Memento mori

Interlude: i shall not fear, for you are all with me

His magic only reached yuuman mind. And he implicitly understood it.

- Its selfish to ask you this but-

- I'll take care of everything.

Another smile of relief, tinted with sadness.

- You take all the world burden as if it was yours to bear.

I dismissively waved.

- Its in my job description.

- Still....

He grabbed me by the shoulder and planted a kiss on my forehead, before hugging me on his turn too.

- It wasn't fair of us to drag you into this case to begin with; To think it would reach this deep...

That's the sort of thing I would have like to hear from a parent. I waited for a few second, my head against his scrawny chest, before separating.

I almost have to remove myself his paw from my shoulder.

It had to be done. Or else, the pain I had gone through and its oneiric re-enactment would have been for nothing. I barely could hide the devastation in my eyes. I avoided gaze, knowing he would be scared if he looked at my eyes.

I scrubbed my eyes as I started to walk in the direction of the exit. The rest of the people that came here, all familiar face were surprised.

- You are already leaving?

- Yes.

- Bu-.

I stopped the walk and dropped the act. I looked at them straight. I appreciated them all, I really did. In the end, all of them gave me a part of their humanity in some way. But when they directly looked at me in the eyes, without me trying to hide my contempt for the world, or my true nature that was seeping through my iris... they saw a glimpse of what I really was.

They did not understand, not consciously.

Such were my eyes: the deformed reflection of a broken world.

That's why I appeared to be in a bad mood all the time.

But right now, all mask destroyed, they saw the emptiness behind.

I turned again toward the exit, leaving the voiceless behind.

The first step of fresh air filled my lungs with apprehension and excitation, as I watched a pillar of light in the distance.

I carefully inspected the rest of my body and of my mind.

I felt as if billions of versions of me had murdered each other so that only one may remain. A very weird sensation to be rid of all you shackle. To begin with, am I "me" anymore?

I feel so different, and yet I didn't changed.

The ether and mana within had merged completely, bypassing the artificial stability imposed by my blood. A new form of energy was born out of this perfect mixt. The oppositions had gathered under a new shape.

A distant melody hummed, carried on the winds, coming from the open pendent.

Next to me, the star master held my paw tight.

A spell woven through this new energy had allowed me to perfectly materialise his soul. Should a mortal eyes gaze upon him, one would not notice a thing. In essence, aside from the temporary nature of this state, nothing separated him from a living being.

But it would fade, in time. The quantity of energy required was astronomical.

If it were not for the energetical surge in my veins, I wouldn't be able to materialise him for more than a minute at best before collapsing.