Angels of Demise66.67%

My... name?

To-do list:

Get dragged into an illogical war and get stabbed?

Check!

✔

Awaken against my will, as a monster?

Because the swords were some weird keys designed by fate?

Check!

✔

Tear my home apart?

Check!

✔

Tear my planet apart?

Check!

✔

Tear the Gods apart?

Check!

✔

Tear the entire existence itself apart?

Check!

✔

Fall into 'cosmic depression'?

I didn't even know this was a thing, but...

Check!

✔

The absurdity of it all hits me.

One task after another, each more impossible than the last.

Each a cruel reminder of the pit I was trapped in.

A pit of cosmic sleep.

A slumber measured not in moments, but in e?poc??h?s so vast that human comprehension would falter.

I had become it—a being of boundless power, capable of ultimate destruction.

And yet, in equal measure, I was lesser than the humblest statue: an existence that teetered on the edge of awareness and brokenness, embraced by a paradoxical absence of purpose.

Everything drowned in it—the nothingness, the sea of endless void.

Nothing and nobody...

Nothing and nowhere...

Nothing and never...

... Until it happened.

At first, it was faint.

A sound, unlike my voice, unlike the echo of my thoughts that had served as my only companions in this endless blank canvas.

The mere notion of something else existing struck a chord in me that I had thought lost to time.

It was re?a?l.

Desperation and curiosity clawed at my shattered mind, wrapping my focus tightly around this anomaly, and willing myself to sharpen.

To listen.

To grasp.

And then it hit me—a revelation like a tidal wave crashing against a brittle cliff.

I had regained my?se?l?f.

For the first time in eons.

Could I muster the strength to open my eyes?

To truly see and hear?

"HALLO!"

The voice again!...

It was high-pitched, sweet, and... cheerful?

It reshaped the unfamiliar atmosphere.

Atmosphere?

Could such a thing exist in this void?

"What are you doing here, mister?" the voice asked, a curious tone laced within its melody.

Companionship...

The thought of it slipping away due to my silence terrified me. It was a sharper fear than the day I saw my home swallowed by my uncontrollable self.

I couldn't lose this chance!

I had to act—I had to respond!

My determination surged, and with it, I burst out of my mental paralysis.

I forced open my eyes and ears, awakening to, something...

Light...?

Blinding, yet soft.

My eyes stung, unfamiliar liquid pooling around them.

Blurred shapes began to take form, and for the first time in countless t?im??e, I... saw.

A washed yellow-gray surrounded me, familiar yet alien.

It took a moment to remember.

These are called...

Colors!?

Yes, I had seen these before.

My mind fought to grasp the words—to name these sensations that felt so distant.

Rocks...

Yes, rocks!

I was lying on something rough and solid.

The tough feeling beneath my hands and body confirmed it.

My breath hitched as I tried to take in more.

My gaze—it shifted relentlessly, checking and analyzing the surroundings.

Ruins.

That was the word!

Ruins...

My mind stuttered to life, naming the fractured architecture surrounding me.

And then my eyes lowered to her.

A young girl.

A real, living person stood before me.

My mind faltered, caught between disbelief and awe.

She had two normal ears and two cat-like ones perched atop her head.

Her hair, scarlet all around, reached her shoulders.

Her amethyst eyes shone brightly!

As I studied her a little more, I noticed a long, swishing tail behind her and a glint of sharp black nails, claw-like on her frail, small hands.

She was silently pouting, her lips pressed together in a childish show of frustration, clearly displeased that I wasn't conversing with her.

"( •̀⤙•́ )"

Her bright, curious eyes fixed on me with a mixture of concern and excitement, though her irritation was evident in the impatient flick of her tail.

"What are you?"

The question tumbled from my lips, raw and untamed, as though it was a convict and my throat its prison.

Oh, no! That sounded harsh! I didn't mean it like that! I-I just haven't spoken to anyone in ti?m??e?, and it robbed me of my skill to speak delicately!

"Hm? You mean Ryna's name, mister?" she replied between sharp teeth, tilting her head.

Phew. Relief washed over me like a gentle tide—she didn't get mad.

"Ryna?" I repeated her name aloud, the unfamiliar syllables tasting strange on my tongue.

"Yes! Ryna's name is Ryna!" she chirped, her tail wagging with enthusiasm.

Her name echoed in my mind.

The first name I had spoken to in eons.

I latched onto it like a lifeline.

"Ryna... what is this place? Where am I? And—if you don't mind—what are you? Your tail, your ears... I've never seen anyone like you before." My voice quivered, the flood of questions barely restrained by my longing to prolong this dialogue.

Ryna blinked, her expression turning puzzled. "Mister doesn't know about Ryna's kind?"

I chuckled softly, the tight knot of fear in my chest loosening, fading away, like a heavy cloud returning to its skies.

"No, Ryna, I don't know much of anything, actually."

"Oh!" Her eyes lit up with understanding. "Ryna is a girl!"

"Yes, Ryna, I can see that," I replied, a wry amusement rising within me. "But what kind? I've heard in ta?le?s?, something like your kind... cat-people, I think?"

Her tail swished again, this time with pride. "Ah! Ryna is a nekojin, mister! You don't know that?"

"Nekojin..."

The word felt strange on my tongue, yet it carried a certain rhythm.

I nodded slowly, as if repeating it to myself would engrave it deeper in my memory.

She continued, her ears twitching as she observed me curiously. "Mister is strange. Where did you come from?"

The question struck a chord, and I hesitated. Where had I come from? How could I possibly explain an endless void, eons of nothingness, or the unbearable weight of being?

Ryna waited patiently, her curious eyes unwavering. She didn't look away, didn't retreat from the strange entity before her.

For the first time in ages, I felt a glimmer of something I thought I'd lost forever.

Hope...

The nekojin who had awakened me now stood silently, waiting for a response.

She didn't disturb the air with impatience, no. Instead, with her small, delicate hands, she methodically picked through the rubble, sifting through the scattered rocks and shards from the tomb of boulders I had been trapped in.

Her movements were almost meditative, calm and steady amidst the wreckage.

Her tail, however, was wagging exaggeratedly, swishing back and forth with such enthusiasm that it seemed to have a mind of its own.

"Where did I come from?" I repeated her words, echoing them without thought, trying to grasp at the thread of meaning in the silence.

A simple question, yet it carried the weight of my existence.

Where, huh?

Was Earth an option?

How about the future? Wait! I'm actually from the past, right?

A different world, maybe?

I do remember a glimpse of green valleys and sapphire skies—a place that was swallowed by war at the command of fate itself?

None of them seemed like a good answer... Especially since that place is long gone—no, worse than that—it never exists anymore!

Can she comprehend the story of a soul trapped within its own monstrous vessel?

Of the days when my body was rampaging through realities I neither understood nor belonged to?

Nope!

Just another improper reply...

What could she make of the truth?

That I am a being now older than time itself?

A relic of destruction, surviving long after even the stars had burned out?

A sigh escaped me, unbidden and heavy.

No answer would ever truly explain.

No truth could be neatly packaged into words that wouldn't shatter.

And so, I chose the only answer that felt right.

"... Home."

The single word slipped past my lips. A word so simple, yet heavy with the weight of lost worlds, endless journeys, and of a longing I had long thought dead.

Ryna blinked, her feline ears twitching as if listening not just to the sound but to the meaning beneath it.

She didn't press further, only nodding as if home was all the explanation she needed.

And maybe, at this moment...

It was...

"Home, huh...?"

A word that alone awakened something within me—a dream, faint and frail, yet compelling.

It came accompanied by a whisper that clung to my mind like the remnants of an old melody.

"Home, huh? Perhaps..."

The sentence trailed into silence as I stopped myself.

It was a dangerous thought.

How could I forget what I truly was?

A soul encased in a beast of endless power, a vessel with an insatiable craving for destruction.

Perhaps I should remain here, swallowed by the earth, submerged in the heavy silence of my own mind...

A quiet stillness overpowering my will, leaving me unresponsive and numb.

My return to the light may be nothing more than its inevitable, suffocating end.

"..."

But what if the beast never returned?

After all, it had longed for its own end, right?

So much so, in fact, that it had ceased to think entirely, its mind abandoned to stillness in its desperate bid for death.

That's why I existed now, in this tenuous state of control.

The monster's silence was my chance.

I shook my head, cleaning my mind from the fog that overpowered my thoughts—I had decided.

I would indulge!

Even if only for a moment!

A small sliver of hope, that's all.

With the decision made, the whisper escaped me automatically...

"... Perhaps I'll craft the house of my dreams and live a peaceful life."

"Mister! That sounds great! Can Ryna join?" she exclaimed, her sparkling eyes wide with excitement.

Her enthusiasm pulled me from my musings.

I began to move, shifting against the stones that had entombed me.

The world, these ruins...

They felt like they were burying me, as if trying to conceal the monster it had once feared. It was almost as though the very earth itself had turned against me, and honestly?

I couldn't blame it.

If I were in its place, I'd probably do the same...

I motioned for her to step back—to create some distance.

I didn't want any of the rubble to scatter and accidentally harm her.

With that, I simply rose to my feet in an effortless motion.

The boulders that had once encased me didn't stand a chance—they shattered like brittle glass!

"WOAH! Mister is so strong!" Ryna exclaimed, her awe shining brightly.

I stared at my hands, flexing my fingers. They felt familiar, yet alien—a paradox I couldn't quite reconcile.

These were the hands I'd known before the war, before the unthinkable had happened.

My body… it was whole again.

Human.

That explained why Ryna had been curious rather than terrified.

She had not seen the true form I once bore—the form that struck fear into the hearts of Gods and higher beings.

A small chuckle escaped me. "Hah, I guess so."

Ryna tilted her head, her feline ears twitching. "Hmm. Hey, mister! Ryna doesn't know your name! What's mister's name?"