Doomed to Die in 3 Minutes

The Curtain Falls

Just one minute. I need to hold on for dear life for sixty seconds.

Just f**k around and keep the show going long enough to finishing queueing for a popular online game on a weekday. Or enough time to microwave some cheap instant food and then chew and swallow some unhealthy deliciousness. So, please just don’t go for the city and chase after…!

“GRRROOUUUAAGGGGHHHUUUU!”

Fuck. I just needed you to do one f*****g thing for me!

Was that so hard? To follow the pretty lights you moronic monster?

The metal dickhead is advancing towards the city. i***t! Out of sight doesn’t mean out of mind!

Oh, geez. C’mon…! Do I have to get back up into its face? I’ve done enough, haven’t I?

 I risked my life against something that can turn me to dust with one finger for two whole minutes. Who else can say that? Not many, right? 

The hulking mess of scrap is slowly undoing all the effort I put in to drag it away from there!

Aaaaaahhhhhh! Okay. It’ll go on a rampage for just one minute. If we’re lucky it’ll only destroy maybe half the city? Then it’ll… probably turn into dust or mana or something. That way… ah man, what if it leaves a body? What if it just collapses in the middle of the streets and crushes everyone! No! That’d be horrible…! Please just… agh!

“Help!”

Hundreds of voices all yelling just one word. My body begins to sweat and my heart begins to pulsate and pump blood faster than I have ever felt before.

This sucks. It’s horrible. My hands and feet are moving on their own while my brain is screaming at me to stop and play dead. I’m so stupid! Sure it’s not like those people are strangers but for me to risk my life for them? I don’t know them that well… so why the hell am I flying back to my death! That dance is done… but it seems I’ve got to perform an encore!

My clones and I return as fast as I can fly them.

They have no substance besides looking real but it’s better to have them then not to have them. Alright. One more bag of tricks. Another card up my sleeve. Just gotta pull it out of my ass somehow. I’ve got to act harder than anyone has ever acted before. Maybe hamming it up would be for the best.

“How dare you insult me with your brazen and bloodthirsty behaviour! Are you prepared to pay the price for your arrogance? Ignoring the Demon Khan… the Saviour of Shadow Zelo… shall cost you your pitiful life!”

Ignore the fact I ran away and tried to hide. Thankfully no one but me will be able to tell the difference. Hurray...

I can hear my own heartbeat drumming in my ears. Okay. I have an idea.

The crowd has seen it once already but this Terror hasn’t. I have to pray to every god and goddess that it works. Hell, if a demon is listening, I’ll give you a piece of the prize, alright?

“I need all of you in the audience to clap your hands! Stomp their feet! Bang your drums! Pots and pans would work too! Just make as much noise as possible! Do this and I promise no evil shall befall you!” I begin spamming the amplify spell into the crowd.

There’s a dead silence for three seconds that feels like minutes as my fakes are being wiped out of existence by wide clawed swings from an increasingly pissed off kaiju. s**t, this is it then. I’m dead. So is everyone else. I knew I wasn’t cut out to be a hero. I finally find a little courage… a way to bite back and I won’t even be able to enjoy it. I sigh. I’m not even frustrated. This was as far as I was meant to go. It’s the end of the line for-

Even amplified by my spells the sounds were relatively faint. I almost thought I was just hearing what I wanted to hear but slowly I was sure. There was clapping from tiny little hands.

Small taps of toddler-sized feet. A banging of a pot and ladle. Then in full force the high shrill screams of young boys and girls. “Take him down!” “Go away you ugly sicko monster!”

“Demon Khan! You can do it!”

I start to blush and feel the heat in my body bubble. It’s so embarrassing that they are taking this so seriously. It’s so cliche. It makes me want to… play even more!

“This is the requiem to your doom! King of Terrors! Here I come!”

I raise my right hand into the air and the pieces of the false dragon assemble and reform into their pretty but useless art piece. I separate myself from the illusions head and then… bury my fist into its jaw and pull back my fist.

The Storm Dragon Nebula was now one with my right hand. My fist had become the storm itself. A living dragon of malevolent raging force. At least that’s what it looked like.

The crowd began to roar with their hearts. They clapped in every possible way that hands could move to create a shockwave. Praying and applauding for salvation with nervous, desperate and excited smiles on their faces. At this point they have to have figured it out, this is mostly a show.

It’s all fake. Yet the stakes are very real. I think though… even if they know that… they are hoping I’m just the greatest showman alive. That’s something to look forward to if I pull this off.

Alright. Preparations complete. The monster looks towards me with a look of exhausted rage. It wanted to get rid of me as soon as possible. I was a pest and just a noisy little mosquito singing into its ears. It pulled back its right arm preparing for one massive swipe of its claw.

This moment probably looks super badass from outside right now. David and Goliath ready to duke it out with their fists, plus um claw and uh fake storm dragon thing.

Whatever, if it isn’t broken don’t fix it. 

Don’t sweat the details. Here’s the closing act.

“Cast! Amplify. Lava Pillar. Quake. Flood. Tornado. Multiply. Lightning. Hail. Darken the Sky! Ray of Hope! Float! Geyser of Power! Multiply!”

Lava erupted out of the earth in the gap between them. Plumes of molten orange ascended from the core of the planet into the void of space! Then more began to pop out of just about everywhere!

Tornadoes were birthed from whispers! The land cracked and water spilt out like fountains at a waterpark! The drops that fell back to the ground began to surge outwards as if rivers that whole civilizations could live by were being brought to life in a matter of milliseconds.

The skies transitioned from day to night. Yet it was as if the world had been put through a filter and covered with the thinnest possible layer of black yet see-through fabric.

The monster was being bombarded with these world-ending sights and had no idea what was going on. Nothing could have this much power. Nothing but a god.

As if to answer the cobbled thought in the mind of the beast, a beam of light parted the dark clouds and showered the Saviour in Shadow with its love.

The ruckus that is being masterfully crafted by the audience then picked up in pitch and pounded out in volume. Their voices were one. Their frantic fingers and furious feet were the drums of war. The march of those who had gripped onto courage in the face of death. A stampede.

Booming with loving madness the audience were placing all their hopes into the unlikely and sudden hero they knew was just an ordinary actor. A man who played the villain because he wasn’t good at being a hero.

Yet right now, at this moment he shined like no one any of them had seen before.

For the Terror, all of this was almost too much.

The broken physics of Corai’s magic had created all these unnatural phenomena and it was being assaulted by visual and auditory experiences it had never been built to even comprehend let alone endure.

It wasn’t as intelligent as many other monsters and it was having a hard time putting it all together. Why were these things it knew that would be the death of most beings doing here… how were they being there without actually doing anything?

Its eyes fixed onto the origin of the insanity.

The creature decided that the simplest way out of this situation was the best one.

It opened its jaws wide and lifted both arms and threw its head and claws towards the floating figure with a dragon by its side, acting out of fury and a lack of understanding rather than any idea of strategy or response to all of this. Corai began to curse and panic inside with one hundred times the frequency and ferocity then he had at the lowest point of his life.

He was hoping to buy a bit more time with the light show. He quickly glanced at the timer that was on his hand. A bead of sweat dripped from his brow. He clenched his teeth.

00:12

Just twelve seconds and it would all be over.

He had used a lot of mana. An insane amount really. He wasn’t sure if he could dodge this.

Then that small doubt solidified. The two claws had moved at such speeds they had formed a vacuum with their swiping motions that he was being pulled towards the open and gaping jaws of oblivion.

00:10

His first instinct was to try to drop his body by dispelling float but if he did he’d no doubt fall to his death. His float spell had many disadvantages associated with it due to his unique condition. He was terrified. It seemed like it was all over.

The crowd held their breaths. Corai’s fellow performers had balled their fists so hard their knuckles were white. Some people had begun to lay down and pray with their eyes tightly closed.

00:07

Then it hit him. There was one way to buy the last few seconds he needed.

All he had to do was not run. He had to attack. He needed to strike right here and now!

“Typhoon God Dragon Fist!” He laughed as he yelled a bullshit attack name and chose to funnel the last bits of mana he had into his float spell one more time.

00:05

He accelerated himself towards the blood coloured mouth and the yellow fangs.

He had thrown himself into the literal jaws of the beast which closed from surprise rather than a predatory instinct. The stench was nearly unbearable but Corai didn’t bother to hold his breath or nose. He gripped his fingers into the walls of flesh with every ounce of power he could.

00:03

The Terror had no idea what to do. Had it succeeded? The mortal had disappeared by feeding itself to it. Surely that meant it had won. Such primitive thoughts flooded the brain of the beast.

Corai smiled inside the den of moist heat. This was his victory. He saw the last digit of the magic clock on his hand drop from 2 to 1 and then to 0.

In the last critical moment, the coward had found his courage and leapt with a brave heart into the face of death and spat on it.

00:00

The monster tumbled back. Its mouth let out a single large gasp for air.

Corai flew out immediately with an exhausted but satisfied smile plastered across his lips.

The titan gurgled. Its muscles spasmed and its body began to fall back towards the torn earth before. Its heart had ripped its own veins apart and exploded.

If there was for some reason a doctor who would perform an autopsy on this colossus they would conclude the following… death by a heart attack.

A thick cloud of brown dust flew from the spot the monster had fallen upon, the earth rattled for just a few seconds before becoming calm. The citizens of the city barely felt a thing.

The Saviour in Shadow rose a bloody fist into the air.

He was dirty and covered in saliva but even so… he looked marvellous.

His spells came undone. The sounds of a whole city faded away.

Lava and water returned whence they came. Twisters poofed into light breezes.

Meaningless vibrations ceased to be. The skies returned to a natural blue.

“Show’s over folks!”

The crowd applauded harder than they had ever done in their entire lives and would never again do so to such a degree. This was the greatest show they would ever see.