Chapter 467: Cannot Be Undone.
"Lunatic." Giza with her lips visibly scarred from biting them constantly and her eyes dry after she had spent hours unblinking, rubbed her forehead, looking at Umbra through the veil of her hair and sighing.
"Does this one matter anymore after this?" She wondered. "Should I leave it all behind and disappear into the darkness again until Sol Vestic has ceased to be?" She took a deep breath in wonder, biting her lips again until they began bleeding.
"No, he has made it his goal to find and erase me, even if I hide in the darkness that madman will find a way." Giza began grinding her teeth when a rage she had never felt began building within her stomach, rising until dark miasma started seeping from her mouth and nose like heavy smoke.
"I have no choice but to kill him before he understands his power-"
"If you attack Sol as you are you’ll do irreparable damage to his forces, but ultimately, you will be erased by him before your plans come to fruit." Umbra who had not been privy to her thoughts peeked one of his eyes open, pausing his meditation to glance at her after feeling her anxiety and rage turn into intent. "Giza, calm down and think about your position-"
"Think?!"
"We do far more thinking than the enemy at this point my Lord!" She snapped, enraged. "Sol Vestic has ceased control over a reality defining law the likes of which has never been allowed to run free save for the one instance that was the beginning of all life and existence, that terrifying entity is free now because of him!"
"I know." Umbra raised his brow, causing her to raise hers at his clear serenity.
"...How are you so calm, how could you possibly turn your emotions off in this situation?"
"It doesn’t serve me to lose my cool right now, I need to focus on my next move, I’m a step away from another important discovery within myself, I can feel it." Umbra answered with a flat and stagnant tone while his eyes slowly closed and his mana began whirring within him again.
"I promise, you do not understand the severity of our dilemma, Umbra." She slowly took her seat and started chewing on her lips once more.
"Sol Vestic, the man whom I swore to kill has achieved a feat that makes him nigh untouchable, at this point I think that not even Zan’el is a match for him, the only reasonable being that could fight and win against Sol would be you or the nameless one, at least you’re the only two that come to mind." Umbra stopped and stared at her again.
"As for me, I no longer have the ability to face him."
"So," She raised her eyes to meet his once more. "Does this mean you have given up?" Giza quizzed him seriously. "Logically that is the plausible reaction when facing something of that scale."
"He hasn’t attacked yet." Umbra pointed out and issing the point Giza slouched and groaned. "Do you understand?-"
"I do not, I have dozens of unrecognizable feelings tearing me apart from the inside because of him, I am going through what the humans call puberty, at least the harmonal part, even as my being is mature and my body is unbreakable, my mind has been fractured by that demon, I can hardly think on my own."
"Then let me handle it this time." Umbra in a singular motion glided across the room and cupped her chin, brushing her hair to the side and raizing her head to meet his gaze once more. "I will handle it."
"How?"
"Trust me," He answered her and she felt the pits of her stomach go cold again with another form of anxiety.
Trust?
Umbra?
Somehow those words to her were even scarier than Sol attaining the third law of origin next to light and dark.
"Okay," She answered, standing once more and turning to the window that gazed out into the nexus from the Emperor’s residence.
"Trust him," She thought to herself. "Has he figured out a way to utilise my power?" She wondered. "Is that why despite the enemy chasing him for nearly a year gaining the equivalence of the Grand Collective to his small world he maintains his composure?"
"To what end does my safety remain in your trust Umbra?"
"Oh dear," She spoke aloud causing him to peep his eye open again.
"What is it this time?"
"I seem to have become quite reckless, if I stay in this sorry state much longer I will fall into the hands of the enemy, you seem to have shocked me back into composure with your words, My Lord, I apologise for my outbursts these last few hours." Giza chuckled, raising her hand to the window and turning it into a rift between the inverse dark dimension and the reality before them.
"If that’s true then why do you seem even more upset now than before?"
"Do not sully your thoughts with these little feelings of mine, My Lord, as I have observed from other beings across time, the concept of emotion needs only be shocked or willed into submission by an act or thought of selfishness and will." She sunk her hand into the void with a small chuckle. "I will leave for a day’s breath and return a new being."
"Where are you going?" He asked, finally giving her his full attention after she announced her departure and then vanished into the black window. "Giza!"
"Do not follow me, this gateway leads to nowhere, you could get trapped and have me searching for milennia to find you again within myself." He heard her voice through the black and withdrew his hand before he touched it.
"What the fuck...?"
***
"What does it mean?" Arla stood before Sol within a large room where all of his friends had gathered for the last few hours silently waiting for his return to get answers.
This was the first time many of them had seen her since new life had taken root within her womb and all had gone silent after she came rushing through a gate created by Jena as soon as Sol was aboard the ship.
"Sol Vestic, explain to me what you meant in that broadcast!"
Behind him, Ikaris stood with her hands folded around herself and at her side Dina had a hand on her shoulder, both having evident signs that they had at some point been weeping heavily. "Master," Arla grabbed his arms and shook him when he seemed lost in thought because of her confrontation.
Slowly, the woman’s fears were shot to the cosmos when he took her by her shoulders and leaned towards her, she heard Dina sniffle, and she heard Ikaris break into sobs when his lips pressed against her forehead in a soft kiss.
"I’m sorry, Arla."
"N-no... there is no point to any of this if it is without you, I have said this repeatedly in the past," She tried hugging him, but on account of her belly protruding between them she could only take his hand in hers with a pleading stare. "Master, whatever you have done, undo it, if you have to abandon this fight then do so, leave with just us, Ikaris, myself, Dina, Sara and Talia, we will stay by your side and figure something out."
"I can’t-"
"Nobody would blame you, I promise, they would not blame you if you simply left, Master."
"Arla," Ikaris despite her puffy eyes slowly peeled the pregnant elf away from him. "It cannot be undone, he has achieved a law of origin. A spark of life, a sliver of darkness and the infinite chaos and unstable calamity that lay between them, like Giza it has a consciousness it allies with his current goals to stop the Dark One from destroying all of existence, but what happens after we have confronted Giza is anyone’s guess, it might target him from the inside and erase his consciousness." She explained.
"It is only an ally so long as there is some kind of greater force to oppose." Dina added.
"Any magic can be undone with enough time-"
"It is not magic, it is will itself, chaos that has existed before time." Xie interjected. "Lady Amastacia, please, that is enough."
"Arla-"
The room went deathly silent when the Mage’s hand connected into Sol’s cheek with a loud slap, and he just took it without a word, the first and the five that followed before he caught her hand and hugged her from the side.
"I didn’t know this would happen, I’m sorry."
