Where The Dead Ones Go Book 4 -Union-

The Second Fall... My friends were falling in battle one by one... Burning skies and bleeding earth... My beloved comrades were fading away... Was that only a dream? A nightmare born from the fears of my mind or a reality that I will soon have to face? Can that be the end of everything after all the sacrifices that we've made to reach that point? Are my friends truly gone? Even myself? I heard a creaking wooden door opening and gentle footsteps coming closer to where I am right now. A labored breathing and gentle trembling hand were touching my face with the utmost care and fondness... I dared to open my eyes, and after a split second of blurriness, everything slowly became apparent. I see a worn-out wooden ceiling and a frail and familiar boy looking down on me with utmost wonder and joy. "Gala..." His faint voice brought back a flood of memories in my mind and heart as tears began to well in my eyes while I reached out for his face and touched it softly to make sure he is real. "Vaski?" He then cried out loud when he heard me call out his name and tried to smile despite himself, "Yes, Gala. It's me. You're awake, finally." "Vaski..." "I waited for so long. Far too long to see you open your eyes again. Gala, I missed you so much!" I blinked my eyes and took a deep breath as I tried to look around the small and decrepit room we are in. It is bare and falling apart with only makeshift planks for a table, flint for making fire, and an everlasting candle. I can hear the soft crashing of the waves from outside as I returned my gaze to the face I never thought I will ever see again. "Vaski, I feel like I have been sleeping for a long time..." He nodded and tried to wipe his tears away with his uncharacteristically bony arm, "Yes. Far too long." Vaski then looked at the wooden wall beside the bed I am lying in and there, I see countless tally marks using the flint seemingly to count the days. "Three hundred and sixty-nine days to be exact, Gala. A year since I have brought you here..." "Here? Where are we? What happened? Where are our friends? The last time I remembered, we are fighting to defend the hearth!" But he shook his head sadly and stopped me from rising from the surprisingly soft bed that I just realized is made of pure white cotton sewn haphazardly to resemble a comforter. I felt a sudden weakness as I fell on his waiting arms while he carefully lay me down once more, "It has been far too long since you are conscious, Gala. Stay put, please. I will get you something to drink." I followed his instructions and didn't try to move at all as I looked at his back while he took a wooden cup and seemingly out of nowhere without any source of water, he returned to me with a glass full of liquid that he helped me drink for my parched throat. To my surprise, it tastes so pure and clean. Fresh and energy-giving that gave back my strength magically. "Thank you, Vaski. I feel great!" He looked at me with awe as I rise once more from the bed and stand up before him as if I haven't slept for a year. "How long have I waited for this very moment, Gala," he cried out as he gazed at me full of hope and pride, "It is as if nothing happened at all to you." I looked around the small room as I hear the soft crashing of the waves nearby, "Where are we, Vaski?" "Within the Scythian Emirate continent, or what was supposed to be the emirate. I heard it is now called the Gondwana Continent by the survivors..." "Survivors?" He then looked at me sadly, "We lost, Gala." "Lost?" "The world has ended..." -0- I can only fall on my knees as I finally stepped out of our makeshift shack. The skies are bathed in red light, and the sun is seemingly permanently setting, stuck in time, and unmoving. Only a bloody ocean can be seen as far as my eyes can see, and not even the wind is blowing. Stagnant and still. The deities have been defeated. No... They have been wiped out from the face of Tiera without a trace. Typhon has vanquished them after our last stand at the viceroyalty. Vivet, Taurei, Rebie, Eonia, Estelle, Morris and Clite... All gone. She died, saving us with the last of their strengths. "There is a great upheaval the moment the deities was vanquished. The land shifted, the skies bloodied and fire rained down from the heavens. The Almorican Desert sank deep into the ground and seawater flooded in transforming the emirate into a continent separated from the rest..." I closed my eyes and cried out loud when I heard what he said, "What happened to the magistracy?" "From what I heard from the last Pagosian I saw months ago passing by, it and the viceroyalty collided in cataclysmic event shortly after the fall and formed a supercontinent they now called Laurasia. Anoixi fractured and turned into an archipelago they call Luzviminda. Cretonia suffered the same fate as Scythia. Its landmass severely reduced and flung southward and formed what is now called Pangaea. Tiera is as we know it is gone, Gala..." "No..." Vaski just looked at his bony hands and tried to smile a little, "Hundreds of millions of dead, civilization ended in a single day and night of upheaval and the survivors eke out lives in small settlements scattered throughout the wilderness to avoid the rampant monsters that took the place of human as dominant species in Gearth." "Where is Typhon?" "At the central island in the middle of the ocean where Olympus was located. He is staying there as he enjoys the suffering of the remaining mortals as he sent out his monsters to finish any settlement, he can find for past time..." I just cried out quietly when I finally realized that everything my friends have sacrificed was all for naught. All the things that we've been through, we braved it all and stand with our head held up high, yet still, nothing came out good for it. Why?