Close your eyes…
…Open your eyes.
"Our bond tells me this: you're no savior—you were made to subdue."
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There were flames despite the snow,unquenchable pain despite the laughter,blood overflowing despite the struggle.All because of him.
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The simplest way,the most logical choices,are not the least painful.
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"Don't make that face. Tomorrow, you'll be free."
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The noise in my head wouldn't stop.
Too many sounds, too many images, too many voices.
Only he had made those few hours quiet.
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But…
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●●●
"BELLIAAAAAAAN!!!"
"RAZIUUUUUUUUUUUZS!!!"
When I saw him, my body turned weightless, my thoughts ran clear, my actions drew straight lines, my desire sharpened—just like that other day.
I was a prisoner again of a feeling too rare for me—delicious, electric.I'd forgotten I could still feel it: that peculiar shiver, that pulse in my chest.
Since when had I lost it?Why did it feel so obvious—so purely obvious—now?
Not when I watched the old man's agony,not while I soared above the chaos,not when I narrated the beauty of destruction—No. I thought only of this, of what I felt facing him.
When our eyes met, nothing else could stand in the way.Everything else vanished.Fear, screams, the world.
Only the two of us remained…Wasn't I forgetting something…?
Suspended in the moment we'd waited for so long.If… someone…Left with the only ending possible: a clash.
But… how long had I waited the first time?Why?How long had I waited this time?
He was there…How long had I kept believing?
I… I couldn't do otherwise.
And when I let go of his hand and he fell into the Crision's maw—or when Raziuzs swatted him aside—something tightened inside me.A dull, inexplicable intensity took its place.
Forgetting everything else for the sake of the instant.
We were flying now, skimming the cavern's ceiling, minds locked in.Time stretched, as if to let us live the moment to its fullest.
I couldn't help but needle him:"Try using your key now," I panted.
"You'll keep being a pain till the end, huh?"
"Till you die. Only then… will I know peace."
"…"
He almost answered, then didn't.His eyes were set on finishing it.
"Forget it," he said simply.
FSSSSSHHHHHHHHH—
He dove—no cry, no warning—just a clean curve, like chalk on slate.
His dagger sliced the air, straight for my throat.
I'd prepared for this for a long time, had lived it before—still too fast… but not fast enough.
I raised my arm at the instant of impact—not to block, but to deflect.A breath, a lean back—Metal sang against skin, tearing from shoulder to forearm.
Just blood.
"As usual," I grinned.
"You're stubborn for nothing. All of this is set long before you or I decide."
"What?" Bastard.
I spun with the cut, turning pain into leverage, striking with my other hand—
I didn't love it, but it wasn't something I could forget. I was too good at it.I let the best of me roar—and saw his gaze falter.
My palm burned.A bolt leapt—sharp, bright.
Raziuzs twisted, barely evading—but again, not enough.Lightning kissed his flank, scorching his clothes, branding his skin black and clean.
"?!!"
Then, breaking our rhythm, the blood I'd shed fell into the Crision's maw.Its roots writhed—closing in.Like us. Too fast.
A single heartbeat.
His dagger hunted my flesh again, quick and greedy—but this time I was ready.I parried, pushing off a slab thrown by the monster's jaws, and loosed a spark—tiny, but enough.
The blast flung us apart, just enough space for me to rework my stra—
"Huh?!"
"BOUHAHAHAHA!"
Raziuzs smiled—laughed.
Not a human smile.Which meant only one thing: he was enjoying this too.Enough to make me feel guilty.
What was I doing?
Then he charged again.
Sliding back, hand pressed to my chest—where I keep neglecting what beats there—I waited.I breathed—and sprang—
A slip left.A turn.A hook with the right footto break his balance—
Raziuzs stabbed into empty air and used the lodged blade to vault up, grazing a Crision jaw.He spun, his leg scything into my ribs.
Impact.CRCK.Crack.
I staggered.No room to act.But he was so close. Barely a hand's width.
I had to strike.
Just a few centimeters…
"Arrrgh…"
My hand screamed—but pain was the price.
"Give up."
"SHUT—UP!"
𒈱◌𒈱
My palm hit his chest. Direct. Swift—and the lightning didn't fire.It pulsed.Sank through him.
"RWAAAAAAAH!" Raziuzs snarled, hacking at me in tight quarters, driving his dagger into the web between my fingers.
A jolt.Blood.A pact.
"Farewell," I whispered, gripping his weapon so hard my hatred cooled into something like serenity.
He raised his left hand—another strike?
I raised my right.
I braced against the ceiling, both feet finding purchase.The Crision howled, tentacles whipping the walls. Everything shook.
I looked at him one last time—this foe.
And…
In his eyes, there was only pleasure.
At the edge of death—or something else—I didn't ask if I would win.I only wondered…
Was I just as rotten as he was?
But then—
Nothing.
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Light…?
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No…?
Mostly—silence.
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☗