The tiring flames that disappeared from the battlefield burned with a different coldness than the one I seemed to feel inside, or rather the coldness I assumed I had but couldn't feel.
Sadness didn't overtake me when I killed Tomoe.
Grief didn't fill me as I gazed at the human and her servant allies plummet from the sky.
Not a single shred of my soul cried out while I bathed in the hell in front of me, spending minutes wiping my hands free of blood that wouldn't ever come off.
I felt no emotion at all.
That's right... it was impossible for me to feel anything since I locked all my emotions away; a key to ever open that Pandora's box didn't exist, nor would it no matter how many years, centuries, or millennia would come to pass.
There was nothing left for the darkness to consume, no undiscovered light lying somewhere deep inside that could be bargained with.
Or maybe... the light I should've had was corrupted long ago.
"..Y...O...U!"
A dying groan carried through the crisp air.
Tiny embers still fluttered about in my eyesight, roaming across the ravaged land sitting below the dyed red sky as Tomoe's unresponsive body slid off my hand and its last remnants dematerialized before ever contacting the ground.
-SCREEE!!!
A harsh whistling; of something slicing through the currents like it was the softest butter.
I yanked at the horizon with my hand I threw up as though reaching for the heavens, catching the edge of a bronze shield thrown for my head in between my index fingers.
Pieces chipped and crumbled from the fractures beginning to show in the metal upon the fragile squeeze my fingers dug into the shield with- coming to stand silently before the servant who aimed for me, its broken form fell at their feet like a vase that had been shattered.
"You... UGH!...... BAHAMUT!!!"
Whether through his power alone or because of an unbreakable will he possessed, the lancer called Leonidas fought through the petrification curse, trying to claw his hands into my skin even as the process worked to claim his torso and arms.
Leonidas's left pulverized into dust hitting my torso while his last free hand clamped around one of my arms, refusing to break.
"DISHONORABLE, TRAITOROUS SERVANT!"
"YOUR DECEIT IS ONLY MATCHED BY YOUR SPINELESS COWARDICE!"
His words held a cutting sharpness similar to a blade while also having a vile bite as though he roared them out from the pits of his stomach.
The blood in his mouth from battle splashed onto my face and body with raging force at every syllable he mouthed.
Yet, I continued to do as I had and stood there wordlessly. Not an eye batted while I watched the curse's effects reach his face and begin to finish consuming him once and for all.
Careening his neck; ignoring the cracking sounds of the stone from the area being petrified, the man looked into my eyes for what would undoubtedly be his last sight.
Losing the deadly glare in his gaze, he somehow managed to take a breath as his speech came out softer compared to the last time.
"...You're not Bahamut. You may wield the same tribal marking on your chest, but your pupils don't contain a fearlessness ancient texts described his of holding; at least, you're not the legendary dragon I've come to hear rumors about."
"...I'm not sure why Nero-dono calls you by that name... whether you're a descendant of his bloodline or a mere follower. As a warrior... you should realize, there is no valor in standing alone. ...You'll only watch the world burn and find yourself with nowhere to return to-"
Nothing but a statue stared at me from below now, the last sentence Leonidas wasted his breath to speak registered in my foggy head as something less than incomprehensible mutterings, his musings eventually cutting off and dying as his petrified state rendered him deceased.
Before I had the chance to tear my right arm from his grasp, a laser sliced through the stone and severed Leonidas's stony hand from the rest of him. Noticeable red marks were embedded into my light-brown skin from the fingers digging into it; disintegrating one by one the fingers fell apart until the lancer's detached petrified hand was no longer clamping my forearm.
The returned feeling of freedom was short-lived- bigger than the presence of Leonidas's hand, several thin strands of purple coiled around my legs, arms, and torso until all but the top of my head was bound tightly enough to impede the natural process of breathing.
Lifted into the atmosphere I didn't bother fighting against my constraints; I was wrapped straighter than an arrow in my prison with my arms pinned to my sides and my legs perfectly lined with them as the bindings tensed further and their ends became alive, turning into snakes that hovered before my face.
I was pulled deeper into the obscene battlefield, the charred scene of what used to be the budding nature I created in my illusionary bubble became swallowed in shadows; sat on the servant's monstrously large tail, her one good eye stared down at me from the vast height difference she boasted.
"You..." Her snakes hissed, baring their fangs and circling the cocoon they made for me constructed of their bodies whilst the goddess lifted her tail higher, bringing me close enough that I could touch her nose with the tiniest movement. "Silva... So Enkidu's description wasn't mistaken, you are here."
In response to the softer tone that'd taken place of the harder one she initially addressed me with, the snakes uncoiled themselves, allowing me to sit as I pleased.
Several nuzzled into my neck or rubbed their head against mine wholeheartedly displaying their trust as one lounged across my right shoulder allowing me to pet it.
A pale light flared to life within my hands at my wordless call. The left eye of the female servant was enveloped in a hazy white flame when I clapped them together; inversing the bloody socket's state to before she was afflicted with the wound, the organ was fully restored to its former glory.
Caressing herself, the goddess's hands cautiously ran over the newly restored eye, carefully keeping her pointed nails at a far enough length so they wouldn't stab her.
"Ah... much obliged." I could practically see the lines she traced in the air and across the field as the woman's raven pupils rushed from one corner of her eyes to another, using her immense scope of the battleground to scan everything in seconds as she hurriedly made use of her healed vision. "Found you."
The two words brought her incomparable joy, sparking the fire for a wicked grin to spring onto her face. Narrowed in on the prey she sought, I could see alongside her Chaldea's forces gathering themselves for a hasty withdrawal.
Jeanne, Quetzalcoatl, and the other servants not over here before were supporting those carrying those still unconscious, leading the retreat to get outside the boundaries of my illusionary field.
I rode the oversized tail higher and higher; the ground blurred and the scope of everything below turned microscopic as the goddess seated me on her shoulder. Next, the snake-like appendage of hers curled back, and her lively hair mimicked an aggressive pose of their own with the giant primed and ready to mow down the cause of her troubles then and there.
"Wait..." Forcing her body to stay rooted to the spot, a wall of chains formed before our vision adding another obstacle to keep the servant from releasing her built-up momentum.
"I think, that's enough for today." Floating down from among the clouds his feet planted atop the impromptu barrier he forged. His green hair blowing in the wind, Enkidu came to hover eye-to-eye with the looming figure.
The pair engaged in a silent and prolonged staring contest, either side's cold piercing gazes refusing to bend their knee to the other.
"Let us not get greedy. As I'm sure you felt her arrival, the Goddess of the Underworld has broken free from the alliance, and Quetzalcoatl herself is nearly back at full strength. We need not egg on our enemies further-with their master likely injured they'll be quite keen on taking more than just your eye, mother."
What answered in kind was a low growl and a violent flap from the angelic wings on her back. Baiting Enkidu with a momentary glance over her shoulder as she turned, the immortal kept her silence and lost the menacing aura surrounding her, heading off the battlefield.
"And what of him?" Scents of soil and pine swirled in close; virescent hair, a shade lighter than grass became a wall blocking my line of sight before fluttering away, drifting behind Enkidu who appeared standing on her other shoulder.
"..."
"He shall... come with us."
"Is that so? And you're sure he won't turn... rogue?"
"That remains to be seen, but my fear for the strength he wields at his disposal is substantially stronger than the reservations I feel attempting to sway me to leave him be."
"Power is power, and if I can have one of the strongest beings in this singularity on my side; it puts me in a state of both ease and delight, an opportunity I'm sure Chaldea would take were they in my present position."
Their topic of choice had begun losing my traction. Crossing over out of the illusionary bounded field I'd detached myself from the pair's talk about trust-becoming trapped in a connection considerably more immersive.
For a fleeting second, my eyes felt Nero gazing into them from somewhere distant for a short time. The moonlight conveyed sparsely anything against the dark curtain of night, yet everything rendered like it was a sunny afternoon under my enhanced sight... including a single red petal I knew all too well.
Conjuring a mirror clone to replace my absence, I vaulted from the perch of the giant immortal's shoulder and backtracked into the illusionary boundary.
It had been less than a minute's time, yet the scenery inside looked as though it had aged thirty years in the seconds that elapsed since either side withdrew.
Turned black from the wildfire before, the scorched grass was now flailing weeds that remained flopped over, too weak to stand tall.
The insignificant cracks spreading out far and wide from the battles had split and converted into wide people-swallowing chasms; decorating their inner walls were ten-meter-long roots from trees lucky enough to survive the destruction, the former bursting free of their soil cage keeping them sealed underground do they could run amok above.
No wind blew. Not a cloud existed in the unforeseeable mix of grey, black, and brown in the unnatural assortment of colors making up the damaged sky steadily falling apart. Tanking numerous phantasms, and the battles it survived prior to the last one, it was clear my illusionary world was in shambles and could come undone at any time.
Nothing; Nobody, in a place ready to knock on death's door, there shouldn't have been an idiot waiting inside... yet there we stood, the two of us, standing silently amid the ruins of a once beautiful and misleading fantasy.
We were directly across from one another in plain sight, separated only by a rift in the earth stretching on for miles like an ocean while managing to be just as wide.
The mystical rose petals that always seemed to mysteriously trail behind Nero blew over the rift in an unexplainable fashion without the aid of a breeze, creating a literal sea that coursed between us.
Blood blanketed the left portion of Nero's figure; over her eye, down her forearm which she clutched with her right hand, even around her calf as she inhaled and exhaled with haggard breaths.
Astonishment forced me to blink twice. Refreshing my eyes for a second glimpse, Nero's battered condition reflected in my orbs in a worse light this time around than when I first witnessed them, tugging at the strings of some unfamiliar power or force that made my heart miss a few beats, and conjointly struck me with sentiments I couldn't quite comprehend on my own.
Journeying over the free-flowing rose petal river, I walked with steps light like air over the delicate flowers, bringing the distance keeping Nero and me apart to an end.
Poising on two petals at the river's edge, the tiniest hairsbreadth of space existed between us, I could feel, smell and practically touch every puff Nero let escape as I lowered onto a knee to take her right hand.
Its palm was stained red by the active bleeding still occurring on her left side, leaving only her fingers a pale white.
Higher I kept raising the limb caught in my grasp as the blood slid off Nero's and onto and down my arm.
Suspended before my lips, I modified our connection, unwrapping mine from over hers to instead hold her hand from underneath.
Feeling the usual warmth of her skin gone, I blew a soft onto Nero's open palm then slowly watched as the whiteish-purple flame fully melted under her flesh.
As the seconds which came after passed by, I could hear her muscles relax in addition to her breathing becoming less pained.
Initiating what came next, I sunk a single fang into Nero's forefinger, releasing a different flame into her bloodstream.
"Immortal Rejuvenation," Whispering the spell's name through gritted teeth, the bleeding ceased, and all wounds and impurities on Nero's body began to vanish as her body temperature slightly rose.
Nero was the first to act, hesitantly drawing her hand away- at which I leaned forward, stretching out the hand which was holding hers not so long ago.
"Come... with?" I invited.
Nero hid her face looking down at the ground and away from me, the quietness while I awaited her answer causing the atmosphere to feel stiff.
"...Go with you?"
"...Yea. Can't place why, but presence is comforting, yours is. Agreed when we became friends we would always be on each other's side, so come, please. Loneliness, you and me, never suffer again."
"...At no time shall we abandon one another; regardless of how much time passes, we'll always keep each other from wallowing in their darkness... We did promise something like that, didn't we..."
"That's why........."
SMACK!
"...I can't come with you." Flames Nero had let billow beneath her feet when she first began talking and which kept crackling amidst the pause she allowed to linger after cutting off before answering, erupted as an energetic torrent brimming with defiance and sorrow; shooting up like a wall to keep us separated as Nero batted away my hand and finally drew her gaze from the ground to stare at me from the other side.
"...Why?" I asked, every letter of the questioning word coming out fractured shards about to break as I never tore my eyes away from the hand Nero refused to take.
"...Don't ask me that question..." Nero responded, her voice breaking between a strong shout and a frail whisper as she squeezed them out. "Isn't it obvious you fool, it's the only way to keep my word."
"You're my white rose, a person most valuable to me amongst all others, but master is also an individual precious to me. That day when we reunited after you first attempted at her life, I asked you not to attack her because I didn't want to have to choose between you both; to always protect her and the promise I made with you- I didn't want to be forced to have to break either."
"But, standing here... I realize the current you isn't the same you I made that vow with."
"The unsettling haze in your eyes, you're not yourself; not the same Silva- the guy who would never hurt his friends even if they were to betray him. You're merely a hollow vessel on your way to becoming something you fought against every day not to become."
"As your frien- ...as someone I consider dear to me and who doesn't wish to see you give in to those relentless nightmares of the past you'd already overcome once before, it's my job as per our oath and bond to stop you... it's my turn to save you for once and I can't do that standing by your side this time."
"You can't... or you won't?" I trembled upon saying the words, causing my head to throb.
Stab, and stab, and stab, like suffering a sword plunging into your skin- a sensation I was inexperienced with yet hearing those few words reach my ears brought waves of agony I could only imagine felt how a knife would when sinking in.
The illusionary world began to flicker black and white, howling with the cries of the wind as spiral-patterned fissures were strewn into its boundary from something consuming me.
"So you would leave me alone, then? ...Throw me away and watch me drown?" I warily let the question part from my lips.
"It wouldn't be any different from how things used to be. After all... you've always been by yourself. Forever and ever."
Forever and ever.
"Heh."
Quietness. An eerie welcomed silence.
Forever and ever-those muttered words shushed the sounds of the world around me, shattering the unsure voice rattling about in my head, the conflicting tightness my heart had been experiencing since I'd met Chaldea and the other servants in this singularity; anything and everything in existence became clouded as the only colors I could perceive were red and grey.
"Heh. Haha... Hahahaha!!!"
I had no idea as to why I began laughing hysterically... but the feeling felt despairingly right; feeling broken felt about as normal as inhaling and exhaling, I didn't know what to make of it.
"I guess you're right... In this world too, there's no one. There's nobody at all, I didn't have anyone I needed to look out for since the beginning so for what reasons have I been crawling through Hell... for who... was I willing to suffer for...?"
"...Maybe... the answer to that question no longer matters."
"Of course, who am I kidding, all that carries significance now is the end...
"By some wicked twist of fate, I've ended up tossed aside for a third time... You said you couldn't stand next to me because it was the only way you could stop me from becoming something terrible, but why didn't you realize, the moment you decided to leave turned me into what you wanted to prevent; your leaving turned me into him..."
"...Yeah. A person who would inevitably lose everything again; is that what this world wanted to happen when it summoned me?"
"...Fine then, I'll be your designated villain..."
Tore asunder by furious ebony winds induced by my deteriorating mind fueling the drastic rise of my toxic aura, the illusion shattered altogether and forced me back out into reality.
I swiveled around to find the saber already gone, forsaking just me in a hollow crater of what used to be the actual cave that stood here days prior.
Propelling forward at speeds that made storm clouds form in the sky and ripped the land up from the ground, my purplish-white holy magic lost its shimmer and underwent a dark discolorization, gleaming with the color of lightless twilight, all traces of my old power and what it fought for became a distant memory in place of the new jet black power I readily wielded.
END
Next: Fallen Hero?