Adtraic Verity: Journey For The Truth
Chapter 4

Nothing.

Absolute Emptiness.

No stars, trees, clouds, mountains, ground, or sky. Not even Akwan was here except for fluttering white shards of light and an endless white void. Aletha questioned strangely.

“Where are we?”

Asahi shook his head, knelt to his knees, and rubbed his fingers across the white surface.

A sense of disillusionment overwhelmed him as he stared mindlessly into the white void in complete silence.

The flash from the vast underground city to the empty white abyss stunned Asahi.

His gray eyes caught the sight of his shadow cast upon the floor, which then caused him to question.

“Why is there nothing here?”

Unlike the calmness in Asahi, Aletha was undoubtedly panicked.

A frozen chill of fear grew in her as she dashed left and right from the blank void; only she saw her shadow and heard her footsteps.

“This… can’t be our world.”

After she roamed around the endless white void, Aletha collapsed to her knees, gritted her teeth, and angrily slammed her fist on the ground.

“Where did that thing take us?! Is it lying?”

Each hit echoed over the vast white abyss.

“Asahi, answer me!”

His gray eyes flickered with remorse, and a vague sense of familiarity dawned on him.

“I… remember this white glow. It’s…”

Aletha gasped, feeling her mind flood quickly with flashing memories.

* * * * *

“Are we going to leave our world like this?! We’re just going to leave it in flames?!”

A carefully appraising eye settled on Young Asahi.

“Yes. There’s nothing we can do about it anymore. We were too late.”

Behind him, a young silver-haired girl full of fading hope stepped forward and disagreed as a few tears came to soften her seared vision.

“No. I don’t want to leave! W-What about the flowers? What about our kingdom?! What about mama and papa?”

A significant sickness of heart smote Aletha; her frightful expression closed up in sorrow as she felt her mind go against what she had done throughout her life.

Though Young Aletha had always told the truth, there was no escape from bluffing this time. She shut her eyes, her face turned pale, and with a manner nervously anxious, Young Aletha made her first lie.

“Aiyana, I promise our parents have made it out of here. They are safe. Mama and papa told me they have found an even BETTER world for us!”

Tears of disbelief welled up in Aiyana’s glistening amethyst eyes.

“Really?”

Aletha covered her face and collapsed into a dreary expression, trying not to cry in front of Aiyana, obscuring her sadness with a lying smile.

“Y… Yeah. That room is just illusion magic. Come on. Let’s leave this world and go there! All the flowers you loved are waiting for you.”

Asahi’s face was dimmed by the cold touch of unjust truth.

A surprised expression flew on his pale face, and he knew that all Young Aletha had said were all lies.

Yet, he took advantage of it.

“We’re almost there. Let’s go and replace that world.” The boy said with a bluff.

Young Asahi led his sisters to the stars, soared up with their wings, and followed the long brown bridge through the roaring crimson thunderstorm. Then, they saw the planet behind them get swallowed in a glowing white light.

* * * * *

Experience and instinct warred within Aletha as that same luminance glowed on her face. She gulped and looked over to the void, seeing nothing but white shine on the horizon.

“I… can’t believe it. Why is this our world? Why did all of that happen?”

Asahi lowered his eyebrows and clenched his jaw, unable to suppress his anger any longer.

His eyes flashed with fury, and he felt every vein inside him throb up as he remembered the conflict that led the siblings to world travel in the first place.

* * * * *

Young Asahi saw thriving grass plains, swirling ice kingdoms, and cloud-piercing mountains. Streams swerved over active hills, empires, and castles scattered everywhere, and the land teemed with pleasant creatures.

But immediately, reality flashed into the boy’s eyes.

Though this world was filled with humans and creatures, not one was seen from his eyes.

The giant ice glaciers and snow-coated mountains sunk and melted from a wall of light, sand dunes were tossed in a whirlpool, and the grasslands charred like the untamable rage bursting in Young Asahi’s heart.

He flocked his wings and soared away from the world with his sisters, mumbling.

“The nations of Azazel, Gwenneg, Cleira, all of it, gone.”

Their gleaming imperious castle shining in white ruthlessly crumbled in front of their eyes, followed by several divine edifices collapsing and shattering, piercing through the blanket of storms coated in the white glow.

As the siblings tried to escape (the supposed divine gods that ruled this world with their parents), they were blocked by a mysterious deity.

“Could you let us leave?”

She wore stellar, star-like attire, her long cosmic dark hair flew with the stars, and her snow-white skin shone under the crimson hue underneath her feet.

“You may designate me as The Establisher.” She said as her palms ignited with blue flames.

Swiftly, she unleashed a lethal cyan beam, knocking away Aletha and Aiyana.

Asahi persisted in keeping his siblings safe, drew out a gleaming black blade from thin air, and blocked all the cyan beams from the mysterious deity, charging up to her, striking in full force.

“Why are you here?”

Aletha unsheathed her sword and struck The Establisher. She cut her arm with a painful strike of her blade and hatred.

“Just let us go, please!”

The mysterious dark-haired woman (The Establisher) clenched her fists and pushed the siblings back brutally. She responded to the siblings as her palms ignited with blue.

“The annihilation of your world unleashed ripples in this universe; thus, I came here to investigate. There’s a source here that is far too dangerous to this universe. Something so destructive that not even I could comprehend.”

The Establisher’s glowing cyan eyes anchored over to the S tattoos on all the siblings.

“I don’t know what it is.”

Suddenly, the deity fragmented and reshaped Young Asahi and Aletha’s blades. She tossed them toward and ruptured their attire. Aiyana gritted her teeth and detached her flower, summoning thousands of lethal pink petals and unleashing them toward The Establisher.

“Don’t touch them!”

‘You!”

The Establisher clutched Aiyana violently. Asahi and Aletha jumped up in shock, and without warning, she forced all her purple power to shatter and shrivel into a pulp. Her other hand tightened and glowed in a cyan luminance as she growled in absolute rage.

“The mistake of the ancients was what called downfall upon their kind. And now this universe’s fate has been changed.”

Before Asahi and Aletha could reach back and unleash their white beams of light at The Establisher…

(SHING)

She mercilessly forced and pierced her gloves through Aiyana’s chest. Asahi and Aletha froze in absolute terror. The despair in them grew out of their limit as they saw their last and loving sister fade out of their sight.

After the silence, The Establisher hurriedly tore out a massive crystallized Prism from the purple luminance on Aiyana’s heart and caressed it.

Fear and anger gripped Asahi and Aletha’s hearts as they watched the youngest, influential family member gradually fracture and rupture from glowing black rifts on her skin.

“AIYANA!” Asahi wailed at the top of his lungs.

A disheveled and distraught figure froze in front of the fracturing girl. One with eyes that flared with pure wrath and confusion. She screamed as she dashed toward The Establisher.

“You… I’ll kill you!”

But her power was leaking away. Not even her most potent magic could affect her.

The Establisher’s focus wasn’t even on the siblings; rather, it was darted at the black essence that streamed outside the dying silver-haired girl.

“Wait… the element doesn’t need a host? No, I can’t let it escape. I have to… I have to do this!”

Hurriedly, she swerved her arm, summoned blue lights, and tried to stop Aiyana. She screamed in absolute pain as she felt the black tendrils wrap around her.

“AHH! NO!”

She lifted her arms, and with one desperate motion, a turquoise luminance gathered all on the Establisher’s pal. As she prepared, she saw black tendrils emerge and latch onto the glistening glass prism.

“I… have… to…”

The Establisher dispersed all her blue, celestial energy into Aiyana in a fleeting and hasty storm. All propelled and bashed the dark essence back inside. Nonetheless, this wasn’t out of confidence but fear. Young Asahi and Aletha tried to move with their souls filled with fury and their powers drained.

“I’ll kill you!”

A motion of sorrow and shame fluctuated inside The Establisher’s heart.

Not even that could stop her from shattering and pulverizing the sparkling prism in front of her.

“I can’t afford to risk the future of this universe for a fallacy that the creators made.”

Asahi and Aletha hopelessly watched as fragments of Aiyana’s soul and the prism barrel toward their own world erupted in several colorful explosions, engulfing everything and their vision in white.

* * * * *

A ghastly whiteness overspread his cheek as the memory dissipated away. Asahi stomped and screamed out with tears flying down his face.

“I will replace who was responsible for destroying our world! No matter what it takes.”

Aletha flinched.

“EEK!”

A glassy stare of deprecating horror plastered her face. She looked over to her palms and fearfully saw white dust spew from a cut.

“What… the?”

Asahi hurriedly turned over and noticed his sister crying out. Yet another panic flew in him as he knew he couldn’t afford to lose another of his loved ones.

He raced to her and felt a pain sting him.

“I can’t stop.”

With confusion, Asahi rubbed his fingers over the tattoo on his face and forced a white luminance to shine on it.

A thin silhouette slowly emerged from the tattoo, fabricating into the shape of a long sword. Asahi grabbed its hilt and sprung upward, sprinting to Aletha and shouting.

“Get up!”

Aletha’s arms quivered.

“I… can’t move.”

“Yes, you can!”

“No, I can’t–

Asahi forced Aletha up and tossed her toward the distance. She then heard her blade clang and bounce on the solid white ground.

Aletha immediately bounced up and screamed as she grabbed the hilt of her black blade.

“What was that for?!”

His heart froze.

“Something’s wrong.”

Aletha raised an eyebrow and muttered.

“What? Why do you have your sword now? There’s nothing here.”

“I feel something.” Asahi mumbled quaveringly. “Something approaching us.”

“Where?!” Aletha exclaimed with a trembling tone.

(Tap)

(Tap)

(Tap)

“We need to replace a way out of here.”

Struck with zero options, Aletha hurriedly followed Asahi across the void and felt the ominous aura behind them gradually expand and brighten into a mellow pink hue.

Asahi lobbed his blade into the distance and saw it vanish into the white space. Although hopelessness was in him, it quickly disappeared as a sound echoed shortly after.

(Clang)

Asahi’s eyes widened.

“It sounds like my sword touched something solid. Aletha, follow me!”

“Let me breathe!”

He ignored her and dragged Aletha toward the blade. In contrast to that, Asahi noticed that their shadows casting not just on the floor but on a white wall. Asahi picked the long black sword up, and heard Aletha scream.

“Behind you!”

Asahi hurriedly turned behind, and as his eyes moved forward, he froze in shock and disbelief immediately after.

The mist of the white void unveiled a familiar girl, one who they thought they had lost stand there. She had long silken silver hair, glistening amethyst eyes, and fair skin. She wore a long white dress reflecting an amethyst luminance.

Aletha drew her lower l*p between her teeth and clenched her fists. She couldn’t believe it and cracked a relieved smile of disbelief, yelling.

“Aiyana? Is that… is that you?”

Unlike Aletha, who wholly dropped her blade, Asahi detected something off in that silver-haired girl. She wasn’t fraying the bright smile they remembered, but a grimace of pure hatred.

“That’s not her.”

Aletha shrieked as she caught a glimpse of Asahi grabbing his blade and preparing to strike “Aiyana.”

“Where are you going?!”

He pointed out and pulled the confused girl away.

“That’s NOT her. Just look behind you!”

Aletha’s eyes went round in shock when she noticed the silver-haired girl lift her arm. She hurriedly reached for her blade and saw the girl summon a pink luminance in-between her fingers. A cold shiver of fear crept up her back as she desperately tried to run away. She never wanted to fight her.

“Why is she doing that? Does she know that she-

Just as she blinked, Aletha’s body flung into the air, crashing over to a white wall and dropping to the floor. Disbelief shrouded her face.

“Aiyana… w-why? We loved you.”

Asahi’s entire face scrunched red as he bent over and watched Aletha quiver and tremble in pain. He quickly turned back to “Aiyana” and saw her catapult to him, unleashing a powerful explosion among the white void.

“I won’t accept this.”

Asahi blocked the blast and flew in the air, then shot black beams of darkness at the girl.

“Darkness is all I have now. The only magic left.”

His anger riled up the more he hit, not saying a word during his attacks. He tossed and beset a storm of thrashes before he then bounced up and battered at the silver-haired menace with his blade.

His feed skidded on the ground, and he bolted to the silver-haired girl with pure anguish, cutting through the smoke and gashing at her arm.

She flew and repulsed the attack. Time slowed as Asahi’s eyes caught the look on her face, conveying no emotion but wrath.

Her eyes leered over to Asahi. She accelerated toward the body flying over to her and scattered thorny pink shards, discharging all of them toward Asahi.

All bludgeoned and skinned Asahi’s body, which had forced him down to the ground and injure his legs. His eyes lowered to Aletha desperately.

“Help…”

Despite the pain stinging her, Aletha pushed herself up and grabbed her blade.

She unleashed a colossal strike of her sword in complete silence through “Aiyana,” leaving a black line to stain the white void like a canvas.

A pause emerged.

Aletha’s eyes caught the silver-haired girl wielding a glowing pink blade, charging at Aletha full force.

Both their swords connected with each other, discharging sparks across each collision.

They flew across the white expanse and spun their blades around, exchanging furious glares with each strike.

“Stop it! We’re your siblings!”

Aiyana shoved her blade harder at Aletha’s, blinking with feigned ignorance. Sparks flew about before she bounced outward and encircled Aletha with a fleeting pink glow.

Then, in a vicious blow, she unleashed a powerful kick and launched Aletha toward Asahi, hitting them in the process. Aiyana shot them a disgusted glance as her hand carried a magical pink light.

Asahi and Aletha raced outward from Aiyana’s path and glanced at each other, talking as the void glowed a bright purple.

“None of our attacks have affected her. There’s only one thing we can do… but…”

Aletha’s pupils widened.

“You mean… we’re going to use THAT attack? Do you know how dangerous that is?!”

Asahi released a sigh of perplexity.

“It’s the only way. We have no choice.”

She closed her eyes and accepted, standing up and agreeing.

“Okay. Fine…”

After a minute of pondering, Asahi and Aletha dropped their blades and flew upward.

They charged up a powerful destructive energy on their hands, flying and targeting the silver-haired girl standing beneath. After plunging all their force downward, the moment their hands touched the floor, Asahi and Aletha freed a mighty blow unleashing the power of two supernovas on Aiyana.

The explosion shriveled the white into darkness and blasted Asahi and Aletha away from the crater aggressively.

. . .

An eerie silence emerged.

Their eyes lowered to the crater among the dark void as they felt all their energy spill away. Aletha’s voice thinned and hoped that “Aiyana” had died.

“I… can’t…”

Suddenly, their eyes opened to the sight of a great soul smitten and scourged, still invested with the dignity of her absolute power.

A grim fascination flickered in Asahi’s eyes, murmuring in disbelief.

“N…No… that can’t be possible.”

Aletha’s face went pale.

“How… that was all we… had.”

Then, the silver-haired girl teleported to Asahi and Aletha. She clutched both their necks and drained all their magic without warning. Not even a single glimpse of mercy came from the girl’s cold eyes. Aletha cried out as she felt her neck squeeze.

“P… Please… tell us why you are doing this?!”

The silver hair of the girl transformed into a darker color, her eyes fumed up to cyan, and her white dress vanished into a hardened armor. The siblings froze still in awe.

Chimes and bells echoed from the void when they finally realized that who they fought was not Aiyana, but The Establisher.

She said as the turquoise luminance consumed Asahi and Aletha.

“It never belonged to you.”

Their legs, feet, torso, head, hair, arms, hands, and everything of their existence slowly disintegrated into shimmering white flower petals. All sank through the void floor toward a deeper, deeper cold darkness.

From out of the blue, pink luminescent strings slowly emerged from the black and wrapped around the petals. Their motion matched a loving and guilty expression, with a familiar orotund feminine voice whispering.

“You two are still here. I thought you were gone, Asahi and Aletha! I missed you, brother and sister. I missed you so, so much.”

As the white petals grazed the floor of the dark abyss, a white emergence quickly ruptured and shone beneath them, transporting them to…