1464 Reality
Tears streamed down her small, childish face. As a Demon General, as a Vice Commander within the Demon Generals, no less, Kaeda had experienced all sorts of hardship. Much like many of her brothers and sisters, she had been abandoned in her youth, only to be saved by the Demon Sage. Yet, even all of the callousness she had gained over the years wasn’t enough to leave her numb to this moment.
No one seemed to have the right words to say, even Dyon could only kneel beside their beds, grasping their hands to let them know he was here.
The twins’ bodies could hardly be placed among the living, even the rich medicinal smell was overridden by a disgusting rotting. It was as though they had already been in a casket for several months…
They couldn’t even speak. Before, they could at least produce hoarse words, but now, they couldn’t do even that. Dyon could only passively send endless comfort toward them in their final moments, flooding what remained of their souls with a warm air.
‘Big brother?’
Two faint voices responded to Dyon’s soul. In truth, though Dyon grasped their hands to let them know he was here, how could they possibly feel it? Maybe it was a sort of saving grace that they couldn’t… Feeling your body slowly rot from the inside out… It was too cruel a fate.
‘Yes, yes.’ Dyon replied quickly. ‘I’m here.’
Mia’s carefree giggling answered Dyon’s flustered response.
‘Big brother, you’re too cool to act like this. How are you going to beat the big bad guys if your scare so easily?’
Dyon tried his best to put on his best fake smile, but when two souls were in such close proximity, was it even possible to put on such an act? What hurt the most was that this very reason was why Dyon could tell that Mia’s carefree spirit was genuine, even in the fact of death. Dyon could even feel Bella’s calm and gentle smile, trying to sooth his distress.
‘This isn’t about me, dammit!’ Dyon roared in his mind. He felt so useless, too useless. Even now these two girls were trying to comfort him, wasn’t this too pathetic? He was so enraged with himself that he completely forgot Mia and Bella could practically see his inner thoughts now.
The two of them fell silent.
All of their lives, they had been treated like filth. Their earliest memories were as orphans taken in by The Cathedral… Day after day, they would be drilled in how terrible soul cultivation was and how soul talents were the bane of society. In reality… They only had each other.
Then, when they were only about 2 or 3 years old, faint birthmarks that once coated a portion of their faces suddenly revealed themselves to be far worse… They began to grow and fester, turning into disgusting creatures everyone curled away from.
They began to hide, delving into bewitching arts just so that they could appear in public without being looked down upon wherever they went.
Still, everyone seemed to hate them. Even their Den Mother treated them like useless castaways, seemingly taking every opportunity to remind them that they were less-than, that they weren’t worth anything.
That was when they met Dyon. At first, they warmed up to him because they thought he was one of their own, a man who hid himself behind a mask to escape the world’s shaming.
Later on, when Dyon gave them the opportunity to help the soul slaves, they didn’t hesitate to do it. It wasn’t because they were so much braver than everyone else, or even because they were so much kinder either… It was simply because they saw themselves in the soul slaves. Those soul path talents everyone hated so much… Weren’t they just like them?
No one wanted to be useless all their lives. After spending so much time being ignored and disdained, they had wanted one final act to remind the world that they had in fact been alive… That Mia and Bella had existed…
The months Dyon spent showing them the world were some of the happiest of their lives. They never blamed him for leaving them because they felt he had given them enough. They spent their lives always receiving the bare minimum, often times, they would receive nothing at all. Dyon’s level of sincerity was something they had never experienced before…
Mia’s soul gently hugged Dyon’s, giving it her last outpouring of love.
‘Thank you, big brother…’ Mia finally said faintly, her life force fading away.
Bella felt her sister slip away forever. Dyon clearly sensed her calm smile contorting into one filled with pain and anguish, but she held on for one final moment.
‘… You allowed us to know what truly living meant…’
Dyon could feel that Bella wanted to say more, she wanted to express more… But she too slipped away forever…
The reality of it all hit Dyon like a ton of bricks. He hadn’t even fully registered that these two angel-like little girls had died.
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Every time Dyon tried to take a deep breath, it felt as though there wasn’t enough air in the room, or maybe his lungs had inexplicably shrunk down to a third of their size.
It was clear to everyone what happened… Mia and Bella had died…
Dyon felt his eyes glisten with tears, but he knew he couldn’t let them fall. He could still remember how heartbroken he felt watching his father shed the only tears of his he had ever seen at his mother’s funeral. As a child who thought nothing could get to his father back then, Dyon remembered feeling incredibly scared.
Maybe it was irrational of him to feel that way back then, but he was a child. All he knew of his father was that he was a man that nothing could bring down. Watching him cry was one of the most painful moments of his life.