In the end, that was it.
Death was something. It was quick, sometimes painful, sometimes not. Well, I wasn't actually dead, you see, I was just… without both legs, my left arm, and with half my head burned down.
Still, the war was ongoing. I could hear the gallops of horses, the heavy bright holy armors, and the roaring of engines in the background. Gunpowder, blood, all of those smells mixed in a horrible smell of despair and pain
The only reason I could still think, and breathe after being hit by an explosion wasn't my will to live, rather, it was that damned curse that was bestowed upon me.
The Window.
Yes, generic isn't it? I've read that in many, many stories, and that was the fucking problem. Stories. Before I was even born, our planet was hit with a "Hunger Games" type of situation.
A list of at least 2,000 universes fighting to cling to their very existence.
When the last universe died, its position would belong to a new one, and mine was the chosen one. The window read a LOT of different stories, and those who had the "Status Window" were fairly common at the time, so the choice was obvious.
Oh yes, the reason I'm alive. Simple, Resistance [A].
A generic ability that gave its user superhuman resistance, but the problem was its rank, A. The biggest humanity has ever seen. Few people had abilities or powers with that rank, which gave me (forcefully) a place in the army… and put me in this position right now.
But 'Resistance' wasn't an infinite ability, and the 'Window' was so generous in showing me the time I had left alive.
[ Ability: Resistance will fade in 5:00 minutes ]
Oh, great.
I turned my head to my left, the same side my eye was missing. Slowly, I could see that both my army and theirs stopped fighting. Oh, they caught our boss.
If they kill him, we lose. They get the points, and we will never win.
No. No, no no no.
I have a family! We CAN'T lose. We won every single battle, and even that way, we never climbed a position in the rankings.
Mother… father, even my older sister. They depend on me.
Fuck it.
Fuck dying in peace.
My right hand slid into my holster, grabbing a small 9mm pistol I had. I gave one final and long breath, aimed right.
Bang.
The woman who held my boss captive received the shot right through her head; their celebration of victory stopped, and gave space to an astonished and despairing scream.
[ Congratulations! Universe 2000 has won the battle. ]
My pulse didn't have enough strength to hold the pistol; with the knockback, it was sent flying backwards. Nonetheless, I smiled.
That same smile affected them, well, after all, I was their colleague. I fought with them side by side for two years now, and war truly made people closer. My smile had only one meaning: "Thank you for everything."
I didn't need to say or shout that; they knew.
As they crossed the same portal, we came together and slowly started to disappear into thin air. Leaving our dead brothers and me behind.
After a few seconds, I heard a small troop of knights walking towards me; even with my ears severely damaged, it wasn't difficult to feel and hear the tremor their armours made.
Monologue, that was what they were doing to me right now, though I couldn't hear a thing.
[ Ability: Resistance will fade in 10 seconds. ]
Seeing the Window appearing once more, I smiled. And that, of course, made them angry. An act of mockery at their sight,
[ Ability: Resistance will fade in 5 seconds. ]
And with just one foot, my head was trampled down.
[ Ability: Resistance has faded ]
Carried by the wind, a sorrowful but beautiful melody could be heard.
I didn't know who the singer was, but their voice, followed by the chirp of birds, was angelical.
There wasn't a lyric.
Just a lonely humming.
I wanted to keep up with it, but I couldn't.
I didn't have the legs to move.
Nor mouth to scream.
Not even arms to crawl.
So I stayed there, hearing.
Watching.
The awareness of how many minutes had passed was unknown to me, maybe even hours did, but that person never stopped humming with the breeze. Was it lonely to them? Was it painful?
Sometimes I could hear a distinct sound too, quieter, almost completely erased from this place. However, as time went by, it grew louder, bigger than the humming, even bigger than the wind.
And when it was finally bigger than the humm, together with it, in that white vastness of incredible nothing. A blue window appeared. The letters on it were flickering, as if broken.
[ Do you wis_ __ ______ _ _______?"
[ Y_S/__]
Even though broken and unreadable, I somehow knew what it meant, and for a while I debated with myself. But with a broken voice, my answer was only one.
The storm was strong enough to swing even the strongest tree. Though it was unusual to see wind in the deepest part of that forest, somehow the storm had reached it.
It wasn't just driven by chaos; the wind had an objective, a purpose. It went towards a skinny torso mixed with a tree.
Legs, half of its head, and an arm were inside the tree, as if they were just one being.
'Wind' Pondered for a while, first it tried to strike against the tree. Useless
Then, it tried to cut the tree.
Once again, useless.
Its last idea was to cut the tree roots.
Fortunately, that worked. Deepened with pride, the 'Wind' calmed down and then disappeared.
The tree came down, hitting the ground hard enough to free the man.
We stayed there, lying down on the cold ground. Some animals passed by him, licking his face. Others fought right over him; at that moment, he was just another tree lump.
Until his eyes were open again.