THE ECHO IN THE VOID

The world was a sea of emerald light.

It was not a warm, welcoming light. It was cold, sterile, like the inside of a broken gem. Asimil floated in that monochromatic infinity, stripped of his body, his armor, his wounds. He was a pure consciousness, an island of thought in an ocean of nothingness. The echo of the Emerald Cataclysm was all that existed: a vibrating silence, a low-frequency hum that was the absence of everything he had ever known.

In front of him, the light swirled and condensed, weaving a shape out of nothingness. His own silhouette rose before him, made of distant stars and green mist. It was the entity of the Threshold, his jailer and his creator in this reflected world.

— Are you enjoying your stay, Mirage? —

Fury consumed him, a rage so intense that the emerald light around him seemed to flicker and darken.

— You threw me into a world to face my shadows and all I found were more lies! — he shouted, his spectral form swirling like a storm.

— I found friends! I found a mentor! I found... someone! And it was all a sham! A lie to keep an eye on the catastrophic threat! —

He pointed at the entity, an accusing finger made of pure will.

— You spoke to me of recovering memories to heal, but each fragment was a new torture! A locker, laughter, a father who despises me! What for?! Why remember the pain of one world if you were going to throw me into another to be broken again? —

The monologue became a torrent of anguish, a dam of pain that was finally breaking.

— I saw my world crumble! I saw the trust I had worked so hard to build turn to ashes! I told her I hated her! — his voice cracked, the memory of Noelia's face, shattered by his words, was a dagger in his soul. — And then... then I saw how that light took everything. And I couldn't even protect her. I couldn't even do that right! —

He embraced himself, a pathetic figure trembling in the middle of nowhere. The mental breakdown was total, the confession of a lost soul.

— I am an empty pigeonhole in two different worlds. A failure in the one I left behind and a failure in the one you created me in. I don't know who I am. I don't know what is real. I only know that everything I touch, I destroy. So you answer me — she pleaded, her anger drained, leaving only hollow despair. — Is there anything here to enjoy? —

The entity watched him, impassive. Asimil's silhouette showed no emotion, no pity, no judgment. It simply existed.

— All existence is a choice — answered the voice, as serene as ever. — You have reached the end of this road. And now, I offer you the final choice. —

The limbo around him seemed to divide. On one side, the emerald light dimmed to a peaceful, absolute darkness.

— You can stay here. Oblivion. A cessation. No pain, no memories, no failures. Just silence. — On the other side, the green light swirled, showing chaotic and painful visions: the ruined citadel, Spectro's furious face, his friends struggling to survive.

— Or you can go back. — the entity continued. — Back to the fragments of a broken world. To pain, to war, to betrayal. I do not offer you victory. I do not offer you happiness. But that road offers you one thing this place can't: an opportunity. —

Asimil looked into the darkness. It was tantalizing. An end to the suffering. An end to the struggle. He was so tired. Perhaps surrender was the only victory he had left.

But then, in the midst of the chaotic visions, an image froze in his mind. It was not of the war, nor of the pain. It was Noelia's face, in her room, just after telling him the story of her brother. Her eyes, for an instant, stripped of all arrogance, filled with a vulnerability that broke his soul. She remembered the weight of his head in her lap, the lullaby he hummed. He remembered how he had hurt her, how he had twisted that fragile confidence into a weapon of hate.

It was not heroism that he felt. It was not a desire to save the world. It was a personal, selfish, overwhelming need. A regret so deep that it outweighed his own desire for peace.

He raised his head, his spectral gaze fixed on the vision of war.

— I have to go back — he whispered, his voice no longer that of a hero or a victim, but of a man with one last debt to pay.

— Even if the path only leads to more pain? — asked the entity.

— Even if it takes me to hell — Asimil replied, with a new, calm determination. — I can't leave things like this. Not with her. I have to... I have to apologize. —

The entity nodded slowly. — So be it. —

The emerald world contracted, absorbing him, and with a burst of light and sound, Asimil was thrown back into the cycle of pain, not by the promise of glory, but by the simple, human need to mend a broken heart, if it was the last thing he would ever do.