A man robbed of death is one without fear.

  One without pain. One without purpose.

  A man who doesn't fear death is not a man.

  They may feel, think, act… But they are beyond us.

  John stood against the crumbling mountain dressed in a tattered suit. A man who has lost everything. His executives, his products… or maybe... he has not.

  Gauth Van Hulsieg stands apart from the half-man John; bruised, battered, broken, bleeding, and yet still… he is left standing.

  Gauth held John to lightning so he may rob him of his death. Because Gauth Van Hulsieg controls reality.

  “The Archliege? Hah! It's good that you remind me!” John tells the beast. John circles Gauth Van Hulsieg just as Gauth Van Hulsieg once circled his subordinates.

  “I had almost forgotten in my dying moments! I forgot how it’s what drives me! And now, I have nothing left to lose!” He taught towards the beast.

  Gauth Van Hulsieg could not have sounded less human as he roared back towards the lesser man below him.

  “YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY ONE JOHN! YOU DIE JUST AS YOU LIVE, UNDER MY PERMISSION. UNDER MY SYSTEMS. UNDER MY FOOT, LIKE THE WORM YOU ARE!”

  Gauth took a clumsy, unmeasured step towards John. John simply replies. “Foul words from a foul man. I don't believe you, Gauth Van Hulsieg.”

  It was the final twig that broke Gauth. He roars, charging John like an angry old man who just so happened to be over sixteen feet tall.

  John doesn't care. He charges right back at Gauth, even if he is an ant in comparison. Gauth Van Hulsieg tries to reach down to pick John up, but John evades just under him, jumping onto his leg and climbing the giant.

  Gauth Van Hulsieg accidentally runs into a wall and knocks himself onto his back, almost crushing John. But John leaped off at the last moment.

  Watching Gauth Van Hulsieg try to stand was a sorry sight. John rushes up to climb over his face, jamming his steel foot into his fleshy eye socket.

  “AHHGH! I WILL ERASE YOU FROM THIS EXISTENCE JOHN!”

  Gauth backhands John wildly, knocking him a half dozen meters away. John tumbled on the ground and felt a sharp crack from his back as he stopped.

  The pain was radiant and deep, but it would not stop him fully. John is able to get back up unto his feet before even Gauth Van Hulsieg could.

  John walks towards him, fearless and unfazed. Gauth finally rises to his knees, looking back down at John with one of his eyes covered and bleeding. The two held a tense eye contact, before Gauth sighs, rising back up to his feet. “What are you doing?! You have failed, John. You cannot kill me. SERaMACs is dead. And you will never find the Archliege.”

  “Yes I will.” John replies.

  “And how will you do that?” Gauth Van Hulsieg asks.

  The rain is calm outside. No lightning has struck since it struck John, who raises his one fist of his remaining arm.

  “Only one way to find out.”

  Gauth Van Hulsieg shakes his head as he stumbles feebly towards his throne. “No. It is over, John. I doubt you will survive another day. Your systems will fail eventually, without the aid of SERaMACs. You are a dead man walking, John. You have died, and no one has told you. No one, except for me.”

  Gauth Van Hulsieg walks past bloodied, and yet... John isn't satisfied. He grabs the fabric around Gauth's calf, yet Gauth punts him back, knocking him unto the cold, dead, metal floor... once again.

  His back pain is getting worse. And yet still… he gets. Back. Up.

  He still feels lucid... but... something is calling out to him.

  Something from that balcony… it calls to him.

  “Hey Gauth? Gauth Van Hulsieg!” John asks… no. John demands.

  The sound of his first name alone makes blood boil. “WHAT! IS IT?!” The injured tyrant yells back, his voice so loud that what remained of John’s ears bled. John replies.

  “Can you destroy that railing so I can kill myself?”

  The question makes Gauth raise an eyebrow.

  “What? No! Do it yourself.”

  John is unable to give a shit at this point. He knows what now must be done. He rushes past Gauth to go climb upon his ivory throne. As ivory as the very tower it sits atop. The atrocity makes Gauth visibly seethe.

  “John… get off of that. Now.”

  John humorously replies. “Why so serious, Gauthy-Poo? Scared that you're powerless if I stop giving a shit?”

  “THIS IS ENOUGH! I WILL CRUSH YOU WITH MY BARE HANDS!!!” Gauth Van Hulsieg screams as he bolts painfully to his former throne.

  “Good.” John says, climbing onto the MeKSUT.

  Gauth Van Hulsieg is both slow, and weak. He aims straight for John, who jumped just out of the way, towards him. And as he leapt, what he was hiding behind his torso made Gauth Van Hulsieg’s remaining eye bulge.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  Only for a moment.

  The next moment was of blindness, tinnitus and pain for once-great Gauth Van Hulsieg.

  John leaped out of the way... as he had stood affront of the remaining missiles left in SERaMACs MeKSUT, and John’s former body.

  As Gauth punched the missiles, his hand exploded into complete gore, and both men were absolutely filled with shrapnel. Because one explosion led to another, led to another.

  Gauth was blind. His other eye was eviscerated, and he was blasted back towards the open balcony. Gauth's body smashed into the ground with finality.

  It remained just within the inside of the chamber, all while John was blasted into the frigid outside. He was close to falling off, but stopped just before the railing’s edge.

  Not of his own accord. His body tumbled across the metal like roadkill.

  His body felt the pain of the shrapnel. Of all of his blood beginning to spoil. But he did not care. He could not anymore.

  He rolled onto his back with the last of his strength, giving one last look to Gauth Van Hulsieg. Gauth Van Hulsieg was dead.

  He didn't even get the chance to spew some last words.

  John was happy with the results, and felt satisfied with this outcome. He knew he was going to die. No longer on Gauth's terms... but his own.

  No one would rip him back to life. No one would interrupt his peace.

  Because as John finally looked up into the sky, towards where the clouds would once be… it was no longer raining. There was not a single drop. And where there was once an eternal cloud, there was now a deep, blue, gorgeous sky peeking out from behind those clouds.

  It was real. The sky was real. He shed a tear even through his red eyes. It was even more beautiful than he could've possibly imagined. The floor grew cold with his blood… but… that was okay.

  Gauth Van Hulsieg was dead, and with his death, he would meet the Archliege. This is what John believes. And he smiles about his belief with conviction.

  And then… the Sun shone on him. The real… life… God-given Sun.

  It touched his skin with unknown grace. It was warming him like a long-lost blanket, even as his skin grew cold. Even as he finally, finally died. His vision started fading. Yet not into darkness… into light.

  John couldn't smell the stench of the city anymore. Nor could he feel the grounds below him. His body felt weightless as light enveloped his vision. It felt like ascension. John cried, and he cried, and he cried.

  He might have never been so happy. To see the light at the end of this tunnel. He felt his body rise higher and higher into the sky, his pain fading, his body… healing. He knew he was dying. The tinnitus kept lowering its pitch. Yet it was okay. He was okay.

  He was… he was finally going to see the Archliege.

  You know, they say the last thing to leave you as you die is your hearing. But what about… your friends? Or your family?

  John could… finally… close his eyes. And finally… he heard them.

  “Welcome, John.” The golden voice called.

  And… John opens his eyes. Suddenly… he was standing.

  The bright, blue, gentle sky clears into the entirely of what was above.

  Now, it was he who stood above the clouds.

  Happy. Healthy. And fleshy; for even his right leg was okay.

  And he was okay. He saw the figure manifest in front of him. “Is… that… are you—”

  “Yes. You are welcome here, John.” The Archliege answered. Its figure manifested as an ordinary man… or even an ordinary woman. It could've been anyone by its appearance, all except that it wore some white robes which matched the caring clouds perfectly.

  “Where… am I?” John asks the Archliege, who beckons him to follow it. And so John does, letting the Archliege reply.

  “Where are you John? Well, its name is up to you. Not many people get here, unfortunately. And you can't be too long.”

  “May I ask you a few questions? Please?” John asks the Archliege. The Archliege stops and turns, grabbing John by his real, fleshy hands.

  “Of course John, but you must be quick unfortunately. You only have the time for three.” John looks down to the hands of the Archliege.

  His own are fading ever-so-slowly.

  It was quite overwhelming to see the real, blue, sky.

  With his real, blue, eyes... and his body as he remembers it.

  “What… is… is Amy okay?” He asks it.

  “Yes.” The Archliege replies.

  “She will be sad for you, but okay. She wishes to be with you John.”

  John looks away and blushes slightly, feeling himself begin to hover ever so slightly.

  “Yeah… I kind of get that now. Does… does she know I said I love her?”

  The Archliege grimaces and replies unfortunately, looking away as it speaks to him the answer.

  “No John. I’m sorry to say she didn't. SERaMACs never let you say.”

  “I should've said it earlier… but I guess it's too late now.” John comments as he feels lighter.

  He knows he's going now, seeing the Archliege nod as a reply.

  “Oh… and one more question, Archliege?” John says to get its attention. John is getting lighter. The world, getting brighter.

  “Oh, yes? What might that be John?” The Archliege inquires, turning to face him as the world grows ever brighter.

  “What… what are you? What is the Archliege?”

  As John floats ever higher, the Archliege shakes its head and smiles.

  The Archliege looks back to John; the two gracing eye contact.

  Its cheerfulness is uncompromised. Its chuckles with happiness.

  And, with bliss, it tells John the answer.

  “Heheheh… me? You've been asking the wrong question, John. The real question is… who are you?”

  John smiles.

  And as John looks up, he closes his eyes.

  The world fades to white.

  And Archliege smiles with him as he dies.

  John died happy, knowing he made a difference.

  His mind, his soul, his body; engulfed into the depths of the aether.

  All was happy. All was bright. All, in the end of time.

  To be yours, in infinite finality.

  The. End.