He seemed to have returned to the insides of a Vidyadhara egg in the lightless dark, being ceaselessly churned in a sea of waves and elusive dreams.
He dreamed that he parted the ocean's waters and came to the palace ruin depths, burying the remnants of his old friend's hallowed blood, or creating a new life that had not been seen for millennia — or, perhaps, those two actions were one and the same, an unattainable desire that could not be carried out for long years in the past, a final straw that broke the gargantuan dragon's back. The craftsman was covered in blood and wounds as he guarded the dragon with a sword in hand and urging the dragon to commit to the decision.
"Shuhu is dead... we won, but how many more victories can we manage to achieve? How many similar costs, as the one we paid today, would have to be offered up??" "Look, the Ambrosial Arbor still stands. So long as it is alive, the monsters... they can come back again and again. The war of the Xianzhou natives, Foxians, and Vidyadhara against the abominations will never end." "Yes, none of us are special! Each of us has only one life, sacrificing for this, dying for that... it's all our own choices. Just like she chose to save you and Jingliu... just like she chose to let more people live on!"
War, and the lives that expired in the war, were living beings just like him. He shut his eyes wearily, remembering their faces, and made up his mind. "If there's a chance... we will also choose to let her and more people live on. We, the Vidyadhara, have our own way of salvation. I can give it a try."
Like an out-of-body experience, like a dream within a dream, he returned to the moment before his sense of self disappeared. With a cold and emotionless mind, he observed himself turning into a dragon, entangled and fighting claw-and-fangs against that bulb of shapeshifting shadow of flesh and blood. In an illusion seen on the verge of death, the emissary of the god showed him an unsettling, beautiful scene — the stars pulsated and sang hymns like red blood cells, and the universe descended into an abyss of flesh and desires. The dragon heart beat to its limit, raising its fangs, breath, and anger — however, no matter how mighty it was, a "lifeform" cannot defeat the true body of the messenger of the god of life.
...Until a starskiff ran everything through like an arrow shaft. He saw that girl crawling out of the ruins with great difficulty, lifting a "sun" of absolute darkness in her hand. In that instant as long as an eternity, he saw her hand disappear, saw her face disappear, saw HER disappear — That item had ground everything around it into the finest dust and dragged them into a vortex of raw power, including that girl.
A tuft of hair and a few drops of blood fell to the floor as evidence of her existence. Those were the only traces she left.
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Date: 2023-08-04 01:49 am (UTC)CHARACTER STORY III
He seemed to have returned to the insides of a Vidyadhara egg in the lightless dark, being ceaselessly churned in a sea of waves and elusive dreams.
He dreamed that he parted the ocean's waters and came to the palace ruin depths, burying the remnants of his old friend's hallowed blood, or creating a new life that had not been seen for millennia — or, perhaps, those two actions were one and the same, an unattainable desire that could not be carried out for long years in the past, a final straw that broke the gargantuan dragon's back. The craftsman was covered in blood and wounds as he guarded the dragon with a sword in hand and urging the dragon to commit to the decision.
"Shuhu is dead... we won, but how many more victories can we manage to achieve? How many similar costs, as the one we paid today, would have to be offered up??"
"Look, the Ambrosial Arbor still stands. So long as it is alive, the monsters... they can come back again and again. The war of the Xianzhou natives, Foxians, and Vidyadhara against the abominations will never end."
"Yes, none of us are special! Each of us has only one life, sacrificing for this, dying for that... it's all our own choices. Just like she chose to save you and Jingliu... just like she chose to let more people live on!"
War, and the lives that expired in the war, were living beings just like him.
He shut his eyes wearily, remembering their faces, and made up his mind.
"If there's a chance... we will also choose to let her and more people live on.
We, the Vidyadhara, have our own way of salvation. I can give it a try."
Like an out-of-body experience, like a dream within a dream, he returned to the moment before his sense of self disappeared. With a cold and emotionless mind, he observed himself turning into a dragon, entangled and fighting claw-and-fangs against that bulb of shapeshifting shadow of flesh and blood. In an illusion seen on the verge of death, the emissary of the god showed him an unsettling, beautiful scene — the stars pulsated and sang hymns like red blood cells, and the universe descended into an abyss of flesh and desires. The dragon heart beat to its limit, raising its fangs, breath, and anger — however, no matter how mighty it was, a "lifeform" cannot defeat the true body of the messenger of the god of life.
...Until a starskiff ran everything through like an arrow shaft. He saw that girl crawling out of the ruins with great difficulty, lifting a "sun" of absolute darkness in her hand. In that instant as long as an eternity, he saw her hand disappear, saw her face disappear, saw HER disappear — That item had ground everything around it into the finest dust and dragged them into a vortex of raw power, including that girl.
A tuft of hair and a few drops of blood fell to the floor as evidence of her existence. Those were the only traces she left.