Chapter Twenty-Three – Spiritual Heartbeat

         A World without Misery (Interitus 1: Book 0)

            Chapter Twenty-Three – Spiritual Heartbeat

 

            As lightning flickered in the clouds with a flash of white light, the golden eyes of the Interfecti became brighter than ever. The lightning illuminated every falling raindrop. The howling wind transformed the raindrops into tiny liquid daggers that pelted every inch of Hatasuko’s skin. His golden hair flew behind his head as he glared at the Interfectus on the south side of the city. With her back pressed against his, Vaida stared northward at the second Interfectus. Both shadow demons levitated over the rooftops of Occasa; they were both unaffected by the piercing rain and crashing thunder. Even the lightning could not force their shadow armor to glisten. The city of Occasa stood silent and motionless. Aside from the sensation of Vaida trembling, Hatasuko could not sense any life in any direction. 

            “The abyss is full of anguish like never before. Their voices are all just whispered screams and stifled cries. They’re crying for us, Vaida; they think we’re destined to die. They think this is the end of their shot at justice. They think this is the end of humankind’s last hope. Do you think they’re right?” Hatasuko asked, holding his sword close.

            “I won’t let you die, Hatasuko. I won’t… let them take anything else away from me. Never again. Never again,” she answered.

            The silence finally broke as the north Interfectus summoned a scattershot of shadow spheres. Though Hatasuko glared in the opposite direction, he knew exactly what was happening as soon as Vaida separated her back from his. As quickly as she could, Vaida tossed a rock lightly in the air and spun around. At the same time, Hatasuko swerved around, jumped up, pulled back his sword, and activated his Astrodeus power. He swung his sword with so much speed that a vaporization ring erupted around him; a deafening shockwave shook the muddy street. When his sword struck the large rock, it instantly crumbled into a dozen tiny pieces, and every small rock shot into the sky at a supersonic speed. As soon as the north Interfectus launched its bombs, several rock shards struck the cluster and forced a massive eruption of blue fire. The fiery shockwaves barely touched the Interfectus, and then the south Interfectus counterattacked by extending its shadow claw.

            Since Hatasuko was in the air and facing the wrong direction, he had no way to intercept this attack; the shadow claw would strike him in mere moments. For that reason, Vaida slammed her feet on the ground, jumped into the air, and pulled her shield up to block the shadow claw. It crashed against her shield, slammed the shield into Vaida, which caused her to fy into Hatasuko, and then they both hit the wall of a short building. The dagger-fingers of the shadow claw enwrapped and grabbed the edges of Vaida’s shield, but Hatasuko was stable enough to protect her. He drew his sword back and threatened to activate his power again, but the south Interfectus had prepared for this; it retracted its arm before it could be struck.

Vaida and Hatasuko both ran into the middle of the wet dirt street, but the darkness of the howling storm had hidden the fact that they were under attack. When they swerved to the see the southern sky, they could faintly see the outline of shadow spheres, all charging toward them at a dangerous speed.

“Guard my back!” Vaida exclaimed as she jumped in the air and threw a rock with all her strength.

The rock sailed into the sky, struck a shadow sphere in the middle of the cluster, and forced them all to detonate prematurely. Since the scattershot had already flown close to the rooftops, the fiery shockwave engulfed many homes and buildings with an earthshaking burst. Hatasuko glared through the flickering sky at the north Interfectus. The monster hovered ominously over the rooftops without making any move; it seemed to know that Hatasuko would protect Vaida from any harm.

Now that they had blocked the scattershot, Hatasuko and Vaida began running westward, hoping they could slowly come closer to both Interfecti. As they ran through the pelting rain, Hatasuko warned, “They know I’ve only got one activation left. Once I use it, I’ll be vulnerable, and they’ll probably do everything they can to kill me.”

A sudden bolt of lightning shot down from the sky and struck the city, just a few blocks away. A deafening crack of thunder startled them both, but the Interfecti were undaunted by the lightning. Even though it had pierced straight through the transparent layer in the sky, the demons were unfazed.

“Hatasuko, I have an idea! Can you hold off one Interfectus on your own? If you somehow don’t have the chance to refuel, can you survive for a short while against one?” Vaida asked.

“Not for too long, but I guess for a little. Why do you ask?” Hatasuko answered.

“I have a plan! A plan that could destroy them. All you need to do is attack first,” Vaida explained, slowing to a stop in the street.

Hatasuko also stopped running, though he continued to glare at the north Interfectus with his right eye. At the same time, Vaida watched the south Interfectus with her left eye. But when they came to a stop, Vaida quickly unsheathed a sword from her back and handed it to him; they both knew it was the perfect projectile. Hatasuko quickly holstered his own sword, grabbed the handle of Vaida’s sword, and activated his power.

With a cataclysmic rush of fiery force and glowing energy, Hatasuko launched the sword into the sky at a supersonic speed. It tore through the pouring rain, sliced through the howling wind, and struck the chest of the north Interfectus with enough power to shatter its shadow armor. The sword became lodged inside the Interfectus, and the monster unleashed a pained roar that shook the city. The south Interfectus retaliated with a sudden lunge from its shadow spear, but Hatasuko swerved and intercepted the blade with his black shield. Vaida swerved around, glared at the north Interfectus, closed her eyes, and activated her power.

            With a sudden burst of fiery energy, Vaida’s whole body came alive and unleashed a blinding scarlet light. As Hatasuko blocked another slash of the shadow spear just a few paces away, he watched through the corner of his golden eye; he watched Vaida unfold and transcend her Astrodeus body. She evolved, transformed into a star of energetic flames, and lifted over the rooftops. The temperature on the street instantly became sweltering. Every tiny raindrop evaporated long before it could even strike the burning star; all the nearby moisture evaporated and created a cloud of swirling steam. The fiery star grew larger and hotter by the second. Tiny serpents of fire appeared on the surface of Vaida’s star, and then the serpents grew into raging solar flares. Every solar flare surged across her while illuminating the mist cloud with flashes of orange light.

The south Interfectus retracted its shadow spear so that it would not be struck; this gave Hatasuko a chance to let his guard down. As he took a deep breath and watched Vaida grow larger, an array of black fire appeared beneath his feet. It illuminated, engulfed him with a pulse of black flames, and gave him a gift of quintessence from the tempest.

Several solar flares simultaneously shot out from the surface of the burning star. The blindingly bright flares twisted around each other to create a spiral of searing fire. It shot across the stormy sky, evaporated every raindrop in its path, and crashed against the north Interfectus. It unleashed so much heat that the monster’s black armor turned red; the shadow demon used its second weapon and summoned its shield just to block the solar strike. Therefore, Vaida catapulted herself into motion; the burning star shot over the rooftops and barreled toward the north Interfectus at a staggering speed. As soon as she started moving, the Interfectus tried to strike first with its scattershot. The shadow spheres all hit the burning star and erupted with a burst of blue fire, but Vaida absorbed every explosion into herself. The blue infernos wrapped around the star to create a second set of solar flares.

            “She’s lasting much longer than last time. Does that mean she can switch it off whenever she wants?” Hatasuko wondered aloud.

            Realizing that Vaida was completely unstoppable in her burning star state, the north Interfectus created a swirling shadow shield to defend itself. It was only seconds away from colliding with the blazing star. Hatasuko watched from far away since the brightness of the star overwhelmed the veil of rain and fog.

            When the burning star struck the center of the shadow shield, it compressed, nearly flattened, and exploded with a fiery burst. Through this explosion, Vaida diverged the burning star around the shield, and then she steered all the fiery energy she had left against the Interfectus itself. This attack struck its shoulders, neck, torso, and arms; she struck like a giant ring of violet fire. The impact knocked the monster backward as it levitated over the city, and then Vaida triggered the final stage of this transformation. The ring of fiery energy blasted together, converging toward its center like the gravity of a fallen star. The searing flames charged across the Interfectus all along the way. Its armor shattered in countless places; the demon’s shadow skin crumbled in the explosive energy.

As a desperate attempt to escape her, the north Interfectus stopped levitating. It fell from the sky and crash-landed on its feet in the heart of the city. The impact was so great that it flattened the nearest eight houses; the shockwaves shook the whole city.

            A massive cloud of smoke and debris engulfed the legs of the north Interfectus. Through the smoke and the rain, Hatasuko could still see a red glow on the demon’s chest; it had been severely damaged by Vaida’s attack. Just a short distance away, the fiery energy converged back into Vaida, though she slowly fell to the ground during this convergence. By the time she had completely transformed back into an Astrodeus, she stood safely upon the wet street in a distant part of the city. 

            Hatasuko ran northward so that he could find Vaida and fight alongside her, but then the city started shaking so much that he almost lost balance. He heard the crash of windows shattering and objects breaking inside houses. He knew that only one thing was large enough to create an earthquake this long and powerful. As he struggled to run northward through the shaking streets, he looked over his shoulder and saw that the south Interfectus had landed, and now it ran in the same direction. Every time its giant foot struck the ground, another home crumbled with a burst of smoke and sparks. The shadow demon’s stride was tremendous. With every step, the south Interfectus flew past another block.

When Hatasuko realized that the Interfecti aimed to corner Vaida between them, he felt a rush of horror. As the street shook beneath him, he stopped in the middle of an intersection, pulled a large rock from his bag, and waited for the south Interfectus to run past him.

            In just a few seconds, Hatasuko had a clear shot at the running monster; there were just a few blocks between them. He activated his Astrodeus power, forced his body to glow, and launched his big rock through the howling wind at a deafening speed. The rock crashed into the demon’s right hip, and it exploded instantly with a burst of gravel and armor. The impact was great enough to make the monster stumble; its right foot smashed through several small buildings. 

            As dust and debris flew up around the Interfectus’ legs, it regained its balance and then resumed running toward Vaida. Hatasuko chased after it as quickly as he could, and as he ran, he pulled another rock from the bag on his shoulder. He triggered his power again, infused his muscles with an immense burst of energy, and then used his glowing arm to launch the rock again. It shot through the rain and struck the lower back of the Interfectus with enough force to shatter its armor, but then Hatasuko tripped; the city streets trembled too much for him to stay upright.

            Though both Interfecti were injured, they quickly cornered Vaida. While breathing heavily, she clung onto a wagon and glared as the south Interfectus approached. She was uninjured, but her body still felt exhausted from the time she spent as the burning star. The north Interfectus had lost the armor which once covered its chest; it had crumbled and fallen off entirely. Underneath the armor, the monster’s real skin looked slimy and rubbery. Rain poured upon the Interfectus and into the dirt streets. When a lightning strike lit up the sky, Vaida saw the presence of black blood in the rainwater that surrounded the shadow demon. Its chest bled profusely in the place where Hatasuko had pierced it with a sword throw. This was the first time that Vaida had ever seen it bleed.

            However, in the moment that the flashing light faded, Vaida heard the whoosh of a blade flying toward the back of her head at a very high speed. She suddenly ducked, barely dodged the shadow spear, and then kicked off the wagon to throw herself aside. As she moved, she pulled the black shield off her back and then pulled it upright to block a shadow sword slash; both Interfecti had attacked her with their extended blades at the same time. The impact from the shadow sword sent her stumbling backward so quickly that she tripped and almost fell. As the north Interfectus retracted its shadow sword, the south one attacked from behind with a shadow spear lunge. Vaida did not have time to turn around, and so she forced herself to unleash her only defense; she activated her power and transformed again into a burning star.

            The shadow blade tore harmlessly into the flaming entity, though the south Interfectus retracted its weapon so that it would not suffer damage. Both Interfecti stood motionlessly, almost like they were prepared to run away or cast their shields at a moment’s notice, so Vaida chose not to follow through with her attack. It took a tremendous cost of quintessence just to keep herself in the form of the burning star, so Vaida switched off her power and converged back into her regular form as steam lifted over the street. However, the north Interfectus then launched a scattershot of shadow spheres downward at a high speed.

Vaida was exhausted and dazed since she had just returned to her normal body, so she did not think quickly enough to throw a rock. Instead, she simply ducked and clung onto her shield with both hands. When the spheres struck the street and the buildings on both sides, every shadow ball erupted with a forceful blast of blue fire. The flames diverged around her shield, but the shockwaves sent her flying backward with a surprising speed. Her feet struck the street first, the impact spun her into a backward flying roll, and then she crash-landed in a muddy puddle with a series of painful smacks.

            When she stopped rolling, Vaida was lying on her back in the mud while desperately clinging to her black shield. With her one good eye, she stared up and saw that the south Interfectus stood right over her. Its giant black foot hung in the air, but it descended toward her quickly from above; she was about to get flattened by a mighty stomp. In the moment before she would have been crushed, a golden glow shot by the falling foot; Hatasuko crashed his sword through the Interfectus’ foot at the very last moment. His sword destroyed the monster’s leg so completely that the shockwave shattered it all the way up to its giant knee. Since the shadow demon had lost its balance, it separated its other foot from the ground and levitated over the rooftops instead of falling.

            “Vaida, look out!” Hatasuko yelled.

            Though she was still on the ground, Vaida swerved and saw that the north Interfectus had launched its shadow claw. Vaida kicked off the wet ground with both feet, landed on her lower back, and executed a backward somersault onto her feet. But instead of aiming for her shield, the shadow claw lunged at Hatasuko. With a sudden jolt, he guarded the bulk of his body with his shield. However, the giant claws raked his left side, tore through his flesh, and left four bloody gashes on his body. In angered desperation, Hatasuko slammed his sword against the shadow claw with all his strength, but this attack did nothing. The north Interfectus retracted its weapon before it could take more damage, and then Hatasuko dropped to his knees in the street.

            “Hatasuko! Are you okay?” Vaida yelled as she dashed over to his side.

            His shirt was torn in four parallel lines on his left side. Through the bloody rainwater, Vaida saw that his wounds were dangerously deep. It was clear that he would bleed every time he tried to walk. His mouth was open, but his teeth clenched together; he fiercely fought to hide his blinding pain.

“If you want to run, I’ll run with you. I’ll make sure we get out alive,” Vaida whispered to him, though she glared at the Interfecti with her good eye as she spoke.

            Still seething from the pain, Hatasuko said, “I feel like I’m walking a fine line, or that I’m stuck on the fence between destiny and apathy. I want to run away from this, I want to run away with you, but then I’m no better than Caelicola. I would be happy, but I was never meant for happiness. I gave up on that a long time ago, the same day I lost everything. When I was given this curse, do you know what the first voice said? Of all the countless whispers and hopeless screams, the first voice in the tempest spoke to me as a promise, ‘You will never be happy.’”

            “But then the tempest was wrong! You’re happy when you’re with me. I know you are. I know you’re happy,” she said as the rain crashed around them.

            “You’re right, Vaida. I am happy. But I don’t think that the abyss in my head said it as a prophecy. I think it said it as my destiny; it was an announcement of my priorities. I can be happy, but I cannot chase it. Our first priority is to save this world from the Interfecti. We are the only ones strong enough to make it happen. Everyone is counting on us. Everything is riding on this,” Hatasuko explained, wincing as he stood back up.

            “Then I will fight with you,” Vaida said with a shy smile.

            As it levitated over the rooftops at a short distance, the south Interfectus summoned a scattershot of shadow spheres directly out front. Without hesitating or aiming, the monster unleashed this scattershot with incredible speed, but Vaida was prepared for this; she blocked the attack with a swift rock throw. As the cluster erupted in the sky with a deafening burst, the north Interfectus swung its shadow sword. The attack came in very quickly, so Hatasuko threw himself in the way, activated his power, and clashed swords with the monster’s right arm. His immense surge of strength shattered the shadow sword, but the recoil of the impact caused every gash on Hatasuko’s side to spew blood.

            “I’m out of quintessence,” Hatasuko warned.

            Without any delay, the north Interfectus retracted its broken arm and then attacked with a diagonal slash from its left blade-arm. Vaida pushed herself in the way and lifted her shield, bracing herself so that she could protect Hatasuko. And though she did successfully block the blade with her shield, the impact slammed her back against the muddy street. By this time, the south Interfectus had already unleashed a cluster of black spheres, and Hatasuko could hardly see them through the smoke and rain. After he threw a rock into the sky, a bolt of lightning lit up the city and illuminated every raindrop. 

            In the flash of bright white light, Hatasuko watched his rock crash into one of the middle shadow spheres. It detonated, struck the other shadow spheres, and in a split-second, the chain reaction caused another massive inferno. It was so close to the ground that fiery shockwaves shook the city. After several seconds, when Hatasuko started to regain balance, he saw that Vaida had her back pressed against a wall. The north Interfectus continuously hacked at her shield with a shadow blade.

            “I can hold it off! Just recharge!” Vaida screamed through the storm.

            But the Interfectus would not give him the chance. The north Interfectus retracted its shadow sword from Vaida, spun swiftly, and then lunged the weapon at Hatasuko at a terrifying speed. Instead of blocking or ducking, Hatasuko jumped up, kicked off the wall behind him, and barely flew over the slashing blade. In midair, he heard the weapon destroy the building behind him. When he landed on the muddy street, he ran over to Vaida and held his shield high so that he could protect her; she was still clearly dazed by the onslaught. As the south Interfectus attacked again with a swift lunge of its shadow spear, Hatasuko slammed his shield against it for protection, but the impact knocked him backward; his back crashed into the wall of another home.

            As lightning flashed in the sky and the rain fell around them, Vaida closed her eyes and said, “This is the revenge of the little burned girl that you created.”

            In a flash of blinding light, Vaida transcended her physical body and transformed into a fiery entity once again. As the burning star grew larger, more powerful, and lifted into the air, both Interfecti suddenly stopped attacking. They watched silently and without movement, glaring at the blazing force with their golden eyes. With a burst of fiery energy, several solar flares ascended and charged across her like a decorative ribbon. These solar flares spiraled around each other and danced between shades of red and blue, showcasing her extraordinary heat.

As the glowing array appeared on the ground beneath his feet, Hatasuko shielded his eyes but watched Vaida as clearly as he could. The heat was so sweltering that the water on his skin evaporated. Even as the black fire engulfed him, the strongest glow was that of Vaida’s star. Lightning flickered in the skies above, but its light was insignificant in comparison. A cloud of steam surrounded this section of the city, and though it adopted the fiery glow of Vaida’s power, it flashed and flickered due to the solar flares. In this glowing cloud of steam, Hatasuko could only see the outline of the two Interfecti. 

            Without any warning, Vaida thrust herself into motion; the burning star flung toward the south Interfectus at a startling speed. But just as Vaida expected, the monster used its second weapon to make a giant shield of swirling shadows. Therefore, in the three seconds before impact, Vaida changed her trajectory and instead hit the right edge of its shadow shield. Just like last time, the star partially broke open, but the impact sent the fiery sphere into a sudden high-speed spin. As the burning star blew apart with an earthshaking explosion, the blaze spun fiercely, and then it engulfed the upper half of the south Interfectus. Through the cloud of steam and pelting rain, Hatasuko saw a giant spiral of fire devour the top of the shadow demon. Vaida resembled a fire tornado as she ruthlessly unleashed the full force of the burning star. She spent the last of her quintessence tearing apart the Interfectus with her solar vortex.

            With a deafening crack, Hatasuko heard the south Interfectus’ armor shatter; Vaida had left the monster exposed and vulnerable. Like the gravitational collapse of a supernova, Vaida then converged her fiery energy. Every solar flare and fiery draft came crashing together all at once, continuously bombarding the Interfectus’ head. She bore down upon it with the force of a star collapsing in on itself; the pressure quickly overwhelmed the exposed skull of the shadow demon. Its head crumbled in the fiery pressure of the burning star. With this one final strike, Vaida left the monster twisted and deformed. A second deafening crack shot into the stormy sky, and then the Interfectus’ body fractured. Its head fell from its body, its limbs went limp as it floated, and then its body began fading. As the fiery energy converged and recreated Vaida in the space where the monster’s head had been, Hatasuko watched the Interfectus fade out of existence.

            “Vaida! You did it! I can’t believe it; you killed the Interfectus!” Hatasuko yelled with all his might into the sky.

            Though he could not see her face through the steam and pouring rain, Hatasuko knew that Vaida was smiling. As she reconvened in the sky and slowly floated back down to the city, a small wave of tears washed over her eyes—both tears of happiness and tears of change. For the first time since the monsters first appeared, someone had killed an Interfectus. Vaida killed an Interfectus. It was righteous justice for all those who had been lost to the monster, and it was a fiery vengeance for the scars that stained her.

            “Hatasuko! It’s amazing! It’s, it’s the most wonderful-”

            But she never got the chance to finish her sentence. The shadow claw of the Interfectus tore straight through her body. Before Vaida could even lower herself back to the streets of Occasa, five finger-daggers pierced through her torso with a series of bloody bursts. The five shadow blades made a straight line from her right shoulder to her left hip, and every blade poked out through her back. Her heterochromatic eyes widened, but her open mouth fell silent. She was stuck in the sky, dangling in the rain over the rooftops, hanging from the shadow claw of the north Interfectus. Hatasuko stared at Vaida in a state of shock. His mind rapidly processed countless solutions, but nothing seemed to work. Even if he were to shatter the monster’s arm, the blades would still be inside her, and then she would simply fall to her death.

            “No, Vaida, this can’t be…! There’s no way that, you wouldn’t, that I wouldn’t… this can’t happen! I won’t let you die without me! I’m begging you. I beg don’t leave me! Please don’t leave me. Oh, Vaida,” Hatasuko whispered as a paralyzing wave of fear seized him.

            A bolt of lightning shot down from the western sky and lit up the world with a flash of white light. As Hatasuko stared through the pouring rain and saw Vaida stuck there in the sky, lodged on the five finger-blades of the Interfectus, he could not help but remember when he saw the same happen to his mother. And just like on that day, the Interfectus opened its shadow claw; its finger-daggers split and tore through her in five different places. One dagger tore through her left hip; another severed her right shoulder.

Vaida started to fall because she was too heavy to be held up by just three blades. As the flash of lightning faded from the sky, Hatasuko knew that her pain and fear had left her catatonic. He shook himself free from his paralysis, used his Astrodeus power, and slammed his feet on the ground. This super-jump was so forceful that the shockwave shot across the street as a big wave of mud. He could feel the recoil overwhelm his joints; his ankles and knees felt like they were compressed too far. He shot through the pelting rain at a faster speed than ever before, but he was too horrified to feel the exhilaration.

            Hatasuko caught Vaida in midair, though he quickly realized that he had no plan for landing. He clenched her bloody body in his giant arms and glared at the north Interfectus, but the monster did not seem poised to attack; it had also been tremendously injured. With her trembling body wrapped in his arms, Hatasuko fell toward the muddy streets at a high speed. He twirled himself in midair so that Vaida would not strike the ground. When he crash-landed on his shield with his giant left arm, his shoulder snapped out of its socket and he broke his left arm. The blinding pain paralyzed him, but he used enough strength to hold Vaida out of the mud. Now that they stopped sliding, he pulled her bloody hair out of her face and looked into her eyes. To his surprise, she was not catatonic. Giant wounds scattered her body, but her eyes had not faded out. However, she could not hide the enormity of her pain.

            Through his connection with the screaming tempest, Hatasuko sensed that the Interfectus had stopped attacking altogether. The one remaining Interfectus began fading away; it retreated from reality due to the extensiveness of its wounds. Despite his aching legs and broken arm, Hatasuko climbed to his feet and carried Vaida with him. Since he was desperate to get her out of the rain, Hatasuko ripped through a door with his sword and then kicked it down the rest of the way. The room was illuminated only by a few candles, but it was otherwise empty. Hatasuko set Vaida down on the nearest bed and pulled a candle closer so that he could see her injuries.

            Vaida kept her eyes tightly closed and took heavy breaths. Her left breast lifted and fell with each breath, but her right breast stayed motionless. Her scarred right arm hung on by a thread. There were three other incisions in her torso, and even though she had only been in the bed for seconds, she had already left a disheartening bloodstain. Vaida tried to open her good eye, but she kept her lips open and clenched her teeth. She lifted her scarred right hand like she was reaching for him, so he dropped his weapons and held her hand with both of his.

            “Hatasuko… can you please… can you tell me a lie? I just want… can you tell me… can you tell me I’ll live?” Vaida whispered while wincing.

            He said to her, “It doesn’t have to be a lie. You’ll survive this! You and I are going to get out of here, I know it. We’ve beaten the Interfecti! You killed an Interfectus. It’s not a lie. You’re going to live. You’re going to live! We can still reach it. Our dream will become reality.”

            Despite her trembling, Vaida forced her face to create a slight smile. She lightly squeezed his hand with her soft fingers. Hatasuko was happy at first when he saw her smile, but then he realized that she smiled because she thought he was playing along; she thought that he was lying.

            “I love you so much, Hatasuko. I have… I have trouble showing… how much you mean… how much all this… has always meant to me… but I love you… more than anything. More than dreams. More than hope. You are… the greatest thing that ever happened for me. The scariest part… in dying, the scariest part of dying… is I’m afraid I’ll never ever hold you again. I fear… what if I never kiss you? What if I-”

            “Then stay alive, Vaida. Please, please, stay with me! This doesn’t have to end. I won’t let you bleed out! I know I said I was willing to sacrifice, but I never imagined I’d have to give you up. The world has no right to take you from me,” Hatasuko said, fighting back tears.

            Vaida’s cold fingertips clung lightly onto his hands, but her grip slowly grew weaker by the second. Her shaking started to slowly subside. Her look of pained discontent started to fade. Though her scars had been enflamed by the irritation, the color of her damaged skin reverted to normal.

            “I brought in the sail-rana… I mean, I hid… under the hatch in the back… I brought water. The special water… it’s from the Fons Vitae. I want you to heal… heal yourself with it,” Vaida whispered with a pained smile.

            “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?! There’s still time! Come on, Vaida, we’re going. I’m gonna bring you there, and then I’ll-”

            “We both know there isn’t time. This is… this is going to happen. Please don’t be sad. Hatasuko… please don’t hate me for leaving. Please don’t… ever regret me.”

            “Vaida, I could never.”

            “Good,” she whispered with a smile.

            The candles flickered quietly around them. Hatasuko failed to fight back the tears that arose in his eyes, but he wiped them with his broken arm as soon as they escaped. Vaida, on the other hand, seemed strangely at peace. He lifted her off the bed and held her closely in his heavy arms. Her eyes were closed now, but there was a gentle smile on her lips. And though he had never noticed it before, and he did not understand it when she held him on the islet in the middle of the ocean, he now felt a spiritual heartbeat. It was a pulse coming from her soul, or the way that her soul entangled with his, and he could feel it in a way that transcended his physical form. It was her spiritual heartbeat.

            “I want to stay… locked in your head… so we can meet there again. Thank you… Hatasuko, thank you for finding this little burned girl. I was… nothing before you. I was… just a puddle of self-hatred. A shrine to misery. Because of you… I don’t regret my life. Even at the end… I want to cling on, and it’s all because of you. So goodbye, Hatasuko, until we meet again.”

Would you like to simulate the fight from this chapter? 

Download Battle Interitus and use the access code 28202.

It may take a couple tries, but it is possible to win this fight!

Click here to see the disclaimers regarding AI-generated artwork.