Selene rushed to Sun's side, kneeling as she shook his shoulders.
"Sun! Sun, come on! Get up, we need to move!"
His weeping didn't stop. Selene held his shoulders tightly, still trying to get through to him. Sun's emotions were slightly exaggerated, similar to those previous refugees; it was likely the mist that caused his emotions to erupt uncontrollably.
Selene looked at Sun as his face dropped into his palms. She released her hands from his shoulders and started to summon a pale light.
The light embraced them both and chased away the thick mist surrounding them. Sun's golden hair lightened faintly, as did his skin.
Embraced by the cold light, Sun looked up from his hands, and through teary eyes, he saw his pale friend sitting before him.
"Selene!"
Gasping through his strained throat, Sun grabbed at her robe in shock. She returned her grip to his shoulders, lightly shaking him again.
"Are you done? Get back up, can't you see around you? We have to get out of here!"
"Selene, I... I lost more of our people, Selene... A hundred people, gone, just mist in the wind..."
"..."
She calmly looked at him in the eyes, tears still trickling down his face, but his breathing slowly settled itself.
"It wasn't your fault, Sun, there's nothing you could do about it..."
"Selene... I couldn't stop them from disappearing, I couldn't..."
"What could you do? You know very well this mist is cast from something far beyond our powers... There was almost no hope for us in the first place."
She grabbed his hands, holding her gaze in his eyes, and consoled him gently,
"You can make a difference, but not everything works out. You can still make a difference even now, but it's your choice to do it."
Selene stood up, still holding Sun's hands,
"You tried to help them, no? The injured at the riverbank, and the people taken by the mist; you tried to help them, that's all that matters. Even if it didn't work, don't stop trying to help others, Sun."
"You've lost people, but you don't want to lose even more, yes? Help me find Dawn."
Sun sat there silently, pushing with his weak legs; he began to rise. Selene pulled desperately, with all her strength, just to help him stand.
Wiping his tear-stained cheeks, he gave her an affirming nod and was pulled along.
Thus, they began moving again.
With her hand laid out, Selene lit up the near area surrounding, white light chasing off the mist and carving them a path.
They did not just wander, but they had no idea where to go. They spent the next few hours searching their surroundings for any trace of Dawn, yet every time it ended with nothing.
They tried sticking to dirt paths, clearings in the trees, trying to make progress to higher elevations. There was hope that finding Dawn would not be difficult.
The mist was disorientating, fatal should one be completely embraced by it. Without direction and few resources, there was slim hope.
Regardless, they clung on to the chance that they'd find their missing friend...
...
Leather soles left deep imprints in the muddy ground.
How long has she been wandering? Dawn couldn't answer that, it wasn't like she was keeping track of time anyway.
Matter of fact, with such an absentminded face, it didn't look like she was focusing on anything at all; merely moving around without direction or a clear method.
Crossing rivers, climbing cliffsides, and crawling through dense foliage, Dawn relentlessly pursued a way forward, not allowing anything to impede her.
The mist was confusing and disorientating; it messed deeply with her mind, yet that did not stop her.
No emotions surged throughout her, either; she was not compelled by any emotion. The silence also couldn't bother her, and neither did the violent winds and whispers.
Instead, it was a faint sound that resounded far away that led her to move.
It inspired her to walk. It compelled her to swim. It even persuaded her to even try and fly.
Then, Dawn looked at the vast sea of grey before her, which extended far below and outwards, and reached incredible heights.
Without realising it, she had travelled to the top of the mountain, facing the mist and fog that swallowed the lands, and even the skies.
She looked out there, at something too far for her to see, but loud enough for her to hear.
Brutality. Violence. Calamity.
Disorder. Doubt. Confusion.
Resolution. Relentless. Defiance.
It was a mixture of pure feelings, the amalgam of dread and horror colliding against pure waning faith. It was the collision between greater forces.
One of them was her father.
She was filled with awe; even if she couldn't see them, even if she could barely hear them, even if they were so far out of her reach, she could feel so much at this distance.
Since entering this mist, a mixture of emotions surged throughout her for the first time, and she continued to watch--or listen to--the battle from afar.
...
A loud and ferocious growl shook the air, a demonic figure stood high and mighty in the air, throwing down their open hands as a heavy weight fell from above.
Waves of mist crashed down like a tsunami; it was thick enough to feel solid, slamming down like a wall of steel. The waves pursued a ragged figure, who was like an ant in comparison, but effortlessly dodged the successive attacks.
The ragged figure waved their hand, a myriad dots of white light manifested and shot out like heavy rain, piercing the misty waves and upwards to the demonic figure.
"Oh, Immortal Defiance, your efforts are all in vain..."
It sighed with mockery, simply opening its arms and embracing the approaching lights with arrogance. Each beam collided with a blinding flash; yet no light pierced through the demonic figures' menacing armour or robes, its grey skin, or its mist-covered face.
Abruptly, it fell from the sky, swinging its fist like a hammer and slamming into the Immortal.
"Your end is near... and your people are soon to follow..."
It swung again and again, pummeling relentlessly into the Immortal's face and chest.
Twisting its body with fierce speed and smashing the back of its hand into the Immortal's shoulder, the demonic figure watched the ragged man get knocked away before dazedly regaining his stance.
Sneering in disdain, the demonic figure mocked,
"You are merely walking yourself into your grave. You are merely struggling to resist. You are merely dreaming of the future, yet that is all that it will be: a dream."
Another figure descended behind the Immortal, placing him between the misty demonic figure and a rather twisted demonic figure; its pitch black skin peeling off and scattering in the wind like ash, a vicious red aura pluming off its face like a flame, and its sleeves and robe dancing chaotically.
"Your Star Gazing Settlement has been reduced to nothing, your people will soon fall, as will you. Your ambitions are fruitless, Defiance."
Coughing a mouthful of blood, the Immortal managed to laugh through his strained throat.
"So what if I die here now? So what if my ambitions lead me to my end? I'll gladly dig my own grave, but I'll never step into it so easily!"
Bursting with tremendous aura, he shot to the sky with a grand presence. He looked towards the peak of a lone mountain through the thick mist, at the star-struck girl looking in their direction.
'Daughter...'
He spoke loudly in the air like the world was his audience.
"This is what it means to gaze upon the stars! To pursue the stars! To struggle in Night's embrace!
Walk through the ashes! Step over the coals and breathe in the smoke, dance on the flames!
Fly through the dark sky! Fall in the clouds and inhale the cold winds, sing as you fall!
Swim through the abyss! Crash through the currents and drink salt, laugh and sink lower!"
"In Night's sky, we are as small as the stars above, and we struggle just as much! We pursue a Way to defy Night! What is Confusion? What is Calamity? You both are mere and cannot obstruct my ambition!"
The two demonic figures simply watched as he rose higher and higher, his voice still loud against the howling winds. Shining gloriously, Immortal Defiance embraced the foggy sky with open arms.
He recited quietly, as if speaking solely to himself.
"The Heavens and Night are indifferent, courting death is inevitable, yet we struggle for life. Thus, suffering is natural, we always experience difficulties as we pursue a Way. Thus...!"
A golden light surged throughout him, white bled into gold as he burst out tremendously,
"To defy is to live... to defy you, Demons, is to live, to defy Night is to live.
The act of living itself is... defiance!"
A blinding light surged intensely before collapsing on itself, then a massive wave of golden light exploded outwards.
The two demonic figures shielded themselves as they were enveloped by violent shockwaves.
...
Dawn looked up, there, she could see it; where the mixture of emotions was swallowed by one feeling, a blinding light lit the world; the sea of mist was pierced by a warm golden glow as the winds bellowed.
Despite the light intensely tearing into the thick mist and fog, it was rather gentle as it embraced her.
Then, something whispered in her ears.
"The act of dying... is to succumb. Yet, in my final moments, I continue to defy, even in death."
"Father..."
The voice was waning, quieting below a whisper, yet it still spoke in an unwavering tone.
"In my final moments, I have not regretted walking my Way, I have stuck true to my beliefs till the end."
"On the eve of my death, I see you here, looking beyond the mist. You wish to seek higher power, right?"
"You have embraced my lineage, a successor of my Way, but you must not find purpose in your end as I have."
...
"Continue living, my Daughter."
...