510. Endless world, 6

(Zeslinry)

I woke up in the sky.

On top of a great bird unlike any I recall seeing before. Did I?

Some thoughts and memories still don’t click together properly.

Myls had begun telling me about what I couldn’t witness, for I had died.

A terrifying story...

Driven by revenge, she overcame every challenge and fear on her way; and her enemies...

To create a world free of that looming threat, where...

Where I could be brought back from the dead...

I know Rose made it look easy, but still...

As we take a break from chatting about what I missed, I realise I don’t know where we’re going.

Z - ?

S - Myuu.

Z - What was that?

M - She said something like a home.

Z - Back in Türkiye?

M - I heard about something in Egypt that could be even nicer. You don’t remember?

Either way, we’ve got the silky roads to follow over half the continent or more.

We’ve got time to rest and think about it.

Myls looks at me with insistence. Her face looks scary because of the damage. She can’t see very well it seems.

Z - What is it Myls? You have a scary look.

M - I was thinking that you still look the same as ever...

I simply smile. I’ve heard that before. I look down at my new leg. It’s working fine. I look up again, back to Myls’s damaged face.

Z - Let me look more closely...

She reluctantly lets me touch and inspect her face. Skin burns I’ve seen and treated before. It’s a little too late here, most tissues have already regrown, in anarchy.

Her dead eye gives her an unsettling undead look. The eyelid has shrunk, leaving it dry. It’s even infected in the corners I notice. Maybe we’ll need to remove it...

Z - ... I’m glad it’s all over.

M - Me too.

Z - When we find some medical and surgical equipment, there are a few things we should operate on your face before they turn bad.

M - Okay...

She just lowered her head, not arguing.

I lift her bangs and kiss her forehead. I know she had mixed feelings about that. Because there’s love, but also the old idea that she’s still a child next to me.

Z - That will teach you for leaving me behind.

M - You’re not fair...

I smile and limp my way further to a place to sit and rest.

Myls comes along and takes a nap along my side.

~

Sanïssia peacefully flies over gorgeous and peaceful landscapes.

My brain still can’t comprehend her full appearance, nor piece together what I see. My memories don’t help either.

All I see is abstract, except for the shapes of wings I see at times.

Over landscapes rich with lush forests, we made a halt. We’re somewhere between Europe and Asia, beyond the steppes already.

Sanïssia landed, and begun her job of deforestation with great appetite.

Myls and I head toward the dead city just behind to find more equipment.

Myls can still make her handgun spin like a cowboy his revolvers, but I notice she’s less steady.

Z - Can you still aim?

M - I think so. But I’ve lost my good scope.

Sanïssia spat what was stored of her old equipment. An old crate of ammunition, mostly empty from bullets but with still some food and tools stored inside.

Without anything better left to wear, we wrap ourselves inside very long scarves that were there, made of nice fabric.

Z - They look and feel nice. Where did you find them?

M - ... You wouldn’t believe me.

Z - You’ll tell me everything eventually.

She grins. So do I. We head into the ruins.

~

We don’t chat as we walk inside the city. We proceed cautiously and silently. Everything seems alright here though.

We head into an old hospital. Mushrooms grow over bloodstains on the walls. The living shadows that creeps on old walls vanish as they notice us.

We find traces and hints that a human community lived around here for a while. A few years ago maybe. They didn’t leave much behind. But they left enough of a field surgical kit and pharmacy.

Then we find a place that is as sterile as can be, and with as much light as possible to operate.

The best compromise for that is the roof, tomorrow.

We chat as we camp and cook. We’ll stay there for the night.

We sit next to each other, reassured and soothed.

She tells me bits of her adventure.

How the oppressive fear built in her every time she could see the magenta sunrise.

How that evil god changed its methods according to their reactions, over and over. Switching from downpour to angels. From angels to Calamity. And Calamity arming herself more and more.

An arms race with god, not in pure power, in something more primal.

M - All the body language of Calamity screamed it, over and over, endlessly. Silent but so loud...

‘’ I want to see you die.’’

M - Magenta was obsessed with the thought of destroying us, to vanquish and prevail in battle. Just like us.

What I hear is that Magenta was not a cold, calculating and all-knowing god. It was a wrathful and obsessed being. It got blinded by its own rage, and the two intelligent opponents it faced managed to outwit it over and over. In a long lasting deadly game...

I hold Myls’s hand tighter as my heart aches. There’s one thing Myls keeps repeating I fully relates to.

M - I’m glad it’s over...

Z - Me too Myls.

~

Night is passing peacefully. The stars are bright. There’s no pink one moving fast out there. We’re free from that threat. Myls mentions Calamity again.

That one who was like a Licht, on the other side, she really left a strong impression onto Myls.

M - In one word? Fierce. Never blinking nor hesitating... Well, sometimes she did, but she really gave that impression. All the time, full of blazing hatred.

‘’ I’m going to murder you.’’

Myls shivers. She’s still not over that terror she ran through. She still has a lot to vent.

M - Every time we managed to kill her. Every time she returned, different, not necessarily stronger, but...

‘’ Each time I die, I learn, and I return. But you... You will die only once. I live only to achieve that...’’

Myls is trembling, thinking about it. I hold her.

M - Two times, I had to wrestle her. Each time it felt as if my heart would explode even before she would switch on her deadly light...

By strategic mistake, underestimating Myls or whatever other reason, Calamity never quite used her strongest weapon against Myls efficiently.

Blume was the real foe. Myls an annoyance I guess.

Myls finally falls asleep. I keep thinking. Dragod didn’t really care. The tunnel Queen and others like Blume, they like us. Magenta and its prophets, they really hated us...

Myls dreams. She twitches.

On her awakening, she tells me she had a nightmare of that time again. The flying swarm. And Calamity’s clear as crystal’s return.

Calamity’s mean eyes on her. Myls still shivers when she recalls that moment. It’s a deep scar in her mind and memories.

M - She was... The one...

I somehow understand what she means. It’s a little like what the lord of nightmares wanted out of Myls.

One that doesn’t kindly makes you evolve.

One that terribly violently forces you to transform into someone else... That kind of wound that becomes a part of you, only because you somehow survived it. A true enemy, literally.

I look at the sunrise colours, sighing, holding her shoulders. Myls sighs as well.

In her darkest dreams, Calamity will always live on.

~

We can remove some of the scars they left on Myls as they were on the verge of death. Myls refuses the anaesthetics. She’ll endure. I know she will, because it’s me holding the scalpels and my hands are steady.

I start with the eye that is dead and infected. I wish I could save it. I pull slowly, and cut the nerves behind. Myls twitches and holds a yell. She cries silently while I operate.

I cauterise, I disinfect. I remove the useless eyelid that was infected as well.

I remove bits of necrosis, disinfect and sew the skin back into thin lines. Myls suffers without a word, barely moaning. Just sweating and trembling.

Her lips turn bluish as I’m removing anarchic growths from her cheeks. I sew the cuts into what will be the large scars there, and stop there for the day with surgery.

I change the dressing of her eye socket that evacuates pus. I keep her other eyelid open for a moment. Her open eye reflects the sunny sky and me. I clean with a wipe the inside of her eyelid. Dry bits come out like sand. Her tears will wash the rest.

I let her close her eye and cry. I let her cry there for a little while, my heart aching heavily as well.

I embrace her in a gentle hug and let her cry onto me.

Z - You’ll be fine Myls. You’ll survive. It’s over now...

She just cries, holding onto me. I’m caressing her maternally, maybe. I just want to hold her tight...

Z - I’m with you...

~