Anima

My judgment clouded.

You’ve stolen my sensation.

My lost memory.

“It hurts,” Nabi muttered behind the demonic mask of a face she wore. Every inch of her body felt like it had been burned and twisted. Her own reiju crushed her limbs and tore her skin, peeling it away while her mind screamed out behind the prison of what she became.

Naisho stood before her with a contained gaze, unable to bring himself to smirk at what he saw. He knew what had occurred. His eyes focused in on her thigh, careful to note whether “that” would appear or not, but even in this state Nabi seemed to hold that same sensation back. The same echoing voices and memories that weren’t her own.

Holding him back.

“A calm sigh and an uncluttered mind.”

The mantra left Naisho’s lips like the echo of a god, slithering through the air like crimson thread, and holding back the crushing weight of Nabi’s reiju. A smirk grew on his face and with it he gave his body over to energy unlike the one he faced. It vibrated through him and with a single exhale it left him. An ethereal avatar with eyes wrapped in bandages appeared behind him, and he allowed everything else to blur away into the snow.

“Disappear into the hallowed mist….” He muttered as the avatar lowered its hands over his eyes. Its name welled up in his chest. The echo of his own soul.

“Memoriae.”

When Nabi opened her eyes, the world around her was peaceful, and unlike before no thoughts lingered in her mind. Her gaze was dull and unfocused. The skin that was once as crimson. Her eyes had returned to form and the echoes in her mind had ceased for now. Both in mind and in body, the past events had been erased like a forgotten memory.

Nabi stumbled forward, but the sound of snow beneath her feet snatched her back to reality.

“You look like you dozed off or something, everything alright?” Naisho said. His voice sounded lighter than before. Nabi looked at him, but he appeared to warp with the light around her like a faint memory.

Nabi peered at Naisho with careful caution, only replying with a simple nod.

“I’m…fine. What did you two want anyway?” she asked hesitantly. Something about Naisho’s smile was…off-putting to her. It was way too warm for what she witnessed only moments before.

She shivered at the sight of it.

Naisho chose his words carefully.

“I just wanted to make sure you were prepared for the Trial of Birth. It isn’t that common for this Trial to be used as an entrance exam for first-years, you know,” he said.

Nabi stretched slightly, letting the sound of her bones crackle through the landscape.

“It shouldn’t be too much trouble as long as I do ‘whatever it takes’. Which Exousia thought this one up, anyway?”

““Exousia Shi,” Naisho said.

“Another Superbian-born? After that speech of Prota’s it's almost ironic he’d play favorites.”

“Not even!” Juno chimed in. “It’s only because he’s Zephyr’s special little snowflake with that Anima of his. He’s from Invid.”

As if the mountain itself heard her words, it shook wildly. Snow shot from the edge of the cliff like the waves of a tsunami engulfing an island in white. When the chaos died down Naisho looked at an expansive tree that appeared in front of the cliffside with two at its peak: Zephyr and Shi.

The two stood beside each other like a lord and his noble knight, and Naisho’s expression seemed to sour at the sight. Zephyr let a cold chuckle slip out of him at the sight of students scurried away from the two like ants. They were annoying to him, constantly gnawing at each other for the chance of power over and over almost like the way the boy beside him continued to fiddle with his robes nervously.

Emerys Acheron, the boy known to many as Exousia Shi, couldn’t shake the creeping cold thoughts lingering in his head. He looked over the crowd, balancing his emotions as if walking on a tightrope that dared to be cut.

His hands shook like he was holding a heavy blade, and the light from his fuschia-colored eyes shot around until being stopped by a sight he didn’t expect to see out in the open in such a way. A gaze given by one whose eyes matched the unnatural cold that encircled the mountainside had shifted to something many had barely seen in their lifetime.

Zephyr looked towards Emerys with a smile to reveal his softened purple eyes. Emerys’ face reddened at the sight. Despite the cold charismatic mask he wore, Zephyr’s eyes reflected a shred of warmth.

“Are you ready, Em?” he asked.

Emerys lowered his gaze. The icy mist from their arrival had yet to dissipate and like it, Emerys’ worries lingered within him. He remembered the sight of Erena that night when he used that ability. His skin crawled the images that flooded into his mind and now Zephyr expected him to do it again with even more people.

“I— I’m not sure. They’ll listen to you, no need for me to waste my Anima⸺.”

“It isn’t about how they view me, one day you’ll need to take charge on your own if anything were to happen to me. Don’t focus on them, just your desires and your power. No one will ever control you,” Zephyr said.

Emerys held his hand forward, erasing all remnants of reiju from his body, giving himself over to a foriegn energy. He could already feel the heat before he said anything. It was invigorating to have that much power, something that was only worthy for a god in the hands of someone like him. The creeping feeling in the back of his head still lingered. He turned back to Zephyr.

“And if my Anima ends up⸺.”

“It won’t. Just do like how I taught you, Em.”

In a world like this, what one desires is their strength. Whether you crave destruction. corruption, war…or Freedom. No desire can come to fruition unless you are a god, but in a world where a god and human are indistinguishable, then what stops them from achieving such desires?

Gods without desires of their own have no purpose thus, he who believes himself worthy of becoming God must find a mantra of their own.

Emerys closed his eyes, letting his consciousness enter the eternal flow of his mind. His memory flowed like a river containing all that he held dear. His past, present, and future laid before him. Zephyr’s image flickered through his mind before being swept up in the currents and replaced with the image of the Deadly Sins.

He took in a deep inhale before letting out an exhale like a calming spring breeze. He held out his hand for a moment. Petals of light swirled around his hand to form a book whiter than the snow around him. As Emerys spoke, the atmosphere shifted and let the tool that would make them God be revealed with his mantra.

“No longer shall I alone be commanded.”

Emerys opened his eyes, letting their color burn away into a ferocious silver. Zephyr watched in awe at the sight, wondering what he saw through such mystifying eyes.

A crimson thread linked all Emerys saw, connecting them to himself. All their thoughts, their dreams, their pain flooded into his mind.

“Too much!” he thought.

A tear rolled down Emerys’ face. He fought to stay awake through the pulsing migraines assaulting his head.

The Anger.

The Fear.

The Expectation.

The Pain.

Emerys felt as if his blood would claw its way out of him if it lasted any longer, yet he continued, his soul linked to others, yet an unshakable feeling lingered in his head no matter how much he tried to shake it away. Zephyr reached out to Emerys for a moment, only to stop short before reaching him, choosing to watch and see if Emerys truly was of worth.

Despite this, Emerys held on, gasping out an incantation while every word burned his throat like the air had violently been sucked out of his lungs.

Everything around him grew silent, from the pain that overtook his body to the thoughts that flooded his mind. Time moved forward, but everything else froze. No one should have to handle the pain of all those thoughts. Emerys stood tall despite the strain. His eyes burned with tears, yet when he spoke, the mountainside shook.

“Anima Series…. LAW…Élenchís.”

Nabi found herself unable to move and her mind empty. Her crimson gaze flashed to Emerys standing above the students, yet her brain refused to let her move despite her will. Emerys wiped his eyes, his voice covered the landscape.

“I…am Emerys Archon, son of Aithusa. I, like many of you, have no lineage, yet I have power. Its power worthy to make even the Deadly Sins themselves fear me and all of you. This is my Anima, and your Trial will be to unlock your own ⸺ or die trying.”