PenguinKills
patreon
Chapter 105 - Farewell
🕑 Added 2024-08-09 20:05:00 +0000 UTCIt wasn't the lifeless bodies that caught my attention. It wasn't the ones in the makeshift field hospital either.
There was one lying a few feet behind the front line that caught my eye for some reason. The axe and shield stood out. They were covered in blood but I would know those pieces anywhere.
I had made them.
I wanted to be wrong, to say that my eyes weren't seeing what they were currently seeing. I scrambled toward the body and couldn't stop my hammer from falling to the ground as I saw it.
The thud didn't even register to my ears and all outside noise was ignored.
The sounds of battle and shouting fell away as I looked down at him.
The man who raised me, the man who had been there for me through my 24 years of life, bleeding out from the fatal wound on his stomach. I didn't know what to think.
It looked recent, like he had only fallen moments ago. Like he had held on until he knew I was back. Knew that his job was done and he could sag to the ground.
What kind of world did we get pulled into where such a happy and joyful man who has raised 3 kids and even had young grandchildren had his life cut short like this?
I just stared at him, dumbstruck, while his lifeblood tricked onto the ground. Thousands of thoughts ran through my head and hundreds of things that I wanted to say to him formulated on my tongue, but nothing made it out of my mouth.
He was coughing up blood and reaching to get up, but it was without the strength necessary to do so.
Even though he was still alive, I knew what was to come. The wound was too big, the blood leaking out was too much. He was going to die. It was a miracle he hadn't already. My mind was so scrambled [Frost Armor] dissipated, dropping away to reveal my form underneath, wounds and all.
It was all just too much, everything was just too much. Every fiber of my being wished that this was some kind of joke or illusion. That everything would go back to the way it was before this nightmare started.
How did someone watch their father die right in front of their eyes without the power to do anything about it? How do you-
"Son, come here." Dad managed to croak out before coughing up even more blood. There was just so much blood.
My feet responded before my mind caught up with what he said. I shuffled over to him and knelt next to him. Some of his blood started soaking into my pants, some of it was on my hands, but that was my last concern.
"Get your sister," Dad mumbled softly, "She should be here for this."
I immediately shouted for Abigail like it was my only goal in life. I must have sounded like a manic madman by the way I was frantically shouting. Some of the warriors that were still fighting on the front lines looked at me funny.
They hadn't realized the body beside them. They didn't know the severity of the wounds. They were blissfully unaware of the person that was about to die.
They probably thought he was going to be fine. Healed up with a few skills from a Healer. They were wrong.
Dad cringed at the loud yelling, but I ignored it.
Thankfully, Abigail was close by in the makeshift field hospital and heard my shouting quickly. She sprinted over to me when she heard my voice, her hair flapping in the wind. It must have fallen out of her bun during the battle.
Blood coated her clothes in thick splotches and even more was on her hands from healing someone's injury from earlier. Everyone that heard my yelling could tell that this was serious and she had a concerned look on her face as she neared.
As she got closer and noticed who it was that I was kneeling over, her face morphed from concerned to curious as to why I was yelling so frantically. Then she saw the massive wound on his torso and torso. The gaping maw of what used to be a ribcage and the ungodly amount of blood around him. Her face went white.
"No, no, no, no, this can't be happening," she mumbled to herself as her hands started to glow green from the effects of a healing skill as she knelt and put her hands on the wound.
The healing wouldn't help. It was too late for that. Even if she was there immediately after, I didn't think it would have made a difference.
Most of his entire chest was missing. I was once again amazed at his ability to fight through something like this. To only falter when he knew I was back. Maybe miracles did exist. I got to be here for what would be his last moments.
It was almost cruel.
Our father was dying and there was nothing that we could do but watch. All of us watched as the healing did nothing. We all knew it wouldn't work. I knew, she knew, and Dad knew.
"Help me up," Dad said coughing up more blood, reaching for my hand.
"No, you need to stay down. If one healer isn't enough then we'll get another and if that doesn't work we'll get another. We can use all the healing potions from the store. I'm not letting you DIE." Abigail practically screamed out while tears started streaming down her face. All the while never dropping the healing spell.
"Abigail," he said to her, "Save your healing for the others, don't waste it on me. We both know my end is near."
"NO! I can fix this. I can heal you." She started shaking her head quickly making her hair even more messy as even more tears were falling from her face. The glow intensified on her hands and more of her skills flared but still, there was no effect on his body.
Dad must have seen the futility of getting her to stop and looked at me. "Help me up, son."
There was nothing I could do. He was going to die either way, just one was while lying down in a pool of his own blood and the other was doing whatever it was he wanted to do. Seeing it made no difference in the outcome, I acquiesced to his request.
I grabbed him under the arms and lifted him to his feet as he let out a loud grunt of pain. He stumbled a little as I let go of his arms, most likely from the blood loss. There was even more of it under him than I thought. There was so much blood.
Abigail must have finally realized the inevitable conclusion and canceled the spell on her hands. Her opposition to my decision was clear she looked at me with a spiteful glare as I lifted him.
"Both of you have made me proud to be your father," he looked from me to her as a tear escaped his eye. "You have turned into amazing people," he looked at Abigail and added, "And a great mother of her own."
We both had things that we wanted to say but he waved us off and continued. "Tell your mother and brother that I love them, and that I'm sorry I couldn't make it back. Especially your mother." He coughed up some more blood but added under his breath. "She's gonna be furious with me."
"I know what both of you are going to say and it's not necessary. I know you both love me but I don't have a lot of time. I have been thinking about this a lot and I want to go down fighting on the off chance there is a Valhalla." He let out a chuckle at his own words.
Over the years of religious debate with him, I championed the idea that if one of them was real, why not all of them? If heaven and hell existed, why not Valhalla?
I had said it as a joke at the time, to hear him say that now was almost laughable.
After saying that, some color started coming back to his face and he straightened his back a smidge, standing up straighter. He must have used some kind of boosting skill or something. There was no other way to recover like that.
Even though I knew what he was about to do, I didn't have the will to stop him. It was the way I would have wanted to go out. Who was I to tell him no?
He lifted his hand and separated his fingers into a V. "Tell your brother that I said, 'Live long and prosper'."
I almost let out a chuckle before I stopped myself. That was just so like him. Dad was bleeding out, minutes away from death and he's talking about Star Trek to my brother.
Dad had always been a huge Star Trek fan and watched all of the movies and TV shows. I never got into it like he did, but my brother did. They used to watch the old re-runs of the show together when he was younger. I was always more of a Star Wars fan.
He turned to Abigail next. "Abigail, you know you're the oldest. You have to keep the rest of them in line. Be the backbone of the family. Don't let them miss any family dinners now that I won't be there to force them."
Abigail laughed at that and wiped the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand. "Of course Dad, I won't let them weasel out of it." She said back but it wasn't with the same vigor as before.
Dad started to speak again before stopping and choking back a sob. "You'll always be my little girl." He pushed out as more tears fell and he hugged her. Abigail just nodded and started crying harder into his chest.
They broke the hug and he sighed. Then he looked at me. "Son, I guess I'll finally find out what they're dying to get in there for."
This time I couldn't hold back my laughter at the long-standing joke. Ever since I was a kid, we shared that joke with each other. It started when he was driving me to soccer practice or a soccer game, I couldn't quite remember, but we passed a cemetery.
He nudged me while driving and pointed, saying "Christopher, guess what."
I was like, 12 at the time, and looked at the cemetery he was pointing at, "I don't know. What?"
He looked at me with a straight face and said, "They're just dying to get in there."
I didn't know why, but I thought it was the funniest thing that I had ever heard and laughed for almost 10 minutes straight. Ever since then, every time we pass a cemetery, without fail, we say the joke. It was to the point where I would just be driving alone and chuckle to myself as I passed one.
"You'll have to tell me one day," I said back after my laughter died down. Even Abigail let out a laugh or two even though she always hated that joke. She and my Mother thought it was crass and crude.
"Tell your mother that I love her and that I'll be waiting for her." I heard him say to Abigail as I reached down and picked up the axe that he dropped. I knew he would be needing it soon.
He took the axe from me, the axe I had made for him, and looked me in the eye. We just stared like that before he nodded, and I nodded back. His eyes held more in that moment than ever before. He did the same to Abigail.
He looked at us both one last time and started walking towards the wave of beasts that the other group was still fighting. The last thing he said before he walked away was "Live with Honor."
All I could do was watch his back as he got farther and farther away and say to myself, "Die with Glory".
He picked up speed as he got closer to the front line and as he passed it, he was almost at a full sprint. He must have had some mana left as I saw him fell the first few beasts with some weapon skills as he waded into the mass of bodies.
He didn't have much left in the tank, I could tell, because he was moving slower and slower. His shield blocked less and his axe moved slower. Skills got fired off more infrequently. His Fortitude and Vitality must have been on their last legs.
As I watched my father's last moments my anger started rising. I just kept getting angrier and angrier and [Barbarians Fury] almost reactivated on its own after I had canceled it.
Why did this have to happen? Why did I have to stand here and watch my father die? What was the reason behind all of this? What was the point?
My anger reached its peak and I stood there shaking as Dad was too slow to dodge out of the way of a swipe. He couldn't recover fast enough before another attack came from behind him and knocked him down. I didn't get to see the rest as the bodies got in the way, but the ending was clear.
It was over.
Out of the corner of my eye, I thought that I could see wisps of smoke coming off of me like in some cartoon and a character got so angry they started smoking, but I was in no mind to think about that right now.
I sent giant scythes of ice over the area where he had fallen. While I let him die in battle, I wasn't going to allow his body to be eaten.
The familiar chime of a system notification sounded out but I ignored it as that was the last thing that I wanted to look at right now. I just turned to my sister and hugged her while crying like a baby.
I didn't care that I was a man of 24 years, when someone's father died, it didn't matter how old you were.
Comments
ZejeZ
You moved me to tears with this one, amazing work π₯²π«‘
Aaron Hicking
Love the ending and everything about this chapter and part of the story. Great work as always!!
Demonlord
Thanks for the chapter π It's a sad ending but he's worthy of going to Valhalla... It was inevitable that he died and he chose to die as a hero! Thanks for letting us partake in that scenario π
PenguinKills
I got emotional while writing the chapter and I'm glad that someone else feels the same way!
Athena Alexandria
Gah! Who's cutting onions! πππ
James Faulkner
Tftc!
