Hangman Chapter 19

Chapter 19-

“I can see straight into your heart, Ajax,” Warren tilted his head up and to the side. “Your ability is quite unique, I wanted to see what it would do for me.”

Gallow’s expression changed. “He knows about Navigator? But-? I’ve never used it in front of him.”

Warren smiled again. “You’re wondering how I know about it? Well…” He cast his head forward, looking intently at his former friend. “Each Vocation calls us to our true goals. We who are gifted with them use them to walk along that rosy path of truth. Yours…” he paused for a moment.

“... Is calling you to bring calamity.”

Gallow felt his stomach drop. “What do you mean by that?!”

“Everywhere you go, that calamity always follows you, doesn’t it?” Warren’s voice grew in excitement. “That disastrous tendency is behind you, which means at one point it was in front of you as well, no? That’s your fate… and the greatest of these is yet to come.

Your ability… is meant to Navigate you to hell…”

A moment of silence passed between them. They both anticipated what was about to happen.

“If that’s true…” Gallow began. “I’ll change the meaning of this Vocation.” He raised the back of his hand up, the sigil began to glow and crackle a blue-white color.

Warren smirked. “Maybe you’re destined to…”

…

……

………

“[NAVIGATOR]!!”

“[SALAMANDER]!!”

The world turned red around Gallow. It was unlike what Gideon saw, however. Instead of the primordial exertion of strength that non-Vocation users experienced, Gallow watched as Warren appeared to drag himself into the air, his body leaving after-images as he moved. He could barely move, as if he was moving in water. His real eyes couldn’t make out anything clearly, but his spirit eyes were able to perceive Warren’s movement.

The crimson faded from the world, Warren had moved into the air and behind Gallow. The dark gunfighter was out of bullets, he knew he couldn’t rely on range. Gallow’s spirit form spun around and threw out an arm to intercept the oncoming swipe from his opponent. Warren stopped dead in midair, his arm aglow with energy.

“You’re fast!” the Outlaw Rose spat before flipping away and landing back on the ground.

“That ability is strange…” Gallow contemplated. “It felt like I couldn’t move, but he seemed faster somehow…”

Warren rushed towards him, activating Salamander again. This time, Gallow was ready for it. Navigator popped out behind him, ready to intercept his attack. This time, however, Warren did not leap within striking range when his ability ended. He was further away in the air, and he stretched his arm out in Gallow’s direction, rapt in his red energy.

“What-?” Gallow was caught off guard. A beam of light emanated from Warren’s palm, racing towards his opponent’s chest.

“Crap!” Navigator was barely able to cross its arms in an attempt at a block before the the beam crashed into it. Gallow experienced a searing pain which didn’t seem to be focused on any specific area of his body.

“Is this… an attack on my soul-?!”

Warren touched down again as Gallow stumbled forward, turning to face him.

“That Vocation is incredibly fast, Ajax,” he called out. “You know the beam of my Salamander travels at the speed of light, don’t you? Even that tool of the military was only able to dodge it by sheer luck and watching my aim.”

Gallow’s eyes focused intently on Warren. “Gideon?! What did you do to him?!”

Warren smirked. “Some powerless swordsman is nothing compared to my Vocation, a man with no calling in life can’t possibly stand up to me.”

Gallow’s face twisted in fury. “You bastard!” he shouted. “Again! How many times are you going to- to-” He wanted to say ‘kill,’ but couldn’t bring himself to it. Again, he had brought death to somebody.

“Again, you’ve invited calamity, no?”

The pain Gallow experienced gave way to righteous indignation, he took an aggressive step forward, planting his foot in the ground and summoning Navigator. Both of its arms had been blown away in the blast, its body cutting off in the shimmering blue light of Gallow’s soul.

“I can see how angry you are,” Warren continued. “But it shouldn’t matter too much, that attack was meant to kill you, if not disable your spirit body, and it looks like the latter was accomplished, if nothing else-”

He stopped talking suddenly. Navigator’s arms were slowly reforming where they had been cut off. Gallow’s body crackled with energy that arced into Navigator’s form, both of them shining a brilliant cold-blue light.

Warren took a moment to stare before throwing his head back and laughing. “Of course!” he cried. “That Vocation, I can describe it perfectly now: Soul body manipulation! Of course you would be able to reform you spirit form, because it’s not the real source of your Vocation, you still have some kind of anchor deep inside you that tethers you to it!” Warren was highly amused by finally being able to see the extent of Navigator in action; it made perfect sense that Gallow could manipulate and regenerate his spirit body by supplying it with energy that came from some other source within him. Otherwise, if there had been no “anchor,” his spirit would simply wander from his physical body without aim everytime he used it.

Gallow lunged at Warren, finally taking the offensive. Navigator followed him in sync, allowing him to move with greatly enhanced speed; his arm was raised, fist clenched in preparation to strike. Before he could close the distance, the red curtain of Salamander descended upon him again. Gallow anticipated Warren to repeat his previous strategy of teleporting behind him, and began to twist his body around in the slowed space. Suddenly, however, Warren zoomed towards him head-on with even greater speed.

“What the-” Gallow could barely react before a fist plunged into his stomach. Warren’s attack would have ripped right through him had it not been for Navigator’s body being an inch ahead of his own. He was sent spinning backwards.

Without missing a beat, Warren followed through with cruelty.

“[SALAMANDER]!!”

He leapt through the air in the red space, tumbling gracefully.

“This is the strength of a Salamander!!” he howled. “I walk closer to that path of truth, even time and space bend around me!!” His body somersaulted in an arc, following Gallow’s path backwards. As he reached his target, he came out of his roll, bringing his leg down hard on top of Gallow; the dark-haired man barely had enough time to block with Navigator.

The impact of Warren’s downward kick crushed Gallow to the ground with enough force that his body bounced upon hitting the earth.

“GAGH!!” A guttural cry escaped him as the air was knocked out of his lungs. When the immediate pain had subsided, he was able to focus once more, opening his eyes to see Warren standing above him, raising his open hand in his direction, fingers bent. Light pooled around his palm.

“Warren, you dumbass…” Gallow thought. Navigator left his body, spinning on the ground with blazing speeds before throwing out its leg in a high-speed kick directly across the back of Warren’s own legs. As soon as they met, Warren’s spirit body was displaced from the bottom up, a shock he had not anticipated. He gasped and his knees buckled from the attack, dispersing the energy he’d built up at his palm.

“Any attack that slow is worthless up close.”

Warren stumbled around for a moment, long enough to allow Gallow back to his feet, before his two bodies rejoined.

He laughed. “Good reactions, Ajax.” As he spoke, his whole body began to glow with red light. “At this distance, it isn’t worth it to use a long-range attack like that.” He chuckled, “You’re lucky, I don’t need to use my ability like this very often.”

Gallow assumed a fighting stance, guarded by Navigator in front of him. “What do you mean by that?” he asked cautiously.

“My Salamander bends an area of time and space around me,” Warren explained coolly. “But that doesn’t mean it’s restricted to slowing time, nor within such a large radius.” The scarlet aura around him slowly grew in intensity. “In fact, if I constrict it to just the space around me…”

Gallow’s eyes focused on his body intently.

“[SALAMANDER- SPACE SONIC]!!”

Without warning, Warren took a step forward, and suddenly traveled several feet.

“He didn’t use the-?” Gallow couldn’t think quickly enough.

“I can’t anticipate your movements like this- but at this distance I won’t need to!!!”

A flurry of punches erupted from Warren; his fists flew through the air with the force and speed of bullets. The hail of blows struck Navigator what felt like hundreds of times. Gallow’s body was racked with the same searing pain he’d experienced from Warren’s beam, but compounded by the attacks on his real body.

“Is this- a combined spiritual and physical attack?!” Gallow thought as his already battered self was thrown back another ten feet. His body turned over in the air; when he looked back to check where he was landing, Warren was already behind him. “How is he so fast?!?”

“[NAVIGATOR]!!”

His spirit body pulled him to the side, out of the way of Warren’s oncoming attack. He tilted his body to right himself again, crashing into a tree with an incredible jolt.

“How much more damage can your body take, Ajax?!” Warren shouted, darting about the branches of trees playfully. Ever since the release of his power, they had grown absurdly tall and thick.

“He’s right,” Gallow realized. “I can’t keep this up for much longer.” He heaved, attempting to recover while leaning on the tree. A thought entered his mind.

“Unless-”

---

Janna watched with horror as Malvado finally stopped scraping the dirt away. He had been digging like a ravenous animal, and his fervor was rewarded with the cloth-wrapped corpse of Fiemmo.

“I won’t let you… I don’t want you to…” he muttered madly under his breath. He quickly hauled up the body and threw it to the ground beside the hole. Malvado produced a knife from his belt and stabbed sideways through the cloth, making a hole large enough for him to reach his dirt-caked fingers into and rip open. Janna stepped back, her hand covering her mouth, as Fiemmo’s rotting body was touched by sunlight for the first time in months.

On his knees and without hesitating, Malvado began to strip the body of the plain white shirt it was buried in. He grabbed his knife once more and held it up to the chest, piercing into the decayed flesh and slowly working the blade down to the stomach.

“What in Heaven could he be doing?!” Janna’s heart was beating rapidly at the unholy sight in front of her. Her eyes were filling with tears; she knew that as an aspiring doctor she would eventually need to see gore, but she had resolved that as being for the good of the patient. This, however, was unnaturally sickening.

The man’s dead flesh split apart at the incision, and Malvado spread the wound open. Janna could not take her eyes off of what she saw. From inside of Fiemmo’s body, instead of organs and tissue, burst an incredible number of orange tulips.

Malvado dug through the bouquet carefully until he suddenly stopped and gingerly held up a white-petaled flower. “Fiemmo’s body was filled with over one thousand tulips...” He spoke softly and without looking at her. “Of those, there was a single daisy. He promised me that one day… when he found it…” his voice trailed off for a moment before gazing up at her. “That he’d let me plant it in my own heart…”

Janna trembled with fear. There was an expression in his eyes that couldn’t possibly be articulated in a single word.

He stood up and held the flower up in front of himself, slowly bringing it inwards to his chest. When it touched the space above his heart, a fountain of light suddenly sprung forth from the daisy, blinding Janna.

An incredible energy shot through Malvado, like electricity. He could feel it coursing through not only his body, but his soul as well.

“The stronger the light…

The greater the shadow…”

Janna stumbled backwards, blinded.

“[ALONE DOWN THERE]!!!”

The active component of his Vocation was triggered, every shadow cast in the area was connected to his soul by spiritual threads. A monumental resonance was cast through each of those threads. At his command, each shadow seemed to rise out of the ground and twist into a single point. One of these spikes raged out of Janna’s own shadow and struck her leg, becoming stuck in her flesh and drawing blood.

She screamed in pain.

Malvado heard the cry of pain, but he didn’t listen. He himself was blinded by the light, and the world had begun to blur together into an endless white void. Space and distance ceased to be in his perception. He could feel the overwhelming pain and sadness felt by the people the Roseraid Gang had slain, he could feel the depression piling up inside of himself, his cowardice and weakness. He could feel it so vividly, but he never would have been able to articulate it. All that was left in the blinding light was his desire to give some meaning- some purpose- to all of his life. All this sorrow, for what was it??

What was it?

What was it?

What was it?

What was it? What was it?

What was it? What was it?

What was it?

What was it?

…

……

………

…………

Oh, of course.

It was to be Alone Down There.

---

Warren rushed towards Gallow at supersonic speeds, creating a booming explosion from the point he leapt. Gallow watched him rocket in his direction with a calm, confident expression. The Outlaw Rose threw out his arm in a strike as he reached his target, throwing a momentous amount of energy into his killing blow.

“[NAVIGATOR]”

Gallow’s spirit arm met Warren’s stopping him dead.

“W-what-?!” Warren exclaimed, shocked. “There’s no way you could overcome Space Sonic’s-” he cut himself short as he gazed closer at Gallow. His right hand was touching the trunk of the tree, his sigil gleaming with power.

“Is he… siphoning power from the Garden?!” Warren considered.

Gallow smirked back. “It’s funny to see you so shocked, Warren. Sorry to play dirty, but I’m turning this into a two-on-one.” He was looking past him.

“Two-on-one?” Warren turned his attention to where Gallow’s eyes were cast. Many feet away, out on the water of the Spring, the Spirit of the Garden stood, watching the two of them.

“You-!” Warren growled. He wasn’t able to say any more, because the next moment he was assaulted by a barrage of punches from Navigator.

Warren grunted as he was sent backwards, experiencing a searing pain in his soul. Gallow leapt off from the tree, now invigorated by his second wind. He closed the gap between them in a moment, and Warren reacted with another series of attacks. Gallow countered with his own punches, each one meeting in lock step with his opponent’s.

“If I keep Navigator close enough to my own body…” he thought. “I can match his spiritual and physical hits at the same time!”

Both combatants began to ramp up the speed of their flurries until their fists were almost too fast to make out.

“Ajax… I should have known…” Warren mused. “I was always the one pushing you further into danger… But now… You’re pushing me further than ever before!!!”

The maelstrom of blows was interrupted by a sudden burst of air between them. Their matchup had broken the sound barrier. Both were momentarily stunned and deafened by the blast.

“I’m not going to get anywhere like this,” Gallow strategized. “He just keeps measuring up to me!” He planted his foot down and pushed off, speeding towards Warren, who was too disoriented by the loss of his hearing. Gallow reached out as he approached, and Warren barely had enough time to respond by raising his own hand.

Their hands met.

“[NAVIGATOR]!!!”

As they made contact, Gallow’s spirit body was able to directly grab onto Warren’s. The speed he was traveling at propelled the two of them into each other. While their two physical bodies collided and fell, their spirit forms continued to tumble outwards.

Warren’s eyes opened not to Gallow’s face, but to a strange world cast in pale blue light, and the form of Navigator.

“What the- what is this?!” he shouted.

“This is your spirit body, Warren.” Gallow responded. “Looks like we’re in a kind of crossroads of our souls.”

“Don’t say stupid things-” Warren began, before looking around. The pale blue light only extended behind Gallow, whereas a blood-red glow expanded around him.

“Where are we…?”

“What Gallow said was true, Warren Roseraid.”

“Who-?” he looked to where the voice was coming from. The Spirit materialized next to Gallow. He realized it now- Gallow’s side of the world wasn’t just a pale blue light, it was a dark and expansive ocean.

“I cannot allow you to destroy this Garden,” she proclaimed. “Not for your selfish desire.”

“It isn’t selfish!” he responded. “There’s no higher meaning to any action than its absolute truth!”

“I don’t know about her,” Gallow spoke up. “But if you’re gonna set it out like that, then I guess my actions are going to stop you.” He paused. “That’s the truth, no higher meaning than than that.”

“I refuse!” Warren spat back, fire began to rage behind him, taking shape from the red aether. He lacked the spiritual manipulation to fight back in this form, but he was determined not to give up his position.

Gallow gazed at him for a moment. “Do you ever think,” he started. “Of all the pain you’ve caused? Do you ever realize what you’ve done?”

“I’ve told you before,” Warren responded. “None of it will matter!”

“I don’t think so.”

“What?!”

A gleam entered Gallow’s eye. “I don’t think that’s really what you’re after.”

Warren laughed. “What are you talking about, Ajax? What else could it possibly be?”

“I think that you’re afraid.”

Warren dropped his demeanor. “Excuse me?”

“I don’t think there’s a shred of nobility in your dream,” Gallow’s voice began to grow in fervor. “In this ocean- this is where I’ve faced myself, that’s why I have this power, but you- you just want to run away from all of that! You could never face yourself, that’s why you want to remove its meaning. If you live in a world with no evil, then there’s no good to compare, and if you live in a world with neither, there’s no pain or suffering, there’s no disappointment or upset or tragedy. But at the same time, there’s no such thing as a pretty smile, or a peaceful sunrise, or a good meal!”

Energy crackled about him, the deep ocean swirled and crashed with his words.

“A world like that,” he shouted. “Isn’t worth living in! It isn’t about what’s there, it’s what we decide it means to us! That way, even a disgusting, evil man like you, even you-” his voice broke for a moment.

“Could be loved by me!!”

Warren staggered back against the torrential force of Gallow’s soul.

“What are doing?!” he cried.

“I’m going to make you feel a piece-” Gallow yelled back, reaching for his chest and pulling out a shimmering sliver, like a crystal. “A piece of what I do!!”

Gallow’s spirit body rocketed towards Warren.

“[NAVIGATOR- RAGTIME]!!”

He plunged the shard into Warren’s chest. All at once, his mind was flooded with the whole experience of Gallow’s soul. It was not an attack meant to damage the spirit, but an overwhelming flood of his deepest primordial essence.

Warren’s knees buckled and he threw his head back, grabbing it. He was being inundated with every bit of suffering and sadness he had caused his friend up to the point he received his ability in the Garden. Warren’s mind could not take the strain of someone else’s deepest sorrow.

“Stop!! STOP!!!” he shouted, but it was too late. Once the effect of Ragtime had begun, there was no ceasing the onslaught of history.

Blistering flames were razing his mind to the ground.

“I’m going to go insane-!! I must…!” With great trial, he shouted it out: “[SALAMANDER]!!”

To his horror, nothing happened. An ability like his, which only affected time-space, had no bearing on this purely subjective world.

Warren screamed.

---

The shadows continued to howl and rage, like storms. Janna screamed continuously from both the pain of her wound, as well as the traumatic fear she was experiencing.

“It’s no use trying to run,” Malvado thought. “I can sense everything…!” His mind was in the paradoxical state of falling apart and yet remaining utterly calm.

A second spike bore its way into the girl’s shoulder. The pain was so intense that she was on the verge of losing consciousness. She knew that removing a sharp object from a wound would only worsen the injury, so she remained frozen, trembling.

“How…?” she wondered. “Is this how I’m going to die…?” The agony was so great that her thoughts began to wander. “After that man killed father without a thought? Am I the same way? Am I just going to be cast away, like the sand in the wind...?” Her eyes began to close as she gazed peacefully into the blinding, all-encompassing light.

…

……

………

*WHOOSH*

The sound of metal sweeping through the air. She opened her eyes and looked before her at the source of the sound.

It was a perfect image, like a fragment of time hanging in space. Gideon Jepta, feet not even touching the ground, jacket wild and torn, blade already outstretched in a complete arc; Malvado, a geyser of blood erupting from his throat, his legs already folding, arms out to his sides, life fleeing from his eyes.

“But how…?” he thought as he fell. “My senses were perfect, I could see everything… What…?” Then he saw it. From behind a rock, a small head poked out to observe the scene.

“Bleech… that kid… he and the officer…”

Of course, Bleech had used Treachery to fool his shadow sensors so Gideon could ambush him.

In the end, he had blinded himself…

Gideon hit the ground, the light disappeared, along with the shadow spikes. Janna fell down, clutching her leg. He watched his target fall, the life gushing from him.

“A perfect windpipe strike…” he noted to himself, before his own legs began to shake and lose strength. He planted his sword in the ground and held himself up by the handle. “Still got it…” he mused.

From behind the rock fixture, Bleech emerged and slowly approached. “Just- just like that, sir?”

“Perfect…” Gideon huffed, tiredly.

Bleech looked over to Janna.

“H-hey! Do you need some help?!” he asked, anxiously.

“Of course I need help!” she replied. “I have two holes in my body!!”

Gideon closed his eyes while the two kids bickered unhelpfully.

---

Warren didn’t know when his spirit returned to his physical body, but he eventually regained consciousness and sat up drowsily. To his left was the Spring; he got to his knees over it, curious about something.

In the waters, he saw his own weathered face.

“But… beyond that…” he thought.

His rose glimmered and he saw through to the truth of his reflection.

“N-no…” his voice was filled with fear. “I… I can’t believe that…”

“Believe?” Gallow asked, standing behind him. “I thought you were above ‘believing’ in things…”

Warren quickly looked from the water to Gallow and back again.

“No…” he repeated. “All this time that I saw the truth in other people, I- I’d never…” his whole body was shaking.

Abruptly, he stopped quaking and looked back at Gallow once more.

“I have a request…”

Gallow was taken aback. “Yeah?”

Warren reached into the dirt and pulled out a bullet from seemingly nowhere. Gallow looked at him strangely.

“I want you to kill me.” He was now off of his knees and sitting, legs open, one palm resting on the ground, the other throwing the bullet to his friend.

“W-what?” Gallow asked incredulously.

“Your gun, you still have it, don’t you?”

“I-I-”

“I need you to shoot me.”

“Warren, no!” Gallow argued back. “That’s not what my message was to you!”

“I know that,” Warren replied, calmly. “But this is the only way for me to make things right.”

“Don’t say stupid, heroic crap like that!” Gallow shouted.

“I’m not being heroic, not in the way that you mean,” Warren answered. “This world is going to keep turning ‘round and ‘round, but I know that in some way, I can escape it- we can all escape it, if I leave it for now.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about…” Gallow’s spoke in a timid tone.

“I get it now,” Warren explained. “When I look into my own reflection, I can see who I really am.” He closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again. “I know that I must do this, to achieve the real dream, not my dream.

“I don’t...” Gallow’s voice trailed off.

“Please… you’re the only one who can steer us through to the end, that’s why you’re the Navigator.”

…

……

………

He loaded the bullet into the chamber of his gun.

“Ok,” he said. “I’ll do it.”

A small, genuine smile came over Warren’s face.

“Thank you… Gallow...”

Gallow raised the gun and pulled back the hammer.

“You know,” he said casually. “I’m only doing this because you’re my best friend.”

Warren’s lips parted. “You think… you could still forgive me…?”

“Of course,” Gallow smiled. “This world is lonesome enough.”

He pulled the trigger.