SYSTEM ASCENSION

Beyond the boundaries of any known world, far beyond the countless realms where stars were born and died, there existed a street that stretched endlessly through the void.

Its surface was made of something resembling black glass yet reflecting no image, while above it, there was no ordinary sky. Enormous rays of color spreading across the darkness like rivers of light.

Crimson bleeding into violet, blue twisting through silver, golden streams cutting across emerald clouds, and distant flashes of colors that had no names because no living tongue had ever seen them to describe them.

Through that impossible street walked a lone figure, his footsteps quiet against the strange surface as his long white hair drifted gently behind him despite the complete absence of wind.

Two enormous white wings resting against his back, while a simple blindfold covered his eyes.

He held a silver flute, making him appear less like a warrior and more like someone who had wandered into a place where he had no business being.

”...”

He continued walking barefooted without hesitation, his head slightly lowered, listening to something that could not be heard by ordinary ears.

A moment later, his footsteps suddenly stopped.

The flute remained perfectly still in his hand as a faint smile appeared beneath the blindfold, because he had already noticed the presence behind him long before the attacker decided to reveal himself.

”Finally,” the angel murmured. ”Is it my turn to die?”

A violent pressure suddenly erupted behind him, tearing through the space where he had been standing only a moment earlier. The angel twisted his body aside with unnatural speed, the attack passing close enough to scatter several strands of his white hair.

”Oh? They sent a general.”

His wings snapped open and propelled him backward, his fingers immediately raising the flute as the attacker appeared through the distortion. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Without wasting another second, the angel moved forward, striking with the instrument instead of playing it, the silver body of the flute crashing against the attacker’s arm before he spun and drove its end toward the attacker’s chest.

The attacker staggered back and stopped.

”Liumin. You have gotten weak.”

”Well, I have been roaming this realm for billions of centuries, unable to get to my master,” Liumin smiled. ”I’m not protecting, when am I here, am I?”

The attacker changed stance. ”Then I’ll send you to your master!”

The angel barely had time to blink before the attacker appeared behind him. A fist crashing into his side with enough force to launch him across the cosmic street, his feet leaving the ground as his body slammed against the black surface and skidded several meters back.

His wings scraped violently behind him and scattered white feathers across the glowing pavement.

”Urgh...haha.” He laughed.

Before he could fully recover, the attacker was already there, driving another strike toward his face.

He narrowly avoided by twisting his head aside. The blow grazed his cheek and split the skin as a thin line of blood ran beneath the edge of his blindfold.

Liumin clicked his tongue, pushed himself upright, and immediately swung the flute like a short blade. He struck the attacker across the jaw with a sharp crack before spinning and driving the instrument into the attacker’s rib.

The impact forced the attacker backward, but only for a moment, because the figure caught the flute on the next swing and violently yanked the angel forward, smashing a knee into his stomach and forcing the air from his lungs.

”Ghk—!”

His body folded from the impact, and the attacker seized him by the front of his clothes and hurled him upward, sending him tumbling beneath the strange multicolored sky,

”Woah! Haha.” Liumin spread his wings and stopped himself in midair, immediately diving back down with the flute raised above his head.

The attacker intercepted him, and the weapon was knocked aside. A powerful strike drove into his chest, sending him crashing onto his back hard enough to crack the black surface beneath him.

He tried to rise.

His arm buckled.

”Aah...”

The attacker yanked one of his wings and dragged him across the ground before throwing him aside.

Liumin rolled onto his stomach, coughing as he reached blindly toward the flute, his fingers closing around it just as the attacker stepped over him. He turned suddenly and swung it.

The flute cut the man’s face.

The angel smiled faintly beneath his blindfold. He opened his mouth.

”Do not bind ash to memory, nor silence to a beating heart. What has crossed beyond the final door must not be summoned by longing,”

The attacker drove a punch forward, but he was gone in a second.

”I stand not to awaken the dead, but to unbind the chains that tether them to the cries of the living,”

He was walking away, staggering and reciting.

”Bone to dust.

Dust to earth.

Earth to silence.

Silence to nothing.”

The person attacked again.

”The place where names dissolve, where sorrow cannot follow, and where time has no dominion. The void. Nothing.”

Another round of fighting broke out. Although Liumin managed to land several clean strikes, the difference between them gradually became impossible to ignore, his breathing growing heavier as one of his wings was struck and forced downward.

Despite that, he finished the recite.

”May every borrowed breath be returned.

May every lingering echo be stilled.

May every restless soul find the peace

that no hand may disturb. For death is not an enemy to conquer. It is the final mercy.

Without fear, nor burden, nor regret, be no whisper upon this world. Become the emptiness after the last star fades. Become nothing.”

An attack sent him rolling several times before stopping on one knee, his flute still clenched tightly in his hand.

He chuckled softly.

”Do you know what the recite is about?”

The attacker raised a brow. ”Should I care? My mission is to defeat you.”

”Everything has a chance in the circle of reincarnation.” Liumin spread his wings with a smile. For a brief moment he tried to rise, but his leg trembled, his wings dragging weakly behind him. He realized that the fight was already over.

”This recite was something one of us created. He uses it to cut off a reincarnation circle. Cruel right?”

The man frowned. ”You just cut off your reincarnation circle?”

The angel grinned and spread his hands. ”Yes! Everything that is not reborn returns to the source. The source will only get stronger.”

The attacker approached slowly, looked down at him, as he continued to smile.

”You think you weakened us by hunting us. In the end, this is a favour! Everything for the lord of the void.”

The attacker stretched his hand and summoned a sword. Then, he delivered one final devastating blow that sent the angel sprawling across the cosmic street.

Feathers scattered around and blood pooled beneath him. His white hair scattered around his face and his blindfold still covering his eyes, while the flute slipped from his fingers and rolled, coming to a quiet stop beside him.

”...”

No movement.

The attacker stared at him a moment longer, before the distorted the air and warped out of sight.

Liumin moved his finger afterwards, and grabbed the flute. He slowly brought it to his lip, and blew a single sound.

The space around them swallowed it, and he chuckled softly.

”Jun is gone. Piena too. Gazel. Rai. Guio. Favy. Liumin,” he mentioned himself among the deceased, and then smiled softly. ”That leaves Nel...Jacob and Richard.”

His eyes shut, as he breathed his last.

’I wonder how they are doing.’

___

Richard blindfolded eyes, stared out the window, at the moon. He didn’t say a single word.

Sienna had fallen asleep, head on his thigh.

The candle had burnt out.

”...”

He turned his head.

”Another one...”

MEANWHILE, FORTRESS—

Someone was startled awake. He jerked out of the bed and stood up. His heart was beating too fast.

He looked at his hand and clenched his fist. He could vividly feel himself holding a flute, and the last strike still hurt his chest.

Kael grabbed his hair and pulled.

”What the hell was that?”