He stared at the heavenly beauty in his arms as she caused his world to die and reawaken.
His entire existence exploded before his eyes and within his soul. He lost himself, found himself—was lost in nothingness and was dragged back.
He looked around, taking in the destruction and everything he'd wrought.
He let the woman go and looked down at his hands. The hands of death, hands of destruction.
It was barely with a flex of his will that he dismissed the abominable union of the lightning and flame of severance.
He heard the woman shuffle about but refused to look at her, he could not. Even just being so close to her felt like being too close to a ditch that led straight down to hell.
Her light, her glow, her starlight eyes—it all evoked memories he wished had remained buried.
He looked around, seeing his handiwork. This was what he'd become, what he'd feared, what he'd been unable to avoid.
"It is your destiny."
That voice, that angelic voice. It made him recoil, it made him shiver in fear and longing equally.
"You can't have your silence," she continued. "You don't have the time to indulge in spite."
"Yo…you think it's spite I feel, mother?"
There was silence, a core reaching silence that acted as a response of the void from his admission. That the word had left his mouth had shocked even him.
"What is it then you feel, Reficulus?"
He shuddered in disgust and, this time, spite. He detested the way that hateful name resonated deep with him, with his cores—his identity.
"D…don't, don't call me that…name," he said, a plea in his voice. "What do you want? Why are you here? I thought you were gone, you took my memory, you left?"
She laughed, her laughter echoing like chimes of crystals and silver. "Lan néma." He shuddered in the endearing familial Feyling title he'd once hungered to hear from her. "You asked me to take your memories. Do you remember that? You begged, you cried. It was the only way for you to continue existing if I was to leave."
"Can you take them back again, take them and leave?" He asked, already knowing that it was false hope. She wouldn't, she wouldn't because–
"Have you forgotten our promise?" She asked, just as he'd feared. "I told you you'll be the one to come to me and if that should be then everything will go back to how they were."
"You cheated," he said, not even having the courage to raise his voice. "You knew the future, you'd already seen all of this happening."
"I'm Fey, Lan néma, we always cheat," she said. "You are bound by your promise."
"Please, please…just go. Kaito is my father now, the only family I've got," He said.
He heard nothing from her but he could imagine her smiling. He felt cursed. Even now she was manipulating him, using the control bestowed on her by their kin bond as his mother to move his emotions like a puppet.
He'd been manipulated to speak his heart and now she knew just where to hurt him.
"Don't worry, Kaito won't be harmed. The man has seen enough of hell for a lifetime. Hopefully this time he will live a better life and earn a better afterlife," she said she he believed her, she never lied. Her word was her bond, her bond was her blood, her blood was him. She was ever truthful to him, could never lie to him.
"Son, if you want to get rid of me I believe you know what to do."
A gasp left him as a feeling overwhelmed him. It was like a thousand years of sadness was being forced on him. He wept, he despaired, he collapsed, blacked out, woke up, stood, fell, went through all the phases of mourning, attempted to take his life and failed.
"You know what to do, and I can see you remember the price just well."
He finally managed to look up, urged by the era of sorrow he just went through to assure himself that she was still here, that he hadn't killed her.
He was equally glad and disappointed to see her glowing starlight eyes smiling down kindly on him.
Quickly he averted his gaze and turned to stare instead at the broken realm, the destruction he'd wrought. It was more comfortable than the sigh of the woman who had birthed him.
"How long?" He asked, feeling a tug from his soul binding promise.
"A year, Kurana time."
He nodded. "I don't know when that will be. I'm not exactly good at figuring out Kurana time here."
"You sound like you wish to remain here." There was a knowing quality and also curiosity to that voice.
"I have a mistress. I must serve."
He expected the laughter as it danced through air waves of the destruction and brightness of the realm. He expected her next words too.
"Oh, son, you speak like you have forgotten that you have only one mistress," she said. "I will send you back to Kurana. Worry not about Mukoku, I will break the news to my darling stepdaughter that her brother is no longer a plaything for her to toy with."
"Sh…she wasn't like that." Wasn't like you. "I must stay to help fix what I've wrought. All the seals of the Noxsphere must have been broken by now."
"Not all of them, I still breathe."
"One doesn't matter. The Noxsphere would have been broken now, every abomination kept there will be unleashed upon the world. Xin will be making the most of the chaos."
She chuckled mockingly. "What that upstart will be making the most of is whatever plans he has for returning from nothingness if he even can."
He remembered the word—Ērāsus, Fey word of destruction, destroys everything about the person; their life, memories, written words, videos, images, their complete existence.
"Xin might not be a problem for now, but my help would still be needed."
"If you had made that request in order to sharpen yours upon the fires of hell so you'd be able to efficiently fulfill your promise… who knows, I might have agreed. But, no, you must return to Earth," she said, firmly, making him stiffen. "This chaos is your doing, even if it was not a willing act. Xin isn't here for anyone to blame so who do you think they are going to blame? The Assarians, Feys, Demons, all the great powers, who do you think they will come for? I can't lose you now that you just came back to me."
He decided to ignore that last statement. It was never said, neither heard.
"And it's on Earth I'll be safe?"
"You know where no one can find you, you know where's tethered to the bridge between Kurana and my realm."
He closed his eyes to push away the inrush of memories. He didn't want to remember, he didn't want to go back there.
At least I'll be close to father, he thought. That was the only upside to this.
"Now you must go. The Feys approach. Who knows, maybe in a year the competition would have been greatly thinned that I may have use for you no more," she said, causing him hope and fear. "I should have kept Xin longer to thank him for this beautiful chaos."
"Now, say farewell to your mother, Ran."
Ran kept his mouth sealed as the light around him became totally blinding, causing him to squint as he was swallowed into a bright void.