[Part four. The mountains at last. Should I terstay or should I tergo.]
Battle in the Shadow of the Leery One
The wasteland rises and falls on either side of me. No more
can I bear the torments of the good folk. The pleas and the memories. Perhaps I
have lost myself in this labyrinth, but I shall never know. It would be tragic
to never have known myself. Or would it. The fate worse than them all
though…no! Not ere the end.
Days pass as I scale the unforeseen. And finally at the rich
deepening of twilight, I arrive at the last mountain. The ranges of madness,
where the Leery One casts his shadows the darkest. There’s no escaping him now,
he watches over us – always whirring, always vigilant. The unscalable mountains
shrink as the shadows of the One force them down. A grotesque vision. Twist of
mind. Home.
Albatross of gold.
Catharsis! All I desire is catharsis at the end of the fray.
“Come,” cried the hero. “Let us match our blades. Let us pit
our spirits. The draw of the Game nears.”
A rolling rumble from beyond the clouds over Tardeo, from
beyond the Aegean. And then I was one! At last! Raaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
The world vanishes in bloodshot hues as night time turns to
day. It is a strange world where we find ourselves in, ever shifting, ever
pressing on. The pulsing hum of everything wafted about as the May breeze.
Neither good nor bad.
And the enemy looked upon the hero. Oversensory cataclysm! Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
The enemy thrust the Spear of Fate, the Lance of Worlds, the
weapon of Them, the veiled adversary, thrust it with freeing finality. But it
passes by me as the idle wind, arms outspread, idyllic siesta, song for the
road, searching for only what I seek.
Who are you? And wherefore
have you wrought the War to End All Wars?
It was my reflection again, the unyielding other-self, but
his words brushed by me too. With the electric jangling of the only life I’ve
ever known, I flew. Like the west wind at the edge of the sea! To fight, to
strike, to answer the call! The Hero of
Ages. Flash of blade and silver of moonshine. I struck the Faceless with my
mind, parrying and reeling all the way down. We were joined, two selves in a
farcical Romance, embroiled in travail and joy alike. The battled raged on,
through time, darkness and the edges of the universe. Through memories of a
child and the death of consciousness. Through worlds where I am still alive and
worlds where I will live ere the end. The Leery One smiled benignly on us, the
pieces of his eternal arena.
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