The Anima [completed]

34.

"Why are you doing this? You want to destroy the First Plane? Destroy Earth?"

She barked a laugh at my question and rose from her throne, dagger twirling in her right hand.

"Oh darling," I watched in horror as my own face on a different body contorted into a wicked and wretched smile, "I don't want to destroy anything. I want to save it."

Her steps only brought her closer, dagger still twirling in hand.

"Save it? By tearing down the very barriers that keep all humans safe?" I pulled my body away from her approach, upper body straining as I crawled. One of my toes curled and I nearly cried out I triumph.

"Those walls don't keep anyone safe. They just keep them ignorant." One of my other toes tensed and relaxed.

"It will begin a war." Another toe, along with a spasm in my calf.

"There is already war. Many wars. You may find this will open their minds, concentrate their aggressions."

"And when everyone's done killing themselves, you'll be there, I assume." I kept my legs relaxed, not wanting to give away the fact that both of my thighs had regained feeling and my feet were tingling.

"Of course." She grinned and continued to stalk towards me, amused by my slow attempt to get away, "and then we will reach a state of co-existence. It will be a world where the Shadows are no longer shadows. And the humans can use our lands to resolve the issue of overpopulation."

"But how is that going to work?" I asked, genuinely interested in the answer as I tensed my muscles, readying myself to jump up, "Won't breaking the barriers just mean everyone will exist on the one land mass?"

"Oh sweetie," I had stopped struggling and now she crouched in front of me, uncorking the bottle of poison, "You're ignorance amuses me. The world is not as circular as you'd like to think. It is flat, with two sides. On one side, lies earth, and on the other lies the First plane, hidden. And between the two, beneath the dirt, we exist, hidden," She used her dagger to gesture to our surroundings, "Breaking the walls will just make the portals feely available and the dimensions will be seen by all. It's the only way forward."

"But to achieve it, millions will die in the process. Including me." Fear and adrenaline made my body quiver. Ly saw my trembling and already believed she had won. But with confidence comes carelessness.

"Yes, well, you wont disappear completely. You're essence will be in this stone." She flicked the bloodstone with her dagger and I flinched, "You win some, you lose some." Ly took her eyes off me for a moment as she laughed, dipping the blade in the sticky black poison.

I took it as my chance, seeing no doors unlocked or a clear way to escape, and I lunged. As my arms wrapped around Ly's shoulders, the blade was knocked out of her hands and slid steadily across the room. Our bodies collided heavily, her back cracking against the tiled floor. Between us, the bottle crushed. The thick black poison sprayed onto Ly's face and onto my arms.

We both froze. The imminent results of the poison began to take effect and that little quivering child in the corner shrivelled up almost completely. My abilities were only that of a human. By the widening of her eyes, I knew it was working on her as well. Two things happened simultaneously; I reached for the discarded blade and was thrown with force from atop Ly's body. My fingers scrapped the handle, but altogether missed as I was cast aside with a strength that matched my own. I scrambled to my feet as Ly began to stand, her fists clenching as she searched for the dagger.

I didn't waste another second; I lunged for the blade that lay to one side of the throne. Ly, hot on my heels, lunged instead for my ankles. We crumpled once more onto the ground, the impact hurting more than it had before. Ly brought up her fist and slammed it into my skull. Big mistake. The punch dazed me, but the force had broken the fingers in her dominant hand. She cried out, the pain lost to anger as she lifted her hand to strike me again. I bucked my hips as she drew back, pushing her off of me and scrambling towards the dagger.