7 Act II: Love

He thought he saw a few stars.

Maybe they were just some kind of speckles from all of the dynamic happenings. To him, it was a mere question, but the truth was indelible.

They certainly weren't stars. The last time he saw them was along with Ryohu at the golden coast that sat on the edge of the ocean, as rumors told that the stars "ran away from the sullen lands and fled to the endless ocean".

They were, by the homespun folk word, afraid of all the things that occurred in the lands. The terror, the corrupt state, the hopeless destiny and the hate of mankind. By that logic, no star would even dare to reside above the Teutoburg forest, which was only proof that his eyes had fooled him.

To be fair, he was barely looking clear, and at the moment, his sight was not damaged, but incredibly drunk. All he could see were the speckles, Ryohu and Eivör, and another figure that he could not see nor recognize, but only hear.

Then he heard "jellyfish".

Then something about a failed objective.

Keep in notice, all of this was through some noise and through the traits of some blur. Maybe the comparison of television static was the right type, however they were completely unfamiliar with what that was at the time.

He tried raising his head, but the main focus, which was the unbearable pain in his stomach, disabled him from doing so. He wouldn't stop trying. As he was desperately trying to adjust the angle of his dizzy head, he remembered the tight grip that the Witch gave to Ryohu. That only gave him more the reason to not just raise his head, but his whole body. He was struggling to do so — the loud noises that resembled fierce combat only made it harder for him.

His struggles, in one moment, Eivör ceased.

She was on her bruised knees, looking down at the boy.

What misery?

What atrocity?

Remember that this was through the muddy green eyes of the boy. This was his perspective, so once again, we can ask ourselves… What misery?

It was like it disappeared for at least of couple of seconds. The same muddy green eyes said with a fading whisper that those couple of seconds were one of the strangest throughout his long journey. They were proclaimed strange since they replaced misery with calmness.

How absurd. You've got an open wound in your guts — this was most certainly a near death situation, so how can you be calm when you're dying?

And how can you be calm when you are dying?

Even if it was for just a couple of moments? What was it that disposed such serotonin in the middle of all that resonance? It was her face — her, expression? Wasn't it?

Why now? And how did it happen?

He was looking at her with eyes half open. Blurry vision was a thing, but it somehow adjusted itself to see her clearly.

Her lips, in his eyes once again, filled with softness and covered in sweetness started moving and a couple of questions had formed. He tried hearing, but again, the noise came along with it.

"Can you… Get up?"

He nodded his head like a fool, but they both knew that he could fall unconscious at the very place he lied in. She tried speaking to him again, but voices came from behind.

He heard those voices that crafted a story of combat and finally gathered the energy to at least get his head up.

He saw another figure in front him, bruised like the colors of seaweed sleeping on the bottom of the ocean, battling Ásdís. His body somehow created electricity, which only led the boy to the answer that that was another one of the seven.

He then began mumbling softly.

"Get… Up…? If that's your demand… No… Problem.

Ghh" —

The boy started coughing. Even besides his miserable looks and state, Eivör did not hesitate to reach out to him even more. For some reason, the longer she had looked at him like that, more and more holes started piercing through her feeble heart.

"Take it easy! You've proved yourself!"

"Proved… Myself? Not yet… I still have to" —

"Have to?! Have to what?! Defeat the Witch?! You're done, idiot. You'll get yourself even more hurt, and even though you were lucky and the wound isn't fatal, you're still losing blood, lots of it. You lose more of it, you get yourself in a critical condition, which only means you'll die afterwards, and" —

"Eivör…?"

"…?"

"You're…

You're beautiful."

...

You fool.

She had to be that close to you while you were pouring red all over the cold ground and almost facing Death for you to notice, let alone release such a thing.

Maybe the close range was righteously justified. After all, to see through someone's eyes, you had to be very close to that person. The nebulas he saw in her eyes pushed his tongue and encouraged it to say the word "beautiful".

Her godlike eyes also encouraged meaning, safety and a feeling so ethereally and precious that it rarely came down from the white clouds above. Maybe the universe sent it.

Maybe it even was the universe itself.

He could have sworn that he saw the meaning of life in her eyes.

He wanted to add something to it. He wanted the nebulas to know just how precious they actually were — God forbid them changing or going anywhere else, such beauty must be kept safe, he thought.

The two stared at each other. It was as if they forgot where they were. The boy was about to release a couple of more heartfelt words, but the whole area started scattering in wood shortly after.

Kollie gathered the electricity he had somehow sucked out from his only possible resource in that dry terrain — the minerals in the ground and the wetness of the dirt and mud.

He was preparing for a final blow — creating at least a modicum of diversion for them to escape was the goal, however Kollie was almost completely beaten down by Ásdís. Not even two of the seven seemed to be enough for such a foe.

The roots then started scattering around even more and raising the four into the air.

"Ghh!"

"Meow!"

"Schwimmer!"

"Eh?"

"The roots are starting to tangle up! They're wrapping around us!"

"She's planning to strangle us all?! How sick of a thought is that?!!""

The provocation of Ásdís at this point was too big to not notice.

Just a couple of seconds had passed and Kollie found himself completely trapped in the wooden roots. They would proceed to drift around his elbows, shoulders, legs and almost every other body part, giving more and more pressure as more seconds tightly faded away.

Next up, Eivör was in the same position — mercilessly lifted up by the living roots. Ryohu was jumping from one spot to another, trying to avoid the attacks, but keeping in mind what he went through and the lack of energy he possessed, he ended up just like the two magic users moments after.

The only one who continued to grab and push away the roots was the boy.

The grip on the others got increasingly immense. The boy's lower body was more wrapped than the upper, however he was still resisting. As one root would strike at him, he would grab it as ever he could and try to pull it away, but as seconds kept passing, the wood increased in number. All of them barely sustained.

Eivör took a look at the restless boy and wondered profoundly what kept him going. Floating murmurs from Kollie's mouth appeared, but Eivör barely registered them.

"I don't think it's enough, but we have to try!

Eivör! You listening?!"

"—"

"Eivör…!"

He looked at the direction Eivör was looking at. It was obviously the boy, by no surprise.

The roots tirelessly kept tangling and wrapping around the boy's body, however his wondrous effort was outstanding. Bleeding, wounded, bruised up and damaged, the boy started shouting.

"Stop… Tangling around me!!"

[He's…]

"Okay, I'm ready then! Be prepared to evacuate!"