A sense of nescience washed over Lunar’s face. It was apparent enough for me to consider him to be yet another vessel of his memories. Upon having this confirmed, older ‘me’ stepped forward and took a stance between us two, leaving younger ‘me’ behind.

“You were supposed to become a sacrifice to Michel. Having your body turned into a soulless vessel for his ‘God’ to inhabit. If Lunar did not do what he did, it would have been your destiny.”

Right as he said this, ‘Lunar’ reached his hand out to me, and upon receiving it, the surroundings blurred and turned into the scenery of my death. We witnessed the event repeating itself; Lunar piercing his sword into my chest.

At this point, I had sort of grown numb to the shock of, well, my death. However, seeing it unfold before me did make my heart sink. Thankfully, knowing I wasn’t alone, I was soon able to recuperate, and we continued to watch the progression of the events.

The environment morphed once more; The sky gradually faded into a dark blue palette, like a night sky but with no stars. A strong amount of mist encapsulated us, as I could hear some sort of whirlpool, or better said, a body of water swirling in the near distance.

As the mist slowly faded away, I could see Lunar holding my corpse in front of a large swirling sea.

Right away, I could already sense that this was a mystical world. Not the kind you would experience on a day-by-day basis. I then remembered seeing ‘myself’ inside of that dark castle. ‘Mother’ referred to that ‘form’ of myself as my physical body. I was still able to feel that creepy sensation of my physical body sliding over the surface as soon as I pulled it across that place.

Because of this, I assumed that Lunar was holding a different ‘form’ of mine. Perhaps… a spiritual body of mine.

But, this was now the second time I witnessed a different ‘form’ of my body being intervened with. First, it was in that castle, with ‘Mother’, who could never truly be a Human. And now, it was Lunar holding what seemed to be my spiritual body, inside of a mystical, non-living world.

I slowly turned to older ‘me’, and asked with a curious tone,

“You’re saying that he wanted to save me. Does that relate to the possibility of Lunar not being Human?”

“Not only him but Geneve and Declan aren’t Humans either. They serve to protect you, the Perished One, from certain death.”

“…Wh…”

They’re… not Human…?

“Your ‘death’ signified the beginning of their true characters. They were playing roles for as long as you’ve known them. However, the memories you made with them were genuine. They were real. They all truly care for you. But, you will never understand this if you won’t accept yourself.”

That alone was convincing enough. Why are they not Human? What is their true nature?

I’ve known the three of them for close to six years at this point. The three of them lived together in the Custody Agency, and both Vaelen and I never had the chance to learn of their actual history. Because of their ambiguous past, I always kind of… suspected them of something I could never explain.

But this… This was something I could have never expected.

“I want to know,” I muttered. “I want to know who they are…”

“…Very well,” older ‘me’ responded. His voice suddenly sounded crestfallen. “Then, let us go to the final memory fragment.”

As he said this, ‘Helvega’ appeared before us once more. Whilst she looked normal before, this time, a dark shadow fell over her eyes, her long white tresses falling over her face. I squinted, silently questioning why she behaved so differently. I turned to older ‘me’, and saw that he, too, looked as if a great tragedy had taken place.

“What?” I sounded, yet, before I was able to receive an answer, ‘Helvega’ planted her palm against my chest, and the world dissolved, and turned into…

…Mother’s bedroom?

It didn’t quite materialize into being yet. Most of the surroundings were still shrouded in darkness. It looked like droplets of white paint falling onto a black canvas, gradually revealing what was beneath the obscurity. The first thing I noticed was the edge of her wooden-framed bed.

I… didn’t quite understand why we found ourselves in her bedroom. Weren’t these Helvega’s memories? Then, did she… visit Mother recently?

The darkness slowly vanished, and the environment became more and more visible. A heavy silence hung in the air on both sides of existence. I could tell that… something wrong must have happened.

And…

…it soon revealed a hand laying on the floor.

I widened my eyes, and immediately propelled forward. This wasn’t Mother’s hand. It didn’t look like hers. But… it looked like my sister’s. I couldn’t properly see ‘everything’. The rest of her body was still covered in complete darkness. It looked as if I was aiming a flashlight at only her hand, leaving the rest buried in the darkness.

But I couldn’t do anything. I could… only wait before everything turned visible. My breathing became unbalanced, and my heart gradually started to beat faster and faster. I could feel a knot in my throat, preventing me from emitting any cohesive word or sentence. All I could do was stare at the visible part of sister’s body.

I did not have any recollection of any sort of occurrence that caused Helvega’s hand to lay on the floor in Mother’s bedroom. I knew these weren’t my memories, but I should have known, right? I should have known that something significant had taken place in such a vulnerable place, that something caused Helvega to lay on the floor, seemingly unconscious?

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I couldn’t think properly…

Everything that I experienced so far started to fall apart as though they were puzzle pieces, each its own unique fragment of my recent memories in this world. They all scattered down like rainfall. I did not know why, I did not know how, but I could not stop it. And before I knew it…

…everything was revealed.

She appeared motionless. Unaware. Lifeless.

She lay on the ground, her tresses falling over her fallen face.

It was silent. Everything was shrouded in a deep silence, punctured only by my unbalanced breathing.

“Wh…”

I slowly raised my head to meet older ‘me’’s eyes, but he had his head lowered, and his eyes were closed. As though knowing I was looking at him, silently avoiding the worst possible scenario, he took a deep sigh, and opened his eyes, aimlessly staring at what lay before him. With a bitter tone, he spoke.

“…They are both dead.”

I instantly snatched my head towards Mother’s bed.

She was indeed laying on that bed. Lifeless, just like Helvega.

Tears welled up in my eyes, as my heart shattered into millions of pieces. Each piece mercilessly puncturing every part of my body like shards of glass.

“No…”

This could not be real…

This was not real! No, it could never be real! Never! Why would she be dead?! This could never be true!

I reached for her and firmly grasped her shoulders. I gently shook her and repeatedly shouted “Mother” in between my cries.

It could not be… right? It’s… because these are memory fragments, that’s why she’s not responding, right?

I did not stop. I screamed so loud that my voice broke as my tears fell onto Mother’s face. Eventually, I fell onto the bed and buried my face in the sheets.

“Bring her back! Bring her baaack!!!”

I snatched my gaze towards older ‘me’, who, alongside younger ‘me’ and ‘Helvega’ watched me in silence. I spoke to them between sniffs and coughs.

“You can do it, right? You can bring them back, right?!”

And as soon as I turned my attention towards Helvega, lying on the floor…

…I fell onto the floor, and crawled towards her.

“Please, bring them back… bring them back! Please, do it! I will do anything, anything! Why… why did… arghhh!!!”

I mindlessly punched the wooden floor with everything I had. I did not even question how they died. Why they died. When they died. My mind was filled with a dark void of pure desolation and lament. The greatest torture was that… these were memories. I could shake their bodies as much as I wanted, I could scream as loud as I wanted, but none of it would matter. It was like… seeing them being buried… right in front of me.

God, it hurt… It hurt so… so bad…

I was so hurt. Why was I even here? Why did I travel through all these memories, just to find the corpses of my family?

My voice was already broken, but I continued emitting rusty, ugly sounds of mourn. These were sounds I never thought I was able to make. My voice became an amalgamation of… emptiness. I grasped my head, my fingers weaving through my disheveled hair, and started to breathe rapidly, as though I was suffering from an asthma attack.

I felt like I was going to die. My heart was racing, my body trembling, and my vision began to blur. I was on the verge of falling into a deep pit of nothingness, but suddenly…

…a hand grasped mine and pulled me away from it.

“Caelum.”

That voice…

…it must have been younger ‘me’.

I slowly raised my trembling head, and saw younger ‘me’, with a closed, bittersweet smile on his face, planting his hand on my shoulder.

“You can save Helvega…”

“W…what…” I muttered, as older ‘me’ stepped towards us.

“If you want to save her, you have to take his hand!” younger ‘me’ said childishly.

Save her…?

Before I could react, older ‘me’ knelt before me, and embraced me in his arms. Tears began to well up in my eyes once more, as I slowly muttered “Mother” in a hushed tone.

“Do you want to make her proud?” older ‘me’ said. I continued to cry, not responding to his words. This prompted him to continue.

“Even if you are at complete odds against life? Against the prophecy? Did you not want to prove people wrong, Caelum?”

“I… did…!”

A loud sound exploded around us. It was similar to a cosmic implosion, a large vortex sucking everything into itself. Following that, a strong gust of wind brushed against our figures, prompting me to turn my eyes open once more.

I saw the infinite grey path, surrounded by mist, once again. However, I could see something materializing in a near distance. It was a large, grey castle constructing itself at a tremendous speed. Within seconds, it was complete, and as the final piece to the puzzle, a massive iron gate appeared, seamlessly attaching itself to the castle.

“Then take it,” older ‘me’ said, still keeping me in his arms. “Take my torch, and enter the Castle of Desolation! Forge your own destiny!”

“…Mother…!” I said. He grasped my head and looked deep into my eyes.

“We will make her proud. Only we are supposed to do that! We were destined to become the greatest, to become kings, to become saviours!”

“…”

“Then take it! We will enter the Castle, and you will take responsibility!”

As he said this, he helped me get on my feet, and pointed towards the large castle.

“Helvega is waiting for you inside, Caelum! If you don’t want to accept your Mother, or acknowledge her as your Mother… then at least do it for Helvega! Do it for Vaelen! Search for him, save him from this world as well!”

His words… energized me.

“You wanted to become stronger than him, right? Then you must be able to do this as well! It can only be you, Caelum!”

“…Yes. It… could only be me…”

Younger ‘me’ stepped forward, and reached his hands to both of us.

“Come, take his hand, and let us enter the Castle together.”

It was strange.

So many questions hadn’t been answered yet.

My heart was still covered in sadness.

But… I did not want to give up.

I wanted to move on. I wanted to continue. To… forge my destiny.

Was Helvega truly waiting for me on the other side of that gate? I didn’t know. All I knew was that… she and Mother had died. I would do anything to bring them back, and leave this surreal place together…

But Mother was not there. He did not mention her. She… was dead.

In a state of pure denial, I pushed that fact away as much as I could, leaving enough space for ‘saving Helvega’ to fill in the void.

…No.

I have to save Helvega.

I don’t understand what is going on anymore. But no matter what, I will bring her with me. And we will leave this place together.

We will come back to life. That’s what is going to happen!

Younger ‘me’ took both of our hands. He walked in the middle, I walked on the right, and older ‘me’ on the left.

Together, we made our way towards that iron gate.