Aldor

'It's cold...'

Asaki's voice echoed inside of his head during seconds, as this only and first thought finally appeared across his mind.

'And dark...'

Once again, Asaki was surrounded by nothing but darkness, and coldness. Even if his eyes were still closed, it was easy for him to guess that his body was floating in the middle of an ocean.

An ocean made out of darkness itself, absent from any source of light.

An ocean lost from light.

During hours, the motionless body floated within it, the only sensation Asaki was capable of feel being the quiet and calm sound of a dead ocean.

Water tried to reach him multiple times, in an almost inaudible wet noise. But each time the black liquid tried to reach his body, something instantly seemed to push it away, protecting Asaki from any wound it could inflict to him.

There was nothing.

Nothing except for him.

And this void. A void filling everything, and filled by nothing.

It felt like a dream, Asaki's mind was completely surrounded by a soft and squishy cloud, protecting it from any harm or sensation.

It felt... Like sleeping, but without losing consciousness.

Yet, the young man was almost thinking about nothing, lost in the nothingless and its total silence.

Another hours passed, and nothing ever crossed the man's mind until now.

He truly was in peace now, hidden from all the dangers of the outside, and constantly filled by this warm and dense energy running through his veins. Here, nothing bad could happen, not a single monster in the horizon, and not a single wound covering his body.

Slowly, two amethyst pearls appeared in the nothingless, lightly below the short and straight pristine hair of the man.

At first, those pearls didn't see anything, nor reacted to whatever sight dressed in front of them. It was as if... As if the man was still sleeping, the eyes open.

But a dozen of minutes later, the spark of one of the stars filling the sky finally enlightened the empty pearls, giving it life again.

'So pretty...'

Above the man, stood an infinity of stars, thousand and thousand of them, sparking like millions of suns trying to vainly chase darkness from the world.

Slowly, the young man's torso started to redress by itself, as it kept floating in the middle of the ocean. A slight pain filled Asaki's head as he did so, his right hand immediately reaching for his forehead in the next second.

"Wh... Where am... I ?"

This place felt strangely familiar to him, as if he already went there before...

... Or already saw this sight.

Yeah.... It felt more like an old memory than a recent one. Far, far older than Asaki himself. A dying ocean, a gigantic island where its snow slowly started to approach the man, the mountains...

Lost in the void, Asaki's eyes slowly looked around his body, trying to notice even more things across his surrounding.

But there was nothing.

Nothing but darkness.

°°°

Beneath him, expanded an infinite amount of water, deeper than any ocean on earth, and quieter than silence itself. What supported the young man's body was... Nothing.

Under the white kimono, stood nothing but the ocean, Asaki so floating by himself on the water as if it was a ground.

And... About that kimono... Why was he wearing an Archigrad's outfit, in the middle of this ocean ?

'Oh... That's right...'

He and Celia were followed by the Flesh creature after he slashed by chance the Crab one. And... As it suddenly appeared behind him, something pushed him inside of a total coldness.

After that... He managed to grab onto something warm, where a large amount of blood was emanating from, mixing with the frozen water.

But this water wasn't the same as here, Asaki was at least sure about that.

Steps...

Asaki suddenly jumped in fear as he heard a strangely familiar noise coming from nowhere. A step echoing from the deep and reflecting surface where the man was standing.

"Wh... Who's there ?"

Wind suddenly crashed itself brutally against the water, as an unbearable coldness took place. The wind turned, contorted, stretched, crushed... Air and water only formed one, and now, two silhouettes stood in the middle of the ocean.

One, covered by a white kimono, as white as his hair, was nervously looking at the other.

A humanoid form, covered by a long deep gray coat, which hood perfectly hid the face of the new guest.

"..."

The faceless figure slowly walked to Asaki, without saying a word, as it was followed by thousand of snowflakes. Each of its sleeves were covered by golden writing, gradually sparking at each of its steps.

Around them, the background started to gradually change, now taking the shape of... Svikari. Around the two figures, dressed dozens of buildings, still hidden behind a wide and dense screen of shadow.

Behind the gray entity, now stood a strange building, at the peak of a small and green dune. Its walls were pristine white, golden letters engraved around the door and windows of the shining house. Yet, at its peak, stood a symbol that Asaki knew too well.

That of The Letatras.

The entity now had stopped walking toward the man, raising its hand to point the building, a thunderous and incomprehensible noise emanating from everywhere around Asaki.

This... Didn't felt like reality at all, but at the same time... Not like a dream either...

"..."

Around him, everything started to become blurry again, reality distorting itself in a nauseous way. The entity, still pointing to the church, now had completely disappeared from its previous position.

Another second passed, and everything became even more blurry.

In front of Asaki, now stood only one thing, a gray and long coat, with sleeves covered by gold. One frozen hand then slowly caressed the young man's cheek, who was still unable to react.

The hand went down, its nail slowly scratching the young man's neck, and now torso.

"W...What's happening....?"

The finger whom scratched the man's body until now suddenly stopped moving, just above the warm circle which had formed around Asaki's solar plexus.

The world kept spinning like crazy all around of the young man, as the cold sensation from the pristine finger continued to spread across his body.

And then...

The entire hand suddenly transpierced the man's body, at such a speed that it even got lifted in the air.

°°°

A burning pain suddenly invaded Asaki, as his eyes immediately ceased to work. Once again, everything was black.

His body hurted so badly... How come that until now he wasn't feeling the pain which composed each tips, each cell, each atom... Of this dying body ?

"He's awaking, Milas hurry !!"

From the depths of the darkness emerged a voice, the voice of a worried girl, surely a bit younger than Celia.

"The other girl too, wait a moment !"

This voice however... Looked more like that of a man, and also a lot akin to that of Kaoru... A strong and manly voice.

Slowly, light started to emerge within darkness, and soon, a golden figure started to form above the two lavender eyes.

"By Fate !! He's burning !"

Something suddenly had left his forehead, as the girl's hand seemed to have rested on it since the beginning. It is true that... Asaki was feeling sort of burning, as his solar plexus kept pulsing from pain since this strange dream...

As his sight gradually returned to him completely, the girl's voice arose again, this time a lot closer.

"H-hey ! You hear me ? I... I'm Naelle, hello ?"