[I Descend] [Into The Void]

Incantations echoed all around Miu as I’ah and the others began to renew and reconstruct the barrier glyphs. Towering shimmers of light reflected and refracted as the ancient language bound itself into form. Hums of aliens tongues sang out in lamenting song as the new magic was born.

Through it all, the military continued to fire at its targets.

Miu held strong, maintaining her defensive focus as she erased every assault. No matter how many shells, beams, and bombs were sent their way, Miu stopped them. Fire devoured fire. Walls of ice intercepted deadly paths. Portals of teleportation opened and banished munitions into The Aether’s forevermore. All the while, the laugh continued for Miu.

She didn’t fully know why, but once it began, she could not stop it from shaking her lungs with its hysteria. Tears ran down her face as unending howls of delirious, spiteful joy sounded out.

Even when the exhaustion began to set in, she continued laughing.

I’ah had not told her how long it would take to reform the barriers. An hour into the endeavor, Miu’s shoulders were screaming from strain. Every inch of her body was alight in tempered suffering. The edges of her fingers and palms were raw and bruised from effort. Her eye felt like it was about to rip the old scars open. But she carried on, never asking for help.

Boom.

To her relief, her mind was finally silent for the most part. Gone were the whispers of terror and isolation. Now, all she thought of was destroying their precious artillery and bombardments. That… and him.

Boom.

Please, no. Please not now.

No matter how she tried, Yuki was there in her mind.

Boom.

That night.

That night, when everything fell apart.

Please no, not now.

The laughing began to stall.

Gasps began.

No one noticed.

No one ever noticed her struggling. Except him. But he wasn’t there.

Their bombs and their shards had made sure of that.

You’relosingcontrol

BOOM

Down below, more rounds were loaded as more weapons were prepped. It was as though the military could see that her strength was fading. Muddy tires delivered colossal cannons with the intent of erasing this strange girl. Braves we’re set. Targeting systems were calibrated.

you’re losing control

The laughs stopped. Yuki was in pieces. Yukiwasherpeace. Yuki was gone. Yukiwasgone and itwasalltheirfault.

Cold winds gathered strength as Miu’s focus began to fail. The voices in the air turned hostile and raspy as their song bled into wails. All around the fortress, the air went stale. Trees bent and strained with cracks of cold trunks straining to stay rooted in the soil.

Miu’s hands began to tremble. He looked up at her just before the explosion. His last words were her name. Fresh rounds were chambered and prepped. Targets were confirmed. THE target was confirmed. Every barrel angled at the girl, whose arms were lowering and pulling inwards for comfort.

BOOM!

Miu flinched and the enormous portal opened before her. Every attacking round entered the vortex, which then duplicated itself and turned back towards the military. In an instant, the rounds were now screaming back towards their origin points. Hundreds of murderous rounds tore through weaponry, structures, and bodies.

The cataclysmic explosions shook Miu back to reality just in time to witness the chaos erupting below. Detonation after detonation roared upwards as the humans were shredded and incinerated by their own devices.

Now the laugh returned.

“Miu?!” I’ah asked as it left its trance.

But it was too late. Miu was laughing hysterically as her knees bent and her face buried itself into her hands.

“All of you... Every godforsaken one of you… YOU’RE ALL GOING TO DIE THIS DAY!!!” Miu laughed in rage as she stood and ran towards the ledge's end.

Before I’ah could fully return to awareness, Miu leapt from the ledge and hurled herself down towards the barrier edge, where the fires of destruction were already rising.

Miu’s vision had begun to blur. Nothing mattered to her sight beyond the calamity below. She wanted it to be worse. shewantedittobeworse There wasn’t enough screaming. therewasn’tenoughscreaming

The soldiers did not even have time to process that they were now being assaulted. After so many months of absentmindedly shelling the fortress with unrelenting casualness, they were now on the defensive side, and they were unprepared. Above them, the girl was exploding downward, consumed in raging flame and splendor. Death was finally coming for them.

Fire exploded outward in stabilization as Miu reached the ground and sent her inferno into the surrounding soldiers. Screams erupted around her as bodies ignited with crystalline flame. Her feet set, and she propelled herself forward into another battalion of woefully unready soldiers. Rifles fired in terror as the beast with the glowing eye leapt forward, but none of the bullets struck her. Instead, each bullet was consumed by the hundreds of small portals swirling around her.

Then they were returned to their masters.

Hundreds of rounds screamed back towards their origin points, ripping into flesh and bone with thundering puffs of impact. Blood sprayed into the sky as chunks of mortality tore from their homes and landed on the cold metal frames of machines and artillery.

Miu did not stop. Her gaze scanned the world around her, searching for more victims.

theyalldeservedtodie

andtheywoulddietoday

Fire burned everywhere, and as the screams of suffering rose into ecstatic choirs of horror, Miu found herself smiling again. After so many years of hearing regular people screaming, including her and Yuki, now those who had caused so much pain were finally screaming too. For the briefest of moments, Miu’s mind felt… still…

“Can you feel it? CAN YOU FEEL THE FIRE GROWING?!!!” she screamed as she looked at the agony before her.

Her arms extended, and portals appeared on the soil beneath them. Every soul and structure began to be pulled below by the hungry, ruthless openings that led to The Aether’s forevermore. Desperate hands burned and clawed and fought for safety as voices screamed in terror, but Miu didn’t stop. The fires and portals grew, until every soldier in her range was dragged into fiery oblivion. All the while, Miu laughed. Miu laughed as the tears and blood ran down her face.

“Miu! Stop this!!” a voice cried out above, but she didn’t hear it over her laughter and the surrounding screams.

It was shewas cruel. shewas Unstable. shewas Malicious. shewas Calming. Shewas Frighten[ing][ed]...

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. She wasn’t supposed to be like this. She didn’t want this. Now it was. But now she was. But now she did.

Smoke coating your screams

Choking on all my sorrow

Laughing as you burn

More distant machines fired at her, but once more they were consumed and returned. Nothing could hurt her anymore. She was finally safe. And none of them were. Miu’s eyes closed as sorrow, wrath, and release consumed her. All she could do was stand in the center of the horror and raise her hands in reverent surrender.

“MIU!!!” I’ah roared in her voice.

Symphonic white tore through space and time and everything stopped. In a single instant, the fires were wiped away. The earth was sealed but the lost were still gone. A barrier of incandescent restraint sealed itself around Miu, saving the world from her rage. Everything went silent, save for the screams of the remaining wounded and mutilated.

“What is this?! Let me go! Don’t stop me!!” Miu screamed as she fought to move.

I’ah landed beside her and looked out at the ruins of the battlefield. Even though it didn’t speak or show emotion, Miu felt something akin to dread radiating from its glowing body as it observed her destruction.

“What have you done, Miu?” I’ah whispered.

Dozens of soldiers ran forward from the safe perimeter with guns raised. Targeting lines settled on Miu’s frozen cage. The remaining artillery angled towards her. In seconds, hundreds of barrels were pointed at the lone girl who was now immobile. Then a voice shouted from the back.

“Wait! Stop!!” he commanded.

Many lowered their weapons. Miu looked ahead to see a young man rushing forward. A strange, unpleasant feeling drifted from her stomach and into her throat as she watched him approach in haste. Something about him was familiar. Even from a distance, she could feel it. Then he got close enough for her to see the metal bracing of Arcan tech that was holding his lower jaw. Glowing lines of Manu-Crystal implants ran from the bracing and up his lower lip, into his mouth.

He got near enough to clearly see her, and he stopped in shock.

“Oh god. Oh god, no… Miu?...” he asked.

That voice was familiar. Miu snarled in rage and shook at her restraints. The young man stepped forward.

“Miu… It’s me… It’s Taki…” he said as his hand raised and powered down his jaw device.

That name. Miu’s eyes widened in shock and confusion. She knew that name. She knew that boy. That boy from so long ago. He was once so cruel. But there at the end, he was kind for a single moment. Now he was before her. Snarls turned to gasps of overwhelmed thoughts. The Manu-Crystals’ glows faded, and his eyes softened in terrified concern.

“Mi…u… whud habbened t-to you?” he softly stuttered with his damaged tongue.

Before Miu could respond, a set of portals opened beside them, and several commanding officers and government officials stepped out into the ruins. Every soldier stood at attention. I’ah lowered slightly and seemed to bow. Miu looked at all of it in disgust and frustration.

One of the commanders approached Miu while taking measure of the calamity. His dark brown eyes settled on Miu before looking up to I’ah. A scowl pulled his weathered lips downward as he exhaled.

“This wasn’t part of the arrangement, Arcan…” he sighed.

“No, it wasn’t,” I’ah somberly replied.

Their words and seeming familiarity with one another only enraged and confused Miu more.

“Arrangement?...” Miu growled as she tried to look to her Arcan mentor.

But no one responded. Everyone turned to her, and once more, one of I’ah’s glowing tendrils whipped forward and met Miu’s eye. Everything went black.