Greyashe chapter 373 is entitled "Just one life."

Previous chapter 372: What fear itself fears.

Next chapter 374: Phantasmagoric.

Summary page

-Short summary-

All else has failed. Van is staring deep into death's maw. There is nothing now to do but to accept the inevitable and fall into ruin.

-Long summary-

Even as his thought processes slow and fade, Van still finds his mind racing at what stands before him. What is happening? Hadn't he done everything right for the lack of better terms? He has no idea what "right" really is, but the idea was to subjugate Butcher's mind with his ability which would stop his tyrannical reign over magic, but now it seems that his actions had the opposite effect of granting him even more strength? Nothing makes sense anymore, --although arguably one could say they never did from the very beginning. Regardless, of what he thinks, the situation is very clear. Butcher has somehow powered up even more, and Van who is essentially dead, can do nothing to stop him from finishing him off.

The wild eyed Butcher's magic aura spins around him and balloons into the shape of a black screaming skull. Upon making eye contact, he slowly stalks over to the farseer with unnatural movements; a child learning to walk, or one who is physically handicapped learning to make use of their facilities again. What had happened to his mind and fine tuned control of his body? What Van doesn't know is this: Butcher had gone through great lengths to hold his "fear" down through reason, cunning, and, yes even his sadism. All of these facets of himself had been created to control and hold back his fear like a dam. When Van came in and released all of this fear at once the sentient's "walls" had all come crashing down, and now he simply moves based on pure instinctual terror. There is no rhyme or reason to Butcher --whatever he fears will be annihilated, and despite his power being now twice what it was when he was thinking rationally Butcher now fears everything. Whereas rational Butcher simply desired revenge against the world that he felt had wronged him, irrational Butcher wants peace of mind which is perhaps the most dangerous desire of all in the hands of a being without conscious, rational thought. He would stop at nothing now to destroy anything that might cause him to fear, and everything now is terrifying.

First on the list of annihilation: The dying farseer before him.

The screaming skull devours Butcher whole and his body changes right before Van's eyes. His body becomes jet black, his face resembles the skull that had eaten him, his arms become long tendrils with claws at the end, and his feet are bare and animal like. By the time he reaches Van, the formally human like Butcher is anything but. Van's whole body feels heavy as he no longer has the strength to do anything, even watch Butcher. His eyes keep drooping shut and he loses feeling in his arms and falls over as they cannot support his weight. The "new" Butcher stands over the farseer and stares down at him with his empty skull like eyes. Van notices behind him that each step he took caused the ground to rot and die. The magic surrounding Butcher is pure chaos and destruction. Even being near him now is pain and burning, and he can feel his skin beginning to burn, although the sense of feeling is being dulled by his oncoming death. It's a terrible situation to be in; so helpless that he actually almost wishes he could die sooner just to be freed from what he knows is coming. Will the "new" Butcher kill him immediately? Or follow through with what he knows --pure and unbridled sadistic malice? Either way this spells the end for Van and perhaps everything. Despite all this, Van's final thoughts are not toward his situation, or even very much deserved self pity. Rather, he is curious as to how he could have possibly gotten this far as a being who cannot use magic? Or, to be more precise, a being who shouldn't be able to use any magic? Even if he had used Candle's ability to "cheat the system", with Butcher's "recall" in effect, he shouldn't have been able to get this far, right? Something else had to be in play, and while he had thought about it from time to time, he had never really given it much consideration until now when it is too late. There has to be some reason why despite all the overwhelming odds, his magic had ostensibly stuck with him.

The farseer quickly makes up his mind to try a final desperate gambit. He might be off the mark completely, but it's not as if he has another choice in the matter at this moment, and what's the worst thing that could happen? Death? Been there, doing that. The end of the world? Pragmatically speaking, if he was dead before it happened, that wouldn't matter much to him would it? Perhaps --no, because he is dying he feels that he's allowed a bit of pragmatic selfishness. If he fails and the world ends, he'd be long dead so this gambit is most definitely worth trying. Now that he's decided what to do, the question becomes how to do it? It is at this moment that he takes full notice of something that he had only been giving partial attention to earlier.

Behind Butcher is a flock of beings dressed in black. Van had noticed one or two of them earlier when Butcher had cut him down, but his attention was more on getting into the sentient's mind than investigating these mysterious figures. Now however there are no less than a dozen around them, and even without his eyes Van can tell they aren't human. Their cloaks float in the air with no apparent appendages to hold them up, and they flap in an unnatural way. These are the visages of death who have come for him. Perhaps they had kindly decided to wait until after he had entered and exited Butcher's mind to collect him, otherwise why hang on the sidelines until now? Once again the boy is curious as to why events seem to conveniently wrap around him. He's not sure if his power would have worked if they had taken him immediately after Butcher killed him, and yet they hadn't. Though at this point, he's glad they're here as they can be the "how" to his desperate gambit. The farseer concentrates on himself and closes his eyes partially because he just does not have the strength to keep them open, and for the sake of his farseeing eyes --they cannot continue to fathom the visages of death before him.

In the world between his eyelid and eyes, Van can see the death visages surrounding him. So much for hiding from them, huh? However, this is fine as he wanted an audience with them. With the last bit of strength he can muster, he pleads with them to listen to him. He doesn't know why they have chosen him, nor does he care, but it is obvious that they have granted him their favor. He asks them to consider the situation he's in --that the world is in. If they continue to side with Butcher, this will be the norm. Do they really believe that he will be satisfied with his death? The death of those associated with him? No, this cycle of despair and death will continue forever at his behest, and they will be made to continue fighting and starting wars for a being who will never be satisfied. What do they truly want? Magicians to die? What would that really achieve? Nothing. Nothing at all. This world is big enough for them to coexist, but that clearly cannot be as long as the Butchers of the world continue to exist. Not just him, but magicians too who would use their power to subjugate and destroy, and even those who assist --but only those right before their eyes and no that which they cannot see. In the end, coexistence is impossible with ego, fear, subjugation, terror, madness, and so on in existence in this world. As such, Van proposes that they side with him. He too is tired of all of this fighting, pain, and despair. He promises to them that he will never use magic for his own gain as he has seen first hand what will happen. Choose him over Butcher and he will dedicate his life to this promise of accepting all magic, and never using it for his personal gain.

His strength sapped completely, a trail of tears drip down the farseer's face, but his expression is determined rather than sad. He can only offer one life --one that is already almost finished. He has absolutely nothing else. If that is enough then they can take it. It is theirs.

The figures in black float closer to the farseer who's body has completely ceased to function. They circle around him, and in the real world, "new" Butcher raises his foot and prepares to bring it down hard upon Van's head, crushing the already dead farseer's skull. Just as his foot prepares to make contact a strange thing happens. --Time stops and for a moment seemingly skips ahead like a track on a scratched CD. Butcher opens his eyes and finds himself on the ground, his mental faculties back to normal. He looks around wildly, confused as to what just happened, and when he tries to use his abilities he quickly realizes he cannot --he has none. The sentient tries to rise, but cannot and when he struggles he finds himself face to face with...

Van stares down at him with an unreadable expression. The halo around his eyes is blood red and the irises themselves are a spectrum of different dark hued colors. Butcher tries to flee, but Van bends down and straddles his body. Taking his neck into his hands, he uses his thumbs to apply pressure, effectively choking the sentient. There can only be one master of magic --that had been what they had dictated to him. Of course his promise was also that he would not use them for personal gain, so he must kill the old regime with his bare hands. Van asks Butcher as he slowly chokes the life out of him if he understands what had happened? The moment he started using his people for his own personal betterment, he had become that which he had stolen the shape of --an angel. Now without his power he is human. With that comes all the strengths and weaknesses of humanity. The fear, the hatred, the jubilation, the rapture, and most of all death.

Butcher sputters something unintelligible as Van presses harder. He might have had mercy before, but it's as he said at the beginning of their struggle --he had taken that away from him. This is both not personal and extremely so. Now there is nothing else but for him to die. Die and regret. Butcher's eyes roll up into his head and before long he is gone.

An ignoble, quiet, and most of all very human like death for the greatest evil known to the world.

Van sighs quietly as he stands up, his victory the very definition of cathartic. The emptiness within him is simultaneously deafening and overwhelming, and yet still there is work to be done. The boy of only fifteen years old had killed two people --more than many would in their lifetime. Yet he cannot and will not be allowed rest or even time to mourn his innocence being lost for a second time.

This is only the end of the beginning.