Clone Seeker

Ciel and Oliver had played for around three hours, not stopping until the fire was pushed back ten meters. For now that would have to do. Oliver wished for more, but the excessive loss of blood left him weak.

“That’s enough, get some sleep.”

Ciel said, his voice stern. He understood his friend's desire to push himself further, but there truly was no purpose to it all anymore. That bitter truth they both were too stubborn to swallow. Oliver spared him an indescribable look, one which made Ciel’s own waver for a moment. That moment hung in the air, before Oliver broke it off finally by shifting his sight downwards. There he saw his mangled leg, and just above his waist was a deep gouge, still spilling blood. Noticing the somber expression of his friend Ciel felt crushed by the wait of his guilt and muttered out.

“I–I’m sorry.”

Oliver was taken back to his senses by those words of sorrowful regret, he then forced a smile, one gentle and filled with acceptance.

“It’s not your fault, we should have known that mystic-tech lacked the ability to counter the authority and will of the fallen. Now we do, lesson learned.”

His hand covered the ugly wound as he spoke, the dry blood on his hand suddenly re-enforced by fresh ones. Ciel clenched his fists.

“It is my fault, I should have sensed it approaching. And even if I couldn’t have then at least I should have been able to save more people. They… They all placed everything on me, and I failed them.”

Saying it out loud tasted bitter, the worst kind he had ever felt. He remembered that not too long ago, when he ascended to a Stage 4 Esper, he felt unstoppable, and yet where was all that supposed power when helpless hands reached out. Even the single soul he managed to save was destined to die, the wound he suffered drenched with the animosity of a being far beyond what Ciel was. He could not heal him.

Oliver did not answer for a long time, then eventually he reached out and touched Ciel’s shoulder.

“You did all that you could. Perhaps someone else might have done more, perhaps not. Regardless of the what ifs. I can still say you protected me well, allowing me just a few more months within this wonderful world. I’m certain the others would agree with me as well. Thank you Ciel, for everything. I mean it.”

Wonderful, Huh.

Oliver’s grip tightened.

“Listen, I might not even make it before the food runs out. I–I don’t want you to die losing control, I want you to die with your sanity, as a human like me. So… If you see that I’m about to go, please join me.”

Ciel’s eyes widened slightly, surprised by the request of his friend.

Take myself out huh… That is an option, although in my case I will have to do it twice. Is… Is that an outcome I can accept?

He knew it was not a choice, it was an inevitability. Humanity had lost two years ago, and now the few stubborn cockroaches which escaped that fate would be reunited with them. It was an outcome so inevitable that it almost seemed as the world itself willed it.

Seeing the wavering eyes of Oliver, Ciel did not have it in him to dispute. He simply nodded.

“Okay.”

To that Oliver smiled and soon he finally allowed himself to rest.

*****

Ciel could not fall asleep. It was already the depths of the night, the moon hanging high above him far beyond his reach. It was a dazzling white pearl which adorned the black sky. He stared aimlessly at it, his thoughts a chaotic storm.

So much had occurred in his life, yet he never could have imagined it would end this way. He reminisced on Bastion city, then on the people which once called its borders home, then on the disaster which followed, then on the long days of hiding.

Each passing second encompassed a different moment within his mind, and a different emotion stirred within every minute. Sometimes happiness, sometimes regret, sometimes sorrow, but most of all, anger. Deep simmering rage.

He knew there was nothing he could do, yet he bitterly clung to hope that he could still find a way. If not to save the ones he had taken under his care then at least to save his friend beside him, and if even that was denied to him then he wanted to tear the fallen who did this to pieces. The more he thought of this furious wish, the more he sank into despair. Eventually as this cycle of emotions and memories danced viciously, Ciel’s thoughts wandered back to his Concept Abilities. The image of ‘The Fool’ card burned deep into his cerebrum.

The Fool… The Fool… The Fool…

For some reason he simply could not let that thought go. The abilities it granted worked differently in nature than that of the other cards with the exception of ‘The World’ card. Ciel suspected this was a result of one being the beginning and the other the end.

The beginnings… New beginnings.

Suddenly Ciel’s green eyes bulged. He swiftly lifted his body as an avalanche of thoughts slammed into him. An idea had sparked, one so crazy he trembled at the thought of it working. The Fool card had many abilities, however one of its uses was a simple ability to cause trickery onto an opponent, to fool them.

Often Ciel employed this to fool others into mistaking his distance, or even distorting the arrangements in which they saw the world.

They were simple methods, and he still did not know its full capabilities. That was only natural, Ciel had only had this power for a little over two months. He had been given neither the time or means to experiment with the true reaches of his Concept Abilities.

Furthermore, every time he saw The Fool card, he was overcome by an indescribable feeling. It was as if his intuition was screaming at him that he was missing something vital. Ciel trusted his senses more than most, he had special ones after all.

For that reason he felt certain he had just reached his final hope. The final move to play within the grand game which humanity had been involved in since Judgement Day.

Talk about waiting for the buzzer.

Ciel let out an exhilarated chuckle. If he was right, then by combining the power which the meaning of the fool card held, that being of travels and new beginnings, with his ability to manifest its meaning and symbols then he could very well break the very laws which govern the world.

I just need to fool time…

To not fool others but the laws and nature of the world itself.

It was insane, but he felt so certain that it was not impossible. Perhaps that was just the hope of a desperate dying fool or perhaps it was a sign from his intuition. Whatever the case, Ciel did not care. This would either work or he would die.

Still, I need to discuss this with Oliver and get some ideas. I might very well only get one try so I need to get it right.

Shifting over and shaking Oliver’s shoulder Ciel called for his friend, his excitement barely suppressed.

“Oliver, wake up. I think I just found our salvation! Oliver…”

He shook his shoulders for a few more seconds before finally Oliver moved. His eyes opened slightly, his tired expression exposed by the bright red glow which bathed his face. It took only one exchange of sights for Ciel’s heart to sink.

Oh no…

Oliver had reached his limit far quicker than either of them had thought it seemed.

“Oliver, wait! Not yet! I can save us now! Please hold on just a day more, if not then an hour, hell even just a minute will do! Please let me save you!”

Hearing Ciel’s pained voice, Oliver’s lips weakly turned into a smile.

“I–I’m Sor–ry”

He said in a voice so low it was drowned out by the crackle of the burning fire all around them. Then his tired eyes succumbed to the weight of his fatigue. They closed, never to open again.

Ciel’s eyes moistened, his heart assaulted by an indescribable feeling of loss. Not just because of his friend’s passing but that of all of humanity.

Then not a moment later his soul sparked to life, like an engine being suddenly ignited as his spirituality began to leak outwards uncontrollably. His spirituality was thick and now beyond his capability to control. Or at least it would be soon enough.

Damn it all! Let me grieve at least!

Cursing the world itself, Ciel had no more time to hesitate, with Oliver gone then he would lose his Concept Accommodation shortly after, perhaps a minute after, perhaps just seconds, whatever the speed, he was certain that should he fail to act now, then within no more than ninety seconds he will be dead.

As his spirituality raged forth, reshaping the area around him in bizarre and unnatural forms. As it reshaped his body into different forms, stretching his limbs, changing the length of his hair, changing his nails into claws, his skin into carbon, his blood into a boiling sea, Ciel grasped the black deck of the arcana cards and reached inwardly.

There he grasped the almost faded connection between his soul and his Concept Accommodation. Feeling it slipping away, he did not hesitate and willed the activation of ‘The Fool’ ability. He poured whatever spirituality which still obeyed his will into it and let out a stifled pained scream as his body morphed painfully. This agony lasted for a second, then two, then three, and finally by the fourth it occurred.

The world quaked, and the raging spirituality disappeared in an instant, as if it had never existed to begin with. Not a moment after, the raging infernal flames spiked as the force which had once forbidden their passage evaporated.

They raced forth with terrifying speed and soon devoured a body. It was of a man with light brown hair and wearing a pair of shattered glasses, covered in blood and ghastly wounds. He showed no resistance to the fire as it engulfed him.

The man to his side was no different. His body had been deformed, unrecognizable from before. He was also covered in blood but far fewer than his unfortunate friend. His face wore a pained expression, yet his eyes remained open. They retained their green glimmer but lacked the spark of life.

He was not dead however, merely hollow. His soul had already escaped its cage of flesh.

The fire came and devoured his body as well. Just a second after its restraint had been lifted, it had consumed the world absolutely yet again. It crackled and danced, somehow more viciously than before, as if certain that nothing would ever challenge its authority again.