Chapter 134: What Sally Left Behind

After Bakuzan's departure, Sakolomé lets out a heavy sigh, sweeping his gaze over the debris around him. It was not a dream; all this chaos had truly happened.

Rivhiamë, in thought, wonders: "How are you managing to stand up?"

Sakolomé replies, tired: "I don't know, I thought you were the one who knew."

Rivhiamë explains: "I wanted to leave your body to confront the creature, but... there was a cutoff, as if something put me on standby."

Sakolomé, intrigued: "Seriously? Do you know what that could be?"

"No idea," admits Rivhiamë.

"Never mind," sighs Sakolomé, "The only one standing I saw was Bakuzan. He's the one who defeated the creature."

Rivhiamë asks: "Did he really kill it?"

Sakolomé nods sadly: "Losing Sally... then that creature I wanted to save... it's a crushing double failure."

He sits down, his gaze heavy with pain.

Rivhiamë murmurs: "It's really a shame... Sally first, then that scared, misunderstood child."

Sakolomé remains silent, his hair wet from the rain.

Rivhiamë adds, with a hint of bitterness: "For a sixteenth birthday, it's... special."

Sakolomé stands up, somber: "A nightmare, you mean."

He slowly approaches Sally, noticing Bakuzan's mask laid on her face, and the black cloak wrapped around her body.

His look betrays surprise: "Sally's death deeply affected Bakuzan..."

Rivhiamë wonders: "Do you think he killed the creature to avenge Sally?"

Sakolomé: "Very likely, knowing my brother... but those are just guesses."

He leans toward Sally, looking more closely: Damn... It's only been a short time since you left, but I already miss you so much...

He sits and lets his tears burst out: Sa... Sally, I can't even believe you're dead, it's unimaginable... yet, it's reality...

Rivhiamë stays silent, respecting his grief, not interrupting this moment where he cries like a child.

A few minutes pass. Sakolomé no longer cries, his empty gaze fixed on Sally.

Rivhiamë softly resumes: What if we woke the others?

Sakolomé nods sadly: You're right.

He stands, raises his hand toward the sky. Rivhiamë's mana envelops his arm and explodes in a blast of green light.

Waves of mana touch the bodies of all the others — Nairo, Grafay, Yuki, Bakuran, Salomé, ErMut — who instantly heal, regaining form and consciousness.

They awaken, discovering Sally's corpse, and all are shattered by the sight.

Salomé collapses in tears, shouting: "Sally!!!"

Bakuran struggles to keep calm, but sobs quickly take over.

Nairo, usually so calm and almost insensitive, also breaks down in tears.

Grafay isolates himself, ashamed of his emotion: "Rose Thorn, how could you do this to me? You're really crazy. I finally found a nice girl to have fun with... and now she's dead. Did you think about the pain we'd feel, huh? Bitch..."

Yuki cries silently, tears gently rolling down her cheeks: "What a dreadful sight..."

ErMut and Ramos, who didn't really know Sally, exchange sad, compassionate looks.

Sakolomé, tears still in his eyes, lets out one last sigh: What a nightmare.

This horrible scene had lasted. It was already three in the morning. Salomé, still tearful but silent, approached the creature's skeleton lying on the ground.

Under the relentless rain, she gently wiped her tears before looking at the rest of what had been the creature:

"Poor little one... You may have been dangerous and repulsive, but deep down, you were just a scared baby..."

Salomé rubbed her eyes, her hand trembling:

"The worst was avoided. The future I saw has changed... but we lost someone dear..."

Then, from the corner of her eye, she noticed movement.

At first, she thought she was hallucinating, but looking closer, something was moving beneath the earth, just under the skeleton. Slowly, the thing dug out and finally emerged: it was the creature, but reduced to a tiny size, that of a mouse. It no longer looked terrifying, more like a fragile little baby with tiny delicate wings, its eyes still closed.

Salomé murmured:

"What is that?"

She bent down and gently took it in her hands.

In this tiny form, the creature seemed anything but threatening.

It was so harmless it almost looked cute. It wanted to fall asleep softly in Salomé's hands but shivered from the cold.

Salomé then shouted:

"Big brother! Can you come here for a moment?!"

Sakolomé stood and approached:

"What is it?"

Salomé held out her hands, revealing the small creature.

Sakolomé looked, eyes wide open:

"It looks like... the creature!"

Rivhiamë thought inwardly:

It's her...

Sakolomé, surprised:

"She's not dead?"

Rivhiamë answered:

"She should have been. But apparently, the only thing dead was her body, what Grijan represented and what the creature possessed. When that body was destroyed, the creature's consciousness must have improvised a final survival in this small body, in Salomé's hands. She probably escaped from Grijan, letting his body disintegrate. After the destruction, Grijan's body fell where the creature had fled, buried in the sand."

Sakolomé, amused:

"Well... what a little scaredy-cat..."

Sakolomé gently took the tiny creature from Salomé's hands. He stared at it for a moment, a sad but tender smile on his lips.

"And to think you were giving us so much trouble earlier... In your true form, you look so fragile..."

Rivhiamë immediately intervened, in a more serious tone:

"Don't be fooled. Size means nothing. If she loses her fear, if she stops being afraid of what almost killed her earlier, she could become as destructive as before. Even worse... even in this form."

Sakolomé chuckled softly, stroking the back of the tiny being:

"Hard to believe right now... She's too gentle. Too adorable. Look at her, she looks like a little sleeping kitten."

Salomé looked, intrigued:

"What are we going to do with her now?"

Sakolomé thought for a moment, lowering his eyes to the small creature trembling in his palms.

Rivhiamë, still watchful:

"She's right. What will you do with her?"

Then, Sakolomé smiled gently, looking more at peace:

"She will be... a memory of Sally. So I'm going to give her a name. From today on, she will be called... Shushu."

Salomé blinked, a light laugh escaping her lips despite the tears:

"Haha... Shushu? That's funny!"

Rivhiamë inwardly, with a hint of irony:

"You're really bad at naming things…"

Sakolomé shrugged, amused, while the creature, or rather, Shushu, curled up in his hand, peaceful like a newborn. She moved slightly, as if to cling to him, and let out a small almost inaudible whimper, like that of a fragile animal.

For a moment, the horror seemed far away. The chaos dissipated. And in Sakolomé's palm rested a second chance.