Arius stood like a marble statue in the middle of the garden, his blue eyes, veiled by the coldness of his "heart," staring at Yuna's still body. Inside him, there was a silent storm, a muffled scream that no one could hear: "Why? Why is the nightmare repeating itself? What did I do wrong? Is it my weakness? No... I was strong, I was very strong, and yet nothing changed! For the second time, I stand helpless, and I am saved by a high blood price... First, Mother Helen, and now Mother Yuna... Why?! Didn't I distance myself from them all to ensure their safety? Am I not the constant cause of trouble? I am truly a lowly... damned... trivial person! I wish that blow had pierced my heart and not touched a hair of yours, Mother... I did not deserve this sacrifice."
Suddenly, with a sudden movement, Arius brought his fist down onto the ground, shattering the stone beneath his hand in a silent explosion of pent-up anger. Then, he moved toward his collapsed sister, Lena, knelt beside her, hugging her tightly, and whispered into her ear in a raspy, dry voice: "Cry... cry for yourself and for me too, sister... I will never stop you; in fact, I envy you now, because you have the ability to do what I cannot... Cry for all of us."
The next day, darkness blanketed the city. Yuna's funeral was held in a majestic procession attended by hundreds of acquaintances and friends who knew of her virtue and courage. Arius stood before the earthen grave, watching the dirt cover her body, his features still frozen as if they were an iron mask.
Amidst the crowd, his old friends, Kundi and Rubina, stepped forward. Without a moment's hesitation, they rushed over and hugged Arius in a long and emotional embrace. They said to him in unison: "Don't be sad, Arius, we are with you."
Arius replied with his cold, inwardly shattered voice: "I wish I could feel sadness, my dear friends... I wish this lump in my chest would leave."
Rubina looked at him with teary eyes and said: "I am sure Aunt Yuna would never want to see you like this. She sacrificed herself so you could live strong... Be strong, Arius." Kundi patted his friend's back warmly: "Yes, my friend, do not give in to these dark thoughts. Be like the mountains as we have always known you, and let us see your cheerful spirit again... We need you."
Arius looked at them, a faint, pale smile appeared that did not reach his eyes, and he said: "Thank you very much... your presence means a lot to me." The three embraced in a farewell, and Rubina and Kundi whispered: "May her soul rest in peace," then they left the place with sorrow.
Arius returned to staring at the silent grave, while on the opposite side, Raimus held Lena, who refused to stop crying, trying to ease the burden of the loss for her. The cemetery was buzzing with attendees; people leaving, others venting their sorrows, and everyone feeling the bitterness of the loss Yuna had left behind.
But Arius remained where he was, feeling that something in this world had broken forever, and that the power he had acquired was nothing but a golden shackle preventing him from living his humanity.
Amidst those surroundings heavy with the scent of earth and sorrow, a sudden silence fell over the cemetery, and whispers rose among the attendees. This silence was broken by the entry of two women whose presence overflowed with dignity and majestic beauty; their long purple hair flowed behind them like silk, and their presence was enough to make everyone clear the path for them unconsciously.
Arlin froze in her place and whispered to Wang with a tone full of caution: "What brought these two here? And at this particular time?" As for King Karma, his eyes widened with surprise mixed with his usual malice, and he muttered to himself: "Amazing, amazing... what are my eyes seeing? Nahira in the flesh in the cemetery of mortals?"
Nahira advanced with Clarisse by her side, who could not remain in the First World after news of the tragedy that befell her fiancé, Arius, reached her. Nahira arrived before Karma, who welcomed her with an affected smile, saying: "It is very strange for you to come, my dear, to places as gloomy as these... What drove a lady like you to visit graves?"
Nahira answered coldly, glancing at Arius: "I didn't want to come at all, but my sister, as soon as she heard about the death of her fiancé's mother, insisted strongly on coming... and I am only here to prevent her from causing trouble or doing something foolish."
Karma raised his eyebrows in surprise: "Oh! Is this your sister? Welcome, Miss, I am Karma, Lord of the Ten Worlds..." But Clarisse did not give him the slightest attention; her eyes were focused only on that rigid back in front of the grave. She completely ignored the Lord of the Worlds and walked with steady steps toward Arius, who was standing like an iceberg.
Clarisse approached him, wrapped her arms around his back, hugged him from behind, resting her head on his back, and whispered in a voice full of longing and sorrow: "Ah, my dear... how I missed you so much, even though you were away from me for only two days, they felt like eons... I am by your side now."
Arius did not turn around. His body did not shake, and his hands did not move to hold hers. He remained staring at "Yuna's" grave, his sharp eyes reflecting a terrifying emptiness, as if Clarisse's warm feelings had collided with a wall of absolute frost that her "cold heart" had left in his soul.
Clarisse whispered in a tender tone while still hugging him: "Ah, Arius... I feel this pain of yours, and I realize fully that the loss is bitter and difficult, but what can we do? It is fate, from which there is no escape..."
Arius did not blink an eye, nor did he give any indication that he had heard her, which made Clarisse feel extremely embarrassed, as if she were talking to a wall of rock before the eyes of those present. She stepped to stand directly before his sight and tried to tease him in an old style they used to have to break the ice, so she said in a joking, military tone: "From Command Center to Lieutenant Arius... do you hear me? Answer!"
Arius remained pale, then his voice finally came out, cold as the breath of death: "Please... enough. Leave me alone for a while."
But Clarisse insisted and grabbed his hands tightly: "I will not leave you like this! You must accept the truth, do you understand? You must move on!"
At that moment, Arius's eyes turned into a faint silver glow, and he looked at her with a look that made the blood freeze in her veins: "Accept what? Do I accept the idea that my mother died while trying to protect scum like me? Do I accept the fact that I was the 'strong one' there and she was the 'weak one', and yet she is the one who redeemed me with her soul while I was as helpless as dirt on the ground? What should I accept, Clarisse? Please... leave me alone for some time."
The mourners began to leave, and the voices in the cemetery gradually faded. King Karma and the Grand Master approached Lena and the others, and said with reverence: "If you need anything, we are always there... The Ten Worlds are at your disposal." Then they left the place through an energy portal.
Nahira turned to her sister and said sharply: "Let's go, Clarisse, the funeral is over." Clarisse refused to move and said insistently: "I won't go! I will stay with Arius until he returns with me to the First World." Nahira sighed in annoyance as she left with Karma, and growled sharply: "This girl will bring about her own end one day because of this stubbornness!"
Everyone left, and no one remained in the silence of the cemetery except Arius, Lena, Raimus, Wang, Arlin... and Clarisse, who was clutching Arius's cold hand as if she feared his disappearance.
Suddenly, a young girl broke through the remaining crowd and ran toward them; it was Akane, Lena's close friend. As soon as Lena saw her, she threw herself into her arms and burst into bitter tears and new screaming, and Akane joined her in sobbing, holding her tightly, which caused the atmosphere of the cemetery to fill again with the wailing of an unceasing loss.
Arius stood watching the two friends' hug, and at that moment, he began to feel a strange pressure in his chest; as if his "heart was growing colder" and he was losing all feeling in it, and yet he still felt its rapid beats.
Complete silence blanketed the cemetery, in which nothing remained but the echo of cold winds. Arius tried to resist, but Clarisse's insistence and her clinging to his arm began to break his rigidity gradually. He followed her with mechanical steps, but with every step, he turned his whole body to stare at his mother's grave, as if he feared the earth would swallow it and it would disappear forever.
At the cemetery gate, Arius took one last look, a look that carried a hidden vow in the depths of his dark soul: "No matter what happens, I will not lose anyone else... even if I have to burn the Ten Worlds, I will protect what is left for me."
Everyone walked the streets of the city, which snow had covered in a pure white cloak, as if nature was trying to wash away the traces of blood and destruction that had happened yesterday. When they reached the family house fence, Clarisse stopped in amazement, wiping snow from her clothes, and said: "Amazing, my dear! Did you really live here? It's a huge and amazing house... I didn't imagine your house would be this spacious."
Arius answered her in a faint voice, his tone colder than the snow surrounding them: "And what is the use of its size, Clarisse? This house has lost its soul... The walls are now just deaf stones after the owner of the heart that gave them life has gone."
They entered inside, and Raimus immediately lit the fireplace to dispel the coldness of their bodies, but the coldness of their hearts was difficult to extinguish. Lena sat in the corner, still clinging to her friend Akane, who had not left her for a moment, whispering words of comfort to her while Lena's body shook from silent crying.
On the other side, Wang, Arlin, and Raimus sat side by side, staring at the fireplace flames in complete silence; events had accelerated to a degree that made their minds unable to grasp the magnitude of the loss or think about the next step.
As for Arius, he did not sit with them on the sofas but took the stairs as his place. He sat there with his head bowed, staring at the floorboards as if he were reading the lines of his fate written there. Clarisse sat beside him, watching him with eyes filled with confusion and anxiety; this was the first time she had seen Arius this weak, mixed with a deadly coldness, as if the man she loved had been replaced by another entity she didn't know how to reach.
Suddenly, the ground shook slightly, and Arius's eyes glowed silver for one second before disappearing. It seems the outside world will not give him a long chance to mourn.
After a period of silence that was only broken by the crackling of the fireplace wood, Clarisse tried to break the gloomy atmosphere, so she said in a tone she tried to make cheerful: "So, my dear, where is your room that you used to sleep in?"
Arius did not lift his head from the floor, but pointed his hand with a mechanical movement toward the upper floor. Clarisse got up and took his hand, and pulled him gently to go up with her. Arius opened the door to his old room, and the scent of aged memories drifted out; everything was in its place, exactly as he had left it before his bloody journey through the worlds began.
Clarisse rushed forward with childlike enthusiasm, saying: "This is truly wonderful! I can't believe it... in this room slept my beautiful, dear Arius!" Then she jumped onto the bed and threw herself onto it, began to smell his pillow deeply as if she were inhaling the scent of paradise, and stretched out on the bed with a light, childish laugh.
While Clarisse was immersed in her little world, Arius headed toward his old wooden desk. His eyes fell on a small slip of paper on which it was written in a handwriting he knew very well: "Open the drawer."
He pulled the drawer slowly, to find a metal box tightly closed. He opened it, and the scent of "cinnamon and sugar cookies," which he loved in his childhood, wafted out. He took a piece and put it in his mouth. At that moment, he felt a bitter lump choking his throat; and because he had lost the ability to truly cry due to the transformation of "that stranger," he began to imagine in his mind the image of his tears pouring profusely onto the cookie.
He said in a cold voice, but trembling from within: "It's delicious... exactly as I used to love."
Meanwhile, Clarisse had opened his closet and taken out an old photo album. She opened it and began flipping through the pages with joy, watching pictures of Arius as a small child, and pictures of him with his father, mother, and sister, and said with enthusiasm: "This treasure is mine alone! I won't let anyone see it!"
Arius looked at her with a calm gaze, then took a piece of the cookie and placed it gently in her mouth. Clarisse swallowed it and her eyes widened in amazement: "Amazing! It's very delicious! Who made it?"
Arius answered while staring into the void: "My dear mother... as if she expected that I would come here one day, and need this taste."
Clarisse smiled and hugged the album to her chest, saying: "Yes... yes, I am sure she was very smart to realize that; she knew that your heart would need this hug even if she were absent."
Arius sat on the edge of the bed beside her, placed his hand on the metal box, and whispered with a heart burdened with belated gratitude: "Yes... she was very smart." Arius remained sitting on the edge of his bed, tossed by waves of remorse that did not calm down, and said in a voice as faint as if he were mimicking himself: "Despite all that, I was the fool... if I hadn't left here that day, none of this would have happened. I just wanted to get away to keep the harm away from them... but I brought the harm with my own hands."
Clarisse turned to him, and with extreme tenderness, hugged him from his shoulders and kissed his cheek a delicate kiss, and said in a tone filled with insistence: "Do not blame yourself, my dear, it is a matter that happened... It is fate's will and we must accept it. But I promise you that we will get past this together, my beautiful prince... I will never abandon you."
Arius averted his gaze from her and turned his look toward the window; where the snow had begun to fall with extreme intensity, turning the outside world into endless silent whiteness. He said with a coldness that indicated deep spiritual exhaustion: "I am tired... very tired."
Clarisse realized the magnitude of the burden he was carrying under his chest, so she said gently: "Well, what do you think about lying down and sleeping in my arms, my dear? I will be by your side."
Arius nodded slowly and replied in a burdened voice: "I really need to sleep... I will sleep in my bed for a little while. But... I need to stay alone, I want to dwell a little in this void."
Clarisse looked at him with an anxious heart, but she respected his desire to isolate, so she said: "Very well, my dear, I will leave you alone for a little while. Sleep well now, and regain your strength." Arius stretched out on his old bed, so Clarisse covered him with his warm blanket, and kissed his head, saying: "Sweet dreams, my dear."
She turned off the lights and left the room, closing the door behind her with complete quietness. No sooner had her feet stepped into the outer hallway than she let out a long, deep sigh, a sigh loaded with worry and grief for what had become of her fiancé's condition, as if she were carrying the weight of the terrible and painful events that had happened to him. Clarisse descended the stairs with graceful steps, to find the complete silence choking the lower lounge. Arlin was sitting with her arms crossed on the sofa, watching the fire in the fireplace with piercing eyes, before lifting her gaze toward Clarisse and saying in a cautious tone: "So, you are Nahira's younger sister... and Arius's fiancé?"
Clarisse smiled with the dignity befitting her status and replied: "And you must be Arlin, ruler of this world. I have truly been honored to meet you, and I am happy that you know about me."
Outwardly, Clarisse seemed like a quiet and gentle girl, but Arlin felt a warning cry emanating from her instincts as a ruler. Arlin said to herself, with surprise paralyzing her thinking: "What is this that I see before me? Is this just a girl or a monster wearing a human form? I cannot believe the amount of her energy... my sense of the Raizo cannot count the enormity of her aura, it exceeds everything I have known!"
Clarisse sat on one of the sofas, and her purple eyes began to examine those present with sharp intelligence. She said in her mind: "Amazing, so this is Arius's family and his friends... it seems my dear was a very special person to be friends with one of the rulers of the worlds. That is his collapsed sister, but... the one standing in front of the fireplace, who is he?"
Raimus noticed her focused gaze on him, so he asked her, puzzled: "Is there something? Why are you looking at me like that?"
Clarisse was slightly flustered and laughed lightly: "No, no, nothing! Just... I am impressed by the aura that surrounds you." Raimus replied with surprise: "But I am not activating the aura now, I am in a state of complete stillness."
Clarisse looked at him deeply and said in a mysterious tone: "Oh no, I am not talking about the external Raizo. I see your inner aura... and it is very bright and strong in a strange and impressive way, but unfortunately, it is still asleep, waiting for someone to wake it."
Raimus's eyes widened and he said: "What do you mean? An asleep aura?" Clarisse evaded answering, saying: "No, nothing... don't worry, just a passing remark, hahaha."
Wang broke the thread of conversation, asking with an anxious tone: "What is Arius doing now? The silence that surrounds his room is very scary, I don't hear any sound from him."
Clarisse answered, sighing: "He is asleep, and he clearly asked that no one disturb him... he needs peace." Wang looked at her, and felt a dignity in her tone that made him retreat from any other question, and said: "We... well, that is his right. He exerted terrifying effort in the previous fight, his energy reached levels I have never seen in my life."
Silence prevailed again, and after a while, Arlin broke the circle of complete silence, staring into the void as if she still saw the flicker of silver in her imagination, and said: "You know... in that fight, and when Arius turned into that silver form again, even though I never felt his power level, I felt as if he had become something else entirely... something that exceeds our definition of creatures."
Wang nodded his head with reverence and confusion, completing her speech: "You are right, my lady... even though we are rulers and are considered among the highest individuals in the cosmic unit, we could not feel the energy of a 'mortal.' The same thing happened at the time of the championship, and I truly find this overlap very confusing... how can a Raizo disappear from our senses while he is wiping out entire dimensions?"
Raimus intervened, with a serious tone filling his voice: "Did you notice something else more strange? His fighting style, his movements... everything was different. He was just 'perfect' to a terrifying degree, there were never any gaps in his defense or offense. That silver form is very strange, for when he was possessed by it, he seemed like a machine seeking only to win and erase, whatever the result or the price that might be at the expense of Arius himself."
Wang commented while stroking his chin in thought: "Observant, Raimus... there must be a secret behind that power, and it seems Arius himself does not know its essence; it appears suddenly from nowhere in moments of absolute despair, as if Arius's body is undergoing biological changes that change the concept of his nature to suit the idea of one of survival and remaining until the end, whatever the price or the compensation."
At that moment, Lena lifted her head heavy with tears, and her raspy voice dripped with pain, then a scream that shook the hall entirely: "How long will calamities stay over our heads? First, my father died because of a strange monster, and secondly, my mother because of a deranged enemy... and now my brother, what has happened to our family? Why us in particular?"
The words were tearing at the hearts of those present, so her friend Akane stepped forward quickly and surrounded her shoulder with tenderness, saying: "It's okay, Lena... it's okay. Come on, let's go rest in your room, staying here will increase your fatigue."
Akane supported Lena and they went up the stairs slowly, while the gazes of Wang, Arlin, and Raimus followed them with deep sadness and resentment for this situation, which they were not to be envied for. Quietness prevailed again, but it was a quietness that precedes storms that no one knows when they will begin.