Gone

Giggling, Tinka used what seemed like all of her strength to reach up and caress Minos's cheek.

"Come closer, Minos." Tinka said with a gentle smile as she pulled her hand away from his face, Minos immediately obliging.

"You know, I always thought my life would be contained within that little tribe, and I'd never see anything more, but you changed everything."

"You gave me a child, you gave me love, and you even gave me the freedom I'd been wishing for my entire life."

"But what is freedom worth if you can't spend it with those you love? I never knew that in the past, but as big as the world is, it feels empty when I'm not with you… I love you Minos, more than life itself, and I'd rather be a caged bird beside you, then a roc in the heavens without you…"

"What are you saying Tinka?" Minos asked in a choked voice.

"I'm saying that wherever I end up in my next life, I hope that I eventually find my way back to you, because I know now that I can't live without you. No matter where I go, the world will always feel like a cage as long as I'm missing your touch, because you are my freedom Minos, you always were." Tinka smiled, giving Minos a soft kiss on the cheek.

"Tinka, TINKA!" Minos shouted, but by this point, Tinka's body had gone completely limp, a smile still drawn on her face.

Weeping gently, it didn't take long for Minos's tears to drench Tinka's cold body, causing a strange change to take place.

A soft blue glow began emanating from her body, causing Minos to look down towards her with shock, completely unaware of what was happening.

Suddenly, the sound of gentle flapping filled the enclosed cave, akin to a butterfly slowly taking through the skies.

The sound got louder and louder, and soon enough the blue glow from Tinka's body gathered into shape, manifesting itself into the same blue butterfly Minos had seen when Tinka first awakened.

Flying about, the butterfly soon landed on Tinka's forehead, causing the blue-light to gather towards it even faster.

Miraculously, Tinka's body seemed to get lighter and lighter, causing Minos to grab onto her tighter with fear.

But despite not wanting to let go, Tinka's body seemed to slowly dissipate into that soft-blue glow that the butterfly was absorbing happily.

With both shock and horror, Minos watched as Tinka's body vanished completely, only leaving behind the blue butterfly, which immediately took off to an unknown place.

"Come back!" Minos shouted, not yet ready to give up his wife.

But unfortunately for him, the butterfly ignored his cries, instead letting out a loud chirp, causing a strange blue river-like entity to appear beside him.

With another loud chirp, the butterfly dove into the river apparition, swimming upstream alongside dozens of other smaller butterflies before completely disappearing.

Rushing towards the strange river, Minos wanted to grab onto it, but like the moon's reflection on a pond, his hand went right through.

With a pained heart, he could only watch as the river slowly vanished, soon dissipating completely, leaving behind only him and the silence.

He had no idea what just happened, but he was not in the mood to think about it, just sitting in silence, having not yet accepted his wife's death.

His eyes were red, but he wasn't crying anymore, the tears having long since dried out, however that wasn't to say he was no longer sad, far from it.

The fighting by the cave's entrance was still ongoing, but Minos seemed to have been stricken deaf, the world having gone completely silent.

As if adding insult to injury, the effects of the Faery-Flower Pollinate technique finally set in, causing Minos's skin to quickly deteriorate.

From a young man in only his twenties, filled with vibrancy, Minos seemed to rapidly age up, the skin on his face drooping as it lost all its youthful vitality.

His spine also began loosening, going from a straightness that seemed to have the strength to hold up the heaven, to a curve that could be blown to pieces by the gentlest of breezes.

His charcoal black eyes became white and blurry, the entire world losing its crispness, being reduced to blobs and splotches.

His streamlined body that was filled with beautifully sculpted muscles quickly lost its definition, likely a deflated balloon, soon being reduced to a tiny-bony frame, reminiscent of the long gone years before he had ever known about cultivation.

His white hair and beard lost their shine, instead taking on a dull-grayness, the same color that would immediately spark the thoughts of death in anyone that saw them.

However, despite all this, Minos remained unmoving, still seated in the same place in absolute silence, his body's changes having had no effect on him.

If anything, this new him better reflected how he felt inside, old and just waiting for death so he could be reunited with his dear wife.

Trapped in the darkness of his own mind, Minos was completely uninterested in what was going on outside, his heart having already reached the precipice of the abyss, only a step away from giving up completely.

…

Meanwhile, back outside, the battle had come to an end, Rubella's team barely edging out a win, though the battle scars they had left behind proved it wasn't an easy fight.

Unfortunately for them, however, their enemies were far from just being these small groups of rag-tag cultivators, and it didn't take much time for the sound of their loud battle to attract bigger fish.

"Sir, I've found a few cultivators fighting up ahead, they've likely found the target." A soldier said to the large burly man ahead of him.

"Prepare the men then, since the Emperor want's this Rovo person, we will go through the heaven and earth to find him."

With the generals command, it didn't take long for a small army of a few hundred men to make their way towards the battle ground.

Hearing the sound of marching from the distance, Rubella's heart dropped, but instead of retreating, she clenched her sword even tighter, ready to fight.

It didn't take long for the small army to confront Rubella's group, a soldier soon taking the lead in questioning them.

"Who are you people, and who's behind that formation?"

"None of your business. Just keep moving if you don't want to die." Rubella said, pointing the tip of her sword towards the man.

"General?" The soldier asked, not sure what to do.

"Take them out, but try not to kill them. These people seem to be allies of Rovo, so in the case he isn't behind that formation, they could prove useful." The general immediately commanded.

With the general's words, a new battle soon began, but this time instead of it being a close one like before, the army quickly crushed Rubella's group.

As strong as they were, they were massively outnumbered, not to mention these soldiers were all well-trained and equipped, capable of fighting together with incredible synergy.

After only a few minutes, most of Rubella's team had been beaten into submission, leaving behind only her and Beetus.

But as hard as they fought, the army soon overwhelmed them, beating them to the brink of death before chaining them up tightly and tossing them with the rest.

"You can't do this, Rovo is innocent!" Rubella yelled from the corner, her body having long since been beaten black and brown.

"Shut up, we'll deal with you later, but for now we have more pressing matters." A soldier said, kicking Rubella hard in the stomach, causing her to vomit out another mouthful of blood.

With Rubella no longer having the strength to speak, and Beetus having been knocked unconscious from the previous beating, the soldiers soon began assaulting the formation relentlessly.

With hundreds of soldiers attacking once, as refined as the formation was, it came down in only half a minute or so, finally allowing access to the depth of the cave.

After pushing aside the large boulder that blocked the entrance, the soldiers entered inside, soon finding a strange oldman who looked similar to Rovo, but clearly wasn't the same person.

"Hey old man, what are you doing here?" One soldier asked from a distance, his heart unconsciously clenching as he saw this strange scene.

But Minos didn't reply, still sitting in silence as his cloudy eyes looked down at the floor ahead of him.

"Old man, if you don't answer me right now, I'll have to make you answer by force!" The soldier threatened.

But still, Minos said nothing, not even bothering to look up towards any of the soldiers, ignoring them completely.

"Enough with this nonsense, since he refuses to answer with kindness, then he'll answer with force." One less patience soldier said with annoyance, marching towards Minos and grabbing him tightly by the shoulder.

As if finally waking up from his delirium, Minos finally looked up, his cloudy soup-like eyes staring right into the soldier's soul, causing him to step back with a chill.

"What are you staring at, bastard!" The soldier shouted, clearly annoyed at his own cowardice.

"Have you ever felt, true despair?" Minos suddenly asked, his voice deep and gravely, no different from an old mans.

"Huh? What are you saying?" The soldier replied unconsciously, but before he could ask anymore, he suddenly felt an overwhelming aura drape his body, his entire world reduced to darkness.