Nephis limped out from the ruins of the Crimson Spire, her body a bleeding canvas of wounds. She could have summoned a torrent of cleansing white flames and heal, but she didn't. Her mind was occupied with what she had done…
She closed her eyes, allowing the fire to wash over her, burning away her wounds and her emotions. Right, she did what she did because she was selfish. Because she did not want to see Sunny die.
Taking a deep breath, she stepped forward and froze. There, on the other side of the crumbling bridge, stood a figure wreathed in darkness. Arcs of purple lighting lashed out from his dark armour, crackling violently against the wind. Two glowing eyes glared at her from beyond his visor.
In the pitch darkness of the night, a storm had come to visit her.
Changing Star stared at the figure waiting for her, her mind a whirlwind of emotions. Lucien had returned, but he was too late. If he had come just a few minutes earlier…
One of the bridges connecting the island collapsed, interrupting her train of thought. Turning her gaze towards the only remaining bridge, Nephis dashed towards it, enhancing her body with the soulflame.
On the other side, Lucien watched as she crossed the crumbling bridge, the storm blade in hand. His vision switched, and for a moment, shock overcame anger. Three shining embers shone from within her chest, her soul cores. She was a Demon.
Lucien had suspected Nephis to own a Divine aspect, but this confirmed it. He tightened his grip on his sword. This battle would not be easy, even though she was a whole rank below him. For a moment, he wondered if she too had a divine lineage like him.
As soon as he thought of the word 'lineage', his vision shifted again, this time showing much more than just her cores. Changing Star's entire being lit up, a golden sheen highlighted her body. Lucien could see the outline of her bones displayed in pale gold, he saw her blood vessels light up, so did her flesh. Then he saw her brain, her thoughts displayed as synapses of pale gold electricity. Even her shadow lit up with the same sheen. The air around her twisted into the visage of a golden flame. But the brightest had to be her cores still, shining a brilliant gold, as if the sun itself had been implanted into her…three times.
"What in the hell?" He muttered as she reached the end of the bridge. He didn't understand what he was seeing, or why it was golden. Curious, he looked down at his own body, only to find the same thing. Although his blood vessels were a lot brighter than hers. The same went for the air around him. In return, his soul cores were not nearly as bright as hers.
Lucien blinked, and his vision returned to normal, leaving him confused about what he had just seen.
Nephis slowly approached him, stopping a few meters in front of him, a lantern memory hanging from her waist. For a moment, no one spoke.
The visage of the empty human settlements flashed through Lucien's mind as he stared at her. The corpses of so many sleepers, of Stev and Brom.
Lucien wanted to lash out, to fight and kill her. He wanted to choke her to death, consequences be damned.
"Changing Star," Lucien said, his voice a hoarse whisper. A bitter grin made its way onto his face. "I guess congratulations are in order. You have killed the Fallen Terror. You have destroyed the Crimson Spire and plunged the world into an eternal night."
The familiar weight of the Storm Blade fell into his hand, weaving itself out of countless white sparks. In front of him, Nephis summoned her own sword, an unreadable expression on her face.
"You have singlehandedly led the sleepers of the Dark City to their deaths." He spat out, his voice shaking with unrestrained anger. "You sacrificed them for what? Your selfish goal of destroying the spell?"
That finally got a reaction out of her. The unbreakable crucible of apathy that masked her face crumbled. No one except Sunny knew that, no one was supposed to know that. Then how did…
'He eavesdropped.' She realized, Lucien had eavesdropped on her conversation with Sunny.
A dry, hollow chuckle left Lucien's mouth, "All of that, and still you couldn't escape. Ironic, isn't it?"
Changing Star remained quiet for a bit and then raised her head and said defiantly:
"I will do it again, I will kill more if I need to. I gave them the chance to save themselves, or die fighting against the Spell. They made their choice-"
"Bullshit!" Lucien snarled, swiping at the air with his gauntleted fist, "You manipulated them, played them as your pawns, used them as if they were nothing but numbers on a page!"
"So tell me, O great Changing Star." Lightning exploded around the storm blade, covering the memory in pure violent energy. "Why shouldn't I kill you right here and now?"
Nephis inhaled deeply and looked Lucien in the eyes, "Because you need me."
"The fuck you mean I need you?" Lucien said incredulously, the storm around him flickering for a second.
"To find your mother."
Lucien froze, his mind screeching to a halt. The lightning dancing on his blade and armour dissipated into nothingness.
"What?"
It was true he hadn't seen her after returning to the city. She couldn't have left through the gateway, nor was she among the countless other corpses strewn about in this bloody battlefield.
Narrowing his eyes at her, Lucien asked:
"You know where she is?"
He expected her to lie, to deny him the answer so that she could delay their inevitable clash. But Changing Star just shook her head and said:
"No."
"Wha-" Lucien was taken aback for a moment. "What do you mean you don't know?!"
"I mean, I don't know." She shrugged, "She left before we returned to the Dark City. Lady Seishan saw her heading towards the desert."
Lucien took a while to digest that information. The desert? Why would she go there? More importantly, why would she leave without him?
"Did…" He began, hesitating for a moment, "Did she say anything else?"
Changing Star nodded, "Your mother knew you wouldn't be coming back with us. She also said that a seer had foretold that this would happen."
'The ring,' Lucien clenched his fist. The ring she had given him had shattered the moment he passed through the gates of Nether's Citadel. She had told him that it would only break if he died, but that was a lie. The ring was always meant to sense Nether's presence, to inform her that he had entered the Citadel.
What else did she know? Did she know about the lineage left behind by the tenebrous daemon? Did she know that he would end up carrying that lineage?
Still, that didn't explain why she went to the desert. He turned his gaze back to Changing Star, who was patiently waiting for his response.
Did he really want to work with her? After what she had done? All those lives she threw away to satisfy her own goals. The carnage she sowed. And even after all that, she was still here. He had lost friends because of her, dammit!
But then again, Stev wasn't a fighter. His aspect helped him heal others. That old man would have joined the army just so he could help the wounded. Lucien had known him for years, he knew just how soft Stev was. And Brom…
Brom died with a smile, doing what he loved. If Lucien could go back and ask if he had any regrets, he doubted Brom would have any.
A part of him was still angry at her, wanting nothing more than to enter deadly combat right now. But another part of his mind wondered, would he have done any better? At the end of the day, he would still have laid siege to the Spire. He would still have led so many people to their deaths, even if it would weigh down on his conscience.
Lucien couldn't help but let out a dry laugh; he had done it again. He had condemned someone else for doing something he would also have done.
'I'm no better than her.'
Changing Star frowned, "Is something funny?"
"No," Lucien shook his head, before suddenly frowning, "I am curious though, why didn't you leave with the rest?"
Changing Star remained silent for a bit, turning her gaze away from him.
"Someone had to stay behind, that's how the gateway worked."
Raising an eyebrow, Lucien asked, "Am I supposed to believe you chose to stay behind?"
"No," She shook her head, her voice taking a tinge of foreign emotion, "Sunny beat me in a duel. He got to leave, I didn't."
'Somehow I doubt that.' Lucien thought. There was no way Sunless beat her; she had three cores for Storm's sake. Unless Sunless had multiple cores too, but that was a separate can of worms.
'What a strange saying, why would anyone keep worms in a can?' A small part of his mind said, before quieting down.
At the same time, in another part of his mind, a new thought struck him.
"So," He said slowly, "If I'd arrived just a few minutes earlier, you could've returned."
Changing Star turned back to him, a strange glint of emotion in her eyes. She said in a quiet voice, "Yes."
Lucien sighed, finally dismissing his memories. "Fine, I'll work with you, but on one condition."
Changing Star looked up at him for a moment and asked, "What do you want?"
Instead of answering, Lucien turned around and summoned a torch memory, shining its light upon the countless human corpses strewn all around the battlefield. In the darkness of the eternal night, the sight of the blood-soaked land would have been haunting to anyone else, but for Lucien, it was a grim reminder of the cruelty of the Dream Realm.
"We give them a proper burial."
For once, Nephis was in agreement.
Somewhere far away, in the depths of an endless and inescapable nightmare, the blinding disc of an incandescent sun was bathing the dunes of a vast desert in a flood of immolating heat. The sands of the desert were flawlessly white, and the azure sky above them was deep and boundless like an ancient ocean.
Battered by the heat, a lone figure treaded forward.
It was a woman with cold blue eyes, her skin covered in terrible burns, her blue hair caked crimson with blood. She wore a weathered, lusterless steel armour engraved with the insignia of a kingdom long dead. She wielded a pair of steel axes, or at least they used to look like axes. Now, they looked more like sticks with a chunk of metal at one end.
Aletta walked forward, leaving no footprints behind her. To her left, there was nothing but an endless sea of white dunes; to her right, a line of black mountains eventually created a boundary for the scorching desert.
In front of her was a gigantic tree with scarlet leaves, and tens of thousands of skulls hanging from beautiful white branches, fastened to them with glistening threads of black silk.
A spring of water formed a clear pool in the shadow of the great tree. Still, the most striking thing about it had to be the two weathered skeletons cruelly nailed to its bark. Both stared at her with empty eyes, their teeth bared in eternal grins. Deathless.
Aletta sighed, that confirmed it. She knew it was a hell from the moment she set foot on its sands. But whose hell was it?
Now, with the giant black pyramid looming in the distance, and the existence of the deathless, she knew exactly where she was.
She was in the Hell of Ariel.