Xarion

I was back. Back in this hell. Though, strangely, this time it was an almost pleasant journey. The nothingness surrounding me allowed me to, just for a moment, forget everything that had just happened.

Vali's death at the hand of Azazel, Ddraig's betrayal, neither mattered here. There was just….nothing.

All too soon, I noticed a tear like the one that had deposited me into that world so long ago. Then another. And another.

And unlike the last time I was here, I could choose where to go.

Not knowing where anything led, I just picked the nearmost path and fell through. Whatever it was, it couldn't be worse than what I'd left behind.

X

When next I opened my eyes, I was in a grass covered field. A few thin Aspen trees dotted the landscape, but other than that there was nothing but grass as far as I could see.

It was really this again, huh?

Propping my hand underneath me to help me stand, I stopped as I realized I had a hand.

Normally, that simple fact wouldn't provoke much of a reaction, but unless I was crazy, I'd cut off my hand to completely sever myself from Ddraig. After he'd tried to steal my body, I used Sil Du to siphon away the power he had inside of me, sucking away every last shred of our connection; then I'd removed my hand because it was the only way to physically separate myself from Boosted Gear.

So if I'd cut my hand off, why was it right where it should be?

Thinking of a possible explanation, I sharpened the shadow under my finger into a scalpel and left a shallow cut in my palm.

A bright orange flame roared up from beneath my skin to seal the wound, letting the flesh be reborn in fire.

I smirked down at my hand. If nothing else, the fact that the regeneration I'd stolen from the Phenex kids was still a part of me made this whole fiasco more bearable, and given that I distinctly remember Sil Du shattering into a thousand pieces as I cut Boosted Gear away from my body, I needed as much positivity as possible. I loved that sword.

It wasn't just Sil Du that I'd lost; that sword's destruction was arguably unimportant when compared to everything else that went down.

My shoulders slumped as I relived the memory.

Vali was pinned beneath Azazel while the Fallen tore Divine Dividing out of him, killing him instantly. Then I'd awoken Boosted Gear's balance breaker and Ddraig tried to steal my body.

My best friend was dead, killed by the man who raised him. And the voice I'd had living in my head for over a year tried to overwrite my personality. Hell, for all I knew Bikou, Arthur and La Fay died in the fighting, too. There was no real way for me to know now. I wasn't dumb enough to not realize that I'd just ignited a spark I didn't know I had, something I would definitely think on when I wasn't so depressed, but as my most recent trip through the Blind Eternities showed me, I had no idea how to pick my destination. It could be decades before I had the control to return to that world, and by then everything would probably be ash because of the war that had just started.

Slinking over to one of the trees in the area, I sat down and leaned my back against it, staring up into the multi-colored leaves painted against the sky.

What the hell was I supposed to do now? I was alive, but I had no idea where I was or even what I wanted. No; I knew what I wanted. I wanted Vali to be alive, to see my friends again.

To see Kuroka again.

A brand new gale of depression pressed down upon me as my thoughts drifted to the nekomata.

Even now I had no idea what Kuroka and I were, but it was something nice, and something I wanted to explore. I doubted I'd get that chance now. Either she would stay hidden in the Pendragon estate while I fumbled through the planes trying to find my way back to her, or the Pendragon's wards would fail and the estate would be in ruins when I finally found my way back there. Which brought me back to the topic at hand.

What was I supposed to do?

All of my friends were likely dead and I was smack dab in the middle of nowhere in a land I'd never seen before.

Something wet hit my shirt, and I reached up to feel tears falling down my cheeks. I hadn't even realized I'd been crying.

Wiping my tears with the heel of my hands, I forced myself to my feet once more. Dying of exposure in the middle of nowhere wouldn't bring my friends back. I needed to figure out where I was while I worked on figuring out how to navigate my way through the planes.

Breathing deep of the slightly dry air, I summoned two broad, flaming wings from my shoulders. I leapt into the sky, charging into the air to see if I could spot any man-made structures from a better vantage point; though as I got higher, I just saw more wilderness.

Starting to get worried about acquiring common necessities like food and water - mostly as a way of distracting myself from thinking about anything else - I cast an invisibility spell over myself in case I did find civilization and started flying in a random direction. I'd run into something before too long right?

X

%! $!*! ^(

In the vast expanse of nothing that existed where reality dared not tread, a titanic presence felt a touch of possibility from beyond its infinitude. There was something near, something worth investigating.

The presence moved towards the possibility slowly, but fast enough.