Shido's vision filled with a bright light after he kissed Mio.
When his vision cleared, he was standing next to a small group of four children who were looking down on a burning scene in front of them from a small hill. The burning land seemed to belong to a small isolated village that was being attacked by an unknown force. If he focused, he could see corpses and blood that lay scattered along the ground. The children that were on the hill had various reactions, with the two similar looking girls - he assumed they were sisters - crying, along with one golden-haired boy hugging one while closing his eyes and gritting his teeth in anger.
The outlier was a ashen-haired boy who was staring down at the scene with a smile on his face.
Although there was fury in his eyes, it seemed to be just as strong as his joy.
With a start, he realized who the people were. The two girls were Ellen and Karen Mathers. The golden-haired boy was Elliot Woodman. And the boy who was reacting bizarrely... was Isaac Ray Pelham Westcott.
It didn't seem like Shido was visible to any of them. Looking down at his hands, he saw that they were slightly translucent.
"Where.. is this?"
"Forty years ago."
He quickly looked to his left, where the familiar voice had come from.
Mio Takamiya was standing next to him with a similarily translucent body. She looked at the scene in front of her with a feigned calm and a hint of confusion.
"This appears to be a scene recreated with my power, Ain Soph. Although, I could not tell you why"
"That's Westcott, isn't it?"
The smiling boy in front of them closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He muttered something under his breath, but Shido couldn't quite catch what he said. Then, still unaware of their presence, he waved his hand towards his companions and muttered a single phrase.
"Lavare."
Mio continued on.
"Yes. I suppose this is why he created the Spirit Formula. He most likely wanted revenge on the humans that had killed his family - no, the entire human race."
A shower of light descended down on Ellen, Karen and Elliot due to Westcott's magic, cleaning up their tear-stricken faces and clothes riddled with dirt.
Westcott walked forward and faced the surprised trio.
"Stand up, everyone! Stop laying down and crying here. We need to go to the nearest city to survive. We'll climb back up, and find a way to retaliate."
A nearly manic light filled his eyes as he continued talking.
"Hey. Elliot, Ellen, Karen.
Let's create a world. One without humanity, with only magicians in it. Let's do it. They were the instigators, so why shouldn't we?"
The scene dissolved before anyone could say any more.
The next scene was seemingly in the middle of nowhere. The same four people that were in the previous scene were present here, though there was no burning village this time. They appeared to be around ten years older than previously and seemed to be carrying out some sort of ritual that seemed oddly familiar.
"Ah!"
With a start, Shido realized what they were trying to accomplish.
"I see. This is the Spirit Formula - the original one."
Mio looked on with a complicated expression. How would it feel to witness your own birth? It was hard to imagine.
"I wonder... how much less would the world have suffered... if I was never born?"
Her soft whisper was overheard by Shido, who immediately took hold of her shoulders - or tried to. Their bodies were translucent, so they merely passed through each other. That didn't stop him from speaking, though.
"Don't say that! You don't carry any of the blame! It was Westcott who caused all of this. His desire for revenge was what led to this happening."
Meanwhile, Ellen and Karen were anxiously making some finishing touches, while Woodman shouted out to Westcott, who was standing in the middle of the formation.
"Spiritual Vein siphon successful! Mana Barrier is up and running! Everything should be ready!"
After taking a deep breath, Westcott gave the command to begin the ritual.
The magic furnace started up with a low hum.
A massive mana surge shook the area, caused by every last drop of Mana in the world flowing towards a single point.
"Ike, this is..."
"Wonderful. With this much Mana, the Spirit will have a large enough Voluntary Territory to create a second world to overwrite this one with. "
He clenched his fist.
"That is OUR world. Our Sanctuary."
Mio sadly whispered next to Shido.
"The Sanctuary of All Creation, Ain Soph."
The Mana continued to gather. Shido wanted to intervene, but this was just a reproduction of the scene that had taken place thirty years ago. This wasn't truly the past, so he could change nothing.
After the Mana had gathered, it compressed to a terrifying degree, causing something to form inside of it. A silvery-white crystal, shrouded in layers of highly compressed Mana. After growing to a certain size, it canceled out the force acting on the Mana, removing the shackles binding it to a tightly confined space.
Faced with sudden freedom, the Mana rapidly expanded outwards, uncaring about any obstacles in its way. Luckily for earth, the formation of the crystal had already exhausted more than 99.999% of the energy inside of the Mana. However, that leftover 0.001% was more than enough to cause destruction.
With an ear-shattering boom, the Magicians' fields of view were filled with a raging torrent of Mana, causing them to go slighly pale. Woodman in particular seemed to be struggling to keep up the barrier. Once the shaking stopped, he concluded that it was safe and released the barrier.
"What....?"
Shido's unconscious muttering mirrored the thoughts of Elliot, Karen and Ellen.
There was nothing left. There had been several mountains close by, as well as a city off to the north, but it was all gone. Everything within their eye's reach - and beyond their eye's reach - had been destroyed.
This was the Eurasian Sky Disaster. The massive explosion that, thirty years ago, had wiped out 150 million people in just a second.
Houses had been swept away and trees had been obliterated. The explosion had even reached out to space, narrowly missing the International Space Station.
If it had taken place just a little closer to one of China's larger cities, the casualties would've undoubtedly crossed a billion.
It was truly the disaster of the century.
And yet, despite all this, one person was laughing in its midst. Westcott, uncaring about the deaths of millions, shouted out in happiness as his vision locked onto just one thing.
It was a girl. A girl with silvery-white hair, floating in the air with her eyes closed. The place where her heart should've been was the exact same place as where the compressed Mana had been earlier. She wasn't wearing any clothes, but no one present would care about that at all.
"That's..."
"Me."
Mio looked up at her newborn self with an unreadable gaze. Was she happy right now? Or was she horrified? Shido couldn't tell.
Meanwhile, the newborn Spirit in the air vanished silently, after which the scene changed again.
They were now standing inside a small Japanese home. Three people, other than Shido and the real Mio, were present.
One of them was a boy who looked almost exactly like him.
"Shin..."
Mio's eyes started shedding a few tears, and she streched out her hand as if to touch the boy in front of her.
Shinji Takamiya. He was sipping away at an unknown drink while he curiously watched the silvery-haired girl who was sitting in front of the TV. It was playing some news broadcast about the recent spacequakes happening all around the world. At the same time, she held a book in her hand, which she flipped through at an incredible speed. This was the past Mio Takamiya, who had moved into the Takamiya household temporarily.
Next to her were stacks of other books that were strewn out haphazardly. She had clearly already read them already, and she had no use left for them.
"Hey, hey, don't just leave these books lying around! At least pile them up nicely! Jeez."
A familiar blue-haired girl came running over, quickly picking up the stacks of discarded reading material, which she shoved back into their respective drawers and bookcases. Of course, this was Mana Takamiya, before she ever became a Wizard. Her actions indicated that she had already gotten used to this scene, allowing her to show her emotions more freely to their unexpected guest.
Past Mio snapped her book shut, turned off the TV and looked at Mana, who took a step back in apprehension.
"H-hey, did I do something wrong? You're not mad at me, are you?!"
"No, I am perfectly content with your treatment."
Shinji nearly choked on his drink, while Mana nearly dropped the books she was carrying.
"You can talk?!"
"I have just managed to comprehend your language. It was not that difficult."
She spoke in perfect Japanese.
"B-but it's only been like... three days?"
While the conversation between the three continued, the real Shido and Mio looked on with varying expressions. Shido was looking on with curiosity, while Mio seemed to be holding back an outburst of tears.
The scene changed yet again.
"Hey, Shinji! You've been acting kinda distracted the whole day!"
"Huh?"
Shinji looked up with a start from his daydream. His best friend, Tatsuo Itsuka, smirked as if he'd finally caught onto something.
"Ah, it's a girl, isn't it?"
"Hey!"
Meanwhile, the ethereal Shido was staring at Tatsuo with a small frown on his face.
"...Doesn't he look familiar?"
Mio sighed, glad to find something to distract her thoughts from.
"That is indeed your foster father, Tatsuo Itsuka. His closeness with Shin was the reason why I had him raise you."
"Oh.. wait, wouldn't that make you my mother?"
A short silence followed, after which Mio closed her eyes and replied frostily.
"Never speak those words again."
"Yes, ma'am."
They returned to watching the scene play out in front of them. Three girls bearing a striking resemblance to Ai, Mai and Mii had joined in, trying to weasel information out of Shinji until a soft voice called out from the doorway.
"Shin, you forgot your lunch."
The Past Mio had come to school, dressed in a copied school uniform. She walked to Shinji's table and put the box down.
"Ah.... yes. Thank you."
"No problem."
She smiled sweetly as she walked out the door. Before she left, though, she looked back over her shoulder.
"I'm looking forward to our date!"
She left the room after dropping that metaphorical spacequake. All thirty pairs of eyes in the room focused squarely on Shinji.
The Mio next to Shido softly murmured.
"It was nice."
Everything dissolved for the umpteenth time.
This time, though, it was a special scene.
A boy's body lay in a pool of blood. Next to him, the past Mio shook his shoulders, crying.
"Why.... WHY?!"
Upon seeing Shinji's corpse, the real Mio gasped. She, too fell to her knees while shedding tears.
She tried to reach out her hand, but it just phased through without making contact.
"Ah... Why.. Shin."
The sound of the two girls crying continued for a while. Shido was left in an awkward spot, as he couldn't really intervene. He just opted to just look at the surreal sight of two of the same girl crying in front of a corpse that looked identical to his own body.
Suddenly, he realized something. He could only hear the sound of one girl. Paying closer attention, he realized that the past Mio had stopped moving entirely and that the world had taken on a bluish tinge.
Mio, noticing a moment later, looked up.
"Eh?"
The scene changed a final time.
It was just a normal room, completely empty unless you counted the sunlight filtering in through the large window on the wall. There were three people in it.
Shido, Mio and a boy that looked exactly like him - Shinji Takamiya.
This time, their bodies were not translucent, and it seemed like Shinji noticed them.
"You're here."
"Shin..."
Mio looked at Shinji with longing in her eyes, but he put his hands up to calm her down.
"I'm just a memory, created from his- or, should I say, my brain. I'm not real."
"Why are you here, then?"
Shido spoke up, eyeing his former 'self' with curiosity.
Shinji shrugged.
"I'm not entirely sure, but it should have something to do with your sealing ability. Mio's affection is for Shinji Takamiya, not Shido Itsuka, so it did this, I guess? God knows. Wait, isn't Mio technically... never mind.
Long story short, you'll never be able to seal Mio if she doesn't let go of me."
Mio flared up.
"But I don't want to let go of you! I can bring you back!"
Shinji shook his head sadly.
"I'm sure he's told you this already, but you can't. That person wouldn't be me, would he?"
The room remained silent for a while, before Shido finally spoke up.
"But.. what you're suggesting is that Mio fall in love with me instead? Would you even be okay with that?"
Mio didn't speak, awaiting Shinji's next words.
The boy in question furrowed his brows before looking at Shido with an expression that could only be described as absolutely furious.
"You want to take her from me?! The girl that I love?! You've got some guts, you bastard! Why don't you go die instead?!"
"Eh?!"
Shido was taken aback by Shinji's intensity. There were tears forming in the corners of Shinji's eyes, a testament to how he was feeling right now.
"....is what I would normally say. But.. I don't exist anymore, do I?"
"Shin.."
Shinji hugged Mio while tears leaked from his eyes.
"I'm sorry. But you should at least be sealed by him. I'm just a memory in the first place. I want you to be happy, not be in despair forever."
"But-"
Shinji's body dissolved into particles of light that drifted off into the sky, leaving Mio's arms empty.
"Mio..."
Shido spoke up awkwardly.
"I can't promise that I'll be as nice as Shinji was. But please, come with me - and the Spirits. We'll take good care of you."
Just a moment later, The Spirit of Origin and Shido Itsuka kissed for the second time- and the world filled up with white once more.
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To be continued
second to last chapter.
This chapter was essentially Mio slowly realizing that Shinji aint coming back, ever.
Honestly feeling kinda sad rn so I dont have much to say.
Please comment your opinions!
And as always,
cya next time