Rebirth System: Blood and Ash

"Where am I?"

Aric had seen death before, more than once, but even then—this was different.

He stood in a field, and around him in every direction, flowers of dull purple seemed to stretch endlessly. In fact, the only thing interrupting the stretch was a single cliff, jagged and daunting.

It rose in the far distance, as though in defiance of what had already been.

The third thing Aric noticed was that he could see, and this surprised him, as the field was bright—not from the presence of light, but by some conceptual abnormality: the absence of darkness.

Aric then noticed the final thing—silence. One so perfect it felt almost defiling to disrupt it. Perhaps that was why the wind blew, yet did so quietly and the flowers rustled in kind, but they, too, did so quietly.

Not a single sound was made, and the silence continued to prevail.

It was then, as Aric looked, that he noticed something poised atop the stretch of flowers—Serina. Her veins glowed black, and a mist surrounded her.

"Serina?" Aric mutterd, and it was at that moment he realized he had no voice.

So the silence remained.

"Do not disrupt her... She must absorb."

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"The stillness, let it consume her…shape her."

Aric turned. He had heard the words, but not as sound, rather as a feeling. As he searched around to see where they had come from, he found nothing but the single jagged cliff.

His confusion only arose further. Why was Serina here? Where was he? Moments ago, he had been at the house, so how could they have changed scenery so drastically?

"I know you, boy."

The voice came again, softly it spoke.

"Who…what are you?" Aric asked.

"Does it matter? No. But I will answer you—I am balance, the sharpest of edges upon which chaos and order sit… I watched them choose you, but I never once agreed to such a decision."

"What do you mean?"

"That you were given a chance, but that has nothing to do with me, and I cannot be blamed for your foolish decision. So if that foolishness also leads to your death, that too has nothing to do with me… do you understand?"

"No," Aric gave an honest reply.

"And yet nothing has changed… Who do you think you are, to defy fate again and again? Not this time. You will face this music because it has been composed from my own misplaced hatred… Die, and be forgotten, Aric Valerian."

Just then, as the voice spoke its final words, the wind had become more persistent. It sped through the field, tugging at the petals of the flowers, and soon it began to dismantle them, pulling them from their roots. Next, it was as though a storm had formed from nowhere.

The wind ravaged and roared, mirroring the aggression of the lightning that began to strike around him. Soon, the field was stripped of all the flowers, leaving nothing but desolate ground.

However, this chaotic display was silent as well.

Not a single sound followed it. It raged like a hurricane in quiet, and as Aric’s clothes billowed in its persistence, he looked and found that the wind twisted and converged at a point where Serina now stood, still unconscious.

It was as though she was a vacuum, and everything was now being sucked into her. Just as he realized this, he too began to be drawn in.

"There are two options, Valerian. You become fertilizer, and from the grave of your wasted potential, something worth saving awakens. Or I let you leave, but not without a piece of her… That is a sacrifice I am not willing to make. You stepped into the circle—that was your slight."

Aric planted his feet into the ground, but it was no use. Slowly but certainly, he was being pulled into the vortex that was now Serina.

"Stop… Stop this right now!" Aric exclaimed, attempting to resist the pull but ultimately failing.

His words fell on deaf ears. He was still being dragged into the vortex, like everything else, to ultimately crumble into black dust moments after reaching her.

"This is how it should…will be. Accept this end. It is for the greater good."

Aric took a deep breath, and then another. He balled his hand into a fist for a moment, then released it.

"I don’t care about the greater good or any of that bullshit. I don’t care what you want, or what anybody else wants for that matter. But this time… this time, nothing—no one—will stop me."

Aric’s hands became ablaze with his ki. He concentrated everything in him into his outstretched palm, and the ki converged, becoming so dense the air around his hand warped.

[Skill (Ki Fist): Ki consumption abnormally high]

[Ki is dropping rapidly]

"You gave me two options, but I propose another: what if I thrust my hand right through her heart? What will I be absorbed into then? A corpse?"

Aric waited a moment for a response as he raised his outstretched arm.

"Silence? That must be the way, then," Aric smiled bitterly.

"Don’t be foolish," the voice warned.

"It is far too late for that, no?" Aric said, now mere feet away from Serina. He poised his hand, ready to strike through her chest.

"Valerian, you are making a mistake," the voice continued.

"Perhaps. But what is my alternative?"

Aric stood just six feet away from Serina, the pull of the vortex intensifying with every step. He paused, taking a deep breath to steady himself, his muscles tense as he cocked back his hand, ready to strike.

"I’m sorry, Serina," he whispered softly, his voice inaudible over the silent storm.

The voice echoed once more, colder than before. "I will remember this, Valerian."

Without hesitation, Aric thrust his hand forward, but just as his fingers reached her, the ki that had blazed fiercely in his palm flickered out, vanishing like a dying flame. His arm swung past her, but instead of the fatal blow, his hands instinctively caught her collapsing body as she fell into his arms.

The chaos that had raged moments before—wind, lightning, and the vortex—disappeared as if it had never been, leaving them standing in the stillness of the mage’s room.

[Mana core formed]