173 <Aster's Torn Heart>

Sliding down, or up? I can't really tell anymore. We fell in to an empty hall, where Kora who got in front of me said, "She should be here shortly," before going back to silent.

Yet looking at her as she didn't seem to like being quiet, despite her enthrallment, which should have taken away her feelings and given them only to the given command.

So letting the trembling Rika down from my arms.

Walking up to her and looking at her brown, almond-nut face, I put my hand on her cheek and said, "I'm sorry for being rash before, who am I to condemn you to silence"

Running my thumb across her cheek, she closed her eyes and opened her mouth, "No, I was acting up too much and forced you to do that. I apologize deeply, baby"

Hearing her, I couldn't stop smiling. Taking a step towards her, I kissed her in front of everyone, "Eww. . ." Mari said as she was staring dead at the back of my head.

And looking back and over at her, after moving my head away from my Kora, I growled at her, which had Mari rolling her eyes at me, right before looking away.

But turning my head away from them, Kora looked me in the eyes one more time before slamming her mouth up against mine, slightly startling me with the first act.

But kissing back, *Rika whispered to Mari, "From what I get, they love potioned each other, probably in some sort of Alchemy challenge or whatever these things are???" hearing that, Mari nodded her head, disgusted*

*But then hearing steps and turning as those two love birds were making out, which annoyed the crap out of his two party members, the both of them saw no one?*

"Hey, Idiots, I think they're coming?" Mari said coldly.

And breaking up the make-out session, I turned over to them to not hear a thing, but they were looking over into the blackness of a hallway I couldn't even see?

"We should walk over to them, it'll make it quicker," Rika said, but even then, I still don't hear anything? It's just silent in the hall, other than the few of us. . .I don't get it?

Looking at their backs, one bloodied and still wet with lots of blood on her common clothes, and the other one with dust all over from staying in the sanded room.

They walked away, so grabbing Kora's hand, "Let's follow them, though, be on guard, something seems off about this?" I said hearing her softly agree with me.

And walking with me, holding my hand tight, we went along with them untill we came across a white circle of spiraling disordered energy? "It's the door to the next trial," I heard Mari as she explained whatever this is?

But then she decided to be the first one to walk into it without saying a word, "Hey, wait up!!!" and Rika chased right after her, running into the disordered space rift.

And watching as they casually went into it, basically telling us it's safe to walk into, we walked over to it, hands tight together. But I'm skeptical of this energy?

Then again, I'll never trust foreign magics. So walking over to it as the others should be on the other side of this Portal, "Wait... Aster, I'm so sorry" Kora said making me chuckle, "No, your alright, it's was my fault" I should have told her talking about him makes me so uncomfortable, she must still be conflicted about it?

But then as I was going to turn my head and ask her to walk into it with me, my eyes widened as there was a pain coming out of my chest, and widening my eyes I...

I looked down to see bones sticking out of my chest, and a hand sticking out of it, slathered in dark blood and holding a beating blue heart, still beating in her hand...

And as broken black bones hit the ground and my blood hit the white energy in front of us, slowly dying it a matching dark red, I tried breathing but I couldn't feel anything at all.

I was perpetually stuck, breathless, and in shock, turning my head, I looked behind me to Kora's almond-nut face, tears falling down her face as her hand was sticking right into my back.

"I'm sorry, so so sorry, but I have a duty to my people, and we need a- a demon, so I can't let you go, but what I can- is... What I can take your heart, and use your powers Aster"

With blood, clotting up inside of me, going in all the wrong places without the right pump from my heart. Blood flooded down my shirt and my mouth as I stared at her.

"Please forgive me... And I'll never forget you... Aster, baby" she said.

But what's she talking about?... Why do I feel so cold...

I feel scared, it's getting dark, it's becoming darker?

My legs are getting weak... My strengths fading.

I can feel them starting to collapse. . .

Collapsing down to my knees, I couldn't feel my fingers anymore, and my head fell down making me look at the floor, why do I suddenly feel so weak, so cold...

I can't seem to remember, but my head feels so clear?

Blinking rapidly, I glanced up to see someone stepping out of the red energy in front of us, it was... A Man and a woman, and when looking down at me, I felt something.

A tear from out my chest, and it made me feel even colder than before.

I remember a few years ago, I was jailed, it was right after I came to this world. After I was reborn and became Hiro. I had met other sorcerers there, they were everything to me at the time, because they were nice... Comforting... And all I had left.

The warden was a cruel woman, and the guards didn't like me at first. So it was us against them. I remember trying to escape, which led me to getting hung over a pit of zombies. Although I felt terror an' fear, it was never like this, this cold feeling that spread throughout me to everywhere in my body, because that 'feeling' was like fire.

It was like a burning feeling that really scared the hell out of me.

But this time, it's like this feeling of blunt embracement.

Like when after five days of being there, I went berserk. I was already in handcuffs and having from a wire, but it was so dense and thick, I couldn't even bleed from it.

And after a week, this overwhelming feeling came to me and I became irrational, thoughtless, basically... Farel. I was starved for what could have been three weeks until my torture came, out of spite for me of course. It was the warden who I thought I would kill.

Yet instead, I merely fell in love with her.

And that's when I felt it.

And that feeling I first got when I did... Wasn't an explosion of warmth or butterflies, a nice feeling, or that comfort you get where you're all snuggly around them or even thinking about them. It was like a part of me died when I fell in love with that villain. Or at least some self-respect for myself had died, that's what it felt like.

Ah... So that's what this feeling is. I'm dying or something, I remember bits and pieces of an inner voice from last time something like this happened, but, I think something else inside of me is dying as well? Shoot, how the hell would I know?

Afterward, back then I crumbled and reverted to a state of nature where I closed myself off and let my body take over. I turned slutty like a whore, and slept with almost everyone in there, female of course. Guards, inmates, even my torturer.

And...

I think that's when I first died as Sil/TurtleMaster, turning into whatever "this" thing I've become. It took a while for me to come back to my senses, and when I did. . .

I was enslaved by one of my own, a sorcerer, traded by my own sister, or that body's sister? And treated no more than a slave by my own people, and looked down by my own clan, gee, what is this, some villain backstory...? Wait am I a villain? Forget it.

After that, it's blurred, but once I came to accept the new me, a Demonoid named Aster, that cold feeling went away, maybe if I accept this, that coldness will go away too?

"Aster!... Aster! Stay with me! Damn it Hiro! Don't die!"

I heard a feminine scream as my body went limp, and with my eyes open, fading around my sight to black, I saw a large blade come over at my head, swinging, and Mari grabing me, shaking me, and saying something.

"For fucks sake, you're supposed to be a Demon, why do you keep doing this to me! Why do you keep dying on me! Please! Keep your eyes open, I'll save you! I will!"

Looking at her as tears fell down her face, I moved my hand up to her face, and touching her cheek, not able to feel a thing other than this icy feeling now.

"Hey. . .Cheer up. . .Don't cry. . .Not... For me. . ." I said.

*Greg swung his blade over Aster's head to cleave Kora in half as he saw her rip Aster's heart from out of him, but she shifted away in a cloud of sand yards away*

*Looking back over at Mari and Aster, "How is he! Is he... Can we save him?!" Greg yelled in disbelief as his best friend was losing a lot of blood, and could see past him as he could literally see past the hole in Aster's chest*

*Shocked with emotion, red flames came off of Aster, burning his body, and covering him whole, but Mari refused to let him go, even if she could actually feel the fire, and the fire hurt her, even as she herself was a fire sorcerer*

*But as a thick cloak of fire covered him, blocking their sight of him, and Greg yelling, "ASTER!!!" as he was just suddenly lit ablaze by fire that looked like the type he's known to use, it suddenly faded leaving behind...*

*It left behind the husk of a small boy, one several inches smaller than Aster, with horns curling around the side of his head like a sheep, and a long and thin tail at his butt*

*Seeing him, both Greg and Mari were shocked, and for two different reasons, and when they saw him, everything he was using vanished, he released a demonic aura and gave off this sweet smell, alluring even them to him with a sweet bakery aroma, which was meant to attract everything*

*And seeing this, harder tears fell down Mari's face as she clenched him with her burned hands, and buried her face into his shoulder as she started to suddenly weep*

*Shocked to the core, Greg stared at him until he clenched his teeth when he heard, "So that's what the Demon really had looked like, what a powerful aura, I was right to do this" and that just set Greg off as he turned back at her, angry*

"Look, he wasn't the best guy, and sometimes he's just a little slappable, but he didn't deserve this, and what right do you have to call Aster a Demon, out of everyone in the demon cult, he's more angelic than a Demon!"

"He's a good man, he doesn't deserve this! So why'd you have to go and kill him, Pharaoh?! Why'd you do this to him! We had a deal, so why the hell did you have to kill my friend!"

*Yelling at the top of his lungs, as demonic energy had swelled inside of him, using his anger to fuel its power and make him and it stronger by using just his emotions*

*She raised the blue heart up, "Because we needed his heart, Aster didn't want to help us, but we needed him to enact our revenge, so listen, I didn't want to do this, I had to and I loved Aster with all of me as well! That's why I'm. . . Going to replace my heart with his. Stealing his powers and sealing them within me!"*

*Widening Greg's eyes, and looking at the heart that was still beating and spewing out dark red blood, "His heart, his powers? What the hell type of logic is that..." he said as her story was killing him on the inside; sorrowfully, dreadfully, and angrily*

"Look, his heart is still beating, like it never left his chest. Most hearts are red yet his is an ice blue, blood still red, no it's darker than red, and just the power in it alone is raw with potent demonic energy, that it's just terrifying to hold as is..." she said.

*Biting his lip, he wanted to kill her as she spoke*

"Yet I'm going to take this power for myself and use it to restore our us all, for Aster, and for my people too, Human boy"

*Looking at him with a deadly stare, she grabbed the tool on her side and stabbed her own chest. yanking the blade downwards and widening his eyes as this was ever so surprising to not just him, but Mari as she caught a glimpse as she wept for Aster*

*She cut a slash into her chest, and then let go of the blade stabbing her hand into her chest, turning what was flesh and blood to sand as she reached in and took out her beating red heart, tossing it to ground and then taking Aster's heart, and licking it for whatever reason, she then buried it into her chest, to then pull her hand out*

*Taking a deep breath, the effects hit instantly as her chest beated loud enough for them to hear his heart. And grabbing her chest and holding it, she fell down, taking a single knee while panting*

*Her eyes rolled back... And grunting before growling and then suddenly screaming, she grabbed her neck with her hand covered in Aster's blood, and it seeped into her skin from her neck, making her choke in his very blood*

*Now letting go of her chest and grabbing her neck as she slammed her face into the dirt floor, Greg took this advantage and charged at her, but when he did...*

*On the ground, little tendrils broke out from the flooring and grabbed his feet. Causing him to trip and fall to his knees, but he caught himself just as quickly*

But then hearing her swallow, she consumed the blood clogging her throat, and feeling everything hurt but start to stabilize for the moment, she looked back to them as she called herself swiftly. Mari and Greg looked over as she suddenly stopped choking, and saw as her originally white irises began turning crimson, and then slit-like as a cat's would... Indicating to them... She leveled up just now*

*Her flesh started to spike and she started to feel an immense amount of pain, but seeing that the worst of it was only about to begin and that she had just this little moment of freedom, she shifted into a sand cloud and vanished away from them, allowing herself to continue the merge with Aster's power*

*And seeing her leave, Greg tore out the tendrils binding him, and knowing nothing would happen from running after her, after knowing how they move and that they can manipulate this space, he punched the wall in frustration before turning to the sobbing Mari. Just seeing her crumble allowed dred to take hold of him*

*And going over to Aster, he looked down to see his shadow fluctuating, "Damn it Aster, I should have just listened to you. . .I killed you. . .I'm. So... Terribly sorry..."*

*But then the others came from the portal, "What's taking you so long! And what's with the rift turning red?..." but as Grace said that annoyed, because they told her to wait because Aster was probably talking with the pharaoh chick he was with...*

*Her eyes widened in shock as she saw Aster, on his back, with blood coming out his mouth, Mari over him crying, and then this hand-sized hole in his chest. . .*

*Speechless, her breathe quickened and her eyes watered, "This is some kind of joke right?... I don't get it Aster?" she said walking over to his corpse, and falling*

*Falling to her knees, her eyes shook and she was about to break down into tears like Mari had, untill she looked down to see his shadow expanding under them...*

*Clenching her hands, and clenching her teeth hard, she looked over to Mari yelling, "What are you doing, Aster's an incubus! We need to get that succubus, she can...!"*

*Taking a breathe as she swallowed the hardest truth*

"If we just get her, she can revive him!... I know she can!"

*Getting up as tears fell from her face, she looked over to Greg, who bit his cheek and looked away as he was looking down at the ground near his closest friend...*

"Greg, if we get Rika she can revive him... she's a succubus, she's of the same race as Aster, I know it'll work, we just need to get her, and he'll come back to us!"

*She said, but her voice was riddled with pure utter denial...*

*And knowing that, but wanting to believe her...*

"Then what are we waiting for, let's get her..." he finally said back. 

*Yet when they left. Mari watched as two black-boned hands crept out from his shadow, which now looked as if it was a pool of darkness, and his soul emerged from out his chest as a firey green orb, and then it got grabbed by the large bone hands*

*Grabbing his soul. She didn't utter a word as it brought straight horror to her, and as she didn't even move an inch, no, not even a centimeter, the others came through the portal to see growing black-boned grabbing a green sphere*

*And realizing what it was, the others froze, it was Death...*

*And as Death in material form appeared before them all to snag the soul of their comrade and partner, they heard, "You've been through enough in this realm, my child, it's time for us to return home. . .Back home to the dark realm"*

*Death spoke in this chilling husky voice, and as the bone hand holding the green sphere sunk into Aster's shadow, which seemed like perpetual darkness, they both just vanished. Leaving an empty corpse of a Behazmeth Incubus*