Chapter 284 - Once More, Stand, Avdima

Blinking a few times with eyelids that seemed adamant about staying shut, Avdima muttered out between his lips simultaneously dry and cracked, yet drenched in his own blood. 

Like a zombie from the dirt, the man with a hole straight through his chest somehow stood himself up as blood gushed out from the open wounds on his body. 

Can't...see, he thought. 

"Fai Meng...are you there?"

Avdima asked, listening only to the ringing in his ears as he wobbled in place, somehow maintaining his balance. With his senses diminished by his body that sat in the grasps of death tighter than any other, he could only sense the destructive mana being formed far above his own head. 

"Plan Cataclysm...fools. This was my battle, not yours. They fought for their lives, and won. They bled, and remained victorious. Don't you dare...trample on their victory…"

Presenting a final rise of his aura, magnificent even in his deathly state, Avdima pointed his words out to the clouds above with nothing responding to his dulled senses. Whether it was the last trickles of adrenaline surging through his veins, the strength of his spirit, or simply a passing miracle--Avdima took his last stand against the magecraft of Mastorn. 

"Fai Meng...if you're there, get back…" 

His cautionary words reached only the empty forest, filled with nothing but the scars of the battle. 

"...Take your comrades, your friends...and run…"

Leaving his mouth in nothing more than gasps of air laced with blood, Avdima spoke nonetheless as he raised his hand to the sky. Just the act of speaking had its own price as he momentarily lurched over, coughing up a fountain of the burning, red substance from within his body before returning himself, standing tall. 

Forming at his raised hand, the magical energy he poured into that single fist was everything within him; every drop of mana was pulled from within his body, every ounce of his life force was coalesced for this singular, final action. 

At the sound resembling the twisting of gears resounding within the clouds, following a violent torrent of released, destructive energy--the disaster-class spell was unleashed in full, cascading downwards upon the valley. 

Words weren't needed for the miraculous, last effort of Avdima's creation to be launched; upwards, he sent the culmination of the selfless darkness into the sky, hurling towards the destructive roar above. 

"...leave them be!"

It was a childish request, but the deepest desire within the man as he stood on a body that should've been inlaid the soil below his step. 

A dull life, lived only of suffering and sadness; a fate too cruel for any, but a fate nonetheless for the one named Avdima. 

But, no matter how twisted one's life may be, boundless may the corruption it beseeches upon them lay, a moment of magnificent selflessness can shine through even the darkest of hearts, and most empty souls. That was the origin of the last magic cast by Avdima; the expenditure of his very soul, the birth and death of his own brief heroism. 

The moment the two forces of destructive natures met, the entirety of the forest resounded under the pressure of the immense shock wave; a clash of two powers not meant to meet. An immense strain came with this last minute resolve, just the meeting of these two forces sent a recoil through the man's arm; his joints snapping and his flesh tearing, yet he still stood even as slabs of his own flesh fell to his face. 

Nothing more has to perish tonight, he thought. 

Above him existed a blight of destructive darkness; an abyss launched by the destructive spell that only sat above the forest due to his own resistance. As magnificent of a mage as he was, the state of his tiresome, destroyed body allowed only for a momentary push back. 

Watching from the distance, the clash between the eclipse of death that poured from the stormy clouds and the small, yet raging blast of Avdima's making, Navigator couldn't help but cry at the sight of this faint hope. 

"Avdima…! That's you, isn't it, Avdima?! You amazing fool, yes! Keep it up…! The lad may very well just live due to you…!" 

It was on the threshold of death that the two Argonauts continued to persevere for seconds onward, only carrying the desire to save within their hearts. 

Even without its grasp falling upon the verdant forest, slathered in death and destruction, further desolation fell upon it as the conceptual basis of the spell disintegrated the surrounding evergreen. The size of the skyborn spell's form of stygian, cosmic annihilation was large enough to overshadow a large part of the valley itself. 

Yet, he stood there with quivering legs, holding it back with an arm shattered many times over, flesh eviscerated under the clash of energies--without a heart inside his chest. But, his blood still pumped through his veins with a fiery essence. 

"...Graaaah!" 

Yelling out with his utmost, past a throat bruised and bloody, Avdima forced out whatever remnants of power were left within him as he pushed back the impending annihilation, unleashing a resounding shock wave that tore through the forest around him violently. 

"Just a bit longer, Avdima…! Hold on, just a bit longer…!"

Navigator managed to pick himself up to his knees as he watched with glistening, hopeful eyes the dance of destruction ongoing. 

The storm-bringing clouds shifted their form, spiraling around the maw that unleashed Plan Cataclysm upon the valley as the output seemed to amplify itself a few times over. 

"No…!"

Watching this, Navigator's throbbing heart sank at the sight of the massive coalescence of destructive energy pushing back Avdima's resistance with utmost ease. 

"I'm sorry, lad...I failed to save even one li--"

Dissolving his will, Navigator looked back once more at the small, fleeting ship as it was unfortunately still in view, meaning full well it fell within the reach of the reaching cataclysm. 

However, he stopped this resignation as he realized the destruction had not yet met the forest. 

Still standing his ground, Avdima held the mountain-sized gathering of raging magical energy with his palm--by some miracle holding it back just a couple meters off of the ground. 

"...Avdima--!"

There is no doubt about it; you are the strongest! No one can ever take that away from you! No bastard in this realm would be fighting even in their own death! Navigator thought. 

Screams traveled from Avdima's throat as he continued to hold the cataclysm back with just his bare hand, feeling the destructive essence of the spell burn away at his hand, shattering the dirt beneath his feet as a sickening pressure enveloped his body. 

"...While I still draw breath into my lungs...their victory will not be sullied. I represented your desires, Mastorn, and Fai represented...their desire to live…!"

Time flowed at an egregious pace at such a daunting time; looking back once more after this spectacle, Navigator found his heart light up at the lack of an airborne ship in his sight. 

You made it, lad. Thank you, Avdima...I don't know what drove you to this, but I'm sure you felt the same way I did. After this life of bloodshed, maybe we should act like heroes once in a while, eh? Navigator smiled. 

As his body burned up, falling between absolute numbness and excruciating pain, Avdima continued to roar out before at last--his mortality proved itself; his knee gave in to the pressure, falling to one knee as his hold on the cataclysm faltered. 

I hope you...escaped, Fai Meng. At the very least, I hope there was meaning in my final moments; that is all I wish for, he smiled. 

"On this day, Mastorn, you have lost!"

At last, the inevitable came; the ungodly magecraft sank its teeth into the soil below before releasing its form of complete and utter destruction upon Grandeuve. Anything left breathing within the territory of the wild region was reduced to nothingness, any material itself was annihilated and consumed--until, nothing was left. The great Grandfather tree fell to ruin all the same, the precious home of the Outlanders being consumed by the hungering void that fell upon the valley just as quickly as the evergreen. 

Within minutes, it looked as if a region never even existed on that plane of the world; a vacant land, yet by extraordinary, final feat--the body of one man existed in this region devoid of life. Inhabiting a body turned to a stone, ash-like substance, filled with cracks and as lifeless as could be, the one deemed the strongest sat on one knee with his arm raised to the sky that finally cleared into an azure. 

Standing in a land with a gentle, shallow pond as far as he could see, Avdima looked around for a moment, questioning the nature of this change. 

"...Am I…?"

Looking down, he felt his chest--there was no wound there, in fact, his body was clear of any battle-formed blemishes. 

"Avy."

Hearing that voice that had become distant in all these years, yet still so familiar to his heart--he quickly turned his head, seeing a smile he wished to see all of these years. 

"Illya…!"

Saying her name, tears instantly made themselves present in his eyes as he stood in the gentle pod as petals flowed through the quietly, serene water. It became fully clear to him by seeing that smile that his fate was as he predicted; this was the end. 

"When did you get so much taller than me, hm?"

Teasing her little brother, the young woman with a gentle smile raised her hand above the man's head as if comparing their heights. It was in this boundless darkness that light made its way into him; smiling genuinely for the first time, unaided by adrenaline--only a sublime warmth guided its way through his body as his eyes kept themselves on her. 

"Illya! Illya!"

Suddenly taking the sister he dedicated his thoughts to for so long into a tight embrace, the stoic barrier around the man dissolved like parchment to water as his tears flowed freely. 

...Do I deserve such a happy ending? After the life I led...He thought. 

"You did good, Avdima." 

Those were the only words he needed to hear, meeting his ears like lavender, he could only quietly nod his head before tightening his embrace of his long yearned for sister. 

"...It's time to rest. You've earned it." 

"Yeah....I guess I have."