Chapter 883: To Let You Taste Eternity
With profound sorrow, Naida explained softly, her voice trembling with the weight of necessary cruelty, “While you were distracted, I injected you with something that drains your mana first, preventing your Hellbringer form. It’ll let you move on without pain.”
“No! No!” Asher’s voice tore through the unseen barrier, grief raw and unbearable, understanding Naida’s intention but devastated beyond reason. “You shouldn’t have done that!!”
Ravina’s eyes flooded with terrified tears, disbelief mingling with hurt, “You’re... you’re trying to kill me? Why...?”
Naida shook her head sorrowfully, gently cradling Ravina’s weakening body, voice starting to thicken with remorse, “Because we have lived through a very similar timeline like this before or as your brother would call it the ‘Fractured Timeline’...the vital timeline where Aira coming to her senses or not decides everything. Did you really think this was our first time coming here and helping Aira like this? No...we have done this so many times and I unfortunately remember the various branches that had happened in a timeline like this including the possibility of you staying only to end up with a fate worse than death. Your father and mother wouldn’t want that.”
“But...” Ravina gasped weakly, tears streaming freely, “That shouldn’t be possible... You shouldn’t remember...”
Naida’s voice softened even further, heavy with profound sorrow, “I never should. But Aira—the Aira we just helped—she whispers to me each time a new timeline emerges. It’s how I carry the burden, knowing everything we’ve done and everything we will suffer. Your brother and father wished to spare you this pain. Even strong and physically grown up as you are, you’re barely ten years old, Ravina. They didn’t want you chained to such suffering.”
“You’re lying... I could become immortal like her! I could save him! Please...” Ravina pleaded desperately, weakening, her vision blurring at the edges of darkness.
“You’ve said that before and I know what comes of it,” Naida whispered, tears falling openly. “You never listened. You’re stubbornly courageous, just like your father. It’s what makes you precious, but also what makes this impossible.”
“Aunty Naida...” Ravina’s voice faded slowly, her eyelids fluttering, consciousness slipping away, “...I...”
“Forgive me, Ravina... I’m so sorry but I can’t bear to see you suffer more,” Naida’s voice broke, fragile with heartbreak as she clung desperately to Ravina, clutching her fading body close, tears falling freely into Ravina’s hair.
From afar, Asher watched helplessly, his own heart fracturing with devastating grief. Ravina’s final breaths came softly, slipping gently into eternal rest. His soul wept, understanding Naida’s heartbreaking choice yet unable to bear it.
She gently knelt and laid Ravina’s lifeless form carefully beside Cedric’s unconscious body. Her movements were slow, almost reverent, as though every motion carried the weight of countless lifetimes. The air was thick with sorrow, the atmosphere heavy enough to choke even the faintest glimmers of hope.
She sat quietly beside an unconscious Cedric, eyes shimmering with sorrowful affection. Her trembling fingers brushed softly over his peaceful yet tragic face, the touch as tender as a lover’s farewell. Each tear falling from her ruby eyes caught the faint starlight, shimmering briefly like jewels before fading into darkness.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, voice cracking, raw with grief and guilt, “I failed to save you... again. How many more lifetimes must I endure this pain?” Her gaze drifted upwards, through clouds and stars, towards the invisible, uncaring heavens. “Aira,” she called softly, her voice trembling yet clear, a plea woven into every syllable. “I know you can hear me out there. I’ve always wondered... why did you choose me? Did you really believe I was the only one strong enough to do the hard things nobody else would?”
She laughed bitterly, shaking her head as fresh tears blurred her vision. “No, I’m not as strong as you think. Every loop, every betrayal, every sacrifice—I’m this close to breaking apart forever.” Her gaze dropped lovingly back to Cedric and Ravina, the pain softening briefly as she whispered, “But somehow, for their sake, I pull myself together. And yet...I can’t...” Her eyes lifted again, pleading with the empty night, “I can’t keep hurting them like this. There’s only so much pain one soul can bear. I’m not as strong as you, Aira. So please,” her voice cracked, begging through the veil of stars, “make the next timeline the last. Let this torment end.”
A sudden, oppressive silence engulfed her words. The gentle whisper of the wind ceased abruptly, the air heavy with foreboding. A shiver of dread raced down Naida’s spine, her heart stopping briefly in raw terror.
“It ends when you stop messing with time.”
A haggard, eerie voice sliced through the silence from behind her, cold and cruel, dripping with ancient bitterness.
Naida’s eyes widened sharply in absolute terror, something rarely shown in her composed demeanor. She spun around immediately, heart hammering in wild panic, gaze meeting the nightmarish figure standing behind her.
The air around the chilling figure warped violently, distorting like memories unraveling mid-scream. Her hair glowed a sickly, radiant white, cascading lifelessly over her shoulders, shimmering faintly like dying starlight tangled in threads of despair. Jagged, bone-like spikes protruded cruelly from her skull and shoulders, grisly reminders of time’s relentless punishment.
Her pale skin was etched with luminous, white veins—scars pulsing ominously, remnants of mana abuse and countless desperate manipulations of time itself. Eyes, blazing radiant voids, stared back at Naida—empty of compassion, mercy burned away eons ago, replaced by an eternity of bitter rage.
Her tattered dress clung grotesquely to her emaciated form, stiffened by countless layers of dried blood. Crimson stains marked her long fingers, still fresh, dripping ceaselessly, marking the ground like a macabre trail of violence. Orbs of pure radiant mana hovered silently around her, serene in their terrifying purity—ready to annihilate reality itself without hesitation or remorse.
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