章 97: Resembled Reunion
"No, that can't be true...."
Who stood in front of Asahi and Isa, approaching them far from a distance, was a tall, slender young man with fierce long purple hair, intruding gray eyes, and fair skin. Shadows consumed his body, his formal suit shredded and torn, exposing his corrupted skin, and a large abyssal blue dangling tie dangled over his waist.
He lifted his arm coated in goop and forced his two dark wings up to the ceiling, smiling at Asahi with a look of pure interest.
"Well, we meet again, lord Asahi."
Isa slowly backed away, unsheathing her two luminescent green daggers, and sneering at the mysterious man with a look of suspicion. She turned to Asahi and whispered as the loud footsteps from the man echoed over the stone hallways.
"Do you know that man?"
Asahi shook his head fearfully and stepped back.
"N...No, not at all."
Isa clenched her fists.
"Then why does he know your name?"
As Isa and Asahi stepped away from the man, preparing to defend themselves, a deep, lingering voice bounced over the walls.
"Oh, come now, my lord. Remember our encounter back within that wretched village in Pladtioa? Surely you must remember that, right?"
Asahi gulped; his eyes shrunk in horror as a vision from a past dawned on him while evading the man.
* * * * * * *
Asahi remembered soaring in the air, being held by a flying man they met when the village was still in shambles, covered in thickening roots. A glorious, masculine face that matched the one presently.
("You will know my presence later. Both of you were in danger. I take my legacy upon a centralized, flourishing clan residing within the continent of Vehemat. I have soared the vast oceans just to find you two...")
A lavender crow lunged and flocked its wings, carrying Asahi and Aletha across the air.
("All you need to know is that I am the domineering tyrant of an ever-expanding clan that commends and worships both of you entirely...")
Asahi's mind returned to the present, showing the purple-haired man and five more individuals wearing relatively different attire. As Asahi walked back with Isa, trying to flee from the mysterious group, Asahi recollected.
(This... can't be. Is this what that raven man was talking about? Is this that "ever-expanding clan" that worships my sister and me?)
A loud, frivolous voice shrieked from the distant hallways.
"Well, of course! Your flow of power THRIVES HERE! Your scent, your... taste! It's true! He has returned! Our long-awaited saviors...
(How can they hear my thoughts?! Is there more?!)
From beyond the darkness, two tall, slender, inhumane creatures emerged from the black mist. White star-like dots spanned across their attire; strangely enough, their patterns matched the exact hue of Asahi's attire.
"Come forth, followers of The Adtraic, and revel in our lord's return!"
White glittering particles drowned the room. The ceiling was engulfed in blinding luminance. Asahi turned over his shoulder to check if Isa was still with him. His eyes shrunk in disbelief.
"Isa...? ISA?! WHERE ARE YOU?!"
A feminine voice sounded out.
"No need to cry, lord Asahi. Your followers are here, waiting for you for thousands and thousands of years. Please, come closer."
Asahi shook his head and replied.
"N... NO! I have no idea who all of you are! Get away from me!"
Asahi's eyes broadened in fear. He felt a massive sting burst inside him, forcing him to the floor.
(It... hurts...)
An intense pain struck and pierced through his soul. He toppled and rolled down to the ground, writhing and screaming in pure agony.
He forced his vision upward and saw a blurry white glow shine from the distant hallways.
A deep, crooked voice chanted with excitement as Asahi and Aletha made rapid queasy movements on the floor.
The entire room trembled; water viciously streamed out from the cracks on the walls. The darkness of the room gradually got consumed by light, revealing five more strangers.
Most of which shared the same appearance, except for one.
Asahi, despite being forced to the ground, could see them.
It was a beautiful young girl with short, sparkly mocha hair, long hazel stockings, and a dark veil dangling around her head.
"Praise."
Four of them knelt down to Asahi, humming and chanting a ritual.
The veiled girl slowly approached Asahi and examined him with a sinister grin. She giggled lightly and slowly slid her frail fingers on his skin; each second of staring at him made her unable to resist her obsessive actions.
Her calm voice gradually became haunting as her breath touched the two.
"Skin tender like a feather, eyes clear as the starlit sky, and hair purer than grace. Power still resonates within him..."
She knelt down and brushed her palms together, glaring at Asahi with a smile.
"We have worshipped you and your family for thousands of years… and at last, you finally made a long-awaited return. Our grace will be acknowledged. For this is our love for you."
One of the cloaked individuals couldn't stand her selfishness.
He hastily bounced up and shouted at the veiled girl while the others continued to stare at Asahi.
"Young Priest, don't relish and consume this moment for yourself! Let us all harmonize upon our achievement and bow to our almighty God."
The veiled girl sneered at the individual with malicious intent and hissed while dragging Asahi away from the power-starved group.
"Young disciple, you're insignificant and unworthy to go anywhere near our gods' presence. Leave now at once and--
The disciple gritted his teeth and forced a punch straight on the priestess' chest.
"You egocentric scoundrel! This was all of our doings. Let us revel in their presence, or we will all go against you."
"Hmm… it appears you're not above in the hierarchy. Thus, determined by your recent actions, you have been deemed a worthless, demeaning follower of the cult. You have zero respect for your leaders; all you want is their power. Scum. You shall be banished by the cult."
Asahi's eyes widened.
Cult. This word that came from the priestess' mouth forced Asahi and Aletha into disbelief.
"It all makes sense." Finally, Asahi knew why the strangers acted so strange.
All five of these individuals belonged to a cult, an expansive syndicate devoted and willing to do anything for those they worship. This case is Asahi.
(Why did Isa leave?! I... I don't want to be here. Is this what she meant by danger in this place?!)
"You're selfish. You will be scorched into flames if the leader discovers your behavior!"
The disciple forced a kick through the priestess' stomach. She flew into the air and got pushed into a wall. The other disciples hurriedly stood up and charged toward the hostile one, shouting at them angrily.
"You dare to intervene with the Priestess?!"
The disciple hastily pulled his cloak off his head, revealing a young boy with brown hair and pale skin. He looked reasonably regular, nothing that matched Asahi's expectations.
"If I can't witness and gaze at our gods' presence we have all so longed for years, then there is no reason why I should maintain relations with this group. You selfish--
Just as the boy could force any more words, the Priestess gathered a bright, magical white ball and lunged it straight through the boy's chest.
The Priestess, unpleased and annoyed by the young disciple's actions, stepped forward and kicked him in the face. He bit his teeth and screamed at her with pure wrath.
"Selfish, insignificant woman! You never cared for your disciples. All you did was take advantage of us and get your way."
The Priestess sneered at him with a look of disgust. She kicked and bruised him again, choking him and smiling at Asahi.
Her 'gentle' voice echoed over the walls while the other disciples and Asahi spectated the horrifying sight.
"For five years, you have proved to me that you are worthy of joining the cult. You did every religious practice every day, and yet… Now you're willing to relinquish your hard-earned work? Pathetic. Our gods don't deserve to have such a dimwit."
She pressed her feet against the boy's face, crushing his bones and slowly draining his life, screaming in pain.
"Please, lord Asahi! Forgive me!"
The raven man looked back at Asahi and made a doubtful chuckle.
"Pfft, as if our Lord would forgive you for your sins. He deserves better than to look at your disgraceful self."
Asahi's eyes shrunk in disbelief, unable to scream because he was paralyzed.
(I WOULD NEVER SAY THAT! What is this deceptive clan? Where in the world is Isa?! Is this her motive?! To trap me with these idiots?!)
Asahi lost hope. He was powerless, weak, and absolutely vulnerable to everything and everyone. If he knew that this was Isa's trap, he would have never chosen to come here. He only wondered if Aletha was still safe too.
As the chants continued, and his life had been completely dried from the consuming powers of the cult... a deep, familiar, masculine voice emerged from the unknown.
"I can't believe even the Adtraic followers would all be so selfish in their lords."
Asahi slowly turned over, and just as his vision had fainted... he noticed a few features from that familiar man.
Dark hair, aquamarine eyes, and pale skin.
Asahi's voice trembled.
"T... Telos?!"
* * * * * * *
Hours before...
"So, only a few steps away into utter transformation. Unbelievable. The Sealed Beatific and all the other abominations of the world have followed that girl AND the shadow too."
His long dark twilight hair flew with the disembodied breeze howling through the long, winding bridges of the underground.
"If only that green-haired girl cognized my forewarnings. Was it my admonition that drove that girl to vamoose from me? Or could it be the curse that fettered my soul and ushered my fear to latch onto every corner?"
His ashen skin glowed under the detached lights levitating over the vast underground series of tunnels and caverns.
"Lest my only heed shall be to this place itself. This universal church administered and preserved the surviving residuum of The Second Incarnation. A source that had possessed a great caliber to the preservation of the ancient incarnations itself."
His exposed cyan heart illuminated the tall, distorted, shuffled hallways, scattering underground.
"I realize that the foreboding essence that assisted with preserving the ancient forms is cascading throughout this entire place. This is a perpetual concomitant that has no grasp on thought. An ever-expanding underground construct that automatically fabricates walls, ceilings, stairs, and the like without any linear goal and source."
His dark pink glow bloomed underneath his chest plate. Cyan luminance shined rapidly as he passed through a portal network leading straight toward Linuxinia. As he traveled along the corridors with S marks everywhere, the tall man clenched his fists, gritted his teeth, and shouted furiously.
"Nonetheless, all of these elements will not deter me from the path I'm treading across. From the moment I was brought into existence, a mate from afar brought love to me. All Twenty of my children, forsaken from HER dereliction."
His eyes beamed with fury as he thought of his woman.
"I will NOT turn a blind eye to her."
The dark-haired man unsheathed his twilight blade from the circle-shaped symbol on his back.
"For the countless years now lost to time, the only thing that held onto me was my goal."
He tilted upward and saw droplets seeping up from the ceiling.
"But even my goal has been shattered. Only one fragment remains." He tapped his cyan heart. "Here."
As he tried to pass the barrier blocking him from entering Linuxinia's stronghold, his mind flashed with the vision of Asahi and Aletha's faces. He backed away from the wall and turned toward the shadow woman taunting him. He gritted his teeth and tried to hold back a tear.
"She's lost. There's no other option. My only hankering to reform the forgotten fragments of my goal leads toward The Adtraic family. Nothing can repair my goal except them."
He closed his eyes in distrust and turned away from the shadow woman.
"The only concern I have is that out of all the people in this universe…."
The man stared at the S mark planted on the wall.
"...Why is my ONLY hope… the Adtraic family?"
* * * * * * *
Telos' eyes flashed to the present.
"I apologize, Asahi. I know not of your problems and never have guessed you would have arrived here so soon."
The young Priestess growled and gritted her teeth, biting and screaming at Telos at the top of her lungs.
"Don't ever interfere with our lord again! He's ours, you here?! His power and everything is our's."
Telos sneered at the girl with a look of pity. He sighed and shook his head.
"You can't simply 'claim' a stranger because you have been worshipping them for so long. That's not how any belief works. Now, scram. Before I slaughter you all..." As he slowly unsheathed a glistening star-shimmering blade, the cultists quivered in fear and backed away. Telos lightly chuckled and slammed the blade's hilt straight at the floor, forcing the entire ground to shake.
His powerful, dominant voice resounded as Asahi stood back, almost about to faint from his weakness.
"Leave this place at ONCE, or get vanquished under my soul-consuming blade!"
Three nodded and raced out of the stronghold, screaming to spare their lives. However, the rest dared to challenge the all-powerful Telos, standing in front, asserting their 'dominance' in front of their 'lord.'
"As if you are a challenge for the Adtraic Cult."
Telos's blade's hilt glimmered and sparked, blinding all of the cultists with its hostile glow.
"IT BURNS!"
As Telos stood before them, wielding his blade in front, a green-haired girl followed by three strangers raced to Asahi and yelled.
"We found a way to escape; it's just three hallways down. I apologize, Asahi."
His eyes were already shut, but he smiled, knowing that Isa wasn't betraying him.
While cyan explosions bloomed in the room, Telos slowly creaked his head behind and gasped, pointing his blade toward the green-haired girl, thinking they were more of the Adtraic Cult.
"Leave that boy down at once!"
...
But as Telos could turn around, a massive magenta laser struck him straight from behind, knocking his body on top of Asahi.
"N... No..."
Before anyone could see it, Telos' entire existence dissipated and vanished into small, twinkling particles, slowly getting absorbed by Asahi's S mark winding on his body.
. . .
Isa's emerald eyes shrunk in pure terror; her eyes flooded with tears, not from Telos' death but from someone else who arrived from a portal behind Telos.
"W-Why... she's... why is she..."
A woman cloaked in a black veil with dark magenta eyes, pale skin, and a half-scorched body slowly clenched her fists and emitted a full magenta glow. The cultists froze in absolute fear, hoping they won't be erased from existence, pleading to the young woman.
"Spare our lives! It wasn't our fault!"
"Please.... d-don't kill us. We're sorry!"
"I don't want to die. I don't want to die..."
Two gallants wearing purple armor stood at the intimidating woman's sides, forcing their blades into the ceiling and chanting with distorted voices.
:// :// "Kneel down to the almighty, superior Princess!":// ://
Everyone in the stronghold bowed to the woman walking over to Asahi, praying and crying that they won't be erased from her power. This woman, without a doubt, was the most overpowered being in absoluteness.
The Princess of The Ending, standing before everyone and staring at their fearful faces.
She walked over to Asahi and stared at his body, sneering at him with her amethyst eyes. Her dark veil obstructed her face and hair as she slowly pressed her pink-illuminated palm against Asahi's stomach.
Her distorted yet human voice could still be heard from Asahi.
://:/ "Telos and you souls will merge, and forever will it be converged. An illusion or not, I am someone that you never forgot. Though I don't know who you are, there is a pulsating feeling running inside me."
The Princess slowly knelt to Asahi's frozen face.
://:/ "I can't see your face... I-I don't know who you are. Please, just let me see your face once. I want to see your eyes... I-I want to see your mouth, I want to know why I feel this way..."://:
From The Princess' perspective, all that she could see from her vision was Asahi's body; only his face was washed into blankness. She tried to hold her tears and remember who she was and he... but all she could remember was that he was there.
As everyone stared at The Princess with fear, she slowly shook her head and gritted her teeth.
://"I can't take it anymore. All of you are dismissed. Every being here will be forced up to the surface, never to see my face again..." ;//
The moment The Princess snapped her fingers,
*SNAP*
Everyone... including the cultists, Asahi, and Isa were teleported back to the streets outside the stronghold, seeing the morning sun shine onto all of them, and the carriages pacing back and forth.
* * * * * * *
The sun poured through the crystal clear windows.
"M...Morning?"
Her eyelids parted slowly from each other, and her white back rested against the soft surface of the mattress.
After pushing back her long, silky, entangled white hair, she extended her arms to the ceiling and released a long yawn.
"Good morning, world!"
It was a habit of Aletha for her to greet the world every time she awakened. She never grew tired of greeting, but when her brother would be around, Asahi would get annoyed at her for screaming at the top of her lungs.
Luckily enough, Aletha was alone in this comfortable room; no one but the sight of the wilderness of Linuxinia greeted her from the window.
Before Aletha touched the golden door knob, she instantly remembered.
(Oh, my brother told me to stay in this bedroom until he returns. But...)
Aletha turned to the window at her right, seeing her reflection cast over the bright blue skies tinted with a dazzling warm orange. She gasped.
"Pretty."
Indeed it was.
Her face froze in shock, watching the distant emerald-colored mountain ranges meld beautifully with the tall rushing waterfalls and the lush, thick forests. A flock of colorful birds soared toward the extravagant horizon, with the shadows of the night slowly getting propelled back by the glittering sun.
A calmness settled on Aletha's spirit as she sat on the carpet, her legs crossing each other and her knees pointing outwards. As she stared into space, waiting patiently for her brother's return, Aletha pondered.
"Goodness, waiting is SO BORING!"
A silence grew in the room. As Aletha continued to ponder, brushing her white hair to the side, she closed her eyes and continued.
"Hmm, that reminds me. I remember this one time when we were waiting for a temple door to open in this jungle world; Asahi told me that boredom allows your mind to wander into distant areas..."
She glanced at the snow-white, comfy robe wrapped around her and smiled wisely.
"I'm glad he told me that... I never knew my brother could be so analytic."
Aletha turned to her empty hands and reached for the comb dangling conveniently at the dresser. She slowly pressed it against the thick but loose strands of her white hair and mumbled.
"I wonder what Asahi is doing right now..."
Aletha covered one of her eyes with her hand, lifted her chin, and gave a half-shrug, glimpsing down at the desk. Eagerness bloomed up in her mind. Rapid images of random things bounced everywhere in Aletha as if her brain was urging her.
And so...
"Now that I have all this free time, I can finally draw!"
The thing that Aletha wanted to do the most since she returned to this world with Asahi was to draw. All the creatures, humans, and sprawling environments Aletha had encountered in Pladtioa further sparked her imagination to an unimaginable extent.
"Just need some paper..."
Aletha shook her head and bit her lip, darting over from side to side to find any sheet of paper lying around. But despite her attempt, Aletha couldn't find any. She shrugged and slid her fingers on the dark, swerving tattoo on her right leg, commenting while grabbing a pencil from the cup in the corner.
"Pfft, if this hotel can't provide paper, then perhaps I'll make it myself. I hope I still have the power to do it..."
As the boresome white-haired girl closed her eyes, Aletha raised her five fingers over the desk's surface, and a magical golden luminance sparkled on all her fingertips.
. . .
All Aletha felt was a painless sting on her skin and her mind erupting with the vision of one silk sheet of blank white paper floating everywhere.
(Concentrate...) Aletha told herself.
She kept her eyes shut and felt a warm luminescent line weaving and wrapping in the air to the shape of a thin rectangular object.
(Focus... don't open your eyes... yet...)
Aletha couldn't be patient anymore.
The moment the gleaming golden luminance "printed" a silk sheet of paper into existence, her eyes quickly opened, seeing the fabricated object lie on the dark hardwood surface.
"OH!"
Her grey eyes widened; she pushed the chair back and leaped up, confidently screaming as the paper propelled upward.
"Yes, I did it! I successfully created something!"
Aletha grew aware of her surroundings and instantly forced herself to be silent, watching the yellow sparkles on her fingers fade into thin air. While Aletha pushed back the chair and calmed down, she tried to make another object.
But to her surprise...
"Huh..."
It didn't work. Even though Aletha successfully fabricated a silk sheet of paper from thin air, she inevitably realized that it was nothing but only a tiny fraction of her power. She bit her fingernail and turned to the window, whispering to herself while hearing footsteps sound behind the door.
"I don't think that's enough. I guess I still have a long way to go before I can make fortresses by my mind."
When Aletha saw the sun, she shook the doubtful thoughts off her head and stood proudly, grabbing a pencil, sitting on the chair, and pressing the lead on the paper.
"I don't care! As long as I can still draw, then that's fine by me! Okay... Let's see here. What should I draw? Should it be a person, an animal, or an environment?"
Pondering more about what she should draw, Aletha turned to the painting of Linuxinia city on the neatly painted wall in front of her and scratched her chin.
"Hmmm...."
A metaphorical light bulb shone above her head.
"I know! I should draw a giant monster!" Aletha sighed, pressed her elbow on the desk, and looked at the ceiling, whispering.
"I haven't drawn a strong monster in a while, so this might be difficult for me."
The ecstatic hyperactive girl slammed her fist on the desk and hollered.
"Who cares?! My mind always loves a challenge!" She lifted the hardwood pencil and pressed the tip lightly against the paper, shouting while her eyes dazzled with countless flickering ideas.
"Alright, imagination, let's see what we can do!"
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