The faint cracking sound of the crumbling realm of consciousness echoed within his soul, radiating pain that chilled to the bone. However, none of these mattered to Forus. He felt no pain nor joy, only emptiness awaited in his emotions.
Feeling the warmth emitted from her body, Forus wished to stay there forever. He felt like his eyes had grown back and he was staring at his alternate life, living peacefully with her. However, deep down inside his soon-to-stop heart, he knew that it was impossible. He didn't deserve her.
Upon seeing his face, Ocelia instinctively stopped her meaningless attempt at crawling towards him. The distance between them seemingly shrank from the boundless ocean to a small hand-reaching gap. Nonetheless, no matter how hard she tried, her hand nor her voice could reach out to him.
In a blink of an eye, the two which were worlds apart broke the barrier with their pure emotion and arrived within the embracing distance.
With his sheer will power, Forus raised his skeleton hand, which was devoid of flesh, and extended it towards Ocelia. The arm moved slowly and took, for what it felt like, an eternity for it to reached and touched her hair.
The soundless thunderous sound echoed inside Ocelia. As if that hand was the hand of the almighty God, it had shattered the invisible barrier that separated Ocelia from Forus, closing the small yet impassable distance and arrived at her heart, occupying a spot that would stay inside her permanently.
The crude feeling of the skeleton hand was disgusting and uncomfortable as if she had rubbed her head on the solid rock. However, for Ocelia, it felt like all-encompassing heaven had descended onto her, letting her into its magical wonderland where all hope and dream prevailed. Like the power of the omnipotent, time slowed down and waited for her to savour the moment of fantasy.
When the hand retracted itself back, the heaven crumbled into dust, turning into a depressing void with no emotions resided in, only the endless darkness and despair with no end in sight. Likewise, time seemed to fasten and leave Ocelia without any chance to grasp the last opportunity. Her body felt weak as the sense of isolation covered her heart. The disappearance of said hand had brought with it a part of her heart which can never grow back.
Faster and faster, the rate of conversion from flesh into spiritual accelerated alongside her command. Using her unyielding will and pure love, she wished to sacrifice her mortal body and potential for her loved one.
"Ocelia, you can stop now. It doesn't matter anymore. You have done your best." A dull voice transmitted into her ears, numbing her body and melting her heart. At that moment, she felt a warming sensation rushing through her blood vessels, loosening her body and telling her to lay down and sleep away the worry.
"I am grateful for your help. It means a world to me. You would always support me through my dark time. Even now, you still continue to do so.
"For an unknown person like me, why are you willing to forgive me for what I have done? Why did you trust a man who cheated everything from you? Why?!
"You don't know me, yet you say you love me. You don't even know anything about my past! Did you know that I already have a wife? Did you know that I have a daughter? Her name is Metia. Did you know any of this?
"I am disgusting and selfish. I played with your feeling. I kept everything to myself. How come can you still... forgive me?" Abruptly, Forus froze on spot. A pair of delicate arms warped around his existence, filling his raging mind with a breeze of affection. Quietly, he fell onto the embrace of a maiden, sobbing soundlessly on her lap.
In his blindness, he could not see the expression of his lover. She tried her best to speak. Because of her destroyed vocal cord, she could only produce a breath. From the movement of her lips, one could guess what she was saying.
"Please... No more." Tears upon tears rained down from her face. Like the blessing of heaven, every drop of tear would wash away the corruption on the ground and gave life to the dull world.
Her spiritual-like hand ran through his body. When it touched his body, the warmth from it would go from one vein to another, filling Forus with happiness and ridding him of the injustice in his mind. Gradually, his dull sobbing sound turned more life-like and louder, carrying a hint of sadness and tiredness.
At that moment, their role reversed, as Forus turned powerless, Ocelia became the pillar of support. What had run through Ocelia's mind when Forus patted her, once again ran through Forus when Ocelia patted him. The pure emotion of love, empowered by the forgiveness of Ocelia, flooded Forus' entire being, ridding him of the flower of the struggle between past and present.
However, before the two could immerse their mind inside their paradise, a cracking sound echoed inside Forus as he coughed out violently, forcefully shifted his head from Ocelia and vomited out blood. The pitch-black blood carried a hint of the freshness of life in it.
Seeing the scene, Ocelia's face turned gloomy as grief in her heart intensified. She knew that Forus' realm of consciousness was about to scatter. He was holding his final breath with his will alone.
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Sensing his current condition, Forus smiled tirelessly as he slowly kneeled before Ocelia. The wind would occasionally blow, making his silver hair danced along with it. The pinkish mist had made the atmosphere lovely and full of happiness.
With his hollow eyesockets locking onto her face, Forus slowly yet steadily extended his hands outwards. With one thought from his mind, rays of light gathered itself before dissipating, revealing the content hidden from the within.
"With our heart and soul as the witness, Ocelia Coruscare, will you marry me?" The Ring of Recollection which was his most prized treasure was on his hand, showing it in front of the love of his current life.
However, he had no idea that his beloved already had her vocal cord destroyed, which meant that he was destinated to never receive his relay.
With a river of tears, which were both in grief and joy, ran down from her eyes. Ocelia tried her hardest to produce a sound, breaking her lungs and coughing out blood. Nonetheless, no matter how hard she tried, she could never do so. Until her tears turned reddish and became blood.
"Don't worry... You did the right thing." With a smile still presented on his face, Forus slowly retracted his hands. However, unnoticed by him, in his empty eye sockets, the transparent liquid of grief overflowed from the within.
"Yes... I will... forever..." As the nature of fate, it was unpredictable. In a hopeless situation, Ocelia, through her sheer love, produced a miracle and spoke without her vocal cord.
With one sentence, not only the Fleeting Emotions Ruin but the entire reality stopped its activity and silently listened to their oath. Every existence became the witnesses of their undying love.
Through their oath, no matter how their appearance and name changed, they would always be together. This was their Myriad Life Oath of Love.
Slowly, Ocelia extended her hand towards him, waiting for him to follow suit. With his pale skeleton hand, Forus gently held the ring and inserted onto her finger. The insignificant moment had captivated the attention of every being in the surrounding, playing with their mind and inviting their focus.
The two embraced each other. The delicate maiden and the rotting skeleton, without any care for their appearance, soaked themselves in the fragrance of love. This time, tears that dropped from their face were full of life, not a hint of previous grief remained in the root of their soul.
...
Inside a floating fortress, a group of upper-echelons of a sect was residing in seclusion, preparing their sorcery energy for the upcoming battle.
Intor Ander, who was meditating, suddenly snapped open his eyes. Using his attainment in sorcery cultivation, he swept the floating fortress, which was the size of a castle, with his sorcery spell. Only when he was sure that there was no abnormality did he retracted his sorcery energy.
Without any warning, a mysterious feeling seeped into his mind, filling him with an unexplainable sense of happiness and nostalgic. It took him to the trip down his memory when he was rushing towards his hometown. That day, he disregarded his teacher's command and snuck out from the sect to attain his brother's knot-tying event.
Although he didn't make it and instead got punished by his teacher, he still felt happy that his brother had led a good life. In the end, he wrote a letter expressing his apology for not attending the event.
Recalling such event, Intor mindlessly gazed at the direction of the Flamedouse City. After the rush of nostalgic, rage and regret slowly replaced it. However, Intor shook his head and discarded the useless emotions before closing his eyes again. If he let them clouded his judgement, he might not be able to avenge his late brother.
Nevertheless, in the deepest part of his soul, a hint of sadness kept manifesting beneath the calm surface. Maybe it was trying to tell Intor of something important.
...
Only when an outbreak of violent coughing occurred, could Forus forced to break apart their intimate connection. Even if he had rid himself of the guilt and the muddy thoughts, he could never stop the inevitable collapse of his mind. No matter how hopeful one was, they could never do the impossible. Even if one gained enlightenment, the consequence of their previous actions would never disappear.
Laying Ocelia onto his lap, Forus move his empty eye sockets towards the direction of the dark portal where the black mess of tentacles lied. While his hands were caressing Ocelia's face, his thoughts were at somewhere else.
Although he could not see, he could feel the heat from her body and the tenderness from her smooth skin. Every time she breathed, a small puff of warmness would touch his face, gently giving him a kiss. Each little movement would send a sensation of fondness through touch, giving Forus a peace of mind.
However, some parts of her body didn't have said characteristics. Instead, they were rock-hard and crude like a scripture. With Elements replaced the blood, they would lack the bodily heat and become stiff. The conversion from flesh to spirit had transformed about a quarter of Ocelia.
If she returned to the sorcery world with this appearance, there was no doubt that others would use her conversion as an excuse to overthrow her authority within the Coruscare Family and banish her from the family. They might even say that the power of evil had corrupted her and processed to do a public execution.
She landed in this unfavourable situation because of him. Naturally, Forus would try to do something about it. Because of his past experience with the ungodly presence, coupled with the appearance of the abyss, he was able to determine the nature and rules of the entity and could use this knowledge to its full potential.
After a long, stretchy moment of silent contemplation, Forus sighed all his worry out and lower his head towards Ocelia. Without any warning, he used his hand to sweep the hair on her forehead and implanted a kiss onto it. By doing so, he caught Ocelia off-guarded and made her face redder than usual. She felt a sense of embarrassment when her love treated her like a child.
Forus slowly helped Ocelia up from his laps and stood up face to face with the origin of the corruption. In her confusion and embarrassment, Ocelia mindlessly let Forus move her up without resisting. She continued to stare into his watery lip without any break while touching hers. Slowly, she began to lose herself in her unknown fantasy.
As if it was sneering at Forus and his current pitiful appearance, the tentacles violently twisted and sent out distorted screams. Following an outbreak of the screeches, demons that previously stayed quiet began to cry in pain. All at once, the quiet world became lively again after the couple had completed their oath.