CHAPTER 187: ALONE

Blood. So much blood. A white-haired boy, covered in snow and crimson, slammed a rock straight into a man’s head. Repeated, desperate strikes battled for his sanity. One slam—the man’s screams echoed through the glacial hellscape. The second, with frostbite numbing him, dulled and detached his emotions. The third, a final slam—his legs were chopped off quickly, absolute pain searing as he rolled over pitifully.

. . .

The fragmented vision of the future slowly dissolved into nothingness.

The emptiness in Asahi’s heart deepened as he stared at the towering peak above him. Aletha was nowhere in sight. Only Asahi remained. Snow fell relentlessly in thick flurries, scraping against his numb feet.

It seemed that he had teleported, but without his sister and Telos, he was completely and utterly alone.

The encounter with Aiyana left him utterly speechless. Her words echoed in his mind, refusing to fade away.

"I destroyed our world."

It left a bad impression on him. What made the feeling even worse was that the enemy he was so looking forward to killing was his own sister.

"Why? Why Aiyana?" Asahi said, his feet shaking at the cold temperatures. "Where is... Aletha?"

Only silence replied to his words. That and the frosty flakes of snow that hammered him in grand amounts. Asahi, having no great train of thought, screamed out to the wilderness of Astait.

"What did you do to Aletha?!"

Again, silence answered. As he was about to jump into a pool of icy water, trying to search for her, a wild boar with mushrooms on its head dashed toward him. Completely taken off guard, he hadn’t thought straight.

First, he used his arms, trying to throw blows at the being. But that ended terribly, and he was left wounded on the ground.

The burning pain trickled down Asahi as he rolled on the snow like a dying dog. He was left weak and miserable, worse than Linuxinia ever was. But what made it even worse, now Aletha vanished, was that he didn’t have the powerful aura that resonated with him during his fight with Alaunus.

Instead, he was left like a shrew, cast out to the fading winter and into inner darkness.

After getting up and shivering, Asahi recollected all the friends he had made along the way. Kendra, Joshilyn, Ubel, and Alai, all of them gone in the blink of an eye. He was truly lonely. And he couldn’t even say goodbye to them, making the situation worse than it ever was.

"Kendra... Ubel... where are you all?" Asahi said, vomiting in fear. "Where is everybody?"

Now stuck in this predicament, knowing not what to do next, Asahi desperately tried to gain a grasp of where he was, opening out his magical map and found himself to be...

"Sleepy Serpent Shores?" He retraced his words, showing a wonderful white vista.

His hands trembled from the rising cold. Only the glass window of the frozen shores echoed with the expanse of glaciers and a hefty amount of snow.

The only thing that gave him warmth was the shimmering scarf sashed at his waist. With this, he could ignite a fire. But first, he needed some sticks.

So, after pursuing an icicle mouse, he found a few trees. But most of it had already been choked up by piles upon piles of snow.

"It seems I’m..." He looked down at the village, which sloped southward into the frosty shores. "In Astait."

. . .

Hope dwindled the more he dragged his bare feet in the freezing weather.

Blood and dirt spilled from his body, and pain throbbed in his chest.

Alone in the frozen wasteland, he wished for someone to help him. But instead,

"Get lost, kid. I ain’t giving you squat."

A voice sounded from beyond.

"Let’s go kick this vanilla boy’s butt."

Asahi’s emotions burst as four thieves kicked him to the brink of death in the alley.

"Please, help me out."

"Get lost, I said!"

After being thrown out, Asahi was shoved into icy water and left exposed by the attackers.

Now with truly nothing left, Asahi froze in place, unable to think of what to do.

Despair stretched thin inside him. No one helped. They either stared, kicked, or tossed him aside.

"W...What did I do to deserve this?" He screamed, tears choking him dry. "Aiyana... where is... Aletha?"

Like before, silence just remained in him. Internally, he was screaming, begging for this shivering nightmare to end. But just as he grabbed a sharp point of the stick--

"Hey! Look, Dad! Someone’s here."

A pink-haired maiden appeared before his eyes. A saving grace. Quickly, she noticed the boy was topless.

"Those damn wretched scoundrels." The father said as he quickly grabbed hold of Asahi’s whole body. "Take him to the cabin. Warm him up. I haven’t seen a white-haired being in a long time."

Just as commanded, the pink-haired, cyan-eyed girl helped Asahi out and dragged him across the ground, dust spilling out like a shattered hourglass.

The world blurred for Asahi, memories flooding in like a silent tide.

. . .

"Take them to the castle," the tall, white-haired woman ordered. "At once! I don’t want them to see us perish."

As the order was given, a blinding light surged toward them, devouring every trace of the world in the background..

"Yes, madam Achlys."

Obeying the command, the two blond-haired figures each grabbed Asahi, Aletha, and Aiyana by the arms and hurriedly guided them away to their rooms.

As calamity erupted outside, Acheros hurled a giant barrier at the wall, attempting to shield those inside. However, the ravenous light swept through, destroying everything and everyone except a scarf that remained clinging to the bedroom, and the final three members of the Adtraic family.

With a deep, bittersweet smile, Achlys and Acheros found solace knowing they had spared their children from witnessing their final moments.

. . .

Gradually, the past dissolved, pulling Asahi back to the present moment.

Outside, night pressed close. Inside, the warmth of the cabin gently replaced chaos with calm.

"So tell me, how can a white haired folk find their damn way in a place like this?" A voice of older age echoed over the walls of bark.

"Please, just hear me out. We found him..." She took two steps back. "In the wilderness, in the Serpent’s Shores?"

"Well, I’ll be damned. Haven’t seen a white-haired fella like this in a long time. That’s because people die in old age."

"Grandpa, just trust him." The pink-haired girl said and asked the two of them. "You two, Dad."

The father, who had just reached forty, bowed his dark head to the frozen Asahi, trying to present himself in a formal manner, his sharp cyan eyes darting over to him.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Trid, the father of Primrose, the girl you see next to you."

As Asahi froze, in shock and despair, the grandpa, four-legged, stood up like a turtle and murmured.

"Damn, don’t have to look shy, fella."

"Grandpa, stop saying damn every four seconds," Primrose said as she grabbed a blanket. "Here. This shall help you warm up. My name is Primrose. I live with those dorks you see in front."

Asahi couldn’t help but feel surprised at the hospitality. He thought he would die in the corner of the icy tundra just like that. But now, after knowing that these three figures might warm him up and help him out, it brought relief to his bones.

But just as he could speak, pain enveloped half his arm. Quickly, he reeled over, bending over and feeling his toes cramp.

"Ow!"

"Don’t move, it will get worse if you continue," Primrose said.

Suddenly, she pulled something from the shelf, poured green essence from the canister, and spread it over his blistering wound.

"Soil from Linuxinia’s Sanctuary made me and my father a fortune," she said. "But we donate it to the poor in Erunkshinklde city. Anyway..." She paused deeply. "How did you end up like this?"

Asahi hadn’t truly spoken the moment he had awakened. It hurt his throat every time he talked, mainly because he almost choked. He took an icy glance out the window, and immediately, the grandpa intervened.

"Where are you going all damn by yourself?" He said as he grabbed a mug of hot chocolate. "Come here and warm up. It won’t hurt ya."

After trying desperately to find his sister, Asahi had no choice but to calm down and slow down. If anything, it would’ve been worse for him and his sanity to leave him in the wild unscathed and abandon the glimmer of hope that was Primrose.

So instead of going by himself, Asahi chose to dwell here, far from the snowstorm that impeded his progress. And hopefully,

"Find Aiyana."

His fists tightened in anger, breath caught in rage. Never would he expect that his own sister could be his greatest enemy.

It was because of her that he was left in this mess; it was because of her that this whole world changed in the first place, and it was she who was with the Ruler of The Forgotten.

His mind spiraled with confusion. If he had to choose a side, which would he take?

That was the question that lingered as he sipped hot chocolate.