*
"Mmm... Hrmm!" (Yggdrasil)
Her eyelashes fluttered as a stern expression took hold over her slumbering beauty. Drained of all tranquil neutrality, her eyelids rose up and accepted light. She's awake, thought Sariel as she crept closer. Squatting next to Yggdrasil, she leaned in closer to check on Lastia.
Was this the time to worry about Arin? No. Did it stop her from doing so? Perhaps. If she were to answer honestly, it hadn't felt real yet. One of her close friends had just vanished, replaced by another. While a matter of life and death for them, she herself felt disconnected from the matter as a whole. After all, her feeling were just disregarded, and Arin one sidedly brought Yggdrasil back. How could she accept it?
It was too quick. Too ruthless. Like a fairytale from another land. Occurring in the blink of an eye. What was she supposed to do? What was she meant to do? Arin told her that the key layed in Sariel's hands, the solution to the apocalypse was her. But didn't Arin just do all of the work? Bringing Lastia back, presumably for another final battle. Just like that day, with that same calamity that she couldn't stop.
She glanced blankly at her palms, her thoughts no longer circled any key issues or significant worries. They linger, they stew in emptiness that has taken root. Her feelings felt... Gone. As if all of her emotion was ripped out at once and taken along with Arin. Right, when something feels taken, when you feel like you're missing something you start to question why or what's missing. She had just arrived at a conclusion.
It was Arin. Even though Arin promised to be together with her. Even though they mutually promised not to leave each other... It felt like what Arin accomplished was actually an insult on Sariel's integrity. I couldn't stop her. She laments silently in her heart. She was already on the ground kneeling, she felt her legs weakened so she sat with her legs spread in a W shape.
What happened? What had just happened? Her friend... Is Arin dead? She switched places with Lastia, but Lastia was in the underworld. She can't exactly switch back now, and have the two of them share a single life, can they? That's right, she who belonged to the other side never stood a chance.
" Sniffs, Uuuh uuugh!" (Sariel)
A familiar hand reaches into the air, before she noticed Lastia was already cradled next to her knees. The very hand helped to wipe off the layer of tears plaguing her right eye, bringing a level of clarity to it. She felt her emotions get choked up further in her throat, driving her further into the abyss. She felt like her weakness was being denied by the girl in front of her, but if she didn't cling to her weakness and cry her heart out how could she accept reality?
The girl in front of her flashed a different look in her eyes for a moment. A slight surprise, she was quick to recover. Her weary gaze exuded warmth and her long black hair that emanated dark red at the ends gently waved along with her movements. She didn't mull over her own thoughts much like she used, her soul seemed haggard but also determined. She had a sense of purpose that was never there before.
"Hey. Sariel. I know it's bad coming from me and I have only apologies for that, but...
It's okay to run away. Saving the world is a burden that shouldn't be a burden. I'll find some way, I'll find more allies, I'll save more people. I won't blame you or let people blame you for running. Saving my respected senior, would be my honour as a magical girl. " (Yggdrasil)
She had no memories of her time as Lastia, of the time before the curse had first activated in her life. This was Yggdrasil. Her connection to Sariel was fainter than it was with Arin, the curse caster. Despite spending more time with the two, more so than any other Lastia after the curse. She was a fake 'Lastia' to speak, she understood her own nature more intimately now that she had ascended. The curse didn't affect her because she wasn't the recipient, the real recipient, Lastia was long dead due to the battle with the calamity.
That's right, she could never replace the genuine article. But she has indeed replaced her in everything but the soul, the real deal had led such an empty life that a new life form like Yggdrasil could simulate her. The incongruity was subtle, almost imperceptible, yet it accumulated in Sariel. It took the form of that insurmountable gap in power between the two of them, being surpassed by her junior, that emotional turmoil has subsumed all sense of incongruity an imposter like Yggdrasil could give. In other words, all the fault had begun from Yggdrasil.
If she was a normal person, Yggdrasil would have cried out in indignation, that she hadn't had a choice. That she was unilaterally born into this world and then pushed into this situation. That she was a tool meant to measure, store and manipulate magic, but had inadvertently gained all the facets intelligence could bring, good and bad.
But she was not.
She was never normal. She never blamed anyone. She did whatever was necessary, disregarding all harm to herself. If the apocalypse could be solved with only her death, she won't even know she was allowed to hesitate before taking such drastic measures. That was the kind of person she was, so exceedingly pure that she only strives for her master. Arin's promise of reviving her creator was mere enticement that kept her civil and controlled. Otherwise, who knew what she would have been up to.
That's why...
"Sariel, you're... Crying. If I can't protect from such sadness, I'd be a failure of a magical girl." (Yggdrasil)
'As a magical girl', Lastia would do this. She would do that. Her creator puts emphasis on prioritising others before herself, it's all she has done while plagued by the curse, it's all Yggdrasil has ever seen of Lastia. Even though Lastia was to disappear at the end of each and every day, she does not utilise such reasoning to act selfish.
When you would die and know you would die by the next day, almost nobody would be this selfless. Lastia was simply one of a kind, and a total mystery for Yggdrasil to replicate. Outwardly, Yggdrasil can emulate her and act completely the same. Inwardly... She couldn't comprehend such actions. Even as an artificial life form, she felt she herself was more human than Lastia was.
"I... I don't want to be saved!! I want to be stronger, I want to be the one doing the saving! Otherwise... Otherwise my existence as a magical girl would be invalidates!!!" (Sariel)
The sound of flesh hitting flesh rings out in the dark abyss of the night. Faintly, Yggdrasil traces her fingers over her cheek, where Sariel's fingers landed.