A Fallen Angel

She fell with the grace of an angel. 

And as she descended, I felt my heart surrendering, again and again, in every fleeting second, as though each breath, each blink, was another moment to fall hopelessly in love with her.

It was as if time fractured and slowed, breaking into fragments so small I could feel the weight of each one, heavy with the realization that this might be our last.

My fingers reached for her, brushing against her skin—icy, lifeless.

It sent a shiver through me, a chill that seeped straight to the bone, yet, even with that numbing cold against my hands, there was something fierce and unyielding burning in my chest.

A heat, wild and defiant, sparking with a desperation that made no sense in the face of her stillness.

Cold… so unbearably cold…

The softness of her touch remained, even now, as though the grace and beauty she carried couldn't be extinguished by mere death.

Her wings had turned black, each delicate feather swallowed in darkness, and her seven halos, once radiant, were now shattered, falling away one by one until they disappeared entirely.

Yet, even fallen, Aubrey looked every bit the angel.

Nucun hit the ground beside us, his broken form barely holding together.

His gaze flickered between Aubrey and me, and his lips twisted into a smirk. "We had a wonderful dance, wouldn't you say? I hope you're not too jealous of my final act."

I turned, my voice calm yet edged with something darker. "Oh no, Nucun. But you will die."

He shrugged, unbothered. "My death won't be the end. My knights, my army—they'll march until the last of you falls."

Looking at Aubrey, I sighed.

She deserved so much more than this broken world. Turning back to Nucun, I smiled, a chill in my words.

"Nucun, spend your last moments steeped in contempt. Though you lack a soul and won't go to hell, know this—you will suffer for eternity."

In that instant, a storm of roses materialized around him.

They began pure white, spinning into a whirlwind, their edges razor-sharp.

The roses tore at him, each petal slicing deeper, erasing him piece by piece.

His final scream echoed, but even as his body crumbled into nothing, his parting words reached me.

"Those golden-blue eyes of yours will witness the past and future, but they'll never grasp the present…"

His voice faded with the last rose. I lingered in the silence, surrounded by the emptiness of the battlefield.

All the threads of fate I saw—all those lives, visions—they were just memories, reflections of paths I had already walked.

And Aubrey…she had seen all of it, known all of it. She'd lied to me, kept the truth of her power from me.

She knew that the future, that tangled web of possibilities… was hers. She carried that burden alone. Why?

It didn't matter now. Aubrey was gone.

Rosen approached, his expression carrying the weight of words he struggled to find. "Caelum, I… I'm sorry about her…"

"It's fine," I replied, my voice hollow. "I'll take care of what's left. Dankel will fall."

A flicker of worry crossed his face before he placed a hand on my shoulder. "Make sure to keep her safe. Even in death, her spirit could drift to the Sea of Time."

I nodded and turned away.

The walk stretched on—long, grueling, endless.

The path I took twisted through barren plains, dense forests, winding mountain trails.

Days blurred into nights, marked only by the steady rhythm of my footsteps and the weight of Aubrey in my arms.

I clung to the warmth of that burning resolve in my chest as if it were the only thing keeping the cold at bay.

I passed the ruins of villages, charred remnants of what were once lives and homes.

Dankel's soldiers roamed these roads, unaware or indifferent to my presence until it was too late.

In groups of three, ten, sometimes twenty, they stumbled upon me, and each time, I made quick work of them.

Shadows clung to me, wisps of mana flickering at my fingertips, drawn from the remnants of my strength and fury.

Some soldiers fell with a single blow, others with an eruption of force that left the ground smoldering in my wake. Their bodies littered the path, but I never looked back.

One night, beneath a blood-red moon, I came upon a mass of them—at least a hundred strong.

They surrounded me, blades drawn, their faces twisted with fear and determination.

I felt nothing but exhaustion as I summoned another storm of roses, each one turning crimson the instant it left my hand.

The roses danced through the ranks, tearing through flesh and armor alike.

By dawn, the ground was carpeted with petals, and the silence stretched on once more.

Somewhere in those endless days, I came across a clearing, an untouched patch of earth far from the scars of war.

I knelt, setting Aubrey down with care, and began to dig.

The earth was cold, hard, but I welcomed the ache in my muscles, each scrape of dirt and stone feeling like penance.

Hours passed, the hole deepening until it felt fitting for her, a resting place untouched by the horrors she'd left behind.

But I couldn't bring myself to place her within. Not yet.

Instead, I sat beside her, and with a final breath, drew upon my mana, channeling it around her form.

The warmth of my energy wrapped around her, enveloping her in a soft glow that seemed to bring life back to her cheeks, though only in appearance.

I knew that, with this, she could lie undisturbed, preserved in her beauty, even if only for a little longer.

The journey continued.

Days stretched into nights, and nights back into days, each one blending until time itself felt irrelevant.

I continued, step after step, across rivers, through forests, past villages fallen into ruin.

The only sound was the whisper of the wind, and the occasional murmur of soldiers caught unaware in my path.

By the end, I stopped counting how many fell beneath my hand.

As I crossed the final stretch toward the capital, its walls rising against the horizon like the shadow of some forgotten age, the first dawn in weeks finally broke.

It cast a pale, gentle light over the land, the warmth striking my skin in contrast to the cold that had settled in my bones.

At last, I reached the house where it had all begun.

The place Aubrey had shown me, the one corner of this damned world where we'd shared fleeting moments of peace.

I pushed open the door, silence greeting me as I crossed the threshold, the memories thick in the air.

I carried Aubrey to the room where we'd once stayed, laying her gently upon the bed.

The sheets cradled her form, and for a moment, I could almost imagine she was simply resting, waiting for me to join her.

But the room was quiet, and the hollow ache in my chest reminded me that she was beyond reach.

With a final draw of mana, I reinforced the spell, wrapping her in layers of preservation. Her form would not decay; her spirit would not drift away to the Sea of Time. Not yet.

And there I stood, the weight of the world pressing down, my hand hovering just above her face as I whispered, "Aubrey, I promise. I'll set this right."

The promise lingered, echoing in the empty room, binding me to a path from which there was no turning back.

I sat in that damned chair, unsure of how it was both here and at the manor but that didn't matter to me.

No, instead I sat and looked at her. "Aubrey, why did you lie to me."