Chapter 57: Burn, Gabriel, Burn. (6)

Gabriel looked at the figure, the reflection that no longer fit. The situation was strange, bizarre even. Thus, his mind cooled. To figure things out a bit faster, to understand his current state before he made his next move.

He stood up? Sat up? A second ago he had been bouncing across snow and ice yet now he felt entirely weightless so he honestly had no clue what the correct direction was. The figure remained in front of him even as he moved, at first it seemed to float above him but now it seemed to stand in front of him, wearing a ruined face that made it hard to discern any of its emotions.

Gabriel checked his surroundings rather than reply to the figure, but the darkness around him seemed almost like a box. He couldn’t tell how far it went in any direction, at a glance it looked as if he shouldn’t even be able to stretch his arms.

But still, there was a bit of light within the ‘box’. A square just hung there, radiating some light and colours. His feet were able to move, or at least it felt like it, so he could walk over to it, the figure finally leaving his vision. What greeted him beyond the square screen was the outside world, the frozen mountains. But he could see his own body bounce along the ice and snow so it clearly wasn’t from his own perspective. He tapped the screen with a finger but it felt like cold steel so it didn’t seem to serve as an exit.

"You know, *^?"%/(), we’re pretty sure Alice gave you that covenant so that you would stop risking your life like that."

The voice spoke to him again, another horrible grinding sound assaulting his senses. Saying it came from right behind him would be a bit wrong, it felt like it came from all around him, reverberating in his very bones. He gave the screen a few light punches just to check, but it still didn’t budge so he turned his head slightly.

"It wasn’t a risk."

Sure, he acted rather impulsively when he swapped places with Alice, but that didn’t mean that he was doing it thoughtlessly. He did the math, he realized the various possible outcomes, thus he was confident that he knew what was likely to happen.

"I had my sword, I had my armour, I had a strong body tempered by training, and I had several layers of strengthening magic still applied. There was at least a 90% chance of me surviving that attack. Granted, Alice would also survive it, but it would only be because Quetz would take most of the hit, most likely dying in the process. Me taking it was the better outcome."

Sure, Alice had her own armour and the Vritara bloodline, but those combined wouldn’t be enough to take the hit. Quetz would realise this and help her with all her might, but the suddenness of the attack would leave her with very little time to formulate a response. By his calculations, there was a 80% chance of Quetz dying to protect Alice.

"She doesn’t seem to think so, =%¤/"#&."

The figure raised its arm and pointed back to the screen, Gabriel’s focus drawn towards it. The outside world was still moving as he was talking, by now it seemed as if his bouncing had stopped. Alice had reached his body while he was turned away, her face a mess of tears that froze before they even fell from her chin.

Thump

A knock in his chest. Not on his ribs this time, no this time it actually felt like a knock in his chest, like someone flicked his heart. He had been prepared for her to be angry… but tears…

He suddenly felt the urge to just hit that screen so that he could shatter it and leave this place. But the box remained tight.

"She’d be even sadder if Quetz died. Between losing Quetz and me getting a bit hurt for a little while, it’s obvious which one is worse if you look at it properly. She’ll understand."

He spat out the words almost like a heavy breath, turning his gaze away from the screen. There was a churning in his stomach as he spoke, and the knocks in his chest wouldn’t stop. He couldn’t keep looking at the screen… couldn’t help but explain himself.

"You know what your problem is, ("!(#)=? You never stop looking at yourself as the page."

The remaining lower lip of the figure seemed to turn up as it looked at him, grated him. The look in its eyes gave Gabriel the chills, it felt as if it was seeing straight through him.

"The page is a tool. The world unfurls atop it, but the page never gets to interact with it, never becomes a part of it. It’s just a tool to move the world along. Thus, while it carries the world from start to end, the page will never be able to understand the world or those that reside in it, never be able to interact with it or its words. That was you, ("))#=, a page, a tool."

It kept grating at him, grinding metal in his ears and bones as it spoke to him, seemingly trying to utter his name. A tool. Such was the nature that Gabriel once carried, but while he would use a dagger as a comparison, the figure used a page.

"But you’re no longer a page, /!"!()^*. You’re one of the words written on it, a character in the world. So just as the world has an influence on you, so too do you have an influence on the world. Look at it, ??#"(", look at the world you influenced."

The figure seemed to hover closer with each word, a hand drifting past Gabriel and lightly touching the screen. He saw the colours shift from the corner of his eyes so his gaze couldn’t help but be drawn towards it again. But when he saw the flickering images on the screen, he wished that he hadn’t.

It was pandemonium. Alice, Caine, Teresa, and Arioch were fleeing from the mountains as quickly as they could. Arioch was missing an arm and Teresa was caked with blood, Alice was holding Gabriel's’ body, which seemed to be entirely frozen. The claw was hot on their tail, having lost five eyes and six of its talons. It looked as if it was about to fall over, but neither of them had the strength left to finish it so they could only flee.

They fled to the knights-in-training and warned them, but the claw slowly but surely caught up with all of them as well, eviscerating them. Then they fled back to the Barong estate, the claw naturally following them. It tore at the estate and killed many, but the knights there were able to kill it in the end.

But the screen didn’t stop there, the world kept moving. Caine made it clear that Alice was the one who unleashed the claw so she had to bear the blame for the lost lives. Too many families had been broken, someone had to bear the sin for it, even if it was just to appease those that were left behind.

But when they captured her… Alice didn’t even seem to notice it. Her gaze was so empty that it didn’t even reflect anything. She was disowned by the family and publicly shamed and sentenced, thrown into a cell to await her final fate.

When she was finally all alone in the darkness, she cried. With utter horror and immense panic, she surveyed her surroundings but couldn’t find what she was looking for. She started to claw at the walls and the metal door, a voice hoarse from how it tore at her throat.

"Gabriel!? Where’s Gabriel?! Please, let me see, Gabriel, please!"

Her fists slammed against the metal until skin tore and bones creaked.

"Fen?! Fen, bring me Gabriel! Quetz, Quetz, please bring him!"

She begged, clawed at the back of her hands. But her spirits were sealed away by the artifact of the Imperial Family so they wouldn’t answer her call. So she could only keep begging, throwing herself against the metal door until she crumpled to the floor as a bloody mess.

"Gabriel… Please… I just want to see him…"

There was no one to respond to her words, they just echoed within the empty darkness that was now her home.

The screen kept flickering, landing on a platform that seemed to have been built in the Barong duchy. Alice was brought onto it, arms and legs shackled, clothes ragged and body worn. She looked so thin and torn, as if she hadn’t eaten for weeks. She didn’t even struggle, she just looked empty as they forced her to her knees.

Someone walked next to her and started to address the crowd beneath the stage, but the words didn’t seem to come through the screen this time. They talked for a while before they seemed to raise a weapon. Alice’s gaze finally rose, seemingly looking straight at the screen. But Gabriel could see the thing reflected in her gaze, a frozen body, probably kept alive just so that she could have a public punishment like this.

A bit of light finally surfaced in her eyes, a smile creeping up on her face. But then the blade fell, and so too did she. And yet, the world just kept moving.

"That’s one of them, =#)^*^_¤, but there’s more. Just look."

The figure spoke, its voice so close to his ears that it felt as if it came from within his own head. The finger touched the screen again and the world that kept moving vanished. The frozen mountains returned, the sight of Alice crying next to his body.

This time he woke up and she hugged him while crying. She seemed to apologise, but he couldn’t hear her words, she just kept crying. They got up due to the claw attacking them and fought back, but things weren’t looking good because Gabriel was all out of mana.

Eventually, Alice was once again the target of its violent attacks, and Gabriel once again moved to defend her. But this time there was no armour, no magic, no sword. He was struck, and he died. And as he fell, so too did Alice fall. And the world kept moving.

"There’s still more, /(!(*)"

The figure just kept grating him, touching the screen as it rewound the screen back to the frozen mountains. This time, Gabriel didn’t wake up again and pandemonium arrived again as they fled. The claw killed, and was then killed by the knights of Barong. Alice took the blame again, but this time they didn’t keep the frozen body of Gabriel alive so she passed away in her cell, quietly begging for him.

"And more."

Back to the frozen mountains. He woke up, they fled from the claw before it got too bad and let the knights of Barong kill it after it chased them. None of them had to bear too much blame so they went back to their normal lives. Gabriel kept taking missions for Alice, kept taking risks. And one day he just died taking one such risk, so she followed him to the grave.

"And more."

Back to the mountains. They fled before the damage became too bad, and the claw retreated into the mountains. Life returned to normal as Gabriel kept helping Alice, all attempts at finding and subduing the claw proving ineffective. And then, one day, a monstrous beast broke the mountain range. The Barong duchy fell almost instantly, reduced to a pile of glacial statues. Before long, it moved down across the rest of the Earhart empire, forcing everyone to flee.

But eventually, there was nowhere else to flee. The gargantuan beast froze everything, even the oceans, and ice was the last thing the two saw.

"And more."

Back to the mountains. They fled after killing the claw this time, sacrificing most of the men in the process. No one had to bear too much blame because it was resolved early so they returned to a somewhat normal rhythm. The screen flickered, time passed. Alice had her coming of age ceremony and got her noble title, proposals pouring in. Eventually, the Vritara family and the Imperial family got together and decided on a partner for her.

Naturally, Alice rebelled against it. They kept insisting, she kept rebelling. Eventually, it escalated because Gabriel did as she asked and killed the groom. It kept escalating as they fled, and in the end they became enemies of the empire. They fled as far as they could, but Caine and the empire were always hot on their heels. In the end, more than half of the empire ended up in ruins before they were finally caught and killed. And then, the world kept on moving.

"And more."

Back to the mountain range. Everything repeated like in the previous version, but this time they didn’t flee the empire. Gabriel convinced Alice that this marriage was the best way to claim the title of duchess, and with dead eyes, she accepted. She got married to a Marquess and Gabriel kept serving as her knight. The screen flickered, time passed.

For years he stuck by her side as her knight, moved to fulfil the original goal. She had children to fulfil her obligation as a wife, but the dead way she looked at them made the knocking in Gabriel’s chest worse. And in the end, he was successful. They took over the Vritara duchy and Alice became the Duchess, strong enough to look down on everyone.

She was surrounded by her husband and their children, people they had met over the years together, and Gabriel lingered in the darkness away from them. But even as she took that throne… her eyes were dead. Gabriel felt his chest tighten because of those eyes. She was surrounded by ‘family’ and ‘friends’ yet she looked so miserable that he wanted to comfort her like he did back when they were children.

"Move…"

The words fell from his mouth subconsciously, but the Gabriel in the screen didn’t move. He simply watched from a distance and then kept going on missions, the expression on his face far too similar to the one that the figure behind Gabriel wore.

"There’s always more, =#(*^!%, always."

The figure grated him again and moved its arm, the screen reverting to the frozen mountains. But when it was about to touch it once more, Gabriel’s arm finally rose and clutched its wrist.

"What exactly are you trying to achieve by showing me a bunch of illusions?"

It didn’t struggle to escape him, it simply looked at him with that inscrutable, almost empty, expression as he locked eyes with it.