The End Of The World

I was left in disbelief as her body I held so preciously into my arms crashed into a million of pieces- I lost Kyara. I couldn’t believe she died because of me. After letting out a huge sigh, Aki demanded that we get over with this fight. With little effort, I swung my sword at Aki which only allowed him to send my Dark Excalibur flying and stab me with his own sword. I watched as my health points was closing to zero. I was on the edge of giving up but then I remember Kyara’s words of encouragement, “I believe in you, Kovu. Do your best for us”. Therefore, rejecting the system’s order which just deemed me as dead, I used the last strength I had left to kill Aki with Kyara’s Light Rapier. The game master smiled as we both shattered into thousands of polygons which spread all around in ‘The Globe’. A voice in the system announced that the game has been cleared. Upon hearing the announcement, all the other players’ face lit up with ecstasy and they cheered as loud as they could deducing that Kovu had kept his word about saving everyone and get them back to the real world. 

I opened my eyes and to my surprise, I found myself in the sky outside of The Globe. I opened my menu and saw that instead of the usual interface, only ‘Final Phase’ was displayed. A voice called out to me from behind, and I was shocked to see Kyara, the one who sacrificed her life in order to save me. Aki kept his promise about keeping her alive if I won the battle but then again, did I win? I didn’t really win. 

I looked at Kyara who was smiling at me, her black hair dancing along with the breeze, arms spread out, waiting for me. I rushed to her side and we hugged each other tightly, afraid that if we were to let go, one of us wouldn’t be here anymore. 

 Unexpectedly, Aki, in his real-life appearance, appeared, informing us that the game’s mainframe was deleting all of its data and that within the next ten minutes, nothing else would be left. Kyara asked about the other players to which Aki responded that they have all been successfully logged out of the death game but the thousands who died won’t be coming back. They were gone forever. Aki revealed that he had never been across young people who had such strong will to fight and live for things they really want so when he saw how determined we both were to fight for each other- so hard that it even surpassed the laws of his game, he couldn’t help but accept his defeat. When I asked about the reason why he did all these, he simply replied that he could no longer remember. All he was certain of was the desire to create a floating castle where all laws and restrictions of earth were surpassed. Ever since he was a child, he never stopped dreaming of it and he firmly believed that somewhere the castle at the top of The Globe really exists. He then congratulated us for clearing the game, despite the regret that the 27 more floors of his game were left untouched and he disappeared into thin air. 

Kyara and I spent our last moments in each other’s embrace as we watched the destruction of The Globe. We saw our in-game house falling apart along with the other areas. It felt like my heart was being torn apart. I couldn’t accept the fact that everything is over like this. I never wanted to part ways with Kyara in that way. Squeezing her hand more, I cried and apologized about not being able to send her back to the other world despite the promises I made. She held my face in her hands, wiping away my tears and comforting me with the gentleness of her voice, “I’m happy I was able to meet you, Kovu. I was able to live with you here. There couldn’t be any better gift than this and it’s the happiest I've ever been in my life. And quit thinking of the situation as unfortunate because it isn’t. We're lucky that we get to disappear as one so take it as we’ll be together forever. Thank you for everything. I love you.” 

I look at her, taking in her features for the last time. Tears dwelling into her dark brown eyes but this is not what is stopping her from smiling at me. She was trying to be strong even though she was shattering inside as well. No wonder she was my reason to fight on and on. Everything is starting to feel like a dream. Ever since the first day we were trapped here in The Globe, my main goal was to survive until the end but I never expected to find love here. How I met Kyara, how we started to get along and hang out a lot more, how on the verge of dying in a battle with Cain I realized I had feelings for her, when we got married, the joy we felt when we bought our in-game house and how we enjoyed our honeymoon away from the front lines, not having to fight to live, not having to care about anything else in this world, It was just the two of us- I can still remember everything as if it was yesterday even though it’s been 4 years already.  

I asked Kyara if our relationship will continue in the real world as well and she responded affirmatively, “When we get back to reality, I promise to find you and fall in love with you all over again.” 

We shared a kiss and stayed in each other’s embrace while watching the last bits of The Globe disappear. We were waiting for the final moment to vanish as one. As The Globe entered its final stage of deletion, our game avatars faded away along with it.