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'What's going on? Why is this happening?'
I moved to Tikvah's aid, my finger poised to heal her.
"Don't."
She grabbed my hand.
"Why am I not feeling betrayed?"
She asked, coughing out blood.
"My time with you guys meant the world to me. It made me feel truly alive for the first time in a while. You asked for me, but who knew I'd meet my end here, at the hands of my friend?"
She asked.
"Earlier you said, this may be our last encounter, I'd like us all to part ways with smiles on our faces. Well, I guess I'm leaving with a smile on my face."
Her face brightened, and she gave a warm, lovely smile.
'Betrayal birth anger, anger birth rage, and rage birth vengeance. But this... this is off the charts. This isn't what reality knows. Why, why isn't she...'
Then came a drop of tears.
"I don't want to die, Wú Jí-kun."
Her voice cracked as the tears came in full, raw and unrestrained. Harsh reality kicks in.
'I understand no one wants to die. But weren't you the one who told me not to heal you?'
I only watched in silence, the darkness crawling steadily across her body, claiming her inch by inch.
"Say something, Wú Jí-kun."
Her voice trembled, soaked in tears.
"What do you want me to say?"
I asked, my tone steady, almost indifferent. It wasn't anger, nor cruelty. It's just the simple truth that I had nothing to give her. She flinched at the emptiness of it, her tears spilling faster, as though my honesty hurt more than silence ever could.
"Why... Why do I have to die like this? Why does it have to be me?"
Her voice cracked, torn between rage and despair.
"It's called fate. Said concept doesn't ask. It takes."
I said, my tone was void of warmth.
"Mortals don't get to choose. They're chosen."
I didn't know why I said it or where the words came from, but the moment they left my lips, they felt wrong. I developed a conscience for a split second, but the philosophical mind i possess was too strong for the new awakening.
Tikvah's eyes widened in sudden terror.
With shaking hands she shoved me aside, the strength behind the push surprising despite how weak she looked. Her body collapsed moments later, yet she forced herself forward, dragging herself across the ground on trembling elbows and scraped knees.
Her sobs broke into ragged gasps as she crawled helplessly through the darkness.
"Mama… where are you?" she cried, her voice small and breaking. "Wuu… Zivah… Shiloh… Noam… Asherah… Orah…"
Each name came out fractured, swallowed by tears.
"Don't let me go. Mama, save me… I'll be the princess you wanted me to be." Her voice cracked completely, desperation spilling through every word. "Please… don't let me die."
The darkness had already devoured most of her.
Only fragments of her form remained, flickering like fragile embers against a tide that could not be stopped. Those last scraps trembled violently, struggling against the inevitable.
Just seconds remained.
"Don't… let me go…"
Her final plea slipped from her lips as a whisper. The darkness took it mid-breath, swallowing the last sound of her voice as it devoured what remained of her.
In the space where Tikvah had been only moments ago, there was nothing left.
I sat there, unable to move. I didn't know what humans were meant to do in a moment like this. Do they grieve, fell a sense of rage, perhaps something vocal like screaming.
I understood what they meant but my mind refused to settle on any of them. Perhaps, my mind couldn't accommodate such feelings.
Instead, my gaze lifted upwards, Essen had manifested without my permission. The construct hovered near me, its energy drawn tight like a shield, protecting something with stubborn resolve.
"The Egg… the future."
Vera had already taken it.
She stood before the cavern's centre with the draconic egg raised high above her head like a trophy ripped from a battlefield. Its radiance pulsed violently, flooding the cave with waves of white-gold light. The moment she lifted it, Dualith reacted.
The entire island trembled. The ground beneath my feet shuddered as if something ancient had stirred beneath it.
'The Egg. So that's what they meant.'
I let out a slow breath.
"Who would've thought I saved you for this?"
My voice sounded calm, though even I could hear the faint strain in it.
Vera turned, her lips curled into a small, crooked smile. But her eyes betrayed her. Tears slid down her cheeks without restraint.
'Wú Jí… help me.'
The words appeared directly in my mind, a telepathic message.
I froze, unable to access this situation.
'What the hell is this?'
The message hadn't come from her mouth. It had crossed the space between us like a thought forced into my skull. No one, literally no one was capable of invading my mind. Yet her messages did.
Before I could react,
"Yo, Antares."
The voice came from Vera, but it wasn't hers.
Something in the tone scraped against my instincts. The cadence was different. The weight behind it was wrong and most of all, it was familiar. I've heard this voice before.
My eyes narrowed as I asked.
"Who are you?"
The smile on Vera's lips remained, yet the presence behind those eyes felt entirely different.
"Who I am doesn't matter."
The voice replied casually.
"At least not now. Not today."
Essen reacted immediately. The construct flared to life, its energy surging as if recognising an intruder. It chirped sharply, its patterns distorting while it tried to push the foreign presence out of Vera's body.
"Oh… so you,"
The sentence never finished as a crushing force descended on Dualith.
The cavern roared as the pressure slammed down like the weight of a collapsing star, driving me to my knees as cracks split through the stone beneath us. The walls groaned, dust raining from the ceiling while the entire island trembled violently.
And whatever had taken hold of Vera only tightened its grip on the Egg.
Then the true impact came. A thunderous descent tore through the cavern, shaking the stone to its core. The weight of the presence alone felt enough to crush Velorith itself, as if the entire layer might buckle beneath it.
Dust and shattered fragments rained from above. Through the swirling gloom, a figure emerged.
Long black hair cascaded down his back like a waterfall of midnight, each strand glimmering faintly, as though fragments of distant stars had become tangled within it. His presence warped the air around him.
His eyes, if they could still be called eyes, burned with abyssal light like twin stars drifting in an endless void.
At that exact moment, Essen flared violently and severed the foreign connection within Vera completely. The pressure around her mind snapped apart like a broken chain.
I pushed myself to my feet, but the effort was pointless. The figure took a single stepp forward and the force of his presence alone slammed into me like a collapsing mountain, driving me straight back to the ground.
Time itself hadn't changed, yet the world felt unbearably slow, every movement dragging through the air as though reality had grown heavy under his arrival.
"I can't trust anyone anymore."
Vera said softly.
She was smiling when she said it, though a tear rolled quietly down her cheek.
"Take care of yourself, Antares."
Before I could react, she moved.
She used the moment of confusion inside the entity that had possessed her and acted with absolute decisiveness. The Egg left her hands and flew towards me, forcing me to catch it instinctively.
At that exact moment the air in front of me twisted and curved inward as a portal formed, space bending open like a rip in the world itself. Vera didn't hesitate.
She stepped forward and drove her foot into my chest, the force sending me straight through the portal while I was still holding the egg. The entire sequence unfolded in the blink of an eye, leaving no room to resist or even think.
As the portal swallowed me and the world began to distort around my falling body, her final message reached my mind through telepathy, the last thing she ever managed to send before the connection vanished.
'Antares. If you're listening to this then I'm probably dead.'
Through the collapsing edge of the portal, I saw her one last time.
Starlight surged around Vera, pouring over her like a rising tide as the system began to erase her existence piece by piece. It wasn't an explosion or some violent end, it was quieter than that, her form dissolving into drifting motes of light, as though the stars themselves had come to reclaim her.
Yet, even at that moment, she was smiling. Even as the light consumed her completely, even as her body faded into the same starlit dust, she kept that small smile on her face.
The attacker turned then, finally reacting to what she had done. His arm lifted and power gathered around him, the air bending under the weight of his magic as he prepared to strike.
But something went wrong. The magic around him shuddered, flickering wildly for a brief instant before stabilising again, as though something deep within his power had been disrupted. That single hesitation was enough to buy me time for the portal to close.
'Back when we first met, my situation gave the impression of bullying but that's actually a trap to lure you out.'
Vera's voice echoed in the corridor, and a disintegrating figure of Vera in her true form appeared before me. No distinction from the Vera we know but her presence wasn't normal, it was darker.
'I am a Dark Star, a Nebula Tier, Veraris.'
She introduced herself calmly, as though she were simply stating her name.
'I was sent to Kalidor to steal the Egg. With or without your intervention, it was never an impossible task. But your path made everything easier. I attached myself to you like a parasite and let you carry me through every obstacle while I watched from the shadows.'
Her voice remained steady, almost gentle, yet every word struck harder than the last.
'Despite everything we've been through, I never abandoned my original goal. I kept the Vera mask in place the entire time, for you, for Tikvah, just as you keep your own masks. I suppose it's simply in our blood, isn't it?'
She looked at me with a small, quiet smile. I couldn't answer her.
My thoughts refused to settle. Everything that had happened in the last few moments was still colliding inside my head. Now this confession tearing apart the person I thought I knew. I stood there staring at her, struggling to piece together the truth while the weight of it all pressed down on me.
'But that night in Parvak… it changed everything. Trust is rare. Once broken, it's near impossible to repair, for anyone involved.'
I blinked, the first time since the chaos began, trying to focus on her words.
"You talking about trusting me… it stirred something inside me. You didn't just save me, you dared to trust me even when I was an apathetic, hollow being. That night, I lay awake thinking… thinking about what would happen if I chose to forfeit my mission or complete it. Either path would leave one side of the coin shattered beyond repair. It was only a matter of which I chose.
Our journey continued, and for the first time, I felt something real. Something I'd never known as a Star, or even as a Dark Star. To feel, to grow, t kprotect, to belong, and so much more. I began to consider ways to escape without harming my friends, but yes… I manipulated you again. An indirect question. The location of Dualith.
I knew Dragons were forbidden from setting foot in Dualith, yet you intervened and handled things exactly as expected. That was my last move. And I want you to know, I didn't kill Tikvah, Spectre did. They were monitoring me, and when the moment came, they finished what I could not.
I've committed unforgivable acts after falling from Grace. I thought I'd gain free will, experience freedom for the first time… but it turned into a living hell. I regretted every decision, every single day, with every fibre of my being. Yet… perhaps you're right. Fate isn't something you escape. It's something you endure. Something you live with.
I hope you can forgive me, Antares. In honour of the TIKVEEWOO CREW, I leave you with a smile, one last gift. I'm sorry, Antares. I'm sorry, Tikvah.'
Her presence dissolved, fading completely into oblivion. That smile was etched into my mind. It remained there, impossible to erase.
I began processing my journey in Kalidor again, seeing Vera, no, Veraris, standing beside us in every memory, every scene.
'Why? What was she thinking? What was Tikvah thinking? Why did it all turn out this way?'
I asked myself, but there was no answer a Star like me could comprehend.
I had deceived myself, believing I could navigate human emotions with logic alone. Reality struck hard, cold, and merciless. Everything I thought I understood about trust, loyalty, and the heart… it wasn't enough.
Wú Jí's mind, the very construct that had made even the beings of the first simulation tremble with envy, faltered. A mind that orchestrated existential crises with surgical precision, a mind that calculated every ripple of reality to preserve itself, now confronted something it had never known: betrayal.
A raw, gnawing sensation, one that WE had never truly felt before, coursing through the void of thought like a storm.
Impossible to think, impossible to understand, impossible to calculate, impossible to answer. My mind went hollow, an echoing emptiness, as the portal spat me into the Black Desert.
The air was sharp, a million tiny daggers scraping against my skin, yet I barely registered it. Before a single breath could fill my lungs, the presence hit me, the attacker tearing across the Realms as if the very fabric of existence bent to his will.
I gripped the Egg tighter, feeling its pulse against my chest, a fragile defiance against the inevitability approaching me. The sand beneath my feet trembled, then buckled, as he landed. The same pressure as before, heavier still, pressing down like the weight of collapsing worlds.
"Hand over the Egg."
The words were more than sound; it was raw authority strong enough to shake the around me.
"N..."
Someone moved faster than I could respond.
'I won't let you.'
He attacked, but Entares already saw through it and deployed the True Void Singularity.
The dragon flinched mid-attack, Star Dust not responding to my presence. His powers can't register that the Singularity exists, making his reality-altering skill irresponsible because there's no framework to warp.
Then came the self warp, the Star Dust erasing him instead.
"Your power needs something… but I've got | | to offer. So it'll take you out instead."
Enta's words came through a false mouth, a sly smirk curling his lips, each syllable dripping with calculation. He knew exactly what to use again a power that could manipulate the Energy Fragments.
"Someone who knows about Star Magic, yet it's…"
"True Void Singularity."
The moment he spoke, my frame sank into | |, a place beyond comprehension, a realm where even Concepts and Meta were meaningless. Irrelevance itself barely described itself.
I tumbled through | |, my consciousness fracturing and fading like smoke in a storm.
At the edge of oblivion. Karma intervened.
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To be continued...