Crack!
His entire group was there: Valeriane, Ellys, Celestine, and Naelune. Cassian was overwhelmed; he felt something inside him break, especially when he saw Ellys' condition, her body and head separated, just like Rowen and Diona.
This sight left him frozen... She was undoubtedly dead.
As if wanting to escape what he was seeing, he looked over to where Valeriane was intact and, with some hesitation, approached her; several wounds pierced her armor, and black veins ran throughout her body.
And Cassian could see no movement in her.
"..."
He took her hand, and as he thought, it was very cold. There were no signs of breathing or movement.
"..."
Nothing. He had no reaction; at that moment, Cassian simply couldn't express anything.
He got up and quickly went to Celestine and Naelune, but at that moment he saw a small movement from Naelune and approached her more quickly.
He picked her up; she wasn't in good shape either. She had lines all over her body, clearly she had been poisoned for some time, but she was alive.
"Ah?! What?… Cazzy?, is that you?… Why is everything so dark?"
"L-Luna..."
Cassian felt it, it was happening again. She was alive, but she didn't have much time left.
"Hehe~ Yes, I'm not in the best shape... By any chance, do you know where the little angel is? I would appreciate some healing from her."
"Lys... she's... no longer..."
It was like a sentence, and Cassian had a hard time saying it.
"Hufff... so that cute little angel left even faster than me. I guess there's no hope for me anymore, huh...?"
"..."
Cassian really couldn't answer. He felt like his throat was being squeezed. He was really getting tired of that horrible feeling, but he really couldn't do anything about it, further fueling his sense of helplessness.
"Come on, just say it... Haaah~, but if that's the case, it's not so bad to die at the hands of someone I love."
"...."
"Hee~ What kind of faces are you making right now? Since you didn't expect it, hahaha. Unfortunately for you, I'm lying, hehe~."
"..."
Contrary to what Naelune thought, Cassian showed no sign of surprise or bewilderment; his face was devoid of any emotion, and he just stared at her.
"You definitely made a silly face, hahaha~.... But... I really want to know what it feels like... to love. Hahaha... isn't it funny? Someone who makes people love them doesn't know what love is."
"..."
"You know, I like that you're not answering my nonsense — yes, because that's what it is… just nonsense… haaah~. Besides, there were so many things I wanted to do: like rule my world, use my cousin as a chair, and little things like that, hehe. Yes, so many things I wanted to do…"
"..."
Naelune, despite her condition, was talking lightly, as if ignoring her imminent death.
"But that idiot Plouthys lied. He said it was safe here. Damn... I bet he's a fraud, he's no god of generosity... Because of him, I thought this was a walk in the park, but now I'm dying, unable to do so many things... I, I..."
"..."
But that slowly changed.
"Haah~ well, anyway, it was nice to meet you... you, the little angel, little knight, Yefi, even that idiot Celes, who was a fool, a fool who died protecting me for no reason, when no one asked her to... and yet I... sniff..."
His tone went from light to heavier. Each word seemed denser, more honest, until finally...
"Cazzy... I-I don't wanna die... w-why am I dying?... I don't want to... it was just a wound on my side, s-so why does it hurt so much?!"
Suddenly, she began to break down in tears. Cassian just looked at her, expressionless, but his mind was a whirlwind of emotions, fragments of meaning that were finally beginning to fit together, falling into place.
Crack!
Seeing Naelune cry and break her ever-present facade made Cassian, who was barely holding back that amalgam of emotions, feel something inside him crack.
All the things he had felt since he saw the dead residents seemed to finally take shape, a clear shape.
"Waaahhh! Hhhuuuhhh... why... why is it so unfair?! Snffhhkk! I don't wanna die! Pluthys said it was safe here... then, why...?! Aaaahhh, it hurts, it hurts so much! M-Mommy, why does it hurt?!"
She cried like a heartbroken child, showing a side of herself that she would normally never show.
Crack.
Something, upon hearing Naelune, ended up breaking Cassian.
"I... I..."
That was his breaking point. Everything he had held back: emotions he didn't understand, meaningless feelings, finally made him explode.
"I-I'm sorry! Aaahhhhhh!!!"
Tears began to fall from his eyes. Cassian started crying, releasing everything he had been holding back and couldn't find a way to let out.
As far back as he could remember, he had never cried. No matter how he was treated, what happened, or how people looked at him, he had never done so.
That had always made him think that, as everyone said, he was a heartless monster... but now, here and at this moment, he was crying as he held Naelune in her deathbed.
It proved that he wasn't, even if he discovered it in the worst of situations.
He felt an immense and overwhelming sadness, accompanied by helplessness, despair and loss.
"snfffhhkk! W-Why are you crying too, Cazzy? I-I'm the one who's dying... not you..."
"Uwaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!"
Cassian cried inconsolably. He was holding back more than he could bear. Like Naelune, he cried like a child, without filter or restraint, to the point that she herself seemed to regain her composure for a moment.
"You're not making it any easier, Cazzy... j-just, just... hold me tight. At least you can do that now, right?"
Naelune, between sobs, made that request, and without thinking, he did it. He held her as if he wanted to cling to her existence, as if he didn't want to let her go.
Resisting the inevitable... he didn't want her to die.
"...snfffhh... that's... stronger. Y-Yeah... like that... now I can forget everything else..."
He held her tightly as she continued to cry. Neither of them said anything else; they simply cried, releasing everything they had been holding inside.
..
.
They remained like that for a while, until Naelune finally stopped breathing peacefully.
Reluctantly, he let go of her and left her there. He felt... he felt something so overwhelming that he couldn't continue to hold her body.
He just stayed there, kneeling. He didn't stop; he kept crying inconsolably, not just for Naelune, but for Valeriane, for Ellys, for Yefeng, for Celestine, Nahara, Eshaan, Diona, Rowen, Marcus... everyone he had started out with and formed a bond with.
He had lost them.
He was shaken by loss and loneliness. This was something that the inexperienced Cassian, with his emotions, could not cope with, and it was slowly dragging him into an abyss from which there was no return.
"... Nnnnhhh"
At that moment, from behind, a feeling of warmth came over Cassian, who was feeling so cold that he noticed it immediately, even in his state of desolation.
It was Yeling. She was still crying as she hugged him; she was alive, and she gave him a feeling of warmth that Cassian really needed.
That helped him a lot to stay stable, but he still couldn't stop crying.
"Ling... I, I did everything wrong, I was a fool who just fought without thinking."
He began to let out everything he had inside, everything he had held back, in addition to his sadness.
"I always thought about going for the reasonable option, but there wasn't... There was no reasonable solution, I could never decide anything."
"..."
"I couldn't do anything... my strength, my strength was useless, I'm not strong. Like a fool, I simply trusted in that and failed... Ling! Even you, even though I promised you, Yefeng... but I couldn't help him, I couldn't keep my promise."
"..." (It's not your fault)
"It is. I... no, I'm not strong, Ling... everything went wrong. What's the point of everything if I couldn't save them? I really... did everything wrong, and yet I don't even know... what did I do wrong?"
Cassian really didn't understand. Everything had gone from bad to worse at some point. What he thought would be a simple test had led to this result.
He regretted so much taking everything so lightly, fighting like a fool, giving more until he was exhausted, aimless and guided by others, unable to make his own decisions.
He always believed that it was okay to act as long as something was reasonable, but the world showed him that it was irrational, illogical, and that such obviousness did not always exist.
"I really... I don't know... but!"
He was heartbroken, and the coldness that came from his chest did not stop even with the warmth of Yeling's existence.
He reproached himself for his decisions and for his fallen comrades. He had a storm of emotions to release: sadness, helplessness, pain, despair and loss.
The feeling of coldness and emptiness in his heart was growing.
But it wasn't the only feeling.
Otro había que en este momento estaba empezado a cobrar fuerza en su interior.
The more he thought about what he had done wrong, the more his thoughts went in one direction, toward the real problem and the root of everything that had happened.
The more he thought about it, the stronger that feeling became, slowly overcoming everything else.
It was anger, at himself for acting foolishly, at his helplessness, at his decisions, at his loss, but mainly he felt an intense hatred and anger directed at those creatures.
"I... I really want to kill them all."
He could not protect or help his companions, but now he wanted to take revenge and kill all those aberrations, he had felt it when Nahara died, but now it was clearer and more definite than ever.
This was not like the foolishness he felt when he realized that the trucks did not work.
Now, something burned inside Cassian that made him truly want to kill all those damn things that had taken everything from him and brought him to this state.
Every single one of them: he wanted to make them pay, purge them, and eliminate them from this world. And more, because the one who killed his companions was probably laughing mockingly somewhere.
Then he would go after that guy who lied to them, who toyed with them... regardless of whether he was a god.
Anger burned inside Cassian.
And it drove him to act, even though his body felt heavy and it was hard to move; he was about to fall and lose strength at any moment.
And even more so now, with the explosion of emotions. But, in fact, that very thing was also the only thing keeping him standing.
That burning desire to eliminate those aberrations.
"..." (Me too...that thing that killed my brother...I'll kill it...and all the others.)
Yeling also calmed her crying a little, and, as if infected by Cassian's emotions, her face filled with anger: anger and murderous intent.
She wanted to avenge Yefeng; at that moment, her fear and everything else didn't matter. She also wanted to make those aberrations pay.
Cassian did not question or deny what Yeling was saying. If she was like him, he felt that nothing would stop her from doing it, and he definitely wasn't going to.
They both had the same purpose and goal: to kill all the aberrations and beasts that took away those they cherished.
They were both determined, and regardless of fears or physical condition, they would do it without fail.
[(𓂀)]
sssssss.....
And in that darkness, something began to move—something no one had expected... at least not so soon.