CHAPTER 22: IT’S OKAY! P4

~22.4~

*****

Of everyone there, Kye was the most surprised to see... herself standing there holding Eve’s wrist. W-what?

“It’s okay. Let me take care of this one.”

“You can hear my thoughts, too?”

“Yes.”

“How is this even possible?”

“Soon.”

Elysia smiled at Kye, then scowled at Eve. “Enough of this.”

“You know, I don’t actually need to make hand motions or use magic circles to cast spells.”

“Yes, but you are vain and won’t do so without those steps.”

Eve glared at Elysia. “Cease this. I will do as I please.”

Elysia smiled. “You don’t want this.” She opened her arms and pulled Eve into a warm hug. “I know it pains you, but you must not use your power like this.”

“But, I...” Eve started crying into Elysia’s chest. “I can’t stand to watch them go through this over and over again! Is this not enough?”

“I don’t like it either, but it can’t be avoided.”

Eve was upset, too much so to carry a proper conversation, so she sat down and stayed quiet.

“She sincerely cares about all of you.”

“Her? Sincere?” Michelle said. “I don’t be-”

Elysia shook her head in rebuttal. “She loves all of you more than you can imagine. That’s why it hurts her so much watching you live and die. None of you were ever meant to go through that. It was supposed to just be me.” She eyed Kye. “Nobody else. Not Maya, not Adele, not Adara, not Luma... nobody.” She paused, walked up to her other self, and hugged her. “I’m so sorry. I can’t let you have our memories yet.” Kye was the same height as Elysia now. Just a few years ago, when she was eighteen, Elysia would have stood a few inches higher.

“I don’t understand how this is possible. How are... we...?”

“You can say ‘we’ if you want, but we are not separate. We are the same person, the same soul. I’m only a projection of our immortal soul... of our sealed memories.”

Kye was confused, but more than that... she was frustrated. And it showed. “Why did I seal my memories? You are me, right? Tell me!”

“There are things you cannot know yet. Please trust yourself. Trust that there is a reason and that it must be this way.” Elysia released Kye and stepped back. “All of you, please take care of us and don’t give Eve a hard time!”

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She smiled and stepped back. “And by the way, you need to know this: even you can pray.”

“I can pray? But... who would I pray to?”

“Trust that the prayer will be heard. You need only believe.”

Suddenly, the sound of a chair falling against a stone floor reverberated around them. Eve stood up abruptly and knocked over her chair. “I can’t.”

“Calm down!” Elysia said as she ran over to Eve. “We can still-”

“She’s already dead!” Eve’s outburst shocked even Elysia.

““Who?”” Kye and Elysia asked at the same time.

“Your sister went to visit Zalen.”

Kye didn’t recognize the name, but Elysia’s pupil’s retracted. “No...” She looked at Kye. “She mentioned something in the void when we rescued Rei. That she hoped she was wrong.”

“She who?” Kye wanted a firm answer. Alfia dying was about the most far-fetched thing she’d ever heard. “Surely you didn’t mean to imply-”

“Alfia is dead,” Eve said bluntly.

The rest of the gathered company didn’t know what to think. Alfia had only ever been the older sister of Elysia with comparable power.

“How?” Alethea asked.

Eve grimaced, but explained. “My father, my husband, and my oldest son.”

Most of the present company didn’t know the former two existed.

“Zalen, Zaldin, and Zane,” said Elysia. She clenched her fist. She looked at Kye, then at Eve. “What exactly happened?”

Eve snapped her finger, and a door appeared behind her throne, near the edge of the platform. It opened, and in came Alfia, but something was different.

“Fia!” Kye ran over to her and tried to hug her, but passed through. “What?”

“I don’t have a body, Eli,” Alfia said. She eyed the projection of Elysia. “The seal?”

“It’s fine. No risk right now.”

Alfia sighed. “I worry, knowing you. But if you say it’s fine, it’s fine.”

Alethea had quietly stepped over. “Fia. What happened to your body? Why are you in soul form?”

Alfia began explaining.

*****

When she finished with her visit to Zalen, Alfia turned to leave, but a pair of men appeared in front of her. One was clean shaven with short black hair, and the other was taller, had a slight beard, and also short black hair.

Alfia’s eyes narrowed, and her hand immediately clasped the hilt of her weapon. “Father. Brother.”

“Have you forgotten your manners, Elysia?” asked the taller man.

“I have forgotten neither my manners nor your intention to destroy everything I’ve created. You can’t expect me to react any other way to your presence.”

The man scoffed. “Just as well.” He glanced behind Alfia, at Zalen. “Old man, you good on our deal?”

Alfia didn’t wait for an answer. She immediately jumped away and tried to teleport, but her magic was blocked.

“You won’t be teleporting out of my domain, child.” Zalen tossed a pair of longswords to the younger men and brandished his own. “You die here.”

Alfia drew her weapon and shouted, “<>!”

“Zaldin, Zane, brace yourselves,” said the older man. “Even with her soul split in half, this won’t be a simple task. She very well could kill us all.”

“No,” said the taller man, Zaldin. “My daughter has a different goal. She means to adhere to Alexandria. She can’t kill any of us and win. She has to either escape or defeat us alive. She can die and be revived as many times as she wants. We don’t have that luxury, since Xera stripped our immortality when she usurped the role of The Primordial.” He glanced at his son. “Except you, at least. You can revive, so she might kill you.”

Zane shook his head. “No. The Almighty stripped my immortality.”

“I see.” Zaldin showed no reaction, having expected that might happen. “Then she can’t kill you. Good news.”

Zane scoffed at him. “It’s hardly good news. Whether she can fight us with killing intent hardly matters.”

As Alfia released her power, an immense burst of rainbow mana flooded outward.

“Stop gawking,” Zalen said as he unleashed his own power. “We have the power advan-”

“And I have the skill advantage,” Alfia said, her rainbow coated blade already at Zalen’s throat. “You said I could not contend with you. You are wrong. Your true advantage is that I am not permitted to kill you. If I were, the three of you would already be dead.”

*****

Revision: 2024-8-7