The Colors that Never Come

[GSM]

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A library of salvaged, taken and shared knowledge teeters in the balance.
Through corruption and purification,
skewed perception and recreated definition,
dark ambition and simple penance,
Umbra and Astra,
Hel’s menace and Kraus’s forgiveness,
has it stood for decades.

[You’re back.]

But, as all things do—

it broke.

[… this is it, isn’t it?]

A single seam within the endless halls of religion and philosophy

causes the entire machination to sway,

and as if a gigantic hand had grabbed its dualistic nature,

that sole weakness causes the entire structure to corrode,

bend and groan, splintering and wounding it forevermore,

and ultimately, shatter into pieces.

[Ironic that it was his will that you wound up dead again.]

… a hopelessly mortal finality.

[no, i—]

[i can’t accept this fate. they need me.]

[what if they wish me to return? what if—]

[It was bound to happen eventually.]

[This is what you wanted, no?]

[A taste of mortal life.]

Much as a book burned no longer can be read,

does that same book’s chapters move forth until the cover is reached.

[… but my family. my friends. everyone i’ve promised help to.]

[it can’t be over. no, i can’t fade, i…]

[… you certainly sound the part.]

[Face your mistake in full, because the only place we’re going now is to be cleansed.]

[… are you scared, pale shade?]

[i am.]

There are no more halls that so hang as a spider within a web,

no more bookshelves wreathed in leathered tomes,

no more tapestry lingering in grand scrolls.

[Why is that? You wished to be something more. Something else.]

[Was it worth it?]

[… yes.]

[my myopic views of the past that you hold—]

[i realized why knowledge was so scarce an aspect.]

[in a perfect world, knowledge would be unchanging.]

[but nothing is perfect.]

[hating humanity for their ignorance is merely another opportunity to teach and learn.]

[just as i, nor you, will never be, and never have been, perfect.]

[Are you comfortable with this being your end?]

[… the hand i was dealt has been played already.]

[it was written, so it becomes.]

The pen is put away

[You can’t hide behind the mask of indifference forever.]

[… i am not.]

[but you were not happy with the end you received,]

[so you sought a way to continue your tale,]

[knowing that you would never re-emerge.]

[but now…]

as an editing author writes the final page

[It wasn’t your choice on what happened to you before.]

[It isn’t your choice now, either.]

[If a choice can even be made when we’re like this, that is.]

[… so, what now?]

[hah!]

[you ask me as if i know even that answer.]

[you’re afraid of the unknown just like me.]

and then moves on to other works,

[I cannot imagine how you are so composed.]

[I did not die like… this.]

[it is a learning experience, no?]

[… that is the joy i have salvaged from uncertainties.]

[ah, how i wish people took joy from this sacrifice.]

[Sacrifice?]

[You died for nothing more than your errant wish.]

[You had so much left to accomplish—]

until the next pages offer more

[what is gained other than joy from this?]

[i proved that i am truly mortal,]

[just like i wanted to from the very beginning.]

[the blood within me was still tainted,]

[but the corpse left behind was stained in human scarlets.]

[But your power, your knowledge, your will, your command—]

[is the tale of all mortals meant to be in statistics?]

[haha. being transactional does not last forever.]

[You were a living god.]

[A false Angel, with Divinity at your fingertips.]

[And you gave it all up for this?]

[… i didn’t have a choice, did i?]

for starving eyes to gorge themselves upon.

[but, i suppose we have nothing much else to do.]

[do you want to go ahead and see where we end up?]

[No.]

[ha, i knew that answer would come.]

[Time will lose meaning soon.]

[No matter what we do, we will eventually yield.]

[Studying our path, our story, should…]

[we both know you don’t wish to do that, my dark past.]

[our wish is the same.]

[…]

[And that is?]

[slumber, unimpeded.]

[like we were meant to do when first we died.]

[… I would take anything over that silent, chained void.]

[my thoughts exactly.]

[come, let us sleep as one,]

[and dream of all of the names we can never forget.]

[… I only hope they return the favor.]

[We each did too much to be forgotten.]

[so you say, so you say…]

The End

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