I planned to upload this earlier, but due to an unforeseen death in the family, I had to delay.

Sorry for the inconvenience and I hope you understand.

Enjoy!

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Acedia POV:

“So, how have you been?”

I opened my eyes and saw a both familiar yet unfamiliar face staring back at me.

Who is this?

Since when did I fall asleep?

“So far, so good. Got nothing to complain really.”

I heard myself answer.

Who is speaking for me?

What is happening?

“Really? You don’t seem very well to me. Your eyes lack sharpness and vigour. It is very unlike you.”

I saw the woman in front of smiling brightly while in her eyes was a small tinge of worry.

It’s strange.

No matter how long I look at that face, I don’t seem to remember it.

No, rather than not remembering it, it seems as if I don’t register the face I’m looking at.

The longer I look, the more blurry the face becomes

It feels very odd.

What is going on?

“It is nothing to worry about, it’s just that... watching them is not easy.”

I felt my lips turn upwards into a grimace and a light, hollow laugh escape my mouth.

Shivers ran down my spine.

It feels incredibly disturbing for one’s own body to act without your own input.

“I know what you mean. Seeing them suffer for so long is not a comfortable thing to watch.”

The smile of the blurry face disappeared and turned serious.

“Well, at least yours is not that old. I’ve been watching for seemingly an eternity.”

Again, the odd feeling of having your body taken over by someone sent shivers down my spine.

“It’s your own fault for letting him slip out of your grasp like that.”

The woman said accusingly.

“Ugh, I don’t want to talk about it. How are the others doing?”

I said.

“As far as I know, they’re doing alright, but you know how hard it is to keep up a stable connection in this place.”

Although my eyes weren’t under my control, I focused my mind on looking around and saw something I did not expect.

There was absolutely nothing.

Only a plain white scenery was to be seen.

Even though it felt like I was lying on some sort of bed, I couldn’t see it.

I tried to establish a Soullink with the surrounding Energy, but it seems as if this place lacked even that.

Seeing as I could not tap into the Energy of the world, I instead opted to tap into the soul of the strangely familiar woman.

Creating a thin Soulthread out of the Energy locked away in my soul, I shot it towards the unsuspecting woman to force a connection between us but was unpleasantly surprised.

As soon as the thread neared the woman’s soul, still invisible without the ability to sense Energy, it bounced off.

“Did you do that?”

The woman hissed.

My face changed into a look of surprise.

“What are you talking about?”

The body spoke.

I saw the woman’s still strangely blurry face darken and knew I had to do something, so I did the only thing available in this situation.

Although I’ve rarely tried it, seeing as the world normally has an abundance of free Energy and failure meant a lot of pain, I decided now was the best time to use it.

Commanding the Energy of which my soul is made, I expanded my soul to an abnormal degree.

Luckily, it worked out alright, only spreading out instead of tearing and ripping itself apart.

I kept expanding it and in just a fraction of a moment I made my soul incredibly large albeit incredibly thin.

Using this, I threw it like a net towards the woman all the while strengthening it by activating and enhancing the Energy in my soul.

It was an incredibly risky move, seeing as my soul could, despite being strengthened, easily be torn apart.

But the element of surprise is essential in situations like this.

Unfortunately, I found something I didn’t expect.

I made a grave error.

As soon as I tried entrapping the woman’s soul it seemed as if my entire being froze in place.

It seemed as if an innumerable amount of strings were attached to my soul, trying to pull me back to the place where my body lay.

The strength of it was incredible, needing all my willpower to just barely resist its pull, leaving me unable to advance forward.

“Honey, quick! Tear it apart!”

I heard my body yell at the woman with a pained voice as sweat broke out of every pore.

Hearing this I became desperate.

Tearing my soul apart?!

Do they even know how incredibly painful this is?!

I poured all of my desperation into the struggle, transforming my soul back into the formless blob – the signature of true Immortality – and tried shooting it towards the woman, hoping it would work.

It was do or die!

Albeit with the dying part replaced with pain.

“B-but if I do that--“

Said the woman, seemingly in distress.

I felt the strings holding me back snapping one by own, allowing me to inch closer towards the still invisible soul of the woman, praying that I would make it.

“DO IT! NOW!”

The body screamed as tears of blood streamed out of my nose, ears and eyes.

It was now or never!

Putting every bit of willpower I could muster into my desperate struggle and snapped out of the clutches of whoever was trying to control me.

But, as expected, I was too slow.

Even with the woman’s hesitation I simply didn’t have enough time to pull it off.

As my soul snapped free and shot forth, a blade made out of the all to recognizable Blue Fire was formed out of nowhere .

Seeing as I was desperately struggling to get away, I hadn’t had the time to form even the simplest of defences so the blade my soul in halve with barely any effort.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAGGHHHHH!”

I screamed in pain as the feeling hot lead being poured into my veins overwhelmed me.

The Blue Fire quickly did its work, trying to gnaw away at the edges of my split soul and forming small canals to pour itself into the rest of it.

But, the follow up didn’t come, allowing me to form some defences to counter the infiltration.

Unfortunately this Blue Fire was very unlike the last time I tasted its purging flames.

Instead of it being small and constantly struggling to survive by eating away either Energy or the soul, this one was being constantly fed by the woman’s Energy and so, I couldn’t get rid of it entirely.

Although I still wasn’t in control, my body thrashed around in agony as I send my soul back into it.

Seeing this, the woman’s face twisted in pain, guilt and sadness, tears streaming down her blurred-out cheeks.

“Honey, I... I--”

She said struggling.

“CONTINUE! HE’S STILL HERE!”

My body screamed once more, afterwards coughing up a bucket worth of blood.

The woman was still doubting whether she should do something or not as I took advantage of the situation.

Knowing the woman I was doomed and still unable to locate the souls of both her and especially the person controlling me, I decided to take them down with me.

Instead of forming threads of Energy and then converting it into Blue Fire, I transformed my soul into Blue Fire and almost all of my Energy, leaving only a small part of Energy behind to control it.

“AAAAAAAAAAAA—“

The screaming came to a halt as the pain became too much for the brain to handle, killing the body in the process.

However, the soul was still living and burning unrestrained as the Blue Fire consumed everything.

As this empty plane was undoubtedly dyed blue, the fire merged together into a small dot, as I intended.

Before the incredible pain and loss of my soul could knock me unconscious, I controlled the Energy I left behind to forcefully contain it until everything was consumed.

I felt waves of Energy crashing into the shield used to contain the ball of Blue Fire and I desperately wanted to see the face of the woman and hear her pleas, but, since the body died, I was unable to.

But, it didn’t matter.

No matter what she tried the shield held until the very last of my consciousness was consumed.

However, before I actually lost consciousness, I let the shield disappear.

An enormous torrent of blue fire was unleashed, roaring like a sea of flames as it expanded outward and sought out its victim, trying to consume everything it encountered in this empty space.

How I wished I could hear the screams, but even if I could, I would only end up hearing my own.

My consciousness left me and drifted far, far away from this place, sending me back to where I came...

“—Edia?!”

Emily POV:

The last few days had been very peaceful.

I simply did the things I used to do before Acedia came back; I read books, experimented with my power to try and gain understanding, ordered some Gold-masks to rebuild what I had destroyed and played around with Damien.

The only thing that slightly bothered me was where Anna hung out, though I presumed it was with Acedia.

It’s not as if I dislike like the idea of her hanging out with Acedia.

Rather, I encourage it, seeing as it meant I didn’t have to face him for now, but that doesn’t mean I’m not worried about her.

Who knew what Acedia would do, especially after I and, unfortunately - by extension and association - my children.

But, I decided to keep it as it is, trusting that she would do whatever is right and hoping for him to either forgive her or not bother like he used to.

I doubt the last one will happen though, seeing as I destroyed that mask of his.

Just like he destroyed mine....

Anyway, it has been peaceful as of late.

But, of course, after everything that has happened and the many unresolved issues we both let be, things were not made to last.

It happened while I was reading in the library of the palace, a place filled with thousands if not tens of thousands of books, most of which I have read, though not remembered.

Out of nowhere, breaking the silence that overwhelmed the past days, a muffled yet terror-filled scream sounded from far, far away.

Naturally, I instantly knew where it came from and was horrified.

The distance between the library is immense, spanning many, many rooms, corridors, halls and walls.

That the scream was able to be heard over such an enormous distance meant something was horribly wrong.

Luckily, although I find myself feeling guilty of thinking like this, the voice was male and so could not have belonged to Anna.

Still, the fact that he screamed like this meant that something bad happened to him, making me very worried for him lashing out at Anna.

I immediately threw my book away and looked at Damien, sitting across while also reading a book, although he had now stood up.

Without looking at me he instantly knew what to do and quickly established a portal, using the ever-present link between him and Anna.

The two of us immediately rushed through it and upon founding the scene, were both relieved and worried; Anna was fine, Acedia was not.

There he lay screaming on the bed, his long, pure-white hair in a complete mess, his expression twisted in pain and his ice-blue eyes clearly filled with terror, seemingly looking into nothingness.

Instantly, I connected to the Energy around me and gathered some Energy to try and forcibly soothe him, but was surprised at the current situation.

There was no soul to be found within him.

There only lay a broken body, soulless and thrashing around in agony as blood streamed out of his nose, eyes and ears.

The situation left me dumbfounded, with Damien and Anna looking anxiously at my stunned expression.

How could there be no soul?

Every time I saw him I could, without even sparing the effort, easily locate the massive, formless soul so characteristic to Immortals like him and me.

Even with humans and animals, whose soul had the shape of their bodies, I had never encountered something like this, unless the person was dead.

And clearly, he wasn’t dead.

Not yet.

Could this be the dying moments of an Immortal?

Although I highly doubted this, I couldn’t help but wonder.

He kept sobbing and screaming until suddenly, when a very loud scream was just about the be released, his voice was cut off and his body died.

Before I could even wonder if he was dead, a small spark suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

Hovering there for a second, I wondered what it was before it began.

Suddenly, the small star lit up and became brighter and brighter until suddenly, it began sucking the Energy all around.

At first, it was but a couple of small streams flowing into it, feeding it to ever grow bigger.

But then the pace began to quicken.

Faster and faster the streams poured Energy into it, growing in since and forming more and more streams until the shining star simply pulled all the Energy in the vicinity into it.

As it pulled more and more Energy into itself, the star began to change colour.

First from white, then a feint yellow, then golden, then red and then...

An all too familiar purple colour.

The same colour as the sun of death Acedia had once spawned.

Although I had been too captivated by the sight to worry about anything else, I quickly began to grow anxious.

I quickly looked around the room and located Anna and Damien, still enraptured by the star’s presence.

I tried gathering some Energy but as soon as I did, the Energy was sucked away into the vortex.

Then I tried something I’ve never done before and have only seen.

Concentrating and forcing myself to calm down, I tried to feel all the Energy around me.

If Acedia is able to do it, I must be too!

He said so himself, we are not different!

Taking the state of Acedia as example, I began emptying my mind and expand the grid of Energy into the boundless world.

I felt everything connected with the Energy, all matter, all life, but I didn’t focus on it.

Instead, I tried to delve deeper.

Deeper into the Energy grid.

As I delved and delved, displacing the active Energy and tried to see what holds it all together, I could sense a feint but large presence behind it.

A spark of hope arrived!

As I thought this I tried to uncover it; trying to throw the strange ‘veil’ hiding it away.

But, I couldn’t come any closer.

Every time I tried to grasp it, it seemed to become further and further away, seemingly forever out of my grasp.

Damn it!

How was he able to do it!

As soon as I became irritated, the ‘veil’ surrounding the omnipresent and omnipotent Energy began to close in once again.

I desperately clawed at it, even tried lunging attacks in different places of the world by gathering the active Energy there, but the veil simply absorbed it all, furthering my frustration and thus, furthering the distance between me and absolute power.

I wanted to shout in anger, but I saw the star had changed colour once more.

The purple had grown deeper and deeper in colour until it simply became... black.

A black star floating about a half a metre above Acedia’s body as it continuously sucked in the Energy.

If a purple sun was capable of that, what would black do?

An unfelt before sense of fear crawled up my spine, sending me into desperation.

I did the only thing I could think of and rushed towards the bed, leaving Damien and Anna still staring at the black star.

Since the sparkling black star gave off a dreadful vibe, I didn’t dare to touch it and instead, turned towards Acedia’s now-dead body.

I took him by the shoulders and shook him fiercely.

“Acedia, wake up!”

I screamed in desperation at the dead body.

I refuse to believe he, who has lived for god-knows how long, would die so easily, so I punched him in the face.

“Acedia!”

I yelled once more, throwing punches at his already bloody face.

“Wake up! Please!”

I screamed desperately.

No matter how much I hit him, he didn’t wake up.

Desperation overwhelmed me and I fell down with my upper body onto the bed, crying in fear as the black star still drained the Energy of everything.

It even began reaching the edges of my grid, that was how much it took.

An entire world of active Energy filled in one, tiny star.

But, just as I was about to let despair take over and simply await the inevitable, the vortex suddenly stopped.

I looked up, the salty tears burning into my dried-out skin, and saw the star slowly descending onto Acedia’s body, until it was simply swallowed.

As soon as it entered, I felt the Energy around the world restore itself almost instantly and enabling my control over it.

The first thing I noticed, was a soul.

A formless, large, pure-white soul.

His soul.

I forced myself to stand up and hovered my head above Acedia’s, awaiting whatever would come.

His icy eyes slowly opened, although there was still no sign of focus in them.

“Acedia?”

I murmured softly.

Suddenly I saw a slight hint of life slowly arriving in his eyes.

“Acedia?!”

I shouted in surprise.

I saw him now clearly looking at me, questions filling his eyes.

“Emily?”

He said hoarsely.

“What happened?”

I sighed in relief, surprising myself as I subconsciously revealed my worry for him

But, I simply put that away for now.

Right now, there is a more pressing concern.