Chapter Twenty-One: The Burning Star (I1B0C21)

 Chapter Twenty-One: The Burning Star

 

As sparks and embers danced through the starlit air, Hatasuko and Vaida stood back-to-back in the middle of a street. Buildings smoldered on both sides. Hatasuko glared at Harvey while holding his sword in his right hand and his shield in his left. Harvey stared back with a confident smirk. His sword dangled from his right hand, though he kept his left hand empty, ready to unleash his Astrodeus power at a moment’s notice.

On the other side of the ash-stained street, Spencer stood beneath the fireflies with his hands wrapped around the shaft of his halberd. He kept his eyes locked fiercely on Vaida, though her eyes were wide with anguish. She held a light sword in each hand, but she kept her shield hooked to her back.

The flickering glow of nearby flames illuminated the dirt road. The orange reflections shimmered on the wet blood that stained Hatasuko’s shirt. The gash in his stomach was not shallow, but it was also not deep enough to bleed profusely. Bruises covered his body because he had sustained several blasts throughout this fight; the same was true for Vaida. Harvey and Spencer, on the other hand, were almost entirely unscathed.

Despite her black shield between their backs, Hatasuko felt Vaida’s heart beat rapidly. But when it started to slow, he knew that she was ready, and so he pushed off her with a mighty spring. She had prepared for this, and so they both charged at their enemies with this heightened speed.

As Vaida ran toward Spencer with her hair flying in the wind, she heard energy beams erupt behind her. They detonated and forced the ground to shake, but she stayed focused and ran on. Without any warning, Spencer activated his Astrodeus power and summoned a door-shaped barrier directly in her way; she slammed against it and dropped both swords from the impact.

Dazed and confused, Vaida watched Spencer charge at her with the front-spike on his halberd. With a quick, scared gasp, Vaida dropped in a crouch. She narrowly dodged his deadly lunge, and then she grabbed the handles of her swords. Since he was still running, Spencer tried to strike her with a powerful kick, but Vaida sprung aside at the last moment. When she landed on her feet, she jumped a second time, spun halfway in midair, and thrust her swords at his back. Though he could not see her, Spencer protected his back with a sudden barrier; her blades crashed uselessly against it. The energy of this double strike empowered Spencer with the speed to swerve around, and then he counterattacked with a mighty halberd slash.

            With a quiet yell that sounded like a scream, Vaida crashed her swords into his halberd, but Spencer’s strength overpowered hers. His giant axe slammed against her swords, sent off several sparks, and forced her weapons to strike her shoulders and throw her backward. She slammed against the ashy wall of a building, bleeding from both shoulders, dazed by the force of his attack. Instead of attacking again, Spencer ran past her and swerved, trapping her between him and Harvey. Vaida pushed off the wall and readied herself for battle, but then she heard several explosions once again.

Hatasuko dodged Harvey’s streams by jumping side-to-side as he closed the distance. Right before he would have reached striking distance, Harvey jumped back and fired the last shot of this cluster. His blinding energy beam shot from his left hand, flew across the clearing, and struck Hatasuko’s shield with enough force to stop him in his tracks; the fiery explosion forced him to stumble backward.

Once Harvey landed on his feet, he charged at Hatasuko and tried to beneath a cloud of smoke. When their swords clashed, Hatasuko unleashed a mighty roar, feigning the intent to activate his power. For this reason, Harvey jumped back and away from the golden-eyed Astrodeus. Hatasuko sprang after him and swung again; Harvey threw himself backward to dodge the tip of his enemy’s blade. Hatasuko then attacked again with a forward lunge, forcing Harvey to back up even faster. After another failed slash, Harvey realized that his enemy would eventually catch him and kill him.

Harvey suddenly stopped running, pulled his left hand forward, and aimed his palm at his enemy’s feet. When his glowing hand launched the bright streams of high-speed energy, Hatasuko jumped high into the air. As Harvey’s hand fired continuous beams, Hatasuko held his shield to intercept the blasts in midair. But when two beams struck his shield and exploded, the impact overpowered him; he flew down and hit the ground with a heavy thud. His shield had been knocked aside, so Harvey fired his last two blasts directly at the golden-eyed giant.

The first struck Hatasuko with a tremendous burst of light and flames; the impact blew him into the air. The second struck him in midair, exploded, and forced his body to crash through a meager wooden door. He fell onto his hands and knees as blood drizzled down from his torso. His shirt had been destroyed by the explosions, and the shockwaves tore his skin in several places. Smoke lifted from his body.

            On the other side of the street, Vaida continuously swung her swords at her enemy. Spencer stumbled backward with every slash; she was so fast that he had no chance to go on the offensive. Every second, one of her swords struck his halberd. After forty seconds of this, he threw himself backward to get some space, but she accelerated and performed a double-slash while twisting her body. Her right sword swung high while her left sword flew low; Spencer blocked the high slash with his halberd and the low swing with an energy barrier.

Immediately after the double-block, Vaida jumped up, slammed her foot against his stomach, and kicked with enough speed to send him stumbling backward. The recoil of this kick sent her flying backward as well, but she spun in the air and landed safely on her feet.

Finally able to go on the offensive, Spencer charged at her while swinging his mighty halberd. Vaida threw herself backward and dodged his massive weapon, but Spencer continued to swing it. He sped up the halberd, spun around, and flexed his arms to speed up his halberd. When he turned his back to her, Vaida attempted to attack with both swords. But right before the tips of her blades would have torn through him, he blocked with a barrier. This left her stuck within striking range of his swinging halberd with no time to dodge. She had only one way to save herself.

Vaida spun around, jumped up, and let the halberd slam against the black shield on her back. The shield saved her from the blade, but the crushing impact sent her flying. She flew across the ashy street and crash-landed in a pile of smoldering debris; all her joints ached from the sudden jerk. She was disoriented, but she heard him run through the flaming shambles of what was once a village home.

Vaida stumbled to her feet and ran in the perpendicular direction of her enemy. She ran toward Hatasuko and Harvey so that Spencer would have to change direction, but her footsteps were slow as she ran through the wreckage. Just as she expected, Spencer created a human-sized barrier in her way. But instead of slowing down, Vaida jumped up, slammed her swords onto the barrier’s top edge, and somersaulted over the top. When she landed a second later, she ran across the ashy street, but Spencer still rapidly closed in on her. She tried to glance at him, but then she realized that she could not see Hatasuko.

Harvey glared at her with a sinister smile as his left hand faced forward. Vaida closed her left eye, shut off her vision, and used her ears to concentrate on the footsteps behind her. Spencer was close. With only one way to survive Harvey’s energy streams, Vaida swerved and did a short hop into the air. Even with her eye slammed shut, she saw the blinding flash of light that accompanied Harvey’s Astrodeus power. His energy blasts barreled through the street; three of them struck the shield on her back and detonated simultaneously.

            The three explosions combined and launched Vaida forward with dangerous speed. Though the sudden impact strained some joints and cracked several others, this push was so sudden that Spencer could not block her high-speed approach. Vaida flew through the smoke and thrust her swords through his chest. Just the impact of her swords caused him to stumble backward, and each blade unleashed a splash of shimmering blood. Her swords jabbed through his back.

Despite his blinding pain, Spencer pulled up his knee and slammed it into Vaida. She flew back and landed on her feet, though the impact dazed her; she let go of her swords. Spencer attacked again with a halberd lunge, so Vaida tossed herself backward and narrowly dodged. He lunged again, she jumped again, and then her back struck a building on the left side of the street.

Harvey fired another cluster of explosive beams. Several struck the building where Hatasuko had been thrown, but Harvey saved a single shot at the end of this cluster. To Vaida’s surprise, he fired the last energy stream at a luminous target in the sky. It was an energy barrier—a barrier that Spencer had created instead of attacking Vaida again. When the energy stream struck the barrier with a blinding burst, all the energy pumped into Spencer’s body. For a split-second, the energy transformed him into a bulging, steaming monster.

In this empowered state, Spencer swung his halberd with more force that he could control. When his halberd blade barreled through the brick wall behind Vaida, it crumbled into a rockslide. As he swung his glowing weapon out of the collapsing wall, Vaida shrieked and threw herself away from the collapse; she landed in the street with a sideways roll.

But before Spencer got the chance to chase her, a storm of wreckage shot through the street with deafening speed. Vaida and Spencer both dropped to the ground; the whole block shook from the shockwaves of the sonic boom. As the shrapnel rained down across homes and buildings in the distance, a dark cloud of ash and smoke shrouded the street where Vaida had been fighting. In the thickest part of this smoke cloud, Hatasuko emerged from the collapsed building. His blood glistened in the glow of starlight and fireflies.

            Hatasuko lunged at Spencer and swung his sword. Just as he predicted, Spencer created an energy barrier in the way, so he activated his Astrodeus power. While glowing with the power of immeasurable force, his sword slammed against the energy barrier. And while his glowing sword did not crumble from the calamitous strike, Hatasuko failed to break the barrier. The incredible force surged into Spencer, giving him enough energy to throw himself upright. He then jumped backward and ripped Vaida’s swords out of his body. The fading surge of energy protected him from the pain.

Once the barrier fell, Hatasuko ran at Spencer and slashed his sword, but Spencer blocked it with the shaft of his halberd. Their weapons clashed with a spark, but both Astrodei held their weapons here in a motionless stalemate. As they stood in silence, a golden array appeared on the ground beneath Hatasuko’s feet; a burst of black fire engulfed him, fueling him with another round of quintessence.

“All I have to do is activate, and then you die,” Hatasuko growled at his enemy.

“I’ve got a barrier ready to go. Too bad you’ve wasted so much time,” Spencer retorted.

A loud scream sounded from behind Hatasuko. With a crippling surge of adrenaline, he threw himself backward, ripped his sword off his enemy’s halberd, and swerved to see Vaida crouching behind her shield. She backed up, desperately blocking the rapid slashes of Harvey’s sword, unable to fight back. Hatasuko tried to run toward her, but then Spencer attacked from behind with a quick halberd slash. He knew that Vaida would be overwhelmed in mere seconds, but he would die if he did nothing to stop Spencer.

Therefore, Hatasuko spun his body, swung his sword, and activated his Astrodeus power. His glowing body unleashed an eruption of energy which surged through his right arm. In a matter of milliseconds, his glowing sword struck Spencer’s halberd, effortlessly destroyed it, and then shattered his left shoulder. At a speed faster than sound, Hatasuko ripped his weapon diagonally across Spencer’s torso; the shockwave widened the gash as it tore through his body. The impact threw Spencer backward as blood spewed from this fatal incision.

But when the flash of super strength faded, Hatasuko swerved and saw something that would haunt him forever. Harvey kicked Vaida’s black shield out of her hands, and then he thrust his sword into her chest. His blue eyes were luminous with fury; her trepid voice screamed into the starlight. Droplets of blood splashed from her wound, Harvey’s sword pierced into the dirt beneath her, and her wide eyes stared ahead with terror. Her little left hand dug through the hard dirt; her fingertips clawed through the street. She closed her eyes, let out a quiet gasp, and lowered her head so that her dark hair concealed her scars.

As Vaida crouched on her knees in this catatonic state, Harvey pressed his shoe against her face. He grabbed onto his sword and slowly pulled it out of her. As he did this, he looked away with a conflicted stare. When his blade exited her body, Vaida weakly dragged her hand so that she held her bloody wound.

“No, Hatasuko, I didn’t mean, I didn’t want…” she whispered.

But Hatasuko stood frozen in the street. Splattered in a mixture of Spencer’s blood and his own, he glared at the scene with ice in his veins. Even Harvey looked distressed. He took a step back from Vaida as her blood dripped from his sword into the ashes. His blue eyes were open wide. He let out a quick exhale, but then his face transformed with anger.

“You’re knocking on death’s door, and he’s the one you think about?! You’re apologizing to him? Are you kidding me?!” Harvey yelled.

“I wasn’t… well there was… there was a time when I, when I thought that, when I thought I wanted to die. I once, um, I once thought I wanted this. But I don’t. No… I don’t want this. I only want, I only wanted to see… I want the islands. I want to be with him. The starlight. The little waves. The steam. The fruit trees. The sail-rana. Him. Hatasuko. I want… all I want is him. I don’t want… I’m running out… I can’t breathe,” she whispered in a series of gasps.

Harvey faced her and said, “You scarred my heart, Vaida. And it’s an ugly scar—it’s the kind that stays forever. It will be with me long after you’re gone. But that doesn’t mean that this is painless. I need this so I can have closure, so I can finally get you out of my head, but this still hurts like hell. It’s like ripping a knife out of my own skin.”

“You get the fuck away from her, and you do it now. I won’t tell you twice,” Hatasuko yelled with tears in his furious golden eyes.

Hatasuko had sheathed his sword and set his shield on his back. He held a rock in each hand, but since they were the same color as the ashy street, they camouflaged with his surroundings. Harvey locked eyes with his enemy, but he swung his sword to finish off Vaida. Using his power of immense strength, Hatasuko interrupted by throwing his rock. With an earsplitting sonic boom, the rock shot across the clearing, struck Harvey’s sword, and blew it to a thousand metal shards. Though the sword had been destroyed, the impact of the rock knocked Harvey away and sent him spinning.

Knowing that his enraged enemy would not hesitate to kill him, Harvey ran away from Hatasuko. He zigzagged as he ran.

“Vaida! Don’t close your eyes! Stay with me,” Hatasuko yelled, though his voice did not hide his absolute terror.

Hatasuko ran across the ashy street and threw himself to the ground when he reached her. His torso was bare and stained red by the damage he had taken, so the movement of the wind felt cold against his skin. Vaida knelt in the street, frozen in the place where Harvey’s sword had pierced her. Her body quaked from the pain, but her face looked catatonic. She stared straight ahead, but her eyes saw nothing. He lifted her into his arms and stood upright, but he buried his face into her dark hair.

            “Vaida, you can’t die! I can’t lose you! You’re the only thing I have left. You’re the only thing that gives me hope! You’re the only reason I can withstand the tempest! Please, Vaida, stay with me, please. Use that perfect brain of yours. Find some way to save yourself! There has to be something. Please,” he said, fighting back tears.

“There is… one way, but I, I don’t want to face it. I never wanted to kill. I didn’t… I wasn’t meant for this,” Vaida whispered weakly.

Except for the part of her which was drenched with blood, Vaida felt cold in his arms. She shivered from both the temperature and her trepidation. With her scarred right hand, Vaida limply reached into her pocket and pulled out a pen. Hatasuko remembered their battle in the city of Procella, where he had used a pen to draw the array of black fire for his first time. He then glanced over his bloody shoulder and stared at Spencer in the street behind him. The Astrodeus had been mortally wounded, and he slowly bled out in the middle of the road.

A bright flash of light then lit up the sky from several blocks away. Hatasuko heard the bursts of Harvey’s power devastating another part of Lumipyla. Several screams yelled out into the starlight.

Vaida explained with her faint, strained voice, “An Astrodeus… doesn’t physically have a heart…. So if I were to get quintessence, I mean, if I could just evolve, then I… wouldn’t die from this. But that is, we both know, that is the only way I can survive. But I don’t… I can’t kill him, not for my own survival. It’s not right. I shouldn’t even be alive. I wasn’t… supposed to survive to begin with.”

“Please don’t talk like that! You mean more to me than anyone else in this world. Your survival was not an accident; it happened because it was meant to happen. Because you and I are meant to be. It’s not your destiny to die here.”

“But how… how am I supposed to kill…? Wouldn’t that make me just like-”

“Not at all. Harvey, Spencer, the Interfecti, and all the rest of them—they’re evil because they kill the innocent. That’s the difference between us! Maybe we are killers too, but our victims are not innocent. Harvey’s destroying the village around us as we speak; we need to stop him. Even if it means killing his accomplice, even if it means killing him. But I can’t stop him without you,” Hatasuko explained.

As he held Vaida in his strong arms, Hatasuko felt her warm blood dripping down his forearms. She closed her eyes and opened her little mouth as she struggled to inhale. She lifted her scarred right hand and gently ran her fingertips along his sweaty face. His golden eyes were wide, and his hands trembled as he held her. His mouth turned dry as he stared at the girl in his embrace.

“Please, Vaida, I don’t want to lose you. I can’t lose you! I couldn’t handle it. The tempest would consume me. I can’t even imagine—”

“Hatasuko… I don’t want, I don’t want to lose you either. I don’t want you to hurt because of me. I’ve caused… enough pain for one lifetime,” she whispered.

“Does that mean you’ll do it?” Hatasuko asked.

“I will. I want… I want to stay with you,” Vaida answered.

With the bloody girl wrapped in his arms, Hatasuko ran to the place where Spencer bled in the street. Bloody soot soaked the ground around his body. Part of his chest lifted with each breath, but his body had lost warmth. Hatasuko crouched beside him and set Vaida on her hands and knees. Though her face clenched from the pain, she grasped the pen in her little hand and drew the golden symbol on Spencer’s skin.

Even in its incomplete state, Vaida sensed a circulation of energy shimmering across the symbol. There was a glowing reaction between the symbol and something in the air itself. Vaida felt her life fading as she nearly finished drawing the array. At the edge of eternal emptiness, Vaida scribbled the very last curve to finish the symbol. As soon as it connected, as soon as the circulation was complete, the array of black fire activated with a bright golden glow. Black flames emerged from the symbol and swept across Spencer’s body.

As Vaida crouched on her hands and knees beside the dying Astrodeus, she realized that the black fire did not incinerate his body. It was not warm; it looked like an illusion. Nevertheless, her body became luminous with a white glow that matched the shine of the stars in the sky. The black fire transformed Spencer’s life force into an invisible energy that then poured into her.

            “It’s so powerful. It’s, it’s too powerful! I can’t contain it,” Vaida exclaimed.

“Don’t fight against it, Vaida. Just let it take you.”

Every building began to tremble. The smoldering shambles started to shimmer. Without any warning, a powerful surge of luminous energy poured into Vaida from every direction; the air tore itself apart and fueled her with its energy. The air pressure plummeted so quickly that Hatasuko’s ears popped; the shockwaves forced him to fall to the street. All warmth disappeared from the ground and the air at the same time. A shimmering circle of white ice appeared beneath her feet and emanated outward. The ice shimmered from the incandescent energy that surged into her body.

In the heart of this convergence of light and energy, Vaida felt her open wounds seal shut. She felt her injuries healing as the icy world became the ingredients for her new body. Every muscle on her arms and legs bulged with force; her back and legs elongated with exhilarating speed. Every part of her body grew larger. With every passing second, the layer of glistening ice spread farther across the ground. On hands and knees, Hatasuko felt the cold touch of the ice, but he smiled knowing that she would survive.

            When the giant convergence of glowing energy came to an end, Vaida emerged from the icy light in her new Astrodeus form. She was still shorter than Hatasuko and the other two Astrodei, but she was taller than any human in Agrideī. Blood still stained her clothes, and her torn shirt could not conceal her abdominal muscles. Her scars were in the same places as before and of the same relative size, though they looked darker than usual due to irritation. As Hatasuko stared at her with wonder, she lowered her right hand and offered him her help. He grinned, accepted her hand, and climbed back on his feet.

            “This is the most incredible thing I’ve ever felt! It’s such a change… such a giant, giant change. Is it really mine?” Vaida asked.

            Hatasuko glanced down and met her excited eyes with a smile. Though the transformation had healed her open wounds, her longstanding injuries proved incurable. Her scars remained and her right eye stayed blind, but for the first time, Vaida did not feel weaker because of it. The glow that settled around her faded as her energy approached equilibrium.

            However, a blinding flash of light then lit the sky and broke her concentration. Vaida and Hatasuko both swerved so that their eyes would not adjust to the brightness. Even as they looked away from the flash, he saw a fiery flicker in the light; this proved that Harvey had used his energy weapon on the people of Lumipyla. Though he did not see it, he knew Harvey was blasting at the villagers who tried to run. He was killing them with the array of black fire.

            “While we wait here, he kills more and more. If he’s using the array, then he’ll just keep getting stronger. I don’t know if I can defeat him,” Hatasuko admitted.

            “Then don’t,” Vaida said as she dropped her rocks and her whip on the dirt street.

            “Wait, what are you saying? You’re not going to spare him, are you?”

            “Of course not. But you’ve fought hard, and you’ve done enough. It’s time I carry my own weight! I’ll take care of this, don’t worry,” Vaida said with a sweet smile.

            Hatasuko nodded. With nothing in her hands except the Interfectus shield, Vaida ran down the dirt street on her new legs. Every footstep felt more powerful than ever; every running step pushed her faster than she remembered. As she pumped her strengthened arms back and forth, she realized that her Astrodeus body could reach a very fast speed in a very short time. She ran through each block in seconds. Hatasuko tried to run after her for backup, but he had fallen behind; his body was injured and exhausted.

            As Vaida ran, she glared ahead at the glowing light and said, “But that’s only half the reason. I have to stop Harvey because it’s my fault that he wound up here. I have to stop Harvey because I created him. At the very least, it’s the ending he deserves.”

            “Can you really do it? I know it won’t be easy. As much as I hate to admit it, the history you share isn’t going to sit there quietly,” Hatasuko yelled from behind.

            “He’s killing innocent people, and I am the only one who can stop it. I, um, I have an obligation. It doesn’t mean that I can overlook my memories. My younger self will be watching from the shadows. That sweet boy who held me in his arms and cried out to the world—he will also be watching. But this isn’t about me, and this isn’t about him. It’s about every life that hangs in the balance,” Vaida whispered, and the swift wind carried her words to Hatasuko.

            When Vaida reached the other end of the block where Harvey prepared his next strike, he fell motionless. Bloody corpses scattered the ground around him, hacked to pieces and burned by black fire. His last two victims ran away since they knew he was distracted. Harvey turned his back on them and glared at Vaida with astonishment.

            “You weren’t supposed to survive. How many times do you have to die before I’m finally free from you? How many times do I have to lose you?!” Harvey yelled, throwing his left palm forward.

            Harvey narrowed his eyes, activated his power, and fired a high-speed burst of energy streams. The light was so blinding that even Harvey could not aim well, though two energy beams still flew toward Vaida. As the others struck the street and buildings with fiery bursts of glaring light, Vaida clenched her shield and sustained the blows with the strength of her body. Two explosions diverged around her shield with colorful sparks, but Vaida pushed through the flames until they faded. When his barrage ended, a cloud of steam lifted from Harvey’s left arm. He aimed his left palm at her, but he did not use his power again. Instead, he glared at the back of his hand.

            “It didn’t have to end like this. It doesn’t have to end like this. Not anymore. Vaida, you and I are the same now. We can take this canyon for ourselves!” Harvey exclaimed.

            A look of expectant hope smoldered in his dark blue eyes. As flames flickered on in the ashy street around him, Harvey stared with a familiar expression. While fireflies danced overhead, Vaida realized that this was the same face he had when he held her in that hospital room, all those years ago. Even when they had walked together outside the orphanage, he always had this same expression. When they were in Bones City together, when she saw him for the first time since the day she left, and he confessed everything to her, he wore the same expression. He was frozen in place at the boundary between heartbreak and longing. This was what had set him on the course for disaster. This was what made him so desperate that he used innocent lives as a way to face his pain.

            “I knew all along that you didn’t die back there, Vaida. I would have felt it. I would have felt our link coming undone. We’re connected, you and me. We share a bond that can never be broken. Not by fire, not by scars, and not even by death,” Harvey proclaimed.

            “I’m not alive because of some unreal bond you think we share. I’m alive because Hatasuko wouldn’t let me die. It’s as simple as that. I love him too much to ever let him go,” Vaida retorted, knowing that this would draw his fire.

            Vaida was right. Harvey glared straight ahead and then shifted his gaze to the back of his left hand. She saw the rage burning in his blue eyes. He saw Hatasuko slowly running through the blocks behind her, pushing himself so that he could fight by her side.

            Harvey faced her and said, “You and I will go down together. First I’ll take you from this world, and then I’ll take myself! This cruel world has driven us apart. Reality forced us into this star-crossed disarray, but we can still find each other somewhere in the emptiness! This is what I wanted all along, Vaida! For you and me to be free from the distractions all around us. For you and me to be one.”

            Harvey then activated his power. When he unleashed his blinding stream of explosive energy, Vaida threw her shield aside and used her most powerful countermeasure; she triggered her own Astrodeus power for the very first time.

            Hatasuko watched as Vaida transformed into an incandescent shape of flashing flames. This blaze grew larger by the second; Harvey’s energy beams struck her and exploded, further fueling the fiery fury of the growing star. Vaida steered this monstrous star of fiery light above the rooftops, floating away from any civilians. Every inch of the canyon bathed in the blinding light. The fireflies were eclipsed by the glow of Vaida’s new form. Every canyon wall basked in the luminous flare and reflected the fiery light. Every building cast a long shadow. Even from two blocks away, Hatasuko felt the pressing heat of the burning star. He had to look away and shield his eyes with his arm.

            “No! It won’t work if you survive!” Harvey yelled as he aimed his hand up to the sky.

            Harvey activated his power and shot a series of energy beams at Vaida, but they all exploded harmlessly. He could not make a dent in the spherical inferno. Every energy stream that struck her burst into flames and then joined her. Once Harvey realized that he could not fight back, he dropped to the ground with steam lifting from his arm. With the bodies of his victims laid out around him, he glared up at the burning star and saw her unleash several scarlet solar flares. The fiery energy danced across the star in the form of spirals. Every eye in Lumipyla watched this massive display of energy.

            “Goodbye, Harvey,” whispered Vaida from the heart of the burning star.

            The solar sphere of fire crashed down upon the far end of the street. In the form of this living inferno, Vaida engulfed Harvey in a fiery heartbeat, but the star did not explode when it hit the ground. Instead, every flashing flame converged in the heart of the burning star. It looked like she was imploding; the starry mass of fiery energy surged together and destroyed Harvey in a matter of milliseconds. Every shadow in the city danced from the convergence of this scarlet light. Every adjacent window shattered from the shockwave. The brightness of the burning star overwhelmed the canyon, but Hatasuko glared anyway, searching for any sign of his best friend.

Before long, he saw the outline of an Astrodeus in the center of the fiery energy. Vaida materialized herself with each passing second. The energy faded from the air until she completely reassembled. When the convergence stopped, Vaida returned to her Astrodeus form. Her eyes were wide, her face looked dazed, and her hands trembled as steam lifted from her body. Despite her warmth, Hatasuko walked up and wrapped his big arms around her. Though she shivered, she was not catatonic, and so she returned his passionate embrace. It felt like it had before, back when they were both human, but the world around them felt smaller than it once was.

            “I’m so glad you’re alive; I’ve never been that scared in my life! I really thought I might lose you,” Hatasuko confessed.

            “I wasn’t ready to say goodbye. I’ve told you before that I want to see the world you work to create—a world without misery. Sometimes, it’s all I’ve got to keep me going. It’s because I never want to hurt this badly ever again,” Vaida whispered.

            Though he could not see her face, Hatasuko knew Vaida was in incredible pain. She had just killed her childhood friend—the only friend she had known until she met him. Though he could not see the confliction in her bright blue eye, he knew that she fought to reassure herself that she had no other choice. This was the only way to save Harvey from himself.

            Hatasuko said to her in their embrace, “I know you said I can’t do anything to cure your pain, but I don’t think I can accept that. I don’t want to accept that because I don’t want to give up. If I could help you as much as you help me, then that would be enough for me. Even a world as dark as this might finally start to feel fair.”

            “Please just keep holding onto me. Hold on and don’t ever let me go. That’s all I need from you. That’s… all I need from you,” she stammered.

            “I’ll hold onto you forever. We’re going to make it to the very end. We’re going to make it to those islands. Do you know how I know?”

            After wiping her eyes on his bruised chest, Vaida stepped back and pulled her hair off her face. Her eyes shimmered from her sadness, her scars were touched by moisture, and her mouth tried to force a shaky smile. She lightly shook her head.

            “Because I feel this so powerfully that I know it must be true. I won’t give reality the choice to disagree with me,” he answered.

            After a very brief pause, a smile emerged on Vaida’s lips. She stepped forward and pressed into his arms once again.