Chapter 234

Embers and Ashes (V)

Standing at the tip of the proverbial blade, Emma took a deep breath before pushing her right foot in front of the left, directly into the gushing and violent winds. Just as she did, she felt force akin to a thousand knives ripping through her leg, causing her to nearly cry out in pain, biting her tongue to keep herself from screaming. She almost instinctively wanted to pull back, but felt the push from her rear as she had arranged for them to not let her pull back, no matter what.

Yuki’s heals descended immediately, repeatedly healing her leg that was shredded with each passing of the wind. It hurt--it hurt beyond hurt. It felt as though she was stepping onto the countless shards of glass that cut a thousand gashes across her leg, while simultaneously being burned by the fire, with alcohol poured all over the wounds, and cold, frigid winds irritating the open wounds without stop.

She couldn’t hesitate, immediately swinging full and tossing her body into the wind. Time froze; for that immovable second, for that moment that could not truly be counted, she died. She felt death curl up inside her soul and gnaw away at her until there was nothing left. Everything transpired in slow motion -- the wind boring through her skin and opening up so many wounds it was impossible to count; the blood spurting out like rivers, adjoining the dancing storm. Her skin peeling back a cellophane wrap, revealing her muscles and tendons and bones. Just as she thought the same wind would rip her bones directly and turn them into ash, a warm surge of energy fell upon her and bathed her in a resplendent glow. Yuki’s heals caught up just in time.

She couldn’t hold back any longer and screamed, but regretted it immediately; the moment her lips parted, her tongue was caught up in the whirlwind from which it could not be saved. It was ripped out immediately, flying off as blood blew out. Her jaw immediately cracked as it went haywire to the side, pain slipping her into a bout of unconsciousness. A jolt from her back woke her-- it was Daniel pinching her neck, sacrificing his arm in the process.

Luckily, she’d closed her mouth instinctively, and Yuki’s heals managed to salvage her body that was beginning to break, with her noticing lumps of her throat flying away at speeds surpassing everything and anything she’d ever seen in her life.

She’d used Mana to protect her eyes, a trick Cain had taught all of them while they were crossing the desert to shield their eyes from harm. However, the meek shield was unstable, seemingly ready to be ripped open at any second. The first few steps, she knew, would be the hardest; the deeper they went, though the energy would grow more berserk, there would also be less resistance as the current of the tornado would be pushing them further inward.

But that knowledge hardly rendered her reality any less hellish; after all, for all intents and purposes... this may as well have been hell. Inescapable torture wrapped around the sinner, on and on, like a neverending, looping symphony of pain, agony, and anguish. Just as the release of death is upon the tip of the finger, the body heals and renews and is given a new life... only to immediately be cast into fires yet again, burning and boiling till bones shone... only to then be healed again.

She was living it and, with each step she took, others began too. Even if it was to a lesser extent, it was just perception; even Yuki, the most shielded of the bunch, would still have his skin peeled off, his lips gutted, his bones showing. In some ways, Emma posited, he almost had it the worst-- whereas all of her anguish unfolded within a blink, and because there was simply so much of it, her brain failed to capture the full picture of what her body was going through. It prioritized.

Following her first footstep into the ‘tornado’, she actually hardly felt any pain in her legs-- despite the fact that, just like the rest of her body, they were being repeatedly shredded like gutted pieces of meat. But her brains was less worried about the pair of dangling legs and far more worried about the scalp surrounding it constantly being under threat. Despite her entire body being doused in drying blood, she only felt a fraction of the whole.

Yuki, on the other hand, didn’t bear the brunt of all the pain within one, sporadic flash; it was constant, like slowly, agonizingly slowly, peeling back a band-aid. Yet, he gritted his teeth and persisted; she saw blood trickling from the corner of the young man’s lips, inner, self-inflicted wounds staving off the external ones.

Glancing at the others, it was evident... everyone was experiencing hell. She may have spearheaded it... but so what? In the end, she was merely the first to enter and let the fires swallow her-- everyone else eventually followed into the same molten river.

She sped up, her teeth breaking with how hard she was pressing her gums together. Mana surged from within her, but not as a protective shield to keep the pain at bay, but as long, lashing threads-- like arms swarming out of her back. Each cradled one of them, tenderly, warmly, squarely; at first startled, others recovered when they noticed their speeds picking up without them exerting any extra effort.

They looked forward, where they saw a broad pair of shoulders dragging them forward through arms invisible; wind blew her ever-destroyed hair backward, causing it to flutter violently; her clothes ripped to shreds, revealing tens of thousands of closing and opening gashes spraying blood incessantly.

The speed increased, step by step, as she carved out a path in the storm through her own body; step by step, they saw at first two distant figures inching closer. They felt winds growing even more brutal and violent, their bodies broken time and time and time and time again until they felt hollow.

The worst were the last ten yards; Yuki glanced at his Mana and saw he was nearly out. What’s worse, his rate of recovery versus the wounds inflicted, especially on Emma, was drawing dangerously close to the red line of no return.

They paused suddenly, noting that Emma had stopped; she glanced at them for a moment before Mana within her burst out like a tsunami, temporarily ending the storm around them, shocking everyone with the sheer capacity she held for a moment. Right after, they felt themselves flung off the ground, invisible arms picking them up like toys and tossing them forward through the windy curtain and into the central opening where, though robust and violent, energies weren’t nearly as chaotic and destructive.

Everyone immediately looked back, terrified that she might have been unable to save herself in time, only to see her walking out of the storm with her two own feet, blood spraying out on all ends, her hair disheveled, over half her skin melted off, showing her bones and organs that were beginning to fall out of her body.

“I know I’m captivating,” she muttered in a hoarse, tired, and pained tone. “But I could really use a heal.”

“Y-yes? Yes! Of course! Sorry!!” Yuki hightailed up and immediately used every last drop of Mana he had to heal her. Even still, he was unable to completely close up her wounds, leaving several to bleed. In response, Kramer hurriedly took out some gauze and swiftly began closing the wounds up after sterilizing them with Mana rather than alcohol.

“You are certifiably insane,” he muttered as he wound up the last wound. “A match made in heaven, indeed.”

“Insane? Is that really how you wanna talk to a lass who just saved your ass?” Emma said playfully with a chuckle.

“... thank you.” Kramer smiled back and shook his head.

“Eh,” Emma shrugged. “Mother hen gotta protect her kids and all that jazz.”

“Kinda weird seeing a woman a decade my junior called herself my mom,” Kramer said.

“Yeah, it just felt off,” she sighed. “Can’t pull it off like Cain, calling himself everyone’s daddy without batting an eye.”

“Well, you’re just certifiably insane,” Kramer ‘comforted’. “He’s... eh, I’m guessing he’s from somewhere beyond Orion’s belt.”

“Enough chattering,” she said. “Let’s go help Lek. Hm?” as everyone readied to toss themselves back into the battle, Emma glanced to the side where she saw Senna staring at her, red-eyed, slightly shivering. “What’s this?” she teased as she walked over, patting the young girl. “Were you by any chance worried about me?”

“...”

“Ha ha, that’s so sweet!”

“Of course... of course I was worried,” Senna mumbled. “What the hell is wrong with you two!?!”

“E-eh?” her sudden shout not only startled Emma, but others as well. However, the others pretended not to hear it, even making some extra distance as they realized it had nothing to do with them.

“Him... him I kinda get,” Senna said, wiping her tears. “You know why.” the implications startled Emma, though she remained silent. “You, though? Who the hell are you to be doing those stunts?!!”

“Senna--”

“Not even a year ago, you were just a mom who occasionally went to gym! And what?! Now you’re some super-fucking-hero who can do whatever she wants?! Did Diya’s death teach you nothing?!”

“...”

“Together--that’s what he always preaches, that’s what you always preach,” she continued, tears beginning to pour out again. “But, when push comes to a shove... where’s that togetherness? He’s off to god-knows-where fighting god-knows-what, so far removed from this ‘togetherness’ it may as well be one of his classic jokes, and now even you... you’re, what? Trying to copy him? Trying to be equal to him or something? Newsflash-- you’ll ever be! None of us will! Whatever he tells to us, however he paints the future in which we’re better than him, it’s not gonna happen mom. And one day, one day you’ll try to emulate him, and you’ll end up getting fucked over and dying. For what? Huh? Did you forget all of us had practically reserved all our Mana for that last push, or did you just ignore it completely trying to play some stupid-ass hero? We aren’t like him, mom. One day? Maybe. Maybe one day, just like he said, he’ll tap out whatever potential he had, and we might surpass him in some arbitrary way, like levels and other raw numbers. But even then, he’ll kick our asses--easily. You know what he said to me?

“He said that turning his back on this place would be the easiest thing for him. Do you want that? Do you want for him to finally lose the last shred of faith he has in us and to simply force us all to stay outside? We keep asking him to trust us, but look at what your stupid-ass is doing!” Senna was short of breath, panting, while Emma curiously stared at her for a moment, smiling after.

“You do realize you’re getting grounded for like a month because of that, right?”

“H-huh?”

“I’m not an idiot, kiddo,” she slapped the back of her head gently. “Of course I’m not him. I may be a bit hotheaded, but I’m actually a fairly smart girl, y’know? I was top of my class when I was at college.”

“Huh?” Senna grew more and more confused.

“Say you lot did use your Mana for that last push,” Emma said. “What then? We’d all be on our asses, sitting here, exhausted beyond reproach... doing what? Sucking on our thumbs. If that was the plan, we could have just stayed on the outside. Didn’t we suffer through that hell to get here to help Lek? Alas, I ask you: how the hell could we have helped him if all of us were bottomed out?”

“... oh.”

“Besides,” Emma leaned forward suddenly and gently kissed her forehead, plastering hers up against Senna’s right after. “I’m not a hero. But I am a mom. And what do moms do? Give their arms and legs for their kids.”

“...”

“One day,” Emma said, smiling gently. “You’ll learn that having your skin peeled off for all eternity is nothing compared to seeing your kid holding back a scream of pain. Nothing. You should go now,” she added. “Others are waiting just for you to kickstart the fight. In the meantime, I’ll sit back here, and just like a proper hero, rest. If that’s okay with you, I mean.”

“...” her cheeks flushing red, Senna lowered her head and swiftly walked forward, stepping some few feet later and turning back stealthily. “I’m sorry.”

“Na,” Emma shook her head, sitting down. “You just bought yourself years of being made fun of. Sorry. That’s just how it is.”

“...” forcing back a smile, Senna turned forward and ran, Emma’s words like winds pushing into her back, giving her wings to fly.