3 Years Ago
Location: Unknown
Training Area
As his eyes opened once again, young Karl returned to his past, where he saw himself training relentlessly for so many months alongside his sister, Karla.
[Karl's Panting Voice (15 years old) - I can't give up! (Exhausted & Heavy Breathing)]
[Luci's Whisper (17 years old) - Karl... (Sad & Slightly Faltering Breathing)]
After the death of his little sister, Suzi, he resumed training two months later, no longer with Karla, but with Miss Luci, in an open area surrounded by trees.
[(Karl's Panting Voice (15 years old) - I can't just lose, lose, and lose! (Exhausted & Heavy Breathing)]
[(Luci's Whisper (17 years old) - Please, stop... (Sad & Slightly Faltering Breathing)]
Karl watched himself, resolute, with a gaze consumed by an almost completely blind thirst for justice. He gave everything he had, using as fuel his own essence, burning violently, even if partially corrupted by his frustrations and fears.
[(Karl's Panting Voice (15 years old) - I need to defeat you, Miss Luci!!! (Exhausted & Heavy Breathing)]
[(Luci's Deeply Painful Whisper (17 years old) - You don't need to... Defeating me will only break you even more inside... (Sad & Slightly Faltering Breathing)]
But it was useless to concentrate all that energy into his fists, advancing once again toward Luci, who stood before him in a fighting stance, with a gaze that simultaneously revealed pain and a silent, emerging feeling.
She always defeated him with ease. Even though Karl's blows were often powerful thanks to his abilities, they were weak in sustaining force, since his emotions and feelings were "in disarray."
Luci, realizing that the training had already reached the daily limit for Karl's mind, chose to bring it to an end once and for all. She advanced and used her abilities against him, who, despite bleeding and desiring victory, was already at his limit.
Luci delivered a strike that always made Karl lose consciousness, causing him to fall to his knees on the ground, unable to react or advance once more in such an obsessive manner.
Even knowing, and refusing to accept, that it was impossible to defeat Miss Luci through uncontrolled brute force alone, present-day Karl observed that scene from outside the training field.
He felt ashamed as he looked at himself, seeing that even while bleeding and partially unconscious, he still tried to stand up, driven by his primal desires that controlled his body already pushed to its limits.
Even with his mental and physical limits reached at that moment, he still wished to continue training with Luci in order to become stronger. At the same time, Luci was seen turning her back and walking a few meters away from young Karl.
She knew that the simulated training combat had come to an end, even though young Karl refused to accept that verdict on that day. Present-day Karl once again closed his eyes as he heard Luci's voice echoing from the present within his mind.
[(Luci of the Present - Echoing and Deeply Emotional Whisper] Karl... (Fearful and Worried Breathing)]
Inside the Mind of Young Karl
In the Deepest Part
A Few Moments Later
After opening his eyes once more, no longer within his memories but inside his own mind, Karl found himself in the place where his "greatest challenge" had been waiting for him for so many years to finally speak with him.
That place was still fixed in his last memory of his training, when he was young, against Miss Luci. What echoed there was a single scream from his younger self, at fifteen years old, kneeling, bleeding, and exhausted after the end of the training session with Luci.
The scream was not directed at Luci, who stood before him at that moment and who simultaneously seemed to dissolve into the air like sand carried away by a stronger breeze, leaving only the young Karl and the present Karl.
[Karl of the Past (15 years old) - Angry & Painful Scream] ...YOU MUST AVENGE SUZI! [Panting & Painful Breathing]
The scream was directed at himself in the present, now eighteen years old, watching his younger version from just a few meters away.
At that moment, he felt a crushing tightness in his chest, followed by the sensation that something inside his mind was gradually cracking with every passing second.
[Karl of the Past (16 years old) - Angry & Painful Scream] YOU HAVE TO FALL INTO THE DARKNESS! [Panting & Tearful Breathing]
[Karl of the Present - Deep, Painful Whisper in Denial] That isn't true... [Trembling & Broken Breathing]
[Karl of the Past (16 years old) - Angry & Painful Scream] SO THAT YOU CAN FINALLY BRING JUSTICE TO OUR LITTLE SISTER, KILLED BY THE OCULI! [Panting & Tearful Breathing]
[Karl of the Present - Deep, Painful Whisper in Denial] That can't be true... [Trembling & Broken Breathing]
Karl of the present watched as his sixteen-year-old version vanished, and in its place, the seventeen-year-old version rose, still with his back turned, translucent flames emanating from his body.
[Karl of the Past (17 years old) - Obsessive & Painful Scream] YOU MUST LOSE YOUR HUMANITY... [Tearful & Emotional Breathing] -
[Karl of the Present - Deep, Painful Whisper in Denial] Please, stop... [Trembling & Broken Breathing] -
[Karl of the Past (17 years old) - Obsessive & Painful Scream] OUR LITTLE SISTER, SUZI... DESERVES THIS SO SHE CAN REST IN PEACE! [Tearful & Emotional Breathing] -
Clenching his fists and turning around, Karl faced his younger version, now eighteen years old, with a tearful and painfully fragile expression.
[Karl of the Past (18 years old) - Completely Obsessive Scream] AND YOU, AFTER ALL THIS, STILL DARE TO CLAIM THAT YOU LOVE SUZI?! [Tearful & Emotional Breathing] -
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Karl of the present realized that, unconsciously, he brought one hand to his chest, gripping it tightly as his heart began to beat faster.
His essence, once gray, was now at the decisive moment of becoming pure or forever corrupted. Before him was not a memory, but his own subconscious made manifest.
[Karl's Subconscious (18 years old) - Obsessive & Furious Scream] BUT... [Tearful & Emotional Breathing] -
[Karl of the Present - Voice Deeply Shaken & Painful] Please... [Trembling & Broken Breathing] -
[Karl's Subconscious - Obsessive & Furious Scream] YOU STILL HAVEN'T SURRENDERED TO THE DARKNESS TO BECOME STRONGER AND... [Tearful & Emotional Breathing] -
[Karl of the Present - Voice Deeply Shaken & Painful] Stop... [Trembling & Broken Breathing] -
[Karl's Subconscious - Obsessive & Furious Scream] ...BRING THE JUSTICE SHE DESERVES! [Tearful & Emotional Breathing] -
[Karl of the Present - Voice Deeply Shaken & Painful] I beg you... [Trembling & Broken Breathing] -
After the echo of Karl's present voice, begging, the environment around him began to crack, emanating black flames that burned violently through the opened fissures.
Karl of the present felt his body grow heavier and heavier, while his vision forced him to see himself in the future if he surrendered to his thirst for justice against the Oculi.
He would eradicate all the Oculi from human reality, but in the process, he would also kill all of humanity, including his sister Karla.
He saw her smiling and embracing him after being brutally killed by him, unable to stop himself in the face of his thirst for justice, using his abilities to their utmost limit.
Luci's voice in the present echoed, making Karl look up toward the sky of that shattered place, which was the deepest part of his mind.
[Luci - Distant & Muffled Voice - Caring & Attentive] ...I promise you, I will be your last light. [Deep, Emotional Sigh] -
At the same time, seventeen black, humanoid, translucent shadows appeared around him, representing each year of Karl's life.
All of them, including Karl himself, looked upward simultaneously, now echoing the end of Luci's words, which seemed to crack even more the once colorless sky above that place.
[Luci - Distant & Muffled Voice - Caring & Attentive] ...If the world becomes dark before your eyes, Karl! [Deep, Emotional Sigh] -
They all watched as that glow grew increasingly intense, emerging from the fissures in the now heavily fractured sky.
With that mysterious light reaching the bodies of everyone below and the environment itself, it brought nothing less than a feeling that manifested as a gentle warmth inside each of them as they gazed upward.
That light was nothing less than the representation of Luci's essence, which, even outside Karl's mind, was able to reach him in the deepest part of his own consciousness.
Where Karl himself was only seconds away from falling for the last time before the shadows of his past surrounding him.
Thus echoed a new and decisive phrase from Luci of the past, at nineteen years old, when she, feeling a tightness in her chest, looked deeply into Karl's eyes.
She noticed that at that moment, in the hallway of the Sagittarius organization, he wore an expression of total detachment from reality, his heart tormented by an extremely silent pain.
[Luci (19 years old) - Distant & Muffled Voice - Worried & Confident] ...Karl, you're not alone, remember? [Subtle, Deep Sigh] -
[Echo of the Muffled Sound of the Sky Cracking]
[Luci (19 years old) - Distant & Muffled Voice - Worried & Confident] But, for me to be able to save you... [Subtle, Deep Sigh] -
[Muffled Echoes of Multiple Cracks Growing Ever Louder in the Sky]
[Luci (19 years old) - Distant & Muffled Voice - Worried & Confident] You have to allow me to reach your heart beyond the abyss... [Deep & Slow Sigh]
Each of these three lines from Luci's past released a resonance of light, causing all seventeen shadows there, along with Karl himself, to simultaneously feel a pulse across their bodies, released from the open fissure in the sky.
That pulse seemed to descend from its luminous core, reach the ground, and spread in all directions throughout that place.
Gradually, the impact of this pulse caused the bodies formed by the black shadows to dissolve into the air, revealing beneath them many layers of black shadows, dissipating one by one.
Each of the seventeen shadows there were shadows of light, not of darkness, and while still maintaining their humanoid forms, they created from their bodies a luminous resonance that moved toward Karl.
Standing at the center, he felt each resonance modulate the environment around him, programming it so that when it reached his body, his mind would be taken back to memories.
Of the two people he cared about most in his life: Karla, his sister, and Luci, who had cared for him and trained him for three long years.
Each of these visions was different, and in all of them, both Karla and Luci were smiling happily at Karl.
They were not divided visions, but overlapping ones, layered upon each other, showing them in different places, each more beautiful than the last.
Until Karl finally realized that these visions flooding his mind and making him feel a warmth in his chest were nothing less than visions of different futures.
Futures in which, by distancing himself from his blind justice against the Oculi, he could see those he cared for smiling not after his departure at the end of his mission, but by his side after the world was saved, not destroyed, because justice was no longer blind.
Karl saw that he could walk toward the peace he wished to bring to his little sister, Suzi, who had died because of the residual and indirect actions of the Oculi.
Karl formed on his lips, still within his mind and surrounded by those shadows of light, nothing less than a comforting smile as he understood what he would lose forever if he fell.
And then, around him, that scenery which had once been dark and shattered, from the ground to the sky, returned to normal, now with saturated colors.
The shadows of light around Karl seemed to dissolve into the air, becoming luminous particles that appeared to move toward his chest.
While he himself remained kneeling and looking upward, he released his hand from his chest, now feeling a relief that was both warm and gentle.
Everything around Karl began to shine intensely from the horizon toward him at the center of that place, and it was possible to see him smiling as he closed his eyes.
He slowly lowered his head, stopping holding his chest, his hand losing strength and falling to the side of his body.
He was suddenly taken by surprise by a warm and caring embrace from behind, given by none other than the luminous shadow of his little sister, Suzi, at seven years old.
She seemed to appear momentarily after what felt like a soft explosion of luminous particles, clearly floating gently as she moved toward him.
She embraced him while he was still kneeling, his head lowered and his gaze toward the ground, creating a beautiful image of him kneeling with her behind him, holding him.
Her long white hair and her beautiful long dress danced in the breeze, while the light that consumed the entire horizon drew ever closer to reaching both of them at the center of that place.
Karl showed his teeth in a bittersweet expression of regret for having remained blind for so many years, even four long years after Suzi's death at only seven years old.
At that moment, with little Suzi still embracing him and smiling so sweetly as she gently floated, she whispered to him with genuine affection that she forgave him and that she would never hate him for it.
And as the light reached them and caused both of them to dissolve along with that entire place, it was possible to see, moments before, little Suzi gently caress Karl's head.
She herself smiled happily while silently crying, just like Karl, who raised his gaze forward as the light from the horizon dissolved his body. He closed his eyes, an expression of relief and peace etched upon his face.
Back to the Present
During the Early Morning Hours
Still in the Center of Tokyo
Kogana no Douragon Restaurant - Rooftop
Returning to the present, after a few moments with his eyes closed, young Karl opens them again and is left speechless by what he sees before him.
Miss Luci was kissing him on the lips, her eyes still closed, almost falling headlong into her own inner darkness for the last time. The world seemed to slow down at that moment.
And as, gradually, the subtle separation of Luci's lips from his echoed through the silence, nothing less than the three words she had finally been able to say genuinely emerged:
[Luci - Affectionate & Passionate Whisper] ...I love you! [A subtle, shy & happy laugh] -
The scene unfolded from a higher point of view on the rooftop, where Luci's long red hair danced at the mercy of the breeze.
She was standing on the tips of her toes, kissing Karl on the lips, with one of her hands resting tenderly on the side of his face, gently holding him slightly lower.
Before Karl's wide eyes and his incredulous expression, he gradually felt his body begin to act instinctively, even while knowing how good that felt.
Then, he finally gave in to his feelings, which had previously been filled with doubts toward Miss Luci. That was the moment when Karl closed his eyes and smiled, in gratitude.
He repeated Luci's same words, now spoken by him, as he kissed her again. She, still with her eyes closed, cried, but now with an expression of relief and happiness.
Even with her eyes closed, she could see in her mind the flame of Karl's essence, now burning intensely throughout her entire body, in a way that was both gentle and, at the same time, so beautiful.
To any ordinary observer, the two were simply kissing on the rooftop. However, through a more precise perspective of that moment, it was possible to see something more.
They continued to kiss, but now the essences of Karl and Luci were burning from the inside out of their bodies, intense yet gentle at the same time, perfectly synchronized.
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(Act 16 - The Awakening of an Anomaly) -
