A Misty Memory

Wind violently collided against a young man's body, awkwardly standing in the middle of an infinity of snow. Dead trees and mountains soon joined this pristine infinity, filled by thousands of snowflakes which white and blurry forms kept covering the ground.

Strangely, Asaki felt at home, in the middle of such an unknown place. It was safe, beautiful, and... The coldness wasn't even disturbing at all.

Standing within this new sea, the young man closed his eyes, lifting his head to the sky to feel even more snowflakes. During seconds, he kept quietly breathing the cold and pure air, stretching both of his arms in the same moment.

'Where did I land...?'

Although Asaki really enjoyed being here, he still knew that this wasn't the place he was with Celia before. He slightly recalled of a destroyed street where smoke and death were omnipresent. Plus...

He was wearing a white kimono, an Archigrad outfit that he wasn't supposed to be wearing...

"As...k !"

The fainting voice of a girl suddenly echoed within the sky, echoing throughout the plain as a sort of explosion.

"As..ki!"

The man reopened his eyes, his heart, suddenly and without any reason, pounding harder and harder. It pounded like crazy, coming from absolutely nothing, it pounded as hard as it could...

... And... Coldness also came back, although it didn't came from the snow, but from the man's body ; Cold shivers now violently running down his spine.

"NOOO-"

Another scream pierced the sky, still coming from the girl's voice. Pure terror filled this order, slowly changing into some kind of begging.

But only one thing answered to the girl's voice, also coming from the cloudy and gray sky : Growling, dozens and dozens of growling, each of them filled by a different emotion...

... Pain... Wrath... Sadness... Despair... Hatred... Violence...

Quickly, the quiet and beautiful snowflakes turned into an horrific storm, the wind brutally smashing onto the ground ; Creating gigantic clouds of snow and dirt, sometimes even both.

As the man's eyes slowly widened, losing their light little by little, a gray and dirty liquid splashed onto his back ; Because of the violent gust of winds raging all around.

"ARRGH-"

Moans, screams, and yells of pain and sadness kept coming from the girl, always followed by the creature's growls and screams. It kept echoing within the snow plains during minutes, more minutes, even more minutes and even more... Maybe were they hours ? Days ? It was impossible to tell, the world now spinning all around Asaki as seconds tremendously increased in speed... Everywhere, the trees started to die, revive, die and revive, before simply...

Dying, over and over, as fear kept crushing the man's heart, visibly succumbing to strange hallucinations...

'What is...'

A sudden sensation of danger inhibited the man's body, his right hand now firmly holding something... Something solid, and white... Since when was he holding...? An axe...? It was pretty hard to tell...

The white and pristine form where Asaki's fingers were wrapped around was heavy, damn heavy for something this size, but... It also felt so easy to use at the same time... A strangely white mist seemed to escape from the silver blades, encrusted within the golden and pristine white handle. 

One of the axe's side had a totally normal blade, that of an axe, maybe a bit too large though... but the second, however, had a strange golden spike akin the golden symbols written all over the handle. 

'An axe ??'

Asaki didn't even have time to wonder why the weapon suddenly appeared within his hand, the reason being that...

The cause stood before his eyes, dozens of growling echoing at the same moment.

°°°

Black forms stood in the middle of the snow plain, around three dozen of them ; growling, sniffing, drooling... Even savagely chewing something visibly dying on the ground.

They looked like gigantic wolves, black and red fur covering their bloody bodies as two pairs of red wings, hung to their back, rested on the ground.

'Huh...?'

As his heart was filled by fear, the young man's body slowly started to walk, it walked, toward the deadly forms, without Asaki even wanting to do so.

The white-haired body took a second step, another, and another... It kept walking to a certain death, quietly, and firmly, as the young man's mind was still filled by terror and screams.

Each steps the body took, still holding the axe with a total calm, Asaki started to realize something... Something coming at the same moment as his consciousness.

This body wasn't his.

And this wasn't exactly reality... More like...

Like a blurry memory...

After all, he couldn't move his body as he wanted to, he was just trapped inside it as a mere spectator.

"..."

The deadly black forms slowly turned to the man, piercing crimson eyes soon crossing his whole heart, still profusely pounding of pure terror.

Six of the wolf left the group, which stopped to chew the poor animal laying in its own blood, covered by fatal bruises. At the same moment, Asaki's body stopped walking, looking at the six creatures slowly advancing to him as he slightly lifted his axe.

"As...k"

The girl's voice kept echoing from the sky, seemingly begging for... Salvation ?

'No... She's begging for something else...'

The voice didn't beg for any salvation, it didn't wanted to be saved. Instead...

It wanted Retribution.

The body's long white hair, attached in a high and Archigrad style's ponytail, brutally lifted because of a strong wind gust coming from behind Asaki ; Reaching in no time the wolves, which slightly backed away because of the strength it exerted on them.

The strange mist coming from the axe only grew stronger as the creatures kept approaching, now reaching the ground and moving as if it was alive.

... Strange figures taking form within it, dreadfully flowing behind the man's body.

"Come."

Finally said the body, as one of the nearer wolf stopped only a few meters before him.

"..."

A deadly silence installed during seconds, only wind and snow filling the air. The frozen mist continued to grow wider, taller, and stronger... Now, not even the powerful gusts of wind seemed to be able to affect it, simply unharmed by the law of physics.

"... If you don't come, then-"

'Huh ??"

Within a single second, the body teleported behind the creature, now facing the others who kept looking at the approaching fight ; Already finished.

Even if it lasted for less than a second, Asaki felt the body's arm moving while its legs propelled it at an immeasurable speed. And by looking at what remained of the creature on the axe... He was right...

The silver blade, now, wasn't gray anymore. Instead, quietly rested on the metallic surface a crimson red color, slowly dropping on the ground.

'The voice...'

Still trapped within the corpse, Asaki slowly started to hear and feel what the body was actually feeling, slowly getting accustomed to the sensations and thoughts crossing it.

... And so, the thousands voices perpetually echoing within it.

"Nàgr..."

A blinding wrath steadily began to tense up the body's muscles, the mist still flowing from the axe only growing even stronger, following its owner's emotions.

"You bastard.."

As the body's wrath was hardly contained, violently trying to escape from it ; Asaki's sight changed once again.

A blurry white background followed by indistinguishable black forms instantly crossed his eyes, a crimson taint soon covering it.

'Huh !!!"

The first dozen seconds, the young man couldn't see anything, yells and blood simply filling everything, moving way too quickly to even being named.

The yells and growl kept thunderously echoing, limbs, head, organs, blood, fur... Splattering everywhere.

If Asaki could actually throw up... he would've done so... The sensation of the axe cutting through flesh and bones at such a speed, fair enough to almost make him faint.

Pain filled his arms and lunges, although his vision, slowly taking form, never decreased in speed.

Flesh kept getting torn, again and again, by such a violence and strength that it was simply impossible for any human to even think about it.

Blood, blood, blood, blood and more blood....

In the end, even Asaki's hand got used to transpierce the creature's flesh, and rip off their organs as an animal would.

'Ahh... Aaah...'

The white horizon was now red, covered by thousands pieces of black fur and flesh, slightly disappearing within the gigantic mist surrounding Asaki.

The shock was so violent that the man felt his heart slowly stopping beating, an invisible hand firmly scratching his intestines as the world slowed down.

"Aaaah... F-freaking..."

Vomit finally escaped from his mouth, directly landing on the white wolf head resting beneath him, on a hard and gray concrete ground.

The harsh smell of smoke filled his nose once again, making it even harder to breath, although his convulsing body was already hardly doing so because of the vomit.

His purple gaze, filled by tears of pain and terror, quickly looked at his surrounding ; Dirty buildings, covered by ashes and blood, as a sea of the same crimson liquid flowing on his shoes... Now also muddied by blood.

"Asaki !!!"

And before everything turned black, the man finally saw her...

The owner of the voice he heard since the beginning...

Running to him, as her crimson hair easily hid the thin blood strains covering her face...