Ezekiel looked up, realizing that he was in an unknown space. Ezekiel couldn't think straight, so he didn't give an answer to the evil voice. His mind simply couldn't process everything that had happened within the span of a minute. The evil voice then repeated, "Do you want power, boy?" Ezekiel rubbed his eyes, clearing them of any tears before saying, "Yes. I hate being weak, I hate not being able to do a damn thing!" The voice boomed with laughter in an evil manner, then said, "You ARE weak. You were unable to protect the life of the girl who you hold right now. But this isn't the first time something of this nature has occurred to you, is it? I can see your memories, boy." Ezekiel then shouted, "Get out of my head!" The evil voice only boomed with laughter once more, then said, "I cannot, for we are one now. Two souls trapped inside of the same body, balanced out as one light and dark soul." Suddenly, a white mist appeared in front of Ezekiel, and a mirror image of Ezekiel stepped out of the white mist. The mirror image of Ezekiel was exactly identical to the real one, except the mirror image had yellow eyes that looked filled with rage and hate. The mirror image spoke in the evil voice that had spoken to him before, saying, "Your anger is the key to your power. Let the rage consume you, and an unspeakable power shall be yours." Ezekiel said nothing, as he found himself looking at the lifeless body of Aqua once more. The mirror image said, "Avenge her death, boy. Such actions from the demon general must not go unpunished." The mirror image then got close to Ezekiel's face and said, "I can give you the power to save the ones you love. You will no longer be weak." Ezekiel still looked uncertain about it, and the mirror image said, "Perhaps you need a jump start, boy?" The mirror image then touched Ezekiel's forehead, and Ezekiel began feeling the pure hatred flow into him. The mirror image said, "Let it consume you, boy. Do not fight it." Ezekiel's pupils began to disappear, and only the whites of his eyes were left. Ezekiel did not fight back as he began to feel the hatred overtake him, and it felt good. The mirror image gave Ezekiel an evil smile, saying, "Good. Your deal with the Demon God is now complete. Now go, show that subordinate of mine the true power of the Demon God."
Suddenly, Ezekiel's vision went black. Then, the words, "Hidden Curse Unlocked: Blind Rage. Activated by abnormal levels of anger" appeared before him in a red text. Then the words glitched and new words popped up that said, "Use it at your own risk." Then, the words disappeared.
Back outside in the real world, it appeared that Ezekiel was still kneeling over Aqua's body, still crying over her. Suddenly, an evil aura started emitting from Ezekiel, one more evil than anyone inside of the throne room has ever felt. Victoria, however, remembered this aura, quietly asking, "Master?" Then, Ezekiel let out a raging scream, one so loud that it began to destroy the throne room around them. Everyone inside of the throne room covered their ears due to how loud Ezekiel's scream was. Ezekiel then set down the lifeless body of Aqua on the ground, then stood up. He began to emit a faint red glow around his entire body, and his body then began to transform. The tears that were once on his face had now evaporated into water vapor, and the pupils in his eyes were no longer there, leaving only the white of his eyes. He grew massive in size, as well-built muscles now appeared all over Ezekiel, and Ezekiel now stood at seven feet tall instead of his standard height of five foot nine. Demon horns also grew out from the top of his head. Ezekiel's face became one that only expressed pure anger and hatred. The evil aura emitted only grew stronger as Ezekiel transformed, and everyone could only watch as this transformation took place.
Once Ezekiel was done transforming, he slowly turned around and looked at Victoria, who was now looking at Ezekiel. Victoria smiled, thinking she would get praise for reviving her master, but Ezekiel roared at her in rage. Before Victoria could react, Ezekiel broke the sound barrier by moving at a speed so quick that he was already right next to Victoria. Ezekiel grabbed Victoria's face and shoved the back of her head into the ground with strength so tremendous that it cracked the floor around them, and the impact of her head hitting the ground sounded like a nuclear bomb detonating. Victoria almost lost consciousness from that single blow, but Ezekiel wasn't done yet, as he started pummeling Victoria while on the ground. Blow after blow was landed on Victoria's body, and each punch that landed on Victoria's body sounded like a bomb going off. Victoria realized that if she didn't do anything soon, she might really die. Victoria began to defend herself and quickly broke free of Ezekiel's punches. Victoria's body was now covered with bruises and broken bones, and she realized just how much of a power gap there was between her and Ezekiel now. How, how is this possible? Just moments ago, I had them all under my thumb! Now, this boy can defeat me so easily? Impossible, thought Victoria, as she drew her knife to get ready for her attack.
Ezekiel's party was in awe at the sight of this, as no one expected this to happen, nor did they know what to do. They watched the fight play out in silence, as they all knew that Ezekiel was the only one currently capable of bringing down Victoria. Victoria attacked, and Ezekiel let her come. Victoria plunged her knife into Ezekiel's arm, but Ezekiel only smiled in an evil manner as he grabbed Victoria with his other hand and threw her at a nearby wall. Bones could be heard breaking as Victoria hit the wall, and Ezekiel pulled out the knife from his arm, and the arm immediately began to heal itself. Victoria struggled to get up, and by the time she did, Ezekiel's arm was already healed. Ezekiel tossed the knife over to Victoria, who immediately said, "Don't you dare look down on me, you human trash!" Victoria quickly ran over to her knife and picked it up, then cut off Ezekiel's arm in one swift motion. However, Ezekiel only grinned in an evil manner, and Victoria could only stare in horror as Ezekiel's arm instantly grew back. Ezekiel then used his new arm to wind up a punch and send Victoria flying to the other side of the room.
Before Victoria could hit the ground, Ezekiel kept punching her, sending her through the walls of the castle. The castle around them started to collapse as the one-sided fight continued onwards. As Victoria was flying through the air, Ezekiel then quickly grabbed a hold of her and tossed her upwards with amazing power, and Ezekiel jumped with such force that he left a crater in the ground where he had jumped. One hundred feet, two hundred feet, three hundred feet, the height at which both Ezekiel and Victoria were going up in the air continued to climb. Soon, they both found themselves at two thousand feet, way above the clouds that were in the sky. Ezekiel grabbed Victoria as they both started falling back to the ground, placing her body between Ezekiel and the ground. Victoria looked at Ezekiel in fear, realizing that he was now an animal that couldn't be stopped. Victoria looked behind her, seeing the fast-approaching ground appear before her as they fell. Ezekiel roared with rage as he held Victoria tightly, determined to not let her escape.
Then, Victoria and Ezekiel hit the ground, causing a massive crater to appear on the earth. The landing was so powerful, it shook the earth around them for a minute. Upon impact with the earth, all the bones in Victoria's body shattered, and her body was moving no more. Her face had a frozen expression of horror, and everyone realized that she was dead. Ezekiel also suffered some damage as well from crashing into the earth, but he quickly healed himself back to normal. However, this wasn't enough for Ezekiel, as he began punching her even more. He kept punching her over and over, and still not satisfied, he started to rip off Victoria's limbs. Bear had seen enough, quickly running over to Ezekiel and said, "That's enough! She's already dead!" Bear put his hand on Ezekiel's back, but the pure rage surrounding Ezekiel burned Bear's hand a bit, so he instinctively pulled his hand back. Ezekiel quickly turned around and punched Bear, sending him flying into a wall, and then Ezekiel went back to pummeling Victoria's body more. Rina, Suko, Kairi, and Tokuda shouted, "BEAR!"
Bear, however, slowly got to his feet. He's an animal right now, and he probably can't think straight. I need to stop him, thought Bear. Once on his feet, Bear turned to Kairi, Rina, and Mia and said, "Give me every single magic paper you have. I need all the buffs and resistances I can get in order to stop Ezekiel from causing more damage." Kairi advised against it, saying, "If you use too much, your body might not be able to handle it! You could die!" Bear shouted, "THERE'S NO OTHER WAY! JUST DO IT!" Tokuda saw the resolve in Bear's eyes, and he said, "I'll provide a distraction until you're ready. With how he is now, he might be a lost cause, but I'll buy time until you're ready." And with that, Tokuda charged at Ezekiel, attempting to buy Bear time as Rina, Kairi, and Mia furiously scribbled symbols onto the magic papers.
Tokuda got the attention of Ezekiel by stabbing him in the back. Ezekiel turned around quickly, making Tokuda lose grip of his sword. Tokuda was quick, so he only focused on dodging Ezekiel's attacks. He was doing good at dodging for the first thirty seconds, but Ezekiel soon started to get used to Tokuda's patterns, and he landed a powerful blow into Tokuda's stomach. The force of the punch sent Tokuda flying backwards, and he was knocked out due to the impact of the wall. However, thirty seconds was all they needed, as Bear started placing all of the magic paper onto himself, giving him every imaginable buff and resistance possible. He felt powerful, and knowing that these effects wouldn't last long, he charged at Ezekiel and landed a good punch on Ezekiel's face.
Ezekiel stumbled backward due to the punch, but Bear's hand was still burned just by touching Ezekiel, although it wasn't as bad as before. Ezekiel regained his balance and quickly countered, but Bear stood his ground and took the punch. Once Bear confirmed that he was now on equal fighting grounds with Ezekiel, Bear quickly tackled Ezekiel, pinning him to the ground and laying punch after punch into him. Bear's legs were burning, and his knuckles were badly burned from punching Ezekiel, but Bear kept fighting. Bear then shouted, "I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE, EZEKIEL! COME BACK TO US, DAMMIT! THIS MONSTER ISN'T YOU!" Ezekiel then shoved Bear off of him and Ezekiel gave Bear a good punch to the stomach. Bear doubled over, and Ezekiel then kneed Bear in the face, sending him flying backwards a bit before landing on his back. Bear's vision began to go blurry, and he felt himself cough up a bit of blood. Bear struggled to get to his feet, but he was able to do it after a minute of collecting himself. I just need to knock him out. If I can do that, then he might return back to normal, thought Bear.
Bear then started to remember the time that he spent with Ezekiel so far. The first time Bear met Ezekiel, the time Bear saw Ezekiel invent soap, all of these memories started to flood inside of his mind. He realized that this wasn't the way he wanted to end off their adventure, and Bear was determined to not let Ezekiel stay as this monster that was before him. Bear then suddenly coughed up more blood, realizing that his time for using the magic papers was almost up and his body might give out at any moment. With newfound determination, he calmly said to Ezekiel, "You probably can't hear me right now, but I'm gonna get you back. You've still got a lot of things to show me, as a member of the nation of science." Bear smiled, wiping the blood off of his lip, and said, "We've still got some adventuring to do, little bro. You're gonna keep your promise, and I'll ensure that you do. And if you stray off the path, I'll get you back onto it, because that's what big brothers are for, right?" Ezekiel then roared with rage, and Bear did the same, and they both charged at each other. Bear put his all into this one final punch, and so did Ezekiel. They quickly met in the middle, and both of them threw their punch. Only one punch connected.
Bear and Ezekiel stood after having thrown their punches, their backs facing each other. As if a delayed reaction occurred, Ezekiel was the one to fall to the ground after a few seconds. Bear then turned around and quietly said, "Sorry, little bro. I put everything I had into the punch, so if you're sore tomorrow, you know why." With that, Bear also fell to the ground, smiling to himself. The punch from Bear had indeed knocked out Ezekiel, and Ezekiel began reverting back to his old form. Kairi quickly rushed over to both of them and put magic paper on them with healing symbols to heal them both. Suko was tending to Tokuda, and Mia and Rina were grieving over Aqua's lifeless body.
Bear quietly muttered, "We need to make a grave for Aqua." Kairi then said, "We'll do that, but first, we need to get out of here. Can you walk?" Bear slowly got up, realizing that the magic healing paper did its job well. "Yeah, I can walk," said Bear, after walking around for a bit. Bear then picked up Ezekiel, Suko picked up Tokuda, and Mia summoned Jay to carry Aqua. They all looked at Victoria, realizing there wasn't much left of her left, then they all silently left the castle.
They made their way back to where the Freedom Legion was with no resistance and they were met with a grim-looking Leonardo, who said nothing. The party simply walked past Leonardo with blank faces, who then asked, "Where is the king?" Bear said, "We were betrayed by Victoria. She killed the king, and she called herself a 'demon general,' whatever that is." Leonardo then said, "Victoria betrayed us? That explains why the intel was off and why we were beaten so badly. And you said she was a 'demon general?' I fear that the worst is yet to come." Tokuda slowly woke up, looked around, and asked, "Where's Lionel?" Leonardo's expression became even grimmer, and he struggled to say, "Lionel was killed in battle by the general of the Northern Human Army, Barron." Tokuda looked shocked to hear this news, then angrily asked, "Where did they go?! I'll kill that son of a bitch and avenge Lionel! WHERE ARE THEY?!" Bear held Tokuda back from going anywhere, saying, "Tokuda, please! Not today. We've had too much suffering and loss, I don't wanna add to it anymore today." Tokuda angrily looked at Bear and said, "Lionel was killed! Doesn't that make you angry?!" Bear shouted, "OF COURSE IT DOES!" Bear then settled down and said, "We need to have a plan or something we can do. If we charge the human army head-on again, it might just get everyone here killed! Plus, no one here is in any shape to fight!" Tokuda looked around to see that Bear was right. Everyone here had experienced enough war for one day, and more than half of the Freedom Legion soldiers were killed in today's battle, with many more injured. Realizing the situation, Tokuda calmed down a little bit, understanding Bear's logic. Bear then said, "Because of Victoria's betrayal, now the human army is probably going to think we were the ones to kill the king, and we might have a second Humanity War on our hands now." Leonardo looked worried as he said, "Good god, we're in no position to fight a full-scale war like that! This was supposed to be a quick mission that ended in peace, not escalate it further!" Bear didn't know what else to say to that, but Kairi spoke up, saying, "We need to go back to Wolfwater. Things happened, and we only have questions with no answers. We also need to sort everything out, as we now have someone to grieve for." Leonardo looked at Aqua, tears forming in his eyes as he said, "That's too cruel. Much too cruel." Leonardo then said, "I understand. We must make proper graves for those who fought valiantly today. Afterwards, we'll... figure things out, now that everything has gone to Hell."
Graves were dug at the battlefield for the fallen Freedom Legion soldiers, and those who cried over their fallen comrades that day were left with a painful reminder that freedom came at a cost. Tokuda watched as Lionel was one of the many bodies to be put inside of a grave that day, and silently said, "I'll avenge you, Lionel. Barron will die by my hands." Leonardo walked up behind Tokuda and said, "We need you here, Tokuda. You're the next best thing we have now that Lionel is no longer with us." Tokuda stayed silent for a moment, then said, "I'm sorry, but I need to deal with this matter, and staying with the Freedom Legion won't help me achieve it." Leonardo, a bit disappointed, said, "I understand. For the time being, I shall act in your stead. We'll pick ourselves up and be at your command when you return, stronger than before. You know where to find us." Tokuda nodded, and Leonardo left Tokuda, who continued to silently stare at the freshly dug grave of Lionel. Once all of the Freedom Legion soldiers who had fallen that day were properly buried, Leonardo ordered the troops to pack everything up and head out. Ezekiel's party simply loaded up some of their belongings, climbed back into their wagon, and headed back to Wolfwater without a word spoken by any of them.
Once back in Wolfwater, they all unloaded everything without a word said to each other. Ezekiel was carried back to The Crimson Tankard Inn and put inside of his bed by Bear. Once that was done, Bear had the painful task of delivering the bad news to Margaret. When Margaret learned of Aqua's death, she broke down into tears and cried for two hours after seeing her lifeless body inside of a brown sack. Bear stayed with her the entire time, not knowing how he could comfort her when delivering news like this. Kairi told Whiskey of Aqua's death as well, and Whiskey was in shock, saying, "You're jokin', right? This is a joke! Aqua will walk right through the door any minute now!" The look on Kairi's face said otherwise, and Whiskey started to break down in tears. "No... That's impossible. It's too cruel. Someone as sweet and innocent as her doesn't deserve such a cruel fate!" The mood of The Crimson Tankard Inn changed that day, as all the people who went inside could feel that something was off.
That same day, after everything had died down, Bear made a grave outside of the town for Aqua at night, and her body was placed inside of a wooden coffin that Bear had made himself. As he looked at the coffin which held Aqua's lifeless body, Bear never thought he would have to make a coffin for anyone as young as Aqua was. The coffin was then lowered into the grave, without a word spoken from anyone. The grave was located under a small tree on a hill, where Margaret told Bear that it used to be her favorite spot. Small candles lit up the ground around the grave, and still, no one said a word. Kairi, Rina, Mia, Suko, Tokuda, Margaret, Whiskey, Zoey, and Bear were there, but Ezekiel was still out cold, recovering from the battle with Victoria and Bear. Margaret was softly crying to herself, and Whiskey struggled to hold back his tears. Everyone that had gathered felt grief at the fact that someone like Aqua had passed on so suddenly. Margaret delivered a eulogy for Aqua, and everyone took turns saying something nice about her. After that, everyone stood silently around the grave. Kairi quietly asked, "Shouldn't we have waited for Ezekiel before doing this?" Bear shook his head, saying, "He seemed to be in a state of denial. If he saw this, I think he would've lost it mentally and emotionally. We need to give him time." Kairi understood, but she thought it was still unfair to do something as important as this without him. Then, Bear filled up the grave with dirt and used Aqua's staff as a gravestone. Then, without a word, everyone went their separate ways in the grieving town of Wolfwater.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdj1OeHXyya
