Legion of Light Gaiden: Prelude to Ruination

[Wings of Endymion]

The scenery swam in indistinct shapes before her eyes, even the crystal-clear stars in the night sky above failing to register as more than wavering pinpricks to her sight. Everything from the slabs of marble to the withered greenery was tinged by a muted crimson haze, and she could taste the coppery tang of her own blood inside her nose and mouth. A vacuum had formed in her ears, a piercing tinny echo that completely blocked off any new information from the outside world. She would have held her head in pain, were it not for the fact that it hurt too much to move in any case.

No wonder both Ingwe and Thomas were so adamant in being proficient in melee as well as magic, she thought to herself limply as the world passed her by. She realised that was another way in which they were alike… they were both so intent on carrying the heavy burdens they shouldered by themselves, Ingwe under the guise of consideration for others, Thomas under the proud banner of his selfishness. While she…

She was so powerless alone…

A single tear trickled from the corner of eyes too vacant to take in anything distinct. Dimly in the distance the shadows moved again, and her mind told her that there were new echoes in the air, the sound of a human voice calling to her from afar. Ar’zhanekkar no doubt, gloating and rubbing in his apparent victory, as was his want. She tried to smile at his small-minded childishness, but all that responded was a faint twitch in her cheeks. Like a rag doll tossed aside to the corner of a playroom she slumped against the ground, her beautiful eyes broken and lifeless, her slender body slack and unresponsive.

What would they do, I wonder…

The thought threaded through her mind as she visualised their respective faces. Ingwe, quiet yet determined… Thomas, proud and stubborn… the two people in the world who understood her the most, but who were so far away… so far away… To her benighted mind, her memories of them shone like distant starry beacons, symbols of what she so admired but could not reach. Like the rest of her world, they were dimming, slowly dimming…

She’d seen them face off against seemingly insurmountable odds before and survive. Ingwe had battled nearly single-handedly through a goblin horde and faced off against a daemon in his attempt to reach her the previous year in Nippon, not to mention his more recent exploits in the Battle of Nenaebreth when he had defied first Angelus and then Natosatael once more in quick succession. Thomas, on the other hand, had participated in many of Haidia’s pit fights to prove his worth to its daemonic citizens, and had faced mortal danger on countless occasions during their excursions to various locations of interest on the surface world.

The key factor, her tired mind realised with a start, was that neither of them had ever given up. Time and time again, their bodies had been broken, their spirits had been crushed, and their wills had been overwhelmed. And yet always they had found that little something within them to stand tall again. In their case, she supposed, it was their dreams and their hopes for the future that spurred them onwards even at the risk of their lives. She wondered if she had that little spark within her as well.

She wondered if wanting to be like them, even for a single moment, would be enough.

I guess… I’ll never really know until I try…

Until I try…

By sheer force of will alone, the deadly fog that clouded her mind began to lift. Amongst other things, she realised that she’d closed her eyes; when they opened again, they shone like stars with renewed purpose.