Chương 162: 75 - AS LONG AS I'M STILL BREATHING

Tyene Demue-Corlander rested her eyes in the bed of the empty clinic. The night was heavy. There wasn't a healing loot in existence that could make her forget the pain she felt. Vienna was dead. Her protector. Her savior. The one who went through hell to make her immortal. Whether that was a gift or a curse was something she had yet to decide. She just wanted to live. But what was that worth if you didn't have anyone to do it with? What made this life so worth living?

T'balt had his dream of a family and a happy ending. While what did she have? Two missing limbs and a broken promise. She had given T'balt all her loot, so she was as helpless as helpless could be. Not even enough strength to take her own life and reset this nightmare. But he had convinced her that this would be worth something somehow. That at the end of this, maybe she wouldn't hate herself for being what she was. A Redeemer. Something subhuman, unable to feel anything but regret, depression, and self-pleasure.

She didn't see that going away. It had been too long. But maybe if there was just one Redeemer, who wasn't like the rest of them, then things might not be so bad. She forced herself out of bed, which ended with her dragging herself across the floor with one hand and one leg.

"What are you doing? You shouldn't be moving." Of course, German said something. Regardless of what was happening outside, he made a point to keep a third eye on her. It was how he was in every life.

"I'm going back to Corlander…"

"The battle isn't going well. Why do you think there's anything you can do to change that?"

"I'm going to see this through…" She struggled, lifting herself to a wall just so she could stand.

"I'm gonna see that bastard dead, no matter what. That's the only way I'll be able to live through this."

"Don't be stubborn. There's nothing you can do."

"Stubbornness is all I got… I let that man take away so much. I need to get this out of my system. Then maybe I can do as T'balt said and live like a normal person for once." She pushed open the clinic door. As soon as she did, she fell over, failing to keep her balance. But there was someone there to catch her.

"Then we'll go together." German had her by the arm, lifting her over his shoulder, acting as the leg she missed.

"What are you doing outside of the library?" He started walking her forward.

"If we end up tying the knot, I'm gonna have to be the one to protect you. Might as well start now." She sneered at him.

"You still want to marry me? After everything? Even though I'm crippled?" He glanced at her, with a face accusing her of asking a stupid question.

"Sunk cost fallacy. I'm in too deep not to love you now. At least now you'll have a harder time running away."

"Ughh… too soon with the cripple jokes." But she found herself laughing anyway. German smirked in some satisfaction.

"I'm still working on my comedic timing." She leaned her body heavily on his, hopping on one foot.

"Well, seems like you're still worth something after all these years, slick." T'balt, David, and the others lay writhing on the ground, shocks pulsing through their bones. It felt like every time they were close to gaining ground on the Collector, he would summon some new power to set them back to zero. That last attack, that lightning rod or whatever it was, seemed to take down everyone. T'balt was the only person on their side who could muster up the strength to stand.

He couldn't even feel Lila's prayers anymore, which likely meant he was on his own. His adrenaline was gone. His body was weak, and his mind was getting more numb by the second. But he was still going to fight. Cracks had ruptured through the island. They were large enough that water rushed in from the ocean, reclaiming it and forming rivers through the buildings and moving the foundation of the city. T'balt stretched his neck and equipped another loot.

"I don't understand why you feel the need to fight to such bitter ends," Corlander said, floating down above him. His Seraph wings were spread wide, with a wingspan twice the length of one of his famous trucks. T'balt took a deep breath, overload sucking the life out of his eyes.

"As long as I'm still breathing… I have a chance. You may not care about your family, but I'm gonna fight like hell for mine." Then he summoned an array of holy bows and loosed twenty golden glowing arrows in Corlander's direction. His force field was shattered, forcing him to light-form to get out of their way. T'balt followed suit, meeting him in the air. But Corlander caught his arm, punching him in the stomach and throwing him back to the ground. He bounced off his back but managed to regain his footing.

An array of golden weapons appeared above him, summoned from thin air. They all torpedoed towards him like a volley of ballista fire. The many holy bows reappeared to parry them. T'balt then threw himself in the air, copying the levitation loot until he had enough momentum to copy the sword loot. Corlander's gravity sent him plummetting to the ground until the mirror stopped his fall. He was floating just above the ground when a small forest of sharp trees tried to impale him.

By the grace of time dilation, he dodged, making it away with a few minor cuts from the branches. He loosed more arrows, only for Corlander to realize he could just shoo them away with his wings. The collector light formed down to him, punching at him with his eyeballed arms. T'balt guarded, only for the man's arms to morph into some ungodly formation, his thumb wrapping around his left arm and his pinky wrapping around his right. T'balt wasn't willing to touch that one.

Instead, he jumped to drop kick the man, pushing off of his chest and freeing him from his grasp. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Before he could get back to his feet, a shot of light pierced through his abdomen, dropping him down in a pain yell. T'balt bared his teeth. That's when a monumental roar descended from above, and the entire city was flushed with a frosted cold.

Corlander pointed his attention fifty feet above them, where the Glacier Bear materialized above him.

"What?" T'balt didn't understand. He had been told that the owner of that thing had been defeated. Why was it back? But Corlander sensed something was off about it. It swiped its giant clawed paws at him. He blocked but took the heavy force of it. Before it could swing through, he was already light forming through its fingers. Then T'balt realized, "It's on our side?"

"The bear is in Tyene's control." It was German's voice, but for some reason it wasn't in his mind. The man was right next to him, under Tyene's arm.

"What are you doing here?" Tyene stared up at the bear as Corlander trapped its giant legs in quicksand, causing it to stumble.

"As long as we're still breathing…" German said. Tyene nodded in agreement. While the Glacier bear was staggered, Corlander fired a blast of light right through its head. And almost as quickly as it came, it disappeared. Then he was met with the specter, another of Emil's beasts. It zipped around, attempting to be too fast for Corlander to see. It forced Corlander to match its speed, as it led him through the city.

"T'balt, take out the bear loot from my neck," Tyene commanded.

"How'd you get this loot anyway?" He reequipped the loot thief to do as she asked, the Glacier Bear being useless to her now.

"I wasn't just sitting still in the library that whole time," German answered.

"I went through the trouble of collecting a few things that might help us." Corlander continued to clash with the specter, unable to land a direct attack due to the shifting of its ethereal form. Static and lightning surged through the city as the man searched his catalog for something to counter the thing. He eventually found one. A magnetism loot. As he commanded, the tips of his fingers filled with strong magnetic charges, and he aimed them at the form of the specter.

The radiating electricity of its body started to bend and malform until the collector increased the power so much that the being seemed to warp out of existence. But with that distraction gone, it led him back to the others. He found T'balt and attacked with beams of light, aiming at non-vitals. But the time dilation gave him enough wriggle room to escape unscathed. Then the Redeemer started running in the opposite direction, prompting Corlander to chase.

As he did, volleys of holy bow arrows rained down upon him, but they didn't seem to be coming from T'balt but Tyene. The arrows themselves weren't capable of fatal damage, but they were still a nuisance, clipping him with their burning light. He shot straight towards her, pausing for a second, noticing German holding her up.

"Finally come out of hiding, huh?" He got no response. Instead, he suddenly pushed Tyene away in response to the sword Corlander swung between them. Tyene was left to helplessly flail due to her one leg. At least so he thought. She light-formed, suddenly appearing behind him. Corlander quickly scanned her loot: the mirror and… an explosion. But this close, she was going to blow all three of them to bits. Corlander went to light-form, but T'balt's time dilation put him right underneath the man.

He pushed his speed in order to catch him with a surprise strength enhanced uppercut. Corlander, though, caught the fist with a terrible quake entering his body before he stopped it with his own strength-enhanced hands. But that left him open to Tyene's attack. With T'balt touching him, he couldn't light-form, which meant the explosion was going to take them all out. But it never came. It was a feint. The real attack was from German, who had the God Slayer Sword reared back and coming for Corlander's neck.

It was a sword of light. He shouldn't have feared it. However, there was something different about its light, something that told him that if he were touched by it, it would be far more devastating than the arrows. So his reflexes reacted, and a meteor of light was summoned directly above his head, not the one of monstrous size from before, but this was still the size of a house, and it was dropping directly on them. None of them had the ability to react.

T'balt was held in place by the arm, German with no loot to increase his speed, and Tyene with no ability to stand on her own. The meteor hit, cratering the ground around them, exploding in radiating light. It sent them all down, clutching at the burns on their skin. But it had hit Corlander too, the light affecting him just as much as they. But he was still standing and erratic.

"I'M SICK OF THIS! YOU WILL ALL SUFFER FOR DARING TO PISS ME OFF! YOU HEAR ME!? WHEN I'M THROUGH WITH YOU, I WILL DISMEMBER EVERY SINGLE REDEEMER I CAN FIND!"

"That's enough." It was a soft voice, coming from a man who did not belong on a battlefield. He was shirtless, marks and scars covering his decrepit, disused body. His hair was half white, half dark brown, hung down his back, and he walked barefoot. He was a harmless man, without a single attacking loot, and yet he walked on the battlefield with the confidence of a king.

"It's time to end this all."

"Uriel? You've… come…" T'balt struggled, but he felt the need to acknowledge the man. Corlander raised his neck in return, suddenly having calmed.

"Finally. Face to face with the bestower. Should I be honored that you've graced me with your presence?"

"No need to be coy. I've come to surrender. I've watched this for long enough."

"Surrender? You're telling me after all this, you're just going to willingly surrender?" Corlander said skeptically.

"You've destroyed everything I have. There's nothing here for me to protect any more. It's time to admit that we've lost." Uriel lowered his head and then held his hand out.

"T'balt… hand me the loot thief."

"Why would I…"

"The hell, have you lost your mind!?" Tyene screeched at him, helpless on the broken ground.

"So he can torture us for the rest of our lives!? No, T'balt don't!" Uriel kept an icy gaze on him, lowering his head and his voice.

"T'balt. It's the only way."

"Just play along." T'balt glanced at German, who was watching, looking just as confused as he was, at least on the outside. There was no way for T'balt to tell what Uriel was thinking, but German could. Even though every bone in his body told him not to do as the man said, he wanted to trust him. He felt like the only way they could win was if he trusted him. Corlander regarded T'balt as he reluctantly raised himself. He walked over to the Bestower, Loot Thief in hand, taking slow steps.

He put the loot in Uriel's hand.

"Thank you. I'll put an end to everything. You've done well." Uriel nodded at him, but all he could do was stand still and watch the man walk to Corlander.

"I hope this truly makes you happy," Uriel told the collector.

"Though I must warn, based on my experience, when one fulfills their purpose, they will die unless they discover a new one."

"Your experience?" Corlander's alien-like body cocked its head, scoffing as the words were from a child.

"Yes. My purpose was seeking death after all… when I had lost the one I had before. A permanent end. But turns out, a different end and a new perspective might've given me what I needed: A reality check." Uriel removed the Bestower from his neck. What came out was no ordinary coin. It beat like a heart outside of its body. It was twice the size of normal loot, and there was a strange, unnatural shine to it. On it was the symbol of the Bestower, an extended hand with a coin in it.

Uriel presented it to Corlander as if he were offering to shake the man's hand. Corlander looked to be salivating at it, everything he had ever dreamed right there in arm's reach. The thing that was going to fulfill his life's true purpose. He grabbed it and, without hesitation, let the coin creature roam on his body until it found a home right between his eyes.