Finding An Old Friend

As I slowly paced through the Black Lake, I could see memories of mine being outlined in strands and brought back to life. Memories that were so complex and vivid that I couldn't believe they weren't real.

"...off that injury Ullr just gave you?" I heard.

The memory carried itself in the sparkling strands and eventually sank into the lake like it was nothing. I paid no attention to it and continued to move forward, peering in every direction to see if Shike could be close by.

"You won't ever lose those friends, they're going to be with you until the day you died." I heard from my mom.

I stopped in my tracks and looked ahead to see glimpses of all of my memories.

It was... infinite...

Memories of Dani, Carl, Rin, Ren, Ellios, Drake, Xavier, Charlie, Lia, and everybody else. It was full... full of those scenes, conversations overlapping, and splatters of blood that stood between me, and the white-haired man in front of me held up in chains.

Shike was close... but I had to relive everything just to get to him.

I walked past the memory of me killing Raven, Logos, Ethos, and those soldiers. I had to watch myself take a bite of the cat again, I had to stomach all of these horrifying things... and I wasn't sure I could continue after about ten feet of walking.

My memories of the Isle were cut short by the memories of The First Trial.

"Don't talk to me, Asterio," Boo said.

"GO SKY! KILL HER!" She said again in another memory.

I walked past those memories with my head down, remembering those faces in my head that all seemed to vanish as The First Trial's world came to an end.

All of those lives were thrown away by Providence and Illya.

I could feel it... like a vortex in my stomach. It was sucking away the straight face I had and replacing it with bared teeth and a scream that was just waiting to come out.

"Stay away, Asterio." I heard from Myth.

"I'm sorry... Sky..." I heard Myth's voice rise up once more and it got even harder to deal with the pain. I clutched my chest and kept my head straight. I still had a while to go.

"You look a lot more fitting, White Stone of Wrath," Orion said. Those words sent chills up my spine and I instinctively went into a guarding stance. However, stretching like that left me bleeding all over and I fell to the ground. My footing was lost and it felt too weak to get up.

"We can shoulder the burden of today's terror so they can enjoy tomorrow's happiness," Orion said once more.

My body... is so heavy...

The transitions between voices appearing and disappearing, the memories glinting off of the water in the fake sunlight... it was too much for me. I don't want to remember all of this. I want to be set free...

"Are you alright, Sky?!" Dani asked.

In a thousand years of terror, a thousand years of suffering, her voice was the one that stood out. Even when everything seemed lost, and my body seemed impossibly heavy, I heard her voice and felt lighter.

"Sky… hey… Sky…? Is Domin…?"

"Do you think Carl and I will live?"

"I don't want to be useless,"

"Illya... I will... KILL YOU!!!!"

All in a row, Dani's voice shot out of the memories and almost deafened me from the volume.

The deafening volume startled me... but I knew deep down why I saw those memories. I knew I had a reason to push my body back up.

And so I did.

I moved my knees up, planted my feet back on the ground, and continued forward.

Tavian being impaled, the glacier falling, the magma flowing, the people dying, it all showed up in my vision, but I kept my head straight as Shike's body was finally getting closer.

Just this once, Sky... become heartless.

Forget what these memories mean to you...

Right now, you need to do things that only you can do.

Focus...

I held my breath and let the words go right past my ears, instead of inside my head, and walking got a lot easier.

The guilt of death, the guilt of disappointment, it was all fading away as I got closer to Shike.

This suffering was necessary. At least, before it was. Right now, I'm The Deity of Wrath, and I have people I need to do my best to save.

I summoned a saber in my left hand, but it was weak. It was the lowest tier of the strands, and it was about the length of a butter knife.

Yet, it still did the job.

I cut into the chains holding Shike up, first with his left hand.

I fell to the ground from the power I put into the swing and he slowly awakened once more.

"Sky...? What's going on?" He asked me.

"Belle... the others... need you..." I told him while on the floor.

That was it... my strength was almost completely gone. Illya must've been getting more power out of me...

"Wasn't I dead...? Hey, Sky! Come on, let's get up. We need to go help them, right?" Shike said. He grabbed my saber and started to strike the chains holding him to the wall to free himself.

"Can't... I can't move... you need to help them before it's too late. I can't do anything else." I told Shike.

"I won't take that bullshit. Come on, get up, we're going to help them, not just me!" Shike pleaded again, but I shook my head.

"Shike, I can't move... Illya is taking my strands. Just go! I won't be of any use, and she can use me as a hostage. You need to go and help them beat Illya. Whatever it takes." I told Shike in a more demanding tone.

"I'm not a fan of this... but okay, I understand. Do I need to use my SIM?" He asked me.

"Whatever. It. Takes." I repeated myself, and he nodded.