Days later, on the other side of the city, inside a small one-bedroom apartment, Miyu lay on her futon, covered from head to toe with a white blanket, leaving only her face exposed.
Deep dark circles framed her eyes—her hair was a mess, her face red and sore from crying so much. Boxes of instant food littered the floor, and like its owner, the entire place was a disaster.
She stared into nothingness in silence when, suddenly, someone knocked on the door. She glanced at it from the corner of her eye, then sank back into her own misery.
"Are you there, Miyu?" a voice asked from the other side of the door. It was Elara, though she no longer sounded as firm and serious as usual.
Dragging herself up, Miyu stood. Still wrapped in the blanket, she walked toward the door. Her hands felt heavy, but she managed to turn the knob.
The door opened—Elara, clad in her shining armor, waited on the other side.
"What do you want?" Miyu said, her voice lazy and lifeless.
Elara opened her mouth, trying to say something. Awkwardness took hold of her, but she showed seriousness and maturity above all else.
"I want you to take a shower, get yourself together, and let's go kill Aberrations."
Miyu stayed silent for a few seconds, then replied:
"Go by yourself. I'm busy."
She slammed the door in Elara's face. With that, Miyu returned to her original position—but Elara knocked again.
"You can't stay in there forever. You're hurting yourself, Miyu."
The feline girl buried her face between her knees.
"Ellie… I went to his funeral… Nova's…"
Elara barely heard her. Nova's funeral had been a few days ago. Those words tied a knot in her throat.
Unable to speak, she leaned her fist against the wall and listened in silence.
The feline girl's sobs mixed with bleak words:
"I went to the funeral of the boy I like."
Elara pressed her forehead against the door and, with a pained expression, whispered:
"I know… I know…"
Nearby, inside the minivan that had carried Nova straight into hell, Rober waited, his face seemingly permanently angry.
Everything about him radiated discomfort and frustration. Unlike the others, Rober didn't show his pain over the loss—he suppressed it, burying it deep.
He stared out the window with a hollow, lost expression. The silence perfectly defined how he felt: he had always been the type who preferred not to talk about his emotions.
Rober sighed—breaking his own silence, he murmured:
"They're taking too long."
***
In the distance of an abandoned world—where the voices of rational beings were no longer heard—the serpent opened its hungry jaws. It hissed, suffocating and terrifying, yellowish saliva dripping over the bones. It coiled its body, tightening its muscles against the stone, and from the cracks of its heavy, sandstone-like scales, it exhaled a faint, thick black gas.
The gas settled over the ground almost instantly, staining the bones. A deep scent of coal filled the air.
Nova spat blood in response. His blurred vision couldn't pull away from the serpent in his field of view. Worse still, the gas reinforcing that stench on the ground stirred heavy emotions that sank deep into his mind.
'Shit… I can't move.'
Sensing the weakness of its prey, the Aberration swayed from side to side, as if hesitating before the attack. It didn't take more than two seconds to decide.
'Oh… I see…'
Through the pain, his eyes locked onto the massive jaw and the entire monster advancing with murderous intent. The single fang inside the beast's mouth extended like a blade; its thin tongue retracted into its maw.
'This is it…'
Defeated, he chose to give up. There wasn't much he could do. His eye glowed with a faint orange hue, but it wasn't enough.
Clack! Crash! The snap of the beast's jaw echoed beside his head as it slammed into the wall. Blood, bones, and flesh splattered across the rocks.
Thus ended the life of Nova Asmodai.
However, Nova opened his eye.
Gasping, he struggled to breathe; he coughed and spat blood as he pushed himself upright inside the hollow in the wall.
'What? How? I… I saw—'
In disbelief and confusion—desperate because his Serenity failed to calm his emotions—his voice faltered.
Hiss…
The serpent, still hungry, opened its jaws, revealing the inside of its mouth. It coiled its body over the bones impatiently, fixed its killing gaze on Nova, and prepared to strike.
'No way,' Nova muttered.
Fear—or perhaps pure survival instinct—made him act without thinking. With all his strength, despite the pain and the blood pouring from the bones protruding beneath his skin, he pushed off with his hands to escape. He rolled into the void just as the serpent lunged.
The Aberration smashed into the rock as Nova tumbled headfirst down the slope. His body rolled to the bottom and came to a stop against the bones.
'Damn. That hurts.'
He barely managed to lift his head and look at the beast: the serpent was stunned, shaking its head to dispel the pain and confusion from the impact. Small clouds of black gas leaked from its body and settled on the ground—unfortunately, close to Nova.
The boy stared at the gas, clenched his fist, and looked back down at the blackened bones lying in silence.
With death still beneath his body, he thought:
'I don't understand. I thought I was dead.'
He rested his forearms on the bones and regained some mobility.
'But I saw it—my death…'
That death, however, hadn't happened. It was only a strange vision of something that never occurred… or maybe it did. If that "something" happened, how could Nova have seen it beforehand?
Whatever it was, Nova clutched his chest in pain. He spat blood, a knot tightening in his throat as a heavy ache spread through his torso.
Instantly, the serpent hissed again. Recovering, its terrifying gaze locked onto Nova once more.
'Won't you even let me think for a second?'
Never. The Aberration attacked.
Nova had no time to react. In the next second, his body was torn apart inside the beast's jaws.
Yet in the eternal silence, Nova opened his eye once again. He screamed, clutching his left eye with one hand while clenching the other into a fist to endure the sharp pain in his skull.
He was kneeling on the bones—just like moments before his supposed death. Crimson droplets fell from beneath his left eye, like warm tears of blood, reminding him of the pain that had forced him to scream.
The serpent attacked again. Nova managed to foresee the movement; strange as it was, he had already seen it before.
'Shit!'
Just like the first time, he threw himself aside and dodged. He rolled over the bones as the serpent crashed into the ground once more. The bones jumped from the impact, shattering and scattering across the floor.
That confused the Aberration yet again.
Weak, with his bones on the verge of giving out, Nova pushed himself up once more.
'I'm done with this farce. If I'm going to die, I'll stab you a few times first.'
In a fraction of a second, a storm of emotions swept over him. The gas invaded his system more fiercely than at any point during his journey through the tunnels; his Serenity, neutralized by the serpent's power, was eclipsed by fear and rage at the injustice—but something else accompanied them with equal intensity.
An orange aura enveloped him, glowing faintly beside his left eye like a light from another world. Breathing heavily, he drew his sword and launched an improvised feint at the serpent.
His feet moved in sync with his thoughts. In an instant, with its head close to the ground, the serpent noticed Nova's approach—his sword plunged straight into its eye. Golden blood splashed onto the ground.
"Now you know what it feels like!"
The serpent hissed in pain, which soon turned into a deafening roar. It twisted its body and slammed its tail against the walls; a second later, it lifted Nova with the sword still embedded as it drilled through the surroundings.
"Ahhhhh! What the hell?!"
Nova's body flailed like a flag as he clung to the hilt buried in the beast's bleeding eye.
The creature smashed against the walls again and again, trying to shake him off. Nova's stomach churned, but that was the least of his worries. His only eye glowed with an orange hue—and in the next instant, he was crushed between the wall and the serpent's head.
He died once more…