A strange warmth filled my heart.
A nearly forgotten feeling, soft, comforting...
How long had it been since I'd felt anything but pain and madness?
I shivered.
Then, slowly, my heavy eyelids lifted.
Above , a silhouette.
A woman.
She seed unreal, like a mirage in this hell of blood and chaos.
Her blond hair cascaded around her face in gentle golden waves, catching the dim light of the flora.
Her skin was pale, smooth, immaculate—so different from the filth and blood that stained my own body.
But it was her eyes that struck .
Two oceans of azure, deep and luminous, filled with an indescribable softness.
Kindness.
Tenderness.
She stood in stark contrast to everything around .
To .
I was a creature born of darkness.
She, a star fallen from the sky.
I was stunned.
A second.
An eternity.
Then my mind ignited.
Who was she?
A threat? Another illusion? A new hallucination sent to tornt ?
A trap?
It didn't matter.
She had to die.
That was the only truth in this world.
My instincts took over, embedded in my flesh like an indelible poison.
My hand rose with lightning speed, my fingers forming sharp claws, aiming for her eyes.
, the demon.
, the beast who knew only how to destroy.
, who had learned to strike where it hurt the most.
I hadn't fought with weapons for a long ti.
I killed.
Like an animal.
Without thinking.
Without hesitation.
My hand lunged.
Ready to tear out her sight.
To let her warm blood flow over my fingers.
To steal her celestial glow and drag it into the filth of this world.
But then...
— Anthony.
Her voice shattered ti.
I felt as if an invisible wave had struck head-on.
My movent froze.
My fingers trembled just inches from her face.
— We were looking for you.
Her voice was infinitely gentle.
No fear.
No anger.
No hatred.
Only... expectation.
Hope.
— The others are waiting for you.
The chaos in my skull exploded.
A shiver ran through .
Who...?
Who was she?
And most of all...
Who was Anthony?
Why did that na ring so powerfully within , like a bell awakening a mory buried under layers of ash and pain?
I didn't understand.
My breath caught.
My heart pounded in my chest, gripped by inexplicable panic.
That gaze...
That voice...
That na...
Why... why did it all reach ?
Why was that warmth growing inside , when I had known only cold and steel?
Why, for the first ti in an eternity, did I no longer want to kill?
I slowly lowered my hand.
She didn't move.
She kept looking at , without fear, without reproach.
As if she knew.
As if she had truly been waiting for .
I was a stray dog, knowing only pain, feeling for the first ti the warmth of a hand reaching out.
It was unbearable.
I couldn't.
I mustn't.
So, as always...
I fled.
In a whirlwind of dust, my body vanished.
Leaving behind that woman.
And that na.
Anthony.
Like a whisper on the wind.
She wasn't shocked by my disappearance.
No flinch, no expression of surprise, nothing.
Her smile, soft and unshakable, remained etched on her face.
As if she expected it.
As if she knew.
I watched her from the shadows, invisible, blended into the night.
My steps were silent, my breath imperceptible.
She walked alone, unafraid, moving with natural grace through this tainted world.
Each step she took seed to defy the darkness around her, as if she were a wandering light in a universe dood to shadows.
She was beautiful.
With an unreal, almost insane beauty.
A being that should not have existed in such a place.
Magnanimous.
Pure.
Untouchable.
And yet...
She was here.
Why?
What was she doing in a place where everything good ended up tainted, destroyed, broken?
Who was she really?
I clenched my teeth.
I shouldn't have cared about her.
I shouldn't have followed her.
But...
Sothing within stirred, a foreign emotion, distant, nearly forgotten.
A fragnt of humanity, buried beneath layers of rage and madness.
A faint glimr in the abyss.
Maybe... maybe deep down, a part of didn't want that face filled with kindness to vanish like everything else.
So, silent as a shadow, I followed her.
Driven by curiosity.
And a need I wasn't ready to understand.
The night stretched above us, vast and unfathomable.
A sky torn with glittering stars, shining with cruel indifference, like mute witnesses to everything that unfolded beneath them.
The forest was a living entity.
Gnarled trees, their branches twisted like claws, seed to yearn for the lost souls wandering through their land.
The wind hissed through the foliage, whispering old promises and ancient regrets.
And beneath that dark vault, she walked.
Alone.
Peaceful.
Fearless.
She moved with a light step, barely touching the ground, as if she didn't quite belong to this world.
She was the absolute contrast to .
, the shadow, the beast consud by madness.
, the being stained with blood, whose every step was soaked in pain and hatred.
And she...
She was pure.
Unreachable.
Untouched.
Why was she here?
Why did a being like her walk in a place where even the moonlight hesitated to venture?
I followed her.
Without a sound.
Invisible.
Then...
— So, you're not killing this ti?
A soft, mocking voice rose at my side.
My heart froze.
I didn't turn my head.
I didn't need to.
I knew who it was.
Her.
Always there.
The woman with the poisoned whispers.
She walked at my pace, her gaze insufferably amused, fixed on .
I ignored her.
I kept my eyes on the angel before .
— You know... she continued with a smile. If you go near the others again, they'll suffer because of you.
Her tone was almost singsong.
As if she were stating an inevitable truth.
As if everything was already written.
My fists clenched.
No.
I didn't want to hear it.
I didn't want her words seeping into like poison.
I didn't want to think.
But she went on.
She talked and talked again, with that honeyed voice that scraped at my soul.
And without realizing it, my lips parted and the scream burst forth.
— SHUT UP!
The sound echoed through the trees.
My breath caught.
I had scread...
Without thinking.
Without control.
Shit.
I risked a glance at the woman ahead, the one I was following.
Had she heard?
Had she realized soone was stalking her?
But no.
She kept walking, the sa smile still clinging to her lips.
Peaceful.
Serene.
As if nothing mattered.
As if my scream didn't matter.
I swallowed hard.
Sothing about her deeply unsettled .
She didn't react the way she should have.
Everything in this world responded to fear.
Everything.
But not her.
She defied the very rules of this hell.
The woman beside chuckled softly.
— Look at you. You're pathetic.
I ignored her.
I wanted to rip out her tongue.
Crush her throat so she'd be silent forever.
But I knew...
She wasn't real.
Or maybe she was.
And that was even worse.
So I clenched my teeth.
I kept walking.
I followed the angel ahead for another thirty minutes.
During that ti, the other woman didn't stop talking.
She whispered.
She giggled.
She laced her words into my mind like a slow-acting venom.
And despite the frustration.
Despite the burning rage in my veins.
I ignored her.
As best I could.
Because for so reason I didn't yet understand...
I didn't want to look away from the woman walking ahead of .
The shock.
My heart clenched violently, as if crushed in an invisible vise.
They were there.
Them.
Figures frozen in the dark, faces I knew by heart, eyes I no longer wanted to et.
An unbearable pain tore through my chest, as if an invisible blade had just been thrust into .
— Aaaaahhhh...
A rough groan escaped my lips.
Why?
Why, why, why, why, why?!
Like thunder in my mind, everything ca back all at once.
Anthony.
That was my na.
I had tried to forget it, to erase myself, to beco a shadow without identity, a monster without a past. But that simple na, whispered by the woman with golden hair, had shattered the wall I'd built around my mory.
I rembered.
Lucas.
His death.
The blood.
The screams.
The weight of my own weakness.
I rembered everything.
The mont I fled, when I abandoned the others to their fate.
I was a coward.
A monster.
And yet... I was here.
My steps guided despite myself, an invisible weight crushing my chest with every ter.
The woman at my side smiled, amused.
— Going to run away again?
Her voice poured like venom into my mind.
— Is that really what you want, to be alone?
She kept going, again and again, pounding my skull with words I didn't want to hear.
But...
No.
I wasn't thinking anymore.
My head buzzed.
My body moved on its own.
Without thought.
Without hesitation.
I walked.
I deactivated my stealth skill.
I revealed myself.
Each step echoed like thunder in my mind.
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