Chapter Text
“Esteban! Hurry up!”
He barely heard Zia's voice through the rumble of walls crashing down, cracks growing with every motion of the solar engine. Another pillar shattered, broken into pieces by the tremors, and the golden stone fell down the endless void beneath their feet.
“Quick! The City's about to collapse! We've got no time!”
She was trying to shout as loud as possible, so that her voice could reach Esteban who still hadn't moved. In her hands, the reliquary weighed heavily, and she wouldn't be able to wait forever. Any second now, the City's engine would start shaking again, and they could all get tossed overboard.
Yet Esteban didn't seem to care. He was still unmoving, his whole body shivering, facing the dark silhouette before him. His face was still bleeding, his hands were clenched, and breathing hurt more than before. Even if he had wanted to run away, he couldn't.
In front of him, Zares's fallen body was slowly getting up. Under his windswept hood, Ambrosius's treacherous face was staring at him, his aged traits twisted by spite and an attempt at a sinister smirk, as if he wanted to keep the upper hand till the end. His robes were torn, the broken exoskeleton visible underneath, gears still tinkering as he was trying to raise his arms, step up, yet failed. And that scoundrel's tampered voice then sounded out to Esteban's ears, in a deep and bone-chilling laugh that felt to him like an electric shock.
“Are you going to kill me, Esteban?”, the traitor sneered, as if to provoke him. “Will you kill me to avenge your kind?”
Esteban was seething with rage, his eyes still hazy with tears. His hand was clenched around his dagger, shaking like a leaf. He didn't know what to do, he didn't know whether to follow that voice in his head that told him to act, to step forward and gouge out that monster's eyes. He didn't know anything anymore, for all the revelations he's been told were clashing in his mind, without he could do anything.
“I know you want it.”, Ambrosius kept going in a distorted voice. “You'd become a hero, wouldn't you? The hero that slayed the sorcerer, the knight triumphing over the monster!”
“Shut up!”
The ground shook again, the golden tiles shattering under the force. All around them, the city of Lohikaarm was slowly crumbling to pieces, its wings and thrusters falling little by little into the cloudy depths. If the engine that kept it afloat were to break, then they'd all go down that same path: if they weren't killed by the explosion, then the fall into the ocean would break their bones like glass. They had to run, they had to avoid destruction, they had to survive like they've done six times before. Esteban knew he had to turn around, and meet Zia and Tao in the Condor.
But he didn't want to run. He didn't have the strength. All he had ever done was ending here and now, all should have found its answer and its end. But because of that sorcerer, that monster, he'd never have it. And the frustration of his reward being snuck away right under his nose was filling him with rage, with anger, and with ideas so dark that he'd likely give them way.
His fingers clenched over his dagger.
“Shut up!”, he repeated, voice worn down by crying. “You've got nowhere to run, Ambrosius. Don't you see it? The last City of Gold is no more! Your experiment has failed! Why are you still trying?”
And all he got from him was another laugh. A sardonic, chilling laugh that haunted his mind.
“My experiment was nothing!”, he claimed, trying to stand back up. “Anyone could recreate the solar stone, if they have the blueprints. There will always be other alchemists with my determination, someone who will pick up my work.”
He wanted to stand, but his exoskeleton was too damaged, and he fell back on the ground. Behind his broken glasses, he was staring at Esteban with a disgusting expression that made him look like a dirty rat.
“I can have all the solar stones I want, if I so wish it. But a people, my good Esteban...a people can't be replaced so easily! And no Pyramid of Mu will ever give you back your family!”
And he laughed even louder. A mean, mocking laughter, one of a man that didn't have anything left but sucker punches to feel above others. Esteban's throat tightened, and his heart hurt even more; pushed by pain, he started to shout, his voice louder even that Lohikaarm's roar, and his legs ran without he commanded them to. His hand clenched, and his blade swung in the air before falling down.
Ambrosius's laughter got cut short. Yet the echo remained, deformed and repeated on end by a broken modulator, and eventually the rumble of the engine covered it up.
Ambrosius looked at him, as if he weren't surprised by this end. He looked at his hand, at his glove now stained with blood, and at Esteban again. And his smile didn't wane.
“So...you've chosen to be the hero.”, he breathed, as if to mock him. “But it won't be so easy. You don't know...where you're going. Only I...only I knows what it'll cost you!”
Esteban looked him in the eyes. His face was streaked with tears and soot, and his hand was now stained with blood. His whole body was shaking, and he felt an inch away from fainting; but he fought it, pushed by the thrust of adrenaline that had invaded him.
“You and your secrets...”, he muttered, having no strength to talk. “You can take them to your grave!”
His foot rose, and hit the monster in the face. His blade was freed from its fleshy grip, and the alchemist stumbled backwards.
The next second, the engine exploded, and Lohikaarm split into pieces.
Swept away by the force, Esteban didn't even have time to protect his face. The blow of solar steam sent him backwards, tossing him about like a dead leaf, and the heat burned him all over. He wanted to scream in pain, in fear, in anything, but his voice wouldn't obey. He wasn't in control of anything now, he could only live the shock, the wind, the pain, the heat, the wrath that tossed and turned within him without he could voice any of them. He had no more voice, no more will. Nothing anymore that would be worth it.
Gravity caught him back, and he felt himself fall. His body was heavy, lashed by the wind that froze his skin, and he wasn't any more alive than any of the thousand orichalcum shards that were falling along with him, so many splinters of the now-destroyed airborne City. The seventh City of Gold, the seventh to be destroyed and take its secrets along. The one that should have brought him the answers he sought, but that he'd never have.
His eyes closed on their own, having no more strength to stay open. Esteban wanted nothing more but to give in to fatigue, to that tiredness that was gaining him, and to close his eyes to never open them again. But a familiar caw came to his ears, and before he knew it, he got caught in mid-air on the Condor's wings.
“I got him!”, Tao shouted. “Fly, Zia!”
The next second, the Golden Condor was rushing in the air, away from Lohikaarm, away from the explosion. Away from everything that happened there.
Esteban got sat down on his seat, a worried hand put to his forehead. He heard other confused voices, but couldn't open his eyes and put faces on them. He only wanted to sleep, sleep and never wake up again.
But things would never be so simple, he thought. As Zia was busying herself over his wounds, he managed to stand back up, to look around. Through the windshield, he could see smoking pieces of orichalcum falling towards the ice-cold ocean, so many remains of the once splendid City of Gold that'd be lost in the water, never to come back again. With a glance, he saw that he had indeed gotten his medallion back, and the reliquary they've found was now on a nearby seat.
And his hand was still stained with blood. Yet it was empty: he's likely dropped his dagger while falling.
“Ambrosius...”, he muttered, trying to gather himself.
“Ambrosius isn't here anymore, Esteban. Don't worry. Everything is alright.”
He wanted to ask questions, to protest, to get angry. But he didn't have the strength. So he simply nodded, and closed his eyes to give in to fatigue.
The Golden Condor landed a few hours later, on the coast where they left for the City. From here, nothing could tell of the catastrophe that had occurred, save for the clouds torn by the explosion like a hole in the sky.
That's how everything ends, Esteban thought. The end of their quest, already here.
Standing on the rocky shore, the three friends looked at the broken sky, without a word. There was so much to ask, so much to say, but for now, things were still too recent in their minds to dare wander there. The danger was still too present, keeping them on high alert without they could do anything; and they'd have given it all up in the moment, if they only knew how.
It was Tao that eventually broke the silence, after a long mute contemplation.
“What now?”, he wondered, asking the question they all feared. “We were supposed to unite the cities, right? How can we do that, now that they're destroyed?”
Esteban didn't know. He couldn't care less, to be honest. He looked at his hastily-wiped hand, thought back to Ambrosius's words. To the people trapped under the seas, that had waited for so long to see the light of day again, all to be lost forever.
That idea made him clench his fist, and he felt more tears rising to his eyes. He tried to wave them away, to raise his head.
“Now...we keep going.”, he said, trying to give them what they were expecting. “We've got a trail and we'll follow it. We...we'll keep going.”
“Are you sure?”, Zia asked. “You're in no state to keep going… I think we'll have to stop for now. It's not fair for you.”
“For none of us.”
They had good arguments. Esteban wanted to protest, to insist it didn't matter, but he didn't find the words. He was broken down, unable to reason against them.
He then felt Zia's arms wrap around them. There was a moment of hesitation, then Tao's joined as well. Esteban tried to push them away, to insist, but all his strength left him, and he gave in. His tears flowed, his sobs broke out, and he let out all the anger off his heart. Injustice, rage, vengeance had triumphed over the Child of the Sun, and the torn sky darkened with a storm.
Rain started to fall, wind started to blow. Yet the three friends still embraced, unable to move. The three of them had suffered so much over this journey, over these last few days, that going on felt less and less possible every second. Under the pouring rain, under Lohikaarm's invisible ruins, they had nothing left but the three of them to count on. And little by little, the three of them started to cry, moved by common suffering and the weight of everything they've lived.
The roar of thunder came closer, threatening to pierce the sky with its lightning. Frightened, Pichu hid away in Tao's shirt, breaking their embrace somewhat. Yet it made the three teens come back to reality, to their situation.
Zia wiped tears off the corner of her eye, and raised a hand. The rain then pushed away, running off them over an invisible barrier that acted like a makeshift umbrella. Esteban raised his head, and seemed to just now notice how cold he was, even though his skin was still burned from the solar explosion. Tao wrapped his shivers with his long sleeves, giving him a slight yet welcome protection. Esteban snuggled against him, like a silent thanks, and Zia also joined in to offer her own warmth.
They stayed away from rain, still not saying anything. Yet soon, it lightened up, and the sky recovered a neutral white glow where the sun was weakly shining. Esteban looked at this light, at how it bathed the shore in a pearly glow, and noticed he wasn't crying anymore.
They'd have to get back up. Return to the Condor, keep on with their quest, accomplish the last steps of the will of the elders of Mu. Make sure this destruction wouldn't happen in vain, that the Cities of Gold had played their role until the end. They'd now have to become the Hero, the Princess and the Sage, as they had been so long ago.
Return to the cycle of things, start the story over.
Yet it seemed that for now, none of them wanted to move. None of them wanted to give into whatever prediction would say about them, none of them wanted to play a role. It wasn't the time nor the solution.
“Will we...will we stop?”, Zia asked.
“We can't really keep going… Where would we go? What would we do?”
“We've got clues, don't we? We've still got a lot of work to do...”
Esteban sighed, lowering his head. He then felt Zia's hand on his own.
“We can still change things. Your people isn't entirely gone yet. If we can bring them back, then we will.”
“Exactly!”, Tao added, his usual enthusiasm coming back. “You won't let that old snake's words bring you down, right? There's still hope!”
Esteban didn't really want to believe it. Yet his friends' smiles and confidence came to him anyway, and he surprisingly smiled in turn.
“...you're right.”, he said. “There's always hope.”
He looked at the sun, that had come back from behind the clouds. Was it his words, his thoughts that had made it come back? Maybe he'd never know. But maybe he didn't want to know, after all.
“And as long as there's hope, the world will need us.”
His hands found his friends'. They looked at each other, smiled, and contemplated the sun together.