Chapter 232: Nirvana (Part One)
A drop of water, courtesy of a gentle breeze, plummeted from my forehead and splashed into my eyeball. I swiftly raised my hand to wipe it away, only to realize I was staring at my own palm for what felt like an eternity before figuring out that it was just sweat.
…It’s getting a bit hot in here.
The temperature seemed to be climbing, and though I vaguely sensed it, the onslaught of pain and dozing off had turned my brain into a mushy cloud. My perception was hazy; was it the heat rising, or had my body simply decided to turn itself into a sauna again? I drifted in and out of consciousness, and when I finally came to, it felt like I was plummeting—zooming down toward the ground like a rock. The expansive meadow had morphed into a bleak, charred patch of earth ahead of me.
On this ashen soil, sparse dead trees stood like failed sculptures, their gnarled branches waving at me in a creepy way. My wings were still flapping bravely, but I felt heavier than a boulder, and try as I might, I was descending faster by the second. The wind howled past my ears, creating a dumpster fire of noise, and before I knew it, I lost all strength and crashed directly into a tangle of dead tree branches. With a cacophony of “crash-bang,” I smashed into a decrepit wooden shack perched precariously in the treetops.
Bang!
A dull thud echoed.
Whoosh—
I broke right through the roof, landing on the floorboards with a thud. Random junk rained down from above, battering my back and legs, but I couldn’t feel a thing. My head was spinning, and all I heard was a persistent buzzing in my ears.
“…Ugh.”
I lay there on the damp, stinky boards, immobile for what felt like an eternity before groaning softly and attempting to pull myself up. After several futile attempts, it became apparent that my limbs had declared a rebellion against me.
“Cough, cough…”
It seemed I wasn’t going anywhere for a while…
The thin Dead Smoke surrounding me dispersed in no time, and the fiery wings at my back fizzled out completely during my fall. I managed to lift my head—my vision blurred as I scanned the wreck of the room. Through the hole above, some feeble moonlight trickled in, illuminating the like a sad, outdated thrift shop; chairs and junk lay strewn about amidst the dark mud and cobwebs.
So, this is a fairy’s house…
I had flown out of the grasslands and into the forest…
The wooden floor beneath me had long been festering with age and decay—creaking loudly with the slightest movement. My hand brushed against a slimy substance that I could only assume was some sort of moss, but it was black and reeked of something nasty. Gross? Sure. But I didn’t have the luxury to care right now.
“Ugh…”
I whispered a soft m*an and desperately grabbed onto a rotting section of the floor that was sticking up. I dragged myself slowly toward the corner of the room, where, I hoped, I might find some semblance of safety—filthy or not. I plopped down in the corner, gasping for air, and took a moment to catch my breath. After some exertion, I managed to sit up against the rotting wood wall, closed my eyes, and opened my mouth wide, feeling my little chest rise and fall dramatically.
“Ha, ha, ha… cough cough!”
With deep breaths came a mouthful of dust, which sent me into another coughing fit.
No one… is chasing me, right…?
As the coughing subsided, I struggled to calm my breathing, nostrils flaring in a desperate attempt to inhale deeply. Very slowly, I turned my head, my bleary eyes locking onto the shattered round window. Outside, the night was eerily quiet—no wind, no voices, not even the slightest chirp of a cicada. Just that still, slightly reddish night sky spilling a threadbare glimmer of light into the dark room.
…Morning’s on the way.
When did it start to brighten? I sure hadn’t noticed…
I stared out at the light, which reminded me of a fiery sunset; the crimson radiance pierced through the cloud layers, cloaking the moonlight and extinguishing the stars, adding a hint of warmth to the cold night.
So beautiful…
That glow flowed like liquid, drifting ceaselessly from the east, illuminating the sky. The crescent moon hid behind a delicate veil of pink clouds, and the faint light took on a blush hue.
Suddenly, it got so quiet…
Pain and exhaustion washed over me in waves, and I tried to distract myself by watching the scenery outside. My vision, however, began to blur further; the two crescent moons hanging up there started to double, and the dawnlike night sky in my eyes faded into obscurity. I could no longer see anything clearly.
Whoosh—
Bang!
In the distance, I thought I could hear the Light of MaFa—a sound that burst forth like fireworks in the sky.
That sound echoed toward me from a great distance, and I couldn’t tell if it was real or a figment of my imagination. My brain had gone nearly blank; I couldn’t process any more information. In that fuzzy haze, it felt like I was whisked back to that night in the Royal City.
Victoria and I were flying over the sparkling lights of the city, watching the fireworks bloom in the sky. She held me close, the cool night breeze carrying her gentle whispers to my ears.
[If you heard troubling news from that way, you’d choose to leave the Royal City, right?]
[If I asked you not to go, would you promise me?]
[Come back home with me…]
Snap.
Warm tears slipped down my cheek again, plopping onto my hand.
I raised my hand to wipe my eyes, beginning with one, then two, but the tears were like a flood, and no matter how hard I tried, it was impossible to stop them.
Will I ever go home again…
“Ugh-uh…”
A muffled whimper echoed from the dank, gloomy shack. It was the most helpless cry of a young girl in despair.
Crouched in the dark corner of the rickety treehouse, her bloodied little body hidden in the shadows, she sobbed quietly, afraid to let her voice out too loud, scared someone might hear and discover her hiding there.
Viki…
I can’t run anymore… I just can’t…
But they might still be looking for me… they could find me at any moment…
What should I do…
Please, save me…
“Wah… ugh…”
The girl’s sobs morphed into deeper, suppressed groans. She leaned against the wall, her face twisted in anguish, clutching her chest tightly as her body slowly crumpled to the side. She curled up on the filthy, rotting boards, trembling increasingly violently, her breathing growing labored as she gasped for air.
“Ha, ha, ha… ah…”
It hurts…
My chest, it hurts so bad… my body aches all over… it’s too hot… I feel awful…
The agonizing pain radiating from my forehead, back, and tailbone had begun to spread throughout my entire body. The intensity of the suffering surged with little time for a reaction, so profound that it instantly wiped away any trace of drowsiness.
I lay on the floor, curling up in a tight little ball, and within seconds, despair and suffocation washed over me.
“Glug… glug…”
I started swallowing repeatedly, my teeth grinding, about to shatter under the pressure. My face felt hot and flushed, and I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs, to release this unbearable pain, but it hurt too much to even groan. Tears and snot streamed down my face, and I could barely catch a breath.
All I could do was huddle in the corner, forcing my eyes wide open, silently praying for this maddening pain to be over quickly.
One second…
Two seconds…
Countless seconds passed.
But the pain didn’t let up.
It only intensified.
Crack, crash…
I heard the sound of my armor being ripped away from my back.
It felt as if the skin over my shoulder blades was being brutally torn apart, the piercing pain shooting from my spine into my brain. In that moment, it felt like something was growing out of my back—I could sense it dimly.
At the same time, the entire shack began to tremble violently.
Boom, boom, boom…
The tremors didn’t seem to come from me; a loud bang echoed from the far-off night sky outside. I had no idea what was happening and was too weak to care. In my blurred vision, the glimmering window and the faint light pouring in through the roof’s gaping hole—what I thought was dawn—suddenly turned a bl**d-red hue.
