The Eden Crisis
Chapter 21: Twin Sorrows

We silently make our way to the twelfth floor. This room is like the last but the stained glass has purple and blue arranged in peculiar patterns. As I walk ahead of everyone I am stopped by a dark portal opening beneath my feet. I begin to sink into the portal. I turn and struggle in its darkness.

The last thing I see in the room is Cloud and Claire both running toward me. The portal takes me to a platform floating in a void. This is exactly the same as my dreams when I fought myself. I look around but see nothing. It is so dark.

Soon a bright light appears above me. The platform is illuminated, the edges more visible than before. The platform is a perfect circle. It looks as though the platform is one big Entitas glyph, but if so, it isn’t one I recognize. “Hello, Jordy,” a voice says. I turn to see a hooded figure.

“Who are you?” I ask. The figure pulls back his hood and is revealed to be my twin. “Don’t recognize my voice by now?” Vergil says tome. “Why did you call me Jordy?” I say. “This isn’t the real world.” My brother sighs as he walks toward me.

“You’re right about that, but I don’t think the whole anonymity thing matters anymore. You can’t forget that we’re more than just a game, after all.” I nod in agreement. “I suppose you’re right, Jason. Why are you here? We all need to go and fight the director,” I say.

Jason shrugs. “I’m afraid I can’t, brother.” “Why?” I ask. Jason looks up and then, with a hint of sadness, lowers his head slowly. He lifts his shirt and reveals a seal on his abdomen. “This is a compulsion seal,” he says. “Cain placed it on me and now I do as he wills me.” How is that possible? Cain is dead!

“No, that can’t be! Cain is dead. He’s dead! There is no way he can be controlling you.” Jason chuckles. “Well, I don’t know, but this seal is very active. I am fighting the effects of it for now, but it won’t be long before I can no longer hold them back. Once that happens you have to stop me. Once I am beaten you can go and defeat the director. Then we will all be saved.”

“But you’ll be dead. You die in the game, you die in real life, remember! I can’t lose you! There has to be another way.” By now I am pleading. Jason pulls out his twin kodachis. “There isn’t one, brother. It’s not preordained that I or any other player will die. It’s possible they—we—survive. I talked it over with Jon a while back. He said there is a slim chance people can survive; they may be in a coma, but they’re still living.” Jason takes a deep breath. He looks up into the darkness. “It’s time. Forgive me for failing you.” His eyes turn blue and the seal of creation appears in his irises.

A sad music begins to play in the background. Is this some sick joke that Veren is playing? I pull out my sword. “I’ll try to make this quick, my brother,” I say to Jason. He smiles at me. “I love you, Jordan; hurry and defeat me.” He comes at me to attack and swings his twin swords at my midsection. I rollout of the way. I put my free hand on the ground. “Sinking earth.” The ground begins to turn to quicksand. Jason jumps into the air and throws his swords high.

As he is in the air he twirls 360 degrees after pulling out a scroll. He unravels it and it twirls open with him as he rotates. “I seek the cold air, absolute zero,” he says as cold energy shoots from the scrolls and into the quicksand, which freezes and becomes solid.

Jason catches his swords as he lands on the ground. He runs at me and again swings his swords at me. I block his attacks with my sword. He pushes against my sword with his. “You need to try harder, Jordy,” he says in a mocking voice. You can’t beat me otherwise!” I push back against him and knock him off balance.

I gather magic. “Holy light!” I yell as white energy erupts from the ground and hits Jason. The attack propels him into the air. Jason dismisses his swords and pulls out another scroll. He unravels the ancient paper as he lands on his feet. “My ultimate scroll,” he says as he begins twirling the ancient parchment around himself. “I offer up this seal to unleash the power of twilight!” he casts. Black and white energy surrounds and flows into him.

My twin snaps his fingers and two swords appear in his hands. They are kodachi swords, but they are different. One sword is completely black and the other completely white. Jason slashes at me with both. Energy shoots from the swords to me. I cast a defensive magic to limit damage.

The energy collides with my defensive magic. The defensive shield shatters and the remaining energy hits me and knocks me away. Jason comes at me again and slashes at me. I move just fast enough to block the attack with my sword. Jason attacks me with quick slashes. I can’t keep up, and he manages to hit me a few times.

I back away. “You have no hope, do you Jordan? You are really going to just let me kill you? “Jason says. He shoves his swords into the ground. Jason holds up a hand. “Twilight flare.” A black and white ball shoots from his hand. Jason is right. I love my brother but if I die, then Cloud will have to do what I fail to do.

“Forgive me,” I say quietly. I enchant my sword with reflective magic and swing it to reflect the energy back at Jason. The energy hits him and makes him fall to one knee. I take the chance and attack him with colossal storm and a few slashes from my sword. He regains his composure, stands up and pulls his swords from the ground. He swings them, and energy erupts from them. The energy knocks me backward.

Jason shoves his swords back into the ground and holds his hands up. “Twilight lightning,” he says as black and white lightning shoots from his hands toward me. The energy surges into me. The attack lowers my health significantly. I place my hand on the ground. “Earth spikes,” I say. Spikes of earth shoot toward my brother. He grabs his swords and races to avoid the attack.

I cast a water spell at him and graze his shoulder, but it is enough to make him stumble. I hold up my hand. “Absolute zero.” Cold air surrounds the room, making everything turn to ice. Jason uses a spell called twilight fire to protect him. The flames surround him and keep the ice from freezing him in place.

Jason comes toward me and attacks me again. I counter his moves and knock one of his swords away. I take the opportunity to slash him across the chest. He grabs his chest and falters backward. He then comes at me and we clash swords once again. He shoves me backward. He gathers another twilight flare in his free hand and throws the energy at me.

The spell is still active on my sword, so I slash at the energy and knock it back at Jason. It strikes Jason’s sword from his hand. I run to him and slash at him. He is unable to block the attack and takes another big hit to his health. He clutches his chest and stumbles backward.

He staggers toward the edge of the platform. “No, Jason, watch out!” I yell. But it is too late. He falls over the edge and into the emptiness. Before I can even comprehend what just happened, the glyph on the platform begins to glow, the soaring energy flowing to where Jason fell.

The sad music changes to a faster, more aggressive version. It isn’t long before claws come from below the platform and grab on. A large fox beast appears from below and lifts itself onto the platform. Is this Jason? I wonder.

The beast roars, and fire surrounds the platform. “Time to die,” it says, slashing at me and shooting fire in my direction. I use diamond wall and divert the fire around the wall. What is this monstrous thing? I hold up my free hand. “Reveal,” I say, as my magic analyzes the beast. The spell only reveals that this is in fact my brother. It seems Veren has turned my brother into an Entitas.

This beast is non-elemental, so there is no weakness. It doesn’t have much HP, but it has a large amount of strength and magic. It also has great speed. This won’t be easy, I realize. I need to summon something to help. I haven’t seen the diamond dragon, Saturn, yet. I place my free hand on the ground. “Saturn come forth and unleash your holy power!” I shout.

A white glyph appears in the air above the platform and the diamond dragon materializes. It is beautiful looking—solid white with four wings that almost look feathered. Its white eyes show peace. Jason’s beast form looks at my dragon and huffs.

Saturn gathers white energy in its mouth. The fox beast gathers dark energy in its mouth at the same time. The two powerful beings release their energy and it collides in the air. With neither energy overpowering the other, they blow up in a brilliant blast. My dragon charges the fox and collides with it.

While the two are fighting, I restore my health. I cast a regeneration spell and a couple of defensive spells to protect me. The fox is losing lots of HP to Saturn, but I realize my dragon won’t last much longer. I run toward the fox beast and jump into the air. “Holy light!” The holy energy blasts the beast.

The fox rebounds and slashes Saturn, and the diamond dragon falls to the ground and fades away. I hold my hand up. “Colossal storm,” I say. Lightning shoots down from the air and wounds the beast. It slashes at me and knocks me away. It doesn’t have much energy left.

The fox roars and gathers a massive black ball of energy into its mouth. Flares shoot from the ball and blasts around the platform. I cast a reflective defensive magic. Some of the flares bounce off the shield, but eventually my spell breaks and the flares hit me. The fox releases the last bit of the energy, but I quickly use a healing spell before the energy hits me.

I survive the attack. I hold out my hand. “Holy!” I yell as white energy shoots from my hand and hits the beast. I run forward, jump into the air and deliver a powerful slash to the fox’s body. The beast roars and collapses to the ground. It begins to burn and slowly fades until only my brother remains. He is lying on the ground. I go to him and fall to my knees. I lift him into my lap.

I can’t stop tears from flowing from my eyes. “You’re crying,” he says. “I guess you won, huh?” Even now, he jokes, trying to make me feel better. “Jason, I’m so sorry,” I say, still sobbing. He slowly reaches up to me and places his gloved hand on my cheek. “It’s OK . . . you needed to do this.” With his other hand he tosses a crystal to the ground in the distance.

A black portal opens. “You need to go . . . the director is the last surviving member. Kill him and free everyone . . . ,” he says. His hand begins to fall from my face as he loses his strength. “You make a good brother . . . ,” he says, before his body shatters into pieces.

I pound the ground with my fists. I wipe the tears from my face. Before I get up to go to the portal I see Jason’s swords. They levitate into the air and begin twirling. They eventually coalesce into a sword for a knight. I grab the sword and examine it with my reveal spell. Forged by Jason, it is dark and holy based, with several unique skills. I call it Twin Sorrow. “Thank you, Jason,” I say.

I walk to the portal and go in to reunite with everyone. Once I am back in the castle as I knew it, I see everyone except Cloud. Everyone is silent. “Where’s Cloud?” I ask. No one says anything. “Where is he?” I demand. Claire walks up to me. “Dante . . . Cloud . . . he . . .” She struggles to speak. There are tears in her eyes. “He fought so hard . . . and then to protect me . . .” Claire trails off as the realization of what she is saying hits me. I can’t believe it. It is not possible.

“No!” I yell as I fall to my knees. This can’t be happening. Why? Both of my brothers. Raziel walks over to me and tells me what happened.

When you disappeared, Cloud turned to me and put his sword against my throat. “What did you do to my brother, Raziel?” he said. “I don’t know. Why would you think I’d know?” I replied.

“Your brother is the director, and you know so much about the game that I can’t help but wonder if you’re the one behind this. The others ran up to us to calm Cloud down. He was so afraid you were dead that no one else mattered. I explained I knew nothing about where you were.

Cloud seemed to believe me, but we were soon attacked by jackal beasts with battle axes and that walked on their hind legs. Their numbers were large and they attacked without mercy. We all fought to beat them back.

We fought valiantly but were being overpowered. Claire fell to the ground and was about to be killed, but Cloud took the hit. Apollo and I ran to try to heal him but the beasts kept us away. Then Apollo used a powerful fire magic and killed them. As we were about to use our healing magic on Cloud, he uttered his last words.

“’Protect my brother,’” Raziel says. I look at Claire. She looks away as though in shame. I force myself up and embrace her. “Don’t look away,” I say. “Cloud died to protect you. Honor him by keeping your head high.” Claire returns the hug. “If I’d been stronger, he wouldn’t have died.” I reassure her that she shouldn’t feel blameworthy.

“Besides, there’s a chance he’s OK,” I say. “I had to fight Jas—Vergil—and kill him. Some magic Cain performed . . . I’m not sure. Before he died, he told me that it’s possible when someone dies he goes into a coma. Let’s just end this game and save the rest of the players!” I say with determination. I am broken but not defeated.

I lead everyone to get to the final floor and face the director. We walk onto the next floor but the room is empty. I see a stairwell that goes up to another room. I can hear a calm melody playing, as if on an organ. As we go up the next set of stairs, the music gets louder.

We make it to the final room, all blue stained glass with white swirling, and there is the director playing an organ. The music suddenly stops and he stands up. He isn’t wearing what he wore last time. Now he is wearing a long white cloak with a trim of blue flame at the bottom. He turns around and faces us. The cloak is open wide and reveals his white underclothing. I see that he is blonde, but he is wearing the emotionless mask that all the statues of him depict him as having.

“Welcome, heroes of Eden,” he says.