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Silence hung over them like a heavy shroud as the Veil dissolved into fragments and the darkness gave way to a restless void. Tekio, Dan, Stella, and Karmore remained motionless, staring into the space where Mei should have been.
They had seen something being thrown and slamming into a building.
Tekio felt his chest tighten with a strange mix—a spark of hope and the crushing weight of uncertainty. She was alive. For a moment, that truth pulsed so strongly it felt capable of tearing his own heart apart.
His red eyes—still burning with a flame only pain can ignite—searched for answers in the emptiness. He could barely breathe, as if every second was an eternity longer until he knew what had happened to her.
Dan and Stella exchanged worried glances, silent pain reflected on their faces. They had seen Tekio strong, determined, and relentless, but never so vulnerable—shattered, almost broken, carrying the weight of guilt and fear for everything and everyone.
Stella took a step forward and, carefully, placed her hand on Tekio's arm. Her voice was low, almost a whisper, so as not to further unsettle her friend:
— She held on, Tekio. Mei made it… we don't know how, but she made it.
Tekio clenched his teeth, his voice coming out hoarse and trembling:
— She fought Dante. Alone. Inside that Veil… Her body… the pain...
Dan stepped closer, his gaze laden with worry and determination:
— We need to find her. Now. She's going to need us — and everything we have to offer.
Tekio closed his eyes, fighting back the tears threatening to escape. He knew Mei was alive, but he also knew the price of that victory: her body marked, her soul wounded, the battle far from over.
Akira's soul was sinking deeper and deeper.
— I failed to protect her... — he murmured, his voice a near-inaudible thread.
Stella shook her head, firm:
— No, Tekio. You didn't fail. You carry her strength within you — and together, we will pull Mei out of that darkness.
The wind brought a whisper, almost imperceptible, as if it were Yara's own voice, echoing among them:
— Don't give up...
Tekio opened his eyes, renewed, and looked at Karmore, who gave a slight nod. The faint light of the sun that had broken through the Veil illuminated his face, revealing a man willing to fight against everything to save what he loved most.
The weight of survival was immense—but the flame of hope now burned stronger than ever.
Tekio staggered, leaning on Stella's shoulder and Dan's firm arm.
Every breath felt like a saw passing through his chest.
His body ached as if every bone were broken, and his legs trembled with every step.
Stella and Dan were attentive, but not just to him. Their gazes, almost involuntary, followed the direction in which Tekio fixed his vision.
Karmore.
There she was. The woman who had nearly killed Tekio, who had absorbed energies until the world around her withered, who had countless deaths marked in the shadow of her name.
The silence was heavy, and the wind carried the bitter taste of blood and dust.
Dan, his jaw clenched, broke the silence:
— Tekio… what do we do with her?
Stella didn't hesitate:
— We kill her. Now. For everything she's done.
But, contrary to her cold tone, she didn't move.
Neither of them moved. They merely waited. Not because they didn't know how to act… but because, in that moment, they knew it was Tekio who needed to decide.
He didn't answer. He just kept looking at Karmore.
His expression wasn't one of hatred, nor of revenge. It was something deeper… and heavier.
Then, with an effort that seemed to draw strength from a place beyond his body, Tekio pulled away from the two and stood on his own.
His legs nearly gave way, but he took a step.
Then another.
And another.
Inside him, something wept.
Not physical pain.
It was like a child reuniting with family after an eternity in the dark.
And Amara—not Karmore—felt it. Even without hearing a word, she knew what he was thinking.
The curse had vanished.
Tekio hadn't killed Amara… he had killed the curse.
And what remained was just a broken girl, struggling to stand.
Her face was dirty with dried blood. The crimson tears had dried, but the marks of crying remained etched on her skin.
One knee trembled, the pain evident in her body.
As he approached, his crimson eyes faded, replaced by an intense, almost ethereal white.
The red aura that had once enveloped him vanished, taken over by a living silver that danced in slow spirals around his body.
It wasn't hatred sustaining him now.
It was Yara.
He'd had his disagreements with her, but he knew that, at this moment, saying "no" was not an option.
The very reason Yara had reincarnated was standing before him now.
Pure and safe.
The marks burned. A deep heat, almost unbearable.
Amara bit her lip, her expression betraying the discomfort, as Tekio came closer and closer.
He stopped just a meter away from her.
Dan and Stella watched, motionless, but every muscle ready to react if something went wrong.
Then, they felt it.
The energy changed.
Tekio opened his arms.
Amara's gaze wavered.
The heat increased even more, until the fabric over the marks began to disintegrate, revealing the incandescent glow.
And that's when everything changed.
Dan and Stella's vision whited out.
The battlefield vanished.
The world dissolved into light.
Tekio was no longer there.
The physical form was gone.
In his place, before Amara, stood Yara.
Arms open.
Amara felt her breath catch.
And then the tears came—not blood, not anymore, never again, but real tears, heavy, laden with all the years the curse had stolen from her.
She ran.
The pain in her knee no longer mattered, nothing mattered except what was in front of her.
The impact of the hug nearly knocked them over, but neither let go of the other.
Amara cried like a lost child, sobs tearing through the air. Her hands clutched her sister's cloak, afraid she would disappear again.
Yara, in turn, wept silently. She didn't need shouts; the embrace said everything.
Within Yara's soul, in her entire existence, she had waited for this moment.
Even when she was taken.
Even when she was hunted by mercenaries and reapers or even corrupted Sifs.
Devotees of the fallen twilight.
Even in the middle of war, amidst pain and blood.
Yara had always been there...
Arms open, waiting for her sister.
And now she was there, finally, to fill them.
— Thank you… Tekio — Yara murmured, her voice choked, but full of a relief that words could not contain.
And there, in the silence broken only by weeping, two sisters reconnected.
Nothing else mattered.
Not battles, not the past, not scars.
Only the present.
Only the embrace.
And the silent promise that they would never lose each other again.
The silence of the sisters' reunion was dense, almost sacred. Yara and Amara were still together, embraced, as if the entire world had stopped to return to them something that should never have been lost.
Dan, standing a few meters away, watched the scene. His fists clenched, not in anger, but to contain the wave of emotions threatening to overflow. He took a deep breath, looking away, as if he needed a moment to recompose himself.
Stella, beside him, had misty eyes. She didn't cry openly, but the moisture gathering on her eyelids betrayed how moved she was.
Even without knowing the full story, the atmosphere, that calm which contrasted with the war of minutes before, was like beholding something sacred.
They didn't know, but they felt it, and they couldn't contain it.
It was too beautiful.
— He's not here… — she murmured, breaking the silence, as if sensing the absence that lingered.
Dan nodded, looking at the ground.
— Tekio… — he said quietly, almost with bitterness. — That guy probably wrecked himself completely to pull that off.
He lifted his eyes toward the sisters and continued:
— I've seen what he's capable of. I saw when Dante took my body… he was beaten, thrown to the ground, nearly dead. Anyone else would have given up. But not him. Tekio kept getting up. Always. Every blow he took, it just seemed to make him want to rise even more.
There was a pause. The weight of the memory still throbbed in Dan.
Stella took a deep breath, discreetly wiping a tear that escaped the corner of her eye.
— That's what I respect in him. — her voice was firm, even if choked. — He might be clumsy, stubborn, even seem weak… but that determination of his… Dan, you saw it. I saw it. He's capable of things no one would believe possible.
Dan looked at her, surprised by the firmness of her words.
— Separating condemned souls… — he completed, with a tired half-smile. — And now, uniting two that were shattered by fate.
Soul for soul. He's going to be capable of saving everyone.
Stella nodded without hesitation.
— Tekio might not realize it, but he carries something that goes beyond strength. That's what makes him… incredible, even when he seems like a failure.
When Dan and Stella saw Tekio covered in hatred, walking to kill Karmore, they knew they had to stop him, not because they wanted to protect Karmore, but because they knew the Tekio they loved would be lost there.
And that would be worse than anything else.
The three were anchors for each other; when one was about to crumble, another pulled them up. It had always been that way for years, and it would only stop when their souls ceased.
The silence returned, but this time it wasn't heavy. It was full of meaning. Dan and Stella just stood there, side by side, witnessing the sisters' embrace—and acknowledging that, deep down, that victory was also Tekio's.
To be continued…
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