"Have I ever told you what a dumbass you are?"
Felix gasped as the invisible force yanked him away from the golden door. He stretched his hand out helplessly as the portal vanished into the distance. Oh, bother. Totally forgot that she's still in this place too.
The man gritted his teeth as he came face to face with his female self yet again. Fausta Pagonis was right where he left her, hovering in the eternal void between realms that he had stranded her in. A void that he unfortunately needed to go through before entering another golden gate.
"So you finally deigned to remove your mind block, eh?" The woman held him firmly as her eyes flickered with power. "Your sins have caught up to you, I see. What did I tell you? But you really are a fool to come back here. You've bested me; not by force, I admit. But technically, you still managed to escape me. And then you came right back. Such idiocy."
"I have no choice."
"Bullshit, you just didn't think of it."
Felix pursed his lips. She was right, even if he didn't want to admit it out loud. He had never been the type to think before acting.
"Please, I need to find my sister," Felix pleaded with her. "You know how it feels to lose a sibling, don't you? There's no time; you need to let me go."
"She made her choice. I'll respect it. Unlike the residents of my world, she is still alive. Only the sundered will live in my reconstructed city," Fausta replied languidly. "She possesses both mind and soul, so she has only trapped herself in an eternal loop of a falsified reality."
Felix's heart skipped a beat as realisation dawned on him. Like the Unendings in the golden world, that silly girl had also given in to her desires and chosen to live in her own memories forever.
"Besides, I can't undo it even if I wanted to. The remnant psychic energy in my realm may have influenced her, but she chose to remain an Unending of her own volition," Fausta continued. "Her form is sustained by her own life force. In that regard, I am powerless to force her to relinquish it."
"It's wrong... This is all wrong," the man muttered. "I understand why you're doing this, sister. But it's wrong."
"Sister? Are you sure about that? Or is Marcia just someone who looks like her?"
"It doesn't fucking matter! Why don't you get it?" Felix yelled. "I dragged her into this mess! How can you remain so petty even now? Don't you see the common thread in our stories? Our lives go downhill because we were selfish!"
"Selfish?" Fausta snarled. "I rebuilt my universe from this squalor. I granted billions eternal existence, sustained by my own life force! I'm doing everything for them. I kept them alive until you barged into my life! You are the selfish one!"
"Yes, I am. But I'm atoning for my mistakes," Felix shot back. "You're not. You think a wretched half-existence is mercy? You think eternal life is grace? All you've done is patch up what is already broken. You never did any of that for them. You just did it for yourself."
Fausta breathed heavily. It might have just been Felix's imagination, but the telekinetic grip around his body seemed to loosen a little.
"Say whatever you want, Felix. You're the one who stole my book and lost it." Her eyes narrowed with malice. "So you've doomed my world too. I have no failsafe now. If I let go of my power, my world will cease to exist."
"Your world is already dead. Everyone else knows that, but they have no choice but to be strung along as your puppets, destined never to find their eternal rest. But Marcia may still be alive, don't you see? Look, Fausta. I know what it's like to cling stubbornly to something already gone. So trust me. The harder you hold on, the more damage you're doing to everything else."
Felix drifted backwards slightly as the pink bindings around him vanished.
"You are already a dead man too, you know that? You and Orpheus both," Fausta mumbled. "The only reason why you haven't turned into Unendings is because of how powerful the both of you are. The moment you relinquish your hold on this foreign body, your soul moves into the afterlife. And so will he. Why do you still care about the living world?"
"Because I'm not a destroyer. I may not be perfect, but I can still do good," the man said. "It took me a journey across three universes to understand that. What's gone is already gone. We can only make the best of what happened. So can you."
"What if we fail? What if the consequences of our actions are too much for us to bear?"
"Then we fail without regrets."
Fausta chuckled wistfully. "Oh, to be lectured by the young. You're remarkably naive, boy. What comes next? You're still not strong enough— You're not old enough to fight the power of an Elder God. Wielding the Solstices, Orpheus' power will be boosted far beyond that of a normal human. Janus is quite literally by his side now."
"Then help me."
Felix remained still, mentally beckoning the woman to enter his mind. He watched as her expression turned from surprise to realisation and finally to acceptance.
"What's the catch?" Fausta cracked a small smile as Felix nodded knowingly. This was the only way she would know peace. This was the only way he could give her peace.
"No catch." Felix shrugged. "We'll both get what we want. Closure."
"Five hundred years..." Fausta looked up at him, her eyes sparkling. "It's been five hundred years since I've felt fear. Tell me, Felix. What does death feel like? How does it feel to let go of life?"
Felix cast his eyes downward as memories flashed before his eyes. The good times spent with his friends, the exciting missions with the Guardian Council, the short but sweet moments with his family...
"Peaceful, if you found something worth dying for." The man smiled warmly. "After all, the living cannot cling onto the deceased forever, and neither can the dead hold onto life endlessly."
"Thank you, Felix. For showing me that even this accursed path has its end." Fausta closed her eyes as pink light peeked from underneath her skin. "Do me one last favour, will you? Make my last journey count, alright?"
The woman gave him one last smile as her body disintegrated into a brilliant shower of magenta droplets. Felix closed his eyes, keeping his power channels under control as the light infused his trembling body. Fausta's essence was incredibly potent, and it was taking the psychic every ounce of his strength not to let his body explode with the sheer amount of psionic energy surging through his veins.
And then it was all over.
Felix opened his glowing eyes again, feeling his power multiply by several thousand times now. He now had the power of three psychics inhabiting one body. He could only hope he could keep it together well enough to face his last fight.
The psychic flew forward with a burst of speed and headed back towards the golden door.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG6VQN552g2
