The Monster End
I think I finally understand Marco's purpose. I hadn't noticed it before, but now I see it's similar to what happened with Father Guise. That miasma surrounding him is twisting his mind to fulfill his deepest desire.
Or maybe it's more than a desire, perhaps it's his most ingrained thought, his deepest longing.
Tears flow uncontrollably as I remember Father Guise, and the anguish overwhelms me as I realize that he, despite all his horrors, evoked a profound compassion in me.
'Could I face a similar situation?'
'Could I kill someone on my own with that cold gaze?'
The truth hurts, but I already did. I faced those poor demihumans, and I killed them.
Marco and the man he had just tortured move into the city, their movements fluid, almost premeditated. They wear masks, hiding their faces, as if they wanted to conceal something more than their identities.
They head to a warehouse, and the atmosphere of the streets intoxicates me, but not in a pleasant way, rather in a disturbing way.
The streets, marked by the passage of time, stir confusing feelings in me, making me wonder if Irlam could look like this someday.
That man seems nervous, but not because of Marco. He looks around as if hiding something. The warehouse, imposing and worn by neglect, towers above, reminding me of the military warehouse in Irlam.
Its cracked walls and broken ceiling are silent witnesses to countless stories of despair and disappointment that have occurred there.
Then the man urges him to enter. Marco says nothing and simply advances, unafraid of what might happen.
Inside, the scene is even more desolate. Darkness looms over every corner, revealing only blurred outlines and disturbing shadows. The girl, tied to a chair in the center of the room, is the only point of light in so much darkness. Her eyes, full of fear and confusion, desperately seek a way out of her torment.
The tension is palpable when the traitor enters the scene. His gestures betray his nervousness, but not so much because of Marco as for something he's hiding. My eyes scan the place, and the sight of the girl tied to the chair chills my soul.
Marco seems to recognize her instantly, though he doesn't say a word.
Determined, he decides to confront the traitor on his own. A smile forms on his face, as if he already knows the inevitable outcome. He grabs his gun and, without hesitation, shoots the traitor.
Bang!
The blast of the shot seems to awaken a swarm of men emerging from the darkest corners. They slowly approach Marco, while he watches them with a disconcerting calm.
"Hands up!" they shout, pointing rifles at him and stepping out of their hiding places.
Marco just looks, unsurprised. The men approach Marco, all in military uniforms, with weapons like those I saw before. Their movements are coordinated, but they seem to fear Marco.
My heart pounds, and a feeling of helplessness invades me as I realize they used that girl as bait.
I want to intervene, I want to save them all, but I can't intervene in the past.
The soldiers approach stealthily, their weapons aimed to surround him. One of them lowers his weapon and approaches Marco, taking out handcuffs while looking him straight in the eyes.
Marco smiles and calmly says, "You're dead."
Suddenly, an intense light emanates from Marco's gloves, flooding the room and leaving the screen blank. I cover my ears, trying not to hear what's coming.
"AGGGH!"
The sound of blades cutting, and gunshots attempts to drown out the desperate screams of the soldiers, creating a deafening chaos that pierces my ears despite covering them tightly.
"My leg! My..."
The air fills with the scent of death and despair as chaos erupts around us.
Bang! Bang!
When the tumult finally subsides and the sound fades, I can see the horror it left behind.
The bodies of the attackers lie shattered on the ground, the walls are marked with deep cuts, and the boxes have been reduced to rubble. My hands tremble as I realize what has happened.
The floor, the walls, everything is stained with a crimson so deep I feel a burning in my throat. I put my hand over my mouth, holding back the nausea from the deep sensation that pierces my being.
"It can't be..." I whisper, covering my mouth in horror as I realize that Marco has used magic.
Marco has used wind magic.
My eyes can't believe what they see, can't believe he used magic, can't believe Marco Luz is so cruel. He just looks at the chaos he's unleashed with an unperturbed expression, holding his gun while turning his gaze towards the tied girl.
I try to find his feelings, but all I get is a wave of joy, a sense of accomplishment.
"He's crazy..."
'Too bad... he's got good luck,' Marco laments inwardly, despite keeping his face serene, untroubled.
"Uncle Marco?" the girl asks innocently, trying to free herself from her bonds. I see her smile, unaware of the horror around her.
But Marco doesn't smile.
'Why doesn't the girl see the reality around her?' Marco stares at her, and his white eyes show me the raw, heartbreaking truth, burn marks in his irises, meaning she was blinded on purpose.
With a lump in my throat, I open my eyes wide, preparing for what's to come.
The girl, unaware of the horror around her, doesn't perceive the tragedy looming over her. Marco watches her with empty eyes, his white irises no longer receiving light, unable to see anything, not even the monster before her.
My heart contracts at the imminence of what's about to happen.
"Don't do it," I beg desperately, my hands pressing my chest in a desperate attempt to convey my emotions. But I know my pleas will fall on deaf ears.
Bang!
I close my eyes abruptly. The sound of the shot echoes in the room, and the only thing I hear is the dull thud of the girl falling to the ground. I open them again, seeing in detail what he did, seeing what he's become.
My eyes remain open, unable to look away from the macabre scene unfolding before me. Marco's eyes are lifeless, and the purple mist emanating from his crystal intensifies. The fact that I can see it allows me to try to excuse it, to try to push these thoughts out of my head. I don't know what to think, I don't know what to say, but I want to believe.
'This is not Marco,' I repeat in my mind, recognizing that the real Marco would never commit such an atrocity. To him, children are sacred, protected under his care. It's a painful truth I must accept this being I observe is not the Marco I know.
'He isn't and never will be.'
Tears stream from my eyes, born of the impotence and horror that overwhelm me. I can't help but feel the weight of guilt, the certainty that all of this is the miasma's fault. If it weren't for that, Maria wouldn't be in this state, Marco wouldn't have committed that atrocious act. It's a chain of suffering and destruction triggered by the influence of the witch of envy.
I clench my hands tightly, feeling my nails dig into my skin. I can't forgive those who caused Marco so much suffering, nor the Marco in front of me, nor the witch of envy.
'The person I'm compared to.'
"Do you want to continue?" Echidna's cold gaze trying to make me retreat sears into my mind. It's hard to go on, but I nod with determination under Echidna's cold stare.
"Does the miasma turn you into someone else?" My question seems to surprise Echidna, but she quickly responds as if my question interests her.
"Well, one could say that people with low resistance would succumb to that influence." Echidna smiles, revealing her sinister complicity. "But you know Marco isn't weak. He surrendered to the miasma, allowing his darkest desires to take control. He became a monster by choice. Even if he didn't know what the miasma was, he let himself be manipulated by the thoughts in his head."
'End the curse?'
'Or be consumed by it?'
"Still, he's responsible for his unforgivable acts, don't you think?" Echidna looks at me with a malicious smile, as I struggle to maintain my composure.
My hands tremble, my heart races. I don't know how I've held on this long. I feel an overwhelming urge to run to Marco, to try to understand what he's feeling right now.
'Will I be able to hate him even a little?'
He was also a victim of someone, someone from my world manipulated him for their own ends.
'Just like me, he ended the lives of everyone.'
I have to find out who that person is, I have to keep watching, analyzing. Marco remembers nothing of what he's done. If he did, he'd never forgive himself. This is not the Marco I knew, that's clear.
The spirits that secretly accompany him seem fearful at times, as if the miasma within him threatens them. Even so, they usually don't stay with evil people, they sense it, one way or another.
"Unforgivable, the person who brought him to this state, manipulating him at will." My mind wavers between contradictory emotions. Marco's emotions are complex, fluctuating between anger, pleasure, and sadness.
Sometimes I want to cry, sometimes I want to laugh. I don't understand what's happening.
'This will send a clear message to the government: I'm not interested in taking hostages, I don't know if there are still relatives, but this ends here,' Marco murmurs, his body trembling with a mix of determination and despair.
"I'll be free!" His words resonate amidst gunfire and screams, piercing my ears with his desperate hope.
The screen goes dark again, leaving only the echo of Marco's words resonating in the void. Despite having found a way to use magic, Puck confirmed that Marco didn't have a door when I met him.
'Did he lie to me, or was there something more?'
'So, what does all this mean?'
"Do you think you can kill the president and get away with it?" shouts an unknown voice, and the screen lights up again, revealing a scene I can barely process.
In the room, bloodied bodies lie motionless on the floor, mute witnesses to the unleashed violence. Only one person remains, terrified and horrified, whose eyes reflect the terror that has seized him. He tries to keep his composure, but fear consumes him inside.
Meanwhile, Oscar laughs with disdain, taking the country's flag and throwing it to the ground, where it absorbs the spilled blood like a macabre canvas, indicating that his purpose was fulfilled. They've taken an entire country.
"It's over, everything is about to change," announces Oscar, approaching the terrified person. "This is the beginning of a new era. Nobody cares if a country like these falls; all they care about is securing their own interests."
Marco watches silently, his face impassive like a golem, but I know he must be struggling with the horrors he's witnessing, unable to stop them.
That's how I feel.
Oscar takes the man and starts beating him, his face distorting with each blow while the poor man screams in agony.
"Stop!" shouts the man, but Oscar continues to smile with sinister satisfaction.
"They think they have support, but all this has been planned by other governments," declares Oscar, showing a gun. "They're scared and want to get hold of our weapons."
Amid the chaos, Marco looks at the flag, his blood-stained gloves dripping onto it. Oscar, lost in thought, admires the ceiling with a smile, revealing his true intentions.
"At first, I thought the government was simply stupid," continues Oscar, shooting the man's leg, who screams in pain. "But the truth is that corruption and greed are inherent to humanity."
"AGGGH!" The man writhes in the blood, grabbing the flag and rolling it with him. "SAVE ME!"
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Oscar covers his face with the gun, laughing and laughing non-stop. "You think a simple drug dealer could take over a country, clearly you've had your days numbered for years. You're an idiot for being so gullible! HAHAHAHA!"
Oscar keeps laughing cynically, throwing papers on the floor while the wounded president screams in agony.
"They've all betrayed you, even those you love," proclaims Oscar, tossing the gun next to the man. "Do you know the difference between a human and an animal?"
The man, desperate, lunges for the gun in a final effort to defend himself. The scene unfolds before me, the poor man's desperation not letting him see around him.
Bang!
The sound of the shot echoes in the room as Oscar, unperturbed by the bullet that missed him, pulls out another weapon and ends the man's life, putting an end to his suffering.
"Greed," declares Oscar, lighting a cigarette with a casual gesture. "That's the big difference between us."
Marco watches the scene calmly, only to notice a message on his phone.
"We can leave now," says the screen. Marco closes his eyes for a moment before opening them with serenity.
'Then, I'll almost be free,' Marco thinks as he looks at Oscar and slowly approaches him.
I don't know what to think, what to say. Marco has committed these acts, he's a killer. Maybe he's not aware of what he's doing, or maybe he's forgotten his true self. Maybe he was always destined to pay for his future actions.
'Maybe he was always destined to pay for the things his soul did.'
Marco heads towards a closet calmly, opens it, and discovers the person hiding inside, full of fear and crouching. What was once a room similar to one in a palace is now just a slaughterhouse, a place where blood and the smell of death reign.
I brace myself to feel anger, to feel pain.
"So here you are," says Marco as he grabs the person and violently throws them against the opposite wall, crashing and falling to the floor. "How foolish of you to hide."
I open my eyes, surprised. Somehow I know this is Marco's target, the target of the vengeance of the one who really caused all this. The one who triggered it all.
I feel nothing.
No anger, no sadness.
No emotion at all.
"It's over, almost everyone involved is dead," declares Marco, looking at the professor, who starts to smile.
"You think so? Then you're stupid," responds the professor, struggling to stand and staring at Marco. "You caused your parents' death, you killed your companions, you destroyed your family, YOU KILLED HUNDREDS OF INNOCENTS."
The professor's words, full of bitterness and resentment, reflect the rot within himself.
"You're just a frog in a well, you don't know what you're doing, damn psychopath," the professor continues, his face contorted with rage and tears.
Marco looks at his gun for a moment before pointing it at the professor. And then, a smile appears on his lips.
"Then, we'll see each other in hell."
Bang!
The echo of the gunshot resonates in the room as the professor's body falls, and Marco leaves the room alongside Oscar. He has gotten his revenge, just as he wanted. But inside, I find no solace, no emotion after achieving his revenge. Pandora, she took my family from me, took everyone I loved. Mother Fortuna, Archi, Father Guise. The people of my lands, all suffered because of her mere existence.
'Will this be the same feeling I experience when I see her?' 'Will I become a monster?'
"What news do you have from the other countries?" Marco asks Oscar with a chilling coldness, as if he cares about nothing at all.
Oscar just smiles, gazing at the palace interior before them with an air of superiority. Dozens of bodies and debris on the floor, hundreds of soldiers dressed in strange, yet powerful attire.
"It seems they are interested in establishing cooperative relations and want to acquire the lamicta weapons. They suggest that a dictatorship in a country like this is possible, but they will cut off trade relations for a while," Oscar replies, taking a drag from his cigarette. "Do you want more details?"
Marco shakes his head with disinterest. "What you do doesn't matter to me anymore. After all, tomorrow I won't have a place in this world," Marco says with a resignation that cuts like a knife.
Oscar places his hand on Marco's shoulder, a twisted expression of complicity on his face.
"We'll hand you over to the United States as a peace offering to avoid completely cutting off relations, show the evidence of what the government planned, all while we produce more weapons of mass destruction. This way we can buy time to survive," Oscar says with a Machiavellian smile. "You're a convenient sacrifice for both sides, so feel proud."
Marco looks at Oscar with an empty gaze, as if nothing is left inside him.
The screen darkens again, leaving me adrift in a sea of confused emotions. This Marco I see now is definitely not the same one I knew. However, he is still him. All his actions, though atrocious, bear his signature.
'But if he remembers all this... how can I help him?'
Marco has become a monster because of his traumas, his situation, and the miasma that surrounds him. But his actions are not justifiable, and they cannot be easily forgiven. I can't forgive this Marco, just as I'm sure he won't forgive himself for doing this.
'For him, I must endure this and get him out of here,' I think as I look at my hands, reminding myself that I still have the willpower to face whatever is necessary.
The screen changes, and I find Marco in a helicopter, his figure tiny against the vast landscape that stretches below him. In the distance, I see a gigantic star-shaped center, a place that seems to emanate a dark presence, as if it were wrapped in an aura of despair and desolation.
This is the destination Marco requested.
I watch with anguish as Marco looks at his handcuffs, surrounded by armed men escorting him roughly. The helicopter lands, and the men roughly bring Marco down, as if dealing with a dangerous beast. Marco, resigned, lets himself be guided without resistance.
Finally, they lead him to a room where an imposing man waits, dressed in a suit that exudes authority and power. His thick eyebrows and intimidating face are enough to instill fear even in the bravest hearts.
'He looks like Wilhelm.'
"So, this is what you look like in person," the man says in a deep voice, staring at Marco.
Marco, without saying a word, holds the man's gaze with an empty expression, as if trapped in an abyss of despair and loss.
"Where is my father?" Marco's voice breaks the silence, but his question seems to unsettle the man, who stands and approaches Marco with firm steps.
Marco, without even bothering to look up, remains motionless as the man speaks.
"I'll give you the plans and build a machine once I get what I want," Marco declares, pointing to the soldier carrying his belongings. "I'll keep my promise, give you the exclusivity you want, but for that, I need my phone."
The giant man looks at Marco with annoyance but finally indicates to the soldier to hand over Marco's phone.
Marco receives his phone and, after a few seconds of deliberation, closes it and throws it to the ground with a gesture of disdain. "I don't need it anymore. You can destroy it if you wish," Marco says coldly, as if he had renounced all sense of connection with the world around him.
The man seems perplexed, but before he can react, several men in suits burst into the room, showing phones with urgency.
"General, you have to see this!" the men exclaim, placing the phones on a screen.
"The dictator who tried to take over his country was killed in a series of explosions. It is estimated that the explosions caused havoc in the jungle, in homes, and warehouses around the country. There is still no death toll, but it is estimated that there are thousands of injured. The palace of justice was destroyed by the explosions, confirming that this…"
"This country has fallen."
Everyone presents looks at Marco for explanations, but he, without looking at anyone directly, begins to speak with a solemnity that chills my soul.
"Those crystals are not from this world, I could confirm it," Marco declares with a voice full of sorrow and knowledge. "It would be the most logical thing. I think everyone knows the power they possess and their destructive potential. The most logical thing is to think that there is a species capable of intervening in space, perhaps a species that dominates the fourth dimension, I don't know."
Suddenly, Marco unleashes a burst of magic, cutting his handcuffs and leaving everyone stunned. The soldiers point their weapons at him, but Marco shows no sign of surprise.
"Magic seems to be something real, a concept I'm still studying," Marco declares, placing his hand over his chest with unsettling solemnity. "I have a crystal inside me. If my heart stops or if I wish it, everyone here will die in an explosion like in the video. I control all the weapons I created, and my decision was to detonate them, including those we sold to you. If I want, I can blow everything up."
Confusion and fear grip the room. I find myself lost, unable to understand how Marco has managed to master such a powerful ability, unknown even to him.
"At this moment, you have the country destroyed at your feet, no one will stand in your way because of the treaties that were made. If that country is the beginning of everything, then you can turn it into a mine, annexing the population as charity and supporting them so they see you as the good guys." Marco smiles, seeing the look on everyone's faces, who seem to understand and enjoy Marco's words. "If you want to be the first country to master magic, then you must let me do what I want to do. If not, then you will have nothing. The way to create the machine only exists in my mind, I memorized it, and I also have it inside me."
The man looks around, and with the phone in his hand, indicates that someone else is listening.
"I'll give you what you want but let me see my father. Once I do, I'll explain how to build the machine and give you the possibility to activate it," Marco proposes, with a smile that envelops an aura of darkness. "It's the reason no one has been able to build another one since only I know how to do it, no one else."
All the soldiers look at each other, the executives look at Marco. They fear him, as well as the magic he just showed.
They begin to talk among themselves and end up leaving Marco alone to meet and discuss what to do.
After hours of tense waiting, the soldiers finally make a decision and take Marco to see his father.
Time seems to stand still as Marco moves through the Pentagon's facilities. Soldiers cross his path, but Marco moves unperturbed towards his goal.
Finally, he stops in front of a room where his father lies unconscious, connected to a series of medical devices. The image is heartbreaking: the pale and emaciated face of his progenitor, a shadow of the person he once was.
Marco approaches with hesitant steps, not knowing what to say or how to face the reality before him.
"I'm just a monster who came to fulfill his purpose, I have nothing to say to you," Marco whispers, his eyes filled with an unfathomable pain.
His father, with his eyes still closed, responds with a weak but resigned voice: "Then do it and leave, monster." His father shifts position, turning his back to him. "I lost my wife, I lost my family, and I lost my son."
His father's words hang in the air, laden with pain and resignation. Marco observes with a coldness that chills the soul, unable to connect with the torrent of emotions emanating from his progenitor.
'Finally, I am a true monster. His words have no effect on me,' Marco thinks with a smile, a sense of emptiness consuming him inside.
'This Marco really disgusts me.'
"I'll do it, but let me warn you, I've already killed almost all those responsible," Marco responds, his voice devoid of any emotional nuance.
"You... well, as a father, I suppose I failed," he murmurs, his eyes filled with unbearable pain.
His father's words hit him like a torrent of despair. His father's gaze weighs heavily on Marco, but it's me who is overwhelmed by a wave of tears and anguish. He isn't.
"You are not my son; my son died a long time ago, and I couldn't even see him."
I clench my hands tightly, feeling the helplessness and pain that swell in my chest. This is undoubtedly not the end I wanted to see, not the conclusion I wanted for Marco and his father.
'I must change this; I must save Marco and get him out of this nightmare.'
I clench my hands tightly, feeling the helplessness and pain welling up in my chest. This is undoubtedly not Marco, not that Marco. The pain, the anguish, the frustration. All these feelings are mine.
'They don't belong to that monster, but what I truly feel.'
"Do you want to hear a poem?" his father asks, and although Marco nods indifferently, I can feel the tension in the air.
His father takes out a crumpled piece of paper and begins to recite with a trembling voice, laden with nostalgia:
"In the shadows of yesterday, a son was lost,
a luminous soul now hidden at a great cost.
From bright dreams to twisted ways,
goodness vanished in forbidden stays.
.
In childhood, his laughter was pure poetry,
a heart so pure, filled with fantasy.
But time led him down dark paths,
where good dreams turned into wrath.
.
That child full of hope and light got lost in mazes,
in a world of intrusions and daunting phases.
Innocent dreams now bleed and fade,
and in his gaze, shadows invade.
.
The good son now lies in memory's embrace,
like a distant echo of his former grace.
A soul adrift in turbulent seas,
where goodness broke with promises and pleas.
In his absence, the father mourns the change,
the son who left, now in shadows estranged.
He misses the good boy, full of laughter and promises bright,
now a distant echo, a memory in the night.
.
On life's canvas, he traced somber trails,
but the father's love in the void prevails.
Though the son turned to shadows one fateful day,
in the father's heart, the light will always stay."
.
It must be horrible, that feeling, seeing your child turn into a monster. Seeing that you've lost even the source of your essence. Your greatest love, your family whom you adore.
"I always believed your destiny was greatness, to be a hero for those in need. And to be a hero for yourself." His father's lost gaze as he touches something on his chest makes me press my lips together, as if I could feel his pain directly.
The man who has lost everything isn't Marco.
It's his father.
I fall to my knees, my tears blurring the screen in front of me. I desperately search for any trace of emotion in Marco, but all I find is an unfathomable void.
"Why is there nothing? MARCO!" I shout in desperation, struggling against the feeling of helplessness consuming me.
I want to feel it, I want to believe there's still hope, that behind that apparent coldness, there's still some humanity left in him. But my pleas are lost in the void, drowned by the oppressive silence that envelops everything.
Despite my deepest desires, I know that the being in front of me is no longer Marco, but a distorted shadow of who he used to be.
"My son, as a father and as a man, I have failed, that's why..." The father's words are a lament full of pain, as he takes a gun from under the sheets, pointing it directly at his son's figure. "It ends here."
The shot echoes through the room like a cry of despair, but Marco remains unmoved, as if the tragedy couldn't disturb the calm of his shattered soul.
His face, a mask without expression, hides the torment dwelling within, as if he had embraced resignation as his only companion.
The screen goes dark, leaving me in the heart-wrenching silence of the tragedy before me.
The silence that follows is so heavy it seems to suffocate the air itself, as two shots tear through the void, taking with them the whispers of a past that can no longer find redemption.