Erim's Query
By The RPGenius
He has come.
I have been watching him for what seems like a lifetime, and yet is but a little over a year.
I have been watching him...and I have been searching for answers. I watch him in order to answer many questions, yet I have not yet found the answer to the question that puzzles me most.
Maxim has arrived at Doom Island.
My observation of him began with a different goal than finding answers. I was to play a simple part of a play of fate.
I was to lead Maxim and his allies to a cataclysmic battle with Gades. A fated, unchangeable battle in which Maxim and his friends would lose their lives.
But Maxim defies destiny.
Now he has advanced forward into our threshold, and Gades has met him. A battle again commences between what should be and what should not.
Once again, Maxim and his friends win.
And I ask myself the question. The same question that I asked myself a year ago after I saw Gades defeated for the first time.
What gives him this power?
Dekar. Tia. Lexis. All had power. But no more than what is possible from humans. Their power did not defy possibility.
Guy. Artea. Selan. Each has more power than is possible for a human or elf to have. And yet, without him, they would be nothing. Maxim holds them together, leading them and turning four smaller units into one, single force.
Perhaps their impossible power comes from him.
Now he faces Amon. And the outcome will be the same as the previous battle.
We Sinistrals are fate. We are destiny. We represent what must be.
That is what Gades believes. It is what Amon believes. It is what Daos believes. It is what I believed…until Gades fell.
Maxim is his own fate.
He defies fate. He destroys it. He breaks its hold on the world. Just as he now defeats Amon. He is his own fate. He is human fate.
And now he continues coming. It is my place to be next.
And so I have mere minutes to question for one last time in this life.
What gives Maxim...
What gives this human...
What gives this man...
What gives him this power...
This ability...
This strength to oppose super beings...
This opportunity to change the destiny of the world and humanity.
How can he defeat the future, past and present? How can he defeat the Sinistrals?
Is it Dual Blade?
No. The sword is a result of the power, not a cause. Dual Blade is a sword of fate. Those who wield it show that they decide the future.
Is it the legendary armaments received in the towers?
No. The armor means nothing. He did not have the armor that first time. He didn’t need it to defeat Gades.
They are at the bridge now. Daos is inviting them to cross. He still does not understand. He doesn’t understand that we have lost. That bridge is supposed to be a trap. It will disappear the moment a being with power anything less that a super being’s sets foot on it. It kills all who do not hold the future.
Daos does not realize that these four will cross safely.
What gives Maxim this power?
Is it love? Is it friendship? Is it the ability to fight alongside others, to combine his strength with others? Is it the need to protect wife, child, friends, and innocents? Is it virtue? Is it the knowledge that he is humanity’s only hope? Is it courage? Is it persistence? Is it his faith in his friends? Is it his ability to help others?
What is the answer!?
Does Arek the Absolute know? He who has sent me to find answers?
Does even Maxim know? He crosses the bridge now. He thinks that his power stems from his need to protect Selan and Jeros. But he is wrong. That may be what gives Selan her power. But it is at most only a part of the answer for him.
A part...
And it dawns on me. In one enlightened moment, the answer comes to me. I know now. It is, indeed, love, friendship, and the ability to fight with others. It actually is the need to protect, virtue, and the knowledge that he is the last chance. It really is courage, persistence, faith in his friends, and the ability to help others.
It is all these things combined. It is all the good parts of humanity together. In other words...
Humanity gives him his power.
Maxim is humanity.
I have found the answer. I have found the answer that Arek wanted.
Humanity no longer needs super beings. No longer needs fate. Maxim is the super being of humanity.
Humanity is its own fate. It alone will decide what happens to the world and itself.
Maxim does not know. Daos does not understand. Only I, and perhaps Arek, know Maxim’s source of power.
I will ask Maxim, because I must play my part fully. I know that he will not answer correctly, but I will ask. Perhaps the question will help him realize that it is not just the need to protect that gives him his power.
I can no longer delay. He has crossed the bridge. I have a part to play in this. It is my turn to fight him. To say my lines as both the curious Iris and the scornful Erim. Just as humans have fought us, have fought the Sinistrals, have fought destiny…so I go to meet Maxim.
I will fight to the best of my ability. I will hold nothing back. Pointless, but it must be done. It is no longer in my hands...
It is in his.