling it!"
Katachi slowly walked forward, in a playful manner - Swinging his arms and legs up and walking with unnecessary movement, as if he had been a clockwork of some magechenic. Roberia seemed amused by it, so he kept up the swagger and started to count softer and softer, producing the faraway effect.
K : "Eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen...
... Three...
... Two...
... One."
That was when he performed an act that could be considered most cruel in the history of cruel acts, if not for their predicament. He snapped his fingers, and a transparent wall of ice formed right behind him, followed by a golden 定 at the center of the wall.
Roberia was startled by the sudden action, and brushed off the shirt piled onto her, sprinting towards the ice wall. She reached her hand out to touch it, but it was much, much colder than the air itself, so she withdrew her hand that had whiffed at its first frostbite.
*** ***
K : "... I love you..."
Katachi had a sad, and almost remorseful look on his face, through the wall of clear ice.
It had to be an emotion stronger than anything she's seen so far, because his corpse started crying and shedding tears. Katachi had the coldest, most inorganic smile in the world, he wasn't sniffling because his body stopped breathing, his small stature and black hair somewhat distorted by the ice.
But he is, undoubtedly, the very man she loves.
R : "Katachi?! Undo this wall! KATACHI!!!"
Roberia picked up her switchblade, and began hacking and smashing into the ice wall. Alas, it was no use - It didn't even dent, and it felt more solid than any stone wall she's ever clashed her weapon against. It's to be given - Katachi reinforced the ice wall's strength with 定, so being unable to break it without an indictor is a given.
Katachi pulled out his wooden dagger, and looked at it closely. He was right - The dagger started everything. From how he first stabbed himself, to how he entrusted her the dagger, to how they fought every day, clashing her switchblade against that wooden tool, it had come a long way. But she didn't like the way Katachi was speaking about it, almost as if the dagger is now an important tool for their final chapter. Katachi slowly placed it onto the ice, and looked back up at Roberia, with his unfeeling palm on the ice wall.
K : "... By this dagger, we meet; And by this dagger, we part."
Katachi turned around, and slowly staggered along the path.
She couldn't believe it. After all the talk they've had, after everything she's said, he still broke the promise... Katachi trapped her behind this ice wall. Katachi had left her behind.
She had not wished for this.
Had they not talked this through? Had he not promised that he wouldn't leave her in the lurch? All of that talk, about how he wouldn't abandon her, how he would love and cherish her, how they would have spent their days, all of it...
R : "... Liar..."
Her rage and frustration towards him blew out any response she had towards the cold. Gripping the switchblade tightly, Roberia raised it over her head, and swung it down with her wrists flipped upwards. She rode the momentum up the powerful crash beneath her, and tried to reach for the top of the ice wall. And yet, she couldn't fling herself up high enough to reach the top, and fell short by a good distance.
Of course, she thought. This wasn't the first time she's done something like that. The countless number of spars they had, the memories of each other, the knowledge of their partner's techniques... He knew. Katachi gauged by memory how high she could actually fling herself. He knew that she couldn't make such a distance by the fling alone; So he made a wall that purposely reached beyond her limits, and the slippery ice helped buffer the situation in his favor by removing Roberia's feasible means of climbing its surface.
Roberia's grip on the sword tightened, and she began hacking away at the ice wall in futility.
How dare he!?
Using knowledge like that to deny her of her desires, defeating her physically and mentally, for what purpose? All that time, Roberia knew that Katachi was bound to die soon. She had prepared herself for it, she had practiced methods of calming herself down should it happen, but she couldn't control herself over his loss. She still wanted to sleep next to him. She wanted to be held in his tiny arms, and be locked in a loving embrace, of security and comfort. She wanted to smell that faint scent on his body - Katachi's scent. She couldn't think of life without all of that.
R : (K : "I can't bear to see you cry over my body"...)
But, perhaps he realized it too. Katachi may have been rather dumb, but he was by no means dull. He probably caught onto the fact that she herself could not control her impulses, her melancholic yearning, the look of anguish with his absence and the smiles of relief with his presence.
If that had been true, that would make things much more difficult for Roberia.
She hates him. She hates him so much, for leaving her in the lurch, like this, waiting... For what? Waiting for her to give up on him? Waiting for Katachi to be done with the destruction of the Words of Power, and having her break the ice wall down to find his corpse laying on the ice? Or perhaps, waiting for something, someone else to pick up the broken princess she is, and carry her home?
... But she loved him. She loves him. Roberia loves the black-haired boy, the pauper orphan from a church she came to know by the hand of fate, whom became the only person in the world that emphatized with her, the only person to love her without an ulterior motive, the only person who has seen her body stark naked, the one person whom they shedded their virginities, the only person she was willing to devote her life to as much as he does his own...
... They were like two blankets fighting over the position at the top layer, struggling, trying ever so desperately to keep their partner warm - The pauper that squabbled with the princess over the role of being the shield to take the punishment.
It wasn't sweet. It wasn't romantic. In fact, it often ended up with fights and quarrels and misguided expressions of love. Roberia curled up, and recalled the moments they had spent together.
... Had they known it would come to this, they wouldn't have argued with each other so much. There could have been so many moments where things could have been much better than they ended up being. All the time they've wasted on arguing could have been replaced with lovely moments of them cuddling against each other, observing their surroundings and enjoying the mood - But then again, had the arguments not existed, they would never really know each other thoroughly enough to say they loved the other.
They could only express their love for each other shyly by making a point that would benefit the other party better.
She couldn't like the arguments for eating precious time they could have spent building their relationship. She also couldn't hate them, because they were what allowed room for compromise towards each other. But now, Katachi's affections and coddling took first draw, and he did it in a way that she couldn't respond any longer.
Roberia could understand the rationality behind it, but it was just... Frustrating that he did something this dastard. Even if it were for her sake, to leave her like this was too cruel.
*** ***
Katachi couldn't even think of going back.
He could only focus on the ice path before him, and keep walking.
Ignore Roberia... That was a hurdle he hadn't fully conquered, not even now.
All the times they spent arguing, quarreling with each other, bickering on and on about which is better or more effective...
The times they spent hugging, kissing, caressing, fondling and tending to each other's needs and wants...
All of that comes to an end. Now.
Katachi walked up to a large stalagmite in the center of the dead end, to find a golden word carved upon it - 忍.
...
... Was it a prayer from Heaven? Was it a final push, to encourage Katachi to steel himself?
What irony - He had left his beloved behind, such that she would have to bear such pain. And yet, the final Word of Power, 忍, means to endure.
They had to endure so much. Roberia had to put up with the fact that Katachi is dead, and needed to learn to move on successfully. And Katachi had to withhold his urge to love her, to cheer her up, to warm her; All to help her prepare for the fact that he, ultimately, has to move on.
They had endured so much to this point, so much that the Word of Power seemed almost useless.
It may have been quite thematic, with how traversing the ice cave is a testament to those with endurance, but even so, Katachi couldn't help but smily wryly at the metaphoric implications it had towards their current predicament.
K : (... Finally.)
Katachi reached for the thousand-paged book and pressed it against the stalagmite. With a faint glow, the word on the stalagmite disappeared and was burned into a page.
292.
Finally, all 292 Words of Power have been assembled. Which means...
Katachi looked around at his surroundings, and looked hard. The 293rd had to be somewhere around here...
... And lo, the cover of the book itself glowed. Katachi closed the book, to find a beautiful, and strange character on the cover.
卍. The mythical 293rd Word of Power, that could supposedly make any sentence become a reality by assimilating all the other Words of Power in a way that makes the statement true - At the cost of it being a one-time use.
He didn't even need to think.
He may have his share of regrets that he may never settle, and the boundless worry he had towards Roberia, but finally... His journey is over.
He closed his eyes, and braced for the worst.
K : (... Destroy all the magic in the world.)
In that instant, the world changed.
The words in the book glowed one last time, and then faded off.
The word on the ice wall trapping Roberia glimmered, and then wore off.
Every Word of Power in the world bloomed a final spark, and then went out.
Two magi who were dueling over a difference in opinions suddenly lost their magic.
Magic that kept the Floating Island afloat vanished, and the Grave of Segus crashed down.
Magic that was transporting goods mid-way disappeared, and the crates of food lay in the middle of the road, inanimate.
...
... The word on his chest keeping Katachi alive released one last spike of power, and then wilted, like the last of the peonies.
*** ***
R : "You idiot..."
Roberia lay next to his corpse, and adjusted her position to reciprocate his face and stature. She interlocked her hand around his, and adjusted his arm onto her waist.
R : "You're so selfish, Katachi. So very selfish."
Tears streamed from her eyes, as she looked lovingly at the calm face of her deceased beloved.
R : "I told you, Katachi. I'll go anywhere with you. It doesn't matter where we go..."
With her free left hand, Roberia withdrew the wooden dagger from her chest pocket.
R : "... As long as we're together."
The painful choke at the back of her throat was screaming not to do it, but she showed no hesitation. It no longer mattered. He would be lonely waiting for her, and she would be lonely without him.
And so, she hummed a silent prayer to Vithrolu.
She drove the dagger into her gut, the same way Katachi had stabbed himself when they first met. Her vitality was, however, different from his - She plucked the dagger out of her abdomen, and dropped it between them.
R : "... By this dagger, we meet..."
She reached for his neck with her free hand. Her strength was being sapped out of her body rapidly, but it wasn't enough to deny her will.
R : "... And by this dagger, we part..."
Their lips locked. Roberia felt the heat in her body dispersing, faster and faster. Was this the same feeling Katachi felt when he himself neared death? It was supposed to be frightening, horrifying for Roberia, but she felt... Consoled.
She finally empathized with Katachi.
Her body felt weak, and stiff. It was really cold outside, and now that she has a wound in her, the cold seems to seep into her even faster than before. But she struggled, and put as much energy into her neck as she could, to maintain their kiss.
She pulled the corpse closer to her, and lowered her head so that their foreheads would touch. It was an icy feel, one that was freezing, but also gave a nostalgic warmth to how they would snuggle up in the blanket of cold, night air.
In that instant, she saw in her head, a beautiful image.
The two of them lay sleepily on a beautiful pasture of green, scented with the rich smell of the dirt and tiny, fragrant meadow flowers.
In that exact same position, they slept upon the soft grass beneath them, cuddling and enjoying the company of each other.
A huge contrast to their current predicament, perhaps; But she could only wish that they had lived just a bit longer, for this scene to actually happen. She could only hope that they had did this more while they were both alive.
It was delusional, it was surreal, it looked like it wasn't going to ever happen at the rate this is going, with her dying right next to him - But she smiled.
It may never happen, but that too is alright.
...
After all, death is but another form of eternity.
...
... And so, Roberia closed her eyes gently, and pursed hers against Katachi's lips one last time.
The last thing she felt, was the happiest moment in her life.
________________________________________________
Basically, what happened was this - Before our world was crafted, was a world of magic. The young boy used a grimoire-like magic derived from Chinese characters to erase all magic in the world and with that, he changed the fate of the world.
No more unicorns, no more fairies or trolls or sirens or arachnes or monsters of any kind, no more fireballs or convenient floating teapots that fill your cup so you don't have to leave your couch, no more. The sacrifices he's had to give up, including the remnants of his life sustained by the magic he destroyed, well... It's a REALLY long tale. So far I've only written a mere 232 pages. It's barely hit 1/10th of what I had in mind.
The emotion just builds up, y'know? You feel like you've actually known this kid your whole life from reading so much about him, and then (snap) He's dead.
I still think I might edit the ending a little bit more, though. After all, this is the ending with the climax's spoilers removed (where Katachi reveals a plot twist that everyone probably 'saw coming', and by 'saw coming' I mean I gave so many clues before then that the astute will definitely notice but if you haven't caught on to it yet then you're seriously reading something a little too tough for you currently and you may want to consider downgrading to a simpler book where the author doesn't play this many mind games)Including that inside Katachi's reflections of everything that had happened thus far is extremely important. In any case, I present to thee, Endus Reignum draft : Epilogue.
Keep in mind that it's a draft, and it's not finalized.
But you pretty much understand the idea behind it, right?
What I meant by Katachi and Roberia having a limited future.
It's truly tragic, though.
In the first Narnia, you could see the four children playing about near the end of the first movie as adults.
But for Katachi and Roberia, their adult versions don't exist in my head. I can't envision them as adults - That's how set in stone their fates are.
They will remain children, and they will be immortalized as children forever in history.
... At least they will also be immortalized as my #1 favorite couple of all time as well.
They are, by definition, the best One True Pairing in existence, trolling excluded.
