Inside the tower and Mr Umezu was listening in to the discussion made in the airship carrier. He was trying to send his own video link up but without success, “Fuck it it’s not working at all. This portal is heap of shit. I’m trapped in here I really am,” he complained banging the side of the portal. I slowly came in still holding Wizard’s wand. Mr Umezu saw me holding the wand and a look of disappointment came over him.
“Wizard, he’s gone isn’t he?” he asked me.
I nodded silently. Mr Umezu turned back to the portal looking at the small hole between universes and he thought about his own life for once, “This is karma you know. I committed some serious crimes in my own world and now I’m trapped with only two choices. Die or go through this portal,” he said with one hand on the side of the portal gate.
“But you get to go home. You know you can’t stay here, only I can. Only I can face my demons,” I replied.
“This portal doesn’t go back to the City of Demons. It’s a one way ticket to an unknown world. There might not be a way form you to return back to my home. I deserve it I suppose. That new Prime Leader while Charles is in a coma will hang me. I know it because for what I have done to turn the City of Demon into the crime land that it is,” Mr Umezu explained to me.
“You turned yourself around. You should remember that Umezu, “I reminded him.
“Yeah I did and gave all my money to the funding of the Xtreme Squad. My company is now bankrupt due to the war so there’s nothing to return to. I’m a a loner, no family and little friends. You understand don’t you?” he asked me.
“I know it all too well Umezu. I believe if the worst happens to you that you will find a way back home. I have faith in you,” I told him.
Mr Umezu stepped up next to the portal and turned back, “Thanks kid. You need to find your way back home too and I’m sure you will. But you know as a writer that’s not my story to write. Only you can do that. Here’s to a new adventure even if I don’t want it. I’m going to miss the few friends I have. I will miss Richards the most,” he said as he crossed into the portal and disappeared away from me. A number of sparks appeared and softly the portal died quickly as the portal gate closed up. The last exit was closed off for me. Umezu left a recording message of what had happened with the plan to transport the tower away from them. I adjusted the shield on my back and held on to my bag that Wizard gave me. A sudden chill came over as he held onto my stomach and leaned down on the floor. Flashing images of war and my childhood past by me as my eyes widen to my fears.
“He’s inside my mind. He’s inside my mind,” I repeated to myself trying to stay in control.
Visions and images shown of each of the world’s charging up the universe portal was shown to me. Chisoutsa was leading the charge outside of the airship carrier as she flew through the air smashing through soul breakers. The pain and stress on Roger and King Lion as they fought the soul breaks on the carrier while Percy and Daniel worked like hell on the channels. Three massive bolts of power shot from the planets towards earth where Chisoutsa chased through the air towards the ThunderDragon shouting, “Drop the chains and makes the winds take the tower through the portal!” she shouted towards him.
The ThunderDragon eyed the Time Cruisers and the airship carrier glowing and overheating as he released the golden chains coming off him. The airship carrier fired the almighty beam through the sky and the time and universe portal opened wide enough for the tower to be thrown through. The next images I saw was the Thunder Dragon building a thunderstorm of hurricanes behind him and unleashing his last amount of power left in him as the hurricanes of wind shot at the tower as it pushed through the portal. There was unbelieavle explosion on the airship carrier as everyone was thrown around as the soul breakers started to drop in the air towards the earthquakes on the ground level. The air carrier started to fall from the sky as with Chisoutsa caught in the blasts and the ThunderDragon fainting midair due to his tiredness. I dropped to the ground inside the tower as it appeared in a cold and dark skied world as it smashed into the side of some tall mountains. I remembered seeing the images of everyone falling down as Lucas and Roger screamed to everyone to hold on to something for their lives and the flashing images of the Commander telling his troops to try to keep the airship in the air as the flames burnt all the control panels alive. The pain inside me grew as I knew Valentine was giving me these visions of death and destruction to break me further. I struggled to climb back up on my feet and dazed by the images I slowly moved up the stairs towards Valentine’s final room.
I appeared inside his library where the floating papers from ripped books were from the beginning of this war.
“Come to me for you are so lifeless. Your feelings are frozen so let me take your hands and show you the cliff where you wish to end it all. Let me be the one who helps you end your misery. Give in to those dark feelings inside your mind and let me break your soul,” Valentine spoke to in poetry as I edged closer to him.
“The feeling is frozen. The moment is unquestionable. Reaching out my hand from the black hole. Am I ever going get out of this alive? Am I ever going to feel again?
I remember those feelings. Am I ever going to feel love again? I am lifeless to this world,” I spoke out giving in my depression.
“Come closer to me, break see your soul. Your eyes are mixed and dazed with pain. Thrown into outer space and time. Come closer and let me help you end all the pain you have gone through,” Valentine called out seducing me with his words.
I saw him at the end of the darkness as I felt the pure sickness inside and my breathing became impossible to go on with. The Author’s Books flipped opened its pages and its dark glow was ready to write the final chapters. Valentine leaned down to watch me with this sick desire to see me break myself into pieces. He let out a sigh of pleasure as my hair turned grey with each step towards me and the darkness in my soul was growing inside of me.
“A state of madness has pushed me towards the edge. I once had dreams of joy and passion but they have all been washed down by the acid rain. Washing away the promises of tomorrow. Each touch I feel is cold and unlovable. As I struggle across this room I edge myself to my end and to pleasure of my own death. To my own suicide.’
Valentine rose ready to make his final mark. The Author’s War book wrote itself the final chapter and a dagger appeared from the book and floated towards Valentine. He grabbed it in midair and threw it down as it slide across towards me.
“Do you know why the soul breaker wants you to commit suicide? When you take your own life it is the greatest thing for us to achieve. It plants the seeds of despair and pain upon others. The depression, the pain, and the torture grows like a weed inside of you and to the others that loved you.”
I tripped onto the floor and the bag I was carrying skated towards two meters from Valentine’s feet. The bag opened itself by because of the fall. I crawled towards the dagger thinking that all of my life was too much and that that I created from my pen was destroyed. I grabbed hold of the dagger and held it to my chest. I had tears coming down from my eyes looking at Valentine. He was almost having tears of joy at watching pleasure of my own self destruction.
“The weeds won’t harm anyone for I have always been alone by myself all this time. How did the weeds affect me?” I asked him in a complete daze viewing thousands of images and visions of my life gone by. Pain and despair of my childhood and the struggles in my life. I feel on my side in the same position that Witness has predicted that I would be in holding the dagger to my chest.
“Your mother’s suicide touched deep inside your soul and ripped you apart. To have her say he would live for you and conquer her demons and then take her life only days would have shattered any soul. The love of a child was not enough for her to live. That’s where the seeds grew from and slowly over time you broke down to pieces and here you can. You tried and you failed. Now fulfill the war’s end. Take the dagger and end it all. Feed my thirst give me your heart and soul. Let me win the war,”
Just I started to push the dagger through my chest and the blood was dripping down from me. The bag started to glow and a box appeared inside and a white glow appeared shinning up to the roof. Through my pain and depression I tried hard to see what it was and whispered to myself, “It’s the music box that the weather element Ice was given. The beacon of love and hope, and of all goodness. That was Wizard’s final gift to me. How did he find? How did know I would did it now in my deepest despair,” I wondered to myself.
The music box shot a ray of light towards me and Valentine was frozen in time as I disappeared from the tower into a unknown world. I appeared in a small forest of where light came through the green tees as a young girl appeared beside me smiling at me. I didn’t know at first who it was.
“Am I am dead now. Is the darkness in my mind gone now?” I asked her.
“No, you’re in a happy place for now. The music box only comes alive when you reach the lowest when you really need to be shown what you really need to see,” she answered me as the lights reflected off the trees and her.
“Chisa? The young bakery girl. Of all the people I see now. Why you?”
She appeared in her bakery outfit smiling as I saw her friend Norwin an oversized cow hiding behind the trees looking sad with a tear rolling his eye.
“Because I’m someone who knows what happiness is and where the light is all the time. The darkness is really a bad place to be in but maybe if I can help you and show you how far you have come than maybe you won’t see some badly. I maybe the last character you ever write about. My happiness comes from nothing because if there is no reason to be happy than someone or something can’t take that away from you so I can find it somewhere in my heart. But I know that is too hard for you to understand. Look how far you have come and look at what you created. Hope and dreams in your characters that you too have too. You have done your dreaming and conquering by your pen but have you ever thought so by your real life?” Chisa asked me.
“I never thought of it that way. But you can’t tell how hard my life is. No one understands expect for me<” I told her.
“That’s true. That’s why I found the perfect person to talk too. Here he is,” Chisa replied turning around in the forest.
I slowly stood up with the dagger in my hand and saw a younger figure come towards myself. My eyes lit up in pain and amazement, “My god it’s me. It’s me when I was young.” I cried confused and stressed.
He came up to me and looked at me in the eyes. I leaned down to see myself in the past. My age back then must been ten years old. When I first start writing.
“There is so much I have to tell you. What your life will be like and what hardships there is to follow,” I told him kneeing down to my younger self’s height.
My younger self placed his hands on my should and tossed his head at me, “Please tell me where in the timeline where I wrote of joy and had adventures with a King and Wizard to a broken man holding a knife to kill himself. Where in time did you break down? Where in time you think like our mother did? Haven’t you seen what happens in your past and make sure time doesn’t repeat itself?”
I cried to myself with tears and smiled to my younger self, “I have asked myself that every day and I don’t know. I truly don’t know. I tried so hard just like her. Took my darkness and my depression a day at a time, a hour at a time, a minute at a time and I was cut a million times by my depression and bleed my hopes and joys dry. I didn’t let you down. I swear to all book I wrote. I swear on everything that I did my hardest to keep my head up high where everything around me was burning in our childhood.”
“I can see the future of our life but I won’t remember when I go back to my time. The touch of her, her coldness and stiffness where you found her dead is a fixed point in your life. Where you had a parent who loved you but was clouded by her illness, by her own soul breaker and yet here we are at the crossroads. He is ready to take your life and put you where she is now. Remember when we were young and we wrote about dream and ideas, hopes and desire to have a better life. That power is your hands. I don’t have that. I am still a child and yes I will have a hard childhood but you have control. You have the ability to change all of that. Please don’t make a childhood a waste of time. Please don’t disallow my stories to be told because you gave up. Please don’t do to us.” My younger self snobbed into me.
I hugged myself where I saw Chisa crying as the leaves were turning black. Valentine’s frozen in time spell was running out. I looked back at myself again and rubbed my own cheek, “I’ve seen the path and I know what does to people. Suicide causes so much destruction. But doesn’t it hurt you when you need family the most they weren’t there for you? When all was burning none of them were there. I didn’t want anything in martial or of anything else. I wanted someone…I just wanted a family to love me and be there for me when I needed them the most but we never had it. We never had it. Why? Was I that unloveable? Was I too much of a burden to them, was she too much of a burden to them? Couldn’t they have just been there when I was taken in by the government? They took me away. How am I supposed to live with that knowing what they did to me?” I asked my younger self.
“Those questions won’t be answered if you do this to yourself. Maybe they were in pain too over her loss and the struggles in your adulthood can be healed too. Those stories are yet to be written but the question I ask of you. Is will you promise me to write the rest of the chapters of your life and not let it end here? I know how powerful Valentine is and I know he’s taken many lives all around this world but we won’t let him this time. We can defeat him, we know how he conquers souls. You must be strong, you must strengthen your soul and heart by words that will touch you and will fill you of joy and understanding. Promise me. Don’t let my suffering in my childhood be a waste in the end,” he asked of me.
The last few lines struck me deep inside me and I turned to the falling leaves on the trees. I lifted my head upwards to the lights that came over me and I smiled to himself for a moment.
“I will fight for us. I will fight Valentine and I will conquer my darkness. Take me back to where I belong. Let me conquer what I need to. I have fought too long to end it all here. Take me back now and let me finish my battle with the soul breaker and destroy the Author’s Book War. I will write the chapters to my life and not him,” I told my younger self.
“Thank you from someone who knows you best,” said my younger self as he turned into a light and floated away with the lights coming down over the forest trees.
Chisa turned to me smiling, “I hope the music is playing inside you again. I hope to truly meet you one day,” she replied.
The forest disappeared and I reappeared on the floor back into the same position that I was before pushing the dagger inside of me and Valentine watching over me. The dark visions was starting to disappear bit by bit and Valentine smiled upon me.
“Push deeper into you soul. I can feel it coming to me. The war is ending. Let your suffering end now,” he commanded of me.
I rose to my feet with a light in my eyes. I could see clearly and looked at Valentine the dark author holding it out the dagger to my side and dropping it to the ground. Valentine gave me a disgusting look on his face.
“There is light inside of you. What happened? Don’t you turn to that light! Look at your life and all it reads is misery and pain. End it now and write the final chapters of your life.”
“No. I have come too far and I fought too hard to give up now. You were once like me. A writer who was giving into the dark side of one’s mind but look at you now. You went beyond suicide and grew into this monster taking other lives and finding joys in the sickest things possible. Thisw time you won’t let do this to me. I will fight you now,” I said holding up Wizard’s wand and I held out the shield that the Silver Knight gave me. Symbols started to appear on it. They were the weather elements of the element brothers who had passed away.”
Valentine grinned his teeth towards me and the Author’s War Book turned dark and black in anger over my strong decision, “If you won’t take your own life, I take it off of you!” he roared as he stretched out his hand unleashed a almighty beam of dark magic towards me as I shot a beam of power back towards him with the wand. I danced around the room with him in the moments of terror. I moved the shield thinking a weather element and shot of fire and ice came out from it across hitting the book on its stand. I held up the shield in the air above my head and saw the power of wind and I flew up in the air attack Valentine with the wand. We continued to dance on the floor as I edged myself closer to the war book. The book that tried to take my life. Valentine pushed his dark magic towards me as I gave a shot of electricity and water at him frying him as he fell to the ground. I smashed the shield down to the ground as a earthquake started to rumble in the tower as the papers were turning to blood papers floating around in the as I grabbed the dagger and turned towards the Author’s War book.
“You can’t kill it. I never could myself. If you look inside it. You will show you all your pain a million times over!” Valentine shouted from the ground towards me.
The war book unleashed its full power around me trying to pull me into it’s darkness. I dropped the wand and shield in the shock of it all. Clawing my the short distance up the stand up to the book was the hardest moment of all in the war. But I remember what I told myself all that time ago. Promise me to not give to its darkness. Don’t let the fighting of all these years come to waste. I struggled with the dagger as it hovered over the open Author’s War book. It showed me vision images of all my dark past and despair. Taking a number of breathes I tried my hardest to block the images of pain out of my mind and remember the light and remembered the times that I fought against my depression. I struck the dagger into the war book it shattered into millions of pieces. The entire roof of the tower in a unbelievable explosive shots of rays of light. Valentine watched on with fear as the rays of light came on me. I turned around to see the damaged airship carrier coming towards the tower.
“Let me write chapters of my life. Show my characters here before me and let me walk with them at the end of this war. Let those who do not know me across the universe of time and space forget that this war ever happened but only remembered by those who were written by my hand and by my pen.” I shouted up to the light as I wrote in the final chapter to the war book as fall to pieces and was destroyed at last. I dropped to my knees as Valentine ran up to me jumped over me. We roll down the small platform onto the middle of the throne room grabbing on to each other’s necks. The two author’s in the war. Valentine saw the light sky and The ThunderDragon resting at the end of the room on the roof top watching us. I rushed over to grab the wand and shield as Valentine fired weaken shots of dark magic at me. I collected them and turned around and fired back as hard as I could. My characters appeared through the doors: Chisoutsa, King Lion, Percy Cyber, Roger, Levi, Walter, Duncan, Cody, Lucas, Jasper, Daniel and Hayden, and the Commander watching on. They loaded their swords, crossbow, magical staffs, scanners, and guns towards Valentine. I pushed my way towards the group as he knocked Valetine to the ground and clawed my way back to ghe group of characters as I stood up in the middle of them pointing the wand as they held their guard against him too. Valentine pushed himself up and unleashed a final beam of dark magic towards the group. Together we fired our weapons towards the dark author and his power was finally finished.
“I lost the war and you have won. I may have died here today but somewhere in this world pain and sorrow who haunt the many sad souls. You know that. You may have taken the first step towards the light but you even you know how hard the road is. You may fall later and let me live again,” Valentine reminded myself and all the characters.
“Not me. I will remember what you did to me and everyone else. I will take my illness a day at a time and a step at a time. I don’t fear you anymore because I hit the bottom and I know where the end is. I have seen it with my own eyes and that is why I think I will win in the end,” I replied to him.
“You have won the Author’s War. The book is destroyed and so my ghost will part ways,” Valentine cried as he fell to the ground smashing himself into thousands of pieces. I leaned down dropping the wand and the shield as everyone came around me.
“The war is over isn’t it?” King Lion asked me.
“The war is over King Lion. I lose myself but I found myself in the end and he told many good things to think about. It’s time to return the planets back to where they belong and fix everything to where they are supposed to be. I am very sorry to have dragged everyone into this. I am sorry for all the pain,” I told everyone.
“We felt a lot of your pain because of the connection we have with you. When we lose the people we did during the war, it was those parts of your soul was being stripped of you. I’m just happy that we came through this and that we have learnt something in this all. There are many good people around whatever world we visit. We all share the common bond of looking after each other and to protect the world from the threats of evil and darkness. From the outside to the inside of us all,” King Lion noted to me.
I smiled to them all, “I guess in some ways I’ve just been talking to myself this entire war seeming parts of you are related as the writer,” I said as they started walking out of the tower.
“Well you are not short and fat like I am so I no idea what connection we have,” pipped up Duncan.
“We both hate waiting too long for things. Always wanting to do stuff. That’s what we share,” I answered.
“Well there you go,” Duncan replied.
We walked away from the tower to return to the airship carrier to end this day. For new days to come.
A week had past and I asked a request from the Time Cruiser to go to another universe for what could be a lunch meet up after all that taken place after the war. Myself, Percy, Roger, Daniel, Vincent Lamour, Chisoutsa and Lucas decided to come this place. We were walking down a small town villa in the market place where I pointed out a small bakery store for them.
“This is one place I’ve wanted to visit if I had the choice. For me this always a peaceful place to be in this world,” I said to them all.
We arrived at the store and I noticed the oversized cow munching on some cupcakes outside of the store. Vincent patted the top of his head smiling at him.
“He’s cute cow this one. Very friendly ins’the. What’s is name?’ he asked.
“Norwin. Just a lucky guess I think,” I joked to Vincent.
We came inside and I saw the bakery sisters of Chisa making meals and Chisa from the forest was there, “Hey! Would you like some nice hot pies? We are nearly done making them today?” she asked me.
“Yes, that would be nice,” I answered.
We all sat down and there was a silence between while we waited for the meals. There was mutual understanding between us as we knew how each other was feeling about the war. There was much lose that they all had but this was a new day and this was the first step on the road to recovery.
“Everything changes with us now. Chisoutsa and my life won’t be the same. How long will it take for the wounds to heal?” Lucas ask the group.
“As long as it needs to be. It is always hard when these things happen. In my time I learnt that taking in the good and leaving out the bad can help,” Vincent answered Lucas.
“With Wizard gone I’ve been thinking it might be time for me to retire from battles and dealing with every mess that comes by. I’m too old for this now,” King Lion noted to me.
“Wizard never had his retirement so he would be happy for you. I know the rest of the Legomen will be crushed without him. He was a mentor to everyone,” I said to him.
Chisa came up with a two large plates of hot pies with big smile on her face. Roger and Chisoutsa looked at Chisa with a funny look and took a couple pies each. Roger bit into one and raised his eyebrows, “This tastes very good. The meat is soft and good.”
“Thanks! We also have cheese ones too!”
“I’ll have one of them!” Daniel Phoenix asked her.
I lean over to Chisa to ask her something, “Do you remember being in a forest with me? Was my question.
“No I don’t but I do visit it many times with Norwin. Maybe I might see you there one day!” she answered happily heading off to find the pie for Daniel.
Vincent poured some drinks of water to everyone and looked at Daniel, “You know our small chats in the café I would have never thought this would be the outcome for us. I never thought we would uncover a war coming to us all. It’s more exciting than being a teacher or what’s the name they call us now Chris? Educator, that’s the one. They always like to change terms and after all the years I’ve lived it does confuse me,”
“You know we haven’t solved everything. Umezu is missing, Charles is in a coma and Cody was in trouble for breaking laws in the Commander’s world,” Chisoutsa reminded the group.
“He’ll find his way back and I’m sure your friend will come back soon. As for my son, I think I can twist their arm to fix his problem,” Percy noted.
“What about the ThunderDragon. Is he fine and good?” Roger asked Lucas.
“He’s feeling better now that weather has not been affected. He is alone now but I believe it won’t be the last time we will see him. I think this war changed him like it did with us,” Lucas remarked.
“How was your anxiety during all of this?” I asked Daniel.
“How do you know? Oh I should have remembered. It was pretty bad during the ending there. I guess I get that from you. I understand everyone will be taking a short holiday after this?” Daniel replied to everyone as Chisa appeared again with cheese pie.
“Well until you see that alien child again right?” I said to Daniel.
“Until he appears again I’ll take a break.”
King Lion stood up and looked at everyone, “Let’s make a small toast to our success and wish each other good luck to their future and their lives. As we have learnt that everyday requires you only take it a moment at a time. No worrying about the day before or tomorrow. I wish everyone hope and understand and I wish you all well. It’s the first step for everyone after this no it doesn’t mean you have conquered anxiety or depression or any fears and doubts that you may have. Like I said before it’s only the first big step towards a better day.
When I started leading the Legomen I had many fears and anxiety about taking control of my life. I feared that I was going to fail and run from the chance to lead then. It was Wizard who turned me around and showed me that even leaders make mistakes. To our future, we may be different but we are one too,” King Lion announced holding up his drink.
Everyone toasted their drinks together and we sat to have our pies together. The sister sat in the back. The oldest sister handed over something to Chisa, “Look what I found Chisa, it’s a cute little music box I found. You can have it. You have worked well and Norwin has behaved very well Do you get this feeling you already know these people” she asked Chisa.
Chisa opened up the music box to hear a charming sound come out of it, “Yeah I get that feeling too.” She said smiling up to her sisters and looking at the group. Today was a good day for me.
