Capítulo 153: Fleeting Fragments (Asahi: Part 24)
This wasn't the end.
And Asahi knew that well.
He took into consideration the gap of time he had left. Knowing that the knight could return any second, Asahi hurriedly sprinted to the village near him. He only wanted to do this to warn the followers, hoping they would not get hurt.
Yet, as he had dashed across the cobblestone roads, Asahi bore a thought.
(Was that my original power?)
He couldn't question it. It was at the fault of that shard of glass-like texture piercing his skin that could muster and conjure up abilities similar to the ones he had in the past.
After witnessing the current phenomena, Asahi tranced outside of reality. His mind started to flash with traumatic recollections triggered by the knight's powers.
A cyan, alien luminance.
Recollections from long ago…
* * * * *
Glowing red meteors plunged from the roaring clouds, screaming with their descent until their impact.
At a time of great catastrophe, tears filled the eyes of the Adtraic as they desperately parted away from their crumbling world. Despair compressed their pride, and sadness transformed into hatred. The sea of white luminance raised upward as if it was rising water. The young girl's magenta eyes welled up with tears as she held onto two bright lights in her hand.
When she looked up, she saw the likes of two white-haired individuals, keeping a trembling smile as their gaze overlooked the utter destruction of their world.
"Follow us…" Whispered one with a faint voice, "Now."
"We'll get out of here." Cried another with a high-pitched voice, "Please."
Flickers of blurs consumed the memory.
Wings had accompanied both their backs, propelling the trio through the wall of clouds into the chilling vacuum of the cosmos.
:// :///: //
Held within a silver-haired girl's hands was a glowing magenta luminance. It was on one of her tiny palms and her other. Her face scrunched in frustration as she tried to discard the strange magenta luminance from her hand. But it was of no use. It stuck onto her hands like glue.
"Get it off! Get it off!" She screamed, tears flooding her eyes.
"Stop!" Said a girl bearing white hair and a tattoo. "I don't want to lose you!"
Suddenly, the winds picked up.
Dunes were hurled in a whirlpool, dumping all civilizations like a drain.
Giant glaciers plunged into the ocean before shattering into tiny pieces.
And then to the west, grasslands seared to a crisp, all maliciously swept away with the consuming radiance.
The intensity of the catastrophe amplified with each heartbeat.
"NO!" She screamed as she tried to pull her siblings back into their broken world. "I…"
Without warning, the memory got consumed by a sudden cyan glow.
:// :// ://
With each disappearing memory, a strange glass-like shard appeared out of the blue, twirling and exploding into tiny bits.
After Asahi's mind cleared up, his eyes tremblingly drifted to a figure bearing blonde silk hair.
And that's when he felt a comfortable sensation. He felt someone grab onto him, a warm, comfortable touch that had soothed his reminiscence.
"Lord Asahi, wake up." Someone cried as she threw her entire force at Asahi. "Please, wake up."
When he had arisen from his slumber, Asahi noticed several people had surrounded him, coupled with the sight of several residential areas amid the village.
Some carried wands; others held a familiar white power. These elements could be identified as certain ranks of such power—Magic, Melee, all of which had been shared randomly in this crowd.
Suddenly, his ears caught the sound of the mysterious knight roaring through the echoing chamber of stone. He scratched his head and kept his gaze on the glowing cyan luminance growing closer to him. His knees trembled at the thought of him being devastated by the unfathomable powerful attacks of the knight.
That at any moment, he would be slain by the knight.
But, taking all risks, Asahi decided it was best to turn to the people and ask them.
"Who… who are you all?" He asked the people with a tone of confusion.
"We're your followers." A man with golden eyes and gray hair replied as he stepped before the strip of people. His eyebrows raised at the sheer presence of Asahi, mumbling. "I can't believe you have returned."
As they gaze continually at Asahi, he stomped his feet and immediately demanded.
"We don't have much time to settle down and discuss. Okay? Please. Assist me. I am going against a force unlike anything else."
The inclusion of people in this fight had Asahi worried. He wanted to counter the immovable force of nature, to block the knight even with all the pain burning on his body. Yet, including people in the battle was his last thought. He knew they would stand no chance for the knight.
Feeling worried about Kendra, drenched in a brutal mix of sweat and crimson, Asahi prepared his blade.
The grace period was ending. The teal luminance that had expanded in the distance grew louder with piercing screams.
Screams that sounded like someone he had stood with ever since he had awakened in this place.
"Help!"
The gauntlet of the cosmic knight grasped Kendra's face. In one precise motion, The Guardian punched and threw her body through the several pillars of stone relentlessly, not giving her a chance to breathe.
Streams of light and rock exploded and blossomed down to Asahi, casting golden rays on the secluded city like a spotlight.
The shadow of the knight grew indefinite and formless, shrinking as it disappeared with Kendra into a cliff near the village.
As the thunder of the knight faded away, Asahi hurriedly pushed everyone away and stood atop a stone podium. His eyes widened in shock as he noticed trails of crimson glowing down a few of the followers' faces. (Can the knight hurt people with just its presence?)
So many questions and concerns bounced in his mind, so much so that it numbed him from thinking entirely.
(Are the followers in that tunnel still waiting for me?)
But soon after, that shock transformed into anger.
Asahi's face fumed in fury as he saw the knight unleash unprecedented outbursts of cosmic energy. It was almost as if the cavern had turned into a light show of death and disaster.
Amid the silence, a sudden, violent shaking occurred. The follower's eyes peeled forward to a group of masked individuals speeding across the plains through the village. Cyan beams fabricated into the air and flew across and behind them, exploding into fragments as they flew over.
"What the--"
Asahi's heart plummeted with fear as he witnessed the people getting tossed into the abyss. His throat tightened, speechless at the event.
(This power… how can the knight do this?!) The direction of Asahi's thoughts began to consume the rest of his mind as his eyes followed the ethereal cyan light extending obliquely upward the ceiling of stone. (It's… unreal.)
When he noticed the cavern lit by starry-nebula essences, it triggered a flashback to return to him.
The sight of this magic had not just reminded Asahi about the pattern of his family's power but someone else.
* * * * *
A woman with long, dark, flowing midnight hair flashed in his mind. She was merciless; her eyes imbued with the staginess of cyan, her skin pale as the stars. A lifeless blue halo floated above the woman's head. All Asahi remembered of her was from an action she had made, an inhumane and unforgivable act that had permanently altered the lives of Asahi and Aletha.
"AIYANA!"
She slaughtered Aiyana in cold blood. This woman propelled Asahi and Aletha away from her and Aiyana with unimaginable brute force. She hadn't done it with a smile but a frown and a regretful, guilty look.
"Get your hands away from her!" Aletha screamed with visible fury.
Asahi remembered trying his best to fight the alien-like woman, using his absolute power to stop her.
As the fight had brewed, Asahi recalled the abilities he once had when he fought her.
White beams of light that shredded and extended for light years.
Orbs of black and spotted star-like clouds expanded and exploded like bombs.
A powerful blade covered in white radiance, swift enough to pierce the sound barrier itself.
They were only a segment of his capabilities, now lost because of Her.
"You may deem me as The Establisher." The dark-haired woman revealed as she crushed a tiny luminance between her palms.
Though the moment blurred, Asahi remembered witnessing his beloved, silver-haired sister transform into several fragments; shattered, floating, colorful glass fragments encircled a levitating prism of pure energy. He remembered Aletha screaming at The Establisher with tears in her eyes, trying to use anything to stop her.
"LEAVE US ALONE!"
But it was too late.
The last moment Asahi could recollect was seeing The Establisher point to the entirety of his destroyed world. A beacon of gleaming azure light emerged atop the sea of destruction, with all fragments flying toward it. He remembered hearing himself and his sister scream with trembling tears.
"NOOO!"
Before Asahi and Aletha could even see what had happened with the shards, they were propelled thousands of light years away from their world after a blinding explosion, feeling their power and memories slip away from their grasp with each passing year.
* * * * *
Throughout all of these years of being isolated away from the world, returning to the second incarnation out of spite, one question remains in him after he heard the rumors from that ancient city,
(How is Aiyana still alive?) Asahi thought as his mind flashed back to the present. (Was all of that an illusion? Are my followers going insane?)
Nothing could come as an answer for him—even the reasoning on why he had recollected all these foreign matters.
However, that didn't matter.
It was the knight himself that Asahi had to be worried about now.
. . .
As the blur in his eyes faded away, he saw the knight once again jolting its spear across the air, propelling Kendra through a house, instantly forcing it into shambles.
Immediately, Asahi rushed to that place, only to see Kendra covered in bruises. She had taken quite the beating, blue flames scorching everywhere on the ground.
"What happened to you?"
After The Guardian flew away, distracted by the magic the villagers used, Asahi raced over to the smoldering debris and knelt to Kendra. She was swimming in endless pain, groaning and quivering with cyan scars painting her skin.
"A… Asahi." She said in a strangled voice. "Help… me." Her azure eyes fogged up in despair.
Without hesitation, Asahi bent over and lifted her with his arms from the pile of scattered burning wood. The air was tainted with a sickening storm of dust. Several silhouettes of individuals stood in the distance, awaiting their lord—a light show of colors scattered around the village like fireworks.
Impervious to the lessons of experience, Asahi hurriedly lumbered the cobblestone road with Kendra cradled in his arms.
While he slowly but surely parted ways from the village into the quiet outskirts of the shadow-bathed plains, Kendra twitched. She mumbled to him with a strain of sorrow and mortification.
"Asahi… please. Don't hurt yourself. I care for you as much as you did for me." The simple reply urged Asahi to collapse in despair.
A drowning cosmic aura engulfed the path ahead of him. Glitter and streams of space dust suddenly fabricated into reality as the cries and the scrapes of a spear resounded over the underground expanse. In an instant, Asahi turned to Kendra and saw her eyes welling up with tears of pain.
He gulped a breath of fear, fearfully noticing his crimson blood sliding down from his cuts to her body. Yet, he refused to back down.
Feeling a stimulating sense of adrenaline spark in him, with all memories flashing, Asahi picked up his pace abruptly and sprinted as fast as he possibly could away from the knight. Razor winds accompanied his face. He winced in pain but kept Kendra cradled in his thin arms, whispering to her.
"We will be alright. Just… s-stay alive."
Despite her pain, Kendra answered Asahi with a silent, slight grin of agreement. At a standstill, keeping that smile stitched in his consciousness, he sprinted even faster, feeling his muscles decay from the sheer weight of the moment. However, before all stress subsided, Asahi found himself back in despair.
He rooted his feet to the ground, bent down, and realized he had reached a dead end.
Below this towering cliff, several kilometers down, was a giant submerged ocean filled with archipelagos and a forest of massive stone pillars. At first, he couldn't recognize the islands. But once he had seen a tower overlooking the islands, Asahi released a breath of shock.
A beautiful view of crystal clear waters momentarily flooded his vision. Seagulls and ocean creatures happily wandered around, swimming around the gorgeous islands covered in lush greenery.
The sky was as clear as the sea, and the soothing sounds of the waves soothed the creatures nearby. It was therapeutic.
Suddenly, the memory was interrupted by the sound of a loud crash. The beautiful painting-like vision quickly flashed back to the pale and lifeless sight of the underground lakes and the floating corpses of the sea creatures. Without sunlight, none could survive except those who persist.
Yet, as his eyes anchored back to the approaching night, Asahi and Kendra froze fearfully, hearing silence erupt around them. To their avail, the once menacing, mysterious knight had stood utterly still, their body frozen like a statue without any detectable movement.
One could only guess what could happen next.
Presentes
-- Presente
recebido Status de energia semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Pedra de
Poder