The Final Scene

I looked up at him as he floated down, resplendent in his superiority. His wings catching the dying light, the flames of destruction quieting down almost as if in anticipation of this moment. He landed softly, folded wings, sad look on his face, but firm eyes. He knew it would come to this. I told him it would come to this. Several times in fact. He walked forward his taking in everything. The horror I rained down on the nation I once called home. I warned them all that this would be the result of them defying me. They did, with his blessing. He could not hide the hurt as he lay his eyes on the one I called my puppy. Looking just as he did when he was slept off on my couch. Only this time he would not rise again and complain of the fact that I tease. He would never joke about the way we fight like an old married couple, his death was his fault and he knew it, but his ideals and foolish ties to his morals would not let me be. This meeting was destined. He stopped at the foot of the casket that held my acolyte. He looked at me as he placed his hand on the crystal coffin that held my grief for all to see but none to harm ever again. 

“Tobi, it does not have to be this way,” he said sadly “we can still stop this. You can stop your assault on the country” He walked forward to my throne, his light keeping my summons at bay as they yipped and howled and tried to claw at the person that made my heart hurt so. The one I once called friend. The leader of the four. My David. He stopped in front of me his hand outstretched “Please Tobi” he whispered.

I look at his palm, tempted and tired, so tired. Just to hold his hand, to know he walks beside me. To stop this war. To go back to the way it was. Joking and teasing and happy. He sees my face warring with the emotions and losing. I glance at your body, unchanged, unblemished, and perfect. Unable to call your soul back into it, all because of the person in front of me and his need to find balance and make all right in the universe. Only his instinct saves him as he puts his guard up an instant before the full force of my wrath slams into him, throwing him away from me into the wall I conjured up to stop his flight path so he does not go too far.

I use my power to clear and solidify the area that would be our final stand. Shrouding you in darkness, for a while so you do not get to see this. I stood up from my throne, my summons baying and growling and whimpering in fear of what is to come. “Remember when you died” I begin, speaking softly, there is no need to shout knowing he can hear me “that was before your time of course, but you were gone. I could not stand that, your brother a mess at your feet” walking to him as he extricated himself from where he was wedged in as his power flared bringing the entire structure to crumbles “I did not accept the course of the things. I said the fates be damned and opened a portal to you in your version of paradise” He stares at me now standing wings unfurled, power gathered in his core, not a hair out of place. Whatever damage, minuscule as it maybe was already recovered. “Bursting into that place pure and holy and peaceful. I looked at you and what did I do Dave?” my voice barely a touch above a whisper, my hand holding his cheek. Shame colors his eyes as he answers back “You asked me if I wanted to leave there, you gave me a choice” His answer drives my rage to higher heights as I remember. I grab the back of his head and slam his face into the ground at my feet pulsing my power into his skull as I scream at him “SO WHY DID YOU DENY ME THAT SAME CHANCE WITH TOMIWA?” 

My power drives into him rending flesh and mystic energy. I pour my hurt into him for the first time ever in our friendship. I do not hold back. “I brought you back by your choice. I gave you a part of my soul. I poured power into you. I ended my summons with Grimalkin to stabilize your transition. I made you what you are that has come into my domain demanding me to stop.” I grab unto one of his wings and begin to tear as my voice shrieks “HOW DARE YOU” 

His blast catches me unawares as I tumble away from him. His face angry, his calm demeanor gone “You do not command me Tobi” he yells. I sneer as I answer “ No that would be your imaginary god” I push off and slug him across the face, the impact rending the very air as the ground caves away. My mind lost in the rage and the hurt. This is not the place for fancy tricks or complex seals, nor is there any time as he kicks me away flying towards me. I rip my skin, breaking the seal that confines me to this human form. My arms and legs elongate and black iridescent scales envelop the length of them. My chest brims with dark long hair reaching down my torso and my genderless crotch. Black demonic bat wings tear out of my back my patagium thick and the claws wicked sharp and truly evil looking. My face darkens as my eyes, ears, and nose bleeds a purple shiny substance that marks me as horns extend up from my temples my shoulder-length hair fluttering in the wind as I stop mid-air and meet him my nails and claws tear into him as I am momentarily stronger. My prehensile tail wraps around the right-wing tilting him off-center and allowing me to blast him in the chest with pure energy into the ground five feet beneath us. I sense the change in the air as I wait and repair my wounds. I wait for the dust to clear safe in the knowledge that there would be no tricks in this fight. Just raw power and rage. The dust clears from the crater made from a man slamming into it, from it rises the Leader of the Nephilim; Abanim.

He was always beautiful in this form. A near-perfect semblance of the first human to be graced with the power of the Universe, only this one could interact on the physical plane. Three pairs of wings extending from his back, a smaller pair on each foot robed in the darkness that encompasses space, the birth and deaths of planets far and wide twinkle in dots in the folds of his cloth. His face covered with eyes and a mouth. Each one blinking at separate times looking on at everything around him and in time. His hair flames of a thousand suns crowned intricately with the essence of the faithful dead. In his left hand Gilgamesh; the spear that pierced the flesh of death, in his right Shamash; the shield that stopped the wrath of God. Before me, stood a being pure and powerful, a god in his own right. Yet I was not scared, for I that which ends all things, that which makes and unmakes. I am the crowned Demiuorgous and today I end it all. 

The very air crackles and rends and twists as two beings who should never exist in the same space yet alone the same plane of existence face themselves readying power to fight to the death. He speaks first, slow and steady, his voice containing the wishes and desires, fears and the death throes of all who are “You cannot face me Tobi, stand down and stop this” He opens his arms to accept me into his loving embrace “We shall overlook this, you may continue to do as you wish in your dimension, but please stop this, the human do not deserve your wrath.”

“You’re right” I answer him. My voice heavy with grief at the unfairness of it all. Ready to do what must be done. “They do not deserve my wrath. You do” I charge at him, so does he as we clash. Rending the sky as time twists away from our clash. Quiet reigns in this space, only disturbed by our grunts and the thwacks of our flesh meeting knuckle and shin and skull. It took me back to the first time we fought. We clashed and drew because we had to hold back. We both knew then that should we ever fight with our all, our friendship would never survive it. So we never did again. Until now. The earth crying as it broke slowly apart, our innocence gone as we raged at the person we once cared the most for. 

I caught him on the chin and kicked away his shield as it broke the crust of the land beneath with its power. I lunged with my claws at his heart, just that one moment. I looked into the eyes of the one I called friend and saw what was once was beneath it all. My will faltered, my heartbreaking at what I was about to do. I paused. He did not. His spear pierced my side. The pain sharp, the effect immediate, my power dispersed. I held the spear as he ripped it out gashing my palms as they sliced their way out of my body. I looked at him confused, his face raging. Only when I began my descent back to the ground from the sky we made our battleground did confusion and the comprehension cross his face. The hard barren ground embracing me as one who loved me should. My true form receding as all my power left me. His true form coming to the fore as his borrowed power was returned to the power that lent him. His body broken and battered as he stayed afloat, Mine pristine almost like yours, just a bit smudged. He holds his mangled right arm as he asks “Why?” 

I look at him, not bothering to answer his rhetorical, I closed my eyes not wanting to look at the one who ended my life just as I could not bring myself to end his. I let the memories of a better time, a happier time enclose me as my soul drifts away on the very spot we once lived together as best of friends. Today on this day, this hour, this very minute. The earth died along with its solar system, starting from the very spot of Sabo, Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria, Africa, Earth. My body sighs it's last breath in the very quiet as my soul quietly drifts away.

Waking up on the mattress laid on the floor, nestled between dirty laundry and worn shoes, I tense as quiet laughter flows from the room next to me. My chest tight as I wrap myself further from the cold and turn away from the light. Closing my eyes and huddle closer into myself for warmth.