Requiem [Chapter 116]

My heart sinks as I try to move, but can't no matter how much I struggle, my body refuses to move. I try to heal myself, but even that fails. I clench my teeth, using all my effort and concentration to even move a little. I feel blood fill my mouth from clenching my jaw too hard. After all that spent effort, all I can do is roll onto my side to watch the army get wiped out. Person by person, group by group, Grim's flames easily destroy any appearance of an army, only a large group of mortals panicking. While I stare on in horror, a voice in the back of my head creeps in. A voice of doubt.

I can stop all this; I must undo the system. It will save everyone.

I close my eyes tightly, still trying to shake the thought.

No, I refuse to cripple the world like that! I won't.... I can't... but if I don't there won't be anything left to cripple. I either let everyone die or take away their power and survivability. DAMNIT!

I feel my eyes stinging, starting to tear up from my choices. Before I can finish my thinking, I feel myself start rolling. My eyes jerk open, seeing myself rolling off Ayvex's shoulder, her standing up. Azeroth manages to catch me again, dropping to the ground and setting me down. I manage to turn my head enough to look at Ayvex, who is glaring up to Grim. With a deep exhale, a thin wave of silver energy covers her arms. She jerks her arms up, ripping through the waves, revealing her arms fully healed. She lifts her sword from the dirt and stares into the still pristine and shiny blade's reflection. After a moment, she looks over to me and smiles slightly. I manage to get to my feet with Azeroth's help. Ayvex speaks.

"That was my ace, and even it didn't drop him from the sky."

She pauses for a moment, looking across the burning battlefield, her eyes becoming cold for a moment.

"I promise, I'll save you."

As her words roll from her mouth, I nod, thinking she's talking about the rest of the army. Suddenly, and unexpectedly, A notification appears.

[Stop Her. Stop Her.]

I look at it confused, quickly pulled to the side by Blankk. A wave of blue energy wraps around us as the ground explodes where Ayvex was. Again, the silver and gold helix streaks through the sky, this time leaving a massive crater where she leapt from. I quickly look back, noticing several soldiers around us looking at something too. Lancelot quickly looks to me.

"Why do we need to stop her?"

Immediately, the realization hits me.

Nevereth?! He's talking to everyone!

I turn my attention back to Ayvex, gritting my teeth and trying to think of what we could do. I look to Azeroth, quickly raising my voice.

"Teleport us to her!"

He recoils and shakes his head.

"I still don't have a good grasp over long distance teleportation. She was close enough before, and moving slow enough, I was sure I wouldn't miss. But now, I don't think I could hit the mark."

Deep inside me, a panic starts setting in. Nervous and anxious, most likely from the absorbed part of Nevereth. Lance tries to speak up again, but a flash of light draws everyone's attention. Several silver and gold explosions all over Grim's body. I feel my throat get tight, getting choked up. From the residual energy, Ayvex falls through. Grim also starts falling out of the sky, his entire body slowly rolling while plummeting. I stumble forward, a foreign sadness washing over me. I push myself, slowly growing faster and faster, not even thinking rationally anymore. I clench my fist, digging my fingernails through my own palms. I try to use magic once again, every nerve in my body igniting into extreme pain. I manage to teleport several feet, but no further than that. I scream out, forcing out the magic.

Even if it kills me, I will reach her!

My skin peels away as I teleport closer and closer, soon losing all feeling in my body. My tired vision replaced with the dark red hue of blood in my eyes. I fight forwards, driven by a goal that forces me forward. My tears mix with the blood as my vision starts fading from overuse of magic. Ayvex is within teleport range, only a few thousand feet off the ground. I break into a numb sprint, still unable to use magic. I feel myself getting close to where she will hit the ground, throwing my hand out to force a spell out no matter the consequences. Suddenly, I trip. I hadn't noticed the corpse on the ground while staring up the sky and being too weakened to just rip right through it and keep moving.

I grab the dirt and pull myself forward, keeping my hand extended towards where she's going to land. With all my focus and mental ability, I force the magic out, my entire body on the verge of collapsing. As Ayvex gets close to the ground, I use [Telekinesis]. I barely manage to catch her, stopping her from crashing into the hard ground beneath her. With another scream, I force out a [Teleport].

I appear beside her when she is slowly let down to the ground. Her armor is torn apart and has several chunks of flesh missing on her body. Only now, up close, do I notice that her arms are completely ripped off. I feel myself get choked up, my head dropping in front of me. The wind blows passed me a few seconds later, the ground shaking violently. Then suddenly, the wind starts blowing the other way. Faintly, silver energy rolls across the ground, enveloping Ayvex. I feel an intense stinging as my eyes well up with tears once more, a slight smile coming across my face. As it disperses, I see Ayvex is the size of a normal person, but still bruised and damaged. She turns her head towards me, only managing one eye open, starting to speak.

"I guess..."

I reach out to grab her, glad she's alive.

"...I couldn't save you after all, Nevereth."

I shake my head, trying my best to speak, but my throat feels crushed. The ground shakes once more, and I look passed Ayvex to where Grim landed. He's standing back up slowly, raising his head out of the large dust cloud kicked up by his impact almost a mile away. While looking forward, Ayvex's massive blade lands in the soft dirt between us and Grim.

"I wish.... I could've seen him again. Just... one last... time."

Ayvex grabs my wrist and smiles, a tear rolling down her cheek. The thin waves of silver and gold roll up her hand and into my arm, but nowhere near as much as she had mere moments before. While sitting beside her, I see the remaining soldiers finally run by me, some giving a concerned look back to me while moving further away. I watch them split apart, two equal sized groups going left and right, leaving Azeroth in the middle by himself. Ayvex's breathing grows shallower, her eye slowly closing.

"Please...save them."

Second my second, her breathing gets weaker and weaker. Her arm goes limp, sliding off my wrist and landing on the grass. She drifts away in my arms, finally unable to hold my tears back anymore. I force myself to my feet, ready to carry out her final wishes. I stare forward at everyone using their strongest spells, their best attacks, what they'd each learned on each of their individual journeys. With an apology, I undo everything.

"I'm sorry, everyone."

Almost as though my hand is guided by Nevereth and those I lost in my prior hesitation, I slash the air in front of me, seeing a menu open in front of me.

[Revert System?]

[Yes/No]

With one last glance forward, seeing their final spells, I reach for yes. Azeroth's shadow suddenly stretches back far behind him, reaching even me. Before the army of shadow soldiers from [Dread Legion] can lift out of his shadow, I click yes. And with a sudden sweep of magic, everyone falls unconscious in front of me, except Grim.