She was out of tears to shed.
She had to be strong. She had to survive. She had to win and join him.
She had to kill Solan.
And she had to be fast about it, as she looked at Luka who kneeled within his champion's veil and atop one of the shining marble pillars, who was watching on weak and withering by the second. He had been stabbed, and fanged, and now shot, pale within the blue of his victory.
If he didn't get beyond the fortress, with his Gift restored to restore his health, his tragic battle over Tristan and whatever truth he gained from the Chamber of Truth would all be won for nothing. His friends' deaths in vain.
Her lover, her light, extinguished from this world if he didn't get out soon.
She knew the instructions before the Programmers had to state it again, having watched Luka and Tristan already fight to the death and prepare themselves.
Calysa grabbed a bow and arrows as her long distance weapon of choice, the four arrows at its disposal outweighing the pistol with only two bullets. She was more skilled with a bow, and suspected she would need the extra volleys against the Scientist. A mechanism at the bow seemed to feed the arrows up when one was let loose, but it appeared familiar enough to what she was used to.
Just as her friends before her, she laced her skillful fingers at the handle of a sword and strap of a shield which she brought to the spot light which awaited her. She placed her tools to her feet as she had seen the Raven and Wolf do just moments ago.
Solan continued to shuffle and hold the weapons before him, his back facing Calysa who stood and waited, Calysa like a determined ocean, calm before the storm.
"Guns... they're much too quick for you," He called to her with his back still facing, clicking a pistol at his ear. "I want to see the life leave you up close. I want him to see," He smirked, half his face now facing her as he discarded the pistol and brought a dagger up to his cheek. "Once you die, it will break him. How does a heart beat on without its spirit?"
The Orca ignored him as she started to plan. Solan's words bounced off of Calysa now as they readied for battle. His words and threats empty and meaningless when juxtaposed to Solan's sword once it started to actually swing.
She had fought him once before, upon the beach of the old continent. She could tell he was skilled, an Alva after all, but the last time they fought he had his power and she was simply trying to chain him.
It was now or never for the Orca. Kill him while he was vulnerable, or he may never be again. She was confident he could beat him here and now with the playing field levelled.
Not only because she had the capacity to have such confidence, but because she simply had to have it here and now in the blackness and spot light of the stadium. She willed herself to believe she could, because if she didn't, she was dead before she even flung an arrow or swung a sword.
Solan put the long shining dagger to the waist of his uniform as he turned, a hammer at his left hand, and a long sword at his right, as he slowly walked to his spot light and stared across to the Orca.
Though he was a slender man, Calysa couldn't help but shiver with the ease at which he wielded the hammer as if it were a feather.
The Scientist put his weapons to his feet, his eyes unmoving upon Calysa the Orca, as Calysa stared back calmly yet fiercely at the Scientist.
Suddenly, the floor began to shake. The obstacles and mazes and walls to their right and left fell to the floor and through the ground, the steel swallowing the objects whole and a flat sheet of metal closing shut, leaving a floor as flat as the rest of the stadium. Flood lights shone upon the newly smoothed floor, flickering on and off providing checkers of darkness at seeming random, while Calysa's and Solan's sides of the stadium had a steady but dim light upon it.
"For with no darkness there is no light," Solan said.
Calysa only clenched her fists and squinted her eyes.
"On our mark, you may leave your starting circle and into the surrounding stadium. No other rules apply."
Calysa
"Go."
Calysa quickly dropped to her knee and grasped her weapons, swinging the shield to her back and sheathing her sword to her waist, bringing her bow forth and aiming upon Solan.
To Calysa's shock, the arrogant Scientist was already charging, having scooped up all his supplies and was already on his way to hunt her.
She sucked in her chest, strung back her first arrow, aimed it at where Solan's chest would be in the next second, exhaled, and let the sharp metal fly along the lit path which connected their starting circles.
Solan's slightly diagonal trajectory suddenly changed as if he was expecting the path of her arrow, whistling narrowly by him as he quickened his sprint and dodged her first shot, running into the checkered and flickering darkness to his left.
A quarter of the way to the Orca.
Calysa, remaining determined and exhaling again, released her second sizzling arrow this time into Solan's second projected sprint into the seeming strobing of his body.
Again, Solan anticipated Calysa's second arrow, juking back to his original trajectory.
Half way to the Orca.
Calysa closed her eyes and calmed herself, raising her bow again and this time aiming squarely at the rapidly approaching man who was losing his opportunity to dodge as he got ever closer to her, and his direct path to her out of the patchy lights and into the dim but constant flood of gold. She let loose her third arrow.
Sparks of orange exploded as Calysa's arrow skidded and sputtered off of Solan's outstretched hammer which he used to guard his heart, the metal skipping and sparkling harmlessly beyond into the stadium.
Three quarters of the way to the Orca.
Calysa hadn't the luxury to calm herself for her last arrow, Solan now within the constant light to reach her. She brought the last of her ammo speedily taut, squinted her eyes, and in an effort to avoid Solan's range of his hammer's protection, loosed her arrow upon his lower limbs.
Instead of orange spark as she saw before, and her ultimate enemy close enough to her to see the whites of his eyes, she watched as the arrow plunged into his shin and the pointed metal out the other side, blood which appeared black, or was truly black, spattering upon the steel dimly lit floor.
Calysa exhaled in excitement, bewilderment, not able to comprehend the advantage the bloodied arrow now presented yet.
Solan shouted in pain. But he was atop the Orca despite his limp with ferocity.
Calysa admired her shot for too long, even realizing she was the first person to draw blood from Solan probably ever, as his hammer swiped her bow to the side and his sword began to swipe down upon her.
Using the momentum which his blow to her bow provided, she spun and turned her back to Solan, crouching within her shield which resembled a shell and absorbed the swipe of Solan's sword which thumped and scraped upon her steel and vibrated her bones.
She unsheathed her sword and spun back to face him with a horizontal swipe of her own and a roar, Solan blocking it with his hammer and kicking her backwards with his good leg, falling to his knee, unable to transfer weight upon his terribly wounded limb which the Orca had toothed.
The Orca swung forth her shield and flexed her stance, sword in her other hand, sizing up her limping opponent who was finally without a smile, and Calysa finally with one of her own. She switched her shield to the sword-side of Solan's, recognizing that her shield arm could not withstand thumps from his hammer but could withstand swipes of his sword. She would have to dodge his heavy hammer and use his over exertions to her advantage, which she now knew she could.
Excitement enveloped her as she realized her odds of beating him far exceeded his odds of beating her now with his movement deteriorated and now that she easily sustained a swing of his sword, able to size up the very vincible Steward.
So long as the arrogant Scientist continued his assault, Calysa able to out maneuver him and wait for him to make an inevitable mistake, she would strike him down, finally killing the Scientist. Likely slightly over matched before, Calysa was now much better with two working legs.
But to Calysa's shock, Solan's smile returned, despite the arrow that pierced him and despite losing his agility.
What could he possibly be smiling about?
Solan
Solan realized immediately he had underestimated the Orca girl the moment the arrow had burrowed its way through his calf, like a glowing red steel rod which cut through ice.
He thought his careful calculations to avoid each of her first three arrows would demoralize her, adding to the little nagging thought that gnawed at every one of the Hosts he had gathered.
The thought that Solan the Scientist could not bleed, with or without the power that the black apple had afforded him.
But now, as he stared her down after sparring her to a standstill, he would have to resort and return to the great gift he had from birth. The gift he had within his very genes, the gift he had before he even bit the apple. The gift he had which had brought all of Gaiathal to his mercy.
His cunning.
As the Orca girl switched her weapons to opposite hands, no doubt smartly pairing her shield with his sword instead of his hammer, Solan couldn't help but notice her dark eyes flicker towards the champion's veil.
Tipping her hand amidst his arrogant and failed assault.
Of course. Towards her love. Towards Luka.
Solan smiled to himself, and smirked at her, as he realized Calysa's weakness. Exploiting this weakness was needed after realizing that, with the arrow at his leg, he could not beat her at a fair fight. Not anymore.
And as the Programmer's had stated, no further rules applied.
He slowly backed away from her, creating more and more distance from the confused Orca as she didn't understand his strategy yet, his smile only growing with more distance he created.
"A great defensive fighter you are, I see," Solan called across to her, Calysa finally clueing into what he was doing, what this new sinister strategy was. "I have all the time in the Universe, Orca. Do you?"
Solan watched the very blood leave the pretty face of the Orca.
"Poor Luka has seen better days. Will you let Luka bleed out while you hide behind your shield, awaiting the perfect opportunity to attack me? Or will you come join me in the darkness?"
Solan stealthily grabbed the dagger at his belt in exchange for his sword, slinking his frame into the checkered shadows.
Calysa
Her heart sunk as she realized he called her bluff.
He would not keep swinging offensively anymore. He would hide in the shadows and make her come to him, time very much on his side as Luka continued to leak his very life.
And if there was any hope in saving Luka, she would have to follow him. She would have to walk into the belly of the beast.
She slowly started to follow Solan into the checkering darkness of her right half of the stadium, sweat at her forehead and palms as she scanned for Solan within the shadowy squares.
Calysa ignored Luka, who had found a third wind, now standing in his blue veil and slamming his fists upon it and off his podium, his voice muffled and not decipherable but no doubt pleading and begging for Calysa not to follow after Solan.
But she didn't have a choice, no matter how much Luka thought that she did.
She arrived at the outskirts of the checker board of focused lights and squares of pitch dark, squinting inside for the mad Scientist, taking a cautious yet courageous step inside.
Clunk.
The checkers of light switched again, Calysa able to see Solan who was blasted by the focused change of light. As if he was a vampire, Solan retreated and limped into shadows again as the light shone upon him. Calysa walked towards the limping ghost which was Solan, shield and sword in hand, her muscles flexing in anticipation and confidence, her heart beating faster in both bravery and fear.
"I've been in shadows all my life, girl," Solan said to her, Calysa reorienting her eyes to the source of his voice which somehow echoed far from where she thought she saw him.
She came to a halt and brought her shield close, eyes squinting towards his voice and apparent location. Her heart beating faster.
"Always within the great Alva shadows. In my great-aunts shadow. In my uncle's shadow. In my grandfather's shadow. Within my cousins' shadows."
Clunk.
The checker board of light and shadow rearranged again, but this time Solan remained on a black square and remained hidden. Calysa started backing off to the edge of the board in fear after realizing she ventured in too far, upon a black square of her own and worried Solan had gotten around her, his voice seeming to echo from every direction. Her heart beating even faster.
"Do you know how I got out of their shadows?" Solan said again, the location of his voice seeming to change like the focused beams of light was constantly changing with the clunk of the overhead machines.
Clunk.
The light changed again, and to Calysa's mounting fear, Solan remained invisible.
Her heart beat even faster.
"I became one myself."
The whisper came from directly behind her, right in her ear, his cold breath seemingly upon her cheek. She spun and slashed, but her sword hit only darkness within a pitch black space.
Clunk.
She turned back towards and within the bulk of the checkered darkness, but upon the rearranging light and shadow, Solan was but one space removed from her, as she stood in the shine of the golden light of a square and he stood in the blackness of the one directly across from her.
The only reason she knew this so, was because a hand gripping a dagger emerged from the nearest darkness and plunged the cold steel into her unsuspecting chest, past her sword and past her shield, right where her blue jewel she wore as a necklace would usually delicately lay.
The steel was removed just as fast, as she quickly grappled with her demise. Blood seeped at her golden and blue uniform, and lights across the entire stadium snapped on, signalling the end of the Final Game.
With tired eyes, Calysa saw Luka's blue veil fall from her left, golden light shining upon the second podium which was now awaiting Solan the Steward.
Luka sprinted towards her.
Luka
Luka screamed and ran as fast as his body willed it so, as fast as his blue room fell and as fast as the light flooded the stadium and as he saw what had happened.
He reached her and turned her to her back, his hands at her chest and applying pressure in a feeble effort to stop the bleeding.
"Cali, no," Luka said to her through shocked and tearing eyes, the Wolf both unable to watch and unable to leave her.
It felt like drowning in unbearable sadness, grief, and guilt.
"My dad, Luka... he... he saw it. His wristwatch..."
Luka barely heard the words as grief gripped him firm and gripped him deep. All the problems of his world faded away, as the most important thing to him in the world faded away.
"Luka, listen to me," Calysa said weakly, mustering a smile in his direction.
Luka grabbed her face in his red hand, propping her head onto his lap and stroking her black hair, trying anything to comfort her as he continued to pray for a miracle which wouldn't come. The miracles only appeared to come for him, at all of his loved ones' expenses.
"We can be together," She said and smiled at him, as her eyes began to slowly close, and closed.
Luka sobbed at her last words, kissing her cheek, hugging her tightly.
He hadn't even thought about Calysa's words at the beginning of the Games, when she said they couldn't be together, since the horrors unfolded.
Yet, even at her very end, even at her selfless end, she was kind enough to offer him these words which brought him a light within the dark.
Luka delicately put her head back to the floor, and kissed her forehead again as tears from his cheeks mixed with the blood upon the cold steel of the terrible fortress.
He raised an angry fist to a machine which attempted to take her body away, which he scared away with a menacing and defensive glare.
"We'll see each other again, Cali. I swear it. I'll make this right. I swear it."
"I swear it."
Solan
Solan walked towards his victory, putting his bloodied dagger at his waist and casting aside his hammer, and ascended towards the podium which he soon would stand upon.
It would be his greatest trophy, his most amazing achievement.
He couldn't wait. He couldn't wait to finally gain access into the Chamber of Truth. Finally discover the secrets the Programmers had, to discover the history of Gaiathal and perhaps even riches and inventions that he couldn't begin to imagine.
He watched the Wolf boy sprint past him, weakly crying and launching himself at the Orca girl Solan had slain, as Solan summited his own podium and stood proudly.
But what did the boy expect? Solan had proven time and time again how worthy he was. Did the boy really have to cry after the Orca was killed? Did he not know the outcome the minute him and his foolish friends had entered the Games for Gaiathal?
Solan noted to himself that the boy hadn't the faintest clue of what they both had accomplished. He should have been overjoyed, just as Solan was, at the opportunity which now awaited them both. Access to the great Chamber. Yet, the Wolf was more concerned with a dead girl than the potential discovery of everything.
Solan couldn't take waiting any longer, watching the weak Wolf grovel over flesh and bones.
"You can mourn the dead later, boy. You and I, we have truths to discover. We all die someday, Wolf. The only reason you should pity her is that she won't see what you and I see. Come, join me."
Luka slowly rose, and turned even slower to face Solan within the shining light of the stadium.
He limped his way back to his own empty podium, a face of shock and stone, but eyes filled with grief and a burning anger. An anger which burned for one being, and one being alone. He didn't climb his podium out of weakness or shame or as a statement.
Luka's eyes ascended and stared upon Solan, a stare which intrigued Solan, for he had stared in many sets of eyes in his lifetime, and each set always returned the same message.
And each time Solan had watched Luka look upon him before, or whenever he looked into anyone's eyes for that matter, they always contained a tinge of fear. A piece of fright so faint that if you didn't look hard enough you'd miss it. A glimmer that suggested they feared, yet somewhere deep within, accepted their end.
But now, all that lingered within the Wolf's piercing eyes was rage and determination.
And something else about the boy unsettled Solan.
For during all of Solan's scheming, all of his careful planning and inventing and creating, and from as young an age as he could remember, Solan had clung to a seed of an idea which grew into the quest which he had begun.
The idea that the purpose of man was to end.
That humans, through all the suffering they had inflicted upon each other and upon other species through the millennia, was not worthy of life. And that their finality was to end, and leave the Universe a peaceful place finally and once more.
His great suspicion was that one of the Programmers had these exact same ideals. That they also believed the purpose of man was to end, and the Chamber of Truth would reveal to him how to ultimately do so. That it would finally reveal to him how to not only eliminate all humans upon Gaiathal, but also across the cosmos, the virus which was humanity spreading far and wide.
Solan the Scientist, the finality of it all. The cure. The mercy.
But in that strange moment as Luka stared upon him hatefully, a seeming inconsequential boy heaped upon the thousands of human bodies which came before him on Gaiathal which Solan laid waste to, Solan saw a different purpose shine at his weak yet reinvigorated eyes, replacing any fear which he once had for Solan.
No. What Solan saw in the Wolf's eyes was a new purpose altogether.
A purpose to rid the Universe of Solan.