~ ⋆˙⟡ 𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝑺𝒊𝒙 𓆩⟡𓆪 𝑺𝒖𝒄𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 ⟡˙⋆~

“Orinthillis…?”

A floodgate of memories assaulted his mind. Glimpses and lingering attachments surged together into a dizzying vortex. In the most vivid recollection he blew past the boundless moonlight plains, overlooking the black cliffs and crystal waterfalls ahead. A flower of blue glass petals touched the nose of Entiel, and the scent made him feel weightless.

Meanwhile the reality in front of him was a land of gems, an endless abundance that formed the earth and mountains. His feet hovered a couple dozen centimeters from the ground, his clothes being danced by the sharp wind. Directly beneath them was a path formed from sritheil, a gem which shone brighter than moissanite.

Slowly they walked, a grain of sand on the endless winding road. The distant dark sky glimmered with stars. Each followed the trajectory of their own conviction, colliding with the sound of wind chimes. Sometimes one fell, descending in flames of radiance as it crashed upon a mountain peak, shattering in a thousand lights and assimilating with the other gems. It reminded them of rain.

He blinked while looking over her head as his arms rested over her shoulders. She probably noticed the slight kicking of his feet, but she pretended not to notice. Neither protested, quietly listening to the melody of a gentle movement. One of the distant mountains trembled, and a shimmering leviathan awoke from its slumber. Its main body was a dark blue and it swam through the air with 3 pairs of fairy-like fins, each a respective small, medium, and large. Along its spine were curved spikes resembling a smoother, softer amethyst. A black insignia could be seen on its abdomen, a birth design.

“This one’s harmless. The adults are a little bigger and they sleep underground. They have mana scripts on their back to attract falling stars, eventually becoming a mountain range.” She lifted him off and held him to the sky. “Did you know of this already?”

He shook his head, wondering if he should fly closer to the beast, but that felt wrong in the moment. The girl brushed her long void-like hair to fall in front of her shoulders and held his legs again like straps, wearing him like a backpack.

“Do flowers grow here?” He stared off absent minded, expecting an obvious answer, but it was difficult to find a topic.

She put a finger to her cheek, running through her recollections. “They do…. but they’re probably not the type you’re thinking of. I’ve seen dandelions twice here, but the petals were made of purple glass. Orinthillis doesn’t really know how to grow plants, so he mimics the memories of travelers with erscite.”

“Is that like a type of gem?”

“Sometimes it is. But it’s more like physical accumulation? Erscite can take up any form, but if the accumulation comes from someone’s fable, then the attributes turn it into ark.”

“So like magic!”

She waited a moment before answering, “For those who don’t have magic.”

The two continued for another hour, chattering away as he bombarded her with questions. They passed flying rabbit-like dolls, dragons flying with the aura of divine calamities, and at one point rode on the back of a jellyfish with translucent pinkish wool fur. The terrain changed into an unkempt meadow where the path morphed into shining pebbles. At a hidden milky lake, the waters reflecting the black-diamond sky she let down Entiel. Unrecorded in his memory of when, at some point he looked back down and her hair had grown a little darker and she moved with slightly longer strides. He hadn’t felt any changing sensation, but a long black coat had appeared on her back, the sleeves waving behind with a sense of confidence.

She sliced the tall grass with her reaper-like greatsword, over 2 meters in length. It felt expected, and instead of it having spawned from nowhere it could be described as having always been there. In a single arc blades of grass fell down to create a circular room isolated aside from the view of the lake.

He stared at the lavenders along the shoreline while she sat down.

“I didn’t think I’d see these here.”

She chuckled, hiding a little disappointment. “They were planted long ago. Inside the lake resides starlight butterflies. They sleep for most of their lives, and usually only come out to feed. But like this, the flowers cling onto their luminescence, growing without the sun.”

Suddenly the land trembled, and the earth beneath began to rise with a groan. The girl whom he’d forgotten stood, her knees half bent. She raised her hand and delicately placed it on his head. “In your samsara, guided by ghosts, don’t be afraid. You used to be so reckless, so unsatisfied. This world was so vast, yet we still never saw that scene you ran after. But, just from watching you for a moment in every era, I’ve thought that if something had a really small chance of happening…even if it was impossible now, there’s a big chance that you could make it happen. And that’s why I really don’t want you to give up on this.”

Turning her head to face the sky, her hands clasped tightly around her sword. Grey clouds had formed above, channeling a dark blue lightning. The chaotic stars of before began to fall desperately like arrows, escaping the heaven that’d been their battleground. A colossal flame engulfed the brilliant sky, and the shadow of a serpent broke through from the clouds. It descended with the violence of an ocean being poured from the hands of god. The figure of the cataclysm struck him with a paralysis that made his blood want to explode, and his vision flickered fighting the urge to be blind. Behemoth creatures forming the continent flew in hysteria and shrieked, and the dragons who ruled the skies plummeted to end their own lives. A soul-piercing roar bellowed through the air, causing a number of beasts to lose their sense of hearing. From a rift above their heads, a purple light shone upon the world as if fighting the darkness.

Within the rift a great hall of crimson expanded, shaking the sky. Thousands of white wings forming the shape of a face, with abnormal eyes containing every color simultaneously, absent of a mouth or other features. The being began to emerge from the hall, bringing about an air of annihilation.

He shut his eyes, the two existences strangling him.

“Don’t look away. We’ve been here before. Only this time…” she said while staring forward, looking for something further than the horizon.

“The white one came as an envoy, it won’t fight a shadow of the serpent’s spawn for us. You learned to fly by now, right? If you haven’t, try recalling anyone else you remember. I’ll protect you, so you have to get your memories back.”

Fly? He did know, at least he thought, but how could he? In the torrential storm of beasts he’d surely be crushed. Worse if he wasn’t, he couldn’t imagine communicating with something so inconceivably grotesque. The pressure upon his shoulders felt like being buried underwater, his feet held down by layers of chains.

In the depths of his mind, he tried to recall the wraith he’d sensed as they were traveling. The two had walked together, but lagging behind was a third. Something more than distance had kept them afar, but neither of them minded. Their footsteps beat at the same rhythm, yet even for her small strides it didn’t catch up.

In the blur there had been a particularly familiar image. Resting in a great crater was a giant who had copper token-shaped chains for hair and seven dark green eyes. Dead comets filled the background, and eight towering columns surrounded the crater forming an altar-like nest. Next to the giant was an even larger heap of metal in the shape of a crescent: two white arcs connected in the middle by a handle, suggesting a bow. Subconsciously he knew the wraith and the giant were of the identity. He even knew he was born in the clan of G’jorr, and that he loved to play Arvengarde against toddlers to inflate his ego. But it was like he’d only ever watched this man from afar, just his name was hard to deduce. Ar…arn something maybe…

Noticing his paralysis, she realized this regression hadn’t progressed as she assumed. In reality he’d only been awake for little over a year, despite having the appearance of a pre-teen after <> had eaten his lifespan. She swung her greatsword with a twirl of her footing, lodging it into the dirt beneath his feet. Without warning, a solid purple possessed the blade and she flung him into the air like an explosion. Entiel soared at the face, merging into its flesh upon contact. It retreated backwards into the hall with him inside, leaving behind lines of unorganized fangs and teeth stuck in the sky. Within, its soul felt uncomfortably similar to his own.