A/N: Last chapter! This ought to be a hit, since a lot of things are going to be happening. Try to keep up, and if you get lost...I’m sorry. Thank you all for making it this far, and I hope that I have entertained you for as long as it took you to read all of this. Read on to discover the fate of Wanderer, Liliane, Emon, Devin, Jaccen, Dormin, and the colossi!

Chapter 14

I heard myself scream as the sword stabbed into Wanderer’s chest. His face became distorted with pain, but somehow, he did not die. He managed to get to his feet, even with a sword sticking out of his chest. The priests gave him space, frightened that Wanderer had not been killed by the sword. I, too, was shocked, but I was not afraid. He might have been possessed by the evil deity Dormin, but it did not matter. I could see what he wanted, and it was not to harm us.

Wanderer staggered towards the altar whither Devin lay in eternal sleep. Jaccen and I stood behind it, so he saw us, too. The moment his clouded eyes landed on me, I caught a flicker of recognition and concern flash through them. Perhaps Wanderer was not completely lost in himself; perhaps he was questioning whether Dormin had been telling the truth about me before. But he did not focus on me long. He only had eyes for Devin.

Before he came too close to the altar, he stopped. His hands grabbed the hilt of the hellish blue sword. I immediately knew what he was planning to do and wanted to shout and tell him not to, for it would be a mistake, but he was much quicker than my voice. Wanderer pulled the blade from his heart. Black blood splattered everywhere, and he began to be enveloped in darkness.

“WANDERER!!!” I screamed, wanting to run to him, but fear holding me back.

He looked over in my direction, but it was too late. He was going to be consumed by the darkness and taken over by Dormin. I nearly fell to my knees with this realization, but Jaccen was thither, and he held me up with a firm arm around the waist.

Wanderer began to transform. I should say that Dormin transformed, for the figure of my friend quickly disappeared in the shadows that belonged to the former god. They became as large as a colossus, and sort of took a little of the form from each of the now-dead colossi. They were not solid earth-created beings; They were just a shadowy and wispy form. Thither were some things a part of this new Dormin look that had not been a part of the colossi, but I assumed that Dormin had just added them to give the appearance of power.

“We have taken the body of this fallen warrior, as We are now free again, thanks to him! Thou shall all suffer, for what thou have done to both him and Us! Beware, Almighty Emon and Liliane the Witch! Thou shall never leave this place alive!”

Oddly enough, I wasn’t filled with fear from Dormin’s threat. Neither was Jaccen. He knew I could not be hurt by Dormin, as I had magic to protect the both of us. I only hoped that Dormin spoke candidly about Emon; I did not really want the old priest to get out of hither alive.

The shadowy creature that was Dormin swung an extremely well-muscled arm that might have been modeled from Aslar’s down at the priests and Emon. It missed, but the shaking that it caused afterward was enough to make them stumble a bit. Jaccen nearly fell, but he grabbed the side of the altar before that could happen. If he had fallen, he would have taken me with him, as he still had his arm around my waist.

“Liliane! You and Jaccen stay back! We do not need you interfering with us while we seal this accursed deity away!” hissed Emon as he hurried away from Dormin. “Watch how a real priest handles situations like this!”

His priests whipped out their crossbows and started shooting bolts at Dormin. They roared in pain, but it did not stop Them from trying to hurt the men again. One priest secretly stole away from the group while Dormin was distracted, heading straight for the sacred ritual/ hellish sword. He grabbed it before Dormin took notice. The deity tried to hit him, but he rolled away before the blow could hurt.

The priests slowly made their way for the exit, their horses already halfway up the spiral walkway. They kept shooting bolts at Dormin, even though they knew full well that someone as large as Dormin could not pursue them after they reached that small opening that led to the area with the small pool of water. Dormin continued to launch fist attacks at them, each time failing to do any damage to the men. The floor was pummeled from Their fist. But that did not matter.

Once the men were out of Their range, Dormin roared angrily. They turned and set Their sights on the only two people who hadn’t left during all the chaos. Now who would those two lucky people be?

They ran towards us as fast as Their spidery legs would allow, seeking to kill us. I murmured an incantation quickly under my breath. Their fist came down. It had no effect on us; I had put up a magical shield that surrounded both Jaccen and me. They swore and tried to break it, but failed.

“Liliane! Hurry! You do not want to be sealed in these lands with Dormin! Hurry now!” Emon urged, standing at the small opening in the wall.

I wanted to laugh. He really expected me to go back to the village that had treated me badly ever since my parents died? He really expected me to go back with him, the man who blamed me for Dormin’s release and who had slaughtered my sister and was planning to use Wanderer as a living vessel to keep Dormin’s power at bay, to name a few things he had done? He must have been insane to think I’d ever go back after all the pain he had caused my friends and me. Very delusional.

“No!!! I’ll never go back!!! I’d rather be sealed in these lands and die than go back to that place! And I especially would never go back with you, bastard!!!” I shouted. “Go on and seal these lands and leave without me!!! I’ll take my chances with the damned monster trying to kill me, seeing as Their not that different from you!!!”

Emon was too far back for me to be certain, but I thought I saw him frown or his expression turn to that of an angry man. “And I suppose the same could be said for you, Jaccen?!!!”

Jaccen said nothing; he just gave a small nod, not caring if Emon saw it or not. Emon seemed to take the hint, for he turned around and ran up the spiral walkway without another moment’s hesitation. Now all that remained with my lover and I were a dead girl and a killer deity monstrosity.

I extended my magical shield to protect Devin; thither was still a chance that she could come back. Dormin seemed to pity Wanderer, for They had said, “Thou shall all suffer, for what thou have done to both him and Us!” That intended that Dormin cared about my friend, so I assumed that that meant They would go through with Their word. But then again, evil deities were tricky creatures, and They might have been bluffing the whole time.

Emon made it to the top of the spiral walkway. Only one priest, the one who had grabbed the sword, remained, holding the weapon and the reins of two horses. The others were already making their way back across the bridge, not wanting to stick around long enough to see what happened to Dormin. Emon took the sword from the priest’s hand and ordered him to go. The priest mounted the dark horse and urged it to run onto the long bridge. Emon was left alone, holding the sword.

“I am the Priest of the Gods! It is my hand that had confined the evil to these lands once before! And it is I who shall confine it to these lands again! Thou shall never escape! I seal these lands with the sacred blade! May you rot in this place for all eternity!” Emon exclaimed before throwing the sword down towards the small pool of water below. (Okay, not exactly the words used in the game, but you can’t expect me to remember them, can you?) Then he mounted his pure white horse and followed his priests.

A blindly light was the result of the sword landing in the water. Jaccen and I were forced to look away for a few moments lest we wanted to lose our sight. When the light died down, a powerful wind began to whistle through the Shrine of Worship, originating from the pool of water itself. Dormin was fighting the pull, as it was strong only for Them, but They were failing. The shadows were being stripped from Them with ever passing moment; They began to look less and less like a colossus and more and more like a man. After awhile, They looked like a dark form of Wanderer. The shadows were not as dark as they had been before; we could clearly see him. It was just that some of the shadows were still clinging to his figure.

Dormin continued to fight it even when They had almost been completely torn from my friends’ body. They used his body to try to run, but the wind was stronger. The distance between Wanderer’s body and the pool decreased quickly, and soon thither was no way out. Wanderer’s body was pulled back into the pool.

Another moment of blinding light, and Wanderer was gone, along with the sword. I wanted to run to see if that was absolutely true, but my body wasn’t obeying me. My legs felt like deadweights; I would have collapsed had it not been for Jaccen holding me up. He helped me to walk away from Devin’s altar, closer to the stairs so that I could sit.

Why do I feel so heavy all of a sudden? I wondered, holding my head in my hands because I also had a headache from out of nowhere. It’s not just in the body...but in the heart, too. It’s as if something’s tugging...something evil.

That’s Dormin’s connection to you. Emon is using you as a living vessel to harness Their power, Aslar’s voice told me.

Aslar! How can you be speaking to me? You are dead.

Of course I’m dead. I’m in the spirit realm part of the heavens. Your connection to Dormin has made it possible for me to converse with you. Besides, we’ve been mentally in tune before. I’ve been in your mind ever since Death took me. You just couldn’t hear me for one reason or another.

I was slightly embarrassed that he had been in my mind during my intimate moment with Jaccen, but that wasn’t important at the moment. Did Emon make Jaccen a living vessel since Wanderer is now gone?

I’m afraid so. And he’s made Devin one as well.

Devin? But...But she is dead.

Check again, Lily.

I looked back at Devin’s altar, and nearly toppled over at what I saw. Devin was sitting up, her beautiful dark eyes wide open. Her white gown and night-black hair blew lightly in the wind that remained, giving her an almost angelic look. She slowly became aware of her surroundings, blinking in surprise to find herself in a place she had never seen before, and also to be alive. No doubt she remembered having a sword plunge into her chest nearly a sun cycle ago.

Looks like Dormin kept Their word for once.

I was barely aware of him speaking as I hurried to get to my feet. Devin was already standing by the time that I reached her. I wrapped my arms around her, not caring that she was still a bit colder than normal. She was my sister, and she was alive. That was all that mattered.

She was surprised to see me, that much I could tell from the expression on her face when I released her. Then she looked around for something I was not aware of, something only she knew about.

“Whither are we? And whither is Wanderer? And why am I alive again?” Devin asked, looking at me again.

So, once again, I had to tell the long story of the Forbidden Lands and Wanderer and Dormin. Jaccen helped me this time, since he was fully aware of the tale just as much as I was. Devin listened without raising her voice, and it struck me with awe that she had remained the same even after escaping the clutches of death. Some time during our story, Agro limped in, one of his hind legs injured for some reason I did not know. We halted in our telling to check on him, but he seemed too preoccupied to notice us. He continued to limp over towards the now empty area whither thither had once been a pool of water. We followed him. Amethyst had wandered in after him, so she came along, too.

When Agro managed to reach the basin, we received the shock of our lives. A baby boy with brown hair and little black horns on his head was lying in the empty basin that had once held water, crying quietly. Devin picked him up in her arms and cooed the child as I just looked at him in amazement. Something about that baby reminded me of Wanderer. But how could that be?

The sealing of these lands turned him into a child again. Blame it on Dormin taking over his body. If They had not, then Wanderer would have remained a man. And this baby form of your friend is also a living vessel for Dormin.

(Sigh.) Emon really hasn’t learned, had he?

It doesn’t appear that way, does it?

So we’re all going to be holding onto Dormin’s power until we die?

Perhaps…or…?

Or what?

Well, you’re a bright little witch. I’m sure you can figure out what you could do. A person who has the power to change colossi into humans should have enough power to reverse Emon’s curse and destroy a certain little nuisance.

...You want me to unseal the lands, return Wanderer into a human, and kill Dormin, who was a god at one point?

That about sums it up.

First off, how am I supposed to kill an immortal deity? Secondly, I would need more power than my own to unseal the Forbidden Lands. Returning Wanderer to what he once was would be easy. But all that other stuff...I can’t do it. Not alone, anyway.

Who said you would be doing it alone?

What do you mean?

The other colossi and I will lend you our strength so that you can kill Dormin and unseal the lands, and also bring us back to life.

...I’m sorry. How can I bring back the dead? That has nothing to do with what Emon did.

No, but you, with our help, can undo Dormin’s wicked deeds that caused us to die. Devin will remain alive, but we will be granted life again as well. In exchange for the life of Dormin, of course. And thither will be one more source of assistance for your magic, Lily.

Who?

The gods themselves.

Really? Why?

They’ve been wanting to get rid of Dormin for quite some time now. They just could not find a spellcaster powerful enough to take care of Them. Then you came around, and at last thither was one worthy of channeling the gods’ energy. You don’t think that fate led you hither only to watch over Wanderer, do you? The gods destined you to come hither, destined you to be the one to rid the world and cosmos alike of the existence of Dormin. Now follow through with your destiny, Liliane, and allow us to help you.

I looked at those around me who were now bound to Dormin like I was and the colossi had been. Jaccen, my newly found lover who understood me more than anyone, even my sister and Wanderer, ever did. Devin, the only family I had left who had just come back from the spirit realm. Wanderer, who had given up everything to bring back Devin and had been turned into a baby due to some bad decisions on both his part and Emon’s. They all probably felt the same tug on their hearts as I, felt the same heaviness. Agro, who was not bound to Dormin, had hurt his leg somehow because of what Dormin had forced his master to do. Amethyst, the only healthy unbound one of us, was hurting on the inside from seeing the only other horse she knew hurt (Jaccen had a horse, too, but it was outside and unfamiliar to Amethyst).

Many of those people had suffered enough already. Living a life attached to an evil deity would just worsen things. I knew what I had to do.

Murmuring an incantation that just came to me from out of nowhere, I began to draw the power necessary to do everything Aslar had wanted me to do. The tug on my heart made grasping Dormin easier, and although They tried to fight it, it was futile. The power of all sixteen colossi joined in to help with Dormin’s destruction and the unsealing of the lands and the restoring of Wanderer, making the spell work better than I imagined. I felt the infinite powers of the gods flowing through me and directed it in the three places it needed to go: throughout the lands, towards Dormin, and to Wanderer. The Triforce of Power was too powerful to put into words; I felt weightless and as if nothing existed, not even me.

According to the others, I had a bright white aura surrounding me the whole time I had been casting the spell. My eyes had turned pure white, and my short golden hair had been blowing violently around my head. I was too busy to know if this was true or huge exaggeration.

A blinding light enveloped the whole Shrine again, temporarily blinding everyone. When at last we could see again, nothing seemed different. I had collapsed to the floor, completely drained, but still feeling the effects of the Triforce. Jaccen rushed over and lifted me off the ground. I supposed he thought that I could not have stood after such an amazing feat. Even if at first glance nothing seemed different, second glance took in more, for we all looked at whither Devin was standing.

Wanderer was back the way he belonged, as a man. He stood in front of her, which would have been all right…if it were not for the fact that he was missing something. As a baby, he had been naked, but that had been fine since it was a babe and not a man. But now it was quite disturbing. It wasn’t often that grown men went around without their clothes.

“Well now…Isn’t this a nice way to be reunited,” I murmured, looking away from Wanderer, blushing. Everyone else was red in the face, too. It was best if Wanderer found clothes as quickly as possible. “When I came hither, I brought a spare set of clothes for you, just in case something happened, although I wasn’t expecting anything like this. I believe I have them packed away in the nearest shrine outside of this one. Someone, please go get them for him before we all die from embarrassment.”

Devin rushed out to do so, since Wanderer was a bit inconvenienced and Jaccen had his arms full. Wanderer was still a bit out of it because he had just gone through two transformations in so little time. But when he finally became aware of himself, he spun around to face me. I tried to ignore the fact that he was without clothes and looked him in the face.

“You were hither all this time, Liliane?” he asked, his voice soft as it had been before he had come to the Forbidden Lands. When I nodded, he pressed on with, “So was Dormin speaking the truth when They said you had been conversing with the colossi and was in the Shrine with the last two that one day?”

“Yes, but I swear, I did not betray you,” I stated. “I will tell you everything about me coming hither later, when I recover from killing Dormin and doing other things…”

“Who brought Devin back, you or Dormin?” Wanderer inquired.

“Dormin, but that was only because They were sympathetic to you,” I muttered.

Devin came running in, holding in her arms a white version of Wanderer’s other shirt and a pair of dark shorts, along with sandals similar to the ones he had worn before. He quickly put them on so that we would not have to see him exposed a moment longer.

“Thither are giant creatures gathering around the Shrine,” Devin informed us, not knowing if she should be frightened or not, since she had been dead for nearly a sun cycle.

“The colossi! They really did come back!” I exclaimed, happy more than anything.

“…Damn…I don’t have the sword anymore,” Wanderer grumbled.

“No, no. They won’t harm you. They are our friends, I promise. They helped me to kill Dormin and unseal the lands and return you from baby to man. They are good creatures that only fought you because they did not wish to die,” I explained. “Come on, let us go greet them.”

Devin, Wanderer, and Jaccen, still holding me, walked towards the exit of the Shrine of Worship. Agro, whose leg had miraculously healed from the effects of the Triforce, and Amethyst followed, no longer afraid of the creatures who were much larger than them. Even the children colossi were thither. We all stared up the colossi without fear, as we were all together now, in these lands.

“Thank you for what you’ve done, Liliane. You have given life back to us and restored our freedom, and for that, we shall be forever in your debt,” Faelin stated, bowing slightly although it was hard for someone her size to do. “Killing Dormin is one deed we shall never forget, no matter how much time passes over these lands. May the gods bless you for all you have done for colossi and mankind alike.”

“Wanderer, your actions have been forgiven. You have no need to fear that we will harm you, for what you did was out of love. Undying love is the strongest kind, and it would be wrong for us to hate someone who just wanted someone as beautiful as Devin back. Don’t you forget that,” Freelancer said from his location in the sky.

“And Jaccen...you’d better treat Liliane right. Or else I’ll be forced to kick your ass,” Lionheart warned, a hint of a teasing smile in his eyes.

“I’ll remember that,” Jaccen chuckled, placing his lips on my forehead.

“The bridge is gone. It must have been destroyed by Dormin while Emon was trying to escape. Thither is no way out of the Forbidden Lands now, and no way in, either,” Wanderer pointed out.

“Who wants to leave? We are outcasts in the world now, anyway. Besides, I’ve grown rather attached to this place and those who live hither. I would like to stay,” I said.

“Wherever you go, I’ll go,” Jaccen declared.

“I wish to stay hither as well,” Devin said. She turned to Wanderer, who was already looking at her. “Do you want to stay with us, my Wanderer? I know this place, and the colossi, held some bad memories for you, but that was all due to Dormin. Give this place a second chance. If you don’t do it for them, then do it for me. Please. It wouldn’t be the hardest thing you’ve ever done in my name, would it?”

A smile flashed across Wanderer’s face. “Of course not. And of course I’ll stay.”

With that, they embraced each other for the first time in such a long time. And we began our new life in the Forbidden Lands, living side-by-side with the colossi. Thither would be many offspring from three species: colossi, horse, and human. Other humans would eventually find these lands, and Freelancer and Gryffindor would help them to reach the ground. The colossi would spread out across the world, for they were no longer limited to just the Forbidden Lands. The original sixteen colossi would stay, as would the first four humans to settle thither in many sun cycles until death took them.

As is the continuous tale of the Shadow of the Colossus.

A/N: The end!!! Well, was this what you expected? Did you like it? Whatever your thoughts are of this story, tell me, please. Thank you for reading, thank you for reviewing if you have, and have a very good day. I’ve enjoyed you all very much, and it pains me to end this, but all stories must come to an end. Once, again, thank you and have a wonderfully fantastic day.