No Such Thing as Good and Evil

Alexis clicked a button on his sword causing the vibrating and loud noises to cease, shooting Shade a fake smile. “Not happy to see me? Don’t worry the feelings mutual.”

“Then why are you here? How are you here?” Shade growled back.

“How?” Alexis replied with a sarcastic laugh. “I flew here of course, silly. Oh, don’t give me that look.” He said to the flat and angry stare Shade maintained. “We both know that’s the type of joke you so loved once upon a time.” Shade though didn’t laugh, nor even smirk, maintaining his purely hate filled glare. Seeing this, the fake smile left Alexis’ face, and he sighed. “Fine, you actual seem to be serious, which must be a first for you, so I’ll be serious as well. I assume you mean how did I…” he was cut off though by the white furred minotaur.

The minotaur pointed at Alexis with a sneer. “You really think you can come in here, attack our base, kill our men, and have a peaceful conversation without us doing anything about it.”

Alexis frowned at the man’s interruption, and shook his head. “Well, actually I do think that.” He pushed his arm out in front of himself, then from the shadows in the room, black tendrils like tentacles began racing towards the minotaur. The one-legged minotaur’s eyes went wide, and he tried to hop away, but the tendrils reached him with ease. The tendrils surrounded the minotaur on the floor, then raised up into the air putting him in a makeshift jail of tentacles. The minotaur tried to grab one, but his hand went right through it like it wasn’t there. Yet the tendrils he couldn’t touch, then wrapped around his limbs, and pulled him into the air spread eagle. They slowly pulled harder and harder while the minotaur yelped and screamed for help, but all the other hunters and dragons watched in fear, while Shade watched with a deathly straight face. Finally, the limbs couldn’t take any more, and popped out of the minotaur like they were plug in limbs on a doll. The minotaur’s now limbless body fell from the air to the ground, where he bled everywhere, still yelping and screaming. “Oh, be quiet already.” Alexis said dismissively, and waved his hand in the air again. The tendril holding his right arm dropped it, instead shooting down to the minotaur’s mouth, turning its tip into a shadowy plier like device, and forcefully opening the minotaur’s mouth open wide. The tendril holding his left arm then shot down and shoved the arm down the minotaur’s throat. The minotaur’s limbless body thrashed about trying to dislodge the arm, but having no limbs it couldn’t, and after a few minutes, he finally succumbed to suffocation and fell still. Alexis then looked out at the rest of the room. “There, now do any of the rest of you have anything to say?” The room was quiet. “Good, back to what I was saying before then.” he said, turning back toward Shade.

Shade turned his own attention away from the disembodied corpse back to Alexis. “That was rather gruesome for someone apparently so noble to be a commander.”

Alexis shrugged. “I’m a commander in Normuc. We don’t follow any gods, though we do have some churches. We’re about results, and I assume you were going to kill him eventually, so the result is the desired outcome. The process of getting that outcome doesn’t particularly matter.”

“Rather cold words from someone who stabbed me in the back for being a terrible person.”

Alexis shook his head. “You’re right, I stabbed you in the back because you’re a terrible person. What I did to that man was because he was a terrible person. He was torturing and killing innocent people, a lot like you were when we traveled together. You see, you and the hunters are much more similar than I think you would want to admit.” Alexis paused for a moment expecting a response, a rebuttal of some sort, but none came. “Nothing to say?”

Shade maintained his unblinking straight faced emotionless cold stare. “If you thought I would deny it, I’m not. I’m well aware of the things I’ve done, the people I’ve killed. I’m well aware of who I am, what I’ve become, who I’ve become.”

“Finally seen the light?” Alexis replied. “Or I guess in your case, the dark. That doesn’t bring back all the people you’ve killed.”

Shade slowly and pointedly turned his head from Alexis back to the dismembered minotaur’s corpse, then back to Alexis again. “I don’t think you’re the beacon of morality you seem to think you are. I know you look up to Gaelin, strive to be like him. But you’re much more similar to me then you would like to admit.”

Alexis snarled, bearing his jagged toothed maw, and the shadows in the room began to roil and bubble like a pot of water over a fire. “I’m nothing like you.”

“I think the skeletons in your closet would disagree.”

“I killed people who deserved it! I killed evil people, the scourge of the planet, I’m not some reckless sociopath like you were! Don’t you dare compare me to yourself!” He yelled back.

Shade finally showed some emotion, his stoic face turning sorrowful, as if he felt pity for Alexis. “That’s the same thing I told myself for years. Maybe one day you’ll the see light yourself, and find yourself in the darkness next to me.”

Alexis laughed through his snarl, sarcastically throwing his hands around, his weapon flailing around in the air like it was weightless. “The mass murdering maniac is now a philosopher, oh please Shade, share your great epiphany on life with me.”

Shade once again peered over at the lifeless corpse, then back to Alexis. “I already have.” He said somberly, his life full of regrets flowing out with every word. “Like I said, I used to tell myself the same things. That the people I killed deserved it. That I was doing good, was making the world a better place by destroying evil. But here’s the truth of it, Alexis. There is no such thing as good and evil, only a bunch of shades of grey. What you think is good, what I think is good, what that minotaur thought was good are all different. You may think your actions are good, but that doesn’t mean they actually are. We’re all heroes in our minds, but how many of us actually wear the cape? What’s the saying people throw around? History shines down on the victors. The winners of wars have always been the good guys, the righteous ones, but what are the odds of that? Do the good guys truly always win, or are we just gaslighted to believe that.”

Alexis growled louder with outrage, and pointed his large swordlike weapon at Shade. “Don’t push your own life’s failures onto me! Just because you put everyone who stood in your way to the sword doesn’t mean I have! Some of us have empathy, morals, values! I am not you!”

“Your anger suggests deep down, your more conflicted about it then your words say.” Alexis clicked the button on his sword, and it roared back to life, vibrating violently and making a loud humming noise. Shade didn’t react to the threat, instead he calmly looked up toward the ceiling. “Unless me and him fighting was the point of this visit, you may want to calm your pal down.”

A slim woman fell from the ceiling, landing gracefully on the ground next to Alexis. She had pointed ears like an elf, but had blue skin and a horn coming from her forehead. Her eyes and hair were bright orange and she was wearing a ninja like tight black outfit, but it was made from some smooth material Shade didn’t recognize.

She looked at Shade with glowing eyes of awe, clasping her hands together with a gigantic smile plastered on her face. “Alexis told me you were strong, but I had my doubts. Nobody has ever sensed me while I’m in full stealth though, you’re the first one. My names Alasse by the way, I’m so excited to finally meet you!”

Alasses odd admiration for Shade only seemed to enrage Alexis more, as tentacles flew up out of the shadows all around the room, violently wriggling around. Shade looked at them all then smirked over at Alexis. “What are you so mad about? Jealous I was her first?” he said with a wink.

Alasses face blushed a little, but she turned to Alexis. “Sir, didn’t you specifically tell me before we came here you weren’t going to let him get under your skin.”

Shades smirk disappeared as his anger and hatred for Alexis bubbled up to the surface again. He clicked his tongue and shook his head. “Well, Alasse, you can’t exactly blame him for that. You see, he is who he is. A back stabbing, two faced, liar. And if he wants to fight to the death, then let’s dance.” Shade formed a large, two-sided scythe out of his echos, and held it in his right hand. He then launched himself like a meteor at Alexis. Alexis pressed another button on his own large weapon then took off at high speed himself.

They both flew across the large throne room in mere moments, but right before they reached each other, Alasse appeared between the two on the ground. “Stop!” She yelled throwing her arms out, and they froze. Shades spinning scythe, as well as his body, stuck in place, floating in midflight. Same for Alexis, who’s sword was no longer vibrating, remaining perfectly still. Now so close, Shade could see the sword clearer. The vibrating was actual tiny blades that were spinning along the edge of the sword. Some of the tiny blades had also shot out of the sword and were mere inches from hitting him, but he didn’t think they would do much damage. The tentacles in the room that were also rapidly approaching the fray had frozen as well. Shade tried to move, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t. While his head couldn’t move, his eyes and mouth could, and he looked at Alasse. “This is a pretty bullshit ability.” He then noticed that not just her pupils were orange anymore, but her whole eyes were now glowing orange. “Oh, don’t tell me you were also blessed by a god. These so-called holy gods are all apparently huge whores.”

“I can’t move while under this ability either.” She replied sternly, her jovial tone from before gone. “And no, to my knowledge I wasn’t blessed by a god, I was born with this ability. I’m not sure if you know what I am, but people think I bring bad luck, and this ability was seen as an omen of that by more former village.”

“Bring bad luck?” Shade mused out loud. “Oh, you’re an Oni. One parent elf, one orc, correct?”

“Correct.” She replied, and let go of the ability. Neither of them expecting it, Shade and Alexis crashed into each other at full speed. The miniature blades piercing into Shade, while the spinning echos scythe cut right through Alexis’s armor and cut into his arm. As neither was expecting it though, the attacks, while painful, didn’t land any decisive blows, instead the pair crashed down to the ground.

“God fucking damnit Alasse.” Alexis snarled while Shade was more interested in just how much damage the tiny blades had done to him, his chest bleeding rather profusely.

They both then went to get up, but Alasse jumped back in. “Stop!” She yelled, and the pair froze again. Shade was on one knee while Alexis was doing a pushup to throw himself back to his feet.

“Your training next week is going to be the most uncomfortable, intense and painful thing you will ever experience.” Alexis snarled.

“I wouldn’t have to do this sir, if you just passed the message from the king along like we were supposed to, instead of playing out old grudges.” Alasse replied. Then, a large, black scaled hand wrapped around her neck, and began squeezing. ‘What?” She croaked through choked breath.

“Let go of the ability, Alasse.” Shade said coldly monotoned while on his one knee.

“What did you do? How are you doing this?” she choked out. As she was under her own ability, she couldn’t move and thus couldn’t remove the hand from her throat.

“When you first froze us, I noticed you appeared between us, I wondered why. I saw I was frozen, you were frozen and he was frozen, as well as his tentacles. But the hunters and dragons that had ran to the back of the room weren’t. I made a quick guess that the ability needs line of sight, you have to see us to freeze us and any of our abilities. So, in the short time I had between being frozen, I made a clone behind you. I told it what I wanted it to do, then disconnected from it, making it a blob of energy rather than an ability I was controlling. I gambled that the disconnect from myself would cause it to not freeze like his tentacles did, and I was right. Now if you don’t undo the ability, it’s going to slowly squeeze harder and harder until your neck breaks like a twig.”

“How did you…. figure it out…so quickly…. you were…. only not frozen…for a few…seconds” Alasse replied, the grip around her nick tightening making every word a struggle.

“You don’t get through as many life-or-death situations as I have without being able to figure out an opponent’s weakness on the fly. Now, are you going to release us, or will you die?”

“Alasse, just let it go!” Alexis said, his snarl gone, now desperation in his voice.

The grip became so tight, she could no longer breathe. As she began to slowly lose consciousness, she let go of her ability. At the same time she let the ability go, the clone disappeared from behind her and the grip around her neck vanished. She fell to the ground, coughing and wheezing, struggling to catch her breath. Alexis flew back to his feet, but instead of launching at Shade again, he ran over to Alasse and bent down next to her. “Hey, your okay. Take deep breaths, slow deep breaths.”

While Alexis tended to his subordinate, Shade once again was keenly interested in the mini metal shards that had flown into him. He began to pick them out of his chest, then closely inspected them. They were ridged pieces of pointed steel. Something as ordinary as that though shouldn’t have been able to pierce into his scaled skin. What was that weapon Alexis was using? An invention from Normuc of some sort.

His attention was taken away from the little pieces of metal when he felt someone staring at him. He looked up to see Alasse was already back to her feet and once again staring at him with an odd amount of glee. “First you saw through my stealth, then you managed to defeat my ability. The rumors about you were true!” Her eyes beaming with intrigue and admiration.

Shade looked over at Alexis rather confused. “Is she okay in the head? She does know she almost died, right?”

“She’s what some call a battle junkie.” He replied, the brief worry he had for Alasse already being replaced with brand new annoyance.

“How does it even work?” Alasse said, ignoring both of their comments. “Is it like creating new life? How do you create a clone, then let go of control over it, does it become its own entity? It doesn’t have a soul, right? Oh! Do you put one of the souls you’ve eaten into it? Its like necromancy with more steps!”

Shade though just shrugged. “I don’t know how it works, I just tried doing it one day, and it worked.”

“What?” Alasse said with a mix of confusion and astonishment. “You just did it one day? Things like that would take most people years to perfect. Years of research into technique, echos manipulation, how the ability should work…”

Alexis let out a sarcastic laugh, cutting her off. “You’re wasting your time if you think your going to learn anything of substance research wise from him. I bet any amount of coin he’s telling the truth. He’s not just a lucifer dragon, no, he’s stronger then almost all other lucifer dragons. It’s why he was supposed to become king. He’s one of the most born talented people you’ll ever meet. If he put his mind to it, he could probably become a demi-god of some sort. You may think I’m strong Alasse, but even I have to use things like this.” He said looking down at the weapon he was holding. “Just to even stand a chance against him. He has infinite potential at his finger tips, the worlds his oyster, yet this is who he is. A guy who just ‘does’ things. Not just ability wise, but action wise as well. He does whatever he wants, whenever he wants, because he can. He doesn’t think about the consequences of what he’s doing, or whether what he’s doing is truly right. He just does them, and nobody can stop him. Then when it turns out people don’t like the things he’s done, or don’t like the fact he does whatever he wants free of ever facing real consequences, and as such don’t like him, he plays sad and depressed. He acts like the world has forsaken him, while that same world burns down from the fires he made.”

Shade in response started to laugh himself. First a tiny giggle, before gradually turning into a full belly laugh. He cackled, slapped his knee, and roared at the top of his lungs while Alexis, Alasse, the hunters and dragons all stared at him with varying emotions. He almost stopped at one point, wiping tears from his eyes, but just looking at Alexis made him start laughing again. Finally, after more tear wiping, and over exaggerated breath catching, he looked at Alasse while pointing at Alexis. “Oh man, this guy. Ever the jokester he is.” Then in an instant, the laughing smile immediately left his face, and he took his angry yet stoic face once more, turning back to Alexis. “The world burnt down under my fire, did it? That’s odd, Alexis. It appears to me that in the decade I disappeared, the worlds gone to shit. Maybe I did do things without thinking, but is that really worse than sitting around and doing nothing, like you and all the other scared little kingdoms are doing.” He then started sarcastically throwing his hands around in the air, mimicking the way Alexis had just done. “Oh, maybe if we don’t do anything, Merellien will just kill all the dragons then not take us over. Laughable. And let me guess, this message from the king is that he wants to have a conversation, the same one Aeirth and Gaelin both wanted to have. What am I going to do about Merellien, am I going to join the war? Seems odd, so many people think I’m a piece of shit, and they may be right, but those same people seem ever so keen to work with me again. You know why? Because I got shit done. Maybe I did kill a bunch of innocent people, but don’t act like I didn’t kill my fair share of scumbags. When I was going around causing havoc, being the ‘black devil’, this shit with Merellien would never have happened. And you know that, which is why you’re here to beg for my help, just like all the others.”

Alexis growled, as his grip on his weapon tightened again. “Beg for your help? If it was up to me, I would kill you where you stand.”

Shade formed a scythe out of his echos again, and began twirling it in one hand. “Like you could. You already tried stabbing me in the back while I was sleeping, and even then you couldn’t kill me. How are you going to do it with me awake?”

“Stop!” Alasse yelled, and everything froze again. “You two aren’t doing this again. I don’t know why you two despise each other so much, but we came here to deliver a message and the message has been delivered, more or less. Sir, I think it’s time we go.”

“He’s never told you about what he did to me?” Shade said, his stare bearing into Alexis’ eyes.

“No, he’s avoided the subject every time I bring it up.” She replied, letting go of the ability.

“Well then.” Shade said, his echos scythe disappearing into mist. “Before you go, I think it’s time you learn about the kind of man you’re working with.”