THE PRICE OF TRUTH PART 2

The world was reduced to the two of them. The din of the battle between Mio and Karen became a distant echo, a murmur drowned out by the furious pounding of blood in his ears. In front of him, Noelia was a nightmarish silhouette.

— Noelia... please —he gasped, leaning against a rock. — This isn't you. Fight it! —

Her crimson eyes watched him with cold curiosity. — Fight? — Her voice was a distorted echo. — Against the only truth? Weakness deserves to be purged, Asimil. And you... you are the definition of weakness. —

She launched a whiplash of dark energy that slammed him into the rocky wall. — You and Saitras... you taught me that to be strong is not to have no fear... but to go forward in spite of it! —

— LIES! — she roared, her voice for an instant charged with a pain that was not altogether evil. — They're comforts for fools! Are you still going on? Look at you! Bleeding, pleading, defeated! —

She advanced toward him. A blast of corrupted ice, black and sharp, pierced his shoulder, pinning him against the rock.  — AAAAAAAAH! — he screamed.

— See — she leaned in, her breath smelling of ozone and ash, — you can't even dodge a basic attack. You were a fun project... a cheap, failed substitute. —

With tears of pain and frustration, he looked at her.  — Substitute...? Whose...? —

— FROM MY BROTHER! — Her cry was heartbreaking. — He was weak like you! And the world swallowed him up! And I found you, and I thought... I thought if I made you strong, I'd prove that he could have been too! But no! You're just a reminder of his failure! And I hate you for it! —

She raised a black energy dagger. The coup de grace. He did not try to dodge it.

— I... don't hate you... Noelia... — he whispered, with a tragic and bleeding smile — I... I... you... —

Before I could respond, he pounced on me. His lips crashed against mine with brutal force. It was not a kiss. It was a rape, an act of pure domination. I felt the metallic taste of my own blood and an icy current of corrupt energy trying to invade me. — Did you... love me? — the question was a venom-laden taunt.

Before he could respond, she pounced on him. Her lips crashed against his with brutal force. It was not a kiss. It was a rape, an act of pure domination. He felt the metallic taste of his own blood and an icy current of corrupt energy trying to invade him.

She turned away abruptly, with an expression of disgust. — See? Nothing. I feel absolutely nothing. Your "love" is as insignificant as you are. It's pathetic. —

To seal her point, she transformed the remaining energy into a dark fist and slammed it into his stomach. The pain was overwhelming, blinding. He doubled over on himself, vomiting blood, consciousness escaping him.

— Look — she spat, her voice again serene and full of contempt. — That's how easily your strength breaks. You will live to remember that your faith in me was your greatest mistake. —

She turned away, leaving him broken. Not only had she shattered his body and his heart. She had desecrated the only pure feeling he had, turning it into a weapon. And she had left him alive.

While he was drowning in his own agony, his friends could only watch helplessly. Mitsu and Ikel, already defeated. Luce, her face furrowed with tears of rage, was pounding the ground with her fists, frustrated at not being able to move. And Lyra, her calm finally broken, had an expression of pure horror, understanding the nature of the spiritual desecration she had just witnessed.

At that precise moment, the buzzing of Mio's halberd reached a high-pitched, unbearable tone.

— IT'S OVER! — shouted the warrior.

— FINAL SONIC BLAST!!! —

A column of pure pink light shot out of the weapon directly into the core of the Void. The impact was catastrophic. The core exploded, and the shockwave continued upward, impacting the very sky of the Altverse.

And then, the impossible happened.

The sky cracked. Like a gigantic mirror struck by a hammer, long luminous fissures spread across the celestial vault, revealing what lay behind: a nightmarish landscape, a dead world of perpetual storm and mountains of bones. The true home of corruption.

For an instant, everything stopped. Everyone, friend and foe alike, looked up in awe.

Karen was the first to react. Her face changed to one of genuine panic.

— No...! The veil! They've torn the veil! —she shouted, looking at Noelia. — We're leaving! NOW! —

Noelia nodded, her cruelty momentarily replaced by a cold urgency. Both raised their hands, joining their powers in a massive sphere of annihilation. — All to hell! — Karen roared.

They threw the sphere not at them, but at the ground at their feet. The explosion that followed was a tsunami of pure force that shattered reality. They were sucked into the torrent of light. He felt no pain, only a dizzying sense of disintegration, of being ripped from his own being.

When the light faded, the ruins were silent. Empty.

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Epilogue

Darkness.

Pain.

A distant ringing in the ears.

He half-opened his eyes. His body protested with every beat of his heart. The sky he saw... was not that of the Altverse. It was a strange sky, of a pale lavender color and perpetual twilight.

He was lying on the shore of a lake of calm, dark waters. He tried to move, but a twinge in his side prevented him from doing so.

Then a shadow appeared above him, blocking the light. It was a female figure. He tried to speak, but only a moan came out.

The figure knelt beside him. A soft, cool hand touched his forehead.

The darkness claimed him once again, leaving him at the mercy of that silhouette that had found him at the end of the world.