Forum Thread

Once Kendo touches the body's shoulder, it began to crumble. The souls tried fleeing, getting away from the vessel and Kendo.

The body crumbled into dust, revealing at its core the very girl it was supposed to be. It looked like she was perfect- there were no longer any injuries or experiments on her body. But she wasn't alive anymore.

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He sighed.

He snapped, and the black inky abyss disappeared, returning to reality. with a snap, he suspended her body in the air.

"Mona?"

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"I'm up here where you left me. In absolute agony." She was still busy healing her back- her wings were always stubborn when it came to regenerating them. "I don't know whether to cry or scream. This is so frustrating..."

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"She's dead."

His words were simple. he flickered into existence next to her.

"Painkillers?"

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"No..." She paused. "To either. Take me down there to her." She could see the body- she was a new Saint Deity, she didn't deserve to die so cruelly.

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"...alright."

He snapped, and the chains locking Mona in place disappeared. he cast his levitation on her, before teleporting the two of them down to Aret's body.

"..."

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"Poor girl..." She kneeled down and cradled Aret's boy in her arms, frowning. None of this should have ever happened. If only I had seen what a bad man Legion was sooner..."

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"...Yep."

Kendo seemed kind of apathetic to all of this, his hands in his pockets.

He stayed silent, his eyes gazing down at the two of them, neutral.

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Iteral manifests next to them, but still in her "post-ascension" attire and with the Mark intact. Though she looked somewhat light-headed. Lean also failed to appear, a rift opened but it was vacant before it closed. "Ugh, Kendo... I know you know me... so you might know what happens... when you screw with our time." She groans, then looking down at the body. "... what did I... hold on, hold on. I can... I can fix this." Iteral takes out her staff and a clock this time, fiddling around.

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Isla Greer

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All my efforts... for nothing.

Isla stood, hovering between pain and nothingness. The ground shook beneath her feet. She took a step forward, and wondered if she were falling for all her vision seemed to swim before her eyes.

Snavia was alive. She'd done it. Turmoil over, she could seize power.

Her lover was dead.

Legion was defeated. She hadn't even needed to take defeat.

The one person who had mattered was dead.

Everything was perfect now. She could take over the world if she wanted, seize power from an already collapsed empire.

She was dead.

Oh god. Isla fell to her knees and she knew this, because suddenly an arm was holding hers. It was a boy. She faintly recognised him. Brown hair, cracked glasses, worried expression. She had a feeling he was supposed to be in a bed somewhere. Safe from all harm. Safe from her.

Isla lifted a shaking arm and placed it on his. His grip on her wrist weakened and she gave him a shake so weak it couldn't possibly have dislodged him. He let go as if his arm was on fire and took a step back, staring at her in bewilderment.

His lips formed around words. Are you okay?

Noise swam in and out of her ears. She couldn't hear anything. It was as if her head was being dunked in a cauldron of water. Was that why she couldn't breathe? She opened her mouth to test this and nothing came out.

Ah. Her eyes closed. The dead never were meant to speak.

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Mona looked over at Isla. "You must be her lover..." She stood up, walking in front of the girl and pushing Aret into her arms. "Her body is very fragile, please be careful."

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Adrik Volkov

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Something sick writhed inside Adrik. Burning and vile, he knew now that he would throw up if he had anything in his stomach. What's happened to her...?

The corpse was placed in Isla's lap. She barely reacted. Just stared down at the weight in her arms, blank gaze even emptier than that of the dead monster.

"What happened to her?" He instantly whipped to face the people- who'd. He blanched. The Saint stood in front of him. He, an ordinary mortal before gods.

And the killer, he realised dizzily. The man who killed his squadron, who he swore revenge against.

"Why is she like this?" He whispered, too scared to even raise his voice for fear of being stricken down where he stood. "What did you do to her? Why won't she move?" He glabced back at her unmoving form on the ground. "What have you done?"

And then Isla started screaming. Sobs and wails and gasps for air. A repeated "nonononono-" that seemed to echo in his heart. Your fault your fault your fault- she seemed to be singing at him.

Adrik stumbled back from her, heart in his throat. "Fix this!" He begged them. "Please!"

Then Isla fell silent. Her gaze returned to the figure in her arms.

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"I can try with the fragment of her soul I managed to save, but..." Mona frowned. "It takes a lot of practice into restoring the soul. The soul must want to be restored just as much as the person restoring it, and based on her final emotions... I'd say she thinks she doesn't deserve it."

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Adrik Volkov

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"Her soul?" Adrik's voice cracked. "I don't care about any of that junk! Just bring her back!"

He was crying, he realised. Crying in front of a god. But he couldn't bring himself to even try and hide his tears. "Please. I can fix it." He saw the murderer's face and flinched back, fear creeping up in him. "What did you do to Isla?"

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Mona tilted her head slightly, and turned to focus on Isla. She knelt down and showed Isla the small fragment she managed to salvage. It was a very dull pinkish white, slowly dying out. There wasn't any voice to be heard anymore. "Isla, you have to convince her she's worth saving if you want her back. You too, Adrik."

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"I'll help." Iteral said, a little... weirded out by Isla. She remembers the two not being on the best terms but, heck, nobody deserves their lost one to be gone forever. The promoted witch thinks a little and scratches her head. "... remember how you talked with me despite from the past? I could attempt the same with the soul... basically a call to the past. But, since I cannot tell what you'll do, I just give you the controls." She taps her staff like a microphone and blows on it, glitter landing onto Mona. "Hope it helps."

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Adrik Volkov

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Adrik opened his mouth and closed it. Her? He glanced at the shrivelled form in Isla's arms, cradled like a lover might be. It certainly didn't look like a her... much less a person.

"Worth saving," Isla echoed.

It was the first coherent thing he'd heard her say, and that thought stung. He whipped to face her, astonished. She was staring at Mona and the thing in her hands with blazing eyes. Gently, she reached out and cupped it in her hands.

She blew on it softly and her eyes slid shut as she cradled it by her heart.

Adrik took a hesitant step forward, but something caught him by the shoulder. He glanced behind himself and for a second fancied he saw Hannah, as beautiful and youthful in death as she had been in life. She gazed into his soul, solemnity in her expression. Her hand brushed along his cheek, and he reached to catch it and take it back to his face, tears starting to form in his eyes. But she vanished, whisked away by the wind, only leaving a faint trace of blackberries on his tongue.

He stayed where he was, numb. Isla was murmuring something to the thing in her hands.

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Isla Greer

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"Some people," she told her softly. "Are just born without a chance. The world is never kind to people who've never had the ability to be kind in the first place. We're punished just for being who we are. Punished for being broken."

Faint flickers of people appeared before her eyes. Aries. The Happy Knight. And herself- eight years old again, sitting by a campfire and laughing with a squadron of soldiers who'd be dead by the fall harvest.

"Good wins. That's just the way things are. And we aren't good. Probably never will be."

A good person wouldn't let Legion to power, simply so they could seize control of a nation that was never rightfully theirs. A good person wouldn't use forbidden magic to drag their dead brother from his eternal rest. A good person wouldn't be holding this monstrosity and loving it anyway.

"But to hell with it- who says we have to suffer, just because of who we're destined to be? This world doesn't control me. I can make my own choices. Make my own right and wrong. And no matter how much everyone hates me, I won't let you go. You're my right, damn it. Even if they kill us tomorrow, prop us up on a stage and cut the rope, even as the blade crashes down and my head falls in the basket, I'll be happy. Because in our story, we're good."

A story of hatred and murder and revenge- with the twisted tendrils of love blooming beneath.

"And someday, we really will be good. And one day, we'll have karma."

She smiled, in all her brokenness and twistedness.

"So for the sake of revenge- for the sake of love- for the sake of whatever the hell goodness happens to be, you need to wake up, you hear me? Wake up and take my place on the chopping block with me."

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The fragment pulsated lightly, then went quiet again. Mona helped, placing her hands under Isla's and using her magic to heal the soul. "That's good... Look. She's coming back." It was true- the soul was being restored to how it was before the awful thing that happened to it. Once it was back in shape, faint whispering could be heard from it.

"I don't deserve you... Too kind..."

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Isla Greer

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"Kind?" Isla laughed roughly. "There's nothing kind about me. If I were kind, I'd let you rest in peace."

Her grip tightened.

"I'm not kind. I never had a chance to be, and neither did you. If anything, we deserve each other. Two broken, useless souls at the end of the world."

She took in a deep shuddering breath.

"I'm not going to repair you. I'm not going to make anything better."

I'm sorry.

"But I need you. I swear to you, I need you."

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Mona took the soul gently and pushed it back into the Saint Deity's body. It disappeared into her chest.

But she didn't open her eyes, and she didn't speak. Mercy did notice slight movement.

"She's... She's breathing. She accepted your help."

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