Another day had passed,
And only the soft shattering sounds of the mirrors could be heard from outside.
Nyomi didn't come; no one knows where she had gone after the incident of her dreaming her supposed-to-be life.
Lidien could only fake a smile. Though he really did what he promised... not to harm Nyomi in physical means, it made him disregard and devastate the emotions of someone who has no power to fight back.
He didn't know he was slowly... coming back to his usual self, the impassiveness of his feelings towards others, but not cold enough to carry out a massacre.
Maybe because the influence of the old Lidien's corruption was diminishing, and the environment he was abruptly put into... a war without reasons, made him change in a way that fit to survive... in a world full of monsters, being a monster himself was the only way to survive.
Yet, realizing it now, his actions that he thought were normal to him... eating someone's heart to upgrade his Whisper of the Flesh, absorbing Soul Essence from someone he promised to help, and planning a massacre of the Dark Wolf Clan to understand what blood is--just to make a Blood Essence to revive his sister... made him grit his teeth while watching the chaotic mirrors outside.
'What happened to me?'
Lidien knows what he did was wrong... and it was even immoral.
'But what could I do in that situation? I'm too weak just to maintain my sanity... I'm not even sure who I am now!'
His eyes welled up, yet he steeled his resolve.
Gulping, he lay down on the bed and stared at the ceiling...
'It's too late to regret now. I can't blame the influence of someone dead for my previous actions... I can only hope that I will not hurt someone who's innocent and powerless... Especially in the upcoming war with the Dark Wolf Clan...'
Smiling, he took a deep breath and added.
'I'm not even a Demon now... I'm just myself, with a dead god inside of me, waiting to be revived.'
Lidien activated his Incite of Blood, just enough intensity not to overheat his Sparkline.
Then he breathed rapidly... as he felt that his consciousness was blacking out, he took a deep breath and focused all the tension, all his remaining strength... into the muscles of his chest and diaphragm.
He felt his body could burst, his blood vessels on his head enlarged and throbbed from the pressure, and before his consciousness began to fade...
He drove both fists, one over the other, into his chest, just below the sternum.
Stopping his heart for a fraction of a second.
***
A soft sound of a flapping curtain and the melodic chirping of birds added beauty to the morning.
As the sunlight licked a child's face, he woke with a start.
"M-Mom? D-Dad?!"
Tears welled in the boy's eyes as he gripped the hospital blanket with his small, weak hands.
Creak!
The door opened... A woman, her face tired but with a radiant joy, hurried in, placing a basket of fruits on the small table beside the child's bed.
"What happened, my baby? Why are you crying?"
The child stared at her with reddened eyes and hugged her tightly, burying his face in her chest.
"I-I had a nightmare... I was a monster! I... I ate a woman's heart!"
The woman giggled with a sound of pure relief and embraced him fully.
"My sweet boy, what an imagination you have."
She wiped the tears streaming down his cheek, then kissed it.
"It was just a dream. You're safe now."
She then helped him sit up. His small eyes scanned the sterile room, looking at his thin limbs and the snaking wires that connected him to a machine with a gentle, rhythmic beep.
"The doctor says we can leave this afternoon," she said, her voice trembling slightly.
"You're a survivor, my brave boy. You can do anything now. You can read all the books in the world..."
As she covered her mouth with both hands, fresh tears welled up.
"You can have the normal, happy life you deserve, Lidien..."
The memory felt real, as his supposed-to-be life branched out into different paths, choosing what his heart wanted to be... the true face of himself.
Years passed in a heartbeat.
Lidien, who survived his leukemia, became the child his parents wished him to be...
A brilliant boy who loved to read and study, yet, even if he was smart enough to compete nationally,
His accomplishments didn't make him arrogant, for he knows there's still someone much better than him.
As the sole child of a wealthy family, all his wishes, all he wanted, even if he didn't need it... were gifted to him by his loving mother and father.
Yet, it didn't make him become selfish; on the contrary, it made him kind...
As a survivor of cancer at a young age, and with his brilliant mind, he became a speaker who helps others not to lose hope...
Encouraging everyone, the same as him, to fight the upcoming future... even if it's death waiting for them.
He even established his own foundation with the help of his father and tried to manage it with the help of his mother...
Though it could only rely on the gifts and donations of others, Lidien did his best to help those cancer patients who had lost their light.
He lived a life of purpose, built directly upon the love and relief his parents gave him.
This was the beautiful, shimmering lie his soul constructed in the face of the void.
And then, the lie was shattered on the fateful night that came... as the time of his death was relived like a normal day.
Lidien, now an adult, silently walked along the way, going to the job he found to work while being a student to support his needs...
Thinking to be independent and not rely on his parents, who, without a doubt, gave him all he needed.
Then...
A muzzle was pointed at his head, and the last sound that he heard was the click of the trigger pulled by the mugger.
The fantasy of a meaningful life was violently overwritten by the meaningless reality of his death.
The world dissolved into a crushing, silent darkness. The love had been real. The potential had been real. The end was sudden, stupid, and unfair.
And time seemed to stretch, then it stopped.
As the only thing that was running was his mind, alive...
From the void, a presence manifested. It was the silence given form.
Then a voice, cold and bored, spoke into his soul.
"A meaningless end..."