Every day I dream, I dream of the moment I ruined my life, I dream of going back to my past to fix everything, I dream of the times I could have been more myself. I always run away, every time I feel afraid I run away without caring about others. I'm truly pathetic.
When he opened his eyes, the first thing Arthur saw was the white ceiling of the hospital, an image he was slowly beginning to get used to.
/Finally, you're awake. Do you know how long I've been waiting for you to wake up? / The voice in his head spoke, indifferent to what Arthur had recently been through.
"Leave me alone! What the hell are you? You appear and disappear out of nowhere!" Arthur shouted at the voice inside his head, but the only response he got was absolute silence.
Arthur was beginning to descend into madness very quickly, so he tried to stand up to clear his mind, only to feel a heavy, painful sensation in his chest, more specifically where his Sunqu Magic should be. It had stopped absorbing the energy of the world.
Arthur's mind raced through a range of thoughts, from bewilderment to fear to anger, but these feelings were short-lived as the footsteps outside his bedroom door grew heavier and more frequent.
*Door creaks open* /That sound effect still surprises me, you know./
Ignoring the recent appearance of the voice, Arthur forced himself to see who had entered his room.
On the other side of the door, Flora appeared alongside a group of soldiers who stared intently at Arthur.
--Good evening, Arthur -- Flora said, her words dripping with hatred.
"Evening?" Arthur thought quickly. But something clouded that thought: the memory of his fight with Flora, forcing his body to tense up for a possible battle, one he had failed miserably. From his arms to his brain, everything felt trembling and cold.
"What kind of hero is in bed all the time? Seriously, you're pathetic," the voice stated firmly.
--Shut up! -- she yelled at Arthur, completely forgetting that the voice was in her head, which made everyone in the room wonder why she was yelling at Flora like that.
--That's why I don't like you. Someone who gets powers and the first thing they do is disobey an order and run away, only to cry later because no one helps them. Arthur, I don't like you-- Flora said, pointing at Arthur.
Without waiting for another response, Flora activated her Sunqu Magic, forcing the soldiers accompanying her to aim at her. But she didn't care; after all, she wanted to test something.
--I see-- Flora said as her energy slowly surrounded Arthur.
For the first time, Arthur felt the miasma of energy enter his body. After all, his Sunqu Magic hadn't been working. The energy Flora projected around Arthur was making him sick and pushing him to his limits.
/I think you should kill her/ said the voice in Arthur's head.
Before he knew it, his body began to move erratically. The energy exposure was affecting his motor functions, forcing him to stare at Flora with intense hatred.
--Will you stop crying so much? I'm just going to look at your Sunqu Magic-- Flora said, completely unconcerned about Arthur and his trembling. She began to close her eyes to concentrate.
"A labyrinth" Flora thought quickly as she managed to enter Arthur's Sunqu Magic. She knew this would be painful because it was a very common way to forcibly activate Sunqu Magic.
But she wasn't there to activate Arthur's Sunqu Magic. She was searching for answers to her visions and, if possible, to destroy Arthur's Sunqu Magic.
"I'm close!" Flora's instincts screamed as she broke through Arthur's Sunqu Magic barriers.
*The room explodes*
"What?" Flora jumped, looking around as she heard a cold, monotonous voice ordering the place to be destroyed.
It was then that she felt her body begin to weaken, and for the second time in such a short time, she felt real fear, easily confirming that Arthur had to die.
This feeling didn't last long, as it was quickly replaced by the vision of a cabin in the distance, but she knew she was inside Arthur's Sunqu Magic, so she knew it wasn't real, as far as possible.
As she drew closer, the miasma-filled world she inhabited was slowly colored by the sight of a lake beside the cabin.
Verdant forests adorned the landscape, while the constant sounds of distant animals accompanied her, along with a small wooden dock in the distance something impossible to see outside of books in her time.
For the world itself was nothing more than a corroded and rotten miasma-filled place where monsters roamed cities and forests alike. Moreover, her name was Flora; looking more closely at the grass and trees, she felt the miasma condensed in every leaf and flower.
The scent of the plants was vulgar to her, and even the animals were nothing more than empty shells, an insult to any desire she might have.
/Get out of here/
Jumping again at the sound of another voice, this one was different, higher-pitched, and disgusting in its imitation of human speech; the sound it made was almost repulsive.
But remembering her path, she quickened her pace toward the cabin. She assumed that the answers she sought would be inside; after all, it was the most prominent feature of the place.
/Well, that makes sense, doesn't it?/
Ignoring the voices, Flora quickened her pace, feeling that she was close to finding the answers to her visions.
*LOCKING THE DOOR*
Upon opening the door, all she found was a modest desk, and on it sat a young man, no more than 30 years old, holding a bottle of aged rum in his left hand and his cell phone in his right.
--What is this? Arthur? -- Flora wondered, noticing the figure resembled Arthur.
This realization didn't last long, because the next second something jolted her back.
*KBOMM*
As Flora crashed into the forest, she saw all the animals gather around her, staring without pause. Then, the sky slowly shattered, pieces of it falling away, revealing another sky above.
Unfortunately for Flora, this one too was breaking apart, revealing yet another sky that was also fragmenting. Forced to look around, she saw the animals that had been staring at her begin to deform; their legs and bodies lost their usual shape.
"I have to escape," Flora forced herself to think quickly. That was her last thought before a hand emerged from the ground, grabbed her, and crushed her, leaving only a handful of blood.
*SUNQU MAGIC reactivation; SUCCESSFUL*