The Last Card

In a world of his own Xilo floated as images long forgotten by his current self passed him by in blurs of red. All he saw was an endless red that seeped through the cracks of the darkness trying to break its way into his head. Bang after bang they thumped on the solid black wall hoping to break it down. Feeling his heartbeat mimic the thumping Xilo hazy eyes looked around the room trying to figure out what was happening. He remembered seeing a woman approach him while threatening him however after that it was a little foggy.

"She seemed to call herself Althea but what does she even want with me?"

"It's simple you idiot."

"Who!?!?!"

Turning towards the voice he saw a woman floating alongside him with silver hair however he couldn't see her face properly. Trying to put up some kind of defense he realized that nothing was working. He couldn't even move in this environment and neither did she seem to as well. Seeing Xilo's panic from her voice she shook her head surprised at how silly he was being. In this world everything was restricted especially Xilo. "Or that would be the case if it didn't start to break. Dammit Althea are you really this impatient?" She couldn't really blame her though because just like Xilo she had also forgotten as well.

That time and those memories were a thing of the past that needed to be locked away. There was no longer a place for them in their lives anymore. "Four very long years and even more just poofed into nothing." Sighing, she stared at Xilo as he seemed to have calmed down a bit and continued to speak. Xilo may have forgotten about her but she could never forget those times. Besides it was better for him if they were left like that. Knowing how he was he might try something stupid once more in an attempt to help.

"It doesn't matter who I am now, however that woman is after you in a craze and she wants you to murder, slaughter and grow stronger to achieve her goals. She will stop at nothing to reach them and you're the center of it and now that she's found you, you'll have a tough time losing her. Thankfully one of those Hunter's showed up but it seems his time is up."

"Why am I so important to her though? I don't even know who she is."

"You did at one point in your life when you were younger. At the time she connected her soul to your's after seeing your potential and essentially forced you into an incomplete binding of souls."

"Incomplete binding of our souls?"

"She never got the time to finish it due to some interference that forced her hand but it was connected enough for it to be good enough. Now she's found you to make sure she completes it while working towards her goal."

"Then how do I stop it? By killing her or is there something else I can do."

"You've got two choices if you really want to stop it. Find someone even more powerful than her to replace the connection with and secondly run away from her for the rest of your life. Both very impossible tasks to accomplish."

Keeping the third option to herself she waited for his reaction as she floated there.

".....How do I do the first."

"Find someone with a stronger soul than her to finish it but also be able to control that person yourself or at the very least be equal to them. In this world currently there's probably only a couple thousand on her level though so good luck with that. Any more questions? I"m sorry we don't have much more time to talk but I need to keep my energy to do my job"

"....That's fine but why are you helping me and why do you seem to know so much?"

"Because I don't want Althea to fall into ruin. Now I think it's time you wake up. Althea is weakened and the Hunter is at the end of his life now it seems. The death of the skeleton opened up the room for you so you need to get as far away from this place as possible. You aren't ready to face Althea and she isn't ready to face you. You've both gone back in time quite a bit it seems from the looks of it, haha."

With the words in his head he watched as the woman faded from his vision unable to say anything else. "She didn't really answer my second question." Complaining a light shined in his eyes as he saw a pure black flame attack a young man's back in front of him while Tearia and Felli slowly tried to back away closer to him. "She was right." Looking at althea as she panted Xilo suppressed a large desire inside of him to help her out as he looked at the two girls. They were more important right now along with escaping. Even now he could see some other people trying to leave this room as an unsettling laughter echoed throughout coming from the man.

Silencing Tearia and Felli with his finger he slowly inched back as an ominous feeling filled his stomach. He wasn't sure what was about to happen but he didn't want to be anywhere near it if he could help it. This fight wasn't his just yet and he didn't belong here. "Find someone stronger then her." Looking at the sheer presence of her Astral Energy even when she seemed to be on her last legs Xilo felt himself shiver at the strength of the person he would need to find.

"It's that or become a tool that kills people at her whim."

Watching the man raise his head and face Althea he saw a tiny ball of white energy seep out of his chest as it curled around his body as his laughter got even louder.

"You're also a lot tougher than I had initially thought but it doesn't matter. If I can die taking you down with me as well then I could care less. It would be a victory to Celestial's everywhere and humanity."

With that the small ball in his hand that was pure white started to be filled with black specs as he looked at Althea while she tried to recover her energy. This was his one and only hidden card that he had always kept in the back of his mind. If he absorbed enough of the World's power his body would break down over time but if he rapidly did it in a short period of time one result would occur that could devastate large areas.

His Body would explode.