Hope born of solitus

*

Pitch black. The complete opposite from before, where did all the light go? There's nothing else here... Maybe this was the end. As I was brought to this space, it felt like the light I was emanating had gone somewhere else.

"... It's you... I knew it... Thank god..." (Sariel)

I couldn't see her, but I recognised her voice instantly. I had many questions, but...

"Are you alright?" (Lastia)

I crouched down onto one knee. I'm beginning to feel my body again, was I recovering? Perhaps it was because the excessive magical energy inside me found a place to output, it must have hit something. Sariel summoned me like throwing a magical bomb. The enemy was able to absorb all of it... Don't tell me, they have {Feed} too...

"... Unfortunately, I don't have much time left. I used the last bit of my magic to bring you here, because I thought you would be able to beat it." (Sariel)

"... What about the main party?" (Lastia)

"All gone. They did their best to bring me this far, but that thing... It was not governed by common sense." (Sariel)

"And you thought... I could defeat something like that...?" (Lastia)

Her breathing gradually became more laboured, now having to heave heavily for a few seconds before speaking. I felt strangely guilty, as if it was my fault that she was going to die. I suppose it is my fault that she's spending her last moments here. If I hadn't let her join the main party...

"Don't misunderstand... I went ahead... Because you are weak.

You weren't suppose... To see this... But your energy spiked. Due to the properties of the enemy, I think you'll be a good fit to take it down.

Go break... A leg..." (Sariel)

She said what she wanted to and went out on her own terms. She selfishly left me alone...

" Damn it... If I lose you, who will remember me...? " (Lastia)

I might have been the greediest person on earth. Using Arin and Sariel as human records of my existence. Losing one of them is the same as losing half my existence...

Ahh...! I seriously want to cry out 'Don't leave me' right now. It would be so easy to break down and halt this final task given to me. At the same time, it was so hard to feel anything. I absorbed so much energy it felt like my whole body and even my conscious has gone numb. After sorting through these emotions, my eyes adjusted to the darkness. I guess I didn't lose my eyes. I thought my physical body would have surely dissolved into scattered ashes.

The ground seemed a little closer than usual, my legs were difficult to control when I almost can't feel them at all. But I stood up. I lifted my torso off the ground with my arms and slid my foot into a flat floor facing position, ready to make strides. I see a lumpy mass in front of me. Long black hair, armour plating that was so dark it was invisible in this place, autumn gold dress... Sariel... I don't know if I'll find my way out after this, and be able to give you a proper burial, but for now I sent her off with a simple prayer.

I used my arms to drag myself up a wall, almost crawling. Excruciating pain floods my legs and lower back, for a while all I could do was to cling onto the wall. When I could see a little further having been here for quite some time, the area around was structured like a cave. I lift a leg, stumbling forward while gripping tightly to the wall, my knuckles have gone sore from the tension, but I must continue weighing my entire body onto them.

The tempo increases, my paces get further and faster until I reach the speed of a slow walk. This is the speed I used to go to school, I wonder how the other Lastias felt when they went home from school? Were they jubilant? Melancholic? Or indifferent? I couldn't quite imagine the emotions that would be stirred by a trip back home. Eventually I entered a large space... Large was an understatement. There was nothing here.

Even my eyes that had adjusted to the absolute darkness of this place couldn't discern any features. More accurately, there must have been completely nothing to discern here, it was an endless abyss right in front of me. Emptiness, void, save for one thing. An amorphous entity, the being that started it all. I can't even see the entity, but this place is littered with corpses and liquid. It's too dark to see the colour, but I can feel it under my feet. Like a wet cavern untouched by people. Well, this is far from untouched. The main party is here, or at least what remains of them.

I hoped to the right with all of my strength, falling to the ground like a tackle. The spot where I had been standing was gouged out, leaving a large canal stretching from the depths of this cavern to the entrance. Numerous small particles fly into the air, creating a dust cloud. The enemy was not hiding in the dark, it was just invisible to the naked eye. It's not the size of a microorganisms either, it created such a large canal after all. It was wide and deep enough to fit a chair.

The floor rumbles and the air brightens up. Numerous motes of light haphazardly flashed across the sky, while a single floating eyeless head stares straight at me, illuminated by the motes. The flesh around its mouth is perpetually stretching outwards, bearing its gums and teeth. It lifts its teeth and shrieks at a pitch beyond human perception.

The view tilts 90 degrees, with the ground on my left. I spun towards the abyss and used {Feed} to keep myself afloat. The dead bodies stuck to the ground despite it now being a floor presiding over an endless void. 3 trenches exploded out of the ground, leaving nothing behind. Not even rubble was left.

If I look closely at the corpses, they seem to be missing large parts of their body. It was too dark to see clearly earlier, but it was wholly unnatural. This enemy... Anything it touched disintegrated... No one's regeneration could catch up, even though these magical girls were all stronger than me...