THE PROMISE BEFORE THE END

Dawn tinged the corrupted sky with shades of bruised violet. The team was exhausted. They had fought all night, defending a small enclave of survivors from a horde of Void beasts. Victory was theirs, but the price was total exhaustion. They gathered around a makeshift campfire, the crackling of the flames the only sound besides their weary breaths.

— Good job, team — said Ikel, his voice hoarse with fatigue. Luce nodded, stretching her sore muscles. Lyra was busy tending to the wounded in the enclave.

Asimil sat a little apart, staring into the flames, lost in thought. They had won, but each battle felt like they were only delaying the inevitable.

It was then that the danger came, not with a roar, but with a whisper.

From the shadows behind Asimil, a creature materialized. It was no brute beast; it was slender, humanoid, with long, blade-like arms and a face that was a smooth, featureless mask. It looked intelligent. Before anyone could shout a warning, the creature extended a hand and a ball of black, pulsating energy formed in its palm.

He threw it. The projectile made no sound, simply glided through the air and hit Asimil directly in the back of the head. There was no explosion. The sphere seemed to melt, absorbing into his skin with an unnatural hiss. Asimil's eyes widened, an expression of pure shock on his face, before he collapsed to the ground.

— ASIMIL! — Noelia's scream was heartbreaking.

The creature smiled, or at least that was the impression it gave, before it was annihilated by a fist of fire from Ikel and a barrage of attacks from Luce. They ran towards Asimil, but he was already unconscious.

Asimil's world was white. A sterile, clinical white. The rhythmic beeping of a heart monitor was his only companion. He saw himself, or an echo of himself, lying in a hospital bed, pale, weak and all alone. The feeling of abandonment was so real it hurt.

A figure made of emerald light sat beside him. The entity. — This is an echo of your greatest fear — said the voice in his mind. — To die alone. Forgotten. —

The hospital scene faded away, replaced by the green limbo. — The Void energy you have absorbed is devouring your code. You are dying, Mirage. —

— I know... I know — thought Asimil.

— But your anomalous connection to the Threshold gives you a choice — the entity continued. 

— One that is offered to no one else. If you survive this, if your will is strong enough, I can sever your connection to this reflex world. I can return you to your original reality. To your body in that hospital bed. You will forget all this like a long nightmare. —

The offer was a lifesaver. To return home. To leave behind the war, the pain, the loss.

— Or you can stay — concluded the entity. — Stay and perish here, fighting for a world that is not yours. The choice is yours. — Asimil was about to respond, the word take me almost forming in his mind. He wanted to go home.

But before he could, the emerald light of the limbo flickered and distorted. A dark figure stood between him and the entity. It was Spectro. Beside him, an even larger, more menacing shadow writhed.

— Thanks for the help, rookie — Spectro's mocking voice corrupted the peace of limbo.— That ball of energy was a tracker. A cursed gift. No matter where you hide, no matter what world you flee to... now I know exactly where you are. —

The shadow beside him grew, and Asimil felt a crushing pressure. — Enjoy your last moments. The final battle will begin very soon. —

Spectro's image faded. Asimil felt the limbo around him tremble.

He woke up with a gasp. He was sweaty, his heart pounding a mile a minute. He was in a cave, the soft light of a campfire illuminating the sleeping faces of his friends. Lyra had healed him. The attack had been real. And Spectro's warning...too.

The first thing he felt was not the cold of the stone, but a warm weight on his lap.

He looked down. His heart stopped.

It was Noelia. She had fallen asleep while watching him, her head resting on his legs, one of her hands clinging weakly to a fold of his tunic. Even in sleep, her face was marked by exhaustion, her brows slightly furrowed, as if she were fighting nightmares. It was an image of such profound vulnerability and quiet devotion that it stole her breath. She had stood there, watching over him, until exhaustion overcame her.

With a tenderness he never thought he possessed, he raised a trembling hand and, with his fingertips, brushed aside a lock of reddish hair that fell across her cheek. At that moment, in that cave, she was not the Ice Queen. She was just Noelia. And he felt a surge of affection so powerful it hurt.

He left the cave quietly so as not to wake her. The corrupted sky was a constant reminder of Spectro's threat. War was inevitable. And the entity's offer... the option to flee... was still on her mind.

A few minutes later, he heard footsteps. It was Noelia. She sat down next to him by the fire, hugging her knees.

They stood in silence for a long time, gazing at the broken sky. There were no longer any barriers between them.

— When I was... unconscious — he began, his voice low. — I had a kind of dream. I was offered a way out. A way back to... to my old world. To leave all this behind. —

Noelia didn't look at him, but he saw her hands clench.

— I saw a way out, Noelia. A way back, to leave this hell — he confessed, her voice cracking. — And I would have taken it. I was ready to give up. But then I thought of your face... I thought of leaving you here, alone, struggling. And I couldn't. I couldn't do it. The only reason I chose to stay... was you. —

Noelia listened to him, her green eyes fixed on the fire, reflecting the flames. When he finished, she spoke, her voice a whisper charged with an emotion she could no longer suppress.

— When I saw you fall again... after thinking that I had already lost you once in the Cataclysm... I felt the ground disappear beneath my feet. — She turned her face towards him, and in her eyes were tears that would not fall. — You are... you are my anchor in all this madness, Asimil. If you go down, I go down with you. —

They did not kiss. They did not confess. They didn't need to. In a slow, meaningful gesture, her hand found his in the space between them, their fingers intertwining tightly. It was a silent promise. An acceptance that, no matter what Spectro threw against them, they would face the end of the world together. And for now, in the darkness, that small point of contact was all that mattered.