Tilphden forest, 8 kilometers east of Dost, capital of Ihua.
The air was dense in mana. Pale moonlight illuminated the trees. The mission was nearly complete — until everything went wrong. Flames devoured the forest, their embers glinting like fireflies.
Momo, hunched over her own body, knelt on the ground, head hung and filled with agony. She was alone amid the ruin, wondering if something went wrong with her fox-shifter companion, Ember. Flames rose along the forest's floor, devouring the security wards she had set herself just one hour prior. 'How could this be?' she thought to herself. She had taken perfect precaution; there was no way her defense could be dismantled. Ember's tendencies, firefox affinity, and speed had all been taken into account. And what's more, her own companion's flames were the ones overtaking the scenery. Every breath was becoming increasingly painful, as smoke had entered her lungs and was burning her internally, yet what hurt worst was the feeling of complete betrayal overtaking her.
"Ember, you used my own formation against me," she rasped, grasping at her chest. "This formation was meant to assist us in completing the task at hand, and you simply used it against me…"
The sneaky fox-shifter grinned, his gold eyes and golden blonde hair reflecting the inferno; "Not against you, dear Momo, through you."
Even in this moment, he looked ethereal, his figure illuminated, and the golden outline created by the flames made him appear angelic; how could such a beautiful form commit such an atrocious and cruel act, Momo thought to herself. The Crown and Coil System (CCS) interface flickered in the corner of her vision:
[CCS Connection: 12% stability]
"Tilphden's nodes have a unique interaction with our intertwined mana, the play with our fleeting emotions, that's why you brought me here," she muttered under her breath, half to the interface and half to herself. "You came here because you knew I would dismiss any oddities for the influence of the forest."
Ember's smirk deepened, "Bravo, 90 points," he declared,
Momo's lungs screamed for air. The flames licked at her boots, burning through the leather onto her skin.
"You almost deducted my whole course of action. Even in your current state, you only made one mistake, or rather, misjudgment would be a more accurate assessment." Momo's confused facial expression reflected her wonder, "I did not need the forest's influence to shield me from your doubts of distrust; that was just a precautionary measure in case of my mana resonance not being strong enough to engulf the forest. There was no question of distrust in my mind, even as smart as you are… as soon as you trusted me, your fall was set in stone."
She shakingly forced herself upright, leaning all her weight on her staff. "You said this mission was reconnaissance. That the nobles wanted Tilphden mapped for expansion–"
"I did not quite lie." Ember cut her off, "The expansion is my goal, just not for the Crown but for us."
A smaller figure stepped into view — her sister, Vaya, every movement carrying the arrogance of someone who had always stood in Momo's shadow. The two were quickly surrounded by a golden aura signaling their Crown and Coil had synchronized. The smoke around them was clear, but in these dying moments, Momo wished it hadn't been; her pulse quickened rapidly. "Va…Vaya?" She could barely get the words out in her disbelief. "You–"
"Oh, dear little sister. Did you really think I'd let you have him, too?" Her tone was sweet, mocking. "Ever since our mother left my father for yours, you have gotten the love and attention of everyone around us, and yet when it came to the most important person of them all, your Coil companion, he was mine long before you even knew what a bond mark was."
Every word stabbed deeper into Momo's heart. Momo's mind replayed dozens of inconsistencies– the delayed reports, the false distress signal, Ember's refusal to share his CCS coordinates; they had been playing her for a fool this whole time.
Her Crown emblem pulsed at a decreasingly faint rhythm, the gold bond of her bond unraveled rapidly under the immense strain her body and mind were undergoing. Using her last mana reserves, under her breath, she cast: 'CCS override. Tactical formation: Delta-Seven.'
The ground shook. Hexagonal sigils were highlighted around her, and spikes rapidly rose, a makeshift barrier to give her some time. It was instantly evident, however, that this was not enough to save her. Vaya cast a fireball, and the smell of scorched soil overtook the forest's clean atmosphere.
Ember sighed, almost as if disappointed. "Even in your dying moments, you are brilliant, Momo, you always have been. That's why it must be this way."
"Why?" she screamed out, "I gave you my heart, we had power, our synchronization rate was the first in our class, what more could you need?"
"Stuck in the theory of it, a bookworm's mentality until the very end. You aren't completely wrong in your statements, but power comes in many different forms," the fire painted his form beautifully as he calmly responded. "You never trusted me, Momo. That's why our bond stagnated; The CCS felt it — it always does. It rewards truth, not theory. You said you gave me your heart, but you never let go of control. Theory dictates that a high synchronization rate leads to a strong bond, and yet our numbers surpassed 90% and I never underwent evolution. The CCS is a rewarding but cruel system that knows our own emotions better than ourselves. You said you gave your heart to me, and yet the system sensed a complete lack of trust from your end. You fought valiantly, Momo, but this was the limit of our combined strength, and to acquire a different companion, this was the only way, I'm sorry."
[Crown-Coil link severed]
[Vital sync: 12%→6%→3%→0%]
[Critical mana loss imminent]
Momo looked down at her wrist, and the Crown on her wrist began to fade. Their bond had shattered, and the Crown and Coil were gone. Her vision blurred.
"You think because you took my power, you've won?" she firmly asked.
"No, I've won because I took your trust; that is what truly fuels the CCS." He sternly responded and stepped up to her half-dead body, raising his sword out of its sheath and embedding it in flames.
Vaya tilted her head. "Goodnight sister, rest well."
Momo instinctively snapped her fingers and raised her staff while on the ground, "Mana blast," she yelled, shooting forward a golden spear purely made up of condensed mana, grazing Ember's cheek before quickly dissipating.
"Such precision and output even with a severed bond. Scary, even in death," he said, giving her a small, rueful smile.
He released his foxfire in one fell swoop of his sword. Momo was consumed by white-hot light, and her few last remaining wards fell one by one. She lay soulless on the ground, the spires of Dost became visible in the distance, even disheartened as one would be in such a death, Momo saw the beauty in them. Their grandeur made them feel close, so much so that she felt she was close enough that she could make it home. She could not accept her story being over here.
The system window appeared again, this time flickering rapidly.
[Crown and Coil System – Fatal Dissolution Detected]
[Root Data Access Attempted]
"Root… data?" she whispered.
"Come on, let's get out of here before complications arise," Vaya suggested, and the two began fleeing the forest. The fire was large enough that the Royal Guard would be alerted.
The CCS began to display repeated messages seemingly devoid of meaning.
[Reclamation protocols initiating…]
[Rebirth path discovered.]
[Request pending confirmation.]
Even in her dying moments, her mind was sharp; she registered an oddity, what seemed like a feedback loop, a recursive and self-generating algorithm. The system was not closing her file; rather, it was attempting to rewrite it.
[Any last requests?]
Despite her charred face not allowing it, Momo laughed in her head at the displayed message. 'For real?' she thought to herself.
A faint image resurfaced — Ember laughing beside her under the academy's silver vines, promising they'd never break the bond. For a moment, she wished that memory had stayed true.
"I want… I want to pick again," she faintly declared.
[Request considered.]
[Crown and Coil System – Fatal dissolution detected.]
[Root data access attempted.]
[Attempting soul rollback.]
>>Error_Sequence: Undefined
>>Initiating rollback protocol
The forest burned, time collapsed, and Ihua itself seemed to hold its breath.
[Rollback complete.]