HMMMM...
Rilduir, sorrowfully, traced the scar on the face of the woman he loved with his fingers. The scar tissue was thick, and a little rough to the touch, and felt colder than the rest of her skin, and though he knew that she had suffered more from the social backlash of having such a scar mar her otherwise breathtaking beauty, it was that coldness that stabbed the deepest daggers of guilt into his heart.
They hadn’t known each other when he cut her down. He was a rebel. She was the daughter of the former king, and the sister of the current one. He’d worn a mask to hide his face when his group attempted to assassinate her brother the king, and when they met again, she wore a mask to hide that scar. By that point, they were both very cold people, bitter about their circumstances, but fate had them travel together, and fight together, and grow together, struggling against their mutual enemy, the Demon King, who had plotted to make the two human factions rise against each other in the first place.
When they finally grew to the point where they had to admit to each other that they were in love, Minel had taken off her mask for the first time, smiling at him with a warmth he did not deserve. Rilduir was struck by another layer of the gravity of what he had done. Their relationship reset to nothing, she hated him when she found out the truth, and he couldn’t blame her. They would’ve split up there, but the Demon king was a threat that could not be ignored, and their duy as part of the Hero’s party and the fate of their nation weighed heavier than their own personal feelings. So they kept traveling together. Their feelings for each other was like a scab that healed a little, then got painfully ripped off, then healed, then got infected, then healed a little, then ripped off again and had salt thrown at it. Then, finally, healed.
Minel smiled at him, and leaned gently against his hand. Around them laid the corpses of fallen demons.. and their fallen comrades. They had won. At a price. Only they remained, and they had little time. Both of them could feel deaths fingers on their shoulders, and in the face of that great absolute, with no more time given to them, they were forced to face the fact that their differences meant nothing anymore. Minels smile was bright, and warm, and shone like a piece of the sun. He held her closer, noses toughing, and her breath tickling his skin.
”I don’t deserve you.” He said silently.
”Yep. You’re right, you definitely don’t.” Minel replied with a light laugh, and then she kissed him.
They remained in each others arms for the brief moments they still had in that life, and then they turned to dust.
... a voice rang out from the great white light. A goddess was sitting there, with a bowl of popcorn and a small mountain of used tissues. She was trying to keep herself from bawling from the looks of it but wasn’t doing a very good job.
”*Sniff* How... how romantic....! How tragic!!! *sniff sniff sniff BLOWS NOSE* Don’t worry, brave heroes! As a reward for your great sacrifice for this world, I will.. *hick* make sure you’ll reincarnate close to each other so that... so that you can be together in the next liiiifeeeeeaaaaawahaaaaaaaa.... *BAAAAWL*”
—————
Tears were flowing from Akiras’ eyes when he woke up. The dream he woke from had been so realistic, so horrifying and beautiful, and there was a hole in his heart in the shape of the non-existing woman he had dreamed about, who had never existed and whom he would therefore, obviously, never get to meet. He couldn’t help it, it felt like he had truly lost someone he loved, and he stayed in bed for a while and cried into his pillow until he felt stupid about it. He got dressed, washed his face in cold water until he didn’t look like a red-eyed mess anymore, and went down the stairs for breakfast.
His sister was already awake and abscentmindedly stirred her bowl of cereals.
”Morning. What’s wrong, Asami? You were excited about that event today, so why are you looking so down? Did something happen?” Akira asked as he filled his own bowl with yogurt, his voice devoid of any real interest.
”It’s nothing.” She replied, glancing at him from her bowl of cereals and then back. She was red-eyed and had clearly been crying, for which he had zero concern because she was at the age when she got emotional over what, to him, seemed to be the dumbest and most random crap. ”It’s just, I had this dream.” Akira felt a chill of cold run down his spine.
”Don’t get all red-eyed over a dream. That’s some over the top emotional crap, even for you.”
She glared at him, but unexpectedly she agreed, and finished her breakfast in silence. He snuck a glance at her, as she frowningly ran a finger down the side of her face, from her temple down to her chin, exactly where Minels’ scar had been. It was a casual gesture he wouldn’t have thought anything of before, but now, it was a silent confirmation. ”Akira, do you still have that wooden sword from when you used to practice kendo? Can I borrow it?” She said before she left.
”Yeah, unless mom threw it away it should be somewhere in the storage under the stairs. Speaking of borrowing stuff, can I borrow your collection of occult books?” Asami nodded with an uncharacteristic cold.
”I recommend starting with Alistair Crowley. A bunch of crap, but everything later references him. Then, the sigil works of Johannes Bureus.” Then she left the kitchen, and there was a loud BANG, presumably from her punching the wall somewhere out of Akiras sight.
Once the kitchen door closed, Akira crumbled the remaining half of his sandwich in his hand. He had a new goal. Sure, Akira didn’t know how to summon gods, but Rilduir knew, OH HE KNEW. Would it be easy? No, but neither was killing the Demon King after all. He could do it. He WOULD do it. He would summon that F***CKING GODDESS ALL THE WAY TO F***NG JAPAN, and HE WOULD STRANGLE HER FOR THIS, HE WOULD STRANGLE HER LIKE HE STRANGLED HIS SANDWICH.
————-
Well. That was long.
