At the ground zero of the Void Rift, red light flashed like a thunderstorm, tearing the sky.
A dome woven from Chaos Spawn was wrenched into a sky of blood by raw force. Remnants, organ-like and minced flesh, whirled in a storm of mana. Their twisted brilliance stole the scene.
To craft such a jeweled, almost artistic tableau in a space ruled by unmaking and chaos was Adelaide’s letter of war to that man.
Yet even a dragon-class monster like her, against the vastness of the chaotic expanse, was a drop in the sea.
Deeper, closer to the Void Rift’s heart, everything remained as still as dead water.
A thousand swallowed worlds converged here, meeting the same end.
No shards of reality rising and collapsing. No twitching, writhing Chaos Spawn.
Here, there was only darkness.
No sunlight. No sound.
Cold. Despair.
It was dark, not because darkness opposed light. The two are not equals.
Light is a form of being. Darkness is the full absence of being, the final face of Nothing.
Here, a trespasser could not breathe, yet would not suffocate, because even “death,” “time,” and “place” lost meaning.
This was a forbidden zone of all concepts. A land of true void.
—At least, it should have been.
The instant Varie rushed into the Void Rift, she felt a chaotic pressure her flesh could not endure.
It almost tore her apart—physical or mental? The question meant nothing. Here, all things blended; soul and flesh were one. Even the name “Varie” failed to stand apart from the surrounding dark, and identity thinned to shadow.
Who… am I?
Why… did I come here?
The lion-maned girl raised her hands. The border between her fingers and the dark melted, blurring like ink in water.
She was losing herself. Only one thought held her.
I must go forward.
I must find her.
The last ember in her heart drove her deeper into the dark.
Stay like this, and the void would eat her, deconstruct her name and soul into grit, until meaning died.
—At least, it should have.
But in that boundless night, a faint phosphor stirred before Varie’s eyes.
It was a tender pale green, like the first leaf after a seed cracks. Fragile, yet it brought back forbidden meaning.
Her vertical pupils, spread wide, tightened around it. Instinct pulled her forward.
She reached it. Her fingertips trembled and touched the glow that seemed one brush from dispersal.
The imagined dispersal did not come.
Instead, like a seed drinking rain, the bright speck rippled. Green threads unfurled, roots and silk interlacing, building a still, three-dimensional tableau.
It showed the Shattered Ice Strait nearby, two girls curled under moonlight, bodies embraced in sleep.
—Varie, this time… you win, okay?
Root-fine strands coiled her fingers, carrying the long-ago tremor of a throat straight into her heart.
—I know I lost. Don’t you dare pity me!
—I was wrong… sob, sob… Varie, how will you ever forgive me?
Varie’s almost scattered awareness drew tight at that call.
She knew whose voice it was.
She knew it, even if she had already forgotten everything else.
Varie stepped forward. The glow extended with her, branching into leaves, becoming a sky of stars.
Each star was a still frame woven of laughter and tears. The heroines were always the two girls. They hugged, they kissed, they sulked, yet never parted. The glowing roots that shaped them interlaced, inseparable.
By then, this place was no longer a pit of nothing.
The Void Rift’s pressure could no longer threaten her. The power to deconstruct could no longer erode her mind.
Varie walked that dreamlike gallery. With each step, their voices brushed her ear. A fleck of light slipped into her body, quietly changing her.
Sweet and tart. Bitter and bright.
Every feeling and memory woke under gentle glow. Joy rose in her, while tears slid from her lashes.
Her incomplete soul craved long-lost wholeness, drinking greedily these pieces that had once been hers.
Until the green threads tightened. Ten thousand stars folded into one scene.
In that still frame, a girl nestled in her lover’s arms, fingers entwined, face lifted, eyes full of hope… and resolve.
Varie held her breath.
For this one picture alone, she hesitated; the hand meant to touch the glow trembled.
But the light offered no retreat. Its roots had coiled at her feet. Like vines, they climbed her legs, feeding an ancient voice into her heart.
—Varie.
It was a familiar call, brimming with love.
—You were my first, so…
—At least… let’s end this story together, shall we?
Varie’s hand clenched. Grief and regret washed away all else.
Because she knew what cruel answer she gave next.
—Yes.
With that single soft word, all the images warped and shattered. The glow thrummed like plucked strings, then knit itself into a great emerald door before her.
Green silver threads wound its face like surgical sutures, shaped almost like a spell to stitch the Void Rift shut.
Varie stared at the door. The soulfire in her eyes burned with a new hue.
No more youth. No more doubt.
She knew what she had to do.
She pushed. The door opened with a hush, revealing the scene behind.
“You… came.”
A gentle voice she knew. A gold-haired figure she knew. And those sensitive, small, pointed ears she had loved to toy with.
What stood before her was no glow-built phantom. It was her, solid and true.
“Menglan…”
Varie breathed her name, then asked the question whose answer her heart already knew.
“Why did you come back here?”
Menglan tilted her head, as if the question were strange, and smiled.
“To fulfill the promise I still owe, of course, Varie.”
