Kaleidoscopic Memories

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2010-09-08
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Kaleidoscopic Memories
 Quetzalcoatl.Sectumsempra
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By Quetzalcoatl.Sectumsempra 2010-12-14 14:33:45
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Day 220 - Minutes After Midnight:

He had no say in the matter.

As we plunged our golden scimitar into our stomach and twisted, he was enveloped in a blackness and taken to the highest point of the castle: to the Throne Room of the Shadow Lord.

It had already been setup for this moment.

There was a flaming circle surrounding him, and we were laying in the center of it, gasping for air from the noble suicide he tried to perform.

Such was good.

And it was such at that moment that the left arm that he had hacked off mere moments ago had appeared before us, flaming as Jeuno flamed.

We watched through his eyes as the flesh around the arm began to unravel and the muscles began to unwind and tendrils of black shot from the floor and into the floating flesh, bone, and muscle.

We could but simply watch from his eyes.

The ground beneath us shook as a great pillar of darkness overtook us for a few moments, and when it left the arm was no more.

Instead, we saw what could have been a giant fetus that was trying to survive from the wound. A terrible, terribly creation before us, a sack of fowl flesh on the ground. Something that should not be. And every second, it changed into something darker and with more and more of a form.

I heard the boy mutter something.

"I'm taking you to hell with me."

With us! I tried to cry, With us!

For he was weak, and demons keep their promises, and in these moments I would not leave him.

We would die and go to hell together, then.

I felt our arm became, for the last time, that of a flayer. Through his eyes I saw his arm was different this time; the glow around it was no longer blue; it was a dark purple.

And I began to realize.

We had channeled so many lives that we were no longer a single organism. We had become so many that his body could no longer sustain so many.

The sack of fowl flesh was beginning to resemble the Lord that I had once worshiped, but no longer. Perhaps as I had corrupted the boy, the boy had purified me.

He dragged our dying body to the sack of flesh and tried to wrap his tentacles around its neck, but he was too weak now. He roped them into the creations mouth and tried to suffocate it.

We were almost dead.

I forced our eyes to stare at his arm for but a moment before I understood that we still had one last hope.

The boy had gathered so many souls that his body could no longer sustain them all.

I watched as he shook, trying so hard to clutch at the last tendrils of life.

I became aware of his entirety now, for he was dying and his mind was going dim.

He was bleeding everywhere. I was he. His blood was my blood.

His flesh was my flesh.

The arm that made the Shadow Lord was my flesh.

I was already outside of him, I had realized: all I must do is claim my part.

And in the same way that I had claimed Sectumsempra, in a moment more I was inside the creation that was the Shadow Lord, assaulting his mind and soul.

But this would not be enough, I knew now; each second he grew stronger, and soon he would be strong enough to cast me dead.

While I still could I grabbed the sword from Sectumsempra's gut and as the boy had done mere minutes ago I sliced the arm off the body I was in.

And as I did so, I cast myself out of this wicked body and into the arm, and much like the Shadow Lord I received a body from the flesh of Sectumsempra.

I saw his dimming eyes staring at me as he bled out and the Shadow Lord, almost with form now, grabbed the boy and bit his neck in the same way that the boy and I fed on others to sustain ourselves.

The golden scimitar from the East, a gift from his lover, in my hands, I took this final fight for my own.

And then as I saw the body of Sectumsempra tremble and he screamed I realized that the Lord was not going to absorb him: he was going to invade him, for he had proven to be a most useful vessel.

Yet I was a factor that was never meant to be.

I watched as Sectumsempra's body had sewn itself back together before my eyes and the Lord's body had begun to grow weaker looking once more; he was preparing Sectumsempra's body to be his newest vessel.

And I watched as his eyes flickered red for a moment as the Lord continued to transfuse with him.

And there was another factor that the Lord had not thought of: that Sectumsempra was stronger than he knew.

I watched as his eyes had become their piercing blue once more.

"Thanks for the fixing," he said, and laughed as he suddenly brought his Soulflayer Arm striking upwards and wrapped it around the Lord's neck, this time succeeding.

I rushed forth and stabbed the Lord through the torso.

And finally, we could fight as comrades in two bodies instead of one.

The arm of a Flayer, the sword of a lover, and the will to end this madness once and for all against a foe that could bring the world down to ruin.

For a one armed human boy that was on the verge of death a few seconds ago, Sectumsempra fought admirably. I could see in his eyes that he had a plan.

He was moving incredibly fast; he knew that he could not win by strength alone and that he would have to win some other way.

As the Lord grabbed him once more, a clawed hand reaching through his chest, I realized what he was going to do as his arm once more reached for the Lord's neck and raveled its way into his mouth.

In one clean strike I had struck away the arm that was reaching through Sectumsempra's chest and watched as the boy's tentacles suddenly shot out of my Lord's eyes and then retreated, and then shattered through his skull.

Sectumsempra blinked, and this time his eyes were red. He blinked again, and then they were blue.

The Lord's body fell to the floor, anticlimactically.

Sectumsempra reached for his chest, smiling very faintly. Softly, like the boy he used to be before this all.

"Don't fail me, Maje."

And then he blinked once more and his eyes were crimson as he threw himself at me, ready to kill me.

And I understood his plan: he knew that he would fall as Crim had fallen, and he knew that his body had a limit, and he would simply take over me next as he fell to the Lord's will.

Before I could fathom all this, he had grabbed his sword and had already begun to have at me. We fought, once comrades, now comrades still, and he was going to overtake me.

As his sword ripped through my heart, I stuck my claws into his chest and tore into his own.

And we collapsed to the floor together.

As we lay there, both dying, I could not help but turn to him.

His eyes, no longer red, were gazing at me and his mouth tried to form words.

The only true friend I ever had, I knew what we would say, and I said it with him to ease his passing.

"It is fortunate..." He coughed, blood coming out of his mouth.

"It is fortunate that killers such as we can die in peace."

And with that, Sectumsempra closed his eyes.

I hear the shells of cannons assaulting the castle. It will take some time for me to finally succumb to death; but it is knocking at my door, and I must answer. They shall find our bodies.

I may only hope that the words I write in the final pages of his diary can do him justice. Yet I feel myself collapsing, showing me the images of our journey together.

It was a journey worth living, to be sure.

I was with him and saw how he learned to stop worrying and aim for the head.

I was there as he flung himself into the thousand shades of blue.

I was fighting in his head as he fled on a pale chocobo his lover gave him.

I cried as he cried and we saw tears of scarlet, tears of gold.

And now, as his soul rests with mine, still connected, I travel with him down the route of death as it flashes; all of our kaleidoscopic memories, so many colors flashing from all the souls we have seen, repeating before our soul.

And all of this is simply what happened when Jeuno fell, and a human boy had avenged it.

May Altana have mercy on his soul, because no one else ever did.
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 Quetzalcoatl.Sectumsempra
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By Quetzalcoatl.Sectumsempra 2010-12-14 14:34:43
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Fin.
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 Sylph.Bouncingflea
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By Sylph.Bouncingflea 2010-12-14 18:19:14
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I'm kinda disappointed that it's over now. Really good work Sect. Have any plans for a new story yet?
 Ragnarok.Doluka
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By Ragnarok.Doluka 2010-12-14 18:52:11
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Wow....just, wow Sect...

That's quite the ending you've got there. I'm thoroughly and genuinely impressed. /clap

Hope you're real novel turns out to be just as epic!
 Quetzalcoatl.Sectumsempra
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By Quetzalcoatl.Sectumsempra 2010-12-14 19:58:17
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Thank you everyone for all the feedback along the way.
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 Cerberus.Irohuro
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By Cerberus.Irohuro 2010-12-14 20:31:29
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i'll be over here /tearing for a while
 Quetzalcoatl.Sectumsempra
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By Quetzalcoatl.Sectumsempra 2010-12-14 20:49:17
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The full pdf version has been updated, with a little finale at the end.

Thank you all for reading. Keep it real, and enjoy the holidays.

Feel free to post or PM me any questions or comments, criticism is very desired and wanted.
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 Shiva.Spathaian
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By Shiva.Spathaian 2010-12-14 22:26:01
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I'm tearing up its so good. D:
Thank you so much for this amazingness that has killed me so many times because of my inability to stop reading while playing.
Now to put it on my bookshelf.
 Quetzalcoatl.Sectumsempra
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By Quetzalcoatl.Sectumsempra 2010-12-20 03:06:53
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I'll be slowly looking over this whole work for awkward wordings, vague sentences, typos, and such; please PM me with any that which you have noticed so I can get around to fixing them.

Also, if anyone is any bit artsy and feels up to illustrating a few scenes, let me know. I'll be making an InDesign, real bookish looking version of this because I have nothing better to do.
 Shiva.Flionheart
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By Shiva.Flionheart 2010-12-20 03:21:18
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Well I'm going to read it all over the next few days. I don't read or watch things till they're done so I'll give you a conclusion once I'm finished with it.
 Quetzalcoatl.Sectumsempra
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By Quetzalcoatl.Sectumsempra 2010-12-20 03:28:46
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Thank you, Santa Lecter.

That is Hannibal, right? It's been a terribly long time since I watched those movies.
 Shiva.Flionheart
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By Shiva.Flionheart 2010-12-20 03:41:37
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That is indeed :D
 Asura.Raignes
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By Asura.Raignes 2011-01-04 11:31:35
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Not sure if I've ever commented on this or anything, because I'm a forgetful guy, but Sect, you are an absolutely amazing writer, and I look forward to reading anything else you have. Especially if it means I can support a great writer and storyteller in his hobby/job/career, whatever you decide to do with your talent.

Keep up the absolutely amazing work, Sect, I'm sure I and many others here want to see where you can go with this.
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