Epilogue: Legacy

It was strange to see her without her helmet, the features beneath it a touch on the severe side, the red hair possessing a fragment of what most would call being 'stringy', the rest of the woman's body covered in dark-emerald tinted armor, the severeness of her face offset by the warmness of her expression.

"It's good you can take a beating...but this is bordering on masochism, Ash."

Ash looked blearily at the woman as she knelt by him, her expression telling him everything was going to be okay. He'd had just enough strength left to pull the crossbow bolt out of his wrist and drag himself out of the symbol of corpses, his back resting against the based of a now-ruined statue.

Despite all the pain, his eyes had been remarkably free of tears. Until now.

"...you're not really here..." Ash whispered.

"Why do you say that?"

"...Because if I don't...then I'll allow myself to forget that I watched you bleed out in my arms...you're dead, Deb. I wish anything I could say otherwise...that I took it back...but you're dead." Ash said. He didn't close his eyes though, staring at the ghost, or the hallucination, or whatever Debera Chaud now was.

"And are you?"

"...I can't die..."

"Why?"

"...I wasn't strong enough...I left the world a mess...salted it with so much danger...it's like you said...you break it...you buy it. I have to...get going..."

"Ash." Debera said, her tone soft, but solemn. "You know that's not your sole reason to live. I know it hurts...but remember why it hurts."

"...every time I draw your blade." A heartless, embittered, scarred women. A stupid kid who should have died. Mentor, teacher, maker. A surrogate son.

A regret kept close to the heart, but a vow to use the regret to do what was stolen from her. To live life.

"Maybe you can't stay out of the depths, but you can damn sure pull yourself out. There's so much left for you to see, Ash. So much to do. You can have a life...this alone isn't it. Don't make my death, all their deaths...be all there is."

Ash blinked, and for the first time since he'd stepped forth on this battlefield, his pain seemed...less.

"...I won't..." Ash said, his voice a whisper. "I won't...I won...t...I...won..."

"You did."

Debera Chaud was gone. In her place was Christine Brynn, her gentle touch settling down onto Ash's chest as knelt beside him.

"Hey Pumpkin. Sorry for the delay...but you kind of smashed the only door just before I got here. Had to be careful blasting my way in...bloody pupils. What's with the bloody pupils, Ash?" Christine said, inspecting Ash's eyes.

"Thaumaturge...Stream channeling...had to do it. Didn't agree with me."

"There seems to have been a few disagreements." Christine said, glancing at Incael's corpse before turning back to Ash, her hand sliding over the one with the hole in his wrist. "It's over now though...just relax..."

Ash did so, feeling the pain and weariness leak away, the wound on his chest and arm closing up, a myriad of cracked bones and deep bruises fading away in turn. He was unaware he'd turned his hand over so it was facing upward until Christine moved her own, giving it an affirming squeeze.

"You didn't need to go so far...you're also exhausted..." Ash said.

"Not exhausted enough." Christine said, standing up and helping the blonde man up. After a second of dizziness, Ash steadied and did a brief stretch, his sword finding his way back to his hand.

"Sir?" Came a voice. A Crown Point soldier had also found them, the ones that Christine had found and the ones that had followed her into Incael's castle and its depths having finally plucked up the courage to inspect the room the cave-in had sealed off, which Christine had originally gone in alone, albeit because she'd ordered them to stay put. "Are you all right?"

"...yes. I'd venture I am." Ash said. He didn't blame the soldier for asking. His wounds were healed, but his armor and clothing was still shredded, blood-soaked and scorched, and with mild distaste he realized Incael had yanked out a chunk of his hair somewhere during the fight. Gonna have to cut it short again.

"There's still some fighting going on outside, but it's mostly just some dregs who haven't figured out they've lost." The soldier said.

"Try and get them to surrender anyway...if they won't...that's all. Leave us. We can find our own way out." Ash said. The soldier nodded and dashed off. Christine, meanwhile, had made her way over to Incael, and the sigil of corpses he lay amongst. Her expression was blank, but the tightness around her eyes said it all.

"...we weren't here." Ash said.

"Yeah...doesn't seem like much of a reason." Christine said, Ash walking over. With a quick use of Stream-based telekinesis, Incael's body was lifted up and ejected from the rest of the remains. "Come on."

Carefully bringing all the remains together in as neat and respectful a grouping as they could muster due to the incredible damage and violation the bodies had suffered, even WITH Stream-based motion instead of bare hands, might have been the hardest thing Ash had done that day. Yet, when the bodies were assembled and set alight, Ash felt better than if he'd just left the bodies there for someone else to deal with. At least, in the end, they'd been given some dignity. Ash watched the pyre for a moment, before Christine tapped him on the shoulder.

"I found Magnificence." Christine said, the snake-sword draped over her glaive as she held it out towards Ash; even she was wary to touch it. Ash took it by the hilt, the segments of the blade snapping back together in according to his will, as he walked around to where Vyrepul lay. Saying nothing, he plunged the point of the sword into the weapon, dark energies beginning to flow up from the Remnant, absorbing themselves into Ash's blade until the murderous artifact crumbled into black dust, blowing away like it had never been there in the first place.

"Another poison to pick." Ash said, and sheathed the sword.

"Incael?" Christine said.

"Let him rot." Ash said, and walked away. Christine glanced once more at the pyre, and then swiftly followed along.

"Where to next, pumpkin? Once this is cleared up."

"We'll rest for the next few days...work out the details of the war, you work out details with OutREACH...then, enough Remnant hunting. We should go see some old friends, catch up. I haven't spoken to Paul in months."

"Knowing him, he'll probably want us to test some dangerous piece of tech again."

"As long as he doesn't ask us to test the teleporter again. Ending up on that island the last time was enough, and I'd rather not see where I'd go if it REALLY went wrong." Ash said. It was amazing how easily he fell back into small talk after what he'd just gone through...but that was life. Normalcy followed by some other 'cy, and then back to normal, sometimes with no rhyme or reason, a pattern even Xaxargas never cracked. Ash would take it. There was worse in the world.

Climbing the rope ladder that had replaced the stairs wasn't hard, but the distortion effect still on the castle and the bodies having been somewhat cleared away by invading Crown Point troops caused Ash to swiftly get lost, Christine following along and having no luck herself when she tried to puzzle the way out. Eventually, they found a staircase, and after a moment of thought, Ash chose to climb it.

"You think there's an exit upstairs?"

"If we have to, we're climb down the darn walls. Anything to get us OUT of here..." Ash said, heading up the winding staircase with Christine, finally emerging on top of one of the castle walls. The presence of other people up on the wall made Ash's hand go to his sword, but a few further moments clarified them as Crown Point soldiers.

"Sir Marsello!" One of the soldiers said, noticing him in turn. Ash strolled across the wall, looking down at the battlefield, swarming with Crown Point colors. A tragedy that the sight existed, but things had gone into motion long before Ash had gotten there. How many of those standing below would be dead in the mud if he and Christine hadn't gotten involved?

All of them. They'd all be dead.

"Get going kid, or get got. Sometimes, though, take what you can get. Life won't offer anything else."

"Is it over, sir?" The soldier was asking, breaking Ash out of his brief reverie he'd been having.

"...It's over. Incael's dead. The war's done." Ash said. There will be more...and I'll be there.  

Ash took a moment to  glance over the side, pondering the logistics of climbing down, and hence was caught off guard when the soldier he'd just spoken to started yelling, really loud. Not in pain or rage though. Instead, he called out to the men below, his voice impossibly vast and carrying; he must have activated some kind of Blackbird amplification charm. Ash hoped no one noticed his startled sideways two second dance. It wasn't exactly very dignified.

The fact that Christine giggled indicated she'd noticed it. He could live with that. And the soldier was still calling. No, not calling. Proclaiming.

"MY FRIENDS! THE WAR IS OVER! THE MAD KING INCAEL HAS BEEN SLAIN! CUT DOWN BY THE GODSLAYER HIMSELF! HAIL THE GODSLAYER! HAIL! HAIL!"

"Oh my life." Ash said, flushing a bit as the hundreds below began to call hail, raising their weapons and flags, cheering his name, and cheering even more when Ash gave a semi-shy wave. Ash drew in a long breath and drew it out even slower, as the hails down below continued, even the soldiers on the wall next to him hailing.

"Your life. Our life." Christine said, putting a hand on his shoulder, looking down on the battlefield, a cool breeze making her golden hair drift around her head.

"...a good life." Ash said, reaching up and putting his hand on hers. I wonder what's next in it.

----

A few weeks later.

Any eyes that saw it would have seen a lightning bolt from a clear sky, a blast of brilliant luminescent that arced down from the heavens and crashed down into the depths of Vylogy Forest, a woodland acre that extended a good dozen square miles and generally knew no trouble. Anyone with a high, distant view would have seen smoke rising from the impact point deep within the forest, smoke that would trail off within ten minutes.

Then the forest was quiet again, and Polyphyrion continued to turn.

And for the time, things were quiet. 

For a bit.

"...I don't know how Paul talked me into testing the teleporter again, but I suddenly feel the need to state that I AM NOW DEEPLY REGRETTING IT."

"Don't worry, Ash. At least we're not on an island again."

"Oh, my life."

"And this is my legacy, legacy...

 This is my legacy, legacy...

 There's no guarantee,
It's not up to me,
You can only see
This is my legacy, legacy
Legacy, legacy ..."