Chapter 17: Go Fight Against Your Fate
In a blink of an eye, her world shifted as everything seemed to recede into a brilliant light, blinding her as it robbed her of her vision and senses.
Her surroundings spun and shifted, so chaotically she failed to discern the feeling she felt until a few seconds later when it all stopped just as suddenly as it started. When she blinked next, it was all thick dust. When she breathed in next, it was the smell of ozone that entered her nostrils.
Stelle felt a warm hand on her cheek then, looking up to a pair of glowing amethysts that were full of concern and hidden fury so much so it sent shivers down her spine. Next to her she heard March coughed out the dust clogging in her throat with Dan Heng covering the pinkette with his broader frame from the raining shrapnel.
"You okay?" Mei asked her and Stelle nodded, straightening up from under the cover of the older woman to look behind her.
"Well, that was terrifying," she mumbled to herself at the sight of the destruction caused by the Engine of Creation a good tens of meters or so behind Mei. It was big, bigger than the Doomsday Beast they fought at Herta Space Station, and Stelle honestly wasn't sure how they would defeat such a gigantic construct. "I'm not sure we can destroy it."
"We won't have to," Mei calmly told her, tone both reassuring and certain. "Our objective is to destroy the Stellaron and defeat Cocolia. That robot is just a tool and has no will of its own."
"It's a weapon," Dan Heng deduced for them and Mei smiled slightly despite herself. "Eliminate the master and it will be nothing but a thing."
"She's obviously controlling it," March muttered in a rare case of clarity which earned her an odd look from Stelle. "What?"
"Eh, nothing. Just a little surprised."
"At what?"
"Don't worry about it."
"Why do I feel insulted..."
Mei shook her head fondly at their antics and smiled. "In any case, we should be smart with our approach, especially with the Stellaron since we don't know what sort of defenses it has against altercations."
"Do you have a plan, Mei?" Dan Heng asked and Mei nodded.
"I do," she began, looking at the three teenagers in the eye before her gaze stopped on March. "And you're a big part of it."
All eyes landed on the pinkette who blinked owlishly at the sudden attention given to her. "Me?"
"She meant us," Stelle clarified with a sigh. "But you particularly have a big shoe to fit."
"So, that means you'll take care of the Stellaron?"
Mei nodded again, impressed by Dan Heng's tactical acumen, as she straightened up. The trio followed suit and stood up, watching Mei peering through the corner of the passageway they sheltered on to get a better view of their enemy.
Cocolia now stood on the Engine of Creation itself, elevated by a platform the Architects used to maintain the massive robot in a bygone past, as she waited in silence for them to make their move. The cold didn't bother her one bit despite the height with her lance emanating an even colder aura that matched only with her determination.
"March, go find a vantage point. Stelle, Dan Heng, you both on vanguard duty and will engage Cocolia directly. I'll try to destroy the Stellaron so that even if we fail in taking Cocolia down, our main objective will still be complete." Mei glanced back, earning nods from the three with March looking a little uncertain. She went on to reassure her. "Don't worry, just do your job and everything will be fine."
"What do you want me to do?"
Mei gestured for March to get to her side with her hand, pointing at certain parts of the Engine of Creation for the pinkette to see. "See those joints? I want you to freeze them with your ice for Stelle and Dan Heng."
"They're so big, though. I don't think my ice can freeze them for long."
"It doesn't have to be long. Just enough for them to ascend it to attack Cocolia." Mei reached for her pocket to take her earpiece, addressing the rest of the crew. "Sync your comm, we'll commence on your mark."
Each of them took their phones and connected themselves to a group call with their own earpieces set on their ears. After making sure everyone was connected, Mei tapped hers and spoke. "Comm check."
"Check."
"... Check."
"... I'd never think of this feature," Stelle mumbled to herself last, loud enough for them to hear through the earpiece. "The more you know, I guess."
"It's all about improvisation," Mei told her before she turned to March again. "Go, March. We're running out of time."
Before she could hesitate any further, March dashed away from the group. To have her friends rely on her so much was scary, but the thought of letting them down was even scarier so with that in mind she quickly got rid of her own fear to focus on her job instead. Her friends needed her and she would help them however she could.
She ran, she jumped and she climbed the harsh mountain terrain with surprising agility until she found a good spot with clear view of the Engine of Creation. It was truly a massive thing that despite the distance, it still looked big to her naked eyes. March took a deep breath to calm herself and steadily made her way to the edge of the cliff, swallowing thickly before she summoned her bow.
Her voice was a whisper, almost insignificant compared to the howl of the winter wind around her. Yet it was clear to those listen as the second it slipped through her lips, their moment of respite was met with a sudden end.
"I'm ready."
"Go."
March pulled the string of her bow and for a split second her eyes found her bloodied and bruised pale hands. The cold had numbed them she almost didn't feel a pain from her near frantic ascent but now her brain had registered the injury, a sudden sharp pang bit her and she hissed through her teeth.
Yet she didn't falter, not one bit and not for a second. Still holding the string taut, she called forth her power from deep within her, letting it well on her chest before channeling it through her blood and flesh all the way to her hands and bow. Instead of making quivers worth of arrows like usual, March focused her power to one single point, condensing it into one true strike.
A translucent arrow burst into existence, long and big unlike anything she had conjured up before. Its colors were of her eyes, a mixture of various lighter colors of blue and pink that shifted like the wind itself with its hue reflected in her own orbs, set in a determined glare as she aimed it to her target.
It was a thing of pure energy and will, created from her needs to protect those she held dear in her heart. After all, eyes are the windows of the soul and her soul was reflected well in both her eyes and strike.
So, she struck. Again and again, fueling each projectiles with her indomitable spirit.
A split second before those projectiles hit their marks, Mei was already ten steps ahead from Dan Heng and Stelle, moving in a literal flash of lightning across the battlefield. She saw with crystal clear clarity as the giant arrows sailed through the air, piercing snowflakes and oxygen with ease in an almost suspended movement to her eyes, and she was suddenly struck with a sudden sense of nostalgia.
Maybe it was the hair color, maybe it was the weapon of choice or even the projectiles themselves. But, as she glanced back to where March was, she was suddenly reminded of a certain pink elf she called a friend and mentor a long time ago.
Back then, she couldn't really appreciate Elysia's bubbly attitude with her recent separation with Kiana still hurting her deep yet before she knew it, that cheerful demeanor Elysia always demonstrated to the world had wormed its way into her wounded heart and helped healing her pain.
March was like that, a little less sure with herself maybe which was normal for a teenager such as herself, but Mei could see Elysia in her and her persona. Mei refrained from relating strangers with the people she knew too much because they were their own persons but the thought was there and truth be told, it had been sitting on the back of her mind since she met March.
Talking to Kiana about it was not really helping since Mei was the only one who truly knew Elysia and Bronya was out of the equation entirely because she was even more stranger to the subject which left Mei alone with her thought before, eventually, she dismissed it from her mind entirely.
That was before she met this world's versions of the people Mei knew and suddenly the thought popped back up to the front of her mind. The possibility of another versions of themselves existing in the Tree was not something she just thought but the matter of meeting them? Mei had never imagined it to be a reality.
March was not Elysia. Mei was sure of it. But the resemblances were almost uncanny especially now and it gave Mei mixed feelings whenever she looked at the former.
The first arrow hit its mark without a miss and Mei, still watching in slow motion, saw the way ice crystal bloomed on the point of impact and froze the mechanical joint. Even that reminded Mei of Elysia's crystal flower, granted the color and shape were wrong but still in her mind they still shared some resemblances.
She drew Seven Thunders as she sped past the metal fist still clenched against the ground, sending millions of voltages at once into it and frying its motoric function to immobile it so Dan Heng and Stelle wouldn't have to worry about it being used against them both on their way towards Cocolia.
The duo jumped and landed perfectly on the metal hand a few seconds after Mei electrocuted it with the woman herself long gone and headed straight for the Stellaron itself already, leaving nothing but crackles of purple electricity in her wakes. Stelle and Dan Heng wasted no further time to climb the Engine of Creation, barely sparing Mei a glance as they were too busy themselves.
March's arrows never ceased hitting the Engine of Creation for a second, each impact freezing servos and joints to prevent it from moving. Cocolia had been trying to impede their climb by commanding the construct however she could which was not much by the passing seconds, March's attacks proven to be too effective than what was initially thought.
That was until she vented the Geomarrow reactor of the Engine, much like Svarog did earlier only in grander scale, and melted the ice almost immediately into mist around them. With time quickly running out, Stelle charged ahead, momentarily leaving Dan Heng behind until he too caught up with her new speed.
Two figures pierced through the rising steam, like a spectre in the mist they moved with an almost abnormal speed, jumping and vaulting over compartments and gaps with precision and agility belonging only to those who lived to fight. Stelle, in her frenzy, still heard March cursed silently under her breath through their shared communication as she tried to overcompensate for her melting ice, the intervals of her attacks lessened until it almost became a rapid fire, with little success. In the end, the pinkette decided to distract Cocolia instead by firing smaller yet faster projectiles that exploded around her, pelting her with cold sharp ice shrapnel.
Cocolia, for her part, simply raised her own barrier of ice to encase herself in, protecting her from the incoming attacks.
A compartment opened right in front of Stelle and Dan Heng, both having only a fraction of second to react before a series of exhaust nozzles sprung up from underneath the armor and spat out fire towards them. Stelle's eyes widened as she attempted to stop and evade, fully aware how late it was with how close she was to it so she changed direction and braced herself instead with her bat out as a makeshift shield.
She caught a glimpse of white and green at the corner of her eye as Dan Heng rushed to her front, his spear held forward with its blade pointed towards the source of the fire, and right before her eyes she watched how he quite literally pierced the flame into two and forced them aside, leaving them unharmed.
They pushed forward like that with Dan Heng spearheading the formation now until they reached the nozzles which Dan Heng unceremoniously disabled with a swipe of his spear.
"You guys alright?" March asked, voice unusually strained as she fought her own battle against the pain of her injury and exhaustion. Stelle tapped Dan Heng's arm with her knuckles and he nodded at her.
"We're good," She answered for them both, eying where Cocolia was with her golden eyes. The disgraced Supreme Guardian had retreated into a cocoon of ice and judging from the way March's arrows harmlessly shatter on it, it was no ordinary ice either.
"How do you want to proceed?" Dan Heng queried, a question Stelle herself wondered, until an idea popped up in her head.
"Let's play smith," she said mischievously with a grin. "I'll be the smith, you'll be the hammer and Cocolia will be our anvil."
"I suppose, her ice will be our iron then."
"Yup."
"Alright."
Without another word, Dan Heng took a stance and readied his spear before, with an incredible speed and accuracy, he sent it flying towards Cocolia and her wall of ice.
It impacted with a loud ringing, embedding itself on the ice and cracking webs on its surface. But it held true, not shattering despite the powerful hit.
"Boost?" Dan Heng flatly offered his hand which Stelle accepted with her free one.
"Boost."
"Then, excuse me."
Dan Heng hoisted her up, spun her in the air and then sent her flying.
The blast of frigid air on her cheeks was more pronounced as she sailed forward towards her target, approaching fast thanks to Dan Heng's help. Tightening her grip on her bat, she shifted her position into a stance mid air, channeling her strength into a single, powerful strike.
Her bat glowed white with power, almost humming and vibrating in her hand, and with a loud yell she smashed it on the back of Dan Heng's spear like a hammer on a nail. There was a loud cracking, followed by an explosion that was similar to an exploding lightbulb as the ice wall shatter from their combined efforts.
Stelle's grinned, an exclamation of victory at the tip of her tongue, and promptly gasped when she saw Cocolia staring directly at her the whole time from behind her destroyed shield.
There was no word exchanged, only cold glare as the disgraced Supreme Guardian drove her lance through Stelle's chest. The girl couldn't even scream as it pierced her flesh and bones, freezing her blood and nerves almost instantly the moment it hit her.
Stelle heaved, the last bit of air blowing out of her mouth not in a mist from her frozen, destroyed lungs, before her eyes rolled back and she fell from the elevated platform high over the world.
Her vision spun yet she didn't feel anything besides cold, even so it was distant and detached to her fading thought. The ringing on her ear was a little familiar to her, a voice belonging to someone she knew but failed to recognize amidst the haze. A haze that quickly claimed her.
In the expanding darkness, she felt millions of presence.
Her attack was interrupted by a shrill scream of horror and despair from her earpiece, turning her blood icy cold in her veins as she turned her head to the side to look at its source.
The short distraction was all the Stellaron needed to push Mei back with a wave of terrible energy as her stance slacken from the shock at what she saw, an image of nightmare she knew would be ingrained in her mind for the rest of her life. Yet, another one of her pups falling to the embrace of death.
Mei barely reacted when her vision shifted and she was pulled to the deep recess of her mind, still looking with wide eyes through the familiar screen her mind conjured for her to see the outside with. For a long few seconds Mei was speechless, almost unresponsive to the world.
Flashes of Stelle's cooling body crumpled on the ground assaulted her mind, supported upright in an almost mocking manner by the lance impaled deep in her chest. Her limp hands hanging uselessly by her sides with her head twisted to Mei's direction, empty eyes staring at her amethyst with its fire snuffed out.
It was hardly her first time seeing a kid under her supervision died and she had long accepted whatever came after would be the last either. Yet, the visions were always there, recollections of memories belonging to them that made Mei realize how fragile life could be.
The smiles, the frowns and even the glares were all a sign of a soul living its life. Now it was gone, only a void remained on that frozen expression, slightly twisted with remnants of agony that would follow death in its duty.
"Thunder, she..." Even her voice was small, still in an apparent disbelief, as she spoke at the entity now controlling her body. Thunder, for the most part, simply nodded slightly in recognition.
When she spoke next, however, her voice was soft, almost tender to Mei. "I know."
"I failed her..."
"You trusted her." Thunder took a step, approaching the trio now surrounding Stelle. The Stellaron now behind her glowed and shattered, golden energy flowing high towards Cocolia. Yet she paid it no mind, even when Cocolia began to transform and change into a being unworthy the title of a human anymore. She felt nothing but disgust and hatred at the woman, a truer emotions of her host whose body she now control. "Allow me to take over from here."
Mei didn't respond verbally but she didn't object, instead she opened more of her gate for Thunder, allowing more unreserved power to filter into her Core.
Thunder grinned, though it lacked any humor as a pair of red horns grew on Mei's head. Her Herrscher wing bloomed into existence behind her, crackling with unholy power of Honkai and thunder itself, followed by her mechanical arms by her sides.
Instead of empty hands, they carried with them a giant Katana, a manifestation of Thunder's power in Mei's form. The blade had cut through various enemies in the past and it hadn't lost its edge even after all the years of slumber.
March was openly crying by Stelle's side, holding her cold hand as she wailed for her friend. Dan Heng didn't but the shock and grief were clear in his eyes as he stood motionlessly beside March, looking down at Stelle.
When Thunder stopped near them, March immediately turned to face her, utterly helpless. "M-Mei! Stelle, she... She's..."
The pinkette couldn't even finish her sentence before bursting into another fit of tears. Thunder regarded her for a second before she sighed. "Mei is not here," she told her. Firmly to gain the distraught girl's attention. "I'm in charge."
"... W—what?"
It was only then that they noticed the horns and wing, though what drew their attention the most was the cocky smirk none of them had seen on Mei's face before. It was unnatural, out of character and certainly unsettling to see on a face that usually showed nothing but compassionate smiles.
"Who are you...?" March asked warily, unconsciously backing away to shield Stelle from the demon looking down at her. The smell of ozone was thick around the woman as she was positively thrumming with energy. It reminded March of the time Mei nearly pulled her weapon out on the Guards during their arrest, just a lot more potent and oppressive.
"I am Conquest," Thunder told her, pulling Seven Thunders out of its scabbard and pointing it at Cocolia with murderous intent. "And I demand your life as atonement for your sins." She paused then before her grin blossomed even more. "Though, you can consider this a mercy for what I'm about to do to you is incomparable to what Raiden Mei would have done. You killed one of her pups right before her eyes in cold blood. She wouldn't have stopped until she ripped your throat out."
"You brought this upon yourself. She brought this upon herself. If none of you had come and stood in my way, none of you would've died." Thunder raised an eyebrow, not exactly expecting an answer from Cocolia. She chuckled humorlessly then.
"You don't even sound human anymore but who am I kidding? Only you can be so sure to sell yourself to the devil without a thought to the consequences."
"The Stellaron saved us all!" Cocolia bellowed in response, "do you not see this power?!"
"Do you not see what become of you?" Thunder retorted, showing anger for the first time. "But, of course you don't you shortsighted moron. Some things are just never meant to change regardless the time and place."
Though, no words were said afterwards the cold fury Cocolia radiated was an enough answer.
A palm raised high and the world shook as the very earth itself was called upon to the call of such an unbidden fury. Chunks of the mountain flew high over the clouds, pulled by an otherworldly power of Destruction, and smashed together to create a giant pile of floating island that loomed over Everwinter Hill itself.
It pulsated with an energy blessed by the Stellaron, golden veins running deep and about its surface as it held suspended by a power bestowed to Cocolia with a simple gesture of her hand, and it would take only a command to fall and bury those beneath her with that might of hers.
It was a power that knew only to destroy and its purpose was to destroy the people who challenged her authority.
March felt utter hopelessness for the first time in her life. Not even when she woke up to the face of strangers without memories of her past gave her as much despair as now. It wasn't just rocks that made up the pile now as the pressure and energy cracked them to molecular level and turning it into a crystal of vicious black and gold. Crystal that was as hard as diamond and just as sharp.
Her feet shook before she fell to her knees, looking up high to the heaven where their verdict lay suspended and ready to be delivered. What could they possibly do in the face of such insurmountable power? Where flight was not even an option much less a fight. They were faced with a power beyond anything they had fought before, a herald of Destruction and its will and demands.
But another entity had her own demands in the vicinity, a power that command the world's thunder and its might. An embodiment of conquest and unbroken will once reigning supreme on a world where dreams and hopes fought to stay alive in daily basis. They had prevailed now as she would always be.
"Getting riled up, aren't we?" Thunder took a step forward, her tone still a belittling rumble that reverberated from the depths of her chest. Just another thing that separated her with Mei even if it was just a little. "Well, do your worst. I'll take you on so you might as well struggle all you want."
Dark clouds loomed over the world as the Queen of Thunder herself demanded the submission of her subject, purple lightning flashing unceasingly in the height of the sky. Sharp, fizzling sounds of electricity supercharging the atmosphere surrounded Thunder as she took a stance, the pungent scent of smoldering air filling their nostrils with each intake of overcharged oxygen into their lungs. They could already feel the sheer power before flashes of small lightnings erupted from Mei's body, striking the ground and leaving them black and hot with the snow evaporating almost the instant they hit.
In the ethereal display of power, beauty bloomed beneath her as patterns emerged from the random strikes. Like flower itself, they blossomed around her on its own. It was short lived, but perhaps it was what make it special.
Cocolia dropped her hand and her strike came crashing down like a meteor, bringing with it a version of its own lightning. The golden flashes were an affront to the Queen and she refused to yield her domain to anything else.
In one smooth movement, Thunder's mechanical arms unholstered the giant Katana and swept, sending a wave of red energy that cut through the island effortlessly. It sliced through the super dense material with the ease of a hot knife to a butter, making it explode in a brilliant hue of red and gold as the two powers clashed against each other.
March watched with wide eyes as the pile was reduced to dust while larger pieces fell like a beautiful shower of meteorites to the earth. It was unbelievable to see, how such an incredibly might got reduced to embers in one strike.
Thunder, for her part, hardly recognize the awe the pinkette gave her with her focus now lay on Cocolia only. That one strike meant nothing to her, almost insignificant even, compared to the threats Mei had faced in the past. It was pathetic, borderline laughable, how Cocolia's grand attack was anything but grand.
She prepared her retaliation then with Seven Thunders glowing even brighter in her hand, its Core supplied by power similar to its own, when she suddenly paused as another form of power emerged from behind her. Thunder looked back, blinked at what she saw, and laughed.
"Would you look at that!" She hollered as disbelief filled Mei's heart, an emotion belonging to her host. "I see why you're so fond of children."
"How...?" Mei whispered in her mind, surprise and joy flowing free in her veins. Thunder simply smiled and turned back towards Cocolia, her grin now more genuine than before.
"The unlimited potentials of the future generations are always surprising, don't you remember?"
Heat rolled out when Stelle rose to her feet as the lance impaling her was now wielded in her hand, its once frozen head a burning magma. March scooted back and away when blazes of flames licked her yet they didn't hurt, instead it was almost reassuring as they touched her skin.
Speechless, she gasped as Stelle stood to her impressive height. Like a phoenix rising back to life with fiery fire burning its feathers. Dan Heng grabbed March's arm and gently helped her up, a mixture of reluctant relief and suspicion in his eyes as he stared at Stelle's back.
How could he not when Stelle, who was clinically dead, suddenly came back to life in a new form? The prospect alone brought back terrible memories he would rather keep away.
"How interesting," Thunder said out loud before she disappeared in a flash of red lightning bolt, heading straight for Cocolia high up. She reappeared right behind the woman with her sword ready, delivering slices after slices that cut away her icy armor before Cocolia could react. Her attacks were quick, far too quick to follow by the eyes, and before long the transformed Supreme Guardian was left weaponless and armorless as she retreated back from Thunder.
She didn't quite get the privilege of respite.
The Engine of Creation rumbled and Thunder braced for attack from it, expecting a blow and preparing her own counterattack. Instead, its fist sailed past her and hit Cocolia, sending her plummeting to the ground with a breakneck speed while her scream tore through the air.
Humming absently, she saw Stelle holding the burning lance up much like Cocolia before and suddenly everything made sense. It seemed that the lance was some sort of control device for the Engine and now it was under Stelle's control.
As if to accentuate the point, Stelle lowered it and the fist eased up, returning to the Engine's side. The girl then addressed her friends behind her who were still in shock to engage her in a conversation.
"You guys ready for round two?" She asked them, glancing back over her shoulder with a smile. It pulled them back to reality with March smiling hesitantly in return while Dan Heng nodded. "Let's end this."
"Are you okay?" March asked as she summoned her bow. Something was different with Stelle and she could feel it from the way her golden gaze met found her, March just didn't know what. It didn't feel malicious, however, and it was all that important.
Stelle nodded affirmatively and it was all the answer they needed. Dan Heng stepped to Stelle's side and held his spear up, glancing at Stelle meaningfully. "Don't die this time."
"Once is hopefully enough."
With that, the duo charged ahead while March sought a new position for her to support her friends. The pinkette launched quivers after quivers of arrows to shroud the area in a blanket of white, blinding a recovering Cocolia, while Stelle's lance dimmed out until the glow died down completely and she disappeared behind the misty ice March created.
Thunder watched them with keen interest, arms crossed while her glowing amethysts shifted about the battlefield below. The grin on her face grew large when Cocolia desperately tried to fend them off by launching a blind barrage of spiky ice projectiles which hit everything but the approaching duo.
As expected, the first one to emerge from the mist was Dan Heng and Cocolia met his attack with her own ice spear. What she didn't expect was for Dan Heng to specifically target her newly created weapons.
He work with methodical precision, smashing the floating spears with his own to disarm Cocolia for the second time. The wound Thunder inflicted on Cocolia hadn't healed and it greatly slowed her down, fumbling and hindering her movement until she had enough.
Cocolia focused her energy in one point above her, creating a blade of sharp ice and preparing it to strike Dan Heng with, only to yell in frustration when Thunder's lightning struck it to bits. Her reaction made the Herrscher chuckle sadistically, the noise lost in high winter wind.
With her means of offense taken care of, Dan Heng retreated back to safety. The moment he cleared from Cocolia, Stelle suddenly sped off from the mist with her lance poised. Inexperienced she was with the weapon, her strike hit true nonetheless and the lance found itself buried in the woman's chest.
Thunder raised an eyebrow. "Heh..."
Stelle yelled and the lance bursted to life, burning a pillar of fire that shot high unto the very heaven itself. It was like watching a volcano erupted with its might and heat coming out unbidden, hot and unstoppable from the depth of the underworld.
When the blaze settled, only a charred battlefield remained.
And just like that, the evil is cleansed from this world. Purged in a blaze of glory. Poetic, don't you think?
There was never a moment of reflection, at least not one noticed except by a pair of amethyst eyes whose owner now back in control of her body, whose grin now a grimace as she looked down towards a certain ashen haired girl.
Ever since she was a child, she never truly felt alone.
In the dead of the night on the streets of Belobog Underworld where she spent many of her time foraging for food and water to survive and live without a soul in sight was when miracles would happen around her.
At first, it was just a buzz. A glimpse of purple on her periphery. Then, it grew along with her until everything changed.
A field of white lilies unraveled before her eyes with a swarm of purple butterflies flying over them, the flutter of their wings sent ripple on reality like water droplets on the surface of the sea. It was expansive, never ending as far as the eye could see and simply majestic. And it was so utterly familiar and alien at the same time.
The second time, she found the courage to step foot to it, overcoming her fear towards the unknown to feel the embrace of sweet serenity she avoided before. While hesitant still, undeniably it was just right. As if she was meant to belong there. Home it felt right, safe it whispered.
Once she felt the taste of ambrosia, she wanted more and with time she familiarized herself with that place. A space between the exist and non-exist. It was only there she truly felt peace because everything didn't seem to matter. There, she could enjoy and live herself freely from the burden of living.
But, she always came back. To the cold, cruel world to face reality even if it smacked her in the face every time she confronted it. Yet, she didn't give up fighting for herself, and then for others she really cared about once she understood the importance of bonds.
Life was simply that, an endless cycle of struggles and sufferings. Of hurt and hurting. To live in a place where everything was okay was not living for there was no difference than being dead. The dead was free and while she had the option to feel that freedom, she always returned because she had purposes she wanted to fulfill.
As Seele gasped and writhed on the ground from the immense pain burning the entirety of her body, she wondered if this was one of her purposes. To foil a centuries old scheme and stop its curse from being expanded further down the line. Not once had she thought that she would be here, though. Bleeding and dying to save an entire city from a fate of constant stagnation.
Funny how, in the end, there was no Overworld or Underworld. Just Belobog. All it took for Seele to realize it was a stab to the stomach.
"Because you are an idiot."
She gritted her teeth, pushing herself up to sit on her legs. That voice rung in her head and she couldn't decide whether it was hers or not.
"Fuck..." Seele grunted out instead, putting a hand on her stomach before bringing it up. The blood was still flowing out and didn't seem would stop any time soon. Though, as she looked around it didn't seem to matter.
She was back in the field of lilies only this time there was no butterfly in sight, just a plain white blossoms stretching in all directions. The sky, as usual, was dark yet despite it the flowers were all well lit. Glowing in the ethereal beauty of rebirth.
Seele stood up, hands falling to her sides. She had given in stopping her bleeding, knowing how futile her action was here where reality was but a reflection and not the real thing, and took a shaky step forward. Each time her bloodied foot brushed on the white flower, it left behind a red mark that turned the flower crimson.
She limped ahead, panting in pain with each step sending burst of pain to her head until she was actively grunting. Seele didn't even know where she was heading, just that she needed to move.
"Where are you going?"
A red butterfly flew by the side of her head, orbiting around her. It was hardly the first time she spoke with this thing but it was certainly the first time it was this talkative.
"Because you are dead, stupid."
Seele stopped and glared at the butterfly now hovering before her eyes. "Shut up and help me."
If it had an eyebrow, Seele was sure it would've raised it with the way it spoke next. "Wow, if only I know what's going on in that head of yours... Oh, wait. I do! You want to help that woman!"
"Yes I do."
"Need I remind you that she stabbed you to death?"
"F—fuck you! That... that wasn't Bronya."
"You've only known her for like, two days or something."
"And she... she's done enough for me to trust her. It wasn't... That wasn't Bronya. I...I know it."
"And you're dead."
"Listen here, you c—cunt! I'm... fucking hurting so cut the fu... ck! Fucking game and help me!"
It laughed, right in front of Seele's face and she suddenly had to fight the urge to tear it apart. "That wouldn't work, you know. Also, I remember you so desperately need my help so at least let me have a little fun."
"Asshole..."
"Dead woman." Seele sighed and swayed, almost falling down to her back but managed to catch herself up in the process. "Yeap, that's about it. You're still dead either way."
"I don't care. Just... let me do good. F—for once."
Silence reigned with Seele dropping her gaze to look below her. In the time she spent talking, her blood had pooled up around her feet with the lilies absorbing the liquid and turning them macabre red. It was abnormal but nothing was normal in this place as she had learned a long time ago.
"Seele..." It spoke again and this time the voice had lost all humor, something that made Seele look up at it. "You can stay here forever and live on, your wound will eventually heal. But I know you don't want that. If you go back, you'll pass away."
Seele smiled, raising a finger to let the red butterfly rest on. "Thank you, for... for everything y—you've done for... me."
"I'm sorry it had to end this way."
Me too, my best friend.
Seele opened her palm and the butterfly bursted into a giant, ominous red scythe she then gripped firmly. The flowers around her wilted and died, leaving the field a barren dark land. Everything was quiet now except for the dripping of her blood on the empty ground which sent ripples of red before they disappeared like everything else in the Sea.
Gaze set ahead, Seele saw a mirage forming before her, followed by another two in the distance. They solidified until they turned into three distinctive shapes she recognized immediately as Bronya, Serval and Dunn.
Seele approached the Silvermane Commandant.
Her shape, her soul, was what she expected from Bronya. Blinding bright with resolve that far outshone anyone else Seele knew. She knew she had chosen right on where she put her trust and this only further confirmed it.
But there was something else. A vile power that coiled itself around Bronya by binding her and forcing her to do its will. Like strings on a marionette, they bound her soul and robbed her of control as the soul itself struggled to break free. Seele saw Bronya's face twisted in agony and despair as tears ran down her spectral face.
Seele smiled sadly.
"Don't worry, Bronya. I forgive you," she began softly as she hooked the scythe around the strings above Bronya, its blade glinting under the nonexistent light. "You didn't kill me. The Stellaron did so you shouldn't blame yourself for it."
Seele paused then, raising her head to stop her own tears from falling with little success. She let out a short, wet laugh that turned into a sob almost immediately. "But you wouldn't know that, would you? You'll be blaming yourself from now on until the day you die. I know because you're that kind of person."
A fond smile found its way to Seele's lips and she took one, last look at Bronya, burning her face to her memory to remember for eternity to come. "Goodbye, you idiot."
Seele pulled her hand, cutting the strings apart, before her world turned dark forever.
Our promise still ring in my ears
I've been nothing but a burden to you
Not this time though, Bronya
TBC.