Acedia POV:

The first thing I saw when I came back to life were the brown eyes of Emily looking straight through me, filled with worry and fear.

“Emily?”

I said, pausing as my voice sounded incredibly hoarse.

“What happened?”

She stared at me for a second before sighing with relief.

Honestly, I didn’t expect her to be as relieved as she was, and by the looks of it, she didn’t expect it either.

It’s a good thing, though, seeing as I want to close the distance between us even if it’s only by a small margin.

But, first things first.

What happened?

I know that whatever I experienced was not a dream; the pain was too intense for that.

I had absolutely no clue what happened nor – more importantly, in my opinion – where it happened, and the fact that all I could think of was that everything happened in some sort of ‘alternate dimension’ doesn’t really help.

It just sounds too deus ex machina for it to be explained away as simple as that.

And really, for how long have I lived now?

An innumerable amount of years.

And in all this time I have never experienced something similar to this so I’m unfit to even speculate about where it happened.

How does one even make an alternate dimension?

Especially one as empty as that, even devoid of Energy.

I know that behind the grid of free and inactive Energy there is simply nothing, but not in the same way as the nothing in the ‘alternate dimension’.

Behind the grid is a void that intends to swallow everything as soon as it gets the chance; the other plane of nothingness is just simply... there.

As I was thinking, the much too familiar headache indicating harm inflicted to the soul – whether it was by me or someone else – suddenly kicked in, making me visibly wince in pain.

Emily, her face still looming over me, became anxious once more, but I didn’t bother with it.

I raised myself from the bed, forcing Emily to shuffle away, and finally got a good look at the current state of affairs.

The sheets were stained with blood.

So were my clothes, my hands, my face and, well, basically everything close and connected to me, making everything around me feel sticky and smell awful.

Inside the room stood Emily, obviously, but also Damien and Anna, looking at me with mixed feelings of fear, relief, shock and interest.

Aside from that, nothing in the room seemed changed; the dresser was in place and in one piece and so were the closet, chair, table, lamp and bed.

I scraped my throat and swallowed the remaining blood in my mouth and focused my attention towards Emily standing at the left side of my bed.

Before I could begin speaking, Emily took the chance.

“U-ummm.. Are you a-alright?”

She said awkwardly, fidgeting and turning away from my gaze whilst blushing ever so slightly whilst doing so.

No matter how I looked at it, she seemed incredibly awkward to speak to me.

Well, all things considered, it is not that surprising she finds the situation awkward after what happened, but it seemed as if she wanted to flee from me rather than simply being embarrassed and scared to confront the situation.

This, of course, will not do.

“I’m fi..- Ahem – I’m fine.”

My voice cracked a little, still feeling slightly painful even though it was supposed to be healed.

“Or rather, I want to know what happened here. Can you explain?”

I asked her

“Emm, no, ermm I.. I don’t really know, y-you suddenly screamed and died and-“

How awkward can one get?

Was she really like this?

Just days ago she was screaming and yelling at me and so harshly shattered my escape and even before that, she seemed to be comfortable talking down on me, simply spewing hateful lines one after the other.

And now, she looked like a shy teenager who was caught for doing something bed.

She’s ten million years old, for crying out loud, shouldn’t she be way passed this?

But then, a surprising piece of information was given.

“-And suddenly, a-a-a small black star sucked the Energy and I tried to...”

“Hold up a second!”

I accidentally shouted hearing this strange piece of info.

“Y-yes?!”

She jumped up in surprise, looking as if she’d said something wrong.

“What’s this about a black star sucking Energy?”

So far, I’ve never heard of such a thing, meaning this might be something useful.

“Ermm... you know, a small sparkle appeared and sucked the Energy and turn-turned black and entered your body.”

This isn’t going anywhere.

“Please, calm down a little and think carefully of what you want to say.”

I said soothingly.

To this, she nodded, probably already knowing what she said was incomprehensive, and took a few deep breaths.

Within a few seconds her fidgeting seemed to stop and even the look in her eyes seemed to have become sharper.

Although she falters quickly, it seems like she is even more capable of steadying herself.

Then again, I should’ve known, seeing as she was not lying broken on bed after she discovered most of her life had been lies and deceit planted by herself.

It was very impressive to recover that quickly for someone’s first time breaking apart.

The only reason I was capable of recovering was that I had similar experiences in the past, but even then, it takes a while before I’m completely recovered.

No mental fortitude, quick mental recovery.

Interesting.

Anyways, after she steadied herself she looked me in the eye and nodded firmly, her facial features clearly having calmed down.

“Good. Now, what is this about a ‘black star’?”

I said smilingly.

Emily POV:

What the hell is wrong with me?

Acting shy like a pubescent teen talking to her crush with a stupidly shy accent.

I know why I’m acting like this, having hurt him and him having hurt me and such, but still, how old am I?

Ten fucking million years old!

For this unimaginably long time have I lived, going through hell and back again – although the ‘back again’ part is not entirely true – and having withstood my mind basically being torn apart and slowly recovering in just three days!

Although mostly it was thanks to Damien calming me down, but still!

Acting like this…. How shameful.

And the worst part was Acedia.

This bastard was so patronizing, treating me like a small child who was just caught red-handed after doing something bad, all the while he himself being covered in blood with his crazed-out white hair and having recently died for crying out loud!

If anyone should be acting stupidly it should be him!

Still, no matter how much I complain, he did actually manage to calm me down, smiling at me sweetly and coaxingly asking me the deal about the black star – which, by the way, I know absolutely nothing about.

The only thing I could do was simply explaining what I saw.

“While your soul was gone and after your body died, this thing suddenly came into existence. It looked like a small colourless sparkle and hovered about half a metre above you.”

I paused for a second, looking Acedia in the eye, hoping to see if he had heard about something like this before.

What I saw were eyes looking at me with interest, as if he just found some piece of a very difficult puzzle, all the while silently urging me to tell him more about it.

It was a very compelling.

Even if I didn’t wanted to explain it, it was a gaze that would convince me otherwise.

Luckily, I have no reason not to tell him.

I want to know just as much as he does what transpired here.

“Out of nowhere, the sparkly thing suddenly began pulling Energy from its surroundings. First in small streams but eventually, it became a giant vortex, pulling all Energy from everywhere. I tried expanding along the grid to attack it and even tried to disable it just like you did with me and against that strange weapon. Naturally, I failed.”

When I mentioned trying to disable it ‘just like you did’, his eyes grew wide but after I told him I failed, I could see an ever so slight look of relief in his eyes.

He hoped I would fail.

Was it simply in fear I would overtake him?

Or was it something deeper?

Anyways, I didn’t stop my explanation.

“As it began to swallow everything, the spark began to shine and at some point change colours, first from white to yellow, to gold, to red, to purple and, in the end, an incredibly deep and frightening black colour.”

When I said that it changed from purple to black I could see he wasn’t really surprised.

Apparently, he knew that after the purple ‘grade’ – if Energy came in different ‘grades’ as I think it does – came black.

Perhaps, that purple sun-destroying ball of death wasn’t his ultimate weapon?

A shiver ran down my spine.

How frightening…

I continued.

“After becoming as black as it gets, it stopped pulling the Energy and the vortex disappeared, allowing the grid of Energy to restore itself.”

Still no surprise was to be seen on his face.

Only an enthusiastic face much like an thoroughbred academic discovering the answer to his problems.

And still silently urging me onward with that intense stare.

If I had been like the bumbling fool in the beginning, I would have collapsed then and there under such a strong gaze, but for now, I was all right.

“The black star simply hovered above your body and then you somehow absorbed it, reviving—“

“Did you say I absorbed it?!”

He suddenly shouted, his eyes growing wide in surprise for the first time.

“Y-yeah? You revived afterwards.”

I said, completely stumped by his reaction.

Why shout so suddenly?

Was it that important?

Without giving me time to react, he suddenly jumped out his bed and bolted towards me, clasping my shoulders with his still bloody hands.

“You said my soul wasn’t there and after that black star was absorbed, I revived. Could you feel my soul before it was consumed?!”

His breath still stank of blood.

“Y-yes? As soon as the star was finished and the grid restored, I could feel your soul.”

The overexcited look on his face faded away and he grew pensive, letting me go to walk around in the small room for a moment.

What was going on in his head?

The suddenly, a light bulb seemed to appear above his head as he became excited again, although this time not as much.

“Where? Where did you feel my soul was? What was its exact location?”

He said, his hand stroking his chin as he looked at me.

“It’s location?”

I asked stumped.

Of course I don’t remember after everything that happened.

Why is it so important?

“Yeah, you know! Was it inside my body or was it somewhere else?!”

He said impatiently.

He began to get on my nerves but still, I had never seen such a different array of emotions from him, so I was still busy processing that, giving me no time to feel irked.

“I-I don’t know!”

Honestly, I really didn’t.

As I said, so much stuff was going on.

Who would pay attention to where his soul was while such an ominous thing was floating in the room?

“Come on, think! Just answer this: in my body, or not?”

He asked, although it seemed as if he was more or less begging for me to answer.

Still overwhelmed I couldn’t resist his pleas and thought it over again and tried to focus my memory on his body during that time, but, seeing as I wasn’t paying attention to it at all, I simply did not know the answer.

“I’m sorry, I really don’t—”

But as I was about to say it again, I was interrupted.

“Please! Just…please! Anything! Even a small guess is alright!”

He seemed truly desperate, as if he was clutching at straws.

Why was he so desperate?

But, I began to think more deeply about it, remembering the entire picture instead of just focusing on the body.

I knew I had sensed his soul as soon as the grid re-established itself, but I wasn’t paying attention to his body, so I don’t—

No, wait!

I wasn’t paying attention to his body, so how should I have sensed his soul?

The only thing I was paying attention to was…

“…The black star?”

I said, more questioning myself than answering Acedia’s question.

In the meantime he had started to walk around, thinking on his own while muttering things to himself.

As soon as I said it, however, he whipped his head in my direction and locked his gaze, even more intense than before, on me.

“Did you say—“

He started enthusiastically.

This time, it was my turn to interrupt him.

“The black star, yes! It was the only thing I paid attention to, even with my Soulsense, so it could have only been there!”

His enthusiasm was beginning to rub off on me, making me, even though I didn’t know what was going on, excited about my conclusion.

But why would his soul be there?

“Hey, why--?”

As soon as I wanted to ask him, I suddenly found myself being hugged.

What the hell…?

“HAHAHA! So it’s as I though! Goddamn this shitty day just became the best! Thanks to you!”

He cusped my cheeks in his hands and suddenly kissed me, before giddily returning back to his rigorous walking and thinking, his hands once more on his chin and the biggest grin possible on his face.

I ran my fingers over my lips.

What… just happened?