The silence that surrounded her was eerily still. Her body ached with a pain beyond flesh; it was cellular, spiritual, like her soul had been scorched raw from the inside out. She blinked slowly, her vision blurry, and when her gaze finally steadied, she saw it.
The battlefield was gone.
The sea that once held this island suspended had vanished. The ruins were dry, crusted with salt. The air was thin. And directly in front of her, he lay still.
Too still.
Everything inside her screamed as if trying to shove the realization away before it rooted itself.
"No..."
Her body moved on instinct. Every inch of her screamed in resistance but none of that mattered. She crawled forward, one agonizing push of her limbs after another, until her trembling fingers reached his cheek.
It was cold.
She pressed her forehead to his, shivering from the chill, her tears already blurring her vision again. He had placed her down carefully. Like a knight laying down a crown. He hadn't dropped her. Even in death, he'd been gentle.
"Vastarael… Veneri… I…"
She couldn't speak.
Because it all came rushing back; his body shielding hers from the blast, the laughter of the Frozen God, the scream she couldn't make when she was too frozen to move.
And now… this. A corpse. Not a warrior. Not a husband. Not a prince.
She dug her fingers into the tattered remains of his cloak and pulled him close. His head fell against her shoulder like it belonged there. And maybe, once, it did.
His weight slumped against her. His golden eyes, those damned beautiful eyes that always held conviction, reason, and that stupid, infuriating calm, were closed. Like he was just resting. Like he was just catching his breath. Narisva's voice trembled as she shook him gently.
"Vastarael…? Hey come on. Veneri, I'm awake now. You don't have to play hero anymore. We did it, right? We're alive. You said we'd make it out."
She gripped his shoulder. She shook him harder.
"Get up. This isn't funny. You're not allowed to die, you hear me? You don't get to save me and then just… quit."
His head lolled against her collarbone. That was when the first crack inside her heart shattered something vital. Her whole body froze as realization bloomed in her chest.
"No. No. No no no no no no—"
Her arms pulled him closer, like if she just held him tight enough, if she pressed their hearts together long enough, his would start again.
"I didn't ask for this!" she howled into his neck, tears bursting forth uncontrollably. "I told you I was supposed to die! That's how it was meant to be! You... you weren't supposed to—"
She couldn't finish. The words caught and tore her apart from the inside.
Her sobs came in violent waves, choking her breath and voice. She cradled his face, brushing the blood from his lips, even though her hands were trembling so badly she nearly dropped him.
"Vastarael please… just open your eyes. Just a little. I need you to look at me. I need you to say something. Anything. I need you to come back."
But silence was her only reply. The world responded to her grief. The entire moon began to tremble beneath her.
Her tears splashed against his face.
"I loved you too…" she choked out, finally saying the words that had been buried within her. "I loved you too, Vastarael. You were the only thing that ever made me feel like I wasn't alone."
Her fingers gripped his cold, lifeless hand.
"Don't do this to me. Don't leave me here with nothing. I don't want to be a Divine if you're not here to see it."
Narisva didn't move for a full minute. Her arms remained locked around Vastarael's limp frame, her chin trembling as she pressed her forehead against his. She stared into his face, hoping to see a twitch, an eyelid flinch, a breath, even a spasm. Nothing came. His body was already beginning to cool.
The wind passed through her like she wasn't even there.
Her breathing became ragged, like she was forgetting how to draw breath altogether. Her hands, still clinging to him, began to shake violently. Then her mouth opened, and what came out wasn't a scream. It was a fractured wail.
Something inside her mind broke so violently.
Her eyes twitched. Her entire frame began to jitter like a marionette strung too tightly. Her mouth opened again but no words came. Her lips quivered, and then… the stars in her eyes, that signature Celestial glow that had always spun like galaxies behind her irises… dimmed. The colors dulled. The patterns stopped moving. The radiant core of her identity faded into flat black.
Her irises, once brilliant, were now empty, emotionless, sightless and broken. circles.
She let out a breathy, dry laugh with no joy.
"He promised. He said he would allow me to go to Dynasty Richinaria..."
She looked around, not seeing the battlefield anymore but something else entirely. Her eyes didn't focus. They just flicked back and forth like a machine losing calibration. Her mouth stayed open in a faint smile and her head tilted farther until her neck cracked.
And then her body jerked up, her back straightening unnaturally. She stood, lifting his body with her, holding him against her chest like a child cradling a broken toy. Her movements were stiff. There was no mortality in her anymore, only a lifeless puppet with Spatial Energy spiraling out of control.
It was only when she turned her head toward the north, that she saw him.
The Frozen God.
He was still standing and very, very injured.
The crater that the Harvesting had unleashed upon him had ruptured his armor, blown apart his ribs, severed one of his arms and carved a gaping wound across his spine. His form, once godlike and impenetrable, was flickering with damaged power. His voice, when it rasped through the ice-ridden wind, was laced with disbelief and pain.
"You immortals… you'd sacrifice everything for one man?!"
But Narisva didn't respond to his accusation. She just stared. Dead eyes locked onto him like he was nothing more than a smear on the wall.
Then, she gently laid Vastarael down. She placed a trembling hand on his chest, gave him a single, lingering kiss on the forehead, and turned away. Her expression didn't change. Her Divinity surged.
Her Spatial Manipulation erupted in chaotic waves. The air shattered. The atmosphere buckled. Gravitational spikes shattered boulders. Miniature heavenly bodies began spawning without order, each one collapsing violently as her emotions destabilized their mass. Her Mystic Eyes flickered wildly, showing fractured planes of space with no orientation. Up was sideways. The ground was the sky.
Her voice, when it returned, was low and strange, like an echo being pulled from a cave.
"You took him from me."
The Frozen God didn't answer.
"I don't need reality. I don't need time. I don't need laws. I'll break it all. I'll shred this entire moon into string and strangle you with it."
Her feet left the ground. She floated like a glitch in a broken program, jolting upward, surrounded by gravitational storms that bent the shattered battlefield around her. She began to glitch. The Frozen God, weakened though he was, took a step back.
Because in that moment, he understood.
This was a Divine who had lost her sanity and still retained all her power. He had no idea what she would do next.