Chapter 7: War

Morning arrived, the sun possessing an intensity of abnormal degrees.

The purple-haired sibling opened his eyes slowly, observing as the light of the sun entered over the window, illuminating the entirety of the room… It was way too intense. The lights of his brother Ikaros remained inside of their owner, something Tier appreciated, otherwise he’d surely feel lots of heat if they were outside of his brother. Shifting over to the opposing side, he glanced over at his brother… who stood in front of the window, bright eyes set directly towards the sun. He seemed to be absent, paralyzed… maybe even inexistent.

“Are you alright? Is the light bothering you?” Tier asked with a soft voice as he touched his shoulder with the same softness portrayed with his voice.

“…I’m alright.” The words formed between floating lights that appeared before Tier. He sighed, relieved as Ikaros’s eyes lowered, causing that the glow they had beforehand disappeared, and he could finally maintain visual contact. “Are you ready?”

“It’s now or never.” Tier responded sure of what he was saying. It was time to fulfill what they had promised. It was time to finish it all. Both of them stood and prepared everything, taking care of physical and mental necessities until they were completely ready. This time, they would be the treat looming about.

The two walked out of the room and continued their way into the city, until they reached the middle point of it. Yes, this was the main plaza of the village, at the very center. Greeting everyone the saw around, Tier repeated to himself mentally that this is what they should do… that this was right… Ikaros, on the other hand, only followed him, paying close attention to his brother’s movements, making sure he was alright. He seemed well-rested, at least, so he was only worried about his mental state.

“Here.” Tier whispered once he found an area full of elohde trees surrounding it. It didn’t seem to be an area of the plaza itself, more like a small corner of nature that abruptly broke the architecture of the plaza. This was the place Tier wanted to be in… It was the place in which he wanted to rest forever, alongside his brother, covered in the leaves of those trees.

Ikaros nodded and took his hand, helping him crouch down and kneel in the pastel-blue and yellow grass. For the last time, they stared at each other in tranquility and smiled. Both of them convinced themselves once more that this was what they should do… There was no going back. Stepping away, Ikaros stood in front of the other, they both took a deep breath in unison and…

The light waves Ikaros wielded started manifesting at the same moment in which Tier remained prostrated on the ground, his arms at the mercy of the grass, his eyes gazing upon the firmament. It was easy to assume he was conducting a conjuring, as his eyes slowly began to turn transparent. Anyone could say they were white or that they were glimmering… though the truth was that only transparency crossed through them, not a hint of color was manifested in them.

He was imploring… Imploring that everything he had known before stopped existing once and for all. Absolutely everything. The love he felt for those people, the Witches of that Village and the ones he was unable to get to know, that magical light that illuminated them, the trees and grass that surrounded them, the village itself with its ideals and rules. Everything had to disappear, absolutely everything he once knew… even the profound pain he was feeling at this very moment, that dagger that pushed him to continue with such a cruel act… everything had to be snuffed out.

Ikaros, on the other hand, started to wreak havoc with his waves of light, whipping as if they were multiple whips around random areas of the village. This alarmed the Witches, principally Ariadne, who hurried on her way to rally her troops. She ordered them to get ready for battle immediately. Officially, Ikaros had lost his mind, turning into the menace they all feared he was, that’s what she informed them. There was no time for doubts, so they proceeded to run towards the designated point, following Ariadne’s steps, the ones that looked for the roots of those lights that continued to destroy everything they touched.

“We’ve trained for this. Do not allow him to live any longer! We must eliminate him once and for all, only then can we be saved!” Ariadne’s voice rose, her blonde hair flowing against the force of the wind manifested due to the stars she was invoking. She was getting ready to attack Ikaros… and destroy him. Unlike him, she had a myriad of stars at her disposal… He only had one. She could defeat him, she thought.

The other Witches followed and prepared their own conjuring, sure about what they had to do. This was a war and they had to give it their all if they wanted to survive. They had prepared for a similar outcome, thanks to Ariadne, so they were confident that they could succeed, one way or another.

Though, once they reached the menace threatening their lives, Ariadne’s steps and thoughts came to a halt.

The blonde lady moved her glance away from Ikaros… towards the boy that was kneeling on the ground behind him.

“Is that… Tier?” she asked herself in between a whisper that showed disbelief, since it seemed that Ikaros was protecting Tier… and that he was conducting a ritual of sorts that was definitely uncommon. Everyone behind her was just as confused as she was, conflicting emotions rising. Tier was their friend… He would never… want to attack Witches, right? He wasn’t the threat, it had always been Ikaros. Their eyes tried to negate what they were witnessing, though the reality of Tier being the sole one conjuring was still vivid… If only she could reach him, maybe she could ask him and even convince him of, instead, shifting this nonsense towards his brother, the real threat.

“Attack Ikaros, fast! We must stop his madness!” She shouted once more, causing the others to react and throw their attacks towards the master of the sun, but he remained unfazed. He glanced upon the eyes of all of his opponents for some seconds before throwing strings of light towards them. He attacked them all at once, as there was no time to waste. He shoot to kill, just as they had planned.

On his side… Tier could not hear a thing, not the war or the voices. On his insides and outside, on every part of his body and soul… nothing else existed aside from the words he repeated on his mind, the words he whispered every now and then. He wished for nothing to exist, that nothing ever existed. He repeated it, over and over. Aside from this, there was nothing. Aside from that, nothing else existed. Not his life, nor the ones of his friends, or his brother’s. Only this wish existed… and this wish was the only thing that remained. In Nothingness. In the Great Nothingness. On the place where nothing else could ever exist. That was the place where Tier was.

And he knew that, before him others had been here… but no one ever remained for so long. In this space of black and white, in this place where wishes as dark and twisted as the ones he repeated reigned supreme. Chanted in small words, his wish continued to reign, causing that place to grow darker and darker, even the white had its darkness. There was nothing there… He glanced from one side to the next… and he was met with nothing, with his sin and wish. This and nothing else.

If he could feel, surely, he’d be scared. A place like this was not apt for anyone to remain in… But his feelings did not exist… Nothing at all did. Nothing. Nothing ever. Nothing. His wish to eliminate the Witches… And nothing else. It repeated, even though it was so tiresome, it repeated during every second, nonstop. Forever… until nothing existed. That’s how it continued. In that space that didn’t exist either, that’s where he was. And slowly, that nothingness… started to trespass to the outside world, the world in which his body remained prostrated.

Slowly, the Witches started noticing it. The edge of the Village, the Perimeter… it was disappearing… Onto Nothingness. There was nothing there. And that… truly horrified them. Everything was disappearing, slowly but surely… Even one of the Witches observing, petrified, disappeared without even having a chance to register what was going on… That’s how nothing approached. They didn’t disappear in ashes or fragments… Simply… everything turned invisible, untouchable, inexistent. They were disappearing, leaving behind a white light, the very one their own eyes simulated just to explain what was happening before them… Since, in reality, after they disappeared… nothing remained. Literally nothing remained there, nothing was there… It was hard to digest, so all of them could see the lie of the white light that was left behind… so their brains could understand what was happening.

This wasn’t happening in silence, however. Heart-wrenching screams, sobs, war cries, desperation, despair, all of those things were audible at that moment… Yet, Tier heard none of it. He could hear nothing. Because there was nothing. To him… there were only his wishes and that space… His wishes consuming him completely. So much so that even his body started to tremble. He didn’t know how much time had passed by, his sense of time had disappeared, he could only think of one thing. And that’s how he remained. His body outside of that space was suffering the consequences of his prolonged stay. How much time had passed since he entered that space? How much time had passed since his tears had started to flow due to the heavy burden he carried, the pain of repeating such a treacherous wish over and over again, of seeking the very destruction he once feared?

Indeed, it had been a lot of time. Though the light of the sun remained up top, it was clear that they had all been fighting for a long time… So much time, yes… Half of the Village had disappeared already. Lots of those villagers had been assassinated by Tier and his brother. Ariadne was still standing and, though she had been incredulous as to what she had heard about the Village disappearing… Once she witnessed the white light approach her slowly… she knew… and her power started weakening.

“It can’t be… Tier was… He was the threat. The looming threat we had tried so hard to prepare for years ago… It was Tier… He’s—” the spark of light that attacked her now hadn’t been the white light, but the lights Ikaros wielded, holding her by the throat, elevating her during her most vulnerable moment. Trying to break free from his grasp, Ariadne threw her stellar lights at him, yet he blocked them with ease… Right now, he was not doubting anything at all, unlike her.

But the words she said left him pensive. Even though he slowly crushed her neck, he was still thinking – or attempting to do so – with the voice of the sun repeatedly echoing in his interior. It didn’t shut up; it disrupted his peace. He wanted to think… to think very diligently upon her words. He knew it was important, but…

“Stop it already!” he screamed back inside his thoughts to the sun, causing all of his power to fall and move back inside of him, liberating Ariadne and all of the others he had been attacking in the process. He placed both hands over the sides of his head, clenching himself. He wanted to think… about that… what he was remembering. He needed to do it, to think upon it.

This moment of weakness allowed Ariadne to regain her strength. She would be the one to defeat him. That’s what she had proposed to herself. She had to be stronger. The others would follow her orders, helping her rise and prepare her magical powers once again. She had to put an end to this war while she still could.