Chapter 133.2: The Goodbye

Chapter 133.2: The Goodbye

PART 2/2

Hours passed. Hours where I went over everything I knew about my enemy. And hours where I came up with nothing better than just letting him kill me and fuck off forever. After everything, after coming so damn far, I was going to die here. Minutes from safety. Minutes from being able to live the rest of my life. But the effort wasn’t wasted. I’d tried to save myself, and I’d failed. I made my peace with that. But if I could save the people I cared about, I’d do it in a heartbeat.

And that was what I intended to do.

Erani tried asking several more times what I planned to do over the course of the first couple hours, which I of course denied telling her each time, but after a bit she stopped asking. Both she and Ainash were quiet for that time—I supposed they both understood some of the gravity of the situation, even if I was hiding most of it.

I also spoke with Index some more about Xhag’duul, trying to extract as much information as I could about him and his species as I could. There wasn’t much of use it could tell me, unfortunately. Well, there was certainly lots of information it could give about Devils and their fighting capabilities, but ironically, I didn’t have too much use for that sort of thing. When I only had around 400 Health, there wasn’t much of a difference between 1000 and 2000 damage, after all.

The most interesting things it could tell me were about the Underworld as a whole. Index technically couldn’t tell me about Underworld society—-not because it was forbidden, but because it literally didn’t know anything about that; as a being that knew about the System and only the System, it wouldn’t have any idea about social or cultural norms, or even what the place looked like.

However, that didn’t mean it couldn’t make guesses. If it knew everything about the System, that meant it knew about every species, every ability, every numerical thing there was to know about every type of Demon there was. So it could tell me things like all the different types of Demons there were, and what the likely hierarchy there was between them. Well, it couldn’t actually tell me everything about all of this—-some of it was forbidden, as I only had experience dealing with some types of Demons, and that didn’t extend to the rest—-but I got a nice, long lecture about a good bit of it.

Still, though, I heard nothing that could save me.

Eventually, it got to be time. Around ten minutes before the Demon had arrived in the previous timeline. I stopped, and motioned for them to stop, too. I’d been using most of my Mana to keep us moving quickly with Expedite, and I needed to stop now if I intended to regenerate it all in time—I wasn’t going to put myself in any sort of weakened state before the fight. If there was anything I could say, it was that the timeline Xhag’duul remembered killing me in would not have him remembering it as an easy fight. He wouldn't get to feel good about it, he wouldn’t get to feel proud. It’d be a beatdown both ways, one where I did my damndest to kill him, too.

“Erani, Ainash, you two still have your invisibility rings, right?” I asked. I’d used both of mine back in the fight alongside Astintash, so I didn’t have any left. But Erani and Ainash had only used one each, so they still both had one remaining.

“Yes,” Erani said, looking at me strangely. Ainash confirmed, as well.

“Good,” I said. “Use them now, when you leave to go to get help. That way, if Xhag’duul manages to slip past me or something, he still won’t be able to find you.”

“Sure,” Erani said, nodding. I was glad she wasn’t arguing anymore, at least. My worst-case scenario would be her and Ainash coming back after leaving and realizing I was going to lose the fight, trying to interfere, and then dying themselves. No way I would let myself lose my life for nothing.

“Okay,” I said. Then I sighed. “Then this is where we part ways.”

“What, you won’t give it back to me if I die? Don’t think I’ll be using anything at that point.”

“Just humor me, dammit,” she chuckled, body pressed against mine, shaking more tears from her cheeks.

“Fine, fine. Tell you what. I think I have a great idea of what to give you. If I live, you have to give it back to me, though.”

“And what’s that?”

I leaned forward and pushed my lips against hers.

For a moment, a brief moment, it was like nothing was happening but that. But that small, insignificant kiss. A brief moment that meant everything in the entire world. Everything and more. Something that consumed my mind and my worries, refusing to allow me to think about anything else.

She froze for a second, then leaned into it, herself. A few seconds passed, and then she pulled away. Our cheeks had pushed together and made watery messes of both of our faces, and we were each blushing hard enough to make it look even worse. My heart was beating faster than it had during any fight for my life, and I could feel hers pulsing to the same rhythm.

“I expect you to give me that back if I live,” I said.

She smiled a bittersweet smile. “I guess that makes for some good encouragement. But it just makes it worse for me if you die, too.”

I sighed. Telling her this one lie over and over felt like it’d kill me before the Demon would. “Trust me. I’ll live.”

“Okay. You better.” She took a deep breath, and I could feel her hands tightly clench the fabric of the back of my shirt. “I love you, Arlan.”

And then she vanished into invisibility. I looked over, and Ainash was gone, too. I wasn’t sure if she could hear me, but I said quietly, “I love you too. Goodbye.”

And then I turned around, looking toward the empty stretch of road I’d just traveled, canyon walls on my either side.

“Alright, you Demon motherfucker. Do your worst. Because I sure as the hells just did mine.”