Nephis's left eye flared with an ethereal light, golden veins rippling beneath her skin as if her very blood had become molten radiance. A low, seismic crack split the air. The shell of her mortal form fractured, fine hairline fissures racing outward like lightning across glass. Each fracture groaned, as though the planet itself objected to this impossible metamorphosis.
Around her, the wind rose in a frenzy, tearing at hair and clothing—a primal scream of nature rebelling against a power no realm should contain. The world threatened to tear itself apart rather than endure what lay hidden in Nephis's heart.
And then the being smiled, slow, deliberate, sadistic. Curved lips that bled malice. The thing in Nephis's skin tilted its head, amused by the storm's terror. Even the howling gale seemed to shrink back, unwilling to challenge that grin.
Sunny stood frozen at the edge of the clearing. Her legs felt like roots, immovable. She watched the light consume Nephis's flesh, her mind fracturing with every pulse of gold. Fear was too small a word—this was visceral, a violation of her body's very sovereignty. Her heartbeat stuttered, as if her blood recognized a foreign command.
Cassie being near Nephis at the start, was flung back from the wind, losing consciousness as the world put its pressure on the radiant figure.
Yet the eruption faltered. The glow wavered. A barrier deep in Nephis's soul—wrought of human fragility and stubborn hope—held fast, followed by the world itself imposing it's laws on the creature.
[…The world fights back…] The voice came again: an uncanny chorus of countless beings, equal parts mockery and awe.
[…Such a vessel…such a flaming soul to resist so long…]
Sunny barely registered the words. She sensed only the tug of power, the madness lurking beneath that smile.
[…I expected her to shatter the moment she saw him…..who knew she would resist killing him for so long ...] The thing hummed, delighted by the widening cracks.
[…But without his interference, breaking her shell would've been a tedious affair.]
The being closed its eyes in delight, a smile covering it's face, it wouldn't be Long before it broke the remaining barriers, this world was already suffering as is. After all, it couldn't afford fighting the corruption and it at the same time, then when the final barrier broke...
[The world shall return to salvation's embrace.] A maddening smile blossomed on its face, stretching to the limit, seeing this horrific expression on nephis who rarely smiled, sent chills down sunny's spine.
'Just what the hell is happening!?' She felt her vision wane, she could hardly breath....is this how everything ends?
Then suddenly, A new voice sounded.
"..Did you have fun?"
The voice was cold, so cold infact it barely seemed humanly possible, as If it was straining to hold back whatever was screaming to get out.
Standing near the edge behind the being, Ares stood tall, his crimson eyes boring themselves onto nephis's body, as if wishing to cut it to shreds and incinerate the remains.
The being's smile froze on its face, returning to a facade of expressionless.
[...I hoped you would've died back there.] It spoke with disdain.
Silence followed, stretching uncomfortably and dangerously.
[ I don't know what you are, but I'm sure your not human, intriguing...] The being's eyes swallowed Ares whole.
[ A human form, yet your soul, oh how...odd...]
It frowned even more as It observed something only it could see, and what it saw left it even more confused, deep into Ares's soul, so deep in fact it should be impossible to see, buried in countless chains of unknown origins, though the being suspected the involvement of a world core in their forging ,was an orb.
The content of the orb was what made it troubled.
Part of the orb was chaotic, deep red energy moving faster than anything in existence, never stopping, a dance of complete chaos, surrounding a crimson shard, and just besides it, another shard lay, this one white with golden lines all over it, the energy near it condensed infinitely in an incredibly complex order.
The two energies clashed in the middle, eating at each other at illogical speeds, a series of consumption and production, an infinite cycle of contradictions and impossibility.
[I first thought you were the vessel of the other...But...You...shouldn't be able to exist....]
"Bingo~" Ares spoke in sarcasm.
"Finally noticed huh." His cold face Broke into a cruel grin, one that promised pain and suffering.
The being's eyes shrunk back in astonishment, curiosity, and something more.
[You...you're...but you should've been erased back there...]
"Oh but I couldn't wait to see you again, you and the other being..." His words trailed off.
Ares regained his focus, ignoring the being as he stared at the sky.
"I know you hate me, but..." His lips parted in a dangerous grin.
"Letting it break into this world doesn't seem like a good choice does it?"
"So, let me help you" His grin grew even wider as he approached the being, its oppressive field doing nothing to hinder him, the world paving a way for him to intervene.
Ares embraced Nephis, using his arm to cradle her broken form against his chest. Her skin was warm, pulse flickering like a dying ember. Around them, the world trembled.
"Are you this weak, Nephis?" he murmured, voice low and intimate, as though speaking into the hollow of her soul. "Lost in that pretty dream the thing spun for you."
[…You waste your time…] The being taunted, words flowing around Ares like mist, if it weren't for the barriers holding it back, it would've shattered him like glass.
"I waste nothing." Ares's crimson eyes glittered. "You say I'm not human—"
"Yet I am greed. I am lust. I am envy and gluttony. I am sloth. I am pride and wrath." He let each name hang in the air, a litany of dark confession.
"But I am also their opposite. I am charity when none remains, humility in the face of oblivion. I am temperance when desire consumes me. I am patience when the cosmos demands instant ruin."
The air trembled. Even the golden cracks seemed to pulse in time with his words.
"For I am human," Ares continued, voice raw with conviction. "A being of contradiction. My soul is forged in the clash of sin and virtue. I dream, I despair, I rage—and yet I hope. I destroy…and yet I create. I suffer…and so I show mercy."
He lifted Nephis's broken form using his arm. Her weight was featherlight, her breath faint. Yet in that fragile heartbeat, she was more alive than ever.
"Look at her," Ares whispered, voice gentle now. "She fights. Not because she must, but because she chooses to."
[…You waste words on empty sentiments…] the thing spat.
Ares's crimson eyes glowed brighter. "Call it sentiment. Call it weakness. But it is real. It is the paradox of flesh and spirit. And it burns hotter than any prison you can forge, isn't that right? Nephis..."
[She can't hear you, you know…] the false voice taunted again, weaving around Ares in a mix of harrowing voices.
"Maybe," Ares conceded, leaning so close his breath stirred her hair. "But I'm betting she remembers pain."
He pressed his lips to her temple. "Do you feel that?" His hand curled over her heart. "That's fear. The purest signal of life."
He drew closer, so that the thing—nestled in Nephis's soul—could feel the warmth of his conviction.
"You fear to burn....That's why..." Ares felt it before he spoke—the soft quake of Nephis's terror stirring like a living thing beneath her skin. He closed his eyes, letting that tremor ripple through him, anchoring his resolve.
"...Burn..."
His words were neither shout nor plea but a command carried on the steady pulse of his own heartbeat. His crimson eyes snapped open, glowing with solemn fire.
As soon as the word left his lips, Flames roared up from Nephis's cracked shell like a volcano's first furious breath, jagged tongues of molten orange and white-hot gold lashing at the air. The fire twisted into spirals and pillars, each ember-charged gust ripping outward in waves of scorching heat. Smoke coiled around them in living tendrils, hissing as it met the inferno's wrath. The ground at their feet blistered and cracked, molten rivulets carving glowing scars into the earth. Through the blaze, the heat throbbed like a heartbeat—relentless, unyielding, a furious symphony of light and destruction that consumed the false paradise in a single, cataclysmic exhale, all contained by the world's will.
Amidst the flames, the being was pulled back into Nephis's soul, leaving a distance promise.
[....we will meet again...human...]
The flames raged on, relentless and cleansing, burning brighter with every passing moment. They licked through the fractures in Nephis's body, searing away the corruption, until the cracks mended one by one—sealed by the fire's fury and her soul's awakening.
Gradually, the fire began to recede, its wrath fulfilled. What remained in its place was silence, warmth, and two figures standing amidst the fading embers.
Ares held Nephis close, her head resting gently against his chest. The flames had not only purged the darkness—they had healed him completely, knitting flesh and bone with divine precision, restoring him to his full strength.
And as the last wisps of smoke rose into the air, the world exhaled… and began to move forward once more.
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That's the end for this chapter
And don't forget to tell me ur thoughts and ideas.
( I gotta start piling sm chapters bro😭 istg tests are holding me back)