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Pain. Sacrifice. Farewell.
For years, his life was punctuated by these three words. As each of them became etched in his mingled blood, he lost what made him human.
Eternity. Mission. Humanity.
That's all that kept him alive. Everything that kept him from ending his suffering through the gun hanging from his belt. Did he have the right to rest?
He thought back to Elysia's lifeless face.
Did he have the right to give up?
He thought back to Eden's last song.
Did he have the right to patiently wait for his next reincarnation...
He thought back to Sakura dying near her katana.
... He, the immortal man, he, who was the only one to protect humanity?
If the man didn't close his heart, if he didn't forget his humanity, if he didn't forget who he was, he could never have survived to save these people. He could never have taken the pain.
The worst of tortures is to have your feelings and your heart destroyed after all. So he had to do it himself, for his sake, for the man near him , for humanity, for the world.
To have a chance to win against the Honkai who took everything from him.
So for 50,000 years, he fought with all his might, every flame of his unsheathed greatsword scorching every foe.
Every flame of his unsheathed greatsword burning every memory, every feeling of the past. He doesn't need it.
He doesn't need it anymore. Never again.
So why couldn't he kill him ?
In the end, the warrior didn't know what his mistake was. Maybe... He should have killed him now. He would have freed those fuschia eyes from the sadness and corruption of this world, he would have freed him from another death, when the warrior couldn’t even help him.
Or maybe... he should have let them sink together in the Sea. They could have stayed together. Like before. Even stuck in a bubble universe, the man knows it: he would have been so much happier than adored on the surface by this cult which reminded him of the one who transformed him into what he is.
Ah... Shamash couldn't burn everything inside him. What a mistake.
But a savior must not make mistakes.
A savior... Has no right to have this kind of selfish idea of living happily with the man he loves. Because saving is no different than taking countless lives.
And through his faults, through his selfishness and remaining naivety of yesteryear, he lost the last person he had left.
"Kevin,"
He lost that soft voice.
"I’ll stay with you"
He lost the only person close to him who reminded him of what it was like to be human.
"Until the end."
He lost... All he had left.
So one day he will come out of the Sea. One day he will complete his mission. Their mission. The one at the origin of these 50,000 years of suffering on his shoulders.
One day,
Kevin Kaslana will complete his own story,
And he will see those fuschia eyes again, at the end of his journey.
Herrschers. New era. Fight.
The warrior continued to fight. He accommodated himself to the changes of this world, to the human Herrschers. He moved forward in his plan to liberate humanity through so many familiar and unfamiliar faces. He killed. He broke. He saved.
The flames raged through the ages.
But in the end, for him, for this blue-eyed girl, for the copy of this woman he fought for millennia ago, the cycle repeated itself... Differently.
Pain. Sacrifice. Farewell.
No... For these two young girl, it will only be "see you later".
There will be no new world, there will be no new era.
The swords of fire crossed. Kevin remembered the thrill of the fight, meeting that blue gaze so similar to what he was and so new to what he wanted to be in a distant past, those long white hairs burning as she gave her everything, as a Herrscher, as a Kaslana, as a Human.
The End rang again.
The Fire was unleashed once again near the Moon.
And as before, Kevin closed his eyes after this.
It was a long silence, a calm sleep. There won't be a new era... But maybe he'll wake up again years later. He hopes not. His mission is over. He no longer has any reason to exist.
When the azure eyes opened again, he thought he was falling on the Moon with silver reflections, so similar to those of his lineage.
But he did not see the star or the dark, cold night.
For the first time since eternity was granted to him, the man felt warmth caressing his arms, the sun's rays passing over his skin, the furtive caress of a leaf falling from a tree brushing his cheek.
And two tourmaline eyes looked at him with tenderness, a smiling face with soft features acting as a shadow in the blinding sun.
Azure eyes blinked slowly. In his memories... No matter how many years passed... That face never faded. His voice, hoarse from his awakening, echoed in what seemed to be a green meadow, like the one the long-haired man loved so much.
- "Su...?"
His head was resting on the knees of the one who was looking at him with all the love in the world and slowly, his gloveless hand rose, without hesitation, coming to touch Su's cheek.
- "Am I dreaming?"
The long haired man didn't shiver at his touch, putting his own hand on it. A flash of sadness passed through the tourmaline irises as he still smiled, shaking his head. It was not a dream.
The warrior realized something.
He felt the warmth of the palm of the one he loves. For the first time in fifty millennia... He felt body heat again.
- "You did well, Kevin. You finally succeeded."
The man remained silent for a long moment, admiring those features that he had missed so much, that tender smile, those shining eyes, those soft lips, his long hair that he slid between his knuckles. In the distance, he could hear the calm lapping of a lake and his body relaxed against the sun-warmed grass.
- "... No. If I had really succeeded as I wished... The world would not have been as peaceful as today. But you were right Su. Since the beginning,"
"We are not Gods.”
- "I'm so sorry that I couldn't watch over you as promised..."
The thin fingers of the gray haired one caressed the snow-white hair of the man lying on his knees.
- “I’m the one who walked away from our shared path, Su. I guess we had our share of faults.”
The caresses rocked the albino as the spring wind slipped under his clothes. He realized something else.
He no longer had his eternal armor. He no longer had his great sword.
Under the thin fabrics, in the middle of this meadow, he had the impression of becoming again what he was before.
He was no longer a warrior. Nothing differentiated him from just a tired human. A sleepy smile tugged at the man's lips, he smiled at the man who supported his body numbed by the pleasant warmth. The silence between them was so comfortable.
- "Su."
- "Yes, Kevin?"
- "I feel tired. Can I sleep now?"
He feels like he's just come back from a long trip. No, more of a nightmare.
A very, very long nightmare that had finally come to an end for him. Su smiled at him, parting the former warrior's white locks from his forehead in order to bend over, pressing his lips to the albino's lukewarm skin in a tender kiss.
- "You fought a lot, Kevin. You can rest now."
- "Will you be here when I wake up?"
The embrace around the man's broad shoulders tightens, his eyelids become increasingly heavy, drawn to Morpheus. Or maybe it's Thanatos calling him.
- "I'll be here when you wake up. We won't be separated anymore here."
There is nothing more to fight, nothing more to take into account except the presence of the other. A gust shakes the branches of the tree, causing the leaves to dance in the wind and the long gray hair to float in the empty space. It's like a blanket covering the body of the reclining man as he closes his eyes, too tired to struggle, whispering a few last words.
- "I'm so glad to hear it... Good night, Su..."
The whisper is carried away by the leaves in the distance as tourmaline eyes watch the serene face on his knees, finally asleep.
He can finally rest.
A loving smile tugs at the waking man's lips as he continues to stroke the white hair, gazing up at the sky as blue and beautiful as eyes that have just closed.
The wind subsides, the sound of swaying branches ceases, and in the endless stillness he also closes his eyes.
Not a sound.
Not even that of a breath.
And while his smile remains, a single tear, the last proof of past suffering, slips down his cheek.
In the distance, in the imaginary space, the wind reaches the eternal book which turns its last pages, before closing, forever.
- "Good night, Kevin."
And his soul having reached the final destination of his journey,
Kevin Kaslana completed his own story.