something short, dumb and meaningless. was supposed to be part of something bigger, but aaaaa it will never happen. but implied ia/yukari! :D
Aria "Ia" Planetes huffs, sky blue eyes empty as a void, to the rotting corpse at her feet. She crushes skulls as she strolls to the broken stone bridge. Dark-colored lava bubbles underneath with molten skeletons, its pungent smell burning her nostrils - but she's long used to it. She jumps through the pit with great ease and enters the castle.
The inside is starlit as usual; debris from what was left of the ceiling was still scattered across the floor, and dust dances beneath moonlight. Yukari never remembers to rebuild their home - not that Ia cares, but it would be nice if it looked more presentable when the Imaginative One comes and saves what is still worth saving in this decrepit world.
Yukari prays. Her voice resonate, words spinning threads of magic in the air. Ia ponders if these prayers mean anything after so long. Yukari had prayed for years, for decades nonstop, and the Imaginative One - the one true goddess of this world, that commands all others - never responded. Was it lack of faith, lack of strength, or she just doesn't care?
The stars are quiet.
"Give up already, Yukari; that hoax won't respond," Ia hisses behind Yukari. She is tired of hoping for some deity to save them. There is nothing beyond the night sky. There is only an infinite nothingness waiting for them. No paradise, no peace. It's merely an eternal suffering which even the sole living god had experienced many, many times.
"You're so faithless, Aria," Yukari says softly, almost a whisper. She turns around and smiles. Despite the tattered violet gown and black cloak she insists in wearing and the blemishes and fading scars across her cheeks and neck, she is as beautiful as always. The light of her eyes is slowly yet surely dimming.
Ia's breath hitches. "You must stop. Now." She grabs Yukari's shoulders and tightens her grip, and Yukari winces. She's slim, borderline bony after a long life dedicated to pray for a fucking goddess that's either dead or cruel enough to leave her creations to rot.
"I can't," Yukari murmurs. "I can't stop until I guide her to our world. She is... the only one who can save us. Save him from himself. Have you seen him lately? The scars reach his soul. I need to call for her so she can save us all."
"Why? Why do you care?! We're doomed!" Ia roars. "This world is doomed! The god of this world is mad, his sister disappeared and that hoax has abandoned us all!"
"He isn't - not completely. He is still here," Yukari echoes; she clings to the words like they're what keep her sane. "He is here. He wants to stop. He wants to right what has gone wrong. He's here, Ia. He's alive. He is."
"He isn't," Ia snaps despite herself. Why hold onto stupid hopes? Len is long dead. The kind, level-headed and mature god is dead. What is oppressing them and leading the world to apocalypse is a degrading shell of insanity and lost dreams. Ia could no longer wait for a shell to retrieve what he'd lost.
Or for a goddess who doesn't exist anymore.
Yukari sighs. "You're so faithless, Aria." She has barely any strength left to even push Ia away, so she settles to place her hands on Ia's. "The memories of her— he clings to them. He's trying to snatch her from the stars, but he can't. He can't have her because his state is delicate. Critical. We must find her before he does."
"Yukari, stop."
"We must. I ought to keep praying until she hears us. Until she find us. But she will. I know it - the stars know the truth, Aria. She— I must continue praying."
Yukari turns around and, as the pleads flow fluently through her tongue, Ia wonders if even Yukari is too far from salvation. Ia glances down to the wreckage stretching to Sonika's forests, then up to the stars. She glares at those burning balls, furiously demanding them to let go of Yukari already.
The stars are quiet.