False Gods

Book VII: A Master and his Doll

Chapter LIII

I fired my pistol, but the man of shadows sliced them out of the air. Why did I even keep a gun on me?

"I already told you I don't want anything to do with this anymore! Leave me be!" I argued.

"And I already said that you're allowed to make that choice, but I won't let you abandon your friends that easily!" he argued as he charged at me.

I pulled my sword and parried off of him, launching myself backwards.

"Besides," he continued. "If you didn't have the will to move on, you wouldn't be fighting, now would you?"

I couldn't beat him, not even close, not by myself. His duplicates hadn't even started attacking yet and I was hopeless.

"You're wrong! Giving up on her and giving up on life are two different things!" I argued. "If I didn't care about my life, I would've gone after her!"

"And if you cared about hers half as much as she sacrificed for yours, maybe you wouldn't be so selfish. You disappoint me Silas," he replied as he lowered his head.

"That's... not what I...," I couldn't find the words to argue. "She didn't want to get attached to me...."

"And now it's her fault?" he questioned.

"No! It's not... it's my fault!"

"Really? You don't seem too convinced!"

One of the duplicates immediately charged at me before I could respond. He used the hilt of his sword so slam me into the ground before grabbing me by the collar and lifting me off the ground.

"Hurts, don't it?" he asked. "That's nothing compared to what she's feeling."

He then tossed me into the air as the second duplicate jumped up and spiked me into the ground with the flat end of his sword.

I coughed up a bit of blood, this wasn't good.

"For the Architect's sake, you're so conflicted you can't even fight back! Will you make your bloody choice?!" he said, raising his voice.

"I... don't want to fight anymore. I'm scared... just end it all. I don't care," I finally said.

He let out a sigh. "Fine, so be it.

The two duplicates stopped and he approached me, holding his sword up.

I waited for it to kill me, but instead I watched his shadowy figure get launched into a wall and dissipate.

"How dare you try and abandon me like that!" a familiar voice said irritably as she walked into the room.

"Azami?" I said in surprise.

"Yes, it's me!" she said, yanking me up by the ear. "You know I would've gone back to my core crystal if he'd have killed you! My beloved driver shouldn't be so selfish! I'd die of boredom if you left me all alone!"

"Ow!" I said, trying to unsuccessfully pull away. "Azami, I-"

"I told you, I made it VERY clear that there was no getting away from me. Do you remember that?" she yelled, but she wasn't waiting for an answer. "I don't care that you were scared, I don't care that you feel like you can't beat him! But what I do care about is you abandoning me! Did you ever stop and think for a second about how I felt?"