Chapter 340 – Broken
With True shadows — ones coming only from the very Origin of Shadows — flooding the entire empire because of the disappearance of the Sun and Moon, one could no longer tell how many tis passed.
It was as if the very concept of ti no longer existed with the two celestial bodies being no more.
All of them, be it folks or the lower nobles or any other beings capable of logical thinking... all of them felt like they had been in this state of darkness for untold numbers of years, with so of weaker mind starting to speak of a new "Age."
The Dark Age, they began to whisper with fear lacing every one of their sentences, as they clustered together, trying to seek warmth in a world devoid of it.
Yet Neila couldn’t care less about all that was happening in the Celestial Empire, or even in the world as a whole, as she was losing her own world. And that, right in front of her.
She looked at Solaris, and noticed how with each passing second, his heart — which Neila could clearly see through the broken flesh of his chest — was beating slower and slower.
Neila found herself fearing the next second, for Solaris’s heart might stop.
The usual warmth of his body, thanks to his Sun attribute, was leaving him, letting place to the cold grip of death.
Neila couldn’t stop her shudder, and she couldn’t stop even less her tears from falling down and patting the face of Solaris like a deluge.
The wound on her forehead that had stopped bleeding began to bleed once more, the blood saring her brows then face. Her blue eyes began to mirror Solaris’s state, losing their light in the sa way he was losing his life.
"P-Please... please my love don’t leave alone!" She leaned her head forward and put it on his blackened and charred flesh. She shuddered, "Please... you are all I have!"
She wept.
"You are the only one who saw as a human. The only one who loved despite my body being raped each night by your own father. You are the one who didn’t look at in disgust. You are the only one, Solaris! So please..." she sobbed, unable to control the weight of emotions settling on her chest and dragging her down, "Don’t make alone once more. I can’t live without—!"
"Y-You can." Solaris broke her speech, his voice rasped and hoarse. Each of his words worsened his state more than he thought. And with his uncontrollable intent of madness cloaking his mind, he was losing it.
He was truly losing his mind, and the only reason he was still able to reside was thanks to Neila, who was his anchor.
Yet he couldn’t let her be here, for the sky of the world was cracking alongside one of the ceilings, and would soon fall down on them.
She would die if she stayed there.
"I-I will die anyway," Neila whispered as she fully leaned her body on him, lying down beside him, her body naked once more with the curtain lted completely.
They were looking at each other, Solaris with his one golden eye, and Neila with her puffed and swollen blue eyes.
She reached her hand and slowly caressed his cheek where the flesh still remained, "I will die anyway, my love. I am a Wasted. I have no origin, no power, no family. I have nothing except you. And I don’t want to have anything except you. I won’t survive, my love. I don’t want to live this life without you. So..."
She leaned her face and kissed him on his bony lips, tears falling even harder, "...let die with you."
"Y-You will live." Solaris breathed, holding her hand tightly, his remaining golden eye shining with a brighter hue, "You will live, Neila, and you will not be powerless."
Neila’s eyes were lost before widening in absolute shock, her face losing all color as she felt sothing happening inside her body.
Above, the ceiling of the room was suddenly rooted away by the body of a dead colossal dark-blue wolf that slamd onto it.
The power released from its body was enough to drown the room in suffocating darkness.
Solaris realized ti was scarce and death might co at any mont. So, with Neila unable to believe what was happening, he spoke rapidly, feeling the grip of death pulling stronger and faster into the underworld.
His eyes were blurry, his breathing shallow and heavy, yet he spoke. He spoke his last words to the only one he cared about in this world,
"I cannot give you my Sun origin as it is tied to my bloodline," he breathed, golden tears falling down from his one eye, "But I can give you my Mind Origin, for that’s mine and only mine."
Neila began to shake vehently, "No no! Let die! Let die, Solaris!"
"YOU WON’T!" Solaris bellowed, before instantly coughing blood. Neila cried harder while telling him to stop straining his body,
"Please don’t shout!" she sobbed.
"Hear well, Neila Cerveau," Solaris said once more, making Neila listen to him, broken, "I will pass down to you my Mind Origin. You must live. You must live, my love."
Neila’s body began to be enveloped in a blinding blue light, her body starting to grow stronger as she felt sothing entering her very blood, all while Solaris was growing weaker.
"D-Don’t die..." Solaris wheezed, as the whole castle began to be frozen and burned at the sa ti.
Feeling the danger and seeing Neila still absorbing his origin, Solaris used his last remaining strength, mana, and intent to envelop Neila in a protective cocoon of armor, before suddenly throwing her away from the castle, hearing at last the agonizing shriek of Neila calling out his na.
At last, he lay there, alone, broken, burned, as he awaited his inevitable death. His mind was being consud by madness, yet there was solace in his death, for he knew the one he loved would no longer be powerless.
She would live.
She must live. She must!
As these thoughts lingered, fire and ice flooded the entire castle in a sea of horror, coming straight from an unknown realm.
He opened his mouth to scream only for his throat to first burn then freeze at the sa ti. His whole body soon followed.
Burned by the fire of his own mother and frozen by the ice of his uncle.
Solaris didn’t know if he should laugh or cry at the irony of his death.
At the end, Solaris died agonizingly, his last thought being one of a broken plea, a wish to anyone who could hear the prayer of a broken man like him,
Live, Neila Cerveau! Live!
He prayed, not for his empire, not for his family, not for Aurora... he prayed for his lover while he drew his last agonizing breath.
All while his lover’s scream of mourning could be heard all around the capital, deep and wrenching, as she inherited his power.
It was a mind-type origin, yet her mind was already broken and fractured.
Still, she accepted it, for it was the legacy of the only one she cared about and would ever care about in her life.
And thus was born Neila Cerveau...
...The Broken Mind.
—End of Chapter 340—
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