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Frederic's hands were trembling. Perhaps from adrenaline, perhaps from the heavy wounds he sustained, perhaps from the sight of Beat, barely moving, on the ground - but most definitely from battle fury and frustration as he stared at the figures still standing in front of him.
He didn't understand. It was all so overwhelming - his senses and thoughts dizzied him. Why were they still here? What were they looking for in this empty landscape of red, scorched earth? Couldn't they see that the end was near? Why had they accepted fighting him? Why were they fighting?...
"That's it, you're gonna get it!"
Alerted, Frederic barely stumbled out of the way of Allegretto's swinging sword. He heard the boy growl as the blade stuck firmly into the ground, cracks spreading from where it had hit. At the same time, Frederic felt something inside of him cracking and splintering as well.
With a suddenness and a force that surprised even the dying composer himself, Frederic backhanded Allegretto fiercely as he tried to retrieve his sword. Allegretto stumbled to the ground, stunned. "You do not understand," the magician murmured, and he closed his eyes, as if hating the very sight of his opponents. His baton - which had definitely seen better days - fell from his hands as he stepped away, quite visibly shaking, and began tracing a large sigil in the air.
"This entire world is my dream." Each word was louder than the last. A note of panic and fear was audible. Frederic's head spun even more as magical patterns filled his mind, his thoughts becoming a whirlwind without reason. "None of you are real. You can't be. Darkness surrounds me - have I not made it clear enough?!" His hands shook some more as the space in front of him came alight. A single tear slipped down his cheek as the spell completed itself, and now he was wailing, out of control: "There is no one else! I am the only one here! - APPLAUDISSEMENT SONIQUE!!" At his command, an unearthly howling and dark red glow spread quickly from Frederic's hands, and it began to rain.
"Polka!" As he heard the youth's voice, Frederic opened his eyes, dark threads of insanity in his gaze. He saw Allegretto give up his sword. He saw him dashing over to the young girl. He saw him reach her side, stand in front of her, try to shield her somehow -
CRACK. A blinding bolt of lightning, full of pent-up anger, ignited the air where they stood. The resulting thunderclap sounded more like a small explosion. Allegretto and Polka - had been struck down.
So, of course, neither of them noticed the abnormality in the spell as it continued raining.
As streams of water ran steadily down his body, thoroughly soaking his ruffled clothes, Frederic slowly regained his senses. This… isn't right. He flexed his fingers, attempting to call off the supernatural event, to no avail. Now, he became aware that there was no energy in his limbs: not a single drop of magic was left to close even the smallest of his wounds. All of a sudden, the injuries he had accumulated during the battle caught up to him. Frederic collapsed to his knees. He was, at last, painfully aware of everything around him.
My magic? But… he idly shifted his gaze to the two forms on the ground, and then an iron claw of regret gripped him.
"Allegretto," he rasped. "Polka." With great effort, Frederic stumbled and crawled over to his two friends. Rain and tears blurred his vision, but he saw clearly that there was no movement from them.
He took Polka's small hand gently, another pang of misery striking him as he closed his eyes and imagined himself clutching Emilia's hand. "There was no way for you to stop my relentless advance…" What have I done?
Frederic pressed her hand to his heart and stayed there, body hunched and head bowed. Dark despair enveloped him, and time no longer passed for him. He couldn't feel the rain letting up and coming to a stop, he couldn't see the ruined landscape crumbling, and he couldn't tell as everything around him faded away and vanished like smoke, until his own soul was falling, falling into a dark abyss, and only in his last moments he tasted, quite purely, the żal that had been his whole existence…