Chapter 365 - Given Another Chance…

Radiant Light felt heavy as I swung it forward. It clashed with Cielle’s own in a barrage of sparks. Perhaps it was because I had fought Eryn many times before that I noticed the weight of Cielle’s swings compared to mine.

They felt strangely light despite all the troubles that she was burdened with.

After all, she had shouldered the mission of killing the incarnations of the Architect all throughout history whenever they grew too powerful. I couldn’t imagine doing the same to Eryn. And when she had the same choice when possessed by Cielle, she instead fought the world for my sake.

My blade rang loudly as it smacked against Cielle’s, breaking the deadlock and pushing her back. Her eyes were full of surprise that she was losing out in a straight fight against me. Especially since I was not using my Electi powers to gain an advantage.

With the knowledge gained from my predecessors, I stood on an equal skill level as Cielle. Yet, she was being driven back. Her blows were caving under the pressure – under my intent.

I could see it in her eyes – they were not the fiery ones that Eryn always had. They were not eyes that had refused to give up on life, clawing desperately for any chance of hope. No… Cielle’s eyes were dead to the world. She had long given up on her feelings and let the command of the Architect take over, dissociating mind and body to protect herself.

Her swings held every bit of Eryn’s skill, but none of the passion. And as a result, I could feel the difference.

“Look at you now! You aren’t even choosing to fight me as yourself, but a puppet of the Architect!”

A faint glimmer of fire sprung from those ruby eyes.

“Shut up! What do you know about me! About any of us! We chose to follow the Architect! To embark on an endless journey to restore the Earth back to life! That was our dream! That was-”

“-his dream, was it not? You merely wanted to do it to make him happy.”

Cielle’s blade clinked oddly as it hit mine; the echo of metal whimpered. Her stance froze as she pushed the attack on, but I might as well have let it hit me rather than hold my guard firm.

“Maybe, time has changed everything for you. The ‘intent’ that you possess is no longer there, and for this world, losing that means losing everything.”

“That cannot be-”

“That’s exactly why you gave up and possessed Eryn, isn’t it? You saw a passion that you no longer had, a moment where her desires drew out the life within you, making you take a chance. Call it a whim or whatever – you were moved to action.”

I roared as I pulled back and swung again, the full force of my intent behind it. Or rather, it was not only mine but the intent that I carried from Eryn as well. The resultant blow tore Radiant Light from Cielle’s grip, allowing me to bridge the distance in a moment.

“Then, let’s reconnect again and show you what it really means to be Eryn Faulkner!”

Extending out my palm, I slapped it right on top of her forehead. And in the next instant, purple flames raged from the very spot us two stood. I would remind Cielle just what the meaning of her existence was.

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Cielle never found herself to be a particularly exciting person to be with. She knew that bluntness and indifference were always conversation stoppers. The way she silently mused while others spoke often left an impression that she was judging them. The way she quietly took on tasks with no complaints were seen as strangely robotic.

That was why she couldn’t believe it when her ability was the Essence of Life when the power of the planet split into its individual forms.

“Endless life? I guess it suits the zombie of a person you are!” Man Ching jested to his brother, Man Ho, with an elbow as a few others hid chuckles.

By now, she had grown accustomed to people speaking in such a way towards her. They didn’t mean anything ill from it. That much she could understand. It was just whatever rolled off their tongues.

But for her, she couldn’t be bothered with the banter. She spoke only when asked to, and only in the most concise of ways. That was how she was, and it was not something she planned to correct.

“Now, now. Would a zombie be so attentive of our needs? After all, she covers for your slip-ups on a day-to-day basis. If it weren’t for that, you’d be running with your ass on fire as dragons crawl after you for forgetting your anti-flame equipment.”

Especially not when there was one person that was always on her side. The Architect’s voice caught everyone’s attention, shifting the winds in a different direction.

“That’s true. Whenever my throat becomes a little pitchy, Cielle’s right there with a soothing remedy to bring me back to tip-top form!” Hanako replied, confronting the twins of their teasing.

“Though she may have the appearance of a secretary, I believe that she’s more of a caretaker for all of us, don’t you think?” The voice of Zhang always seemed to hold a bit of wisdom, naturally as he was the oldest of the group.

The group’s caretaker – that was the role that she had somehow ended up with. She made sure to keep up with the duties of everyone here, being the direct line of contact between them and the Architect. If that made all of them her ‘children’, then that would make the Architect…

She glanced over at him before looking away, slightly flushed. She knew that it would never happen. Their relationship was strictly professional, business as usual. After all, they had such a big goal in mind, so any distractions seemed like they would merely muddle things up.

Because of that, Cielle refused to stir the pot, letting any cracks that formed be swiftly patched up. Even if the Architect’s gaze seemed so welcoming, she would put her feelings aside for the sake of a larger purpose. That was what she dedicated herself to do when she was saved.

Her dying moments had been due to an act of negligence. People simply didn’t take notice of a fence that gave way, throwing a girl into the water. She had grown too accustomed to being silent to cry out for help, and so, her weak cries of panic reached no one.

No one but a column of light that happened to pass by. Just as she thought that it was the heavens calling for her, she awoke to a man giving her CPR. He backed away, checking to make sure she was okay. She stared with her cheeks flushed and lips silent. Even without any verbal response from her, his eyes softened from their panicked state once he saw that she merely had no words to say.

He was a man that was accustomed to conciseness. Yet, he was every bit as attentive and careful with his options before bringing them forward. And above all, he knew how to treat each person differently, depending on their personality. Unlike her, he knew exactly when to speak without letting himself be buried by others.

He was what everyone needed. He was the Architect.

That was why she didn’t mind at all when she was asked to take care of them, the Architect’s future incarnations. Because it seemed like that really was the best option. They needed to harvest enough energy to return the Earth to an inhabitable state, which would take far longer than a normal lifetime.

That had been her decision at the time, so she merely had to move forward with it. Even if it meant killing the imitations of her admiration, it would be okay since they were just puppets. Dolls that had no other purpose but to live and bring back power to themselves.

And once again, she had done her duty. A unique blade hidden among an army of common soldiers was undetectable and unstoppable. It stabbed right into the ‘Claude’ of this time.

Cielle watched as the man struggled to continue fighting. His partner noticed and charged towards him, ridding the remaining soldiers in her path. And as the crowd thinned out, she watched as Claude’s fallen body was cradled by a lone female knight.

Cielle would have ignored such a scene. She had experienced the cries of anguish from many a maiden whose hero had fallen because of her. It was simply their destiny to perish when their time had come.

But then, she heard the clatter of metal and a fearsome cry erupt from the girl. The roar of flames sizzled across the field as the battle restarted. It looked like she had gone mad, but Cielle could see how clear the girl’s eyes were.

It contained a determination to tear everything down, all because her hero had died protecting her. The heat of her flames engulfed everything as she cut down any who dared to oppose her, and even as she became riddled with injuries, she continued.

Or rather, she refused to let her body falter. In that moment, the girl shone brighter than anything that Cielle had ever witnessed. What she saw was a person desperately clinging onto her own life, fighting futilely against an ocean’s tide but unwilling to bend. She was simply doing what she could in memory of her companion.

That clicked with the mission that Cielle had been given so long ago. And then, Cielle realized. At some point, she had simply continued to do the motions of following the Architect’s orders, as if she had nothing else. There was no fire within her. Those embers had long grown weary and snuffed out.

Maybe that was why she continued to watch as the girl marched onward, closer and closer to one of the relics of olden times, erected in the name of the Gods – for them. Finally, Cielle made a decision. She wanted to know more about this girl.

“My child, why have you called for us?” Cielle’s spirit called out to her, hovering above her head like an apparition. She had abandoned the previous body and reached out to the girl.

The girl, Eryn Faulkner, answered back. She begged her for strength as she continued to fight, vowing to endure anything for another chance.

It may have been a moment of curiosity, a stray thought to veer away from the path that the Architect had given her. After all, she was intrigued by what she would do. The fleeting moments of her remaining life had been more interesting than everything that Cielle had experienced before.

Cielle would do it. She would inhabit this girl’s body and bestow her with the Essence of Life. She had time to spare until the next incarnation appeared.

But the Goddess of Life didn’t expect to be blown away by some strange device, making her and the girl lose their memories in the process. And this irregularity had created a ripple in the entire plan, forcing this cycle to reset and re-initialize.

This new cycle, the Goddess of Life was absent. She spent her days wondering who she was, all the time slowly changed by the planet of Leguardia, by Sistina’s influence. She became a demonic existence, not knowing how it all came to be, but instead, searched for another meaning to her existence.

And then, she found the girl again, out of coincidence.

Quietly, she watched as the girl made enemies of the world to get her way. Because she was waiting for an answer.

An answer from the one person she did it for to rise to the challenge.

‘The heroes of this cycle are powerful.’

That was what Cielle thought as she watched Claude forcefully cut her away from the girl’s soul.

For once, she had failed in her mission to take down the Architect’s incarnation before he became too powerful. But rather than regret, for the first time, Cielle felt… jealousy.

The scene of Claude and Eryn as they held each other made her feel bitter. The effort that Claude put into saving Eryn’s drained existence was shocking. The Architect had done far less for her. Yet, she had become smitten from simply that.

Godhood had made her forget about being human. And as she finally faded away from existence, only then had she started to doubt.

What had she done in all this time?

Who was she doing it for anyways?

“Myself…,” she whispered as her existence faded.